Monsoon Festival in Haridwar

FRIDAY, JUNE 13th
It's raining and so muggy outside. I'm excited to head up north where it's coooooler. Our adventure begins when our driver gets in a fender-bender whilst stuck in the murderous Delhi traffic on the way to the bus station. Uh-oh. Out of this tiny little car come these big turbaned Sikh men- like 8 of them! The driver has an orange turban, a bushy white beard and towers over our wimpy litle driver. Then they argue. And argue. (Indian style) Our driver is refusing to pay for the damage, so he gets us involved; he wants us to pay up! The Sikh men then start poking their heads in, asking us for some money to cover the charges. We look at them and say "Oh hellll no." So our driver is still standing there, not understanding any English and refusing to pay. He looks at us pathetically for money, but we've already payed him for the ride. He just doesn't want to take it out of his 850 rupees fare. So Amanda asks one of the men how much and he says either 100 or 400 rps. So in a bold, balsy move, Amanda grabs the 500 note and hands it to the guy. Man, the look of shock and disbelief on our driver's face is priceless.
The guy turns around and it's over. Easy. What a prick our driver! It's his own fault he lost all that money, if he had just payed in the first place. It's then another (awkward) 45 minutes before we make it through traffic to the bus station. We find a man yelling "Hardwar Hardwar Hardwar" and find some seats in the back of the local bus. "Doin' it like the locals do," we say. NO idea what we are getting ourselves into....
After some confusion with the price (160? 106?116?) we are off! Crammed on a bus, in Delhi traffic, listening to our Ipods to songs by the Beatles. Laughing, dancing, singing. In front of us pop up these two kids- POP! Cute now, definitely not later. The little boy has quite an attitude for a 2-year-old. They think it's fun to stare at us for hours. Three hours later, we stop at a rest stop for food. Amanda is still recovering from Delhi belly all day but seems to be doing better. Hannah and I are smoking by the bus when some guys run up to us saying, "Ice cream! Ice cream!" We just shake our heads no, no, no thank you. Then some more run over and imitate someone fainting. Shit.
We run over to the ice cream stand where there's a crowd of people hovering. Amanda is passed out in a chair. I push my way through the crowd to see her blank white face, pupils dilated and what looks like shock or a fit or something. A big woman is rubbing and shaking her to wake her up. God, I've never been so scared to see someone's face like that, like they're dead. I'll never forget that face. Amanda finally comes around, asking where the hellll she was. We give her water and juice. I am impressed by how many people come to her aid. Someone bought us a fans and ice cream, another trustworthy man is holding her backpack when we look for it. And our big Hindu momma is taking care of Amanda. We all walk her back to the bus and fill her up with electrolytes and juice. She hasn't eaten any food all day because of her illness. This is when the bus ride begins its desperate tone, when we know that Amanda needs a proper bed and needs to get off the bus. We get stuck in over 2½ hours of traffic, in sweltering heat. Amanda keeps sticking her head out the window, even though the air is clogged with fumes. The little shits run out, jump on our laps, steal our water bottles, ask for gum and pull Amanda's hair. Cute at first until we realize the little boy is the devil in disguise. Of course, the parents hardly do anything to stop them. My favorite is when the little nasty monster bites off a piece of the chair in front of him and spits it at me. Fun.
All I really remember from the trip is Amanda's head sticking out the window, like she's gonna be sick; endless traffic jams where the bus would turn off and people would get out to smoke. One time I did get out and the bus started moving without me! Nearly shit a brick, started running and hopped back on on the moving bus. The little monster came over to sit on our laps and play with our things. His favorite game though was pulling Amanda's already-messy hair. Of course, his parents did nothing to stop him. By the end we were all muttering swears words.
When we were only 30 km outside Haridwar, I figured we were less than 45 min away- wrong.
I woke up from my nap, confused why we hadn't arrived yet when it was already frickin midnight.
That's when I started to panic and it stopped being funny. We hadnt even booked a hotel room. A local guy on the bus was very helpful in helping us find a place and call Bandhu for assistance. Another guy in back used his cell phone to call places for us that we found in the Lonely Planet guide (thank god for that). I was so thankful for such generous people ! After several calls, we finally found a place for 1800 rupees. We were lucky to even find a place since it was the weekend of MONSOON FESTIVAL in Haridwar. Holy cow.

Delhi Belly

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11th
It's a hot hot day and the electricity and fans are already out by the time we get there at 10AM- I work with the little ones today and we mostly just color. They all come up at once and I try to write down words and have them repeat them, but after a while it isn't worth it. To be honest, the day doesn't have the same energy we had the day before- the kids are going crazy and just want to color, not learn proper English. Also, parents are dropping off their little kids so I feel like I'm running a daycare center rather than an English school. There is a two-year-old running around, stealing the coloring pages from the girls; I finally have to send her home. We break for lunch to compose ourselves again but most of the kids just stay to jump rope and color. There are now a few little boys running around and wrestling, which just adds to the pandemonium.
At one point, Hannah says, "I think we may have actually lost control..." I am exhausted, annoyed and frustrated. The big girls only want to color and sit in front of the fan. I keep suggesting that we send the kids home but they keep playing around. Finally, an hour later, after just horsing around, they finally all leave. Priya shows Hannah and Amanda around the colony. When Bandhu picks us up, I hint that I might not be there tomorrow...
We go up to the Sector 15 market and have a dance party in the CD store, where we buy all these fantastic CDs. I take a nap when we get home and feel nauseous right before dinner. I end up vomiting all over the driveway and later again in the night. It seems that Delhi belly is unavoidable. Whatever I ate, my body doesn't agree with. Bandhu takes me to the market to drink a BIG glass of grapefruit juice from a fruit stand. Reena brins me some watermelon and yogurt to help my tummy. The street kids come later on- we regain control and do number exercises, like drawing 3 squares and 4 circles. I work with this adorable little boy, with the biggest brown eyes. After a few tries of writing a number and then drawing that amount of circles and triangles, he FINALLY catches on! Yayy I'm so proud of him!
Thursday night is Bandhu's last night of freedom before we go away for the weekend. After the kids leave, Vidit comes down for a while to play with water and color with pencils. Little monster!
Once the girls come back, Hannah is ill from whatever I had the day before. We head up to the roof to lay out in the sun and smoke more Indian cigarettes. When we run out, I hop on the back of "Bad-hu's" motorbike and we scoot our way over to the shop for illegal alcohol. That's mostly all I remember from my last night at Bandhu's, great conversation with the girls up on the rooftop.
FRIDAY, JUNE 13th
Last day at the leprosy colony :( After my day off, I'm ready to come back and make the most of the day. It's pouring out today which means the room is hot as hell, and humid! I feel a bit lost today, unsure what to teach the big girls. I give the younger ones to Jessica and take Karmini, Laxmi and the other bright one. We work on active and passive voice from Karmini's grammar book and laugh trying to make sentences work. I make Lakshmi read every sentence to improve her reading skills. God, I wish I could tutor her privately because I can tell she really wants to improve and has so much potential. We find a way to communicate with each other based on big smiles and even bigger laughs...
We end the day with a big round of duck-duck-goose. Looking back, it is a great way to do something with all the students, both big and small, and to laugh with them. They love to choose me! And always laugh when they see me running running after the little kids.
I say my goodbyes at the school, attemping to hug some of them but they don't reall understand the gesture haha. Lalita especially is very sweet: "Ve vill miss you Didi," she keeps saying. Whenever I picture sending computers to the school, I picture Lalita or Lakshmi using them. My favorite image of Lakshmi is her running around the circle, her curly hair down and bouncing around and her sari blowing behind her, and just the biggest smile on her face.
The girls give me a little metal bracelet for a gift. I wave goodbye at the families standing outside as Bandhu's car pulls away.
Back at home, we scamper around to find last minute stuff before our taxi arrives for RISHIKESH!!! My sanctuary...
We're going away for the weekend and are all just so excited. There's five of us: me, Hannah, Amanda, Jessica and Delphine. Bandhu looks so sad as we pull away- that we're leaving him for the weekend!

Mangoes

MONDAY, JUNE 9th
Monday morning Jess and I brainstorm again on ideas for the children, like scavenger hunts and spelling exercises. At the school, I have a little less energy compared with other days. I start off the lesson with spelling, where I would say a sentence and they would write it down. I'm getting frustrated though because the girls would just copy off each other, and not receive the benefit of learning to write a word themselves. When the other half of my girls come in, they just copy the sentences which completely defeated the purpose of the exercises- but they don't understand that. School ends again with the Hokey-Pokey, which the big girls don't like! Jess and I have a little energy left on this hot hot day but are invited into the home of Lakshmi.
It is very humbling- Lakshmi's family has this tiny room with one bed...so I'm not really sure where her family of 5 all sleep- but Lakshmi's beautiful mother serves us delicious fresh mango. We make friendly conversation with her family- Priya translates.
When we return, the street kids are already there and are nasty little brats today. Jess and I have little patience for them so we just send them home. I found out all my money was taken out of my account with some check problem, which chased me allllll the over to India. The new volunteers arrive today - Hannah and Amanda are staying here while Delphine and Natalie will be staying at Karm Marg.
TUESDAY, JUNE 10th
Hannah and Amanda are coming with me to the school today :) In the morning, we sort out things from all the loads of stuff that Amanda and I brought to India. Amanda is so incredibly giving- even though she's broke after paying to come here, she still spent over $200 on kids' supplies and set aside more money to buy things for the kids- for example, Wednesday night we looked for CD player to buy for the school. I want to be more like this, giving and generous for all other people, and think less about myself. I learn later that Amanda is only 20, soon to be 21, which blows my mind! All week, I've considered her and Hannah to be my elders, my big older sisters to learn from. I was truly shocked when these two amazing girls I figured were around twenty-three/ twenty-four were actually the same age as me! They are both incredible people, and were wonderful at the school. God, we just had the BEST day. Hannah took the little girls (and one 3-yr adorable boy named Anju) and everytime I look over at her, she is beaming and looks so happy with the little ones. They do some coloring but are learning at the same time, and play games like Ring Around the Rosy, and are always enchanted by Hannah's "aura" hehe. She is truly lovely. Amanda is fabulous as well, I couldn't have been more pleased of how great they are at the school. She takes half the big girls and I take the others. Someone gives her a roll-up plastic "blackboard" which is great. I first have the girls reading books with each other; I go around and I help them with the hard ones. But soon Priya, in a ten minute long sentence, explains that they can read the words but have no idea what they meant all together in a phrase. So I change my gameplan and we did something great- one person reads the page, then Priya translates into Hindi.
On a big piece of posterboard that Amanda brought, I write down vocabulary words, like "curious," "yard" and "celebrate", and then Priya would translate them to Hindi. It was great to feel like I was finally getting through to them. Our chosen book that we all read together was a classic: Curious George.
We stop for lunch where we are served a double lunch because both Lakshmi and Karmini's mothers bring us dosa and idli with spicy coconut sauce- a south Indian specialty. After lunch, we just play games like "What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?" and a long game of Simon Says. It's cute because none of the little kids understand the rules and just copy everything we are doing. Karmini is our winner. We also get out the jump ropes, which start arguments among the children. Amanda and I just sit arond the fan, surrounded by girls talking and laughing in Hindi. We start singing all our favorite pop songs and we show each other our dances moves. They all love Amanda because she can dance anywhere, without even music. Love her! After we let out school, Lalita invites us into her home next door for some food. Her mother is very sweet and warm, although she doesn't speak a word of English. Lalita's English is decent- she can convey her thoughts to me. Her father, whose hands are scarred from leprosy, speaks a few words as well. They show us their family album of their first daughter's wedding; they are all beaming with pride. Their family is South Indian, so the wedding had a more tropical, exotic feel, with the bride wearing a colorful garland of flowers. There are also pictures of Karmini dressed up for her birthday- she is stunning. She has a fushia-colored sari, and jewels in her hairline and a pink bindi; with her dark skin, her white straight teeth contrast beautifully. They also have a little brother named Rajat, who looks identical to Lalita. The two of them are adorable with their bright smiles and dimples!
Bandhu comes to pick us up and we are all glowing with happiness about how well today went. When we get home, we head up to the roof for cigs and deep conversation about the individual purposes of our trip here and how it affects daily our lives back at home. We talk for over an hour up there- the state of the world, my frustration with the US government and just government in general, optimism, and money- whether it's in the right hands or not. I take a lot away from the conversation, esp from what Amanda says about not feeling guilty if you can't do everything, can't help everybody. When she tells me she was going to buy a CD player and I said I felt guilty I couldn't chip in, she reminds me that if you feel guilty about not being able to do it, what's the point? It defeats the purpose. Do what you can within your means. She told me a story of how she spent her last $20 on the Make-A-Wish foundation and couldn't eat for the next 3 days- why? Because that was still within her means. She does other inspiring things, like volunteers with HIV patients and has a "swearing jar": for everytime she swears, she puts in $ that goes to stop-child trafficking. It's all very inspirational to me, to see someone my own age, with no advantages over me, doing these amazing things- small acts of kindness that make a big difference.


The streetkids come round 4pm and we color outside together. The little boy who had snuck up on the roof the day before (and who invited the rest of the neighborhood boys to terrorize us, and bang down our gate) was there. But only to play. Soon, our patience is spent and we send all the kids home with cookies. We shut the big gate in their faces, as they smile, wave and scream "Bye Didi!!!" That Kavita girl is evil, but I want to get through to her....
So we just lounge around on the roof after, talking and reflecting. We head to the Sector 10 market with Reena and the housekeeper Mogli- I feel like she is giving me dirty looks all night! The marker is sheeeer chaos and too much to handle, but Amanda is perfectly calm the whole time. She loves it; the crowds, the traffic, the staring. I hate it! We brainstorm more ideas to do with the kids tomorrow. All night, it was vodka and Coke with Bandhu. Hana and I stay up until 1am talking- she's telling me about her adventures in Thailand, from the 1 hour trek up 2,000 steps to a temple, to having geckos fighting in her beach hut. I'm intrigued and want to find out more about Thailand....

Akshardham: India's Religious Disneyland

SATURDAY, JUNE 7th
Jessica arrives today from the Catholic orphanage where she is working. We traveled before to Agra together, but now I have more of a chance to get to know her. She's been working in the rural areas of Faridabad, where she tells me some nightmare stories of the Father priest at the school and how he doesn't let her do certain stuff, like go to the market, and how he treats his servants like slaves. She's had a much different experience than me....
Me, Annie and Jess go to the lepresy colony all together and it was much better having 3 volunteers there. I made flashcards, the night before, that have verb tenses on them, past/present/future, with easy words, like "write" and "going". It's hard a lot of the time to get my girls to understand to READ the words aloud and to write their OWN sentences - they just copy everything I do. Bit frustrating.
It is a long day of teaching but we finish, as usual, with the HOKEY POKEY!! The little kids join in our circle and are laughing laughing laughing and probably making fun of me in Hindi :)
Afterwards, the three of us walk to the market so Jess can take a look at fabrics. The market is always filled with beeping cars, stray dogs, fruit vendors with flies buzzzzzing around the ripening fruit, and LOADS of people. Always. We look at all these fabrics and then drop them off at the tailor.
Back at home, we hang out, eat dinner and start drinking Indian beer. When Annie and I are up on the roof, a bat flies down SO low and almost hits us! We nearly scream our heads off...She tells me about the legit vampire bats in Thailand..eeek! Annie and Jess are really fun to talk with, about old stuff back at home. I'm liking Jess more and more and realize how quickly I judged her during our first day in Agra. Annie ends up going to bed early but it is nice to see a new, fun side to her and for her to come out of her shell a little more before she leaves us tomorrow. So Bandhu, Jess and I stay up for hours, the drinks flowing and the Indian cigarettes burning. We talk (again) about Global Crossroad blah blah blah so I try to change the subject to things like marriage and inevitably- divorce. Bandhu explains it's very uncommon and not socially accepted, at all, to be divorced here, so most people just stay miserable in their marriages. That night we all end of crashing on top of the king size bed!


SUNDAY, JUNE 8th
Annie, Jess and I split a cab to New Delhi for under 600 rupees. At one traffic light, a beggar comes to our window, his arm amputated with the bone still sticking out. God, I'm shivering just thinking about it. Poor guy- but seriously, going around sticking your arm in people's windows for money?! We drop Annie off at her 5-star Taj Mahal hotel...She needs a night of "rest" before flying back to Chicago. Jess and I are off to AKSHARDHAM!!! India's religious Disney World!!! The place is an absolute madddhouse - busier than Disney World during winter vacation, I promise you. You have to check your camera/purse/mobile. I will give it credit because even though it looks really crazy, it's still slightly more organized than the rest of India. On the loudspeaker is "Welcome to Akshardham...." Actually, the whole place reminds me of that scene in Shrek 1 with the castle town set up like an amusement park...You can see the tops of the gorgeous Hindu temple inside, completed in 2005! Once we were searched for any weapons..or cameras, we enter the "Cultural Complex" built for the Yogi Bhagwan Swamijiranayaklakaklavner...actually, I forget the name but for a boy, who at the age of 11, left home and traveled up to the Himalaya, where he became englightened and detached spiritually from this world. He then traveled up and down the entire coast of India over 7 years, guiding, speaking and healing others. "Swaminarayan Akshardham means the eternal abode of Bhagwan Swaminarayan (1781-1830) - a torchbearer of Indian culture and spirituality." The complex is on the river Yamuna outside of New Delhi. "It showcases India's glorious traditions and art, architecture, wisdom and spirituality." It's ironic however that despite whom the complex honors for his divinity and for the peace/love/prayers that the temple advertises - I FEEL NONE OF IT! I have never been pushed around so much, cut in line and STARED AT so much in my entire life! The whole place was very unholy. Honestly, they try to go big with it's construction to build a place big enough to hold thousands, but the problem is all the crowds and the difficulties that come with crowds.
Jess and I first walk through the Ten Gates, which are supposed to give you a sense of balance, harmony and purity - I just feel the old lady behind me pushing me along. Great.
I have to say though that the colors were amazing. It was definitely a place where women wear their Sunday best- their brightest, cleanest, sparkliest sari. The colors were breathtaking - esp when you're standing up and the temple and looking down and just see an array of rainbow colors. We bought our exhibition tickets for a mere 125 rupees and walked all through the long corridors decorated with intricate designs and archways. Down below is the world's largest step-well with a huge gold statue of the boy-child Bhagwan. All along the temple walls are these carvings of elephants and the lessons Bhagwan teaches us from these animals.
Getting up to the temple is a bit of an ordeal- we have to leave our shoes at the "Boot House" and step on these wet, slimy, sweaty mats where hundreds of dirty feet have already stepped today. Ew. The steps are white marble but still wicked hot from burning in the sun all day. The outside walls are carved out people and animals. The inside of the temple is massive, with carvings on every single last square inch of that place. There is a huge statue of Bhagwan in the lotus position, with worshipper gold statues. There are idols of Hinduism's favorite gods and big paintings with stories of the enlightened boy-child. Afterwards, we meet a nice British man living in Oregon who took us out of the 2-hr wait line into Theatre 2 for a film: it re-enacts the life of Bhagwan for understanding much better his lifeworks and his universal teachings.

After our movie, we go right into the next theatre (well not right into, we got pushed around a bit and cut and stared at) for a boat ride through India's deeply rich culture, religions and discoveries. Apparently India is the birthplace of democracy, the abacus AND the zero...hmmm...I think they're full of themselves... !
So by the end of the day, I am quite sick of the crowds, the pushing and SO sick of the staring...
Our driver is so relieved to see us after we get sucked into DisIndiaLand for over 5 hours.
He drives us to the Taj Mahal hotel, where we have a nice, relaxing swim with Annie- just what we need. Once we make it allll the way back to Faridabad, we were exhausted. What I love though is how Jess and I have spent the whole day together and always have something to talk about and relate to- I love people who I can chat with, nonstop conversation. We are both very similar in our fascination with India, yoga, Hinduism and the culture. I think us both growing up in sheltered communities like Nebraska and Massachusetts, and reading about India or learning yoga really shaped our similar intrigues with the civilization...
Anyway, we stay up late again with Bandhu talking, watching TV and all crash in the same room.

Hokey-Pokey in the lepresy colony

FRIDAY, June 6
Today we are going to the leprosy colony to teach the children English. We are the very first volunteers here. I'm definitely nervous on the way- I have no idea what to expect, but the whole idea of lepresy really freaks me out, even if Bandhu's convinced me I won't catch anything. The man who greets us has mangled hands and feet, but super-kind. He introduces his daughter Priya, who is wonderful and beyond her years (only 13!). She tells us firsthand that she wants to become a doctor. She goes to boarding school in Gurgaon and is her father's shining star, the apple of her eye. The colony has different stations that were donated by several people, including a Christian school donated by a couple in Georgia! There are bathroom stations, a binding/medical station and a workshop with hand looms. Since the people here have mangled limbs, they cannot work and depend on donations. The looms are great because it allows them to make textiles and sell for $. They become completely dependant on their children to take care of them and help with work. I think growing up in such a village really teaches the children humility, responsibility and certainly acceptance- of all people. The be honest, I was terrified to go to a LEPER colony- sounds straight out of a horror film! When we enter the school, I peer in looking for lepers, but there are none. Lepresy is now a cured disease but these people still have the marred and disfigured body parts...some are missing fingers, toes, noses and many are on crutches. But you also get an incredible sense of community around here. I think this is also why Priya acts so much older than 13- she has the responsibility of taking care of others and other children. She's clearly born to be a leader. I ask her how many siblings she has, but she calls all the children her brothers and sisters.
A couple of guys set up the room for us with fans and rugs. Slowly the kids trickle in, some with notebooks and pens, others not. Some are very dark-skinned; I learn later that they come from all over India, esp the state of Tamil Nadu, to live in this colony.
Annie and I split up the group into 2: big girls and little girls. Ohmigod they are so adorable the little ones, but I take on the big girls. Of course, I have NO idea what I'm doing, with no teaching tricks up my sleeve. We start with me asking: "What is your name?" How old are you?" They are so shy to respond and make fun of each other in Hindi, giggling all the time. We continue with writing sentences, like "What is your favorite color/movie/actor/animal?" - Priya is a big help in translating for me and helping me to understand what level of English these girls are at. There is one girl- Chantra- who is absolutely beautiful...She's only 15 years old but looks 20! She has a bone structure, kinda like Linda Weisz weird enough, and a beautiful smile. All the children have great smiles with contrast beautifully with their dark skin. We write sentences for over 2 hours and finish the day with two rounds of the HOKEY-POKEY! Man, did they laugh at this game!!! Especially the "shake it all around!" part.... I'm sure they like I'm half-crazy the way I dance around!
We shoo shoo the kids out the door who don't really understand that school is over! They are just so excited to be learning English. Priya shows me and Annie around her village- it's super poor, with trash, stray dogs and cows everywhere. But there's also a certain charm to it, neighbors are practically family and you can feel the sense of community. People on crutches walk around, old men with stick thin legs and a knob for a foot...Priya also shows us her school- the one donated by the Georgians. The windows are broken and the place is run down, but she is so so proud. The look on her face when she says, "This...is my school," is unmistakable. She also keeps telling us how much she loves Jesus (her school in Gurgaon is Christian). The center of the village has a bunch of different little shrines, respecting all the religions of the families who emigrated there.We sat for two whole hours waiting for Bandhu to pick us up.
When we get home, I immediately take a nap and then go to teach the streetchildren. Jyoti and I do some subtraction problems. Afterwards, while Bandhu heads to the pub, Annie and I head to the market to buy some junk food and stop in at the tailor's for alterations. I have been sick, you know, all day- the opposite of what was happening before. Something is off- the water maybe? It seems like it's inevitable though that you are going to get sick. Reena cooks us supper and we play with ViDit! Little monster....

At the orphanage, DIDI is my new name

I love my little apartment Bandhu has rented out for me. I ring the doorbell and someone opens the big gate for me. I have one of those big keys, the medieval kind, which opens to one small room, with a bathroom and a "kitchen." There's no shower, so I use a bucket to dump water from the faucet over my head; there's also no toilet, only a hole in the ground, but it's actually OK :) I like my little room to myself.

Thursday, June 5th
I have a new name: Didi. In Hindi it means "big sister," and it's what every little girl calls an older girl, even if it's not her sister. So, I am not Julia anymore, I am "Didi! Didi! Didi! Come herrrrrre chaya chaya chaya Didi!"
Me and Nicole head to the girls' orphanage today. We sit on the carpet as all the girls wander in and crowd around us, so excited for a new person. I tell them my name and they all want to touch me! For real! Nicole is already so comfortable with them...She chats with them while they just sit around and adore her. We all talk and gossip for a while...Well, they gossip in Hindi and I just smile like an idiot. Soon we go upstairs to a barren room, with other rooms nearby. The children were coming out the freakin' woodwork! Everywhere I turn around, a new child showed up. But they have BIG white smiles and love to laugh laugh laugh.
Chavla (Lisa) is the big sister ("Didi") of the house. I believe she's about twenty or twenty-one, and grew up in the orphanage but studies outside of it now. She comes up to me and asks me politely to teach her French. "French?" I ask her! She looks at me with such determination on her face. I have never seen anyone so excited and eager to LEARN. We go through her exercise book; I pronounce the words for her, she repeats them and writes the sounds in Hindi into her notebook. Sometimes I'll get her to repeat a word three or four times, and she still doesn't get it quite right but I encourage her anyways, like "Good! You got it! Great job!" ...And she smiles at me, does that little Indian head nod to the side and says "Ok, one more?" She is positively radiant and I love her hunger for knowledge. This is the kind of girl who deserves a scholarship to a university; I wish I could provide more opportunities for her.
When Lisa has to leave to go teach the young girls downstairs, the others grab my hand and we all make paper airplanes outside and eat crackers. There is one little girl (who I thought was a little boy for the longest time! Then I realize that's it's a girl, I mean duh it's a girl orphanage, but they shave everyone's hair for lice) who is so so cute and makes me laugh. We run around the rooftop together, flying our paper airplanes and laughing laughing. Everyone is so so excited I'm there that it keeps me upbeat the whole day. We run to every corner of the rooftop where they show me the houses and temples nearby. There is a beautiful tree that hangs a bit over the big rooftop that is dripping with bright red fruit. Yum!
Later Lisa comes back and we do more French lessons together. She has big round glasses that kind of make her look like an old lady! We kind of give up on the French and just talk and talk and talk on the floor with the other 13 and 14 year old girls. I ask them their favorite Bollywood actors and actresses, their favorite Bollywood movies, what they want to be when they grow up, their fav. American actresses....The little girls all crowd around my lap and we all read a vocabulary picture book.

I tell them I like dancing and we all run over to another room to blast the music! At first I thought they would all be dancinggg and show me some moves and show off, but no! They were all too shy!! Some of the little ones dance with me and the other slowly ease into it- the big girls refuse. I am surprised how shy they are here, in front of each other and in front of me. Soon I was just making up my own moves and we are all laughing, laughing, laughing.
It's lunchtime now and about 8 of them grab my hand and pull me down to the first floor. It is amazing how well I get by with them off just hand gestures. Only a few of them speak English, but somehow we all manage to communicate by facial expressions, body language and hand gestures. It's amazing how well humans can communicate without sharing a common language.
For lunch we all sit on mats and they slide out big buckets of rice, lentils and yogurt. Adi is the boy who lives across the street but comes here regularly to hang out with the girls. He has a flashy white smile and is quite the ladies' man, despite being only like ten years old. He's wearing an American Eagle polo and has quite the attitude with the ladies. He slides the bucket around the room and slops the food on to every plate.

I can tell all eyes are on me as we eat our meal. Every time I look up, I make eye contact with someone. I have trouble maintaining my appetite and not focus on what I'm eating. Plus, I haven't gone to the toilet since I got here! That's like 5 days, ouch. And am now feeling so constipated from the rice and chapatti and naan for like a week straight. After lunch we sit downstairs on the carpet and watch terribly bad, dramatic (but amazing at the same time) Indian soap opera and gossip some more. Soon after a rickshaw comes to pick up me and Nicole and take us to the Sector 10 market for MEHANDI! We both get beautiful henna designs on both sides of our left hand. We walk up and down through the outdoor market, alllllll eyes are on us. We wait in a bakery, away from the stares, for an hour waiting for the mehandi to dry and waiting for Annie. We both talk about being summer nannies and Nicole gives me some great advice on how to deal with Sam at age 12. She tells me about the magic of Costa Rica and how she plans on volunteering in Africa next summer, either Ghana or Kenya.

When we returned by motor rickshaw back to Bandhu's, the streetchildren are already here with their notebooks out. I work with the most adorable little boy; we sing our ABC's together and write our letters; I teach another little one how to write the alphabet. This is the only schooling they'll receive.
At night, me and Annie head to the market with Reena (Bandhu's sister-in-law) and Vidit (her 2-yr-old son) to pick out some fabric for my suit. I go to two fabrics shops in the market and look at alllll different colors and patterns, and choose one that has a white top with flowers and blue bottom. Actually, now that I think about it, I really hate it :( I got so overwhelmed by the storeclerk who was pulling out so many for me to choose from- I freak out and just choose one. Next stop, we buy some Frooooti juice for Vidit, my little monster. He is not even 2 and a half, and is SO smart. He understand English and does things like turn off the TV and lights for his mother when she asks him. He runs and teeters all the way to the market, like a little spinning top. He loves : dirt, motorcycles and tractors. Whenever one passes by, he points and jumps up and down. He always comes right up to my face and says very quietly "Apka naam kia hai?!" (What is your name?) and "Where's Emmy?" - Emmy is a volunteer who just left who's he's obsesssed with !
On the way home from the market, we stop at the tailor and he takes my measurements for my suit- Indian style. He takes his little tap and measures my waist, my leg, my hip, my bosom, my shoulders. His little shop is in an alleyway guarded by stray dogs, this tiny little hole in the wall. But apparently he's popular in the marketplace because there are always women in there.
We stop at Reena's friend's house where we sit around and crack open litches and eat the white fruit inside. So good :) We eat freshly sliced mango and peaches....and play, always, with Vidit. At night, me and Bandhu make vodka and Limca drinks and stay up talking (about GC, again.)

The Rooftops of Faridabad

At the market, I haggled for scarves, slippers, bangles and a silver elephant ring for myself :)
We had a delicious meal at the market, and each drew maps of our respective countries on our hands, talked about marriage, virginity, weddings- CP wants me to marry him to he can come to the States - HA! Next was the Lotus Temple- shaped like a....lotus! Four huge processions of pilgrims made their way barefoot up the steps to pray inside. It's very hot though...
I took a nap on the way to Faridabad, fifteen minutes and before I knew it- we've arrived at the house of Bandhu. Dr. Bandhu...He doesn't really greet me at all, but speaks directly to CP. I don't realize that this is his house, not the actual orphanage where I thought I was being dropped off. He shows me how to make chai (I spill it everywhere :) and suddenly all these bright faces show up!
"These are your students," he tells me. I've been here 5 minutes and I am already thrown into it!
"What will I teach them?" I ask...
"Everything!, says Bandhu. Math, English, writing...."
I don't realize that these are the street children who come every afternoon for schooling they can't afford. They all have these big, wide brown eyes and are all holding these dilapidated notebooks but are so eager and excited to learn...
We practice some English phrases. My best student is Jyoti- she is very bright, good at spelling, reading, writing and math. She always wobbles her head to say "yes," and she has a big smile.
There is one little boy who is so positively adorable. Three other volunteers walk in: Nicole, Nadine and Annie, who immediately get settled in with a kid to work on something.
I work with Jyoti on reading and writing flashcards. We give them cookies, they grab their shoes and leave. Soon after I head to the sector 15 market in Bandhu's dilapidated car which we squeeze into. We stop at a house in a neighborhood so Dr. Bandhu can fix a hearing aid (he's an ear doctor). Next is the market where we brave getting stared down by lots of curious Indian men. We pop into a bakery so Nadine can buy some gulab jawal - like Entenmann's doughnuts!
Faridabad has a couple main markets but for the most part, it is a very poor city. In the distance are big smoke chimneys spewing out nasty-looking fumes. Me and Nadine head up to the roofdeck as the sun is setting; we watch some boys playing cricket in the park, as dirty streetchildren play on the playground. Beyond that is the slum- dilapidated tents covered in rags and cloths. I no longer see the bright colors of India but gray and dull slum colors. There is movement in the slum as others throw more rags on top and dig holes in the mud. Stray dogs are everywhere, and rule the streets at night.
Bandhu went out and bought us Kingfish beer- we head up the roof and pull out 2 cots to sit on. It was Nicole and Nadine's last night so we celebrate with drinks and smooth Indian cigarettes. The breeze was nice and cool up on the roof, but soon it started to rain and lightning. We head under the little shack and let the rain hit our toes. Nadine, Bandhu and I stayed up until midnight talking mostly about Bandhu's woes about how little he is paid for all the work he does. And how websites like Global Crossroad take the money from the volunteers and keep it for themselves. Bandhu or the orphanages don't see a dime. If you go on websites of Jaipur or Kala Marg orphanage, they are either free of cost or charge very little. Such a scam!