Traveling around the beautiful country of India!

Hello Readers and Merry Belated Christmas!

This was my first Christmas away from home and I really missed my family. :(  Every year all my family gathers over my Grandma's house for brunch on Christmas Day.  Tons of love, presents and good ole Jamaican food! YUM! But, I missed all that, so for Christmas I decided to do a bit of traveling.  Rukku and I traveled from Thursday morning to Saturday night. We traveled to Agra and Jaipur.  

Some of the lawyers and I at the Christmas party.

Before I get into our amazing weekend trip, I must say that my past week of work went very well.  I finished a memo for Suki regarding Internally Displaced Person's and further I finished my outline for a workshop that we are going to have for adolescent girls in Indian regarding their reproductive rights. On Wednesday, Jan (a lawyer here at HRLN from England) thought of the idea to throw an office Christmas party. Nadia and I decorated the basement of the office and we proceeded to have a Christmas Party! (which really only consisted of make-shift decorations, Christmas music playing out of my laptop, cookies, and a cake).  Mostly every person in the office are either Muslim or Hindu, and traditionally, the Muslim and Hindu cultures don't celebrate Christmas, BUT everyone came nonetheless! :)

Nadia and I with our decorations lol.

 OKAY. Are your ready for the tour of Agra and Jaipur?!?!?! HERE WE GO! Wait, first, a quick geography lesson before we continue. India is separated into 28 states.  Agra is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur is located in the state of Rajasthan.  I live in Delhi (New Delhi), which is like a Union Territory: it's the capital of India . . . Now back to the trip --> Rukku and I took the earliest train to Agra.  I woke up around 4am in the morning to pack and catch a cab to the train station.  I was extremely tired, but also very excited to visit Agra.  The plan was, to spend Thursday in Agra, then to visit the sites in Jaipur on Friday. 

Rukku and I 6 am in the morning on our way to Agra.

We arrived in Agra around 8:30 am and stopped at the Taj Mahal first.  The story of the Taj Mahal is absolutely lovely.   It is said that King Shah Jahan fell deeply in love with his favorite wife (he had a bunch of wives).  He loved her so because she was generous, intelligent, and she gave birth to14 children.  The legend goes that on her deathbed she asked the King to  build a monument so big that the world will never forget their love.  He honored her request and later built her tomb: the Taj Mahal. It took 20,000 laborers and 17 years to complete the tomb of white marble.  It was a beautiful sight to see.

Traveling to the Taj Mahal . . .

Almost there.  . . . anticipation builds. . .

We are here! WHAT A LOVELY SIGHT!

We had to wear shoe covers prior to entering the tomb.

The detail around the building is extraordinary.

No matter where I go God's light will always shine through me :).

Sitting back and enjoying the beauty of the Taj around me.

After our visit to the Taj Mahal our next stop was Agra Fort. The architecture in this fort was also amazing.  Here are some pictures:

Agra Fort

 After visiting Agra, and on our way to Jaipur, we stopped for food. I had rice, curry cheese (can't remember the name of it), chapaties (spelling), greens, and curried cauliflower and potato.  YUM!

Also on our way to Jaipur we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, which served as the capitol of a village named Chisti (I h.  Not sure the full story behind it, but it is a very historic site. When we arrived at Fatehpur Sikri a young man asked if we wanted a tour guide.  After repeatedly telling him no, he then followed us to the bus and proceeded to tell us the history of Fatehpur Sikri.  After realizing we would be stuck with him for the rest of our time at Fatehpur Sikri, we made the best of it and learned a lot of history from him. (History I now can't remember. Sorry readers :/)

@ Fatehpur Sikri

Our tour guide.

At a tomb in Fatehpur Sikri looking out. I like this picture.

Yes, you had to pay to use the bathroom.

After visiting all the sites in Agra on Thursday, we finally made it to Jaipur and had an opportunity to relax.  Friday morning we woke up  really early because we wanted to get a head start on the day.  First site we visited Hawa Mahal.  We arrived there at 7:30 am so it was not open yet, but the outside of the building was still incredible to look at.  The building was build in 1799 so the women of the court could get air and watch the activity of the street below.  The building is five stories and has close to 1,000 windows.  Massive structure.

Hawal Mahal.

After taking a quick stop at Hawal Mahal we made our way to Amber Fort and Palace.  I was REALLY excited to visit this site because I knew that in order for use to actually get to the Palace we had an opportunity to ride on an elephant! Yes. A real elephant! So a quick history of the Fort and Palace.  It was built in 1592 and it took 152 years to build.  The fortress was the capital of the Kachhawah Rajputs, but when the capital moved to Jaipur during the 18th century, the fort and palace was abandoned.

Although we are smiling, the ride to the palace was actually scary.

Rukku playing the drum at Amber Palace.

Beautiful architecture.

Can you see me?!

 After Amber Fort and Palace we traveled to a floating palace.  Not sure when the palace was built or really anything about the palace, but we saw it along the road and we decided to stop. It's not a tourist attraction, rather, it's an abandoned palace in the middle of a body of water.  It was still extraordinary and very beautiful.

@ the floating palace.

 The next stop of the tour . . .CITY PALACE! I'm not really sure why City Palace gets so much hype as a tourist attraction because it really wasn't that exciting. There were a couple of museums in City Palace but that was about it. But as with the rest of the sites, the architecture was splendid!

City Palace

 After visiting City Palace we went to a very cool place called Jantar Mantar.  Jantur Mantar was built around 1726 and it is equipped with solar instruments (which were called yantras).  Jai Singh II (who supervised the process of building the site) knew about the European developments of astronomy , and wanted to create the world's finest observatory of that time in India.  We had to get a guide for this site in order for him to explain all of the objects.  Amazing site, well worth the visit!

This sun dial  at Jantar Mantar can be used to tell time depending on where the sun hits the marble! Cool huh?

 Our last and final stop in Jaipur was Choki Dhani, which I would describe as a big kids playground.  It was so much fun! The purpose of this site is to give people a feel of the Rajasthani culture.  Around the site there are traditional dancers, food, puppet shows, a ferris wheel, elephant rides, camel rides, swings, a slide etc etc etc.  This night was a lot of fun!

With 2 of the dancers at Chokhi Dhani.

Getting on the camel. Nervous!

Camels make me laugh. This was a fun ride.

Traditional Rajasthani meal. Delicious!

Well readers, that is the end of my Agra and Jaipur journey. I hope you enjoyed this post and my pictures.

Until next time, peace and love! :)

Don't be afraid to fight for what you believe in - December 19, 2010

December 19, 2010

Hello Readers!

Another amazing week passed! Whew! Times flying! I finally completing the first draft of the petition that I have been working on for the last 2 weeks.  If you remember from my last blog, I have been working on a petition regarding the maternal mortality rate in India. With a few more drafts, the petition will be ready to file in court! WOOHOO!

Sukti gave me another assignment to work on these next few weeks.   The topic of the assignment is internal displacement.  Although internal displacement doesn’t necessarily relate to reproductive rights, I still have the opportunity to work on this petition.  [Side Note: Throughout my co-op I will be given different assignments to work on; not all of them will necessarily regard repro rights].  

 “Internally displaced person’s” (IDPs) are people that are forced to flee their home because of a conflict happening within their state. They are different than refugees because they do not leave the country, rather they move to a different place within the region.  Because of conflicts happening in certain states, there are thousands of IDPs in India that are lacking the basic necessities needed for survival. They are not safe. They need help. With that being said, I am working on a portion of a petition that, if successful, will guarantee constitutional rights (to life, shelter, health, etc) to the IDPs in a certain state.

On a slightly different note, on Friday I went to a Tibetan Rally.  Before I go into detail about the rally, and what the people were marching for, I want to start by saying I am ashamed to say how much I didn’t know about the world until coming here.  Living in America, I get so caught up in my daily life that I did not realize all the conflict and suffering happening elsewhere in the world. Yes, I watch the news, but that’s just it, I just watch it. I watch it and move on with life.  Coming to India and seeing the suffering and conflict first hand definitely has given me a different perspective on life and on how I view the world. I no longer view the world through such a narrow lens.

Marching for freedom.

So, with that being said, now back to the Tibetan Rally. Two of the HRLN photographers (Mark and Andi) and I went to the rally. To say the least, this rally was intense. It was organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress. The people at the rally were fighting for freedom: freedom from China.  Specifically, they would like China to stop occupying Tibet.  Wen Jiabao, the Priemiere of the State Council in China, came to visit Delhi, and the Tibetian people (and supporters) had a rally and a walk to get his attention and to represent their dislike of Wen, and further to get their voices heard regarding freedom   from China. The rally was very emotional.  At one point in the rally I thought the police were going to get involved because there was fire, and fireworks, etc. But, everything remained civil. 

The police were in full force at the Rally.

The picture is a photo of Wen, and the words say:
"Crimes of the Chinese government-
Murder, torture, kidnapping, rape"

I saw my first Bollywood film this past week.  It was called Band Baaja Barat. The film was all in Hindi, but I definitely could follow along because the plot was simple. If you are ever in the mood for a great Bollywood film, than I would give this film 4.5 stars.

Rukky, Andi and I at the movies.

On a much sadder/random note, Chloe went back to Ireland and so I no longer have a housemate. Sigh. She’ll be back soon though! Before she left Collin (the founder of HRLN) took all the international interns and some of the HRLN lawyers and staff to dinner.  The food was great!

Collin and I. He is an excellent lawyer. 2 thumbs up for HRLN!

Collin took us to the Big Chill Cafe.

Rukku, Nadia and I at dinner with Collin.

 

 

Everyone at the dinner.

Turning gears a bit - when I first moved to Delhi I thought that I would NEVER, EVER, EVER get used to the amount of traffic, and people, and lack of traffic rules, and almost getting hit by a rickshaw or car every time I walk somewhere, BUT, you know what, I think I am used to it now.  When I cross the street, or walk to get lunch, or walk anywhere really , I am used to the honking, and  rickshaw/auto/car/bike/motorcycle near-collisions. It's still a bit scary, but not as scary as it once was.    

In a bicycle rickshaw on my way to work.

 Oh, one more thing, congratulations to the new PHRGE fellow (India), Jessica Gustin! If you are confused about what the PHRGE fellowship is, let me explain.  Northeastern School of Law gives students an opportunity to address social, economic and social rights both internationally and in the US. I applied for and received the PHRGE fellowship to fund my time here in India while working with HRLN.  This is the first year Northeastern chose to extend the PHRGE fellowship to cover HRLN Delhi, and furthermore I am the first fellow to do my co-op in India.  If you would like to know more about the PHRGE fellowship, then go to http://www.northeastern.edu/law/academics/institutes/phrge/resources/phrgefellowship.html. 

Well, peace and love people. 

Ps. Remember in the last blog post I said that I wish my landlady would put up a Christmas tree?! WELL SHE DID! My landlady has a nursery for 2 and 3 year olds on the first floor of her house.  Apparently they are going to have a Christmas Party this upcoming week so the teachers at the nursery put a Christmas tree up! It’s funny because most of the children and their families don’t celebrate Christmas, but hey, I was still happy to see the decorated tree.  

Isn't it great!

Pps. When I recently went to the mall I saw the word "Joy" and it just filled me with happiness. Lorin, Lenore, Sarah, Tori, no matter where we go in life, a memory of Joy will always remain with us. RAZA! :)

A Reality Check - December 12, 2010

Namaste Everyone!

My new favorite dish - Dim Sums (which means-
a little bit of heart) !

Well, I’ve been in India for officially one week now and I am absolutely loving it.  There is so much culture here, and the food is great! One of my favorite dishes thus far are Dim Sums (spelling), which are dumplings with vegetables in the middle of them.  I eat sooo much here it’s unbelievable . . . I just can’t stop eating!!!

On another note, I started my co-op this week and it went extremely well. The office is set up in a building in the middle of the Bhogul market in Jangpura. It is 4 floors and very busy. On any given day and on any given floor there are lawyers, social activists, and interns running around, making phone calls, and working relentlessly to help those in India that need help; the people that don’t have a voice; the people that are treated wrongly because of their caste, lack of wealth, and social status.  HRLN is a wonderful non-profit organization. 

The Human Rights Law Network.

The road HRLN is on. You can see a bicycle rickshaw in the pic.

I work on the First Floor of the HRLN office

My work area in the HRLN office - Working Hard

Sukti and I

Throughout the winter I will be primarily working with the reproductive rights division. India’s maternal mortality rate is 25% of the world wide rate with an estimated 120,000 deaths happening each year. Most of the deaths are caused by women not having the proper health services (ie. Blood banks, doctors, nurses, even hospitals to deliver in, etc etc).  I am currently working on a petition regarding the maternal mortality rate. I can’t talk in much detail about the petition but it feels great to be working on something that may potentially make a difference in thousands of pregnant and nursing woman’s lives. 

Yesterday I went with 2 of the sisters, and one social activist on a fact finding in a slum in Delhi.  A fact-finding is when lawyers, social activists, and interns go out and try to find information about a case they are working on.  This fact-finding was about the maternal mortality rates.  The poverty in the slum was unimaginable.  There were pigs, chickens and hogs running around, and a sewer right in the middle.  I've never seen anything like it . . my heart goes out to those people.  

Bob, Nadia and I at Hindi classes.

In other news. . . I started Hindi classes this week! As stated in my previous blog I was under the misconception that most people here spoke English. Because I want to be able to communicate with the people around me  I decided to take take Hindi classes. They are going well thus far. Nadia, Bob (fellow interns from England) and I are all in the same class.  Along with speaking Hindi, I am learning how to write it too!!! WOOHOO! I hope when I get back to America I can find someone to speak my new learned Hindi with, if not, I’ll be sad.

This past week I also went to a bonfire for Rukku’s going away party. (I’m sad that she is leaving).  The bonfire was on the roof of Jayshree’s  (a lawyer at HRLN) house. Anant (another lawyer for HRLN) made the fire. To be honest, at first I did not think that he was going to be able to make the fire because

Although I had my doubts . .  a fire lit!

of the set up but, despite my doubt in him, he actually made it!  At the bonfire we danced to Bollywood music and just had a great time.

You can see why I had my doubts about the bonfire.

Bob, Sukti, Chloe and I at the bonfire.

Anant and I at the bonfire.

SO, guess where Sukti brought Chloe and I this week?!. . . to Saket Mall!!! I was AMAZED at how lovely this mall was.  It reminded me of a mall from home. There was even a Zara store which of course reminded me of Lara! . . .  Although I enjoyed my experience at the mall, I just couldn't help but think -->  Seeing the poverty around the HRLN building and the poverty of the HRLN clients, and then seeing the fancy mall was definitely a reality check. I was reminded that only a small portion of India has the means to shop at the mall.  This week I have seen both extremes of Delhi: the slums and the fancy parts.  I am still trying to process and make sense of how just 10 mins away from eachother people live so differently. The poverty in India doesn’t even compare to that of America, I have seen anything like it before. 

Sukti and I at the mall.

Saket Mall

Christmas Tree! 

In talking about the “nicer” places in Delih, Rukku, Nadia and I went to South X to look at the suits and sarees.  The Indian suits are three pieces, a scarf, a kurti (which is like a longer shirt), and pants.  I tried on a traditional Indian suit and not only did I put it on backwards but I got stuck in the kurti!!  The lady working at the store had to come in the dressing room to help me get out of it. I was embarrassed. Nonetheless, it was still a beautiful kurti that I wanted to buy (but it was waaaaay to expensive).  Oh, and another thing, I got in trouble for taking a picture  of the kurti! The lady at the store was like "no pictures please!" . . .oops.

The Kurti that I tried on. . . Beautiful!

Rukku and I found a McDonald's while in South X!

The Christmas Concert. Excellent Choir!

This past week I also went to a Christmas Concert! Yes, a Christmas concert. It was at the Hungarian Culture Center. Chloe and I got to the concert a bit late so we weren’t able to get a seat, but it was still lovely.  The soloist and choir sang Christmas songs for about an hour and it made me really want to go home for Christmas. I may ask my landlady if she will put up a Christmas tree.  We’ll see how that goes. Lol

Tomorrow starts another work week and I am sooo excited because I get to go with Collin (the founder of HRLN) to The Supreme Court of India and watch him argue the different HRLN cases tomorrow.  It’s going to be great.

I’ve decided to update my blog once a week, twice on really interesting weeks, so until next time, peace and love.