A Taste Of India

India. It's hard to know where to begin to start describing everything
that I have already seen and everything that I have learned and I'm
sure that whatever I say, I will definitely miss important things and
not do this place justice in my description.

The people, food, transportation, and pretty much everything here is
fascinating and different from everything I have ever seen and
experienced before. I can already tell that I am going to gain so much
insight from living with a host family into things I might not
otherwise have seen or learned.

My family consists of a host mother, Premila (who I am to call "aman"
- my English phonetic spelling version), two host brothers, Doodle and
Michael, a host father, and a grandmother who lives next door that I
met briefly last night.

I'll start with my host brother, Doodle, who picked me up from the
airport in Chennai. Doodle works for the Projects Abroad company,
which has been a huge advantage in my learning about the placement in
the hospital, as well as my living in the home. I think he is about
25, but that is only based on other things he has told me about
himself. I have realized that I am terrible at trying to judge how old
people that I meet in India are, and often times I get the feeling
that those in the lower social classes probably appear much more aged
than those in higher social classes, so that makes it hard to judge as
well. Doodle works for Projects Abroad part-time and is in school part
time, studying something to do with computers I think, and is hoping
to move to the United States when he finishes school next year.
Although he was a very intimidating looking member of the family in
the picture that was sent to me before I arrived, Doodle has been
anything but intimidating since I've been here. He has ordered all my
food when we've gone to restaurants, showed me many important places
in Madurai (hospital, bus station, train station, supermarket, ATM)
and is now helping me to try and locate a SIM card for my phone. He is
always asking me if I need anything, want more food, have any
questions, etc., and has been a great guide for my crash course in
Indian life. Today, after having ridden around in the auto-rickshaws
together for the morning, he had me hail one and try to negotiate the
price and tell the driver where I wanted to go. I managed to get us
very close, but had no idea what to say when the driver stopped in the
middle of the intersection and turned around to ask me what I presume
was something like "where do I go now?". Using street addresses to go
anywhere is impossible because the streets are not marked and most of
the drivers have no idea where they are to begin with. Instead, you
have to tell them the neighborhood name and then give a landmark
within the neighborhood to get you closer. We'll see how I do Monday
when I have to go it alone to get to work...

My host mother, Premila, is a very sweet woman who I can already tell
I am going to have to be negotiating with a lot so that she doesn't
overfeed me at every meal. This is an issue that I was having with
Doodle as well in the restaurants as well. He would order me something
and I would ear it and then he would order me something else and I
would eat that too, and then he would keep offering to order me more
food until I had eaten so much that I literally could not eat anymore
and told him so. Premila is very much the same way, and after I had
eaten three scramble eggs and four pieces of toast this morning at
breakfast (more of which just kept appearing out of the kitchen), I
finally had to tell her that there was no way I could eat another bite
of toast and jam. I'm starting to get the picture that maybe instead
of finishing all the food that I am served the first time, I should
eat almost all of it, but stop before my plate is empty. Otherwise I
may soon end up having even more trouble getting through the doorways
that I already have to go through sideways.

My host brother Michael (I think he has a nickname to but i haven't
been able to catch it yet) is also extremely nice and helpful (I'm
starting to see a pattern here with this family). We chatted today
over lunch while watching an Indian cooking show in the living room
(which is probably about the size of a larger than average American
bathroom, but crammed full of a little couch and a couple plastic
chairs and a small table and some cabinets and the fridge and TV).
Michael is currently on summer vacation but will be back in school in
two weeks. He is about my age, and is going to be starting his third
and final year in a computer science B.A program at a nearby college.
He is very funny, and told me stories about other volunteers who had
stayed with the family in the past.

I know little more about my host father, who I am to call "ahpa", than
I did when I saw his picture about a month ago. I'm not totally sure
if he speaks English, and if he does he hasn't said anything in my
presence so far. He works in a nearby city so he will usually leave
the house early in the morning and come back late in the evening.

I am sharing a room with three other volunteers who are currently
staying with the family. Two of them are away for the weekend and I
will meet them tomorrow night, and one of them named Mike who is here
from Denmark is leaving tomorrow, soon to be replaced by a girl from
the UK. There are a couple other volunteers staying next door at the
grandmother's home, but they are also gone for the weekend and I have
not yet met them. Our room is big enough for two small metal bunkbeds
with about a two-foot wide path to walk between them. There are also
three small tables for toiletries. My bacpack and clothes have so far
remained in my pack, but once Mike leaves I will take over a little
area of another wooden bedframe to put my things on. The room is air-
conditioned, which after sleeping last night I can't even imagine not
having here. There is a little thermometer in the living room that I
have not seen go below 90 degrees since I got here last night, and it
has been over 100 inside all day, even with the ceiling fans. My room
is kept at a very comfortable 75-80 degrees, which is really
refreshing to come back to especially after waking outside. The
humidity is actually probably much worse than the heat itself, and has
kept me sticky and sweaty all day.

There is a small kitchen next to the living room, and then the house
continues up a narrow set of stairs that also provide the main
entrance into the house. The upstairs is actually designed very
similar to the downstairs. The family bedroom is on the far end of the
floor (the staircase brings you up to the middle of the floor). The
whole family sleeps in this one bedroom, as is traditional for
families to do in India until children are married and move out of the
house. There is a laundry room above the kitchen on the opposite end
from the bedroom, and then a door that leads out to a fenced outdoor
area that connects to the bathroom. The bathroom consists of a western
style toilet that can only take waste (no toilet paper) and must be
sprayed down with the hose after each use. In the same small, tiled,
square room are two large buckets with large plastic cups. This is the
shower. It is actually extremely efficient and took me only about 5
minutes to use this morning to use and feel mostly clean. The water is
about room temperature, which is cool but not too cold, especially
with the heat of the outside.

After our tour of Madurai this morning and a nice lunch at home
(though very spicy, which I'm told by Mike from Denmark that I should
just get used to), I am having a nice rest in my room, taking
advantage of the last hour before the power cuts. This is a planned,
daily occurrence in Madurai, and I think in other parts of Tamilnadu
and the rest of India as well. The power will go out for 2-3 hours
starting around 4 in the afternoon. Aside from the planned power cuts,
I'm also told to expect them sporadically throughout the day as well.

The traffic and drivers here in India has to be one of the craziesr
things I have ever seen. Crossing the street is a death wish and there
is absolutely no way that I would ever even think about trying to
drive here. All the bus, motorcycle, auto-rickshaw, and the occasional
car drivers seem to have their hands on their horns more than their
steering wheels, and it would be unheard of for anybody to stay on
their side of the road (which by the way is the left side and is still
confusing me). When passing the buses in the auto-rickshaw today, our
driver veered out into oncoming traffic and drove between two oncoming
motorcyclists, went around another oncoming bus, and finally cut back
into our lane in front of the bus we were passing. I have not yet seen
a streetlight, and I'm sure that if they do exist, they are more for
show than anything.

Sleeping last night was great, even though I'm still not really
totally adjusted to the time change. However, the walls are really
thin and I woke up to lots of honking and yelling around 5 this
morning, which meant that morning traffic had started. According to my
host mother, I should also not be surprised if I wake up some mornings
to hear elephants knocking on the back wall of our room, which faces
the street, with their trunks. If I hadn't already been surprised by
so many things here, I would have thought that she was joking. I guess
I'll have to wait and see on that one, and in the mean time I'm sure I
will adjust to the morning commute noise.

Off to watch "Kung Fu Panda" on the TV with the family!