Never ending dust of Delhi

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Pwoah. Delhi is hot this time of year. A bit silly of me to choose the hottest season to volunteer in this sweaty polluted capital. But it's all good, i like it here and the office where I work, thankfully, has air conditioning. But I worry this makes me a little sick, consistently swapping climates, from chilly cool to sticky, suffocating, back to cool, then hot, really hot, then cool, goose bumps......I have had a cold for the past week. And of course, the old stomach is still as dodgy as every. But this has become somewhat of a norm rather than an oddity.
So whats the deal? I'm living in a hotel room, a typically skanky style room. I don't think it has blood or shit stains on the wall though so we're on to a winner. Nah really its actually ok, we have our own toilet, shower, double bed its quite a large room and we pay just 150 rupees. I say we, this meaning Amelie and I. As we are living together in this beautiful accommodation. Which comes free with peeking perverts! Ha. They are so weird man. We have a door (obviously) to our room,. our door has holes in it. Little holes the size of hmmm a pea....a nice sized pea. We noticed this whole on our second day of living there. Amelie noticed a little googly eye staring in at us. Argh! Its ok, they shouldn't do that, but no problem. Just tape some paper over the hole and all is good. This done, we felt settled and secure again hahaha. We arrived home in the evening. Gosh! Why some one has gone and poked a hole through the paper! So, this time I'm like ha ha ha I shall upgrade and use cardboard! So I tape the card board on and while I'm at it i notice another hole. So I cover this hole too. Well anyways the story goes on, they keep on poking, sometimes failing just noticing little stabs in the cardboard outlining their failed attempts. It's quite tiresome. We have secured our door but its just frustrating that someone is so weird as to want to look in all the time. Amelie tapped a sign on the door saying 'Stop it.....please' A bit of the tape covered on of the holes, which of course they ripped away in hope of seeing through into our hotel paradise.
It sounds quite negative huh? But really its not, its quite funny. I have a little electric cooker so I can make tea, yummy and food....etc.
Every morning I eat really good fruit salads! Consisting of such delights as mango, melons, oranges, almonds, raisins, banana, papaya, pomegranate, dates, mint etc. Wowwow I am so addicted to this juicy fresh fruit. I have never tasted anything like it, I am positive this will be something I sorely miss when I leave this country.
My days.............
In the morning I wake up, i gaze out of my window into the foggy pollution and listen to the sounds of people clapping chapatti, scooter beeps and people talking. At least I try to listen but the sound of the fan is somewhat loud.
When I get the energy I get up and start doing some stretches (an attempt to stop my back and neck from hurting!) a bit of yoga, eat my breakfast, and trot off to work. Which is the sole reason for residing in Delhi. Amelie and I are currently volunteering at a human rights organisation. It's a really inspiring organization doing a lot of good things. Instead of me trying to describe it and failing to do it Justice, one can google search 'Manushi' and have a look at their web site.
The work I am doing at the moment is proof reading back issues of Manushi magazine. This is a journal about women and society, which started out in the late 70's. Its a nice job to have as i get to learn so much about India, women and society. I learn so much about culture that this country is founded upon. So a good for me i guess.
The weekend just passed Amelie and I took a trip away to the mountains. We went to a beautiful place called Shimla.....we were there for one night, then caught a bus to an even more outstanding place called Tattipani....i think its spelt like that, but you know me and spelling aren't best friends.
Wow the bus road on a small little road and at the edge of that road was a severe drop of death! Thankfully the bus driver wasn't one of the mad variety and we didn't die.
In Tattipanni I have a wonderful time. So relaxing. There is a big river, one which we went rafting! That was well fun. And Also in Tattipanni there are hot springs! So I had a hot bath, with mango juice. Wow sooooooo good! Although the sulfur got to my head a little and I had to leave and put cold water on my head to try and stop my dizziness. Haha.
But it was an amazing trip away, short but sweet (and a cooler temperature)....then back to home life in Delhi.
Back tracking a little. Before I came to Delhi I was at the rainbow, there i stayed for some time and it was fun. I had a lot of good friends there and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to live in nature with so many nice people around me. I was glad we managed to stop the donkeys getting used. I dunno if I wrote about that in the last one, but they used donkeys for getting the food, which I and a few others were opposed too, so we objected and said we would get the food ourselves. There was a big fat ass debate about veganism and donkeys and blah blah. But we managed, on the first run, to infuse 24 people to come and be 'human donkeys' . It was successful and the donkeys got a rest and so did my conscience. It pissed me off some what though. I mean, if we choose to be out there, a 1 and half hour walk from the nearest village, we should take it on our own backs to equip ourselves with the stuff we need to survive, such as food. This is obviously. But to pay someone else to do it for you (the man who owns the donkey) this is just laziness, whatever happened to Independence and autonomy. I think this choice of using donkeys really reflects the mind set of the common India traveller. In India everything is so cheap, one can simply pay for any thing to be done for them. Don't feel like carry your own bag? washing your clothes? Cleaning your room? Cooking your food? Wanna sit in first class AC trains? Wanna talk to everyone who is Indian like shit? Nooo problem, coz you got the money! Seriously its like this amongst many people. And the mentality is a lazy one, imagine 6 months of traveling where you don't do anything for yourself apart from raise the food to your mouth or take a shit.
A of people at the rainbow were like 'blah blah vegans blah blah stupid' you know, this usual bad mouthing of vegans....(I think maybe some questions arose in their head they couldn't quite cope with facing let alone answering, thus been the case decided to just blame the vegans for having difficult obscure ethics) But, out of 24 people fetching food only 5 or 6 were vegans. So why is it a vegan issue and why should vegans get the brunt of peoples disapproval?
Who knows!
Moving on.......
After the rainbow i stayed in a beautiful mountain village called kassar davi (spelt something like that) there were many of use from the rainbow. It was so good, we made big meals every night (as the guest houses their have kitchen for use) watched a few films (my friend had a lap top) and just chilled out. And wow the guest house had 24 hour hot shower.........wooooooooooopie!
I got clean.

Hmmm hmmm...........I don't think I have much else to report really..........I am happy......I am not sure where I go next, I just have to see where my feet take me.

shoe be do wop wop

love ya'llxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Olga]

Wow
It´s so nice to get your updates and hear what you are up to. I´m wish I was there! I read on the Manushi website that they are having economic problems and can´t publish at the moment. That sucks! How are things now? When I was in India I always tried to do things like laundry, carrying my own bag, etc, myself and I thought that people who paid people to do stuff like that for them where lazy assholes. But then I realized that it´s not that one-sided. Maybe working as a bag-carrier is that persons only source of income. Maybe you are a selfish bastard for choosing to wash your own socks instead of paying someone else to do it? Know what I mean? Not easy... Today my sister is going home after visiting for one week. Today we took her to a fun fair in the park and we went in a giant ferris wheel. Tomorrow Katie will find out if she gets a visa to stay in Berlin or not. So cross your fingers! Not that she´ll need it, I´m sure it´s gonna be fine. What country wouldn´t want Katie? Keep enjoying your time and don´t get sick now! Say hi to Amelie and whoever is with you!