My last week in India Cynthia (the founder of Wello) came out to India with Josh (an amazing photographer) to photograph some of the work I'd been doing over the summer for the new website. We only had 5 days to do a whirlwind tour and try and capture the impact Wello can have in Rajasthan....It went great and Josh got some fantastic photos (coming soon to the Wello website). The added benefit was that Josh was kind enough to snap a few pics of me.
The next 48hr are going to be hectic. I have to pack up (did a lot of shopping), lug my backpack and huge trunk (did I mention I did a lot of shopping) all the way to Delhi and catch my flight. I hope to post some final thoughts about my summer here in Rajasthan eventually, until then here are a few odds and ends from my last week in Rajasthan.
Cynthia and I grabbing a morning chai
Me, Cynthia, Josh in Rickshaw
Me at Pushkar Lake
Chatting up our driver
Coconut water
Trying to organize the photo shoot in Pushkar village with my limited Hindi
The shot
working in the monsoon
This is a lot harder than it looks
Majera village shoot
Me and the Water Wheel getting ready to hit the highway
My "printing studio" in Majera village...sharing some of the photos with the women.
7 hours vomiting out the window of a night bus that's hurling through the desert
1 giant bump on my head from blacking out at a rest stop at 4am
6 concerned Indian guys staring down at me as I regain consciousness
0 people who understand me as I mumble "I need medical help"
2 french angels who wake up on the bus and come to my side to hold my hand
1 government run hospital that looks like a bombed out shelter
1 rusty metal bed
1 IV
0 band-aids
1 drunk janitor who tries to charge me 10rs to mop up my vomit
3hr later my angles help carry me out of the "hospital" and to my hotel
1 hotel owner who tries to refuse me my room because "I look like I'm on drugs"
36 hours of sleep
Sorry no pics to accompany this post...Just a brief reminder that it's not always smooth sailing here. Now I'm healthy and in one piece thanks to the young french couple that was willing to get off a bus at 4am in the middle of no where and stay by a mumbling stranger's side in some pretty unsavory circumstances...They held my hand through the whole ordeal, and checked up on me the next day. Merci Merci Merci
Field visit to Udaipur…I was here only 3 weeks ago, but the landscape has been completely changed with the arrival of the monsoons. It’s amazing how quickly the rains can transform the earth from crispy brown to dripping green….The city’s lake, which only a few weeks ago was so dry and cracked that I walked across its surface, is now filled with bobbing boats.
Driving out of the city it’s hard to believe that these villages set among overflowing ponds and chartreuse fields that are so vivid you’d swear they were photoshopped, suffer from water scarcity…but it’s the case. There’s been 3 years of drought and everyone is praying that this will be a good monsoon season…it has to be, I’m told.
Slowly making our way to the village
As we slowly make our way out of the city along the washed out dirt road it’s as if an entire National Geographic magazine has come to life. Every minute I see an image that is worthy of the cover…A man in a impossibly white dhoti knee deep in water plowing a muddy field with his long horned oxe. Ten children in their blue school uniforms squatting along the roadside under one large black umbrella…a women in a red sari planting rice against the green cloud enshrined hills…Actually the images are so stunning that it makes me think the NatGeo photographers have probably been slacking.
At our first village, Madla, I head directly to the community well. We arrive as a young woman finishes filling a large clay pot and a smaller metal one and places them on her head. I ask her name…"Mala Devi" she says timidly. She is 25 years old and she’s bringing water back to her house…2 km away. A perfect chance to try out the Waterwheel. She’s a bit embarrassed when we ask if we can bring water to her house in our foreign contraption…but she shyly agrees and says she’ll meet us there. Three young boys from the school offer to push the barrel, excited by the novelty of a game…
Mala collecting water at the community well
As we walk up through the field my city sandals literally disintegrate right off my feet. Apparently my city shoes (which I thought were oh so stylish) are no match for village monsoons. “Oh well, cha lo” I say…and our small group continues on our water delivery task.
We’re a motley crew. Three small boys pushing a big yellow barrel, 2 field workers from Seva Mandir, a few curious villagers and me, walking barefoot along a muddy, rocky, dirt path through soggy fields and unseen piles of cow dung….
Our volunteer "water pushers"
However, 2km later we arrive at our destination a bit wet, a bit muddy…but with the promised water. Mala is amused and happy with the vast quantity of water…Definitely the first time she’s had it delivered to her door.
Recap: Down one pair of sandles, up some great field notes….It was a good day….
Village School (where the boys should probably be)
