Hello all,
I am happy to say that I am finally getting a day of rest during this busy summer. In fact, I laid in bed until 11:00 this morning!! I can't remember the last time that happened! It was wonderful to say the least. I also just noticed that today in the 20th of July, which means I will be headed home to NC in a month's time. Hard to believe yet another month has flown by!!
Yesterday my friend Mercy and I took a day trip to see Chittorgarh Fort, which is both the largest fort in Asia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We hired a guide for a two hour tour and proceeded to drive through the complex and stop at different sites. The area of the fort covers 700 acres and we were told it would take three days to see everything by foot!! I have found a good website which explains more about the fort's history and significance (as well as some of the best known structures which you will see in my pictures below): http://www.chittorgarh.com/tourism_at_chittorgarh.asp
As for work, everything is moving along with my research project. I finalized the guide I will need to lead focus groups and I have selected the villages I will be going to. Now it is a matter of coordinating with the different blocks that I will be visiting and seeing when they can help us set up the groups. I am also in the process of trying to find a translator to come to the field with me each time and to also help me with document translation. The NGO introduced me to a male student who seemed very excited for the opportunity, but totally balked when I sent him the document for translation. Still don't know what that was about. So now it's back to the drawing board on that. Luckily, I have mulitple friends helping me out with this, so hopefully I can find someone soon! The NGO has people I can use if nothing comes together in the end, but they can't guarantee the same person every time so that means more work for me in the terms of training each new person. If nothing ends up working out before the week is over, I will just have to go with that option.
The monsoon weather was worse last week than it had been, meaning that electricity and internet were being knocked out on a regular basis. This was a bit frustrating for me as my computer is getting old and does not last long without a battery hook-up. There were a few times I had to abandon my work for an hour or more until the power came back on and I could resume what I was doing.
Depending on how quickly we can get things together in these next few days, I just might be heading to the field again later this week (Thurs/Fri). However, I am hoping to make some time to go and see other sites around Rajasthan in the coming weeks! I might even make a trip to Jaipur :) Will keep you all posted ... for now, enjoy the pics!
I am happy to say that I am finally getting a day of rest during this busy summer. In fact, I laid in bed until 11:00 this morning!! I can't remember the last time that happened! It was wonderful to say the least. I also just noticed that today in the 20th of July, which means I will be headed home to NC in a month's time. Hard to believe yet another month has flown by!!
Yesterday my friend Mercy and I took a day trip to see Chittorgarh Fort, which is both the largest fort in Asia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We hired a guide for a two hour tour and proceeded to drive through the complex and stop at different sites. The area of the fort covers 700 acres and we were told it would take three days to see everything by foot!! I have found a good website which explains more about the fort's history and significance (as well as some of the best known structures which you will see in my pictures below): http://www.chittorgarh.com/tourism_at_chittorgarh.asp
As for work, everything is moving along with my research project. I finalized the guide I will need to lead focus groups and I have selected the villages I will be going to. Now it is a matter of coordinating with the different blocks that I will be visiting and seeing when they can help us set up the groups. I am also in the process of trying to find a translator to come to the field with me each time and to also help me with document translation. The NGO introduced me to a male student who seemed very excited for the opportunity, but totally balked when I sent him the document for translation. Still don't know what that was about. So now it's back to the drawing board on that. Luckily, I have mulitple friends helping me out with this, so hopefully I can find someone soon! The NGO has people I can use if nothing comes together in the end, but they can't guarantee the same person every time so that means more work for me in the terms of training each new person. If nothing ends up working out before the week is over, I will just have to go with that option.
The monsoon weather was worse last week than it had been, meaning that electricity and internet were being knocked out on a regular basis. This was a bit frustrating for me as my computer is getting old and does not last long without a battery hook-up. There were a few times I had to abandon my work for an hour or more until the power came back on and I could resume what I was doing.
Depending on how quickly we can get things together in these next few days, I just might be heading to the field again later this week (Thurs/Fri). However, I am hoping to make some time to go and see other sites around Rajasthan in the coming weeks! I might even make a trip to Jaipur :) Will keep you all posted ... for now, enjoy the pics!
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