End of India... beginning of Israel (Heidi)

I love reading all the fabulous posts!! Yay! Can't wait to see the Ghanan skirts, and it's just so good to hear that everyone is having an amazing time, even if there are gunshots involved (hope you're staying safe, Jeff).

My last week in India was simply amazing. Sara and I took a trip up north to Manali, a mountain town nestled in the foothills of the Himilayas. It was a quick trip (34 hours of travel for 36 hours there), but it was memorable and totally worth it. After a flight to Delhi and a 14 hour over-night drive, awaking to the beauty of the area instantly erased any thoughts of the distressing travel. It was like looking at Glacier National Park (western Montana) on steroids, or getting thrust back into an ancient time when everything was bigger - trees, rivers, mountains. After temperatures constantly in the 100s, the 50 degree weather was refreshing and cause for hot tea and jackets, which was fabulous! Being 50 miles from Pakistan, and 30 miles from Tibet, there was tangible Tibetan and Budhist influence here, far different from the Muslum-dominated Hyderabad (which itself is unique in the Hindu country). We did a little light hiking and exploring and found a fabulous Boreal-like forest over looking a river with prayer flags, mist-covered and all!

The second day we had every intention of going on a day hike... but when we got to the trail head we were completely blown away by a mountain carnival at 9000 feet. It was incredible -- paragliding, horse rides, zorbing, blow-up bouncy houses -- all in this little green valley surrounded by white caps. Somewhat reminiscent of Hilton's description of Shangri-La, without the whole 'no contact with the outside world' part. Needless to say, we were distracted from our hike, and eagerly embraced fact we were tourists and this was all here for our entertainment! So we went paragliding and zorbing, and when it rained we sat on the mountain side by a fire created by our paragliding guide. It was so dreamlike and really indescribable. The best part was that there was absolutely no semblance of order, so the paragliders just landed into crowds of running people and zorbs just assume people would move (we actually saw one kid get rolled over by one... but she was ok).

After falling into the rabbit hole... this is the sight of our Solang Valley madness.
Getting ready to jump off the mountain!
Zorbing! (aka: rolling down the hill in a huge plastic ball while two people are inside strapped down in an inner sphere)
All in all I had a wonderful time in India and have no doubt I'll be back. I would love to spend more time in the north and I've been told that I just have to visit places like Goa, Chennai, and the Kashmir province (once it settles down a little bit).

But now, a new adventure begins in Tel Aviv! Yes, India is over and I'll now start working on my summer GFE in Israel. A couple days before I was to arrive I found out that I was granted access to a national drill that is being conducted here, so my plans quickly changed and I've been staying in Tel Aviv (instead of going strait to Beersheba) for the past couple days. I will be spending my first 10 days here and it should really be an incredible learning experience. They're going to be sounding the missle siren on Tuesday! Too cool! Here's an article about the drill: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243346492354&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

So far I've been really impressed by Tel Aviv -- it's really clean and has a beautiful charm about it. Plus, my hotel is right on the beach... and since everything shuts down here during the Sabbath, I've been spending plenty of time on the sand! I do think I'll be learning some Hebrew -- while most people speak it, aside from menus, most writing on stores and signs don't have English. Oh, and the airport security that I was so worried about going through turned out to be practically nonexistent. It was just simple questions at the passport counter, took 10 minutes. But there was one lady who I chatted with in the hotel and she's a US citizen with no Arab stamps, but she has an Egyptian middle name or something, and she was there for 9 hours.

Welcome to Israel, I guess!

VINACOSH (Ron)

VINACOSH stands for the Vietnamese Committee on Smoking and Health. It is the government organization that conducts all tobacco control efforts in the country and it is where I work everyday. It is a very small organization with only 6 employees, but they are amazing people. Yesterday, there was a Vietnamese tradition of cleansing the body of "insects" - for lack of a better translation. The way this is properly done is to ingest a rice dice that has fermented for a while. Imagine eating rum cake with a noticeable amount of alcohol first thing before work and you'll get the picture.


The entire VINACOSH office is probably double the size of my apartment so it's a wonder that they even found a desk for me. Also pictured here is Huong (b).







From left to right is Huong (a) the media communications officer, my main working partner, and Huong (c). That's right, with a staff of 6, VINACOSH employs 3 Huongs :) I am told the name means fragrance.



For lunch, we will either go out to eat, or one of the women will cook in the office. Let me tell you that it's very difficult to get work done with the aroma of pan-fried pork wandering the office 30 minutes before lunch time. But the best part of working here is that I get to eat traditional Vietnamese food every day.



































And what lunch would be complete without a dish of Rambutan.


A Vietnamese fruit of which I have no words to describe other than that it is sweet. I am told it is similar to a lychee also spelled litchi. But since I have not eaten a lychee I have no reference.

The people I work with are simply amazing. They are so eager to please and to practice their English with a real American. I taught them the proper pronunciation of the words "valley" and "pine tree" both of which they are convinced are very difficult to say. Personally I have trouble with the word "ngon" which sounds like "non" but not exactly.

First few days in DC (Callie)

Hi all!
It has been so great to read all about your adventures so far. I'm glad everyone sounds happy and healthy! I'm getting settled into life in DC. My week started out a bit rough- a sudden down pour caused me to arrive at my first day of work completely drenched and all discombobulated (just sound it out- I don't think that is a real word). But, I've moved past that embarrassing entrance and the rest of the week has gone very well. There are 14 interns (all very cool) and there are three of us from Rollins so that is fun!
The best part about my job so far is that they asked me to attend the Global Health Council Conference here in DC all week. It is HUGE - it is like APHA only better because it is all implementers (NGOS) and not academics talking about how great their research is- and all the presentations are about effective programs and lessons learned etc. So that has been great- major schmoozing and networking (bleh)- but useful in the long run. Next year you should all go!
Other than fun conference things I don't have too much to report, I've already been wine tasting and I'm volunteering with the winery to get free wine!! (Meryl, I thought you would appreciate that).
Miss you all!

Night (Jeff)

Hi,
We have an 8:30 am staff meeting on Monday which resulted in my being very tired yesterday. I was at home waiting for Two and a Half Men to come on at 7:30 (American television is a rare treat, even if it's crap) when I decided to get in bed for a second. Predictably, I feel asleep. I woke up at about 8:30 to be sad for a second that I missed tv, then went back to sleep. I woke up again, unsure of what time it was. It was probably late enough that I should accept that I was not going to be awake any more tonight and I could take off the polo shirt and sweater I was currently wearing and get under the covers. I turned my cell phone on to check the time. 3:30 am. That's not good. I hope I haven't ruined my internal clock too badly. I've been going to sleep between 11 and 12 because there is nothing to do at night here and taking baths has made me sleepy. I can stay awake until bed time tommorow (as in tonight now, but last night I was considering it the next day) and restore my schedule. That should be -

BANG!

Shit. Was that a gunshot? I think it was. It was close too. Not on campus, but not terribly far away on the road. I heard a siren about ten minutes later, which probably confirmed it was a gun. I live near a hospital so it isn't totally conclusive.

I think in SF I could hear gunfire from the Mission while in Diamond Heights (and once while I was actually in the Mission) but it's a lot more scary when I am alone in a strange country. I knew people that lived close to or in areas with gun fire in SF and Oakland so it is not completely crazy to be hearing a shot (http://rhubarbpie.typepad.com/rhubarb/2008/08/it-matters-to-u.html). And I'm a compound controlled by guards. Still it was pretty scary at the time. Listening to all of the sounds that my cottage makes at night, thinking, is that someone trying to break in, is that someone trying to break in? It feels a little silly in the light of day.

Jeff

Like I promised (Monica)

Hey all, sounds like you guys are all having an excellent time. I just got back from PR and I kept true to my word. This is Spots, and she is my foster dog for the week (at least). She's adorable and really sweet, I don't know if she'll still be with me when y'all get back, but if she is, now you guys know her a little bit. I may post more later (that's for you Heidi). Keep having good times!