day 3

Today was another day off work to explore and find our bearings. Andria and i started it this morning with a boat ride down the ganga at sunrise, leaving just before 6 a.m. The river was dotted with other boats carrying other tourists, but in spite of that it was a beautiful and peaceful experience. We rowed past Ghat after ghat, past people bathing and praying and fishing and selling, past laundry wallahs washing clothes in the river on flat stones, past the strange old buildings and high flights of stone steps leading down to the river. the sunrise itself was stunning -- I hope to start sharing some photos on here in the next couple of days. Then we went wandering in some of the streets just around Assi Ghat (our neighbourhood) to find some fresh yoghurt and sweets for breakfast, which we ate out of little clay pots in the quiet, dark back corner of a local sweet shop.

after a slow morning, we spent the afternoon on a crazy Prashant-guided exploration of two of the most famous gullies. The gullies are the narrow lanes that run between the streets all over the city, and the ones we walked through today were little markets, with vendors selling bangles and bindis and statues and saris and antiques and sweets. Andria and i were both on a bit of a clothes shopping mission, and i bought the most comfortable turquoise light cotton kurta pajama (trousers and a matching long tunic). We walked for a couple of hours in the midday heat, which was exhausting in spite of the shade of the narrow gullies. Finally we took a cycle rickshaw home along one of the major roads, all three of us crammed in together on the one narrow seat. That was another somewhat hairy traffic experience, and i frequently had to remind myself about my philosophy of passivity when using public transportation in third world countries -- scary as it is i probably won't die, and there's not really much i can do in that situation to prevent an accident, except to live in fear and never use public transportation, which would just be silly.
On the way home we stopped by Tulsi Kunj to visit the childrens' tutoring sessions, where we saw kids from 5 to their mid-teens being tutored in everything from the alphabet to algebra. The amount of individual attention our programming is able to give to each child, and the engagement and interest they seem to have with their lessons is remarkable -- plus they're all really charming kids. I'm excited to get to know them better during my internship, when i'm supposed to be doing some direct work with them (among various other responsibilities).

I can't believe how tired the heat makes me. It's just before 8 here, i had a long nap from 5 til 6:30, and i think i'm about to head back to bed. I hope to get some photos up in the next couple of days, but i also want to plug my co-intern's blog,
www.prashart.blogspot.com
he's a very talented watercolour artist, and already has some really beautiful paintings up from the last few days since we arrived (plus one of andria andi playing scrabble in the delhi airport at 4:30 in the morning!)

Love Emily