India-Day 31

I have been in India for a month. Crazy. I was going to upload some photos right now, but my camera is dead. So we'll see if we can upload some photos later and get ya a good view of the things that have been happening over the past little while.

This weekend was rad. Seriously, so amazing. So the cool thing about India is the amount of history that it has. It literally has 4000 years of history creating its culture, people, and lifestyle. Whereas in America, it's rare to find a building that's over 300 years old. This weekend we went to two world heritage historical sites: Ellora and Ajanta's monk-built caves.

On Saturday, we drove to Aurangabad, a city about 4-hours North-east of Pune, the city we've been staying in. We arrived and quickly checked into our hotel that only cost us 250 rupees a night (6 US dollars). Hotels in India are plain, but the room service is great. Amazing prices, wonderful Indian food, and fast! It is basically just a restaurant at my disposal. I didn't actually order anything, but Krishna got a omlette sandwich for breakfast. We ordered a few bottles of water for 15 rupees each (35 cents).

After checking into the hotel, it was another hour or so long bus ride to Ellora. I stepped out of the bus straight into Indiana Jones. We were in the midst of a giant forest with monkeys all around us. I'll talk more about the monkeys later, because they were friggin' awesome. Like I said, I stepped off the bus to see one of the most majestic sites I have ever seen. In front of me was a giant mountain, but it seemed as though the mountain had.

I am also soo happy i met krishna shastry.. He is the best ever!

Sorry, left the computer. Krishna got a hold of it.
Anyway, it seemed as though the mountain had had a giant section cut out of it. Inside this giant section that was cut out was a gigantic solid stone temple. This temple had been carved out of the solid rock that makes up the mountain. Several generations of monks would work throughout their entire lives to build these enormous structures using only two tools: a hammer and chisel. It is the most amazing thing I think I have ever seen in my entire life. Walking up to these buildings, I stood in awe at the dedication it must've taken in order to build such massive structures. At the Allora site, there wasn't only one of these giant structures; there were 35 massive caves dug out of the mountain. The caves were chiseled out by monks from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religions. Again, I just stood in awe thinking about the level of dedication that it must've taken for the monks from the three religions to continue throughout their lives to constructing the caves. Ever inch of the temple was carved with such marvelous and intricate detail. And again, words lack the adequate feeling or emotion that I need to express what it was like to see these sites. My favorite cave, besides the gigantic temple structure, was a cave that was shaped to have perfect acoustics for meditation chanting. In the center of the room was a giant statue of Buddha. When the tour guide took to some chanting "Ohm", I could feel the vibration of the sound enter into my body. I have realized why monks chant like that. It really is relaxing. It chills you out. Helps your mind sit at ease. Next time you need to chill out, try it. Especially if you got a sweet statue of buddha and an perfectly acoustic room at your disposal.

The next day, when I didn't think that things could get any more incredible, we take a bus up two hours to Ajanta to see another set of caves. These caves had actually been lost for 1000 years up until the early 19th century when John Smith (not Pocahontas' John Smith), while hunting a tiger, discovered the caves. Atop a tall mountain, Smith overlooked a giant canyon to see find these chiseled-out caves deep in the jungle of India. I actually liked these caves better than the ones at Ellora. I think because of the artistic influence on the caves of Ajanta. In each of the caves are great paintings of stories from Buddha's life. The caves at Ajanta were mainly Buddhist caves as opposed to the other caves at Ellora. Very graphic paintings of beautiful Asian color and style. I was impressed by the artistic knowledge that they did posses in the 5th century AD. There was one cave with a mural on the ceiling. They were colorful designs of earthy browns, greens, reds, and oranges. There were brighter blues, but it was rare because in the 5th century, they were not able produce blue out of what they had available to them. They had to purchase it from Persia. Anyway, this mural was so rad because it was made to look like a giant tapestry. The painting style made the painting look as though it were flowing with the wind like a giant tapestry would. The way they painted that was really amazing. Obviously, because the monks were painting inside the caves, light was very limited. In order for the monks to have sufficient light to paint, water was poured all over the floor so that it was flooded with about 1 or 2 inches of water. Then, using mirrors and metallic reflection, the sun was reflected onto the water, which in turn was reflected off the water to shine on the ceiling and provide the light needed to paint and work in the caves. Such incredible ingenuity. Most of the caves had individual rooms available for the monks to meditate. The rooms were about 10 x 10 and there would be about 7 or 8 monks meditating at a time in these small rooms. These rooms, as well, had perfect acoustics that allowed the vibrations of the chanting to be felt in your body. It was awesome.
After the tour of the caves ended, we were allowed to go off on our own to explore a little bit more. I continued checking out the caves. Then, I met up with Krishna and Tom, and we decided to climb to the other side of the canyon where John Smith had first seen the caves. The half moon cut out of the mountain created a giant canyon with a waterfall on the far side flowing into a pool of water. Then, a river flows through the canyon and between where we were standing and the caves on the other side. Everything around us was a lush green due to the amount of precipitation that India always gets. So, we ran up the trail to see this sight, and I don't think that any of us were ready for the splendor we were about to witness. It was really unfortunate that we only had about 15 minutes until we needed to meet up with the group. There was a nice man who was trying to sell us some quartz rocks. He showed us the best spots to take photos. We took some photos, but as usual, it is impossible to express the feeling of it all. The sight, the smell, the temperature, the sound, the wind. All of it combined to create an incredibly euphoric, out-of-this-world, indescribable emotion. Gah. It's so frustrating. You'll just have to look at the pictures and try to imagine it the best you can.
As we were sitting on the top of the mountain, it began to rain. Not only rain, it began to MONSOON! Before we knew it, we were trapped under a veranda hanging out with our rock friend and about 30 nice Indian folk. It rained and rained. As we were talking with our friend, he taught me a great lesson. I was telling him that we were poor college students and that we were going to be traveling, so we couldn't buy his rocks. He told us that we were rich and healthy. Then he said, "Health is better than wealth." He said in such a wise manner. I appreciated that small thought. It was beautiful, because he was just so sincere and kind. We finished our conversation with him, and then because we needed to get back soon, we headed out in the rain to get soaked. I broke off a big leaf of a tree and used it as a temporary umbrella to keep me dry. A lot of the Indians that were huddled under different verandas complimented our brilliant use of nature. After 10 minutes or so, we made it down the mountain and met up with our group who were all huddled together in a restaurant, completely dry.
The trip home was an adventure as well. I have never met better salesmen than the salesmen outside of the caves. Before they went up to the caves, they walked up to us, talked with us, and showed us their shops. They really seemed to express interest in us, but afterward, I came to understand that their seemingly good feelings were expressed as a desire to sell to us rich Americans. It sucked. All their stuff was all the same and highly highly over-priced. The man I met, Ali, was doing everything he could to sell to me. I told him I couldn't, so he kept going down. I continued saying that I couldn't, so he kept going down in price. Finally, he sold me a statue of a Buddha for only 500 rupees. I tried to leave, but he kept trying to sell me more stuff. I left and went back to the bus, but he followed me and even stayed outside the bus asking me to buy. He wasn't the only one. All the shop-keepers that had occupied my friends were pestering them as well. We would even close the windows, and they would open them up jamming their stuff into our faces. It was so nuts. The most pushy, intense salesmen ever. It was very interesting though.
The bus ride back to Pune was the most uncomfortable trip I have ever taken. I was so exhausted. And I couldn't get to sleep in a comfortable situation. Totally bummed me out. But finally after about 7 hours, we arrived at an ATM that is close by the apartment. Krishna, Sergio (the monk), his brother, and I all walked home from there. I got home, took a shower, started the laundry, and then passed out.
So the past few days were freaking awesome. So much fun. Rahm, Krishna and Ashok's Dad, and Kartik, Dhruva's Dad, are here. We leave tomorrow for New Dheli. It will be a 26 hour train ride. That should be interesting. We get beds, food, and the works. I finished reading Animal Farm. I started reading 1984 again. I have a good long ride to read that. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Boo yah.
So that's it. I know this was super long. So kudos to you for reading this stuff. Really, I am half writing it for you, but mainly writing it for me. But I hope you do enjoy it. I love you and probably miss you. God bless. Namaste.

India-Day 29

Our time at the Ananda ashram came to an end today. Pretty mixed emotions about the whole thing. The people there are really chill. I have really liked the things we have learned there. Meditation, about solar energy, and such. Having traditional Indian cooking everyday was also a great blessing. But...I can't say that I am too upset about leaving when it comes to the work we've been doing. I feel that we have certainly been underutilized as of this past week. Sitting around, reading, watching movies and TV shows, etc. Fun, but unfortunately wasn't what I came over to India for. However, like I said before, I learned a lot of valuable things to take with me, so I can't say it was all bad.

Right now, we're sitting in Pune at the Ananda flats. Today was Tom's birthday, so we celebrated by going out to grab some pizza at Domino's. Gotta love that American pizza. Then, we went over to Crossword, a popular bookstore. Books in India are so cheap, so I grabbed two George Orwell books: 1984 and Animal Farm. It's been a while since I've read 1984 so I figured I'd pick that up again. I almost bought The Complete Works of Shakespeare, but I felt like $7 was too hard for me to come by at this time. I have been doing so much reading since coming to India. Mainly, it's because we have had so much free time to be able to do so. I have been reading my film book, Super Freakonomics, The Book of Mormon, Fahrenheit 451, and now, some classics by Orwell. Should be good times.

The time here in India has been great. I'm really excited for the next stage of my trip. We are going to meet up with Rahm, Krishna and Ashok's Dad, and Kartik, Dhruva's Dad on Monday. Then, we will head up to Dehli, the Himalayas, and to see the Taj Mahal. So sick! I'm way stoked for that. From Pune to Dehli, we will be taking a day-and-a-half train ride. First Class baby. High Rollin'! Then, we will fly down to Bangalore for the Ashok and Krishna's cousin's wedding. Then, July 26th, I'll fly out of Bangalore and head back to America. So, despite the fact that it may sound like I know what to expect the next couple weeks, I have really only a slight clue of what's going to happen. The rest is a mystery.

Another cool shout out to Jesse Thomas. I was thinking about you today buddy. I wanted to talk to you on skype but I ran out of time. Sorry man. Love you.

Shout out to Obama. Here's to you, Mr. President. I can't believe that you're middle name is Hussein and you got elected. Well done, sir. Well done.

India-Day 24

So, last week, after having my awesome experience with the villagers, I learned a little bit about what not to do in India. On Friday, we went to this huge spiritual sight in a city near Pune. This sight is the place where a Hindu monk back like a thousand years ago "left his body". Basically, I think that means he meditated until he died? I don't really know. But this man was really respected and there is a legend of him flying on some stone wall, similar to a magic carpet, I guess. Apparently he had faith to move that stone wall and so he did. Anyway, there is a gigantic spiritual town square. Outside, you leave your shoes. Then, you enter the gate. It was really hectic on the inside. Lines everywhere and people trying to lay themselves flat on their bellies everywhere. Really, it was quite the sight. So after going through this giant line, we went through a room where this monk's body was buried. We seriously only had like 5 seconds in there before we were being shoved out by guards and stuff. I felt bad, because there were people in there trying to pray and stuff, but as soon as they would kneel down, the guard would be pushing them along. It was crazy.
As we left, I got separated from the group. I didn't mind because it gave me time to look around and soak it all in. Suddenly, there was this little Indian girl right in front of me, trying to paint my forehead with the traditional Indian mark so she could make a few rupees. I tried to avoid it. I didn't want to get painted, but she was a persistent little girl. She literally stopped right in front of me. If I tried to move to the left, she would move with me. If I tried to move to the right, she would move with me. Before I knew it, she reached her arm up as high as she could and got me with her little brush. By then, I didn't mind. I allowed her to paint my head. As soon as she was finished, she held out her hand expecting payment. I looked through my wallet, but could find nothing smaller than a 100 rupee bill. Just so you get an idea of how much this is, I would be surprised if they make 100 rupees in 5 days of work. I was looking to pay her only about 5 rupees, but being that I didn't have anything else, I didn't mind giving her the 100 rupees. However, as soon as I took it out, her eyes got huge. I handed it to her and immediately, she ran over to her friends and told them what I can only imagine is "The tall white guy is rich!" The next hour was horrible. I finally met up with everyone, but I had two little kids attached at my hip. 3 of the guys had been to India before. They asked what I did, so I told them. They remarked how that was a bad idea, because now these kids will follow us everywhere. And they did. We walked all the way back to our car. Not only were they still following us, but they had increased in numbers. There were about 5 little kids following us asking for our money. I felt bad, because I wasn't going to give any more money out. It's not that I minded giving out money. They obviously could use it more than I do. However, the thought occurred to me that giving them money is not what they need. If I really wanted to help them, I needed to give them my time and energy. It was a stark contrast from the kids in the village. I didn't give them any money, but I spent time with them, shared laughs with them, and smiled with them. And I feel that I made more of an impact on their lives than if I had given them money. Realizing this, I allowed the kids to continue following us around. I tried to make them act more like kids, by challenging them to a game of tag. When I tried touch them and yell "TAG!" they had no idea what I was talking about. Trying to get them to understand, I tagged Tom and got him to play with me a little bit. Then, I proceeded to tagging them. And they played! For an instant, they forgot all about their job. They forgot all about poverty, money, and things that only adults should be thinking about. For one second, they were acting like 5 year-olds again. It was wonderful. We played tag for maybe only 30 seconds, and they were the best 30 seconds of that whole day. Watching them laugh and smile was awesome. Truly great. However, their reality dawned back upon them, and I think they realized that I wasn't going to give them any money. They continued asking my friends and I, but no one was willing to give anything, except candy. Even candy wasn't good enough for them. They only wanted money. I tried to get them to play with me again, but they weren't having it anymore. As we started to leave, one of the girls began to cry. She almost got me. I just wanted her to escape the reality she was in, have fun, and be a kid. But I can only assume what her life must be like. I obviously have no idea and no matter how hard I try to put myself in her shoes, I will never be able to. Maybe I should have given her money. Who knows? It's just a bummer wanting to help someone out, but not being able to.
Yesterday, I had my first Indian massage. Krishna and I have been wanting to get massages for the past couple weeks. Finally, Krishna found a place in the newspaper. Because no one was doing anything yesterday, we figured it would be the best time to go. So, we went down there. Aaron, myself, Krishna, and one of the Indian monks (for translation) all went together in 2 auto rikshas (Indian taxis) We show up to this super run-down, sketchy apartment building. It was way dark. Our Indian friend called them and asked them where they were located. They said on the second floor of that building, room number 205. We went up the old elevator with metal gates for the doors, like you'd see in an old movie. Finally we arrived on floor two and found room number 205. There was no sign signifying it was an actual massage parlor or anything. Just the numbers 2-0-5 above the door. We walk in to meet a man and a woman sitting at a desk giving us a look like "What do you want?" Our Indian friend figures out a few things and gets us basically all set up for a massage for only 600 rupees (about $13) I was the first to go into the back room, which is only marked off by curtains like you'd see in a hospital. I walk into the room and the woman who was sitting at the desk asks, "Which one?" while pointing to a bunch of women standing in front of me. I felt awkward like I was picking out a stripper. I just picked the one closest to me. She took me into another separated room and told me to change, but didn't give me a towel. Now, I have gotten a massage before. Usually, the way it works is I go into the room by myself with a towel. I get naked and lie down on the bed. Then the woman comes in. Here, she hung out in the room, didn't give me a towel, and I'm sitting there like "Are you serious?" But finally, I asked, "Towel? Towel?" She responded by going and grabbing me a towel, to which I was really appreciative. I stripped down and laid face-down on the table with the towel over me. She came in a few seconds later. The massage was mediocre, at best. She massaged with like dove lotion, but had no special deep-tissue techniques. I was pretty disappointed. The massage finished sooner than 45 minutes, but I had the longest massage out of Krishna, Aaron, and mine. Awkwardly, we met up in the "lobby", then we left and laughed at the awesome experience. It was great. Really fun stuff.

India-Day 22

This week was a really great week. We have had a really good balance of work and cultural experiences that made the week go by really smoothly. It seems like this week also went by really quickly. I guess I am getting more into the hang of things and have my own schedule of doing things that has made time pass by quickly.
We are so dirty. All the time. It dawned on me today as I was sitting in the shower scrubbing the mud off of my feet. We smell too. I think we're all so accustomed to the facilities of our lives here in India that it hardly phases us.
So, like I said before, this week was a great week. I think I am thinking in particular of one really amazing experience we had on Thursday that made it, to me, a fantastic week. I have already written pretty deeply about it in my journal, so I figured to save me the effort of trying to recall every detail of Thursday, I'll just copy what I wrote in my journal.

"July 1, 2010-Thursday
Today was the best day of the trip so far. This morning, after waking up, the monks asked if we wanted to go hike up to the village that is above the Ananda Community. Everyone wanted to go, except Mat. His leg has been hurting him, so he couldn't go.
The hike was gorgeous. We basically hiked straight up the mountain that is behind the community. I sat in awe as I looked over the lush, green valley with all its magnificent beauty. Towards the south, there was the beginning of another valley, with a lake on the inside. As my eyes panned accross teh larger valley in front of me, I could see several smaller villages, but other than that and rice paddies, there was little sign of any human life. Seeing the horizon connect with the earth is a sight that no matter where I am will always bring gazes of astonishment. The horizon in the distance was smoggy, but the mountains cut up into the sky. It seemed as though the scene I was looking at was not real, but was a painting. It's frustrating to me, because no matter how hard I try to describe this scene, it will never come alive to the person reading this. You'll never be able to experience it like I did. I believe this is why film intrigues me so much. Sure, I'll never be able to exactly recreate the experience, the emotion felt. However, you can get millimeters closer with photography. I snapped some photos with my digital point-and-shoot camera. They're good photos and as time passes by, they'll be important to me in helping recall the memories. Nevertheless, it saddens me that I'll never experience it just like that again. First time gazing over as I feel the wind in my face and hair; the sensational tingly felling in my legs after hiking straight up the mountain. The hot sun combined with humidity causing me to sweat heavily. And most importantly, sharing it all with good people. Feeling all this come together fills my heart with a peace that can't be explained or repeated. As tragic as that is, I am so grateful to God to have had the opportunity to feel it.
As I gazed over this beautiful sight, I thought a lot about the creation of the Earth. In Alma 30:44, Alma teaches that "all things denote there is a God". The scene I was witnessing strengthened my faith in this principal. I even said to Tom, "How can anyone question the existence of God with such a beautiful sight in front of them?!" It's true -- How could someone see that wonderful of a scene and believe it was all some random fortunate circumstance?? It doesn't make sense to me.
We continued our hike until we reached a Hindu temple, where we stopped to eat apples and other snacks. The temple was quaint, but nice. It was built by local villagers as a place for worship. Around this time, 2 kids from the village were intrigued by us and started following us around. We played soccer and threw around a frisbee with them. I raced on of the kids in a foot race to a nearby tree and back. He beat me, but I let him win. Still, he was a fast little guy. We then meditated for a while at the temple. After meditating for a few minutes, we continued hiking for about 10 minutes until we reached the village.
The scene of a village is also a scene that is impossible to describe because I can't share the emotion of seeing it all. Words can't explain how I felt as I walked into the village. It's frustrating to write because you will only understand a small percentage of what it's like.
The two little boys we were playing with led us into the village. We first went to a house near the edge of the village and several children came out to meet us. Scared to approach the strange foreigners, the children huddled close together; the younger ones hid behind the older ones. For some of these younger children, this may have been one of their first times ever seeing a white person. We are tall, big, and loud, and probably scarier than a lot of monsters they have imagined. However, we were able to have some fun with the kidsas we shared candy and played soccer with them. One kid grew super attached to the soccer ball and by the time we left, Tom gave it to him so that he could keep kicking it around. The children started really opening up to myself and everyone else in the group as I started taking pictures of them. We would take a picture together. Then, I would show them what it looked like. I don't know if any of them had ever seen a camera before. I let them take their own pictures of me and whatever else they wanted to. We took a lot of cool pictures in their homes. This place was made with brick and clay. the roof was made of straw and the ground was brick, rock, and dirt. The ceiling was only about 5 feet off the ground, so I walked mostly on my hands and knees. In this house, we sat with the children, and I was touched by the relationship of love between the father and his children. There were 6 children in the home, but not all were the father's children. His little girl, however, was a toddler of about 10 months or so, and she made my heart melt. She wasn't wearing anything except a pink shirt. No diaper or anything. She was the cutest little girl I have ever laid eyes on. Her big brown eyes made me want to spend all my time with only her. We took several pictures together. As I was about to leave the house, the kids continued wanting to take pictures, and I wanted them to, too. I could've stayed there all day taking pictures with those beautiful children, watching them smile, laugh, and take joy in the simple things in life like strawberry fruit candies and pictures on a digital camera. I had several moments where I felt so peaceful and full of joy. The kind of feeling that some people strive their entire lives to feel. The best part about it all is that I didn't experience it alone. There are several amazing people I here with me that helped make good moments great and great moments perfect.
The village was amazing. The children are unforgettable. They each left their imprints on my life, and I assume, the lives of those I am with, for the only thing any of us could say following our experience was that we wanted to return to help the village. As I was walking down, I was able to discover why it is I came to India. I realized that seeing what I saw today, from the beautiful Indian mountains to the village to those wonderful kids, made it all worth it. It made the hard work we've done seem so worth it just to be able to taste what I have tasted. Today was one of the greatest days of my life, and I thank God so much for allowing me to be so fortunate to have experienced it all."

So I know it's pretty long and everything, so I'm sorry to keep you. I have so much more to write about. But, as a good breaking point, I'll end here. I'll write more about this week later on tonight, perhaps. Also, about the ridiculously rad massage we got today. Stay tuned. Namaste.

India-Day 15

This weekend was nice. It was really relaxing and a fantastic cultural experience. Different from that which we've been doing. Saturday, we went shopping around. I bought a book on the Mafia. It was like $2, and I have decided that I really like coffee-table literature. It's just interesting enough that you can look at it for 20 minutes or so when you're procrastinating, but not interesting enough to read from cover to cover. I don't know if any of you can relate or not.
For lunch, we went to this restaurant that is the coolest buffet I have ever seen. It's not a buffet where you stand up and go get your own food when you want it. There are waiters walking around with platters of food. When you want some, you ask for more. And it only cost like $4. Tragically, I didn't eat. To be honest, the food didn't even look appetizing to me at the state of mind that I was in. I was still feeling sick from throwing up on Thursday. It sucked. The food was probably super good and all I felt like eating was water. So tragic.
India movie theatres are really interesting. We went to see The A-Team after we did some more shopping. My second time seeing the movie. All in all, it was entertaining, because of how over-the-top Hollywood has become. Anyway, before the movie, everyone in the theatre stands up and sings the Indian national anthem. Then, at the middle of the movie, they stop it for intermission. The intermission was actually really nice. It gave you a great chance to get up and go to the bathroom and stuff. Really cool stuff.
Saturday was Aaron's birthday, so everyone wanted to go celebrate. We got dropped off in some part of town where all the parties are going down. After everyone, with the exception of Dhruva and I, drank some booze, got a little buzzed, smoked some hookah, lost their buzz, then we went and tried to find some clubs. Despite being incredibly hot in Inda, you cannot wear shorts and go to clubs. Who'da thought? So it was a no-go on the clubs. Then, we got in a pretty epic 10 minute argument with some cab drivers because they wanted to charge a lot of money to take us home. We ended up talking them down to about $12 for the ride which was really good considering how far away we were.
Yesterday was Sunday and a really cool day. We got on a bus at 6:30 AM and rode 3 hours up a giant of a mountain. We spent the entire day driving and checking out these rad ancient temples. Seriously, these things were built like 4000 years ago. So crazy. One of the temples had a pool of water that was believed to be the source of the 5 great rivers of India. Everyone in the temple would go down to the cow statue waterfall that had water coming out of its mouth and would wash their hands, feet, hair, and face. Then, they would sometimes drink the water. Another temple seriously looked like it was straight out of Indiana Jones. It was on the edge of this huge cliff. Unfortunately, it had been raining so all we could see were clouds in front of us. But still, it was such an indescribable feeling to imagine thousands of years of monks sitting and meditating on that temple overlooking this great empty valley truly witnessing God's artistic hand in all of nature. It was overwhelming in some aspects. So beautiful.
It's been a trip for sure. India is an amazing place. One thing I am starting to realize, however, is that I wish I could work on more personal level with the people. The thing that I loved most about my mission in Japan was the people. Just working so closely with them, it was natural and easy to grow and love them. I don't feel I have had that kind of opportunity to do with the people of India, so I still feel so very distant from them.
Things are going well. I still can't get over this diarrhea, but that's probably more information that you were bargaining for. Anyway, I'm out. Special shout-out to my sister Mackenzie. I don't think she reads this, but I was just thinking about her. I love you, sis. Hope all is well.

India-Day 12

I couldn't hold off any longer. On Wednesday, I must have eaten something sketchy because I spent the entire day on Thursday throwing up and sleeping. It was horrible. I don't think I have been sick like that in long long time. It was pretty intense. I am still a little exhausted from it all.
We have been growing a little discouraged with the project. I think when we came to India, we all thought that we would be doing more humanitarian work than we have done up to this point. We work doing manual labor all day for the Ananda spiritual community, basically the people who we thought would be taking us to different villages. I don't mind doing hard labor or anything like that, but I was a little thrown off because I came here to help people who are underprivileged and need my help. The people here on this commune can hire people to do the work we are doing. I don't know. I try to keep a good attitude about it, but especially lately, as I have been so sick, I have been so discouraged about the whole thing. It has been so hard to continue working hard, when I feel like I have been taken advantage of. Luckily, Rahm and Kartik, the organizers of this whole project have made some calls, and hopefully, things will be improving this next week. We'll see.
I really got home sick this week. Not having the comforts of America really got to me as I was lying sick and hot in my uncomfortable bed. That kind of suffering is all part of the experience I need to gain. It still amazes me that people live here in India. The conditions almost seem unfathomable. If I wasn't here experiencing it in person, I don't know how much I would be able to believe. You hear about extreme poverty in the world, and I think naturally, it's hard for us to create that world. If you read my blog from the beginning, I think you can see how evident that is. I can look at pictures of kids starving, people suffering, and impoverished men and women living all day long, but it has nowhere near the effect it has on seeing one child up close and personal. Even worse, knowing that no matter what I do, it is beyond my ability to help that person out given the resources that I have. There are these villagers that live next to the commune. They have 3 or so children that are always running around. So cute. While I was reading, one of the children, a little girl about 5 years old, came up to me and without any shyness at all, started looking at the book with me. I opened to show her pictures (I was reading a film book, so there were some storyboard sketches). She then takes the book and begins to read it on her own. It's impossible for me to share with you the image of the cute innocence that existed in that child. While showering later on, it occurred to me how wonderful childhood is. The vast experiences we have that are so simple, yet teach us so much.. Then, we grow up only to make life complicated and difficult. We only allow ourselves to be taught in classrooms and professional settings. We give up to the simple truths of life and human interaction that can only be gained through childlike simplicity and innocence. Further, I thought more about this girl and how badly I did not want her to grow up. I wanted her to continue living as a child and not be tainted by the world.
My writing may or may not make sense. I did not intend to write as much as I have, but I like writing when it flows from my mind to the screen.
Namaste.

Indai-day 9 ?

We started learning Hindi on Monday. Learning a language is tough. I recall my days at the MTC when I was learning Japanese. And then realizing that my mission is over, I have one of those "Oh snap" moments. It's crazy. Now, here I am in India enjoying my next adventure.

I had a good meditating session yesterday. I really felt like I was benefiting from the blessings of clearing your mind. It was just peace. It was nice. Then, I started thinking about girls. Thus, I became distracted. too bad. I miss girls though.

Everyone here is really nice. I am always exhausted from a hard day's work. Recently, we've been working on the side of a hill digging out rocks and dirt. My hands are torn and blistered, as well as my feet. Everyone thinks that I am crazy, because I continue to wear sandals while I work. I have worn boots, but they are so hot; my feet always feel like they're on fire whenever I wear boots. So, I have just been wearing sandals and now my feet are super cut up.

We take cold showers. Heavenly in the hot Indian weather. We have been having really hot weather, which is different from what we were expecting: straight monsoons.

It's about 9 or so right now. I am listening to everyone talk about ghosts and spooks and all that stuff. Everyone is so beat up. We played an intense game of soccer yesterday. Matt took two nasty hits to the shins, one on each leg. Then today, we were jumping over this fairly large ravine; Tom messed up his ankle pretty good. Sunburns, sickness, cuts, scrapes. I feel like we're a beat up football team with mother nature kickin our trash.

While I was showering today, the septic tank started overflowing. I got out of the shower and smelled the most horrifying stench ever. Bummer. We got work to do tomorrow.