Keep Going

Hello everyone,

Life is going well here.  I have been getting more involved with my internship.  Today we got into some of the accounting files to better understand how they operate in India.  On Wednesday, we will hopefully be touring the factory and seeing how the products that we have been eating have been made.  We are almost done eating all of the food.  If you haven't already please fill out my survey on facebook so that I can get a better idea of what to market in America.  Any questions about my internship??

Palkhi this weekend was fun to witness.  It is a procession of 2 to 5 lakhs of people. (a lakh is 100,000).  People walk from their villages and towns to 3 cities in Maharashtra to visit the temples in these cities.  Talk about some dedication.  They walk because for the women they get a time to be free of their normal duties as wife and farmer.  They are very happy when they parade through the town.  They dance and play their bells.  It was fun to witness from a second story building.

This coming weekend I am going to Agra and New Delhi to see the Taj and I hope everything will work out.  A group of us are going and we have hired a travel agency to help us get there and stay at hotels and help us communicate.  Its going to be fun.  One lady told me that I was a fool for not traveling around by myself afterwards, but I think its best I just stick to our schedule. They have a lot for us to do.

Kelson

A Month to Go

Hello Everyone,

India has been treating me great.  They have so many temples here, well theirs a temple in just about everyone's house, but the big architecturally cool temples are also all around us as well. The other day we went to a temple that was on top of a hill that was high enough that we were able to see the most of the city.  It was an amazing view because the cityscape didn't end in all directions that we looked.  I guess 2 million plus people is quite a few people.  I walk every day and I am getting a better feel of the city.  They provided us with a map of the city, but since there aren't many street signs and most of the street signs are in san script I have a difficulty identifying the actual street that I am walking down.  You may ask yourself then how do people get around?  They identify a popular location near them and then tell the rickshaw guy (taxi) that popular location and then they will get you there.  Unfortunately, the rickshaw guys normally know only their side of the town, so you run into some difficulty when you want to cross town, but they are not afraid to ask for directions.

It's surprising to find that in a country that doesn't talk about homosexuality or sex for that matter, man to man close touching and interlocked finger hand holding seems to be normal.  They don't seem to have the reserve that we Americans have.  Another surprising thing is that femocide or killing female babies in the womb is at a high in India, but after the baby is born women can do just about anything that they want.  They have been president and prime minister.  Their Hindu traditions seem to play a large role in all of this and it makes it hard to tell if they have good human rights or not.

Kelson

PS for some reason texts are not able to go through and Suzanne figured out my real number from the United States.  It costs me about 2 rupees (~4 cents) a minute to call home or so I've been told, but all incoming calls are free. So if you find a calling card for cheaper and would like to call me, please set up a time so that I don't miss your call.  Thanks. 

Life in India

Hello Everyone,
    I have some extra time so I am going to try and give you a word picture of Pune, India, so that you can picture where I am.  There is commotion on the road from about 10 am to 11 pm and when I say commotion I don't mean lots of people. I mean people everywhere selling on the sidewalks, the traffic doesn't really obey the traffic lanes since 2/3rds of all the traffic is two wheelers (motorcycles, motorscooters, and bicycles), and in a city of millions there are only about 10 traffic lights, which means that in inner sections its an endless game of chicken and who is bigger or quicker.  How does this commotion work?  Very effectively surprisingly.  People use their horns in quick short bursts to let other people know that they are coming up on someone or that that person is moving into them.  Blinkers are mostly broken, so people use quick hand signals to let others know when they are turning.  Its chaotic here, but this is a calm city.  I don't want to be in a busy city. 

When you come from a land of plenty of woods, you don't know the luxury of paper products.  Take for example napkins.  When everyone uses their hands for eating, but waits to wash until later napkins are not readily available.  Toilet paper, enough said, but for those who don't realize the joys of toilet paper come to a country where the food moves through you quickly and they only have a sprayer and your left hand to finish your duty.  You begin to remember the joys and the necessity of toilet paper.  Luckily they have the most "luxurious" toilet paper called Cleen or just something to use.  We were given this as part of our gift when we first arrived and boy am I thankful.  I now take a small bit with me in case I feel the need to perform my duty and there is a normal place to perform it nearby.  I want the security of Cleen. 

All in all, I love it here for a long visit.  Living here it might take some time. 

Kelson

Internship

Hello Everyone,

I have finally figured out what I am doing with my internship.  I am working at a company called GITS.  They are a food company that makes ready to eat and ready to cook products.  I will be finding out how to market their product to America in which it will sell and people will be willing to try it out.  I have to try and figure out what their food products are (so I get to taste test all of them), how they are made(for the ready to cook products), and what items are needed to make it.

 I have a lot of school work involved with all of this and right now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, but Alliance, being only two years old in Pune, has created a well run system that gives lots of support and input from outside sources, so I am banking on that to get me through.  Note to anyone wanting to go abroad and just relax, this is not the place, but if you want awesome real world experience doing major stuff you should definitely come through Alliance.  I have an interpreter for when I meet someone who does not know English, but there are a few key employees that speak English well so it has been working out well. I am also working at this company with a fellow student, Kon.  He definitely makes it fun.  Alliance provides us with a Faculty Guide which is someone in the field who is our mentor throughout our project.

Time to go,

Kelson

Made it to Pune

Hello Everyone,

I am alive and well.  I have not been able to contact you because I have been in rural India for a while adjusting and I recently got a cell phone.  I am having trouble making it cooperate, but it should be reliable.  My number is 91-735-008-3944.  Feel free to text me because incoming calls and texts are free.  Hopefully I will get them, but I may not be able to return them. 

In the past week, I have killed a baby scorpian, hiked to a rural villamilyage, saw three temples (one which was covered with real gold and keeps getting new pieces all the time), I have gone shopping, discovered who my roommate is, was introduced to my host family, and have been loving the food.  the traffic operates without rules or clear lanes, but everyone uses their horns the right way.  They use them to let you know when you are moving in on them or if they are moving up on you, but they use them in short bursts.

The weather was extremely hot and I always sweated all the time and then the monsoons set in and now it rains most of the day.  I found my poncho to make me look very odd to everyone, so I have found an umbrella which works best because the jackets don't always keep out the rain as a few of my group members have found out.  Since the rains came the temperature has cooled down and the weather is amazing.  I have not found a thermometer to identify what the temperature actually is though. 

My host family is amazing.  They live in a four story house made of concrete because all the well constructed buildings in India are made of concrete.  The showers are actuallying apart of the bathroom and everything has tile and is water proof with a drain at one end of the bathroom.  Talk about a large shower!  Nate, my roommate, and I share a floor and have separate beds.  I feel that we have been spoiled living here.  We live close to Utaraa who is our program director and not that far from fergusson college, which is where we are studying at.  I believe Nate and I will walk the distance today to see how long it takes for us to walk it.

Well that is all for now.  I need to save some stuff for another post.  Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will try to answer them soon. 

Love you all,

Kelson