Holy Walk

It's not just anywhere in their world you go on an evening stroll through the local park & end up with a day-glo orange mark between your eyes, commemorating Lord Vishnu. Jess & I recently met the coordinator of a temple very close by, hidden in GK1 park named prachin Shiv Mandir. He knows English well & took us around the small 100-yr old building and explained all the shrines and symbols. Amazing, considering we saw the temple over 3 weeks ago and still weren't sure if we were allowed to go on (we are. i also took pictures.) Anyway, on my solitary walk last evening, I stopped by and he was there. I asked him about his orange mark- which symbolizes Lord Vishnu, who provides food/sustenance, and he mixed up some paste and gave me a bright orange dot. I took a manual portrait of him kneeling next to a statue of a snake which may or may not symbolize Lord Shiva.

In other news, I bought artwork- a card, from Guddu for Rs 20- which is only 45 cents or so- in retrospect I should of paid more, but thats how much he wanted for it- it's really beautiful and I plan on framing it, Jess also bought one.

I have made plans to travel to Varanasi on Friday- Monday. It's a 13-hr non-AC sleeper train, and I'm feeling very excited and very apprehensive at the same time. It also marks my halfway India mark. crazy! Namaste.

Erin

pictures!

Finally uploaded some pics.

Amazing food at this restaurant called Maya in Agra

Out with volunteers and other foreigners- my new Saud/Irani friends to my right

Karan, a.k.a. staff who yells and hits the kids the most, but is also hilarious

Peter (NYC), Mr. Tapan, who runs the collective, and I at work.

Teaching Rhang- colors with Jess

Yogen (right) having music time with the children at work

Where I sleep.

Other volunteers:

Shivani from Trinidad, Amanda from CA, Katie from Arizona, Jess from Australia, Kathryn from the UK, Skype from Australia, Lu from Mexico & Me!!

all for now. Off to hopefully do some watercolors at a nearby temple.

Hope all is well

Namaste,

Erin

Culture shock India: Catering

It is when, at my placement, the other volunteers and I notice the food for lunch is running very low (we eat the same food as the daycare center children, railway children, staff and orphans- in that order) and suggest to Yogen that the orphans should eat before us, as we could easily find a local restaurant and afford our own lunch. It is when, Yogen, after informing the coordinator, Mr. Tapan of this suggestion, flips out and absolutely insists we sit down and eat and eat literally running the risk of depleting the food provided for the only meal the orphans will eat all day. The orphans insist we sit down and eat. Culture shock- when it is considered absolutely rude and innapropriate to turn away a food offering, even from the hungry orphan serving you, as they do everyday. Don't worry, there entered up being enough for everybody, but considering the circumstances I didn't exactly gorge myself.

This has also been occuring outside of work, when me and some of my new local friends go out to dinner and they insist on piling food on my plate without even asking, forcing me to waste it, as it would be wasted anyway, because this country has no concept of the "doggy bag". I try to control my discomfort with it.

Basically every local (or semi-local) wants to cater to you- your friends, coworkers, the pantless beggar children doing backflips in the middle of rush hour traffic to earn some rupees.


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You know those memoriable "I think I am going to die" moments you have had while merging onto highway traffic, or while driving in a thunderstorm whiteout? I have about 6-7 daily while transporting in this crazy city- whether it's walking, on a motorbike, in a rickshaw or in a car. I've literally just started closing my eyes. In fact, just yesterday I fell asleep in my auto rickshaw. I've seen 3 or 4 minor accidents and no major ones, but theres no exchanging of words and defintly no exchange of insurance information. In fact, one the volunteers got hit by a motorbike while walking, as the bike sped off- all she was left with was a nasty bruise. Last night, the traffic and inability of autos caused me to be 2 hours late to dinner.

To sum up, I'm not fond of being catered to, especially when not asked, and sleeping through traffic seems to be the best idea I can think of for the moment.

Here are some pictures posted by other volunteers!

on the 2nd class train back from Agra- 4 hours that felt more like 8.

At my placement (I'm in the backround holding Alisha)!!
Jess playing the Indian version of Down By the Banks with the older school girls.

Erin

Too much internet

Although I'm in India, I feel like I've been all around the world these last couple of weeks. For ex., I work with an Australian, sleep on the bunk under a lovely girl from Trinidad and hung out this weekend with some Iranians. Every culture has it's own mannerisms, customs, style. I'm learning so much.

I've been slacking with photography. I get shy about it, and it's hard to lug around a manual in this kind fo heat. Hopefully I will head to Varanasi this Friday, though, and get some great shots.

Today my students wished me a happy Eid! We got amazing cookies. Happy Rosh Hoshana!

Erin

pizza hut

It's not that !ndia is actually hotter than an average STL summer. It is that you just can't escape the heat. you wake up hot. you eat breakfast with hot tea and you are hot. you are hot while traveling 60 kph in an auto rickshaw. You're hot while teaching slum children their ABCs as they climb all over you. you drink chai with the staff after work, burn your tongue, and are hot. You feel hot watching Indian music videos on TV after dinner. And you are defintely hot while falling asleep. and while dreaming.

My new friend from Saudi Arabia, Mana, said that during Ramadan in his country, if you are spotted eating you would be fined or even arrested. I can't imagine being in a country such as that. He also has 15 siblings. Today is Eid, the end of Ramadan, so since the majority of my students are Muslim, the center is closed.

Yesterday we went to Pizza Hut (thx for the suggestion, Sathya!) and ate Indian tasting pizza, had lemonade and ice cream in AIR CONDITIONING.

It's funny what you take for granted.

Erin

rough& tough, but bahut chota

So don't get me wrong. I love the "Hope Collective" - the daycare centre were I work, but I had a pretty upsetting moment on Friday. Around lunch time, some of the older "aftr-school" children wanted to come in- but it wasnt their time yet. Karan (staff, 24, married to Laxmi, 19 and 8.5 mths prego) started shouting at them, as he loves to do. Out of nowhere, though, he grabs a child who is eating in the 1st group, Lucy (so sweet, beautiful, shy) by the arm and drags her to the oorway and kind of shoves her against the wall all the while shouting in Hindi at both her and the 2nd group of children. Peter, Jess and I have no idea what the hell is going on because Yogen, who usually translates, isn't there. The 2nd group leaves and Lucy is bawling. I'm upset and when they come back in I am shouting at Karan. "WHy Lucy??" but of course he does not understand. Eventually he sees that I am upset that Lucy is upset, so hetakes her on the back porch nd "apologizes' to her (or so I assume) and hugs her. It is so frustrating because of a. the languag barrier and b. the fac that even if I knew the language there does not seem to be anything I can do. It's all very upsetting.

Also, as the kids begin to familirize with us, tey have become more rambuncious and violent and all we can say is

choop raoo! be quiet!
bus! stop!
gol dierya banao! get in a circle!

but our accents are lacking so they continue on until Yogen raises his voice..he's a true lifesaver.

e

Anti-American Frat Boys

Just a couple of notes about some of the kids:

Orphan: Guddu knows few words in English, but he seems to be really happy, although not at all interested in attending school or studying at home. He paints or makes designs all day. He also sits with the young kids and helps them as well. I do plan on doing more advanced feeling-based art projects with him and need to start making plans for that. He takes to me really well, though and I'm sure he'd be interested in whatever I provided him with or with whatever I asked him to do-so I should really get on that. He lost his leg when he was living on the railway tracks and collecting bottles for money- he didn't get out of the way fast enough, I guess.

Child from the slum: Alisha has really changed vastly since I've arrived. Every day i put her on my lap and try to get her to smile and I've been successful pretty much all week! Also, today she wrote 4 letters by herself, and repeated all of the letters when I asked her to (A BOLO!\SAY A!) which really took me by surprise. I'm going to keep working on that, but now a new challenge- Abdullahaman is a small boy of 3 or so who does nearly nothing himself. Including standing/sitting/speaking/drawing/writing. Although he did make a "D" on his slate today and said "Dog" and "cat" when I asked him to. There is hope! They are pretty young though, so they may just be very shy and still learning Hindi as well.

As far as my social life goes, I've been having a blast spending time with the other volunteers. We found a great place to dance and have some (free) drinks on certain nights, and in general, everyone is realy fun and supportive of one another. I've also met some locals and had a great time speaking with them. Yogen might take me to see a Hindi film this weekend (no subtitles!). I'm very excited.

The food at home has become quite redundant and I find myself losing my appetite regularily. I think I'll probably head out for food about once or twice a week to keep sane about it.

I have a cold, but it's not anything to fuss about. Peter is picking me up some oranges at the market and other girls have given me some vitamins as well.

Yesterday, when walking home from my project in a market with indian music, I thought to myself: "I may never want to leave this place."

Erin

truly, madly, deeply

the best part of my day had to be rocking out to Savage Garden's "Truly,Madly,Deeply" at my project with Yogen and Peter and the orphans. Who would of thought I'd be here doing something of the sort? Crazy. Also, on the way to my project, 15 of my students came runnign full speed up to me in their royal blue school dresses. DIDIDIDIDIDIDIDI!!! DIDI DIDI!!! it was AMAZING! Trains were flying by and I tried my bright red (lal) sunglasses on all the girls and they couldnt stop giggling about it.

I went shopping for some jewelry in the heart of New Delhi and the salesman said I could get free jewelry if I gave him English lessons!

I've spent some more time wandering by myself and it can be quite peaceful, really. if you ignore all the staring.

All for now. Namaste!

erinlee

We will walk on an empty road..

Apart from my skin peeling off my foot for having to spend so much time barefoot, I'm having a great time here. Friday, the monsoon continued on and I felt as if I was probably not going to make it to work. I called Yogen, and he said it should be okay. Tackling the area alone for the second time, I felt 300% more confident and real;ized that the area wasn't actually too bad at all. Yes, people stare and make motions at you and folow you, there is feces and urine ion the streets and the smell is thick and the flies, thicker, and the cattle and goats and horses feed on plastic trash, but it isn't quite the slums and it's pretty standard India.

We made Butterflies, "Teetoolees" on paper and with new markers and cut them out and tapesd them all over the window. So far, certain children stand out. Alisha is a tiny little girl who never smiles, talks or writes/draws a thing. Sadam is a tiny little boy with the sweetest smile. Dubada is a very smart girl with an additude. Vishvash, when asked for his name gives his full name which is about 10 seconds long and the staff always cracks up about it. I'm going to have a field day when I bring in my manual camera. Yogen told me after work that he felt me to be much more entusiastic than the last volunteers (awesome) and that he could tel the kids really took to me. I LOVE the staff. Karan is maybe my faavorite. he is 24 and married to Laxmi, who is 22 and 8-mths pregnant. He knows a total of 5 or 6 words in English and somehow his amazing humor stil seems to peak through. For ex, I often ask him, after practicing with the kids, to tell me words in English. "Hara (green), in english?" i said, and he refused to answer. Shoving his finger in his chest he said, "Me Indian! Hindi only!" to which I said, while shoving my finger in my chest, "Me American! English only!" and we all had a good laugh about it.

After work, Yogen and I headed to the "Habitat Cultural Centre" to hang out. I was escastic as he let me ride on his motorbike on the roads of Delhi, in the rain. It was absolutely exhilirating and absolutely terrifying. Most the women in india ride on the back of the motorbike sideways, because of their Saris, but I straddled because I had pants and sideways felt like suicide. We defintely got a lot of stares. Habitat is really beautiful: natural outdoor places to sit and rest, auditoriums, theatres, art galleries. Yogen and I talked for a couple of hours- I helped him with his English grammar (he is actually quite amazing for starting English in 6th grade!), he imitated some famous bollywood actors, we talked about Indian customs such as slapping children for making mistakes. Yogen said he was slapped so hard he often fell out of his desk as a child. It happens at my projct by the staff and doesn't phase the kids at all. i feel very comfortable around Yogen, and it is great to have a local friend. We checked out a docuentary at a film festival that was going on, and becuase of the rain, it took me 55 minutes in an auto to return home (monsoon traffic).

That night, I headed to an awfully posh bar with some other volunteers that had a live fashion show. The drinks were $20! It was disgusting. But interesting, I suppose. India really is one of the only places where such extreme weath and extreme poverty exist side by side. We went to this other bar, Urban, that was a lot more chill- but still blegh. I did meet a guy from Wash DC who jut spent 7 mths in Israel though. Awesome.

2 hours of sleep later, I boarded a train to Agra with Naomi. We booked 1st class, but, in retrospect, really didn't need to. We sat across from 2 Americans- the husband wrked at the A. Embasy in Delhi. We got corn flakes with boiling milk, french fries ("finger chips") an omelette, black tea, mango juice, cookies and a RED ROSE! It was comfortably disgusting. :)

Agra was beautiful!! We got bombarded by auto drivers at the station, but found Talik, and asked him if he would drive us around all day, to which he agreed, for Rs. 400 ($8)! Our hotel had a rooftop view of the taj mahal ($10 a night!) The TAJ was AMAZING!!!! I took loads of portraits of people there, after asking them, of course. Twice, a group of 10-20 INdian male teenagers surrounded N and I to get a picture. It was crazy.We also saw the baby Taj and Agra fort (where I dropped one of my shoes and didnt find it for 10 minutes). We hit an AMAZING restaraunt named Maya :) and it was the best meal of my life. WE had dinner and some beer on the roof and "proper crashed" (as Naomi, U.K., would say) at 8pm! WE accidently boarded the wrong train back to Delhi and it was defintely a "real" India experience. I spent the 1st 30 minutes with an adorable baby girl on my lap (N got pics!) and after they got off, just avoided eye contact with a lot of older men.

I bought my most precious/expensive item yesterday. I sw this muscian and his younger brother playing drums at this restaurant, and he had made both of their outfits and they had UPSIDE-DOWN HEARTTS SEWN ONTO THEM!!! I half-jokingly asked if I could buy the shirt off his back and he insisted I do (as he had more at home)! It was hilarious. I actually did. For a lot of money, atleast a lot in India ($21). It was amazing. It's more like a dress. Can't wait to show everyone back home.

Love Namaste.

I start Yoga tomorrow morning at 530am.

Erin Didi

When it rains, it pours.

You know the saying, "When it rains, it pours?" Here it is so so literal. Today my coworker from the Slums, Yogen, called me about 4 minutes before I would have been entering an auto and heading out there to tell me that there was a huge traffic jam and that it was not worth coming. Everything literally shuts down for the day/week/month. It is crazy. Now that the rain has come through for the first time since I've been there, though, everything smells so much nicer and the air is much cooler.

My time with the "orphanage" project so far has been both trying and extremely satisfying. I was defintely thrown into the situation. I was given no tasks, and had, literally, a chalk board and a piece of chalk. Basically the center I am volunteering at is a very small room on the second story of a building in the slums of South Delhi. It's near the "Nizamuddin Railway Station". It is not really an orphanage, as there are no beds, no furniture and only 6 children, mostly those over the age of 10, sleep there (on the floor). Basically my day is this: I arrive at 11, and teach about 15-20 two to eight year olds English until about 12 or 1230. We write the ABCs, 123s, we talk about colors. We act out animals. After 12 or 1230, we play games or color. When I arrived they had a bucket of crayons, about 17 or so, and very little paper. The first day I showed them how to draw a face and talked about the parts of the face in English. Then, i had them color the background and make their own hair. The problem is..only one staff knows English so I usually wait till he gets there before doing any sort of project of game, as it is literally impossible to explain something like "you need to draw your own hair and color the background" without knowig Hindi myself. Thus, the trying part. I have learned a lot already. The most important thing to learn is "good" or "that looks good" because they scream "DIDI!" (sister) until I tell them they have written their A right. "Acha Hay!" or "Theek Hay (OK)!"works well. So far the most satisfying experience has been with Guddu, a 17 year boy who is staying at the orphanage and has lost one of his legs. He loves loves loves art, and has been sketching for years. It's almost all he does and he showed me everything. The next day, I brought him watercolor paper and gave him my watercolors and brushes and showed him how to dip the brush and use just a tiny bit of color at a time. In no time he drew this beautiful ladscape with a church and hills and forrest and painted it all in like he had done it a thousand times. It was amazing. I was really inspired by him and am going to think of more challenging things for him to do.

At 1, the children eat lunch-provided at no cost. Then they leave (DIDI NAMASTE DIDI NAMASTE!) and a new batch of 15 or so kids arrive from school. They know more English ("Ma nem ez Farah") and actually make fun of me for my bad Hindi. Yesterday we played the Hokey Pokey and they loved it.

More later, but I love it so far. I feel really amazing here. I am spending money more than I thought I was going to be, however. I'm going to the Taj on Saturday with Naomi on a 1st class train..think The Darjeeling Limited. I can't wait!

Didi Namaste!!!!!! Namaste Didi!!!
Love always,

Erin

Acha Hai!! = This is nice!!

Day 4..or something. What a day. It was defintely a day of firsts.

• 1st day using an auto rickshaw

which is utterly exhilirating. my project is NOT in walking distance, so I have to take an "auto" 15 minutes or so from the volunteer house. basically, it consists of dodging in and out of traffic, literally being inches away from other autos, cows, dogs, people, motorcycles, buses and cars around you. there is constant beeping, yelling, wind, smells, dirt (no windows). It cost about a dollar one way, after some haggling. When i left my placement, i was surrounded by literally 10 or 15 middle aged indian men trying to convince me to take their auto and it was quite awful, but nice to finally get in and out of there.

• 1st day in "the slums"

think Aladdin when he has to steal bread, only dirtier, smellier, more crowded, louder. I had to walk 5-7inutes through the slums to get to the center. i miagine after working there 2 mos, i should see some pretty interesting behavior

Other people are waiting in line for internet, so I'll have to say more later. But i met an awesome guy today named Yoden, who also works at the center and starting playing "Wake me up when sept ends" on his guitar and offered to show me around Delhi on his motorcycle. Awesome!!! So so so excited. So happy. Not sleeping at all,though.

In the process of getting a prepaid phone which is super cheap to call the US from.

Thanks for reading!

<3>

Day 1

I am safe in India! I am so terribly sweaty sitting in this cyber cafe with very badly abused and dirty computers from 1994 or so. But it is 15 minutes walking distance from my apt, and 25 rupees an hour! That's less than 50 cents. I'll take it.

I have a lot to say but have 3 other volunteers here with me, so I must be brief. I've met three girls, all in their upper 20s. Katie is from Arizona, Lou from Mexico city and Naomi is from the UK. Sweet girls who I feel will support me. We are all doing different programs, though. I'll meet all the other volunteers this afternoon.

I'm basically in suburban South Delhi. Of course it's nothing like US suburbia, but it is safe and has easy access to shops. I'm living in a small volunteer apt with 6 bunk beds, and w/ what will be 12 volunteers total. It's small but nice. It has a western bathroom, and even a TV although we haven't quite figured out how to turn it on yet. I slept very little so far due to the heat and from being jet lagged. It's crazy to think I'm literally 12 hours ahead of the states. I couldn't be any further away from home!

I'm considering paying the 400 dollars for orientation because we visit all over Delhi, and also travel to the Taj Mahal, which I could do on my own but maybe be apprehensive about. Money guilt is taking me over...but i probably wouldn't regret paying it in the end.

I'm feeling very camera shy and haven't taken many photos yet. It's hard to feel unobstrusive.

Alright. Time to go and take some passport photos, which apparently you need to buy things here. If you need to get in touch with me, please txt me (50 cents each) or email me at erinleeisalive@gmail.com

Namaste,
Erin