So You Have a Camel Probelm?

For those who are enticed by my title, I will get straight to the point. Rajasthan has a camel problem! Their camel population has decreased by 50%, which is 60% of the total camel population of India. If I knew how to say Ay Dios Mio! in Hindi I would, but my host mother just says "Oh My God." So, I think it in Spanish to make me feel less like a stupid American. Actually, the camel situation is pretty sad. People don't know how to take care of their camels and massive camel deaths ensue. Animal care is one of the fields that I might intern in, so I could be saving the camels. Fortunately, the camels don't seem too upset at the current situation.

Things are starting to be a little more normal here. I've gotten more Indian clothing, which cuts down on harassment's. My Hindi, although horrible is beginning to get responses in Hindi instead of just laughter and responses in English. I've joined a gym, which is really great because I'm starting to go crazy from eating so much of my Mamaji's cooking and then not moving. My Mamaji (host mom) is a great cook, and loves to feed Emily and I.

The gym was actually really funny because I'm definitely not their average customer. There seemed to be a lot of people there who did not start working out until their doctor said, "Please start moving." The gym has a heavy emphasis on trainers telling you what to do. I really confused one poor trainer when I told him that I was not going to do a warm up with him. I then walked over the the treadmill to start my run, he followed me and said "Quick warm up." So I did a warm up that consisted of head rolls, finger stretches and marching in place. I then returned to the treadmill and was the only person running, everyone else was power walking. After the treadmill, the insistent trainer came up to me and told me to do the elliptical. I said no and he said "You come back tomorrow?" Yes, trainer-man, I will do the elliptical tomorrow. So far, the gym and cell phone services here have been the only time when I've thought, "The US is better." God bless the USA, where people who work at gyms won't even give you the time of day.

The most exciting development in my home stay is that Emily, my Mamaji and I made a cake. It turned out a little strange from converting all the measurements into metric, but overall it was good. We made a cream cheese frosting that impressed my Mamaji, because apparently she's been whipping whipped cream by hand to make frosting. I'm glad to spread the American principals of easy-to-make, fatty foods.

My most recent empowering moment is when a guy touched my butt on the street. I slapped him and he walked away like nothing ever happened. He honestly looked more mortified than I could ever be by him touching me. Fortunately, although groping happens and has happened to a couple people on my trip, it's not culturally accepted at all. So just drawing attention to someone for doing it can terrify them. Also, Rimaji (the program director) assured me that the police wouldn't care if I hit a man for touching me and would probably just hit him more with their sticks.

This weekend I want to go to a Bird Sanctuary with two friends (Nancy and Whitney.) It is about 5 hours outside of Jaipur and it would be great to just get away from the city. The pollution and noise is irritating me less, but being around birds in a jungle would be amazing. I'll probably need to use a bit of Hindi on this trip, which is intimidating. Learning a new language is really making me miss Spanish. I didn't realize how much I could say in another language until I had to learn a new one from scratch.

Namaste for now,
Erica