Eduardo said, “the woman I interviewed is Santosh Kanwar, she’s 26 with 4 little ones – Anshuman, Radha, Deepika, and Abnishiek. She touched me as deeply as it gets when she answered my question ‘what has been the biggest change for you since you joined the women’s self-help group?’ She said that she had finally learned the first names of all the women in her village. Up until then they only knew each other as so and so’s wife. Step one on the path to independence – identity.”

Santosh Kanwar photo by Eduardo Sciammarella

Santosh Kanwar photo by Eduardo Sciammarella

-Maggie Soladay, India 2009 trip producer

Lake Pichola in Udaipur

boy jumping into Lake Pichola

This link is pretty fun. EARTHTV.com for Udapur’s Lake Pichola is a live camera pan across part of the lake and shows if the lake has water. The music is distracting (bad) but the live camera panning across Udaipur is really cool. When the camera isn’t working the comments are helpful. The site gives the time, temp, and today it shows evidence of water in Lake Pichola where the Lake Palace Hotel (historically) floats. But, seems for the past many years visitors have been lucky if they get a boat ride. In an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, Bourdain took a boat out to the Lake Palace Hotel for a shaken Martini ala James Bond in honor of the film “Octopussy” that was filmed here. I hold on to the hope I can follow Anthony and Roger by boat. But, no worries, Udaipur couldn’t be a more beautiful perfect place to end our trip next month.

Abhaneri Kund

Abhaneri Temple near Jaipur

Monkey Temple at Galta by lumiere's on flicker

Monkey at Temple in Galta by RemoDing

Monkey’s swarm the temple at Galta near Abhaneri on Jaipur’s outskirts.

I will request the Hepatitis A and B vaccines, as well as Polio, Typhoid, and probably Meningitis. Japanese Encephalitis is buzzing around the travel health sites but I don’t think I will be in enough rural areas this time around to be concerned. But I will report back here on this Japanese Encephalitis.

If traveling to India from some parts of South America or Africa, Yellow Fever vaccine is required. (I do not think that is anyone from our group) It is not recommended if you are not transiting from infected areas. There are no other required vaccines for travel to India currently.

VACCINATIONS
The links that I used to make my decisions:
Centers for Disease Control, Traveling to India page:
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/india.aspx

Simple and helpful page at MDTRAVELHEALTH.com:
http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destinations/asia/india.php

To have the most benefit, visit your doctor or a travel doctor at least 4–6 weeks before your trip to allow time for your vaccines to take effect and to start taking medicine to prevent malaria, if you choose to take an anti-malarial drug.

Find a doctor who specializes in Travel Medicine:
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/content/travel-clinics.aspx

MALARIA
CDC page on Malaria in India says, “According to the World Health Organization, every year in India an estimated 2 million cases of malaria occur, with 1,000 deaths; and 95% of the population live in malaria-risk areas.” But, the traveldoctor.co.uk says that Rajasthan and Delhi are low risk areas. Also, from what I have read, it is between dusk and dawn that these mosquitoes bite.

There are several different Malaria prophylactic treatments. From Amanda’s past experience with the strong medication, it was not worth it because side effects are hallucinations, bad dreams, etc..
Amanda’s recipe:
“ The low level antibiotic malaria medicine, see how many mosquitoes are around, and drink lots of tonic water. The quinine in the tonic sweats through our pores which repels mosquitoes. Combine with a repellent (with some deet) like REI’s Jungle Juice when they’re buzzing around the ankles.” (she always travels with ciprio + has mostly given it to others who forgot it and unfortunately, needed it. always travel with rehydration/electrolyte stuff as well)

Wikipedia page on Malaria Prophelaxis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria_prophylaxis

2 choices for travelers visiting low risk Rajasthan and Delhi as per the traveldocto.co.uk.

The traveldoctor.co.uk says, either;
Chloroquinine 300mg weekly or Proguanil 200 mg daily
Or
That “no prophylactic tablets required but anti mosquito measures should be strictly observed: Avoid mosquito bites by covering up with clothing such as long sleeves and long trousers especially after sunset, using insect repellents on exposed skin and, when necessary, sleeping under a mosquito net.”

Proguanil: 100 mg tablets supplied as Paludrine
Chloroquinine: 150 mg tablets supplied as Nivaquine or Avloclor

Chloroquine, Proguanil & Maloprim: Start one week before travel, throughout your stay in an endemic area and continue for four weeks after return. Important to take regularly and before or after a meal.

Time to go…
Maggie Soladay

This week I added the September 2009 Rajasthan India trip!

Rajasthan India is a peaceful fascinatingly beautiful region in Northwestern India.  Evidence of the the mighty Rajputs is everywhere in temples, palaces, and forts.  Our mission is to explore the region’s art, culture, food, and architecture, and while doing so, put our talents into creating powerful stories about NGO Vatsalya’s work in Jaipur.  Vatsalya runs a home called Udayan, 40 minutes from Jaipur, that is home to 54 orphaned, homeless, abused, or neglected children where we will all visit on our second day in Indai.  Vatsalya also runs programs to help women with micro loans, truckers with education on HIV/AIDS, slum children with an outreach van that provides education and games, as well as other programs that aid and sometimes save the lives of people of Rajasthan.

We will pick a start day soon for the 12 day itinerary.   I encourage everyone interested to pipe up now so you can be part of choosing our departure date and fine tuning the itinerary.

click here for the itinerary and story ideas.

I am so excited to build this group of travelers over the next months.  I am currently working as a photography editor for The American Lawyer magazine in NYC and having the best time getting creative within the limitations of time and concept when it comes to portraiture of powerful American Attorneys.  I am lucky to have a gig like this.  The publishing world is seeing huge numbers of lay-offs that have effected many of my friends.  But the economic crisis and the crisis that India and the people of Mumbai have been so devastated by recently need not be ignored.  Stay in it! You can help change the face of media as we know it now.    These events in our midst have inspired me to move faster towards my goal of creating stories that give unsung non-profits and ngos the attention they lack.

In the meantime I am planning a trip myself to Cuba for relaxation and some scouting around for a 2010 trip possibility to cuba…  stay tuned.

-Maggie Soladay