Since I didn't get a video that really showed Delhi traffic.

This one is awesome.
http://youtu.be/MvRMZ5iIb18

Makes me miss it.

Pictures!

My photos can be seen on my Shutterfly site here- http://roadtoindia.shutterfly.com/

 

And my first picture after getting home: Waffle House, on the way home from the airport.

 

Videos from India...

Now that I'm back to the land of speedy internet, I can actually post all the videos I have!

Seeing Delhi from the front seat. Notice how they have a non-committed relationship with the lines in the road?

Tame glimpse in to the ways of the road.

On the way to the Lotus Temple.

Heading toward the President's house and other government buildings.

On the way to Earth Saviours. So many cars, so little road.

Green Avenue, on the way to Earth Saviours. With bonus commentary from me and Daisy.

The 4-wheeling adventure in to the Earth Saviours site, as described on my blog someplace.

More to come...

 

Missing you

I'm loving the hot showers, brushing my teeth with water from the sink, fresh mountain water to drink, giant super comfy bed, catching up with friends, being able to pet dogs, etc.
But of course I ponder what I left behind.
I miss the little secret handshake that the kids at Earth Saviours taught us. And the tiny baby goat.

I miss Ravi's smile and happy greeting almost every day. And getting chai before break.

I miss hanging out and giggling with my India mommy Marianne, and my India little sis Daisy. It's not that I don't miss Terri and Jamie as well, but it was just us 3 for a while and I left them so it feels different. Good times were had all the way around.

I miss the noise and chaos.

And I miss all those sweet fellas who I want to tell you more about. They have funny little descriptions in the welcome packet, but I'm going to write my own.

I'll go in order of the picture since maybe some of you haven't memorized their names, eh?

Ashwini- He's kind of stoic and more often than not silent when he's with just us girls. He'll give input when we're saying something wrong in Hindi or answer questions, but you wouldn't call him chatty. At least not in English. He strikes me as someone I wish I could talk to more to see what he's all about. He giggles at the prank call show in the radio and one day we both sang Sheila Ki Javani in the car. It made me love him a little bit.

Lalit- Oh Lalit. He's the big brother you'd love or hate to have. Daisy can attest to that more than I but since he doesn't pick on ME at any given opportunity then I just have to assume. His signature phrase is "What!?" Why is it so hilarious is totally beyond me. We got to have a couple chats during our time together and hopefully we'll have more in the future. He reminds me of a playful puppy trying to behave himself. :) I have Daisy on a mission currently to give him a hard time since I didn't get to tell him goodbye. She needs an advantage over those picking on her for a change.

Vicky- Sweet Vicky is the first person I met and was our escort from the airport when we arrived in Delhi. He's full of information and has a sort of soothing nature for some reason. I know Marianne has enjoyed working with him as a field-worker. He was brave enough to try to learn salsa dancing and it was completely adorable.

Sunil- One of our trusty and fearless drivers. Anytime you get in a car with someone you can consider the fact that your safety is in their hands. This seems slightly more relevant in India. Not once did I feel an ounce of concern with these guys. I remember seeing Sunil on the very first day and thinking that I saw a little twinkle in his eyes. I battled with him on Holi and after that he became one of my favorites. I can tell his giggle from anywhere in the office and it makes me happy.

Kewal- Human Teddy Ruxpin. Go ahead....search it and tell me it's not true. I've heard maybe a grand total of 5 words out of him (in English, he's more talkative in Hindi) but he's never without that cute little smile. He was there at the beginning and the end as my airport driver both ways. It seems significant somehow in the universe.

Jaggi- What can I say about Jaggi...I've requested that he either adopt me or come back home with me. I want to pinch his adorable face. He helped mellow me out when I was having issues and he had his son hunt down Cheetos for me. He's a good friend from the first moment, without hesitation. He may think I'm slightly insane, but that's always part of the package with me anyway.  He made all the difference in how awesome the experience was for me. Thank you, thank you to him.

Pawan- He doesn't say much but I think he sees all. He sings while he cooks. He has beautiful eyes and I kinda wish I could read his mind. Or at least talk him in to singing to me.

Satinder- He's like a house mouse. He comes in and does all kinds of things but you don't always see him there. He doesn't say too much either but it's always cute to hear his little "hello" when he comes to the flat.

Ekraj- Mr. Smiley from Nepal. He's pure sweetness. His smile can brighten your day and luckily for the world he smiles at all times.

Suresh- Possibly the quietest of the bunch. He doesn't need to talk to impress us though, he makes amazing food! He also sings as he cooks.

I think a few of them weren't quite sure what to make of me but even so, I wish I could have gotten to know every single one of them better. Of all the things in India I miss, they take up a big portion of the list.

I TOLD them all to pack up and come back to Colorado with me but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I hope to go back some day and drink chai with them, and learn about cricket with them, listen to them laughing, and secretly learn Hindi so I know what they are saying when they don't think anyone can understand. :)

Hopefully the Queen Bee Bela will be there next time as well! I've only seen her twice but I love her already.

Jetlag, bad tea, and other adjustments.

As I'm sitting upstairs drinking my extremely bland Prince of Wales tea, all I can hear is the sound of the heater, something rattling, and the clock ticking. I really really wanted to go sit in my car and honk randomly at anything that moved or anyone that drove past.
I'm generally not up at 6am and having toast and tea by 7, but my body has a schedule that seems to wake me up for my standard India meal times. 1pm we'd have lunch, 7pm we'd have dinner. About 12:30 and 6:15 on the dot I'm wide awake. I haven't any idea what time I fell asleep but I remember my mommy coming down and turning off my TV.  I remember thinking about eating dinner...then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......
I'm really gonna try to stay up later tonight and not be still wearing my jammies at some point today. It was my first full day back and all but still. Jetlag is winning so far.
We sat out in the sun yesterday for a while. That was nice and crisp. The smell of wood fire has replaced the smell of trash fire. Though I'm not sure which I prefer at the moment. The wood smells awfully mountainy, which makes me think of snow, which makes me nervous.
I was also slightly nervous in DIA surrounded by white people. Sleep deprivation aside, some things don't change, even after India. They just amplify.
A run to Krishna's Market in Lafayette is in order soon. I need proper tea. And I mean just regular tea, I'm not ready to talk about chai yet.
There's about 100 other things that I'm still adjusting to but I won't bore you with all of those. Yet.
Definitely missing the energy and noisyness that is Delhi. I'm not yet fully able to appreciate the lack of black soot in my nose seeing as I've had a cold since I was flying over Russia, but I'm sure when I'm stop sneezing I'll love being able to sort of breathe again. (Altitude isn't my friend either but at least it's not gross.)
While washing my cup and plate this morning I automatically tried to avoid dripping water on the strawberries that were sitting in the dish strainer. But moments later I remembered that here in Colorado we don't have water of death. I can sprinkle it on whatever I want. Don't they say that it takes 30 days to make or lose a habit? Well...I've acquired several, so it seems.
Who would have thought one could sort of miss the faint smell of trash and urine?

Holi Holi Holi!

I'll leave it to you to Wiki Holi for all the details but this quote sums it enough for the time being-
Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. Furthermore, Holi celebrates many religious myths and legends.

During Holi in India, the general rules of acceptable public behavior are not as they usually are.
For example, I was handed a giant Kingfisher beer before 11am. It was magnificent.
I explain it as the Mardi Gras of India. Drinking and smoking is accepted, less conservative dress won't get you scolded (and is preferred unless you want your nice clothes to be a new color at the end of the day), interactions between men and women can be less "proper", and the overall mood is fun, festive and joyous.
Daisy, Marianne, and I are the last remaining volunteers from our original group and we had plans to celebrate with the CCS staff. We really wanted to be able to go to Earth Saviours as well to celebrate with the kids, but we'll aim for that next time we're in India.
Many people know that I have a radar for hidden cheekyness. I knew that some of these sweet, quiet, reserved staff members had more going on than meets the non-Hindi speaking eye.
Luckily I was right. They are awesome.
When we got to the office...after hiding around the corner for a moment in case there was a sneak attack...we saw that the floor was covered in newspapers and the furniture on the porch was cleared away. They had already powdered each other but their little yellow and orange faces were just the beginning. We had stolen a packet of powder from the office the night before, just so we were ready when we got there.
Daisy and I started sprinkling it on each other like a couple of little girls. Eyes closed, turned the opposite way, just flailing our arms at each other. I got it in my teeth at one point but thankfully there's not a close up picture of that.
So we had some snacks and drinks, told all the gentlemen that smoking is bad for them (but it's just a Holi thing for several of them), took some pictures of our powdered faces, and THEN they filled the buckets.
Then it was a war. It was 7 boys against us 3 ladies! Not fair! I'm twice the size of a couple of them so I guess that's fair enough...but still. Marianne got her hat taken away. No fair hiding your hair. We'd put on coconut oil to try to avoid turning purple for days to come, but that was only so useful as we found out later. And anybody that knows my aversion to greasy things on my skin won't be surprised to know that I didn't slather it on myself. I was taking my chances.
I don't know which one of these menacing characters started it but Daisy and I both got a bucket of cold water flung at us. Marianne, however, was the first one to get a LARGE bucket dumped on her. She was far too dry anyway. Then we saw what the deal was with these guys. We had to get on the ball!
You turn around to fling poweder at someone and another one comes up behind you and rubs it in your hair, you try to throw water on someone with the little bucket and you get a soaking from the big bucket. No one is safe! I began to see Sunil as my nemesis. He's a little bit taller than the others so we're more evenly matched I feel. We almost broke a bucket that we were fighting over. Lalit and I did break the little bucket later. Oops.
They brought out water shooter things and just kept refilling the buckets over and over and over again.
I don't know which Holi tradition came first...the water, or the wearing of white shirts. That's all I'll say about that. My shirt will never be white again anyway.
There was a lot of screeching and cackling and spitting of powder and slightly more mayhem than I expected from grown ups. It was epically fun.
Daisy and I have said that we feel bad that new volunteers won't get to have this experience with the staff. I'm also bummed out that I feel like I know them so much better just before I leave. I still can't quite believe I was in India for Holi, something I've had on my list of life goals for a while now. I don't know if I've ever really achieved any of my other goals before. I should check.
My Indian Holi was the most fun I've had in ages and I still have purple patches on me to show for it.
It sharpens the misery I will have leaving all these guys but it was definitely worth it.

Forgotten moment from the Akshardam...

I remembered this last night, and seeing as I'd tried so hard to remember it in the first place, I thought I better put it here.
If you have read about my trip to the Akshardam, you saw that we went to see the light and water show.
Before it begins, there is chanting that comes booming out of the speakers. All the lights are dimmed except those below the huge golden statue of...someone. I assume the same guy who has a huge golden statue in the inner sanctum.
It was dark and cool outside. The moon was just over the statues head, and they were doing a ritual of some sort with a flaming torch thing. I leaned over to Marianne and said "I really wish I had my camera for this!" She agreed and said she was trying to capture the image in her mind since we weren't going to have a picture of it. So I just stared at the image of the shining moon, glowing statue, and dancing fire for as long as it was there trying to burn it in to my brain for as long as possible. It was a very "auspicious" moment which would be hard to duplicate. ;)
(We have a bit of an inside joke about the word auspicious, as it is everywhere in India. So it might not be the most accurate word technically, but it is for us!)