Office Space

My experience working in India, and with NGO's in particular, can so far be summed up in just one word (incidentally, one of my favorite words): Balagan. This can be fairly accurately translated as 'chaos', 'calamity', or just general developing-world confusion mixed in with the occasional catastrophe. Sashi, one of my best and closest co-workers at Impact, always says that "in India, everything is possible..." to which i like to add, "... but almost everything is incredibly difficult!". Let me illustrate....

I've mentioned in a previous post that (for one of my projects) I'm working on revamping Impact's (non-existent) first aid training program by developing fully illustrated training manuals and then going out and teaching in the villages. Well, after several weeks of chaos, things have finally come together... the artist and I (yes, i did some of the drawing!) created all of the tutorial pages for the manual, and Zelma Lazarus (Impact's CEO) has tentatively approved RS 25,000 in funding for the project (considering i just got here less than a month ago, that's quite a bit of faith on her part!). I've decided to focus solely on women's empowerment groups, and Dr. Dhir, who runs Impact's Palghar division, has promised (this means nothing, of course) that by the time I'm back here in late October, I will have a full schedule ready to go, with 1-2 training sessions per day. I have also been promised Priyanka as my translator (she's amazing!), as well as a vehicle and driver every time I go out to teach in the villages.

So, following up with that success (and believe me, none of this came easily...) Priyanka and I went to the makeshift printing-cum-convenience store nearby to discuss paper and binding options for the manuals. After we got past the inevitable "say something in Hindi!" and accompanying giggling, we got down to business. The request was simple: a 6-page manual with a cardboard cover and back, plastic on top of that, and spiral binding. Priyanka translated everything into Marathi, and we waited to get the sample and price quote... that's about when the day went from ordinary to an episode of "Survivor: Tower of Babble". Six people clustered around, trying to understand whether the cover should be cardboard, or if I (for what crazy reason?) wanted blank cardboard in front of it; we had to repeat, over and over again, that the six pages will in fact have different pictures, and - the highlight of the powwow - that, yes, in fact, when I said "spiral binding", i actually meant spiral binding... and not any of the other kinds of binding they tried to pass off as spiral. The printing and binding are done at separate kiosks, and several times the work was delayed by spontaneous rainstorms and - i swear - a goat herd. (Nearly having a three-way collision between my moped, an angry rickshaw, and an oddly ambivalent horse cart just rounded off the experience). Priyanka thought all of this - nearly 3 hours of it - was incredibly funny, and honestly I did too... as I'm quickly learning, everything here - even the simplest things - have an "Indian" flavor to them...

(By the way, I just want to take a sec to tell my mother that I love her very much and have never - until this experience - really understood what it's like to work with such incompetence every single day... mom, how do you do it?? I think you must be a miracle worker with the patience of a South Asian turtle and backbone of.... something with a strong backbone!)

Aside from the chaos of constant misunderstandings, work is going incredibly smoothly (haha). I finished a 30 page manual for Impact's mobile clinic over the weekend, and presented it to Zelma and her staff when they were visiting on Monday. Zelma was absolutely thrilled and has since been dispatching people all over the city to try and find a cable for my camera so that I can upload my photographs of the clinic to complete the manual. It's funny, actually - everyone is so impressed that I've done 'so much work in such a short period of time'... in the meantime, I've actually spent a lot more time worrying about stray puppies, photographing festivals, and watching bad American movies than working! But, I guess if I'm able to work quickly, it doesn't really matter... let them think I'm staying up late nights, poring over documents... ;). This upcoming Friday, I'm presenting all of my work - clinic manual, first aid drawings, training proposals - to one of Impact's 'most important' trustees (read = $$)... they're giving me half an hour for the presentation (and there's no PowerPoint :/). But, then Saturday is free and Sunday I'm off to Mumbai!! And then... let the vacation (like this isn't vacation...) begin!!