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Asia » India » Rajasthan » Udaipur
July 11th 2014
Published: July 11th 2014
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*Side note* Okay so during this blog I talk about being sick, missing certain foods, and going to animal aid. Based on the pictures I am posting it was a complete coincidence that in the paragraph I talk about how much I miss 5 Guys that it is surrounded by pictures of baby cows. I don't control where the pics go. I don't mean to make anyone mad! I love baby cows! But I also love 5 Guys! I'm doing my best!

We are keeping it short today because today I want to talk about being sick. For this blog I am talking about staying healthy in India. If there is one thing I have learned it is that sickness is not avoidable. As much as we are told about not drinking unfiltered water, eating smaller portions, testing out new foods slowly, no matter what precautions you take you will get sick. Not surprisingly I am writing this with a terrible fever and considering whether I should call up my supervisors asking them to take me to the doctor’s office. Being sick in India is bad on many levels. One of them being that because we aren’t here for that long missing work is a detriment to your final day of your project. No one wants to leave here with an unfinished project. Secondly it’s too hot to be sick. There is nothing more uncomfortable than sweating from a fever, while inside a hot room, with nothing but the stickiness of the heat to use as a blanket.

Without too much visual graphics I think most of you can get the idea. Heat + sickness + sweatiness = a poor experience. I am laying here wondering what could it have been that got to me. Is there a sore somewhere on my body that is infected? Did I drink too much unfiltered water while I was using the sink to brush my teeth? Was it the dinner from last night? Or is it the dreaded malaria? I can only hope that it’s not that last one. I spent almost $100 on getting some malaria pills which I take every morning. Some of the side effects include soreness, light sensitivity, depression, and weakness. Some days that light sensitivity is tough. I have these heavy duty athletic sunglasses that are super reflective, but even with them I can only squint in the Indian light.

When we are sick at home we usually grab our handy stash of Tylenol/ibuprofen. Then we either do our best to sit through a lecture, or rely on friends for notes as we cower in fear from the outside world. But the problem I have here is that getting to work can be hard in itself. It’s about 98 degrees outside right now with no cloud cover. I would have to get down to the market to flag down a rickshaw, then sit in an incredibly hot, cement building with a fan above me that goes about half speed. Not to mention that this fan stops working once every couple hours because of power outages. So then I would have no choice but to sit in my own sweat and heat waiting for my measly fan to turn on then get back to work. Oh and I would have to be able to use the squat toilet five times without falling over from dizziness.

So you may be getting the sense that getting sick here is a bit more big of a deal. This is all without the inner fears of getting malaria. What I have heard from people about the big one is that it is just awful. It kills hundreds of thousands of people for a reason. While I am 90% certain this isn’t malaria (even though I do occasionally forget my meds) I cannot help but wonder what this would be like. I am told people who get it wish they were dead. I would immediately have to go to the hospital in order to battle it. So in addition to the physical ailments from sickness there is also a psychological element here.

I don’t mean to scare people or to make it seem like this is the worst pain I have ever been in. It’s just very interesting how different it is to be sick here vs being sick at home. Now I want to move onto my next topic: Foods that I miss!

The weirdest part I think is that I don’t miss food because I have bad food here. I find I love indian food. Most host families here make all their food from scratch, which means that my host family feeds me before they add in a crazy amount of heat. We are slowly adding more and more and they said in a couple weeks I should be able to handle the same hotness as them. I love paneer (sp?) which is basically a really creamy cheese that’s covered in a sauce similar to orange chicken. I love dahl, which is the hindi word for lentil soup. Potatoes are popular too, but it’s hard to tell they are potatoes. I do eat very little though. I probably get 1000 calories a day on a good day. I could probably eat 2000, but it’s just too hard. I accept very little at every meal and I rarely finish what I take.

What I’m saying is that I eat well enough here, but I still miss food from home. It hasn’t been particularly long since I had a subway tuna sandwich (oh gawd why did I type it????? Send Subway care packages now!), a jimmy johns roast beef, some Panera bread chicken sandwich, or a 5 guys burger. But it’s the fact that they are unavailable that makes them so much more enticing. I sometimes sit on my roof, steal a little wifi from next door, and go to the websites of subway or five guys. I just look at the pictures and sit there imagining the moment I get to put that in my mouth. I can see the size of that 5 Guys burger. I can smell the cheese melting from between each patty. I can sense the taste of the tomato, the pickles, and the mustard going down my throat. Then following it up by stuffing a handful of fresh fries lathered in ketchup down to chase down the meat in my stomach.

So…………..yeah. I am going to have an affair with 5 Guys when I get home.

But I also miss foods that I didn’t really eat that much. For some reason I really miss wings. Like hot wings. As my friends know I never eat wings and if I do they are never hot or spicy. I miss the spaghetti and garlic bread that my parents made a lot when I lived at home. Every Thursday was spaghetti night and I loved it. I haven’t had that meal in years yet I miss it all the more. I really miss hot dogs. I used to love the hot dogs at the Tin Caps games when I would go with friends or family. I really miss Barbecue train where they make really cheap and really delicious pulled pork right down the road from our apartments. I only went there once with my buddies, but I cannot stop thinking about it. I really want to chow down on some of Taylor’s home-made pizza. I want some of the terrible guacamole that Betsy makes from avocados and corn. Just yesterday I couldn’t stop thinking about the enchiladas I made for my roommates. I remember these mini sliders that were made for Lexi’s birthday party. I had been late and I ate about 10 of them from the leftovers. I want the mac and cheese that Mike made once with a crap ton of sugar. I remember the times that my brothers and I would get home for vacation at the same time and take off to get some salads from Casa. I can taste the dragon sushi from Ami’s that I would always get since that is my favorite first-date spot. I can smell the butter from the crap popcorn at Upstairs. And beyond all of that I could go for some end-of-the-night Z-and-C that would make my hangover morning that much more terrible.

The pattern I have noticed in this little investigation into my desire of food is that I miss the comradery that comes from food. Back home we would get food when we want to be together. Nothing was better than someone saying “Is anyone hungry?” followed by about ten of us raising our hands and jumping into some cars to get somewhere. Nothing beats coming down the stairs and one of your roommates says they are making food and offering it to you. Or going to a restaurant even when you aren’t hungry so you can hang out with that girl you like. Or coming home drunk with a great friend and discovering that there is leftover pizza in the fridge!

Food can be a link to wonderful memories. I’m not saying that food isn’t oriented to social contact here. It is. But it’s just different. Meals are more formal. There are many rules to follow. There are traditions to keep. And there is always the chance you can offend someone. It’s kind of tough at times. While the taste is there in your mouth, there can be something missing from it all. So for all of you who are reading this take this day to eat with someone you like. Make a home-cooked meal for your family. Get some pizza with a friend. Take your siblings for ice cream. Or drunk eat waaaaaay too much. Taste is wonderful. Volume is great. And savored scents are essential. But any normal meal can become cherished when you connect it with someone else.

Lastly I want to talk about my trip to the animal shelter today. One of the volunteers from San Francisco works there and offered a chance for all of us to go there. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, there are animals everywhere. Wild dogs are more numerous than squirrels. Cows roam the streets and go as they please. You will usually see goats or donkeys being herded along. And if you happen to see a cat you will see an animal that is ready to destroy you. It used to concern me because in America if you see a dog in the street you immediately get sad and want to get someone to take care of it. But then I heard a term by a volunteer here that was an animal’s “right to live on the street”. Basically here in India it is recognized that sometimes it’s better for a dog to live on the street. It’s a rough life and many die. But most of the time these guys are healthy, strong, and good at foraging for food. They live better than they might in a bad shelter where they may be put down. But while this idea kind of eased my mind and I see these dogs in a new light, there are still bad accidents.

Many of these dogs get hit by cars (remember how crazy the traffic is here?) along with the cows, donkeys, and goats. Many of these animals can be horribly mistreated, have rocks thrown at them, or get into fights with each other. Luckily there is a wonderful program called Animal Aid. Basically it is a service that goes out into the city, picks up dogs or cows or donkeys or goats or anything that is hurt or causing trouble. They bring it back to their land and care for it.

When I first got to this place I noticed A LOT of dogs. In the whole compound there was likely over 100 dogs. Pretty much all of them were hurt in some way or another. Most had three legs or less. One poor little guy was missing his front left leg and his front right foot. But they made a little wheel so he could get around. Many dogs I saw were hit by cars and had to drag their hind legs as they crawled with their front. Some were blind. Others had wounds that were infected. One particular dog, Tony, had been slashed by someone with a sword. He lost a leg and half his face.

In additions to the dogs were the donkeys, cows, goats, and pigs. Many of these guys were also missing a limb. The donkeys had viscious problems because these guys are often uses to shuttle stones or bricks on their backs. This causes terrible deformation to their spines. Many of them had terrible holes and flesh wounds in their sides from dog attacks. There was one monkey that had been electrocuted as a baby. It had been brought in as a baby with no flesh on it’s face. There was a pair of very large pigs. There were some baby cows.

While I may have just described some horrible images, I can write about them just fine because the staff at Animal Aid is absolutely amazing. Those dogs that got hit by cars and have to drag their legs? They get massages twice a day and many of them end up learning to walk again. I remember one girl hobbled over to me to lay at my feet and the worker said “She’s over exaggerating! She just wants attention!” And sure enough as I walked away she got up on all fours and walked normally to her bowl. The blind dogs would come up to you and lick you to the bone because they had come to love meeting you. That is what got me the most about this place. Every dog was nice, wanted to come meet you, and loved it when you scratched them. Out on the street the dogs will literally run if you go near them because so many people throw rocks or sticks at them. So seeing these dogs being so trusting showed how well treated they were.

The guy that toured us around the place liked to call all of these animals “soldiers”. The way he described it was that he thought of their past life as them being in a war. They has lost limbs, lost their sight, and been terribly hurt. But now that they were picked up and living at Animal Aid they were enjoying retirement in peace. Remember that dog Tony with the sword wound? He described him as their best soldier. I could go on and on about this place. But in the end the best thing I can say is that it is filled with people who truly care for animals. It’s a tough world over here. But just like Animal Aid, Jagran, Savan Mandir, Jathan, and so many other programs here, there are plenty of people doing their part to help.

Here is the facebook for Animal Aid. Go give them a like and check out what they do! J



https://www.facebook.com/AnimalAidUnlimited

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12th July 2014

Didn't I tell you that it would be a culture shock?
Well, you seem to be coping admirably with India's extremes - heat, traffic, people, animals, food, poverty... and having some fun into the bargain. Believe me, when your time there is over, you'll return to your homeland a different person. Keep up the good work - and, of course, keep smiling!
14th July 2014

http://www.incrediblerajasthantours.com/
A unique Post of Udaipur ..........

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