Today we had a piece of chocolate cake that tasted like beer. I think they must have made it with lots of yeast.

Indian garbage

For Mom - me with lots of Indian garbage, which is EVERYWHERE.


A pig wallowing in black, garbage-filled runoff by a street.

A random Indian lady who wanted a picture with us outside the BHU art museum, Bharat Kala Bhavan.

Tour of some Banarasi gullies (tiny winding streets)

Two days ago we went on a tour of Banarasi gullies in the north of Banaras. The north part of the city is the oldest and some people only consider the north to be the "real" city of Banaras. Our tour guide was a Minnesotian who moved to India when he was 25 and has now lived in India for 14 years. He started a Christian-Hindu ashram in the northern part of the city and lives there with the swami who works there, too. The ashram's building was about 250 years old. Our tour lasted for about 3 hours and we wandered around in the little twisting gullies to the Ganges and then made our way back. On our way we stopped at a temple dedicated to the wrathful aspect of Shiva. We all went inside and the priests in the temple all had little whip things forcefully grabbed some of us, blessed us aggressively and then demanded money! It was weird.

Banarasi gali.
Cow (gai) in a gully.





Crocodile (magar)
Lion (sher, like Sher Khan from the Jungle Book!)

Spice seller (Masalewala!)
Indian gully. (Hindustani gali!)

Indian squirrel!

Our first post in Banaras!

The streets of Banaras are full of strange and wonderful animals... sometimes cows attack you with their horns! It's pretty scary. Monkeys are friendly but are quick to defend their territory and babies. Horses also roam the streets as well as donkeys. Pigs are often seen rooting through trash, cow dung, and mud. Goats like to eat ANYTHING including the paper signs pasted to concrete walls (I will try to get a picture of this!). There are lots of little birds and I have seen some chickens around, too.





Kristina and Zach :)
This is a little shrine in the base of a tree (I'm not sure what kind) near our program house.

Corn and potatoes have been a big hit in India. And tomatoes.

Eating some sewage.


Best friends!


We went on a tour of northern Banaras and took some photos of temples near the Ganges.

The Himalayas... outside our hotel!!

pics

Internet and Pictures

The Internet here is very slow. I will be making more posts that include pictures and videos
when I get to Banares.

Wild Life in Musoorie

Because of the heavy rains, bugs have been coming into the hotel. We recently found a spider the size of my palm crawling on the wall. We decided to switch from our basement room to one on the floor above, which is also much less mildewy.

From our balcony we can watch monkeys playing in the trees. They will jump from a high branch, swing, and prop themselves on a new branch. Apparently they have learned that they can take peoples clothes and "hold them for ransom" in exchange for food. If you don't bring them food, they rip your clothes. They stole Elin's pants and walked around waving them over their head. 

The streets are full of stray dogs of all imaginable. They are mostly quiet and friendly.