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I will be back from the Goa conference soon, which has been absolutely awesome so far. By the time I'm done here I will have:

- a tan
- a better understanding of volunteering
- new friends
- a whole bunch a stories daily from the last time I blogged

I just have one request:

Post comments!

You just click on the link called "COMMENTS" directly under this text.

Deaf Way and Other Stuff

The Deaf Way Foundation

This is an image of the people I will be working with at the Deaf Way. I must say, I have only just met these people, am not good with names, and these are Indian names - though, that might actually make this easier. The only person I'm going to mention at this point is Arun (a.k.a. "Happy"). He's the man facing left with the blue shirt on the far left. He's the president of Deaf Way and a really nice guy. He took me out for lunch on the 17th (I think). He can hear. It was his son who dissed the Indian food at the picnic, which I mentioned in a previous post.

Sundeep Hotel ~ Block F-8/22, Vasant Vihar

This is my (messy) room at the Sundeep Hotel. The bed and pillows are hard, but comfortable, the lighting confusing, and the room service excellent. As you can see, I have availed myself of all of my electronic equipment. The place is generally noisy, with the occasional man in the morning uttering some kind of prayer. Sounds like "eeeoooome". I haven't asked, but I think it may be some kind of Delhian wake up call - though I just heard one outside and it's almost noon. I'm not getting the feeling that there are many adult Delhians awake at this time.

This is the washroom. This is the Canadian washroom snob of four days ago talking:

[imagine a voice similar to the Millionaire from Gillian's Island]

Note the lack of shower curtain. See that Shower head and the top water knobs? They don't work. You have to turn on this thing (not pictured but to the right) called a geyser for 15-20 minutes to get hot water at all. Oh, and it is not recommended that non-Delhians drink this water or ever brush their teeth with it (though I did that this morning and am waiting to pay the consequences). I still do not know what the bucket on wheels is for.

Yeah, that was me four days ago. I have since cut my teeth a bit by taking at least two cold showers (before I figured out how the geyser works) and by taking a ride on an auto-rickshaw (more on that later). On a side note, I have only taken a New Delhi Dump (if you know what I mean) once - though I'm sure I'll get better acquainted with the toilet soon. I need to buy more books.

I felt pretty clever after this. You see, Indians - as a rule - do not use maps. I couldn't get one of my area (Vasant Vihar), so I took a photograph of one of the dilapidated street signs and have printed it out. Ha ha! As you might be able to see, the area is divided into Blocks; labelled A, B,C and so on. This map will allow me to get lost in entirely new, more creative and embarrassing ways. Directions from locals are not too helpful either. If a local gives you directions to go right then left then left, I generally go right and then ask the next Delhian which way to go. It's not that they're rude or anything (quite the opposite), but English is not their first language and they know the area so intimately, that it's hard to get us foreigners up to speed.

I will leave you with an image I took of myself while I was still jet lagged and couldn't sleep at four in the morning. This guy looks like the life of the party, eh? I'm going to take pics of myself over the course of this thing to chronicle things like weight loss, exhaustion and to see if I can actually grow a beard.

The Past Five Days...

Well, looks like I had some time to post again today. So I've got some images this time.

I left Toronto in a mad rush to get Tulan her mobile for Uganda from my friend Ted - as well as take care of a million things that seemed so important at the time and I can now not even remember.

This is a nice shot from the airplane. I had some nicer ones but Tulan (whose incessant jabbering I had to endure during the flight) 'accidentally' erased them from my camera. I'm just kidding, she was great. What wasn't great was the fact that our London flight was delayed by two hours in Toronto. At first I thought "Great, Tulan has a 12 hour layover, and, seeing how my intended layover was only two hours, I should get the flight bumped up".

Not so. As soon as I got to Heathrow, some British Airways bloke commanded me to follow him. I can only describe his tone as rude with a touch of accusation. Anyways, I hugged Tulan goodbye and soon me and this Seik with a thousand-pound suitcase were giving chase behind this guy. "Do you have your boarding pass"? he asked. He might have well have said "It's your fault the plane had mechanical difficulties, you know". I was starting to believe that that nice London layover was NOT going to happen.

Twenty minutes later whoosh - I was at 20,000 feet and climbing and on my way to India. Fortunately, I had the best possible row mates for such a long flight - if only I could remember their names. The man in the background - I think his name is Paul - is a retired engineer who specialized in alternative power sources. He had been to India several times, and had decided to bring his wife so she could enjoy it too. Though the image might suggest otherwise, they were quiet and slept for much of the 38 hour flight (as did I). We got to New Delhi without mishap and I was soon picked up by...

Raj! This is Raj and Ruth. Raj is a New Delhi native. Ruth is not. She's an English lass who did some volunteering in India in the 70s and was back to visit. Raj is a great guy who works for the VSO India office and someone whom I have already personally pissed off on at least one occasion. Raj and Ruth were old friends and chatted while I tried to remain conscious enough to not offend. Raj dropped Ruth off and dropped me off at the Sundeep Inn. The lodgings were modest, but really quite comfortable. I don't think I ever slept so soundly in my life.

What we take for granted...

At the risk of sounding cliched, I would like to open this post by saying; we really do have it way too good in Canada. I have spent less than a week in this country and have already noticed the vast discrepancy in facilities. It's taken me close to a week to get on the internet. The hardware here was maybe cutting edge four years ago. When I ask people at the various buildings I've visited if the have wireless internet, they look at me like "Oooh, la de da, he wants WiFi! Well, roll out the red carpet" (In Hindi, of course). Please forgive the exaggeration there. Everyone here has been extremely nice and as accommodating as possible. Truly, there is far too much to recant in the half an hour I have to eat yet another life-changingly delicious Indian meal (not sarcasm). Toronto cuisine has NOTHING on these people, NOTHING. In fact, one teen aged Indian Delhian described the very-possibly-best-Indian-meal-I've-ever-had as "terrible". My taste buds are getting excited.

I've taken quite a few pics, but can't get them from my computer to this one - so that's going to have to wait. However, I do have a better idea of what I'll be doing here:

(oh - this is a list)

- building (or rather re-building) a website (I met the original builder - he looked like he wanted to strangle me)

- teaching a number of deaf Delhians (oh, yeah, I'm working for the Deaf Way Foundation) how to use computers/software better - a nice segway into...

-learning sign language (I visited a Deaf Way picnic yesterday - there must have been 200 people there and you could have heard a pin drop)

- learning (and very probably butchering) a bit of the Hindi spoken language

- getting diarrhea (can't WAIT!)

- loosing all sensation in my mouth, then throwing myself off the nearest high building when they decide to stop humouring the white man and give me the REAL Indian spices

- finally getting my internal clock working properly - as I still wake up at about 4:30 am and putter on my internet-less computer or reorganize my mobile's Address Book for the eleven-hundredth time

- getting a tan, so I can 'blend in' with the locals

I promise to get all images taken up in the next few days. There has been much to tell and show. This is one crazy adventure.

Namaste,
M.