India at its best...yup >.>;
Okay let’s see where to begin…well most people have already realized I know longer am situated in the same country let alone the same continent anymore. Which in my case has backfired on me and I now bathe in a bucket with a half meter diameter ^-^; Which in turn leads to Stephanie pouring half the water onto the floor >_<;; much to her own annoyance.
But seriously, during my last year, (senior year), of high school I had decided that I was going to be a volunteer for a while in a country far, far away. This was strongly backed up by the fact that my physics teacher had told me that I would fail my physics finals, which of course made me feel on top of the world… Anyway, since I was going to fail I thought I would volunteer for a year then take up my exams after my little brother had finished his senior year. Turns out that I didn’t fail, no thanks to my teacher, the problem was then that I hadn’t applied to any uni’s XD.
So I was going to work for a while save up and then go volunteering, which I think is a well used year in my point of view. So worked at a local supermarket till December 10, then 14 I left for India with my mom. 21 of December my brothers and father joined us to celebrate Christmas with my mom’s family in Goa, like we do every two years.
On the 1 of January 2006 the entire family gets up at the ungodly hour of 05.30am to take a drive down to Bangalore where I am to have a short language course. Of course this being India we forgot the whole Indian thing and the driver arrivers at 06.45…..45 minutes late and apparently doesn’t speak a word of English XD which was okay since both my mom and her sister are fluent Hindi. At around 08.00 Stephanie hears the ever joyful voice of her bladder saying “You know, even though you went just before we left I do believe you forgot to empty me completely. So you better cooperate or else you will be the ridicule for the rest of this trip, i.e. I shall burst before all your family members.”
My first thought was; wonderful just as we leave a town with western toilets this has to happen. So me being the smart one and not wanting to go into the bushes and get bitten on the ass by all things unholy and bug-like I decided to hold it >_<;;
More details I know you wanna =D
Now driving to Karnataka state takes a while because the majority of the roads suck big time, there are tons of potholes every where. Another thing was of the fact of the slow assed trucks every where. In particular I enjoy watching one slow assed truck try to overtake another slow assed truck going up hill and preferably when there is a corner where you can’t see around the bend. I think my favorite part of the drive was when two trucks were trying to overtake one truck, which meant that they were now blocking like both lanes and then some, and our driver thinks; Hey why not try to overtake all three trucks at one time using the dirt road next to the asphalt road on the side of oncoming traffic where all cars and trucks will be forced to drive because of the three slow assed trucks blocking the real road. Man am I smart or what?
Needless to say that we clearly didn’t crash into anything because the car that suddenly appeared at the bend braked like mad and let us place our selves behind the slow assed trucks again. Have I mentioned I love Indian driving?XD
12.00 we finally reach another town in Karnataka state, Hubly, which praise the Lord had western toilets……
>.>
<.<
Though I probably should have used the Indian ones now since the area where I was going to be a volunteer in all likelihood did not have a western one….After lunch we continue on the road towards Bangalore. Again shitty roads, more honking, more weird and very often scary overtaking by our one and only driver. Till about 90km outside Bangalore we hit the new highway they are now building. But occasionally we had to go on dirt roads as the highway has not been completed. We reach the outskirts of Bangalore at 22.30pm and it takes us an hour to find our hotel. When we get there my mom and aunt finds it unacceptable, which I think most people would. There was water on the floor leaking from the bathroom, which wasn’t very clean. And the beds didn’t look very clean either. So at 23.30pm my mother phones my volunteer coordinator and asks him for the address of the hotel he had recommended. It takes another few minutes to find it. I finally get to bed at 0.00……lovely O_o
Next day, 2 January, I have breakfast with my family at 12.00 and then get picked up by my coordinator and another volunteer, Lacey from Canada, at 14.45pm. We get driven to our coordinator’s home and start language courses, Kanada for Lacey since that was the language you speak in Karnataka state and she was just going to be 2 hours away. I was originally supposed to be 4 hours outside Bangalore near a town called Penukonda. So I was also so supposed to learn the language my shock was great when I was taken to another room and given a small book called Learn Tamil in 30 Days. My coordinator explained to me that because of some problems regarding volunteers through Global Crossroad I had to be moved. Ok I thought, moved that can’t be too bad. I sort of figured I wasn’t going to be to far off from my original post. So I would be close to Bangalore so my Indian family could visit me. But no such luck, I was going to be sent into the next state down south called Tamil Nadu which was about 12-15 hours by train, the a one hour drive from a main town called Tirunelveli to a smaller town/village called Kalakad. My reaction was as follows:
Hm? 0.0
*blink* >.<
Um… 0.0
OMG!! O.o
You could have probably seen on my face that my stomach went into my toes to hide with my heart and I actually got a cold sweat. I was actually positively petrified of the thought of being so far away. My first thought was how was I going to contact the outside world, because Penukonda had internet, but the village I was supposed to be in didn’t which was 4 and a half hours away from Bangalore. Now this in comparison was to me like no-mans-land. After Tamil classes and culture crash course we get driven to the Student Christian Home Movement of India built in 1977….and I’m quite sure that nothing has changed there including the lovely old wooden bunk beds in the rooms, the small half meter desks and old steel foldable chairs and steel doors. I found out quite quickly that pretty much everything in the whole freaking buildings creaks, which is sort of creepy when it’s like midnight and no lights are on….
Anyway the place had an Indian toilet and western one, but never would I go into the western one…the cockroaches there sort of stopped me in my tracks <.<;
Okay, okay, there was only one there, but it was flying which was immensely icky and I’m sure the guys would agree too…..so there.
Anyway had dinner at a Kamat restaurant, which I was told by Lacey afterwards; that is where you will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday….
Wonderful, I don’t have anything against vegetarian food, but Kamat was pure vegetarian. My problem was that I was told that where I was going I would be eating mostly veggie foods. I was kinda, well to put it quite frank, irritated.
Tuesday we had language class, culture crash course and then wonders of wonders we went to a different restaurant, one called “Something Fishy”, what was really fishy was the fact that they only sold one fish dish….go figure.
So today Lacey and I ordered non-veg food, which were 3 different chicken dishes since the other meats were more expensive. That night my family, who were staying 15 minutes away, were supposed to come with hand sanitizers and fruit plus the very important toilet paper. Since we hadn’t had dinner we told them to come after dinner. It took them 45 minutes to get to us.
Wednesday morning a Danish couple arrives, Helle and Soren, at 06.00am which of course made me very happy indeed. The two of them were supposed to go to the same village as I was, but their project area was changed too. So they had to learn Telugu a language that is spoken in Andra Pradesh. Today was shopping day so after language class we all set off to shop. I forgot to mention that Soren is about 2meters tall, and our coordinators car is like a beetle car…needless to say that Soren sat in front but still had his knees very close to his chest =D
Helle and Lacey bought a shalvar kameez each and I bought a bed sheet, a bath towel and face towel. Then Lacey and I each bought our own Kurti.
….more to come later, just did this one quickly and yesh I know I am wayyyyyyyyy behind in update thingy, but you know how it goes. On the net then BAM!!! The damn connection dies on ya. Love the dial connections in this country....
Kill me now >.<;; Love Tamil Nadu
But seriously, during my last year, (senior year), of high school I had decided that I was going to be a volunteer for a while in a country far, far away. This was strongly backed up by the fact that my physics teacher had told me that I would fail my physics finals, which of course made me feel on top of the world… Anyway, since I was going to fail I thought I would volunteer for a year then take up my exams after my little brother had finished his senior year. Turns out that I didn’t fail, no thanks to my teacher, the problem was then that I hadn’t applied to any uni’s XD.
So I was going to work for a while save up and then go volunteering, which I think is a well used year in my point of view. So worked at a local supermarket till December 10, then 14 I left for India with my mom. 21 of December my brothers and father joined us to celebrate Christmas with my mom’s family in Goa, like we do every two years.
On the 1 of January 2006 the entire family gets up at the ungodly hour of 05.30am to take a drive down to Bangalore where I am to have a short language course. Of course this being India we forgot the whole Indian thing and the driver arrivers at 06.45…..45 minutes late and apparently doesn’t speak a word of English XD which was okay since both my mom and her sister are fluent Hindi. At around 08.00 Stephanie hears the ever joyful voice of her bladder saying “You know, even though you went just before we left I do believe you forgot to empty me completely. So you better cooperate or else you will be the ridicule for the rest of this trip, i.e. I shall burst before all your family members.”
My first thought was; wonderful just as we leave a town with western toilets this has to happen. So me being the smart one and not wanting to go into the bushes and get bitten on the ass by all things unholy and bug-like I decided to hold it >_<;;
More details I know you wanna =D
Now driving to Karnataka state takes a while because the majority of the roads suck big time, there are tons of potholes every where. Another thing was of the fact of the slow assed trucks every where. In particular I enjoy watching one slow assed truck try to overtake another slow assed truck going up hill and preferably when there is a corner where you can’t see around the bend. I think my favorite part of the drive was when two trucks were trying to overtake one truck, which meant that they were now blocking like both lanes and then some, and our driver thinks; Hey why not try to overtake all three trucks at one time using the dirt road next to the asphalt road on the side of oncoming traffic where all cars and trucks will be forced to drive because of the three slow assed trucks blocking the real road. Man am I smart or what?
Needless to say that we clearly didn’t crash into anything because the car that suddenly appeared at the bend braked like mad and let us place our selves behind the slow assed trucks again. Have I mentioned I love Indian driving?XD
12.00 we finally reach another town in Karnataka state, Hubly, which praise the Lord had western toilets……
>.>
<.<
Though I probably should have used the Indian ones now since the area where I was going to be a volunteer in all likelihood did not have a western one….After lunch we continue on the road towards Bangalore. Again shitty roads, more honking, more weird and very often scary overtaking by our one and only driver. Till about 90km outside Bangalore we hit the new highway they are now building. But occasionally we had to go on dirt roads as the highway has not been completed. We reach the outskirts of Bangalore at 22.30pm and it takes us an hour to find our hotel. When we get there my mom and aunt finds it unacceptable, which I think most people would. There was water on the floor leaking from the bathroom, which wasn’t very clean. And the beds didn’t look very clean either. So at 23.30pm my mother phones my volunteer coordinator and asks him for the address of the hotel he had recommended. It takes another few minutes to find it. I finally get to bed at 0.00……lovely O_o
Next day, 2 January, I have breakfast with my family at 12.00 and then get picked up by my coordinator and another volunteer, Lacey from Canada, at 14.45pm. We get driven to our coordinator’s home and start language courses, Kanada for Lacey since that was the language you speak in Karnataka state and she was just going to be 2 hours away. I was originally supposed to be 4 hours outside Bangalore near a town called Penukonda. So I was also so supposed to learn the language my shock was great when I was taken to another room and given a small book called Learn Tamil in 30 Days. My coordinator explained to me that because of some problems regarding volunteers through Global Crossroad I had to be moved. Ok I thought, moved that can’t be too bad. I sort of figured I wasn’t going to be to far off from my original post. So I would be close to Bangalore so my Indian family could visit me. But no such luck, I was going to be sent into the next state down south called Tamil Nadu which was about 12-15 hours by train, the a one hour drive from a main town called Tirunelveli to a smaller town/village called Kalakad. My reaction was as follows:
Hm? 0.0
*blink* >.<
Um… 0.0
OMG!! O.o
You could have probably seen on my face that my stomach went into my toes to hide with my heart and I actually got a cold sweat. I was actually positively petrified of the thought of being so far away. My first thought was how was I going to contact the outside world, because Penukonda had internet, but the village I was supposed to be in didn’t which was 4 and a half hours away from Bangalore. Now this in comparison was to me like no-mans-land. After Tamil classes and culture crash course we get driven to the Student Christian Home Movement of India built in 1977….and I’m quite sure that nothing has changed there including the lovely old wooden bunk beds in the rooms, the small half meter desks and old steel foldable chairs and steel doors. I found out quite quickly that pretty much everything in the whole freaking buildings creaks, which is sort of creepy when it’s like midnight and no lights are on….
Anyway the place had an Indian toilet and western one, but never would I go into the western one…the cockroaches there sort of stopped me in my tracks <.<;
Okay, okay, there was only one there, but it was flying which was immensely icky and I’m sure the guys would agree too…..so there.
Anyway had dinner at a Kamat restaurant, which I was told by Lacey afterwards; that is where you will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday….
Wonderful, I don’t have anything against vegetarian food, but Kamat was pure vegetarian. My problem was that I was told that where I was going I would be eating mostly veggie foods. I was kinda, well to put it quite frank, irritated.
Tuesday we had language class, culture crash course and then wonders of wonders we went to a different restaurant, one called “Something Fishy”, what was really fishy was the fact that they only sold one fish dish….go figure.
So today Lacey and I ordered non-veg food, which were 3 different chicken dishes since the other meats were more expensive. That night my family, who were staying 15 minutes away, were supposed to come with hand sanitizers and fruit plus the very important toilet paper. Since we hadn’t had dinner we told them to come after dinner. It took them 45 minutes to get to us.
Wednesday morning a Danish couple arrives, Helle and Soren, at 06.00am which of course made me very happy indeed. The two of them were supposed to go to the same village as I was, but their project area was changed too. So they had to learn Telugu a language that is spoken in Andra Pradesh. Today was shopping day so after language class we all set off to shop. I forgot to mention that Soren is about 2meters tall, and our coordinators car is like a beetle car…needless to say that Soren sat in front but still had his knees very close to his chest =D
Helle and Lacey bought a shalvar kameez each and I bought a bed sheet, a bath towel and face towel. Then Lacey and I each bought our own Kurti.
….more to come later, just did this one quickly and yesh I know I am wayyyyyyyyy behind in update thingy, but you know how it goes. On the net then BAM!!! The damn connection dies on ya. Love the dial connections in this country....
Kill me now >.<;; Love Tamil Nadu