Should Have Been Posted 7 June 2009

So far I have survived my first two days at work, and I am now enjoying the Sunday holiday. Meera Sansthan, as far as I can tell, is an exciting organization doing many very beneficial things for the women in the Jodhpur district. Unfortunately, my inability to speak hindi might keep me from doing anything too exciting for them. Most of my coworkers and supervisors speak English, but only when I ask them questions; most of the time they speak amongst themselves in hindi and I just tag along. I think they are just shy about their English ability. I wish they would remember, though, that my hindi is so much more basic than their English! Also, most of the work that Meera Sansthan does is with people from the villages who speak absolutely no English. Therefore, until I can speak hindi, I can't really contribute to any of the direct work of the organization. I'm trying to pick the language up, but I'm not sure how fast I can expect that to go. Instead I am going to focus on just soaking up the Indian culture I am going to be exposed to. Any work that I will be doing for this organization is going to have to be in revising and writing English documents for them, but I'm not sure they even need that. We'll see how this goes.

My host mother continues to prepare delicious and inventive vegetarian meals. Last night we had chapati with an exclusively Rajasthani pickle, veg. Biryani, a little fried snack pocket, mixed chaat (fried chapati covered in yogurt and chutney), and then a syrup soaked donut hole for dessert. I think my host mother wants me to gain 5 kgs before I leave. In fact, she said that, so she definitely wants me to gain 5 kgs. I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, it's hard to say no to the numerous sweets, pineapple shakes, watermelon juices, cups of chai, and fried Indian delicacies offered to me throughout the day. But I also don't want diabetes. Hopefully after my novelty wears off they will stop offering?

The weather is hot, the food is spicy, and I constantly fight the urge to nap. I've been on three scooter rides, driven into oncoming traffic too many times to count, and narrowly missed walking straight into a cow. Life is good!