Village stay in Rajasthan, or: The beauty of the simple life

For those of you who don't know (exactly) what I am actually doing here in India: Laura and me are writing our master thesis about the (responsible!) tourism potential in an rural area of 9 villages. So now, we had the chance to stay in one of them for 4 nights to interview the locals and check out the area. (As facilities for guests are not there yet -most of the houses dont even have a toilet - we couldnt stay much longer)



What shall I say, I LOVED it...! The sincere friendlyness of these people was just overwhelming and the simplicity of their lifes made one realise once more that the consumerism of our 'first world' is simply perverse.
'Our' family made us feel like part of them and tried to do everything possible to make us feel comfortable. Even the heat could not dampen our exitement for this experience and we had the luck of cooling rainshowers on two of the evenings.




Our daily schedule included many visits to the surrounding villages (by motorbike with Subash and Raju, our competent local guides), to interview the locals about what they say about a potential tourism development. In each one we were treated with tea, water or coke, usually accompanied with extreamly sweet goodies or munchies. Soon, we were surrounded by about the whole residents who first looked at us with shy curiosity but quickly realised that we had come in peace (we DID smile a damn lot during those days). Once unbended, they smiled, laughed and asked us to take pictures to then look at them fascinated. Yes, many of them have not seen a white person despite in television so their curiosity about our look and manners (and sweat production) was understandable!



After our daily visits we went 'home' to eat, chill, play with the kids or visit neighbours. We also got dressed up in beautiful saris and had the chance to finally learn how to play cricket. - So, as Indian as it can get.
Due to the heat in the summer season, people sleep outside on very comfortable woven beds and we did the same (in the middle!), which was an exeptional experience.






























As we arrived back in Gurgaon last night, we were quite exhausted due to the heat and the fact that we had constantly been the centre of attraction for the last days. But I already know that I will definitly go back and visit our new made friends whenever I ve the chance to come back to India.

Rain dance, adrinaline kicks and kaise bole

The last week was full of organising, reading, sweating and planning.
But we also attended a rain-dance where we had the luxury of dancing in huge running showers. Yes, this is not a good thing to do in a time here in northern India where water is rare and the heat often nearly unbearable. The government had even banned such parties for this reason. Guilty as hell, maybe we shouldn't have gone. BUT, apperantly they had a special permission bc of water recycling actions AND it was just a too big temptation to deny this oppurtunity to finally cool down and be surrounded by w-a-t-e-r.



The trips through the town (on tuk tuk well riksha) is always an adventure itself, the ones of you who have been traveling through Asia know what I mean! But we love the little market in our sector where ALL things can be bought and people can be watched at their daily working habits such as sewing cloths on the pedestrian, dyeing fabrics, painting mihindis or prepering delicious treats. So many things to see, so much to explore and wonder...

























We also attended an exibition of End Poverty www.endpovertyindia.org , where we informed people about the NGO, sold pouches produced by the girls/women in the villages and recieved donations for books, goats, chickens or shoes. Its always great to see when people care and are interested in projects to help.



Tomorow we will leave the civilication for 5 days and make our way to the villages we write about in our final report. We will stay in a family and live with them, to explore their daily rythm, discover the surrounding and find out what they think about the eventual development of tourism in their area. For this purpose, we did some intensive hindi - learning this week (playing memory is a fabulous idea! Thanks to Laura) because only one man can talk a little english there and thats it. Of course, our questionairs will be translated and we do have assistance who know exactly what our project is about. But we might have to learn a few more words to be able to make at least a basic conversation with them! So, no toilets, often no electricity, no fan, no room door but very very friendly people, a highly interesting livestyle, a beautiful surrounding to discover and ADVENTURE PURE! :)

Kids and survey-action

5th May

Last week we worked quite a bit on our laptops but were also taught how to make Chapati, got a Mehndi (henna painting on hands), had a massage and a haircut (just me) and were experiencing the local market (great!) and a mall (boring). We also went out to the 'field' again to see a couple of more villages, a girl's education group and a traditional indian 'community farmhouse'. That was great fun and I am afraid my heart is lost once more to those georgeous little kids...!













Yesterday we went to Delhi (1h per metro) to chase some international tourists for our first survey action. It is complete coincidence that 90% of our interviewees are in their 30's, male and increadibly good looking. I m of course just kidding, Simon, don' worry. (its 80%) Anyways, it was a lot of fun and we are quite happy with the 16 pieces we've done, given the fact that there are only a few tourists around at this crazy hot time of the year. Somehow, I can understand why..