Turning veggies into pickles, and women into entrepreneurs

One of the first requests that we received upon arriving in Hyderabad, was a plea from the local LDS Branch President to find a way to empower the poorest women in the branch. Many of these women are the sole providers in their home, but lack the education and skills needed to work at a job with a liveable wage. Despite these difficulties, these women and their children are active contributors in the branch, often at great sacrifice.

Working through the Relief Society, we were able to identify and bring together those with the greatest need. At our first meeting, we asked each woman what her skills and talents were. It actually took a bit of prodding as these women didn’t feel that had anything marketable to contribute. But it was fun to help them discover just how their skills could be turned into an income-generating venture.

After a sifting process, the women together decided on making (drum roll)… pickles! Yes, that’s right. They felt that pickles were something they could make better and cheaper than the going pickles in stores.

Pickles in India are unlike anything I’ve tried before. Definitely an aquired taste… which I am actively aquiring. They pickle most vegetables and many fruits. A load of salt and oil mixed with exotic delicious spices and chilis to make quite the flavorful celebration in one’s mouth.

Next, we came together to decide on a name. We threw around Telegu names such as Surya (sun) and Maradalu (sisters), some iconic names such as Obama or Mona Lisa (envision the logo as Mona Lisa holding a pickle- so many possibilities!), but ended up on following the pattern of many NGOs here and forming a rockin’ acronym: WEE (Women Empowered through Employment) Pickles. Next, Casey on our team designed a lovely logo. And thus, the birth of India’s latest and greatest pickling venture.

Here are the two main women producing the pickles, Rani

and Kumari,

at our inaugural sale. We tied gold bows on everything from the bottles to our hair, to make it “auspicious” (my favorite India-specific word meaning an event that is “important, favored by fortune”).

Working through the finances...

Roopkala (not pictured) is a very educated and wise woman who has been wanting to find a way to help her fellow branch members, and so has joined and was voted as our fearless group leader. She is absolutely essential to the sustainability of the project, so we are so grateful to have her on.

Within the first week, all 17 bottles of the vegetable pickles sold right out of their home, leaving only 12 chicken pickles on the shelf.

Here.... WEE..... go.....

Livin the Sibling Dream

One of my favorite things about being in India is my kid brother, Sean. While people might assume that I dragged him here with me, that ain’t the case. Last year when Sean and I were living at home together, we would often talk late into the night about going out and solving the world’s problems with his engineering skills and my public health/development passion. Shortly after accepting my position as country director for HELP International’s program in India a few months ago, I was approached by Matt Colling, a founder for Sain Terre (www.sainterre.org), about building “Soilets” in India.

The Soilet is a simple, inexpensive, and really innovative toilet system that employs really basic technology (like earthworms) to dispose of waste in a self-contained “mini-ecosystem” right there on-site. It is the perfect solution for places with little infrastructure (like sewer-lines), is much cheaper than septic systems, can be made with local stuff by local folks, AND… doesn’t smell.

While many underdeveloped nations have a great need for basic sanitation amenities, such as clean water and toilet facilities, India’s problem is exacerbated by cramming a billion people into this country.

So Sean is a tinkerer. Before he was old enough to ride a big wheel, he had the most insatiable curiosity for how things work, and a love for “inventing” all sorts of fine handicraft out of everything from toilet paper rolls to broken computer chips. So the minute the lightbulb went on that I may have an “in” to make our sibling dream happen, I called him up and told him all about the soilet. And he was a goner at that point.

Check out his rockin blog to see how he has taken flight with the Soilets:

http://seanhelpsindia.blogspot.com/

As you can see, he has now completely revamped the Soilet to make it Indianized, and in the process cut the cost and building time in half. I’m so proud of him.

Having Sean here makes it seem like home. Like, I could live anywhere if I had m’Sean. Early mornings we hit the streets on a run through the traffic and the less-than-awesome smells, for a few laps around the military field and finish it off with a rip-roaring session of laughing yoga with a big group of 60-year-old men. Most nights we take five times longer brushing our teeth cause we have too much to say through the foam about the funny or frustrating things that happened that day. He knows just what to say to make me laugh at any given moment when I’m stressed. He’s actually making a mango smoothie for us to share right now.

Aw. This is my Ode to Sean.

My lucky rupee

The other day I was at a stop light in an auto-rickshaw, when 2 men approached us begging for money. These gents were adorned in women’s sauris, with lipstick and earrings. Yes, these cross-dressing men are commonly called the “3^rd gender” in India. They make a living from begging, sometimes prostitution, and… party-crashing (weddings, specifically). They are said to be good luck to have at a wedding, and so they will show up in big groups demanding food and money. And people have to give it to them, or amen to that marriage. Or so I hear.

Begging is a difficult conundrum here in India. It is much more intrusive, persistent, and prevalent than any place I have been. It is a constant debate in my mind as to what to do about it. I have talked with a couple of NGOs here that focus on the most vulnerable populations. All have insisted that resources are available (such as shelters), but begging is much more lucrative for many of them.

In the past couple of months there have been a few stories on CNN online about the uncovering of the current issue with gangs in India kidnapping children, maiming them, and then forcing them to beg. I certainly don’t want to feed that kind of system.

And above all, everything that we are pushing for here in India is to build self-reliance and sustainability, rather than enabling dependence.

On the other hand, every day I am passing human beings that are hungry. Yes, it may not even go to them at the end of the day. Yes, there may be some other resources available. Yes, contributing to the practice may help perpetuate it. But these are people with needs, undoubtedly.

I don’t have a good answer as to what to do at this point.

Ok, back to my story. So, there they were reaching into our auto saying “Money, money, give me 10 rupees” with the typical accompanying hand motions, but much more adamant than common beggars. My friend here said that when you don’t give them money, they yell curses upon you. However… I guess for fun I said “You give ME ten rupees.” Thinking I didn’t understand, one pulled out a one-rupee coin and repeated it, and I replied the same. He smiled and said “Ok, one rupee. Give me one rupee.” I said “Oh, that rupee is for me? Thank you!” and held out my hand. At this point, the light changed, and suddenly, he dropped the rupee in my hand, burst out laughing, and blew me a kiss as we drove off. YEAH. I got money from a beggar. I don’t know what this means coming from a 3^rd gender, cross-dressing, wedding-crashing beggar. But I think it has got to be some kind of good luck.

(Note: The only thing this picture has to do with this blog post, is that I'm the only woman in this picture. I watched these "ladies" do some traditional dancing... then met them and realized...)

Mona Lisa Smile

So people here in India are finding it difficult to say or remember my name. I have asked a couple of people about a local Indian name that sounds like Melissa. And both quickly said "Monalisa." I've actually started to introduce myself as Monalisa, and the locals love it.

So when I saw this picture yesterday, I couldn't help myself...

So there is no mystery to my smile, and Mona Lisa doesn't have a greasy-sweaty face... but whatev.

Resilience

"Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant." –Maya Angelou

Interacting with people of different lands and cultures in this world has left me to reflect on one of the most beautiful common strands running throughout the human race: that of resilience. In my short 3 weeks here in India, I have seen this manifest in a variety of ways.

Like early this morning, when the lady who picks through the garbage that we leave out actually came to our door to see if we had some garbage to put out- because we have a more lucrative collection (a lot of bottled water goes down here) and hadn't put it out this morning. Though her clothes are a bit tattered, she always has a flower in her hair. I dropped my new phrase in Telegu for "What is your name?" and she seemed surprised I would ask. She is Napera. She is a pretty pretty lady, with smooth skin, dark almond eyes, a petite frame, and a lovely smile (people have rocking teeth here, by-the-way. Low sugar diet, I'm guessing?). I would love to know her story sometime.

And the darling little old man that sat in front of me at the "Human Rights in Leprosy" National Forum- he was flipping through his notes and writing things, all with little stubs for fingers. Not a wit behind his fully able-bodied neighbor. So cool.

Or the kids we visited at the MV Foundation “bridge school," who have had little or no education because they have been child laborers or indentured servants. These schools function to help the kids catch up in 1-2 years, to then be able to enter public schools at their grade level. We got to hear some of the girl’s stories. I wish kids in the US could meet these girls, and never fake a sick day again.

The human fight for survival is astounding. And further impressive, is the ability to adapt to new and even extremely difficult circumstances. And most of all, the ability to find reasons to laugh and play when things are tough. I’ve seen all of these, and feel inspired.

And just for fun, some silly personal examples:
- Every time I have lived for an extended period in a more tropical I quickly develop this heat rash on my neck that looks… like a hickey. Yeah… However, I think in China it lasted all summer, Uganda about half the summer, and here- I think it is on its way out after 3 weeks. Hoot-yah.
- Real Indian food has got a crazy spicy kick. I think that the spiciest you can order it in the states is the mild here. However, after the first few days, we can stomach the spice no prob, and actually request it. It’s either a numb-tongue issue, or legitimate adaptation but whatever it is, I may be buying a travel-size bottle of Tabasco to put in the purse upon returning home.

- I have seriously had cankles since arriving here. But they HAVEN'T been resilient. So they are a non-example of my point. But I kind of think they are funny in a ridiculous way, so I'm including them in this list.
- In these short few weeks, the things we thought of as inconveniences at first- running water that only works part of the time and is cold when you want hot and hot when you want cold, sweating for every waking hour, not only riding without a seatbelt but with several of us cramped on top of eachother nearly hanging out of the open-air 3-wheeler autos in ridiculous traffic… it’s all just normal life now. Even for many of the volunteers in our group who are first-time out of the country-ers, they are adapting like champs.

Resilience. Thriving. Elegance. Love it.