Goa- The rest of India part I

So, I just ordered a salad and a tea and decided to type up a blog. I spent about five minutes trying to ask the waiter what was in the “avocado salad”. I kept asking if there “is lettuce in it?” And if not, can I get some? After a few tries he understood me and quickly scurried to the back only to return with an avocado. After we established the fact that I knew what an avocado was, we moved back on to the subject of lettuce. The waiter had never heard of such a thing - not uncommon here - so I just went with the cabbage instead. When I received the salad it was garnished with a piece of “garnish”, aka lettuce. Sometimes that’s how it goes here. Oh yeah, I’m here by the way:

I dressed up for the occasion and am now wearing a shirt and underwear for the first time in five days. I’m kind of formal like that when I blog... Actually, I do put on a hoodie, or “medieval hooded shirt” as Vishvanth calls it, to go to bed at night cause it gets pretty chilly, but other than that I have been working relentlessly on my tan. I’m in Mandrem, Goa, for the week and then will be heading... somewhere I guess? The plan is to stay in Goa for another week and then head down south (I’m in the northern tip at the moment) to explore that part. It’s been absolutely gorgeous during the day here though, hovering around low 30’s for the most part. Mandrem is really quiet for the most part and it’s only a couple of kilometers away from Arambol which is pretty busy for its size. Everybody here is either a hippy, a yogi, a senior, or a backpacker. It’s not normally my scene but I’m absolutely having a blast. And by blast, I mean I’m reading a lot and hanging around the beach and going to bed no later than 10:30. Oh oh oh, and I’m doing a lot of this:

There is a line in the book Shantaram (really really good read by the way) that goes something like, “ a man must love his bear”  - makes sense in the context of the book - and that is exactly how I now feel towards scooters. A man must, and I do, love his scooter. I’ve had it for the past 3 days and I’ve just been cruising for hours. It’s such a good way to get to know the place and the roads are relatively quiet here so it’s fine- I wouldn’t think of doing it in Madurai, the traffic there is insane. The first day on my two-wheeler was the most adventuresome. Although my destination was only 2 kilometers away and I only had to make one turn, I still managed to get lost. I ended up driving for a while even after I had realized I was lost because it was just so cool to see a different side of Goa. Goa is absolutely gorgeous and within a fifteen minute drive from the hotel I’m staying at, there was this:

It’s just mind boggling that there is a mini-slum literally walking distance from where I am staying. You’d never know it unless, well unless you got lost like I did. I kept driving through and saw some fishermen at work and some construction workers working on a new bridge. I'm guessing that most of the fisherman and construction workers inhabit this little slum.

This week has been really quiet and exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that wouldn’t involve moving around too much because of my back. As I liked to remind the girls I was living with whenever I had a chance, I do have a bulging disc now! Then they’d say something about how I was a drama-queen and blah blah something else. If only they knew haha. I’m officially off the anti-inflammatory medicine as of today and my back feels alright. It doesn’t feel as good as I was hoping but I’m sure it’ll get straightened out soon. Looks like I’ll have to hold off on the squats and dead lifts I had planned on doing...

I’m planning on going to Vagator and Chapora tomorrow to check out the towns because they have a ton of Portuguese remnants. Goa was one of the few (maybe only?) places in India that was colonized by the Portuguese and they were driven away not too long ago. So the architecture is different than the rest of India and it’ll be cool to check out some of the churches and buildings there. Other than that, those are my only plans. I have a ticket booked from Mumbai to Delhi on the 15th of January. I don’t have a ticket from Goa to Mumbai yet but I’m working on it. I was planning on going by train but the trains are completely booked out until the 20th of January. So I’m either going to have to get lucky and snatch up one of the few FT tickets (Foreign Tourist tickets that they reserve for foreigners) or go by plane. Once there I plan on doing a short trip to Ellora and Ajanta to check out their caves and temples. It looks unreal. Google it! I’ll be meeting up with Hannah, roommate from Australia, in Delhi for five days and then I was planning on returning to Toronto. I received an email from Project abroad confirming that I paid for a two month travel insurance plan when I was sure I had only purchased a one month. The results of this are tragic and it is looking very likely that I’ll have to keep on traveling for another 2 weeks to a month. Sometimes you just can’t win... Come ce dice “sarcasm” in espanol?

Noah

Some other pics from when I got lost:

Delhi Part II

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I actually wrote this post about 3 weeks ago but I just never got around to posting it. In the meantime, a pretty awful and unexpected- and still unexplained or unresolved at least, from my understanding- incident happened, Sofia'a good friends were volunteering in Africa and disappeared from their boat. They were on a lake and their bodies still have not been found but they have been announced to be dead rather than missing. I'm somewhat unsure of all of the details but that's my understanding at least. Sofia, understandably, returned to Denmark the day after she received the news. I can't imagine what she's going through right now. So definitely thinking of her a lot.

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So I’ll try to pick up where I last left off which was somewhere around breakfast on my second day in Delhi. Sofia and I walked around the neighbourhood in search of an authentic Indian breakfast but quickly realized that a continental breakfast sounded more appealing since we’ve had nothing but Indian breakfasts for the past month and a half and it can be a little overwhelming to have really spicy food for breakfast every day. We found a hotel that had an all you can eat buffet for a whopping $3 and decided to give it a go. The breakfast was deadly and after a few espressos I was ready to go. We shopped around and decided to book a cab to Agra for the following day so we could see the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. After that we headed to Jama Masjid Mosque.

Jama Mosque is the biggest mosque in India and from what I understand it can hold up to 25,000 people. They made me wear some sort of man-skirt that was so not flattering but I was in shorts and apparently showing a little too much skin... We walked around and took some pictures and then took to the task of climbing the 130 stairs in one of the towers. After some huffing and puffing (apparently I’ve been eating too many chapatis) we got to the top. The view was pretty spectacular and you could see all of Old Delhi and part of New Delhi. While we were admiring the view at the top we started chatting with a couple of locals who spoke English very well and we mentioned that we were hoping to go to a traditional market or bazaar later on and asked for a recommendation. They immediately (thank God for spell check because I’m probably the only 25 year old that misspells “immediately” every single time) recommended we check out Chandni Chowk which was only about a 15 walk away. We thanked them and made our way there.

On our way we got to see and experience a bit of everything-- date stands, popcorn stands where they pop the popcorn in these huge pans over a coal fire, a snake charmer, a small congregation of homeless people living right underneath of the mosque, and tons of other shops and stands.

Chandni Chowk was pretty unbelievable to say the least. I’m not sure exactly how many people where at the market but there have to have been at least 100 thousand, or “one lakh" as they say in India. You were shoulder to shoulder with other shoppers and shop owners alike, it was pure madness. We never even entertained the thought of purchasing anything but we spent at least an hour and a half waking down the street and just taking it all in. After about an hour of walking around we saw what we thought were omelets being made on the street and went to check them out. It turns out that it was something made out of “pulse” that just looked like an omelet. I still have no idea what it was but it was amazing. It was basically tomatoes, cheese and some herbs wrapped in a pulse “wrap” with an her chutney on the side. We devoured the dish and went on our way.

After that we headed to the Museum of Modern Art and walked around for a bit, but let’s be honest, museums are boring. Fortunately, I didn’t have to feign my interest for long as the museum closed shortly after we arrived. Later on that night we headed to a pretty nice North Indian restaurant and had some killer Palak Panner (if you have a chance try some!) and then headed to a near by pub for a bit to get a feel of the night life in Delhi. It was pretty empty but it was still fun.

The next day we headed to... the Taj! Our driver picked us up at 6am and we made the 4 hour trip to Agra. The city of Agra itself is pretty lackluster to say the least. It sucks. It does happen to be home to two of the most amazing destinations in India though, the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. We only saw Agra Fort from the outside but it is huge and looked awesome-- I have to return there one day to see the inside. We were dropped off in front of the walkway to the Taj where we met up with our guide. 

I witnessed my first robbery in India as we entered the gates. A monkey shamelessly snatched a tourist's ice cream and took off. Here's the little guy enjoying his prize.

The Taj Mahal was gorgeous and having a guide is a must because you develop so much more of an appreciation for the work that went into building it and you learn about all of the intricacies that you would never have know otherwise. I can't really add anything that you wouldn't be able to get from pictures other than to say that it is one of the few places that is as far more gorgeous in person than it comes off in the millions of pictures that have been taken of it. That's a pretty hard feat to accomplish, so as Ali G would say, "restecp".

One of the four main gates.

The Taj.

The most touristy thing I could think of...

A mosque just to the side of it.

Quick snap from an archway on the way out.

Ended up having a pretty mellow night because of our wake up time and I had an early flight to Goa to catch the next day. I was really looking forward to seeing Goa alone and spending some time on the beach and what not but I basically ran into some other volunteers within an hour of arriving, and somehow we were staying at the same hotel! Crazy...

The first couple days in Goa were AWFUL! I got food poisoning shortly after arriving, damn you spring rolls, and spent the first two days with a bucket in front of my face throwing up. Oh yeah, it was my birthday the day after I arrived to top it off. The hotel was right across from a bar and it’s pretty annoying to throw up while “We’re gonna have a goodnight” is blaring in the background haha. B.E.P. you lied because I did not have a good night! I slowly recovered and was able to really enjoy the rest of my time there though. The other guys/girls I was with were a really fun group and I think everyone had a blast. We got to eat some really good food, played some football (they are Euros and they get angry when you call it soccer) on the beach, rented scooters and drove around for the day, and hang out on the beaches. We went out a few nights there and the clubs there off the hizzy. Not in the way you would expect though. You can only get in as a “couple” so the ratio for guys to girls is 50/50 but you would not know it by looking at the dance floor... it is the complete opposite from anywhere else I’ve been where the dance floors are dominated by guys. And what dancers they are! They gyrate, fist pump, and shake their tailfeathers like you wouldn’t believe. It’s shocking and incredibly entertaining to watch.

The 10 days, well 8 if you discount the 2 I spent throwing up, were an absolute blast and it was really good to see a different side of India. 

Noah

The Massage

I just got out of my second Ayuverdic massage for the past week. So far I’ve had three overall and WOWZA!!! For those of you who don’t know what an Ayurvedic massage is, it’s a type of massaging technique developed in Kerola, a neighbouring state to Tamil Nadu. The massage is quite different than your average massage (are most “average” massages just considered to be swedish?) because it uses an insane amount of oil(s). There are literally dozens of different oils that are infused with herbs and other sorts of ingredients with medicinal properties to choose from. Each type of oil has a different purpose and is applied in a different way and to a different part of your body- and applied quite lavishly I must add. Oh yeah, and you’re generally ass-naked for it! There’s nothing more emasculating than having to have two men flip your naked body over because you have been slipping and sliding around on a wooden table trying to flip over unsuccessfully because there’s too much oil on the table making it impossible for you to get any sort of grip...

My first experience with an Ayurvedic massage was in Goa. Perhaps I should have known that something was up when I told Bruno, a volunteer from Germany, that I was getting an Ayuverdic massage later on that day and he cracked a cheeky smile and said “have fun!” I had no idea how awkward the next hour was going to be as I entered the back room of that shack on the side of the road... My conversation with the masseur kind of went like this once in the back room:

Masseur: Okay, sir, you get undressed.

Me: Shit, I totally forgot that I’m not wearing boxers, can I just run back to the hotel since it’s across the street and grab some? I’ll be two seconds.

Masseur: No, no, no. You get naked.

Me: Haaa? Is there a towel or something? Where do I change?

Masseur: No, no, no. This is Ayurvedic massage. No clothes, no towel.

Me: Hmmm. Are you sure?

I took a look around and, seemingly for the first time, realized that I was in a pretty sketchy looking back-room, with another man and a tub of oil. I then proceeded to do the most logical thing one would do in such situation and began to undress in front of the man. It was incredibly awkward and I made sure to mutter and sigh loud enough for him to hear so that he’d know I wasn’t comfortable with the situation. Next thing I know I’m laying on my stomach, clutching the side of the table and holding my laughter in. It was insanely hard not to just burst out laughing. After about fifteen minutes of convincing myself that I was being silly and that I was the one that approached the man for a massage, and not the other way around, I finally began to relax. It lasted about thirty seconds before the man began doing a weird flicking motion at the end of my buttocks to get rid of the excess oil. My butt cheeks clenched right up and I burst out laughing unable to control myself. I quickly composed myself but decided to stay in the clenched position while telling myself that there is no way in hell that I’m flipping on my stomach if he asks me to.

Fast forward twenty more minutes and the masseur says, “okay now, you get on back”. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”, I thought to myself. I decided I’d just ignore him and hope he’d forget about it. After a few seconds of awkward silence he gives me a little nudge and says “flip”. I tried to play dumb and replied, “Huh? What do you mean?” It was pretty obvious what he meant and he knew it. I’m sure most of his customers react in a similar manner when he asks them to flip because he dangled a cloth that was in his hand in front of my face to reassure me that it was all under control. That my boys were safe. A minute later there I was, face up with a cloth rolled into a cigar-like-shape strategically placed over my manhood. It was definitely the most awkward and the funniest experience I’ve had in a while. I could not keep a straight face and I constantly burst out laughing and then proceeded to apologize. I found myself tipping him really well, basically a baksheesh, as if to say, that what just happened back there is staying back there...

I’ve been pretty lucky and have actually been provided with a loincloth for my past two massages though which is better for the most part except that they put it on for you. They reach down through your legs and put it on and then they tie if for you. I’ve learned to just not question some things here... You’re probably wondering why on Earth I went back when I just said it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. In Goa I kind of threw out my back and was in a ridiculous amount of pain. I could barely get out of bed in the morning. After two weeks the pain was finally subsiding when I stupidly played basketball in the morning and afternoon with the kids I was coaching for my new project. The next morning I woke up in an insane amount of pain again. I have done an MRI and unfortunately found out that I mya have two bulging discs and some other problems with my hips and back. Being the drama queen that I am, I moped around for a few hours until I realized that it’s not a huge deal and that all I had to do was look around and realize that I still had it better than 99% of the people around me. It’s really annoying and frustrating when you want to feel sorry for yourself in India because there’s always someone who has it way worse than you do. I just have to look to the new care centre I’m working at to see that. It really puts things in perspective to be in a country like India. The next time you are complaining about how unlucky you are, remember that it can be worse, a lot worse.

Delhi Part I

(Edit: Meant to post this a couple days ago after arriving to Goa but got the most insane case of food poisoning so didn't leave the room for a while...)

Not really sure where to start. I could start with the gorgeous visit to Taj Mahal, with the overcrowded, overwhelming, overbearing yet absolutely brilliant Chandni Chowk market, with a cool trip to Jama Masjid Mosque, with the high-end restaurants and shopping at Connaught Place, but I think I'll just be incredibly corny and cliche and start from the beginning. I’m typing this about 30,000 feet up in the air on my flight from Delhi to Goa (via Mumbai). I’m exhausted due to the extreme lack of sleep over the past couple of days but oddly jittery thanks to a yummy milk coffee. 

About a week and a half ago I found out that Noble School has an exam week that starts on November 15th (my birthday ftw). I talked to the principal and he said that I really didn’t need to be around for the week since I wouldn’t be teaching classes and I would basically just be kickin’ it in the library all day. I jumped on the chance to take a little vacation and to get to know some other parts of India. I had an incredibly frustrating, irritating, annoying, difficult time trying to book my flights. It took 5 days to book the flights because, well because I’m in India. Things here just never go smoothly  which can sometimes make you feel like crossing your arms, pouting and stomping your feet. Most of the time I am pretty good at taking everything in stride and laughing it off but this past week definitely fell into the category of the former of the aforementioned. I had hit somewhat of a wall at school because of the lack of classes given to me. I had fever followed by a cold. And I just didn’t feel like I was making as big of an impact or difference as I had hoped to be making. Needless to say, I got in touch with my inner emo and now my ipod has 2 or 3 new melodramatic playlists to show for it.

After finally getting some help from Thafeaa’s aunt, I was able to book the flights. November 12th is the 25th anniversary of the Lotus Temple, which is in Delhi, and the main reason I chose to go to Delhi before heading to the highly praised beaches of Goa. I booked a flight for the 11th and made a “reservation” at a hotel I found online. I tried to reserve it online but they wouldn’t accept my credit card because it was issued in a foreign country-- one of the reasons I had so much trouble trying to book my flights. I ended up emailing them and we made some arrangements which included an airport pickup. As far as Delhi was concerned, I didn’t really have any plans other than visiting the Lotus Temple on Saturday. I’m not one to really make arrangements or plan anything ahead of time which generally results in nothing ever going according to plan. I guess that especially happens to be the case when you don’t have much of a plan to begin with...

I was about to go through security check at the Madurai airport when I happened to run into another volunteer from Projects Abroad, Sofia. Sofia is a Danish girl that has been in India for a couple weeks longer than I and is volunteering at a hospital. As chance would have it, she was also going to Delhi for a few days. We quickly found out that neither of us really had any concrete plans so we decided to stick together and tag team Delhi. The flight was delayed a bit which led to me missing the airport pickup (I found out later via dozens of missed calls that I must just have seen his sign and assumed I missed the pickup altogether) so I decided to skip on my reservation since they didn’t pick me up and we headed downtown to Connaught  Place to find a hotel. We wandered over to the taxi area and after some bargaining we found a cab to take us downtown, or so we thought...

The man who we had bargained with then ushered us  about 50 meters away from the rest of the cabs and called a cab driver to pick us up on his cell phone. I had a funny feeling about the whole thing but I am almost always pretty uneasy around taxi and rickshaw drivers here because they are so damn aggressive. The cab pulled up and it looked a heck of a lot like just a regular van. I felt like this was weird but it’s not particularly uncommon for taxis to be unmarked in India. As we were about to load our bags in the van, a man comes out of no where and starts shouting and shoving our cab driver away from us. Sofia and I had NO idea what was going on and we were pretty confused and scared. The man that came out of nowhere happened to be an undercover cop and, as he was escorting us back to the airport, went on to tell us how that the guy was a “fraud man” and to stay away from him. Now I have no idea what he  meant by “fraud man” and probably never will. I don’t know if it was something as simple as him not being a licensed driver, or that they would take us to th wrong destination and then demand more money from us (incredibly common here), or something much more serious. I’m glad we never found out though.

After the little incident, Sofia and I decided to go through the cab company that is linked to the airport. We were pretty rattled to say the least. We took a half an hour cab ride to New Delhi and after checking out a few hotels and bartering with the receptionists (who knew you could barter at a hotel!) we found a pretty clean and very reasonably priced place. We were really hungry at this point and headed to Cannaught Place for some food. Cannaught Place is a massive shopping complex that revolves around a huge park. There are a ton of western outlets there and some really good eateries. We at a really nice western-fusion restaurant that unfortunately had some western prices. We hung out at Canaught Place for about 4 hours and had a really good time before heading back to the hotel. We decided to meet up for an early breakfast the next day and went to bed.

My computer is dying and the coffee rush has faded so I’m going to stop this right here. There are so many other things that I want to write about but I’m not the best writer and I’d probably end up boring you even more, so I’ll just jot down some other random thoughts and then write another entry in a few days.

• Caffeine is awesome. I really miss coffee from back home but I’ve, seemingly overnight, really become fond of milk coffee. It has come in handy because I don’t think I’ve had more than 3 hours of straight sleep over the past 3-4 days.
• Delhi is wicked! I really expected not to like Delhi but it’s killer! The people here are really friendly and helpful. The culture is much more western which makes it a little easier to get used to and the food, wow the food... I really don’t enjoy southern Indian food but north Indian food is phenomenal. Naan bread 4 life <3
• India has a slight issue with overpopulation...
• Your attitude really dictates how good or bad of an experience you’re going to have. I think everyone knows this but it’s really more apparent in a country like India where you’ll never have an experience that you are indifferent towards. You really know where you stand on everything here, you either love it or hate it. And starting off with the right attitude can often be the difference maker.
• When in doubt, smile and nod your head. It's easier than and more enjoyable than huffing and puffing. 

Some pics from the weekend (I'll keep the Taj Pics for part II):

Right after playing some football with the grade 6 class. 

My boys-- take the bus with them every morning.

Four of my main dudes. Mannar, Vishnogandhi, Pragadeesh and Sunil Dev!  

One of my favourites, Aakash.

View of Delhi from atop the Jaya Mosque.

The Mosque. It has a capacity of 25,000.

Some really good street food at Chandni Chowk. 

Ran into a monkey while doing some shopping... 

Diwali/ Kollam

As they say in India, “Ai yo yo”... I have been meaning to update my blog for the past two weeks but every time I’m finally ready to sit down and write something, I remember that I have some laundry that needs to be done, or lesson planning to do, but mainly I just end up flexing in front of the mirror for hours on end... 

A few more random facts or things that I have noticed in the past couple weeks:

1. One of my students has 72 letters in his name. Fortunately, his nickname is "XL".

2. Everyone here is obsessed  with 6 packs and they think all white people have one. They asked me if I had one and I replied with "Nah, just one big pack", to which one of the students said, "Oh like my Dad, a family pack!". hahaha

3. We had a surprise birthday for Dani that was a lot of fun and ended with a cake fight.

4. Diwali, the "festival of lights", is insane. You essentially buy a new outfit, eat special sweets and blow up firecrackers ALL DAY. It felt like we were in a war zone, the crackers started going off at 5am and didn't end until about the same time the next day. We had an insane amount of firecrackers and there were some pretty huge ones, it was pretty scary lighting them because some of the "bombs" would blow up really quickly and you could literally feel the explosion even from 20 feet away. Later on at night we went and set off a bunch of huge ones from the top of the roof. (See video)

5. The kids here call me "NJV Boss".

6. I played a real cricket match with some older kids and had a blast. It's a pretty fun game and definitely more action packed that it appears. I still prefer most other games though.

7. Despite being here for a month now, I still cannot understand the Tamil accent. I'm also not picking up any words in Tamil :(

8. The caste system is prevalent in southern India and really comes up in day-to-day situations between Tamilians. It's really quite disgusting and sad.

9. The weather has cooled down significantly and generally hovers between 25-30 degrees now but we are getting significantly more rain.

10. The 10th and 12th graders here have statewide exams later on in the year. In order to prepare them for these exams, Nobel school's curriculum consists of an examination period of 50 days!!! It's pretty mind blowing to be honest.

I just returned from a weekend trip to Kollam,  a small town on the backwaters of Southern India. The trip was pretty short but extremely exhausting. Dani and I set out from Aruppukottai on Friday at 8am to meet up with the rest of the volunteers at the train station in Madurai. We ended up making really good time and there was a bit of a misunderstanding on our part and we were  there earlier than we should have been by an hour and a half or so. We reached Kollam after a few bus rides and a 3.5 hour train ride, for a total of 13.5 hours of travel time. We all ate at a pretty good restaurant and I finally got to have some real(ish) pizza for the first time in over a month! We arrived at the hotel at 10:30pm and after checking in, about 8 of us started passing the football around and it turned into an impromptu soccer match. Most of the volunteers are from Europe so it was a pretty intense but really fun game. It lasted so much longer than expected and we didn't finish until well past midnight. It was one of the highlights of the trip for sure.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to a house boat that we rented out for the day. We ended up cruising around the river for about 6 hours and it was an awesome way to get to know everyone, listen to some music and hang out while seeing a different side of India. We had some some surprisingly good food on board and a few guys went swimming. The water was pretty rancid so most of chose to just watch. We got back just as it started sprinkling and by the time we got into the hotel it was PISSING rain outside, so we got really lucky with our timing. We headed to a real mall later on but, unfortunately, almost all of the stores were closed because I guess they are still celebrating Diwali, even though it was Saturday and the holiday fell on a Wednesday... Oh well, that's India! We ended up having one of the most random nights back at the hotel that I really don't fully know how to describe. It was a pretty hilarious night but it ended with Yujiro (think that's his name), the happiest/liveliest person I've met to date, breaking his tooth while doing the worm. It was pretty surreal because he was incredibly nonchalant about it and just put it in his wallet and really didn't make a big deal out of it at all.

We had to get up really early the next day and after some trouble with our ride- the boat that was supposed to pick us up to bring us to the bus stop just decided not to pick us up- we made the long trek back.

I almost forgot, on our way to Kollam we were waiting for our bus for about an hour at the bus station in a pretty dingy town. A few of the guys were passing the football around and I was talking to Ian and Rose, two of the coordinators at Projects Abroad, and a few local women approached us with a tupperware container full of a green powder and a couple of stamps. She wanted to give me a temporary tattoo of some sort and I was kind of laughing while politely declining and then she just stamped my arm. It was pretty funny but then it started to sting like hell, in fact it hurt for the next 5-6 hours or so. I obviously forced to pay her but I received a nice big wet kiss on the hand so well worth it! I then told her I thought we could round her up some more business and within a few minutes we got all of the other guys tatt'ed up! Eventually a crowd of at least 60 people formed around us and began to photograph the foreigners getting tattoos. It was quite a hilarious experience.

That's it for now, I'll leave you with some pictures from the weekend.

Noah

One of the two boxes of firecrackers that our host family bought for Diwali.

Bruno getting a tatty.

One of our lovely tattoo artists!

Backwaters of Kollam.

Our Boat.

Lunch!

Jaya's uncle and I at his farm for Diwali.

Jaya's relatives at the farm.

  

Vanakkam!

So, if you are reading this you undoubtedly fall into one of two categories:

1. You have absolutely NOTHING else to do, or
2. You are my mother.

Either way, thanks for reading. I have been wanting to get started on a blog for the past few days or so, but every time I sit down to write an entry I have no idea where to start. Although it’s only been two weeks since I left Canada, it seems that so much has happened. In order to get caught up to speed I’m simply going to write down in bullet form any thoughts or observations I’ve made about India thus far:

-A family of five can easily fit on a scooter.

-Rickshaws are both terrifying and amazingly fun at the same time.

-It is freaking hot here! Generally somewhere between 35-38 degrees during the day and it “cools down” to about 30 at night. Eeek!

-The poverty here is truly overwhelming. The amount of things that we take for granted in North America are almost infinite.

-Doing laundry by hand sucks!

-The kids at the Nobel school (where I am volunteering) are insanely stoked to have us (Dani and I) there. I literally walk down the halls hi-fiving people, shaking hands, waving and talking to a mob of students.

-The thunderstorms here are amazing! The lighting just lights up the sky and they go on for about 30 minutes every night before it inevitably pours rain and we have a power outage for an hour or so.

-Men and women can't interact with each other once they are over the age of 13 or so, unless you are related or married. Dani and I always get asked if we are bother and sister or if we are married whenever se sit together on the bus.

-When we asked where to throw away our garbage, we were told to “walk to the end of the road and throw it as far as you can”.

-The bureaucracy that goes on here for the most minute tasks is unbelievable. Nothing gets done on time and you have to jump through hoops in order to get there.

-Indians are the most hospitable people you will ever meet.

So now that we are somewhat up to speed, I thought I’d share my day with you. Yesterday, Dani and I got together with about 10 kids between the ages of 7 and 8 and learned how to play cricket. I am still not 100% sure how to play but it is a ton of fun and the kids had a blast too. We played some badminton after that and then had to leave early because Jeha, our neighbour, invited us to her college reunion. Jeha (random attempt at spelling her name) is definitely one of the most amazing women I have met. She has a son, Vishvan, who we’ve gotten pretty close to as well. Jeha has insisted on showing us around town and really goes out of her way to invite us to different functions or get togethers. So, after a quick shower, we hopped on a bus and headed to her college.

We arrived a little late and therefore the reunion had already begun. We found out later that this was more than just a reunion, it was a way for all the Seniors (alumni) to give advice and words of encouragement to the Juniors (current students). The four of us walked into the auditorium to find seats near the back and listen to some of the speakers. The moment we entered the room, the entire auditorium basically fell silent, even the speaker stopped his speech. EVERYBODY was staring at us and murmuring and whispering ensued. A member of the faculty immediately rushed towards us and escorted us to the front row of the auditorium, kicking out people in the front row so we could sit there! The speaker continued on his speech and the entire room was buzzing, we could literally feel everyone’s eyes on us. After the speech was over there was some polite clapping and then another member of the faculty went on stage and grabbed the microphone. He went on to say how excited everybody was that we were there as their special guests of honour and insisted that I go on stage to introduce myself and pass on  some words of wisdom to everyone that was there. This is probably the point where I should be telling you that half of the people there had a PhD of some sort and the other half was on their way to majoring in Physics. I was forced on stage where I introduced myself and then basically blacked out for the rest of my speech. It was insanely embarrassing and awkward but I got some sort of applause at the end. Dani went up next and did the same deal. It’s worth mentioning that she got an additional round of cheering midway through her speech, so I’m pretty jealous about that. 

After that we sat there and laughed off our embarrassment for the next 20 minutes of so as we heard everyone else speak. We were trying to leave after that but they kept on insisting that we have lunch with them, there was no other choice but to surrender and stick around for another couple hours. The head of the Physics department took me on a private tour of the campus and then we had lunch. It was a pretty weird and surreal experience to say the least.

Dani and I are going to plan a big Halloween party for the kids on the block here since they don’t even know what Halloween is, and that’s just plain unacceptable! I have played cricket about 3-4 times over the last day and a half and am really enjoying it! The kids have basically adopted me and are showing me around town. I have a badminton match scheduled to start in a half an hour so I better get a move on!

Noah

                            
                                                                       My new crew!

                                                                                                      Vishvan.