This will be our site for posting while traveling in India

I don't know how often we will be able to post on this blog. It will depend on our ability to connect to the internet on the trip. Our travels will take us to the following: Feb 10 fly to Istanbul; Feb 14 fly to Mumbai and on to Ahmedabad; Feb 23 night train to Udiapur; Feb 26 night train to Jaipur; March 3 fly to Varanasi; March 9 train to Mathura/Vrindivan; March 12 train to Delhi; March 14 fly to Istanbul and Chicago.

Barbara will be working on a sabbatical project to photograph the changing roles of women in India for NKU. In Ahmedabad, we will be working with SEWA.org. SEWA's website says: "SEWA is a trade union registered in 1972. It is an organisation of poor, self-employed women workers. These are women who earn a living through their own labour or small businesses. They do not obtain regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like workers in the organised sector. They are the unprotected labour force of our country. Constituting 93% of the labour force, these are workers of the unorganised sector. Of the female labour force in India, more than 94% are in the unorganised sector. However their work is not counted and hence remains invisible." 

We will then travel and visit with a friend Suki in Jaipur to see some of block printing industry and workers. In Varanasi, we will revisit one of our favorite sites and Barbara hopes to photograph some of the widows who can be found there. When we travel to Mathura/Vrindivan, we will work with an organization called the Guild of Service who have two widows shelters and train the women in crafts to help them out of their dire straights of intense poverty.

It ought to prove to be an interesting and photographically rich trip. We will post pictures as we can.