Internship!!!

ALright, I am heading to my internship on Monday morning. I have NO idea what it will be like, how many hours i will be working, if i will have internet access, what type of accommodations i will have....hahaha....but i am EXCITED!!!...basically this message is just to tell you that if i dont update this for forever or respond to e-mails that i am STILL ALIVE!!!! :)

Thunderstorms, Tibet, and Terrible Transportation…but a marvelous trip.

SO this past week was a LONG festival, holiday celebration for India. It was basically a NINE day holiday that ended with the burning of HUGE statue of the Ram god. Because of this holiday we were given 6 days of travel time. I chose to head up north (with a group that I have been traveling with to all the other places) to a place called Dharmsala where the exiled Tibetan government resides, including the Dalai-lama.

Lets just say that the train ride was the WORST train ride that I have been on. In the past it has been REALLY easy for us to get train tickets and this time we had to get a SPECIAL ticket (pay extra) because the train was booked…and IT WAS DFEFINITELY BOOKED. One berth on the train is meant for six people and then across from the berth on the other side of the isle way are 2 beds…meant for two people. At one point (WHEN WE WANTED TO GO TO BED) there were 18 people in our berth…18!!!...a place meant for 8 people. Then we finally got the point across to these Indians that we were going to put the beds down…and we ended up with two men sleeping on the floor, one man on MY bed while I slept, and 3-4 more men sitting on the bottom beds…it was SOOO hot…and our fans for out berth DID NOT work…but by now THAT did not surprise us. Along with MANY other things, it worked out to being the WORST train ride….but we survived nonetheless. From our train station we took a public bus to Dharmsala…which was ALSO a hot, and crowded and rough ride, but we made it to Dharmsala nonetheless.

Once we arrived it started POURING…mind you this city is at the base of the Himalayas and we have been living in DESERT weather the past two months…so basically it was cold and we were wet and NOT prepared for rain…ALL of us looked like a dirty mess by the time we found a guesthouse to stay in. While we were in Dharmsala, we SHOPPED, ate MARVELOUS food…I had a chocolate pancake, hot chocolate, PESTO PASTA!, Tibetan food, omelets, toast that was NOT white!...it was like heaven….we walked the Tibetan prayer walk, went to the place where the actual Exiled Tibetan government resides (I think that place was the highlight of my trip), went to a Tibetan museum, saw a dog with RABIS, took a short hike to a waterfall, met TONS of Muslim shopkeepers that were from the North (I just say Muslim, because we did not meet a single Hindu and that is pretty unusual but I guess its not in the North). It was gorgeous up there and the weather was a WONDERFUL treat…NONE of us wanted to leave. It felt like we had been on some kind of retreat…people were not trying to make us take their rickshaw (in fact people said NO to us when we asked for a rickshaw ride…which is UNHEARD of here in Jaipur)…shopkeepers were not walking the streets and PULLING us into our shop…it was just wonderful.

THENNNN we had to leave….and the craziness began…we had to wake up at 3:30 AM!!!!...in order to catch a bus…when we walked outside it started to THUNDER, and LIGHTNING and POUR!!!!...then we get on a bus and it is still DARK outside and we are driving down a narrow, windy, steep road…and OUR BUS DRIVER IS BRUSHING HIS TEETH!!!!!!!! From Dharmsala we headed to Amritsar, which is known for its Sikh temple, known as the Golden temple.

Once we arrived in Amritsar, we immediately realized that we had returned to REALITY…men got on the bus while we were stopped in traffic and started to BUUUUG us about taking their rickshaws and hotels and blah blah blah….we ignored them and said NAHI! (no!) Our first adventure in Amritsar was a trip to the Pakistani boarder crossing!!!...I WENT TO THE PAKISTANI boarder crossing…this is a HUGE attraction to Indians and foreigners alike because the soldiers of both countries perform a ceremony EVERY night at sunset and open the gates and take their flags down…this ceremony is actually REALLY funny because it consists of soldiers doing high kicks and grunts…and funky outfits…I don’t even know how to explain it. (Tammy if you are reading this you should ask David if he has ever been to this ceremony in Pakistan.) Then we ventured back to the Golden Temple….which is gorgeous at night!...and rather impressive. The next day we headed back to Jaipur…OF COURSE our train was late so we arrived at 9:30 am and went STRAIGHT to school. The trip was FABULOUS!!!

SOO a lot of things have changed lately…. I have a new homestay that I have been living in the last few days. It is REALLy nice…we have internet sometimes, our own rooms, hot water, two bathrooms, and a little couch room all to ourselves (Molly and I)…it’s a lovely set up. Our new mom eats everything including meats and onions and garlic…and she STUFFS US!!!!!...i can not even lay on my stomach when I go to bed because she piles SOOOO much on our plate!!! (I actually REALLY miss our old food, it was so simply Indian, healthy, and just enough…but this food is pretty good too. Just know that I have YET to feel an ounce of hunger since I have arrived in this house. In addition to the new homestay…. I leave for my internship on MONDAY…this coming MONDAY!!!...baaaaaaaah. I will be heading to a village to work with a non-profit called Gravis in a village that is 1-2 hours outside of Jodhpur. I have NO idea what it will be like, but I am supposed to be working with some micro-finance women’s groups in the surrounding villages. There are two other girls from the program that will be working in the agriculture sector of the same non-profit so I will be with them. In addition, one of the boys from our group, Jesse, will be working in the city of Jodhpur…so I will have a few people around me.

I can not believe that I am already moving onto my internship phase….i have less than TWO months left!!!!...that is sooooo crazy to me. I am looking forward to coming home, especially for the holidays!!!…but I am excited about this new phase. I think that I am ready to get out of the city…I hope that I can build some more relationships with people and HOPEFULLY play some soccer with kids….something I have yet to do here. I will miss seeing all of my fellow programmers every day…but I think that I can manage. Anyhow I am missing you guys…don’t worry there are NO Indian people replacing your spots in my heart…

Taj Mahal in a TRUNK.

Alright…so I gave you guys the WRONG information this past post (or you can just take it as evidence of how life works here in the India) Sooooo I THOUGHT I was going on a camel safari last weekend, but I ended up going to the Taj Mahal!!!

FIRST I must tell you about our field trip that we took last week. This trip was to a unique area in Rajasthan called Shekawati…it is unique in that it is just the name of an area that is a part of three different territories. We were accompanied by a man, Shri Rambir Singh, who grew up in the area during the British rule and his family is very visible throughout the area. This is because his family was an estate family that owned the surrounding lands, so they had lots of land and close ties with the British. We received many connections throughout our trip from him…his family owns the PALACE in town so we were able to stay in the palace one night and our second night we stayed in refined MUD huts (modeled after the ones used in the village). Here on this field trip we learned about the British rule sooo much. One day we just sat in what would be equivalent to the living room of the fort and talked to Shri Rambir Singh about his life growing up here and his relationship with the British. (his family still lives in this fort)

In addition to this we visited two organic farms to learn about the organic farming that takes place and their new techniques. It was cool to see and learn about, but honestly that is not my topic of interest so I found my mind wandering as we stood in the HOT sun looking at a pile of compost being digested by WORMS!!

There is just SOO much that I learn and experience each and every day that I almost find it frustrating or intimidating to write about it, because I don’t know how to narrow it down for all of you guys…so please realize that I am only hitting the top of the icebergs with these posts…if I told you guys about everything then I would not have time to go and explore, I would just sit in my room and TYPE…and that’s NOT an option….haha.

So once we arrived back in Jaipur we had class and THEN… Saturday afternoon I left with 7 other people to visit the Taj Mahal. We stopped in a hotel on the way to spend the night. This town is known for its bird sanctuary so we woke up early and rode bikes through the bird sanctuary at 6 in the morning. It was a delightful morning ride…and we saw LOTS of birds, monkeys and a horse/cow looking animal. I am SO glad that we did this in the morning because it has been SOOO hot here recently and it would have been straight up miserable to do that during the day. Let alone the birds and monkeys probably would not have been out for us to see. After our BIRD excursion we headed to the TAJ!!!...

When we arrived at the Taj parking lot, we were hassled by SO many people to buy whatever cheap little thing that they were selling…yesssssss…I finally gave into a young boy…I just couldn’t resist him…he was riding his bike up next to us on the way up, trying to show off and then talked to us when we came out…SO I JUST BOUGHT a keychain. (We are hassled ALL the time NO matter where we go…so don’t think that this is anything different than normal…I guess the only difference is that this little boy…(he likes to go by bobby) actually had a conversation with us and it was sweet of him, but also his plan ALL along so that we got SUCKED into buying something.) In order to get into the Taj, of course, you have to buy a ticket…the CRAZY thing is …if you are an INDIAN then you only have to pay 20 rupees…if you DON’T LOOK Indian then you have to pay 750 rupees…like 20 dollars versus 50 cents!!!!! Getting into the Taj was kinda SKETCHY!...but we survived…I think people here are SOMETIMES scared of white people so they let us do whatever we want to do…other times they just try to take complete advantage of us. Then we headed back to school/home on Sunday afternoon. We had the option of going to a fort on the way back, but we were all WORN out from the sun and the early morning bike ride, so we just went home. It was a lovely trip and I am REALLY glad that I went.

PS…our mode of transportation was a tazi, which was an Indian SUV with NINE people in it…2 in the front, 3 in the middle and 4 in the back…basically they stick FOUR people in the trunk of a small SUV…and then they drive as crazy as they can! And hit every bump so that our bones BREAK…and we no longer have tailbones.

It is OFICIALLY festival season here in India. We have had SO many holidays…its kinda unreal. This week coming up we have four days off…and this past week we had two days off. For this upcoming week I am traveling up to northern India to the base of the Himalayas which I am REALLY looking forward to. Supposedly its supposed to be cooler up there…but who’s to say that, because it rained for a MONTH longer than it was supposed to and its BLAZING hot right now…so the weather is not on track here.

On top of all these holidays, Molly and I were thrown a curve ball!!...we were told yesterday that we are going to have to move homestays. It was NOT the best of news…and I was overwhelmed at first and SAAADDDD, but I learned today that I get to EAT eggs at this new HOUSE!!...woo hoo!!! I guess what happened was that our mom signed up to host some other students from another program also, and when she said that she would host them she did not realize that she was not allowed to host us at the same time…basically it’s the OTHER program’s fault. Our mataji has LOTS of integrity and she did NOT want to go back on her word, so she set us up to live down the street at her best friend’s house. Our new host mom and our mataji go on walks every morning together…and our mataji has told her what we like to eat so I think it will be a smooth transition. I am still REALLY sad that we have to leave, as is our mataji. Our mataji said that we can still come by WHENEVER we want and come eat at her house, we just have to warn her!!...so I will definitely do that. I am getting all choked up writing this because Molly and I have LOVED living here, and they have taken such good care of us…and they have become like family to us (including the servants)…BAAAHHH!!! But its all in the Lord’s hands (thankfully)!

I LOVE ALL OF YOU GUYS!!!! I cant believe that it is already OCTOBER!! I have been here for TWO months and I would not change it for the world! The first month time went by somewhat slow, but this past month things DEFINITELY flew by. I hope that this blog finds you healthy and jubilant!...haha. I know that it is getting pretty crazy over there with the stock market and all, BUT know that the Lord is in control in EVERY aspect of our lives, BIG or small. It also has been pretty crazy over here in India. Bombings are continually being found or going off in cities. In the last week and half, I think that there has been at least three bombings. In addition, there was a HUMAN stampede at one of the temples in Jodhpur in which 180 people died from being trampled on. The cause of the stampede is unknown…but I cant even begin to imagine being trampled to death. With all that said, please keep my safety in your prayers! Like I said, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!