As Beyonce says, Countdown!

At the request of friends and family members, I gave in and made a blog! This is to share my experiences with all ya'll Americans as I spend the next 4 months living and studying in the Indian subcontinent, based out of the city of Jaipur, the capital of the Rajasthan state.

The program I am part of is organized by the World Learning Center's School of International Training (SIT.) They're a non-profit educational organization that hosts specialized undergraduate learning programs all over the globe. I was drawn to SIT's program: Sustainable Development and Social Change because it's a non-traditional, field-based program that seems to really integrate students into the areas of study as much as possible. For example, I'll be living with an Indian family for the first 7 weeks, commuting back and forth independently (most likely by rickshaw...awesome)? to the main SIT learning center where the classes are taught. I was attracted to this kind of living situation rather than living in a "dorm" style room on a college campus because I want to experience as much of the common Indian life as possible. As part of our program, myself and the 18 other students (from around the USA and outside too, I believe) will be going on "excursions" around Rajashtan with the SIT staff to meet with non-profit organizations and academic leaders to learn about how they are working towards improving the social standards and developmental conditions that challenge many Indians.

 From what I've read so far, some of the places we'll be visiting include:

-a rehabilitation center for disabled children

-a non-profit organization that works to promote sustainable agriculture in rural India

-an all women's college

-a non-profit organization that works to improve the lives of marginalized groups of people in rural India

-a prosthetic foot factory

A list of more places we'll be going is available on the SIT website here.

 ....And a list of courses I'll be taking that complement the excursions is listed here.

The last few weeks of the program is called the "Independent Study Project" or ISP period. After visiting with the organizations, meeting the leaders and seeing the work they do, the SIT students must decide on a social issue that they want to research more about for the final ISP paper. Apparently we're pretty much on our own for this part of the trip. We must make our own travel arrangements and organize interviews with people to gather more information on our topics. No idea what mine will be, but topics range from water waste management to women's literacy to organic farming. I'm really interested in working with Indian women and learning about the challenges they face in such a traditionally patriarchal culture like India. 

Soooo, now that I'm back from Wisconsin where I've spent the last week visiting my friend Katie from UVM, this trip is the only thing I have left ahead of me. There's a lot to do in preparation for this trip...from finding culturally appropriate clothing to bring (most of my wardrobe is not agreeable to Indian cultural standards) to getting all of the medications/shots/immunizations required for the trip. Ouch. I can't help but feel that I'll forget something vital, but I guess we'll find out once I'm there!

More blogging things and photos to come once I actually land over yonder.