Sari you're not here. Mumblings from Mumbai

Bangalore Airport – there really are too many people in India

2012-02-06T07:08:00.000-08:00

Our overnight train from Hampi to Bangalore arrived at 6:30am. I knew when booking our plane tickets to Fort Cochi, we’d have only a little time to get from the train station to the airport. We haggled and got a taxi for a reasonable price to the airport. There was some tension with the worry that we would miss our flight. Our taxi zoomed through Bangalore and then came to a stop next to another taxi. We were informed that we were to switch taxis. The two drivers bantered back and forth, the second driver not happy with the price. I got in the middle of them and said, “stop arguing, we have a place to catch!” They looked at me funny and I rounded our driver into his seat. At that point we went from zooming through Bangalore to being, literally, THE slowest moving thing on the road. I think I saw some children and chickens running past us. When reminding the driver about our need to get to the airport quickly, he responded, “no problem, there is fog, your flight will be delayed.” We were all like, “Riiiiggghht. Speed up!” Of course, as we got near the airport, the fog grew very thick, maybe about 30 feet viability.

At the airport, our flight was not listed. We were worried that we had missed our flight…and in the back of my head I wondered if the flight had been cancelled. I asked around and we were just told to wait in line. (A very long line). When we made it to the counter, our flight had been cancelled and we had two hours of waiting time until the next flight. We all laughed at this and were relieved we would have time for some breakfast. The Bangalore airport is brand new and gleaming…but, when all morning flights are delayed due to fog, it can’t handle extra plane loads of people. After my mom and I waited in a ridiculously long and slow line at security, we then we headed to the jammed packed food court (Greg was on table duty, while the rest of us stood in the long, winding line being bumped by people trying to walk through). After getting our meals, I waited for about 15 minutes for our mango lassis. When my mom arrived to release me from my duty to go and eat, the lassis still had not come. I slithered through the crowd to our table, looked down and saw that Greg had eaten my breakfast and left his for me. I almost through myself on the ground and kicked and screamed like a two year old. I didn’t say anything besides, "I need to go for a walk," and left. My walk, of course, was more like a shuffle as I wiggled through the crowd, found a bathroom, recollected myself, and pushed my way back to the table. I ate what I could of the breakfast while not making eye contact with anyone of my travel partners. Needless to say, after putting food into my body, I could suddenly deal with life much better.

We ended up finding four seats to wait the next hour and a half until our rescheduled flight boarded. I tried not to think about the five hour car ride ahead of us once we reached Fort Kochi…

Hampi – Land of Granite Rock Piles and ancient ruins

2012-02-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

After a grueling semester at school for Greg, finishing up with my clients, and my mom and Bill returned from their jaunt to Arangabad, we boarded a plane on December 18^th to Bangalore. Greg and I have done all of our trips in India up north, so we decided to head south. The first stop was Hampi. Greg and I first learned about Hampi from a climbing movie called “Pilgrimage” with Chris Sharma, Nate Gold, and Katie Brown. We’ve heard about it since then from others who have visited, seen a few pictures and it was on my list of places to go before we leave India. (In case you haven’t heard, Greg and I will be leaving India in June. We aren’t sure yet where will land, but we are deep in the process of job searching). Pictures we had seen showed marvelous granite piles of rock dominating the landscape, with temple ruins resting below. I couldn’t wait!

After we reached Bangalore, we hired a taxi and decided to catch a bite to eat before going to the train station. We had about four hours to kill and two of those hours were spent in Bangalore traffic, which was pretty bad and rivals Mumbai’s. The Lonely Planet Guidebook lead us to a hip. westernized shopping area that was jammed packed. We found the little hole in the wall restaurant and were happy with the tasty food it provided, which we wolfed down in a frenzy. Then, we had the task of finding rickshaws to get us to the train station. I was feeling a little doubtful because of all the traffic and lack of public transportation on the roads. As we headed to the main street, a couple of rickshaws pulled up and we started to haggle prices when a policeman came up and told up there was a fixed price rickshaw stand 100 feet away. Greg and I couldn’t believe it! Another place in India, besides Mumbai, where you didn’t have to haggle for every rickshaw ride! Sweet! As we drove to the train station, I admired the streets’ layouts, noticed less honking, and a generally calmer atmosphere…maybe Bangalore isn’t too bad.

We arrived at the train station in plenty of time to find our platform, find our assigned train car and settle into our cabin. We were all tired and ready to sleep. But, we had to wait for our bedding to arrive. When the train started going, a little Indian man arrived with the rest of our bedding and was thoroughly disgusted with Greg and my attempt to make up one of the bunks. He brushed us aside and told us to sit. He quickly tucked and folded the sheets to a neat, welcoming bed. He made up the bottom bunk and then shoved us to the other side, quickly making up the other beds. We gave him a little tip and then fell into a rocking slumber. 8 hours later, we woke up in Hospet, the closet train station to Hampi. Overnight trains are great that way. You get travel and sleep at the same time and then have the day to tour about. Our rickshaw ride to Hampi was beautiful. We sped past fields surrounding rock out-croppings, small huts and temples, and colorful locals tending the sugar cane fields. After about 30 minutes, we made a left turn, paid an entry fee into Hampi, and descended into town. It was a spectacular sight and a climber’s dream. I felt like running up and hugging the granite rock piles. They stretched out as far as the eye could see.

We stayed at Padma Guest House, which was clean, friendly and had a great view of the Virupaksha Temple, which is sought after by many more pilgrams than tourists. There are daily broadcasts from the temple each day to greater India so that worshipers can witness and participate in the comfort of their own homes. We spent two days touring around Hampi in two rickshaws with Johnson and his buddy, who gave us bits of info about the different sites we saw. I was truly impressed by the sheer size and grandness of this former empire. I had no idea that the Vijayanagara Empire lasted for so long, had such a presence in Southern India and its technologies rivaled the Roman Empire! Everywhere one looks one sees another former temple nestled high between the granite rocks. We rested our weary feet and filled our bellies for most of our meals at Mango Tree, one of the only restaurants in town and one of favorites in India. All of the low tables face the lazy river, under the shade of gently rustled trees and the food and service are wonderful.

Our third day, we crossed the river and relocated to Anegundi for one night. We had a bit of a miscommunication and ended up staying is very nice cottages. The grounds were beautiful with chicken, guinea fowl, and ducks wandering around. We explored the small village, took some walks to visit nearby temples and hiked up to the monkey temple that evening to see the sun set. Our final day, we made our way back to the river, had our last meal at Mango Tree and then caught the overnight train back to Bangalore. We were all happy with our time in Hampi. Greg and I decided we could have stayed longer to explore more and even try out some of the famous bouldering routes. (We did put our shoes on a couple of times to scramble around, though we had to be careful of the toilet spots chosen by villagers all around the rocks. It is India after all!

Rock Climbing Mumbai

2011-11-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

One year and four months of settling into life in Mumbai and we FINALLY got our act together to go climbing. It took some momentum building to make the moment come together. In May, I got the contact info for a local who knows some info about the climbing scene. That he "knows" it is an understatement. Abhijit, aka, Bong, is the reason there is any climbing community in Mumbai. When we stepped into his modest home, we were greeted with half of the room covered in climbing holds and gear piled up everywhere. His place is THE meeting spot and the climbing is a short walk away. There's an article about him in Climbing Magazine (http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/above/climbing_in_belapur_near_mumbai_india/). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Having obtained this pertinent piece of info to get connected with the local climbing scene, the school year ended, blazing heat broke with the

monsoon season and we left on our summer travels. When we got back to Mumbai, I would periodically come across Abhijit's contact information, reminding myself to contact him once the monsoon season ended. Maybe by putting this out into the universe helped again with motivation because I was then introduced to Chris, an Australian, whose children go to the American School. Chris is a kindred soul with his love of the outdoors and adventure. He was also wanting to get dialed into the local rock climbing scene and had been told about "Bong." That's when I made the plunge and contacted him. When I heard back from him, Abhijit was friendly and welcoming. He invited us to his house to meet up with other climbers and then go climbing nearby.

The climbing is in a suburb of Navi Mumbai called Belapur, across the bay from Mumbai and a bit of a haul to get out there. Luckily, Chris has a car and driver, so he graciously offered to drive, making it much easier t

o reach our destination. Belapur is a wonderful, peaceful place nestled up against some green, rolling hills. The neighborhoods are small bungalows, crowded together and reached by narrow foot paths. It wa

s calm and cozy. Beautiful and allows one to forget they are in Mumbai.

The climbing area has many boulders and then a handful of bolted routes. We brought most of our gear since we didn't know what to expect. In the end, we only needed our shoes and chalk bags because the bolted routes are still being cleaned from the monsoon season. There were about seven other climbers who were welcoming, relaxed and we felt free to hang with them or try out other boulders. The highlight of the morning was when I slipped in to try a traverse and placed a hang jam. One of the locals was so excited to see this and wanted to try it. (There isn't much crack

climbing around, so all the locals are strong crimpers....I am far from that, so I used what I do best). Chris came over and tried to start from the bottom of the crack system. Again, excitement. One of the wise and older climbers stated, "you've just put up a new route. We didn't even think of that." It was so much fun to exchange beta and learn from each other. After a few hours we were spent, having lost a couple of layers of skin from our soft hands, and our bodies not use to climbing. It was wonderful!! I hope to be out there most weekends until the heat comes again... Yeehaw!

Jullay from Ladakh

2011-10-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

Diwali was this past week and with it the end of the festival season in India, as well as a week off for Greg. We finally made it to Ladakh, India’s most northern state, located in the rugged Himalayas. Our time there marked the end of the tourist season, so we were greeted with calm and quiet as there were not many tourists and many of the guesthouses, shops and restaurants were already shut down.

In order to get to Leh, there are two routes, by air or road. The road route can take about four days from Dehli, so we flew, starting from sea level and landing at 11,500 feet. Luckily, Greg and I did fine acclimatizing. Only some small headaches that didn’t last long and huffing and puffing up the steep stuff. We spent the first two days in Leh, exploring the town, walking up to the two palaces, over to Shanti Stupa and around the main bazaar. There are many narrow walk ways, lined with irrigation canals that were covered with bright yellow leaves in many areas that crunched under our feet. Both of us were so thankful to experience late fall weather since we missed it last year. The walk ways were also for human, dogs, and cows only, so it made for a peaceful way to get around.

Day three we decided to test our lungs and headed to Hemis, a monastery about an hour and a half drive from Leh. Hemis was located in a tucked-away valley, so we winded up through grasslands and farmlands until the monastery appeared around a corner. After exploring, we found a path that headed into the mountains, which was well maintained. Again, the fall colors along the valley were breathtaking, with huge, rugged peaks in the background. The pathway headed up a steep mountainside to another monastery built around a cave, Gotsang Cave, where a Buddhist monk first came to the area to meditate. When we arrived, we were greeted by a monk who spoke fairly good English. After sitting in the cave for a bit (amazing energy inside), we were invited for tea to warm up. We enjoyed chatting with the young monk and learning a little about his life. We decided to keep climbing up since we were both feeling okay, and hiked another hour until we reached the top of a pass. We were greeted by three Bharal or blue sheep. They scooted to the side, but didn’t seem too disturbed by our presence. The views of Leh and the surrounding valleys were spectacular. We found out later that we were up at about 13,500 feet. It was also very cold and windy, so we had a quick snack and then headed down. The monk had invited us to his room for more tea and some snacks, which we welcomed for warmth and energy before heading back to the monastery. The building where the monks lived, was also built around caves and very cozy. When we reached back to Leh in the late afternoon, we warmed our bodies with yummy Thukpa, a Tibetan noodle soup. Our diet for most of the trip revolved around Thukpa , Momos and Tibetan Herbal Tea. Both very comforting food.

The fourth day, we headed to another monastery, Likir, that housed a 30-plus foot Buddha statue as well as a school for young monks. We had a nice cup of tea and conversation with one of the teachers. They heated the water with a solar-powered stove, very cool. We then headed to the trail-head of a two day trek along the valley and we hiked for a couple of hours. This trail reminded us of Western Colorado and Utah, with the sandstone rock formations and arid climate. We started with a steep downhill and then rolled along until we hit a small village, then turned around and, surprisingly, despite the uphill, made it back the same time it took to hike out. Maybe getting acclimated…?

Day five, we headed out on a river valley at the start of the Stok Kangal trek, a four day trek to the top of the highest peak near Leh at 20,082 feet. We didn’t get far enough to glimpse the mountain from our hike, but had a great view of it each day from the guesthouse. We were lucky enough to see another heard of Bharal and a lone Urial, with amazing horns. The latter was quite skittish and ran expertly up the mountainside to get away from us. The rock formations back in the valley were amazing. Rows and rows of sharp fins, rising high. In two areas, there were remains of brick buildings that were built, balancing precariously on the top of these fins. We hiked about six hours out and back and both of us were pretty tired and ready for a rest. It’s amazing the energy it takes out of you at that altitude. Answer…nope, not quite acclimated, but getting there.

Our final day, we couldn’t resist the drive to the top of the highest (actually second highest) motorable road in the world at 18.380 feet. The drive was up a long, windy, mostly dirt road that is constantly being worked on to keep drivable. Greg did well and did not get carsick, though we had to ask our driver to slow down several times as he liked to take the corners fast. At the top, we did the requisite photo-op and then hiked the short staircase to the small monastery, having to pause to catch our breath several times. It was a great view of both sides, the snow capped mountains dominating. It was also very cold, so after a quick cup of tea, we jumped back in the car and headed down. We’ve now been over 18,000 feet! (by car J).

We walked back up to the Shanti Stuppa in Leh to watch the sunset and to mark the end of a great week. We are both so grateful for getting to have such a great week in an amazing place and hope to get one more chance to do some multi-day treks before our time ends in this part of the world. Jullay! (hello, goodbye, thank you in Ladakhi).

Kaas Plateau

2011-10-09T22:59:00.001-07:00

Over the three day weekend for Gandhi’s birthday, a friend and I headed to the Kaas Plateau in southern Maharatra in the Satara District. Our significant others were going to join, but one had too much work and the other was not feeling well. Luckily, we were both encouraged to still go.

The Kaas Plateau is not found in any of the typical guidebooks. It is a local Indian tourist spot during the monsoon, as the plateau becomes a canvas of changing colors with the rains growing a large variety of wildflowers from August-early October. When we were told about this beautiful sight at a meditation retreat in July, I couldn’t wait for this three day weekend.

We took an overnight “ish” train to Satara, arriving at 2am. We had hired Rajesh to meet us and take us to our hotel. It all worked out without a hitch. I think we were some of the first foreigners to stay at our three star hotel and we were the only “whitees” in the area for the weekend. Our first day, after a decent southern Indian breakfast of idlis and sheera, we jumped in the hired car and enjoyed the hour and a half ride up, up, up the steep hillside towards the plateau. It was green and lush around us as we breathed in the fresh air. The driver reported that “1 lakh” people visited the plateau last weekend. Wow! When we reached the plateau, we were not allowed to stop. The government had set up a bus system to transfer people from a parking area to the plateau. Amazing!! They were actually trying to conserve the area. I was very pleased about this. Our driver did his best to explain that we foreigners should be accommodated with the car, but they would not budge.

We spent awhile exploring around Kaas Lake, just below the plateau and there was evidence of the previous crowds from the trash laying around. Despite that, we didn’t have to wander far to get away from the trash and start seeing evidence of the flowers we would be seeing on the plateau. The lake was peaceful and we had our first snack while gazing at a patch of lily pads.

When we got to the plateau, looking out, one could see swaths of white and pink. Upon closer inspection, there were many varieties of flowers in white, pink, purple, yellow and blue. There were many large cameras with huge lens being toted around by others. I had my small point and shoot, which worked just fine at capturing the beauty. We spent several hours wandering around, having lunch and walking back to the parking lot. We opted out of having the bus drive us back. That evening at the hotel, we had an amazing Guajarati Thali for 110Rs and watched Dandia dancing for Navatri.

After a lazy morning, we set out the next afternoon for some nearby temples. The temples were of the Shiva variety, with one being filled with lingums. The hike up the ridge and exploration took about an hour. At the top of the ridge, we were rewarded with spectacular views of the valley below us. We started to hear what sounded like rain falling, but could not see rain anywhere. I guessed there might be a waterfall close by. Ha, I was very wrong. Just as we started back down, there was a light sprinkle. Then it became a light rain, so we pulled out rain jackets. Finally, it was a steady rain. By the time we reached the car, we were both soaked. But, by the time we reached the Kaas Plateau for some evening photos, we were both dry, except for our shoes. We found a beautiful meadow to explore as fine clouds settled in over the plateau. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the sun set from that vantage point, as was our goal. But, on the drive back down, the billowing clouds were a spectacular show as the sun faded away. After another fantastic thali dinner, we headed to the train station to return back to Mumbai.

For fresh air, getting outside, and wildflower viewing, it was a great trip. To find out more about the Kaas plateau, just plug the name into google and the sites available are endless. It’s a fun adventure to get off the Lonely Planet’s beaten path.

Chowpatty Beach - Ganesha Immersion 2011

2011-09-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the final days of Ganesh Chaturi, an eleven day festival celebration the Hindu God, Ganesha. Saturday morning, Greg and I got up early and took the train down to South Mumbai to get a tour of some of the larger Ganesh statues. We saw big ones and small ones, eco-friendly and plaster made, the cricket World Cup Ganesh, a Ganesh made out of over 80,000 buttones, a Ganesh made of plastic pearls, Ganesh with other Hindu gods and godesses, Ganesh in a forest...so many!

Then, Sunday afternoon, we jumped back

on the train with my friend, Claudia and her husband, and headed to Chowpatty Beach, where the largest immersion is held. It starts early afternoon, gaining momentum and one of the final immersions happens the next morning with the largest Ganesh statue. Chowpatty is known to be super crowded and have the largest Ganeshas in the city. We timed it right because after spending time on the beach, we started walking back against the crowds and saw four of the Ganeshas we saw the previous day being processed to the beach.

Enjoy the pictures. I've created a movie of the immersion photos which also includes some video clips. (Next post). Plus, the photo of me at the end with pink powder all over...this is the picture to go with my Facebook post. In the pictures you will see crowds, Ganeshas being carried into the water, floats used to carry the statues out as far as possible, puja (praying and chanting), and people just enjoying themselves. Remember, the water is very polluted and we scrubbed our feet thoroughly when we reached home and the thousands of plaster or paris statues only add to this nastiness. There is a campaign to encourage returning to using clay statues and eco-friendly paints. Some families now do a ceremonial immersion in a bucket at home and then keep the Ganesh for the next year. FOR PHOTO COLLAGE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubC4oxnHHNs.

Delicious recipes

2011-09-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

It's been raining and raining and raining here the past week and a half. I've been trying to keep my head above the clouds by staying social. I've been spending some more time with Pallavi, who I was introduced to last year when I wanted to have some kurtas made. She does a wonderful job with color and patterns and I have a hard time not buying new kurtas when I'm around her. Jenn, my upstairs neighbor and the person who introduced me to Pallavi, and I loved the idea of learning how to cook some tasty Indian dishes when Pallavi suggested it. So, yesterday, we gathered in Jenn's kitchen and started chopping and mixing. Originally, we were all going to the market to buy ingredients, but due to the soggy nature of outside, Pallavi suggested we pool our refrigerator and cupboard resources and make dishes from what we have. Our end products were delicious. In a little over an hour, we had created four dishes with Pallavi only buying some cabbage and corriander leaves. Greg and two other friends, Reid and Rachel, joined us for our feast.

Here are the recipes:

MIXED DAL

Ingredients:

- Moong dal (small yellow)

- Ural dal (white)

- Toor dal (larger yellow)

- Masoor da (orange)

- Ghee

- 1 bay leaf

- Few peppercorns

- Few cloves

- Three small pieces of cinnamon stick

- Tsp cumin seeds

- ¾ c- 1c finley chopped onions

- 1 inch ginger ground into a paste or grate

- 1 tsp turmeric powder

- 1tsp Dhansak Masala

- Pinch of aseophida

- Two tomatoes chopped small

- Three cups of water plus 1 TBS

- Two pinches of salt

1) Combine all the dals with equal mixture of all except Ural dal, use 1-2 TBS, soak for a few minutes.

2) Heat a TBS of Ghee in a pressure cooker.

3) Combine the bay leaf, pepper corn, cloves, cinnamon, and cumin seeds together and add to ghee. Heat until the cumin seeds sputter and don’t let them turn black.

4) Add onions and cook until soft.

5) Add Ginger, let cook briefly and then add turmeric, Dhansak Masala, and aseophida, stir together.

6) Add tomatoes and 1 TBS of water. Cook for several minutes until there is a shine on the tomatoes from the oil. Mash.

7) Add two pinches of salt, stir.

8) Add the dal mix and twice as much water as dal. Ex: 1 and a half cups of dal and three cups of water. Cover and cook.

9) After five whistles, turn the heat down slightly and let cook for another 10 minutes. Turn up heat until there is another whistle. Turn off heat and let cool. Serve with coriander leaves as garnish and limes.

PULAO RICE

Ingredients: (Serves 10)

- 3 cups of rice and six cups of water

- 3 cups of mixed vegetables

- 2 TBS Ghee

- 3 bay leaves

- Several pieces of cinnamon stick

- Few cloves

- Few peppercorns

- 1 Tbs cumin seeds

- 1 cup onion, finely chopped

- Ginger and garlic paste, 1 TBS

- Salt to taste

1) Soak rice for several minutes and drain.

2) Heat Ghee in a large pot.

3) Add bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorn, cumin seeds and onion. Stir and let cook until cumin sputters.

4) Add Vegetables, ginger and garlic, salt and cook for several minutes.

5) Add rice, stir and cook for 1-2 minutes.

6) Add water, stir and cover.

7) stir occasionally as vegetables rise to top.

8) When rice is half way cooked, add coriander.

9) When water is gone, rice is cooked. Serve.

CABBAGE

Ingredients:

- 1-2 cabbages chopped

- 2 green chilis slit length wise

- Oil

- Curry leaves

- 1 TBS mustard seed

- 1 TBS cumin seed

- Pinch of aseophida

1) Heat oil in a pan. Oil needs to be very hot.

2) Add mustard seed and cook until mustard seed sputters.

3) Add cumin seed, stir

4) Add aseophida powder, chilis, curry leaves, and cabbage. Stir it all together.

5) Add a pinch of turmeric and TBS of salt, Stir.

6) Cook , stirring often, until cabbage reduces 1/3 to a half. 10-15 minutes.

7) Serve with coriander as a garnish.

BRIJAL COCONUT CURRY

Ingredients:

- 8 small brinjals or round eggplants, cut in quarters, but still attached to stem.

- Oil

- 1 cup onions

- 2-3 potatoes chopped

- 2 tomatoes

- Coriander leaves

- Salt

- Coconut powder mixed with water (about 2 cups)

- 1 tsp Chili powder, 1 TBS coriander powder, pinch of turmeric powder

1) Heat oil in a pan

2) Add onions and sauté

3)Add brinjal and potatoes, stirp and cover to cook. 10 min

4) Add tomatoes, coriander leaves and salt to taste, stir and continue to cook until veggies are soft.

5) Add coconut water and stir.

6) Add chili powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder. Stir.

7 Serve.

Vipassana Meditation - the experience through Twy's eyes

2011-08-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

We had tentatively planned to head north to Ladakh and the Himalayas after the US, but we realized a SCUBA trip to Malaysia and then a trip to the US was enough money to spend in one summer. So, in Tim and Jill's kitchen we began to research and to think about alternative plans. Neither of us wanted to spend two weeks in rainy Mumbai. I looked at some yoga retreats, which Greg was only luke warm on. He had his mind set on meditation. He came across Vipassana meditation, which I had done nine years earlier when I traveled to Northern India. There are several centers in Maharastra, but they were all full except a center in the south eastern part of the state. We both put in an application and were accepted. My brain, "what am I doing?! I already went through that torture once. Yea, it was a great experience, but twice!" I made train reservations and we were all set before we left the US.

When we arrived in Mumbai we had four days to recuperate from jet lag and I had developed a cold. For those of you who don't know, I've been struggling with allergies and colds consistently since January. The sickness was a reminder of what I was returning to...and I had yet to see a doctor for any of it due to my denial that it would last this long. So, on the day we were suppose to board an overnight train, I was having breathing issues and finally decided to see a doctor. I went to a respiratory specialist ($12), got some meds and a blessing to go on the meditation course. It was at this point that I finally committed to going. My brain: "Alright, I'm doing this. I know I can do it and it will be a growing experience. Plus, I want to see how Greg does."

Luckily, the first class compartments had been available when I booked, so we got a door and shared with one other person. He was a businessman in textiles and the area we were headed was known for textiles. Still dealing with jet lag, a cold, and Greg had hurt his back earlier in the day at the gym, we headed to bed pretty early. At 6:30am, we got off at a rural train station at Hatkangale. We had most of the day ahead of us. Our first task was finding breakfast. We negotiated a little with a rickshaw driver to take us to a restaurant (luckily one was open that early) and then onto the meditation center. The ride there was 6km through lots of farmland. It was quite beautiful and peaceful. Registration wasn't until 3pm and it was now close to 8am. No one was at the office, so we ditched our packs and walked over to the huge Jain temple next door. That kept us busy until 9am, when we wandered back and thankfully someone came up to help us. We were given some breakfast and keys to rooms. Pretty much we just relaxed most of the day, met another person who wandered in early, also from Mumbai, and watched people slowly appear in the afternoon. I was wondering if I would be one of the only women, but there ended up being over 30 of us, with one leaving after day two. 70 men started and 65 completed the course. At 5:00pm, we had dinner, a discourse about the next day and at 8pm we were in Noble Silence. The course had begun.

So what the heck is this Vipassana meditation??! The technique was discovered by Buddha, who found his way to enlightenment through this meditation technique. He taught it to five of his friends and then suddenly, everyone wanted to learn. When Buddha started off, his teachings were this technique and encouragement to continue the practice. It was not about a certain dogma or worshiping him. Those things really flourished after he died and his teachings were changed into a religion. This technique expanded in India for 500 years and then faded. Luckily, monks had traveled to other countries and it was practiced in its pure form in Burma for 2500 years. Then S.N. Goenka came to India to teach the technique to his sick mother and others wanted to learn...he did not leave India and Vipassana centers are now located all over the world. That's the history in a nutshell.

The technique is observing sensations in your body and remaining "equanimous" to all sensations. Basically not being attached to positive sensations or attaching hate to negative sensations. Just acknowledging them for what they are and moving on. So simple, yet it takes much practice, young grasshopper. There is this thing called "The Mind," that is like a gerbil in its wheel. It keeps going and going and going, distracting and getting you no where. So practice has a lot with training this wild beast.

The course itself is a great test in determination and discipline. Ten days, no talking, the sexes are separated for everything, no reading or writing or cell phones or internet, two meals and an evening snack, and meditating for ten hours a day. That's sitting for ten hours a day for ten days. It's sooooooo painful at first. Quote from Greg,"I just kept thinking, all these Indians who sit and crouch all the time are struggling, so its got to be hard!" The first three days we learned Anapana, which is observing the natural breath and the sensations between the nose and upper lip. Then, day four, you learn Vipassana and it is announced that three times a day you are to sit for one hour without moving anything. Goenka had a great way of putting this: "First you are thinking this is so wonderful, feels so good. Then 20 minutes you are thinking there is pain, I can deal with this. Then at 30-40 minutes you are thinking there is just too much pain, I can't sit here any longer. One minute feels like an hour. Surely the teacher has lost track of time. Then the chanting starts and you are relieved but you still have five more minutes." I think I made it to one hour about one third of the time. I rolled a few cushions, sat with my legs folded under me and the cushions between my calves and butt. To get out of this position I had to peel out the cushions from under me, flop to one side, slowly get on my butt, and then it took several minutes to get my right ankle to flex. Finally I would manually straighten my legs and shake them out. But I was proud of myself for having the determination to stick it out and then I'd try it again later on in the day. And, yes, by the end I felt pretty happy. Just happy and giggly.

This being my second course, I knew what to expect with the logistics. I did not worry about the lack of food as I had the first time, my mind went on shorter jaunts this time, and I had felt more unpleasant sensations this time around. The environment was much more pleasant this time. We were nestled up against a large hill in a lush, green landscape. There were many flowers and loads of birds. I tried counting the different bird calls, but I lost track. The one that made me laugh the most were the peacocks. They were everywhere along the hillside and loud. Day three I thought of calling this blog, "Distractions of the peacock, a meditation experience." I was the only female to maintain Noble Silence, which was annoying at times (good practice for non-attachment to emotions) and also weird. I'm not sure what was up, but I stayed away from it.

On day ten, both Greg and I had Indians, curious, descend upon us, asking many questions. The women dressed me up, Mahrastrian style, in a sari. then I was paraded around, shown off to Greg and made to pose for many pictures. It was fun. The course officially ended the following morning. Greg and I went for a walk up the hill to the top where there were many Jain statues all over in different building stages. We wandered down the hill on a road and ran into a Shiva temple. We didn't go inside because we were so muddy from our hike. Instead we headed back to the meditation center and helped clean rooms. We decided to walk the 6km to the train station since we had time. Half of it was along many fields and villages. Once we got to the main road, it was busy and we tried to get off it as quick as possible. After an hour wait, our train appeared and to our astonishment, the same man we shared the compartment with last time was sitting there with another business man. The three of us laughed at this. We talked and shared food. At least food was shared with us, which was wonderful and another example of Indian compassion and caring.

I've meditated for an hour every day except for two days since returning to Mumbai and just notice I'm slightly more calm, don't always react to situations unless it's with a rickshaw driver. (Don't ask me why). At least I can recognize those situations a think of another perspective. So, I will continue along with practicing yoga since they go right along with each other. My future will, hopefully, involve a teacher training course with my teacher, Prasad. I'm enjoying this path...

Iowa, Colorado and Boston

2011-08-05T03:10:00.000-07:00

We were able to see some family and friends in Iowa, Colorado, and Massachusetts during our three week, stateside visit. In Iowa, outside the wedding, we spent time with Greg's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Tibboel, the Schulers, Aunt Donna, and Mr. D. We stayed with Tim and Jill in Denver, always a wonderful place to be. Friends we saw on the front range were Jenny, Ryan, and little Zoey, Juan, Ken, Dine and Nate (Iowa and Boulder, we were lucky), and Lizzy (thanks for coming down from Fort Fun). We were fortunate to have a chance to see Susan and Collin twice, once in Denver and once on the way to Marble. The stars were aligned and we were able to stay with Rory and her parents in Westcliff and get in a little hiking.

Our time in Marble was spectacular, as usual. I think this is our favorite place in Colorado. Beautiful scenery and great company! There was still quite a lot of snow, so our plans to hike up Treasure Mountain at just under 14,000 feet were not realized. We did get in a hike up to Avalanche Pass (12,000 ft) with Ann, Krissy, and Tikka. We saw a huge herd of Elk make its way up and over the mountains, plus saw the backside of Mt. Daly, which we skied two winters ago. We also hiked to an amazing waterfall and Mount Marble when Amy joined us. Amy was a trouper and had her first experience with glissading. A little bit of the Himalayas made it to Marble with vertical prayer flags that Ann, Mike and I put up. We even had true American culture with ATVs and playing around on Pete's dirt bike. (Krissy loved this soooo much she know has her own). It was wonderful. The two sad pieces to our trip were missing Beatle and Sweet Buns being sick (and being put down the day we left). Both are such big parts of our thoughts and memories and will be in our hearts.

Boston!! Jake!! Need I say more. We had a lot of fun with our nephew, Jake. He's growing so fast, learning new things all the time, and just so darn cute. He really got into growling while we were there, to which we laughed at to no end, all the more encouraging him. We extended our stay and went to Cape Cod to spend more time with Jake, Grady and Laurie, and met Laurie's family. Jake has three older female cousins, who we had lots of fun with. One of the highlights was getting to be with Jake in his first pond experience. He LOVED it. But who wouldn't love to be in their b-day suit, enjoying warm water and having everyone oogle over you? It was also wonderful to watch Grady and Laurie be mom and dad...whew! We left the Cape via ferry. It was the most choppy boat ride I've ever been on. Quite a few sick people.

Here are a few pictures:

Lauren and Dennis got married

2011-07-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

In April, Greg and I made the decision to make a three week trip to the US so that I could try to obtain a business visa. Other employment opportunities were not happening and being able to set up a private practice seemed to be the best option for me to bring home some bacon while in Mumbai. Once we made that decision, I told Greg that I wanted to make it during Lauren and Dennis’s wedding in Des Moines, IA. We would be flying into Des Moines anyway since Greg’s car was parked at his parent’s house, so I figured it was meant to be. In this day and age, Facebook is both wonderful and a curse. I found Lauren’s mom’s page and sent her an email. A week later, after not hearing from her, I emailed Lauren’s brother, Adam, and he was on it. (I found out later Lauren had set up her mom’s page for her and she really never uses it). The second item on my list was the hotel rooms. Now, maybe I over thought this, but I wanted my bases covered. I was worried if Greg and I made a reservation at the Marriott, where the reception was to be held, Lauren would somehow see that reservation. Plus, it’s more fun to share rooms during these occasions. I thought of Nadine and Nate, but I was worried about telling Nadine. It would be a heavy burden to bear and I knew she would be in contact with Lauren a lot, so back on Facebook, I emailed Nate. He was onboard with the plan. Later we found out he had to remain strong when faced with a questioning Nadine as to why he needed to make the hotel reservation for her friend’s wedding and why they couldn’t share a room with others. He faced her down and the plan was successful.

The curse of Facebook is the Wall. It’s very hard to coordinate showing up at a wedding unannounced and plan other parts of our stateside trip without having people make wall posts. All in confidence were strictly advised no Facebook wall communication. Before we left for Malaysia, Lauren and Dennis were blocked from viewing “friend” posts since Greg’s brother slipped and wrote he couldn’t wait to see us. Plus, Lauren became increasingly interrogating with our last few contacts. “Tell me EXACTALY what you are doing this summer. I want the details.”

We arrived in Iowa at 8:30pm on the 18^th of June. The rehearsal dinner was the following evening. We made it through the morning, but had to take a nap in the afternoon to combat jet lag. Getting a little lost on our way to the winery, we got back on track. Just as we were pulling in I was worried the Cavalier would be recognized, so I had Greg park behind a white van. We got out of the car and my heart was beating and I wondered if Lauren had figured it out. We walked up the walk way to the entrance where people were milling about. I saw Nadine and Julia look at us in a weird way and Nate smiled. Julia let out a scream and she, Nadine, and Corrine came running up to us. They were in disbelief and totally surprised. All the sudden I noticed Lauren standing next to us with her mouth open. “What are you doing here?!” I gave her a hug but she remained stunned. We all agreed she finally left her state of shock by the time food was served and she came over to talk with us. Our mission of surprise was a complete success!! MANY thanks to Judy, Adam, and Nate.

The wedding as the next day, on Father’s day. We pulled through the jet lag, which was becoming painful at times. The ceremony was very nice and the Rabbi’s explanation and humor were wonderful. It was a lot of fun to see and catch up with friends and dance the evening away. Lauren looked stunning and Dennis had a grin on his face most of the night. I’m grateful we were able to attend and support the two of them. Some of Lauren’s parting words, “I don’t know how I’m ever going to top this one.” I told her, “I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Malaysia

2011-07-18T08:46:00.001-07:00

Our first excursion outside India in ten months was to Malaysia. Malaysia had never really been on my radar until we started asking other divers where they recommended going SCUBA diving in Southeast Asia. Everyone replied Sipidan. Sipidan is an island located near the town of Semporna in the state of Sabah. The Malaysian government turned the island into a Marine reserve to protect it from being fished and to keep hotels off the island.

We jumped on an overnight plane to Kuala Lampur, then had to wait seven hours to catch a flight to Tawau, where a taxi awaited to deposit us in the small fishing town of Semporna. As we flew into KL, I noticed neat rows of palm trees covering the landscape. I pointed them out to Greg and we both decided that they had to be planted. I couldn’t think why palm trees would be planted in such abundance. I re3ceived my answer from an English traveler who shared our taxi to Semporna. Malaysia has cut down 70% of its forests, most of them rainforests, to plant palm trees for palm oil. This country has such an amazing diversity of flora and fauna that is rapidly disappearing due to deforestation. The state of Sabah is known for its wild orangutans and probiscus monkeys.

In the KL airport, I was stuck by the lack of people. I kept saying this throughout our trip, “there are no people here.” I discovered on our US trip, again, that there are no people. I know that there are a lot of people in Mumbai and in India, but it took leaving the country to really understand this. I have gotten so use to crowds and lines most places that we go, that in order to understand the sheer number of one billion people, I had to spend time in Malaysia (where the total population is less than the 22million that in habit greater Mumbai) and the US (all its students combine is the same number as India’s top 1% of students). The fact that there are such fewer numbers of people made my body slow down when walking around.

The diving on the islands we went to over five days, including one day at Sipidan, was spectacular and amazing. The islands where made of white sand and the water a beautiful turquoise blue. It was overcast most of the time, which saved us from getting sun burned since all the dives we did were boat dives. Greg and I took our Advanced Open Water certifications, so that most of our dives ended up being between 75-100 feet deep. We saw big marine life: white tipped reef shark, a leopard shark, many green turtles that were up to a meter and a half long, a school of huge barracudas, Napolean Wrasse, blue-spotted rays, lots of giant moray eels, several cuttlefish, and hundreds of tropical fish species. W saw small marine life: nudibranchs, frog fish (8 of these), coral pipe fish, cleaner shrimp, scorpion leaf fish, and more nudibranchs. We did not get to see hammerhead, which can be seen at Sipidan and were seen the day after we dove there. And there was the coral. The variety and colors were unbelievable. At Sipidan, the coral was a thick blanket with schools of fish dancing around. I had never experienced such a healthy coral reef and it was breath taking. We dove two days with a couple from the UK who had their Dive Master certifications and took diving trips every year. They both had cameras, so hopefully we will receive a link to their posting so we can share what we saw. All the photos we have are on the surface.

We dove with Scuba Junkies and stayed three nights with them on Malbul Island in their bungalows. Beautiful place, friendly and fun staff, and we’d go back in a heartbeat. Even if you don’t dive, the snorkeling is spectacular and Sabah has a lot to offer on land as well. We hope to get back to explore both land and sea before we leave this side of the world.

Seven day yoga retreat

2011-07-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, eager and nervous, I left our flat and headed to the train station. Two stops north at Santa Cruz, I got off and headed to the East exit to unexplored territory. Just a short walk through a relatively quiet neighborhood, I found the Yoga Institute. After registering for the seven day course, I waited in a large hall, sitting cross-legged on the hard tiled floor with just a thin mat separating my skin from the cool floor.

As Greg and I were preparing to go to India, both of us were excited about the opportunity to explore yoga more. Over the past year, we both attended class once to twice a week with Prasad (yogaprasad.com) at the American School. I’ve really enjoyed Prasad’s classes a lot, with his focus on breathing and opening the chest. He’s been doing yoga since age nine and now teaches classes all over the world. I walk out of his classes feeling relaxed and calm. Then I step out into chaotic Mumbai and I struggle to hold onto that calmness.

Some of the ASB mom’s I’ve spent time with have been taking various yoga teacher training courses, which are all about a month long. I enjoyed hearing about the courses but couldn’t fathom finding a month to do something like that. Around April, I realized that I have spent so much of my time focused on finding work and contributing financially while in Mumbai, that I had pushed aside my goal of learning more about yoga and trying to deepen my practice. I thought to myself, “I’m in India! What am I doing, I need to take advantage of this.” So, I went online and found The Yoga Institute (www.theyogainstitute.com), which is about two neighborhoods north of where I live. Their teacher training courses are 3 months and 7 months, which I was not ready to commit to. Then I found they had a seven day Basics of Yoga course and I decided that I could figure out how to make that work. So, while Greg was finishing up teaching, going to graduation, and attending end of the year parties, I headed to the Yoga Institute at 6:30am and came home at 8pm for one week.

Our day started off with asanas. This is the part of yoga that is practiced in the western world, the physical aspect. The Institute teaches basic poses with the focus on full concentration and presence, and breathing while doing each asana. It was such a wonderful way to begin each morning and I was reminded of my morning class I use to attend in Jackson. Energized and calm, I was ready to face the day.

All meals were provided by the Institute and were vegetarian. Food is an important part of maintaining positive attitude and non-judgment. Food that is fresh, not processed, and flavored with non-spicy spices is called Satthvic. It’s easy to digest and gives the body nutrients it needs. After a week of eating this food, my body felt wonderful and my taste buds were happy. My other classmates, most were Indian, were curious about how I liked the food. I don’t think all of them were as happy with it as I was. Of course I bought a recipe book, so I can try to incorporate some of the yummy food into my diet.

There are eight parts to yoga called the eight fold path. Asanas are one part. The other parts are Yamas (social behavior, how you treat others), Niyamas (Inner discipline and responsibility), Pranayama (control of breath), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (uninterrupted meditation), Samadhi (ultimate goal of bliss). The course focused on the first five parts with daily classes in each. All of the classes and techniques are to help a person lead a life that is filled with positive attitude, non-violence and non-judgment, and help obtain inner peace.

My task now is to continue the practice in daily life. I appreciated being told by each teacher to start with small steps. Choose one or two aspects to start doing each day. What I usually do after courses such as these is try to do it all and then when I can’t I just stop doing any of it all together. Travelling for two months right after this course also presents a challenge since I won’t have a routine. But, so far I’ve been able to do something every day.

Lastly, part of yoga is remembering to have some sort of recreation each day. Our last day, we had to give a performance of some sort. I ended up doing a dance with two other women. I was Krishna and one of the women dressed me up in full costume. It was great. All my other classmates were taking pictures with me and were so excited about my outfit. After my performance, they were impressed that some of my moves matched the lyrics of the song. The song we did was in the movie Laagan, an excellent Hindi film that you can rent from Netflix.

Swimming with One International

2011-05-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

One International is an NGO that I've been volunteering at this year with several other women. It's a school that was founded ten years ago by a Canadian women who rounded up some street children and started teaching them. It's grown into two different schools now. I go on Wednesdays and help teach English to the children. The American School's second grade also partners with them and does three different events with them during the school year. When I found out that 40 kids from One International were going to ASB this week to swim, I immediately volunteered to help out.

Coming to ASB for these kids is like commoners going to the queen's palace and getting to spend a few hours there running around. Most of these children are living in make shift structures and the only meal they eat is the lunch they get at One International. I couldn't wait to watch them.

ASB provided the swim suits and towels for the kids, or rather I believe the second grade donated them. Now, India is not known for it's swimwear. When at the beach, most Indian women go in with their saris on. Showing skin is just not done. So, the girls and boys were split up because the some of the older girls were nervous about what they were going to be wearing and being seen. The teenaged boys were fore warned about girls wearing bathing suits and Tania, the founder, told the boys if they were caught gawking (Indians win the gold medal in this event), they were done and would have to leave the pool. Luckily this was not an issue.

The girls went first, so we corralled then into the locker room. First, we had to get them undressed, into their swimsuits and showered. There was much hesitation, but as soon as the showers were discovered (they are the kind that rain straight down from the ceiling), it was hard to get them out. ASB didn't realize they had a water park right in their locker room. It was wonderful, all the smiles and squeals of delight. Finally they were all ready and we headed out to the pool. They were all required to wear a life vest in the pool. Most of the kids started out in the kiddie pool and the taller ones were in the main pool. Some of the girls were naturals and had no problems putting their face in the water and swimming around. Others were more content to hang out in inner tubes or in the arms of volunteers. When the kids switched it up, the boys were completely different. Most just jumped right in and the only ones clinging were four and five year olds.

ASB students were also swimming with the One International kids. I wonder what their impressions were of this experience... Some of the ASB girls wanted to jump off the starting blocks with OI girls. We were able to round up some brave souls and they all had a blast.

After swimming and changing back into clothes, the kids had lunch and then headed back to Khar fishing village. One of the things that I like about ASB is that each student will work with many NGOs over the course of attending the school. It's a good experience for such privileged kids to experience that the majority of people living in India don't even have half of what they do, but still are just humans like they are. The joy in a child's face is the same no matter where you are.

Shoe Shopping

2011-04-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I picked up my dress I had bought to wear at the Catholic wedding we are attending in Goa this weekend. (Though it is not a Hindu wedding, they are still expecting 800 people)! As I left the store I realized I needed some shoes that are a little more dressy than my Chacos to go with my outfit. (Most women will be wearing western style clothes, but I went with a more modern Indian outfit that I can wear without the leggings. It's going to be very hot). My friend, Daya, had just purchased some very cute kicks, so I headed to Metro shoes, where she bought them. The doorman opened the door for me and I stepped into the wonderful, A/C store...did I mention that it's hot here right now?

As I started to look, immediately someone came to my assistance. I held him at bay for a few minutes while I browsed. Then I showed him the dress I needed to match and let him know I needed flat sandals due to my pesky foot issues. The first pair I tried on brought me back to my childhood. I remember when you would go to a shoe store and the salesperson would take your foot, put the shoe on your foot and tie or buckle the shoe for you. This is what happens in India. Even these slip on sandals we carefully placed on my feet. The first ones were very comfortable but VERY intense blue. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love blue, but these were over the top. I don't want people staring at my feet all weekend. We picked out a few more and I sat down to wait. I didn't realize where the first pair had come from. There was a hole in the ceiling and the salesmen would hold the shoes up and say what size he needed. A few minutes later a box was tossed down through the hole and caught by the salesman. Ha! India! They are just amazing with use of space, since there isn't a lot and I can't imagine the for renting a space here in Mumbai.

Now, I have larger feet for the US, but for India, I'm big foot. When the salesman asked what size I wore, I looked at my feet and said, "Big." He laughed and said they would have my size. Later on, the sales man found out that the guy in the ceiling had a hard time finding some of the sandals I wanted to look at, so just told the salesman they were out of my size. "I checked on the computer and they have your size!" he proclaimed. He just shook his head in disgust. I thought it was funny and typical India.

While I was deciding which shoes to buy, the salesman told me (after we had chatted about why I was in India and what Greg does), "Now, if you haven't worn these outside and you get home, show your husband and if he doesn't like them, you can bring them back and we'll find you a different pair." I almost laughed out loud! My though, "Buddy, first off Greg wouldn't even notice them until I wore them three times and frankly, I don't care if he likes them or not. I like them." Cultural exchanges can be so wonderful!

I did walk out of there with two pairs instead of just one...:) Back into the sweltering heat.

Flamingos in Mumbai?!

2011-04-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I bought the latest issue of "Time Out Mumbai," a magazine that has what is happening each week in the city. As I was flipping through I saw "Flamingo festival." The pink feathered bird being my favorite, I was curious. Lo and behold, there is a flamingo migration in Mumbai! This being my birthday weekend (My birthday following on a Wednesday, I actually feel like I have two this year :)), I let Greg know I wanted to search out these algae-eating beauties.

Yesterday we hopped on the Central Line and headed south with Reid, Rachel, Toni, and Mark. Mark and I had been looking at the tide schedules and agreed that getting to Sewri mud flats after low tide would be time we would likely find the flamingos strutting about. With no problems getting the train down to the Sewri station (the Centrll Line has been an issue for Greg and I and we had recently done laps on it with my dad and Alison), we headed east, towards the water in the hot sun. We walked down a dusty road in an industrial area, lined with water trucks waiting to cart their load off to eagerly expecting people. We started to see some mangroves, which line the water and are a haven for bird life, but rapidly disappearing in Mumbai due to development. The area along the road was strewn with some trash and murky water, typical of Mangrove areas, though this was much cleaner than some areas we have encountered. Further down the road, we could see some very old and decrepit boats testing in the mud flats. As the mangroves thinned near the boats, you could see across the bay to the industry lining the banks and amidst this seen were thousands of pink dots. I expected to spot some flamingos here and there, but this was amazing! We all laughed at the typical extremes seen all over the city and this one: a flamingo bird migration in the center of industrialized Mumbai. This scene is much different than the last time I saw flamingos when I was 13 driving into the Rift Valley in Kenya. But, we all enjoyed watching the birds feeding, strutting and occasionally taking a short flight to resettle back into feeding.
No one is quite sure where the flamingos migrate to or from (not sure why this hasn't been studied yet), but they are in Mumbai for about 6 months, from the end of one monsoon season, to the beginning of the next. So, they will be around for about another month and I highly recommend getting out to see them. Bring water and a hat as the sun is pretty intense out there right now.

Marlys' Visit to India

2011-04-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

Let it be known to the world that Maryls Tibboel travels India wonderfully! Greg’s mom was here for two weeks. The first week we spent in Mumbai. She celebrated the Parsi new year with a lot of ASB staff and our friend’s Khush and Gilan, who were the hosts and are Parsi. Lots of socializing and eating. She had my most scary train experience…scary because I was responsible for her with only a day and a half under my belt and I had to get her through the huge, aggressive crowd of females trying to get on the train car we were getting off of. They were relentless and I held tight onto Marlys as she was being swept back on the train. Two quotes: “Now I see what you mean,” and “I don’t think I knew I should have been scared.” Needless to say, she made it off safely, no casualties other than my nerves and she was still open to getting on a train again. Greg took her on a Dhuravi slum tour and before she left we took her on a short tour of the Dhobi (laundry) ghats, which was a first for us too. The day she arrived, she was game for a shopping excursion, then she went back for more with the elementary school principal’s wife a couple days later…then back for more and more and more. J India is a shopper’s heaven. She did not need an extra bag upon leaving, so was very responsible with her purchases. She was even here during the extraordinary event of the World Cup cricket final: India vs Sri Lanka. We all bought and wore our India jerseys and celebrated a great game and win for India!!!!

Then…we went to…Darjeeling. We had a wonderful time there for about four and a half days. Our friend, Rory, joined as well and we enjoyed views and cool weather. Greg and I wore some of our warmer layers we brought, which have been sitting, neglected. Very sad indeed. Our first day had some drizzle, but we were still able to walk down, down, down to the Tibetan Refugee Center. (Darjeeling is built on steep hillsides and paths switch back along the slopes to access houses and businesses. It’s quite wonderful). I hold the Tibetan people pretty high up and the more I learn about them and their trials, the more I am in awe of them. The refugee center was created by Tibetans who sought refuge in India after the invasion in Tibetan in the late 50s, early 60s. These people crossed over the Himalayas, trying to escape the Chinese. The landscape that they had to deal with was harsh, rugged, and had few hiding points. Many parents left their children and returned to Tibet to take care of other family members. The Tibetans seem to be a tight community that have worked together to continue their cultural survival. At the refugee center, many people are employed in making various Tibetan handicrafts. They are sold here and all proceeds go back to the community. We saw them start with spinning sheep wool, dying it, and then creating beautiful carpets. We bought one, though we have to patiently wait until October, when it will be delivered. Greg and I find it so much more meaningful to use our consumer power to directly help people, rather than just buy for the sake of buying. Unfortunately we did not take a picture of our carpet, but we have a couple pictures of two carpets that Marlys is thinking about purchasing.

After the Tibetan Refugee Center, we hiked up to a wooded high point across from our guest house. There were thousands of prayer flags, but the temples ended up being Hindu. A great example how the different religions borrow from each other. We took Marlys around, showed her how Hindus give their respect to their gods, and then one of the men watching over the temples took us down to a cave with more shrines. He recited prayers while we crawled around, then we were all blessed and Marlys received her first sandalwood mark on her forehead.

The second day, we had a busy day. We visited the Himalayan Zoological reserve that houses fauna indigenous to the Himalayas, including a snow leopard, tigers, barking deer, Asiatic bear, and red panda. Right next door was the Himalayan Mountain Institute, where there is a museum about mountaineering in the Himalayas and where courses in mountaineering are run. In the afternoon we headed to Happy Valley Tea Estate. We had a winding hike down to the building where tea is processed. Afterwards we did a tasting with a wonderful, lyrical woman, who was one of the highlights of the trip. So many times in our travels, it’s the people you encounter that make the trip amazing. We were introduced to 5 second tea, which was amazing. Steeped for 5 seconds, the tea is a bright orange, no bitterness and surprisingly sweet. Delicious!

The morning of day three, Marlys, Greg and I took a 4:30am jeep ride to the highest point in Darjeeling, called Tiger Hill. We were there along with hundreds of others to watch the sun rise. We had an excellent view of Kachenjunga, the 3^rd tallest peak in the word and then of to our left we could see the very tippy top of Everest, way off in the distance. These mountains are spectacular and make the Rockies look like foothills…which they are comparatively! Greg and I are very excited for trekking this summer. 30 minutes after the sun rose, everyone disappeared. We decided to walk back to our guest house so we could look at some Tibetan Gompas (monasteries) on the way back. The first part of the hike was very relaxing, since Tiger Hill was part of a reserve. We had views of the mountains the entire way down. We visited the oldest gompa in Darjeeling and the largest. We had a surprise at one of the newer gompas. Just as we arrived, the monks were getting ready to do their morning prayers, so we decided to stay to listen and watch for awhile. I don’t know if anyone has heard Tibetan monks before, but it’s this wonderful, low and musical chanting in which at times they stop to play cymbals, drums and horns before chanting again.

Another visual treat was at the largest gompa. They had a café, so we ordered some chai and sat outside, enjoying the warm air and breath taking views. There was this energetic, cocker spaniel puppy chasing flies around. A monk decided it was time for the pup to go back in his kennel, so called him over and opened the door. First the pup jumped on the monk and gave him kisses, then he jumped and then right out. He ran around and then hid. The monk called for him and the pup ran around then hid again. This happened two more times. The monk then walked over talked to the pup briefly, gave him a stern look and the pup got up, ran over to the kennel and hopped inside. I loved seeing the patience and respect the monk gave the pup, as well as the relationship the two have. The monk never used force with the pup.

Our last full day, I relaxed and read while Marlys, Rory and Greg hiked around. Marlys and Rory came back early, while Greg continued on to the Japanese Peace Pogoda. The three of us took the opportunity do a little bit of shopping, including taking Marlys to a shawl shop, an experience in itself. Rory and I had to push the shopkeeper to keep showing us shawls, but we had a great experience and walked away with some goods.

Greg and I were sad to leave the cool, refreshing mountain air and the views of the Himalayas. Greg is buckled down for (now) seven more weeks of school. Marlys has been back in Iowa for a week and over her jet lag. Thanks for visiting us!!!

Seeking the game - World Cup Cricket!!

2011-04-02T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today is a big day in India. India has been hosting the World Cup Cricket for the past month and the final is today...India vs Sri Lanka. Two days ago was the semi final...India vs Pakistan...and that was a huge rivalry. So much so that at one point the Hindu fanatical group, Shiv Sena, threatened that this game would not take place on Mumbai turf. I rolled my eyes and thought, "you've got to be kidding." The game went off without a hitch, at least to my knowledge, and India won. (We do have a friend who has "inside" info that the games was fixed, but I'm not buying it. Cricket has had issues with bribery, but I'm favoring the optimistic mentality).

This morning, Greg, Marlys, and I walked to several sports stores to buy Marlys and I India jerseys. We were successful and sorted them proudly the rest of the day. Many Indian s were excited to see us supporting India and we did many call and responses, "India!," "Go, India!" with onlookers. The game started at 2:30pm, so a quarter till we walked down Hill Rd to Mocha Mojos. We were assured that for India vs Pakistan, many people were here watching the game. When we walked in, there was a projection screen with the game just starting. It was on a covered veranda and the bright lighting made it very difficult to see the screen. There were no good seats looking at the screen either. We sat down to made a choice on what to do and finally decided our main goal was to watch the game and second goal to pour back some cold ones and third to have lunch, so we decided to keep searching for a place to watch. (STRIKE 1)!

Greg's idea was the new chocolatier restaurant, which has some TVs. We jumped in two rickshaws and headed over. I called our friend, Rory, to let her know of the change in plan. We got over to this restaurant quickly and headed inside. Greg started to head up stairs, where a big screen TV was located and was stopped by an employee. He was told they weren't open upstairs and we could sit downstairs. Greg let them know our main goal and the man disappeared upstairs. He returned with a manager, who told him the same thing. We walked out with the manager welcoming us to stay for 30 minutes and watch the little TV in the corner. (STRIKE 2)!

Jenn, another friend who lives in our building and was with us, suggested Mumbai Times. Mumbai Times is a bar and restaurant with one room located on the roof top of a building. We had not been there, but Jenn and her husband enjoy going there for beers. We decided to mosey on over and I called Rory again for the update. Mumbai Times is located on a fairly busy street filled with restaurants and shops. As we rounded the corner of the building it's located inside, we heard cheering, horns, and drums. The elevator up to the bar had a line of fans waiting to board. Right when we were getting on, the doorman asked if we had reservations. We did not...reservations??!! We were not allowed in and Jenn laughed, getting a kick out of the craziness of it all. (STRIKE 3)!

We headed across the street to another bar, which was also packed. At the same time, Rory called, trying to get directions to Mumbai Times and I was trying tell her where we were. She was near and I told her to stay put. I went to grab her while the other three tried to find out if we could get in. As Rory and I walked back, Greg, his mom, and Jenn came toward us. There was a 1500Rs cover charge. (STRIKE 4! This is cricket, so we have 10 strikes until we are out).

We decided to head around the corner where two other establishments of sport and drink are located. The first one said there was a 2000Rs "package" and the second a much smaller cover, but not favored with all in our party. Rory, tired of us racking up the strikes, does a little negotiating with the manager. She says we'll go in to help fill their seats, not do their package deal and if other patrons come in and they need our sets, we'll leave. And they agreed!!! Luckily, we were hungry and thirsty and let us stay. When a large group came is, Greg asked if we should leave. They were very happy to have us there and did not want us to leave. FINALLY!!! Success to watch the first part of the game. (The World Cup cricket match is 50/50, which lasts about 8 hours, not the multi-day games that some cricket matches take to get to the finish).

The first half is over, with Sri Lanka having ended strong after a slow start. India is going to have to be on there game to beat to 270+ points that Sri Lanka has...GO INDIA!!.

HOLI!!!

2011-03-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

I first heard about Holi when I traveled to India eight years ago. I heard that "anything goes" and some of my friends wanted me to send to alcohol from the States for Holi. (Devout Hindus do not drink alcohol and in Varanasi, at that time, you had to go to expensive hotels to buy any). Thoughts of color had me putting Holi on my "goals in life" list. Since then, seeing Bollywood films and reading about Holi, I had a picture of complete chaos. This past week I kept hearing about "Holi gone bad" stories. From skin being dyed colors for weeks, to eyes being burned from toxic dyes, to crotch groping...I was worried something would happen and all my fun would be spoiled.

Holi is actually a two day festival that celebrates the devout Hindu prince, who refuses to worship his father over Vishnu, one of the gods. His aunt (Holika), who is fire resistant, is enlisted to kill her nephew by pulling him into a fire, ends up burning because Vishnu saves the boy and takes her power away. So, on the full moon during March, all over, this is enacted large bundles of logs and fronds being burned. Next to us, the apartment compound had a 15 foot tall pile they burned. When the fire raged, people would circle the fire, dropping water as they went. As this happened, excited children pounded them with plastic bags filled with water. This was expected and there was a lot of laughter. Greg and I huddled against the building to be out of the line of fire and watched the spectacle.

The next morning, we headed over to our friends', Reid and Rachel, flat for brunch and then headed off with our expendable clothes, olive oil rubbed on skin and hair so the dye would not stain, and water guns ready to go. We rode our bike to the brunch and I was fully prepared for a colorful assault. to my disappointment, the streets were quiet and peaceful. We were more of the spectacle being white people on our bikes with water guns in our baskets. It was amazing to ride down such empty streets, so much so that I rode right past Reid and Rachel's place.

After brunch, we made it to the outside of the building and neighbors were starting their own Holi celebration. We joined them, playing with the kids, throwing powder, shooting water everywhere and eating sweets washed down with a Kingfisher that the neighbors insisted we share with them. After refilling our water guns, we set out to roam Bandra. Our first encounter were a gang of other expats. One of them got Greg pretty good, right in the face. Leave it to the expats to be the most violent group out there. We had a rickshaw drive by done by another ASB staff member, but we made sure she didn't get away without a good soaking. A family of Indians was in a car, stopped, and we all smeared each other's faces with a "Happy Holi!" This ended up being the most common encounter, though most people were on foot. We ended up down at the sea in the fishing village. They invited us down some narrow walk ways and we joined a family dancing, dumping buckets overhead, and singing. I was impressed when a very intoxicated fellow came into the little courtyard and he was immediately turned the other way respectfully. We made it down to the beach area, after a full color and water battle with a group of kids. They were ready for an ambush, positioned on roofs, behind walls and on stairs. When we had to walk back through them, both Greg and I were also egged. Greg's hair was amazingly shiny today due to the extra nutrients he received on his head.

Overall, I was pretty amazed by the manners of everyone, there was no groping and I felt very safe. I would not go out by myself or without a male, but I had nothing to worry about. Next year we'll start earlier so we can have even more colorful battles. This is the one time that Indians are up early to celebrate...then many are in an inebriated slumber by 2pm.

HAPPY HOLI!!!!

Art Exhibition in Dhuravi

2011-03-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

Back in January, our friend, Tash, had some artists staying with her. She met them one Saturday when she went down to Dharavi to coach some football (soccer) with local kids. They were in Dharavi for three months, getting to know the community, living there and creating art pieces with the community. The culmination of their work was then opened up to Mumbaikers to experience. I use the word "experience" because what made this exhibition was the interaction of each piece with the environment and community members. The art work was woven along a narrow, winding road, amidst the many industries working behind the tin walls of the buildings.

Some of the art were signs naming the trade happening in a room. Most of the pieces used recycled materials, even materials from another artist's exhibition that occurred the week before in Bandra. One of my favorites was "The Beehive," which was made from materials used to create a wax cannon in the prior art show. In the beehive was a recording of the sounds heard in Dhuravi, which sounded much like a beehive might sound. The red wax was also used on a piece of corrugated tin, which the artists had children through the red wax at the tin. Mediums used through out were paint, sculpture, film, audio, and photographs.

It was a memorable and remarkable experience! The artists are hoping to show pieces in the US, so keep your eyes open in case it comes your way!

Saints and Sinners

2011-03-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

As I was downloading the Mehndi pictures, I discovered other pictures that we had neglected! About a month ago, one of the Early Childhood teachers and her husband had a joint b-day party. It was at a bungalow overlooking Juhu beach, north of here we live. They provided an array of delicious food items and an open bar. The food and bar overlooked a beautifully lighted swimming pool. There was a room facing the pool where a DJ spun some tunes. The theme was Saints and Sinners and I was pretty impressed with costumes, especially two of the counselors. One was a Sadhu (a Hindu saint) and the other a "gold digger." The only picture we have is pre-birthday party, at Reid and Rachel's, where a bunch of us met to catch school vans to the party. Yes, school vans we rented to get us to this shindig. After I got ready at our flat, I realized there was no way on earth that I could walk the ten minutes to Reid and Rachel's, so I took some of my gear off and the re-donned it at their flat. You can't see Greg at all, who attempted to be Sachin (India's cricket hero and number one cricket player in the world). Mmmm, I had to give him a D for it. He just does not understand the importance of costumes creativity! I have to thank Shannon, aka Princess Lea, for my outfit...but the question is, "you brought a tube top and mini skirt to India because...?"

Mehndi

2011-03-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Mehndi is the Hindu word for the henna designs that Indian women, especially brides, have applied to hands, arms, feet, and lower legs. I've had it done twice on my hands so far and this weekend, two other women in my building and I (TyAnne and Jenn), had ours done. Another example of home delivery! TyAnne and Jenn both have a woman come every week to give them or their husbands a massage. This woman told TyAnne about friends of hers that are very good in Mehndi and would she like them to come by. So, TyAnne arranged for them to come Sunday evening and we had a Mehndi party. We had a wonderful spread of snacks, wine and G&Ts, while two women applied Mehndi to our feet and my hands.

"The henna used for mehndi comes from a bush called Lawsonia Inermis which is part of the loose strife family and is grown in the Sudan, Egypt, India, most of the North African counties, The Middle East and other hot and dry places. The bush is also grown in Florida and California for his ornamental appearance and often grows to be quite large, ranging from six to twenty feet in some cases. The lance- shaped leaves from the bush are harvested, dried and then crushed to make the henna powder." (http://www.essortment.com/mehendi-36043.html)

After the Mehndi is applied, it takes about two hours for it to dry and start to flake off. What this means is you can't walk around much if it's on your feet and if it's on your hands...well, you have to have a "helper" do everything for you. When Suzy and I had this done in Rajasthan, Greg and Ryan had to help us with bags and shaws when we went to an evening dance performance. Greg helped me this time by getting me a straw for my G&T and feeding me a cookie. He really likes doing this and can't wait until the next time I have Mehndi applied! :)

The women who applied the Mehndi were very good and fast. They've been doing it for ten years now. For a bride, four people work on her (one per limb) and it takes four hours! That is super detailed. I was told this week that having Mehndi on your feet is usually a sign you are engaged and the darker it is, the more you husband and/or your mother-in-law loves you. The thing with this is the three of us have a huge advantage with our white skin. So, all the Indian women at ASB were telling me how much Greg loves me and giggling. Very cute.

Exploring Mumbai

2011-02-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

The past week, we have had a lot of city exploration and opportunitys to start branching out our social network in Mumbai. Last weekend, we went with several other ASB teachers to see His Holiness, the Dali Lama speak. He has been traveling around India lately and my parents even had a chance to see him Goa of all places. Even the DL needs some beach time. :) Oanh, a HS French teacher at ASB, was once a French translator for His Holiness and was very excited to go and hear him speak. There were six of us who went, so we jumped into two cabs and sped towards Central Mumbai. As we neared the field where the talk was held, we started seeing posters advertising the teachings with his picture on them. (I pictured a very large crowd since the last time I had the opportunity to hear him speak was during a Kalachakra ceremony in Bodhgaya, nine years ago. There were thousands of monks, pilgrims and foreigners there. It was pretty amazing.) We entered the field through metal detectors and had bags checked...I was very surprised of the lack of crowds. (Sweet! Prime viewing)! We walked right up to the area that had chairs to sit on and Oanh talked our way into this seating area. I was so excited. I could see him, up close and personal! Amazing! The first 45 minutes he spoke in Tibetan, while a translator spoke in Hindi. I tried my hardest to pick up what was being said in Hindi, but alas, I am still an infant in the language of Hindi. I think I picked up five words total. But I tried! We were thinking of leaving after an hour since we couldn't understand anything, but then the question and answer portion started in English. It was music to my ears! I enjoyed hearing his answers to people asking about happiness and Buddhism re-establishing in India. Pretty much the message is that it takes a lot of discipline, effort, and studying to maintain happiness, the answers are within us and getting caught up in the dogma of religion is a recipe for disaster. He has such a peaceful presence and a delightful laugh. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

This past week, my dad and Alison returned from their six weeks in southern India. With their arrival, we had two dinner engagements arranged this week. One with a family they had met in Munnar, who lived towards Central Mumbai and the second was with the owners of our flat. Both engagements were enjoyed by all. Greg and I finally got to spend significant time with people outside of ASB. It was a welcomed experience. The only difficult part was that Indians inevitably, at least in Mumbai, are night owls and don't start eating until late. We tried to let both parties know about Greg needing to be up very early since he gets picked up at 7am to go to the school, but when others are involved, things get pushed back. Luckily, Thursday night was a Professional Development day for Greg, so he didn't have to teach that day. I think both nights were past 11pm, which is late for those of us who are in bed by 8:30-9pm. For those of you who think we are ridiculous, do you get up at 5am to workout regularly? Okay, we are ridiculous on that part, but that's how it all gets fit in. (We didn't make it to any workout Thursday or Friday morning either). We hope to continue doing things with both families, as the company was great and the food spectacular. We even got some hints on more restaurants, having ice cream delivered, and learning about the tiffin lunches provided to millions of people in the city every day, which we could be a part of. Mumbai = delivery to your doorstep!

Thursday, I had one of my Mumbai Explorers trips and the two women leading this one had us take the train to CST terminus (a UNESCO World Heritage site), toured us around the station and then wondered to Crawford Market for lunch. I really enjoyed riding the train with all these women who never dreamed of going on the train, while I use it every week. I usually blast through CST train station and it was wonderful slowing down and looking at all the carvings and details of the building. The two women did an excellent job researching and finding out about the significance of the architecture. Loved it. Then, lunch was at a famous Bengali restaurant that was serving us its last meal before turning into a thali restaurant. Very sad because the food was excellent, down to a coconut prawn curry served in the coconut shell. Yummy!

Yesterday, Saturday, after some shopping with Rachel and Elizabeth (friends from ASB), my dad, Alison and I headed to South Mumbai to visit the National Art Gallery. There was an exhibit of the first female photo journalist in India, who was there and is 97 years old. She was even signing some of her prints that were for sale. It was a wonderful exhibit and featured Gandhi, Nehru, and the time of Partition, life in Mumbai and Delhi, and her history. A fascinating look into India's past and the woman involved in capturing it. If anyone is interested, her name is Homai Vyarawalla and I'm sure she is in the depths of Wikipedia.

It's been wonderful to see and experience a little more of this complex and historical city, though we have not left for two months and the traffic is getting to me, as well as the crowds. Yesterday when getting off the train, I had to push my way off as men were punching to get on. I hip checked and elbowed some people with force. It felt good to be aggressive back, letting out a little anger at that part of living here. It was a sign I need a break. We are going to the hills next week for a short reprieve and we bought our plane tickets for Darjeeling, where we will be going over spring break with Greg's mom. The pictures show awesome views of the Himalayas and my eyes feast on them longingly.

The bathrrom saga

2011-02-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

oI realize that I have been very neglectful of the blog lately. With a writer's block and hitting a low spot, I couldn't think of what to post. I believe I'm on the mend and last night I was hit with the intense desire to blog about the continued bathroom saga unfolding in our flat. No, it's not a story of a nasty train toilet or a hole in the ground, but rather the story of one of our three bathrooms turning into something nasty and dank.

I think it's now been since the second week in January, right before my dad and Alison left for their Southern India tour. I came home from one of my first days of working part time at ASB in the counseling department, to a leaky wall in our bathroom. There is a place where two pieces of marble come together about three inches up the wall from the floor, which had turned into a small, but persistent water fountain. Normally, one would think marble and water create an aesthetically pleasing and calming affect, but not so when coming from your bathroom wall. This wall is shared by the another bathroom and lo and behold, there was another spring that had sprung from that side as well. I was at a loss of what to do. I went down stairs and asked the building manager to come have a look. His first reactions was "shit." (I thought, "this can't be good if an Indian is using expletives in English.") He rallied the guards and some other random men, who all looked at the leaky wall and then turned off the water.

Over the next few days, the location of the problem was found to be in the hallway bathroom. Contractors from the owner and ASB came to look at the problem. It was decided that over 15 days, the piping could be replaced. This meant tearning out ALL the marble walls, chipping away at the concrete by hand to get to the pipes, replacing the pipes and...we have yet to see what happens then. All buildings in Mumbai are made of concrete (investing in an Indian concrete company is a very good idea) and all the piping is within those walls of concrete. Not sure how this could ever be a positive outcome as the building ages.

The stumbling blocks thus far with the projects:

1) Hours that the work can be completed. Mumbai runs on a different time table than the US. We are use to working 8-5 with two 15 minute breaks and a lunch break thanks to Employee rights. In India - the right of the employee is...not sure that has been established. BUT our building has some guidelines. Quiet time is between 2-4pm and no children are allowed to work in the building. Good that they have the latter, but the former is a pain. They come to start work about 10am since Jacinta gets here around 9:30am. They work for two hours and then take a break. Three days a week, Jacinta usually is gone by 3pm, so they can work another hour or two if she stays longer and then two days a week she is around until 5pm. Finally, they would work on the weekends, but Greg and I are in and out so we told them no. So, it's taking a lot longer to get the job done and I know they are pretty frustrated with us because of this.

2) Water "geysering" out of the new pipes। This is last nights fiasco। I got home around 4pm and Jacinta was still here, finishing up ironing and giving the men more time to work. I told her she could leave and I'd be there so they could continue working. Around 7pm, Greg asked the guys when they'd be done and he was told 15 minutes. Greg got his watch out and 30 minutes later, he got up to tell them they needed to stop and leave. At just that moment, the water was turned back on and I heard a "Oh f*$%!" I jumped up and saw water pouring out of the pipe leading into the bathroom (I forgot to mention there is a hole to the outside right now through the back wall as well). The man doing the pipes was up in the window yelling out and trying to call someone for help. The water started to fill up with one of the drains covered by a pile of dirt and one drain slowly allowing water to leave the room. This was not enough. Greg grabbed a squiggy to push the water back into the bathroom. I ran downstairs to try and find the project manager, but only found the guards. "Help! Water is going every where!" The guards looked at each other and I beckoned one to follow me. I ran, he sauntered. When we got to the apartment, the water was into the kitchen and our bedroom. The guard disappeared and the water was shut off. Both the worker and project manager tried to take the squiggy from Greg, who was swearing, pissed off, and telling them no. He finally let the project manager take it from him. Greg told them to be out in ten minutes. "Two minutes sir, just two minutes," he responded. They scurried about, cleaned up and left.

So that's where we are at. It's a pretty big mess right now and my dad and Alison might have to walk down the hall to use a bathroom when they are back for a couple days next week, but maybe by the time Greg's mom arrives, we'll have a brand new bathroom without water cascading from the pipes and walls...over two months after they started the project.

Twyla's reflection on 6 months living in India

2011-01-22T01:35:00.000-08:00

Next week is the official six month mark of living in India. Hard to believe it’s been that long and, of course, at times it feels like we’ve been here much longer. So, time for some reflections! I’ve started part time work at the school in the counseling department, so the past two weeks have been more busy and have made me appreciate how lucky I was to have the free time to explore. I’ve gotten to know the Bandra area, where we live, fairly well and I’m pleased with the exploration I’ve gotten to do in the rest of the city. Coming back from Rajasthan, I felt relief to be back in Mumbai where things are familiar and I know what to expect. Our flat is shaping into a more lived in space (except for one of the bathrooms which is being ripped up due to bad plumbing). I was excited this week to take photos and some art to have frames made – all custom made and none over 300rs a piece. Accomplishments like that are wonderful and make me feel more settled.

Greg and I have been training for the half and full marathon since the summer and our efforts paid off last weekend. It was very wonderful to have a goal to focus on in the fitness department and I think it has helped us both in our transition here. Moving from GJ, when we were playing in the mountains or desert almost every weekend for the past two and a half years, to then move to the biggest city in the world, we were worried about how we would continue getting the exercise we crave. Training for this running event was a great idea. We both did well too, meeting or exceeding our goals. And now that it’s over, we can start taking advantage of some of the city life on the weekends, i.e. enjoying the night life, since we don’t have to be up at 5am to run.

One pleasant surprise with moving to Mumbai through ASB, is the amazing community that has just been plopped into our laps. Moving to both Oregon and Grand Junction, it took us about a year in both places to start to find our niche and feel like we belonged to a community. Here, we have had the fortune to have too many opportunities and having to constantly choose between what we want to do and with whom. It’s one of the reasons time has flown by so quickly. We really couldn’t of asked for much more!

I did hit a lull, which I was waiting to happen, right as all of our guests arrived for the holidays. Since we had a trip planned and people to share our experience with, I couldn’t wallow in it. For me, trying to figure out what to do employment-wise while in India, the initial newness of everything having worn off, and the fact that some things in India can be SOOOO frustrating to deal with at times, led to a typical new expat lull.

India is a country with the most number of trained IT people in the world, yet the infrastructure is not in place to support sufficient development. Also, the times when you want to find something and you have no idea what type of store to look at, just sent me into a place of “why bother.” The traffic and noise at times can become so overwhelming that getting myself to walk out of our apartment feels nearly impossible. Or course, once I cross the thresh hold, I’m just fine, but getting there can be so hard some days. Picture frames are a great example. I went to some of the department stores nearby and they had like two frames to choose from. Alright, so now what. So, I spoke to some of our friends who have been here a while and found out you just get frames made. Then it’s researching where others have gone and how much they have paid. Finally, I hear of one that sounds like how much I should pay here in India, I motivate to take everything down to the shop, and I end up having a great time getting to choose what matting and what frame I want to be use. India opens up this creative side of myself I never knew was there. I’ve bought most of my clothes at boutiques around Bandra, which has been a lot of fun. Then, three weeks ago, Alison and I venture out to find the fabric bazaar and a whole new world opens up! There are SO MANY choices and my brain is going crazy with all the thoughts of what could be done with the fabric. There were even stalls filled with only dupattas (the long scarf worn with most Indian outfits)! Fun! Anyone one who loves to look at and feel fabric would be in heaven. One moment life feels so frustrating and the next it’s an excited experience.

India is a paradox. There are so many opposites occurring all the time that at first it only feels like chaos. Then, weekly, sometimes daily, little things click and something makes a little more sense or at least I learn how to navigate the chaos slightly better. I’ve realized I need to be kind to myself when I reach those moments of exhaustion and allow myself to relax for a little before heading out again to learn a little bit more. One lesson I continually have to remind myself lately is that even though my skin color makes me stick out like a sore thumb (as does blonde hair and blue eyes), people’s behaviors aren’t solely based on this fact. When I’m trying to get a rickshaw during rush hour and empty ones pass me by, I look around to see the same thing happening to Indians. The driver isn’t singling me out, he’s got other reasons for “being a jerk” at that moment.:)

Being a woman here can, and probably always will be, trying at times. Whether it’s being stared at so intensely you feel like something is grotesquely wrong and rickshaw drivers adjusting their mirrors just so they can get a better look, to being addressed as “Mr” when making reservations over email because why would a woman be making reservations. It’s been a balance of figuring out when to ignore and when to be confident and stand my ground. It will be interesting when we make our first trip back to the US and we melt back into the landscape. I wonder how that will feel after two years here. Our other question is how will our driving will be after witnessing such horrid driving, on the wrong side of the road for two years and then getting behind the wheel of the Cavalier for the first time. We’ll let you all know when that happens so you can make sure to stay off the roads at that time.

Finally, thank you for all the emails, FB posts and Skyping. One of the hardest things about transitioning is always leaving such wonderful people behind. Greg and I continuously reflect on how lucky we have been to meet such amazing people in our lives and then to be able to continue hearing about how each of your lives continues to change and grow. We are truly a part of a global community, more so now than ever.

Throwing it out – we are in the beginnings of planning our summer trekking around the Himalayas and there’s an open invitation to anyone who would like to join! Cheers to the next six months!

Rajasthan

2011-01-03T01:37:00.000-08:00

As I’m sitting here, tired of reading my book, still feeling too sick to go out and do something, I realize how difficult starting this blog on our trip to Rajasthan is for me. I’m not sure why since it was a good trip. For me, though, it was shadowed by a head cold that kept rearing its head and two days ago became much worse. Along with that, trying to be a good tour guide for our group, an expectation I had put onto myself. The end of our trip it was rainy and cold in Jodhpur and Jaipur. When I saw our pictures I was surprised by the sunny days we had the majority of the trip. My stuffed up head had forgotten about that warmth. When we landed in Mumbai, I noticed my body relax and the air penetrate my weary bones. I was happy to be back. I think this a sign of settling into this chaotic city. With this said, Greg and I have already had thoughts about our next trip back to Rajasthan. I think I’ll do this blog in a more bulleted format.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Havelis, guesthouses and roof tops. The faithful Lonely Planet, along with suggestions from friends who visited Rajasthan over Diwali, came through in the sleeping category. In Jaipur, our first accommodation had a wonderful back yard with peacocks frequently stopping by, wonderful painted interior including the ceiling and a computerized check-out system. In Pushkar, again, the décor was wonderfully unique and bright. Small balconies over looked the town and the roof top restaurant provided splendid views. The rood top was serene and peaceful compared to the hawkers and pushy Brahmins wanting money for their “blessings.” In Udaipur…oh, Udaipur. We all liked Udaipur and wished we had more time there. The rooms at Dream Heaven all over looked the lake and its beautiful reflections of the white city. So did the restaurant…ahhh, the lake. We were lucky since this monsoon was long and wet. In drought years, the lake can be dried up, the island where the Lake View Hotel (where the James Bond flick, Octopussy, was filmed) stands on rock overlooking dried mud. In Jodhpur, we stayed in an old haveli within the old city’s walls. A haveli is an old mansion of the wealthy. Some have been turned into guest houses in order for the families to keep them. Greg and I walked around one that had been abandoned and was crumbling down. This haveli had fun décor with fabric, though our room had a nasty stench that did not go away. Our last hotel in Jaipur felt like we were in the US at a Motel 6. Bland, but clean.

Castles and forts. Rajasthan is famous for its old castles and many forts during the time of the Maharajas and Maharanis. Some cities still have royalty, much like England. They have opened and preserved palaces and forts to help earn money to keep their history alive. We also discovered the audio tour, which the Agra Fort, Udaipur and Jodhpur have done an excellent job with. So, all of pictures with us in those places have headphones making a cameo appearance. All of the castles and forts were maze like, with each ruler adding their own style and defense ideas. So rooms were elaborately decorated with mirrors, stained glass, and paintings. Others, a simple, but regal marble. I loved trying to imagine what it was like during the time when the walls were filled with the royal family and court. The book called “The Far Pavillions,” which I read during my Dengue stupor in college while in my Jamaica study abroad, took place in Rajasthan, so it was wonderful to see in real life what my mind had conjured up.

Taj Mahal Check, did it. Two out of the six of us had seen the Taj Mahal, but it still is a beautiful structure and hard to take a bad picture there. The adventure to Agra was the train ride. We caught a 6:10am train in Jaipur, which dropped us off about four and a half hours later in Agra. We had lunch, saw the Taj, saw the Agra Fort, had some dinner and then took another train back at 8:10am. The first train, we had AC Chair Car seats. Very nice and food delivered to us. On the way back we had sleep Car seats. This means we each had a seat and a bunk, but the windows were opened allow natural breeze to cool the car. Lesson learned: always carry bedding. I failed to realize how cold it would be in December on the train ride. Luckily it was only 4 and a half hours, so we all lived through it. That was the big adventure part of the trip.

Surprises. Ranakpur! Wow!! Really, the reason I even had us travel by car was to see these Jain temples between Udaipur and Jodhpur and we agr eed that this was THE highlight of the trip. The Taj or Ranakpur – Ranakpur hands down. It was in the middle of nowhere, among beautiful hills. The ride there was through small villages and farm land. Water is irrigated by a series of water wheels that are run by oxen and drawn up with many tin cans on a loop. They use one until the water hole is dry for the season and start on another. Simple, yet effective. The Jain Temples were very detailed and ornate. The main temple had 1444 pillars made of marble. Spectacular.

Animals. Holy Cows!!! Peacocks and peahens. Monkeys. Parrots. Camels. Elephants. Cobras. You aren’t in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. Ryan made his goal of riding on a camel in Pushkar. He was about to pass on fulfilling this goal (he was promptly accused of being all talk and no walk), when Suzy said she’d go with him. The look on Suzy’s face when the camel stood up made it worthwhile for Ryan. My goal of seeing a cobra became a reality. When we went to have lunch on the back side of the Jaipur Palace, I heard the unmistakable sound of the snake charmers’ instrument, wailing close by. Rounding a corner, there they were, two of them, sticking straight up, facing the snake charmer. Sweeeeeet! (The wailing flute does get to be a bit much after awhile).

Lost in Translation? Mmmmm, nope. Over all we liked our driver. He was safe and cautious, which was welcomed. He was on time and would have rather been driving us the entire trip, but there were three days when he did not need to. At the end of the trip, we figured out how much in tip we would give him. After unloading our luggage, we thanked him and Greg gave him 1000 rupees. He looked offended and we couldn’t figure out why. He wouldn’t take the money. I called the travel agent who booked the driver and he said “you can give him a tip or not. It’s up to you. If he won’t take it then that’s his choice.” Greg went to try again. The issue was the driver wanted 500 Rs per person, well above the 100 Rs per day guidebooks and people had told us was typical. The driver called his boss and Greg told him what was going on. The bossman said, give him 1000 Rs, that’s what you are giving him. So, that’s what we did. Very strange.

Shopping. I should say SHOPPING!!! There was a lot of this. Greg and I had some ideas about some decorations we wanted to buy, but for those of us living here and those of us visiting, it’s a whole different ballgame. Rajasthan is known for its fabrics, clothing, miniature paintings, and much more. Suzy and Ryan left with a fair more than they came with and my dad and Alison have begun their India goods stockpile.

Sickness. Okay, this isn’t a highlight, but neither was the driver. But it was a part of the trip nonetheless. Sadly, this tour guide was sick the entire trip. Some days better than others. At the end I was fed up and just wanted some beer, so I decided for a few days I didn’t care if I was sick. Now, I’m on antibiotics. Alison caught the head cold about day two into the trip, so she could guess a little about what would be in store for her the next day. At dinner in Pushkar, with Alison staying to rest in the guest house, my dad suddenly said he needed to leave. I walked after him and he turned red and hot. But, he never threw up. He spent the night and next day feeling nauseous. Luckily, it was a day of driving, so he stretched out in the back of the van and slept for 8 hours. Suzy was next. In Jodhpur, she didn’t join us for dinner our first night. After a yummy dinner, we went up to bed after a long day (including Ranakpur!). As I was brushing my teeth, I could hear someone vomiting. “Oooo,”I thought, “That doesn’t sound good.” For a fleeting moment I thought about Suzy. Ten minutes later, Ryan shows up at our door to tell us about Suzy’s state. Suzy had about 24hours of the bug and then seemed well enough the rest of the trip. Ryan and Greg were unscathed…so far.

There it is in a nutshell. At least my version. There was so much that happened in ten days! Thanks to our four visitors for celebrating the holidays with us!

First week with Dad and Alison

2010-12-17T00:17:00.000-08:00

Our first guests have survived their first week with no major incidents! My dad and Alison arrived last Friday at 5am, greeted by myself and Darshan, a driver for the school. I decided to be "nice" and ease them into their Indian experience with a pick up at their airport in a spacious a/c van and driver. All went smooth at the pick up and we were back in time to see Greg before he headed off to work. Since they had the luxury of a business class seats, aka being able to lie horizontally and thus avoiding cankles, so they were not afforded much of a down time before I took them around Bandra. Helping them to stretch their legs and get the blood flowing, we walked close to five miles through side streets, up along Mount Mary, down to Lands End Fort, back up Bandstand, through the fishing village near jogger's park and up to Pali Market. Finally I was tired and begged to stop for a fresh lime soda and bagel. (I don't know if I've mentioned, or given the fresh lime soda the attention on this blog that it deserves. It's a wonderfully refreshing drink made with fresh lime juice, soda water and you can get "sweet, "salty" or "mixed." I'm a fan of the mixed variety. It's a must for any day that is hot or if you are exerting a lot of energy. Yuuuuummmmy! I think our guests agree on this matter as well.) After we got home, I talked them into a rickshaw ride to the school, where there was a holiday festival going on. They were good sports with cramming three of us in the rickshaw and then being introduced to many teachers and parents as we toured the booths. Greg joined us for the ride home and poor Alison was able to experience Greg's bad luck with rickshaws. Their driver didn't totally understand where to go, so they ended up getting out and walking the last bit. It ended up okay with a stop for some beer to have at home. I was impressed that both my dad and Alison made it until 6:30pm with only a 30 minute nap.

Day two: Your in Mumbai, so you might as well go to the largest slum in Asia, Duravi, for a tour! I had this on my list of things to see in Mumbai, so I was glad to have my dad and Alison come along for the trial run. This is a tour put on by Reality Tours and Travel. They actually started out as an agency providing early childhood education and IT training for adults in the slum. Since then, they have expanded to giving tours of the slum to give a more realistic look of what the slum is in India. The Dhuravi slum is a community that is on government land, so people build buildings, but the government can decide to get rid of those buildings at any time. This slum has sewers and running water, and an amazing industrial area. One million people are estimated to live in this slum, but that is just an estimation. The reality is probably much higher. The Dhuravi slum has numerous recycling industries, such as plastic, metal oil containers, and radiator filters. There are also leather and textile industries within the slum. We were all surprised at the lack of people begging. Actually no one was. Children were into saying hello and shaking our hands, and adults watching us. The last half of the tour was walking through a residential area which was a maze of narrow passages between buildings that barely allowed people to pass each other. It was fascinating. We all agreed it was an excellent experience and I hope to arrange this opportunities for as many of you who visit!

The rest of the week was spent walking around Bandra, many shopping excursions, a trip to Chor Bazaar (thieves market), and preparing for our holiday cocktail party on Friday night. The party went well, complete with Reid motivating us all to sing Twelves Days of Christmas. I was excited about our bright, multi-colored Christmas lights that dominated the decorating scheme. Very India.

Suzy and Ryan are arriving tonight and we all head off to Rajasthan on Monday for ten days.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

A Charlie's Choclate Factory experience.

2010-12-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

Last night was the elementary school's Tree Lighting Festival. For over a month, staff members have been telling Greg and I, "You've got to go. The food is amazing. It's wonderful." We agreed we had to check out what the hype was all about. So, we found ourselves at the Hyatt last night, waiting with excited children running around and through adult legs, eagerly awaiting. At 6:20pm, we were allowed into the court yard that housed the gigantic Christmas Tree. This part of the evening would be filled with the tree lighting and then elementary school choirs performing. As the first group of kids took the stage, the count down was started and at zero the tree and other parts of the lobby blazed brightly. Each choir did well with their performances and at the end there was a sing along for the audience. At the end of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," gasps went up in the crowd. We had to reposition ourselves to see that Santa was rappelling down one of the walls. (Later on, some of Greg's students said they first thought it was him since Santa was rappelling). As Santa made his was to his red velvet couch, doors to the side of us opened up into a banquet hall.

(Let me take this moment to remind all that this is a school sponsored function).

There was a pause as those of us near the door peered into the room. The large hall was outlined in food stations carrying Thai, American, Continental, Japanese, and Chinese fare. There were also several bar areas placed in strategic places. In the center of it all was the desert station which looked like one of the counters in the cosmetic stations at a department store. We looked at each other, grabbed a glass of wine that was waiting as we broke the threshold and we began our exploration of what taste to first test with our palate. Santa was a great distraction for many people, so I was into my second tasting as the room became more crowded. I was delighted at the bar when they said they had eggnog. Yes! I then ran over to Greg and said, "Look what I have!" "What?" "I have eggnog!" Greg exclaimed, "Where!" Nothing beats the Tibboel family recipe, but it was pretty good, especially for India.

I think I started out with a Thai Green curry, which was spicy hot and one of the better I've had outside of Thailand. Then I marched over to the cheese area. "Ohhhhhh!" (Cheese is really expensive here. For those of you who know how much cheese is a part of my diet, it's been a struggle to resist the cheese cravings). Here were huge rounds of Parmesan, Brie, white cheddar, Blue Cheese, Swiss, and several more. I said, screw the crackers, and filled my plate with cheese and olives. My taste buds were in heaven. Next I stood firm in the long line for the sushi station. The salmon and tuna were yummy. Then I headed over for some prawns and a lox creation. My belly was becoming full...and I STILL had the dessert station.

I started walking around the center counter and first my eyes rested on some chocolate truffles. I choose three when a layered cake caught my eye. I had that added to my plate. Oooo, an array of custards and mousses. I added the chocolate one to my hand. As I rounded the corner there was ice cream! I grabbed a scoop of chocolate with chocolate flakes. Then the assortment of eclairs. I decided I needed something to cleanse my palate from all the chocolate, so I responsibly choose a vanilla one. I took my bounty back to our table with a big smile spread across my face. I dug in and it was delicious. About half way through I could feel my stomach beginning to ache and my body going into sugar overload. I enlisted others at the table to help me. Oh, what an amazing gorge fest. Luckily I didn't turn into a block of cheese or loose my way into the chocolate syrup vault. I live to tell the story of adults turning into children as the smells and tastes overwhelm them of sooooo much good food.

One of my favorite moments was while waiting for another eggnog, a group of kids were waiting for 7up to appear so that the server would pour it into the glass with the electric blue syrup in the bottom of their glasses. The 7up arrived and as the glass filled up to the rim, a brilliant blue, more kids eyes lighted up as they chirped, "I want on, I want one!" The server smiled and lined up another four glasses. It was a wonderful sight.

Again, this was a school function. Why would we ever leave?

A Festive Weekend

2010-12-05T03:17:00.000-08:00

Our weekend turned out to be centered on the upcoming Christmas holiday. It's hard to believe it's the Christmas season when it's 80 plus degrees out. Saturday, the German Chamber of Commerce hosted a Christmas Festival at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Central Mumbai. The festival had a lot activities for the kiddies including Santa. Greg has not been on his best behavior, so I decided to skip Santa for fear of his sadness in what Santa would be telling him. We arrived around 6:30pm in time to buy a couple of GERMAN beers (yes!!! Good beer, no Kingfisher for the evening) and a brat for Greg before the German band started up. We were there with our friends, Marc and Toni and later joined by Barbara and Mike and then Reid, Rory, and Wacuima. Marc, who is Belgium and speaks German, helped us with the singing and cheers. It was a fun filled night of dancing, merry making, eating and enjoying great company. A highlight was getting to stand in the back of the refrigerated container where the beer was being stored. Greg and I dreamed of snowy slopes and pretending to make a few telemark turns.

Sunday, we were treated with the Dutch celebration of St. Nicholas. Marc had the honor of being St. Nicholas. We went down to South Mumbai with Toni to witness this honor. Marc boarded a boat, along with four "black men," boated around the Gateway of India, and then met a group of eagerly awaiting children and parents of many nationalities. While we were waiting for Marc to arrive, we were spectacles in our own right. While standing the shade, many Indians were taking our pictures, without asking. I asked them to stop and said they should ask first. A few minutes later, a group of young Indian men regrouped and asked us for our picture. We agreed and they were respectful when we said enough. I did get a good picture of them taking pictures of us and their friends. It was just too funny.

Finally I spotted a tall, red pope hat bobbing along the street. Yes!! We quickly walked over and saw St. Nick and his four black women board the boat. I was wondering how Marc was surviving the heat in such an outfit. After taking his picture, we walked to the other side of the harbor to photograph the crowd greeting St. Nick. It was wonderful to see all the Indians curiously looking on. We heard one woman explaining, in Hindi, to her child about Santa Claus and Christmas. A lot of the Dutch children were dressed up as well. We walked with the group to the Dutch Residency, where St. Nick would get to meet with each child and give out gifts. After satisfying our curiosity and photo documenting to occasion, we headed to Cafe Indigo for lunch and to wait for St. Nick to transform back to Marc.

We enjoyed having some other cultural experiences with Christmas! Happy holidays!

A Goan Thanksgiving

2010-12-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving afternoon, after Greg and others finished their professional development half day, we, along with three friends - Rachel and Reid Wixson, and Wacuima, - jumped in some rickshaws and headed to the airport. Greg and I had a little side adventure with the rickshaw we chose. Half way to their airport, the rickshaw ran out of gas. The funny thing was earlier that day when I took a rickshaw to the school, a cool cab (A/C cab) was being pushed by several men down the road. Presumably it had run out of gas. My thought, "How often does that happen and are their gas gauges? I wonder when that will happen when I'm in one." The answer: 4 hours later. We hopped out and the first rickshaw wanted 100 rupees which was more than the full ride should cost, let alone half the trip. We shook our heads in disgust and waved another. He turned the meter on and off we went. When we arrived, he asked for 50 rupees. I pulled out my rickshaw price sheet, pointed at the meter, and then the sheet and told him "no, 34 rupees." He wagged his head and conceded. I've decided Greg must have some look about him that the Indians think, "sucker!" For as much as I ride rickshaws, I've had only 3-4 incidences. Greg has had many more issues and rarely takes rickshaws.

At the airport, along with half the staff at ASB, we boarded our JetLite plane for the one hour flight to Goa. In the 60s, Goa was hippie central and it's reputation for relaxation continues to this day. It's really one of the only places in all of India where I would wear my western two-piece swimsuit. Not entirely comfortable as all the hords of single Indian men traveling in packs just stare, but there's plenty of western tourists wearing the same thing. We went to Calangute, which is more of a touristy area, but we wanted to see some tourist sights. The further south you go, the less inhabited and more serene things become, so we are told. Calangute, surprisingly, attracts a high volume of Russian tourists and many signs and menus were translated into Russian.

We stayed at the Indian Kitchen guest house, a colorful, family run establishment that was very clean and welcoming. We were sad to hear that a family member had passed away and they did not have their dinning area open. The food was highly recommended in the Lonely Planet. After dropping our belongings off, we headed down the road, toward the beach, and had Thanksgiving dinner at Lazy Days restaurant. Upon looking around once we were seated, we noticed we were surrounded by retired European couples that were living it up. It was a funny sight. The food was excellent and my indulgence into the Goan fish curry began. Due to the seven mile dead zone around Mumbai and the tanker that spilled oil into the bay in August, I've pretty much decided I can't bring myself to eat seafood in Mumbai. (Having foreign fish again seems environmentally detrimental since we live next to an ocean. My exception has been a wonderful food stand in the market on Linking Road. So tasty, I try not to think about where the prawns are coming from). The two kinds of fish curry that we had we delicious! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Our first day, we hired a driver, Daya, to take us to Old Goa. The drive was a nice scenery of tropical farm areas, fields filled with some water buffalo and egrets, and in general still felt relaxing to me. The Portuguese colonized Goa in the early 1500s and I think finally gave it independence in 1961, so their presence is still felt. Old Goa was the first capital, until it had to be moved after the town was wiped out from the plague. What has been restored are all of these churches in the area. Huge churches. My favorite was the the ruins of St. Augustine. It has not been restored and was fun to wander around through the maze of what is left. In the Basilica de Bom Jesus, the remains of St. Xavier are kept and once a year, December 2nd, his remains are shown. Being there right before this occurred, we saw then huge tents set up to welcome all the visitors expected - thousands.

The second day we had Daya take us to the Tropical Spice Plantation. We had a great tour, our guide very knowledgeable about all the different spices they had growing. We saw pepper, cardamon, turmeric, cloves, vanilla, betel nut, tulsi, cinnamon, bay leaves, nutmeg, and ginger plants. At the end, one of the harvesters showed us how he climbed the betel nut tree and swung from one to the next to harvest the betel nut. Once he came down, Greg, Wacuima, and I tried it to climb a short way up a tree. There was a rope loop that fit around our feet and helped "cam" our feet around the tree. It was really quite secure. Just beefing up calluses on my feet where the rope was would be the training needed, as well was arm strength. At least I know of a job I could do if the counseling thing doesn't work out! After our "lesson" we were purified by water being poured down our backs and then invited to a wonderful lunch using fresh spices. Delicious!

The rest of our time was spent relaxing on the beach, playing in the water, reading, and eating. It was a marvelous break from Mumbai, aside from the hawkers, and my arm won't have to be twisted very hard to make it our Thanksgiving tradition while in India.

One International's 10th Anniversary Gala

2010-11-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

Over the past four months, I have been volunteering at One International, a school for kids who are basically homeless and don't have the chance to go to school becuase they don't have the proper papers. One of the parents at ASB, Ali, organizes for us to go on Wednesday to help the children with their English language skills. We sing songs, play games, do worksheets and lots of other fun things.

The past two weeks, all the children have been preparing plays, dances and songs for the 10th annual Gala to celebrate the school, teachers, parents, and students. Ten years ago, Tania started One International with 3-4 children from the Khar fishing village. Today, there are two schools with over 200 students from ages 4-18! It's pretty amazing. After the performances, there were awards for best grades, best attendance, honors, most improved student, and student from the year. Students were chosen from both schools for the awards. In the youngest class I help with, 4-5 year olds, there were two boys who both received honors. One of them ended up receiving the student of the year for the entire school (the little guy with the black jacket and gray shirt on in one of the photo)! After receiving his award, he sat next to the other honor student (the one with the crazy hair and pink shirt on in the same photo), turned to him and stuck out his tongue. A little competition going on thereat age five!

The gala was held at St. Joseph's School, very close to our flat. Students and families were bused to the location. You'll notice in the pictures how excited the students are to perform and that everyone was dressed in their best. It was a pretty big deal and I was honored to be apart of it all!

Staring eyes

2010-11-22T02:37:00.000-08:00

Since this just happened and I have quick access to the computer, I thought I'd write it down for viewing pleasure. I left ASB today at 3pm, right as school was getting let out. I chatted with one of the parents and then strolled past the school buses, the passengers waiting for their drivers to arrive and the drivers waiting for their passengers to arrive. I waved to the last security guard on my route to the main street, about two blocks away, to grab a rickshaw. I chuckled as my walk took me past a construction site, in which it's dirt and mess has spilled onto the road. I couldn't picture those, who I had just past, walking to catch a rickshaw and getting their shoes dirty. My luck! A rickshaw pulled up and beeped, wondering if I wanted a ride. I hopped in and we zoomed off. At a stop light, a motorcycle with two men on it pulled up next two us. I heard the word "didi" (Which technically means "auntie" but what I'm called a lot. It is a term of respect) and could feel the stare of the man on the back as he cranked his neck to get a goooood...loooonnnng...looooooook at me. I turned the other way, ignoring him. As we sped up again, I could see two young guys walking ahead and one spotted me. He grabbed his friend and pointed at me. Argh!!!! Hasn't anyone seen a white chick in an auto rickshaw before. This is Mumbai, people! So, I tried a different tactic. I turned their way, put on my biggest grin and frantically waved. Kind of like they were my long lost friends I hadn't seen in forever. As I past, they waved back, looking a little unsure. That'll give them a story... "this crazy gora, she just grinned and waved at us like she knew us. Crazy. I 'm pretty sure she was looking at me." The other, "No pretty sure it was me she was looking at..." I'm never going to get use to the stares and making eye contact sends the wrong message - "she thinks I'm hot"! There's no winning, just doing outlandish things so they have a reason to stare.

The Garba Dance Video

2010-11-21T00:19:00.000-08:00

Finally, we have a copy of the Garba dance video. Go to this like to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ0XfhrRsJU.

Another Blog from Greg

2010-11-14T03:32:00.000-08:00

Hello to everybody that reads out blog. We love being able to share our new adventures with you and to stay in touch. It is time for my monthly blog. Things here are going well, and as you can see from Twyla's post we are getting to see and experience a lot of amazing things here in India. We have settled down in our lives here in Mumbai, and coming back to Mumbai after vacations actually seems relaxing. I never thought that would happen.

School is going well and fast. I have had my first grades due, and I have had my first parent teacher conferences. We are screaming towards the end of the semester, and I cant believe it is coming so fast. I got the experience of going on Week Without Walls. I helped lead a trip with the seniors, and we where rafting down the Ganges. We got to start with one of the head water rivers and actually rafted to a major confluence, and the actual start of the Ganges. It is a very holy place. In the above picture you can see the two colors of the rivers joining. We were being blessed by a holly man and then dunked in the river. It was a very beautiful place. We ended our 4 day trip near the town of Rishikesh. This is the town that was made famous by the Beatles and their time spent there. It too is a very holy place along the Ganges with amazing temples along the river. We took the kids in town one night and saw a fire ceremony along the river. The river was pretty tame, but we had a lot of fun. I feel very lucky to be in a school that allows students this opportunity. Twyla got to join the 9th graders, and I think she would agree that this is, or at least has the potential to be a very valuable experience for the students. I guess it is easy when you have class sizes close to 50 students.

India is still an intense place to live for me, but I am figuring it out a lot more. I know a few more words in Hindi, and the rickshaw drivers seem to try to rip me off a bit less. We have found lots of great places to eat, and I can find my way around town and I can use the train. Mainly I can get on and off the train which is the hard part. I am still running a lot, and that takes up a lot of time. Most days I get up at 5:00 or before to run. On the weekends I might sleep in to 5:30. My longest run of date is 16 miles, and I still have 9 weekends left. I am looking forward to not running, but I am glad to have the routine for now. We are still trying to get the climbing wall at school up and running, but I think that will have finally happened by the end of this week. We are meeting great friends, and enjoying those relationships. I am missing the snow, and winter right now, but that is one of my big sacrifices for this experiences. Enstead of going to parties to talk about skiing and snow, we are going to parties and talking about food and Cashmere rugs. Same great people, just different interests.

Well I have to get planning for the weekend. We miss all of our friends, and we would love to hear from everybody. Feel free to skype, facebook, e-mail, or even send mail.

Greg

Part 2 of Fall Break - Aurangabad

2010-11-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

The historical significance of Aurangabad and surrounding sites are the highlight here. Aurangabad was the capital of the Mughal empire for a brief time when the last Mughal emperor moved the entire city of Delhi to Aurangabad in 1653. Traveling around the city, you can see remnants of the city's old walls and gates. This city is the jumping point to the Ajunta caves (two hours away) and the Ellora caves (30 minutes away). Before Greg and I came to India, we saw a slide show from the Mesa State outdoor club's winter break trip to Southern India. When they showed slides of these caves, we decided right then it was a place we were going.

The Ajunta caves were carved and painted by Buddhist monks from 200BC to 650AD. Think of these dates as you look at the craftsmanship in the photos. The caves are set into cliffs overlooking a serene creek, with a waterfall and the hillside is dotted with colorful foliage. It made me want to sit down and meditate. These caves were lost to humans for centuries until a British hunting party discovered them in 1819. The unique thing about them is a lot of the painting is still present, whereas at Ellora, there's virtually no painting left. It was amazing to see and we thought to ourselves, what was going on in North America during this time... India and Asia truly was advanced by then. The only draw back to the day was having to enter and exit from the bus (which took us to several kilometers to the base of the caves) to our hired car through a souvenir marketplace with very pushy hawkers. One even followed us to our car, still trying to sell Greg something as we backed up and drove off. (Our driver had warned us, "don't buy anything from Ajunta).

The next day we went to the Ellora caves and then the Dhulatabad Fort. The Ellora caves are much more accessible, thus a little more crowded and hawkers trying to sell you things everywhere, instead of just the parking lot. But, they were much less persistent and mainly left us alone. These caves were carved by Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monks over many centuries. The Buddhist were the oldest from 600-800AD and the Jain caves were the youngest from 800-1000AD. These have never been "lost" so people have been coming to them since carved to pray and see the amazing craftsmanship. The most famous "cave" is the Kailash Temple, which represents Mt. Kailash, where the Ganges begins its trickle and represents Shiva. These caves were mainly built top to bottom. The Kailash Temple was built over ten generations and is very detailed and intricate. Some of its paintings were still visible.

After a long, hot day, we mustered up our energy to finish the day off at the Dhulatabad Fort. We thoroughly enjoyed this mid-evilish fort. The fort has a number of protective features built into to protect itself. there's an outer wall, 5km around the old town. Within those walls, the commoners lived. Further in was another wall protecting higher classes. The third wall surrounded the fort and from there the journey became quite steep. Stairs were cut at different levels so any intruders couldn't just run up the stairs. There were many cannons, which were intricately carved. The largest, within the third wall, could rotate 180 degrees, so if it fell into the wrong hands, it could not be used to blow up the fort. A series of gates at the third wall were built to fool anyone who got this far and trap them. (All the doors were huge, heavy and wooden with metal spikes in lines down the entire door). The there was a wet moat to cross, which lead to a series of steep caves that hot oil and water would be poured into to stop invaders. We just had to deal with the many bats in the caves as we climbed the musty stairs. Finally, a long set of stairs wound around the rest of the hillside to the top of the fort and an amazing view as the sun began to set.

We had an extra day in Aurangabad, so we went to see the smaller Aurangabad caves, a Himaroo Weaving Center where we saw traditional ways of hand weaving and I bought my first sari, and took in a bollywood film before the fireworks of Diwali began. The firworks were another sight to behold. We snuck up onto the hotel's roof top to be greeted by a colorful war zone. EVERYONE was setting them off for HOURS. The air was thick with smoke and I wondered how many people were going to be injured that night. We heard a loud series of bursts from below and saw some of the familes staying at the hotel setting off fireworks. They lighted a huge box. We watched until all of the sudden three gold lights shot up about twenty feet from us. #$@%!!! We ran to the other side of the roof and right above us, large fireworks exploded. Pretty amazing. After Greg was almost hit by a stray one, we headed downstairs for a snack. 4th of July has nothing on Diwali!!

Happy Diwali! (The powdered designs are the rangolis I wrote about a few blogs ago).

Part 1 of Fall break: Nasik

2010-11-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

After Greg and I came back from Week Without Walls, we had one day to repack for our week long trip around Maharastra. First to Nasik, wine counrty and holy city, then off to Aurangabad where to World Heritage sites of the Ellora and Ajunta Caves are located. Saturday morning, we dragged our weary bodies out of bed at 5am in order to make our way to the Victoria Terminus train station in southern Mumbai. I was very proud that we found the correct train to get there and then found the Tavopan Express, which would take us 3 and a half hours north to Nasik. I had booked us AC Chair seats, which weren't too bad at all. The car even had a waiter that took orders for food and drink and brought them to us.

When we arrived at Nasik, we were immediately accosted by a taxi driver, who we told we wanted a rickshaw. He "gave" us to someone else and we were whisked away. The rickshaw was decked out inside with a fancy pleather seat that had a design embroidered into it. When we arrived at our hotel, we were immediately disappointed to find that the meter is not used and the driver demanding 150rs. This was WAY more than the same ride in Mumbai. We argued with him for awhile, then went in and asked the hotel how much the ride costs. He stated 100rs, in a quiet voice. This was still expensive, but not able to do much about it, we gave the driver the money. (Greg reminded me that we were only haggling over a dollar, which is true). We pretty much walked the rest of the time in Nasik, except for travel outside the city. Nasik, we felt was just as busy, congested and polluted as Mumbai. I struggled a bit with this since after Dharamsala, think I had the expectation of a peaceful town.

Nasik is located on the Godavari River, also known as the Little Ganges. It is a holy river, where pilgrims come to bath away sins, pray, and even release loved ones' ashes into the river. Mind you this goes on while clothes are being washed, dishes cleaned, and other daily happenings. The result, though is an array of color and energy. Along the river there are many Hindu temples and Greg and I found many more just wandering around the streets. The markets and roadsides were filled with all the colorful decorations, powders, and diyas for Diwali, as well as the usual spices and food stuffs. There were many friendly people and one helped us find our favorite place to eat in Nasik, the Ganesh Lunch House. It was run by a family, who kept heaping food onto our plates despite saying we were full. Yummy! Really, this was the only good place we found to eat. The rest ended up being quite bad. One was a bar and restaurant, which I suggested trying it, knowing Greg would probably love to have a cold Kingfisher beer. We went upstairs and sat down. I immediately noticed we were surrounded by a number of drunk men and it was really smoky. I was fighting a head cold and finally told Greg I needed to leave. As we got up, they server asked us what was wrong. We told him the smoke was bothering me, so he directed us to another room. The room was FILTHY! I think they had a party last month and hadn't cleaned up yet. While Greg quickly drank his beer, a cockroach was trying to get friendly with us. Aren't they suppose to be nocturnal?

My first Hindi class I took before we left paid off. I think over the week we answer the questions of "What's your name" and "Where are your from" a million times. I taught Greg the phrase "Mera nom Greg hai," which means my name is Greg and the Hindi word for American, "Umreeka." Everyone got a kick out of that and tried to speak Hindi to us.

From Nasik, we took a day trip to Trimbuk, 30 km away. We hiked up Brahmagiri Hill, where the source of the Godavari trickles and there are several temples. The walk up had many small Hindu statues lining the stairs, which gave people a good excuse to stop and catch their breath. At the top, we decided to try some offerings, but our "guide" pretty much sucked and we still have no idea what the different parts of offerings mean. Plus, I ended up with a plastic bag with two colored powders and a sugar treat leftover from the "Puja Package," which very aggressive monkeys wanted. One monkey even touched my leg, freaking me out. I think he would have climbed me accept someone shooed him off. We walked down to other temples that were carved out of the rock, despite being stalked by a hissing, teeth barring monkey the entire time. We armed ourselves with rocks until we reached the last temple and scrambled inside, forgetting to take our shoes off. The monk inside was very nice about it. Finally, I had the bright idea to put the white, plastic bag inside Greg's hip pack and the monkey let us alone.

On our way down, we were asked to join a group of men, who were with a guru. We decided, why not, and hung out for awhile, talking with the one man who could speak English. When we asked about places for lunch in Trimbuk, they told us we would join them for lunch. We eat on the floor in a mud, thatched hut off of large banana leaves. The food was good and Greg and struggled to stay seated cross-legged for so long. Not so flexible in the hips as Indians! After the meal, we continued our journey back to the bus station. I realized later, we had missed seeing one of the 12 most important shrines of Shiva, but non-Hindus aren't allowed inside anyways.

Also, I forgot to mention that Greg and I are now famous all over India. Over the week, we have posed for many, many, many, many, many pictures with Indian tourists. We were part of the attraction. It got to the point, I finally just refused and even told one group that it would be 50Rs , which I think they would have paid. Greg was a nice Midwesterner and never refused and had to make excuses for me.

Nasik is nestled into the wine country of India, so we did an afternoon and terrace sampling at Sula Vineyards, India's largest winery. It was sooo peaceful and relaxing. The countryside was beautiful and Greg and I talked about bringing our bikes next time. It was a nice break from India for a few hours to recharge ourselves. (Robin, we told them all about you and they would love to have you come out and do some consulting! Greg took lots of pictures of the equipment for you). An interesting fact we learned is the wine that they sell in India is not aged as long because Indians prefer a more sweet wine, as they are known for their sweet tooth. They do export wine and those have been aged longer. So, a challenge for everyone is to search for wine from Sula Vineyard. We were wondering to cost and what the taste is like. Generally, Indian wines are only so-so, but much more affordable here than imports due to high tariffs.

After three nights, we hopped on a bus to arrive in Aurangabad five hours later. We tried to get on a train, but the seats were waitlisted since it was Diwali week. The bus ride wasn't bad, Greg wasn't too cramped and we've now covered most of the transport options in India. All that is left is boat, bicycle rickshaw, camel, and elephant. Horse too, but Greg won't get near those.

Dharamsala: 9th grade Week Without Walls

2010-11-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

The last week of October, I had the wonderful opportunity to help chaperon the 9th Grade's Week Without Walls trip to Dharamsala. This was the first time the school had done this trip, which was organized by a group called Snow Leopards. Dharamsala is where the Dali Lama fled to when he left Tibet. His residence is here, along with many other Tibetan monks and Tibetan refugees. It is located in the foothills of the Himalayas and is beautiful. As we flew, the mountains at first looked like white clouds far in the distance. As we got closer, the landscape below us unfolded into steep hillsides, dotted with shiny tin roofs. Villages were nestled at the end of valleys and perched high on top of the hills. (To anyone from the east coast, these "hills" are close to the equivalent of the Appalachian Mountains). The white peaks were then towering layer after layer as far as the eye could see. I felt like crying, it was so good to see mountains! The white capped mountains around Dharamsala are very rugged and have not really been climbed much. When we landed, the airport was small with one runway, but with a spectacular view. As I deplaned, I took in a nice, clean breath of fresh air. Ahhhhh... After everyone arrived, we climbed aboard two buses and started the steep and switchback filled journey up to our hotel that a bus had no business being on, but this is India. The fauna had gone from tropical in Mumbai to an alpine environment here. I knew it was going to be hard to leave at the end of the week.

The area of town where we stayed and where the Dali Lama's residence were located, was along a steep hillside. Roads traversed along, snaking around multi-storied buildings that were brightly colored. The first evening, we walked through town and briefly looked through the Tibetan museum, walked through the temple at His Holiness's residence (he was not present that week) and then walked two kilometers around the temple. The path was narrow, and wound through the forest. There were carins everywhere, painted white and prayer flags layered all throughout the forest. Sets of Prayer wheels lined parts of the path and it was meditative to spin each one we came upon. They were all sizes, from about as big as a large tin can to taller than a human being. That night, after eating dinner, we were graced with the presence of a monk, who talked about his story of escaping Tibet. It was heart wrenching and amazing to see this smiling and forgiving man in front of us. He had been though more than I could imagine someone ever having to go through in a life time. He is 33 years old, my age. He ended with a Tibetan chant, which was low and deep. Some of the boys practiced imitating this the rest of the trip and one even performed at the talent show our last night. It was fascinating to watch how different parts of the trip effected some of the students.

I ended up feeling a bit sick that night, having to get up many times for "loose motions" (as they are called here) and was worried about how I was going to start trekking in the morning and spend two nights out camping. I was also angry at my body and told it there was no way it was holding me back. In the morning, I succumbed to taking some medicine and throughout the day felt better.

The first day, we trekked around the upper hills of Dharamsala. We stopped at a temple that had so many prayer flags it was almost disorienting. We had another monk talking to us there about being a monk. He had a great sense of humor and teased the kids a lot. When one of the kids asked him why he became the monk, he answered with a smile, "oh, this was a very stupid reason. When I was 13, we had a monk come to our house. I saw that my mother is making all this good food and then serving it to the monk. I sat there and though, wow, I want to become monk so I can eat all this good food. Very stupid, but my stupid reason turned into a wonderful decision."

We also visited the Tibetan Children's Village (http://www.tcv.org.in/index.shtml), which cares for and educates Tibetan children who have been orphaned, abandoned, or brought from Tibet for a better life. We saw the grounds of the school, which were in an amazing setting, saw the temple there, visited the 2-5 year olds, and toured a house where 30 children live. The 2-5 year olds were precious. They sang for us, proudly, and were very eager to show our students their rooms. There was one very serious little guy, who was climbing all over and had the most amazing balance and coordination I've ever seen in such a young person. The kids loved him.

The rest of the day, we hiked into more farming and grazing lands in the hills to our camp spot on a terraced hillside. Snow Leopards provided tents, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and blankets. The students were responsible for putting up their own tents. The meals were cooked for us and we ate in a long tent set up with lots of chairs. The students also helped with chores like washing dishes, cleaning up, taking down camp. It was good for them to have to help out for the common good.

Our next day of trekking was the hardest. It was a fairly steep climb to gain 1000 meters during the day. I was impressed how most of the groups encouraged each other and found ways to occupy their minds to get through rough parts. The last part of the climb was very steep and we could see where we would end up, just above the rocks we were hiking up. When we got there, it was an amazing reward. We were on a grass covered plateau, looking across the vally to snow-dusted, rugged peaks. I had a strong desire to be over there! I asked one of the guides later about climbing those mountains and he told me one of the peaks had been summited but the others had not because there wasn't a good route up them. "Man, I have to bring Greg here," was what I was thinking. Everyone was tired, but happy about the view. It was cold when the sun went down and the wind picked up. Many of the students didn't have adequate clothing and started to shiver. We rounded them up, into the eating tent, which warmed up with body heat and was protection against the wind. A fire was also started. Above us, there was a higher point where a small temple stood. I asked about how long it would take to get there and was thinking about an early morning hike before breakfast. I spoke with one of the staff members and we had 13 students interested in getting up at 5am and hiking through sunrise, going as far as we could. I had my doubts about how many would wake up that early, especially when the time came in the cold, dark dawn. Low and behold, 12 got up. We were a group of different paces, but we stayed together as a group and reached about half way up to the temple. Hiking as the sun came up was spectacular, watching the color bloom through the valley and surrounding mountains. We all felt a bit special, I think, as we entered camp for breakfast having such a great experience when everyone else had only gotten up and were packing. My wonderful tent mate had even rolled up my bedding for me! (Thanks, Kim)!

The trek down had more amazing views, though was steep and filled with loose rock. A bunch of us commented that we were glad this was not how we had come up. I think some of the students might not have made it. We arrived at the hotel with smiles and the students were eager to hit the town for some souvenir shopping. All the adults were ready for a nap, but we pushed on. After having tea on a roof top terrace near the Dali Lama's residence, we split into groups and had an hour of shopping frenzy before we needed to be back at the hotel for a cultural performance. I laughed because me group of girls spent a lot of time buying junk food for traveling the next day. You'd think they had been trekking for months, not just out for two nights. They were also bumming when they didn't have enough time to buy gifts for their families. Oh, wonderful natural consequences.:) I myself bought Greg a singing bowl (he's been eyeing them for about five years), some scarves, and YARN! We kept passing shops where women were knitting, but I didn't see any yarn. I finally asking and slowly was pointed to a shop that had yarn off to the side in plastic bags. I rummaged through quickly and grabbed about 8 skeins that I bought for under $10! What a deal!

I rushed my group back to the hotel and we were given a wonderful performance of traditional Tibetan dancing. Colorful, intricate costumes, wonderful singing and music. The performers had such wonderful energy and amazing smiles. I think this ended up being one of the best things about our week...other than the views, the monks, the Tibetan Children's Village, prayer flags...it was an amazing experience! I was a bit disappointed to be sleeping back in the hotel instead of a tent. The hotel was cold, stuffy, and sheets a bit stained. (Rule #1 when traveling to budget hotels in India, always bring your own linen). But, I slept much better than my first night at the hotel with my "loose motions."

Our decent down the hillside, back to the airport the next day was a little sad for me. I was ready to stay and just have Greg join me, rather than head back to Mumbai. I think that was a sentiment for other staff members and some of the students too. We had a little bit of a debacle with the flights out of Dharamsala, but it was worked out and our plane cleared the mountains, rose into the blue sky, and we watched to mountains slowly disappear.

Garba Dancing

2010-11-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

Diwali, India's equivalent of Christmas and a festival of lights, just finished this past Sunday. All over India, there were rangolis (designs made of colored powder) at people's doorsteps, diyas (colorful clay bowls that are filled with oil and lighted) placed at doorways, around houses (in our hotel i Aurangabad there were placed in the hallways and all over the lobby), lanterns, and so many fireworks that I now laugh at our 4th of July displays. This festival celebrates Ram, Sita, and Ram's brother's return from exile after Ravana, the evil ten headed god, was killed. The lights signify the townspeople lighting the way home and welcoming the three home. On the commercial side of things, Diwali means may sales and discounts, just like Christmas.

Three Fridays ago, before Greg and I left on our respective Week Without Walls trips, the school had a Diwali assembly. when I entered the school that day, there were flower streamers, lights, and ceiling decorations all over the building. It looked beautiful. Most of the staff and students were dressed in Indian wear and there was such a festive spirit in the air. The assembly was where all the time and energy that myself and 15 others spent the past month learning a Garba dance would be shown off. We all gathered to change into our costumes, complete with lots of jewelry and bindis. The earrings were very heavy and as I moved my head around, I was worried my ears were going to fall off. How am I going to dance in these?! At the assemble, many different groups of students performed dances and plays. They were all wonderful and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. We were on last, as we headed on stage I though, "crap, it's happening. Will I remember the steps?" I was nervous and I had a knot in my chest the full five minutes of the dance. We whirled and twirled, our sparkling dresses swirling about and there were a lot of smiles. It was fun. When the music ended, we had a big applause and we had done it! No major catastrophes or errors. Then there was a feeling of, wow we worked so heard and now it's over. Hmmmm, that's a bit of a let down.

Luckily, we were suck a hit that we have been asked to perform at the PTA gala this weekend so we get another performance, then it's over.:) Once I get a hold of a video of the performance, I'll post it. Until then, enjoy some of the prep photos.

Greatful we are without a driver

2010-10-21T02:28:00.000-07:00

Today was the second Mumbai Explorers excursion to Mani Bhavan (Gandhi Museum). I left my flat at 9:30am, armed with the Lonely Planet and Mumbai Maps book to help me find the museum. Very happy I had rupees on my smart card, I went to the small computer stand, got my ticket without waiting in line, and walked over to the 5th platform - the fast train - to head off to Grant Road station. At this time in the morning, there are loads of people heading into the city since most businesses don't open until 10 - 11am. As the train came to a halt, I pulled myself on, trying to push the woman in front of me further into the train as another woman was barely hanging on behind me. The train started up. As women started to shift to exit the next station, I was tightly crammed between other bodies, all of them women since I was in the ladies' car. I was sweating like a pig, so all I could do was go to my happy place and smile at the situation. Then we started moving, a group of ladies started singing and they serenaded us the whole ride. It was wonderful! Brought me back to Kingston, Jamaica where there was always thumping beats blaring on the buses. At Dadar, the most bustling station, loads of women exited, creating more room and I took a seat for a bit until my station came up. I squeezed my way to the door telling women I was getting off at Grant Station and they stepped aside to let me by.
Once off, I meandered until I found the exit of the station and stepped out into the bustling street with my map book out. It wasn't a far walk, but figuring out which road to take at an intersection where five roads met was slightly disorienting. I asked a policeman who pointed me in the right direction. I arrived as the Mumbai Explorers headed inside.
It's a wonderful museum and I hope to go back when I have more time to explore. For lunch, we took a walk around the block to see a couple of other significant sights. One of the ladies stated to me. "Wow, walking, it feels so good. You just don't get to see as much when you are in the car, right?" I laughed to myself and thought, "honey, you don't even know the half of it." This moment made me truly grateful that I can't rely on my air conditioned car, driven by a driver, who takes me wherever and I end up having no clue about anything. Here's to sweat, crowds, singing and India! I earned my fresh lime soda, damn it!
As we left the lunch spot, all the other ladies turned right, calling their drivers and I turned left to head back to the train station...

Our Hero Bicycles

2010-10-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, the long awaited blog about our Indian bikes from Hero! We've had them about a month or so and have been getting use to their "special" nuances. Both were about $70 and are solid as a tank. Greg's bike is the same that millions of Indians ride each day to commute or deliver any type of goods you can think of. After riding my bike around Bandra, I have a new found respect for the balancing act these men go through every day. Wow!
One of our mishaps has been with the tires. Both of our tires went low, so Greg bought a standing bike pump to get them back into shape. The only problem was...what the heck is this? The valves on the tires are not Shrader nor Presta. They are unique to India? Maybe these are the same valves in China? All I know is when Greg went to use the bike pump he ended up pulling out the valve thus causing opposite effect of the hoped outcome. Oops. Now he was able to practice changing his bike tube. This was quite a fun project for him, which took about two and a half hours. He's not going to be winning any races in the near future I can tell you that.
Changing the tire involved taking half the bike apart since most of it was connected to the rear axle: heavy duty kickstand, rear rack, brakes, bike lock, fenders. All connected by bolts. All this was preformed in our car port in the evening hours in the humidity and with mosquitoes buzzing around. Greg LOVED it! When I came into this scene I immediately thought, photo opt! Thus, we now have photos to show off our heavy metal beasts.
There aren't very many females out riding the streets, so my bright pink, "Miss India Gold" is quite a sight. Actually two foreigners using their own steam instead of a driver is quite a sight. It is assumed that we have a driver by everyone. For example when asking directions to an expat function, "Oh, just have your driver call mine. They'll figure it out."
Since fixing his tube, Greg has been to the bike shop to have his tires pumped up and he has assured me that he watched closely and "thinks" he can pump mine up. Ha! On my list of things to do today is taking Miss India Gold and bike pump to the shop for a lesson. The other adjustment she needs is a taller seat. Women's bikes come in "one size fits all." When I went to raise my seat, it was only a few inches long. Sorry, but I'm just slightly longer than the average Indian woman. Wish me luck. Right now my leg can't go straighter than 45 degrees. Not a very pleasant feeling on my knees.
Our next goal, once everything is fitting right, is decking out the bikes in bling. I was very excited to see another bike recently with lights placed on the spokes of both tires. I exclaimed, "I must do this!" (What could be cooler than multicolored lights spinning out from all directions of my bike)? If I'm going to be drawing attention to myself, I might as well go all out!
Probably the most important feature both our bikes came with was the bike bell. My thumb is placed square on it at all times, as letting the world know you exist is key to survival. Bikes are low on the totem of importance on the road. These things are LOUD. Greg also has his Incredibell (his friendly bell) and I will soon be putting the honker I purchased along with Krissy Steele in Salida (I heart Salida) during Ride The Rockies 2009. You can never make too much noise in Mumbai.
Riding in Mumbai has been an adjustment of technique. The most obvious is getting use to riding with the flow of traffic on the left side of the road and making turns into the correct lane. Traffic being what it is, we've learned to get right in there and do what we need to do to get through it. The one-foot-push-off-the-sidewalk to pass all rickshaws and cars works wonders...all the sudden you're at the front and we can go through red lights too. Ha ha ha ha! Take that traffic!! It can be sweet bliss sometimes. I'm just waiting to use the foot-into-the-side of-the-rickshaw-kick. I keep visualizing that one. I think if I kick hard enough it'll scare the crap out of the driver and make him think twice about cutting off Miss India Gold.
Don't worry, we both have helmets.:)

(While taking these pictures, I realized Greg's front gear had "Hero" worked it there. They don't spare anything in India. Only the best, baby)!

Bombay Hash Hound Harriers

2010-10-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

I first heard about Hashing from Nat Cook back when I was nineteen and in Anchorage at home for the summer from my first year in college. It sounded like a running scavenger hunt with all sorts of crazy characters and ended up with a reward of drinking your socks off.

When I arrived in Mumbai, my bible for the first week was a book called "Namaskar Mumbai." It had loads of resources about Mumbai. Under the section of recreation, I ran across the Hash Hound Harriers. I have to try this! I told Greg about it, though he was open to it, I don't think he realized how up his alley this group was going to be. After missing several invites to hashes, this weeks hash started two blocks from our flat. I told Greg I was going to fulfill my curiosity and would love it if he joined. Greg ran 14 miles Sunday morning for his long training run for the Mumbai Marathon. He wasn't sure about running again. I assured him that a lot of people walk and that he would get a couple beers at the end. Five minutes before I left, he decided to join. We walked over to the Pebble Bay Cafe and Bar, which we had never heard of before. It was this upscale place tucked away near an intersection of six different roads. Needless to say, it was crazy just crossing all those busy roads to get to the place, but we made it without any mishaps. There were a few guys hanging out front in t-shirts and shorts, so we introduced ourselves. As more people arrived, it became apparent how much hashing is a way of life. Everyone had t-shirts from different hashing events, trips to the hill stations on the weekends were for hashing, and there were tales told of national, regional, and international events. Wow! I tried to find out a bit more of what we were in for, but no one was giving up specific information.

Once everyone was there, a bugle was sounded and a guy in an orange shirt, one of the "hares," let us know that the other "hare" would meet us at the train station for tickets for the skywalk. Cockney Wanker (once you've been hashing long enough, you are given a hash name) made sure we knew to look for the red electrical tape, always on the left, which marked our route. Then away we went. We followed the crowd to the train station and waited for our tickets (no one was happy about waiting and made sure the hare knew this). Then we headed off. Greg and I were up front with three other hashers. We ran on the skyway that made its way above some slums over to the entrance of the area where ASB is located. We ended up in front with another new hasher, this was his second hash. At one point we lost the trail for a bit, so we turned around and found our way again. Lesson one, be up front at your own risk. We reached a point where one of the hares was located and we were told to run back to the last hare we saw. What?! so we turned around, giving the news to other hashers. The hare was walking the route, so we didn't have to go all the way back to the beginning. Then we were told to turn around again and go back. (later we learned that this goes against a rule of setting the trail. "You can never go back over the same trail." when this was announced, Greg gleefully yelled, I went over my trail twice! Give them two cups of ice! The hares were being punished with ice down their pants). The trail ended up back on the skywalk. At this point, Greg was really tired so the three of us walked the rest of the way back. We found out that just the first five were turned around.

Back at the restaurant, we were greeted buy three guys who were drinking at the bar and who we never saw after the train station. They had totally cheated and two of them were outted for this later. I think there ended up being a handful that had cheated. We had some beer and socialized until everyone was back. Then the end of hash rituals began. The hares were punished, Greg and I were recognized and teased as newcomers, the cheaters were pointed at, the next hash was announced, and we closed with a vulgar rendition of "swing low, sweet chariot." We had a lot of fun and though we won't be around for the Halloween Hash, we hope to join again in November. There will be an urban hash and then a country hash each month. It would be great to run outside of the polluted city. "On On!"

Matheran

2010-10-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Greg had his first three day weekend a week ago. We headed to Matheran, a hill station about two and a half hours away from Mumbai. The wonderful thing about it is no cars, except for one ambulance, are allowed. A break from car honking and having to be so aware of vehicles when walking down the street! Our friends and upstairs neighbors, Jen and Brian, planned on going too and allowed us to tag along. Drew and Wacuima also joined. We met early Friday morning, piled into two taxis and headed for the Dadar train station. We decided to take second class for the train ride, which ended up being 17 Rs (20 cents). We waited for the Deccan Espress to wizz us to Neral, where we would catch a taxi to the entrance of Matheran. We got on a train car we thought was second class, but quickly realized that these were reserved seats. We asked a man sitting on the uncrowded train and he said not to worry and just sit. When he found how much we paid, he was not happy because it was so little (typically its about 67 Rs). He tried telling us we needed to get on a different train because this one was not going to Neral. Brian assured us this was the correct train. The train got increasingly full and we kept getting bumped from our seats. But, we made it and no one came by to check tickets. In Neral, there were taxis lining the roadway. Brian bargained for two taxis since we would not fit into one. The one that Jen, Wacuima and I took was...mmmmm, I questioned its ability to take us up the winding mountain. Bald tires, a bit of rust. I think if it had been raining it would not have made it. The road was very steep in some places. Looking at where we were headed, it was hard to see how there was a road up the mountain side. Again, we made it, passing private cars along the way. I kept wondering how Greg was doing with the windy roads since he tends to get car sick. At the car park, we paid our 25 Rs entrance fee and hiked up the steep, rocky road. We passed groups of 5-8 men pushing large carts full of bricks. It was insane! I don't know how they did it. Greg said at one point, he imagined the cart rolling backwards at a point where Jen and I were behind the cart. He said he realized he wouldn't be able to save us from the cart rolling over us. He'd only be able to shout for us to run. What a happy thought, Greg.

The hotel we stayed at, Woodlands hotel, was set back on the thickly wooded hillside, off a side path. I really had the sense that we were at camp. All the hotels and homes were far apart, the paths and roads pretty rocky, a thick forest, fresh air and I could hear birds and insects filling the quiet air. Woodlands was rustic, had large, open porches, and a friendly staff. We enjoyed the wonderful food that was included. The manager had stocked up of beer for us and I brought some wine. A nice relaxing weekend. The only issue for me were the sheets and the uncomfortable bed. Next time, I will be bringing sheets with us. I think this might end up being a rule for us, always travel with your own bed linen...you never know.

Our first introduction to the potentially aggression of the Matheran monkeys, which were roaming everywhere, was during our light breakfast we had in town. After getting settled at the hotel, we walked into town, which was one dirt road lined with shops, restaurants and hotels. There were horses clip-clopping along. It felt "old west" in a colonial India sort of way. Matheran was a popular destination for the British and when they left after independence, they gave their land to the Parsis. The Parsis (Hindi for Persians) came from Iran in the 6th or 7th century and have remained a non-partial group, living their lives without upsetting Hindu-Muslim tensions. Their population is declining because they don't marry outside of their community, but they are still very financially powerful, owning about 1/3 of Mumbai's property.

At the restaurant, which was one story above the street and open-aired, we ordered our food. Then the waiter handed Drew a long PVC pipe. This was to fend off the monkeys. At some point, the tin roof came to life with banging as the monkeys jumped on it and ran around. A couple paws appeared from the roof and then a head, peering down. All it took was seeing the pipe, they had learned before what that meant. The pipe was proudly displayed on a chair in the middle of the restaurant during our meal. At Woodlands, they had air rifles to scare the monkeys. They were not loaded, much to the males' disappointment in our group. But they still enjoyed shooting it off when given the opportunity. The other funny thing at this restaurant was what Brian ordered. He decided to have the French Omlete. When it came, it was an omlete covered with french fries. We were all laughing our heads off and decided we all wanted to add "French" to our orders since the potatoes were tasty.

There were many points to hike to in Matheran. Both mornings, Jen, Brian, Greg and I took a morning run to different points. Then we hiked to several others. It reminded me of Hawaii - lush, steep mountainsides with watrefalls gushing down everywhere. The waterfalls disappear as the monsoon becomes more and more a distant memory. For the most part, I felt like there were very few other people around except when we went to Porcupine point at sunset Saturday night. The crowd kept building and building. It's a spectacular place to see the sunset and everyone knows about it. The walk back to the hotel was a bit crazy, dodging people riding horses and slower walkers. I was thankful that was the only time I realized what a popular place Matheran is for Mumbaikars. Besides hikes, the rest of the time was spent lounging, lounging, and more lounging. It was a great relaxing weekend.

For the trip home, we piled into a taxi that took us back to Bandra. Immediately, the driver blasted techno music and was encouraging us to groove to it. All westerners love techno, right? Brian, who was sitting in the hatch back trunk of the van, lost a bit of his hearing since the speakers where right next to him. Greg and I decided next time, we will probably opt for a train ride back. It was just too soon to be back in the craziness of traffic, stopping and going, honking, and near misses. We will be heading back soon.