The beginning of our epic journey - Sidney

When we started this trip, we thought it would be smart to write down, every once in a while, the things that had happened so we wouldn’t forget and so we could share it with everyone. So while in Goa, after our first journey on a train, Sid wrote this up (with a little help from me, Brooke and some input from Trevor as well). Unfortunately we got lazy and didn’t continue writing great blog posts about every place we went, so an update on the rest of the trip will come later! This will give you an idea of how the trip started though. Hope you enjoy! - B

"Vara and Prim cooked us up a gourmet meal before we left consisting of Tiger rice (enough Tiger rice to feed an army), egg fried rice, and chapathi’s (of which we made 20 and had to take some in a ‘parcel’). She also had homemade peanut butter (sweeter than ours at home) and egg curry (guudu curra). We ate at a semi-rushed pace under the candlelit dimness of the power outage – a daily routine we’ve gotten to know quite well.

Ramana was waiting for us and urging us forward because he wanted someone to come to the railway station with us and that wouldn’t happen if we rode a later bus. We ended up going to Vempalli with Rajeev and then to Kadapa as a trio because we don’t need no babysitter. The trip began. With enlightened hearts and serious anticipation we were on our way. We made a few friends on the bus to Kadapa who helped us know which stop to get out on and how much an autorickshaw would be to the railway station. Everytime we talk about a “train station” the Indians have a look of confusion but when we say “railway station” they know exactly what we’re talking about.

                Looking around the railway station in Kadapa you’d think they’re acting as part railway station and part hostile because bodies lined the floor and we had to be careful where we stepped. Dogs snuggled closely to oblivious mummies snoring under their patterned blankets as if they knew each other in a previous reincarnation. After asking the enquiry attendant about the process of our train situation we sat down in an open area where hardly anyone was around – perhaps  a little too cautious about our belongings and paranoid every time someone walked too close to our bags. However, there were reasons why no one sat at this certain area of the railway station – mosquitoes. The war began as Brooke quickly whipped out her Cutter, while 6 gigantic blood suckers homed in at Trevor’s juicy calves. It was a massacre. The war claimed no victor but left the mosquitoes hungry and moved us to an area where we sat under a nice, cool mosquito-preventing fan. After 5 games of i-Spy and 6 games of Go Fish, it was time to board the train which was conveniently an hour late. The peculiar mix of excitement and tiredness was quite the experience. You know that feeling your brain has when you’re up too late but everything’s funny and you’re tired? Yeah, that’s what it was. If there were more people at the train station at that late hour we probably would’ve gotten some confused glances.

                Chronic laugher, dim fluorescent lights, loud snoring, cigarette smoke, narrow aisles and multitudes of buff, bald men were the dominating features of our particular sleeper car at one o’clock in the morning when we boarded. Oh joy. Picture the three of us sitting on one side berth cot that we were supposed to share for the night (since only one of our tickets was confirmed) with our bags on our laps, staring at the wall wondering what the next 12 hours of our lives would bring, or if life would even bring us 12 hours. To say the least, we were pretty scared. Not just because of our surroundings but because we were tired, we wanted sleep, and it’s almost impossible to sleep with one eye open. We eventually ended up in different berths as the night went on and people disembarked the train at various stops. The train was considerably less scary after sunrise. Sid made some great friends with the bald men who had actually all shaved their heads because they were returning from a visit to a temple in Andhra Pradesh. We were all introduced and did some Hindi language practice.

                It was good to get the first trip on a sleeper car train out of the way. With many more in our future, we would have to be prepared to meet some interesting people and smell some new smells!"

- S

We were glad that Sid made good friends with these guys. :)

Home in Andhra

After an incredible 28 day journey around India and Nepal we are back safe in our apartment at the school in good old Andhra Pradesh.  We visited 9 major areas including Goa, Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, and Dehli, Darjeeling, and Kolkata in India and Pokhara and Kathmandu in Nepal.  Transportation included trains, buses, mopeds, taxis, auto-rickshaws, bicycle-rickshaws, and subways.  Compared to the polluted dirty cities like Dehli and Kathmandu the slow farmlands where we live never seemed so inviting.  It is amazing to see the familiar faces at the school and to be back with our neighbors Ramana and Chandu.  We're still tackling each of our piles of laundry, I've never missed a washing machine so much and you don't want to know what the water looks like in the buckets when we are done, and also enjoying the joys of being able to cook for ourselves and feel clean.  It's daunting thinking about telling you guys all about our trip but in the next few days we'll try to post at least some of the crazy highlights.   I hope you all had had an amazing holiday season and that the start of 2012 has already been a blessed one.

-T

Namaste

At the moment we are running around our house packing things, cleaning, and trying not to forget anything.  I'm pretty sure my backpack weighs the most out of the three of us, Yay, but Brooke and Sid aren't far behind me.  Packing for a month in one backpack is definitely challenging.  I really shouldn't even be typing this blog post probably.  But anyway I wanted to let you all know that we leave for our trip all over India and Nepal in a few hours. Our train leaves at 11:00 pm and only one out of our three tickets has been confirmed, the other two are wait listed, but we are hopeful. :)  First stop is Goa and then the plan is Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, Dehli, and then Nepal after that but it's India, plans can easily change.  Since we're traveling you may not hear much from us until 2012! Wish us luck! Merry Christmas!

-T

INDIA#10 - Christmas Greeting Mash-Up Song

Early December in Pictures-Trevor

An Early Chrstimas Feast With Our Neighbors

Saturday Hike With the Entire School

Girls Dancing to Feliz Navidad

Best Christmas Skit Ever!

Sid Got Christmas Lights From Home

Thanksgiving with the Indians-Trevor

It is hard to put into words how special our Thanksgiving was here in India but I will try my best.  To our surprise our Thanksgiving celebration started the night before.  Sid, Brooke, and I were eating dinner at Vara and Prem’s house, our adopted family.  Normally we eat chapati and a different amazing curry each night but that night Vara made special vegetable chapati, special omelets, and then off course there was delicious curry.  He told us this was to start our Thanksgiving.

We woke up Thanksgiving morning remarking to each other how it really didn’t feel like the holiday at all.  When I think about it, this is the first time all three of us have been away from family at the holidays.  The kindness and special day to follow would quickly help us forget that.  During the morning the principle and his wife had us over to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving and to give us some carrot cake.  At lunchtime Chandu, brought over two different curries for us to try, one of them was even a pumpkin curry!!! The little things definitely make us excited here in India. Yes, we spend a lot of time eating.

For dinner we had invited Vara and Prem, and Nancy, their adorable little girl, Chandu and Ramana, our neighbors, and Rajeev, a younger single guy over for dinner at 7:00, so the afternoon found us preparing for the meal.  The day before we had made a shopping list and busted right down to the grocery store, just kidding, we went to the bustling street market in Vempalli and bought potatoes, green beans, beets, carrots, and cucumbers, all for the whopping price of about three dollars.

By the time 7:00 rolled around we had used pretty much every dish and pot in our house, plus borrowed some from next door and some from Vara and Prem.  Sid set up two tables together, found a table cloth, lit candles, and also ran around until we had enough plates and utensils for everyone.  We were going to make this a legit Thanksgiving!

In typical Indian manner, everyone showed up around 7:30.  The table was full with two pots of mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, gravy, seasoned green beans, a fresh vegetable plate, pineapple, and cooked carrots and cauliflower.  Brooke deserves most of the credit for the food, especially since she needed the power for some of the cooking, and the power here likes to play games with us, especially when we need it the most.  We resorted to just keeping our headlamps on for the last half hour spent cooking.

Rajeev loves ketchup!!

Ramana

As dinner began, watching our guests try some American food was almost as entertaining as Ramana lifting his plate up to his face to use his fork, complete with elbow sticking straight out. The ketchup was also a big hit with baby Nancy and Rajeev, as he put it on mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and the vegetables. Kind of reminds me of American kids and myself. Ketchup makes everything better.  Sid played the part of an Indian host very well and for the first time we were the ones giving and offering more food even though they were full.  We concluded the meal with some apple cider from home, custard, and Brooke made one killer carrot cake complete with frosting.

It was Sid’s idea to continue the American tradition and go around the table and say what we were thankful for.  Brooke and I started by saying how much all of them meant to us and how they had made India so special.  I will never forget what happened next.  Vara had to translate for Ramana but as he began to talk about how Sid and I are his brothers, and Brooke his sister, my eyes started to water.  By the time Chandu, Vara, and Prem had talked about how they would miss us when we left I was a goner.  I was sitting at Thanksgiving dinner crying, that’s a first.  Sid didn’t fair much better soon after I started.  I don’t think it helped that we were sitting directly across from each other.  So now the two American boys are crying at the table and Brooke is able to hold it together, classic.

These incredible people are not just like our family, they are family.  Their immeasurable kindness and beauty blows me away every day but as I was sitting around the table with all of them together I could just feel the happiness in the room.  It is definitely true, food brings people together.

Dishes-Before and After!

After dinner, just like in America we all found ourselves in the kitchen.  I physically had to stop Vara from washing the dishes, which I’m glad I did because after everyone had left we could fully survey the damage.  I had to stack dishes on the floor to get to the bottom of the sink to even start.

Today, the day after Thanksgiving, we were over at Vara’s and Prem’s for dinner and to our surprise in a pot we found mashed potatoes, with an Indian flavor of course.  My favorite line of the evening was, “I want you guys to terminate them!”  Well we terminated those potatoes! Ha!

India has definitely gotten under my skin.  Sorry for repeating, but these people are truly incredible. Rajeev told us that he would remember our meal for the rest of his life. I would have to agree.  Happy late Thanksgiving!  I’m thankful for India!


-T

I Thought I Was Stonger-Trevor

So far most of my blog posts have been about traveling, fun experiences, and just India in general.  Although it’s much easier to write about holidays or the amazing curry I ate last night I thought I would open up and be honest about some of my emotional journey, so here it goes.

I remember those first few weeks.  Each day seemed like a week in fact.  I never thought I would feel the way I did.  I had been to Malawi, Namibia, and Malaysia all on mission trips, lived in a dorm for four years in high school away from my parents.  I’m a strong, independent kid I thought.  Living in India would just be another adventure full of fun times right?  Yes and no.

I remember the moments where I stopped missing home or even thinking about going home were few and far between. Even when I was playing volleyball or talking with people, most of my brain was struggling to stop thinking about how I didn’t think I could do this.  I had heard of student missionaries having horrible years and all I could think of was, “I’m going to have 7 months of this!!!???”  That thought was overwhelming.

I found myself during those first few weeks shutting off from the experiences around me.  I felt tense, alone, vulnerable, and weak.  The things keeping me in India included how much planning I had put into the trip, the donations of friends and family, not wanting to give up, and Sidney and Brooke.  I WANT TO BE HAPPY I kept telling myself.   I want to laugh until it hurts and not just put on a fake smile and pretend it is all okay.

It has been over a month and a half since we spent our first night here in India.  I’m reading Blue Like Jazz and the author talks about how one of his most painful experiences was realizing has selfish he truly was, that life was a story, but he was not the main character it revolves around.  Despite how it is embarrassing to say it, I also am beginning to see that life is not only a story about myself.  There are so many beautiful people here in India.  Their beauty shines through their kindness, faces, laughs, and smiles.  As I am beginning to realize that me being comfortable is not the one main goal in the story, life here is India has started to come alive in beautiful facts and colors.  Things that would make me just want to retreat to my room in frustration, now still make me frustrated but I’m able to turn it into laughs and memories.  People here have become family.

My progress is definitely slow, Oscar the Grouch wouldn’t want to be around me at times here.  I still miss home, friends, and family on a daily basis.  But instead of just focusing on that I need to remind myself how truly lucky I am to even have the opportunity to meet these people, eat these foods, and be fully immersed in a different culture.  I know many of you are praying for me, Mom especially, so thank you for the support and help.

It is crazy to think how low, shut-off, and home sick I was for the first month.  It took being completely separated from my amazing family, friends, and social community to realize how much I really do rely on people.  Despite how independent I may think I am, my family and friends truly do provide so much support that I took for granted until now.

No I AM NOT as STRONG as a thought, but where there are STRUGGLES there is GROWTH.  It just took that far away country called India to help show me that.

-T