cows in my commute and a shameless plug for Obama

There has been more buzz about the Gujjar protests in Delhi. No worries. I buzzed around South Delhi all morning and hardly hit any more than the usual traffic. (interesting sights out and about: three cows in middle of busy intersection, ferarri sticker on back of my chosen tuk tuk)

I actually find the protests really interesting. Growing pains of democracy. I had promised myself that I would go to a protest in Washington this past year and I really regret that I didn't. Guilty of college-born complacency.  No worries, mom, I don't have a sudden urge now to throw stones or burn a few rogue bicycle tires....however if the presidential nomination doesn't go to Obama asap all bets are off. On that note, I still get my daily Obama news in The Times of India and the Hindustan Times. It seems as though everyone is really tuned into this election....annnddd I haven't met a Hillary supporter yet. huzzah!

Currently avoiding writing the mammoth survey that I will be using to interview the women in the community houses in Bihar and Kolkata. I am supposed to be pulling together a list of questions to discuss one on one with women who have come to Apne Aap in hopes of leaving the life of prostitution they were trafficked into. I feel incredibly obtuse trying to form these questions. There is no way I could ever truly understand what these girls have gone through. I feel overwhelming sympathy (it is at least part of why I'm here), but I could never truly empathize. I only hope the girls won't find my lack of experience insulting. I have to finish the questions by tomorrow so we can get them all translated into Hindi for the interpreter. Selfishly, I am inwardly glad that there will be a translator there. I'm not sure if I could handle these interviews mono-a-mono. I'm not so naive as to think that the force of the responses could be diminished by translation. However, it will be nice to have an older person in the room when I interview girls my age who were trafficked at age 7.

I'll try not to let the blogs get too heavy and depressing...promise.

So it looks like I am going to be heading to Bihar sooner than I thought. Probably Tuesday. And I will be gone for about two weeks. Ah.

smiles,

c