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Published: April 2nd 2007
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It is now the end of our time in India and as such many things have been going around in my head. I have been asked by loving parents and friends, “so what have you learnt?” “did you find what you were looking for there?” many times over the last week.
My answer to them is, truly, I don’t know. Not just because I never really had a clear idea of what I was looking for, or if I was looking for anything, but also because I feel as if I haven’t digested any of that learning yet. Much like the sacred cow, I feel as if I have been stuffing my “India” stomach, filling and filling it for the past twelve weeks, without even initial digestion. Now this stomach is so full to the brim that it’s giving me a bit of heart burn, and I feel like I need to start digesting it soon or I will loose it all.
The problem is that I don’t think I can do that while still in India. I need to get out, get away and start pulling apart the strands in order to learn the lessons hidden in
them. Some things have been discussed along the way and small idiosyncrasies have been joked about, but the big stuff, the big lessons one learns about oneself from traveling, that stuff feels totally untouched. It is still sitting in my subconscious, softening and turning and mixing until I am able to re-chew it all and get the true nutrients from it.
I was asked many times and by almost everyone, before leaving, “why India?”. My answer was mostly the same, “I don’t know, I have just always wanted to go”. This desire was from many things: from the food to the clothing, the landscape to the culture, but I never had a specific goal in mind.
Some people come to learn Yoga or meditation. I took a yoga class and it changed my thinking greatly, but that wasn’t my goal. Some people come for the culture, to find faith or to learn from other faiths. That was not my goal. Some people come for the challenge, to “have done India” and survived it. That was not my goal.
I still can’t tell you why I wanted to come to India, except that, well, I just did. I
am glad that I have come and am sure that I have learnt a lot and have changed a great deal as well, but until I can remove myself and spend some time exploring it all, I can’t say what, exactly, I have learnt.
Over the past few days I have been going back over our blogs, almost thirty of them (yayyy us!), to make an attempt at remembering everything we have seen and experienced. As a special treat I have uploaded even more pictures to most of the blogs, so that to can go back and look at those if you wish. This has helped me to remember many things, but more than that, it has pointed out gaping holes in our memories. One of the most important experiences for both of us was when we went to the Asha Deep Street Child rescue, in Panjim, and spent the day playing with the kids. We both agreed that it was one of the best days of the trip, but I didn’t find it mentioned anywhere in any of our blogs. I have put up pictures of that day on this blog and am hoping to start a pen
pal relationship with Asha Deep and a day care at home when I return (maybe Spare Time?).
I made a big fuss about Madekeri, and to be fair, the area outside of the town was truly beautiful. The Mojo Plantation retreat in the rainforest was excellent. The cottages were buried in the woods and the food was plentiful. The plantation eco walk with owner Sujata was so interesting, and hopefully both she and her partner Anurag will come to visit us in BC this summer. I have warned them that the salmon bbq will most likely include much talk and environmental issues in both places. To read more on them check out www.rainforestours.com
During our visit to the retreat, Carlie spotted and rescued a little puppy, later christened Hemingway, in a ditch coming back from lunch. He stayed with us for the night, getting a bath, special gruel, water and snuggles, plus lots of cooing over by all the other visitors. The next day, on advice from Sujata, we took little Hemingway into town, got him flea meds and then Carlie talked a young convent schoolteacher (helped by some of her students) into taking him home.
These
are just two examples of missed topics, but they have both been centre points of our trip and we have totally forgotten to mention them. Since Madekeri, we have spent time in Mangalore and Gokarna. Mangalore won us over by having a lovely, air conditioned movie theatre and shopping mall. We spent the better part or two days there, buying some new, none-traveler clothes, eating at amazingly cheap Pizza Hut (with a big bell you ring on the way out if you had a good time) and drinking really fancy cold coffee drinks. Gokarna didn't win us over however and after only one night in our high security bunker of a beach hut, we escaped to the calm of Goa.
So here I am, on the first day of my alone time in Palolem. I have the next five days to relax into my thoughts, read and swim, while Carlie frolics in beautiful Kuala Lumpur. Then we spend a night at the luxurious Royal Meridian (gracias papa!) and head to Thailand for, hopefully, the three wonderful final weeks of our trip. I will leave you for now but I most likely will be back to chat later, when other
forgotten experiences swim to the surface and yell at me for recognition.
xoxo
Sarah
p.s. I was so excited to use quagmire, it's one of my favorite words!
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Sarah and Carlie
Sarah and Carlie
On my way
Hi Sarah, Quagmire reminds me of the creepy guy from Family Guy. So fitting in so many ways. I'm in an internet cafe at Mumbai International paying (gasp!) rs.80 per hour! Hope the separation anxiety hasn't set in yet. Xo