meeting the big shot

Back to work. When we’re not interviewing villagers and visiting education centers, we’re sitting in the second-floor conference room (which we have renamed ‘Clemons’ after our (un)beloved UVA library) with eyes alternating between the gorgeous mountain landscape and our excel spreadsheets.  The process of analyzing data and drafting outlines and proposals takes just as long as collecting the data itself!

However, on Wednesday, we scheduled a sort of last-minute meeting with the Chamba District Coordinator.  That may or may not sound like an impressive title to you, but let me tell you—this guy is a big shot.  Politically, his responsibilities are somewhere in between a Mayor and a Governor.  Except he is appointed instead of elected. And he is greeted more like a king. 

We all dressed up for the occasion, haha, the first time in weeks.  We were supposed to meet him at 4pm sharp, but he had another meeting and we didn’t get to see him until about 5:45 when he left the meeting to come talk to us for exactly 10 minutes and then returned to the meeting.  We had to sit inside and await his arrival because apparently if we had been standing outside when he arrived we would have been expected to do this special little salute or something.

However, the ten minutes we had with him were incredibly thought provoking. This guy is really intelligent. As he listened intently to our factual project description, he casually reminded us of broad theories and humanitarian concepts pertaining to development and the core purpose of our work.  We’ve been so concerned with the practical, day-to-day, hard-evidence side of our work it was really refreshing and insightful to once again ponder the fundamental principles behind our work.

After the DC had to return to his meeting we had the chance to spend a good while talking with two really great guys below him (oh I cant remember their positions…one was the head police officer and the other worked with education and something else, I don’t remember) and able to really explain our motivations and aspirations for the project.  These guys were SO excited and supportive of the project, and shared so many of our ideals about education and development.  It was really amazing.  So now they have promised to help us with the curriculum planning, bringing broadband internet to the area, and getting government support for the project. These guys were really serious and really excited…good things are going to happen.  We only wished we had met with them sooner!

This was a really appropriate way to spend our last day in Gajnoi. Yes, that’s right, we had to say good-bye to our lovely little village home.  Over the next couple weeks, we will travel to Baddi to talk with some potential employers, to Madhuban to visit Arpana’s main headquarters, the Ashram, and be introduced to the aspects of their service program there, and then finally to Delhi to give the final presentation of our project.  Ah it was so sad to leave Gajnoi and the Arpana staff there, they have just been so wonderful.  We’ll definitely miss our favorite little un-mappable village, but can’t wait to see what adventures the rest of the project will hold!

Chell-ae!