Closure?

I wish I had written a cohesive blog post upon my return to America when my India project ended, but unfortunately I did not. So instead I would like to redirect anyone reading to my teammate Bronson's blog: http://changethroughbusiness.com/?p=61

His blog post pretty much encompasses every accomplishment of our project, but more importantly it captures every emotion I felt.

Since August I have been writing a 'how I've changed/culture shock' entry that I hope to post sometime in the near future. But until then, read Bronson's blog post because it is amazing!

7 Days of Giving

This is a really cool idea:
http://7daysofgiving.blogspot.com/

You all should read this blog and participate by doing random acts of kindness! I'm going to try!

An open mind is the gateway for learning

July 16, 2009

I wrote an email to a friend and it turned into an expression of many things that I have learned this summer, so I thought I would share it on my blog:

“I finally feel proud of myself for what I am doing here and it feels pretty good. I am just happy to know that what I am doing is actually making a difference and affecting the people here.

I can't say India is one of my favorite places, but this summer sure has taught me a bunch of life lessons. All the kids on my program are very different and that makes our group as a whole very special. We have business men and engineers, and environmentalists and "energy" believers. Because of the variety of personalities in our group, I have learned to mold my mind to be more open to new people and new ideas.

One boy on my program taught me that the only way to be truly content is to have unconditional love for everything and everyone. At first I thought this was ridiculous because there are people that I just don’t like, and don’t think its worth my time to put up with them - but I have decided to try to find the best in every person so that my life is full of love instead of dislike and I hope that this recognition of kindness can spread to those around me. I think this is an easy decision for me to make here, where I am basically only exposed to the same 20 people everyday, but once I go back to LA this life style will be much harder to practice. I would love you to help me continue to live like this by not gossiping around me or pointing out negative aspects of people to me (not that you do this particularly, but it was definitely part of my lifestyle pre-summer).

I have also come to realize that the ego is a pointless part of humanity and once we rid ourselves of it then good deeds will be done for the sake of good deeds instead of for gaining credit for something. I learned that it really doesn’t matter how or who gets something done, as long as it gets done – this is what brings happiness into the world.”

Writing this email not only helped me express myself and verbalize what is going on in my head, but it also made me realize how much I am truly learning this summer. My experience this summer doesn’t have to do with just one thing or another – providing clean water to poor people or teaching young children about health and sanitation – but instead it has to do with the network of how everything fits together. The people I have met, the new culture I have been introduced to, the work I have done, and spirituality that I have experienced have coalesced to form one hell of a summer for me.

A Feeling of Accomplishment

July 11, 2009
Today is the first day that I feel truly proud of what I am doing here in Hubli.

The education program that I have been setting up for the past five weeks finally commenced today. We have 17 volunteers from The Women’s College that are split up into groups to teach at four different primary schools. This morning each of the groups went to their respective primary schools and spent an hour introducing themselves and playing games with the kids to get to know them before they start teaching the health and sanitation curriculum next Saturday. I went with one of the groups and sat in the back of the classroom and watched.


The children’s faces had huge smiles for the whole hour that the five volunteers were standing in front of the class. The volunteers asked the kids to tell jokes, what their favorite hobbies are and made sure that the kids were respectful (all in Kannada of course, but I could still understand what was going on). When it was over the volunteers told me that the kids didn’t want them to leave and that the kids said they would be waiting for them next Saturday. The volunteers were so delighted by their experience.

I took the bus back to the Women’s College with the girls and I ran into some of the other volunteers and asked them how their mornings went at the primary schools. Luxmi told me that she had a great time. Only half of her group showed up, but she was fine with that because it meant that she got to talk to the kids more. Sarala, a volunteer from another group, could not stop thanking me for setting her up with the primary school she was at. She said that the kids were so cute and she just wanted to pinch their cheeks. The head master of the school asked if she and her group would come teach a class everyday of the week for them! Sarala and her group were all smiles and could not stop raving about their morning.

Seeing all of these girls so happy to be helping kids that really need it just warmed my heart. The kids need these positive role models in their life to inspire them to go to college and to show them that learning can be fun. The lesson plans have lots of games and interactive activities so that the kids get really into it. I can’t wait to watch the volunteers begin teaching during my last few weeks here. I can tell that they are really going to make a different in these kids’ lives.

Some Comments

Finally found some American-ish pizza! Yay for giving our tummies a little break from Indian food. At this restaurant, Snow Ball, we ordered pizza, expecting to receive what we got last time we saw "pizza" on the menu, which was some type of bread with some type of ketchup tasting sauce and a little bit of grilled peppers.


As a environmentalist, it is hard for me to live in a place where people do not have respect for their surrounding environment. I went on a run this morning past a lake and saw an awful lot of trash floating in brown water. I also had the pleasure of seeing two different people pooping in an empty lot and on the side of the road. I am going to add a lesson plan to our curriculum here about the health and overall benefits of respecting the place in which you live.

Back on the Bus

June 20, 2009

Today I had a meeting at KIMS College in Dharwad, the “sister city” of Hubli. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long so I brought along my i-pod and hit play on my “Bus Ride to Tel Aviv” playlist from last year. When I lived in Holon, the bus into Tel Aviv took up to 40 minutes and I commuted at least twice a week. The tunes flowing into my ears made me nostalgic of my year in Israel. I remember countless bus rides that took me across the country, from one body of water to another or from one city to the next. I learned to love these bus rides and took advantage of enjoying the constantly changing scenery out my window. Yesterday I kept my eyes glued to the side of the road liked I learned to do last year. I was absorbing all that I was seeing and learning about the area in which I currently live. I watched as we went through little slum areas into blank green fields, past fruit stands and tailoring shops. My ear buds kept the cacophony of horns and whistles from the city out of my ears and allowed me to peacefully enjoy 45 minutes of India.

Dharwad is beautiful. There are more trees and less trash than in Hubli. As we walked through part of the 700 acres (!) of the KIMS college campus, we were happy to see large clean buildings, a myriad of tree species, and trash cans (public trash cans are oddly hard to find in this country). Out of the forty or so college students we presented to, we successfully recruited seventeen volunteers and three Volunteer Leaders to teach our health and sanitation curriculum at a primary school during the coming year. Getting twenty volunteers to sign up is fabulous news because we were only expecting about ten! Volunteering in India is not popular like it is in America; it’s not a resume builder here. This is quite unfortunate because there are so many people in India who need help. Because we were only expecting 10, we might have to find a second primary school in the Dharwad area for the college students to teach at, which is definitely not bad news!

I had a great Saturday and am looking forward to my one day off per week – Sunday Funday baby!


Boys we met downtown who were playing cricket in an alley way. They tried to teach us the rules of the game in broken english and invited us to play with them!


Girls who I hung out with while we watched the boys play cricket.


Cows are everywhere and they are BOSS - they can chill in the middle of the street and no one will touch them. I saw one hanging out right in the doorway to a store downtown, completely blocking the entry way, but he is a cow, so it doesn't matter. :)

My Morning Schedule

June 6, 2009

Monsoon season has officially started. As Alex John, Jen, Krishnan, Alex N., and Bronson and I left the boys guest house last night to go out to dinner, we felt the first of many rain drops fall on our heads for the summer. It was a very light rain, that Krishnan said was a deceiving preview to what would soon be thunder and lightening storms with horizontal rain due to heavy winds. During the monsoon season we are to expect about four hours of cumulative power outage throughout each day – fifteen minutes here and there.

My typical morning has been roughly the following: My roommate Jen and I wake up at 5:50am – usually without an alarm. Our remarkably early rise is only possible because we started this routine the morning after we got here, so when we adjusted to the time difference and shedded our jet lag, immediately forcing ourselves to wake up early told our bodies that 5:50 was the normal time to wake up. If only our bodies knew the truth ;). That being said, I love this change in the schedule of my day. At 6:15am, before the small city of Hubli wakes up, we walk from the Ladies Hostle to the boys Guest House. This has come to be my most favorite time of day. I don’t have to fear for my life when crossing the street and there are less people out and about (people who blatantly stare at us because we look different).
At 6:30am our “counselor,” Rahul leads us in a relaxing session of yoga.
The empty street on my morning walk:


After the early morning I have some down time before the Indian work day starts (usually 10am). I make oatmeal for breakfast and read or go online. I often find myself with nothing to do, which I am definitely not used to. I don’t think I have ever really had a designated block of free time everyday. I think it will be relaxing and good for me.

The arrival

June 3, 2009

After about two days of travel time and time change, I have finally made it to my destination: Hubli, India.

This India is very unlike the India I remember from last year, and to those who know how my trip went last year, that is a very good thing. Hubli reminds me much more of Uganda than it does of Mumbai or Delhi. People walk along dirt lined streets scattered with motorcyclists, buses, trucks, and rickshaws. Unlike the big cities I was in last year, Hubli is not too crowded; there is room for personal space and less poverty stricken children roaming the streets. The climate is quite tropical – although it is very hot, there are light winds that relieve some of the heat. The air is heavy and it is obvious that monsoon season is approaching.

My dormitory is mostly what I expected. I live in a small room with one roommate and we have our own bathroom. The women’s hostel does not allow men into the building and requires its residents to be back in the building every night at 7:30 – yup, I have a 7:30pm curfew! And no internet to go with it. But this might be the catalyst to the start of a new schedule for myself. I can go to bed early and then wake up with the sun and meditate and do yoga with the local Indians.

The Women's dorm is pictured above (my mom said welcome to a country where women are 2nd class citizens, true true).

The boys dormitory, on the other hand, was just finished being built. The rooms here are spacious and there is a lounge with free wireless. The walk over here is about 15 minutes from the women’s dormitory, so I have a feeling that I will be spending most of my free time during the day here instead of at the women’s dormitory.

The Boys guest house is pictured above.

The orientation for my program is on June 8th, so I have the next few days to adjust to the time difference, which is 12 and a half hours later than California time, and get to know the city of Hubli. That being said, the rest of my team is supposed to arrive tonight, so starting tomorrow we are supposed to get started on our project.

I think that is enough of a little introduction for now. We are headed out into town this evening to look around a bit, so I will soon have a sense of what Hubli is like.

I have arrived

I'm here!
more to come!

Time To Travel Again

This summer I will be spending ten weeks in Southern India working on a water quality and health project. In February 2009, several USC students submitted various grant proposals to the Deshpande Foundation in India (associated with the Stevens Institute for Innovation at University of Southern California). The proposal that I wrote along with 1 other student was chosen for funding (flights, living, program expenses are paid for).

Here is some information on what I am doing, and more info to come:

USC Hubli Water and Health Project: Mission
This is a compiled work put together by the USC Team. We hope that it gives our support team better insight to what we desire to accomplish during our time in Hubli.


The World Health Organization has reported that 88% of the 1.8 million deaths resulting from diarrhea can be attributed to unsafe water or inadequate hygiene or sanitation. Unfortunately, a significant population in the city of Hubli, India is victim to these causes, and isn't even aware of it.

The USC Hubli Water and Health Team is in Hubli this summer to continue a project that was started last year with aim to improve the previously mentioned statistics in the community. Their team of three members (Nina Gordon-Kirsch, Alex John, and Bronson Chang), visiting from the University of Southern California in the United States, has evaluated last summer’s work and is ready to improve and expand the project to help the under-served community of S.M. Krishna Nagar. Over the course of the next year the Team will employ local college students to maintain the program and monitor the efficiency of the Team’s water purification technology. Subsidizing the cost for those living within this community, the Team will be providing state-of-the-art purification systems at affordable prices, creating an important sense of ownership and empowerment for the owners of these important devices. The Team will also train a resident(s) of Hubli to be able to order new filters and replacement parts, as well as provide information about the water filters to the local community.

The Team likewise desires to build awareness within the local community about the need to drink purified water. While the source of water they currently receive from the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) is filtered, sewage leakage or the poor management of waste often contaminates drinking water on its way. While the water from these pipes or the bore wells may look clean, it can be hazardous to drink. Even water contained in holding tanks on vehicles which visit the community is by no means guaranteed to be of sufficient, purified quality. The tanks carrying the water are rarely cleaned and the taps through which the water is dispersed may easily be contaminated. Families must be aware that the water they are provided is harmful to their health and is also a catalyst for breeding mosquitoes carrying malaria and other transferable diseases. Local reports have proven this, as communities in the past have fallen victim to water-related illnesses as a result of their consumption of unclean water. The USC Team hopes to shed light on this threatening issue, as confronting the challenge of dirty drinking water is a "gateway" step towards achieving measured, sustainable improvements in a wide array of serious health related issues. Through education at key points of community influence and the measured introduction of new technologies that encourage responsibility over simply charity, the Team will use its time in Hubli to affect change that is both scalable and sustainable.


India here I come!