In Maharashtra

I typed this post up on my laptop and am posting it during the 10 minutes I have online during the day - trying not to spend too much time on their computer here.

Re: my facial hair - I told the barber to give me a “pukka” Indian cut and shave.  My grandfather decided that I should shave my beard to goatee like Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest star in Indian cinema (and my hero).  I don’t think it looks very good on me, but I figure I’ll just shave it off the next chance I get.  Cost for the shave and haircut: 30rs ($0.65).
Before:
After: 

The 4.5 hour bus-ride to Kurkheda from Nagpur was not great… Picture a rickety school bus, with 3-4 adults in each seat, less shocks, and much more horrible roads.  I’ve travelled on a lot of state transport busses, but this bus seemed to be worse than other states, and it was pricey too… 98 rupees ($2.13) for a 150km journey.  It seems silly to say that $2.13 is expensive for a bus-ride of 150kms, but comparatively it is really pricey for such a crappy bus. 

I haven’t taken many pictures in Kurkheda, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.  I did take a few pictures in “stealth mode” with the camera held down at my waist.  Here’s one of the main street in town, which has all of the shops and eateries. 

My accomodations here are… spartan.  Perhaps a little different than what I’m used to, but plenty good enough for me…
The only problem is that there are TONS of mosquitos in this place.  TONS.  Like I’ve never seen so many in my life.  Even the locals say that Kurkheda is known to have the most mosquitos around.  No idea why this is, I don’t see anymore still water than I do anywhere else.  Anyway, I don’t really sleep much at night because I get up every 10 minutes or so when I get a mosquito bite, plus my asthma and allergies don’t fare so well in the village.  I end up taking a benadryl-induced nap of a couple hours during the day.

Outside of my room here, there is a bigger room with a chalkboard.  This is what was on the board today… a “tough” lesson indeed, learning a non-phonetic language when you’ve grown up on being able to pronounce every word just by seeing how it’s spelled:

Awesomely, almost everyone here has taken a huge interest in me and what I’m here to do.  Everyone is super-helpful and just wants to chat it up every chance they get.  My hindi skills haven’t been a barrier at all, though there are occasionally words I don’t fully understand.  Most of the people here (80%) speak hindi, and those that don’t understand it atleast.  Yesterday I went to what I thought was a previously scheduled SHG (self-help group) meeting… it turns out that they just organized the meeting because I came.  Anyway, it was by 6 ladies who run a “mess,” which is just a cafeteria where you can pay either by the meal or for the month.  They charge 20rs ($.43) per meal, or you can get 2 meals a day every day of the month for 650rs ($14.13).  I’ll take a picture of the place later on.  These ladies took a 15,000rs ($326) loan from the bank… They weren’t sure what interest rate they got the loan at, but I asked the NGO, who said it was at 12%… It’s interesting that they didn’t even know what the interest rate was, more on that later.  I then asked what their monthly profit was.  This opened up a can of worms and led to a 10-15 minute discussion about it, and me doing a ton of calculations in my head…  The ladies didn’t really have any measure of profit and loss… they said they couldn’t measure it by month because they buy grain that lasts 2 months, vegetables daily, rice that lasts 2 weeks, etc.  I tried to push them on this, and then they started telling me what everything costs and how long it lasts.  This ended up being quite a process, and then they forgot a lot of inputs etc… In the end, we never figured it out, but the ladies do know that they deposit 6,000rs ($130) to the bank every month, and each of the ladies takes home 400rs ($8.70) every month, on top of the free meals for themselves and kids.  I asked what they do if a wedding is coming up or anyone gets sick… They said that they’ll give each other no-interest loans within their self-help group, but if anyone else needs a loan they will charge interest. 

It was slightly alarming to me that the ladies didn’t know their monthly profit and also didn’t know what interest rate they were paying to the bank… I guess these numbers mean more to me than they might to someone else.  At Indicorps orientation, I started to realize that I always examine situations of development with my head, when sometimes it’s better to look at these sorts of situations with my heart.  With my head, I was thinking that these ladies have been at this business for a year, and they still don’t know how much money they are making, or what percent interest they were charged by the bank… have they really been helped?  With my heart, a different picture emerges- One with 6 happy ladies, in a position of power, primary breadwinners for the family, having a great time at a business they own.  Over time, I think my perspective on Microfinance loans given to women may change.  I’ve often felt that microfinance programs targetted only at women do not seriously change the patriarchal structure of economic and political control, and that women are simply used as debt collectors for loans used by men.  This situation has certainly altered that view of mine a little.

Til Next time,
Sheel