Sublimity…

When we left for Mayali on April 21st, we had the task of rescouting all the villages in Hilongard watershed, re-selecting 5 communities based on our new criteria, and most importantly – completing microplans (and associated tasks) in two villages. For all this, we had a tentative deadline of May 20th, something that, while certainly [...]

In making my decision to come to India for a year, one of the major things that I considered was climate, and the summer in particular. Having lived in the country for 11 months previously, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, and based on that experience, I knew I [...]

As I’ve written before, I’ve been here in Mayali long enough that I’m starting to feel like this is home. I know what can be bought at each of the different stores (quite a feat when every little hole-in-the-wall sells the most random (huge) selection of items), how much rice costs (and should cost), which [...]

I’ve never been one to believe in astrology, but lately I’ve become convinced that there are currently some pretty amazing alignments in the sky. Though I do go out and look at the stars every few nights, that’s just for pleasure and inspiration (nothing like star-gazing to inspire wonder and magic in a person), my [...]

After an extended stay in Dehradun (trying to again figure out what it is we are supposed to be doing in this project, and which villages we are going to work in), I’m back in Mayali. As always, there’s a lot of uncertainty about everything here so I don’t really know how long I’ll be [...]