we're fine

Quick note to let you know that we're fine.  We were scheduled to be in Mumbai at the time of the attacks...actually at that very hotel, but we thank goodness changed our plans.  We're in Gujarat right now, heading back to Delhi tomorrow.  

Trains!

Trains in India are really fun.  John and I have made a few train trips and each one has been unique, enjoyable, and cheap.  Truly, I don't think any trip to India is complete without experiencing the fun of a train, but that's just me.  In addition, trains go pretty much everywhere, so travel is easy and affordable for everyone in the country, not just those who have money.

Our first trip by train was from Indore to New Delhi.  Since it was our first trip, we got a ticket on AC3, my dad having insisted that we needed to be on an AC class.  In AC3 there are three tiers of bunks.  Our friend Matt from Barli told us that the top was the best one because you can go up there whenever you want to during the trip.  If you have one of the bottom 2 bunks, you have to wait for everyone else to lay down before you can.  The bottom bunk doubles as a seat for the 3 people to sit on.  

The day we left Indore, we made ourselves 4 peanut butter and banana sandwiches on chapatis and packed them up as our dinner.  It may sound strange, but it's a lifesaver when there is no other safe food to eat or it's too spicy, which happened quite a bit at the beginning.  Others on the train had also brought their tiffins of food on the train.  Every now and then people would walk down the aisles yelling, "Chai, Chai!" or "Coffee!" or "Tamater Soup!" or whatever they happened to be selling.  The train made many stops where you could get off to grab a quick bite of whatever they were selling on that platform or a bottle of water or whatever.  John got off at one point and brought us back five hot and greasy samosas for 20 rupees.  They gave us sheets and a pillow and a blanket to make our bed and sleep with.  It felt like one big slumber party.  We had a blast.

All of our trips since then have been on sleeper class, the main differences being that it is way cheaper, no sheets provided, no AC, and not quite as well kept.  When we rode AC3 we froze under the AC and figured it didn't make sense to pay more for something that made us uncomfortable.  Despite what some may say, sleeper class is great.  We had absolutely no problems.  The only thing I would say is that one of the sleeper trains had more men than women and children so had I been alone, I would have been very uncomfortable.  So if I was traveling alone, I'd probably take a better class, but with John with me sleeper is just fine for us.  

One morning, our train arrived in Jodhpur at 7 am.  We were awoken at 6 am by the sound of two men singing and playing the drums.  We were like "Where are we?"  It was kind of surreal to wake up to that, but in a very good way.  They were really good and they set the mood for our trip through Rajasthan.  They then further set the tone of the trip by hitting us up for money.

We've taken a total of 4 trips and still haven't hit the 100 dollar mark.

Living in Delhi

Hello all. Here's an update on what we've been up to.

John has been very busy lately. He is working on the website for the Baha'i House of Worship (Lotus Temple) and is also helping the Baha'i National Center here. We've told them we'd stay here at least until the end of February. We're staying with a wonderful family here in Delhi. They are an American family with three kids who are here for six months for their mom (Jenny)'s job. The dad, Chris, is the person who got John involved in the computer stuff at the Baha'i National Center. They are great people and have very kindly allowed us to stay here with them like family. We feel very lucky.

I've been helping John and Chris out some as they have alot to do. I've also been getting involved with an orphanage in Delhi that is home to 35 kids who are HIV positive. They are really great kids and smart! The incredible thing is how they have made the "care home" as they call it into such a happy place. I taught my first children's class there on Thursday and hope to continue with that on a weekly basis. I'm also going to be helping another volunteer with teaching English classes there on Saturdays. At other times, I can just go there and spend time with the kids playing, reading, whatever.

It's been surprisingly difficult to find organizations who want volunteer help, so I was a bit discouraged for a while there, but I'm really happy that I found this place. I finally feel like I'm doing something meaningful.

Our families are coming to visit in two weeks and I am soooo excited. I haven't ever left Texas or my family for this long, so some family time is definitely in order. We're going to meet them all up in Rajkot.

Diwali is coming up. Tuesday I think. This means lots of colorful lights and decorations everywhere and exploding sounds (I'm assuming they are fireworks) outside our window. Stores are having sales and selling big baskets of nuts and sweets and stuff. It will be interesting to see how they celebrate Diwali in India.

Ok, that's all for now. Hope all three of our loyal readers are doing well! :)

Photos of Rajasthan

Hey everyone, this is John. I just put up some photos highlighting our trip through Rajasthan. You can see the photos here. Hope you enjoy.

udaipur

Hello friends,

John and I are in Udaipur right now. It is in Rajasthan - a city with many lakes and hills and palaces and temples and other pretty things like that. It is also full of tourists and shopkeepers trying to sell us things we don't want. So we are currently taking refuge inside an internet cafe.

We have been traveling around Rajasthan for the past week since we had a week before John's project in Delhi begins. We were in Jodhpur and will go to Jaipur tomorrow and then back to Delhi. Yesterday we saw our first elephant. It was surreal to see that huge creature making its way down the narrow street. John will post pics of it when we get to a comp that lets us do that.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention the coolest part of our trip so far. When we went to Jodhpur, our purpose in going was really to investigate a project there that we might be volunteering with. They have a school in a tiny little town outside of Jodhpur that we went to visit. We walked through the town during the day and saw the school and met the other volunteers who are working there. That evening, our host Govind, who started the school, took us to the home of his ancestors, a little bit away from the main part of the town. There, we were surrounded by fields and a few scattered houses. There was no electricity and few people around. His aunt cooked us a lovely dinner that we ate by candlelight, and we slept on the roof under the stars. Saw lots of shooting stars that night and woke up to people taking their goats out to the field to start their day's work. It was by far the best experience of our trip so far. Not sure if my description does it justice.

Ok, well that's all for now. We hope all is well with all of our friends reading back home and that you all have your power back and life is back to normal.

-sapana and john

Jodhpur

We are in Jodhpur right now in Rajasthan. Some of you may have heard about the temple stampede that took place here this morning. John and I are doing ok as the incident was not near where we are staying, but many people died and were injured. It's been a sad day for the people here.

Delhi to Jodhpur to Udaipur to Jaipur to Delhi

Hey everyone. This is John. Sorry for the loooong delay in posting. Sapana and I are in Delhi at the moment, but in about 30 min we're going to head over to the train station so we can go to Jodhpur.

Here's a little summary of what's been going on. Sapana and I decided to shorten our time at Barli. After being there almost six weeks, Sapana still did not have any substantial work to do. We decided that we could hopefully make more of a difference somewhere else where we could be more engaged.

We came to Delhi to investigate some things here. Some friends of Sapana's family are being wonderful hosts and taking great care of us. While here in Delhi we got to see the Baha'i House of Worship, and I got to speak with some people over there about a project I'll be working on with them.

We have a little bit of time in between things, and we want to investigate another women's empowerment project in Jodhpur, so we're going to make a trip of it. We'll spend a few days in Jodhpur, and go to a small village with the guy who runs the program. Then we'll spend a few days in Udaipur before moving on to Jaipur for about a day. After that we'll come back to Delhi and I will be working full time with the House of Worship project. (more details on that later)

So it's a bit of a vacation, but we are investigating a possible service opportunity. We'll be spending time in some of the most beautiful places in India, so I'll take lots of pictures. Sorry about the lack of photos on flickr, the time we've had with fast Internet has been very limited. I will try to get more photos up soon.