One month to go!

Well, time here is slowly winding down. I have less than a month to go working with Jatan. Hard to believe! But this past month has gone very well. About half of the other interns have moved on, either traveling or back at home. I have continued working on my project with Jatan: developing certain health materials for the migrant population here. I have received the surveys back from the field (finally!) and have been able to start collecting materials to form the basis of the training. Primarily, it will just entail first aid training and uses of a basic first aid kit. Eventually it will morph into more preventative care (ie how to assess dangers in the workplace, before they become a problem). Tomorrow, I am traveling to another city (about 5 hours away) to observe some workplaces of the migrants in hopes of starting to collect this particular information. Anyway, theres is much to do in my last four weeks here. I am happy to be busy here, but I can already anticipate having to leave 'unfinished' work. That's the life of a short-term intern, I suppose.

A couple of weekends ago, I was able to take some time off and travel with some of the other interns a bit. We went up to a city called Khajuraho. It is a place with numerous and gorgeous temples. What is unique about them is (there's no way around it) that they are quite erotic. It is an oddity especially in such a conservative religion. But it was a relaxing weekend for the most part. It took three different trains to reach the location, with many layovers, some in the middle of the night. So that was my first adventure on the Indian train system. I'm glad to have checked it out; it definitely is a worthwhile experience to seek out. But if you can, get a direct train :)

These last few weeks, I am trying to do all the little things I have not yet done. Yes, some are touristy, some a gift buying, but the main one is finding a Sachin Tendulkar cricket jersey (he is, without argument, the greatest Indian cricketer). So wish me luck with that one...I might have to get it Delhi though.

Anyway, quick update. Sorry for falling behind on these! But I can't wait to catch up with everyone in SA and NC. Hope you are well.

Paul

BTW the pictures is of the people who went on the weekend trip and behind us is gorge that floods during monsoon season. They called it the Indian Grand Canyon...a little bit of a stretch, but it was cool nonetheless.

Life goes on

Here in Udaipur, life is going very well suffice it to say. I know my way around, feel comfortable anywhere in the city, have a rhythm of work and hanging out with other interns...so all in all pretty fantastic. Also, some good news...I confirmed admittance to Wake Forest’s Masters in Counseling program! I am pretty excited about it as counseling is really what I want to do professionally and long term. So I will start (back) at Wake this upcoming fall.

But, besides that good news, many things have been going on. I have been applying for a grant for my NGO, which has been a learning experience, albeit tedious. I will be sending in the grant today (yay!). This past weekend all of the interns had our midterm retreat at a vacation spot called Mt. Abu. The trip went fine - beautiful sites, cool temples - but even being away for a short while made us realize that we really do like Udaipur. You like what you are used to...right?

It’s so hard to believe that I will be heading out of here in two months...time flies for sure. But I really do feel in a good place. I am comfortable living here and there are still a number of things that I want to work on in the NGO. So even though I have my work cut out for me, I am pretty relaxed about it. I just want to give as much as I can to the folks here as I can.

And I am leaving Udaipur a week early in May to travel a little bit before I leave India. I thought coming over here that I could do some weekend trips, but travel just takes so long that it is really not feasible. I’m planning on heading east to Darjeeling and check out some tea plantations. That is really the main destination I would want to see as I love tea and, in general, observing ‘artisan-focused’ agricultural production.

Oh and this weekend is Holi...one of the major celebrations in these parts. The main part of the festivities is throwing florescent-colored powders at each other. Apparently, it can get kinda ridiculous with people mixing ‘other things’ in the colors. So we are staying mainly in our neighborhoods with our host families. Nevertheless, it should be a good time.

Anyway, sorry for the delayed update. I hope all is well with you!

On, zoom, click

Cows, cows, cows. Always in trash too. Odd, but whatever. I've gotten used to it.

A typical 'thali' plate. That is a mixture of different dishes, sauces, dal, and who knows what else. Did I mention it was all you could eat? And, yes, I did eat all I could.

A Hindu temple near one of the satellite offices. Simply gorgeous. Actually, most of the temple is underwater, so when the lake dries up people go into the main part of the complex. Most serene and incredible place I have been to yet.

And so it begins...

As I sit here in the Jatan office thinking about this past week, it has been a whirlwind of events: meeting new people, seeing much of the surrounding area, and getting settled into my host family.

While I have taken in so much at my host NGO, there is still so much to learn about what they do and who they help. Last week, I came into the office and read and read and read. Thankfully, they have many reports and studies which I was able to flip through to understand the organization. Much of the staff also speaks workable English making the transition quite smooth. As most of my time with Jatan will be spent working on a 'project,' from the first day I was keeping my eyes peeled for where I could chip in. Pretty soon it was made apparent that the there was a project I could start working on. Essentially, I will be researching and developing materials to be used for occupational health trainings for the migrant communities. Over the past ten years, Jatan has done much with this population so this project is a natural next step. Granted, I feel very inadequate for this project, but I will give it my best shot! Regardless, it continues to be enlightening as to how this grassroots development work gets implemented in such a locale.

Last week, I was able to go out into the 'field' (ie the satellite communities around Udaipur where Jatan works). In some ways, I feel like I was on a bull back in San Antonio at the rodeo, I was tossed from place to place in the field, jumping on random motorcycles and taken to another office or event. I was able to meet many friendly folks as well as the Jatan staff at the other offices. The color of my skin was also much more apparent than here in the city, ergo I got much more attention. Nevertheless, on Friday I found my way back to Udaipur crammed like a sardine into a government-run bus.

The weekends have been a nice reprieve. The interns placed in Udaipur typically get together and share a meal together and just catch up (ie share funny and frustrating stories of the past week). All in all, this time has been really great so far (minus learning Hindi...that could use some work:/. It's hard to believe I will be here three and a half months, but I know it will fly by. I hope everyone is doing great wherever you are!

Paul

Once I get an improved internet connection, I should be able to put some pictures up.

Greetings from India!

Greetings one and all!

Sometimes experiences live up to expectations and other times they don't. But ideally, expectations are not had, so the experience can forge itself, unabated by hypothetical notions. This has been my approach in coming to India. It is not a place I can neatly put in the context of a past undergraduate class or even a location I can leave to the pontifications of an author or teacher. Not that education would misrepresent or skew my time in India, but I hope to experiment in absorbing all I can without being told to think or even how to think about a topic or issue...yet.

To save you from the wanderings of my thoughts, I will be more explicit about what am currently doing here.

This past week has been the orientation of my/our program in Udaipur. Essentially, I went through orientation with 7 other interns (staying different periods of time with different host NGOs and host families). We we taken through the juggernaut of life in Udaipur and our internship program: Hindi lessons, guest speakers from local NGOs, city tours, and, of course, my favorite eating at a myriad of tasty restaurants. All of the interns seem to get along seamlessly well, all coming from different backgrounds, jobs, schools, parts of the country, etc. I have been given some clarity as to my day-to-day life here. I will be working with Jatan focusing on migration issues. Oddly, NGOs here focus on the other side of migration, the leaving. Rajasthan, the region I am currently in, is plague with many developmental issues (more later) so many people, men and children especially, leave for other regions in search of work. So the challenge is quite multifaceted as services need to be provided and anticipated needs must be addressed. I know little about the 'how's, why's' and other unanswerable questions, but hopefully will be illuminated to them in a small way in the coming weeks.

I have so much to write...but I know if I was reading I would lose interest a few sentences back, so ideally I will update the blog more often and with greater details. But, in short, the food has been nothing short of amazing, the people have been quite kind, unfortunately traveler's diarrhea is a reality, learning the language is presenting itself as my personal nemesis, and my jet lag is all but gone. I have a feeling I am going to get along with this place, once I learn how to effectively get around using a 'tempo' (communal rickshaw/taxi) and constantly remind myself that I did not come here to 'do,' but to 'learn.'

Cheers.
Paul

Btw the picture is in the 'Old City' from the rooftop of our hotel we stayed in the first week.

Leaving soon!

Well, I head out for Udiapur, India on this Thursday and I can feel the swelling of many feelings: anticipation, excitement and hope. The past few weeks I have received much information regarding where I will be staying, the other interns placed throughout the city and the content of the work that I will be doing. While I will be working independently with a non-profit, there will be other interns that will go through orientation with me the first week and I'm sure we will keep in touch during the time there. Nevertheless, most of my time there is still in the realm of the 'unknown.' My hope is that despite the undefined or unclear, I am enabled to beneficently serve the NGO I will be working with and, in turn, the population with whom they serve. In some ways this is an trial in self-reliance, but in other ways it is just the opposite. Relying on God, the talents and abilities I have been blessed with, the goodwill of both my host family and NGO, and the general hospitality of the Indian people are the many parts that will contribute to my experience in Udaipur. Suffice it to say, I will be putting the entirety of who I am into my work there. I can't wait to observe grassroots development from the on-the-ground perspective and have pre/misconceptions overturned. Next update sent will be in India! Also, previous blog posts were from my time working on a farm in Italy this past fall if interested.

This is the NGO that I will be working with: www.jatansansthan.org/

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!

Wine, wine and and a visit to the coast

Ok just to get things out in the open...the past few weeks have been pretty darn epic! Its hard to know where to start. We here goes...
Three weeks ago we headed to Multilpuciano in southern Italy to visit a small brewery there. Fantastic places with tasty brews, Their brewery tour was walking into a room and talking as the brewery was pretty much a large garage. They had an interesting beer that had a bunch of local ingredients and another one was aged with brunello (a tuscan wine). That night we headed to some hot spring pools nearby. The next day I woke up early and went up to Florence with our meat guy here to help sell some of our salumi products at an agrarian festival in the city. It was awesome, albeit very long. I maned the register which actually worked out well as I could practice my italian numbers.

My past work weeks have been filled with preparing for the grape harvest, doing more legna, trimming hedges, and a bunch of other random stuff for sure. But two weeks ago we harvested all of the grapes throughout the week. It is an intense, exhausting process but a bunch of fun because it is really 'all hands on deck' as everyone from that can work the harvest does. Very sticky hands, tons of bees and grape throwing are some of things I am going to remember most.

Then some adventures began...we visited two wineries last Friday, one conventional, one biodynamic. The biodynamic one was true eye-opening...one of my best experiences here. The whole process was utterly fascinating (no additives/sulfites whatsoever...and only natural yeasts from the skins were used). The name of it was Colombaia. I could go on and on about this place. The next day we ventured into Umbria (right east of Tuscany) to visit yet another winery (Paolo Bea) in Montefalco. Coming here this was the only place I had on my docket to visit and it truly lived up to the expectations. He is produces some cult wines that have a large following in the states. Again he is a natural winemaker and he makes wines mostly made with the local sagrantino grape. Here I tried probably the best wine of my life a 2003 Sagrantino Passito (a sweet wine) Then I headed south with a few from the program and visited Naples and the Amalfi Coast. We got to see the bustling parts of Naples, have great pizza, drive on the Amalfi coast and, yes, visit a local winery (Feudi di San Gregorio) It was great to have coastal weather and just get to see a completely different part of Italy.

>>> I am reading this post a few days after writing it (as I accidentally did not post it when I wrote it) and I feel I need to add a bit of perspective on these experiences. Understanding 'why' these places and people had an impact on me is almost more important than the aesthetic beauty of the experiences. The common thread in the winery visits and in much of the labor I do on the farm is that they are united in simplicity. The simplest way possible (albeit most difficult at times) will bring about something that is more beautiful and wonderful than complicated processes. The natural winemakers were somewhat prophetic and fiercely apologetic about the methods which they used. Less is more. During the grape harvest, while it would have been easier with a bunch of machinery, the people to people interactions one has whilst harvest grapes is and will be a solid memory from my time at Spannocchia. The 'hands on' nature of crushing and processing the grapes we are doing in the cantina again is so simple yet wonderful. I look back at the producers we have visited, the food we have tried, the work we have done and the simplicity and astounding beauty of it all is, as the cliche goes, a memory I will never forget. Hard to believe I will be back home in less than a month. I look forward to seeing all!

Today I am kinda taking it easy as I had a little spill yesterday while I was cleaning a tank in the cantina. All is well though! Just banged up my big toe so I'm walking quite tenderly. Maybe some reading and a nap now :)

Ciao, a dopo!

Ok finally another update!

Well, life here has been going great first and foremost. A bunch of work, a ton of information equals tiring yet fulfilling days. Most of my days have been lifting wood, wood and more wood, trimming hedges (i have learned to despise blackberry bushes), pruning olive trees and bottling/labeling wine. All of these have been, like i said, tiring at times but in the end the monotony has almost slowed me down made me realize that farm work at its core is a bunch of small (at time boring and hard) tasks that lead to a very beautiful goal. You can take that and make a schmaltzy life application, but I will let it be. Working on a farm is not some idealized, perfect endeavor...it is difficult and i have a chance to get a taste (for sure, only a taste) of what is like.

My side trips have been fun for sure! Last weekend we headed to Panzano in Chianti. Backup...the week before we went to Volterra..an old walled Etruscan city. Fascinating, charming, but somewhat nostalgic at times. Streets that make you feel as if you are walking in a movie or a book. Of course the day ended tasting some delicious, ethereal wine (Montevertine is a producer worth checking out). Ok, this past weekend. Panzano was a wonderful city as well, but we were not able to see much of it as we were on a mission to see the butcher there. Dario Cecchini. He is one of the most famous butchers period and definitely the most notorious in Italy. Bill Buford apprenticed with him as recorded in Heat. We had a stellar meal there at his restaurant Mac Dario (pun intended). Therefore we were served a bun-less hamburger...which was without a doubt the best hamburger i have ever had. After many drinks and 'digestivos' (the italians excuse for having after meal drinks is saying they are 'good for digesting'...i'll buy it:) Then we meandered over to a winery, Le Cinciole (again worth checking out), and it was pretty perfect as well. I organized this winery trip for our group and it was a stab in the dark of sorts but totally worth it. We got to try their whole spectrum of wines and it truly affirmed their identity as an under-the-radar, mind-blowing Chianti Classico producer. Chianti is an easy region to hate (b/c of a number of reasons) but they truly put out wines that embraced terroir and focused on the potential and perfumed nature of sangiovese. Anyway, I digress.

This weekend's adventures involve a trip to Multilpuciano to visit a brewery there and to see another old Tuscan town.

Oh and by the way we are harvesting the grapes next week. No big deal. Ok it is.

here is a short list of things i have learned here this past week (in NO way all inclusive):
1) in the morning hearing my supervisor mention the word 'legna' means i will be tossing wood around all day (it is italian for wood)
2) make sure you put water in the pot when making coffee on the stove (you think i should have learned by now)
3) Salami Dolce is one of the best things ever (its a chocolate fridge cake dessert)... phenomenally delicious and contrary to the name, no meat
4) learning languages is difficult. Enough said.
5) I was the best in class at making orecchiette! its a awesome pasta btw.

Ok until next time! Ciao. Hope all of you are well!

Week One on the Farm!

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to send a quick update before dinner and some wine on the terrace (can't miss that!)...

The week has been great kinda getting into the swing of things here on the farm. For the most part our days are full of various different work activities with some afternoons being 'informational'. We have started language lessons although I am very intimidated still by the language. This past few days have been filled with lifting logs (a lot of logs), some pruning of the vines getting them ready for harvest in a month or month and a half, and some bottling of last years wine in the cantina. It has been great switching from task to task as a get a bit of ADD when stuck doing the same thing. Tomorrow we have the day off and are going to a artisanal, small pasta maker in Greve (Chianti) and a vineyard in the afternoon. I know kinda ridiculous. I will take notes for sure, as my first attempt awhile back at homemade pasta was a pretty epic failure.

All in all the people here are great. The people in the program, while all different, have interesting points of connection...passions, past jobs, etc.

Highlights this week:
1) Last night's dinner which included (all homemade of course):
Bruschetta
Lasagna
Venison braised with chocolate and pine nuts (crazy right?)
Coffee Gelato! - Delicious
Limoncello

2) Trail runs around Spannocchia

3) Ongoing sustainable food/gastronomic conversations and debates

4) Slowly finding my rhythm here

Anyway, just wanted to toss out a quick update! All is well over here!
Forgive the bad grammar and misspellings as I am not proofing this as I am paying by minute :/

More later...I miss you all and can't wait to touch base as I can!

Day One...check

Greetings from Siena!

I have officially one day under my belt over here. In summation: got here around midday local time after the gautlet of international travel (long flights, not much sleep, a lot of adrenaline). I flew into Florence grabbed my bag and then on my way out an intimidating Italian police officer stopped me and asked me a bunch of questions to which i probably only replied completely honestly to one: what's your nationality. The others I kinda stretched the truth as to not raise any other unwelcome questions.

Thankfully on the bus into Florence I met a girl that is in my program as I saw her looking over the same info sheets I had. Hopped on the bus to Siena, fumbled our way to the hostel and slowly met the other interns as they trickled into the city. Great group of folks btw.

Then we headed out to dinner and the gastronomic endeavors began.
Suffice it to say I am no longer a vegetarian. 5 animals, one meal, no joke. Rabbit, wild boar, chicken liver pate, beef livers, salami and other cured meats. My stomach is a bit thrown off course right now...but the vernaccia, chianti and vin santo all helped in the digestion :) It was worth it and the conversation around the table was truly amazing, so much food talk, as these other folks are very knowledgable in their own ways about a section of the food world (anything from butchery, behind the scenes in the restaurant, commercial agriculture, etc). Eating meat is something I will always have a sort of uneasiness about especially in the states and, in general, commercially but, 'when in Rome' (or Siena)...

After dinner we walked the city and enjoyed the cool night air (as well as some awesomely bad Italian impressions of the beach boys)

Today will probably include more sightseeing, then we head out to the farm this afternoon. Hopefully this is one update of many sporadic ones... Not sure about the whole Internet situation at the farm... But thankfully the lady at the hostel let me use it here.

tap to edit

Leaving tomorrow!

I board a plane for Italy in less than 24 hours! Still trying to work on all of the logistical stuff and hopefully will have everything in line for tomorrow. For those who I have not talk about this with I will explain a bit of what I will be doing over the next 3 months. I, along with 7 other interns, will be working on the Spannocchia farm in central Italy. It is both an educational program as well as a, well, a 'work for your keep' program. In other words, during most days I will be performing various tasks on the farm where needed(in the vineyard and gardens, with animals, etc.) and also being taught different crafts along the way. This farm is a beacon of sorts in regards to sustainable farming: people travel here to learn, be taught in older ways of producing food and food traditions. They truly focus on be a self-sufficient operation, in that, what the farm produces sustains life for the people staying there. Spannocchia is also a small hotel and conference center which allows different international folks to and take a peak at what is going on here. Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what things are going to look like in Italy as I'm, in fact, still in Texas now, but hopefully I can update every so often letting family and friends in on what I am doing. Feel free to check out Spannocchia's website for more info: http://www.spannocchia.org/

Now back to packing!