I'm in India!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone!!

I am safe here in India! Things here have been great so far. New sights and new smells.

The flight over was long, but time was slowly passed with a whole bunch of movies. Most which I fell asleep to. From New Jersey to Delhi, we went up by Greenland, over Russia, over Afghanistan, Pakistan, then Delhi.

I amazed myself when I actually found my driver without getting lost! The ride over to my apartment was soooo crazy scary! There are lines on the road but it is only really a suggestion to where a person is driving. Basically, if there is room for your ride, then go for it. They also use their horn like crazy. It isn't a warning mechanism, it is a "I'm right here, move your ass over so I can pass you" signal.

On my first whole day here, I had a 6 hour orientation about HIV/AIDS prevention program with a guy name Francis. Oh my gosh did we talk about stuff that I would have never have talked about! It would make anyone blush.... I thought that India was pretty conservative about sex, transgenderism, and female sex workers, but was I wrong. Everyone here is really open about these issues and why some problems are still prevalent. After we were done, Sanjay, our local coordinator took us around. We wanted to go to the lotus temple, but it was closed so we went to the largest mall in India! There were so much cute stuff that I wanted to buy, but it was pretty expensive. The best part of the trip was riding on Sanjay's motorcycle. There was three of us riding on a bike made for two. Unfortunately there was no helmet for me or my flatmate, but everything turned out fine! My first trip on a motorcycle was so much fun and in India of all places! Anyone back at home with a motorcycle that wanna give me a ride????

Today was my first day of "work". We took a autorickshaw to Sulabh and we went to the Sulabh International. They have developed a program for better sanitation and better life for the families of scavengers. Scavengers are people who picks up human excrement to dispose of it from peoples houses. They are considered untouchables and are on the bottom of the caste system. People won't even touch them and are scared to have their shadows touch them. Dr. Pathak took on the dream of Ghandi to end the suffering of scavengers and now scavengers are a thing of the past. Dr. Pathak has created a trade school for them and their families so they can be on the mainsteam again. He has also built public toilets where the solid waste and liquid waste is collected separatley. The solid waste ferments and the methane is collected to power lamps and stoves. Urine is filtered and sterilized by a uv light and is then used for irrigation water. This has changed the lives of so many in India. Have you heard of anything like this in the US? Oh yeah, he also offers a free clinic for the sick.... I feel so honored to have met Dr. Pathak, he just won the Stockholm water award which is equivalent to a Nobel Prize. Pretty cool huh? Plus he shook hands with the pope too!

Anyways, India is pretty amazing to me. There is so much to look at. There are beautiful buildings that are right next to ones that are in shambles. There is trash all over the place, and rivers of who knows what. And yes, there are cows in the roads eating trash. Besides cows there are a lot of dogs. I want to take them home with me because they are so neglected here. They eat trash, and sometimes they run out into the roads and get hit by cars :( The dogs make little nests on the road median to sleep in...

The food here is fine, I have been eating meat. Chicken and fish is the norm, except on tuesdays and thursdays those are veg days. I LOVE the coffee and the chai here, it so way better than the stuff in the states, maybe it because they use whole fat stuff or maybe it's the water? The cups are sooo small here so I have to savor every sip!

I think that tomorrow, I'll get to learn to do some dressings. Maybe I'll dress someones abscess from IDU!

PS: I miss the white porcelain throne. And the shower.....

More later!

Loves <3