3 T-shirts, 1 Pair of Pants, and 1 Roll of TP

Trip Start Oct 11, 2009

Trip End Jan 11, 2010

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

The Intern House in Sotla

(Jalandhar hotels)

Flag of India Sotla, Punjab, India
Friday, October 16, 2009

I spent the weekend in Sotla getting to know the other interns and my boss, Mr. B. There were around 9 or so interns living in the house, and Mr. B was the director of the organization I was volunteering with, EduCARE India. I was under the impression that I would be living in Sotla with the other interns, and working on the women's empowerment and environmental projects. However, this was not to be the case. I was informed that I would be living in another, far away village, Naryala, and that I would be setting up a language school. At first I was just like ooook, whatever. I was told I would only have to do it for a month, and then I would get support to work on whatever I wanted. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

For the time being though, I had much bigger worries. In my efforts to pack light, I had only brought 3 t-shirts and one pair of pants with me. I thought that I would be able to buy some cheap clothes quickly, or that I could buy a Punjabi suit. I also only had the one roll of toilet paper, and my worst fear was running out of toilet paper and having to go native and use the hand/water technique.

One of the long-term interns was kind enough to take me to the nearest biggish town, where I could buy fabric to take to the tailor to be made into a Punjabi suit, as well as toilet paper. Unfortunately there aren't really any ready made clothes in the towns for women as women only wear Punjabi suits. But most men, except for the elderly ones, wear westernized clothes.

While the purchasing of the fabric was relatively easy, the whole getting the suits made thing was surprisingly time consuming. I took my fabric into the tailor in Sotla, and she said they would be ready in a week. I came back a week later, but they were all too small, so she had to adjust them. I had wanted to get 4 suits made, and in the end only 2 were wearable, the third was wearable after I took it to another tailor, and the 4th was so poorly made that I could never wear it.

This taught me a valuable lesson. Don't skimp on the t-shirts and pants when packing! I also had my first experience with hand washing a whole load of laundry. It takes hours. And involves squatting beside a bucket the whole time. I have so much more admiration for the Indian women who spend hours cooking, washing, and working while squatting.

I am not going to lie, but I was slightly tempted to go live in Naryala, as I heard that the living conditions were better than those in Sotla. In Sotla, there were 2 western style toilets, but neither flushed so you had to fill up a bucket of water to flush them. There was no hot water for showering, although one washroom actually did have a functioning shower head, the other was bucket style. The interns were responsible for all house duties, including buying food, cooking, and cleaning. There was sporadic wireless internet, although more often than not it was broken. And of course there was no washing machine, so laundry had to be hand washed.

Despite these things, it was nice to have the support of so many other interns from all over the world, and Sotla had established programs in the village.

On Tuesday, I was picked up by 2 strange men, only one spoke very basic English. The other intern who would be living with me in Naryala, Matthias, was there as well. We were taken to Naryala and introduced to our host family. And so my internship began.