Yesterday I spent the morning at the Leela Palace hotel. They claim it’s the only “7 star” hotel in India. While I’ve never heard of a 7-star rating, it’s quite fancy. Each week the “Overseas Women’s Club” meets here for coffee. It’s a lot of ex-pat wives with a few NGO workers sprinkled in. I hadn’t planned to join (it feels a bit like a sorority – loads of fun events but not the reason I’m here) but I realized it’s a great place for me to network on behalf of Oasis.
One of the highlights of my day was using the washroom at the Leela. A nice bathroom is hard to come by here, and when you encounter one it’s heaven! The low point of my day was walking home in the drizzly rain in the dark and realizing I had walked through a public toilet area (a sidewalk – but still a toilet no less) in my flip flops : )
In the afternoon I had some informative calls with the Fair Trade Forum of India and the Oasis UK office. I feel like there is so much to do! It’s a bit overwhelming when I think about it, but very exciting at the same time.
Today is Gandhi’s birthday so it is a national holiday. Since the office is closed, I am working from home on a case study for Oasis. The goal is to gain awareness and earn some funding.
A few interesting facts for today on India:
- The Importance of Color: Because it is very desirable in India to have lighter skin, women here actually cover their entire face and neck with Jolen Bleach (the stuff we sometimes use in the US to bleach facial hair) during facials. In fact, my host family is assisting with an arranged marriage “set-up” of sorts for a young woman in the neighborhood, and one of the men who met her told her she was too dark to be his wife. It’s quite interesting how transparent people are about their prejudices.
- Celebrity Gossip: Julia Roberts is in India right now shooting “Eat, Pray, Love”.
- Current Events: A sightseeing boat just sunk in Kerala (Southern India) with a load of tourists. (This is where Dana and I are taking a boat cruise in December). 41 people died because they ran to the side of the boat to see some elephants and the boat capsized with no life jackets. I will make sure that our boat has life jackets in December…
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Hope your bucket shower did the trick to wash those yummy feet off! :)
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