October 16th 2012

The Monkey in the Program House


On Saturday morning I arrived at the program house at 7:30 for breakfast. I noticed on the roof opposite the program house a greater number of monkeys than usual. I went into the program house and sat down. A minute later, a monkey ran in the door, grabbed a bunch of bananas off of the table, and ran out. It all happened so fast. When I looked outside I saw him mockingly eating the bananas on the opposite roof. A subtle reminder that I'm not in the United States anymore.

Our 7:30 breakfast, 10:00-5:00 work day, 6:00-8:00 Hindi schedule continued as usual this week. On Tuesday Hannah and I bought bikes and rode them to work on Wednesday. What is riding a bike like in Beneras? It's crazy. There's not an organized pattern of traffic that the bicyclist falls into place with, there are no bikers' lanes, and there is a number of unfamiliar obstacles that regularly present themselves. By unfamiliar obstacles I mean cows and water buffalo (who don't seem to move much, biker or no biker), and the bicycle and autorickshaws that run the road. Tom led Hannah and I from his
motorcycle to work so that we could learn the route. There aren't many turns, but I am direction-ally challenged and I am in India so I expect the learning process to be a long one. I somehow managed to get lost at one point while Tom was leading us.

The festival season is approaching. This gave Mackenzie, Hannah, and me a good excuse to go sari shopping--something we've been anticipating since before we even got to India. We found a recommended store in a crowded part of town, and when we walked in we found sari heaven. Red couches surround shelves upon shelves of fabrics from synthetics to silks on three stories. I bought my first sari, and am not revealing any details about it until I wear it.

I have been pretty sick for the past few days but I am happy to say that I am feeling much better today. I made a visit to the doctor. He was very nice, and didn't rush to throw me in the hospital, so I am very thankful for both of those things.

I'm including mostly pictures of the ghats and the Ganga Ji. I have yet to take very many pictures of the city itself or my homestay.

October 5th 2012

Guria


On Monday we started work at our service sites! This week's schedule...which is essentially the rest of the year's schedule...has been incredibly busy: breakfast at 7:30, work from 9:00 to 5:00, Hindi from 6:00 to 8:00, followed by dinner and Hindi homework and then finally sleep.

Hannah and I are working at Guria. Guria is an NGO dedicated to fighting forced prostitution, second-generation prostitution, and human trafficking. The organization is headed by Ajeet Singh who is our mentor. He is really passionate about what he does, and I love just listening to him talk about his beliefs and his goals for the organization. Our work at Guria is self-initiated, and this week we began archiving newspaper clippings. The internet is down right now at the organization, which limits the amount of work we can do at the office. There is also an after-school center in the red light district in Varanasi. We visited the center yesterday and got to hang out with the kids. It was great. The kids were so much fun. I made a lot of failed attempts to have conversations with them in Hindi, and when they realized my Hindi
wasn't great, they took out a notebook and had me work on pronouncing letters. Pretty soon I was surrounded by kids, all around seven years old, excitedly yelling out letter pronunciations that I had to repeat. I can't wait to get to know the kids better and make improvements to the center.

Transportation to Guria has been...interesting. Guria is pretty far from the program house, and to minimize transportation costs, Hannah and I take shared autorickshaws and bicycle rickshaws. And since there is no direct route on a shared rickshaw to the office or the school, we take multiple rickshaws. We go from the Program House to Lonka, from Lonka to Kutchary, from Kutchary to Cante, and from Cante to the office. Every time we try to get a shared rickshaw, we get surrounded
by rickshaw drivers all trying to figure out where we are going. It's always a little overwhelming, and I'm definitely glad I didn't have to face the transportation issue alone this week. We are looking to get bikes soon, which will cut down on transportation time...and hassle...significantly.

On Wednesday, we were sitting in the Guria office when we heard thunder which was followed by a downpour. We didn't think much of it, because it all ended before we had to leave. We were in our third rickshaw when we found ourselves in the middle of a flooded street, stopped by a wall of traffic. I thought that drivers in California couldn't handle the rain...but post-rain traffic in India is on a completely different level. The wall of traffic was composed of standing people, bicycle rickshaws,
auto rickshaws, cars, motorcycles, cows, and water buffalo. Our autorickshaw driver kicked us out because he wasn't willing to wait in the traffic, so Hannah and I found ourselves right in the middle of the wall of traffic. We worked our way slowly through the crowd, which was very difficult. It took some mental strength on my part at least to just accept the fact that I didn't know...and probably didn't want to know...what I was stepping on under the several inches of murky water that filled the streets. After about a mile and a half of walking, we were able to find another rickshaw.

I feel my Hindi improving to a certain extent, and I am able to use it more everyday in my homestay which is fun. I've developed a passion for Indian serials, which are soap operas, and I get really excited when I pick out words I know or recognize verb tenses in the sentences. We went on a sunrise boat ride this week and said goodbye to Kristen, our co-leader who is going back to the United States for a little while. Until next time!

I'll be posting more photos in a separate post as soon as possible because my internet access is limited and posting pictures takes a long time.