Part one: Orientation in Delhi and visit to Rajasthan
My name is Camila, I recently graduated with an MA in International Development and Im interested in gender and public health. I am one of the two AIF fellows working in Kerala. I will be based with an organization that is located in Wayanad district called Profugo Development Initiatives.
Our AIF orientation for the fellowship was in New Delhi, a place that is slowly becoming more and more familiar to me. I had spent my summer in Delhi doing an internship for the WHO South-East Asia regional office. I was quite excited to come back to the city and meet the AIF staff and the fellows. We had 12 days of learning, exploring, and getting to know each other. I think one of the most memorable experiences that I take from orientation is our visit to a village near Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan (check the photo below). It was extremely hot but it was amazing to be there because we got to interact with many children. We stayed at an Ashram, which hosted about 70 boys.
The children were the best host I’ve ever encountered in India! They had artistic performances for us, they were curious about what we were doing there and they were so eager to play and dance with us. One morning a group of fellows went on a hike to a near by temple, initially I thought I would not be able to wake up so early (but early morning is the best time to go for a hike due to the extreme heat that comes later in the day). Well, very early in the morning I heard some lively music and my initial thought was…who is blasting Bollywood music at 5am in the middle of Rajasthan?!. The music went for a long time so I took it has a sign to wake up and go to the hike. Im very glad I went, the view was beautiful and the gurus at the temple had great stories about the history of the place. On our last day we received a nice surprise from the children who stay at the Ashram as they had made beautiful drawings for each of the fellows and they handed them over as we said good-bye.
View from Lord Hanuman’s temple in the village near Jaipur
Part 2: Arrival to Kerala
This year there are 2 AIF fellows placed in Kerala, Rebecca and I. Both of us are working at Profugo but with slightly different projects (although they are quite interconnected, more on that later). We are living on what we call the “blue house” and we work in a village called Prashantageri, which is close to a place called Vallat. I am not sure if anyone would be able to find the blue house with our directions because there are many small roads and little towns around us but that’s the best I can give you.
Rebecca and I were very enthusiastic about our trip because during orientation we had many positive responses from people when we told them our placement. Everyone we encountered in Delhi said that Kerala is so beautiful and green and the perfect place to work. Well, they were right! I have some photos that we took when we were coming from the city of Calicut to our district Wayanad. My photos make no justice to the beauty of the place but I will try to get better ones. We are surrounded with many palm trees, tea and coffee plantations. We still get rain almost every day as we caught the end of the monsoon season. The blue house has given us a lot of interesting experiences but we are almost settled now. We take a local “purple” bus to Prashantageri every morning, its quite convenient because it drops us at the Profugo Center…if we don’t get the said “purple bus” we take the “white and blue” bus which drops us in Vallat, after that we have a beautiful walk to our workplace. The first days on the bus were a bit crazy as there are many school-aged children and adolescents that take the same bus and are very curious about us. Now the kids have learnt our names and try to ask questions in English, I have come to enjoy the bus ride because the view is quite beautiful and the company is great.
On our first day we met the program manager for Profugo. The Profugo staff has a wealth of experience and so many ideas for projects and activities! Profugo has several programs going on which focus on education, income generation, agriculture, and microfinance. I do not have a very defined project yet but Rebecca and I have been working every weekend in the spoken English program. The students that attend are about 25-27, their ages range from 6-13 and they are every clever and fast learners. We have done a few icebreaker games to learn the names and have assisted Jessy chechi* (who is the spoken English teacher) with her lessons.
A very hard-working group of women that we see daily at work are here for Profugo’s women co-op. The ladies work in the tailoring shop that is a part of the center. The women make beautiful bags and other crafts. These items are sold in the US (primarily) as a way to fundraise for Profugo and it also serves as an income generation opportunity for the women. On a daily basis we see 4-5 women. They are extremely kind, very hard working and have been very helpful to us during our first weeks. This group of women also participates in workshops that are hosted by Profugo with a larger group of women from the community. The workshops aim at income generation through the production of different items.
On our first day of work we participated in a pickle-making workshop, which was very successful. Several women from the community participated in the workshop and they also cooked a meal for all. The women chose the leaders for the next workshop that will take place October 6th, in that occasion they will make liquid soap and detergent for sale. This week there is also a “kitchen gardens” project, which we have been looking forward for a while. Profugo will give seeds to local families for them to grow a garden and will compete for the award of the best garden.
As I write my first entry I keep thinking of how quickly time is going by. We are on our 4th week in Wayanad and we have had so many experiences. This month will be quite busy for us here so my next post will have many updates on the upcoming projects.
*Chechi= is the Malayalam term for “older sister” identical to the Hindi word “didi” that is used in other parts of India.
View from the road that goes to Wayanad district
On our way to Wayanad district
Our daily walk to work!
This is me, Im also known as the “cookie monster”. On our first day in Kerala I tried these orange heart shaped cookies and became addicted to them. I eat these cookies every day (no regrets they go GREAT with tea!) and my first investment here in Wayanad was a 1kg bag of my favorite treat. Below you can see my first bag of cookies, photo credit goes to my site mate Rebecca.
