Shoshanablank’s Weblog

India is going great. Really great. No one told me that we would have so much interaction with the people here. But two days this week we have been immersed into conversations with different types of Indians. I’ve learned a lot and have seen a lot and I just want to briefly describe it.

OK, so on Friday we visited the Women’s Christian College. The first group we talked to was a first year microbiology class. We asked them about their future plans and how they liked college so far. Their English was great and they showed us some great places to visit in Chennai. And they have intermural sports at their college too, so cool! This is just inspiring because not many females participate in sports here. One girl even taught me some traditional Tamil Nadu dance moves. After that class left, we talked to some girls from the third (and last) year in college, It surprised me how many of these girls wanted to go on in school after their bachelor’s degree; I am so proud of them! As a typical biology student would, one of the girls gave us her powerpoint presentation on placenta. Despite their Indian apparel, these college students were very similar to American students.

Yesterday we had a day full of meeting new people and experiencing the culture. It all started when we traveled to an old age home nearby ICSA. This old age home is different because it is for the impoverished elderly. We took a tour of the facility and then met about 30 of the residents there. Some of them shook our hands and said “Good morning”, but many of them also put their hands together at their chest and said “Vanakkum”. Some of the women took our faces in their hands and then put their hand on our forehead and then cheeks. Some sort of blessing or something? One of the women took me on her own little tour, past another woman that makes purses with beautiful cloth patterns and sells them. Then I went to the arts and crafs room where one of the volunteers told me about the dances that some of the elderly perform on special occassions such as birthdays. It makes me so happy that people who have faced such dire conditions for most of their life (conditions we can’t even imagine from a U.S. perspective) can retire to a home like this one, and enjoy a few years of happiness.

I talked to a lady there named MaryPaul, (or at least that’s how it sounded). See my picture with her. She told me that she was once married but her husband was not a good man (for what reason I couldn’t quite understand, beating or gambling probably) so she eventually divorced him and now lives a much happier life. Divorcing in India is still a rare occurrence, and seeing as how old MaryPaul is, she must have done so when it was really looked down on. She told me that she had one daughter who was working and married but did not have children. I told her about my plans in India and when I was saying goodbye she started asking me to stay for lunch. I told her I couldn’t, as we had a busy schedule today, so she asked about tomorrow. I said I was really sorry, but I probably wouldn’t be coming back. I think she understood, but I could tell that she never ever gets visitors. It was heart wrenching to leave her.

Next we had a lecture on social disparities and after lunch we went to visit a daycare that the chiurch provides free of charge for children from the slums (around 2 and 3 years of age). The children were SOOOOOO cute. See the picture for proof, they’re the babies in the green outfits. They were just waking up from their nap when we came. Their parents picked them up by 4pm, and we say on of the little ones (maybe almost 2 years old) in her fathers arm while he rode his bicycle with the other hand. Wow, that takes skill.

Next we went to a slum. A slum in India is where the very poor live. It is not uncommon to be poor in India; 70% of the population lives below the poverty line. The slum had stray dogs and chickens runnign around. Also half naked babies and women making flower necklaces. The people live in little cement shelters about 9 sq. feet in area. So basically they spend most of their time outside, with the elements. This slum was special because it had a women’s self-help group that was committed to educating their children. We were welcomed by these women with yellow sandalwood goo on our cheeks and a red bindi smeared slightly above the space between our eyes. We all sat and watched as four little girls performed a very fun dance for us and then two early teen girls did a traditional Indian dance.

After the dance performances, we had a discussion with the women of the slums, via our translator. They asked us questions like “We hear students in America also work. How do you have time for both work and study?”  “What are some of the problems that America faces?” and “The cost of living in India is high, what is it like in the US?”. We asked them about their hopes for their children, what they do each day, and how long they have lived in the slums. We got answers like “That my child can have an education and work in  an office” “basket weaving” and “20 years”.

After this discussion we had a huge playtime/ photo session with the children. They went crazy each time we took a picture of them. This one little boy wanted to be in every picture just to see himself on the screen afterwards. These little boys were so hyped up with energy, pushing others out of the picture so that there could be a picture just of them. Conclusion: the energy level of 6 year old boys is the same regardless of country or economic class.

Well, that’s the end of my interactions this week. I have a lot more about Chennai to write, but I will save that until next time (probably within a few days). I can only sit in this public internet place for so long.

P.S. i haven’t written any postcards yet because I can’t find them. But i will soon. I promise.

P.S.S. Here’s my address from Sept 20th through October 30th (ie:start mailing me now):

Shoshana Blank

C/O Ms. Pippa Mukherjee

Kodaikanal International School

Post Box 25

Kodaikanal 624 101

Tamil Nadu

SOUTH INDIA

We arrived in India on the night of August 28th. I will begin my tale with the bus ride back from the airport in Chennai (the city in which I am staying). All 10 of us are squished into this tiny bus, with all of our luggage. It is very hot and sweaty.  Even just exiting the airport, you can tell that this place is crowded. We turn onto the main road and all hell breaks loose. Motorcycles weaving between cars, rickshaws tailgating buses, no lane lines, and of course, everyone is honking their horns. Welcome to a Chennai street; we will soon become immune to this. I see lots of people (mainly men) walking on the sides of the road, even though it is 10 pm. I see buses chock-full of Indian men, hanging out the windows and doors. Finally we turn the corner and arrive at ICSA (Inter-Church Service agency), the place where we will be staying for the next 3 weeks. When we enter the guest house we all get bottled water and are taken to our rooms.

ICSA is a school for the disabled and impovershed (mainly people with polio). the students are around my age and are learning electronics and computers in a two year program so that they will be able to go into the workforce. It also has a guest house for visitors (like us) and St. Olaf students come here every year. I am sharing a room with 3 other girls from my program (Both of the Rebeccas and Chelsea). We have a bathroom with a toilet that you can’t put toilet paper in (and has trouble flushing in general), and a “shower” (really just a shower head and faucet). When we take a shower, the whole bathroom gets wet since there is not stall. Oh, and we NEVER drink the sink water, it has green microorganisms in it… Our beds have a mosquito net covering them. This is good to protect us from bugs, but doesn’t not make the room any cooler for us at night (88 degrees Fahrenheit on a normal night). Overall, it is a very nice room by India standards.

Our first breakfast at ICSA consisted of rice noodle-cakes, dosa (more carbs), chutney (tastes like hummus, sort of), white bread (not for me), marmalade, mango flavored Corn Flakes and hot milk (mmmmm!). This is India’s attempt at giving us an American breakfast. I like the food, but really I eat anything. But, it’s nice that they are really trying to give us familiar food, even if none of us really like Wonderbread.

That morning, we met our program advisor, the teacher that will be with us for the next 3 weeks. Her name is Irene and she is a very nice Indian women. Our first task to do with her is go to the U.S. Consulate to register ourselves in India and to sign up for absentee ballots. So we had too take our first auto-rickshaw ride. What an experience. Even though we probably only traveled about 3 miles, I felt like we were going to get into an accident like 7 times. This is typical. Autorickshaws drive like maniacs, but so does everyone else here. Especially the motorcycles, we had to dodge a few of those. It was kind of scary, but also really fun and in actuality pretty safe. The rickshaw drivers no what there doing so i is an efficient means of transportation. They are like taxis only in a golf cart shape. At the consulate we met an American woman from Minnesota. It was pretty comforting to hear from someone that lives here from the U.S., especially since we just got to India and were still shell-shocked.

Later that day we had a lesson in Tamil and Irene laughed at us as we tried to pronounce the words like her. Tamil is a very difficult language to learn. And it is so hard to pronounce things like a real Indian. But atleast I know the basics: Vanakkam (Hello), Poi Varain (goodbye), and Nandri (thank you). then we had tes with some of the faculty at ICSA. They asked us questions about America and we asked them about India. Then one of the teachers sung a Tamil song for us, a sort of welcoming gesture. They then asked us if we would like to share a song with them . WE knew it would be impolite to turn them down, so we decided on sining our St. Olaf fight song (Um YA YA!) We were surprisingly all in tune and sounded great.  I only wish I could have looked at the ICSA teachers faces while we were singing the chorus. They must have thought it was a completely different language: Norweigan.

The next day we went shopping for Indian clothes with Irene at a department store. I purchased 2 salwars and 2 pieces of material to make into saris. A salwaar kammeez is a long shirt outfit with really baggy pants and a scarf to cover your shoulders. All the girls have just been wearing the shirts with our own pants because the pants are so huge (and they’re supposed to be that way). Here’s how Indian shopping works in a departent store: You look around the packed racks for something that you like among the many hideous patterns while a salesman follows you around. When you find something you want to try on the employee takes the pants from the outfit and gives you the shirt only. Now you must go to the dressing room (however I often skipped this step and just tried it on over my own shirt). If you want to buy the clothing, the salesman takes the outfit from you and you won’t see it again until after you pay and have your bill stamped.

On Sunday I went to the church service at ICSA out of respect. There were a lot of cute babies there and the people were really nice. Also that day, a few of us took a really cool tour around Chennai in a pair of rickshaws. Two rickshaw drivers offered to drive us around to tourist attractions for a few hours with one stipulation, that they take us to some stores first. When the drivers take us to these stores, they earn a commission from the store owners. We were fine with this and ended up going to some really sweet stores. One of the stores was a Kashmir rug stores and they taught us how the rugs are made (often taking over 6 months for one rug). Then we saw a beautiful Hindu temple, went to Marina Beach, and also to St. Thomas tomb/ Cathedral.

Something that has come up a lot here is beggars. There are old and young women begging me for money. Kate gave two bananas away to beggars the other day and then another to a begging child. However, we’re not supposed to indulge them because otherwise they will keep coming back for more. At the temple we went to a girl put a flower necklace on me Rand and chelsea and we assumed it was free. Then she asked us for 50 rupees each (just over 1 US dollar, but this is still a lot in India). We haggled for 20 each. The poor can be pretty tricky people.

Monday morning we had a lecture on Gandhi, but the speaker was a little hard to understand. It is hard to understand a lot of Indian people, especially since they speak out of the sides of their mouth so you can’t read lips. In the afternoon we went to a Buddhist temple. A monk told us about the 5 principle of Buddhism. I also learned that Buddha was from a royal family but saw suffering in the world and he decided that he could live with a lot less wealth and possessions. The entire time the monk was talking to us we were in a room no more than 6 square feet in space, with the sun beating down through the open door. It was a cool experience and I really learned a lot.

On Monday night I took my first visit up to the ICSA girls’ dormitory. And what a warm welcome I received. Girls were inviting me to sit in their bunk bed, asking me about my family, taking pictures with me, teaching me games and songs, and even asking for my email address. while I met a lot of great girls, I have definitely become closest with Lela, a 21 year old who loves to sing. She is trying to sing the st. Olaf fight song and on Monday we practices the first verse together about 50 times. She wants to get the tune and pronunciation down perfectly and I admire her persistence. She made me promise to come back the next night, and I did. Now I have friend in ICSA (other than the Olaf students) to wave to during the day.

On Tuesday we had lectures on Indian mannerisms and on the Education System here. That afternoon we had a panel discussion on Global warming prepared by the 10 of us. We had each prepared a small speech on a particular aspect of the subject. I spoke on the health implications. this panel discussion went great. It feels so good to educate people on a subject that is so important to me, especially since a lot of these students did not know much about global warming before. The head professor, Dr. Moses, and also Irene’s husband ended the discussion in a sincere fashion by stating that Indians naturally use less energy per person becasue they don’t need a heating system like we do in the US! While this may be true, this doesn’t account for the amount of energy the average American consumes in comparison to the average Indian, but it was a nice gesture.

After the discussion, another professor, Dos, came over to us and said something like “I know that this global warming stuff is scary, but in the end we must remember that it is really up to God what happens.” It dawned on me that much of the world has this attitude. I think it is important to remember that God created science, and really it is now in the hands of people to determine what will happen to the world in terms of climate change. While God is good, people have a a huge responsibility, but of course I respectfully nodded to his comment.

Anyways, after that, a few girls and I decided to go to a nearby yoga class. It looked great from the outside but it was absolutely terrible. It wasn’t even yoga. The instructor made us do the most ridiculous exercises, but NOTHING was a yoga pose. After paying 150 rupees for an hour, we met a girl from Chicago in the waiting area, and told her to leave right away. She is very nice and traveling in India alone. We hope to see her again soon.

Yesterday we went to a wedding (a Christian one). It was cool to see the differences between American weddings and Indian ones. One major difference was that while the bride and groom were exchanging rings (actually the groom gives the bride a necklace) about 25 people were crowding around them with cameras like paparazzi. So strange. Anyways, the bride knows someone that goes to St. Olaf, one of our friends who is from Pondicherry. What a small world after all!

Hello again,

It may look like I am writing this post just minutes after my last post, but it has  actuall y been a few days. I forgot to publish my last post until today. This whole blog thing is tricky.

Anyways, where was I? Malaysia. Some other Malaysia highlights include the Batu Caves, the Islamic Art Museum and the National Mosque. The Batu Caves is a place that most tourists visit in KL. The caves are a sacred Hindu site and are absolutely breathtaking. You must go up something like 20 flights of stairs to get there, just straight up, no turns, step after step. Good workout if you go fast without stopping. All the way up the stairs there were monkeys everywhere. They weren’t too afraid around people, probably because they are so used to it. We saw one monkey with an ice cream bar, and another monkey trying to steal it from him. You couldn’t even tell how many monkeys were there either. I’d be staring at a tree and suddenly realize that there were 10 monkeys in it, but they were just so stealth. The cave itself has a huge opening at the top with vines and misty sky. O”nly a picture can describe the beauty. By the time we wanted to leave the caves, it was pouring outside. This is VERY typical in Malaysia. Every day we were there (except beach day) it poured rain for atleast 2 hours in the afternoon. I have never seen rain like this in my life, so much, so fast. So once we got the courage to go down 20 flights of stairs outside in the pouring rain we realized that at the bottom of the stairs there was now 3 feet of standing water. So we had no other choice but to walk through it, getting even more soaked. And then the 5 of us squeezed into a taxi.

The next day we went to the Islamic arts museum and it was very interesting. There was an exhibit on Islamic arts influence on Western art and culture. There was even a Matisse and a Kandinsky (for you Guid)painting that illustrated the Islamic themes that these artists used at the time. Also, I learned a lot about  Islam in India, which will be useful for my travels there. Then we went to the National Mosque. We had to wear huge purple robes to go inside, and I had to wear a hood of course, to cover my head. This very nice lady explained to us all about prayer, how the men and women are seperated, and even told us that soon there would be thousands of people there for Ramadan.

Malaysia was good in general. The country is a giant melting pot of people, mainly of the Islam faith. We even had a restaurant we went to  on a regular basis (2 or 3 times a day!) where we ordered naan (very good  bread) and milo (this chocolate milk type thing).

My next post will be about India.

It’s been a while since my last post, sorry. I was just so busy traveling in Taiwan and Malaysia!

Taiwan was great. Despite not having anyone in our group of 6 that could speak Chinese, we managed. We stayed in a really sweet hostel, the 6 of us in one room. Everyone else staying there was young like us and there was even clean drinking water and air conditioning. And air condition was a must. I could have been sitting outside in Taiwan, doing absolutely nothing and be sweating profusely. One great thing about Taipei was my friend Tesia, who was living there for the summer studying Chinese. When she was with us, we could actually ask Taiwanese people for directions and prices, and find good places to eat and shop.

One of the first things we did in Taipei was got to he top of Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. The elevator ride went like 90 floors in like 30 seconds… amazing. My ears popped the entire time. And when you’re at the top you can see the whole city. I’m pretty afraid of heights, so looking straight down out of the window made me feel like I was falling and I couldn’t stay in one place up there for too long. On our second day we traveled to Xinbeitou, a part on the outskirts of Taipei, right next to the national park. We spent quite a while walking uphill just looking for an entrance into the park or to the famous hot springs they have there. This guy named Lin helped us out, pointing us in the direction of the hot springs, the exact same direction that we had just come from. We went on a small hike that day and have some beautiful pictures from the top. We met another Taiwanese older man who was really eager to help us that day. He wanted us to meet him the next day at 9am so he could give us a tour of the city. He then proceeded to tell us that the woman with him was his girlfriend while his wife was working in LA. We politely declined his offer… We then went to the boardwalk farther north at Danshui to watch the Sunset, but it ended up being a tourist trap with mainly Western food.

The next day I really enjoyed going to the Longshan Temple. The interesting thing about temples in Taiwan (and perhaps the rest of Southeast Asia?) is that no one really knows what the main religion of the temple is. I asked Tesia at this particular temple “Is this a Buddhist temple?” And she replied, “It’s probably more Buddhist than anything else.” So I guess it’s kind of ambiguous. But the temple was beautiful nonetheless with all of the offerings of flowers and food that people make. And the chanting was hypnotic, in a good way. Another great night was spent in the Shilin Night Market (a street market with many vendors), where you can buy anything from a skirt, quail eggs, papaya milk, or counterfeit movies. It’s the biggest night market in Taipei, and the Taiwanese LOVE their night markets.

On the last day in Taipei, we took the gondola ride by the zoo. I had a really bad cold by then and was feeling pretty sick, and Rebecca Deyr wasn’t feeling so great either. So the two of us waited for a few hours at a tea house while Rebecca Rand, Tony, Kate, and Ian all went on a hike. Well, we planned to meet again at 3:15pm and no one came to get Rebecca and I until 6:15pm. Wow. It really pays to have a cell phone, and none of us have one. They had gotten lost and had trouble without being able to speak the language, so it was legit and understandable. But the interesting thing is that is I had to wait 3 hours for someone in the US I would have been really pissed, but in Taiwan I have nothing to get to. No meetings, no homework, no important emails or calls to check. It is SO freeing not to have any of these responsibilities.

Anyways, After four days in Taipei, it was time to go to Malaysia. We met our other 4 friends at the airport (Chelsea, Deanna, Matt, and Kayli) and took the four hour flight. We stayed in the Hotel Citrus and it was just wonderful: free internet, bottled water, breakfast, air conditioning. The first day in Kuala Lumpur I stayed in the hotel room because I was really sick by then. Really bad cold left me without any energy, I slept four hours that day! I had also gotten a stomach sickness from the first dinner we ate in Malaysia, so that didn’t help things. However, after one day of rest, I was completely recovered! Amazing what rest and water and Vitamin C can do for a body! And I met some really cool British people that day that were traveling around the world for a year. they had already been to India and gave me some tips for visiting the Taj Mahal.

Second day in Malaysia Rebecca Rand (Rand for short), Chelsea, Ian, Tony, and I went to the beach. It took two buses and a taxi ride to get there, about 2 hours total of travel time. But so worth it. The Indian Ocean is beautiful and warm and has the perfect small waves. The girls and I risked it by wearing two piece swimsuits because barely anyone was on the beach, we thought no one would see. But, it attracted attention immediately and this guy started to inadvertently take pictures of us while pretending to read his book just 20 feet away. So creepy, but what could we do? That day I also ripped my skirt and scraped my arm up really bad while jumping off a cement wall. We also almost missed all of the available transport to get back to KL that night, very stressful. But we got back after sprinting onto a train right before it left the station. Here’s what I learned that day:

1. The body heals when yourest it.

2. I have a 50% chance of injuring myself whern I take risks

3. Cheeseburgers in Malaysia just aren’t the same

4. People will take pictures of you if you wear a teo piece swimsuit in malaysia

5. The Indian Ocean is quite nice

6.  I was so lucky to be born in AMerica

7.If I got upset everytime I ruined an item of clothing or injured myself, I’d always be depressed (I ripped my skirt and got blood on Rand’s shirt)

8. Patience is a virtue

9. I will never again be 20 years old swimming off the coast of Malaysia

10. Trust your friends over taxi drivers

11. Fresh green coconuts aren’t very good

12. If you miss a bus, and then miss another bus, DO NOt miss the train

13. A bandana can serve as a headband, a kleenex, and a bandage all in one day!

OK. I must stop tyyping now as I have to go to dinner at ICSA (I’m in India now). Btu I will post the rest of MAlaysia and the beginning of India tomorrow hopefully. And post pictures very soon.

Stay tuned