Dear Jen

Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all well and not too cold. Greetings from Delhi!

Matt and I arrived here around 1130pm on the 14th afetr a 24h stint in Amsterdam. We had a whirlwind tour of the city, taking in such sites as the red light district, Jeremy and Jen's apartment, the red light district and Jeremy and Jen's apartment (we were way too jet-lagged to actually do the museum thing.) The Delhi airport was a zoo, with tons of people trying to rip off bambie-eyed foreigners such as Matt and I. We eventually made it to our guest house around 2am and woke up at 5:45am with the energy of a 3 year-old on Ritalin.

We finally met our preceptor yesterday, Dr. Fabian Toegel. He's 30 eyars-old and from Germany and works for the Clinton Foundation in India, represents the Real Medicine Foundation for all of India and runs his own German NGO. Interestingly, his father is a famous German TV director who is responsible for the now HUGELY popular German remake of Loveboat (?). Anyways, he showed us around, introduced us to some public health folks and treated us to a south Indian lunch (so good). Matt and I then visited Gandhi Smriti, the place where the 'Father of India' was assassinated. It's a beautiful tribute and contains a really cool multimedia exhibit. They even bronzed all the actual steps he took on the grounds up to the place he died, where there is a larger memorial. We then visited the beautiful Humayun's Tomb, a sprawling 16th century Tomb for a Mughal emperor. In one of the smaller buildings, I spotted a stone staircase that was tucked away and seemed to lead upwards into total darkness. Of course we had to explore it, so we rock-paper-scissored to see who had to walk ahead (I won thankfully so Matt had to go first). It was PITCH BLACK and Matt was totally freaking out. I had a camera so after only like three steps we took a photo with flash which revealed a turn in the staircase. At this point I kinda freaked and let Matt walk ahead and all of a sudden heard a high-pitched scream (sorry Matt) and Matt yelling and rushing down the steps (all in all, we had only climbed like seven). Matt was like 'there is something in there! Ahhh.' Before he ran down though he took a picture and when we looked at it,there, in the center of the steps, was a very calm and relaxed stray dog. Apparently Matt's hand grazed it's snout and teeth! Totally hilarious and kind of scary at the same time. Of course, when we looked at the first pic, you could totally see the dog's head which we had just neglected to notice...

Then at night we met up with Fabian for dinner in a Muslim quarter with tiny tiny narrow, winding alleys. We visited a holy temple where there was some interesting religious devotional singing and lots of children beggers. It's a very conflicting situation when these kids come up to you. On the one hand, you want to give them something, but if you do, it attracts more and more until you are completely overwhelmed. Plus, many of them are expert pickpocketers who use the distraction to rip you off. As we were leaving the quarter and heading into our rickshaw, about five kids came up to me and started yelling 'chocolate? chocolate!' I was laughing nd saying no, and then more keptcoming, tugging on my sleeve. They were so cute so I started to lift them up in the air as they hung onto my arms, which was obviously super exciting for them, but which made us even more of a target. They ranged in age from about 4-15 and were absolutely filthy (sweatshirt is currently in the wash). When we finally got into the rickshaw we were cornered, as they climbed on top of the roof of the vehicle and hung onto the sides...Eventually they kinda let go as we sped off whereby Matt and I shared a glance filled with relief, horror and sadness.

Tonight we are heading to Jhabua, the small village where we will be spending the next six weeks. It is an 11hr overnight train ride that we are of course very much looking forward to (not). The plan is still being formulated, but it looks like we will be teaching 7th graders at one of the NGO's boarding schools as well as assisiting in the enwly formed HIV clinic in town. That's about as much as we know at this point but I look forward to keeping you all informed.

My love to you all and look forward to being in contact.

Namaste!

Tyler