Tadoba

This is the map of Tadoba.

I had my introduction chat with Claudia today and we sure did talk a lot. During the conversation it became clear to me that the situation is a little different than I imagined. This is good, since the challenge will be even bigger. Further my placement coordinator thought that I might not be able to meet my learning objectives, because the organisation is small. Now that's not going to be a problem, since there is a lot to learn that I didn't think off.

A village in Tadoba

There are many differences between the Netherlands and the communities in India. People are very much aware of the status of a person. Women better don't wear shorts, even though it's like 30 oC. Women take care of cooking and raising the children and the men work on the fields. In the harvesting period, it's, for the children, more important to get the harvest in than to go to school. The language spoken is Marathi....so I need a person who can translate for me and my dictionairy ofcourse :). The food and products which are used are quite different than I'm used to, so Claudia gave the advise to find myself a cook... How nice will that be, dinner is served!

There are quite a few issues that need to be tackled: education, economic growth, litter (plastic shopping bags), decrease of the buffer zones around the Tadoba- Andhari Tiger Reserve and so on. Claudia and I came up with lots of possibilities of projects I can do. So lots of work and lots to read before I make a choice of which project suits me best. I will focus on education, developing services (inventarisation of what people like to achieve and find ways to support them) and what to do with litter. For the exchangeproject SCF likes to set up I might do some filming. Never done that before, but it sounds like fun.

Well, next step is to get organized. Find out when I can leave, tickets, vaccinations, write my project proposal for school and very important, learn more about India, the rules, culture, do's and don'ts!!

Yogi Cat, only bigger!