June 10

The pressure is definitely starting to set in.  I leave in 3 days!  It's so surreal!  In a few short days I will be on the other side of the world connecting with family in Mumbai and then on to Jodhpur to hopefully do some good work in a community that needs help.


So, when I leave on the 13th, I'll be flying from Atlanta to Amsterdam and then on to Mumbai.  Sadly, I won't be able to explore Amsterdam as my lay over is only a little more than an hour.  Once in Mumbai, my Mama (my mom's father's sister's son) will be picking me up and I'll be staying with them till the 18th.  I'm really looking forward to exploring Mumbai and seeing it from a local's perspective.  The best part is going to be connecting with a part of my family that I've never had the pleasure of meeting.


On the 18th I fly on to Jodhpur, where I'll be till the 28th of August.  I just got an update on what Unnati wants me to do while I'm there.   Below is a portion of the email sent to me by Sukie, my FSD contact in Jodhpur.

"Since your interest is in Public Health and Disaster Management, she thinks that you can work documenting their voluntary community trainers project under their community-based disaster risk-reduction project that they are running along with a grassroots organization called JBVSS. A description of recent developments of the project can be found here: http://www.unnati.org/sddrr-lastfour-months.html.

In terms of this project, there are already many survey instruments being used but Swapni is interested in documenting the project from its inception and coming up with a document that can outline the lessons learned and recommendations from the future. She is also looking to make a manual aimed at other organizations in the area. The focus of your work would be on monitoring and evaluation of the project, but more-so on assessment, documentation and dissemination of their work in the field than on developing a separate project. Your work would initially involve interviewing staff members and becoming familiar with the project and then going into the field and interviewing the volunteers and the community members."

For most of my time in Jodhpur I'll be staying with a host family, the Wlliams.  They seem to be an extremely pleasant couple and are about my parents age.  They have 2 sons who are slightly younger than me.  And, both the husband and wife are in the hospitality industry in India.  Looks like I'll have a lot in common with them!

My parents fly in at some point this weekend to see me off.  Again, to all of you that have helped me get to this point, THANK YOU!  I could never have taken this step without your love and support.  I'll write more from India and start posting pictures soon!

Nurez