April 1, 2007

It’s day three back on the boat and I figure it’s finally time to write about my experiences in India. I think list form would be the easiest way to get my points across:

1. I ate lots of Indian food and never got an upset stomach (until they ordered us a boxed dinner from Pizza Hut and the ‘westernized’ food made it grumble a bit). I loved mixing their rice with this goat cheese/chicken/yummy sauce stuff. It was great. And they serve little ice cream blocks after every meal! That was always nice to have to just ‘clean your palate,’ I believe. They also serve a lot of Naan, which is their flat bread, and you mix that with this yellow sauce, which I can’t remember the name of. Lots of chicken curry and creams with their cakes. I enjoyed the food a lot, but now that we’re back on the boat eating nasty buffet style food, my body is all ‘what is going on!?!?’ and is having a hard time with the transition. They also toned down the spice dramatically. Nothing was too spicy, so I think the hotels did us a huge favor.

2. My body…and I think everyone’s body…is very tired. I think we’re emotionally, physically and mentally drained. Usually when we arrive in port everyone is so excited, but we’re getting to Malaysia tomorrow and it seems like none of us are ready for it yet. I slept until 11:30 today ( I had to skip Global Studies, sorry Mom) and it’s not often that we can get that much sleep. Even working out isn’t the same…I find my body unable to run as hard or for as long as it did before. It could also be mental, but I’m hoping that once we leave Malaysia, I’ll be all rested.

3. India was the most true and real experience that I’ve had in life so far. The people are so poor and many of them have physical disabilities. We saw one man with elephantitis in his foot and I swear it was the size of a small watermelon. His toes were like chicken nuggets. Sorry, that sounds gross, but they were big toes. The streets were dirty and there is a very distinct smell all over the country. The water is unsafe to drink…even some bottled waters from Indian villages…and I remember hearing someone mention a sign displayed that read ‘Everyone has a right to pure water’ or something along those lines. It’s a tough place to see and walk around with a smile on your face. We stayed in nice hotels, but I always made sure to use my safe bottled water to brush my teeth and rinse off my toothbrush. Everywhere that we’ve been so far has had a lot of western influence and has had much more wealth than India. Although there are billboards everywhere displaying advertisements, I had to wonder who could actually afford the things displayed.

My trip consisted of Delhi, Agra and the Taj Mahal. Delhi is a very nice city. There aren’t as many homeless and poor people, which clears out the streets and the number of small businesses. It’s much more organized with traffic signals and lanes and what I feel is a very low-key Washington D.C. feel. In Agra, we stayed in a nice hotel that was basically the only thing in the city not covered in dirt. You couldn’t leave at night because there was nothing to do and because I’m not sure you’d really want to. It’s hard to explain what the streets and people were like. There are beggars everywhere and men trying to sell you small useless items. I had one guy come up to me and start asking me questions about our student body and what we were doing and at first you think, OK this guy just wants to talk, but there’s always another motif. They do their best to be presentable and kind, and they ask you about wanting jewelry and mention that their cousin has a store and that you should go visit it and buy a cheap bracelet that is ‘very beautiful.’ Everyone needs to make some money and they think that being charming is the way to do it. It’s impossible to explain but the trip was very emotional and affected everyone a lot, or at least me, personally. It wasn’t something that we were use to seeing. Imagine living in a life of poverty day after day with no hope for the future. Healthcare is awful…because there is none…and if it was available, no one could afford it.

The Taj Mahal was an awesome experience. It’s amazing to have this shrine in the middle of a very poor town. From the street, you have to walk about a ¼ of a mile to the Taj and the surrounding buildings and all along that street are beggars and young children trying to sell bracelets, postcards and small snow globe key chains of the Taj. Some people can’t handle the pressure of just ignoring people who try to sell you stupid gifts, but if you don’t recognize them or give them any sort of attention, then they just move onto the next person. Caitlin and I were very good at this. We didn’t have any problems with people constantly following us. Some people are more polite and will give a ‘no thank you’ or ‘no, too much’ but even those responses always result in a follower. They’ll continually chase you and lower the price because they don’t understand that their item is just not desired at all.

4. People and Transportation. Our port, Chennai, has 1.6 million people. Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located, has 16 million people. There is no sense of personal space and the streets are ALWAYS busy. Early in the mornings, in the middle of the day, and at night. I wondered where everyone was going and what they were headed towards. If they had a job to go to, or if they were just moving around in order to have something to do. Its like rush-hour all day. There are no traffic lanes so its basically a competition to see who can zip by the buses, cars, rickshaws and motorcycles fastest. And the rickshaws are fun. They are small, 3-wheeled motorized vehicles that can hold about 3 people comfortably. It’s like a moped with a trunk where people can put their tush. Quite a crazy ride but wonderful experience. I think many people might be uncomfortable riding around in one, but you gotta remember that these guys drive like this every day and no one ever gets into an accident. I thought that was pretty impressive for the amount of cars and people on the road.