June 20, 2010




Well there is no electricity AND water now. Just when you thought living conditions couldn’t get any more archaic, they do. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that living conditions are that archaic. I mean, in comparison to a lot of other places I’ve seen here, I guess this is like the Hilton of India.



Luckily, living conditions are the least of my worries here. But I’ll explain more of that in a bit.



First, I want to tell you about what we did today. Actually, I’ll start with what we wore today. So Allison and I came to India with the goal of purchasing saris to wear around. We bought them back in Bangalore. When we went to open them up, we noticed that there was a sticker that said “Blouse included”. We thought to ourselves, “Oh good….we didn’t even know you needed blouses for them…” When we got to Hassan, we unfolded the sari, and noticed that there was no blouse to be found. It turns out that the blouse was actually there….still in the fabric, and waiting to be made into a blouse. We got it made for a few hundred rupees…don’t worry, that’s only a couple of US dollars.



Welll, last night, we tried them on for the first time. We actually wore them to the children’s night mass. Our my-size-Barbie days hit a high point last night, as the girls literally did everything they could to make us look like Indian princesses (which apparently includes green glitter all over our faces). Bindis and all, we were the hit of Mass. Today, we decided to wear them again to the village Mass. Again, all eyes were on us, which is really awkward because in the first place, eyes are on us because people are confused by our existence here. All of our students got a huge kick out of our Indian-ness. So many people were impressed by us, that we have been encouraged throughout the day to marry an Indian boy. Haha, Mom, what do you say about that? Somehow I think I might get in trouble if I came home with a husband, but that might just be me.



Okay, so that’s how our day started. We decided to stay in the saris until teatime, but we didn’t do this for fun. Last week, I asked if we could do village ministry, and today was finally that day! We decided we wanted to make a good first impression by wearing a sari. That was a little uncomfortable, but I guess it’s in the name of fashion.



We stopped at three houses today. The first was Prajwal’s house. Unfortunately, he was not there since he was at the convent in study hall. However, we met his mom, dad, sister, and cousin. Prajwal and his dad look exactly the same. It was kind of scary looking at his father because the similarity was disturbing. Like a carbon copy. His cousin was only a couple of years old, and followed me in by the hand. I picked her up, and I’m convinced she was really sick. She was sitting on me, and I felt like she was wheezing or something. She might have just been a gassy little kid, but it was really weird. It made me wonder about the medical treatment that would be available to her. From my own first hand experience, I worry about these kids. Prajwal’s mom served us drinks, which was a really nice thought of her. However, it was slightly frightening. When she brought it out, it was this murky liquid. As she hands my glass to me, I’m thinking “Good thing I brought Xifaxan.” If you don’t know what Xifaxan is, then you should know that you would need it if you drank the water in Mexico. Turns out that it was just lemonade….which to me, was just as bad. It was still really nice of them. She also gave us very nice flowers for our hair, which is the Indian thing to do.



The next house we went to was the house of a girl about our age and her family (like her mom, dad, and grandparents). She wanted to practice her English, but she was kind of shy. Her family was…….well, they weren’t like Prajwal’s family. Prajwal’s family talked A LOT. We were there for like an hour….not that we knew what anyone was actually talking about because they were all speaking in the local language. Apparently, we looked like we knew what they were saying since they asked if we understood them. That’s what I call my confused face.



Anyway, back to this one family. They were stone faced. It was actually really awkward. One of my more awkward moments in India, which is definitely saying something. They stared and stared. They were completely different from their daughter, who was pretty much begging that we go in her house. Again, this girl was very nice. She wanted to become a nun, but then realized she didn’t. This is why she knows a little English. She said she didn’t know how to cook, so instantly I liked her. More importantly, she didn’t plan on learning. That’s pretty bold for India.



She was very hospitable and served us biscuits and orange soda…..I LOVED the biscuits…but if you know me, you know I don’t like soda. So again, something I had to gulp down in a non-disgusted face. Truly a miracle. Regardless it’s really nice of these people to serve snacks.



Oh which reminds me….for dinner tonight, my parade of things I dislike followed me. Tonight’s special: Chicken Marsala. Tonight’s extra special: Chicken Head Marsala. Meat is rare here. When I saw chicken marsala, I thought it was great because it was the first dish I actually recognized outside of rice. Welllll, it also turns out to be one of the few dishes I was completely disgusted by. For once, the bird brain wasn’t me, but rather, the bird brain was my food. Literally. I was pulling out bones, and the first one I pulled out was a weird shape….a little too round. It kind of reminded me of a brain cavity, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. The next bone I pulled out was a beak. A BEAK. Yup, definitely a chicken head. And there were DEFINITELY brains in it still. Yuck.



Back to the rest of my village story. While we were at this house, I learned something new about India. People come and go from houses here as if the whole village was a shopping center. Everyone walks in anywhere. This probably is the reason why I got locked out of the convent tonight. Which is another tangent, but I’ll tell you it now. I was on the computer checking my email tonight at about 6:30 pm. I finished up at about 7:15 pm, and discovered that the kids were in Adoration. Unfortunately, the big metal doors had been closed, so I struggled to open them quietly, and then closed it behind me quietly. Then I see the next set of doors. They are locked. I don’t know what to do so I just stand there with a dumb look on my face. Then I decide I could probably get in from the side doors. Nope, those are locked too. So I sit in the dark for about 20 minutes waiting for someone. Later, they explain that villagers will just walk in if the doors are left open. Makes sense after today.



Okay, now really back to the village. After this girls house, we went to the house across the street. This house was also very different. There was a grandma and her grandson, who is mentally disabled. Apparently, he has “fits” aka bursts of rage. He went to the doctor and was prescribed “tablets”, but apparently it doesn’t work very much, supposedly. They explained that he was undiagnosable. I wonder if he couldn’t be diagnosed in the US. What he suffers from does not seem to be all that uncommon, but then again, I’m not a doctor, thank God. Anyway, we later learned that this boy is the son of the cowhand at the convent.



Oh at the end of this village story, it turns out that the young girl at the second house is going to take us into the village every day now….this should be interesting. Hopefully there are more biscuits and less soda slash other drinks that scare me.



When we returned, we found that one of the girls we tutor was sobbing. We asked what had happened, and the high school girls that were supposed to be helping explained that she couldn’t write her ABCs, which to me, isn’t a reason to cry so much. There had to be more to the story. We took Ambika aside, and found Sr. Rani to translate for us. Apparently, because she couldn’t write her ABCs, the high school girls made Ashwini, one of our other students, hit her with a ruler. Here is the irony. Ambika is the smartest one of the group, and is the only one who actually can recognize letters. Ashwini, on the other hand, has a mental disability. She’s definitely not all there and definitely does not know the alphabet. Anyway, I was furious at this point. I went over to the high school girls and lectured them that hitting wasn’t the way to teach kids, and if they are ever to work with our girls again, then they can’t hit them. Anyway, I’m sure they had no idea what I was saying. I wanted to slap the girl that told Ashwini to hit Ambika…but I felt like that might defeat the purpose. Grrrrrr. Don’t mess with the people we tutor. The girl that caused this is actually a pretty funny person in herself. She always looks angry. That she would do this doesn’t surprise me at all. Every time she smiles, her face cracks a bit.



So okay, now I’ll work backwards in time to tell you about some things I forgot to tell you about within the past week or so. On Saturday, there was an Installation Ceremony at the school in preparation for India’s Independence Day, which happens to be on August 15th. Anyway, the kids elected leaders of the school to lead them in a competition against each other. The leaders are supposed to make sure everyone does their homework, study, etc. I’m still waiting to see this happen in terms of English class. It was funny because some of the kids that were elected also happen to be the naughtiest kids in the classes and also the pushiest. Some of them are great, and definitely deserve the position. But I guess all school elections are the same, regardless of country. It’s just a popularity contest.



Now on Friday, Allison was sick, so it was me vs. 90 kids. Kind of. It went by fairly smoothly, with all of the normal problems of fighting and talking out of turn, etc. etc. Then I got to 3rd and 4th standard…combined. This was a death sentence in itself. The two classes together ALWAYS equals trouble. No doubt about it. I taught for the first 45 minutes with almost no problem…or at least, no new problems. Then came the second 45 minutes. See, no one had come to teach them, and I felt bad just leaving them there unattended. So I stayed, awaiting for the bad turn of events. It came when one of the girl’s mother to say goodbye to her. She had apparently been visiting for the day. Well, the girl went with her mom, ad the returned in tears. Pretty soon, other girls began to also miss their mothers, and there were 3 or 4 pairs of salty eyes in the class. Then the real fighting began. The hitting of heads with metal pencil cases, hitting people with books, and the good old-fashioned punch. Everything. As more and more people began to fight, more and more tears started to appear. I tried to control the fighting as much as possible, while comforting the sad kids. It was a mess. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did, of course. A handful of the kids had escaped the classroom, and were playing around outside. One of the teachers spotted this, and began her own style of punishment, slapping wrists with a bamboo stick. So at this point, I would say the cry count was up to approximately 10 or 12. Yup, that’s about half the class. The other half of the class was the half that hadn’t cried while fighting, and continued to brawl with each other. It was like watching a zoo, only the animals in this zoo viscously attack people.



Amidst this mess was Antony-Pujpa. I call her Pujpa. Anway, she was crying too, and I comforted her. We walked home together, and made friends. Now she’s always holding my hand when I see her. Her English is pretty bad, but she’s also getting special tutoring now.



Earlier in the week, I learned that Reconciliation happens every month here. The kids have to confess their sins EVERY month. Yup, it’s a lot of confessing. Well, I got into the spirit of seeking forgiveness and decided to give it a try. Really what happened was I agreed to it without thinking. When I thought about it, I realized that I didn’t know the Act of Contrition, etc. Luckily, I got a crash course from Sr. Anna about it all…minus the Act of Contrition. She was like a theology professor when she explained to me why we go to Reconciliation. It was pretty interesting. The priest was Indian, and so that was a first for me. He seemed more interested in talking about Hawai’i than he was in talking about my sins. All I can say is I have never felt like I wanted to talk more about my sins at a Reconciliation until this past week. What an accomplishment.



I also learned a lot this week about the violence that occurs against Christians here. I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard of some of the stories at all, because there are really terrible mass crimes that have occurred in this country. It’s sad to see that there isn’t more media coverage on all of the violence that exists here. Since the media isn’t really covering it, I guess I will write about it more. Here. Oh, but in my next blogskis.



Ummmm okay, well, I have to teach soon I suppose. Pray that I make it out alive.

PS-For this week, we are teaching double shifts, separately. We might actually not survive now. =p