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Published: October 26th 2007
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Bogmalo Beach
Beautiful little beach we enjoyed during our "home stay." I realized that yesterday was the half-way mark of my time in India, and despite the various times I’ve longed to cuddle up next to the fire place at home and just let life be easy, the time here is flying by.
Field visit #2 began on Thursday, October 11 when we boarded a bus in Bangalore for an overnight trip to the western state of Goa. The bus had 1.5 decks, meaning that there were normal seats on the bottom, and beds above where passengers have just enough room to lay down, and about 3 feet separating the mattress from the bus ceiling. It’s possible that the average Indian can comfortable sit upright in this upper half of a deck; the average American, however, cannot. The predicted 14 hours inevitably stretched to 20, and sleep was regularly disturbed by potholes that would send those of us riding on top flying towards the ceiling. Oh, and the beds were doubles. Thankfully I knew my bunkmate; it made the fact that I landed on top of her after every pothole a little less awkward.
Periodically throughout the night, the bus would stop so that we could pee either on the side of the road or in the 1 rupee Turkish toilets. At one such stop, one of my flip-flops came up missing. Conveniently, there was a roadside shoe-shop where I could buy leather kicks for 3 USD. I opted for the cheap sandals rather than risking going barefoot for the rest of the journey, and it was a good thing I did, because my missing flip-flop never reappeared.
By the time we got off the bus in Panaji the next after, I was in hate with all forms of transportation and was sure that I would rather spend the rest of my life Goa rather than ever take a similar bus ride. I thought it was safe to say, considering our tickets home were for the train. Little did I know, my convictions would be put to the test…
In Goa, our purpose was to study the effects of globalization, specifically on the industries of mining, fishing, and tourism. We were split into three groups for homestays that would last two nights and three days. Along with five other girls, I was anxious to learn about tourism. Well, somewhere along the line the “home-stay to study tourism” message was distorted, and when we were dropped off at a guesthouse in a random beach town and told that the owner, Kevin, would help us find what we needed. Kevin, however, had received a message more like “stay to be tourists,” and it was news to him that we wanted to learn about his business. We all made the best of it, however, and Kevin was very accommodating, letting us interview him and suggesting establishments to visit. In the end, I enjoyed the freedom that we had and loved being able to set up my own interviews. We chatted with locals who depend on tourism for income, and in between interviews found plenty of time to lounge on the beach and enjoy the Arabian Sea. Here’s a bit of what I wrote in my journal before leaving Bogmalo on Oct. 15…
* * *
Yesterday was an incredible day, and this morning I’m writing on the beach, so today is incredible too.
When I stopped by to chat with “Maggie” yesterday, there was a lady from the US Navy in the shop, I talked with her for a bit and then she asked me if I live here. It made me smile because their ship has been in Goa for longer than we have, and I think the fact that she thought I live here shows I’ve done an ok job of not being 100% tourist.
After talking to some of the shop owners and locals, I actually do feel somewhat attached to Bogmalo. The variety of opinions/points of view we’ve heard has really surprised me. Kevin says that the tight knit community is what has protected this village (for the most part) from the negative affects of tourism. I went to the shop keepers hoping to hear that they feel like hteir neighbors protect them, but that wasn’t the case with either of them. They said they’re alone, that they can’t count on anybody to help them in difficult times. I asked both women about self help groups, and the concept was completely new to them. I described the process from what I could remember of PAM, and both of them reacted the same way; their eyes got big as I told them how we would pool our money, and maybe today ‘Mary’ needs some extra help, so we provide that for her knowing that in the future, Mary will help one of us. It helped them to imagine the concept when I spoke in terms of “we” as though I were in the group as well. They both seemed like they would be open to such a group, and it broke my heart that I couldn’t tell them where to start…
* * *
After leaving Bogmalo, we met up with the rest of our group in Panaji where we stayed for the rest of the week. The rest of our time in Goa was spent sharing what we had learned during our home-stays, supplemented with more visits to NGOs and affected areas related to each of our topics as well as guest lecturers.
By the time Friday rolled around, everybody was ready to get on the train and head home. That we did, and we moved steadily along the tracks for about an hour. Then we stopped at a station; people got on and others got off, which is normal, but then, the train just sat there. And sat there. After a couple of hours we found out that a train somewhere ahead of us had derailed and there were six km of trains backed up. Our train probably wasn’t going to be going anywhere all night, and even if it did, we had already missed our connection to Bangalore. So, after four hours on the train, we decided to spend the night in Margoa, a whopping 30 km from where we had started.
The next day we explored the city and took advantage of the opportunity to walk along the beach one last time while Nazar tried to figure out a way to get us home. It turned out there were no trains to Bangalore that day, and the only way to get home was the beloved 1.5-decker bus. By that time I was a little calmer about the first bus ride, and I decided even though Goa was beautiful and I loved it, it would be ridiculous to spend the rest of my life there instead of toughing out a 20 hour bus. The ride back to Bangalore was smoother than the first because we were in a newer model, and most of us got smart and opted for the lower “whole” deck.
They say that after traveling India, you can do anything. I’m starting to understand why.
We got back to Visthar on Sunday morning and had a few more lectures this week. We all spent most of the week writing out papers, which are due today before we leave for fall break. You can expect to see my paper posted here after I get some feedback.
A number of us are going to Thailand for fall break. We fly out of Bangalore late tonight and are spending our first couple of days in Bangkok. From there, we hope to get to the beach for a couple of days, but we’ll just see what fun adventures come our way.
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