First few days…

Namaste! (Greetings!) Keseh chal raha hai (How’s it going?)

We have successfully survived our first 4 days in India! After a “balmy” 115-degree day in Delhi on Friday we flew to Udaipur on Saturday where we were welcomed by Giulia, the Foundation for Sustainable Development‘s Udaipur program coordinator. We spent most of the past 3 days at our beautiful hotel which has breathtaking views of the city where one can see the lakes and city palaces.

These past few days have been a great balance of learning and doing. During the day (and to escape from the heat) we had orientation where we learned some necessary tips for the upcoming weeks. For example, in India people eat only with their right hand (usually without silverware) because the left hand is considered impure. We started our Hindi lessons and we had educational workshops about development in India. We visited a lake 2 days ago and last night we went  into the “old city” where we bought local clothes to help us “blend in” more. Then we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant downtown with the FSD Udaipur program director Roma.

Tonight we were picked up by our host families…and now this part of the trip is where it all sinks in. We’ll write more on that topic soon. But for now I’ll leave you two videos, one of our cab ride in Delhi and the other of the streets of Delhi.