The Haridwar Prayer Ceremony

Haridwar is about 30-45 min south of Rishikesh and we had heard that it is really a great thing to see and experience the Hindu evening prayers on the Ganges river. There are a ton of people on both sides of the river and there is a Hindu temple on one side of the river where they use a loudspeaker to say their prayers. Then many of the people get this flower boat thing that has a wick so that you can light it up and send it down the river. (Sorry I can’t remember the proper words, I keep forgetting).

Maddie and I decided to get our own flower boat thing and a random Hindu guy offered to help us with it. He said the Hindu prayers took some of the flowers and tossed them in the river. Then we lit the flower boat and sent it down the Ganges. It was a cool thing to do and a neat experience. Then this (so called nice Hindu guy) asked us for money for showing us the prayer...we should have known they all ask for money if you want their assistance. So, of course we gave him some rupees, but it was cool that we did it and said the prayers just like the Hindus.

The Indian Massage

Oh my gosh....!! This was the BEST massage and the WORST massage of my life!!! It is way too OUTRAGEOUS to even begin to type this story...if you want to know what happend call me or ask me in person...

The Drive to Haridwar and Rishikesh

Oh my freakin' lord were that exact words I was saying either out loud or in my head....

Maddy and I were the only 2 volunteers who had the weekend free to travel to a far distance and come back late sun night, so we literally planned this trip on Thurs and left at 3:15pm on Fri. We were really excited to go to Haridwar and Rishikesh only after learning about it in 5 min from one of the staff people here at CCS. He said many volunteers go there all the time. It is a hot spot because it is one of the most spiritual places in India, the capital of yoga, mediation and spirituality. The Ganges River is there and for Hindu's it is the most holy water there is...(even though it is freakin muddy, brown, gray and out right polluted.) But anyway it is holy nonetheless and hindu's go there to bathe, swim and bless themselves in the Ganges river. They say that if you bless yourself with the water, then you will wash away all your sins....

So Maddy and I said great let's go check it out and see what this is all about. We decided that we wanted to take a yoga lesson, get a massage, see the prayer ceremony in Haridwar, and go trekking in the Himalaya's to a beautiful waterfall in Rishikesh. That was our plan and we pretty much stuck to it.

Anyway, getting back to the drive. So everything was going smoothly the first 1-2 hours of the trip (mind you this is a 7-8 hour car ride...). I was trying to sleep and Maddy had dozed off too. Then all of a sudden I heard a big BOOM!! I woke up, and was like what the heck was that? Apparently we had just run over a huge pot hole going full speed. All Jessie (the driver) could say was "oh sorry mam, there was a just big whole". From then on Maddie and I were alert the rest of the car ride there....

According to Jessie this one small road that could only fit 1 car on the road going in one direction was the best way to go...Jessie would drive at full speed until we saw another car coming straight on and with in seconds would swerve half way off the road so the other car could pass us by. Then if there was a car in front of us he would tailgate the driver beep his horn several times go full speed and we would be half on the road and half on the side of the road.

Then, Jessie would pass a car going full speed, while another car would be coming straight towards us at full speed and Jessie would swerve to the left just in the nick of time before we crashed into the on coming car!!! I cannot tell you how many close calls there were. Maddie and I were hanging on to the handle above our heads for dear life!! This was wild! I mean something you would see in the movies!!

Jessie kept looking back saying "You alright mam? This is the best way other roads are bad and have too much traffic." What could we say? He was our driver, I couldn't tell him no I think we should take a different route, what the heck do I know, I'm in India!!

I must tell you it was very interesting to see the land of India on the car ride. It was so interesting to see so many monkeys on the side of the road!! They were the cutest things ever. We even stopped and took pictures of the baby monkeys and their mothers. Jessie even threw a banana at one of the monkeys and we got to see him eat it. It was too cute. Then we would drive along and see villages where people live in huts, we saw a ton of cows and even a few bathing in water. We also saw horse and buggy, cow and buggy, fruit stands, little cars caring 10+ people inside, and motorcycles with the dad driving and the mother holding the baby in her hands/lap. Yes, all on a motorcycle...It's India!! Anything Goes...

After stopping a couple of times, eating dinner, and driving on paved roads, half paved roads, dirt roads, gravel roads, muddy roads, or no roads, and bouncing like crazy all while holding on to the handle above our heads we made it safely to Rishikesh.

The Delhi Belly!!

I made it a week and 4 days with out anything wrong with me. I have been feeling great, and have had no problems until....yesterday morning. (sorry if I get a little graffic, but hey that's life!)

So I wake up yesterday morning (tues) go to the bathroom and I have diarreah!! Great! So the girls in my flat told me take immodium immediately. So I did. But I was feeling really weak, my body was aching and I felt exhausted! I called Bella to let her know what happened and she said to stay home. Do not go to work today. So I stayed home and slept until 2pm. Then I got up and the CCS staff had left me some soup. So, I poured this clear liquid soup in a bowl and literally took 5-6 spoonfulls before I started feeling really hot and the next thing I knew I was throwing up the soup.

I felt awful. I hadn't eaten anything all day and was hungry so I thought maybe I should try some "american food". Jackie had some fig nutons so I had some of those and had no problem. The rest of the day I just slept, and even though I had slept half the day I still felt exhausted. Then I decided to go to the doctors to find out what was wrong with me. (I'm glad I did!!)

The Indian doctor was great! I only had to pay 600 Rupees ($12) to see him. I explained everything that happened to me, and then he gave me an exam. Once he pressed down on my stomach he felt and heard the rumble. He said yep, "What you have is an intestinal infection. You must have eaten something that was contaminated." So he prescribed me cipro, some vitamins, and some pills to stop me from vomitting when I ate. Luckily I had brought my own antibiotics so I was good and didn't need the cipro. He also told me to get a lot of rest and drink a lot of fluids.

I felt a lot better(mentally) after going to the doctors. At least I knew what was wrong with me and how to cure it. Once we got back to CCS I decided to have a little dinner with the girls, I had a couple of bites of bread and thew up again! Clearly this bug in my gut was not allowing me to eat anything. So I just took my avalox, drank some water and went to bed.

I am feeling a lot better today. I have still not eaten anything for fear that I will throw up, but I'm going to try to take the pills the doc had prescribed to keep me from vomitting. We'll see how that goes...

I guess I was bound to get the Dehli Belly at some point...there is no escape!!

The Taj Mahal

We woke up at 1:30am to see the Taj Mahal!! It was quite painful to get up that early and I'm sure it was even more painful for our driver to to drive us the 4 hours to Agra at 2am to see it. (We had a fantastic driver by the way. I have to give a little shout out to Nermal!! He was fantastic!!) Anyway, we were told that you must go see the Taj at 6am in the morning, because it is better to see the Taj at sunrise. Plus the fact that the later in the day you go it gets hotter and there are alot more people. So it is best to beat the heat and the crowds.

We all arrived at The Taj this morning at 5:50am. We got our tickets got on the golf carts to take us and then we encountered....the husslers....

I never mentioned this before, in any of my other posts but everytime you go to see a historic event you have children, teenagers, men of all ages literally coming up to you with souvenir items trying to get you to buy things. They will walk with you all the way to the gate and all the way to the golf cart when you leave. If you want something they are selling, books, postcards, magnets, you have to bargain. If you do not want anything you are harrassed all way until you close the door of your car or the golf cart that takes you to the Taj. And even then they are running after the cart sometimes. It is truly a sight to see. They are all over you... Ok back to the Taj...

Once we got through the gates we enter a little court yard and then off to the right is the entry way to the Taj...What an amazing sight to see. It can take your brerath away when you see it. I still can't believe that I was there this morning!! It was an unbelievable sight to see. So beautiful and gorgeous! All of us took tons and tons of pictures of the Taj, walked around it and Jackie even gave us a little yoga lesson on the porch of The Taj. It was truly and incredible experience. One that I will never forget and one that I am so grateful to have done in my life.

Jaipur

I had a fantastic time in Jaipur! The first place that we went to was to Amber Fort. I couldn't tell you a thing about this place other than it is a really big fort in Jaipur, that is really beautiful to look at and you can ride elephants up the fort. So guess what we did...

We road the elephants up the fort! It was great!! I actually thought we could ride them bareback but, there was a little seat ontop of the elephant so we weren't directly on the elephant but it was close enough. I will try to post pictures of it soon.

Then in the evening we went to this little carnaval village thing called the chokhi dhani where you could ride camels, watch girls do their traditional Indian dancing, watch a magic show and even get your fortune told. We did it all and had a great time! I especially liked riding the camel even if it did only last 2 min!! It was fun.

McDonalds in India...

Before we arrived in Jaipur we all come across a McDonalds!! We hadn't eaten dinner yet and we all decided to check out the Indian McDonalds. It was really interesting. Because India worships the cow and there is abosolutly no beef eaten in all of India, so the menu is quite interesting. They had potatoe sandwhiches, veggie burgers, chicken burgers, chicken nuggets and a couple of other interesting items on the menu. I thought it was pretty neat, and so did the rest of the girls, so we all had Mcdonalds on our way to Jaipur. It was pretty fun and interesting to eat McDonalds in India and my chicken burger and fries were not too bad!

The Monsoon!

So, 6 amazing girls that I am living with in the CCS flat decided to go on a world win trip for the weekend to Jaipur and Agra!! We hired a driver to take us to Jaipur which is about a 5 hour drive from Dehli. We planned to stay in Jaipur Fri night, spend the entire day checking out the city, and then leave at 2am on Sun morining to go to Agra to see the most infamous structure in all the world. The Taj Mahal!!!!!

As we are packing on Friday afternoon all of a sudden the Monsoon swept in! I have never seen it rain so hard, with the wind blowing so harshly. It just so happened that the monsoon came in just as we were about to leave. I couldn't believe it! Then right when we were about to exit the door there was a leak in our bathroom roof. Water was starting to come in and make a nice size puddle on the floor. We quickly put some buckets there to collect the water and we called Bella (the director of the program) to come see about the roof. Luckily, it turned out to be ok and all was fine.

Then we all ran to meet our cab driver weaving in and out of all the tree branches that had fallen all over the pathway. We are all glad to have made it into the cab until we got outside the apartment complex...

Apparently, they do not have a very good draining system here in India so once we hit the main road they were completely flooded!! I mean water that came up to at least the lower part of your calf (depending on how tall you are). All of these cars are trying to get through a river of water. Meanwhile you are seeing people pushing their rikshaws, motorcycles stuck in the flood, tons of cars and traffic, busses trying to get through, fruit stands on the side of the road in a foot of water, and tons of people trying to take cover. I mean it was chaotic. I even saw a random guy on horse back coming into the traffic. Totally random!! Where the heck did the guy on horse back come from? It was too wild....

Welcome to India....and my first Monsoon!! Craziness!!

Down and Dirty!!

To all that are following my blog I apologize for not writing in a couple of days! It has been quite a busy week and I never expected to be this busy! Where do I begin...

My volunteer placement has been in Pappankalan, (West Dehli) also known as the slums which is about an hour from where we are living because there is so much traffic. It is literally a stand still for about 15 min!

It is really eye opening to see the sights all around Dehli as we drive to our placement everyday. I gotta tell you, I have never seen so much extreme poverty in my life. There are so many tents, shacks, and people sleeping on the side of the road! There are also so many people here that you are constantly seeing people walking, and riding their bikes on the side of the road. When you are stopped at a stop light you will have kids b/w the age of 7-11 coming up to the window of your car asking for money, or a lady holding a baby asking for food. It is really quite sad. We have been adviced not to give these children or begging women money. As it is an oragnized crime here in India where they are using kids to make their money for them. (If you have ever seen Slum Dog Millionnaire you know what I mean).

I am so grateful that I am working with Jackie at my volunteer placement. Jackie is from Queens, NY and she is an ESL teacher! We are teaching English to children ages 6-13 so being paired with her is so PERFECT!! I have not taught in 6 years, so she comes with great ideas to teach our students. We work so well together, that she loves to dance and have fun with her kids! I love to dance too, so she actually busted out her ipod today while the students were eating their lunch so we could listen to some Jai'ho (song from Slumdog) a little Punjabi MC and...a little "Who Let the Dogs Out"! It was fun!

However, our placement does not come without challenges and difficulties. We are teaching at an NGO called VIDYA. Our classroom is a very small confined room (maybe 10' x10') with absolutely no windows, no desks or chairs for the students, (we all sit on the floor), with a few posters on the wall of the students art work, small portable blackboard and a fan. It is so HOT in the room that we are all drenched in sweat (students included) by the time we are done teaching. Plus, the diffulty that we found the first couple of days is what do you plan for the kids to do when you have no idea what they know already? Plus, the school doesn't have any teacher books or any resources to use, and the women in charge at our placement wants us to make worksheets for her teachers to use when we leave.

Therefore, Jackie and I have been extremely overwhelmed with all that we have to do for this placement. We have to figure out what they know, what we need to teach, make it interactive, with little to no resources and on top of it all create worksheets for the teachers. Not to mention that we are part of the CCS program so as soon as we get back from our placement, there is lunch, an educational lecture, and before you know it, it is time for dinner and we have to plan our lesson for the next day! Not to mention planning our trip for the upcoming weekend as well. When are we suppose to go sight seeing and see Dehli too!! It is craziness. However, it is the first week and we are adjusting to all of this. Hopefully we will get it all under control next week....

The Scavenger Hunt!!

I love that CCS gives us activities to do while we are here to help us interact with the Indian people and to truely experience and learn the Indian culture. This afternoon, 2 other volunteers and I had the task of going to the market to buy bread, butter, cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We then had to come back to our flat, make 10 sandwiches and pass them out to the Indian poeple we saw on the streets. While passing out these sandwiches we had to converse with the Indians tell them why we were here and try to get to know them a little bit as well.

We were very excited for this task and thought that this was such a fun activity. So we went out and bought all the ingredients to make a sandwhich, with the help of some Indians who were very nice in telling us where we could buy slice cheese and butter.

We then went back to our flat, made the sandwches and were on our way to pass out the food. The first guy that we gave a sandwhich to was a very old and elderly gentlemen who accepted the sandwich gratefully. We then began greeting everyone saying Namaste ji (Hello Sir), and trying to find people that would accept our sandwiches that we made. In the end, we were able to pass out all 10 sandwiches, mostly to old elderly men, but also to one younger man who saw us pass out sandwhiches and came over to us and asked if he could have one. That was too cute. We never did get a chance to talk to the Inidans or get them to talk to us b/c everyone who accepted the sanchwich couldn't speak English.

It was a cool expereince all together and it was really cool to see the Indians accept the sandwich from strangers and be grateful. It felt really nice. There is no way we could have done something like this in the US. People would look at us crazy (which some Indians did) but Americans would never accept a sandwhich from a stranger and if they did, they would throw it away when we weren't looking. The Indian culture really respects, and trusts people that they are not trying to do them harm. They were all really grateful and appreciative of our sandwich. It was a really cool, fun and cultural expereince.

The awkward stare...

Yesterday morning 2 other volunteers and I all went for a walk to go to the market that we had previously visited the day before. We had not yet mastered the way out of our gated community in which we are living so we had a hard time getting out of the complex. Once we did, we were already in an unfamiliar setting. We then asked a few ladies on the street to tell us where we could find the market. They pointed us in the right direction and so we walked where they said to go.

We finally did find the market, but it defintely was not the same market we had gone to the day before. So, we decided to just check this market out. We walked by several vegtable and fruit vendors, I ended up buying some pomagranites since I have only drank the juice and never actually ate the fruit. I was excited to eat a new exotic fruit.

Then we continued to walk around and go deeper into the market. But as we went further down the road there were many more people setting up their shops when we slowly began to feel some of the Indians on the side of the road just stop and stare at us. It was beginning to feel awkward. It got to a point where people stopped everything to look at us!! (I guess it didn't help that one of the girls was wearing shorts and a tight t-shirt. Something that would be no problem in the US but in India they are extremely conservative and they do stop and stare if you are showing too much skin.) It got so crazy that one of the Indians took out a camera to take a picture of us!! I couldn't believe it!! He actually took a picture! But it was so interesting b/c we were just as interested in them as they were of us. We then decided to turn around and head back to our flat. It was the most interesting experience to be stared at by a crowd of Indians doing their daily thing. I guess the feeling is mutual because I find the demographics, the culture, the people and the city so facinating that I too have to stop everything to take a picture.

The British Accent!!

So, I have to write another quick blog about the girls that I have met here from the UK. I can't tell you how much I LOVE the British accent. I get such a kick out of what they say! It cracks me up some of the words and phrases that they use. It is too funny. You gotta read this...

There are three girls from the UK that are also volunteering. Yesterday (sat) we were sitting on the coaches in our common area just chatting and getting to know each other when, Meena asked me in her thick british accent "Did you bring your wellies?" I said "What?" She said "Did you bring your wellies?" I was like "What the heck are wellies?" She says "You know they are the boots that you wear when its raining." I said "Oh you mean rain boots?" She's like "Yes, what do you call them?" I said "We call them rain boots." I started cracking up. It was too funny! Oh I just love the British accent and the way they say things...I think I'm going to have a great time with my fellow British volunteers! Who knows what they will say next....stay tuned....

Practice what is...

It is 5:30 am on Sun and I just woke up and can't go back to sleep, so I figured I would write on my blog. Yesterday was a great day. I didn't do a whole lot, it was just a time for all the other volunteers to arrive. It was great to meet people from all over the US and the UK. We all kind of hung out at the main home base where we have lunch and dinner and we got to meet Bella...

Bella is the director of the CCS program here in Dehli and one of the founding members of the program. She seems like a fantastic and wise women who really wants to make sure that we have the best experience possible. She also gave us some great advice while we are here in India. She said that we are going to see extreme povery, and at our placements they may not be the most structured or the most organized. You will have to be innovative at times and make the best situation out of nothing. She also adviced us to "accept what is". She told us to try not to let ourselves get too frustrated with the way things are or are not, or what should be, or can't be. Essentially, it is important to be in the moment, understand the situation and do the best you can in that moment or volunteer expereince.

I think that these are very wise words and something to apply not only at our volunteer experience but also in our lives. We do get frustrated over things that are not working, or going the way we want them to go and instead of getting all heated, frustrated, angry etc. "accept what is". And with that, I found out that the placement that I was suppose to be at Habitat Learning Center, I am no longer going to be working there because there were 3 reported cases of the Swine Flu. I will now be going to another location that is actually even more poverty stricken (I think). Accept what is...that is why I am here....

Arriving In Dehli!

So, I had the great fortune of flying business class to Dehli! How did I pull that off....working for Pfizer for over 5 years and accruing frequent flyer miles that I never used until now. Hey I figured why not use them on this trip. Anyhow the 14 hour plane ride was not bad at all and they really treat you well in business first! I had just eaten my last American meal at the Outback with my mom and gram having some good 'ol baby back ribs and little did I know that I would be having a 7 course meal on the plane! I wish I had known, I would have saved some room, but instead I was stuffed to the maximum after the 3rd course!

Anyway, I arrive in Dehli and it is 7:51pm Fri. I look out the window and everything is dark so I really can't say what Dehli looks like from the plane. Once I arrived everything went smoothly. Going through customs was fine, getting my bags was fine, even getting to the lounge. Then came a little drama...

Cross Culture Solutions (CCS) the program that I am volunteering with told us that there would be someone in the lounge waiting for us to arrive, so I get to the lounge looking for a sign that says (CCS) and I am wearing my CCS shirt and I do not see anyone. Then there are 2 exits one on the left, one on the right. I decide to go on the right, when I get outside boy is it humid and there are a ton of people waiting for their people to come...no CCS sign. I go to the left exit again super humid a ton of people waiting for their people... no CCS sign. So, I go into my bag and pull out the info on what to do when no one is there waiting for you. Thank goodness right where I was standing there were phones so I call one of the CCS guys. They say "Oh you are early, someone will be there to pick you up in the next 10-15 min, stay in the lounge area, don't go outside to the exits someone will come in and get you." I said ok great, I'll wait in the lounge.

So I go to sit in the lounge and just wait, watch people as they arrive etc. A half hour passes and I'm like well, this is India they say you have to be patient and when people say 10-15min, maybe they mean 30min. Then an hour goes by and still no one has come to get me. I then decide to call again. The guys says "Chandel I am so sorry tomorrow is our Independence day and they have extra tight security, they are not letting anyone into the lounge area, you have to go to exit 2, they are waiting for you out there." I said oh ok, that's why I was waiting an hour.

Come to find out, the guys that came to pick me up had been there for just about an hour themselves waiting for me outside b/c they couldn't get in. Suffice it to say, it all worked out in the end I am now safely at my Indian flat writing my fisrt blog in India.

Oh and one last thing...if you think NYC driving is bad I think Dehli might top it!! The ride from the airport to the flat was certainly a bumpy one...craziness!

Travel Day

So, I can't write too much. I have so many last minute things to do, clean my house, get ready for the pet sitter, pack my carry on bag etc. I hope I don't forget anything. I am a little nervous about this 14 hour plane ride!! I have never been on a plane that long or at least that I can remember. I'm gonna try to do as much reading for school as possible, hopefully I can get a lot done and sleep. That's all for now... talk to you when I am in India!!

A week before departure...8/7/09

First of all, I have to thank Grace for helping me set up this blog. I wouldn't even have a blog if it wasn't for her. She literally took me step by step to show me how it is done. Thank you Grace, I so appreciate you and all of your help!

So, I am really excited and a little nervous about going to India. I keep thinking to myself what is it going to be like? Am I ready for the biggest culture shock of my life? Is Dehli really going to be wild and crazy in an organized chaotic way? I have heard Dehli described as having tons of people every where, random animals roaming around, cars honking through all hours of the day, one can see extreme poverty and extreme wealth all at the same time. I also wonder what India is going to smell like? All of these thoughts are roaming through my mind and yet I can't wait to see it all. I can't wait to experience something that I have never done before.

At this point I am so not ready for India. I haven't even started packing. I have only gathered a few items in which I know I will need such as immodieum (just in case), definitely a stainless steel water bottle, some advil, and I got my shots the other day so I think I am good on that front. I need to start buckling down and getting myself together....Hopefully the next time I post I will be further along...stay tuned....