Update on my IS project!

Hey!

So I'm done with my IS paper!! It is actually the longest paper I have written so far, 28 pages long! Sunday-Tuesday we will be going to Kotikanal, a hill-station (aka town up in the hills) for our IS period. When we are there we will be doing a 15 minute presentation on our IS project. I plant to make a power point and include some of the students photographs.

I thought that I was leaving India on May 4th but turns out I really am leaving on May 2nd. So I have had to reschedule a few flights and cancel a hotel booking but it all works out in the end. I am very ready to return home, not that I am having a bad time in India. But to be honest, I am ready for the luxuries of America, although I am sure they will be shocking. I mainly can't wait to eat a salad!

I bought some amazing earrings yesterday at Pudamandapan, a old temple turned shopping area. Here is a picture of them/me! :)

The Last Few Weeks + PONDICHERRRY

Hey it has been a long time since my last post and I apologize for that.

My IS project is well under way by now all of the kids have taken photographs and gotten them developed or they are on my computer. The first batch of photographs only 19 our of 100+ images came out so I was very disappointed but thats just part of the process of doing ethnography work my mom and professor reminded me. Now I am 8 interviews down and have 10 interviews to go with the children. I am interviewing them about their photographs, having them choose their favorite photos and investigating any further meanings behind their images. So far I have concluded that family and friends are both very strong values in the lives of children at Karumpalai. It also seems that material objects dont hold much of an importance, out of all the images I have seen I can only remember about two that are of material objects. Another interesting finding is that in karumpalai which is technically a slum there are more pets than anywhere else I have seen in Madurai. Lots of families have dogs, cats or rabbits that they keep in their home and treat like pets. In most cases a person in India will have a pet but it is let to roam the streets and never allowed inside the house but that is not the case in Karumpalai.
Soon I will be posting some images the kids have taken on my blog because the gallery show will be held soon.

This weekend we went on a trip from thursday-sunday to Pondicherry. Pondicherry is about a 6 hour drive away and was once a french colony. This trip was a bit different than the other trips we have taken because it was only the students and our 2 PA's. We were to find our own hotels and plan our own activities. Me and 5 other friends stated at a Hostel connected to an Ashram that I found, this place turned out to be really nice, there was a kitchen where on the last night I made pasta with veggies for everyone. The rooms were pretty clean and the owner was a very nice man. On our first day we went to the old french quarter. We had breakfast at a place called Le Cafe which was right on the ocean. We spent the day roaming around stopping for a glass of wine here and a cup of coffee there it was quite relaxing but also extremely hot. The first night we went to this rooftop restaurant which had pretty little christmas lights all over, kitchy miss-matched furniture and good food and drinks! It was a great night there and a great first day. Oh yes, we met some nice auto drivers (like taxis) and we got their numbers and for the rest of the trip we used them everywhere we went. The second day we went to Aourville, "a universal city in the making" http://www.auroville.org/ aka a cult. We went and saw the giant golden egg which to me just looked like a giant golden golf ball. On the way back to the hotel our Auto's took us to an amazing pizza place, we ordered a 3 cheese pizza, an italian pizza and a veggie pizza which was definitely the best of the 3. After a nap and shower we headed to Serenity Beach it was very pretty and clean! The waves were huge and we spent lots of time tanning, swimming in the Bay of Bengal and combing the beach for shells! For a snack we took an auto to Baker Street Cafe where me and my friend Winter split a baguette, goat cheese and fig honey! It was delicious! Then we walked around until we found the french quarter and meandered for a while until we found Le Club, one of the places we had wine the first day. We spent almost 3 hours due to their poor service. At first it was relaxing but towards the end ridiculous and we were cutting it close to the hostel's curfew which was 11:30 pm. The third and final day we called our autos and had them take us to some local churches and temples. They were awesome, they took us to a 75 ft tall Ganesh temple and another 80 ft Kali temple. The auto drivers also acted as our tour guides telling us about the local legends and helped describe the temples to us! After hitting up some temples we went to the beach again for a second day where we went swimming again. I went out a bit to wash some sand off and ended up talking to some Indian guys who were very nice and we went swimming together for about 30 minutes  They told me about some good local restaurants and things to do but we were leaving in just a few hours so I wasn't able to check them out. I spent a while just walking the beach and combing for sea shells on my own. Overall I thought it was the best trip so far. We saw some really cool temples and went to some delicious restaurants, it was very relaxing.

I have some pics to show from my friends, I used a film camera this trip so I don't have the photos up yet!

Hey everyone!

It has been a while since my pretty negative blog post. All of us are starting to leave the frustration phase of being in India which is good, but we are all itching to return home. I have gone through several waves of debate about returning to Madurai. On this program there are always 2 program assitants who help us adjust to life in Madruai, hold events. There role is not to be a teacher but not also to be one of us, it lies somewhere between. I have put thought to retuning as a PA one year, perhaps the year after I graduate college, it looks great on a resume, pays, and covers living expenses while in Madurai and on tour (vacation). While I am not completely turned off the the idea the wave of frustration that hit has somewhat deterred me.

But anyways, were are now a few weeks into our IS project. As you all know my project deals with teaching children photography and having them photograph their lives. I am working at an NGO called SEED. The NGO keps children in a neighborhood called Karumpalai which is essentially a slum. There is no indoor pluming and very little electricity in the neighborhood. SEED was founded many years ago by Ted Adams an American Anthropologist who also founded SITA and was funded by a group of SITA parents who wanted to help women get better education in Tamil Nadu. Now SEED is still running, mainly funded by Ted Adams. Every child who goes to SEED must go 7 days a week where classes are held every night and events are held on the weekends. SEED ensures students will get their college education paid for, even if it is 100% funded by SEED. I have been going for a little over a week now, I play english games with the students and teach them about photography. Today I will be handing out cameras to the children along with a list of possible topics to photograph. I hope the students have a great time with the project! I will be posting about how it is going soon!

I haven't posted anything in a while. We are in the middle of our IS project time. For my IS project I am working at an NGO SEED located in Karumbalai, a local neighborhood in Madurai. Karumbalai is a very low income neighborhood and SEED is an NGO that helps children with their studies to help them get out of the life most people in these neighborhoods are stuck in.  I will be teaching them photography as well as english. Once I give them a few lessons in photography I will give them film cameras and a set of prompts similar to my senior project at Watkinson. I will spend a lot of time with the children just hanging out and trying to make a friendship. After the photographs are developed we will talk about what they mean to them and why they took each photograph. At the end I want to have a gallery show for the children open to the community.

But recently I got sick, India sick actually. I went to the hospital and was released, against their advice and after  4 bags of IV. But now I'm feeling much better, so thats in the past. 

But since being sick Im in the frustration phase of being in India. I know it will pass soon though. 

South Indian Food

Chapati, a whole wheat tortilla. 

Parotta my favorite! It's somewhat like a tortilla but thicker, flakier and more yummy!

Vada (a savory donut with coriander leaves, mustard seeds and onion)

Idli with Coriander Chutney

Dosa, Sambar (broth with spices and vegetables) and Coriander leaf chutney.

Today is the last day of our finals week! I am done with all of my work. Thanks to my Watkinson education my presentation on Solar Energy went by smoothly as possible. I also had a ten page paper on Solar Energy and a 10 page paper on Sexuality in Indian Advertisements. Funny thing, only after the 8th page did I learn how to properly spell the world advertisement, not a shock if you know me! This week has been exceptionally great. Last Sunday, I believe I mentioned this, but I had a great magical Indian experience wandering through small residential streets downtown. I even made friends with a merchant and talked with him for some time. A few nights this week were good bonding nights for me and my family. My host dad asked me lots of questions about America everything from what I eat on a daily basis to how much the minimum wage is. He runs a shop downtown so he often gets to know foreigners and just wanted to US minimum wage to that of Italy or Germany. My host mother told me the next morning that we had so many laughs and good times that she couldn't sleep well, but it was worth it. For my MCU project I interviewed my family on sexuality in advertisements, a very sensitive subject for a society with such strict rules on sexuality. I learned from this project that sexual advertisements are the result of large corporations in metro (metropolitan) indan cities who are trying to compete in the globalized economy. But such companies and their campaigns do not reach the citizens of Madurai, they still value traditional values and do not wish to change anytime soon. Last night was my host grandfather's 70th birthday. The immediate family and I gathered at the house enjoyed cake (eaten before the dinner) and parotta with gravy (known to you as curry). Everyone was at the house it was a great time for the family and interesting for me to watch the family dynamics. Men and the guest aka me,were served first and waited on by the women. Who ate second and had to serve themselves. As we left at night the women of the house, my host grandmother and her daughter in law were in the kitchen cleaning as everyone else said their goodbyes. There was a little girl, my host cousin who was maybe 1 and was already running around the house and climbing on stairs. I was shocked by how independent this young girl was, I feel that Indian children learn dependence much earlier than American children. Another major difference between American and Indian children is that Indian girls are allowed to dress in elaborate beautiful dresses every day. By American standards they are playing dress up every day! I decided last night that for the hope I one day in my life have a baby girl, I want to buy one of these dresses! Tonight we are going to Nirmala, the host family coordinator and very highly respected Indian woman's grandaughters 1st birthday party! I am excited for it, it will be at JC Residency a very fancy nearby hotel. On Saturday I have set up a meeting for my IS project with the head of an Good Will NGO here in Madurai. Perhaps I will work with the children during my project. And later in the afternoon I have my Batik class. Batik is a traditional Indian art form. We use wax and fabric dye to create an image on our piece of cloth here is a picture: And on Sunday we are off to the state of Karala for our last tour!

Hey I havent posted in a while. Next week is our finals week already! I have a 10 page paper for my media class due, a 10 page paper for my environmental issues class as well as a 15 minute presentation and photo essay. Along with regular homework for anthropology and Tamil. I am close to being done with my environmental issues essay, I just need to revise it and add my own thoughts. But this weekend I am pretty crammed with work (its already 4:20 on Saturday). Meanwhile I need to keep up with my two independent studies back at 'Cuse. But next week we finally get to go on tour, were going to the state of Karala. Karala is a costal state on the West Coast of India. Here are some of the photographs that I turned in for my last photography assignment. For our anthropology class we had to do a assignment on visual anthropology. I choose the topic of food stalls, here are a few shots from that assignment. All of these stalls are on P.T. Rajan road, the road I live on.