India

This is me one week after I left for India.
I am attempting to find the instrument on a swiss army knife to cut through luggage locks.
Good thing I found the keys under my pillow that night because I couldn't find it. Swiss army knives need to have more to them. Thankfully, Tyler was able to wire cutter my bag back together.
I made it all the way to the dorms before realizing I had locked my bags and lost the keys.


This is us taking a rikshaw through Delhi. After our tramautizing night trip without a guide.
Easy peasy after that.


This is vibrant India.


This is trashy India.
This is right on the ground before a beautiful Water Palace.
There needs to be more of a green movement in India.
I am not quite sure where to start - developing homes for the homeless so they can't burn the trash and cause so much pollution, campaigns/awareness, pure clean up acts... I just don't know yet.

We take pictures of each other taking pictures in marble hallways in forts on top of mountains.


A palace with mirrors everywhere. So shiny.
Had 12 different apartments for the 12 wives of... I think, Akbar the Great. We ran around this place like crazy.

This is the elephant I rode to the top of the Amber Fort in Jaipur.
Riding elephants is not that much fun, by the way.
They are not the smoothest mode of transportation.
They are entertaining, however.

This is Tyler eating a banana. Bananas are available everywhere for very cheap, and wonderfully so, because they are also familiar to our stomachs and soothing when it comes to all of the spicy food.
This is also Tyler several days into a massive, terrifying roadtrip without a razor and having guitar withdrawal. We were all missing something at this point.


This is me at one of the gates to the Taj Mahal.
Every single site in India is 5 billion times the size of anything people make today.
The Taj Mahal is built out of this translucent marble that is from the Middle East and because it is translucent, it changes colors as the sky changes colors. It has sorts of stones from all over that make up the designs. We got to go to one of the places where the ancestors of the original builders still practice forming and cutting the stones and placing them in special glue and sticking them into stone, just like the Taj Mahal was made.


This is Riane tying on a prayer string at a mosque.



This is us at our first tourist destination in Delhi - Jama Masjid (spelling?) They made us take our shoes off... I'm very glad I had socks on... and they made the women wear gigantic dresses.
Here, before there were telephones/microphones, etc. they used the human radio and echoed across this huge huge huge mosque so all of the followers could hear the words of the main dude.



These are the 2 people who have gotten me where I am today.
This is them being happy for me at the airport at 3 am.
I love them so much.

Elephants are considered good luck in India, after the Hindu god Ganesh. The story as I was told: His father was Shiva, his mother Parvati. One day, Shiva went on a pilgrimmage and was gone for many years, and in the meantime, Parvati had Ganesh. For some reason, Parvati had to put a lot of guards outside of her home. When Shiva came home, nobody recognized him, and the main watch over Parvati's home was Ganesh. Angry, Shiva sliced his head of for not recognizing him as the great Shiva. When everyone realized what had happened, someone went out and found a momma elephant and her baby elephant, lying back to back. They chopped off the baby's head and that is why Ganesh has an elephant head.
Now, it is believe that a mother should never sleep with her back to her child.

I hope they will bring me good luck and extra happiness in India.



Hope you enjoyed some of those pics!!
I have so many more...
Someday, I hope they can be shared with all of you.
Don't forget to check my facebook for the entire albums.
(and to contact me!!)


Can I tell you that India is stimulating? ( One of our many hilarious guides had a very proper British accent and began every sentence with --> And can I tell you miss? Would you believe...? And what if I told you...? We found him to be very amusing - we are still quoting him, a week later.)

There are more than a billion sounds, colors, foods, animals, levels of people and wealth.
I have never seen more color or a more dichotomous situation in my life.
Will I ever again?

I have been here for a week now (but I just got internet and will post the loads and loads of pictures that I have taken with both my beautiful new nikon that takes brilliant pics and the videos with my older camera.)

A few thoughts and first impressions - neither good nor bad, these are just what they are:



I entered a foggy India Sunday evening. Foggy is not the correct term.
Polluted is the correct term.
India is filthy.

I woke up gasping for breath my first night here. I thought I was choking.

Everyone in India must wake up the same everyday as well.
Life is India is a fight.
I have encountered leprosy. It turns your stomach.
I have covered my eyes at polio, those walking on all four with deformed feet. I have gasped at the thrusting hands and grasping hands, the shameless starting, the eyes that bore into your skull.
I have looked away from animals digging in the trash and children without eyes.
I have pulled away from men with one arm.

There are some moments that are so normal.
I am listening to my ipod, reading a book, talking with friends - and then I look up.
There are people begging for help absolutely everywhere.
The people, those that do not understand, have a motion.
They scrunch their eyes a little, with a small head tilt and pursed lips. Their hands form an Italian lip kiss scrunch, their shoulders hunch. This look was very familiar at first and I couldn't determine why. I realized after a few days that I used to get this look from Anatoly when he couldn't understand why I was scared, why I couldn't understand him, why we weren't connecting and relating and working together. The look is a mixture of confusion, pain, rejection, astonishment.
The hurt in the eyes is the most painful thing I have encountered. I believe I have made the decision to not look into faces.

Hawkers are also a constant source of consternation for me.
everyone tells me that India has a lower standard of living, don't worry about bartering, etc.
But I get upset about it
we don't barter with prices in the US - granted, in the US we don't raise prices for foreigners, but I can't imagine ever asking someone to lower their prices.
We just say that because it is India, because it is a developing country, because all of the people are part of caste systems that they are born into - we say that because of all of these things, it is ok to barter with them, and ask them to lower prices. In the US, our goods are made with shoddy equipment, and cheap labor, and sent overseas for cheaper prices. In the US, people really are only out for your money.
In India, these people are out to live.
They don't live to work, they work to live.
And it kills me that I ask these people to lower their prices they have set for me. What they are offering may not be worth what they are selling it for, but a lot of things I buy are certainly not worth what I pay for it at home.

Their standard of living is what it is because many visitors, and many natives as well, leave them, even force them to lower their standards of living.
Is manual labor in any country worth, in rupees, only 20 rs?
I do not know the background of Indian culture and society, but I will be taking this class (starting Tuesday morning) on how to confront social issues (Human plights in India -- with famous activist Prof. G Haragopal) where I can address all of my questions with informed background and truly decide how I can help India.

I bought dog food today. There are far too many animals without food here. I don't know what I will do with the animals I help when I leave... but I believe I will figure it out.
I should buy a pair of scissors and neuter them all.

I will be volunteering at a local NGO chapter starting asap.


I don't mean to say that I have not had fun - I am with a wonderful group of people. My roommate, Riane, is a beautiful soul.
Riding in a rikshaw the first night was one of the most exhilarating/traumatizing experiences of my life.
We have visited many beautiful places.
We started in Delhi.

Delhi is the most overwhelming city.
I am not sure that going directly to Delhi was a smart decision, but our tour of Agra and Jaipur was great.
We have seen beautiful things - the Taj Mahal, many palaces - the Wind Palace, the Water Palace, Agra Fort, Amber Fort --> my personal favorite. Everything is straight out of fairy tales. Just imagine the beautiful palace people in beautiful dresses (some of the forts had wheelchair ramps... the dresses were so heavy the women got pushed around...)

It has taken us forever to get anywhere.
We call it India time. People talk in kilometers here (I'm getting better at math strangely enough...) and so I can tell you that it is 200 kilometers from Delhi to Agra which in normal people time is about 124 minutes... a little over 2 hours... but in India time takes 5 hours.
I'm learning patience.

I have been eating a lot of spicy spicy food. American food will have zero flava once I come back. We eat family style - my favorite. Everyone knows now to pack up the food because I insist on passing out leftovers to those who need it.
There is no pork or beef here. No problem here. I do have trouble eating the chicken that still has bones, however. ew.
We love chai.
We have tea time at 5 everyday :) so happy about this.
about chai:
we prefer truck stop chai. Our experiences have proven to us that even on horribly paved roads during 12 hours detours due to political agitation and sitting on a bus that could break down at any minute with 8 strangers... truck stop chai is delicious and a life saver.


So... after bag dilemmas hours before departure, navigating airports by myself, a 14 hour flight, landing in smelly delhi, touring the Golden Triangle, meeting a roadblock protest, have flight delays, making new friends, drinking chai, sleeping in sketchy hostels and having the time of my life, I am in Hyderabad and going to start studying the life I have decided to take on for 4 months.

Among my many goals, some of the most important - to absorb my culture shock with open arms and open mind. To be realistic, and patient. To learn and grow, to share and receive.
To accept.



OK.

Long post.
Sorry.

I had a lot to say, and still more to come.
But, on India time... I need to get to bed.
I mean, the bus might show up on time for classes.

India is full of obstacles.

But I'm up to the challenge.

Love to all.