I'm baaaaack! I have mixed feelings about this given that the location of our excursion for the past week, Udaipur, was beautiful and I didn't quite want to leave! Udaipur is known as the city of lakes and palaces. The beauty of the city embraces you as you arrive and its blue skies were a welcome change from Delhi's smog-congested air. It was especially exciting to be in a beautiful hotel on the banks of Lake Pichola (our amazing program staff ensured that we were all placed in lake-facing rooms, so I can sincerely say that we were a bit pampered on this trip).First off it was a 12 hour train ride from the Nizzamudin train station in Delhi (getting there is a trek in and of itself, however) to the train station in Udaipur, though taking an overnight train made the trip go by very fast. It was only a short walk down the streets of the old city, past a couple elephants and camels of course, before we arrived in our hotel and settled into our rooms before much needed showers. We were then quickly off to a village to see the work that a local NGO - ARTH - has developed over some time in the rural villages surrounding the city. We were all surprised to see that the health facilities that ARTH runs in the region are much more hygienic and manageable than the different government run hospitals and smaller health centers we explored in Aligarh on our past excursion in the state of Uttar Pradesh (pre-blog guys, sorry - I might or might not get a chance to blog about that week sometime soon). The second day was also dedicated to seeing another of the locations ARTH works in.
The next day, we took a long 2 hour bus ride out to a very remote village (also commonly referred to as hamlet here) where a different NGO - Seva Mandir - works. It was quite the bumpy ride, the bus was airborne more than half of the time but it was definitely worth it. The road ended before we reached our destination so we actually walked along the mountains for a while; the sight alone was breathtaking and it was actually a great experience in terms of getting a real feeling for how far someone from such a remote village has to travel to get access to any sort of health facility.
After such a tiring day, the program staff threw a great party for us on the hotel rooftop, with awesome traditional Indian dancers from Rajasthan to perform for us, on top of a delicious dinner, a beautiful night landscape and great company. The dancers were great, they managed to dance with such grace on top of balancing pots on their heads, their own feet on top of pots, cups and glass, and at one point...fire on their heads! It was a little scary but exciting to see them one up themselves by the minute. I tried to get as many pictures of this amazing week as I could. I will put these up soon on the photos page for you all to see.
On the last day we also had the opportunity to visit an Ayurveda (a traditional form of medicine in India) hospital. This was a little bit unsettling for our group. Some of the treatments included leeching, enemas, and even drinking 3 gallons of milk to induce vomiting. I don't I'll be seeking treatment by an Ayurveda doctor anytime soon. We were glad to hear, however, that most patients only seek this type of treatment as a last resort. The hospital was just a blur though, as we were rushed over to the nursing college where we all had a bit of a challenging time communicating in our broken Hindi to the nursing students who seemed to be able to take pages and pages of notes in English but couldn't speak it very much at the moment. It was interesting, to say the least. After all that confusion, it was then time to do a little shopping in Udaipur before heading for the train station; we had a few hours to shop and take a look at all the local art for sale along the streets. Everything was beautiful and though I wanted to buy almost everything I restricted my shopping impulses heavily. By the end it was fun just to barter with the shopkeepers even though I knew I wasn't going to buy the item.
Anyway, that was my week in a nutshell (granted, a very large nutshell). Next post will be shorter, I promise!
- Eli
P.S. When in doubt, always follow the sketchy man sitting on a motorcycle on the side of the road down the dark alley when he promises to take you and your friends to a great restaurant with a beautiful view and delicious food. I can tell you this technique has proved 100% successful.
