Change Of Plans...

It's been a crazy past couple of days. I flew from Dharamsala to Delhi on Thursday and had planned to sleep at the CCS (my program) flats Thursday and Friday night and check into a hotel for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night. I was just going to spend a couple of days seeing the sights in Delhi, take a day trip to see the Taj on Monday, and fly back to Dallas on Tuesday night. Things have changed.

For the past week everyone in Dharamsala has been asking me why I'm not staying for the July 14th opening of the school I've been working on. As it is generally, the answer was lack of funds. Obviously I was dissapointed with not being able to see the school open, but I had come to terms with my reality. On Friday I was talking to the in-country director of my program and she asked me again why I wasn't staying and I told her again that I just could not afford it. And then she did the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. She offered to pay for me to stay. She and her brother who is the head honcho of the Dharamsala program are going to pay out of pocket for my transportation to and from Dharamsala and for my lodging and meals while I'm there. The only expense to me was the cost of changing my ticket back to the States, a not so staggering $100.

So, where that leaves me now is still in Delhi. I'm going to sleep in my un-air conditioned box of a room for the next four nights, take the rain to see the Taj on Monday, and take an over night bus to Dharamsala Wednesday night and be there by Thursday. Never before have things worked out this well for me before and in the wise words of The Rolling Stones, "Ain't felt this good since I don't know when, I might not feel this good again."

Thus far in my time in Delhi I've sweated, taken many an auto rickshaw, gone to the Ghandi museum, celebrated 4th of July with samosas, veggie burgers, and lychee flavored ice cream, and finalized all of the changes for the next couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll actually see some pretty cool stuff in the next couple of days, it's just taken some time to get into a groove. Being solo is actually really nice and inshallah my good luck won't run out before I'm back in the mountains!

Things I have done in the many days since I have last posted:

1) Climbed a mountain

2) Not gotten sick

3) Almost finished my work at the Special School

4) Paid 6$ for two nights in a hotel

5) Gone paragliding (sorry mom and dad)

6) Gotten my photo taken with the biggest rabbit I've ever seen

7) Ridden a yak

8) Watched a man get stabbed with a wine glass in the nicest restaurant I've been to in India

9) Visited the homes of some of my kids

10) Started making plans for my time traveling post the end of my program (this one is kind of lame, but it's a list, so I figured a nice solid ten things was in order)

Now the elaborations:

1) Last Sunday another girl in the program and I hiked up to Triund, a 9,300 ft. peak that is used as a jumping off point for treks to snowline. Another 30 minutes and we could have seen snow, and another two hours we could have touched snow, but weather and time were not on our side. The view is apparently gorgeous, you're supposed to be able to see the next range of the Himalayas. However, thanks to monsoon season, we were basically sitting in a giant cloud. So, instead of continuing on, we ate omlettes, got sun burned, and watched cave dwelling German hippies do acrobatic yoga. No joke.

2) Hooray stable health! I can even eat Indian food again. For a while it was peanut butter, roti, and boiled eggs. Inshallah I am permanently healthy.

3) I leave Dharamsala Thursday and am one day's worth of work from finishing all of the plans I made for the school. Pictures to come when I have better internet. I might be biased, but I personally think it looks pretty good. Go to harmonythrougheducation.org to find out more about the school I've been working to help open and the kids I've been working with. If you're looking for a cause to support, look no further. There is not even a hint of a special education system in India and this school is the only opportunity these kids have to receive an education. The grand opening is July 14th which I am sad to be missing. However, I will be doing my part by purchasing a Harmony Through Education beer stein. You should too.

4) This past weekend five of us went to Manali, an old British hill station turned Himalayan ski town, about an inch east on the map, but 6 hours by car. We stayed in Vashist, the backpacker part of Manali and stayed in the super classy Dharma Guest House. We secretly slept three to a double room so for the whole weekend I shelled out $6 for my sleeping accomodations. Awesome.

5) It was AWESOME. We tried to go Saturday but it was rainy. Fortunately God smiled down on us and Sunday was a beautiful, sunny, clear day. We drove up into a ski resort and then hiked for about half hour to our jump off point. The flight was about 30 minutes and we were each able to go one after the other. The guy I was strapped to (tandem paragliding) kept asking me if the flight was "good enjoy" and it absolutely was.

6-7) These two can be combined. Apparently certain parts of Manali are really, really touristy. So, when it was raining and we asked our driver to take us somewhere interesting in Manali, he took us to the most touristy place I've ever been. Technically there is a temple there, which we had gone to see, but the main attractions included an amusement park, TONS of women holding huge angora bunnies suckering idiots like myself in to paying to take a picture with one of them, and yak rides. The yak ride was fun for approximately a minute and a half until I felt like a huge ass hole and opted out of the second half of my ride. At this point the yak and owner ran me down to collect their payment. Having a yak run at you is kind of a scary thing.

8) Saturday night we met the other group who had gone to Manali for the weekend, a family from Arizona, for dinner at the nicest restaurant I've been to in India (thank you Dr. Durham). About four hours into our great five hour dinner, a fight breaks out. These three guys flipped their table over, one proceeded to kick in three windows, and then the same guy broke the stem off of a wine glass and proceeds to repeatedly stab the manager of the restaurant in the back. Apparently these three guys came in already plastered and were unhappy with the wine the waited had brought them. They start yelling, the manager is called over, the scene escalates, the manager asks the men to leave and then bam, brawl. John, the dad of the family we were with, happens to be a doctor so he checked the manager out and deemed him pretty much fine. Tons of scratches on his pack but nothing serious. Crazy.

9) Yesterday I visited Ravi's house and then this afternoon I went to Mithu's. Night and day living situations. Ravi lives in a more rural area, about 30 minutes away, in one room that he shares with his mom, dad, and two sisters. The room was immaculate and his mother seems to really love Ravi and is open to whatever it takes to make sure he leads a happy life. Mithu lives in a bigger house about a two minute walk from where I've been staying with his mom, dad, and younger brother. Mithu's mother obviously loves her sons very much and as a result has made a lot of sacrifices for them. Mithu's father wants nothing to do with Mithu and as a result is physically and verbally abusive towards his whole family. At one point when tensions were really high Mithu's mother took him to her parents house for five or six months to escape her husband. When they returned they found out that Mithu's father had been locking his little brother up in a room every day when he went to work. Mithu's mother has gone to the police repeatedly, but all it takes is for Mithu's father to deny her allegation for the police to discontinue looking into the abuse. Mithu's mother has been chronically ill for a long time (with what was lost in translation) and as a result is unable to find work. Therefore, the only way for Mithu and his brother and mom to escape their living situation is for Mithu to find a job and make enough money to support his family. Needless to say, that is an extremely lofty, time consuming goal. How long this goal will take to reach is what is most alarming, because the older Mithu gets (he's 18 now) the less willing his father is to let him live at home and more anxious he is to see him leave. Not only is divorce extremely rare in this part of the world, but for Mithu's family it's not an option. Each parent would get custody of one child, Mithu with his mom and his younger brother with his dad. The same guy who locked the little brother up for six months. Mithu's mother kept using the word "sacrifice", a word that has officially taken on a whole new meaning.

10) Well like I said I leave Thursday to head back to Delhi and then have until the following Wednesday to see as much as I can. The original plan was to go to Agra (where the Taj is) and Chandigarh (capitol of Punjab and Haryana) with my friend Mike. But, such is life, plans have changed and it looks like I'll be doing a little bit of solo traveling. Will spend all of my nights in Delhi and do alot of sight seeing in the city and take a day trip at some point, probably Sunday, down to Agra. No worries about the solo travels, I'll be in Dallas safe and sound on Wednesday as planned.

More updates next week!