What a week! I am finally starting to settle into some routines here, and I feel comfortable at my projects and around my apartment. I feel like I have people I can rely on and hang out with, and like I am doing some real good. I love the animal shelter, I didn’t expect it to mean so much to me as it does, but going every day and seeing the dogs and the monkeys and the parrots just brings me so much joy! I absolutely adore working with the monkeys, and I spend a lot more time with them than I had anticipated. I helped move a troop of baby monkeys from the small cage in the foster ward for the little babies to a larger cage where they can bond and play. They are actually quite sweet and there is one in particular who just clings onto me and climbs up my legs and arms every time I let him!! I named him Paneer and I go into the monkey cage every day to feed and play with him and his friends. I think my most direct impact is with the animal shelter right now, but working on video editing and social media also lets me interact with the people and helps to keep me busy in the afternoons. This week I interviewed one of the master teachers for the AtmaNirbhar bag project, Vissni Devi, who has been working on the bag project for four years and has taught many of the other women who work with them. The strength and resilience of the people here is powerful and inspirational. For anybody wanting to support them, I will put the link to their Etsy page (which ships internationally) HERE!
This past weekend, I was invited to go with a small group of my volunteer friends to Agra to sightsee and visit the Taj Mahal! I was super excited and obviously agreed, and most of the planning was already done! So Friday night, we went via sleeper bus, about 6 hours, to Agra! When we arrived, it was already about 1 in the morning, so we went to our hotel to get some sleep before our very early morning (best time to get to Taj Mahal is around 6am) .The bus ride was fun, and I was in good company, but oh my lord that hotel. It was super dirty and gross and there were bugs everywhere and visually dirty sheets and a weird persistent chemical smell. It was awful. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do at 1am though, so we stayed and tried to get a little sleep before our big morning. The Taj Mahal was incredible, which isn’t shocking but wow, seeing it in person is so different than photos can ever show you. The sheer size of it is completely breathtaking and the intricate stonework on the marble is so detailed and precise. The lines were crazy, and there were lots of people and crowds to push through, but it was most definitely worth it. After that, we went to breakfast and found a new hotel for that night, then spent a lot of the day going back and forth between hotels, trying to get a partial refund for the night we wouldn’t be using at the gross hotel, checking into the new one, etc. We did also go to a cafe called Sheroes, which is exclusively run by acid attack survivors from the area who serve food and make crafts, and the proceeds go to their charity to support victims of acid attacks across India, everyone there was so nice, and we all got henna and had a snack there. We ended up having a nice dinner, and sleeping incredibly well at the nice new hotel we booked, after taking a long shower. Sunday, we visited baby Taj, which is like a small monument in the city built before the Taj Mahal but also a mausoleum for previous rulers, sat in a cafe for a while, and chatted before we had to get back on a bus to Jaipur! The bus home was less comfortable, because we had seats and not beds, and quite long, but not so bad. Definitely a chaotic and memorable experience in Agra that made me appreciate Jaipur even more. Worth it though, for the friends and the views.
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