Day 1 - Introduction to Indian Culture

After 2 very long flights - Denver to Frankfurt (9 hours) and Frankfurt to New Delhi ( 7 hours) we made it to the Indira Gandhi International Airport! It happened to be 1:00 am and after getting baggage for 12 people (all my cohorts) and changing currency AND meeting our in-country consultant Rajesh - we got to Le Meridien around 3:00am. By the way, the fellowship really put us in style with our hotel AND we got our own rooms! I'm very psyched because in previous trips I have volunteered and spend my own money so it was hostels and lower priced places. This is a realy treat!

We had rest and recovery time - thankfully and we all met in the conference room at 4:00pm. We have four in-country consultants that have planned all our excursions and the have been ILT fellows who came to the US and did the same exchange program we are doing so they are aware of what things we need and should know. They are all awesome! We have Rajesh, Mamta, Sonja and Poonam, they are so kind and helpful! They gave us an intro to Indian Culture and gave us a traditional welcome called Puja Thali. They called us all up one at a time and held a tray that had several ingredients on it. Incense was burning and there were two pastes (not sure -didn't write the names but the computer says it turmeric and sindoor) and they use a finger (different ones for men and women) to put each of the two on your forehead. Then they take unbroken rice grains and put on top of the two pastes then use a flower to sprinkle holy water on your head. The incense is kind of circled around you. Very nice ceremony! We left it on our foreheads the rest of the day.

Lots and lots of information about India - very comprehensive! I will just write a few interesting things as this could take a long time to list!

* The Indian flag's colors - orange/saffron is courage and spirit of, white is purity and truth and green is faith, fertility and freedom. The chakra wheel in the middle represents life in movement and death in stagnation.

* The common greeting is putting the hands together touching the pressure points and bowing as well as saying Namaste/Namaskar. This means " I bow to you".

We all danced some traditional Indian dances and then left for an amazing dinner at BBQ Nation. Traffic - as I'm sure those of you that have traveled to non-first world countries, is INSANE!! No lanes, no obvious rules being followed...I'm thankful I do not have to drive here! I know I will come back with an appreciation of Denver traffic (which I cursed on the way to the airport on Thursday). We went to BBQ nation for amazing traditional food -

No complaints here! I look forward to sharing all my new learning and adventures with you all!

Image #1: traffice

Image #2: Liberty (my Dora Moore sidekick) resting in hotel

Image #3: Puja Thali ceremony

Image #4: rupee (2000 rupees is about $29 American)