Bangalore

Since I live at the orphanage with the kids and spend most of my day with them I have not seen that much of India aside from the city that I live in. Bangalore a city of 6 million is a compilation of houses, apartments, stores, parks, churches, mosques and temples. Everything is very close together and most people live in very close quarters, especially those who are quite poor are living in very small shacks with many people living in them. 

I can relate Bangalore to places in South and Central America that I have been to where there is a high population density in the cities, much of Bangalore even looks similar to cities in South and Central America. That is aside from the language differences and the way that the people look.

Most people in India that are living in cities speak some English. The national language in India is Hindi but not even all people speak Hindi or understand it, there are at least 22 different sub-national languages that are spoken and over 1,500 tribal languages and dialects spoken just in this country alone. This make communication difficult between people that are native Indians let alone a foreigner like myself.

Most people speak at least 3 languages; English, Hindi and then their native language, depending which state they come from. For example I am living in the state of Karnataka where Tamil is spoken and in the house that I live in between the staff, kids and myself that are 7 different languages that are spoken. 

Often times my instinct for not knowing Hindi or Tamil is to try to speak Spanish if I know someone does not understand English, because this is the only other language besides English that I know. Then I am reminded that I am in India and people will understand my Spanish as well as I understand their Hindi, which means, not at all.