India: A land of contrasts

June 1, 2007
Today we went to visit a drug rehabilitation camp in South Delhi, where we met and interacted with both health workers and current and former drug addicts. Most of these men became addicted to "smack and ganga" as teens and have been addicted most of their adult lives while neglecting their families and spending all the money they earn on drugs.
The camp's goal is not get the men to stop, which is what happens in drug rehab in the US but to get them to reduce their injections and practice safe injection methods. For instance, I talked to a man who'd been using drugs since he was 14, up to 10 times a day and with the program's help has now reduced injections to once per day. Considering the huge challenge both these men and the center face, this is a real victory. The program also teaches them to read, as most of them are illiterate and as such empowers them and gives them something other than drugs to think about. According to Yunus, the health worker I met with they want very much to have normal lives and discontinue drug use.
After playing Bollywood Trivia designed by Sej to get the men to open up to us, they sang and recited poetry for us. Farah also sang a beautiful verse, she's got a beautiful voice.

I feel like I could have enjoyed the meeting much more if it wasn't so stiflingly hot, but this is India in the summer for you. For lunch we went to Pizza Hut because we've been craving it since we got here, which is funny because I never touch the stuff at home. Sedarshun, one of our coordinators drove us to a Pizza Hut in South Delhi. It's a sit down restaurant here with waiters, plates and all. It was quite the contrast to see the patrons of Pizza Hut compared to the poverty stricken masses that I've seen so far. This is the high middle class that can afford such frivolities as American fast food. Oh and McDonald's delivers, it's call McDelivery.
After lunch, Sidarshun dropped us off at a mall in South Delhi and the first store we walked into, called Shopper's Stop, could have been any posh department store in the US. With Mercedes S500s in the parking and a Apple store it was a bit of shock to walk into such prosperity when we see so much poverty everywhere else.
We finally made it home, four of us in one rickshaw and needless to say we are exhausted and possibly have heat stroke. Tomorrow is Saturday and we're planning to visit the National Museum. The situation in Jaipus has not yet improved, so we're spending the next week at Bapu Nature doing Traditional medicine rotations, as well as yoga and meditation. This should be an interesting experience.