medusa
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "medusa" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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11:09 pm
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dogs-4 amanda-0
Maggie has a thing for chewing and cuddling with my knock off crocs. It's cute and harmless. She's been doing this since the day I got her. I got Digby almost 2 months and either he's become the chewer or shown Maggie what fun chewing can be. I've now lost the one pair of flats that I adored, one pair of heels that I could wear all day and be comfortable and today's great lost was my knee high fuck me boots. Plus they destroyed another pair of heels but I wasn't too pissy since I didnt like them. It's not like they've chewed both shoes, oh no, they manage to chew just enough of one shoe to make sure I can't wear them.
It'd be one thing if I left my shoes laying about but I don't. I keep them picked up and I even went so far as buying a big bin to keep shoes in but no, they knocked it over, and stole shoes from it.
The boots today were sad. I was going to wear them to work but was running late and couldn't find socks so I thought screw it and put on my uggs. Josh locked the dogs in the kitchen and didnt see my boots laying on the floor. Came home to find the strap chewed off and about 1/4 of a inch of the zipper missing. goodbye boots that made me happy.
shakes head....damn dogs. On a brighter note they have managed to not piss or shit next to the book case for 2 days now.
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07:26 pm
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day from hell
It's been a day from hell. haven't had power since sunday night, still dont know if we have power, at lib checking email and such, havnet been home yet from work.
my bitch ass fucking supervisor was riding my ass all day about a case plan that was due when i had one also due yesterday. shes nit picky about wording and doesnt seem to comprehend that I HAVENT had training on how to write a family assessment and case plan even though I have told her since day 1 I havent had these trainings. Instead of sitting downa dn helping me, she shows me examples that have no barring on what Im doing and send me to write this thing. this is a Goddman court document, it has to be well written. more on that but I have 2 min left
also got yelled/screamed at by a fucking parent today who thinks he can bully. he claims no Domestic Violence in his past but all he does is yell, scream and try to bully people....yea right.
plus there was issues today with maggie. The lady who thought she was going to adopt her, called the shelter director claiming I had promised her the dog. I did not. more of that also. 45 seconds left
needed to vent quickly
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09:18 am
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Ready Set Go!
The first three people who reply to this post, and who re-post this challenge: YOU WIN!!!
For your prize, I will send you a gift.
I will hopefully find something that matches your personality or I hope/think you will find awesome/neat/useful/crazy/wacky etc.
Whatever it is, I promise I will get it to you in 365 days of your posted comment or less, and I will need your snail mail. PM or email your snail mail to me!
Ready
Set
Go!
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10:05 pm
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07/04/07
Today was ummm interesting to say the least. This morning we ventured to the Chennai public (government) run hospital. This hospital see's like 50k people a week or some insane amount of people. It is a very large, nice looking building from the outside but inside is another story. Once we parked the van, we were walking around trying to find the dr we were seeing. It was Fatima's (head of the social work program at the school)brother in law. While meandering around, we saw a large family mourning. The wife/children of the family were in the middle of a circle of people. Everybody was crying, wailing in the middle of the compound. It felt very wrong to see them mourning in public,not becauase they were mourning but more that the public could interupt their mourning. I also saw where they dried their hospital scrubs. There was a large courtyard type thing with scrubs and surgical gowns drying in sun, the first sign that this wasn't the most state of the art or sanitary place.
After getting inside the hospital, we found Fatima's brother in law. He is a kidney doctor. We sat with him for a bit, while he told us about the hospital, his program and Indian medicine. Then he took us on a tour of his ward. Along the walls of the ward were smears of brown. Some of us thought it was blood, others thought Iodine. I'm going with Iodine. The nurse uniforms crack me up. At every health clinic, the nurses were wearing something akin to 1950's uniforms. The starch white dress, the upppity hat, white hose and then some had on sandles, other regular shoes. I questioned it and was told that it was to distigunish the nurses from the doctors. I wouldnt want to be a nurse in India.
All of the wards have male sections and female sections. In the male post surgery recovery room, the dr walked up to a patient and started poking at him, to show us his wound from surgery and was telling us his diagnosis. There are no such things as HIPA laws there. I was trying to ask the dr if they give pain medication such as morophine drips because the man was obviously in pain. The dr didnt understand me and Hillary made some snarky comment about India being different than the US. No shit. But still people should have access to pain meds. In India, at least the government hospitals, people will not be turned away becauase they can't pay.
The "fun" surprise came in the women's ward. We walked in, while the dr was talking to us, I was looking around and noticed underneath the bed of one patient, there was a mother CAT and KITTEN NURSING. We were on like the 6th floor. There's no way momma cat just came in and decided to nurse. We weren't suppose to take pictures, but I discreetly got my camera out, turned the flash off and took a picture of the cat/kittens. I asked the doctor about it and he nervously answerd, "it's their friend" and ushered us out quickly.
Of all the post surgical patients, I only saw one that had an IV going. It seems they dont do IV's, not even fluid IV's. I was also appalled at the lack of AC. This was July, it was hot, humid and there was no AC. Instead windows were open with fan's on. There were no screens in the windows, so there were bugs, fly in the rooms. Flys and bugs can't be healthy when you have sick people and people just out from surgery.
This hospital is very no frills. The beds were old, nasty looking, few to no pillows, sparse blankets. Relatives have to bring you food if you're in the hospital. It also seems that there are no formal medical record keeping system. A lot of patient, I saw walkling around had their x-rays in their hands. I saw one lady carrying a vial of blood with just a cotton wad in the top. Isolde saw a body in a body bag go through the front door of the hospital. I also saw a syringe in the front of the building in the flower beds.
Tags: india
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11:17 pm
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07/03/07
Lectures this morning was really good. The first lecture was Sheila of Guild of Service. The second lecture was Mrs. D’Samy of children rights. Both lectures were great. I learned a lot about the children of India. It’s amazing all the crap these children go through and how many children India has.
During our break, we were drinking tea when one of the young boys who was serving tea, spilt really hot tea on his hand. Isolde started freaking out, trying to get the boy to go with her to run cold water on it. The boy, I think was scared of Isolde because she was making quite a fuss and he didn’t understand English. She was frustrated with Danny because he just didn’t seem to care that the boy had spilt tea on himself.
While waiting for the bus today to go back to the Y for lunch, I walked over towards the school that sits behind the social work school. The children were at recess and as soon as they saw me a bunch of girls came running over. They didn’t speak a lot of English but were excited to meet me. They were shaking my hand and smiling. I took pictures of them and they loved seeing their pictures in my digital. Camera. I’ve noticed that it seems that most school children wear uniforms. The girls usually have long pants, a short sleeve tunic and then a type of scarf like thing. It’s a v neck and hangs long in the back.
Once back at the Y, I actually had a decent lunch. Rice, beans and golub dessert. Isolde and Rachel are also both sick. Isolde has been having stomach issues and Rachel is just really sick. Shantha called the doctor and he came to the YWCA today. Its different that doctors make housecalls. He examined both Isolde and Rachel and gave them prescriptions all for 300 rupes, ie 10 dollars. Then the drugs were like 10 dollars a piece. Definitely couldn’t get that kind of care in the US.
After lunch we went to our first visit. We visited a “Creche” which is like a daycare for kids 1-3 while their moms can work. It was a big open room with a mat on the floor that the children were sitting on. We had brought toys for the kids and some blow pop and reese pieces. As soon as we got there and took off our shoes, Isolde and I sat on the floor near the children. A lot of the kids starting crying. I don’t think they’ve ever seen a white person before or at least a gaggle of white people. They didn’t know what to do with us but we won them over with the candy and toys. The kids though the blow pops were amazing and two little kids were enthralled with the reese pieces.
The one little kids cracked me up. I swore he was a girl. He was in a blue shirt/shorts, had long hair that was tied up with a ribbon and had a bindi on his forehead. Apparently parents will grow out son’s hair to give to temple. He was adorable either way.
I also figured out the meaning behind the silver chain that a lot of small children wear around their waists. It’s to ward off evil spirits from their genitals.
We stayed there for an hour or so. I got a lot of really cute pictures. Once they had some candy and we got the toys out, the kids warmed up to us a bit more.
The one gross thing about the Creche was the freaking flies. As soon as you walked outside the flies were everywhere. Plus there were two cats on the front steps who looked slightly gross. The flies were swarming the children who still had suckers in their hands. And nobody really seemed to care. It was gross.
Our 2nd visit that day was to the Guild of Service Orphanage. It was one of the saddest things and disturbing things I have seen in a long time. The children range in ages from a few weeks up to about 10. There was one, ten year old boy who was actually getting adopted soon and Rupa was the oldest girl at 8. I spent most of my time there in the toddler and baby sections. The place is relatively clean but it has major issues mostly because they are so understaffed. While we were there, I saw maybe 3 workers who were caring for over 30 children. The lady who is the main woman in charge of the children there kept telling Shantha and the Guild of Service woman that we shouldnt pick up the children because the children would get too used to being picked up. It seems that the children would only get picked up when they were having their diapers changed or if the infants were getting fed.
The area we were in was split into three rooms. The older children like 4/5 up to 10 were in one room playing, the 2nd room housed all the toddlers from like a year up to 4ish and the 3rd room had the infants. In the toddler room there were cribs and a few cribs had more than one child in them. There was probably about 15 children in that room. In the infant room there were 5-8 infants. I spent most of my time in the infant room and some in the toddler room.
Both the toddlers and infant had some children with health issues. Manese was 14-18 months old and blind. He was adorable. I picked him up and he just clung to me. You could tell he wasn't used to being held. He grabbed at me and clung to me. He would listen to your voice and try to follow your voice. A few people in our group was disgusted that I picked him up since his diaper was dirty. They dont have disposable diapers, they use cloth diapers that dont realy even cover the whole genital region. I totally had pee on me. Oh well. There were also a few children with Cleft Pallets and another girl with some form of neurological damage. Manesh is actually being adopted by an Ohio family who's father is blind.
Indians have a funny way of doing adoptoins. First a child is to try and be adopted in that region, then they'll go outside the region, then to all of india, then abroad to Indian families and finally abroad to any families. So really it seems most families who live abroad end up with Indian children who have medicall issues.
In the infant room, my heart broke. There was a 3 week old baby with casts on her arms and most likely brain damage. They had found her outside with bricks on top of her trying to kill her just because she is female. There is a large problem with parents either aborting if they know they're having a girl or killing the child when it is born. Luckily this little girl was found. There was also another child who was pitiful looking. He was probably 4 months old and looked like a new born preemie. He was all skin and bones. He should have been in an intensive neonatal place, not an orphanage.
Then there's Rupa. She's 8 and stuck in the Indian system. From what I got, her mother had given her up, then come back and wanted to take Rupa but have her has like a servant b/c mom had gotten married and didnt want her husband to know she had had Rupa which wasn't going to happen. So there was some other paperwork filed. Now some court wont admit they made a mistake and Rupa is stuck in the system not being able to be adopted b/c there is a mother. The whole place was sad but I really liked visiting the children.
After that we went to another Guild of Service program. Mrs.Sheila of the Guild of Service has a small program where she can take in up to 5 pregnant women. She gives them housing, medical care until the babies are born. Then the woman have 30 days to decide if they want to keep their babies or put them up for adoption. For those 30 days, they live at the Guild of Service, breast feeding and caring for their babies. If they decide not to keep the children, Mrs. Sheila gives them medicine to dry up their breasts and also works with the families to take the woman back.
While we were there, she had two mothers who had given birth and one pregnant woman. The pregnant woman was a older teenager and her mother was there with her. The two mothers, one had an almost 30 day old baby boy and the other baby was 15 days old and a girl. The one mother was 21 and slightly MRRD who was raped by an older man while she was at work. The 2nd mother with the boy was 24, with a lot of health problems. While we were there, Pam, Tonya, Isolde, Nora and I sat in the room. I know Tim and a few others stayed out, they weren't comfortable with the babies especially when the younger mother started breast feeding. I got to hold both babies, they were adorable.
I also got slightly swquaked at. When the younger girl started breast-feeding, I asked Shantha if she would ask the mother if I could take a picture. I wanted to get a black and white of her feeding. I didnt want to get a picture of her completely exposed just a picture showing her breastfeeding. I find breast feeding natural and shouldnt be shunned or hidden. Shantha asked the girl and she nodded so I took a quick picture but a few people thought I went out of bounds and shouldnt have taken the picture. If the woman had said no I wouldnt have. Anyways.
After she got done breast feeding, I offered to burp the baby. I dont know if they burp babies in India like we do here in America but after I burped her baby, the other woman wanted me to burp her baby, so I did. It was amusing. I have spent too much time working in day care.
Nora, Isolde and I went out to dinner tonight. We first went to some resturant that Danny kept taking Hilliary, Rachel and Tim. We checked it out but there were flies everywhere and Nora/Isolde were sketched out by it. We ended up at our old stand by of Sparky's. Nora and Isolde were bitching that the food didnt taste the same, which I figued it wouldnt so I ordered some random dish so I wouldnt know if it tasted odd or not. I just love the fact that Sparky's has actually drip coffee and not the damn instant crap we get every morning at the Y. I can't wait till I have my coffee pot back.
Tags: india
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07:11 pm
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India-July 2nd
In the Smile of the poor we shall see God- Lecturer C.J. Paul
Today is our last Monday in India. Our class today was rough. Could only understand every 3rd-4th word that the guy said. Basically what I go was the NGO's and Govt are only treating contagious dieases like TB/Aids and not worrying about things like cancer.
Also realized today that Muslim woman wear Salwar Kameeze under their Chador. Isolde and I had been wondering what they wore under their Chador's, figured it out today.
We also ordered Sparky's tonight. Wasn't the greatest but we're both totally over YWCA food. We both didnt finish our dinners so we went out and fed Gobar the "guard" dog. He basically sleeps all day and is quite old/sickish looking. I gave him some fries and a piece of chicken. Also petted him. I was good and went almost the hole trip without petting/touching animals but Gobar was so cute. Totally washed my hands a billion times though after petting him.
We also left the compound and fed the guy down the street. We gave him bbq chicken, fries, garlic bread and a bottle of water. He was happy to get food but totally gave us a weird look b/c when he opend the containers he didnt know what it was. I dont think he'd ever seen garlic bread/bbq chicken. Oh well hopefully he enjoyed it.
Isolde and I also went exploring tonight. We went to the plaza, shopped a bit. Found a departmental store which turned out to be a grocery store. They shop owner asked where we were from, Isolde said Canada and I said Toronto. He replied, "Oh, i have family in NY" Thats about the only English he knew. It seems everybody in India has family in Ny. Makes me giggle. We also bought Indian brooms for 7 rupee, which is like 20 cents. The shop keeper thought we were crazy but I love the Indian brooms. We also got quite a few looks walking down the street with them.
We took a rickshaw over to a friend of Aruyna's to get our saree tops made. She was really sick but said she'd still do it. Going up to the apartment, I saw a dog who was brindled color. It was the first brindled color dog I'd seen in India. Tried to take his picture but he ran off.
On our way back, Isolde and I were in a rickshaw when this guy and woman zipped past us on a motorcycle. She smiled at us and I smiled back at her. The guy slowed down so we were next to each other and she reache out to shake our hangs. Very odd.
Oh and Isolde, Shantha scared our cute driver today. He was going to drop Isolde and me off at the plaza. Shanta was standing there, we were all talking and it turned into a mini bitch fest. Our voices got louder, the driver looked at us, panicked and jumped out of the van. He doesnt know English so I think he assumed we were fighting and took off. He stood outside the van till Shantha left. It was funny.
Tags: india
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06:54 pm
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India-flying back to Chennai/Kamal's
We flew back to Chennai today. It was an adventure to get to the airport this morning. Our flight left at like 530am so we were up and with our driver at like 330. He drops us off at the airport and him and his trusty side kick takes off, we realize we're at the international airport not the domestic airport which of course like 5 miles away. A guy approaches us and tells us he has a taxi and he'll take us over. We kept asking the price and he kept ignoring us with good reason. The taxi shows up, we load our stuff and take off on a ride of our lives. The guy was a crazy ass driving, careening down roads at like 50 miles and hour, hitting potholes. it was insane. Then the best part, the price. The guy charged us like 1k rupees which is over 30 dollars to go less than 5 miles when most we pay is like 100 rupees. We had to fork it over after Tim yelling at the guy.
Made it on the plane safely, made it back to Chennai in one piece. Took a few funny pictures. Besides not being able to carry on sharp objects, weapons, etc onto planes, Indians also can't take cricket bats, Pickle (spicy liquid) and curries. But if you're a Sikh you can take your Sikh knife on the plane. I also got a picture of an Indian airline billboard with a guy in a lungie.
After getting back to the Ywca, I went and passed out. I'd slept like 4-5 hours every night and needed to sleep. Woke up around 2 to the door knocking, I had forgot that Tonya, Pam and I were going to Kamal's. Dressed quickly and left to go to Kamals. We had lunch with her and Mommie. Looked at some more stones. I picked out this gorgeous ruby but Kamal wouldnt tell me how much it was. It ended up being 6k rupee, like 200 dollars. No way. So I ended up getting a smaller ruby, still it 26 carats but not as clear. On Kamal's I had to use the bathroom which I actually didnt use. Mommie showed me her bathroom and to my glee it was a western toilet, then I realized there was no toilet paper only a water sprayer....yea. Tonya had used the bathroom before me so I asked her later if she had actually used the water sprayer, no, she had had tissue in her pocket.
Kamal, Mommie, Tonya, Pam and I left Kamals to go to the Jewler to pick up our stones and to get the other's stones set. On the way there we got into a car accident. Kamal was driving and these two kids on a motorcyle were going to fast down the street, swerved and clipped the back of Kamals car, pulling the bumper off of it. We all got out survyed the damage while a bunch of people gawked. Kamal left the bumper and on we went to the Jewler. As usual everybody was on IST. We sat at the jewlers for a while, got bored, went to Marina beach for a bit with Mommie. Went back to the Jewlers, sat some more, was finally told they didnt have our stuff ready. I was annoyed b/c they still had my Amber piece which I had gotten in the Czech Republic. Kamal basicaly threatned the guy and said it all had to be at the YWCA by saturday.
I love Kamal's mother. Both times I visited Kamal's, I talked to Mommie. She talked about her grandchildren, growing up near Kashmir, the 1947 parition from Pakistan, owning her own bakery, etc. She also told me how I should lose weight. What I needed to eat, how to exercise and what her (very skinny) granddaughter ate everyday.
All in all it was a great weekend but very long.
Tags: india
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11:31 pm
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Grandview Fire Dept Wins Battle with my Door
Tuesday was a slightly traumatic day. I was at my internship all day, came home to my apartment, looking forward to dinner and a night of dvr tv goodness. I was talking to a friend on the phone when I looked up the staircase and saw Mac sitting at the top of stairs. I thought, "WTF, why is Mac sitting on the top of my stairs? I know I locked the door when I left this morning" Then as I was going up the stairs, I see that my apartment door is open, wood is splintered and part of the frame is missing. I tell Krista that I think I'd been robbed, hung up the phone and booked it up the rest of the stair case. I was met with a door standing open, part of the lock on the floor, part of the door frame, splintered wood, a note on the door and a card. I read the note, (well half of it, old lady handwriting is hard to decipher) and saw that the card was from Grandview Fire Department. I walk into my apt, windows are still open, fan is sitting in the middle of the room, window screens are laying on the floor. I'm freaking the fuck out. I put everything down and call the Grandview fire dept. I luckily get the guy who's name was on the card.
Apparently my old lady neighbor had thought she smelled gas, left the building, came back a few hours later and still smelled it, so she called the fire dept. They come rushing over, determine that yes they smell gas and broke my door down as well as evacuated the building of two citizens. The fire dude told me that the registered high gas levels in my kitchen and that a burner was on. So they opened the windows, turned on the fan and that was about it. Oh and he said he scared the shit out of the cat. I asked him which burner was left on and he couldnt tell me. He thought maybe the cat turned on the burner. (more on that later) So after freaking out some more, and he calming me down, I finally hung up.
I tried to go find the old lady. I thought it was the downstairs old lady but it wasn't her. I was the old lady across from me. I talked to her for a few. She felt bad that they'd scared the cat and was afraid that Mac had gotten outside, thank God she didnt. Old lady across the hall said she'd smelled gas, left, came back and it smelled stronger so she called 911. It was also amusing because she had been on COTA earlier on tuesday and had called 911 b/c a guy was having a heart attack. slightly bizarre.
I called the emergency maintenence number and they told me they'd be out in the morning. Umm hello, can't shut the door and can't lock it, was slightly pissed. So after that, I tried to figure out what to do with the door. It wouldnt stay shut, I could latch it with the chain lock but that didnt keep the door completley shut so I latched it and then put a side table against the door.
Now for the how in God's name did gas get left on in my apartment? Both old lady across hall and fire department thought maybe the cat did it. Yes, my 10 pound cat could somehow manage to either reach up and push the knob in and turn it or jump on top of the stove, reach down, push and turn the knob. I have no clue how any burner could have been left on, I hadnt used the oven or stove in over 2 days.
I had gotten a pan out Monday night to make dinner but ended up just using the microwave so even if I had somehow forgotten that I had turned the stove burner on, I think I would have smelled gas if it has been leaking for over 14 hours. I was in the kitchen tuesday morning making coffee and lunch, I didnt smell anything. So somehow between the hours of 10am-2pm, gas was leaking and my cat may or may not have done it.
It was a fun night.
Luckily apartment people were true to their word and as i was leaving wed morning, they were pulling in to fix the door.
Oh and my wonderful, comfy as hell computer chair died tonight after 3 years of helping enable my usage of internet and paper writing.
Current Mood:  amused
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08:16 am
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Leroy the fucking spider
The other night as I was walking to my apartment building, I noticed a rather largish spider has built it's web outside the front door of the building. Friday night I was out having a smoke and decided to take a few picture of the spider and decided to name him Leroy. So now whenever I am coming or going, I stop and say goodmorning/good evening to Leroy.
Last night I was talking to Jacob and telling him about Leroy b/c I sent him a picture of Leroy. In a fit of late night stupidity and both of us being tired, we made up a song about Leroy the spider.
"I'm a fucking spider, I'm a fucking spider,
There's a fly on my web, I'm going to eat it,
If you come near me, then I'm a gonna bit you cause I'm a fucking spider."
We are silly.
In other news, My new coffee pot is glorious. But it's taken 2 cups of coffee to even remotely wake me up. At least I have tomorrow off so I can sleep in!
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08:00 am
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I am not a happy turkey.
I am not a happy turkey right now. I had to get up earlier than usual this morning. I stumble out to the kitchen to make my daily pot of coffee only to find that my cheap ass piece of shit coffee pot has decided it doesnt want to make coffee anymore. So I am coffeeless this morning which makes me a sad panda. Instead I have vitamin water which is good but not the same as coffee. Plus now I have to go buy a coffee pot. Stupid broken coffee pot.
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11:21 pm
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Delhi cont'd-Agra
The Lotus Temple is interesting because people flock to it as it is some new famous building but I dont think many realize it is a religious building till they get there. It sits up on a hill and you get to it by walking down this path, drop off your shoes and then up stairs to the building. While walking up to the building, we got what did become our usual, "can we take your pictures" We had a group shot of me, tonya, pam and a few young Indian guys. Plus one of the guys asked me about my labret, told me it was pretty and then grimaced. Around the building there are a few mini lakes that people can sit at. The inside of the building isn't too spectacular. It's all marble and has lots of wooden pew like seats. It doesnt have AC but has a really cool ventilation system so it's pretty cool in there. We spent about 15 min walking around the inside, then went back out. They had volunteers giving out info abou the temple and said that were was going to be a prayer meeting in 10 min. So I hung around to listen to the prayers. They had two Baha'i prayers, one from the Qu'ron and two that I'm not sure.
After you visit the temple, you can get a card to go visit the Lotus Temple musuem. Basically its a musuem that gives you the life story of the Baha'i faith, their prophets, why all religions can worship the Baha'i faith and all the good things that Baha'i followers have done. If you want any more info on the Baha'i faith, here is their website. http://www.bahai.org/
Once we were finished with the Lotus Temple, we had our driver and his sidekick take us back to the hotel. It was around 5 and we were all exhausted. He wanted to take us to more places but we had to be up and ready to go by 4am to visit the taj so we passed and went back to the hotel. We ordered pizza hut for dinner. It's very odd to be a in a foreign country and order food that tastes like home. The pizza was amazing. It even had real pepperoni. The pepperoni in south India is different. Tonya also ordered a veggie pizza that had on it amongst other things, baby corn on it. We hung out for a while, I putzed around online and passed out around 10 or so.
I got up around 3am Sat morning to get ready to leave for the Taj. Our driver was suppose to pick us up at 430 but didnt get there till after 5 which pissed Tim off b/c he is mr. Punctual. It was also kinda creepy to be sitting in the lobby of the hotel at 5am with two creepy Indian men. They kept watching us and I think one of them was the guy who was poking Pam in the breast with his elbow the night before. Finally around 515, our driver and his trusty sidekick showed up. We got in the van and left for Agra which is a 4 hour drive away. I luckily was able to pass out in the van for a while. I woke up at one point to the van being in a traffic jam and a monkey at the window. Men had small monkeys on leash attached to sticks and they would walk up to cars, vans, etc and push the monkey on leashes on sticks at you to take pictures but they all wanted money to take the pictures. I probably would have paid to take a picture but I was still groggy and still slightly confused as to why there was a monkey at my window.
We stopped about 2 hours in to get breakfast at this little hole in the wall resturant and tourist shop. I think all travelers stop here. I got cheese grilled sandwich (yes they call it cheese grilled) which actually was two pieces of bread with what I think was paneer on it. Paneer looks like tofu and has the same consistency of tofu but is actually cheese. It wasn't the most yummiest cheese grilled but it was food. They also had western toilets there and toilet paper. I was a happy camper, even if the toilet paper was pink.
Then another 2 hours to Agra. Once we hit Agra, I was surprised at how underdeveloped it was. I figured for such a large tourist attraction, Agra would be better developed but it was like any other run down small Indian town. There were slums, children on the street, random cattle/ox, small shops and in general just kinda a run down town. The van careened around Agra for a while. I dont know if the guy was lost or just taking the most random way to get to the Taj. We finally got there and the assualt began.
As soon as we stepped foot out of the van, we started to get bombarded by men and small children selling random stuff. We kept saying no and Tim even broke out some Hindi on them but to no prevail. One guy kept smooth talking us and offering to be our tour guide. He also told us that we couldnt take our bags in so we had to walk back to the van to leave our bags and get assualted some more. We got a sad, skinny horse and carriage to take us to the Taj. You have to park 1-2 km away b/c the Taj is having structure damage because of all of the pollution. So you have to park a bit away and take battery operated cars, horse carriages, walk or men peddling rickshaws. We made it to the Taj in one piece but got assaulted some more. As soon as we stepped down off the carriage, there were young boys 10-15 with business cards trying to get us to come to their shops to buy things. They do not take NO very well. We pushed our way up to the entrance gate and bought our tickets. For Indians to see the Taj it is like 50rp, a little over a dollar. For non-Indian it is 750rupee's which is about 19 dollars. All over India, there is a large price disparity between Indian and non Indians. Indians will pay 50 cents-2-3 dollars while non Indian will pay 5-20 dollars to see the same museum, touristy thing. It's annoying. At least in America you just have to pay a large amount no matter who you are. Once we paid our 750 rp, we went into the Taj Compound.
You walk into the compound and it's all green with different types of trees and a bazillion people walking around. You enter one of the side buildins that are I think red sandstone and decorated with the same flower motiff as the Taj. Once inside this building, it becomes surreal. Through the archway you can pefectly see the Taj. It fits perfectly into this archway. It's amazing and mindblowing. After walking through the doorway, you see the full glory of the Taj and another bazillion people. The Taj is in the distance with a long, straight pond with grass and walkways on the side leading up to it. On the side of the Taj are two more buildings just like the one you walk in to get into to see the Taj. As you walk up to the Taj, you have to take your shoes off to actually walk up on the Taj.
The Taj is built on a platform with four very larg and very tall pillars on the outside, then the Taj is in the middle of the pillars. There is one big dome and two smaller domes. The main part of it is done in a circular shape. The Taj is marble but around the platform part, it is red stones, which are hot as hell to walk on. We dropped our shoes off and made it up the stairs to the main part of the Taj. We walked around, taking in all the people, seeing Agra in the distance, the cows grazing in the field behind the taj, the two side buildings and just the coolness of it being the Taj.
Of course we had pictures taken with random people. At least 3-4 families have pictures of either me, tonya, pam or any combo of us with their children and families. We had another set of groupies, this set being a family with two small children. The baby was adorable. We saw them at the Taj, on the other side of the Taj, in one of the side buildings and then again at the Agra Fort. It was funny.
I meandered around on my own for a bit. Then I went into the actual Taj to see the tombs. You can't have lights in there, its just lit by sunlight so it's very dark, dank, full of people and very stinky. We didnt get a tour guide but I attached myself to a group for a bit to listen. All of the old marble is translucent. Many of the tourguides had small flashlights they would shine into the marble to show how translucent it was. The new marble that they are using to fix the Taj is not translucent. It was pretty hard to see the tombs. There was a lattice worked wall around the two tombs and you could really only see them well if you pushed your way up to a small window to look in. I briefly looked. We also learned that all of the flowers on the Taj are wilting because they are suppose to be sad that the wife is dying. I also think they said that the "writing" on the wall that is carved in the marble is suppose to be the handwriting of the emperor. Once we were done exploring the Taj, we went to see one of the side buildings. We weren't sure if we could wear our shoes or not so we opted to go barefoot over there. BAD IDEA. The sandstones were hot as hell and we ended up burning our feet. Some Indian guy that worked there was laughing at us and let us walk in the grass even though it said "no walking on the grass" se we could get our shoes. Then we went back over to investigate. The side buildings was cool, all red sandstone but not the Taj. They were working on the building, replacing one of the wilting flower pieces. They were also working on the Taj, painting a piece of the staircase.
After meandering around the Taj some more. we picked up the pictures we had taken of each of us in front of the taj, then headed back out to the craziness of shop keepers. The Taj surprisingly does not have a gift shop so the little shops outside of the Taj are very pushy. I lost it on a few of the guys. As soon as we walked out, there was about 7 young guys surrounding me, tonya and pam. We kept saying No and tried to walk away but they kept following us, pushing their cards in our face and finally i just lost it. I screamed very loudling, " Get the F away from me now. The first person who doesnt come near me, I will go to your shop" All the guys stopped, stared at me and backed a few steps back. One guy walked the farthest back and so I followed him to his shop. I felt like an ass blowing up like that but I was tired, sunburnt and sick of being harrassed. I got hosed for going into this guys shop though. I paid bargained the price of a book on the Taj from 750rupees to 600rupees which made me feel good since I usually suck at hagling but then outside, some kid was selling the same book for like 400 rupees. But I kept my word about going into the kid's shop who kept the farthest away from me.
We got attacked again going back to the van. We took another horse carriage and this little boy wouldnt not take no, he even tried to climb into the carriage with us. He almost got ran over by the carriage. We also got accousted back at the parking lot. Tonya told some kid she'd buy post cards from him so this kid and 2-3 more guys were volleying for a position in the doorway of the van. Tonya paid the kid but they wouldnt go away, the sidekick ended up yelling at them and closing the door as his dad drove off.
It was another 4 hours back to Delhi. We stopped again at the little hole in the wall resturant. I got another cheese grilled sandwich and the most wonderful drink in the world. They take the juice of a few limes, mix a little sugar in it, put it in a cup and bring you a bottle of club soda. It's amazing. Plus this time I ate my chesse grilled with Indian ketchup which is a bit different than American ketchup. Oh and this time the toilet paper was yellow.
Once we got back to the hotel, we packed up and passed out for a few hours. We had to leave the hotel around 2am to go to the airport. Luckily our driver and his sidekick were not late. We made the trek to the Delhi airport only to be dropped off at the International terminal instead of the domestic one. We didnt even realize we were in the wrong terminal till some xray tech guy told us. By this time the driver and his sidekick had left so we had to get a taxi to take us to the domestic airport. We walked out and this guy offered us his taxi services, we asked him 3-4 times what the price was but he just put our stuff in the taxi and told us to get in.
The domestic airport is like 10 miles away and it was 10 miles of craziness. This driver was speeding but we coudlnt tell how fast b/c his speedometer was broken. He was swerving around signs that are suppose to make people slow done, passing cops, etc. It made me think we were in Grand Theft Auto, Delhi version. After nearly dying in the car, we wanted to kill the guy. He charged us 850 rupess (22.00 dollars) for 10 miles. He claimed it was a night time fee but dude 10 miles, 22 dollars. We'd never paid more than 150 rupees for a cab ride. We got ripped off but we had to pay it. We made it through the airport and to the plane. We got back into Chennai around 730 am.
It was a fun adventure to Delhi but very little sleep.
Points of difference between Chennai-Delhi
-Traffice in Delhi much nicer than Chennai. People wear helmets, they stay in their lane, they actually obey traffic lights. Delhi has this amazing concept of circles and squares so people can get around roads. The only annoying part is their horns are more annoying than car horns in Chennai.
-The dogs in Delhi are taller than dogs in Chennai. They are also not as skinny as Chennai dogs.
-The Food! People in Delhi eat more meat than South Indian. Chicken Tikki Masala. Yum.
I went picture happy at the Taj. I probably took 30-40 pictures of the Taj alone.
Current Location: 45373
Current Mood: content
Current Music: alesana
Tags: agra, delhi
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08:09 am
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Delhi
Friday morning we started being tourists at 7:30am after having about 4 hours of sleep. Our trusty driver and his sidekick came to pick us up and we were off on an adventure, never knowing where we were going next. We first went to a temple. Of course we dont know the name of it and we can't take pictures because its a holy temple. We stash our shoes and take off to explore it. It was a very ornate temple. In the structure there were little "rooms" where they had different statues of Hindu Gods. Many were covered in flowers and other decorations. There were also people there praying to the Gods. At the big/main statue, most people were walking in and then going to their knees, kissing the ground and then sitting on the floor praying. Some went and layed all the way done on their stomachs. It was interesting to watch.
We left there and drove to see the Parliment buildings. We stopped for a few min to take piectures but we couldnt go into the builing. Then we went to the Indian Gate which I said looks like the L'arc de Trimuph in Paris but the L'arc is more ornate than the India Gate.
Then we went to the Red Fort. Tim kept talking about how amazing it was and honestly it wasn't that great at least not now. Back when it was first built, it was probably glorious and the talk of the town but not it's lost a lot. A lot of the building need work down to them and a lot of the ornate decoration has been removed or lost so honestly I wasn't that impressed with it. It was neat to see and I got some cool pictures but eh, it was an old fort. The one amusing thing though was we had groupies at the fort. A bunch of young Indian guys kept falling us around. They finally asked our names and Pam and Tonya gave them their real names and I said I was named Sarah. They weren't creepy per say but they kept falling us around. They were just so "excited" to meet Americans. The one guy told us it made his day to talk to us.
After that we went to a garden that actually was a memorial to Ghandi. They had a section closed off and it had a tomb (not really sure if it was "the" tomb of Ghandi), there was a priest sitting near the tomb chanting and there were a few other men with him chanting. On the way from seeing the tomb, I stopped and watched women picking up grass. They cut the grass and then woman use small straw like brooms to gather the grass into piles and to dispose of it. I got a picture of it.
I went to sit on a bench and wait for Pam, Tonya and Tim. Literally within 30 seconds of me sitting down, this India family approached me and asked if they could take a picture of me with their daughters. This was the first of many Indians wanting pictures taken with their families and us. I said ok and both daughters sat on either side of me and they took a picture. It was odd. Delhi is a bigger city and more touristy but I've never seen people so eager to talk, touch or take pictures of white people. As I was sitting there I saw Tim walking towards me and he had this little old Indian man with gray hair and beard following him. For 5 min or so Tim stood there talking to the man. He tried walkign away but the guy followed him over to me, pam and tonya and then the guy started talkign to us. He was saying how Bush was bad and that we needed to use more passive/non violent ways to handle wars and then he started to cry. I dont handle crying men very well especially crying men who I really dont know what they're saying. He finally stopped crying, shook our hands and we walked off.
As we exited the the garden, there was an honest to God snake charmer on the side of the street. He was playing this instrument that was like a clarinet but larger. He had a Cobra in a basket and it was raised up following the music. We were standing like 5 feet away but I went closer and kneeled next to the guy to watch the snake and take pictures. The guy kept wanting me to touch it and I was like Hell no. I like snakes, I've played with them but touching something that could potentially kill me, not going to happen. Oh and then as we started to walk off the guy wanted money, gah. so I gave him 100rp.
We went to lunch after that at this really nice place. There were two Americans and an Indian sitting next to us, so we chatted with them, talking about India, the culture, the Taj, etc. The food was amazing. I love North Indian food. I had chicken tikki masala and cheese naan. It was divine and not YMCA food.
After lunch we went to the Humayun Tomb. The tomb to me was more interseting than the Red Fort. We went to one of the side court yards to look around. They have a large circular building that had a tomb in it and this guy that worked there took Tim up to the top of the building. There were two Indian ladies who wanted their pictures taken but then wanted money after you took the picture. You see this a lot in India. Pam, Tonya and I joked that we should start charging since so many Indians want pictures with us. Also in the side court yard was another building. We went exploring it and I found a staircase, of course I decied to go up it and was surpirsed that I was able to get to the top of the building. It was really cool to be able to be on top of the building, walking aroumd, seeing everything from up there. Then we went to the main tomb.
Humayun Tomb was built in the 1500's a 100 years before the Taj. It was built by a Munghrul king. Munghrul were Mongolians who invaded India. As I was exploring the tomb, an India guy with his son walked over and started telling me about the tomb. He told me that the actually graves were 6m below the tombs that the public can see. He also told me that there was an 8 point star design on the King's tomb and then there were 8 windows in the room to mimic the design. The king also had this 3 daughters, grandson and another family member buried there. He had built the tomb for his first wife. I really liked seeing this tomb, it's not as large as the Taj but it still is pretty damn cool.
Then we headed over to the Lotus Temple. The Lotus Temple is the Temple for the Bahai'i faith which is a faith that incorporates all religions saying that all relgions have the same basic belief system but then the Bahai'i faith also has prophets and their own religious text books. The Lotus Temple was built solely by volunteers and has only been open for a few years. At first glance it looks a lot like the Sydney Opera House.
More later. Getting ready to leave for classes./
Tags: dehli
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11:29 pm
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delhi
After finding our driver and his sidekick we were ushered to his bus to take us to the hotel. I had to laugh, on his dashboard was a plastic statue of Buddha that changed colors. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it, it was hilarious. We drove through delhi and I was amazed at how sane the driving was. Delhi actually has a madness to its roads, at least in the major parts of the city. The have actual roundabouts, people who stay in their lane, it was nice to not have to play chicken with a car coming at you. I knew we were close to the hotel b/c i recognized the street name but our driver was lost. He called Sanji the travel agent and was like "Sanji, Sanji, mumble in Hindi, Sanji? Sanji?" hang up the phone, phone rings again, "Sanji? Sanji? mumble in Hindi, Sanji? Sanji?" this went on for literally 10 min while we're carenning down side streets trying not to hit people, cows, autorickshaws and everything else. There was a hotel called hotel paradise or something like that and we all thought at first the names were messed up and that was our hotel, it was the sketchiest thing I have ever seen, luckily though we found Hotel Perfect and it's quite safe here. The hotel is really nice. We're on the 3rd floor. On this trip, its me, Pam, Tonya and Tim. Pam, Tonya and I are sharing a room b/c poor ole' Tim doenst feel comfortable sharing a room with a girl. Of course he tells us this in the most rude way ever and then adds "but you can use my bathroom" wtf. So we have two beds and a cot in our room. When we got here, it was only men in the lobby, checking us in. They tried to get us to take an elevator upstairs but you put 4 Americans, 1 Indian and 4 pieces of luggage in a small elevator and it doesnt work. Plus we all started giggling. I though Tonya was holding her hands over her chest b/c Tim has a habit at looking at her breasts and he's over 6 foot and she's only 5'4 but then I noticed Pam was squirming also, so we quickly got off the elevator. We hoofed it up 4 flights on stairs and pam said the guy on the elevator was rubbing his elbow against her breast. Creepy people.
We passed out around 3am and had to be up at and ready to go at 7:30am. The driver and his sidekick picked us up and we started off to sightsee in Delhi. At the first traffice light, an Indian woman saw we were white and came up to the van window and started banging on it, holding her child and asking for money/food. Her baby was beautiful with blue eyes. After I ignored her, she went and banged on everyone else's window trying to get money/food. Shantha told us not to give money out. Instead whenever we eat, when we have leftovers, we get that away so that makes me feel a bit better.
One of our first stops was the Gate on India. It looks like the L'arc de triumph in France. It's a huge stone stucture and commemerates fallen Indian soldiers.
Need to get off the computer, others need to use it. We're leaving delhi at 2am to head to the airport and fly out of delhi at 445am. I'll be at the Y
Current Location: delhi india
Tags: delhi india
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11:10 pm
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Marriage and Women Police
Back again on the spotty Hotel Perfect internet.
Thursday
We had class thursday in a new room. For the past week and a half we'd have class in what we started calling the ice box. the room had a/c but you couldnt control it so at the beginning of the morning it was decent but by 1pm you were shivering even with a sweatshirt on. We weren't moved b/c of the ice box but because the social work classes had started for the summer and they needed the room. Shantha was pissed b/c the director wanted to move the entire program to the YWCA but she told them no that osu was paying to use the room at the school and that is where we were going to stay so we got booted to downstairs in a room with no a/c but with fans. Anyways. Thursday's first lecture was about Hindu, Christian and Muslism marriage law and practices. The guy giving the lecture was this cute old Indian man. A lot of the laws we had already learned about from the judge but he added commentary about them and gave more in depth details. He also had this amazingly hiliarious magazines where Indian men and woman post pictures of themselve and their information in search of a Husband/Wife. It's like online dating in the US but in a magazine form and with funnier pictures. He gave us a few copies and I ganked one to bring home to show everybody.
The second lecture was given by Dr. Fatima a bigwig of the Madras school of social work. She lectured about the gender difference in India. We spent a lot of time talking about female foeticide and female infantcide. Families are killing off their female children b/c it is better to have a male in India and in many ways cheaper b/c with a female you have to pay dowry when she gets married. It's to the point where there are laws in effect to ban families finding out the sex of their child. Many families will find out the sex of their child and if it's a female abort the child. They're calling this the "Missing Women" It's real problem in the rural areas of India.
After lecture's we back to the Y to eat lunch. Isolde and I had the driver drop us off at Fountain Plaze so I could pick up my Salwar Kameze. It's really pretty but as I tried it on, I put the shirt on backwards. The lady in the shop totally laughed at me. Then we went to the tailor to see how Isolde'a dress was She had a tailor make her a western style dress out of this beautiful dark blue saree material. It fit her well but needed taken in a bit. It was funny sitting there watching the husband and wife banter over how to take it in and how it would look all in Tamil.
We then attempted to hail an autorickshaw. Shantha told us it shouldnt be more than 25rp but of course all the men saw were two white girls and money signs in their eyes. The first guy said 35 which i thought was fine but Isolde though differently so we walked away. Then the next few guys told us 50 and we were both like no way. So we walked a bit down the road and found a guy who said 30. Of course this would have been easier to take the 35 but Isolde loves to haggle. Anywho. we got back to the Y to eat some yummy (disgusting) Y food. I like Indian food but the YWCA would make anybody hate Indian food. The only decent meal is breakfast but eggs can only go so far till you dont ever want to see an egg again.
Once lunch was over, we got back in the bus and headed to an all women's police station. We found out while traveling there that Mahona had been to the commissioners office like literally a half a dozen times asking permission for us to go and we still had to stop by one more time to make sure it was ok. The commissioner granted us permission so we headed over the womens police station. Imagine what we find there? A freaking man in charge. We were ushered into a small room with this guy who was on his cell phone. We spent the next 2 hours asking him questions and he tried to answer them but his English was sketchy. We kept having to have Shantha translate for us. At one point one woman officer came in but she didnt speak English. I still really dont know who this guy was except that he was high up in the food chain. And after all of Mahona's trips to the commssioners office, they called this guy 5 min before we got there to tell him we were coming. The only amusing thing the man said was "A man's mind is like a Monkeys" equating that men can only think about sex. Oh and we asked if Indian police people carry weapons. Instead of just saying yes, they brought in a rifle with a bayonette on it and two hand guns. The woman officer stood there with both hand guns in her hand like it was nothing. It freaked me out to say the least. We also got shown a cop car. The cop cars here dont have screens to protect the cops from those they arrest. We asked about it and they said that they were strong enough to handle anybody who tried to come after them if they were arrested and in teh back of the cop car. Or they'd beat them with a bamboo stick. really random.
The whole reasoning behind having an all woman's police station is to handle domestic violence cases, dowry cases and cases involving families and childrens. The other cop stations have both females and males on the force but for the above cases only women cops handle those cases.
After that adventure we went back to the Y to get read for our trip to Delhi. Shantha told us that it'd be too expensive to hire a travel agent so to prove this she had an independent guy come and a travel agent come to quote us prices. The travel agent guy was a hell of a lot cheaper and he included a lot more, so we went with Sanji. I love Sanji but he makes even Indian Standard Time, late. All Indians run on IST which makes them about 10-30 minutes late for everything but Sanji was usually about 45 min later than when he said he'd be at the Y. That's the other thing, instead of us going to his office, he came to the Y to make all the arrangements. It was really nice but he usually made us late for other things b/c we were waiting for him. Anyways. We packed and left for the airport around 7pm. We flew on indigo airlines. i just like the name. The domestic flights airport was nice, a lot better than the airport we flew into. We got the flight to Delhi and go to Delhi around 12:15am and found our driver and his sidekick (son?)
Current Location: delhi india
Tags: india
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08:58 pm
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Whee I'm a Monkey
Ok here we go again. Right now Im in Delhi at Hotel Perfect (yes that is the name of it) The internet here is faster than the Y but spotty. We'll see how far we get.
Back to Sunday
After the run in with the shadyass autorickshaw driver we got another autorickshaw to take us to Spencer's, this huge ass crazy multi phase mall where merchants will chase you to get you to look at their store. We literally spent 45 minutes trying to find a chocolate shop b/c for some reason all four of us NEEDED chocolate. Never found it. Instead we finally broke down and found food. I ran into Saahil the Kashmini guy I met last weekend at Spencers. He took us to the food court and talked to us for a few minutes. As he was talking to us, Wasseem (i can't spell),. his friend came over from his shop who I also met last weekend. We all talked and Sahill made quite an ass of himself. He asked stacey if she was growing a moustache. I whacked him for that but honestly the girl has a really dark moustache that needs to be taken care of. Wassum had been asking how he could get into the states and I told him he should come over to go to school or marry Nora who is 30. Instead both him and Saahil offered to marry me to come to the states. I was like uhhh NO. Even though it amused me b/c the astrology guy said I would marry soon and marry a man with his own business, both boys work/own shops in Spencers. but still, NO
After lunch we meandered around the Mall, Isolde had to get a memory card, I needed pens, Nora needed a notebook and stacy just followed us around. We went into one shop and had a hayday. Mohommad is from Kashmir and imports things to Chennai to sell. He had all kinds of cashmere, pashima, rugs, etc. We found out that Pashima is made from the goats beard. We also tried on Narobi jackets that were hand made and had a lot of intericate detailing on them. Mohommad was selling them for 5500rp but Nora talked him down to 4500 which is like 120ish. It's beautiful. I have pictures of me wearing one. We also came across the first Plus sized shop we'd ever seen. It was like the Gap and then ahd a small plus sized section which of course everything was more expensive. I also found REAL coffee. We stopped to get snacks and I had a mocha which was grand. The coffee here is called nescafe and is like instant coffee, blah. I can't wait to meet my coffee pot again. We ended up having dinner at Spencer's also b/c shopped way to damn long. Wassum came back up to us and wanted us to see his shope and since I went to Sahill's last weekend, I went to his. He asked me for some American money and got all excited b/c i gave him a dollar bill. I also bought some stuff from him. The Christmas ornaments that were at Raja's store were 200rp but Wassem gave them to me for 50rp a piece. As we were leaving we ran into Saahil again and i gave him a hug and a kiss on teh cheek which then Isolde gave me shit for b/c in India men and women dont show affection to each other. Yeah that was dumb on my part but I was tired and that is how I say goodbye to everybody so luckily no isses.
Monday-Will come back to. Dont remember what happened and dont have my list with me.
Tuesday- We went to Vengal village about an hour outside of Chennai where an NGO has set up a lot of programs to help make the village more self sustaining and to help with education and medical issues. We visited the headquaters and got a lecture about the NGO and how it worked, where it came from and who started it. The funny thing is the headquaters are above a family's apt, they rent from the family their office space. After the lecture we went to a school for children in grads 6-10th grade. India's schools are 1-5th, 6th-10th and then you "graduate" but if you're smart enough and can afford it you can go on to +2 which is what we could call 11th and 12th grade. The school had soo many children and not enough space that children were having classes outside. All the children were in uniforms. We walked into a 10th grade class and the NGO leader talked to the children basically telling them that they should continue their edcation and a story that we're all alike and rise from our humble beginnings b/c on our way to the school we passed some cows eating Hay and the guy looked at me thinking I'd be shocked and I told him I grew up on a farm, so he used the fact I grew up on a farm and am now getting my masters as a way to motivate this students. yeah ok. After that we went to the medical center.
The medical center was a nightmare. There were all this sick people billowing about, one lady was sleeping on the floor. Their examining room looked like it belong in a horror film. It was a room with a silver table that had seen better days, and a table with some medical supplies that were sterilized and seemed extremely sketchy. The dr. kept trying to paint this rosy picture that the town didnt have problems with alcoholism and that woman didnt need pap smears b/c they didnt have issues like that. gah. The nurse was actually pretty intelligent but I would have killed someone if i was a nurse there. They had to wear this old fashion white nursing outfits with the little white stupid hat and white hose in 90+ degree weather. Blah. Then they took us back to their "lounge" area that also held their "lab" Passing through their pharmacy we found out that they could go 3 days without electricty b/c they had coolers to keep medicine which is cool but at the same time scary b/c India has rolling black outs. In the lab area, i wanted to again hurt someone. They had this guy just sitting there with one microscope staining slides to test for Malaria. Nora and I tried asking the dr if they did more extensive testing with blood vials but he kept telling us they only just pricked a finger. Yeah right. YOu can't do HIV testing with just a finger prick. This man was a moron. And then the best part. I walked over to Shantha to ask her if she could ask the dr about the more extensive testing when this old man walked into the room. He was sick looking and wearing a dhotie and a shirt. The dr said "oh he just got diagnosed with TB" I looked at him and he made some comment about Americans not having any immunity to TB and then proceeded to tell us that this guy wasnt even on medication yet. I glared at him, gave a look to shantha and beelined my ass out of there. I can handle most medical things but not something where I can catch a dieases that is hard to treat all b/c the idiot dr didnt have him on meds yet. I was pissed to say the least.
After that we went back to the office and had lunch. We gave the rest of our sandwiches, chips and pop to the girls who were working in the office sewing. We also got to tour the family's house below us. They had a really nice house. All Marble floors, tv, kitchen, washer, dryer. it was nice for an Indian village house.
Then we went on an adventure in the bus. We went out into the country side and stopped by a farm to see real Jasmine farm and rice paddy farms. We also talked to a local family for a few minutes and Danny grabbed some Ectalyptus leaves for us to smell.
Then we went to another school. This school was a bit bigger than the first school. The NGO sponsers students at this school. Each year they give the students books, uniforms and pay for their education. I think to "prove" that they are doing good, the NGO had a meeting set up for us with the children and their parents. They had most of the children and some of the parents stand up and basically tell us their life story which amounted to domestic violence, alcoholism, parents beating the children, death of parents and all kinda of horror. They all spoke in Tamil so Shantha and DAnny were translating for us. I asked Shantha later that night why it seemed like a lot of the stories seemed the same and she told me that her and danny were editing out pieces b/c she didnt think it was right for the families to be sharing their life stories and issues with strangers. One girl also sang for us, she got chosen to be on a tv show to showcase talent. I have a small clip of it on my camera. While all of this is going on, there was about a dozen or so school kids who were hanging out near the window trying to see in and meet the Americanns. I was a bit annoyed that we could only really interact with the "chosen" students and not all of the student. AFter their presentation DAnny and I went to the bus to get the toys we had brought for the kids. The families had also chipped together to buy all of us coconuts so we could have coconut milk. There is nothing quite like being handed a coconut missing a chucnk of it with a straw sticking out of it. Wasnt the greatest fan of coconut milk but maria said it's better cold than luke warm. We passed out all the toys to the kids. I made Danny laugh b/c we had got a bunch of cheap jumping frogs that dont jump well. He was trying to get it to jump by litterally stroking the little tab that stuck out between the frogs legs. I told him he was stroking the frogs ass which made him giggle. I was annoyed also that we could only give toys to the students in the room not the kids outside the windows, it was frustrating. We took a bunch of pictures and some of the girls gave us their "forehead jewlery" (ive had 4 hours of sleep, cant rememver the word)and put it on our forheads. The mothers were highly beamused and amazed at our digital camera's. All the kids and families loved that we could take pictures and then show it to them.
Tuesday night after we got back to the viliage, Maria, Tonya and I went to Kamal's house to have dinner with her and her mother. Kamal's is the gemologist from the astrologist's place. She invited us to come over to have dinner and see her gems. I didnt realize it but her and her mother are from North India so we had some amazing food that didnt taste like shit. We had this awesome tomato soup with a hint of clove in it. then we had rice potato gravy that kinda tasted like yogurty potato salad, bean curry, a veggie mix curry, rice and MANGO'S!!!! I am in love with fresh mango's. Plus mommie (her mom) gave us frozen mango's which are amazing.
After dinner Kamal got her jewlery out. My God does she had a lot of stuff. She has sapphires and rubies of all different cuts, shapes, colors. Many stones I didnt know. It was pretty cool. Tonya wanted sapphire so she ended up with a 9 carat blue sapphire and a nother small one for a ring. I wasn't planning on buying anything but yeah. I ended up buying a 27 carat (yes 27 carats) natural red Ruby. She normally charges 3000rp per carat which would have been around 2000 dollars. I got it for 130 dollars. Fucking Amazing. As she went to wrap up the stones for us, she gave each of us another little ruby including Maria. So I now have a 27 carat ruby and another small one. It was such a cool night. Kamal is like a true reniassance woman. She sells stones, works with NGO's, does consultant work to turn companies in the red to making profits, has traveled a lot. She's just really cool. And her mommie is hilarious. I want to bring her home with me. She's like 78, speaks some English and is just a hoot. She also makes prayer beads and gave us each one to remember her by.
I was suppose to go Wed with Tonya to get my ruby set at the jewlers with her and Kamal but I was sick as hell so Tonya took my amber necklace with her to the Jewler to have it set like that. I hope it turns out ok.
Speaking of Wednesday. I did absolutley nothing. I slept tues night from 1am-9am. got up, ate a piece of toast, tried to take a shower almost passed out, slept again from 11am-8pm and then got up for like 4 hours and then passed out again from 11pm-7am. Finally Thursday I felt human again. I have no clue what was wrong. I didnt feel sick just sick to my stomach and feeling like I was goign to pass out. We all seem to be getting something but all seem to be feeling better.
It's almost 9pm friday night. I've had 4 hours of sleep b/c we didnt get to the hotel last night till almost 2 and started sight seeing this morning at 730. Tomorrow we're leaving the hotel at 430am to make the 4 hour trip to Agra to see the Taj. Hopefully tomorrow night I can get on and updat Thursday through Sat. Plus I need to make an entry on all the random cultural things that amuse me.
Oh and Mosquites fucking annoy me
Current Location: delhi india
Tags: india
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10:21 pm
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India
So to make this all make some sense. I'm just going to go day by day and then add commentary at the bottom otherwise it'll be all over the place. Edit- I'm sick today and have slept for over 18 hours today so there are many spelling erros. fyi.
Saturday-
Saturday we drove about 2 hours away to Dhakshan Chitra which is this "town" that recreates different south Indian states. In each state, they have what a traditional housign looks like, articfacts, music, culture, etc. It's basically a touristy way to get the feel of each state. The states are Tamil Nadu (where I'm at), Kerela, Adresh Pradesh, Karacka (sounds like Canada) and another one. It was interesting. Of course, as with most things on this trip could have spent more time there. We got there late and were suppose to have a tour guide whom didnt speak a lot of English so it took forever to even make it through one state. Going through Tamil Nadu, we got to watch a guy who blows glass for a living. I also got my fortune read by a parrot. This guys has two little parrots that sit in cages. He lets one out, asks your name, age and tell it to the parrot. The parrot then flips through a stack of cards and picks one. Then the guy reads your fortune from that. The parrot picked a card that had Jesus on it. Shantha had to translate since the guy didnt speak English. He told me that I would live till I was 86, i would marry after Aug 5th 2008, i would make my family proud, would get wealth from my husbands side, it is a time of change for me and a good time for education. He also said it was a good time for success and I'd have good health. I would also have a job change after Aug 15th, 2007. He also said that since I pulled the Jesus card, that I would be blessed by him.
After going through Tamil Nadu, we left to go have lunch. All along the road, there are resturants. We went to a resturant that was basically a tourist trap. It had a "petting zoo" that had emu's, ducks, pidgeons, rabbits, and 2 persian cats. But you couldnt pet any of them. We sat outside under a thatched roof open space with bug netting. The whole menu ws in Tamil so ordering was a bit difficult. I wasn't feeling adventerous so I ordered chicken fried rice and paneer kebebs. The chicken fried rice was wonderful. The paneer not soo good. A few people ordered this veggie noodle dish that was amazing. It was like pad thai but with tomatoe sauce. All in all it was fun.
Then we went back to the villiage. Since the tour guide was kinda useless, Shantha just gave us an hour to look around. I think I hit all the states but one but got some cool pictures and also picked up my glass pieces from the glass blower. After that we drove back and had dinner at the Y. Later Isolde, me and Stacy (a social worker from Washington who is working in Chennai for a year) went to a local grocery store to check it out and get some snacks. They're grocery stores are a lot smaller than ours. This one also didnt have any meat products and no already made food. Kinda weird.
Sunday
Sunday we went to the famous astrologer that came to talk to the class last week. I had sent him all of our information so he could do our charts for us. All of us but Maria went, she decided to go check out a Mormon church here. The astrologer told me that the past 5 years have been rough and that they would continue to be rough until Feb of 2008. I would also marry as early as 2008 (which goes along with the parrot oddly enough) and that my husband would own his own business. I will have 2 sons. I will also have mental issues/depression but if I go to the doctor they will find nothing wrong, that I just need to self talk myself through it. He told me I'd make a good teacher, public relations, working with others/guiding others. It was a surreal experience especially him telling me right off the bat that the past 5 years have been rough, that is an understatement. While there waiting for everybody this women came into the waiting room who is a gemalogist among other things. She walked in, started giving everybody her card and then asked who amanda was. I raised my hand and she walked over and shook my hand while smiling a lot. The only reason I could figure out how she knew me was that I sent the email to the astrologist and she read it. I found out later that I think we share the same birthday. While talking to her, she pulls out real sapphire (blue/orange) and flower shaped pink rubies. She buys raw stones and has jelwery made for her clients. We also had a group picture taken with the Astrologist because some media guy was there for some magazine.
After that Isolde, me, Nora and Stacy went on an adventure. We were planning on going to Nalla's to get fabric and visit a jewlery store that the lady had told us about and then hit up spencers. We left the Y to get an autorickshaw. We told the guy that were we wanted to go and he said it'd be 100rp. Then on the way he said that he knew a cheaper jewlery place and that still for 100rp he'd take us there adn then to nalla's. We said ok and he took us to this shop. It didnt have jewlery but it was uber expensive. I did end up buying a shirt there though. Raja the one guy there was really nice and talked to us for a bit. The other guy told me the shirt would be 1300rp (about 35 dollars) but Raja took it and told me he'd give it to me for 800 (20$) so that was cool. We went back to our autorickshaw and said we wanted to go to Nalli's. He kept saying something about his daughter's uniforms and we ended up at another store. He ushered us out and into the store. We stood there for a few seconds trying to figure out if we should take our shoes off since there were barefoot people in the shop. The one guy asked what we wanted to see, and we said we dont know and then he told us to leave. So we left and creepy auto guy was making some kind of transaction at the corner of the building. We were pissed and Isolde yelled at the guy, paid him and we took off walking down the stree. It was not so much scary at just frustrating. The guy didnt speak that much english and we realized he was most likely getting kick backs from the stores he took us too.
-Other people need the computer. I'll post more later.
Tags: india
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10:09 pm
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India Part 2
The past few days have been really interesting. First I must rant. This damn computer is driving me batty. It's literally probably 10 years old, the keyboard sticks, the monitor is blurry and it has so many virus issues that mcafee is constantly popping up AND its freaking dial-up. I"ve spent the past 15 min just trying to get the damn thing to work. Ok rant done
As for the past couple of days. The lectures have gotten much better. Yesterday we had to women who were professors so they lectured and also entertained our questions throughout insted of just lecturing to us like the past few lessons have been. It never fails that in both classes we ended up talking about sex, eunuchs, GLBTQ's and periods. Tim, the only guy on the trip was a bit annoyed and embarrassed. But the classes were really good and informative. The only issue so far is that the proffs tend to think we know about Hindu religion or Indian culture and many of us know little to nothing or what we know is based on North Indian culture. Today's lectures were also good. Lecutre one even used technology. So far it's just been us takig notes while the lecturer talked. Dr. D'samy today used a powerpoint to give us the history of Indian which really was the historical theories that are used in Indian history. After lecture today, we left quickly to go the the Chennai Marriage court where we got to sit in on 4-5 cases. Each case was dealing with Dowry issues. EVen though taking/giving Dowry is illegal in India, it is not enforced so they have to have a Dowry court to deal with things when they go bad. One woman was trying to get her husband to take her back b/c they had eloped and he was saying that he had never married her. Watching the court was odd. It was a huge room that opened to a hallway. YOu could hear traffic, people were walking by. The accused stood on one platform and the other person on a different platform. The lawyers talked to each and the judged listened. There were alos other lawyers just milling about the court room. Since it was the marriage court, there were female Indian police there.
After court, we met the judge for a few minutes and then went to Uma's office to have lunch and talk to her. She is one of the few female lawyers. She lectured to us about marriage laws, dowry laws, custody, etc. Her daugther was also there today. She is 20 and was dressed in "western" clothes. Apparently one of the other judges today told Shantha whom he didnt know knew the girl that he was impressed that all this Western girls had dressed up in Indian dress, combed our hair back and that the lawyers daughter was a slut b/c she was in western style dress. yeah sexism. Talking to the lawyer was funny. You could tell she was a lswyer, she kept stating the "this is section 13, code 12.39 that states" it was amusing.
We also had lunch with the lawyer. Even though this was the courthouse and some of the officials had offices, there were goats, chickens, dogs and random people about. I took part of my sandwich out to feed a dog and totally didnt realize there was a poor beggar women next to me untill after I fed the dog my sandwich. I felt stupid. So I went back in and got her a sandwich, chips and Daniel brought her out a juice. She looked at the juice and didnt know how to open it so we opened it for her. I still feel like an idiot for feeding the dog first and now the women.
Then we all went shopping. We went to Nilla's this amazing fabric shop. It's like 5 stories of fabric, already made saree's, shirts, dresses, etc. I bought a skirt, two scarves, 3 dhoties, and saree material for me and my sister. Now i just have to find a tailor to make me the saree's.
Oh ad we got to cross Chennai traffic. There is nothing like having to cross 4 lanes of traffic with autorickshaws, busses, cars, people, bikes coming at you. We almost got hit.
After that we went to Sparky's. Sparky's is this American resturant that this guy from Cali opened 2 years ago. It's all American food and he even had Mt. Dew. I was in heaven. TFriday night is their BBQ Buffet so we had that. It was so nice to have something besides Indian food. I love Indian food but breakfast, lunch and dinner gets pretty old real quick.
Wednesday was really weird but in a good way. Our first lecture was abou Astrology. The astologist is a famous Indian who has been doing astrology for 27 years. He even had a tv show every day. He's very tall and he carries his cell phone around his neck. He talked about astrology, palm reading,numbers, etc. We're all going Sunday morning to have our Astrology charts read.
Then we went to SanJeevanam which is a Ayurveda place. Basically its like a holistic healing place that has treatments like massage, hydro therapy, yoga, physical therapy and a resturant. We got to eat their speical lunch yesterday. It is a 26 item lunch of vegtables and fruit all served on a Banana leaf. You start out with banana slices then 5 cups of different juices, after that 4 piles of uncooked vegtables, then 4 piles of semi cooked vegatables, then 4 piles of cooked vegtables. AFter that you have rice and sauces and then dessert and to finish off a bit of honey. Oh and then a after dinner "mint" which is a 50 cent piece of folded leaves with something inside. This whole process is suppose to give you all this nutrients and help you digest. It was interesting to say the least. Oh and I also got nagged at for using my left hand. Mahona one of our culture guides kept telling me to use my right hand so I switched for her and they all had a good laugh seeing me trying to scoop food into my mouth with just my hand b/c we didnt use silverware at all.
Then we had a 2 hour lecture about Avurveda and got to tour the treatment area. Then we had lecture on neuropathy which is yoga, food and somethign else to help you. And finally we had a 30 min Yogo session.
After getting back to the Y, Maria, Isolde and I ventured out on our own. We went to
Fountian Plaza which is a little shopping area. I got a salwar Kamzee made but still need to go pick it up. Then we took an autorickshaw home on our own. We realized a lot of the
autorickshaw people dont read and b/c of that almost got our feet ran over b/c the guy got pissed that we couldnt tell him where we were staying. We showed him the card and the address but he couldnt figure it out so he almost ran us over.
Thursday started off bad. I wanted to shoot someone. We're trying to plan our 3 day weekend next week. One travel guy came yesterday morning and he was sketch. he didnt speak a lot of english and Shantha sucks at helping us some times. So i was pissy. Yesterday was when we ahd the two really good lecture people. I also finally broke down and used a eastern style toilet. Basically it's a hole in teh ground with a white porcelian place to put your feet. So you hike up all your pants, underwear, squat and pray you have good aim. It was amusing. But the school didnt have soap which was yucky. thank God for anti-bacterial stuff. For lunch yesterday we had Pizza Hut. They're pizza here isnt as greasy as at home and Indian also put ketchup on their pizza which is really good. The ketchup is a bit sweeter but tastes good on pizza.
Then we went to TTK hospital which is a hospital in Chennai that serves Alcholics and drug addiction. It was started in 1980 by a woman after her husband was an alcoholc and died from a heart attack. She started it with her money and it has grown from a 4 bedroom place to a whole compound. They have a 21 day program for alcoholics that has a detox compoment, group therapy, invidual therapy, etc. They can also bring their families to the program. The program also provides family programs to help families deal with the effects of the alcolic. Their other program is a 2 month long inpatient program for drug addicts which has the same principles. It doesnt have a relgious affilation but since Religion is so big here they have a meditation room that has artifacts of each Religion so people can worship. TTK also has a job training program. They provide job training so people can be tailors, work in with computers and packaging. Most of the patients are men but they also provide job trainings for the wives. The wives make hangbags, purses, wallets, etc and TTK sells them. We went crazy yesterday buying stuff b/c almost all of it was under 100RP.
Now for the random part. As I said before I broke down yesterday and used an eastern toillet b/c i really had to piss. Well at TTK my stomach decided it wanted to be pissy and I had to shit. So of course all I could find was an eastern toilet. While I was surprised. Even though it was an eastern toilet, this one flushed, had toilet paper and even soap in the bathroom. So down I went, squated, held up all my pants and attempted not to shit on myself which I luckily did not. Then today I had another Eastern toilet encounter. At the court I had to pee and it was one of the worst toilets ever. It was in this little hut with a bunch of Indian police woman eating lunch. The stall was itty bitt, it was dark, dank and gross but I survived. There were 4 of us waiting for one bathroom. One of the Indian police woman asked what I was holding and I said toilet paper which she laughed at. They have a bidet like system here instead of toilet paper.
She then tried to ask me about my piercings. She thought my labret was odd and asked if my Industrial hurt all through a translator which was the lawyers daughter who was the "slut" b/c she had jeans on. The lawyers daughter also asked us if Parents in America have control over their children b/c in movies she's seen it seems like kids control the parents. I've been surprised at how little my piercings have caused. Bubbly a women from North East India near China told me last night she like my labret and thought it was pretty. Then a few days ago the street chldren at the Mosque were asking about it. but other than that, I've gotten more comments about my weight than my piercings. It seems everybody here even if they dont speak english likes to gesture and tell me i shouldnt be eating a piece of chocolate or a few chips. It's been entertaining since besides the Indians getting after me I have NOra who every 5 min says she's old (she's 30) and fat (she's a size 6) and then Maria who says she can eat all day but is worried about getting fat and feels she needs to exercise a hell of a lot. Blah. Anyways,
Few other random facts
-Met a woman yesterday who is Indian but had blue/green eyes. She was gorgeous.
-Met a group of people from Ann Arbor Michigan. Played cards with them last night.
-Have also met like 3 different social workers from the US and keep meeting random Indians on the street who are social workers. We're everywhere.
Off to bed soon. Need to say goodbye to my Gay's bc some left today and the rest tomorrow. They're training classes are over. They all work for a HIV/Aids NGO through the Bill Gates Foundation.
Current Mood: calm
Tags: india
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09:51 pm
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India June 19
Today has been amazing. Waking up at 5:45 was not but today made up for the early morning. We drove two hours away to a city called Karpenchum (ok not spelled right fyi). This city is known for it’s Hindu Temples. The first one we visited was over 1200 years old and was to the Hindu God Shiva. This temple has a lot of intricate carvings and comprised of a temple with a stone compound around it with more carvings. Before we walked into the temple I got a garland of Jasmine. The women here in India wear Jasmine in there hair and I’ve fallen in love with it. It smells to beautiful and just its pretty. It usually costs like 10 rupees which is like 15 cents. After that temple we went to another temple that was over 800 years old and was about the same size as the first one. With us not being Hindu’s we can’t go into the actual ceremonial temple but we can walk around outside. While at this temple an Elephant came to bless people. Her face was painted and she would take a rupee out of your hand, place it near her snout and then she would lift her trunk and basically bop you on the head with her snout. It was really cool. At this temple we couldn’t take pictures so before we left I ran out with my cell phone and took a picture with my cell phone. We also fed her banana’s. We even got Shantha our prof to get blessed. She was scared of it at first. After temple we went to a third one which was much larger than the other ones. We were also allowed to take cameras into this one. They had a lot of what looked like carved wooden statues that looks like they would be on a carousel. There were also a lot of beggars at this temple. This temple also lot us inside the temple but still not into the ceremonial part. We got blessed by two different priests. The priests will say a prayer, dot your forehead with red powder and then you have to walk 3 times around the mini temple for the blessing to work. I don’t know what the first blessing was from but the second one was from the God Shiva.
Then we went to lunch at this restaurant in town. I had Dosai Masala, which is like a thin crepe with spicy potato inside of it. Isolde and I also got Gulep janun which is like sweet fried mini doughnuts in sweet syrup.
After lunch we headed to a silk factory. And by silk factory I mean 6 looms in a small building. The silks being made were mostly for wedding sari’s but they were gorgeous. It takes 20 days or so for 6 yards of material to be made for a sari. The owner showed us raw silk, then dyed silk and also showed us how the loomed worked. In his factory they use 22K gold thread. Then he showed us a lot of finished sari material. His silk started at 3500 rupees and went up to 22,000 rupee which is 75 dollars to over 500 dollars. I wanted to buy material but I couldn’t justify spending that much money on something I wouldn’t wear a lot.
Then we headed back to Chennai. While on the bus we watched part of a Tamil movie that had English subtitles. I wish I could have gotten a few pics of the movie. In one scene two Indian guys are having a Chuck Norris type fight with large empty bottles of water. Highly entertaining. Also tonight by far has been the best dinner. We had tomato rice, chicken curry, spicy potato, naan and what we refer to as the “good white stuff” The good white stuff is like yogurt with onion and green onion in it. South India has a thing for nasty white stuff. Saturday’s white stuff was suppose to be coconut curry but tasted like garlic. Sunday’s tasted like bad cottage cheese and Monday’s tasted like plain yogurt. It’s become a joke to figure out what the day’s white stuff is.
Last night was also really cool. As I was going up to bed, I ran into Isolde, my roommate. She was sitting out in the common area of our floor with a bunch of Indian men and one woman. They are here for 5 days to get training on how to be counselors for GLBTQ person. Most of them are Gay and the woman is Transgendered. Her name is Davey, which means something Goddess. Only the one guy spoke a bit of English so we used a lot of gestures and trying to translate to talk to them. They are from Chennai, Mumbia, Bombay and Bangalore. The one who speaks a bit of English sang us a song in Hindu and then wanted me to sing. So I sang them Amazing Grace. We’ll probably hang out with them again tonight or tomorrow. I was highly amused that even in India, Gay men have the same gestures and “lisp” that Americans do.
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09:35 pm
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India
Hey Everybody,
It's Monday night around 9pm here in Chennia. We got in Saturday around 4am. So far its been amazing. On Sunday we went to a Hindu Wedding and to a local beach. The people here dont really swim, they just sit in their sari's and might wade a bit. I stood in the bay of Bengal just for the hell of it. Today we started classes. Our first two lessons where on Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam. After classes we went to a Jain temple, a Christain Church and a Mosque. At the Mosque the women couldnt go in so we stood out front and talked to the children. Most of the kids lived in a orphanage and some were street children. They were totally amused by my piercings. They were also highly greedy for gum. I only had 10 pieces and they were grabbing it like there was no tomrorow. After that we went to Spencer's which is basically and Indian Mall. It's like 3 stories of shops. It's slighly insane. People will follow you around asking you to go into their shops or follow you with carpets.
Tomorrow we're going to an Ancient temple about 2 hours away and then to a silk factory.
So far the food has been decent. We eat most of our meals at the YWCA. So far I haven't really known what I"ve been eating. I just mix it all with rice and pretend I have a clue what I'm eating. Tonight though at Spencers I had Domino's pizza for the hell of it.
Right now it's raining. July is Monsoon season. The weather has been hot but not unbearable. We have a/c in our rooms, in the classroom and in the van . But it's still quite warm.
I have my cell with me and can get and send text messages if anybody wants to text me.
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08:07 am
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Well I'm Off
I'm leaving in like 10 min for India. I really can't believe I'm going to India. I'm scared, excited and just in awe. Not really looking forward to the 2 day trek there and two day trek back to the states but eh we'll survive.
Please send me good thoughts and prays.
Love you all.
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