10 July

10 July 2010

So this week was rather eventful. Everything was so much more exciting with extra volunteers around. Monday was a holiday here thanks to the bus drivers going on strike, so there was no school. In the afternoon, we went on a walk with all the girls… yes, all eighty of them. We stopped at a little river/pond so the girls could go swimming. Apparently all the girls were aware of the fact that this would be our final destination, since a couple were equipped with soap and shampoo. I wasn’t planning on going in, but after a few splashes I was completely soaked and gave in. These girls are really good at peer pressuring. With Sister Mary already in the water, I figured I might as well go along with it, too. Thanks to Christi’s parasitology knowledge, I am well aware that parasites love stagnant water… however, it’s been four days now and I’m still not sick. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this means I’m parasite free. Anyways, disregarding that issue, the afternoon was a lot of fun. Two of the boys from school, Prajwal and Kiran, heard about the swimming outing and came over to join in. They chose to swim in a separate pool of water, showing off their diving abilities. It was hilarious. The girls chose this moment to tell Christi and I the story of a woman dying in this pool of water. The story itself was a little disjointed, but we this part was clear: “woman”, “wash clothes”, “died.” So a woman drowned while washing her clothes in a few feet of water? Maybe there was more to it than that, I don’t know.

By Tuesday the bus strikes were over, so we made a trip into town so that Christi could visit a doctor. While we were there, we were allowed to tag along for some food shopping. Patti went off with Sister Anna to the vegetable market, and Christi and I went with Sister Mary to the bakery. We took mental notes concerning all the different kinds of sweets that we’re planning on bringing back. Sister Mary also bought us an entire cake to keep in our room as a snack. It turns out that it’s cherry flavored and tastes somewhat like cough syrup, but it’s still edible, I suppose.

We had yet another day off from teaching on Wednesday, when Mike let Patti, Nash, Christi, and I accompany him on a field trip to a place called Mayadior. It’s a small rural village a decent ways from here where a small group of Salesian Sisters have started a home. They’re hoping to build a new boarding school with the financial help of Home of Hope. Mike wanted to go assess the property situation and ask the nuns for specific ways in which Home of Hope could be of help. On the drive there, we made two tourist stops. The first was at the Golden Temple, a beautiful Buddhist temple up in the mountains. I saw more Buddhist monks there than I’ve ever seen in my life. It made me recall the days we spent analyzing Siddhartha in Mr. Leed’s high school English class. (At least Mr. Leed’s rendition of this novel didn’t involve any physical harm… at least nothing like the pins in the eyes incident during his version of Oedipus Rex). We didn’t stay at the Temple for very long (though we did get to enjoy some ice cream), but we left for our second tourist destination… the jungle. Okay, well, maybe it was more like a national park or something, but it felt like the jungle. At the entrance of the park was a hanging bridge, and to our relief, it seemed to have been engineered to appropriate standards. It had rained that day, which meant the rest of the part was muddy and difficult to walk through. We saw monkeys—lots of them. We also saw an animal that looked like a reindeer. Apparently Santa goes on vacation in India. The animal we were most excited to see, the elephant, was MIA, however. The staff told Sister Rani that the elephant was “on holiday” for rainy season. Apparently we would have been allowed to ride it, had it been there. So disappointing. Anyways, we finally made it to Mayadior, where the nuns were very welcoming and excited to see us. They even made us an Indian version of bowtie pasta for lunch. I definitely wasn’t expecting that one. There were lots of cornfields on their property, and at several points I was confused as to whether this was Tolland or India, because I swear they looked exactly the same. Sister Rani took us on a tour through the mud and showed us the parish and the village. We could tell that this was a very special visit for her, since she’d lived in Mayadior for a short time as a novice. This visit was also a reunion for Sister Rani and one of her “companions” (another newly professed sister). They were all smiles and holding each other’s hand the whole time, it was really cute. We were exhausted by the time we were back on the road, but I can never manage to close my eyes in that Jeep. This is partially out of fear for my life and partially because there’s just so much to see. The ride took us through the countryside and up in the mountains, as well as through small villages and marketplaces. We didn’t get back until dinner time. Patti, Nash, and Mike all said their goodbyes to the girls that night. Watching this was especially hard, knowing that we’ll be saying our goodbyes in only a few short more weeks.

Things have been back to normal these past few days… we’ve essentially settled back down into our normal teaching routine. After some discussion with Sister Mary and Sister Maria, we decided that we’ll be leaving Hassan early on the 22nd to catch a bus back to Bangalore. That means that after today, we’re only here at the school for eleven more days!