Hello All,
It's been a really long time since I've updated. A lot has happened, and I've done a lot, so I'll just update on the last few events.
Emma came to visit for a week or so. It was really nice to have her here. She was sick when she got here, and got progressively worse, and then a little better, and then she left. But it was still nice to have her here. The day after she got here was Diwali. Diwali is this huge festival all over India. In the North it's the festival of lights- and I think they just light little oil lamps all over the country for that. But in the South they have a different festival for lights. So Diwali was pretty much just a huge display of fireworks, and more firecrackers than I've ever cared to hear in my life. For a week or two leading up to the festival firecrackers were getting louder and more and more frequent. On Diwali I woke up pretty sure war had started. All day there wasn't a second of silence. It was honestly a constant stream of insanely loud firecrackers. Some of them were so loud I would temporarily lose my hearing, and then regain it a few seconds later to find that a nearby car alarm had been set off by the cracker. They were some pretty serious stuff. And to make things even crazier (and more Indian) the people who were really into these crackers weren't just your expected, run-of-the-mill teenage boys, but little little children. Ajit, who is 6 years old and lives below us LOVED setting these things off in his hand, and then waiting, and throwing them just in time to see them explode in the air. Some of these, I am fairly certain, could easily take your arm off. But, his parents were there providing "adult supervision"- which pretty much just meant- when they were out of fireworks, going and getting more. Or when they were out of those- going and getting matches to light.
Mostly everyone on Diwali gets a new dress. Because all of my clothes are new here, I just wore a sari. We spent a good portion of the day going from house to house in our little neighborhood, eating and taking photos. That night we went up to this huge hotel called Hotel Supreme- and ate dinner. Emma was wanting some soup for her cold- so we chose that restaurant. It is close to the temple, and overlooks the city. It was amazing how many fireworks there were. All around us there was a constant display of flashing, popping, glittering fireworks. Some of them were a little close for comfort- but for the most part it was just really beautiful.
While Emma was here we went to Chennai. Emily and Laura (the two girls I live with) came along. We stayed in a pretty nice, and relatively expensive (for Indian standards) hotel that smelled a little like mildew. To be fair, it was raining the whole time we were there, so the room didn't have much of a chance to air out or anything. We got there via sleeper train- which I found pretty comfortable, but I think maybe Laura and Emily were a little harder to please. I slept great though for pretty much the whole 9 or so hour ride. While we were in Chennai we spent a good amount of our time trying to barter with the auto drivers. In Madurai I have the advantage of knowing how much it Should cost for me to get from one place to the next- but I was so clueless in Chennai. It made it really hard, not knowing how much I was being ripped off at any given point. But we got around okay. It was raining pretty horribly the whole time- which was unfortunate- but I guess that's what we get for going there during the monsoon season. It was interesting, however, to turn on a national news channel and see the weather danger warning for a place that I was currently in.
We went outside of Chennai one day and went to a crocodile farm. There were a lot of varieties of Crocodiles and alligators there, and a lot of tourists, Indian and Western. Some of the crocodiles had their own cages, but a lot were crammed into one small enclosure with a little space to swim and pretty much no space to move around in. I don't really know how much room it takes to make a crocodile happy- but it was pretty sad at times. On the other hand, most of these are endangered species, given a chance to reproduce. I guess it's the age old zoo debate again.
On our last morning in Chennai Emma and I went to the beach. Chennai has one of the longest (perhaps second longest?) beaches in the world. I think it was called Marina beach, although I could be wrong. A few years back there was a radioactive waste spill or coverup or scandal of some sort- but people were still kickin it in the waves. Mostly it wasn't people swimming around and playing, as far as I could tell, but people who were there to bathe. There were a lot of tourists, and a lot of people selling things. One man came up to us and asked us if we wanted to buy his stuff. In Tamil I said we didn't want to- and then he was curious about us knowing Tamil. And then he asked if we knew Spanish. Emma replied that she did, and then he proceeded to speakin in some language (that was definitely not Spanish). And then he took something out and said we were his friends, and here was a gift. He unwrapped a little parcel, and took out a few pearls, and put one in Emma's hand. He told us he was a deep sea fisherman, and nodded as if this explained a) why he had these pearls and b) why he just put one in her hand. We just kind of looked down at it, and then Emma handed it to him, and we said goodbye and walked off. A young man who had been watching this all followed us down the beach and asked if we would take a picture with him. So we did, and then he asked us if we had American coins, which we didn't (I think I exchanged pretty much every last penny when I got here). Anyway, it was all a pretty good experience- not too much harassment while we were there, and it only smelled mildly awful- but it was nice to be on the beach (and at this point, for some reason, it wasn't raining).
That day Emily and Laura and I went back via train to Madurai, and Emma went back to the US.
Since then things have been progressively getting crazier and crazier. I've spent the last week or so doing mostly only fieldwork stuff. I've interviewed three Catholic priests, one catholic family, and one Hindu priest, and have written, I think, about 19 informal response pages, along with about 15 pages of interview transcriptions. And still I'm pretty far behind.
My fieldwork project is probably going to end up being about something having to do with the differences in the relationships between prayer, images, and God in the educated and uneducated Catholic and Hindu groups in Tamil Nadu. So I think I'm going to have to end up conducting interviews on Hindu and Catholic priests both, and then also educated and uneducated groups of Hindus and Catholics here. Tonight I meet with my Advisor for the first time (officially) to discuss my paper, and what I'm doing, and what resources I need, etc. I'm hoping he can help me out with some books or something because so far I haven't really found anything that's Much help (especially regarding Catholicism).
I have, however, managed to slightly offend two different priests. The first just seemed a little taken aback at me asking him what roll the different statues of saints, or the crucifix, play in prayer. As a result he didn't answer the question and I had to cut my interview short. I guess it was a learning experiences, and his reluctance to answer the question said something about his views, I think. The other instance was when I asked a Catholic priest about the idea of "impurities" within the Church. I meant impurities to mean something in the spiritual sense- sort of like Hinduism and "pollution". But the priest thought I was asking him about priests acting inappropriately. To make things worse it took me way too long to figure out this is what he thought I was talking about, so I was asking him questions like "wait... There's none of What here?". But in the end, people have been really nice and helpful and eager to talk to me.
Last night Nate and I went to this place in Madurai called Vidiyal. Vidiyal is this program that was set up sometime in the last decade or so for working and street children of Madurai. India has a really serious problem of children being sold to work, or children being in abusive positions in their homes, and leaving to find work. Most of these children come from rural areas, and are sold into cities. They end up working as shoe-shiners, or table cleaners in restaurants, or as people cleaning up trash and stuff on the street. They get paid what probably comes out to about five cents an hour, and about 95% percent of them are sexually abused by the time they're 10. Then to make things worse, really none of them are going to school because they're spending so much time working- and so they're in a horrible dead-end position. So this program, Vidiyal, was set up to give children a place to stay if they need it, and to encourage children to get back into school. Nate and I went there to see what it was about. He brought a chess board, and I played badminton with some of the kids. They were honestly the most well behaved children I've ever been around. The program was run amazingly well from what I could see. A few hundred kids were there, and by the end of the night they had all spent a few hours studying and a little bit of time playing, and all of them had been fed. When we left I saw that there was a room where the woman who was in charge that day was doing medical check ups on the kids- giving medicines and just making sure everything was okay.
The kids were really fun. It was sad to see how many of them had scars on their faces and arms, but they were so excited to be there, and so excited to be able to talk with Nate and me. We ended up all playing soccer for quite awhile (they were really surprised that I knew how to play soccer, and by the end of the night we had gotten two of the little girls to play with us so it wasn't ALL boys). Mostly it was just Nate and me vs. 10 or 12 little kids. I would guess the oldest was about 15, and the youngest playing soccer with us was about 8. We were playing in a small muddy field without any shoes on, with a flat ball, and these kids were loving it. It was so much fun- pretty hard- but really fun. Then, when it was time to eat, one little girl said: enough! And all the kids immediately stopped playing, and went and cleaned up. It was amazing that there weren't any who tried to keep playing or anything- they all just seemed to glad to have gotten to play a little.
Nate and I ate there, and then as we were leaving stopped in to talk to the women in charge. She said that we should come back on the weekends to play more chess and soccer, but on the weekdays we should come back to teach English. We asked what grades and she said 2nd to 12th. She said we should just come and see what they're doing in their English books, and help out. So, hopefully we'll be able to make that happen. Already for this weekend there are scheduling conflicts (Saturday we have a seminar with local college students about gender and sexuality, and Sunday I'm going to meet with the potter priest to discuss temple tower statues).
Well, I should get going to meet with my Advisor. Thanks to all of you who've been keeping in touch. I hope everything's going well in the US. And Happy Thanksgiving!
Missing you all,
much love
--- Catie
23 November 2006
12 October 2006
Magic show, churches, Dvds...
this last weekend the eight of us went away to a town about three hours south west of Madurai called Tirunelveli. It's not really a village, but it's a lot smaller than Madurai. We drove down there in the evening and stopped and got dinner on the way. By the time we got there I was so exhausted. I've been going to sleep here around 9.30 every night, so staying up until about 11 was kind of extreme. I guess there's just something about being here that makes me sleep more regularly- go to bed at 9.30 and get up at 7.30 everyday. (the family that lived below me goes to sleep around 10 each night and gets up, i think, about five am!)
So, our first day in Tirunelveli we drove to a village nearby where there are a lot of waterfalls. people here flock to waterfalls because many of them are considered to be sacred. This means that if you plan on doing your laundry there (which a lot of people do) you have to bring extra money- because it's extra to wash your clothes in holy water.
That day we also went on a small hike up through this herb jungle. it's the place i've been in India so far that has the least amount of trash. It's also the only place I've been that had anything posted about not dumping trash. It was a pretty walk, and when we got to the top of this hill we could see for miles all around us- into small villages and over farms and ponds and mango groves. We hiked back down and sat under a huge tree and Dr. V. gave us a lecture on the different types of herbs that we could find around us, and the history of herbal medicine in Tamil-Nadu. It was pretty impossible to pay attention though, because there were so many monkeys doing interesting stuff all around us. Right behind Dr. V was a man selling many different types of fruit. So, i got pretty interested in watching him throw rocks at the monkeys and wave a machete thing at them whenever they got too near. At one point his back was turned for just a second and a monkey jumped down and ran off with a jackfruit in its mouth (jackfruit are huge- probably about one and a half times the size of a human head).
The next day we all separated and went out with our field assistants to do practice interviews. The idea is that if we mess up really horribly on these interviews it's not that much of a problem because we're far enough away from Madurai that we're not effecting any relationship we're going to need to have for the next year. My field assistant is a guy named Eugene. He's Catholic (which is why they put us together), and pretty shy, but really nice. I think he's probably around 22- but that's just a guess. So, Eugene and I took an auto to this catholic church. There were two parts to the church, which was pretty small. The older part was about 300 years old, and the newer part was about a decade old. I interviewed this really old woman who didn't speak any English. Her job was to keep the church clean- sweep it etc, and light the candles during mass. Eugene translated everything back and forth, which made the interview a lot less intimidating, but also a lot more difficult in many ways. For example, she mentioned that the caretaker had died, and so they were needing to hire a new one. I didn't really understand that part of the interview, but i found out later that I was supposed to be interviewing the caretaker as well as her (no one told me this) and that he had died the day before. I think my reaction (because i misunderstood what she was saying) was something like: "oh." So, i'm guessing she thought I was fairly insensitive.
Anyway, the interview went pretty well. It was nice to talk to someone instead of just observe what goes on in the church. It was so interesting to her her perspective on all of the rituals, and all of her beliefs.
In Catholic churches here if you pray for something, like your brother getting well, and he gets well, the you make an offering of salt to God to thank Him. So there are big baskets full of salt in the churches. Then when someone goes to the church to pray they take a little bit of the salt and put it in their mouth. So Eugene was explaining this to me after the interview, and I kept asking him why they put the salt in their mouth- or why it is salt that they offer- and he laughed and said he didn't know- that it's something he's done a lot in his life, but he doesn't know why they do it. So we asked the woman and she just sort of gave a reply like: we do it because it's tradition. I thought it was interesting that all of these people are doing this thing and they have no idea why. I later found out from my academic advisor here that the first Christian converts in India were salt farmers on the coast. So when they were converted to Christianity they took the Hindu ritual of offerings into Christianity with them. But the only thing they had to offer was salt. Then as the religion spread across India, the practice of offering salt spread with it. An interesting progression anyway.
That night after we all did our interviews we decided to go to a magic show. It was one of the most memorable and strange things i've ever witnessed. the entire thing was set to really loud upbeat music- some electronic "instrumental" versions of Aqua songs, and some songs that sounded pretty Tamil- but didn't have words. The music was so loud that people in the audience were all plugging their ears, but they didn't seem upset about it like people in the US might be (i think). They were all just watching the show and casually plugging their ears. The stage was constantly filled with women dancing in sparkling outfits- which was probably a really good diversion for the magician. The magician was so loud and energetic. He spoke all in English with a really heavy accent. His mannerisms and intonation were so animated it was sometimes impossible to understand what he was saying- but it was always amusing. His tricks were, for the most part, really convincing and impressive. At one point he asked for a male of over 18 years to come up onto stage and assist him. So nate stood up and ran up there. Everyone in the audience was so excited that a white kid was up on stage, and everyone was constantly cheering and laughing for him. So after a short introduction the magician put nate's head in a guillotine and dropped the blade, and somehow nate's head magically stayed on. When he left the stage people in the audience stood up and as he walked by them they took his hand and shook it. The next day some girls in an elevator recognized him and got really giggly and excited.
Since our trip to tirunelveli things have been pretty regular. Last night a few of us decided to go run some errands in the city. I tried to go to the post office but found that it was impossible. the line was so long, and because so many people were cutting, the longer we stood in it the farther from the front of it we got. So eventually we abandoned hope and left. We went to the tailor to get some more appropriate clothing and then Nate and Laura and I decided to wander around. We asked the Tailor how to get to the palace. He told us that the palace was closed for a week because they're shooting a music video for a Hindi film. He explained that they wont let anyone but foreigners in- so if we went there and didn't speak any Tamil to them and acted like any run of the mill tourists they'd probably let us in. So we left and took a cycle rickshaw to the palace. We just sort of walked in and started to look around. They were still building the set within the palace, and we could see men making costumes and people setting up lighting. A man approached us and told us we had to leave. We told him that we really wanted to see the palace because it was our last night in Madurai. It was really hard to not speak Tamil to him. Although my Tamil isn't great- it's always so helpful to be able to speak atleast just a little bit. And people are always so much more friendly when we speak in Tamil. The man was still a little reluctant to let us look around, so we told him we'd give him 30 rupees (which is about 75 cents). So he walked us around the palace. It was one huge open room with a ton of Gigantic pillars and very ornate carvings all around the high ceiling (where there was a ceiling). It was also really interesting to see them building the set (which is a huge swimming pool in the middle of this huge palace room), and see them setting up all of the lighting equiptment and making all of the props and decorations. I really wish I could go back and see them filming- but it seemed like that would be out of the question.
After that Nate and Laura and I decided to head back towards the temple. We decided to walk, and found a restaurant that was called "Modern Restaurant". We went in and they led us upstairs to an open roof with tables set up. There were eight other white people up there- from the Chezch Republic. They didn't speak any Tamil though. The waiters all seemed really excited that we spoke a little Tamil, and we told them we only wanted to speak in Tamil that night. they got really excited and all gathered around us the whole time we ate. They kept bringing us extra sauces to try and asking us what we thought of each. They brought out something that was "really spicy" but i think it was one of the least spicy things i've had since I got here so maybe there was a communication error. Before we left they all gathered around and wanted to take pictures of us. Nate's birthday is next week and so he told them he's coming back on his birthday, and he'll bring a copy of all the photos for them to keep. It's nice to just have really good interactions with people in Tamil finally.
We left and decided to go to this little road that sells all electronics stuff. I've been there once before- and both last night and the first time I was there I didn't see a single woman on that street. It was really intimidating the first time, but last night it seemed much more manageable. We went to a shop on the street and they brought out a ton of DVDs for us to look at. I think I ended up buying about 20 DVDs for about 50 cents each, and one CD with 180 Tamil cinema songs on it for about 75 cents. The movies seem to be okay quality (with the exception of one- but he warned me ahead of time). The only problem seems to be with the audio in that it's maybe a little quieter than it should be. or maybe my computer just has really horrible speakers all of a sudden.
Anyway, it was a pretty fun night all in all. I came pretty close to adopting a puppy that was following us around for awhile. (not really but it was so cute) It kept chasing its tail and jumping up and down around us. I was pretty glad though when it found a pile of trash and stopped following us eventually.
Speaking of puppies, Emily's puppy, Choolie (which means "cowlick" in Tamil) is at my house right now, so I think I'm going to go help entertain it.
I hope you are all well!
--- catie
ps, you may notice that I added my webshots account to the links on the side, aswell as Laura's webshots account. She has more photos up than I do (about a quarter of which are photos I took), so you may be interested to look through hers as well.
Take Care!
So, our first day in Tirunelveli we drove to a village nearby where there are a lot of waterfalls. people here flock to waterfalls because many of them are considered to be sacred. This means that if you plan on doing your laundry there (which a lot of people do) you have to bring extra money- because it's extra to wash your clothes in holy water.
That day we also went on a small hike up through this herb jungle. it's the place i've been in India so far that has the least amount of trash. It's also the only place I've been that had anything posted about not dumping trash. It was a pretty walk, and when we got to the top of this hill we could see for miles all around us- into small villages and over farms and ponds and mango groves. We hiked back down and sat under a huge tree and Dr. V. gave us a lecture on the different types of herbs that we could find around us, and the history of herbal medicine in Tamil-Nadu. It was pretty impossible to pay attention though, because there were so many monkeys doing interesting stuff all around us. Right behind Dr. V was a man selling many different types of fruit. So, i got pretty interested in watching him throw rocks at the monkeys and wave a machete thing at them whenever they got too near. At one point his back was turned for just a second and a monkey jumped down and ran off with a jackfruit in its mouth (jackfruit are huge- probably about one and a half times the size of a human head).
The next day we all separated and went out with our field assistants to do practice interviews. The idea is that if we mess up really horribly on these interviews it's not that much of a problem because we're far enough away from Madurai that we're not effecting any relationship we're going to need to have for the next year. My field assistant is a guy named Eugene. He's Catholic (which is why they put us together), and pretty shy, but really nice. I think he's probably around 22- but that's just a guess. So, Eugene and I took an auto to this catholic church. There were two parts to the church, which was pretty small. The older part was about 300 years old, and the newer part was about a decade old. I interviewed this really old woman who didn't speak any English. Her job was to keep the church clean- sweep it etc, and light the candles during mass. Eugene translated everything back and forth, which made the interview a lot less intimidating, but also a lot more difficult in many ways. For example, she mentioned that the caretaker had died, and so they were needing to hire a new one. I didn't really understand that part of the interview, but i found out later that I was supposed to be interviewing the caretaker as well as her (no one told me this) and that he had died the day before. I think my reaction (because i misunderstood what she was saying) was something like: "oh." So, i'm guessing she thought I was fairly insensitive.
Anyway, the interview went pretty well. It was nice to talk to someone instead of just observe what goes on in the church. It was so interesting to her her perspective on all of the rituals, and all of her beliefs.
In Catholic churches here if you pray for something, like your brother getting well, and he gets well, the you make an offering of salt to God to thank Him. So there are big baskets full of salt in the churches. Then when someone goes to the church to pray they take a little bit of the salt and put it in their mouth. So Eugene was explaining this to me after the interview, and I kept asking him why they put the salt in their mouth- or why it is salt that they offer- and he laughed and said he didn't know- that it's something he's done a lot in his life, but he doesn't know why they do it. So we asked the woman and she just sort of gave a reply like: we do it because it's tradition. I thought it was interesting that all of these people are doing this thing and they have no idea why. I later found out from my academic advisor here that the first Christian converts in India were salt farmers on the coast. So when they were converted to Christianity they took the Hindu ritual of offerings into Christianity with them. But the only thing they had to offer was salt. Then as the religion spread across India, the practice of offering salt spread with it. An interesting progression anyway.
That night after we all did our interviews we decided to go to a magic show. It was one of the most memorable and strange things i've ever witnessed. the entire thing was set to really loud upbeat music- some electronic "instrumental" versions of Aqua songs, and some songs that sounded pretty Tamil- but didn't have words. The music was so loud that people in the audience were all plugging their ears, but they didn't seem upset about it like people in the US might be (i think). They were all just watching the show and casually plugging their ears. The stage was constantly filled with women dancing in sparkling outfits- which was probably a really good diversion for the magician. The magician was so loud and energetic. He spoke all in English with a really heavy accent. His mannerisms and intonation were so animated it was sometimes impossible to understand what he was saying- but it was always amusing. His tricks were, for the most part, really convincing and impressive. At one point he asked for a male of over 18 years to come up onto stage and assist him. So nate stood up and ran up there. Everyone in the audience was so excited that a white kid was up on stage, and everyone was constantly cheering and laughing for him. So after a short introduction the magician put nate's head in a guillotine and dropped the blade, and somehow nate's head magically stayed on. When he left the stage people in the audience stood up and as he walked by them they took his hand and shook it. The next day some girls in an elevator recognized him and got really giggly and excited.
Since our trip to tirunelveli things have been pretty regular. Last night a few of us decided to go run some errands in the city. I tried to go to the post office but found that it was impossible. the line was so long, and because so many people were cutting, the longer we stood in it the farther from the front of it we got. So eventually we abandoned hope and left. We went to the tailor to get some more appropriate clothing and then Nate and Laura and I decided to wander around. We asked the Tailor how to get to the palace. He told us that the palace was closed for a week because they're shooting a music video for a Hindi film. He explained that they wont let anyone but foreigners in- so if we went there and didn't speak any Tamil to them and acted like any run of the mill tourists they'd probably let us in. So we left and took a cycle rickshaw to the palace. We just sort of walked in and started to look around. They were still building the set within the palace, and we could see men making costumes and people setting up lighting. A man approached us and told us we had to leave. We told him that we really wanted to see the palace because it was our last night in Madurai. It was really hard to not speak Tamil to him. Although my Tamil isn't great- it's always so helpful to be able to speak atleast just a little bit. And people are always so much more friendly when we speak in Tamil. The man was still a little reluctant to let us look around, so we told him we'd give him 30 rupees (which is about 75 cents). So he walked us around the palace. It was one huge open room with a ton of Gigantic pillars and very ornate carvings all around the high ceiling (where there was a ceiling). It was also really interesting to see them building the set (which is a huge swimming pool in the middle of this huge palace room), and see them setting up all of the lighting equiptment and making all of the props and decorations. I really wish I could go back and see them filming- but it seemed like that would be out of the question.
After that Nate and Laura and I decided to head back towards the temple. We decided to walk, and found a restaurant that was called "Modern Restaurant". We went in and they led us upstairs to an open roof with tables set up. There were eight other white people up there- from the Chezch Republic. They didn't speak any Tamil though. The waiters all seemed really excited that we spoke a little Tamil, and we told them we only wanted to speak in Tamil that night. they got really excited and all gathered around us the whole time we ate. They kept bringing us extra sauces to try and asking us what we thought of each. They brought out something that was "really spicy" but i think it was one of the least spicy things i've had since I got here so maybe there was a communication error. Before we left they all gathered around and wanted to take pictures of us. Nate's birthday is next week and so he told them he's coming back on his birthday, and he'll bring a copy of all the photos for them to keep. It's nice to just have really good interactions with people in Tamil finally.
We left and decided to go to this little road that sells all electronics stuff. I've been there once before- and both last night and the first time I was there I didn't see a single woman on that street. It was really intimidating the first time, but last night it seemed much more manageable. We went to a shop on the street and they brought out a ton of DVDs for us to look at. I think I ended up buying about 20 DVDs for about 50 cents each, and one CD with 180 Tamil cinema songs on it for about 75 cents. The movies seem to be okay quality (with the exception of one- but he warned me ahead of time). The only problem seems to be with the audio in that it's maybe a little quieter than it should be. or maybe my computer just has really horrible speakers all of a sudden.
Anyway, it was a pretty fun night all in all. I came pretty close to adopting a puppy that was following us around for awhile. (not really but it was so cute) It kept chasing its tail and jumping up and down around us. I was pretty glad though when it found a pile of trash and stopped following us eventually.
Speaking of puppies, Emily's puppy, Choolie (which means "cowlick" in Tamil) is at my house right now, so I think I'm going to go help entertain it.
I hope you are all well!
--- catie
ps, you may notice that I added my webshots account to the links on the side, aswell as Laura's webshots account. She has more photos up than I do (about a quarter of which are photos I took), so you may be interested to look through hers as well.
Take Care!
04 October 2006
more photos
just thought i'd let you know that i updated my webshots account... so there are some more photos there if anyone's interested.
02 October 2006
Weekend update
FRIDAY:
this friday emily and laura and i had made plans to go with our family to celebrate the festival Naviratiri. I don't really know a lot about the festival. I know it lasts 9 nights. for the first three nights they worship Durga, the second three nights they worship Lakshmi, and the third three the worship Saraswati. I guess as a result of this goddess worship it's a family female dominated festival. the women downstairs had made plans to take us somewhere (we weren't really sure where) at 6.00. So Laura and Emily got dressed up in Saris, and I wore a Salwar Kameez ('cause my Sari petticoat doesn't fit right)and we met our family downstairs. They said we were walking to a house near where the program house is. When we got there we went inside and were led to a small room with a huge "gobra" set up. It was basically a huge display of dolls- all set up on different levels of this elevated platform. Most of the dolls were gods and goddesses, but some were of cricket players or little toy trucks. So we sat there and had slightly awkward broken tamil conversations with the people who lived in the house, and then they decided to sing a song. It was really relaxing- sitting there on the floor with these women singing these slow tamil songs over a recorded chant that was playing quietly in the background. The room was really hot and pretty suffy from the insence- but it was comfortable too somehow. Then the women brought out Prasada and gave us little bags with beans and coconut and bananas and bangles (where were too small for any of our hands), and flowers for our hair and sandlewood paste for our forheads. Then we said goodbye and I thought we were going to head home but our mom from downstairs said we were going to another house. We ended up going to three houses to see the Gobras, and then a few after that to meet our family's family around our neighborhood. Everyone was so nice and so excited to meet us. it was one of the first times i've been introducted to someone and not felt like it was someone just showing off a white person- it was more like the women from downstairs wanted us to meet their family- not just that they wanted their family to meet us. Then today I saw my mom's mom and recognized her as i was biking by and she smiled. i guess it's maybe just a reassuring feeling- like i wont always be quite the foreigner.
So by the time we went around to all of these houses we were all really tired and hungry and our family invited us back for dinner. the family we live directly above is working class. they have two children and both the husband and the wife work as ironers on the street. they're really traditional in a lot of ways- very religious- but are pretty progressive in others - like the fact the wife and husband work together. The family who's house we went to for dinner is right next door to us. They're really well off and have huge bedrooms with beds (most people here sleep all in their entry way on the floor), and they have a water filter, a big TV, couches, a dinning room table, and a son in New Jersy. Anyway, we went to their house for dinner and they fed us so many delicious dosai until we were so full and i had to hobble up to bed.
SATURDAY:
Saturday we drove out to a village to see a kind of colony where all the work that's done is done with the Gandhian mentality. Everything that can be done by hand is done by hand, even if a machine could do it- and most of the dyes for the fabrics are all natural (i guess there's a movment in India to get rid of chemical dyes by 2010!). It was interesting to see all of the places where people were working- making honey, making food, weaving and dying fabrics. There is also a school on the grounds so there were a lot of young boys playing cricket. We went into a small classroom for little kids that were mostly orphans and they sang songs for us in different languages that they're learning. Our guide for the day was this guy who was probably in his 20s. He said that he was born on the colony and went to school there and now he's working there. The people didn't get paid a lot to work there, but they got good benifits and retirement plans- which seems pretty progressive to me.
I guess that was mostly my weekend. Although- last night was the last night of Naviratiri, and so all of the trees have lights in them, and all of the cars have flowers and banana leaves on them. We saw dozens of rickshaws lined up in a field that's usually empty- all really decorated. We were wondering what they were doing there and then about 3 hours later they all drove by our house on parade- honking their horns, full of screaming children. And our litte brother Ajit ran after them- really excited to see them pass by.
Today i went to the potter and he took some pictures of me and his nephew and neice and the potters wheel. I will maybe post them up online later this week. Pottery is so thereputic. no matter how tired or stressed or exhausted from India I am- it always makes me feel better.
that's it for now. I hope you're all well! keep me updated on what you're up to!
much love,
--- catie
this friday emily and laura and i had made plans to go with our family to celebrate the festival Naviratiri. I don't really know a lot about the festival. I know it lasts 9 nights. for the first three nights they worship Durga, the second three nights they worship Lakshmi, and the third three the worship Saraswati. I guess as a result of this goddess worship it's a family female dominated festival. the women downstairs had made plans to take us somewhere (we weren't really sure where) at 6.00. So Laura and Emily got dressed up in Saris, and I wore a Salwar Kameez ('cause my Sari petticoat doesn't fit right)and we met our family downstairs. They said we were walking to a house near where the program house is. When we got there we went inside and were led to a small room with a huge "gobra" set up. It was basically a huge display of dolls- all set up on different levels of this elevated platform. Most of the dolls were gods and goddesses, but some were of cricket players or little toy trucks. So we sat there and had slightly awkward broken tamil conversations with the people who lived in the house, and then they decided to sing a song. It was really relaxing- sitting there on the floor with these women singing these slow tamil songs over a recorded chant that was playing quietly in the background. The room was really hot and pretty suffy from the insence- but it was comfortable too somehow. Then the women brought out Prasada and gave us little bags with beans and coconut and bananas and bangles (where were too small for any of our hands), and flowers for our hair and sandlewood paste for our forheads. Then we said goodbye and I thought we were going to head home but our mom from downstairs said we were going to another house. We ended up going to three houses to see the Gobras, and then a few after that to meet our family's family around our neighborhood. Everyone was so nice and so excited to meet us. it was one of the first times i've been introducted to someone and not felt like it was someone just showing off a white person- it was more like the women from downstairs wanted us to meet their family- not just that they wanted their family to meet us. Then today I saw my mom's mom and recognized her as i was biking by and she smiled. i guess it's maybe just a reassuring feeling- like i wont always be quite the foreigner.
So by the time we went around to all of these houses we were all really tired and hungry and our family invited us back for dinner. the family we live directly above is working class. they have two children and both the husband and the wife work as ironers on the street. they're really traditional in a lot of ways- very religious- but are pretty progressive in others - like the fact the wife and husband work together. The family who's house we went to for dinner is right next door to us. They're really well off and have huge bedrooms with beds (most people here sleep all in their entry way on the floor), and they have a water filter, a big TV, couches, a dinning room table, and a son in New Jersy. Anyway, we went to their house for dinner and they fed us so many delicious dosai until we were so full and i had to hobble up to bed.
SATURDAY:
Saturday we drove out to a village to see a kind of colony where all the work that's done is done with the Gandhian mentality. Everything that can be done by hand is done by hand, even if a machine could do it- and most of the dyes for the fabrics are all natural (i guess there's a movment in India to get rid of chemical dyes by 2010!). It was interesting to see all of the places where people were working- making honey, making food, weaving and dying fabrics. There is also a school on the grounds so there were a lot of young boys playing cricket. We went into a small classroom for little kids that were mostly orphans and they sang songs for us in different languages that they're learning. Our guide for the day was this guy who was probably in his 20s. He said that he was born on the colony and went to school there and now he's working there. The people didn't get paid a lot to work there, but they got good benifits and retirement plans- which seems pretty progressive to me.
I guess that was mostly my weekend. Although- last night was the last night of Naviratiri, and so all of the trees have lights in them, and all of the cars have flowers and banana leaves on them. We saw dozens of rickshaws lined up in a field that's usually empty- all really decorated. We were wondering what they were doing there and then about 3 hours later they all drove by our house on parade- honking their horns, full of screaming children. And our litte brother Ajit ran after them- really excited to see them pass by.
Today i went to the potter and he took some pictures of me and his nephew and neice and the potters wheel. I will maybe post them up online later this week. Pottery is so thereputic. no matter how tired or stressed or exhausted from India I am- it always makes me feel better.
that's it for now. I hope you're all well! keep me updated on what you're up to!
much love,
--- catie
25 September 2006
Observation exercize &c.
Hello All,
Well, things are really settled down here. I think i've got my schedle down and things are falling into place.
This weekend was really laid back. I went to the temple district to buy a few things and then from Saturday night until Sunday afternoon I more or less just sat and read in my house. Then Last night I went out to eat and ate chicken for the first time since I got here. I've actually gotten into the habit of telling people that I'm a vegetarian because it seems to make things a lot more simple- and i don't really trust the meat preparation and storage here all that much. So the chicken was an interesting change. it seemed to have been fried (like most of the food here is, I would say)- and it had a crispy red outter layer and was SO hot i could barely eat it. It was alright (and one of the only things I've had since I got here that hasn't been spicy), but I think I'm going to stick to the veg. food for now.
Last night the family that lives below us made a huge pile of wood in our yard. They then took all of the dirt around the pile of wood and dug it up and then added buckets of water to it. Women would go with their jugs and fetch the water from the well and then carry it back on their heads and leave it with the men who would do the mixing. The shovels here are long and flat and the handles sort of come out at about a 20 degree angle from the blade. The men bend over and shovel between their legs- sort of like how dogs dig up dirt. So- then they took all of this mud that they had made and mixed it with small branches and leaves and put it all around the huge pile of wood. finally they had what looked like a 12 foot high pile of mud outside our house, and then they lit it on fire from an opening below. We asked what they were doing it for, and they explained to us that they were making coal (because they are the neighborhood ironers- after you get your clothes washed you take them to the family under us and they iron them on the side of the street). Anyway- it was an interesting process to see, and I thought I'd share it with anyone who's interested. It was only sort of problimatic when the wood was burning all night and filled our rooms with smoke. Emily even tried sleeping on the roof for awhile it was that bad.
It seems as though there's always something new here. Just when I think I'm starting to understand the patterns of the people that i'm living around, something new comes up and I'm completely surprised again. sometimes there are huge fires in our yard- and I still can't figure out what they're burning. maybe trash? Sometimes there is drumming for hours, and firecrackers going off and no one seems to notice- in fact, I asked the woman who lives below me about it and she said that there weren't ay firecackers- that all people were doing that day was praying.
I went out to the potter's village today. I go again tomorrow. I think I'm not very good at it- but the potter priest says I'm a really fast student because I'm already making really big pots. It's hard work, and i get sore doing it, and really muddy. I'm also getting much better at navigating the bus system to get out there.
Last week I went to a professor's house to talk about my fieldwork ideas. He is a man named Dianechu Carr (an odd coinsidence?). He's pretty old and extremely smart. He's been guest a guest lecturer all over Europe, and maybe in the US a few times and was formally the president of a theology university in India. We talked a lot about Christianity and some about Hindusim and the use of symbols in each. By the end of it I was so excited to learn about all of it, but also completely at a loss about what I want to specifically study.
That night I went to a Roman Catholic church with Eugene, a field assistant, to do a practice observation exercize. We got there thinking there was going to be an English mass, but I guess we were misinformed or something because it was in Tamil. The church was really amazing to see though. It was really big and really colorful. There were huge statues of mother mary and christ on the outside of the church with neon signs that said, in tamil, here is your mother. Inside there were a lot of statues of different saints and a few crusifixes, and a few statues of the mother mary. It was interesting to see how people prayed there. I haven't spent a lot of time (or any time maybe?) in a Roman Catholic chuch in the US, so I was trying to compare what I saw to Hindu worshiping techniques rather than to US Catholic worshiping techniques. A lot of people were kneeling down in the front and just praying silently, focusing on the crusifix or on the figure of Mary. At the end of the Mass a lot of people got up and touched one of the crusifixes and then would bring their hands to their eyes- a guesture that is really common in Hinduism and puja ceremonies. There were some other Hindu-type elements in the church. The women still wear sacred threads instead of wedding bands and I saw a few babies with black dots on their cheeks- put there to keep away the evil eye- a hindu superstition. Also, some people took their shoes off before they entered the church, although most kept them on still.
It was an interesting experience- although I still don't really know where I should go with my research. I'm tempted to mainly focus on Hindusim and then focus on Christianity later in my life... maybe just next year. Just keeping in mind the idea that while I'm in a Hindu culture it might be good to take advantage of that.
Either way I think I'm going to try to go to a temple in the next few days- maybe over the weekend- and do a similar type of observational exercize. It seems, however, that people are more likely to pay attention to me at a hindu temple than at the catholic church. So- in temples it gets kind of difficult to be an observer without effecting the enviroment that i'm observing and thus changing the results of what i'm seeing.
well, i guess that's the update for now. I have a tamil test on Thursday that I'm not really ready for, but am not really sure how to get ready for. I have four rolls of film being developed, and they're going to put them on a CD, so maybe i'll upload them onto my webshots account when I get them back.
I hope you are all well, thanks to those of you who are sending me emails!
much love
--- catie
Well, things are really settled down here. I think i've got my schedle down and things are falling into place.
This weekend was really laid back. I went to the temple district to buy a few things and then from Saturday night until Sunday afternoon I more or less just sat and read in my house. Then Last night I went out to eat and ate chicken for the first time since I got here. I've actually gotten into the habit of telling people that I'm a vegetarian because it seems to make things a lot more simple- and i don't really trust the meat preparation and storage here all that much. So the chicken was an interesting change. it seemed to have been fried (like most of the food here is, I would say)- and it had a crispy red outter layer and was SO hot i could barely eat it. It was alright (and one of the only things I've had since I got here that hasn't been spicy), but I think I'm going to stick to the veg. food for now.
Last night the family that lives below us made a huge pile of wood in our yard. They then took all of the dirt around the pile of wood and dug it up and then added buckets of water to it. Women would go with their jugs and fetch the water from the well and then carry it back on their heads and leave it with the men who would do the mixing. The shovels here are long and flat and the handles sort of come out at about a 20 degree angle from the blade. The men bend over and shovel between their legs- sort of like how dogs dig up dirt. So- then they took all of this mud that they had made and mixed it with small branches and leaves and put it all around the huge pile of wood. finally they had what looked like a 12 foot high pile of mud outside our house, and then they lit it on fire from an opening below. We asked what they were doing it for, and they explained to us that they were making coal (because they are the neighborhood ironers- after you get your clothes washed you take them to the family under us and they iron them on the side of the street). Anyway- it was an interesting process to see, and I thought I'd share it with anyone who's interested. It was only sort of problimatic when the wood was burning all night and filled our rooms with smoke. Emily even tried sleeping on the roof for awhile it was that bad.
It seems as though there's always something new here. Just when I think I'm starting to understand the patterns of the people that i'm living around, something new comes up and I'm completely surprised again. sometimes there are huge fires in our yard- and I still can't figure out what they're burning. maybe trash? Sometimes there is drumming for hours, and firecrackers going off and no one seems to notice- in fact, I asked the woman who lives below me about it and she said that there weren't ay firecackers- that all people were doing that day was praying.
I went out to the potter's village today. I go again tomorrow. I think I'm not very good at it- but the potter priest says I'm a really fast student because I'm already making really big pots. It's hard work, and i get sore doing it, and really muddy. I'm also getting much better at navigating the bus system to get out there.
Last week I went to a professor's house to talk about my fieldwork ideas. He is a man named Dianechu Carr (an odd coinsidence?). He's pretty old and extremely smart. He's been guest a guest lecturer all over Europe, and maybe in the US a few times and was formally the president of a theology university in India. We talked a lot about Christianity and some about Hindusim and the use of symbols in each. By the end of it I was so excited to learn about all of it, but also completely at a loss about what I want to specifically study.
That night I went to a Roman Catholic church with Eugene, a field assistant, to do a practice observation exercize. We got there thinking there was going to be an English mass, but I guess we were misinformed or something because it was in Tamil. The church was really amazing to see though. It was really big and really colorful. There were huge statues of mother mary and christ on the outside of the church with neon signs that said, in tamil, here is your mother. Inside there were a lot of statues of different saints and a few crusifixes, and a few statues of the mother mary. It was interesting to see how people prayed there. I haven't spent a lot of time (or any time maybe?) in a Roman Catholic chuch in the US, so I was trying to compare what I saw to Hindu worshiping techniques rather than to US Catholic worshiping techniques. A lot of people were kneeling down in the front and just praying silently, focusing on the crusifix or on the figure of Mary. At the end of the Mass a lot of people got up and touched one of the crusifixes and then would bring their hands to their eyes- a guesture that is really common in Hinduism and puja ceremonies. There were some other Hindu-type elements in the church. The women still wear sacred threads instead of wedding bands and I saw a few babies with black dots on their cheeks- put there to keep away the evil eye- a hindu superstition. Also, some people took their shoes off before they entered the church, although most kept them on still.
It was an interesting experience- although I still don't really know where I should go with my research. I'm tempted to mainly focus on Hindusim and then focus on Christianity later in my life... maybe just next year. Just keeping in mind the idea that while I'm in a Hindu culture it might be good to take advantage of that.
Either way I think I'm going to try to go to a temple in the next few days- maybe over the weekend- and do a similar type of observational exercize. It seems, however, that people are more likely to pay attention to me at a hindu temple than at the catholic church. So- in temples it gets kind of difficult to be an observer without effecting the enviroment that i'm observing and thus changing the results of what i'm seeing.
well, i guess that's the update for now. I have a tamil test on Thursday that I'm not really ready for, but am not really sure how to get ready for. I have four rolls of film being developed, and they're going to put them on a CD, so maybe i'll upload them onto my webshots account when I get them back.
I hope you are all well, thanks to those of you who are sending me emails!
much love
--- catie
16 September 2006
hopefully a substantial update
so, i've been trying to start a blog that i can update regularly, but somehow the internet is being complicated. maybe it has to do with the connection here, or maybe it's just that i'm inept, but i'm finding it fairly difficult to access most blog sites.
so, until i have that figured out, i'm going to probably continue with the mass emails. sorry, again, for the lack of personal touch to these- but i just have a few things i think i'd like to tell most of everyone, and it makes more sense this way than writing it over and over again. but, please, write to me, and i'll respond more personally.
So, i guess it's been awhile since i talked to everyone. orientation here is over, and i'm all settled in (for the most part). There are still a few things that are sort of sketcy (like our cell phones working off and on...) and I had to go back to the police station and redo my paper work because i filled it out in green (i find this amusing because none of the papers have my proper name on them- they all leave out Miller- and the authorities don't mind that, they just don't like that i wrote in green...)- but for the most part everything is going okay.
I live above a really sweet family in a relatively quite suburb of Madurai. we're a 60 rupee auto rickshaw drive from the temple in the centre- just north east of the centre in a neighborhood called Park Town. The family I live above is a mother who's 27, her husband (also her uncle), and her two completely sweet sweet children- an 8 year old and 6 year old. The mother's name is Mutha, which means pearl, and she takes really good care of us. She and her 8 year old daughter, Santhya, made us dessert and brought it up for us. They feed us fruit and peanuts too. The peanuts here, by the way, are completely different. they're soft and taste like alfalfa sprouts. And when our family brought them up to Lauras room and we were eating them they just shelled them and threw the shells over their shoulders around Laura's room. Anyway, the family is really nice and takes really good care of us.
I go out into the village twice a week to do pottery with a potter priest in a hut. I have lectures twice a week and go to Tamil class twice a week. Somehow, even though i'm not in class a lot, I find that I'm constantly exhausted. It's also hard because the one time of the day that i'm sure to not have anything is right after lunch, but everything is closed then so i can't do any sort of errand running. I guess it's like a siesta, but they don't have a word for it.
Yesterday Emily, Laura, our program director, Shaker, and I went out into a village to go see part of this 15 day festival. It was a really long trip out there, and i got so carsick. The last leg of it we were in a private bus, crammed in with people all around us, and with insanely loud tamil music blaring. So we got out in this village, and went to find the priest. I guess the festival had already started, but it doesn't really 'take off' until next week.
So this is the story for the festival: a long time ago there was a mother who had seven daughters. The daughters got along really well with the mother's older sister. whenever she came to visit the daughters got so excited and they all loved eachother so much.However, the mother got really jealous of her sister. So, one day when the sister came to visit the mother hid her seven daughters under a chicken basket. Then when the sister left the mother lifted up the basket and found that her daughters had turned into seven little dolls. A goddess came and told her that her daughters would be restored to her only when she was free from jealousy. So, now, every year the priest in this village gets posessed by the goddess and selects seven little girls to represent the seven daughters. the seven girls are all prepubescent and have to stay within the temple for the 15 day. Then they are blessed with good fortune for the rest of their lives. I still have a hard time exactly connecting the myth with the festival and how they directly relate- but i thought it would still be interesting to see what was going on.
So we went and talked to the priest and he had the seven little girls all come out and see us. they lined up by height and all recieted a prayer for rain. We had to put the sacred ash on our heads, and eat a little bit- which i guess could be considered sort of weird 'cause it's burnt cow pies (in the north they use dead human body ash!), but i figure ash is ash.
Then we talked to the priest for about an hour and a half. At first it was really interesting, but then we started to realize that he was a little unreliable. he told us that his temple was 3000 years old and that the festival was that old also. then he told us that the goddess of his temple was originally called Durga, but now her name was changed. Then he told us the story of Durga (which is a really common story), and explained that she was the original goddess 3000 years ago, and now she goes by a different name in his temple. I found this interesting because Durga and the myths surrounding Durga aren't specific to any village- they're pan indian and relatively new, coming from a western influence. So, i wondered if he was trying to convince us that she was the original goddess, or if he was convinced of it and was just trying to tell us what he thought was true. Then this same sort of thing happened a few times. he told us all about his four sons, saying each one was smarter than the previous- each getting the highest marks in Tamil Nadu, running hospitals and software companies etc. Then he told us that he had traveled and worked all over the world and knows 15 languages without ever studying them- just because he is so spiritual and full of Shakti and energy from Durga. Then he went into a trans where he was speaking another language, but it wasn't any language any of us recognized- and he then continued as if nothing had happened.
so after an hour and a half we took some photos (which probably didn't turn out great 'cause it wasn't very good lighting in the temple), and then left. I guess it was mostly just interesting to observe how this priest presented himself. I guess it would be a really difficult (maybe impossible? i dont know) psychological study- but interesting to see how mysticism works psychologically. When i saw the woman being posessed at the last temple i was convinced that she was convinced she was being posessed- and here it seemed so mechanical as if he had produced it and was trying to sell it to us.
Anyway, that was sort of the adventure for yesterday. We also got some sacred cow-pie ash to bring home with us to our friends- so i have two little parcels in my room if anyone's interested.
i'm still pretty afraid of indian men in general. the two girls that i live with seem to be less afraid- and yesterday had some 18 year old guys up on our roof. But, for the most part the men here seem sort of sketchy. I guess that's a generalization- but it's pretty frequent that men call out to us and yell "white women!" in Tamil when we pass, or ask us if we're married (we all have started saying yes. Emily now apparently has a husband in the US named "Bob"). I think i'll feel a lot more comfortable when i know the language. According to the 18 year old guys on our roof yesterday, everyone at their school knows who we are- and that really weirds me out. I would much rather keep as low a profile as i can- even though that's pretty hard when we stick out so much.
For the most part, however, Indian people are so friendly. So many families invite us into their homes and try to feed us. They always ask if you've eaten, and what you ate, and when they can give you food. Our mom downstairs did a sort of henna type of design on our hands (maybe i mentioned this already?), flowers and mine is a swastica, and she braided our hair and put bindis on us and is eager to help put saris on us if we ever want to wear them.
well, the internet is starting to get even more sketchy, so i think i should sign off. plus lunch is due to happen in a minute or so.
I hope you're all well! keep me updated!
I'm missing all of you a lot, and trying to not think too much about the US right now- about fall in alaska and the beginning of school in NY. But, still, keep me up to date on all the happenings!
much love,
--- catie
so, until i have that figured out, i'm going to probably continue with the mass emails. sorry, again, for the lack of personal touch to these- but i just have a few things i think i'd like to tell most of everyone, and it makes more sense this way than writing it over and over again. but, please, write to me, and i'll respond more personally.
So, i guess it's been awhile since i talked to everyone. orientation here is over, and i'm all settled in (for the most part). There are still a few things that are sort of sketcy (like our cell phones working off and on...) and I had to go back to the police station and redo my paper work because i filled it out in green (i find this amusing because none of the papers have my proper name on them- they all leave out Miller- and the authorities don't mind that, they just don't like that i wrote in green...)- but for the most part everything is going okay.
I live above a really sweet family in a relatively quite suburb of Madurai. we're a 60 rupee auto rickshaw drive from the temple in the centre- just north east of the centre in a neighborhood called Park Town. The family I live above is a mother who's 27, her husband (also her uncle), and her two completely sweet sweet children- an 8 year old and 6 year old. The mother's name is Mutha, which means pearl, and she takes really good care of us. She and her 8 year old daughter, Santhya, made us dessert and brought it up for us. They feed us fruit and peanuts too. The peanuts here, by the way, are completely different. they're soft and taste like alfalfa sprouts. And when our family brought them up to Lauras room and we were eating them they just shelled them and threw the shells over their shoulders around Laura's room. Anyway, the family is really nice and takes really good care of us.
I go out into the village twice a week to do pottery with a potter priest in a hut. I have lectures twice a week and go to Tamil class twice a week. Somehow, even though i'm not in class a lot, I find that I'm constantly exhausted. It's also hard because the one time of the day that i'm sure to not have anything is right after lunch, but everything is closed then so i can't do any sort of errand running. I guess it's like a siesta, but they don't have a word for it.
Yesterday Emily, Laura, our program director, Shaker, and I went out into a village to go see part of this 15 day festival. It was a really long trip out there, and i got so carsick. The last leg of it we were in a private bus, crammed in with people all around us, and with insanely loud tamil music blaring. So we got out in this village, and went to find the priest. I guess the festival had already started, but it doesn't really 'take off' until next week.
So this is the story for the festival: a long time ago there was a mother who had seven daughters. The daughters got along really well with the mother's older sister. whenever she came to visit the daughters got so excited and they all loved eachother so much.However, the mother got really jealous of her sister. So, one day when the sister came to visit the mother hid her seven daughters under a chicken basket. Then when the sister left the mother lifted up the basket and found that her daughters had turned into seven little dolls. A goddess came and told her that her daughters would be restored to her only when she was free from jealousy. So, now, every year the priest in this village gets posessed by the goddess and selects seven little girls to represent the seven daughters. the seven girls are all prepubescent and have to stay within the temple for the 15 day. Then they are blessed with good fortune for the rest of their lives. I still have a hard time exactly connecting the myth with the festival and how they directly relate- but i thought it would still be interesting to see what was going on.
So we went and talked to the priest and he had the seven little girls all come out and see us. they lined up by height and all recieted a prayer for rain. We had to put the sacred ash on our heads, and eat a little bit- which i guess could be considered sort of weird 'cause it's burnt cow pies (in the north they use dead human body ash!), but i figure ash is ash.
Then we talked to the priest for about an hour and a half. At first it was really interesting, but then we started to realize that he was a little unreliable. he told us that his temple was 3000 years old and that the festival was that old also. then he told us that the goddess of his temple was originally called Durga, but now her name was changed. Then he told us the story of Durga (which is a really common story), and explained that she was the original goddess 3000 years ago, and now she goes by a different name in his temple. I found this interesting because Durga and the myths surrounding Durga aren't specific to any village- they're pan indian and relatively new, coming from a western influence. So, i wondered if he was trying to convince us that she was the original goddess, or if he was convinced of it and was just trying to tell us what he thought was true. Then this same sort of thing happened a few times. he told us all about his four sons, saying each one was smarter than the previous- each getting the highest marks in Tamil Nadu, running hospitals and software companies etc. Then he told us that he had traveled and worked all over the world and knows 15 languages without ever studying them- just because he is so spiritual and full of Shakti and energy from Durga. Then he went into a trans where he was speaking another language, but it wasn't any language any of us recognized- and he then continued as if nothing had happened.
so after an hour and a half we took some photos (which probably didn't turn out great 'cause it wasn't very good lighting in the temple), and then left. I guess it was mostly just interesting to observe how this priest presented himself. I guess it would be a really difficult (maybe impossible? i dont know) psychological study- but interesting to see how mysticism works psychologically. When i saw the woman being posessed at the last temple i was convinced that she was convinced she was being posessed- and here it seemed so mechanical as if he had produced it and was trying to sell it to us.
Anyway, that was sort of the adventure for yesterday. We also got some sacred cow-pie ash to bring home with us to our friends- so i have two little parcels in my room if anyone's interested.
i'm still pretty afraid of indian men in general. the two girls that i live with seem to be less afraid- and yesterday had some 18 year old guys up on our roof. But, for the most part the men here seem sort of sketchy. I guess that's a generalization- but it's pretty frequent that men call out to us and yell "white women!" in Tamil when we pass, or ask us if we're married (we all have started saying yes. Emily now apparently has a husband in the US named "Bob"). I think i'll feel a lot more comfortable when i know the language. According to the 18 year old guys on our roof yesterday, everyone at their school knows who we are- and that really weirds me out. I would much rather keep as low a profile as i can- even though that's pretty hard when we stick out so much.
For the most part, however, Indian people are so friendly. So many families invite us into their homes and try to feed us. They always ask if you've eaten, and what you ate, and when they can give you food. Our mom downstairs did a sort of henna type of design on our hands (maybe i mentioned this already?), flowers and mine is a swastica, and she braided our hair and put bindis on us and is eager to help put saris on us if we ever want to wear them.
well, the internet is starting to get even more sketchy, so i think i should sign off. plus lunch is due to happen in a minute or so.
I hope you're all well! keep me updated!
I'm missing all of you a lot, and trying to not think too much about the US right now- about fall in alaska and the beginning of school in NY. But, still, keep me up to date on all the happenings!
much love,
--- catie
14 September 2006
photos
alright- i made a webshots account. my username is Catie20 so i'm pretty sure you can all go and look at a few of my pictures. it takes awhile to upload them from this computer- and its kinda a huge process to move them from my computer to this one, so i wont be able to put up all the ones i've taken- but here are a few. i hope you are all well!
--- catie
http://community.webshots.com/album/554109051kkLqly
--- catie
http://community.webshots.com/album/554109051kkLqly
07 September 2006
cell phone
hey, just a quick note to tell you all that i got my cell phone. right now i don't have a lot of money on it- and i can't make international calls from it- but i can recieve international calls for free. SO... if you ever really need to get ahold of me or whatever--- it will probably cost a lot for you, but nothing for me. there is always the option, however, of getting a skype out account and calling me from that. it will probably be a lot cheaper- so, mom, emma, etc- if you guys want to be able to call me, maybe it's worth looking into? www.skype.com
so, here's my number (not counting international calling codes- which somehow seem complicated- i looked it up and it looks as though the international calling code to get out of the us is 011 and the india code is 91- sooo... if that makes more sense to someone besides me, maybe explain?)
my number:
994-409-7493
right now my ring tone is a little child giggling... just thought i'd share that info.
i'm going to go see if anyone will play pictionary with me. earlier i tried to do Reykjavik, but no one got it so i lost a point. i need to go try to gain that point back!
much love,
--- catie
so, here's my number (not counting international calling codes- which somehow seem complicated- i looked it up and it looks as though the international calling code to get out of the us is 011 and the india code is 91- sooo... if that makes more sense to someone besides me, maybe explain?)
my number:
994-409-7493
right now my ring tone is a little child giggling... just thought i'd share that info.
i'm going to go see if anyone will play pictionary with me. earlier i tried to do Reykjavik, but no one got it so i lost a point. i need to go try to gain that point back!
much love,
--- catie
05 September 2006
pottery
mom, will you forward these to all the people who i should be sending them to but who's address i don't have? Thanks!
So- I'm just writing a quick update to let you all know about my potter experience! Yesterday afternoon Shaker, the resident coordinater, took whoever wanted to out into the village to go see the potter/priest. For those who don't know we have one tutorial a semester and mine is going to be pottery. anyone who was interested in pottery was going to go out to the village (which is only me), but the other three girls on the trip came out too just to see what it was all about.
So, we took an auto rickshaw to the bus station, and then from there got a bus out to a stop that really looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. from there we walked for about 15 minutes on a dirt road scattered with cow pies, winding through a sugar cane field. The whole time a group of little boys on their way home from school were following us. At the end of it we got to a Sivite temple without any covering- just a lot of statues under a huge banion tree.
The potter came to visit us when we were walking into the village, and as we all walked towards his house more and more children began to follow us. By the time we were at the potter's house there were dozens of children surrounding us. First the potter set up a manual wheel, and put clay on it and we all took turns spinning it for him as we watched him work. When i was spinning the wheel he told me that i was getting to distracted by watching him, and not remebering to spin it fast enough. atleast i'm observant though? So then we all took turns making these little cups to keep oil in to light for puja and prayer, and the potter turned the wheele. None of us was very good- it was really really hard because his technique was so specific. He got really excited when it was my turn- and said that the first part of the process i did perfectly, and then i rushed too much on the second. Anyway, either he recognized me from the one time we met before (at this welcoming function that was this weekend), or he thought i had a lot of potential- because he told Shaker that I was going to be his student. I like to think he just thought I could get good.
Anyway, this entire time the children were standing around watching and more and more from the village were gatherine around, along with some elderly people, and some parents with babies. Towards the end we started to talk to the children and they got really really excited. They all wanted to shake our hands, and anytime we said anything in Tamil they'd laugh hysterically. Near the end they got out a paper and a pen and had us all write our names in Tamil over and over again like autographs. It was nice to be able to interact with all of the children, and they were all so excited to meet us (Shaker said we were probably the only foreign visitors they had ever seen in their village)- but the entire thing was also a little disheartening because all of the children were a little bit dirtier than the city children that we see shoppig with their parents- and they were all sick and coughing a lot.
It was an interesting experience though- and one i'm probably going to have to get use to because i'll be spending about three hours a week in the village doing potter with the potter. It sounds good to me, because i like how quiet and nice the village was. Oh, there were water buffalo everywhere, and dozens of paraqueets up in the palm trees above us- it was a really nice setting. I guess I'll be learning how to make little oil cups first, and eventually will work my way up to figurines of gods and other characters.
anyway, things here just got really stressful, so i have to go.
much love,
--- catie
So- I'm just writing a quick update to let you all know about my potter experience! Yesterday afternoon Shaker, the resident coordinater, took whoever wanted to out into the village to go see the potter/priest. For those who don't know we have one tutorial a semester and mine is going to be pottery. anyone who was interested in pottery was going to go out to the village (which is only me), but the other three girls on the trip came out too just to see what it was all about.
So, we took an auto rickshaw to the bus station, and then from there got a bus out to a stop that really looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. from there we walked for about 15 minutes on a dirt road scattered with cow pies, winding through a sugar cane field. The whole time a group of little boys on their way home from school were following us. At the end of it we got to a Sivite temple without any covering- just a lot of statues under a huge banion tree.
The potter came to visit us when we were walking into the village, and as we all walked towards his house more and more children began to follow us. By the time we were at the potter's house there were dozens of children surrounding us. First the potter set up a manual wheel, and put clay on it and we all took turns spinning it for him as we watched him work. When i was spinning the wheel he told me that i was getting to distracted by watching him, and not remebering to spin it fast enough. atleast i'm observant though? So then we all took turns making these little cups to keep oil in to light for puja and prayer, and the potter turned the wheele. None of us was very good- it was really really hard because his technique was so specific. He got really excited when it was my turn- and said that the first part of the process i did perfectly, and then i rushed too much on the second. Anyway, either he recognized me from the one time we met before (at this welcoming function that was this weekend), or he thought i had a lot of potential- because he told Shaker that I was going to be his student. I like to think he just thought I could get good.
Anyway, this entire time the children were standing around watching and more and more from the village were gatherine around, along with some elderly people, and some parents with babies. Towards the end we started to talk to the children and they got really really excited. They all wanted to shake our hands, and anytime we said anything in Tamil they'd laugh hysterically. Near the end they got out a paper and a pen and had us all write our names in Tamil over and over again like autographs. It was nice to be able to interact with all of the children, and they were all so excited to meet us (Shaker said we were probably the only foreign visitors they had ever seen in their village)- but the entire thing was also a little disheartening because all of the children were a little bit dirtier than the city children that we see shoppig with their parents- and they were all sick and coughing a lot.
It was an interesting experience though- and one i'm probably going to have to get use to because i'll be spending about three hours a week in the village doing potter with the potter. It sounds good to me, because i like how quiet and nice the village was. Oh, there were water buffalo everywhere, and dozens of paraqueets up in the palm trees above us- it was a really nice setting. I guess I'll be learning how to make little oil cups first, and eventually will work my way up to figurines of gods and other characters.
anyway, things here just got really stressful, so i have to go.
much love,
--- catie
04 September 2006
hello again
well, i should make this quick, but i thought i'd let you all know that i'm all moved into my new house!
i'm living with two other girls from my trip, Emily and Laura. i have my own room, which is light blue, and there's actually a western toilet in the apartment- which is alright... i have mixed feelings about it. the best part is the family we live above. we met them when we were looking at the apartment, and they are really nice and eager to have us there. There are a lot of children, most of which are really shy. two of the daughters came up and said hello to us- but our tamil is still extremely limited so pretty much we asked how they were, and then told them we didn't speak very good tamil, and then stood around awkwardly. i'm sure it will get better soon. Tomorrow we start our tamil classes. Emma- there's definitely room for you to stay if you want to come to India still! and anyone else, for that matter! Our house is on a dirt road, and all of our neighbors seem really nice. we dont really talk to or smile or wave at the men- partially because weve been told not to really, but also because we're getting a little to cautious after a lot of harassment so far. But the women and children are all really nice. Also, there are tons of goats and cows and dogs around where we live. they wander into our yard, and then out again. There are geckos in my apartment, and we saw a red iguana in our front yard. Ayway, it's a really nice living sitation so far- but then again i only moved in yesterday.
I went to the tailor yesterday after our yoga class to get some clothes that i would be comfortable in but that would also be appropriate for India. I've decided I'm not too big a fan of Salwar Kameez- although they're bearable, and i sort of have started to loath Saris... i don't know how the women here do it- yards and yards and yards of fabric all tied around you and pinned in and tightened... impossible to do anything in as far as i'm concerened, but still you see them riding bikes in them, and cleaning and going places. amazing!
well, i was going to give more of an update than this, but i have to go eat breakfast! i love indian breakfasts! they're soo good. then in the afternoon we're going to the potters village to meet the potter that i'm going to be doing my first semester tutorial with.
much love, and missing all of you! --- catie
oh ps! i saw the greatest procession in the street downtown yesterday with elephants and horses and hundreds upon hundreds of women and men and children and music and a holy man. it was so amazing and colorful!
that's it for now!
love,
-- catie
i'm living with two other girls from my trip, Emily and Laura. i have my own room, which is light blue, and there's actually a western toilet in the apartment- which is alright... i have mixed feelings about it. the best part is the family we live above. we met them when we were looking at the apartment, and they are really nice and eager to have us there. There are a lot of children, most of which are really shy. two of the daughters came up and said hello to us- but our tamil is still extremely limited so pretty much we asked how they were, and then told them we didn't speak very good tamil, and then stood around awkwardly. i'm sure it will get better soon. Tomorrow we start our tamil classes. Emma- there's definitely room for you to stay if you want to come to India still! and anyone else, for that matter! Our house is on a dirt road, and all of our neighbors seem really nice. we dont really talk to or smile or wave at the men- partially because weve been told not to really, but also because we're getting a little to cautious after a lot of harassment so far. But the women and children are all really nice. Also, there are tons of goats and cows and dogs around where we live. they wander into our yard, and then out again. There are geckos in my apartment, and we saw a red iguana in our front yard. Ayway, it's a really nice living sitation so far- but then again i only moved in yesterday.
I went to the tailor yesterday after our yoga class to get some clothes that i would be comfortable in but that would also be appropriate for India. I've decided I'm not too big a fan of Salwar Kameez- although they're bearable, and i sort of have started to loath Saris... i don't know how the women here do it- yards and yards and yards of fabric all tied around you and pinned in and tightened... impossible to do anything in as far as i'm concerened, but still you see them riding bikes in them, and cleaning and going places. amazing!
well, i was going to give more of an update than this, but i have to go eat breakfast! i love indian breakfasts! they're soo good. then in the afternoon we're going to the potters village to meet the potter that i'm going to be doing my first semester tutorial with.
much love, and missing all of you! --- catie
oh ps! i saw the greatest procession in the street downtown yesterday with elephants and horses and hundreds upon hundreds of women and men and children and music and a holy man. it was so amazing and colorful!
that's it for now!
love,
-- catie
31 August 2006
hey all
sorry to make this a group email- but internet access is somewhat limited at this point. i thought you all might like an update from india!
i'm in Madurai right now.
here is my address for mailing things. it's the program house, not my own house, but there is always going to be someone here, so this is where you should mail stuff. letters and packages and whatnot are all okay! it may take a while, depending what you send them through, but usually, i hear is between 10 days and three weeks. also.... nothing meltable because boy is it hot here!
so here it is:
Catie Miller
Plot No. 5, 4th Street
'D' Block, Park Town
Madurai, 625017
Tamil Nadu, India
also, incase of emergencies, here are the program house's numbers (the director's name is Vidya, FYI)
Office: 4252642900
and her email is:
maduraimonitor@rediffmail.com
okay. so that's all the official stuff, here's for maybe a more intimate (?) update.
I left NY just one week ago. in a lot of ways it seems like it's been much longer. the idea of sitting in NY seems like ages ago. But then again, i'm constantly learning new things and seeing things i've never seen before, so it feels like i haven't been here long at all. We spend the first few days here at a resort in the mountains at a village called Kodaikanal. It was cool there- and actually really uncomfortably cold at night and in the mornings. Its also a lot lot lot quieter than where we were staying in Madurai, so it was a good way to transition into the country. when we were there we went shopping at the bazaars, and learned more about indian food and ordering, and what to order at what meals, and how to eat. We also went for a guided trek up into the mountains through the jungle surrounding the villages. i guess there use to be tigers there, but now they've all been driven out of the area. The entire place was really interesting because although it's a steep mountain side, people still do a lot of agriculture there. They make long flat strips where they plant their crops- so the part of the mountain populated by the farmers looks like hundreds of steps all over the place. it was really interesting. and the whole thing was scattered with goats and chickens cows, and the occasional monkey or two.
we also went to an orchid orchard when we were up in the hills. they weren't in season so there weren't a lot of blooming flowers, but it was still really beautiful and we saw some amazing prehistoric looking ferns. one, actually, is so old that they told us it's pretty much identical to the kind of ferns dinosaurs ate!
We got back to Madurai yesterday and checked back into our hotel. Then we went and looked at houses to live in. There aren't any family stay options, but most of the houses are on the side or above a family. plus all the neighbors are all really friendly. The houses are all really beautiful. Most of them are middle class, according to my advisors, and what we're looking at are made for one or two people to live in. My friends Laura, and Emily and I decided that we'd like to live together, and so we found a really ridiculously nice house for three or four people. It's actually really excessive, and i feel sort of badly about living in such a nice living situation while i'm here surrounded by so much poverty. but on the other hand the rent, per person if we split it three ways) is just the same, or even cheaper, than living alone here. Anyway, it's a goregous place and i think we're going to live there. the biggest downside is that it's not above a family. The neighborhood is really nice though, and people seem to be really friendly. it's actually on the same street as the program house, which is right down the street from some quiet little shops and right near where everyone's planning on living. we're going to figure that out in the next few days.
tomorrow we start our tamil classes. so far i haven't been too successful in talking to people, but it's been alright. i can greet people, and from that they usually assume i know a lot more tamil than i do- which is a good sign for how my greeting is, but also means there's a few lines of confusion following my greeting them.
the weather is... really hot. i'm sort of just sweating all of the time. I currently own one Salwar Kammex that's bright teel and hot pink ('cause that's a subtle color combination, i guess). I also bought a fancy sari yesterday, but have to get the blouse part tailored today or tomorrow before our huge welcoming "function" (party) on Saturday. Actually, i have one friend here in Madurai who's not with the program that i'm doing- his name is Drew and he goes to SLC- and i randomly saw him on the street yesterday and it turns out he's going to be coming to our function this weekend. so it will be good to have a connection there.
i havent finalized anything accedemically yet, but i think i'm going to study pottery first semester, and cooking second semester (i want to learn how to make dosai!). and i think my field work is going to be about (maybe) the use of imagery and icons in Visnava vs Shivites, and maybe also Indian Christianity. Oh, when we were in Kodaikanal we went to a christian church on the top of a hill, and it was so amazing and different from anything i've ever seen in any other part of the world. it was really awesome to see. it was so bright and colorful!
we've only been to the meenakshee aman coil once since i got here (the huge temple in the centre of madurai). We went on the first day we got here, and i was so tired i was sort of not enjoying being there too much. But, it was still amazing to see it. it's such a huge temple. i gave a rupee to a painted elephant and it blessed me with its trunk!
also- there are animals here everywhere! i have successfully avoided any temptations to pet the dogs, even if they're domesticated- and i've only seen a few cats, but there are chickens and goats and cows everywhere. i have seen cows sleeping on four lane highways and cars and bullock carts and motorcycles and rickshaws swerving into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting them. it's actually really amazing to see the drivers here. i've only seen a few accidents, and only got hit once, slightly, when someone was backing up and the tapped me- no harm done- but for the most part the driving is really fast and loud and intense. you honk your horn whenever you're going around corners, or passing someone, or when there's someone on the side of the road- so you can imagine how loud it is.
anyway, i suppose that's about it for now. I was so glad to get emails from you, mom and dad. Also, i should maybe mention to you two that rent is probably going to be about 1500 ruppes a month, so about 35 dollars or so.
well, that's it for now. please write me back! i want to hear some US/ russian news! i'm thinking of you all and missing you all a lot!
much love
--- catie
i'm in Madurai right now.
here is my address for mailing things. it's the program house, not my own house, but there is always going to be someone here, so this is where you should mail stuff. letters and packages and whatnot are all okay! it may take a while, depending what you send them through, but usually, i hear is between 10 days and three weeks. also.... nothing meltable because boy is it hot here!
so here it is:
Catie Miller
Plot No. 5, 4th Street
'D' Block, Park Town
Madurai, 625017
Tamil Nadu, India
also, incase of emergencies, here are the program house's numbers (the director's name is Vidya, FYI)
Office: 4252642900
and her email is:
maduraimonitor@rediffmail.com
okay. so that's all the official stuff, here's for maybe a more intimate (?) update.
I left NY just one week ago. in a lot of ways it seems like it's been much longer. the idea of sitting in NY seems like ages ago. But then again, i'm constantly learning new things and seeing things i've never seen before, so it feels like i haven't been here long at all. We spend the first few days here at a resort in the mountains at a village called Kodaikanal. It was cool there- and actually really uncomfortably cold at night and in the mornings. Its also a lot lot lot quieter than where we were staying in Madurai, so it was a good way to transition into the country. when we were there we went shopping at the bazaars, and learned more about indian food and ordering, and what to order at what meals, and how to eat. We also went for a guided trek up into the mountains through the jungle surrounding the villages. i guess there use to be tigers there, but now they've all been driven out of the area. The entire place was really interesting because although it's a steep mountain side, people still do a lot of agriculture there. They make long flat strips where they plant their crops- so the part of the mountain populated by the farmers looks like hundreds of steps all over the place. it was really interesting. and the whole thing was scattered with goats and chickens cows, and the occasional monkey or two.
we also went to an orchid orchard when we were up in the hills. they weren't in season so there weren't a lot of blooming flowers, but it was still really beautiful and we saw some amazing prehistoric looking ferns. one, actually, is so old that they told us it's pretty much identical to the kind of ferns dinosaurs ate!
We got back to Madurai yesterday and checked back into our hotel. Then we went and looked at houses to live in. There aren't any family stay options, but most of the houses are on the side or above a family. plus all the neighbors are all really friendly. The houses are all really beautiful. Most of them are middle class, according to my advisors, and what we're looking at are made for one or two people to live in. My friends Laura, and Emily and I decided that we'd like to live together, and so we found a really ridiculously nice house for three or four people. It's actually really excessive, and i feel sort of badly about living in such a nice living situation while i'm here surrounded by so much poverty. but on the other hand the rent, per person if we split it three ways) is just the same, or even cheaper, than living alone here. Anyway, it's a goregous place and i think we're going to live there. the biggest downside is that it's not above a family. The neighborhood is really nice though, and people seem to be really friendly. it's actually on the same street as the program house, which is right down the street from some quiet little shops and right near where everyone's planning on living. we're going to figure that out in the next few days.
tomorrow we start our tamil classes. so far i haven't been too successful in talking to people, but it's been alright. i can greet people, and from that they usually assume i know a lot more tamil than i do- which is a good sign for how my greeting is, but also means there's a few lines of confusion following my greeting them.
the weather is... really hot. i'm sort of just sweating all of the time. I currently own one Salwar Kammex that's bright teel and hot pink ('cause that's a subtle color combination, i guess). I also bought a fancy sari yesterday, but have to get the blouse part tailored today or tomorrow before our huge welcoming "function" (party) on Saturday. Actually, i have one friend here in Madurai who's not with the program that i'm doing- his name is Drew and he goes to SLC- and i randomly saw him on the street yesterday and it turns out he's going to be coming to our function this weekend. so it will be good to have a connection there.
i havent finalized anything accedemically yet, but i think i'm going to study pottery first semester, and cooking second semester (i want to learn how to make dosai!). and i think my field work is going to be about (maybe) the use of imagery and icons in Visnava vs Shivites, and maybe also Indian Christianity. Oh, when we were in Kodaikanal we went to a christian church on the top of a hill, and it was so amazing and different from anything i've ever seen in any other part of the world. it was really awesome to see. it was so bright and colorful!
we've only been to the meenakshee aman coil once since i got here (the huge temple in the centre of madurai). We went on the first day we got here, and i was so tired i was sort of not enjoying being there too much. But, it was still amazing to see it. it's such a huge temple. i gave a rupee to a painted elephant and it blessed me with its trunk!
also- there are animals here everywhere! i have successfully avoided any temptations to pet the dogs, even if they're domesticated- and i've only seen a few cats, but there are chickens and goats and cows everywhere. i have seen cows sleeping on four lane highways and cars and bullock carts and motorcycles and rickshaws swerving into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting them. it's actually really amazing to see the drivers here. i've only seen a few accidents, and only got hit once, slightly, when someone was backing up and the tapped me- no harm done- but for the most part the driving is really fast and loud and intense. you honk your horn whenever you're going around corners, or passing someone, or when there's someone on the side of the road- so you can imagine how loud it is.
anyway, i suppose that's about it for now. I was so glad to get emails from you, mom and dad. Also, i should maybe mention to you two that rent is probably going to be about 1500 ruppes a month, so about 35 dollars or so.
well, that's it for now. please write me back! i want to hear some US/ russian news! i'm thinking of you all and missing you all a lot!
much love
--- catie
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