Travel Virus

Hello people!

Let me introduce you this adorable boy I am sponsoring! His name is Naveen, he is fourtheen and he would like to be a doctor or an engineer. I’ll try to help him realize his dreams.

This girl is Deepika, she still has no sponsor. If you feel to do something good for this Christmas, you can think about sponsoring her, it would be the best Christmas present, ever for her Just less than 1 euro a day! If you would like to become her “godmother”or “godfather” let me know!

This boy also have no sponsor yet, his name is Naveen Dakarla and he is waiting for your help to realize his dreams.

Ok, untill next time. Sorry, i couln’t manage to upload many pictures because internet connection is extremely sloooooow

ciao

Namaste, I’m in India!
Finally I can have internet access. India is so incredible! yes, exactly like the advertising “incredible India”, it’s impressive, I still cannot believe I am not in a movie!!!

So what to say… so many thing are amazing here, I don’t even know where to start!

First thing that come to the eyes is the extremely beautiful cloths of women! Elegant, colorful, almost like highlighters! Every woman is so well dressed and with jueleries, amazing textiles, wonderful colors… also the ladies cleaning the street and the toilets have pink or yellow sarees, 5-6 meters long!
So you can guess, I already had to shop I’ve got two beautiful panjabis, blue and pink, and in the place where i volunteer, the Smiling childrens home, they prepared me two sarees to wear on Chrismas and new year’s eve! it’s a paradise for women

The smiling childrens’ home is a very nice place, there are around 150 kids, orphans or with family problems, and they are all extremely kind to me, trat me like the pope!! When I arrived I had a very warm welcome, with flowers chains, dancing, sweets, and 150 kids looking at me! I never felt so much in the center of attention! Everywhere i go i have 10 kids holding each hand and everybody is greating me and asking “how are you”(100 times a day x 150 kids!!). I feel very good there, they ask me to help them to do their homework or to teach them some italian games or dances.
Anybody has suggestions for italian dances?!?!?!
So far they teach me indian dances, and want me to take thousend of pictures of them. Most of them don’t have any pictures of themself, some have one or two of the time when they were little. So i gave them some of my pictures and they were so exremely happy. Doesn’t take much to make some people happy in this world.

When I came, on the way to the house we stopped in Hyderabad between connecting flights, so i could see the city for few hours. Totally crazy driving style, I’m serious, don’t know how I manage that i’m still alive. Very funny, with all the yellow “ape”, you know, this sort of small cars with three wheels.

It is really like I saw on Turisti per caso’s docunentary: the car that makes the most noise have the right of way! no matter if it is on the right or left, or the color of the traffic light! Of course there are also the cows on the street as you already know, plus goats, buffalos, chickens, kids, bicicles parked in the middle of the road, ice cream carts, parked car, parket moped, people talking… and when you drive you have to make a slalom between all that. Indians are very skilled drivers and run at 90 km/h managing not to kill anybody, eventualy some chickens.

Some people asked me about food, then maybe I become unpopular but I have to admit it is actually nicer than german food for my taste. Rice, spices, vegetable, chicken, tasty fruits… every day (including breakfast). The best part is that i don’t have to cook. I also had the opportunity to learn to make indian sweets but i’m not sure you guys will appreciate if i cook them for you

I had the chance to visit some shops and houses of the village with my indian “tutors”, well, i still have hard time to believe that people really live like this and they are happy. Yes, everyone is so peaceful, always smiling, laughing, relaxed.

Maybe I have a lot to learn from this.

I was shocked about many things, I can’t even list here… Most impressive, I have been talking to some girls, about my age, that work in the Smiling childrens home , and I asked about their boyfriend/husbands: they all sayd “no no, my parents choose my husband, I don’t have to look for one”, so I asked if they would like to choose one themself and replyed “no, it is my parent’s business. why? your parents do not find a husband for you?” . So those girls now think that my parents are very bad. Unbeliavable. The sample included two girls with master degree and fluent english.

Are you shocked?!
Then come to India to see the rest!!! It is definately the most exotic, unique and incredible country I’ve ever seen

I’m going to India in a few days!!! Yea, I’m very happy!

I will stay 6 weeks (December 13th - January 24th). The first three weeks I will volunteer for the association Lankama, then I’ll go to Kerala -something special will happen there, stay tuned! - and finally I’ll take an Intrepid group tour from Delhi to see the north-east of India.

My itinerary:

I recently discovered a nice function in flikr: the map!
Here’s the map of my uploaded pictures so far (more will follow). Click on it to see the pictures or make your own (and let me know)!

You can also watch some of my videos in Youtube (taken in 2005-2006), maybe you are in