In Delhi

It has been a busy first week.

I am not yet allowed to take pictures at placement but will try this week - the children are amazing. I am absolutely exhausted after two hours. They are on so many different learning levels from barely able to write numbers and letters to doing 100s multiplication, and everywhere in between. They are so sweet and happy too.

On the "tourist" front, the CCS group visited India Gate (above) and several other places - I was glad to have been to Lotus temple before - the museum was closed the day CCS took us.


Over the weekend, several of us braved the rickshaws and went into Old Delhi - a great mass of tiny alleys and wide streets to go shopping and have lunch and see the Red Fort. We carefully watched our bags, bought salwar material to have made here near where we live (South Delhi), said no a thousand times to people trying to sell us stuff we didn't want, and tried to look everywhere at once. It took one autorickshaw and one bicycle rickshaw to get where we were going (at a higher price than we should have paid). We were grateful to the one young woman, Nam, who is Indian/Aussie and spoke quite good Hindi! This is definitely not a city to relax in - and in the thick of it - fun is not the first word I would use.

We had lunch at Halderam's a food court that seemed, and was, safe- we were careful to eat cooked foods, and finished with galobjamen (sweet dough in hot honey sauce!)



On our way to the Red Fort, we came across a tent bazaar that was right out of McLeod - Tibetians selling lots of the stuff from up there. I bought one more shawl - my only purchase for the day actually. I am picky and the little stuff doesn't call to me. Jewelery is plentiful here. We also ended up down an set of streets that were all electronics - from the plugs, etc for house building, to lights for your parties, to computers, etc. There was a big jam of cars delivering stuff.


Lots of people were selling cut fruit and it looked so good- until you saw them douse it with tap water to keep it cool and shiny! Sigh... It was actually very hard to take pictures because of the crush and not being able to stand still.





The Red Fort is a Mogul tomb/fort area that is very "touristy". You buy your ticket and are searched then go through gates into a "mall" of stores that have stuff at very high prices. The fort is pretty "ordinary" - I liked Qutr Minar better. There was a quiet place to sit further in - this is Nam and Sue two of my Delhi mates.




We finished the night at a "Johnny Rockets" restaurant - with fried chicken and corn/spinich bake. For four of us this dinner came to 1700 Rs (about $25). This was at the Habitat Learning Center - a wealthy area and beautiful building Then we stopped by a Sufi concert that was not terribly good. We were tired and got a cab and went home - deep sigh....

Fighting a cold, we went to the zoo on Sunday - We were part of the exhibit. Early in the day- large groups of young men come and just walk about - they stare frankly and followed us around taking our pictures...it was really uncomfortable at times. We stayed near families and groups of school kids in uniform.




The zoo was a mix of great open areas and small cages - obviously a work in progress. The elephants were active, as was the white tiger. There was a huge exhibit of storks - flying free, etc.


We then went to Lodi Gardens - quiet, families picnicing, etc. Lunch was a splurge at the Lodi Garden Restaurant - hummus and pita, lamb kabobs, some pasta...in a very western setting - open garden - we may try the buffet here as many Westerners were eatting here and the food was covered and cooked to order.


The afternoon was spent resting, watching "A Knight's Tale" and enjoying the quiet. After a light dinner of dal and eggplant (with the usual roti, rice, and salad) bed was early - to help get rid of the cold. Back to work tomorrow (Monday). Hoping for pictures of my kids this week.