Strength in Numbers

At the end of my most bizarre week in India, I’m finding it difficult to express my jumbled emotions. The week has been nothing but constant contradictions, the most significant of those being my village’s most festive yearly celebration set against the tragic, solemn backdrop of the recent attacks in Mumbai. As I witnessed nearly a million people flood my rural town (pop. 15,000), I was simultaneously giddily happy, confused, and anxiously anticipating the festival’s events.

Watching thousands of people passionately dancing amidst a rainbow array of powders and waiting in line at the temple, I found myself surprised at how exciting and wildly colorful the festival could be in light of the recent news. I wondered if the exaggerated (yet normal) festival chaos was a way to cope, a symbol of defeated desensitization, or a courageous display of extraordinary resilience… or perhaps a mix of all three.

The chariot carrying the local deity through Mhaswad

If I’ve learned nothing else from working at an Indian NGO, living with a family in the middle-of-nowhere Maharashtra, and being the only foreigner wandering around Mhaswad, the one thing I have learned is how to really adapt and integrate. From finding the connection between human rights and microfinance to eating with my hands to understanding people who speak only Marathi, I feel I’ve made a comfortable work, home, and social life for myself.

It was in this spirit that I wholeheartedly flung myself into the festival. Wrapped in a brand new cream colored sari, I lost myself in song and dance, and from a distance threw pink powder-filled coconuts to a chariot as an offering to the local deity. I emerged from the throngs of people with a renewed sense of exhilaration, and my sari, hair, and skin stained pink.

pre-pink-powder-coconut-throwing

post-pink-powder-coconut-throwing

It was then that it dawned on me that the festival’s spiritually energetic atmosphere was not a contradiction to the somber news. In fact, after talking to numerous people, it became apparent to me that the overall attitude, music, chanting, clouds of pink powder, and sense of unity gave people the strength, hope, and courage to cope and eventually move on. As I immersed myself in Mumbai’s updates later that day, I found that the festival had the same effect on me too.

"Wildlife" in Mhaswad

I love animals. Ants, spiders, sheep, birds, whales, horses, bees, lizards, bears, leopards, penguins, seals, ladybugs, jellyfish… the list could go on and on. There are only two animals that I really dislike: mosquitoes (which can actually cause me harm in India) and cockroaches (which I feel bad disliking); yet despite disliking them, they still fascinate me. In the spirit of my love for animals, I thought I would dedicate at least one blog entry to my frequent encounters with some of the local animals. Most of you will find this post incredibly boring, and for that I apologize. Some of you, however, have been waiting for a ridiculous post like this :-)

Goats: Goats are among the animals that, for no reason, I feel particularly passionate about. Whenever I take the long road to work I encounter dozens of goats at the local farms. They are either being herded, in their pens, or tied to a stake where they can graze. There is also a woman I pass by who always offers me food, and after I refuse she sometimes picks up a baby goat for me to pet. The goats always make their lovely “mehhh”ing noise, which I have on occasion confused with a human infant. There seem to always be at least a few baby goats who make me giggle; their legs are too long for their bodies, they aren’t used to walking, and they trip all over themselves. A few times a week people walk through the village carrying goats, and once I even saw four goats helplessly piled on a motorcycle!

Gulls: I’ve been told that the birds perched on the office ledge outside are gulls. They show up during lunch every day to pick at our food waste and occasionally fly right up to our tiffins (food container), snag something, and take off… swift and brave! One day, a bird ate my curd.
Oxen: There are ox-pulled wooden carts (with wooden wheels) to transport goods throughout Mhaswad. They are faster than you would expect. I was once even offered a ride in an ox-cart that passed me by on my way home!

Snakes: To reiterate sentiments expressed in my Kerala post, I LOVE snakes. I don’t think any other animal fascinates me quite as much. Chetna’s farm gets a few cobras and vipers each month, but unfortunately I’ve only seen the head of some kind of snake poking out of a pipe. Still, I’m hopeful that the number of snakes will increase, without injuring anyone of course (the nearest anti-venom is several hours away).

Frogs: There are tons of frogs at Chetna’s house which is great for two reasons: 1) They are cute, and 2) They attract snakes. Each night one particular frog (or maybe different frogs each night) wanders into my room to sleep; I have affectionately named the frog Herbert. I also spend a fair amount of time each evening rescuing the frogs from the mouths of the 3 dogs that live at the house.

Dogs: The Sinha’s have three dogs—two adult mutts (Soni and Raja, Soni’s son) and one purebred Rottweiler (Dyna, a 2 month old puppy). They are all very sweet, loyal puppies with unique personalities. They keep me lighthearted, laughing, and sane, and take up a great deal of my free time which greatly adds to my happiness.

Soni looks cute and innocent but is an incredibly intelligent, jealous, and protective dog. She killed the Sinha’s cat, 16 of their chickens, and numerous other small animals that wander around the farm. If she spots a snake, she forces it to stay in its place (for hours if needed) until someone comes to remove it. She is having major problems with Dyna; the Sinha’s fear that if they allow Soni near Dyna that she will kill her. She is also pregnant (for the fourth or fifth time), so I’m anxiously anticipating the arrival of new puppies and wondering if she’ll let me come anywhere near them!

Raja is large and muscular and looks incredibly intimidating, but is a big dumb baby. He will come up to me and whine until I pet him, and once I start petting him he can sit there for hours. When I sleep outside, sometimes he joins me at the foot of the bed, and when I leave the house he’ll see that I safely reach my destination. However, if he’s with me and any strangers come within 50 meters, he can get unbelievably vicious, and although the Sinhas get many visitors during the day, people refuse to come at night because they are afraid of Raja. Still, he’s one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever encountered.

Dyna is a beautiful hyperactive mischievous puppy. She’s learning to play fetch, likes to chew on people’s bodies, and recently has demonstrated a preference for shoes. She tends to follow me around, and for a while I had to feed her from my hands (she couldn’t be bothered with a bowl). Since I spend more time with her than anyone else, she listens to me the most. This is something I would like to discourage since I will be leaving in June and multiple words for the same command (it’s a multilingual household) are confusing for her. Vijay wants to send her to obedience school (Dad and Julia, care to join?). I don’t think that’s necessary, but she does need some clear cut consistent boundaries and simple one word commands to keep her out of trouble.

Rats: Many of you read about my rat experiences. I’ve been sleeping outside most nights in Mhaswad, because although I haven’t seen any more rats, I know they’re still there. They go through the trash and drag it all throughout my bedroom. I can also hear them scampering about. They’re cute from afar, but not while crawling on me.

Bats: Sleeping outside replaces rats with bats, another rabid animal. They fly very close to my head and make annoying chirping noises, but because they don’t crawl on me, I much prefer them to rats.

Water buffaloes: The Sinhas have 6 water buffaloes that provide them, the bank, and some local restaurants with fresh milk. The milk by itself isn’t amazing, but it makes the freshest, most delicious curd (yogurt) I’ve ever had. Seriously… it’s amazing! Buffalo milk also makes fantastic sweets and can even be enjoyed with just a little sugar to mask the smokiness. I have asked one of the workers to teach me how to milk the water buffaloes; more on that to come later!

Hogs: There are lots of hogs (pigs?) wandering around Mhaswad. Aside from the little babies, they’re pretty ugly and dirty since they spend a fair amount of time in waste and sewage on the sides of the road. Still, they’re cute and it’s fun to watch them waddling around.

Lizards: There are lizards all over the Sinha’s house. They are the smoothest, creamiest lizards I have ever seen. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to catch one to see they are actually as smooth as they look, but I’ll keep trying and report back.

Local Village Computer Launch

Although being the only foreigner in Mhaswad has its fair share of pitfalls, it has been a predominantly positive experience with an overwhelming amount of privileges. Yesterday night I was invited to a small local village to launch a computer that Mann Deshi donated to its library. When I arrived, I was greeted with many curious stares and invited into their one room library. I was very surprised with the turnout for the inauguration—about 150-200 people, young and old, men and women, predominantly hardworking farmers, everyone extremely excited and celebratory. It was wonderful and inspiring for me to see so many people passionate about and organizing around reading, learning, and education.

As one of the guests of honor I had the privilege of blessing the computer (I’m finally starting to get the hang of blessing things) and was then presented with a coconut and flower necklace. Everyone here seems to love to have meetings and listen to speeches so Chetna graced everyone with some eloquent words. Even in a foreign language it’s easy to tell that she’s a fantastic speaker.

After Chetna finished speaking, and much to my dismay, they invited me to offer some thoughts. As I walked to the microphone, unbelievably nervous, someone in the audience started yelling, “Yes, you can!” which I found incredibly amusing. I hate public speaking and I’m terrible at it, especially when I’m unprepared. Somehow I stumbled my way through a poorly organized and fairly incoherent speech, finding comfort in the fact that most people were listening to Chetna’s articulate translation rather than my unintelligible ramblings.

After the ceremony we were invited into the village leader’s house where we were served dinner. It’s still a little strange for me to attend dinner outside of Chetna’s home. For less formal occasions, men sit and eat while women serve them and eat afterwards. I’m usually treated as something in between, served after the men and with less attention, but still eating kind of before the women. For more formal occasions like last night, all of the guests sit to eat while the women cook for and serve them.

I find it very odd (and hard to admit) that, despite the other eating adjustments I’ve made—different foods, missing some foods from home, vastly different meal times, eating with my hands—it’s the actual way that mealtime is organized and “hierarchized”(?) around groups of people that still makes me uncomfortable. As an aside, it’s really interesting for me to really think about what makes me uncomfortable, and why those things are hard for me to adjust to.

Regardless, dinner was absolutely delicious, and the company (older village women who are also Mann Deshi clients) was wonderful- friendly, lively, and full of stories and questions! Experiences such as last night’s are some of my favorite moments in Mhaswad. I really love participating in celebrations, learning about what makes people tick, understanding which issues seem to be important, and getting to know the locals. I feel very lucky to be invited not only to watch, but also to participate in such events :-)

Kerala

I just returned from a rejuvenating trip to beautiful Kerala! Kerala is a state on the southwestern coast of India. It is well known for its beautiful hill stations, serene backwaters, fragrant spice gardens, and numerous tea plantations. It was colonized by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, and therefore has one of the largest Christian populations in India. Interestingly, Kerala has the first freely elected communist government in the world (1957), and consequently has the highest literacy rate and best health statistics in India.
Upon arriving in Kerala, we (Chetna, her sister, Vijay, and the boys) all packed into a car with our driver and set off on the potholed road to the hill station Munnar. I never knew tea could be so beautiful! Up and down mountains and along roads, rivers, and waterfalls were lush evergreen tea plants. I’m constantly amazed that so many different kinds of tea can come from just one plant.
For my first full day in Munnar I desperately wanted to go trekking. The family went on a tour of Munnar so I hired a (much needed) guide (named Joy George) and set out for a glorious 15 km. hike. The mountains certainly weren’t the highest I’ve hiked, but the trek was outstanding.
We started winding our way through deliciously fragrant herb and spice fields, and stopped at a small house where a generous and kind elderly couple showed me how they process cardamom. A ways up the (nonexistent) trail I was engrossed in my conversation with the guide when he abruptly stopped me…
I look down and, shocked, immediately blurt out, “HOLY JESUS!!!” (in front of Joy, the devout Catholic).
On the side of the trail, about a foot away from my feet, was a lovely cobra basking in the hot morning sun. After getting over the initial shock, I was giddily happy. I LOVE snakes. For the past fifteen years I’ve been dying to see a deadly poisonous snake in the wild, so for me this was a highlight of all of my wilderness experiences and my stay in India.We slowly backed away from the snake, took photos, and watched it for a good 15-20 minutes. It was angry enough to constantly make a low humming (almost machine-like) noise but not angry enough to rise up and extend its hood. I’m not going to lie; I contemplated pulling an “Uncle Bo” (reference for the Rizzo family) just to see its hood, immediately decided that was a stupid idea (duh!), and instead wished that Uncle Bo was there to be stupid for me :-)
Eventually we had to move on since there were three more mountains to climb. And when I say climb, I’m not joking… instead of hiking up and around the mountains, or on switchbacks, we literally hiked straight up trail-less mountains, which made for a tiring yet exhilarating experience. At one point the ground was so wet and the greenery so thick that we had to run up the mountain to avoid leeches latching onto us. I escaped unharmed, but unfortunately cannot say the same for Joy.
Other highlights of the day included hiking into Tamil Nadu, walking through beautiful tea plantations, talking to the workers, and getting a full tour of a real working tea factory! Although I forgot my hiking boots in Mhaswad (creating a somewhat painful experience), the trek was absolutely stunning... exactly what the doctor ordered.
The following day we piled back into the car to go to the backwaters. It was Election Day in the US, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I wanted to be around Americans for the sake of our shared national identity and supposedly common interest in the elections. When we stopped at a small stand on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, however, I got a nice slap back into reality.
When the stall owner learned that I was from the US, he got very excited as he knew the elections were taking place. Through the little English he knew (a few dozen words maximum) and with tears in his eyes, he conveyed to me his disdain for George Bush and how much he had been praying for Obama to win. He reminded me just how much everyday people around the world care about and depend on the political situation in America when America so easily forgets about them. This conversation made watching an already emotional election even more intense; I was happy that the following morning, in the backwaters of Kerala, I could celebrate not only for my own sake but also for his.
Chetna and her family were also excited about the election results. We celebrated at our hotel in Kumarokam, and then on our houseboat in the beautiful backwaters. Our trip ended two days after the elections with some sightseeing in Kochi. I got to experience some of the city’s religious diversity… beautiful churches (Christianity in Kerala is really interesting, and it was nice for me to talk to Joy about his practices in Munnar), a unique synagogue (for the three Jewish families left in Kochi), and a very strict Hindu temple.
The entire trip was a much needed getaway, providing me with the opportunity to get to know my family better, learn about a different area in India, and refresh my body and mind. Plus I saw a cobra!!!