India

Hello from India – where they have so many national languages that they didn’t teach us any helpful phrases, because English is becoming the way people communicate over here.

So India was great. Sorry, I’m so zapped from writing my personal journal and studying for tests that this blog seems to have fallen by the wayside. But I’ll try to catch you up a little bit.

In the words of my friend Adam, “India was dirty, nasty, smelly, disgusting, beautiful, awesome, and I can’t wait to go back.” That’s a pretty good summary. There are so many layers to India. I had a lot of great experiences and a lot of sad and frustrating experiences.

The first day I went to the American consulate office in India and that was … kind of boring in all honesty. It just wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing. That night my group trip left for our home stay. India is about as bad as China; and they’re main surface level similarities are that both countries have over a billion people living in them, but China is about the size of the US while India is about 1/3 of the size of the us, and also they both have massive pollution problems. So Chennai was truly filthy, and I’ve still got a cough from breathing in exhaust fumes rather than oxygen….

We took a sleeper train to Erode…it was uncomfortable to say the least. I was scared to sit in the train station, there was just dirt everywhere and I saw a rat just hanging out. There were beds on the train, but everything just felt like it was infested. I had a fun little room though with Mary, Jesse and Kaia. We were told not to buy biscuits from people on the train, because they have sedatives in them, and to tie our shoes up to help prevent them from getting stolen while we slept…I slept with my shoes by my head, Mary just kept hers on the whole night. Every time I woke up I had to make sure all my possessions were still there. We arrived in Erode at about 6 AM. We drove to our host family’s very nice, plain, clean house…it was kind of just walls and no ceilings. It felt like you were in an indoor courtyard. They made amazing tea and coffee for us and gave us a little tour. We walked around outside and looked at banana trees and coconut trees. I got to climb up part of a coconut tree!! We went to a couple of factories – a coconut factory, a cotton factory (I got to help make a carpet), a sugarcane factory, and an herbal medicine factory. I really like seeing that stuff because in the US I feel like we just see finished products…so it is so cool to watch raw materials become works in progress, so much work and time goes into that! We also saw a lot of schools. Most of the kids are just Obsessed with our digital cameras, and just try to snatch them and take pictures of themselves/nothing in particular. I loaned my camera out to many a children, but I made sure it was double looped on their wrist so they wouldn’t hurt it. One time I left my camera on the bus and kids would come up and ask for it and when I told them I didn’t have it they would just walk away from me! All the kids we saw though were learning English, and all were eager and curious to come up and talk to us. They pretty much just know how to say, “hi, what’s your name, how are you, I’m good, thanks,” so we had to use different methods of interaction. I played blocks with a girl. Sometimes you just sit with them and smile. My favorite time in India was probably teaching this group of Indian girls the hokey pokey (my idea!) – that was a blast! Also, I ended up getting into an intense game of basketball, 5 Indian girls versus 3 SAS guys and another SAS girl and myself. It was a good game, they gave us a workout! I’m pretty sure we won though… Yeah all the kids were just awesome. All the food we ate was so authentic! We ate off of huge green plant leaves one day. The food was spicy and delicious, I tried things although I had no idea what they were (be proud!!!), and I didn’t get sick at all (thanks to pepto probably). It was really nice to have genuine Indian food because on my other trips we end up eating at buffets or something that’s just like…this isn’t Thai food…so yeah we definitely got a good deal food-wise!! We went to the market one evening and that was such a good rural life snap shot! People grow food or have spices that they probably brought from their house, and then they just lay out a blanket and spread out their stuff on the ground and sit there. Our host lady and her two daughters who were 6 and 11 were all fabulous and completely fluent in English. That was awesome because we had so many conversations and asked so many questions…it’s rare where you get those kind of candid, honest answers from locals. We interviewed the lady for a good hour one night and audio-recorded a lot of it. One night we watched this drummer troupe drum for us and we got to dance with them. But their dances were hard and I have no rhythm so that didn’t work out too well, but it was fun! In between songs they would heat their drums up over an open fire to change the pitch! We went to a place for polio kids that SAS donates a lot of money to. Some of the kids put on a song and dance for us that was so cute! And in return we performed a horrible version of “Lean on Me.” Then we presented them with money and played with the kids a little bit. At the main school we were at, the kids put on this Fabulous performance! A group of 8 guys did this hilarious song/dance medley and then these 6 girls did this dance routine that could have been part of a high school competition! The kids treated us like celebrities, they just wanted to talk to us, take pictures with us, perform for us, play with us, get our autographs, trade stuff with us (like bandanas for bracelets)…they were so awesome. We took another sleep train back (we spent 2 days and 1 night at these peoples’ house) that was even worse than the first because we were right next to the “bathroom.” Gross. But hey – we were on a sleeper train in India, so not much to actually complain about! Everybody loved the home stay, but when we got to the ship everybody pretty much ran to their showers.

So in Chennai – days 4 and 5 of India…there were people right outside the ship letting us use their cell phones to call the states for $1/3 minutes…which is expensive, but better than my phone card, which would have cost me $.59/minute. So I called Jon and home, but the parents were gone so I got to talk to Jonathan (which was wonderful!) Then I showered and ate breakfast and then headed out to go shopping. I was planning on going with Mary and Megan, and the three of us would fit in one tuk-tuk and it would be great. Then this girl Elizabeth (who is also in my Vicarious Voyage group) randomly asked if she could come with us (she usually ignores everybody and I always try to be nice to her). So…she came with us…and Megan and Mary and I are all nice people…we’re just not friends with her. And she’s a Very difficult person to get along with. She is easily offended, so while I usually watch my mouth anyway I end up saying things that normally people would not be offended by, that somehow offends her, and then I have to backtrack and apologize and it’s…just very frustrating and a huge exercise in patience to be around this girl. She came with us and we all wanted to not be with her but Mary was like, “we are not leaving her alone in India,” and I was the one making sure we didn’t get separated in the mall (because we had two totally different agendas). So this girl goes up to Megan (who had the least patience with her of the three of us) and asks her if I was trying to ditch her. WHAT?!?!?! No. Ugh. Anyway finally I guess she realized that it wasn’t working out in terms of group dynamics and she had to go to different things and go back to the ship. Then we started having a ton of fun shopping. We kind of went crazy. India’s the last “cheap” place we’re going to, so I bought a lot of stuff. Up until this port, I was like, yeah I know how I’m getting everything home. Let’s just say that…now, I don’t. But I do have a lot of awesome presents for people!!! So I feel good about that. Also we got into some long/intense conversations with some of the shopkeepers and made friends with them. That made me feel better about spending the afternoon in an Indian shopping center. The tuk-tuk drivers rip us off just for fun and it’s obnoxious and one of the most frustrating things that happened in India. One driver in particular agreed to take us back to the boat for a reasonable price, but said we had to stop at one store first (they usually are working with that store, so if we buy something en route they’ll get a commission). One store turned into two, and none of us bought anything. So all of a sudden he just STOPS and is like, “my carburetor broke, sorry, get out.” And we were all like, “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?” Megan, who reminds me more and more of Kay the more I hang out with her, starts just screaming and cussing at our driver because we all knew he was lying…and Mary and I are just sitting there going…ok, what do we do now, let’s just flag down another tuk-tuk. Finally we got one and as soon as our backs were turned our first tuk-tuk disappeared into the traffic. He let us out in the middle of a busy street. Traffic in India is not fun or safe to just be hanging out in. Anyway, we made it back to the ship alive and my whole body was sore from carrying all the bags. We decided to call that a night and went to bed early so that we could have a full day the next day.

The last day we got up and went to the orphanage. Apparently, they didn’t need crayons and pens, they needed diapers, and oh I don’t know, practical things like that. So I felt really dumb handing my stuff over that I brought for the kids. The visiting hours are weird and we had another bad tuk-tuk experience (called our driver lied to us when he said he knew where he was going and it took us literally 40+ minutes to get to this orphanage that’s 5 minutes away from the boat) so we only had about an hour there. But I really wish we could have spent more time at the orphanage! The kids were so cute and so messed up. It was a pretty big project, you had to focus on one for like 15+ minutes to even attempt a connection with one of them. I think the oldest kid there is like 34. They all had physical and/or mental disabilities. The orphanage couldn’t wash fabric fast enough so they end up sitting in their waste for hours. A good number of them were basically completely unresponsive. There was one boy there who was so cute though, and he would come up and blow up his cheeks so you would do the same, and then he’d pop them, and then he’d kiss his hand and put his hand on your cheek. Anyway visiting hours were over too soon, so we tuk-tuked to a temple, which we didn’t actually go to cuz we were all templed out and there was tons of good street shopping right outside. Since it was our last day, I was a VICIOUS bargainer, and it was awesome!!!! After the temple we went back to the mall area (because we realized that we did NOT buy enough cheap awesome stuff the day before) and bought more stuff (mostly for other people though). So anyway, it was a good day of shopping. Oh and for lunch we ate at this American restaurant owned by this Hawaiian guy. It was awesome. And clean. And delicious. And it was so American, he had like license tags from all the different states and bumper stickers from different universities and a Mariner’s jersey hanging up…so it was like eating in a little tiny piece of home…

Alright…well that doesn’t do India justice at all. I didn’t have the experience I thought I would there. I almost cried twice, but didn’t actually cry. I definitely saw a lot of layers of India, the city and a rural village, authentic food, private school for well off kids and a polio rehab center, and factories etc. I guess I just thought there would be one incident that would hit me really hard and just Bam change my life or something…and that never happened. So I ended up feeling like India wasn’t what I was expecting or preparing myself for, but also like it has changed me in ways that I don’t know about and will discover in like 20 years. It’s a good thing there’s so many SAS kids though because India definitely really changed a lot of peoples’ lives, and I’ve heard all their stories, and they’re amazing!!

This week on the ship is full of meetings, as usual, and tests, quizzes, papers, and reading, as well as fun things like the Sea Olympics, talent shows (kids and the crew!), and other random things. I know who I’m traveling in Egypt with though I don’t know what we’re doing yet, and I have tentative plans for Turkey that involve Troy!!!! How awesome will that be to say that I went to Troy!?! But I feel like Egypt is that last dangerous place we’re going to, and we’re only 11 hours ahead of Seattle time now. So I’m on my way back, we are officially past the half way mark. I can feel the flood of emotions starting to build up in everybody, we’re all so excited for the countries, people are planning out when they think they’ll start crying as the voyage creeps closer to a close, and people are so happy to be going back to boyfriends and families and apartments. It’s a strange mix. But I definitely have found my comfort zone on ship, I really like the people I’ve been hanging out with and am finally feeling like I’m making some good connections. Anyway, my goals for today are to start a paper, catch up on politics reading and on my politics journal…and then tonight is my “Sea Social,” which is where the section of the rooms that are in the Mediterranean Sea (my sea) are going to dress up like it’s new years of 1969 and hang out tonight….should be an interesting time!

That’s about it for now…I can’t wait to come back and talk about all the real stories in person. Hope everything is going well for you guys! Look for another update in about 2 weeks, we have a lot of transit aka class time before Egypt and then we spent 5 days there. You’ll hear from me after that.

Love,
Hilary