I’m not sure that anyone can fully describe India with words, or even get more than a glimpse in a five day visit. India very different from the US, on the roads there are truly no rules except “Blow Horn” and “Use Dippers at Night” the dippers refer to the stalk used to flash your brights. These two rules are painted on the back of nearly every truck in an attempt to maintain a certain level of order slightly above chaos. Believe it or not cows are king of the roads in India then trucks, buses, SUVs, cars, auto rickshaws, and finally people. For those unfamiliar cows are a very holy animal and many Hindus would be honored to be reincarnated into one, even stepping in cow crap is considered good luck. Also don’t drink the water in India, not even the locals drink straight from the tap in a lot of places. People do however drink from the Ganges River were they also bathe, use the toilet, brush their teeth and dump ashes of those cremated on the riverbanks. Although they won’t burn children, lepers, or pregnant women they do put them in the river as an honorable burial. It was hard for me to believe until I saw it with my own eyes. The Ganges is in Varanasi, the world’s oldest constantly inhabited city. We also saw the Taj Majal and the Red Fort in Agra that is also the handicraft capital of India. According to our tour guide the Taj cost $60 million USD over 350 years ago. It was really impressive, and pictures do not do it any justice. I spent the first four days traveling and seeing the sights that I just mentioned, but on the last day I did a service visit to a disabled children’s home. This facility is home to over 100 children aged five and up. They aim to educate the children, and train life skills as well as vocational skills if possible. Although they only used to care for children who suffered from polio, cases are very rare today in India. Now they deal with cerebral palsy, mental retardation and various physical handicaps. One of the children affected by CP who is now actually thirty now was found in the garbage, some lady saw his toes wiggling and brought him in. Today he uses those same toes to paint, use a computer, and even a cell phone. He is actually a talented artist and I brought several of this postcards and one of his prints. While at the children’s home we got a brief tour and spent the morning cleaning and doing small projects around the grounds. After eating lunch (off of banana leaves and with our hands) we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the children. They absolutely loved to have their picture taken and then see themselves on the screen, and especially liked taking pictures on their own. We played board games, and socialized with the kids over ten. The younger kids just ran around and climbed on me, they really liked it when I picked them up to spin around and circles. They probably don’t get a lot of human touch, especially from foreigners. Although they never seemed to get tired of it, it sure wore me out. Overall I’m glad we went to India, but I’m also happy that it’s all over. Nobody had classes the day after India, so that people could just process everything and rest.
