Ladders, cows, and nearby people

Of all the awkward, oversized objects that I wish I could bring back to the US from India, I think the Bamboo ladder is certainly in my top 5. I see these ladder shops fairly frequently and look longingly at both the tan and reddish varieties of mid-length ladders. (To my dismay I learned today that I would actually have a hard time buying a ladder here, because these are all ladder rental stores...and they make much more money renting them out that they would selling them...apparently)
I can't believe I haven't written on the topic of stray cows before! They are everywhere. For a work-capable (not to mention holy) animal, you would think the owners of these cows would try to keep them from getting lost...but apparently lost cows is the norm in Delhi - they are everywhere! On the sidewalk, on the median (one of their favorite places), near shopping centers, on piles of garbage (as shown below). I mostly see the cows eating trash but occasionally I see one eating grass - they come in all sorts of colors but most often they are a greyish color with black shading, especially around the eyes, which makes some of them quite handsome. They look different from American cows, although I see so many of these here I am forgetting what US cows look like. Anyway, I cam considering collecting these cows and becoming an urban cow-herder.
Near this cow is Buhmin camp. We visited this community today because it is supposedly served by 6 nearby NGOs. The camp was in pretty good shape in terms of child in school enrollment, and general health - but sanitation, access to health information, and services for the disabled were severely lacking. Almost none of these children had ever heard of the nearby NGOs and the few that knew about them often complained of their worthlessness and corruption. I am not sure why these children looked quite so confused and startled when I took this picture, since they had been following us around for about 30 min.
This guy is selling vegitables in the open space in front of his door. The flies don't show up in this picture.
I wanted to show how the water drainage flows next to the houses on either side of the alleyway walking path, usually with rock bridges between the doorway and the path. At complicated intersections, the water takes up more space and there are larger (more dangerous looking) bridges...the pizza here is not as good as in Venice.
It was a good Tuesday in India. (Hot again)

Team health update:
1 heat stroke/fever/stomach issues
1 stomach issues
3 OK

Vanquishing stomach demons

Dear blog-readers,

I apologize for the hiatus in blogging, but I have been battling indian stomach demons, which can be very tiring. I have learned this lesson tough:

when things aint' right, take the ciprofloxacin

I had been worried about using my only regimen of perscription anti-bacterial drugs, but that was silly, because as we learned at a Bombay pharmacy, you can get all sort of drugs in India (including more malaria medicine) without a prescription for about one tenth the US cost.

So what do I have to show from my blogging break....

Saturday:

*discovered a hidden treasure: a 2 min walk from my bed room there is a woman who hangs out in a room on campus who will do one hour, full-body massagegs for $7.5...I usually try not to compare directly to US prices, but it would be a crime not to get a couple of these

*successfully watched the new Harry Potter movie (in English!) at an Indian cinema house

Sunday:

* slept in

* went to Old Delhi: saw Red Fort (two pictures below)

Red fort was okay, but to be honest, we have seen much better forts on our trip already. They had some nice carvings though...carving is always nice. ...But you know what is not nice? - hidden barbed wire. I tripped over barbed wire and cut my leg (thank you tetnis shot) and had to feel sorry for myself for at least 5 min before the cut felt better.

Monday:

*we decided to kick Monday off with a bunch of long, meandering team meetings...

*then we headed out to a new slum area to speak with several NGOs working there, but first we dicided to sit in the worse traffic jam I have seen so far in Delhi for about an hour

* we took pictures of each other in the autorickshaws, while our driver was off visiting other autorickshaw driver friends

YWCA has a branch office in Govenpuri, Kalkaji (New Delhi). Here we are coming out of the one-story pink building where we were observing vocational training programs and interviewing the director of the center. Behind the YWCA are a number of apartment building flats - this neighborhood, is much better off than other nearby slum communities where the garbage is OUT OF CONTROL! and the usual fish market leaves a pretty horrible stench even when it is not active.

All in all, a few pretty successful days...oh, and I would like to announce that canned tuna fish wins this week's food award, for being the tastiest food that doesn't make me sick and is not primarily oil or sugar.

Evening trip to Faridabad

We live on the Faridabad side of the New Delhi-Faridabad border, so whenever we want to go anywhere in Delhi we walk 5-10min to the actual border to pick up a Delhi autorickshaw. (The system is like Boston and Cambridge taxi cabs: The Delhi taxi cabs can't pick up on the Faridabad side but the Faridabad cars can't take us into Delhi).

On Wednesday we were invited to one of our supervisor's house in Faridabad. Dr. Sunaina is young, unmarried, and as is standard with Indian families, still lives with her parents. Her mother made us some tasty treats and we had lychee juice. The autorickshaws in Faridabad are a little larger than those in Delhi but can magically fit 3x as many people - here we are with 12 people in one autorickshaw: From left to right Dr. Sunaina, Sony, and Yamilee.

The girls outside Dr. Sunaina's house.

Almost by Design...

There is something special about the fever, upset stomach, and power outage tripple-threat ...

In the suburbs of Mumbai (about 1 hour out) there is a national park in which there is a rocky, mossy hill that rises above the surrounding jungle-type vegitation. On this hill there are ~109 caves carved by buddhist monks in about 1000BC, called the Kanheri caves. The monks had no metal tools, so all the caves were build wih rock tools. They reminded me a bit of Petra (the 2000 year old city carved out of sandstone) in Jordan - one of the new 7 wonders of the world!
Water runs down through the middle of the community as you look up the hill. There was a bathroom/ washing area and other places where water was diverted using holes through or ruts carved into the stone.
Here is me with one of the cave statues...he has a few inches on me...
Past the realy tall statue is this inner temple..one can walk behind the pillars and one can see where all the oil lamps were usually placed.
lots of little wall carvings..it doesn't get much better than well-preserved, 3000 year old caves!We visited a second Jain temple near the national park. In this sect of Jainism, the priests are not allowed to wear any clothes at all!


Me at the Mumbai coast.
We dressed scandelously (spaghetti strap tank tops!), and headed out to a bar/dance club on Sunday night. When we arrived, we thought the club was closed because there was no one around, but it turns out we were just the only ones there. We had a good time on our own, getting to request anything we wanted form the DJ. After 1-2 hours, the bar was comfortably full. I am glad my team-mates are all so flexible and fun :)

On Sunday, the four of us set out on a full-day tour of Mumbai with a private car and driver and a tour guide. Here I am with a bunch of funny-shaped concrete wave-breakers.
Apparently the Indian coast used to be inhabited primarily by fishing communities. Most of these villages have been displaced, but we got to visit the only fisherman village remaining in Mumbai. The boats were mostly on land because it isn't safe to fish in deep waters during monsoon season.

Here is a women chopping fish. I was impressed with how clean this village was and how little it smelled like fish - much cleaner than the Delhi slums!

Using mythology to promote transportation safety - I can get behind that :)

One of our stops was this gaint market (Crawford market) offering everything from fruits/vegitables, spices,
to a big meat warehouse and a section for pets...most of these pets did not look very happy, although I did see one of the cutest golden retriever puppies I have ever seen...and a guinea pig that someone had died bright pink (conspicuously mixed in with a group of non-dyed guinea pigs).
One of the stops that I thought was pretty cool was Dhobi Ghat, where all of Mumbai's laundry is washed. When you look down into this area, it is hard to tell where it ends...so much laundry! Many of the day-to-day functional differences that I see in India compared to the US are related to the price of labor here. There are so many people willing to work for so little money that it doesn't make sense for many businesses and homes to by washing machines. In that vein, I don't think I have seen a single crane in India - but I have seen a lot of huge marble blocks being pulled up several stories with rope and pulley systems!
We visited a Jain temple in the most expensive residential area of Mumbai. This place was very intense. The priests for this branch of Jainism can only wear one piece of white cloth wrapped around their bodies and a white cloth covering their nose and mouth that is meant to prevent accidently killing any bugs by inhaling them. The 2-story temple (partially under construction) was like an insence hot-box with an obstacle course of dozens of religious activity options. There were lots of small rooms surrounding an open quadrangle in the middle where all sorts of praying, making and destroying rice pictures, bell ringing, and decorating idols was taking place. This Jain temple was very colorful with bright paintings decorating all the walls and ceilings.
We also got to visit the house in Mumbai where Ghandi lived for 17 years, which has been turned into a museum commemorating his life. He had a lot of books.

We like Bombay.

Train, Pain, and a return to Decadence

After a 1 hour taxi ride to the train station we rushed to our platform and tried to find out where we should go to get into Boogie (car) number B7. We asked three people whose answers ranged from both extremes of the long platform so we decided to hang out in the middle (it was a little hot!). When the train arrived the plot thickened...there was no car nunber B7. The train person tried to explain that this is the NEW train and therefore there was no B7 car. We caught hold of a another distressed B7 passenger who thought the extra car may have been tacked on to the end of the train so we raced to the end and got into a car with a paper sign on the outside that appeared to read 'B1'. When we got on, there were eight people who claimed that they were supposed to sit in 6 seats and so things were tight until the conductor came through 2 hours later and cleared things up.Here is Jessica about 14 hours later, eating breakfast on the top bunk. I was in a nearby-top bunk and slept pretty well, despite the severe cold that had me caughing and spitting up phlem periodically...wooo!
Julie's family in Bombay (technically Mumbai), generously sent their personal driver to pick us up from the train station (where our train arrived 2 hours late). We got settled in our fancy hotel (4 girls in one suite for $25/each/night) which was right near the Gate of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel and went to find food. We found "Food Inn" where I ordered tandoori chicken, roti, and a bananna lassi....possibly some of the best ckicken I have ever had! I guess I was missing meat. Here is the Taj Mahal Hotel...there are a lot of buildings in Bombay designed by european architects during British rule...however, this hotel was built by a rich Indian who was turned away from a fancy British hotel, so he decided to make a super-expensive hotel that anyone (with money) could stay at. Later that night, Julie's extended family (about 15 of them) met up for dinner and invited us. We feasted on indian, chinese, and thai dishes at a long banquet table and ended the meal with one of the best desserts I have had in a while: brownie with ice cream, covered with sizzling chocolate sauce.
We slept very soundly this night.

BONUS PICTURES! This weekend only!!! (courtesy of Jessica)

Cat and Jessica at the poorly named but extremely tasty "Chicken Inn" in New Delhi.

Cute group picture at Agra Fort.

Out for Jessica's 21st birthday - we went to a bar/restaurant/place to watch cricket where I had a tasty mojito for about $2 and then learned a valuable life lesson: don't order italian food in India and think it will taste anything like what you were expecting.

I feel like I spend a lot of time digging through my backpack ...

Another Lodi Gardens shot, a.k.a. the spot for young Indian couples on Sundays.

Shmancy shot of sunset and bogenvilla near our exercise field.

Cat visiting favorite part of campus.

Hopefully the train won't shut down again...

Our group will turn in our second big report to the NGO we have been working with tomorrow and then Julie, Jessica, Yamilee and I get on an Indian sleeper train for the 16 hour ride to Bombay (Mumbai). Above is a picture of our destination within the last week...I am still struggling to find a kayak that will fit in my backpack. Anyhow, Julie's aunt and uncle have planned a picnic and a day at the beach for us on Saturday...it is unclear how these plans align with te thousands of people being evacuated from areas near bodies of water...but I'm sure it will be delightful. No laptop for the weekend, so you'll have to wait until Tuesday for more of the good stuff.

Happy Independence Day United States of America!

A day in the life of a Cat in India:

* 6am: feel really tired..think I am getting a sore throat...hope it is raining so I don't have yoga...shoot! it is bright and sunny again.

* 6:20am: leave for yoga at 6:20am

* 7:15am: return to room, eat oatmeal and check email, fight urge to take nap, and work on data analysis from recent community surveys

*9am: meet with team to get organized for the day (usually have tea: black tea made with hot, very sweet milk)

*10am: 10 minute walk to the Delhi border where we can get an autorickshaw that will take us to the NGO

*~10:20am: inevitable breakdown of autorickshaw....today was the flat-tire variety....mmm, the side of the road is covered in human poop...

*10:45am: arrive at Deepalaya school - confirm with Principal which classes we can visit. Conduct a "quiz game" with three classes of students (which is a sneaky way to get more data for our suvey in exchange for chocolate)...with the 8th class actually being the weaker than the 6th and 7th, since all the best students tend to leave the NGO-run school over time

*1pm: collect the three classes in the lobby for our health/education related play. I make some small talk with one of the 7th grade boys

*2pm: We thank all the Deepalaya staff for a great four weeks and talk to the Principal a bit longer and tell her we will have our final report for her by Friday

*2:15: so starving!!!!! To Nathu's Sweets for one of my favorite lunches: North Indian Thali (shared with Jessica) and a Sweet Lassi drink. The thali is a collection of dishes: this one has a chick-pea curry (back/left), a paneer in masala sauce, and a section of lentils(back/right). The dishes come with rice (in the same tray section as the curd- the white stuff with bits of carrot) and roti (like naan only smaller and lets buttery) and some carrots and onions. The best part of the lunch is the sweet lassi which is really sweet, thick yogurt; the green things are pistachio shavings.

*3pm - autorickshaw ride back to the college

*3:30pm- meet with team members and learn from second supervisor that our primary supervisor has chicken pox...plans for next week are in the air (a condition we are getting increasingly tolerant of :)

*4pm - try to do some editing of report...and end up watching some Indian music videos on TV in Julie and Jessica's room

*6:30pm - round up most of the crew for a run on the field around sunset - one of the best parts of the day

*7:30pm - shoot the basketball around until it is dangerously dark on the slippery/sandy/broken concrete basketball court - go into the gym...smile as I do every day when I see the treadmills - they don't make them like this any more! You can build one at home - all you need is some 2x4s, a bakers dozen rolling pins, and a wide strap :) - no electricity needed.*8:15pm - shower up and head over to the canteen (cafeteria) for dinner to hang out with our Indian girl friends. They are on scholarship and are mostly from farming families in Ladakh. Ladakhis look Chinese and are primarily Buddhist. In this freshman class there are several sets of sisters of differing ages.

*9:30pm- excuse ourselves from dinner since we are all pooped (and chances are 2 out of 5 of us are having some sort of stomach issue...good times).

*10pm- post blog for you lovely people.

Love, Catherine