07/17

20:52 (writing this on 07/19)

Appreciation. I had only until noon-ish until I had to leave the village. When I woke up, I did not want to think about leaving. I knew that I was leaving a place that welcomed me with open arms and treated me as their own. Man, I hate good-byes.

I woke up at 6:30 AM to prepare for an interview with the Sarpanch, the village local leader, and the Village Revenue Assistant. Although my body screamed exhaustion, I had to get up and get ready. By 7:25, we left our rooms and went to the ICRISAT office.

One of my other biggest barriers with my trip was the interview itself. Sometimes, many people would speak on behalf of the interviewee and distract them. I only wanted the perspectives of my interviewee, no one else. By the time I was half-way done with my interview with the VRA, the Sarpanch came by and I decided to interview both of them at the same time. The Sarpanch knew more information compared to the VRA, so the VRA pretty much agreed with the Sarpanch. I think I should have just conduceted them as separate interviews, but I needed to respect their time because it was Ramjan on Saturday, and they had important business. Nonetheless, both male leaders provided me with essential information about the creation of SHGs, the progress of the groups, their financial matters and their impact in the entire village. SHGs are such a brilliant government project because it gives women that do not have access to money, an opportunity to become financially-aware and financially-stable. Slowly, families support their wives because SHGs build more money and they provide an abundant amount of benefits. Then, the entire village have families that are empowered to elevate themselves from poverty into prosperity.

Photo with the Sarpanch and the VRA. 

After our last interviews, Pallavi, Swathi and Shankar gave me a tour of the ICRISAT office. We spent twenty minutes on the rooftop talking about our experience in the village. I even recorded their responses and those made me appreciate my time in the village. We all shared the same love for the people of Dokur. Maybe, that was why the trip was so successful and productive!

I visited the hospital and school with only four hours to spare. The diet in rural village is predominantly paddy. Many of the villagers have huge stomachs and scrawny arms and legs because they were malnutritioned. And many of them were also tested for STDs, malaria, and UTIs. The clinic charged each villager RS 15-20 per check-in. But, apparently, 30% of the villagers did not utilize the clinic because they did not believe that they were helpful. Instead, they would use more of their money to get check-ups in private hospitals because they provide more medications. The lack of education in the village regarding health has led many of the women to spend/invest their SHG loans on health reasons. Although there is a clinic that practically provides free check-ins and connections with Hyderbad hospital, many villagers are still reluctant in utilizing that resource.

After a very informative time in the clinic, we took a mini tour of the school. Unfortunately, the school was closed due to the Ramjan holiday. But, I was able to hangout with the kids after the school visit.

I love kids' curiosity. All of them were very interested in the videos and photos on my phone. I even taught Venella how to use my phone and navigate through the photos. Sometimes they would name some of the things that they recognized like goat, houses and etc. I wished that I understood them and spent more time with them in the village. The kids really put colors in Dokur.

Photo with my favorite kids.

Before we left the village, we ate gifts and gave gifts to our landlady and Yadamma, our cook. 

Photo with our landlady.

I am definitely going to miss village food. Yadamma even cooked me two omelettes because she knew how much I loved eggs!

This might be an over exaggeration, but the eggs she cooked were probably the best that I have had (or maybe I have just been egg-deprived).

Photo with Yadamma.

After lunch, I put my luggage in the car and said my good-byes to my other family. A bunch of the women that I met gathered around our car to say goodbye. I nearly teared up when they did that. Look, these women only knew me for 3 and 1/2 days but they took the time out of their day to send me off. I gave them warm hugs and left. It's never a good-bye but a see-you later.