Off to Amritsar !

July 4, 2008-(Friday)- Palumpur, India / Amritsar India
I love my new room ! The view is beautiful and it is so much quieter in this room. Have I mentioned laundry? Doing laundry here is much different than at home. The first week I was here I simply sent the laundry out to the service that was doing the laundry for us. When I got the laundry back, I decided to do it myself. It was clear that they were doing the same thing that I would do, hand washing and hanging. I decided to do it myself and save the rupees, besides, I would do a better job!
I have noticed that I am much more mentally tired here. When I sleep, I sleep deep. I realized that this is because my brain has so much more information to process. When a person is in familiar surroundings their mind screens out “unimportant” information. The daily activities and items associated with everyday life are not registered in the conscious mind because we automatically know what to do with the information. In a totally foreign environment, our brains are working overtime to process all the new information. Here in India I’ve had to learn to do so many things differently than at home; things that we take for granted, so my Brain actually hurts !
Here are some examples, but there are many, many, more:
Brushing my teeth- I have to remember to fill a glass with filtered water before I go to my room to brush my teeth because I can’t use the tap water. While brushing my teeth, I must be careful not to do what is “natural for me”, and rinse my toothbrush or mouth out with tap water. Tap water is very DANGEROUS for “westerners”
Using the toilet—I must remember not to put toilet paper in the toilet, but in the trash can. Here they don’t put paper down the pipes because the plumbing system is very fragile.
Getting dressed—wearing clothes that I am not accustomed to wearing is stressful even though they are very comfortable.—especially the Dupata !
Getting around town—I’m accustomed to jumping into my car and going somewhere, but here you can walk, take a rickshaw, take a taxi, or ride a mule ! (I haven’t done the mule thing yet !)
Finding your way around the village/town. I know Jacksonville fairly well as I’ve been there for over 20 years, but here, I have to think hard about where I want to go, and how to get there.
Feeling grounded in strange surroundings—Every morning when I get up, I sit up in bed and outside my HUGE window are MOUNTAINS ! I’m used to seeing flat land, this is very different.
Speaking and understanding others speech— Even if I am lucky and the person speaks some English, I have to speak VERY slowly for them to understand me. I also have to listen very closely to understand what they are trying to communicate with their limited English vocabulary. That’s if I’m lucky ! If they don’t speak any English, I’m down to looking up phrases in the Hindi book and using body language, pointing, gestures, and facial expressions to make myself understood.
Toenails and such: I looked at my feet today for the first time in about 3 weeks. I was horrified. I had calluses, long toenails, and “fuzz” between the toes. I have been so busy that I’ve had no time for more than minimal hygiene. Each day I shower & brush teeth, but my toenails, fingernails, and legs have been forgotten. At home I usually take a long bath at least twice a week. Usually I take care of these things during and after my bath. Here—no bathtubs! (I’ve heard that one of the volunteers has a bathtub, but I don’t know if this is true; if so they are keeping it quiet !)

Today I had so much fun at the school ! My teaching style is very interactive and animated. I walk around the room, ask questions, and even make jokes. The children seem to love it—and they are learning, while I am having a blast ! I verbally tested them on what we went over yesterday and they remembered. In the English class we were reading a story that mentioned their Hindu God. They have one God named Onkarsingh. This God appears on earth in many forms. After they told me the name of their God, I told them the name of my God, the Christian God, Jehovah. I told them that my God also has many names, but the same God. Just to be safe, we also went over the Moslem God, which they knew was Allah. I have to say, that within their faith, they are very devoted to their God. I can see genuine devotion in the children’s faces as they sing and chant their morning prayers.

“God help us at home and at school and with our studies,
thank you God for our families and our school.”

It doesn’t sound any different than a Christian prayer. It makes me wonder if we are all just praying to the same God only using different names.

During Science class I was teaching about the planets and when we got to Earth, we talked about the fact that the Earth is in danger because of pollution and global warming and such. I used this opportunity to broach the subject of the trash in the streets and around their school. I explained that I really love India, and that it is beautiful, but that it won’t be that way for long if they continue to throw trash everywhere. We talked about how Gandhi encouraged Indians to use trash as land fill. The kids respect Gandhi, so I’m not bringing in my own ideas, just implementing one of their leader’s ideas. On Monday, weather permitting; we will begin the process of cleaning up the area around the school. It will be hard work I told them, but once they clean it up they have to keep it clean by not throwing garbage and teaching the younger children not to throw garbage. Also on Monday Jo (short for Johanna) and I will begin painting another couple of classrooms. Our goal is to paint all the classrooms before we leave. First we will paint a base coat of some light color, and then we will paints educational pictures like the solar system and electrons, maps, etc; depending on the grade that inhabits the classroom. While speaking to the principal in his office about these plans, a mouse ran across the room and into a desk near the wall. I jumped and announce, “There’s a mouse in the office”. No one flinched. When I saw that there was no reaction I said to Rajesh, Aren’t you going to do anything about the mouse?”. He responded “he lives there”. He then pointed to the desk and continued his paper work and the conversation about the painting! Wow !
Directly after our placement I went back to the house to pack for my trip to Amritsar. To my surprise, three more people decided to accompany Anna and me at the last minute. Unfortunately, two of them were the whiners in the group. What could I say? so, off we went to Amritsar.
The ride to Amritsar was supposed to be about 5 ½ hours, but it seemed shorter for me. I had my iPod and I was taking in the scenery. We passed small towns and villages. We saw people working in the rice patties, and others herding cattle. As there is no A/C in the car, we had the windows open and all the dust from the road blew in on us. There were several memorable sights. At one point I saw a family of 5 on a bicycle. I don’t know how they did it ! Unfortunately we were going too fast to get a good picture. We saw buses go by which were extremely over crowded to the point that some people were riding on the roof ! During this time, the whiners complained about everything. I just turned up the volume on my iPod and pretended not to hear so that I wouldn’t have to respond. It was evident when we arrived in Amritsar. In contrast to Palumpur, the streets were even more dirty and crowded. There was noise and confusion everywhere. In the streets you could find anything: cows, cars, motor cycles, rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, bicycles, dogs, goats, and people. There are no lanes and no traffic rules…. It was pure chaos and I almost got hit a few times walking to the hotel. The temperature in Amritsar was sweltering. While the heat was bad in Palumpur, it was worse in Amritsar. Our driver had to park the car in a parking lot, and we had to walk to the Lucky Guest House which was only a block away. I was not disillusioned by the state of the hotel. I expected the very basics: toilet, bed, shower and most importantly, A/C, and that’s what we got. Yes, the furniture was old, and yes the sheets were dinghy, but it didn’t matter as long as we could rest in a cool place. The whiners on the other hand had numerous complaints and I wanted to say “what do you expect, we are in a 3rd world country and besides we are only paying the equivalent of $7 each per night !”. Luckily I held my tongue. Once we got there, we settled in and went to find somewhere to eat. I wanted to find a nice Indian restaurant, but they wanted to go to a “pizza place”. I caved since I wanted to avoid the situation and I just wanted to eat something and go to bed. Then we talked about what we wanted to do the next day and what time we would get up. I had planned this trip and I felt angry that the two whiners wanted to change everything. I was thinking of meeting in the lobby about 9am. After all we ARE on vacation! But NO!, the whiners wanted to be in the lobby at 8am. Again I caved and held my tongue. We agreed to meet at 8am, and we all went to our rooms and went to bed.