Arriving in Bhubaneswar I was struck first by the warm air and dust. Sujata, my new colleague, was there to meet me at the station and the auto-rickshaw managed to squeeze three of us and all my luggage to take me to my temporary home at the CYSD which is an NGO with training and accommodation facilities.
Sujata told me that I will be collected at 7am the following morning to go on a field trip. She told me more than that but that is all I could comprehend at that point in time. Kelis, the guy here who has been asked to take care of me said breakfast is at 7.30am and offered to bring me tea at 6.45 which sounded good. So I am down at reception at 7am but don't get collected until 8.15am - in the meantime I had more tea (fantastic) and breakfast (curry). Then I get collected in a big 4WD with a group of people, then we get more people and then we're off. So there's 10 of us in this 4WD and another 4 in another car in front. At 11am we stop for what I thought was early lunch and had curry and this gorgeous milk cake. At around 1pm we stop for lunch. I'm already full - at this point I've had two curry meals but I can't offend so I order a vegetarian thali and each some of it. I am absolutely amazed at the appetites these people have, they can put away serious amounts of food. I have also started to eat with my hand. It is difficult getting used to using my right hand and really quite a weird experience but I have to do it. One of the delegates complimented me on my ability which was nice since it was my first day of trying to eat like that.
Then after lunch we finally arrive at the place in Behampur where we are meant to be going to visit an RTI clinic. There is another vol there so we had a good chat but she is leaving in two weeks. She has put me in touch with another vol here in Bhub which is great. Anyway we sat around on the floor for a few hours and they talked about the RTI Coalition (where I'm working) - mostly in Hindi or Oriya and little bits in English. I had a tiny bit of an idea what was going on. Then afterwards we went to a nearby slum colony where we sat on plastic sheeting in the middle of the road for the next meeting where some of the locals came to talk to us about their experiences with RTI. About 20 or so cows walked through and there was one dog who took offence to the cows so the people were giving the dog a hard time - no one is mean to cows! Then we get back in the car and go to Gopalpur - a seaside town. By now it is 7pm and we walk onto the beach and get our feet wet and someone brings us coffee. Then we get back in the car to go home. Nishi tells me we'll be home in three hours but in about two hours we stopped for dinner - yes, more curry but at this point I was able to eat something, then another three hours more after that to get home. I arrived here about 12.15am. So that was day one.
The temperature here seems to rival Sydney that week of the heatwave and it is going to get much hotter in April and May.
On Tuesday afternoon Nishi picked me up on his bike to take me to the office where I will be working. Gobinda is the guy who runs YDF which is the NGO the RTI Secretariat will now be based, it rotates between the member NGOs each year so it has just moved to YDF which turns out to be good as it is nearer the apartment where I'll be living. Gobinda runs me through things and loads up my laptop with heaps of docs on RTI and the Coalition, then the Jharkand delegation from yesterday arrives so I sit with them for a while for another session then I'm called to a meeting with another bunch of people to talk about mobilising youth against corruption where there was also a journalist. At this meeting they tried to talk in English but reverted to Oriya a bit so it was hard to get the gist.
The other thing I should tell you about is Kelis, my guy here at CYSD. See I am quite a novelty here and am usually just stared at but sometimes groups of women say hello and giggle together. I think Kelis is proud to be in charge of me and is doing everything he can to make me comfortable. Yesterday he came to my room to tell me about breakfast - he was concerned I hadn't arrived home the previous night but I told him we got back late. Whenever he comes to the door, he walks into the room and curiously surveys my things - all my undies were hanging on the line above my bed yesterday but what can you do. On the first night I had had a rum when I arrived and had the bottle sitting on the table so he asked me about that - it has been hidden ever since. I have a balcony but sneak around to smoke on it. This morning he came at 7.15am and woke me up to tell me that the bathrooms were busy and if I wanted to use them I might go downstairs and find another one. He then offered me tea (which is a huge privilege - no one else gets that service) so since I was now awake I thought that would be nice. So about half an hour later he brought it to my room (I was still in my PJs) and decided he would come in and sit on my bed and talk to me while I drank it. He told me breakfast would be at 9am. Then at 8.30am he came again to tell me breakfast was ready so I got up and had a shower to get ready. Then at 12pm he came again with tea (again he sat on my bed while I drank it) and I said I needed to find Reeta to get on the internet so he waited while I got ready. Literally stood in my tiny room and watched everything I did until I walked out with him. So I feel very much public property here - there is no harm meant, everyone is just very curious but it is going to take a little getting used to.
I think after here then three weeks in Delhi I'll be very happy to move into my small apartment.
Sujata told me that I will be collected at 7am the following morning to go on a field trip. She told me more than that but that is all I could comprehend at that point in time. Kelis, the guy here who has been asked to take care of me said breakfast is at 7.30am and offered to bring me tea at 6.45 which sounded good. So I am down at reception at 7am but don't get collected until 8.15am - in the meantime I had more tea (fantastic) and breakfast (curry). Then I get collected in a big 4WD with a group of people, then we get more people and then we're off. So there's 10 of us in this 4WD and another 4 in another car in front. At 11am we stop for what I thought was early lunch and had curry and this gorgeous milk cake. At around 1pm we stop for lunch. I'm already full - at this point I've had two curry meals but I can't offend so I order a vegetarian thali and each some of it. I am absolutely amazed at the appetites these people have, they can put away serious amounts of food. I have also started to eat with my hand. It is difficult getting used to using my right hand and really quite a weird experience but I have to do it. One of the delegates complimented me on my ability which was nice since it was my first day of trying to eat like that.
Then after lunch we finally arrive at the place in Behampur where we are meant to be going to visit an RTI clinic. There is another vol there so we had a good chat but she is leaving in two weeks. She has put me in touch with another vol here in Bhub which is great. Anyway we sat around on the floor for a few hours and they talked about the RTI Coalition (where I'm working) - mostly in Hindi or Oriya and little bits in English. I had a tiny bit of an idea what was going on. Then afterwards we went to a nearby slum colony where we sat on plastic sheeting in the middle of the road for the next meeting where some of the locals came to talk to us about their experiences with RTI. About 20 or so cows walked through and there was one dog who took offence to the cows so the people were giving the dog a hard time - no one is mean to cows! Then we get back in the car and go to Gopalpur - a seaside town. By now it is 7pm and we walk onto the beach and get our feet wet and someone brings us coffee. Then we get back in the car to go home. Nishi tells me we'll be home in three hours but in about two hours we stopped for dinner - yes, more curry but at this point I was able to eat something, then another three hours more after that to get home. I arrived here about 12.15am. So that was day one.
The temperature here seems to rival Sydney that week of the heatwave and it is going to get much hotter in April and May.
On Tuesday afternoon Nishi picked me up on his bike to take me to the office where I will be working. Gobinda is the guy who runs YDF which is the NGO the RTI Secretariat will now be based, it rotates between the member NGOs each year so it has just moved to YDF which turns out to be good as it is nearer the apartment where I'll be living. Gobinda runs me through things and loads up my laptop with heaps of docs on RTI and the Coalition, then the Jharkand delegation from yesterday arrives so I sit with them for a while for another session then I'm called to a meeting with another bunch of people to talk about mobilising youth against corruption where there was also a journalist. At this meeting they tried to talk in English but reverted to Oriya a bit so it was hard to get the gist.
The other thing I should tell you about is Kelis, my guy here at CYSD. See I am quite a novelty here and am usually just stared at but sometimes groups of women say hello and giggle together. I think Kelis is proud to be in charge of me and is doing everything he can to make me comfortable. Yesterday he came to my room to tell me about breakfast - he was concerned I hadn't arrived home the previous night but I told him we got back late. Whenever he comes to the door, he walks into the room and curiously surveys my things - all my undies were hanging on the line above my bed yesterday but what can you do. On the first night I had had a rum when I arrived and had the bottle sitting on the table so he asked me about that - it has been hidden ever since. I have a balcony but sneak around to smoke on it. This morning he came at 7.15am and woke me up to tell me that the bathrooms were busy and if I wanted to use them I might go downstairs and find another one. He then offered me tea (which is a huge privilege - no one else gets that service) so since I was now awake I thought that would be nice. So about half an hour later he brought it to my room (I was still in my PJs) and decided he would come in and sit on my bed and talk to me while I drank it. He told me breakfast would be at 9am. Then at 8.30am he came again to tell me breakfast was ready so I got up and had a shower to get ready. Then at 12pm he came again with tea (again he sat on my bed while I drank it) and I said I needed to find Reeta to get on the internet so he waited while I got ready. Literally stood in my tiny room and watched everything I did until I walked out with him. So I feel very much public property here - there is no harm meant, everyone is just very curious but it is going to take a little getting used to.
I think after here then three weeks in Delhi I'll be very happy to move into my small apartment.
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