I open my eyes I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light

I guess i got really bad at updating this, but I'd rather spend time exploring than trying to get internet time, so there. ;)

I went to a Jewelry store the other day, one with a guard at the door who is there to decide whether or not you look like you should be allowed in. I was not dressed up, had this been the same kind of situation in the US I would probably have been refused entrance...I almost expected them to refuse me, but I'm white, and so even if I had gone in pajamas they would have let me in. I don't deserve the attention I get because of my skin color. I say it over and over, I'm just like everyone else, I just look funny.

This week I went two places with a woman who spoke no English. Seriously, none. The first trip we went to Kanyakumari which is the tip of India, Jhansi said i had to see it, but she didn't want to go so she sent me with a good friend of hers. At first, we didn't understand each other. at all. but by the end of the day we figured out how to communicate. We went to 3 memorials and on a boat. In line for the boat tickets I talked to two little girls who wanted to practice English. After the boat ride i took pictures with a man and his wife, and then with 2 children. I wasn't really sure what to do when some woman handed my her crying baby, but I took him and we took pictures.

The second trip was to a herbal waterfall. The buses weren't running like they were supposed to so we ended up sharing an auto with a couple who spoke a little English. They took me to the waterfall and we all talked for a while and then took pictures of each other (because thats what you do). And I talked to, well, everyone who knew any English and then we came back. The woman later made me promise to go to her house before I left, and said that I HAVE to come back to India next year.

I've also now been to two wedding receptions, one down the road, and one with Jhansi's family. We shook hands with the couple, took pictures, and ate. It isn't very often that you find yourself sitting in a dinning hall wearing a silk sari eating off a banana leaf with your hands. Definitely one of those "only in India" things.

On another note, the amount of "skin whitening" lotions and creams drives me nuts. White skin is not better. I am not better than anyone here because I have lighter skin, it doesn't make me richer or smarter, or anything, I'm exactly the same as everyone here, I am a person. Sometimes I just want to scream that at the top of my lungs. (The movie star type status is a little much for me sometimes) Last night a girl I was with goes "I don't want to go to America India is much better" I love it when people say that, because so often its, "but America must be better than India" I think they are all equal I love India and America the same amount, I am equally comfortable in both of them, though I do think India has more character... Also, Indian men need to stop watching American movies, it gives the wrong impression. Ok I'm done rambling about skin color and culture now...

I think its been to long I can't remember anything else right now. But I'll go through my pictures later and come up with some more stories. :)

Thank you India...

Well, I'm here, in Tirunelveli. It still feels like my second home. The journey here was an adventure but not too big of one. I don't have time to tell the story but here are some highlights:

Talking to strangers outside an airport
Not understanding the person who picked me up, and doing what he said without really knowing what was happening
Getting off at the right place
Getting on the right bus (this was harder than it sounds)
A fight
and giving directions to someone who spoke no English.

The day after I got here we went to Kodaikanal, which was more beautiful than I remembered, I climbed some mountains in flip flops and barefoot (after all it isn't a trip to India unless you climb a mountain in inappropriate footwear). We stayed in a really cute hotel/guesthouse, that was owned by my Indian Mom's nephew. It was pretty cold there (its up in mountains) which was a nice change but I'm actually kind of happy to be back in the heat.

They enjoy pointing out that I'm the only white girl in most of the places we go, and so when another white person appears they tell me and tell me that I should say Hi. And I've decided that I'm a tv series, so far we have white girl feeding a white horse, white girl on a bike, white girl eating and white girl sitting on a bench. Its actually just kind of fun. And sometimes I do forget that I'm not Indian and don't notice the staring.

I don't want to spend too much time on the computer so thats all I'm going to say for now. I'm being spoiled here, amazing food and people, I can't complain.

:)

Ra ra ah ah ah ah Roma Roma ma ma gaga oh la la la...

Today was the last dayof my study abroad program. We went to Lodi gardens and tombs in the morning followed by a visit to the national museum. Both placese were really neat and interesting. We also were our dreiver Ram a song to the tune of bad romance, what can I say we were all pretty tired. ;)

After that around noon. I was taken to some guy called mr kapoors office, where I followed a driver through some random door and up a dark flight of stairs. If I hadn't met the guy before I may have been terrified. But I knew somewhere at the top of those stairs was a mostly legit place. It turned out fine. I paid him. He gave me pop. It was all good.

And them the driver took me to my hotel. Which isn't too bad though I still wasn't comfortable leaving my room so I spent the day organizing emailing and tv watching. It turned being fine. But I was pretty nervous at first.

It was suprisingly difficult saying goodbye to everyone on the program. We all spent a LOT of time together. But tomorrow I'm heading back down south to spend some time with my ex host family. I'm not excited about the traveling part but she has quite a few things plannd so it should be fun.

We'll see I'm a little nervous about tomorrow but pretty positive a out thee rest. I come home in three weeks.

Today was a fairytale

Today we went the the Taj. (at 5:30am) It was gorgeous. And actually much much bigger than I imagined. Because we went so early it wasn't crowded at all. which made the whole experience better. I guess there isn't much else to say about it, just pictures to see. But It was very, very, cool and beautiful. The vendors were insane though, I actually walked into a few of them because they wouldn't get out of the way, but it was definitly worth it. And I actually enjoy the men who follow you around and take pictures that they print before you leave, you get some really amazing photos that way. All of the pictures we took look fake, I still don't really believe that we went.

After the Taj we came back to the hotel to get breakfast and pack and then we went to Agra fort. Which was another set of palaces but that was also very exciting to see, all of it is so pretty and everything hand carved. You can also see the Taj Mahal from the top of agra fort. :)

Then we went to see a demonstration of how the marble of the taj was carved, no wonder it to 22 years and 20,000 people to build it, it takes forever to do one piece.

Then we headed to Delhi, and the driver pointed out baby Taj, which is literally a smaller version of the Taj, and a really pretty tomb that we were supposed to stop at but couldn't because of a traffic jam. Now were in Delhi, in another hotel that has security guards and gates and checks for bombs every-time we enter. I understand why we are at such nice hotels- they are safer, and I'm ok with that. It was a busy day, with a ton of car time and I can't wait to sleep.

I remember we were driving driving in your car ...

Today we got up and drove to Jaipur, the drive was around 7 hours (like most of them end up being. Our hotel here is INSANE. They gave us champagne when we walked in, there was a man playing a drum and another playing some kind of snake charming something. Really its just uncomfortably nice. I keep reminding myself that we are helping keep the people working there employed because that is the only way I can handle staying in this place. Between all the Ma'ms and everyone doing EVERYTHING for me, its just not something I enjoy. I can open my own butter, thank you very much.

After the car ride, a few of us went to the pool, it wasn't nearly as nice as the last one, but it was still a pool and nothing feels better then a good pool stretch after a really long car ride.

Anyway, that was today, not too exciting, but the car rides are always interesting.

Today was our full day in Udaipur. Everything is very very different from South India. It was apparently 114 today, but not very humid. I LOVE the weather. We started the day by going to a temple, we happened to be there during thier prayer time. So there was singing and dancing it was really neat to see. Then we went to the city palace, which this time actually looked like a palane in europe (What I expect thejm too) It was 1/3 museum, 1/3 hotel, and 1/3 residence for the current royal family.
'
After the palace we headed to a miniature paintings school. Iw as acutally really disappointed in this because the art form was really neat but they were charging outragious prices to us and no one, even the director, knew where to start. I bought a small painting anyway, but I was hoping for something a little different. Then we came back to the hotel and went swimming, which was amazing in the heat.

We got stuck in the hotel because of a medical emergency, so some of us decided to go down to the end of the driveway to an ice cream store. It ended up being a wholesale ice cream store, run by a woman who spoke half in Hindi and half in English. THat was fun for me because I could understand her. Then we sprinted back up the drivway with melting ice cream and spent the rest of the night using the computers watching tv and eating ice cream.

It turned out to be ok that we couldn't leave the hotel.

Life in a Northern Town...

We started today ( a day filled with airports and airplanes) off with a visit to an elephant training center. A couple points about this, first Dan found the one that treated the animals the best and didn't beat them. Second I still probably would have avoided this one. The elephants were chained to trees even the adults I'm hoping it wasn't always like that for them but.... It was cool however that I got to walk up and touch an elephant. Both and adult and a baby. The baby elephant kept throwing around his food and playing, it was cute.

Then we went to the airport, had a small delay, and a half hour into the flight they called for a doctor but aside from that everything went smoothly. Thought the propellors for the plane were not contained they were just out in the open which was kind of creepy.

Now were in Udaipur. The weather is amazing! its hot, but dry. I love it. It was supposidly 111 today. I have no concept of temperature today so who knows what it actually was.

The hotel is AMAZING. They served us rosewater lemonade as the welcome dring. Its stone and spread out and you can see mountains from it. I can't wait to be able to post pictures. We went to the pool and are just staying in the hotel for the rest of the night. The only downside to the hotel is that water is 100rupees and food is 400 or more. THats the most expensive food and water has been yet.

Kerri, our other program director, is here. I think we're all looking forward to a little bit of change.

I'm on a boat.

Today we left the hotel by 9 to get to our boat by noon, it was a long ride. (On the way we stopped at a grocery store and I got mango corn flakes, but that is a different story). Once there we took a transfer boat to our house boat. It is really nice. We spent the day sitting on the deck, talking and watching the scenery of the back warters. When we docked for the night one of the crew members took us for a walk into a village. It was incredible. All the trees and animals and rice patties. I really don';t think I can describe how amazing it was. On the walk we saw water snakes, a giant goat, and a handful of king fishers. At dinner we had huge, no giant- GIANT prawns. I', pretty sure they were almost 12 inches long. And they were yummy.

We spent the rest of the night telling ghost stories and watching Alexander the almost but not quite great and snatcher (our lizards) eat bugs. When we headed to our room first, a half naked man had to turn on our AC. and second there was a huge cockroach in the bathroom. Now, I am not a huge fan of coackroaches, and I'm even less of a fan of showering with them, so I decided to try and catch it. First I used the large bathroom bucket but he found a way out of that, so then I used a notebook cover and a smaller bucket, he managed to squirm out of that too. so finally I put a cereal box under the folder which was under the small bucked ant I put all of that on top of the big bucket. Then I took that entire contraption into the hall , as soon as I walked out with it all the crew members wanted to know what was going on. I said "cockroach!" and they all started laughing then they took the contraption and did who knows what with the cockroach.

Today was definitly one of my favourite days so far. I really enjoyed the people and the crew on my boat, and the who boat ride for that matter (including the almost sunburn on my right arm). It's been a pretty amazing experience.

How do you solve a problem like Maria...

Tonight was our night in the convent. and wow, there were a lot of bugs. I guess it wasn't really that bad, but I could have done without all of the dead spiders...

During the day we went to a wholesale market that was much more organized thatn the last one we visited. It was government operated and cheaper than private owned ones for people to sell produce. Then we went back to the NGO (KIDS) and listened to presentations on fibres and the women who collect them and construct products from them.

Then we went to the church that the KIDS organization was a part of. I found the church to be very interesting because of the Indian influence on the Catholic Church. The statues (Jesus, Mary, ect) were in the "boxes" much like the Hindu Dieties are and they were decorated with strings of flowers and rupees and lots of bright colors. It also appeared that people prayed to them in the same mannar they prayed to the Hindu dieties.

After spending some time there we went on a boat through the backwaters to the "
"gateway of India" or the place where the monsoons all come in and what colombus was looking for. It was pretty cool, to look from the backwaters into the sea, and learn more about that. Tomorrow we take a full day and night backwater cruise.

Mmmm whatcha say. Mmm that you only meant well? well of course you did.

Well, lets see, we left Coimbatore on Saturday to leave for Cochin. We took a train, the trip was about 5 hours. That pretty much took up the entire day. We sat near some people from California that talked to us quite a bit. I also really like our new tour guide he talked to us a lot on the way from the hotel to the train station, about anything we wanted him to. He's nice, and very helpful.

Today we went to an Ayurveda Hospital. We learned about and saw a bunch of different ophthalmology procedures. I noticed that it was actually much cleaner than the hospital I was in the last time I was here. We also went to the factory where they make their medicines, that was more sterile than the OR I was in (though the regulation flip flops were the same...)We spent the morning there, and had lunch and then headed back to our hotel. We just got done eating dinner at the Upstairs Italian Restaurant.

Kochi is the only place on this trip that I have been to before, so that has been really strange. Today we walked down the street that the hotel I stayed at is on, which is the same street as 2 restaurants we ate at, and a coffee shop that made us miss our ferry, at some point I plan on going to look at the wall that I ran the scooter into since that street is right next to our current hotel. Its just been weird. But nice.

Cochin (Kochi) is BEAUTIFUL, more so than I remembered, its much more developed than the places we've been, and cleaner. Almost no beggars, and a few tourists. Its been a nice change actually. The only annoying part is the rickshaw drivers, especially when they stood outside the restaurant waiting for us to come out last night. Other than that its green and pretty and comfortable.

Frustration of the day: Dan, the program director, who is impatient, uncaring, annoying, and unhelpful. and I'll spare you the rest of the rant for tonight, but....really... AND people taking pictures of children in the clinic, lets use our heads people. How would you feel if that was your child, or even you.

I'm really looking forward to going down to see my host mom, Its really unfortunate that we're all having so many problems with Dan, it takes a lot away from the trip, which in turn is taking a lot of people away from India. The times we all enjoy the most are when we are on our own trying to get around and do things, and we aren't being herded and rushed for no reason. I'm trying to be more positive about him, but his blatant lack of caring about anyone is really causing me to lose the sliver of respect I had left for him.

Wow, that was pretty negative, I didn't mean for it to be, I truly am having a good time, that being said, since I hate ending these on negative notes (and since they have to be transformed into a class assignment, I am still enjoying India, and I really have learned a ton, and the people are still like they were last time, welcoming and amazing. I still love it here.

This is the time to be more than a name or a face in the crowd....

Last night the man at the place I always buy water decided that I needed to try banana chips, milk sweets, and jack fruit chips. That's always a fun part of India. Anyway,

Today was our last day at Shanti, so we had to decide how to allocate the $1200 that we had to donate. We chose to give it to a temple cleanup and a scholarship fund for rural children. It was a difficult decision but we also decided that when we get back we're going to try to fund a food project that the government and Shanti Ashram self help women run. We chose the temple because we felt that it would be a difficult project to get funded and that it will benifit quite a few people, who may begin to learn about how important it is to keep the environment clean. We chose the scholarship program because it will allows to send 7 students to college for one year.

Earlier in the day we learned about there Bala Shanti program which a pre-preschool program for rural children that teaches them all sorts of things. We went and visited the school, the children there were so excited and wanted to know everyone's names and majors and home places. I hate feeling like a celebrity. Its what happens whenever we are around children or uneducated people. I just want to tell them that there is nothing more special about me than there is about them. We asked them who wanted to go to university and all of them raised their hands, then we asked who wanted to travel and again almost all of them raised their hands. It was so nice to see. And then of course at the end they wanted pictures. We talked to the teachers which was fun, hearing what they had experienced and how they had changed by being part of this program.

We also had our last session today with Dr. Veno (who I may have mentioned earlier) She is pretty much the most inspirational person I have ever met. I probably said that before, but I feel like I can reinforce that.

Frustration for the day: Dr. Veno tried to arrange a side trip for some of us to get dropped off at a place where a woman makes jewelry (anklets, earrings etc... its where she shops) but Dan decided that we didn't want to buy real jewelery and that we should buy the cheap stuff in Udaipur. If I'm going to buy jewelery I don't mind spending 20 USD on it. I think the stuff we could have gotten here would have been much more valuable and exciting. So, that was really frustrating.

I have learned so much about development in the last week. Shanti Ashram reinforced everything that I thought and taught me much more then I ever could have guessed it could. I want to pick up the organization and put it in every country around the world "developed" or not, we could all use a Shanti Ashram. (Which by the way, Ashram means meeting place, and Shanti means peace).

Its been very refreshing to hear people say that it is important to celebrate different religions and people and to provide for those with little or nothing without any political backing. It seems to be just how it is here. (not for everyone I'm sure).

The internet cafe is about to close, so I'll save most of the quotes for a later post.

I would really like to do an internship with Shanti Ashram...

"I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills."
M.K. Gandhi

I had a feeling that I could be someone...

"India is a place where a Jet and Bullock cart can travel together and not have an accident." This is how Dr. Ramasamy opened his lecture on children's preventative health today. He talked about the importance of vaccines and education on health in general. Someone asked if he got frustrated by people who didn't want to vaccinate their child because of the suspected health risks. His response was that he did not get frustrated instead you would try to find out what they had problems with and address those issues to try to convince them. He was not only a brilliant man but also a fun speaker. He was the first to open a pediatric clinic in Coimbatore. It was pretty amazing.

The other very inspiring person at Shanti Ashram is the director. She is an amazing person, and very humble about it all. She went to medical school (I believe in India) then to Harvard for public health, and now runs the NGO, and is on an advisory council to the government. She is truly an amazing and kind woman.

After our talks today, we went into a village to see an MMR vaccination clinic in action. It was pretty much exactly what I expected after seeing the hospital last time I was here. Not at all what we would define as sterile, but pretty close to how the British handle things. and 1.2 billion people go to these hospitals/clinics so somehow it works. I just have to get outside of my American box to understand how. Pictures and descriptions later.

After that we were invited to the president of Shanti's house for lunch. They cooked us extra mild, extra indian food that was AMAZING. And the best chai I've had since I have been here.

After lunch there were more presentations and then I came here to blog and work on my assignments.

I've noticed that when we have to have things translated, when its women who do it we get the entire conversation word for word, but when its a man translating they don't do everything, sometimes they skip entire topics. It's kind of frustrating when that happens.

This computer just got really slow so I guess that's enough for tonight. We only have one more day at Shanti and then we'll be leaving Coimbatore on Saturday morning.

On to essays and dinner.

:)

Life is a beautiful thing...

Well. Today. tons of stuff, of course. First we listened to some presentations, and then we headed out to visit the perur temple. Which was the most beautiful one I've seen so far. It was painted and colorful. And there was an elephant, (for those of you keeping track this was elephant encounter #3). Then we went over to see where some of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes are. That was not at all what I expected. I thought it would be more colorful and busy, I guess. It was not, but it was still a cool experience. We all know how much I love his quotes. Pictures of this later, you will see what I mean.

From there we went to speak with the president of a local village. He was a very nice man, who had served three terms. There we got henna done and he gave us each Gandhi's autobiography (I think it was the autobiography, I'll check that later.)

Then we headed back to the Ashram for more presentations, on what they want us to fund. (we have $1200 as a group to split between projects). I'll talk more about this after the rest of the presentations.

The evening was filled with stories from the children who are participating in some of Shanti Ashram's programs, it was truly amazing to hear about the impact it has had on them. Then there was singing and dancing....There is nothing like making a complete fool out of yourself in India, dancing with Indians, to Indian music. Don't worry, there are videos. It was actually pretty cool to be up there dancing with them, and seeing how excited they were that we were dancing. (they also laughed a lot)

Now I'm sitting in an internet cafe listening to the backstreet boys, and trying to remember everything that happened today. Our days are so full its hard for me to keep up with everything I've done.

I wrote this pretty fast so I might have to finish adding things I forgot later but for now, I'm going to go get dinner (probably tomato soup and french fries, its just that kind of night.

Content like a panda bear...

Today we talked a lot about food security. They defined having food security as being able to supply 2100 calories to each person in the household. The poverty level is having an income of less than 24,000 rupees a year for a family of four. Welfare in India is provided in the form of subsidized food (rice can be bought for 1 rupee a kilo instead of 20, there are also subsidies on kerosene, sugar, and some kind of beans) We visited a shop where the subsidized foods can be purchased, they are run by local women's self help groups because when the government ran them there was too much corruption. Both the government and the people prefer them to be run this way. Everybody in India is supposed to have a ration card, their income determines what they can get subsidized. I guess the entire population with a ration card can get subsidized sugar. It was really interesting to learn how welfare worked here compared to the US.

We also learned that Shanti Ashram gives loans to these women to start their own small businesses and chargers 18% interest (which is improvement over the 60% regular banks charge them) and that half of that goes into training for the women at Shanti and the other half goes directly back to the group.

There is a nice educational rant for you all. We also played with the children at the leadership camp at Shanti Ashram, which is always fun, especially when they steal our cameras and we get a bunch of surprise pictures later.

I'm frustrated with quite a few things about the program director, but I'll spare you all that rant for now.

I'm really enjoying India, pretty much every part of it. Everyday is an adventure, even when we are trying to do the simplest things. Its a pretty amazing place.

:)

And I wonder where these dreams go, when the world gets in your way

As we were sitting around the table listening to presenters talk about the work of Shanti Ashram I couldn't help but wonder why there were not more organizations like this one. Why it has not been spread to more villages, cities, states, and countries. Is it that difficult to start something like this? If I say this, however, and then do not try myself to create such organizations, because I am "too young, or too inexperienced" then maybe I will be answering my own question. Maybe it is that mindset that makes this not happen. Then I think, maybe I could start something, maybe with the right mindset and the right resources, and lots of work maybe I could do it. Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world" If I'm going to sit here talking about how not enough is being done, isn't it true that I should be out there doing something about it. It can't be impossible. Create an organization that will train people to train people. I'm sure it would be a challenge. Then I think, well it must be difficult if more people aren't doing it, but maybe that is just it; everyone thinks that no one is doing anything because it is practically impossibly to do, and then no one tries. Right now, I want to be the one person that tries...

Shanti Ashram defines itself as a Gandhian organization, it "strives to be a catalyst for change" and it does a fairly good job at that. They believe that "everybody is not equal, some people need more help". When they start a project they first go to a village and find out what the need is, and then work to get it funded, many other organizations work the other way. They offer help to villages in Coimbatore, rather then force help. Trying to force development is, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes we make. It is truly an amazing organization, what it does seems to work. Their "mission statement" seems to really say how development needs to be done, and they stick by that. They have projects and programs in many of what I would define as key areas needing improvement: health, education, environment, woman's empowerment, and many others. I'll give more on their projects as I learn about them.

On another note, I really can't stand it when everyone compares everything to the US dollar. I know that 40 rupees or <$1 a day is not a lot of money no matter where you are, but it doesn't help me to understand how much money people need to make a day here to be comfortable. The guy at pizza hut the other day said that he made 5000 rupees a month. Immediately everyone was like "oh that's less than $300 dollars" everything is different, you can't really understand how much money something is if you start thinking in dollars. ugh.

We also talked today about what it means to be "developed" the presenter said, "I cannot say if the US is developed or not, you still have a 10% unemployment rate, are you happy with that? Are you always happy in general" He said that instead of basing development on GDP (gross domestic product) or HDI (Human Development Index) we should base it on Gross National Happiness. To a great extent, I agree with him.

My day today was, as you can see, just full of thoughts on development, we spend the next 5 days at Shanti, learning about the different projects and how the organization functions. I'm extremely excited about it!

Gandhi said, "there is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed". Very, very true.

pictures of you, pictures of me hung on the wall for the world to see

Today was our free day. So we didn't do much more than just walk around. But at one point a man asked one of us to take his picture. Now, this happens all the time, but I don't really understand the appeal of it. They don't keep the picture, they don't ask for a copy of the picture. I just don't get it.

The man who runs the shop down the street, asked for some American coins, I told him I would bring him some tomorrow, he was pretty excited about it. I love the people here. They are adorable.

The Western Ghats, which I can see from the hotel are beautiful today, it looks like they are surrounding us. Its one of those things that a picture cannot capture.

Its been a good day :)

Where are we, what the hell is going on...

I like my song lyrics titles... : ) Wow, its been three days and I have so much to say. I guess I'll try doing this by day:

Thursday started off with a visit to another temple, they are so beautiful and interesting and I learn something new every time we go I don't think I will ever get tired of visiting them. From there we went to a sari making factory and saw how they were made. That was also very cool, I've always wondered how they did it. Then we went and bought silk saris from the same group of people. From there we headed back to Chennai and stayed with our tour guide for a while. Then we went to get dinner, at a McDonalds in a mall. Can I just say now, that I don't like westernized India, at all. Its very...uncomfortable. Developed India and Modern India are one thing, westernized India is a whole other thing. It was just, way too much, and out of place, and uncomfortable (yes, I know I already said that). Anyway after dinner we boarded a night train for Coimbatore.

The night train was fine. The smell was intense but we hung jasmine flowers on the fan and that helped. The train ride was 8 hours i slept for most of that, so it went by pretty quickly and easily. When we got into Coimbatore we had an hour and then we went out to markets. First, to a farmers market which wasn't too busy and the farmers there wanted pictures and gave some of us free fruit. (I also bought mangoes. Then we went to a Wholesale market which was INSANE. There was a lot of staring, and groups around us. We didn't stay long, before going to the flower market. Which again was quiet and smelled nice. ;)

Then we listened to some lectures on the agriculture projects at TamilNadu Agriculture University. It was really exciting to hear how innovative they were in that area. Later we had a picnic with some TNAU students and talked mainly about cultural differences between the US and India.

And finally today, we had the day off, with an optional activity which ended up being really cool. We went to Isha, which is a non-religious, non profit yoga organization. There we bathed with a ball of mercury (sounds safe, doesn't it?)wearing only some cloth wrap dress, and then meditated in front of the Dhynalinga. The whole experience was interesting and exciting.

The end of this week was filled with my two least favorite things about India: The beggars, and animals. Outside of one of the temples was the worst, there were tons of children and adults and diseases and I just wanted to help all of them. but instead I put on my India face, and looked at no one, and responded to no one. it is one of the hardest things to do here. Then, of course, there are the animals. My pathological fear of rabies (its pretty bad) keeps me from going near them, but seeing them being hit, or kicked, or so thin you can count the bones in their bodies breaks my heart.

In contrast to that was today, when the little kids all smiled and waived, and when we drove down the road with the Western Ghats as our background. It doesn't make up for the pain I feel for the people with next to nothing, or the animals scrapping for garbage, but it is why I love India.

I realized today, more than ever, that westernizing India takes away from what makes it so special. We don't need to make it something it is not, we only need to work to make it a cleaner, healthier version of what it is.

India is one giant contradiction. It is rich and poor, calm and chaotic, painful and joyful, loud and peaceful. India is everything all at the same time. And that is what makes it amazing.

Today started out in a petrified forest. A bunch of trees turned into stone, it was really interesting. Then we went to fort sinje and climbed a little bit of the moutain leading to where the fort was. Then we took an unplaned trip to the second largest temple in south India. It was stone work (is that a word) was gorgeous. The florescent lights however were not. It was one of third things that loses something because of the vendors and wired lighting. But still pretty and still interesting.

Today was also a day full of sadness. We ran into a lot of beggars and a lot of dogs that didn't look very happy nor healthy. One man hit his dog every time it barked. Both of these things are hard to see and hard to deal with.

We also talked a lot about development and how big the split is between some citys and villages and others. When you think about the US and most other places they are pretty equally developed but in India you can be in western Mumbai or drive a little ways and be in a villiage with no real houses.

I wold give more thoughts on all of this (believe me I have them) but I'm stuck using my iPod for Internet so i'm going to keep this short. Tomorrow we take an overnight train to Coimbatore which should be very interesting. And for now I'm going to go to sleep it has been a long day.

Goodnight!

When it rains in Asia (It makes her feel this way)....

Today started off with Yoga outside, behind the hotel at 6:45 am. It was a pretty extrodinary experience. Following that we headed out to another project, that involved teaching displaced women how to farm and create fertilizer, they took us to someones house and we were shown how to tie Jasmine flowers, how to make plastic baskets, and introduced to a plethra of different herbal remidies, and some really tastey "medicine soup" We were shown around the fertilizer farm and taken to an organic farm down the road. Again it was a great project, with only a few minor flaws. (which I'll get to later). They gave us something called "Pom" which is this funny looking fruit with white-ish jelly stuff on the inside. It was, interesting.

Later in the day we went to Asham to meditate. On the way out of there we saw an elephant coming down the street. (it was on its way to the temple.) So we all followed it to be blessed by it. (aka give it a rupee and it hits you on the head) How often can I say that an elephant hit me on the head...

After that we spent some time wondering around shops, untill it started pouring rain, and then there was lightning and thunder. So, I'm typing this drenched in water in a little room in our hotel.

Today was filled with quite a few beggars, that is definitly one of the most difficult parts of India, I want to help them all, but I know what will happen if I do. Picking and choosing who to help is nearly impossible, but we all do what we can and are comfortable with while we are here.

In other news, I haven't completely lost the ability to understand Tamil. Its not as good as it used to be but it still exists, and I have a pretty easy time getting vendors to leave me alone when I don't want them around. Its been kind of fun seeing how quickly I can slip back int Indian hand gestures and expressions.

Everyday on this trip is different, and they are getting increasingly more interesting so far. Tomorrow we're supposed to climb stairs up a mountain...its still pretty unclear what the details are, but I guess we'll find out when we get there. For now, its time for a long overdue shower, and very soon sleep.

More later.
I miss you all!

I'm your biggest fan I'll follow you until you love me, papa-paparazzi

We pulled into the driveway at the Annamalai University in Chidambaram. (The second largest university in the country) As we got out of the bus we saw men with cameras and video cameras. Not knowing what was going on we took off our shoes and followed the program director into the building where we were ushered into a room with couches and chairs. after some introdcutions we finally figured out that we were in the office of the chancellor of the university, surronded by the press (who were constantly taking pictures and videos of us) . As I was sitting in this high powered man's office, barefoot, drinking chai, I remembered just how unique India is.

From there we went to the agricultrure college to learn about a project they were doing to help women. there we were presented with shawls and flowers, and coconuts to drink out of. The women put flowers in our hair, we all exchanged addresses and they cooked us food.

Then we went on to the headquarters of a womens self help group. the women said that through the group they had become more independent. It used to be that they would not leave thier houses but because of the group they could now go out on thier own. At one point a woman stood up and asked us who we were and why we had the right to ask them these things. This in itself seemed like a big step for her. She was an Indian woman directing a question at a white male.

Both of these groups were interesting to learn about. They were both helping to empower the women in the country. We were, as usual, treated with amazing kindness and hospitality. The people remain my favorite part part of this country. Working one on one with them and seeing how excited they get to put flowers in our hair or exchange addresses and phone numbers is one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced.

It can be overwhelming, huge and beautiful

Our first full day in India was intense, it ended up being at least a 15 hour day. We went to marina beach, which is the second longest beach in the world. Then on to St. Thomas' Catholic church, (St. Thomas' toe is supposed to be there). We walked around a little and saw a piece of the mass, but because it was Sunday we didn't stay long. Then it was the greenfield villiage of India, not even joking. It was an outdoor museum showing all the different houses of the different economic classes in the southern states of India. With demonstrations for children of all sorts of different Indian traditions.

Then it was on to probably the major portion of our day, which was an croccodile preserve. A fantastic idea not carried out very well (more on this later). but there were 365 croccodiles in a very small are and they were laying on top of each other, just as an example of what I mean. After this we went around to some temples, and on the way I saw a potbelly pig roaming the streets.

It was an extremely active day, but not all that exciting, that could be from the lagging jet lag, but we'll see what tomorrow has to offer.

up, up, and away!

To sum up the journal I'll just give you a few phrases:

• hit my head on the ceiling of plane #1
• spent 6 hours in Newark airport
• 15 hours on a plane full (literaly) of screaming babies
• Had the 19month old next to me throw things at me
• Ate gluten free plane food
• Stayed awake all night in the Mumbai airport
• Flew to Chennai
• Fell asleep watching a movie (3-7)
• Tried to sleep through the night (9-5am)

So as always it was an adventure.

Its good to be back, but weird not having everything like it was the last time I was here. We'll see what it turns into though, good or bad it will definlty be an adventure.