Email Update from India

We have only had 2 internet access times thus far and I was not able to get the blog to upload either time. I will try again tonight, but thought I would send the text via email and then try the blog again. Check it out @ www.crestonecharter.blogspot.com for the same text but including photos.

3/22/07 The Crestone Charter School LINK Students made it to Delhi!!!

Hey Y’All, the months of preparation and fundraising has come to fruition and WE ARE IN INDIA! Some of you heard that up until 3:45 PM on Monday, prior to out 5 AM departure on Tuesday, we still had not secured visas (hence passports), for 2 students. We were preparing to make a phone call with the bad news to parents that their children couldn’t come, when out of the blue, as the 11^th hour was coming to a close, we received a call from the Indian Consulate in Houston, saying that visas were completed and could be handed over to FedEx for overnight delivery to the airport (an address we had secured)! They showed up as scheduled 1 hour before departure! After 20 uneventful hours (a LONG time of uneventfulness) on our flight, we arrived at our Youth Hostel. We’ve had a short but restful night and will be heading off to tour Old Delhi in a few hours…… Stay tuned!

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3/23/ 07 Day three has ended long and hard. Karen and I had wanted to make sure that kids were up until 8-9 PM to be good and tired for a jumpstart to adjusting to jetlag. We started the day with a morning meeting to talk about the first day’s schedule and to hear first impressions. Overall students were excited and ready for the experience to begin.

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We then met my sister Meemie and her husband Chris for a taxi and metro ride to Old Delhi. We were immediately thrust into a 3^rd world India of sights, sounds, and heat. While there we went to a Hindu temple then onto Jama Masjid Mosque, including a trip up one of the minarets with a sweeping view of Old Delhi. We also visited a Jain bird hospital and Temple where compassion and non-violence, even towards the smallest of creatures is avoided.

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The bike rickshaw experience that followed, through the traffic and then crowded alleyways to the old spice market, was a fun and needed rest, while not necessarily relaxing!

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We headed for lunch at a 130 year old Paratha (flat bread, fried in ghee, filled with potatoes or cheese, and dipped in sauces) shop. Two to three parathas each and a drink or two each, all for about $25 for the whole group! At the Spice market we went to next there was stall after stall filled with 100 Kg sacks of every imaginable colored spice for sale, and for smell. We went up to the rooftop for an overview of the market bazaar. By the time we left many were sneezing with watering eyes from the intensity of the spices!

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From there, via another rickshaw / Metro. and van ride, we went to Meemie and Chris’s school for ReachOut, a community service for local slum residence to receive basic needs such as a nutritious snack, hair washing and doctor visits, and lots of playtime for the kids. Later we were lead on a tour of the slum itself, led by slum residents, and saw the conditions in which these people live, but also the dignity with which they hold themselves. Examples include how they shared chai with us, told us how they raised money to give to tsunami relief, and refusing our donation saying “To Hindis, guests are like the gods, and are to be given to, it was our pleasure to guide your visit.”

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We returned to the school for a snack before heading to our last stop at the Niza Muddin’s Tomb, Sufi’s second most sacred site to watch a devotional music performance. Getting in and out of this place was a maze of alleyways packed with throngs of people, venders, beggars, smoke and incense, and even more people. It was too overwhelming for several of the student. We all made it back out but some shaken by the experience. We will have a chance to debrief and journal about it on our 6 hr bus ride tomorrow to Agra and the Taj Mahal. TTFN.

3/26/07 Our bus has been far from a relaxing and centering experience! Indian driving is hard to describe but first imagine all sorts or modes of travel (walkers, bicycles, scooters and motorcycles, pedal rickshaws, 3-wheeled motor rickshaws, flatbed two-stroke tractor trucks, cars, minivans, small trucks, large trucks, short and long buses, and all sorts of animals pulling trailers (humans, oxen, cows, water buffalos, camels, etc)). Now place this variety of sizes and speeds of travelers onto narrow, crowded, busy streets where 2 lanes becomes 3-4-5 vehicles abreast all vying for limited space at breakneck speeds. During a day we are regularly passing a truck, which is passing a bike, while the oncoming traffic is a truck, passing a motor rickshaw, which is passing a camel cart.

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Enough to make any NASCAR driver wince! It begs the question of how often, not whether, there are 3 abreast head-on collisions! I am joking about the last part, but not exaggerating the first part!

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Anyway, we traveled from Delhi on Day 4 to Agra only to discover that the Taj Mahal was closed for cleaning. We gave the kids the choice of spending the night to see the Taj the next day or going onto the birdwatching at the national park as planned and they chose the later. We did take horse rickshaws around the side and to the riverfront (backside) for some views and photos then reboarded the bus and headed on to Fetapur Sikri, one of the old capitals of the vast Mogul empire for evening and sunset. This is best described by the pictures below.

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We then headed to our hotel at the entrance to the Keoladeo Ghana National Park. In the morning we hired bikes and guides and cruised the park for hours seeing hundreds of species of birds and just enjoying the park and quiet. So often, as we visit places, we are thronged by beggars and peddlers of all ages and crassness that this was a nice break from the multitude.

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Another bus ride brought us to Jaipur where we went to Chokhi Dhani, a neo-classical Rajastani village (think Renaissance Days) including traditional dinner, Henna body art, elephant rides, magic acts, puppet show, and bizarre feats of the human body.

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So that catches you up on WHAT has happened. Below are student comments offering more detail and impression of the trip so far.

Elise Writes:

So, we're in India! It's really almost surreal. We have seen just about everything from 5 star restaurants to cows ruling the streets. We went shopping today and haggled over everything, it was a lot of fun. Tomorrow night we are sleeping (we hope) on a train! Last night we went to what we could only call an Indian amusement park; there was singing and dancing and a little man-powered Ferris wheel and camel/elephant rides! It was really different. Most of the girls got henna tattoos on our hands.

I don't really know what to say except that we are alive and doing okay, even if we are being driven a little bit crazy. :P We never really know what to expect each day, so we just have to be flexible and go with it. I am enjoying the trip most of the time, although I miss home a ton and can't wait to get back.

Well, I am supposed to make this short, and I am going to pass out and sleep any minute now, so I should say au revoir... er, namaste!

Love,

Elise

Lenna Writes:

HELLO FROM INDIA! We're actually here, baby! This place is so different from any place I have been or seen in my life. At first I thought that everything about India was perfect but when I started to really get out and about I noticed that India is a lot different when you actually start associating with the people. Most of them have the kindest hearts. They help you get up staircases and if you fall they help you right back up. The only true problem for me is the beggars. They most of the time have baby’s and they put their fingers up to their mouths and then to their stomach and then to their hand. They’re telling us to give them rupees for food, but sometimes if you actually give them food they don't take it or they just throw it away.

I've think that that's how they are really just making a living.

I can't tell you how crazy everything is. I'll start off with the driving. All they do to pass someone is honk their horn and pass. We are only a couple of inches away from each other's vehicle's when we pass them of if they pass us, so really all you have to do is stick your hand out the window and you'd be able to touch their car. I don't even think they have laws for driving here. The steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car and we drive on the opposite side of the street also.

The other thing is the people. They’re always on the go. They're pushy and shovey but I understand because everyone else is pushing, so you have to be pushy right back to get anywhere. Its dirty here and smelly and has a lot of smog from the pollution, but besides that this place is beautiful. Everywhere you look there are plants and trees and greenness. The jewelry... I don't know how I can explain the jewelry. It's amazing. That's the only real way I can explain it.

Everything that's been going on had been nagging at all of us. Like if someone did the littlest thing that would irritate the other person. This morning we sat down and discussed about tension and now that we have everything out of our systems, everyone is alright with everyone again.

I'd like to write about the trip some more but I have to get some sleep. We're going to have a long day tomorrow and I don't want to be tired when that time comes. Thank you for reading this blog and I will see you as soon as I get back from India!

Lenna Jones

Becca Writes:

India is a very different place; so crazy all the time. On our first night, our class was at a mosque and there were people jammed in to the street trying to see the sight. We all hated being so crowded, some of us even broke down. We also went at night to so it was very hard. I remember the class walking in a blob like line, I was somewhere in the middle when people cut in front of me and I got separated from the group. There was some of my class ahead of me while some were behind me. I couldn’t see anybody for a short time. After that I started ramming through the crow, finally catching up to the crowd.

Our class also had the same bus we hired for four days, they are crazy drivers. Driving in India is extremely chaotic all they do is honk their horn and then pass if there’s room.

India has been extremely great so far (every country has its flaws).

Sammy Writes:

Hi everybody! We’re in India! It’s really weird to be going from where we live in such a mellow town to such a huge crowded country with so many people. There are little to no traffic laws and all of the roads are really bumpy. It was fun today when we went shopping at a bazaar and I was bargaining and stuff and I bought henna, and a Punjabi outfit. Even though I had fun today, I can still feel tension among our group and I’m really homesick. I would like to snuggle up to my little kitty cat in my bed every night, but we all want to do something like that, and we figure that since we worked so hard to get here, we might as well make it worth while. So for now, it’s all good!

Day 5 we toured the City Palace which now houses the Museum including a highly accurate and complex astronomical observatory The 15^th Century King, Jai Singh, was an accomplished mathematician and astronomer as well as a linguist who spoke 17 languages. The observatory has precise sundials, devices to measure distances / angles between stars, zodiac intervals, and solar inclination. Pretty amazing for 500 year old technology.

The highlight for many of the students was the Armory. In preparation for this trip we had watched a movie on the Moguls. It had focused on their warfare and weaponry. Many of the students were fascinated to see the swords, knives, and guns in person. The afternoon was spent shopping along the street stall for clothing and souvenirs. Many of the students were very proud of their bargaining skills.

We had a fantastic dinner in a rotating 14^th story hotel tower. Most of the kids are adjusting to the food pretty well although stomach disorders are starting to pop up. There have been several stomach aches, some Montezuma’s (Maharaja’s) revenge, but generally, except for a few sore throats, we are all remaining pretty healthy.

Today on Day 6, 3/26/07, we went to Amber Fort on its hilltop setting with commanding views. It had lots of passageways to the ‘women’s quarters’ a beautiful ‘cooling garden’ and engineered cooling vents powered like swamp coolers. WE are now on our way back to Delhi, for a quick dinner and repacking before boarding our first train. We will wake up on the train a short busride from Dharamsala. Hopefully we will be able to update the blog more frequently, but no promises!

Caitlin:

I have finally felt adjusted to India, and I think that’s a sort of feeling throughout the whole group. I have adjusted to the fact that Indian people live the way they do, and this is the way they survive, which is something that I thought I always understood about other cultures, but now I realize that the third world compares to hardly anything in my life in a way that I could accept it. The feeling is hard to explain.

But it’s ok with me, I’m finally comfortable, comfortable with being mobbed, with being stared at, with being asked to buy something every time I walk anywhere, and with the fact that Indians are way more accustom to physical contact than I am, it just redefined my own personal boundaries. I like the fact that some of the kids have come on this trip, it definitely has shown to them things in themselves that only this place can address, because here it’s hard to hide, you can’t really. Either you are strong within yourself or you break and you must evolve to endure, which is somewhat ironic.

There’s been an improvement on the menacing vibrations between us in our group. A lot of people are getting sore in the back of the throat, it fluctuates with the intensity in pollution, and I think its smog related. When I blow my nose, in Delhi mostly, there is black lining the inside of my nostril. It’s funny because I have never really been grateful for the hairs in my nose, but THANK YOU Mother Nature for giving me a little protection on that one.

So we boarded the train and spent the night traveling only to wake up and find that our train had been rerouted due to a track problem. Rather than getting off the train at 7:20, we were stuck until 1 PM and lost most of one of our Dharamsala days. Oh well, traveling on India Time!

So really just a travel day today. Tomorrow, we will meet with HH Karmapa. TC