22nd Birthday

Well I will never forget where I was for my 22nd birthday. Besides being my favorite number there is really nothing too special about my 22nd birthday EXCEPT it was my first birthday out of the United States and a pretty good one at that. It was a very cultured day: I woke up in South Asia. Jade made me breakfast in bed. For lunch we went out for Chinese food with the rest of the education team including two of our closest national friends. It was so fun. Here Happy Birthday has three verses: Happy birthday to you, happy long life to you, and may God(s) bless you. At the office all my colleagues made sure to tell shake my hand and wish blessing on my life. They even wrote it on the announcement board (see picture above). It was really sweet of them, I really appreciated it.Then at night all of my American friends took me out for Italian. It was really tasty and for my cake we got these brownies that are on a hot skillet and they put ice cream on top and then drizzle it with hot fudge that sizzles on the skillet. Quite the treat i must say. Needless to say it is a birthday I will never forget. 

The Day of City Travel 101

I have been adjusting to city life a little bit more every day. I would have to adjust to city life in America, so it’s even more difficult in a different culture. Some days I feel very comfortable here and other days I just want to stay in the quiet of our home. One thing that I have to get used the different public modes of transportation. They include the following:

• ·         Rickshaw - This includes a little man peddling a bicycle and the passenger sitting in a cart/carriage type thing. Rickshaws cannot travel very far, but they are cheaper than autos and pretty convenient when you are running late. It is probably the one I use the most. Price about 10-20 rupees depending how far you’re going.

• ·         Autos - These are kind of like taxi's, except not. They hold 3 plus the driver legally. You have to be tough with these guys or they will try to charge you more than the fair price. Depending on where you are going it will cost 50-150 rupees.

• ·         Bus- I have not taken the bus very often. They are very crowded and there is not really a system in place as far as where you are going so you have to be familiar with the area. Men just hang off the doors of the bus and shout out where the bus is going. It is the cheapest mode of transportation 5-7 rupees.

Last Sunday I went with two of our teammates, Ash and Shay, to work on a drama for youth day with some youth we know. We were fortunate enough to be able to access all three modes of transportation and had quite an eventful day.

We hailed an auto driver to take us to the neighborhood where we were having the practice. It's quite a ways away from our house 150 rupees worth, but the auto driver said he knew where we were going, but he lied. He dropped us off in the middle of fancy bazaar, which is your stereotypical bazaar you would see in movies or in the amazing race. We are helplessly lost but we have to get out of the auto because we cannot give him directions to get us to our destination because we don't even know where we are at and we are almost out of rupees. We called our friend up and she told us we were probably close enough to get a rickshaw driver if we could find one that knew where the place was. We found one and we all piled into the tiniest rickshaw cart I have ever seen, it was not exactly comfortable. Ash and I were sitting on the seat and Shay was on top of me holding on to the rickshaw for dear life yelling "I love this city" at the top of her lungs every time we hit a speed bump. I'm sure we looked hilarious.

Once we got there practice went really well and we enjoyed the time with our new friends. We went out to lunch afterwards and after we filled our stomachs we were feeling brave enough to try the bus...

Our first problem was we were standing on the wrong side of intersection to catch a bus back toward the way we wanted. It was inconvenient to stand on the side of the road we were supposed to be on though because the buses only have doors on one side, and the men hanging out of the doors say where the bus is headed, and we were no longer facing the doors. Finally one bus slowed down enough Ash was able to go around and ask. A little man poked his head out the window of the bus and told my other teammate and I that the bus was going to our destination. As we started to walk around the side of the bus another bus pulled up and we took a step back to avoid being hit, but unfortunately at the same time we took a step back the first bus, the bus we wanted to get on pulled forward. We were expecting to see Ash on the other side when the bus pulled away, but she was not there. ..SHE HAD GOTTEN ON THE BUS! Shay and I just about died laughing on the side of the road; it was just a hilarious situation. We found another bus that was going that way and we were able to meet up with her at the store we had planned on going to.  Ash told us that it was even funnier on the bus because as it was pulling away all the national people on the bus turned and looked at her with looks of horror and concern on their faces. Their expressions were like "Oh no! What are you going to do?  Your white friends are still on the side of the road and now you’re all alone" I still laugh when I think about it.

After we did our shopping we were going to meet a friend for supper and falling in the pattern of the day our auto on the way there ran out of fuel, but he hailed us another one and didn't charge us which was really nice of him.

It was one of those days that nothing really went the way we expected and it could've been a horrible day, but we chose to enjoy the experiences and it was one of the best days here. Besides I learned a lot of valuable lessons on city travel that day.

Rickshaw

Auto

Poppy

On August 9, my Grandpa or Poppy passed away.

Google tells me that I am 7,756 miles from home, and on a day like that it seems like a very, very long way.   People were very kind to me when I tell them my grandpa died, but it is hard to be in a place where no one knows him. It was a really rough time for me here half way around the world, and somedays it still hits me that he wont be there when I come back home.

I just wanted to post the words that I had written to be read at his funeral. He was such an important person in my life and played a vital role in shaping me into the person I am today. This blog is in honor of him.

I’ll start with my journal entry from June 12, 2011, written while I was waiting in Chicago to board the plane to London:

. . . Josh came with me when I went to say goodbye to Poppy.  He was sleeping so we discussed what I should do.  While we were standing there Josh told me, “You better tell him you love him or I think you will regret it.”  So I did.  I kissed his forehead and told him I loved him and that I’d miss him.  He slept through the whole thing, and I got the feeling that I might not just be saying goodbye for six months. 

One of my earliest memories is of Poppy and a very mean rooster named Darth Vadar.  Darth Vader liked to patrol the sidewalk between the front door of our house and the gate.  One day, Poppy pulled into our yard and I went out to greet him.  Darth Vadar attacked and Poppy came to my rescue and beat him off with his hat.  Poppy has been my hero ever since.

Josh and I loved for Poppy to be our babysitter.  He introduced us to Star Wars movies and Mighty Mouse cartoons and played Pick Up Sticks with us hundreds of times.  He cooked us hot dogs and hominy when we went home with him after church on Sundays.   He always gave the best birthday and Christmas presents – he knew what we wanted before we did.  He was a familiar face in the crowd at all my programs and concerts and games.  I love that he took us to Disney World, but I loved the tractor and combine and four-wheeler rides more.  He came to our house nearly every day, and I was so happy when we moved and I could walk to his.  He ate a lot of my 4-H cooking and said every time that it was delicious.  The summer I was a waitress at Grandma Rose’s, Poppy and Carol were my best customers and the best tippers.  I liked that I was in town often so I could go to see him at Parrish Care before or after work.  I’m sorry I can’t be there today but I know Poppy is proud of what I am doing.

 I loved my Poppy very much and I know he loved me too.  He never missed the opportunity to tell me so. 

Homestay: Snippets from my Journal of the Last 7 Weeks of my Life.

My home stay was a tremendous time of experiencing new things, pushing myself, and growing.

Basically our home stay was in a little village/town that is 10 hours away from the city we live in now. We stayed with a lady who owns and is the principal of an English medium school. She has two grown kids that are just a little older than us. Her house has a hostel for some of the students adjoined to it. There are about 80 kids there that are from all different backgrounds and it’s kind of crazy but really fun. Unfortunately they were only there for about one week of our stay then they went on summer holiday. During holiday our home stay mom was studying for her master's exam so she wasn't really able to take us anywhere, but there are ladies that also live at the hostel to cook and take care of things and most of them stayed for the summer, we got to be really close with them. We also had 3 different homes we consistently visited and came to love.  One family was a lady who was a widow and she tailored our suits. She lives with her in-laws and basically runs the place. She is such a sweet lady. Another place we visited was another hostel, so good. The other place was this little Assamese lady who taught us a lot of language and always took tea with us. She is Language teacher and her husband is a literature professor.  Look at the following snippets to get a little more of a feel for our experience =]

June

- Just attempted my first squatti potty on a moving train...success (it just goes right on the tracks, kind of fun)

- Miss, Miss in a chorus of little voices have followed me around everywhere since I arrived here, I must say its a little hectic, but I love it.

- This is the first I've really felt my heart  go out to this place =]

- One of the ladies painted my fingers, only on my left hand though, because you eat with your right hand and you don't want to be eating fingernail polish chips.

- Everyone we visit here tells us we can come back and visit.

-I am worried about learning the kids names, not only are there like 80 kids, they have a long name, a short name, and a house name, and they are NOT common English names.

- Most of the children at the school are Hindu

-There are little geckos everywhere I have started naming them.  Pascal (off of the movie Tangled) is my favorite he lives on the window by my bed.

- Our home stay mom is the tallest women from this culture I have seen. Her presence commands respect.

- Its very hot and the electricity is not reliable, an unfortunate combination.

- Today we hung out with the pre-school class, which was fun, but also frustrating because I don’t even know enough language to talk to a 4 year old, but it’s only been six days.  I just have to make sure I remember why I am learning language, it’s not for me.

- Today I was told (again) that I do not eat rice right. WHAT? How can you eat rice wrong with only one hand? I have no idea but apparently I need to work on it.  It does make them very happy when I refuse to use silverware.

- Today one of the ladies at the house told me I was her best friend...Aw

-The pace of life is a lot slower here, I don't get a lot done, but I am way relaxed and enjoying life. It's easy when everyone is so friendly

- The children fight for our attention; "Miss, Miss, Miss" bulldozing each other to be heard and have their questions answered first. I thoroughly enjoy them. They are also my little ego boosters “Miss you are looking so beautiful", "Miss your hair is so nice", "Miss your eyes are beautiful"

- We having been bucket bathing. The hardest part of my body to wash by bucket bath is my armpits, and it doesn't help that I forgot a razor. 

- Every Friday we fast and spend with the father here. It’s really nice, this would never happen for me in America. 

- I think Satan should be afraid of our home stay mom, she is truly a woman of righteousness, and she is respected by everyone in the community. She cracks me up though; everything is just kind of her way or the highway.

- One of the most interesting sights is a Hindu temple and a little church side by side on the road. It really makes a person think.

- Christians here greet each other with "Praise the Lord" Makes sense because there aren't very many and its praise worthy to them to meet another believer.

- For some people we are the first white people they have EVER seen. If we are sitting in someone’s house 30-50 random people might come into shake our hand, click a photo with their camera phone, and leave. Sometimes it feels like we are living a celebrity life and being followed around by paparazzi. 

- If you do not like rice or tea you should not come to South Asia.

- It's frustrating not to be able to say what you want to people.

- I used to think I was going to lose a lot of weight here, slim down a bit, but now I think I am going to gain weight. Our cook is amazing, and very forceful about seconds. We often joke about my growing rice baby.

- In this culture it is acceptable to take rests, but we have officially cut ourselves off from that because it makes us feel like crap.

- I got 2 new suits from the tailor today =] I like them a lot, they were specifically made for me so they fit great. I did a little fashion show for the ladies at home. They really liked it. Then our house mom asked if I was wearing a bra and simultaneously stuck her hand up my shirt to check herself. (Don’t worry I was) It was great because at that point I really felt like part of the family, like her daughter, because she wouldn't do that to any random person.

- I love hearing people’s stories. The ladies here are full of them.

-Today we spent some time with a family that had some interesting dynamics. The father is a Christian but the wife and his daughter worship Krishna, a Hindu God. It’s a house truly divided, on half of the walls of the house are pictures of Krishna and Hindu prayers and on the other half pictures of Jesus, Crosses and bible verses. It is a household truly divided.

July

- Driving down the road here is an adventure in itself. There are no real rules, and there also many kinds of vehicles on the road from huge trucks and buses to bicycles. When you throw cows and goats into that mixture its well....and adventure.

- I know why I did cake decorating in 4-H now, because doing mahindi (aka henna) is a lot like decorating a cake except your decorating someone’s arm. The tube is similar and everything.

-I thought up a little saying while I was practicing drawing Mahindi patterns on the girls (I think it’s pretty good if I do say so myself):  Mahindi is like life. As your going along there are some parts that are prettier than others, some parts that turn out better. If it is touched be for its done it can be altered for worse or better, but you have to think in terms of the whole picture/design to see the beauty in it.

- My favorite little girl reminds me a lot of Mowgli from the Jungle Book and her two front teeth are missing. She's adorable and so full of life. We go through her school book and I point at things and she tells me what they are.  I drew mahindi on her and told her some stories. We also like to play dress up with my dupata's (scarf things that are part of our outfits here.) I wrap them up different ways and have a little photo shoot. It reminds me of playing dress up with my little girl cousins at home. It's really refreshing, but makes me kind of sad at the same time. 

-One of the men that stopped by the house tonight was so cute when he saw us. He rushed up to us and said “I liked American action movies and I have been watching them to improve my English because I knew one day I would meet Americans.” Hahaha

-As far as emotions go I basically have one chill pace slow and steady. Just living.

-Sometimes I miss home. I miss my family and friends obviously but I’m sad I’m missing out on some of the little things; like seeing the wheat turn gold, watching the sunflowers bloom and face the sun, or eating sweet corn, and the fair is coming up soon.

-It’s interesting in America people HAVE to learn English to survive communication wise. Here everyone tends to know about 8 languages and usually a little English is included. It’s not difficult to get around. Sometimes I think this is a serious handicap.

- When I was a little girl when I used to talk to the Father I would ask him to bless everyone I knew, everyone I was going to meet, and everyone I would never meet. I didn’t understand how powerful and overwhelming. I have met SO many people so far and SO many I didn’t meet.

-We went to a Bia/Wedding party today. The couple actually got married 2 months ago but celebration seems to be a process here a fun beautiful process. Today they were celebrating with the husband’s side of the family. The place had been decorated/covered head to toe with a bright colorful tent and the guests were just as beautiful and colorful. It was another surreal celebrity like experiences. We didn’t know the couple (our house mom did), we didn’t know enough of the language to even congratulate them, but they were THRILLED to have us at their wedding. We shook countless hands, held some kids, and had 100s pictures taken of us with 100’s of random people. Who knows where my face is at in this country. It was an awesome experience though, definitely good culture time.

-Someone asked me today if mosquitoes were available in the United States. I just laughed

-We have learned some assumes songs about the Father.  They are actually in traditional tunes. It’s having a huge impact, which makes more sense to me than ever because I miss music in my own heart language.

-Today we taught some of the ladies at the house Zumba exercises. It was fun to just move around and be girls.  So fun. Great bonding.

-I am really tired of watching me eat…and taking pictures of me eating. At least I’m finally eating correctly now.

- I bought some Aladdin pants today.

-Sometimes I like to blow/drip water on the ants that live on our bathroom sink/wall, that way it’s kind of like they’re in the same boat as me, they have to adjust to a new world.

-I realize that I am getting an intimate look at the life of an Indian girl. I cannot go anywhere while it is raining or when it is dark, and when I do go places I have to ask permission. The sun here sets at about 6:30 so we have to be home before that. It’s really not a lot of time to be outside and weird to get used to, but I think it will be very beneficial in building relationships.

-We got a tour of the little hospital today.  The hospital director is a cute little talkative man with HUGE glasses; he’s a happy man with a heavy load. The hospital faces financial difficulties every other day. It’s an interesting place though; it’s like stepping into a time traveling machine and going back to 1940ish in America. The nurses wear cute little white outfits and most of the equipment is from that time period. It’s a historical place; it was heavily used in WWII by the British and American troops when they were fighting the Japanese and Burmese in Burma. They just left it after the war and it has not changed much sense. It’s not a place I would want to be alone at night but yet I am completely fascinated with it. It has 3 Doctors and a handful of nurses and a high demand. It made think that maybe I might try being a biology major one more time when I get back….Maybe.

-A nine year old girl taught me how to bucket wash my clothes today, talk about a humbling experience, but I’m glad they are letting me do my own finally after weeks of asking.

-I love the cook here. I spend a lot of time just hanging out with her. I will probably quote her a lot after I leave. One of my favorite things was she yelled “Oi Satan!” at the TV when the power went out during one of her favorite shows. I am going to miss her.

-The “Oogy Boogy” is our people’s version of the hokie pokie. It’s pretty cute.

-Today we taught some of the ladies to play Skip-Bo! My great-grandma Henderson would be so proud.

-I have been watching some Hindi movies/serials (similar to American soap operas) and they are more intense than Spanish shows. The cook and I’s favorite one is about vampires. My two favorite things about Hindi shows is:

1)They never have an actual kissing scene, their lips never actually touch    

2)They through in random English phrases like “Men are Dogs”, or “nonsense you idiot” or “whatever” it’s really funny.

Since we aren’t learning Hindi you would think it would be wasting my time but it’s a great relationship building opportunity with the ladies.

-I let one of the girls put Henna in my hair, which is basically a red dye made from a plant. I’ve never dyed my hair in America. It’s supposed to be really good for your hair. I was a little worried at first because it was Little Mermaid red, but after a few washes it actually looks pretty good. I get a lot of compliments and it really made the ladies at the house happy that I trusted them enough with my appearance, because that’s a big deal here.

-I dropped my toothbrush behind the dresser today into the den of spiders. I bought a new one for 20rupees, the equivalent of 50 cents.

-Today we went to our friend’s house for lunch.  They put a full fish head on my plate. It’s a big honor to get this because it’s everyone’s favorite part of the fish and you get the brain, which is believed to help your brain be smarter. I ate the gills, the top of the skull and sucked out the brain….Ya.

-Yesterday I was told my face looked Punjabi. Today someone told me I had a Muslim face.

-Today I counted 37 spiders in our bathroom and I thanked the father 37 times that they were spiders and not snakes.

-Pineapple is so good here; I will never be able to eat it out of a can again.

-So far I have eaten bamboo shoots, duck, goat (all parts intestines included), those are probably the weirdest (besides the fish head)

-July is coming to an end and that means our home stay is coming to an end. I am so sad about it because I LOVE these people so much. My family has not been able to call me this whole month due to harvest and technological issues so they’ve really been a comfort to me.

-At the ICS retreat several years ago one of the speakers said “sometimes you just have to be the village idiot”. Yesterday was one of the days, but I learned a VERY important lesson; the difference between a toilet and latrine. Toilet is for when you have to go #1 and Latrine is for #2. I went #2 in a toilet. Very embarrassing, but luckily it was at one of our friends houses so they made me feel better. I can laugh about it now.

-Today we toured the local tea factory. Our little town is where the first tea plant was planted in the state.  Never seen anything like it.  First the tea leaves are ground up and then laid out to dry. Then they fire the tea and sort it. The quality of the tea depends on the humidity of the day the day of our tour the best tea was produced at 3:30pm.

-Today we had lunch in complete strangers house and left with new best friends. I love this culture.

-I learned a new game today, its called Kohom?  or something like that. It’s kind of like finger table pool. It’s really fun and I got pretty good at it, some of the different finger techniques were tricky but I improvised and used the moves I was good at.

-We went to the place where the old Ahom kingdom is. It was built in 1751 and is still pretty well preserved. The best part was the fortress it looked like it was out of a movie. In the bottom level it’s kind of like a maze that enemies would get hopelessly lost in.  I got a little daring and climbed out a window scurried along the ledge to the other side. I felt just like Robin Hood. I had one of our friends take a picture and before they clicked the photo they told me to relax because I looked too tense and I replied I can’t if I take a step forward I am guaranteed to break my leg if not die. I made it though it was really fun. A lot of good memories were made today.

-This morning we got up at 4am to go walking with one of our Aunties. She is a widow and kind of lonely, I think she was thrilled to have us along.

-Today the cook and I were having a heart to heart and she really encouraged me. She told me that she would miss me and that everyone in the house liked me because I had really got to know them and made an effort to live on their level. She said she had been studying me and said I could like anywhere in the world I wanted and I would be ok. She told me she could tell I loved them. That is the whole point of this journey for me and I teared up when she told me.

-Today one of the ladies we have spent a lot of time with had us over for a traditional dinner. It was so much food! Like 15 different dishes, soup, and of course rice. It was very tasty, I was stuffed. She was so happy just to have us over and feed us. Cleaning your whole plat and having some seconds can make such an emphasis, she was thrilled and it brought honor to her family. Then she went and got dressed in a “makayla sador” the traditional dress here and we took a lot of photos “for special memories”.

-We drank 73 cups of tea in the month of July. Crazy!

August

August 1 and 2 our education team came down from the city and we did our very first training at our home stay mom’s school. I think it went pretty well. I personally am not a fan of public speaking and I still thought it went well. We have about 20 more to do this semester so I’ll get a lot of practice.  

August 3 – back to the city