First Couple Days

First day: airport is surprisingly first world, modern, built recently, probably nicer than Newark. However, fifty yards outside there are already people sleeping on the street in makeshift tents with fires going on the sidewalk, people walking in the street. Horns are used here 500 times a minute by every single driver, no exaggeration. This place is insane. I get the feeling that if there are any rules in india no one follows them. Difficult to describe but my first impression was like I walked onto a movie scene. Nothing seemed real about it. The poverty, filth, and chaos was beyond overwhelming. Driving in a taxi I saw an entire family of 4 on a single motorcycle with no helmets swerving in and out of traffic—a common scene. Lots of cows and dogs wander the streets. I would say there are about 3-5 stray dogs per street corner. They seem to have it pretty well here though in my opinion considering there is an absurd amount of garbage everywhere you look. One thing I didn’t think I would appreciate it the cleanliness of America. America has this homogenized artificially clean vibe with premeditated architecture to fit this western model. India on the other hand has a crumbling infrastructure and construction happening everywhere. Poverty everywhere. Garbage everywhere. Traffic everywhere. Animal shit everywhere. People selling shit everywhere. This has to be one of the dirtiest places on Earth.

The weirdest thing about this place are probably the developed sections. You have a naked homeless man sitting on the sidewalk and then five feet away you have a KFC that wouldn’t be out of place in middle America. The juxtaposition creates a little double take that trips you out, makes me laugh. Little kids run rampant through the streets asking for money with little to no clothing. However, we were told they only collect a fraction of their earnings and give the majority of the cash they earn through beginning to an older man who in return feeds them so we have been told to place money in a donation jar that goes to reliable charities rather than directly pay them.

After the cab ride (this isn’t totally chronological if you haven’t figured that out yet…) we were dropped off at this hindu ashram which is really nice. We doubled up and have our own bathrooms with water we can’t drink, however, still very nice. 6 inch geckos chill hard outside on the walls. Very cool. Some people have insects in their beds. Despite the amount of food I’ve eaten in my bed ive only seen a few ants.

Second day: Arrive at SIT headquarters after eating shit bread and rice with yellow stuff (my cultural insensitivity will hopefully erode as time goes by) at the ashram with Chi tea I don’t particularly care for. Rolling up to SIT headquarters we’re greeted with a man riding painted elephant and a band. Subtle. We feed the elephant fruit which is awesome. We engage in Orientation stuff, nothing of interest.

Third day: More orientation stuff. Drop off in a market. I saw a homeless man who had his right foot twisted 90 degrees in the wrong direction so he got around with his hands, crawling. A lady gave him two rupees (a fraction of a dollar) and he kissed the coins and looked up at the sky. On the way back from the market I see a naked man sitting on the sidewalk with his head down. Several days later I see a woman sitting on the sidewalk with her infant son passed out next to her. He is naked except for a t-shirt and has flies crawling on his legs.

Fourth day: food poisoning—all day. Liquid out of both ends. I sleep all day in between vomiting sessions. Good times.

Fifth day: Free day (feeling better despite waking up at 2 am not falling back asleep but anytime your not pissing out of your ass is a plus) Catch a rickshaw (little Moto cabbies that drive as wreckless as they look) traffic here is absurd, to reiterate once more. No surprise there are more traffic deaths here than anywhere in the world. I go with some of the girls of our group to a spa. Upon walking in I realize this is not my scene and I dip out to trek on my own and tell them ill meet up later. Walking around the most interesting thing is probably the manual labor. A middle aged woman in fine Indian garb lays a piece of plywood on her head and stacks bricks (about 15) on top of that while several infants rest by her feet in the dirt—seems safe. Crossing a total of 3 streets I was probably almost run over 12 times.

I find this place called Deer Park which is serene and looks like its out of the jungle book. Stray Dogs lie everywhere and take it easy. All the garbage cans are penguins—I have no idea why. I met the girls back at the spa and we go to pizza hut. This is fine with me since ive been vomiting Indian food for the past 24 hours and already need a break after less than a week. I don’t think fast food here is really any better than in America despite what people have told me. the resturants are cleaner but that’s about it. After food the group breaks. I go back to deer park on my own. It’s a huge place and a nice break from the insanity of delhi.

I explore a few areas until it starts to rain hardcore. I take shelter under a hut with two laborers. One of them leaves after half an hour and soon after four kids around my age show up. One of them has jerry curls and asks where I’m from. We start talking and it turns out they’re all 20-21 (3 guys and a girl) stuck under the hut due to the rain we talk for about an hour and a half and laugh our asses off on random stuff

thanks to internet they hook me up with their facebook info and were going to see a bollywood movie sometime in the next couple weeks, should be interesting

I head back to the ashram on a rickshaw alone, which is sketchy cause these guys driving them don’t speak English and if they take a wrong turn or something im lost in new delhi without a map and no clue where to go. I get back and then head out with some other SIT comrades. We roll to Qutb minar which is a giant ass tower built in the 12 century about 83 meters high. Its pretty sick. There are some cool ruins and what not, a pillar from the 4^th century. About 30 minutes in this guy comes up to me really enthusiastically and asks if he can take some “snaps with me” I ask him what that means and apparently he and all his friends want pictures with me…so one by one the four of them take pictures with their arms around me and then intensely shake my hand afterwards thanking me. I was too confused and paranoid they were going to try and rob me to enjoy it but it was hilarious none the less.

Sixth day: I still have the runs and my sleep schedule is fucked but its cool. We go to SIT head quarters and then drive 30 minutes into another part of delhi to go to this government cafeteria for some reason where the food is all you can eat, served by waiters, but it really sucked to be honest and my stomach still felt like dog shit so I just ate a bunch of rice and a cup of shitty pudding to help me digest in the future. All you can eat for a dollar and ten cents isn’t bad so whatever. We then head to humarananana’s tomb or however you spell it. Apparently this is the “masculine version” of the taj mahal. Its pretty sick. Very india. All it needed was some tigers and elephants walking around and it’s the epitome of your idea of india. Giant dome n what not. A couple approaches me and the dude asks what I think of his girlfriend. I tell him she’s attractive and they walk off giggling—Indian people. We head back to the ashram and then out to this nice place called Waves for food. I still can’t eat worth a shit and have a bite or two of chicken. Beer however makes me feel better and due to the lack of sleep, food, and fluid I manage to get drunk off four glasses of king fisher.

Seventh day: Its raining. All the streets flood in india when it rains, fun times.

Ill post pictures really soon