Monsoon Wading

Stranded in the Mall for an Hour

My first Indian Camel

Yesterday, just after lunch Ece, Amanda and I finished eating lunch the rains began. The place we eat lunch is in a covered mall about a 10 minute walk from work and the rain was so heavy we had to stay inside. We stayed inside playing “I have never ever” before the storm abated and we could walk back to work. Or I should say wade back from work. The water is so deep in places that it came over half way up to our knees (we tried not to think too much about what was in the water). In some ways this was the most Indian experience I’ve had to date- the street children dumping water onto their heads, motorcycles plowing through tire high water, a man sitting on a camel drawn cart, and arriving back to work with the power out- all within 10 minutes. 

The night before was just incredible. I took a bus (by myself!) into the Pink City to the Ajmeri Gate where I met the driver of a local couch surfer, Lokesh. As we drove to meet Lokesh we bonded over the Bollywood movie, I am Kahn, and sang some Bollywood songs together that came on the radio (mine is more like unintelligible syllables because my Hindi is pretty nonexistent). After arriving at Lokesh’s work, I met Lokesh and his brother, and then we drove to meet up with Lokesh’s cousin, cousin’s wife and sister and drove up to the Tiger Fort that overlooks the entire city. I had been there over the weekend but during the day time and just to a regular café but last night we were at an even higher point with almost 360 degree view of the city and the surrounding hils. I really enjoyed the company of Lokesh and his family staring at the city lights and having drinks. They were also the first sarcastic Indians I had met, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Seriously, do couch surfing!

Ece and Amanda on the flooded road to work

More girl interns arrived yesterday from Switzerland, Vietnam and China and it was great to meet them and have more girls in the house. I look forward to spending more time with them in future. Seeing them arrive for the first time I am reminded of how far I have come in the last week from when I first arrived. I can barter, take public transportation, and speak very limited Hindi. My work is still discouraging in many ways and at times I still feel overwhelmed by all the hardship that I see around me, I can now look at this summer with hope and excitement. 

Thank you for all your support reading my blog, sending me emails, and chatting with me on facebook and gchat. It means more than I can properly express here. Lastly, here is a song for a special someone who also loves storms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iQRXuAo6Eg