So, now I ma in Dehra Dun. It is a city 3 hours north by train from Delhi or 7. 5 by the bus we took. It is a nice city with a wuiet sduburb like outskirt wher I live (well at least for the week)
A typical day goes as followed.
6:30 I wake up at (for no reason at all) and read 1 million pages in my book until the sun comes up
8:30 Have breakfast at Mrs. Meta. Miss Meta is the lady with whom I live. The house is really big and nice and I have a large room with a private bathroom and a roommate name Alia from Vermont. There are also a few other people from the program in my house including the coordinator so there are plenty of people to play with. Mrs. Meta is married and has a sun named Varon he is in a rock band.
9:30 Hindi Lesson with Mayank who runs the program. Yes it is true I am leaning to read and write Hindi. Apkanan Kiasey? What is your name? Mein Nam Jessica. My Name is Jessica. I even learned to write Rosenberg in Hindi yesterday which is probably the only time the name has ever been written in Hindi in the history of the world. Hindi is somewhat similar to Hebrew so I am catching on quickly- sort of.
11:00 meet with Dr. Nisha Gandi OB/Gyn.. She is great. Everything takes place in one room while I Alia and Austin the others from my group sit in the corner and watch. Basically a patient comes in and sits at the desk. There is a curtain in front of a bed right behind the good doctor. Sometimes there is patient being examined while she is talking to another patient in front to the curtain (which the nurse wipes her hands on) and then maybe there is even a baby being vaccinated. Talk about efficient. The funniest part is that all of these pharmaceutical reps also come tot eh clinic trying to get her to buy there drugs. The look just like the reps in America and you can spot them a mile away. Hopefully there will be a birth while we are here because she lets you come in and watch. Word on the street is that they basically push the baby out of the woman by pushing on her stomach. Average time of birth ~ 15 minutes.
1-4:30 Roam the streets of Dehra Dun. The other day I went to a market and bought some small trinkets-toe rings etc. Today I will be going to a Buddhist temple in town. The craziest thing happened the other day I went into this really nice restaurant and there were two young Buddhist monks sitting there- crazy!! I have been told that the Buddhist monks are actually really wealthy here and that they have nice cars :O)
4:30-5:30 Meet with Perm Nath. He is a natural healer and is teaching us about Reiki and Acupressure. I love his class because it teaches me how to harness the universal energy from the doors of heaven through my skull and siphon it onto my patient’s Chakras through my hands. What else could you ask for in a man? P.S he is 92 and looks like he is 75 he must be doing something right.
6-8 Meet with Dr. Nunda- Homeopathic doctor. His clinic can be slow at times and so I have asked him 1 million questions about what he does. He is also really funny and the cases that do come in are interesting. Yesterday a Sikh man wearing a turban came in. Apparently his son owns a restaurant at OSU called the Taj. During his visit he proceeded to show us how he likes to do his 10 stretches for one hour each day to stretch everything including his veins- interesting.
8-? Have dinner. Mrs. Meta makes some mean Indian food and accept for that act that it is making my teeth sensitive I really like it. Sometimes after dinner we will do an activity like go to town to get ice-cream. Last night I got a cone with chocolate shavings and M and M’s but the guy was very particular and treated cone making like an art form and took 20 minutes hand placing each M& M in a perfect design with a pattern. What a hoot. Anther night we went out to town to a nice restaurant because this girl was leaving. Some of the places in town are quite nice while others are little hole in the walls. Tonight there will be some sort of chant and dancing in the streets (so my style)
Interesting Observations: The doctors do not wear gloves. Lots of children beg for money and food and try to sell you balloons. Getting an outfit made costs 2 dollars (I got fitted for some dresses this morning). My hand is too big for most bangles and I actually started bleeding trying to get one on this morning. The food called a Dosa is massive and their equivalent of a burrito.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Gilligan's 3 hour tour is nothing compared to this....
So it has been brought to my attention by friendster that I have missed quite a few Birthdays-So Happy Birthday to everyone who’s Birthday I missed – these people include but are not limited to – basically every Lindsay I know.
India is grand!! I have not been able to write in a while because the days are jam packed.
Before my program started I spent two days in Delhi with Sara and Helena. We went all over and say the red fort, aksherbad (which is this new gorgeous temple) a market, took a rikshaw ride through old Delhi and went to Cannaugh Place. We also booked a tour to Agra for the next day and have thus far fallen for every scam known to travelers. Including- making friends with Indian who then walk you to a travel agency where they get a commission. Also, having a rickshaw driver takes you to a market that is over prices and he gets a commission (no wonder he wasn’t charging us for the ride).
The next day we met with two other girls from the program Tara and Tami who are great. We all slept at Hotel Vishal whish is in the heart of the city and quite disgusting (Dear owner of Hotel Vishal, Please tell your cats to stop defecating on my door step. Love, Jessica P.S. your hotel is nasty). We got on the tour bus at 6:30 AM for a “4 hour” ride to Agra to seer that taj. Well, the ride was actually 7.5. The day went like so. Stop at random rest stop. Go to Agra fort, Go to Taj (big and beautiful – very memorable). Haggling in the street with little boys trying to sell me mini taj mahal snow globes. Being ripped off. Taken to a shop to get souvenirs (saw mini Taj mahal- very unnecessary). Went to Lunch in a place where the bottom of the toilet runs out onto the floor while a little boy continuously wipes it up (probably why I have a cold now). Then we were supposed to go home. So, we drove for 3 hours. At 9 at night get woken up to go to Krishna’s temple in the dark. Fine, it was very interesting but a bit crazy to go so late. It was very hot and smiled like incense people were chanting and ringing bells and lying on the floor praying to Krisha. They would approach a statue pray and then walk around it in a circle. Once I was even splashes with some holy water by mistake. Then, after we thought it was all over we get woken up an hour later to go to Krishna’s birthplace and home. This was actually really interesting. We sat on the floor while some guy unveiled the statue of Krishna like it was a magic act. After being told that there was no pressure to donate I gave 200 rupees he said can you give 500. For 500 they were offering bricks with inscriptions with your family’s name. Guys I thought you said no pressure. On the way out they gave us some crystals, some sweets and these little beads to put in a locket for a year and everything that is wrong in your life will be right. The town where this temple is a very religious town and was quiet and clean unlike everywhere else. So, we get back o the bus for what we think it our ride home. Nope, we stop at a trucker stop for diner where some drunken waiter asked my friend to marry him. Ok, ok so we get back on the bus. This day may not sound so bad to you and it was actually really fun. But, we got back at 3 am from a tour which was supposed to end at 10 pm. It was a 22 hour tour!!!
After we got dropped off and had to walk through a scary street we made it back to the hotel in time for a shower before meeting the group at 5:30 1 hour away to start the program.
Thats all I have to say about that.
India is grand!! I have not been able to write in a while because the days are jam packed.
Before my program started I spent two days in Delhi with Sara and Helena. We went all over and say the red fort, aksherbad (which is this new gorgeous temple) a market, took a rikshaw ride through old Delhi and went to Cannaugh Place. We also booked a tour to Agra for the next day and have thus far fallen for every scam known to travelers. Including- making friends with Indian who then walk you to a travel agency where they get a commission. Also, having a rickshaw driver takes you to a market that is over prices and he gets a commission (no wonder he wasn’t charging us for the ride).
The next day we met with two other girls from the program Tara and Tami who are great. We all slept at Hotel Vishal whish is in the heart of the city and quite disgusting (Dear owner of Hotel Vishal, Please tell your cats to stop defecating on my door step. Love, Jessica P.S. your hotel is nasty). We got on the tour bus at 6:30 AM for a “4 hour” ride to Agra to seer that taj. Well, the ride was actually 7.5. The day went like so. Stop at random rest stop. Go to Agra fort, Go to Taj (big and beautiful – very memorable). Haggling in the street with little boys trying to sell me mini taj mahal snow globes. Being ripped off. Taken to a shop to get souvenirs (saw mini Taj mahal- very unnecessary). Went to Lunch in a place where the bottom of the toilet runs out onto the floor while a little boy continuously wipes it up (probably why I have a cold now). Then we were supposed to go home. So, we drove for 3 hours. At 9 at night get woken up to go to Krishna’s temple in the dark. Fine, it was very interesting but a bit crazy to go so late. It was very hot and smiled like incense people were chanting and ringing bells and lying on the floor praying to Krisha. They would approach a statue pray and then walk around it in a circle. Once I was even splashes with some holy water by mistake. Then, after we thought it was all over we get woken up an hour later to go to Krishna’s birthplace and home. This was actually really interesting. We sat on the floor while some guy unveiled the statue of Krishna like it was a magic act. After being told that there was no pressure to donate I gave 200 rupees he said can you give 500. For 500 they were offering bricks with inscriptions with your family’s name. Guys I thought you said no pressure. On the way out they gave us some crystals, some sweets and these little beads to put in a locket for a year and everything that is wrong in your life will be right. The town where this temple is a very religious town and was quiet and clean unlike everywhere else. So, we get back o the bus for what we think it our ride home. Nope, we stop at a trucker stop for diner where some drunken waiter asked my friend to marry him. Ok, ok so we get back on the bus. This day may not sound so bad to you and it was actually really fun. But, we got back at 3 am from a tour which was supposed to end at 10 pm. It was a 22 hour tour!!!
After we got dropped off and had to walk through a scary street we made it back to the hotel in time for a shower before meeting the group at 5:30 1 hour away to start the program.
Thats all I have to say about that.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Saag Paneer
I am here in India - Namatste. My plane ride was great. I slept, ate, slept
, read 15 magazines I needed to make my bag lighter) and slept. t actually
went pretty quickly for a 14 hour flight. Needless to say I never really
experienced May 24th 2007 because of the time difference which is pretty
funny. Rahul a lovely man from CFGHI picked me up at the airport I was able
to find him easily because I was the only Jessica Rosenberg arriving at the
airport and allt he other sigs had names like Vishnu Ramajan.
But, I am here. It is hot I am shwety . Last night I stayed in hotel star
that was ehhhh medium ok . I was with another girl from my trip named sara
who is great and we have moved to a cheaper hotel in the heart of the city
instead of near the airport. This new hotel is ehhhh as well but it is near
to the train station and ther are other tourists. I think we are going to go
to the Taj mahal tomorrow :O) and will need to take a train there so it is a
good location. Today I am going to meet up with a friend of a friend named
Helena who will take us around Delhi. She is a volunteer living here for a
few months so she knows her way arounda bit better than we do. Teh streets
of Delhi are crowded dirty and nuty but somewhat simialr to Kamapala in
Uganda so nothing shocking. Yes, there are sacred cows walking the street
and I must say they are quite hefty and robust. Th rest of the group arrives
on Saturday night and we leave at 5:30 am on a bus to Dehra Dun when my
India adventure begins (well at least the pre-paid part).
, read 15 magazines I needed to make my bag lighter) and slept. t actually
went pretty quickly for a 14 hour flight. Needless to say I never really
experienced May 24th 2007 because of the time difference which is pretty
funny. Rahul a lovely man from CFGHI picked me up at the airport I was able
to find him easily because I was the only Jessica Rosenberg arriving at the
airport and allt he other sigs had names like Vishnu Ramajan.
But, I am here. It is hot I am shwety . Last night I stayed in hotel star
that was ehhhh medium ok . I was with another girl from my trip named sara
who is great and we have moved to a cheaper hotel in the heart of the city
instead of near the airport. This new hotel is ehhhh as well but it is near
to the train station and ther are other tourists. I think we are going to go
to the Taj mahal tomorrow :O) and will need to take a train there so it is a
good location. Today I am going to meet up with a friend of a friend named
Helena who will take us around Delhi. She is a volunteer living here for a
few months so she knows her way arounda bit better than we do. Teh streets
of Delhi are crowded dirty and nuty but somewhat simialr to Kamapala in
Uganda so nothing shocking. Yes, there are sacred cows walking the street
and I must say they are quite hefty and robust. Th rest of the group arrives
on Saturday night and we leave at 5:30 am on a bus to Dehra Dun when my
India adventure begins (well at least the pre-paid part).
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Here I go again
Hello everyone are you all ready for another round of typos and run on sentences because here they come. On May 23rd I will be leaving for India to partake in a program entitled Introduction to Traditional Medicine run by Child Family Health International. It is a four week trip that takes place in northern India in the cities of Dehra Dun, Rishikesh, the yoga capitol of the world (my dream land) and a village in the Himalayan Mountains, Than Gaon.
The Introduction to Traditional Medicine program gives students the opportunity to learn about the traditional and indigenous systems of medicine in India. Participants will study the philosophies behind Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and Reiki. In addition to learning about traditional medicine, students will observe how these practices may interact with Allopathic methods (aka Western medicine) and gain an understanding of the importance of cross-cultural competency in diagnosing patients who may be receiving a combination of modern and traditional treatments. You can find out more about this program at cfhi.org under the international programs section.
I am very excited about this endeavor and I hope you all follow along with my blog. Gifts will be purchased for those with the highest number of postings- jk- or am I?
The Introduction to Traditional Medicine program gives students the opportunity to learn about the traditional and indigenous systems of medicine in India. Participants will study the philosophies behind Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and Reiki. In addition to learning about traditional medicine, students will observe how these practices may interact with Allopathic methods (aka Western medicine) and gain an understanding of the importance of cross-cultural competency in diagnosing patients who may be receiving a combination of modern and traditional treatments. You can find out more about this program at cfhi.org under the international programs section.
I am very excited about this endeavor and I hope you all follow along with my blog. Gifts will be purchased for those with the highest number of postings- jk- or am I?
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