Sights and sounds

The internet was down last night, so here's my post from yesterday...

Today was the first time I’d been out in Baruipur during the day. It seems to be an interesting hybrid of city and village. As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of activity on the streets, and the pace is intensified by cars, trucks, and scooters attempting to be as speedy as possible on Baruipur’s one lane roads. We passed a lot of storefronts and food stands, with different and equally enticing scents wafting out of each. During the summer, the streets are busiest in the morning and again in late afternoon into evening. Many people try to avoid peak temperatures in the afternoon, and those that must be out use umbrellas or wear scarves on their heads to protect from the sun. Many particularly talented people were riding bikes and holding umbrellas, which is definitely beyond my skill level.

As quickly as you enter the more frenetic streets of Baruipur, you can escape them, and today we found ourselves calming driving past lychee and guava trees and stirring up dust on the partially paved paths. Sometimes there are open drainage systems on the side of the road, yet there is often greenery dotting the route and marking entryways to homes. I tend to get some stares (I haven’t seen another Western face here yet), but most people simply seem to be curious. Everyone is incredibly welcoming; I joined Mimi at a weekly women’s meeting today, and was honored with a chair (everyone else sits on the floor) as well as fresh fruit and juice. I must have been sweating ridiculously, because women would take turns cooling me with homemade fans. The children there were a bit more curious than the women, and at the end of the meeting, a silent crowd formed around me. Even though I knew no one was speaking because of the language barrier, it was a little unnerving to be observed at close range without any verbal exchange!

On the work front, it seems as though my project will involve working with Monami to help the organization – Nishtha – launch a social enterprise. There is a lot to be done in order to develop a homemade craft business and introduce it to western markets – and it will take far more than the four weeks I have here – but I’m hoping I can help get Nishtha on a path to achieve its financial and social goals. I’ve already received a couple of tips from blog readers on how to do this, and am open to more!