Bangalore!!!!!!

Namaste from Bangalore!

Well I am finally in India and am very happy to be here! We left Geneva very early Tuesday morning and took a short flight to Frankfurt Germany. We then flew 8 hours to Bangalore and after going through customs took a hour and a half bus ride to Vidya Deep College where we stayed for 3 nights. Vidya Deep College is a small theology school located in North Bangalore. It is not typically used as a hostel but our country hosts have a good relationship with the school and so they let us stay. The school is incredibly peaceful and somewhat Spartan. There were two people to a room and the beds were a solid metal base with a 2 inch think cushion on top. We did have a flush toliet and toilet paper provided (not typical of most places in India). As with most places in India they use bucket showers. The college uses solar panels to heat water during the day and when you want to shower you go in the hallway and fill a large bucket with warm water and take it back to your bathroom. The bathroom just have a drain in the corner and you take a little smaller bucket and fill it with water and dump it over your head. It is a little difficult to get used to but it is a great way to conserve water! A cook prepared all 3 meals for us using "safe" water and less spice than normal which we were all very thankful for. We ate traditional Indian meals always and had a lot of rice and dahl (sorry if I am misspelling this) and chipate (which is a lentil tortilla). I really like Indian food so far and am getting used to the spicyness!

In our 3 days at Vidya we met our country coordinators and got to know the city a little bit. Our coordinators are named Leo and Bhargavi and they work for a NGO called Environment Support Group (ESG) in Bangalore. They are very nice and have been extremely organized (although running on Indian time which is a bit looser than American time!) and helpful in the adjustment to India. Bangalore is a crazy city! There are so many cars and people! The traffic is constant and exhausting. The rule of the streets is the bigger vehicle has the right of way. Pedestrians never have the right of way. Also there are no lanes, stop signs or for the most part streetlights. It is actually chaos. Also, everyone constantly honks. Instead of turn signals people honk and everyone honks at pedestrians. To cross the street you must literally run in between the gaps because no car will stop for you. I cannot count the times I or one of my friends has almost been hit. Despite this crazy traffic (and air and noise pollution) I am still having a good time and enjoy walking around. The women here wear the most beautiful clothes and I have already bought 3 colorful Kurtas (longish tunic tops)!

I moved into my homestay on Saturday. I am with my friend Abby who is wonderful and goes to Bates. We are with a great family! Ram (pronounced Rom) is the dad and he is 61 years old. He is a consultant for disaster relief and crisis management and works all over the world. He is cutting back on the amount of time he works because it is a lot of travelling and so I think he will be here the whole time. He is really nice and talkative and love sports! We have been watching a lot of cricket and tennis. He is also a great cook! Gita is our home stay mom. She is really sweet and is always humming or singing. She works at a bank in the city. Gita is very progressive in some ways and very traditional in others. For example, Gita does not agree with the Caste system and is not religious but she still prefers to use a squat toliet and bucket shower even though the family has a flush toliet and a more Western shower. She has been very nice and likes to look at us and squeeze our arms. We also have a host sister and brother. Nandini is the sister. She is 31 and lives in an apartment in Bangalore. She is a designer and mostly designs homewares. She offered to take us shopping and hang out! Nikhil is the brother, he is 24 and lives at home. He is extremely nice and has made us feel more at home. He works but I am not exactly sure what he does. Abby and I have our own bedroom. We are sharing a bed but it is pretty big and we don't mind. We were also happy to see a flush toilet and shower!

Well this is quite long so I will definitely write more later. Thank you for making it this far! I hope everyone is well. Please email me if want to know more!

Love,
Barbara