(Jordan-your version is at the bottom)
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International Impact trip to the Dominican
Republic in 2011 |
Throughout my college career at the University of Illinois, I've been blessed to have so many life changing experiences and could honestly say that I wouldn't have changes a thing over the past four years. One of the biggest life changers was becoming involved with a student organization called International Impact (ii). This amazing organization works with the various nonprofits abroad in order to send our members away over Winter and Summer Breaks for anywhere from 2 weeks to a few months. It was through ii that I was able to volunteer in the Dominican Republic my junior year and that I was able to have the opportunity to volunteer in India over this past Winter Break. Sonam, the president of ii this year also doubled as our group leader which worked out seamlessly seeing as she has family in the Delhi area where we would be volunteering. I honestly had the most amazing time and got to see everything from people sleeping and pissing in the streets to the Taj Mahal. I tried to keep a somewhat journal of all the activities we jam-packed into the few weeks that we were there, but anybody that knows me should already realize that for one, my memory is the worst, and that two, I can't really stick to a plan/commitment to save my life so things might be a little hazy.
Pre-India Briefer:
When looking into plane tickets in January 2011 when this trip first started to come together, we had been expecting to see ticket prices around $1700 which would be the first of my expensive airfare purchases for the year but stifling nonetheless. I barely had that much in my bank account so I was already having a mini freakout about which organ to sell but was pleasantly surprised when we starting finding tickets along the lines of $1400. We immediately called a meeting for the next night to try and get our tickets before the airlines caught wind that they would be doing me a huge solid and were able to score tickets for about $1200.. with the only catch being that we would leave on Christmas Eve. This was definitely a detail I tried to conceal from mi madre who was already a tad upset that I would be planning on not only leaving her for a semester, but that I would be turning right back around and leaving on the ever cherished Christmas Eve. But all in all it worked out beautifully.. she finally forgave me and dropped me off at the bus the day before I left only three short weeks after getting back from Australia so I could spend my last night in the US in good ol' Chicago before shipping out the next day.
Week 1:
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| Our welcome to the Delhi airport |
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| Michelle napping in Amman, Jordan |
After spending over 30 hours in an airplane just weeks prior to leaving for India, to say that I was less than enthused for the 21 hour trip to India would be a huge understatement. Fortunately, I discovered the open bar status of international flights from my last endeavor so I was able to keep myself mildly entertained as I no longer can sleep on planes.. even with the aids of heavy duty sleeping meds and O.D.'ing on Dramamine. But one of the most memorable moments of my whole India trip would definitely be the smell of the air after Sonam's cousins Nicky, Micky, and Dicky, picked up us from the airport. As we walked into the foggy haze that is Delhi at all times, the smell was completely indescribable. It was almost as if you could smell the pollution that hungover the city like a plague. The ride to the rest house in Gurgoan that we were staying at was also one of the more memorable, clarifying moments. I don't think it really hit me that I was actually in India until we were zooming through traffic on the opposite side of the road, with cars, rickshaws, trucks, and people on bikes in every which lane with Bollywood music playing in the background. It was then that I began to pick up the traffic patterns and picked up the phrase that would soon be the theme for the trip, "Only in I-N-D-I-A"..
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| Good ol' rickshaw ride through town |
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| Brahman cows have free reign all over India and chill where they please :) |
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A lady randomly invited us into her home when we stopped to
eat some guavas from a street vendor and she was gracious enough
to show us her house including her daughter and the cot that
they shared as a bed outdoors |
The traffic: To say that the lines on the road didn't qualify as a mild suggestion would be a severe understatement. There are absolutely zero rules to the road. If you want to drive your moped with your two year old sitting on the handlebars and your wife and newborn on the back into oncoming traffic... go for it! Wanna take your camel drawn carriage on the highway?? Cool beans! The highways which were supposed to be 4 lanes across were at any given point 6-7 lanes deep as people honk their horns and drive every which way they please. Definitely an invigorating experience and one that I miss on the boring roads in Champaign/Urbana.
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| Should've just hitched a ride with these guys^ |
For the most part we relied on either Sonam's family or auto-rickshaws for transportation however the metro is surprising really nice and convenient and cheap (we're talking pennies here!). The auto-rickshaws were an experience in themselves. Catching one is not the problem, especially if you look remotely foreign so they can charge you an outrageous fee, it's actually getting where you're going that's the problem and not having a heart attack in the process. My volunteer group didn't have too much of an issue since Rachit speaks Hindi but the other group had an issue where the driver didn't know where the place they wanted to go was so they ended up driving around in the rickshaw, picking up random people on the way, before being dropped off in some random location with the driver trying to charge them an arm and a leg. I think that most of the drivers are on some type of substance but it just makes the ride that more invigorating, but accidents do happen so be careful!
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Auto-rickshaws designed to fit 3
semi-comfortably would be seen
with close to 10 at times |
The first day that we were there was by far one of the most jam-packed day of my life. We arrived at the Delhi airport at around 5am and were literally on the move until jet-lag shut us down at around 9pm. We met up with more of Sonam's family and went to a palace of a famous Bollywood actor and ate our first Indian meal, visited a breathtaking Buddhist temple, got to check out the Rest House we would be staying in, and went to see a few of Sonam's relatives. While we were driving down one of the roads there were definitely a few things that stuck out as being very different from the likes of the US and Australia. I feel like Australia and India are definitely two different extremes and the US would be somewhere in the middle so it was weird being able to compare and contrast all the cultural differences.
For one, the trash and pollution. Australia was a neat freak, some might even say she was OCD about it. There was never any trash lying around, the rivers and beaches were spotless, and the 'Go Green' movement was evvverywhere. In India, I think I saw a public trash can (rubbish bin for the Brits reading this) maybe once, and all other trash was on the ground, evvverywhere. Literally the streets and sidewalks were covered with it, and on these same trash filled sidewalks,
you would find people sleeping there, sitting outside of the their makeshift homes made from any and every loose material, or stray dogs, pigs, and cows picking through the trash. The air was a lot different as well. I went from the ocean scented air and blue clear skies of Australia to the polluted haze that permanently hung over Delhi to the point where you couldn't even see the hand in front of your face some mornings. But overall, I fell in love with the country completely. It was a totally different culture than I was used to and to steal the wise words of my brother Ryan, "I loved the shit out of it".
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Makeshift home along the side of the road next to the
fields of mustard |
Week 1:
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| Our lovely bathroom and "bath" |
We got settled into the Rest House in Gurgoan fairly easily and didn't actually sleep too bad on the cots and managed the bathroom situation fairly well. They don't have showers there, just a big bucket that you fill up with water, then use a smaller bucket to pour the water over yourself while you sit on a stool by the drain in the middle of the bathroom. We also quickly learned that they don't use toilet paper there.. at all. So carrying tissues around with you everywhere is must. Next to the toilet you'll notice a faucet which you use to fill your hand with and take care of things that way :)
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Our group trying to introduce the game "Little Sally Walker"
to the kids which would end up ruining our lives for hours
at a time |
We also got to start working at SearchYears and meet all the great kids we would be working with. SearchYears is a nonprofit that provides after school services for kids in the area where they get to practice and develop the arts. They also are strong contributors in the community and put on theatric shows and also helped raised money so that one of their own could get the open heart surgery that he needed. The kids were so excited to have us there and welcomed us to partake in their salsa dancing classes (which I suck at), tai kwon do class (again.. suck), and would share their sugar cane as we sat singing songs and learning how to play a few of India's instruments.
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| Saree shop in Delhi Haat |
Apart from the school, we were able to go and explore what Delhi has to offer such as the Delhi Haat which is a gigantic market place with everything from scarves, tapestries, hookahs, bangles, and food from every corner of Asia. Everything was so cheap comparatively and I even got to work on my bargaining skills! I've come to realize that when it comes to being a foreigner, American especially, you're bound to get ripped off anywhere you go. With bargaining, you take the price they tell you, cut it in half and even that's more than the actual cost. But it's really only a few extra dollars to us and this is these people's lively hood so you just have to suck it up and realize that it won't be the last time that you get ripped off. But definitely a great experience at the markets and an amazing environment! We also got to go see a movie,
Don II, which is the Indian equivalent of
Mission Impossible. Even though it was in Hindi, it wasn't too hard to keep up. Staying awake on the other hand was the major issue as it was four hours long and jet-lag was still lingering.
One of the things that I soon figured out about India was that there security was a lot tighter than ours surprisingly enough. I've always complained about our airport security and how unfair it is that due to my dad my brothers and I get "randomly" checked for shoe bombs, nitroglycerine traces on our hands, and privately searched and patted down whenever we travel. But just to get into the mall, movies, and onto the metro you have to get felt up and send your belongings through a metal detector. They won't even let you take coffee into the train station, and there's no garbage cans so you just have to put it with the rest of the trash lining the sidewalks and walk away and ask good ol' Baba Ganesh for forgiveness.
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Us all after successfully making it through the mall security
to go bowling for the night at one of the seventy malls
in Gurgoan
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Week 2
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| Group of kids the other group gave a health presentation to |
The group of eight that I went with unfortunately had to be split into two different volunteer groups in order to accommodate for all of us. As I mentioned earlier, I was in the group working with the kids while the other group of four were able to follow medical students as they worked at a clinic in the slums of Delhi. They learned everything from how the two main killers of infants is tetanus and anemia due to their lifestyles and how the husband's mother has more of a say in the prenatal and natal care for the mother than she does. In the US, it's preached that the first breast milk to be produced is by far the healthiest as it provides the baby with the most antibodies and nutrients. In India, despite the doctors and medical students telling the young mothers otherwise, the mothers-in-law don't allow the first breast milk to be used as it is viewed as dirty and unclean. It was a real eye opener to hear how traditional parts of India still are. One of Sonam's cousins was discussing how the abortion rate for unmarried women was somewhere around 90% while a recent article I read in the New York Times found that the majority of mothers under 30 aren't even married in the US. Once again, traditional values difference at it's best.
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Me, Michelle, and Kevin (K-Fed) at Strikers,
a"Chicago style" bar in Gurgoan |
Fortunately for my group working at SearchYears we were able to have Mondays off which we made sure to take full advantage of. We would do yoga in the yard in the mornings, venture out on the metro system which was surprisingly better than Chicago's in my opinion, and explore what Delhi had to offer. We went to Khan Market which was another large market area in which we could pick up beautiful Indian clothes and I even found a bookstore where I could get books for about $2. They had amazing restaurants and a hookah bar and we ended up going back to Khan Market quite a few times. Throughout the week we would spend our days at SearchYears writing a newsletter for the organization and then playing with the kids all afternoon. The evenings were spent going to karaoke bars that only played good ol' American music.. we even made a few friends that insisted we sing some Cranberries with them before we left. We also got to celebrate New Years with Sonam's cousins and friends which was amazing to say I brought 2012 drinking KingFisher Strong and eating butter paneer and naan. So far I've been abroad for the past two years to bring in the New Year so if anyone has any ideas about how to top India for next year let me know!
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| The "toilet" at SearchYears |
By this time my stomach was really angry with me to say the least for all the Indian food that we'd been devouring and the water in our rest house had been off for a few days. The toilets in India are pretty much just porcelain holes in the ground that you squat over so you really get know yourself on a hole new level :) Our bathroom kinda turned into a running joke without running water which made things fun. We would go a few days without water, the staff had no idea what to do about it and "sent a plumber" two or three times. We woke up a few mornings at 3am after the water had been off and we hadn't bathed in days to water pouring out of every single faucet 'Exorcism of Emily Rose' style which reeeeally freaked us out. Britney also made friends with someone that had climbed on the roof and was looking into our bathroom window while she was changing which was a fun day. If we were really desperate for a bath we would venture to the guy's bathroom which was whole nother experience. Any faucet you touched shocked the sh*t out of ya... not just an unpleasant buzz.. but a pretty decent zap. So you had to get creative with ways for turning the water on and off. Only in I-N-D-I-A..
On the weekend we went to Jaipur in Rajisthan where Rachit has family at. Jaipur was a breathtaking city and definitely a big change from Delhi. Jaipur didn't have the grogginess and pollution that Delhi had. Jaipur also had the most beautiful forts that were centuries old and way up in the mountains, I highly recommend visiting it if you're in the area. We had the opportunity to drive up half the way to one of the forts, then take an elephant up the rest of the way. We also went to the Chowkidhini Festival where we had a traditional Rajisthani meal, got our palms read (Jesse Childress.. sorry bout it but we're getting married apparently), road a camel, played hide n' seek, and got to buy some more artwork. It was an amazing weekend spent dancing on stages with the traditional dances, dodging stray cows and pigs in the middle of the road, and trying not to get ripped off too bad.
After visiting Jaipur we were able to venture over to Agra which was a few hours away and see the Taj Mahal. Everyone had always talked about how amazing the Taj was and how you couldn't leave India without seeing it so when they told us that we were in Agra I thought they were joking. It was actually dirtier than Delhi and seemed a lot more worn down which seemed like quite a bizarre place to house one of the Seven Wonders of the World. So if you ever go, make it a day trip only. I highly recommend not staying in Agra and just renting a car or taking a bus to go for the day. But the Taj was absolutely breathtaking. It was built by Shah Jahan and it took twenty two years to build. He built it for his wife as a testament to his undying love after she died giving birth to their like fourteenth kid. It's a truly breathtaking sight as it is completely made of white marble and the ground has been dug out some twenty feet behind it so it appears to be the only thing on the horizon... simply amazing.
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| Jaipur, aka the Pink City, market entrance |
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| Dancing with the traditional Rajisthani dancers |
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| Giant sundial |
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| Our group with Rachit's family |
Week 3
This was definitely a tough week as we all realized that it was our last week in good ole I-N-D-I-A. It was tough going into the school everyday and spending time with the kids knowing that our days were numbered. Just like in the Dominican, there's always a few kids that you get ultra attached to and it makes it that much harder to say goodbye. On the last day, I gave the kids a presentation on Australia as they were all interested on where I had studied abroad at and Michelle gave one on Columbia as that's where her mom is from. Poor Michelle has the most beautiful complexion that could be confused as being Indian so she was always getting weird looks and creeped on especially hard core on the trains and in bars. But the kids loved the presentations and when we asked if they had any questions, they only wanted to know if we could teach them the words to the dancing game we played with them for hooouuurs called "Little Sally Walker". It was so tough saying goodbye but we were able to spend our last day with the kids playing music and having dance offs... the sprinkler toootally made an appearance :)
We spent our evenings and last days off going to mosques and temples and local attractions. We went and meditated in Lodi Gardens, visited the Swaminarayan temple Akshardham which in my book may have been more astounding than the Taj Mahal, and got trapped in an auto-rickshaw for two hours as a gigantic procession with a full fledge band and speakers in the middle of the road blocked traffic completely. We also got to go see a Broadway style Bollywood show which was absolutely amazing between the colors and dancing and enjoyed the food court with food from every corner of India.. love love love.
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A mosque at the Lodi Gardens in Delhi
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The Swaminarayan Akshardham is a Hindu temple that I think may have been
more astonishing that the Taj. There are no cameras allowed and as you walk
through the granite halls barefoot you'll never feel more at peace with life. It's
and absolute MUST if you're in the area. Plan to spend hours there exploring!
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The 11 ft gilded murti of Bagwan Swaminarayan, the deity to
whom the complex is dedicated to. |
It was so hard to leave as I've never been more at peace with life. It was definitely a nice change of pace as the culture is so vivid and lively compared to the laid back culture of Perth. Throughout all of the clamor of people literally being everywhere all the time, it was truly beautiful to see how the country works together. If you put that many Americans or Australians together in that amount of space in those conditions, someone would die and brawls and fights would be rampant. There were definitely arguments that you would witness numerous times a day whether it be some beggar grabbing you while you sit in the rickshaw at a stoplight or someone cutting in the lines that they don't have.. but after it's said and done it's done. There's not a huge brawl with everyone stepping in, it's just an altercation and then life moves on.
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Jam Sesh at the music teachers house
after volunteering |
I definitely plan on going back to India one day but after reading the life-changing book
Shantaram which was recommended by a friend in Perth, my next trip will definitely be to Bombay and hopefully in the capacity of volunteering in the slums which are apparently
Slumdog Millionaire status. But only time will tell. I had the most amazing experience with the most amazing people and my stomach didn't even fall out entirely thanks to 72 tablets and 2 bottles of Peptobismal :)
Peace, Love, and I-N-D-I-A
Reader's Digest Version for Jordan:
You may or may not have noticed but I left the country for a few weeks.. no biggie. I volunteered at a school, picked up some cool Hindi phrases, road an elephant and a camel, went the bars, saw the Taj, am looking to convert to Hinduism.. be ready for that shit storm if grandpa catches wind, and took a picture of a cow for ya. Charlie would have a hay day, since they don't eat beef there the cows run rampant and just chill out with ya. My stomach fell out for the last two weeks and the toilets are holes in the ground with no toilet paper which was an experience to say the least. But I'm home now so it's time to start planning our next adventure.
The traffic: To say that the lines on the road didn't qualify as a mild suggestion would be a severe understatement. There are absolutely zero rules to the road. If you want to drive your moped with your two year old sitting on the handlebars and your wife and newborn on the back into oncoming traffic... go for it! Wanna take your camel drawn carriage on the highway?? Cool beans! The highways which were supposed to be 4 lanes across were at any given point 6-7 lanes deep as people honk their horns and drive every which way they please. Definitely an invigorating experience and one that I miss on the boring roads in Champaign/Urbana.
The first day that we were there was by far one of the most jam-packed day of my life. We arrived at the Delhi airport at around 5am and were literally on the move until jet-lag shut us down at around 9pm. We met up with more of Sonam's family and went to a palace of a famous Bollywood actor and ate our first Indian meal, visited a breathtaking Buddhist temple, got to check out the Rest House we would be staying in, and went to see a few of Sonam's relatives. While we were driving down one of the roads there were definitely a few things that stuck out as being very different from the likes of the US and Australia. I feel like Australia and India are definitely two different extremes and the US would be somewhere in the middle so it was weird being able to compare and contrast all the cultural differences.
After visiting Jaipur we were able to venture over to Agra which was a few hours away and see the Taj Mahal. Everyone had always talked about how amazing the Taj was and how you couldn't leave India without seeing it so when they told us that we were in Agra I thought they were joking. It was actually dirtier than Delhi and seemed a lot more worn down which seemed like quite a bizarre place to house one of the Seven Wonders of the World. So if you ever go, make it a day trip only. I highly recommend not staying in Agra and just renting a car or taking a bus to go for the day. But the Taj was absolutely breathtaking. It was built by Shah Jahan and it took twenty two years to build. He built it for his wife as a testament to his undying love after she died giving birth to their like fourteenth kid. It's a truly breathtaking sight as it is completely made of white marble and the ground has been dug out some twenty feet behind it so it appears to be the only thing on the horizon... simply amazing.
