Journal 8-29-2010

Journal 8-29-10

Our First Day in India

I didn’t get much sleep last night because I was so preoccupied with thinking about India. John and I both woke up at about 8:15 when Katie knocked on our door. We had both set alarms for 7:30, and neither of them went off. We made it down to the dining hall about 5 minutes later where we waited about an hour while a man named Prabhu put together some things for our breakfast. We ate hard-boiled eggs, corn flakes and chai tea. They were trying to make us an American style breakfast. It was really bland, and we were all a little bit disappointed because we wanted to start trying real south Indian food. After breakfast we went in search of a telephone and or Internet connection, we walked on the side of the crowded road in front of ICSA. First we went to the right for a block then two the left for a couple blocks. We were unable to find either a telephone or an Internet connection even after asking for directions from several people. Leah’s parents will have to suffer for another day. After we got back from our first excursion we played cards for a while, then Leah went to go take a nap. Katie John and I finished our game and decided to go out again. This time we went farther to the right, we found a bookstore and a museum that were located off the busy road. We poked around in the bookstore and didn’t go into the museum (because we wanted to wait until everyone was with us). We then left and went back to the road. Where we were hassled for a good 15 minutes by a rickshaw driver. He made us realize that we aren’t really ready to deal with difficult situations yet. He finally left when it became clear that we didn’t want to go anywhere. When we made it back to the hotel Matt had arrived.

Matt told us about his trip through Russia and Asia, and about how he was mugged in Indonesia (I think). Then we had lunch, which was a delicious vegetarian dish that had noodles and a bunch of vegetables, with some reddish cauliflower vegetable sauce and also another sauce (which appeared to be BBQ sauce). It was very good and fairly spicy! We asked Prabhu if he could make our next meal hotter, and he said yes, we would be having chicken.

After lunch we went up to the roof and met the dodi (Laundry guy). Then we decided to go walk around again. This time we walked for what must have been almost 3 miles. We turned left out of ICSA and just kept going. We all stopped at the fabric market to look for clothes and fabric that we could bring to a tailor who would make us clothes. At this point in the trip I was thinking to myself, “this area is very crowded, everyone is watching us and we are probably going to get run over.” The fabric market turned out to be a much nicer area than the area we were about to visit on the other side of the bridge.

As we crossed the bridge we immediately noticed an enormous pile of human hair. The hair was the icing on a disgusting pile of trash, human waste and decomposing organic matter. The trash heap lined the entire hill down to the river. The river was even worse than the garbage on its banks. The river was visibly thick with filth. Trash was floating everywhere and the water itself was a dark muck that seemed to be creeping downstream. As we crossed the bridge, I tried to hold my breath because of the awful stench of urine and human shit that was blowing up from the river.

We finally made it across the river and moved into the city on the other side. We crossed a dangerously busy intersection, that didn’t appear to be controlled by any system of traffic control. It seems to me that the rules of the road are followed according to size. This means that pedestrians have the right of way only when crossing paths with dogs. We got across this intersection by running across four lanes of traffic. We then continued our walk by going down a street lined with trash, many sleeping homeless people, a horse, cars, a dog with a huge open gash in its shoulder, a fancy mosque, men, women and many children. Very loud music was thumping down this street adding to the chaos and making me slightly less comfortable. We kept walking choosing our path randomly when we reached intersections. This walk was very uncomfortable but was exactly what I wanted. In order to get comfortable with a place I need to put myself out of my comfort zone, which at the moment consists of my bed in room 205 at ICSA. I am not scared or on edge. I am simply uncomfortable. This is because everything is new. With every step I take into India I am inundated with new smells, sights, sounds and it is a lot to process. The most difficult part is acting like its no big deal. I can’t look surprised when I see a goat eating road garbage or dead rat carcasses in the street because we are constantly being watched by everyone that can see us.

It is also worth mentioning that at this point we have no guide and are going out as a group of 5. We haven’t been able to tell parents or teachers that we have arrived at ICSA, and we haven’t meet anybody at ICSA who is involved with our program. We believe that tomorrow (Monday) the person will arrive and start teaching the classes that we supposedly have four our first month.

-          We also need to go buy clothes and find a cash machine.

-          We aren’t sure if there is dinner tonight either.

We were given so much independence on this trip! This is such an unbelievable experience. I LOVE traveling with such a small group and having the opportunity to deal with train tickets, taxis, accommodations and food without the help of a teacher or a translator.

(Note) Sorry for the lack of pictures. I didn’t bring my camera on our first walk, but even if I did I probably wouldn’t have used it. Taking pictures makes us stick out even more, if that is even possible.

(Note) It is very hot, I smell bad, this is our shower, it is equipped with two buckets and no drain…