Welcome to India!

Hello everyone I'm back (again) and this time I'm posting in India! First of all, getting here takes even longer than to Africa! Over a day - wow! I did sleep on the plane AND my first night in the hotel so lucky for me I did not have trouble adjusting to the time difference.

I am in the city of Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan in North western India. I am here for 2 weeks with Duke's Global Consulting Practicum, doing social entrepreneurship consulting for a local NGO called Bodh Shiksha Samiti. This organization does education program delivery to at-risk urban youth in the slums of Jaipur.

Jaipur is located in the desert. The roads leading to it reminded me of Africa - filled with similar cell phone stands and food stands. Camels and elephants line the roads like motorcycles and bicycles do in the US. The elephants are still decorated in colorful paint because last week was the week of "Holi" a traditional Indian festival celebrating colors and elephants (I'm summarizing, I do think there's more to it than that).

Our first day in the city we went to City Palace, where we saw beautiful buildings, artwork, fabric, etc. from the old rulers. We also drove through the traditional pink markets where they sell all kinds of beautiful things (my lucky family and friends are getting souvenirs!). That night we had a traditional dinner at our hotel with lots of Indian dishes.

The second day in the city we went to our client's headquarters, which is about 45 minutes away from our hotel. We get to drive by lots of the major sights and stop and take pictures though so it passes by fast enough for me! Bodh's facility is really nice - it serves as their office and as a school for girls with a campus so they can stay there at night which is nice. The girls were friendly but shy, lots of giggling. We had great meetings with the client there, and on our way back we stopped for a camel ride - so you can see my picture above I have knocked yet another thing off my bucket list! Riding a camel is MUCH more awkward than riding a horse, particularly because I was afraid it would turn around and spit at me! But no, it was fun. We also stopped for pictures in front of the Amber Fort, which we will tour next week on elephants (crazy cool).

Today we visited one of Bodh's schools that they run with the government of India located in one of the slums. Visiting the slums was very difficult. We essentially walked over rivers of garbage with decaying sewage and polluted water, with pigs and flies everywhere. Particularly in the slums we got a lot of staring. It was extremely sad to see little kids covered in dirt and sewage roaming around these areas.

At the school we were treated like celebrities. Many of the kids, apparently, have never seen someone at their school like us before because we look very different to them. They jumped up and down and snuck into the rooms where we were meeting. Afterwards we tried to take a few pictures but they wanted our autographs and to shake our hands. I now know what it must be like to be Angelina Jolie for a day! We felt bad making such a scene but the teachers were proud and hoped it would motivate the kids to attend school more regularly.

Some other general observations about Jaipur: cows roam the streets and monkeys are the equivalent of squirrels. It is so strange to see cows walking alone with no attendance just in and out of traffic, between cars and such with no collar or leash or harnass or anything! Goats do the same thing, they are totally unphased by motorcycles and buses and trucks! It is just crazy! Electricity comes in and out at the hotel, internet is spotty at best but I'm still paying for it so that I can skype with my mom and boyfriend :)

I'll post again soon, depending on how reliable the internet connection is. Tomorrow we have another work day, but Saturday and Sunday we are in Agra to see the Taj Mahal which will be AMAZING! I have to say though I do miss American food and my cell phone, and of course all my family and friends. XOXO