Wyand Excursion Trip...

Okey dokey, so because of a lack of electricity more than likely, no internet for the past 2ish weeks and an excursion on Wayanand this past weekend plus a few days, I have not written in quite some time…so we’ll see what I can remember…
Wayanand. This place was awesome! We left Karnataka on Saturday afternoon and took the train to Kerala. On the first day we did tourist sight-seeing things. We went to a place called ‘Soochipara Waterfalls’ and it was so beautiful. We had to hike a little ways to get there and we couldn’t swim in the water because we are girls and it wouldn’t be appropriate but either way, the place was really neat. We also saw a dam and were able to take some dam pictures : ) Lastly we went to Ekkhal? Caves. We were walking/running up it (depending on who you were) when I heard a noise and I looked over and saw a bunch of monkeys swinging on the trees. It was totally normal for all the Indians there. I think that monkeys in Wayanand are like squirrels or maybe white-tailed deer in PA because after that we saw them quite a few times. We also stopped a few times to check out some trees with various fruits or other things on them. Mr. John, the man whose homestay we stayed at and led us around all weekend, loved showing us different plants. We looked at rubber plants and saw how they were milked. I mean I guess since I can’t milk cows at home….well I haven’t actually done that in quite a few years, but you know….here I can get my fix by milking rubber trees : ) Feels like home! Haha We also stopped at a bamboo factory and saw many finished bamboo products and a loooot of bamboo trunks waiting to be made. I was able to get a bamboo mask to go along with my mask from Haiti which I’m quite excited about. And Mr. John also decided to stop on the side of the road at some random man’s house to look at the pepper he was drying in his front yard. The man led us to his backyard and showed us some of his other trees like banana and coconut and then opened a coconut for us to eat and drink the juice from and we had a huge grapefruit type thing from his backyard-and it was totally cool and normal for us to be doing that. We didn’t know him, were eating random fruits from his yard and taking pictures and then we left and went on our way. Whatever.
Day 2 in Wayanand we went to an NGO first that works with tribal communities. The one sister then took us to one tribe and we sat and talked with them for a little bit and then we went to 4 other communities in a different area. The people there take care of the forest/jungle they live in. They don’t leave the tribe very often but they go to the market sometimes if they can’t grow what they need or don’t have enough for everyone and some students go to school. Elephants, peacocks, deer, wild pigs and the occasional big cat are normal creatures for the tribal people to see wandering through around their houses or in the areas that they go to get their food. They marry within their tribe unless it’s a love marriage and they marry someone who then enters into the tribe like one lady we met. It was a really neat experience. We also got to see a guy climb a coconut tree and that was awesome! He just scampered up in his loongie (piece of cloth tied like a skirt) and started cutting the fruit down. Then he’d move the tree and get it to sway and jump to another tree. He had some crazy back muscles and abs going on because of all that climbing and so all of us girls are thinking we need to find us some coconut-climbing Indian boys : ) hahahah oy vey.
Day 3 we visited a tribal school, the beach, did some shopping and tried some new things. The tribal school was a good experience and parts of it reminded me of home again. The school was started because the tribal kids were not going to school much anymore because of various reasons. The teachers and students would treat them differently because they were from a tribe, they had a different mother tongue because every tribe has their own unique language and the students didn’t enjoy it. They were never explicitly told to sit in the back but it was an underlying rule in the classrooms basically that the kids from tribes had to sit in the back and be segregated and everyone was going to treat them differently. So one man got to know some tribes and decided to start his own school for them. They learn how to play instruments, make handicrafts, work together and do things with agriculture. The students are now the teachers. The older ones go to get their Masters some other places and then come back and teach everyone what they learned. I think they only do a few hours of what we would call classroom education where they are sitting and listening to a teacher and discussing things but then the rest of the time they are planting/harvesting/weeding/dancing/playing & singing music/making crafts/relaxing. Education is pushed a lot in the U.S. and so part of me is concerned that they aren’t getting too much knowledge on mathamatics or science or language comprehension but on the other hand, now instead of not really ever going to school and learning, they are consistently going to this tribal school. So at least now they are learning something and getting some sort of education. Who knows if they’ll ever need math or science if they only live in their tribal area then maybe all they need to know and more they can learn at this school. I don’t know. I think it would be a really interesting place to come back to for a few months or more and just learn from them. Later that night when we were on our way to the train station to head home we stopped on the side of the road and got to taste some sugar cane juice. Yum! It’s just sugar cane pressed so the juice comes out and then at this particular stop, they added a bit of lime/lemon-if you ever get the chance to try it-do it! We also stopped at a little lake/aquarium on the way. It was the sketchiest aquarium I’ve ever seen by far! There were a few cement basins holding a lot of fish and then a few tanks with a few random fish in them. They also had a statue that we all thought was a mermaid but it was god and they had a statue of an eel we think except for it was very rusty and the top half was cut off with the wires popping out of the top of it. Hahahaha luckily we only had to pay 2 Ruppees to see it. I also was able to buy some homemade chocolate there which was the best chocolate I’ve had since I’ve been here-it’s what I’ve been waiting for this whole time!
So now I’m back in Mangalore and we still don’t have internet. This guy has come to our house at least 3 times already this week and he still can’t fix it so who knows and he is very very unreliable because he was supposed to come two more times and he never showed even though we talked to him on the phone a few times and each time he said he was coming. So I’m sitting at an internet café now and I thought I should update this thing.
Lastly, this week since we got back from our excursion has been interesting. Wednesday was the grand finale for Vishwas Trust festival month. They had all their competitions like caroms, storytelling, singing and drawing and so Wednesday they handed out the awards and there was some entertainment. …guess who participated in the entertainment? I was part of a group dance that us students did. There were 7 girls and one guy at the end and we all did the first and the last stanza together and then one girl danced by herself in the middle of the song. The video is slightly choppy for some reason but you can get the gist of it…hahahaha oh my gosh it’s ridiculous but it was a lot of fun. (I'm going to try and post it once we have internet at home b/c in this cafe its taking for-ev-er!)

p.s. I just found out-I placed third for women in the half and Alison placed third for women in the 10K :) A nice surprise

p.p.s. NEW SISTERS ARE COMING TO AMERICA SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!

Ohh Pondy

Let's talk crazy 3 day weekend. So we just got back from Pondicherry/Auroville 2 nights ago and it was intense. I was the one in charge of planning everything and so now I'm glad it is over and it went pretty well...although my inbox isn't full of the taxi and race registration guy's emails anymore since I kept asking more questions.
So the weekend started at 6:15 when we left our flat on Saturday morning. The night before I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep because I figured I could sleep on the train. I had forgotten that it usually takes me about 2 days to have that sleep catch up with me and so the 20 hour train ride seemed longer that it should of had to. It was neat looking at all of the scenery though and it was good bonding time :)I went with the 4 other girls in my program. We arrived in Villupuram at about 3 a.m. where our taxi man met us. He drove us to Auroville about an hour away and then drove us around looking for the race for about another hour. There was some miscommunication there. I don't know where he thought we wanted to go-we never did figure that out-but finally he asked somewhere where to go and luckily he asked when we were next to him-he didnt get out of the car-because then we could correct his question. We reached the race at 4:45 so we got to see the start of the marathon.
Then an hour later-at 6 am-my race started. It was weird in the beginning trying to find my pace since I'd never run more than 10 miles and that might have been once this past cross season maybe and I hadn't run more than 6 or 7 miles in the past 1.5 months...that one time on the track. hahaha soo yeah, I was well prepared. It was a really awesome race though! There was maybe 300 runners total there-marathon, half, 10K, 5K and 2K included. It wasn't a very spectator-friendly course but it was nicer that way I think. I ran through forests and got to see a large chunk of Auroville and since I ran the half I got to see just as much as the full marathoners and more than the other races because the full just ran the half course twice. I ended up running a 1:56 which I don't know what kind of min/miles that is but I think for not training much, sleeping 6.5 hours the two previous nights, eating only peanut butter sandwiches and being on a train the whole previous day-it was a splendid race :) Hahahaha oy vey. An experience for sure
After that we went to the beach for a little bit, did some shopping and ate some delicious sour dough bread with fresh cheese. Auroville is full of hippies-seriously-it was most I've ever seen in one place-and so of course they had organic places and hippie-style clothes. It was great. Then we hopped back on the train at midnight and got back to Manglore around 10:30-11 p.m. A weekend well spent :)
This week internals, or midterms, started and they are different than expected. Also the Olympics are going on now but no one talks about it...then I remembered they don't really have winter here and therefore the winter olympics lose their spark I guess. India has 3 representatives but they still show it on T.V. sooo when we do have electricity, I can watch it! Hope the snow is still cold and good for everyone! Love you much

Before this weekend...

Okey doeky so much has happened here in the beautiful land of India...well at least some stuff has happened and so I felt like writing about it. So today there was a bus strike, well about half the buses partook and it was mainly in the morning. I don't really know what it was supposed to symbolize but it did mean I had to take an autorickshaw a few places. Also today, and they may be connected I'm not really sure, a group of Hindus started talking about Valentines Day and their plans:
It was written on the 11th of Feb 2010.
"COIMBATORE /BHOPAL - Ahead of the Valentine’s Day, activists of a radical group gathered here to chart out their protest against the celebrations of romance by the courting friends and couples.

Under the banner of Hindu Makkal Katchi (Forum of Hindu Children) they gave a fillip to their crusade by having their heads tonsured amidst raising of slogans and burning of Valentine Day greeting cards.

They condemned the fancy among the youngsters to celebrate Valentine’s Day by declaring they would hound the lovebirds and similar courting couples and discourage them from aping the West.

Speaking to the media, Arjun Sampath, convener of the forum mentioned that their volunteers would ensure that the couples found dating or romancing and celebrating the V-Day are detained and their parents or elders are summoned to counsel their wards.

“Since all these fads are against Indian culture, we will see to it that no courting couples or lovers make a mockery of our native ethos and celebrate the Valentine’s Day. We will not hesitate to ascertain their whereabouts and summon their parents for a proper treatment of such lovebirds,” Sampath added.

Meanwhile, activists of Sanskriti Bacahao Manch (Save Our Culture) another forum in Bhopal worshipped sticks with which they are planning to beat up thecouples, if they are found courting.

“The youth should banish the western culture from our country on this Valentine’s Day. They can choose some other day from the whole year to express their love, but not Valentine’s Day. Despite our efforts, if the youth does not listen, then we have performed this ritual of worshipping the sticks and gathered our whole group,” noted Chandrashekhar Tiwari of Sanskriti Bacahao Manch. (ANI)" -http://breakingnews.gaeatimes.com/2010/02/11/radicals-protest-against-valentines-day-revelry-across-india-9710/.
Crazzzzzy! We won't be in Mangalore for Valentines Day which is probably good since I don't know if I would want to go out much-especially with any guys. I will be attempting to run a long run while wooing the men I pass along the way and find myself an Indian Valentine :) Wish me luck!

past few days...

It's Monday afternoon and classes are done for the day. This past weekend I had field placement on both Friday and Saturday. Friday I got to go to 2 home visits with some of the MSW students that go to the agency with me. We needed a signature from the one lady so she can send in her application for the 'old age pension' of 400 Rs/month. The other couple we saw was doing pretty well. The man had just gotten heart surgery but he looked a lot better, I'm not sure how recent the surgery was. We also celebrated one of the ladies birthdays at Vishwas Trust. Merry is in her late eighties. We all sang to her and I learned that they sing Happy Birthday in English which surprised me but they sing 3 verses. The first is like ours but then they continue on with a verse repeating something like 'may God bless you' and the last verse repeats something about having many more birthdays. Then everyone went up to her and wished her a happy birthday and then a few of the elderly people sang a song to her. The celebration was finished off with a little bread refreshment and coffee. Yoga preceded the celebration and I took part in it for the first time on Friday. It was nice to do something with them which doesn't require language and I can just do it along side them.
Saturday was the start of their Festival Month. I still have to figure out exactly what Festival Month is but I think it's just for the elderly. They have 5 competitions throughout February and then maybe a finale at the end? Saturday was singing. I got to listen to about 10-12 elderly people sing songs in whatever language they wanted. It was all acapella and very cool to listen to. Some songs were more upbeat than others and a few used papers to look at the words but they all sang lovely songs even if I couldn't understand any of them. There were 3 judges and after all the contestants went they tallied up the scores. There were about 20-25 elderly people there plus the judges and a few MSW students as well. It took place in a school classroom. They have been advertising these competitions through home visits and I think the newspapers as well. While the scores were being tallied one of the MSW students led them in 2 songs. I was taking pictures for them since I was the only one who had a camera with me and so the song caught me off guard. She started sining 'one two buckle my shoe' in a tune I didnt recognize doing hand motions with the elderly all standing and doing the motions too. Then they sang 'If You're Happy & You Know It, Clap Your Hands'! I was so surprised but I did the hand motions and it was a good time. Who woulda thought I'd be singing those songs in a Kannada-medium school with a bunch of people over the age of 70 in India? No me. :)
Today is the Western Dance competition after school. We were going to try and do a dance for it being Westerners and all but 2 of our girls are at field placement now so we may do it tomorrow. Tomorrow isn't a competition but tomorrow there is no class because it's Student's Day. I'm not really sure what that means because last week was Institution Day and they had a day off of school but Indians love their holidays and I'm not complaining. Friday is a holiday as well although I'm not sure for what, I just know my agency is closed on Friday and so hopefully we'll find something fun to do. Yesterday evening we went to another beach and waded in the water. It's so funny because a lot of people swim but many guys swim in no shirt and their jeans or the girls will swim in their kultas (long-ish type shirts) and long pants. Then to go home we took the bus for the third time that day and it's so interesting riding the bus here. I'm not ready to ride it alone but with Indian friends who know where to get on and where to get off and how much to pay, it's fun :) It can get very crowded and so if you are claustrophobic-warning: dont ride on a bus in India during the busy hours. Also I hear some of the trains can get really crowded and the cars can too because sometimes they like to squeeze as many people as possible into the cars.
In my Weaker Sections class today we discussed some legislation that deals with women and their rights and that was interesting. They have the 'Special Marriage Act' ('54) which states that the minimum age for girls to marry is 18 and for boys it's 21. The difference in ages our lecturers said is because girls mature so much faster than boys and you would know that if you just looked at the boys around. hahahaha There is also a 'Dowery Prohibition Act' ('61) which is exactly what it says it is but it was interesting to hear that the act came in the 60s but you still hear of doweries being given 50 years later. Then to finish off my 9:45 class early in the morning the teacher brought up the 'Medical Termination of Pregnancy' ('71) which states that abortion is illegal. They believe that every kid has the right to live and if the mom can't care for it they should put it up for adoption or the gov't will care for it. She said abortions still happen all the time but technically it is illegal. A debate almost started but she said maybe next time we'll have a debate which I think would be very very interesting to hear since it's illegal here and its a huge controversy in the States. An interesting class to say the least.

Excurision #1: Cannanore & Cochin

I made it back safe and sound from my first excursion to the state of Kerala. We went to Cannanore and Cochin. Shanthi’s family lives in Cannanore and so we stayed with them for 2 days and then in a home stay in Cochin for the next 2 days. We fit a lot in and it was a lot of fun.
Our trip started late Friday night as we left Mangalore Train Station to head to Cannonore. We were in the 3-tier sleeper cars and it was different that what I was expecting. The last time I rode a train it was when Thomas the Tank Engine was at Strasburg and I was taking pictures of thousands of little kids and their parents and grandparents. Oy vey. Before that I don’t know when I was on a train. Either way, the train was interesting. We arrived around midnight or one o’clock early Saturday morning and then we woke up around 6 a.m. the next morning to start sight-seeing! We needed to get up because we were trying to see a celebration at this one Temple. When we arrived we had missed the grand celebration but we did get to see 3 of the gods. There are professional people who come and dress up as various gods and then dance around a fire and then you can give an offering to them and they will mark your forehead with a coloring and give you a blessing. It was cool and very different to see how a another culture and religion do their own rituals. For the rest of our time in Cannanore we saw 2 more temples, went on a boat ride and saw martial arts. The one temple we got to see elephants dressed up with people playing instruments and everyone walking around the temple praying to their gods. The other one we dipped our feet in the river that was outside the temple because it was seen as more holy since it was directly outside of the temple. The martial arts thing was really neat too because it was just 15-20 kids from between 5 and 25? and they performed various fighting methods. They fought with daggers, swords, sticks and just their hands. It was really intense. I’ve never been to a martial arts thing in the U.S. but now I kinda want to because this was so cool.
Anyways, we went to Cochin for the last 2 days of our excursion. We went to an old synagogue which was in a touristy part of town and a church where Vasco de Gama used to be buried. That seemed a little weird to me that the church was so famous even though he was only buried there for one year and now he resides in Portugal but it was a big tourist place. We took another boat ride and it was funny at times because we got close to a lot of boats with fishermen and some other guys on the edge of the water and they’d all look up surprised to see a bunch of young white girls looking at them. Hahahaha I’m pretty sure they are used to seeing either Indian people or elderly white people on tour boats-not white students. Many waved and looked very happy, we made a lot of friends. I did a little shopping and had to barter but it was hard because I had to barter things from $6 to $3 because $6 was really ripping me off even though some of the stuff was handmade in Cochin or atleast stuff that you’d pay good money for if you bought it in the States. Oh my. We also got full body massages which was definitely a cultural experience as well as a relaxing one. We ended our stay in Cochin by going to the movies. The popcorn was 10 Rs/- for 1 small bag! That is less than 10 cents!! So we went and watched ‘Body Guard’ see link for trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m5kApwr59k
It was ridiculous. They had random musical selections and it had romance but it was very violent in some parts and there were no subtitles. It was in Malayalam-Kerala’s main language. I followed most of it and it was definitely an experience that was fun to watch. Also the movie was 3 hours long-after 1.5 hrs they had a small intermission programmed into the movie. So they get 3 hrs worth of film for a couple of bucks where we pay $8-12 for an hr and a half and the same price for popcorn. Where is the logic in that?! Oh well.
So I just read an article that has nothing to do with my trip in India but I read it on Trevor’s status and I enjoyed reading it.
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/somali-pirates-say-theyll-play-robin-hood-in-haiti/19340183
It is about how Somali pirates are saying they plan on giving money they have stolen-at least some of it-to help the people of Haiti : ) How cool is that?!
That is all for now. I hope you are having wonderful snow days, I know my family had a 2 hour delay, I did not. Tomorrow my roommate said it is supposed to by 90 degrees with 75% humidity-and this is a good month-April and March are gonna be the hot ones! Ohhhh boy!
Love to you all from here in Mangalore, Bissy