life, pictures, etc.

sorry I failed on appropriate captions as usual, hope the last post was decipherable.. anyway, that was all that uploaded over about 45 min in the internet cafe, so I'm trying more on another volunteer's computer here at the clinic. and now I will be a champion and actually caption correctly!

hardcore gardener didi cutting up the vines in the medicine making area
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burning trash from the well across the street
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with Mary at the ghats
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holy man
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...
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temple in Ujjain
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front of Sambhavna clinic
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selling powders in Ujjain
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tribal hut replica at Museum of Man
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tribal art (marionettes) at Museum of Man
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underwear for sale in the bazaar right outside the mosque (Bhopal)
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adorable child (nephew? of one of the gardeners)
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my mehendi#d palms, courtesy of Nirupa
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outside Lalita (medicine maker)'s house
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Japanese dinner my forst night
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late afternoon Taj
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monkey at Agra Fort
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Taj reflection
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love this Gandhi quote (at the memorial)

so let's see, this week I'm developing of a bit of my own schedule for working on a few projects rather than just putting myself at the whim of the gardeners (I thought I was proving myself with all the vine clearing, but now they're either trying to break me or think I'm really hardcore b/c this morning I got stuck breaking ground to dig up ginger, actually the hardest manuallabor I've ever done). Still planning on spending some of the morning in the garden, but then I'm also putting together an exhibition sort of display on the 25 year anniversary of the disaster, and scanning/classifying all the print periodical records from the library.

We had an unexpected two-day weekend (usually just Sundays are off) because of a big Shiva festival, so after having a pretty relaxing Sunday with a visit to the Museum of Man, four of us went to Ujjain, which I guess is like a pilgrimmage center for Shiva, yesterday. It was four hours there and back on the slowest passenger train ever, but once there we really got to see the festival in action. It was HOT walking around in the sun all day so we pretty much just went to one big temple and the ghats on the river, but a lot of the streets were closed off and there were people everywhere and more than the usual vendors, etc. There was a huge line outside the temple of people waiting to get into a kind of underground part but we skipped that and wandered around the whole temple.. people everywhere making puja and socializing and buying offerings and things to give to the gods and friends (some girls gave me little sugar balls that were nice instant energy). At the ghats everyone was washing bodies and clothes and posing for family pictures and shaving babies' heads.. saw an elephant, moral weirdness w/people giving it bannanas and ignoring the begging kids and lepers.. everyone had orange paint/powder on their foreheads.. holy men in bright orange and red sarongs.. live music outside the temples.. a guy talking to Frank (other volunteer) asked if he could take a picture with me and just did not understand why Frank said he had to ask me..ate lots of deep-fried samosas from the street vendors, best cold bottled water I've ever had.. rode back sitting in the doorway of the train sitting with my feet hanging out until I got dark, when the lights in the carriage didn't come on and I had a great conversation with the old man sitting next to me where he spoke only Hindi and I spoke only English, until the younger guys tried to show off their English with great textbook sentences like "India is a very big country" and "Barack Obama is the best politician"

Back at Sambhavna it seems to be getting hotter every day.. I got completely shown up in the ginger-digging by an old lady in a sari.. my tailor-made Indian outfits have been successfully completed.. the constant sounds continue to amaze me (music at night, 5 times a day prayer calls coming from mosques in different directions, dogs barking, guys selling vegetables, plasticware, fabric).. getting to know the "new" volunteers, Mary from England, "Dash" w/Indian family/lives in England, and Frank the German forester.. really good dinners cooked every night by a woman who comes in with her two adorable sons (did I mention that they taught me a handshake?) and I keep meaning to cook/learn with her..

Walking down the street it's sort of like everything is exactly as you would expect, like all the stereotypes and images that I think of when I hear "India" are right there, from the traffic to the dust to the cows to the random celebrations to the smells and sounds and heat.. but even with all those expectations, actually experiencing it, being right in the middle of it, is constantly so new and overwhelming and amazing

oh and I'm feeling much better now, pretty much spent Friday in bed but I've been up and about since then. And still no tetanus from all the rusty barbed wire I was clipping the vines off/no malaria from my tons of mosquito bites!

Delhi: Humayun's tomb, Gandhi memorial, bazaars/street outside Jama Masjid (mosque)
yes I went to the Taj, clearly looking good is my top priority; camel chillin in Agra

life and death in Bhopal

So after somehow avoiding it for almost 2 weeks, I seem to have come down with "Delhi belly".. or I guess Bhopal belly but anyway luckily it's not too bad, just bad enough to keep me low-energy and mostly in bed all day. But what better time to update what's been going on here at Sambhavna?

I got here on Sunday afternoon, introduced myself to Sathyu (who manages the clinic) and found my way to the girls' dormitory. Met Tomoko, a 57 year old nurse from Japan who doesn't speak much English but was really nice about showing me around a bit, helping w/laundry, etc until the Chihiro (also Japanese) and Nirupa (South Indian family but from Toronto) arrived. It was a little overwhelming at first, as no one directly monitors the volunteers' activities--you sort of have to set your own schedule and figure out the work on your own. But Nirupa and the others were awesome about helping me get settled, and I found a bit of a routine for the work days (the clinic is open from 8:30-2:30, so that's basically the hours most of the volunteers work, too.. when the staff are around and everything).

I've been getting up around 7:30, earlier the first few days when I was woken by the Muslim prayer call that's broadcast from some nearby speaker at dawn; I generally get up, have some breakfast (we supply our own breakfast food), and watch the neighborhood wake up.. the clinic is in the middle of a pretty poor area, kind of this little bubble of a nice brick building w/electricity, plumbing, and a big garden surrounded by really basic apartment-type house (so hard to describe, hopefully I'll get pictures up soon). Then at 8:30 I go down to the clinic and do some yoga, and head over to the gardening/medicine making complex where we have lemongrass and basil tea. This week I've been spending most of my mornings tackling a vine that covers the back fence of the clinic property, cutting it and hauling it back to the medicine making area where we cut it up for patients (I'm still working out what exactly it does, but I think people chew the green part inside of the bark). Lunch is at 12:30, generally in the clinic canteen where they serve rice, roti, curry, and dahl; then back to work at 1. Besides the vine project I've helped the yoga teacher make a poster to teach the community health workers yoga poses for a research study, done some planting in the garden, and helped make little black medicine balls from an herbal compound. My general goal is just to do whatever I can to help out all around the clinic, and get a feel for the sort of care they give just by being here.. I may get involved in some library stuff, computerizing the archives they have on the disaster and working on some sort of timeline display for an exhibition.

The last few days after the clinic closes, we've gone to visit various people's homes and been treated to some amazing experiences and hospitality. One night we went around to a bunch of family's rooms across the street, painted our faces yellow with turmeric in preparation for an upcoming wedding, and ended up dancing on the rooftop with all the kids; another day we took an auto rickshaw past a field full of trash and pigs and cows out to the home of one of the medicine-makers, where she made delicious food for us; yesterday at the home of one of the gardeners, we were kissed and embraced by her 70+ year old mother and watched a three-hour classic Hindi film.

But of course I'm getting to see all these amazing lives because of a clinic that treats survivors of the worst industrial disaster in history, and many who have become ill since then because of still-contaminated land and water. I've spent most of today reading Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, which tells what happened in the years leading up to the disaster and the stories of all the people affected, from the plant workers, to the slum residents, to the medical students who became doctors in one horrific night. It's pretty sobering to read about the suffering at Hamidia Hospital, just down the road, and the thousands of people running for help and stumbling across bodies on Berisia Road, about a five minute walk away. And then today, as we were getting ready to go the wedding of one of the girls who lives across the street, we heard that a baby in the room next door had died. Liver and kidney disease, brain damage.. who knows if she was affected by poisoned water or milk from a mother who inhaled the toxic gas; I'm waiting to hear the details, but it's very sobering and of course tragic news nonetheless.

All in all I just feel incredibly lucky to be here, not only for my relative health and for that of my family and friends, but to have seen so many incredible things so far and to get this chance to see a little bit of these peoples' everyday reality. Not to sound too preachy or corny or anything, but yeah. In other news, I'm making steady progress on eating with my (right) hand, we passed three Hindu wedding processions last night, I'm getting a salwar kameez tailor made for $4, two new volunteers just arrived from England (one with the goal of building a playground, which I could end up helping with), I'm trying to learn some Hindi but mostly refreshing my Japanese, and of course I miss everyone. xoxo

pictures?

Well I had a big plan to upload a ton of Taj pictures, etc but the computer doesn't seem to be reading my camera.. so instead here
are a couple that I got in an email from an Indian family that asked to take pictures, then chatted for a bit and invited me to their home in Delhi! I told them I wouldn't be there again until May but maybe they'll still remember me..




These are taken on the actually mausoleum (sp?) building, you can see some of the amazing carvings and inlay work in the marble. I guess I didn't say much about the Taj before, because what is there to say that hasn't been said? I got there close to when it opened (despite getting up before sunrise I was thwarted by huge lines) and hung around for a few hours, watching the light change and the marble sparkle, walking all around the mausoleum and the mosques (well, on one side is a mosque and on the other side is a replica to make it symmetrical) and of course posing for everyone's vacation pictures. I looked so scrubby I don't even know.. but whatever, happy to oblige I guess.

Bhopal is fab so far, kind of organic farming pt. 2 but kind of not.. I'm off to work now but will try to post more details later. xoxo

5 Days!

It feels like sooooo much longer. In a good way. I just got to the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, which so far seems really nice, I've met two Japanese women and one woman from Toronto who are also volunteering here btu have yet to really figure evrything out. But it's only been a bout an hour.. just stealing some internet time b/c the Canadian girl let me use her laptop.

So. The last two days in Agra, I went to an old city/mosque/palace abandoned by the Mughals called Fatepur Sikhri, to THE TAJ, the Jama Masjid mosque in Agra, and to Agra Fort.. basically lots of amazing Mughal architecture, red sandstone and marble, carvings and gem inlays and hard to describe.. hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon. I've also been adjusting to It, the reality living, walking, getting around in India. And mostly It's amazing. But I can't really think how to coherently describe what it's like at all, so I'm just going to go stream of consciousness here.. the traffic, of course, always honking and crazy rickshaws and motorcycles and motorcycle rickshaws and cows and buses and cars (and they drive on the other side of the road, I didn't realize) but I haven't seen any accidents yet, or caused any by attempting to cross the street. The clothes.. women in everything from saris to shalwar kameez to jeans and tank tops and everything in between, men in turbans and robes or trousers and sweater vests or tight flared pants and fake designers shirts. Animals-monkeys climbing around on the rooftops, on the entrance of the Agra Fort, in the trees.. camels pulling carts by the Taj Mahal.. I walked past this boy on the street and he said "cobra, ma'am?" and he was actually holding a snake! Constant debates about how/where to spend money, do I walk? Or pay for a rickshaw and support the driver? Or walk and give the money I would have payed to a beggar? The gorgeous mosques, at two of the.. 4 or 5 I visited guys talked about Obama and how excited they are that his father is Muslim.. listening to the muzzein calls to prayer. Riding in a taxi/jeep back from Fatepur Sikhri squeezed next to two women in Saris, the teenage girl listening to music on her cellphone, blaring Hindi music almost drowning out the honking, watching the sunset.

Indiaaaa

I AM HERE. And it wasn't quite like jumping into a tornado but all the intensity warnings weren't entirely off so I think I will just recap activities until I can find some way to explain everything else.. let's see. Tuesday night I got picked up from the airport and taken to my lovely hotel, kind of noisy but private bathroom/free breakfast buffet, etc. First day I straight up followed the LP recommendations for first day in India, figuring they knew their stuff about good "acclimatizing" attractions. But I did take the metro to the National Museum, not too confusing as all the signs are in English and actually less hectic than street transportation. The museum mostly had art, lots of stone and bronze sculptures, some old musical instruments, lots of school kids running around and saying "hi ma'am". Then I walked to the India Gate, kind of like the Arc du Triumph (sp?) and mostly a photo op for mobs of Indian/foreign tourists but on the way to my next stop.. but I kind of failed at judging walking distance from the map and ended up taking an auto-rickshaw, THAT was exciting. Humayun's Tomb is a predecessor to the Taj I guess, beautiful gardens surrounding a big Persian-influenced building w/ some really cool geometric patterns and I met an NRI family from Seattle, random. Day 2 I took the metro to Old Delhi, wandered around the Red Fort, Jama Masjid (biggest mosque in Delhi), Raj Ghat where Gandhi was cremated, and the Gandhi museum. Then train to Agra, arrived an hour and a half late but luckily my hotel pickup was still there so now I'm here in Agra, the Taj is closed on Fridays but I think I'm going to venture to an old ruined city like an hour away that sounds pretty cool. Yeah I'd like to offer some insights into Indian street life or something but to be honest, when I'm walking down the street I'm so involved in watching my bag, ignoring all the stares and "hello ma'am"s, and figuring out how to get where I'm going that I can't really people watch.. so I guess it just stores up and then I process things when I'm relaxing. But. I have seen cows in the street. And there seem to be no single women anywhere. And food so far has been excellent. I think I bought a bottle of water that had been refilled through a hole in the bottom but I noticed before I drank too much, no Delhi belly yet yay! I think I got too used to being around friends and family while I was home, I miss everyone a lot but as I told the concerned lady on the train, I'd rather be here doing this all by myself than not doing it at all!

off (and on?) again!

SO tomorrow I leave for India, by way of Chicago and a 17-hour flight from there, really looking forward to some quality plane food and movies and I can't think too much farther ahead right now. I decided to go ahead and plan things out for the first bit to try and give myself an easier time with the culture shock and all (I read somewhere that arriving in Delhi is like jumping out of a plane into a tornado..?), so I've got a hotel for two nights in Delhi that should be waaay nicer than anywhere else I have stayed or will stay, a train ticket to Agra, a hotel reservation for three nights there, and another ticket to Bhopal. In Bhopal I'm going to be volunteering at the Sambhavna Clinic which treats victims of the Union Carbide disaster (http://bhopal.org/index.php?id=20) at least until the end of February but hopefully for three weeks or a month, and from there it's pretty flexible. I fly out of Delhi on May 9, and before then I want to travel around India and do some trekking in Nepal (Anapurna Circuit?)
Doing this whole thing for the second time, I sort of feel like I'm both more excited--because I know it's going to be amazing and that I can do it--and more nervous, since I now actually have conception of what it's like to be on essentially on my own in foreign countries for three months. But I know this is the right thing for me to be doing and I'm so lucky to be able to do it, so I'm mostly just reallyreally excited. And hoping that I can suppress my initial instinct to speak Spanish when I hear a foreign language.