Globalization in Goa

---

My experience in Goa, an international and domestic vacation destination, was definitely an adventure. We arrived in Goa after a 20 hour over night bus ride where I probably slept an accumulated 2 or 3 hours. You see, I was afraid of falling out of bed, and it is difficult to fall asleep when you are fearful. I was "sleeping" in what was essentially a bunk bed with the girth of a single bed, but for two people. The motor was ridiculously in need of a muffler and the road might as well have not been paved because it was excessively potholey. Did I mention the cold? I had to wear a sweatshirt at night because I was cold, and in the morning it was so hot and we were already sticky from being cooped up in the bus all night. Oh, and one more thing, one of our three pit stops throughout the night was on the side of the road. Yep, we squatted in the brush when we couldn't even see our feet because of the dark.

Goa, which became a state along the west coast in 1987, was infiltrated by the Portuguese in 1510 and to this day about 2-3% of Goans speak Portuguese and 35% are Catholic (less then 5% of the Indian population is Christian). Believe it or not, many people we met would not believe that we are students and not tourists. We studied globalization, but mainly only the global capitalism aspect. For the first weekend we split up into groups and studied topics a bit more in-depth. My group studied fisher people. We stayed in a small motel less then 200 meters from the Arabian sea. It was so neat! When we walked down to the water, to the left was touristy bars and restaurants, but to the right were traditional fishing boats pulled up on the sand in front of small fishing huts covered in banana or palm leaves. We talked to traditional, small mechanized, and big trolley fishermen. My favorite part was waking up at 6:00am and walking down to the water where the fishermen were starting to bring their catch in. The sun was just starting to rise and it was absolutely gorgeous.

Now I've been back at Visthar for a week. Today on the way to breakfast I noticed a rooster crowing and a few feet down the path I saw him hanging out with a chicken. I don't know who they are or where they came from. So that's fun. There are also lot of bats. We see them flying around at night in particular and one night someone left a couple ceiling fans on in the large open-walled hall on the top floor of our block. In the morning when I went up to do yoga I found a couple dead bats. They are creepy little buggers. I have also seen a toad hopping around our second floor on three separate occasions. I think he is really good with stairs.

Tonight 10 other students and I leave for Bangkok, Thailand. We're mostly going to stick in Bangkok and stay at hostels, but a few of us are planning on checking out a backpacking island close by, too. I am so excited to eat sticky rice and pad thai and all that good stuff. I got some good advice from a couple of friends who have/do live in Bangkok. I will try to take lots of pictures and do a good job of reporting my adventures.

Happy early halloween!

---

Photos

Cow on beach
There are cows everywhere in India, especially in villages, and they roam freely--even on the beach!

Crab in garlic sauce with aromatic spices
Emily and I both ordered delicious stuffed crab and we had a puppet show when we were done eating.

Please Keep This Area Clean, Thank You!
There is garbage like this everywhere, even in Bangalore. Waste is a huge problem; we hardly ever see garbage cans.

Fishermen
These fishermen are cleaning their nets at 6:30am after bringing their catch to shore and hauling their traditional fishing boat (not mechanized) up onto the beach.

Organizing the catch
Men catch the fish while women do the more tedious tasks and sell the fish at market. This was the only woman down at the beach in the morning and I thought she looked kind of distinguished.