This was actually written a few days ago, right before I left for Jamkhed (where I am now, in South India!), but I haven't had enough internet until now to post it :) More updates from Jamkhed (you just wait... this is where it's at) soon.
Hello! So this past week I've had the pleasure of being home (well, Indian home) again. It's been a great week despite the fact that I had to spend a chunk of it writing a paper for the Health and Human Rights seminar. You'll have to forgive the lack of detail in this post... I'm exhausted but wanted to make sure I got all this down before I leave for my time in Jamkhed in South India! I have a flight tomorrow morning (I have to be up in 5 hours) leaving for Pune, and then a four hour ride to Jamkhed, a village outside of Pune. I will be interning/having a workshop at an organization called the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) for the week! I don't know how much internet/phone access I'll have, Mom and Dad :) just fyi! But here's the last week, for now...
Monday after school, my friend Drew and I checked out Lodi Gardens - basically a huge refined park in the middle of the ritzier side of the ritzy side of Delhi. There were tons of families having picnics (with full-out silverware sets and crock-pot equivalents) in and around the ruins, mosques, and tombs which had been restored. We walked around for about an hour, then grabbed ice cream cones and relaxed on the rickshaw ride home. It was nice to have such a low-key day, especially as it's getting hotter and hotter.
Tuesday night our host family took us to a "Mexican jazz concert." IT WAS AWESOME! The woman's name was Magos Herrera, and the concert was called Mexico Azul. She had a tremendous voice, and the concert was located in the same area of Delhi as the Lodi Gardens, so we got to drive through the area a little. When we came around a corner and passed India Gate, I snapped a (blurry) picture. India Gate, one of the symbols of Delhi, is definitely on my list before I leave the city.
Here is the India Gate which I have still not yet visited but have passed a few times..:
After dinner, our host family drove around in the direction that was definitely not towards home... it was getting late, and the kids had still not eaten... and I cannot rightly put into words my joy when we pulled into the McDonald's parking lot. After my Food, Nutrition, and Culture class last semester, visiting McDonald's in other countries highlights what the market of the area holds important - in this case, the motto was the same "I'm lovin' it!" but the people in the ads had these WIDE WIDE WIDE smiles and looking like they were having the time. of . their. lives. Like stills from a Bollywood movie, or something. The other big difference was the lack of beef - just chicken and vegetable options in a land where so many people consider cows sacred.
Wednesday and Thursday were paper-writing machine days... except not. It's hard to get into the mindset of writing a good paper when I know the grades won't count at Tufts, this is an easier grading system, and honestly, I'm just out of practice, and out of paper-writing context. It's difficult to think of how to format in-text citations in MLA format when there is a flock of cows meandering by the program center instead of some Tufts kids playing frisbee outside of my window at Tufts. The highlight of these two days was hanging out with Aura and Arko and Coco and making rounds to the local Mother Dairy station, where they sell these AMAZING mango-raspberry popsicles for Rs 5 (about 11 cents) and a HUGE milk truck comes every night to fill the milk tank. My nephew Jonathan would love it... it looks like those giant trucks in America that come to fill up your swimming pool, except... it's filled with milk. My host family thinks it's hilarious that I am so taken with the milk truck, but how could you not?! The possibilities a milk truck presents!!
This was pretty interesting... on Wednesday we took a trip to a private hospital in Delhi that claims to reserve 20% of its beds for the poor.. it started out as an NGO but after so many years of accepting government funding, it slowly became very corrupt, and now caters to health toursists coming to India for cheaper, high quality surgeries. This was the hospital bed for clients who can pay for it (only about $200 a night for a room where even the bathroom has a 40" flat screen) - keep in mind, while families in government hospitals fit 80 people into a waiting room this size, this luxury room goes unused...:
It was an intense experience. I don't blame people for wanting good care... I blame the system for profiting off of sick people. I think I'm becoming rather socialist... or realizing that I always was!
In other news... the nighborhood where I live is called Sarvodaya Enclave. I really love it and the community feeling. I'll try to post some pictures next week (my last week here when I get back from our next trip to Jamkhed!) of the area (and the milk truck, obviously). I am going to be very sad to leave here - after the trip this coming week, I'll only have one week left here (till the 11th of April).
So after I finally got a paper turned in on Friday, I went with Nisha and Caroline to meet up with some other girls at Nizamuddin's Tomb in downtown Delhi. It was the anniversary of Nizamuddin's death, so hundreds of Muslim pilgrims were visiting. We went to the smaller dharga (tomb/shrine), which was not crowded at all, to see some Sufi music, which is what we saw during orientation as well. Sufi music has no specific religious affiliation, but is very spiritual... the men we heard sing were apparently pretty famous guys, and we were sitting only a few feet away! I'll post the links to heard some youtube Sufi music soon.
Afterwards, Nisha and Caroline and I ate at Green Park Market in a cafeteria Evergreen where I ordered a whole plate of that snack I had at Holi called gol gappa. It was incredible. I called it a night early and headed back home to Molly-ji and the family. Arko and I played around for a bit (and used a lot of English with me for the first time!!! usually he's super shy about it), and hit the hay early.
This morning, Saturday, was "Thanksgiving" at the Ashram. Aura has been practicing for weeks on her Indian drums, called the tumla, and her 9 lines in a Hindi play. Molly and I got up early and went to the play at 9am, and got to watch all of the little kids running around and playing different parts in Hindi plays that we didn't understand. It was so cute though - and definitely put Jacksonville Elementary's "Three Little Pigs" to shame.. these kids had full-out orchestrated musical numbers on Indian instruments.
Molly and I left for Chandi Chowk after the play this morning - Chandi Chowk is in Old Delhi, which is basically another world from where I live in Hauz Khas... it is CRAZY and one of the most overwhelming places I have ever seen in my life. We got out of the silvery gorgeous organized metro station and emerged into pure insanity - it was another world above ground.
We walked down the main drag and made a stop in Haldiram's, the famous sweet shop that even exports to the states! I had a delicious samosa for Rs 10 (read: 25 cents). In the US they can cost $2-4. Awesome.
Molly and I went to the Red Fort - where Shah Jahan ruled Delhi (well, at the time, it was called Shahjahanabad... I wonder where he got the name?). It was incredibly beautiful but sadly the Britishers built a bunch of army barracks on the inside, which have pitted these beautiful buildings (now damaged) right next to these ugly utilitarian reminders of British oppression.
Aftterwards, we walked through the city and at lunch at a famous non-veg place called Karim's. We had INCREDIBLE Chicken Tikka even though the outside made me suspect... I saw more roasting meat out in the open in Chandi Chowk than I've seen anywhere else in Delhi. It was delicious, but ask me in another 6 hours if I'm feeling ok. It was right next to the Jama Masjid -the oldest mosque in Delhi. Unfortunately we really didn't have time/energy to make the walk up inside, because we grabbed a cycle-rickshaw walla and headed off for the Chandi Chowk spice market.
The spice market was so neat but very pungent... at one point we turned a corner through some red chillies and immediately had our sinuses open and throats coat with the chili oil in the air. There was sack upon sack upon burlap sack of these things, and they were drying upon every available surface and dropped all over the ground. The rickshaw walla who brought us there took us up to the top of the old spice market where we got a view of ALL of Old Delhi. To be honest, I got a little creeped out when he started leading us up a dark staircase at the back of a 500 year old building... i had a chuckie finster moment and molly ji and I asked him what we were doing... we were reassured that it was ok but kept our distance from this guy. We ended up following him a safe distance behind. The view from the top was totally worth the momentary confusion.
After the spice market, we asked him to take us to a place where we could buy silver... and he took us a really roundabout way to a random shop in a basement that sold pashminas... it was clear that he had some kind of deal with this woman, who yelled at him in Hindi when we didn't buy anything and told him we wanted to go to an open-air silver market. In the end, he drove us back into the heart of Chandi Chowk where we paid him and perused some amazing silver work at dirt cheap prices. You have to sift through a lot of junk, but there is some amazing stuff to be found! I ended up getting a really cool turquoise ring for a little less than USD $18. When he quoted me the first price, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I basically whined about it until he knocked off a few dollars worth of rupees. It's a ridiculous tactic, but I'm not as good at the aggressive bargaining, so being a whiny tourist, as it gets results, is what I am experimenting with.
This is a video I took from the rickshaw... it's basically a bad Disney ride... except with real danger (But don;t worry Mom!):
And now we're home! Coming back from Chandi Chowk made me remember what a luxury it is to live on this side of Delhi, and how nice it is here. As for tomorrow, Molly is headed to Varanasi to work with a different organization (we're all headed to three different cities, the third group going to Rishikesh in the mountains). We both leave for the airport early. I'm excited to try out what domestic flying is like in India!
Looking forward to another week in the middle of nowhere in rural India, :)
Laura
Hello! So this past week I've had the pleasure of being home (well, Indian home) again. It's been a great week despite the fact that I had to spend a chunk of it writing a paper for the Health and Human Rights seminar. You'll have to forgive the lack of detail in this post... I'm exhausted but wanted to make sure I got all this down before I leave for my time in Jamkhed in South India! I have a flight tomorrow morning (I have to be up in 5 hours) leaving for Pune, and then a four hour ride to Jamkhed, a village outside of Pune. I will be interning/having a workshop at an organization called the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) for the week! I don't know how much internet/phone access I'll have, Mom and Dad :) just fyi! But here's the last week, for now...
Monday after school, my friend Drew and I checked out Lodi Gardens - basically a huge refined park in the middle of the ritzier side of the ritzy side of Delhi. There were tons of families having picnics (with full-out silverware sets and crock-pot equivalents) in and around the ruins, mosques, and tombs which had been restored. We walked around for about an hour, then grabbed ice cream cones and relaxed on the rickshaw ride home. It was nice to have such a low-key day, especially as it's getting hotter and hotter.
Tuesday night our host family took us to a "Mexican jazz concert." IT WAS AWESOME! The woman's name was Magos Herrera, and the concert was called Mexico Azul. She had a tremendous voice, and the concert was located in the same area of Delhi as the Lodi Gardens, so we got to drive through the area a little. When we came around a corner and passed India Gate, I snapped a (blurry) picture. India Gate, one of the symbols of Delhi, is definitely on my list before I leave the city.
Here is the India Gate which I have still not yet visited but have passed a few times..:
After dinner, our host family drove around in the direction that was definitely not towards home... it was getting late, and the kids had still not eaten... and I cannot rightly put into words my joy when we pulled into the McDonald's parking lot. After my Food, Nutrition, and Culture class last semester, visiting McDonald's in other countries highlights what the market of the area holds important - in this case, the motto was the same "I'm lovin' it!" but the people in the ads had these WIDE WIDE WIDE smiles and looking like they were having the time. of . their. lives. Like stills from a Bollywood movie, or something. The other big difference was the lack of beef - just chicken and vegetable options in a land where so many people consider cows sacred.
Arko ordering on his own...
Wednesday and Thursday were paper-writing machine days... except not. It's hard to get into the mindset of writing a good paper when I know the grades won't count at Tufts, this is an easier grading system, and honestly, I'm just out of practice, and out of paper-writing context. It's difficult to think of how to format in-text citations in MLA format when there is a flock of cows meandering by the program center instead of some Tufts kids playing frisbee outside of my window at Tufts. The highlight of these two days was hanging out with Aura and Arko and Coco and making rounds to the local Mother Dairy station, where they sell these AMAZING mango-raspberry popsicles for Rs 5 (about 11 cents) and a HUGE milk truck comes every night to fill the milk tank. My nephew Jonathan would love it... it looks like those giant trucks in America that come to fill up your swimming pool, except... it's filled with milk. My host family thinks it's hilarious that I am so taken with the milk truck, but how could you not?! The possibilities a milk truck presents!!
This was pretty interesting... on Wednesday we took a trip to a private hospital in Delhi that claims to reserve 20% of its beds for the poor.. it started out as an NGO but after so many years of accepting government funding, it slowly became very corrupt, and now caters to health toursists coming to India for cheaper, high quality surgeries. This was the hospital bed for clients who can pay for it (only about $200 a night for a room where even the bathroom has a 40" flat screen) - keep in mind, while families in government hospitals fit 80 people into a waiting room this size, this luxury room goes unused...:
irony:
It was an intense experience. I don't blame people for wanting good care... I blame the system for profiting off of sick people. I think I'm becoming rather socialist... or realizing that I always was!
In other news... the nighborhood where I live is called Sarvodaya Enclave. I really love it and the community feeling. I'll try to post some pictures next week (my last week here when I get back from our next trip to Jamkhed!) of the area (and the milk truck, obviously). I am going to be very sad to leave here - after the trip this coming week, I'll only have one week left here (till the 11th of April).
So after I finally got a paper turned in on Friday, I went with Nisha and Caroline to meet up with some other girls at Nizamuddin's Tomb in downtown Delhi. It was the anniversary of Nizamuddin's death, so hundreds of Muslim pilgrims were visiting. We went to the smaller dharga (tomb/shrine), which was not crowded at all, to see some Sufi music, which is what we saw during orientation as well. Sufi music has no specific religious affiliation, but is very spiritual... the men we heard sing were apparently pretty famous guys, and we were sitting only a few feet away! I'll post the links to heard some youtube Sufi music soon.
Afterwards, Nisha and Caroline and I ate at Green Park Market in a cafeteria Evergreen where I ordered a whole plate of that snack I had at Holi called gol gappa. It was incredible. I called it a night early and headed back home to Molly-ji and the family. Arko and I played around for a bit (and used a lot of English with me for the first time!!! usually he's super shy about it), and hit the hay early.
This morning, Saturday, was "Thanksgiving" at the Ashram. Aura has been practicing for weeks on her Indian drums, called the tumla, and her 9 lines in a Hindi play. Molly and I got up early and went to the play at 9am, and got to watch all of the little kids running around and playing different parts in Hindi plays that we didn't understand. It was so cute though - and definitely put Jacksonville Elementary's "Three Little Pigs" to shame.. these kids had full-out orchestrated musical numbers on Indian instruments.
Molly and I left for Chandi Chowk after the play this morning - Chandi Chowk is in Old Delhi, which is basically another world from where I live in Hauz Khas... it is CRAZY and one of the most overwhelming places I have ever seen in my life. We got out of the silvery gorgeous organized metro station and emerged into pure insanity - it was another world above ground.
We walked down the main drag and made a stop in Haldiram's, the famous sweet shop that even exports to the states! I had a delicious samosa for Rs 10 (read: 25 cents). In the US they can cost $2-4. Awesome.
Molly and I went to the Red Fort - where Shah Jahan ruled Delhi (well, at the time, it was called Shahjahanabad... I wonder where he got the name?). It was incredibly beautiful but sadly the Britishers built a bunch of army barracks on the inside, which have pitted these beautiful buildings (now damaged) right next to these ugly utilitarian reminders of British oppression.
somebody is still pink from holi:
Aftterwards, we walked through the city and at lunch at a famous non-veg place called Karim's. We had INCREDIBLE Chicken Tikka even though the outside made me suspect... I saw more roasting meat out in the open in Chandi Chowk than I've seen anywhere else in Delhi. It was delicious, but ask me in another 6 hours if I'm feeling ok. It was right next to the Jama Masjid -the oldest mosque in Delhi. Unfortunately we really didn't have time/energy to make the walk up inside, because we grabbed a cycle-rickshaw walla and headed off for the Chandi Chowk spice market.
We were definitely concerned about this:
The spice market was so neat but very pungent... at one point we turned a corner through some red chillies and immediately had our sinuses open and throats coat with the chili oil in the air. There was sack upon sack upon burlap sack of these things, and they were drying upon every available surface and dropped all over the ground. The rickshaw walla who brought us there took us up to the top of the old spice market where we got a view of ALL of Old Delhi. To be honest, I got a little creeped out when he started leading us up a dark staircase at the back of a 500 year old building... i had a chuckie finster moment and molly ji and I asked him what we were doing... we were reassured that it was ok but kept our distance from this guy. We ended up following him a safe distance behind. The view from the top was totally worth the momentary confusion.
red chillies drying on a spice market roof:
bags and bags of chillies!
After the spice market, we asked him to take us to a place where we could buy silver... and he took us a really roundabout way to a random shop in a basement that sold pashminas... it was clear that he had some kind of deal with this woman, who yelled at him in Hindi when we didn't buy anything and told him we wanted to go to an open-air silver market. In the end, he drove us back into the heart of Chandi Chowk where we paid him and perused some amazing silver work at dirt cheap prices. You have to sift through a lot of junk, but there is some amazing stuff to be found! I ended up getting a really cool turquoise ring for a little less than USD $18. When he quoted me the first price, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I basically whined about it until he knocked off a few dollars worth of rupees. It's a ridiculous tactic, but I'm not as good at the aggressive bargaining, so being a whiny tourist, as it gets results, is what I am experimenting with.
This is a video I took from the rickshaw... it's basically a bad Disney ride... except with real danger (But don;t worry Mom!):
And now we're home! Coming back from Chandi Chowk made me remember what a luxury it is to live on this side of Delhi, and how nice it is here. As for tomorrow, Molly is headed to Varanasi to work with a different organization (we're all headed to three different cities, the third group going to Rishikesh in the mountains). We both leave for the airport early. I'm excited to try out what domestic flying is like in India!
Looking forward to another week in the middle of nowhere in rural India, :)
Laura
