only 5 weeks to go!

There isn't much to update you on in the last week. We had a great group day last Friday. I presented the proposal for work in the villages to the group and everyone seemed really keen. We will meet at a university next Friday (Feb 8) where we will be introduced to many important people working with the village governments. On Saturday (Jan 26) we stayed in and watched the Republic Day on TV, which was really long, but interesting and without bomb blasts. The past few days at the DIC were fairly uneventful, except we had our Canadian project supervisor visit, and I did a few dressing changes.
I was going to be going to the Taj Mahal in Agra this coming Saturday and then a wedding on the Sunday, but we were unable to book train tickets to Agra for the whole group on Saturday so now we're going on Sunday and missing the marriage. Hopefully I get to see one before going home!

Mussoorie!

Last week was fairly uneventful at the DIC. On Friday, we had our usual EAD at the SPYM main office in the morning. In the afternoon we had a mock trial for a case involving negligent transmission of HIV that turned out to be really interesting. That night, we left on a night train for a small town in the mountains northeast of Delhi, called Mussoorie, for our mid-project. The train station in Delhi was probably the most disgusting place I’ve ever been in my whole life. It was really crowded with very dirty people, and there were huge rats digging through garbage on the tracks beside us. The train was much better than the station, but we still all had the sense we were being taken to a concentration camp somewhere. The car we were on was called a sleeper, and the seats fold out into benches you can sleep on. I put my wallet, camera, and passport in my sleeping bag while I slept, because there was no way to secure my bag. The train took about 10 hours to reach Dehradun and we took a bus from there to get to the youth hostel just outside of Mussoorie. The drive up was more thrilling than any roller coaster I’ve ever been on, because the bus didn’t seem to slow down at all for 90+ degree turns even though the dropoff was at least a few hundred feet at all times, and the road was barely wide enough to avoid oncoming traffic. At least we were bigger than most vehicles we passed. The hostel was pretty nice, besides the fact it was freezing, and we were the only ones there. On the Saturday morning we spent our time settling in. Then in the afternoon we got back on the bus and headed to Mussoorie to see the town and do a bit of shopping. The town was super-nice. Like Delhi, it had a strong culture, however it was MUCH cleaner. We could only imagine how incredible the view was, since it was really foggy out, and we could barely see 20 feet in front of us. On Sunday we stayed at the hostel doing team-building activities and catching up with each other. Monday we went back to Mussoorie and hiked up a path to a place called Gun Point. There was no fog Monday, and we were able to see snowy mountain tops in the distance (the Himalayas!). We stopped for about a one-hour photo shoot, complete with traditional Indian costumes we rented for 50 cents. Even though I’m sure we all could’ve stayed there all day, we hiked back down, got on the bus for another adrenaline rush, and went to a beautiful waterfall. On the way to the waterfall, we saw lots of monkeys, which always makes me happy. The waterfall took a bit of hiking to get to, but was well worth it. Apparently in the summer lots of people go swimming under the falls, but at that temperature we probably would’ve suffered pretty severe hypothermia. The bus took us back to Dehradun, where we ate at a small hotel restaurant with surprisingly good food. Then we got back on the train and arrived in Delhi early Tuesday morning.
Last Thursday on the way to my volunteer placement, I met a man on the metro who is a National Coordinator for the ministry dealing with village development in the Indian Government. He gave me his business card, and Annu and I went to meet him yesterday. He seems keen on networking with SPYM and sending some or all of us to a tribal village in Madhya Pradesh (a state south of here) to help with some aspect of development (infrastructure, health care, sanitation, exporting goods). It seems really promising, and I’ll talk to the group and SPYM to find out more tomorrow.
As a group, we are also trying to plan a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. As we try to figure out all these plans, I’m starting to count down the weekends until I’m home, which doesn’t seem so far away!

i can't think of a title right now

Last Friday afternoon (Jan 4), the whole group went to a few Mandirs (Hindu Temples) together, which was really nice as we haven’t been able to do much as a group. The architecture here will never cease to amaze me. On Saturday I went to the zoo with Annu, Amrit, and Jenny. It was for the most part like any other zoo I’ve ever been to, except all the plants and birds were different. I expected to see elephants and tigers that would be happier than those in zoos in North America, but I can’t say they looked too different. It was nevertheless a good experience. Monday was a typical day of outreach at the Drop-in Centre. We did a few house visits and spoke with family members of clients at the DIC. At the first house we went to, the wife of our client offered to get chai and disappeared. Within 5 minutes of arriving, there were almost a dozen people (women and children) around Annu, Tekchand ji (the outreach worker), and I, asking questions and telling me I should move to India and get married here. The chai came about 30 minutes later, and I found out that the client’s wife took so long because she had to milk their cow before making the chai. Needless to say, it was very good chai.
Each day, the clients at the DIC receive free food from the Iskcon Temple. So, on Tuesday, we went to the temple to thank the man who is in charge of the ‘Food for Life’ program. We weren’t able to go inside the temple as it was closed at the time we were there, but it was still great to see. The Iskcon Temple is just behind the famous Lotus Temple (aka Bahaí Temple) so we went there right after. Then we left to meet the group at a huge convention center, where we observed a videoconference on trade between India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Nepal. Representatives from each country spoke about their needs and the barriers they face for trade, and how they could motivate their governments to work together to improve the logistical constraints they were facing. It was a really amazing exposure to many concepts I would not normally think about.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Annu and I went to do some outreach work with Tekchand ji in another area of Delhi. I don’t know the name of the colony, but it is apparently the largest (by area) in Asia. It has been around about 25 years, and they had still not yet completed many of the roads in the area. It was obviously not a place where tourists go, because many people seemed very surprised to see me there. When we went in the house of a client, everyone again crowded around me, practicing their English to ask me my name, where I was from, etc. It’s really a bizarre experience for people to be so fascinated with me because I’m a foreigner. Tekchand ji was going to be staying longer, so he had two boys take us to the bus stop where we needed to catch the bus to go home. We followed them through crowded streets and narrow alleys, hoping Tekchand wouldn’t send us with people he couldn’t trust, and they eventually got us out to the main road where the bus stop was. They even got on the bus with us, made sure we got seats, and told the bus driver where we needed to go. That was good service. It took us almost three hours to get home, and we have guests coming for dinner, so we decided to take a leave from our placement today. We leave for our mid-project one week from today, which means we’re almost at the halfway point already!

Happy New Year!

I went to an internet cafe on Wednesday, but it wouldn't let me log in to my blog, so I'm giving a quick update from the SPYM Office now. We got together as a group for Christmas, did a secret santa exchange, and had a pretty good time. Obviously it was nothing like Christmas at home though! On Christmas day we went to a small slum area to facilitate some games with kids there, which was a really different way to do outreach than what I've been used to. Last Friday we went to Lal Kuan, which is where they have the drop-in for MSM ('men who have sex with men,' and they had a dance show for us, which was entertaining to say the least. On the way back from it my wallet was stolen on a bus. I only had the equivalent of about $12.50 in it, and no important cards, so it was a best-case-scenario for being pick-pocketed from, and I'm sure whoever took it was disappointed. Last Saturday, I went to India Gate with Amrit and Jenny. It was my first time venturing out in Delhi independently, and I made it home safe. This week I had a very low key New Years celebration at home - Annu's parents went to sleep and Annu and I just talked until midnight, wished each other a happy new year, and went to sleep. Wednesday was a really good day at our placement, and I took lots of pictures for a change because I realize if I don't start taking pictures soon, I'll regret it when I come home. We did 3 home visits, and saw more people injecting, which always makes the day more interesting. Today was our real EAD and is ending early, so we're going to regroup and make plans for the weekend.
Also, I figured out where to buy and send postcards, so if you want one, email me your address!

long but worth it!

The last week has been very exciting, and I have a lot to share, so sorry for the length.

Last Monday at the DIC, one of the clients needed a dressing change done on the back of his left hand. The volunteer coordinator (Shalini ji) asked me to observe how it is done, and offer some advice on how they could do dressing changes better. I went over to where the client was, and the nurse and outreach workers gave me a chair and asked me to do the dressing. The supplies they had were gloves, chlorohexidine, hydrogen peroxide, anti-bacterial ointment, cotton balls, and gauze bandage to wrap around his hand. I was taking all the precautions to keep the gloves and materials sterile and the site clean. However, they had set the cotton balls down directly on the chair beside me, and then passed them to me with their bare hands (which could not have been washed recently as they do not keep soap anywhere in the DIC). I didn’t know what to do as there was no way, especially with the language barrier, to do the dressing change as it needed to be done. Afterwards, I was asked to create a set of instructions (which Annu will translate into Hindi) for the outreach workers to use when they are in the field in case a dressing change needs to be done and the client cannot come to the center to see the nurse. I am going to ask SPYM if there’s any way to get more/different materials to do dressing changes.
After doing the dressing change, we went out with one of the outreach workers and a client who is still on buprenorphine but wants to become an outreach worker. We walked about 20 minutes to Lodi road, where we found four young men smacking (smoking heroine) behind some tall grass that was beside the road. We snuck back and crouched down to also hide. They were really nice, letting me take a few pictures, and even offered us some chai (which I’m not sure how they were going to make). The outreach worker, Sanjay, was telling them about the DIC and its services when two men approached, I guess having seen me (I stand out too much to hide anywhere). They were undercover police officers, and were hoping they had busted a tourist buying drugs. When they found out I was with the outreach workers, they left. Later I learned it is very common for police to simply take money from drug-users when they find them as a bribe not to press charges. I have heard many times that the police system here is very corrupt.
On Wednesday, we learned Vahid would be the third volunteer at our placement instead of Manish, as he worked there before the program began, and they needed him to help them figure out how to prevent people from sneaking off with the buprenorphine and injecting it. We went to McDonalds after (which sells no beef, and has Indian spices in the chicken burgers) so Vahid could get some ice cream. There was a white girl in the line behind me who seemed pretty excited to see me, and asked where I was from etc. She was from Michigan and here for her cousins wedding. She asked Annu and Vahid if they were from New Delhi, and then if they knew her cousins new husband, also from New Delhi. I told her the population of New Delhi is like the population of Canada, and that the chances were next to nothing. Either way, it was fun talking to someone from close to home.
On Thursday morning Annu and I were both coming down with a bit of a cold, so we decided it was better for us to call in sick and take it easy for the day. In the late morning, we walked down the road to a video store to rent a movie. The video store was a small room with four computers (it doubled as an internet café) and about 150 DVD cases on the wall. We asked about VCDs, and the man pulled out a couple shoeboxes full of burned copies of movies. It was 30 rupees (approx 75 cents) to rent one for a day, and the one we got had four different movies on it. I asked Annu if that was legal here and she said no, but no one cares. We walked around a little more to buy popcorn, and passed by a bank with a guard in front. Except the guard was more like a guy in scruffy clothes holding a shotgun.
Friday was a Muslim holiday. Everyone had the day off work/school, so we went to Jaipur for Friday and Saturday. It was about a four hour drive, and we rented a larger car with a driver to take us there. The roads are absolutely insane here. It feels like there’s a near collision every ten seconds, and no one wears seatbelts unless their passing a police officer. People also honk A LOT here and it’s not considered rude at all. In fact, ‘horn please’ is painted on the back of almost every truck so they don’t have to look in their mirrors to know you’re coming.
When we got to Jaipur, we went to visit a couple who owns the apartment next to Annu’s, but lives in Jaipur. They had a large house with all white marble floors (which is much cheaper and more common here), two large balconies, and a terrace. They have a son and a daughter who weren’t home, but she invited all of us (including me!) to her son’s wedding February 1. After having chai and sweets at their house, we went Choki Dhani. It’s set up like a little village, and you pay admission, which includes a buffet dinner and lots of shows (balancing acts, magicians, music and dancing, etc.). They also had camel rides and elephant rides, and I got to ride both. The wait in the camel ride line was taking a long time, and didn’t seem to be moving at all. Then we found out people were bribing the man who was helping everyone on to the camels so they could skip the line. Annu’s dad, along with a few others, stayed at the front of the line and made sure no one bribed the man, and finally the line started moving.
After about four hours of roaming around the village, we left to check into our hotel. Annu’s parents went in, checked the room, paid, and called us in from the car. When they saw me come in, they asked me for my passport. I hadn’t brought it with me (SPYM holds onto them so we don’t lose them while we’re here) but I offered them a photocopy of it. They said that was not good enough and said I could not stay there. So we got the money back and went to find another hotel. Annu found out later that three tourists went missing from a hotel in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and the hotel was held responsible, so hotel owners have become very strict on policies for foreigners. We found another hotel that said it was okay for me to stay there, but made it quite clear that they were not responsible if anything happened to me.
On Saturday, we saw so many temples and forts. It became a bit of a joke because my admission was always at least triple and up to five times more than everyone else in Annu’s family. I think having different prices for Indians and tourists makes sense so India can profit from the tourist industry but still allow Indians to see everything, but it was Annu’s family paying for me so I felt bad for costing so much more. The places we saw were the Birla Temple (a temple made completely of white marble), the Hawa Mahal (aka Palace of Winds because it has around 300 windows), Jal Mahal (water palace, which now sits in a man made lake), Jaigahr Fort, and Amer Palace (where the King and Queen once lived, protected by Jaigahr Fort). After our long day of sight-seeing, and before our long drive, we went for some chai and had a few snacks. We also went to use the washroom before the long drive. There was a little hut that had a ‘use and pay’ policy, and Annu’s dad paid for us after she and I had already gone back to the car. When her parents came to the car they were laughing a lot, and I asked what happened. They said it was one rupee each to use the toilets, except for me it was ten!

First Entry in India

I have arrived safely, and spent a week in New Delhi, though it feels like I've been here a lot longer. My volunteer placement is at SPYM's Drop-In Centre for IDUs (IV Drug Users) with Annu and Manish. There are 35 clients there on a daily medication to reduce cravings for opiods. It's has a fairly modern 'harm reduction' approach which is similar to ways of thinking in Canada. Another part of our job is to go around with the outreach workers and look for people injecting so we can offer them safe needles, etc. My first day there (Wednesday) we found three boys (youngest about 11) injecting near some train tracks. We passed by a little village and about twenty kids came out and followed me around for a while. Everyone in the little villages seems to think I'm either there to give them money or take pictures, which is pretty amusing.
As for exploring around Delhi, there are lots of things I have learned.
1) If I want things for good prices (clothes in a market or an auto to take me there) it's better for me to hide and Annu to bargain before they see me.
2) You have to look ahead when you walk so you don't run into a cow, and down so you don't step in their mess.
3) Cars drive on the left side of the road... usually.
4) Seeing one car accident a day isn't too bad.
5) Dogs in India are better at crossing the road than Canadian people in India.
6) You can't be sure whether the milk in your glass came from a cow or a buffalo.
7) A bath is actually a shower where you put all your hot water in a large bucket and then scoop it onto yourself with a smaller bucket.
8) Toilet paper is an unnecessary luxery of the western world.
9) Staple food includes rice bread and potatoes (at every meal)
10) Knowing the name of your food is not critical to enjoying it.
That's all for now. Please email me so I know what you're up to!

leaving today!

I leave Hamilton in about three hours, and am busy finishing up packing, so I can't write much! I will arrive to India super-late on Friday night, and hopefully will have access to a computer to let you know how the first few days went - I'm sure I'll have a lot to say at that point!