Well, today is the last day I spend in Mussorie. This afternoon we take a train to Delhi and tomorrow night fly for the states. There are definitely mixed emotions: on one hand I'm really excited to return home and see friends and family, but this has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I will miss soooo much of India. I suppose, though, that goodbyes and transition are just a part of life. In fact, you could say that life is just one big transition into eternity. As one of my friends wisely put it: "There are seasons and times for certain people to be in our lives. We yearn for those times to be eternal, but that cannot be satisfied in this life. It will only be met when that kingdom that Jesus was always talking about shows up in fullness with everything he promised."
Please pray for me and the other interns leaving that our journey would be safe and quick, that we would transition well back into American culture and customs, and that we would be able to find the right words to describe our incredible experiences to others.
Wednesday, July 15
Wednesday, July 8
Amritsar photos
Walking through the streets of the old city
The Golden Temple
The end of the photo shoot
Crowds of people come to see the border ceremony
I love those head things the guards wear
A snapshot of the ceremony
Harry squished between Indians.
4th of July weekend
Well this weekend Ko, Harry, and I went on a sightseeing trip to Amritsar in the state of Punjab along the northwestern border of India. Due to limited train availability and our work obligations, the only possible time to schedule this trip was over the 4th of July weekend. We thought that it would be ironically proper to spend our 4th of July as close to Pakistan as we could possibly be. We also found Amritsar to be a really nice city with great food and a few major attractions. Here's how it went:
We took an overnight train to Amritsar and arrived around half past 8, while the weather was warm but not yet hot. Interestingly, I had found conflicting weather reports online that said Amritsar would either be partly cloudy with a high of 45 C (110 F), or 80% chance of thunderstorms and 30 C (85 F). Go figure. It turned out to be clear all day and hot, but certainly not 45 thank goodness. We decided to walk first through the old city to the Golden Temple, the center of the Sikh religion. Thanks to Google maps we successfully navigated our way into the old city, where we promptly got lost in amaze of haphazard streets and alleys. Luckily, Harry spotted a glint of gold over the top of a building and after wandering towards (what we hoped was) that direction, we finally bumped into the golden temple complex.
The temple itself is situated in the center of a square, man-made lake. Construction began in 1574 and embellishments/additions have been added to the complex until the present day, including the 100kg gold plating on the inverted-lotus shaped temple dome for which it has become so well known for. Today, pilgrims from all over India and the rest of the world come to show their devotion. The complex, like all Sikh holy sites, provides meals daily free of charge to pilgrims and even has simple rooms for the devotees to stay in. The kitchens at the Golden Temple are extremely busy and serve over 30,000 people a day.
In order to enter, we all had to leave our shoes outside the complex, walk through a foot-washing basin, and cover our heads with a provided handkerchief. It really is an impressive place, and the two things that especially make it stand out is that it's clean and you do feel welcome, with far less stares than you would receive elsewhere. We walked around the inside of the complex and visited the Sikh museum, which houses paintings and artifacts depicting the history of Sikhism (much of which has been very violent).
After satisfying our curiosity, we headed out and found the Jallianwala Bagh. A park that has been converted into a national memorial commemorating those Indians that were killed and wounded in this place in 1919 when the British opened fire on a peaceful demonstration against the foreign rule. It was a very nicely maintained place, and a large group of Indian tourists stopped us to ask for our picture. That escalated into a 15 minute photo shoot as more and more people wanted their picture with us.
By this time it was getting hot, and so we headed to a coffee shop to grab a cold drink and discuss our next plan. We ended up gabbing an auto-rickshaw to a museum that supposedly had some weaponry that dates back to the Mughal era. Either we went to the wrong museum or the guidebook lied because the museum our rickshaw driver dropped us at was dedicated solely to the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was an interesting guy who united the punjab region into the kingdom of Lahore, and the museum was set up fairly well, but it wasn't what we were expecting. So we grabbed some lunch at a local dhaba and went to see a Hindi film called New York. There were no subtitles, but a few portions of the film were in english and it was not difficult to catch the basic drift. Basically, the FBI recruits an Indian man to spy on his old college friend who is suspected of terrorism. He turns out to be a terrorist, but only because he was falsely accused to be involved in the 9/11 attack, imprisoned, and tortured by the American government and now he wants revenge. Its complicated by the fact that the FBI guy used to be in love with terrorist's wife while they were all friends in college. It was interesting, and I would like to watch it again with subtitles.
Finally, it was time for us to head to the India-Pakistan border closing ceremony. After tracking down a taxi (who's driver turned out to be a smart, fun guy) to take us to the border, we walked to the grandstand area and were directed to the VIP section. Because we're white. Anyway, the border closing ceremony is a really bizare affair in which guards from both Pakistan and India march ornately towards the gate, high kick, salute and turn around with much foot stomping and pomp. Meanwhile, the 10,000 tourists that are assembled in concrete grandstands whistle, cajole, and scream Hindustani chants. A dance party actually broke out in the street before the ceremony began. I have no idea how this tradition started, but it happens every night at this one border crossing, which happens to be the only open gate along the entire Indo-Pakistan border. The ceremony finished with the lowering of all the flags at the same time and quickly marching them into the guard building. After the ceremony completed, Harry, Ko and I somehow got caught in the Indian portion of the exodus, and were so compressed by multiple bodies we couldn't move of our own accord.
We (thankfully) found our taxi driver who dropped us at a great dhaba where we had thali - a large plate filled with small portions of different courses. Punjab is known for their delicious food, and that they use a lot of ghee and butter. Consequently, our thali was incredible delicious and very rich. After dinner we headed back to train station to catch our train home. As it turned out, our (seemingly) entire train car was related, and it was a very loud, very jolly Indian family that shared our compartment. Luckily, I was sooo tired that I simply passed out and wasn't bothered (except by the ticketmaster at 2am when he asked for our tickets).
We arrived home on the 5th, grabbed lunch with other EMI people after church and headed back for a wash. That evening, we had a cookout with grilled chicken, baked potatoes, veggies & ranch, pop, chips, and even apple pie! And earlier someone had picked up some Indian fireworks with which we disturbed all our neighbors like good Americans. Incedentally, Indian fireworks must not be quality controlled, because more often than not the bottle rockets simple exploded as soon as you lit the wick. It made for some interesting times, because we couldn't let any go to waste. All in all, this was a darn good 4th!
We took an overnight train to Amritsar and arrived around half past 8, while the weather was warm but not yet hot. Interestingly, I had found conflicting weather reports online that said Amritsar would either be partly cloudy with a high of 45 C (110 F), or 80% chance of thunderstorms and 30 C (85 F). Go figure. It turned out to be clear all day and hot, but certainly not 45 thank goodness. We decided to walk first through the old city to the Golden Temple, the center of the Sikh religion. Thanks to Google maps we successfully navigated our way into the old city, where we promptly got lost in amaze of haphazard streets and alleys. Luckily, Harry spotted a glint of gold over the top of a building and after wandering towards (what we hoped was) that direction, we finally bumped into the golden temple complex.
The temple itself is situated in the center of a square, man-made lake. Construction began in 1574 and embellishments/additions have been added to the complex until the present day, including the 100kg gold plating on the inverted-lotus shaped temple dome for which it has become so well known for. Today, pilgrims from all over India and the rest of the world come to show their devotion. The complex, like all Sikh holy sites, provides meals daily free of charge to pilgrims and even has simple rooms for the devotees to stay in. The kitchens at the Golden Temple are extremely busy and serve over 30,000 people a day.
In order to enter, we all had to leave our shoes outside the complex, walk through a foot-washing basin, and cover our heads with a provided handkerchief. It really is an impressive place, and the two things that especially make it stand out is that it's clean and you do feel welcome, with far less stares than you would receive elsewhere. We walked around the inside of the complex and visited the Sikh museum, which houses paintings and artifacts depicting the history of Sikhism (much of which has been very violent).
After satisfying our curiosity, we headed out and found the Jallianwala Bagh. A park that has been converted into a national memorial commemorating those Indians that were killed and wounded in this place in 1919 when the British opened fire on a peaceful demonstration against the foreign rule. It was a very nicely maintained place, and a large group of Indian tourists stopped us to ask for our picture. That escalated into a 15 minute photo shoot as more and more people wanted their picture with us.
By this time it was getting hot, and so we headed to a coffee shop to grab a cold drink and discuss our next plan. We ended up gabbing an auto-rickshaw to a museum that supposedly had some weaponry that dates back to the Mughal era. Either we went to the wrong museum or the guidebook lied because the museum our rickshaw driver dropped us at was dedicated solely to the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was an interesting guy who united the punjab region into the kingdom of Lahore, and the museum was set up fairly well, but it wasn't what we were expecting. So we grabbed some lunch at a local dhaba and went to see a Hindi film called New York. There were no subtitles, but a few portions of the film were in english and it was not difficult to catch the basic drift. Basically, the FBI recruits an Indian man to spy on his old college friend who is suspected of terrorism. He turns out to be a terrorist, but only because he was falsely accused to be involved in the 9/11 attack, imprisoned, and tortured by the American government and now he wants revenge. Its complicated by the fact that the FBI guy used to be in love with terrorist's wife while they were all friends in college. It was interesting, and I would like to watch it again with subtitles.
Finally, it was time for us to head to the India-Pakistan border closing ceremony. After tracking down a taxi (who's driver turned out to be a smart, fun guy) to take us to the border, we walked to the grandstand area and were directed to the VIP section. Because we're white. Anyway, the border closing ceremony is a really bizare affair in which guards from both Pakistan and India march ornately towards the gate, high kick, salute and turn around with much foot stomping and pomp. Meanwhile, the 10,000 tourists that are assembled in concrete grandstands whistle, cajole, and scream Hindustani chants. A dance party actually broke out in the street before the ceremony began. I have no idea how this tradition started, but it happens every night at this one border crossing, which happens to be the only open gate along the entire Indo-Pakistan border. The ceremony finished with the lowering of all the flags at the same time and quickly marching them into the guard building. After the ceremony completed, Harry, Ko and I somehow got caught in the Indian portion of the exodus, and were so compressed by multiple bodies we couldn't move of our own accord.
We (thankfully) found our taxi driver who dropped us at a great dhaba where we had thali - a large plate filled with small portions of different courses. Punjab is known for their delicious food, and that they use a lot of ghee and butter. Consequently, our thali was incredible delicious and very rich. After dinner we headed back to train station to catch our train home. As it turned out, our (seemingly) entire train car was related, and it was a very loud, very jolly Indian family that shared our compartment. Luckily, I was sooo tired that I simply passed out and wasn't bothered (except by the ticketmaster at 2am when he asked for our tickets).
We arrived home on the 5th, grabbed lunch with other EMI people after church and headed back for a wash. That evening, we had a cookout with grilled chicken, baked potatoes, veggies & ranch, pop, chips, and even apple pie! And earlier someone had picked up some Indian fireworks with which we disturbed all our neighbors like good Americans. Incedentally, Indian fireworks must not be quality controlled, because more often than not the bottle rockets simple exploded as soon as you lit the wick. It made for some interesting times, because we couldn't let any go to waste. All in all, this was a darn good 4th!
Sunday, June 28
Leopard noises...
So, last thursday was cell group, so we went over to our pasor's house and just hung out, ate some dinner, and got our butts whooped in a game of Uno. At the end of the night, Caleb, Harry and I started home in the dark. After walking probably a hundred feet down the path, we all here this gutteral, low-pitched growl emerging from the bushes not ten feet to our right. I don't think any of us had any question as to what animal it came from: definitely a leopard. Caleb and I instantly turned our flashlights into the bushes, and Harry took off running down the path. Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), we couldn't actually see the leopard in the dense underbrush. It took about a second for me and Caleb to realize that we were standing about ten feet away from a leopard, but once it sunk in we took off after Harry. Thankfully, the leopard didn't follow us (as far as we know). Looking back, running may not have been the best strategy, but what would you do in that situation? The internet didn't seem to have much info on what to do when a leopard attacks you, either. Anyway, we were quite wired for the rest of the night. What a cool (and somewhat frightening) experience!
Saturday, June 20
A good train story
Wow, it has been over a month since my last post. And I've been busy too, so my apologies for not updating. However, this is my 24th post, so mathematically I'm averaging about a post a week over 6 months. Anyway, I'm back from the project trip down in Mumbai and I would love to share my experience on the train ride down from Delhi.
So, first of all our tickets were wait-listed, which means we have to wait for someone else to cancel their booked ticket in order to get a spot on the train. We had booked over two months in advance, however, and our names were first in line to get passed. Our chances were good. Well, we show up to the train station in Delhi and only four of our six tickets had fully passed. Caleb (one of the other interns) and I would have to share a seat. Oh well.
As it turns out, our 9:30 pm train didn't even reach the station until 11:30, so before we even get on the train we're tired and hot (it was about 95 out, even at night, but luckily we had secured a spot on the platform under a fan, and it was one of the cleanest railway platforms I have seen in India.) Well we get on the train and Caleb and I go to find our seat, and there's a family already sharing it. Mom and Dad sitting on one half, passed-out kid lying on the other. Not being in the mood to try to parley with this Indian family on our bunk (who didn't speak hardly any English either), we decide to help everyone else find there berths, find a spot for our luggage and talk to the ticketmaster. He was no help. When informed of our situation he simply said "go sit in 43" which was the number of our bunk with the family in it. But, a random guy that was in Graham's (one of the engineers) cabin was more that happy to help us. In fact, he literally jumped off his bunk, offered to help, grabbed our ticket and ran down to the end of the car where our bunk with the family on it was. Looking back, I seriously suspect that this guy was on something, seeing as how he and his buddies stayed up most of the night drinking, smoking, and playing music.
Well, we follow him back to the end of the car where he is in a lively conversation with the family in our bunk. Eventually, the family graciously moves over to their relative's berth (which now contains four people), but leave their somnolent son on our bed. As it is already past 12:30 at this point, Caleb and I simply thank everyone involved and promptly sit down. Caleb got the part of the bed where the kid wasn't, and I sat next to his feet. As I couldn't lean against the back of the seat because of the kid's feet, I leaned forward against the wall and tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately, our helping and probably half-baked friend insisted that I shouldn't sleep in that position. So he squeezes past me and tries to rearrange the inert child's position next to me. This looked like quite a difficult task as the kid was quite husky and the guy was a stick. Eventually he succeeded in shoving the child more into the corner of the berth and folded his feet up in such a way as to provide me with a place to lean back against. Fortunately for us all, the comatose child didn't awake. Hence, Caleb and I leaned our backs upright and tried to fall asleep.
Around 1:30ish the ticketmaster comes back. Caleb was already asleep; I was quite near that beautiful stage of repose. He informs us that we are to be moved into different bunks. Not in the mood or having the intellectual/emotional/conscious capacity to argue we follow him down the aisle to another cabin. He shows us our new bunks, and there is a young couple sitting in this one. Fortunately, however, the opposite bunk is empty and so the ticketmaster convinces the young couple to move over to the other side so that Caleb and I can use the opposite bunks. They graciously agree, and Caleb and I ready our partially complete bedding packages (I somehow only received a pillow out of the provided two sheets, towel, pillow, and blanket), and the ticketmaster left. Not two seconds after he leaves, the couple's mother walks into the cabin and sits down on the opposite bunk with her daughter, and the guy comes over and sits at the foot of my bunk. So, I simply resign myself to the fact that I'll be sharing my bunk with a random Indian guy, curl up my feet to give him some sitting room, and go to sleep.
I woke up halfway through the night to notice that the man sharing my bunk had somehow acquired a sheet and moved to the floor. I offered him my pillow and then turned over on the bunk with no bedding and resumed my hibernation. I actually did sleep fairly well that night, but I awoke with a strained back muscle that bother me for a few days. Good times on the Indian railway system!
So, first of all our tickets were wait-listed, which means we have to wait for someone else to cancel their booked ticket in order to get a spot on the train. We had booked over two months in advance, however, and our names were first in line to get passed. Our chances were good. Well, we show up to the train station in Delhi and only four of our six tickets had fully passed. Caleb (one of the other interns) and I would have to share a seat. Oh well.
As it turns out, our 9:30 pm train didn't even reach the station until 11:30, so before we even get on the train we're tired and hot (it was about 95 out, even at night, but luckily we had secured a spot on the platform under a fan, and it was one of the cleanest railway platforms I have seen in India.) Well we get on the train and Caleb and I go to find our seat, and there's a family already sharing it. Mom and Dad sitting on one half, passed-out kid lying on the other. Not being in the mood to try to parley with this Indian family on our bunk (who didn't speak hardly any English either), we decide to help everyone else find there berths, find a spot for our luggage and talk to the ticketmaster. He was no help. When informed of our situation he simply said "go sit in 43" which was the number of our bunk with the family in it. But, a random guy that was in Graham's (one of the engineers) cabin was more that happy to help us. In fact, he literally jumped off his bunk, offered to help, grabbed our ticket and ran down to the end of the car where our bunk with the family on it was. Looking back, I seriously suspect that this guy was on something, seeing as how he and his buddies stayed up most of the night drinking, smoking, and playing music.
Well, we follow him back to the end of the car where he is in a lively conversation with the family in our bunk. Eventually, the family graciously moves over to their relative's berth (which now contains four people), but leave their somnolent son on our bed. As it is already past 12:30 at this point, Caleb and I simply thank everyone involved and promptly sit down. Caleb got the part of the bed where the kid wasn't, and I sat next to his feet. As I couldn't lean against the back of the seat because of the kid's feet, I leaned forward against the wall and tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately, our helping and probably half-baked friend insisted that I shouldn't sleep in that position. So he squeezes past me and tries to rearrange the inert child's position next to me. This looked like quite a difficult task as the kid was quite husky and the guy was a stick. Eventually he succeeded in shoving the child more into the corner of the berth and folded his feet up in such a way as to provide me with a place to lean back against. Fortunately for us all, the comatose child didn't awake. Hence, Caleb and I leaned our backs upright and tried to fall asleep.
Around 1:30ish the ticketmaster comes back. Caleb was already asleep; I was quite near that beautiful stage of repose. He informs us that we are to be moved into different bunks. Not in the mood or having the intellectual/emotional/conscious capacity to argue we follow him down the aisle to another cabin. He shows us our new bunks, and there is a young couple sitting in this one. Fortunately, however, the opposite bunk is empty and so the ticketmaster convinces the young couple to move over to the other side so that Caleb and I can use the opposite bunks. They graciously agree, and Caleb and I ready our partially complete bedding packages (I somehow only received a pillow out of the provided two sheets, towel, pillow, and blanket), and the ticketmaster left. Not two seconds after he leaves, the couple's mother walks into the cabin and sits down on the opposite bunk with her daughter, and the guy comes over and sits at the foot of my bunk. So, I simply resign myself to the fact that I'll be sharing my bunk with a random Indian guy, curl up my feet to give him some sitting room, and go to sleep.
I woke up halfway through the night to notice that the man sharing my bunk had somehow acquired a sheet and moved to the floor. I offered him my pillow and then turned over on the bunk with no bedding and resumed my hibernation. I actually did sleep fairly well that night, but I awoke with a strained back muscle that bother me for a few days. Good times on the Indian railway system!
Monday, May 11
Goat Roast
Well, this fantastic event actually happened two weeks ago, but I'm only getting the pictures up now. We had so much fun a this event, even though there were more than a few people grossed out. I honestly didn't think that we would be able to pull it off, but somehow it actually turned out quite nice. Certainly not something you get to do everyday.
These are bunch of the guys in the Men's group getting the fire going. We have a lot of fun together.
Here's our goat. Mmm Mmmm...
Here's Akil, playing with the head. Later we ate it. No joke.
Ryan didn't really like the goat, at least until we chopped it up and stewed it in gravy.
I did like like the goat.
=This is how we kept our stereo playing. A great example of Indian ingenuity...
These are bunch of the guys in the Men's group getting the fire going. We have a lot of fun together.
Here's our goat. Mmm Mmmm...
Here's Akil, playing with the head. Later we ate it. No joke.
Ryan didn't really like the goat, at least until we chopped it up and stewed it in gravy.
I did like like the goat.
=This is how we kept our stereo playing. A great example of Indian ingenuity...Wednesday, April 29
Trekking!
Well, apologies for waiting this long to update my blog after the trekking trip. It was totally amazing! We spent two days hiking up 5,000 ft to a mountain lake called Dodital. The next morning we ascended another 2,000 feet to the top of the ridge where we had an amazing view of the mountains. There's actually not a lot to talk about, but I have tons of pictures to share:
This was our first campsite. The guy reading Harry's diary is our camp supervisor. In India, privacy is not a very well understood concept; there are a billion people here\
This is where we got lost in the mountains. The guy with the yellow shirt is Edwin, if you can spot him.
This was a randomly deserted village on our trail up. It's only inhabitted seasonal by those serving the hikers on the trail. It was really strange, but kind of nice to be in a completely deserted village
This is a crappy picture of Dodital. My friends took much better ones that I will steal and bring back when I return.
A great action shot of Edwin on one of the numerous stream crossings we made
fantastic view #1
this is the Yamnotri basin, from which the holy Yamuna river flows.
I like this shot because you can see four seperate ridges in it; the one I'm on, the one forming the valley we hiked up through, the Gangotri ridge from which the holy Ganga (Ganges) river originates, and vaugely in the back is the ridge on which Badrinath is located - the highest mountain in the area at over 25,000 ft.
This was our first campsite. The guy reading Harry's diary is our camp supervisor. In India, privacy is not a very well understood concept; there are a billion people here\
This is where we got lost in the mountains. The guy with the yellow shirt is Edwin, if you can spot him.
This was a randomly deserted village on our trail up. It's only inhabitted seasonal by those serving the hikers on the trail. It was really strange, but kind of nice to be in a completely deserted village
This is a crappy picture of Dodital. My friends took much better ones that I will steal and bring back when I return.
A great action shot of Edwin on one of the numerous stream crossings we made
fantastic view #1
this is the Yamnotri basin, from which the holy Yamuna river flows.
I like this shot because you can see four seperate ridges in it; the one I'm on, the one forming the valley we hiked up through, the Gangotri ridge from which the holy Ganga (Ganges) river originates, and vaugely in the back is the ridge on which Badrinath is located - the highest mountain in the area at over 25,000 ft.
and as we started to descend, it started to snow. A great ending to an amazing day. I also like the disparity in clothing choice...
Friday, April 17
Easter photos
I just thought I'd throw up some quick picks
Ko playing around on a razor scooter with the little ones, and a teddy bear
A fun game where the wives try to identify their husbands underneath a bed sheet.
This one led to some interesting conversations....
Ko with some of the older guys that we play soccer and cricket with
Ko playing around on a razor scooter with the little ones, and a teddy bear
A fun game where the wives try to identify their husbands underneath a bed sheet.
This one led to some interesting conversations....
Ko with some of the older guys that we play soccer and cricket with
Tuesday, April 14
Easter!
Hello again! I know this blog is a little belated, but I just thought I would quickly describe the Easter celebrations that I took part in this year. Things started Friday night when we visited our neighbors house to dye eggs. It was a nice relaxing night for us all, and I introduced everyone to my family's tradition of painting the eggs with melted wax. I think they turned out great. All this was in preparation for Saturday night, when we invited some kids from the slum over to launch fireworks, share some snacks, and talk about Easter. It was sometimes slightly awkward, since they didn't speak any english, but we all really enjoyed the fireworks. Indian fireworks are quite similar to what we get in the US (at least in Indiana...) except a little larger and less predictable. Nothing was dangerous (don't worry Mom...) but we did accidentally shoot a rocket into the neighboring school's grounds where it exploded. The chokedar (gatekeeper) came out and yelled at us.
On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to attend an Easter service down in the town proper. It was open to all in Mussorie, and it was a great time to greet friends that we normally don't see on Sundays. In the afternoon, each crch split off to hold a picnic for all of its members; my church had ours on a hilltop overlooking the surrounding area. Of course, they recruited us interns to haul all the food up the hillside (which was NOT easy), but I'm glad that I was able to serve in some respect. The whole afternoon was spent playing games, eating great food, singing, dancing in traditional Garwhalie (yes, they forced us interns to all get up and dance even though we had no idea what we were doing), and hanging out with friends. We all really enjoyed the time, but it was very tiring, especially having to tote all the food and gear around. Plus, we went off with some of the guys we met afterwards to play cricket for two hours. This was a lot of fun, too. If any of you know about my whiffle ball games, it was totally like that. We played in our friend's drive way, and had rules such as over the fence (and down the side of a mountain) is an out, hitting any windows, flower pots, or the upper roof is an out, the lower roof is four runs, and the side of the house is six. Luckily, we didn't lose any balls down the hill. It was a great Easter, but I went to bed at like 9:30 because I was sooo tired.
On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to attend an Easter service down in the town proper. It was open to all in Mussorie, and it was a great time to greet friends that we normally don't see on Sundays. In the afternoon, each crch split off to hold a picnic for all of its members; my church had ours on a hilltop overlooking the surrounding area. Of course, they recruited us interns to haul all the food up the hillside (which was NOT easy), but I'm glad that I was able to serve in some respect. The whole afternoon was spent playing games, eating great food, singing, dancing in traditional Garwhalie (yes, they forced us interns to all get up and dance even though we had no idea what we were doing), and hanging out with friends. We all really enjoyed the time, but it was very tiring, especially having to tote all the food and gear around. Plus, we went off with some of the guys we met afterwards to play cricket for two hours. This was a lot of fun, too. If any of you know about my whiffle ball games, it was totally like that. We played in our friend's drive way, and had rules such as over the fence (and down the side of a mountain) is an out, hitting any windows, flower pots, or the upper roof is an out, the lower roof is four runs, and the side of the house is six. Luckily, we didn't lose any balls down the hill. It was a great Easter, but I went to bed at like 9:30 because I was sooo tired.
Sunday, April 5
Rishikesh, Haridwar, and Hinduism
Well, these blog updates are turning into weekly affairs. No matter, we went on a really interesting trip this weekend to Rishikesh and Haridwar. This trip was not only a test of how well we could get around India on our own (which certainly created interesting experiences), but also an opportunity to learn about Hinduism firsthand in two of the most sacred Hindu cities. We were given a scavenger hunt with certain places to visit and things to find out and basically shoved out the door with little direction. In India, the concept of a map is not what it is in the West. You don't typically navigate on your own in a new place. If people are in an area they're not familiar with you rely on everyone around you for your directions. So, if we were uncomfortable asking for directions before, we are certainly much more open to it now.
Thanks to help from our taxi driver, vikram driver, bus driver, auto-rickshaw driver and a random shopkeeper, we made it safely to Rishikesh. this city is well-known as the premier meditation center of India, and has numerous ashrams (like meditation schools) and yoga teachers. As such, there is a surprisingly large foreign population both of people coming to visit and yoga/meditation students there to learn. You might imagine, most of these people fall into the broad category of 'hippyish'. The city itself kind of sprawls up along the Ganga, and is nestled in quite a scenic valley between two hilly outcrops. We spent the entire day walking around the city and observing/praying for the many pilgrams, tourists, beggars & cripples, and sadus (Hindu ascetics relying on donations from other that supposedly bring them good Karma). Perhaps the most interesting experience was going out for dinner with some guys that we meet by the river. They didn't speak hardly any english and we only knew a few phrases of Hindi, but despite it we were able to get many points back and forth and it was an interesting and rewarding expereince. On the way back to your guest house, we passed a Hindu festival celebrating the birthday of Ram (often protrayed as a blue warrior with a bow and arrows).
In the morning we woke early to observe some of the rituals that people performed at the river. It was surprising to us to note that in the same places (and times) you would have people praying, meditating, washing, bathing, and worshiping idols. Later, we moved on to Haridwar. In an interesting turn of events, we tried to hire a vikram to take us to the bus stand so we could catch a bus to Haridwar. Apparently he misundstood us, and drove us all 20-some kilometers to Haridwar, but it was only 20 rupees so I guess it worked out in the end. Haridwar is a sacred place becuase it is believe Ram stepped into the river Ganga at that location, and it is one of the four locations of the Kumbh Mela, perhaps the largest festival in Hinduism. As it so happened, we reached Haridwar the day after a festival celebrating Ram's birthday, and there were just tons of people. And we've been told it gets much worse. The river banks are lined with these ghats, where people can bathe in the river and supposedly wash away their sins. We must have stood out amid the masses of Indians because the beggars (mostly children) and 'Ganga preservation fund collectionists' would hardley leave us alone. After a few hours exploring the city we walked to the bus stand (again with the help of about half a dozen shopkeepers), eventually found the bus to Dehra Dun and made it back to Mussoorie, thouroughly exhausted but gratefully for the ey-opening experience.
I won't lie, it was extremely difficult at times to expereince Rishikesh and Haridwar. There were many parts of the journey that were much fun and very enjoyable, but the fact remains that these are two of the most spiritually dark places in India. It was tough watching people celebrating and cavorting while consumed by the chains of idolatry and false ideologies. On top of that, it was extremely diffucult for me to kep my heart soft when the constant demands of the beggars really made me feel dehumanized and looked at as a moneybag. It will certainly give me much material to think about, pray over, and sift through for a while.
The Third Eye, an american-Italian-Maxican-Israeli
restaurant run by Indians where we had lunch in Rishikesh.
Ram Juhla, a pedestrian cable-stayed bridge over the Ganges.
And people were still riding motorbikes over it
Harry and Ko going for a 'dip' in the Ganges
The main bathing ghats in Haradwar, just after a Hundu festival
Some Sikh men who helped explain where we were... and a cool bridge in the background (engineers represent!)
Thanks to help from our taxi driver, vikram driver, bus driver, auto-rickshaw driver and a random shopkeeper, we made it safely to Rishikesh. this city is well-known as the premier meditation center of India, and has numerous ashrams (like meditation schools) and yoga teachers. As such, there is a surprisingly large foreign population both of people coming to visit and yoga/meditation students there to learn. You might imagine, most of these people fall into the broad category of 'hippyish'. The city itself kind of sprawls up along the Ganga, and is nestled in quite a scenic valley between two hilly outcrops. We spent the entire day walking around the city and observing/praying for the many pilgrams, tourists, beggars & cripples, and sadus (Hindu ascetics relying on donations from other that supposedly bring them good Karma). Perhaps the most interesting experience was going out for dinner with some guys that we meet by the river. They didn't speak hardly any english and we only knew a few phrases of Hindi, but despite it we were able to get many points back and forth and it was an interesting and rewarding expereince. On the way back to your guest house, we passed a Hindu festival celebrating the birthday of Ram (often protrayed as a blue warrior with a bow and arrows).
In the morning we woke early to observe some of the rituals that people performed at the river. It was surprising to us to note that in the same places (and times) you would have people praying, meditating, washing, bathing, and worshiping idols. Later, we moved on to Haridwar. In an interesting turn of events, we tried to hire a vikram to take us to the bus stand so we could catch a bus to Haridwar. Apparently he misundstood us, and drove us all 20-some kilometers to Haridwar, but it was only 20 rupees so I guess it worked out in the end. Haridwar is a sacred place becuase it is believe Ram stepped into the river Ganga at that location, and it is one of the four locations of the Kumbh Mela, perhaps the largest festival in Hinduism. As it so happened, we reached Haridwar the day after a festival celebrating Ram's birthday, and there were just tons of people. And we've been told it gets much worse. The river banks are lined with these ghats, where people can bathe in the river and supposedly wash away their sins. We must have stood out amid the masses of Indians because the beggars (mostly children) and 'Ganga preservation fund collectionists' would hardley leave us alone. After a few hours exploring the city we walked to the bus stand (again with the help of about half a dozen shopkeepers), eventually found the bus to Dehra Dun and made it back to Mussoorie, thouroughly exhausted but gratefully for the ey-opening experience.
I won't lie, it was extremely difficult at times to expereince Rishikesh and Haridwar. There were many parts of the journey that were much fun and very enjoyable, but the fact remains that these are two of the most spiritually dark places in India. It was tough watching people celebrating and cavorting while consumed by the chains of idolatry and false ideologies. On top of that, it was extremely diffucult for me to kep my heart soft when the constant demands of the beggars really made me feel dehumanized and looked at as a moneybag. It will certainly give me much material to think about, pray over, and sift through for a while.
The Third Eye, an american-Italian-Maxican-Israelirestaurant run by Indians where we had lunch in Rishikesh.
Ram Juhla, a pedestrian cable-stayed bridge over the Ganges.
And people were still riding motorbikes over it
Harry and Ko going for a 'dip' in the Ganges
The main bathing ghats in Haradwar, just after a Hundu festival
Some Sikh men who helped explain where we were... and a cool bridge in the background (engineers represent!)
Sunday, March 29
Dehradun, Chamba and New Tehri dam
Hello again everyone. This post is a short update on my explorations in Garwhal, the region surrounding Mussorie. Last Saturday Harry and I took a taxi down to Dehradun to buy a guitar. Unfortunately, there are no good music shops in Mussoorie, so we had to head into the big(ger) city. Neither of us were dissappointed as this gave us an excuse to explore a little bit. Actually, there's not too much to tell. All we found in Dehradun was rows upon rows of shops stretching down all the roads we walked through. It was interesting to see how similar shops tended to grouped on one street, with a few exceptions. It almost felt like walking through a Home Depot the size of a city, with clothing and food and everything else for sale. We had someone recommend a music shop to us previously, but just for run we went into this small, small music store that was (no joking) literally 4 feet wide. Maybe 5 if you include the shelf space. I sooo regret not taking a picture of Harry trying out guitars while sitting with his legs half twisted around. Anyway, we finally found the other music shop (after much walking and asking directions), and got a good guitar for a great price. Hopefully I can learn a few songs here and maybe even help out on the worship team.
This weekend, Ko and I made a kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision to hop on a bus and head out through the mountains to New Tehri, where a government dam has been built creating a huge lake. Lukily for us, a large storm had just passed through the previous day so the skies were crystal clear. We were blessed with some really astounding views of the Himalayas that we had never seen before. However, the pictures didn't turn out as well as I had hoped since our bus had shocks that threw us off our seats. After a 2 hour bus ride, we made it to Chamba which lies on the junction of several major mountain roads. on our way back we had some time to look around, and I really liked it. Its small than Mussorie, so it has a more intimate feel, but it gets a lot of traffic so there's usually a lot going on. Lukily for us, we chanced upon a jeep that was ready to head to New Tehri, so we jumped in along with 10 other people. Comfy. The tenth guy actually sat on someones lap. It was only about 20-30 minutes to Tehri, and when we arrived we grabbed some lunch and started to walk down to the water.
An interesting note about New Tehri, this town was completely master planned by a famous Indian architect and built at once. It was created for the residents of old Tehri to move to, because old Tehri now lies at the bottom of the lake created by the dam. 80 villages were also displaced by the creation of this lake, and the government provided land and houses for them in the plains near Rishikesh.
Anyway, we had no idea how to get to the dam, but you could see the lake from where we were (about 500 feet up) so we just started walking through the residential district. After about half an hour, some kids in a cricket game informed us that the dam was actually 14 kilometers away and you need to take the bus. Luckily for us, the bus stand just happened to be about 200 feet away. We grabbed the next bus down to the dam (which was interesting because I don't think a single person on the bus spoke more than a few words of english), and the driver alerted us at the stop we were supposed to get out. And there was no dam in sight. Not knowing what else to do and slightly worried because the last bus back to Mussoorie would leave in 90 minutes, we just started walking down the road. I guess the guy knew what he was talking about, because after 15 minutes we reached a beautiful view of the dam. Plus, we started talking to some guys that were there taking pictures and they offered us a ride all the way back to Chamba, in perfect time to catch the bus back to Mussoorie. Great day. I think it has also convinced us that random bus rides through the mountains are generally a good idea, and bound to be an interesting experience at the very least.
Some friends that we met on the bus
a view of New Tehri
Tehri dam, and part of the lake
One of the glorious views of the mountains
This weekend, Ko and I made a kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision to hop on a bus and head out through the mountains to New Tehri, where a government dam has been built creating a huge lake. Lukily for us, a large storm had just passed through the previous day so the skies were crystal clear. We were blessed with some really astounding views of the Himalayas that we had never seen before. However, the pictures didn't turn out as well as I had hoped since our bus had shocks that threw us off our seats. After a 2 hour bus ride, we made it to Chamba which lies on the junction of several major mountain roads. on our way back we had some time to look around, and I really liked it. Its small than Mussorie, so it has a more intimate feel, but it gets a lot of traffic so there's usually a lot going on. Lukily for us, we chanced upon a jeep that was ready to head to New Tehri, so we jumped in along with 10 other people. Comfy. The tenth guy actually sat on someones lap. It was only about 20-30 minutes to Tehri, and when we arrived we grabbed some lunch and started to walk down to the water.
An interesting note about New Tehri, this town was completely master planned by a famous Indian architect and built at once. It was created for the residents of old Tehri to move to, because old Tehri now lies at the bottom of the lake created by the dam. 80 villages were also displaced by the creation of this lake, and the government provided land and houses for them in the plains near Rishikesh.
Anyway, we had no idea how to get to the dam, but you could see the lake from where we were (about 500 feet up) so we just started walking through the residential district. After about half an hour, some kids in a cricket game informed us that the dam was actually 14 kilometers away and you need to take the bus. Luckily for us, the bus stand just happened to be about 200 feet away. We grabbed the next bus down to the dam (which was interesting because I don't think a single person on the bus spoke more than a few words of english), and the driver alerted us at the stop we were supposed to get out. And there was no dam in sight. Not knowing what else to do and slightly worried because the last bus back to Mussoorie would leave in 90 minutes, we just started walking down the road. I guess the guy knew what he was talking about, because after 15 minutes we reached a beautiful view of the dam. Plus, we started talking to some guys that were there taking pictures and they offered us a ride all the way back to Chamba, in perfect time to catch the bus back to Mussoorie. Great day. I think it has also convinced us that random bus rides through the mountains are generally a good idea, and bound to be an interesting experience at the very least.
Some friends that we met on the bus
a view of New Tehri
Tehri dam, and part of the lake
One of the glorious views of the mountains
Wednesday, March 18
The groove of things
Hello again, I realize that it has been a while since I posted on the blog. This is due, in part, to two reasons: first, that I just forget sometimes, and second, that sometimes I really don't have any time. Anyway, there hasn't been anything really spectacular going on lately so this is kind of just some mind vomit of events over the past week (vivid imagery, no?)
So this weekend we had some visitors from the Colorado office. They had recently finished a month long project trip in Afghanistan and came through India to visit before heading home. They shared some really cool stories about getting to know the Afghan people and living in the heart of the Muslim world. For example, as a people they love to laugh, and most of the older generations are all for laying down weapons and picking up books and computers. And while ladies are given almost no leeway in public, behind locked doors and shut windows they dance, laugh, and joke together.
Other than that, things have been pretty normal. This weekend we visited the local botanical garden and taxied to a waterfall in the area. Both places were interesting, but very touristy. The only strange thing is that I've had some swelling and pain in my jaw. I had to see a doctor/hospital (going to the hospital is going to the doctor, not something more serious) since it wasn't getting any better, and he said it looks like a blocked or partially blocked salivary gland. Weird. So I've been taking some meds and it has gotten better, but its still bothering me. If you could pray for my jaw I would appreciate it. I found a bunch of guys (many from the local hospital) that play soccer a couple of times a week, so I'm really pumped about that. Since were in the mountains, we play in a fenced-in terrace with rock walls and its very similar to indoor. This week in men's group we went swimming! I know it sounds bland, but the only swimming pool (other than the water fall which is FREEZING cold) is in the local 5-star hotel. They call themselves 5-star (and its better than what I stay in in the US), but they probably don't stand up to the really upscale places. Regardless, it was a really nice place, and it felt so refreshing! We had a great game of water polo and then went to the game room for pool and ping-pong.
So this weekend we had some visitors from the Colorado office. They had recently finished a month long project trip in Afghanistan and came through India to visit before heading home. They shared some really cool stories about getting to know the Afghan people and living in the heart of the Muslim world. For example, as a people they love to laugh, and most of the older generations are all for laying down weapons and picking up books and computers. And while ladies are given almost no leeway in public, behind locked doors and shut windows they dance, laugh, and joke together.
Other than that, things have been pretty normal. This weekend we visited the local botanical garden and taxied to a waterfall in the area. Both places were interesting, but very touristy. The only strange thing is that I've had some swelling and pain in my jaw. I had to see a doctor/hospital (going to the hospital is going to the doctor, not something more serious) since it wasn't getting any better, and he said it looks like a blocked or partially blocked salivary gland. Weird. So I've been taking some meds and it has gotten better, but its still bothering me. If you could pray for my jaw I would appreciate it. I found a bunch of guys (many from the local hospital) that play soccer a couple of times a week, so I'm really pumped about that. Since were in the mountains, we play in a fenced-in terrace with rock walls and its very similar to indoor. This week in men's group we went swimming! I know it sounds bland, but the only swimming pool (other than the water fall which is FREEZING cold) is in the local 5-star hotel. They call themselves 5-star (and its better than what I stay in in the US), but they probably don't stand up to the really upscale places. Regardless, it was a really nice place, and it felt so refreshing! We had a great game of water polo and then went to the game room for pool and ping-pong.
Tuesday, March 10
Man Time
So, I have recently been participating in the men's fellowship at my church. This is a new thing that hasn't been done before in the community, nor is it very common in other places. Apparently after most Indian men (and women) get married, they rarely get together with friends for a guys (or girls) night out. Obviously, this is an attempt to foster better community and relationships specifically among the men of the church. Our pastor and one of the EMI staff have brainstormed some fun stuff for the guys to do together. As I mentioned in the previous blog, last week we had dinner and some air hocky in the bazaar. This week however, we drove a short way into the surrounding hills, climbed up to the peak and grilled. It wasn't tailgate-style like you would in the US however. First we had to collect our own firewood, which we did by literaly tearing branches off of the surrounding trees with our bare hands; some still with the leaves on. After starting the fire, we took a small metal grate, laid it over the coals and threw some chicken on it. More like five or six chickens, and some potatoes and veggies. And chai, of course. They used a soysauce-and-coke marinade, that actually tasted great. (A brief apology to the IV guys, but we didn't have beef (it is India...) although I found a summer sausage in the cabinet, so maybe later?) One of the best parts of the night was when we ran out of firewood. A few guys and myself went out into the surrounding forest (it was dark, but the moon was really bright) and found an old stump, which we actually tore out of the ground with our hands, feet, and a small rock substituted as an ax. I was in charge of bringing the dessert, and would you believe it, I found a place that actually sells a decent cheesecake. That is one item that is really hard to find in India (especially cheap) and also hard to make as cream cheese doesn't exist here. So, we got to enjoy a little taste of home as well. Definitely a good night.
Tuesday, March 3
A busy past few days...
Hey everyone, its been awhile since I could really sit down with quality internet and update again. I've been really busy this last week, mostly working on project stuff such as cad drawings, note recording, report write ups and a recommendation to publish and send to the client. My one concern was writing up and publishing this recommendation correctly, while my project leader is in Hong Kong on a visa issue. Of course, I screwed it up. Only slightly though. But the good side of it is now I no longer have to be in fear of botching something up since I've already done it.
Enough about the office, this weekend a bunch of us went on an INCREDIBLE day trip to a local village (no one even remembers the name of it). We drove about 4 hrs into the surrounding hills to see an absolutely stunning view of the mountains, ate lunch and continued home. The roads were incredible: they went from paved, to gravel, to rocks strewn on a mountainside. And half of us were on motorcycles too, painful at times. Oh man, but it was sooo worth it. I am continually amazed by the beauty of God's creation here. And there are so many trails everywhere so there is always something new to see. Great times. I think India is really forming me into an outdoors person. Not only does the incredible natural beauty move me to stay outside and hike, but the general living conditions (although perfectly comfortable) are much more like camping when compared to living standards in the US. That might be a little bit of a stretch, but I definitely feel much more comfortable in the uncomfortable than I did before. I consider it a good thing. Some of the pictures are at the bottom
Yesterday, I went out with the men's group from my church. We headed down into the bazaar for dinner, desert and some quality air hockey. This was air hockey like you've never seen it before. About 1.5x a standard table, Two on two, with three pucks on the table. Absolute craziness, but totaly fun. I'm looking forward to getting to know these guys and do more fun stuff with them.
Today, we tagged along with Samuel, a friend of ours who does medical service in the surrounding villages. These villages are only accessible on foot, and the hike was amazing, although I am dead tired tonight. This was such an enjoyable experience though; we met some local families, had lunch with our roomate who teaches at a local school, had chai 3 times, enjoyed freshly fried potato chips, and even tried to solve one of the villagers drainage problems. That was interesting, and I don't think he was too excited with our ideas, but I hope it helped. I felt useful at least. Unfortunately, another person we were supposed to meet with never showed and so much of the time was spent admiring the scenery, but we may go back again and help out some more.
Well, sorry for the brevity but I have to be off. Although things are going well so far here, I certainly miss the friends and family at home and I wish I could share these experiences with you more physically. You are all in my thoughts and prayers, and if you think you might be up for visiting, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD! You wouldn't regret it. Just make sure to exercise aerobically before :)
Grace and peace,
The picture doesn't do it justice
The interns and our friend Amar, here for a week recording some music
Baby Corin again, this time with our neighbor Zarina. So cute.
This was a better part of the road... and yes, there's a cliff on the other side of those rocks.
Good times.
Enough about the office, this weekend a bunch of us went on an INCREDIBLE day trip to a local village (no one even remembers the name of it). We drove about 4 hrs into the surrounding hills to see an absolutely stunning view of the mountains, ate lunch and continued home. The roads were incredible: they went from paved, to gravel, to rocks strewn on a mountainside. And half of us were on motorcycles too, painful at times. Oh man, but it was sooo worth it. I am continually amazed by the beauty of God's creation here. And there are so many trails everywhere so there is always something new to see. Great times. I think India is really forming me into an outdoors person. Not only does the incredible natural beauty move me to stay outside and hike, but the general living conditions (although perfectly comfortable) are much more like camping when compared to living standards in the US. That might be a little bit of a stretch, but I definitely feel much more comfortable in the uncomfortable than I did before. I consider it a good thing. Some of the pictures are at the bottom
Yesterday, I went out with the men's group from my church. We headed down into the bazaar for dinner, desert and some quality air hockey. This was air hockey like you've never seen it before. About 1.5x a standard table, Two on two, with three pucks on the table. Absolute craziness, but totaly fun. I'm looking forward to getting to know these guys and do more fun stuff with them.
Today, we tagged along with Samuel, a friend of ours who does medical service in the surrounding villages. These villages are only accessible on foot, and the hike was amazing, although I am dead tired tonight. This was such an enjoyable experience though; we met some local families, had lunch with our roomate who teaches at a local school, had chai 3 times, enjoyed freshly fried potato chips, and even tried to solve one of the villagers drainage problems. That was interesting, and I don't think he was too excited with our ideas, but I hope it helped. I felt useful at least. Unfortunately, another person we were supposed to meet with never showed and so much of the time was spent admiring the scenery, but we may go back again and help out some more.
Well, sorry for the brevity but I have to be off. Although things are going well so far here, I certainly miss the friends and family at home and I wish I could share these experiences with you more physically. You are all in my thoughts and prayers, and if you think you might be up for visiting, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD! You wouldn't regret it. Just make sure to exercise aerobically before :)
Grace and peace,
The picture doesn't do it justice
The interns and our friend Amar, here for a week recording some music
Baby Corin again, this time with our neighbor Zarina. So cute.
This was a better part of the road... and yes, there's a cliff on the other side of those rocks.Good times.
Tuesday, February 24
Images of India (part II)
This was the entrance to our hotel room. Ryan in the photo is about as tall as me, and just around the corner was a step up, further lowering the ceiling.
This is Crawford Market in Mumbai. Very chaotic, but a really cool experience. Many of the actual roadways in India look like this, execpt with cars and scooters in the middle.
The sign says it all. Yeah, I'm a rebel.This was in front of the police headquarters too. You can't see it, but behind Edwin is an armed MP behind a barricade of sandbags at the entrance. And I love the look that that guy is giving me on the right.
These are some of the students we met at the college during our project trip. They guy with glasses is Ko, one of my fellow interns.
These are some of the students we met at the college during our project trip. They guy with glasses is Ko, one of my fellow interns.
This is the Taj hotel, one of the locations attacked by terrorists last November. I believe they are still renovating some floors, and the security was huge.
To the opposite side of the Taj is the Gate of India. This was constructed for the arrival of King George in 1911. It actually wasn;t finished, so the just threw up some painted cardboard when he arrived. They later really finished it in 1914.
A sunset at our project site. I only wish those power lines were gone.
The most gigantic grasshopper in the world. fyi
This was the vehicle we drove around in in Tamil Nadu. The Tata Magic. Note the size and suspension on the wheels... :)
This is me in Chennai. That is the Bay of Bengal behind me.Saturday, February 21
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Well, I'm back! and it seems like I rode almost every form of transportation known to man besides boats and animals. Overall, the project trip was spectacular, but the constant travel really wore me out. Its nice to be back in Mussoorie.
The Indian train system is a marvel in and of itself. It is the single largest company in the world, employing more people than the country of Australia. We mostly traveled in sleeper class, where there would be two bunks on one side of the aisle parallel, and two rows of three bunks on the other side (perpendicular to the aisle). By day these would fold down into seats. The accommodations are fairly comfortable, but it takes a night or two to get accostomed to sleeping in the bunks. Every hour of the day there are chai-wallahs and other poeple trying to sell wares, walking up and down the aisles yelling out their product. Occasionally you will get beggars gently pulling at your elbows and knees, or eunichs/transvestites clapping at you for a hand out. Hinduism is quite superstitious, and it is believed that curses or blessings from eunichs/transvestites are especially potent, so people try to appease them with money. There isn't much to do besides sleep, eat, read, or look at the scenery. So far I've finished three books and I'm on the verge of finishing two more.
Mumbai was a very interesting city with a bunch of attractions. Unfortunately, the internet is refusing to work with pictures so I can't upload any visual aids. We stayed in a backpacker's hotel and had a few days to walk around the city. I've often said in the past (probably to many of you) that I couldn't cut it as a backpacker. Well, Mumbai changed that. After India, backpacking in Europe would be a breeze (except for the fact that its about 20 times more expensive...).
The weather was much hotter in the plains of central India where the first project was. It was still quite dry though, so that made it more comfortable. Most of my time was spent out surveying the site, or examining the buildings for water and waste issues. The students were very friendly, and we were welcomed with garlands of flowers that smelled wonderfully. I wish that I could have pressed it and taken the whole thing back with me. A great example of Indian hospitality is that the college actually brought in a western-trained chef to cook for us, and he was incredible! We didn't just eat western food though, he also made some great local specialties, and there was delicious fresh papaya almost daily. The internet place is closing so I'm skipping ahead...
The second project was farther south, and little bit hotter. The people of Tmail Nadu are much darker than those in the north. The diet was mostly rice based as well, with very little wheat available. My favorite dish was these little rice cakes called uti (I think) that you would eat with a dal (like a lentil stew, very common all over India) and a coconut chutney (which was a bit spicy and totally amazing). This project was one that EMI has been working with for some time, and many of the buildings have already been constructed. We were only visiting to consult on some problems that had arrisen. After this, we spent a short day in Chennai and flew back to Delhi. There wasn't much time to sightsee in Chennai, but we did get to go to the beach and take pictures of the Bay of Bengal. And, I can say that I was at both sides of the Indian Ocean in the same week.
Now I have another month (at least) back in Mussoorie to start finalising the project reports. I'm looking forward to this time in one place. I know feel much more comfortable in India having been here awhile and seen a lot, so I hope to get more intimately acpauinted around town. My thanks again to all of your kind thoughts and birthday wishes; its always a pleasure to hear from my friends and family. Take care and God bless!
The Indian train system is a marvel in and of itself. It is the single largest company in the world, employing more people than the country of Australia. We mostly traveled in sleeper class, where there would be two bunks on one side of the aisle parallel, and two rows of three bunks on the other side (perpendicular to the aisle). By day these would fold down into seats. The accommodations are fairly comfortable, but it takes a night or two to get accostomed to sleeping in the bunks. Every hour of the day there are chai-wallahs and other poeple trying to sell wares, walking up and down the aisles yelling out their product. Occasionally you will get beggars gently pulling at your elbows and knees, or eunichs/transvestites clapping at you for a hand out. Hinduism is quite superstitious, and it is believed that curses or blessings from eunichs/transvestites are especially potent, so people try to appease them with money. There isn't much to do besides sleep, eat, read, or look at the scenery. So far I've finished three books and I'm on the verge of finishing two more.
Mumbai was a very interesting city with a bunch of attractions. Unfortunately, the internet is refusing to work with pictures so I can't upload any visual aids. We stayed in a backpacker's hotel and had a few days to walk around the city. I've often said in the past (probably to many of you) that I couldn't cut it as a backpacker. Well, Mumbai changed that. After India, backpacking in Europe would be a breeze (except for the fact that its about 20 times more expensive...).
The weather was much hotter in the plains of central India where the first project was. It was still quite dry though, so that made it more comfortable. Most of my time was spent out surveying the site, or examining the buildings for water and waste issues. The students were very friendly, and we were welcomed with garlands of flowers that smelled wonderfully. I wish that I could have pressed it and taken the whole thing back with me. A great example of Indian hospitality is that the college actually brought in a western-trained chef to cook for us, and he was incredible! We didn't just eat western food though, he also made some great local specialties, and there was delicious fresh papaya almost daily. The internet place is closing so I'm skipping ahead...
The second project was farther south, and little bit hotter. The people of Tmail Nadu are much darker than those in the north. The diet was mostly rice based as well, with very little wheat available. My favorite dish was these little rice cakes called uti (I think) that you would eat with a dal (like a lentil stew, very common all over India) and a coconut chutney (which was a bit spicy and totally amazing). This project was one that EMI has been working with for some time, and many of the buildings have already been constructed. We were only visiting to consult on some problems that had arrisen. After this, we spent a short day in Chennai and flew back to Delhi. There wasn't much time to sightsee in Chennai, but we did get to go to the beach and take pictures of the Bay of Bengal. And, I can say that I was at both sides of the Indian Ocean in the same week.
Now I have another month (at least) back in Mussoorie to start finalising the project reports. I'm looking forward to this time in one place. I know feel much more comfortable in India having been here awhile and seen a lot, so I hope to get more intimately acpauinted around town. My thanks again to all of your kind thoughts and birthday wishes; its always a pleasure to hear from my friends and family. Take care and God bless!
Monday, February 2
Last one for a while...
Well, I washed my clothes by hand for the first time yesterday, and what a chore it was! We only had these 40 liter buckets to work with (the same ones we use to bathe with) and made the mistake of doing our laundry all together at the same time. I also used too much soap and had to rinse out my clothes 3 or 4 times before the soap was diluted enough to hang to dry. This consisted of plunging the soapy clothes in and out of a bucket of fresh water until the water was too soapy to continue, wringing out my clothes (again by hand) and then fill the bucket with more water and repeat. The clothes are still hanging outside now because they weren’t completely dry this morning. I think the whole process took me about three or four hours.We haven’t really sunk into a daily routine, since orientation ended last Wednesday and tonight we leave for Mumbai on our project trips, but we always have a daily devotional at the office around 8:30. We have lunch at 12:30 and chai at 3, and dinner at around 6:30. After dinner, the interns and Ryan head back to Tiperary where we usually play games or cards. By the way, they do have Settlers and Risk here! After we come back from our project trips, we will get involved with local ministries and churches.
On Saturday we took a hike to Bare Hill, which was only about 40 minutes. We saw our first rhododendron tree in bloom. As the weather warms, we’ll be able to see more and more red scattered through the hills as the rest of t
he trees open up. There is a lot of flora and fauna here, which can actually be a nuisance at times. Monkeys are everywhere, and while I haven’t had a run-in yet, they have certainly woken me up once or twice in the orning. The one pictured is a grey languor, there are also brownish rhesus monkeys as well. In addition to the monkeys, there is everything from leopards (very unlikely that I will ever see one, but we got a great picture of Oopi inspecting some fresh droppings!), flying foxes, tons of birds, weird cat-like things, scorpions, and spiders the size of your hand. However, we’ve only seen monkeys, birds, and some medium sized spiders.
As my birthday is tomorrow and we’ll be spending the entire day on a train headed to Mumbai, we had a small birthday celebration during chai today. Everyone is looking forward to the project trips, and the chance to see more of India. I would love to keep you updated in a timely fashion, but it’s unlikely that I’ll have any e-mail access for at least two weeks. So I will 
leave you here and look forward to the chance to tell you more about India. And if there is anything you want to hear more about, or if you’re curious about something specific please let me know and I’ll write about it. Thanks and take care!
This is Corin, the Nepali-Chinese-Canadian-Indian son of our friends Bogut and Evey, wearing his Chinese New Year outfit. This kid is the essence of adorability and might possibly give my cousins a run for their money.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)