AIDS & DISABILITY

Thanks to my participation in a recent AIESEC conference in India (some stories about my experience there coming soon) I had the opportunity be be aware and experience in a more direct way two of the most worked out developmental issues of today's world: HIV/AIDS and Disability. Since being aware of issues is not only about doing it in certain dates, it's never late to hopefully through this post also bring a small bite of awareness to people.

In terms of HIV/AIDS besides wearing the red ribbon (which let's face it is the easiest and therefore the only thing that people normally do) I had the chance to engage with externals leaders of NGOs that were giving presentations around the issue ... more than that, I had the amazing chance to have a bunch of 70 AIESEC members to discuss about that and hold each other accountable for making things happen. Some highlights about AIDS stigma in India that got stucked in my head are:

1. Places where rejection and discrimation happens the most is in health centers (clinics, hospitals) ...

2. Second place where rejection happens the most is the workplace

3. Third place is family itself. The person in an india family that rejects the most are mothers in law. Specially these ones blame wifes for the disease of their son, since wifes were not "attractive or smart" enough, and this was the cause for their son to look for other women outside the house.

4. Some women in India feel shy to admit that they know how to use a preservative and spread the word, or feel shy to talk about it with their partners (and even housband) just because he might think that this means that she "used it" already. 5. Truck drivers (also called "highway killers" in some reports and documentals) are one of the biggest. Here is a good (even if a bit old) article about that reality

These facts were results of a focus group done by this NGO focused on HIV/AIDS awareness in India, among other studies.

In terms of Disability, we had the chance again, thanks to the AIESEC conference, to visit NGOs, almost all of them working with disabled children. I was at Umang, where besides interacting for some time with the children, we had a great conversation with the founder who mad us aware about facts, hopes and fears of the disbility reality.being one of my sisters autist, this is a topic that particularly ctaches my attention, specially when we analyze the problematic of disabled children that never get access to real treatment and enjoy therefore of social inclusion, because of extreme poverty.

If you want to read more about these two issues, the following two pages are a good start. Happy reading ...

WORLD AIDS DAY - December 1st

Around forty million people are living with HIV throughout the world - and that number increases in every region every day. Ignorance and prejudice are fuelling the spread of a preventable disease. World AIDS Day, 1 December is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This year, it's up to you, me and us to stop the spread of HIV and end prejudice. This starts by taking action.

You: Wear a red ribbon

Me: Talk to people

Us: Get involved in events

WORLD DISABILITY DAY - December 3rd

International Day of People with a Disability, as designated by the United Nations (UN), is a celebration of the abilities of people with a disability all over the world. In 1976, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP). It called for a plan of action at the national, regional and international levels that emphasised equality of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of disabilities. Other objectives included increasing public awareness; understanding and acceptance of people with a disability; and encouraging people with a disability to form organisations through which they can express their views and promote action to improve their situation

Finshing my relates about our October holidays: Dharamsala/Mc Leod Ganj

Ok, this is my thrid and last related about our October Holidays, to catch up with the two other places visited, visit my Manali and Delhi posts written in the past days.

Now, let's focus on Dharamsala/Mc Leaod Ganj.

Before coming to Dharamsala/Mc Leaod Ganj I must admit I hardly new 1 % of what this place was all about. What a shame - but yes ... I knew that the Dalai Lama and its tibetean community lived there but I was really far away of understanding what the real conditions of their exile were and what the Dalai Lama's real mission was. While being there and having a better glimpse of that, we remembered the "furor" that had the last visit of the Dalai Lama to Colombia and how in our country the majority of the people certainly see in the Dalai Lama only a "peace and love messenger" sometimes "guru", which again is really far way of what he really stands for.

Before you askyourself about it, no, unfortunately we did not see the Dalai Lama, same day that we arrived he left to Japan for some days. Nebertheless, we never really checkd prior coming if he would be there or not.

Street of Mc Lead Ganj

Mc Leod Ganj is exactly the town where the Dalai Lama House and main Temple is. The town is basically upper Dharamsala and is the tourist hub. It is full of backpackers and hippy style tourists. I make the disclaimer that there is nothing wrong with that, but what concerned me a bit is that some people gave the impression be playing to dress or act like that, just because they were there and they felt like being part of the Dharamsala tourist culture. But again it's my personal, most probably wrong, impression.

We stayed 3 days in Mc Leod Ganj. One day of course we focused in visiting the Dalai Lama House and Temple. Awesome in essence, the temple however was very simple, at least much less luxurious or ostentous that what I had imagine.


Halls inside the Dalai Lama Temple


Buddha - Dalai Lama Temple

From the temple itself you have nice views of Mc Lead Ganj itself. You see some local people praying on the floor, as well you see many monks in sort of class rooms around the temple.

Dalai Lama Temple


Next day we explored the town, bought some buddist realted books, visited the Tibetean Museum and even saw a great documental about a group of Tibeteans that reached Mc Leod Ganj after a painful experience crossing the HImalayas. I advice all people to please visit this museum inside the Temple, is amazingly simple, even small but very contundet in its messages.


View from Dalai Lama Temple

One of the most amazing experiences however we had the next day, when we joined the morning payers of local buddist.

These people with rosaries in hand walk a small hill every morning, going up and down, praying while they do it until they reach the temple up there. It all happens at 6.00 - 6.30 a.m., perfect time to also see the sunrise from the hills. This same day we also went to the so called Holy Lake, a very small lake near the town.

Temple whete the locals go every early morning


Prayer Wheels


Explanation of the mani prayer wheel: A prayer wheel is a wheel on a spindle, and on the wheel are written or encapsulated prayers or mantras. According to the Tibetan Buddhist belief, spinning such a wheel will have much the same effect as orally reciting the prayers

In difference to Manali, of course Dharamsala/Mc Leaod Ganj is rather an cultural (spiritual for those who really do it seriously) than a natural experience, it's a town of beautiful sunsets and sunrises and loaded by traditions and costumers from a nation (Tibet) that even if are not in India by its own desire, do the best every day to deal with their reality and have an amazing optimism that one day, there will be a free Tibet.

Sunrise in Mc Leaod Ganj

Continuing my relates about our October holidays: Manali

[Before it's to late to be still fun to tell about it, I want to continue in this post telling about our Diwali holidays (Oct 21 - Oct 31.06). In a recent post I talked about Delhi, the indian capital, where we stayed 2 days. Now, let's go real north, and let's take a look at our next stop, Manali, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.]

MANALI: a small bite of the Himalayas


Himachal Pradesh State, in red - India

Manali is one of the most popular hill stations in the indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In itself Manali, the town, has nothing in particular, besides being a town full of hotels, hostals, restaurants, shops and travel/sports agencies. Well, of course it has an awesome view with snowed mountains, so that's why it's worth! The town in this sense is the place where all tourists gather and stay, but the real fun happen around Manali when people go to into the mountains to trek, raft, do paragliding, river crossing, fishing, skiing, camping and all other kind of sports and nature related activities. Manali also is a destination for honeymoons, at least that is why we have been told, however even if it was not a honeymoon trip, we really wanted to go there to experience the Himalayas, at least in their Indian part.

Main activities we did were a one-day car excursion to a place called Rohtang Pass, which is the highest point near Manali (of course there are higher points in the region, but for that you need to go even more North on teh way to Leh) and also we did a one day trekking, with a guide. The rest of the days we discovered the town itself, its food and it's few historical places - but it was so good to go to a place where the touristic places are not just temples or acrhitecture, but where nature itself (in this case the Himalayas) is the spectacle.

One of the stops on the way to Rohtang Pass


Trying to go higher ...!

A small yak ride ... you find several of them as part of the "snow attractions"

Diverse photos in mainly indian tourist enjoying snow ...

About this higher parts of the mountains, we must say that it was a bit disapointing to see that there is a lot of litter/garbage, for being a place with such a real natural power and relatively less restaurants and businesses around. But still ignorign this dirty spots, the landscape up there is for sure one of the most amazing ones that one can see.

Trekking - a walk into small villages in near Manali

As said before one of the activities we did was an almost one day trekk towards the Solang Valley, near Manali. You can get a guide to show you the way and a lunch pack for 500 Rupees (10 USD) per person and have a perfect plan.


Me and the guide at the start of the trekk

The coolest of the trekk, was that even if we did not go so high, the guy kind of took us around his village and we basically passed by houses of many people he knew, even had chai (tea) in his sister's house until we reached his own house, where we ate our lunch packs. Was cool to see how this people live, how their houses look like, how they speak (the local language sound rather similar to chineses than hindi!)

Village House near Manali


Mint Tea and nuts - the snacks during the trekk


You see these brave women all over the place carrying these heavy reserves to feed their animals ...

Do not doubt to go to this place of the world if you have the opportunity and specialli if you are one day in India. It's a different India! It's experiencing a cold India, with high landscapes, with heaps of nature around, with indians with a lot of chinese aspect, villages and lifes that are run and lived in a slower motion than in the big indian cities, wonderfully fresh air - I personally feel very lucky to have the chance to come to this place of the world and realize how few we dare to imagine how people here understand their world... and see what we can learn from that.

Bobby Darling

Bigg Boss, an adaptation of international reality show hit Big Brother, started on November 3. Mumbai is flooded with publicity of it. Monday to Thursday episodes show the regular drama and reality content for half an hour and on the one-hour shows on. Fridays Big Boss will run the elimination episodes. Bigg Boss is courting a lot of controversy at the moment, notably by the contestants. Bobby Darling, one of the contestants (on the photo while talking live to the camera yesterday) is a world record holder. No, he hasn’t eaten the most hot dogs in 30 mins, nor has he claimed any major endurance records, but he is the first gay who has done the maximum number of films and serials in Bollywood in gay roles. You can find more about Big Boss at http://www.biggboss.in

Beauty Salons in Inida

Last saturday I was at a Beauty Salon in Mumbai, which in India are known as Beauty Parlours.
So far before going to this salon, I did my manicure and pedicure two times at home; a lady comes to your house and does a "very fast" manicure and pedicure for 150 Rupees (around 3 Euros). It was quite ok, but still I gave the chance to the parlour - just to experience how it was.

It was an amazing afternoon. And stop thinking that it was amazing because I am a typical "I love fashion" girl and stuff, not at all, it was on the other side amazing because it was, as usual, a great place to experience India and the main differences with Colombia.

Which were those differences?

1. There were like 30 employees in the parlour. Even the beauty salon is the best exaple of the indian over offer and under demand of employees. Two people in the reception, like 5 people for coffee and tea, like 6 people for just washing hair, etc ... too many. I have never had four people taking care of me at the same time, as it happened this time: I had one person doing padicure, another doing manicure, another combing my hair and another serving tea and talking to me, all of them simultaneous. It was TOO FUNNY.

2. My manicure and pedicure were done BY MEN. VERY STRAIGHT MEN. I was so shoecked when I saw teh two guys coming to me to start the service, specially since they look very masculine, big hairy hands and stuff, I had the feeling they would be very rude. But it was a beautiful work what they did. In India they do awesome feet and armd massages when you do manicure and pedicure and those guys were brilliant, very professional. In Colombia you never find a man doing manicure or pedicure, never.

3. Many Indian girls (or at least 80 % of the ones that were there) go to the salon 1. to straighten their hair and 2. to do skin treatments. In India girls and some boys as well care a lot of having "fair" skins, which means having very clear or whiter face skin. On the market you find a lot of products for this propose, but on beauty parlours they also offer treatments for that. Once I finished my stuff in the salon and was going to pay, they offered me a "free skin consultation" and just for fun, I took it. "Your skin can look so much better" - " we can do an oxygen treatment, it will look more fair, fresh, bla, bla ..." The price was like 3000 Rupees (like 60 Euros) ... - no thanks.

In general I must say the place we really nice, very good service and locations, but it was not cheap (for my standars)

And now some colombian background: Beauty salons in Colombia are cheaper :-) There is an over offer of them. You can get a manicure for 1,5 USD, easily. They are not only cheaper, but too many, you find one each corner, in certain places. They are small, simple, but they do the job. This over offer is actually one of the reasons why any women can easly afford it, until the point that having a nice hair style and an impecable manicure is one of this tacit society rules, specially if you are a working woman.

DELHI, the indian capital

The first stop of our Diwali holidays (21.10 - 31.10) was Delhi, the capital of India. It was actually the first and last stop, because in total we stayed two days, one at the beginning (before headingt o Himalayas) and on in teh end, right fater coming back from there and fliying to Mumbai.

It was not the first time that I was in Delhi (I was there last year as well for also one day or so prior IC 2005, an AIESEC conference) but I must really say that that time I was certainly too stressed to really enjoy sightseeing as much as I did this time. That time I remember we took a cab with Candice (the AIESEC Alumni chair of the conference), Gabi, and couple of people more. This time the process was the same, we also took a cab that for 500 Indian Rupees drives you all over the place for 8 hours or it's equivalent to 80 KMs. It's a good deal (for those who will visit India and might doubt about doing it).

It was a lot what I heard about Delhi, specially after living in Mumbai. It seems that there is kind of a "Mumbai - Delhi" rivality where inhabitants of each city tend to always joke about which city is best to live. I must really say that Delhi impressed me totally and from my point of view these are the top highlights of the whole "Mumbai - Delhi" issue:

Impression 1: Delhi is cleaner than Mumbai, nothing to do, it is. Dehli is a greener city.Dehli is less smelly.
Impression 2: Delhi is less crowded than Mumbai, heaps less. For someone that comes first time to India Delhi can seem overpopulated, but please go first to Mumbai and then compare. For moments we asked ourselves ... where is the people? And believe me, we were at a variety of zones and in different dates.Less ottos (instead cycle rikcshaws), less traffic, less polution.
Impression 3: Delhi's weather IN OCTOBER rocks. Ok, I know as well that Dehli in summer is hell, extremely hot, but this month it had the perfect weather, and in general I guess even in summer, the city is less humid than Mumbai.
Impression 4: The Metro in Delhi is impressive, way better, clener, more modern that many metros I have seen in Europe. It is not culturally sensitive to do the following comment (sorry, but I mean it in a positive way!), but while being in metro stations in Dehli, you basically do not feel in India. The Mumbai train is way too unorganized, packed, and unattended in comaprison to this ... but well, Mumbai it's clear that the Mumbai train is way older and Mumbai as such is much more populated.
Impression 5: People in Delhi give the impression to be less "aggresive" than the Mumbaikers, bit more attent. I've been told that Delhi has started since some times an urban organization process, people do respect more! It was so cool to see how a police man was stopping people that tried to cross the street while the traffic lights were in red. Traffic lights are more abundant than in Mumbai, as well. We remembered a lot the process that Bogota (colombian capital) is living sine almost 10 years ... Bogota was an extremely chaotic city and given unconventional citicen education strategies, is now a more livable place to live.
Impression 6: Finally, even if it is a city Delhi has much concrete and awesome sightseeing points than Mumbai. Below are some pictures of it.

Finally, thanks for Krishna for hosting us for a night in her house, for those who know her, people you must really experience the hospitality of this family, so stay tuned when she is back in Dehli, so that you make sure you visity her ;-)

DISCLAIMER: Ok ... for all Mumbaikers and other Mumbai fans: MUMBAI is MUMBAI, yes. I know that and I missed Mumbai believe it or not! It sounds like a "standard" comment, but yes, Mumbai has personality.

Now some pictures:

1. Q u t a b M i n a r

The Qutb complex is an array of monuments and buildings at Mehrauli in Delhi, India, the most famous of which is the Qutub Minar. This complex was first constructed by Qutb-ud-din Aybak, the first ruler of the Slave Dynasty, and his successor Iltutmish (aka Altmash) in his new city called the Qila-Rai-Pithora near Prithivraj Chauhan's older city. The complex was added to by many subsequent rulers, including Iltutmish and Ala ud din Khilji as well as the British.

The word 'Qutab Minar' means 'axis minaret'.

2. R e d F o r t

The Red Fort was the palace for Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's new capital, Shahjahanabad, the seventh Muslim city in the Delhi site. He moved his capital from Agra in a move designed to bring prestige to his reign, and to provide ample opportunity to apply his ambitious building schemes and interests. The Red Fort gets its name from the massive wall of red sandstone that defines its eight sides. The fort lies along the Yamuna River, which fed the moats that surround most of the wall.

3. I n d i a g a t e a n d P r e s i d e n t ' s H o u s e



India Gate

India Gate, a majestic structure, 42 metres high, is set at the end of Rajpath, perhaps the most beautiful area of New Delhi with plush green lawns in the backdrop. it was originally called All India War Memorial in memory of the 90,000 Indian soldiers who died in the campaigns of World War I, the North-West Frontier operations of the same time and the 1919 Afghan Fiasco.On the walls of the structure are inscribed the names of all the soldiers.


Presidents House

4. Lotus Temple



Lotus Temple is the place of worship for the followers of Bhai Faith in India. This is an beautifull piece of architecture constructed in Delhi.

5. I s k o n T e m p l e



It is one of the 40 temples in India that belongs to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, dedicated to Lord Krishna. From a restaurant to a museum in the making, a library and a special animatronics show, sound and light presentations accompanied by huge relief and life-like figures are bound to make an impact on an audience, far more than just an exhibition.

6. C y c l e R i c k s h a w s i n D e h l i




A cycle rickshaw, also known as a pedicab, velotaxi, or trishaw, is a human-powered vehicle for hire, usually with one or two seats for carrying passengers in addition to the driver. Cycle rickshaws are widely used for transportation in many parts of Asia where they have largely replaced less-efficient rickshaws that are pulled by a person on foot. In Mumbai there are not many, but in Dehli there are on the opposite a lot!

Diwali experiences ...

Diwali, a mix of christmas and carnival

Not being Indian, Diwali is difficult but at the same time easy to explain. The best way I find (from the colombia perspective) is a mixture of Christmas and carnival. Let me explain in which sense. The spirit is similar to Christmas given the relevance of the celebration and the special traditions attached to it: people give gifts, people burn crackers, people buy new clothes and things, commerce is on a high seaon ... and if few words is the start of a new year, all people wich 'Happy Diwali", which sounds so much as 'Merry Christmas or Happy New year"! There are lights, many indeed cause Diwali is actually the festival of the lights, however there are not as many as in Christmas in many catholic/christian countries. It's difficult to explain, and there is where the "carnival" comparison comes in ... Diwali is not only about lights but also colors in general, paper lamps, drawings on the floor made of color powder (Javi described it very well) , music, posters ... I won't even try to describe Diwali professionally, so feel free to look at it in Wikipedia!

Diwali Trip, ten days to Himalayas

Javi and myself will be going north! yes, we will fly to New Dehli to go from there to the Himalayas! It's a lot what we have figured out about this trip, but basically the idea is to go to amazing towns/locations as Manali, Shimla and Daram Shala (this is where the Dalai Lama lives). Relax, awesome landscape and even some snow! that is what some people say. I can't wait to share some storied after we come back!

Diwali, at work ... a rewards and recognitions season

And because I won't be here in Diwali, besides the general introdction already given, the best I can share with you is how Diwali is celebrated at work. Today friday 20.10 was kind of the celebration of Diwali in my company. I heard a lot on how Diwali is shared inside the companies but it was just too cool to live it by myself. All started with the DIWALI GIFT. Normally in Diwali the boss gives to their employees sweets or nuts in nice boxes, it's kind of the "standard Diwali gift". In our company was not the exception, our boss called this orning one by one each of their employees (including us trainees) and gave in his office the Diwali gift personally. It was cool, since you fely it very personal and I guess the words for each person were customized ;-) The cool part was the DIWALI BONUS. The Diwali Bonus is extra cash that employees get, and you could see how besides the Nuts Box each person went out of our boss office with an envelop of cash. Honestly speaking, I have no absolut clue how much this shall be for each person (if 1/3 of salary, if a 1/2 salary or if even less or more) and I am very embarrased to ask them but all of them seemed very happy with what they got. As trainees we di dnot get any DIWALI BONUS, but this is totally understandable given our temporary status, the fact that it's been so short that we work here and well, the fact that Diwali is not something that has a meaning for us, but we got our Nuts Box, which is cool. After every employee got his/her present from the boss office he wwent out and in front of all of us gathered he said a small speech that basically was the highest expression of the REWARDS AND RECOGNITION strategy of my company, as I understand it ;-) Our boss said the traidtional "thank you words for being part of the company or the team" but suddenly he started saying that "as every year" it was the moment to reward thos who did an exceptional job. In this moment I got exited, I love recognitions in general! So he proceeded naming employees that had got the awards in past years and why, it was a kind of "past winners" roll call. Then he continued naming people tha this year also did a great job and that part I loved, since he named people from all levels, from the office boys (office boys are the guys that take care of minor operative work from cleaning, coffee over fotocopying, etc) over some executives. But in the end he came to the two winners! This year were two ladies, one was the general secretary and the other was a marketing executive, we all clapped and stuff, was nice! But the nices was the extra CASH that thay got! These two ladies got again in fron of all another envelop of money, Again how much it was, no clue! For me was too interesting to see how informal and simple Rewards work in my company: "you did it better than other, here is your extra money and have the others being a witness of it". All these happened in 15 minutes. It was truly interesting and nice to experience.

Finally the celebration ended ina restaurant, where our boss sponsored the lunch. Again nice to see him seated together with office boys, sharing the same table. I mean, I sai that, since generally (not in my company, but everywhere) people keep a lot of distance to others from lower levels and seing that was a proof that Diwali is such a wonderful tiem where people acknowledge loyalty and friendship. Of course I ate as a pig ;-) Photos here, photos there that ended with a team picture inf ront of teh restaurant. As if if has not been enough, back in the office our boss ordered ICE - CREAM for us. Come on it was nice ... it was so simple that was so incredible nice at the same time.

I owe you pictures, will share when I come back. But I just wanted to capture my fresh memories of this day and wich you all a HAPPY DIWALI! See you soon!

BLUE BILLION!

Since some days, Pepsi has started its advertisements leading up to the World Cup Cricket championship of 2007. The theme is "Blue Billion". Blue refers to the colour worn by the Indian team, and billion to the population of India - who will all be cheering Team India.

Interestingly, the Blue Billion campaign will also mark a departure from the company's traditional idol and star-centred campaigns. The company’s star-studded endorser lineup includes Sachin Tendulkar (this guys is a very very very very very famous crickter), Amitabh Bachchan (very very very very very famous actor, he's like 60 but very hot still) and Shah Rukh Khan (very very very very very famous actor). You need to be here to understand what kind of icons these three people are, among the three I guess they do all the adds of indian television!“Fan empowerment is the buzzword here. We will start with a 360-degree campaign and will look at clubbing together a community of cricket crazy individuals,” Pepsi said. Anysways, in another post I tell you about indian idols, now let's come back to cricket.

No matter all the exitement of the BLUE BILLION campaing, this is what an indian blogger writes about it, i found it randomly on the net, whole fnding more on the Blue Billion thingy:

"This is most odd. The advertisers, the advertising company, the viewers - all of them have nothing whatsoever to do with all the people who make up the bulk of the billion. They don't know them, they don't see them, they have no concern for them. In fact, they revile them for even being alive: "the greatest problem is overpopulation; the poor breed because they lack any other form of entertainment; population control is necessary for India to advance..." So why this great embrace of the masses just to be able to claim that we are a billion? Why take pride in numbers, when just those numbers cause you such anguish? Only a small fraction of the billion Indians have any interest in cricket.The bankruptcy and ugliness of India's fragrant elite!"

Both perspectives deserve respect, as always ;-) ... however from my point of view after almost 3 months in India, even if not the entire billion, a very high % of indians die for cricket.You can see it on the streets, every time, at all levels. Yesterday I passed by a kind of fnacy cricket club close to my house (it's called MIG Cricket Club, in Bandra East, Mumbai) and it was such a characteristic scene. Some teams were playing on the field, which you can see from outside, normally since the field is surrounded by a "fence" that allows you to see all from outside. BUT when important stuff happens there (games, parties, events) the fence is covered, so that nobody can see. Well, guys from the neighborhood kind of set up two high stalls and a lot of people were sitting there watching the match 'from outside' and the rest where just looking for small holes in the fence to see the match. Cricket matches are long ...

I like the campaign. Not being an indian and not being at all a cricket fan (I do not even understand the game) I must say that the adds and the nationalistic feeling that it wakes up and that it reflects is cool and the fact that someone could conceive one thing that supposely unifies ONE BILLION people, is very interesting. I don't know, maybe in the end the word BILLION is what sounds so good for me ;-)

A bite of Colombia, in INDIA

Thanks to a colombian friend that came to visit Mumbai last week, we had the blessing to get some very very very colombian bites ... check this out:

Subhi "drinking" PONY MALTA (she finds it a bit weird!) - one of the most traditional colombia drinks, it is basically made from teh sama de beer, but without alcohol and much sweeter. You drink this a lot when you're a kid, well ... and I guess in general. When I tasted it simply reminded my school, since that is the drink I used to bring in my lunch pack ("lonchera", as we cal it!).

Now, just check out this other beauty:

Yes, it's a pork face on the can ;-) This is canned LECHONA! Lechona is in its natural presentation is a full pork stuffed with rice, corn, peas and spices. Honestly speaking Lechona is not at all from the part of Colombia I am from, but after the year I lived in the capital Bogota (center of the country) I love it. And this canned one, was good. I ate pork after 2 1/2 months! It was very funny the comment that we made when we were warming up the lechona can ... "It smells like meat!" - even if I have been in India just 2 1/2 months, I certainly just got used to be just surrounded by veg food (or max. chicken/mutton) and the intensity of the smell beef or pork ones is something that you completely forget about, or better said, that you never were aware of. I won't say that it was difficult for me to "eat again" pork meat, that would be an exageration beacuse I certainly enjoyed it! but I could really notice how you in a way are not kind of used anymore to CHEW food, but just eating rather soft stuff as of course vegetables or white meat are.

There so many more things to miss, specially food from my own region (Barranquilla and caribbean coast!), but the learning for those who are thinking to come to India and are scared about really missing food, is that you certainly can survive without colombian food and with out meat. I guess honestly speaking, this is one of the less difficult stuff to adapt to ;-)

Mumbai Daily Photo - and other blogs of its kind

I just started to blog on the Mumbai Daily Photo Blog, thanks to the fact that Karilyn, its founder will be out of the city for some days and needed a replacement.

http://mumbaidailyphoto.blogspot.com/

It is a very refreshing blog, as all the other daily photo ones, they are awesome photographers.

Visit the hub to find out the city you are in/you like ... if interested:

GOA!!!

Javi and myself in Goa Style

As Javi also described in his blog (no worries won't repeat the same post and pics!), as part of our plan to visit some of the main indian destinations, we started with GOA. Goa, as you is a very small state in India, it is the southern state of the one where I live (that is called Maharastra, where Bombay is). Even if tiny in comparison with the other indian states, Goa is one of these places that I had heard from many formal and informal sources as a MUST-VISIT in India. Personally, I expected a truly paradise, after so much talk and well, pictures of the place. I must say that even if it was a nice place to see, it was not as wonderful as I expected, however I also know that there were a couple of factors that did not allow Goa to show all its beauty to us this time, as you will read further. However - wherever there is nature, it is a good place to be.


Javier and myself, Sunset at Arambol Beach (North Goa)

First we were supossed to stay for 5 days in the South of Goa, which we did not. Our destiny was a beach called Palolem, that indeed is awesome and is known to be less crowded and more nature-oriented (versus party oriented) than other beaches. When we arrived there they informed us (as we also saw) that the indian government destroyed all coco-huts, restaurants and other places that did not count with a 'licence for operations'. Fair enough, they should have it, but it was really bad luck to arrive at the place right 3 days after the whole thing happened: the place really looked like after a Tsunami. There was no point to stay, then they were hardly 2 restaurants open and not that nice places to spend the nights, so we decided to head for North Goa. That was never the plan, then North Goa Beaches were not suposed to be as nice as the southern ones.

Here you can see anyways some pictures of Palolem Beach, it was cool to catch these cow friends having a tan on the beach :-)


Palolem Beach (South Goa)

North Goa was a completely different experience, the place for sure is the destiny for party lovers, hippie-life style people (or hippie wannabe people). We stayed in BAGA Beach/town. Again it was not was we were looking for, was more crowded, beaches were far away from hotels, it was basically a town, still was great to get out of Bombay, have good food, and enjoy different landscapes. Some highlights of Goa in the next pictures.


Some Reasons why Goa rocked

1. Palolem beach: even if we were there just couple of hours that we spent in South Goa, it was cool enough to make us want to come back once all its infrastructure is again in place

2. Bike rides: In Goa you can rent a bike for 150 / 200 INR a day (like 3 /4 USD) and move around from beach to beach or just inside the towns, it is good fun.



Us Biking in Anjuna Beach (North Goa)

3. Tandoori Fish: if you think you have eaten the best fish already, for sure you have not tasted Tanddori Fish. Tandoor is an indian kind of oven where after being beautifully spiced, the fish is cooked. You might have heard of Tandoori Chicken, well it is the same concept but with fish but believe me, much better and not as spicy as you might be thinking it is. It is delicious, definitively sets a new standard for eating fish.



Tandoori Fish, at "Over the Flames", in Baga Beach (North Goa)

4. Querim Beach and Fort Tiracole: This was a beach that even if we knew about it, we arrived there by chance. And thanks god, since it was an awesome place to be, the best beach by far in north Goa. The main attraction there is that you have to cross by Ferri to reach a fort, FORT TIRACOLE. It is a small fort, yet offers an awesome view of the Querim Beach, a virgen kind of beach.



View from Fort Tiracole


1. Ferri, 2. Us in Fort Tiracole, 3. View from Tiracole

5. The funky clothes: in the end you feel also like buying the "wanna be hippie" clothes, they have colourful, wide pants, skirts, shorts that is a worth inversion to make!


Few reasons why (North) Goa sucked

1. It was raining 70 % of the time. Lesson: be patient and wait for the monsoon (India's rainy season) to be completely over to go to Goa!

2. Majority of beaches are dirty, they have the potential to be nicely arranged

3. Even if cheaper as Bombay, it was still more expensive as compared with South Goa

HAPPY 5767

Last friday 22 of September we were invited (or better said, we invited ourselves) to a Rosh Hashanah dinner, which is a jewish new year celebration. The jewish new year commemorates both the Creation of the world and the birth and binding of Isaac. So, we celebrated the 5767 year. The way we came to attend to this event was very random (given the fact that we are not jewish): a girl from the USA sent a email to an expats email list that we make part of inviting all jewish people or just people that wanted to learn more about this to join this dinner. So, we went there ;-) These are the kind fo things that you do when you are an expat/trainee!

Some highlights:

1. We came late, and of course we arrived in the middle of singing, when everybody finished eating (well, the first meals). We arrived to the house of an indian jewish familiy where the whole ceremonial thing happened, it was very impresive at the beginning, I felt a little embarrased just popping up like this and sitting on the table, but these people welcomed us very nicely, and also the fact that there were other good group of non-jewish people learning of the whole thing made us feel also comfortable. It was also very impressve that a lot of nationalities were there this night.

2. After sharing these moment with the family, we moved to another small apartment in the same floor where solely expats were there (8-9 people) and we had dinner (very good one) but all was more informal! The great thing is that many of us just got to know each other this night, attracted by this email on the expats list.

3. We learned a bit of jewish culture and traditions, since our hosts not only were jewish, but also one of them religion student - it was very nice to see little stories and explanatios for dummies of their religion. Also we learned a lot from each other and how we came to India and how India is treating us, this is always a non-negotiable topic.

The good feelings that woke up in me that night, is that suddenly I realized seeing these girls being at moments so sentimental about the whole celebration, that I will spend christmas here in India! i am not a very religion-driven person, but I believe and I enjoy christmas as the main celebration of my Xtianism and all the familiy traditions behind - so I am already figuring out how to build christmas atmosphare for ourselves next december here in India... let's see how it goes!

May we all have a good and sweet new year!