7.23.2007

I am energized and inspired by what I spend my day doing

It feels great to be able to say that whole heartedly...I am sad there are only 2 weeks left of the project.
Today was unbelievable - there were some critical meetings both within the community and with an NGO and the municipal garbage comany and all the pieces are falling into place. Our team is a power house: we break up into groups and

* mobilize community members to take ownership of the project

* hire people to move trash and create a community run system to pay the worker and create transparency and accountability in the payment system
* develop a tight network of oversight and support between community leaders, a local NGO, local political leaders, and the municipal garbage corporation

Tomorrow morning we are meeting with the President and Vice Pres. of the regional political party in power (Congress party) to get them to back this project.

...But, I have been thinking of work most of my waking hours - this is my time to relax and talk to my friends and family :)

On Sunday we met with this social work Professor to go over our pilot project plan and I saw a college cricket team playing a match...looked pretty serene...they certainly didn't have to worry about noise from a crowd.

The Rai Foundation University is making a film documentary of our project meaning that for many of the days they will be following us around with a camera during our planning meetings and our community work. Here are the "director", camera man, and van driver. The big perk for us is that we get to ride in a van to the community and don't have to catch autorickshaws at the border :)
Tonight, Jessica and I went out to dinner with our friends Zarin and Deepak to celebrate Deepak's completion of exams for his MBA program. We went to a Chinese restaurant in Faridabad and I got some chocolate chip, chocolate ice cream afterward that was excellent! Both Jessica and I wore suits (salwar kamis)- it was fun - my scarf has little silver bells at the end so they jingle when I walk.

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