intern adventure

a kick-off mystery challenge

We have returned safely from our project trip in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh. What a jam-packed and wonderful 12 days that was! This morning we had our internal design review and there is still much work to be done before our proposal is complete enough for Sarah's Covenant Homes to begin using our design to specifically raise funds! I can't wait to tell you all about it!! But first...

Friday is a big day for me as it is my 24th birthday and also marks one full month of the fall 2012 intern term - I cannot believe it. I also cannot believe that I still haven't written about our very first trip... 

A few days into orientation at the eMi2 office in New Delhi, Dannah told us that we would be taking a trip together to begin to understand how to get around in India on our own. This is learning sans-training wheels. The staff had purchased for us a one-way train ticket to Haridwar and created a daily to-do list to guide us loosely in our travels. 

Dannah and Ryan filled our bellies with delicious Italian dinner and then called a cab for us to the Old Delhi Railway Station. I have to include at this point, that we were all still so jet-lagged that David and I both fell asleep while Dannah was finishing up dinner.

Our first three instructions were:

Day 1:

• Commit your day to the Lord in prayer.
• Take a taxi to NDRS.
• Find your train and board your car, sleep. 

And so we did. 

the crew (minus amy) waiting for our train in the evening heat

a warm welcome from the delhi division!
(this is the package that your sheets and face towel come in)

christine and I getting settled

all tucked in and ready for a short snooze

me up in my bunk - excited and ready

When our train arrived in Haridwar, we didn't quite know what to expect. What I did know was that I was unreasonably grumpy, it was 5:50 am and I just wanted to brush my teeth... 

We were first supposed to grab an auto outside of the train station and ask to go to Har-ki-Pauri. We had no idea if Har-ki-Pauri was a neighborhood, a building, we didn't have any idea what. 

a large shared auto
(autos all look different in different regions of india)

The auto dropped us off and we realized that we had to walk across a bridge to get to Har-ki-Pauri, which is a temple and site of pilgrimage for many Indians. When we arrived in Haridwar there was a sort of grey, smoky fog hanging over the city that darkened everything in sight. (You can see it in the photo above that says 'Haridwar') I'm not sure if that's how it is all of the time, but it further depressed the already-dim vignettes along the bridge, alleys and roads. 

There was far more street begging and those begging were far more physically disfigured than anything we had seen in Delhi. Coupled with the sheer density of people on any given walkway, it was heart-wrenching and difficult to comprehend. We would learn later in talking with people that Har-ki-Pauri serves the poor every night at 7 pm and provides 'healing' for them as well. We saw for the first time Indians bringing out trays of chai for those sitting or laying in the street and trying to take care of their physical needs. This, along with the heavy tourism and pilgrimage, are explanations for the seeming increase of those begging.

crossing the bridge

masses of people, many washing and bathing in the ganges (ganga)

Our next task was to find breakfast- something no one was opposed to. We sat down at an open-air sort of restaurant where the menu was completely in Hindi. I knew what I wanted, however. I had been longing for the stuffed aloo paratha I had so enjoyed on my last visit. We ordered that all around and some chai. 

piping hot chai, aloo paratha (not stuffed) and curd

I'm not sure everyone liked the paratha as much as I did - after all, it wasn't stuffed as I had experienced it before and so we had to eat it with the paratha and our hands. Aloo is the yellow potato sabji that you see in the bowl. Sabji (sabzi?) is just what we call whatever vegetable dish is served with rice or some sort of bread (chapati, naan, paratha, etc).

very helpful neighbors

This was a table of men who sat next to us and were quite amused at the way we looked, dressed, ate and talked. We noticed they were eating a puffed up bread that they told us was 'puri' (something I have since grown to love-especially with honey- not culturally appropriate but it reminds me of a sopapilla) and they showed us how to eat it properly after we ordered some. 

de-puffing the puri before I enjoyed it

After breakfast we had the energy we needed to go around the streets of Haridwar asking all the questions on our list. We struggled to speak to many people, most of whom were eager to help, take pictures and talk to us but few of whom could speak English. 

One important method we mastered during this entire trip is the art of triangulation. As India still operates in

somewhat of a shame-based culture, many Indians do not want to disappoint you with an answer you may not like or worse yet, no answer at all. What this means is that even if someone has no idea what you are talking about or what you are asking - they will give you a very convincing answer. This becomes a challenge when asking for directions, as you can imagine. So in triangulation, the idea is that you ask at least three different people the same question and compare answers. 

Another challenge we faced was the inherent duality of Indian, and especially Hindu, culture. India, we have learned is a land where one might state one fact and another will state something completely opposite and both are true, both are right. I'm trying to think of an example and I can't think of one simple enough but you see these contradictions and confusions everywhere. India is wrought with unbelievable poverty and yet holds unbelievable wealth and power. Hopefully, throughout my blogging it will become more clear but I will just say India is a land of both, neither and all.

It was confusing because we were meant to ask many questions about the temple Har-ki-Pauri, about the meaning of words, the meaning of rituals and the reason for the pilgrimage - and often times even triangulation would bring us three completely different answers. 

christine and I asking questions outside the temple

Can you spot us in this crowd? Another challenge of clearly being a tourist is that we are guests to this country, a country of unsurpassed hospitality, and that means people want us to enjoy our time and no one wants to disappoint us. We later learned that some really cool things people shared with us were not in fact truth, but what they believed we would want to hear. 

Our handy scavenger hunt instructions told us that we would want to get a bus ticket and head out of Haridwar to find a place to stay in Rishikesh by 1 pm, but we had spoken to many people and answered all of our questions and were quite ready to leave by 11 am and so we did - a decision which none of us regretted.

Describing our time in Haridwar was much longer than I anticipated so I will post separately about our time in Rishikesh tomorrow!

people near the temple around a ghat in the ganga

flowers to offer into the ganga

prayer/offering beads

Quick-list of some things we learned in Haridwar:

(and with a little fact-checking at home afterwards)

1. 'ghat' - an enclosed area along the banks of the Ganga for washing or bathing
2. 'Haridwar' we were told means house of god or city of god - in fact it means the gateway to the kingdom of the gods: Shiva or Vishnu, there is translation for both
3. 'Har-ki-Pauri' literally means steps of god and the temple is on a large ghat which is believed to mark the spot where the Ganga leaves the mountains and enters the plains, it is also unclear whether this is the place where Shiva or Vishnu enter heaven or both, it is believed that the gods left their footprints there as they entered heaven
4. 'Har' means Vishnu in Sanskrit
5. 'Hari' means Shiva in Sanskrit (you can see how this can get confusing for everyone)
6. Haridwar is one of the 7 holy cities of India