Smiling at Strangers: Holy Cow, India!

To those I carry in my heart,

Over the past few weeks I have witnessed and been a part of so many moments that I wish I could spend hours sharing with all of you. At the end of my birthday week I only had a few short days to reflect before heading out to the next trip. Now I hope to share a few key memories with all of you from the past few weeks, which have been the most important I have had in India thus far. I feel my mind is still weeks behind in processing everything I am encountering and experiencing here. However, as the students in my group begin to open up and understand each other on a deeper level, we are able to support, encourage, and facilitate each other's reflection process. I will say one interesting thing I am experiencing is not only the thought process of life here in India, but also a deeper reflection of my life back home. I am sure many others, including those on my trip, find that learning about other communities, cultures, and environments greatly impacts your understanding and perspective on the life you have left behind.

The first trip out of Rajasthan was to Dehradun and Rishikesh, in the northern state of Uttarakhand, during the week of my 21st birthday. The entire group took an overnight train to the state which is in the foothills of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, during this 11 hour train ride my body decided to reject something I had digested. This lead to me "tossing my cookies" onto the train tracks multiple times. I would say this was clearly low point. It took me the next to weeks to recover from nausea and lasting side-effects of this illness. It is also funny and worth reporting that when I went to the doctor upon returning to Jaipur, I was diagnosed with Gastritis. After a sufficient dose of medication, I am happy to report that my health has returned to normal and I am able to digest Indian food once again. Shabash! (Translation: bravo! or hurrah! in hindi)

Now that we have gotten that important detail out of the way, onto the highlights of the trip. In Uttarakhand we visited Vandana Shiva's farm and seed bank, known as Navdanya. The farm land was filled with beautiful fields of many different crops. We also stayed in yurt type buildings filled with twin beds, which added to the peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. The night before my birthday we stayed on the farm and some friends from the program organized a bon-fire, where our group and people working on the farm sang, danced, and played music late into the night. The next day we learned about the farm and we were fortunate enough to participate in a compost demonstration. What more could I ask for on my birthday!? We also travelled to an NGO in Dehradun that day and we had chocolate cake for my b-day, which was smeared all over my face of course! Gotta love those Indian traditions. The next day we visited a beautiful traditional village, which this organization works with to provide the children with education, as well as other resources. It was our first experience visiting a village and facing the challenge of communicating with a community in Hindi and through translators. It was fun to get a chance to play games with the children, but also thought provoking for many reasons. We were shocked at how hard it is to even teach a game to children when faced with cultural and language barriers.

After this experience we had another night in Dehradun. The next morning we learned more about this fantastic NGO and then we travelled to Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world AND the headwaters of the Ganges. It was refreshing to explore this little town, observe a puja at the Ganges, and attend an early morning yoga class. I will wrap up this post since it is getting lengthy!

Here are some pictures to go along with the highlights from this trip: