Things I love about India #1

This morning on my run I was joined by a white donkey with a hot pink stripe down his head and back (often animals are painted by their owners). Although "joined" may not be the right term. He (or she) was in front of me and started running when I approached. He would then slow down until I got closer and then would start running again. I found this as a nice motivation, almost like having a trainer that was trying to get you to keep running. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure this poor donkey thought I was trying to catch him, he finally veered off the road and into a field. Either way, it made things a little more interesting.

PS - As predicted, the "living in peace" thing is just not working. I'm now taking the opposite stance and holding strong. This is my room and I shall protect it with whatever force is necessary.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

I have decided after about 2 weeks here, that I am going to stop killing the bugs. Everyday I take out various species of bug and spider that are inhabiting my room. This is time-consuming and quite frankly, does not seem to help. I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps we can't all just get along? I'm going to try this for a day or two and see how it goes. My guess is I will be back to killing in no time. I certainly am not going to make Buddhist of the year here.

Things at the village are going well! I've settled into a pretty good routine, my meal times are set so I'm forced to get up in the morning if I want breakfast. This allows me to eat and be showered (and on a good day, having already gone for a run) and ready to work by 9am (with the first 30 minutes spent catching up on the news and email, just like I would in the US!).

A side note about running here...no one does it. Obviously. Indians here get plenty of exercise in their daily lives through farming, riding bikes everywhere, and just general work. They have no need to go out and run around, especially when its gonna be 90 degrees by 10am and you sweat all day anyway. My morning excursions are quite interesting as I share the road with buses, cars, bikes, goats, pigs, dogs, and who knows what else. I do get lots of stares from people and I can see it in their eyes "crazy white girl." I'm okay with it though, as long as they don't try to run me over. And hey, when I run by and see a guy crapping on the side of the road, my mind says "crazy indian man" so I guess we are even.

This weekend was the 39th anniversary of the organization, there was a nice ceremony with lots of locals in attendance. Its great to see how much this place means to everyone around here.

I've attached a few pics of my room, I still can't believe what great digs I have (bugs notwithstanding). I need something for the walls but I figure I will get that on my first trip into Pune. The girl in the pic is someone I've been hanging out with here that actually knows some of my friends from STL, they all went to the same college, small world!!

 
 

globalgiving

We just joined a great group called globalgiving to raise money for one of our sanitation projects. Every little bit helps! Just $19 helps CRHP build a toilet for someone, please pass along to others! And...this helps me as well because the more toilets we can provide here, the less people I have to watch going to the bathroom on the side of the road.

A beach in Goa...a world away

Goa now seems miles away (which in fact it is, an hour plane ride and 4 hours in a car to be exact, to the middle of...lets just call it rural India).

There is not too much to report from our time there, it was relaxing and beautiful. We got there by train and it was a gorgeous ride, our tour hotel was fine (we finally got some much needed AC!) and had a pool. We thought we wouldn't use the pool at all and just hang at the beach, but after about 30 minutes and numerous people asking to take our picture and trying to sell us stuff, we opted for the seclusion of the pool!

A little about beaches in India. Indians don't really go to the beach...well they do, but not like we do. They go and STAND fully clothed and just hang out. You look at the beach and there are just groups of people standing around in the 90 degree weather...if the occasional man does get in (because 85% of people in public are men, we don't know where all the women are hiding (well, we do, they are at home)), he does so in his underwear and then proceeds to walk around. They don't wear swimsuits! We also observed that if women swim in pools, they wear their clothes...no swimsuits either, I guess because of not wanting to show skin but it just is bizarre to see men in underwear and women fully clothed, another example of gender inequality here.

We had some great seafood and actually went out in Goa to a club called Tito's - apparently one of the most famous in India. Did some last minute shopping and just enjoyed sunsets and hangin at the beach...sadly no sightings of Jason Borne or his bridge. (FYI - Goa is in fact an Indian state made up of lots of little towns, so it would take a long time to track down that bridge :))

After separating from my last bit of America (known as Ashley), I made it to Jamkhed! Settling in great, my room is better than expected and it already feels homey, minus very blank walls but I'm hoping to get something to put up on it. Of course, I unpacked everything the first night, didn't take long! I am taking over the room of a doctor that was here for a year and just left so it is very nice (comparatively speaking...of course). I actually have a TV! And of the 500 channels I get via satellite, at least 6 are in English (Yes and Yes, Ash). I have had a couple of really good meetings so far and actually spent a full day working today! I have been excited to jump right in...there is A LOT to do. Today I read CRHP's Strategic Plan for the next 5 years and worked on an outline of projects. There are a bunch of people right here including a couple Americans, brits, Canadians, and brazilians, so there are always people to eat meals with, etc.

It is great being back! There have been some improvements in the dining hall, some of the outside area, and communications, but it also feels like I never left!

Heaven is a place on earth...

If heaven were a place on earth it would be the Park Hyatt in Goa. That is where we have been the last 24 hours, pure heaven. Makes the weeks of heat, bugs, trains, buses, pollution, and crowds seem miles away....we enjoyed a day by the pool, a pedicure overlooking the ocean, a delicious italian dinner with a true bottle of wine from Italy, a REAL bed, and an actual bath. It has been awesome. A great last day of our trip before I head out to the village, a place that could not be more different than this, that is for sure -- a true paradox as my father says, heading from the luxury of a 5-star hotel to a poverty ridden village in the middle of India, I certainly can say my life is not boring :) The reality of the my situation is hitting me and Ashley is really helping me not to totally panick and hide in bathroom!

Anyway, I will update more later about our time in Goa, etc. (AND POST PICS) but we have another hour at the pool (or should I say 3 interconnecting pools...) before we have to check out.

Next post from Jamkhed!

From Ashley, To Whom It May Concern

The following is the email sent to Ashley's bosses alerting them to the fact she decided to postpone her flight and hang with me in a Goa for an extra few days...perhaps I will be sending a similar one in a few months (JUST KIDDING Mom!).


Hi. So the thing is....well, here's the thing. The 411. The skinny. The low-down. The information.

In a nutshell: I. Love. India. It's everything I hoped for and so much more. It's everything I've dreamed about for years.

So, I've decided to move here. I have enrolled in a yoga-training program which is set to begin immediately. I will begin studying yoga under some of the most famous yogis in the world. Also, as my luck would have it, I met the man of my dreams at the yoga studio. He is also a yogi---he is 6'4, drop dead gorgeous, dark brown eyes, jet black hair, speaks 3 languages, very well respected in the local yoga culture, he looks like something out of a ralph lauren ad (but with a yogi-mentality, of COURSE). He proposed, I accepted, and as soon as my training is done, we will set out for a "baby-adopting" trip-we will cover the whole of India. We plan to adopt at least 6 or 7 babies to start and then eventually grow our family. Our goal is to get up to at least 20 by 2011. Money will not be an issue as yoga teaching in India is quite a lucrative business, so please do not worry about how I will manage to feed all my babies. Rami (my fiance) also comes from a well-to-do family so we will be just fine. We plan to return to the states in June 2011 with all our children so they can have a glimpse of Washington DC and Texas. Please plan accordingly for our visit. Also please note that we will raise our children Hindu so do not even think about serving beef at any meal you may cook for us.

So I hope you will all manage ok without me. I am most concerned about Christy because she is more sensitive than the rest of you. Please take care of her. I also recommend daily yoga practice for each of you as it has changed my life.

Namaste.

ps. Ok ok ok ok ok I am KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!! The truth is I really do love india and it really is everything I hoped for and more. So I delayed my return trip by 2 days. I will be back in DC Wednesday morning at 8 and back in the office Thursday morning. A week from today. And the funny thing is, I'm not even sorry.

Numbers...

6 - liters of water we drink in a day
4 - men we saw urinating on our bus ride from Mysore to Hampi
10 - monkeys on the rooftop next to us during breakfast
40 - number of time people have burped, snorted, or spit in front of us
120 - cost of a 650 ml beer in rupees (less than $3)
unknown - ants consumed during dinner tonight

ah...India.

So we have spent the last couple of days in Hampi, an awesome little town on a river. Its surrounded by hills and rocks, really spectacular. Its also very small and easy to navigate (meaning the only thing we need to look out for in the streets is cows and bulls walking into us). We visited a temple yesterday and did a little shopping, I am happy to report I finally found my mumbai pants that I had been looking for! Ashley and I bought the two last pairs it seems. There is a great rooftop restaurant we have been eating at, tons of western food so easy on our stomachs. Apparently alcohol is banned here but leave it us Americans to find the "special drinks." Its called Kali Juice and is listed under fruit juices, but actually its whiskey, coke, and lemon...interesting, not really our taste though.

Today we had a busy day of sightseeing all around Hampi. There are a lot of old palaces and excavated sites to see from the 15th century. It is really amazing, I hope to post pictures soon! We saw the biggest Ganesh in India (a hindu god) which was cool. It was also like animal kingdom, cows, monkeys, goats, sheep everywhere. The most amazing thing we saw...or at least very entertaining for us was a male sheep running around a temple chasing a female sheep all around and trying to "do some business" if you know what I mean. It was quite disturbing actually because she was really not into it at all, but still, you don't often see "wild kingdom" in the middle of DC.

Tonight we watched a beautiul sunset from some of the boudlers. Tomorrow we had to Goa!!! Very excited about that, should be a great time and Ashley and I are plotting our site visits (meaning wherever Jason Bourne was)...

"I dig India"

Ashley's words earlier this week. We are having a great time! The trip is flying by and we have done lots since my last post. We left the beachside of Varkala and took a short train ride to the backwaters of Kerala. This is an absolutely breathtaking area of India, man made canals and lakes surrounded by palm trees and its just beautiful. They have houses along the banks and get around by boat. There is also quite a tourist industry now of "houseboats" that people would rent for a few days and are supposedly really nice. We took a boat ride to our homestay, which was actually like a guesthouse, it was the house of a really nice couple and they had 2 adorable little girls. The husband, Thomas (this is a very Christain area of India) took us on a walking tour through his village and around the rice patties. Rice and coconuts are the big products here. They also have this cocunut drink they call a "toddy" that is an alcoholic drink, not so good but they really like. We stayed the night and had some great south indian home cooking.

The next day we took a local bus to Kochi, one of the big port cities of the Western coast of India. The place we stayed was not great, not in the main area and our bathroom had other inhabitants...but it was fine. We spent most of our time in Fort Kochin, a ferry ride from where we were staying , which has a lot of Portugese and Dutch influences. We visited a synagogue, there used to be a lot of jews in this area and they actually have an area called "Jewtown." Now its just tourist shops because the jews moved to Israel once it became a state. There are only 13 jews left at the temple today. We also saw a Kathakali dance show, a famous type of theatre from Kerala. Elaborate costumes and they act out theatre through movements of the eye and body...very interesting. After the show we went to dinner at a local restaurant, thought to be okay by our leader...turns out not so much. The next day 3of our group was sick with food poisioning, luckily we were okay.

From Kochi we took an overnight train (I do not sleep well on trains...) to Bangalore and then a bus to Mysore, which is where we are now. Mysore is a fairly large crowded city, typical India. Lots of people, cars, cows, pollution, noise, etc. They have a phenomenal palace here that we saw yesterday, one of the most amazing I've seen. We also toured a local veggie market. We were so exhausted yeseterday, we literally in bed and asleep by 10:30. Today we had free time and Ashley and I went out to some factories this morning to see silk and incense made, it was pretty interesting. We just had the most amazing lunch of real western pizza. Our stomachs have been a little iffy lately so this was such a great find for us.

This afternoon we head back to Bangalore to catch our last overnight train to Hampi. We have 2 days there and then on to Goa, last stop!! Hard to believe how fast the time has flown!

It Hit.

I guess it was only a matter of time...it hit on our overnight train. Not an ideal situation. We boarded the train around 10:30pm, it was not so hot thanks to fans and the breeze once we started moving. Sitting at the station is pretty awful because the smell of urine just reeks on the tracks. I got in bed and tried to sleep, but was feeling really really cold. Shivering, the feeling that you will never get warm. Slight crampy feelings and then I felt my face and knew...fever...uh-oh. The night was awful, with little sleep, and as I was doubled over in pain and holding in the tears, the main thought in my head was "what the hell am I doing here?" Luckily, it was the fever talking :) We made it to our hotel and I quickly took my antibiotics and spent the remainder of the day sleeping in my hotel room. Not an ideal day at the beach but luckily we had no real activities planned so I didn't miss much. Plus, our tv has some english stations that were a nice distraction.

Yeseterday I was feeling 80% better (I'm not sure my stomach will be normal again until I make it back to the states~!) and we were able to enjoy Verkala. It is so beautiful here. Its a beach town on the Arabian Sea, set up on cliffs. The water is pretty dangerous right now (as is the sun) so much of the day was spent browsing the stores and sitting at a cliffside cafe (THAT SERVES REAL ESPRESSO) and reading. Very relaxing and exactly what the doctor ordered. There are tons of westerners here which means we are able to get some bland food, last night I had a seafood pasta that was great. Its monsoon here so had been a bit rainy, but still beautiful.

This morning we are heading to the backwaters of Kerala, it is so beautiful here, very lush. We take a train to a boat and then go for a homestay where we will stay with local families and eat local meals. Should be great, and hopefully our stomachs will survive!

I'm going to add some pics in a few days when we get to our next city.

Keep ya posted!

Cost Benefit Analysis

We seem to be doing a lot of cost benefit analysis here lately, my econ professor would be so proud. Here are a few examples.

Scene: Monday night in Mallapurum, hot hot hot room. No air, no circulation because windows are closed due to mosquitos and malaria. The only english tv channel is the Disney channel, and we just finished watching Lizzie Maquire and were very excited about it, my how quickly life changes. Its 1030pm and lights are out. I have taken 3 showers already.
Ashley: "It's hot"
Sarah: "It's really really hot"
Ashley: "Should we open the windows?"
Sarah: "Well, lets do a cost benefit analysis...Is it worth the risk of getting malaria to enjoy a good nights sleep? Pause. I kindda think so...."

Followed by lots of laughing, with the end decision being that the benefit of a good nights sleep does not in fact outwiegh the cost of getting malaria.

Scene: 8 hour train ride to Madurai, no ac. Breakfast consisted of a few biscuit cookies and chai from the train station, nothing else is safe...or as our leader said "You should not eat from there." Time 1pm. Very hungry. Men constantly walk down the aisles selling things, most of which are not at all appetizing, and again, based on our leaders advice, should not be trusted. But then comes along the veggie cutlet guy. From my last experience in India I remember having veggie cutluts and not having any problems. Cost benefit analysis: Is eating something to stop the growling tummy and dizziness worth the cost of risking stomach bug? Sarah's answer: Yes. Ashley and Scottish girls: No. Winner: Me, I ate it and it was delicious and it made the remaining 4 hours much more managable, plus 24 hours has passed and I am in the clear.
As you can see, traveling in India is definitely about weighing risks ;)

Anyway...we spent last night and today in Madurai. Most famous for being the place where Ghandi started wearing just his loin cloth and for a very sacred Hindu temple. We visited the temple this morning and it was so beautiful. The temple architecture of the south is much different than the north, very colorful. I will post pictures soon because I really can't accurately describe it. We were lucky because today is an "auspicious day" for hindus so there were a bunch of people there getting married. This is the temple where Lord Shiva married his wife so its all about marriage and fertility. They have a sacred fertiliy area with cobra statues (represents fertility) and couples bring mini wooden baby carriages and hang them on the trees and then take them down when they get pregnant. There are a lot of different symbols and the walls are red/white stripped (red=female, white=male --I'm guessing most can figure that one out). Most of these marriages are arranged and the man is clearly older than the woman by a good 15 years. They have 3 months to get pregnant before the mother-in-law goes out and finds a new wife for her son (the mother-in-law also inspects the wedding night bedsheet to make sure certain deeds took place). Quite fascinating.
We also went to the Ghandi museum here, very interesting as it traced back the entire history of India from British rule to Independance day. Madurai is a little hectic and polluted so I'm not terribly upset to be heading out tonight. We leave at 1030pm tonight to catch an 11:15pm overnight train, non ac. My main hope is that my bed does not 1) already have an indian family sleeping in it and 2) does not have a cockroach nest (as somone in my group experienced a few weeks ago...). Fingers crossed.

Luckily the reward is two days at the beach in Verkala!! Very exciting. We can't wait to have 2 nights in one place but also to get to Kerela, the state we will be traveling in for the next 5 days, it is supposed to one of the most beautiful places in India. In Verkala we will be hanging at the beach and getting some auryvedic massages...can't wait!

I'll keep you posted.