Thursday, July 10, 2008
Leaving for Kashmir
Just wanted to let you know that I'm taking a one hour flight this morning to Kashmir (northern India) which is in the mountains, very similar to the swiss alps. It will be cooler up there and I so badly want to take out my camera and use it!!! I will be back in Delhi on the 14th.
xo
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The orphan home
This is probably the most difficult post i have to write.
The project I anticipated turned out to be not anything like I had envisioned. All I want to do is bang my head against a wall, over and over again. India is a very testing country.
There are 15 girls, ages 5yrs to 11yrs and then one 15yrold. They are so sweet and loving and want to do everything for you. The nun is a remarkable soul and you can just feel her genunity and dedication to the girls and the orphan home. The home sits on a lush land of maybe 2 acres or so, fruit trees and plants exist everywhere. That means alot of bugs. There is also an ashram on site where the prayers go on 2 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs at night. The program specifically said things like take girls to the zoo, help girls with homework, hygene, etc....that type of thing. The portraits were an additional 'to-do' on our list.
You know that saying "no man's land?" Faridabad is that place. Take kids to zoo? Where the hell is the zoo? The whole village is a zoo if you ask me. Everything the program said was false advertising in my opinion. And......in all of india: if you ask anyone anything, no one knows a damn thing. No one. There is no answer to your questions from anybody that is breathing. I need to learn how to say "i don't know" in hindi so i fit in. To add to the dilema, no one at the orphan home speaks a lick of english. Not the nun, not the girls. Oh except for one girl who I barely see. The hindi classes i took at the apartment last week didn't stick in my head maybe because all the sweat washed it away.
The girls go to school at 7:30 and come back at 3pm. Then they go to afternoon school from 4pm-5pm. Then prayer starts at 6:30 and ends at 8:15. Dinner at 8:30. There is no time with the girls except for an hour or so a couple of times during the day. They are busy with homework and with each other. They are not neglected, actually very very happy thank God. They have each other and call each other sisters. Do not feel sorry for them, honestly they are in such great hands at the ashram and with the nun. They are blessed as well as precious blessings themselves. I wish I knew they're stories. I cant talk to anyone to find out because of the language barrier. We volunteer girls (me, hannah, and birta) sit in our room most of the day doing squat by ourselves. We a ren't allowed to participate in helping, for respect's sake. Yeah.
I came down the other day to see a 3yr old boy and a baby laying on the tile in front of the ashram. I was told they were the laboror's kids who are working on the rooftop. So for the next 4 hours, this toddler was taking care of his half naked brother who obviously hasn't been bathed in some time. The toddler has an unconditional love for his baby brother and both of them don't cry or talk or do anything. The toddler puts down his brother on the tile because he's tired of holding him and the baby just sits there with no diaper on, no pants, just wearing a dirty little girls shirt actually. He's not clean and flies swarm around him but both of them are craving our attention. Us girls cant get over this and I take the baby off the tile and just hold him. He breaks me.
WE are playing duck duck goose with the girls. The toddler watches and smiles while holding his brother.
His mom, who is no more than 22 yrs old, is watching from the rooftop and comes down. She motions me to take the toddler. I look at my friend Hanna and say 'where on earth should i take him, the store?" She says 'NO, she wants you to take him home...probably knows he'd have a better life." I break down again. The next couple of days she keeps doing this to me and actually hands the baby over to me. I decline. I cant hold him again. You would think she was offering tea or coffee to me. I want to hit her. Why would you just give your kids away? You might be poor, but there is water for free in this ashram. Bathe your kids. I havent seen them eat, except a cracker given to them by one of the nuns. No water, no milk. So so so sad. The boy loves the camera and follows me around literally everywhere carrying his brother. Nicer pictures will be posted from my 5d when i get home. The father works on the rooftop too and when he came down to get something, he never ackowleged the kids or looked at them or did anything. They are both under 3. This is bazarre to me.
Here's another dilemma: the bathroom is a house to spiders and our room is infested with bugs at night. INFESTED. Little roaches and bugs of every kind possible raid the room. There is at least 500-600 bugs in the room if I could guesstimate. We duct taped a mosquito tent on the window, another tent on another window, I'm sharing a canopy short mosquito tent with hanna, and birta sleeps in her own. I sleep with pants on and a shirt wrapped in my sleeping bag. The fabric of the mosquito tent drapes over my face and I feel critters crawling all night in the humid heat. Everytime i feel something, i turn on the flashlight to find loads of bugs inside the tent and some on the material draped over my face. I. AM. GOING. INSANE. Its 90 degrees in the tent and I have no where to go. I don't sleep at all. Theyre on my pillow, in my everywhere. In the morning, I call Mike unsure of what to do and break down. He advises to get out. The other girls are 19 and 21 and I feel like at 33 too old to deal with this madness. I would tolerate more 10 yrs ago maybe. I killed most of the spiders in the bathroom which is located outside the room, but the first night the lights went off while taking a shower amongst the spiders proved to be another turning point for me....
I got out of the orphan home. I couldnt do it. I'm not strong enough to deal with all the issues in this country at this time.
To visit India is a must for everyone. It will have you laughing like a kid once you see all the colors, taste the delicious food and embrace the culture.
But it will break you into tiny little pieces and rip your heart out at the same time and make you appreciate the lifestyle you live.
___________________________________________
birte and hanna with rep's daughter in faridabad

the ashram

hanna snapped this of me taking pix of the girls


baby

This is the next days picture i took of the boys except mom put shorts on the baby this time. The toddler is wearing the same shirt as the previous day which i'm sure he slept in too.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Around Faridabad
You know when you're a kid and you arent happy or your hurt or scared and then you maintain yourself until you see your mother, then you cry and cry and cry. That is today for me. Except mom is not around. They picked us up early from the apartment to take us to the orphan home. We drive to an area called Faridabad and if I can describe this place without any pictures, I say think national geographic. I'm sitting in a 70s van filled with volunteers on top of each other with luggage roped on top this poor vehicle and we're just screaming "foreigners." We honest to goodness look like refugees, and we continue to laugh amongst each other at this description. The 2 guy volunteers tease me about making sure I'm okay and comfortable in these conditions..i call them wise guys.. Alex from the east coast tells me he's going to hire an orphan kid to just stand over me and fan me all night. LOL I tell him thats mean but hmmmm, maybe not a bad idea. On the way we continue to see people living and working in conditions unimaginable to westerners but just an everyday norm to them. Cows with their rib bones sticking out graze the roadside, camels carrying straw, pigs eating garbage all around the ground, kids playing on top of their living area (shack), truck drivers, women carrying bowls of something on their heads, rickshaws and motorcycles with families FILLED in them....etc...you name it, its there. The picture opportunties are endless and I can come back with a really good photography storybook i think to myself. So then....... |
We pull into this area loaded with men who look like they havent gotten lucky in a long time. If ever. I'm sitting at the window. Staring would be a tiny understatement and i start feeling queesy. I remember a month ago at home getting my shots and my doctor asked me if i wanted hepatitis a or b shot. Asked the difference and he said "A for mishandling of food and B for intimate contact and needles." I had said "oh noooooo, i only need A. No plans sleeping with the natives or doing heroine." Now I think....i should have gotten the B shot.
The rocket scientist driver we have cant find the orphan home and stops to ask every guy on the freakin road where the orphan home is. I'm thinking oh my god, they're all going to know where we're staying , dear god help me. I'm a freakin paranoid american, I'm terrified.
The orphan home refuses us till tomorrow. Seriously.
So 3 of us girls, they split the rest of everyone else up into different orphan homes, are staying at someone else's house now until tomorrow. The house is fine, tolerable, who cares at this point. Just the guys hanging around the house area makes me paranoid. Only because we're 3 girls all alone and don't know anyone.
Coming to this internet cafe has been the highlight of this day. There are other americans i hear talking in this cafe that i havent met and i'm going to hunt them down and become best friends in a matter of minutes. If you watched Euro-trip movie, this place Faridabad is like that place in the movie where the kids bought the whole town for 5cents............yeah.
This is it.
We're here....woo hoo. ;)
Friday, July 4, 2008
Namaste!
I got out of confinement and am having a blast minus the heat. My senses are all heightened to say the least. I am amazed by what I've seen in Old delhi and New Delhi in just the last 2 days. We were taken to a newer area built by the English which was green and gorgeous and then a poverty stricken area inside Old Delhi. Of course I was drawn to the people in poverty area more. I couldnt help but stare and think. Women that i saw here in those specific areas are amazing. I look at them taking care of the kids in the heat trying to sell a toy to make some money or working on the side of the street jackhammering in their saris and then I begin to take a look at myself and the life I live and why I feel so stressed out so much of the time. Actually you'd all be able to relate the same way I am if you were here instead. This is a whole different life. I'm speaking for the ones on the streets that earn their living. It really makes you appreciate the life you live and the things you take for granted. But my head does feel much lighter here. Simpler. I haven't been all over but I'm already immersed in the culture and am not as homesick anymore. It didnt help the first few days when i looked up from my floor mattress up at a wall map hanging above me and cringed whenever I saw how far home was from me. But now I find it fascinating. Ive been to so many countries but there's none so far like India. Its overwhelming emotionally. The kids are beautiful and some of them steal your breath away with their big brown eyes smiling at you. Everyone should make a trip here once in their life. I say this after having been out in the streets for 2 days. Oh and never ever ever ever come here in the summer. Its the biggest jackass move you can ever make so Dec or January might be a better option. I can't wait to see more on the weekends that I'm not working at the orphanage.
I don't want to fail to mention that as excited as we are to photograph the people, THEY are so much more excited to photograph us, especially the blond girls in the group. I mean seriously folks, wrap a sari around me and put on some heavy makeup and I'll blend right in with the natives... ;)
Speaking of saris, I got sized for one that I can wear the next time I shoot an Indian wedding back home. Will someone get married already??!!
The food is fabulous. I am loving it.
In the meantime, thanks for staying in touch with me and here are a few snapshots from the point and shoot.











Wednesday, July 2, 2008
In Delhi...
Since I've arrived, Ive met some really fabulous people from all over the world who are doing the same thing as I am. We all ask why and we all answer with the same reason: I wanted to do something important in the world.
This past week and until Saturday, we are immersed in a class of hindi culture and language....at the apartment. Its so different than the US and I'm trying to be open minded but in all honesty, if I wasn't pouring sweat out of every pore in my body 24/7, then I'd likely be more open minded to sitting on the floor and taking notes during the day in a room with 20 people and no air conditioning and windows closed. I want to scream "Where are the kids? I want to see the kids! Get me out of this apartment!" But I'd likely be taken away with a strait jacket and sent to the ward, so I pass on this action.
I will see the kids over the weekend and my orphan project will begin then.
They moved me to another room where I slept by myself last night and the rep came into the room and told me he wanted to add a roommate. I said Sure. He said "its a boy." I am thinking since i will not be seeing Mike for a month, the last thing I need in the same room is something with a penis attached to it. I look up from my floor mattress at the rep and just say "please don't."
ARG. So now I have a Danish girl roomate but I still can't sleep a wink with the intense heat. I told the rep this morning that I'm getting a hotel with AC tonight. I need one night of sleep, one night.
I haven't really gotten out much yet. We are in a rural suburbish kind of area if that makes sense: Its busy but its villagey. The people have been so nice of what I've seen so far but tomorrow I will venture out on a day trip into Old Delhi. I will then start photographing. It feels so surreal to be in India. I can't explain it. I'm dying to get out of the apartment and into the world.
In the meantime, thanks for letting me vent without pictures. Please be thankful that you have random things like air conditioning and shower heads and bowel movements. Yes I said bowel movements. These are all things I've taken for granted and would give anything to get them all back!! LOL My shower exists of a pipe coming out of the wall and shooting out of the shower area and onto the floor. I shower with flip flops on. Please no visuals, it aint cute.
I am glad I have a fantastic group of girls with me who I laugh hysterically with and because we're all on the same page.
Rajan the program rep is actually very very nice. I like him. I have some major adjustments to get use to and I'm sure I will be fine in time. I am so not the 'roughing it' type of girl. Soooooo not that type! And I'm perfectly fine with that.
Peace.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Until we meet again...in India!
I leave tomorrow morning and other than the long plane ride there and waiting in line at customs, I cannot wait to see a new place and meet new faces, especially the little ones. The closest I've been to India was having traveled all over the middle east and that was fascinating enough. I can only imagine what else awaits in this land of beauty.
My friends and I met up one night this week to see each other. I am SO thankful for the women in my life who have no idea how important they are to me. I will be thinking of you. And for the ones I didn't get to see that evening, I missed you too.
I will try to do a travel journal with some point and shoot pictures on my blog from India. I will leave the artsy fartsy stuff for when I come back and will be blogging on India until Christmas. LOL
Leave me comments when I'm gone and let me know you were on here. xoxo
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Kelly
She is going to have her own TV show air soon and wanted to do some images for her website and marketing type materials. She's very personable and pretty, kind of a tossup between Jennifer Aniston and Heather Locklear. I processed all images differently, and then did some studio lighting some natural light.
...and her hubby Mike below too! Beautiful couple.
