The man who picked us up at the airport is amazing. His name is David, but we called him a range of names including Dr. David, Dr. S, and others (we thought he was a Dr., but found out later that's not quite right. I'm still not sure...) He's working with Ravi (who I'll get to later) to spread word about the issues facing the Dalit population in Andhra Pradesh. He knows a lot about Indian politics and how to work the system. During the trip, he shared a lot about his experiences and expressed his frustration at the rampant corruption. For example, apparently, politicians bought a lot of land around the location of the new airport before the location was announced. Then, after the public was notified, they sold the land for over 100 times what they had purchased it for. This sort of thing is common in Indian politics.
We arrived at our hotel (hotel #5 for those keeping count), wandered around Hyderabad in search of the post office and snacks for the train, had dinner, and went to bed. This was the only night that we shared a room between three people. Jon (the final member of our group) arrived in Hyderabad at some point in the night, so we met him the next morning. Then we boarded the train for our 7-hour train ride. Luckily, it went by fairly quickly. I taught Jon and Dr. S how to make origami cranes and we gave them away to the children behind us.
I expected the trains in India to be fairly crowded, loud, and dirty, but luckily it wasn't so bad. Ravi booked us seats in the air conditioned car since we were traveling in the morning, and it was definitely worth the extra money. However the ac was so strong that Emma was cold. The economy class cars looked to be more along the lines of what I imagined riding a train in India to be, but safer. There were guys hopping on and off the train as it was moving, and others were sitting with their legs dangling off the sides. Apparently, it's now illegal to ride on the roof of a train.
We arrived in Eluru in the afternoon, checked into hotel #6, dropped the luggage, and went out to the village for the first time. Since we were intercepting the previous group as they were leaving, they combined our opening ceremony with their closing ceremony. The ladies of the previous group looked lovely in their saris, the boys looked handsome, and everyone had children all over them. We also finally met Ravi (but I'll talk more about him later). The ceremony was great, a dancer started by performing for us, then three of the boys danced for us as well. Then the usual speeches (in English and Telugu), from Ravi and the village leaders thanking the first group and welcoming us, from Anna, the leader of the first group, and from Emma. Then we had a big dance party before Ravi herded us away from the kids and into the cars so the other group could make their train. I love my group, but the group before us seemed fantastic. They were energetic, friendly, and pretty crazy. I half wish the groups were combined, but the other half of me knows that I would not have had the same intimate experience if the group was that big. However, try to imagine this: ten people in a standard SUV singing Disney songs (and listening to someone make up rhymes about the passengers) for an hour in the middle of the Indian countryside under a clear, starry sky. It was amazing.
The next morning, we slathered ourselves with sunscreen and insect repellant and were ready for our first work day. Unfortunately, Emma had been feeling ill since Jaipur, so Ravi decided it would be better for her to stay and rest for the first day. So our driver, Sauna, Jon, Ravi, Sagar, and I headed out to the village.
Ravi may be the most compassionate man I've ever met. He's incredibly devoted to his cause no matter what the cost. He used to work for an NPO in Hyderabad, but left the organization because of a conflict in ideals. The NPO was working to help people who had nowhere or insufficient places to live, but required repayment over several years. As a result, the poorest people were shut out of the system. Ravi left behind a stable salary (even a low NPO salary) to help the poorest people. His current project is focused on building homes and he has also implemented a program to improve nutrition in the second village we visited (I'll get to that later). Long-term, his main goal is to improve the livelihood of the people in these villages. Many of them are brought up to think that they are worthless and "untouchable," and Ravi's main work is trying to convince people that they are not. The main purpose of bringing volunteers from Japan to work in the villages is not for the actual work. The villagers are more than capable (and far better than us). We were there to send the message that they matter so much that people from around the world travel all the way to their tiny village for them. Sagar is his right-hand man, like the Kronk to Ravi's Ezma (I'm sure there's a better comparison, but I can't think of one right now. They also reminded me of Bert and Ernie, but in personality, not relationship).
Anyway, we spent the day tossing bricks and passing cement on metal trays. Around 12:30, we stopped for lunch (rice, chapatis, three slices each of tomato, carrot, and cucumber, and two types of curry at every meal). Ravi encouraged us to lie down and take a nap since it was extremely hot in the middle of the day. At first we rested for about 2.5 hours, but as the days went on, we became too popular. The boys were always yelling for Jonathan to play volleyball with them, and the girls liked making me look beautiful.
In all honesty, the days sort of run together, so from here I'll give you highlights from the four days we spent working in Gummalapadu Village.
Tossing Bricks and other things:
At first I was awesome at tossing bricks to the workers. However, after the first day, I kinda sucked. We also experimented with tossing other things. Some, such as water bottles, became useful and common while we were working. Others, such as trays of concrete, didn't work out so well. Jon tried to toss a tray to one of the workers and merely suceeded in showering everyone around him with concrete. I didn't even try tossing concrete after I accidentally dumped a tray of it on someone's feet while only passing it.
Telugu:
The language of the villagers is Telugu. Most people (myself included) have never heard of this language, even though it's spoken by over 70 million people. The reason for this is it's spoken primarily in southern India, and rarely found in other countries. Many of the villagers spoke a few words of English, but conversation was limited to whose house we were working on, children, siblings, and "whatisyourname?" Emma sent us a sheet of useful Telugu phrases and words before we left, so I had a chance to attempt learning a little before we arrived. I learned that "na" means me and "mi" means you. This saved us some confusion when the kids pointed at us and said "mi name?" I had also learned "wandanamuru" which means "thank you." On our first day at the village, I learned one new word. "Aradi pandu" means banana. It's not as easy as it sounds. Telugu is full of retroflexive vowels that sound the same as regular vowels to native English speakers. The next day I learned how to count to 10. Suriya, the guy who taught me, was awesome. We spent hours counting (I taught him Japanese), and otherwise conversing primarily with the words/phrases "good boy," "bad boy," "dance," "sing," and "lover" (he was also quite the romantic... he had a necklace with his "lover's" name around his neck. He was also super excited about marrying her the following year.) After I mastered those numbers, I started learning animals, and other fruits (mamorikaya pandu means mango). Ravi told me that I could become fluent in Telugu in 6 months, but he's also trying to recruit an English teacher.
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