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 3rd 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!
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