chennai, india

well its been eight days since we left chennai, india and i am now just getting to my blog. even though we were at sea for five days before we reached laem chabang, thailand on sunday, i did not have time to share my thoughts about my time in india. unfortunately, i spent most of my five days at sea meeting with students involved with policy violations-returning shore pass and customs form late, disrespect toward semester at sea staff and mv explorer crew, misuse of technology, possession of alcohol, etc.


upon arriving in india, all of my senses were immediately attacked and the assault did not stop until long after i left india.

as we sailed into india, i could smell the pollution as it seeped onto the ship. the smog, the coal dust, the trash, the urine and feces, the spices, the chilies, the jasmine and other smells i don't have names for bombarded my nose.

before getting off the ship in india, we had a diplomatic briefing in which we were told that the overall threat india was high mainly due to terrorist threats-it was important for us to not spend time in large tourist areas since these are the locations where terrorist attacks tend to occur.

as i got off the ship, i was hit in the face with the 96 degree heat, not included the humidity, and my clothes stuck to me like a fly caught in fly paper. did i mention that women in india are not allowed to show their legs or shoulders so needless to say that shorts or tank tops are out of the question-and for those of you who know me this includes skirts. my hair went wild as it enjoyed its natural waves and curls-it made me look like i had been electrocuted.

my first day was spent as the trip leader for a service project involving semester at sea students
and students from the srm engineering college. we went to the college to meet the students and the greeting we received was like we were celebrities walking the red carpet on oscar night. we were given jasmine leis, bindis on our foreheads and roses. the welcome sign was made of rice flour-i was amazed by the details and the bright colors of the rice flour. you will see rice flour designs all over india-the belief is that every life is important and must be nourished and this includes the ant who survives by eating the rice flour.

after a tour of the college, we boarded our bus and were taken to a government run high school so we could paint the inside and outside of the school. we were told that the children at the school would never finish school since they would have to quit to sell vegetables, or beg, on the streets in order to provide for the families while their fathers got drunk all day. painting a school is india is quick since one definitely does not have to wait for the paint to dry :) we applied the primer coat and within one hour a group came behind us to apply the paint coat. as we painted, the students yelled to us from their classrooms and when we waved at them they smiled, laughed and cheered. eventually the students were allowed a break to visit with us-it again felt like we were hollywood celebrities-shaking hands, signing autographs, and repeating our names over and over. the children clamoured to have their pictures taken and then giggled and ran away when we showed them their picture. it was a day filled with so many emotions-thinking you are making a difference as you are painting the school and knowing you didn't as you walk away.

the next day i ventured out into chennai unaccompanied but the safety, or air conditioning, of a semester at sea sponsored trip. you are harassed constantly by people wanting to give you a ride-even when you say no thank you you are followed as if you are attached to this person. once out of the port, it is a barter battle to find a rickshaw driver who will take you were you want to go for a fair price. the harassment continues until you come to a mutual agreement on the price- this process is like a boxer who keeps getting knocked down but gets up only to be hit again. even when you do agree on a price you are constantly negotiating the price since it changes as you make your way to your final destination. it also a battle of the wills when it comes to the driver wanting to take you to shops where they will get points for you going in. these shops are overpriced and usually contain items you would not buy.

driving in a rickshaw is an experience that can not be described and have anyone else truly understand it until they too have experienced it! your ears take a beating from the constant and consistent horn honking and you wonder if you will make it out alive. you are so close to other rickshaws and cars that you can literally see the eye color of the person in the other vehicle. the buses are so jammed pack with people that it looks like sardines in a can with their arms and legs hanging out.

my adventure included two of the living learning coordinators-andrea and kate. our initial trip was to the vma studios where we hoped to become extras in an india movie on bollywood. the studios can not be compared to mgm and are so drastically different we thought they had been abandoned. after walking in a square for five minutes we were stopped by the guard who motioned us into a building where we observed several men building a structure of some sorts. we later found out that it was a set being built for a fight movie that the was scheduled to start shooting on monday-we had missed our big chance to become stars by three days!

after leaving the vma studios, and again struggling for the fare we had settled on when we left the port, we ventured to elliot's beach because kate wanted to have her palm read by a parrot :) we arrived to the beach on to discover that it was like a ghost town due to the fact that it was high noon which is the hottest time of the day.

we got back in the rickshaw, after negotiating again for our originally agreed upon price, (and no we had not changed our minds about going to any shops on his list) we were now off to a performing arts dance school where the lonely planet book assured us we would get to see students performing the art of indian dancing for free. after surviving another round of frogger on the streets of india we made it to the school only to learn that the performances for the day had ended at noon.

it was then decided that we would visit a temple on our way to lunch so after yet another round of negotiations we were off. we arrived at the temple only to discover that the temples in india close at noon and do not open again until four in the afternoon. we were able to take pictures of the outside of the temple.

having struck out three times, we decided to get lunch at discuss our options. our rickshaw driver continued to pester us about stopping at the shops on his list and when we refused he wanted to charge us more. after much tension and frustration we agreed to go to a restaurant of his choice-kabul. the food was amazing-it was so spicy that andrea and kate were sweating bullets, wiping their noses and drying the tears in their eyes.

during lunch we laughed about the bad luck we were having with our adventure so far, how to change our interactions with our rickshaw driver and what to do next. we decided we would visit the vtm to do some shopping since it had been recommended to us by the interport lecturers from india. lets just say our luck at the vtm was following us as we soon discovered that everything in the store was bigger than our ship and the prices were not only fixed but ridiculously so. we left there and finished the day at the spencers mall. remind me to tell you about the abc wall hanging that andrea bought for her niece and nephew.

i spent my third with sarah (living learning coordinator) and her partner nate-i did not venture far since i was on dean duty. we spent most of the day at citiycentre (a very very americanized mall) before we ended up at spencers.

my fourth and fifth nights were spent in a dalit (untouchables) village where the people in the village had never seen foreigners. prior to arriving at the village, we spent the morning and afternoon at the delta school of nursing where we were treated to dancing and singing but the school children and nursing students. we had another amazing lunch-not as spicy as the restaurant but when one is eating authentic from india there is no complaining involved. after lunch the sas students learned how to play throwball-i will explain it to you when i see you but lets just say that the nursing students take their throwball very seriously and man can they throw the ball! i had my first green coconut-it is supposed to be good for your digestive system but i think i'll pass.

we finally left for the village around four thirty and arrived a little before six. we were again greeted as if we were celebrities. as we got off the buses (29 of us) we had three to four men playing drums and we spent the next hour or so being paraded through the dalit village. we wold stop every so often as stand still as a woman of the village held a bowl of water with red spices in it and created a little flame by lighting three little white sulfur beads sitting atop a leaf as it floated in the bowl. after waving the bowl over our bodies, the woman would reach into the bowl, touch the water mixture and the dab it on the center of our foreheads. then she removed the leave, with its flame, placing it in front of us and pouring the water across the path were walking on. we must have completed this ritual between fifteen and twenty times before we were led to an area where we were treated to singing, dancing and fire acts for the next two to three hours. by the time we were led to a school across from the village, to sleep on the concrete floor for the night, we were tired, hungry and hot. before calling it a night we were asked to participate in an indian meditation in order to reflect on the day's events. we were each given a clay bowl that was lite and as we focused on the fire in our clay pot we were asked to think about the images, ideas and inspirations that came up for throughout the day. after the meditation we placed the clay pots in a circle in order to notice that "when the pot was in our hand it was alone, an isolated entity" but "when we brought them together they shone beautifully and lit up more space-when we join our energy together and work together, when we are united we can work together to achieve many things to make this world a better place to live." i can not even begin to tell you how this experience moved me, changed me, made me look at me privilege and humbled me.

the untouchables are so named because they are seen as the people outside of the four castes system and are considered below the other people of india. in an effort to liberate the dalit people from the oppression of the current caste system the term dalit was created-it means to split or crack open. the dalit people see this term as an expression of hope, the hope of recovering their past self-identity.

i had some mixed feelings about my experience as i saw children running around without clothes, no running water, no electricity and no means to dispose of waste and yet there were people of the village talking on cell phones and riding around on motorbikes.

okay, i know this blog is long and you have probably left and come back several times in order to finish reading it so let me just finish with one last story.

while i was in a store with my head down looking at postcards and indian woman approached me and when i looked up she apologized for interrupting me but she thought i was her aunt.

while i was in india i was not treated as a minority until i spoke. i was able to go into stores with other americans and observe them being stared at, or followed, by store employees as i moved about freely. what an incredible, speechless experience this was for me.