Connections

Campfires, trance music, airbrush tattoos, Hindu temples, markets, fabric stores, sarees, flowers, one speed pink bikes, roaming cows, goats, wild boars, tree house chai, Dairy Milk Silk chocolate, Tiger cookies, stares, handshakes, smiles, photos... so many photos, Bollywood, Hindi/Telugu music, bargaining, overloaded rickshaws, Telangana protests, traditional, scandalous, rupees, street vendors, traffic, beggars, slums, contrast, hot days, cool nights, holidays, travel, bangles, bindis, dancing, friends, planning, colors, dust, bug bites, dal, curries, roti, rice, south gate noodles, water tower climbing, bus riding, sunsets, orange moons, stress, happiness, fear, helplessness, contentment, awe, annoyance, joy.

That does not sum up my time here like I thought it might. Not sufficiently anyway. Here's my flickr page where I'll upload more photos eventually, for those who cannot see them on Facebook. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dleinone/

Catching Up

I love India, that is all there is to it. Some people have told me it's a place where one either loves it, or hates it...no in between business. I don't really know if that's true, but you know which side I'm on already.

This post will be about some of the most meaningful things I've experienced so far.

There are many volunteers opportunities around here. I'm still trying to decide between two, both dealing with children. The first one is called the DESIRE Society: http://www.desiresociety.org/
This is an organization concerned with the well-being of children with HIV/AIDS. Many of the children come from families where one or both parents are also positive, not to mention they don't have the means to pay for medication/treatment. So the organization takes in these children in an attempt to give them a better quality of life. If you are interested, you can contact them, pass along the information, or donate money as well, they need every little thing they can get.
We got a chance to visit the Desire Society in Hyderabad. We were shipped off in our CIEE bus, not knowing where we were in the city (this was still early in our stay), when we finally arrived to our destination. We walked through the gates and met the woman in charge. As she was explaining the organization to us, we saw the children start to come out... all wearing these winter hats that reminded me of the U.P. to be honest. (It was the very beginning of spring here/ end of winter, so it's cold here for India... it does actually get to 40 or 50 degrees F at night.) Anyway, it was pretty adorable. They were all sat down on blankets on the ground and waited for us to finish talking with the woman. It was their snack time, so we handed out pieces of apple to them. I won't lie, I'm not the most comfortable around children...I'm just not around them all that often. But these boys and girls just broke my heart; they were so young (ranging from toddlers to adolescents) and had to deal with such a terrible thing. It was in the middle of this thought when it was announced that they were learning dances... a dance teacher volunteers their time to come and help the kids learn something new. One boy stood up in front of all of us, music with a heavy beat started, and he just moved. Seriously, these guys (and girls) had way more moves than I'll ever have... it was pretty amazing.

After they were finished, we tried dancing for them, which was a failure and evoked a lot of questioning looks from the children hah... but at least we tried. After that we hung out with them for a while asking each others' names and playing some small games. We were disappointed when we had to go.

The next place we visited (different day) is called the Safrani School and is about 15 minutes by rickshaw from our university. This place offers opportunities for widows, who sometimes have very little options after their husbands die, to learn a very incredible and valuable skill... weaving. There is a very small wrinkled woman who works there and seems to run things... and she is the best individual in the world. She is so knowledgeable and giving; it makes me want to have longer conversations with her about her life and life in general. Some of the fabrics they make there take 6 MONTHS to finish. And some of those fabrics are only strips... it depends on the method of weaving and the materials/intricacies of the fabric. Needless to say, it was all beautiful. We were able to see some of the women at work... the devices used to weave are very difficult to describe and sadly I have no photos, but one definitely must be skilled to do it. Some of the women come to the school knowing absolutely nothing about weaving, and apparently in about half a year they are experts. The area where they need volunteers here is actually not at the weaving school. This place also runs a children's school, from nursery up until class 7 or 8. These children come from very poor backgrounds; quite often they are the first in their families to be educated at all. Here we would help them with their school work and help teach English.

It's overwhelming with everything there is to do here. I've finally figured out my classes, 16 credits in all, which are as follows:
Conversational Hindi, M-Th mornings
Kuchipudi Dance, M & W after Hindi
Women's Issues in Contemporary India, M & W afternoons
Human Rights in India: The Socio-economic Context M & T evenings

I also just received my sitar... which you had to buy if you wanted to take lessons (W & Th evenings). Kind of unfortunate, but hey, I now own a sitar! Bringing it back home with me mayyy be an issue... I already have a worrying image of myself in mind... sun bleached hair, dressed in a kurta, huge sitar on my back, along with carry-on backback and a medium and small sized suitcase to check in.... uh oh. Ah well, if that turns out to be my largest problem throughout my time here in India, I will be very pleased.

Open Answers

I have now been living in India for about one week. There is SO MUCH going on in my mind... sensory overload every day. It's a healthy one though; I just need to decompress at some point during the day/night, to sort things out thought-wise. For this post, I'll relay significant moments I've experienced so far in Hyderabad.

Crossing the street - This seems like a simple thing to do, but of course, not in India. At least not as a clueless foreigner. My first experience going at it alone (without an experienced person by my side) was as a group of us were visiting a craft fair at Shilparamam. It was dark by this point and we had just been dropped off by a cab. Cars coming in every direction, we decided to go for it... some more confident than others. I can only imagine what we looked like to the locals... one of my friends here compared it accurately to the game "Frogger". People were dashing across, the cars/motorbikes/rickshaws weaving around them. A crossing guard was yelling at people not to go; we did NOT hear this until after our first adventure. We all arrived safely in the raised middle section between the two streets and applauded ourselves, literally. We then realized what the guard was yelling about... he could have taken us across and consequently did so for the second street... at a much calmer pace than the first sprint. A hilarious learning experience... my adrenaline was pumping, no joke. Now I mostly just wait for locals to cross the street and follow them... I feel that works best.

Sights: We've seen so much in the past few days! Our CIEE coordinators, whom we love, took us to the Qutb Shahi tombs, where the seven Qutb Shahi sultans/kings are buried. We also visited the Makkah Masjid mosque, one of the oldest in Hyderabad and one of the largest in India. Another famous place in Hyderabad is Chowmahalla Palace, which is gorgeous... we even got to have lunch there! No big deal, we just ate in a palace. Golkonda Fort is another must see place. Only the ruins are left, but it was once the capital and fortress city of the Qutb Shahi kingdom (16th century). We also visited Charminar, the area (there is a famous monument/mosque by the same name, which we saw as well). Here many bangles are sold, something found very commonly in Hyderabad (along with pearls).

This last photo has a great story behind it. So people LOVE to take photos of us/with us, or just stare intensely... for good reason... we are a spectacle here, a gaggle of American college students dressed in Indian clothing. For the most part, everyone is very friendly. I feel as if this is how celebrities must feel! At most times, it's a big ego booster hah. These boys loved one of our friends, they would not stop shaking his hand or asking him questions, it was very sweet, and very funny. At the point of this picture, they were singing/chanting some sort of song (they were some sort of school group), I wish I would've asked what it meant!

I'll finish my significant moments tomorrow... there are certainly many of them, and I am tired! Bedtimes are early here at the moment... every day is packed full of things to do/see! I need to learn the phrase "good night" in Hindi...