One Wedding, 4 Camels, Good Friends and My Last Day!

Have just returned to Jaipur after a hectic and incredibly enjoyable 2 weeks, and am packing my things, and meeting friends to say goodbye before heading to China!

After a short trip to Pushkar following my last post, I finished up my microfinance report and bid adieu to Cecoedecon, before hitting the road in the sleeper berth of an optimistically-dubbed "luxury" bus to Jodhpur. Luckily however I slept pretty well (my friend, however did not have it so easy!), and we were greeted early morning in Jodhpur by an exhausted Ankit, who also managed to show us Jodhpur palace on the way to a hotel to sleep! After a quick rest and a reunion with some old friends from the UK MC, we headed to Ankit's for breakfast and to enter the wedding whirlwind!

It was an absoutlely incredible experience, and amazing to get to be truly involved in the wedding. Ankit's family were incredibly welcoming and warm, and we spent the first day getting to know everyone at home, before going to a dinner and heading to the wedding venue the next morning. The wedding lasted 2 days, which for lucky us was spent going to the functions in late afternoons and evening, eating delicious food, and spending the mornings enjoying the truly beautiful location on a lake in the countryside. On the first evening, we got to perform in the big dance show that the groom's younger brothers put on for him - we'd practiced for as long as possible after arriving, and had amazing fun doing our Bollywood dance! I'm not sure if there's any videographic evidence but if there is I'll put it up here...

Following the wedding we took a quick trip to Jodhpur fort, before speeding off to catch our bus to Jaiselmer. Jaiselmer's the last town before the desert, and extremely hot at this kind of year. The tourists had all deserted (no pun intended), and the town and beautiful fort were ours to explore. Naturally given these conditions we decided that the only thing to do was to make for the desert on a two day camel safari! We headed out into the Thar desert, about 40km from the India-Pakistan border, and visited tiny villages and tried to make our camels run. It was very hot but we spent the hottest part of the day hiding from the sun playing Uno! and embracing the surreal... At night we ate in the dark (we were proper camping - no running water, no toilets, no lights) - absolutely delicious food, then pitched our cots on sand dunes and fell asleep talking and counting shooting stars - I'd recommend it to anyone, heat is nothing! There was some amazing wildlife to see; lots of Indian antelope - kind of a cross between deer and antelope so quite big, and very fast. I'm not sure what the name is in English but it's not a creature I've seen before. To my endless relief we didn't see any scorpions, and despite snake tracks we didn't see any of those either - although our guides assured us that if we liked they'd hunt some down for us to have a look at - eek!

After bidding a fond farewell to Jaiselmer we made an epic 24 hour journey across 3 states to get to hippy-haven Rishikesh. I finally got to travel by train! It was very convenient and comfortable - I could quickly get used to the overnight trains. And, after experiencing the buses in other states, I'm limiting my previous (hasty) statement about "loving travelling by bus" to the buses in Rajasthan, which are pretty serviceable! There goes my wish to be an intrepid local traveller... Rishikesh was made famous by the Beatles - they wrote most of The White Album in an ashram in the hills here, and since then it's been a favourite with backpackers, for good reason. It's beautifully situated at the start of the Himalayas, and on the Ganges - we headed there to do some serious chilling before the end of our holidays. Being so far up in the north, and close to the mountains it is pleasantly cool - I never thought I'd welcome being chillly at night before coming to India - and very beautiful. We covered all of the bases including bathing in the Ganges (or gingerly paddling, ahem), ayurvedic massage and a bit of self-inspired (self-led) yoga, and enjoyed lots of good food and bracing mountain air.

And that's it! Some photos are below... I can't believe that my time in India has come to an end so quickly. Despite some frustrations I have developed an enduring affection for this crazy country, and especially for the friends I've met here and shared my experience with - it's a time I'll always remember fondly. Even though I can't quite process the fact that I'm leaving, that this is the last time for who knows how many years that I'll see the buildings and streets that quickly (and unexpectedly) became familiar and comforting, as well as all the people who have made my experience, another part of me can already feel how much I'll miss it, and how lucky I've been to have the opportunity to be here.

I'm not sure I've quite managed to captuare the vibrancy of India in all of my posts here - the things that amaze every day, as well as the things that make me want to scream on a daily basis! But whilst I was travelling I read a book that comes close to doing it some justice - Out of God's Oven by Dom Moraes and Sarayu Srivatsa. It's a journalistic book which manages to capture elements of the society, culture, history, colonial legacy, religion and politics of India, and comes some way to reaching the modern essence of the country - for anyone who's interested I highly recommend it.

Next stop Beijing! I'm so excited to go and see China - I don't know what to expect at all, but will update as soon as I can. And for tomorrow; happy 21st to my little brother - I can't believe I'm missing your big day! Will be thinking of you. All my love xxx

2 Weeks and 3 days??

How did the time go by so quickly?

I'm now wrapping things up at work, all set for my last day on Tuesday, when I'll head to Johdpur for the wedding of a good friend's brother, before spending 10 days travelling ridiculous distances with good friends.

It's strange to reflect on just how quickly my time here has gone, but I'm looking ahead to Beijing, and I cannot wait. I'll be teaching English close to the centre of Beijing, and staying with a family on-site. Aside from wishing that I'd actually opened the "Easy Peasy Mandarin" book that I was so sure I'd study religiously every night as I was cramming it into my backpack, I'm feeling pretty much set.

I'll go with very fond memories of India - I have had an amazing time here, despite challenges, and I definitely hope to visit again to tour the South of the country.

And now I'm doing even more onward planning - the job that I thought I'd be starting back in London in August has been delayed until February 2010, and I'm currently trying to organise more work abroad in...the USA! Visa procedures are excessively traumatic (though an Indian person might tell me that it's just my karma for the number of people who I didn't sympathise enough with as I coached them through the equally traumatic process of coming to work in the UK), but stay tuned for more news once it's all sorted!

An afternoon of storytelling

Had another field visit to the HQ of our microfinance organisation today, and spent the afternoon sitting on mats in a cool, breezy room listening to the stories of the women who founded and now govern the organisation.

Stories about men not allowing their wives to participate in the self help groups when they started, saying that they were bound to fail, and later swallowing their words and asking their wives to join... About the organisation's staff investing their own money into the first groups to show that they were trustworthy, and win the confidence of the villages they were working with. About organising rural women to protest against corruption in local government, secure aid in times of disaster and insist that they themselves are able to monitor the distribution of funds... Stories of overcoming deeply ingrained prejudices and huge levels of adversity to create a solid organisation that sustainably and positively impacts the lives of it's members, and is growing exponentially year on year.

These visits are without a doubt the best part of my job. The energy with which the women approach their task, the sheer scale of their determination and what that has led them to achieve couldn't fail to be inspiring, even for the most jaded cynic. Today the president of the organisation told me that over the years, since the self help groups have become more and more ingrained into the communities they operate in, they've gradually started to notice the younger girls become quite bold. Listening to them for the afternoon makes it easy to understand where they learned their boldness!

Certainly microfinance is no cure for all the world's ills. Objectively viewed it's a good way to achieve small-scale democratisation of capital, and the model is not without flaws, nor applicable universally, nor immune to abuse. But for giving people the means to sustainably improve their livelihoods, and more importantly empowering them to take the necessary action to achieve this for themselves I firmly believe that it deserves all the hype.