Adventuring in India

Ok where to start. I’ve done a lot of stuff in the past week. Here are a few pictures to illustrate

 

 On Tuesday the 14h there was heavy rain and the streets flooded, a lot!. this is a picture from the corner of my street. a few cars dared to drive through and kids came out to swim. I also went on the roof of my house to take a few pictures of the street when I turned around to find myself surrounded by monkeys. the didn’t seem interested in me so I made a quick dash for the stairs to escape

  The next morning, Wednesday the 15th, Jocelyn and I went to the deaf school before class. One of the teachers showed us around. The school teaches ISL or Indian Sign Language so my ASL skills did not work out the best, but many students where familiar with ASL. We weren’t able to stay long because we had to get to class but we are planning on visiting again.

  Friday we took a field trip to Jaipur Foot where they make and fit people with prosthetics. The organization treats all their patients for free and astonishingly it only costs the NGO around 45 dollars to supply a patient with an prosthetic leg. This is strikingly different compared to the U.S. where artificial limbs cost thousands of dollars. One of the reasons they are able to do this is because of new technological inventions that have made this sort of thing cheaper and easily produced.

  Friday Night we left on a train for Bikiner for the weekend. We slept on the train ride and arrived early Saturday morning. We took a Riksaw to our hotel at around 4:30 in the morning and slept some more before we started our day’s adventure.

  In Bikiner we got a guided tour of the Junagarh Fort. The fort was constructed between 1588 and 1593 by Raja Rai Singh who was an army general for the Mughal emperor Akbar. The Fort also had a museum in it to share some of its history.

  After the Junagarh Fort on Saturday we took a city bus to a nearby town, Deshnok, to visit the Karni Mata Temple, also known as the Rat Temple. According to legend, Karni mata, a 14th- century incarnation of darga, asked the god of death, Yama, to restore to life the son of a grieving storyteller. When Yama refused, Karni Mata reincarnated all dead storytellers as rats, depriving Yama of human souls. (lonely Planet, 253). I also heard another story about this temple. That is that during the black plague all who worshiped here did not get sick. It is also considered to be very lucky to see a white rat. Sadly we did not see one while we were there.

  This is the gate to the old city in Bikiner. We walked through the narrow streets of the bazaars and saw old havelis, homes of the upper class.

  On Sunday the 19th we visited two Jain temples in the old city.

  The Sandeshwar Temple was small but had very beautiful detailed paintings on the inside

  The Bhandasar Temple was larger but equally as beautiful with its paintings and carvings. We were told that the foundation of this temple was built on 40,000kg of ghee. The temple was not busy so we were able to sit and talk with one of the religions leaders of the temple for a while. I was able to blow the temple’s conch shell which was very exciting and made my trip. 

  That night we took the night train back to Jaipur and made it home in time for Monday’s class.

  On Friday the 24th we took a field trip to see some traditional dancing and crafts and even got to partake in them. The locals were previously a nomadic group that traveled from city to city but recently settled in Jaipur in an attempt to make a better living off of tourism. The trip was very fun and eye opening.

More To Come!