Goodbye to Cape Town

My learning and living experiences in Cape Town have been nothing less than absolutely tremendous. I participated in a case study which focused on the issue of gender-based violence (through which I was able to conduct extremely interesting street interviews) and was given a quite shocking introduction into the role it plays here in a society where it is unfortunately all-too-prevalent. I was able to attend an event called “The Table of Peace and Unity” on Table Mountain celebrating South Africa’s “freedom day” (April 27th, 1994- the day when free elections were first granted to those of all racial and ethnic groups) where I met and spoke with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and watched a performance of the “Circle of Life” by Mara Louw- the woman who sings the original version in Lion King. And in my free time, I traveled to the beautiful Cape Point- the very southern tip of Africa, and to Simons Town nearby to see the penguins that migrated here some 20 years ago. My free time also allows me to go to Robben Island this weekend to see and learn about the site where Nelson Mandela spent his years of imprisonment during apartheid.

In the relatively short amount of time I’ve had hear, I’ve felt that I’ve been given the opportunity to hear many voices–from the oppressed and recovering to the enlightened and hopeful. And even from the spiteful and bitter: an older white South-African taxi driver who resentfully looked upon the state of the nation, who considered his own inability to secure a higher-paying job a product of ill-formed national policy, and expressed to us his views on the “natural affinity of doves and pigeons in how they disassociate themselves from one another in flight”–which was, essentially, a poetic attempt at disguising his racism.

As my time with the International Honors Program (Health and Community) comes to a close, I’ve started to think about all of the terrible injustices that I now have seen and understand to exist. Though there were times when feelings of hopelessness and despair just crashed over me, I came to remember the wise words given to me by a high-school teacher of mine. He had passed at a time when I was unable to understand the meaning of his words, but now it is exactly what really puts my experience into perspective…

“To love the ugly world is to find yourself at its center,

and to let it be enough,

to refuse to be saddened by it; to let it end.

That’s where it all started for me, at the end.”

The Bo Kaap

For the rest of my stay in Cape Town, I am living in a beautiful neighborhood called the Bo Kaap.  It is an area that was sectioned off for “coloreds” during the Apartheid (which really meant anything other than “white” or “black”) and I’ve found the people, and life in general here to be just as vibrant as their brightly painted pretty little houses.  The neighborhood itself is located on a sloping hillside and has incredible views of the city high-rises, streets of little shops, markets and restaurants, and the mountains in the distance.  (In fact, I wake up to see Table Mountain from my bedroom window every morning!)  It is mostly a muslim community, though the family I am staying with is Christian.  But I still get to have the pleasure of hearing the calls to prayer on a regular basis!

My host mom is a local teacher, and I’ve done a bit of learning from her about the current stresses on the education system in South Africa.  Though the schools are technically integrated, they are still highly segregated racially with economic disparities between them.  School fees come out of parents’ pockets, even for public schools, so those who are less able to afford it are those who receive poorer education.  Teachers’ wages (which are largely insufficient) depend on the money brought in from student fees, so there is a continually decreasing size in staffing, especially where they are most needed.  There is also a buzz about “rights language” and how it has recently made for a disruptive and noncompliant student body.  In general there is a lot of skepticism of any top-down legislation from school boards by both students and teachers (perhaps rightly so, considering South Africa’s violent political past).   What it all comes down to, is a lot must be done in order for their education system to shape up.

We’ve also been learning a lot about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is of particular height in South Africa and in Capetown.  Estimates of those affected are as high as 20% for the adult population in the country, so it is an issue of common knowledge and concern.  We’ve been meeting with a bunch of local organizations aimed at bringing together and enabling HIV positive people in communities, and while it seems that a decent amount is being done on the local level, much controversy and complications surround the issue.  There is still much denial of the epidemic by the government (and prominent government officials) which, on top of public denial and carelessness to take precautions, allows for the disease to become so prevalent in society.  

For whatever reason you may want to give it, though, it is still incredibly baffling that essentially 1 in 5 adults is living with HIV here.  While I know about social and historical trends that have made the population so vulnerable to the spread of the disease, I am still racking my brains trying to figure out how that statistic exists amongst my peers and my elders here and I just can’t come up with anything solid.  HIV and AIDS just has an entirely different, and in many ways, an entirely normalized face here as opposed to the States.  The good news is that for the most part, people don’t feel isolated, and they can come together and improve their health and their lives because of the disease.  We visited a religiously active group in a township (of 800,000 people!) called Kayelitsha that beautifully put it: “I am living with HIV,  Your God is still my God.”  I have to say, their energy and spirit was certainly enough to lift me up!

Zweletemba, South Africa

For the past week or so, I lived in Zweletemba- a more rural township (about an hour and a half from Cape Town) with my wonderful host mother, her two adorable girls, and a fellow classmate.  The neighborhood itself is on the relatively poorer side of things when it comes to money, but from what I experienced, it was rich in its liveliness, good-spirited people, and with its huge, gorgeous view of the mountains.  I got to enjoy cool, sunny mornings walking to class at the local library, passing by a few goats, hearing roosters crowing and admiring the incredible landscape along the way.  Walks home were spent hand-in-hand with the herds of neighborhood children w ho bombarded you with their affection and curiosity constantly.  Of the more rewarding experiences I had was hearing from panels of local women about occupational health on farms, visiting a traditional Sangoma healer and learning about her practice, going on a long (and slightly more treacherous than anticipated) hike in the mountains, attending a church srevice given in the local language of Xhosa, and receiving endless, laughable lessons from my younger host-sisters in pronouncing the different “clicks” Xhosa has.

Though it was short, I really loved my home-stay there and really wish I could’ve stayed longer.  I felt that there was so much more to learn about than what we were exposed to on the surface.  The township itself exists as part of hte political aftermath of the  Apartheid- a system of legalized discrimination, segregation and subordination of black and colored  South Africans by the white Afrikaners in power.  The movement itself only officially ended in 1994, so in some ways I felt that I had taken a trip back to the Civil Rights era in the U.S.  Though she seldom mentioned it, and never fully explained it, My host mother told me that she was in exile, at the very front of the political upheaval, in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania for 23 years of her life.  From what I learned in fimls and talks from community members, I know these people to have experienced an incredibly horrific oppression and to have suffered an unbelievable violence.  It is astonishing to me that through their pain, they can find pride int heir strength as a people, that through their wisdom and integrity they can sit and share their past with us, and that despite the rigid lines drawn by white supremacy, these resilient and good-hearted people can welcome those like us into their homes.

Though the overall feel of the place is highly positive and uplifting, the community suffers from things other than a recent volatile political history.  The rates of young motherhood are incredibly high, but there is an extreme absence of husbands, fathers, and men in general.  And though it wasn’t too often that we saw people visibly sick with AIDS, we knew that they had a disproportionately large presence in the area.

In all that I saw and experienced, though, Zweletemba fully owns up to its meaning, “a land of hope,”  and I have faith in its potential to strengthen itself and its people.

The Elderly

During our third week in Beijing, we split up into small groups again for case studies. Only equipped with ourselves and our fellow Chinese-student translators, we set up meetings and site visits for our research. With my group, I got a further look into senior care issues.

On our first day we traveled to a local nursing home which had an incredibly large (though unfortunately incredibly overworked) staff. The elderly there seemed to be very much dependent on the very good care they were receiving, and their livelihood and smiling faces were infectious! While there, we got the chance to hear them sing Chinese songs for us, and we returned the gesture with one of our own! Other rewarding experiences of the week include interviewing a popular journalist for an elderly health newspaper and a medical research professor about the difficulties the country is facing as it increasingly becomes an aging and elderly society. We also took a trip to a nearby park one morning and observed older community members doing Tai Chi (some groups with swords and fans) using the many outdoor exercise and stretching machines and practicing Chinese calligraphy on the cement sidewalks using a life-size paintbrush and a bucket of water.

Because it is part of our curriculum to synthesize our experiences in each country we travel to through a research paper, it became my personal endeavor to explore the conditions surrounding and affecting the growing elderly population in China. Every piece of data we collected affirmed that these shifting demographics will amount to a huge problem in the very near future. The government's political persistence with the One Child Policy is beginning to leave more and more of the nation's elderly without enough family support to provide for their needs. The opening of China's market to the global economy has introduced a sense of capitalistic individualism which has done everything from pulling younger generations away from their families to pursue their own lives and careers, to increasing the privatization (and thus, the cost) of health care facilities and services, to introducing a drastic and unforeseen inflation in the price of everyday necessities. With policies that demand a decrease in family size for population control, and modernization which undermines Confucian emphasis on familial piety in society, traditional values are being replaced with a new-age way of life that leaves the elderly behind.

Younger family members are beginning to provide their parents with mostly monetary support over social support (a large change from past times) which produces and is reflected by the boom in nursing home businesses. This in itself is a problem because it introduces a demand in labor that is most often filled by migrant workers who are underpaid and severely overworked. This means that those from rural areas who are less socially and financially empowered are bearing the brunt of the problem, having to leave their own elderly family members behind to take care of those in the crowded cities. Also, because the government enforces a retirement age of 55 for women and 60 for men due to the fact that the average life expectancy is continuously increasing, and because inflation is on the rise, the elderly who are most often unable to generate any substantial income are at a loss. We spoke to one man who told us "you just go to the grocery store hoping you can afford the vegetables that day."

This whole phenomenon has pushed many older people to pursue work through building entrepreneurships, something that has added the stress of economic competition at a time in their lives when they are arguably least likely to be able to learn a new trade.

Solutions to the problem have been fiddled around with here and there and have generally called for one of two actions- governmental revision of the One Child Policy to rebuild families and enable them to support their own elderly, or increased government funding for public nursing homes and other health care programs for the elderly so that their livelihoods may be placed in the hands of the community. But either way, the numbers don't add up. Within the next 20 years, as the masses whose reproduction was restricted enter old age, and when we will see the most extreme exacerbation of the consequences, there will be neither enough young people within individual families nor across the overall society to aid the immediate situation.

The saying, "China will get old before it gets rich" rings clearer in my mind than the theory that it will be one of the world's next superpowers. But even if the most populous country drops out of the running, it is no less a threat to the world's current superpowers. Whether China does continue on the path to economic self-sufficiency and no longer needs to rely on its exports for income, or whether its economy becomes run down from bearing the weight of the elderly population, it is inevitable that the Western world will suffer if it continues to exploit the country and its people for the provision of cheap goods. I can really only hope, for both ethical and practical reasons, that we start to see more "Made in the U.S." stickers.

Living and Learning

After class and on weekends, I’ve had the wonderful privilege to go sight-seeing in the city! My first visit was to the Great Wall at the Mutianyu site, which was an exhausting climb and a spectacular view! And instead of walking back down at the finish of our day, we got to go down a chute on sitting-scooters! It was an incredibly fun ride! We also visited Tienanmen square where official government meetings and conventions are held (and where just recently the National Peoples’ Congress convened, behind closed-doors.) We took a trip to the Forbidden City where former emperors resided, and the ancient buildings are beautiful, with sloping roofs and gargoyles, and beautiful, decorative red, blue, green and gold painting. The golden statues of lions and paintings of dragons have thus far been my favorite! One of my best experiences so far, has been visiting the Temple of Heaven- a site also filled with ancient buildings and relics. But my favorite part about it was seeing the many gatherings taking place just outside of the main entrance! There were many older people twirling ribbons–like the kind you see used in rhythmic gymnastics–doing tai chi and practicing this graceful, impressive performance of twirling and balancing this ball on a racket of sorts (they even tried to teach us and we got some practice, too!)

Everything about Beijing is very westernized and modern nowadays, and among the many things I’m impressed by is their public transportation system which consists of very reliable and new-looking buses and metro trains. While you’re riding, they even have digital display screens showing ads on the tunnel walls outside of the train that keep up to speed with the car somehow so you can view it! It’s ridiculously high-tech. The city has definitely experienced a big boom and it really shows.

Most everything that we see day-to-day makes it seem as though Beijing (and China in general in some ways) really has its act together. Their one-party structure depends heavily on social stability and their active government seeks to maintain just that. However, the city and country still face many problems associated with the pull towards development.

Of the many things we’ve learned in class, the most eye-opening and heartbreaking for me has been about the HIV/AIDS situation here. In the very recent past, both governmental and illegal blood procurement agencies set up camp in poor rural areas where demand for donating blood in exchange for money is high. Unfortunately, blood groups are pooled and unsterile needles are used, and HIV rates (which once were miniscule) spread like wildfire. Essentially, if even one person was initially infected, up to hundreds could end up contracting the disease. In many villages, as much as 50% of the adult population has HIV, or is dying of AIDS. A leader of a local NGO geared at relief-work told us (and even showed us on video) some of the numerous families whose children bear the burden of taking care of their parents and grandparents in their remaining years and days. He spoke of one HIV-negative young daughter in a family of 8 other HIV-positive members, and about the incredible hardships she will have to face while growing up. He said he visited one village on a day that 11 funerals were taking place, only one of them for a person who died of a reason other than AIDS. Though the spread of HIV was an unforseen consequence, it is an even harsher cruetly that these agencies targeted poor areas to get more customers; that rural villages are struck the hardest, and that some are even disappearing is an incredible tragedy. Unfortunately, I have to imagine that there are some illegal underground procurement agencies that are still working today.
We also learned about how the push towards economic prosperity has pulled many farmers to the cities as migrant workers. We took a trip to another local NGO working for these peoples’ occupational health and wellbeing and learned about the intense and constant hardships they face as the prices of their crops fall so that they can no longer subsist on their land. They are forced to work under hazardous conditions in factories and manufacturing companies, at construction sites and at other physically-demanding and health impairing work sites. They are often exposed to volatile carcinogens, or suffer from burns as fires often break out in these unsafe working conditions. Many families that live in rural areas have members who go out to the cities to work and earn money for them, but for some of the most unfortunate, the most money that comes in for them is from the government, in the form of reimbursement for a life lost. Daily, I pass by these migrant workers on the streets or in the metro station, carrying all their necessary belongings (which may in fact be the sum total of all of their belongings) in plastic luggage bags. It is also not infrequent that I see burn victims, but only recently, after this lecture, was I able to put their condition into context. I have no idea what statistics are available that would demonstrate the prevalance of these accidents in society, but their presence is undoubtably noticeable. Sadly and frighteningly, I passed by a man one day sitting  collecting change on a bridge who I did not at first recognize as human.

These are only a few of the problems we’ve been exploring.  It has been exceedingly hard to conceptualize them even when they’re right in front of me; its even harder to come to terms with them when I see them on an everyday basis. Everything has challenged the way I think and feel about how things work, both here and in the US.  I find it amazing that if you look just beneath the surface, you will find so much going wrong.

Hello Beijing!

Ni Hao!

So I’ve been in Beijing for almost two weeks now, but you only need a day to realize that life here is quite different from Bangalore. The city is very developed with tons of high rises, open sidewalks and big highways (where traffic laws are actually adhered to) and big Chinese characters everywhere. The city is crowded, but pretty docile and quiet. Riding bikes is a major form of transportation, and many families own these really small dogs that more often resemble moving puff-balls on leashes than actual live pets. There is very little greenery here, but the city is much less smoggy than I had anticipated and the better air quality (which is a phenomenon largely due to the Olympics approaching) is quite a luxury coming from Bangalore.

Speaking of the Olympics, there are advertisements all over the city that read the 2008 slogan “One World, One Dream” with five little mascots that can be best described as Chinese panda-bear-girls that each wear one of the colors of the rings. And I’ve had the privilege of seeing the venues from the highway–they’re really impressive! The main building where most games will be held is called “The Bird’s Nest,” and the outer oblong donut-shaped structure is actually composed of crossing steel beams that make it look like… you guessed it! A bird’s nest. The Aquatics center is called the “Water Cube” and is a block-like structure with walls that are semi-transparent and look like a 3D collection of big blue water-bubbles.

The Olympics is having a big impact on the media and there are many funny commercials circulating that are geared to teach Chinese-speakers how to say simple English words and phrases like “smile” and “opportunity” and “It’s my pleasure.” I’ve found these commercials pretty comical, as well as their effects. Just last night I participated in a near-catastrophic, full-contact, frontal physical collision with a local on the sidewalk who promptly and happily blurted “No thank you!” in my face… when I think he meant to say “Excuse me!” (A mix up that could easily have been brought about by the media cramming these people’s heads daily with tons of common sayings in a foreign language.) Please take a moment to imagine the absolute hilarity of this encounter, and feel free to join me in laughing out loud over it. I know in the immediate moment I was definitely doubled over with an intense case of the giggles.

Onto my everyday life! I live with my wonderful host-sister, Jah-shing, my stylish Ai-ee (auntie) and cute, old Shoo-shoo (uncle) and my classmate Laura in an adorable and cozy apartment which is a convenient 5 minute walk from class. My shoo-shoo is a GREAT cook and has given us the luxury of enjoying (among many many dishes) home-made Kung-pao chicken, what we’ve termed “Chinese pizza” or, rather- in Chinese “Jong-wuh Pee Tzah” (circle-shaped soft fried dough with meat and vegetables inside) and my personal favorite: steamed and fried dumplings! Not only is the eating experience delicious, but it has also been really fun. I’ve gotten to master a new skill—using chop sticks, and- get this: slurping is polite! We’ve been told all our lives that table manners requires politeness- in the form of not slurping, but I really think the Chinese have it right, and I can finally be polite in an incredibly fun way!

Besides knowing a few words and phrases, my host family doesn’t speak English, and it has been incredibly fun and rewarding learning Chinese! And lucky for me, Laura is Taiwanese-American so she is currently my live-in teacher and translator outside of our in-class Mandarin lessons, and for the most part it’s been working! But when Laura isn’t around to mediate the conversation, it often turns into one big ridiculous game of charades which, even if unsuccessful and confusing, is without fail, entertaining! The little Chinese I do know, however, is highly centered around table-talk and pushy bargaining, which would probably explain why much of what I know is: “hello,” “My name is Dana, what’s yours?” “good-bye,” “thank you,” “I love this food,” “I’m very full,” “How much does this cost?” and “That’s way too pricy!” I must say, I will highly miss practicing the art of bratty whining to demand lower prices in broken Chinese—often with hands on hips, a pouty facial expression, and sometimes, when I get really into it, stomping my right foot (never angrily though, only in good spirit!) Another great tactic is walking out of the store when you know you’re being overcharged; if they still want your your business they’ll run out and call you back to give you a more fair price. Though these business interactions can be taxing and frustrating, if you walk and speak confidently (and add a little Mandarin here and there!) they are often energizing and highly personalized, and I’ve enjoyed them. It’s the fun way things work here!

There are some definite oddities that China has introduced me to as well…The local fruit is tasty but strange looking, and one of them called rambutan (I think?) is about the size of a ping pong ball, but has a bright red waxy coating with crazy looking bristle-like projections, and after being peeled it tastes like a chewy grape of sorts with a pit in the middle. And, brace yourself: at outdoor markets you can often find chicken feet, skewers of scorpions, cicadas, squid, and even star fish and sea-horses—(I chose to eat what I think and hope was lamb.) And if you’re ever in need of a public restroom, all you’ve really gotta do is… follow your nose. I’ll end this incredibly long blog entry, though, on a much more pleasant note, in telling you that they say “Chi-dz!” when taking pictures. It sounds a little like “cheese!” but don’t be fooled, it really means “Eggplant!”

That’s all for now!
Zai Jian!

Farewell to India

Saying goodbye to India was a toughie. It’s definitely a place with some character, and it smacks you across the face with it upon your arrival and grabs at your ankles and holds you back when you leave.

I realized, coming back from my vacation to Bangalore that I had really made the place my home, even though it was for a short while. I began to allow the stray dogs, run-down neighborhoods, and rude, hectic traffic into my life, and learned to accept it as it is.

I held conversations with locals that were confusing, angering, hilarious and everything in between. My interactions were dramatically eye opening, intensely life-defining and even unexpectedly mystical and spiritual. I even attended a "laughing club," something that the Indian culture is known for. It consisted of a gathering of middle aged to elder women to exercize their lungs, facial muscles and diaphragms while practicing all different kinds of silly laugter which then made you break out into actual laughter. (My favorite was the lion laugh where you turned to those on either side of you, put on a ridiculous tongue-out facial expression on and made clawing motions in the air.)

The little piece of India I got to know offered me its magic to the fullest, and while walking down the street
to my house on the last day, I experienced a nostalgia that made me really understand how much I love the place, and how much I’m going to miss it.

I spent one of my last mornings with my host father, Prabakara, walking through a large, beautiful botanical garden/local park called Lalbagh, taking in the views and talking about- his specialty- life in general and all that happens in it. We sat on a bench and he told me, “You know, in 20
years from now, you’ll look at something and say, ‘this seems familiar’, and you’ll be reminded of this day that you were sitting with me on this bench looking out onto this lake and remember how it was a very special thing that we were brought together.”

The group enjoyed a last hoorah with the families over a big dinner function, for which most of us girls came in traditional Indian garb. My host mom, sister and aunt decked me out in a royal looking purple and gold saree and (believe it or not) wedding jewelery which had actually just been worn a few weeks prior to the event in a family member’s marriage ceremony. My host mom assured me that dressed like this, I was sure to get a date, haha! (Thankfully I didn’t, though; if even allowed to take place, dates are pretty much an engagement in the Indian culture.) We spent the whole rest of the night at home talking and laughing (and crying from laughing so hard) until 1 a.m.

India gave us its lasting, charismatic and frustrating goodbye with plans of sending home boxes at the post office falling through (we didn’t have our box tailor-wrapped and stitched in cloth, so it was a no-go) and also with a slightly uncomfortable cramming into rickshaws with 50 lb. luggage on our laps- both instances a friendly reminder from the country to us that it just functions… differently. But by far the most difficult aspect of our departure was having to say goodbye to our families. We were told “Ateetee de Woah Bahbah”- “Our guest is our God”- which is really how we were treated and revered by our loving hosts, and after being given gifts and sad hugs and long prayers in Hindi over our very heads, we left for the airport.

See you later, India!

“God’s Own Country”

Apart from class, field visits and case studies, I've gotten some time on weekends to explore India a bit more freely. I traveled first to Mysore for a tropical one-day getaway to see some beautiful, aged temples and palaces, a local bird sanctuary (which made for a great boat ride and photo opp) and botanical gardens in the evening for an unexpectedly impressive and colorful "dancing water" show (picture a real life version of the windows media player and there you have it). After case studies I took a trip to Pondicherry, a quaint, beach-y French colony on the East coast with great food and accommodations, wonderful gardens, and a particularly spectacular sunrise over the Bay of Bengal.

So I've gotten sneak-peaks of some of Southern India's hot-spots, but none compare to this past week's time spent in the state of Kerala, whose motto serves as the title of this blog. The primary purpose of this trip was academic; in fact the first thing we all learned on our way to our destination of Wyanad was how to run away from a wild, long-tusked, charging male elephant whose pissed-off at you for trying to take his picture. On a more scholarly, civilized level, we finished off our India curriculum by exploring Ayurveda (India's system of traditional medicine whose roots are located here) at a local hospital. We also visited a botanical sanctuary where we learned about restorative efforts at biodiversity in India's rain forest (even the most developed of imaginations cannot picture the number and kinds of different plants there).

Finally, we went to a place called "Kanavu" which translates to "dream". It is an amazing educational facility made for and now run by tribal peoples which combines conventional learning curriculum with practical and cultural knowledge and training for children. After a tour of the land (which, at its start, required the semi-treacherous task of sliding/falling down and climbing out of an elephant trench) we were privileged enough to see one of the by-products of their learning- their amazing dances. Even at a very young age the children are taught certain steps that I would have to practice for some weeks to really get right. And those our age could do incredibly awe-inspiring moves which can best be described as something like aggressive, powerful yoga with intense acrobatics. One of the highlights of the entire trip so far was having the opportunity to dance with them all--entirely exhilarating and so much fun!

Now I’m on my spring break, and have been traveling down the west coast of Southern India with a group of friends!  Our ventures began as we took a bus ride from Wyanad to Calicut with breath-taking green mountainside views down thousands and thousands of feet of banana and palm trees.  For the few hours we were in Calicut we caught a gorgeous beach-side sunset whilst receiving curious and over-friendly attention for 1. being American, 2. not wearing sari’s on the beach, and 3. sitting with all of our luggage in the sand for a couple of hours.  From Calicut to Cochin we took a rather interesting and eventful “sleeper class” overnight train ride which necessitated hugging our bags as we slept. (Don’t worry mom and dad, next one is a 2nd-tier AC class!)

We were picked up in Cochin by our fun driver, Suni, who took us to our hotel in a town called Kumarakom.  It was a beautiful stay in a sweet little area facing Kerala’s lush backwaters. Aside from wonderful weather, delicious food, and comfortable rooms, we more or less became the personal guests of the hotel manager, Jose (pronounced Johs).  He showed us around the village where we were greeted with cows, goats and chickens, welcoming parents and their bashful, bright-eyed children.  We were shown the machinery they constructed, and which they now use for making house mats and cords out of coconut leaves.

It was hard to go, especially since we had to leave behind the much enjoyed naps on hammocks (tied between palm trees of course).  But our journey to come was well worth the sad departure!  Our gargantuan coconut-leaf-roofed house boat arrived and greeted us with fresh tender coconuts to drink and sweet smelling lays to wear.  We spent the day cruising the backwaters and docked at night for a  peaceful sleep.  The next morning, Suni picked us up and drove us to the beautiful beach of Kovalam where I am staying now.  The sand is so fine that it feels like I’m walking on pillows, the strip of shops end in jutting rocks and a lighthouse, and most importantly- they have mangoes out of season!! Though touristy, it is absolutely beautiful.  The spectacularly blue breaking waves look like clear, rolling, perfectly-cylindrical glass bottles, and the waters become a dark silvery mirror when the sun sets each day. (Don’t worry, Grandma, I’m taking pictures!)

Tomorrow morning we leave for Trivanderum (where I hope to hop on a bus to quickly check out the southern-most tip of India) and then we catch train back to Bangalore.  All in all this vacation has been quite heavenly, having the opportunity to witness beautiful scenery and strike meaningful conversations with the genuine people I’ve met.  Saying goodbye to Kerala will certainly be heart-breaking.

I have no doubts as to why they call this place “God’s Own Country.”

Big Little Miracles

This past week the 33 of us had the wonderful opportunity of splitting up into small groups and conducting research for case studies.  We all visited very impactful organizations that called to our attention that much good can come of focused efforts. 

My first stop was the Tribal Health Initiative in the very rural Sittilingi valley of the state of Tamilnadu.  It was a program established by two amazing doctors, Dr. Regi and Dr. Lalitha, who (after receiving years and years of education and training, and gaining respect in modern society) packed up their things and settled down in a place where there is nothing for miles but tribal villages.  I will forever be in awe of how these people decided to completely forgo their credibility and sustained the hard work of gaining the trust of tribal communities that had been exploited and in other ways mishandled by “experts” time and time again.  

The success of their efforts (besides instituting an accessible, affordable, and well trusted health facility) had much to do with the fact that they actually trained and employed tribal women as health workers and auxiliary nurses!!  Luckily, my group happened to be at THI the one night out of the month that these women convened, and with a translator we were able to find out about their lives and impactful work.  Without a translator, we learned their cultural dances, and taught them one of ours–the hokey pokey! (Possibly an even more surreal experience than counting cows on the way to class).

I also got the chance to visit a site called Navadarshanam (“New vision” or “Vision of Reality”)- an organization dedicated to promoting and actualizing an alternative way of life that is non-exploitive for both humans and nature.  Guided by Gandhian principles of non-violence and economic interdependency in communities, the establishment utilized minimally damaging energy resources (from solar panels to compost) built eco-friendly houses, ate their own organically grown crops, and allowed forest restoration by fencing out grazers and elephants. (No joke, during our night stay we heard the watchman playing drums loudly to keep out these large stampeders).  

The idea that governs this effort is that all beings originate from and contain the same basic life force and make up one body, so when any exploitation occurs it is the equivalent of one hand harming the other.  When a mutually beneficial relationship is established between people and nature, both life and health are self-sustainable and the “life force” becomes allowed to rejuvinate itself.  The amazing food we received was straight from the garden, and I even got to drink milk that came right from the cows!  Call it a good meal,  call it therapy from the “life force”, call it whatever- but I can tell you that after eating it I felt invincible. You can’t visit this place and not feel that there is a certain magic about it. 

During our interviews, I asked both of the different organization’s leaders what they felt was an unforseen reward they received from their efforts.  After much deep thought on both parts, I got answers that will stay with me for a long time. 

Annatu, an establisher and current member of the Navadarshanam community, spoke of the wonderous way that all things naturally restore themselves without personal efforts.  In a world full of need for fixing, this is definitely an important recognition.  It is not that positive efforts need to be placed on circumstances that are negative- these do not exist naturally.  Rather, what is needed is the alleviation of the negative forces that impinge upon the natural livelihood and thriving that exists in everything and everyone.

Dr. Lalitha from THI, who abandoned her well-earned medical repetoir in the modern world for the selfless purpose of bettering humanity (one Sittilingi tribal person at a time) told me about the blessing of realizing your ignorance.  One can gain a formal education with extensive formal knowledge, and in an instant it can be meaningless without the trust of your community and patients.   After all, this stuff is more important, and getting treated is a people thing.  Realizing my ignorances has been an integral part of my very humbling learning experience.  They are inevitable, though inadvertantly held, and having the opportunity to discard them (piece by little piece) has indeed been a blessing.

Facing Reality.

Of the many overwhelming things that Bangalore has to offer is evidence of the extreme poverty that exists due to many international, exploitative forces that we learn about daily.  I could really go on and on for hours about the ways in which I believe India has been swept up into a commercial whirlwind and suffers political and social instability because of global pressures, but I’ll spare you the rant and tell you about what I’ve seen and how it has truly changed me.

With a group of my fellow students and staff member, I travelled to a low income neighborhood in the heart of Bangalore to assess their access to water (which should really be stated as the lack thereof).  For 3000 people living in this area, there were 4 outdoor spickets which were usable only every other morning for water collection.  The water that they do receive is so poor in quality, though, that it leaves their children visibly sick.  It is so easy to laugh and talk and play with these curious and adorable children, and so hard to acknowledge what the statistics say.  Looking into their faces makes you really wonder what it is that gives us such different lives to live.

The parents invited us into their homes.  The one that I ducked into was one room.  About a 6′ by 10′ space for a family of  four.  With a translator present, we were able to determine that three of them slept on the floor while one was able to use a small cot.  They have one drain to use for cooking and bathing purposes.  They work hard, and often have multiple jobs, just so they can survive and so that their children can go to school. And still they offer us tea.

It is so easy to feel completely devastated after seeing all this, but I’ve learned the incredible importance of leaving my ignorance and pain and guilt at their doorsteps, and realizing that these amazing people, with their wonderous resiliency, have no shame and do not distance themsevles despite knowing that you possess a wealth and power that they can never attain.  This distinction is one that seems all the more arbitrary and unjust every single day.  But quietly accepting our inevitable constraints, we were able to smile and communicate and reduce ourselves to the notion of plainly being human.