September 29th 2012

You're Looking at Home


I am sitting overlooking the Ganges from Assi Ghat during a fire offering to the river as the day ends along with our first week in Varanasi and our first month in India. Our days have been full of activities, so I am really appreciating this free time. We start our day with breakfast at the program house,
spend the day touring service sites, conclude our group activity with Hindi, and have dinner at our homestays. Dinner in my homestay usually happens around 9:00 and I usually get to sleep around 11:30 after Hindi homework, journaling, and reading.

After a week in Varanasi I can conclude that the cow population seems to increase significantly everyday, making samosas is a lot of fun, internet access is going to be more limited than I anticipated, and being healthy can easily contribute to staying happy. Beyond that, there is a lot about the city that I don't know and a lot about my time here that I don't know. I know near to nothing about the extensive history of the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, and I have yet to find out which service site I will be placed at. So there is a lot to learn over the next seven months.

I've gotten sick twice since we got here, most recently was last night. It has been difficult to maintain a positive attitude when I just don't feel good. Today I found myself frustrated with my immune system and its interference with my experience here. But I think it's important to remember that it is part of the experience and hopefully these sicknesses will help my immune system develop into a super immune system.

I am really enjoying the proximity to the Ganges. I can't say that I can see myself bathing in the river anytime soon or ever, but I love just sitting on the ghats and witnessing the effect that the river has on other people. The traffic is India-crazy, but I really like walking around the city. There is always something to look at and a motorcycle or cow to dodge.

Until next time

September 25th 2012

24-Hours-on-a-Train Later


After a long 24 hour train ride we arrived in Varanasi at around 5:00 pm on Saturday. We were met by Sarab, who works with the Where There Be Dragons groups, and took taxis to our program house. Varanasi, from my taxi window, at first appeared to  be very similar to the cities I had already seen in India, like Dehli and Dehradun. That was, until we got to the program house. After a much anticipated dinner and introductions to Dolly Ji and her children, I walked outside. Our program house is right on the Ganges River, and for me, this river is what initially separated Varanasi from the other cities I have seen in India so far. Having spent a lot of time at the beach in California, there was just something calming and reassuring about being so close to a body of water.

The heat made sleeping difficult in the Program House, and I started my first full day in Varanasi feeling rather overwhelmed. At some point though, after spending the day exploring the city with a scavenger hunt, I began to appreciate my surroundings and acknowledge that seven months here wouldn't be so bad.

This week we are visiting the work sites and on Friday we are finding out which NGO we will be working with. Tonight is my first night in my homestay. We had a homestay meeting yesterday after our scavenger hunt, and Debby announced the names and gave information for four people in my group of who they would be staying with. Then she got to me and told me that my homestay family's house had recently burned down so they were living out of tents at the moment, but I would get my own tent and be able to use the bathroom and bathe on the Ganges. Luckily she was joking, but I'm not going to say that I wasn't extremely nervous during the minute that I thought I would be living out of a tent in India. I was just introduced to my host mother who is extremely nice, and am spending my first hour here unpacking and enjoying my great view.

Last night we had the chance to go on a boat ride and watch a fire offering to the river. It was a beautiful experience. It made me excited for all of the things this city has in store for me, and appreciative of the place I will be living in.

September 21st 2012

Goodbye Mussoorie


In a few hours we are leaving the finally-familiar Mussoorie to get on a train that will take us to Varanasi. It has been a good three weeks here but I am excited for the change that Varnasi will bring. I am especially excited to get more permanently settled and begin my service work. We arrive on Saturday and move into our homestays on Monday.

After the two days we saw the Dahli Lama, our schedule continued as usual. We finished up our time at Landour Language School with a Hindi test, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We sawed, watched the carpenters, weeded, and harvested during the last few days at Turner Garden. We celebrated Hannah's eighteenth birthday with great food (especially compared to Woodstock) and multicultural birthday songs at Darab's house. We spent our last night at our tutor Youssef Ji's home for an amazing dinner and a great time.

This morning it was unusually clear and I was able to will myself out of bed to run and see the amazing view one more time. Most of the day has been consumed with skype calls and packing. I'm still confused on how all of my stuff originally fit into my bag, because it isn't fitting so well now.

 So I will return to packing, and the next time I post I will be in Varanasi!

September 17th 2012

The Dahli Lama


Both yesterday and today we had the chance to see the Dahli Lama: at Woodstock and in Happy valley. It was really cool to see him and hear him speak, and especially to see the reactions of the people around me. At Woodstock, several people ran up to the Dahli Lama as soon as he entered to receive a blessing or just get a closer look. He spoke about compassion, and took questions at the end of the speech from selected students and from the audience. He had a contagious laugh and spoke light-heartedly.

the Dahli Lama at Woodstock

The atmosphere was very different in Happy Valley, which is a Tibetan settlement and the first place the Dahli Lama went to in India after his exile. When the Dahli Lama entered everyone stood up and put their hands in front of them like they would if they were saying "namaste." The Dahli Lama sat to watch a Tibetan Opera and interrupted a few times for commentary. The Tibetan Opera was very interesting: there was a lot of very loud singing/yelling and the costumes were amazing. Afterward, the Dahli Lama spoke in Tibetan to the crowd.

Tibetan opera & the Dahli Lama in Happy Valley

When the Dahli Lama spoke at Woodstock, Nick bravely pushed his way through the crowd to hand him a Princeton mug. So now (as unrealistic as it might be) I think of the Dahli Lama enjoying chai out of our mug.

We have been continuing Hindi class as usual and tutoring with Youssef Ji who teaches at Woodstock school. Progress is definitely slow for me; I am procrastinating on my homework as I type.

Tonight we walked briskly to dinner at Woodstock in the rain, hopeful that the food would make up for our uncomfortable walk and soaking clothes. To be honest, dinner was terrible, bahut kharab. It serves as a prime example of an attempt at Western food with little Western cooking knowledge and only Indian ingredients. This morning we were woken up at the ungodly hour of 6:00 am by our recently moved in 8th grade dorm neighbors, who are here from Dehli for a writing convention. It was especially annoying when we noticed, at dinner, that their food looked a lot better than ours.

After dinner we went to tutoring with Youssef Ji, which is always fun. When we left we discovered (after walking down a few flights of stairs in pitch black darkness) that we had been locked in from the outside. We waited for someone to get the key and walked/ran back to Hanifl Center through the rain.

All of my complaints here are menial, and I just have to remember that the uncomfortable and annoying situations add to the experience. And that includes future sicknesses and far more uncomfortable situations.

September 15th 2012

Meanwhile in Mussoorie...


We walk a lot. Hike up to language school, quick hike down from language school to chaar dukaan, hike down from chaar dukaan to Woodstock School, hike down from Woodstock School to Turner Garden, hike up from Turner Garden to Woodstock School, hike up from Woodstock School to Hanifl Center, usually another hike to Woodstock School for dinner/tutoring/gym followed by a final hike up to Hanifl Center. That has been my walking schedule for the past week, more or less. It seems that the lengths of the walks change everyday.

I really enjoy reading the Devanagari script. I gain immense satisfaction when I can sound out a word correctly, and even more satisfaction when I can recognize the word I have sounded out (but that's a rare occasion). My vocabulary is limited, and I take a pretty long time to process a question asked in Hindi and formulate a response. But overall I am enjoying learning the language, and especially the chai in between grammar and writing classes.

I like working at Turner Garden a lot more than anyone would guess from my complaining (which is almost always about the walking). I am not a big fan of the leeches or the 90 degree walk/climb up from the garden to the street, but I like weeding. It's nice to look back and see that you made somewhat of a difference in the clearance around crops. It's also sort of calming as long as you're not squatting too much. We started building a greenhouse today. Well I guess it would be more accurate to say that we watched a greenhouse
be built, but we had the chance to pound a few posts into the ground and practicce our Hindi.

Food in general at Woodstock is not my favorite thing. Occasionally the lunches and dinners completely surpass my meager expectations which is always exciting. We have gone out a few times to eat which is usually very good and always very cheap. I love playing soccer, ping pong, and badminton in the gym and having the chance to play the pianos in the music room.

                                       

We have less than a week left here. I'm excited for a change but also nervous because leaving here to Varanasi marks the real beginning of the program. We will be in Varanasi for 7 months, and the idea of 7 months in a new place that isn't my house is a lot to take in. I'm worried I won't find fulfillment and be helpful at my service site, and that my homestay family won't like me, but I guess these worries are typical.

Tomorrow we see the Dahli Lama! I'm excited especially because I have a complete set of clean clothes to wear. Until next time!

Ada

September 7th 2012

Mussoorie


Mussoorie is the most scenicly beautiful place I have ever been. We are in the foothills of the Himalayas, wearing our kurtas, sipping chai. Mist covers the mountains for most of the day, but when it clears we can see far down into what appears to be all of India. We are staying at the Hanifl Center of the international Woodstock School, which has great facilities, including a music room with several pianos which Allen and I are very excited for. It is a reprieve I am extremely grateful for after our 2 days (but what seemed like at least 2 weeks) in Dehli. We will be here for around 3 weeks in total, and then we will head to Varanasi which I imagine will be nothing like Mussoorie.

We have started Hindi classes, and my group has started service work in the Woodstock School Turner Garden; I will be joining them as soon as possible. My first impression of Hindi: it's not like spanish, which is the only language besides English that I "know" and "can speak." Hindi uses a different alphabet, a script, which looks more like random lines than letters. The masculine adjectives end in "a," which is counter intuitive to my Spanish knowledge of the feminine "la" article.

I have spent the last two days in bed with a fever and flu-like symptoms. One thing I recall clearly from orientation at Princeton is the multitude of "You will get sick" warnings from past participants and leaders. So as bad as it seems sometimes, I try to remind myself that I am just following in the steps of 3 years of BYP India volunteers. I went to the doctor today and was prescribed antibiotics which I hope will make me feel better soon.

The downside to being sick is having to drink Oral Rehydration Salts which taste terrible. But yesterday I discovered the plus side to being sick: Bollywood movies. Hannah, who was also not feeling well, and I watched "No One Killed Jessica" and "Om Shanti Om," and skipped to the dance numbers in a few other movies. For anyone looking for elaborate dance numbers and an extremely catchy theme song, I highly recommend "Om Shanti Om."

I am also extremely thankful to my supportive group and group leaders who have put up with my complaints, hung out with me, brought me food, woke up in the middle of the night for me, and helped me whenever I needed it. I am really focused on getting better so I can be 100% by the 16th when we meet the Dahli Lama!

September 3rd 2012

New Dehli and the Wealth Gap


The day started hecticly as we loaded into autorickshaws. Autorickshaws are driven by gutsy men and powered by something similar to a lawn mower motor. We stopped at the New Dehli Train Station to meet a tour guide from the NGO Salaam Baalak . In short, this NGO strives to get street kids off of the street and onto a path towards a productive life. We saw organized garbage bags piled in front of shops where kids came daily to trade articles of garbage (plastic, aluminum, etc.) for a  small profit. This scene gave life to the images I had in my head after reading Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo which centered around the lives of street kids in India.

We walked through narrow alleyways lined with shops, small restaurants, and homes, all of which were dirty and falling apart. Stray and diseased-looking dogs roamed making there way through the several sleeping people also bordering the alleyways. I have experienced many new smells since my arrival in India, but nothing compares to what I smelled in those alleyways. I couldn't begin...I wouldn't want to begin...guessing at what sort of things made up those smells. I found myself breathing through my shirt and speeding my walk to shorten my exposure. Those conditions in which I was so uncomfortable and couldn't wait to get out of are the conditions people live their daily lives in.

Part of our tour included a look inside a home for boys off of the street. Immediately upon entering, we were greeted by several young boys. They shook our hands, introducing themselves, played quick games of thumb war (in which they were highly skilled) and derivatives of patty-cake with us. They were adorable. As soon as our cameras came out, a new wave of excitement hit. They all wanted pictures taken of themselves and with us, and several of us became human jungle gyms on which the boys posed for pictures. They were so much fun to be around, and it's hard to think that those boys are of the very few that have been pulled off of the street.

After our Salaam Baalak tour, we ventured to Khan Market in upscale New Deli. There were pricey and relatively clean restaurants (pricey for India anyway), designer stores I recognized from home, nice Indian clothing stores in which we made our first purchases, and several foreigners besides myself and my group. The contrast between what we had just seen on our tour only a few minutes away walking distance and the upscale part of New Dehli is astounding. It serves as an example of the incredible wealth gap in India.

Our day in New Dehli was exhausting both physically and mentally. The images of those living in poverty are vivid and the problems related to the wealth gap keep resurfacing in my mind.

Next stop the Hanifl Center at the Woodstock School in Mussoorie.

Until next time,
Ada

September 1st 2012

I'm in India!


We arrived in Dehli at around 8 pm. The minute we landed I noticed the air smelled just a little bit spicy and felt very humid. Then we began our adventure to our guest house. Traffic laws do not seem to exist in India. Lane lines are just for decoration, and driving into oncoming traffic is no big deal. I was impressed that our Indian taxi driver was not phased by the multiple almost-accidents we were involved in. I, meanwhile, was not able to keep such a composure.

traffic in Old Dehli

Our guest house is in a Tibetan colony in Dehli: home to Tibetan refugees and several scrawny dogs. The narrow "roads" are lined with vendors selling everything from hand made jewelry to cell phones inside small shops or under flimsy shelter.

The first day was spent orientating and touring Old Dehli. It can best be described as sensory overload. The smell: heavy pollution, trash, strange food, body odor. The sounds: music (Justin Bieber and Bollywood), people yelling in Hindi and English, car horns, barking. Most notably, the sights: people, cars, auto and bicycle rickshaws, mosques, multiple-storied buildings, shops, street vendors, animals. I was disappointed whenever I took a picture because my camera couldn't seem to accurately capture all of what I was seeing.

a street in Old Dehli

I was captivated by everything around me; there was so much to look at. But people were captivated by us. The stares followed our group wherever we went. People even took pictures. It is difficult to get used to the fact that I am the strange looking one, I am the foreigner.

It is hard to comprehend that I will be spending the next 9 months in this country. 9 months seems like a very long time.I have never felt as dirty as I feel after today. Today was exhausting and overwhelming but a remarkable experience. I discovered the greatness of Tibetan bread and chicken momos and saw a man sitting on a sidewalk combing his leg hair with a pink comb.

Tomorrow we are touring New Dehli, and the next day we are taking a train up to a school in Mussoorie where we will spend a couple weeks.

Until next time,
Ada