It was about 10 o’clock on Friday night when the yellow school bus picked us up from our apartments. We hopped on and before we knew it, we arrived at the train station. Now it is vital for you to understand the differences between American Amtrak trains and Indian trains. Although when I rode the train in America, I was alarmed by the little amount of security or anything of the sort, there was absolutely no security in India. There was no ticket taking, and no ticket checking even, until we had left the station. We boarded the train a little bit before the train actually left and our train car was, apparently, the high roller car. We had AC and we had bunk beds. Each train compartment was composed of six beds, of which three were bunked on each side. Since it was a night trip, we automatically bunked and people started to go to sleep. I was in a compartment with 3 other girls from the ISP program, and we had two random Indian men sleeping below us. But, let me explain the train in more detail. The beds reminded me of prison and it smelled like a cattle farm. Just the smell made you want to vomit. But, here comes the best part. The bed I got was the middle bunk and my head was literally right next to the door handle. So, because of my tall and large stature, I did not fully fit on the bed (surprise, surprise! Its not really like I assumed I would, I mean my legs don’t fit in plane seating), so I took on the fetal position and my head still was very close to the edge. This resulted in numerous times where my hair was accidentally pulled along with the door handle. It wouldn’t have been as big of a problem, except that every time the bathroom door opened, a rancid stench wafted into my face, waking me up even more than just the hair pulling. The stench was accompanied by the unpleasant sounds of heaving and other bodily functions that one should not ever hear repetitively.
Finally, we arrived at Chennai station at around 7:30 in the morning, and before we even left the station, I could tell that I would appreciate Coimbatore even more upon our return. Chennai is almost double the size of Coimbatore (Chennai’s population is 8 million people…a little more than this Montana girl is used to). There were many beggars and children roaming around the station and as we left, literal herds of people were crossing the streets. It was a little bit of an out-of-body experience, as I felt more like I was living a movie instead of real life. We boarded a bus and were driven to the guest rooms where we stayed at a CSI (Church of South India) location. We were served breakfast, which included toast and eggs. I’m going to be completely serious when I say that it was probably the best meal thus far. After that, we hopped back on the bus and went to meet one of the most phenomenal women I’ve ever met. She was in an abusive marriage for over ten years, but, by the grace of God, managed to get out (something very unheard of in this culture) and continued to start an organization dedicated to the empowerment of Dalit women (the untouchable caste). We had our eyes opened as we learned about a lifestyle that we had not seen thus far. We were given a welcome ceremony that included snacks, jewelry and beautiful flowers (the Tamil word for flower is “poo”…funny right?!). The hospitality and love that we were given blew me away and I am still in awe. After we left the beautiful women of “Foreward” and the slum where they lived, we went to St. Thomas Mount and St. Thomas Basilica. I still cannot believe that I stood on the mountain where one of the twelve apostles was martyred. It was mind-blowing, and the view from the top of the mountain was incredible, though it did make me miss Montana mountains and clear skies. After seeing and experiencing so much, we ended the day walking along a beach, letting our feet catch the tide in the Bay of Bengal. The following day, we visited Mahaballipuram, a UNESCO site of monolithic rock carvings. Again, it was incredible. By this point though, exhaustion had begun to set in and the intense heat of the day was a lot to handle. So, we spent the afternoon shopping and bartering for great prices. We were served dinner and then headed back to the train station. This time, our train smelled even worse. But, we arrived back in Coimbatore early Monday morning, around 5:30 and then headed back to our apartments for a couple hours until our first class at 10:30.
Literally the minute I walked into our apartments, I knew that I was going to be sick. We can just leave it at that – I didn’t keep much food down for a couple of days and was shaky and feverish. No worries now though, I’m completely better now! But, this gross travel sickness was the start to “one of those days” where I just didn’t want to be in India so much. I decided that even though I didn’t feel well, I needed to go to class. So, we all got to class a little bit before 10:30 but our professor never showed up, so we just waited around. She had forgotten and wanted to reschedule for a couple of hours in the afternoon. See, this kind of stuff happens all of the time in the school system here, but its one of those things that would never, ever happen at home. So, we were all very frustrated. We waited around until lunch, but I was so nauseous that lunch wasn’t really an option. After lunch, I was supposed to have literature but then that teacher never showed up. We informed the principal that our professor wasn’t there and the principal proceeded to have a meeting with us where she gave us an assignment of 30 minute presentations that apparently our professor had forgotten to mention. Oh, by the way, our prof never did come. Scheduling conflicts are not a big deal here, but they drive me a little bit crazy. I remedied the day by going to bed at the ripe hour of 8 pm.
After Monday, things got much better. I started feeling better and all of the scheduling stuff got itself straightened out. Overall, it just improved drastically. Wednesday was another internship day and another rewarding day. I got to talk to the man in charge of all adoptions through the organization, Mr. Gandhi (yeah, great name right?). Hopefully I’ll get to go to court and see an adoption go through the legal process with him. He did tell me something that broke my heart, though, that mentally disabled children are not eligible for adoption in India – it is illegal.
So, that is a quick recap (or…not so quick) of what I’ve been up to. We have this weekend free (as in we are staying in Coimbatore and not traveling, but it is a packed weekend, as usual). Also, the end of next week marks the one-month mark. I’ve been in India for a month? What? Its hard to believe, especially because time seems so strange here. In a way, it feels like I have been here forever, but at the same time I feel like I’ve been here for a couple days. Some days are terribly difficult and some are simply the best. There is one story I’ve been dying to tell though, so here it goes: I’m taking an Indian history class here and the professor is absolutely hysterical. I wish I could videotape him because there is no way to describe him. He’s about 4’9” and calls the class “friends.” He is really difficult to understand from both his accent (he likes to slip into Sanskrit) and his teaching style goes in circles. Anyways, the whole class was very lost so he offered to write in colors to make it easier to follow. Of course we said that would be a great idea so he went out to buy multicolored markers for the board. He filled about half of the whiteboard and then tried to erase. It didn’t work, so he poured about half of his water bottle into the eraser and it still didn’t erase. He turned to us and said, “oh my gosh! It has become permanent!” It was only then that he realized that he had been writing in permanent marker instead of whiteboard marker. He then proceeded to keep writing on the board, rather than stop and just destroy half of the whiteboard.
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