District Conference

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing so much here in the Bangalore Mission. Just last week the split the district in two: the Visakhapatnam District and the Rajamundhry District. Today was Vizag District Conference and Sam, Amy, and I were in charge of music for the congregation and choir. It went fantastically! We've had so many practices and the members have improved their singing so much. I felt the spirit so strongly. When the District President bid farewell to all the BYU students and thanked us for all of our help I nearly cried. This place has become home to me and I now I don't want to leave. This place is home and these people are family.

Our beautiful Vizag Branch choir

Venkatesh, Krishna Veny, Me, Sam, Pradeepa

Sam the ladies man

Santosh!!!

Me, Krishna Veny, Sis. Madi, Pradeepa

Sis Deviashri and family

Bro. Manuel - makes my heart cry every time he plays the violin. What a testimony!

Krishna Veny

Bhari!

Our missionaries are more fly than yours. Fo sho!

Elder Kumbakar and Elder Stephen

I love the Vizag District members. I love my India.

With love from my home,

Jaci

F is for Friends who do Stuff Together....

I’ve been hanging out a lot with my Indian friends. Pradeepa (the coolest girl you’ll ever meet) and I have been driving around, going places just for fun, driving in Indian traffic, and going on shopping excursions. Pradeepa let me drive her scooter in Vizag traffic on beach road!

It was so much fun! I drove all up and down and even up to the top of Kalasgiri. We have a lot of fun together and she honestly is just really down to earth and loves to have a good time. We went to the fishermen’s wharf and had fun messing with the Jalaris, bargaining for prices for fish (that we ending up not buying), and being silly.

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Amy Drake (Purple Drake hailing from the “Natti”) came with us one day and we went looking for nativity sets for her mama (Mama where you be!?!). Pradeepa came with Bharat, one of the guys that came for Holi, and with their two bikes we went on this adventure. Bharat is way too funny! He seriously makes me laugh all the time. We went to this place past “old Vizag” that is one of the coolest places in my opinion. On the top of the hill you can see three different regions: a Catholic Church (where we were standing), a Hindu temple, and a Muslim mosque. It was one of those many juxtapositions Bickford was always trying to point out to us in Forster’s book. India is full of juxtapositions! Bharat thought that this Catholic church would have the nativity sets, but they didn’t have any. He called a whole bunch of people and found out where the seller of these particular nativity sets is located and we all went there. Sadly, they are only in season (as if it was a vegetable or something) in December. Amy was bummed, but I had an amazing time getting to know Bharat better and riding on his motorcycle. I love motorcycles! They are my new favorite thing.

We all ended up at the church where Pradeepa got us street food (the most amazing stuff ever!) and I found out what “Atomic Bombs” really are made of (thank you Bhari). We went to dance class and the boys fought over me again. The boys here in the branches are so funny like that. They always have this need to fight over me and have me as their toy. It’s basically like five year boys and the cool new hot wheel car. It’s really funny, but tiresome.

Having such a good time with people here and making closer friends makes me never want to leave this place. Having a group that you belong to (not that the BYU group isn’t a good support system, but it’s better to have natives in your batch – the Telugu word for krew) and others with whom you can connect. I’m really actually dreading leaving because my new friends are making me fall in love with everything that’s around me that I never knew existed.

All in all it was a great day and I really had some good times.

I love Indian juxtapositions. I love motorcycles. I love street food. I love my friends.

With love from Incredible India,

Jaci 

Cricket and breezy afternoons

Today I played cricket with these little boys. It was awkward at first because my Telugu stinks and their English is spotty; however, once they saw that I was tall enough to catch the fly balls I was fought over on teams J 

These boys… I wish I could buy them a cricket bat, wicket set and ball. They were playing with a wooden plank for their bat, a fallen palm frond stalk as the wicket, bricks to set their bases, and a water filled ball. Despite the meager circumstances we had a great match!

Pedda Santosh, Raj Kumar, Venkatesh, Chinna Santosh

The best part was when I hit a 6 run (whatever that means) and we won. I nearly got tackled by little boys attempting, for probably the first time, to give high fives all around. I loved those little boys and how they always call me sister (Akka). It was super fun to say little things in Telugu and have them understand me. It made me feel like I was back on Acacia Ct. playing baseball in the street with Eddie, Sebastian, and Aaron, screaming silly things in Spanish the whole time. I will admit I yelled at the boys in Spanish a couple times when they were taking too long. It was such a calm day and it was one of those days that made me never want to leave.

I love cricket afternoons. I love breezes that last all day. I love nights that make you feel connected.

With love from India,

Jaci

చెప్పండి - Tell me

చెప్పండి : Cheppandi

I love the inadvertent bluntness of Indians. People will tell you want they really think without the euphemisms that American culture has created to make us all feel good about ourselves by not being offensive. We have one translator who does this to a “fault” (again, by my narcissistic and caudle-intensive American standards). She will constantly tell everyone how to do things stating that “this is better, no?” She will also counsel me on my weight loss. “Jaci, I tell you one thing, if you lose a little weight you look very better,” etc. She means well and I love her for it.

This is how Indians, at least all the one’s I know, will address you and converse. It makes getting to the point very easy, especially when you ask them to spell it out for you. Oddly enough, because of the restrictions of research (the need to avoid psychological suggestion as much as possible) it is difficult to have this same type of responses. With my friends I can catch nuances and ask them about those nuances dichotomously and eventually reach an understanding. With my research I have to let the subject volunteer information and then only inquire about what is volunteered and not “give” them any “ideas”. It’s all very interesting and I love it.

I’ve decided to end every post with one thing that I have learned to love about India.

I love blunt Indian speech J

With love from India,

Jaci

HOLI

So last year I participated in an amazing activity called Holi Koli at the Spanish Fork Krishna Temple. I went with friends, had a blast, got filthy, and have never felt more like a hippie in my life! Needless to say, when I found out that I would actually be in India (the place of Holi’s origin) for the festival I nearly had a heart attack. I was so flipping excited! I couldn’t wait to connect with the Indian people the crazy way in which I connected, and have this ethereal feeling, that I had last year in Spanish Fork. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Indian Holi, in the south at least, is nothing like the aggrandized event put on at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork.

The day started off by putting coconut oil all over my body… (who’s body? My body For Piglet). We were told that if we didn’t put on oil that the colors would not come off of our skin and it would burn us. I bathed in that stuff, man!

We then went to our neighbor’s were these little girls invited us to play Holi with them. Notice, here in India, it’s called playing Holi. They were so sweet and taught us how the Indians do things. You actually buy these little squirt tube things and mix the colors with water and make a dyed water guns. It’s pretty fun!

Then after we played with our neighbors, some of the branch members came, with the pretense to take us (Jaci, Sam, and Amy Drake) on a Holi adventure, and brought a lot of Holi spirit with them. They immediately attacked us… and a couple of our not so enthusiastic comrades. It was hilarious.

Sam and Amy Drake, ending up being pansy, backed out of going with the branch members in their biker gang. I, of course, jumped on the hottest bike there and we went all over Vizag! We went to different branch members’ homes and played Holi in front of their houses. Sooooo messy, but so worth it.

We had one of the bikes fall down in transit. No one was hurt and the bike is fine. There was only a couple of scrapes. No worries because, like a prepared boy scout should, I had my first aid kit with me and we clean/ bandaged the scrapes in less than 2 minutes and then took off again.

We ended up at Rushikonda beach where we washed off in ocean. They wouldn’t let me wear my bathing suit… or swim. Some of the Indian logic I don’t understand, but after 5 minutes of arguing with them I gave up and stood in the worst spot possible (where all the waves were breaking and sand was getting everywhere in my jeans).

It was such a fun day! All of it turned out to be really nice and just so much fun. I have a pretty bad sunburn on my face from the beach and part of my face is still yellow, but it’s worth it. I had the funniest time playing Holi in India.

With colorful love from India,

Jaci

Ms. Jupiter

So my roommates and I have a house joke that comes up every month. So when girls live together they usually start to cycle at the same time. So when we got here everyone started to cycle with me. This means a couple of things: One, that all of us are PMS-ing at the same time. Two, one of my roommates actually had Aunt Flo come twice in one month (waaaay out stepping her bounds if you ask me) because of my feminine influences. And three, that apparently my cycle is liked unto the planet Jupiter whose gravitational pull is so strong that it has not only one, but many, moons in orbit. Sometimes my gravitational pull gets not only my roommates, but it drags my emotions into orbit too. Lately, it has been a very tense time in Jupiter’s gravitational field… if that makes any sense at all. My gravitational strength is getting to be too much – even for me!

Please write a letter to Jupiter, just like you would to Santa Clause, asking for my body (For Piglet) to have less power. Thank you.

With love from India,

Jaci

Lazy Day Thoughts

So being away from home and everything I’ve know gets me thinking a lot. Sadly, Vizag is lonely sort of town so I have as much time as I could ever need. This culture is intense and I never thought I would say this, but I feel like it’s making look differently at my moral stance of multiculturalism and diversity. Let’s face it, the reason why most people shun other people who are different from them is because it’s hard to understand another person, their ways, and their beliefs. I don’t want to adopt discrimination or condone the justification. I just want to acknowledge the fact that I realize that non-discrimination, diversity, and tolerance is hard – really hard.

I find myself at times making a discriminating line between me (everything that encompasses – American, woman, educated, Mormon, etc.) and “them”. It seems pretty simple to do: you hold on to everything that your culture instills as “you” and define a stereotypical group that does not have those same characteristics as “them”. If only things were that simple! A common saying in our group is “Remember, we’re in India? Nothing is ever that simple.” The Indian culture itself is so freaking diverse! Hinduism itself, though not being the religious preference of every Indian, influences the culture so much, but it isn’t defined and operates on a general feeling and attitude towards worship without any set doctrine or order of worship. It’s like having an infinite number of religions (because, trust me, the different sects are diverse enough to be considered of different religions entirely) under one dogma of belief. It’s so confusing.

I’m sick of becoming someone I’m constantly criticizing for their narrow mindedness and lack of ability to see past themselves. I guess I’m realizing that it’s probably human to be like that. Now, I just have to believe, and act on the belief, that we are to be more than human – super humans maybe?

These are the things I’ve learned about myself since being out here:

·         I love traveling and seeing new things and places, but 3 months is too long to go without seeing a paradoxical American phenomenon.

·         I would be a pretty wimpy missionary. I need my family. I can’t go more than 2 weeks without talking with my family. 18 months would be a major no go at this point.

·         I have so much freedom in the US. As a woman, I think I may not be as extreme with my feminism rants on Americans (though I’m not ruling it out completely). For example: I can walk out of my house in knee length shorts and not get followed and/or stared at. I can exercise with more intensity than a man, I can be stronger than a man, and I can share opinions founded in sound logic that contradict that of a man’s.

·         I love yoga! It’s such a good work out and it makes me feel like I can do anything with my body. Like twist into a pretzel!

·         I do not want to go into a research profession in my field. I need to be working with people to attain a goal. It sucks when I meet people, interview them, find out their ideas and opinions, then I leave them. I really want to help people instead of use them for my own means.

With love from India,

Jaci

Srimantum and Farwells

Our cook is named Durga. She is a beautiful 21 year old girl who is 7 months pregnant with her second child. Her first pregnancy resulted in a still birth, so there is a great deal of concern about this second baby. The program, meaning Dr. Krishnayya and Dr. Nuckolls, takes very good care of her and she, in turn, takes VERY good care of us. If you doubt that just look at my waist line and you will see her nurturing affects. Part of Hindu rituals involve pregnancy rituals and blessings. This is all celebrated during a “Srimantum” (a religious baby shower of sorts). Amy Drake, my super “Natti” roommate, is studying Hindu infant and child care practices. She decided to throw this lovely woman an extravagant (seriously incredible by Indian standards) Srimantum party! She is such a sweet heart!

We had a blast! The Brahmin priest came, there were lots of people, a throne for the mother of the day and we participated in putting rice on Durga’s head for auspiciousness and giving/ receiving gifts. I even had some rice put on future fertility… yeah that was way awkward.

Over all it was wonderful and everyone felt like we had participated in something very Indian. Not like living is enough of an experience already ;)

Sunday was a bitter sweet day for the BYU students and the missionaries. Our two US missionaries bid farewell to this fair Vizag and are getting home BEFORE US!!! I guess it is excusable because they left before us and all. Not to mention the whole two years without facebook, home cooked meals, AC, etc. Needless to say, Elder Zafara and Elder Loomis are rock solid and we’re going to miss them. Good thing is both of them will be going to University of Utah ( A decision we constantly ridicule and of course forgive them for) and we’ll be able to keep in touch. 

Good thing is that we still have Elder Stephen and Elder Kumbakar so we’ll have some good times and be able to teach for people about the truthfulness of the gospel. Woot!

The roomies and I have been going on little excursions to keep ourselves sane. The only suitable time of course is when it is cool which is EARLY in the morning. We go on little hikes and watch the sun rise. Make sure to note that you can’t really see the sun rise over the ocean… you only get to see it rise above the pollution… SAD!!! On Saturday we went to Tenneti Park and watched the sun rise, people doing some legit yoga, and Indian men  “working out” ( the Indian concept of working out is kinda really laughable, but I applaud them for their effort anyway).

My days have really been consumed in counting down days. Days til Holi (4 days). Days until my Telugu Final (8 days). Days til I leave Vizag (21 days). Days til I get to see the Taj Mahal (15 days). Days til I start "real" school again (42 days). Days until I see my Mom and Dad (28 days). Days til I see Stephanie (? days). Days til Cameron gets home from his mission (16 days). Days until I get to hug him when I get off the plane (28 days!!!). 

I wish I could say I've been doing more important things but Vizag is a pretty mellow city and we honestly haven't seen all that much of it. There doesn't seem to be any cheap fun compared to that of Provo.

Other than all of that, research is almost all done and our Telugu final is next week! Holy crap! I will eventually make it home J

16 days + 28 days! Life will soon be perfect!!

With Love From India,

Jaci

Back to Vizag Life

            It is HOT! It’s not as hot Indio, but nasty! 35 °C and 63% humidity (95 °F) is nasty! I have only 35 days left in India. Cameron has 23 days until he gets home from his mission. My sister will have had Jymmer by then and I will get to meet Sophia and Luke (the newest babies in my family). So much change to come home to and I’m way excited!

            Days here right now consist of research, research, research. I’m been conducting interviews and then transcribing them like a mad woman. If anyone reading this has worked for or knows my Mom you know how difficult is is to transcribe. Now try having it in a different language, with the louds noises of Vizag in the background, and with a translator who’s English isn’t all that great. My life is so much fun J … ugh! I seriously love it though.

            Please don’t misunderstand any of what I say. It is very difficult here, but it is so worth it and rewarding in other aspects. I love the hospitality of the people here and I love the members of the branches here in Vizag. I love that what I love most is church, choir, institute, teaching with the missionaries, making new LDS friends that are Telugu. Maybe I’m limited myself by hanging around the LDS crowd by choice, but I feel that I get so much exposure to the non-LDS Telugu culture that it’s okay to stay in my comfort zone in my free time.

            My ankle is getting better which means: YOGA! My roomies and friends won’t let me run on it yet for fear I’ll injure it again, but they are “letting” me do yoga. It’s pretty fun, so far we’ve only done the basics (which is pretty boring), but it’s going to get more fun I know it! We’re in a private class, but the classes on the other side of the building are doing advanced stuff. I’m sure we’ll move up quickly.

            With the free time I do have I tend to day dream about the next place I’m going to visit. I’m thinking about brushing up on my Spanish and then going to teach English in Mexico. Free time also gives me a lot of time to look up grad schools and figure out what I’m going to do with my career. Right now I’m looking into international disaster psychology. There’s a program offered through University of Denver. It’s a two year master’s program and you get field experience during the course work. It’s looking promising.

Anywho nothing much else is going on right now. Just loving life and counting down the days until I’m back in the arms of the people I love.

With love from India,

Jaci

Feminism Rant

March 8 is International Women’s Day yet I’m living in a society where a young woman cannot run in a public park, where 3 of her friends are nearby doing yoga, without being accosted and held against her will by a man. Thankfully this young woman is defensive and knows her place in the world enough to stand up for herself, get away, and then bring others to scold the man. I say scold in the loosest sense of the term. For some reason, I have been observing, in this society men are not harshly reprimanded for being domineering or harassing. A quick little finger wagging by some older Telugu gentlemen and the man was released without consequence. Another young lady was walking outside her HOME, in her own neighborhood, and was stopped by a man who proceeded to grab her chest and gesture at her with his penis which was already out of his pants. This was outside her home. Women are scoffed at for exercising because they are too weak, left without proper divorcement by their husbands, can’t wear clothing they prefer because their own husbands will not allow it, they are put into submission on a daily basis by male authority. The list goes on for pages and pages. Yet there are women who hold high profile government positions, have successful careers and are well educated. What causes the disparity here?

I submit that women of all ages here need to be educated and empowered thereby. I think women should be taught that they have equal opportunities with men and that they are not subservient to them in any way shape or form. I feel so often that women (of all countries) are being held up to a dramatized standard that they see in media. The women who are of the highest profile and reverie are those in the media. Something that is quite evident is that these women sell themselves, explicitly their bodies, to gain attention and reward. This sexualizes the roles of women in society and causes them to become a slave to the drives of man. How dare women and men put women into such positions where their worth is measured on the sexual pleasure they fulfill. How dare men assume that because a woman is from America, or from a culture where certain standards are different, that she is welcoming to sexual favors or asking men to touch her body. That is nonsense! Women need to be taught that they are dictated by their own conscience and do not have to succumb to any man because he is higher or more powerful than she. Men need to be taught that they are not the dictators of women’s lives. She is an individual, she has options, she has a voice, and she will be heard.

I am sick of being thought of as weak because I am a woman. I am strong, I am intelligent, and if you ever touch another one of the girls in my group you will hear me roar!

Respectfully yours,

Femqueyla

A Quasi Feminist in India

Documenting Fiend

I am so sorry about not keeping everyone up to date as of late. The Goddess Sati Pollima must have gotten word of my lack of communication and cursed me. It is really that simple because now I am struck down with illness which enables me to blog for as many hours as humanly possible… yay me?

Rajamundry was a delightful trip and it was nice to get a break from Vizag. Once we got back to Vizag a small group of us were able to go to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Kakinada. The Vice-Chancellor there is good friends with Dr. Krishnayya and Dr. Nuckolls. We were his honored guests for the weekend. He treated us all very well and we were able to go and meet with students in the endeavor to foster an international education (one of the Vice-Chancellor’s main goals/ administrative break through).  

Kakinada: Day One

            We set out in cars in the morning on Thursday the 3^rd of March. We arrived in Kakinada by mid-afternoon and dropped off in the University Guest House. It was a different experience being treated like you are the most important person in the world. All of the rooms were AIR CONDITIONED!!! I was so happy. I think when I get back to the desert I will have turned into my Mom and will be addicted to the AC always at full blast. BRRR!

Our driver got the car stuck in some sand and some students were kind enough to help out.

            After dropping our things at the guest house we went to a restaurant that’s on the University tab system (basically the coolest thing in the world). We ate well and then made our way back to the university to meet students. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, going  to dinner, practicing (I will explain later), and having “tea” with the Vice-Chancellor. We can’t really call it tea since all of us Mormons drank soup, but it was in a tea cup so I think it counts… kinda. During tea the Vice-Chancellor mentioned a conference about “change in India” that he was leaving for the following evening. I really was interested and thought that it would be good for my research, so I ending up leaving the following evening with the Vice-Chancellor and his wife and attending the conference (which will be explained later).

            Practicing that evening was for a production that us students put on for the first year students at JNTUK. We sang and danced for about 30 minutes. It was a little bit crazy, but way fun! We were treated like Tollywood stars. We did a Bollywood dance to a Tollywood song from a recent hit movie. They went insane and it was way fun!

The next day as we were going to lunch one of the students in our program and Krishnayya Garu were getting into a little bit of a heated conversation. Just as both people’s tempers were about to explode, Krishnayya Garu spotted the missionaries on bikes. THE GOSEL IS TRUE! Haha! I stuck out my head from the car (a scary thing to do in Indian traffic) and yelled “Hi Elders! We’re from BYU!” Both person’s tempers were immediately diffused as we pulled over and spoke with the missionaries for a while. It was way fun to see missionaries on bikes here just as we do in the states. So fun!

We ended the night with dinner at the Vice-Chancellor’s Quarters on the campus. His wife made stuffed crab!!! So incredibly tasty! You can tell I’ve been here forever when the Vice-Chancellor warns me that the crab is spicy and I didn’t notice any heat at all! Haha! After dinner I left with the Vice-Chancellor and his wife in their car. After an hour of having a conversation with the VC about international education and international disaster psychology I fell asleep and then was at my front door.

            The following morning I was picked up by the VC’s driver. The conference ended up being the Indian version of TED talks! It was actually really fascinating though not as beneficial to my research as I would have hoped. I sat with the VC’s sisters and wife. They are so nice and intriguing!

I love the missionaries!

Ok so missionaries rock! We had this awesome activity hosted by the missionaries where the members were able to do role playing. The created scenarios that spoke to everyday cultural problems and had the members get into companionships and teach investigators (aka missionaries and BYU students). It was way fun! These pictures are all from that night.
(Elder Kumbakar, Elder Loomis, Elder Stephen, Elder Zafara)