Cremations, Taking on the Dowry and Getting to Know Buddha

Last weekend we went to Varanasi. Varanasi is a big city on the bank of the Ganges. The Ganges is the biggest river in India and one of the biggest in the world. Some say it's also the oldest city in the world. Friday was a travel day. First we took a train to Delhi where we waited for 6 hours. We went to a Starbucks in Delhi and everyone was super excited because they hadn’t been to one in a while. We then took a super short plane ride to Varanasi. We went to a restaurant to have dinner and then headed to our hotel. The next morning we got up really early while it was still dark to go on a sunrise cruise on the Ganges. Unfortunately, I woke up pretty sick. I had a bad headache and a very sore throat. We took a car part of the way from the hotel and walked the rest of the way. Surprisingly there were a lot of people out, and it wasn’t even 6:00 in the morning! It turns out the boat cruise wasn’t exactly a cruise. It was a ride in a rowboat. The sun was hidden behind the clouds too, but even though it wasn’t exactly what we expected, it was fun. After about an hour of being in the water, we went to see a temple. Our guide said that it was the most popular temple in India. We walked through crowded, narrow streets full of animal dung. A lot of people are cremated on the riverbank and the ashes are thrown in the water. When we were walking the narrow streets, we saw a dead body being carried past. For me, unlike everybody else, it wasn’t that overwhelming. My senses were at zero because I had a headache, sore throat, a runny nose, and I was dizzy and nauseous. For everyone else, it was kind of a shock. It turns out we couldn’t actually go into the temple but that was okay because we could see it from the outside, or so we thought. All we saw was the top of a dome made of gold.

We headed back to the hotel after that. We had breakfast, which was eggs and toast, and rested a little. Our hotel was pretty unpleasant. It was old, musty, and dark. So, we switched to another one. I think the new one was a lot better and more welcoming. Before lunch we went to the site where Siddhartha Gautama, the original Buddha, gave his teachings for the first time after being enlightened. First we went to his temple and learned about him and Buddhism; I’ll talk about that later. We also went to the ruins of the place where he spoke. The whole place was dedicated to Buddha. There was even a museum that we went in and learned some more. After a long time at the site we went to have dinner at the same place we did the night before.

The next day we relaxed until 10:00, when we went back to the Buddha site to see a giant statue of him that was closed the day before. We had lunch there and then started a city tour of Varanasi. We visited three temples, one about Mother India, a big Shiva temple, and a Durga temple. The first one, Mother India, wasn’t exactly the kind of temple that we were used to. It had a huge 3-D map of India etched in marble on the ground and some paintings of famous Indians. The Shiva temple was my personal favorite. It was located inside a university, actually the biggest university in India and the guide said the third biggest in the world. The temple was really big and beautiful. The thing that’s interesting about Hindu temples is that the outside is usually big and decorated, but the inside is just a plain small room. The Durga temple (Durga is Shiva’s wife) wasn’t that exciting. When the city tour ended we rode a Rickshaw (bikes with carts on the back) to the Ganges for a sunset cruise! Every evening the people of Varanasi have a ceremony of lights and there are about 10,000 people that gather every night. It is so crowded that it’s hard to move. There were 7 priests who lead the ceremony and tons of people following. We took another rowboat out on the water and went to see some cremations, but from a distance. There are a lot of bodies being burned each night and after one body is burned, another is brought in. It was really interesting how they do it. They stack sandwood and put the body under. They light the sandwood on fire and when the body burns, they throw the ashes into the river. It was a good experience, even though it was a little freaky and overwhelming. Varanasi wasn’t as fun and relaxing as Goa or Himachal. It wasn’t as pretty as the Taj Mahal. But I thought it was good in its own way.

Siddhartha Gautama was the main founder of Buddhism. He was a prince, the son of the king of a tribe called the Shakyas. His whole childhood and beyond, his father kept him secluded from the world, so he didn’t have to see the suffering in others. One day, when he was 29 he finally went out to see the world. He saw a very old man, a diseased man, and a decaying corpse. His charioteer explained that all men grow old, get sick, and die. The next day Siddhartha left the kingdom, and his wife and baby to lead an ascetic life. For six years he did that, but he was never quite satisfied. Finally he decided that he was going to sit under a tree until he found what he was looking for. That’s when he became Buddha, the awakened one. He went around teaching what he had learned to other people. He talked about the four noble truths and the eightfold path. The four noble truths are: life has suffering, there’s a cause to suffering, you can end suffering, and how you end suffering, which is the eightfold path. The eightfold path is right view, right intentions, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Buddha said that if you do these things you would end suffering. Buddhism is not like other religions where you worship a god or gods. Buddhism is more of a practice. I thought it was cool learning about a new religion, the 5th most practiced religion in the world.

If you remembered, the Young Dreamers and us had started a new community service project about child labor and the importance of education. We’re helping them keep kids in school until 12^th grade. So here’s the update: we executed it! Let me explain. A couple meetings ago we decided we would have a community discussion, kind of like the one in the Elephant Village, to talk about education. We also decided that the Young Dreamers would lead the meeting. (They also pretty much led the project.) We would also have a pledge that people would sign that said they wouldn’t give or ask for a dowry. On Wednesday we went door to door asking people to come to our meeting. We had the meeting on Thursday at 4:00 and everything went as planned. At the beginning, I was getting nervous because nobody was coming, but at 4:05 the tent space started filling up. Harish, one of the Young Dreamers, opened up the meeting and introduced who was going to talk. We had four topics to touch on, the benefits of education, the importance of daily education through 12^th grade, ending child labor, and the problems with the dowry. It was nice because one Young Dreamer talked for each topic and for some of them a parent talked also. For dowry, a dad and a mom talked! The dad went on and read the dowry pledge out loud in front of everybody, then he said that he completely agrees with it and that he would sign it, saying he will not offer or provide a dowry for his daughter. That was a huge risk on his part because a lot of people could be angered by his words and he depends on them to buy his vegetables every day. I thought it was really cool that he cared so much about this cause that he was willing to speak out loud against the dowry. After the meeting we asked people to line up and sign the pledge. We got 25 signatures! That was a huge success. Although we got 25 signatures, the biggest thing is that the Young Dreamers learned how to do a community service project almost all by themselves. Now when we leave they can continue doing projects on their own. So two projects in India, the first one was bigger than the second, but the second went deeper than the first. One thing that has been deeply engrained in my mind by participating in these projects is this: always take the first step, no matter how hard it seems, no matter how far away the goal is, take the first step and everything will fall into place. If you put your mind to something and try really hard to do it, amazing things will happen.

We leave for Guatemala on Wednesday so my next post will probably be from there. I’ll tell you all about our last few days in India.

Camels and the Festival of Lights

Last Saturday I rode a camel! Yes, a camel! We went on a camel safari in the Pushkar desert. My camel's name is Baba and he is 15 years old, which is pretty old for a camel because they usually only live 20 to 25 years. The camel driver, Jay, was super nice and friendly, and spoke really good English. I could talk to him about a lot of things. Jay was only 23, and he'd started camel driving when he was 13! I loved riding on a camel. I felt super alive when it started trotting, like I was just another part of it. Other than a sore butt, I loved every part of it. The view was also really nice. I could see a lot since the camel didn't go very fast. We camped out in the desert and it was so much fun. It’s crazy how we were camping in the desert and a week before we had been camping in the Himalayas. The dinner, surprisingly, was really good. We had grilled chicken, grilled paneer, bread rolls that were cooked underground, dahl, and potatoes. Sitting around the campfire, talking was pretty cool too. We told stories and talked about our experience in India. The next morning I woke up early to see the sunrise. It was very different than the one in the Himalayas, because we were at sea level instead of 10,000 feet, but it was still spectacular. At 7:30 we packed up our things and rode our camels back to town. We went to a little hotel where we cleaned up and had breakfast. We walked around Pushkar and then went to a natural lake. The lake in considered holy water, where Brahma, one of the three main Hindu gods, the Creator, and his second wife Gayatri had a ceremony. Many people bathed and prayed there. We did the ceremony of prayer that the pilgrims were doing. It consisted of offering seven things: red powder for good health; yellow powder for luck; rice for food provisions; sugar for sweet relationships; flowers for peace; the holy string for safe travels; and a coconut as a donation to the gods. We also went to the one and only Brahma temple in all of India. There were tons of people from all over trying to get in. Since Brahma is one of the three main gods, it was pretty cool to be there. It's interesting though because all the other gods, including the other two main gods, have hundreds of temples around India, and Brahma only has one. The market in Pushkar is huge! I got a traditional Indian boys shirt, for Diwali, and a journal where I'm going to write about every day from now on. We also saw a small street performance of two girls who were extremely flexible and did a bunch of tricks. My time in Pushkar was really, really fun. Later that day my mom got home safely from Nepal. She had been there since Tuesday for a small vacation with a friend. She had a great time in Nepal while we were having a great time in Pushkar.

Monday and Tuesday morning were the funnest I’ve had in a long time. On Monday I went to the YDN center to celebrate Diwali with the kids who go there with the volunteers in the mornings. Turns out some of the Young Dreamers went there too since they didn’t have school. We decorated the classroom, did a type of painting with colored powder on the ground, and played a bunch of games. At one point, for a reason unknown, all of us piled into a tiny room. Chaos erupted, we started playing keep away with a ball and every person in the room jumped on the person with the ball. I was tussling and letting my energy out with boys my age for the first time since August 30. It was really really fun celebrating Diwali with them and I was sad when they left because I knew some of them I wouldn't see again. Tuesday morning rivaled Monday morning. We celebrated Diwali with The Elephant Village kids this time. We did some of the same things, decorated the classes, did the painting with powder, and played, played, played. It wasn’t quite as chaotic as the day before since we had much more space, but there were more kids. It’s amazing how open and friendly the kids are with you, within minutes I had them all over me asking me to play with them. It was really fun, running around with them throwing a ball around. I picked kids up, swung ‘em around, and put them on my shoulder. Some of the little ones ran up to me and put their arms up for me to hold with. In just two hours I connected with them so much, I will miss them. Those two days playing with both groups of kids, celebrating one of their major holidays, was awesome. 

Wednesday was the main day of Diwali. We celebrated it at Kusum’s house. She is Saarthak’s founder. That’s the nonprofit that partners with Young Dreamers. Right when we got there, just after 3:00 we started decorating the house with flowers and colorful streamers, which looks like the tradition here. When we finished decorating we sat down to learn about what Diwali is and what the traditions are. Diwali is the day Lord Rama went back home after defeating Ravan, the Hindu devil. The day he came back to his home everyone celebrated, that day is Diwali. They also pray to Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. We didn’t really do anything after learning about that. I was actually pretty confused because for two hours we just sat around and it didn’t seem that festive. At 5:30 everybody got changed, the girls into their saris and the boys into their traditional boys clothes. At 6:45 it was time to do the prayer. Everybody took a turn holding the candle and that was really special because it felt right then like I was part of Diwali. Diwali is the Festival of Lights so there are tons of light strings on buildings, and also exploding fireworks in the streets all night long. It was great learning about the main Hindu holiday. I had quite the experience on Diwali.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet and 10,000 Feet

I’m in the Himalayas, a place where some people dream to be. I’m at the top of a tree at the top of a mountain. We hiked for 5 hours to get here and it was really tiring. Now I’ve found a spot beyond perfect and I feel like a part of nature. We left Jaipur last Wednesday and took an overnight train to Palampur. The train had triple bunk beds which I thought was pretty cool because I’d never seen them before. Other than the bathroom, the train was pretty nice and it was a smooth ride. Palampur is a city in Himachal Pradesh (The Indian state that is in the Himalayas) that is 3999 feet (1219 meters) high. In Palampur we walked to a river, walked around a market, and spent the night. There are tons of monkeys there and we had to keep our windows locked because they would come into your room and trash up the place. The next morning we came to Dharamsala, which is the touristy city under this mountain that is 4780 feet high (1457 meters). We saw the Dalai Lama temple! The Dalai Lama is a Buddhist leader who travels the world sharing his beliefs. Lots of people like to hear him speak even if they’re not Buddhists. His temple is a place of complete peace, and when I was walking around by myself in 30 minutes of silence I really felt that. After that we walked around another market and bought some cool stuff, including a jade rock. The next morning we hiked up to see a waterfall. It was breathtaking, it was not only beautiful but it also had an amazing view. I loved it and I was super excited for the big hike after breakfast that brought me here. We camped on the mountain that night in tents. The stars were so cool. I could see the milky way and tons of constellations. It may have been the most stars I’ve ever seen. We were at an elevation of 9,300 feet (2834 meters) and the next morning at 6 o’clock some of us hiked up to 11,500 feet (3505 meters), which was almost cloud level, to get a better view of some higher mountains. When the sun rose up behind the mountains the view was spectacular. I was starting to get a little homesick earlier but then I reminded myself, how many 11 year old kids can say they’ve been to the Himalayas, hiked up a 10,000 feet mountain and camped there. Everything about this trip has been awesome, well, except for pooping in a hole in the ground. I didn’t mention it before but we had actually taken this trip off the schedule at the beginning of our trip to India because my dad thought it would be too much traveling for the group. I’m really, really grateful that we put it back on. I’m at the top of a mountain, in the top of a tree, in the Himalayas.  

There are lots of Tibetans in Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama is actually Tibetan. Tibet used to be its own country, but in 1950 the Chinese invaded and basically wiped out all of the Tibetan culture and then claimed that Tibet was theirs. Mao Zedong, Chinese prime minister at the time had the idea of wiping out the culture and starting communism in China. Tibet was its own country, with a broad culture so Zedong took them as a threat. Lots of people fought back and resisted but they were killed. Tons and tons of Tibetans were killed. After a little while, once they saw their army had no hope, they fled their home to come to the Himalayas. The area where we are is called the Dalai Lama’s exiled homeland. He was only 15 when this was happening and lots of people smuggled him to Dharamsala. We went to a museum at the Dalai Lama temple and we read about the Tibetan history. Their whole country, almost everything about them was diminished. It was really sad to see yet again examples of some people that do very bad things. When I was reading about it, it kind of reminded me about World War 2 and the Nazis. It wasn’t quite as big but still, a whole country overtaken. When we were walking around the market we met a monk and talked to him about his life and his history. He was born in Tibet and when he was 11 he fled. For 29 days he and some other people had walked through the Himalayas to get to India. 10 of those days he didn’t have any food. It made me sad listening to his story. A kid my age! Having to go through all that, I can’t even imagine myself going through that. We also read about China taking the 11th Panchen Lama. He was supposed to be The Dalai Lama’s successor but when he was six years old he and his family were abducted. He’s been missing for 20 years now and you see signs of him everywhere around the temple. He was the youngest political hostage and it was pretty hard to even think of a six year old being held captive. The Tibetan story is a sad one and even now the Chinese leaders still refuse to give them their land back claiming that it was always part of China. I hope you all feel this story in your hearts because I certainly did, I was in shock. If I didn’t read it and see it myself, I might not have believed it.

Less than three more weeks in India. I am really excited for Guatemala because I really like it there, I’ve been going since I was two and every time I think I like it even more. I am also really excited to go home and see all my family and friends, not even 7 more months ‘till I get back. I’ve been thinking about it and I’ll miss India, everything about it. The people, the architecture, the animals, even the crazy streets. After more than two months I’ve come to think of India as another home, like California and Guatemala. I’ll also miss the kids we’ve been working with. The Young Dreamers. They’re always so happy to see you, always coming up to you and giving you high fives and hugs. I know there’ll be more kids in Guatemala and Costa Rica but nobody’s the same. For me at least, this trip has gone very, very fast, which is not a bad thing, but still, it feels like yesterday I stepped off the plane in Delhi, and here I am with three weeks left. As I said about a month ago, I really want to soak up everything this trip has to offer, learn everything I can. Our flight is on the 25th and we’ll actually be in the Houston airport on Thanksgiving and probably rent a hotel because of the 8 hour layover. Looking back to a year ago last Thanksgiving, the thought hadn’t even come close to entering my head that a year from then I would be in an airport, coming from India, going to Guatemala. It’s really crazy how different a world I am in now than the exact same time last year. I think I was actually at Science Camp, which is a week long field trip my school goes to. I’m very excited to go to Guatemala, but I’ve come to love India, and I’m saying to myself, “I’ll be back someday.”

Education for All

This week, we started a new project with the Young Dreamers. We had two meetings since the hygiene rally that have been quite productive. Our new topic is to end child labor in Ambedkar Nagar and teach the importance of education. Since we only have a month left in India, and it’s a big project, we have to move quickly. We also decided some main goals. We are going to find at least 50 kids who are not going to school and try to get 20 of them into school. I gave the idea of focusing on a small amount and letting that small amount influence the others. We’re going to focus on kids who are not going to school because their parents can’t afford or because they work instead of school. I really, really want to do this because forcing young kids to work is not cool. This project relates to Radhika, who I wrote about last week. She’s 10 and she has been working cleaning houses instead of going to school. She’s definitely on our list. Someone in the group had the idea of asking parents in Ambedkar Nagar to sign a pledge saying they will keep their kids in school until 12^th grade. If we get that, it will be a huge success. It’s definitely a big job, but keeping this life lesson in mind, it’s do-able. If you put your mind to something, and you really, really try, you can do amazing things.

On Tuesday, we had the big community meeting in the Elephant Village. We talked about the importance of education. The volunteers working there showed the kids’ work and talked about the immense progress they’re making. We also talked about the importance of going to school every day because some kids there just kind of stop by whenever they feel like it, but they don’t truly want to go all the time. They are some kids, though, who have gone every day and it’s incredible to see the progress they’re making. At the end of the meeting, we delivered the news of the new school we will be forming in the Elephant Village. All the kids were super excited and the moms were too. They especially liked hearing that they will b=get backpacks and uniforms. A father even came and started asking a bunch of questions. We’re putting up the ad to hire 2 new teachers this week, so hopefully they come quickly. I am very excited for this new school. I still can’t believe that after 500 years, of this community not having a school, we’re finally making this happen.

Some more great news. A few days after I started writing this week’s blog, Radhika’s dad finally agreed to let her go to school. He even made a public promise to my dad’s partner. She’s not going to the government school. For the rest of the school year she will get private tutoring. Then she will have to take an exam in March to see if she can qualify for 5^th grade next year. We’re going to give her a scholarship for the private school She’s going to be a Young Dreamer! I’m really excited because we succeeded to get another girl to school.

This weekend we’re going to Himachal Pradesh which is along the border with Tibet in the Himalayas. With a visit to the Dalai Lama Temple and hiking and camping in the mountains, I should have a lot to write about next blog.

A March for Hygiene, Helping a Girl and Burning the Devil

     Saturday we had the march and rally for the hygiene campaign and I’d say it was the highlight of the trip so far! There were probably 700 or 800 people following us and everyone was chanting and yelling. There was an aura of energy, excitement, and just pure happiness. It was like an adrenaline rush, but of happiness. I don’t even know how to put into words the feeling that was there, everybody marching, kids running all around you, people stepping out of their houses smiling and waving, it was amazing. Everybody from our group including the Young Dreamers had posters and banners. Friday we walked all around Ambedkar Nagar and passed out promotion flyers about our rally the next day and said that we would give handouts of toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and bandages. I don’t really think people thought that a huge rally was going to take place. I think they thought we were just some volunteers and local kids with no real experience. Only when they saw 800 people marching past their house did they really realize that is was no small thing. Once we got back to the booth, which was actually a huge tent with a stage and a big table off to the side, most people stayed and sat down. I was really surprised. I thought people were just doing the march for the fun of it, but people sat down and listened to talks about hygiene and why it’s important. After that my group did the skits and it was a success! Earlier that week we had done them in front of the government school, but it wasn’t performed very well and not many of the kids actually understood it. This time we were on a stage with microphones and we did it better. When the skits ended we started passing out the handouts to people. We also gave people some food to show our gratitude for coming. Unfortunately there were only enough handouts for the kids so the adults didn’t get any. Hopefully they’ll share;) It was such a great experience. It really showed that if we put our minds to something and work really, really hard to do it, we can do unimaginable things. That’s a life lesson that has been proved to me time and time again.

     Radhika. A girl that is super smart, always happy, and wants to go to school. A girl that can't go to school because her mom and dad won't let her. A girl that has to work 12 hours a day cleaning houses when she's only ten years old. A girl that brings joy to me whenever I see her. A girl that represents a problem throughout India. A girl that all of us want to save.  Radhika is one of the kids that goes to the YDN center in the morning where the volunteers teach. 2 months ago her parents pulled her out of school and a month ago she stopped going to the center. Her father drinks a lot and her mother can't stand up for herself. Her father wants to take her back to the village where they're from where they'll leave her to do labor work. If that happens she will never get an education, so we're trying to prevent that from happening. We've gone to her house several times to try to convince the parents to send her to school but the dad never comes out and the mom just says that they won't be able to convince the dad. The only one really on her side from her family is the aunt who has agreed to take care of Radhika when the parents go to their village. The parents mainly don't want Radhika to go to school because of financial issues. If Radhika goes to school, even if we pay for her scholarship, she's not bringing money in. The other thing is the dowry. When the daughter is married in India, her parents need to give money to the husband's family as a type of offering and support to care for their daughter. It is actually illegal to ask for a dowry but the law is not enforceable so it still happens. If the daughter has a good education then she will marry a man with the same level education or higher. If the husband has a good education then his family asks more from the bride's family, Radhika's parents don't want her to have a great education so that they don't have to pay much for the dowry. The dowry is a big problem in India because it sometimes leads to woman abuse. Sadly, Radhika's situation happens to tons of women in India everyday. I really, really hope that we can help her because after just an hour teaching her and showing her I saw how bright she really is. This girl that is always happy deserves to go to school. The volunteers here with us on the gap year have started a fundraiser to give scholarships to Radhika and other like her that we know in the community. If you can, please donate to the cause of sponsoring kids like Radhika to go to school. Just go to the Young Dreamer Network website.

     Last night there was a huge Hindu holiday called Deshera and there was a big celebration that we saw. The holiday actually lasted ten days but last night was the grand finale. For weeks they had been making these huge paper statues that they would burn them on the 22nd. We went at 7:00 to watch these huge statues burn and we thought it would be really cool. We got there and it was kind of like a fair. There were games, prizes, and even a ferris wheel. We played some games and then sat down to see a performance. It turns out the performance was really a bunch of people talking in Hindi. We sat there for two and a half hours listening to people talking, which we didn't understand. It was very, very boring, so boring that after a while I had to resort to twiddling my thumbs. I thought we were going to stay there until midnight and I was literally falling asleep. At around 10:30 my dad finally decided it was time to go so we got up and left. While we were walking out, a huge crowd had gathered and fireworks started shooting up. We stayed for the fireworks show, which was really cool and actually lasted quite a while. When that ended everybody was ready to go home because it seemed like they would never light the statues on fire, but there was a huge commotion and when I got up on a car I saw that a fire had started at the bottom of one of the statues. A few minutes later one of the statues completely caught flame and since it was made of paper it went pretty quickly. We discovered that they had filled the statues with firecrackers, so other than being on fire, they started exploding! That was definitely the highlight because after all, it was what we had come there for. That holiday was about getting rid of evil. They would make these giant statues of the devil and then burn them and make them explode to make evil go away. It was definitely not what I expected when I heard we were going to watch these things burn. I thought we would stand on the street with a big crowd and just watch something burn and after 30 minutes go back home. It was a good cultural experience and in the end, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

This weekend, we’re going to visit a small village in the country. That should be something new.

Gandhi, Religions and a New School

YDN and Saarthak have been supporting education and volunteering as teachers in Elephant Village now, for almost two years. Not long ago my dad and his partners had the idea of making a private school there. So now they’re trying to start a formal school, with full-time teachers who teach every subject and have more resources. Saarthak, YDN, and the community will be in charge of the school. Whoever doesn’t come will be looked for and if they still don’t come they could be reported. It’s going to be like any other school where they have to go to school. It’s really exciting because for 500 years or so there has been an Elephant Village and there has never been a formal school for the kids. This coming Wednesday we’re going to have a big meeting with the community announcing what we’re going to try to do and to really get everyone excited about it. We’re all trying to get a plan to start fundraising money for the school. Since we’re going to have teachers that teach every subject they’re going to cost money. I will keep you guys posted on that if anyone wants to help these kids with great potential, but not so great resources at their disposal. I'm super excited for the school because I think it's a good reminder of what we're doing, to help kids have an education and have a good opportunity in life while they otherwise would not. To break a 500 year streak of no education for these kids is certainly doing that.

Mahatma Gandhi is an amazing man and an inspirational figure. This weekend I saw Gandhi, a documentary about Gandhi. He was a really, really good person who believed in nonviolence and never went back on that. Gandhi was a big leader of the Indian independence movement. He also helped stop the Hindus and Muslims from going to war  when India and Pakistan split. He was fighting his entire life for nonviolence and went to great efforts over it, including almost fasting himself to death. He faced death dozens of times to stand for what he believed in. He thought that the British treated the Indians really unfairly and he thought it was time to get India’s independance. He didn’t want to get it by bloodshed and fighting though, rather by noncooperation and stubbornness. He led lots of rallies and marches, broke unjust laws and got the people to respect and love him. He got sent to jail many times during his life and every time the people didn’t like it and demanded to let him go. Finally, after almost his whole life, he finally got his wish and got India’s independence from Britain, without any violence involved on India’s part, in 1947. Later that year riots broke out between Hindus and Muslims. They killed each other, men, women, and children. It was the cause of the separation of India and Pakistan. Jinnah, a muslim leader and powerful man wanted to be prime minister of all of India, but he wanted a haven for Muslims, so he separated Pakistan for Muslims alone. Many people were angered by this because they were separated by their families and friends. A rivalry broke out and there was almost a civil war. Gandhi wanted nonviolence so he fasted and when he was on his deathbed, all the people agreed to stop fighting and to care for one another. Gandhi accomplished so much in life, he stopped violence in India, at the time a country with 350 million people. He was a brave and all around good and honest person. He said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Well, he certainly changed the world and in a very good way. I think there’s something we can all learn from him.

There are a lot of different cultures and religions in India and we learned about them on Monday. Hindus take up about 80% of the people in India. The roots of Hinduism started around 5000 years ago but it really became what is is today around 1500 BC. It is the third biggest religion in the world following Christianity and Islam. Hinduism is based on the concept of reincarnation. A person moves closer to Brahmin, the highest caste, by obeying dharma. Karma is all the sum of your deeds, both good and bad that affects how you live in the following life. Good deeds involve following your dharma which is what your actions are supposed to do. Hindu philosophy is that you keep reincarnating until you get to Brahmin, by doing tons and tons of good deeds. If you are of low caste this means that you did bad things in your previous life, but if you are of high caste it means that you did good deeds in your former life. In India there are also Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs. There are some non-Indian religions like Christianity and Islam. Muslims are what people who follow the Islam religion are called. Islam began in Arabia and was invented by Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe in only one god, Allah, which is the Arabic word for god. The word Islam means, “submission to god” so a Muslim is one who tries to submit to god. Muslims believe that Islam is the complete version of primordial faith and believe that prophets like Jesus, Adam, Moses, Noah, and Abraham emphasized that. I’ve actually found several similarities between Islam and Christianity since they branch off from the same original religion. They both believe in one God, they believe in a lot of the same people, like Jesus, and Christians have churches and Muslims have a form of church too. There are other things but I didn’t focus on that. Sikhism is a mix of Hindu and Muslim belief founded by Guru Nanak in the 15th century. Sikhs believe in one creator god, equality of all people, and to try to get social justice and honest livelihood. Gurus are the fathers and main priests of Sikhism. Guru Nanak was the first one and he had ten successors after him. Jainism was founded by Mahavira, but some Jains say he just revived it. Some people say Gandhi got some of his principles from Jainism because Jains are completely nonviolent. They believe that they cannot hurt a fly, literally. Jain diet is very strict because they cannot hurt anything so they can only eat food that would fall by themselves anyway. No animals, and no roots, like carrots and potatoes, etc. Buddhism has roots up to 2500 years ago when it was founded by Siddhartha Gotama, aka, Buddha. He got enlightened at age 35 and is called the awakened teacher by Buddhists. Buddhist beliefs include the ‘"four noble truths’: existence is suffering ( dukhka ); suffering has a cause, namely craving and attachment ( trishna ); there is a cessation of suffering, which is nirvana; and there is a path to the cessation of suffering, the "eightfold path" of right views.” The country of India is full of cultures and religions other than the ones that I have mentioned. If I keep going on and on you will be still reading by the time my next blog comes out. India is an extremely diverse society that just keeps surprising you with the differences.

Tomorrow is our big hygiene march and rally with the Young Dreamers. I’ll be telling you all about it next week!

Beach Time and Sacrifices for Work

Last weekend we went to Goa, which is a state in the southwest of India. We stayed in a small beach town and had a mini vacation near the ocean for 4 days. It is very, very, very, very different from Jaipur. First of all, there is the ocean and all the green and lush landscape. Jaipur’s a big city with trash and tons of buildings, the town in Goa was like a tropical island. There wasn’t as much noise and honking, the streets weren’t as crowded, and it was more humid. I know I’ve been talking about India like just Jaipur and Delhi, dirty, poor, and crazy. But India is so much more than just the big cities. There’s lots of beaches and green, and it’s not hectic everywhere. Imagine if you were from India and you came to the US and saw a bunch of mansions and then left. You would think, “Oh, people in the US are just rich and spoiled, they know nothing about suffering.” If we had just seen Jaipur and Delhi we might have thought, “Oh, India is just a dirty,  chaotic country,” when really it’s so much more. I loved Goa because we spent so much time outside playing sports and playing in the ocean. I even did the pacer (running test we did in P.E. last year) I think it was a good mini vacation, to get away from the city and spend some time outside. Another interesting thing about Goa is that it’s influenced by Christianity and there are cathedrals and churches. The Portuguese dominated that part of India for a while so Christianity was ingrained there by them. I thought it was really interesting because everywhere else you go it’s either Hindu, Muslim or Sikh, or other minor religions, but if you think of the religions in India, Christianity doesn’t really come to mind. 

There are two cooks working at the Idex house in Jaipur where the volunteers stay and where we’re eating most of the time, Kedar and Archana. They live in little rooms next to the kitchen and they never really leave the house. I wondered for a while when they got to see their family, or if they ever really got to see them. I found out that both the cooks have families that live very far away and they only get to see them every 4 months. Archana has two kids who live about 6 hours away. She was living with her husband's family, but when he passed away she moved back in with her mom. The younger one, who’s 8, lives with Archana’s mom, but the older one, who’s 12, stayed with the husband’s family. She’s been working at the guest house for 6 years so when she left, her kids were 2 and 6. I can’t imagine not seeing my mom for 4 months straight because she has to go to work. Kedar is older and her kids are already married and have kids of their own. So it’s normal that they go somewhere else and don’t see their parents much, but because of work she can’t see her husband. A lot of families in India are like this, even some of the Young Dreamers’ families.

Our big hygiene campaign with the Young Dreamers is just one week away. I’m excited to see how it turns out.