Delhi

We have been in the Indian capital for three days, but it feels more like three weeks. I prepared myself for the sadness, poverty, and crowdedness. Instead, of feeling overwhelmed by negativity, however, I find myself overwhelmed with humanity and life. I do not feel sad for the people who sleep on the streets (there are lots). Instead, I find people's desire to carry on and carve a life out of this hectic place amazing.
We have managed to stay in one of the most beautiful hotels, the Oberoi Maiden in Old Delhi. I chose this one because it is close to the Mother Theresa house for orphans. We have been volunteering two hours per morning with kids about 3-5 years old. We have even more respect for teachers who teach this young age. It had been tiring us out a lot! We mostly sing songs and play duck duck goose. Classroom management is tough! But the kids are happy to see us so that makes it worth it.
When I was mentally preparing myself for India, I forgot to get ready for people who would 'trick' us. There are some very kind people who led us away from the train station where we wanted to buy tickets, and sent us to the 'information' centre a few kms away. It was a very elaborate scheme that upset and offended me while Brandon felt amazement and respect. It turned out that there were no train tickets anyways, and we would need to hire a car. We hired one with what we thought was a government tourist agency. When we realized our mistake, we went to the government agency. They told us we had been overcharged . To make a long story short, we decided to stick with our original booked tour. Brandon observed that the private tour company was working harder for our money. It was a big adjustment for me to "play" this game for which I didn't understand the rules. We ended up going for dinner with our tour company friend and had the most interesting time! He had a lot to say about history, spirituality, and psychology (in between trying to convince us to book more tours with him!) We understand how things work a lot more now and really respect this complex amazing country. As our tour guy says, "It's incredible!" (thats the slogan for India tourism). He took us back to his apartment which was not big. He lives with his brother in law who went out to get us chicken and then found us a rickshaw when it was time to go.
We had a crazy and amazing time! We also found a lovely cafe near our hotel. Picture below. Also featured below: our first rickshaw ride (during the scam). Did I mention that the Indian food rocks here?!