Projectweek- Lily and the raincoat

Ola!

Projectweek was... interesting, let's say that. We left on Friday, to take the train all the way to the east of India, a 27 hour journey. I wasn't looking forward to it at all, but it was actually very nice. We got tickets in 'third AC', that means that there are triple dunk beds, but there is AC. In trains in Belgium, the doors have to be locked before the train can leave, and when someone tries to open the door when the train is riding, it blocks. It's not like that in Indian trains! The doors are open all the time. In the cabins itself, it was really cold because of the AC, so then I went to the doors of the train and you can just hang out of it, sooo nice (:. I feel like I was in a stereotypical Indian movie, kind of like a superhero! And, it is the perfect way to see the landscape! I was sitting there for an hour I think, with Carole, just looking and describing what we see, amazing.

A train compartiment in third AC

Nitay (Israel) reading in the dooropening of the riding train!

me and Marija (Norway)



 

After the journey, which felt like 2 hours, we arrived in Visakapathnam, in the state Andra Pradesh. Andra Pradesh is definitely more beautful than Maharashtra, the state where our college is. Something that I missed in the streetview in Pune, was present here: temples! I've always known Asia as a place where there's a temple on every corner, but I hadn't really seen a temple so far.

Jeeps brought us to our sleeping place: the Samata office/school.  On the terrain, there were some bamboo houses (without windows, just open 'holes'), a school, some bathrooms (toilets and a crane) and a kitchen. We were told about hot showers, but basically, the cook got op one hour before us to boil water on a fire, to make sure we had hot water. Also, there were no real showers, we had to wash ourselves with buckets. It was really nice to be in such circumstances, because you learn to appreciate what you have at home and also, bucket showers wake you up ;) There were cows and dogs and other scary creatures on the terrain, and during the day there was a powercut of 8 hours! The food was really good, some real Indian food instead of the western-indian food in the caf (some of the Indians told me that they make the food very un-spicy because of all the Europeans at school :(.
For the first two days, we stayed here. We have been farming, they explained us what Samata was (check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samata_(NGO if you want to know more!), we played games about sustainability, made a bonfire, we hiked in the forest and met the village elders. When we were talking to the elders and asking for explanation and stuff, one of the villagers got really mad because in his opinion, we didn't have the right to be there because the forest was the property of his forefathers. On the second day, it started raining, and it wouldn't stop until we were back in Maharashtra (more about this later). We were planning to go to the beach in the afternoon, but it was cancelled because we couldn't get there due to the rain. Anyway, also on the beach here, you have to be culturally sensitive: legs and arms fully covered, so it wouldn't have been the same anyway. So on the second day, we had a lazy afternoon, I had a nice conversation inside, with a cup of chai, while it was raining inside, with Gabriela (Poland) and Anahita (India) about a lot of things. The nice thing about projectweek is that you get close to some people that you didn't know at all, I met some amazing people who are good friends now. On this projectweek, I had so much chai under the 'chai tree'! Hihihi

 

Bonfire

Anahita (India), Daan (The Netherlands), Nitay (Israel) and Chantal (USA)

The chai tree (on the only sunny day)

View on the hike

 

 

 

 

After two days, we left for a homestay. Only problem was that it was raining the whole time. First, we took a three hour trainride (to cover 25 km, yeehaa). This trainride was...different. There were no beds, we were in the lowest class and people constantly jumped on and off the train. We had to squish in the seats and there were even people sitting on the place above our head, meant for the luggage. When we started to go in tunnels, the people on the rood started screaming, which was kind of scary. But apparently, we didn't have to take it seriously, because the people in the train started whistling on their fingers as a reaction, I think it was a tradition or so. Once arrived, we went to see caves, a waterfall and a coffee plantage. It was constantly raining though, and by the time we arrived in the village where we would stay that night, I was freezing. We were all brought to one room where we were singing songs and had a local 'snack' that didn't really taste good. After that, we were brought to the church, where we would sleep that night. The next day, we couldn't go out because the roads weren't safe to drive on. This was a hard day, because we barely had sleep (sleeping on the floor of a church with only one blanket when all your clothes are wet isn't that easy) and we were cold all the time. In the afternoon, we went to another place, which was luckily a little better. We went to a museum of tribal people, but again, couldn't do a lot due to the rain. The next day we visited another village, where we did a little hike which was crossing a waterfall a few times, it was really nice. After that, we were brought to an expensive resort, which of course we didn't want and we could not afford. The organisators had told us before that we would stay in a village, which was the goal of our trip, so dropping us at a resort wasn't nice at all. After some arguing, we got them to pay for us, but still, we didn't sleep in a village. Luckily, we saw tribal dances that night, in which we could participate, so that was nice. The next day, we drove back to Samata.

 

Our faculty-coordinators Paola and Ainhoa, the Spanish teachers at MUWCI and really adorable people!

Chantal (USA) with a cow: welcome to India (:

 

 

Once we were back in Samata, we were supposed to take the train that night to go back to campus, but the train was cancelled because of floodings. The Indian students in our group started calling with their parents and other connections, and in one or another way, they got to talk to an important Railway-guy, who could arrange a minibus from Visakapatnam to Hyderabad for us, and in Hyderabad, we could take another train to Pune. But, it all went to easy so far, our driver was falling asleep! Then we decided to switch on all the lights, and to play loud music. Paola and Marija were constantly talking to him about really random and boring topics, so funny! Later, it wasn't that funny anymore though, because we didn't have AC and there was no place, people started crying because it was so difficult. The next morning, we were still driving in the minibus. We were supposed to arrive at 9.30 in the morning, then go to Anahita's house in Hyderabad for a while and take the train at 2.45, to Pune. But because the roads were flooded, we had to make a detour of more than 150 km! For about ten minutes, we were riding in a landscape where literally everything was blank, except for the road we were driving on. It was SO weird, so sad, to see everything under water, I have never seen something like that. At certain points, there was so much water in the rivers that they were going over the road, so we had to pass that with our car. At around 12.30 pm, we started panicking, because we would probably miss our train. But, THIS IS INDIA, one of the students' dad worked in the airforce, so she called her dad, and he arranged that the train would wait, especially for us, and guidance of an army vehicle through the traffic jam! We had an army jeep driving in front of us, and one of the guys in the jeep got out and ran in front of the car, telling people to move out of the way because we had to pass! Once arrived at the station, there were about 5 people standing there with our tickets, and we ran through the mass of people, to our train that was waiting only for us. Never in my life have I felt so important!! Anahita's parents got us food, because we didn't have breakfast or lunch, and that night, we finally arrived in Pune, and later in MUWCI, home sweet home (:

 

This project week was very hard for me. I learned a lot about India, and about myself. The circumstances weren't always easy, but because of the group, I had an awesome time! (:

 

Thank you to Shruti, Carole, Numaya, Anahita, Gabriela, Nitay, Chantal, Daan, Marija, Adrian, Andrea, Joseph, Manraj, Vrushali and Paola and Ainhoa for the amazing week.

 

And, oh yeah, the title 'Lily and the raincoat', inside joke, because, ''What happens in project week, stays in project week''

 

Louise