While it is true that I'm living in a rural village in Northern India, it is not without its comforts. First and foremost: Skippy Super Chunk peanut butter. There's really something wonderful about having the peanut butter you grew up on, especially for all of the peanut butter toast and sandwiches I make. Vandana likes to make fun of me for how excited I get about it.
Secondly, I now have a small fridge. It's bigger than anything they would allow in an Oberlin dorm room, but isn't anywhere close to full size. It's surprising how much we rely on refrigerators for our food needs. I didn't quite realize it until I was without one. This is the official Shansi fridge now, so it will get passed down to other fellows that come after me. I'm sure there will be a lot of other stuff like that too, but since Anya and I are the first two fellows here, it's hard to say exactly what else.
And then there's toilet paper. While I am starting to get the hang of the water method, it's nice to have a few rolls at home.
All this, and other good and familiar foods, is made possible by Dharmshala and McLeod Ganj, two bigger cities up the mountain to the west of Rakkar. McLeod Ganj in particular is a mecca for hippies and foreign tourists, so the stores up there sell all sorts of imported goods. It is still hard, though, to find any kind of dark chocolate. Indian's don't like it, so the most frequently found chocolate is Cadbury.
As far as internet goes, it takes some effort to come by. I don't have any at home so I have to go looking for it, but there are options. First, there is one internet connection at the Jagori Knowledge Center. You plug in a cell phone with a USB cord and get relatively slow internet that way. That one phone is passed around to whoever needs it during the day. Secondly, the other NGO in Rakkar, right up the road from Jagori, has a computer lab with relatively slow but reliable internet. It's wireless, so I could take my laptop up and surf from the comfort of my own computer. Next, there is a tiny internet cafe down in Sidhbari. It costs a bit, so it's a last resort. Then, two of Anya's neighbors have wireless internet. One is out of town right now and graciously allowed Anya use of his internet while he was gone for the summer, and she has invited me to come along sometimes. Her other neighbor Bryan is almost always around, but he is alright letting people come over and use his internet sometimes. These two neighbors have the fastest connections around, but they frequently go in and out.
This past Tuesday was the not-so-annual Jagori picnic/retreat. In preparation, everyone was assigned to bring along some kind of food. The Knowledge Center team (that includes Anya, Vandana, and I) was assigned to make puris. A puri is a deep fried flat bread. I had learned how to make a basic flat bread before, but frying it was a new experience. The three of us made the dough the night before (wheat flour and water needed together) and then got up early the next morning to roll them out and fry them. Somehow in the process, I manged to dip two of my fingers into the boiling oil as I flipped a puri. Thankfully, I live above a doctor who loves to garden. I was able to keep aloe on the burns and, though painful for a while, it kept them from blistering at all. That plant really works wonders.
The whole staff piled into four taxi vans (putting more people into one vehicle than I thought possible at first sight), and headed East across the valley and up into the mountains. Our car remained entertaining as most of the women sang enthusiastically at the top of their lungs all the way there. By the end of the day, I was able to sing along with a few of their songs.
We took a few stops along the way to our final destination. First was at a small village where there was a small art gallery done by a famous Sikh artist. Following that we walked down to a temple along the river, nick-named 'The Fish Temple,' because the stretch of river behind the temple was the only area that fish gathered. We threw some food to the fish, and then moved on.
Next, we stopped at another temple to a goddess (I'm not sure which) high in the mountains. This one was built into a cave. There were two entrances. One, which most people took, was a little like spelunking. You had to climb up through a tunnel in the rock, crawl on your hands and knees, and even wriggle on your stomach to get into the sanctuary. I turned around at the point where I had to crawl through a puddle in my brand new white salwar kamiz. Then someone pointed out a slanted metal staircase that led up the other way. I took that instead. The inside of the cave was decorated with all sorts of trappings and smelled of incense. It definitely isn't what I expected when they said we were heading for a temple.
Our final destination was Asha Puri Devi, a temple to another goddess on the top of a mountain. This particular one was carved of stone and seemed really old. The few from it was spectacular. After everyone visited the temple, we spread out some reed mats and had our picnic in its shade. There was so much food passed around, everyone was stuffed by the end and there were still left-overs.
Afterward, Abha had everyone sing the welcome song to me and the other new person. Immediately following that, Abha announced that she heard I was a good singer and should sing a song for them right then. I sung the first thing I could think of, 'La Promessa', one of my favorites from my recital last semester. After I was done, various other people were called on to sing and dance in the circle. It really was a lot of fun.
On the way home there was more singing too. Anya and I led some of the others in a few English songs as well. We made a number of stops (many of them for reasons I wasn't sure of), but the last one they called a 'chai break.' Even so, I was surprised when, as we all sat by the side of the road, someone came around with cups of chai. I'm not sure where they found boiled water and milk to make it. As we sipped our tea, Anya and I were sitting on either side of Vandu (another one of the three Vandanas on my team) who decided to paint our nails while we waited. Now, my finger nails are light pink. I think it's been since middle school at least since I had my finger nails painted.
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