Day 15-20 Adventure Week

Day 15
June 7, 2011
Wow so I knew that today would mark the beginning of adventure week, but never in a million years would I have imagined it starting off like it did. We woke up at 4:20AM to catch our ride to the air port. We made it into the air port 45 minutes before our plane was to take off so we got lectured by the people who are in charge of check ins for being late. We made it onto the plane with a minute to spare by the time we made it though security. We swore we would never cut it so close to missing a flight again..
We made it into Delhi where we had about a 3 hour layover until our next flight out to Udaipur. We were just enjoying out time talking over great world issues over chi when we noticed it was 11:30 ten minutes “before boarding time”. However we misread our tickets 11:40 was when our plane departed. By the time we got to the gate though the huge airport it was quote on quote “impossible” for us to catch that one. Now I didn’t have to try to cut the time close, but we just missed our flight instead. The airlines we were on did not have another flight out to Udaipur until the next day, but another airline had one out there at 1:30. This gave us about an hour and a half to get things sorted out. Being in India though things are not centered and discovered though computer like in America, but rather you have to go though people. We have been getting up early with all the other interns to do the Insanity workout, but no joke after running around the airport like we did I felt like I did insanity x 2. We finally got our tickets to the next flight, but this meant we had to go though security again and our luggage was still being brought to the ticket counter to the plane. The people kept saying it would be 30 min, however we had no time for this. The doctors agreed to attempt to wait for our luggage while we booked it to the gate where we could at least attempt to stall them as much as possible. By the time we got to the gate it was already the final boarding call…so again we j1ust made it in time, but the doctors were still not there and there was no way we were going to get on a plane without them…so we did what we white girls can do best and stalled. Right before they were about to shut the gate the doctors appeared, but still without luggage. We agreed that we would much rather get on the next flight then be stuck waiting for luggage. It was a small plane and I have been on small planes before, but this was hands down the absolute worst flight ever!!! They said the turbulence was from the clouds, but I can guarantee you it was just a cover up for a first time pilot. Over half the flight threw up either during or as soon as the plane landed. I felt awful myself, but for a while I thought it was just me being dramatic. I honestly wish I could have puked to make me feel better. The nausea lingered for an hour or so at least and even carried all the way with one of the doctors til we finally reached our destination by car. Since we had absolutely nothing beside our purses and by bag with my laptop we had to stop by a market along the way to at least get by until we fly back into Delhi on Friday to claim our luggage (hopefully). So for the next four days I have the Sawwar I was wearing today along with the one I bought, 2 pairs of underwear, one sports bra, and we bought toothbrushes and toothpaste. So we have just enough to get by. Good thing were meeting with different people every day this week.
Although this kinda sucks I really do believe that it is in God’s plans as weird as that sounds, but let me explain. The other night I was praying that God would work in a big way and really break my heart for what is breaking his. I was complaining and bitter because I have to be out in the sultry heat and sun with no change of clothes or sanitary care. However the majority of the people here don’t even have that to begin with. In a sense I feel like he really wants me to be able to relate to the people on a different level and really understand what they are going though. I am becoming vulnerable in a new way in a completely new environment. Rajasthan is completely different then Hyderabad. It’s definitely more rural, but it is also beautiful! I would go as far as to compare them to the mountains in Colorado, but they are at least larger than normal hill. I literally felt like I was in the Jungle Book on a safari on the drive here. First off I have seen more cows here on one drive than I have seen on my entire trip in Hyderabad so far! There are sooo many!!! Of course you have the same crowed of scrawny , flea infested dogs running around, but for the first time in India so far I saw monkeys!! They were running all across the road and jumping on nearby rocks! We saw a few camels as well! My favorite and most exciting though was the elephant!!! I tried so hard to take a pic of it, but we were driving too fast and my camera was to slow… a bit unfortunate, but I’m hoping we see another one! I feel like Rajasthan is the typical India that everyone almost imagines in a since. You are passing rural farmlands surrounded by hills. A huge sun, larger than you can imagine is setting in the hazy hue of pollution. Women are in bright sarees, but are carrying enormous objects balanced on their head. I am so impressed and the strength it must take as well as the talent. I was super tired from the day, but these sights were so stimulating and changed every second. It was in this moment that I truly recognized that it really is a way of life to live everyday like these people are. I was lucky enough to see the strains of hard work pass by in seconds, but I couldn’t imagine living a life like this in my life’s entirety. When I saw the women squatting on the ground with a huge goiter on her neck (about the size of a second head), that’s when my heart broke and I realized how blessed we truly are. First off I could never imagine living a life working in a field only because I am in debt to someone else. Then with the women and her goiter… no one is out in that rural area to help her! Even if there were a hospital nearby she could probably never afford to go there. I really really do not want to come back hateful towards America…but the more I see and the more I realize how much of the simple things we take for granted the more and more I just want people to know and understand that this isn’t an issue that is being exaggerated or made up! Its real and it exists. I don’t want people to think that India is all poverty stricken, because it’s not, but there is an obvious gap and division between the rich and poor. Being in this rural area I stared to wonder where these people even live. There are not high rise apartments like there are in the cities, but every once in a while you will see little huts made out of straw in the fields. As we were driving I saw little naked children running around without a car in the world. I saw people bathing themselves with unclean well water while others parked their motorcycles on the side of the street to take a plunge into the river. Cows ruled the single lane road that connected the villages. Women and men could be seen squatting anywhere where they could find shade from the sultry heat. Children jumped and waved at passer bys trying to get you to buy their fruit. Young men could be seen hanging on and riding on the top of the bus because the inside was already crammed tight. I wish I could share the sights I saw though my own eyes. I just want people to know and understand, but I know they won’t until they see it themselves. I’m vulnerable, I’m hurt, and I’m being challenged. Its what I wanted and its what I asked for. God surly does not disappoint. I just have to keep reminding myself that God’s plans are always bigger than my own. God is in control. I can only do so much, but I pray to God that he uses me to make a difference. I don’t want to be content living a materialistic life at home. I complain that I am a broke college student, but to over half of the population here I am a millionaire! There is so much to do and so much I want to see changed, but it’s not solely in my hands to do this. I don’t know what I am supposed to do from here. I see God slowly starting to show me a new path of life, but the thought of such a sudden change scared me. I don’t want to make any decision after impulse of because of emotional reasons, but I feel like this is something I am truly passionate about and something that God always has had picked out for me. I don’t know where God will lead me after this trip, but my hopes are to eventually used my acquired skill to continue His work in foreign lands.
Day 18
June 10, 2011
The term “Holy Cow” has now taken on a whole new meaning. This trip to Rajasthan has been insane, crazy, and moving at the very least. So as a refresher from the very beginning of this trip we missed our flight, out luggage was lost, and when we got to our hotel electricity went out, AC broke (temporarily), and there was a huge Indian party going on outside our hotel except I do not think we white girls were invited. Eventually all the hotel issues got solved minus the fact I woke up with a creepy cockroach like creature crawling on my hand…not gunna lie it kinda grossed me out just a tiny bit… We were so blessed to visit the Hazemel School. The kids were very bashful at first but they warmed up a bit later on when we mention Cricket, futbol, and brought out the camera. That is one was to break the ice and start conversations with them. The first day in Banswara, Rajasthan was full of driving to and from meetings in search of a doctor and nurse for the clinic that we hope to open very soon. It is much harder than one may thing to find a Christian doctor in a tribal village. The people are so hospital though. I honestly feel like they do not stop trying to feed you. The food in this area is so much more enjoyable than the overly spicy stuff in Hyderabad. Instead of white rice they use whole wheat flower in Roti (a type of thin bread) or Nann (thinker bread). This change in diet also helps explain why there is less diabetes and hypertension in this area of India. That evening after meetings we went to the old missionary hospital. This hospital was quite possibly the coolest hospital ever but seriously just came out of a scene form a haunted house. It used to be a 300 room hospital complete with surgery rooms, patient wards, labs… the whole shebang. It was open and ran by a missionary team about 100 years ago… for some reason after funding ran out or so they say it closed down and everyone just left. When you walk in it looks like something happened and everyone just stopped in the middle of their jobs and left. They old surgery room operating tables were covered in dust… they centrifuge was the old type you cranked by hand to separate the components in blood. Syringes with needles attached were just lying on the dust laden tables… it was very eerie… some people now live in the abandoned hospital rooms.
The next morning we got up went back to Hazemel and actually examined the kids. They were still very skinny, but their condition seemed fairly health. The temperature that day was 50 degrees Celsius which translates into 122 F! It was a hot one…no wonder we took a three hour afternoon nap. I think that is one of the challenges of finding the needed staff to run the clinic—everyone is inside during the hot afternoon hours and only come out in early mornings or evenings. I felt bad for the kids who go to school here in rural India. Most walk over an hour with all their bags and books just to get to school every day…most of them don’t get breakfast and rarely have lunch. We got to visit a government run hospital today also which was interesting to see and compare. This one in particular was not as in bad condition as I would have expected for a government ran hospital, but at the same time I would still not feel safe here if I even go a simple paper cut. This one hospital currently serves 32,000 people with one doctor. Five are employed and paid, but four do not show up and pay off the inspectors during inspection time. No one cares about this hurting population.
I am ashamed and sadden for the women and men here who do manual labor in the traitorous heat in order to make just enough to put bread on the table. When I look at the fields I feel like I have stepped back in time into one of my history books based on slavery prior to the Civil war. Women especially are in their beautiful sarees with axes and hoes in hand manually plating seeds and tilling the ground. A man often has a team of two cow harnessed up to a plow. I can’t help but look at the farming and ranching in America and see how every little thing is processed by machines. My first initial thoughts were to somehow provide machines for these people, but then again this is their work and if machines replaced them then where would that leave the rural people in India. It’s a situation that is more difficult the originally perceived. I have seen naked men women and children bathing in the stream. I have seen these beautiful women and men doing what we would call road construction. Instead of putting cones up around the new drying asphalt they “hired” children to collect rocks and throw them on the streets so autos would not drive over it.
That night was such a great American night in. We ordered room service and enjoyed some amazing vanilla milkshakes while watching the Chronicles of Narnia. I was glad this came on, but it was also the only thing in English. In the middle of this great relaxing night trying to process all the emotions, loud bangs surrounded our hotel. First I thought it was gun shots and then I literally thought our hotel was about to be bombed! We turned off all the lights and peered outside the windows. I was signs and banners…of course then I thought it was some sort of protest....then I saw tuba players and drums and a whole band that followed… so then I thought it was a parade going on at 10:00 at night. Then I saw a man riding in on a white horse decked out in gold and red accessories… that is when I realized I was witnessing a true Hindu wedding. Boy do they know how to celebrate…of course we weren’t invited to this party either, but hey we enjoyed the little we saw.
This last day in Rajasthan… wow… We went to the Kewidia School. I literally saw these children starving in front of me. I am not emotional person and I do not cry very often, but this is the one moment in India so far that made me have to hold back tears. These kids did nothing wrong. They don’t deserve less than what I had. Guilt flooded me thinking about the nice room service I was getting and the Masala tea I was able to drink every morning. I thought about these kids and how often they are even able to eat. The healthcare worker at this school listed all of the kids here as in healthy condition on the data she gave us, but the sad part is they all look so thin that one would just assume it’s the norm. One was so thin you could see the capillaries on his stomach. They were all so sweet and filled with smiles. The main problem in that area was the drought. They were getting no meats, no eggs, maybe nutrition-less veggies twice a week if they were lucky, and mainly ate a piece of roti for an entire days worth of food. You have no idea how bad I wish I had the money or a way to really contribute to getting food for these kids. I would love to study nutrition further and be able to teach the people about how they can bring about their own self sufficiency like how to raise chickens for eggs, crop rotation, fertilizing the land. Some basic things that would really make a difference. It was a hard day having to see that.
The day did not end there however…I think today we made the biggest cultural oops one could ever make in India. As you may know the cow is worshiped by Hindu believers here as a god like creature. Cows roam EVERYWHERE in this place… the numbers are unbelievable! Well were just driving along making our way back to the air port and “BAM”…we hear a huge thud. I look out the window and see cow legs spinning, people in shock, and me trying to hold back the disbelief of what just happened… let’s be honest here… what can one really do after hitting a Hindu god. Sure maybe say a little prayer, but then you have to continue on with what you needed to be doing in the first place. So our driver after skidding all across the road and screeching the breaks stops, but then just carries on with his driving. Of course this was a really bad thing that just happened, but at the same time it was so hard to try not to laugh… I had to contain myself for I was in a car full of Indians though. We drove for about 15 more minutes of so and then all of a sudden a car of police officers pull in front of us and user us to stop. Our driver gets out and everyone is yelling back and forth. At this point I was nervous and had no clue what was about to happen. Things settled after a bit, but our diver got back in and a police officer crammed himself into the front seat and made us turn around towards the direction we just came. Eventually we turned into a building which was obviously the police station. In my head I seriously could not believe what was happening… of course it looked even more suspicious having two white girls with 4 Indian men so that did not help the situation at all. The officers started asking if we were Christian… yelling continued… and I really thought I was about to be thrown into an Indian jail for being in a vehicle that just hit a baby cow. Only in India I’m telling you… While all of this was going on in a language we could not understand no one cared to translate for us. So we were just a little lost and possibly a little scared. When one of the Indian teachers we have gotten to know over the past few days got back in the car he told us not to take pictures of anything and to say were just tourist visiting places. Oh great so now were trying to avoid questions from the cops… that shouldn’t make us more nervous or anything… then the other teacher said you don’t need to worry, “Gods with us”… how encouraging reallysarcasm. Finally one of the officers opens the door and starts talking to us then smiling… of course I had no clue what he was saying, but when translated we found out he was letting us go so we could catch our plane back to Delhi. So for a 4 hour ride back to the hospital we had us two white girls, the four Indian men, and a police officer in the front seat to make sure the driver returned after he dropped us off at the airport back to the station to get things sorted out. It was such and eventful and challenging week in Rajasthan, but one that will be remembered for quite some time. We made it safely into Delhi tonight were we are safe and sound with our other interns in the hotel. They spent the day in Delhi before we got here and according to them it is “metal!” so pray for our safety and protection here. Tomorrow we will be seeing the Taj Mahal! I can’t wait to actually not be the only white person around. It will be nice to feel at normal again at least for a few hours. I’m sick of feeling like I have laser beams on me everywhere I go. I can’t wait to be home where everyone is to absorbed in themselves to pay attention to me or to others. Who would have though one could be thankful for that… Only in India…

Day 20
June 12, 2011
The Taj Mahal definitely makes the list of one of the most beautiful and unbelievable things I have seen in my life so far. I kinda felt like I was in a dream when I was there… in fact I still can’t belive I got to see this enormous wonder for myself. Just like this trip… if you would have told me at the beginning of this year that I would be here I just might have laughed in your face. I truly feel blessed for this opportunity in so many ways. I have had a chance to see a world that is beyond my imagination. I am being challenged emotionally and intellicuatlly. My decision making skills are still a work in progress though. There have definitlay been some times of frustrations and negative feelings towards people continue to grow. I really hope that this proceeding time here will help me overcome this. In a way though I have prayed that God would break me down, lay it all out on the table, and really help me grow and this may just be His way of doing just that. Its kind of neat to work though problems with God at your side. This does not mean it makes things any easier though.
The drive to the Taj was soooo long. We probably spent about 10 hours out of the day driving and about 3 in total in Agra. Seems a bit crazy and maybe a bit unfair for our time there, but no joke I don’t think I have sweated so much in my entire life. It was so flippn hot! Honestly the comfort of the car was sort of nice. We had a great tour guide, but our driver although nice was another story. About three hours into our trip back to Delhi we pulled over all of a sudden, he jumped out of the car, and him and the driver behind us started screaming at eachother! If the streets in India were not crazy enough…this just made even more insance. The thing I saw in Delhi which was not so prevalent in Hyderabad where the child beggers…much like the ones seen on Slumdog Millionaire. Its so hard because you want to help, but you don’t want to support this underground industry that continues to traffic young children from the slums. I supposes its best to look at this issue as a long term fix. You hurt for the children, but if you stop giving money than one would hope that eventually this business could be shut down. One girl had a bloody arm wrapped in a bandage. It was hard to tell if it was real or fake, but if it were real its hard to imagine how much pain she has suffered from her pimp in order to look this was. Another young girl ran around to different vhicals carrying a small baby on her hip… you don’t want to look and you try to igrnore as best as you can the pain you feel for these children, but it is nearly impossible.
Today, our last day in Delhi, we were just sight seeing. We did so much in a matter of three hours or so. Our first stop was the gate of India and although it was not Washington DC itself it is probably the India equivilant. A huge gate all in ceantral lines with the capital building, streets, and fountains. The park surrounding the area was also super nice. Men all dressed in white were playing games of Cricket. We went to this other fort like place which is one of the most visited sites in Delhi, but it did not seem worth it to walk all the way in to see a tall fort and barracks so we just obsevered what we could from the outside. We also went to the Lotus Temple which was quite an impressive structure and beautiful, but the religious aspect of it kinda freaked me out. Last we went to the Gandi memorial which was his house as well as the place he got assassinated. The gardens were so peaceful and I felt like I could have sat there for hours just thinking and processing though all of life’s daunting questions. While sitting our on a bench waiting for my friends I got mombed by a group of Indian men wanting a picture with me… if only I could describe such an awkward feeling… I ran out of there as soon as I could. It was a great thing I couldn’t even find my friends. Eventually I did though and we made our way to a place for lunch. It was quite possible the biggest mall I have ever seen in my life. You could have easily spent the whole day there if you really wanted to but it was a great thing I am not much of a shopper. I hands down would choose the bazaars over that place. Lunch was amazing though… I know I am in India and supposed to be eating all this Indian food, but having a western meal has never been so comforting. We split a margarita pizza with homemade crust and baked fresh in a stone oven! So yummy! They also had some great smoothies that I really wanted… but I keep telling myself I must resist until I get home.
Its hard to belive that I am halfway done with my stay here and only have 3 weeks left. We already have our last weekend planned with our very own fouth of july party. Who knows what it will turn out like, but so far the plans sound promising. We are about to get on our plane back to Hyderabad so I guess its about that time for me to wrap up and start heading towards the gate. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and encouraging emails… they truly lift me up in the rough moments.