Things I've Done

Okay, here goes...

September Highlights...

-Camel Safari - I went on trip with 4 friends out Jaisalmer, desert city about 12 hours travel from Jaipur (where I've been the whole time). We went on a 2 day, 1 night "camel safari" out into the sand dune covered region of the Thar desert. We rode camels all day out through the shrubby countryside, past gypsie villages and finally into the dunes by sunset. Return trip the next day. We explored the hand-carved sandstone, hill top palace upon our return, ate an incredible meal, and hopped back on a train to get to Jodhpur...

-Jodhpur - about 2/3 of the distant back to Jaipur from Jaisalmer. All of these are J names. Confusion is part of the Indian experience. We met up with the rest of the students and our directors in Jodhpur. We stayed in an absurdly nice guest house here on the program's bill. (They say the guest house system is similar to hostels...but that's only partly true. The cheap end will only run around $10 or less. The expensive end can be as high as any hotel).
Anyways, we mostly visited NGOs in the area on this trip. By this point, I am becoming pretty tired of our constant grueling, full-sun, hands-off Q and A chats with NGO representatives who seem much more concerned with advertising their ideals than showing us what they do.

Oogna - I went with 4 other students on a school-related trip to rural area in the Aravali mountains to the South of Jaipur. The whole area is beautiful green lumpy peaks and small villages all along the river valley at their base. We were here for 6 days, working with an organization that does these things: Organic farming, water management, women's empowerment, child protection, school development and microfinancing. Each day,we could go anywhere we want, and do anything we wanted. I harvested corn and lentils lentils, milked a cow, taught a class (poorly), climbed a small peak, bummed around some villages, and ate fresh bananas and coconuts. Each night, my group went to the local high school to play volleyball with the locals. Each night the local competition got better and the crowds got bigger.

Diwali - This is the 2-day Indian festival of lights. Honestly, I'm still not sure exactly what is being celebrated, but its the largest festival in India. Almost anyone I asked would tell me "It's like Christmas." To the extent that we give sweets to eachother, see family and friends, and put lights on our houses, this is true. I can't, however, remember the last time everyone in every major city in America bought (almost entirely) unregulated fireworks and set them off with their families for 48 hours without pause, but with an emphasis on times of night when they could actually be seen. Air and noise pollution are phenomenal, but the rooftop view is pretty unreal.

I also finally got my first bout of Indian sickness that I am only just recovering from after 4 days or so. The culprit, I believe, is leftover Diwali sweets that should have been refrigerated given me by my homestay family.

I leave sometime next week to go back to Jodhpur where I'll stay until early December while doing the "Independent Research" portion of my program. I'm going to be doing some sort of thing about a group of communities called the Bishnoi. Their religion focuses on (among other perhaps less noble ideals) the equality between human and natural life. They are fairly renowned for a series of martyrdoms in defense of trees which took place over the past several centuries. The term "tree hugger," they say, was coined in reference to these folk.



Alright, them's the highlights. Any questions, let me know. I've basically got tests, beaurocratic trifles, and travel for the next week, so my reply may not be swift, but I'll do what I can.