This whole week I’ve been going to some of SPYM’s program sites in order to get a better feel for the vast amount of work the organization does. On this particular day, it was planned that I was going to work on some things in the office in the morning and head out to visit a homeless shelter after lunch. And this morning like every other morning and afternoon, there’s chai time. There’s nothing like chai interrupting you doing your work :)
The morning came and went with random tasks to get done and soon it was lunch time. SPYM is an organization unlike one I’ve seen before. They provide three meals a day to their staff. Usually though the staff just eat lunch there and eat at home for breakfast and dinner. Today’s menu was palak paneer, rice and dal....yum!
After lunch, I came back to the office and waited for one of the staff to bring me to the homeless shelter. In true Indian fashion, after a little over an hour it was decided who was going to bring me and then we decided to leave.
Side note: I should mention that yes, Indian time is not exactly American time, but my organization is currently short-staffed so everyone is running around doing the job of two people. So I can completely understand people being late because they’ve been tied up with other things going on. When I’ve asked some staff how they like working for the organization though, they keep saying how happy they are to have a job, especially in the social services. It just goes to show you that money doesn’t buy happiness!
It was a little after 3pm and the shelter was about 40 minutes away. I think it was safe to say that I definitely wasn’t finishing work at 5pm. Once we got on the road, we had to make a detour to drop off some paperwork to a training center near by. A half hour later we were back on the road and ready to head to the homeless shelter. After getting lost a few times and getting caught up in the New Delhi rush hour traffic, we finally found the right area. The homeless shelter ended up being in a neighborhood where the only way to get to it was to drive through an alleyway, the width of a driveway. So we drove through motorcycles coming at us, guys pushing carts of flowers and fruit, kids playing in the roads....classic India. I only wish I had captured the moment on my camera! We had finally made it.
This is one of those times when the journey outweighs the end. And this is one of the reasons why I decided to come to India. Sure every so often I get frustrated by the auto rickshaw drivers trying to rip you off or the different pace of time, but after learning to take it in as part of the journey, I’ve started to actually enjoy it! It’s part of India’s culture and I wouldn’t want to ever change that.
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