First day of work

Yesterday was my first day of at a health NGO which provides comprehensive health and social services to women living in Dharavi (the largest slum neighborhood in Asia) with a focus on maternal health and domestic violence. I am apparently not allowed to say the name of the organization, so I'll just call it "HEALTH". There are a number of programs at Health, and I am working for the one specific program ("CENTER")which provides social, physical health, mental health and legal counsel to women who are victims of domestic abuse. The organization is based out of a hospital in Dharavi.
Overall the first two days have been okay. Walking through Dharavi is highly intense. There really aren't words to describe the level of poverty the Dharavi residents live in. I'll spare you the details, but if you want to hear more, just email me...
The office is one large room used for planning and research and is also used as a drop-in center and a counseling center for women so you can imagine the intensity. Fortunately, everyone in the office is extremely nice and they seem very pleased to have me, so I feel quite welcome. They speak mostly in Hindi but I am trying to follow by the gestures/facial movements (which Indians use abundantly) and the occasional English.
Right now, Center addresses violence against women at the individual level (services) and community level (awareness and education and empowerment training) just for the Dharavi communities. But, they want to expand to the city level and provide services and advocacy for all of Mumbai. My job for the next two months will be to establish relations with other NGO's throughout Mumbai who address domestic violence (through services, legal counsel, advocacy, or policy reform) and investigate their intervention models. I'm pretty excited about this project although my resources (i.e. no Internet) are limited so there will be challenges.
A few cool things:
1) Lunch is basically a pot-luck. Everyone brings a dish that they cook that morning (Indians only eat fresh food for fear that the heat makes their food go bad -- no leftovers!!) and then they share. Obviously the first day all I had was a clif bar, but I came home straight after work and slaved over the stove to cook a meal that would appeal to my co-workers. At the recommendation of one co-worker, I stir-fryed cabbage, carrots and onions and cooked them in a chilli sauce. The staff claimed to like it today :-) Though when they asked me the ingredients in the sauce, I was a bit embarassed to admit that the sauce came in a bottle!
2) Chai tea is made for the office and a cup is provided to each person twice a day. It's really a lovely perk.
3) There is a social work graduate school in Mumbai that sometimes sends their interns to my organization for their field placement. Last month, the social workers put on "The Vagina Monologues" at the hospital and all proceeds went to our organization!

FYI: I don't have access to the Internet at work so I am going to try to race to a cyber cafe after work to keep in touch...