So I wasn’t able to post blogs continuously due to internet unreliability, so here is one long post with a few pictures to explain my journey and travels! First, the getting there. We arrived at the RDU airport at 11am. Our flight was at 1:50 and we flew to Chicago, where we had a 5 hour layover (actually longer, second flight was delayed). Next we had a 14 hour flight from Chicago to Delhi, India where we stopped for the night. The next morning we had a 5 hour drive to Jaipur, our final destination. On the way back it is even harder. We had a 6 hour drive to Jaipur (due to traffic), a quick dinner break then practically 2 hours going through airport security, customs, MORE security… it was intense! Our flight from Delhi departed at midnight, and is about 15 hours to Chicago. We land in Chicago early (5:30am Central Time) and have a 5 hour layover before boarding the flight to Durham (including claiming luggage, customs, rechecking luggage). Once in Durham (about 1:30pm) we pick up our bags and head back to Station 9. This was the plan, although our flight from Chicago was delayed over 2 hours and I had the “Delhi-belly” on both flights so I was in a lot of pain, but I finally got home and got to bed (much love to my EA for picking me up at the airport)!
Some final thoughts about India… it definitely resonated differently with me than my experience in Tanzania. In general I found Tanzania to be a warmer, more welcoming environment. I thought about why this might be, and I came up with a few comparisons. First, I was based in a rural area of Tanzania – Bagamoyo – along the coast. I lived in a house with a lot of luxuries and amenities, but still I felt immersed in the culture and the people. In India we were based in an urban city – Jaipur – and our other excursions were to Agra and Delhi, also large cities. We were also based in a hotel which in a sense I felt in a glass box a large part of the time – disconnected from the people outside my window. I had every luxury – clean room, warm showers, air conditioning, room service, and (somewhat unreliable) internet in my room. It was a strikingly different feeling, and I found myself deeply missing the connection.
In terms of the daily activities, our purpose in India was entirely different than Tanzania. We were there to offer business skills to a local entrepreneurship organization, as opposed to Tanzania we were there to learn and absorb the culture (as the primary activity). So the nature of the trip was different, and I realized I missed the daily interaction with local people, learning from them and engaging with them, learning about their individual stories and developing relationships. In another aspect, Indian culture seemed to me less open to outsiders than Tanzanian culture. In Tanzania I immediately felt welcomed and part of the lives of the families I met. In India there was greater hesitation – a great deal of staring and uneasiness at the sight of outsiders. In Tanzania the kids would run up to you freely offering hugs and love, here kids were certainly interested in us but I was not approached by them.
I tried to do justice to the observations of urban poverty in a previous post but I don’t think I captured it accurately. The things I saw in just a limited time were absolutely shocking to the core. I saw tent cities along the highway, where tents made up of a simple piece of wood and tarp of plastic served home to hundreds of people, including many children. In the cities, I saw children using the bathroom on the side of the road because there are no toilet facilities. I saw men brushing their teeth early in the morning with sewage gutter water. Before dawn, passing down the streets you can see wood cots that line the road where men, women, even children sleep out in the open, with no roof, covering their entire bodies with a blanket. It is all they have. In the slums of Jaipur there were once-streams of water filled with feces, pollution, garbage, and animals chewing through it all looking for any kind of nourishment. Most of the animals, like people, do not have enough food. I saw cows so thin their ribcages showed. Children run around often barefoot, covered in dust and dirt. They still smile and they are so curious about you yet very shy.
Shopping in India was strikingly different from Tanzania – even though bargaining was involved there the pressure to buy in Jaipur was overwhelming. The streets are flooded with shops and boutiques, selling everything from pottery to jewelry to saris and pashmina scarves. The pressure to buy reminded me a little of when you’d be at the beach in Bagamoyo or Zanzibar and people would approach you laying out what they were selling even when you said you weren’t interested. Perhaps because of the population density, but literally I found myself saying no thank you to 5 different guys at the same time, all pressuring me to buy bracelets or postcards or other trinkets. Even in some stores they wouldn’t listen, throwing dozens upon dozens of clothes at you. And you are supposed to negotiate everything – and it’s just not my style. If they say it costs X and I say Z and somewhere we settle at Y, yet still I feel like I’m cheating them or they are cheating me, depending on what you get. There were some in our group who thrived on the bargaining, but honestly when I liked something I got it, when I didn’t I walked away. It was just too much stress for me.
My limited experience in Jaipur showed me so many child beggers. I felt actually less guilty refusing them than I would have before watching Slumdog Millionaire, when you realize a lot of these kids just give the money to someone else because they have to. I wished I could send them to school, or something more sustainable. Unfortunately that dollar only hurts those kids, it doesn’t help them. Still, it broke my heart every time I walked away or pretended not to see them. I still tried to look at them, I couldn’t speak Hindi but I still wanted to communicate in some way that I cared. I feel that it was probably not successful, in all likelihood.
The touristy highlights of the trip included 3 main things for me: the trip to the Taj Mahal, a camel ride, and an elephant ride – all things I can knock off my “bucket list”. The Taj was everything I hoped it would be and more. It lives up to the hype – it’s just incredible, from the design to the size to the detail. Every angle, every design had thought, purpose, and meaning behind it. At the Taj we were surprisingly the minority – most of its visitors were Indian. I expected it to be something like the Colosseum in Rome where it would be teeming with foreign tourists. After our adventure though I realized I am one of few people in the world who will ever see this amazing building – even most Americans that make it to Colosseo and the Eiffel Tower do not get as far as northern India to see the Taj Mahal.
The story behind it I found to be exceptional as well – this king, after the death of his wife (who died in childbirth while delivering their 14th child) was so heartbroken (or obsessed, as some might say) that he spent all of India’s money for 20 years building the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for her. She is buried in the center of the building. The tomb is surprisingly small, in fact the large structure has walls so thick that the center chamber is actually quite cozy. After its completion, the king’s oldest son eventually overthrew him and jailed him in a fort where he could still see the Taj Mahal every day. It’s a magnificent structure, but it cost billions of rupees, used slave labor, and bankrupted a country for practically 2 decades. The king died 8 years after imprisonment and is buried in the tomb – but she is still in the center. This reverence for a woman was in these days and times a defiance of cultural norms – which I find to be the most fascinating thing about it.
The camel and elephant rides were also a blast, I can’t deny it! The camel ride was fun because you get to ride solo – it was like riding a giant horse. But sometimes the camel would turn its head around and look at me which really freaked me out – I thought he might spit at me or something! The elephant ride was my favorite. They are my favorite animal by FAR and the ride was a little longer than the camel ride too. Our elephant’s name was Bovi and he was really cute. He also stopped for a snack along the way, and arched back for a minute I thought Erin and I were gonna slide off! Of course it really wasn’t that bad at all I was just silly.
The other places we visited – Jaipur City Palace, the Agra “Red Fort” and Amber Fort in Jaipur were also fun excursions. But the top 3 will remain the camel ride, elephant ride, and the Taj Mahal. All in all, a wonderful trip.
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