Delhi Belly in Jaipur: Feb 26th

* if you don’t know what Delhi Belly is I suggest you urban dictionary it.

This title says it all.
Katherine’s trip to an Indian Hospital.

Though this experience was traumatic for Katherine, the medical nerd in me absolutely loved seeing how the hospital operated (no pun intended)!

Indian Wedding: Feb 22nd

BMB Sweets!

About a 2 minute walk from my host house is, what I believe to be, the best Indian sweet shop in all of Jaipur.

I am proud to say that after making many trips to BMB after dinner I have tried almost every single sweet!

Elephantastic: Feb 17th- March 23rd

*I wish I would take credit for the title of this blog post, but alas it is the name of a tour company that sends tourists to the Elephant village for a day!

My schedule Monday-Friday at the the Elephant Village went something like this:

730am- Wake up
830am- Breakfast
945am- Leave for the Elephant Village (EV)
11am- Round up the children at the EV
1130am- Morning exercises and prayer
1145am- I teach class 1 English
1pm- Lunch
130pm-Game time
2pm- I teach class 1 Math
230pm- Katherine and I combine Classes 1 and 2 to teach General Knowledge


The Elephant Village is a run-down compound that houses around 70 (?) Elephants, who work carrying tourist up a hill to the the famous Amber fort in Jaipur. Within the compound live the 70ish Elephants, their Mahouts (caretakers), and the caretaker’s families.

After School is over Katherine and often go in to the EV to hang out with the elephants and help out if we can.

Teaching at the Elephant Village has been the most rewarding work I have ever done because Katherine and I pioneered Idex’s Elephant Village Project. When we arrived on Feb 17th and began to organize the school and collect the children we were told that this was the first time any of the children had been to school, and that many of them had never even left the Village before.

1)Muskan

2) Namaste

3) Making chapati for the elephants

4) Munne and Fakru

5) Katherine's last day

6) Rosey

7) Class

8) Painting

9) Nadia

10) Fakru

11) Fun Fair

Jaipur in a Jiffy: Feb 17th-March 30th

In the past six weeks so much has happened that the idea of blogging has been so daunting, but I guess I have to attempt to catch up or I may have a lot of angry friends when I return home.

The change from rural Guwahati to urban Jaipur was massive. I instantly fell in love with hustle and bustle of Indian, city life. I loved just walking the streets to listen to the thousands of different sounds which filled my ears, and to inhale the fantastic smells of each street food vendor wafting toward me— though excluding the overpowering smell of urine and such.

In Jaipur I lived with a host family, who I know I will never forget! The mother, Kusum, is the director of Idex (My volunteering Origination in Jaipur). Her husband, Sharma, is a retired banker, but still does some financial work for Idex. The hardest part about leaving Jaipur was saying by to my Khushi, my eight yr old host sister! Khushi reminded that even though I am 20, I am totally an eight year old at heart!

Monday through Friday I volunteered at the Elephant Village and I had the weekends free.
I spent most of the week with my roommate (and only other volunteer at the Elephant village), Katherine from Colorado, and on the weekends we explored Jaipur with the 20ish other volunteers staying at the Idex Volunteer House in Jaipur.

1) Khushi