Today was our first day waking around Delhi and I finally really feel like I’m in India! After lunch the big group split into small groups to go explore different areas of Deli with a local guide. Our guide first took us to the Indian Gate but we took the public bus there which was an experience on its own. First of all we were stated at as a pack of white kids and I saw some Indian men trying to measure themselves up to me then laugh… Glad I’m like a seeing an endangered specie… I can here it now… AWWWWW look! A tall white woman?… So on the bus men got up to give me and another girl in my group a seat but later on the bus Riley ( a guy in my group) was sitting on the bus and an Indian woman literally came up and lifted Riley out of his seat and sat once where he was sitting…. I guess women get first priority seating? Then when we arrived to the amazing landmark of the Indian Gate we were taking pictures of the Gate and Indians circled up to take pictures of us….. It’s kind of awkward being a celebrity… We were then shown where the president and the prime minister live and work. I decided when I grow up I want to be the president of India because the prime minister and some other important people appoint you and then you basically do nothing because you don’t have much power. So you just smile and wave and live in a huge palace… I can do that. After visiting these places we headed to the only area in Delhi you are allowed to protest and this area was the most intriguing. The main issue going on right now is how many women are getting raped. At the moment Delhi is named the rape Capitol of the world… Scary right? In Indian culture if a woman is raped and loses her virginity because of it, she will be shunned by her family and no longer able to ever get married. I learned today that a woman’s body is property of her family, so if she looses her virginity before marriage she is worthless. So if women in India are raped they can not tell anyone because then they have no future. How scary is that? So in this protest area there was a sign of a woman’s name who got raped claiming that the man who raped her is the head of the police force in a city in India called Chandigarh . We got closer and we read her story and she talked about how she and her family are so unsafe since she has made her story public. Also when we left I asked our guide what he thought about this issue and he said India as a society needs to change it’s way of teaching it’s young people about the issue. He said that young women are taught not to get raped instead of teaching young men not to rape and that needs to change. Rape is a horrible issue that is hard to talk about anywhere in the world but Delhi took it to a whole new level for me. It is only our first full day in Delhi and my mind is being blown and I haven’t even told you about men peeing on the streets or monkeys climbing on buildings! Be prepared to hear some crazy stuff about my adventures in Delhi.
I can’t wait to hear ur stories about the protests and how the nation changes in ur time there… If u get a chance I’m curious about the issue of china damming up the waters that lead to India. If we get a chance to talk I’d love to here what you learned have fun and keep blogging