t r a v e l u s t

New Mexico: Day 4 (Part 2)

2009-06-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

Afterwards, we headed back to Santa Fe, took a little break, and we visited the Santa Fe Plaza in Downtown Santa Fe where the architecture has remained largely untouched since the early 1900s.

Yay, columns:

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the only structures in downtown Santa Fe not in the adobe style of architecture:

That night, we ate at the Flying Tortilla right next to our La Quinta hotel here. Not bad, but not great. It's okay.

Finally, today, we woke up at 6:30, and left for a little place near Taos, about an hour and a half away. My brother and I were going rockclimbing! It was great. Our guide's name was Jay, and was loads of fun--apparently he's been climbing all over the world... I'm so jealous. He was great to talk to, and pointed out a couple techniques for outdoor climbing. Also, he "founded" a lot of hiking routes (developed?) in the area and other places... he even gave me his climbing book at the end! How awesome! We hiked into a trail about 10 miles, and came across massive sandstone walls. I've only climbed outdoors twice, and only on granite, so this was interesting... I think I like it better. It's apparently a harder sandstone, but was nicer than the granite that I climbed on before in California (Consumes and Castle Rock). We started out with a 5.5/6... I was a little nervous as I always am outdoors, but our guide was great about reassuring me, and suggested that I do the same route again. Still didn't love the route, but did another 5.5/6 next to it, and it was great... a lot of laybacks... apparently I tend to like those a lot... lots of using your balance and torque (teehee, nerd) and shifting your weight around... hehe. I'm worse at slabs and smearing because I'm too nervous about slipping, hehe. Then we moved to another part... oh yeah, so I had to lead belay him all the way up... good chance to practice my lead belaying techniques, hehe... and we did another 5.6 and then a 5.7. They were pretty fun. Figure out which routes they are. Then, we moved to another part of the wall, and I got to climb a 5.9/10a! It was awesome. Each route has a "crux," the hardest part of the climb. It took a lot of different skills that I've actually been working on... turning your feet different ways, using your palms to push up, using your weight in different ways... oh yeah. Then, next to it was a 5.7 that we did... it was okay... actually.

So many pictures of my brother, but not me, haha.

Me!

Back to Jay.

Oh, me and my photography:

Our guide, also Jay!

My brother climbed it first, and when he started, around 2:00, and it started POURING RAIN with the biggest rain drops ever. ...He got completely soaked. It was still raining when it was my turn, but oh whatever... it was actually really fun. It was one of those things that... I'm annoyed about how uncomfortable it sounds, but when I'm actually doing it, I remember why I love pushing my comfort level... it's so exhilarating... the wall was slippery, and it was hard to look up for holds because of the rain, but it was fantastic.

RAIN!

I really wanted to get in more climbs, but it was a little past 2:30, and our time was up, and it was time to go. Haha, right when the sun came out. Ah well... I hope to be able to go to Thailand and climb with our guide again, hehehe. ;)

We drove back, took a little break, and ate at Cafe Castro... it was pretty awesome.

They gave complimentary sopaipillas... with honey... THEY ARE SO GOOD. I'm so tempted to find the recipe for them, but I hate to have to deep-fry things... ah... but deep-fried dough... but better than, you know, donuts. Omg, so good. Doesn't it look tasty?

My brother's... chicken burrito with red chili (the green chili is sooo much better)

Dude playing the guitar and singing in Spanish, how awesome.

I was feeling a little weird, so I didn't order anything, but ate bits and pieces of my dad's chicken burrito with green chili, my brother's chicken burrito with red chili, and a little bit of my mom's chile rellenado + pork talame + cheese burrito thing with green chili. The green chili was soooo good. The burritos and Spanish rice were pretty good, too. Anyhow, that's all. Apparently my dad needs to leave tomorrow while my brother and I are out white water rafting (supposedly a Class III-IV full-day route, which'll be interesting) for an emergency trip to Taiwan, and yeah... now I know where my need-to-work during vacation thing comes from... I swear it's genetic.

Anyhow, my brother wants his computer back, and I have no idea when I'll be able to get another go at this. Sigh, we'll see.

New Mexico: Day 4

2009-06-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

So it's been a little longer since my first post than I prefer since each day has been pretty filled and I had my share of things to say, but unfortunately, since I didn't bring my own laptop, I don't get priority. Alas. Anyhow...

We're chilling out in Santa Fe right now. The second day, our first full day here in New Mexico, we woke up early, left around 8:30 in the morning, and drove to the White Sands National Monument.

On the way there, you could see their water towers with pretty cool murals on it:

Also, there were these mountains/cliffs around Las Cruces. They were actually fairly daunting and awe-inspiring in the area. Unfortunately, there weren't any good chances to take pictures the night that we drove in, but the drive to White Sands brought us across some more (the same?) mountains and cliffs.

I was slightly annoyed because I was concerned about the weather and the safety since I wanted to hike the Alkali Flats Trail. The Alkali Flats Trail is potentially hazardous and can be quite strenuous depending on the weather. It is a 4.5-mile loop through the white sand dunes, the trail marked only by orange markers that have an arrow that points you approximately to the next marker. The sand is literally white, and, under the hot sun, can be blinding and ridiculously hot. Knowing all this, I packed my hiking boots, my hiking pants, my hiking shirt, 3 liters of water, food/snacks, my bandana, etc. I was prepared for the worst because, well, I like challenging myself, but I'm not about to go do something unprepared... I don't want to be that person that they find in the middle of the desert having only brought a liter of water and didn't pay attention to the warnings because I'm stupid. So, when my parents said that they wanted to join us on this hike, I was wary. Not only because my mom, especially, does not have as much physical strength and stamina, but because they were treating it so lightly. "Oh, 4.5 miles is nothing, we can do that in 1.5 hours." It was frustrating, because I knew about the potential hazards, and I can't stand hiking with people who are... nonchalant about the potential hazards that nature can throw at you. Still, the weather was in their favor--not too windy, and completely overcast. (To be honest, I wish it were a little more dangerous so they can understand what might have happened.) So, lucky for them, but unfortunately for me, it meant that I wasn't able to take any fantastic photos. Sigh. Ah well. If the weather was bright and clear, I don't think my mom would have made it (she doesn't think she could have either), and if a sudden dust storm had blown up, my family would have gotten lost in the first half mile because they refused to follow the signs. Bleh. Oh well, we're all good with cool photos:

As you can see, from the beginning of our trip, it was overcast:

These were the little posts/markers that pointed the way through the desert:

Dad and Mom in the background:

These are Sand Verbena, one of the hardiest wildflowers in the park:

Yay, sand! No sunlight, though. :( ...One of the few times where harsh sunlight lighting is GOOD for photos. Alas. The sand is gypsum, and barely anything grows on the dunes because the dunes move too fast for most plants to grow (and therefore few animals live there as well).

Dune footprints of the (relatively) fast-moving dunes! They look like tire treads. :P

Very cool little pebbles and seed (seed casings?) in the folds of the sand:

Since it was overcast but really dry and windy, it took a lot of reminding for everyone else to stay hydrated. Hello, Mom (she's so colorful against the sand, I love it):

There were a few of these critters jumping (actually, mostly flying) about. One was kind enough to let me take a photo:

Playing with the various levels of the dunes and the aperture of my lens, teehee.

Hello, Jay!

Yay, we reached the Alkali Flat. The Alkali Flat is actually a dried up lakebed that is the source of the dunes. That was pretty much all there was... it was the border of the army testing base thingy that was out there:

More than half way there...

We were very spread out... more than I preferred... but the hiking Gods decided to take pity on us:

I just thought this was cool:

Haha, it's pointy:

An ant hill!

This hill belongs to harvester hands. The dark mound is a home to a colony of harvester ants! Harvester ants usually inhabit warm, dry areas. Their diet consists almost entirely of plant seeds and insects, and apparently these seeds are mostly blown in from outside the dune field by the wind. The large, dark sand grains are carried up from below the surface, and the heavy non-gypsum grains help protect the mound from the wind. However, the moving dunes will bury the mounds, forcing them to relocate.

There was a lot of this up and down thing:

Lizard!

Lonely little poof of cloud:

We finished the hike in 2.5 hours, and then left for Santa Fe.

So much sand in the shoe (and I dumped out a lot more later from the same shoe!):

Funky picnic tables... the made me feel like I was in some other alien world from the old science fiction novels I used to read:

Haha, Mom eating one of those rainbow colored layer popsicles since the sun came out soon after we finished our hike (ARGGG!):

One thing I wish I had gotten a chance to do was get there at night and go stargazing, as the sky is supposed to be gorgeous and completely dark. Ah well.... Food up until now has been McDonald's and that night, was Outback Steakhouse. *face-palm*

Sunset in Santa Fe from our hotel... not the best picture, but unfortunately, the only one:

The colors of the sunset were stunning.

The next day, we woke up around 7, and left for Bandeliers National Monument.

I am basically in charge of plans for the whole trip, and this was kind of last-minute since my parents have not really been giving any feedback, but it's okay--I'm pretty happy about the decision. It took about an hour and a half to get there... I was expecting a light little viewing of some old caves and whatever I briefly glanced at, so I wore one of my Anthropologie dresses. Whoops. It's okay... I still think I look darn awesome in my dress and hiking boots and hiking backpack. :P

(Photo to come later... it's on parents' camera)

Maybe I shouldn't have climbed ladders in it, but I couldn't resist:

(Photo to come later... it's on parents' camera)

The drive there was pretty cool... I love the scenery... the hills in the desert are gorgeous. I love all the rock formations, and the different layers of color that the sand of the desert creates. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a background in geology, so all I could do was stare in awe and wonder how the landscape was formed. It's pretty fantastic.

Some photos of the place when we first got there:

Aren't the rock formations AWESOME!?

Pretty flower:

There, we did a little 1.5 loop with a 1-mile side-trip for about 2 hours. It was 2 hours because you could stop and see all the old caves that the indigenous people built into the volcanic rock walls, and things like that. Thanks to my lovely $1.00 guide-book and my lovely camera, you can see and learn all about it too!

The Ancestral Pueblo people lived in structures such as this Tyuonyi Pueblo. Tyuonyi is a communal pueblo built approximately 700 years ago by the early inhabitants of Frijoles Canyon.

A larger view from above. The rooms of the Tyuonyi seem quite small. It was most likely multi-story, with the ground-floor rooms used most likely for food storage to see the village through times of drought or crop failure.

Standing next to the volcanic rock walls:

Entrances to the cliff dwellings:

Petroglyphs:

Awesomeness:

Isn't nature amazing?

This painted design (pictograph) was part of the back wall of a second-story dwelling. It was uncovered behind a layer of plaster, so this pictograph was probably created for a very specific purpose, then covered over.

Then, there was a little one-mile detour that took us to the Alcove House, which required climbing 4 giant ladders... not necessarily for the weak of the heart

A reconstructed kiva in front of the cave used for religious activity, teaching, and meetings.

The amazing view:

(continued in next post)

New Mexico: Day 1

2009-06-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, New Mexico so far has been a long day of sitting and sleeping in awkward positions. Flied out at 8:20 in the morning, and landed in Albuquerque (Still can't spell that right) around 3:00 pm Mountain Time. Rented a car (blue Honda SUV), absorbed culture through the local McDonald's and Walgreens, and then drove all the way down to Las Cruces, arriving at La Quinta Inn around 8.

My brother sleeping on the plane:

We flew Southwest:

The airports are so ridiculously full of fast food chains:

And the airport in New Mexico had some cool decorations going on on the ceiling:

What sucked was that I was basically sitting the whole day. What was awesome was what I saw during that drive down.

(I was bored in the car)

First off, the due to awesome atmospheric conditions (which, of course, meant a bumpy landing, but that's okay), cloud formations were awesome:

Then, on the drive down from Albuquerque, the first and foremost most awesome thing I saw soon off the freeway (I wish I got a picture of it) was a sign that said "DUST STORMS MAY EXIST." Okay, yeah, I'm a big dork. The first thing I thought was "My goodness, what an existential sign... dust storms may exist, or they may not... existence is... yeah. Okay. I loved the sign. But that's just me being a big dork. Second, I saw a sign that said "Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers Prison Facilities." Okay, it's not awesome, but it was kind of eerie and weird, but kind of fascinating to see. I'm not quite sure why... And finally. The best thing ever: Truth or Consequences 62 Miles. Yes, there is a town called "Truth or Consequences" in NM. How awesome is that? "I live in Truth or Consequences." This person has a pretty cool picture of a road sign:

But I still think the one I saw was better, even with "Elephant Butte" on this one. I like being existentialist.

Anyhow, other than that, there are some pretty cool rock/sand formations going on... there are some wicked looking mountains you can see after you enter the Las Cruces area. Speaking of Las Cruces... NM must be a very poor state in general... it seems like it relies on just tourism and military bases. Las Cruces looks like an abandoned ghost town... half of it a modern abandoned ghost town, with wide streets and empty parking lots in front of Quiznos and Wachovias on a Saturday evening, with modern buildings with an abandoned Blockbusters logo in the parking lot with a "For Rent" sign hanging in the window. The population is clearly predominantly Latino, with signs in Spanish all over. I feel very useless with the smattering of random languages that I have learned. The highway sometimes divides bright green fields and forest green trees and newly-built houses from dry, wind-blown desert; it's a small oasis for humans in an otherwise uninhabitable, but beautiful desert. Sometimes, you by dying crops of grapes, and you wonder if grapes really belong in the New Mexico desert.

Anyhow, so far, I've eaten at McDonalds, and gotten food from Albertsons and my dad wanted some grilled chicken from KFC. My family didn't grow up with Mexican food, and we've never really been big fans. I feel like I should be eating out at local restaurants, and exploring more... but it doesn't really seem like there's much here in Las Cruces. Maybe there'll be more in Santa Fe.

Tomorrow, will be an exciting hike through White Sands National Monument... hopefully the Alkali Flats Trail... a 4.5 mile loop taking you through the white dunes, marked only by markers with arrows and orange tape the guide the way. Must convince my brother to hike in the desert in the middle of summer...

This type of a vacation in the middle of a poor state is really odd to me still. There wasn't so much of this type of feeling in Alaska, and it was definitely on my mind a lot in Hawaii, but it just feels so blazingly in-your-face here... maybe because of how barren New Mexico seems to be...

It's nearing midnight. I guess I should sleep eventually.

Hawaii: Backpacking - Day 1

2008-12-23T22:57:00.000-08:00

This was the trail:

The plan was... to take 2-3 days on the trail. We were afraid of how long fording rivers might take, especially if there were any flash flooding, and we did not know how in shape we would be after finals and with little sleep beforehand, so we played it safe. The trail from the Waipio Valley Lookout to the Waimanu Valley was about 10 miles, give or take, and we wanted to make sure we set up camp before dark, especially since we really were not sure what the situation was going to be like there, and there were supposed to be about 8-9 rivers to ford.

The Original Plan
Tuesday, December 23: Drive from Hilo Bay Hostel at 8:00 am, drive to Waipio, park at Waipio Valley Artworks, hike to the Waipio Valley Lookout (~1 mile), begin at Waipio Valley, hike down and across the beach (~2 miles), and up the Z-trail (~2 miles). Total: 5 miles
Wednesday, December 24: Head out on the Muliwai Trail, get to Muliwai (~7-8 miles). Total: 7-8 miles
Thursday, December 25: Explore, come back on Muliwai Trail, celebrate Christmas (~7-8 miles). Total: 7-8 miles
Friday, December 26: finish Muliwai Trial back up to car (~5 miles), drive to Kona, wee. Total: 5 miles

Day 1 did not turn out to be anything we planned.

We left Hilo Bay Hostel around 7:30 or 8:00 am, and the drive to the Waipio Valley Artworks parking lot only took about an hour or so, so we had arrived there by 9:00/9:30. We paid for parking, and was finishing the last of the packing and slathering of mosquito repellent and sunscreen, when an elderly couple drove up and started chatting, asking us where we were going, etc. While Mike was finishing up, I was telling them about our plans to backpack down the valley into the abandoned Waimanu Valley, etc. for a few days.

Elderly couple: So, how are you getting to the lookout?
Me: Walking, I guess.
Elderly couple: It's a long walk!
Me: I suppose, but it's not too bad considering how much else we are planning to do.
Elderly couple: Did you want a ride?

And so that was just awesome and fine and dandy, so we were saving time hitch-hiking with an elderly couple. Sweet.

After saying our thank-yous and the likes, we headed down the road the descended into the valley. The first mile of the trail is on a paved road that heads into the valley. Only 4-wheel drives are allowed down there, seeing as it is a 25% grade down and up.

There were many warning signs at the head of the road, and all the way down to the bottom (you'd think that people would have turned back after a while. By that point, well, is there a point?)

The walk down was cool, even if it was on a paved road. You could see the root system of the trees, and had a great view of the Waipio Valley, and the very daunting Z-Trail.

If you look very closely, you can see a little zig-zag trail going up that mountain. That, my friends, is the Z-Trail. About a mile long with an elevation change of about 1,300 ft.

Soon after heading into the valley, it was time to ford our first river! It was actually really annoying, because it was a pretty swift-moving stream that was pretty wide, and got pretty deep. There were a bunch of surfers there who I swear were laughing at us. They told me that I needed to walk out into the ocean, and there was a sandbar there, and I just needed to go far enough, but not too far. Feeling really awkward with 35 pounds on my back and REALLY not wanting to get wet within the first mile or two of the trip, I gingerly walked into the ocean. I guess I didn't go far enough, or whatever, but they kept on telling me to go further, but then they gave up on me in the end. Hey... I have lots of weight on me and clothes I don't want to get wet! Oh well, I made it mostly dry in the end. ...It's easy for them to say, they're wearing swimsuits and carrying surfboards.

A look into the Waipio Valley.

You can see the Z-Trail a little better here:

After crossing the stream, you're supposed to be able to see a waterfall. Unfortunately, Hawaii had not been getting much rain at this point, so there was just a dry waterfall.

The beginning of the Muliwai Trail! Woo!

So we headed up the Z-trail around 11:00 am. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was a pretty well-maintained dirt trail that just basically went back and forth, so I was able to get some nice pictures of the valley on the way.

I'm lovin' the sunlight.

So near the top of the Z-trail part of the Muliwai Trail, you come across this mini forest of ghostly pine trees with a blanket of pine needles on the ground. It's pretty creepy.

Somewhere in the there, we had lunch, and realized it was the only place we had reception since Hilo (we called the parentals to reassure them that we were still alive).

We have hats! (And I'm out of focus!)

It makes me sad what people do to trees.

More dried waterfalls, what?

So this was very disappointing. Part of the reason why I wanted to go to Hawaii and go hiking and backpacking in the area was so I could see the waterfalls! What the heck? All I get are a bunch of mossy, buggy dried up rocks. The bright side of this is that, now, we don't have to worry about fording 9 rivers and be scared about flash floods. The bad news is that there was no water between the head of the trail and the end of the trail where the last campsite was! Well then, I guess the only thing to do is to finish the 10-11 miles and set up camp (hopefully before dark).

Crazy tree that fell across a gorge and had branches that grew like tree trunks.

Now you get a shot of our ugly, out-of-focus mugs. :)

There were a few fallen trees that we had to maneuver over/under/around. (Much more over and under and much less "around" unless we wanted to fall down the hill, wee!)

Is it Waimanu Valley??

Alas, no it was not.

Our progress on the trail wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, though. We made it to the top of the Z-trail and had lunch, which took until about 1:00 pm. We made it to Helipad #2 at 2:00, Helipad #3 around 3:00, and Helipad #4 around 4:00 (kind of weird, I know). At Helipad #4, it was the top of the trail down to Waimanu Valley, and it was onl 0.9 miles away from the campgrounds.

Great! We had been going about 1.5-2 miles an hour, and this was less than a mile down. We should be getting down in no time at all with plenty of light to spare to explore a little, set up our new tent, cook dinner, watch dusk fall, etc.

Yeah, right.

The last mile was the longest mile ever. Every 10 steps would be a massive spider web (along with spiders!) that would span across the trail. They were all lovingly at head-height as well. If you know me, you know that I had small(ish) spiders and spiderwebs. I can do large bugs like huge cockroaches and tarantulas, but I can't do spiders the size of a nickle... I imagine them climbing into every random orifice on my body. Anyhow, so the 0.9 miles took a whole hour of knocking down spiderwebs (thank god for hiking poles!), maneuvering around parts of the trail that had eroded into the cliff side, taking a few pictures, and knocking out more spiderwebs.

We got to the bottom, finally! Wee.

Haha, and then we had to cross the river.

Of course, right before you cross, you come across a pole with a billion signs on it:

As if THAT wasn't enough to give you the shivers, there is also a memorial for those who had died on the trail--crossing streams or otherwise.

That's not scary at all!

In the end, we made it across, and was rewarded with a beautiful green valley with the clouds rolling in. (Ignoring the human trash, of course.)

We set up camp, cooked dinner, and crawled into the tent, and got ready for a windy, rainy night.

Since there is no electricity, it's an early night. ...More or less, if we ignore the wind and the rain that began to come down, making us feel like our tent was about to collapse on us at any moment in the middle of the night.

Hawaii: TSA, you lose

2008-12-22T23:31:00.000-08:00

Guess what we found in our luggage that we forgot to unpack?

It was hiding in our pot and we completely forgot that it was in there when we packed up the pot. Yes, TSA did not see our gas stove that was inside our little pot. You silly TSA people. And you worry about our water bottles and our grannies with knitting needles.

Hawaii: Leaving

2008-12-22T22:13:00.000-08:00

So. Mike and I were looking around trying to decide the best place to go backpacking in the smack dab middle of winter. We finally settled on the Muliwai Trail that goes between the Waipi'o and Waimanu Valleys on the Big Island, Hawaii, HI.

Here's the rub: We needed to find the time between (a) the end of my finals (Dec 20) and (b) the beginning of Mike starting his work at Dreamworks (Jan 5, yay!). Taking airfare into account, and all that fun stuff, the final call was to fly out on the morning of the 22nd (around 9:00 am) and arriving at 5:30 am or so on the 31st. ...This means that there was less than 48 hours between the end of my last final (ended at 3:30pm) and the flight to fit in (a) baking a ton of cupcakes and cookies for people for Christmas, (b) have lunch with the dance girls since one of them was visiting from Germany, (c) having dinner with my parents, (d) go to Mike's parents' place to get a ride to SFO in the morning, and, oh yeah, (e) PACK.

For the most part, things were done. Cupcakes and cookies were done for the most part, lunch was fun, dinner was good, packing managed to be stuffed somewhere in the nooks and crannies between everything, so all was well.

Maybe.

So apparently Mike and I are either really stupid, or I'm subconsciously sabotaging our trips so I can have something exciting to blog about.

Here's the exciting story of our leaving.

We made it back to Mike's parents' place, backed up my laptop since we were planning on taking it, repacked a little since we needed another luggage to fit our sleeping pads and hiking poles in (TSA would probably not appreciate all of that danging off our backpacks), and then it was already 1 in the morning. The plan was to wake up around 5:30 in the morning, leave at 6:30, get to the airport at 7:00 or so with enough time to check in bags, go through security, get some breakfast, and relax before boarding the plane. ...Or so was the plan.

We were able to get to the airport a bit after 7:00 am, saw the ridiculous holiday travel lines, groaned, and got in line at US Airways. We had booked our tickets through Orbitz, and it showed that it was a US Airways flight, which was not preferred, but oh well, what can you do. After waiting in line for about 20-30 minutes, Mike turns to me and goes "Oh. My. God. OUR TENT."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Mike and I forgot our beautiful tent. Our beautiful tent that would protect us from Hawaii's winter rains, mosquitoes, and centipedes that apparently emerge during the rains and have REALLY painful bites. Yay. We being panicking, call Mike's parents and ask them to please turn back to the airport, and began wondering if we can make it back to Berkeley in time to get the tent (it being Monday morning at 7:45 in the morning), if his parents could ship us the tent, or what we could do. The problem was multi-folded: (1) we love our beautiful 4-season tent, (2) Hawaii was supposed to be raining like the dickens, and we did not want to be trapped without shelter, (3) everything in Hawaii closes at like, 5 pm, and our flight landed at 4:56 pm, (4) we are planning to leave at bright and early 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning to drive from Hilo to the Waipi'o Valley area because it was, according to most things we read, about an hour and a half drive, then we had to park at some store, pay for parking, and then hike the next mile to the Waipi'o Valley Lookout itself, and then proceed to hike down and up really steep hills, yay. So there was that.

All in the mean time, we stay in line at US Airways, and finally get to the counter for the self check-in kiosk things, sign in, and then the screen flashes that the flight was being flown by United.

United was not in the same terminal at US Airways. In fact, it is in another terminal basically on the other side of the airport.

What. The. #$%@.

So after waiting around for about 5 minutes for somebody to help us and confirm that our flight was indeed at United now, no help came, so Mike's dad (who had arrived at this point), showed us the underground passageway (i.e. the parking lot) to the other terminal, got there, and cried a little at how long the lines were and at how little time we had before the plane took off (about 45 minutes).

Mike was finally able to flag down somebody, I run over to his side of the terminal, toss our bags down, and run to the security. The security line looked long, and we told the person up front that our flight was to leave in 35 minutes or so. Apparently she thought we had time. To my surprise, it was actually a lot faster than I thought it would be. Still, we had to run through, rush to the restroom, and run to the gate. We got there just as the people were calling our names at the little desk in front of the gate, got our tickets, and boarded (they had already begun boarding).

We landed in Honolulu, had a 4-hour layover wherein we were able to get a roasted 1/2 chicken with veggies (yum), look at all the warnings about bringing flora and fauna from the mainlain to the islands and vice versa, and read a little.

We finally landed in Hilo, and, oh yeah, we still don't have a tent huh? So Mike's dad had convinced the Hilo Surplus Store to stay open until 6:00 pm, so we hoped and we hoped and we sacrificed a little baby to the gods in hopes that we could get there

We landed around 5:00 pm, our luggage was right there when we got to the carousel, and time was on our side. Until we arrived at Thrifty, proceeded to wait 20 minutes for somebody to get to us, get lost trying to find our rental car, return the rental car because something was screeching that should be not screeching, got a really hideous bright blue PT Cruiser, and rushed over and got to the Surplus Store at around 5:58 pm. We picked up a tent, a gas canister for our stove, a lighter, met the nicest people on earth, and finally stopped at the Hilo Bay Hostel, checked in, drove to Safeway for some food.

That was that.

Here is a picture of the Mauna Kea Observatory from the plane.

Thanks for putting up with all the text. It will be mostly pictures, as usual, at this point.

Lost Coast: Backpacking - Day 2

2008-12-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

The next morning we woke up fairly early, but took our time. This was because there is a trail that is impassible as high tide, and high tide for the day was going to be around 11:00 am or so, meaning that we couldn't actually go on the last 2 miles of the Lost Coast Trail until 1:30 pm, at least.

The plan was this:
10:00-12:00pm: Hike out to the beach: ~2 miles
12:00-1:00pm: Hike along the beach until we reached the point where it was impassible at high tide: ~1 mile
1:30-3:00pm: Wait for the tide to go down, and finish the rest of the trail: ~2 miles
3:00-5:00pm: Hike up Buck Creek Trail and to the car: ~4 miles

You'd think that we would be able to finish around the right time, considering that 2 miles an hour is really not a fast pace at all. ...We were so wrong!

So we took our time in the morning... had some instant oatmeal, some fruit leather, refilled our waters, packed up the tent, etc.

We look so tired.

The continued Rattlesnake Trail out to the Big Flat was amazingly gorgeous. It was very full of trees and bushes, and best of all, little waterfalls!

We finally got to the next river crossing, and again, we were having problems finding a good place to cross. Amusingly enough, we ran across another couple of guys backpacking, and they were on the other side of the creek trying to get to our side. So after yelling our hellos and "Are you trying to cross?" over the sound of the water, we all came to the conclusion that the best solution was to take off our shoes and ford the river. Granted, the river wasn't too bad with regards to speed and depth, but it was still high enough to get into our boots if we tried to hop across.

Yay rushing water. It was very cold water.

Again, I have the camera. Wee!

We finally made it out to the beach around noon or so.

Cheesy shots!

The walk along the beach was definitely interesting... there were lots of make-shift driftwood shacks that people seemed to be living in. Most of the residents looked like surfers. Along with that were some really interesting creations...

Yes, those are bones.

The mountains were gorgeous, though, and so were the clouds and the waves. We reached the end of the trail before heading down onto the beach itself, but the tides were still high enough for the waves to crash against the cliffs, so we decided to wait a while.

Finally, after waiting about an hour until 1:30 or so, we were finally able to hike down to the beach.

By the way, rocks are a PAIN to walk on. I must have almost twisted my ankle hundreds of times by the end.

This one of my favorite pictures from the hike:

Jellyfish! There were many beached jellyfish.

So, according to the map, we had to cross about 3 creeks before reaching Buck Creek Trail (Buck Creek would be the third creek). We weren't very sure what was considered a creek, because there were lots of points along the trail where water was trickling down.

We finally reached one. It had already been an hour or so, but it was the first big creek/river that we had passed. It was very pretty, and came out of a tunnel of trees that looked like it was the entrance to the land of Narnia, or something of the sort. If it was Shipman Creek, then it was very disheartening since it mean that we basically spent an hour going only a mile along the Lost Coast Trail, and beach walking is very tiring.

Still, we trudged on, and began asking people along the way which creek it was since we had no clue at that point where we were. Nobody else seemed sure.

Finally, at 3:15 pm, we finally found the mouth of another river, and walked up a bit. There seemed to be a couple campsites, and it looked like it could be Buck Creek. We found a potential trail, and after a few meters, we finally came across the elusive Buck Creek Trail sign.

At this point, it was 3:30 pm, and we had 4 miles to go, and 3,500 feet to climb, so the pictures dropped off really quickly at this point. We were racing against sunset with really sore legs, 40 pounds on our back, and what must have been at least a 25% grade at some legs of the trip.

Of course, I needed to stop for some pictures of sunset/dusk.

We believe that is Shelter Cove out there.

After that, we continued to dash as fast as we could. Around 5:00, we came across the same guys that we ran across on Rattlesnake Creek Trail. They said that we had about another 1.5 miles to go, which means that it took us about a mile an hour, which was very depressing. By the last mile and a half, it became completely dark, we turned on our headlamps, and trudged along, needing to stop every 100 feet because our legs were about to give in. When we finally reached the intersection of Buck Creek Trail and King's Crest Trail, it was 6:15 pm or so, and we hurried our way along. Partially because we wanted to get home, and partially because I am apparently extremely afraid of the dark. I have watched too many X-Files episodes.

In the end, we finally reached the car around 6:45/7:00 pm, and got back to San Francisco around 1:30 am, and that was it. :)

It was definitely a rough trip. By the end, I could not feel my legs or my feet at that point. Still, it was an adventure pushing the last 4 miles, and I do not regret my decision. I hope to be able to go back and hike the entire Lost Coast some day!

Lost Coast: Backpacking - Day 1

2008-11-27T22:50:00.000-08:00

The morning of Thanksgiving Day, Mike and I headed out towards our trail head. Our proposed trip was the following (in magenta):

Day 1
Begin at Saddle Mountain Trailhead for King's Crest Trail (big magenta blob, elevation: ~3,000)
Head up to King's Peak (elevation: ~4,000), ~5.5 miles
Head down Rattlesnake Creek Trail until we hit Rattlesnake Creek (elevation: sea level), ~5.0 miles

Day 2
Head down Rattlesnake Creek Trail down the Big Flat to the Beach (elevation: sea level), ~1.0 miles
Walk down the Lost Coast Trail until Buck Creek Trail (elevation: sea level), ~3.0 miles

Day 3
Head up Buck Creek Trail to King's Crest Trail (elevation: ~3,300), 3.0 miles
Head down King's Crest Trail back to the car (elevation ~3,000), 1.0 miles

It sounds all nice and dandy, until I realized that all I could think about when the sun went down until morning was (a) holy crap it's dark without the moonlight and apparently I'm really scared! and (b) holy crap I have way too many papers due after Thanksgiving Break. So, we squished hiking for Day 2 and Day 3 together, but that story will come later. (One thing to note: Mike and I had not had a chance to go practice hiking due to all my dance practices and performances, and the last time we went hiking was about 2 months ago on the Ohlone Trail beginning at Del Valle Regional Park.)

The drive up to the trailhead gave us spectacular views, but the unpaved roads also took a toll on the poor minivan we borrowed from Mike's parents.

Apparently I have problems keeping the horizon flat when I take pictures, but oh well.

We left Shelter Cove at 9:30 am or so, and it took us until about 11:00 am to get to the trailhead and start.

We looked so happy and alive when we started!

The King's Crest Trail was a nice hike. It started out fairly wide, and what I found spectacular were all the different ecosystems that we walked through. Of course, this was partially possible only because in that difference of about ~1,000 feet in elevation, we must have gone up and down for a total elevation change of about ~3,000.

There were a fair amount of felled trees on the King's Crest Trail, and some of it was not well-maintained at this time of year. Some were like the ones below, where all you had to do was walk over it on one side of the trail, but often, especially when the trail was narrow, there were felled trees that were kind of a pain to maneuver around.

I kept on looking at the map because I began to lose track of where we were. All the hills look the same, darn it, and the map was not very detailed with regards to all the switchbacks that were there! (Tom Harrison needs to make a map for the Lost Coast some day...)

I like breaks!

We finally reached the top of King's Peak!

I have the most unflattering pants ever.

The view on one side was all fog and clouds:

The other side looked over the bay and was gorgeous:

(Again with the slanty horizon!)

At that point, it was already 1:30, and we had planned to summit around 12:00, so we were running a little behind schedule. We quickly headed off down (and up and down and up and down...) the King's Crest Trail and finally reached the Rattlesnake Creek Trail in what felt like forever. The Rattlesnake Creek trail was a fairly steep downhill, and half of it was filled with large pebbles and small rocks, making the way down a ridiculous skid and slide down (and in my case, a nice little fall as well). Alas, there are no pictures between King's Peak and the creek since we were slipping and sliding our way down so we could find a camp before nightfall. We did run across an old lady backpacking by herself near the peak, and a couple of guys passing us the other way about 25 minutes away from the creek. They were going to be camping at Bear Camp, a camp half way up Rattlesnake Creek Trail.

We finally reached the creek, and were having a difficult time crossing the creek, but figured that we needed to since there did not seem to be a place to camp on the side that we were on. So... after going back and forth and back and forth, I figured the easiest way was to scoot our bums across a fall tree log. Since I had the camera and since I went first, I got to take the awkward looking pictures!

Our lovely campsite! We finally reached there around 5:00 pm as the sun was already starting to dip below the horizon.

The first time our new tent was pitched outside.

I'm a big fan. Anyhow, we made a lovely Thanksgiving Feast of freeze dried chicken teriyaki with rice, a chocolate chip Clif bar, and a Trader Joe's strawberry fruit leather. Yum.

After dinner, the sun had completely set. We attempted to start up a little fire since we were extremely bored and it was only 6:30 pm. Alas, all the wood around the creek was damp and wet, so nothing was willing to burn. We huddled in the tent, looked at the map and decided that we were going to try and make it all the way back since sitting around and not working was making me antsy and stressed out. We fell asleep on and off for the next 12 hours until 7 or 8 the next morning.

One thing I learned that night: I am ridiculously paranoid and afraid in the woods with no moonlight. I can do with a little moonlight, but even in Yosemite, I kept on hearing bears every couple of minutes outside the tent. It is apparently 10 times worse with no light whatsoever.

Lost Coast: Backpacking - Off to Shelter Cove

2008-11-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

Mike and I had wanted to go backpack Rae Lakes Loops at Sequoia National Park, but we didn't want to risk getting caught in the snow (not that it really was an issue considering California's drought right now), so we decided to hike more around sea level and decided on the Lost Coast in the King Range National Conservation Area.

Since all my classes were canceled on Wednesday, I canceled work, and we headed off early in the morning up the 101 for the next 5 or 6 hours. I must admit, it's an... interesting drive on the way up towards Mendocino County/Humbolt.

The most exciting thing was this restaurant:

They have Pho, Dim Sum, and Sushi all in one! Who wouldn't be excited?!

We definitely passed by a lot of really odd things, but didn't really have the time to stop by and see them. There was an add for a freaky looking gondola ride over the forests, some cool Native American towns with craft stores, the "actual tree house," the drive-through tree, and, of course, "Confusion Hill."

Past Redway, and towards the more mountainous, curvy areas, there was a ridiculous wall of fog that we ran up against.

We finally arrived at Shelter Cove!

Shelter Cove was a very small, little town. It's right along the coast, and near the south trailhead of the Lost Coast trail. It really didn't have much--no real grocery store, a few inns, a trailer park, a pizza shop, a diner, and an airstrip!

We stayed at Oceanfront Inn for the night. The manager was old and friendly, and had built the inn and moved from Sacramento about 15 years ago. He directed us towards the beach right in the back, so after dropping off all of our stuff, Mike and I headed out towards the beach. It was low tide, so we were able to go look at the tide pools!

Mike!

Me!

I'm so emo durrrr.

Waves are awesome:

This was pretty awesome because you got the whole... sunset, wave, and then wind blowing the top of the wave the other way thing going on.

Starfish!

There were patches of carpets of sea anemones.

Colorful sea anemones.

Touching them!

Starfish orgy.

Then, it became pretty dark, so we went back in and heated up Progresso chicken noodle soup in coffee cups in the microwave for dinner. Sleep came fairly early seeing as there was (a) nothing to do, (b) only 4 TV channels, (c) nothing to do, and (d) did I mention nothing to do?

Alaska: Day 3 - Kenai Fjords Tour

2008-08-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the Kenai Fjords Tour! We took the National Park Cruise (the yellow dotted line):

They took us around Resurrection Bay, around the Aialik Peninsula, passed by the Harris Peninsula, stopped at Fox Island for a tasty buffet dinner, and then dropped us off back in Seward. It was an amazing tour, so yes, I took a ton of pictures (something along the lines of 265...), but I will spare you and try and limit myself. (If you can't tell by now, yes, I love my pictures. Even if I am too lazy to type, there will always be pictures.)

It was an overcast and ridiculously foggy morning. We were a little bummed, since it meant that we probably couldn't see as much scenery as we would have preferred. Also, it makes it ridiculously cold.

Pre-boarding the Alaskan Explorer!! *insert dramatic music here*

One of the first things we see is the cutest sea otter playing around in the water.

Big fat torpedo of a seal.

Mike really enjoying his hot tea (hey, it was cold).

Brother!

Fighting (playing?) sea lions!

Lazy sea lions...

Lots of sea gulls!

Wild puffins!! :D

Fog.

Seagulls on a little ice cube.

Jay at the helm.

We came upon the glacier!

We watched the glacier crash into the ocean! It was so amazing... you start hearing a really loud cracking sound that reverberates in the air, and suddenly, you'll see a huge chunk of ice come crashing down into the ocean with a rumbling thunder-like roar. Very awesome.

Just me 'n a glacier. :)

Mike holding a piece of the glacier!

T'was a cold piece of ice.

Scenery

We saw a whale!

Okay, kind of. There really wasn't much whale-watching going on. Lots of whale-looking, though. We saw probably 2 or 3 whales, and none of them very close. Alas, this is the only picture that you can kind of tell that we saw a whale. It's there! I swear! Look a little closer. It's just the dorsal fin going up a little. Very unsatisfying, I know.

So many sea gulls! And baby sea gulls that blend into the rock really well.

Really awesome rock formations.

So many sea lions! You can watch a live video feed of these sea lions on TV when you're channel surfing in Alaska. ...To be honest, it gets kind of boring to watch...

Although we didn't have many whales, we did have porpoises!! They were so much fun, and they kept on playing at the front of the boat. The tour guides told us to cheer them on, so a group of us were at the front of the boat with our cameras whistling, cheering, and yelling. Apparently porpoises really love it. They stayed with the boat for so long--up to at least 30 knots (~35 mph), if I remember correctly.

Then we stopped by Fox Island for a grilled salmon buffet dinner.

My brother really really liked the croutons, apparently.

Apparently Fox Island is also known for its skipping stones beach, as most of the rocks on the beach are flat and very skip-able. We skipped a few after dinner.

And that was that.

Things that we saw that I was not able to get pictures of: a school of sea otters playing in the water, bald eagle in a sea of sea gulls upon entering the harbor.

Tomorrow is ice climbing!!

Alaska: Day 2 - Hiking Harding Ice Trail

2008-08-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

On our first full day in Seward, the entire group hitched a quick 15-minute ride to the near-by Exit Glacier, park of the Kenai Fjords National Park. There, you will find not only Exit Glacier, but the Harding Ice Trail.

The Harding Ice Trail is a pretty ridiculous hike (well, more like climb). It's only 3.7 miles one-way, but don't let that fool you. For each mile is an elevation change of about 1,000 feet, so for 3.7 miles, it would be an elevation change of about 3,500 feet. So, instead of taking 3-4 hours to hike the whole thing, we spent about 5 hours on the trail and only reached about 2-2.5 miles. Part of the reason is because we wanted to make sure that we had a ride back. The other is because the rest of the trail was covered in ice and snow, and we did not want to rush up and down without trekking poles or anything of the like. Still, it was a good hike, and you could just see the edge of the ice field from where we were, and had an amazing view of Exit Glacier.

View from the beginning of the trail.

Pretty flowers.

It was so green!

There were little waterfalls everywhere, even on the trail itself. It made me so excited. :)

Mike, my parents in the back.

View of where the glacier used to be from along the trail. (We couldn't have been more than a mile along the trail, and we were already so high!)

A really cool little waterfall/stream! It goes under this snow tunnel along the mountain, so you can't even tell where it begins.

Close-up:

Exit Glacier!

I'm shiny.

They don't look so happy.

More pretty flowers.

More water! (Yes, waterfalls and streams and rivers make me happy.)

There was more ice and snow along the way. Apparently they were having a late winter and an early fall, so none of the snow was melting away. Usually, they don't have any ice or snow along the trail in July and August.

I know they're struggling, but it's kind of cute.

Ice!! This is about where we stopped ("Top of the Hill")...

You can see the edge of the Harding Ice Field from there.

View on the other side:

The rest of the trail up.

Mike and I wanted to travel a little further while the others took a break at the Top of the Hill.

Those tiny little dots/lines are where we left them.

Edge of the Harding Ice Field.

The clouds were gorgeous.

There was a black bear!! Yes, that is really a bear. We weren't very close to it, but yes, it was there! See?? The shadow is very bear-shaped-like... kind of...

On the way back down, we saw marmots! Oh so many cute (and fat) marmots.

Then this really big one came up on a rock, and started whistling between its teeth. Apparently they are also known as "whistling pigs." My goodness, they are loud.

Silly brother.

Awesome sign.

I'm guessing that it was a sign to warn people against going to the edge to try and look at the waterfall. ...I took a look anyway.

People on the ice! That is going to be us in a couple of days. :)

Salmonberries! None of the salmonberries were ripe, but the reason that they're called salmonberries is because, when they ripen, they turn into a reddish-pink color, much like the insides of a salmon. They supposedly taste like raspberries... I really wanted to try one fresh! Oh well.

Beautiful colors.

That's all. All in all it was a good hike. Strenuous, for sure, and with views and scenery that are worth the trek (then again, I may be biased, because I like strenuous hikes/climbs). It was a good hike for me, at least. Since my parents were there, we had to take it a little easier, and were able to take breathers and water breaks pretty frequently. I want to make it to the top of the trail, though, some day.

Tomorrow, we go on a glacier cruise with the Kenai Fjords Tour group.

Alaska: Day 1 - Seward Alaskan Sealife Center and dinner

2008-08-02T22:57:00.001-07:00

After the train ride, we went to the Alaska Sealife Center because (a) we had tickets, and (b) we had some time to waste before dinner and before our rooms were ready.

Bleeding heart flower outside of the hotel.

We stayed at the Edgewater hotel, which apparently was bought out by Best Western just earlier that summer.

Walking to the Sealife Center, we saw a bald eagle perched in a tree, eating what we decided was a fish:

(You can actually see the fish if you zoom into the picture at a higher resolution.)

Mike being silly.

Apparently shrimp (at least these ones) change sex after a few years.

How studious of them:

Sea anemone!

Seal pup. :)

Seal.

Sea lion.

Went outside for a bit. ...It was cold.

Then we spent a ton of time in the bird place.

And you thought I was tall...

(Picture courtesy of Mike R)

(Picture courtesy of Mike R)

(Picture courtesy of Jay H)

Common Murres!

Seagulls.

I have decided that puffins are the cutest birds ever. Like, ever. Especially sometimes when they try to fly--mainly because they don't always succeed.

Duck!

Looked at some more things...

Sea lion.

Fish with an eye missing.

We then took a nice mile or two walk to dinner.

Apparently, Seward is the Town of Murals for Alaska, as they have the most murals. Every year, a group of artists get together and paint a new mural in town.

Somebody having fun...

Dinner was a Chinooks!

OMGTHEMOSTAMAZING clams cooked in garlic and broth.

Portobella mushroom stuffed with crab and cheese.

Alaska: Day 1 - Anchorage to Seward

2008-08-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

After landing at midnight or so, we found a tax and took us to a hotel, and we finally settled in around 2:00 in the morning. We then woke up at 5:00 am to take a taxi to take us to the train station. From there, we took a ridiculously long "scenic train ride" from Anchorage to Seward that took most of the day.

Bright and early at the train station:

Taken from the domed car, which has a domed, clear-plastic roof to let you take pictures... glare is annoying.

All the dead trees make for an interesting story:

The Great Alaska earthquake, also known as the Good Friday earthquake, of 1964 lasted five minutes, caused a tsunami, and dropped part of Alaska down to sea level. These trees, which were originally growing above sea level, were killed by the intake of salt water when the sea rushed in. Interestingly enough, these trees were not only killed, but were preserved by the salt water, creating vast expanses of dead trees still standing.

Breakfast with parents.

Reindeer sausage really doesn't taste that much different...

Then I discovered the vestibules and proceeded to freeze off my extremities taking pictures.

(Picture courtesy of Mike Ross)

(Picture courtesy of Mike Ross)

Um...

(Picture courtesy of Mike Ross)

Now for some prettier pictures.

Glacier from afar!

My spree of attempts of documentary photography of the train ride...

We arrive in Seward!

Next, we trot off to the Alaskan Sealife Center. :)

Alaska!

2008-07-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

So my family has decided to take a trip to Alaska and drag Mike along with us.

The itinerary for the trip:
Aug 1 - Fly out
Aug 2-5 - Seward
Aug 6 - Bus ride to Denali
Aug 7-8 - Denali
Aug 9 - Bus to Talkeetna
Aug 10 - Talkeetna and train to Anchorage

Many things are planned... we'll see how it goes

Yosemite: Beer, Hugs, and Goodbyes

2008-07-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

At the end of the trip were the hugs and goodbyes. (And beer, of course.)

And that was that. :)

Yosemite: Backpacking Day 4

2008-07-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

On the last day, the plan was to hike Tenaya Peak, get back for cheesy pancakes, break up camp, then hike back to the road to have the shuttle drive us back to our starting point. Such was the plan, at least.

Then the morning clouds looked like this:

Don't get me wrong--I love clouds, and I think that they're great for having more dramatic pictures, but these clouds were looking at little malicious. The hike up to Tenaya peak is largely granite, and not many trees, and when there's any lightning or thunder whatsoever, being stuck on that peak would not be the most ideal situation. What made this all the more exciting was the fact that Virginia was telling her own lightning story where she was caught in a field with lightning crashing down all around her and her hiking partner. They were hiking in basically a big meadow-like area, and a lightning storm just came down upon them pretty quickly. They were caught in the lightning storm with nowhere else nearby that was more lightning-safe, so they crouched down as small as they could, and hoped that the lightning would not hit them. Virginia says that she went into what she calls "Bovine Mode," which is basically a mind-set of extreme panic to the point of complacency. Luckily, the other hiker had a game plan, and they counted the time in between lightning strikes to determine when the best time to run would be. They made it out alive, thank goodness, but it was a possibility for something that could have turned for the worse.

Anyhow, so while we were getting ready to head up to Tenaya Peak, we could see rain clouds far off, and possibly a clap of thunder or two in the distance. Karen decided that we should just make it up, and basically quickly run back down. So... not many pictures of the hike to and from Tenaya Peak, but here we go.

Virginia on her way up.

The view from Tenaya Peak:

Tenaya Lake, and a road somewhere off in the distance.

Over-exposed me.

Mike and I.

Mike.

Mike and I with Phil in the background.

So when we got down, we decided not to make cheesy pancakes because the rain had started coming down. Instead, we ate cheese, bacon, and some other stuff that was meant for lunch. Afterwards, we went to pack up our tents, and then the sun decided to shine. So we had pancakes after all. :)

We finished packing up camp, and headed off, back to civilization.

Beautiful granite slabs.

Me looking so clumsy with my massive backpack.

So green!

Indian paintbrush.

Elephant flowers.

Bear scat! No bear, though.

Leopard lily.

Our beautiful guides and Mike and I.

Take two.

Virginia and Mike.

More Indian paintbrush.

Something growing in the cracks of the granite.

Granite is so beautiful.

Virginia taking a break.

My tent looks a wee bit sloppy and falling off.

Scruffy Mike.

I'm lookin' a wee bit tired.

Perhaps there was a landslide before?

View from the "Frying Pan"

The Thumb we were following all the way from camp back to the road! :)

Back to civilization!

Crossin' a river.

The end of the trip!

Yosemite: Backpacking Day 3

2008-07-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

The next day, we went from Cathedral Lakes and did some back-country hiking to get back onto the John Muir Trail, and then went off trail across a meadow, up the Hill of Death (dundundun), got to the top of a peak with an amazing view (you could see Half Dome!) near Tenaya Peak, then went back down to set up camp near Mildred Lake.

Before everyone else woke up. :)

Jamie and Virginia getting breakfast ready.

Everyone else still sleeping.

Going off trail for a bit! Bush-beating is fun. :)

Yay.

Cathedral Peak along the way.

Mike.

Me.

Cathedral Peak.

Back on the trail. Stopping by Upper Cathedral Lake for some water.

My new desktop picture.

Tracie and I stopped for lunch.

Indian Paintbrush! It was one of my favorite flowers as a kid ever since I read the Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.

Lupines at a place where we pumped more water.

Me on a rock.

Mike lookin' all scruffy.

While crossing the meadow.

Jeff.

Up the Hill of Death! Only one picture because it was waaay too tiring to do anything else other than push all the way up.

The view of Mildred Lake from the top of the Hill of Death!

We look tired... and Mike looks extra evil.

Half dome!

Pretty clouds. :)

Jeff, Tracie, Diana at the top.

Time to head back down... off-trail backcountry hiking/backpacking is definitely most fun.

Awesome granite hills.

On the way down.

Lookin' up.

I love clouds. :)

Mike at the lake near camp!

Chris is the only one daring enough to jump into the cold lake.

Yes, I love climbing rocks! :D

I'm happy.

Dance!

Chris as Moses. Or Jesus. Or somebody like that.

I was having too much fun.

*grin*

The beginnings of a fire!

Mike and I then decided to hike a little up a hill in order to fulfill my silly artsy dance needs. :)

It's awkward in hiking boots...

Of course you need a Chinese Dance pose in there... Dai!

Back-bends!

Another Dai pose... ...my fingers aren't together like they are supposed to be...

I might have muscle?

Half Dome!

Then we skedaddled back down for Mike's first-ever campfire.

Dishwashers!

Blurry Mike pumps water.

Huddled around fire.

The last night out camping was great. The fire was awesome, and everybody else was so interesting to listen to. It was a good night.

Yosemite: Backpacking Day 1 and 2

2008-07-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

We arrived Thursday evening (July 17) at the Toulune Meadows campgrounds, had pack checks, pitched our tents, ate a chicken stir-fry dinner, had an orientation, and went on a moon-lit walk (it was a full moon that night) to a creek next the campsite.

Our first tent.

Then we went to sleep--or at least, tried to. Karen had talked about the bear experience she had the night before, where the bear was sniffing at her shoes in the middle of the night, so each zipper zipping and small movement made my paranoid self think that a bear was sniffing and scratching at our tent.

After finally falling asleep at 2:00 in the morning or so, our annoying neighbors decided to talk really loudly at 6:00 in the morning. Only Jeff and I were awake, so we decided to take a walk by the creek again in the morning.

Lambert Dome, a deer, and the creek.

After breakfast, we packed our backpacks, split up the food and the tents to all of our packs weighed about 35 lbs, and headed off to the Cathedral Lakes trail head on the John Muir Trail. The John Muir Trail is a 211-mile-long trail that runs from the Yosemite Valley, through the Yosemite High Country, through Kings Canyon National Park, and Sequoia National Park all the way to Mt. Whitney.

Jeff

Mike

La Dawn.

Karen, our amazing group leader.

Diana, Jeff

Beginning of the trail!

The hike to Cathedral Lakes was fairly decent. The elevation change total was about 1000 ft up, and then 272 ft down, but it was gradual enough not to destroy our legs. We had lunch near the toe of Cathedral Peak, and we drew water from a delicious spring on the way to the first camp site. The first campsite was at lower Cathedral Lake.

Mike and I.

Hiking!

The back of Cathedral Peak, also known as the Toe of the Cathedral.

A view of Fairview Dome from the spring where we got our water from!

Mike and the spring.

Meldicott Dome in the background as we crossed a meadow.

At the edge of Lower Cathedral Lake. Picture courtesy of Diana.

Mike!

Cathedral Peak.

After arriving at the campsite, some of us took a dip in the (cold) lake, pitched our tents, had dinner (Minestrone Soup!), and took a little hike up from our campsite to a tarn (a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier). On the way, Mike and I had some fun with the camera.

Me splashing about.

Our campsite.

The beautiful lake near sunset.

Lower Cathedral Lake.

Mike and I on the hike to the tarn, sun setting on Cathedral Peak in the background.

Glacial polish!

We didn't get to watch the sun set at the tarn, but it was setting on the way.

View from the tarn.

Shield flowers.

Tree.

Me having too much fun.

The tarn.

Hiking down with our headlights. Picture courtesy of Diana.

Afterwards, we had a night reading of great quotes, and proceeded to sleep.

Yosemite: Backpacking - The Map

2008-07-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

Mike Ross and I decided to take a backpacking trip with REI Adventures; having never pitched a tent before, and Mike having never been around a campfire before, we decided that it would be best that our first backpacking/camping excursion with a group, and more importantly, with somebody who has had experience before. It was an amazing experience. The people were great, and Karen, our group leader, was the best. She was voted #7 best guide in the world, and #1 in the US. We lucked out.

The following picture is our map. We start out at the top right corner of the map. The first day is in black, the second in shiny blue, and the last day is in the shiny purple. Click for a larger version.

Staying within the country.

2008-06-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've been debating about whether I wanted to write about my travels in the United States in this blog, or if I wanted to reserve this blog for travels around the world pertaining to my work for a long time. I've decided that since this journal isn't about all my work in public health, and the USA is huge and so diverse, I might as well write about my inter-state travels as well. Also, since I'm not able to really travel and work on projects for the two years, I might as well write about some sort of traveling that happens between semesters and summer school.

So... it's been a while since my last post here. Basically, I haven't left the country since India. Since then, I've done Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. In January, I took a backpack with Mike and bused and trained our way all the way up the West Coast, starting from Berkeley, CA, and ending up in Seattle, WA. Exciting things happened, such as leaving my purse on a bus in Florence, OR, without any way to directly contact the bus-driver, hiking to the dunes, visiting Pike's Place, Mike getting food poisoning, and all that good stuff.

I'm looking at other people's pictures and reading their blogs about working/volunteering elsewhere, and I'm ridiculously jealous. I know that I need to do this just so I can finally graduate and continue this later... but I miss India, and most of all, Kenya. Not only do I miss the culture and the people, I miss working there. Having such a break is odd, but it's also been nice. It's allowed me to do things that I haven't really been able to do in the past few years: rockclimbing, hiking, backpacking, reading, relaxing. I'm also trying to figure out this whole graduation thing (which would be nice), and sorting things out with regards to my family.

I'll be taking a backpacking trip in Yosemite in July, and in August, I will be going to Alaska with my family and Mike.

India: Now Mainly Pictures

2007-06-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

After the trip to Behram, I decided to take the last few days wrapping up, seeing people, etc.

From here on out, the last week or so in India was captured mainly in pictures.

The ghost in the flat:

So we had two flats--one where the girls stayed, and the other one ended up being used mainly for Zakira to help wash our clothes and hang them to dry. Zakira, the adorable woman that she is, was slightly creeped out one night, because somebody had left the lights on. We reassured her that it was okay, and that perhaps Nick left the light on after he left. She goes back with Elaine, and the two of them run back screaming with jitters. The problem? This:

Now, it wouldn't be that scary if you didn't know how to read and understand Hindi. But if you did, you would know that it said "Help me!" below the disturbing red-marker figure.

So that was our little scare for the week.

I hung out and had lunch with Ajit to say goodbye and wish him goodluck at UT Dallas. Then I went to Krishna's place to hang out with Avijit. Zakira came by to make dinner, and I had a fun cooking and Hindi lesson.

Zakira showing me how to make roti/chapati.

My attempts at making roti/chapati.

(Photo courtesy of Zakira)

Der... what am I doing??

(Photo courtesy of Zakira)

There it is in all its glory!

My beautiful chapati:

Avijit made fun of my chapati. :( I think it was beautiful.

A picture of me and

Tomorrow is going to St. Xaviers to speak to the principle about having their students help us do water testing.

A short story:

One day (I can't remember when), a couple of us were heading out the door as Zakira was around to clean up the flat. While facing a little ledge near the door to pick out my keys, Zakira comes up behind me, grabs my right butt cheak, and says in Hindi, "Really good!" ...Not something you'd expect from a conservative Indian woman. Good times. :)

India: Behrampada Floods

2007-06-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Emily and I went back to Behrampada today after a few days of heavy rains. We went with Suresh to check a the test filters that we had placed in Behrampada. Since it had been raining a couple days prior, the streets of Behram were flooded, and we tried to not to think about what was in the water as we maneuvered our way through the maze that is Behram.

One of the main streets in Behram.

Some of the pipes that bring water into the slums. Many of these pipes run through garbage and sewage, meaning that during times of little or no pressure (water only comes between 5:00 and 9:00 am), all of this filth infiltrates into the pipes.

It's amazing how dark it can be while you walk around even though it is bright, sunny, and early in the afternoon.

Suresh and a 5-micron pre-filter bag.

A few boys were following us, giggling.

Filter.

A little girl.

Sewage, yum.

Flooding in the main road. We rolled up our pants and walked through anyway.

After going to Behrampada, I decided to cross the train tracks and go to the Holy Family Hospital located on the other side of Bandra. I would rant about the amazing difference between Bandra Easy and Bandra West, but I'll wait until another day.

At Holy Family Hospital, there were these two Italian women who were working on a fair trade project wherein women in the slum communities would hand-sew bags with materials that were provided to them, and they were given fair wages for their work. That day, I believe I acquired one too many bags, but they are so beautiful!

When I arrived, people from Canara Bank were there hosting a small event and providing shoes to elementary school children.

India: That Touristy Thang

2007-06-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Cynthia from Berkeley UAEM and her friend Jessica visited Mumbai for the weekend! They are both law students working on some issues in some un-nameable place in India. We figured we would be tourists for the weekend, and for once, I was a complete tourist in India. It was actually pretty amazing.

First, we went to Navgraha--"the juice place," as we like to call it. It has awesome mango juice.

We took the trains down to VT/CST station, then went shopping.

(Photo courtesy of Jessica)

Back to the Taj and the Gateway of India.

(Photo courtesy of Jessica)

(Photo courtesy of Cynthia)

By the time we left, it was pouring rain, so we took an expensive taxi ride back home, and then went to Rajdhani to eat.

(Photo courtesy of Cynthia)

Finally, on Sunday, it was still pouring rain. We went to Sheesha, a nice restaurant at the top of the Shopper's Stop in Bandra. It was fairly intense since the winds were ridiculously strong, and the usually uncovered rooftop restaurant was covered with a plastic roof and tarp-like curtains that drummed loudly in the rain.

Since there was really no point in going anywhere (we really wanted to visit Dharavi, but there was no way to go there at that point), we headed over to the Taj hotel at the Bandstand. This was the same hotel where we went earlier for Krishna's full-body massage and for far too many cocktail snacks.

A chocolate-chip banana crisp with caramel ice cream.

Pretty food.

Once again, I shamelessly asked for more tea biscuits and yes, even for cocktail snacks.

(Photo courtesy of Cynthia)

(Photo courtesy of Jessica)

Oh, and I also stole their pen. ...I don't think I should go back for a while, they might charge me 3 times the amount next time.

India: In Pictures

2007-06-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

The past few days haven't been as work-intensive. I have also been horrible at writing any updates. ...But there will always be pictures.

We went to go watch Ocean's Thirteen, and 15 minutes before the end of the movie, the sound turned off, we had to knock on the window of the booth, and they had to stop the movie and manually rewind the film. Ah, India.

I was able to visit the Holy Family Hospital again. There was a little boy wearing Elaine's flip-flops.

Then there was a lazy trip back via Rickshaw. There was a ridiculous amount of traffic, and I was stuck at an intersection for what had to be 20 minutes, making this an annoyingly expensive ride back home. Still, it was great for just watching people. One of the most interesting image that I can't get out of my mind is how I watched a man driving a motorcycled dressed up liked a Bollywood star, while sitting right behind him was a woman holding on, covered completely with a Jilbab. It wasn't disturbing per se, but it definitely evoked a an eyebrow raise.

India: Rain

2007-06-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Pitter patter. The sounds of the monsoon rains falling harder and more frequently as the days pass by. Barefoot children playing soccer that turns into rugby, and the old women finally smile at the rain-soaked hair dangling before our pale faces. Flashes of light freeze the milliseconds of smiles as they flash by all too quickly.

Drip. Drip. The courtyard floods with the welcomed rains, the sounds of laughter, and pairs of dark, toughened feet running around. Swivel. The fan wobbles and rotates in the two-room flat with peach-colored marbled floors. A black winged insect crawls on the floor between the maze of folded-up mattresses and scattered notebooks scribbled with the plans for the week. The blue-lined papers are damp and crinkled.

It's quieter now. It's too dark to see the white leather-bound ball being tossed back and forth. Time to go.

Dogs whimper and bark as they grab each other by the neck. One of the pups suckles at the over-filled teets of a scrawny mother struggling to stay standing. There is a warning in her hardened eyes. "Don't mess with me," they stated while silently begging for help. Underneath the umbrella, I try to avoid muddy puddles and watch as the sewer canals begin to flood. I wonder if they actually flow anywhere, or if they are just for show in attempts to give us some hope that the floods do not rise past our knees this year. My left arm raises and hails a rickshaw. The driver comes up to a screeching halt while splashing the bottom of my black salwar with muddy water.

India: Here Comes the Rain

2007-06-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

This was one of the first large rainstorm in Mumbai.

Some of the interns went out to play in the rain. :) I stayed up on the balcony taking pictures (surprising, I know).

It was a great relief from the blistering heat that we have been having.

Oh, and then there was Anu's birthday. :)

India: salty sweat spandex jumpsuit

2007-06-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

Silence. Heat.

High pitched whimpering pierces the stifling night air. Must be the dogs.

I lie,
Mostly Naked, in my kanga
covered in an ever-lasting film of Salty Sweat Spandex jumpsuit.

Air so heavy I can
take my butter knife,
and spread it like the five-dollar can of
Skippy Crunchy Peanut Butter
from Spinach.

Fan blades circling fast to become a circle.
Trying hard, screeching against the weak flow of Electricity
Threatening to detached itself from the wall
And roll away.

Swivel. Swivel. I stare.
Through the pitch-black darkness
tainted with Smog of
The Thousand Rickshaws revving through the night
and the light from
The Million Individual Lights of Mumbai.

sights of poverty from the day
run across like a Silent
America's Most Depressing Home Vidoes.

swivel. swivel. swivel.
naked child, save a string around his waist
swivel. swivel.
young girl in over-sized clothes gathering water in a discarded AuqafinA bottle
swivel.
swivel.

old man skeleton with skin
lying on an old mattress that lost its comfort
over a decade ago when
its previous owner, drunk,
beat his wife to death in their
one-room sheet-metal closet
(did I say closet? I meant shack. I mean house.)
with dirt floors furnished only with
that mattress and
scattered pots and pans,
and a very small gas stove
that she used to cook chapati
and marsala curry, spices from the nearby factory
(did I say factory? I meant warehouse. I mean shack.)
where the eyes of the workers are permanently teary and red from the chili powder,
But only if she had found enough bottles in the garbage dump to recycle that day.

Stories shared of
slums freshly bulldozed,
Homes Torn in Two.
Families on a treasure hunt through rubble,
As the bulldozer sleeps on the edge
with a content smile. Nametag? BMC.
The rickshaw continues to speed past
As the driver begins cursing in Hindi.
Tears fall,
but not as many as those
from the eyes looking through rubble that they once called Home.

Swivel.

three thirty-two a.m.
and I am lying in a sheen of Salty Sweat Spandex jumpsuit.

India: Hydration Stupidity.

2007-06-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

I am amazingly food on the best meal that I have ever had here in India. We have just returned from Rajdhani, a Gujarati Thali restaurant. Thali basically means that you get a small dish of lots of different types of curries and sauces, and Gujarati food is amazing. It is a lot lighter than the usual "North Indian" food that we eat such as the very cream-based curries--not that I do not like the curries that we usually eat, but it was wonderful eating lighter food for a change.

So I really have not been writing as much as I should be. By the time that . As usual, "the past few days have been interesting." But before that, there were just some images during the days that pass by that completely slip my mind usually, so I will try my hand at remembering them now.

One of the random images was when Krishna and I were heading back from the R Mall by bus, and we passed by what looked like had to be an auto-rickshaw graveyard lying next to a river-like gutter. There were just piles and piles of rickshaw tops lying stacked on top of each other upside-down. There were rusted rickshaw bodies strewn about, steering-wheels awry, tires missing, and headlights broken. It felt oddly surreal as we passed by.

Another image stuck in my mind is while Ajit and I walking around Princess Street looking for filters and lab supplies. It has been raining intermittently here in Mumbai; thank goodness more off than on, even though it does become cooler when the rains hit. There was a young girl dressed in dirty clothes that were slightly too big for her. She was holding a metal pot against an opening from a gutter, and trying to transfer that water into a nearly-empty Aquarich bottle.

Before joining the Haath Mein Sehat project, I knew and understood that access to water was a large issue, but I suppose it has not really struck me until just now. As we all know, we all need water to live. We all need water on a daily basis just to survive. And yet, there are companies exploiting this and bottling this water and selling it for hundred-fold the price it costs them, while clean drinking water is practically inaccessible to so many people in the world.

If you think about this, this concept can seem so ridiculous sometimes. How is it that bottled water is such a huge industry, even in the United States where the water coming out of our faucet actually has more quality control than those coming out of nicely packaged bottled water?

There was this article that I read--I cannot recall exactly where I read it--talking about how the bottle for Fiji water costs more than the actual water itself. Almost all of the cost to obtain a bottle of Fiji water comes from just making the bottle itself. Why bother, I wonder.

That being said, I will definitely not deny how much I appreciate bottled water here in India, and when I was in Kenya. Just because others are falling ill due to unclean water means that I should not be buying water so I do not get sick. Still, if it were possible to have everybody have clean drinking water straight from the tap, that would be much preferred. I was speaking to Ajit today, and he explained how it takes Bisleri only 75 pesa, or 0.75 rupees to manufacture one bottle of water that we buy for twelve rupees.

Another incident that seems to be engrained into my mind is from last week when I was walking through Panchsheel Nagar, the slum behind Somaiya Hospital. The amazing discrepancy between the community of BMC workers and the rag-picker communities really struck me. I think that I had talked about this before, but it was just amazing how all of a sudden, from houses made out of brick and sheet metal to shacks with a naked child with only a string around his waist.

All that being said, I guess I should re-cap what has been going on for the past few days since Saturday afternoon and the fruitless wild-goose chase. Saturday night, I did end up going with the others to go clubbing at the Rock Bottom club.

(Photo courtesy of Emily)

They have this really odd dress code where your shoes have to be proper enough to enter. Thank goodness that, being a foreigner, I could get in with my Chaco's sandals, which are definately not fancy material. There was Krishna, her roommate Surbhi, Surbhi's cousin, Avijit, Viru, Nick, Elaine, Anu, Emily and I. The club was interesting.

The music was great. It was a mix of Hindi music, house, and a small amount of American hip-hop. I think that I like the clubs here in India better than those in America.

The ones here are not as shady as those in America. It seems that most people are there definitely to dance, and Hindi music just does not allow for as many old, shady Mexican guys to rub their excited genitalia against your back. If there were any shady people around, the guys always took care of us and switched places with us to make sure that we were okay. I really love the guys here. They definitely show that chivalry is not dead--not that I will ever admit the fact that I like it when a guy makes me walk on the inside of the street, or hold on to me to make sure that I do not get trampled in the "gents car" on the train during the rush.

So the night of Rock Bottom and wonderful dancing was also the night of extreme stupidity on Edith's behalf. Yes, Edith is now speaking in the third person because of how embarrassed she is of what she did. In general, especially when in places like Kenya and India, I am extremely, almost annoyingly, aware of my body and everything that I eat. I notice when my body is lacking in vitamins, carbohydrates, and I usually can even tell when my protein levels are too low. Of course, I never lose track of how much water goes through my body. And yet, this night, I allowed myself become overly dehydrated.

It was to the point where, at around 1:45 in the morning after about two hours of straight dancing, I needed to step out of the club because I was feeling extremely sick and weak. I knew that I was probably dehydrated, but I never realized exactly how dehydrated I was until I noticed that I had only drank a mouthful or two in the past two hours when I usually down an entire bottle after just one hour. Surbhi also wanted to go outside since it had become extremely crowded.

I sat down very uncomfortably on a short metal fence, and felt like vomiting. After about ten minutes, I insisted on going somewhere I could sit down properly and obtain water. While walking to the restaurant right above the club, I needed to lean against Surbhi to walk up to the restaurant. Then, right after entering the door close to the table, my vision completely blacked out.

I have never had my vision black out like that before. It was very frightening, and I almost fainted. Thank goodness Surbhi let me to the chair and immediately ordered water for me. I immediately downed three glasses of water, and felt much better. A little shaken at my own stupidity, but unscarred. Afterwards, the group of us went down to the beach. One thing about the beaches around here that bothers me is how it does not smell like a beach. Usually, when I go to the beach, I can feel the salty air and smell the sand and the waves. Yet, in India, it has not felt like that. I would talk about the ridiculous amount of pollution in the air and in the ocean, but that is just going to be depressing.

Sunday was a fairly lazy day as I was still feeling sick. I made sure everybody was awake at the right time to meet the Ghatkopar Rotaract group for a blood-drive at the Ghatkopar train station, but other than that, I think I just sat around all day. Monday was a lot of the same sitting around, doing small errands here and there on the computer, and that was about it.

I was able to have lunch with Avijit and talk about our respective lives, and that was interesting. Tuesday, yesterday, I was feeling sick in the morning, so I bailed on a meeting in Behrampada. They were supposed to meet with the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) regarding a latrine in Behram, but that fell through. I constructed a letter to the researcher at EurekaForbes, and got some reading done.

I bought two new books, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy who has an amazing writing style, and also India's Unending Journey by Mark Tully. Apparently Mark Tully has written books about India's development and a lot about the juxtaposition of the rich and the poor that we observe every day here in Mumbai. It will definitely be an interesting read.

I still need to find a cheap but good copy of Shantaram, which is about this man's travels through India, specifically Mumbai. It is cheaper here than in the US, but it is also not in the anal-retentive mint-condition that I like to keep my books.

I picked up some lab supplies from Genesis, and then the group of us went to the Ghatkopar Rotary meeting, which was interesting. It was definitely a lot less pretentious than the meeting that Erin and I went to to present at the Berkeley Rotary club, which was held at the H.S. Lordship at the Marina, but it still had its annoying formalities.

They definitely are just a group of people who donate money to causes, but they also have the cheesy fired-up attitude that all of India seems to have. It is definitely quite amusing. So before the meeting, there was much mingling and talking about our project with rotary members for about half an hour.

During the meeting, one of the old men who is part of the community service committee stood up and started to talk about our project. It was actually very inspiring and definitely cute to hear. There was this short, round man wearing a crisp white collared shirt tucked into his black slacks that were pulled up past his belly-button who stood up at the podium and started out with, "Today we have these visitors from America, and they have been telling me about this amazing project that they have. They are 20-year old girls all the way from America to work on water and hygiene education in the slums in India--places that we, who have been born in India, have never been." They he goes on to saying that if we had the courage to do this, then they should make an effort to be helping out their own country.

Today was waking up after 3-4 hours of sleep, leaving home by 7:45 in the morning, waiting for hours, walking through the slums and sweating a gallon of water while trying to collect water samples, hours of lab work, and then collapsing after getting home at 5:00 pm. I will explain more later. I am going to be content with how my day ended by eating the most amazing Gudrati food ever.

Pictures from water testing in Panchsheel Nagar.

Picture of the Day: This is horrible.

This is Edith, signing out.

India: Wild-Goose Hunt

2007-06-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

So today was an annoyingly tiring day, especially for a Saturday. Then again, it being the weekend rarely means anything while working on Haath Mein Sehat here. In some ways, I like it, but sometimes it becomes tiring. At least this way I will not feel so bad for taking a break in the middle of the week.

As always, I can say the trademark phrase, "The past few days have been exciting." I suppose there is rarely a day that goes by where I can say that and not have it be true. Then again, that requires having a fairly loose definition of "exciting." So perhaps Thursday was not all too exciting. There was sitting around waiting for the owner to fix the lamp that had fallen. The owner is definitely something, to say the least. He has fun with this power trips, and he loves drama. He is a drama king that feels that he is incredibly important because he is doing everything to help the foreigners. Right.

My first encounter with him was on Tuesday night, I believe. I love how he takes thirty minutes to say what should only take thirty seconds. And by love, I mean hate. When Nick had received a notice that he was supposedly living in the other flat illegally, the owner seemed incredibly excited to be able to deal with this. Oh the politics in India. I would make a sarcastic remark about how that probably hinders development and just progression forwards, but that would just be insensitive.

Anyhow, we were able to have business cards printed. They are definitely very sexy business cards.

We have also been having some meetings with the Rotaracts in Mumbai. The Rotaract is basically the Rotary club for people under thirty. It seems that the Rotary club meets and gives away money to worthy causes while the Rotaract actually goes out and helps out with these worthy causes. It is actually pretty exciting since these people seem to be extremely reliable, and they even call and say that they want to move the meeting fifteen minutes later than the planned time. ...Fifteen minutes late is on time for Indian Standard Time (IST)!

Friday, five of us, Mary, Elaine, Anu, Emily, and I went to the Holy Family Hospital Navjeet Community Center. We were able to meet the doctor there, and I really liked her. She was very articulate, and friendly. Then, they brought out a bunch of bags hand-made by the women there in the community, and the group of us had the urge to buy everything there. They are definitely amazing bags,and they are also very good quality. They are definitely relatively extremely cheap, too.

Everybody else went shopping afterwards, and I went to Genesis Labs to acquire the necessary lab supplies for water quality testing. I will be collecting water and conducting these tests on Tuesday from the slums in Sion. Hopefully I will be able to find somebody to join me, as I do not want to carry around a ton of water samples while also testing for chlorine demand, while locking myself up in a lab filtering water and plating membrane filters all day. Such an exciting week to look forward to.

Today, Ajit and I went on a went on a wild-goose hunt, walking around Southern Mumbai for who knows how many miles, or rather, kilometers. I left home at 10:45 in the morning, and did not reach home until 5:00 in the evening. I love how you go one place, and then they refer you to one place, where they further refer you to another place. It's okay, after four hours, we know where not to go. At least we found some vendors for the M.E. coli broth, but even that was a ridiculous search. I really have some doubts regarding the sustainability at least regarding the technology part of this project.

The education portion seems to be going full-speed, and we have been recruiting an amazing amount of students from different colleges, and there seems to be an awesome movement towards working to improve the slums, and just India in general. That has been amazingly refreshing, but with regards to creating a low-cost technology to treat water and store it safely, I do not know how that will turn out. The lack of resources in Mumbai, or just India in general with regards to water testing and reliable water filters and chlorine manufacturers is frustrating.

Nobody uses membrane filtration to test for E. coli and other coliforms, even though that is the international standard. I cannot seem to find a lab that can test for cysts and protazoa because that requires resources that most labs do not have. To have a quantitative test for cysts and protazoa, it requires Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which requires expensive machines and primers that you cannot find here, or immunoflourescent anitbody tagging, which also cannot be done with the equipment that they have.

Ajit and I had an interesting discussion regarding the lack of resources and the resulting brain drain that happens. It seems that it is either an upwards spiral or a downwards spiral, without an actual beginning or an end. We have professors who do amazing research in fields such as microbiology, which means that there is more funding for facilities and equipment, which allows for more research on the graduate level, which means that there are more undergraduates who learn more. This in turn create more people in research doing more top-notch research. Unfortunately with the lack of professors, there is a lack of funding and lack of trained people, and you can see where that leads to. Ajit also mentions that there is a lack of trained professionals because those who are better trained end up leaving for places with better funding and better facilities. I wonder where all this will end up leading.

Anyhow, I think that I am not in the best of moods, which is too bad for my team-mates. Oh well, they went out shopping all day. We are supposed to go to a "disc," or a club, tonight. I am tired, and I do not know if I really want to. We will see. I am sure once the music starts, I will love it, but until then, I really do not feel like spending more money on good food and the rickshaw and taxi rides.

I am homesick, but at the same time, I am not the biggest fan of doing things like going to a disc or going shopping all the time. It feels strange. It reminds me of how in Kenya, I did not feel like going out all the time with the other interns. I like keeping more of a low profile around here. That is not to say that when I get back, I will not be spending way too much money on baking and fancy places and doing things such as kayaking, rock climbing, etc, but right now, I would not mind if we did not go out to Americanized restaurants and going shopping all the time.

I am done for now.

Lesson of the day: Trying to find anything will take at the minimum five times longer than you'd expect. Also, Chacos leave a really odd tan on your foot, but they are awesome for kayaking and walking around in India.

This is Edith signing out.

India: Falling Lights and Panchsheel Nagar

2007-06-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

I am ridiculously tired and brain dead. The past two days have been interesting, to say the least--not to say that every day is not an exciting adventure, but the past coupleof days has been extremely draining. I cannot even remember what I did Monday night. I think all we did was meet up with Arvind, one of our really good friends from before, and that is about it. I should be keeping better travel journals at least for myself.

One thing I did forget to mention last time, though, was the insanity that is the rain here in Mumbai. While we were near Viti and walking around between shopping areas, the rains came by. This is no Berkeley rain where you watch the clouds rolling in, the rain beings to sprinkle around, and there is a nice steady rain that drips from the sky. Rather, on one side of the traffic-filled street where the cars and trucks do not obey proper traffic laws, the sky was slightly cloudy, but everything was perfectly dry. Half way across the street after being almost run over by a large bus, there were droplets the size of quarters falling from the sky. They did not just fall from the sky, but instead, bombarded us and drenched us before we reached the other side of the street. Watching the rain was ridiculously amazing, and Mumbai has never smelled and felt nicer during and after the rain.

So after the fairly relaxing Monday, Tuesday morning started out with a bang. Literally.

I had woken up fairly early as usual, and decided to get some reading done and finally take my beautiful cold-water shower for the day. I was just rinsing off my shampoo and soap from a shower-head that lacks any water pressure at all, when I heard a loud bang and an "oh my god." I did not think much of it, and a minute later, Emily knocks on my door frantically and tells me to get out of the shower. I mention that I just have to rinse off my soap, but she tells me to get out anyway because the light had hit Suneeta.

At first, I was completely confused. In our apartment, we get random bright flashes of light through our window as cars drive into the parking lot of our "chaal-style apartment complex." So when Emily first told me that the light hit Suneeta, I thought it was one of those flashes of lights, or even possibly lightning that had hit Suneeta. Of course, none of this really makes any sense, so I come out, and I see that Suneeta looks quite shaken and is bleeding on her head and facial area.

Then I notice that the halogen light fixture had fallen off and was broken in the garbage can. We were sleeping with our heads facing the halogen lamp, because none of us figured that the entire lighting fixture would ever just fall off. Suneeta had been sitting up doing work when suddenly, the lighting fixture came crashing down on her. Luckily for me, I was in the shower, or else I would have received the full brunt of the crash since my sleeping mat sits directly under the center of the lamp fixture.

As a consequence, much of Tuesday morning was spent making sure that Suneeta was okay, moving everything to the other room, making sure not to track broken glass everywhere, and clean up the place as much as possible. There was broken glass all over the floor and on our bedsheets,etc. There are also definitely pieces of glass stuck under the keys in my keyboard. I had to remove an extremely large piece from under my space bar. Unfortunately, that required removing my space bar and putting it back, and now it doesn't work as well anymore.

Afterwards, I did not accomplish much for the rest of the day. I went out to shop for things like more clothes lines, a mat for wiping our shoes on, poster paper and markers, etc, but nothing more. I was feeling sick and had a wonderful migraine, so I sat around the apartment complex with Suneeta the rest of the day. I lazed around listening to music, and looked up different recipes online thinking of different menus for meals that I could make after I returned from India.

Food here is awesome, but curry, roti, idlly, and upma gets tiring meal after meal. And, of course, for those of you who have been around recently, I just like to make massive meals for people in general. I crashed fairly early around 10:30 pm, since I had not slept much the night before. I was supposed to pick Mary from the airport--her plane was delayed from 10:30 pm until 1:30 in the morning--but I apparently could not be moved until 8:00 the next morning.

This morning, Nick and I went to speak to Dr. Kashyap, one of the microbiology researchers for EurekaForbes. He said that it probably be possible for him to find a lab to conduct water quality testing for both E. coli and other coliforms, and also for cysts and protazoa. Additionally, he said that he would be willing to give us some free samples of filters, and possibly the iodine and bromine resins to play around with. His statement was, "We make 25M Rs a year, so of course we can give them to you for free," which works for me. That was a fairly exciting and inspiring meeting. There was also really good chai there, too.

Afterwards, there was food, and then there was taking a break when Elaine arrived before heading over to Sion to meet with the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) that work for SAHAS, and NGO that works in health, domestic violence issues, and a lot more. They took us around the slum right behind the Somaiya Hospital, Panchsheel Nagar. This community is broken up into three different areas: One, Two, and Three. Area Three were inhabited by the BMC, Bombay Municipal Corporation, workers, area Two were inhabited by the rag-pickers, and area One consisted of a mix of the two. It was amazing to see the difference between Behram Pada and Panchsheel Nagar, and even just the three areas of Panchsheel Nagar that lie right next to each other on the same straight road.

Panchsheel Nagar was built along the same one pipeline that runs behind the Somaiya Hospital. The dwellers have built the houses themselves from mortar, brick, or sheet metal, or a little bit of both. The government technically owns the land, so they have to pay rent on the land. However, they still need to ask for permission for anything that they do, including putting wallpaper up on their walls. Often, they do not receive permission, and if they do anything without permission, the government goes to them and demand money.

This slum reminded me more of Kenya. Behrampada is definately more of an urban slum, while Panchsheel Nagar is more of a rural slum. Behrampada is a maze of houses stacked on top of houses with pipelines running through sewage in the canals between the houses, and sunlight barely reaches through to the bottom because of how crowded the area is. Panchsheel Nagar is not the same, even though they are able to pull directly from the BMC pipelines and have more or less a constant flow of water 24-7. The reason that a larger slum has not been built around such an amazing resource is because the government and the surrounding lands will not allow them to expand and build on top of each other.

Another striking difference between the two is the cleanliness of the place. This is not to say that hygiene is not a problem, because it definitely is still a major problem. However, the sewage does not run down the street, not as much in the canals between the houses, and garbage is not strewn about as much in the area. Apparently SAHAS has been working with the residents of Panchsheel Nagar a little on hygiene and cleanliness.

If you look closely, you can see the red dome of an Imax theatre in the background.

Still, nobody has any proper plumbing, meaning that there are no toilets inside the houses, not that a toilet would fit into most of these houses anyhow. There are only two public latrines for the three different areas, meaning that there are about four toilets on one end and four toilets on the other end for 7,000 people, making it about one toilet per 1,000 people. Many people also go into the sewage canal which looks more like a disgusting river that runs in the back of the houses.

There is also more obvious poverty in the area. In Behrampada, there is a wide range of different people living there, including somebody with a bachelor's degree. Almost everybody has a cell phone, and most houses are decently furnished, and most with televisions nicer than some that I see back in the United States. In Panchsheel Nagar, the houses were ridiculously small, and the living conditions were definitely simpler than those in Behram. One of the houses that we entered had one room that was about the size of my bedroom + closet, and it housed four adults and three children. There was a tiny gas stove, a small square for washing anything, a shelf of pots and pans, and a bed that definitely did not fit seven people.

It was also slightly perturbing how you could tell the difference between the three areas of the same slum that all exists on the same straight road. The BMC workers are definitely slightly better off than the rag pickers. Their houses a slightly better built, and everybody looked like they were able to pull off a living. However, right after you pass this chalkboard, you can start seeing a difference as you see more garbage in the area, you see more used and dirty clothes drying on the clothes lines, and there were unclothed children running around.

There are more things to say--I've been learning a little about the complicated politics that is India... the Indian mafia, people's dealings with the dons, the orange-colored flags, etc. It is actually all pretty interesting.

Still, it is 11:30, and I have to wake up at 5:45 in the morning to turn the water on, and then again at 6:30 to turn the water off, and tomorrow is a full day of walking around. Just two and a half hours of walking in the sun through Panchsheel Nagar was amazingly draining.

All right. I'm tired.

Picture of the day: Ox cart pulling oil.

Lesson of the day: The sun is draining.

This is Edith, signing out.

India: The Rich and The Poor

2007-06-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

The past day and a half has been fairly interesting, and also my brain is not as ridiculously dead as it was yester morn.

So when we went to watch the Pirates movie, they did not have much with regards to previews, but they had their own little amusing quirks, if I can put them that way. First of all, before anything else, the theatre had to give their own little disclaimer which said that if a power-outage occurs in the first 45 minutes of the film, then a refund or change in the tickets would be available for the next six days, but if a power-outage occurs after the first 45 minutes of the film, then they are not held responsible and no refund will be available. Additionally, I was able to listen to the Indian national anthem for the first time because you are required to stand and watch the waving Indian flag while listening to the national anthem before the movie started. Other than that, I kept on forgetting that we were in India.

I suppose my trip to India and my trip to Kenya were quite different. It is a lot easier to escape back into the comforts of back home here in India, though, in both places, I can get really good dark chocolate when desperate times arrive.

Annnd I just blew a fuse trying to plug in the surge protector. The scary thing is, there was nothing plugged in, and the surge protector was even off. Well, so much for that. Now I'm jumpy about plugging things in. Augh. Anyhow, back to the subject at hand.

So it really is a lot easier to hide back into comforts that are similar to home. We finally have internet in our flat. Granted, it is one Ethernet cable the enters through the window from who knows where, and it also is very intermittent and testy, but that works for me. It certainly beats sitting in a stuffy internet cafe with computer from the early 1990's trying to send important e-mails and do research on an internet connection that makes you miss 56K. Our flat has actually become pretty homey, and it has certainly become a small haven for doing work that needs to be done. We have running water--well, vaguely. Emily and I think that we have finally figured out how to make sure we have water to shower, wash dishes, etc. We have a water tank storage that we need to wake up at five in the morning to turn on the taps, and then again at 6:30 to turn off the taps lest the tank overflows and we wake up with soaked sleeping pads.

The reason for that is that this part of the city, at least, only receives water from between approximately 5:00 to 8:00 am, with a leeway of an hour or two for when it actually starts and stops. So, if we want water for the day, we need to make sure we get up and fill the tank before the water stops, or else we are left without water until the next day, assuming that there is not a sudden long drought; as of right now with the monsoons arriving soon, I do not see that to be as big of a problem. Still, it is also possible that the monsoons could destroy pipelines, etc., which would make obtaining clean water slightly harder.

Also, we have our own stock of random American food for those times when we have had one too many masala curries, idlies, and upmas. Apparently Anu had brought boxes of Post cereal in a once-empty suitcase that she needed to bring back to her aunt, I have granola bars and a bag of gummy bears, and we just bought "brown bread" (whole wheat bread) and peanut butter. We also bought our own chai and soy milk and sugar to make our own chai the way we like it. Back in Kenya, I did not really have much of a choice as to what I ate--though finally I did specify that I wanted dry toast, not too much sugar in my chai, boiled eggs, and the apple that I bought at the Nakumat on the way home the day before for breakfast--and I definately did not have running water nor was there any way to have your own personal internet line. There is even a McDonald's around the corner where you can get a paneer tikka burger or even a McChicken sandwich.

When we went to watch pirates, or when we go shopping at FabIndia, or at the R Mall, other than the store stocking only extremely bright-colored and patterned kurtas and churidars, I forget that I am here in India to work on safe water in the slums of Mumbai. It was slightly frustrating having that feeling of being torn between having fun and taking a break away from work, and needing to keep yourself grounded and remembering the reason that I am here. It is not to say that I do not want to take breaks and that I do not want to have fun, but luxuries such as movies and shopping in air-conditioned malls feels out of place.

I suppose that is how most places are: the strange juxtaposition between the rich and the poor. My sitting at the Somaiya canteen with my laptop while watching the mini shanty-town of the construction workers working on the buildings of Somaiya grow. Our waiting for the bus or auto-rikshaw while beggars blind in one eye hobbling around with an injured leg ask you in angry-sounding Hindi for some money or food. Our walking by street-dwellers under the flyover with nice clothes and full bags of work slung over our shoulders. The nice houses with air conditioning and electricity with a slum on the other side of the railway tracks. I mean, the same holds true for all places, even in America.

While working with REACH!, I was able to hear stories from my mentees that go to one high school where there are bars, metal detectors, and canines sniffing around every day, while there is another high school just 15 minutes away that is one of the best in California. California has one of the top public university systems in the country, and yet, for primary and secondary education, we fall to either the 48th or 49th state in terms of quality of education. In Kenya, Nairobi with its prominent yet close-minded lawyers and high-rise buildings and paved streets holds Kibira, one of the world's largest slums. I wonder how extreme disparities such as these arise. Yes, there are the factors of how we need the poor people to work for the rich people, etc, but sometimes all of this seems so ridiculous. Then again, that could just be me.

I really want to visit Dharavi, which is here in Mumbai. It is apparently, as I just learned, that is where Gucci tans their leather. Dharavi is the largest slum in Asia. Supposedly, it should not be as dangerous as other places. I do not plan to go around by myself, but at least it is not Kibira, which is situated in one of the top-ten murder capitals of the world. Hm, when I went to visit last year, I did not feel too unsafe. Oh well, lucky me.

Hm. Oops. Was vaguely distracted by real-time internet, shower, meetings, and just other random nicknacks, and now it is 5:45 in the afternoon. All right. Anyhow, as I was saying I hope I get to visit Dharavi sometime.

Yesterday, after a meeting in the morning with Ajit and his cousin, a filter vendor, which took from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon, Nick, Anu, Krishna, Avijit, Shantanu, and I took a double-decker bus and went to the southern part of Mumbai near Viti and visited the Gateway of India, went shopping a little with my lack of money, and then watched the sunset from Marine Drive, which was gorgeous.

CST Train Station at the southern tip of Mumbai.

The Taj Hotel.

The Gateway of India.

(Photo courtesy of Nick.)

(Photo courtesy of Nick.)

Afterwards, I just took some time at home, and had a very chill day at home. Got some work done e-mailing a bunch of different people that I needed to, made some phone calls, and took a very relaxing day. Tomorrow we will be visiting the slums in Sion (Behrampada is located in Bandra), and I will need to figure out exactly what we are doing with the water quality testing. Also, non-disclosure agreements and material transfer documents are SO annoying to deal with. I hate patents and businesses and erggg. Oh well. I will figure this out, eventually. I really wish that there were somebody that we can rely on and such regarding water quality testing, and that the guys from HaloSource will get back to me with regards to better tests for cysts, but oh well.

I think I want to take some time to read some of "The Idiot" (Dostoyevsky). I finished "Despair" (Nabokov) on the plane ride. I also really want to get a copy of Shantaram. Trying to obtain a really cheap copy of it here is apparently really hard. It's still cheaper than in America, but the quality is better in America, and for those of you who don't know me, I am anal-retentive about keeping my books in mint condition. I have gotten better at that, but it's still hard.

Oh yeah! One more thing, getting squished between two buses driving by in the middle of the road is REALLY scary. This actually happened the second of third day here in India, but I totally forgot to mention it. Crossing the streets is definitely a skill to pick up here.

Lesson of the day: Lines on the road and street signals mean crap in India. So, when you need to cross the street, just make sure that there is somebody between you and the in-coming traffic, so if somebody does get run over, you will not be the first one to die.

This is Edith, signing out.

India: Non-functionability (Yes, That's a word.)

2007-06-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

So apparently all my body wants to do now is sleep. My eyes can barely stay open past midnight, and this morning, I did not want to get out of bed until 9:15 today. Weiiird. Oh well. I guess sleep debt really exists.

Anyhow, yesterday, after breakfast, Anu and I went took the train to go visit Anushri and the biopharma company that she is interning at and we spoke to her boss regarding water quality and filter testing. Even though I do not that he will be able to provide us with the services that we wanted him to complete, he was able to give us some really good contacts and connections to other people, which is good. Afterwards, I arrived at Somaiya uneventfully, and sat around in Genesis labs stealing the internet and the air conditioning while waiting for Ajit. Ajit and I were supposed to go to the Princess Street area and go shopping for filters and lab supplies and the such, but while waiting, I was told that people wanted to go to the 5:45 showing of Pirates instead of the late-night showing, and Ajit warned me that it would take an hour to get to Princess Street and an hour to return, and we still needed 2-3 hours to walk around to all the vendors. By that point it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, and I really did not feel like walking around for the next five hours, so I decided just to take the rest of the day off. Good thing, too, since the rains came in around 5:00, and I would not want to be stuck outside without an umbrella an hour away from home with those rains.

So I met up with everybody else, and Krishna, Viru, and Avijit spent 23512 years to finally decide that we were going to book tickets for the 7:30 showing at the R Mall. The two, along with Nick, went off to buy tickets and hang out at the mall. During the extra time, Suneeta, Anu, Emily, and I had to get photocopies of our passports and IDs, and obtain some passport photos. That sailed by fairly quickly. Suneeta, Krishna, and I headed off to the movies first. We took the train, and it was peak hours, but it was not as bad as previously described. We were merely sardines in a can instead of over-sized sardines in a can. I am still trying to look for a good metaphor to describe exactly how horrendous that one experience felt, but I am having problems getting a good grasp on words. We watched Pirates, that was good, then we had a restaurant with Punjabi dishes, and then we took the train home. Then I proceeded to crash, and my brain has refused to function ever since. Fairly uneventful. Perhaps I will describe the random weirdness of the movie theatre later, but now, I need to run to go to a meeting. Boo to weekend meetings. And also my inability to function right now.

India: The Nicer Side of Life

2007-06-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

Once again, I am the only one awake at the ridiculous hour of 7:00 AM. Granted, 7:00 is not all too bad especially when compared to 5:00 in the morning, but still. The past couple of days have been interesting. I think that the lack of sleep is also finally catching up with me.

On Thursday, after sending e-mails, etc, I just did some research for filter suppliers--melt-blown cartridge filters, candle filters, carbon-block filters, etc.--so I could obtain a large amount of cartridges to bring back to Berkeley to test, figure out a reasonable price, and just scout the market for water filters in general. I was able to make a few phone calls, make a few appointments, and send some e-mails.

According to an e-mail from Dr. Jeff Williams, a researcher at HaloSource, he will be putting together materials and literature for me regarding testing for E. coli and other coliforms, and potentially a quantitative way to test for things such as crypto, giardia, etc. that doesn't require PCR or immunoflourescent antibody tagging!! This is was too exciting. Unfortunately, he is currently in India, and does not return to the US for a few more days... ...but afterwards, I get to geek out about biology. I haven't had much of a chance, save when I first met Ajit and Annette again at Genesis and I was spazzing about my genetics labs and how I was able to play around with cloning genes, genetic mapping, Drosophila, RNAi and C. elegans, and more. Anyhow, we will see.

Until then, I have an appointment to meet with a researcher at EurekaForbes, the leading and foremost company in the water business here in India. That should be interesting. Nick is hoping to join me so we can also further discuss their marketing strategies. After speaking to Duane this past Monday, apparently EurekaForbes has had a great marketing and PR system. Hopefully we can learn from them in all different aspects, and adapt both technology development and marketing strategies to our project targetting slums instead of the middle-class market. Later today, I am meeting with some labs to discuss the project and potential water quality testing to be conducted. I wish I could wait for the e-mail from Dr. Williams to determine exactly what I want to set up, but that's okay.

By the afternoon, I just went back to the lodge and lay down and completely crashed and did not move for the next hour or two. Finally, we made our way to Krishna's place and waited for the owner of two flats to come back so we could sign the lease. Of course, we refused to get our hopes up considering that we have been this close before, and the bottom still fell through. Finally, after waiting for him to arrive 3 hours late, we finally have two flats for three months. Life is good again. Unfortunately, that night the rains actually came in. There was an intense amount of lightning and thunder, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but this also means that the monsoons are coming, and that they are coming early this year. This is slightly frustrating, and I hope that I can get the things done that I want to get done before the rains come in too hard so that we are stuck in the flat.

Anu, Emily, and I stayed at Krishna's place, and Viru and Avijit joined us to watch the first half of Rang de Basanti. It's not a bad movie, but apparently my nap in the afternoon was not enough, and I fell asleep within the first hour. I think it is one of those movies that I might buy for myself, though. It's not a Bollywood film, but I also want to obtain a few of those, too. Again, I wake up at 6 in the morning for no reason, and finally after everyone woke up, we spent most of the Friday morning and afternoon obtaining things such as new locks and keys, mattresses, chairs, mats, and other things for our apartment, and we also moved our luggage from the haunted house in Dadar to our new place in Tilak Nagar. Our apartment is going to be right around the corner from Krishna's, and also Arvind, our dearest wonderful friend from previous visits (who is the only other one who can compete with me regarding odd sleeping patterns) is going to be living one floor below.

After getting moved in, we took Krishna out for a girl's night out to thank her for everything that she has done for us in the past week or two. First, we had scheduled a pedicure spa for her.

(Photo courtesy of Anu)

It is so tempting to get one here. I have only had a pedicure once. By the second to last week in Kenya, all I could think about was to get a pedicure the day I returned back home. I could feel the eight to nine weeks of walking four miles every day around Mombasa/Likoni caked onto my feet. It felt like my skin had absorbed all of Kenya, and my feet would never feel clean again. The lack of running water did not help either. I wish I could say that around here in Mumbai, the situation is better, but I think due to the fact that this is an over-crowded city with over 51% of the population living in slums, and poor irrigation systems, that is not the case. If I felt that I had the money to do so, I would give myself a pedicure appointment the day before I left. Still, I would feel more comfortable having one done back in the US, but it is so much more expensive back at home.

Speaking of poor irrigation systems, yesterday there were men cleaning out the irrigation systems, which were basically just ditches that surrounded the buildings along the street. Of course, this means that the ditches have everything from dead leaves to most likely human feces. The smell while walking by is practically unbearable. That must be one of the worst jobs ever. ...The whole dynamics regarding jobs and servitude is just odd in general. It is so strange to be sitting around with my laptop while the maid just goes around cleaning up the apartment and washing our clothes for us. I cannot stand how, when I go clothes shopping, there is somebody standing there trying to get everything for me before I ask them to do so. Every time we go to a restaurant, or even when we are eating at Krishna's place, everybody things that I am odd because I want to serve myself.

Random tangents aside, after her pedicure, we made our way to Bandstand near Bandra and took her to the Taj Hotel for an hour and a half spa and massage treatment.

Anu, Emily, and I made our way to the litting cafe/dining area and treated ourselves to a little treat. Emily had a magarita, Anu had a Ferrero Rocher milkshake, and I got a Berry Blast. Also, there were these amazing bar snacks, which also have a story themselves. Originally, they had these three small plates: one with these AMAZING candied cashews, another with wasabi peas, and another with these flavored beans (that I am sure that I have had before... they remind me of some Chinese snacks, but I cannot remember when I had eaten them before).

So we were sitting there drinking our amazing drinks, listening to the live music, enjoying the air conditioning, and just devouring the cashews and flavored beans. Within a few minutes, two of the three bowls were empty, and the wasabi peas were also slowly disappearing. Our waiter walks by, and replaces our tray with full mini-bowls of the delectables. Again, less than ten minutes later, the nuts and beans are gone. He replaces our tray, and we all have a good laugh. Within five minutes, the waiter arrives to take away our already empty tray, and brings by two big bowls--one with the cashews and one with the beans. It was awesome. Finally, we finish those bowls too. We figure that it was time to stop it with the cashews and beans, but when the waiter brought by another bowl, Anu tried to tell him that we did not want anymore. Of course, Anu was smiling, which of course is the universal language for "Give me more!" and so we had another round of giggles and bar snacks.

Then, we meet Nick, Avijit, and Viru at Five Spice, where they had what they believe to be "good Chinese food." I could only smile and nod and wish that somebody else wanted plain steamed rice. Apparently ordering plain steamed rice is "a waste," since plain rice is weird and needs some sort of curry or "gravy." Oh well.

(Photo courtesy of Avijit)

Then Viru left, and the rest of us walked down the coast line, and found a grassy patch to sit down on. I ended up falling asleep while everyone else watched something on Avijit's laptop. We arrived at our flat, and I completely crashed, and I did not wake up until 7 in the morning. Hopefully I'm all caught up so I can be functional during the meeting today, and so I can trudge along Princess Street to buy things with Ajit. We shall see. We are supposed to either go watch a movie tonight, or go to a disc ( i.e. go clubbing) tonight, but I don't know if I have the energy to do so.

We have no running water in our flat this morning, still, and that sucks.

I really want a pedicure when I go home. And a good hair wash. Haha. I can be such a girl. ...Either that or I just do not want to feel a month's worth of India caked onto me.

It is warm.

This is Edith, signing out

India: Bug Feast

2007-05-31T06:01:00.000-07:00

The past few hours have made what is definitely one of the most miserable night ever, mental issues such as nightmares and hallucinations aside. Tonight is the first night that we are not staying at Krishna's place, and are staying in a nearby hotel. All in all, it is not a horrible place. It has beds, a fan, electricity, and running water in a bathroom that could definitely be a lot worse. Unfortunately, my genes suck, and this is not enough. As a matter of fact, I decided at some point yesterday that I am not very genetically suited for the environment. First of all, I have horrible eye-sight. There is nobody on my mother's side that does not wear glasses. I have been wearing glasses since I was five. Another fact is that I sweat a lot. Lovely image, I know. As I have been saying to people, I will drink about five liters throughout the day, and only pee about .5 liters. Finally, I am extremely prone to mosquito/bug bites. Basically, with me around, nobody else has to worry about being bitten because the bugs will go directly towards me.

Why do I mention all of this? This has become the perfect formula to having the most miserable night in existence. And yes, melodrama can be fun to play around with. So, it being about 2352C here with 512% humidity, I am lying in bed as sweat trickles down my forehead in almost a steady stream of disgustingness. The fan hovers more over Emily's and Anu's bed, but that was my choice because the other bed is close-by to a plug, and I didn't want to be caught awake at 6 in the morning with nothing to do; the battery to my laptop is completely shot and does not turn on if it is not plugged in. I thought that I was going to be able to handle it, but apparently I was extremely wrong.

Shortly after falling asleep around 1:30 in the morning, I woke up around 3:30 or 4:00 and have not been able to fall asleep since. I have been sleeping in practically no clothes and in my sleep-sheet, which is basically a bed sheet sewed into a very light sleeping bag. It seems that even that is too much. I was extremely tempted to just sleep on top of my sleep-sheet to try and access the little air I could feel from the ceiling fan. Still, I was hesitant since I attract bug bites better than a pile of dung attracts flies, and I already had a couple new bites on my arm in the couple of hours that I was asleep. Beautiful imagery, I'm sure. So, I spray on bug spray with about 98% DEET, which is strong enough to melt the plastic coating that is on my watch, and pull myself out of my sleep-sheet. About an hour later, I have about ten new bug bites from head to toe that are currently swollen to the size of quarters.

And so that has been my night. And now it's 5:30 in the morning, and I wonder how tomorrow night will turn out. Thank goodness I caught about an hour or two of sleep back at Krishna's place yesterday evening as Emily has procured us a flat for June 1st. ...Hopefully. I'm crossing my fingers, but also not counting on it since she has not signed the papers for it yet. Though, this time it seems more promising than the last time before the rug was pulled out from under us.

So yesterday, after the frustrating juxtaposition of our working on laptops and the slums propped up right outside the college canteen, I made my way to meet Suneeta at the Vidya Vihar station to go to Sion and meet with SAHAS. We went over the epidemiology questionaire that Suneeta will be conducting in the new slums in the Sion area before we try and implement any business or marketing plan. This business/marketing plan really is not to push for our water-filtration product that is currently not even properly developed yet, but it leans towards the side of education regarding hygiene and safe drinking water such as hand-washing and using chlorine in your drinking water.

After the meeting, I just went to the internet cafe and dealt with some e-mails with some people from HaloSource trying to obtain more contacts for further technology development, and also for some pointers regarding quantitative cyst analysis. Apparently it is possible to quantitatively test for cysts without something such as PCR or immunoflourescent antibody tagging, but unfortunately, the person is still in India and won't be able to be able to put together some literature for me for a little while.

Next, I got to meet Emily, Anu, and Nick had arrived by then for lunch at the Cream Centre. How I managed to arrive at the Cream Centre from the internet cafe is beyond me. Apparently I know my way around the convoluted, twisted, and unlabelled roads that is Mumbai--as long as you don't ask me and make me think how I did it. After exiting the internet cafe, I just started walking, took a few turns, and ended up at the correct destination. Thinking back, I am not even sure exactly how I had arrived there, and I cannot seem to make a mental bird's-eye view map. In fact, I think that even looking at a map, I would not be able to tell you the way that I had taken.

Afterwards was bumming around at Genesis Labs at Somaiya College and drinking really tasty chai while soaking in the air conditioning. If all goes well, I will be able to go with Ajit to buy filters and other lab supplies this coming Saturday. I really want to go before the rains hit, which is supposedly going to be by the beginning of next week.

I want better genes. :\ Oh well. I need to go take a shower soon or something so I can get started on doing more emails, fill out some documents, and call a bunch of labs.

Oh well. It is now 6 in the morning, and I have Jonathan Coulton's "Chiron Beta Prime" playing happily in my ear. Hopefully I can stay functional and lucid enough for the day. I do need water, though. I am pathetically dehydrated, and there is no more water around.

Hm. Another thing. I realize that for each day, I write about two pages single-spaced. I have no idea if this is a lot or a little. I'm not really used to writing about my day for others. Still, the main reason that I am doing this is because I don't want to be answering 2342 e-mails/chats that ask "So how is India? What have you been up to?" In general, I hate those e-mail updates and it is odd writing about my day for people, but I am lazy, and by the time that I get to talk to people back at home, I'd prefer not taking the entire time explaining the same thing over and over again. I don't mind having personal e-mails, but trying to explain the background of everything I am doing becomes tiring. In fact, I still don't think that most people know exactly what the Haath Mein Sehat project is, but oh well. I feel slightly conceited typing up pages and e-mailing them to people because I believe that they want to know, you know, every minute detail of what has been going on with me. Oh well, I'm sure I'll deal with that somehow.

I was thinking that my Indian name can be "Priya," but I am hoping for something more awesome.

This is Edith, all sweaty and itchy all over.

Photos:

Workin' hard at Krishna's.

India: Lazy Hazy

2007-05-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have just done a ton of crunches and some push-ups and took a nice cold shower, and feel so much better. It's interesting how different people become in different settings. Or rather, perhaps it's just me. Usually I'm the complete spaz and the one who wants to eat everything. Yet, since I have gotten to India, I'm definitely the quiet one compared to Anu, and I just stay in my "business/work mode," and practically stay that way for most of the day. Not only this, I'm actually wearing bright colors and I take long showers (and by long I mean 25 minutes including undressing-->dressing). Hey--if it's 35C all day and night with a billion percent humidity, a cold shower feels ridiculously good after an entire day and night of sweating. The water heater in this apartment doesn't work, but it doesn't really make a difference seeing as the cold water is actually almost lukewarm to me.

So apparently we are not able to get the nice flat that we thought we were going to be able to get by tonight. Yesterday morning, we received a phone call from the broker who told us that, the other day, while the owners were working on the papers that we were supposed to have signed last night, they randomly changed their mind, saying that renting it out for 3 months to us was not worth it, and so the flat went to somebody else almost immediately after that. So tonight, we are staying at some random hotel. So hotels randomly around the city NOT close to the airport are something like... comparing it to Motel 5 would be like comparing Motel 5 to the Ritz. They have a toilet, and they have a shower that I think might work. It does have electricity, though. I guess we'll figure that out tonight.

Yesterday was sort of a lazy day for me, I suppose. I had finished my reports and e-mail updates back to some other members of the group, and now I need to wait for their reply before moving forward. So, others slept in, and I wrote my reports. We got out just in time for lunch: roti, green peas masala, paneer tikka masala, and dahi potato puri. It's probably not so good that I am craving fake Americanized not so spicy tikka masala from Na'an 'n Curry. Afterwards, Emily and Anu went to some colleges in other areas of Mumbai to talk to the principle about recruiting more people for our project (that is currently now in junction with Krishna's Mahendi for HIV/AIDS-affected people), which, as I later find out, turned out extremely well.

While they went off to work, Krishna and I went shopping so I would have some clothes that I felt comfortable wearing in places like Behrampada. It's amazing how here, I feel uncomfortable and indecent even in my t-shirts because they feel so tight, and don't go down past my ass, but back at home, I will wear a deep v-necked halter-top and feel compeltely comfortable. So I obtained a couple more kurtas and another salwar kamis pants, and now I am compeltely broke so will not be buying anything for a while--a long while. I do have an idea for an entire salwar kamis set, but I don't believe that I will be able to get that anywhere, seeing as the colors that I want and the patterns on the fabric are basically dull and completely plain compared to anything else here. We'll see how that turns out.

The bus back was a ridiculous 1+ hour bus ride standing all the way. Unfortunately, after sitting for 30+ hours on the plane, and now walking everywhere and standing in the same place for over an hour without moving is taking a toll on my kneee. My knee has been giving me problems on and off, but nothing so major the past couple of months. However, with all of this traveling long distances and staying in the same position for the entire time, my right knee refuses to function, and trying to sit down and stand up is a pain. Oh well. So the bus ride back was annoyingly crowded, but I suppose you can't expect much else. The bus also stalled at some point, and wouldn't start up momentarily, which made me extremely nervous.

Another thing that I have been failing to mention is just all the beggars here. Yesterday had one of those moments that are ingrained in your mind forever. If anyone has spoken to me about Kenya, I'm sure that you hear about the image of the boy on his mother's lap the first day of work visiting the slums. Yesterday, at the Vidya Vihar station, the ticket office on the other side of the station was locked, and sleeping right in front of the locked gate on the steps was a small, emaciated child wearing a wife-beater and shorts. I suppose that I have gotten more used to the begging along the streets, but I still have that sinking feeling where my heart feels like it's being clawed at by harpies, and pieces are falling into my stomach one by one.

Ooh! Yellow flegm! I think the pollution and the dust might even be getting to me, and I think that I have a higher tolerance than others in general for it. Looking back, it's not like living in Taiwan whenever I visited my cousin and aunt in Tainan was that much different with regards to cleanliness on the streets. Regardless, Taiwan is still more comfortable than here in India.

I can't believe that it has been almost a week since I have left. Then again, part of that could be because technically, I have only been in India for half of that week since I was in the airplane for half of that time. The days are moving by pretty quickly in some ways in the fact that I am pretty much constantly doing something--either taking the train, bus, ricksha, or the occassional taxi, typing up personal or project reports, having meetings, doing some research, crashing, being around other people, and for the past few days, talking to people online back at home while everyone else is asleep (though, that is practically stopping right now since we have been using Krishna's laptop and internet and flat for too long). But still, sometimes the thought of how many more days can feel daunting when I think about all the different things that I have to deal with here: the frustrations, the uncomfortable feeling of standing out like a sore thumb, the politics that is Indian culture, not having fresh watermelon and berries to drown in, etc.

Oh well. Today requires a meeting with Suni at SAHAS regarding the epidemiology study, e-mailing important people, some research, and calling some professional labs or graduate schools to see about water quality testing. Also, Nick is arriving today. We still be staying at the lodge/hotel tonight... we'll see how that goes.

According to the newspapers, the monsoon is starting to hit early this year. The rains have hit Kerala on Monday, and there have been slight showers in the morning now. ...I really hope we get a flat before the big monsoons hit. The monsoon is expected to arrive in Mumbai next week. Great.

Lesson of the day: In India, wearing kurtas + churitas or salwars >> wearing any t-shirts + pants from back at home. Also, DON'T SCRATCH.

India: Chubby Bunny Indian Style

2007-05-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hm... okay. So apparently I'm still incapable of sleeping past 6:30 in the morning, but that's okay. The past day (and a half?) has been filled with all sorts of excitement of different varieties.

So the day before, after leaving the partially-cleaned haunted house, we returned to Krishna's place and felt lazy for the rest of the day until around 8:00, when Krishna took us out to a nice mall to get some shopping done--I got two kurtas and one salwar-kamis pants and one other pair of some pants whose name I currently cannot seem to recall (note: spelling could be COMPLETELY off) that I feel more comfortable wearing around, especially (a) since it's extremely hot and humid here, and (b) when walking around in the slum community, considering Behrampada is a Muslim community.

Afterwards, there was food that took forever to reach our table, and then at 11:00 while waiting for a bus, a man asked us if we were waiting for a bus for China or Japan. Krishna should have just let me say "Actually, I'm going to France" or "Yeah, I'm waiting for my bus back to Kenya," and then bust out in some French or Swahili, respectively. Then there was the amusement of returning and our attempting to surprise Emily for her birthday along with Abijit and Viru and Surbi. We stayed up until 3 in the morning or so sitting around and talking. One highlight of dinner was the point when Krishna realized that this "one weird thing in the canteen" from last summer that they had talked about was actually Anu. It was a beautiful moment.

Emily's birthday in India.

(Photo courtesy of Anu)

Then, three and a half hours later at bright and early 6:30 am, we woke up, showered, and then by 7:30, headed off. We took the 308 bus to meet up with Suni, another member of the Haath Mein Sehat project. She is our "summer intern," and she is a graduate student in public health at Berkeley. She has been putting together questions for an epidemiology study for some base-line data in the news slums in Sion that we will be working in. She has been to India before, but she only knows a small amount of Marathi, and she has never really travelled around the city outside of the protective family bubble. Then, we headed over to the ITC Grand Maratha Sheranton to meet Duane Dunk, a representative of HaloSource. HaloSource is a company that has been working on a bromine resine that kills bacteria and virus through direct contact of the water with bromine-coated polyester beads. Duane really loved to talk, and the meeting ended up lasting for about two hours; I didn't mind so much seeing as we were sitting in an amazing dining room with tea being served to us on platters and with the air conditioning smothering us with cool air.. Long story short, they have some interesting technology, and they are also connected and working largely with a couple large names that we want to work with: PATH, which has received a ton of money from the Gates Foundation to work on safe water and water-related illnesses, and EurekaForbes, the leading name-brand water filter/purifier in India that targets middle-class citizens. Duane seemed extremely impressed by some of our own knowledge and technology development, and also by our experience in working with the Indian culture, especially in the slum areas of Mumbai. This was an amazing find, and this meeting was inspiring for me to push myself to look for more technologies and to ask for samples to play around with for the next couple of months.

At 11:30, Anu, Suni, and I made our way towards Behrampada in the Bandra district, while Emily went to look for other places to live other than the haunted house in Dadar. We took the train, which was slightly full, but otherwise, none too eventful. There was a three-legged dog hobbling around that caught my attention at the ticket counter. The beggars become extremely uncomfortable at times, but sometimes one of us have crackers on us to give to them, which makes it a little better, I suppose. Regardless, I can't help but feel extremely guilt-ridden every time I walk by and wonder why I am unable to just completely change the system and the infrastructure of the world so abject poverty did not exist. One can dream, I suppose.

(Photo courtesy of Suneeta)

We arrived at Behrampada, and was amazed that we did not become completely lost in the process. First, we visited the house of Sumeena, who is the head of the Jai Maharasha Mandel.

(Photo courtesy of Anu)

The Mandels are the womens groups in Behram that consist of women pushing for more rights, independence, and other issues such as domestic violence, women's rights, HIV/AIDS, etc. We had begun working in Behram with the Mahila Mandels three years back, when the people in the community had claimed that clean water was one of their biggest issues that they have to deal with. That was fun, and we stayed around drinking chai, playing with her daughters, and talking about what has been happening for the past few months. We are scheduled to return on Thursday at 4:00 to attend one of the Jai Maharasha meetings. Next, we visited a couple more women, and are scheduled to return on Friday at 3:00 to go visit Naseema's daughter who has just been married, and also June 10th to visit Zakira again.

The dynamics of the politics of the slum, and just Indian culture will never fail to surprise me. First of all, Naseema has always been an interesting lady regarding her qualms with others. She had apparently sent an invitation to some of the Indian students that are working on the Haath Mein Sehat project to her daughter's wedding, and is extremely upset that they did not show up. Also, since both Anu and Suni are India, I was the token "foreign chick," and that was apparent when Suhti and Murdu (note: the names are most likely completely off save the first letter) showed up at Zakira's place to help us translate. I don't particularly mind since they helped us find the last house that we were looking for. I do not know how to even begin to describe Behram. It is literally just rooms stacked up on top of each other somehow, with wires and random lane pipes running throughout everywhere, not to mention the garbage and sewage that you attempt--and fail--to avoid splattering over all of yourself. The smell also leaves much to be desired. The heat does not help, either.

Around 2:30, we had to leave because we had our own respective meetings back at Somaiya college, and the three of us figured that taking the train would not be the worst idea in the world, considering how much an auto-riksha would cost, especially in the middle of the day.

So we were wrong.

No, we were extremely wrong.

The station at Behram was extremely ridiculous. Being fairly tall relative to the rest of the population, it was slightly easier for us to keep ourselves standing. Unfortunately, for Suni, being 4'11", life became suddenly extremely hard as she was being suffocated by the crowd that engulfed us. Trying to get onto the train was ridiculous, and the three of us barely made it on before the train started moving again. The closer the train got to Dadar, one of the large transfer stations, the more jam packed it became. I did not know that cramming so many people into one area was physically possible. In general, the train lurches around enough that you have to hold on or sit down lest you want to be thrown to the floor, or just straight out of the train door. Before reaching Dadar, it got to the point where first of all, there was almost no light entering the train car, and second of all, you did not have to hold on because there was no actual room for movement when the train did lurch. I was pushed up against this woman who was carrying her son in her arms. I believe that she was telling me that if I was going to Dadar, that I did not have to push because she was going there too. Unfortunately, I did not have a choice because this fairly large woman was behind me and pushing me so hard, that I did not have any autonomy over my own torso and limbs. The poor child looked as if he was about to die. Suni, being on the other side of the car that the exit was on for Dadar, was fairing about the same. By the time we stepped off of the train, she had one of those "I think I just saw a ghost" looks on her face. It was a bit exciting, to say the least. Overwhelming and something that I do not care to experience again, but exciting nonetheless.

I think we finally decided that it was like playing Chubby Bunny with marshmallows, with the people as the marshmallows.

Unfortunately, trying to find the right train to transfer to in order to reach the Vidyavidhar station was another 20-minute excitement that involved asking about 34,612 people, each giving us a different direction, climbing up and down 231,702 flights of stairs in 152C weather and 100% humidity, and finally boarding the correct train. We were not even completely sure that it was the right train, since that car happened to be one of the few cars that did not have a map of the stops posted on the wall.

Still, we finally arrived at Vidyavidhar station, and Suni and I went to Genesis labs to talk to Annette, Ajit, and Vishal, while Anu went back to Krishna's to pick up Emily to meet Hetal to talk about the budget. I had really missed being around Annette, Ajit, and Vishal. Maybe it is the molecular biology background, but they are my favorite people to hang around with all day while working; don't get me wrong, I love working with all of the students, but somehow working with these three have been the most fun. We sat around in the air conditioned lab meeting room, and talked about the future plans of water quality testing, both for E. Coli and other coliforms, and for testing for cysts. Since Ajit was leaving Genesis by this weekend, leaving only Annette to really do all of the work, we decided that moving water quality testing to either SIES College in Sion, or a professional lab, was the best move. On that note, Ajit is most likely coming to America! He will be doing his graduate work at UT Dallas, which means that, at some point, I need to go visit the oh-so-exciting city of Dallas. If he obtains his visa, then he will be heading over in August. Screw formality in my writing--I'm completely stoked!

Next, we discussed other issues that they could help me with, such as finding other cartridge filters to possibly test for. They will be calling vendors on Princess Street (yes, that's right, Princess Street), and seeing what can be done. Annette also had the contact for EurekaForbes, which just made me want to explode with happiness. ALSO, ANNETTE HAS AGREED TO OBTAIN A LAB COAT FROM GENESIS LABS FOR ME. It will be awesome, and life will be great. It will be like a souvenier, only a geeky one that I would actually wear in the future. :)

That being done, Suni and I went to find Anu and Emily; we discussed the rest of the week, then went home where I crashed for the next hour or two.

Then there was a lovely shower, people, dinner, and sitting around having girl talk until 2 in the morning. We are forever grateful that we did not have to stay at the haunted mansion last night.

Today should be a more relaxing day. I will be stopping by Genesis Labs to pick up my lab coat, look over results from water quality testing, and just to hang around until the afternoon, where I might tag along with Anu or Emily or Suni to either SAHAS or work on the education program.

Unfortunately, my stomach has been extremely queasy and is currently in pain, and also my legs look like there is a mini black diamond mogul ski-trail made onto it. Only, the moguls are extremely red and extremely itchy. Oh well. It's hot, and it's only 8:00 am. Time to type up a real report for the project.

Lesson of the day: You will be sweaty, dusty, and extremely dirty. Deal with it.

India: Summer Heat

2007-05-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

So. Currently, I am sitting in the haunted house dripping with sweat, and when I say dripping I actually mean I'm literally dripping with sweat. You can see the pool of sweat that has gathered at the front of my shirt. Lovely picture, I know. Now add to the picture a dark light, a musty kitchen with small table with a bright orange plaid cloth over it, and the smell of the loo next door. Yeah, now THAT is a lovely picture, I'm sure. So I am sitting here at the beautiful Gateway laptop Mike had acquired for me, while two maids are cleaning the place. The kitchen seems to be the only safe haven while the two women clean--all the other rooms are so engulfed by dust (and who knows, the ashes of the late Madam Gadgil? ...Okay, probably not. I should probably be slightly more respectful, but it's kind of fun, to be honest.) and cobwebs that you can't even see across the room at this point. The short and dainty but strong women are covered in a film of dirt. So is our luggage.

So yesterday, I was working on the backstory of this apartment, or "flat," as they call it. Apparently Ashok Gadgil's mother had died about half a year ago or so, and basically everything has been left as is. They had a tenant here, but heresay is that he was bad news. Anu believes that this man was a money launderer of some sort. Very exciting. Point being, her pile of shoes were still in the corner, along with a bone vaguely resembling an ulna--thank goodness it was plastic, a dirty plate was in the sink, and there are calenders sitting around dating 2007, 2006, 2003, and yes, ladies and gentleman, 1968.

We probably had a little too much fun playing mindtricks on ourselves and trying to decipher what happened to the late Mrs. Gadgil and who this mysterious "bad gentleman" was, but it made trying to clean up the place more exciting, to say the least. Basically, in a two-second soundbite of the day... "Oh my god, is that blood in the toilet?! Maybe it was Mrs. Gadgil's... ...but she was probably in menopause... ...I feel like I know her personally already... ...He was definately a money-launderer, a cocaine-dealer money-launderer! ...The dusty old suitcases lined up on top are discerning, and so is this bone in the pile of shoes... Maybe we won't be sleeping here tonight. ...Or ever."

...And wow, the phone just rang. That's not slightly disturbing at all. And, of course, Anu has to pick up the phone to see who it is. Perhaps it is the ghost of the late Madam Gadgil telling us to get the hell out of her place!

Or it could be something about financing and loans. That works too.

Shady, shady!

Anyhow, last night was kind of interesting. So I took a nap from 8-10 or so at night while Anu, Emily, and Krishna tottered off to go find the first ever rock concert to be held in India. Then I just bummed around until everyone returned around midnight. Unfortunately, the internet was shot, and most people wanted to sleep in the next hour anyway. I was tired enough, so I figured that I might as well. This meant that I would be awake by 4 in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep. I somehow managed to get some sleep from 8:00 to 8:30 in the morning, and perhaps a couple of minutes sometime before 9:30, but that's about it.

Since then, I have been planning meetings, and figuring out what I will be doing for the next couple of weeks. Ajit is leaving Genesis Labs, meaning that water quality testing might have to be done elsewhere, meaning that I need to train more students and other labs how to do membrane filtration and chlorine demand testing. I am also meeting Duane from HaloSource to talk about their chlorine and filtration products, and possibly network with them even more. They are a company that seems to be working on low-cost safe water projects and have networked with PATH and also another student group in Seattle, Potters for Peace program in Nicaragua. Additionally, I will be visiting Behrampada (the slum that we had originally started out in) just to see what has been going on. I can use my wonderful only two Hindi phrase I know, "App se milkar bardi hushi hui," it was very nice to meet you, and "Mera nom Edith hai," my name is Edith.

As for the rest of today, I am definately taking a shower at some point soon after I get back to Krishna's place, I need to work on a flyer, and I need to study the notes from Mike F. regarding HaloSource so I know what I'm going to be talking about tomorrow at 9 in the morning.

Tomorrow looks like this:

9:00 am - Meeting with Duane from HaloSource

11:00 am - Go to Behrampada

Afternoon/Evening - Meeting with Genesis Labs at Somaiya

As for the more personal feelings about this trip, right now, I'm torn. Sometimes I feel like I can conquer the world and stay here forever. In retrospect, I will probably be more proud of myself for being able to stay so long. Still, right now, there are so many other things on my mind right now, and also the prospect of extreme happiness and comfort when I get back ( i.e. Mike and my own apartment and the ability to go swimming, rockclimbing, kayaking, etc.) that makes me really want to be back at home. On one hand, I still want to be able to get stuff done. Right now, in the right mind-set ( i.e. not at 4 in the morning stuck with my own mind), I have many things I want to plan for and get done while I'm here. On the other hand, I don't know if mentally I will be able to stand being here for too long, and I don't really want to be here during the monsoon season. I suppose apprehension is a really big problem. I'm sure that if I really were here during monsoon season, it would just be something to laugh about in the future. As Michelle's friend says, "Adventure is discomfort remembered." It's true. It's exciting to be able to talk about experiences to either (a) share with others who have been in the same situation, or (b) share with others that have not had the same experience and give them a wider view of the world. In other words, it makes story-time more fun. We'll see how it turns out. To be honest, I don't even know if it's really the monsoon, but it might even be Erin that sort of drives me away from wanting to be here. I do want to be around a little when Mike is around, but even then, I don't think that's enough to counteract that horrible nasty feeling of inadequateness that Erin makes me feel. I don't know how she does it, but she's good at it. Oi.

Anyhow, it's 4:30 in the afternoon at this point, and the wonderful smell of dust and the loo lingers in my nose, and probably will for the next who knows how long. I think it might be time to head back to Krishna's soon, and to work on some things. I'm not sure how that's going to work tonight, seeing as Krishna's roommate is returning tonight, if I remember correctly. I'm still dripping with sweat, and there is work to get done. I'm still not eating properly, but we will see.

I have also taken a ton of pictures. Yay.

Covered in sweat.

Lesson of the day: Learn to wipe everything clean with only three squares of toilet paper.

Photos:

For some reason, seeing "Horn OK Please" on the back of trucks always tickles our fancy.

The haunted house of the late Madame Gadgil.

Uh... a bone amongst the abandoned shoes...

Oh yeah, and did I mention it was hot?

India: Round 2, Let's Go.

2007-05-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

So. It's finally been almost a day since I've landed in Mumbai. ...It's been an interesting almost-24-hours to say the least.

The flight over wasn't so bad. We stopped at Hong Kong, I watched the cleaning crew clean up and felt extremely guitly, and then got a cute little green circular sticker that said "Transit." We continued on to Singapore, where I had about a 9-hour layover. It wasn't so bad, seeing as they had amazingly comfortable chairs, gorgeous orchid and fern gardens, and free internet. Granted, the free internet was only available in 15-minute spurts, meaning that every 15 minutes I had to either play an awkward game of musical chairs--only with no music and with no chairs--or look around guiltily while I ignore the massive message on the screen letting me know that I had overstayed my 15-minute welcome. Still, it was pleasant, especially compared to the London Heathrow Airport; I didn't have to feel like I was too poor to be there. Finally, I boarded the plane, and slept my way all the way to the Mumbai Airport.

Transit sticker when I had a short layover in Japan.

Banners hanging in the airport saying "Welcome" in different languages.

The beautiful orchid gardens in the Singapore airport.

The moment I stepped off the plane and the warm stink of India hit my nose was the moment that it hit me that I was half way around the world and that it was time to get back to the working mindset.

To be honest, it has been extremely hard to prepare myself mentally for this trip. I'm not sure if it is because I am burned out, or because there have been so many other things on my mind recently, but I have not been able to find myself too excited about this trip. Perhaps part of the reason is that, the few weeks before I left, I had found an amazing group of people to be around all the time. The guys at Pixar have made me feel extremely welcome and completely loved, and for once, it's great to have a group of friends that actually know each other and hang out together, where, at the same time, I don't feel like a complete outsider. Sometimes I do, since they start talking about Pixar projects and begin to talk technical language that I can only dream to comprehend, but I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of Pixar interns together in one room; it's bound to happen. Another reason is just this whole... my major thing that's looming over my head like the beautiful thundercloud that it is. The thing is, I am sure that if I were back at Berkeley right now, I may not even be getting that taken care of. Right now, I feel that I would probably take care of it immediately, but that could be just a result of me being here in India instead of back there in Berkeley. Another part of the reason is that right now, I'm holding on to the strings of the beginnings of something that could be amazing, and right now, I fear that these two months will pull too hard at these delicate fibers and they will break. I have a feeling that if perhaps if it were six months down the line and I felt as if I had a stronger grip on it, then I would not be so worried. Great timing, as always. I guess the final thing is that I am just slightly tired of working on this project, or any project for that matter. In the long run, I still want to work in public health and public policy--both work on the ground and also work on the higher levels, but I guess right now there are just other things on my plate that I have to deal with, i.e. my own mental well-being and happiness. It sounds strange and foreign coming from my own mouth, or in this case, my fingertips, but the past couple of months have made me feel that I can actually say it and even believe it.

That being said, here I am in Mumbai, ready to get cracking on the work I have to do.

But, of course, first things first, and one of the first things to do is to move into our flat and exorcise the ghost of the late Madame Gadgil. Yes, you heard me correctly. The story goes something like this. So we were frantically looking for a place to live, and by "we" I mean Emily and Anu. Ashok Gadgil, a professor at Berkeley, offered his mother's apartment. The back story behind this apartment is that she had been living in it, and then she died.

I guess I'll continue updating this entry tomorrow... everyone is planning on going to sleep soon.

India: I think I'm heading back

2007-04-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that I will be heading back after all. For now, the plan is to leave May 23rd, and get back August 8th. We'll see how it goes.

India: Holy Crap It's Different Here

2007-01-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

India: 12/31/07 - 1/15/07

So here was my first trip to Mumbai... or rather, just India in general. It was definitely extremely different than my trip to Kenya or Guatemala. I suppose part of it was a result of going with more of a student-run group, instead of a larger NGO (non-governmental organization).

I have been preparing for this trip since September, I suppose. I had taken a DeCal (a student-run course recognized by UC Berkeley) on Technological Innovations for Under-served Communities. It turns out that this class was run by Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW). There was project centered in the slums of Mumbai, India, and they were working on a safe water treatment technology that was coupled with sanitation and hygiene education, Haath Mein Sehat (HMS). We had meetings to discuss what we were planning to do there. I was interested in both education/outreach to the community, and on technology development, with an emphasis on testing the equipment and doing water quality testing. I was hoping up and geared up for everything to work out perfectly.

Apparently I forgot that things tend to run differently in different countries.

Okay, that was a partial lie. Before leaving, I was actually extremely nervous about planning anything because I had no idea what the situation was going to be like there. I was told that I should still plan each day, and unfortunately, this made me extremely ambitious. One would think that being overly-ambitious is better than nothing, but I feel that I set myself up for disappointment.

It was definitely an interesting experience. I was immersed into the chaos that was Mumbai completely lost and without any idea of where I was going and what I was doing. I didn't know a lick of Hindi except how to count to five, everybody looked the same, everybody's name sounded the same, and each street looked like the next one. Unfortunately, when I have no clue what I am doing, sometimes I revert back into my shell, and I become too nervous to go out there and do things on my own. Unfortunately, we all supposedly had our own agendas and places to run. My problem is that I can push forward and be extremely ambitious of what I accomplish, but I need time to adjust and understand my surroundings before I am comfortable enough to do so. Also, getting sick with a 105 degree fever didn't help. Oh well. I'm not sure if I really want to go back, but we'll see.

And so here are some pictures from India.

Emily and I arrived at the airport in the middle of the day. Anu and Arvind helped pick us up and showed us where to go. Here was my first taxi ride in India.

A cow walking the streets as we walked to dinner that night.

We went to go visit Behrampada, the slum that HMS had started out working in. We went to visit the women in the community that we had worked with. Behrampada was nothing that I had imagined. It was extremely different than the slums of Kenya. The "houses" are piled and stacked up so high on top of each other, that even on a sunny day, when you are walking through the garbage-infested alley-ways, no rays of the sun actually hit the ground.

My first time to the trains in Mumbai.

One of the women we went to go visit. Her daughter does amazing mahendi (otherwise known as henna).

This young girl looks like she's in her mid twenties, but she is really only 12 or so.

Behrampada was a very different experience than other slums that I have been to. I think part of the difference is that, in Kenya, the slums were picture-perfect scenes of abject poverty. However, in Behrampada, everybody had cells phones, and many people had televisions. The level of education varies greatly, and not many people have to dig through the garbage to find dinner for the night. I guess population explosion and high property values is the issue.

Pigeons in a temple courtyard where we lived.

This picture wouldn't usually seem so amazing, but if I title it "Mumbai, India," it brings in a whole different feel to it.

Mannequins with half-eaten heads. (And who the hell dresses their child like that in India anyway?!)

And then we had some of our wonderful education meetings!

(Photo courtesy of Arvind)

This is Ajit, one of the people working on water quality testing.

We went out for fun sometimes, too. I believe that night we went clubbing at the Marriott at Juhu Beach.

On the streets, taken from a rickshaw.

Kitanu! (germs)

(Photo courtesy of Anu)

More meetings.

Apurav and his attempt at a germ.

We were trying to put together a coloring book. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be using tanks and violence, especially when we're putting it together for a Muslim all-girls elementary school.

Cards for "Memory!"

We went to go watch a play with some guys that we met when we went clubbing at the Marriott. Then we had dinner. Then we came across a group of homeless children, and we ended up playing with them on the beach all night.

(Photo courtesy of waiter in restaurant)

(Photo courtesy of Nirav)

On our last night there, it was Erin's birthday, so we went out to dinner with Arvind.

(Photo courtesy of Anu)

Arvind and I.

(Photo courtesy of Emily)

And that's all for now. We'll see if and when I head back.

Kenya: Summary of the Grant Proposal

2006-08-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

(Taken from the FSD webpage.)

The rate of macronutrient malnutrition is high in Kenya and often results in diseases and chronic illnesses that can be expensive to treat with traditional medicines. In many communities macronutrient malnutrition and related diseases can be effectively managed through proper nutrition and use of affordable herbal remedy alternatives to pharmaceuticals. Herbal remedies are particularly powerful as a familiar, effective, and less expensive alternative to other medications. Unfortunately, many community members lack awareness of or access to proper nutrition and herbal remedies.

The Society of Orphans and AIDS Network (SOAN) manage various healthcare, poverty eradication and microfinance initiatives along the Coastal Province of Kenya to prevent and mitigate the impact of AIDS and related opportunistic diseases on communities. FSD intern Edith Han worked with the members of SOAN and other community-based organizations to prepare educational posters and a resource booklet about nutrition and herbal remedies. These tangible resources will support efforts to expand awareness and empower CBO staff and community members to cost-effectively prevent and manage macronutrient malnutrition.

Future FSD interns have the opportunity to address macronutrient malnutrition and subsequent diseases through public awareness and education campaigns. Interns may also work to enhance public access to herbal remedies and the resources needed to improve general nutrition. Those interns with business skills may wish to promote the development and sale of herbal remedies as a business opportunity that supports community health, ensures the proper preparation and use of such remedies, and empowers the community to manage their health with local resources.

Kenya: Images of Mombasa

2006-08-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

Boarding Kenya Airways in Nairobi Airport.

During orientation week (I know, don't we look so chill?)

Inside a matatu (public transportation.)

Scenery...

Housemade (Maurine). She's either 16 or 18. Either way, she's young.

The goddamned ferry. I hate that thing. You have to be there to understand why.

Outside of the school.

Classroom for Std 6 (6th grade).

Logo for the office.

The office.

The office + people (Fred and Rohda).

My supervisor Michael Ker.

...Who apparently has no picture-taking skills.

Burning garbage outside of the school.

Students.

Doing everything by hand at the office.

These pictures are from the Midterm Trip to Diani Beach.

You gotta love the potholes. Especially when it rains.

Sunrise!!!

I really like the balance of this picture.

Giant snail!

Cool shell, yah?

Back to work...

Teaching Std 6.

Friend (Chiri) where I lived.

Friend (Garba) where I lived.

Host mom! Mama Rose! =) She was awesome.

Me and Maurine. I helped out in the kitchen and helped pick out peas and whatnot.

Teaching Std 7.

More Teaching Std 6.

More working in the office.

A common view outside of the office. How cute! ^_^ Unfortunately, you also knew that the dust and the dirt wasn't only dust and dirt...

Working with Mama Rukia on herbal medicine stuff.

In a Swahili house. We were making masala with pilau that day.

Pictures for documentation for grant project.

And then I came back home...

At the airport.

Kenya: Grant Proposal

2006-06-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Date: June 29, 2006
Name of Intern: Edith Han
Name of Host Organization: Society of Orphans and AIDS Networking (SOAN) -- Likoni
Name of Host Organization Supervisor: Zulfa Hamisi

Project Title: Providing Training and Reference Materials on Nutrition and Herbal Medicines to Improve Health and Well-Being of the Community in the Coastal Region
Project Area: Health, Community Education
Purpose: Providing a resource booklet and posters on nutrition and herbal remedies and educating members of SOAN Likoni and of other community-based organizations in order to educate many communities in the coastal region of Kenya.
Amount Requested: $290.00

I. Description of Project

According to a publication by UNAIDS and the WHO, an estimated 150,000 people died due to AIDS in 2003. Data collected by the Republic of Kenya, Ministry of Health shows that the prevalence of malaria along the coast often exceeds 50 percent. These and many more common diseases interfere with the livelihoods of not only the individuals, but of the entire community. When member of society becomes sick, they are unable to work and therefore cannot provide for themselves or for any of those who are dependant. Not only this, they drain resources due to the need to buy medicines.

The Society of Orphans and AIDS Network (SOAN) was created to help combat these problems and to relieve the burden of disease from the surrounding community. They tackle these issues in multiple ways including providing training in health-care and microfinancing, educating the community on topics such as disease prevention and poverty eradication, and networking with other community-based organizations (CBOs) along the Coastal Province of Kenya. The purpose of this project is to provide SOAN and other CBOs with reference books, posters, and training in order to educate those in the coastal region on nutrition and herbal remedies for common illnesses.

Nutrition is a key factor in warding off illnesses and slowing the progression of these diseases. Unfortunately, malnutrition is still a constant problem in Kenya. In the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Development (Vol.3 No.2), Tom Hongo points out that micronutrient malnutrition is highly prevalent in Kenya, and that voids and gaps in nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practice must be eradicated in order to allow the nation to further develop. Still, despite a balanced diet, illnesses will still greatly affect the community. Herbal medicines to help treat diseases and to relieve symptoms of chronic illnesses are an alternative to expensive medicines such as anti-retroviral treatments. They are cheap, effective, and easily accessible to the local population.

SOAN began an herbal medicine program last year to relieve symptoms for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. It was shown to be very success amongst the community, and this proposal is to help is further expand by providing more education resources and by reaching out to more communities.

Objectives
The overarching goal of this project is to improve the health of the communities in Mombasa, Kenya. Ameliorating the problem of malnutrition and providing information about accessible remedies to common illnesses within these different communities will be one step towards this end.

Methodology / Activities
In order to accomplish this goal, SOAN will put together a resource packet and make posters regarding nutrition and herbal remedies. This booklet will contain information on basic food groups, vitamins, minerals, constitutions of a balanced diet, and herbal remedies for common illnesses such as a cold, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and opportunistic infections. This information will be conveyed pictorially, in English, and in Kiswahili in order to reach as many people in the community as possible. Posters will be designed to emphasize the importance of having a balanced diet and to show the medicinal uses of herbs and plants commonly found within the community.

Furthermore, SOAN will hold a training-day on the importance of nutrition and the uses of these herbs. SOAN networks with multiple other CBOs in many different locations – Likoni, Kisauni, Vuga, and Kaloleni. Two members of SOAN who are herbal specialists will hold a one-day training for two people from each organization for a total of 36 trainees. During the training, these herbalists will explain what types of foods constitute a balanced meal and also show how to diagnose and to treat prevalent ailments with herbal medicines. At the end, these trainees will be given a copy of the reference booklet and of each poster as references for their offices in order for them to train other members of the organization and to outreach to the surrounding community that they work with.

Outcome
This proposal is the beginning of a widespread effort to improve nutrition and alleviate the burden of disease in the Mombasa area. Since these organizations are spread throughout the coastal region and work with different areas of the community, this training will reach a multitude of different populations. By training two members from other CBOs in different locations, the trainees can in turn train other members, caregivers, and health workers within their organizations and within the community.
These caregivers and health workers are the ones who interact with those in the neighboring community of that organization, and can pass the information to the local population. Since these reference books and posters that are distributed to other organizations will contain pictures and both English and Kiswahili, members in society will be able to use this information. As a result, information on nutrition and accessible treatments to common illnesses will benefit a large number of communities in a widespread area.

Target Population
The immediate beneficiaries will be the trainees and their respective organizations as they receive training and reference materials. The indirect beneficiaries will be the other members of the organizations and their surrounding communities. In the long term, the multitude of areas with which SOAN networks will benefit through further training and education of the population.

V. Organizational Capacity
SOAN was created in hopes of supporting the surrounding communities that have been afflicted with poverty and disease so that they can become self-reliant. In order to accomplish this goal, this organization has developed six different programs to tackle this issue from many sides. These programs are: orphan support, home-based care, youth, microfinancing, community education, and networking with other community-based organizations. For the youth and the orphans, SOAN holds fun events, scouting activities, and education workshops on HIV/AIDS and drug abuse. Additionally, SOAN also operates a local primary school that has recently begun a lunch program to help feed the orphan students. The members have microfinancing trainings and programs to allow members of the community to network and begin self-sustaining income-generating activities. The home-based care program provides trainings to caregivers, patient referrals, and mobilizes resources. As for community education, SOAN holds meetings about HIV/AIDS, sanitation, and poverty eradication. Finally, SOAN networks with a wide range of other community-based organizations in different districts of the coastal region in order to share different resources.

SOAN began an effective herbal medicine program to relieve symptoms for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. This program was evaluated by seeing whether or not the local community began to use herbal remedies, and it was a success. This shows that SOAN is effective in communicating such information and carrying out health education outreaches. Through their networking program, SOAN demonstrates that it holds its member organizations accountable and that it will be able to monitor such an extensive project. Members are constantly working together to ensure the progress of these programs, and this demonstrates that SOAN has many committed individuals and has the power and the desire to carry through and reach many people within different communities.

VI. Intern Capacity
As an intern, I will be able to facilitate the project as the booklet is being put together. Since I have an interest in the biological sciences and have taken many classes on nutrition and diseases, I will be able to provide input and more information. Not only this, even though I do not have an extensive background in herbal medicines and am not as well established with the other community-based organizations, I have background in outreaching and teaching health education, and can offer suggestions in how to create a more effective training day. Finally, I will be able to help facilitate and coordinate the training day. In the past, I have helped coordinate and organize such functions, and can interact with the attendees and assure that everything runs smoothly.

VII. Sustainability
This project will promote a lasting solution to the need of educating communities about having a balanced and nutritious diet and informing them of the uses of herbal medicines to cure or relieve symptoms of extremely prevalent diseases. By supplying not only SOAN Likoni, but multiple other community-based organizations with whom they network, an organized, hard-copy of necessary information to maintain a healthy and productive livelihood and with posters emphasizing nutrition and the importance of herbal remedies, these organizations will be able to continue to hold trainings and to educate the community in the future. Moreover, people in the surrounding areas will be able to go to these organizations for references on specific ailments if the need arises.

SOAN has shown the ability to maintain such community education and networking programs. By being provided with these materials, they will be able to further educate more people more effectively. Since they already have outreach programs and these resources will last a long time, there will not be any immediate need of resources in order to sustain this project.

Kenya: Jambo.

2006-06-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

I am working through a San Francisco-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Foundation for Sustainable Development in the coastal region of Kenya. I'm living on the island near Mombasa town, but I work in Likoni (on the mainland) for SOAN, Society for Orphans and AIDS Networking.

I'm teaching 6th and 7th grade science in a school with no windows and no electricity. I am working on a grant proposal that will help SOAN and I create a booklet on nutrition and herbal medicine and hold a training on the information with neighboring Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). We'll see.

Take care.

Guatemala: The Picture Archive

2006-04-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

I was able to go work at an orphanage for HIV+ orphans in Guatemala with Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS). I went during spring break of my junior year (2006). This was my first time going abroad by myself to a place where I knew nobody to work. Unfortunately, there isn't much of written documentation, but there are pictures. Lots of pictures.

Here we go:

Holy crap, I'm on the plane and going. ...This will be interesting.

The group when we arrived.

Unfortunately, we were originally not allowed to take photos of the orphanage that we were working in. Because of the stigma that goes along with being HIV+, they were afraid that these pictures might be used against the children in the future. The orphanage, though, is amazing. They are being supported by UNICEF, and not only does the organization provide care and anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment to the orphans, but they also provide free treatment to those in the area whom are too poor to afford the medicines themselves. Additionally, the patients are provided free dental care, and other medical services.

So, for now, lots of pictures of us having fun in Guatemala.

Antigua. Antigua is an amazingly tourist-y place. Still, the architecture and the culture of the natives were able to shine through. Personally, I was torn. I was amazed and awed by the richness of the culture--the bright colors, the beautiful people, amazing handicrafts, the breath-taking architecture--and I wanted to take pictures to document everything, but at the same time, I felt horrible watching people live in poverty and subjecting themselves to be just a display for rich tourists. Still, I suppose I still have some pictures.

When we first arrived in Antigua:

Inside a hotel.

On the streets.

The famous Volcan de Agua (Volcano of Water) overlooking Antigua.

A... city hall type thing...?

We had lunch somewhere. They had an amazing jalapeno turkey noodle soup.

The beer in Guatemala.

And more pictures...

Probably one of my favorite pictures from Guatemala.

Mangos on a stick!

Le Merced Church. It had amazing architecture and engravings. We arrived during some ceremony or festival... I unfortunately cannot remember. I believe it might have something to do with Easter...?

They had really creepy looking statues inside depicting the saints, Jesus Christ, etc.

Inside was this beautiful artwork made of dyed maize flour.

Walking around Antigua some more.

They had this really intense procession. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture more pictures since my camera ran out of batteries. :(

Then, after playing with the orphans for a bit, we went to the new location that the orphanage was going to move to. It was amazing. It went from what looked like a very small elementary school to a vast, expansive land with new beautiful buildings. We went there to check the place out, and finally to sort the most ridiculous bundle of donated clothes.

The shanty-towns we passed on the way home.

I think some of them might hate Americans. ...Who can blame them?

And it turns out, during that car-ride home, there was a large protest going on the streets. Instead of 20 minutes to get back to the CCS shelter, it took possibly up to three hours. I have never seen traffic so ridiculously backed up before.

Our pet parrot at the place. :)

We went to visit a famous castle/battlement, but I unfortunately cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was called. (This is what happens when you realize a year and a half later, that you should document everything.)

Some of the girls.

More sorting!

The mold and the dust became unbearable, so wore these dorky masks.

The pile of clothes we sorted!

Then we went to a coffee plantation thing! It was aewsome.

Coffee berries.

Back exploring Antigua.

Then we went to a museum, where they had amazing chocolate (just cocoa powder, sugar, and a tad of cinnamon.) The artifacts inside were amazing. No pictures allowed, unfortunately.

Oh, and we also were able to make our own "artifacts" out of clay. Mine is now sitting on my "travel shelf" in my room.

Then it was our final night out in Zone 10, the party zone of Guatemala! (Oh yes, Guatemala City is broken up into different zones. The center one, is the original site of Guatemala City, and each zone that is added on grows in a spiral formation around that center.)

Dinner!

...in a place that had the oddest collection of... things?

It was our final day in the orphanage. We played with the children all day, and took them out for a walk around the area. They were awesome. I managed to start something by taking the kids on my back, swinging them around, etc. I don't know if the doctors would have approved, but the kids sure did. Unfortunately, I cannot remember most of their names anymore. I had them documented somewhere, but I think it might have accidentally been deleted.

This was probably one of the favorites. She was adorable, but extremely shy.

Personally, she was my favorite:

The cutest picture ever:

This little guy was Christopher.

Soon, it was time to leave, and everybody put their hand prints with a name and a year on the wall.

One more night of fun and dance.

...There was a creepy guy who asked me to dance. But hey, it was dancing, and it was in Guatemala. How could I refuse?

The morning of departure...

The parrot!

The wall.

Of course, being the tallest chick ever, I needed to be the tallest hand-print.

Our awesome driver:

On the flight home.

I've decided that I am going to submit this for an Airline or flight magazine. ...Just kidding.

We had an awesome lightning show on the way back.

And that was all.

Introduction (dated incorrectly just to fit in the beginning)

2006-02-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

So I suppose that I should try and keep a better log of my travels. In retrospect, it might be better to have done all of this while I was there, but then again, who wants to sit in an internet cafe for six hours in an internet cafe uploading ten pictures, especially when a power-outage could happen at any time?

Still, I've decided at least... retro-blogging and back-dating my entries would be worth it both because people have bugged me for pictures and have asked me to recount my stories, and also because it reminds me where I've been and what I've learned.

Well, here it goes.

(Posted: 8/8/2007, 11:30 AM)