Triumphant Return

There are certain markers, particular moments, when it becomes clear that a place has become home. I have said countless times over the last 5 months that I am “finally” feeling settled in Delhi, and maybe this is just another way of saying it. This afternoon I returned from my first real vacation since September. I left Delhi for a couple of days when my parents were here, but one night with cousins and a day battling crowed at the Taj Mahal—well it just didn’t feel like a real break.

For the past 3 days I have been on a “forced” holiday in Nepal. Last Monday, my roommate Theresa and I went to the Foreigners’ Registration Office (FRRO) here in Delhi because we’d read about new relaxed visa policies. We both have 10-year tourist visas, but you are not supposed to stay more than 180 days at one go. The policy we read said that as long as we registered, we could stay essentially as long as we wanted. But, of course, as this is India, nothing is ever than simple, and we got an unceremonious “no” when we asked to register. So we had to leave the country. For various reasons, this past weekend was the only option, so we bought plane tickets to Kathmandu and took off for a few days.

It’s hard to describe my life in Delhi in a way that would adequately capture how hectic it is. A friend asked me the other day what I do in the evening at home, and I literally could not think of one evening I’d spent leisurely at home. I’m also hard-pressed to think of the last time I slept more than 5 or 6 hours (and anyone who’s ever spent any considerable amount of time with me knows how important my 8 hours are to me). But I am happy—truly happier and more content than I can remember feeling ever really—so I don’t really notice. I didn’t even particularly want to go to Kathmandu. I’ve always wanted to visit, but it seemed like a disruption, meant missing two days of trainings in the program I’m working on at Naz (more on that later) and just wasn’t something I’d anticipated.

On Thursday night we threw a “F*ck the FRRO” party at our favorite Thursday hangout. By Sunday morning, I suggested we throw a “Heart the FRRO” party this week. Our three days in Kathmandu were everything a vacation should be. We laughed about 18 hours out of the day (thanks mostly to my klutziness. I fell up stairs at least 17 times, always causing my backpack to fly over my head and pin me to the ground); we ate pizza, cookies, breakfast burritos, pasta, salad, more pizza, hummus; drank wine and organic coffee; walked from one end of the city to the other (though an even more polluted city than Delhi, Kathmandu has actual sidewalks); and, most importantly, slept and slept and slept. The first night we passed out at 7, thinking we’d wake up around 9 and go to our guesthouse bar for some beer and socializing. Instead, we woke up at 9:30 the next morning. Each afternoon we took glorious naps. And, at no point, did time matter. It was only in the contrast that I realized how busy, how chaotic my life is these days.

We also spent a day at what may very well be the most beautiful place I’ve ever been:



Just in case we’d forgotten where we were and that Nepal is not the most stable country on the planet, we almost missed our flight this morning because our taxi got stuck in the middle of what I just discovered was a mass rally to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Maoist rebellion. But we considered ourselves lucky, because the driver actually took detour after detour and got us to the airport. In Delhi, we joked (but with a hint of seriousness), the driver would have thrown us out at the first blockade, or at the very least would have demanded 5 times the price!

By the time we were on the plane, we were already talking about being back in our beds and planning what we’d have for dinner tonight. We were ready to go home, home to Delhi. I turned on my cell phone when we landed to find a series of text messages from friends wondering if I’d returned safely. My other roommate called to invite us out for drinks and dinner. A friend of a friend who just moved to Delhi wanted to meet up. This has become my world.

It’s getting late, so I’ll just copy and paste what I wrote about work in a recent email:

Naz is one of the best run organizations I've encountered in India. It's has its issues of course, but it's truly a pleasure to spend my days there, and I really think the org is doing some important work. I'm not sure how much I told you about it, but Naz is best known for its care home, which houses 31 HIV+ kids. The residence is just upstairs from the offices, which means everyone knows all the kids. Most of us take some time out every day to spend time with them, too. Being around children always makes me happy, and I think having them there in the office creates more of a family atmosphere. It's just everything my first internship wasn't--team-oriented, supportive, dynamic--and I'm working closely with my supervisor, which is of course an incredible opportunity for learning. The program I'm working on is called "Goal: Reaching New Heights. It's a pilot "empowerment" program for teenage girls (many of whom are not in school) in disadvantaged communities in Delhi. They are playing a sport called "Netball," which is a bit like basketball. Many of the girls have never had a chance to play anything before so it's a good incentive for getting them involved and it builds trust and teamwork. Naz's role is training them on communication, leadership, health, sexuality, HIV, etc. It's meant to be a new way of looking at HIV prevention with a population that has typically been left out of interventions. I'm very involved in the program development--planning activities based on the themes we're covering--and I'm also spending a few days a week in the communities with the girls. It's really the perfect blend of several of my interests: women's health, HIV prevention, education, and, of course, India. The program is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank, and in a couple of months they are going to be looking at scaling up into their other markets in India and around the world. I'm really, really enjoying the work and of course spending time with the girls. In addition to my program development work, I’m a “Goal Champion,” which means I act as a sort of mentor to the girls. Even I’m learning to play Netball, which is fairly hilarious. I suck, but I keep saying that I’m showing the girls that not everyone can be good at everything right away and that it’s fun trying.

Here are a couple of photos from the program: