Now that I have a little time, I can catch you up on the rest of my trip in Nashik. I think I left off about to tell you about the MSMs and migrant workers. The Mukta Project has 900 registered homosexuals. I also interviewed the MSM peer educators. It was interesting to find out that most of the MSMs were married to women and had children. There are many components that could play into why this is but I think it may start with tradition and religion. Arranged marriage is still very common in India. The parents choose a partner for their child based on caste level, horoscope sign and other various things. It was nice to hear that the children getting married were able to meet one another and make sure they were compatible with one another; at least they had some sort of say in the matter, I guess. But is this enough? I might be veering off the path a little bit, but when we went to the mall we invited one of the guys we met and told him he could bring his girlfriend. He said that he couldn't bring his girlfriend because it was a secret relationship and his parents don't know and wouldn't approve. Hopefully, his story ends with getting his girl! 85% of people are Hindu in India and I thought it was interesting to learn a little bit about their religion- Dr. Soma told us that in the scripture it is written that in order for a person to go to heaven they must have a son and daughter. The son lights the fire which starts the cremation of the parent and also opens the gates to heaven and the female must be married. So back to getting on track, I also thought it was interesting to learn that most of the MSMs do not think that they were born homosexual but something happened in their life that made them this way. I do not want to speak for MSMs in the United States, but to my knowledge many feel that they were born homosexual. I remember one of my friends' mother, said that she knew her son was homosexual from when he was 5 years old. So it was interesting to hear one of the MSM's stories as to why they thought they were homosexual. In one of the documentaries they made, he said that his father died and so he had to start helping his mother around the house with various chores and this is the reason he thinks he is homosexual. I don't want you to think that I am saying there is only one way a person can be homosexual, I'm just sharing my observations.  Each individual is different, and one experience can impact many people in many different ways. That night we went to the Sula Wines, which is a restaurant overlooking the vineyards. It was beautiful, I felt like I was in a different country! We ordered wine bottle after wine bottle, but between nine of us it really wasn't that much. Then we headed to a show put on by the MSMs. They dressed up in Sarris and put on their favorite song and they danced to it. Let me tell you, they could dance! We all know that I can't dance, so I can't really compare their dancing to my dancing. But if there was a dance competition, they would rock it! One of the MSMs earlier in the day told me I looked like one of the Indian actresses named Pretty, I'm not really sure if it's Preity Zinta, Priti Sapru, or Preeti Jhangiani. I guess I should have asked him to write it down. But I think this is one of the reasons why he pulled me up to dance with him during his performance. Then everyone got up and started dancing, so it was a great way to end the night. The next day we traveled to a town I can't even pronounce let alone spell and visited the migrant workers. They demonstrated how they convince migrant workers to go in for HIV screenings and STI screening. They have 5 bottles of what appears to be water, each bottle has a different person taped on the outside. They then take a strip of paper and go through all the bottles, each one is the same color except one turns the piece of paper a different color. They then tell the migrant workers, that they may look healthy from the outside, but they don't know what is going on inside their body. They said it works effectively with the migrant workers. We were then able to tour the recycle factory, where the workers separate recyclable plastic from non-recyclable plastic. Shamefully, I was pretty surprised they had a recycling system in the area. I see piles of trash everywhere in India, so that's why I was surprised. We also toured the cotton factory, which was pretty cool to see the machines in action, but they were so loud! Again, the workers didn't have any protective gear, so that I am sure that they have permanent hearing loss from the working environment. It was a little uncomfortable visiting the factories because children and adults swarmed us, and taking pictures of our faces with their phones. I don't think I was ready for that, especially since I was already tired from the long car ride there. But other than that Nashik was great! We visited two non-government organizations. The YASH foundation was for women and children who were HIV positive. They made working gloves out of jeans and then sold hand-made crafts at the market to raise money. They also had a lot of outreach activities for the women and children. The Child Line is India's first 24-hour, free, emergency phone service for children in need of care and protection. When the number is called, there are people that respond to the child and link them to appropriate services. There are 1.5 million calls a year and education is the most common reason why people call. We stayed in a hotel, three people to a room. Unfortunately, my room was infested with bed bugs! I'm actually not sure if they were bed bugs, because to my knowledge bed bugs are nocturnal and they are about 1-7mm big that feed on warm-blooded animals aka humans. Usually people will get itchy red bumps all over too, which I didn't. Either way, there were bugs in our bed! The first time we noticed them we talked to the manager and they said they would solve the issue. I am pretty sure that they just changed the sheets, because we then noticed them the next day. They finally gave us a different room that seemed to be bed bug free! I mean it was bad, but it wasn't the end of the world. As one of interns likes to say, "when in India…" That pretty much wraps up my Nashik trip. The next day, we were guests of the Premium Public School. Three of the interns spoke about the education system in India to the entire school! The principle told me that they have an assembly every day, and they usually stand the entire time but since it was a longer assembly than normal they were able to sit. The students wore uniforms, which was interesting to observe since usually in the United States only private schools require the students to wear uniforms. Then we each went to a different classroom and the students were able to ask us questions. I was in a classroom filled with twenty-five 10th graders. I was very impressed how globally aware their students were. They asked me about different things the United States did about global warming, electricity usage, and keeping the environment clean. I could answer most of the questions with a superficial answer, but nothing too in depth. I am only one person, and some of the questions I think weren't my specialty. But don't worry; I don't think I let America down! Then we were able to interact with the children. I played basketball with the girls, which was a lot of fun! I could tell I am out of shape! It started pouring rain, but we still were playing! I had a blast! Then I tasted a bit of fame, because all of the students wanted our autograph and to add us on facebook! It was a lot of fun, but I think I have had my dose and I am good on that for a while.

I think this blog entry is long enough, so I will catch you up on the Ajanta and Ellora Caves next time! Hope you all enjoy!