I'm Scared of Monkeys

While I was in Mamallapuram, this monkey came out of no where and stole my bag of fried chickpeas. Naughty monkey!

Pictures from the Villages

The beach in Mamallapuram.



This is me with some very, very cute kids and my translator.



This is how people get their water. It comes twice a day, and they collect enough in pots to meet all their needs.



This Muslim family lost everything during the tsunami and they were relocated to a new village by the government. They are standing in front of their new home, which was built by an NGO. Many of the people that lost homes to the tsunami are now living for the first time in concrete, permanent shelters rather than in thatched huts, cardboard shanties, or on the streets. They seemed very happy. The new hoes had bathrooms, fans, and electricity. One man described it as "a dream". I can only imagine how great it must have been to go from living on the streets to living in a house with electricity and a fan. These Muslim ladies are a minority in the village, which is composed of over 3000 people that lost everything after the tsunami and were relocated to the new village. The new village is extremely diverse, but most of the people are so happy to be in their safe, new homes that no one seems to mind living in close proximity to other castes and cultures that previously they would not associate with. The only exception is the tribal groups...sadly, the other villagers say they don't want to associate with the "tribals".



Here I am speaking with a farmer. I guess I am a giant with bright orange hair, haha! No wonder I got stared at so much while I was there. Haha!

Making Henna

I have had my hands decorated with henna many times, but I had never seen it made before. I would have never suspected that the henna is green...it makes your hands and hair red or black, depending on how long you let it sit! Here is e on oa previous trip with my hands decorated:

Rotary Club in Action

These ladies live in a village that is affected by annual flooding: every year, their village is completely cut off from the rest of the state by flood waters. Their village becomes like an island, and sometimes they don't have enough food to last for the entire duration of the flood. These lovely ladies were telling me that during the floods, the Cuddalore (a nearby city) Rotary Club brings them food by boat. I told them that my grandfather is very involved in the Rotary Club in the US. I was so proud! They told me to tell him "thank you".

Tales from the Villages

It has been a few weeks since I have returned from India, so I will just share a few of the stories of my time there. This amazing woman was a fish vendor before the 2004 tsunami, which meant that she purchased fish from fisherman along the coast and brought them back to her home village to sell them. She was purching fish in a coastal village when the tsunami struck. The first wave hit and she was left stranded at the top of a coconut tree. Then, the second wave struck and she was thrown out of the tree and she rolled with the wave for nearly 500 meters. This left her in a coma, and she was brought with all of the other dead people to the morgue. Luckily, her family came to look for her. They couldn't find her anywhere in the hospital, so they looked in the morgue; luckily, while they were identifying the body the doctor noticed that her body was warm and she had a pulse. They moved her out of the morgue and she fully recovered about a week later. Crazy! Thank goodness her family came to look for her! Now she is afraid of the sea and does not work as a fish vendor anymore.

Auroville, continued

Another coincidence for me with Auroville, is that when I returned from my June trip to India, the substitute yoga teacher at my studio was from Auroville! It was kind of crazy...I had never heard of this place...then Matt said he wanted to live where everyone relies on each other...then I meet a man in Pondicherry who is associated with Auroville...then my yoga teacher is from Auroville. So, I had the nice chance to visit Monica at her home in Auroville in August and it was great to see a familiar face.

One of the things I like about Auroville is that they grow a lot of their own food, and it is organic. I ate the most delicious things while I was there...lots of fresh salads and delicious vegetarian food. They also have their own spirulina farm, and I discovered that I like spirulina. Also, they make and sell their own Kombucha tea. I became addicted to kombucha in Boston. Everyone in my yoga teacher training group was raving about it, so I tried it at Whole Foods and and loved it...which is very unfortunate because at Whole Foods it is more expensive than I would like to publish on my blog!! If you go to Whole Foods you can check it out. The Kombucha in Auroville was good and much more affordable than Whole Foods.

The unfortunate thing about the good food in Auroville is that one of the delicious things made me very ill...my first time being ill due to food in any of my travels throughout Asia!

The other thing that I liked about Auroville is that I could ride my bike everywhere. I love being in places where I can get around without relying on a car.

New Creation Guest House

While I was in Auroville, I stayed at the New Creation Guest House. I loved it! I loved it so much...it was an oasis of calm after spending 3 days in Chennai. It is a guest house, but primarily a school for Tamil kids that have lost one or both parents. You can eat lunch and dinner with the kids, and that was a lot of fun. Except...I don't speak French! Auroville is a universal city but it seemed more heavily populated with French and Tamil speakers! Still, I loved it. The class rooms were in these funny little space age-looking huts. There were also people that lived in New Creation, in some very modern and fancy looking homes -- I can assure you that my guest room did not look like this!


I also met a lovely family from Germany. They were so kind to me...even though we couldn't communicate very well (they only spoke German and very fragmented English) they included me in all of their activities. I had work to do, so I couldn't always join them, but they would knock on my door to ask if I wanted to go, which always made me feel good! They were in India because the daughter had been adopted from an orphanage in Bihar (one of the poorest, most corrupt states in India), and they had returned to Bihar to try to find her mother. It was unsuccessful and emotionally difficult, so they were recuperating in Auroville.

Auroville

Before I headed down to Nagapattinam, I spent a few days in Auroville. I first became aware of Auroville in my Lonely Planet book on my firsti visit to Tamil Nadu in June. During that trip I went to Pondicherry for a weekend getaway, and met a very nice man who was part of the group that has settled Auroville. Coincidentally (or not!), at about the same time Matt was telling me that he wanted to live "in a place where people rely on eachother for everything", including livelihod, childcare, and everything else. So, we were both intrigued by the concept of Auroville. I didn't have time in June to visit Auroville, so I vowed to return in August to check it out.

The city was started by Sri Aurobindo and a french woman that they call the Mother, and they started Auroville as a community where human unity can be achieved...regardless of race, nationality, etc. No money is exchanged here; residents work for the community and exchange goods and services. I am not sure f exactly all of the details, but that is my impression. To be part of the community you have to go through a 1 year "newcomer" phase and then you can join. When you oin they determine how you can contribute to the community (ie, teaching, farming, cooking, etc). You can also start a business, and give a certain percentage tot he community.

The center of the community is a structure called the Matrimandir. I didn't get a chance to go inside, but I head that you can go sit inside and meditate.

India, Again

So...here I am....in Chennai again. It's only been a few days, but I am already very lonely! It is pathetic...when I was in India in Jne I was so excited to arrive, and then only got lonely towards the end of the trip. This time, I have been lonely since the moment Matt dropped me off at the airport. I talk to Matt twice a day, which is nice, but in a way it makes it worse! I think part of the problem is that because of the problems with the project, I am not able to useit for my thesis, and the project is even more delayed than it was originally, so I don't have much to do at all. But while I am not doing a lot of work, I am not exactly free to go anywhere or travel. Hmmm.... I am amazed by people that go into the peac corps. One of my friends was in the Dominican Republic for 2 years in a small village, without electricity and not much to do. She said she learned how to "do nothing" and enjoy the slow pace of life. I think that is amazing!

Tomorrow I am heading down to Auroville, then down to Nagapattinam. Hopefully I will begin some field work soon after I get to Nagapattinam so that I feel productive!

Another thing about being here the second time around is that I don't seem as inspired to take pictures...so my blog may not be that interesting for the next month!

Almost home....

Tongiht is my last night in Chennai...it is hard to believe that I will see Matt in less than 30 hours. Woo hoo!

It has been a tumultuous last few days, full of marathon-length meetings and some tension but luckily it is all over. Hopefully things will progress more smoothly when I am back here in August.

I am actually looking forward to the flight. I love flying! And so far, I love British Airways. I will be in heaven if I get upgraded again, but I am not holding my breath...

The last days of a long trip like this are always sort of surreal...like you can't belive you will actually be home and you can't really pay attention to anything going on cause there is this anticipation that infiltrates everything you are doing. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I didn't have Matt...maybe I wouldn't care as much about heading home?

Still in the Roach Motel

Lunch with the Bedroc employees, and the new foreigner in town, Jan.



This is a picture of me on the roof of the Bedroc office in my salwar kameez. I think I could not possibly wear anything more unflattering! But I guess that is the point...it hides your shape. The pants underneath the top are gigantic...it feels like there are yards of fabric gathered at my waist.


Last night, just as I was about to go to sleep, I saw another huge cockroach in the bathroom. I was sad, because I had basically forgotten about the cockroach issue and then I was reminded of it right before I went to sleep. So, I slept another night with the lights on and am exhausted today. Oh well, only one more night nthe motel and then I head back to Chennai for more meetings...then back to Home, Sweet Home! When I come back to Nagapattinam in August I am definitely bringing my own roach spray. Unfortunately, this hotel is the nicest one in town...so there aren't any other options!

So much for the clean room...

The Bedroc Office in Nagapattinam


I am not back in Nagapattinam after a short trip to Chennai and Pondicherry. I feel strangely comfortable and happy to be back! My room at the Hotel Seahorse is much nicer that the one I had been living in for the weeks before I left for Chennai. It -- gasp! -- actually has a window! Also, it is much cleaner and is not damp at all. I was so happy! Why didn't they give me this room before?

Also, there is another foreigner here now. She is staying in my hotel, and is working on her PhD thesis. She is from England, but lived in Sri Lanka for 2 years prior to moving back to England. Yay! I am so happy! We had dinner last night and it was nice to be able to chat with someone. She was like, "I haven't seen another foreigner for the past three days." I was like, "Ya, I didn't see a foreign for the entire 3 weeks I was here before you got here!"

She is in a room without windows, and she wanted to see mine so she could decide if she would switch rooms. We walked in, and a huge cockroach scurried across my bed...so much for the illusion of staying in a clean room! I slept with the lights on because I had heard that roaches don't come out if it is light. I thought of changing rooms, but I figured if the roaches are in my second story room, they are probably in all the rooms. The hotel did agree to change my sheets...it was hilarious...the young Indian boy spent about 30 minutes putting the sheet on my bed, trying to make sure it was perfectly tucked and there were no wrinkles in it. I was like, this is a great effort on your part, but I am sure the roaches will be back no matter how neatly the bed is made! Then, he finished it off by dramatically spraying the whole room (including the bed!) with roach spray. It was comical.

Another sad part of this story...a cute little baby gecko was killed by the roach spray. I was sad, cause geckos are cute and they eat flying bugs. This poor little thing was having convulsions on the carpet before finally dying.

At first I was sad that a cockroach was in my bed...but then I remembered when I was travelling with Sarah in Rajasthan...We were on a camel safari to the sand dunes in the desert, and we were camping under the stars. The operator assured us that blankets and bedding were included. He didn't mention that that meant the blankets that were on the camel underneath the saddle! Not only were there fleas and whatever other bugs and camel sweat in the blankets, but there were also giant desert beetles that kept crawling in the blankets. I thought I would never sleep through the night, but I did, miraculously. So, the memory of that night made me realize that seeing one cockroach in your bed is no big deal. And if anyone has any comments about how gross cockroaches are, DO NOT post those comments to this blog or by email because I have to sleep in the same bed for the rest of the week!

Papaya Madness

I have been completely addicted to papaya...I don't know why, but I am loving it and craving it. There is a fruit stand outside my hotel that sells cut fruit. I have been ordering fruit bowls with "Papadi Only"...Anyway, I guess the nice man at the fruit stand decided that I need to branch out, so last night he kept insisting that I eat samples of all the other types of fruit. He was such a nice man!

Weekend in Pondicherry, continued

Other than the Sri Aurobindo group (which dominates Pondicherry), this town is full of French people. The first morning I was here, I ate breakfast at a little cafe. The only other people in the cafe were speaking French. They were sitting at their own table, and were a very eclectic, "cool" group. There was an older French guy with silver hair in a tight tank top; a young, chic blonde girl in a black dress; an older French lady; a very classy looking older Indian woman; and an older Indian man with shoulder-length grey hair, dressed in a tight white tank top and white, flowing linen pants. They were all smoking, drinking coffee and laughing...I was like, wow, this is definitely different than Nagapattinam!

Actually, this is the first place I have been to in India where I feel like I would be better off knowing French than English. I walked into a corner market and wanted to know the price of a roll of toilet paper. I asked the women in English while pointing to what I wanted. She said, " Trent-cinq". My french is rusty, so I wanted to double check. "Thirty five?" (Yes, I realize she didn't speak English...I just said it, ok!) She said, slower and louder, "Trent...Cinq". I said, in a worried voice, "Thirty five?" She said, "TRENT.......CINQ". She wasn't angry, she just couldn't believe my stupidity! Anyway, this is definitely a side of India I have never seen before!

The good thing about the French influence is all the food...there is lots of french food around, and salads and delicious things like that. It is expensive, though...and there are lots of expensive art galleries and furniture shops around...but even with all of this, it is still, unmistakeably India.

It has been nice while it lasted, but I am actually happy to get back to my Idlis and dosa. I like Indian food much more than French food!

Weekend in Pondicherry

I decided to give myself a mini vacation and stop in Pondicherry on the way from Chennai to Nagapattinam. It is nice here: I can walk through the streets (no highway right outside my hotel!), the coast is scenic, and there is lots of French food.

The first night, I arrived after dark, which was unfortunate considering that I was by myself and had never been to Pondicherry. I found a room with a balcony overlooking the boardwalk. It was nice, but they only had one night available. I was happy to move, though, cause in the balcony next to mine were a group of 5 Indian teenage boys. They were smoking and drinking and if I was on my balcony they wanted to make conversation...and I really wasn't interested in chatting with them...so the next day I checked a few hotels and ended up moving into an ashram. It is part of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and it is really nice. My new room also overlooks the ocean and is half the price. You have to follow the rules, though, which is easy for me because I follow them anyway. You can't drink or smoke and have to be back in the ashram grounds by 10:30. Easy!

I was wondering if anyone would talk to me about their spiritual ideas, and this morning they did...this very nice Indian man started to talking to me and explaingig their beliefs. It was interesting, and I think these people are very nice.

Meetings in Chennai

After a long (8 hours!), bumpy, hot drive from Nagapatinam, we arrived in Chennai. We stayed at the YWCA, and it was nice...my room even had windows, woo hoo! There were a ton of foreigners there, including a big group of American teenagers. I think they were part of a church group or something. One good thing about the YWCA is the delicious juice stand down the street...yummy! I have been addicted to papaya juice for the last week or so...

We had meetings with Oxfam on Thursday and with our implementation group on Friday. It was so great to see people from Oxfam Boston. I was talking to the person that arranged for me to come to Tamil Nadu, and it turns out that he and his wife used to live in Hanoi and they visited Hong Kong often because it is such a short flight. So, we were reminiscing about restaurants in Vietnam and Hong Kong, and it was great. Even though I talk to Matt every night, it got sort of lonely being down in the village, basically by myself.

The next day we had meetings with the implementation team, and things look like they are finally gettng started. Hallelujah! I am learning a lot about trying to plan a project in collaboration with many different people...it is slow...and then when you add in the cultural differences and miscommunications, it moves at a glacial speed! So, it turns out that basically I will not be doing anything until NEXT Saturday, when I am working with another team member to create the quantitative questionairre. So, now that I know I will basically have nothing to do in the village for the next week...I am getting antsy! Luckily I talk to Matt everyday and have internet access.

Back to the City!

Yesterday, these carts came rolling down the street with huge loads of hay on them (I think it was hay...). They are actually pretty common, but I have never gotten a picture before, and I am always amazed at how they can pile such a huge load on them.


Today I am headed up to Chennai with the director of the local NGO to meet with Oxfam and with the local NGOs that she has contracted lots of the work out to. It will be interesting to be back in a city again! After that, I am headed to Pondicherry for the weekend. I am very excited! It is supposed to be a beautiful city. It used to be a French colony so the French influences are still there, and lots of French people still live there. The food is supposed to be amazing, which will be very exciting after the gross food at my hotel! Also, I am sort of hoping that there will be a few English speakers there so I can stop annoying Matt by talking his ear off when he calls me.

Slow Progress

Progress on my project has been slow. I think the local NGO is slightly confused about why I am here, and they are not quite sure what to do with me. I am also confused, because Oxfam in Boston made it sound like it was urgent for me to be here. Now I am here, and there is not much for me to do. I have been visiting villages and talking to people, which is fun, but not exactly what I was sent here to do. It seems that the local NGO has contracted out much of the work to other local NGOs (I guess foreign funding allows you to do that!) and I am not sure exaclty what my role will be. I am actually fine with this...more time to relax, especially after such a stressful year and my work last summer was extremely stressful. I have a vague guilty feeling though...why did Oxfam go to such lengths to make it possible to be here? Why did they want to pay to fly me here on two separate trips? I feel that the work I am doing doesn't exactly warrant all f that expense. Oh well! I am just going with the flow.

So, after a long hot day of sitting in the non-air conditioned office, I walked down to the town. I have found one indoor shop there that has baked goods and fresh fruit juice and cold drinks. So, I like to walk down there, sit under the fan, order a freshly made drink of fruit juice and a cold club soda, and read one of the magazines that I brought. The owners are nice and they have gtten used to me now. On the way home, all of the school children were walking home from school. They are so cute! The uniform includes pig tail braids tied into a loop. Adorable. The girls in the top picture in blue were fascinated by me...one of the them was mentally disabled and she was not able to conceal her curiosity like the other kids...so I took a picture and they seemed happy about that. Also, when the school kids are out (or any time for that matter!) I am followed by a chorus of hellos..."Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hi! Hi, Ma'am! Hello! Hi!" I try to answer all of them, but of course it s imppossible.

At the juice shop, two young girls sat down next to me. They were giggling and peaking at me, because obviously, everything I do (including sitting down and reading) is totally hilarious...at least when I am in India! One of them reminded ome of my sister Maya because they are about the same age...and I started to miss my sisters alot!

Bus Ride to Nagapattinam

On the way back from Vailankanni, I had a really hard time getting on a bus back to Nagapattinam. When a bus came, and huge crowd would push and fight and yell and scream, trying to force their way onto the bus. They wouldn't even wait for the people that were on the bus to get off. I think people were even climbing over eachother and trying to climb in through the windows, which had bars on them instead of glass! So, I tried to get on 4 buses and was about to give up...I was considering my options: Should I take an autorickshaw all the way home? Did I want to deal with bargaining? Were there any private buses available at a different location?

So I was standing there, and I here the word "foreigner" coming from a bus, and an older woman turned around and said, "Do you need to get on the bus?" in English. I said yes, and I ended up following her onto the bus where her son had fought to save a seat for both of us. It was such a relief, because I think I never would have gotten onto a bus otherwise. Once you fought you way onto the bus, people had reserved seats for their friends. I even witnessed a fight over a seat between two ladies, and the whole bus was getting involved.

Anyway, it turns out that this lady had just come from a Catholic retreat center called the Divine Life Center, or something like that. We chatted, and it was nice to speak English with someone! It turns out that she volunteers for an NGO in Karnataka (a state in India) and works through Anganwadi Centers (state-run health centers in villages) to educate rural women on the importance of nutrition and things like that. So, her work is very similar to what I did last summer in Rajasthan.

I felt so happy to meet this woman and her son...and they even paid for my bus ticket, although I tried to pay for it myself.

I have a video that shows the craziness of the bus, but I am having trouble uploading it...I will have to upload it when I get home.

I was by myself, so this is how I managed to get a picture of myself in front of the church. (I know I am just being paranoid, but I didn't really feel like I wanted to hand over my camera to anyone to get a picture of myself...)



I had the day off on Sunday, so I decided to visit the closest "attraction" to Nagapattinam. There is a huge catholic church about 11 km away from the town I am in that people from all over India make pilgramages to. The people at Bedroc told me to take the bus there, and boy was that an adventure considering that I don't speak any Tamil yet! Making it to Vailankanni was easy, but making it back to Nagapattinam was a whole different story...

The church was nice, although not like the churches I have seen in the US or Europe. It is definitely more brightly colored that I am used to seeing Catholic churches. People come to Vailankanni for the purpose of praying for babies....a women in Chennai told me that 3 miracles had occurred for her as a result of visiting Vailankanni. So, I gave it a shot...I guess we'll see if a baby comes along in the near future!

Because of all of the visitors, Vailankanni had a lot of stuff for sale, and a lot of beggars. It cause the dilemma that I have every time I come to India. To give to beggars or not to give? Most people say that you shouldn't give to beggars, but instead you should contribute to charitable organizations. Well, that is easy to say but it is pretty hard to walk by pitiful beggars with ample money in your pocket. The guilt is intense...but being alone, and not speaking Tamil, and the fact that there were so many beggars around me...I felt it was safer to not give. They were fairly aggressive, and did the whole grabbing on to your sleeve or pant hem thing...When I got back to Nagapattinam I realized how pleasant it was that no beggars were around. (That sounds terrible, but they do cause mental anguish for me! I am never sure how to react.)

I treated myself to eating at an air conditioned restaurant, the only one in town. Yay! I walked quite far to get to it, but I figured that it was Sunday and I should treat myself. Of course, I was walking by beggars to get there, and internally berrating myself for walking far to treat myself to the luxury of AC while I was ignoring all of these people...