Episode 3

I finally got up at about 1pm the next day and met my coordinator. She was immediately very welcoming and whisked me upstairs to meet her family. We talked for about an hour and they helped me begin to start thinking about where I want to travel on my weekends and at the end of my trip. Traveling... My excitement instantly spiked... I then came downstairs and had a fantastic lunch courtesy of my caretaker, delicious Indian veg cuisine. I am really enjoying the food, it’s all very different and has yet to make me sick.

My coordinator has been so wonderful these past few days, as the other student is arriving later, I have been kind of on my own waiting for rotations to start on Monday. She has offered to take me everywhere, and like a wide-eyed three year old, she could say we were going to the dump and I would be thrilled to go. Everything is so new and different; I don’t care where she takes me as long as I get to see a new part of Delhi. Later that evening, she and her husband took me to a local fish market. The fish are quite literally straight out of the water and the chickens are butchered on the spot. In the US, we are so far removed from everything we eat- packaged, frozen, pre-cut. I watched as one of the butchers killed, de-feathered, and boned the chicken into what we know as chicken meat. Yet, the greatest part of all was he did it with the knife between his toes, and carefully used both hands to take the bird apart with utmost precision. After that we went to a shopping market, where I had my first Indian street food- Momo. Little steamed dumplings filled with chicken or veggies served with a spicy siracha-like hot sauce. Delicious. I finally went back to the apartment and fell asleep almost immediately.

The following morning I went with my coordinator and her husband to the local forest/ park in Saket. Instead of designated, pre-planned parks like we have in Western cities, the place was essentially a spot where they let the local vegetation grow wild. We briskly walked through the bamboo forest and watched the orange sun greet the day. I really enjoyed that walk and hope to try and go every morning, a nice ritual, somewhat cleansing and meditative.

After our walk we went to the hospital to meet our medical director, here I also met the other student I will be working with. Tomorrow we start our program at Sulabh International, an NGO that tries to rehabilitate “scavengers”. These people are part of what we may know as the untouchable caste, they collect human feces and carry it out in containers on their heads.

I am so happy that I decided to do this, and am experiencing things that I could never dream of. I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me...