June 27, 2008

It's been almost a week since Volunteer Summer has started. Orientation in New York was composed of sessions about AJWS, India, the developing world, health & safety, and teambuilders-as well as plenty of time to play in Manhattan!

We boarded an 11 pm Emirates flight to Dubai and then after just a few minutes to explore the Dubai airport, we boarded our flight to Chennai. Shani, Menachem, Leah and I were all upgraded to business class, which was wonderful!

Sand dunes of the UAE

The Chennai airport was my first clue that maybe not everything would be as I expected. The airport was run down, and outside were lots of pushy, smelly Indians, as well as trash everywhere. We shoved ourselves into a RIDE bus/van, and set out for Kanchipuram. The roads were insane, and I definitely doubted my survival a few times. There were skinny, malnourished cows eating garbage, dogs everywhere, people wearing barely anything, people carrying large containers on top of their heads, bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, cars, vans, and many trucks and buses. 

Along the road were examples of poverty that are nothing compared to a homeless man sitting on a street corner at home. While I'm obviously here to make a difference, I've realized that I'm going to have to harden my heart somewhat just so that I don't have an emotional breakdown. 

In Kanchi, we settled into our rooms-mine being on the top (4th) floor, and had breakfast. We met Jeyaraj and Britto, Sister Shanti (for some reason my journal says "Sister Josephine?") and some others whose names I don't remember. After resting for a bit, we had a session and then lunch. We then discussed Shabbat. Then we went to the town of Kanchi to withdraw money, and get clothes made for us ast one of the silk shops. Then we went to some sort of RIDE ceremony all in Tamil, and I kept falling asleep. When we returned, we ate dinner and immediately went to sleep.

"Downtown" Kanchipuram

Now it's almost 7 am, and breakfast isn't until 9:30. I'm sitting outside on the "porch," and I can see part of the neighborhood around and below me. There are palm trees and the sun is already shining bright. I can see a clearing off to my right and houses to my left. I hear noises-birds? Monkeys? A chipmunk crawls up to three white birds on the rooftop across from me. Good morning India. Please give me the experience I'm looking for, with maybe a few (pleasant) suprises along the way.

 The 'hood