June 23-25 - Bolly-MTV, Dalai Lama, Home-cooked Meal & Tibetan Monastery

6-23-07, Saturday

I've been watching Indian music videos for the past hour. Gee, I love Bolly-MTV! It's so entertaining; the dance moves involve a lot of shoulders and head movements. Commercials too...there was one of a Christian funeral and burial where they threw the coffin in the hole and ran off. The commercial was (I think) for internet service: "fast and simple dot com". I may not have fully understood the commercial's sentiment had it not been for something we saw yesterday. We were looking over the railing of a Hindu temple, down onto the river below. There were six or seven people filling buckets with river water and walking up a small hill. Lalit explained that they had just cremated someone and they were pouring water over the ashes to cool them down. Later they would take the ashes in a box to the Ganges river. They have to walk the whole way, they can't stop, and they can't let the box touch the ground. They may stay there for many days, and of course the time it takes to walk there makes the funeral ceremonies for Hindus a long and laborious process. Far from fast and simple.

6-24-07, Sunday
Just returned from Mcleod Ganj in Upper Dharamsala, where our group went for the day. The town is known for the place in which the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government-in-exile has been since (I think) 1949. We didn't see the Dalai Lama, but we did shop around a lot and ate a Tibetan dinner. We plan to return for his birthday next weekend. He travels a lot, which I benefitted from a few years ago when I saw him speak in Irvine.

Dharamsala is a little over an hour away. Most memorable is the drive. The road is long, bumpy, and on a steep mountainside. Looking out the window provided not only fresh air (thank goodness), but a remarkable scenic view. When I got here on the 16th, I noticed that they drive on the left side of the road. Now I know that's not true. They'll drive wherever they can find room between the cows and cars, dogs, donkeys and children, motorcycles and monkeys.

6-25-07, Monday
As fun as yesterday was, today was my favorite day yet. First of all, school went very well. Megan and I have learned how to adjust our lessons based on the energy levels of the kids. We practiced counting in Hindi and English, everyone said their ages (at the beginning, when there were just five kids there, we found that they were 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years old, which made for a fun with numbers game), flashcards with objects and songs like "head and shoulders", and "ring around the rosy". They were responsive, happy, attentive, and a bit misbehaved, but what can you expect of pre-schoolers?

Then, after class we went to Abhilasha's house for lunch. She is the niece of the teacher at our aanganwadi. We first had tea with Abhi's sister, mom and cousins in what seemed like a family room. They put out a long rug on the kitchen floor with two embroidered pillows on top. I asked where they were sitting and they replied that it's Indian custom to let the guests eat first. Apparently it's also Indian custom to inquire about the food after nearly every bite! It was a little uncomfortable at first, but understanding that it's their culture and that eating with guests would make them equally uncomfortable, somehow made it less akward. I told them I felt like a queen and that made them all laugh. The food was delicious! Americans are warned not to eat raw food (sorry L.A. & Nichole) and we politely asked if we could just have cooked, hot food. I did try a pickled olive, though. It tasted kind of like li hing mui (Hawaiian dried and flavored plum) but the flavor was even more potent, if those of you who have tried li hing can believe it! The rest of the meal consisted of home-made chapati (similar to naan, unleavened bread made of wholewheat flour and baked on the griddle), dal, rice, eggplant, potatoes, and zucchini. All this was followed by an amazing pastry (they called it "pasta") that tasted like a mix between a flaky palm leaf and halvah (Jeffy, I know what you're thinking...yes, I'll try to find some to bring home to you!)

After lunch we were led into Abhilasha's room, and all of us (6 women and 2 kids) piled onto her bed. We were told to "make feel like home." They asked us about Shakira and Tom Cruise. We asked them about Indian music (I got three CD's today...maybe I'll try out for Indian Idol while I'm here ;) When the adults left to eat, Abhilasha's sister (or cousin??? Siblings and cousins are called the same word in Hindi) brought out her diary. In it was a numbers game. We counted, they said stop, we said our number and they calculated the meanings. My result revealed that my boyfriend wants to give me a red rose. Adam? Hint, hint... :)

These two girls are some of the first people I've met here that speak any English, even though it's currently the nation's language. But with 18 official languages and 800-1000 regional languages, having one national language clearly presents a challenge. They aren't fluent, but if I spoke slowly, they could understand. Their English is certainly better than my Hindi, that's for sure!

Today Jaggi and Lalit (our program directors) came by the school. I had them ask the teacher (who doesn't speak English) if she thought what we're doing with the kids is okay and if she wants us to do anything differently. She told them that it's great and she's so happy we're there. She is observing us to get ideas that she'll continue with down the road. The good news is, I can keep singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" over and over and over. And over. And over again...

After lunch we had a planned excursion to a Tibetan monastery. The building's colors were vibrant - reds, yellows, greens, blues. We first entered a courtyard where the monks in the red and orange robes were "debating" about what they had studied earlier in the day. Most were in pairs. Every other moment they twisted at the waist, raised one arm high over their heads and then brought it down to clap with the other hand. Usually they clapped right in the face of the monk they were debating with. I've never been to a Tibetan monastery before, but it seemed surprisingly loud! Inside, were statues of Buddha, photos of the head of the monastery (who is at a conference in Argentina at the moment), the first monastery head, and the Dalai Lama. Later, we sat down with a monk to hear him talk about meditation and the monks' studies.

On another note, not only is this my summer of adventures, it's apparently also my summer of showering with spiders. At Camp Lotus I showered a few times while keeping an eye on a spider on the opposite wall. As long as he was in my sight and remained on the other side, I was okay with his company. Here, we have a bathroom spider too. Again, as long as he's visible, I don't mind. In fact, I am comfortable with it. To be honest, showering WITHOUT a spider may be strange in the future. Shower neccessities: soap, towel...and spider.

June 18-21 - Delhi & Palampur: Introducing India

It is 6-21 (and it's actually 6:21 pm too; how strange) and it is my first time on the internet since I arrived in Palampur. I'll share excerpts from my journal entries from the past few days.

6-18-07, Delhi

We have a few hours before we quickly eat and then head for the bus, which will take us to Palampur. 1 hour to the bus, 10-14 hours on the bus, and then another hour in a car. I think the small village life will be a welcomed change after the chaos of this city. It's a lot to take in. It's a crazy city.

We just ate Southern Indian food for lunch. Supposedly it's easy to digest and a good thing to eat before the overnight bus ride. But it was mostly all starch so I'm not convinced. What else? My suitcase got hit by a car right after I got here! I was rolling it behind me and suddenly it was almost thrown from my hands! It's fine - no fractures or even bruises! One of the girls turned on the light in the bathroom and the lightbulb flew out of the socket! Little things like that are what make the experience so delightful. ;)

Our orientation this morning was really interesting. Bela (who remembers everything about you, Ahnya!) talked about our placement and Indian culture. One of the things she talked about was time and the lack of consideration of it. She said there is no room for times like "3:22"...you either say 3, 3:15, 3:30 or 3:45. She said with her thick accent "in your country you run after the time. Here, it runs after us. Enjoy it, because you'll go back to living by the clock in a few weeks."

We bought our first outfit yesterday, a top (kurta), pants (salwaar) and scarf thingy (dupatta). A few of us also took a taxi tour of three sites in Delhi: the Qutb Minar, the India Gate and the Lotus Temple. The most interesting thing to see, however, was a huge fountain with kids playing in it. You won't understand my fascination with it until I show you the pictures. While we were there some women went in, with their full outfits...I guess they wear them in the water at the beach too.

There are a lot of kids begging on the streets. Yesterday a little girl holding a baby tapped us on the arms. The baby's head was just hanging off the girl's arm. I learned that gangs will drug babies and force kids to beg and then collect the earnings. Bela told us you'll also see kids on crutches, with band-aids and blood all over them. Later at night you'll see them playing without the crutches. She was fooled once when two women knocked on her car window. They begged her for money because another woman was about to have a baby and they needed to take her to the aiport in a rickshaw. Bela saw the woman who really looked like she needed to go to the hospital, so she gave them money. After she drove away she noticed that there was a hospital on either side of the street. The good acting is not only in Bollywood, I guess...

6-19-07, Tuesday -- Palampur

Yesterday evening we boarded the bus bound for Palampur, where I'll be for the next four weeks. I feel so lucky to be spending time in such a picturesque place! It's unreal. The home-base has a large patio on the top level (where I have spent a LOT of time so far) that looks down onto the city on one side and up to the Himalayas on the other. The peaks have snow on them! The weather is so nice! I was expecting it to be much warmer...Delhi was so hot but the weather here in the mountains is very comfortable. We got a taste of the monsoon rain this afternoon. As it fell, the scenery became even more mystical. In pictures it just looks foggy and blurry. But it's magical to look at. The other side of the house looks out onto acres of rice paddy fields.

After breakfast our whole group tackled a nearby mountain. It entailed waddling on poles over rushing water and trying to communicate in Hindi with those we met along the way. It was a great hike that we'll definitely do again.

I just returned from our planned activitiy at the Palampur bazaar. It's an outdoor market with everything you could want except toilet paper. My group of three was assigned the task of purchasing 6 bananas, 7 eggs, a newspaper, a glass bottle of pepsi, a bottle of water, bag of potato chips, and toilet paper, all of which totalled the equivalent to $4. I was joking when I said they didn't have toilet paper - there were two rolls in the market. They simply don't use it. There is a small bucket by the toilets for water-washing. We had to drink the pepsi in the storefront and return the bottle. We got a lot of blank stares. Sam: no elephants yet, but we've run into monkeys, goats, and cows in the streets.

The cow. He shares the road with the cars, pedestrians and autorickshaws. Every family owns one. In villages they sometimes build houses with its dung, (together with mud and straw,) which keeps the house cool and keeps out insects. In a medical book (one of the volunteers is doing medical check-ups) it says that if a child is sick at birth, they rub cow dung on the open wound where the umbilical cord was cut. A sacred animal indeed.

Tomorrow begins our volunteer work. I've heard about what it will be like, but like everything here, even if I'm aware of it, I won't be prepared for it!

6-20-07, Wednesday

Megan and I are going to be working at an aanganwadi (day care) with kids ages 1 through 5. Right now we are at another volunteer placement where two others will volunteer. The kids are around 7 and 8 years old. They are so cute! They stare with wide eyes...probably thinking how strange I look. It's hard to get a smile out of anyone here; the children smile most often. I asked Lalit (one of the CCS staff people) how I should greet passersby. To an elderly man or woman I can nod my head out of respect. To a girl or woman I can smile or say "namaste". To a man I shouldn't smile or say anything. It can be interpreted as an invitation. To the kids we can wave, smile...peek-a-boo seems to work!

Indira Gandhi was quoted saying something about the country being full of contradictions. Don't try to describe it because you can't. A guide book used the following examples: a silk weaver confirms his orders by cell phone, international law students at Delhi University volunteer to have their marriages arranged by their families, women in saris sellings vegetables next to an internet cafe. There are more millionaires in India than in the US, and yet the signs of poverty are ubiquitous. I've seen, and surely will see more of, these types of baffling juxtapositions. I wrote a poem called Elephants and Contradictions. Sharing that is for another day! :)

We've had a number of power shortages and today in the Hindustan Times I was reading that this problem "may short-circuit India's ambition of double-digit economic growth." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for a campaign to eliminate shortages by 2012. I will read the newspaper everyday, which means more interesting facts are to come!

Later in the day...

We had a delicious Indian meal tonight consisting of rice, dal, potatoes and yogurt.

There are 14 kids, most of them aged 3, at our placement. There is a teacher and an aid. No one speaks English and while my Hindi is slowly improving, it is nowhere near being conversational and seems to not be well-understood at all. I must have a very thick accent or as Jaggi said, maybe they are just surprised to hear a foreigner speaking Hindi. The kids were really shy; mostly they just stared at us. A few stood up to count in English or sing a song about a dirty boy who didn't wash his hands or face. Two had names of classmates at Punahou (Amit and Kavita) which I found exciting!

6-21-07, Thursday

I just returned from getting measured for a traditional Indian outfit! I already have one that I bought ready-made in Delhi. This time I actually picked out the fabrics and went to a seamstress a few doors down to get measured and pick out a style. It was a lot of fun and cost only about $14 all together. To sew the hems of the scarf was about 10 cents. I got to take that home and I'll pick up the rest of the outfit on Sunday.

The kids I work with are very shy but absolutely adorable. Today all the women from the village came to the day care because they heard we were there. The teacher's niece was there, who spoke some English, and invited us to her home for lunch next week. She is 20 and studies literature at the college here in Palampur. We went to her brothers' wives' house for tea before coming back to the home-base for lunch and our Hindi lesson. And now it's time to take a rickshaw back to home-base for dinner! Bon appetit!

at the airport

One hour until I board! I'm struggling with this keyboard; I'm sure it will be the first of many during the next month to challenge my patience. Speaking of patience, I think this flight is 16 or 19 hours long. When the length is in the double digits, a few hours makes no difference!
...I'm excited for this adventure to begin!
To answer some questions, I never fell out of the boat on purpose. I did, however, "swim" a few rapids, which is a lot of fun! Not as many as Adam, Adam, and Josh...you guys were always in the water! :) Other guides swam when they hit "bouncing rock" (it's the rock, not you!) Sleeping in a tent was the GNARLY...one line of P____! The last two nights we ditched the tent and slept under the stars. Despite the skunk-sunflower seed incident, I loved sleeping sans shelter! I'll explain...Adam woke up to a skunk's rear-end a foot away from his head. He managed to drive it away by clapping. In the morning, someone discovered his jacket in the next camp over. Turns out they were gnawing at the pocket to get the (Israeli) sunflower seeds out. After he chased them away they came back for the jacket...just took it with them! We didn't get sprayed, but unfortunately that pocket is no longer functional!

From skunks to elephants...I'm off!

Fresh from 10 days on the river...preparing for 5 weeks in India!

Welcome to Lisa's Travelling Lore! I've never done a blog before but the adventures I have ahead of me call for a means to document and communicate them. I hope it proves to be both useful for recording my thoughts and entertaining for others to read!

My summer of adventure has already begun! Adam and I returned last night from ten days on the river! We were at ARTA's river rafting guide school. With ten other students and four guides, we rafted down the South Fork American, Middle Fork American, and the Tuolumne Rivers in Northern Calif. In a few short days I learned a wide range of useful skills: from where to sit in a paddle boat (I had never been river rafting before), to tying GE, bowl-line, trucker's, and fisherman's knots, to setting up my ferry angle going into river rapids and looking at ("reading") water in a very new way. The most challenging rapids I had the opportunity to guide were Kanaka on the Middle Fork and Sterns on the Tuolumne - both class IV rapids.

Point positive. Set up your ferry angle. Call a turn or paddle forward when you need help. Eddy out and set up safety for others. Look to where you want to go - not where you don't want to go - and you'll get there.

Today and tomorrow, I'll be rushing around, excitedly, preparing for my next adventure: India. I leave on the 14th at night and arrive in Bangkok, Thailand on the 16th at 6 am. My Uncle Odd, (long-time family friend who is Thai but worked with my dad in Hawaii for the first ten or eleven years of my life) will pick me up in the morning and drop me off 12 hours later for my flight to Delhi. I arrive at Delhi airport at night on the 16th where I'll meet the group of 12 that I'll be living and working with for the next four weeks. My volunteer placement is at a day care where I'll be wearing the traditional salwaar kameez and the kids will speak Hindi...I'm trying to learn as many words as I can before I go! (Bahut accha, shukriya...) After four weeks volunteering in Palampur, I'll travel around India for a week and then spend two more days in Bangkok, before returning to Southern Calif.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mohandas Gandhi