May 20th to May 24th: Well my adventures for the summer
have officially begun. One
of my travel companions, Bolton Kirchner, and I experienced some very
interesting times trying to make our connections in order to eventually end up
in Delhi. I can officially say that I have run through an airport in order to
make a flight on time! We also missed our flight from London to Delhi because
of flight delays, but thankfully they rerouted us to another flight on India
Air (which is rather fancy). There was basically no one on the flight so I was
able to properly lie down and sleep. Eventually we made it to the Delhi
airport, only to find out that our luggage was lost. Literally everything that
could have gone wrong went wrong, but we made the best of it and tried to tell
ourselves that things could be worse. We were also able to meet up with our
other travel companion, Danny Folks. She traveled from her home town to London
and was able to make the flight that we could not. She was nice enough to wait
for us in the Delhi airport. Danny and Bolton are both Clinton School of Public
Service graduate students. They are awesome people and I am excited to see all
of the amazing work that they accomplish in Uganda.
It was
about 1 o’clock in the morning when we finally made it to Delhi. As soon as
walked out of the airport I knew that the heat was definitely going to be
something that I would have to get used to. We got a cab and made our way to
Bunker’s house. Bunker Roy is the founder of Barefoot College in Tilonia,
India. He was kind enough to let us stay at his house in Delhi before we
traveled to Barefoot. Matt Devlin, another Clinton School student who is
spending 6 months at Barefoot College, had already arrived at Bunker’s house
and showed us to our room. It was very
difficult for me to sleep that night most likely due to jet lag. For the
longest time I thought I was immune to it, but I realized that no one is immune
to jet lag. The next morning, I drank my first cup of Indian chai tea. I am not
a huge fan of chai in the States so I was a bit hesitant at first, but this
stuff was sent from Heaven (the coffee here is also pretty amazing). After we
drank our tea, we decided that it would probably be best if we got a hotel
because Bunker’s house was pretty crowded. We got a cab and made our way to the
Legend Hotel. This place was very nice and only cost about 1100 rupees per person
a night which is equal to about 20 dollars American. This was pretty exciting because it was a
four star hotel! We had air conditioning, wifi, and a large amount of coffee
and chai from room service. What more could you ask for? The only catch was
that there was not a western shower. However, I have become quite accustomed to
the bucket shower. I can honestly say that they are rather refreshing.
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| The Red Fort |
The
rest of the day we traveled by rickshaw. If you ever manage to travel to Delhi,
you should experience the city via rickshaw. This was incredibly thrilling but
terrifying at the same time. Traffic in India is unlike any other traffic I
have ever experienced. For one thing, Delhi is the second most populous city in
the world so there are a ton of people on the road. Another thing that I have
noticed is that no one really bothers to use road lanes. Sometimes we would be
about a foot away from another car because our driver had either managed a way
to make another lane or the other car had. Honking is also a tool for
communicating here, rather than for making people angry. It is definitely
something to get used to. We made our way to the Red Fort which is a major
attraction in Delhi. I was amazed by the detail that was apparent in all of the
structures inside the Red Fort. Indian architecture is purely beautiful. Apart
from that, we didn't bring enough water and the heat was a bit stifling. It is
very important to remain hydrated here because the temperatures reach about 106
degrees Fahrenheit. I keep telling myself “agua es vida” which is translated as
“water is life.” It’s amazing how much we take water for granted in the United
States. It is a depleting resource in India so I am very aware that I should
not waste it. After the Red Fort, we walked around a nearby market. It was a
very intense situation due to the fact that the streets were so crammed with
people. Not to mention, we were dehydrated and suffering from jet lag. We
decided that our best course of action was to get back to hotel, order room
service, and take a well-deserved nap. After we slept for about five hours, we
went to a nearby restaurant called the Boom Room. It was catered towards
Americans, and even though the food was delicious I still felt like I hadn't
experienced authentic Indian food quite yet.
We had
planned to make a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, but it was a holy day
which meant that it was closed. I was kind of disappointed, but we booked a
tour to see all of Delhi so it seemed like a nice trade off. The only issue was
that I got a stomach bug that morning at breakfast and was not able to attend
the tour with Bolton, Danny, and Matt. I was upset about it, but it was
completely out of my control. So there is not much to report on that day.
The
next morning we got up at 4 A.M. in order to catch a train from Delhi to
Kushinagar where someone from Barefoot College would pick us up. We found out,
however, that the train was sold out so we opted with Plan B which was to take
a car to Tilonia. After a pretty brutal and very cramped 8 hour drive, we finally made
it to Barefoot College.
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| A structure inside the Red Fort |
