District Conference

Well, things got really hectic as we moved to Nashik, our final city in the Exchange itinerary. The lack of posts shouldn’t be taken as indicating lack of activity or lack of interesting things to talk about. In fact, we had a very full and interesting schedule and, in particular, I had a series of really interesting visits to Rotary projects thanks to my host, J. Sundararaman.

But, let’s jump ahead to the conference where we presented to around 1,000 delegates in a large conference center in Hyderabad. It was great to see so many friends, but a struggle to remember some of their names!

I think our presentation went well. We talked about some of the things that we have learned and tried to give credit to all our hosts and as many of the clubs we met as possible.

Here’s a couple of photos: me giving a gift and the flag of the Mesilla Valley Rotary Club to Governor Sanjay from Governor Mark (next time, Mark, pick something lighter!) and the team singing a song in Hind about friendship.

 

More posts later as we try and catch up.

(Written in Jaipur where we are traveling (without Dave but with my wife, Rani, who we met up with in Delhi last night)

Rotary Makes a Difference in Akola

It seems like an age ago, but it was only at the beginning of this week when we were in Akola and visiting a series of service projects of the Rotary Club of Akola Central. We were all very impressed by what we saw. They really are making a difference.

 

First they took us to see permanent toilets built by Rotary in the farming village of Gaunapur. Toilets are a common Rotary project in India. They are an essential upgrade for homes, that improve health of the community members and protect water sources. There is much work to be done still in this area.

 

We then went to the adjacent village of Dapora where a matching grant with a club in Washington State built a series of check-dams. These have had dramatic results in improving the condition of the river, helping control flooding, recharge groundwaters, providing beautiful groves of trees with extensive wildlife and, as you can see, offering places to do laundry.





 

 

 

We were immediately struck by the similarity between the "bosque" of Dapora and the bosque of Albuquerque where we had our team photos taken before we left for India. We tried to replicate the front cover photo of our brochure and we succeeded....kind-of.



 



At another check-dam site we saw a farmer "filling up" his cows. Their water is much cheaper than gas in either the US or India, but water is never totally "free" anywhere in the world, which is why it is an increasily significant area of focus for Rotary.

After our morning tour into the countryside surrounding Akola we drove into one of its poorest neighborhoods to visit the Dnyaneshwari Primary School (that teaches in the local language called "Marathi"). To call the facilities basic would be an understatement, and almost everything has been provided by Rotary, including the access road. It is located next to the main railway line and it is most definitely "across the tracks" (that's a sly Nils Lofgren reference, John).

But the children seem very healthy and happy, and the teachers dedicated. We all squeezed into the shade of the building to avoid the hot afternoon sun and chatted with the children, watched them dance, sing, and even entertained them with one of our own Hindi songs!

We asked them what they knew about America and they didn't know anything. We think that's quite OK, but I'd like to see if we can't create a partnership with a school in District 5520 so that the US children can learn about India. Of course, we distributed toothbrushes, pencils and rulers, and we thank Peg and everyone else that donated these items that have found many new, happy owners in Maharashra.

 

We had a blast--and I think the kids did too.

And then they piled into their rickety school bus to take them to their homes.

A Day of Rest and then Back in Top Gear

We have arrived in Jalgaon, another exhilarating drive to the west from our previous home of Akola. We had a great time in Akola and will talk about that stay later, but we wanted to post after tonight's enjoyable meeting with the RC of Jalgaon.

First, we want to express our thanks to all our hosts and to GSE Coordinator Rotarian Bhuneshwar Singh for agreeing to our request for a rest day. After three weeks of constant travelling and activity, we were exhausted and needed a break to recharge our batteries and begin to prepare for our presentation at District 3030's conference that marks the end of the Exchange. We also had three weeks of experiences and memories that we had had few opportunities to share and "process" as a group. So we spent much of the time just talking, comparing notes, offering suggestions to one another, and laughing about the many humorous occasions over the course of the exchange so far--such as when Michael coped admirably with a PowerPoint hiccup or when an enormous cricket landed on his shoulder and crawled onto his neck in the middle of his presentation (something that everyone in the room saw except him!).

So we arrived in Jalgaon and, after a tour of a new museum about the life of Gandhi, we were left to our own devices at a very comfortable conference center. Twenty-four hours later, we emerged, refreshed and with a plan for our conference presentation.

Today, Shantanu Khambete took us to the Ajanta Caves, an extraordinary UNESCO World Heritage Site near Jalgaon that consists of a series of almost 30 rock-cut rooms in the steep bend of a river. They date from as early as 200 BC and represented an enormous investment in their faith by the Buddhists who constructed them using nothing more than hand tools.

On our rest day we began to think about the end of our exchange in 10-days' time. The time has gone by so quickly, so eventfully, yet with few problems or metaphorical bumps in the road (many of the real thing!). On our rest day we began to talk and think about what we were missing about life back in District 3030 and there were reminders today in the remarkably preserved frescoes at Ajanta.

We will be sad to leave India (all are extending our time in India for a week or more and most of us will travel together to Delhi, Agra and the cities of Rajasthan, so our return to the US is not imminent), but happy to have made so many new friends, learned valuable lessons about our vocations, and seen countless examples of Rotary's unique brand of humanitarianism in action.

So, until our next post and until we see you all again, we send our greetings from the overlook about the Ajanta Caves

 

That’s Neat, That’s Neat, That’s Neat, That’s Neat…..I Really Love Your Tiger Feet” (title in homage to The Poet of Portsoy)

 

I’m going back a few days to our special visit to the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve that served as a brief but memorable interlude between our first host city of Nagpur and our second in Amravati.

We didn’t see a tiger but we saw a thicket where one was hiding (!) and we did see this paw print in the dust on the side of the road that required this 70s-pop song inspired blog title. We wanted to see a tiger, but that’s OK. Tigers and people really need their own spaces, so any contact is, at some level, problematic for their long-term survival. And it simply reinforces the need to visit again this remarkable jungle landscape that inspired Kipling’s (and Disney’s) “Jungle Book”.

We were enormously privileged to the guests of Harsch and Poonam Dhanwatey who hosted us at their private lodge on the edge of the Reserve. They founded the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust (tractindia.org) in 2001 and are national and international leaders in the challenging struggle to balance the needs of people and the needs of tigers.

We took a guided walk as night fell that took us to a high point overlooking the contested landscape that was once solid forest and that is now increasingly agricultural fields. Here is Harsh, who clearly is passionate about the land and wildlife he is preserving and some other snaps of the team.

Before dawn the following morning, we jumped into open-top jeeps and entered the Reserve. We saw some wonderful wildlife: a crocodiles, lots of deer, monkeys, and many different types of birds. Tigers are pretty elusive and, with plenty of water in the Reserve at the moment, the wildlife is pretty scattered rather than concentrated around a few waterholes.

Spot the Croc

Tiger Snack

We have had hardly any time away from Rotary-related work since we arrived in India, so our 36 hours with Harsh, his excellent crew, and GSE Coordinator Sanjay Arora, was a special time that we will remember for the rest of our lives. We are sure to follow the progress in protecting tigers and their habitat with great interest and we thank Harsch and Poonam very much and look forward to seeing them again (and a tiger in their natural habitat for the first time).

Michael's having a Blast!

Today was another vocational day and the team scattered around the city of Amravati and surrounding areas to study forests, bicycles and teeth. I took the opportunity to tag along with Michael who spent four hours visiting the Jadhao Group of Companies. This is a family owned conglomerate of agricultural and industrial machinery manufacturers located in the area of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, a government-sponsored program to encourage business.

We thank Michael's host, Rotarian Dada Padole for setting this up (he's the one with the spectacular moustache in the photo below). We extend a special thanks to Shweta Jadhao, a director of the company and a very busy executive at the company for giving Michael an extraordinarily thorough tour of the many aspects of the company.

 

One of the groups primary lines are cotton ginning machines and here Shweta is showing Michael the finished product.

 

  

But we also got up close to every step in the production process, inclusing seeing the furnace that produces the large cast iron pieces for the machines they produce. (Editorial aside: I'm not sure that this is actually a "blast furnace" but I couldn't think of another cute title for this blog).

They employ as many as 700 workers and they were working hard during our tour. Everyone has been very tolerant about our photography during our entire Exchange. And we appreciate that very much as it helps us share our experiences with Rotarians and family members back home.

 

Tonight is our Team presentation to two of the Rotary Clubs in Amravati and we leave for our next host town in the morning. It seems like only hours ago that we arrived here. The Rotarians have done a tremendous job.

 

I want to thank my hosts, Amarjyotsingh Jaggi, his wife, Jaspalkur (a wonderful cook!), and Simrun, their very intelligent daughter whose knowledge of English grammar far exceeds my own!

 

Hold The Front Page

 

Reading the article, I'm not quite sure the reporter fully understood Michael's carefully nuanced coments about Indo-Pakistan relations...... But the photos, taken in the editorial offices and the room with the printing press look great!

The newspaper is called The Pratidin and you can check it out at www.pratidinakhabar.com. They print about 70,000 copies each night. Most are the Hindi edition, but there is also an edition in the local language of Murati of 18,000 copies. Newspapers cost 3 rupees (about 6 cents).

Advertising costs several hundred dollars for a prime front-page spot. We thank the newspaper for thinking our visit to be newsworthy and for spreading the word about GSE and Rotary.

While visiting the editorial offices, I thought I heard the immortal cry in the distance, "WOODSTEIN"!

India isn't Noisy For Everyone

The first thing that hits a visitor to India is the noise. It is constant and loud. Some, I am sure, never quite get used to it. For others, its a piece of human music.

Yesterday, we met some people who don't have to worry about the noise--the residents of the "Bulidan Rathi Deaf and Dumb College" in Amravati. It is a characteristically solid building in a leafy street in the suburbs of the city. It has a wonderful mural on the wall that surrounds the premises. Take a moment to have a good look.

 

 

 As often happens on GSE visits to schools, we were welcomed by a message on the noticeboard by the principal's office. He proudly accepts a pin from Cristina, representing the Rotary Club of Santa Fe that is her sponsor club.

 

 

 

The classrooms are all small and the class sizes are a manageable handful for the specialist task that the teachers have in front of them--teaching the deaf children to communicate and function independently of their families. We spot a chart for the signing th.e letters of the alphabet

 

 

The children in their school uniform all seem cheerful even if our cameras often elicit a serious face.

 

 

 

We watch the children learning sign language. Notice the chalk boards that seem to relace pencil and paper at this school and others that we have seen.

 

 

Their cheerfulness is certainly helped by Cristina who makes a game out shaking hands with one of the older students. We are all now getting used to meting Indian children and have overcome the shyness that so many of them exhibit as well. Now, we're all jumping in and greeting the kids and communicating with them to be best of our ability--and theirs (most of the institutionalized kids we are meeting speak little or no English).

 

After meeting as many of the kids as possible and distributing some of our dwindling supplies of pencils and rulers (that seemed so copious when we checked our bags in Albuquerqe!), we headed upstairs to the two dormitories--one for boys and one for girls--on the second and third floors. They are both tidy but, as Cristina notices, the girls have more stuff than the boys dorm shown in the photo below.

Another great project supported by local Rotarians that we were pleased to visit.

 

Shalem's Visit to the Dentist

Vocational visits are a central part of any Group Study Exchange, and each member has specially arranged excursions to learn about how their profession is practiced in the host district. As the Team Leader, I have the opportunity to tag along on some vocational visits, just to make sure the process is working smoothly and the satisfy my own curiosity about the subject matter in question.

Today, I had the pleasure to accompany Shalem to the Vidarbha Youth Welfare Society Dental College and Hospital on the outskirts of Amravati. A pleasure not only because I was able to see some fascinating interaction between a team member and local professionals, but because it is a rare treat to be among dentists without being in their treatment chair myself!

 

 

The institution is similar to the many that we have already seen in our time in District 5520. This one, obviously more a college than a hospital, was relatively calm and didn't have the scores of people waiting for treatment that we have seen elsewhere.





 

 

We were welcomed into the Department of Preventative & Community Dentistry, signposted in the typical way in Engligh and Hindi (or Murati, the local language -- I am not sure which). It consists of a large space with many dentist's chairs, a number of which were occupied by patients. Large windows allowed a lot of light into the space--something that does not always seem to the case in Indian institutional buildings (that Garrey Curruthers would describe, were they to be transported to the NMSU campus, as "Soviet-style in the vein of O'Donnell Hall).

 

 

Shalem had a long conversation with the college staff, comparing notes about dental hygiene in India, available treatments and community health outreach efforts into the rural areas (typically known as "Tribal Areas"). The profession as it is practiced in the US and India shares some of the same challenges, and they use many of the same techniques. But the demands of a rural population that numbers hundreds of millions of poor farmers is clearly something that demands the involvement of charitable organizations like Rotary--yet, inevitably, many will fail to receive the care that they need.

 

At an earlier stop at a remote community we had seen the twigs of the Neem tree that villagers traditionally use for toothbrushes. They seem somewhat effective, but they can't be considered a replacement for a nice new Oral-B toothbrush!

 

Shalem had an interesting conversation with an entrepeneurial dental hygienist on the staff who showed her his designs for a combinationa toothbrush and toothpaste dispenser that looked rather like a ballpoint pen and would be carried in a jacket pocket or purse. He is trying to interest multinational companies in his design. Whether or not he succeeds is yet to be seen, but he exemplifies once again the entrepreneurial spirit that permeates every corner of this enormous country.

 

Shalem gets a score of 9 out of ten for her vocational visit to the Vidarbha Youth Welfare Society Dental College and Hospital. Both she and the photographer (me!) each gets one point deducted for not straightening her name badge for the photo op!

 

 

 

 

 

The Kings and Queens of Maharashtra

We were graciously invited to the wedding of the daughter of Kishor Kedia, District Governor Elect for District 3030.

Here are Dave, Shalem and Cristina with some of our hosts from Amravati. Helping them dress appropriately for this glamorous event is just one of the many kindnesses we are being shown.

But being treated like kings and queens is hardly exceptional. There is a saying in India: "Guest is God." And our Rotarian friends are certainly upholding this tradition of hospitality.