Mountain Retreat

Time is moving so quickly!

            We just got back from a wonderful retreat in the mountains. We stayed at a “luxury camping” site in Rishikesh, up in the foothills of the Himalayas. We got to go white water rafting, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, and to visit some of the other cities close by.

 White water rafting was by far my favorite activity – we were out for about 3 hours. We went over some pretty big rapids and got to jump off and go swimming in between rapids. It was so different than anything else I have done in India but we were reminded of where we were when we stopped at a waterfall in the middle to have chai.

I loved it so much up there. The place we stayed was really quiet and beautiful and going into the cities was nice too. They seemed much wealthier than any other cities we have visited and the people were much calmer and less pushy than in many other parts of the country. On the day that we visited Musoorie and Dehradun we stopped and climbed up the mountainside to a temple where there was a wonderful view of the Himalayas.

I feel so lucky that I got to do all of that! While rafting I was thinking that for the first time I really believe in K college’s “More in four” motto! I felt like we were in a movie the whole time. It really was an opportunity of a lifetime!

The weekend before our trip was the annual fair at Nirman. It is one of the biggest events of the year for the kids. The kids and teachers choreograph dances, practice songs, and make up skits to be performed at two big evening functions for the parents, one here at the city campus and one at the village campus. My favorite performances were a Chinese dragon dance and a skit on deforestation. There were also some pretty hilarious dances about native Americans that were so not PC that they would have made headlines if they were performed at a school in the US. But it’s the effort at diversity that counts right?

Traveling and Homestay Experience

I have been terrible at keeping everyone updated but it is because I am doing so many great things!

 

We had a great trip! The train to Mumbai ended up taking 29 hours but it was not nearly as bad as I had worried it would be. I am so glad that we decided to go there, mainly because I wouldn’t have believed a place like that existed in India if I hadn’t seen it! It was different from Banaras in every way and the most cosmopolitan and westernized city that I have seen in India. There were big red buses, city trains, and cafes! We got to do just about everything that we had wanted to. The highlights for me were going to the Kaneri caves, an ancient Buddhist cave complex, Elefanta Island, an ancient Hindu cave complex, seeing the beach, going to markets, and just walking around the city.

We also got to go to a synagogue! We read about one synagogue in the Lonely Planet guidebook and visited there first. We met a really friendly man who invited us to join his congregation the following night for their Sim Chat Torah celebration. When we came back the next night it was great! The small congregation was dancing around the temple holding the Torah and singing. There were some international visitors from Israel and Europe but most of the congregants were Indian. They were incredibly welcoming to us and we ended up joining them at the next synagogue they went to where they were serving a large dinner! My favorite part was seeing the old Jewish men who looked just like old Jewish men you would see at every other synagogue in the world! It felt so great to find a community in this country where I could feel like I instantly belonged! I also met a man there named Moshe which I knew Papa would be very excited about!

Staying in the YWCA also worked out really well. The room was great, breakfast and dinner were included every day and the food was actually really good, and the people at the front desk were so helpful!

 

After Mumbai we went to Jaipur, in Rajasthan. Jaipur was not quite as relaxing as Mumbai. It is a big tourist city and there are many people there who are aware of that fact and ready to use it to their advantage. We have never been followed or harassed for money by that many people! People were constantly trying to get us to come on tours of the city or come into their shops. Some people even waited outside of restaurants and stores for us so they could continue to follow us. Because of this, people were also extremely unhelpful if we were lost or looking for some place. If you asked where one restaurant was they would tell you about all of their great restaurants. One auto driver even took us to the hotel that pays him commission instead of to our own hotel and we ended up having to pay him anyway! This was exhausting and made me so grateful for the friendly people in Banaras.The experience wasn’t all bad though! We walked around the beautiful Old Pink City where there were beautiful old buildings and great markets. One night at sunset we went to the Sun Temple which is up on a hill and has a great view of the city. We were unaware when we went that the Sun Temple is the same thing as the Monkey Temple which we had heard about from a lot of people and had decided definitely not to go to. We had to carry rocks the whole way up to the Temple and while we were there to ward off the hundreds of monkeys! I am also more grateful now for the monkeys in Banars who just ignore us!

 

After Jaipur we took the train to Bikaner, another city in Rajasthan. Bikaner is in the desert and we got to go on an overnight camel safari! We left in the morning and rode camels in the desert for a couple of hours. Each camel was lead by a “camel man” and there was a “camel cart” holding all of our things and our food. We stopped for lunch and a “siesta” and then kept going for a few more hours until we reached a piece of land owned by the safari company. We set up camp there and had dinner and a campfire and slept under the stars! Riding the camels was a lot of fun. I had never realized how tall those guys are! Their legs are about 7 or 8 feet long so sitting on their backs we were at least 9 feet in the air. The only scary part was when they stood up or sat down you were thrown back and forth and had to hold on really tight! The sun was very hot but it was a really nice ride and a great time to think! I’m glad we didn’t go for much longer though because my butt got pretty sore sitting there… I was so surprised by how cold it got at night! They had cots for us and I slept under 3 wool blankets. I even had to keep my head under the blankets, I was so cold! The stars were the best part though – they were absolutely gorgeous out there!

In the morning we went back to the guest house of the safari company and then went on one of their day trips. The best part was the rat temple. There is a Hindu story about a Goddess who has her entire family reincarnated as rats. So this temple leaves out food and milk and there are thousands of rats everywhere! Our guide told us that there are only 3 white rats and it is good luck if you see one and we did! It is also considered good luck if a rat runs over your foot but I don’t think any of us got that lucky..

 

After Bikaner it was time to head back to Banaras with a layover in Delhi. Our train ride to Delhi was the biggest mishap of the trip. We got on the train and everything was fine until a man came up and told us that he had the same seats that we were sitting in. After examining our tickets it turned out that ours were for the wrong day – two days before that date! We bought the tickets while we were in Mumbai and the man messed up! I was really nervous that we were going to be thrown off the train in a random Indian village, but we talked to the ticket collector and we were able to get new seats for a small fee (bribe). I was so proud of us for working that out! Not only did we travel across a foreign country alone but we got ourselves out of sticky situations too! We were in Delhi just long enough to eat some bagels and then we arrived safely in Banaras with lots of stories to tell and laundry to do.

 

After so many weeks of things moving so slowly, we got back to everything in full swing. The day we arrived back in Banaras we went to stay with host families! Madee and I were with a family of musicians with 3 sons who are 22, 20, and 15. All 3 boys play instruments so the family spends the majority of their time practicing or hanging around the house. We were there for the week long festival of the Goddess Durga in which huge, amazing temporary temples are constructed around the city to house images of Durga and everyone goes out to visit them. There are also fairs all over the city! We had a lot of fun going to the fairs and the temples with our host mother and brothers and even saw elephants in the street one night! Living with an Indian family was such an interesting experience. The household consists of the mother, father, the 3 sons, 1 aunt and her son, and the grandmother. The aunt and grandmother are sick so all of the housework is put onto the mother. While the father and sons spent most of their time that they weren’t practicing lounging around the house, the mother was always cooking or cleaning, despite the fact that the family seemed to have a staff for everything.

Another interesting aspect was the use of money. This family was clearly very well off – they have someone who comes to clean, someone who washes their clothes, walks their dog, and there was even a boy who came to pray in their house everyday! However there house was still very traditional with a open courtyard in the center and rooms all around. This means that there were often birds in the house and tons of mice. As is common, the youngest son sleeps in the living room on a platform with his grandmother and aunt and all the other rooms are shared as well, despite the fact that there are open rooms.

The hardest part for me was the way that the family, especially the father and sons, treated us because we are women. They were very wary about allowing us to go out in the evening time, even with the boys. When we did go out, the youngest son was sent with us. I was very frustrated that, despite the fact that we have traveled across the world on our own, just traveled across this country on our own, and, not to mention, have lived in this city for the past 3 months, they still didn’t think we were competent of going any place alone. I am so glad that we got to stay there and I had a great time but overall I am happy that we are living at Nirman where we have more free will!

 

We have now been back at Nirman for a week and things have been great! The driver, Ramesh’s, family is here visiting and we have so enjoyed helping take care of his little 3 month old baby! We tried to celebrate Halloween and sufficiently weirded a lot of people out. First, we dressed up and walked around Nirman asking people for candy – and a lot of people actually gave it to us! We also carved pumpkins (green squash) and roasted the seeds. We went on a boat ride down the Ganges on Halloween night and stayed in our costumes, much to the embarrassment of our Indian friends. Then last night we had a party for all of the people who live here on Nirman’s campus. There are a lot of kids around since Ramesh’s family is in town and we had so much fun playing games and dancing with them. I loved traveling and I am so glad that we got to see so much of the country but I also love our little community right here!

Chasing Waterfalls

After 9 weeks of talking about how much we wanted to go swimming, we finally got to go yesterday! And in a waterfall no less! We had a campus wide outing with many of the teachers and the kitchen staff and their families to a fort and a large temple about an hour or so away from Banaras. It was so much fun to spend some time out with these people that we see everyday but never really have time to get to know. It was a very hot day so we got tired out at the fort and the temple pretty quickly. Especially because the hour plus ride in an overstuffed car was very rough and there are much more interesting temples and forts about 5 minutes from Nirman! But the scenery was beautiful and it was nice to get out.

            We had a nice picnic at the temple but everyone was still somewhat disappointed by the outing. We had passed some pretty rivers and streams on the way so we convinced the driver to stop on the way home. Instead of just stopping at the place we had seen on the side of the road they took us to an amazing area where the river was much wider and rolling down the boulders. There were lots of people bathing in the falls and cooking and eating on the banks. While we thought we would have to sneak off to get in the water, instead everybody ended up getting in the water with us! We had so much fun splashing around and climbing on the rocks. It was definitely in my top favorite moments on study abroad thus far!            



Waterfalls!!

            I am completely over my illness now and so happy about it! Even though I was feeling better last week and able to go out and everything I still didn’t have much of an appetite, and since the food in the canteen isn’t always particularly appetizing to begin with, I was having some trouble making myself eat. So instead, one of the nights we decided to check out McDonalds! It was a happenin place! They don’t serve beef, of course, so no hamburgers but they have chicken sandwiches, vegetarian burgers, and lots of egg sandwiches! I’ll have to try one of those sometime when I’m feeling more adventurous. We were all just excited about their ice cream selection!

For my research project that I will complete while I am here, I am studying the treatment and education of disabled students in Banaras. The other day I went to visit Kiran, “a center for the education, training, and rehabilitation of children with different abilities” which is very close to Nirman’s village campus. My professor had called the director to inform them that I would be coming sometime but she didn’t set up a specific time so I just kind of showed up. I was amazed by how friendly and accommodating they were anyway! They set up a full tour for me with a student in class 11. Most of the students at Kiran are physically disabled and I didn’t realize how hard it would be to go to school in the city on crutches or in a wheel chair until seeing this place! They also have several deaf classrooms, a “special education” class, and classes for families from the close-by villages on how to best help their child with special needs. They have a shop where they make leg braces for the students and people in the villages, a farm where they grow most of the food for the canteen, dorms for the students, a swimming pool, a wood shop, art facilities – I was endlessly impressed! I am hoping to go back and observe in some classrooms at Kiran and also spend some time at other schools around Banaras. After observing in other schools I am supposed to work with some disabled students here at Nirman. I am so excited to be doing this project!

            Wednesday is the last day of my first quarter of classes here. I can’t believe I am almost halfway done with the program! We have a two week break before the next quarter starts so we are going on a big trip to Mumbai and Jaipur (the city where The Magnificent Marigold Hotel movie was filmed). It should be an amazing trip but I am a little worried about the 27 hour train ride from here to Mumbai! We have some cool things planned for both cities including visiting old Buddhist caves in Mumbai and riding elephants in Jaipur! But I think I am most excited just to experience such different parts of the country.

            Tonight to celebrate the end of our quarter Nirman is throwing us a dinner party with some of the staff and our friends. It should be fun but I am mainly excited because we are going to try out the new saris that we bought last week! I’ll talk let’s of pictures!

 



My sari wearing debut!

 



This has just not been my week!

First my computer broke down. Macs are very uncommon here but luckily we found somebody who had the means to reinstall my operating system which is making it work now! I have never been so worried about an inanimate object before! While I'm sure I would have found a solution and made it through, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to talk to my family or friends, plan my travels for after India, or do my homework! The guy was pretty efficient though and only asked me to marry him once, so that's a plus!

We are finding friendships with men to be a really difficult thing to navigate. Men and women are not usually friends here, and most people still have arranged marriages. Because of this and people's preconceived notions about Americans people are often extra... friendly.... with us. It is very frustrating because we really want to make friends! We're still working on it and trying to see if we can go to a women's studies class at the university near by and hopefully meet some women!

Right now I'm sick so that's not helping anything. It's nothing bad - I just haven't had an appetite and am feeling weak but I have been lying in bed for the last two days and am starting to get bored! Hopefully I will feel better soon! Everyone has had problems like this though and they go away quickly so I am not too concerned.

The other exciting thing going on here are strikes, protesting inflation. Yesterday businesses, students, and just about everybody else was on strike so schools, shops, and businesses were closed. Although the police are employed by the government, they were all over the streets making sure that shops were closed and rickshaw drivers weren't working for fear that people would become violent against those not participating in the strike. Seeing as police discipline people by hitting them with sticks, however, I didn't exactly feel that they were reducing the violence in the streets. My favorite thing about it however, was that everybody described what was going on as "India is closed". It's pretty amazing that such a big country can just shut down like that!

I am really not very good at this blogging business…

Two weekends ago now we went on a trip to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. The city was very important during British rule and it still has very clear influences of colonialism. Our biggest tourist destination was the Bara Imambara (Big Imamabara) built in 1784, in which we were led through a labyrinth in the walls, coming out on the roof of the huge building and a verandah along the ceiling on the inside of the main hall. We also visited the Residency, where the British lived during a huge mutiny.

Bara Imambara

Our favorite part, however, was probably our accommodation. We stayed at our director’s mother’s “bungalow” in the cantonment area of the city, where military personnel live. She has a beautiful, gated estate, a small staff, and was incredibly nice and hospitable. The neighborhood itself was beautiful as well. The streets were very nicely paved, there were signs discouraging littering and pollution, and police guarded every entrance. The best part is that there are “walking” times every morning and every evening where only residential traffic is allowed in, music is played from loudspeakers lining the road, and residents go outside to walk or jog. We were really enjoying our evening walk when a policeman approached our director and informed her that foreigners are not allowed in the cantonment area because of the military activity, so we quickly changed directions and tried to avoid the policemen after that…

Our whole group on the roof of the Bara Imambara

After Lucknow it was back to crazy Banaras! Last week, my 6^th week in India, is the first week that I can safely say I started feeling comfortable and overall positively. I didn’t realize quite how uncomfortable I had been feeling until it started to get better! Our classes are in full swing, accompanied with plenty of homework and fieldtrips, and we go on lots of our own outings in our free time. We are starting to frequent the same places regularly and see the same people again and again which is making me feel more at home.

 We have started teaching English classes to the teachers at Nirman, which I am really enjoying. Some of the teachers speak English very well and just need help with grammar, some are just timid and need practice speaking, and others know barely any English at all. So far, the classes have just served as a fun time to chat with the teachers and to start to get to know each other and I think we are all really enjoying it! The other day one of the women told us the story of how she and her husband overcame their families’ objections to their love marriage, complete with her month long stay in the hospital because she “couldn’t live without him!” People’s openness to share their lives with you is one of my favorite things about being here.

Last week was also the celebration of Teacher’s Day, the birthday of the second president of India which he dedicated as a day to honor teachers. The kids at both our campus and the rural campus choreographed dances, made up skits, wrote speeches, and practiced songs that they then performed in front of everybody. They also facilitated games for the teachers that we had to participate in as well. The best was a game like hot potato but when you lost, you had to do something embarrassing. While many of the things were really easy (color in the picture in 30 seconds!) I, of course, ended up singing a camp song in front of everybody! For a couple days afterwards all the kids were coming up to me asking me to sing them the bear song again. All those years of being a camp counselor really paid off!

Pre-nursery Dance for Teacher's Day

We like to spend time at the Banaras Hindu University whose campus is very close to ours. This past week we went to the art museum, the amphitheater, where there are always people playing sports, the big temple, and a couple of restaurants. It is so much calmer and greener on the campus – it’s a nice escape!

On Sunday we went to the home of a weaver, who is the father of a student here at Nirman. The family owns three looms and two of his nephews were working on them making saris while we were there. They let us try weaving – a process which includes 5 foot pedals and at least three spools of thread which they flick effortlessly across the fabric. We weren’t quite as graceful… The women of the household attach the border to the saris on a sewing machine, but weavers are exclusively male. Weavers are usually very poor, and one would think that the fact that the three children in the family sleep all together on the cement floor, with only a sheet laid down, is a sign of their poverty. However, this is a very typical way of life for many families in Banaras, even those who could afford a more comfortable bedroom situation. That would certainly take some getting used to for us!

Train Trips and Palace Visits

I have now been in India for a month! It is hard to believe – it feels like I have been away from home forever but it has also been going by quickly!

3 AC section of the train

Last weekend (a week and a half ago now. We haven’t had internet in a while.) we went on a trip to Agra and Delhi. It was immediately clear why the Lonely Planet Guide to India lists the railway system as one of the most important things to see in the country!  The ride from Varanasi to Agra took about 14 hours so we left on Friday evening and arrived in Agra early Saturday morning. Once we got settled on the train it was actually fairly comfortable but the frequent bumps, yells of “Chai? Chai??” and people getting on and off made it hard to sleep.

Our first stop in Agra was the Taj Mahal which was so much more shockingly beautiful than I expected. We took lots of pictures before we even made it up to the building. At one place that we were taking pictures, a man came up and began shaking my hand and had his family member take a picture of him shaking my hand in front of the Taj. He then proceeded to line his entire family up and try to take pictures of each of them, one by one shaking my hand. This would make me feel like a celebrity if I had actually done anything to warrant this attention, but instead it made our whole group rather uncomfortable.

The inside of the Taj is equally as amazing as the outside, with the tombs of the commissioner and his wife whose tomb he had the palace built to hold. The walls are decorated with semi-precious stone inlaying and after our Taj visit we went to an emporium where they make similar marble art with semi-precious stone inlaying, employing exclusively ancestors of the builders of the Taj, of course.

In the afternoon we went to Agra Fort where we were most interested in the ancient form of air conditioning that we wished was still functioning and the beautiful view of the Taj down the river. That evening we took a much shorter train ride from Agra to Delhi where we were staying in the apartment of one of teachers here at Nirman.

We saw a lot in Delhi including the National Museum, Jantar Mantar, our personal favorite, Qutub Minar, and many markets and emporiums. Delhi is a completely different world from Varanasi. It has a very big city feeling. People somewhat obey normal traffic laws like driving in lanes and stopping at lights and there are no cows in the street! The streets are also much cleaner than in Varanasi and we were surprised to see so many big buildings and people wearing western style clothing. In the end, it was a very nice break from the craziness of Varanasi but I am overall happy that we are living in this hectic city. It is the most quintessential Indian experience there is!

Jantar Mantar

Qutub Minar

We came home from our exciting adventure for another week of classes and are now onto another week until this weekend when we will be traveling to Lucknow!

We had another funny interaction this weekend when we were preparing to make an American dinner and wanted to make chicken burgers. We told our friend who was helping us collect ingredients that we would need minced chicken meat. He tried to help to the best of his understanding and took two of the girls to a shop where they killed a chicken right in front of them, skinned it, and handed it to them. We had to explain to him that we would not be able to grind this up to make a burger, but in the end had to get mutton instead. We really enjoyed our American meal of mutton burgers and mac and cheese but our Indian friends found it somewhat bland... 

We are having another eventful week! Luckily it did not include anymore trips to the hospital.

On Sunday we went to Sarnath, the town where the Buddha is said to have preached for the first time, with our art history professor. The town is only about 15 km out of Varanasi but it took us almost an hour to get there in our professor’s car because of how slowly the roads move. It’s good though – if people drove any faster I don’t think anyone, animals or people, would survive! I think my favorite thing that we saw was a Japanese temple whose walls were painted to depict the story of the Buddha’s life. We also saw the exact tree that the Buddha sat under to give his first sermon. Ok, approximately the exact tree. Ok it was in the same vicinity as the exact tree… at least the same species? Everything here seems to be approximately exact.

We walked through the ruins of the place where the Buddha lived, the Stupa where he prayed and even the small temple on the way from his residence to the Stupa where he would stop to pray, even though the two buildings are about a 5 minute walk from one another. Finally, we went to the museum which houses the relics found in the ruins. This was very interesting because we saw many of the pieces that we have been looking at in class. Also because there were a lot of pilgrims there who wear exclusively bright orange. My favorite was a guy who was wearing bright orange board shorts as a part of his pilgrim uniform.

While the history was all very exciting, I think our favorite part was when our professor told us we were going to stop for chai on the way home and then we pulled over at a small shack on the side of the road. They served us chai in the usual small disposable clay cups which we really enjoyed only after closely watching to make sure they boiled it.

Tuesday was one of the teacher’s birthdays which he first got to celebrate by catching a snake in one of the classrooms. After all of that excitement however he invited us all to his own surprise party which his fiancé had planned for him and then told him about just in time for him to clean his house and make dinner! The food was great and it was so nice to be in a home setting! We are also very happy to be making friends!

Yesterday was Indian Independence Day which is a big day for everyone. First the kids at the city campus where we live did a performance in the morning. They did adorable dances that one of the interns taught them and some groups sang songs. They all looked so cute with their face paint and flags! Then we went to the rural campus for the first time, which is in a village called Betawar, to see the kids there do their performances. It is so different there! It was great to see so much green and get some peace and a break from all the car horns and busy streets. It was so interesting to see an independence day celebration that is so different from our own because of how recently independence was attained. We have been picking up on a lot of lasting negative feelings about the British which has been interesting and the day was so much more about independence than our 4^th of July celebrations. The director of the school gave a speech about how people need to fight for a release from the trash as hard as they fought for release from the British. Can’t argue with that!

Everything is going very well but everyday is still a challenge. We have been trying to figure out what exactly is hard about being here. The power and water going out periodically and the intense humidity are inconvenient but not impossible to deal with. Instead, it is just the completely different culture, the inability to communicate effectively most of the time, the effect the heat, humidity, and pollution have on our bodies, and the knowledge of how long we are going to be here that seem to be causing us the most trouble. It is just starting to dawn on me that we are actually living here and that has actually been helpful. I no longer feel like we have to be doing something every minute and I am realizing that the classes we are taking actually count for credit at school. It is good to start feeling like we are on a normal schedule again. We’re doing it!

Tomorrow we are leaving for a weekend trip to Agra and Delhi! I am very excited but a little apprehensive for the overnight train ride…