Birthday in India

This past Saturday I celebrated my birthday not only in India, but on one of our weekend trips to the city of Madurai.

The day started out great because first of all I had slept in air-conditioning!! My students were very kind to surprise me with little notes and gifts and sang a hearty round of ‘Happy Birthday’ as I ate my cornflakes and hot milk! After I got my stuff together to go off touring for the day I was surprised to see a cake with ‘Happy Birthday Hannah Brown’ written on it (in case there was any confusion on which Hannah’s birthday it was!)!

Then we started off on our full day of touring by first going to Meenakshi temple. As we were walking around the huge temple we came across an elephant standing in the courtyard. For a small fee you could have the elephant ‘bless’ you and put his trunk on you. I was so surprised by how heavy his trunk was and it was so so cool!

Being 'blessed' by an elephant!

On the way back to Coimbatore we stopped at an orphanage for children with HIV and we got to watch them perform little songs and dances (including the song ‘Making Melodies in my Heart which I sang in Sunday school in Kenya). Then they let them loose and the kids all grabbed our hands and pulled us to the playground where I spent the next hour so very happy! I loved taking pictures of all my students interacting with the kids so freely and joyfully. Shouts of ‘Akka’ (older sister), ‘Ana’ (older brother), ‘Uncle’, and ‘Auntie’ rang out from across the playground as they raced around showing us their games and including us in their activities. One 13 year old girl Venitra gleefully showed me her room- her bed and trunk and all her drawings. She told me that usually every day is so sad but today is “very jolly” because we had come.

Beautiful Venitra from the HIV orphanage

At the very end as we were supposed to be saying goodbye and loading onto the bus, a little boy came to me and put his hands up for me to pick him up. I did, and he wrapped his little legs tightly around my waist and twined his little arms around my neck, laid his head on my shoulder, and started to cry! Of course then I teared up as well! Playing with those sweet children was the best part of my birthday! But it was also super cool to be in India because I don’t think I would have gotten 'blessed' by an elephant anywhere else!

Group pic!

  Another special birthday treat was getting to Skype with my family on Sunday afternoon! We are on 3 separate continents but somehow we were all online at the same time and could (mostly) hear each other (although I was yelling into my microphone on my screen at a restaurant)!

just another week in India

I’ve been so busy here that I’ve forgotten to update my blog!

I’m definitely feeling more settled here and getting used to things again-my tolerance for spice has greatly improved in the past weeks, I feel more confident stepping out onto a busy street, and I’m slowly increasing my knowledge of the Tamil language. I spend a good portion of my time in the ISP office working on various projects, trying to make things run smoothly, and helping the students process their experiences.

I always love riding in autos!

I feel like every day is a story here, so I’ll just try to mention the highlights of this week:

- going to a nearby restaurant and getting the Mint Lemon Daisy drink which I have missed ever since I left India. So now I’m making up for it and have got it 3 times this week!

- spending time with my students and developing closer relationships with them. They are all so different and unique and I’m really enjoying hearing their stories and watching them experience India.

I missed Dinnesh so much!

-I got to go visit Cottolengo home where I did my internship while I was a student here! It is a home for mentally and physically handicapped people so I was curious if any of them would remember me. When I came in, shouts of “Aka! Aka!” echoed from around the room and brought tears to my eyes. I wandered around greeting the familiar faces and meeting some new people. When I found out that I had been hired for this job, I was especially excited to see my boy Dinnesh who I spent a lot of time with before! We used to play this game where I put a block on his head and then made a sound and he would tip his head down and I would catch the block in my hand and he would just crack up every time. I wondered if he would remember the game. So I went over to him and put a block on his head and just started to make the noise, when he tipped his head down dropping the block right into my hand! A light came into his eyes and he laughed his precious laugh!!! Definitely one my most favorite memories so far!

-making new Indian friends and growing those relationships. I'm trying to be more intentional about getting to know other people outside the batch since I'm here for a longer time. I have been blessed to be welcomed in so warmly and I love learning about how they see the world.

-On Saturday I took one of my students to the nearest Indian hospital for her fever. We were both kind of dreading the visit and we did end up spending a large portion of our day waiting around there. We spent an hour and a half waiting for the doctor, then she had to get blood work done. Then we were supposed to come back in a couple of hours to pick up the results. We came back and got the results, but the doctor wasn’t in for another hour to read it! Anyways, we made the most of the experience laughing at the unique decorations and trying to find our way to the different offices labeled in Tamil. But now I have navigated an Indian hospital and will be more prepared for when the next student is sick!

The boys at the orphanage

Not expecting to sing 'Jambo, Jambo Bwana' in India!!

- After church today, the youth go to an orphanage to visit a bunch of little boys whose parents are in prison. Of course the language barrier is always a challenge to know what is going on, but the little boys were so cute and fun to play with! We played one game where to win your team had to yell the loudest…of course they really liked that game! I’m excited to go back next month to visit them again!

-At this orphanage the kids started singing a song. Immediately I realized it was a tune I recognized: 'Jamb, Jambo Bwana'! But they had turned it into a song about God, just set to the same tune! So strange when your two worlds collide!

-Here's to another full week in India! It's been sinking in today what an awesome opportunity this experience is to live for a year in India. I'm very thankful and excited for what is to come!

Back in India

I am back in India! I was given the position of Assistant Director for the India Studies Program that I studied abroad with a year and a half ago! The position is for 2 semesters- or about 10 months. So basically I get to live in India again and continue learning and experiencing all the things I didn’t get to do before. I will be in charge of the students that are coming to study abroad. For many of them, this will be their first time out of the US, but whether or not they have traveled before, India is like no other place on Earth and will be overwhelming at times. It is my job to help them dive into this unique culture and experience as much as they can in 1 short semester. I will be planning trips around India for them to see the many sides of India, answering their many questions about how to live here, and helping them processes all that they see and experience.

 coffee break during salwar shopping trip

I’m really excited to watch my students come to love India and not only survive, but THRIVE in this land.

I’m excited to walk the familiar streets of Coimbatore, greet my Indian friends from when I studied here, taste the savory foods, see the brilliant colors of saris all around me, experience the jolt of adrenaline  from crossing the busy streets, and see the sweet faces of my kids at the home for mentally and physically handicapped people that I worked at last time. (see ‘Becoming Aka’)

But I am also coming at this with a realistic view. I arrived several days after the students because of trouble with my visa so I have to work extra hard to catch up. I’ve never been an Assistant Director before and so there will be a lot to learn. I already know of the many hardships of living in India- the heat, trains, cockroaches, beggars, and dealing with India Standard Time (IST). I know that there will be challenges and that the way I handle these things will greatly affect the way the students perceive and handle them as well. All in all this year is destined to be a huge learning and growing experience. Here goes! 

Riding in an auto

Reflections

           Well, I’m home in Kenya. I thought I would do one more blog post on my reflections on India. We debriefed a little bit while we were still in India, but I knew it would take me leaving the country to realize how it had changed and affected me.

At our Candlelight goodbye ceremony

       Immediately, when I got home I found myself greeting people with a slight bow and folded hands! I kept catching myself doing a head bobble as I was listening to someone! I wished for butter naan and butter chicken msala. I’m finding ordinary life somewhat dull without the crossing of streets or bartering for a better price. I am constantly amazed to find the power on and to not be sweating!  I am constantly struck at how clean everything is, and remember, I'm still in a third-world nation.

My favorite Backy

           India was a great experience for me and I learned so much about myself, God, and the world. The program I went with was called ‘Best Semester’ and I truly believe it was the best semester of my life. While India will always have a special place in my heart, it was the people in my group that made it such a rich and fulfilling experience. They challenged me, laughed with me, encouraged me, and loved me. We experienced the culture shock together and dealt with the hard stuff like seeing the poverty and the strong hold of Hinduism together.

Valentines party where we dressed up as things that go together. I was 'Power Off' and Julianna was 'Power On'!

         While I am very sad that it is over and I do miss India and my life there, I enjoy going back over my photos, videos, and journal entries to remember the most fantastic experiences such as riding an elephant, playing Holi on the roof, going white water rafting on the Ganges, exploring Varanasi, riding bicycle rickshaws, squeezing 9 people into an auto, cooking class, being a model, watching exercisers on the street, times at the girls hostel, apartment talks, visiting temples, seeing the Taj Mahal, making up new dance moves like ‘tie the dhoti’, ‘pass the tracts’, and ‘kill the mosquito’, Valentines day party, swimming in the Arabian Sea in a full salwar kameez, group stretching after a 21 hour train ride, greeting our guards every day, and sing-along times with Kirk Ji.

Our wonderful guards who always greeted us with a hearty and cheerful  "Vanakkam!"

Playing in Hyderabad

Cooking class

Our farewell gift for Kirk Ji: a map of India that we signed and wrote funny Kirkism quotes on

So, danyavad and nanri for your prayers for me and interest in keeping up with my adventures in India.

           

Snapshots of India

Our 2 ½ week travel component has come to a close. We visited several cities and have seen and experienced many things that will take weeks to process and unpack. I just wanted to give you a small taste of what I have been up to.

            We left Coimbatore traveled by train to Cuddapah which is in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Here we learned about a program that is working with farmers to help them learn their rights and to teach healthy farming methods to small village farmers who are facing suicide as an alternative to the deep debts and struggles.

            From Cuddapah we went to Hyderbad which is a predominately Muslim area. We were able to visit Charminar which is a large arch that offers a terrific view of the crazy busy city. We shopped a bit along the roadside, visited a large mosque and went to a Muslim women’s house for delicious byiriyani and a good time of discussion. That afternoon we kicked back and were able to relax and have fun doing flips, headstands, and climbing random buildings.

                                                                     The Charminar

                                                            View from the Charminar

                                                            Group pic in the Charminar

                                                               Group pic at the mosque

                                                         Posing on the roof top of a chapel

            From Hyderbad we traveled the 28 hour train ride up to Varanasi which is along the Ganges and the center of Hindu religion. Our hotel offered a great view of the Ganges river from where we were able to watch people perform different rituals as well as watch the trash and putrid waste and a dead buffalo float down the river. The first night we went on a boat ride down the Ganges and we watched a celebration be performed along the banks.

 The next day we went up and down the crowded ally-ways, trying to avoid cows, cow poop, bicycles, carts, sewage, and the thousands upon thousands of people to get in some good shopping. In the afternoon we went on a tour around the city to see the different ruins of palaces along the Ganges, the holy cremations, and several famous holy sites. The man that toured us was an American Christian who has been living in India for 15 years, spoke Hindi like a boss, and had some deep insights into how one can be a Christian Hindu- a Jesus follower. That evening a friend and I decided to ride a bicycle rickshaw for the experience…with which the language barrier, it was indeed an experience.

                                                 Group pic after our city tour with Jeremy

            From Varanasi we traveled to the quiet village of Dehradun at the foothills of the Himalyas to visit a drug rehabilitation home for Tibetan boys that our director Kirk had lived and worked at. We also heard from a Buddhist monk and visited the monastery.

                                                  Group pic at the Buddhist monestary

                        Me infront of the foothills of the Himalyas and the town that my Dad lived in

On Saturday we went white water rafting down the Ganges which was incredible! I’m hooked!

                                                                      Before rafting

                                                                       During rafting

                                             After rafting with our whole group plus guides

            From the quiet and restful Dehradun, we traveled to Delhi and Agra for the classic tourist trip of seeing the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. It was stunningly beautiful!

            We took our last train ride to Mumbai where we did a little sight-seeing, ate our last Indian food, debriefed, and made some more memories together before boarding planes to leave.

Ode to Trains

For 2 ½ weeks we are doing a travel component in India- traveling through and visiting the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Delhi, and Mumbai. Trains were our main form of transportation which gave us a whole new way to experience India. 

Imagine waking up at 6 listening to a large group of women chanting prayers until about 8 and then resuming in the evening from 6-9.

Imagine a constant stream of beggars coming in at every stop. They are blind, missing fingers or   arms or legs. Their very brokenness breaks you, their persistence and continuance grates on your nerves, and the whole thing makes you very burdened. You don’t know if  someone disfigured them in order to make them a more pitiful site to gain larger donations and you don’t know who will actually pocket the money at the end of the day. All you can do is pass out cookies or fruit to the outstretched hand or limb and hope that this small gift will give them joy.

Imagine the repetitive call of “chai, chai”, “coffee, coffee, coffee”, “cold drinks, Slice!”,   “byiriyani, byiriyani, chapatti, chapatti, chapatti!” all day and part of the night

Imagine the putrid smell at the train stops from the human waste that has gathered there

Imagine rocking back and forth over a squat pot and watching the track whiz by through the hole

Imagine very tight and cramped spaces, total strangers coming into your bearth and sitting on      
  your seat.

Imagine sitting on a train for 28 hours! You can only imagine how glad we were to step of at        different stops and run through the crowds just to get some exercise and have a chance to run. Since people were already staring, we gave them a show as we skipped, ran, and leaped down the stations- constantly dodging the hundreds of people in mid-air.

Imagine listening to men snore all night long, or the blinding light when people in your bearth get off at a stop during the night, or setting your alarm for 4:45am to be ready to get off at 5am.

Imagine running through the train stations pulling all your luggage behind you to jump onboard the train.

Imagine watching cockroaches climb around the bunk while you are trying to sleep. You bury      yourself deeper in your sleep sheet to try to avoid them, and end up watching them crawl over your sheet the rest of the time.

Imagine all of this, and you will have a small taste of what we went through. Still, I am glad for the memories that I have made

Becoming Aka

Every Thursday we are sent out across Coimbatore to do a service placement. I was assigned to work at Cottolengo which is a home for mentally and physically handicapped people. It started out very difficult because I was so overwhelmed by the suffering and hardships of the people there and I didn’t know how to interact with them. Basically the center has 50 people ages 3-53 who they take care of with various handicaps- cerebral palsy, terrets, autism, deafness, ADHD, memory loss, etc. It was hard because I was never really told what to do and I don’t speak the language. Several of them are completely spaced out just moaning and rolling their heads while their eyes refuse to focus on anything. It’s hard to see the suffering.

                However, I’ve had many good times and have been blessed through the people. First of all, my student guides are amazing. Buni and Amil are students from the college that take me to the site. I cannot say how thankful I am for them because they have helped me so much with taking the bus and finding our way through the slum. We have a morning ritual of stopping to get mango juice along the way which they are kind enough to pay for. Then one time, they took me out to a hole in the wall to eat byiriani. I said a prayer of protection over my food served on a banana leaf in a sketchy dirty restaurant and was amazed to eat the best byiriani I’ve ever had. It’s just so nice to talk to these guys and to see life through their eyes. Because of the culture, it’s very hard to get to know guys here, and so I appreciate these friendships even more. We talk about America, India, phones, music, our life goals, girls and guys, families, and even our weight (this is traditionally acceptable here but I definitely have never had a conversation about my weight with a guy before!).  I can see that they truly care about me, and I in turn, care about them.

                I would describe working at Cottolengo as eating an icecream sundae with different layers of peanuts, brownies, and chocolate syrup. I don’t like peanuts and that represents all of the hard things that I see there. It’s hard to know how to best help kids who are crippled or mentally handicapped. I don't like seeing the kids be beaten by the workers or left alone for hours just sitting drooling in a chair.

However, there are moments when I find myself eating chocolate syrup or a brownie, like when I throw a little boy into the air and watch him smile and laugh. Or when I see a 16 year old boy change from being sullen and dethatched to laughing and connecting. When I first went to Cottolengo, Dinnesh who is mentally handicapped didn’t smile or make eye contact. Now, thanks to my putting duplos on my head and walking around the room doing funny poses, he laughs till he almost falls down and loves to put duplos on his head and then tip his head down so the duplo falls into my hand. He comes around looking for me with a smile tugging at his lips and a sparkle in his eye.

 Another of my favorites is John who is 14 and was born normal. A few years ago his mother died and he went into a state of shock when he saw her dead body. His father has left him and now he has memory loss. He remembers me when I come, but doesn’t remember things about me. However, he has the brightest smile, perfect hand-eye coordination, and awesome drumming skills. We spend an hour or so every time playing catch or soccer and teaching each other new tricks.  I’ve also tried to help teach him mathematics and the alphabet which is hard considering the language barrier. John just smiles and looks at me then tells us that he will forget this soon-and he does. It’s so hard because he knows he has memory loss but can’t fight it. I want him to be taken to a counselor so he can work through these issues and live a normal life outside of this handicapped home.

   I also love playing with the little kids. We dance and sing and march in circles and play silly games. We go out to the playground and I push kids on swings, play on the jungle gym with them, and take them down the slide. Although, it doesn’t go that smoothly. One girl’s body is twisted and so she needs help to walk and it takes her awhile to climb the ladder to the slide. But her joy is evident on her face as I help her slide down. Another little boy just lays in the dirt whenever someone isn’t with him. Others just wander around aimlessly. So there I am on the playground alone with 7-10 children with various deformities and handicaps –trying to keep one out of the dirt, another from falling, and still others from hitting each other with balls or branches. It’s hectic and stressful, but what gets me through is hearing them cry out, “Aka! Aka!” which means ‘older sister’. That’s what keeps me going.

                And so on Thursday when it was time for me to leave, I realized that I wasn’t ready. I had gotten to the bottom of my icecream sundae and I was sad and wanted more. I didn’t want to say goodbye to these children because I realized that they have become special to me and have found a place in my heart. I only hope that they will remember me- Aka- and know that I will dearly miss them!