Pineapple Express!
The past two days, the 6th and 7th, have been quite eventful. On the morning of the 6th, we went to a village for the first time, about 15 minutes from CRHP. The village was called Sharadwadi, and it was the first time we had ever been deep into the heart of any rural area. Toward the beginning of the village, we saw two large bulls with the horns colored blue, with hanging decorations, sitting silently and idly. They seemed to be like some ancient guardians overlooking the village, which the villagers probably thought the bulls were actually doing.
We met Rababai, one of the village health workers. She took us around, with Dr. Shoba Arole (Dr. Raj Arole’s daughter) as our main guide. All the children of the village came swarming toward us, laughing and smiling. They were extremely excited to see us. We went to Rababai’s house and one other house of a “better off” family.
One really important part of the village was education. I actually believed that children in poor villages never went to school. Here, there was a preschool (that feeds two meals to the children) and elementary school. Afterwards, the children go to the schools in Jamkhed. We met one girl who was 17 years old making some kind of pita. She was in 11th grade and hoped to go further. It was very nice to see that she aspired for higher things, and especially that she wasn’t married off already. Usually, daughters where married off at like 10 years old to very old men. The legal age of marriage is 18 years in India. This shows that progress is being made in preventing child-bride marriages.
We also met another boy who spoke surprisingly fair English, wearing a uniform. I was very impressed that he was actually a student of Jamkhed’s college, and was a civil engineering major. He also spoke of dreams of going to the US, especially to New York. It was very inspiring to hear a boy born into a very poor village of rural India aspiring for a much wealthier life in the greatest city in the world. This shows how huge an impact education has on people’s lives.
After the village, we were given a tour of the CRHP hospital by Alex, the professor’s protégé who has basically been taking control of the complex. The professor will be doing a lottery for those who want to see a C section/ delivery. I will be extremely depressed if I don’t get to see one of them.
Later that day, we went to the weekly meeting of the village health workers. The professor brought some pineapples for everyone, and they were delicious. The workers were also very nice, coming after the meeting to shake our hands, and some said “Happy New Year.”
The next day, the 7th, we went to a meeting where five of the health workers spoke about their work. They had no doubt changed lives in their villages. They had made so many deliveries with virtually no infant or mother deaths. Infectious diseases have also been completely wiped out. Now, they are focusing on diabetes and hypertension. Two points that struck me was 1) Halima, a Muslim worker, apparently had no conflicts with Hindus, but rather, she had issues with allowing to help her won fellow Muslims and 2) Babai was of the lowest untouchables (the untouchables also have their own hierarchy…) but ended up becoming the first female mayor of her town! She was and is still illiterate, and yet she did so much for her town, such as getting electricity, roads, houses for poor, etc. Right now, the mayor is also a woman, and so is the deputy mayor. Babai has obviously had a huge impact on her village’s perceptions of women empowerment.
Before lunch, Angela, Samira, and I ran into the pineapple man! He had a cart right next to the dorms, with all the pineapples lined up on the cart. He also cut them into thin slices, just like how it was the day before. We bought two packs, one for ourselves, and one for Nadine, who really wanted some. Funny enough, once we entered the mess hall and gave her the pineapple slices, she said they had just been talking about the pineapple man. We have not seen the last of the pineapple man.
After lunch, we had class, and then got measured for our sari blouses (I wrote my name down and the tailor said, “Oh you are Muslim? My name is Khan” so I had to say Salam). Alex said he was going to take us to the market to buy clothes, but he didn’t make it. The professor reluctantly took us. I didn’t buy anything because everything looked hideous…Hopefully in Pune I can get some quality dresses!
By the time we got back, it was already dinner time. Before dinner though, we went to CRHP’s own little market. I forgot the name of this project, but it sold beautiful handicrafts made my village women. And they are much cheaper than other places that sell the same things. I’ll probably buy another day, but at least I finally exchanged dollar for rupees there. I have more than enough.
Dinner for the first time had chicken, in tanduri style I think, and it was very good.
Over the weekend, we’re going to see the historical sites in Ajunta and Ellora, and we will be staying over at Aurangabad. One of the sites will include, sadly, the fake Taj Mahal.
