2 weeks done, 50 to go!

On the anniversary of my first two weeks in India, I thought it was about time I wrote my first blog post. Although I’ve spent time in India before, there’s still been a lot to take in these past 14 days and it feels like I’ve been in Delhi much longer. As well as getting used to the cultural differences, Indian food (eating rice, roti and spicy vegetable curries twice a day), and the Indian pace of life, I’ve also had to come to terms with the fact that I will be living here for 12 months. Back home, so much of my time was spent preparing physically to come out to Delhi- doing paperwork, moving house and saying goodbye to people; I didn’t spend too much time thinking what my life would be life once I got here. The first couple of days were hard. I was jetlagged, home sick and often on the verge of tears, but after a few internal pep talks I’m feeling on good form and ready to start my placement on 1st April. The bottom line is that I know I don’t want to go home, which means I have to make this work and stay. In fact, yesterday I found quite an inspiring quote by Arnie of all people. It’s cheesy, but sometimes cheese is good. That wasn’t the quote in case you were wondering where the cheese thoughts came from. Here it is: “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggle develops your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

So, you’re probably wondering what I’ve been doing in India these last couple of weeks. Well here are some of the highlights:

• Learning Bollywood dancing at the VSO Office

• Having a tour of Old Delhi by some of the current VSO Delhi volunteers, which included visiting the biggest wholesale spice market in Asia (hold your nose, more chillies than you can imagine), going to a Jain Temple, having a banana parantha and eating at the famous Karim’s. We also went to see a charity which looks after street children in a sort of no man’s land between Red Fort (Mughal relic) and Jama Masjid (biggest mosque in India). Quite a contrast between the tourist sites and these kids as young as 5 who have to survive on their own.

• Buying Indian kurtas (tunics), pyjamis (skinny trousers) and dupattas (scarfs) at Sabhyata in Lajpat Nagar market.

• Visiting Puri in Orissa for a three day VSO conference. We got to meet the 60 other VSO India volunteers, learn more about the different VSO programmes, go to the beach and visit the spectacular sun temple in Kornack. The downside was we had to endure two long train journeys (one was 36 hours) and almost everyone in our group got sick during the trip- I was sick in Puri train station and slept for almost the entire train journey home thanks to my Indian sleeping pills.

• Going to the Habitat Centre to hear a lecture by an American guy- Professor Robert Thurman entitled ‘Why Tibet matters?’Apparently he’s the leading expert on Tibetan Buddhism outside of Tibet. One point he made that’s stuck with me is that Tibet has the last glacier outside of the north and south poles, and feeds most of the major rivers in Asia. I’m going to make a real effort to visit Tibet after my placement I think.

• Beginning our yoga classes. No more lie-ins, now we wake up at 5am for an hour of yoga in the beautiful Lodi Gardens, surrounded by bird song. We even did laughing yoga, where you force yourself to laugh but end up laughing for real at everyone else chuckling. Quite amusing.