Hello from way up der in good ole delhi1 Posted on November 22nd, 2009 by sjpd-india

Hi!! Alyssa Deutschmann here writing…i dont go to gustavus but us concordians gotta put up with all these gusties… :)This week we arrived in delhi a city of 19 million late sun nite at the Church of North India United, where the food has been absolutely amazing!! Theres even a wonderful bell that sounds when its time to eat, like the bells we used to have as wee little school children. Mon and tues we all were locked up in the building working on our papers/case studies for this unit called ‘environment and livlihoods.’ we left the building every so often and those that did leave for a lil bit often brought back snacks for others (yep we love each other). On wed we presented our findings on topics ranging from the benefits of forests, dams (of which the people who did the group project for this unit made an excellent music video for, check it out!), climate change and its affect on health, women and their role in the market-media-environment, and sewage. On how changes in the environment are affecting not only peoples means to make a living thru farming, forestry, collecting herbal meds, and ultimately their overall health, and what the people are doing to lessen thri impact on the earth, such as mini-dams, planting trees to help agriculture, multi-cropping to not wear out the soil, alternatives to the flush toilet, etc.

Then on thurs we left at 5:30am to drive about 4hrs to an area called agara, this area is famous for its marble and fine precious stones used to make a varity of artifacts and of course the at mahal, we visited an on old fort at the beginning of the day, then a couple of shops where pure marble items are sold, then off to the taj mahal! Thuout the whole day we periodically heard ’sari, sari’ b /c all of us ladies wore our saris and looked beautiful, and the men wore their dotis. While at the taj (which was breathtaking) taking a variety of pics we drew quite the crowds (as usual) and there were multiple cameras flashing that were not just our own. On our way back we stopped at a hindi temple that is thought to be the birthplace of krishnu (which I believe he is the god of creation- im not positive about that..will definitely find out in our next and last unit though which is religion).

The next day we toured around delhi. Went to a museum about Indira Ghandi-a woman prime minister of India whom was assassinated by her own bodyguards in the early 80’s. Visited some more old ruins, humayun’s tomb, and the lotus temple of the bhai religion. Where no matter what religion you are you can come and pray/mediate, but you have to be absolutely silent. Then we had the evening free.

On Saturday we had the day to ourselves to roam about delhi as we please. Where we could shop for gifts, get coffee, visit some more forts, etc. Then we all got together for dinner time and celebrated an early thanksgiving at a nice restaurant called the united coffee house. Tho the food may not of been as good as it would be at home, instead of turkey, potatos, peas, stuffing etc, we had curry, pasta, chicken sizzlers, salad, rice,etc- it was still very tasty. Then we all went around and said what we were thankful for, which consisted of a lot of friends, families and the opportunities given to us not only back home but here in India as well. Happy Turkey Day to you all!!