Today’s post comes from friends Mandy and Abhay. Abhay was born and raised in India and has lived in the United States for eight years. Mandy says, “I had very limited knowledge of India before I met Abhay five and a half years ago, but I’ve acquired quite the education! I’ve grown to love India, the people, and the culture. And it has embraced me back. It will always be Abhay’s home, and I consider it my second home.”
About this photo: This is in the city of Hyderabad, which is the capital of the state Andhra Pardesh, located in Southern India. This shot is in the Hyderabad neighborhood of Punjgutta. This is a typical street shot of India. As you can see, the road is filled with cars, bicycles, motorcycles (which everyone in India calls “bikes”), people and the yellow auto-rickshaws. Usually, there are cows, pigs, goats, dogs, donkeys or sheep sharing the road space. This area looks quite modern with all the billboards and stores, but right next to this area is a “hut city” (people working manual labor jobs in the city live in these huts) and people begging for money. It’s obvious that infrastructure has not caught up with the growth of the population.
Indian “hut city”
Rachael Cullins is a twentysomething American girl living in Dakar, Senegal, with her husband and two dogs. She blogs about her adventures in Senegal and travels elsewhere in West Africa. She will reside in Dakar until summer 2013, when she and her family will move to another foreign post as part of her husband’s career with the U.S. government. In addition to West Africa, she has traveled to France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and Costa Rica and plans to continually add to that list.
