My first visit to a child institution/ Feeling clautrophobic

I didn't plan to write a new post in my blogg until next week... but I need to right now. I really do. In order to release some frustration.

I'll get back to the cause of the frustration later on.. and tell about my trip to the child institution first. It was an interesting one ...and pretty emotional. It wasn't fully as tragic that I feared it could be. Of course, their situation is tragic... and all the children need all the help they can get. But what makes it easier, is that there are people there that really care for them. The chief of the place, and the social workers, and most likely most of the staff. They are working to give the children as good of a chance in life as possible. Social workers are even working with the parents, as good as they can, so that they will be able to get their lifes in order so that their child can come back to them.

Once a month, the parents or grand parents are allowed to visit the children ...for two hours. Today was one of the days. It was emotional to see a grandmother cry while she hugged her grandchild. ..and later on see a boy cry as his grandmother was about to leave.
These children are lonely, and want to go home... but their home conditions are so bad that it wont be possible.
The children comes from very different walks of life. Some have parents that are drunks and don't care about their children at all ... others are children of sex workers. Some have been victims of various types of abuse, or are at the orphanage to be protected from it. Others have very neglective parents, and other have a loving family, but they are physically incapable of taking care of the children. Some are orphans ...the stories are many.

Made me realize even more how important a loving family is.

Well.... now about my frustration... I guess I am in some type of transition process or something right now. Well... I need to get used to the things that frustrates me right now. Or I will go insane.
I got tired of having all these huuuuge amount of people around me... especially in and around the train stations.. and surtant streets. No real peace and serenity. I feel really claustrophobic right now. I miss the nature, the clean air, clean street food, open spaces, the calmness, Swedish julmust soda, Swedish Portello soda, .... and of course my girlfriend.

...and of course family and friends. ;)

Despite all this... I don't regret coming here. I came here for a higher purpose ..and I just have to deal with things ...in various ways.

Closer and crazier down in Colaba

We moved down to Hotel Volga in the Colaba district yesterday. A whole lot closer to where we have our internship and to everything else. A lot cheaper housing too, but so is the standard. But we'll manage. Outside our "hotel" is very lively, with hoards of street salesmen. On my first night down here, two people tried to sell drugs to me. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them. No long explanations are needed.

Today we followed a co-worker and visited young children in a school in some other district. It was an interesting experience. The kids got exited and loved saying phrases in English to us. Such as "Hello!", "What is your name?" and "How are you doing?" Many of them wanted to shake our hands. In one of the classes the students came running and stretched out their hands so that we could shake their hands. I felt like Jay Leno in the beginning of a show when he shakes the audience's hands.

My stomach has not felt good lately.... I hope it doesn't get worse.

Hmmm... even Sundays are interesting .. especially if it's during a festival.

I went to Church today. It took about an hour or so to get there by taxi. It was located far away from where I live. The traffic was insane due to some festival that they have today. The taxi driver even waited for me when I was at Church and drove me back ... and by then the traffic had become even more insane. I thought that I was going nuts. As part of the festival kids through small plastic bags with water, or water bottles, at cars passing by. My taxi got hit by a water bottle a couple of times.
A more significant part of this festival is when youth of various ages make big human pyramids, where the person on top tries to grab something hanging down between to buildings. Those pyramids can be quiet high, and every year there are maybe a couple of hundred people that fall down and break a few bones. I saw this little kid walk down the street that had casts and had hurt both his arms, plus his head.

The taxi driver's car broke down just a two-minute walk from the YMCA where I stay at. Quiet ironic, after driving all that way. I guess I was lucky that it didn't happen earlier. I feel sorry for the taxi driver though. He was way cool.

I went out for a walk by myself after changing clothes. I have to say.. walking by myself was a different experience from walking with an other white dude. Even more people stared at me, said things to me, and approached me. At one street corner, when I was about to look at some of the festivities, three Indian guys came and stood next to me. One of them turned out to be a pimp. He told me "Women, women, beautiful women!" and pointed to a building. I told him that I wasn't interested, but he kept trying. He even came after me when I walked away. "...you may like them or you may not like them. Have a look..." (or something similar to that). He even handed me a business card. But I gave it back. He asked me why I wasn't interested, and I didn't feel like I had to explain all the million reasons why. ...something that should be so obvious. I just told him that I have a girlfriend. That seemed to help and he left me alone. Having a lengthy discussion with him wouldn't have help.

Finally! An internet cafe ...of some sort

The internet is down at the place where Sebastian and I are are staying at. We almost went insane looking for an internet cafe in town yesterday. People pointed at various directions... and we went here and there and in circles and back again. Now we finally found one ... a really bizarre one. But as long as internet works ...I'll be fine.

Well... this week has been more of an introduction week. Yet very interesting and fascinating. There are many more things that we have seen and experienced, and things that we need to get used to.
We walked through some more slums. Mostly in the Colaba district in the South. Narrow alleys with people living really crowded. Quiet intriguing, but not from a tourist point of view, but an anthrophological point of view. ...and of course also as a life experience. It has made me realize many things and given me many new perspectives ...and inspiration.

Bombay is so huge, and there are sooo many people everywhere. About 18 million people ...plus the suburbs! That's more than twice the population of Sweden! Taking the train downtown here is a whole lot different from taking the tram to school back home.
We live in an area with very, very, very few white people. The only other ones that we have seen, are people that stay at the YMCA where we're staying at. So when we walk down the street there, or in most of the other areas, we're the only white dudes among at least tens and tens of thousands of people. People stare at us constantly ...everywhere. Sometimes it gets really annoying, especially if they stand just a meter from us and stare directly at us ...without shame.
Yesterday some Indian guy in a truck picked up his mobile phone camera and took a photo of me .... with a huge smile on his face.

Some kids in one of the slum areas asked me yesterday why my face was so red. A genuine question ...and very funny I think. I had explain what the sun here does to people like me.
Yeah... my face is red, very red. But my legs will probably keep being cursed white for a while, since we're not supposed to wear shorts when we're on duty.
Sooo... yes, I am sweating like a pig when I am outside.

Now I'm headed of to my first weekend in India! We both need to sleep in and recharge our batteries. But also to prepare for the upcoming week.

I will put up photos at some point. Hopefully fairly soon.

Probably the craziest day in my life.

I finally arrived to Bombay today...and it fast became very intense. All the impression has hit me like a sledgehammer. It has been so crazy. I didn't think that I would see so much so fast. I don't even know if I will be able to describe it all.
The crazy traffic ...I had the most interesting taxi ride in my entire life ...I had the most interesting bus ride in my entire life ... I had the most interesting train ride in my entire life

Sebastian and I are staying at YMCA in mid lower Bombay.... right next to a slum. We saw the worst missery and poverty that we ever have encountered ...by far. The things we saw can't be described easilly in just a few words.

When we walked through the slum... a McDonald's suddently popped up on the other side of a street of where that part of the slum ended. We were both very hungry and felt like it was a safe place to eat. We had a Chicken Maharaja Mac meal. Indias version of the Big Mac meal I guess. Something that is unique for India. It was an interesting experience where West merges with East.

I have to go now... I have not been able to cover this day by far... if I did, it would be closer to becoming a novell. But it sure has been a paradox and we have seen and experienced of both the lightness and darkness of this world.
I think that is has been so much that we haven't been able to digest it properly, and let it sink in really.

Anyway... we might go back to the slums, and see how life is there at night time. Bye for now.

Helsinki airport, Finland

I'm the master of travelling with excess weight by plane and getting away with it. I might look like the nerd of nerds or like an über tourist, and sweat more than normally, but it's all worth it. I won't reveal my secret here, but I can tell that I probably were able to carry an extra 10 kilos, if not even more, because I planned ahead.

Well... right now I'm in the Helsinki Airport in Finland. Waiting for the plane to my end destination .....Bombay. Strange feeling .. a really strange feeling. In less than half a day I will set my foot in India! The strange feeling that I have right now is different in some ways from the strange feeling that I had last week and before that. Even the nervousness is different. Not sure how to explain it.
Good thing that Sebastian is coming along to Bombay and to the same place as I am. It makes it easier to have travel company, and someone I know around me when in India. Sebastian is a guy in my class from the University.

These past few days have been pretty intense. I haven't slept this little in a very, very long time. I slept maybe 3 hours last night, maybe 45 minutes the night before, 4-5 hours the night before that, and very little the night before that. There have been times where I have felt like Zoombie. I have had so much to do, and I have been so stressed. Oh well.... that's how life is at times. At least I'm happy and smiling.

Tadi tada.. :)

Why India?

The countdown continues... yesterday I finnished my last night at work before leaving for India. Within a week I will be walking down the streets of Bombay. It all feels weirder and weirder, and I get more and more nervous about the whole thing.

I wonder how I will be able to handle the hot weather ...and how long it would take for me to get used to it.

I wonder how sick, and how often I will be sick, while there. I mean, most people that are staying in India for a while do get sick ...sooner or later.

Anyway, why did I decide to go to India in the first place?

I wanted to do my Fall internship outside Sweden. That was something I had decided long time ago... and the urge to do so strengthened by time. I needed this breath of fresh air. I needed a break from the everyday routine at home. I needed to get away for a little while ...somewhere that wasn't just a vacation.

Well... India.... it was something about India that just felt right ... and I wanted to leave the comfort zone and the "good life" of Sweden and the Western world, where we take so much for granted, and see first hand how people really have it in other parts of the world ...and learn from what I will see and experience. I wanted grow as a person and learn new aspects of life. I wanted to see what I can do for some of the people there.

...but I have to admit that the adventure played some part in it too.

Almost two weeks left...

Bizarre ...unreal ...nervousness ...words to describe my feelings about my trip to India. In almost two weeks I'm going to be in India! It's going to be soooo different from anything that I have experienced before in my life.

Still so much to do before I leave, 5 nights of work, cleaning up and getting my apartment ready for the new tenant, ... and yeah, that too... and this .. and ooooh, and that too! :/

Oh well, I'll manage. It will work out. Now I need to go back to cleaning... and later on getting back to the Lonely Planet's book about India.

:)