Sawaadee-ca Thailand... Namaste India

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Hey everyone, just to let you all know, I have safely arrived in Delhi and will try to put some pics up once I'm settled in Dharamsala--possibly next week after the 16th. In the meantime I will be busy traveling to Agra to see the Taj and then to Jaipur in Rajasthan, the pink city!

I have also recieved my assignment from CCS and will be plugging away at search engines today to research some ideas for the womans group I am working with. In short I will be volunteering with the Anganwadi teachers of a local village. The group, which was established by the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), currently engages in collecting monthly deposits and loaning that money out to women in the community. My assignment will be to suggest ways of developing and implementing income generating business ideas to the group and thus expand their activites of just loaning out money. This is a very general description and I'll find out more on the 15th!!

So… attached are some pictures of Chiang Mai.. CM was magical and a wonderful place to relax and unwind from traveling. I met a lovely woman, Dahlia, from England who is currently volunteering her time to a Burmise woman's group that is fighting for womens rights in Burma. We met on the Mediaton retreat by chance and learned that we have a lot of the same ambitions and goals in the area of women's rights.. now don't worry.. i'm not becoming one of those extreme feminists, both of us are far from that stereotype that’s running through your head right now, and it was great to chat with someone who's desires are so similar to mine!!

I invited my new friend to watch some cricket and the next day we were swarmed by dozens of english speaking cricket players--man was it awesome to speak in proper english--no broken sentences and whatnot.. My vocabulary has gone downhill since traveling (i'm sure you've all picked up on that in my blogs!!) because my interations w/ non-english speaking people are comparable to speaking to a 2 year old. Communication to one another is summed up in about 50 english words and 3 Thai words..if either of us go further than that or use a word with more than two syllables, i just recieve a look of confusion... and the fact that i've been here 2 months and still only know 3 words of thai is eating me to the point of embarrassment. So anyway, Dahlia and I met some lads from England and enjoyed a luxurious night out on town on their tab.. they were on holiday, and insited on paying!! We had delicous food that could compare with any posh restaurant in NYC and ordered bottles of 2000 Baht wine.. we also went to a jazz club where Dahlia practiced using her vocal chords singing "i will survive" with the lady that was on stage.. quite the entertainment!! Pictures will remain unpublished due to the quantity of wine consumed prior to her deut.

The rest of my time in Chiang Mai was spent in my 4x4 room nursing a bad belly... I ate something from a vegatarian restaurant on Wedensday after the retreat that didn't sit well in my tummy and after a night out in town the symptoms only got worse.. So friday and Saturday were spent laying in bed and staying as close as possible to a bathroom. Got up for some sticky rice and gatorade a couple times and did try to make it to the Inspirational Forest on Saturday unsuccessfully.. was there for about 15 min before i had to go searching for the local restroom.. Enough on that topic.. Funny now that i'm in Delhi, i'm perfectly fine?!!
Traveling to India began on Sunday at 6am and did not end till Monday 5pm. Needless to say it was a long two days and I’m suffering from jetlag more than when I flew from the States to Singapore! Stuck at the BKK airport for 8 hours I read my first western gossip magazine since leaving the states (looks like Jessica Simpson wants to adopt babies and are Brad and Angelina really married??), wrote about 50 postcards, enjoyed a long conversation with mom, visited the loo more than a few times, and enjoyed a very expensive Thai massage! My plane then flew out at 4am and I was one of three westerners on the plane!! The airline was Bangledesh and before we took off, we did a prayer to Allah!! Had a four hour layover in Dakka, the capitol of Bangledash, in which I conversed with some friendly Indian men (there were no indian female travelers!) practicing their english. I was previously informed and educated on the American woman’s repuation in India and when asked for the 3rd time of my marital status, I began making up a pseduo life of being married and arriving to India on business and that my husband is currently at home in the states “paying the bills…” Each time the story has been developed into more detail that I am almost starting to belive it myself.. Now in Delhi for 2 days, the words, “my husband,” comes natural! Hehehaha…

More stories of my adventures in Delhi to follow… hope you are all doing well!! Happy Easter! (that’s on the 16th right??!! I’m so out of the loop!)
xoxoxo

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