1st Excursion- Malmallapuram!

7/14 - 7/15/2012

Mahabalipuram- otherwise known as Malmallapuram, Tamilnadu, India

1^st excursion out of Chennai!

Our first stop was Dakshina Chitra, located just south of Chennai’s city limits. Here we were able to get a look at both ancient and modern styles of architecture in South India. These houses are so neat, and so well-built. They all have the feel of being very open and welcome. Generally, the windows and doors are not shut, and there were still not many bugs to be seen!

My favorite place in any of these homes, is the courtyard. Situated either inside or outside of the home, it was (and still is in some cases) a place for the whole family to gather. It was typical to have several members of the same family living together, and the courtyard was a place to sit and talk, similar to a living room. If the courtyard is indoors like the one below, the top where the roof would usually be is open to the outside. This explains why there is a lower level, so that water can drain out during the wet months. This open top was to bring in both a source of light and to provide ventilation and circulation of air throughout the home.

It was interesting to me how styles varied, just between states and regions. In the west, Kerala area, their rooftop bricks were mostly flat and layed out. Here, in a typical Tamil Nadu home on the east coast, the bricks are curved and stacked one on top of the other, layering.

And of course, we had to stop by the small shops as we left. 15 minutes turned into a 45 minute extravaganza. Bangles galore!

Finally we made it to Malmallapuram (formerly known as Mahabalipuram). To the beach!

Here is the Bay of Bengal- what an experience! This was our first time getting to be "tourists" and found that we came to the right place. White people were everywhere!

and here's a look at lunch: 

Fried fish and chips! 

In the afternoon, we stopped for a look at the great stone carvings, some carved as far back as 7th Century B.C. 



Arjuna's Penance:        

  

       Five Rathas: 

           

            

Shore Temple:

And of course the next day, we headed back to Chennai, but not before we stopped at the Crocodile Bank!

What a great trip! We had plenty of time to get out and shop, eat great food- both Indian and American, see the ocean, swim in a pool, and meet other students from the US. Their study abroad trip happened to coincide with ours, and we were able to get to know them a little bit.

Robert William, our director for BCA India from the states, came to meet their group, and spent all day Saturday with us. It was really fun to actually get to meet him in person and talk with him about India. 

Other than that, this trip was a learning experience for me. We have been exposed to several gypsy communities and this place had their share of them. The sad part about these people, is that the caste system is so engrained in the society, that these gypsies don't really have a chance at making a living. Many people here (especially of higher castes), regard these people as little more than human, along the lines of Dalit (the proper name for what was previously known as "the Untouchables".) So, on several occasions, these gypsies would come next to us, in our faces, asking us to buy things from them- primarily jewelry that they had made. It was so hard turning them down, knowing that they have such a tough way of life. 

This is going to be an ongoing internal battle I will face, perhaps on a daily basis. It depends where you are, but there is poverty everywhere. I want to help, but this is such a systemic issue, that it will take some major work for people's rights to be realized. This is not my place, at least not yet, but I will continue to work at helping those I can. 

Thus, I enter field placement work.

Week of 7/8/2012- Ups and Downs

This past week has been a crazy roller coaster ride of emotion. The main thing is, that I think I’ve beat the “Delhi belly” at least for now. I am feeling much better!

This didn’t hurt much either… a little taste of home:

Yep, that’s a cold chicken salad sandwich (double decker!!) with French fries 

and vegetables. 

Add olives on top and we were set! :)

I got out of the room finally on Tuesday and made some friends. 

Wednesday, classes officially started. Correction; class for me, started. I had one class that first-years take which didn’t start until the following Monday, so that left one that I actually went to: Development Economics. My afternoon was free, and I got to sit around the room, as well as get out and talk to people and make new friends, you know... the life. What a day of school, class for one hour... 

And to top it off, it was the first Fresher's Night in the hall. This first night was Talent Show night, and we watched all the freshers get up and show off. We got some good exposure to Indian songs and nostalgic American songs sung by Indians, Indian dancing, poem reading, and even keyboard playing (the Titanic, of course). Two hours later, we were all ready to leave. Not so fast! The girl with the microphone found us and told the three of us that we needed to do something too, because we were also "freshers", or at least new to Martin Hall. 

Oh Boy... We had nothing planned. And we were next.

So, we did what any normal, clear-thinking group of female college students would think of. We pulled out our inner Spice Girls and sang- kind of. Remember, we had never practiced before. That was certainly clear. Basically, we had a general idea of how the song goes, but we were so flustered, that the "lead girl" Becca, forgot the right order for the lyrics, and I really didn't know them, so we were a mess. But, the girls loved it and hollered anyway.

Thursday came and went. 

Friday, Anu met us for lunch and brought our BCA director from Bridgewater, VA with her, Robert. He had to come over to help with another program and decided to meet with us while he stayed in Chennai. In the evening, the president of MCC invited us to dinner. There we met with a large group of students from the University of Florida who are on a traveling study abroad program around India. They were staying on campus as well, but in their own guest house.

Dinner was outside, where we were served from a buffet featuring both Indian and American dishes. Literally, dosa (a flat, crispy Indian pancake) and French fries were side by side.

However, we got chased out by the rain, which was much needed! 

Chennai and the surrounding areas were experiencing some extreme water level issues, and people were beginning to be concerned of having enough; so the rains came at a good time.

The next day was the first trip out- weekend at Malmallapuram!

7/4/2012 Wednesday (It's the Fourth of July!!!)
- here, we celebrated Laura Lou's birthday instead. :)

So, we went shopping the first day, and had to buy two kurtas. I needed a bag, and the others did, too, so we got those as well.

That wasn't too bad, was it???








Our first stop Wednesday was the immigration office to register our student visas. It only took us an hour and a half to get through there, pretty quick for this task. We were expecting much longer... so we went out to celebrate.


               Here:

Okay, so this mall is called Express Avenue, notoriously known as the largest mall in Chennai, or one of the largest. It has 5 or more floors, and is extremely long and wide. Becca is going to the middle entrance; it was at least as long on the other side.

Oh, the first thing we did was have chocolate- Deluxe Chocolate Truffle cake- it was so good. It was Laura Lou's birthday! Chocolate overload. With it, I had my first coffee in India. Indians typically drink tea, so it was a lot of fun to have coffee. Afterwards I was so hot, but felt ready to go!

             Here are the clothes (and other things I bought) from this trip out: 

-Two kurtas, added to the existing two from Spencer's

-Two leggings

-One duparta (scarf) (Anu's, "modesty scarf")

The other items were purchased this same day, but in a different mall (Spencer's), the one we visited on Sunday. I went on a little bit of a spree...

However, I did figure out one thing. Okay, are you all sitting down for this? :) I admit it. I like to shop. I genuinely enjoy shopping here, bartering, buying things, trying things on, looking, everything. I'm sure you can't tell...

Except for the six hours... that was too much.

Watch out, malls!

Click for a look at this past week's weather. I'm sure some of you reading this can relate! Luckily, a lot of the time, we have a breeze which cuts down on the feeling of humidity. And there are so many trees on campus that give plenty of shade. In the city, it is hot though!

7/3/2012 Tuesday

We got to take an auto-share (larger auto-rickshaw) vehicle to the first site, FLI (Family Life Institute). Some of the things they are involved in are:

+ hosting their own, private school to the area children. The cool thing with that is it is available at a fraction of the cost other private schools are.
+ low-cost medical assistance to the area people, including gypsies
+ providing space to foster a self-help group
+ providing instruction at minimal cost, to local women for sewing clothes both for themselves and to sell to others

Once there, we got to interact with the children and walk in on some classes, and tour the buildings and area. The children we absolutely ecstatic to see us! They were ages preschool through grade 5 standard, and were learning English and Tamil. All the time, the older girls wanted to say our names, for us to speak to them in English. Finally, I asked to say something in Tamil, so they taught me. Oh, they just giggled about that!!! And then, they just wanted to play with us, or for us to play with them. So Becca, Laura Lou, and I taught them "Duck, Duck, Goose", which they absolutely ate up.

We had tea time and then at 11:30 or so, we left to go eat.

Next was our long drive to IWCO (Indian Community Welfare Organisation). This was our first, long introduction to the notorious, crazy Indian driver. Oh boy... he used the horn very liberally, spoke much Tamil to himself all the time, clicked the lights frequently at the other drivers, swerved everywhere, braked all the time, sped up, braked... Is this making you sick, yet?! Because we were all carsick by the time the day was done.

Anyways, we ended up here and had a whole presentation prepared for us, highlighting the different programs under IWCO.

- Link Workers scheme- area volunteers and paid workers, working in villages searching for sex workers. They go around to homes and educate people about protection and condoms, because they are very concerned about HIV/AIDS.
- Composite Intervention among gay men, Transgender, and female sex workers
- Urban Poor Homeless Initiatives in Chennai

A common theme of their programs is HIV/AIDS prevention and education, providing support to minority groups and their children, and for the homeless, working for them so they stand up for themselves and demand help from the government, because in India, there is a law that says all people should have shelter, or at least something to that effect.

Then, we were instructed to meet at the beach, to meet some LGBTQ people and look at their "cruising" sites. It took us over an hour to get there because of all the traffic. This was no ordinary trip to the beach, like you would typically find in the US. No, we were going to meet with the LGBT and recently Q community to talk with some transgender people. It sounds kind of weird, I know, in writing, but it was so cool! (I thought it was.) These particular people are ones who work with the organization IWCO (one of our field placement sites, if we choose to work with them). Yes, India has gay people too! 

Anyway, we drove to meet them on the beach at dusk, because that is when the khoti (meaning, cross-dressing men) go out. They all will sit around on the sidewalk/concrete walls around the roads to the beach, and at nightfall, walk along the beach, meeting up with other khoti, or meeting clients. IWCO has a support system for this, but they also do some HIV/AIDS prevention work with them- so the man (woman by night) we heard speak, set up an outlet (yellow box with information and condoms) so that people could access it.
She was part of a jamad (equivalent of 'honorary' family). The jamad supports each other and is comprised of several other khoti people. We met with some and were able to talk with them/ask questions- actually, they expected it! So, through this, we learned more about how they "came into it", and some struggles they've had. Anu translated for us.

At 9:00pm, we finally got to the restaurant, a Punjabi place (northern Indian). However, we were all so sick from the trip, and exhausted from the long day, that we just had a mild, not really spicy meal. I had tomato soup. :)

7/2/2012 Monday

Today was much different from yesterday... We had man meetings scheduled and got to walk around a full, busy campus!

First, right in the morning, we were able to meet the president of MCC.  Then, we met with the Dean of Students, making our students ID's! Also, ran into some of the faculty on the way through the buildings, and Anu would introduce us.

Next, we were supposed to figure out our class schedules. Laura Lou was first up, in the Political Science department. Hers worked our very nicely, and we were out quickly, in Indian terms...

Now, the Social Work department was a different story. All of us went in and got to get a general idea of classes, and also an idea of the field placement sites we'd get to choose to work at for the rest of the semester. I still haven't chosen. Don't worry, by tomorrow I will- I'm required to.

The reason this meeting lasted from 2:00 until 4:30 or so, is because we all got to talking, about Indian society and culture. Boy, did we get an education! I absolutely loved it, but the other girls were quite skeptical, even after coming out and discussing again later in the room. I think they'll begin to understand, once they've had a chance to mingle about the city... I know I already feel it sometimes.

Gender roles are quite different here from the US. It doesn't help that we are all pale white, too. Men and women stare, children stare, they all do. And really, they can't help it. But after awhile, it does just get tiring. It's certainly getting me to think about my actions, whether here or back home.

I'm not sad, though, about coming. Many experiences have been fun- shopping, hanging out with Anu, riding in all of the new transportation, even trying the food. It's just been quite overwhelming, everything exposed all at once. But, with each day, it's becoming more familiar!

Tomorrow, time to check out some field placement sites!

7/1/2012 Sunday

Up at 4:45am, 5:00, yay!! And we did go to bed at 8:15pm; Anu said we did very good!

It was much cooler today because it rained hard last night (maybe that's why we slept well? Or, maybe we were just worn out...)

Anu met us at 9:45am and we got a short introduction to India and things to expect or know before getting too ahead of ourselves. We started immigration papers, and gathered our things up to go on our first trip actually into the city: SHOPPING! (Upcoming post, Shopping Adventure- because it's an adventure in itself!) Anu took us to the oldest mall in Chennai, and possibly the oldest mall in all of India!

We needed kurtas (long shirts) and I needed a bag. Believe it or not, I was the first to purchase an item! It helps a lot to have the same size/ stature as other Indian women.

For lunch, we tried something new- Indian-Chinese cuisine.

The second kurta I bought took some charming. :) I think I caught this one boy's attention and he directed us to look into a certain store. There, someone else helped me find the blue one- but it was too expensive (Anu was advising all of us), about 400 rupee or so. The man lowered it and said he would "only" bring it to 350 rupee, but again, I wouldn't pay that price. So, we turned to leave, but the man knew I wanted it and was willing to pay something for it. So, he caught my attention and asked if I would name my own price. I looked right at Anu, away from him, decided on 250 rupee, and he thought a little bit, and took it! I was now the proud owner of a second kurta! Yay, I bartered! According to Anu later, bartering is common, and prices are intentionally set high. That way, if people don't barter, they make a lot of money, and if they do, they still make some, but the customer also benefits.

Finally, after 6- yes, SIX hours...- in the mall, we were done. Everyone found at least two kurtas and a bag.

Now that we were shopped out, we spent the next hour getting back through town. On the way back, Anu really craved ice cream or a chocolate milkshake, either one. However on the way, we saw many welcoming crowds lining the streets because the opposition's party leader or some important person from their group was going to be passing that way.

Finally, we found a sweet spot. We got in, made it upstairs to the air conditioned part, and sat down comfortably, ready to eat milkshakes. Anu and Laura Lou had already ordered theirs chocolate, and after some debate, Becca and I decided chocolate too. Minutes later, the mugs came.