Himalayas, Weddings, and Caves, oh my!

Woah, lots of catching up to do! First, it was brought to my attention (thanks mom!) that some of you (whoever you are out there...) may not know exactly what I'm doing way over here in India. Seems like a crucial piece of information that I should've provided much earlier...sorry! I'm here with a study abroad program called SIT (School for International Training) on a Health & Human Rights program. (check it out: http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/ssa_inh.cfm) The first 2.5 months we spent in Delhi, and the last month is for ISP--Independent Study Project--in a location of our choosing. Okay, I hope that helps a little? Now, a little bit about life in the Himalayan foothills...  :)

I arrived in Dehradun (pronounced dare-ah-doon) two weeks ago today. Our housing is a homestay but less interaction with the family, more like paying guests. Very spacious and in a nice little neighborhood. We are all really loving Dehardun--mountains looming in the distance, cleaner air, and more pleasant temperatures. Until today that is...the weather forecast for this week is 100+F everyday...excuse me? 

Our first weekend here we planned a hiking adventure in the Himalayas. We drove about an hour out of town and stayed with an organization in their very small guest house (used for medical students who come to the village to work in their clinic). 

That is the clinic, and the area we stayed in is below it. 

I think we all fell in love as soon as we stepped out of the jeep. It was BEAUTIFUL. So peaceful and quiet. The evening we got there we took a walk to the top of a small hill to watch the sunset.

Looking down on a small village from the hill

Little shrine on the hill

We woke up at 5 am the next morning to start our hike. We hadn't been told much about what this hike would be like, only that it would take us 4 hours. Our porter (guide) arrived around 5:30 am and we were on our way! The cooks had packed a small breakfast for us and told us not to eat it for an hour or two because "if we're heavy we won't make it over the mountain." For some reason we listened to them, and decided hiking up a huge mountain on an empty stomach was a good choice. If any of you think you're in good shape, or good at hiking, or just have a big ego, come to India and hire a porter to take you hiking in the Himalayas. This guys was cruising up the insanely steep incline carrying only an umbrella (who needs water when they hike?!) like he was just going for his morning stroll. The rest of us were huffing, puffing, and taking breaks about every 5 minutes. He told us that if we continued at this pace, we wouldn't reach our destination until nightfall. Shit. 

From the village looking up at the mountain we had to climb...

When we finally reached the 'top,' we had breakfast (this was probably 2 hours in, and all of our legs were jello). Then it was still another 4 hours of much milder terrain until we reached Mussoorie, the city we were hiking to. It was also a little stormy--thunder, lightning, rain--but that made it all the more fun. And we didn't have to worry about being struck by lightning, because our guide was ahead of us with his umbrella up!

Our trusty guide, waiting for us per usual

Misty, but so beautiful!

First sightings of houses outside of Mussoorie

We were exhausted when we finally reached Mussoorie, but felt so accomplished. It was a wonderful hike, and the whole time I kept thinking "eek I'm hiking in the Himalayas!" :) Of course our guide turned around when we got to Mussoorie to start his journey back home, (See? Humbling). Lucky for us, there are buses every hour (for less than $1) back to Dehradun. 

Adventure #2: A Muslim Wedding!! This past week, Caroline and I made a quick trip back to Delhi to attend a wedding with our family. It was well worth the 14 total hours on the train, now I can cross Indian wedding off my bucket list! I'm not really sure how to describe our experience...it was like a circus/all you can eat buffet/tacky party/funeral all rolled into one. 

My outfit!

This is the entrance to the wedding venue:

After this tunnel, we were greeted by this sight:

This would be the circus part...

This was the only large sign in the whole venue. Not something about a wedding, or love,  just SALADS

So the large area you see above is the "men's section." Note the couches, chairs, and large open space. The "women's section" by comparison had no couches, chairs, and was so crowded it was hard to move around. Awesome. We pretty much just hung out in the men's section which was acceptable (our host brother said we were "exceptions." Double awesome). The bride and groom are also totally separate at this point.

That's the groom in the blue turban! And that stage area is where the groom sits for the ceremony

This was an arranged marriage, and to my knowledge they still had not met. The ceremony is pretty much non existent (we missed it because we were too excited about the food...). Still in separate areas, the priest guy asks them each three times if they agree to the marriage. Then they sign a contract, and it's official! Husband and wife...they still haven't met. The bride stays in her separate room with women of the family to eat and the groom sits at a big table with lots of other men and eats his meal. Speaking of food...there was an absurd amount of food! (Although, 1,000+ mouths are a lot to feed). There are waiters walking around with snacks (chicken tikka, paneer tikka, fish sticks, chicken wings), as well as every kind of street food imaginable. It really just looks like stands on the street but they are all lined up around the perimeter of the venue. Fresh fruit, golgapa, aloo tiki, sweets...the list goes on. There is also a buffet table set up with 'dinner:' naan, roti, lots of chicken dishes, mutton dishes, rice dishes, vegetarian dishes. Then there are drinks too: papaya juice, muskmelon juice, chiku smoothie, and coffee. We took advantage of this delicious free food and ate as much as possible! :)

Aboo drinking warm milk out of a terra cotta cup 

Man making one of my favorite Indian sweets: Jalebi. Some sort of dough deep fried and then soaked in a sugar syrup...
 

Eating another one of my favorite Indian sweets: Kulfi (basically Indian ice cream). This was at the end of the wedding, and Aboo thought we each needed to eat 2 Kulfi...

Around midnight (the wedding started at 8), the bride and groom finally meet. I wish I could say it was an exciting moment...it wasn't. Then there are lots of pictures. The other family members insisted that we pose with the bride and groom...

At least Caroline and I are smiling!

The happy couple!! Not. 

Family shot! Ammi and Aboo are next to me, and Sadia is on the far left. 

After this, all the women in the brides family gathered around the bride. When the group dispersed, everyone was crying--including the bride--and the mother was wailing hysterically (this is the funeral-esque part). It's so sad for the bride's family because now she is essentially part of the grooms family and not theirs. She'll live with the groom (and maybe his parents too?) and won't see her family as often. She also had all of her belongings from home in suitcases at the wedding that were carried to the car before she left. How depressing! Anyways, it was a very interesting cultural event to say the least! 

Adventure #3: We stuck around in Dehradun this weekend and visited a few local sights. Stop #1 was the Buddhist Temple. 

Stop #2 was a Hindu temple that was literally inside some natural caves. Kinda creepy...but there was a very nice Sadhu who blessed us!

Stop #3: The Robber's Cave! This was perhaps the weirdest thing I've done in India yet...maybe. You get to the entrance of these caves (although they're open on top, just really tall rock sides) with a narrow path that you walk along. The only catch is you're walking in waist deep water! Haha. After walking for about 0.5 km there are some rocks you can climb up and some small but cool waterfalls. We decided to just go for it, and waded into the water in our full salwaar kameez outfits and even stood under the waterfalls! It was pretty silly but felt great to cool off!

Phew, I think that does it for my adventures as of late. Oh, maybe I should mention the 'research' I'm doing for my ISP? I swear I'm doing SOME work here :) My topic is the protection of children in the slums of Dehradun and I'm working with an organization called CHILDLINE--a 24/7 hotline for children to call who are in need of any kind of assistance. This organization was started in Mumbai in 1996 and has since spread to over 83 cities in India. It is brand new to Dehradun so I have just been tagging along on the initial outreach the staff is doing, visiting the 101 slums in Dehradun (yes, 101) to see what the status of the children is and to start telling people of Childline's services. It's been really interesting so far, although pretty daunting to see what it takes to start this kind of service in a new city. Now I just have to start that 30 page paper...

I hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy. I'm going to leave you with a quote that I saw at the Buddhist temple that seems pretty applicable to my life right now:

A Precious Human Life

"Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it, I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to be angry, or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can"

-H.H The XIVth Dalai Lama

I am thankful for my precious human life, and all of you who are in it. 

Peace&Love,

katie