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!