Dharamsala

We arrived in upper Dharamsala yesterday and will fortunately be here for two weeks, which means we will really get to know the place well. It is incredibly beautiful and words don't do it justice. Just imagine a town with funky buildings settled into the side of a mountain that looks down at valleys and up at the snow covered Himalayas, and you might get somewhat of an idea of where I am. Anyways, Dharamsala is where the Dalai Lama lives, and is also home to the exiled Tibetan government. The population is a little under 20,000 people, so it is very isolated and quite a change from anywhere I have been in India. It is rather brisk here, but sunny in the days and the air is clean, I feel so refreshed right now! There are a lot of Tibetan refugees here, and also a wide variety of social services to assist people who have been through trauma. We are going to check out some places to volunteer tomorrow, and just about all of us are going to teach English to Tibetan's for an hour each day which will be very interesting and educational. The food is delicious here and there are so many vendors selling cool blankets, bags, jewelry, wool slippers, and everything else that an tourist would love. I have to be careful and keep track of my rupees!

This morning we went to the Dalai Lama's temple courtyard to hear a teaching from His Holiness. It was a very powerful experience and awesome to be in his presence. I had heard that he had a good sense of humor and that definitely showed, in fact he broke into laughter two times during the two and a half hour teaching, which I found rather enjoyable.

Famous in India?!

On Wednesday, February 17, I was in the The Times of India and Hindustan Times, both newspapers that have a circulation of over two million people. I was also on the national news on two different TV stations! It is a very funny story actually, and quite random. You see, Ted and Peg Hope, the directors of the Institute for Village studies (the trip I am on), have been doing this same trip with college students for about fifteen years, and every year there are different challenges that arise when traveling. Anyways, prior to coming on the trip this year they had a nice plaque made for Uma Shankar Ram, a receptionist of UP tourism, who has provided a lot of guidance and advice to the group throughout the years. They basically wanted to show their appreciation for all of his hard work and kindness by presenting him with an award he could put on his wall and be proud of. Anyways, when Ted notified the department of tourism about his desire to present an award to the receptionist, the whole thing became a huge ordeal. They called in the press, which had a hay day with it. Rather than having a meeting and giving Sharmaji, which they call him for short, a present, a whole ceremony was created. I happened to be there because I was sick with food poisoning and missed a few days in the village, and when I was better Ted was going to take me out there in a rickshaw. Well that happened to be the same day as this ceremony so I came along for the ride, as did one other student from the high school group. Therefore Zach, Ted, and I ended up being at what felt like a press conference with cameras and reporters all around. We were giving flower garlands around our necks and treated like royalty! Before the ceremony and presentation of the award, one of the employees gave us a run through on how it would all play out, and chose me to be the MC. Who knows why, maybe it was because I'm a girl, or maybe it was because I looked the most dressed up with my blue silk scarf on, whatever the reason, I had to start the presentation and introduce our group! Long story short, we were in the newspaper and TV for something not that interesting, but it is still kind of cool and humorous.

Sarnath

Sarnath is about twenty minutes outside of Varanasi, and is a very famous religious city, notably because it is the place where the Buddha gave his first sermon. Many different religions are represented there, and there are all types of temples, ranging from Buddhist, Tibetian Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and the list continues. Our group visited a very admirable man by the name of Dr. Jain, who has started schools for the lower castes throughout the villages surrounding Sarnath. We had the honor of visiting one of his schools and the students performed a traditional Hindu dance, played music, and sang for us. All of the funding for these schools comes from sponsors, so it is a private, quality education for students who would otherwise probably not be in any kind of school. The public school system in India is of very poor quality and there is an incredible lack of funding, resulting in outdated books and no computers in most schools. Therefore, Dr. Jain has taken it upon himself to start these schools and even preschools which take place in villagers homes. There were host families lined up for us, and the girls had a wonderful family with four children from the ages of 15-19. They were some of the kindest people and offered us the best of everything they had, including their little beds. We felt bad about it but they insisted, so in the end we gave them gifts of appreciation. On the last day I went out with a doctor and two other helpers to do rural health care checkups on the children. We took their weight, height, checked their teeth, vision, and glands to check for infections. It was extremely interesting and I was on dental duty, meaning that I had a flashlight and checked each child's mouth, noting on a scale of 1-4 how badly they needed to see a dentist. Some of the children had teeth that were completely rotten and brown, and had probably never used a toothbrush.

India

Here is a poem I wrote when I was horribly sick in the hotel, and in an attempt to be productive and optimistic I created this piece. My disclaimer is that it is not very good because I was ill, but it does depict things I have witnessed this past week in a more or less realistic manner.

"India standing strong in all her glory
smells of smoke, of burning cow dung,
scents of burning incense, mixed with boiling milk,
preparing chai.
Babies crying, children laughing, mothers
standing stern, solemn, stoic.
Drying scarfs, trousers, sarees
line railings, swaying carelessly in the breeze
creating color patterns that mix and simultaneously
radiate intricates, vibrant, colors, designs.
A bell sounds from the ankle of a dancer, from an Indian temple,
from the neck of an elephant and the neck of a holy cow.
The soothing drone of love songs meet the blaring roars
of popular culture
beats ride the waves of sound
inevitably greating a solitary sitar in the mix.
Brahmins share the pavement with untouchables
fighting for a chance,
each understand the paradoxes inherent in society.
Scents of curries, spices, chapatis, naan, and lassis fill the air
creating an aroma too complex to dicipher.
Mothers, fathers, with bindis on their foreheads,
children with piercings and nose rings alike.
Wrapped in a colosol of colors, ranging from fire red
to blazing orange, fuschia, to aqua with sequins.
Streets of organized chaos
loudest, most persistant horn
takes the right of way.
Lanes have no meaning, value, place.
Roads lacking regulation abound
consequently making way to anything that drives.
Fascinating history, culture, politics
interweave, interconnect, never forgetting the past
only adding on.
Ancient traditions remain current practices,
creating a multi-fauceted mosaic known as India."

Varanasi

Varanasi is the holiest city in the world. The Ganges river is the most sacred, and every Indian will give you different stories about it's various meanings and uses. We spent three nights at hotel Alka about a week ago, and now we are over in a new section by Assi ghat, at a hotel called Temple. Both of our hotels have been by the river, which they refer to as the "Ganga." In Hinduism, reincarnation is a main part of their belief system, with the idea that everyone should stay in his or her caste and perform their duties to the best of their abilities, and in the next life they may be reincarnated into a higher caste. There is also this idea of moksha, which is a place westerners would relate to heaven, and if a Hindu is cremated in Varanasi and his ashes are thrown into the Ganga, then they will reach Moksha. Basically it is a "free ticket" to heaven, therefore it is pretty self explanatory why so many people live in this city and why so many people make pilgrimages here every year. Body burnings are a daily event, and at night the river has hundreds of floating candles which are very pretty. The boats in the river are very cool and colorful, and they are mostly row boats or little outboards. It is unfortunate that the river is so incredibly polluted and brown, but it is what it is. There are stairs coming up from the river that go on for miles, known as the ghats, where lots of vendors sell souveniors, cows sunbathe, homeless people sleep, and beggars ask for money. Abover the stairs are the beautiful colorful buildings, mostly made of stucco, which create a fabulous skyline of the city. The streets are so tiny and packed full of people that moving around is a challenge, but a great experience in itself. There are beautiful silks, pashminas, sarees, and tapastries sold everywhere, and shopping is an experience in itself. It goes something like this: On the street you look into a store and when the owner sees you showing interest he immeadiately invites you in. Everyone must remove their shoes prior to entering a shop, and you sit on little maps. Then he offers you chai that you sip as he tells you about his different materials and burns the ends of variou scarfs to show which ones are real silk and which ones are polyester, rayon, etc. It is a good time, but can get overwhelming and sometimes it is hard to get out of the shop without offending the owner.

Unfortunately, everyone in our entire group got sick in Varanasi, with either diarrhea, throw up, or a combination of the two. We are not sure what it was from since we all ate at different places, but we have accepted the fact that this is India and it is unheard of a westerner visiting and not getting sick! There are more animals here than in Calcutta, and less vehicles with more foot traffic.

Calcutta

While we only spent two days in Calcutta, it is definitely worthy of it's own blog post. We flew into Calcutta from Bangkok and instantly were in a whole new world, completely foreign to us. Outside of the airport there were hundreds of taxis which resembled cars from the 1950's, with eager drivers anxious to scam westerners. It was interesting to witness the pecking order involved around who gets to be the drivers, anyways, our director made a deal with them and settled on two hundred rupees for each car. On the way to our hotel the traffic was outrageous, unlike anything I have witnessed before. I thought Thailand had crazy drivers, but it was nothing compared to India. The streets are complete and utter chaos, with no laws, and if there are any they are NEVER enforced. The concept of lanes is completely unknown and anything that can drive is on the road, from rickshaws to motorcycles, hand pulled carts to three wheeled contraptions with two cylinder engines. The loudest, most persistent horn is the car that gets to pass, and cars just drive into oncoming traffic, swerving out of the way, as I hold on for dear life! Trash is everywhere, the air is so smoggy and gray that you can't see far ahead, and beggars line the streets. The buildings are all dilapidated, with stores on the bottom levels which are probably 5ft by 8ft, selling all sorts of outdated junk. People bathe on the sidewalks because there are community wells, so scrubbing and getting clean while wearing a little piece of cloth is a social event. Shit is everywhere, particularly cow dung, so you always have to be careful where you step. You know how in the States we say "reduce, reuse, and recycle," well, in India they have the reuse down, but the other two verbs are very much ignored. I once read that what was one man's garbage was another man's home in India, and after being in Calcutta I see that it is ever so true. There are even piles of old wires being burnt on the streets, letting off a terrible scent, and I'm not sure what they are used for but it must be something.
OK, on a lighter note, chai is sold everywhere on the streets, and it is soothing and delicious, costing about 3 rupees for a little cup. The food is also delicious, and since there is a large Muslim population in Calcutta, kabobs were very prevalent. On our second day in Calcutta we did a bit of sightseeing, notably visiting Mother Teresa's home for the destitute, Queen Victoria's elaborate memorial, and we had the privilege of entering a very famous Hindu temple. While we were in the temple we learned about some marriage traditions and also witnessed the sacrifice of a baby goat, which was quite disheartening to be honest. In India, it is good luck to sacrifice animals for the God's, and in this particular instance a family had brought a precious black baby goat to be beheaded, meaning good luck and fortune for the family. I watched them chop off his little head with a machete, while he was crying and squirming relentlessly, and onle the blade went down everything and everyone was silent and you could hear his head fall to the ground. I will never forget that scence, and it be honest it gave me quite a feeling of culture shock.