The good, the bad, the ugly
Greetings once again from India! I’m still in Jaipur with my I-to-I Volunteer project. Originally, we were supposed to be doing lake conservation – So cleaning and planting and building bird houses. But right before I left, the man in charge quit, so I have arrived here as the first group under the newly revised project. It’s still lake conservation, but since it is a new program, things are a bit up in the air. There are two other volunteers here at the moment, both British – James (18) and Steve (40). Both very nice and so far we get along well enough. We’re overwhelmed and bored at the same time. We all had planned on actually working while we were here – and at the moment, we’re bird watching. And none of us are very good at it…. We went out to the lake today, but all just kind of lost interest pretty fast. So it was a pretty long day. I like birds, but there is no way I can spend full days watching them.
Luckily this is only temporary… We have someone who has agreed to row us out to an island where we will be removing invasive species and planting new trees for birds to nest in. But for the rest of this week, the boat is unavailable. So basically, we’re bored. The food is very good, too. I’ve liked most of the food here so far and no serious stomach issues yet. I have to admit, though – at the moment I am seriously craving a big fat hamburger… Not available here since cows are sacred. We went to McDonald’s today – at least it’s something sort of familiar! They have Aloo Ticki Burgers (Potato Burgers) and Chicken Burgers. YumYum! I just had fries and I can’t even tell you how good they were!
There are a lot of things about India that amuse me and a lot of things that are just downright depressing. The poverty is everywhere. We get bombarded by beggars everywhere we go because we are very obviously rich tourists. People live all over the cities in cloth tents. There is literally trash everywhere. That’s something I can’t comprehend to save my life. I see dumpsters around that are completely empty, but surrounded by trash – and usually there is a cow or a goat or a stray dog rustling through the trash.
I have to admit, I’ve gotten to the point now where I can turn a blind eye to the beggars (and many of them are children or mothers with babies, so that is difficult to ignore). Today was the worst, though. We had boy with a back or leg deformity, who could not walk, chase us down the street - He could drag himself along almost as fast as we could walk. It was heartbreaking. But you can’t give money or you’ll immediately be surrounded by about 20-30 children, all wanting cash. They get a little grabby and it is quite scary actually. We had to evacuate via rickshaw from a crowd once and they ended up chasing us down the street, still shouting “Hello Hello” and holding their hands out.
The good things are harder to explain. Obviously the whole culture is fascinating. The temples and palaces are beautiful. The people, unless they are trying to sell you something, are quite friendly. The traffic is a terrifying riot. No rules at all. One of our drivers told us there are three necessities to driving in India:
1-Horn (everyone honks as courtesy so that the other drivers know they are there)
2- Brake (for obvious reasons)
3- Luck!
That's it for now! I've been here for ages, so my guess is that our guesthouse is wondering where we are! Plus James is waiting outside so I should rescue him....
Later!
Kt
Luckily this is only temporary… We have someone who has agreed to row us out to an island where we will be removing invasive species and planting new trees for birds to nest in. But for the rest of this week, the boat is unavailable. So basically, we’re bored. The food is very good, too. I’ve liked most of the food here so far and no serious stomach issues yet. I have to admit, though – at the moment I am seriously craving a big fat hamburger… Not available here since cows are sacred. We went to McDonald’s today – at least it’s something sort of familiar! They have Aloo Ticki Burgers (Potato Burgers) and Chicken Burgers. YumYum! I just had fries and I can’t even tell you how good they were!
There are a lot of things about India that amuse me and a lot of things that are just downright depressing. The poverty is everywhere. We get bombarded by beggars everywhere we go because we are very obviously rich tourists. People live all over the cities in cloth tents. There is literally trash everywhere. That’s something I can’t comprehend to save my life. I see dumpsters around that are completely empty, but surrounded by trash – and usually there is a cow or a goat or a stray dog rustling through the trash.
I have to admit, I’ve gotten to the point now where I can turn a blind eye to the beggars (and many of them are children or mothers with babies, so that is difficult to ignore). Today was the worst, though. We had boy with a back or leg deformity, who could not walk, chase us down the street - He could drag himself along almost as fast as we could walk. It was heartbreaking. But you can’t give money or you’ll immediately be surrounded by about 20-30 children, all wanting cash. They get a little grabby and it is quite scary actually. We had to evacuate via rickshaw from a crowd once and they ended up chasing us down the street, still shouting “Hello Hello” and holding their hands out.
The good things are harder to explain. Obviously the whole culture is fascinating. The temples and palaces are beautiful. The people, unless they are trying to sell you something, are quite friendly. The traffic is a terrifying riot. No rules at all. One of our drivers told us there are three necessities to driving in India:
1-Horn (everyone honks as courtesy so that the other drivers know they are there)
2- Brake (for obvious reasons)
3- Luck!
That's it for now! I've been here for ages, so my guess is that our guesthouse is wondering where we are! Plus James is waiting outside so I should rescue him....
Later!
Kt
posted by Kt at
5:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home