Where do we go from here?

On the metro ride home from visiting Kingsway Camp (SPYM’s de-addiction and rehabilitation center for adolescent boys) this past Thursday, I had a really good discussion with my supervisor. No, it wasn’t about the deep understanding of cricket or Shahrukh Khan. It was about the state of funding and HIV/AIDS in India. My kind of conversation. He said that for the past few years, funders such as UNAIDS and others have started to decrease their funding in India. He said that he wouldn’t be surprised if UNAIDS even left India within the next 5 years.

Like I thought, it was 1) because the rate of new infections have stabilized and even gone down in some areas and 2) with India being a lower middle income country now, funders want to focus their attention on countries that really need it.

So, that leaves me with some questions. Where does India go from here? How do they keep on the same path of lowering the infection rate? And on the flip side of the coin, with India’s new infection rates decreasing, where should UNAIDS and other funders put their priorities? Where will their money matter, where a country will not take it for granted and instead move up in the world?

I told him though that in my experience a middle income country is only charged with such a status because it’s the average of the country. And he said the disparity between the rich and poor is becoming more and more of a gap. He’d told me earlier in the day that there’s a mall not too far away from our office where items there start at $2,000 US….Coach purses for $5,000 US. Initially I was shocked, but after thinking about it, it makes sense. We’re in Delhi, the capital of the country. If India wants to keep growing and changing with the times, they have to bring in Westernized stores for the 1% that can afford it. I wonder what Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat book) would have to say about this.

After getting off the metro, I told him how happy I was to be able to learn more about this topic from grad school. Not only to be knowledgeable about this topic, but to be able to ask these important questions and actually have a conversation with professors that might have the answer. But I am privileged. Even though I am part of the growing population relying solely on loans to go to grad school, I am still privileged. I am privileged to be able to take out those loans, to be able to live in the US and to be able to attend an American institution. Umm, SITers, I think there’s a little bit of Ken Williams rubbing off on me. Flashbacks of Social Identity class are coming into my head!

At 7:30pm on a Thursday and after a long day, it was certainly not the kind of conversation that I’d thought I would have on the metro ride home, but then again India is constantly surprising me and keeping me on my toes. And I am grateful for it. 

These are the best days of my life

This past Friday was one of the best days I’ve had yet here. Even though I’ve had some bumps (big bumps!) along the road with my practicum, I’m happy to say that I really think I made the right decision with being here. And Friday just further insured that for me, for a number of reasons.

After a quick lunch, my supervisor, a co-worker and I went to the two juvenile program sites that SPYM has, Kingsway Camp and Chandichowk. The first site we visited, Kingsway Camp, was a little over an hour away from our main office by Metro. New Delhi is constantly surprising me and the Metro was no exception. See my blog post on my Metro experience, here. 

Kingsway Camp, is a de-addiction and rehabilitation center for adolescent males who are in conflict with the law and currently have a substance dependence disorder. Though many of the services they offer fall in line with other juvenile rehabilitation centers, the way that SPYM provides the treatment, education and rehabilitation is one of a kind.

Three times a week, The Tehelka Foundation comes to the center and offers an expressive arts therapy and skill training program for the juveniles. The Tehelka Foundation is a non-profit trust that works with youth on “issues of governance and social justice, inspiring them to become agents of social change”. They use workshops, conferences, street plays, and youth festivals as a way to form relationships between marginalized youth and mainstream society.

I was so excited when I heard that an organization like this comes to Kingsway Camp. Experiential learning programs such as the art therapy program through The Tehelka Foundation is one of the best ways I think people can learn and change for the better. While in New Delhi, I hope to be going to Kingsway Camp a few times a week to help them with documentation and to get a better sense of their methodology and approach.

There is also a library that has been started at Kingsway Camp. Through the Fun of Learning (their literacy class), the boys develop comics about their experiences as a way to work out various issues. After drawing the comics, they record the description of each comic strip into an electronic pen. Once the comics are developed, they’re placed in the library so other boys can read them.

For boys that are illiterate and not able to read the comics, this talking pen is an excellent way for them to still grasp the concept of the comic. Similar to scanning a QR code with your smartphone, the boys can take one of the talking pens and place it on a coded box next to the comic, and in the author’s own voice, they can hear what the comic is about. 

For a program that just started up about two years ago, I was amazed by the amount of progress already. With counselors at Kingsway Camp having to go to an average of 4 court cases a day, you can tell that running this center is a group effort!

Recently, they started a canteen (small corner store) and a tiffin service (a service where someone delivers 4 food dishes to you, usually consisting of a vegetable, rice, dal and another dish). The program staff hope that soon the canteen and tiffin service can make the program self-sustaining. One can only hope!

Note: I’ll update this post with pictures once I can. 

Ice Cream: Life's Little Joys

I had just come back from Karin’s tonight and was in the kitchen getting my electric kettle to boil water for my bucket bath, when the husband of the young woman that I live with looked at me funny. I told him that the geezer (hot water heater) in my bathroom wasn’t working and it was getting too cold for cold bucket baths at night. 

So he went into my bathroom, fiddled with it for a little while and said to just leave the power switch on even though the light wasn’t showing that it was on. Give it an hour or so and it should heat up just fine. 

As I went to put the electric kettle back, he said “madam, you want to take a walk?” With the language barrier, it was hard to tell if we were actually going somewhere or just going out for an evening stroll. I soon learned though that we were on a mission for ice cream. 

Inside my apartment complex

Outside my flat

Because on a nice weekday night, what else would you be craving? So we began walking in hopes of finding some ice cream. We soon found a shop selling some chocolate shelled vanilla ice cream. The husband then told me that the shop is open 24 hours a day and is just a block or so away from my flat! It’s a little away from the main road which is probably why I haven’t seen it before, but has everything you pretty much need. In India I’ve found it’s difficult to find one shop that has your yogurt, crackers, eggs, washing detergent and Diwali sweets, but this place has it all! It even has some frozen goods, which seems to be a rare find around here.

After finishing our ice cream and walking back to the flat, the husband came into my bathroom and checked the hot water. What do ya know but three weeks after coming here, I find out that it works! Looks like I won’t have to be procrastinating on taking my nightly cold bucket bath anymore! Wahoo! 

Finding some quiet (and air conditioning) in Delhi

Usually when I’ve been moving around the city, I’ve taken auto rickshaws purely for the convenience. But after taking the metro, I think I’ve found my new method of transportation around here! At first when people told me they commute by metro, I assumed it was something similar to the local trains I took in Mumbai. Imagine train compartments always packed, people hanging from the open doorways and boys coming around to sell little trinkets. But the Delhi metro is far from that. In fact, it gives the New York City subway system a bad rap! 

For the most part, it seems to be a well run, world class designed subway system. With over 2 million people riding the metro each day, of course there’s going to be some delays in the trains but all in all it seems like a good system. So far the metro spans about 200 kilometers and is still in the process of being built. With financial help from Japan, they hope to finish the entire project by 2021. 

If you’re a frequent metro commuter, you simply buy a plastic rechargeable travel card for a deposit of Rs 50 (82 cents) and then just keep loading money on as needed. Otherwise, you can buy a token for your individual trip. In a complex city like Delhi, I’m a huge fan of this simple process. 

When I entered the station, honestly if I hadn’t known better I wouldn’t have been able to tell if I was in Delhi, Washington D.C. or London. Even though it opened in 2002 it still looks like it opened yesterday, with the clean floors and well-kept cabin cars. Maybe I was still trying to wrap my mind around the concept of trains in India not being the old blue local trains you see in Bollywood movies, but I was thoroughly impressed with it all. Having the metro cars air-conditioned didn’t hurt either! 

Call me crazy but it makes me want to live 45 minutes away from work just so I can get away from it all and have a peaceful commute! And better yet, they announce each upcoming stop then say “mind the gap”. A little part of me inside smiled when I heard this. Memories of another subway experience :) 

Who would have thought that I would find peace and quiet* in the metro? In a city that has around 20 million people, that’s hard to find. 

*Disclaimer: Peace and quiet will not be found during the hours of 7-10am and 4-8pm. 

The alleyways of New Delhi

This whole week I’ve been going to some of SPYM’s program sites in order to get a better feel for the vast amount of work the organization does. On this particular day, it was planned that I was going to work on some things in the office in the morning and head out to visit a homeless shelter after lunch. And this morning like every other morning and afternoon, there’s chai time. There’s nothing like chai interrupting you doing your work :) 

The morning came and went with random tasks to get done and soon it was lunch time. SPYM is an organization unlike one I’ve seen before. They provide three meals a day to their staff. Usually though the staff just eat lunch there and eat at home for breakfast and dinner. Today’s menu was palak paneer, rice and dal....yum! 

After lunch, I came back to the office and waited for one of the staff to bring me to the homeless shelter. In true Indian fashion, after a little over an hour it was decided who was going to bring me and then we decided to leave. 

Side note: I should mention that yes, Indian time is not exactly American time, but my organization is currently short-staffed so everyone is running around doing the job of two people. So I can completely understand people being late because they’ve been tied up with other things going on. When I’ve asked some staff how they like working for the organization though, they keep saying how happy they are to have a job, especially in the social services. It just goes to show you that money doesn’t buy happiness!

It was a little after 3pm and the shelter was about 40 minutes away. I think it was safe to say that I definitely wasn’t finishing work at 5pm. Once we got on the road, we had to make a detour to drop off some paperwork to a training center near by. A half hour later we were back on the road and ready to head to the homeless shelter. After getting lost a few times and getting caught up in the New Delhi rush hour traffic, we finally found the right area. The homeless shelter ended up being in a neighborhood where the only way to get to it was to drive through an alleyway, the width of a driveway. So we drove through motorcycles coming at us, guys pushing carts of flowers and fruit, kids playing in the roads....classic India. I only wish I had captured the moment on my camera! We had finally made it. 

This is one of those times when the journey outweighs the end. And this is one of the reasons why I decided to come to India. Sure every so often I get frustrated by the auto rickshaw drivers trying to rip you off or the different pace of time, but after learning to take it in as part of the journey, I’ve started to actually enjoy it! It’s part of India’s culture and I wouldn’t want to ever change that. 

On a mission.........for fruit

I think I was spoiled when I was in Mumbai. I had fruits and vegetables at my fingertips, the butcher shop and dairy shop right now the road and a KFC on the corner. I remember just going out to the market each morning, getting my produce for the day and airtime minutes if needed. The shopkeeper greeted me and knew the fruit I usually got and the Vodacom guy knew the number of rupees I usually bought for airtime for my phone. Yes I was white and a foreigner, but there’s still something to be said about feeling at home like that in a big city.

Me back in 2008 in Mumbai eating a custard apple

New Delhi and at least the part where I’m living, has a different vibe to it. I’ve been told that I’m living and working in a posh area, which is fine (although it’s not very posh looking to me)—but which also means that people send their drivers out to get produce and groceries so there’s no need for markets and fruit stands on every block. 

So this weekend, with the help of my friend Karin (who’s also a grad student at SIT and staying in Delhi), I’ll be on a mission to find juicy custard apples/soursop, umpteen number of bananas, cucumbers, carrots, pomegranates—oh my mouth is watering just thinking of it! Sometimes it’s the smallest little thing that can make a place more comfortable and like home. And for the next five months, it’s gonna be fruit and I’m okay with that.