The project begins...sorta

I made my first visit to Swaraj Ashram on Monday. It’s my community partner for my SOL project. There’s a residential school at the ashram for 8^th – 10^th grade tribal girls and I was originally going to be looking at factors that motivate these girls to attend high school. After going through the annoying IRB process, it turns out I’ll have to significantly change my project. My adviser is not responding to my e-mails, so I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing here for the next 2 months. Fortunately, I brought a camcorder and a lot of miniDVs, so I suppose I can keep making small documentaries if all else fails.

It’s a little strange coming to the Ashram everyday. I was born in Bardoli – the town I’m working in – so a lot of people seem to know me. The cute-but-scary woman who is in charge the school, Niranjana Kalarthi (I call her Niranjana mummy), is probably in her 70s. She keeps mentioning how my mom used to bring me to her after I was born and she used to play with me. I’ve heard the same thing from at least 3 other people who regularly visit Niranjana mummy and they’re in awe of how big I am now.

Everyone seems to know Niranjana mummy, including the state’s governor. She worked with Sardar Patel, who worked side-by-side with Gandhi in the independence movement, and has now devoted herself to activism and the school. Most activists, historians, and politicians – especially in the state – seem to know her and during the three days I’ve been at the ashram, she’s been visited by a LOT of people.

The school doesn’t start until next week, but 10^th grade girls have started classes since they have a big exam at the end of the year. I sat in one of their social studies classes and it was fairly amusing. The lesson was about Indian heritage and why the country is the best in the world when it comes to its culture, both social and political. One of the reasons was the fact that India has never waged a war against another nation. As for the other reasons, my Gujarati isn’t good enough to understand.

The best part about the class was that the instructor kept referring to ideas or things that the girls would understand. All the girls come from various villages and grew up in really rural traditions. So, the teacher would refer to differences between how they would eat and how a Brahmin would eat. I didn’t appreciate her differentiating between castes, especially given that the school runs on Gandhian principles, but the girls didn’t seem to mind. They kept laughing throughout.

The teacher also told them about how India is advancing in population and will soon move past china, but this is nothing to be proud off. She then drilled into their heads that the best, most economically sound thing to do when they grow older is to have only one child as opposed to seven.

Aside from providing progressive education, there are absolutely no servants in the school. So the girls wake up at 5 am, clean the school, make breakfast, attend school, do homework, and go to bed by 10 pm. Niranjana mummy says this will prepare them to be independent, no matter where they go in the future. It’s tough, but she’s definitely right.

A few random thoughts:

1. I had mango corn flakes for breakfast! They have everything mango here. They were pretty good; just a little too sweet.
   
2. I finally did get that mango doughnut. It was DELICIOUS. They guy at the debit card counter recognized me and laughed at me...again.
   
3. I've finally gotten used to the heat and sweating right as I get out of the shower doesn't bother me anymore.
   
4. I had a staring contest with a cow on the street yesterday. The cow won.