Friday, May 27, 2011
Do the Dip & Pour
Thanks everyone for the thoughts and prayers for a safe journey. I arrived safely in Mysore very early this morning (5:00 am local time).
As soon as we exited the Bangalore airport, it was striking how entirely different India is than home - or anything else that I've seen before. Despite that it was the middle of the night, the sky was not completely dark - probably from all the ambient light - and there were no visible stars. The air felt amazing though. I don't recall whether the smell was completely different or not, but the air was so different. Warm and slightly humid, with plentiful palm-type trees and vibrant flower bushes, it felt very tropical. While we were waiting for our shuttle to take us from Bangalore to Mysore, we noticed how different the cars are! They're all so small - and absolutely crammed with people (none of whom ever use seatbelts... apparently they're frowned upon here). The funniest though was when we saw a delivery truck backing up, and the back-up alarm sounded more like the music that would come out of an ice cream truck in the summertime. It was so great.
The drive from Bangalore to Mysore was uneventful, but was definitely an experience. Considering the time of day (we were driving from 1:30 - 5:00 am), there were a remarkable number of vehicles on the road, people riding their bikes and people out walking and visiting in little coffee shops, as well as donkeys freely roaming the shoulders of the road. The two directions of traffic are separated by a concrete barrier, but within each side of the road there are lines (just like ours at home) - except here they serve more as a decoration than anything. People drive down the middle of the road, in between lanes, while vespas speed between larger vehicles. The buildings on either side of the road were so different looking. Small, boxy white apartment-type buildings, homes and shops - all were covered with colourful posters, paintings and signs. Really, there is nothing here that is like home. But that is what makes this so interesting!
The view from my room this morning was stunning - there's a small garden outside my window that is filled with palm-type trees, flowering bushes and lots of exotic birds. This morning, I saw an elderly man sitting on a mat meditating in the middle of the garden. The sun rises around 6:00 am, so the birds were all singing beautifully while I was showering. Now, this is where the name of this post comes from, the "dip & pour." I am living in a residential complex that belongs to SVYM, and they have running purified water, but not enough to take showers (in the way we would at home). So early this morning, I filled a bucket with warm water in my bathroom and proceeded to dip a smaller bucket in and pour small amounts over myself... thus the dip & pour. I have to say, it was one of the most refreshing showers that I've ever taken! Maybe because it had been so long since I'd been able to shower, or maybe because it made me appreciate the water more, I'm not sure - but it was a definite success.
Tomorrow I'm going with my group on a city tour of Mysore - it's going to be incredible. There's so much history (both cultural and religious) in Mysore, there are so many things to see and do... we are going to see Chamundi Hill (a 12th century site, boasting a large monolith of Hindu God Shiva's bull, as well as a temple of the town's patron goddess and a tower 335m tall that overlooks Mysore), Mysore Palace and St. Philomena's Church. After, we are going to do some clothes shopping for tunics, linen pants and saris.
As soon as we exited the Bangalore airport, it was striking how entirely different India is than home - or anything else that I've seen before. Despite that it was the middle of the night, the sky was not completely dark - probably from all the ambient light - and there were no visible stars. The air felt amazing though. I don't recall whether the smell was completely different or not, but the air was so different. Warm and slightly humid, with plentiful palm-type trees and vibrant flower bushes, it felt very tropical. While we were waiting for our shuttle to take us from Bangalore to Mysore, we noticed how different the cars are! They're all so small - and absolutely crammed with people (none of whom ever use seatbelts... apparently they're frowned upon here). The funniest though was when we saw a delivery truck backing up, and the back-up alarm sounded more like the music that would come out of an ice cream truck in the summertime. It was so great.
The drive from Bangalore to Mysore was uneventful, but was definitely an experience. Considering the time of day (we were driving from 1:30 - 5:00 am), there were a remarkable number of vehicles on the road, people riding their bikes and people out walking and visiting in little coffee shops, as well as donkeys freely roaming the shoulders of the road. The two directions of traffic are separated by a concrete barrier, but within each side of the road there are lines (just like ours at home) - except here they serve more as a decoration than anything. People drive down the middle of the road, in between lanes, while vespas speed between larger vehicles. The buildings on either side of the road were so different looking. Small, boxy white apartment-type buildings, homes and shops - all were covered with colourful posters, paintings and signs. Really, there is nothing here that is like home. But that is what makes this so interesting!
The view from my room this morning was stunning - there's a small garden outside my window that is filled with palm-type trees, flowering bushes and lots of exotic birds. This morning, I saw an elderly man sitting on a mat meditating in the middle of the garden. The sun rises around 6:00 am, so the birds were all singing beautifully while I was showering. Now, this is where the name of this post comes from, the "dip & pour." I am living in a residential complex that belongs to SVYM, and they have running purified water, but not enough to take showers (in the way we would at home). So early this morning, I filled a bucket with warm water in my bathroom and proceeded to dip a smaller bucket in and pour small amounts over myself... thus the dip & pour. I have to say, it was one of the most refreshing showers that I've ever taken! Maybe because it had been so long since I'd been able to shower, or maybe because it made me appreciate the water more, I'm not sure - but it was a definite success.
Tomorrow I'm going with my group on a city tour of Mysore - it's going to be incredible. There's so much history (both cultural and religious) in Mysore, there are so many things to see and do... we are going to see Chamundi Hill (a 12th century site, boasting a large monolith of Hindu God Shiva's bull, as well as a temple of the town's patron goddess and a tower 335m tall that overlooks Mysore), Mysore Palace and St. Philomena's Church. After, we are going to do some clothes shopping for tunics, linen pants and saris.
Sheer Beauty
This past semester, I was introduced to a song entitled "Gathering Storm" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It's a long song, but the opening 6:10 is my favourite and has an incredible epic journey-type quality to it. Yesterday evening, I put it on shortly after takeoff from the Toronto airport and it was the perfect song for the moment. Initially, a little unsure, with crescendos and decrescendos throughout the piece - it reminded me so much of my nervousness for this trip: concern about culture shock and being so far from home as well as the familiar - but then it gathers both volume and gusto - which mimicked by resolution that I can handle this, it will be definitely be a challenge but it is doable and will be the opportunity of a lifetime. It was as if nature knew I was playing that song, as during the first large crescendo, the sun pierced through the clouds, causing little rays of light to dance off of the thick fog-like clouds and glint off the wing of my plane. During a subsequent crescendo, the thick clouds broke and we entered a valley-like expanse of clouds. It was absolutely stunning. It felt as if we were flying through a mountain range instead of snow-white cumulous clouds. Such a beautiful way to begin my journey to India!
In case you're interested: "Gathering Storm" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
In case you're interested: "Gathering Storm" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Thursday, May 26, 2011
From Canada to Kannada
Good morning! My journey to Southern India has officially begun! I am currently blogging from a McDonald's in the Frankfurt, Germany airport.
I left Toronto yesterday evening and had an 8-hour flight to Frankfurt, and after a 4-hour layover, I'll be on the final stretch to India - I have a 9-hour flight to Bangalore, India this afternoon. Once I arrive in Bangalore, I will meet with some of my group members (from Cornell) and we will travel to Mysore together. Here, we will check into our living quarters where we will stay while we attend classes at the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) hospital. For the next two weeks, I will be taking courses in the morning that pertain to Indian culture, gender roles, history and the health care system, with afternoon courses in Kannada (the primarily spoken local language) and yoga. Weeks 3-8 is the time period that I am most looking forward to, though. I have been assigned a global service learning project in a rural 10-bed primary care hospital in Kenchanahalli, which is a large tribal village. Here, my assignment is to help SVYM in delivering traditional Indian medicine, called Ayurvedic medicine, to the tribal peoples. This is going to be a phenomenal opportunity to learn a lot and to truly witness "real India" by having the ability to interact with many people and, hopefully, to experience the culture of the tribal people.
SVYM is a large healthcare and education organization in India. They have done remarkable work over the past 20 years to increase access to health care for all who need it - especially tribal people and people in lower castes - as well as encouraging education for empowerment - particularly for women and tribal children. The core of the organization is based on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, who was a compassionate Hindu Swami in the 19th century. (A Swami is to Hinduism as a Priest is to Catholicism). His teachings go beyond religious ideals and focus on how to be a "good person" - one who is considerate and loving towards others, regardless of their current situation in life.
One of my favourite Swami Vivekananda quotations that I have found is this: "We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act." This spoke to me in terms of what I will be doing during my time in India this summer and what I hope to achieve. I know that I am not there to fix every problem - it's simply not possible for me to do - but I am going to be there to gain cultural perspective, to learn and to help (and hopefully to teach) wherever I am able. In order to get the most out of this opportunity of a life time, I must be open-minded. I must recognize that things are going to be very different - the sights, sounds, smells will be unlike anything I have ever experienced before. And yet, I welcome the challenge, welcome the opportunity to stretch myself, and even welcome the opportunity to be made a little uncomfortable - this state will bring learning and personal growth... and I am so excited for it!
In Kannada, "hogi baruthini" essentially means "I will go, and I will come back" and "namaskara" means "greetings." So yesterday, I said "hogi baruthini" to Ontario, and early tomorrow morning I will have the ability to say "namaskara" to Karnataka (the state in India where I will be)!
I left Toronto yesterday evening and had an 8-hour flight to Frankfurt, and after a 4-hour layover, I'll be on the final stretch to India - I have a 9-hour flight to Bangalore, India this afternoon. Once I arrive in Bangalore, I will meet with some of my group members (from Cornell) and we will travel to Mysore together. Here, we will check into our living quarters where we will stay while we attend classes at the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) hospital. For the next two weeks, I will be taking courses in the morning that pertain to Indian culture, gender roles, history and the health care system, with afternoon courses in Kannada (the primarily spoken local language) and yoga. Weeks 3-8 is the time period that I am most looking forward to, though. I have been assigned a global service learning project in a rural 10-bed primary care hospital in Kenchanahalli, which is a large tribal village. Here, my assignment is to help SVYM in delivering traditional Indian medicine, called Ayurvedic medicine, to the tribal peoples. This is going to be a phenomenal opportunity to learn a lot and to truly witness "real India" by having the ability to interact with many people and, hopefully, to experience the culture of the tribal people.
SVYM is a large healthcare and education organization in India. They have done remarkable work over the past 20 years to increase access to health care for all who need it - especially tribal people and people in lower castes - as well as encouraging education for empowerment - particularly for women and tribal children. The core of the organization is based on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, who was a compassionate Hindu Swami in the 19th century. (A Swami is to Hinduism as a Priest is to Catholicism). His teachings go beyond religious ideals and focus on how to be a "good person" - one who is considerate and loving towards others, regardless of their current situation in life.
One of my favourite Swami Vivekananda quotations that I have found is this: "We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act." This spoke to me in terms of what I will be doing during my time in India this summer and what I hope to achieve. I know that I am not there to fix every problem - it's simply not possible for me to do - but I am going to be there to gain cultural perspective, to learn and to help (and hopefully to teach) wherever I am able. In order to get the most out of this opportunity of a life time, I must be open-minded. I must recognize that things are going to be very different - the sights, sounds, smells will be unlike anything I have ever experienced before. And yet, I welcome the challenge, welcome the opportunity to stretch myself, and even welcome the opportunity to be made a little uncomfortable - this state will bring learning and personal growth... and I am so excited for it!
In Kannada, "hogi baruthini" essentially means "I will go, and I will come back" and "namaskara" means "greetings." So yesterday, I said "hogi baruthini" to Ontario, and early tomorrow morning I will have the ability to say "namaskara" to Karnataka (the state in India where I will be)!
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