Welcome to my blog!

The purpose of this blog is to share with you my upcoming internship in Mumbai (Bombay), India and the journey in preparation for it. It has so far been an interesting experience and I have not even started my trip yet.

Why the name? I will be in Mumbai during June and July, the beginning of the Monsoon season. Learning to wade through flooded streets and work with this natural phenonema is to me very similar to the learning experience I have had so far and am sure to face in India. Most of India's water supply falls during the Monsoon season. It is kind of a feast or famine on water. I found this analegous to India itself, a nation of extremes and it will be my challenge to learn to work with and within it. From what I have understood of India, this amazing nation will both pull on me like the raging flood waters and at the same time fascinate me like the tranquility of a steady stream.

I have the priviledge to travel with another student who has now also become a friend. She is as talented as she is kind and fun. Together we will set out to work with an inspirational company that is dedicated to empower women in deplorable situations, often in the slums of Bombay, to better their lives. The company works with small textiles producers and our task is to develop a plan to standardize the production process so they can deliver a more uniform end result.

Before I continue with this blog I want to take a moment and thank my family, friends and college. They have been very instrumental in making this trip possible and encouraging me as I am learning to have the two most important things in this journey: patience and endurance.

I hope my blog will entice you to consider traveling to India and help you with your preparations.

Let's start swimming!!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Just another weekend

Tomorrow morning we are flying out at 6:30am to Indore to visit another fabric producer for nearly a week. We have started getting a picture of the various aspects to the problem and I look forward to hearing what his perspective is.

The weekend was fairly uneventful here, except when we frightened two very loud girls last night. Around midnight, we hear yelling, squeeling, talking, laughing and lots of noise going on. After a while, we had had it and went out into the hallway to see where it was coming from. It turned that a couple of girls (10-12 years old) were riding their bike indoors two floors down and had apparently had no idea that some people actually try to sleep around that time. So, we went down stairs in our (Betty Boop) pj's and told them in no uncertain terms to be quiet. I guess we must have looked very scary because when I told them in the motherly I-have-had-it tone to "No really, hush!" they looked terrified and when Hanna finished it with a "Hush, go to bed!" they screamed. Maybe it is time for new pj's.

The rest of the weekend went with writing reports and preparing for the upcoming trip. It is so hard to pack when you don't know anything about where you will be going or staying, but I guess that is part of the adventure. Hopefully this time we have internet.

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