A few first impressions of India: colorful. loud. smelly(good & bad). crazy driving. delicious food.
My first experience in a car was quite terrifying if I'm being completely honest. There are no real road traffic rules here. Sure, there are "lanes", but people tend to ignore those if it suits their fancy (and it always does). The upside of this is that there is almost never traffic. It's absolutely incredible how they always find a way around each other without hitting anything! Besides other cars they are also dodging cows, dogs, small children on bicycles, pedestrians, motorcycles, & scooters. The horn is their best friend and everyone uses it all the time. I can even hear some from my window now actually and I am quite far from the main road. I must say though, I am starting to get used to it!
The food has been incredible. If you did not know already, I am a huge fan of Indian food!! So much spice and flavor. I am told they are taking it easy on us and not ramping up the spice as much as usual. I am tempted to try street food to see what it's really like but that is kind of iffy, so I am waiting until my stomach gets a bit stronger. I've already had one tummy upset, although I seem to have gotten over it pretty quickly. I'm hoping to keep it that way!
My room at the dorm is very nice. Simple, but nice. I've got a bed, desk, two bookshelves and two large closets. There is no A/C here but we do have something called desert coolers in our windows. Its essentially the same thing as A/C. It consists of water dripping slowly through hay while a fan blows the cool air on you - its great! I also have a ceiling fan, so between those two I am much cooler than I would be otherwise. It has been over 100 degrees everyday since I've been here. At peak times in the afternoon it gets up to 111 - 115 degrees!! Luckily is has been more cloudy the past two days so it hasn't been quite as hot as that.
Classes started on June 1st and everyone was trickling in on the 28th, 29th, & 30th. We have each met our team members in person now and we are preparing for our first couple days of field work which will take place this Friday - Sunday. The village my team is going to is called Kojawara and it located about 70 km (~44 miles) from the city center. We will be staying in a health referral center (one level down from a hospital) which will have electricity, running water, and a toilet! Not at all how I thought it would be but I think the program has tried really hard to make sure we are somewhat comfortable during our time in the field. They also said they will be calling to check up on us each day.
The city itself is a mix of beautiful palaces and temples, lots of friendly people, small/crowded roads, and is full of sights, sounds and smells. I had the pleasure of visiting the City Palace on my frist day here and it was incredible! So lovely and so full of history. Unfortunately, I didn't get a proper picture of it, although I have included some pictures of my travels around town below.
I am totally loving it here!! I feel safe, happy, and so grateful to be having this experience. I have been welcomed with open arms and I am being well taken care of so there is no need to worry for me. Besides some staring and pointing, I haven't been bothered much at all on my outings to the cities. Some of the little children will come up to me and say "hello!" and "how are you?" which I find so adorable. They usually run away giggling when I do get the chance to answer them.
Anyways, on to the pictures! Thanks for stopping by!
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