week 1.5

we're a week and a half into our trip, and the challenges have been many. temperatures around 109, cooling down to the upper 80's at night, trying to stave off heat exhaustion and the infamous "delhi belly" (some successfully, others unfortunately not so much), all in a pretty poor resource environment, which means frequent power outages. i think the students will never look at a class of cold, drinkable water the same way again.

all this being said, the students are doing an admirable job of adapting and coping with everything. their intercultural skills are definitely getting a workout, as are my own.

their volunteer experiences have been widely varied, and some are confronting lots of idle time or just observing. the most engaging programs seem to be in the education section, working with students of all ages, ranging from pre-school all the way through high school.

one of the best things for me is that i've started helping out in the kitchen preparing our meals so that i can learn to make some indian dishes without a cookbook.

we've also already seen many of the most significant sites related to the spread of islam and muslim rule in india: qutub minar, lal qila, jama masjid, quite a contrast to the basti in which we're living.

i hope the students will start blogging, but we're all pretty tired at the end of the day, and internet access is somewhat limited.

that's it for me for today.

kuda hafiz

First Week of Working with the HOPE Project

We are now in our second day of working with the HOPE project and the best word I can think of to describe it is challenging. I am currently working with two other students in the Vocational Training program and we are helping out in the computer lab. Yesterday, we spent most of our day teaching computer skills including word documents and formatting and even the basics of what are the part of a computer. For me this was a challenge because I use a computer everyday but I never think about what a motherboard is or about my RAM. The final class we helped with was an English conversation class. This is perhaps the most difficult because I did not understand what I was supposed to be teaching...grammar, pronunciation, spelling (and as you probably can tell grammar is not really my thing!) For now I will say goodbye because we are off to start another busy day!
By the way it s really hot and the power went out in our house which leaves me amazed at the strength of the people to here to survive the climate!

Packing, repacking and packing once again...

I used to consider myself a master packer, meaning I was able to take the smallest bag but still be prepared for all situations; that is until this trip.
The question of what to bring to a country I have never even been near and for four weeks on top of that has left my head spinning. I think that I have officially completed my packing (or at least I refuse to do it anymore!) The only thing left is to get a good night's rest before all of the traveling tomorrow...hmmmm. I think that I will be a task in itself. I am beyond excited and there are a million in one things running around in my head including, the few Hindi phrases I have learned, the names of places we are going and a few facts about Indian History (I am like Martha and like to do a little reading before traveling). So with the task of falling asleep ahead of me, I say "Good Night" and see you in India!

Not so Bad

The heat, that is. It's not significantly more intense than the worst summers I've experience in Baltimore (where it's a lot more humid), but then you have to throw in the 14 million Delhi-ites, along with all the buses, cars, rickshaws, and the dusty winds blowing in from rajasthan, all of which makes for pretty horrendous air quality.

We're getting ready for the arrival of our students. Less than 24 hours before the first couple! Yikes!

Anxiousness

So I'm anxiously awaiting our trip to India. I am happy to say that now that my finals are over and I am moved home I have a much clearer head with which to think about the trip. Before I was so excited for it but still worried about everything that I had to finish before I could even begin to think about India. I haven't even started packing yet but I am anxious to try this new little idea called "under-packing." I've never tried it before but I have high hopes. . .

I am also the kind of person who usually does a lot of preparation before going on a trip to another country. I try to learn some useful phrases in the native language, I read up on some local history, watch some movies and listen to music from that culture, and of course eat lots of that kind of food in preparation. I have already started to do these things for our trip to India but I also want to try something new (since this is a trip of completely new experiences) and that is, that I don't want to prep myself too much for the trip so that everything I see there is exactly my own pure emotions and first reactions and not what some book is telling me to feel about what I'm seeing. Old habits die hard, but I'm trying to break some so that this trip can be the best trip ever.