6/25/08

off to khopoli...

i can't believe we have been here over 3 weeks already! the team is heading out to khopoli tomorrow afternoon where we will be living at the orphanage for the following two weeks. i don't know if i will have internet access there, so i might not be able to contact anyone, unless you are one of the lucky few i like enough to send a text message to. just kidding.

our team has really gotten attatched to the house and community we are living at in mumbai. at first, it was rather difficult at times because the indian people are very impersonal. it is hard to establish relationships with people who, initially, seemed like they didn't really want to talk to us. now we are really starting to form friendships with a few of the younger people and we taught them some card games and it was like we were old friends. it was a really nice change. also, we have become pretty good friends with a couple of the pastors. they are beginning to get our humor and joke around with us a lot. one of the woman pastors even does a dead-on impression of reverand wankhede.
the same thing has been going on in the slums. the children were hesitant towards us at first and it was hard to get even a smile out of some of them. now they are very comfortable around us and even let us hold them sometimes.
the church is really running low on funding over there. at one time they had a hot meal to serve the children at the school each day, and there would be a program to give pregnant woman vitamins and a meal everyday as well. there is no money there now for these things, and they are essential. it would cost only $400 a month to get the meal program back on. also, most of the kids come to school wearing the same tattered clothing everyday, some with no underwear on...and this is one of the "better" slums in mumbai.
i don't know if i mentioned earlier that there is very much still a caste system here in india. the people living in the slums (which is half of mumbai...9 million people) are known as the "dilits" and are politically and socially oppressed. a lot of times they are considered unclean because they are the people that handle dead cows and trash, etc. it is just astonishing that this is still going on. but my team and i have discussed it and we feel the most comfortable in the slums. the people are the most friendly there and we have never had anyone beg us for money (We go downtown or to the mall and children will literally hit us and tug/open our purses).

it's just a really hard situation to see and experience. if it's hard for us, imagine what it is like for the people living in it.


on a lighter note...

funny story- reverand wankhede's wife, ujwalla (We call her "auntie"..that's what they call older women here) had her birthday a couple of weeks ago. she was showing allie and i her ring that she got. her ring was placed on her middle finger, and apparently flipping the bird here means nothing, because she was holding up only her middle finger to show off this ring. it was all we could do to not burst out in laughter as she was parading her middle finger around saying "see? isn't this nice? very expensive ring. nice ring". haha.

ok. here are pictures from our ESL classes that we have been doing:



view from our classroom








HENNA!

6/21/08

hot train-y mess

today, the team and i ventured out to colaba to do some shopping. colaba causeway is a huge market in downtown mumbai where you can purchase everything that is indian and awesome..and a little ridiculous at times. we went the first week while we were here but we decided to go again. last time, though, reverand wankhede's wife drove us. she couldn't drive us today so we opted to make use of mumbai's finest mode of public transit..the train.

if you are ever in mumbai, you need to take the train at least once for the experience. i've taken trains/subways in LA and boston, and they were pretty ghetto at times, but at least you got a seat and could breathe. mumbai is a city of almost 20 million people and a lot of those people rely on these trains for their daily transportation. needless to say, the train station was was packed.

we purchased our trickets at the booth for a mere 8 rupees each (about 23 cents). after waiting about 30 minutes for the train (there was a delay because of a shooting at the mall the day before..the sichs against some other religion...we were at that mall hours before it happened and saw the sich man the other religion people were mad about. he had an enterauge of men around him carrying guns. one man was killed. don't worry mom, we're ok!), i saw that there was a mad rush at the platform: the train was coming and i was in the line of fire. mara, phil, and whitney somehow quickly managed to get inside the train while allie and i were not so fortunate. people literally hang on the outside of these trains (there are no doors) because of how crowded it was. i was right outside the door when the train started moving. i started to panic a little and back away. allie screamed at me to get on and i jumped on while the train was moving. luckily, the men were very nice (and laughed a little bit at us because we were obviously scared) and let us squeeze through to come inside. it did not smell good in there, but after about twenty minutes we got to sit down. the people on the train were very nice and helpful. as i sat there on the train, though, it just occured to me how many people in this world there really are, and how many people i will never get to know. it was a strange thought to look around and wonder about their stories: the woman with the crying baby; the man carrying a really large book in marathi; the guy across from me that kept falling asleep...there are just so many people!


(this guy was hanging on the outside of the train while it was moving)

when we finally arrived at colabo, it was the madness we expected. calabo is a very long street with little stands set up covering every inch. it gets a little overwhelming when the vendors are shouting prices at you and telling you they will "make you very good deal" on their jewelry/purses/etc. at first i am always nice and say "no thank you" but after a while, i had to start ignoring them or shaking my head "no" and walk away quickly. i've become quite good at haggling, but sometimes the vendors can be stubborn. i literally got bombarded about 20 times with different men selling these stupid drums. it was RIDICULOUS. they would come by and bang them in your ear and say "you like drum? very good price, 200 rupees just for you". after i tell him i don't want one, without missing a beat (ha), another man with the drums comes up and tells/asks me the same thing. maybe he thought his drums had tighter leather or a better twang than the previous man's drums, and he had to let me see his...i mean i could have changed my mind in that two second time span.

anyways, i am still loving india and its craziness. i'm having a great time and i can't wait to go live at the orphanage for two weeks. we are also planning on visiting a home the church helps that is for child prostitutes trying to get out of the red light districts that are all over mumbai. the average age of the girls there is 7 years old. that will definetely be an experience...pray for us!

6/17/08

I'll have the rice with a side of rice...and rice pudding for dessert.

The India team has been in Mumbai for about 17 days now, and we just can't handle anymore rice. The Indians eat rice at every meal; typically with some kind of super spicy curry to mix in with it. I really enjoyed this the first week. We live with an amazing cook. Seriously, Auntie is the lady in town that everyone knows makes the best food and loves to come over to eat; it's just our poor stomachs cannot stomach anymore spice. or rice. the past week i have been eating rice and soy sauce....rice and soy sauce..rice and soy sauce. after that got old, we decided it would be best for us to venture out to a great american establishment right here in mumbai:


ruby tuesday's.

seriously, i don't think anyone can understand just how wonderful this was for us. we walked in and sat at our booth with wide eyes and smiles as we awaited our salads. of course, i had to document this monumental event, as it was probably the best thing the india team has done for ourselves while here. it was a real morale booster.
come to find out, it was tuesday night and that meant prayer meeting night. in india, when one has people over, it is custom to feed them a full meal. even though we had already eaten, we were no exception to this custom. while we're usually pretty good about eating most of our food, we were all just too full and too burnt out on the indian food. we all found creative ways of hiding it on our plate: i hid some rice under my poodhi and when others werent looking i scooped some curry onto their plates. allie and mara would hide some of theirs under and inbetween the little bowls we had. when it came down to it, we just couldn't eat it all. we felt bad, but i think they understood...at least i hope so.
here's phil being "so over the rice and curry" :
in other news, we are teaching an english class in the slums everyday for all this week and all of next week. reverand wankhede took us to this slum last week to show us around. the living conditions were like nothing i have ever seen before. when we first drove through the enterance, we could hardly breathe because of the smell. trash is all over at the front because most of the people living there collect and recycle trash as their main source of income. the smell gets less prominant as we keep driving. we parked sort of near the front and we got out to walk to the school. reverand wankhede told us to watch our feet because urine and feces flows through the streets (i wouldn't call them that- they are about one to two yards wide and are dirt) because there is no plumbing or running water. there are naked kids playing in filth and trash everywhere, along with very large rats and dogs that look like they haven't eaten in months. it was definetely hard to see, but we kept straight faces as we walked to the school. we met a family of eight people living in a room about half the size of my dorm room.
i took one picture discreetly out the window of the sewing classroom the church also runs. this is a little bit of a "nicer" part of this particular slum.








we had our first day yesterday (monday) teaching the ESL class. the first day was rough, because the kids were only ages 2-5, and they hardly know marathi-let alone english. we also had some trouble with the teacher because of the language barrier and expectations she had and the ones that we had. allie and i went to the store and bought some supplies and games in order to make it more fun for the kids. it definetely worked! they had so much fun and we taught them colors and shapes with play-doh. so i was a little disgruntled the first day, but now i am really excited for the next two weeks.



after we are done with this class, we are going to be living and working at the orphanage for two weeks. i am really really anticipating this because the kids there are the sweetest children on the face of the earth. i can't wait.



more pictures:







this is from a coffee shop we found and LOVE. they have delicious mango smoothies (everything here is mango).




auntie and jyoti.






the lizard i went to the bathroom with.




i have no idea why anyone would ever want to own a parrot.

6/13/08

nausea, heartburn, indegestion...upset stomach, diarrhia.

i've spent my day and all last night laying in bed in agony over the fact that i have had it coming out both ends. yes, i've gotten the dreaded "travellers sickness" 12 days after being here. i'm not sure of the cause; it could be not always brushing my teeth with bottled water, the delicious mangoes auntie feeds us that are in season here in india now, or maybe the chocolate bar allie and i bought that, unbeknownst to us, expired in february of 2007.
no matter the cause i knew one thing: i was miserable. let me tell you one thing that is unpleasant- being sick with a stomach virus in a foreign country like india. there is no air conditioning (although the fans here are heavy duty and really help- they aren't kidding around with fans here in india..but they do not get rid of the humidity). i am also sharing a room with two other girls. that is another adjustment that only gets worse when sick. also, to tell the truth, i have never been sick with a stomach virus outside of the comfort of my own home with my mom tending to my every need. more 7-up? more ice cold water? a new barf bucket? mom got it.
my mind began to wander and i imagined what it would be like if i were at home. i would be in my nice, comfortable, soft bed (there is no such thing as a soft bed in india. the matresses are as thick as my pinky finger- it keeps the beds cooler). i would be flipping through the 700 some-odd channels on my television in my room with the air conditioning blowing, and maybe even my laptop on checking facebook every five minutes. and, of course, mom coming in to check on my condition the whole time.
then i realized that even if i were at home, i would still be miserable. along with the air conditioning, soft bed, and other luxuries, i would still have a barf bucket right next to my bed. these things would not make me feel any better. so, i told my mind to stop it, and i drifted off to sleep thanking the good lord that the wankhede's have indoor plumbling and a toilet that flushes.

i woke up some hours later to my team members giving me 7-up, crackers, and pepto bismol that they purchased at the store. i felt a lot better.

6/10/08

the rules of the road: indian style


1. Our system is that we have no system

2. painted lines on the road really serve no purpose. if the 2 lane highway is not suitable for you to make it where you need to be on time, go on ahead and make it a 4 lane highway. actually, 6 and a half lanes might be even better. it'll save time.


3. there are no street signs, so i hope you know where you're going!


4. using your horn is highly encouraged. if you can't remember, don't worry- there are reminders on the back of every "goods carrier" truck.


5. using your headlights at night is not neccessary; turn them on at will.


6. if you need to make a turn two inches before a bus/car/rickshaw/cow is coming head-on, go ahead. they will stop for you (abruptly, but they will).


7. if you really have to urinate, don't wait to stop at the nearest gas station! you can just pull over on the side of the road and do your business. (please face away from the cars- we don't want to be rude).


8. the road is not just for cars. if you are a pedestrian or a cow and you need to take the highway along with the vehicles as a better route to your destination, you are welcome to. the same rule applies to all stray dogs and goats.


9. speaking of goats, if you have a herd of goats you need to take to be slaughtered or somewhere else important, the highway is there for your use as well.





10. most cars don't have seatbelts. hold on!

6/7/08

finally some pictures

here are some homes and those buildings are apartment buildings. they are everywhere. like i said, the city is very dirty and smoggy.



some cute kdis across the street. they love cameras.


what an average street looks like:


this is komala, the little girl i wrote about at the orphanage.

the sweet kids at the orphanage!


aren't they so cute?! the little boy in the pink got adopted and is moving to colorado in october.


that would be phil walking amogst the cows that are all over the place. haha.


we went to the gateway to india. there were ilke 5 families taht asked to take pictures OF US! ha! they even asked phil to hold their baby in the picture. don't worry, i caught the moment on camera.


the "paparazzi"


taj mahal hotel.



TEAM INDIA!!!! allie, phil, me, whitney (and the indian ocean)



today allie and i ventured out and rode our first auto rickshaw. they are basically ATV's with shields on them. ha. it was exciting and we felt very independent. walking aruond india as a white person is very..interesting. we felt like britney spears as we are always stared and pointed at, and sometimes people take out their camera phones to try and discreetly take photos of us. now i know why britney went crazy. pray i don't come home bald, or sporting a pink wig.

6/4/08

first days in mumbai

mumbai is probably the dirtiest place i have ever seen. there is trash strewn about everywhere and the smell of smog is prominant, among other whiffs of unpleasant grossness. think of LA times 375839532.
i love it here, though. rev. wankhede has graciously opened his home to us and i couldnt be more thankful for a cold shower! it's very hot and humid here. the rain is starting soon, though. apparently it will cool off a bit, but i'm sure that will equal mroe humidity.

we have gotten to see a lot of things just walking around i could tell you about, but i don't have a lot of time.

today we visited the orphanage run by the nazarene church of a district here in india. it was an amazing experience i'll never forget . there were about 16 kids there, ages four to ten i think. they were all very small, though. i have never seen more well bahaved, sweet children in my life. they spent hours a day praying on their own, woke up at 5am for devotions, and had memorized (in marahti) every book in the bible, tons of psalms, etc. it was incredible. they were SO SO CUTE! they taught us their songs that they knew in english as well as some marahti songs. they all just embraced us with kisses the whole time. when they prayed, they really prayed. the littlest one was a girl about four, prana (i think). she led many prayers and was very articulate.
my favorite story is komala. she hung aruond me the most and kissed me constantly, and always wanted me to hold her. i later found out from rev omega that her father was an alcoholic, and would occasionally come to try and get her. komala would pack all of her bags, come downstairs, get to the gate and would go no further. she would wave "bye bye" to her dad, to show him the disappointment that he had shown her his whole life. she would walk back in with her suitcase, to show that this is her home now, and her home is not with him anymore. keep in mind this girl is no older than six.

i wish i could say more but others want to get online. i will hopefully have pictures asap! i have some really cute videos of their songs as well.

6/1/08

it's about that time

**EDIT
phhil's USB chord works with mine...so thanks to a four hour layover in newark i can put pictures on here!

all the lame campers..me included.


new mexico!


my team


our past-time in the airports..and in general


okay..how cool is a rupee?! seriously.



i've got the largest suitcase that i could find packed full of charmin travel rolls and clothes i probably won't even wear. it's time to go to india!

the past five days or so, i have been in new mexico to meet my team and to train for our trip. i was super pumped to meet my team, not so super pumped for training camp. i didn't think five days were neccessary and the outdoors in the summertime just isn't my idea of fun. and don't even get me started on stupid "getting to know you" games. but i was surprised and had a really great time! my team (me, allie, phil, whitney) is AMAZING. i couldn't have asked for better. we bonded instantly with literally no awkwardness. besides being incredibly good looking, we were probably the funniest people there. ;) i have pictures, but i need to buy a new USB chord because i lost mine (let me remind you i purchased said camera last week). but they will be up soon enough.

anyways, new mexico was beautiful and perfect weather. i like it when the tempurature feels like the inside of an air conditioned building with the windows open to let in a breeze, and that's what it was. haha. after hearing lecture upon lecture on keeping my body well hydrated in altitude, we went the second day and "hiked" a little ways up to the ropes course. of course, i had only drank like one cup of water that day, but i always assume i know myself and body better than anyone else...and that i'm always right. i realized the error of my ways when i got up there and almost puked on someone. then i was informed that myself and a few others were the only ones that could lead this particular ropes course, and that the others in the group couldn't talk. awesome...i then drank bottle after bottle of water from then on. lesson learned.


i also woke up EACH night around 3:30am with an incredibly stuffy nose. all day i would be fine, and all night before and after it would be normal. it was the strangest thing. so, here i am waking up and probably annoying all the other ten girls in my cabin with my incessant sniffling. of course i don't want to get up because i'm exhausted, so i try to tough it out. i'm aware that it's inevetable that i'm going to have to get up and blow my nose, but for some reason i still wait and sniff...and sniff...and sniff. have you ever tried to quietly sniff when you are so miserable, and you know that just one blow of the nose could solve all your problems? it sucks. so after about ten minutes of this sniffling, each night mind you, i wake up and as quietly as i can walk to the bathroom to blow my nose. and i don't even have to mention that i run into every suitcase on the way, and that the bathroom door creeks and the inside echos. blowing your nose quietly is almost as excruciating as sniffling quietly. when i'm done, i go back to bed and am fine. odd.

okay, i have a bajillion hour flight ahead of me and i can't sleep on planes. so goodnight.