India- Day 4

India
Day 4

Doing better, we only woke up at 4 am! It's actually nice having long lazy mornings. We are thinking that when we get back home we'll try to adopt a 8pm-4am sleeping schedule so that we can go to the gym and read and have more relaxing mornings :) Breakfast was...weird again. Idli is growing on me.. it is a puffy white disk made of rice, that looks like styrafoam, and kind of tastes like it when it's plain, but then you put chutneys and sambar on it, and it's pretty good. The American breakfast food offered was baked beans...ha! We have learned to just avoid the meat, it is pretty gross. Most people here are vegetarians anyways, so there are a lot more vegetarian options. After breakfast, Anu picked me up in her rikshaw taxi to go to training. I am obsessed with their clothes here. First of all, they look so comfortable, they even call one type of clothing their "pajamas" which makes sense since they are loose pants and a long loose top. I love the long draping fabric, it looks like wearing a blanket across your chest and shoulders all day. The colors are usually rich, vibrant jewel tones, and the patterns are so unique.  Anu always looks so graceful and elegant. The women wear lots of gold jewelry which I love also. It seems like most of them wear a big ring also. Anu's is a big snake ring, and Saisankari has a big opal ring. Plus, they learn British English so even if they don't speak very well, it seems very proper. Everything is "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am". 

Training felt long today! I work much faster than Saisankari so I have a lot more breaks of waiting. We did some role play teaching, that was kind of fun.  For lunch, Anu said she would order me something good. I can tell she is a foodie, so I trusted whatever she would order. I can't remember the name of the food, something like gottampuri, it was kind of like a big rice pancake with big chunks of onion. I liked it! Anu wanted me to try every sauce and chutney they offered so she got me 6 different kinds! She would spoon on each chutney one at a time, then ask me how I liked it. Most of them were really good. Saisankari wanted me to try her food as well- curd rice with red pepper spices. It was really really spicy. She thought it was funny that it made my nose run, and she laughed and said "well what spices do you use in America? no red pepper?" Anu had brought food she cooked at home and wanted me to try that too. It was rice with some kind of round green vegetable, like big dark green peas. I asked her what kind of vegetable and she just said "bitter vegetable" mm yummy. It was bitter but tasted good with the sauce. She had also ordered dessert, it was made from mashed up rice mixed with ghee and ground cashews.  It was really sweet and sugary so obviously I ate a lot.

Saisankari is very entertained by my questions... I was asking her more about the clothing and I commented that most of the men just seem to wear pants and a shirt. She pointed to my outfit (slacks and a blouse) and said, "Yes, the men dress like you" haha! I told her that sometimes I see men wearing those man skirts though. She said "a skirt?? here in India??" I said, "yeah...they are usually white, sometimes tied up at the knees, but sometimes long..." She was still so confused so I drew her a picture. She laughed so hard she couldn't breath and almost fell off her chair. She said, "That's not a skirt!!!! That's a doti!!!" I was like "ok... but it looks exactly the same as a skirt!" And she said "no! A skirt is for women! Men wear dotis!" I still don't really know if she realized that a doti essentially IS a skirt.

After training, Saisankari dropped me off back at the hotel. Matt opened the door with a big red pigment mark on his forehead! He had visited Besant Nagar temple today AND went to Marina Beach and Elliott's beach. He made friends with the driver, named Elongo. His day sounded more eventful than mine!  Matt says: The temples are colorful and very ornate. Elongo talked to the temple gaurd and got me in for free. I asked him to watch my tennis shoes so they weren't left outside to be stolen. The temple had about 8 different stations and the pathway made sure you visited each one. As i made my way to the first one, 3 temple workers called me over and began blessing me with a rose and chalk. I didn't follow what they said but I put my hand on the oils in a small gold cup when necessary. They would reveal something about the statue in front of me then put a plate in front of me for offerings. I didn't mind sharing a few dollars at the first station, but come to find out they want a few more dollars at every station! One temple worker came up to me and she was small and introduced herself by saying "i'm a temple worker, give me money" That was quite the introduction! She asked for American dollars. I didn't have any, so she said ok then give me Indian rupees. Fine. I left the temple and checked out Elliott's beach, Elongo explained that it had been hit hard by a tsunami last year- the damage was very visible. A lot of people hanging out on the beach in groups, but they don't get in the water. They stay fully clothed and just dip their feet in. Most everywhere I go people stare. As soon as somebody pulls alongside me in a motorcycle they make a face at me and make sure to say "hello!". Overall, my favorite part was riding around in the rikshaw all over town.


Me again: I'm jealous I didn't get to go with him! But I guess I knew he would be out exploring and having fun while I was in training. Saisankari told me that every time you visit the temple they mark your forehead with the ashes or red pigment. Interesting when you think about it. I wonder if we would go to the temple more or less if we walked around with marks on our forehead for everybody to see. We are getting a little better at reading the body language. Shaking head no actually means they are agreeing with you. Usually. For dinner we had dosa again, more pulao, some fried rice, and some different kinds of curries. Dessert was coconut sorbet and it was deeelicious. 

We walked to the bank to try and cash our checks once again, and it was unsuccessful. We had most of the bank employees gather around us and stare as we tried to explain. I showed the woman working the checks and she said "hold on I'll call" She made a really really long phone call then hung up and said "we can't cash them" She gave us a phone number to call and said we'd have to travel 20 mins so we just gave up. We'll just continue using the ATM I guess. People here are really very friendly. They stare, but when we smile and wave back they are very nice and want to know where we're from and if it's our first time in India. The poverty on the streets is really sobering. It's hard to see babies lying on cracked sidewalks with emaciated women hovering over trying to feed them. It's everywhere. We have read that they often drug babies to keep them asleep and then young girls take turns with the drugged sleeping babies to beg on the streets. I guess a sleeping baby is supposed to be more effective than a crying awake baby. So so sad, and we have already seen this a few times. It really breaks my heart.

The New Delhi cricket team checked into our hotel last night, Matt talked to one of the players in the hotel about their upcoming game with the home team- Tamil Nadu. We barely managed to stay awake until 9 pm- I think we are finally getting on schedule.