Nameste! Hello! The adventures of Claire and Amelia in Bali, Rajasthan

Hamara nam Claire and Amelia he/Our names are Claire and Amelia.


Our home for 3 months is India: road rules no longer apply; the air smells of dust and motorbike fumes; women carry brass bowls on their heads and appear as splashes of colour against a dry, green landscape; cows wander in the middle of the road; monkeys lounge here and there; farmers sit in circles under the trees in the fields; and cars seem engaged in a constant exchange of honking.

We have had a gentle introduction into this very intense country. The lovely Sivraj was waiting to pick us up at Udaipur airport. His silent greeting caused us to exchange ‘oh nooo’ looks but soon enough his shyness evaporated and we were chatting away in broken English. Three hours later we reached our town, Bali (in Pali district, Rajasthan), a small but bustling village framed by mountains on the horizon. The FEGG (Foundation to Educate Girls Globally) house and office is light and open – our little haven. We have our own room complete with squatty potty and ‘shower’ – a bucket of cold water, which Amelia’s grandad has coined our ‘primitive ensuite’. We wake up to the sounds of pigeons cooing and children playing.

Our internship is with FEGG, an Indian organisation whose primary goal is to empower girls and mobilise communities through access to education. Already we have seen the positive impacts of such an effort in an FEGG program school in Vingarala village. We will be working to produce materials to aid the expansion of FEGG’s model to the Rajasthan state.

In the few days we have spent here we have been welcomed by the FEGG staff and the villagers who seem a little bemused by our terrible Hindi and un-Indian fashion-sense. We had a comical start to our day this morning at the bus station in Udaipur. We got there in time for the 530am bus but it proved very difficult to buy the damn ticket! Bali is in the Pali district but there is also a Pali town so it seems to get mixed up. The ticket man tried to sell us a ticket to Pali which is double the price so we emphasised the ‘B’ as opposed to a ‘P’. The ticket man called other men over to try and understand us so soon everyone was yelling ‘B’ and ‘P’ at each other. To make it worse, we don’t think they believed that we would be going to Bali as it is such a small town. But we got here in the end and it was kind of a ‘coming home’ feeling!

In fact we are already settling in, having gone to buy our salwar kameej with Mina and Manju. We sat on the floor of the fabric shop and sifted through the colour and patterns. It was a wonderful girly bonding time for all of us with more laughter at miscomprehension than exchange of language.

We still wake up and think ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in India!’ but we have started to crave chapatti when hungry – the first sign of an Indian stomach!

Follow Amelia and Claire on their adventures in Bali, Rajasthan and their scholarship with FEGG. Keep up the good work girls! :-)