Janice's Beach Adventure-Monsoon Style

This weekend I decided to get away from the center and head south to the beautiful beaches in Varkala. Because it is the monsoon i knew that swimming was out but figured it would be nice to see anyway and off season so few other people around. The general plan was to leave after Hindi class on Friday, catch a rickshaw to the train station and get into Varkala before dark. I was raining heavily all day Thursday and into Friday, I caught my rickshaw but 5 minutes out of town hit my first obstacle-the road was flooded, at least 3 feet of water covering a good 20 feet. For a moment I thought the driver was going to gun it(rickshaws are open vehicles). But instead he turned around and began shouting in malayalam and gesturing wildly which I took to mean either "there's no way to Chennganur we have to go back" or " you better start clenching your ass cheeks because I know a really insane, suicidal back road". My patent response in these situations is to smile and say "okay, no problem". so off we went on some of the most beautiful and torn up roads that I have been on so far. Off-roading during monsoon in an auto rickshaw. Until we hit the next road block, this time a utility pole fallen across the road. I thought we were definitly done but my driver was unbelievebly tenacious and found a third way which deposited me rattled, wet but alive at the train station, just in time to miss my train.
The train stations here are dirty smelly and extremely crowded-kind of like the NY subway system. Not a pleasant place to wait. Especially when a very eager indian man(who might not have been all there) decides to practice his english over and over again to you. Fortunatly a group of sari clad women noticing my discomfort and inability to get rid of this man and tugged me backwards into the center of their group surrounding me. I ended up sticking with one of them on the train and had a wonderful time. This was my first time riding unreserved (cattle class) something i never would do on a long journey but I thought I could handle anything for 3 hours. (and at 32 rupies!) The train was packed and we ended up standing for most of the way each time someone looked like they were going to get up everyone made a mad dash to get their seat. No rules apply here and the men have no qualms about pushing women, old, young or foreign out of their way to get a seat.
Varkala is one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen. The beach is at the bottom of these red cliff, reached by steps from the clifftop. The hotels and restaurants are along the clifftop. The place was practically deserted which was wonderful. I'll post pictures as soon as i can get the computer to cooperate.

Commies in India?

Here is a view of one of the temple elephants taken from my balcony.

Last night the center hosted two local politicians to givve us a talk about Keralan politics. Kerala is currently(and historically) a communist state and these two men were the local bigwigs from that party. They started the talk by asking us which countries we were from then stated "we are against capitalists-you! (pointing at me-i assume all of america not just me) and against imperialists!" (this time pointing at a british student). When asked how communism was helping the people of Kerala they said "Communism is the best-look at Cuba!". wow. The rest of the talk was much the same quickly deteriorating into shouting and gesturing in Malyalayam(the local language).
It was all i could do to not laugh. Although, as a state Kerala is much better off then the rest of India, the literacy rate here is around 95% compared with the rest of India which hovers around 60%. Many people from this area work overseas-mostly in Dubai and send money back. There are quite a few beatiful houses which contrast sharply with the extreme poverty in town. So maybe these guys have something going on.

Vijanana Kala Vedi (the center) was started 30 years ago by a french woman who had an interest in traditional Indian dance, it became her mission to help protect and promote indian arts and traditions. She is a terror to her employees (also students sometimes) and often wanders around shouting things in a mixture of french heavily accented english and Malyalayam
"vhere is a calendar? vhy can't anyvone find me a calendar?!" and her latest obsession with showing us all the joy of drinking buttermilk "vhere is the buttermilk? i vant them all to drinking the buttermilk!"
The employees are very nice and overly accomodating everyday it has been
"you want your room cleaned"
no, thanks it doesn't need it
(the next day)
"you want your room cleaned" lather rinse repeat. I've just started saying yes and hoping that the cleaning man gets paid extra per room.
There is only one Indian woman on the staff, Deevia. She is 23 and will be married this January. Her parents arranged the marrage and she has met her future husband one time last year when he and his parents came to "see if they approve of me". I asked if she approved of him and her answer was, "it is of no matter, it is my fate".

This is a story about how I survived drinking a glass of India tap water

This weekend I went to my cooking teacher's house, her husband teaches painting here and wanted to show me his work. On a side note he's really good (traditional Indian style)-anyone know of any venues that he could break into in the states?
They recently found a baby squirrel (chipmunk) abandoned outside of their house and have taken it in. Absolutely adorable-I'll post pictures as soon as i can figure it out.
Anyway
He asked me when the monsoon was in Colorado and was very shocked to here my answer. Which brings me to the monsoon.
I love it! I was so worried coming here at his time but it is beautiful. It pours rain at least once a day and each time the electricity goes out. The downside is the mosquito population is huge and consequently there are a couple of viral outbreaks in the area, dengue fever and a new one Chikugunri(sp?). It appears that malaria is the least of my worries here. I am slathering on the repellent but you can only do so much. At the center they have started an "all organic" mosquitp pest control program. This entails the "eterminator" walking round with a plate of incense and a bottle full of a brownish liqud (lemon grass) with a rag stuffed in the top which he uses to annoint all of the doorways. Everything smells like furniture polish and church.
Oh and the glass of tap water-I unwittingly drank it at my teachers house-disguised as pineapple juice. I haven't died yet but will keep you posted-if the mosquitos dont get to me first....

Numerology

Namaste

My Hindi teacher is a firm believer in numerology and astrology,today we found out that she has the same birthday as Joshua (September 17th) and now wants to talk to him to "see if the eight has followed him through life".??? She also said that he must perform all important tasks on the first and that i should try as much as possible to have our child on the 1st, 3rd or 11th. She told me that he as a virgo is much more soft hearted and family oriented then my hard hearted Scorpio self.
Yesterday I saw her get onto the back of her husbands motorcycle-riding side saddle-no helmet, of course. I told her today that i thought she was very brave (ie: crazy) and she said that she wants to sit astride but her husband will not let her because it is unladylike. This from a very well educated assertive woman.

Today in cooking i made the most amazing dishes-i am drooling thinking about them and i just ate it 2 hours ago. We made coconut rice pancakes (aapum) and a chickpea curry. The food here is very good, Kerala has its own style of cooking which is very different then north indian cuisine-which is what i have mainly had in the states. Almost every dish that I have learned so far uses fresh coconut, they all have been vegan too. I can't wait to cook for everyone when I get home. My cooking teacher Nisha, asked if my husband was eating while I am away. I said I sure hoped so because 2 months is a long time to fast.

Meals at the school are also quite good but kind of dulled down spice wise, this due to the complaining foreigners (Brits). Seriously, we had some amazing masala dosa the other evening and so many people were complaining about the mildly spicy flavor.
I am planning my second month of travel so for those of you who have talked about coming here (Kathy, it really sounds as though you want to) let me know where to meet you. I will dazzel you with my hindi skills: Ap kesee he? Mai teek ho.

Oiled and Well in India

So i had a really funny experience yesterday that still has me laughing. The school that i am studying at offers ayuervedic classes and massage. As part of you stay you are given one massage (for an idea on pricing in india a one hour massage will run about 6 dollars) i was pysched even though the other students made comments such as "oh you haven't had your massage yet hehe" and "prepare to be very naked". okay no problem i'm okay with being naked with strangers after all of my time in onsens and figure drawing classes. so i was taken to this very dim low ceiling thatch roofed building (shack) and greeted by a very short indian woman. after bolting the door behind me she said "dress off" by which she meant strip completely which she stared intently. the she let me stand there while she puttered around in and out of the room, finally taking me into the massage room. The massage table is a thick slab of wood with raised edges it looks to be saturated with years and years of oil build up. which it was as you will soon hear. I was motioned to sit at the edge of the table while the massuse stood in front of me and first poured a ladle of oil on my head and then systematically spread oil all over my body, arms stomach breasts no holds bar. at this point i was trying not to laugh hysterically. The massage coninued with copious amounts of oil and nudity and slipping around on the table. and no it was not sexy. imagine an extremely hot and humid day going into a stuffy room stripping and pouring gallons of wesson canola oil over your body. that was my massage. I kept on thinking oh I wish Aunt Vic had decided to come along to India.
On another note I love my classes i am learing lots of delicious recipes and Hindi though difficult is going smoothly-thanks mostly to my fear of my teacher. During my first lesson she taught me the first 30 hindi characters then immediately began writing sentences and saying "okay read this", "come on you know this, i just taught to you!".
The house that i am staying in is undergoing some kind of home improvment. All of the walls are being painted but they look exactly the same, the only difference is now the marble floor is covered in paint.
I think i should start an entry with interesting, silly and unbelievable things that i see each day.
Today my hindi teacher balled up a piece of paper and just through it over her shoulder onto the ground-my classroom is outside. It's shocking and sadto see such blatant littering, there is garbage everywhere here.
On my walk to the bank today i passed a man welding outside, he was bare handed and of course not wearing eye protection.

The Little Things

I love feeling proud of myself for being able to buy basic things. Today i ventured into the next town down a few miles down the road to buy among other things, an umbrella and laundry soap. It's amazing how accomplished I felt after being able to achieve such a small task. The thing is that it isn't a small task here. Stores are organized under some kind of crazy system and they look more like crowded closets then stores-kind of like the closet at the end of the hall at Mom and Dads house, that would be a perfect indian store. So one closet may only sell lightbulbs, one sells shoes and umbrellas, another only metal lunch pails. The umbrella was easy but the soap not so. It ended with everyone in the store, including other customers pulling things off of the shelf that they thought i wanted, scrub brushes, bars of soap, lotion until finally "washing powder". I'm glad to be such a source of amusment to everyone here.
I

Dim or Bright- Do it Right

I arrived at the center today and it is fabulous-we definetly have to come here as a group sometime, my room has marble floors and a huge balcony with a lovely view. Everything is so green and the markets are overflowing with papya, mangos, bananas and flowers. It rained all night last night and the weather is oppressively hot and humid-i am literally pouring sweat. So when we do come let's not come in the summer. The center is spread out in five buildings around the village. There is a major temple down the road-apparently they wash their elephant every saturday in the river. I'm looking forward to starting classes tomorrow.
today before leaving Alleppey I went shopping for some new Salwars, i have yet to see an indian woman wearing anything but saris and salwar kamzees . I'm really glad that I had Kathy's to wear on the train ride, although I felt like a fool on the flight from tel aviv it ended up that i was the only one dressed appropriately.
So after another hair raising drive today I started thinking about how to possibly describe the madness that is the Indian road system. So imagine a narrow street, fillled with cars, dilapidated buses(which only seem to go at top speed)motorcycles,trucks, motor rickshaws(tuk tuks), bicycle rickshaws(i saw one the other day with two red velvet upholstered overstuffed armchairs on the back yesterday), bicycles, cows,chickens, goats, the occaisional elephant and of course people. Most of the roads do not have lines but those that do are only there as a suggestion. Vehicles weave in and out, back and worth the whole time honking their horns. there are no trffic lights or stop signs, intersections are a free for all with drivers going as fast as possible before slamming on the brakes, stopping mere centimeters away from other vehicles. As nerve racking as it is i have to say that the absurdity of it all just makes me laugh. My favorite road warning sign that I saw today said: Do not mix the drive with the drink!

My Tel Aviv Detour and First Elephant Sighting

Okay...so things rarely go as planned but i certainly didn't expect to end up in Israel... my flight out of Houston to switzerland was delayed just enough for me to miss my connecting flight to Mumbai, leaving me with the choice of staying in Zurich for the night(and missing my train the next morning) or flying to Tel Aviv and then on to Mumbai. Well the Israeli airline that i ended up on has its own extra special security process and of course they decided to pick me out (the only american on the flight). I was taken to a super secret basement room in the airport and interrogated- this on 30 hours of no sleep. On a side note- so many in the tel Aviv airport looked like Josh-very strange it was like a persky family reunion.
The flight into mumbai had the worst turbulence thast i have experienced-the overhead luggage doors flew open and bags were falling out onto everyone, people were seriously freaking out. but anyway i made it into Mumbai in one piece( the kosher meals on airplanes are actually quite good) and had no problem with the taxi driver-they have a police checkpoint set up when you leave the airport but also because of the flight change i arrived in the morning.
The ride from the airport to the train station was complete sensory overload- there are no discernable traffic laws and the road is shared by cows, people and in one case a massive elephant-close enought that i could have reached out and touched it unbelievable.
The poverty here is appalling- i read somewhere that 80% of the population lives in poverty. I wasn't as shocked by it as I thougth i would be-i thnk that Kiribati, thailand and belieze gave me a taste of the horrible conditions that people live it- the sheer numbers here though are overwhelming.
So, I caught my train and have to say that although it could have been worse I am going to avoid such a long ride again-i really hope that i hold myself to that. It was long and boring and the bathrooms were beyond description. I have never been so excited about showering as when i got here.
I'm heading to the cultural center tomorrow and hopefully will have time to write more stories-like about how two policemen chased and beat a man with sticks at the train station....