"Whoooooo, jungle!"

I had the opportunity to attend a Nepali marriage ceremony, or junta, about two weeks ago. Three of the teachers at the school were going and they invited me to join them. The night before the wedding I stayed at one of the teachers' homes and instantly became friends with his daughter (18) and daughter in law (21), both of whom are married. They of course asked me, "are you married or single?" a question that i am constantly asked here. People are very martiage-focused here, at least in the village. We visited the bridegroom's home, where lots of music, dancing, and feasting was taking place. The next morning we walked uphill for about thirty minutes to reach the main road, where two buses were waiting to take friends and relatives to the bride's house for the wedding. Let me just say that taking buses in Nepal is much scarier than taking buses in India, because they are just as crowded but the roads are not at all paved, and the bus has to go up and down hills on narrow roads for the whole journey.

During the two and a half hour bus ride:
-Everyone was singing and clapping, and musicians played their instruments in the crowded bus
-The bus crossed three rivers, and by that I mean there wasn't a bridge so the bus just drove through the water
-It was so crowded that someone placed a bench in the aisle for people to sit on, but there were still people who had to sit on the roof
-At one point the bus couldn't make it up a steep hill, so people got off the bus and walked for some time
-We stopped for a snack break - people like to eat instant noodles dry from the package here

But finally, we reached the bride's home and everyone got off the bus. A huge meal was prepared for everyone, and afterwards the wedding ceremony began. It was fun seeing how different weddings are celebrated in Nepal, and being the only foreigner at the village wedding, people were very happy to see me and kept making me dance with them (not that I minded!). After four hours or so, we got back on the bus. The journey back to Parawadanda, the village I stayed in, was like the journey there, full of narrow, windy roads, music, and singing. Whenever we went through a forested area - they call it the jungle here, which makes sense because tigers live there- boys would tell, "whooooo, jungle!"

The terrors -and joys- of teaching

I was supposed to volunteer at a small community hospital in Lamhjung, Nepal but because I couldn't speak English and there were only 5-10 patients a day, I spent my time sitting all day. Also, the walk there was a one hr trek by myself each way and involved forging rivers and wandering past endless corn fields. So, I began teaching at a nearby secondary school that is government-funded which means they have English language cassettes but no cassette player, and have to keep the chalk in a small bucket in the office as there is not much to begin with.

On my first day I met the principal, other teachers, and students. I was then thrown into teaching - in one class the teacher simply handed me the textbook and left! What?! I teach three classes: English (year 9), grammar (year 8), and health/population (year 7, the subjects are on alternating days). During breaks, I chat with the teachers who want to improve their English - they don't always understand me so I am never sure how much the kids can follow me!

Teaching is fun but terrifying. The kids are so sweet -outside of class, ha!- and like to teach me simple Nepali phrases. I can now name the animals on the farm and the foods we eat -dhal baht- and I'm working on basic conversational phrases. I like the kids and the environment at the school but I'm never sure if what I'm doing is getting through to them or not. It's quite an experience.

Also I'm the only volunteer/white person in the village so if I walk somewhere people are constantly telling me namaste, or hello.

Goat neighbors

I’m spending the next few weeks in a small (2,000 people small) town about 3-4 hours from Pokhara, Nepal. While in the village of Pawedanda, I’m volunteering – teaching English, Grammar, and Health/Population at a middle school as well as volunteering/observing the goings on at a rural hospital about an hour’s walk (or should I say trek) from my home, where I am staying with a host family. The family is very nice, and though the mother can’t speak English, we are beginning to learn to communicate without words. There is also a daughter, Susmita (12) who speaks English and understands me most of the time, and her brother Kshitize (sa-tease) age 6, who is like a baby monkey and goes through my things looking for ‘candy’ (tic-tacs). There are several children who live nearby, and if I leave my door open, suddenly there will be three of them sitting on my bed looking at me.

The house is very basic – concrete walls, dirt floors, etc. but I have my own room which is nice. It consists of a mosquito net, a bed, and two windows that don’t have windowpanes - so spiders, cockroaches, and mice (!!!) sometimes keep me company at night. Outside of my window, three goats sleep, eat, and make goat noises (let’s be real, they fart a lot and try to eat the bars of my window). Behind them there are two water buffalo, and if you keep walking around the side of the house you’ll get to the back which features an outhouse (squatting toilet), some vegetable crops (corn, rice, cucumber, tomatoes) and a back porch, where we eat meals together of dal bhat (lentils and white rice) in the morning and evening. 

Also, I’ve only taken one shower in the past week, because taking a shower is done out in the open here! People usually go bathe in the river, but I chose to shower behind some trees outside of my program coordinator’s house. Cool. So yes I have goat neighbors and I’ve stopped taking regular showers. I’m livin’ the life, let me tell ya.

The house where I live with my host family (right) and their neighbors, also family

My Nepali sisters - Susmita and Kanchan

Proof of goat neighbors (this was taken outside of my window)

Another view of the house as well as the neighbors' homes

My host mother Laxmi (left), Ashika, me, and Susmita

Susmita: take my photo! take my photo! 

Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Darjeeling

For the next 2 months I'll have limited internet access because I'm only using internet cafes, so this is a brief update on my travels in Northern India. I'm currently in Darjeeling; I'll be here until May 7, when I will go to Kolcutta for two days with Liz and Jackie before flying to Kathmandu, Nepal.

On my trip so far I...
-Had food poisoning so bad on my birthday that I spent the whole night throwing up. Happy 21st birthday to me!
-Saw 6 palaces/forts: Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Amber Fort, City Palace, Water Palace, and Fateeb Sigfreed
-Visited 6 temples: Sikkh, Muslim, Buddhist (two), Hindu (two)
-Saw the Gandhi memorial and museum in New Delhi
-Checked out a 15th century observatory/astronomy center with crazy curvy, spiraling architecture
-Drank many, many cups of chai (remember, I'm in Darjeeling, land of tea)
-Had my first "of age" drink, as it is legal to drink when you're 18 in India. I got a Mai Tai. At a Chili's. At a mall in New Delhi that was nicer than malls I've been to in the U.S. -and just as expensive.
-Went on a tour of an organic tea factory, a nerve-wracking 3.5 hour journey up narrow mountain roads in the back of a shared jeep, saw a view of Mount Everest at Sunrise on Tiger Hill

The Taj Mahal at Sunrise, Agra

Walking a cow, Jaipur

In Jaipur

Amber Fort (in the background), Jaipur

Visa problems and last days in Pondi

I had one week at the university before I left to travel up North, and in that time I had to take 6 tests, pack, say goodbye, etc. So it was a bit of a stressful time, not to mention I had to run all over Pondicherry (the town) because on Wednesday (left Friday night) I realized I'd lost my important 'certificate of residency' form that I needed to leave India. Also it had expired so I needed the date changed.

Getting a new form with the new date was not simple - it never is here. The extent that Indian bureacracy is so...bureaucratic blows my mind. Everything needs an official signature and stamp, but to get one it takes time because if things get done too quickly - dare I say efficiently - it looks like whoever did it took a bribe. Awesome. So I had two days to get a new form and long story short it was a terrible time spent running from university registrar to visa office to police station then back to the police station then again to the visa office...then finally to the visa office one last time (and all they did to change my form was sign and stamp the back of it with a new date!). There were some tears of stress shed on my part, Indians around me telling me not to worry (which was frustrating to say the least, I need to leave the country!) but I got the form and that's what matters.

My last day at the university was Friday, April 26, and thank goodness all the visa issues were sorted out by then. I took a final in the morning, had lunch, packed everything, and then went to the Rock Beach with Arun. Later, we met up with my friends at Nalla, a popular bar/hangout...between 22-24 friends were there, French, Canadian, Indian, American...we just talked and took silly pictures, it was nice but sad as well, the feeling of leaving hanging over us. Arun and Ravi left for a bit, and when they returned Arun took me aside, saying he had a friend he wanted me to meet...but then we were "looking for a cute dog he saw" at which point I'd become suspicious - are we looking for a friend or a dog, and why did we leave my friends? Then we walked back to Nalla where I was surprised by a birthday cake and my friends all singing happy birthday! It was wonderful, I'd never had a surprise birthday before, and sharing it with friends right before I left was great. It's an Indian tradition to feed everyone your cake, so I walked around the table, giving everyone bites of cake, getting icing smeared on me by friends in the process (thanks, guys). Basically, it was the perfect way to end my time in Pondi, with friends and with icing all over my face. At one am that night, we left for the Chennai airport to fly to Delhi.

Sarees, salsa dancing, and birthday celebrations

The sociology department held a farewell party for the graduating seniors, so Marie, Claire, and I dressed up in sarees for the occasion. The master’s first-year students (my classmates) put it on, so they did all the decorations, arranged for food, put together a slideshow and music, and performed during the party. It was really nice, especially because it was clear how much work they had put into it.

The next weekend Pondicherry University held a talent show, which was supposed to start at 5:30, so according to Indian time that means 7:15. People performed dances, yoga demonstrations, songs, etc. It was awesome! However, it went on too long, and some people didn’t get to perform – including Arun, who was going to dance. At ten p.m., the talent show was still going on, but they made an announcement that women should return to their hostels (but men could stay). So I stayed! Ha. Such a rebel, I know. They ended the talent show soon after, though, because no one had had dinner…it just frustrates me that women are supposed to go back early all the time and yet men can do whatever they want. But enough of that, I rant about it enough to my friends here.

On Saturday, a group of us got dressed in sarees and took the local bus (oy vey, so many people stared at us) into Pondicherry, where we had lunch at a fancy buffet to celebrate my birthday and Kara’s birthday. Lunch (and getting there and back) lasted from 11:30am to 5pm, when we got back to our hostel. Around 6 or 7, we got ready to go back out  - we were going to a friend’s house, then salsa dancing in Pondicherry! We rented a 14 seater van for the night because it was cheaper than renting autos ($4 per person for 4.5 hours, cool eh?). I think about 16 people were there, total. Salsa dancing was fantastic! I had never done it before, but I had a blast. The party was put on by a group of European expatriates, so it felt like going dancing at home a little bit. It was really fun.

Other things of interest…the power has been cutting on and off – though not for very long – because of the heat, I think. I was cooking dinner (a rare occurrence here because it’s harder to get groceries, adequate cooking supplies, and we have a cafeteria to go to) for me and Arun and the power went out right as I put the vegetables into the oven to roast. Thankfully the power came back on a few minutes later, but you never know…also, the internet hasn’t been working well (well being a relative term) which is hard b/c I have to email people, figure out classes, and book plane tickets. Yikes! It’s okay though, I’m used to it by now so it’s not a problem.

I leave Pondicherry University early in the morning on April 27, and I’m ready but not ready at the same time. Leaving will be hard. I’m in the process of packing and studying for finals and saying goodbye and it’s just a lot to take in all at once. Study abroad is hard, for a number of reasons. It’s also the best time I’ve ever had in my life, though…it’s just like India – everything is an extreme, great or terrible, rarely any in between, and often it’s both. So you just have to accept it.

On April 27, I’ll be traveling to Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur on a guided tour before traveling to Darjeeling and Kolcutta with Liz and Jackie. From there, I’ll fly to Nepal to start my Odyssey project on May 9 – I’m going to be volunteering at a small hospital in Pokhara teaching health education and living with a Nepali host family for six weeks. I’ll keep my blog going until I go back to the United States in the end of June. 

 From left to right: me, Arun, Claire, and Marie at the Sociology Farewell Party

Noella, Liz and I wearing sarees on our way to fancy lunch in Pondicherry

 Friends! Taken in the van before salsa dancing. Leon, Matt, Kara, Liz, Charlotte, Natasha, Marie, Claire, Najeeb, Me, Arun, Jackie, Ravi, Eugenie.

"We're like that old lady with the fish"

Friday was a fairly typical example of what it’s like to go into the town of Pondicherry, which is about 30-40 minutes from the university by local bus. Liz and I each had a package to mail back to the US (mine was 18 pounds), so we waited for the bus at the bus stop, which is across the street from the gate of Pondicherry University. When the bus arrived, we tried to push past people as they were pushing past us to get onto the bus, lugging our boxes with us. I was terrified the bus would leave w/out us both on it, but we made it!

Once we were on the bus, we stood in uncomfortable positions – we were thankfully standing against the wall rather than just in the aisles. I had my back to the windows/wall, and the boxes were also behind me. Liz was next to me, and we were fairly squished. I tried to stay a bit back from the woman in front of me (her arm was about 6-8 inches from my face and she had some kind of skin rash) so I ended up squatting sideways? Liz befriended this adorable Tamil boy who was around two or so, he kept waving at us then his mom made him touch her face, stand near her, etc. so that was cute. Another child, an older girl, got on the bus and said hi to me - I responded, “Vannakam!” (hello or welcome in Tamil).

We got to the bus stop and yelled to make sure the attendant would stop long enough for us to bring our boxes down. Then, we took an auto to the international courier service, shipped our boxes, and stumbled to Café Coffee Day (similar to Starbucks, nice but a little overpriced, but so good) where we shared dessert, drank coffee, and studied some for finals, which are next week. Then we checked out a handmade paper factory (cool stationary!) and walked back to the bus stop, where we actually had seats on the bus ride back (always nice) and then got back to our hostel, where I rested for two hours before heading out with some French and Indian friends to “make party” as Marie would say!

Note: the title is something Liz said after we got off the bus, and I agree. Sometimes there are women on the bus with big metal buckets full of fish to sell on the street or at the market…and that’s how we felt on the bus. Hot, sweaty, crowded, but we did it! (And we made some new cute lil’ friends in the process)