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!!!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Did I mention I don't like rice?
I had to learn to eat rice over this past year, and actually it's not so bad when it's covered with sauces and stuff. We ate Indian food as a team several times and it's really very good! I've been warned by my student leaders and others who have travelled to India not to drink the water, even in the form of ice cubes or fresh juice. Megan told me not to use tap water to brush my teeth - it will make us sick. Also on the do not eat list are fresh fruits and vegetables because bacteria from the water may be on the peels. It's cooked food or peeled food - I can't wait to see what we'll be eating! Well, since one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be on time I must be going! Next update will be from India!!!!!
Love, Alicia
Love, Alicia
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Talk about FML situations....
The service component of our trip is to teach English to Indian students between the ages of 3rd grade and 8th grade. The last day of our classes we plan to do a craft with the students. Each of us on the team had to come up with a craft idea. Mine, of course, had to be the most complicated; color a whole blank piece of computer paper with crayons usings lots of colors, paint the entire sheet with black paint, let the paint dry, then use toothpicks to scratch away the black paint and draw a picture! The colors will show through the black paint and look really pretty. However, we only have 45 minutes with the kids, so the paint wouldn't have enough time to dry. My solution = color and paint the papers myself before I leave. Welllllllllll not only does it take FOREVER to color 200 half sheets of paper, even with the whole family helping, I RAN OUT OF PAINT!!! The jar looked so big....now I'm praying that they sell acryllic black paint somewhere in Chennai! My parents might hate me right now - my mom's arm is probably ready to fall off from coloring so much, and my dad drove all over the town to try and find more paint. This is just so typical...I know you're not supposed to wait until the last minute to do projects, but really we've all pulled all nighters once in our lives right? A couple times maybe?
Looks like I'll be finishing this task overseas...
But I'm off to bed! We depart Buffalo for JFK tomorrow at 11:41am. Then we leave around 7:40pm to fly over night to London, then to Chennai. The international flight should take about 16hrs. Since I'm not in bed now hopefully I'll sleep on the plane. Goodnight! xoxo
Looks like I'll be finishing this task overseas...
But I'm off to bed! We depart Buffalo for JFK tomorrow at 11:41am. Then we leave around 7:40pm to fly over night to London, then to Chennai. The international flight should take about 16hrs. Since I'm not in bed now hopefully I'll sleep on the plane. Goodnight! xoxo
11 Months of Preparation
My team and I have been preparing for this trip for about 11 months (some less than others). Alot of people think we will do "mission" work on this trip, but one of the very first things I learned (during my interview, actually) was that we will not "better someone's life" in two weeks. There is nothing we can do to make an impact or change in the places we will visit. This idea was reinforced during our first "Training Workshop" in January which was an All Team-Cross Cultural Awareness Workshop. We spent an afternoon together will all of the International Service Immersion Trip participants learning about the particular social justice issues we will study while in India. Our trip specifically focuses on the Dalit issue; although the Caste System is outlawed in India, it is still very much implemented in society, and it has very negative effects on the Dalits, or "Untouchables".
In February our team sold Chai tea at Canisius's International Fest to fundraise a bit and promote our team at a cultural event. International Fest is probably one of the best events on campus, and it was so much fun to participate! Plus the food is great :)
In March our team attended a presentation by Jim Keady, founder of the Team Sweat organization. He and his wife spent several months in Indonesia trying to work at a sweatshop that produces Nike products and to live on the wages the Indonesian workers made. Needless to say, they weren't successful in their task. The wages workers are paid in Third World countries are so low that the workers must work overtime on top of their already long hours just to get by. And I would hardly call their lifestyle "getting by". Jim Keady's biggest point was that Nike is one of the wealthiest companies in the world yet it does not pay it's hardest working workers fairly. Keady pointed our that Nike sponsors Tiger Woods with a multi-million dollar contract just for playing golf. At the end of the presenation Keady had us send postcards to Tiger Woods asking him to visit the workers in Indonesia. Now that Woods has produced the largest scandal in the history of golf, I'm not so sure how all of this is working out. Perhaps it is what the Indians would call "karma", no? Anyway, Keady's second point was that Catholic instituitons, including Canisius and the Catholic University of America, have contracts with Nike for apparel of sports teams - how can Catholic instutions ignore such violations of social justice issues and support Nike? For more information about this, visit www.teamsweat.org.
In April our team went on a "Plunge into Buffalo" to visit and explore different progressive organizations in Buffalo that are doing something about the justice needs in our own community. This was BY FAR my favorite training session! It was so much fun to travel through Buffalo and discover ways to support local businesses, as opposed to large corporations. The places we visited included The Nickel City Co-op, The Lexington Food Co-op, Urban Roots, El Buen Amigo, Habitat for Humanity Restore, Guercio's, Sweet Tooth, PUSH Buffalo, and Sweetness 7 Cafe. On that day we learned about the difference between free trade and fair trade. Drink the FAIR TRADE coffee people!!! :)
Over summer break we met several times to plan our lessons, crafts, and our performances. This provided some nice team bonding time. This past semester our wonderful director, Lu, graciously invited us into her home where we had a few more meetings to re-focus on why we were taking the trip to India. There are four stated purposes to our trip:
"The purpose of Canisius College's International Service Immerision trips is to increase our awareness of the world, so scandalously unjust, so complex to understand, and so hard to change."
"The purpose of this trip is to fall in love and grow in solidarity with the people of the world and especially the poor, to let their stories become our stories, to ler our voices speak for them."
"The purpose of this trip is to challenge ourselves to live simply, to value relationships that we make, to engage our faith and spirituality in the experiences we have and to dig fo the truth behind the injustices."
"The purpose of the this trip is to be open to letting our experiences transform our lives so that we can become part of the solution, so that we can become men and women for others".
In February our team sold Chai tea at Canisius's International Fest to fundraise a bit and promote our team at a cultural event. International Fest is probably one of the best events on campus, and it was so much fun to participate! Plus the food is great :)
In March our team attended a presentation by Jim Keady, founder of the Team Sweat organization. He and his wife spent several months in Indonesia trying to work at a sweatshop that produces Nike products and to live on the wages the Indonesian workers made. Needless to say, they weren't successful in their task. The wages workers are paid in Third World countries are so low that the workers must work overtime on top of their already long hours just to get by. And I would hardly call their lifestyle "getting by". Jim Keady's biggest point was that Nike is one of the wealthiest companies in the world yet it does not pay it's hardest working workers fairly. Keady pointed our that Nike sponsors Tiger Woods with a multi-million dollar contract just for playing golf. At the end of the presenation Keady had us send postcards to Tiger Woods asking him to visit the workers in Indonesia. Now that Woods has produced the largest scandal in the history of golf, I'm not so sure how all of this is working out. Perhaps it is what the Indians would call "karma", no? Anyway, Keady's second point was that Catholic instituitons, including Canisius and the Catholic University of America, have contracts with Nike for apparel of sports teams - how can Catholic instutions ignore such violations of social justice issues and support Nike? For more information about this, visit www.teamsweat.org.
In April our team went on a "Plunge into Buffalo" to visit and explore different progressive organizations in Buffalo that are doing something about the justice needs in our own community. This was BY FAR my favorite training session! It was so much fun to travel through Buffalo and discover ways to support local businesses, as opposed to large corporations. The places we visited included The Nickel City Co-op, The Lexington Food Co-op, Urban Roots, El Buen Amigo, Habitat for Humanity Restore, Guercio's, Sweet Tooth, PUSH Buffalo, and Sweetness 7 Cafe. On that day we learned about the difference between free trade and fair trade. Drink the FAIR TRADE coffee people!!! :)
Over summer break we met several times to plan our lessons, crafts, and our performances. This provided some nice team bonding time. This past semester our wonderful director, Lu, graciously invited us into her home where we had a few more meetings to re-focus on why we were taking the trip to India. There are four stated purposes to our trip:
"The purpose of Canisius College's International Service Immerision trips is to increase our awareness of the world, so scandalously unjust, so complex to understand, and so hard to change."
"The purpose of this trip is to fall in love and grow in solidarity with the people of the world and especially the poor, to let their stories become our stories, to ler our voices speak for them."
"The purpose of this trip is to challenge ourselves to live simply, to value relationships that we make, to engage our faith and spirituality in the experiences we have and to dig fo the truth behind the injustices."
"The purpose of the this trip is to be open to letting our experiences transform our lives so that we can become part of the solution, so that we can become men and women for others".
"I'm going to India!"..."What?"
A little under a year ago last January, I decided to apply for one of Campus Ministry's International Service Immersion Trips. I chose to apply to the trip to India because it was the furthest destination - I wanted to travel the East. I assumed that I would never get the chance to travel there again because India isn't exactly #1 on anyone's most desired vacation destinations list. It was a way to take advantage of an opportunity I might now have again. People always say "live your life to the fullest", so why not?
I told people that I was applying for this trip, but no one seemed to take me very seriously - especially my parents. I still remember the look on their faces when I came home one day in January and told them that I had been accepted to Team India 2010 and that I would be travelling there for two weeks the following January. Even though it was a reality at that point, all they could say was "What?". Hahahaha.
Unexpectedly, I received a similar reaction from just about everyone else I told. Very rarely did anyone give me the excited reaction that I anticipated. It never occured to me that what my ambition was unique; travelling to India isn't THAT weird, is it? But a few people did enthusiastically support my decision and I'm grateful for that.
My decision to go to India originated from a desire to travel there, but at the time I didn't know the real reason why I would go. It took me a few more months of preparation to discover this.
I told people that I was applying for this trip, but no one seemed to take me very seriously - especially my parents. I still remember the look on their faces when I came home one day in January and told them that I had been accepted to Team India 2010 and that I would be travelling there for two weeks the following January. Even though it was a reality at that point, all they could say was "What?". Hahahaha.
Unexpectedly, I received a similar reaction from just about everyone else I told. Very rarely did anyone give me the excited reaction that I anticipated. It never occured to me that what my ambition was unique; travelling to India isn't THAT weird, is it? But a few people did enthusiastically support my decision and I'm grateful for that.
My decision to go to India originated from a desire to travel there, but at the time I didn't know the real reason why I would go. It took me a few more months of preparation to discover this.
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