Close Call
SO, I am on the road outside of work, pretty close to the gate where I turn off, the road is pretty open as it usually is in the morning, a couple bikes in front of me no one really behind me. There are a few people crossing the road ahead, as per usual. They wander into the street, some pass when 2 older women begin to walk across, there is one bike ahead of me, who slams his horn and swerves to the left just around them, I am a split second behind him I see the women are not looking, not at the traffic just at each other in argument. I can’t move to the right (wall) I can’t move to the left because there are other people standing, but they are WATCHING like most people!! I had no choice but to try and stop. I hit my brakes, tires burned the ground, I was probably going 50 kph, a pretty safe speed for the road. Bike stalled, the back started to skid out, I shifted back and forth a bit and skit it out to the left and was luckily able to stay up right, the woman turned and jump out of the way, I came out 2 inches from her…. I keep going over it and over it, I don’t know what I should have done differently, all I know if I should not have yelled at her in the way I did, my throat still hurts, but it was instinct. She almost got seriously hurt because she was not looking. I almost got seriously hurt because she was not looking. I could have honked sooner, but the guy in front of me honking didn’t make a difference… a good hundred people saw it happen, some came over to look at my bike make sure it was ok and see if she was ok, she put her arms up and bowed slightly in apology…
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My Maid
I haven’t written much about her since I feel bad for even having a maid and that after one month I still don’t know her name, or how to ask her name. ( I will find out this week!)
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Kerala
A couple weeks ago I took a trip down to the Southern tip of India with 5 friends from Frisbee. It is truly amazing how diverse India really is, it seems not only every state has its only culture and language but even within states the language and cultures can vary a great deal.
Six of us took this trip together, 4 of us flew an hour and a half from Hyderabad to Kochi, while 2 took a 24 hour over night bus. I am personally no stranger to overnight bus trips but when you are going for an extended weekend and have work to get back to it is far from the comfortable choice, although I do applaud those who braved the long bus journey.
After boarding the plane and having a run in with a gentlemen at the bathroom who seemed insistent on watching me pee took my seat. While sitting I noticed a striking resemblance between all of the flight attendants. They all had the same hairstyle, which I moments later realized, was a wig. The entire female flight crew wearing matching wigs, felt like something out of a 70s movie. Anyway I tried to get a picture and failed.
We arrived in Kochi with easy and comfortable, gathered our things and sat on a bus waiting for a ride to the Fort Kochi area. I knew that Kerala around this time of year was known to be hot and humid but I didn’t expect the 100 degrees and 100 percent humidity, I continued to sweat for the next 5 days non-stop. Eventually you just reside yourself to it.
Our first night in Kochi we decided to visit a restaurant called Salt and Pepper and although I am not a big Lonely Planet tip person a friend took a tip from the good old LP and we went to this restaurant, although our hostel owners warned against it. The worst part wasn’t the dirty plate, spider webs or sticky table, not even the cold food that took one hour and 15 minutes, the worst part was that it was just as we were warned more of a hash house than a restaurant. The few travelers who wondered in and waited for what could only be described at steaming free base hash bowls complete with upside down cups and straws were not only served quickly but given ample opportunity to put there feet up and relax with cold beverages while we received warm bottles of water and equally as delightful food. However I did enjoy watching the “free basers” if you will, stare at the wall with an eased intensity I was slightly jealous of. Eventually we went on our way leaving no gratuity and walked the streets for a bit in the late evening.
Fort Kochi was in some ways a trip “mental” for me. There were white people everywhere. In Hyderabad there are some but far from many and in the village where I currently reside there are none! I was finally adjusting to being followed down the block by local children and at least one auto-rickshaw. I have even adjusted to people stopping me and asking for their picture with me, but to walk down the street and see so many white people felt foreign.
The next day after trekking around the city with our bags in the heat and a lunch with under cooked chicken we met our bus bound friends and hopped a train to Varkala. We took a non-AC sleeper train where we fit 12 people in seats for 8. I was pretty impressed. The train would have been more of a surprise if it was not for my short time in India on Semester at Sea. The bared windows, exterior doors that don’t close, the toilets that drain directly onto the track and all the other eccentricities that make the Indian railway the quiet charm of India it really is. I really did enjoy hanging out the side of the train while it was moving until I would get a slight spray on my face. At first you figure a little drizzle, but after noticing that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and we were toward the back of the train I pulled myself and began to hope it was only water bottles, left over Chai or maybe even spit. Just not urine! I thoroughly purelled my face and decided to didn’t really happen. Most everyone throws their garbage from the train so it could have been a number of things.
We arrived in Varkala had a fight with an auto driver then got a cab to the beach. Varkala reminded me of being back on the beaches in South America and if it was only a little bit cooler would have been paradise, but he 100 degrees and high humidity made that paradise slip away. We stayed with a friend of the frisbee team while on the beach, he owned a hostel, gave us cooking lessons and gave us the rounds of the small beach town.
Every morning and every evening at sunrise and sunset we would throw the Frisbee on the beach for a couple hours. The mornings were great, cool and quiet, while the evenings were exciting. While hundreds of people were walking the beach often stopping to watch, take pictures and even occasionally partake. I found out later that a friend of mine from SIT that is working in Sri Lanka was walking this very same beach a week before and stopped to play Frisbee with the same guys, they even made friends and she stayed at his hostel. That is a small world. Not like when people on Long Island say small world when they mean small suburb. J
On our last day we woke up at 4:30 after hitting the sack around 1:30 to get a car to drive us 2 hours, where we had breakfast and boarded a boat for a 3 hour back waters tour, which was unreal, from there we ate lunch and jumped another car this one 3 hours back to Kochi to catch our 5pm flights back to Hyderabad. I was back at HMI by 9 and ready for work the next morning. The trip was a lot of fun and a much needed break from Hyderabad.
Life
All is well in India, I am going on Saturday with a couple friends to try and buy a Motorcycle. I am not very good at riding them but I plan on practicing before braving the world of Indian traffic!
Work is good; things are getting busy which is better than slow. Soon people will start leaving for workshops, which means the office will be just me, and one or two other people around from the team, but new interns will be coming in. I will be able to start attending workshops in the field come this fall, which I am VERY happy about. Especially to be able to see Northeast India, for those who are not aware it is the small triangle near Burma and Bangladesh.
Things I Love and Hate about India:
Love: Butter Naan
Hate: Bucket washing my clothes
Love: Paneer Butter Masala
Hate: The complete inability to ever be anonymous
Love: That 4 dollars and a library card will always get you out of a ticket or being pulled over
Hate: Corruption (double edged sword)
Hate: Dealing with Auto-Rickshaw drivers
Love: Price of food
Hate: Price of beer
Love: Cost of living
Hate: Pollution
Hate: Litter and Garbage
Hate: Income disparities
Love: I have been here about six weeks and am yet to eat a western meal
Hate: eggs are not refrigerated
Like: Work
Hate: Culture of Gossip
Love: Chicken Brianyi
Love and Hate: Eating with my hands
Hate: HEAT HEAT HEAT
Love: knowing I can deal with the heat
Love: My own cubical
Hate: Mosquitoes!!!!!!
Hate: Spiders
Love from a distance: Snakes
Hate to death from close: Snakes
Hate: Bus drivers care for safety
Like: Bus system
More to come…..
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Flight and trip here:
I flew out of JFK on March 29th at 11:50 pm on Qatar Airways. I arrived at the airport, checked my luggage with only one overweight fee and headed off to security. After a brief exchange with TSA about how I look more like the cousin of the man in my passport picture than the actual person, he let me proceed through the to the gate. I lucked out with a bar facing the gate so I could enjoy my usual preflight whiskeys and prepare for the 15 hour flight ahead of me. To my surprise and enjoyment not many people were gathered around the gate. Also to my surprise I would be flying I one of the newest largest passenger Jets, Double Decker! It was an awesome plane only enriched by the fact that that I had 3 seats to myself, unlimited on demand movies and tv shows, plenty of surprisingly tasty food and some beautiful flight attendants. After several hours of the Big Bang Theory on demand, a nap and a 15 hour flight I found myself wishing I didn’t have a connecting flight and could just remain in the comfortable position I was in.
I arrived in Qatar with a short layover, paced the airport a bit, tried to exchange some money to buy a snack and failed. The first hiccup of the trip came in boarding the connecting flight. Had to stand in a crammed, hot bus for about an hour before being able to board. Eventually we boarded and were on our way. I remember sitting the my seat not knowing what waited for me in India, I was about to arrive in the middle of the night to a city I didn’t know, in a country I didn’t know and I realized SHIT! I don’t even know where the institute is or the phone number and if the driver doesn’t show it is going to be a pain in the ass to find a money exchange, internet café and then taxi to get where I needed to go.
As I sat in my seat I could feel many sets of eyes on me, I was not only the only westerner (white) person on the plane I was the only white person with colorful tattoos that seem to draw more attention in India than the color of my skin. The heaviest eyes came from the man sitting next to me, with an open seat between us I could see him from the corner of my eye looking directly at me. It had been about an hour, right after I finished filling out my in flight immigration form, that I finally look his way with a look at pretty much says ‘What the fuck’ and to my surprised his look went to sad as he held up the form and his passport looking for some help. I Proceed to take his documents and we, mostly I, together filled out his paperwork, surprisingly enough it took about 45 minutes, some of those forms are tricky.
This was my first lesson about India, just because it can be a complete assault on your senses, just because it can make you so uncomfortable that all you want to do is run hide and then shower, doesn’t make it unsafe. Most people are just curious, rarely do they mean you any hard or discomfort.
After arriving at the airport, Immigration was pretty easy, I was informed to declare myself with the police within 14 days and I proceeded through the airport to find my luggage. It took about an hour and a half but my bags came through. Upon exiting the airport in the swarm of awaiting taxi drivers and families I found a little, young, guy with a long scraggily beard holding up a sign that read HMI. As I breathed a deep breath of far from fresh air we were on our way to his taxi for the surprisingly short drive from the airport to HMI. We made it through the gate, drove up the drive, security let us in showed me to my room, it was 5am I was in India and had 3 hours until I was to meet by new supervisor.
First night and few days:
The first night and first 4 days were tough. Arriving at 5am after not sleeping more than 3 hours in the last 36 and being thrown into life in India that tired was not so easy. After I arrived I got out my sleeping sheet, mosquito net curled up in a ball, and waited for the sun to rise. I was hoping I would be able to sleep for a little while but no such luck, I laid awake for a few hours trying to figure out what the fuck I was thinking coming to India. Its hot, I know no one and most of all I like my personal space, in a physical way most of all and two things India has is a lot of people and heat.
As the sun came up and my mind cleared a little I was able to see where I was wasn’t so bad. The room and bathroom were relatively clean, especially after I cleaned them and pounded the dust out of the mattress. In the early hours I walked around the grounds a little. The campus is very small but has beautiful gardens. The grounds are also clean, which is a drastic change from the village directly outside the walls and the major city down the block.
I ate my first local Indian meal, got a brief tour, met a few people and was told I had the next 4 days to get situated and would begin my work on Monday. The next 4 days were not easy; they had some very real ups and downs. I spent them on my own, trying to unpack, get my bearings and see a little bit of the city.
When I first entered room 2 at HMI, which would end up being my room for the next 2 weeks, I first met my two pets. Little Geckos, they keep to them selves, mostly, and eat mosquitoes, they also have this ability to fuck with me a great deal, hiding behind doors, curtains and mirrors always ready to jump and play a joke on you. But we have talked it out and they have chilled out a bit. They haven’t made it over to my new room yet but I am sure they will in no time, they always seem to find there way back, especially when I think they are gone forever.
Unpacking, getting use to the food, making myself comfortable with the room and environment are the issues I suspected to deal with, the basics that need to be situated before you can begin to make your self at home. Those things were going well; I adjusted pretty well and pretty quickly to the food, water and even the heat. (although there is only so much adjusting you can do to constant heat) The things I had and am having a more difficult time getting use to is the alone time, and the politics here at HMI.
I have made friends, done a decent job of keeping busy on the weekends. I joined an ultimate frisbee team and hang out with those people pretty regularly. It is the evening, and the meals. Eating most all of my meals alone, and when I am not alone often sitting with people that don’t really talk to me or in English. Also the alone time after work, every night sitting around from 5pm until I go to bed, reading, going on line, looking over grad school shit.. etc. I don’t like it, I like being around people as I always have been. But in that same vein I am not going to let that stop me from being successful here. There are some other things I may let stop me at some point but I can address that more later.
Life in India is an adjustment; the things that are taking the most time to get use to are things I never thought would be a problem. Things are getting better, I am getting better at being alone and I am doing my best to find things to do outside my room when I am stuck on campus. The food is still ok, although I am starting to have dreams about sandwiches and the occasional pizza. I am thinking about making an appearance at a subway sandwich shop in the city, they have one!
Frisbee:
The team is pretty cool, a mix of Indians and expats, mostly Indians but a more cultured group then you would find as the norm around here. I haven’t played too much ultimate but the field strategy is similar to any other field sport and I have thrown a lot of Frisbees over the years, especially the last year in Vermont. I can hold my own and have a better long disc than most, I thank Alex and golf for that mostly. We practice weekend mornings, Saturday and Sunday usually each person only makes it to one of the practices, the team size varies from 12 – 30 depending, but a solid 15 people, which makes a good size. Practices are at 7am, which is early, and I have to leave 30-45 minutes before to make it but with the heat it is the only way to do it. It can hit 90 by 1030 / 11 so we need to get the practice in.
The work:
Work here is good, not great and not ok, but good. I am a program associate on the Conflict Transformation Team, at HMI. We are doing some really interesting things. For me I will be working with the team on all workshops and programming. Individually I am setting up an online resource center for our partners and friends in the various states, where in which we work. I will also be coordinating the postgraduate diploma in peace studies (PGDPS or the old name PGDCT). They listen to what I say and give me the freedom to not only contribute but also work independently.
Last week I was able to go along with a few members of the team to a local government (public) school where the team held a short one-day workshop on peace and social justice comics. The program was great and the kids were amazing. Without even being told what is considered social justice or what to touch on, they hit the nail on the head faster than any adults could have dreamed to. Writing about the caste system, corruption, individual responsibility to each other and the environment and many other topics that left me speechless. How accurately they not only got it but also were able to address it and show it in away that was personal and real. The opportunity to see these kinds of initiatives and responses like these from the children is an amazing thing.
The hard parts about work have many layers to them. The culture of India that is then pulled into the work is tough, which I will talk about later on. The infrastructure is difficult, the power going on and off regularly, with periods of hours at a time it will be down. The internet, even though on a back up power supply, is still slow and often VERY VERY slow. The internet will also go down for hours at a time and I personally don’t have much work that can be done off line. I spend hours every dealing with power and internet issues. Not fun and very frustrating. I can deal with the spiders and lizards that crawl across my desk but minutes to load an email, NOT ok.
That is all for now, as per usual I can’t proof my own writing, I read it for what it should say not what it does, so be a visionary and add or fix what doesn’t make sense in your own mind.
Thanks
