I'm in India!

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Well, after 36 hours of travel with my 18 travel companions—starting in Minneapolis and ending in India—we finally arrived in Bangalore on August 31st at 4:30am.
Two and a half days later, a couple students are sick from the water, almost everyone gets an upset stomach after eating, and mosquito bites cover some of us like chicken pox on a kindergardener.

I am spending the next 3.5 months on an experiential learning semester abroad titled “Social Justice, Peace, and Development: A Semester in India.” There are 4 other students from Concordia College (one of them is an international student from Norway) and 14 students from Gustavus Adolphus College (MN). We are accompanied by a philosophy professor from GAC. His role is primarily one of a liaison between us students and the individuals organizing our courses.

We are staying at an NGO (non-governmental organization) called Visthar (www.visthar.org), in rural Bangalore (the silicone valley of India). It is an education based NGO and the SJPD program is one of a few different projects they work on throughout the year. One ongoing program that Visthar has is a school for young girls that are on there way to becoming temple prostitutes. Visthar receives permission to bring the girls here and basically they are given an education so they won’t have to be prostitutes when they grow up. David, the director of Visthar, spoke to us about removing the girls from their various situations and said, there is an extreme amount of risk involved, but we do it to affirm life.

Our facilities are much nicer then I was anticipating; we have a shower and toilet in each of our rooms. Granted, the shower consists of a showerhead in a corner of the bathroom with a drain 6 feet away and no curtain, but I’m not complaining. My roommate, Mallory, and I each have a bed with a mosquito net, a desk and a closet. My favorite room appliance is our ceiling fan! The weather in Bangalore is comparable to San Fransisco , but we’re anticipating another monsoon.

Well, I need to go do some laundry now and since the couple of washing machines aren’t working, I’m going to attempt to wash my articles of clothing in a bucket. I’m excited to use my Fels-Naptha!

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Photos

First group picture
This was taken on our second day in India. We were all heading on to the Visthar bus to head into town and get a mini tour of Bangalore.

Convocation
Several of the girls, staff and all of us students attended a convocation ceremony for the SJPD program. We received bindis, flower necklaces (?) and a small bunch of flowers during an opening ceremony. This is my roommate Mallory and I.

Candle lighting
Lighting candles = opportunity to attain divine knowledge