The past few days.

I haven't updated for a while because I have been real busy with production. Everybody except John, Georgia and I have been sick. Everybody has either overheated, thrown up or has gotten the runs. I have been taking imodium for the hell of it. Once the crew starts talking about they are feeling sick I bust out with my meds. The last thing I want to do is get sick so I have been taking it for precaution. These past few days I have been taking photos and filming, because the photographer had fell ill. Glad I can depend on John to film.

We finally got to meet the family. We have done a number of interviews for the film as well. We interviewed the leader of the village and he too thought I was indian. We have also interviewed the son and father of the family we will be documenting. Tomorrow we will be filming the daughter and mother. The family is the size of ten. They have a total of nine kids, but one has passed away from cancer. When we first met the family we didn't film, but instead sat with them so that we may get to know each other. When we asked the father if he had any questions for us. He told us he doesn't know what to ask because he doesn't know anything of the place we come from. He said he only knows about where he lives. So instead he asked what kind of work our parents did. 

When interviewing the father we found out some really sad information. For instance, before they didn't have places to use the restroom so they use to have open defecation. However, the women use to have to hold it. They were only allowed to use it in the early mornings before everyone awoke and in the late evenings so that no one may see them. However, now that the foundation has come in and  put in a number of toilets women are now able to use the restroom during the day. 

Below is a photo of one of the daughters getting a cow ready for a bath.

The father also understands that education is the key to everything. He said if people were educated there would be no war and that once people become educated they realize that war and terrorism is the not the answer. The man spoke words of wisdom, but I still found it odd that his wife was out working all day while he sat inside reading the paper and smoking his hookah.

In addition, some stats we found out from the foundation was the 1 in 3 women have some form of STD. However, the foundation is not able to find out what form of STDs are present in the community. The religion does not allow for them to be tested. Instead, the women complain about a "white discharge" and are given medication and are never heard from again. Also, women didn't protect themselves during their cycles.

Here is a little insert about the area we are documenting provided by the foundation.

"Mewat takes its name from the Meos, a Moslem peasant caste that converted from Hinduism to Islam during the 16th century. It is a district in the state of Haryana. it continues to live in a backwardness years after India's independence. The area lags behind the rest of Haryana on almost all development indicators. "

We also visited a village that is in poor condition so that we may contrast it with the Notki village in the film (which is the village our family lives). The village lacks clean water, a proper educational environment, a place for women to give birth, restrooms, clean streets and the list goes on. What amazed me the most  was the amount of trash everywhere. It was really unclean. At one point I saw the skeletal remains of an animal's jaw in the middle of a walkway as well as a number of cow droppings.

Below is a photo of a hospital the government established, but is now forgotten. 

I didn't get to film the village, only interviews. I had to take photos because the photographer fell ill. However, there was noting pleasant in this village. We didn't get what we wanted out of film and photos because the entire village was following us. For instance, every time I tired to take a photo a child will pop out in front of my camera and the same went for John. 

We got some media that will work, but we didn't get what we really wanted such as the natural environment of the village. Also, John almost fell into a well and died. We had to climb and leap on top of a well. As I went first John followed, but I landed on an area where there was much cement and as for John his feet landed right near the rim.

I didn't even look down to take this photo. I was too scared that a child may press against me and push me down the well by accident. They were pretty aggressive, I didn't let them know that I can preview photos in back of my camera as I usually do. There was too many of them.

Til next time!

:  )