One of the many mysteries of life...

Before arriving in Jaipur (had the thought ever crossed my mind at all), I would have considered it impossible that somebody could be born in a city, grow up in the city, and in adult years drive people around that city for a living, yet not know where a single thing was.

Which, it turns out was extremely naive of me - the rickshaw drivers of Jaipur have perfected this to such an extent that you could call it a fine art ... Having been here less than three weeks, I now find myself routinely giving directions to people who have lived here all their lives. And there I was assuming that I hadn't broken the "no assumptions" rule - oops...

Mad, colourful week!

Am finally getting settled into work after a busy weekend and two days off for the Holi festival!

I spent last weekend with friends, visiting the huge Royal Observatory and the Albert Hall, a huge peaceful old museum with exhibits from all around Asia and the Middle East. Sunday afternoon was spent zipping around in rickshaws seeing first an old Palace in the middle of a lake, then heading up to the hills to see the Monkey Temple which, as the name suggests, is overrun by monkeys. It had an amazing view of Jaipur and we had a great time wandering around making friends with the tame monkeys.

I had my first day of work on Monday, and an eventful journey out to the NGO on a public bus which was crowded enough to make me feel all dreamy and nostalgic for the Northern Line at 8am… The NGO I’m working for Cecoedecon is huge, with offices all over Rajasthan and policy clout at national and international levels. They run several initiatives aimed at helping the rural poor in Rajasthan. I’m working in quite a small team focused on micro-finance, which is part of a larger €1.8 million rural development programme. Over the coming weeks I’ll be conducting field research into the various microfinance initiatives that they run, before reporting back on their success (mini-dissertation style) and using the information to compile sales resources that they can use for sponsorship proposals. I’m currently trying to absorb as much microfinance info as possible and am finding it increasingly interesting, so anyone who knows about the area or can suggest good sources of info all suggestions will be gratefully received!

Tuesday and Wednesday were off as the whole of India was out celebrating the festival Holi. I spent Tuesday afternoon at an elephant festival in Jaipur. It's very much for tourists and has been running for quite a while. All of the local elephant handlers paint and decorate their elephants all day, before parading them around a huge stadium, where prizes are given for the best decorated elephants. The event itself had a really nice atmosphere, with an even spread of tourists and locals – the pitch got a bit swamped with people who wanted close-up pictures, and decided they weren’t afraid of a little elephant trampling so it was difficult to see some of the festivities but overall the atmosphere was relaxed and happy, a nice way to spend the afternoon. I lucked out at the end and was hauled up onto the back of an elephant to play Holi (pictures to follow)! As the next day was a holiday there was a party in the evening and we spent the night sprawled over cushions on a rooftop, enjoying the breezy night, relaxing and chatting well into the next morning.

Holi itself was on Wednesday, and it’s described as the festival of colour. Everyone gets the day off work, and spends from morning until early afternoon showering each other in brightly coloured powders – it’s very beautiful and a lot of fun, although best celebrated with friends high up on a rooftop somewhere to avoid being drenched in the streets! All of the trainees in Jaipur got together with some AIESECers and alumni and everyone was very thoroughly pasted with colour – much of it permanent. By the time afternoon came everyone was soaked and dyed bright pink all over with coloured water, and additional powder had been caked and baked into our skin by the sun just for good measure. Exhausted and hungry we sat around eating pizza, before sleeping for most of the rest of the day! After making it home I only ventured out with Shoko, the other trainee in my house for some fresh naan to eat with our dinner. The special water dyes we were all using at Holi are specially designed to stay put for a good few days, which adds much hilarity to the proceedings…at the time. However, 3 days on and I am still very very pink, particularly on my hands and around the ears and face. My parting is bright magenta. It’s not all bad though – I’d never have guessed it but it seems that turning up at a new job looking as if you’ve been dipped into a giant vat of Ribena and left to soak for a week is actually a marvellous ice-breaker.

Got more going on this weekend then hopefully can spend next week at work nailing my research visits!

Close Encounters of the Six-Legged Kind

I've actually enjoyed a relatively insect-free time in India so far, however I was intrigued (read horrified) yesterday when I found a ginormous insect in the bathroom. I've no idea what it was, however it seemed to resemble a bee, in the kind of way that an elephant resembles a wooly mammoth; the prehistoric daddy-o kind of way. I've not seen it since, but fortunately its size makes the chances of accidentally eating it in my sleep very slim...

First week

Well, to start off I can't believe it's only been a week - in a good way! It seems like so much more time has passed here, even though I've yet to start work due to a delay in the NGO I'll be working with.

Not keen to let a golden opportunity pass me by, once I found out on Sunday that I wouldn't start work until later in the week I hopped onto an overnight bus to see Agra, or more specifically the Taj Mahal. I arrived an hour too early for the Taj at 5am and passed a pleasant hour in the (unopened) restaurant of a nearby hotel, reading a book and drinking chai, before running along the park to see the Taj in the morning mist. It was worth all of the effort to get there and I spent a healthy 7 hours wandering around taking in the surroundings - tranquil despite the number of visitors, before catching a bus to my next destination, Pushkar.

Pushkar is one of India's holiest sites, containing a lake which is said to have sprung from the petals of a lotus flower dropped to the desert by the God Brahma. It is also firmly in place on the well-trodden tourist trail of India. This means that the city centre as well as containing thousands of temples is also in many parts a grand bazaar, and made taking in the sights a little tiring. Despite this though the temples were enchanting - very serene despite the chaos outside. I spent a magical afternoon trekking into the mountains on horseback, on a gorgeous Indian horse which was very sweet and full of spirit! This was when I really managed to feel the magic of Pushkar, watching herds of animals running around and passing by tiny villages and schools on the way - it was well worth the aching muscles afterwards! In the evening I wandered around the town some more, and back at my hotel an Ayurvedic therapist advised me to stop eating bananas and chocolate for the sake of my blood circulation, and also told me that eating paper fried in butter every day would cure my myopia. Oddly enough my optician told me exactly the same thing the last time I visited. Optical Express are becoming really unorthodox....

So, this weekend is to be spent doing touristy stuff in Jaipur, and I will finally start work on Monday! I've already met some of the people I'll be working with, and can't wait to get started. Until then....

Since last time...

I moved into my trainee house, only to find out that it was the home of a friend I know from AIESEC - Abishek was on AIESEC International during my term on the UK MC so was very random to run into him! Such a small world - his mum runs a trainee house so there's currently me and a Japanese girl, Shoko there.

Have spent some more time hanging out with the AIESECers who are very cool and very motivated, as well as one evening playing poker and winning then subsequently losing all my chips! I've been out to the markets to try my hand at a bit of "negotiation", and been trying to learn some basic Hindi.

I still need to find a SIM card but once I do should be pretty much set for the next couple of months. The only slight hitch is that the place I'm working at told me at the last minute that they've had urgent meetings come up, so instead of starting today I'll need to start on Friday - cue me spending today rushing around trying to organise a last-minute trip - with any luck I'll manage to get on a train to Agra tonight and spend the next few days taking in the Taj Mahal, so it's certainly no disaster!!

Will keep you posted, and hopefully be able to upload some photos soon...

It's all started!!

I've now been in India for just over 24 hours!!

After a lovely evening with some old friends in London I got through my very short seeming flight (which played Vicky Cristina Barcelona - very happy, I thought I was going to have to wait ages to see it, and it was excellent; Ms Cruz definitely deserved her accolade for it!).

Caught a bus from Delhi to Jaipur which allowed me to see a little bit of the country's legendary roads - these deserve a post all of their own which will need to follow but suffice to say, it's chaos, but it works!

Deepa, who I've been speaking to here to organise this for months came to meet me at the bus station - was amazing to finally meet, and I stayed with her and her family last night! After a delicious lunch we went off to see a beautiful temple which has the giant marble tombs of all the old kings of jaipur. We had a very calm afternoon following the shadows and breezes around there and talking about India, before going to meet the AIESECers in the office. AIESEC Jaipur has just done one of their bi-annual recruitment and has 48 new recruits! So met up with some of them and then spent the evening relaxing and chatting over more delicious food (dal, bhati and choorma!) and later on a shisha.

This is a very short post as I'm just going off to move into my trainee flat - more soon!

My new favourite blog...

...for whenever I'm feeling stupid. This is a gem of a collection of the most ridiculous statements made via the "user comments" function on a popular British news site. Visit for 5 minutes for a beautiful bit of schadenfreude, as well as to reassure yourself that there definitely are people out there with the ability put whatever daft thing you've just done to shame!

ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com

3 weeks and 2 days...