Wow... I cannot believe that it is Thursday already! Where did the time go?! Have I really been here for 2 weeks tomorrow?
Holy cow.
India is so crazy and so much fun. I find I'm finally adjusting to the weather (yay!) and the spices (mmm) and even arguing with rickshaw drivers over prices and where we're supposed to go. :)
So some summary of the past week or so. I've met with a lot of partners and figured out what I'll be doing (mostly) with them and with the other team members.
So I am the project lead with CARPED for the Quarter Acre project. We're basically going to be showing how a poor family can live off of that small amount of land. But that means building a mud house (that should be interesting), adding a soilet (more on that later), adding an adobe stove and having square foot gardens in the back yard! It should be fun but a lot of work.
I'll also be working on the Polavaram Dam project. I'll be helping to analyze the impact of the dam on the tribal cultures that will be displaced. That should be fascinating.
I'll also be working with the MV Foundation with doing murals on the school walls. That one isn't set in stone yet, but we'll see how it goes!
Things have been so intense lately with meeting after meeting with the partner and solidifying what we're doing. But it's fun to be able to drive around the city and realize I know where I am and recognize roads, landmarks, etc. It's also been fun to get to know the team better. We're a good mix of people and it's been really fun meshing so far.
Oh, and on friday we had our "initiation" ceremony where we were given food and not told what it was before we ate it.
Can you guess what it is? I figured it out and wasn't too happy with it...
But they made it up by giving us cake later. :)
Kinda makes up for the fact that we were served goat brains...
More later!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Days flying by
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Meetings continued
So the past couple of week days have been busy with working and meeting up with partners.
Thursday we learned how to do a needs assessment. Basically what a needs assessment looks at is not only if a project would work but how and who would be connected, possible problems, etc.
It was really fascinating because we were all given the same company and then different areas to look up. We came up with different results and even then the answer wasn't conclusive to see if we should suggest for that company to start helping here.
It was a great exercise and helped us to figure out a process that will be important with other partners.
We also went over projects and wrote down who wanted to work on what etc and Melissa and Seth took our sheets and put together teams.
Friday we were told who was the project lead for the teams and also who was working with what.
I found out that I'm the project lead for a project with the MV foundation working on murals for the schools, the project lead for the quarter acre building project with CARPED and then I'm also the project lead for this project that works on analyzing the impact of a dam project in southern Andhra Pradesh. It's really exciting working on these projects along with a few others.
More later, I'm so exhausted.
I'll let you know about saturday and going to the Charminar later!
