India: Part 1

I realized this morning that I've only been in India for a week. It seems more like a month. A good month, but a month nonetheless. Here are five observations off the top of my head:

1. There are people EVERYWHERE. India has over 1 billion people living in a space that is only a third of the size of the US. This is definitely not the country for the claustrophobic.

2. I felt safer driving in Africa. Driving in India could be its own amusement park ride. There are lines on the road, but nobody follows them. On the Indian version of a highway, there could be a car, motorcycle, bus, auto rickshaw, normal rickshaw, people, and cows all trying to use the same space.

3. The food is wonderful. I brought a lot of Clif bars with me just in case I couldn't handle the food, but I haven't had to use them yet. In Northern India, they eat lentil soup with something that resembles a wheat tortilla. They also eat spicy vegetables and rice. Oh, and did I mention they have the best mangoes EVER!

4. Caste is everywhere. I can't remember if I explained this earlier or not, but we came to India to learn about the caste system and to try to take some action against it. The more I learn about the caste system, the more truly evil it becomes. Caste is not the same as class. America has different classes, but a person can move fairly easily between them. In India, there is no escaping your caste, if you even have one. There is a large chunk of the population that is Dalit. Dalits are described by those that have a caste as "talking animals." What's heartbreaking is that most Dalits don't question this. They think that they did something wrong in the past life to deserve their place as a Dalit, so they don't fight for their rights and dignity as a human being.

5. India is very spiritual. Being spiritual doesn't matter if you're not following the right thing though.

Future plans: We're leaving on the train tonight to go to the state of Maharashtra. We'll be there for about a week working with different caste groups and also doing a little sightseeing (Taj Mahal!). I'll try to let you know how Maharashtra went when we get back to Delhi.

Have a great week!