My own evaluation about my internship

It's been a few days since I've had the time to truly think about the experiences I've had in India so far, particularly at my internship. This semester, I'm doing an internship at St. Catherine's Home, which is an orphanage for girls. It's about an hour away from where I'm staying so during the commute to and from the orphanage, I'm able to think about all that's happened so far. And now, I'm finally able to write it all down on paper.....so bear with me and this long post :)

Every day when I walk into my internship, St. Catherine’s orphanage, I can’t help myself to think like a social worker and to ask questions about the orphanage. I thought that it would be great to work in an orphanage and see the adoption process first hand. But since there are no adults around or a supervisor around, being able to ask these questions proves difficult. It’s so frustrating not being able to ask questions about the adoption process. Here I am at an orphanage where children are being adopted left and right, yet I have not even been able to meet with the social worker there or see the process first hand. I realize some of it may have to do with confidentiality, but I should at least be able to hear about what the adoption process is. I have so many questions that I would love to ask some of the children that have already been adopted, that are waiting to be adopted and that will never be adopted. After living with all your friends for a few years, how do you feel being pulled from that environment and into a new one? What is it like not having mothers and fathers to come home to? How is it living with girls who are just like you? Do you find it easier to make friends at the orphanage because of this? I’m finding that I will have to do my own research about adoption, because these questions will never get answered.

When I went to my internship on Monday, I was faced with the same challenge as in the other days: find other ways to communicate with the girls, rather than verbal, and to help them improve on their English. As the days go on, I’m still faced with that same challenge and every time I’m faced with it, I learn something new. There wasn’t anything special about the day, but I find that just by observing them and see how they interact with each other, it can help me to interact with them as well.

Some days I feel like I’m not learning anything new because the education part of being a social worker isn’t being fulfilled, aka not learning about the adoption process and more about the agency itself. And other days, I feel like I’m learning so much and am constantly improving on my skills as a social worker. Even though I still don’t feel like I’m doing all that I would like to do in my internship, I am learning valuable skills that could help me when communicating with anyone. Every day that I think about my internship, I keep coming back to the same thought. When you’re not able to do what you would like or how you would like to do it, you’re faced with having to come up with a different alternative for how to do what you would like to do. Making this skill better will help me with any situation that I am faced with.

As someone who wants to have a career in the field of higher education and student affairs, I find this internship being a wonderful resource and experience for me. In order to do my job well in the field, I will always have to have a second plan for how I would like to accomplish my goal. My internship at the orphanage is teaching me that in life, I will not always be able to do Plan A. If I’m planning a dorm event, I might not realize until later down the line that the night I want to have my event is when there’s a big hockey game that everyone’s going to. The field of student affairs constantly will have curve balls thrown at me, where I will have to be able to think on my toes and come up with other alternative ways to come up with a solution. Having this internship experience has helped me to further develop those skills and give me more experiences so that I will become a better professional in the higher education and student affairs field.

At first I wondered how an internship at an orphanage in India help me to get into grad school and to have a career in student affairs. But since starting the internship, I’ve found that there are constantly life lessons that I am learning and skills that I’m improving on that will definitely be able to help me later down in the line.

Getting the experience of a lifetime....a social work internship in India

After all that I've written about, I don't think that I've ever really talked about my internship, which was the whole reason why I wanted to go to India. I figured, why study abroad if you can't witness what's going on in your field of study in that same country and culture. So that's what I'm doing....interning at an orphanage for girls in India. I've been at my internship for about three weeks now and it's been great some days and not so great others. Here's a look back at what I thought about my internship on my very first day as an intern.....

"I've always been fascinated with other cultures. Finding out what traditions, customs and behaviors that other cultures have has always made me want to visit that culture and soak up what they are able to teach me. Being able to have an internship in a culture that has always amazed me is an experience no one could ever put a price on.

One of the behaviors/processes that has always been interesting to me has been international adoption. Being able to see the process up close and see what has to happen in order for a family to adopt a child from another country is what I'm looking to accomplish while I'm at St. Catherine's Home/Orphanage. I realize that helping the staff with daily tasks is part of my job as an intern too. But for me to shadow a case with an MSW is one of my goals this semester. I'm just craaaving that experience!

On my first day of interning, I was so excited to go to the orphanage and see the international adoption process up close and personal. I love interacting with children too so that's an added bonus :) When I got to the orphanage however, they kind of threw me into a classroom with about eight girls and told me to teach them English. These 8 girls had a range of academic levels. Some understood the alphabet and others were busy copying whatever I put on the board.

As a social worker, in any setting that I'm placed in, I try my very best to be at their level and communicate with them. It was very difficult communicating with them when some girls barely understood a word of English. Since I was immediately placed in the classroom with the girls, I had no idea what they knew already, what I was supposed to teach them, etc. It proved very difficult.

Over the course of this semester, I want to be able to learn social work practices that are going on in the orphanage and other social work skills that I know but could improve on. As an intern and also a social worker, there will always be room for improvement. It is difficult for myself to point out what I could improve on, but I know it has to be done. Having a supervisor/MSW there to guide me along or show me what I could improve on would definitely be beneficial to me.

After trying to teach some girls English, I migrated on to the nursery cottage of the orphanage. Here, I expected that I would be feeding, comforting and just being with the babies. During this time, I would also be able to talk to the other people working at the orphanage, and I'm sure, learning from them as well. When I got to the nursery, I was guided to a small room off from the nursery where there were two girls who had some physical and possibly mental/emotional developmental difficulties. I was told to also teach these two 7 & 8 year olds English and teach them songs. When one of the sisters was there, they sang songs, spoke English and were able to recite the alphabet and numbers. After the sister left though, the two girls closed up like clams. Even though they were capable of speaking English, since it wasn't their most comfortable language, they didn't want to speak in English. Instead, they spoke in Marathi (a language spoken in Mumbai and the rest of the state) and Hindi I was told. It became difficult and very frustrating for me to use my social work skills and interact with them.

Going 0 to 60 on an unpaved, potholed road

When you’re a foreigner, you’re asked a lot of questions….by everyone you meet. So when someone asked me how long I’ve been in India, I reply, “just a few weeks” and thought nothing of it. But later, when I was glancing at a calendar, I noticed that I’d already been living in Mumbai for the past four weeks! I can’t believe that I’ve already been here a month. When I stop to think of things, sometimes I act as though I’ve lived here for years...and other times, I feel like I’ve only lived here a few days. Every day, I hail a rickshaw, then hop on a train and then finally catch a bus, and think nothing of it. I know that if my rickshaw fare came to 15 rupees, I know to give them only 14. If someone told me a few months ago though that I would have to do all of that just to get to my internship, I would have thought that there would be no way I could pull that off and still end up at my internship. But, as Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” says, “By George, I really did it, I did it, I did it!” And after coming back from my internship, I easily pick up milk and bread at the market then walk down to the road to get my fruits at the fruit vendor. I’m no longer clueless about where to go to get towels or a phone card for my phone. And if someone asks for directions, in their thick Indian accent, who knows, maybe I’ll be able to point them in the right direction. It feels so wonderful to get that comfort feeling, in a city that is so big and so disorienting at times.

But of course, there are other days, when I feel like I just moved into the city. If I had to take a cab somewhere, the cab drivers would probably love me and hate me at the same time. First, I’d either not know how to tell the driver where I wanted to go or second, end up paying a much higher rate because I didn’t know how to work the meter. In a city that tries every which way to make a living, you really have to be conscious of what you’re doing and where you’re going, because in the end, only you can look out for you.

When I was on the phone with my family from back home today, they asked me how it's going for me over here. I told them that today, I love it here. But if you ask me tomorrow, it could be a whole different story. To me, Mumbai is a city of good days and bad days. As I read what I've recently written in my blog, I realize that I'm constantly changing my mind about the city. But, it seems like Mumbai is that kind of a city. Just a few experiences could make your day or break your day.

"Maximum City", the book that I have to read for my social work class has definitely shown me some insight on this huge, chaotic city. The book is written by an Indian who talks about life in Bombay/Mumbai, specifically the gruesome, not so pretty side of the city. I’m only 25 pages in, but already I’ve found great passages that truly help to explain Mumbai.

“India desires modernity; it desires computers, information technology, neural networks, video on demand. But there is no guarantee of a constant supply of electricity in most places in the country. In this, as in every other area, the country is convinced it can pole-vault over the basics; develop world-class computer and management institutes without achieving basic literacy; provide advanced cardiac surgery and diagnostic imaging facilities while the most easily avoidable childhood diseases run rampant; self-washing machines that depend on a non-existent water supply from shops that are dark most hours of the day because of power cuts; support a dozen private and public companies offering mobile phone services, while the basic land telephone network is in terrible shape; drive scores of new cars that go 0 to 60 in ten seconds without any roads where they might do this without killing everything inside and out, man and beast” (Mehta 25).

And to learn the caste system of India, that is still going strong, here’s this insight from the book...

”...the live-in-maid won’t clean the floors; that is for the “free servant” to do. Neither of them will do the bathrooms, which are the exclusive domain of a bhang; who does thing else. The driver won’t wash the car; that is the monopoly of the building watchman. The flat ends up swarming with servants. We wake up at 6 every morning to garbage, when the garbage lady comes to collect the previous day’s refuse. From then on, the doorbell rings continuously all through the day; milkman, paperboy, knife sharpener, wastepaper and bottle buyer, massagewali, cable man. All the services of the world, brought to my door, too early in the morning” (Mehta 23).

But somehow between the rickshaw honks, the vegetable man yelling about the fresh produce he has, and the tap tap tap on the car door of the five-year-old girl begging for money, life in this city is somewhat calming. Somehow, I think that when I walk out of the airport when I arrive in the U.S. and I don’t hear all these noises, the day will be a little too quiet.




Mehta, Suketu. "Maximum City: Bombay lost & found". New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2004.

Celebrations and Investigations

This past Sunday was the 10th day of the Ganesh immersions, and almost considered the biggest day of the festival. So that night, Cordelia, Joshua (Denzil Fonseca's children) and I drove down to the water to see the Ganesh idols being immersed. Where we went didn't have the huge Ganesh idols being immersed, but it had some smaller household Ganeshes. Still, I was able to see a procession of a medium sized (3 feet or so) Ganesh going to the water. The cart that the Ganesh was in was covered with flowers and surrounded by people dancing, playing the drums and just celebrating. I tried getting some pictures but it was hard to do in the dark.

Even though I haven't really been sightseeing, it's nice that I'm able to take the time to get used to living in Mumbai and "be a local"--even though as much as I try, I'll never be one. I've realized that I don't have to travel far in order to experience life in India. There are constantly festivals, fairs, parades and other events happening in the area.

After coming back from dinner with Cordelia and Joshua, I heard that there were bombings in Delhi, India's capital. Although we're far from Delhi (about 875 miles), it's still quite scary. The terrorism group that claimed responsibility for the bombings emailed the government saying that Mumbai is next. It's so scary living in fear that the place where you're living might be bombed at any time. Although since I've heard that news, it almost seems that most people haven't reacted to it. It's almost that they're so used to this type of threat that it's become common. Scary!!!
Here's a link to a news article about the bombings:
http://www.euronews.net/en/article/13/09/2008/new-delhi-bombings-claim-many-lives/

This whole week, the Bandra fair/festival is also going on. Bandra is a section of Mumbai, which is weird because my internship is in Andheri, another section of Mumbai, yet it's an hour away from Bandra, which is still in Mumbai. I probably just lost you guys, sorry about that one, but I just can't believe that I can travel an hour away and still be in the same city. Anywho, so Wednesday night, Joshua invited me to go see the fair. The Bandra fair is put on by one of the beautiful old Catholic churches in the area, Mount St. Mary's church. Even though I haven't seen a reaction to the students about the Delhi bombings and Mumbai bomb threat, the police are definitely reacting to it. Before we got to the fair, we had to go through metal detectors and have our bags searched. I had brought my camera, thinking that I could take pictures, but when they searched my bag, they told me that I had to give them my camera batteries and that I would get them back later.....just another reaction to the bomb threat. They even told everyone to leave their cell phones off while in the festival, because the Delhi bombings were triggered by a cell phone...go figure!

After going through all the security, we walked around, saw all the Indian sweets from all over India (different parts of India have different cuisines...ex. cuisine from Goa is from the influence of the Portuguese and has a lot of Portuguese spices), vendors selling candles, trinkets, jewelry etc. There are so many different kinds of snacks and sweets just in Mumbai, never mind the rest of India. Since being in India, my favorites have been Gulab jamun (a fried doughball immersed in honey)and lassi (a sweet yogurt drink). Yum yum!

Going back to the candle vendors, I have to mention something about them. You won't find your ordinary candles here. If someone is sick or hurt, they will buy the candle shaped as that body part that is hurt and then light it as a candle. The belief is that by lighting the foot shaped candle, for example, you are relieving you foot from the pain.

The fair though was similar to any bazaar and roadside festival--children's rides, toys and fair food. I guess a fair is a fair anywhere in the world that you go. I wish I could've taken some pictures of all the food stands and vendors, but unfortunately my camera won't work without batteries :(

More new beginnings

Sunday was a very leisurely day. I woke up late, which was wonderful, and then went with Dennis, Denzil, Cordelia & Joshua to see another apartment/flat. I'm so happy I didn't say yes to the first apartment that I looked at because this one is so nice! I have my own bathroom, my own balcony and my own bedroom. My bedroom is huge for Indian standards. I have two twin size beds, full closet, dresser drawers and a desk. The maid gives me tea every morning, cleans and does my laundry every day and tidies up around the flat. After seeing the place, I immediately said yes! And for 10,000 rupees ($250) a month, it's perfect! I still can't believe that the maid even is just 200 rupees a month ($5/month) either.

On Monday, I went with Dennis to the Foreign Registration office to register me with the government so I wouldn't have a problem. I have to register within 14 days of arriving and of course Monday was the 13th day. After a 1 1/2 hour commute and after climbing the 6 flights of stairs, we made our way to the office. At first they told me that they didn't have proof that I was an American citizen (apparently a passport doesn't mean too much to them). Then after waiting for some time, I filled out the registration form (pretty much the same form as the visa form that I had already filled out). Then they told me that they didn't have proof of residence in India. I never knew that I needed it and didn't even have it because I was moving into my new apartment that same day. So it looked like I would have to come back that next morning with proof of residence.

After the second 1 1/2 hour ride back, I was exhausted! At 8:30pm, my head hit the pillow and I fell right asleep. Bright and early Tuesday morning, Dennis & I took the 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the registration office again. The woman at the office said that I just needed to fill out a new registration form and I would be all set. After filling out the form, I was on my way to print it off from the computer when the power went out. Just my luck! After about 20 minutes of waiting, I kindly asked one of the employees if I could do the form by hand. She said yes and I began filling out the form for the third time. After she finished stamping things in my registration booklet, and I finished filling out the form, the power came back on. Since the power came back on, she told me that I now had to fill out the form again on the computer....now the FOURTH time of filling out the form. A pain in the neck if you ask me! Finally after waiting for god knows how long, she handed me my registration booklet. After 5 hours of being in the office, I was oh so ready to get out of there! Dennis & I went back to school where he went to work and I was finally able to check my email. Dennis said that he still had work to do so Harvey, a student at the college, showed me how to get from school to my apartment via the bus. But being a bus in Mumbai, after 30-40 minutes it still didn't show up. So Harvey got his motorcycle and took me to the apartment that way. I've never been on a motorcycle before, so I was kind of nervous to ride on it, but it was so cool! It's like a convertible car, with the breeze blowing on you constantly....but no support or structure if you bang into someone haha

That night, Blanche, the woman that I'm staying with, brought me to all the local markets so I could get some food for myself. I definitely love the concept of the little markets. For your fruits, you go the fruit vendor. For your milk, you go to a little inside market (kind of like a convenience store). For your cheese and lunchmeat, you go to a cold storage place. And it's not like everything is far apart from each other either. The best part about it though, is home delivery. A lot of the markets and restaurants do home delivery....so you never have to carry anything around with you as you shop from one place to the next. So if you need milk, cereal, soap and cookies, just call up the market and they're able to deliver it right to your door. I love it! Last night, I bought about two heavy bags of groceries and they said that it was a lot to carry so they delivered it right to my apartment while Blanche and I continued shopping.

Wednesday, I had my morning cup of tea then some cereal and went out walking around. I still had to pick up some towels and hand soap too, even after all that shopping. Thankfully, I'm right near all the clothing stores, markets, restaurants and banks. I don't have to walk too far for anything. I'm really beginning to like this lifestyle! It took me a while to get used to how everything is and how everything's done around here (servants, maids, meal times, ways of shopping and bargaining) but it's such a calming lifestyle when you get used to it....besides the hustle and bustle of all the rickshaws and taxis of course!

Hopefully when I have more time free, I can pick up some salwar kameez outfits. They're so comfortable! Salwar kameez are outfits made of Indian fabric that consist of a long top usually having gorgeous designs, stones and details on them and baggy cotton pants. Since Mumbai can get so hot and humid, these kinds of outfits are perfect for the weather.






And except for rent, everything here is so cheap that I can afford to buy a few outfits and treat myself :) My grocery bill that night came out to be $1,140 rupees, which is only about $29! And all the groceries will last me about a few weeks. I already bought some tops which were about 100-150 rupees each (only $2.50-$3.75) and some pants which were about 200-300 rupees ($5-$7.50). It's great!

Veg vs. Nonveg....some things to know

One things I should mention about "veg" and "non-veg" in case you ever plan on visiting India or even having Indian cuisine for that matter. To state the obvious, veg is vegetarian food. India has a lot of vegetarians due to religious, cultural and personal reasons. Despite what you might think though, veg food can be very tasty. They add tofu (called soy nuggets here), rice and veggies together to come up with their different kinds of veg food.

Non-veg food is food with the meat...normal Indian food. Even though non-veg people eat meat, they still won't eat beef or any meat from a cow because cows are very sacred here (even though you'll see cows on the streets looking like they haven't eaten in months and haven't been washed in weeks).

So there you go, if you're ever in an Indian restaurant and they say veg or non-veg, now you know :)

You don't know what you got, til it's gone

After two weeks of moving apartments, changing bus routes and routines, losing the internet, having my computer die on me, life is finally getting back to normal....or at least normal for Indian standards. There's so much to catch up on, but I'll do my best with everything.

It's been about two weeks since I had to leave my old apartment. It was a huge shock that I immediately had to leave--crying and asking "why me?". After I left her place, I brought my things over to Dennis's house (the director of Champlain-Mumbai campus). Since I wasn't too thrilled with the apartment that I had looked at right after Cynthia told me that I had to leave, some people from the college were going to try and find a better apartment....and they definitely did! The one that I had previously looked at didn't have good water, no internet, no dresser or space for anything. Pretty much it was just a bed and bathroom. I know that I can't be picky about everything, but I knew that I couldn't function with just that for 3 more months.

That afternoon, I met with Depica and her mom (Depica's a student at the college and will be spending the next three semesters over in the Champlain-Burlington campus). They took me to a vegetarian Chinese/Indian restaurant which was a very weird concept for me. But very tasty! Try to imagine chinese food without the meat (replaced with rice or tofu) and with some Indian spices. We then were going to go to the planetarium but they only had Hindu shows that day. So I'll probably be able to go later in the semester or whenever I'm free. Since we were already in that section of town, we ended up going to an art museum. There were some landscape paintings, abstract paintings and also a whole floor about the history of India, including some artifacts. I have to say, before I came here I didn't brush up on my Indian history. So it was a good refresher. It was really nice though just talking with Depica. Since I'm studying abroad now, she's able to help me out with things and and when she comes over to the US, I'm able to help her with things.

Saturday, I slept in. I didn't realize how exhausted and how much little sleep I had gotten in the past few nights. After waking up, I went to the school with Kathy (Dennis's wife) to meet with Pamela (my social work professor) and Dennis. We just had to talk about the logistics about where I was going for my internship, how many hours, etc. Then while waiting for Dennis to finish up some work, one of the culinary professors at the college brought Kathy and me to one of the Ganesh idols.





Ganesh is one of the Hindu gods. He is an elephant/man with four arms and symbolizes new beginnings. Because of his look, he is a very popular god among the children. Right now, the Ganesh festival is going on. All Hindu families either buy an idol of Ganesh or are given one by someone. For either 1,3,5,7, or 10 days someone in the family has to stay in their house and be with Ganesh. Ganesh can never be left alone. After sitting with Ganesh for a number of days, they immerse the idol into the water, which is why everyone has to get a new idol every year. There's been a lot of articles in the newspapers here about how much people are polluting the water when they leave the Ganesh in the water. Some people have started to buy ecofriendly Ganeshes, but not many. I wish I could've taken a picture of the Ganesh that we saw because it was beautiful! Especially being an outsider though, I didn't want to take pictures and disrespect the religion and traditions. It was probably about 7 feet tall, and was painted with gorgeous colors all over. Since Ganesh is the god of new beginnings, I saw it fit for the Ganesh festival to be going on right as I was having new beginnings of a new apartment and new life in Mumbai.

And just when I was getting settled in, everything changes

Today is the first day that I have seen it rain. I've always loved the rain, especially the smell of it when it's first beginning to rain. Here, I don't smell the rain as much as I hear it. The huge rumbles of thunder, the birds squawking & trying to find a dry tree branch to fly to.

Boy am I glad that I walked around this morning! Almost everyday I've had people wanting to show me around and meet up with me. And it's been great to see the different parts of the city. But I haven't really explored much on foot.

.....forget all about that. Cynthia just told me that having two people live with her is a strain. She talked to her doctor & they thought it was best that I go somewhere else to live. Now I completely understand that Cynthia's getting to the point where she just wants a retired lifestyle, without many things that she has to do everyday. But this is sooo frustrating!! Just when I'm kind of, barely able to know my way around and start fitting in, my life changes. Why do these things have to happen to me? Do they think that I can handle the challenge? I probably can but it takes every ounce of me to be able to handle the change.

We were supposed to go tonight to get me registered so that I can stay here. I asked Cynthia about it and she said that the new lady could take me. I talked to the woman that showed me an apartment tonight and she said that the school would have to take me. Grrr! I hope that I can get all of this done before Tuesday! I had really wanted to get all of this done before my internship and classes. But life changes, I guess. This probably shouldn't be a big deal but this change is making me so homesick right now. Not being able to talk to anyone from home about it is killing me.

The new apartment that I'll be staying in is very small. I'm living with a couple who seem to be very nice, but it's hard to understand their English. The room that I'll be staying in is a nice size. Right now, there's no dresser in the room. Just a small end table and bed. I have my own bathroom which is nice...very pink I might add. The monthly rent is 12,000 rupees ($300) + 300 rupees ($7.50) for the maid. The woman that I will be staying with told me that she'll look into getting internet, as she doesn't have internet at her apartment. So it's going to be very hard for me to communicate after today, unless she gets internet soon. For meals, they don't really have a full kitchen so I have to eat out or have food delivered to me for every meal. For breakfast, I figured I can buy a box of cereal but that's it. It's going to be very hard for me to adjust to life here.

So don't send anything to the address that I gave you before. My new address is: (I'm pretty sure)
Blue Heaven
Flat 301
C Wing
Rebello Road
Mumbai, India (I don't know the zip code)

I hope that I will somehow have the strength to carry on these next few months. I will be sooo happy to come home though. Right now, I don't know how I'll find the strength to even go through the next day.....very homesick :( I'll probably be moving on Saturday so I'll let you know how it goes.

A diamond in the rubble

It's so hard sometimes to get your bearings and see where everything is, without a useful map. Last night I went online and was able to find a map on google of the area where I'm staying. The only difficulty was that in Indian there are two names for everything...one in Hindi and one in English. On google, some of the streets are in Hindi and others in English. I guess the best way to find where everything is, is just to explore.

As I was writing, I heard music and a parade outside my window. I went to look out the window and see if I could see the parade from here but I couldn't. But while looking out the window, I did happen to see a beautiful lime green parrot! It's the small things like the music and the parrot flying about, that make me smile. I hear the birds chirping all day long--as I have my tea, eat my breakfast and read. But to actually see the bird that was causing all that chirping ruckus, and to realize that it wasn't just a pigeon made me smile. I'm glad I was able to get a picture of it!

I'll have to find a way on this blog site to start posting pictures. I haven't taken too many, but once I do, I'll definitely put them up to show everyone.

Where in the world is.....

Just to give you a little look to where I am....


View Larger Map

If you see St. Andrew's Grounds in the middle of the map, and St. Andrews Road, I'm the next road over on the right. It's not labeled, but it's St. Leo's Road.

I'm just a short rickshaw or walk away from the water. Near the water, there's a really nice walking path and Jogger's Park, a little park with a pond and gardens. It can get very crowded though so I'm sure I'll be avoiding that area during the evening. But it's certainly a gorgeous view of the sunset. Dennis' wife and I took a walk along that area during sunset, and even though there were beggars on the street and trash on the ground, the sunset was breathtaking. Mumbai is certainly a city where you'll find a diamond among the rubble.

It's been only a week

I can't believe I've only been gone a week. Sometimes it feels like it should be more like a month and other days only a day or so. The Indian culture is sometimes very aggravating to get used to and at the same time very rewarding. There are always two different sides to everything it seems here. The traffic, congestion and the amounts of people will be something to get used to. I'm glad that I've had this week to get acclamated to the culture and all of my surroundings. Once I do get used to the area though, I think that it will be a wonderful experience. It's nice every so often to jump outside your own culture and live in another one. Different food, different language and different people will make this semester that much more enjoyable....once I understand all of it :)

As for all of that traffic and different ways of transportation, I'll be taking a bus every time I go to school. This morning I took the bus to the school but took the bus that went in the complete opposite direction as the school! I had to call the director of the college for him to show me where to go. In the end, he picked me up and brought me to the school, which was really nice of him. It's hard to navigate the bus system but after I do it every week, I'll start to get used to it. I only have to go to school for one class on Wednesday...unless I have to have a meeting with someone.

Other than the bus, I'll probably be doing a lot of walking and hailing rickshaws (motorized 3 wheeled carts) to get from place to place. Everything that I need seems to be close by which is nice. If anyone has ever been to Europe, it's the same way as here. There are markets for fruits and vegetables, little shops to get chocolates, little stores for dresses & shoes, etc.

Hopefully I'll have the time to visit every little market and store around here. I'm having an internship at an orphanage that's about an hour away by a combination of a train ride & bus ride. The orphanage, St. Catherine's Home, is run by a Catholic order or nuns. This past Saturday I went with my Social Work professor to see the orphanage and meet with one of the sisters. After meeting with them, I found out that the sister wants me to be at the orphanage 5 days a week!! I'll be starting the days at the internship probably around 7am (and getting there by 8-8:30am), being with some of the older girls in the orphanage til about 11am, then being with the little babies and infants til about 12:30 or 1pm and then heading back to the apartment. It's not a long day as so much as an exhausting day. I guess it's a good thing I don't have to start the internship until September 9th! Now I have the time to rest up and see the local sights.

After visiting the orphanage though, I realized that was what I pictured India to be. The beautiful side of India. I wish I had taken pictures because it looked just like Key West or the Everglades....like a tropical garden surrounding all of the cottages & buildings on the dusty road. I couldn't believe how many children were there though! I thought it would be like a one room school house but there were so many cottages (for each age level) there. I'm hoping the long commute to and from the orphanage will give me time to reflect on everything. It will give me a chance to think about my days so far and what I've thought of them.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a good night's sleep once I start the internship. Since I arrived, I haven't been able to get a good night of sleeping in. It is normal not to be able to sleep well for the first week or so because of the time change and new surroundings, but it's killing me! I'm so exhausted yet when it gets time to sleep, I can't. It's so frustrating. I think I'm about ready to take a nap after writing this long journal entry. Taking a nap and trying to recharge my energy will be a daily thing I'm sure.