Life in India

Okay, another picture post to catch y'all up.

The view from the back of a rickshaw. (Incidentally, my hostelmate Deven and I have had several not-so-pleasant rickshaw experiences. I don't know why it's always me and her, but it always seems to be. Last week there was a rickshaw driver that made what's usually a 15-minute ride back to the hostel into nearly an hour, and charged us three times what we normally would pay. Fortunately Swapna drove up just as the guy was chasing us because we paid the normal fare and she and her friend sorted it out for us.)

A trip to a Sikh temple required everyone to find appropriate headwear. (Note how many of the guys/girls have bandannas on because they didn't own a scarf.)

The woman who runs the hostel, Swapna, is a classical violinist and a fabulous human being. This is from when we went to see her play. (She's second from the right.)

One of the other ladies in the hostel did henna tattoos for us. (She ran out of ink before she got to me, though.)

A real update!

Okay, since I have a lot to catch you up on (and since I finally have Internet at home) I'll be doing a few brief recap posts. First we'll cover orientation. My group of 30 students spent 3 days in a place called Durshet in order to get over jetlag and get to know one another and the country.

The first thing that surprised me was how green the country was. Most depictions of India that I've seen have been set in the cities, so it was fascinating to see how beautiful the country is.


Monsoon season is in full swing. The weather actually wasn't that bad; it's probably been cooler than the East Coast has been all summer. Very humid, perhaps, but that's to be expected. Also, the rain had the decency to wait until we were in meetings to start pouring and then let up when we had breaks.

Durshet was almost set up like a summer camp, two hours away from Mumbai. It's very quiet and peaceful.

We discovered that there was a small lake behind the campsite...

And then we went wading.

More pictures of the countryside, this from the ride to Pune.
When we arrived in Pune, we had a welcoming ceremony.

This is Deven, one of my hostelmates.

Then it was my turn. (The woman on the left, by the by, is Uttaraa, the program director and a wonderful person.

Aaaand (most of) the group at large.

Looking forward to posting more! Trying to conserve my internet usage, so I won't do it right now.Thanks for reading!

Hello!

Greetings from the other side of the world!! I landed in Mumbai on Sunday. On Monday my group went to orientation in a place called Durshet for three days. We only arrived in Pune yesterday.

Today was the first day I got to explore the city, which was amazing. I even got to do a bit of shopping!

I don't have internet access on my laptop at the moment (I'm using the computer in the Alliance Program Center). I will be buying an adapter and a wireless device, though, so I will post pictures as soon as I have them!