Field Visits!

This has got to be one of the coolest most intriguing jobs I have ever had. I am doing market research out in the field for three weeks for the micro energy program. The short term goal of this research is to find the best areas where we will launch our pilot programs. Despite the constant traveling I have to do for the research, I love this work and could do this type of work all the time (assuming I get to have a rock star team)!

Last week I was in Kerala, this week I am in Maharashtra (Central India), and next week I will be in Tamil Nadu (Southern India, state next to Kerala). These are the three zones that ESAF provides services in. We want to launch pilot programs in all three zones which is why I am traveling to all of these areas now.

To give you a brief intro on the structure. Each zone has a number of branches (i.e. Kerala has 91 branches) and each branch has self-help groups (SHGs) that they manage (i.e one branch might have 230+ groups, and another branch might have 100 or less depending on how new they are and what area they're in). Each group has anywhere from 10-30 members (these are the micro loan borrowers who are all women). Each branch has field officers who five days a week go out to all of the groups to collect the loan payments from the self-help groups. Each field officer on average visits 5-6 groups per day. This comes to an average of 100-200 members per day that they visit! Much respect to the field officers. This is a special group of people who can do this type of work!

Now that you have this in mind, my research consists of going out into the field with the field officers (along with my translator and driver) and conducting focus groups at each of the SHGs. I give a brief intro, ask the group questions related to their energy use, introduce the products and do demos and then ask them to rate the products from most to least important.

In doing this type of work, I've learned that a smile goes a long way. I've also learned that having a translator who loves this type of work, really enjoys being with people, is outgoing and personable, and has a curious mind is the best fit for this type of job. My translator in Kerala was exactly this and he was invaluable to the research. Between him, the driver (who is an expert at dodging around in the traffic AND getting us to places on time), and myself we had a rock star team! I wish I could take them everywhere with me when doing this research. I am in Central India now and will start my field research tomorrow with a different translator and driver and I'm sure my experience will be just as rich as my experience in Kerala was.

We met with several SHGs here. Not all the members were present but there were several representatives from about four different groups.

This is me, my translator and some of the SHG members. We gave our presentation two times this day in front of about 125 people both times! It was an exhilarating and energizing experience!

The most fascinating part about this part of my job is the insight I am getting on the culture, people, local living, and the conditions many of the poor and marginalized communities in this country live with. The women who I have met in these groups have been open, welcoming, and sincere. The questions in the focus groups generally spark some conversation and this is where I get to learn the insights about the culture on a more personal level. My translator of course helps describe the details to me. This experience as a whole is both eye opening and humbling. It's also an opportunity to meet people and experience parts of the country that I would never see (at least not in this capacity).

For me, getting to be a part of improving a family's way of living and getting to experience their reactions and understand their needs are part of what makes this job so fulfilling. Reading case studies and stories about this kind of work is one thing, but it does not even compare to being a part of it on the ground.

I'm in!

On the living front:
I spent my first night at the apartment last night and it felt nice waking up in my own place! My first night, I was inaugurated with two short power outages, a ton of bugs flying in right when I opened the door and turned on the lights, and a clean place. Power outages happen pretty often here, but in my experience so far, most of them have only lasted 10-15 minutes. The longest one I've experienced was several hours during the day, but most are short. I am SO glad I spent the time over the weekend cleaning up. It helps a lot with settling in. Not to mention my roommates helped move all my luggage over too, which was so nice of them. And one of them helped me clean on Sunday which was awesome.

The bugs are relentless here! I'm starting to get used to them, as long as they're not on my stuff or me:) Remember the ants I posted about earlier? Well after killing some of the bugs that flew in (which landed on the floor), the ants went crazy all over them. At first I was kinda grossed out and then I was kind of amazed. I watched them for a good 10-15 minutes doing their work. They're busy little suckers. They remind me of really stressed out people running around with a million things to do. By morning, the bugs that flew in that I killed were gone as were the ants. I assume the ants must have carried them away somewhere, outside I hope :)

A couple of hours after I moved in, I heard a knock on my door. Of course it was dark outside and I'm all by myself, so I jumped when I heard the knock and contemplated for a few minutes whether I should open it because I didn't know who it would be. The second bedroom looks out to the front porch and I don't have a seeing eye hole on my front door, so I use the second bedroom as a way of scoping out people. I saw some kids and thought it was the girls from upstairs, but it turns out it was my neighbors from a couple houses down. It was a mother, her 3 kids, and her niece. They came over to introduce themselves to me, which I thought was so nice and comforting. Apparently her kids had told her about the new foreigner who moved into the house down the road and they told her that they should all come over. The kids are the real eyes of this neighborhood :) I invited them in and we chatted for a bit. The kids were so curious and cute and the mother was really nice, open, and friendly. It was a good feeling for the first night.

I can hear the family upstairs most of the time. Mostly muffled voices and them walking around or moving chairs, but I like it. The girls from upstairs came down and introduced themselves to me over the weekend when I was cleaning. I'm a deep sleeper and hearing the noises is comforting because I know I'm not completely alone.

Today I purchased some pots and pans, so now I can start trying to cook some Kerala dishes! One of my favorites is this breakfast item called kulkutta (pronounced, cool-cutta). I've probably butchered the spelling. They're steamed rice balls with coconut and sugar inside. They're made with rice powder mixed with boiled water and some salt and ground coconut and sugar. You roll it all up into a ball and then steam them. They are soooo good. Love them! The ground coconut here in general is really good and is mixed with a lot of different dishes.

There are little noises I have to get used to and like most houses here I imagine, there are sometimes little gecko type lizards that crawl along the walls. It's kinda fun to see them scurry along. Sometimes I see two of them scurrying along together.

I also woke up this morning to a crying baby kitten trapped in the work area room. The room is just outside the kitchen where a washer would be if there was a washer. I'm not sure how the kitten got in there. Perhaps it snuck in during the weekend when I was cleaning because I had the back door open. If that's the case, it was there for about a day:( I used a broom to direct it out the back door. Poor thing was so scared, but I didn't want to pick it up because a lot of the cats here are feral and carry a lot of diseases.

On the work front:
Things are going really well! I very much enjoy this project! It's complicated, challenging and fun. There are so many components to this project. Most of the time I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants and figuring out things as I go. The good thing is that I have a fairly good understanding of the basic framework so the planner in me helps set all the deadlines and then I just run with it :) I conducted my first focus group today with a group of about 23 micro loan borrowers, all women, at a branch about an hour away from the office. On the way, we wound through many different neighborhood areas in Thrissur and passed by some rice fields. There are a lot of small streets here and there are not always street signs available so people give directions by using landmarks. Perfect for me because I'm a landmark person :) When driving to different places and you don't know where you're going, the trick is to start heading in the direction of the place and then stop every so often and ask people along the way where the place is. You get there eventually and this generally proves to be the best method because some times places can be pretty hidden. I also saw a sign on the way that said "EFC" which stands for Eastern Fried Chicken. Ha! The KFC of the east! To all my KFC lovers out there, I've found your spicy counterpart.

When we got to the office, which was across the street from this place I saw was giving karate lessons, it was loan disbursement day so a lot of the women were there ready to collect their loan disbursements. (I wish my office wasn't so far away because I think it would be fun to take some karate lessons.) A co-worker came with me to help translate and I had all my sample products with me. We laid them out on the table and while some women were getting their disbursements others were sitting and listening to our presentation and answering the focus group questions. It was really fun and interesting. I got a lot of good initial insight about the clean energy products we are wanting to distribute and create loan products for. I also learned a bit more about the operations of the organization which was great! I will be conducting focus groups for the rest of the week in Kerala and I will also get to go out in the field and meet the different self-help groups with the field officers which will also be really interesting. Next week, I will do the same thing up in Central India (a totally different world from Kerala is what many people have told me).

I had a really embarrassing moment last week when I presented my first management meeting in front of all of the area managers of Kerala. I was wearing a v-neck t-shirt (one of my favorites) and I had no idea that it was too low for Indian standards until the next day when one of my roommates made a comment! When my roommate told me, at first, I thought, "Ok. No problem. No more low cut shirts" and then I came to realize that it was the same day of the meeting AND they posted pictures of the meeting to commemorate the launch of the Micro Energy Program. I was mortified! Here's the foreigner that doesn't know any better. I ran into my roommates room that night and showed them the pictures. We all just laughed about it because what's done is done, just don't do it again :) I told them that they HAVE to tell me next time I do something embarrassing BEFORE I go out in public:)

From then on, I've learned that a big part of Indian style dress for women means covering up your breast area because people at the office have even started commenting that they like that I've started wearing Indian style clothing. My roommate also told me that people from the office have also come up to her to ask her if she said something to me, which she did thankfully :) Anyway, we had a good laugh about it together because I told her I got some comments too. They're actually still the same clothes I brought, but instead of wearing the scarf around my neck where the two sides hang down in front, I wear my scarf so that the two sides hang down the back and the part that dips down in front covers the top half of me. Nothing too tight and nothing that reveals too much. Dressing the local way is a way of gaining respect here, so I am VERY glad that I made this mistake early on before meeting the self-help groups. I wonder what other embarrassing things I'm doing :)

New Beginnings / Melancholy Endings

It’s been a little over 2.5 weeks since I’ve been in Thrissur and I recently found my own apartment! I’m still in shock that I found something so quickly. It has 2 bedrooms, 3 beds, a fridge, plates & cups, a table and chairs, a microwave, LPG stove, and it’s easy to get to work. My organization helped negotiate the apartment for me after I found it because I can’t speak Malayalam and they needed a reference. Apparently they know my organization quite well and I also understood that me being married contributed to me getting the apartment over six local single college girls who were willing to pay more!

I spent this last weekend cleaning it like a mad woman. I washed the walls and counters, mopped the floors, cleaned the bathroom and windowsills, etc. etc. etc. Now the place is ready to move into! I also bought a few things like a dish rack, towels, soap, small bathroom rugs and a bed sheet to help settle me into the apartment. Shopping for all the cleaning supplies and other things for the apartment was an adventure in itself! Because of all the stuff, I also took an auto-rickshaw for the first time to the new apartment ☺

The apartment is the ground floor of an old home that has a unique color scheme. On the first floor there is a family of 4 (2 girls and mother and father). The neighborhood is actually quite nice. Mostly families it seems with lots of little kids. I got to meet some of them yesterday. There were about seven of them all standing on my porch asking me what my name was and where my mother and father were ☺ The two girls upstairs also came down and introduced themselves to me, which was nice. There are definitely a lot of eyes in the neighborhood, especially me being the new move-in. One of my roommates helped me do some last bits of cleaning today which was really nice! I move into the apartment tomorrow night.

Although I’m excited to be moving into my own place, I also feel a little sad to be moving out of the hostel even though I was mortified the first night. It’s nice to be around people and I absolutely love all my roommates, who I’ve learned so much from, especially about the life of women in Kerala and India. I admit that living here on my own is quite difficult, especially being away from family and friends. It’s also challenging to get around here in English without knowing any Malayalam. You can find English more widely spoken in bigger cities in India, but since I live in a suburb in a not so touristy place, English is not as widely spoken. Next weekend, I hope to venture out to the bookstore to pick up a Malayalam language book so that I can use more than the few words I’ve learned when I’m shopping and conversing with people. I don’t particularly miss the US much, but I do miss my family and friends and I think of everyone back home often, so without my roommates, I think it would take me much more time to adjust here and learn the subtle idiosyncrasies of the culture (ie. washing clothes, eating food, wearing clothes, buying vegetables, etc.). I’m glad that I lived with them (couldn’t have asked for better roommates) and now I can invite them over for visits! They’re going to come over tomorrow night to help me move all my things and help me settle in which will be nice☺

I’ll post some pictures soon and write more about other stuff that's been happening as well! Arranging focus groups for the next two weeks and one of those weeks will be in Central India in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Get to do a bit of traveling!

Pictures of my current neighborhood area

The front gate / yard. The hostel is on the first floor (second floor in US terms). We have a big deck that overlooks this area. In the morning some times I see a guy sitting on a chair on the ground floor reading a newspaper or a guy on the first floor brushing his teeth. I'm about a 5-10 min walk from work.

Pretty, don't you think? We're surrounded by coconut trees and we eat lots of different dishes with ground coconut and chilies. This is where we hang our clothes out to dry.

The house next door.

The backyard. Downstairs is where we wash our clothes in two buckets and we use a big cement block to whack our clothes on to get the water out (kinda kinda like the spin cycle in a washer.) It's a work out :)

Some of the front yard plants! The house owner who lives downstairs has chickens so sometimes you see the chickens and the little chicks running around the yard.

10 things I've observed and learned so far....

1.) A woman living on her own here is not common at all. In my search for my own space, ESAF has been helping me, specifically a couple of women at the office, one of whom is my room mate. As I said before, people at the company feel a bit sorry for me, which has its advantages:) Having the company be what you would call "my collateral" makes a HUGE difference in communicating with landlords, especially as a foreign woman wanting to live on her own. So again, I am thankful to have people looking out for me. I've got a couple of good options now though so we'll see how it transpires.

2.) Malayali soap operas are very dramatic, especially with the filming. My room mates love to watch soap operas. There's a lot of camera zooming in and out on someone's face with really dramatic music :)

3.) If you're in a meeting with someone, it's not rude to answer your phone nor is it rude to walk-in and ask someone a question. Of course this depends on the nature of the meeting, but in general this is what I've observed. I think maybe even in some ways, not answering your phone while you're in a meeting is seen as rude.

4.) Rice or grain is served with every meal. Plain rice is actually the main dish while the other accompanying items are side dishes. I miss a fresh green salad :) I've actually had to tone down on the rice because my body is going into shock with all the grains. My room mates think I'm starving myself. I haven't gotten sick yet though (knock on wood).

5.) The mosquitoes still can't get enough of me! They love me and I hate them.

6.) Women can tell what part of India other women are from just from the way they wear their saris. Interesting don't you think? I guess you can also say that you can tell someone is from the Pacific Northwest from the way they wear their sandals....PNWers love their calf-high socks :)

7.) Power outages are common and pretty often.

8.) Honking is actually a friendly thing here, letting people and other cars know that someone is behind them, beside them or about to pass them. It doesn't have the middle finger feel like it does in the US. All the backs of big trucks say "Sound Horn". One truck I saw said "Safety first. Sound Horn. Speed Next". I can't imagine that flying very well in the US.

9.) "Hotel" means "Hotel" and it also means "Restaurant", but "Restaurant" means "Restaurant" and a "Hotel" may only mean "Restaurant".

10.) Note to self, don't leave your computer out because little ants will crawl all over and inside it. I discovered this this morning when I woke up to all these little ants crawling in and on my computer when I opened it up. Gross!

More on Culture Shock......

Namaskaram Friends and Fam! (another very lengthy one because A LOT has happened in a few days)

Wow, things have been a whirlwind since I've arrived. I swear I've been gone for at least a month and it's only been barely a week. I think hands down, this has been one of the hardest things I've done, both in terms of work and country. Before coming to India, I met a new friend, Jennifer, who is a cross cultural coach here in India and lives about 2 hours south of me. I met her online and we started emailing about a month or so before I left for India. I had the opportunity to meet her, her husband, and cousins on Sunday. They drove up to meet me and took me around town and to meet some of their family. It was a real treat and very comforting to know there is someone outside of my work I can share my experiences with. She's from the US and has a lot of experience living in India and being in Indian culture so she's been a real support for me before I left for India and while I've been here.

I don't have a place of my own yet. I am staying at a women's hostel with 5 other women, 3 of whom work for the same organization as me. They are all from Kerala so I'm slowly learning some cooking and Malayalam (the local language of Kerala). The hostel is the top floor of a house with 2 rooms (3 cot size beds in each), a dining room and a kitchen. I sleep in the middle bed in one of the rooms. The mattress is hard and the bed is small and narrow and the mosquitos, oh the mosquitos just love me! I'm an itchy mess. There is a big covered deck that overlooks the front yard and drive way. The back deck is where we hang clothes to dry on strings that are strung across the deck and down stairs (outside) is where we wash clothes using two buckets. The home owner lives on the first floor of the house. I haven't washed clothes yet, but probably will need to in the next couple of days. There are no carpets, thankfully! The floor would be a moldy mess if there were carpets because it's really hot and humid here.

My first night was Monday, Oct 31st which was also my first day at the office. You can imagine my ultimate discomfort after being in the comforts of my own clean hotel room with AC since my arrival in India coupled with a first day at work. It was like culture shock times 1000. My emotions were out the roof so by Tuesday morning when my roommates were asking if I missed Alex, I broke down into a watery mess. My room mates had no idea what was wrong with me and I did not know how to convey what I was feeling. I was most concerned that they thought it was them so I tried to make it very clear that I was missing family and friends and that I'm just adjusting to the culture. Between the broken bits of English and deep breaths, I think eventually they understood what was happening. They all know how to speak a little to some English, one of them can speak and understand English better than the others and everyone can read. I'm thankful to have such compassionate room mates. It has felt a million times better since I was able to breakdown. The office staff are helping me look for my own flat (renting the top floor of a house) so perhaps in about a month or so, I will have my own space. The owner would live downstairs so at least someone would be there. It's not common for women to live alone here. This type of living is called "Paying Guest". It can also come in different forms where you might be given a room in a house, instead of the top floor of a house, so it depends. For the time being, I'm going to try and take advantage of learning about living locally, cooking, customs, and Malayalam. It's really a day by day approach here, which is very good for me being the future tripper that I normally I am.

Independence here is not exactly praised like it is in America. Being without your family and friends is not common practice. From what I've experienced and observed, having a community of people to look out for you is an important part of the culture. When I tell people that Alex and I have only been married for almost 2 months now, they're surprised and feel sorry for me, which I completely understand because it is an usual move! Nonetheless, I make light of the situation when they ask and Alex and I talk a little every day. It's not easy to be apart though, not in the least bit.

In terms of work, WOW is this project complicated, challenging and intimidating. I really like the work and it's the kind of project I imagined I wanted to be a part of but living it is much much more challenging than reading or thinking about it. There's really no way to prepare for it either. In addition to trying to adjust to the culture, the work culture is a whole other ball game, figuring out the chain of commands, office culture, etc. Slowly but surely though, things are falling into place. This month is very full and busy: a local stakeholder consultation, management meeting, focus groups along with other market research, filling out an exhaustive application for Gold Standard certification for the carbon revenue and breathing in between. My brain is swimming in details and big picture. We are hoping to launch the clean energy program in all three zones where ESAF works: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Central India (comprises of 5 states). I will be traveling to Central India to Maharashtra for a week some time in the next couple of weeks to do market research there. Pretty exciting stuff! This is by far the most challenging project I have ever worked on. It's going to be cool to watch the project grow and take shape. Without the help of the office staff and their kindness and openness, I would be ridiculously lost. One thing to note is that since I work and live with some of the people from my office, my teary breakdown on Tuesday spread like wild fire among the office staff which was embarrassing but everyone has been very supportive and it feels good to let the emotions out regardless.

I try to use the few words I do know in Malayalam with most everyone I encounter! Every day I learn a new word or two and test them out in public. Always gets good laughs. Perhaps in a few months time, I'll be able to put together a few sentences! :) Learning numbers are next on my list.

Wow! I wrote a lot. I could write a lot more on other things that are happening, but I've exhausted this post. More later:) Shuba Rathri (good night)