Today we attended school at Loyola College in Chennai, which is a Jesuit institution primarily for Christians (a minority in India) and Dalits, which are the untouchable people of the outlawed caste system who are still completey discriminated against. The college is absolutely gorgeous and the priests and professors are incredibly wonderful. I want to study abroad here! Our first lecture was given by Krishana Anand who is a visiting faculty member from the Asian School of Journalism and a Columnist for the Indian press/media. He spoke about Dynamics of Culture, Religion and Politics in India. We took a break for tea, and then our second lecture was given by Rev. Dr. Michael Amaladoss who is the president of the college. He spoke about Indian Religions and compared them to one another - they all have more in common than one might think. After lunch we heard from Dr. Bernard D'Sami who is an associate professor in the History Dept at the school who spoke about Christianity in India. Next was a lecture on Culture and Identiy of India given by Rev. Dr. Joe Arun WHO I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!!! He is the funniest man I've ever met and so knowledgable and so wordly. He just "gets it". Lastly we heard from Professor Francis Adaikalam of the Social Work Dept about the Health Care System in India (or lack thereof....). I learned SO MUCH today and it was all so amazing! I can't wait to return to the school tomorrow.
We returned to the hotel and then left for dinner at a restaurant I can neither remember the name of nor pronounce. But I ate banana flower vadai, garlic curry, coconut milk, lime juice, and some sort of butterscotch ice cream with nuts. I'm being so adventerous with the food here. It's also not like I have a choice. But I like most of what I eat and nothing has made me sick yet. Some of the other team members have been sick, but they are better now.
I'm super tired and it's past midnight here, so I'm off to bed. Goodnight!
Love, Alicia
Monday, January 4, 2010
Day One
Yesterday we spent the day site seeing in India. Each morning we eat breakfast at the hotel. My favorite is the eggs. First we visited Fort Madras, which was a fort built by the British when they established a colony in Madras, now called Chennai. It was like a little town. Inside we visited St. Mary's Church, and also a military church. This second church was attached to a garden which was absolutely beautiful. Baskar pointed out mango, papaya, and banana trees, and I saw some red lilies - so pretty! Then we went to a museum full of old weapons, pictures, portraits, coins, furniture and documents from that time. Very interesting.
Next we went to the BEACH! It's so warm here...like 80 and sunny, and a little humid. (It's winter here.) The water is so far from where the sand begins; it took us around 10 min. to walk to the water. It was amazing to stand in the Bay of Bengal which is part of the Indian Ocean. I never thought I'd stand in the Indian Ocean before the Pacific, but I did. The water was so cold but felt so great. We didn't swim because the tide would kill you, but it was refreshing just to stand in the shallow waves. People kept staring at us because we're white and speak American English. People kept taking pictures of us and a random man jumped in on our group shot. Another kid came up to me and shook my hand. Everyone loves us here, and the women and babies always smile at us :)
After the beach we ate lunch, and after lunch we went to the tomb of St. Thomas, the apostle of Jesus. It was a very beautiful and sacred place. At the church outside of the tomb and Indian wedding was taking place. It was exactly the same as an Amercian wedding except the women wore saris. The bride even processed to "Pachelbel's Cannon", and she looked very beautiful.
Afterward we returned to the hotel, napped, and then ate dinner at another hotel called the Marina Towers. It was a buffet and very nice. While I was putting food on my plate I met a man from Bombay and we began discussing the differences between North and South Indian food. He said the ingredients and ways of cooking differentiated the two. Afterward he introduced himself and his son to our group, and invited us to watch the tennis match they would play in the next day. He also invited us to have drinks with him and his friends, but we had to return to our hotel. People are so friendly here and so easy to talk with :)
Next we went to the BEACH! It's so warm here...like 80 and sunny, and a little humid. (It's winter here.) The water is so far from where the sand begins; it took us around 10 min. to walk to the water. It was amazing to stand in the Bay of Bengal which is part of the Indian Ocean. I never thought I'd stand in the Indian Ocean before the Pacific, but I did. The water was so cold but felt so great. We didn't swim because the tide would kill you, but it was refreshing just to stand in the shallow waves. People kept staring at us because we're white and speak American English. People kept taking pictures of us and a random man jumped in on our group shot. Another kid came up to me and shook my hand. Everyone loves us here, and the women and babies always smile at us :)
After the beach we ate lunch, and after lunch we went to the tomb of St. Thomas, the apostle of Jesus. It was a very beautiful and sacred place. At the church outside of the tomb and Indian wedding was taking place. It was exactly the same as an Amercian wedding except the women wore saris. The bride even processed to "Pachelbel's Cannon", and she looked very beautiful.
Afterward we returned to the hotel, napped, and then ate dinner at another hotel called the Marina Towers. It was a buffet and very nice. While I was putting food on my plate I met a man from Bombay and we began discussing the differences between North and South Indian food. He said the ingredients and ways of cooking differentiated the two. Afterward he introduced himself and his son to our group, and invited us to watch the tennis match they would play in the next day. He also invited us to have drinks with him and his friends, but we had to return to our hotel. People are so friendly here and so easy to talk with :)
The City of Chennai
This city is crazy!!! It is unlike anything I could have ever imagined...wow. So it first "hit me" as we exited the airport because outside hundreds of people were waiting to pick up those arriving from the airport. It was 1:00am when we landed and probably closer to 2am when we left with our luggage. Our guide, Baskar, and our driver picked us up in this outrageous looking bus that fits the twelve of us; it seriously looked like a Barbie camper from the outside because it was pink and white and had flowers. I'm not kidding.
Here people drive like maniacs. I legit think that we or the others driving around us might die each and every time we travel in our bus. Firstly, we drive on the left hand side. Mostly people drive motocycles or very small cars. Second, there are no lanes and very few lights and absolutely no rules of the road. People just drive and honk their horns ALL THE TIME - every 2 seconds it seems. Also pedestrians walk in the street and their are cyclists. The side streets are so small only one car can fit at a time. I've learned to either look out the window at the shops and restaurants, or just cover my eyes. But we haven't had any traffic accidents yet so I think we'll be fine. The vehicles don't go very quickly anyway.
This city is so crowded...there are buildings everywhere and they are right next to each other. But there is also an abundance of vegetation; there are palm trees and other trees everywhere. It helps make the city beautiful. There is extreme poverty here and it can't be ignored. We drive past homeless people sleeping on doorsteps or short walls outside of houses. There are beggars in the street and outside sites who approach us. We drive through the slums everyday because they are everywhere. Sometimes when we walk or drive, depending on which street we are on or which way the wind is blowing, it smells really badly. But it's not so bad that you can't deal with it. The poverty here can't be ignored because it stares you in the face, but it's not inhibiting our experience, only adding to it.
I like our hotel, it's no holiday inn and not the place we thought we were staying at, but it's modern. There's a flat screen samsung in the room we haven't figured out how to use. The shower runs hot water, but they are very conscious of conserving resources in India so there is a bucket in the shower we fill to rinse ourselves with. The only thing I don't like is the 10 year olds who work here, but Megan said they probably need the money for their families. That's sad because they should be in school. It's really nice though and I'm so hapy to be here!!!
Here people drive like maniacs. I legit think that we or the others driving around us might die each and every time we travel in our bus. Firstly, we drive on the left hand side. Mostly people drive motocycles or very small cars. Second, there are no lanes and very few lights and absolutely no rules of the road. People just drive and honk their horns ALL THE TIME - every 2 seconds it seems. Also pedestrians walk in the street and their are cyclists. The side streets are so small only one car can fit at a time. I've learned to either look out the window at the shops and restaurants, or just cover my eyes. But we haven't had any traffic accidents yet so I think we'll be fine. The vehicles don't go very quickly anyway.
This city is so crowded...there are buildings everywhere and they are right next to each other. But there is also an abundance of vegetation; there are palm trees and other trees everywhere. It helps make the city beautiful. There is extreme poverty here and it can't be ignored. We drive past homeless people sleeping on doorsteps or short walls outside of houses. There are beggars in the street and outside sites who approach us. We drive through the slums everyday because they are everywhere. Sometimes when we walk or drive, depending on which street we are on or which way the wind is blowing, it smells really badly. But it's not so bad that you can't deal with it. The poverty here can't be ignored because it stares you in the face, but it's not inhibiting our experience, only adding to it.
I like our hotel, it's no holiday inn and not the place we thought we were staying at, but it's modern. There's a flat screen samsung in the room we haven't figured out how to use. The shower runs hot water, but they are very conscious of conserving resources in India so there is a bucket in the shower we fill to rinse ourselves with. The only thing I don't like is the 10 year olds who work here, but Megan said they probably need the money for their families. That's sad because they should be in school. It's really nice though and I'm so hapy to be here!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
