One week out!!

Vivek is on top.

I'm leaving India in less than a week- and it's definitely begun to hit me.

I'm going to miss my volunteermates, a lot. I can't imagine my life without them right now. Especially Jess and Peter, my workmates.

Vivek
Vivek is a sweet 10yr old orphan at the center. Well, he was at the center anyway. We almost lost Jitender and I believe that we now we have lost Vivek. Apparently, according to Yogen, he has abandoned his studies/school and has gone to work for the landlord as his servant. For this service, he receives Rs500 a month. That's TEN DOLLARS. Granted, he could buy about 485 pieces of bread for this money...but damn. We don't know what to do. Every time we bring it up to Yogen, he seems to change the subject. I want to intervene- but how? Getting money is the ultimate for kids so low in the social strata- plus we don't know enough Hindi to proper explain how crucial his study is.I'm not sure if the coordinators are planning an intervention, b/c their philosophy seems to be that they will support those who wish to put forth the effort to learn, and he was definitely lacking motivation. He skipped school for days at a time since I've been around. I guess if you could, please cross your fingers or pray that he returns. I already miss him dearly.

Eve-teasers
This is the Indian term that is used to describe some men/boys in India and the uncomfortability you feel as a woman- especially a foreign woman- here. It has been a major problem for many female volunteers, but fortunately I have avoided any sort of serious encounter. In addition to the general "eye-rape" that goes on on a daily basis, some volunteers have been actually followed, physically approached, molested. One volunteer was in the bathroom when a man opened the door on her and approached her- she managed to elbow her way out before being physically violated any further. Another volunteer was stalked from a park to a coffee shop over 10 minutes walk away. She saw a police car, discussed it with them and they chased the man away. Another volunteer was sitting next to a rickshaw driver in the front seat (rare, but was doing so because the back was full- we had more than the max. amount of people allowed in.) and he touched her under her dress. On the night-tour a volunteer was grabbed on her bottom more than once. On the local buses, they are packed so tightly that you are sometimes forced to literally be up against someone fully and volunteers have complained of being violated in this situation (i've never been on a local bus). Anyway, it has unfortunately caused me to be much more apprehensive of people and mistrustful of men, But it has also caused me to be generally more aware of situations happening around me.

And, in accordance with everything else I have experienced, I feel that once you have done India, you can really do anywhere.

Erin

OFF TO PUSHKAR !

A note about pollution

Is it really this late in Oct??? Holy smokes. Speaking of smoke..

I just have to say thank the freaking Hindu god(s) for the clean mountain air. They came at the ultimate time. I haven't mentioned it too much but recently pollution has become a very noticeable and horrifying situation in Delhi. It is unbearable. It is so thick and toxic that my contacts shrivel up within my eye and fall out. I cough up gray something all of the time. When I blow my nose, gray tissues. I constantly wear scarves to use as a shield between my respiratory system and the outside world, but it barely changes anything. You cannot see the trees on the other side of the road. I can't even describe it. Worst of all, I travel in auto rickshaws everyday to work. I walk everywhere possible, but my work is simply unwalkable/uncycleable. I could never ever in a hundred million years live here due to this horrible horrible problem.

Erin

Dharamshala: 4 days without pollution

I am in Daramasala (or Dharamshala)!!

The bus ride was completely insane. I felt like I was in a movie- and not just any movie, but a scary to the death thriller movie from the 70s. Here was the scene. Me and 5 of my volunteer-mates (Peter (NYC), Kristen (NYC), Emily (Vermont), Jess (Australia) and Lynette (Canada)) were packed in the back of this old dirty bus that cost about 6 American dollars one way. In Delhi, on our way out of the city, we braked 3 or 4 times so hard that I almost hit my forehead on the seat in front of me- in the dark. Outside of Delhi, we hit so many potholes, ditches and generally poorly maintained Indian roads that there was a constant bump that intensified once we started going up- and I mean up the freaking Himalayas. In the dark. Turning side to side to side to side. Did I mention it was in the dark? Now, this may sound overly paranoid, (I was on Nyquil..) but I literally thought- no, actually, I KNEW we were going to die. In fact I was 100% convinced it was my last night ever. Luckily, I got a call from Brett and was snapped back to reality (the reality that traveling in India makes you completely invisible...good Karma?). Peter said that while we all were asleep the bus straight up passed another bus WHILE entering a tunnel! Needless to say, 12 hours later (at 530a) we arrived, alive and completely disoriented in Dharamsala and watched the sunrise over the Himalayas.

By the way, it is freaking COLD here. (I am here now in the internet cafe with long sleeves, socks, a scarf and I am shivering). We left Delhi in short sleeves and found that we needed about 3-4 layers, hats, sacrves, whatever woolen items we could get our hands on to function here in Himshal Pradesh.

We took a cab to Mcleod Ganj, which is the busiest town in town (?) and the one closest to the Dalai Lama's residence. Following a rumor from an American who had breakfast with us, we hiked up to a Tibetan day school to hear his holiness speak, only to find out and hour and a half later that he decided to rest instead. So I almost saw the Dalia lama.

After consulting the many trekking companies who wanted to charge us rs 2400 (45 dollars) for a one night, two day trek up the mountain- we decided to go against all the guide book warnings, rent our own equipment and trek the mountain without a guide. How much did this cost us each? Rs 230 (5 American dollars) and a little more weight on our backs.

Now. If you know me at all, you know I was freaking the hell out about 7 westerners (we met up with Skye (Australia) here) trekking up the Himalayan mountains with a crappy map, 7 sleeping bags, 2 4-person tents, enough woolen layers (I bought the most beautiful Tibetan blanket) to combat the bitter cold snow capped mountains, and enough food to survive Saturday lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast. Of course, they told us there was a restaurant at the top of the mountain, but if there is one thing I have learned about India it is that people tell you what they think you want to hear- not what actually is truthful. So 9am Saturday morning, we tied on our sleeping bags, took turns carrying the tents, and hiked up the Himalayas.

I will say this now and it is with 100% honesty. I have never ever in my life put myself voluntarily through so much pain for that long of a time period. After 30 minutes, I didn't know whether or not to cry, pass out or simply lay down and die. Believe it or not, 5 hours, 6 20-minute stops, 2 Tibetan guys we used as informal guides and 4 stray dogs later, we made it to the mountain top campsite with, get this, a shop with food! Unfotuntely for me, my body had gone into some sort of shock. I knew what I was seeing was beautiful but for whatever reason, I couldnt take it in. My body was so messed up that I couldnt use the bathroom (behind rocks)-my body simply would not allow me to do it although I had been holding it in all day. I could barely speak to anyone, I had a cold (its over 7 days old at this point- I really need to stop hanging out with smokers) and it was COLD. By nightfall though, we (they) set up tents and the shopkeeper made us, 3 Indians, our 2 Tibetan "guides" and 2 middle aged German women a fire. It livened me up a little- so much so that I was able to learn some Bollywood moves from the Indians (remind me to show you the "twist" later). I also got some wicked Ramen- but it was called something else..I forgot.

Around 8 or 9pm we stuffed into our tents and later somehow managed to drift to sleep against two major obstacles: the barking dogs who had made it their extremely loud barking mission to protect us from the snow leopards that linger around the area (for real!) and the bitter bitter cold air. I have never in my life camped in this kind of cold. COLD. 10 hours of sloppy cold sleep later I awoke to the most amazing natural beauty I have ever witnessed in my 23 years of life. My body had come out of shock and although we arrived to the top in pure daylight the day before, I felt like I was seeing something absolutely new- the actual snowcapped Himalayan Mountains. The sun had already risen about 20 minutes prior to my waking up, but it was simply amazing. I took Chai, and fell back asleep to the best nap I have ever taken- which was helped by the now sun-warmed tent.

We took only 3 hours to come down the mountain, but it hurt for other reasons- so much so that since we arrived back in the town, we have been unable to put our shoes back on and stand up on our legs without shaking.

Thats all for now but I can't believe what I have just done. We might head to a hot springs tomorrow, and then back on a death bus to Delhi.

Good old polluted dirty Delhi.
Love love love
Erin

The Village

We (Peter, Jess, Mr. Tapan, his wife Dahlia and I) went to Yogen's house! It was in a beautiful village about an hour out of Delhi. When we arrived, the WHOLE village (it seemed) came out to greet us and it was very intense. Yogen's father and his friends came and had tea, cookies, "curdled milk" sweets(as i call them) and delcious spicy snacks with us. They told us (through our human translator) about seeing Ghandiji and witnessing WW2. Then, after a tour of his seriously beautiful house- full of colorful walls i've only ever imagined, we went up to the rooftop. Literally, families were up on their roof to see us and I almost died laughing when a group of teenage girls blushed and hid/fell when Peter said "hi" to them. I'm pretty sure Peter was blushing too. We took a walk along the road and a family invited us in and sat us down in chairs and offered us yellow ground (BAD FOR FOREIGNER) water. Peter and I sipped it and Jess just pretended to. They were all so kind, so much calmer and defintely much quieter than the people we encounter in Delhi. They didn't grab at our cameras, tug at our clothes or yell in our faces! It was refreshing.

In fact, I decided i am going to stay there for a day or two on my last week in India which means no electricity, indian toilets, and a definite use for a mosquito net.

Erin

Going to see the Dalai Lama! I know you're jealous.

"It's a Volunteercation"

Went on a nightwalk through the homeless area of Old Delhi just outside the largest mosque in India. It was led by an NGO: http://jamghat.in/drupal-6.3/ From the website:

Night Walk: This free, monthly, 4-hour walk aims to sensitize the public to the needs, dangers, and fun of being a street child. We take a group of 25 people out from 8pm-midnight, walking through the streets, visiting shelters, and providing an experiential learning about life on the streets.

It was incredible. It's not that I hadn't already seen the horrible images- 5 year olds sniffing drugs, malnourished bodies lying at your feet, people tugging at your pockets and purses...I have seen them and experienced them since day one. But on this tour, I felt truly spooked and scared for the lives of these children. The men in the tour were asked to walk on the outside of the group- with the women (aka me) on the inside. It was a very unsafe area. Our guides were a beautiful woman who knew perfect English and a 20-something guy who was part of the center and spent his whole life homeless. He took us around, stopping every couple of minutes to point out children begging, sniffing, working or sleeping. Then, he pointed out his very own mom, lying on tattered bedspreads on the ground, looking probably twice her actual age. Children ran up to the woman crying Didi! Didi!, happy to see a safe, familiar face in the disturbing darkness. She spoke about how truly unsafe the area was for young girls and women- in fact, just recently a 5 year old girl was gang raped. She said girls at the center come to her all of the time with rips and tears in their clothes due to someone who had mistreated them in the night. I cried about that- surrounded by the actual young vulnerable girls who she may or may not have been referring to in English. We also saw a lot of young boys sniffing something which could be compared with rubber cement.

Anyway, the center provides informal education (like mine), health checkups, immunizations and apparently sex education so that they may try and defend themselves in the future.

N.J. was closed today because of Diwali, so Jess and I headed over to Jamghat with two volunteers who were placed there last week. It's a great center that tends to very disturbed, very dirty and very ill children. One girl cried for 30 minutes for no apparent reason and a good number of boys had open scabs and sores on their body. Just last week, one boy put his finger in a rickshaw engine and cut off his fingertip- but they had no first aid kit (even though they offer medical treatment there?) to treat it (Helen, a volunteer from the UK later provided one for them). It was a morning well spent offering hugs, playing games and teaching some colors.

So, apparently I only paid for this housing up until Nov 1, even though I didn't plan on leaving until Nov 7. So....I guess I'm booking a hostel for a couple of days in November. Should be another adventure. No worries though- heading to Dharamsala for 4 days and Pushkar for the Camel Fair(!) for 2 days. My last two weeks should be packed with chaos/fun/adventure.

<3 <3 <3
Erin Didi!

P.S. Just for fun, I've been calling my coworkers by their names at our center. Peter is now Peter Baya and Jess is Jess Didi. It gets annoying, though, even for me. But we practically are like siblings- exchanging friendship bracelets, teaching the kids in turns.

"It's chicken. But it's spicy. But it's chicken!"

Diwali!! Whoo!

girls at the center for Diwali... with white powder on their face to make them "fair" which is the ultimate sign of beauty here (it's disgusting how many lotions you can find with bleach in them..)

Diwali at the center was mass chaos. Somehow, 60 or more people managed to cram into the one room center, the ages ranging from 2 weeks old to over 70 years old. The kids were all dressed up and hyped as hell. All the girls wore these frilly westernized day-glo dresses- which I am assuming were provided by the center because they all had the same dress in different colors. All the boys were dressed in stripes which I thought was pretty bizarre and adorable at the same time. Then they [we] danced, sang hindi songs, had tons of sweets, exchanged gifts. We tied day-glo bracelets ( to match the dresses?) we made onto the kids wrists- Peter even bought the teenagers (orphans) Jenga!! Then....

Chicken! Actually an amazing overfilling meal including dal, rice, fresh cut up vegetables, mattar paneer (peas & cheese), orange soda and chicken! But..the chicken was soooo tikka (spicy) that we all, including most of the staff, starting tearing up and having runny noses. This in a center where tissues and toilet paper do not exist. At one point, Jess had a debate with herself about it. "It's chicken. But it's spicy. But it's chicken!" And, of course, she ate it all. And so did we. We ate

sweets to cool our mouths, the kind I liked to call "curdled cheesecake sweet" because of it's taste.

The morning of the celebration, Priya, the house "mom" helped me put on my brand new bright green

Saree. I felt very regal in it and it was actually quite comfortable, although the petticoat, which is

a skirt underneath was tied extremely tight and left a mark. It wasn't too hard to walk in, either, but

I had to use both hands to hold it up when walking up stairs, out of rickshaws, or over mud puddles.

But it survived, and so did I.

The very next night (Saturday) we celebrated Diwali at home. There were 15 volunteers or so, all dressed up for

the occasion, in Sarees, Salwar, Kurta Pajamas. We decorated the house- including creating this amazing mandala

in the atrium on the floor and filling it with colored powder(like the kind in my blog header,

marigold flowers, and candles. Then, we had puja, prayer and we all got red dots on our forehead and

red strings tied on our wrists. Then we sat on the porch as the whole city lit up with fireworks- or "bombs" as they call

them (!). We watched as they prepared chicken biryana in a huge metal tub, which took over 2 hours to prepare,

making our dinner time around 10:15 or 10:30. Then, the fireworks chaos commenced. afterall, the family had

bought over 3 bags worth! They were so loud and pollutant, that wouldnt not jump out of your own skin and you

could barely see across the road. We also had some drinks. It was great to speak to all the volunteers

new & old. New volunteers come every 2 weeks!

in saree, with henna & bindi

making the mandala

other volunteers and i at diwali

I've been practicing henna on myself and some other volunteers. I love it and I'm buying tons to take home.

Making plans to go to Dharmasala (where the Dalai Lama lives!) next weekend. It's going to be cold. Can't wait!

Nam.

Erin

"Erin, why don't you have long, straight hair?"

Tomorrow is Diwali! (Deevahlee)

In preparation, I have bought a saree- which, in retrospect, I feel was overpriced since it has been systematically falling apart behind my back ever since i took it out of the package. But anyway. Its bright green and fades to teal on the edges....(teal!) Also, a member of the staff, who shows up about 60% of the time and who I will now and from now on refer to as "Grandma Didi", drew a henna design on my left palm in marker and I went over it with actual henna. It's super easy and I've decided I'm going to do it from now on for random special occasions at home in the States for the hell of it.. Dalia & Mr. Tapan gave us all presents- 1. a Spider Man (?) coffee mug with Nav Jagriti Collective India stuck on it with that tape that imprints letters and 2. necklaces made of seashells (which are apparently completely random and not symbolic of anything, but cool anyway). Anyway tomorrow (Fri, 16th) is meant to be no work and all play- a day of celebration and......

WE'RE GETTING CHICKEN!!! A note about chicken. Almost every volunteer here is non-vegetarian, and we talk about chicken like kids talk about candy. We never get it- except for the maybe once a week we all go out and eat tons of it. We binge on chicken so that enough we can store enough protein=energy for the rest of the week. We talk about having chicken all the damn time and every once in awhile, someone brings up steak...which is a horrible thing to bring up, considering it is forbidden in India and we wont be seeing the likes of it for awhile.

THEN, Rajiv & his wife are preparing-get this- MORE chicken for Saturday, and a general celebration complete with fancy clothes, lights/decorations and firecrackers. Yay for holidays! It's got me pumped to come back to America just in time for one of the greatest holidays known to man(and woman)kind- THANKSGIVING.

OH, and just in case you were wondering, I have not gotten "New Delhi Belly" {knock on internet cafe desk wood} in the more than one month I've been in India. Although, earlier this week, for about 2 days I had mild to moderate stomach pains whenever I moved- but I remain as one of the only volunteers who has not suffered the dreaded D word {knock on ten million woods}.

Happy Diwali!
Erin Didi

p.s. I have grown particularly close to Jess, who works with me at Nav Jagriti- shes a kick-ass 19 year old from Melbourne Australia: thank god for someone I can hug on a regular basis- it's something I've really needed.

Rabbis in Pajamas

Evelyn, Ezekiel and I on the Beema

In front

The Only Synagogue in Delhi
I looked it up in a Delhi info brochure and there it was! The only synagogue in all of Delhi- Judah Hyam synagogue:

(http://jewishdelhi.org/) From the website: There are only about 10 Jewish families who are long-term residents of the area, composing about 40 people in total. In addition, Judah Hyam Synagogue is the primary place of worship in New Delhi for many Jewish diplomats, businesspeople, artisans and others from around the world who are posted in India's capital city. Erev Shabbat services are held Fridays at 7 pm during the summer and 6:30 pm during the winter. Services are also held on the High Holy Days, Purim, Pesach , Shavouth and Chanukah. There are usually no Shabbat morning service for lack of a minyan.

I called and Ezekiel Isaac Malekar answered. He said to come by anytime and he would show me around. His accent sounded so so Indian so I didn't know what to expect. Of course no rickshaw driver knew where the hell it was (alarukus, I guess), but me and two other volunteers eventually found one driver who found it in no time. The gate was locked so I gave him a call- and he answered saying he just woke up and if we could please wait 5 or 10 minutes, but then came running out in his pajamas. A very short very Jewish white man, he was born in Jerusalem and is the all-in-one: rabbi, director, secretary. He came to India to work as an attorny and now runs the small synagogue. He insisted we all stand on the beema for photos and showed us the three Torahs. Other than it being non-AC and small, nothing about the imagery,decorations, or siddurs were Indian inspired. It reminded me a lot of a small synagogue in Tsafat, Israel. They have 125 chairs for the 125 2-days-a-year jews who show up on the 2 high holidays- but usually have a shabbat service consisting of less than 40. Anyway, he gave us each a blessing while holding his hand on our heads and told us about all the interfaith (American jewish men and hindu women) weddings he's conducted lately. I'm defintely going to return for a Friday night service before heading home. The whole time I was there I was just thinking about how proud Grandma Givarz would be of me for seeking the temple out. Hopefully you are reading this entry right now! :)

By the way, 2 days after writing the entry about Jitender and his sudden dissapearance, he returned to the center. Turns out he just went for a visit to see his family in Varanasi and is back for good. Thank god!

Shalom/Namaste/Salaam (Arabic, as I visited several mosques today)
Erin

hadti deecow! hadti deecow! & challo

all 27 of us at the zoo

25 cent ice cream for everyone

zoo

this had to be one of the top 3 days of my entire life. Jess, Peter & I spent Rs 1000 each (20 dollars) to pay for transportation, admission, lunch and refreshments for 14 slum children, 4 orphans (10-17yrs old) and 9 staff (including ourselves) to go the zoo. We piled all 27 of us into 2 SUV-sized vehicles bursting with sheer excitement and pure indian chaos. Honestly, it was the actual zoo that was the blandest flavor of the day- rather, the children dressed in their best clothes (no tears or rips or dirt to be seen), and spent the day running at full speed, jumping, laughing, fighting to hold your hand/take pictures with your camera/be in the pictures/ get on your back/get on your shoulders or have you spell D-U-C-K, duck! I claimed my two little boys- my partners in crime, Gajanand, an extremely intelligent boy who so understands the language barrier that he feels it is neccessary to mime everything he needs to communicate with me (the other children will go a full 3 or 4 minutes speaking to you in Hindi with no concept of us not being able to understand one word). And Fardeen, an extremely affection young boy who found it neccessary for me to watch in astonishment his ability to chug his entire glass of sprite at once. The best moment of the entire day had to be when my two little partners and I shouted, at full volume, "HADTI DEECOW! HADTI DEECOW!" (SHOW ME ELEPHANT!) and ran to the elephant exhibit, stopped, and all sighed in unison: "aaaah.....haaaadti.." Later we shouted anything we could think of with Deecow following it. Peter Deecow! Panee Deecow! (water) Kana Deecow! (food).

It was a picture perfect day and the word of the day was Challo! (Let's Go!)

Good Eyes

Jitender:

One of the orphans, Jitender, was always busy studying in the back of the center. He wasn't bothered by the loud school children or the silly dance moves in the afternoon. But about 1 and a half weeks ago, we stopped seeing him altogether. I had just figured he had been studying late at school or something. Today I asked Yogen where he had gone, though, and he said that all he knew was that Jitender had mentioned to the other boys that he had gone to meet with his father and that they hadn't seen him since that day. Yogen said it was a very undesirable situation. Apparently, 3 or 4 orphans before him have departed for various reasons.

Salim:

Salim is amazing. He is one of the orphans and is 16 years old, very caring, generous and incredibly smart. Everyday he asks me 2 or 3 times through out the day: "You are feeling?" to which I usually reply "happy" or "hungry" or "tired. and you?" to which he usually replies "Iamfine thanks" or "Hungry. 10 minutes, food." Our days seem to revolve around lunchtime.

Nayan:

On Tuesday the 6th, Laxmi and Karan (the young couple who works at the center) brought in their newborn baby boy. He is incredibly precious and incredibly chota (small). They all dressed up and had identical marks on their forehead. I held the baby right away. Also held that day as the baby naming "ceremony" It is an Indian tradition to name the baby a couple days, weeks, months even years after it is born. Everyone associated with the center attended and cooked an amazing meal including Dal & Rice, spicy hard-boiled eggs, fresh vegetables and apples and potatoes. Then, everyone EXCEPT the parents discussed the name of the child. They wanted to start it with Na, to commemorate the center's name: The Nav Jagriti Collective. They settled on Nayan which means "Good Eyes" which I think is beautiful. Now Laxmi and Karan are back to work for good, which means baby Nayan lies in a blanket in the corner of the back of the center and is attended to when he cries. I try to spend time with him every hour or so.

Baby boy Nayan with the special marks for his naming ceremony

Nayan's chota(small) hand and Guddu's bara (big) hand

Dad(Karan, 24), Mom(Laxmi, 19) and Baby.

Me & the baby!

Finally, i wanted to post a typical day's schedule for me, which is actually decently relaxed:

• 820am: wake up
• 830am: eat breakfast with volunteers
• 1000am: discuss/plan daycare activities for the day with Jess and Peter
• 1030am-330pm: work
• 330-8pm: free time which usually includes writing, reading, internet cafe, shopping, TV time(Friends comes on at 7), talking with other volunteers, planning weekend trips
• 800pm: dinner with volunteers unless we plan to go out ourselves for a non-vegetarian meal
• 900pm: free time- usually spent going out for milkshakes or drinks or socializing
• 1030-12pm: reading/journaling, bedtime

Namaste!

E

Varanasi: It seems that finding yourself is really all about losing yourself many times over.

Back from Varanasi, from the beginning:

The train ride- Sleeper Class Non-AC, was amazing (on the way to Varanasi)!! & it was what I was most fretting about. I had a middle bunk & everytime I woke up we were in a different place- I had about 1/3 of the window and the breeze felt amazing. I couldn't wait to get back on.

The first day, we met Boris, from Belgium. He was over 6'3" and a great person to befriend. He already knew a lot about the city- including where to eat, where to go at night- he also drank the local water. Hardcore.

We spent pretty much the entire trip sitting on the "Ghats" by the Ganges river, just people watching (while people watched us). The 1st day we went to a Hindu ceremony the first night and afterwards, several poor families lines up on the stairs with plates out, begging for food. Boris bought Rs 100 worth of rice and passed it out. We found Baba, a priest, who blessed us with a blood red dot on our forehead and tied red bracelets around our wrists.

The 2nd day, we awoke at 455 for a morning sunrise boat ride on the Ganges. We went to three temples, one named "The Monkey Temple" where we bought Rs 20 worth of random sweets- including a bright orange ball that tasted like donut holes. We came back for a 4 hr siesta and headed back to the ghats. We had lunch at "Spicy Bites", that unfortuentely had run out of falafel and Hummus, it's Israeli specialty. Jess and I headed out to watercolor but by the time we reached a spot, the sun was going down fast. I came up with a somewhat decent boat painting but not before several young girls selling postcards came wishing to draw as well. It was really nice to spend time with the local children, as we were already missing our center.We taught each other hindi/English songs and of course, did the Hokey Pokey 3 times. Then, I got my fortune read, which wasn't fortunate at all.

So, I will be getting married in 2013. I will have 2 boys and 1 girl. I will die very happy, but of a HEART ATTACK at age 55 or 56! I guess we'll see.

On the last day, Jess, Boris and I boarded a boat for the other side of the river. Then.....shhh...we actually got IN the Ganges. It was disgustingly incredible. Yes...I DID read that article in the Lonely Planet describing the lethal toxicity of the river... But I've done crazier things. Plus, what doesn't kill you just makes your stronger, right? Then, we grabbed some pancakes (!) and scrambled eggs (!).

After showering back at the hotel, this seriously mental cycle rickshaw driver took us to literally the furthest ghat away from the one we asked for and we split, walking the river's edge in the worst heat of the day. I trekked the ghats about 45 minutes before hitting an area that you couldn't pass without going through an alley- which, of course, i got way lost within. I found a lot of photogenic goats, children, temples, walls, alleys, monkeys and even radio stations and dubbed Varanasi, India the most photogenic place I ever been in my life. Seriously. I ook over200 digital photos and went through 4 rolls of film. Eventually, i found my way. I quite enjoyed losing myself, although Jess's earphones wouldn't stay in my ears, so I couldn't drown out the following phrases being shouted my way:

"Hallo!" "Shalom, Madam!" "hola!" Want to see my shop?" "Want Hash, miss? Lsd?" "Where you stay" "Where you go" "need a boat, miss?" & so on.

I got lost again, but I got really lost. The signs went from English to Hindi to Arabic. I saw a beautiful mosque and a couple young boys let me take a picture of them. Eevntually, after asking 4 or 5 times, i made my way back and met up with Jess and Boris near the main ghat, but not after meeting an Indian poet who let me read his English poem in progress. We saw the postcard selling girls again and did the Hokey Pokey, but when we got to "You put your head in.." the Varanasi police approached and the girls froze, went pale, ad backed up. The police started shouting in Hindi and two of the girls fled. Muni, the one remaining was being interrogated and the police man smacked her on the back of the head. She grabbed her bag and he smacked her on the back of her head as she ran away crying- leaving her shoes behind. What's the problem? we asked the men, but they just stared at us and turned away. Then, after Boris asked again, one muttered something about stolen cameras. All of our stuff was intact. I miss my postcard friends.

Back in Delhi and the air is cooler. The train ride back was not so peaceful. We are paying to take al the children and staff to the Zoo on Thursday- it should be an adventure.

Namaste
e

Halfway

I'm about halfway through my journey and I wanted to say how grateful I am to everyone who has read my blog, sent emails, sent texts, fb messages, sent packages! It's amazing how I can be on the other side of the world and still manage to feel so incredibly loved and cared for. Thank You. Shukriya.

So, I'm going to go ahead and say I have a favorite child, Alisha. Alisha didn't come for a week and a half- until TODAY!! And actually, today work was soooo wonderful for that reason and others. We introduced a "feelings" lesson and I really loved it. We acted out the emotions and then all the children had to come up and say "I Feel [and point to/say an emotion]" It came out more like "Ayeah feela sud" when they actually didn't feel sad, they just wanted to act out having a temper tantrum. I'll pretend it was therapeutic for all of them. We also traced all the children's hands "hahd" in black marker and then I constructed a tree and used all the brightly decorated hands- some decorated with Henna designs by the older girls, to make a hand tree. Alisha followed me around all afternoon. We played "circle round the garden" and patty cake together. She's probably about 3.

After work, I went to get my salwar (the long shirt I am wearing in the picture) and a dress tailored- all for $2.00- 80 rupees.

Heading to Varanasi

Namaste,

Erin Lee