Some Experiences of a Field Fellow

Visiting a Post-Landslide Community As some of you may know, between August 16 and August 30,   Kerala was hit with the worst flood the area has seen in over a hundred years. What is very unfortunate about the whole thing is that some of it was not preventable and some of it was. See, 5 meters of rain fell in just about 10 days here in Wayanad where I am. That’s over 16 feet of

Read more ...

Diary of a Field Fellow: Ups and downs in the first few months of a fellowship abroad

It’s February 18, and so with that I have officially been in Wayanad for four months, or nearly half of my total fellowship. If I could go back to the day before I left for India and tell myself one thing, I’d probably choose to quote, of all things, MTV — specifically, that early 2000s classic “Diary”. “Diary” was a show where a featured celebrity would talk about the supposed truth of their day-to-day lives,

Read more ...

Breaking Down Boundaries: the Practice & Significance of Field Work

“Talk is nothing without walking the walk.” These are the words of one of Profugo’s past field fellows, said in a documentary on the organization as the camera pans out on the field fellow and a child in the village, walking hand in hand into the distance. The documentary ends there, and viewers are left feeling emotional but also inspired by the fellow’s words. What do these words mean not only for the people of

Read more ...

Culture of Education

Growing up under my parents’ roof, I constantly heard them reminding me to study, do my homework, and pay attention in class.  At the time, it was a bit of an annoyance.  I wanted to be indifferent to my schoolwork because I recognized its time-consuming nature rather than its practical applications.  Fortunately for me, my parents emphasized the latter.  By worrying about my success in the classroom, they created a culture of education inside our

Read more ...

A Lasting Impact

I’ve been known to do things a little bit differently from the rest, and my choice of traveling has been no different. I spent my past spring semester studying abroad in Uganda, and two years before that I took a gap year and traveled to Tanzania.  Looking back on my travel experiences I can confidently say that living in a developing country has its challenges- its ups and downs, but I have never been so

Read more ...