Jan 17

A few days ago I mentioned that I went to the Gandhi museum and was surprised by some of his quotes. What an incredible man who made such a great impact! Truly selfless. He really lived out what he preached. When he visited England to have an audience with the crown he refused to dress up. He wore the loin cloth which was his normal garb. I’ve also been reading some of Paul’s letters in the New Testament since I’ve been here and he also was a selfless man who left a mark on the world. Both had incredible impact upon the world by preaching a message. I was left wondering…how does one become a person like that? How does one have such an impact? Both dedicated their entire lives to their mission, even depriving themselves of comforts and needs. I guess the secret lies there somewhere- in the abandonment of self for the pursuit of a greater purpose.

CULTURE SHOCK

I think I realized something. I didn’t think that I had been experiencing culture shock because I had it very bad in Amsterdam and this time I was more prepared. I tried to prepare myself not to have expectations because I knew that I couldn’t imagine what it would be like. I tried to prepare myself for all kinds of extremes. When I got here I wasn’t thrown off by the language barrier or totally surprised by my surroundings. It has been very different than my last trip abroad. Still, I think I have been experiencing culture shock, but in a different way than before. When I stepped out of the airport I felt like I was on Pandora. (If you have seen Avatar you know what I am talking about.) I walked into a hostile environment. Cars almost hit us when we tried to cross the street and the parking lot was a mess! It was really foggy and brown and loud. There were people everywhere. Cars filled every possible space. They were parked with no regard to order, just however the person wanted to park, meaning that many cars were blocked in. The traffic flow in the parking lot also had no order. In a space small enough for one car to pass through there were cars trying to drive both ways. When we got out after quite a while, I had my first experience with Indian driving! It is like a video game. There are no road rules cars just drive where they please. I was riding with Sunil who loves to weave in and out around cars. There were cars, trucks, carts and bicycles on the road. I didn’t think much about the housing before I arrived but if I had I am not sure if I would have predicted staying in apartments with no heating and the other conditions which exist. Still, I didn’t think I had culture shock because I knew before I came that things would be very different, and they were.

I care very much about people so I think that the thing which really shocked and disturbed me were the conditions around me. I couldn’t really enjoy the city because my gaze was focused on the fact that people here have so much less. The standard of living just blew me away. The average person has very little. They get around and have the necessities, but don’t have much more. The whole city is very dirty and views of people walking around in it barefoot stuck out in my mind. The slums and tents along the side of the roads stood out to me. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is where the shock came from. I couldn’t get past it at first. I was afraid to say that I liked it here because I didn’t like what I was seeing. I couldn’t bring myself to say that I liked a place where so many had so little.

After seeing and understanding more about the culture and seeing more of the good parts of Delhi I realized that there is a sad aspect of India, but there is also a very neat and interesting city here. Some of the ways that people do things seem primitive to us but are just the way they do things here. I still hate to see suffering, but now that I have adjusted some and have been able to see the good here I have been able to get past that. I like it here. I've been able to really enjoy it. I had a wonderful weekend. Its so different that I won’t understand this place in 3 weeks, but it is fascinating to be in this city and soak in the sights and sounds. I think I'll even miss all the noise!

INTERVIEW WITH PRASHANT

Tonight at 6 I had an interview with a shop owner named Prashant. He runs a store that his father owns called TATSAT which is located in the market right behind this apartment complex. Daniel set a meeting up for me with him. It was very interesting. I met him at the shop which was very cute. It sold fabrics, clothing, scarves, bags, handmade goods like pottery and dishes, stationary and things like this. His store sells only products from NGOs, companies with fair trade labor, companies that make eco-friendly goods, and from independent artisans. A large part of the items are from artisans, but many of the bags and jewelry were from NGOs. It started out slowly but now he is in touch with several sources which provide the goods. The trick is that supply and quality are not stable so procurement is an ongoing process. Many NGOs have programs for women to learn to create items like blankets, bags and jewelry which can be sold. The problem is, most of the time these goods are not of good enough quality or design to have market value. Though he tries to direct those NGOs, what Prashant does is give access to markets to entrepreneurs who make items which could be sold. He does not give particular orders or designs, but gives feedback about pricing and goods to the NGOs. He informs them of what sells, but does not control what they do.

Prashant brings in items from these suppliers and when they are sold he takes commission and then sends the rest of the money to the NGO in payments each month. He does not buy it initially. It is up to the NGO about how it divides the money. Some may use the profit to go towards the NGO in general, but others may give individual women some of the money. Unfortunately the majority of NGO projects fail to make sellable products because creation of quality goods takes great skill and management. There is a gap. This includes the organization that Daniel works with, Vidya. It has not yet been able to make sellable products.

He also shared with me other information about NGOs. He actually started one of his own with several friends which is an advocacy NGO called Prabodh. They cannot get an audience with ministers so they raise awareness in the community mostly. He admitted that NGOs have a dark side. He said that NGOs get tax benefits as well as other benefits (like free stalls in markets like Dilli Haat) so many times people will set up NGOs which provide a service but also are a business. The intent is to get the benefits from being an NGO while making more profit. He also said that there are many restrictions put on businesses that one can get away with in an NGO.

He claims that the main issue of NGOs is whether they will be perpetual or fade away. He said that a NGO should have self-sustainability as its objective so that it will create independent people and will no longer be needed, but often this does not happen. Instead the NGO will create dependency of the people upon it. This distorts the market and affects efficiency when it comes to selling goods. He thinks that this is a very important aspect of NGOs to consider.

The interview was very interesting. I have full notes with me here and a copy of the documentary that his NGO recently made about the auto-richshaw business which he somewhat explained to me. I'm going to watch it tomorrow because its late here now.