This was my last week in Jaipur- and my mom was here!! It was so great to have her here to see my life in India. We had fun talking with Papa Ji and Mami Ji and seeing the city. We went shopping for some Indian clothing and puttered around in many many rickshaws. Bargaining with them in Hindi is always an adventure. We did a small sight-seeing tour and the best part was the Amber Fort, which employs about 30 elephants to carry people up the winding path. We opted to walk, but it was neat to have my elephant count significantly increase. This week we had about 8 huge assignments and exams, but it was nice to step back from that and spend time with my mom.
Now we are all heading out for our month-long Independent Study Projects (ISPs). Today I take a bus to Delhi, then tomorrow night I take the train by myself up to Uttaranchal, where I will meet someone from AVANI, the NGO I will be staying with. Basically I am hoping to study how AVANI trains youth to build, install, and repair solar home lighting systems. Each village has a Solar Energy Committee that is slowly picking up other development issues, and I am interested in their capacity for community-based natural resource management. Things will probably change once I get there, though, and apparently I will have to primarily speak Hindi. Yay! The last week I hope to travel with friends to Darjeeling, a beautiful place in eastern India. More on that later...
So I will leave you with a story: once we were eating dinner at a restaurant, and the owner said she owned a 70-year old elephant named "Wind in the Butt." We all tried to stifle our laughter as we were walking back to Wind in the Butt's house. We fed her some roti (bread) and took pictures, before clarifying that Wind in the Butt's name was actually Wind in the BUD. As in a flower. That made more sense.
Now we are all heading out for our month-long Independent Study Projects (ISPs). Today I take a bus to Delhi, then tomorrow night I take the train by myself up to Uttaranchal, where I will meet someone from AVANI, the NGO I will be staying with. Basically I am hoping to study how AVANI trains youth to build, install, and repair solar home lighting systems. Each village has a Solar Energy Committee that is slowly picking up other development issues, and I am interested in their capacity for community-based natural resource management. Things will probably change once I get there, though, and apparently I will have to primarily speak Hindi. Yay! The last week I hope to travel with friends to Darjeeling, a beautiful place in eastern India. More on that later...
So I will leave you with a story: once we were eating dinner at a restaurant, and the owner said she owned a 70-year old elephant named "Wind in the Butt." We all tried to stifle our laughter as we were walking back to Wind in the Butt's house. We fed her some roti (bread) and took pictures, before clarifying that Wind in the Butt's name was actually Wind in the BUD. As in a flower. That made more sense.
Hey, Sare:
ReplyDeleteIt was fantastic being with you, meeting Mama and Papaji, your friends and teachers, tooling around the city. Your Hindi is amazing. can't wait for you to experience another part of India: Kerala. It's soooo different than Jaipur, and I'm sure the Himalayas as well: very tropical, hot, rainy, GREEN....Malayalam is really hard to understand. Everyone here is eager to meet you. See you in a few weeks!
Love,
Mom