a typical day

When we first arrived in India and in spurts for a couple days after, I thought ‘what the fuck have we done?’ We left our wonderful and comfortable lives to come to a developing country where nothing is familiar or easy. We don’t understand the language, the food is spicy, and we only know each other. Then I reminded myself that my adventurous side needed to overrule my cautious, fearful side. Before we left I thought I would have a harder time adjusting here, but surprisingly it happened pretty fast. I credit that to having the AJWS orientation a day after arriving and knowing three other westerners in Lucknow. This place actually started to feel like home.

And as of today, the volunteer part of this adventure comes to an end. We finished our projects (success!) and are saying goodbye to wonderful co-workers who have been so kind and giving. It will be hard to say goodbye to Lucknow but we are excited to head north to explore the mountains and rituals...and we will get a break from these 100 plus temperatures! Although we are leaving, and today marks the last of the 'typical days' we experienced during the last three months, this is what our days looked like:

Morning: We wake up at 7am to our annoying, but able Target alarm clark. I go walk/jog in the park behind our house while Dan does chin-ups on the terrace and prepares breakfast. Breakfast was porridge with bananas and sultanas but since the weather has warmed up we switched to granola and warm milk with bananas and sultanas. We shower, clean-up the house and head out by 8:30am.

Our commute consists of a ten minute walk down A-Block road to Ring Road where we catch an auto or tempo (auto preferred, but we take whichever comes first). At Mahiyov, pronounced Mariyon and we can't figure out why) we switch a tempo that takes us down Sitapur Road to Cheeta Meel. Cheeta Meel means six mile; at home we live off seven mile. Weird. From Cheeta Meel we walk another ten minutes to the office. Our commute costs 12 rupees for each of us, each way. That is a total of 48 rupees, about $1. It is much longer and riskier than my four mile commute down Woodward at home, but it is when we really get to experience the sights and sounds of India.

Day: We sit in separate offices and work on our projects. The first cup of chai is delivered like clockwork at 10:30am. I sit in an office with four other women , all of whom who work on the Governance Resource Team. At least one team member is always in the field so our office is pretty quiet. I sit next to the administrative assistant, Anita, who says she doesn't speak a word of English but I am suspicious. Anyway, she is really nice and always gives me snacks. By 11:30, we are both in need of a snack so we usually bring in veggies or nuts or a cheese sandwich (a new addition since we discovered real bread and cheese here). Lunch is at 1:30 and my office is the place to be. See here for more info about lunch. I do the Times of India Sodoku puzzle after lunch and before it got so hot, we would take a walk around the beautiful grounds here. We work through the afternoon and the second round of chai comes at 3:30.

Evening: At 5:30 we head out and either go to the lovely market behind our house to buy ingredients to experiment with Indian cooking, go to yoga with Molly (and Trudi, but she left), or head into the city center for dinner or shopping. We head home, sometimes Skype, read and head to bed for our next day in India.

The work week is six days here, with the second Saturday and every Sunday off. With all of the holidays and festivals, we rarely actually work a six day week. On Sundays I usually go to the Kerela Ayruvedic Spa to get pampered and Dan finds a soccer/tennis/basketball game to join. We explore the sights and markets of Lucknow. Our lives were really full here. We were lucky to be placed in a city that has a lot to offer, but is not overwhelming in size.

And now I can’t believe that the volunteer portion of our journey has come to an end and in three short weeks we will be home. But first we have some traveling to do. We are off to Uttarkhand to hang out in Haridwar and Rishikesh for some yoga and hiking and to Dharmsala in Himachal Pradesh to hopefully hang out with the Dalai Lama. We will post stories and pictures from our travels as much as we can but in the meantime here are some pictures of the things we see everyday!