Learned Truth: There is no good or evil, only self-interest and circumstance.
Last weekend’s trip to Amritsar was weird. I would call it an experience more so than I would call it a trip. Angela, the girl who’s father is from Amritsar and the reason we were going on the trip got very sick a few days before and ended up in the hospital. She didn’t make the trip. This was the beginning of the experience.
The ride was mostly at night though various Indian towns and villages. There really aren’t any highways here, or at least highways as we would think of them. The highways here are simply wider roads that are mostly straight. They are not necessarily paved and are rarely lit. Generally traffic is supposed to stay to the left side but that’s just a guideline. Drivers take up whatever space is free and its not uncommon to see a row of cars from one side of the road to the other heading straight into oncoming traffic. It eventually works out and there’s no head on collisions but its scary as hell at times. We often gasped and braced ourselves as we came within a few feet of what was moments earlier an oncoming truck or bus. This is driving in India. The drive took six hours and after it we all needed a drink
Our hotel was a rock bottom budget hotel. It makes Hotel 6 look like the Ritz Carlton during a presidential visit. Seriously. The rooms came with a mattress, a dirty sheet to cover the mattress and a pillow. Nothing else. Our rooms were the deluxe rooms meaning they had a bathroom. We had to buy toilet paper. The walls probably hadn’t been painted in decades. All this decadence costs $2 (US) per night. College girls are on a budget after all.
Nicole and Jodi got sick the first night and were mostly confined to the hotel for the first day. The rest of us ventured out for breakfast and site seeing. Amritsar is an extremely dirty place its very hot. This makes for walking around a generally unpleasant experience.
In the afternoon, a few hours before sunset, we all drove to the India-Pakistan border to see the border closing ceremony. Nicole and Jodi were feeling better and joined us. This thing is like a football game.There’s stands on both sides of the border though the Indian side is much larger. Military on both sides wear full military dress including some kind of fan on their head. When they walk out the crowd cheers as though a sports team just hit the field. There’s people waving flags on both sides and each side is chanting either “Industan (India) is great” or “Pakistan is great”. The Pakistan side is much more subdued than the Indian side though. The men and woman sit in different sides and the women remain quiet. Only the men are allowed to cheer. On the Indian side everyone is dancing and cheering and its basically a wild party.
Eventually the actual ceremony began where both sides march around in an extremely exaggerated fashion mostly in circles. Eventually the guards make it to the border line and then each side stares at each other with their hardest stares sometimes circling each other. The flags are lowered together with one side not wanting to have their flag lower than the other’s which makes this tedious with lots of false starts and inching down of the flags. Once the flags were gone it was all over and everyone wanted to run to the border line for some reason. It was getting really crazy and us Westerners wanted out so we got out. I don’t really know what happens after that, probably more taunting from both sides.
Our next stop was The Golden Temple. This is a Sikh temple but its open to everyone. The city of Amritsar was built around the temple. The temple is protected by a castle that surrounds a lake of holy water and in the middle sits the temple on an island. The temple is covered both inside and out in gold. Thousands of people go there every day on a pilgrimage to enter the temple for a brief moment and the bathe in the holy water. Andrea, Deb and I went into the temple to leave some money one of the Sikh staff members asked us to take for him. We were the only Westerners in line to enter the temple. Everyone was staring at us. Not in a bad way, all are welcome, but its not very common for Westerners to do that. Actually we get stares everywhere we go but to be surrounded by people looking at us was odd. We skipped the holy water bath...
That night Andrea got sick, she was the last one of us to get sick. It really wasn’t a good time or place to be sick. She was taken to a “hospital” which is really just a doctor in a storefront with a bed and some medical equipment. He didn’t do much and at first refused to give her anything including water. She was told to walk to the store down the street if she wanted water. He had to be practically begged to give her antibiotics. Many Indian doctors believe in karma and feel that if someone gets sick its because they did something wrong and deserve to suffer. I don’t get the point of being a doctor if one feels that way but there’s a lot I don’t get about this place.
The next day we were leaving. Andrea wasn’t ready to travel yet so we waited around for a while. Our driver got pissy because he wanted to leave much earlier. He got even more pissy when we wanted to go to lunch. He was going to drop us off and expected us to walk back to the hotel. Eventually we worked things out where he would return to pick us up. Eventually we got on the road to return to Dharmsala. The driver really wanted to get back and drove like a maniac. Andrea was in the front seat throwing up into a bag but that didn’t concern the driver at all. I guess he’s a believer in karma as well. What took six hours of normal driving (for India) too four and a half (of suicidal driving) to return. Multiple times we actually went off the road to avoid getting hit by an oncoming vehicle or to pass a slower one. There was also lots of slamming on the breaks. None of this helped Andrea.
Tuesday I hiked up a mountain with Deb to a placed called Triund. The clouds were low that day and we made the cloud line very early. Most of the hike was though thick mist. When we reached the top there was a short break in the low clouds and the view looked like that from an airplane window. We were about fifty feet from the snow line and it was quite cold. On the hike down we ended up caught in a herd of mountain goats coming down the mountain. The fog was so think they didn’t see us until they were right on top of us and which point they would freeze and eventually walk around us. It was pretty amazing.
Thursday most of the volunteers were phased out leaving me, Jodi, Chelsea and Pam. There will be a bunch more phasing in on Monday.
There’s more pictures of the kids in my daycare this week. I couldn’t resist. The rest are from Amritsar and my hike.
Click here for this week’s pictures. See ya next Sunday.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Week Two (A little early)
Learned Truth: Before any act of creation there must be an act of destruction.
I’m posting early because I’m going with Jodi, Andrea, Pam, Chelsea, Nicole, Debbie and Angela to Amritsar for a three day weekend. Monday is a holiday here. Amritsar is where half of Angela’s family is from and she wanted to go see it. The Golden Temple, India’s second most important monument is also there and its close to the Pakistan border where they hold a border closing ceremony every night that’s supposed to be awesome. We’re leaving Friday afternoon and returning Monday night.
...anyway, on to the past few days
The major Buddhist Temple was actually a major Hindu temple. The trip to the Buddhist temple is in a few days. All the Hindu temples are starting to look alike to me. There’s two reasons this temple was special. First, there’s a story about a prince who ran to the site after his kingdom was conquered. He meditated there under a rock and after a few years was given the sword of Shiva (the destroyer god) and with that sword took back the kingdom. The second story is a bit more historical. A few hundred years ago a baba went to the site and mediated under the same rock. He reached enlightenment. In his enlightenment he built a tomb for himself and when it was almost finished had local villagers complete the tomb with him inside. The tomb still exists and is the basis for the temple.
After the temple we had a picnic in the forest. We played various games in a clearing near a stream. I was still a little sick so I sat out most of the activities and just took pictures. At the end we took a group picture.
From Left to right are: Debbie, Elizabeth, Anna, Reese, Chelsea, Angela, Eric, Pam, Andrea, me, Laura, Jodi and Nicole.
Most of us went into the Tibetan area, McLeod Ganj, after the picnic. After about an two hours of shopping and tea we went down to the monastery. This is where the Dali Lama lives. We split up there. Most of the group did a bit more shopping and then quickly toured the temple. Me, Jodi and Pam went into the monastery compound looking the catch a glimpse of the Dali Lama. We just kept walking deeper and deeper in until someone would tell us to stop or a fence would stop us. No one ever said anything to us and we found an open gate in every fence we encountered. We ended up very deep in the compound.
We came upon a grove filled with Tibetan prayer flags, thousands of them. I was soon surrounded in flags not able to see anything but more flags. The cacophony of them flapping in the wind was all encompassing. I lost Jodi and Pam but kept pushing on. I eventually came across a temple and was out the the grove. I looked back and still couldn’t see anyone. I assumed we’d find each other at some point so I kept going. The temple was surrounded by prayer wheels. I dropped down to the base and walked around the perimeter spinning the wheels with the monks in front and behind me. It was kind of hypnotizing, especially hearing the monks chanting.
Just as I finished I saw Jodi and Pam walking down a different path. We reunited and pushed further into the compound. There was just us and lots of monks, none of which had any concern that we were there. Feeling welcomed or at least ignored we were at ease as we walked among them. Soon we came upon the edge of a cliff. We had gone as far as we could.
We stood at precipice of the top of one of the highest mountains in this particular range of the Himalayas. We could see forever and hear everything. We all felt like we were in a movie. Behind us was a home for Elder monks. A few were puttering around a garden. We said hello and they all smiled at us. Two old dogs slept at the edge of the precipice as Eagles flew overhead. The sky was cloudy and growing more so and the wind was gusting in from the valley. The three of us stood silent for a long moment just taking it all in. We looked straight down and found our house. It was cool to realize the we live at the foot of the Dali Lama’s temple.
From the prayer flags to the precipice I had little real world thoughts including taking pictures so as of now there are none. I am going back and then I will take lots of pictures.
We slowly walked back to the more populated areas of the temple and walked into the temple complex. The walls to the complex are filled will political posters either about the Panchen Lama who was abducted by China when he was six years old, or graphic pictures of dead Tibetan protesters. Across from the entrance is a cage filled with hunger protesters. Its a very real place. We went inside the Lama Temple and looked around. I was to awestruck to take pictures, but I’m going back a few times so there will be some later.
I started my second gig, talking to monks helping them with conversational English. I went on Tuesday and I’m going again on Thursday. I found a coffee shop near the place I go to pick up my monk for conversation. Hallelujah! Its not Starbucks or Peet’s but its decent coffee. The caffeine headaches have been huge.
The rest of the week was same old same old. We’re getting a few more kids, there’s a few pictures in this week’s set. You should be able to tell who’s my favorite. Click here for this week’s pictures. See ya next Sunday.
I’m posting early because I’m going with Jodi, Andrea, Pam, Chelsea, Nicole, Debbie and Angela to Amritsar for a three day weekend. Monday is a holiday here. Amritsar is where half of Angela’s family is from and she wanted to go see it. The Golden Temple, India’s second most important monument is also there and its close to the Pakistan border where they hold a border closing ceremony every night that’s supposed to be awesome. We’re leaving Friday afternoon and returning Monday night.
...anyway, on to the past few days
The major Buddhist Temple was actually a major Hindu temple. The trip to the Buddhist temple is in a few days. All the Hindu temples are starting to look alike to me. There’s two reasons this temple was special. First, there’s a story about a prince who ran to the site after his kingdom was conquered. He meditated there under a rock and after a few years was given the sword of Shiva (the destroyer god) and with that sword took back the kingdom. The second story is a bit more historical. A few hundred years ago a baba went to the site and mediated under the same rock. He reached enlightenment. In his enlightenment he built a tomb for himself and when it was almost finished had local villagers complete the tomb with him inside. The tomb still exists and is the basis for the temple.
After the temple we had a picnic in the forest. We played various games in a clearing near a stream. I was still a little sick so I sat out most of the activities and just took pictures. At the end we took a group picture.
From Left to right are: Debbie, Elizabeth, Anna, Reese, Chelsea, Angela, Eric, Pam, Andrea, me, Laura, Jodi and Nicole.
Most of us went into the Tibetan area, McLeod Ganj, after the picnic. After about an two hours of shopping and tea we went down to the monastery. This is where the Dali Lama lives. We split up there. Most of the group did a bit more shopping and then quickly toured the temple. Me, Jodi and Pam went into the monastery compound looking the catch a glimpse of the Dali Lama. We just kept walking deeper and deeper in until someone would tell us to stop or a fence would stop us. No one ever said anything to us and we found an open gate in every fence we encountered. We ended up very deep in the compound.
We came upon a grove filled with Tibetan prayer flags, thousands of them. I was soon surrounded in flags not able to see anything but more flags. The cacophony of them flapping in the wind was all encompassing. I lost Jodi and Pam but kept pushing on. I eventually came across a temple and was out the the grove. I looked back and still couldn’t see anyone. I assumed we’d find each other at some point so I kept going. The temple was surrounded by prayer wheels. I dropped down to the base and walked around the perimeter spinning the wheels with the monks in front and behind me. It was kind of hypnotizing, especially hearing the monks chanting.
Just as I finished I saw Jodi and Pam walking down a different path. We reunited and pushed further into the compound. There was just us and lots of monks, none of which had any concern that we were there. Feeling welcomed or at least ignored we were at ease as we walked among them. Soon we came upon the edge of a cliff. We had gone as far as we could.
We stood at precipice of the top of one of the highest mountains in this particular range of the Himalayas. We could see forever and hear everything. We all felt like we were in a movie. Behind us was a home for Elder monks. A few were puttering around a garden. We said hello and they all smiled at us. Two old dogs slept at the edge of the precipice as Eagles flew overhead. The sky was cloudy and growing more so and the wind was gusting in from the valley. The three of us stood silent for a long moment just taking it all in. We looked straight down and found our house. It was cool to realize the we live at the foot of the Dali Lama’s temple.
From the prayer flags to the precipice I had little real world thoughts including taking pictures so as of now there are none. I am going back and then I will take lots of pictures.
We slowly walked back to the more populated areas of the temple and walked into the temple complex. The walls to the complex are filled will political posters either about the Panchen Lama who was abducted by China when he was six years old, or graphic pictures of dead Tibetan protesters. Across from the entrance is a cage filled with hunger protesters. Its a very real place. We went inside the Lama Temple and looked around. I was to awestruck to take pictures, but I’m going back a few times so there will be some later.
I started my second gig, talking to monks helping them with conversational English. I went on Tuesday and I’m going again on Thursday. I found a coffee shop near the place I go to pick up my monk for conversation. Hallelujah! Its not Starbucks or Peet’s but its decent coffee. The caffeine headaches have been huge.
The rest of the week was same old same old. We’re getting a few more kids, there’s a few pictures in this week’s set. You should be able to tell who’s my favorite. Click here for this week’s pictures. See ya next Sunday.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
I'm OK
I guess there's news of some explosions in India and terrorist gun battles in Kashmir. Both are far away from me and there's no concern about such things here. For all intents and purposes this is a podunk town way up in the mountains with a population of less than 20,000. There's no alerts here.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Week One
Learned Truth: Order arising naturally from chaos brings balance. Order unnaturally imposed on chaos brings conflict.
Day 4
There was some issue with flying directly into Dharmsala so we flew into Jammu Kashmir. Yes THE Kashmir. The airport was like a military bunker. There’s a picture of the entrance in this week’s photos. Can you tell which one? We walked past a guy in his car with an AK47 in between his legs. This wasn’t a military person or police or at least they weren’t wearing any uniform. It was pretty intense. The border out of Kashmir was something out of a movie. Tanks, lots of soldiers with machine guns and rows and rows of trucks waiting to be inspected lined the road to the border. The truck drivers wait there for up to four days. Our driver had to park and walk up to some soldiers. I’m not entirely sure but I think he had to bribe the soldiers to let us though. Our guides were definitely keeping us in the dark about what was going on. I wasn’t able to take pictures at the border. Sorry.
Well, after we got out of Jammu Kashmir we were in a much more peaceful state, Punjab and then soon we got into Himachal Pradesh and finally arrived in Dharmsala. Its high up in the mountains and when we weren’t in populated areas it reminded me of the Santa Cruz mountains. Every so often we would pass though a town. They were all basically the same. There would be what amounts to an Indian strip mall with a fruit stand, hardware store, clothing store a cafe and a liquor store all in that order. It was too dark for pictures by this point unfortunately. There were also lots of cows.
There are cows all over the place. I asked the driver if the cows had owners and he said that some may but most are stray cows. I’ve never heard those two words put together. Go ahead say it, stray cows. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous? On the roads cows have the right of way in all situations. A cow can stop an entire highway and all people can do is gently try to convince the cow to move. Yes there are cows on the highway. I took a video of us driving down a stretch of highway and you’ll notice us weaving around a pair of cows. I’ll try to upload it to You Tube if I have the time and bandwidth.
So anyway, we made it to the house in Dharmsala just as a storm was coming though. We’re located on the side of a mountain overlooking Kangra Valley. I stood on the patio of the house with an unhindered view of the valley with the Himalayas rising up behind me. I watched the lightning and waited for the thunder to eventually catch up while scattered warm raindrops fell on me. Yes, it was an awesome welcome.
The next morning we went to orientation and then to our placements. I’m working with Pam at a preschool. Chelsea and Andrea are working in a different preschool. The four of us rode together. We went to their placement first and got an introduction to an Indian preschool. There were eleven kids ranging in age from two to four. We stayed as Chelsea and Andrea were introduced to the teacher and students. Before we left the teacher asked one of the students to count the people in the room. The little girl got up and walked around the room touching everyone’s head as she counted. Another student stood up to do the same. The preschool was mostly what I had expected. Its in a brick building with electricity and running water. There were pictures on the wall of the alphabet, numbers, body parts and animals; all the things we are supposed to be teaching. The teacher maintained discipline and the kids were well behaved. Then Pam and I went to our preschool.
Our preschool is in a shed with a roof that can only barely keep light out. There’s no electricity and no running water. Its not so much a preschool as it is a daycare. It’s run by an older lady, Indu. She’s more of a grandmother than a teacher. The kids mostly run around doing what they want with what little they have. There’s actually little expectation of teaching anything. Oh all the kids are Indian, not Tibetan. I ended up in a placement in a totally different part of Dharmsala. There were three kids. Two girls, Sneha and Sajaya, and a boy Ayush. Sneha was terrified of us. Sajaya and Ayush slowly warmed up to us and began to play. Sometimes the teacher would point out a student and say each letter of the alphabet with the child repeating each in tandem. They can repeat just fine but they can’t recite the alphabet on their own. Its an exercise in futility. There’s really also very little discipline. The kids go off and do their own thing and that’s OK. I was a little worried.
Days 5 to 8
On the second day there were only two kids at the daycare, Ayush and Sajaya. Sajaya was sick. She had a fever and was listless. Pam held her the entire day. When we were leaving she tried to wake Sajaya up but she would not wake. Her eyes were rolled back in her head and she wouldn’t respond to stimuli. That scared the hell out of us but the teacher thought nothing of it. She grabbed Sajaya from Pam’s arms and put her on the floor. Sajaya definitely had a fever and her pulse was racing. When her mom came we tried to bring that to her attention but she gave us a nasty look and stormed out with Sajaya over her shoulder. Pam and I had no idea what to do. No one seemed to care.
I woke at 5:00 the next morning for a hike up to a Hindu temple on a mountain near our flat. There were six of us on the hike. We made it to the temple just as the Baba (priest) was opening. He lives there. He actually cannot leave. He was talking with us about the British, an Indian Nobel Prize winner and about the holiday that was on that day commemorating the third day past the new moon. He also told us about Heaven’s Temple that was at the peak of the mountain. We tried to get to that temple but ran out of time.
Pam and I were still worried about Sajaya. We went to our daycare thinking the worst. We arrived to see her up and about playing and there were two new students, Sanjin and Akosh. We were relieved to see that Sajaya was OK and that there were more students. We brought iPod speakers with us and played Grateful Dead’s Touch of Gray on a loop. It seems to have somewhat of a calming effect on the kids and every so often we would get them to dance. We also started teaching the alphabet for real by just focusing on one letter, A. The teacher wasn’t happy with that and went right back to repeating the alphabet letter by letter with each student. Once that farce was complete Pam and I pushed on with our focus on just A. We tried to get them to write the letter but none of the kids can do anything with a crayon besides scribble broad strokes. Sajaya can at least make lines and circles.
Chelsea, Nicole, Anna and Angela ended up with traveler’s diarrhea. Chelsea had to stay in the hospital overnight. Angela also had a cold making her experience more of a hell. Everyone beside Angela got over it after a day. Angela took two days. Everyone is destined to get it. Its kind of a rite of passage here for Westerners.
I went into the Tibetan area for the first time on Thursday with Nicole and Debbie. We first had tea on a mountain top terrace with an amazing view. After tea we went to the Temple. As we were walking down we heard the monks chanting. It was quite amazing. We arrived at the temple just as services ended and watched the monks stream out of the temple. There were also laymen walking with the monks. Debbie stopped one of the Western layman and asked if they attended the service. They did attend and told us what we needed to do if we wanted to attend. That was pretty exciting. When we got back to the flat we told everyone about that and most of us are going to sign up to attend a service next week. Unfortunately there are no pictures of this. My camera batteries died just as we were getting to the temple.
Two mornings later we tried the hike again up to Heaven’s Temple. This time we made it. Its one of the important temples of the Hindu faith. It is quite nice. The only way to get there is to hike up the mountain. There’s no roads. We got there early as the caretakers were cleaning up so we didn’t really get to see much but the views from that high up were amazing. We’re going back during the a weekend day to take in the whole thing.
On Saturday I got sick. It wasn’t so bad because I learned what to do to make it go by as painlessly as possible. As soon as I felt rumbling in my stomach I took an antibiotic and Imodium. Still I was on the toilet at least twenty times over the day. When I wasn’t on the toilet I stayed in bed and slept. By Sunday morning I was fine and back to normal.
This leads me to right now. Today we’re all going to a major Buddhist temple. There’s no work today. Life is good. I’m putting the pictures on a different page so that the blog loads better. Click here for this week’s pictures. Sorry the images aren’t labeled. I don’t really have the time to be that cool. When I get back I can tell you what is what and who is who. Next blog update in a week...
Day 4
There was some issue with flying directly into Dharmsala so we flew into Jammu Kashmir. Yes THE Kashmir. The airport was like a military bunker. There’s a picture of the entrance in this week’s photos. Can you tell which one? We walked past a guy in his car with an AK47 in between his legs. This wasn’t a military person or police or at least they weren’t wearing any uniform. It was pretty intense. The border out of Kashmir was something out of a movie. Tanks, lots of soldiers with machine guns and rows and rows of trucks waiting to be inspected lined the road to the border. The truck drivers wait there for up to four days. Our driver had to park and walk up to some soldiers. I’m not entirely sure but I think he had to bribe the soldiers to let us though. Our guides were definitely keeping us in the dark about what was going on. I wasn’t able to take pictures at the border. Sorry.
Well, after we got out of Jammu Kashmir we were in a much more peaceful state, Punjab and then soon we got into Himachal Pradesh and finally arrived in Dharmsala. Its high up in the mountains and when we weren’t in populated areas it reminded me of the Santa Cruz mountains. Every so often we would pass though a town. They were all basically the same. There would be what amounts to an Indian strip mall with a fruit stand, hardware store, clothing store a cafe and a liquor store all in that order. It was too dark for pictures by this point unfortunately. There were also lots of cows.
There are cows all over the place. I asked the driver if the cows had owners and he said that some may but most are stray cows. I’ve never heard those two words put together. Go ahead say it, stray cows. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous? On the roads cows have the right of way in all situations. A cow can stop an entire highway and all people can do is gently try to convince the cow to move. Yes there are cows on the highway. I took a video of us driving down a stretch of highway and you’ll notice us weaving around a pair of cows. I’ll try to upload it to You Tube if I have the time and bandwidth.
So anyway, we made it to the house in Dharmsala just as a storm was coming though. We’re located on the side of a mountain overlooking Kangra Valley. I stood on the patio of the house with an unhindered view of the valley with the Himalayas rising up behind me. I watched the lightning and waited for the thunder to eventually catch up while scattered warm raindrops fell on me. Yes, it was an awesome welcome.
The next morning we went to orientation and then to our placements. I’m working with Pam at a preschool. Chelsea and Andrea are working in a different preschool. The four of us rode together. We went to their placement first and got an introduction to an Indian preschool. There were eleven kids ranging in age from two to four. We stayed as Chelsea and Andrea were introduced to the teacher and students. Before we left the teacher asked one of the students to count the people in the room. The little girl got up and walked around the room touching everyone’s head as she counted. Another student stood up to do the same. The preschool was mostly what I had expected. Its in a brick building with electricity and running water. There were pictures on the wall of the alphabet, numbers, body parts and animals; all the things we are supposed to be teaching. The teacher maintained discipline and the kids were well behaved. Then Pam and I went to our preschool.
Our preschool is in a shed with a roof that can only barely keep light out. There’s no electricity and no running water. Its not so much a preschool as it is a daycare. It’s run by an older lady, Indu. She’s more of a grandmother than a teacher. The kids mostly run around doing what they want with what little they have. There’s actually little expectation of teaching anything. Oh all the kids are Indian, not Tibetan. I ended up in a placement in a totally different part of Dharmsala. There were three kids. Two girls, Sneha and Sajaya, and a boy Ayush. Sneha was terrified of us. Sajaya and Ayush slowly warmed up to us and began to play. Sometimes the teacher would point out a student and say each letter of the alphabet with the child repeating each in tandem. They can repeat just fine but they can’t recite the alphabet on their own. Its an exercise in futility. There’s really also very little discipline. The kids go off and do their own thing and that’s OK. I was a little worried.
Days 5 to 8
On the second day there were only two kids at the daycare, Ayush and Sajaya. Sajaya was sick. She had a fever and was listless. Pam held her the entire day. When we were leaving she tried to wake Sajaya up but she would not wake. Her eyes were rolled back in her head and she wouldn’t respond to stimuli. That scared the hell out of us but the teacher thought nothing of it. She grabbed Sajaya from Pam’s arms and put her on the floor. Sajaya definitely had a fever and her pulse was racing. When her mom came we tried to bring that to her attention but she gave us a nasty look and stormed out with Sajaya over her shoulder. Pam and I had no idea what to do. No one seemed to care.
I woke at 5:00 the next morning for a hike up to a Hindu temple on a mountain near our flat. There were six of us on the hike. We made it to the temple just as the Baba (priest) was opening. He lives there. He actually cannot leave. He was talking with us about the British, an Indian Nobel Prize winner and about the holiday that was on that day commemorating the third day past the new moon. He also told us about Heaven’s Temple that was at the peak of the mountain. We tried to get to that temple but ran out of time.
Pam and I were still worried about Sajaya. We went to our daycare thinking the worst. We arrived to see her up and about playing and there were two new students, Sanjin and Akosh. We were relieved to see that Sajaya was OK and that there were more students. We brought iPod speakers with us and played Grateful Dead’s Touch of Gray on a loop. It seems to have somewhat of a calming effect on the kids and every so often we would get them to dance. We also started teaching the alphabet for real by just focusing on one letter, A. The teacher wasn’t happy with that and went right back to repeating the alphabet letter by letter with each student. Once that farce was complete Pam and I pushed on with our focus on just A. We tried to get them to write the letter but none of the kids can do anything with a crayon besides scribble broad strokes. Sajaya can at least make lines and circles.
Chelsea, Nicole, Anna and Angela ended up with traveler’s diarrhea. Chelsea had to stay in the hospital overnight. Angela also had a cold making her experience more of a hell. Everyone beside Angela got over it after a day. Angela took two days. Everyone is destined to get it. Its kind of a rite of passage here for Westerners.
I went into the Tibetan area for the first time on Thursday with Nicole and Debbie. We first had tea on a mountain top terrace with an amazing view. After tea we went to the Temple. As we were walking down we heard the monks chanting. It was quite amazing. We arrived at the temple just as services ended and watched the monks stream out of the temple. There were also laymen walking with the monks. Debbie stopped one of the Western layman and asked if they attended the service. They did attend and told us what we needed to do if we wanted to attend. That was pretty exciting. When we got back to the flat we told everyone about that and most of us are going to sign up to attend a service next week. Unfortunately there are no pictures of this. My camera batteries died just as we were getting to the temple.
Two mornings later we tried the hike again up to Heaven’s Temple. This time we made it. Its one of the important temples of the Hindu faith. It is quite nice. The only way to get there is to hike up the mountain. There’s no roads. We got there early as the caretakers were cleaning up so we didn’t really get to see much but the views from that high up were amazing. We’re going back during the a weekend day to take in the whole thing.
On Saturday I got sick. It wasn’t so bad because I learned what to do to make it go by as painlessly as possible. As soon as I felt rumbling in my stomach I took an antibiotic and Imodium. Still I was on the toilet at least twenty times over the day. When I wasn’t on the toilet I stayed in bed and slept. By Sunday morning I was fine and back to normal.
This leads me to right now. Today we’re all going to a major Buddhist temple. There’s no work today. Life is good. I’m putting the pictures on a different page so that the blog loads better. Click here for this week’s pictures. Sorry the images aren’t labeled. I don’t really have the time to be that cool. When I get back I can tell you what is what and who is who. Next blog update in a week...
Sunday, May 4, 2008
I'm In-Country
Day One
The airport was under "upgradation" which means its being renovated. I was made to walk though the construction as it was happening. That was my welcome to India and it was actually fitting. India is definitely a place where the individual is expected to take on much more responsibility for themselves. My years of walking though San Francisco paying little attention to traffic lights or cars for that matter has served me well. There are no traffic lights here. There's no crosswalks, no right of way, no rules. Everyone in a car, on a motorcycle, on a bike or on foot compete for space on the road and they all go by the one rule that does exist; Who dares wins. It seems that kind of thing applies to many other aspects of life here. It seems to be at least one gestalt of Indian culture.
I was picked up at the airport by two guys. I have a hard enough time with Western names so don’t ask me to remember their names. They do rhyme though I remember that. We drove a bit though Delhi giving me my introduction to India. For someone who hasn’t been here, the best frame of reference is Mexico. Actually Mexico is Eden in comparison but it still sort of maybe gives a frame of reference. We drove though many shanty towns which seem to pop up on any open space. I witnessed multiple instances of mothers bathing their children on the sidewalk. There were also a few adults doing the same thing. Unfortunately my camera was still packed so I didn’t get any pictures of the drive in.
We arrived at home base and I ate my first authentic Indian meal. I thought it was awesome but from their standards it was just a simple lunch. It seems that food plays a huge part in this culture probably even more so than with the French. I’m staying in what is considered a middle class flat. Its quite nice actually. This is where my group is supposed to congregate before we take the trip up to Dharamsala. After lunch I took my first bucket shower. It wasn’t so bad. I guess the fact that the air temperature is over a hundred degrees makes it bearable.
Soon after I settled in I took my first excursion out into the city by myself. I walked around the marketplace and a middle class communities. Click here for pictures
Day 2
I was alone for day one. I woke on day two to the sound of someone else taking a bucket shower and realized I was no longer alone. A bit later I walked into the living room and scared the hell out of Angela. She’s from Calgary and here for three weeks.. Her father is from India, Ameritza, Punjab to be exact. She’s going there on the second weekend. It sounds like a great place and I may join her along with a few others. We ended up spending the day together first walking around the local market then we took a tour of Delhi by taxi. I took about three hundred pictures that day. Here’s the best ones.
Click here for pictures
Day 3
Everyone else except for one is now here. I went to sleep with only Angela in the flat and woke to an additional three girls. Pam and Jodi are also from Calgary. None of the Calgary girls knew each other before coming here. Nicole is from Scott’s Valley. Today was the orientation. There’s another flat containing a family from Utah that’s traveling the world together for seven months. Eric and Elizabeth are mom and dad and the three kids ranging in age from six to twelve are Reece, Laura and Ann. Also in that flat are Andrea from Michigan and Chelsea from Calgary. The last person has yet to arrive so I don’t know about them.
So now this leads me up to now. Tomorrow I fly to Dharmsala. My next post will be next Sunday. See ya...
The airport was under "upgradation" which means its being renovated. I was made to walk though the construction as it was happening. That was my welcome to India and it was actually fitting. India is definitely a place where the individual is expected to take on much more responsibility for themselves. My years of walking though San Francisco paying little attention to traffic lights or cars for that matter has served me well. There are no traffic lights here. There's no crosswalks, no right of way, no rules. Everyone in a car, on a motorcycle, on a bike or on foot compete for space on the road and they all go by the one rule that does exist; Who dares wins. It seems that kind of thing applies to many other aspects of life here. It seems to be at least one gestalt of Indian culture.
I was picked up at the airport by two guys. I have a hard enough time with Western names so don’t ask me to remember their names. They do rhyme though I remember that. We drove a bit though Delhi giving me my introduction to India. For someone who hasn’t been here, the best frame of reference is Mexico. Actually Mexico is Eden in comparison but it still sort of maybe gives a frame of reference. We drove though many shanty towns which seem to pop up on any open space. I witnessed multiple instances of mothers bathing their children on the sidewalk. There were also a few adults doing the same thing. Unfortunately my camera was still packed so I didn’t get any pictures of the drive in.
We arrived at home base and I ate my first authentic Indian meal. I thought it was awesome but from their standards it was just a simple lunch. It seems that food plays a huge part in this culture probably even more so than with the French. I’m staying in what is considered a middle class flat. Its quite nice actually. This is where my group is supposed to congregate before we take the trip up to Dharamsala. After lunch I took my first bucket shower. It wasn’t so bad. I guess the fact that the air temperature is over a hundred degrees makes it bearable.
Soon after I settled in I took my first excursion out into the city by myself. I walked around the marketplace and a middle class communities. Click here for pictures
Day 2
I was alone for day one. I woke on day two to the sound of someone else taking a bucket shower and realized I was no longer alone. A bit later I walked into the living room and scared the hell out of Angela. She’s from Calgary and here for three weeks.. Her father is from India, Ameritza, Punjab to be exact. She’s going there on the second weekend. It sounds like a great place and I may join her along with a few others. We ended up spending the day together first walking around the local market then we took a tour of Delhi by taxi. I took about three hundred pictures that day. Here’s the best ones.
Click here for pictures
Day 3
Everyone else except for one is now here. I went to sleep with only Angela in the flat and woke to an additional three girls. Pam and Jodi are also from Calgary. None of the Calgary girls knew each other before coming here. Nicole is from Scott’s Valley. Today was the orientation. There’s another flat containing a family from Utah that’s traveling the world together for seven months. Eric and Elizabeth are mom and dad and the three kids ranging in age from six to twelve are Reece, Laura and Ann. Also in that flat are Andrea from Michigan and Chelsea from Calgary. The last person has yet to arrive so I don’t know about them.
So now this leads me up to now. Tomorrow I fly to Dharmsala. My next post will be next Sunday. See ya...
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Taiwan layover
I'm hanging in the VIP lounge in Tapei airport waiting for the flight to Delhi. I have 1.5 hours to kill. I just got hit with some great engrish. I'm not enitrely sure what its attempting to tell me. I'd take a picture but its on a monitor and the quality isn't that great. It says
"Its prohibited to breed pigeons or flying objects on the plane."
Damn and I already bought the pigeon sperm.
I grabbed a beverage in an orange can that looked like orange juice. Not so much. I don't know what it is but it isn't bad, except for the first hit when I was expecting orange juice.
I should be in Delhi in less than ten hours. I'll have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to myself. I'm the first one to arrive. Everyone else is arriving tomorrow. The orientation starts on Sunday. I'm assuming I'll get to an internet cafe in Delhi tomorrow and upload a few pictures.
Rock on.
"Its prohibited to breed pigeons or flying objects on the plane."
Damn and I already bought the pigeon sperm.
I grabbed a beverage in an orange can that looked like orange juice. Not so much. I don't know what it is but it isn't bad, except for the first hit when I was expecting orange juice.
I should be in Delhi in less than ten hours. I'll have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to myself. I'm the first one to arrive. Everyone else is arriving tomorrow. The orientation starts on Sunday. I'm assuming I'll get to an internet cafe in Delhi tomorrow and upload a few pictures.
Rock on.
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