Weddings galore!
During our time at Sambali we have been invited to be a part of two weddings. The first was in our small village, Setrawa, and the second was in the city, Jodhpur. Both were big celebrations and a lot of fun. Pooja's wedding had a week of celebrations that happened in her home. Every evening many women from the village would gather and sing marriage songs after dinner. After a while the younger girls would slowly drown out the singing by blasting Hindi tunes. Then the dancing would begin. Either solo or in small groups the girls danced for the audience. Before each song the girls would debate which song to play next. The beginning of several songs were played until they settled on one. The night before the wedding a group of mothers and relatives cooked dinner for everyone. Pooja and ten of her friends all shared a common dish and feed each other. Although later during the dancing despite the excitement surrounding her marriage, Pooja needed her friends to comfort her. The idea of being 18 and leaving all your friends, family, moving to a new village and marrying a complete stranger must be overwhelming and at least a little scary. However on her wedding day she looked absolutely stunning. It took 3 hours to have her make-up done and put on her jewelry and beautiful red wedding sari. It is strange but the wedding night Pooja spent all evening getting ready while everyone else enjoyed the wedding dinner, the arrival of the groom and a variety of different celebrations. The dinner was wonderful but chaotic. We were herded into a relative's home, told to sit in on room and then seconds later moved somewhere else. Tonight men were serving and cooking. Delicious food was piled up on our plate and we ate amongst many other women in their beautiful fancy saris. Finally at 11:00 Pooja was ready and came out to meet her husband. They exchanged flower necklaces and then many religious rituals begun. I snuck off to bed around 1:00, but apparently the ceremonies continued for many hours.
The wedding in Jodhpur was for Govind's brother. Govind is the founder of Sambali so he invited all the volunteers to the wedding. It was neat to see a wedding from the groom's side of the celebrations. Usha let Amelia, Kerry (another volunteer) and I borrow some of her fancy clothes and jewelry. It took us at least an hour to get ready and one of Govind's relatives to properly pin the clothes and choose the appropriate jewelry and Bindi dots. Everyone was driven to the wedding which was held in a beautiful open tent but divided in two. One side for the women and one for the men. Each side had a long buffet with many vegetable dishes and sweets served in gold pots. Each side also had a band playing classical Indian music. However the men's side also had tables, chairs and an open bar. We enjoyed dinner with the women in the sea of colorful saris. After dinner we wandered over to the men's side (it wasn't a strict gender divide) to visit Mool Singh, the principal/teacher of our school, and Moti, my host brother. Around 11:00 we headed back to the guesthouse/Govind's house and the party was kicked up a notch. The dj blasted Hindi music and everyone danced together bollywood style. It was a lot of fun and somehow I fell asleep despite the blaring music around 3:30. The next night began with a parade down the street. The groom, Shakti, rode a horse behind a marching band. About 10 people each carried a large light. The lights were connected to each other and then to a car with a generator. We paraded down the street and then when we got to the end we were piled into cars, the lights and their porters into a vehicle and someone else climbed up on the horse. We drove about 3 minutes, got out of the cars, the string of lights and marching band reassembled and the horse galloped over for Shakti to re-mount. The parade continued down this street. We arrived at the wedding location, an even bigger open tent, with a fountain, a small temple, and a stage inside. Now the wedding rituals begun. Shakti met his wife for the first time, although because of a previous exchange of emails it was considered a love marriage. The cermonies were very similar to the other wedding. Although this time we befriended two 11 year olds who attended English immersion school and had amazing English so they explained what all the rituals meant. They told us that they spoke English all the time at school because if they don't they have to pay a fine. It reminded me of all my French. Immersion teachers constantly trying to make us speak French to each other.
First Aid, Indian style
Every Saturday at Sambali Amelia and I lead a fun educational workshop. This week's topic was first aid. From all our lifeguarding we both enjoy teaching first aid, although we had to modify a few things to make it appropriate to Setrawa. First topics like hypothermia we quickly eliminated and instead focused on heat exhaustion, heat stroke, malaria and bleeding. For heat exhaustion in Canada we say give them Gatorade for the fluid/electrolyte combo but since Gatorade doesn't exist here we switched it to water and a small salty snack. We brought bandaids from Jodhpur but many girls had never seen one before so we also taught wrapping wounds in cotton. We tried to stress throughly washing cuts because we've seen many of the girls with infected cuts. My favorite difference is that all the girls have an ideal mouth to mouth barrier with them all the time. Dupattas are long scarves worn so that they cover your chest and the ends hang down your back. It is inappropriate not to wear them.in public when you wear a salzaar suit. They are often a very thin material that is perfect for blowing air through but also acts as a barrier. The girls really enjoyed the workshop, especially when I dumped a whole bucket of water on Amelia during our skit for treatment of heat stroke. She also appreciated this because it is hot mid day. The spring in Setrawa is as hot as our hottest summer day...I can't imagine what their summer is like!
Many hands make colorful work!
Sundays are normally a day off Sambali but today we decided to work on painting the school. Recently the school had moved to a new location so previous volunteers had initiated painting the school to brighten it up. Mool Singh had asked us a few times if we could continue the painting project. I think he was getting worried we wouldn't because we were busy doing other things. On the way to school we saw some Sambhali girls, we invited them to come paint. We started painting on our own but soon word spread on the street and we suddenly had 10-15 keen painters. The off white walls with cracking paint became red, yellow, blue and green. Designs, school rhymes and even a peacock filled the previously empty spaces. It was a lot of fun and ended in the challenge of removing all the oil based paint from our hands and arms. The best method ended up being rubbing our hands in the sand. We left the school much more colorful and our hands exfoliated!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Setrawa
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The first week in India
Jen blog
Pitampura - our home in Dehli
We did not realize that booking trains in India required at least a few days notice so we ended up staying in Dehli until Feb. 22. We quickly came to love our neighborhood, Pitampura. Other than our hostel there were no tourists in the area so this meant there was also no one asking if we needed guides or trying to sell us tourist knick knacks. There was a busy local market that was full of dress and fabric stores. Here we met Raju who owned a small store full of beautiful fabrics. After looking through many fabrics we both choose two outfits. Raju then called for some Indian coffee and his tailor. Never have I ever had an outfit fit so perfectly! Having a tailor makes clothes shopping much less frustrating. However, the tailor didn't take into account that our feet are massive compared to Indian women so we had to go back the next day for some adjustments to the bottom of the pants.
Daily Dehli routine
Our mornings always started with breakfast and tea with the hostel owner Dr. Malik. He shared many tips and stories about India. After a slow morning in Pitampura we walked to the metro. We learned how to walk in the streets and avoid getting hit by the cars, motorcycles and rickshaws. We are not quite as smooth as the locals who never seem to speed up or slow down to dodge vehicles but we always made it! The first day we had to ask some young boys playing cricket for directions and every day after that they smiled and waved at us.
Taking the metro was always a great part of the day. When we were lining up at a busy station a kind man told us we might prefer the women's car. It was a little piece of heaven! It was not nearly as crowded and full of beautiful colors. We stared at the Indian women and they stared at us in mutual curiosity about each other. You definitely knew it was the women's car when the train jolted and there was a collective gasp followed by a collective giggle. Dr. Malik said he read in the paper that many women were complaining about men riding in the women's car and making them feel uncomfortable. The response of the metro was one day they stopped the train and lined up the men who were in the women's car and had all the women slap them across the face!
During our Dehli afternoons we explored different neighborhoods and world heritage sights. My favorite was Huyaman's tomb. We did not really know what to expect but we were stunned as soon as we walked through the gates. The red sandstone and white marble tomb was beautiful and all the details of the main tomb were restored. However restoration of the side tombs was still in progress and it was neat to see all the different stages of restoration.
Another world heritage site was the Red Fort. However just before we entered we heard music in the streets. It was a parade and we rushed to see it. It was the first of many wedding parades we would see. We barely had time to take a picture before the women dancing grabbed our hands and pulled us into the parade. It was a lot of fun and a magical experience. After they couldn't stop thanking us and we couldn't stop thanking them. We then made our way into the red fort and wandered through the buildings that were once the home to the powerful Mughal emperor.
Another stunningly beautiful heritage site was Qutar Mintar. On our way we met another tourist, Ajay, an Indian who just moved to Dehli. He was keen to practice his English and we could pretend he was our guide when people approached us wanting our money. We were jealous that he only had to pay 10 ruppees but we had to pay the foriegner price of 250 ruppees. The main feature of the site was the large Minaret (tower), again beautiful designs in sandstone and marble. It was surrounded in ruins of the first mosque built in India with stones stolen from Hindu temples. The magical thing about ruins in India is the freedom tourists have to wander within them. Unlike Europe there are no do not touch signs and ropes separating the ruins from the tourists. The light was beautiful because the sun was starting to set.
Whenever the sun started to set that was our cue to head back to the metro. One night we stayed out too long and found the crowded streets of old Dehli became stressful and unpleasant at night.
The end of the day was always an adventure. We got off the metro and were greeted by many eager rickshaw drivers. We learned to make sure they knew where the address was and to choose a bike that looked somewhat decent. Our adventures of the day ended in a yummy Indian dinner and enjoying the company of two Germans, Mark and Francesca. We hung out on the roof or balcony of the hostel watching the street below and the nightly wedding firework shows.
Pitampura - our home in Dehli
We did not realize that booking trains in India required at least a few days notice so we ended up staying in Dehli until Feb. 22. We quickly came to love our neighborhood, Pitampura. Other than our hostel there were no tourists in the area so this meant there was also no one asking if we needed guides or trying to sell us tourist knick knacks. There was a busy local market that was full of dress and fabric stores. Here we met Raju who owned a small store full of beautiful fabrics. After looking through many fabrics we both choose two outfits. Raju then called for some Indian coffee and his tailor. Never have I ever had an outfit fit so perfectly! Having a tailor makes clothes shopping much less frustrating. However, the tailor didn't take into account that our feet are massive compared to Indian women so we had to go back the next day for some adjustments to the bottom of the pants.
Daily Dehli routine
Our mornings always started with breakfast and tea with the hostel owner Dr. Malik. He shared many tips and stories about India. After a slow morning in Pitampura we walked to the metro. We learned how to walk in the streets and avoid getting hit by the cars, motorcycles and rickshaws. We are not quite as smooth as the locals who never seem to speed up or slow down to dodge vehicles but we always made it! The first day we had to ask some young boys playing cricket for directions and every day after that they smiled and waved at us.
Taking the metro was always a great part of the day. When we were lining up at a busy station a kind man told us we might prefer the women's car. It was a little piece of heaven! It was not nearly as crowded and full of beautiful colors. We stared at the Indian women and they stared at us in mutual curiosity about each other. You definitely knew it was the women's car when the train jolted and there was a collective gasp followed by a collective giggle. Dr. Malik said he read in the paper that many women were complaining about men riding in the women's car and making them feel uncomfortable. The response of the metro was one day they stopped the train and lined up the men who were in the women's car and had all the women slap them across the face!
During our Dehli afternoons we explored different neighborhoods and world heritage sights. My favorite was Huyaman's tomb. We did not really know what to expect but we were stunned as soon as we walked through the gates. The red sandstone and white marble tomb was beautiful and all the details of the main tomb were restored. However restoration of the side tombs was still in progress and it was neat to see all the different stages of restoration.
Another world heritage site was the Red Fort. However just before we entered we heard music in the streets. It was a parade and we rushed to see it. It was the first of many wedding parades we would see. We barely had time to take a picture before the women dancing grabbed our hands and pulled us into the parade. It was a lot of fun and a magical experience. After they couldn't stop thanking us and we couldn't stop thanking them. We then made our way into the red fort and wandered through the buildings that were once the home to the powerful Mughal emperor.
Another stunningly beautiful heritage site was Qutar Mintar. On our way we met another tourist, Ajay, an Indian who just moved to Dehli. He was keen to practice his English and we could pretend he was our guide when people approached us wanting our money. We were jealous that he only had to pay 10 ruppees but we had to pay the foriegner price of 250 ruppees. The main feature of the site was the large Minaret (tower), again beautiful designs in sandstone and marble. It was surrounded in ruins of the first mosque built in India with stones stolen from Hindu temples. The magical thing about ruins in India is the freedom tourists have to wander within them. Unlike Europe there are no do not touch signs and ropes separating the ruins from the tourists. The light was beautiful because the sun was starting to set.
Whenever the sun started to set that was our cue to head back to the metro. One night we stayed out too long and found the crowded streets of old Dehli became stressful and unpleasant at night.
The end of the day was always an adventure. We got off the metro and were greeted by many eager rickshaw drivers. We learned to make sure they knew where the address was and to choose a bike that looked somewhat decent. Our adventures of the day ended in a yummy Indian dinner and enjoying the company of two Germans, Mark and Francesca. We hung out on the roof or balcony of the hostel watching the street below and the nightly wedding firework shows.
Monday, February 21, 2011
First impressions
Wow. India is an incredible country. When we first stepped out the door of our hostel we just stood on the steps of our hostel. We watched the chaotic street below us. There were cars, motorcycles, rickshaws and people all weaving in between each other as they navigated the streets. Colourful signs and beautiful women in saris contrasted the dusty streets and old buildings. The sounds of honking, cars and music was overpowering at first. The smells of curries, garbage, dust, animals and people all mixed together. We just stood there for a couple minutes and then looked at each other smiling and said let's go!
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