Go to Field!
on Margaret Campbell's Rambles (India), 03/Oct/2009 06:55, 34 days ago
 A very tardy update here. Somehow, after a long day in this beautiful steamy climate, the last thing I want to do is fire up a hot laptop and keep typing, especially as this blog interface is vey kludgy, you can't put captions on pictures or arrange them at all, and I have to work over dial up (whine, whine, whine.) But on the other hand, isn't it amazing that I can share my life so vividly over 12,000 miles in mintues (theoretically - this blog update took about 3 hours and I had already written most of the text!) As I write, I still do not have permanent lodgings so I'm staying in kind of a hallway room with a bed and a plastic chair and my clothes hanging from the twine that keeps my mosquito net aloft. It's pretty ugly, really. After work I sit on my bed to read or work and so my laptop really is in my lap. And hot.But today is a holiday and it's breezy and cool - winter is coming on - so I have no excuse! The second week after I arrived we hosted some of our funders on a trip to the field, which means the villages we support through building community based organizations that agitate for land, work and food rights that are guaranteed under India's constitution but are very often not delivered to the rural poor. Why? Mostly corruption, apathy, ineffectiveness. The founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy, says that India is chronically prone to"MAFA - mistaking articulation for accomplishment." Brilliant. India has fantastic laws - absolutely intends the right things - but very poor implementation. Remember when we were kids and people used to say"clean your plate because the children are starving in India"? Well, they're still starving, but India has a food surplus and in fact will soon be a major food exporter. But it cannot get the food to the families that are starving here in Orissa and elsewhere. Last month the mother and two children of a family near here died of starvation/malaria. The father was crippled on the job - no workman's comp - so he couldn't work. The family farmed a small plot but agriculture here is strictly rain fed - no irrigation - and it only rains July - September. This time of year is really tough in the rural areas because they have one crop of rice (and some other grains and vegetables) during monsoon so at this time all their food resources are depleted from last year and they won't harvest until November/December. There were food rations available in the district, but the family didn't get them because of bureaucratic stuff and didn't get health care because the clinics are too far away and they didn't have transportation. It's monsoon so there's major mud and mosquitoes and malaria is rampant here. All these issues are really typical and widespread, not just one family's tragedy. Wow, how do you fix all this stuff? India is a charming, lumbering, lovable, frustrating beast of a nation (and I love it.) But… back to the field visit. We were escorting the Danish Church Association (DCA) fundraisers. They were interested in seeing how my NGO, SPREAD, helps improve food security for the rural poor. Both villages we visited each had about 30 mud and thatch houses and about 100 inhabitants. One had a two-room primary school with 60 enrolled children and one teacher (he moves between one room and the other - luckily for him the children are very well-behaved and only a few show up for class) and the children of the other walked about 3 Km to attend school.          I can’t say how lovely it was to meet the people we work for. We were so late that the people of the first village had gone to their work for the day so we had to wait for them to return upon our arrival. But while the DCA folks went on a tour of the village I pulled out my two HP folding Frisbees andplayed with the kids. What a great idea it was to bring those. They don’t fly like a real Frisbee at all – the slightest puff of wind sends them wheeling – but the ability to have them in my tote at all times is fantastic. I also carry a bouncy ball but that is not as good a tool for engagingothers as the Frisbees. The kids in the first village were scared of us white people and ran away, but I hid behind a tree and started goofing around with them and once I got the Frisbees going they got right into the groove. Eventually I got them to have a picture with me. And I got the teen aged boys to play and some of the older men as well. I had a ball. When we did introductions, I did mine in Oriya and the crowd broke out in cheers! I was sitting next to a man who was apparently a village leader and he either blessed me or gave me a high five. Is there any difference really?       The purpose of the visit was to show off the grain banks SPREAD has helped implement, review the mapping work that the villagers are doing to acquire rights to the land they have farmed for hundreds of years, and have a discussion with the villagers about what they see as their issues. Of course the meetings took place in Oriya, so I can't understand anything but body language and expression, but these guys are so talented. In the first village they had the most beautiful map. Their mud huts are often beautifully decorated and some of the folks were really talented speakers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         We arrived at the second village and were greeted us in traditional fashion by placing flowers around our necks and sticking turmeric-stained rice on our foreheads. They had a canopy set up and kind of a dias and speeches were made, both on our side and on theirs. This village is one that has won entitlement to 63,000 acres of cashew trees to be handed over to them this year. This after 50 years of struggle. I’m becoming a socialist! It brought tears to my eyes to see both the male village leaders and three women in particular stand up before the group and “testify!” I don’t know what they said, but I could see that all SPREAD has added is some needed knowledge and skills. These people can standup for themselves! The thing is, they have been treated unfairly, and because they have an oral culture and have been hoodwinked by unscrupulous actors in the dominant culture they need some support. They are awesome.                    Check out the pictures below and watch for my next blog entry - what I love about India.