Monday: Only one week in India and I’ve already hurt myself! I’m such a klutz! All that happened really is I stumbled and stubbed my toe, but in India of course nothing is smooth (or clean) and gouged the heck out of my toe. I am so grateful I was prepared I went straight to my fanny pack ( no need to laugh at me, my roommate does it enough anyway) and pulled out disinfecting wipes and my first aid kit. All is well I’m just a little sore.
Sunday was amazing! The branch that we go to is tucked into this multistory building and it’s so very tiny. The spirit and members are strong. I felt at home even when I didn’t understand what was being said ( the meetings operate 80% in English and 20% in Telugu).
Monday was marvelous! We had our first Telugu class and I feel like I am really catching on to the language. I’ve learned all the vowels and how to count to five. It’s all up hill from there!
Karuna, one of our translators and more like our glorified playmate, took us to the bangle shop. It was better than Disneyland! Everything was so cheap! I got so many gifts for everyone back home. Shops here are so interesting and different from chops in America. There seems to be no organization at all, but somehow everything is still found. They’re crammed and this one had a flat in the corner of the store that I believe served as the home of the family that owns the shop. It was so interesting. I only spend $10 and I got over 30 things! I was ecstatic to finally be able to wear bangles with my sarees.
Tuesday: We went to the Simhatchilum temple and were honored by the Maha Raja of the area to enter the inner sactum and participate in the worship there. Indian’s normally have to pay somewhere close to 5000 rps to get into the inner sactum. We just walked right on in for free. It’s kinda how we do most things here. Our connections come in big handy. We walked around the temple, went through the head shaving halls where people sacrifice their hair in a vow to Lord Vishnu (a girl in the program convinced herself to do this and we’re going to document), watched people bath in “holy water” coming out of the mountain side, and then had the very lucky occurrence of a cow walking up to our group and standing with us (“very auspicious” as Chuckolls would say).
Also at the Simhatchilum temple we were approached by one of the temple’s musicians and he asked to come and perform for us on Saturday morning at the Krishna Temple next to our house. He sang for us and I was amazed! I wish I could have that kind of vocal control. The Indian/ Eastern tradition focuses on melisma with an emphasis on microtonalism. Basically, it’s just really difficult and I do not have that skill.
Once we were outside the temple we gathered to take pictures and there was this dog chillin’ outside the temple. Now there are street/ wild dogs all around India – even on our street. They are strays, probably rabid and all around undesirable. They follow my tinnie tiny roommate at night and probably could take her down without any problem. It’s a little crazy. Anywho, this dog is sitting outside the temple and Chuckolls (our affectionate name for Professor Nuckolls) determined that the dog is domesticated and he pets it. So I, for some unbeknownst reason, decide I’m going to pet it. Needless to say, it was a horrible idea. The dog tried to jump on me and I ran away! It’s really funny looking back, but I was terrified. No more dog petting for me. We do however have a program puppy named Sigmund and I condone petting him.
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