Somehow, someway, there is always something new to say. Each week there are lots of fun, new stories to tell; there's nearly never a dull moment in Ullon village. This may surprise you simply due to the fact that it is a very rural area, but trust me when I say that these people know how to celebrate, dance, and have fun! Monday night was the final day of Durga Puja celebrations, so guess what?! Everyone went to the pandal structure to dance- to dance like I've never seen before. There was incense burning, throwing of colored powder, and intense sweating going on all around me. My face was covered in red paste that someone smeared on my cheeks and my hair was a bright, neon pink color from the colored powder that people threw in the air. Needless to say, my scalp was still pink several days later and there's still one patch on my left temple that has turned a dull pink color. The boys and girls danced separately, but that doesn't mean we didn't have dancing partners. As soon as I arrived, several teenage girls yanked me into the circle of continuous movement. At one point during the night, I danced with 6 or 7 littler girls. One of them gave the other one a little slap on the arm for taking her place where she was holding my hand. I had no idea I was so popular! It had gotten so hot and I started to get a cramp so I had to get out to get some fresh air, but I didn't want to walk back alone with so many drunk men around. As I was coyly passing through the men's circle, several asked me to dance until I found someone I knew to walk me back to VSSU. I don't think I've ever been so colorful or sweaty in my entire life!
Wednesday and Thursday morning around 7am each day, we made more field visits to VSSU's micro-finance branches. Instead of telling you about them, I will include some of my case studies so that you can tangibly see some of the work I'm doing here. Here are two of them from individual customers in Mathurapur village:
Dipak Halder is a loyal VSSU customer of ten years. He is a hard-working forty-five year-old man, with one son currently attending school in class seven. Ten years ago, Dipak began a bicycle repair shop with an individual loan from VSSU for 25,000 rupees. Now that his business has been established and he has repaid his loan, he makes daily savings deposits of 20 rupees, which adds up to 600 rupees per month. Dipak is able to live comfortably at 4,500 to 5,000 rupees per month after the establishment of his small business, repairing flat tires and broken bicycle frames.
Asit Sakari is an honest man of forty-five years with one son in the Appeline micro-finance business. He has been making daily savings deposits with VSSU for the past twelve years. This year he makes daily deposits of 10 rupees and hopes to increase it to 50 rupees as he is also making daily deposits with his son’s micro-finance business. Asit has been aloyal VSSU customer for such a long time because he is grateful for the ability to save money and earn interest, as well as benefit from loyalty gifts from VSSU such as an emergency torchlight. Since his education level is only to class four, Asit had to endure a life of poverty until he received a loan from the Finance Minister of India in the amount of 2,475 rupees so he could start his restaurant business. Now, he lives comfortably at 10,000 rupees per month and was recently able to purchase a motorbike for easier transportation to his quaint restaurant where items like omelettes, poratas, and chai are served.
Next week, I will include a case study from a women's self-help group so you can see the diverse customers that VSSU serves. I hope it tickles your fancy :) Friday night, there was yet another puja, this time in honor of the goddess Lakshmi. Although this puja was not as grand as the previous week's, there were still small-scale pandals that were festively decorated. This festival is celebrated more so in the home, and not outside in the village. Families enjoy lots of scrumptious food and sweets together, kind of like Thanksgiving dinner in America, but without the turkey and pumpkin pie. In honor of this day, Soma and I visited Mr. Mondal's wife who made us poratas and googney (chickpea and potato curry) as well as food from her prayer offerings, consisting of sweets and fruit. I had to kindly pretend I couldn't eat it all because the fruit was covered in ants, and as you might know, I don't like eating living creatures (even though I did eat that citrus ant in the Tetons, which was only one time before I went veg :P).
Saturday afternoon, Aurelie and I were invited to a football tournament. Apparently, we were honored guests because we were foreigners, so we got to sit up with the other V.I.P.'s. We were given small rose flower bouquets as a group of girls touched our feet as a sign of respect. Then, each of us raised flags to commemorate the opening ceremony for the month-long football tournament located in Lakshmikantapur, a village neighboring Ullon by two kilometers. Since we were honored guests, we were pressured to give a speech. We both looked at each other in horror and embarrassment; this was not in the plans! I went up to the microphone and said, "Namaskar. My name is Kelsy Hoffman and I am from America." I then proceeded to say a little about how I don't know too much about football since I mostly watch American football, but was excited to watch an actual match. All the organizers wanted was for the villagers to hear another language, so both of us obliged to this short speechh. We left shortly after and didn't get to see the actual match because Mr. Mondal needed VSSU's van that we had driven to the tournament. The organizers gave us some really good porata and aloo curry with sweets though, which was a bonus, especially considering the impromptu speech we had to give and the fact that we couldn't actually stay to see the match.
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| Queen Victoria's Royal Palace |
That was no problem though, because it gave us time to plan our trip to Kolkata the next day. Soma, Aurelie, and I saw Queen Victoria's palace, the biggest colossal park I've ever seen, and some local markets (for shopping, of course). It was quite an eventful and tiring day and for the first time, I saw some other foreigners in India at Queen Victoria's palace. We ate lunch at a place called "Fresh & Juicy" (weird name, I know), where we met a lady from Canada who had been touring South Asia for the past two months to learn about yoga, surfing, and the local culture. It was really nice to be able to hold a conversation with a fluent English speaker, and she was really interesting to boot! On the train ride back to our VSSU home, I fell asleep from exhaustion. You know how sometimes you twitch in your sleep and wake yourself up? Well that's what I did as my head was bent forward in a napping position. It was only a little bit embarrassing when everyone looked at me and Soma asked what happened! Thankfully, there weren't any creep-o's on the train this time, but I'll know how to curse them out in Hindi if it I meet anymore. I only wish I had remembered that I know those curses for the last time it happened!
