Walk to Almora

This weekend as a procrastination tool, I walked to Almora, the town beneath the stretch of the Garhwal Himalaya that we have a view of from Sonapani. It's great, there is actually a trail that goes all the way from the train station down Kathogadam to Almora. It passes nearby Sonapani and we were easily able to find it and verify our destination with people we saw along the trail. "Namaste, Almora? Dhanyavad." Moving slowly and taking breaks, Brittany and I covered the 15km in just under 4 hours. It was such a beautiful walk! We crossed a bridge over the Kosi River, which had huge rocks that made me wish it was summer and I could hang out on by the river. We walked through forest, and had a drastic change of landscape to plain grassy fields, and different types of vegetation and even cacti! We were also invited in for chai by some locals in a small village just before Almora. It was a There was a conference going on so the directors of our program were in town and I was able to catch a ride back in the evening. While in town I did manage to get some momos and naan, and a scarf!

Pictures

Diwali

The 17th of October is the Indian holiday of Diwali, although we celebrated on the 16th because our hosts at Sonapani would be taking their kids to Ashish’s parents since the holiday is typically celebrated with one’s family. Diwali reminds me of a combination of the Fourth of July and Christmas. It is considered a winter holiday but it is known for its fireworks. It celebrates lightness overcoming dark. A few of us borrowed sarees from Deepa to wear for the occasion. She even offered jewelry to complete the outfit! It was great! Sarees are so beautiful, but I wouldn’t want to buy one because I have no idea when else I would wear it, so it was perfect! The cooks surprised us with apple pie and pizza! There was lasagna that other people were really excited about, but I didn’t partake in the joy. The pie on the other hand, ohhh amazing! It was also David’s birthday so we have all the more reason to celebrate!

We are getting midterms this week to conclude the half of our course which was meant to be “intensive,” although I didn’t think of it as such. I’m walking to Almora for a day trip tomorrow! I have really been enjoying volunteering teaching English, especially to the Reetha staff because it more structured whereas with the government school children we are really on our own to come up with what to do for an hour with them. The farm is good! Just simple tasks, but it is nice to get outdoors, and is cool to learn about the region’s crops, etc. The weekend after this we will be taking a trip to Lakshmi Ashram where our professor, Rebecca, has based her academic research from. There are also famous religious pilgrimage sights for Hindus nearby that we will visit as well! Should be a good weekend!

Pictures!

So I have slowly been trying to upload pictures since Thailand, so here they are, or at least some of them:

Bangkok
Koh Kradan
Kathmandu
Trekking in Nepal

Delhi
Salam Baralak Trust Walk
Lotus Temple
Gurudwara Bangla Sahib
Gandhi Museum
Bus Tour

En Route to Sonapani (not a lot of pictures because it is apparently illegal to take pictures in the railway station)

Uttarakhand
Sonapani
Walk to CHIRAG in the Uttarakhand hills
CHIRAG
CHIRAG School
Gargoan village
Shitla Nature Walk
Kitori Climbing: where we are route setting at getting first ascents in the Himalaya!
Kasai Lake
Aarohi
Diwali

Be Patient & Flexible

I consider myself a patient and flexible person. However, scheduling in India is pointless. Everything is always changing! For instance, a guest speaker, Radha (Behn) Bhatt, a devote Gandhian activist in her eighties, was scheduled to speak in class on Wednesday. Then it was Tuesday. She came on Monday, which was our weekend. We had several articles to read in preparation. It’s also frustrating because it is difficult to get alone time because everyone is always around Sonapani, and once you leave, there isn’t terribly much around, and certainly not a lot to do. I think the climbing area nearby is going to be a necessary getaway. Additionally, our week was packed from morning to night with activities: go to Aarohi to hear the governor speak; visit the Kilmora Shop and see how apricot oil is made; visit the weaving center; visit a women’s self help group, get invited to see a Ram Lela performance, despite it being after Deshera and run late and miss the doctor at the hospital for a tour; spend a lot of time in Jeeps traveling down windy hill roads; come home to movies every night for the ‘film festival’ and have dinner pushed back. Our group was looking forward to the time off this weekend. Also, it took our cabin three weeks to get internet since arriving. Within that time it was difficult to borrow people’s computers, and my phone ran out of minutes, and the order was delayed a week to top up. I think what’s frustrating is that you are really forced to rely on other people here whereas I typically like to get things done myself, and find myself capable of doing so. Also, we ordered minutes to recharge our SIM cards. Then we got phone cards. Things are just silly, so often.

I did however start my volunteer projects of teaching English to both the government school children in Simayal as well as the staff at Rita. It’s going to be a new experience! Especially with the language barrier, it’s hard to explain why something the way it is in the language they are trying to learn. It will be much better, at least at Rita when we get the Hindi/English books which will have the Devanagari as well as English so we can both understand whats going on! At the school, there are English books, however they are terrible teaching tools. It’ll get better as time goes on though, it was only day one!

Diwali is on the 17th and we have the day off from class! We will be lighting of fireworks in order to celebrate :)! I'm excited!

Uttarakhand

So I have made it to Sonapani! After the overnight trainride, our group took a 2 ½ hour jeep ride, where a tea stop was made halfway, to a dirt road where we walked 20 minutes to our new residence for the next ten weeks! The weather was beautiful, and the Gharwal Himalaya with its snowtopped peaks was clearly visable to our north. Gorgeous! I am living in a brick cabin with stone floors that has a bathroom and armoir with two roommates, Maresa and Brittany. The landscaping here is beautiful! There are so many colorful flowers. Near the entrance there is an herb garden within the letters “Sonapani;” I love that as an idea. There is a common area towards the top where we eat our meals, with the cabins terraced beneath. It’s great! Since arriving and after settling in, we have had the opportunity to walk to a nearby store where chips, biscuits and other random things are sold as well as visiting CHIRAG, the non governmental organization where we will have our internships based out of, and use their facility for our classes. I am really excited about the group that is here, 18 girls, 2 boys, because everyone seems to be so easy going! We have had some abrupt changes to scheduling, and everyone has been patient without unnecessary complaints. This week’s schedule is a bit off, but typically I will be having my Work, Gender and Environment class on Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday will be filled with my internship. Friday and Saturday is my Political Economy of Indian Development class. Afternoons will be opportunities to volunteer. Sunday, Monday freetime! That’s for this month… then I will drop to classes twice a week in November, and increase time in my internship.

I started classes on Thursday. CHIRAG is an hour and fifteen minute walk from Sonapani, about 8k (between 4 and 5 miles). It’s very relaxing, but now I can say that I walked uphill both ways to get to school! Our first Political Economy class was held in one of CHIRAG’s rooms, a clean space that we took our shoes off before entering, and sat on the floor on mats. Afterwords, we had an introduction to CHIRAG where we were able to visit the garden, learn about current projects they are involved in. Afterwards, we visited the school, preschool through third grade, and saw a powerpoint about the objectives and practices within their education program. I walked back watching the sunset, and made it back for nearly perfect timing for dinner! My appetite is still huge from Nepal! I did lose 10lbs so I may come back the same size because the food here is delicious. I can’t wait to help out in the kitchen, and make a recipe book!
Friday was a tour of nearby villages. Radha and Pan were our tourguides of Gargoan. We walked for three hours around the village and saw the water shed, water pump, where hydroelectricity is generated, an oak tree plantation, the Grand Panchayat building and visited a government school that was in session. It was a small school house, with only two rooms, and office, and a kitchen. Substantial enough for the forty chilren that were there, only four of which who were girls. This was the first of several village tours we will be doing in areas where CHIRAG is working. I am just excited to start our internship, although we won’t be until next week or so. I have signed up as a volunteer to teach English to both employees of a neighboring organization and CHIRAG school children. I will also volunteer in the school with arts and crafts and environmetal activities for their students, preschool through the third grade. The school is rather impressive for being open only three years, and they practice very encouraging teaching methods. Additionally, over half their students are female, a drastic difference from the school in Gargoan. I also intend to volunteer on the organic farm on a weekly basis as well! It is weird how isolated I am and I am just looking to fill my schedule with as much as I can so I don’t find myself just sitting around.

Our weekends are Sunday, Monday. On Sunday, Maresa and I decided to walk to Mukteshwar, about 8k, despite the light rain. We came back just before dark, and absolutely soaked. However, we did find a great bazaar that will be good to come back to when it’s not raining because things were tarped up. Additionally, there were more little stores with a bigger variety of snacks! Monday, a group of nine of us decided to go to Nainital and took one Jeep that fit eleven people! It was a bit miserable because it was raining, but it was good to see, and I certainly want to go back! Nainital is a “honeymoon destination” of India. There was a lake, and several Western friendly shops. The rain here is very unusual. As a matter of fact, villagers contribute it directly to climate change because rains have never been this late in the year by memory accounts; there is not historical weather data on the region. It is also potentially problematic because since it is after the monsoon, many deveploment projects have begun, and the rains could implicate projects due to landslides among other things.

Tuesday was our first Work, Gender and Environment class. Due to the weather, the rain has made the trail to exit Sonapani very muddy, and several students are not prepared with raingear, class was held in the common area at Sonapani. I anticipate that I will enjoy the other course more, although this one will relate very well to our intenships, and be very applicable for when we do homestays. It’s great to be in the context of what we are learning about, rather than learning about it abstractly. This will be closer to a normal week too! Rain cleared over the course of the afternoon to expose the Himalaya just before sunset. There is a small cluster of mountains, near the height of Rainier, to the left that look dwarfed in comparison to these, 6500m+. So amazing to look out to!

Thursday after going to a festival/meeting in Aarohi, Brittany and I went with Vinode, one of the cooks, to a climbing area just 20 minutes away from Sonapani. It techically is not a climbing area yet, although there is so much potential for sport, trad and bouldering! Vinode would just go there to practice rappelling. However, hopefully we can go to a van panchayat (forest council) meeting, and ask about putting in bolts for top anchors since the area is within panchayat jurisdiction. If not, there are suitable trees that you can use to build anchors. We rapped down and sent a few first ascents in the Himalaya. No big deal… ☺ It actually sounds a lot cooler than what we did, only 5.9 max, but we didn’t have much time. We got distracted roaming around and admiring what we found and were surrounded by! That evening was also the first night of a film festival put together for our program by an Indian film director. It was a short documentary about violence between India and Pakistan, although the hour presentation beforehand was very informative about Indian history, and how the films he has chosen to present fall into the theme.

After class today, a group of us interested in volunteering at a government school nearer to Rita, went to set up a schedule. It was so great! After figuring out our schedule with the school teacher, we introduced ourselves to the 22 students ranging from preschool to fifth grade, and then took turns sharing songs and dances until we needed to leave. I am so excited to teach English, but more importantly interact with the children.

All the cabins besides mine has gotten internet, so I have been terribly slow about posting things since I haven’t had access to the internet since arriving in India. A bit surprising! Nevertheless, I am in the rural hills, and just happy that I will be able to have access in the upcoming weeks. I have a phone as well! It’s different after not using one at all for over two months, but its good to feel that I at least have the option to be in contact/contacted with/by people.

I will try and post pictures as soon as I can although it will not be many due to the slow and moderately inconsistent internet situation. I'll try to so I can let you see highlights!

Delhi!

Arriving in Delhi, for the second time, was so much less hectic during the day! Also, it was pretty nice to be upgraded to first class randomly, although I felt it was unneccesary and certainly did not need all the space, although the in flight meal options were better. Rebecca, the professor for the quarter, met us- I saw Brittany and her friend, Mary, at the Kathmandu airport, and we were on the same flight- and got us a taxi to the YWCA. After dropping our bags and getting a brief information lowdown from Keith, a program coordinator/director, the three of us went to Khan Market via rickshaw- Indians are crazy drivers as well- to get food at the Turtle Cafe and go to Fabindia to get some chemises (long tunics). Success! Also, for lunch Brittany and I split a piece of the most delicious piece of chocolate cake. I don’t know if it was post trek cravings, but it certainly fulfilled my sweet tooth! We also went to Cottage Emporium to a state store where I got a beautiful Punjab dupatta (long scarf) after failing to find somewhere for Mary to get her nose pierced. Coming back it was interesting to see people arriving from various places, many students in the program have traveled before the program, but since Delhi is only 30 min different from Nepal, I am on schedule as far as time goes, but felt terrible when I saw people arriving who hadn’t slept for way too long! Unpacking and setting aside things I need to send home, I wrapped things in plastic bags since they will be sent via sea.
Friday morning I woke up early, 6, and found an Indian Times at my door, and after getting dressed in my new purchases, went downstairs to wait for breakfast and read. The day was pretty slow going since many students had to register because they were given one year visas, rather than six months ones, while the rest of us got another information dump and the opportunity to go shop before and after lunch. I was happy that I did not have to sit in an AC waiting room for up to 6 hours as some of my classmates needed to. I did end up purchasing a few more things to wear in the hills at the Tibetan Market, we are warned about the conservativeness in the region, although a search for wi-fi at Connaught Place was unsuccessful. Lunch and dinner was the same rice, chapatis, tofu, veggie, daal at the YWCA. After dinner I stayed up and chatted with Nikki and Sam before we decided it was bedtime. I cannot help but think of arriving at Sonapani because it will be so nice to settle down somewhere finally! Being on the move for two months is difficult and was certainly a new experience that is good to know that I am capable of, although I can’t say that I’m particularly the fondest of. It’s been different the past two days being taken care of, kind of, we are on a loose leash for sure, but I am not having to deal with logistics myself that I have gotten so use to doing! As a result, I feel like there is a lot of wasted time and things are moving slowly, although I do understand that people are jetlagged and why we are easing into things, but it’s just not what I’m used to yet! India time, everything takes time.

Saturday morning after breakfast we went to the Delhi Railyway Station to meet our tour guides from the Salaam Baralak Trust for a City Walk. The NGO helps to provide future opportunuties for street children in Delhi by offering “contact points” for medical needs, and educational opprtunities. It was very enlightening to the problem, as well as what these children do. One of our tour guides, presently my age, had run away from home at the age of eight and lived on the streets for seven years. In addition to telling us about his experience, we were able to see two locations of “contact points” where people from the organization provide a space to play games, build trust with peers, as well as be around the positive influence of the NGO. Afterwards, we walked through the Paharganj where we then finished our tour, had lunch, and then broke off to get errands done, go shopping, etc. After getting passport photos and a copy of my passport/visa for a phone application, myself, Nikki, Sam and Chelsea went to the National Museum where we were able to get a student discount and pay 1 rupee rather than 300 and see artwork, textiles, as well as Indian maritime heritage in their galleries. It was a little disappointing because many exhibits were under renovation or closed. Nevertheless, afterwords, we took rickshaw to a southern area of Delhi to see the Lotus Temple, or Baha’I House of Worship. We arrived just as the sun was setting. The building reminded me of the Opera House in Sydney. After checking our shoes, we went inside, where unfortunately pictures were not allowed, because although the inside was simple, it was stunning. While leaving, lights were turned on which illuminated the buildings interesting curvature. We were late to dinner in CP at Saravana Bhavan with everyone from our program because it took a while to find a rickshaw, although somehow we managed to order last, but get our food first. No complaints there, I was hungry! Afterwards, we all walked back and I felt exhausted, and went to bed.

Sunday morning after breakfast, Maresa, Brittany and I went to the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the primary place of worship for Sikhs in Delhi. 10,000-20,000 people visit daily. We were fortunate enough to see the kitchen where chapatis were made by volunteers and go on a tour of the temple after washing our hands and feet, of course, in the large pool on the side. We were invited to come and make chapatis tomorrow which we are planning on doing! It was very cool to experience, especially having read an ethnopgraphy on Sikhs just last year. Then, meeting up with our group we went to the Gandhi Smriti Museum via tour bus. It had many digital displays in order to display his life as well as many pictures and quotes. The building it was at was actually were he was shot. In the back courtyard was a memorial marking the place of his death. It was much different than I expected; I had thought it was in a street or something because of the number of people around. We then had another South Indian meal for lunch and then headed to Bhagwan Mahavir, a temple of the Jain religion on a highpoint of Delhi. From there, we were able to see a tower, that truthfully I could not hear the significance of. We then went to the self employed women’s association (SEWA) Mahila Handicrafts Bazaar. It is a bazaar that was running for only 4 Sundays, and we attended the last one. Anything purchased here directly benefitted the women who made and marketed their goods. I found a painting and earrings for myself! Getting back to the YWCA, I recruited a couple people to go to the Sacred Heart Cathedral just down the road from where we were staying. It was a pretty church, but nothing particularly spectacular.

The following day, we were fortunate enough to have a guest lecture by Dr. Shekhar Pathak serving as an introduction to Uttarakhand, the region where we will be living and working for the next three months. Then, we will be receiving our syllabi for the quarter before packing up to head up north via train! So excited ☺!