How to be a domestic goddess VSO style...

With just over a month until I have to move out of my flat and my placement comes to an end in December, I’ve started thinking about the everyday things in my life that are essential features of domestic living as a volunteer. Below are my three top tips for being a domestic goddess VSO style...

#1 Find your inner MacGyver
Living on a budget and in the developing world really makes you good at the ‘make do and mend’ philosophy of life. In India, you don’t need much to live on and I’ve definitely enjoyed the challenge of spending a year without lots of stuff and home comforts. My proudest, most practical and most used MacGyver creation has to be my ‘home entertainment unit’. My laptop is; my office, TV and telephone back home for Skype chats so it gets used a lot every day. With the dust and heat of Delhi the fan was starting to go into overdrive. So for a bargain Rs200 I got a laptop fan and thanks to a wonderful care package from my sister, recycled the box into my home entertainment unit. My favourite MacGyver trick around our flat is courtesy of my flatmate who has created an art installation out of our sofa worthy of the Turner prize. Having bought our furniture second hand, we knew we had to find a cheap and easy way to fix the crack in the middle, so it wasn’t like a game of Buckaroo every time you sat down. I think the installation of a brick to prop it up adds a modern art chic worthy of a Tracey Emin installation any day.

#2 Plastic is your friend
I don’t think I have ever owned or used so many plastic items in my life. We eat off plastic plates and everyone I know has a bucket and jug in their shower. The bucket is perfect for washing clothes, the jug is the only way to wash your hair as Indian showers sadly lack power and are as effective as an Evian facial spritzer. Everyone brings their own lunch into work in a tiffin and I’ve had several compliments on my Tupperware (double side clips don’t you know). And then there are plastic chairs. Seriously they are everywhere and I swear my backside is more toned on the account of not sitting on soft furnishings for the last year. Everyone has them in their house or in every NGO office. Here’s a little insider tip, having been stuck in a few three hour meetings the trick is to definitely get one with arm rests to enable you to levitate for a few seconds using your arms, in order to regain circulation for minimal numbing of buttocks.

#3 Cook up a storm with only a pan
One of the hardest challenges I knew VSO was going to bring, was not having an oven or Waitrose down the road. Food as you may know is very important to me, so the thought of not being able to bake some brownies, whip up a lasagne or create a quiche for a year was going to be tough. Standard VSO issue is only a two ring gas hob so your weapon of choice is only a frying pan or saucepan. My culinary skills have had to be adapted. Let’s just say I won’t be cooking stir fry, chilli, curry or omelettes for a while when I get home. But, I’ve rediscovered recipes from my childhood and student days. Can’t bake brownies? It’s time for Mars Bar crispie cakes. Dreaming of creamy linguine with scallops? Well tuna, sweetcorn and mayonnaise pasta is nearly the perfect substitute.


Highlights: tourist time – I’m using my last few weekends in Delhi to see all the sights I haven’t got to yet, this weekend I did Humayun’s Tomb a stunning world heritage site (accompanied with a large mango kulfi, India’s most delicious ice cream), beauty on a budget – I’m really going to miss the Rs200 (£2.77) pedicures in my local salon, getting a big hug from home – I have friends from London arriving on Friday so enjoying plotting a gourmet weekend in Delhi with them and most excitingly, my family arrive next week so I’m a really, really excited about spending some time with the Mellor Massive and getting a big hug off them all, breaking the 60 minute mark – I am now running for over an hour a go and no longer sound like an elephant with emphysema or look like I’ve had a beetroot facial. If you need a reason to donate to my NGO for the marathon which you can do so here, it’s about 34°c when I run at 6.30am so I’m truly sweating for the cause!

To boycott or not to boycott...

So finally they are here. The Commonwealth Games (CWGs) have landed with all their opening ceremony pomp along with the scandals of snakes in stadiums, collapsed ceilings and bridges, paw prints on athletes beds and of course tales of corruption.

I’ve been amazed at the amount of coverage in overseas press and comparison with organising a big Indian wedding, chaos until the last minute and then it all comes together. Well, having lived here for the last 11 months I’ve witnessed more chaos than ceremony and I’m not quite convinced Delhi has reached its desired world class city status or that everything was going to be ready in time, but it is.

One of the reasons I was keen to take a VSO placement in India was to have the experience of living in a BRIC developing country that is on its way to developed status. The CWGs have been hailed as the event that would reinforce that India is on track for developed nation status, hand in hand with its 7.4% economic growth in 2009-10. Surely with all this growth, poverty must be reducing? Well, India ranked 67 out of 84 countries for having alarming scales of hunger in the 2010 Global Hunger Index, so guess not. Urban poverty is increasing at a disturbing rate, so living in Delhi you see poverty against the backdrop of contrast, slums next to shopping malls and migrant workers including female labourers building the so called world class facilities for the CWGs whilst their children play on the side of the road.

In a country where out of a population of 1.2 billion, 830 million Indians earn less that Rs20 (28p) a day, is it right that I attend, support and enjoy an event that has cost India $6 billion when I’m here to do my bit towards fighting global poverty?

I personally don’t agree with any country spending billions on a one off sporting event when there is no investment in sport at a grass roots level, in particular at schools. Let alone when that money could be used on basic education, infrastructure, healthcare or stop people going to bed hungry at night. There are more poor people in eight Indian states than in the 26 poorest African countries combined. Delhi has amongst the lowest occurrences of poverty in India, while at the other extreme, 81% of the state of Bihar’s population is poor. It’s ironic that many of the 100,000 labourers who worked for unfair wages to prepare Delhi for the CWGs were from Bihar.

There are two sides to every story and Delhites will benefit from the CWGs even if the rest of India won’t. The opening of the metro has definitely made my life easier. I can now spend Rs12 on a journey rather than Rs60 in a rickshaw. The city is a lot quieter as most people have escaped and the alleged thousands of tourists have not arrived so the traffic is marginally better. The whole place is on lockdown this Thursday for the closing ceremony so we all get a day off work. But there also have been disruption and disease. Schools have been shut, shops and markets are closed and there has been a mass outbreak of dengue as the construction sites have been a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes. Last week I was with a fellow volunteer when she got admitted to hospital with dengue and sitting in the waiting room with a lot of other sick people I doubt anyone would have got enthusiastic about the CWGs.

So, for the first time in my life I’m officially boycotting something. I roar in the face of Shera the mascot, who according to the official CWGs website is, “a ‘large-hearted gentleman’ who loves making friends and enthusing people to ‘come out and play’”. Well sorry Shera, I love your country but this volunteer isn’t going to come out and play.

Highlights – being dazzled by bureaucracy – from banks to hospitals I’ve seen it all now and last week at a face/off with a bank teller whilst trying to explain to her what the principles of customer service are I got firmly told “well Madame, that’s just the way we do things in India”, the Axis of Evil Supper Club tour continues – Delhi just has the best restaurants, we tried a good Iraqi the other day but it was out trumped by an amazing Afghani (melt in the mouth meat including beef), next on the list to try is Iranian food and can’t wait, being a fundraiser – it has to be No. 1 for job satisfaction when the money finally comes in, my weeks started by going to pick up a fat cheque from a new donor and thanks to them my NGO can employ two new people to help with research and advocacy, keeping running – well I’m up to week 10 in my training, with five more to go I’m hoping I avoid any mosquito based diseases or injuries to make it to the start line.