I'm in India!

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Vanakkam everyone!

I am finally in Madurai! After a very grueling three days of travel (minus the time change, but still a very long time) we arrived in Thanjavore where we stayed at a hotel and had a weeklong orientation. It was very nice there. Lots of mildly spicy food, and a nice breeze which came off the river (a river infested with sinkholes, crocodiles, and toxic chemicals, I might add). I like everyone on my group, we get along very well, and everyone seems very committed to cultural integration and awareness. We have been in Madurai for a few days now, and moved in with our host families the day before yesterday.

My host family is mother, father, and two daughters, Preethi who is in her second year in Engineering school, and Babloo (that's a nickname for Deepthi) who is in tenth grade. The father owns an Optical store selling eyeglasses and contact lenses, and the mother has her own art gallery and she sells tupperware. They have a very nice house in a quiet neighborhood. It is one-story, light and airy on the inside. They have a little room just for pujas, and since the mother is an artist, it is full of her devotional paintings. I have a room on the roof with my own bathroom! It is fairly cool up there (meaning, it is 90 degrees F when I wake up, but it basically stays there throughout the day), and I haven't had any mosquito infestations yet, which is good since I don't have a mosquito net. Apparently malaria mosquitoes aren't a big deal in Madurai, which means most of us blew a lot of money on a drug we didn't need. But it's always better to be safe than sorry! In the evenings they watch Tamil soaps or American movies. Watching TV is a big thing here, most people's host families eat in front of the television.

When I arrived at the house, the mother was away in Agra. She is really a Tupperware distributor (so she's the boss of the people who have the parties!) and has just been awarded the distinction of #1 Tupperware distributor in all of India. In a country of over a billion people, I think this is very impressive! So there are a lot of tupperware products all over the house. If anyone has American tupperware catalogs, please send them! This is her first request for things from the states. (Babloo's is peanut butter. Lots of it.) Anyway, the father was sick and had lost his voice, so even though both daughters were very nice, it was still kind of a tense environment. I was worried about the mother arriving, but when they drove up she jumped out of the car "Leah!!!!!" and gave me a big hug, all smiles, made me feel very comfortable and at home. The house is much nicer now she is here.

They also have a live-in servant and cook. She is an excellent cook but this relationship is definitely an adjustment. She doesn't speak any English, so whenever I thank her, which I do profusely to make up for my own sense of guilt about not washing my own dishes! she answers with, "It's OK." Then today she told me that my pants were "super." So I guess that's a word I should use to tell her how I feel about her cooking.

Speaking of food, it is all very good! Rice and lots of it at every meal, although sometimes it's disguised as a crepe, a cream-of-wheat-like substance, or a patty. Then there are liquid-y dishes with veggies in them (sambar and rasam), chutneys, thicker dishes usually with potato, and if I'm lucky, curd (which is like sour cream and is great for cooling a burning mouth). It's spicy, but so far nothing has been unmanageable. I'm learning to just stop eating for a second and let the overwhelming spice sensation settle a little. It's kind of like working through muscle pain, haha. Almost everyone else on the trip has gotten sick, but I am still healthy! Hopefully it will stay this way. I always thought I would be the first to be sick but so far my stomach has more than proven its worth. Also eating with your hand is very fun!

These days I am also wearing a salwar kameez, which is a long shirt which reaches to your knees, the biggest pants you've ever seen, and a scarf. Honestly I do find it to be a hotter garment than just wearing a skirt and a t-shirt, which would cover the same area, but it's worth it to 'fit in' as much as possible. The stares are incessant anyway. At least they carry slightly more respect this way! It's also different to wear such glittery, even gaudy clothes. I like the bright colors but I just bought a suit (that's what they often call the whole outfit) that I think I will cut some of the jewels off of. It's a little overwhelming.

Anyway, here is my address:

SITA Center
34-B, H.A.K. Road
Chinnachokkikulam
Madurai 625002, Tamil Nadu
India


All mail will come to me at the center where I take all of my classes. Letters are fine as they are. If any of you do send anything like a package, the trick to it getting here is to disguise it. Make it look ugly, make the box look dinged up, stuff it in something old or nasty looking, or something they might find disgusting - like a carton for toilet paper or diapers or something. The big problem with the post isn't that it won't arrive, it's that it'll get opened up at the post office and things will be stolen if they look nice or expensive. Sometimes things will get robbed anyway! And I'm sure sometimes everything will be fine. You never know.

Alright, I have to go to my politics class. This afternoon I'm getting my bicycle, which I am excited about. However, I am NOT excited about being in Indian traffic. It is crazy!!! I've seen maybe one traffic light in Madurai so far. No one stops for anything, and auto-rickshaws, bikes, scooters, and pedestrians are all mixed in with each other. Your best bet for getting across the street is to cross at a speed bump, that's the only time anyone will slow down in the slightest. Otherwise, you run and try not to trip. Of course the traffic is on the opposite side from at home, and I'm positively terrified about turning right on my bicycle. I'm going to have to tie up my scarf or something because I can definitely envision an Isadora Duncan-like fate if I am not careful.

Sorry to end on such a dire note. Really, traffic can be fun, if you pretend you're in a video game, and thus no one can get hurt. Now I've got to run.

Much love to all!

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