Monday Feb 21
I love our drive to work. It’s long and rather exhausting because the road is pretty rough. But the scenery is so fascinating to me. The area is mountainous and rural and not nearly dirty and chaotic as delhi. It takes us an hour and 15 minutes to work and over an hour and a half home because of traffic. In order to start our interviews at 9 we have to leave the hotel by 7:30 in the morning. At least I can use the time to prepare for the interviews that day.
I am busier this time since I am the lead auditor and am also training Raf on supply chain topics. We had a good opening meeting on Monday. It was a packed room of at least 40+ people with only 3 females including me! I’m used to this and don’t let it intimidate me. The people are super nice and I am able to understand all of them, thank goodness! On our first day at the plant they presented us with a beautiful flower bouquet, now that's a first!
On Friday we were invited to join the production crew of 15 for a “sunrise meeting”. They spend about 5 minutes taking about the day’s schedule and then join hands as each of the workers give thanks and make a pledge for a productive day. Raf and I were included in the circle and held hands with everyone. Your left hand is turned upward as to receive and your right hand is turned downward as to give or pass along. Their pledges were in the local Marathi language but a worker would say something and making a pledge and then she would chant something and the others would repeat it. In the end they all say “jai hkl, jai jejuri” which means “go hkl, go jejuri”. How cool is that?! We should do this everywhere!.Maybe it will motivate some people.
Lunch is a fantastic affaire. There is a canteen here where they hire an outside company to cook the meals. It’s a sitdown meal where they serve you your meal. You typically get 3 dishes served in small bowls along with chapatti which is their local bread. It’s made of wheat and looks like a tortilla but freashly made and tastes way better. You tear off small pieces to use to scoop up the food..Raf and I use our hand to eat just like the local. The only thing is that I haven’t gotten the hang of using my forefinger to anchor the chapatti and the rest of the fingers to tear off a piece. You do not use your left hand! Instead I have to use a fork with my left hand to anchor the bread and tear off a piece with my right hand. We are in the state of Manarashtra and the food is different from what I ate in Delhi. Again most of the dishes are not any I have had in the states. The food is fresh and locally grown. Our lunches are vegetarian since most of the people here are vegetarians. I found that I did not miss eating meat. Raf likes it that there is always a sweet desert that is served along with the meal, versus after your meal. Our desert is a milk based sweet that a different color and flavor each day. I can’t describe it but it sure tastes good. Towards the end of the meal the server would ladle some rice to our plate and we get a small bowl of thin curry, almost like a soup. You pour this on your rice to eat. After your meal they put a small bowl of water with lemon so that you can rinse your fingers.. I look forward to our lunch everyday because it has been different everyday! It seems that there is always a colleague fasting and we learned that with their religion a person can choose to fast one day a week or a month. I will see someone at our table eating just a scoop of barley rice and a banana. I couldn’t believe it when they told me that there are over 300 million gods in India. They even choose a day in the year when they give thanks to the production machine, although I don’t think it’s considered a god! No kidding, one day a year food is laid in front of the production line and they give prayers of thanks. That’s crazy!
I love our drive to work. It’s long and rather exhausting because the road is pretty rough. But the scenery is so fascinating to me. The area is mountainous and rural and not nearly dirty and chaotic as delhi. It takes us an hour and 15 minutes to work and over an hour and a half home because of traffic. In order to start our interviews at 9 we have to leave the hotel by 7:30 in the morning. At least I can use the time to prepare for the interviews that day.
I am busier this time since I am the lead auditor and am also training Raf on supply chain topics. We had a good opening meeting on Monday. It was a packed room of at least 40+ people with only 3 females including me! I’m used to this and don’t let it intimidate me. The people are super nice and I am able to understand all of them, thank goodness! On our first day at the plant they presented us with a beautiful flower bouquet, now that's a first!
On Friday we were invited to join the production crew of 15 for a “sunrise meeting”. They spend about 5 minutes taking about the day’s schedule and then join hands as each of the workers give thanks and make a pledge for a productive day. Raf and I were included in the circle and held hands with everyone. Your left hand is turned upward as to receive and your right hand is turned downward as to give or pass along. Their pledges were in the local Marathi language but a worker would say something and making a pledge and then she would chant something and the others would repeat it. In the end they all say “jai hkl, jai jejuri” which means “go hkl, go jejuri”. How cool is that?! We should do this everywhere!.Maybe it will motivate some people.
Lunch is a fantastic affaire. There is a canteen here where they hire an outside company to cook the meals. It’s a sitdown meal where they serve you your meal. You typically get 3 dishes served in small bowls along with chapatti which is their local bread. It’s made of wheat and looks like a tortilla but freashly made and tastes way better. You tear off small pieces to use to scoop up the food..Raf and I use our hand to eat just like the local. The only thing is that I haven’t gotten the hang of using my forefinger to anchor the chapatti and the rest of the fingers to tear off a piece. You do not use your left hand! Instead I have to use a fork with my left hand to anchor the bread and tear off a piece with my right hand. We are in the state of Manarashtra and the food is different from what I ate in Delhi. Again most of the dishes are not any I have had in the states. The food is fresh and locally grown. Our lunches are vegetarian since most of the people here are vegetarians. I found that I did not miss eating meat. Raf likes it that there is always a sweet desert that is served along with the meal, versus after your meal. Our desert is a milk based sweet that a different color and flavor each day. I can’t describe it but it sure tastes good. Towards the end of the meal the server would ladle some rice to our plate and we get a small bowl of thin curry, almost like a soup. You pour this on your rice to eat. After your meal they put a small bowl of water with lemon so that you can rinse your fingers.. I look forward to our lunch everyday because it has been different everyday! It seems that there is always a colleague fasting and we learned that with their religion a person can choose to fast one day a week or a month. I will see someone at our table eating just a scoop of barley rice and a banana. I couldn’t believe it when they told me that there are over 300 million gods in India. They even choose a day in the year when they give thanks to the production machine, although I don’t think it’s considered a god! No kidding, one day a year food is laid in front of the production line and they give prayers of thanks. That’s crazy!
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