India to Turkey

Day 3 of India finds us in the middle of nowhere in Ranthambore National Park: a national park between Agra and Jaipur in Rajasthan.

Scavenge: Take a safari at Ranthambore National park.
We got up at 5:30 AM (as I am absolutely NOT a morning person – this trip is killing me with these early mornings after early mornings). But today it was actually pleasant to be up early because it was still cool outside and it felt great to be driving in a jeep in a national park at sunrise instead of cramped into a Tuk Tuk stuck in traffic in 100 degree weather. The national park has a lot of expected wildlife (deer, wild boar, peacocks) as well as some tigers. In fact, the advertised big draw of the safari is to see a tiger in the wild. We were not that lucky. But we did see hundreds and hundreds of monkeys that played all around us. And today was a special day where the villagers are allowed to enter the national park to pray at a small, very old shrine by the riverbank. So the dirt paths we were on were very crowded with playing monkeys as well as bare-foot villagers (the park is considered sacred)– with the women dressed in beautifully colored saris - hustling with their food offerings to the shrine.

As soon as we finished up the safari, we jumped on a train to Jaipur. We had a 4 hour lay-over in Jaipur – just enough time to hit some of the highlights – before a long, 5 hour train ride back to Delhi. My favorite spot in Jaipur is this century old tomb area where the monkeys are just calmly sitting on top of marble cenatophs – just hanging out!!!

Day 4: Delhi Scavenges
We spent our last day running around Delhi. We started at dawn (AGAIN – God I am sick of these early days – but there is 500 points on the line… so once again I see dawn break)….

Scavenge #1: Practice morning yoga with a yogi master in Lodi Gardens
We started the day with having to find a yoga instructor in a specific park and take a lesson from him. Rainey was laughing too much at me to participate so he was designated as the official photographer instead.

Scavenge # 2: Contact the folks at Salaam Baalak Trust and take a working tour of Paharganj with one of their special guides.
This non-profit group feeds and educates more than 5,000 “slumdogs” (ie street children) each year. One of the ways that they raise money is to have former slum kids (who have learned English) take tourists into the slums and show them – first hand – how these kids live. It is heartbreaking. You make a small donation to the trust in exchange for the tour. The poverty and living conditions are beyond appalling. These kids often have chosen to live without anything – on the streets – instead of with their families because their family life was so awful or abusive. Ben was totally shocked when he watched (before his very eyes) a kid pull down their pants, squat down and poop right there on the side of the alley. The Trust offers schooling for four hours each day to the slum kids. We were there for snack time at the school - and watched as the kids were given snack of a pinch of chickpea dust - no juice, no biscuits, no fruit - just a smidgen of dust.

Scavenge # 3: Enjoy the twin specialties of old and famous Jalebiwala in Chandi Chowk
This is a booth-type restaurant in the heart of the Old City of Delhi that sells only two things: potato samosas and chickpea samosas. Nothing else. They then put some VERY spicy sauce on the top which blew out our taste buds for hours.

Scavenge # 3: Do some good. Contact a charity and help.
We chose to volunteer our time for a group called Joining Hands – which is a charity that matches volunteers (based upon their skills or wants) to dozens of non-profit organizations. We volunteered to buy and take supplies to a slum school and then taught the kids there for an hour. We bought coloring books and picture story books as well as –pencils, paper, pens etc. When we arrived, we were amazed to find that the school (which is a word that I am using loosely since this place was merely a room with a teacher) had literally nothing – no desks or chairs (the kids just sit on the floor in rows); no books of any kind, no paper or notebooks or supplies – just a teacher and a chalk board and some chalk. The children come out of the slums and stay in school for a few hours a day before they leave to go to work (picking up bottles to take to the recycling place for money; digging through the trash dump sites for half-eaten food etc.). Even worse – these kids are all under the age of 9. This is a photo of me teaching the kids from one of the English ABC books that we bought for them.

Observations #1: The poverty is overwhelming. People live with literally NOTHING. This is ALL of the worldly possessions of this woman (and she has more than most). The thing above her head (which is making her roof and shade during the day) is her bed.

Observations #2: The colors of India touch your heart. Dusty, dirty fields with women in jewel-colored saris bent over tending to crops. At work, in the markets, walking by the streets - old or young, pretty or unattractive – the women sparkle with color. Even their trucks are decorated and colorful.

Observations # 3: India trains are disgustingly dirty. I had to just go to sleep or else my paranoia about germs and communicable diseases would have gone into over-drive.

SCORE BOARD: Without the results from the India leg (which could shake things up if we do not win as the 500 point bonus will make a big difference), the scores are: “Lawyers without borders” (which is us) in first place and Nanny and Ben (“Something Old, Something New”) in second place. It has been HARD work to be in those spots so I hope that we do not lose our ranking.