January 12th

Headed into Fort Kochi today. It’s the historic center of the town. Kochi has the most ancient and scraggly trees  I’ve ever seen. I love it.

Truthfully, I didn’t enjoy the morning’s first presentation. It was a company that owns a lot of vacation properties around India. They make sure that all of their properties are eco-friendly (which is fantastic), but the whole thing got very repetitive.

I’m a sucker for history, so I really enjoyed our next speakers speech. K.J. was previously the mayor of Kochi. One thing I really enjoyed about his presentation was his appreciation for his city and the breadth of knowledge he has about it.

The culinary highlight of the day: the masala cookies served with our tea break. I ate three. The singular thing stopping me from eating the entire platter was social standards. I seriously could have eaten all of them.

We toured the hotel where the presentations were taking place, one of the properties owned by our first presenter. The place is stunning! It was built by the Dutch, so it doesn’t have any Indian of the typical Indian design aesthetics or layout. We got to view one of their suites. I’m glad I got the chance to visit because I don’t think I’d ever be able to afford it in real life.

We took a walk along around town after the hotel. The waterfront is quite touristy. Not my jam but there were some charming side streets.

After that, we got some lunch & then headed over to Jew Street (the name caught me off guard when I heard it. It also caught me off guard the second time. It just sounds like it’s been named by your racist grandpa. Right!?!?) Anyways….I found an amazing gift for my sister while walking around the stores. I found two blocks that are used for printing patterns on the cloth used by women. They’re made out of wood and metal.

Zhi and I found the city’s police museum. It was cool to see the history of their uniforms, weapons & duties.

One of our newfound friends from Inspiration showed us a mural he created. He showed us around his favorite parts of the area.

January 11th

We’ve arrived in Kochi and met with MK’s workmates from Inspiration. MK’s coworker, Nihala,  introduced the head of Inspiration: Jaigopal. He gave us an introduction to their organization. The project he spoke the most about was a resort where they chose to use local materials (coconut trees and laterite stone). The resort also had a self sufficient water ecosystem. They created a water catchment pond on site. Before construction of the pond they had done a usage and evaporation study.

By the way, laterite is such a gorgeous material. A few other project she showed us used the stone. It has such a gorgeous color and pattern. I looked up, and it’s a mix of aluminum and iron that give it it’s distinctive look.

After the morning’s first presentation, we learned about Kochi’s new metro. The recent project needed to be a retro-fitting operation because most Indian cities aren’t planned. Construction of the rail began in 2013 and it just recently opened. I was a bit shocked to learn that they had to coordinate with 23 government agencies to complete the rail line.

26 km of rail service are proposed, currently there are 18 km. In the future, the city would like to incorporate a water metro. Water transport is actually an old mode of transportation in Kochi. The city would like to revive it. If the city completes its current water transportation goals in 2020, it will be the world’s 2nd largest water transportation system in the world (after Venice).

We headed out to take a ride on the metro after learning about it. But first…food! I think this was the fanciest restaurant we’ve been to on our entire trip. Lovely decor, lovely food. I sat near the folks from Inspiration. Over lunch, Nihala showed me how my name would be written in Malayalam. It’s gorgeous.

The Kochi metro was the cleanest rail line I have ever been on. (It’s very new, so I’m sure that helps.) I liked the blue and green color schematic used throughout the stations. The signage was clear and easily understandable.

I was absolutely shocked (no pun intended) by the warning on the track’s edge. I doubted it was real but Van told me that it’s actually true. I don’t always defer to authority but in this case, I considered testing it out but…couldn’t find the will or the guts to step foot over the line.

January 8th

One of today’s lectures touched on a topic we have discussed before: how to define “the poor.” Our presenter, Dr. G. Raveendram Nair had talked about poverty in a way very similar to Kudumbashree. There were 9 metrics used to define poverty. In looking at his research, we found the most common dimension was lack of access to a phone.

Our second lecturer, Aleyamma Vijayan, gave us insight into how women factor into sustainable development. She talked about the path which has led to where women are today: the concept of women being a part of development didn’t emerge until the 1970s. Kerala has put a lot of effort into improving equity and improving the lives of women but there is still a way to go. We learned that violence against women is on the rise in Kerala. Because our group is comprised mostly of women, we had a lot of questions to ask Aleyamma. Unfortunately, one of the men in the room kept preempting her and cutting her off. The irony wasn’t lost on us.

Our third topic of discussion was art and culture. The presenter shared with us how Kerala’s geography played a part in its formation as a culture that is very open and hospitable to the outside world. As time proceeds and Kerala becomes more dense, cultural acceptance is becoming a necessity.

After the lectures at the Center for Development Studies, we went to Jerry’s old stomping grounds! He gave a lecture on housing policy within the US. It covered topics we discussed in some lectures from last semester’s class but it’s always nice to get a refresher.

I wish we had more time to view some of the student work at the college. I felt so bad! When we went upstairs to their workspace, one of the students was trying to present his work to us and we had to breeze through the entire thing. I hope it didn’t come off as though we were totally disinterested!

January 7th

Last winter, I had my first ever massage. Today, I had my second! We took the bus to the Beach and Lake Resort for Ayurvedic massages. I had never heard of that type of massage before and I wanted to be surprised so I didn’t let myself google it beforehand.

It was fantastic and my lunch was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Paneer Jalfrezi ❤ I’m going to have to learn to cook that at home.

Photos simply don’t do it justice.

After the massage, a couple of us took a boat to the waterfront. Earlier in December, a hurricane had hit the coast of Kerala and it had been particularly devastating to the beach near the resort. At a distance, Stephanie could notice that much of the beach had been washed away. The water was full of floating garbage when we took a boat to the beach. And once we arrived at the beach, we found that one side of it was filled with medical waste. It was shocking and sad to see how careless we people are with our trash. As soon as it leaves our sight, we consider it gone. But it really isn’t. It’s just displaced.

One side of the beach: pristine and ideal.

The other side: a somber reminder of how wasteful we can be.

After a boat ride back to land, I sat by the pool and was devoured by mosquitoes. When the sun went down, I watched joyfully as the bats swooped into feast on the bloodsuckers.

January 6th

This morning we hopped on the bus for about 3 minutes and swiftly arrived at the Centre for Management Development. Shri S. M. Vijayanand, who was previously the Chief Secretary for the State of Kerala and was a key player in The People’s Planning Movement taught us about decentralized development and governance. So far, this was the lecture in which I’ve taken the most notes! My hand was cramping up midway through 🙂

One of the crucial points of his lecture was that Kerala’s approach was that “human development precedes economic development.” I think this is absolutely the right sentiment to take but it sounds a bit counterintuitive to a resident of a capitalist country.

He shared the goals of the local government and, once again, they included goals which I support and which I’d like to see pursued in the US. The goals included:

• democratization and humanization of the state
• to widen and deepen participation
• to reduce corruption
• to increase accountability
• to recognize that adversarial politics is hurtful to development

 

We stopped for lunch at Mother’s Veg Plaza. It was a culinary experience! I don’t think I’ve eaten with my hands since I was a toddler. It was liberating! 🙂 And the flavors of the food were so unique. Some were completely unfamiliar. I still don’t know how people eat mango pickle for fun…

The before image…

…and the aftermath.

Sajan was our next presenter. He taught us about slum upgradation efforts that Costford has attempted. Their first attempt at community revitalization was in 2003 in the Chenkachoola Colony in Trivandrum. He explained to us that they consider that project to be a failure because the intervention was limited to construction and, ultimately, the attitudes of the residents had not changed.

Their second attempt at slum upgradation was a site which we would be visiting later that day, the Karimadom Colony. They had began that project in 2008 and had a different approach:

• It was more focussed on the community: there was participatory planning. Women and children were targeted.
• There was integrated planning: they developed site-wide drainage schemes. Similar plans were made for power and street lighting.
• They added civic amenities to the community: there is a creche, elder center, a health center, marketplace, center for counseling and other facilities.

Some residents were kind enough to invite us into their homes.

The new units can be seen on the other side of the runoff pond.

The area is a work in progress.

This woman is tough as nails and she cares deeply about her community!

The project is being built in phases, so we were able to get a look at both the old and new conditions. I have visited a slum once before in my life. They’re shocking and they’re saddening. I had an optimistic feeling after our visit to the Karimadom Colony. Costford put in the effort to truly understand the breadth of the problem and as a result: people’s lives are changing for the better.

January 5th

I didn’t think we were going to visit an organization that was more inspiring than Kudumbashree…but then we went to Kanthari!

Kanthari is a leadership program that teaches individuals from around the world. Participants spend 7 months learning how to start and run a social project, then they travel back to where they are from and have 5 months of help. So far, Kanthari has aided with 125 successful projects.

The campus is situated on a gorgeous lakefront. The campus utilizes many sustainable practices such as rainwater harvesting, grey water systems, an organic farm with fish and ducks. And to top it off: the entire campus runs on solar power.

The titular pepper. Just like the program…it packs a punch!

I keep finding flowers over here that I grow in my garden back home! Here’s some Globe Amaranth.

After our visit to Kanthari, we went to take a look as one of Costfords more upscale designs. Cost reduction is a core tenant of Costfords approach but that doesn’t mean it can only be used by low income clients. I was glad we made a visit to the home, it broadened my understanding of how low-cost construction can be used.

This driveway simply wouldn’t fly over in Iowa

Beautiful details

January 3rd

This morning was absolutely packed with information! I hope I retained even just a quarter of what we learned. We were at the headquarters of an organization called Kudumbashree. Their goal is to eradicate poverty over the next 10 years and they plan to do so by helping women. Kudumba translates to “family” and “shree” translates to prosperity. One of the most interesting things I learned on our visit was their method for defining poverty. At face value: you would think that poverty just means having a small amount of money. Their definition widened to include families that had

• no sanitary latrines
• no safe drinking water
• less than 2 meals per day
• an alcoholic household member
• lo land or less than 5 cents of land
• an abandoned woman or unwed mother
• families with a differently abled member

The organization gives women the framework to self organize, identify which issues are affecting their community, gives them access to micro financing programs and sets them on the path towards having a steady livelihood. They also have social development programs to help with physically or mentally challenged individuals.

It’s such a intricate and varied organization. Like I said: they threw so much information at us when presenting to us. One of our presenters told us that the introduction to Kudumbashree typically lasts 2 weeks…we were only there for a few hours!

In the afternoon, we headed back towards Kovalam Beach to visit one of the microenterprises. We visited a unit where the women create nutrimix, a nutrient-dense powder for babies. After we saw the facilities, we got to speak to the women. We asked them about how their new jobs have affected their lives, we talked about their children, and learned that they like watching dramas on TV 🙂

January 2nd

I’ve started to keep a list of all the books that are mentioned in our lectures. Today, during Dr. Ramankutty’s presentation, I added a new one to the list: Good Health at Low Cost. (I actually can’t find a link to the book, but I did find a book that takes a look back on the book.) So, this morning’s lecture was about health in Kerala. We learned that female literacy and child mortality are conversely related. The more you think about it, the more sense it makes. At the end of his lecture, he mentioned one more book: India’s Organic Farming Revolution. I just looked it up and saw that it’s published by the University of Iowa!

Mr. Jayakumar gave the next lecture. He began by teaching us about the complex landscape of Kerala and biodiversity that inhabit it. Sustaining biological richness is very important to the state. His lecture covered such a wide variety of topics: how a grass-roots movement led to a global ban of the use of endosulfan. Silent Valley. And protests in the 1960s to save Chaliyar. After his lecture, I had 3 books to add to my reading list: A Burden on Our Heads: Grassam Since 1963 (I can’t find this book online), Endosulfan – The Kerala Story, and The Silent Spring (this book is already on my to-read list but it doesn’t hurt to add it twice 🙂 )

In the afternoon, we visited a non-profit organization that focuses on teaching skills to those that typically don’t have access to education. We walked around their campus and saw some students. We visited their bakery as well as their pottery studio.

January 1st

Happy New Year!!! This morning, we were afforded the luxury of meeting at 7:30am instead of 7:00 🙂 I really needed the sleep. Both my roommate and I have been waking up at 2am every night.

Once again, we had some interesting lectures today. The first was about the role of The People’s Movement on Kerala’s development. Each day, we are learning more and more about the city and the state. Kerala truly is a microcosm. Because of the structure of the government here, I think they’re able to have government programs that would get shot down in the US. It’s cool to learn about their high literacy and successful birth rates and to  find out how it was accomplished.

 

In the afternoon, we made our way to another campus designed by Costford: The Institute for Management in Government. The scale of these buildings is much larger that what we’ve seen previously but the design features are familiar. With each site visit, I’m becoming more knowledgeable about different approaches to sustainable site design, architecture and construction.

 

Then we were able to visit Sajan and Shilaja’s home. They designed the entire thing on their own and I’m grateful that they showed us their beautiful home. It was so unlike any home that I’ve ever been in before. It’s exciting to be in a place that is so purposefully and thoughtfully designed. I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to how open all the structures are here. I’m used to double paned glass, storm doors and heavy curtains.

 

I also don’t know that I’ll ever get used to seeing Communist graffiti everywhere!

 

 

 

December 31st

It felt great to head back to the Laurie Baker Center today. The room upstairs where we listen to the speakers is a beautiful space. It’s so open. The light breeze and bird calls help to keep me awake. It’s not that the topics aren’t fascinating! I just seem to hit a wall around 2:00 each day.

We had a few lectures today: one introduced us to Laurie Baker’s ideas, style and his approach. Another focused on alternate building materials and technology. Because I have a background in architecture, I was really digging the topics.

Amazing lunch!

The flora at the Laurie Baker Center is stunning.

An example of low cost construction materials: filler slab and glass bottle skylights.

We travelled to the Center for Development Studies, which was designed by Costford. The continuation of Laurie Baker’s design approach is apparent in the building designs. The campus seemed like a great space to learn: as soon as you enter the gates everything is quiet, lush and spacious.

Laura climbed a tree and picked this massive jackfruit.

Curved walls allow for use of a smaller amount of building material

Water catchment is incorporated into the campus’ design

In the evening, we went to a sea-side resort to celebrate New Years Eve. I got to stick my toes into the Arabian Sea! I’ve never felt a body of water so warm.

We had an amazing Indian buffet for dinner and I promptly entered a food coma. I’m still shocked that I was able to stay up until midnight. Go me!