if you didn't know - Rajhastan is a little sandy.

if you ever ride a camel, be prepared for your ass to hurt. a lot. (especially if you are the lucky one to fall off of the camel like me.)
it is an incredible experience, no doubt. you get to see a great deal of how desert life works, understand the isolation and, at times, ultimate peace of the desert - disturbed only by the bells of your camel, and my favorite part - getting to hang out with some of the coolest people from around the world you will ever meet.

we started out from Bikaner, the sixteen of us traveling twelve hours by dusty train from Chandigarh, not knowing what to expect. other than the sore ass of course. we traveled into the desert, listening to the wind, the bells on the camels, and each other. especially each other. this trip, though mostly painful, sandy, and exhausting, really showed me my favorite part of being on a traineeship - the people you meet. these people that share the frustration, the excitement, the discovery, the experience that a traineeship can offer you. you cannot imagine the bonding that occurs when you find yourselves halfway around the world - lost and trying to find your way. i know, for sure, that these people will be friends of mine for the rest of my life. already - we are planning trips to visit each other's countries, reunions in Las Vegas, and how much we will miss each other when this experience ends.

how can i define a traineeship and this experience i have had? i'm not sure, it is hard to define. it isn't about some heroic feat, some incredible change we are making in the world - it is about our lives running parallel for awhile, and getting to experience it with each other. it is not only about the stories we share while we sit around a fire in the desert, or on a train braving the winds blowing sand off the dunes, or about the changes we have found in ourselves, but also the stories we will keep forever when we leave this place and when we leave each other.
the traineeship is all about the story, the impact, and the experience. and in the years to come, i will look back on this summer in India, this summer i spent on the other side of the world, and know for sure that it will have been one of the greatest of my life, and that every person i have met has changed my life in some way.
and i think that this trip to the desert, on the back of a camel, was when i truly realized it.

YouVA. take 1.

So I have finally figured out what to work on during my time in India, time that is moving faster than I thought it would be. I arrived a little more than a week ago, coming to work at an NGO, EduCARE, and completely lost on where to start and what to do. And now - I think I have a plan.

Besides working on cultural education and HIV/AIDS awareness the Project Worldview, I will be working on developing a youth conference for EduCARE called YouVA Week. Youva, in Hindi, means youth - and stands for Youth for Volunteer Action in coordination with the UN's International Youth Day. Basically it is a week long program for 15-24 year olds in Chandigarh to learn about issues that impact their community, like the 20 different slums in the city, the prevalence of HIV-positive citizens, and the pollution of its water source by a city's worth of trash, and then actually act on them. Working with the schools, the NGOs of Chandigarh, and EduCARE - it will be a chance for the people of Chandigarh to break the dichotomy of wealthy and impoverished and and realize these issues influence everyone in India, and everyone in the world, despite income or rank.
I'm excited - its something to work on with a goal and a tangible result. Something I have been needing for quite some time. (any ideas to help me - let me know!)

ok, getting down from the proverbial soap box...

went and hung out last night with a bunch of Canadians, a German, a Dutch, and one other American around some poker, pizza (Indian Pizza Hut is a little strange...like the fact that they use pizza cheese and paneer), mango juice, and Kingfisher. It was really interesting and fun. Partly because we got to hang out in the air-conditioned house of the Canadian Embassy, but also because these other trainees are so hilarious and fun to be with. And of course the fact that I won, always a good sign. And apparently, they didn't know my name or where I was working until last night, so they had been calling me Atlanta for a few weeks. The name, for some reason, has stuck. Tonight I get to go to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with them at some theater in Chandigarh. And it's Johnny Depp, I mean, come on. It will be fun, and a chance to meet more of the trainees that live in Sector 21.