India.

So I figured I should finally make some time to sit down and update the past ten days of my life in India.

First and foremost, the weather has been surprisingly bearable.  The past week it has been around 110-220 degrees.  Although its really hot, once you accept that you are going to be extremely sweaty doing ANYTHING, it becomes ok.  There was a big dust storm last night, so it should be about 100 for the next few days, which feels amazing.  People wear bright colors and long clothes to fight the heat, and constantly laugh at us for coming at the absolute hottest time of the year.  I shower about 4 times a day (normally I don't even shower 4 times a week) and drink a ton.  

Unfortunately, India doesn't have clean drinking water.  Everything we drink ( and eat) is either packaged or from a very very reliable (and often expensive) source.  I haven't gotten sick yet (out of my group of 16 at least 10 people have been totally sick), but it's common to have a constant small stomach ache, especially after eating, but you get used to it.  The food is delicious though.  Almost everything we eat is vegetarian and I love it.  Everybody drinks tea, and if you stop for about 10 minutes to talk to someone, the always serve you a cup of tea. 

I've come to realize how much I took living in a developed country for granted.  Our water constantly isn't working and we sometimes lose power during peak hours of the day (or during the dust storm).  Sit down toilets are always a welcomed surpris and toilet paper is a luxury.  Air conditioning is veryy hard to come by.  The fact that I assumed internet would be readily available still really makes me laugh.  People here are forced to drink contaminated water to live; while back home our showers, dishes, and toilets are filled with cold, delicious water.  Even here we are extremely lucky and viewed as upper class (which I hate).  There are sooo many people who just live and sleep in the streets, streets littered with garbage and sewage.  And these are good, friendly people (most of the time).  In my opinion I feel our society automatically assumes homeless people did something wrong and deserve to be homeless.  But here there just isn't enough space or housing and/or class and caste prevent social mobility.  

The biggest lesson I've learned is to learn as many languages as possible.  I've been trying extremely hard to learn as much hindi as possible but there have been so many times when I just hang my head and apologize in hindi for not understanding.  Members in my group complain when people don't know english (especially the lower lower class like rickshaw drivers), which pisses me off because we're in their country and expect them to speak our language. One girl in our group speaks Hindi and sometimes tells us what people say about us.  Things like, 'here are the americans taking pictures of broken iron houses' or when the laugh at the girls for being afraid of beggars.  I try really hard to break these stereotypes.  A few of us have been going for walks in the morning (we're always awake by 6) and just walking around the village saying hi to people.  I do my best to make small conversation (or at least smile and wave) with everybody, which goes a long way.  Sometimes they laugh at my broken hindi, but I can tell they appreciate the effort.  Mostly the rude beggars are little kids or deformed adults, and then you have to be cold and just ignore them (for your own safety). 

I know I was raised to be polite to everybody, but I don't understand why members in our group would come to a country and expect to be catered to.  They complain about the heat, the water, not being able to wear shorts or tank tops, people staring, how crowded the streets are, the smell, pretty much anything and everything.  I get so frustrated when they look down on people and treat them like shit.  One time we were in a rickshaw and our driver tried really hard to make conversation (he asked us if we were americans) and two of the girls just laughed at his broken english and turned away (he did smell).  It was so fucking rude.  I proceeded to lean forward and talk to him the rest of the drive about his family, India, and the elections.  I'm constantly trying to assimilate to the culture (eating all the food, not hiding in our room, haggling for everything) compared to staying on that surface level of a tourist.

But overall I'm still really excited to be here.  The first week we stayed in a fancy (fancy for India) hotel and did a ton of site seeing.  I've become very good at haggling and grown use to being a minority.  We saw a ton of temples and monuments (I've learned a lot about religion), where ghandi was assassinated, gardens, the US embassy and even a few bars/nightclubs.  Last Friday we relocated over to the HOPE project, which is in a slum like area, especially compared to the area of our last hotel.  But there is definitely a sense of community here.  Most people are muslim here (compared to Hindu like the rest of the city) and are friendly with each other and us.  This week I've been working in the nursery with 1-3 year olds.  I'm normally pretty good with kids but it has been surprisingly hard.  They talk to us like we know hindi, and half the time when we yell at them its in english so they don't even know what we're saying.  There are so many kids in a such a small room, but they all listen really well, and help each other when told to.  Its also hard because half the time I want to let the kids climb on me, or give them hugs, but apparently in this culture that's not allowed.  They constantly ask for water (paanee in Hindi) and I have to tell them no, which is hard because I drink like 10 water bottles a day.  Next week I'm going around with the mobile health unit to different neighborhoods, which should be a complete opposite, but worthwhile experience.  

I've been a bit homesick lately.  I miss hanging out with my family and friends, and its hard to think that it will be quite a while before I see them.  Right now I miss Taco Bell, Dr. Pepper, and slushees the most.  I miss playing music and eating pizza.

I planned on writing more in this, but currently I'm in a coffee shop with broken AC and sweating terribly.  I'll do my best to update this again soon.

Lastly, if you care enough to read this, take a moment to talk to somebody on the bus or in a restaurant next time you get a chance.  Enjoy the fact that you can communicate with them, and just ask them how their day is going.  let me know how it goes.