Gearing up (big time)

Well, the time has come that will weed out the boys and girls from the men and women...the time where the cow poop hits the fan...and the runners turn the bend toward the home stretch...where all the preparation will be put to the test....yada yada yada....we'll be back in the US.

So what is going to happen during the yada yada yada phase?....that my friends is an excellent question and after about 8 hours of structured team brain storming and debate ...WE HAVE A PLAN!

Here we are in the thick of things...Yamilee and Musheer present project ideas related to the disabled within the community.

Given that there are 10 strong-willed people in our group, and that we were given the opportunity to choose a project that reflected a strong need in the community in the areas of health, education, or disability (kind of a big range of topics, all of which have multiple serious problems within them), it is really amazing we were able to settle on one and outline a pilot project that will improve the community within 2 weeks! One thing that is clear after today, is that an unbelievable ammount will get done in the next two weeks, that there will be innumerable setbacks and surprises, and that it is going to be one of the most exciting things I have ever worked on in my life.

In short we are going to reform the community garbage system for part of a slum (about 200 families, or 1000 people) so that they are no longer surrounded my garbage and overflowing sewage water. The project will be a collaboration between our team, an NGO, and MCD (the municipal garbage company)...although they don't know this yet!

Our goal is to get the media to track what we (4 engineering girls from America all of different skin tones partnered with 6 indian college students) can change for a slum community in 2 weeks and use the media as leverage to get the garbage company to start picking up trash from this area (which before only happened "at their convenience").

In celebration of a long day of leadership :) ...I made one of the most complete "home-cooked" meals of my trip so far...check it out! Nothing fried or soaked in syrup - it must be Christmas for Catherine in India! For dessert I combined two components of dinner and had a banana sandwich - it was very tasty!