Hannah DeLap

Hannah DeLap

2011 - 2012

Jodhpur , India

LinkedIn
Rural Living in India:  A Lifetime Experience

I will be working in Jodhpur, India, and the surrounding rural community of Chandelao. While in India, I will be teaching the impoverished communities about small business development and microfinance. I will also work with the rural communities and initiate small self-help groups for the oppressed groups and teach them the importance of savings and trust in community. In the office, I will perform research and submit proposals for projects.

I am extremely excited to start my internship with FSD and get to India to experience a new life. I am ready for the challenges, surprises, and emotions that I will encounter in India.

I know that I will be working in the rural community of Chandelao for half of every week and in the city of Jodhpur for the weekends. The village of Chandelao is a traditional Rajasthani community that still produces traditional handicrafts from that region of India. I hope to help their businesses run more efficiently and have a competitive position against the factories that produce large scale items.

More about me....

Major(s): Economics

My Stories

  • Cultural Confusion

    Cultural Confusion

    Most good travel stories are about discovering the unexpected. The traveler goes abroad with an illusion, the illusion is shattered, but then she

  • Hard Goodbyes

    Hard Goodbyes

    I never knew how hard it could be to say goodbye to people you don’t know if you will ever see again. I

  • Things I Learned in India

    Things I Learned in India

    People travel to India in search of themselves and seeking spiritual enlightenment from the yogis, gurus, sadhus, and Buddha. More and more often

  • Agra

    Agra

    Agra… A trashy city, but one of the most visited cities in the entire world. Placed in Agra are the most popular monuments

  • Julay in Leh!

    Julay in Leh!

    It has been a while since I have had time to write a blog since I have been running around getting ready for

  • Working Near the End

    Working Near the End

    Now that my time is almost up here in India, the task of completing my work and training the new manager is under

  • Great Indian Travel Bazaar

    Great Indian Travel Bazaar

    Along with working for an NGO and managing a women’s empowerment crafts center for the past seven months, I have also learned quite

  • Solar Powered and Improving Village Life

    Solar Powered and Improving Village Life

    So the past week has been very busy and at the moment I am writing from Jaipur where I have traveled with my

  • Donor Development

    Donor Development

    This past weekend, the major donor of the large-scale projects, that had been done and are in progress, came to check up on

  • Day By Day

    Day By Day

    Living in a rural village in Rajasthan, India can be rewarding as well as monotonous. Most days tend to be the same without

  • Public Transportation

    Public Transportation

    When travelers come to India, they have different modes of transportation to get themselves around. The most frequently used are the tuk tuks,

  • Getting Hot Hot Hot

    Getting Hot Hot Hot

    Other than Holi, the past few weeks have been slow and monotoneous. The only other American left in Jodhpur is my friend Emily

  • Om… I Feel Enlightened

    Om… I Feel Enlightened

    This past weekend, I had to vacate my room in order for the hotel in Chandelao to use it for guests, so I

  • Rajput Village Wedding

    Rajput Village Wedding

    Living in a village has its perks; one being that I have been inducted into the society and they have accepted me as

  • FIRE! and Success

    FIRE! and Success

    So last night was a surprising and eventful one. After not being able to sleep for most of the night, for multiple reasons,

  • Building a Greenhouse with “Experts”

    Building a Greenhouse with “Experts”

    The word expert evokes a certain degree of respect and awe to most people. It is like the words connoisseur and specialist, they

  • Cracking the Whip

    Cracking the Whip

    This week has been an efficient use of time for the most part. Even though I took off two days in order to

  • Laughing, Loving, and Mourning

    Laughing, Loving, and Mourning

    This past week has been a very long seven days. I feel like last Sunday was more like a month ago rather than

  • Tipping Point

    Tipping Point

    So the other day, I was sitting at work in a frustrated mood, for many reasons, and I was thinking about how I

  • Chennai- Resting Place of St. Thomas?

    Chennai- Resting Place of St. Thomas?

    The past two weeks I have been traveling in the south of India during the Christmas and New Years holiday. While the general

  • Failure to Communicate

    Failure to Communicate

    So I have been meaning to write a few blogs in the past two weeks and have been sidetracked or detained for different

  • Village Life

    Village Life

    Here in Rajasthan, India, the lifestyle is closer to the traditional way of living than in most states of the country. Some states

  • Delhi Belly

    Delhi Belly

    So this past week has blown by without me realizing it and without me finishing any amount of work… After last weekend in

  • Recycling IS Possible…

    Recycling IS Possible…

    Work is still a bit slow at the moment due to that fact that I am waiting to hear back from Nest whether

  • Thanksgiving!

    Thanksgiving!

    Oh American Holidays… One of the many things that is really hard to explain to Indians, well anyone not from American actually. The

  • Udiapur Midterm Retreat

    Udiapur Midterm Retreat

    This past weekend the other American interns and myself went of the midterm retreat for our session. For me it is no where

  • Slow Going Progress

    Slow Going Progress

    This week I have been working on the business side of the crafts center that has not been set up. Inventory, stock, marketing,

  • Surrounded with No Place to Go

    Surrounded with No Place to Go

    Today is my first official day as the manager of the center that employs the women from the rural village. The manager left

  • Tourist at Play

    Tourist at Play

    So this weekend was nice and relaxing… for the most part. After of a week of being on the other side of the

  • Rural Living, for now

    Rural Living, for now

    It is the end of the week here in Chandelao. I have been in the village for about four days and have gone

  • Arrival in India

    Arrival in India

    So… I finally made it to Jodhpur after much a-due. I got my visa last week and had to wait to get my

  • A Slight Delay

    A Slight Delay

    My travel plans to India had a start date of September 22. My flight and my exciting adventure were suppose to start after

  • My First Post

    My First Post

    Hello All!! I am writing this first post just to have an update on the blog. I am still in Nashville right now