Chennai

On Friday night we traveled by train to Chennai which is the capital city of Tamil Nadu. It was a nice train where we had 6 beds that folded up into chairs and even a curtain to separate our little ‘room’ from the rest of the train. We slept the night on the train and honestly I slept better there because we had AC all night long whereas at my apartment the power goes off and so it is very hard to sleep when I’m so hot.

                When we got to Chennai we visited a woman named Shiamala Baby who is working to improve the lives of the Dalit community in her area. We were taken to a couple of different villages to talk with the people and learn from them. When we would come into their area they always gave us a warm welcome where they put the bindi and sandlewood paste on our foreheads and cheeks and then flowers around our necks. One young man even told us that we looked beautiful with the marks on our foreheads and implied that we look boring with our usual bare foreheads which I found interesting.

                On Sunday we went to St. Thomas Church and a museum where Doubting Thomas from the Bible was supposedly buried. Afterward we went to the beach see the ocean. I’m glad I got to see the Indian ocean from India, but I must say, Kenya’s got the upper hand! Maybe it was just this beach but there were no palm trees, few shells, no reef, and way too many hawkers!

                In the afternoon we went shopping and then boarded the train to come back. We arrived in Coimbatore around 11pm and I was so tired! I enjoyed Chennai but I definitely prefer Coimbatore because Chennai is too busy and  crazy and hot. I saw some very humorous signs though:

Ooty

Early mornings. Beautiful scenery. 36 hairpin curves. Involved in 2 accidents. Participated in a tribal dance. Toured a tea factory. Rode an elephant. Saw a-….Wait what?

                Yes. I rode an elephant!!! I RODE AN ELEPHANT!!! This has been on my bucket list for quite sometime and I promised myself I wouldn’t leave India without riding on elephant. And on Saturday, I got my chance. Let me back up a bit.

                Our weekend trip was to Ooty. We left Coimbatore at 6:00 and traveled in jeeps. Ooty is at the top of a huge hill/mountain so the road was tons of switchbacks and hairpin curves. There were so many times where I thought we might not make it when I saw the busses careening toward us in our lane around a hairpin curve. My favorite part was that the hairpin curves were numbered 6 of 36 etc!

                In the afternoon we went to Madumalai Tiger Reserve to go on a tiger safari. Before you get oober jealous- don’t. We didn’t see any tigers. Or panthers. Or elephants. So what did we see? Well, we went in a huge camouflaged bus (presumably so the tigers wouldn’t see us?) and saw some monkeys, deer, birds, and peacocks. Next we went over to see the elephants be fed. That was cool to me since I haven’t really seen Asian elephants up close before. It was so interesting to watch their riders get on the elephant. They would say something and the elephant would lift its leg up. The man would then climb on the elephants knee and pull himself up.

             

   The next morning we were ready at 6:30 to go for an elephant ride!! I and three other people rode an elephant named John. It was pretty cool-much cooler than riding a camel or an ostrich. I wish I could have sat on the elephants neck, but it was still cool to sit on the back. We rocked back and forth and it was so tall! We actually got to ride for about 30 minutes through the bush to look for more animals. After we got off, we got to take pictures with another elephant. Our elephant, John, had tusks and so was “very dangerous” so this is actually a different elephant.

  Afterward we went to the Chamaraj Tea factory. Found out that they sell their tea to Tazo, Lipton, and other big name brands. It was actually very interesting to see how they pick the tea and process it. Plus, we got to taste-test different kinds of tea! And of course it was absolutely gorgeous with all the tea plantations and old colonial style houses. Made me think of Brakenhurst.

                Before driving home we visited a village where we heard an elder talk about how the culture used to be. Then we saw and participated in a tribal dance.

                The road home was long and very windy to get back down the mountain in the dark. And yes, we got hit twice. I’m actually quite shocked it didn’t happen more times and there was no actual damage.

                Happy to be back home and we were all so tired and ready to go to bed…except we had one more adventure. Julianna (one of my roommates) accidently brought a huge spider home with her in her backpack!! Being the one from Africa, I figured I could handle it and so had our electric bat ready. It was hilarious to watch one girl holding a knife ready and then a frying pan. Unfortunately the zapper didn’t work and I admit that I was not the one to kill it. However, we do have a hilarious video of the 10 minute episode of trying to kill it!

Home stay

This weekend we had home stays. We were paired with another person from our group and Jessica and I were the only ones who left Coimbatore. We got to ‘bunk’ (skip) class and drive about an hour and half to the city of Tirapur. We stayed with Reverand Timothy and his wife Annie who were so nice and welcoming. The majority of our home stay was us being shuffled off to various church people who were also business men. We toured many people’s factories and offices where they designed, made, and sent off lots of clothes that are shipped to Europe and America. We saw a Gap shirt and Levi jeans!

                Another huge part of our trip was eating delicious food. We were fed SO much! For one lunch we had fried rice, mutton, 2 kinds of chicken, and 2 kinds of rice. Then, when I was almost done with that, they asked if we were ready for the white rice course. So we got a huge scoop of white rice with a sauce on it. Then there was another kind of sauce so we had to get some more fresh rice. I think we were give 4 servings of rice! And the wife of the house would just stand right over our shoulders while we were eating and keep scooping things on our plate! So just when I thought I had almost accomplished and was almost done eating the chicken, several more pieces would be scooped onto my plate! Sigh. Keep going.

                We also went to Don Moen concert. Who? He’s very famous in America. Or at least that’s what we were told. However, none of my group had even heard of him before but all the Indians knew all of his songs. It was cool to see several thousand Indian’s worshipping God together.

                On Sunday we went to a Tamil church service. NO idea what was going on. We were supposed to eat breakfast at the church but since the person was late taking us to church there was no time to eat before. So after 3 hours sitting there we were getting pretty hungry-after all, it was 11:30! It was communion that took so long. The men formed a single-file line and went up to the front and kneeled down and were given a piece of bread and then a drink from the same goblet that was just wiped in between. Then the next person came up. After all the men had gone, the women started. Our host asked us if we wanted to take communion…after a couple thousand people had just drank out of that goblet I politely declined! I did enjoy seeing all the beautiful saris while we were sitting there.

Joy in the Small Things

Some things are tough here. Going grocery shopping takes a couple hours because we have to walk about 30 minutes there, get our groceries, and walk about 30 minutes back with all the bags in our backpacks. By the time we get home-our backs are drenched in sweat and we just want to collapse! The power is often off, mosquitoes are abundant, and I’m bored of rice!

                However, I have to remember to have joy in the small things that add up. So here is a list that I’ve been composing in my head of some of my small joys:

                -Zapping mosquitoes with the electric racket: I love to go out to the clothesline and start tapping the clothes. Clouds of mosquitoes swarm off of them and I have a field day zapping them. The zapper is constantly sparking and you can actually smell all the fried mosquitoes. I probably killed over 30 this morning!

                -Lighting the burner on the first try: Our striker is not very effective and so sometimes it takes 10 or 15 tries to light the stove. It’s so nice when it just lights the first time.

                -Finding the power on: We have scheduled ‘load-sharing’ where they switch off our power. Its off from 8-10am and 2-4pm…and many other times too. But its nice to come home and find it on.

                -Peanut butter: Definitely nice to have on apples especially since there isn’t much protein in a rice diet.

                -Roti night. Every lunch we have rice in the school Mess (cafeteria) and some nights they give us containers of food for dinner. It’s almost always rice. But once a week it is rotis (like chapattis)

                -Seeing beautiful saris: I don’t think I’l ever get bored of seeing the beautiful saris of the women here. They are all different and each is so vibrant and rich.

                -A successful crossing of the street: Sometimes you just nail it. You see a break in the motorcycles, cross halfway and stand in the middle of the road until there is another break. And you just feel so accomplished.

                -Spending a small amount of money on a week’s worth of groceries: I spend between $4-$6 dollars a week on tons of fruits and vegetables.

Of course the list goes on, but these are just a few of the small joys of living in India.

So where are you again?

Hopefully all of you know that I’m in India. But I wanted to tell ya’ll more about my surroundings. I’m in Tamil Nadu which is the southernmost state of India and am living in the city of Coimbatore. We live on Race Course road which is the fancy/upscale part of town. All along this road there are many nice places to eat and interesting things to see. To get to school we walk along Race Course for about 15 minutes. We pass by Café Coffee Day which is like an American Starbucks and then Indulge where we get internet (and where I am writing this from). Right across the street from Indulge is a Hindu temple that we usually see people worshipping in. There are street beggars, street dogs, gardeners, and endless people walking. A lot of them are exercise walking and we see the women with tennis shoes on with their saris! We also pass an outdoor gym where we see about 20 men ‘working out’- badmitten, free weights, and different bars to do pull-ups. We always feel so awkward passing by since they all turn and just stare at us. Finally, we cross a street to get school. We are definitely getting better at avoiding the auto rickshaws, busses, cars, and endless motorcycles. We usually shop for our weekly groceries at a 3 story fruit/vegetable market another 15 minutes past school. Of course, we walk everywhere.

                Our apartment is very comfortable. I have 4 other roommates (who are all amazing and in the above picture). Here is our kitchen with the gas bomb that powers our 2 burners.

This is our water filter that only gets water from 7-7:30 am that we have to fill every day because we go through about 20 litres of water a day!

This is our living room/dining room. I’ve only sat in the dining room once to do homework! Emergency light in the hallway for when (not if) the power goes out. We hang our clothes on the line outside.

The apartment has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. This is my room and my bed is the one of the left. So thankful that we are getting mosquito nets soon!

And this is the 'shower'. Bucket bath actually but I'm almost coming to prefer this method. I can't even use a full bucket of water if I try so its nice not to waste so much water.

I hope this gives you a better picture of my life here.