Reflection of India

Like I have said a million times, I am still trying to process everything I did and saw in India. I am exhausted! My teacher told me that there are two types of people in the world: The ones that have been to India, and the ones that have not been to India. I feel so thankful that I can now say I have been to India. It is so much more than I ever could have imagined. The poverty, the people I met, the experiences that I had are still flooding my mind. I wonder what will happen to the mother that I met who had a 3 day old baby and who was sitting on the corner of a busy street. I wonder what will happen to the children that I saw that were begging for food, or to the babies that were sick, or to the helpless and the homeless. There are so many faces, images, colors, and smells that I keep thinking about and can’t seem to shake off. As I wash India out of my clothes (my sink water was literally black from all the dust and dirt), scrub India off my fingernails and out of my hair, piece together newspaper clippings, tickets and postcards in my scrapbook, download pictures and listen to India tunes, my mind is crowded with thoughts. I want to share everything I saw, everything I felt, and take you to where I have been. However, India is an impossible place to describe in a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a paragraph. To help me out, I will leave you with the words of Mark Twain who said,  “"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"

Gandhi!!!

The next morning we went to the Bahai house of Worship. The building is shaped like a huge lotus blossom. I thought it would be cool if it was designed to open and close and it would have been really pretty if it were pink, but it didn’t open or close and it was just white. We attended a brief service and then we went to the Gandhi Museum. This Gandhi was really amazing, because the museum had you start in his room and then walk through to the courtyard and finish where he was shot and killed. Essentially, the museum was designed to take you through the last day of Gandhi’s life. It was really moving. They had Gandhi quotes that lined the path all the way to the courtyard and then they had a house that was part of the museum that gave a timeline of his life. Then we visited the Sikh Temple. We had to take our shoes and socks off and “wash” our feet in the water. I say “wash” because the water was like black, so it was more of a symbolic, religious act then a literal sparkly clean that you might think of when you think of “bath”. I really don’t know all that much about the Temples or the Indian religions and so we just observed the prayer and then had to bow as we left and then they handed us some dough to eat (although, none of us ate it) and then we went and looked at this pool that was blessed by a god and then we went to the airport to fly back to Chennai.

Last day in Delhi

The last day, a few of us went to a market near the hotel which was filled with people and silks, food, shoes, kitchen appliances, toys…you name it, they were selling it. The markets are hot and dusty, busy and crowded. But, we were so glad that we had some free time to go explore and we had a really good time. Then we headed back to the train station. While we waited on the platform in the dark, little kids jumped off arriving trains and begged for our soda bottles, cereal, scarves, watches, bracelets, jackets and sweaters. Little kids (about 4) were holding infants (little sisters and brothers) and the ones that weren’t begging for food from us would hop off the platforms and go through the trash on the train tracks. Homeless with no legs or arms were begging for money. Huge rats were wandering around the platforms and in between luggage. We boarded the train and headed back to Delhi.

Day 3: India

We got to the hotel and we went to the Agra Fort of the Mughal Dynasty, created by four emperors. The walls are 20 meters thick. Fatehpur sikri is a city that has been preserved for the past 400 years and the city was abandoned because they could not get water. Then we went to the Taj Mahal. I have seen lots of famous monuments but nothing could have prepared me for the Taj. I walked through the garden and made my way around the entrance and there was the Taj. It is such an incredible monument. India is so busy and non-stop that when you get the Taj it feels like time stops. It is quiet and calm and serene. As I walked up the path the Taj just gets more and more beautiful. It is something that you can’t capture in a picture. I had to keep pinching myself that I was there and I was looking at the real thing. It was amazing. The next day we went to Mother Teresa’s Ashram. I didn’t really know what to expect, but when I studied international social work I had the opportunity to visit a lot of orphanages. However, this was so much more overwhelming then I ever could have anticipated. First, a nun who worked with Mother Teresa met us and she showed us around the orphanage. The first room had newborns that were sleeping in rows and rows of cribs. Some of them had braces on their legs to keep their limbs growing the right direction. Then we went into the next room that had a large blanket on the floor about 15 newborns. They were all crawling around and these were the babies that would be adopted to Indian families. We got to hold the babies and play with them. Then we went into the next room where the disabled children were. They were sitting in beds and these children, we were told, would not be adopted. It was so hard to see such severe disabilities and suffering. Then we went to another set of rooms across the courtyard where the disabled babies would eventually go when they were older. These rooms held the disabled adults that ranged from ages 6-80. The orphanage and the nuns who managed it were providing love and care for so many disadvantaged children and adults and while it was good that these babies, children and adults were being well taken care of, it was so, so sad. I am still trying to process everything that I saw.

India: Day 2

Day two was the start to my adventures to the Taj Mahal. We had to fly to Delhi. They don’t have gates at their airport and so you just take a bus straight to the plane. We watched Friends on the airplane, which made me laugh…HAHA. It was a super nice flight. Then we got in and took a bus to the hotel. The hotel was so excited that we were coming that they met us at the doors with flower necklaces and blessed us as we came in and had a HUGE flower welcome arrangement in the lobby. The next day we took a train (the Taj Express) to Agra. The train is wild. There were monkeys (like the ones you see at the zoo (BEHIND GLASS)) just wandering around looking for food. The station is so crowded with billions of people going all directions. We rode first class…but India just smells, and so it was smelly—not our version of first class. They sell Chai and tomato soup and all kinds of Indian food…none of which I was adventurous to try... all of it totally random. Nothing on the train is labeled and there are no announcements for where you are or where you are going and so you have to just ask people around you…lucky for me, I was traveling with SAS and so I didn’t have to stress out trying to figure out where we were. It was so early in the morning that everyone outside was waking up and so as we were traveling I watched people wake up out the window, look through trash for food, and gathered around small fires. The poverty here is so heartbreaking.

India Day 1

I am still trying to process everything from India. The first day a group of us went out. We actually got pictured in the paper!!!--as drivers were ambushing us! We caught a rickshaw, which is a motorized scooter that holds two people. On the way to a market we got in a fender bender—also minute one. Our rickshaw driver was talking to the other rickshaw driver and a car pulled out in front of him and he swerved into us and we got sideswiped by a van in the oncoming lane, but we were all ok. We went to a consignment store (which drivers are tipped for if they take us there) and so everything was really over priced. Then we went to a restaurant and had yummy food and then we went and got silks. I didn’t opt to have a sari made because I would never in a billion years wear it in Portland, but I got lots of scarves! Some of the girls I was with got beautiful sari’s made... really beautiful! Then we went to a Temple. We left our shoes with our driver and bought flowers as a peace offering to leave at the shrine. I don’t know very much about Indian Culture and so I just kind of followed the group and left the flowers at the alter to be blessed and they took them and then I was blessed and then they hand you this mint type leaf and then there are candles and incents and whatnot. It was nice. My first impressions of India: Crowded, busy, poor, beautiful…takes your breath away by how many scents, sounds, colors, textures, garbage, rubbish, children, and poverty there is. India is like no place I have ever been before and I don’t think it will be like any place I will ever go. This was day one.

Mauritius

Hey All,

I just got back from Mauritius, which is an island off the coast of South Africa. If you hold up your left hand with your palm faced toward you that is the shape of Mauritius and so you can always find it on a map–or so my cab driver told me. Have any of you ever been in the MAC store and seen the screen savers of the white beaches with the perfect umbrella and endless turquoise water? Well, that is EXACTLY what Mauritius looks like. The first day that we got here, a group of us just threw a dart at the map and picked a beach to go to. For those of you that know me well, you know I am not fond of swimsuits and so you all would have been so surprised to actually see me in the ocean—even I couldn’t resist passing up the warm water and white sand! At one point I was chasing after a vollyball and actually fell into the water and got soaked from head to toe. However, I did end up talking about how much I miss cold Cannon Beach, warm chai, big bonfires in the rain and sweaters and boots (as I re-applied sunscreen).The rest of the day we just relaxed and had time to catch up with each other because we had all been so busy on various trips in South Africa and had midterms on the ship. We went to this really good Indian restaurant for dinner.

The next day I went on an SAS trip to see the volcano and the largest waterfall in Africa. We stopped at the Ghandi Center and learned about the do-do bird that went extinct a trillion years ago and all about the flora and fauna. We went and saw the 7 sands, which are the 7 sands of the world and they are all different colors. Then we got some free time at the beach before heading back to the ship. This was a short stop because we were only stopping for fuel. It was like a tiny spring break.  Now I am back on the ship and we are heading to India. I have a lot of presentations and tests coming up and so there is lots going on! I want to send a special thank you out to mom, Emma, Eli, and Julie for sending me “REAL” mail! You are the best! You made my day and all of your notes are up on my wall! I am half way to home! More to come soon! Love to everyone!

African Art!

Today was our last day in Cape Town! I am so sad! I absolutely love it here! First we went to this place called African Allsorts, based in Salt River. Brothers Jason and David Rosenstein established this bead and wire art company in March of 2004. Their primary goal is to create jobs in Africa! They employ local artists who are super talented bead workers and they make these absolutely AMAZING bead sculptures of animals, people, plants and bowls. We got a chance to meet all the artists and they taught us how to make beaded hearts. It was really cool! They are super talented and taught us some cool bead skills! Some of the animal sculptures were just insane! They had a life size zebra made entirely of beads! It was SO COOL! And the beads are small; like tiny beads that you make jewelry with. This one guy was making a beaded ladybug and so I told him, “I like your lady bug” and he said, “What is a lady bug?” and I pointed to the beaded sculpture in his hand and he said, “this is not a lady bug, this is a lady bird. “ I loved that! A ladybird! You can see pictures of these amazing pieces at www.africanallsorts.com. Then we went and visited Montebello Design Centre. It is such a cool place that reminded me so much of the Oregon College of Art and Craft. This place sits in the original farm buildings of the historic Montebello, in the middle of the greenbelt of Newlands, and is a development project for previously disadvantaged artists. They rent space to the artists and help them become independent self-employed artists. They had jewelry studios, pottery studios, a hand weavers studio (that mom would have LOVED!) a woodworking studio, a printing studio, and a greenhouse. They had a great café and we got hot chocolate and ate cranberry apple muffins. It was such a cool place. Then we went to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (that is on the slope of Devils peak). It is one of the world’s most famous botanical gardens! It has over 8,500 species of indigenous plant species! It is also home to one of the 6 floral kingdoms of the world! Mom and George would have gone nuts! This place was really, really incredible. We got to walk all around and have lunch. I love you Cape Town! Oh and a VERY HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY to Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu!

Inverdoorn Game Reserve

We drove out to the Karoo, past the wine region of Paarl and Tulbagh Valley to Ceres. This game reserve had 10,000 hectares dedicated to conservation, 1,2000 wild animals representing 28 different species. When we got there we had pineapple juice and hung out for a bit, then we got into our jeeps and headed out. We saw giraffes (which we got out of the jeep and got to walk on land with!), zebra, waterbuck, Oryx, sable antelope, kudu, impala and springbok. We also saw Cheetah and lions (Karl, the lions were so cool!)!!! Fun Fact time! Fun fact #1: The cheetah is an endangered species and one of the things we learned was that they have a hard time regulating their body temperature and the male cheetahs get hot when they run and they get so hot that their body heat kills their sperm and so that is one reason the number of cheetah cubs is so low. Fact #2: A zebra has different stripes on its left side then on its right side. Fact #3: A giraffe runs with its front right foot and back right foot and then runs with its front left foot that follows with its left back foot and a horse runs with its front two feet and its back to feet. Fact #4: A giraffes tongue can be up to a foot long!

Cape of Good Hope

I had a free day today and so I tagged along on a trip with a few friends. We got a driver to take us to Cape of Good Hope, which was a really pretty drive. Parts of South Africa remind me so much of Napa or Monterey Bay. We stopped at some lookouts and got amazing pictures of beaches. On our way to the Cape, my friend Jen (who is a world class horse back rider in the masters at home) looked out at the view and saw a house with horses and so we had our driver drive us to this house and she went and introduced herself and they ended up taking us on a 2 hour horse back riding trip down long beach and back. White beaches and the sunset and we were the only ones on the beach!!! I am not a horse rider and to be honest, not a big fan of horses, but this trip was SO much fun and it was so cool that we got to ride on the beach! The Cape was clear and the weather lucked out and so it was really fun to be at the southern most point of Africa!!! We had a low-key night of Calamari and Cider (I missed you Shep! They have amazing cider here!).

Wine lands!

Today I went to Stellenbosch (wine country) and we rented mountain bikes and biked the wine lands. We got to a vineyard and had a wine tasting and lunch! The wine was so good and they had certain foods out to try with certain wine, which was really neat. White wine and fish/shellfish/cheeses. Red wine and red meat.  It was really fun! I loved Stellenbosch. The university of Stellenbosch is right there and so it is a cool little college town with neat galleries, coffee shops, restaurants etc. I want to go to school there! The town reminded me a lot of the campus in Boulder CO! Logan, Julie, Spencer, Sam---you guys would have loved town! Emma, I wished you had been there for all tasting!

Table Mountain!

This morning we got up and went out to this amazing breakfast place that was just like St. Honore at home! I missed my mom and Alison so much because they would have LOVED this place so much! They had such good coffee! Then we went and packed a picnic lunch and took the hike up to Table Mountain! This hike was AMAZING! I LOVED IT! I wish that CJ, BJ, JFro, Dana, and Tony (and Trish and Dean to, although they hiked it like the day before I did☺) had been there to hike it with me because they would have loved it! The hike was a climb, very rocky and straight up! It took about 2 hours but it felt so good to get a good work out! The views were SPECTACULAR! We met lots of awesome travelers along the way from all over (the Netherlands, England, Iceland). I was so happy that we hiked it on such a clear and sunny day because sometimes, the clouds cover everything and so it was so great to get to the top and be able to see for miles and miles! We took the cable car down and it was this really cool egg shaped car that spun as it descended down the mountain so you get a 360-degree view! We did some shopping in the afternoon and then we went out to dinner and I tried Ostrich (Guy would have been so impressed!)—Tastes like steak if anyone was wondering!

From South Africa!

Wow! Wow! WOW! It has been such an amazing time in Cape Town South Africa! Whew, let me start from the beginning. We arrived on the 3rd of October. The port is BEAUTIFUL and reminds me so, so much of Mystic Sea Port. It is very touristy with lots of shops and ships and fish and chips. There was a small mall next door, which had a grocery store and so we took the morning to do some shopping. I love grocery shopping abroad! The foods and brands and things to taste and try are so yummy that we went a little crazy and bought a ton of cookies, crackers, granola, soymilk and Nutella to get us the rest of the way around the world. We had cheese and tomatoes crepes for lunch and then we headed out to the Khayelitsha Township.
This is one of South Africa’s fastest growing townships of about 2 million people. During our time in the township we got to visit the Philani Development Centre and Craft Shop that was started by the women in the town ship (with the help of Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu) to provide child health and nutrition to the children in the community. The women work in weaving, silk screen printing, bead work and fresco painting to create these amazing works of art and the proceeds from all the sales go directly to Philani Center! To learn more you can visit philani.org.za. The women were so gracious and showed us around the facility. It was really a special place. I could have stayed and talked and made art for days and days.
Our next stop was to the Kopanong B&B, which was started by women from Cape Town who lives in the township. She wanted visitors to see first hand what it was like to stay in a township and become a part of the neighborhood while visiting Cape Town. The room and board costs all get fed back into the community. I was bummed that I didn’t have more days in South Africa or I would have stayed here longer! The townships are shack after shack after shack and no words can describe the amount of poverty that these people live in. But, once you set foot in a township, you are welcomed into their communities, homes, and families. I found that the shacks are all quite beautiful. They have so much unique character in each scrap of metal, broken doorframe, shutter, wire, fencing, and windowpane. They are incredibly small and hold very little, but they are neat and tidy and well kept. We stopped in a park in the middle of the township and played with the kids at the playground. We sang songs and asked about school, family and music. The kids were so great and it was so good to spend time with them. Everyone was so incredibly friendly. We were sitting talking to some boys who were about 6 and 9 and the mom came over and we started to get up (because we were worried she was going to be upset for these strangers (us) to be talking to her kids) but as she came closer her arms were open wide and she grabbed me into a huge hug and squeezed me tight. I miss my mom so much so it was so nice to have a hug. Then she explained a bit about the neighborhood and the township.
That night we headed out to dinner and I was missing my uncle Guy and wishing that I could tell him all of my stories and so in honor of him I ordered a HUGE bowl of mussels! Cool fact: South Africans call traffic lights “robots”! So they would say, “go straight and turn right at the next robot.”