A cool wind swept through the community center that Sunday morning. Ahmedabad’s winter finally arrived, ushering in cozy sweaters, bright kites in the pale blue sky, and rare patches of warm sun. While I finished hand-washing my colossal load of laundry, fingers and feet numb, I could only wonder, “Will they come?”Optimistically, I put out the ten small sized matlos, earthen water vessels, I picked up earlier that morning, displayed a chalkboard, set up my i-tunes blazing laptop and began the wait.
By Anjali Dotson '06
If you asked me to write a small piece on the health camp we organized in June in my host village, I would probably say it was held in a remote village 70km from the nearest city with 6 doctors from 5 different faculties who saw 265 patients from over 55 villages in 6 hours for Rs.20 per person.
And you might be impressed.
But what I probably wouldn’t mention would be the angry masis crowding around the clinic door trying to get in before their turn. Or the young illiterate women who couldn’t remember the proper dosage of 4 out of their 5 medicines within 30 seconds of leaving the exam room. Or the printers from Bhuj who didn’t send the illustrated medical faculty signs on time. Or the 6 people from my organization who committed to the day and were assigned crucial tasks and then simply decided not to come. Yeah, I probably would leave all that out.
Okay, so I’ve never been to Kansas, nor do I have any desire to go there. In fact, I’m in Ahmedabad, India for the next nine months. So “what is the point of referencing an old American classic like ‘The Wizard of Oz’?” you may ask. Patience, and I’ll get to the point.Being a volunteer working at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram, I’ve built up a fairly substantial repertoire of answers to the barrage of questions I get asked daily. Generally questions such as, “Did Gandhi actually live here?”, “When did he live here?”, “Why did he live here?”, “Where are the toilets?”. However, recently I was posed with a question that stopped me in my intellectual tracks; a question that I had no rehearsed answer to, nor had I ever given it any real thought. Up till now that is. And that seemingly simple question was “Where did Gandhi get his courage from?”
Six new Fellows will soon be inaugurated into Indicorps' intensive leadership program. As part of Indicorps' attempt to increase the investment in individual participants, we aim to reduce the size of fellowship classes as we integrate a new January program that staggers starting dates of smaller groups. We are excited for Bhavana, Fatima, Ishtar, Naveen, Parth and Rashida to join the ranks of Fellows for Life (Indicorps fellows join a growing community of committed to a better world). These Fellows were selected from an outstanding pool of applicants and will bring tremendous potential and energy to the Indicorps family. While we diversify internationally and welcome our first South African-Indian Fellow, in a bizarre twist of geography, the rest of the team coincidentally all hails from the Washington DC/VA/MD metro area.
“Kuch to Karo Yaar – Just Do Something!” asks Volunteer Ahmedabad, Indicorps’ local volunteering initiative. Well, for every Sunday for the past eight weeks, over 25 local young people are hitting Vastrapur Lake, a popular weekend hangout in Ahmedabad, taking up that challenge. Tired of just complaining about garbage on the streets, these volunteers are doing whatever it takes to build the simple habit of throwing trash in the can. As part of Volunteer Ahmedabad’s weekly “Action Items,” volunteers are picking up trash, speaking with local vendors, rallying new volunteers, performing street plays and providing trash cans, all in an attempt to instill pride in their city!
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From the Gallery
See images by Kajal Patel, a talented UK-based photographer, that are part of an Indicorps project to capture the journey of India's people. Her work particularly focused on widows and the nature of the rag-picking industry in Gujarat's largest slum.
Aasma
Learn about the Indicorps / SAATH partnership, started by Indicorps intern Ajlai Basu, that has lead to Aasma - a volunteer-driven school for street children near the Indicorps office in Gujarat.
The Fellowship
The next fellowship applications are available for fellowship classes starting August 2008 and January 2009. To apply, click here.Inspiration
If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
- Lila Watson
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