Lodi Garden

Well, yesterday started out in a bit of a pissy mood after having done nothing at all for the past few days.  So finally I said to myself, ENOUGH!! then promptly hailed a rick and jetted off towards Lodi Garden.  What a treat!! It was like stepping into another world! It was spotlessly clean, "dust bins" aka trash cans everywhere with signs saying "please keep park clean and use bins" as well as signs saying "no spitting, using the bathroom, littering, use of narcotics or alcohol is permitted in park" (or something like that)  meanwhile I thought to myself, see?? so easy to do!! why not just implement the same rules everywhere else!! India could look gorgeous!  The Garden stretched out for miles, trails winding all over the place, green grassy lawns, beautiful flowers, old tombs to walk through, the water areas could have been cleaned a bit as they smelled like stagnant water.  But over all it was so pleasant.  There were families having picnics, playing tag, playing....frisbee?? Lol Jim had just made the comment the previous day when I asked about Lodi Garden that if they had frisbee here, they would be playing frisbee.  Well they do! Then scattered througout the park were couples tucked away in corners canoodling (which surprised me because I had been told that public displays of affection were forbidden here!!) but I as an American thought it was rather cute. 

 It was starting to sprinkle a bit and wearing a white shirt, I did not want to get caught in a monsoon... so I left the Garden and started walking towards Khan Market.  I passed by this gorgeous looking restaurant right next to Lodi Garden, it was called Lodi Garden Restaurant.  You walk in and whoa how cool!! it was very asian looking, with bamboo, rocks, very zen looking.  Outside they had some tables as well as these little cabanas with sheer white cloth draped on them with benches and pillows for couples to sit on and get fed in!!! I took pictures no worries :-)  Then I went inside the restaurant and the ambiance was soooo awesome! I desperately wanted to eat there and relax... but it was definitely one of those places that would have to be like a special occasion... so maybe I'll go right before I leave or something.  I did however order a mango smoothie and sat there a little while and read.  It was very nice to just get away and enjoy some nice quiet time.  After that I continued on towards Khan Market.  On my way there I passed quite a few NGO's but of course, it being Sunday, no one was there.  Boo!! Finally I got to Khan market and just about everything was closed :-(  a few things were still open, so I wandered around window shopping, then started feeling a bit sick, so I hailed another rick and headed home. 

 

Once I got home.... the evil grimlins of the dreaded "Travelers D" flooded my stomach.... NO FUN!!!!!!!!! Raj had been dealing with this for the past three days and I kept making fun of him for having eaten street food.... karma?? Anyway, I spent the evening doubled over in pain with my stomach cramping while intermittently running to the bathroom.  However, me being a smart girl I took my medication that my Dr. gave me before I left as a "just in case" thing. Thank God!! It's helpful having your physician be from India.  I somehow managed to fall asleep around 9pm, kept waking up throughout the night in pain but over the course of the night, the lovely Cipro worked its magic.  Now, please tell me why boys are such stubborn babies when it comes to them being sick?? Raj apparently had the same medication but waited until last night to take it??? He said he wanted to read up on it before he took it... I'm thinking "dude?! you couldn't have done that like 3 days ago and saved yourself some intense agony??" anyway, I am very glad I did not wait that long to take it, with that kind of pain??! are you kidding me?! ahhh boys.... how they mystify me. 

  So this morning I am so far so good!! I am however, being a smart girl (again) and heading over to the store while I am feeling well enough (just in case!) and stocking up on some coconut water, orange juice, soup and crackers.  Trying to stand long enough to make just plain pasta was quite a struggle, had to keep running to my room to lay down, then run back to make sure to not over cook it. 

   Let's hope I keep feeling good!!!

  

Slumdog Millionaire

So last night we watched Slumdog Millionaire... well actually it was more like re-watching it since we'd both already seen it.  But we had wanted to re-watch it now that we both have spent a few weeks living in India and seeing first hand what we had either heard about or seen in movies.  Well.... it was so surreal to watch the movie again only this time it was like watching our day to day lives in India!!! That movie really did portray the real India.  While riding around in the ricks we have street children coming up to us trying to sell us things, or women carrying babies trying to get food or money, really young kids coming up doing the hand to the mouth motion meaning "food".  When we were on the train back from Amritsar, as I told you in an earlier post, we saw two little kids who were just like Jamal and Salim.  The scene where the awful guy comes and takes the kids away to his own little camp where he blinds them and sends them out to be blind singers.... well we thank god didnt see that part in real life, but the scene where he tell the kids to sing for him as he sits and gets fed food, well that exact thing happened at the orphanage... so that part was really creepy.  In any case, after the movie i went to my room and had to read for a bit because I just felt really.... sad I suppose. 
   For those of you reading who think I am really judgmental of my time here, you have to understand that I very much have a love/hate relationship with India.  On one hand there are many things that I do like about India, for example their spirituality, the textiles.... perhaps a few more things too.  But on the other hand there is just a lot that makes me really frustrated, in the sense that I can see exactly what needs to be done to try and fix what seem like such simple problems, but I can't!! For those of you that know me well, you know how much of an organizer and planner I am so perhaps you now may have a little more insight into where my various "judgemental" statements are coming from.  They are not so much judgements but more frustrations at: "ok here is the problem, and there is a very very simple way to fix that problem, which in turn will have a domino effect on other problems and soon, hopefully things will start to turn around and make India a healthier place!!!!"  I talked to Jim about this stuff, and he said "well its the issue of India being such an overpopulated place, there are billions of people crammed together, with a Government that doesn't quite know how to utilize their resources.  Whereas the states realized that they should bring on board an Architect to help with urban planning.... India hasn't done that yet..." well he didn't say it in those exact words but thats the basic gyst of what he said.  But I totally see what he is saying, so man! maybe Amanda could come to India to start helping out!! then Lars could come and work on the water system, I could do the organizing and planning, Anne could work on the vegetable farming, dad you could start working with the builders and teach them to use modern day tools, mom you could help with teaching dyslexics, jaydee could work with anne on the whole vegetable farming... making sure they are safe etc... hannah and amos could work with the kids.... man we could really turn India around!! Meraa pariwaar (my family), helping India!!

   Anyway, I'm not in the best of moods today.... I've been extremely bored the past few days, Raj has been sick so he's been sleeping, while I haven't really had much to do.  I've seen all that I want to see in New Delhi, and believe it or not I have found it rather difficult to find any yoga studios!!! how can that be!? this is India, birth place of yoga!! I have called a few of the volunteer organizations and they are all full with volunteers.  I have a few more people on my list to call, but have to wait till tomorrow since today is sunday and I doubt they will be in their office. 
  That's all for today

Things I have learned, observed etc.. so far

During my time here, I have encountered soooo many things that have taken me by complete surprise, or found interesting, or just plain observations.  So I figured I would share them with you all.

1) Trash cans do not exist anywhere, when I ask for a trash can to throw something away, they point to the ground

2) The pollution here is like nothing I have ever seen before, to give you an idea: When I blow my nose, black stuff comes out, also I have developed a smokers cough... more so on days when we have been out and about on a rickshaw a lot

3) Stray dogs are like the equivalent of squirrels at home, as in they are everywhere!

4) People seem to have no sense of public decency, they spit everywhere as well as spit their chewing stuff (it isnt tobacco but something like it) everywhere without taking a look to see if they may be spitting on someone....

5) People go to the bathroom everywhere... and I do mean everywhere... while walking I have learned to always look at the ground, since you never know when you may come across a big mound of poo (and you are never sure if it is cow poo, dog poo, or human poo)

6) They love to stare... like really stare, so I have learned to just stare right back :-) They then quickly look away

7) I love bartering at the markets, I have become rather good at standing firm until I get the price I want.  I was even told by a shop owner "you are very strong woman" ... why thank you! haha

8) Patience: I have learned to be much more patient, everything here takes an excessively long time.  Raj and I have named it "India time".  It's interesting though that it is not consistent, somethings are very fast, while others take a very long time, there seems to be no real medium.

9) Carrying the following with you everywhere you go: Toilet paper, wetwipes, antibacterial gel, clorox wipes, vicks vaporub and a towl or bandana to wipe sweat

10) Accept the fact that you will sweat through your clothes everyday, so sweat marks... hah! who cares! everyone has them!  and two showers a day (one in the morning and one in the evening) are fabulous, especially using only cold water! so refreshing!

11) There are no such things as traffic laws here, it is a big ass free for all on the streets, no one stops for pedestrians, there are no walk lights, you have to take a deep breath and step out in the street and put your hand out and hope to god they actually stop.  Traffic lines mean nothing, in fact they go over the middle lines into on coming traffic to go around cars.  And horns.... dear god they are like the vuvuzelas at the world cup!

12) Sidewalks don't really exist.  Everyone walks in the streets, there are sidewalks in some places, but only a handful are actually usable, and even if they are they stop and start, so really just walking in the street is easiest, though ya gotta be watching for crazy drivers as well as poo on the ground

13) Sikh's are awesome

14) You bond very quickly with people you just meet when travelling alone, specifically because of everyone being in the same boat but also because of conversations about one's bowel movements and how its all working on a day to day basis Lol

15) I have become a big fan of Amir Khan (a Bollywood actor) as I have been watching a lot of Indian movies the past few nights.

16) With as crazy as they drive here, I am truly shocked and amazed that I have yet to see an accident occur.  They weave in and out of one another, drive head on towards one another, cars drive in every which direction, cutting each other off in roundabouts..... but not one accident.  It's kind of like a choreographed dance or something

17) The popular brand of men's clothing appears to be that of "Playboy" hahah I have seen guys wearing shirts that say playboy on them with the playboy bunny logo... very strange
,
18) Everyone here is an entrepreneur.  From street vendors, to selling stuff at traffic lights, to little shops, to selling things on trains or performing on trains... you see all kinds of little businesses of some sort

19) When negotiating prices: be firm and keep you sunglasses on and never look them straight in the face... this somehow makes quite a difference.  And if they give you a high price, immediately say "nahin nahin" and walk away, its amazing how durastically they will lower the price.

20) Drag queens do exist in India, they dress up in Sarees, but definately not as much makeup as back home Lol!!

   That's all I can think of right now, I will be sure to post some more as I discover them

Amritsar - Part II

Wagah - The India/Pakistan Border Ceremony

After we left the Golden Temple we found a place to grab something to eat, then found a taxi that could take us to the India/Border evening ceremonies.  We got thohere, to the border and strolled in to the sounds of fantastic Indian music... which by the way, I cannot stand the old stuff, but the newer stuff, more Punjabi style I do like.  Punjabi style music is much more rhythmical and has some great sounds (think Bend it Like Beckham, the wedding scene at the end).  So we walk in, and go through quite a few security checks, and since we are foreigners we got to go the VIP seating area! So we sit down and notice our area is predominantly white Lol.  People are taking turns running down the street carrying the Indian flag, then a dance party... well a female dance party breaks out in the middle of the street... no boys were allowed, HAH! So of course I had to jump up and run down there and join in!!! duhhhh! so I join in and immediately am surrounded by young Indian girls and women teaching me the Indian dance moves. The ceremony then begins, we all sit down and it certainly is nothing I have ever seen before... first of all the Border Patrols way of marching is absolutely hysterical!!!!!!!! oh my goodness!! they just look so overly dramatic, their legs kick up to their hats and they howl, for a very long extended period of time.  They then open the gates between India and Pakistan and all line up on either side and then begin to simultaneously lower the flags.  I took an awesome picture of the flags being lowered which I really like

  We then left and headed back towards the taxi and waited for the rest of the people who had also been in our taxi.  While waiting, this guy who ran the little outdoor cafe came over and started asking me all kinds of questions, then asked if he could take a picture with me, so I agreed, but he like grabbed me really close and put his hand on my stomach, which made me extremely uncomfortable so then I was like "ok great! bye!" and quickly walked back over to where Raj was sitting, the guy followed me and then asked "is this your friend?" so I quickly replied "oh no! this is my husband!" and instantaneously the guy backed off and left me alone.  GENIUS!! This then became my safety net, one of the pirks to traveling with a male is that in uncomfortable situations, they can save your butt!!
  We headed back towards our hotel, got some dinner then totally crashed, it was a long day!

The Journey back to New Delhi

  The next day we got the train back to New Delhi.  We were totally prepared this time for a late train, overcroweded mass chaos... to our surprise, the train was there waiting when we got there.  We hopped right on, everyone was calm, sitting in their seats, everything was clean... SWEET!! So we found our seats and sat down, then the train took off.  There were Sikh's all over the place and they immediately started talking to us, offerring us food, etc.. The Sikh's are just such a sweet, loving and kind culture I discovered while being in Amritsar.  They also are a very clean culture.  In comparison with the rest of India, Amritsar had very little trash on the streets, which meant hardly any fly's!! That is one thing that is just so gross here are the massive amounts of fly's everywhere!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to describe it, you just have to be here to really know what I am talking about.  Its like you are constantly walking through a cloud of fly's, so being in Amritsar was an extremely nice break.  The train ride back was soooo much better then the ride to Amristar. It was still very long, but much more calm, had nice conversations with people, they kept offerring their food to us etc...
  Also, there were all kinds of entertainers on the train, including 2 little slum kids who were such clowns!! They were so adorable and totally and completely were like the kids in Slumdog Millionaire.   I have to re-watch that movie now that I have seen a lot of what was depicted in the movie.  At one point we both got up from sitting as our butts started going numb from the hard seats.  So we were standing at the back of the train where the slum kids were hanging out.  They started doing all of these flips on the train and hanging out of the car (they keep the doors open and people tend to just sit on the steps as we are flying by at like.... what feels like 200 mph!!! My god this freaked me out, I felt like such a mom wanting to pull the kids back in, but alas I knew that these kids do this kind of stuff all the time... but still, it freaked me out!! I really wanted to take a picture of these guys, but knew as soon as I'd ask, they'd probably say "10 rupees!" so I didnt.  Towards the end of the train ride it was late and the kids were trying to sleep in the back, it broke my heart because they were huddled together, with their arms and hands inside their shirts trying to get warm, I didnt have any clothing to give them but I did have my soda, which I'd had maybe one sip of, so I gave that to them and Raj gave them some biscuits, they gratefully grabbed both with wide eyes and were very thankful.  By the time we got off the train they were both cuddled up to each other passed out.  It's just so heart breaking to see kids that young totally on their own. 
 
   We got back to Jim's house, had a snack then passed out.  The trip was amazing, and so nice to see such a different culture then what I have been seeing so far.  There was still tons of pollution and dirt but at least they are making an effort to put a few trash cans around the town, I hope they keep adding to that!!! It just amazes me when I have some trash and go up to someone to ask where a trash can is, that they point to the ground!! I of course shake my head and say "oh no no no no!!" and walk away and just put whatever it is I had wanted to throw away in my pocket or bag.  I'd rather save it then add to the trash that is EVERYWHERE!

  So that is my grand story! My pictures are up on Facebook

 Namaste

Amritsar - Part I

Well hello there everyone!! It's been a few days as I have been in Amritsar, this is going to be a long blog entry since I have so much to tell!!! But no worries, it is all very exciting stuff, and to make it easier to read, I shall divide it up into sections with titles and everything! I'm so nice, I know :-)~ hahaha

  The Wizard of Oz - Journey to Amritsar

 So, Raj, my most excellent new travel partner, and I set off in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday to head towards Amritsar to see the Golden Temple.  We took a rickshaw there and were amazed to actually see the streets of New Delhi totally empty!! Certainly a first since my 2 1/2 weeks of being here (which by the way, it is so crazy to think I have only been here for 2 1/2 weeks, it totally feels like I have been here for at least a month by now).  As we travelled through the lovely smog (note sarcasm) we then entered into monkey land!! hahah and no I am so not kidding, it was the craziest thing, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE!!! all over the sidewalks, the streets, sitting on fences..... it was hilarious, cute and also a bit frightening since we were in the rickshaw which has no doors or windows, so they could have jumped in at any moment.  But where did all these monkeys come from?? They totally disappear during the rest of the day.  Anyway, so we made it through monkey land alive, phew! Then our next mission.... combating the flys and beggers while waiting for our train.  By this time is was about 6:30, our train was to arrive at 6:40, we waited... it was already about 70 degrees out and extremely humid, swarms of flys everywhere, people staring (i honestly just felt like screaming out "YES I AM WHITE AND I AM A WOMAN! GET OVER IT!! but I resisted) beggers constantly coming up to us... 7:30 rolls around, still no train and no announcement as to whether it was actually coming.  While both my frustrations as well as Raj's began running out, 8:00 rolls around then finally an announcement that our train was approaching, thank god! The train rolls in, WOOHOO!! little did we know what we were about to experience........ COMPLETE AND TOTAL MASS CHAOS!! Literally, before the train was even at a complete stop people were running for the train, pushing theirselves into the train cars, while the people who were still on the train were trying to get off.  We locked arms and had to make like a football line up or something like that and pushed our way through, while people were pushing in every which direction, luggage falling off the luggage racks, people screaming in Hindi, I'm trying to make sure I have my bag and that I'm not going to get pick pocketed.... oh my god!! I have never in my life seen such total and complete madness!! Absolutely no order or politeness about anything.  We find our seats and there is a family of like 6 sitting there totally unashamed that they had hijacked everyone's seats who had actually payed for a seat.  They start screaming at us as if we are in the wrong.... well thankfully a guy who was making sure his mom got on the train ok came on and stuck up for us and got them all to get up and move, he told us "you have to be forceful, otherwise they will take full advantage of you" we were very gracious and promised to look after his mother and make sure she got off at the correct stop.  Oh he was also a Sikh (more on that to come).  So finally in our seats (after I wipped out my handy dandy clorox bleach wipes to clean off all the gross food that the family had so nicely left behind on the seats) we set off on our 7 hour train ride to Amritsar.  It was hot, smelly and since there were no windows, only bars, by the time we got to Amritsar we were totally covered in pollution and dirt.... awesome.  But we were just so excited to actually be there that at that point we were over smelling like crap and wanted food ASAP!


  The Golden Temple and discovering a new appreciation for Sikh's

  We found a place to sit down, which was air conditioned, got a nice cold drink and a bite to eat.  Feeling much more rejuvinated after our long hot journey we set out to find a place to stay.  We originally were planning to stay at the Golden Temple itself, but after hearing that we'd have to sleep on the floor (when we were previously told they had beds) and we had no sleeping bags or anything with us, we decided to find a cheap place to crash.  A girl we met in the coffee shop had told us about a place we could stay for only 700 Rs. a night with A/C and even cheaper without A/C.... so we went with the no A/C (they had a ceiling fan) and it was 400 Rs. a night!! which split in 2.... thats like $4 a night! granted it wasn't all to glamerous, but it had a bed, a bathroom and was walking distance to the golden temple... when you're traveling on a budget, you learn to adapt rather quickly and luxory isn't really in the forefront of your mind.  Anyway! so we dropped out stuff, gave ourselves a quick wetwipe bath (my new most favorite thing EVER!) and headed right on over to the Golden Temple!!! I was actually quite excited to have to use a scarf to cover my head.... not really sure why, but it just felt really cool to be in such a spiritual place and to honor their religion like that.  We got there, had to drop our shoes off then as we walked into the temple they had these little rivers that you had to walk through to cleanse your feet.  We walked through and there it was, in all of its golden glory, surrounded by holy water.  There was a constant surround sound of Punjabi music playing along with prayers, people immediately kneeling down and touching their forheads to the ground.... oh my god... the overwhelming beauty of it all was just so unbelievable.  Everything was so pure and clean!!! unlike all of the other places I had seen during orientation week.  This by far outbeats the Taj Mahal!!  Then within about 5 minutes of having walked in, this woman comes up to me and she is holding a baby, she points to her baby then starts to hand me her baby! I was like "umm.... uhhh Raj?! what is she saying??" she then tells him that she wants to take a picture of me holding her son.  What?! I of course knod and take her son, smile, she excitedly takes a picture... unfortunatly I had just been taking video of everything so Raj didn't take a picture :-(  booo but anyway this whole being a white girl thing in a foreign country is so bizarre to me! I see so many other white tourists around and have yet to see anyone running up to them to shake their hand or give them a hug or ask to take their picture... Lol who knows.  So we continue to walk around, and just take everything in.  Raj's family is of the Sikh religion so the experience was just that much cooler since he is also American (and the first one in his family to come to India!) and he is basically discovering his roots.  He says he does the prayers at home with his family but it is much more westernized.  We then headed over to the kitchen hall where they serve meals 24/7!! and for free!! (yet another clever way of staying on budget! while also taking in the whole experience).  We sit down on the ground and get served Chai while waiting to be led into the hall.  As we sit there this little girl runs up to me and shakes my hand, then asks me in Hindi what my name is, I respond (yay I'm learning!) then she proceeds to ask me all these other questions, which I'm then like "oh god too fast!" she basically wanted to learn all about me, where I'm from, if I'm married etc.... hahah then she brought over her 2 sisters and their grandma and were so excited to talk to us, then they asked if I had a camera because they wanted to take a picture, although it was on my camera so they wouldn't actually get it, but none the less they basically took my camera hostage for a good 10 minutes snapping away and were so intrigued by the fact that you could take a picture and then immediately see what it looked like.  It was so adorable! and extremely amusing just watching them and how fascinated they were by it all.  Finally we get led into the hall and again sit on the floor and then down the line they come with these huge buckets of food and drop  it onto your plate... they absolutely have this whole operation down pat, a very well oiled machine they have going on there (this excited me greatly to see such a well put together operation).  We ate our food, which was really quite good! then went on our way to go walk around a bit more and wait for it to get dark enough to see the Golden Temple all lit up at night time.  Just sitting there and watching everyone walk around, praying etc... it truly was just such a fantastic sight to see.  I just felt so honored to be able to be there witnessing this spiritual place with this amazing temple which really is like the most amazing work of art I have ever seen. 
    The next day we got up and made our way back to the temple but this time it was to go inside the actual temple.  I was amazed at how quickly the line went, I think we were in line for maybe 30 minutes.  We got inside and.... oh how I wish I could have been able to take pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to sound like a broken record here but.... oh my god!!!! I just... really like no words.... the intricate art work and detail of this inside of this temple was out of this freaking WORLD!!! I can't even explain it!! Everyone just needs to go take a trip and see this place! There were guru's in every corner of the temple sitting in front of this massive book which was like a bible but like 20 times the size of it, then there were a few guys who were playing the drums and one guy chanting... or praying... or maybe just singing... not sure what but it was in Punjabi and sounded beautiful.  I'm also pretty sure that my mouth did not close the entire time I was in there, Lol I was just in pure amazement of the incredible detail of every single inch of the temple, not one space was left untouched.  And also to think that this temple is... how old?? no really I actually never did find the answer to that.. but pretty sure its like super duper old and it is still in pristine condition!! whereas most old temples such as that are cracked, tarnished, rusted, mildewed and falling apart... but this one still looks brand new!
 
...... to be continued in part 2

Chandni Chowk and more IVHQ headaches

  So.... it has been a few days since I last wrote, and I am sure you are all wondering what in the world is going on!! Well to begin, I want to add in what I forgot to add in last blog entry.  In my title I mentioned "Celebrity Status" and I totally forgot to mention that part!! It's rather amusing and quite flattering Lol, so while at the Taj Mahal groups of guys (and some girls) kept coming up to me as well as the group I was with and asking if they could take a picture with me or all of us.  At one point, it literally was about every 5 or 10 minutes that they would come up to us, or if they weren't coming up to us they were standing near by staring and trying to work up the courage to ask us.  It very much gave us all a glimpse into what it would be like to be a celebrity with paparazzi and fans following our every move. 

  Anyway, so moving onto the present time, so yesterday Alice, Sam and Nicola took off for Thailand to go and work at the volunteer project which Alice was previously working with before coming to India.  It sounded like quite a neat program and is free! but I decided to stay here, plus couldnt afford another plane ticket.  So it is now just Richard, Catalin, Raj, and I who are here.  Raj and I braved the mass crowds at Chondni Chowk Market/Bazaar today, and were quite successful in barganing for various gifts to bring home :-)  and no I am not saying what I got because then it wouldnt be a surprise!! Lol I actually bargained myself for one item and was quite proud of myself, the rest I left up to Raj since he speaks fluent Hindi (very very helpful!!) So then we came back to Jim's, I made dinner (well part of it, it was an addition to the many leftovers we had in the fridge).  Then we checked our e-mails to see if there were perhaps any good news reply's from IVHQ about this whole mess of a situation.  Wishful thinking....
  In the past couple days emails have been flying back and forth between our whole group and IVHQ and it has turned into the biggest case of "nuh uhhhh!!! ya huh!!!!!".  So not amusing, at all.  Basically, they are saying they cannot refund our money because they have paid each of our programs in full.... well here's the thing.  They also keep saying "if you would like to switch to another program we can certainly assist you with that."  But wait... didn't you guys already pay our programs in full??  So, if you cant refund us our money because you have already paid them... then with what money exactly are you going to use to put us into a different program?? Also they told us that they don't like to give us our placements until we arrive so that they can meet us and figure out what the best placement will be.... ok well first of all, we didnt get our placements until like the day of our departure to them... plus! they never actually gave me an exact placement, it kept changing up until I made the executive decision to go with Nicola to her placement.  So where exactly did my money go??
   AHHHH!!!! This whole situation is so completely frustrating and agonizing.  The responses that we keep getting back from IVHQ keep beating around the bush and dodging our points or questions.  They keep telling us "well we like to always tell people that volunteering in New Delhi (which actually none of our placements were in New Delhi, in fact that were very far away from there) during the summertime is hard because of the heat and not having any A/C" ................ No one, not once, ever made any type of complaint regarding the heat or lack of A/C!! Who cares!! yes it is really really hot, but I have no qualms with taking 2 showers a day, in fact I rather enjoy taking a nice refreshing cold shower in the evening to cool off, its quite soothing.  Yes it is uncomfortable at times, but that in no way has ever been an issue, I was quite aware of what I was coming into weather wise when I signed up.  RAWR!! Ok, sorry guys, I am going to stop venting now, but I... well actually all of us just get so angry when we talk about this because we all feel like we were taken advantage of or have had the wool pullen over our eyes or something...
  So, tomorrow I am making my many phone calls to the various organizations that Jim and his wife have graciously provided me with (total god sends they are!!!) and hopefully I'll be able to set up some lunch dates or something like that for next week.  This weekend I am going with my new travel buddy Raj to Punjab to go see the Golden Temple.  So excited!! I think we are going to end up staying at the Golden Temple (which is a Sikh temple) as all Sikh temples provide free food as well as free lodging! It will be quite an experience for sure! But I am excited, and have no idea what to expect.  I will of course update when I get back since I highly doubt they have internet. 
  That's all for now, cross your fingers everyone for all of us that we get some type of supportive news or positive news from IVHQ.  I am just hoping for some type of compromised resolution out of all of this. 

 Namaste

The Taj Mahal, celebrity status then...... ohhh emmm geeee

To start off with, "ohh emm geee" for those of who aren't hip to the lingo is a spelled out version of "OMG" which stands for "oh my god".  Ok, now that we are clear on that, onto the good stuff. 

  Sunday morning we all got up around 5:00am, got all of our stuff together and headed off to Agra to go and see the Taj Mahal.  Most of us slept in the car or listened to music on our ipods. 

Notice everyone wearing ipods... i thought it was kinda funny

We finally got to the Taj Mahal after about 4 hours, we had to get onto a battery powered bus and get taken closer to the Taj then walk the rest of the way.  They are doing this now to try and lessen the amount of pollution around the the Taj to try and preserve the color.  It apparently used to be a pure milky white color as opposed to now where it is a slightly yellow color from all of the polution.  While its a great start, they have a long way to go before pollution is anywhere near eliminated in India.  I'll talk more on that later.  Anyway, so we walk towards the Taj and are again bombarded by street vendors trying to sell us snow globes with the Taj in them or picture books or this and that, all small trinkets which non of us had any interest in, but my god they are persistent!!!! I just kept looking forward and walking and not paying attention to them and eventually they lost interest.  Then we walk into the first part, we get a little story from our guide then continue on.  Oh also, Sunday was a big celebration so entrance was free (woohoo!!!) but that also meant that the entire world was there (booo).  So there were musicians playing  everywhere which sounded pretty cool and the actual tombs inside the Taj were open.  We walked through the passage way and BOOM!! There was the Taj Mahal!! such an amazing and surreal sight.  After all these years of seeing pictures, to actually be standing right there in front of it was just like.... WOW! No other words can really describe it.

Pretty amazing huh?!

  So then we actually walked in and it was shear madness!!! but we managed to get a group shot then a couple of me

So here are some pictures of the Taj Mahal of course.

So, now onto after we left.

We left Agra and headed back to where the program coordinators house was in Faridabad.  We got there around 7pm then had to wait for our various taxi's to come pick us up to take us to our placement.  I was supposed to go to an orphanage that was near a hospital where I'd be working with the children on health related issues.  Sam and Alice's taxi (aka rickshaw) came and got them then it was Nicola and I left waiting for another 30 minutes.  Then Nicola's taxi came, she got her stuff and headed out, as I was sitting there my stomach started doing flips and I started thinking in my head "oh my god, I can't do this! I can't go by myself into some place where I don't know anyone.... everyone is at least paired up with someone else from orientation week, Sam & Alice, Megan and Jeni, and Nicola is going to meet Richard..." So I jumped up and ran out of the door just in time to catch Nicola as she was about to leave, and I yelled out "ok wait! I'm coming with you!!" I grabbed my stuff and jumped in the taxi and felt remarcably better.  We headed towards our placement in our little rickshaw, It took about 30 minutes to get there, as we went from paved streets to dirt roads to then feeling like we were suddenly on a motorcross sport course with bumps and divets in the road, getting bumped around all over the place.  We finally arrived to our placement, in the middle of nowhere, in a place basically a step above being called the slums.  Back home it would have been called the projects area.  We walked in, there was a sweet looking family with 5 kids, and only 2 bedrooms, and there were already 3 other volunteers there, plus the two of us who just arrived.... can you do the math in this equation??  The bathroom.... well there was no toilet seat, just a toilet, no shower, just a spout and a bucket.... mind you we had also just spent all day in 105 degree weather in Agra, so my clothes were somewhat dry now from sweating through them and had, had high hopes for taking a shower once I got to what I was imagining would be like our orientation week house.  From all of the wonderous information we had gotten about our "volunteer house".  Oh the LIES IVHQ has told us.  There was no volunteer house, instead it was a bunch of volunteers, in a "house" which had a family already living in it.  The area around it was not what we might consider to be so safe.  So, after trying to contain my freak out inside my head, along with the tears that wanted to come flooding out.  We socialized a bit with the other volunteers.  Finally Catalin, one of the volunteers who had been there for a week, said that he hated it there, he hadn't been out of the area for the whole week he was there and he had tried everything he could to leave.  So I burst out, "oh thank god, thats exactly how I am feeling right now, I don't think I can stay here".  So we talked a bit more, then finally headed off to "bed".  When I say bed, really I mean a plank board with a sheet over it.  Awful.  I managed to finally fall asleep.  Then at about 2am my phone kept ringing, finally after about the 7th time calling, I answered, it was Alice calling from her and Sam's placement.  They were leaving their place in the morning, cuz their place was even worse.  They were staying at an orphanage that was about 60 kilometeres away from Delhi, and absolutely nothing else near them.  There was another volunteer who had been there for 8 days already who was so thankful to have other people there to help save him.  The guy who ran the place walked around with a gun, and a chain of bullets around his chest, he also had a machine gun in his room.  There were rats and mice all over the place along with slaves........... need I say more? So the next morning we arranged for a taxi to come pick up me, richard, nicola and catalin, Lauren was the only one who wanted to stay for some reason.  I called Jim and told him what happened and asked if we could all come and congregate at his place till we figured out what to do.  He of course said yes, so we all waited around until about 2pm when the taxi came to our rescue.  Sam, Alice and Raj also got a taxi and went to the YMCA near by and then came over to Jim's to have a pow-wow.  We all sat around and just talked about how crazy this all has been and how we need to contact IVHQ to get our money back.  We all then decided to go get a drink to wipe off the stress, which actually turned more into hanging out in Richards lavish 5 star hotel room (ahh richard and his posh lifestyle living Lol) then later nicola and I headed back to Jim's house to crawl into our real beds and drift off to a real and comfortable sleep!!! I woke up this morning around 11 then nicola came blearly eyed out of her room around noon.  We both definitely had the same expression on, which was that of an actual rested one.

 So now.... I am going to  contact another family friend who lives here who has done work with other charities and will know of some safe legit volunteer work that I can do for the remainder of my time here.  For now I am going to be crashing here at Jim's house until I figure out what all is going on.  But, just know, I am safe!! and I am so incredibly glad that I had my friends here with me and that we all went through that experience together and not alone.  Another incredible life experience for the books for sure!

 Hugs and Kisses everyone