I seem to keep ending up in small towns with no atms but sandy streets, beautiful sand dunes and wonderful people. Setrawa is a small village north of the city Jodhpur. Until 4 years ago there were no foreigners here and today the only foreigners are the volunteers with Sambali Trust. The people of Setrawa have graciously welcomed us into their daily life. We've been part of a wedding, settled into routine at school and cared for by our host families. It is hard to walk down the street without hearing "hallo", "hi Jen", or "mera ghar" (which means my house and is generally an invitation for tea). The streets are virtually traffic free unless you include goats, cows, camels, peacocks and dogs who all roam freely.
Daily life
Everything is completely different than life back home. There is no furniture in any of the houses. Instead there are mats that get moved around the house depending on where people want to sit. There isn't much clutter of things so all the rooms are quite spacious. Our house, like most has a temple where someone in the family prays to a God twice a day. There is much less garbage than back home because toilet paper and Kleenex are non-existent. There is no garbage pick up so the small amount of garbage produced is burnt or tossed in the streets where the cows, goats and people pick through it. There is no such thing as a hot water tap. To heat water for showers I place an electrical probe in a bucket of water. It is impressive how little water you need to take a shower. In my host family is Usha (she teaches at Sambali school), her brother Moti (studying agriculture at college) and their parents. Her mom doesn't speak English but always gives me a big smile when I come home. I'm learning little bits of Hindi but we use mostly actions to communicate. The Dad has been gone for the past couple of weeks. It is a small family but like every other home the door is usually wide open all day. Various neighbors, family members, or friends stop by to visit or help with a task.
My mornings begin with a cup of tea followed by a spicy breakfast. It is surprising how much I like the spicy kick to start the day off, although I am starting to crave some eggs. After a relaxing morning I head to school to prepare lessons. It is quite nice to have more than 15 minutes to get ready for my day and always wake up completely rested. I come home for a yummy lunch, usually chapattis and a spicy vegetable stew. Then Usha and I head to school. The first class is the Dahlit girls, from the "untouchable caste". These girls have never been to school before and come from families that can't afford to send their kids to school. They have just been going to Sambali for 3 months are learning to read and write Hindi, English and basic math. When they arrive at 1 we help them brush their teeth and wash their hands, feet and hair. After it is fun to have everyone braiding and helping brush each other's hair. Then we have lessons and end with some games or dancing. They love trying to teach us how to dance and laugh when we mimic their moves. Next month 6 of these girls will be sponsored to attend private school.
Next we have the afterschool classes. These are girls who attend school but want extra English help. I teach the advanced class (conjunctions, opposite words, how to write question etc.). It is tricky because some girls are older so there is a variety of levels in the class. Amelia teaches basic English (shapes, colors, to be verb) and Usha teaches letters and spelling to the smallest girls. It is quite the magical setting to have about 40 students keen to go to school afterschool to improve their English. On Friday we play games and on Saturdays we run workshops.
When I come home from school around 7:00 there is usually five or six of the neighboring kids playing in the street. They run over and greet me. I usually play a couple games out in the street with them and sometimes they wander into our house to continue playing (or just to stare at me if I'm too tired to play). Mangu, the neighbor across the street and mother of 2 or 3 of the children often also greets me or stops by our house in the evening to say hello. She has an incredible smile and always seems happy. Our conversations are limited mostly to "ap kaise ho" (how are you) but we always try to communicate a bit more through actions and pointing.
Then around 8:30 we have dinner. Usha and her mom make a container full of chapattis, a pot of vegetable stew and chapattis. Sometimes they let me help, although my chapattis never seem to be perfectly round. We all sit on the floor and are served one by one. The notion of "wait until everyone is seated" doesn't exist. Instead people are served in specific order, guests, men, women, children. This is something I don't like about Indian culture, I prefer eating with everyone at once. Although sometimes once Moti and I have eaten a few chapattis Usha and her mom will start too. The rest of the evening I spend with the family before falling asleep to the sound of crickets and the occasional dog fight.
Happy holi!
During our travels before Setrawa any Indian we met invited us to their hometown for holi. It seems like everyone thinks their holi celebration is the best. Luckily we were here in Setrawa where it actually was the best day yet! The day before we bought bags of powdered colors in anticipation. The holi morning we were sipping our tea when Sonu and Samta (sambali girls) rushed inside and rubbed colors on our faces. Usha's mom sent us all up to the roof. Across the street it looked like war, about 10 teenage boys appeared. They were all colored head to toe in pink, red and other colors. They had water guns and were shooting colors at each other. At the appearance of the boys the girls all ran back downstairs. On holi boys mix their colors with kerosene instead of water (which stains the skin and clothes for weeks). Either way boys and girls play holi separately. Just then a gang of shouting girls from Sambali came running down our street. They were covered head to toe in colors. We joined them. Everyone rubbed colors on each other's faces and clothes and said "happy holi!". We went around from house to house ambushing other friends and covering them too in bright colors. When the colors ran out it became a water fight. Conveniently there are taps outside most houses, perfect for water fights! The only tradition of holi I don't understand is why everyone cleans their house top to bottom the week before holi, because no matter how much mothers try to barricade front doors the colors end up everywhere! It is a few days later and still some front porches are stain red or purple. After the colors we spent a couple hours scrubbing the colors out of our hair and off our skin. We did the initial was in the street until the soap coming out of our hair was no longer pink. Today some girls are still a little pink behind the ear or have nails stained an unnatural red. After we were clean we enjoyed a relaxing Sunday afternoon. In the evening we joined Usha and her mom as they walked around town and visited various friends and relatives to wish them happy holi. We returned home full or chai and sweets and exhausted after such a colorful day.
Being girly
Over the past couple of years some people have suggested to me about how I should try wearing some jewelry, dresses etc. Now I had stubbornly ignored most of those suggestions until now. In India gender roles are so clearly defined and genders are for the most part segregated in social activities. So hanging out mostly with women has rubbed off on me and most days I wear Salazar suits (a dress that goes to above the knee with pants/tights underneath) a dupatta (light scarf) and bangles to match. I have beautiful henna on my arm. Many of the girls are very talented at henna. Usha who is a beautician as well even threaded our eyebrows.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Picture disclaimer
I attempted a picture upload but the computer was old and not so responsive. Therefore you got the first 77 pictures on the camera uploaded. I will attempt to filter and sort later!
Pushkar - Feb 27 & Udaipur - March 1st & Jodhpur - March 3rd + Taj Mahal
We found all the Westerners!
Throughout our travels for far we've been surprised by the lack of western tourists. All of the main sights in Dehli, the Taj Mahal etc. have been filled with Indian tourists. When we arrived in Pushkar we were surprised by the sudden appearance of so many Western tourists. Although it makes sense, Pushkar is a beautiful, little holy town nestled between several surrounding hills. The stories say that the Hindu god Brahma dropped a lotus flower on the earth and it became Pushkar. Therefore the town is predominantly Hindu and has many rules in the town. For example, no meat, eggs, drugs, alcohol are aloud anywhere in town. We enjoyed the sunset (and an amazing pizza) over the small holy lake. The next day we spent the afternoon hiking to temples on the hill tops. It was hard to see the beggars at the bottom, like everywhere we've been there are many people living on less than a dollar a day. In the evening we went to a dance school's performance and were entertained by beautiful traditional dancing.
Swimmers beware of crocodiles
We arrived in Udiapur, a city famous for its man made lakes. The lakes were carefully designed so that one would fill up before spilling into the next. This was long before the science of water reservoirs was developed. When we read the lonely planet description of Tiger Lake, "swimmers beware of crocodiles", we got excited. This implied that there was actually water in India clean enough to swim. We rented bikes and set off on a 20km bike ride around several lakes and through the quiet countryside. It was a beautiful bike ride and a great feeling to be cycling after a few long bus rides. We arrived at tiger lake and found many fish but no crocodiles so we jumped off the beautiful, ancient steps into the cool, refreshing water. We were even able to find a spot on the steps where we were hidden from view for a bit of suntanning.
Shiva's birthday
Shiva is the Hindu God of creation and destruction and happens to have a birthday on March 2nd. The city streets and it's temples were decorated and full of live music. Many people were visiting the temples and giving out a white sweet and Bhang lassi. Lassi is one of our favorite Indian snacks, a yogurt drink flavored with fresh fruit and/or sugar. Bhang lassi or special lassi is laced with cannabis and commonly served at religious ceremonies. We enjoyed the evening festivities with a group of English, Russian, German, and Israeli travelers.
Our failure at being tourists
Lonely Planet has lovely descriptions of deluxe, direct, AC buses that travel between cities. They are meant for tourists as they are more expensive ($10). However we have failed to figure out this option because even when we tried to catch one we still ended up on the local bus. It may take longer because it stops in every little town but despite it's well worn seats it is a lot of fun. The people watching is great, although once I had a woman sit on top of me for an hour or so. At the many stops people board the bus eager to sell you snacks. Once we were pretty much attacked by samosas as three keen vendors were pushing (very tasty) samosas in our face. These buses are also only $2-3 for an 8-10 hour ride. Greyhound should really take lessons from India on appropriate bus fares...
How could I forget the world's most beautiful building?
Somehow in my blog posts I forgot to mention our day trip to see the Taj Mahal. It was an unforgettable day trip for two reasons. One because we experienced driving in India. Our driver considered the shoulder of the road a lane and had no problem weaving between large trucks at high speed and honking without slowing down whenever a rickshaw or pedestrian was in his way. Somehow this crazy style of driving works and is expected because all the trucks paint "horn please" or "blow please" on their back ends. Amelia was afraid for our lives but after awhile I got used to the swerving and I enjoyed a this nap on the five hour road trip. The second memorable part of the day was seeing the Taj Mahal. Outside the ticket and security lines are chaotic, hot and filled with touts but once I walked through the gates I was speechless. It is impossible to describe the beauty of the white marble with intricate designs of precious stones and the overall grandeur of the building. The inside tomb was incredibly busy but when viewed from the side tombs it was both peaceful and beautiful.
A warm welcome
On march 3rd the second part of our adventure began. We are volunteering with the Sambali Trust, an organization that promotes independence, confidence and empowerment of women. We were unsure of what to expect but when we met Kerry, another volunteer, and Govind, the founder of the organization, we quickly became excited about Sambali and our upcoming two months in Setrawa. We will be teaching English and workshops to girls in a small village. There are two classes, one for Dalit girls (girls of the lowest class who otherwise have no access to education) and extra English and workshops for girls who can afford school. We felt very welcomed by everyone here. Tomorrow we are heading to Setrawa where there will be no Internet. We will come back to the city Jodhpur occasionally. I'm looking forward to living in Setrawa and being able to contribute to what seems like a really positive project.
Throughout our travels for far we've been surprised by the lack of western tourists. All of the main sights in Dehli, the Taj Mahal etc. have been filled with Indian tourists. When we arrived in Pushkar we were surprised by the sudden appearance of so many Western tourists. Although it makes sense, Pushkar is a beautiful, little holy town nestled between several surrounding hills. The stories say that the Hindu god Brahma dropped a lotus flower on the earth and it became Pushkar. Therefore the town is predominantly Hindu and has many rules in the town. For example, no meat, eggs, drugs, alcohol are aloud anywhere in town. We enjoyed the sunset (and an amazing pizza) over the small holy lake. The next day we spent the afternoon hiking to temples on the hill tops. It was hard to see the beggars at the bottom, like everywhere we've been there are many people living on less than a dollar a day. In the evening we went to a dance school's performance and were entertained by beautiful traditional dancing.
Swimmers beware of crocodiles
We arrived in Udiapur, a city famous for its man made lakes. The lakes were carefully designed so that one would fill up before spilling into the next. This was long before the science of water reservoirs was developed. When we read the lonely planet description of Tiger Lake, "swimmers beware of crocodiles", we got excited. This implied that there was actually water in India clean enough to swim. We rented bikes and set off on a 20km bike ride around several lakes and through the quiet countryside. It was a beautiful bike ride and a great feeling to be cycling after a few long bus rides. We arrived at tiger lake and found many fish but no crocodiles so we jumped off the beautiful, ancient steps into the cool, refreshing water. We were even able to find a spot on the steps where we were hidden from view for a bit of suntanning.
Shiva's birthday
Shiva is the Hindu God of creation and destruction and happens to have a birthday on March 2nd. The city streets and it's temples were decorated and full of live music. Many people were visiting the temples and giving out a white sweet and Bhang lassi. Lassi is one of our favorite Indian snacks, a yogurt drink flavored with fresh fruit and/or sugar. Bhang lassi or special lassi is laced with cannabis and commonly served at religious ceremonies. We enjoyed the evening festivities with a group of English, Russian, German, and Israeli travelers.
Our failure at being tourists
Lonely Planet has lovely descriptions of deluxe, direct, AC buses that travel between cities. They are meant for tourists as they are more expensive ($10). However we have failed to figure out this option because even when we tried to catch one we still ended up on the local bus. It may take longer because it stops in every little town but despite it's well worn seats it is a lot of fun. The people watching is great, although once I had a woman sit on top of me for an hour or so. At the many stops people board the bus eager to sell you snacks. Once we were pretty much attacked by samosas as three keen vendors were pushing (very tasty) samosas in our face. These buses are also only $2-3 for an 8-10 hour ride. Greyhound should really take lessons from India on appropriate bus fares...
How could I forget the world's most beautiful building?
Somehow in my blog posts I forgot to mention our day trip to see the Taj Mahal. It was an unforgettable day trip for two reasons. One because we experienced driving in India. Our driver considered the shoulder of the road a lane and had no problem weaving between large trucks at high speed and honking without slowing down whenever a rickshaw or pedestrian was in his way. Somehow this crazy style of driving works and is expected because all the trucks paint "horn please" or "blow please" on their back ends. Amelia was afraid for our lives but after awhile I got used to the swerving and I enjoyed a this nap on the five hour road trip. The second memorable part of the day was seeing the Taj Mahal. Outside the ticket and security lines are chaotic, hot and filled with touts but once I walked through the gates I was speechless. It is impossible to describe the beauty of the white marble with intricate designs of precious stones and the overall grandeur of the building. The inside tomb was incredibly busy but when viewed from the side tombs it was both peaceful and beautiful.
A warm welcome
On march 3rd the second part of our adventure began. We are volunteering with the Sambali Trust, an organization that promotes independence, confidence and empowerment of women. We were unsure of what to expect but when we met Kerry, another volunteer, and Govind, the founder of the organization, we quickly became excited about Sambali and our upcoming two months in Setrawa. We will be teaching English and workshops to girls in a small village. There are two classes, one for Dalit girls (girls of the lowest class who otherwise have no access to education) and extra English and workshops for girls who can afford school. We felt very welcomed by everyone here. Tomorrow we are heading to Setrawa where there will be no Internet. We will come back to the city Jodhpur occasionally. I'm looking forward to living in Setrawa and being able to contribute to what seems like a really positive project.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Varanasi - Feb 22 & Jaipur - Feb 25
Visiting the Ganges
Varanasi is described as the holiest and oldest Indian city. This description barely does the city justice. We wandered through the small 2m wide winding lanes of the old city. The lanes were filled with small silk, flower and music shops, colorful Hindu shrines and temples. Goats, cows, dogs and monkeys also wandered freely through the lanes. Many of the lanes lead to the different ghats, large steps leading to the Ganges. The ghats were full of color, music and spirituality. People from many different faiths and regions have come here to practice their faith in the holy river. Many people bathe, pray, meditate, chant and give offerings. Some families gaily celebrate marriages and others solemnly attend cremations. It is fascinating to see the diversity of traditions. We went for a walk across town to the university. Along the way we met someone who explained the rituals of cremation at the burning ghat. We didn't completely trust the intentions of our new friend's persistent further invitations so we continued on. We ran into a great parade and met a bright young girl with a huge smile and perfect British English. We bought a lotus flower candle from her and that evening I released it in the river in memory of grandpa. It was beautiful to see all the candles floating in the dark. At nightfall we also saw an amazing performance of Hindu dancers. There was the sound of music, bells and special horns, the smell of burning incense and the beautiful sight of the choreographed dancers. Our last moments of Varanasi began at 5:30 am when we woke up at dawn to watch the sunrise from a boat ride along the Ganges.
Never pick your nose in India
After being in India for over a week we have been in hundreds of photos and hours of short video clips. Indians are fascinated with western tourists. The bold school kids and husbands will often ask to have their picture taken with us at monuments. Usually we pose and then ask some questions. However sometimes we can't walk a few seconds without getting mobbed by the paparazzi. In those situations we've decided to make the kids sing a song before they get their picture. Then there are all the less than subtle people that film us or take pictures with their mobiles. Sometimes it's the restaurant staff watching us eat, other passengers on buses, or people biking or walking past us. It just makes us wonder how many people have successfully taken our picture without us noticing!
Pretty in pink!
After 17 hours of train and 6 hours of bus we arrived in the pink city, Jaipur. Hungry we went out searching for good, cheap, local Indian food. To our delight we found, pure-veg, a hole in the wall family run restaurant that exceeded our expectations. Their English was restricted to "hello mam", " yes", and "no problem". We tried to ask for their favorite item since we had no idea what anything was. The waiter just ran off to get his uncle who still had no idea what our question meant. Luckily our two random choices turned out to be amazing and we kept ordering more nan bread until we could eat no more.
Since nightlife in India is non existent we bought cinema tickets. We splurged $4 to get box seats to see the Pataila House. The theatre was beautiful and had the comfiest seats I've ever had in a movie theatre. The movie great, it was about an Indian family in England so there was just enough English for us to follow the plot. The story was filled with many funny family scenes but it was also about some of the problems immigrant families face. The whole theatre applauded the cute love scenes and the hero's cricket victories.
Jaipur is not just famous for being pink but it is famous for shopping. We explored the pink market in the old town. As you walk different streets sell different items such as textiles, tea, spices, marble, jewelry, pots and pans, books (including a whole section dedicated to university textbooks). Essentially anything you could ever need is probably somewhere in that market.
When we went bangle shopping I felt we encounter the whole spectrum of types of Indian people. There are so many kind and generous people who go out of their way to help you and insist it is no problem. However there are a few who just want your money and have no problem cheating you. So we came across a beautiful bangle shop with hundreds of shelves of shining bangles. We tried lots on and got caught up in how much fun it was to properly convert the prices from rupees to dollars. Over some chai we got recommendations to see the amber fort. We left and shortly after we realized we paid too much and should have shopped around first. We sighed and took it as a lesson learned and contined on. The Amber fort turn out to be an amazing hike to the top of a small mountain. From the top you could see 4 forts on the top of each mountain connected by a wall and the small town nestled below. As we were walking out a man stopped us and we recognized him from the bangle shop. He explained that he was horrified with his brother's business attitude and told us to go back and get either money back or more bangles. He had waited over 40 minutes at the exit hoping we ended up visiting the fort. We returned, got the fair price and were in awe that someone would go so far out of their way for us.
Varanasi is described as the holiest and oldest Indian city. This description barely does the city justice. We wandered through the small 2m wide winding lanes of the old city. The lanes were filled with small silk, flower and music shops, colorful Hindu shrines and temples. Goats, cows, dogs and monkeys also wandered freely through the lanes. Many of the lanes lead to the different ghats, large steps leading to the Ganges. The ghats were full of color, music and spirituality. People from many different faiths and regions have come here to practice their faith in the holy river. Many people bathe, pray, meditate, chant and give offerings. Some families gaily celebrate marriages and others solemnly attend cremations. It is fascinating to see the diversity of traditions. We went for a walk across town to the university. Along the way we met someone who explained the rituals of cremation at the burning ghat. We didn't completely trust the intentions of our new friend's persistent further invitations so we continued on. We ran into a great parade and met a bright young girl with a huge smile and perfect British English. We bought a lotus flower candle from her and that evening I released it in the river in memory of grandpa. It was beautiful to see all the candles floating in the dark. At nightfall we also saw an amazing performance of Hindu dancers. There was the sound of music, bells and special horns, the smell of burning incense and the beautiful sight of the choreographed dancers. Our last moments of Varanasi began at 5:30 am when we woke up at dawn to watch the sunrise from a boat ride along the Ganges.
Never pick your nose in India
After being in India for over a week we have been in hundreds of photos and hours of short video clips. Indians are fascinated with western tourists. The bold school kids and husbands will often ask to have their picture taken with us at monuments. Usually we pose and then ask some questions. However sometimes we can't walk a few seconds without getting mobbed by the paparazzi. In those situations we've decided to make the kids sing a song before they get their picture. Then there are all the less than subtle people that film us or take pictures with their mobiles. Sometimes it's the restaurant staff watching us eat, other passengers on buses, or people biking or walking past us. It just makes us wonder how many people have successfully taken our picture without us noticing!
Pretty in pink!
After 17 hours of train and 6 hours of bus we arrived in the pink city, Jaipur. Hungry we went out searching for good, cheap, local Indian food. To our delight we found, pure-veg, a hole in the wall family run restaurant that exceeded our expectations. Their English was restricted to "hello mam", " yes", and "no problem". We tried to ask for their favorite item since we had no idea what anything was. The waiter just ran off to get his uncle who still had no idea what our question meant. Luckily our two random choices turned out to be amazing and we kept ordering more nan bread until we could eat no more.
Since nightlife in India is non existent we bought cinema tickets. We splurged $4 to get box seats to see the Pataila House. The theatre was beautiful and had the comfiest seats I've ever had in a movie theatre. The movie great, it was about an Indian family in England so there was just enough English for us to follow the plot. The story was filled with many funny family scenes but it was also about some of the problems immigrant families face. The whole theatre applauded the cute love scenes and the hero's cricket victories.
Jaipur is not just famous for being pink but it is famous for shopping. We explored the pink market in the old town. As you walk different streets sell different items such as textiles, tea, spices, marble, jewelry, pots and pans, books (including a whole section dedicated to university textbooks). Essentially anything you could ever need is probably somewhere in that market.
When we went bangle shopping I felt we encounter the whole spectrum of types of Indian people. There are so many kind and generous people who go out of their way to help you and insist it is no problem. However there are a few who just want your money and have no problem cheating you. So we came across a beautiful bangle shop with hundreds of shelves of shining bangles. We tried lots on and got caught up in how much fun it was to properly convert the prices from rupees to dollars. Over some chai we got recommendations to see the amber fort. We left and shortly after we realized we paid too much and should have shopped around first. We sighed and took it as a lesson learned and contined on. The Amber fort turn out to be an amazing hike to the top of a small mountain. From the top you could see 4 forts on the top of each mountain connected by a wall and the small town nestled below. As we were walking out a man stopped us and we recognized him from the bangle shop. He explained that he was horrified with his brother's business attitude and told us to go back and get either money back or more bangles. He had waited over 40 minutes at the exit hoping we ended up visiting the fort. We returned, got the fair price and were in awe that someone would go so far out of their way for us.
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