Smelly Delhi

I've developed quite a love/hate relationship with Delhi. It's a city of extremes - rich and poor, traditional and modern, beautiful and filthy. People are extremely welcoming and willing to share their life story with all the gritty details, but a lot are ultimately trying to rip you off or run some kind of scam. There is so much beauty here - parks and mosques/temples/tombs dotting the city, stunning clothes and jewelry - but also so much that is unpleasant to look at - slums, garbage everywhere, air thick with pollution (supposedly a day out in Delhi is equivalent to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes).

A tomb in Lodi Gardens, in South Delhi

We took a bicycle tour of Old Delhi over the weekend, which was like stepping back in time. We rode through a maze of tiny roads and alleys, dodging people, flower carts, kids playing cricket, and cows (one of which Nancy crashed into). We went through a spice market, which sent me into a 20 minute coughing fit, and ate a breakfast of mutton at a cute little restaurant (I think I prefer pancakes). Overall, though, it was an awesome experience, and I wish I could have gotten some better pictures.

So far this week, we have been going around with an NGO called Sulabh International, which does sanitation stuff - placing public toilets in

the slums to decrease disease there, and installing toilets with underground tanks in private homes so there is no need for scavenging. Scavengers (aka "untouchables") are the lowest caste of people in the villages, whose job it is to go to people's homes and manually clean out their dry latrines, then carry the excreta in buckets on their heads to dispose of outside of town. They are treated as pariahs by the community, are sick all the time, and make next to nothing. I can't think of a more inhuman existence. Sulabh runs a trade school to teach the

scavengers how to be seamstresses, beauticians, and electricians, so they can earn a living outside of scavenging. There is also a school for the children of scavengers, who are often excluded from public schools. Tomorrow we are going to a village called Alwar to meet with a group of former-scavengers who have gone to school and are now living and working as part of their communities.

We went into a slum yesterday. The living conditions are pretty appalling, but the people who live there were so nice and happy to show us their homes. The kids were so cute, and each demanded that we taken their pictures.

A Delhi slum - 1000 people live here

Some super-cute children living in the slum

Today our program was cancelled because India decided yesterday that today would be a national holiday - like a snow day for the whole country. Completely insane.

This weekend we are going to Jaipur ("the pink city") and Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I am very excited to get to take the signature "I'm really in India" picture.

Talk to you later,

Tricia