indicia - letters home
writing home from INDIa to INDIana...
as anyone who has read my posts on here must have noticed, i generally neglected to write much to share with the world since about mid June. this was partially intentional since i have been working on something and did not want to place any undue jinxes on it until things were for sure…
well that time has come. everything is set (at least the official parts). and drumroll please (for those I haven’t told)…….. i’m returning to India on august 22, 2011.
about half way through my time in India, i was realizing that Christel House was still having a great deal of difficulty finding special education teachers, they actually hadn’t found any. i had gone into the experience with a seed planted in the back of my mind that if i got the opportunity to stay, i would. i didn’t completely expect that opportunity to present itself, but knew it was possible since the special education department is a whole new entity to the school this year.
long story short. i accepted the position.
on arrival at home, i began working on my visa application and checking airline tickets. daily…
well, it happened. after a small hiccup with the visa outsourcing company, my visa arrived today stuck nicely to page 17 of my passport!
upon arrival, i took the next step of doing final research on my flight and bought my oneway ticket back to Bangalore. its done. set. holycrap.
so… i have approximately 1 month to prepare for my return, which should be the perfect amount of time to get in some important fixes in terms of food and activities before getting right back into the Indian life i already sort of started.
**fyi, my parents are pretty much good with this as its a much more ideal place to be than wherever the peacecorps would have thrown me… nothing against pc, but most friends and family are happy i’ll be guaranteed to be able to keep in touch on a daily basis if necessary.
and so, here goes….
SO this past weekend I took a road trip with two of Gina’s friends, who I believe I can now call my own friends…
We left around 4 on Friday, everyone taking off work early and headed for the northern part of Kerala. Sanu and Hemal were my hosts and we set out on the way to see Sanu’s niece’s naming ceremony. We all had to leave work early to try to make it through a gate that leads into a protected forest. Luckily we made it there by 8 (the gate closes by 8:30)!
The drive was much nicer than the buses I have taken in the past few weeks, better scenery and less bouncing around on the speed bumps.
Upon arrival I was very warmly greeted by Manoj, the father of the new baby, who promptly got me a drink and put the song list for karaoke in my lap. The drink was nice, and luckily I was rescued from singing [and drawing more attention to myself] to meet other members of the family and sit outside. There were people everywhere in the bungalow that came for the celebration and it was really fun to meet everyone and feel so immensely welcomed!
Since we arrived after dark, I didn’t get to see the view until the morning, and WOAH was that a pleasant surprise, all I knew was that we had to drive up a winding path and that we were on the top of a hill. As you can see from the picture it was a heck of a sight, though the camera doesn’t quite do it justice. As far as you can see are rolling hills covered in tea plants.
Given the amount of people in the house, I was happy to find that my two companions also needed to get out of the house a little. The first morning we walked down to the nearest village and had a little breakfast (since we were up early and breakfast is served late) and some tea. We walked back up the hill, and halfway saw a really pretty rainbow in the cloudy mist covering the next large hill. I don’t think I can say enough how breathtaking everything was.
We returned for breakfast, showered, and everyone got ready for the ceremony, which involved the mother and grandmother donning Coorg-style sarees (Sanu’s family is from Coorg) which you can see in the photo. The ceremony was nice to watch and the baby girl cooperated as well as any 4-month old really could.
After lunch, Sanu, Hemal, and I drove to the nearby lake and took a guided tour around the perimeter in a boat. Apparently the lake is shaped like a map of India… there were lotus flowers all around and we even saw 4 monkeys playing in a tree (though not close enough for a picture).
Saturday night was spent drinking, chatting, and celebrating! I had an amazing time and the family was beyond hospitable!
Though it was only 2 days, it really felt rejuvenating enough to have been a week. I wish I could stay there forever, and I can clearly see why Kerala is known as “god’s own country.”
As Gina put it when I returned, I was “on cloud 9” …the weather, the people, the companionship, all was amazing. I am now, for sure, 100% in love with India!
bye for now & Namaskar
Dear friends, family, and strangers,
Here is an update of the things I did for the past few weeks, I’ll leave this as my update and try to keep up for the next couple weeks.
3rd week I was here I went to a region called Coorg. This is a rainforest region that is covered in coffee plantations. I stayed at a really cool place called the Rainforest Retreat, which is an all-organic and environmentally friendly plantation. Unfortunately my first day there was spent recovering from the long, extremely bumpy bus ride and a stomach issue from the previous night’s dinner. It did turn out to be a very nice place to recover though. The second day I was there I was really able to enjoy the scenery and go on a couple of hikes as well as explore the plantation itself (including having to quickly pull two leeches off my ankles, eeekkk!). It was all beautiful and I will post pictures soon :)
4th week here I had a meeting at school on Monday with administrators at the school and two school psychologists to set up the special ed. program… and was somewhat disappointed to find out that they wouldn’t be able to work on it that week, therefore I had another 4 days of free time. SO I went to Goa.. which is essentially the Indian style of stereotypical spring break (the kind you might see in a cross between Panama City Beach and St. Pete). It was nice and I was able to do some shopping and hang out on the beach, but during the day it was HOT HOT HOT. So hot that the mid part of the day is spent indoors unless you are insane.
5th week: the official school year has finally started!!! (my first two weeks were spent in the summer remedial program) The start of a new school year is always exciting and seeing 800 kids from grades KG-12 (aka 2nd PUC in India) was really fun. Also my new name has now been solidified: “SARAHMA’AM!” I have had a really great experience working with the school psychologist who will head up the sp.ed. dept. and though I had two weeks off, I definitely feel like I am making up for it now. It’s really fun to be setting up a program from scratch in my specialty, especially in a place that doesn’t have quite so many legal hoops to jump through when establishing paperwork for students.
Like I said, I’m really enjoying what I’m doing and feel really comfortable where I am!
A few notes about all things Indian: pubs in Bangalore are required to close BY 11:30pm… and are not supposed to have a dance floor!!!
“showering” from a bucket is not quite as primitive as it sounds, and is quite environmentally friendly.
Yes, arranged marriages are quite common, and yes, people over the age of 30 get hassled by middle-aged women if they have not yet tied the knot… or started having children.
*eating with your hands is both fun and essential if chicken or fish are on the menu because I’m nearly certain that the butcher blindfolds himself and chops the meat (and bone) into as many pieces as possible. If you don’t want to choke, use your hands!
That’s all for now. Hopefully I can get some more ideas and observations down ASAP. Time is absolutely flying by! I’m going to Kerala (state just to the south) this weekend to hang out with a friend’s family and see a naming ceremony.
thus far, food has been somewhat difficult to describe as i generally am uncertain as to exactly what it is that i am eating. i am nearly certain that i am essentially vegetarian at this point. some of the vegetables are recognizable; peas, carrots, green beans, some sort of potato, chic peas, okra… the rest are generally unknown. one that i now know the “common” name of is drumsticks… some sort of stem which is stewed until the inside is soft. the first time i had it, i clearly had no idea how to eat it… the outer layer is extremely fibrous, not meant to be eaten, and impossible to chew (as i found the hard way). the proper way to eat it is to slice open one side (which comes easily after it’s stewed) and pull the soft inside out with your teeth or a spoon. the second time i had it someone instructed me and it was a relatively generic, soft green thing, slightly like well-cooked green beans.
i occasionally ask what a dish is called, but avoid doing it at every meal because half the time i have to have the person repeat what they have said a couple of times only to remember the name for a few minutes and forget it. just like everything else, the titles of dishes are extremely foreign and therefore quickly leave my brain, just like many of the children’s names.
i have generally eaten breakfast at my homestay which usually is “muesli” which essentially is a granola/cereal grain mix. i usually put milk on it and some of the fresh, raw honey that is always in the kitchen. if i am running late, i can simply eat at the school as breakfast and lunch are always provided to students and teachers. a typical breakfast is these round, white rice cakes, that have a texture similar to white bread, except denser. over this a creamy, slightly spicy, yellow-colored (depending on the day) curry (?). the first day i ate breakfast at the school, i was very weirded out by eating a spicy dish for breakfast. since then, i do mostly try to eat muesli at Gina’s with honey, milk, and possibly some fresh fruit.
lunch at school is usually a bit more interesting. though rice (usually plain white), curd, and chapati are always available, the dishes that go with them change. some type of sambar is always available and usually poured over rice. for true south indians, sambar means you mix with rice into a ball and scoop into your mouth, all without utensils, only fingers. many seem to have mastered this quite skillfully without getting rice everywhere… there is also usually some sort of dhal eaten with the chapati. most of the time i am not completely sure of all of the vegetables i am eating, but these dishes contain plenty of veggies and usually seem relatively healthy.
also, nearly every day one of the dishes will contain curry leaves, so they don’t particularly call one dish “curry” but rather the curry leaf is an integral part of cooking.
most recently, i had fish last night, which was served whole.. here is a picture of my south indian plate prepared at home:
chapatti, fish (i later learned was whole mackrel-minus the lower jaw), and some stewed vegetables. i was slightly offed by having a whole fish (not typical when i have fish at home) but happy to see the eye had been removed; until i flipped it over to eat the other side… there was still an eye over there… but i talked myself down and ate it. the fist was really quite good, and, being in south india, it was completely acceptable to eat it with my hands, making picking bones out before they got into my mouth much easier :)
recently i have had three interesting fruit experiences; on the school grounds there is a large tree with berries hanging from it. students and teachers pick off the red, ripe ones and eat while waiting to go home, this was a very sweet treat while waiting to go home! on the bus today, after all the other teachers already got off, the kids moved up to sit near me (as they always do; i’m the only foreigner) today they shared a fruit, which i now know is lychee. apparently a girl on the bus has a tree near her home. the 9 year-old boy across from me peeled the hard exterior from it and handed it to me. they all stared as i stared at it, not sure if they were teasing or truly giving me something worth eating. it was white and transparent, with a large seed showing at the bottom. i still looked apprehensive because of the way they all seemed so intent to get my reaction. when a 10th grader walked by and showed me that he had one in my mouth, i conceded and bit some of the white flesh off of the seed. it was much like a grape (minus the skin) in texture and flavor. though i think the one i had was slightly underripe. it was good, and even better was seeing the kids react to watching me try something new… another fun bit of bonding with the students that are sometimes very adamant about seeing my reactions to things.
well, i think for now this will round out the post, as i’ve written so much already, but hopefully i’ll be able to get some more pictures up soon for everyone at home to see!
until then… ‘namaskar’
p.s. here are my definitions of s. indian staples
Chapati=essentially a wheat flour tortilla, slightly more chewy texture
curd=yogurt, often homemade because it is easy in the warm climate, yogurt here is much more watery and more refreshing. also a nice side dish if you are eating something spicy
dal=essentially anything you can eat by tearing off a piece of chapati and scooping it up
sambar=looks like a soupy red/yellow mixture with all sorts of vegetables and spices floating
