Good grief!!
So I never really realized how much time I spend on the computer, until I stopped having regular access. This is INSANE! I'm going into email withdrawals (which is silly mainly because even if I only check every three or four days, there are only a couple of good ones there anyway), and I obviously have been neglecting the blog. It's all about priorities, I guess ...
Anyhow, the only reason I have time today is because a meeting fell through. We were supposed to meet up at Sankalp (the drug rehab drop-in centre) with friends of the users who were NOT drug addicts (the theory being we would get a different perspective on the prison experience). Unfortunately, we set this up Friday, and since most of the people who agreed to bring their friends are not clean, they seem to have ALL forgot. Additionally, the counselor who works there, Surjeet, who's been awesome about organizing and facilitating, wasn't around to help us figure out what went wrong. So instead, we passed out sweets (which we'd brought for our little focus group) to everyone standing around, took a few pictures, and then decided we all needed to check our email.
This seems to be a problem with the trip (or possibly with India, or with human rights work): plans tend to fall through. It's really hard for me, since I'm very used to and fond of planning, to deal with things not coming together half the time. But whatever - I guess this is supposed to be a learning experience, eh?
Fortunately, we are getting some stuff done. On Friday, I had an interview with a woman who heads a field action project on public health in prisons from a social worker graduate student program - I got to talk to her and a student who goes into prison twice a week, and they had a TON of information (so much so that I am supposed to meet with the grad student again - except she didn't contact me as planned). And Saturday, Neema and I interviewed someone from the Art of Living, a sort of meditation group that teaches prisoners to rise above their stressful surroundings. He was ... interesting, but made me feel pretty good about the academic interviews I've been having over the last week.
And it's not all work, no play (mainly work, but not ALL) - yesterday, we were invited by the head of our host organization out to his country home. It was a three hour drive for a three-hour visit (and then another three-hour drive back), which some of my team-members didn't appreciate, but I was so happy to get out of the city that it wasn't a problem for me at all! The air was fresh(er), the food was home-cooked, and his house (which he designed) was AMAZING. Also, it makes me think that not all public-interest work means you have to be underpaid! (He runs a private litigation practice on the side, I think.)
Anyway, that's what's going on here - lots of arranging meetings, and then meeting people, and then driving other places ... lots of car time, lots of face time, etc. It's good to build relationships, and we're getting all sorts of interesting information, but sometimes it's hard to see the big picture through all the crazy details.
At any rate, I have definitely learned this month that law school by itself will NOT prepare me for a great human rights career ... now I'm trying to find out if there's some sort of masters program in development & environmental sustainability or something. We'll see. At the moment, my primary focus is on making it through the next week!
Hope all is well! :)
Anyhow, the only reason I have time today is because a meeting fell through. We were supposed to meet up at Sankalp (the drug rehab drop-in centre) with friends of the users who were NOT drug addicts (the theory being we would get a different perspective on the prison experience). Unfortunately, we set this up Friday, and since most of the people who agreed to bring their friends are not clean, they seem to have ALL forgot. Additionally, the counselor who works there, Surjeet, who's been awesome about organizing and facilitating, wasn't around to help us figure out what went wrong. So instead, we passed out sweets (which we'd brought for our little focus group) to everyone standing around, took a few pictures, and then decided we all needed to check our email.
This seems to be a problem with the trip (or possibly with India, or with human rights work): plans tend to fall through. It's really hard for me, since I'm very used to and fond of planning, to deal with things not coming together half the time. But whatever - I guess this is supposed to be a learning experience, eh?
Fortunately, we are getting some stuff done. On Friday, I had an interview with a woman who heads a field action project on public health in prisons from a social worker graduate student program - I got to talk to her and a student who goes into prison twice a week, and they had a TON of information (so much so that I am supposed to meet with the grad student again - except she didn't contact me as planned). And Saturday, Neema and I interviewed someone from the Art of Living, a sort of meditation group that teaches prisoners to rise above their stressful surroundings. He was ... interesting, but made me feel pretty good about the academic interviews I've been having over the last week.
And it's not all work, no play (mainly work, but not ALL) - yesterday, we were invited by the head of our host organization out to his country home. It was a three hour drive for a three-hour visit (and then another three-hour drive back), which some of my team-members didn't appreciate, but I was so happy to get out of the city that it wasn't a problem for me at all! The air was fresh(er), the food was home-cooked, and his house (which he designed) was AMAZING. Also, it makes me think that not all public-interest work means you have to be underpaid! (He runs a private litigation practice on the side, I think.)
Anyway, that's what's going on here - lots of arranging meetings, and then meeting people, and then driving other places ... lots of car time, lots of face time, etc. It's good to build relationships, and we're getting all sorts of interesting information, but sometimes it's hard to see the big picture through all the crazy details.
At any rate, I have definitely learned this month that law school by itself will NOT prepare me for a great human rights career ... now I'm trying to find out if there's some sort of masters program in development & environmental sustainability or something. We'll see. At the moment, my primary focus is on making it through the next week!
Hope all is well! :)
posted by Teale at 4:26 AM
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