My Summer with Inspire

I feel like my summer with Inspire is only valid with a soundtrack.

A nice cold Bir

Our last hours in the mountain village of Bir and I'm surrounded by monks at the internet cafe. I'm trying not to think about all of these "lasts" -- the last time I get to hug this family at Inspire that we've created, the last time I eat a Momo (Tibetan dumpling), the last time I crouch for hours on a bus that swerves treacherously between cliffs and falling rocks. But that time has come, the Walrus said.

I've been so spoiled the last ten days staying at a former Buddhist monastery and eating amazing food and Cadburys. It's hard to remember that for a few weeks I was sweating so much that I never had to pee, and that the ground had become as good as a mattress. Yesterday evening I sat at 9000 feet, clouds moving through me, thinking of every home we had been welcomed into and every meal we had cooked or served. Maybe it was the altitude, but there was a lightness on that grassy patch that I could only call divine.

There are so many things about India that I will never understand -- disparity, hunger, politics, and the way women survive through alcoholic husbands and intense labor. But so many more things that I love enough to stay and return -- the raw reality, the fields of crops, the little girls who follow you and scream "Didi" and hold your hands.

So here it is, the last day. At times it felt so far away, mostly when I sick or covered by welts from mosquitos. But mostly it was a day that I tried to avoid and push away until it came time to buy my ticket to Hyderabad. I'm so grateful that I get to go from this family to more family and a wedding and love. But until then, I am Inspired.

How Bazaar

On the terrace of the building 13 in Khan Market, the smog lifted and I was happy.

Our last night in Delhi was a jam session. Students from Manzil, an education based NGO, played Hindi songs with acoustic guitars, tambourines and a rhythmic dhol drum. My entire body responded to the frequency of the beautiful music and I sang and tapped my feet and danced with a presence that had left me since our night walk with Jamghat (what I described in my last post).

Over the past few weeks our own group of 21 (we picked up some people) had become a traveling orchestra in its own right. We visited a flute maker and now about 10 people practice the raspy bamboo flutes on our train rides and during meetings. There are also guitars, ukeleles and goosebump-worthy singing voices within the circle.

Last night wasn't about the Indians or Americans or the technique or our education -- it was about the absolute joy that came from a bunch of young people wanting to get lifted. And I got there fast.

Now I embark on the last leg of this journey. I have learned more in the past four weeks than I have in years of college and I'm hoping this week in the mountains will help me start to absorb and digest everything I've seen and done.

I know now that so much of what I thought was backwards and regressive about India is actually its saving grace. I feel like the girl who got off of the airplane on June 22 was some breed of hippie-colonist who thought if only those tribal kids would learn English and the government would transform slums into proper living areas, everything would be just fine.

But now I know that a farmer's adamant refusal to leave his land helps India's soil and fabric more than teaching calculus will. I know that those squatting toilets in the ground are the reason that people still have enough water to drink.

Last week I was wrist deep in cow dung and I have never felt more American. But it's just grass, and we are all just people.

Warning

If there is a hell worse than the drugged, midnight streets of New Delhi I don't want to know about it.

The past few weeks in the tribal villages and organic farm have been creating fire within me, but not sorrow. I played with smiling children whose parents were miles away rallying for the right to the land that they've lived on for years. I cooked a meal for twenty people with ingredients grown on the few acres we were living on.

But right now, as I stand in this hostel, I feel far away from the encouraging notion that there is good energy and work. Instead I feel a weight and a pain from seeing so many faces, ravaged by cocaine and marijuana and sniffing white out and falling asleep in the medians of busy streets while namaz plays over loudspeakers from Jamma Masjid. And I am physically and mentally sickened and trying to remember my power rather than the open palms I have held out in hopelessness.

But the line for the internet is long and I don't have the energy or clarity to explain more. Know that I am healthy and hoping to share more with you soon.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

Athithi Devo Bhava

At night the heat is a little less and you don't feel the mosquitos because you are so tired. I sleep on a cot in the small garden of a village family. I hear them breathe deeply around me, I hear the dogs that don't stop barking and the buffalos next door. I wonder how they sleep through the noise, but after a day of planting trees in the beating 110 degrees, I don't have the energy to wonder.

In the past ten days I've bathed outdoors with buckets, slept on the floor in the center of a slum, and been welcomed into families that sacrifice their daily water so that I can bathe. The guest is god, the Hindu scriptures say, and I am treated as such until I plead to do some work and to use my hands. I scrubbed the floors of a grocer who makes just enough to give his daughter a toy on her birthday. I bathed children who have no running water and can only shiver from the lukewarm bath because they are not accustomed.

I'm pushed every day, from 5 a.m. until midnight. I feel dirty, sweaty all the time. I handwash my clothes and they never feel or stay clean. I haven't felt AC or toilet paper since I was at home. The food disagrees with me and fights and usually I sleep with hunger and cramping. I eat food that is chopped on the floor and cooked in pots that are washed with mud and sand from the ground.

But then I wake and do some yoga on any patch of grass I can find. I spend the day with people whose entire lives are dedicated to walking through these slums, teaching children to face the world with knowledge. These men and women are fearless -- they visit houses infested with tuberculosis and check on everyones medications and hug the old grandmothers and play with the children. I can only wonder of their strength.

I feel conscious in a way that I am still figuring out. I laugh all day and cry once in a while and feel kindred with the seventeen other sisters and brothers that I sleep, travel and eat with. And it has only been ten days.

New York to New Delhi

My stomach usually figures out that I'm nervous before my mind does. My thoughts have been on smaller things -- buying a pocket knife, the weather in Helsinki for our 10 hour layover. But my stomach tells me that these next six weeks are something I have no way to prepare for.

I've been to India nine times now. I've been in the mountains and stood in sweaty lines at temples. But I've never slept in villages, tilled the soil of desi farms or spent hours with children that have swollen bellys from malnutrition. I've never stood in 108 degree heat if it was not in transition from house to shopping.

And while I've studied about corrupt Monsanto seeds and Gandhian philosophy in the air conditioned auditoriums of UF, the practice of something so simple yet intense is going to be much different. How will it feel when I see the weathered faces that result from greedy multinationals?

So here I go, with less luggage than I've ever traveled with and less sure-footedness than I'd like to admit. With two days of internet in five weeks and a cell phone that will only work sporadically, I will be connected in an entirely different way. Stay tuned.

India Intinerary

Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Introductions of participants and of the program. Introduction to ‘education’ in India. Introduction to ‘Gandhian’ thought. Experiencing the reality of the slums of Ahmedabad. Experiencing the ‘spirit’ of service being lived and feeling the power of relationships, love, and positive thought. Becoming inspired. We will be staying at the Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI) campus.

Baroda, Gujarat

Agriculture and farmer issues in India. Organic farming. Potential of naturopathic treatment. We will be staying at the Vinoba Ashram where our meals will be provided. We will be staying at the Vinoba Ashram where our meals will be provided.

Sakad/Sendhawa, Madhya Pradesh

Exploring alternates in education. Create your own project. Active participation in farming, teaching, cooking, health treatment, etc. Experience of living in a village and exploring rural life. Adivasi (tribal) rights. Session with inspiring leaders pertaining to social justice issues and people's movements. Exploring various notions of development and progress. We will be working with and staying at Adharshila Learning Center

Melghat, Madhya Pradesh

Helping doctors fight malnutrition and disease during the monsoon season. Building toilets and running water system. Being introduced to a grassroots development organization. We will be working with and staying with Melghat Mitra

Delhi

Interactions with college counterparts involved in social work. Glimpse at social, environmental, and developmental concerns and inspirational work by people within their own communities. Experience of the reality of living on the streets. We will be staying at the International Youth Hostel where most of our meals will be provided as well. We will be working with the following organizations: Manzil, SWECHHA – We For Change, and Jamghat.

Ram Garth/Dehradun, Uttaranchal Pradesh at Bija Vidyapeeth Campus

In-depth look at farming issues in India through a series of workshops on India’s Green Revolution, farmer suicides, use of pesticides and fertilizers, the possibilities of organic farming and its benefits and environmentally sustainable living. Participation in organic farming, gardening, and composting. We will be staying at the Bija Vidyapeeth .

Kempty/Mussoorie, Uttaranchal at SIDH

Interactive sessions about decolonisation and Gandhi, and further exploration of the self, the other, society, nature and the inter-relations of each. Introduction to Jeevan Vidya philosophy. Supplementing this with exposure to village life and re-looking at the purpose of education. Exploration of our own sense of responsibility and contribution through daily, hands-on work (shramdaan). Tuning into our senses through activities such as rafting and trekking in nature. Holistic picture. We will be staying at the Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas (SIDH) campus, where most of our meals will be provided.

Delhi (August 1 – 3)

Debrief. Evaluation. Feedback. Planning for 'what next?' We will be staying at the Scholar’s House of Jamia University, where most of our meals will be provided.