First day in Mumbai!

It's official...the sweat and noise have arrived and are here to stay, along with an electric excitement of what's to come!

I am so happy to be here in India! After moving out of Boston and spending irreplaceable time with friends and fam, I have finally started my post-grad journey abroad. I feel so lucky to find myself as a  fellow with JDC Entwine, working with Gabriel Project Mumbai (GPM). 

Gabriel Project Mumbai was started by the wonderfully sweet Jacob Sztokman (who I spent most of today with along with the 2 other fellows who have arrived so far), in an effort to break the cycle of poverty and hunger in Mumbai's Kalwa slum. GPM provides education classes led by local teachers and international fellows and offers hunger relief by incentivizing parents to send their children to school with the promise of a meal. My time here in Mumbai will mainly be spent teaching lessons to the kids in the Kalwa slums - ranging from geography, to hygiene, to "common knowledge" that kids with different privileges grow up learning. We will also be working with women from a local NGO who prepare and distribute the food, employed through a micro-credit system. I cannot wait to interact with these women who are taking action for their own economic empowerment. I really can't wait for everything about working with Gabriel Project Mumbai. Above all, I can't wait to play with and learn from the kids who have known nothing but the reality of slum life and convey the message: you matter.  

But that is all for later. For now, I am here and settled and loving the new sensations that are around every corner. One of which are ceaseless BOOMS that are literally, around every corner. They are so loud, I jump, gasp, or shriek about every 10 minutes. Despite what my heart rate tells me, they are not gunshots, but firecrackers! HAPPY DIWALI! I arrived in Mumbai during the yearly festival of lights called Diwali. Everyone is off work and school, and the city is even more abuzz than normal. There are lights strung up on all balconies and decorative lanterns hang over every entranceway. It adds even more excitement to the colorful, bursting city. 

The actual population of Mumbai is hard to calculate, but it is near 13 million people. I have just begun to see how that many people can exist in one place. The concentration is obvious though, from people standing, squatting, or lying in every nook and cranny of the streets to the stream of haphazard, head-spinning traffic that produce the iconic soundtrack of honking. In our guest house, where I am staying with the other fellows, it is surprisingly quiet. I heard all throughout this morning and today the chatter of birds in the courtyard outside. You can actually hear them on the street too, if you listen. Especially crows, there are a lot crows. 

Today we talked for most of the day about our orientation and daily schedule, in addition to exploring our neighborhood and heading to a big mall. The mall was such a contrast to the street - glisteningly clean, cool, and fancy. The food I had today was outrageously delish. There is so much variety so far in the Indian tastes, and I'm basically in veghead heaven with so many vegan options. 

Laila Tov from India!

Rose 

Here are pics of the courtyard outside our guest house: 

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