my adventures

On Thursday, I went to my first slum. We handed out eye glasses in their tiny little church. After camp, the other volunteers and I went to Spencers which is a mall here. While I was walking from where our auto share dropped us off to the entrance of the mall, a man tried to sell me a pretty cool drum. He wanted 400 rupees for it though and I was not willing to pay so I got him down to 100 rupees (which is about 2 US dollars) but still I wasn't sure if I truly wanted it so I said no and walked into the mall. He had the most devastated look on his face and kept yelling, "madam!". The shopping inside the mall wasn't that great but we found a little shop outside the mall called "ye old shoppe of curiosities" and I got some shopping done.

Friday, Jean and I went to a piston factory about an hour and 15 minutes away from the eye clinic's office. It was a very nice setup: we were inside an air conditioned room and we even had access to a bathroom! At the factory, there was a full scale health screening. The workers got their eyes examined, their lung capacity measured, chest x-rays taken, and their blood drawn. I was working the autorefractometer so I focused on their eye, lined up the circle of the machine and pressed a button which recorded their visual acuity. We ate lunch there in the factories cafeteria. I was concerned I was going to get sick. To get food, you grabbed a food platter that had been somewhat rinsed off and then you went outside, cleaned it with the nasty water outside and then loaded it with food. Jean and I wiped ours with napkins after we washed them to get all the water off. They had a food line set up and one of the optometrists piled food on our plates. It was way too much but there were signs on the wall that said "DO NOT WASTE FOOD" so we had to eat it all. They have some pickle dip/sauce here that is absolutely disgusting! After we ate our food, we went out to the same place where we washed our dishes off and rinsed them off again and then put them back where we got them from. Not the most sanitary, but neither of us got sick thankfully. We saw about half the workers that day so we will have to go back another day. We got back from camp really late that day. Most days, we are done with camp at 1:30 but this camp was much longer and we didn't get back to our hotel until 5:30. Long day. After we got presentable, we met Jean's friend, Calvin, who was touring through several southeastern countries. We met up at a cafe coffee day, which is India's Starbucks, and then went exploring. I live in Anna Nagar and it is a more upscale part of town. Where Calvin was staying though...it was a very shady place. There were lines and lines of people sleeping on the streets, right next to all the trash. I was thankful that I did not have to live in that part of town.

On Saturday, I went to another city slum camp. It was by far the worst I have seen here. The people lived in little shacks and many of the children were wearing no clothing. Most children wore a black band around their waist. I asked Prashanth, another volunteer who actually lived in Chennai until he moved to the States when he was 5, about it and he said that it was to keep the bad spirits away ad to protect the children. The temperatures are very hot. I believe they are in the upper 90s or 100s. Most of the camps we are at have a building for us to do exams in that has no ac but has a fan. At the slum camp, we had neither. There was a blanket set up to block the sun but Kim and I were outside for several hours. Needless to say, I drink a lot of water. About 2 liters a day. I went back to the hotel after the slum camp just feeling disgusting. I was filthy and there is no way here to properly get clean. After a quick "shower", I grabbed some food from the Kebob Court with Prashanth and Kim and then Jean, Calvin, Anna, and I were off to the bus station and Mamallapuram, a tourist trap a couple hours south from Chennai. We waited for our bus for about 45 minutes before it showed up (that's everything in India) and I wanted to go to the bathroom first so I wouldn't have to on the bus. That was my first experience with an Indian toilet. First off, when I walked in there, the entire bathroom was flooded so I had to walk through 4 inches of water to a stall, trying to breathe through my mouth because the smells were nauseating. The bathroom stalls do not lock so you have to hope you find one with nobody in it. (The first one I tried was definitely occupied!) Once I found an empty stall, I opened the door and there was a hole in the floor with places for your feet on either side. The stall doors are floor length. There was water dripping from a hose on the wall (hence the flooding!) and it was just gross in there. I got out of there as fast as I possibly could. After meeting up with the others, I was introduced to an Australian guy that Calvin had met a few cities back and he was going to Mamallapuram too. When our bus arrived, I thought people would be civilized and climb on patiently like Americans do. I was shocked to see that before the bus had pulled into its parking spot, people were rushing the bus and trying to get on! I also thought that because I am right behind the person getting on the bus, I will be next. That was also not the case. People behind me would push me when I was stepping onto the first step and knock me off the bus and then they would climb on. There weren't many free seats on that bus so we got off and went to another slightly nicer and more expensive bus. It was 22 rupees for a 2.5 hours ride from Mamallapuram to Chennai on that bus. The second bus was not so packed but it didn't stay that way. We made many stops on the way to our destination and there was ZERO room in there. On a 3-4 foot long bench, I had myself, my backpack, a lady with two children, and another lady. When we got to Mamallapuram, people got on before others got off so I had to push my way through a sea of people (the aisles were completely full too) or get trapped on the bus. I learned that it is necessary to step on feet and shove people (including children!). I did get to see the sunset on the bus ride through the windows. The windows were just open holes, which I was thankful for because the body odor of everyone was overwhelming. In Mamallapuram, we found cheap (1000 for a 2 person room) and "nice" hotel rooms. They were very big rooms but they were dirty like everything else. The blankets had dirt and blood on them. There were many nice restaurants in Mamallapuram (they all have a hippie atmosphere) and after settling in, we went to one overlooking the beach. It was storming and we sat in our little hut and watched the lightening strike. A fight broke out though and ruined the mood so we called it a night shortly after midnight. The hotel room turned out to be a nightmare. It had air conditioning but the temperature remote wasn't working so after the first few minutes in the room, it was freezing! Ana and I were so cold that we set the ac to 30 degrees Celcius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and it was still so, so cold. It was so cold that I halfway woke up in the middle of the night, got my rainjacket out of my bag (the only jacket I have) and wore it back to bed. I drink so much water here that every night I have to get up to go to the bathroom. Well when I walked into the bathroom, my feet got soaked so I looked down and the whole bathroom floor was flooded. I had heard a sound when I halfway woke up for my rainjacket that had sounded like a waterfall in our bathroom but I was too tired and too out of it to care enough to go investigate. Turns out the waterfall sound was water just pouring out of the bottom of the tank. The bathroom would have been more flooded if it hadn't been for the drain right under the toilet. After using the bathroom, I went out, changed my socks, and then mumbled something to Anna about the bathroom being flooded. She got the bright idea that she was going to go fix it because apparently she knows a bit about plumbing. As soon as she flipped the light on in the bathroom, the power went out and so she grabbed her flashlight and went to see what she could do. Meanwhile, I still don't care in the least about the flooding so I pass out while she's doing her plumber thing. Turns out, she wasn't able to fix it and the power being off meant the ac was off so it went from unbearably cold in the room to unbearably hot. We were woken up at 5 am by the mosque which is actually a relaxing sound and then some drummers outside started going crazy beating their drums. It was so loud and so obnoxious!

The next day (Sunday) was, in my opinion, hotter than any we've had so far. For breakfast I wanted something other than Indian food so I had a spanish omlette and a coconut lassi. We went sightseeing around Mamallapuram, saw the beach, huge rock formations and ancient carvings, bought souveniers and gifts and I saw the most adorable baby goat. It's head was smaller than my fist. I got a little burned in short amount of time we were out and about. When we left for Chennai, we rode a deluxe bus with glass on the windows and air conditioning. It was 73 rupees so it wasn't nearly as packed.

In Mamallapuram there were many white people. None were American that I noticed but there were many Europeans and Australians. It was interesting and entertaining to watch them interact with the beggars. It was interesting for me to be around other tourists and other white people. I hadn't seen anyone but Indians since I've been here and I think I had nearly forgotten white people exist. I didn't feel like I associated with them. I feel like I have been here in India for so long. There are no white people in Chennai though. Everywhere I go people stare and take pictures. I was in the grocery store a coupe days ago and someone asked to take a picture with me and the other volunteers. We are celebrities here.

Jamie told me that mosquitos with malaria have a hard time sucking your blood so they will bite several times in a small area. After hearing that, I am thankful for my malarone because I woke up a few mornings ago with 4 bites close together on the knuckle of my index finger.

India is such a beautiful place but the people have ruined the beauty somewhat by throwing their trash everywhere. On the bus, the little girl sitting beside me ate some chips and reached over me to throw the bag out the window. The doctors will eat things on the way to eye camps and throw their trash out the window. It is a completely different mindset here. There is also no escaping the grime and filth. First thing I do when I get back to Alaska will be to take a 3 hour scalding hot shower to wash all this dirt off of me.

Cows, goats, dogs, and people live together in harmony here. They are all over the streets, trying to find what food they can. I saw a cow eating cardboard yesterday.

One thing I really like about Indian people is that they are for the most part very trustworthy. I bought some souveniers from a man in Mamallapuram but he wasn't quite finished with them so I paid him for the items and said I would be back later and when I came back, everything was ready for me. He didn't try to rip me off or steal my money and run. My general impression is that this is what most of the population is like here. It is nice not to have to worry about that.

Things here are very cheap. I spend about 130 rupees on dinner every day. That includes curry, naan, and a juice drink. Breakfast every day consists of a couple granola bars, some cashews, and some water or a 100% juice box. I am SO tired of Indian food. I feel like the smell is emanating from my pores.

I went to the Hande Hospital today and saw some cataract surgeries. The sanitation here is not very good. There were 2 patients in the OR at one time and the doctor would just go from one to the other without changing his gloves.

I miss home and I'm kinda ready to come home. I'm having a good time but I miss certain comforts like the ability to have a cold bottle of water. That is a luxury here.