First Impressions of Bihar

I've been in Bihar for almost a week now but it feels like I've been here for at least a month! Our mornings consist of taking surveys (on income, family, political awareness) in nearby villages and the afternoons are spent playing with the girls at the hostel and giving them English lessons. Since Nicole and Francesco have been here since the last week of May, I'm basically following the work schedule they planned with Sr. Sudha for the month of June. One of my big challenges this summer is learning how to ride a bike (yes, shocking, I know)...it's not just learning how to ride, but learning how to maneuver through the cows, goats, dogs, rickshaws, autorickshaws, cars, trucks, buses and pedestrians on the street. Oh, and did I mention that the monsoon is starting?!


The 90 girls who live at Prerna Hostel all come from the 'untouchables' Musahar community (Musahar meaning they eat rats), most from the various villages and slums where we take the surveys. Nari Gunjan has 50 centers spread among these villages, which serve as elementary schools for the communities (most of the students are girls) and a base to work with women's Self-Help Groups (SHGs). We survey the SHGs in three stages: first to just meet the community and interact with them; the second we actually take the survey (with the help of translators who are the Nari Gunjan coordinators); and for the third stage we're planning some kind of information/education campaign about the new domestic violence law that has recently passed. Since the great majority of the women are illiterate, it will be a challenge to come up with some kind of handout, but we're hoping we can create something that we can leave them with...we'll see! Here are some photos of the Nari Gunjan center and village meeting from Digha, a slum we visited on Tuesday:


Although I've only been interacting with the girls at the hostel for a week, they are really special--it's difficult to describe so I hope my photos will suffice for the time being. There's just such a joy around them, I can't really explain it...Anyhow, on Wednesday we all (about 100 of us) took an overnight field trip to visit Bodhgaya, where Buddha reached enlightenment, and Nalanda, the ruins of temples and monasteries that was one of the first universities in the world. It was simply amazing! I'm including photos of the tree under which Buddha achieved enlightenment, along with photos of various temples and a playground where we played with the girls, near one of the temples.