7 / 27

We all parted our ways today. Many of us left for the airport at 3 am and left a few of our new friends back at the hotel for they had much later flights. We said our goodbyes to those this morning after an awesome night last night chatting in the hotel dinner over wonderfully greasy chicken strips. We had a lot of time in the hotel to look at the shops as well as have a wonderful 4 am chicken sandwich from a McDonald's - BTW there is apparently no where in the world that can mess up a classic McDonald's fry and for that I am grateful. There were many of us shared a flight to Amsterdam and said our final goodbyes there before heading our separate ways. As we landed in Amsterdam, however, we realized that Marlee's flight was already boarding and we would have a rushed goodbye. After seeing her off, the rest of us headed for a Starbucks that we saw while running to her gate earlier. We appreciated our first classic coffee shop drinks in two weeks and soon said more goodbyes. I was luck enough to have Randi on one more flight with me before we were all alone again. us two went separate ways at JFK. I had two more flights and it wasn't until I was sitting in Minneapolis waiting for my flight to KC did I realize how ready I was to be home. I was suddenly exhausted and constantly on the verge of tears due to said exhaustion mixed with eagerness to see my friends, family, and dogs. Arriving in KCI and seeing my mom waiting for me lifted so much weight off of my shoulders that I did not even know was there. I had not felt home sick the entire trip, but in that moment I was glad to be home and so incredibly excited to share my many adventures with all of you.

It was hard to leave all of these amazing people but I know that we will keep in touch and hopefully meet again soon.

7 / 25 & 26

25th 

The 25th was mostly full of a 10+ hour car ride with many stops to rotate seats and grab snacks on our way back to Dheli.

26th 

This morning felt like a continuation of yesterday with a five hour drive to the Taj Mahal. Once we arrived though, we were amazed. There's a reason it is a world treasure. It was being cleaned this day so we were also able to see that fascinating process, and whether scaffoldings covered the front up or not, it was beautiful. We were led on a tour and were so blessed to learn the in-depth history of the magnificent building and surrounding gates. After the tour (pictures inside were not allowed) we took a few more minutes to photograph the gorgeous architecture and headed through a few shops for souvenirs before going back to our vans. 

7 / 24

Today was our last day being with the Anganwadi kids. It was so great to work with them. To have the exchange of us teaching them math and some of our games and them teaching us new games and helping us learn about their culture was just amazing. I saw so much growth in Anish especially who did not like math at all and had a very hard time with it in the beginning, but by today he had improved so much and he seemed so happy about it; that was a great experience for me to be able to teach him and see the progress he and the other kids made in just a week.

We traded drawings and said our sorrowful goodbyes and eventually headed back down the incredibly steep hike for one last time. We were just a little ways down the hill when we heard Anish yell for me saying "I'll miss you, Chelsea". My heart dropped and I teared up as I yelled back "I miss you so much already, Anish". He had clearly gained a liken toward me throughout the week and I loved to have him hanging out with me. I am going to miss him, Shriya, little Puddy and all of the other kids so much. It truly has been an amazing week learning from them.

After dinner we left for a local dog shelter and hospital that rescues injured and stray dogs and prepares them for adoption. These dogs are sent back into the streets if they do not take well to domestication, but most are prepared to be sent into life with a good family, whether local or international as many are adopted from Germans, Canadians, and Americans. It took many of us a lot of will power not to take one home with us right then and there.

For dinner we were treated to a delicious full Italian dinner made by Anaise, the Italian student with us on the trip. We all played group games afterwards, including mafia and then headed off to our rooms to pack up are bags and get ready to leave for Dheli in the morning. 10 hour car ride back, yay!

7 / 23

India fun day! This is the day when we get our saris back, get henna done, watch a Bollywood movie, and learn Bollywood dancing!

After our Anganwadi work in the morning and lunch we all lined up to collect our saris and try them on. I picked a blue and gold patterned fabric and it fit like a glove. We all came outside soon and got in line to have some henna done by Priyanka and her friend who often do it professionally for weddings. I was lucky enough to be early in the line and was able to have mine dry while we watched the Bollywood movie - which was very long actually very good - and I didn't have to worry about the paste getting on my sari during pictures later.

We went up to the roof after everyone had gotten some henna done and the little spat of rain stopped, only to be greeted by a beautiful rainbow! Which we immediately took advantage of and lined up in color order by our saris and Rahit and Rahul took some pictures of us. After the big group shots, we all took single portraits along with smaller group pictures with our friends. It was so fun to have time in all of our gear and taking pictures with new-found friends.

When the light was too gone for any more good shots to be taken we headed downstairs and met up with Aman, from the sports camp, to learn some dance moves. It turned into more of him dancing in the middle of us attempting to copy him in a circle surrounding him. We did a few songs learning from him and taking turns in the middle until we decided it would be fun to teach the Indian staff some of our moves! So we turned on the Cha-Cha Slide, Footloose, and ended the night with a classic: Party in the USA. It was a really good day just hanging out with some amazing people and immersing ourselves in this beautiful culture.

7 / 22

We get to visit Priyanka's family farm today! It's the only local organic farm and their entire goal is to be completely self-sustaining and they hope to never have to go to the market. Their money comes from their rice farm that they harvest and sell but closer to their home is a very large area full of different trees and plants growing all types of fruits, vegetables, and spices. All of students spent most of the morning and afternoon sitting in a little clearing that looks over the rice fields just taking in the scenery and enjoying each other's company. They served us wonderful hibiscus mint lemon tea in the morning and we got to enjoy mango slices right off of the trees in the afternoon, with a wonderful curry and salad based lunch in between.

While at the farm, my capstone group was given the amazing opportunity to interview Priyanka's father about the farm and how and why his family started it so long ago. He spoke so passionately about his farm and his goal to be self-sustaining and healthy for his family.

Later in the evening we were treated to s'mores and a bonfire in the clearing There was a girl from London that was very concerned that we were having an open fire in the middle of a field since she had never been to a bonfire, being from the city. There was also a girl from Italy that had never had a s'more and was quite disgusted with the sweetness of them. Those were both fascinating experiences for the rest of us!

7 / 21

I went with the sports camp and crafts group today instead of my Anganwadi group as many of their members are sick and they needed the help, but also because they filmed their interviews today and none of them knew how to do it so I got to tag along and help. I loved seeing all of the kids playing soccer and being able to work as teammates - all of the life-lessons they were learning in action. I also enjoyed hearing what the two boys that we interviewed had to say about the camp. One of them, Aman, had being going to the camp since he was a young boy and now as a 19 year old help runs it. And the other two, a fourteen and sixteen year old, both talking of the impacts that the camp has made on their life through teaching them team work and other lessons in a society were most people do everything by themselves.

After lunch, we headed to the Mcleodanj, a nearby city that houses a more touristy market with jewelry, keychains, little buddha statues, etc. It was another very rainy day and our outing became a rush to buy all of our souvenirs and gifts before we headed over to the Dalai Lama's temple.

The temple was amazing and to be able to hear a prayer ceremony going on while we were there was amazing as well. A Chinese diplomat that had been a longtime supporter of the Tibetans was jailed along time ago but recently passed away in the jail, so the temple held a prayer ceremony led by one of the Dalai Lama's right hand men as he is away.

We stuck with the theme of the day and headed to a Tibetan restaurant for dinner. Let me tell you. Tibetan food is some of the best food I think I have ever had. It was very similar to Chinese food but much more flavorful and a larger variety. We had both steamed and fried momos (the fried ones were very welcomed as they felt greasy and well fried, just like home), as well as noodles and goat meat mini calzones (also very welcomed meat). It was this evening that made us all realize how much our stomachs have shrunk from the small amounts of food we have been eating, and we were all very disappointed at the smaller amount of this delicious meal that we could shove down our throats than we would have wanted. But time will go on and I now know what type of restaurant I will be looking for as soon as I get home.

7 / 20

Anganwadi with our whole group! Which is quite the feat after all of the sickness happening. We got absolutely drenched, it was pouring and the water was so gross and brown that we just had to walk through waterfalls over the road of to get there and back. We aren't leaving the home base the rest of the day though so that will be a good break. Today was a lot of just hanging out and having good conversations about anything from politics to religion to about the program we're on. We got to have a really good conversation with Laura, the trip director, about everything from the home base to the food, which is kind of a touchy subject for us, to even how we feel during group discussions. I've loved all of the bonding time and I love that even through the completely terrible sicknesses we are all still getting really close. Speaking of sickness: a boy named Bruke and I are the only two who haven't gotten sick yet which is really odd because we are the two who threw up on the way to Dharamsala. It interesting and we are hoping we got the bacteria out of our systems then but we can only hope! 

Tonight we watched a TedTalk called The Dangerous of a Single Story. It was amazing to hear how a "single story" of a place or type of people can affect those people. It was almost about stereotypes but at the same time it was more about how we grow up seeing that culture through media and other outlets. Just like the woman in the video who grew up in Africa but lived in a "normal" city with cars and a "regular" life - I put so much it quotes because those are very relative terms and I hope you can see what I mean and also see that that may not be normal to someone else. So when she gained an American roommate they asked many questions about her lifestyle and assumed things like that the speaker didn't know how to use a stove or listened to tribal music, but was absolutely shocked when she asked the speaker to play some music she put on a Mariah Carey album. This talk was a very different perspective and I highly recommend it. 
https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg 

7 / 19

It was a little boy's birthday at the Anganwadi today so we got to sing to him and we handed out special treats! They were very similar to Twinkies but, similar to many other cookies and snacks we have had, they were butter flavored. It sounds gross at first but the more you think about it it's easier to see that it actually should be and was weirdly delicious. It was also one of our more rainy mornings with the kids and we were forced to stay inside the tiny unlit room with all of the kids. It was actually a blessing to watch how unfazed they all were by the massive storm and the games that they created and started playing. We were also allowed to pleasure to teach them how to make paper snowflakes! I'm not sure that they knew what they were supposed to resemble, but they loved cutting and coloring the papers.

I've recently realized that I am very tired, not in the way that I need sleep because we have had plenty of it, but in the way that we haven't had solid protein this entire trip and we've been going going going this whole time. I'm not complaining of the action because I love everything we are doing and I'm going to push through to experience this amazing opportunity, but I am definitely feeling the wariness.

When we got back for lunch we saw a glorious site: spring rolls and potato slices. The difference in style of food was a gift in itself, but those rolls and basically potato chips were delicious.

It's Quincy Foster's birthday today. I know I didn't know her and I'm not in Haiti, but being with these children just reminds me of what she loved so dearly and I send my heart out to her spirit right now.

This afternoon we worked on some portrait lighting techniques as well as went over interview basics. We were instructed to go to our rooms and as a group film an interview of one of us talking about our day so far. My room finished fairly early as we got to use one the only microphones first and there were multiple of us who had done things similar to this before. Carly and I showed Rahit and Rahul what we had done and then the four of us just chatted while we waited on the other rooms to finish. It was really awesome to talk to these brothers about their lives and what they do. We asked a lot of questions about their job as well as their lifestyles here in India as they live in Dheli which offers quite a different lifestyle then here in a village in the Himalayas, but it was cool to hear the differences.

After dinner and mentor groups we were gifted ice cream floats! The ice cream was not too different than basic American vanilla except a slight flavor difference, but when paired with the Coke or Fanta, it was a very welcomed gift.

7 / 18

After breakfast we headed to our Anganwadi assignments. While we were there Danielle taught some of the kids how to make cootie-catchers, which are the silly little paper things that are folded and written on with numbers or colors in order to predict things about a kid's future. Well Anish, an adorable 8 year old boy, was making one and I heard him ask Antonios how to spell my name. He later came up and asked me to pick a number that he had written on top of his cootie-catcher. I picked one and he began to move his fingers in a pattern, he didn't quite get it right and I was about to teach him the correct way to play when I saw him opening one of the end cards and I realized it didn't matter if he knew how to play or not, he was on a mission. He unfolded the flap and pointed it at me. It read "Chelsea I likes you." and he ran off as my heart filled with joy. He was very sweet and it made my heart so happy that we were making an impact on him and his friends. Anish yelled my name and waved to me from his home that was very close to the Anganwadi as we left for the day.

We headed of to a Hindi temple after lunch. We were able to hear about their beliefs and the basis of their religion as well as had the honor to be blessed by the temple leader. Priyanka showed us what the paintings and sculptures meant and we were allowed to explore the temple and document what we liked, including the nearby waterfall.

We then left for a Tibetan institute that also held a temple inside it gates. There they teach weed carving, metal working, extremely intricate canvas painting and more. Many people learn these skills and use them to create works for temples or to sell. After taking a tour of the institute we were allowed to move more freely around the campus and document our experiences there as well as experience the amazing view from the rooftop of the temple, which also stands as the Dalai Lama's winter home.

When were arrived back at home base Priyanka led us in creating our own Tibetan Prayer Flags similar to what we witnessed at the temple as well as around the city. These flags are covered in prayers and hung to wave in the wind as every breeze that moves them takes their prayers with it.We used multiple colors and artistic designs in ours which we felt contrasted the very simple and beautiful writings of the Tibetans, but Priyanka and Kaitlyn told us that they see them as all equal, it is just a different language and way that we express ourselves. That makes a lot of sense to me and I just love that there are so many different cultures and groups of people around the world that all are expressed differently.

7 / 17

We were assigned our capstone groups this morning. A capstone project is a project that is normally a long term project that has a focus and can be presented. For us that meant the topics were Gaddi Culture, the local sports camp, the Anganwadis, and the local agriculture and food industry, which is my group's project. There are many different ways we could present our project and we were encouraged to explore all of those options before choosing one. Many often choose a documentary style video, a photo-essay is also popular, and my group chose a website that will showcase a short video interview with the head of a local farm and then have many photos and articles about the local agriculture.

We had our first morning of service at the Anganwadis and it was a very difficult situation for many of us. We were told that we would be leading the kids and to have some things planned but none of us really took that to heart and we all thought that we would be aiding the actual teachers in whatever they had for the kids. However, when we showed up there were many pleasantries exchanged and then suddenly nothing was said and all of the children were looking to us, as if the were waiting for instructions. We quickly realized that we were, in fact, in charge and had had absolutely no guidance in what to do. So my group, Danielle, Antonios, and I, quickly came up with a few games from our childhood for us to take turns leading while the others came up with a plan for some learning time. We decided to make this day more fun and explorative as it was only day one. We found out that the kids loved history, however none of us knew anything about Indian history, geography, and math, well most of them liked math. We did a lot with geography that first day but later decided that math was a good route to focus on for the rest of the visits. It was definitely a growing moment for all of us in terms of leadership; they really do focus on the 'L' in G.L.A. (Global Leadership Adventures).

When we arrived back at home base for lunch it began to rain and it was clear that whatever afternoon plans there were, weren't going to happen due to said rain as well as the many many people feeling under the weather. It was better to have a restful day. There was a handful of us that spent the rest of the afternoon playing card games and even teaching some of the Indian mentors how to play games like spoons and Egyptian Rat Slap, while they taught us their much quicker way of shuffling cards and their special rules in UNO. We had a quick refresher course in Hindi after supper and are headed off to bed now.

7/16

We woke up and ate another yummy breakfast and had a lecture on camera settings such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO - the same lecture that I've heard a million times and even given to others about a thousand times, but I know it will always help to hear it again... maybe, but it is nice to be able to help the others who do not know quite as much about cameras or photography.

We then headed out to St. John's Church to put these ideas to use. It was a very foggy day to say the least but it just added more drama to the gorgeous architecture. We shot the vegetation and the people us and locals, around the church. It was absolutely beautiful and to be able to hear the Christian sermon happening inside in the middle of such a large Hindu community was a true blessing and made me feel so at peace. it was breathtaking.

Afterwards, we headed to the market to purchase fabric and get measured for our custom saris! We won't be able to see them again until next week but all of the fabric was beautiful and I can't wait to wear mine. While we were at the tailor, they handed out cups of cold Coke and in was not until I saw the condensation on the bottles did I realize how much I have missed ice and cold drinks. It was amazing to have something chilled after so long as in India it is dangerous to drink the tap water and we have been living on bottled water for these past few days. And because of that great water crisis it is considered a waste to use bottled water for ice in other drinks.

We left for home base and were greeted by a meal that was Chinese inspired and was very close to chow mein with soy sauce which was a very welcomed break very the bland rice-based Indian food.

We were surprised by a Hindi class after dinner that was lead by one of our leaders, Priyanka. It was amazing to see how the people here have translated their language into both English and a written version that uses english letters to explain the pronunciation. It was awesome to have our names translated into their written language as well.

7 / 15

Most of us were awake by 5 and all hungout watching netflix and listening to random music until breakfast at 8. But we finally had a proper orientation and played a few name games with the leaders after breakfast. We headed to the day cares or Anganwadi to meet the kids that we will be working with for the next week or so and headed back to home base for lunch. After lunch, we had a meet up with the brother photography mentors Rahit and Rahul Lal and talked about the rule of thirds. We then for ready and headed out for a market scavenger hunt.
They are really pushing us out of our comfort zones and into stronger leadership personalities as they let us lead and forced us to act on our own accord with no help at all when. We were given a list of items to buy or pieces of information to learn by asking people in the market, again without them telling us where to go or when to stop for help. They were there strictly for safety and translated when necessary and we chose when to ask, who to ask, and what to ask. We were also on a time crunch if we wanted to finish our list before the other groups and win the competition, which my group did.

We then came back to home base and uploaded pictures from the day and we each selected three pictures to give to Rahit and Rahul for a group critique. Afterwards we got a more westernized dinner, which was very very exciting, and we are currently preparing for a good night sleep!

7 /14

Just Kidding! The traveling is not over as in the morning we headed to the Delhi airport once again and took a 45 minute flight to Armitsar and then had a 5 hour drive to Dharamsala, the small village that we will be staying in and working in for the next week-and-a-half.

During our five hour drive we encountered many things but one of them was a cow just chilling in the middle of the road. We missed him though don't worry. They seem to be all over the place which yes makes sense but you don't truly realize the shock until you see it for yourself.
Well I threw up already but it's okay. I think it was just everything piling up, like food, travel, and windy roads etc. but at least I am not alone as a boy named Bruke did the same thing a few hours later.

We finally made it! I mean the showers are gross and there are spiders the size of a hand everywhere, including in those showers, but they are apparently harmless and easy to shew away and we have finally finally made it to the spot that we will be for a longer period of time, which feels great.

Three weeks ago I preemptively put a pin in India at the "Where have you served?" booth at General Assembly and today I have this beautiful view and can finally say namaste from Dharmsala! And now we will get an actual full night's sleep in a real bed! ... unless jet lag gets to us. BTW: it did.

7 / 12 & 13

Woke up at 3:15.
Scratch that.
Woke up at 3:45.
First experience at an airport went smoothly; however, it did take all I had not to cry as I went through TSA and realized that I'd be without my absolutely wonderful parents, amazing friends and family, and clearly the most important: my dogs, for the next two weeks.

I arrived in Minneapolis and with my boarding passes for these first two flights already being printed all I needed was to find my gate, seemed simple enough, and get on another plane.
As we began to land in JFK I soon realized that they would not make it easy and the flight attendants were not going to tell me which gate I should be headed to like they did on my last flight (I realized this was because a. I needed to switch terminals and b. I had an 8 hour layover so the plane wasn't even there nor had a set gate for me to go to). But we landed nonetheless and it felt pretty cool to be in New York even though I never actually went outside or got to see the city so I didn't buy anything touristy. It was now 2pm in New York and I hadn't eaten anything since a 4am breakfast sandwich before the first flight, so goal number one was to find food. I headed over to the closest restaurant that I recognized: Wendy's. The next step was to figure out what the heck I was doing. My next boarding pass was not printed and after some googling, I found out that I was indeed in the wrong terminal. I then figured out what a terminal even was and found that luckily I would not have to go security again as Delta has two terminals in JFK and I just needed to take a nice little shuttle ride to the right place. Thank goodness for an 8 hour layover that allowed me the time to determine all of this without stressing too much.

I sat at gate B22 for quite some time bouncing between doing homework, trying to get a cat nap in, and writing this. I decided that a nap was not working but i had also read the same page of my summer AP Lit assignment sits times and still didn’t remember what it said, therefore I decided on a self guided tour of this new terminal. It had a lot more shops, and a lot more moving walkways! (FYI: No matter how prepared you think you are to step onto said walkways, you’re not really prepared and you better be actually prepared to catch yourself on the hand rails that you swore to yourself that you wouldn’t need.)

I then met up with another student on the trip here and we shared a flight to Amsterdam where we would meet up with quite a few of the others as well. It had felt like a week and we still had one more flight to Delhi.


We FINALLY arrived and by 3am we all got through customs and everything seemed fine. We picked up our luggage and headed to our hotel for the night, The trip to said hotel was quite the culture shock to say the least. Surviving our first drive in India felt like quite a large milestone. Red lights mean very little if no one is coming and neither do lanes in the road - some roads don't even have the lines at all - and tuktuks often drive on the wrong side of the road. Every median we passed was covered with sleeping people. Even at 3am there were people everywhere. But we are finally at the hotel and I cannot wait to get a few precious hours of sleep in a real bed after a 25 hour travel day.