Boundary Waters Canoe Trip 2009

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London calling!

Here are the London pics...it took me awhile to get these up because my hard drive crashed (sadness) and I lost a bunch. But here's what I was able to rescue. London was fab and Bath was amazing. I felt like I was in a Jane Austen novel. Can't wait to go back!

Italy Pics

Here they are! At long last...the Italy pics (I've got some black & white but they have yet to be developed so it could be awhile before I get those scanned in). Most of these were taken by me on my aunt's digital camera but I do have a few that were taken by my friend and my brother who were with me on the trip.

*Note: A few of these were taken in Munich. We got stuck there on our way to Italy because the Italian air traffic controllers went on strike. So we wondered around Munich and found out that we liked it quite a bit! :)

Italia!

Italy! Here I come!
2 weeks and counting...

I just chatted with my brother over the weekend and got excited all over again about going to Rome. It sounds like we are going to be there during the busiest tourist season of the year but I'm not going let that get me down. I will be content just to sit and people-watch in the piazzas. Assisi, Sienna, and possibly Cinque Terra are all on the list...and beautiful Tuscany!!! I've watched Under the Tuscan Sun so many times it's ridiculous.
We'll see how the internet access goes there. My hope is to post directly from there but I may have to wait and input my entries once I'm back here in the states.
Well, until then, Ciao!

India trip

My travels to India came earlier than expected. I have always wanted to go to India ever since I read the Jungle Book when I was a wee one (I'm not sure if the Jungle Book takes place in India but I always thought it did). But I thought it wouldn't happen until when I was older and had gathered the courage to go. But as always, my life has taken some surprising turns and I was given the opportunity to lead a group of college students from Dayton to India for a five week immersion trip. We spent most of our time in Bangalore and the southern states of India with our final days in the north, in Kolkata.
It was an intense experience, full of images, smells, and paradoxes that I can still recall vividly. It took me a few months to even process it and to begin telling my stories. While I was there, I sent only a few emails out. Most of my adventures over there were written in my journal or in letter to my friend Brian, who was a prisoner of conscious in jail at that time. My entries here are from my emails home. Over time, I hope to gather the rest of my stories and put them up on here.

India pictures

Home soon

hello for the last time from India!
we arrived in Calcutta two days ago and it's hard to believe that in less than 48 hours, i will be on a plane, heading back to the states. there were parts of this trip that seemed agonizingly long but here we are, 2 days away from going home. our last week in Bangalore was a bit tense as we were getting worn out and people were getting more and more sick. we have been going at a breakneck pace with us often having to travel for at least 3-4 hours a day to get to and from our destinations.
but i now have a sari! and i know how to tie it! :) shopping for one was quite the experience though. for those of you that have ever gone shopping with me, i often like to look around for awhile at different stores, try a few things on, see what i like...then i make up my mind and buy something. well, that's just not how it's done here. :) you go in, sit down and you tell them what color, what fabric, how much you want to spend, etc. i think our guide, prema, probably wanted to kill me because i was being so indecisive. it's just a little overwhelming to walk into a sari shop and have some one start whipping out all these different patterns and colors.
since being in Calcutta we have actually been able to do quite a bit of shopping (i had only spent about 20 US dollars up until two days ago). we are staying on sudder street in Calcutta which is kind of a touristy area but the lonely planet kind of tourists...so lots of people in dreads and bandannas with backpacks. :) we actually have a somewhat "ritzy" place there called the fairlawn hotel. it's this big old building, painted green with all kinds of fake fruit and plants hanging out front and tons of memorabilia and kitsch and all kinds of wacky stuff on the walls (mom, you would love this place). and it has AC which has been a blessing as it is much hotter in Calcutta than Bangalore. i feel slightly guilty about staying there as many of the other volunteers at mother teresa's stay at much simpler places but i also realize that i was in need of some good rest and good food at the end of this trip which might not have been readily available at the salvation army hostel. sudder st is a nice location too b/c it is right next to the new market which is this huge indoor market with tons of little shops. it has been a riot trying to figure that place out. usually before you even get inside, a man (or 2 or 3!) begins to follow you around, offering to take you to this sari shop, or to that silk shop...as you pass by the shops, the owners ask you to "please come inside" so they can then proceed to try to sell you everything in the store. we've frequented a few shops whose owners are not quite as overbearing to the point where the owners recognize us. :) but there are a lot of westerners so the prices are still probably high. we've met a few around and at our hotel. there is an Italian couple that are adopting a baby boy from shishu bavaan and they are taking him back to Italy tonight. they are so excited and we got to meet him this morning when we went to the mother house.
speaking of mother teresa's, it is truly amazing to watch the work these sisters do. they have many sites in Calcutta and all are involved working with the poorest of the poor, those people that no one else wants. today, i went to shishu bavaan, an orphanage. i got sent to the handicapped section where i was promptly handed a glass of broth and told to feed a child in the nearby bed. i lifted her (or him? i couldn't tell, all their hair is short) into my lap and could feel every bone in her body. i thought that she had twisted herself up into an awkward position until i realized that it was her body's natural shape. many of the children's bones are so warped and their muscles are so underdeveloped that they grow into these twisted, crippled shapes. it is heart wrenching to see and scary to try and care for them when you have no experience with handicapped children. i was so terrified that i might hurt them in trying to lift them but i just watched the other volunteers and sisters and tried to follow their lead. we were only there for three hours but i was exhausted at the end of it. i am amazed by these women who commit their lives to this work. it is truly a humbling experience to witness it.
ok, well that is all for now. i will be home soon and hopefully will have some pictures and more stories for those of you that are interested. lots of love!
namaste.

More on rice, squat toilets and other items that occupy my thoughts

we are in the midst of week 3 and it has been a crazy ride...literally. we've spent the last week travelling around southern india on crowded buses, going over roads with potholes that would swallow my itty-bitty Viv (my ford escort from home). thank goodness i do not get carsick. i have discovered though, that all the jouncing means i end up with a migraine which is just as bad. but it was worth it for our whirlwind tour of southern India. i have officially seen an elephant (and not in a zoo, although we did go to a zoo in Mysore) and i have been to the highest point in southern India (where it was quite chilly). but the scenery has been amazing. outside of Mysore, we drove through sugar cane fields and rice paddies and i actually saw rivers that didn't look like sewage canals (the ones in the city do). the palace in Mysore was also beautiful and amazing but there is beauty to be found in the slums as well. Indian children are cute as can be and it can be heartbreaking to see these children in conditions that are inhumane. but they laugh and smile and are always excited to shake our hands. one of the things we've had to get used to over here as that random people will come up and want to take a picture with us. it can be a little disconcerting as they don't even tell us their names but it's part of the whole experience. there have been moments when i have wished that i could go someplace where i wouldn't get stared at all the time but that too is a good lesson to learn. so i am enjoying my time here but also looking forward to returning to the states. it can be quite uncomfortable with the heat and bugs and the traffic and pollution. i've also been dreaming of salads and french fries :) but i know that i am treasuring my time here and all the memories that i will take with me. and if you're wondering about my subject heading, it will be a long time before i eat rice again and i practically kiss every western toilet i find here (not really, cause that would be gross, but you get the idea) :) two weeks left to go. we are winding down although Calcutta is still to come. one more adventure!

Grrr....

things are a jumble here. being the trip leader is not all it's cracked up to me. i found out that the guy from Chaminade this year is best friends with the guy from last year. they must have exactly the same personality. already group members are becoming frustrated with him and i am at my wit's end. it is hard enough to deal with the culture shock and i have to contend with this. there also seem to be some weirdo politics going on here. somehow we got caught in a tug-of-war between deepahalli and chaminade in bangalore. one of the girls in the group was very unhappy that we left Deepahalli (we were only scheduled there for three days) and is trying to finagle going back there every rest day but some of the brothers are telling us that the boys are too attached to her and have cut their arms and are writing her name in blood on them. but then our leader, prema says she doesn't think it is true. i have no idea what's going on and i didn't really know how to respond to this girl's obsession with Deepahalli. i think she's got a bit of a messiah complex, thinking that she's helping them so much there because she doesn't think the brothers are all that nice to the boys... i don't know. i'm just completely confused and aggravated beyond believe with the communication here. plus, our schedule keeps getting changed because things are falling through and things that were "supposed to be arranged" turn out not to be. the group is getting frustrated with that and i really just want to tell them that they're going to have to suck it up b/c this is the way it is here. grrrr.
anyhoo, i really didn't mean to go on and on about that. there has been some amazing experiences with the people here and i am looking forward to it. i just wish i didn't have to deal with the yucky group dynamics.

India - week 1

a week has gone by and i think i am still in shock. so much had happened in these past 7 days that i can't begin to tell all the stories, so i will only share a few memorable moments. we spent several days in Deepahalli (about 40 min outside Bangalore) where there is a training school for the REDS boys. these are boys who have grown up in the slums, and who were making their livings by picking up trash and selling it. many of them do not have parents. they were very excited to meet us and i have learned from them how to properly eat Indian food. no silverware, right hand only, and you thumb acts as a shovel to push the food into your mouth. :) needless to say, the Americans need napkins. we also have spent some time in Hosure, visiting the slums and the tailoring center there that is set up for young women to learn this skill so that they can support themselves and their families better. they quickly attached themselves to me, maria and lupita and all of us now have henna designs on our hands and painted fingernails. one of my favorite memories was climbing a huge hill to reach the Hindu temple at the top with practically half the village coming along with us. for many, we are the first foreigners they have seen. what was really touching was when we would visit their homes and they would go on and on about how happy they were that we had come to see their house. it actually brought tears to my eyes yesterday as it seemed like such a small thing to come and sit on the floors of their one-room shacks, yet they would brag to everyone as we walked through the village that we had come to visit them.
and just in case any of you are planning to travel to India anytime soon, i have some advice that i've learned in this first week here.
advice #1: wear flip-flops to india and be prepared for dirty feet. in India, you take your shoes off before you enter anyone's home and also for the various day care centers and training centers we have been to. that, combined with the dust and dirt makes for very dirty feet. by the time i am done with the day it takes me three scrubbings to get off the multiple layers of dirt, bug spray and sunblock. even then, they are still not all that clean.
advice #2: be prepared to eat a lot of food. everytime you visit someone, they have to serve you coffee and snacks and then pester you to eat it all. we have learned to eat light lunches when we are going to be spending the afternoon visiting. :)
advice #3: this is for the ladies...if you plan to go in traditional dress (i.e. a sari) be prepared to be tucked and re-tucked at least 5 times a day. yesterday, i wore a sari that i borrowed from our leader. inevitibly, i would step on a hem or a fold would slip and i would end up with three women dragging me into a side room to re-fold and re-tuck my sari.
i can't believe that such a complicated way of dressing is an everyday event for these women. it would probably take me an hour to get a sari on and for them it is only five minutes. but it was an interesting experience to spend the day in one. the women in hosure were so excited to see me all decked out in the sari. and you can't forget the flowers in the hair and the jewelry...most indian women have earrings at the very least...many wear multiple necklaces and have nose rings & anklets...they're all about pearls and gold here...not my favorite combination but it looks good on them. anyway, by the end of the day i felt a bit like someone's play doll with all the getting dressed by other people. the guys got a taste of it too when the girls in the tailoring center decided to dress them up in dhotis (i think i spelled that wrong).
aside from all the fun things that have happened there has been some frustration culture shock. communication is quite interesting in India as they have this habit of shaking their heads when they mean "sure", "maybe", or "ok", or "give me a minute to think about it". it's often difficult to read their emotions and figure out whether they are annoyed or not. we have also discovered that "no" is rarely said here even when the answer really is "no" or "i don't know" and we have had a few schedule mishaps that have gotten the reply "it was supposed to be arranged." we're going with the flow but it can get aggravating at times. there has been some anger and sadness in the group over the conditions of some of these places that we have visited. it's hard not to get mad when you are constantly stepping over streams of sewage in these villages and seeing 7 people living in one room shacks. the pollution in the city is almost unbearable and already i have developed a sore throat from it. the fact that many of these people live their entire lives in these conditions is unthinkable for us. in America we see children as people that we care for and help them develop into adults. children here are often seen as another person to put to work for income. girls are not as valued as much as boys as they have to have dowries for their arranged marriages. many of the poor families have a majority of girls and their marriages are often postponed due to money issues. many are married by 18 but some are even younger...15, 13, 12. it is hard for me to imagine being given away in an arranged marriage at the age of 15 but here, it is normal and expected.
so, lots has happened and i have learned so much. i'm sure there will be many more adventures to come in the next four weeks. next week, we are off to the coast to visit some of the areas devastated by the tsunami. we'll end our trip with four days in Calcutta. today we're off to a wedding so i need to go get dressed.
namaste!