One night out

Tonight Sara, Bub and I (Mike) were able to have a most humorous adventure. For the past three days ending with today there has been a big celebration in the Hindu religion commemorating the goddess Purga. I’m not quite sure why there are celebrations, but in almost any neighborhood here you can find a temple with this goddess in it. One of the fun things they have been doing the past couple of days is making these beautiful designs with colorful sand on the ground. We’ve seen mostly circular designs with different shapes, and also one temple had made a peacock. Also on almost every corner someone is selling these strands of beautiful orange flowers which people use to decorate cars, bikes, rickshaws, and houses. It’s just a great festival to be able to observe as there’s not really anything like it in the US.

Anyways, the adventure we had tonight started with what sounded like loud dance music we could hear outside of our apartment. We went out to investigate and walked across the train tracks by our apartment and came across a small stage with a statue of the goddess Purga and next to that some lights and speakers putting out some loud dance music. We walked through the crowd and just stood at a distance of about 20ft, being the only white people in the crowd of about 100 people. There were people anywhere from kids to grown men dancing, just having fun with the music. Then suddenly someone came up and asked us to join in the dancing, and we went from being observers to being the center of the crowd. We thought that everyone would come in and dance with us, but instead this big circle of people formed about 3 persons deep around us to watch us dance. The three other people dancing with us were imitating our dance moves; maybe mocking us and maybe thinking they were really cool, we weren’t sure. There was also one man there preventing other people from dancing in the small circle, we think because he wanted us to be the center but we weren’t entirely sure. We danced with them for awhile and after each song we would try to go and they would just hold up a finger, “just one more” and we would. After about four songs we finally quit and retired our dancing for the night.

What impresses me about the different religions here is that they are more publicly celebrated. Their celebrations aren’t confined to a building, but it’s more publicly displayed. All are welcome to observe and process in their own way. And everyone from the elders to young kids are participating. There is another religious celebration that, I believe, starts today commemorating the defeat of the evil one Raman (sp?). It is celebrated with a burning of an effigy of Raman and lots of fireworks. This common theme of a victory over evil is something that can be appreciated across many religions and is very interesting to see celebrated in this way. We were told we would be impressed by the diversity and extravagance of the different religions here and we truly have been.

Will you be my neighbor?

We are getting settled in to our flat and loving the fact we don’t have to move every night. The apartment is great, dirty upon arrival but thanks to our hardwork clean as a whistle. The walls are yellow, the curtains are bright colors. It is fully furnished, though the beds are as hard as sleeping on the marble floor. The apartment is owned by the Sahara House (where Mike and Andrew are volunteering) and they finally came down on the price so we could rent it. The small balcony looks over the rest of the apartment complex and brings in a morning breeze. There are fans in every room and AC that I have to convince Mike not to turn on (we pay for utilities). We finally unpacked our India bags after a month and a half of being packed. I didn’t even know what would be in my bag and was pleasantly surprised.
Things I’m glad we brought:
-hand sanitizer
-toilet paper (they don’t have any in most public bathrooms)
-hand soap strips (thanks Amy! They’ve saved us multiple times)
-sheet (the bed had a semi questionable sheet on it)
-slackline (who knows how many friends I’ll make with it)
-frisbee (how could I not)
-running shoes (there is luckily a joggers park nearby that hopefully will work out for runs)
-food (granola bars, nuts, instant oatmeal) it’s sustaining us as we get settled in

In the neighborhood: We are set back a little ways from the main road but right next to the railroad tracks. There are shops close by and we can get to a busy part of town in 15 minutes of walking. There are street vendors all over the street we’re on and provide plenty of delicious bananas and vegetables. Last night we went to such a veggie stand and bough 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 3 green peppers. Coming to a grand total: 15 Rs (~ 30 cents). We’ll be eating a lot of vegetables. There is also a live chicken store across the road from the veggies, with crates upon crates of living chickens (not for long). We’re exploring and getting our bearings.

Picture descriptions:

1. the jogging park mike and i will be running around multiple, multiple times.

2. some of my favorite flowers in the area

3. one of my favorite views (non city) between two parts of town. the only wide open land around

4. the heart leaves i get a kick out of (mary t. --they remind me so much of the tree on our program!)

5. one view from our balcony of other apartment complexes. behind us is not this nice.

Sexy Man and Registration

Andrew and I got into a ricksaw to go to the Foreign Register’s Office (FRO) and the driver asked us where we were from. Once replying, “America” he responded with a grin on his face, “OBAMA!” Then he proceeded with an even bigger grin, “Sexy man. Obama sexy man no?” Andrew and I laughed at his statement and continued to laugh until the end of the ride. He was one of the better drivers yet, welcoming us into his country.
The Foreign Register’s Office was a little less welcoming. If John and his paid helper didn’t show Mike and I once where it was, we’d have no idea how it works. Essentially you go into this gate, sign your name and then walk pass lots of police with big guns. Then we follow this road that leads to a building. We were to go in, through a metal detector, and find this tiny, unlabeled hallway. There was a line that lasted for over an hour to get to this tiny, cluttered room full of papers. Mind you, there was no title or directions on the door. We were magically supposed to find the place. It was fun to see the inner workings of Indian bureaucracy and we all chuckled about the weirdness of where we were finding ourselves. Finally we got to the room, and watched as two women and one man chattered in Hindi and passed papers back and forth. They only asked us one or two questions and then told us to come back the next week to pick up our registration. It was quite the process and needed to be done to get a flat. A story to tell for sure. I really wanted to take pictures but was afraid of being arrested or the camera confiscated (which probably would not have happened).

Apartment update!

I only have internet for a short time, but I wanted to let you know the unbelievable happened. We have a flat!! We were all getting a little down and desparate about it, as all options seemed to be deadends. Alas, a worker at Sahara House got the price down on the flat Sahara House owns. We stayed there last night and were so excited we didn't have to go back to the hostel/hotel we stayed at the night before (a downscale place, with lots of character...pictures to come). The place is furnished and is nice. We are moving in today, we are at John's house collecting our stuff.
Our apartment doesn't have internet right now, and it may take awhile. Thus this may be the last time for a bit that I'll have solid access to internet. The boys went to Sahara House and the girls to the school. Both seem to be great. Anne and I were even able to teach a small group today multiplication and subtraction. Difficult for them to understand us at times, but I loved it. More details to come. Much love to all. Send us love via email. We'll be figuring out the postal service soon.

Hotel Sunderban

The skeleton keys to our hotel for the last two days. It was the cheapest we could find in the area. They had a lot of open air space and the windows go straight out to the outside (no screens) but have metal gaurds (as seen in one of the pictures). Internet was on and off, lights flickered, breakfast was toast and corn flakes, and the most random furniture was around. But there were very cool birds in the area with wonderful flowers. Employees would regularly sweep the yard with brooms made of sticks, and watering of the lawn was rampamt. They had a nice area where we could read and hang out. Check www.andrewandanne.blogspot.com for more pictures.

Pictures Round 1

Here are some snapshots early on in our journey. Starting off with our great visas, the shining/bright faces of Mike and I, our first cow sighting, the train ride with Andrew and Anne, and the view from the train.

Apartment Frustrations

Right now we're in the process of trying to get ourselves an apartment, and wow, it is much harder to get an apartment as a foreignor than you might think. They have these things called brokers that find an apartment for you and you have to pay them a "finders fee" for finding you one and helping you set up all the formalities such as passport info, why you're here, pictures, etc. It makes me very much appreciate how easy it is for us to get an apartment in the US. We're waiting now for our broker to get back to us so that we can move to the next step. It seems that we're going to be spending another night in a hotel and MAYBE be able to move in tomorrow. We were given some advice right before we left for India that "you have to expect things not to work out like you expect" and that is just about the best way to explain the situation that we are in. We're learning to be flexible and content, even though we are not where we want to be.

On the brighter side of things, Bub and I met one of the people from Sahara house today and the meeting went very well. He told us a bit about the clinic, and showed us a flat that we could have rented, but it was almost going ot be twice as much as the flat we're hoping to rent so we declined. He was very positive about us working with Sahara and seems like he will be very helpful.

One thing about India in general that I've been observing and trying to just pound into my head is that you need to approach India with an open mind and you cannot judge things by the way they would be in the US. What might look like a dangerous part of town in India to us by US standards is actually very safe and considered normal in India. Things are just going to be a little dirtier and chaotic than I am used to and that's going to be okay. Sorry if this post is a bit long and hard to follow, these thoughts make much more sense in my head.

I think we're all a bit frustrated, but trying to keep positive. It's been a great overall experience so far, and is sure to only get better. Bye for now. (sorry for no pictues, we need to get batteries for our camera to post a few pictures we have)

Mike