Namaste Hyderabad

In about an hour I will be leaving Hyderabad for the last time during my study abroad experience! I took my last final exam this morning, I packed my bags this afternoon, and tonight I am out on my adventure! I can't wait to get out there on that open road... I had my fortune told last night and I was told that I will always be roaming. I think that man knew what he was talking about. I love you all and I will see you one month from today!

Happy Diwali!

नमस्ते! दिवाली कि शुब कम्नाये!

Happy Diwali! This weekend is Diwali, the festival of lights. Diwali is the celebration of the return of Rama to Ayodha after his 14 year exile (read the Ramayana for more information). Diwali is like the 4th of July - you get to play with firecrackers and sparklers. The entire guesthouse was decorated with white lights and tiny terracotta pots holding flaming oil. We set off a ton of fireworks. Can you believe they trusted me to light the first one? We also had lots of sparklers. Fireworks in India are a little different than in the states. Many of them don't shoot into the air, but rather spray sparks for a 2 to 4 foot radius on the ground around them. They are beautiful, but I think probably a lot more dangerous. It was a very fun festival and solidified my love for Indian celebrations.

Malaria

Malaria is something that is discussed frequently among the SIP students. There are mosquitoes everywhere. We are constantly swatting at them and squashing them on each other. We are always applying more and more DEET - we're all going to get diseases in a few years or our kids are going to be born all funny.

Malaria pills are another aspect of the fun. There seem to be at least a dozen different pills available. There are two general types, ones that you need to take at the same time every day and ones that you need to take once a week at the same time. Most people are on the daily pills, but I am taking the weekly ones. There are problems with both. People are always forgetting to take their pills every day. Whoever remembers at dinner is always yelling in the dining room "take your malaria pills!", but even then, people often forget before they make it back up to their rooms after dinner. The problem with the weekly pills are that they can make you go insane ... literally. There have been many cases where weekly malaria pills have led to people attempting to commit suicide or experiencing other forms of mental distress. The only side effect that I have experienced from taking mine is very vivid dreams. Every Wednesday night, when I go to bed after taking my malaria pill with dinner, I have the most incredible dreams. They are long and complicated, colorful and bright, full of my favorite people (some who I haven't thought about in years) and excellent witty dialogue, and very memorable. Personally, I enjoy my 'malaria dreams', but I know other people here who really don't - sometimes their dreams are scary.

But the worst thing about malaria, and the reason that it has been on everyone's mind so much lately is that one of the most wonderful people here has it. My friend Sam (the blonde girl to my right) was diagnosed with malaria. She has been so sick for the last few weeks. The medication that the doctors gave her to treat the malaria didn't make her feel better. When they did more diagnostic tests on her, they concluded that the malaria led to her contracting hepatitis. She is being flown back to the states tonight. We are all hoping and wishing with all of our hearts that she feels so much better so soon. Travel safely Sam! We will miss you soooooo much!

Random Guest

A little Indian boy, maybe 8 years old, just wandered into my bedroom. He doesn't speak English or Hindi, only Telugu. I don't know who he is or why he is here. All I can understand is that his name is Sri Raj. He is standing here with his hand on the back of my chair watching me type on the computer. I don't know what to do with him, so I just gave him a Vermont sticker with a moose on it. He just wandered out. India never ceases to amaze me!

Monkeying Around

Meet the monkeys who steal my clothes...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the SIP students at the University of Hyderabad!
You might think that being in a country where they don't celebrate Halloween would put a damper on our celebrations, but you would be wrong. I think it was one of the best Halloweens I've had. We dressed up (I was a candy corn), we had a jack o' lantern (made from a papaya, of course), we had pizza and dosas, we had real candy, and we watched Interview With A Vampire. It was a lot of fun.

NGO Trip

Last weekend I went to visit a NGO about an hour and a half outside of Hyderabad. This NGO works to eradicate child labor in Andhra Pradesh and get the children into school. We went to visit one of their bridge camps for girls. Basically, the idea is that the organization goes to the parents of the children who are not attending school becasue they are working and tries to convince them to send their children to school. If that doesn't work they go to the village panchayat, or the village elders, and secure their help. The problem is that even once the parents have been convinced to let the children stop working and attend school the children are really far behind in school. Some of the girls who are fifteen years old have never been to school. So, the NGO set up bridge camps where they send the children to catch them up to their grade level in between 6 months to 1 year. It is amazing that they can get 7th graders who have never gone to school on grade level in only 6-12 months. They send the kids to bridge camps outside of their home villages to ensure that their parents can not decide to take them out of school again. They have made great progress thus far in AP. Now they are focusing on children ages 0-16. From birth to 5 years old they concentrate on ensuring that the children are being properly cared for and fed. From 5-13 years old they concentrate on making sure the kids attend class every day. Starting at 13, they start giving advice on college and job fields the children may be interested in.

The camp that we visited is for girls. There are 120 girls currently living at the camp. We went and met with the head teacher of the camp and the people that run the NGO. Then we walked around the camp and went into the classrooms to meet the girls. We had translators with us so that we could speak with the girls - although some of them spoke English or Hindi, most only knew Telugu. The first little girl we met was three years old. She was adorable and friendly, bubbly, and happy. The camp director had her tell us her story and it broke my heart. The first thing that she said to us was that she doesn't have a family. Her parents are dead so she went to live with her uncle. But he didn't want her. So, he sold her to a rickshaw driver .... for 5,000 rupees. When the rickshaw driver decides he doesn't want her anymore, he sells her to a school teacher who brings her straight to the NGO where she now lives. Her uncle SOLD her. For the equivalent of 125 US dollars. Can you imagine? Can you imagine knowing, your entire life, that you were worth $125? That that was how much you were worth to your family? Nothing has ever hurt to hear as much as this little girl's story. It puts everything into perspective. If this little girl can be happy even though her family sold her, what right do any of us have to complain?

The rest of the trip to the NGO was similarly moving. We went into one of the classrooms for 7th grade girls. We played Hindi to English word games with them. Then they sang for us. We sang for them and taught them different dances - the hockey pokey, the electric slide, the macarena, etc. Then they taught us a Telugu folk dance. It was clear that they were thrilled that they were in school now and getting the chance to learn. They were so happy that we had come to visit. They gave us hugs and asked us our good names. After an excellently spicy lunch, we took a quick walk through the village to peer into the public school there. We asked the girls there what they wanted to be when they grow up. I am proud to report that two want to be doctors, one wants to be an engineer, and three want to be teachers.

I don't know how to describe everything that I learned at that NGO. It was an incredible experience. It was so sad to hear about the lives of these gorgeous little girls, however, it was heartening to see that someone is helping them. It's not enough though, it's not nearly enough...