Rickshaw, anyone?

India completely blew my mind. The culture was incredible. The people were the nicest I have ever met. I got stared at, smiled at, laughed at, and I had a blast. I rode insane auto-rickshaws for less than 50 cents per ride and it was like being on crazy roller coasters all the time. I ate the spiciest food, ate with my right hand only (the left is considered unclean) and did a homestay to a town called Erode where we stayed with the landlord of the Jamalpuram (or something to that effect) village and his family who were unbelievably hospitable and have been hosting SAS kids twice a year for the past 17 years! We also spent time at a private high school in Erode where we got to talk to the students who were taking board exams, eat awesome food including samosas and a billion things that I can’t pronounce and lots and lots of curry! I am dirty and tired and I know I smell like human waste (that is the NORMAL smell of this country!)… but I can’t stop smiling. I could write pages and pages and pages on this country…I will return one day.

 

This is what I enjoy the most. Being completely out of your comfort zone and loving every second of it. Zero sleep, too many memories, lots of laughter, peeing “Indian style” in holes, taking ghetto sleeper trains, riding in “The Little Rickshaw That Could”, having my mouth be on fire from the spicy food, walking through thousands of people in the markets, being called “Auntie” by children who can’t say our names (and we hurt ourselves trying to say theirs!), watching traditional Indian dance performances, learning about all the gods, bargaining until we are blue in the face, having rickshaw races, being offered to drive the rickshaw while it was in motion (don’t worry Mom and Dad – I declined!!), getting blessed by an elephant at the Bhavani Temple for Shiva in Erode… so many more things that I know I have forgotten!

 

As more comes back to me, I will update my blog with random thoughts on India. I took a ton of pictures, bought way too much stuff for extremely cheap and nearly died from the spicy food and got laughed at by all the Indians in the restaurants when we were the only white people who couldn’t handle the spiciness and kept shoving rice in our mouths, turning red, and trying to eat only with our right hand since the left one is considered “unclean”…

 

Some people have wanted to hear more details about my homestay, so here goes. The family was the landlord of Jamalpuram, as I already said. We hung out with the women, his daughter-in-laws, daughters, and grand-daughters. Puni and Raji are amazing women who just love their lives in the cities (Erode and Chennai). We spent hours on that first day talking to them, learning about their lives, arranged marriages, marriage issues, culture, living on a farm versus living in the cities, going to university, and so many more things. We all exchanged stories about our lives. We all slept on the floor on mattresses which was really fun, and in the evening we had a performance by a local drum group and we all danced around with them. Their family was upper-middle class since they are the landlords, so they were very comfortable in terms of money. They were the nicest, friendliest, and most hospitable people I have ever met. They always made sure we were comfortable and had enough water or were wearing hats or had umbrellas while we were walking in the sun. That night we taught them how to play Mafia, the card game, and played until 1am! They told us they’d never had that much fun with a group. We also played random silly little games which was a blast, too. On the second day, we got up early to leave for the school in Erode, where we had breakfast and got to talk to a bunch of the teachers and learn about the private school. Later in the afternoon after going to the Bavani/Shiva Temple and getting blessed by an elephant, we visited a handicap school where it turns out that Semester At Sea is the fourth largest donor since it’s installation! The children mostly had Polio and many of them couldn’t walk but some of them had had surgery, but we got performances by some of the kids who had other disabilities. They were so sweet and just wanted pictures with us, one of them came right over and sat on my lap and didn’t move! She was adorable. After lunch and a nap at the school, we played games with the children (basketball, volleyball, and soccer where it was 10 SAS students versus about 75 kids.. haha) and our last stop was the Siddha Medicine Factory which earns $2.5 million per year and uses only raw materials such as Acacia wood, ginger root, and other herbal remedies. After one last amazing meal at the school which included butterscotch ice cream, it was onto the sleeper train to go back home to the ship.

 

Chennai, even though it was dirty and polluted, was one of my favorite cities I have ever been to.  The markets were so busy and bustling, the smell of human waste was everywhere, there were women in all different colors and patterns of sarees… and surprisingly, I felt normal at my height!! Yes, I think I really like India. Next time, it’ll be the Taj Mahal!