My two month voyage has begun. After spending a few days in Delhi in which I had planned to get my China visa (but the visa center was closed for the week), I flew out to Thailand. Bangkok, on the whole, is a very nice city. The people are friendly, it's clean, orderly, the food is good, but the weather is hot already at this time of year.
I arrived very early in the morning and took an airport bus into the city. I decided to walk to my hotel, but was intercepted by a man claiming to be a teacher saying that it was a holiday and my hostel would be close until 3:00. Now, that should have set off some warning bells, but I was tired. He suggested I see a few temples (wats) where special things were going on and go shopping. He then flagged down a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) and put me inside for a 10 bat 'tour'. At first, it was a lot of fun seeing the temples, but my driver got impatient if I spent too long at any temple. Then he took me to several expensive tailor and jewelry shops before he would take me to my hotel. I now understand that he was hoping to earn a commission off of any purchases I made. At the last stop, I bought a couple of really cheap souvenirs. My driver was disappointed, but he finally took me to my hotel.
After that morning-long adventure, I finally arrived at the hotel of my choice: Shanti Lodge. It was inexpensive, but clean and had everything I could ask for. They did my laundry, took my visa application to the Chinese embassy, arranged for an in-house Thai herbal massage, and had a fantastic restaurant with mostly organic food. Not to mention, the ambiance was great. They had hostel rooms as well as dorm-style rooms, while the bathroom facilitates on the first floor were shared. The one down-side is that it's pretty out of the way, close to the river, so it took considerable time (and more money) to get between Shanti lodge and any of the attractions of Bangkok. On the whole, I would highly recommend it to other travelers looking for something inexpensive and still classy.
On my second day in the City I headed for the Dusit Zoo. It was packed with people celebrating some sort of special day. They all had picnic mats spread out everywhere. I had to step over picnickers time and time again to get good looks at birds and monkeys. One of the most interesting things about this zoo is that most of the animals were local to South East Asia and not necessarily what you would see in other zoos. Of course they had the classics like giraffes and giant tortoises as well.
After the zoo I went to Siam Square, the center of Bangkok, for some shopping. Many huge high-rise malls span the area with all sorts of goods and restaurants. It was a nice escape from the intense humidity and heat.
The following day I headed for the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha complex. I was totally stunned by the grandeur and beauty of it all. The temple complex was almost unreal. Every structure was covered in colorful ceramic or mirrored tials in mosaic patterns, painted with gold, or covered in stunning murals that too had elements of gold leafing. With all that light reflecting dazzlingly off of all of the buildings, it's no wonder I got a bit sunburned. The Emerald Buddha itself is a solid jade statue enshrined in the largest of the buildings. It has three different outfits made of gold, one for each of the seasons. I believe it is the holiest statue of Buddha in Thailand. What struck me as interesting, however, is that all of the murals inside the wall around the complex were of the Ramayana, an Indian epic of Hindu origins. The rest of the Grand Palace complex, while grand, paled by comparison. It was still beautifully painted, but paled in comparison to the glittering temple buildings.
From there I ventured on to Wat Pho, famous as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddha itself was stunning. The gilded statue was at least as big as my house back in Minnesota. While I had heard it was big, I wasn't prepared for something of that size. The rest of the Wat Pho complex was also very nice, but nothing compared to that huge Buddha. Needing a break from the heat, I returned to Siam Square and explored a different mall. I wound up at the nicest book store I had seen in the last six months and at an IMAX theater watching “Avatar.”
The next day I slept in and hung around Shanti lodge for a while. At my parents' email urging, I went for an herbal Thai massage. I have had a few regular massages in the US before, but this was nothing like any of them. I laid on a mattress on the floor, fully clothed, while a tiny Thai woman worked on me. She used her forearms, elbows, knees, and even feet to massage me. At one point, she stood on me. Thai massage includes a good deal of applying pressure for long periods of time to one spot and plenty of assisted stretching. The woman also spent over half of the time working on my legs and feet, which differs from any Western massage I have had before.
In the evening, I headed for the Suan Lam Night Market. While I did a bit of shopping, I was mainly there for the Joe Louis puppet theater. The market itself didn't begin to open until 5:00 PM, and wasn't fully rolling until 6:00. It was mostly stocked with souvenirs of various qualities. Bangkok is full of tourists, but I was surprised by how many Japanese tourists were at the night market. Most of the shopkeepers spoke better Japanese than Hindi.
The puppet show wasn't quite what I expected. It told the history of this particular style of Thai puppetry through combination of pantomime drama with narration and example excerpts from several puppet dramas. The puppetry sections were stunning. It takes three people to operate one puppet. One controls the movements of the feet while the other two control one hand each, attached to a long pole. The two hand operators trade off who supports the torso of the puppet and controls the head. Meanwhile, all three create a sort of train beneath the puppet, mimicking its foot, body, and head movements in a coordinated dance. Puppeteers have to be trained in classical dancing as well as how to manipulate a puppet together.
The creative surprises at the end of the show were a dance routine between two men, one dressed as a puppet with poles attached to his wrists that his 'puppeteer' held on to. Following that, a trio of puppeteers had a Michel Jackson puppet that did a dance with many of his signature moves. On the whole, it was a great experience.
On my last half-day in Thailand, I went to a few museums. First, I visited the Kamtieng House, a traditional house of the Lanna people with a small but interesting museum about their historical lifestyle. From there, I went to the National Museum, which was a complex of buildings that had previously belonged to the Royal Family. There was a section on the history of Thailand and several galleries of artifacts, sculptures, and other objects. I was disappointed to see very few paintings, but it seems Thai art focused on other mediums.
I flew out of Bankok that evening and spent the night in the Kuala Lampur airport in Malaysia on a ten-hour layover. Along with a handful of other travelers, I curled up on a bench in a secluded nook of the airport and slept for a few hours while the airport was quiet. In the morning, I boarded my flight for Beijing.
Thailand, on the whole, was a lovely country to visit. It was clean, modern, and relatively calm compared to the chaos of India. The people are friendly and helpful, and there are plenty of things to do. Thailand itself is a monarchy, and that is not something you are likely to forget while there. People speak lovingly of their king, and there are huge pictures of him, frequently with the queen, all over Bangkok. From what I read at the museum, people have good reason to adore him, as he has a strong humanitarian agenda. Before both “Avatar” at the movie theater and the puppet show, everyone had to stand and listen to the National Anthem while a montage of pictures of the king and other patriotic sights slid across the screen. His palace itself is in the center of Bangkok in plain view. Every single taxi driver I had always made some gesture of respect as he passed it.
To those who would like to visit Bangkok, I would make this word of caution. Avoid tuk-tuks. They generally want to work you into a scam like I had or will charge you, as a foreigner, an exorbitant rate. Taxis have a meter and are generally cheaper than tuk-tuks if you can convince your driver to use it. If not, you can always get out of the car and find another taxi, something I had to do once.
I am safely in Beijing, China now, spending a few days here with James, another Shansi fellow, before we head back to Taigu where he and three other fellows teach. I hope I can get this posted in a timely manner. Blogspot is behind the Great Firewall of China, to my surprise, so I will have to find someone to post it for me. Stay tuned for stories of adventures in China.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Life in Winter
I apologize for such a long time between entries lately. Between teaching two different classes, planning for my two-month trip, and entertaining visitors I have been plenty busy.
Phillip, the Austrian volunteer at Nishta that has been here since before I arrived finished his one year term and has been replaced by Andreas. Andreas is a fun character and just out of high school. At any given time, Nishta has one Austrian young man serving his year of social service. Austrian men have to give two years of military service or one year of social service, and Nishta offers an international site for men who want an alternative to the army.
As to visitors, Anya's younger sister Danika has been here for the last month or so, but will be leaving within the week. Kelly, the Madurai Shansi fellow, passed through for a few days as well. Most recently, Anne and Daniel, two of the Taigu Shansi fellows, have been up here for a few days. It's great to see so many Shansi fellows up here. Though, I am finding that whenever there are guests, I always wind up eating a lot. The social life here consists mostly of going out to eat in McLeod Ganj or making huge meals together. It's fun, and we stay well fed.
Lately, there has been something of a drought in the area. Everyone I knew spent at least a few days without water. While the weather was beautiful, farmers and families were worried. My landlady, Dr. Kusum, told me that everyone was performing extra worship and prayers for rain. Just a few days ago, the winter rains came at last. While I would prefer nicer weather than very chilly and wet, I'm glad for what this means for the area. So, add a few more sweaters to my layers and never leave the house without an umbrella.
One other negative side effect of lots of cold rain like this is that many of my students travel a significant distance to get to the Knowledge Center. When the weather is bad, they will stay at home. It makes the class move a lot more slowly when I have to re-teach the same lessons the next day to the half of the class that missed it the first time.
Today it slushed, something between snow and sleet. It was very exciting. Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy for walking out in it, but I was rewarded for my hike up to TARA Center with a hot cup of chai. Once home, I collected what 'snow' I could find on my porch and made snow balls. I threw them around at nothing in particular. It was incredibly satisfying. I am looking forward to real snow in Taigu.
Last week we had a full youth team meeting, where many important things were hashed out. After the meeting, I was struck by Jagori living up to its ideal of teamwork and no hierarchy. Before we broke for lunch, we had to assist in the construction process by moving sticks and wood from the construction site to a brush pile in the back of the center. After a lot of collecting and hauling, we then moved on to transporting bricks. All twenty-something of us formed a line from the pile to where the bricks needed to be and passed them along until all had been moved. Only a half hour or so of group work, I'm sure, really sped up the process for the construction workers. Things change so quickly at TARA Center that I'm sure I will be stunned by how different it looks when I return in two weeks.
Phillip, the Austrian volunteer at Nishta that has been here since before I arrived finished his one year term and has been replaced by Andreas. Andreas is a fun character and just out of high school. At any given time, Nishta has one Austrian young man serving his year of social service. Austrian men have to give two years of military service or one year of social service, and Nishta offers an international site for men who want an alternative to the army.
As to visitors, Anya's younger sister Danika has been here for the last month or so, but will be leaving within the week. Kelly, the Madurai Shansi fellow, passed through for a few days as well. Most recently, Anne and Daniel, two of the Taigu Shansi fellows, have been up here for a few days. It's great to see so many Shansi fellows up here. Though, I am finding that whenever there are guests, I always wind up eating a lot. The social life here consists mostly of going out to eat in McLeod Ganj or making huge meals together. It's fun, and we stay well fed.
Lately, there has been something of a drought in the area. Everyone I knew spent at least a few days without water. While the weather was beautiful, farmers and families were worried. My landlady, Dr. Kusum, told me that everyone was performing extra worship and prayers for rain. Just a few days ago, the winter rains came at last. While I would prefer nicer weather than very chilly and wet, I'm glad for what this means for the area. So, add a few more sweaters to my layers and never leave the house without an umbrella.
One other negative side effect of lots of cold rain like this is that many of my students travel a significant distance to get to the Knowledge Center. When the weather is bad, they will stay at home. It makes the class move a lot more slowly when I have to re-teach the same lessons the next day to the half of the class that missed it the first time.
Today it slushed, something between snow and sleet. It was very exciting. Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy for walking out in it, but I was rewarded for my hike up to TARA Center with a hot cup of chai. Once home, I collected what 'snow' I could find on my porch and made snow balls. I threw them around at nothing in particular. It was incredibly satisfying. I am looking forward to real snow in Taigu.
Last week we had a full youth team meeting, where many important things were hashed out. After the meeting, I was struck by Jagori living up to its ideal of teamwork and no hierarchy. Before we broke for lunch, we had to assist in the construction process by moving sticks and wood from the construction site to a brush pile in the back of the center. After a lot of collecting and hauling, we then moved on to transporting bricks. All twenty-something of us formed a line from the pile to where the bricks needed to be and passed them along until all had been moved. Only a half hour or so of group work, I'm sure, really sped up the process for the construction workers. Things change so quickly at TARA Center that I'm sure I will be stunned by how different it looks when I return in two weeks.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Holiday Trip, Part 1
Having lived in Rakkar village up in Himachal Pradesh for four months, my concept of India was high mountains and peaceful farmland. Traveling down into other parts of the country shattered that vision. India is far vaster and diverse that I even now can comprehend. On top of that, there are a lot of people in this country. A lot.
The last time I was in Delhi, for less than 24 hours, I was too jet lagged to be overwhelmed. Anya and I traveled down to Delhi to meet up with her sister and two friends. This time, I was plenty alert. The thing about India I am beginning to realize is that it almost always overloads the senses; strong smells, loud noises, flavors from the very spicy to the sickeningly sweet, plenty of strange things to step in the texture of which you'd rather not think about, and so much activity to watch that your brain is almost on overload. That is, until you get used to it, which I'm sure comes after a while.
Anya and I spent our day in Delhi going to the Red Fort and visiting with our friend Sufi, who used to live and work up near McLeod Ganj. The Red Fort was the palace of several Mughal Kings that reigned from Delhi. During the British Raj, the British used it as its military and administrative headquarters. It was also from this place that Nehru gave his famous speech on the midnight of India's independence from Great Britain. Drawn by this kind of history, I asked Anya if we could go there in the morning.
The Red Fort is a vast complex of wide lawns, buildings, and open air audience chambers. Within its walls are also a number of barracks and other buildings of British construction. The private audience chamber was one of the most beautiful parts of it. Carved all out of white marble, it had several delicately carved latticeworks as well as semi precious stones inlaid into the pillars in patterns of flowers and trees.
What struck me most about the fort, however, were the water channels that ran everywhere through it. The channels and ponds were empty when we went, but the amount of water they must have once held was staggering. It must have provided effective cooling for the hot summer months.
With Sufi, Anya and I went to see a pottery exhibit at the Crafts Museum. There were many other exhibits we did not get to see, having arrived late in the afternoon. It is something I would highly recommend to visitors of Delhi.
Anya's sister Danika and her friend Judy arrived in Delhi at around midnight that night. Mindy was less lucky, having gotten caught by a blizzard at her layover, and arrived closer to 6:00 am. Knowing that they would be tired, we planned to depart from Delhi in the early afternoon and arrive in Aghra in time to see the Taj Mahal just before it closed.
One lesson we learned on this trip is that you can't count on things going as planned in India. Our train arrived on time but lazed its way across the countryside. We arrived nearly two hours later than planned. The sun had already set. We hopped in a taxi and said, “Take us to the Taj! Quickly!” They informed us that, unfortunately, the gates had already closed, although there were still people inside. As we were leaving on another train that night, we opted to go to a roof top restaurant to try to catch a glimpse of it that way instead. All we could see in the thickening twilight was a dim silhouette of the Taj Mahal's famous dome and four minerettes. We did, however, run into a familiar face at that restaurant. A Swedish girl we knew who had been volunteering at the Tibetan Settlement Office in McLeod Ganj happened to be staying in that hotel on her way through. It certainly is a small world.
That night we took a night train to Bhopal. Sleeper class in trains consists of bunks three high in two rows. The middle one can flip down to allow the lower bunk to be used as a bench during the day. All five of us were prepared with cotton sleeping bags we had stitched just for that purpose. It is a much cleaner way to sleep, as no sheets are provided, and one can put your valuables at the bottom of the bag and out of reach. Admittedly, it was a cold night and I didn't sleep much. The chai sellers that walked up and down the train cars announcing their wears through the early morning didn't help either.
Bhopal was a very interesting place to visit. Our entire day was spent at the Museum of Man. The Museum complex was acres upon acres of rolling land, centered on the oldest (I think) prehistoric cave paintings in India. There were a whole string of them in the rocks on top of a ridge. Although the signs promised 21 different sites, the path grew too overgrown about half way. Even still, the ones we saw were spectacular paintings of people and animals.
Also in the Museum of Man were numerous replica villages of different regions in India. I believe they had transported and rebuilt all of the houses on their land. There was also an interesting out door exhibit of “primitive gadgets,” including flour grinders and water wheels. The centerpiece of the complex was a sprawling museum building. It briefly discussed the evolution of humans, particularly with regard to India. The rest of the museum was dedicated to discussing and displaying artifacts from various adivasi (tribal) peoples in India. Everything from replica houses, art, tools, and clothing was on display with somewhat idealistic descriptions of their life styles. I was surprised to see the Gaddi people on display there. It hadn't occurred to me that one of the major ethnic groups represented at Jagori Grameen was classified as tribal. My Hindi tutor, for example, is Gaddi. Apparently, in other parts of the country and deeper in the mountains they are less assimilated into main stream society.
There was more to see in the complex than we could manage in only one day. I would willingly go back again to see more of it. That night, we again boarded a night train and headed for Jalgaon. We arrived at around 2 am, but the manager of our hotel waited up for us. After pitching and convincing us to switch into a bigger room, we slept the rest of the night. Although I was a bit perturbed to be upgraded to a more expensive room, the hot shower I had the next morning was beautiful. It was the first shower I had had since the morning I first arrived in Delhi in late August, staying at Abha's house.
Close to Jalgaon are the Ajunta Caves. The caves, carved in the cliffs in a bend of a deep river gorge, were all Buddhist monasteries or worship halls. They date, I believe, from 200 AD to nearly 700 AD. Some were unfinished while most were intricately carved and even painted. Cut straight into the rock wall, some were at least as big as the whole house that my apartment was in. Each of the monasteries had at least one massive seated Buddha statue carved into the rock at the back, and perhaps many more. The worship halls tended to feature huge vaulted ceilings and a dome shaped stupa. In early Buddhism, the Buddha was not represented by a person but by footprints or a stupa. In the later caves, the stupas were more intricate and even had a figure of Buddha carved into them as well.
That night we intended to take yet another night train out (much to the grumblings of our party. Anya and I apologized later.). However, while we made it off the wait list the night before, we didn't in Jalgaon. There were a number of private bus companies up the street our hotel was on, so we booked a sleeper bus to Pune. Upon boarding this bus, we discovered not seats but padded bunks on either side of the aisle about the width of twin beds. Anya and I shared a cozy top bunk. I'm sure we were elbowing each other all night long, but we did get some sleep.
The next morning we arrived in Pune and checked into another hotel. Stories of the rest of our travels will have to wait until my next blog entry.
The last time I was in Delhi, for less than 24 hours, I was too jet lagged to be overwhelmed. Anya and I traveled down to Delhi to meet up with her sister and two friends. This time, I was plenty alert. The thing about India I am beginning to realize is that it almost always overloads the senses; strong smells, loud noises, flavors from the very spicy to the sickeningly sweet, plenty of strange things to step in the texture of which you'd rather not think about, and so much activity to watch that your brain is almost on overload. That is, until you get used to it, which I'm sure comes after a while.
Anya and I spent our day in Delhi going to the Red Fort and visiting with our friend Sufi, who used to live and work up near McLeod Ganj. The Red Fort was the palace of several Mughal Kings that reigned from Delhi. During the British Raj, the British used it as its military and administrative headquarters. It was also from this place that Nehru gave his famous speech on the midnight of India's independence from Great Britain. Drawn by this kind of history, I asked Anya if we could go there in the morning.
The Red Fort is a vast complex of wide lawns, buildings, and open air audience chambers. Within its walls are also a number of barracks and other buildings of British construction. The private audience chamber was one of the most beautiful parts of it. Carved all out of white marble, it had several delicately carved latticeworks as well as semi precious stones inlaid into the pillars in patterns of flowers and trees.
What struck me most about the fort, however, were the water channels that ran everywhere through it. The channels and ponds were empty when we went, but the amount of water they must have once held was staggering. It must have provided effective cooling for the hot summer months.
With Sufi, Anya and I went to see a pottery exhibit at the Crafts Museum. There were many other exhibits we did not get to see, having arrived late in the afternoon. It is something I would highly recommend to visitors of Delhi.
Anya's sister Danika and her friend Judy arrived in Delhi at around midnight that night. Mindy was less lucky, having gotten caught by a blizzard at her layover, and arrived closer to 6:00 am. Knowing that they would be tired, we planned to depart from Delhi in the early afternoon and arrive in Aghra in time to see the Taj Mahal just before it closed.
One lesson we learned on this trip is that you can't count on things going as planned in India. Our train arrived on time but lazed its way across the countryside. We arrived nearly two hours later than planned. The sun had already set. We hopped in a taxi and said, “Take us to the Taj! Quickly!” They informed us that, unfortunately, the gates had already closed, although there were still people inside. As we were leaving on another train that night, we opted to go to a roof top restaurant to try to catch a glimpse of it that way instead. All we could see in the thickening twilight was a dim silhouette of the Taj Mahal's famous dome and four minerettes. We did, however, run into a familiar face at that restaurant. A Swedish girl we knew who had been volunteering at the Tibetan Settlement Office in McLeod Ganj happened to be staying in that hotel on her way through. It certainly is a small world.
That night we took a night train to Bhopal. Sleeper class in trains consists of bunks three high in two rows. The middle one can flip down to allow the lower bunk to be used as a bench during the day. All five of us were prepared with cotton sleeping bags we had stitched just for that purpose. It is a much cleaner way to sleep, as no sheets are provided, and one can put your valuables at the bottom of the bag and out of reach. Admittedly, it was a cold night and I didn't sleep much. The chai sellers that walked up and down the train cars announcing their wears through the early morning didn't help either.
Bhopal was a very interesting place to visit. Our entire day was spent at the Museum of Man. The Museum complex was acres upon acres of rolling land, centered on the oldest (I think) prehistoric cave paintings in India. There were a whole string of them in the rocks on top of a ridge. Although the signs promised 21 different sites, the path grew too overgrown about half way. Even still, the ones we saw were spectacular paintings of people and animals.
Also in the Museum of Man were numerous replica villages of different regions in India. I believe they had transported and rebuilt all of the houses on their land. There was also an interesting out door exhibit of “primitive gadgets,” including flour grinders and water wheels. The centerpiece of the complex was a sprawling museum building. It briefly discussed the evolution of humans, particularly with regard to India. The rest of the museum was dedicated to discussing and displaying artifacts from various adivasi (tribal) peoples in India. Everything from replica houses, art, tools, and clothing was on display with somewhat idealistic descriptions of their life styles. I was surprised to see the Gaddi people on display there. It hadn't occurred to me that one of the major ethnic groups represented at Jagori Grameen was classified as tribal. My Hindi tutor, for example, is Gaddi. Apparently, in other parts of the country and deeper in the mountains they are less assimilated into main stream society.
There was more to see in the complex than we could manage in only one day. I would willingly go back again to see more of it. That night, we again boarded a night train and headed for Jalgaon. We arrived at around 2 am, but the manager of our hotel waited up for us. After pitching and convincing us to switch into a bigger room, we slept the rest of the night. Although I was a bit perturbed to be upgraded to a more expensive room, the hot shower I had the next morning was beautiful. It was the first shower I had had since the morning I first arrived in Delhi in late August, staying at Abha's house.
Close to Jalgaon are the Ajunta Caves. The caves, carved in the cliffs in a bend of a deep river gorge, were all Buddhist monasteries or worship halls. They date, I believe, from 200 AD to nearly 700 AD. Some were unfinished while most were intricately carved and even painted. Cut straight into the rock wall, some were at least as big as the whole house that my apartment was in. Each of the monasteries had at least one massive seated Buddha statue carved into the rock at the back, and perhaps many more. The worship halls tended to feature huge vaulted ceilings and a dome shaped stupa. In early Buddhism, the Buddha was not represented by a person but by footprints or a stupa. In the later caves, the stupas were more intricate and even had a figure of Buddha carved into them as well.
That night we intended to take yet another night train out (much to the grumblings of our party. Anya and I apologized later.). However, while we made it off the wait list the night before, we didn't in Jalgaon. There were a number of private bus companies up the street our hotel was on, so we booked a sleeper bus to Pune. Upon boarding this bus, we discovered not seats but padded bunks on either side of the aisle about the width of twin beds. Anya and I shared a cozy top bunk. I'm sure we were elbowing each other all night long, but we did get some sleep.
The next morning we arrived in Pune and checked into another hotel. Stories of the rest of our travels will have to wait until my next blog entry.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Loree
I am back from my travels safe and sound in Rakkar. As I go through my travel journal and make sense of its entries, I'll do my best to keep you updated with what is going on in my daily life here.
I am currently teaching another session of beginning English. This time, it is only one afternoon class full of thirteen sharp students. There are six boys and seven girls, most in their mid to late teens. Because I have to do a visa run in late February, I am keeping this to a six week class, meeting four days a week. It already seems easier, having taught once before. The general goals of the class are the same, but I'm reorganizing my syllabus, having learning many lessons in the fall.
This coming week, I will also be starting a basic web design and Photoshop class for Jagori staff. The hope is, once the class is over, Jagori will have a small team of people able to update the web site in my absence.
This Wednesday and Thursday were the holiday of Loree. Loree is the Indian midwinter festival, going by many different names in other parts of the country. Based on a fixed calender that was set thousands of years ago, Loree has migrated away from the actual equinox, so it is celebrated in January today.
In this part of the country, Loree is celebrated with special foods. (There seem to be special foods for everything.) On Wednesday night, families got together and made sweets. The local children appeared to be doing something like caroling, getting sweets at all of their neighbors' houses.
On Thursday, everyone gets together with friends and family to eat kichiri. Kichiri, in general, is a north Indian dish where lentils and rice are cooked together, potentially with other spices and vegetables, in a pressure cooker. This special Loree kichiri had only beans and black lentils in it. Before eating, one is supposed to sprinkle liberal amounts of melted ghee (clarified butter) on top.
I had at least two invites for eating kichiri, but wound up downstairs with my landlady Dr. Kusum and her relatives. She found me and had me promising to come for lunch not five minutes after I sauntered out of bed. It was delicious.
Later this week, I hope to have the first of my travel entries finished. In the mean time, this is a perfect time for you to list yourself as a follower of my blog if you have not already. Once you are a follower, you can add it to any feeds you have set up on your front page, your icon will be proudly displayed to the right of my blog posts, and will generally make this blog look nicer.
I am currently teaching another session of beginning English. This time, it is only one afternoon class full of thirteen sharp students. There are six boys and seven girls, most in their mid to late teens. Because I have to do a visa run in late February, I am keeping this to a six week class, meeting four days a week. It already seems easier, having taught once before. The general goals of the class are the same, but I'm reorganizing my syllabus, having learning many lessons in the fall.
This coming week, I will also be starting a basic web design and Photoshop class for Jagori staff. The hope is, once the class is over, Jagori will have a small team of people able to update the web site in my absence.
This Wednesday and Thursday were the holiday of Loree. Loree is the Indian midwinter festival, going by many different names in other parts of the country. Based on a fixed calender that was set thousands of years ago, Loree has migrated away from the actual equinox, so it is celebrated in January today.
In this part of the country, Loree is celebrated with special foods. (There seem to be special foods for everything.) On Wednesday night, families got together and made sweets. The local children appeared to be doing something like caroling, getting sweets at all of their neighbors' houses.
On Thursday, everyone gets together with friends and family to eat kichiri. Kichiri, in general, is a north Indian dish where lentils and rice are cooked together, potentially with other spices and vegetables, in a pressure cooker. This special Loree kichiri had only beans and black lentils in it. Before eating, one is supposed to sprinkle liberal amounts of melted ghee (clarified butter) on top.
I had at least two invites for eating kichiri, but wound up downstairs with my landlady Dr. Kusum and her relatives. She found me and had me promising to come for lunch not five minutes after I sauntered out of bed. It was delicious.
Later this week, I hope to have the first of my travel entries finished. In the mean time, this is a perfect time for you to list yourself as a follower of my blog if you have not already. Once you are a follower, you can add it to any feeds you have set up on your front page, your icon will be proudly displayed to the right of my blog posts, and will generally make this blog look nicer.
Loree
I am back from my travels safe and sound in Rakkar. As I go through my travel journal and make sense of its entries, I'll do my best to keep you updated with what is going on in my daily life here.
I am currently teaching another session of beginning English. This time, it is only one afternoon class full of thirteen sharp students. There are six boys and seven girls, most in their mid to late teens. Because I have to do a visa run in late February, I am keeping this to a six week class, meeting four days a week. It already seems easier, having taught once before. The general goals of the class are the same, but I'm reorganizing my syllabus, having learning many lessons in the fall.
This coming week, I will also be starting a basic web design and Photoshop class for Jagori staff. The hope is, once the class is over, Jagori will have a small team of people able to update the web site in my absence.
This Wednesday and Thursday were the holiday of Loree. Loree is the Indian midwinter festival, going by many different names in other parts of the country. Based on a fixed calender that was set thousands of years ago, Loree has migrated away from the actual equinox, so it is celebrated in January today.
In this part of the country, Loree is celebrated with special foods. (There seem to be special foods for everything.) On Wednesday night, families got together and made sweets. The local children appeared to be doing something like caroling, getting sweets at all of their neighbors' houses.
On Thursday, everyone gets together with friends and family to eat kichiri. Kichiri, in general, is a north Indian dish where lentils and rice are cooked together, potentially with other spices and vegetables, in a pressure cooker. This special Loree kichiri had only beans and black lentils in it. Before eating, one is supposed to sprinkle liberal amounts of melted ghee (clarified butter) on top.
I had at least two invites for eating kichiri, but wound up downstairs with my landlady Dr. Kusum and her relatives. She found me and had me promising to come for lunch not five minutes after I sauntered out of bed. It was delicious.
Later this week, I hope to have the first of my travel entries finished. In the mean time, this is a perfect time for you to list yourself as a follower of my blog if you have not already. Once you are a follower, you can add it to any feeds you have set up on your front page, your icon will be proudly displayed to the right of my blog posts, and will generally make this blog look nicer.
I am currently teaching another session of beginning English. This time, it is only one afternoon class full of thirteen sharp students. There are six boys and seven girls, most in their mid to late teens. Because I have to do a visa run in late February, I am keeping this to a six week class, meeting four days a week. It already seems easier, having taught once before. The general goals of the class are the same, but I'm reorganizing my syllabus, having learning many lessons in the fall.
This coming week, I will also be starting a basic web design and Photoshop class for Jagori staff. The hope is, once the class is over, Jagori will have a small team of people able to update the web site in my absence.
This Wednesday and Thursday were the holiday of Loree. Loree is the Indian midwinter festival, going by many different names in other parts of the country. Based on a fixed calender that was set thousands of years ago, Loree has migrated away from the actual equinox, so it is celebrated in January today.
In this part of the country, Loree is celebrated with special foods. (There seem to be special foods for everything.) On Wednesday night, families got together and made sweets. The local children appeared to be doing something like caroling, getting sweets at all of their neighbors' houses.
On Thursday, everyone gets together with friends and family to eat kichiri. Kichiri, in general, is a north Indian dish where lentils and rice are cooked together, potentially with other spices and vegetables, in a pressure cooker. This special Loree kichiri had only beans and black lentils in it. Before eating, one is supposed to sprinkle liberal amounts of melted ghee (clarified butter) on top.
I had at least two invites for eating kichiri, but wound up downstairs with my landlady Dr. Kusum and her relatives. She found me and had me promising to come for lunch not five minutes after I sauntered out of bed. It was delicious.
Later this week, I hope to have the first of my travel entries finished. In the mean time, this is a perfect time for you to list yourself as a follower of my blog if you have not already. Once you are a follower, you can add it to any feeds you have set up on your front page, your icon will be proudly displayed to the right of my blog posts, and will generally make this blog look nicer.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
A visit from a rug vendor
The other day, I came home from the Knowledge Center to make lunch. I hadn't gotten much farther into preparations beyond chopping vegetables when I heard someone calling, “Didi! Didi!” (Didi means 'older sister' and is used as a general term for young women around my age.) I saw a man half way up the stairs to my balcony. I asked him what was the matter and he responded with a long string of Hindi that I couldn't understand. Finally, after much confusion, he said in English, “You are very beautiful.” Laughing, I thanked him and returned to my kitchen.
A minute later, I heard him call again, “Didi, didi!” This time, he had a huge tapestry rug rolled up over his shoulder. “Very beautiful rug for your room,” he pitched it to me. I have no need of such a rug, nor do I even have space for one the size he had. I was eventually able to convince him of this in broken Hindi and he left me to finish cooking my lunch.
I had a visit from a door-to-door salesman. He must have seen me buying vegetables on the road and suspected that since I was foreign, I was rich. I'm sure it didn't take much asking from my neighbors to figure out exactly where I lived.
I am about to take off on a nearly three week trip around India with Anya, two of her friends, and her sister. Our travel plans include Delhi, Aghra, Jalgoan, Pune, Chennai, and Madurai. I am looking forward to a break and a chance to see more of India. I don't anticipate being able to update this blog while I am traveling, but I promise to bring back lots of interesting stories.
A minute later, I heard him call again, “Didi, didi!” This time, he had a huge tapestry rug rolled up over his shoulder. “Very beautiful rug for your room,” he pitched it to me. I have no need of such a rug, nor do I even have space for one the size he had. I was eventually able to convince him of this in broken Hindi and he left me to finish cooking my lunch.
I had a visit from a door-to-door salesman. He must have seen me buying vegetables on the road and suspected that since I was foreign, I was rich. I'm sure it didn't take much asking from my neighbors to figure out exactly where I lived.
I am about to take off on a nearly three week trip around India with Anya, two of her friends, and her sister. Our travel plans include Delhi, Aghra, Jalgoan, Pune, Chennai, and Madurai. I am looking forward to a break and a chance to see more of India. I don't anticipate being able to update this blog while I am traveling, but I promise to bring back lots of interesting stories.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Another Wedding
Last night, after finishing a late meeting about the web site up at TARA Center, where Jagori Grameen's office is, I discovered that it was already getting dark. Anya had told me many times that it wasn't a good idea to walk home alone after dark down that stretch of road, so I turned on the flashlight feature of my cellphone and hurried down the hill. Not far down, to my surprise, Devika and Gaytri greeted me coming back up the road. (Gaytri is on our agricultural team.) Gaytri's cousin was getting married that night, so she invited me to join her and Devika at the wedding feast.
It wasn't far at all from TARA Center. There must have been several hundred people packed into the courtyards of the housing complex. At the center of it all were the bride and groom. I have only ever been to the second day of a wedding, and then the couple have been out of sight, so this was something new to me. We watched the ceremony progress while waiting for our turn at the dham, the feast.
The couple sat underneath a small sort of tent pavilion made of painted wooden poles and decorated with tinsel, lights, wooden parrots. The bride was dressed in a fancy red and gold saalwar kameez, and her dupata was over her head and face the whole time like a veil. Her husband wore a pink turban, decked out with tinsel, and a paper vest sort of thing over the front of his shirt with even more colorful tinsel.
To my understanding, Indian's love tinsel. It's all over their Hindu shrines as well.
During the portion of the ceremony we watched, there was a sort of puja, worship. The girl's parents held a large conch shell over her head and prayed to the god Shiva while chant singing. All the while, she and her new husband knelt under the tent pavilion.
While we waited for the feast, I wound up sitting among a group of local girls, who struck up a conversation with me in English. Seeing it as a good chance to practice my Hindi, I stubbornly stayed out of my native language. The girls, however, seemed to think I know more Hindi than I do, but on the whole, it was fun to talk and practice with them.
The feast was an excellent one, with some of the best dham food I have had since being here. I'm certainly getting better at eating with my fingers, as I was able to keep up with all of the new courses. After the meal, Gaytri took us into the house to see the bride where she sat surrounded by some women friends or family. She was very pretty but very young.
After having eaten our fill, we all headed home. Devika and I were both glad to have someone to walk home with after dark.
Devika told me that the wedding feast differs greatly around the country. In Delhi, it is usually held in hotels or reception halls on long tables with real plates, rather than on the ground with leaf plates and people serving out of baskets. The food is also very regional, so what I eat up here wouldn't be eaten in Delhi or elsewhere.
Wedding season, in this region, has been going since October but it is now coming to an end. I am told that the weddings going on now are the last, and there won't be any more until this June. I believe that the times of year are designated as auspicious through some kind of astrology. This time of year, you can hardly walk down the road without spotting a tent archway or three that signifies a wedding or hearing the blaring music of a wedding band.
It certainly is exciting, but with wedding season over, things will get much quieter. As an added bonus, all of my coworkers are more likely to be around more regularly and not at some friend or relative's wedding. Things will slowly go back to normal.
It wasn't far at all from TARA Center. There must have been several hundred people packed into the courtyards of the housing complex. At the center of it all were the bride and groom. I have only ever been to the second day of a wedding, and then the couple have been out of sight, so this was something new to me. We watched the ceremony progress while waiting for our turn at the dham, the feast.
The couple sat underneath a small sort of tent pavilion made of painted wooden poles and decorated with tinsel, lights, wooden parrots. The bride was dressed in a fancy red and gold saalwar kameez, and her dupata was over her head and face the whole time like a veil. Her husband wore a pink turban, decked out with tinsel, and a paper vest sort of thing over the front of his shirt with even more colorful tinsel.
To my understanding, Indian's love tinsel. It's all over their Hindu shrines as well.
During the portion of the ceremony we watched, there was a sort of puja, worship. The girl's parents held a large conch shell over her head and prayed to the god Shiva while chant singing. All the while, she and her new husband knelt under the tent pavilion.
While we waited for the feast, I wound up sitting among a group of local girls, who struck up a conversation with me in English. Seeing it as a good chance to practice my Hindi, I stubbornly stayed out of my native language. The girls, however, seemed to think I know more Hindi than I do, but on the whole, it was fun to talk and practice with them.
The feast was an excellent one, with some of the best dham food I have had since being here. I'm certainly getting better at eating with my fingers, as I was able to keep up with all of the new courses. After the meal, Gaytri took us into the house to see the bride where she sat surrounded by some women friends or family. She was very pretty but very young.
After having eaten our fill, we all headed home. Devika and I were both glad to have someone to walk home with after dark.
Devika told me that the wedding feast differs greatly around the country. In Delhi, it is usually held in hotels or reception halls on long tables with real plates, rather than on the ground with leaf plates and people serving out of baskets. The food is also very regional, so what I eat up here wouldn't be eaten in Delhi or elsewhere.
Wedding season, in this region, has been going since October but it is now coming to an end. I am told that the weddings going on now are the last, and there won't be any more until this June. I believe that the times of year are designated as auspicious through some kind of astrology. This time of year, you can hardly walk down the road without spotting a tent archway or three that signifies a wedding or hearing the blaring music of a wedding band.
It certainly is exciting, but with wedding season over, things will get much quieter. As an added bonus, all of my coworkers are more likely to be around more regularly and not at some friend or relative's wedding. Things will slowly go back to normal.
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