Delhi

I'm on an old PC in  the hotel lobby cause i'm too cheap to pay for wi-fi in the room. Here's one I prepared earlier. For the record, the mattress arrived.

Visiting Jamkhed CRHP was a fantastic experience, on both a professional and personal level. Being able to watch Dr Arole (who started the project with his now late wife) and his team in action was really encouraging to see that big things can be achieved if motivated people persist patiently with a community, and it was also challenging but inspiring to watch the spiritual aspect: that they ensure the place God at the centre of their lives. During the reflection session that Kate, Jason and I had to organise, one of the girls in our class told us about one moment at the funeral for Dr Arole’s brother, where a lady gently wrapped a scarf around his shoulders to keep him warm. She told of how in that moment he appeared as a vulnerable human being, as one of us mere mortals, and it was really overwhelming because we have always viewed him as someone incredible and ahead of his time, someone less human, more god-like, more capable than the rest of us. It showed that he, like all of us, is human, and in that it proves that we can do anything we set our minds to.

After performing our group projects that we had spent days and nights agonising over, we were able to relax with an awards ceremony where we were presented with a scarf/shawl for scholarship, a candlestick holder for passing on a spreading the light with other people, and a garland of flowers which I forget what they represented, but I know Dr Arole said that although they don’t look very nice, they smell great. I thought they were pretty. We sang a few songs for the Village Health Workers who had come to the presentation ceremony, and some of the others performed a circus act. We spent the next few hours chilling out, then had beer and dinner on the roof of the mess hall with music to follow to celebrate the end of our stay. I wore my sari, which proved to be a source of amusement for many people. At lunchtime when I wore my sari to the clothes shop to go looking for a present, the man behind the counter took one look at me and gestured for some of the women on staff to accost me, drag me into a 1m square changeroom and the two of them untied and retied my sari for me. After the presentation, I packed my bag and had a bit of a lie down, assuming my sari would be fine. When I arrived at the dinner, two of the ladies again dragged me away to a private room off the kitchen where 4 or 5 ladies hovered around laughing at me. Both sets of ladies tied it significantly differently so now I’m really confused. I’ve got the basic gist, I think.

On Saturday we got the bus back to Pune, where we said our farewells, and our original group of five that went to Nepal broke up, with Sammy and Mike going their separate ways. We lost our adopted group member Jason also. It was a sad day, having spent most of the past seven weeks with Sammy and Mike, and I am currently going through withdrawals.

Josh, Kate, Hye Jin, Anna (from the course) and I stayed the night in an uncomfortable but cheap hotel in Pune, with Ben (from the course) before leaving him to catch a train, and we caught the plane to Delhi.
We arrived in Delhi yesterday, and it wasn’t anywhere near as busy or overwhelming as everyone said it would be. We caught a prepaid taxi from the airport to a hotel district in search of accommodation. Our taxi driver was lovely, been driving for 6 years, married two months ago... He asked me if I was married and had children too. Ha. (Funnily enough, a young girl who spoke to us in Jamkhed was shocked and appalled that Kate and I weren’t married yet... She looked about 16 and was getting married in January) We lugged our bags up and down the stairs of a few hotels, and found one for about $3 each a night... Kate and I in a double with Josh on the floor, and Hye Jin and Anna Lien in another room in a double. It was comfortable enough, but the squat toilet smelt a little and the noise from the street was a little disturbing to sleep. We survived though. We decided to find a new hotel, so us girls found a room of 4 (a double bed, single bed and apparently a mattress on the floor but it hasn’t arrived yet) for 200 rupees each per night, which is a lot nicer than last night. It’s definitely better.

Dhruv took us exploring last night, India Gate and all the parliamentary building, before showing us what really Indian food and real Indian hospitality is. Then we had real COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Amazing!! Dhruv’s amazing.

We went exploring New Delhi today, around the inner circle, middle circle and outer circle. We firstly spent over an hour in the train station booking the remaining train tickets for our trip. Then we went in search of lunch and bumped into a guy who directed us to a cheap restaurant with good quality food. We spent a while in the post office sending home some excess clothing and presents (keep an eye out for them Mum!!) I had to go on an expedition to find a photocopy service to get copies of our passports. The one I was directed to was down a dingy urine-smelling alley way and turned out to be broken, so I wandered aimlessly to find a new place. Disoriented and frustrated, I was on the edge of tears when the guy who had showed us where to go for lunch stopped me to say "How was the food?" He then asked me where my friends were and where I was going, and fighting back the tears, I managed to tell him I was looking for a photocopier. He showed me where I could find one, helped me to get to the front of the queue and then took me back to the post office. He works in Paris but is waiting for his working visa to be renewed so he can go back. Lovely guy. He then asked me where we were going after the post office, and I said "probably coffee" because that’s where Hye Jin and Anna were, and he said "You’ll have coffee with me?" and I was like "Oh no, it’s ok, thanks" and he shook my hand and left. He restored my faith in humanity because a lot of people here are just out to rip people off. It was nice to meet someone who was genuinely helpful.

We went shopping in the central circle... I bought a pair of jeans because I didn’t bring any and I wanted western clothes. Best fit ever... I’m loving the new Levi sizing system!!

Now I’m back in the hotel waiting for the mattress to arrive... Kate and Hye Jin have both called looking for it. The man has just arrived with a blanket, pillow and a blank stare... "no mattress?" We’ll see. Ha.

I get to see lil miss Anna tonight, she just arrived in Delhi! Yay!

Love and prayers xx