orcha and the train

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Well, today has been a bit of a slow day, if you can’t tell from the fact that I’m now writing my second lengthy entry of the day. I spent most of the morning waiting for Rachna to get in so that I could ask her about what I should be doing. Unfortunately at around the same time that she came in, I had already decided to call Masaum and see if he couldn’t take me to go register with the government. So at 2pm he came and we commenced that particularly thrilling journey.

Indian bureaucracy is an interesting thing. It involved making the most number of photocopies known to human existence, and I’m quite sure that each of said copies are never actually filed away, but are indeed documented as being received and then thrown on top of the old documents. I have a theory that if India was to recycle all the duplicate copies of documents it has we could continue to reuse that paper and save the rainforest. I guess that it’s the lack of computerized systems, but dear god, I had to photocopy one form five times and another form twice before handing them all in, each with a passport photo attached to them. The whole process took about forty-five minutes, during which time I had to leave to make more copies because, guess who didn’t bring enough?! (That would be me). Anyway, at the end of all of this, just I was thinking how glad I was to be rid of this particular branch of the government, when I was handed a letter, told to have it signed by the local police and then bring it back for the completion of my file. And guess what? There is more paperwork to follow. Totally and completely absurd, the whole thing.

Anyway, when I came back to the clinic we made plans to go and see the new Harry Potter movie, which Masaum had seen the night before. He confirmed that no, it didn’t have any English subtitles, so we would be watching in Hindi, but I figured that getting it on the big screen in a different language was better than not at all… besides, the movies here will be an adventure, like everything else.

But I digress into the days goings on. Where I should really begin is Saturday, because we went to Orcha, a small town a few hours away from Bhopal. We left Saturday afternoon, right after I came back from the gas/water affected communities, so we were a bit rushed. Masaum, who I sometimes feel has the unfortunate job of babysitting us, took us to the train station to make sure that we were on the right train. As many of you know, I always set my watch a few minutes ahead of the real time, in order to be on time for appointments. Although I know that there is absolutely no point in doing this here in India, old habits die hard, and I was convinced that we were cutting it far too close for the train and that we were certain to get left behind. Casey had also set her watch ahead, so the two of us were tearing ahead of everyone else and dashing to the right car of the train with Masaum. The others caught up a few minutes later wondering why the hell we had been running… at any rate, we made it there just fine. We had to take a train to Jonsi (that is an entirely phonetic spelling), and then a rickshaw to Orcha, because it doesn’t have its own train station. The train station in Jonsi was totally packed with people, and it is obviously some sort of junction because there are a million tracks, but the town is smaller than Bhopal by far (or at least I think it is). But we made it to the rickshaws, and proceeded to have the bumpiest ride of all time down a dirt road before ending up at our hotel in Orcha.

I should mention that we stayed at a place called the Sheesh Mahal, which is an ancient palace that has been partially restored into a fairly shwank (especially by Indian standards) hotel. It actually reminded me a bit of the place we stayed in Havana over Christmas last year, but not quite to that shwank factor yet. It has a bit of faded glory that I think comes with the territory of being a hotel in a developing country. But check out the photos, and you’ll see what I mean, because it is really nice – especially the spectacular view over the whole town. From one direction you look out over miles of forest, and from the other, you can see the entire town of Orcha and all of the other ancient ruins of temples, burial grounds and whatnot. It also had hot water, which we do not have here at the clinic. So you can see why I was impressed. The food was so-so, but we were entertained by live music and dance (who we later decided was a man in drag, but she had a duppta over her face so we couldn’t really tell).

We had an early night of it, and slept in air-conditioned bliss. Although both Casey, who I was sharing a room with, and myself found that we kept waking up in the middle of the night. My theory is that we were just too comfortable on our soft beds and in the cool, non-humid air, to sleep. Hahaha! At any rate, we both woke up early in order to meet two other girls downstairs for breakfast. Completely by coincidence, we had run into two girls traveling around India at our hotel the evening before. It turns out that they both go to Stanford, where Anisha, Joe and Casey all go to school, and Casey actually know both of them by sight if not name! So we had breakfast with them and the rest of our group, and then headed out to check out the rest or the palace. It turned out that only a small portion had been converted into a hotel, and that the vast majority of the palace was still in a state of total disrepair. It seemed that the MP tourist board (who owns the hotel) had gotten as far as repairing things like stairs, so that you could climb around to the different levels of the palace, but that was about it. A lot of it seemed to be gradually crumbling away, despite some rather abandoned looking efforts to preserve it. Joe noted that the entire of India appears to be constantly undergoing some sort or repair at all times, which I think is certainly true.

After that we went into the town and found the gigantic temple, which was equally as high as the palace/hotel. The funny thing about the temple was that once you climbed about a million stairs up to the top and you were inside this absolutely massive dome thing, the actually part where you go to pray was about a ten by ten space carved out of the wall! I almost couldn’t believe it! This huge building, and then the spot to worship was so tiny. Anyway, the inside of the temple was a little underwhelming, so after watching a bunch of swallows swoop in and out chasing each other for a while, we went back outside. It was already starting to get really hot out, and it was only about 11am. We went back to the hotel to check out, and then I decided that I needed to just hang out for a little while. So I found a cool spot in one of the old palace buildings and waited with Genevieve and Juliet for the others to finish exploring. While we waiting we attracted the attention of the friendliest street mutt I have yet to encounter (which despite my protestations, Juliet let lick her hand), a small Indian girl who may or may not have been begging, and a group of three or four leering young men who stared so hard at us that you would think that their eyes might pop out of their heads. I wished that I could remember the phrase that Mel used that means "Do you stare at your mother like that?"...

When we finally left I gave the men a nasty look, which was completely ignored on their part, and then walked along the river to another temple thingie. In the photos, this is the one with the vultures living in it. I’ll have to get Dan so send me Photoshop though, because you can barely see them with my weak zoom lens, but they were huge birds and they kept swooping around all over the place, and at first we thought that they were some sort of hawk.

After that the heat of the day really got to me and I just went into a shop for about half an hour and looked at a bunch of different things. I ended up getting this little wall covering thing with two elephants embroidered onto it. After that everyone who had split up regrouped for dinner at a local place, which was better than the hotel for food, but not spectacular. After that we decided to wait in the hotel lobby until it was time for our ten o’clock train. It was really hot out the entire day, so the hotel was about the coolest place we could find to sit, even thought it wasn’t AC, but at least they had a bunch of fans.

We made the bumpy ride back to the train station with time to spare, because we were worried about how long the drive would take after dark (the answer to that is actually less time, not more because there’s no traffic on the roads). So we were stuck waiting at the train station for about an hour. That hour got me more than comfortably acquainted with India’s rail system. It became obvious why there are so many different classes of tickets that you can buy, because there are noticeable differences in the way the cars are set up. The cheapest ticket you can buy does not guarantee you a seat. There are some wooden benches on the inside of the cars, and the windows are just metal slats, which, at stations, people stick their arms out of so that they can have their water bottles filled by these huge hoses that are set up next to the track. Some of the more crowded cars just had people hanging off of the doors to stay on. To be quite honest, a childhood of holocaust books made the whole scene uncomfortable in an acute way, since these cars looked just a bit too much like cattle cars. The station itself brought a whole new meaning to the word "dirt". There were people, entire families, everywhere just sleeping on the platform, who set up cam outside the station and were cooking and snoring away. Rats fought over the piles of garbage that people throw out of the windows of the train, and stray dogs and cows rummaged around on the tracks for things to eat. The entire station absolutely reeked of urine.

When our own train finally did arrive, it was about half an hour late and about thirty cars long. We had to run past all of the other cars to get to ours, which was three-tier sleeper AC. I was worried that the train was going to take off while we were running down the platform, but we finally found the right car and hopped on…only to discover that there were no free bunks, save a few which we were told were taken by the two men sitting up in them. We found someone who worked on the train, who promptly told us that we were on the waiting list, and that we didn’t have seats. Ack! Panic!! There was NO WAY I was going to spend the night in the hot, crowded, filthy train station in Jansi, so I decided that no matter what, we would just refuse to get off the train, and pay whatever bribes were necessary… We were told by the rail employee to go and sit in two-tier sleeper AC (actually a step up in price and comfort), to wait for the ticket collector to sort us out. We were worried that they were going to throw us all off the train despite the fact that we had all paid in full for our seats. When the conductor came by, he told us that two of us were not on the waiting list, and had seats in three-tier, and that the other three were on the waiting list. So the three on the waiting list would have to pay and extra Rs. 200 in order t stay in the nicer car. Whether this was a bribe or not, I can’t say, I’m just glad that we didn’t get stuck in Jansi!!! Casey and I went back to the empty bunks that the men had claimed were theirs (and were actually ours) and had a fairly restful trip. It’s actually quite nice to be able to lie down on the train and sleep on and off.

We arrived back in Bhopal at about 3am, and took rickshaws down the deserted streets back to Sambhavna. I’ve never (and probably never will again) seen the streets in Bhopal so deserted. The shops are open ‘till about ten here, so there are always people out and about, long after things are quiet in North America (with the exception of bars that is, because there are none here). It was a funny feeling of relief at being back at Sambhavna though, because it really did feel like getting back home after a long day. So I think that is good… at any rate, its now 8:30pm, and I’d like to post this before dinner.

rashida bee and a following

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Monday July 30, 2007

Well, this morning was a tired morning. We didn’t get back from Orcha until after three last night, and I woke up at seven-thirty like clockwork anyway. I wonder if that it part of getting older. Anyway, I will tell you all about Orcha soon enough, but first I wanted to mention meeting Rashida Bee, and going out into the communities with the other volunteers to do a survey.

Friday afternoon Masaum had caught a cold from wandering around in wet clothes through the factory all the evening before, so he wans’t up to driving me around and getting my registration taken care of for me. Instead some of the other volunteers were going to New Market to do some shopping, so I decided to do that as well. We went back to the store that I got my pants from and also to the bookstore to get Harry Potter (for yours truly of course!). I was surprised at how well I knew my way around, even though I had only been there a couple of times before. It felt good to actually have a sense of where things are… I think that it added a little order to my world ☺.

When we came back from our little shopping excursion, some of the other volunteers were going to the old Sambhavna building that was used before this one was built to interview this woman activist Rashida Bee. Rashida Bee has started the Chenghari (sp?) trust up with the money that she got for an international award. The trust deals with people that have been severely affected by the gas disaster and water contamination, and then mostly children and women. There have been a lot of kids born with birth defects because their mothers were drinking contaminated water while they were pregnant. The trust tries to find specialists that will do surgeries for them for free, and tries to find special schools that will take the kids with mental disabilities.

Anyway, two of the girls were doing a radio piece about the disaster, so they were interviewing her about that. The other two girls were interviewing here about international activism because she has become such an international figure in the movement. I of course was just there to tag along and take photos. As soon as Aanya introduced me though, Rashida Bee said that it would be great if I could come and do a creative photography project about the kids that Chenghari trust, so that made me feel good. Not having much to do around here is still driving me a little crazy, so it made me feel a lot more useful. Rashida Bee, who I had heard about back in Canada, was really wonderful and warm and open. She just seemed so genuine and welcoming that it seemed like that might be a place that I could really do some work, even though she doesn’t speak any English! You can check out more about her at http://www.goldmanprize.org/node/83.

On Saturday morning I decided that I would go with Anisha and Casey out to the “basties” (I’m not sure of the spelling, but it means communities) that were affected by the gas and water contamination. They are helping with a study that the clinic is doing about whether these women are experiencing premature menopause as a result of the gas/water. I didn’t really do anything but watch, because the community workers are going through the actual surveys with the women in Hindi. But it was really interesting to see all of the different homes that people live in. At one point we went into a part of the neighbourhood that Casey and Anisha hadn’t been to yet, and all of the kids started following us around hardcore! At one point there must have been thirty of them just walking with us where ever we went. When we went into one of the houses to watch an interview, all these kids came in with us!!! The father kept shooing everyone out, but they’d just wander back in five minutes later! It was insane. Luckily Casey and I had to leave to catch our train at that point, so we left the interviewers in peace! I couldn’t help but be a little shocked at the lack of privacy though… I guess curiosity over the white people was just too overwhelming!

Next: Orcha!

union carbide and a motorcycle

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Well, today is the first day that I can officially say that I had a really good day. I woke up this morning without the joint and muscle aches of the flu that I felt yesterday, and my stomach was only a little bit upset too! Joe had gone to the corner store, which sells fresh egg, so I got to have a breakfast of scrambled eggs, and no spice. Then I did a load of laundry and went downstairs to play with the kids for a little while, which was fun. We were playing musical chairs with my Ipod, which each of the kids wanted to have control over. Mac doesn’t seem to have a very big presence here in India, but they knew how to start and stop the songs, so each of the kids wanted to be in charge of doing that. I decided that this was a recipe for my expensive device to get broken, so we compromised by me holding onto the Ipod and letting one kid at a time push the button.

Masaum came at noon to start running some of the plethora of errands that I had to run. Mainly I have to register with the collectorate because I am here for longer than six months at a time. I’m not sure if that is a safeguard against me staying here past my welcome or against me getting abducted into India society, but it does seem slightly strange to me. Some of the other volunteers also wanted to go and see the abandoned Union Carbide factory site, which is just lying in decay and disrepair. You have to go and get permission from some branch of the government to do that as well, so I was delegated organizer of that particular activity as well. The other item on the agenda was to go and get a couple of pairs of pants! So I an around collecting passports for photocopies and other documentation, and then set off with Masaum. On his motorcycle.

I should mention that everyone in India drives motorcycles. They outnumber cars on the street about twenty-to-one by the looks of it, and I’m sure that you can see in my photos how large and awkward cars are on small Indian streets. Absolutely no one wears helmets, neither driver’s nor passengers, although I have noticed that they sell them at every street corner stand, especially in Delhi. Maybe they’re crappy quality anyway… at any rate, this was my first motorcycle ride ever, so I told Masaum that, and told him not to drive too fast because I would get scared and fall off. He’s a good driver though, and by Indian standards, I would say that he’s fairly cautious too. I have to wonder what people here thought of this skinny little guy zipping around town with a white-knuckled white girl clinging to his shoulders (no one here holds on to the drivers, you see women in saris sitting side-saddle, talking on cell phones and looking generally bored with the whole experience).

I didn’t have long to get used to it though, because not ten blocks outside of Qazi camp Masaum’s motorcycle got a flat tire and we had to stop. I put some more minutes on my cell phone while we waited, and then we went back to Sambhavna so that I could get some more money for pants shopping. So we were off once again! After I got used to the initial shock of the whole thing it was actually quite fun. It was really nice to be out and about it the city, particularly with someone who knows it well. So I ended up having a really good time just zipping around doing errands.

First we went to get the permissions to visit the Union Carbide factory. It was in this decrepit old building where the biggest line-up was at the photocopy place (Indian bureaucracy loves multiple copies of everything, and luckily Masaum knew to stop at on of the many roadside vendors that make dingy, barely legible photocopies, so we already had two copies of each of our passports and visas ready to hand in). There was a dank and filthy room full of men crowded around one heavy-looking desk, each of whom stared at me like I was crazy and most certainly in the wrong place when I came into the room. I said “I’m here to get permission to go to the Union Carbide factory”. There was a few minutes of silence and then one yelled at me “Union Carbide permissions, hanh?”. We were told to come back between three and five o’clock to pick up our letter of permission.

Next Masaum and I went further down the same row of dingy buildings in order for me to register as a foreigner. We were directed into yet another dank dingy room with swirling ceiling fans, and a man wearing sunglasses told me in heavily-accented, rapid English which documents I would need. As the list grew, I stopped him and got out a piece of paper so that I could write it all down; in addition to eight passport photos, a letter from Sathyu conforming that I am staying at Sambhavna, and copies of my passport and visa, I was also told to make duplicated copies of everything. Phew… the funny thing was that the two people sitting at the desk in front of me remembered Diana and Jennifer, the two CIDA interns that were here last year. I guess there aren’t that many foreigners registering with the police in Bhopal!

After that Masaum took me to the first North American-style store that I have seen since getting to India. It was four floors high and very air-conditioned. They had mostly more western-style clothes, but I ended up buying what I would consider to be somewhat Arabic pants in both black and brown. Both pairs of pants cost me about Rs. 880, the equivalent to about $23 CND.

After that we decided to head back to Sambhavna to wait for our letter of permission to be ready, which we did t about 4:30pm. However, you know how I mentioned that I had been rather miffed that it hadn’t rained at all while I’ve been here? And it’s supposed to be monsoon season? Well, on our way back, the grey skies that had been progressively turning darker opened up on us. Luckily we were almost back at Sambhavna so only my shirt got really wet. At any rate, we got our permissions letter and then came to pick up all of the others going on the factory visit.

The factory is only about a fifteen minute walk away from Sambhavna, and that’s even in Indian traffic, so that’s pretty close. It was raining pretty steadily by the time we got there, so we were already pretty wet. The grounds are all enclosed so that people can’t get in, but that doesn’t stop the cows, goats and other wildlife feasting on the greenery inside the grounds. It was a little more than worrisome to see that, because the grounds of the factory are especially contaminated with the waste leeching into the groundwater, so I’m sure that all of the plant life in there is contaminated, too. However, we stopped at the dingy little guard booth and showed them our paperwork. After some deliberation, the guards told us that we were too late for today. Unfortunately we would have to go through the entire process with the paperwork all over again if we came back tomorrow. We waited under the narrow awning of the building that the men were in for a while for the rain to let up a bit, and eventually Masaun indicated that they wanted money if they were going to let us in. So we agreed to pay then Rs. 200 on the condition that they let Masaum in with us, even though he wasn’t on the letter that we had got from the collectorate, and they seemed satisfied with that.

The factory itself is really quite a strange place. It is certainly the most quiet and still place in all of Bhopal, because it is the biggest piece of land that no one is allowed to go into. The still and calmness of the place makes it feels like some sort of sacred ground or something. I guess in a way it is, because it is the cause of so many deaths. The strange thing is that it is absolutely lush and green everywhere, with picturesque little flowers and greenery bursting from everywhere. The rusting old machinery seems incongruous with the rest of the setting. Masuam had been to the factory four times before this, and was a good tour guide, pointing out where the half-full tanks of MIC were buried, and where the breaking point in the pipes was that the gas leaked out of. You can look at the photos for a better idea of what it all looked like. But one quick aside, mother nature seemed totally intent on re-claiming this land, and there was a ton wildlife in here. There was this stray dog that was kind of following us from afar, and because the air was so still, and the dog was so quiet, it really seemed like the dog was kind of watching over us or something. And then at this one point, when we were all standing underneath some huge machinery we heard this great flapping noise. We all looked up and saw this enormous white blur flapping not ten feet overhead and out from under the machinery – it was an owl! Anyway, I just liked that even though the water is still poisoned in there and that the grounds are so contaminated with toxins, nature is still trying hard to take back that piece of land.

Its now Monday morning for me, and I have been out of town for the weekend, so this is a little bit out-dated. Hopefully over the course of the day I will have the chance to update the old blog about the weekend adventures:)

boring days and sleepless nights

Well, yesterday, after deciding that I need to get out of the compound some more and explore the city a little bit I was hit with a really nasty cold. I had the one-nostril breathing going on, and in my attempt to prepare for the diarrhea and yeast infections I never thought to bring some nasal spray!! So I went to sleep at about 9pm without any diner last night, too exhausted from the day to eat anything – especially spicy! I woke up at about midnight and decided that I needed to take my anti-malarials, and went promptly back to sleep….until a few hours later, when the dreaded shits took hold of me. So I was up half the night on the toilet, trying hard not to feel terrible. When I woke up this morning, I felt even worse, so I basically spent the entire day in bed, save the few hours I took to phone my mom and dad for some parental sympathy. Anisha gave me some Tylenol, which didn’t help the stomach problems, but it did help the aches and pains in each and every joint in my body.

So about half an hour ago, I decided it was time to get out of bed for a little while, and try to answer some emails. And wouldn’t you know it, but the sky had clouded over and it looked like it was about to start pouring rain! Hallelujah! All I can say at this point it that it had better rain hard enough to actually cool things off a bit, or at the very least it had better continue to rain for a few days so I can get out of the goddamn sun. Those of you who know me know that I don’t particularly like the sun, especially when it’s hot. Give me some good old-fashioned British mist any day of the week and I’m happy. I can only hope that that is what is in store for me for the next month until the weather start to cool down!

As for Tuesday, I spent most of the day farting around with very little to do, which is becoming increasingly annoying and frustrating. I think that I dread the days because I feel as though I should be doing something productive here at the clinic but have nothing really to do. The original idea for my internship was that I would be able to do focus groups with women about health (specifically reproductive health) as it is a subject that is still quite taboo in conservative Bhopal. However, because my Hindi is far from what I would call fluent, Sathyu suggested a different project for me. (Skip this if I’ve already griped about it, but I don’t think that I have.) His idea was that I would do research into skills and techniques that could then be disseminated to the community health outreach people (who are volunteers living in the gas-affected communities) via the professional community health outreach workers here at the clinic. Even though this seems somewhat far removed that what I had thought I would be doing, I still thought that it wasn’t a bad idea. The only thing is that there are two other volunteers here right now who are helping to conduct a study about premature menopause with the community health workers at the clinic, so they are busy with that right now. Tuesday morning I went to a meeting with all of them about the survey, which Sathyu had some criticisms about, in an attempt to insert myself into the workings. Unfortunately I don’t think that my evil plan was all that successful because Anisha and Sathyu just had to translate whatever was going on in the meeting for myself and Casey (the other volunteer). At any rate, I’m hoping that eventually I could go out to some of the communities where they are doing the surveys, so perhaps tomorrow I’ll feel good enough to do that.

On Tuesday late in the afternoon I went to the Bhopal train station with Anisha, Joe and Casey to get our tickets to go out of town for the weekend. The train station was air conditioned (thank god, the only other place I've found that has a/c is the tiny little cubicle the ATM is in), so the trip was actually kind of fun. the traffic is starting to make me les nervous, and we always take one of two rickshaw drivers that hang around the outside of Qazi camp, and they both seem to go at a reasonable pace. This is for mom's benefit, because our neighbour in Toronto, Rena, has made her utterly paranoid about the taxi drivers here. Originally we were going to go to some erotic temple, but it turns out that despite being only 250Km away, it is about an eight hour drive. So we’re going somewhere else (don’t ask me because I can’t for the life of me remember). But I decided that it was time to stop moping around the clinic missing Dan, and go see some of the rest of the country. So hopefully my diarrhea will have subsided by then…

The photo project is on hold for the time being, as I think that it is going to take some time to get a group of kids that are mature enough to do it. Although they are all really sweet, a lot of the kids are totally undisciplined, making it hard to get them into a group for something like this. As per my mom's advice, I'm going to slowly infiltrate the group and pick out a few of the kids that I think would be able to handle it. I already have a few in mind!

Keep tuned for tomorrow's updates, as I have to go and register with the provincial police because I am here for longer than six months! Hopefully they don't give me a hard time. I'm going to get Masaum to take me, because he's so good about doing things like that.

sanchi and dinner

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Yesterday a group of us went to Sanchi, which, according to the Lonely Planet, is indeed an ancient Buddhist temple, about 45km outside of Bhopal. We got off to a rough start, because the private company we had called to take us out there the previous day didn’t show up at the scheduled 10am. After an hour of waiting and several unanswered calls to the office, we looked to Sathyu for help (who was at the clinic from 9am to 9pm despite the fact that this was Sunday, the one day the rest of the clinic takes off). He phoned a friend of his who runs a similar business of renting a car and driver for the day to come and get us. However, not five minutes after Sathyu’s friend confirmed, the original driver phoned to say he was waiting down the street. Apparently none of us were quite on “Indian Time” yet… in retrospect, we should have anticipated his late arrival, but I guess you learn these things. After a couple of awkward conversations with the dispatcher from the original driver we ended up taking Sathyu’s friend’s car instead.

Although we got stuck in major traffic at some train tracks, it was absolutely amazing to watch the various different neighbourhoods of Bhopal that we passed though on our way out. You can tell that the outskirts of the city is much poorer than the centre, because there wasn’t much other thank little shacks along the roadside. Each was selling something: live chickens, freshly slaughtered and fly-covered goats, bags, children’s clothes, bangles. Some of the littlest vendors only sell these tiny packets about the size of a condom wrapper that are filled with powdered candy not dissimilar to Fun Dip.

Right next to the train tracks was definitely the most desperate looking field of tiny shanties. I had thought that the community where Sambhavna was located was pretty dingy and grubby, but at least the homes around here have concrete or brick walls and floors. These homes were just row upon row of tents made from tarp, wire, plastic bags, leaves and whatever else these people could scrape together. There was certainly no running water or proper toilets of any kind in this neighbourhood, and the surrounding field looked as though it was slowly being buried in garbage from the homes. I wanted to take a picture of this, but didn’t feel that I could, so you’ll have to use your imaginations.

After we passed this particular area, the crowds thinned out almost immediately, and we were suddenly on a country road. Fields stretched for miles, and in the distance we could see these large flat hills looming. Even though it still has yet to rain since my arrival, the fields all looked a fairly lush shade of green that was really quite beautiful. I think that the nicest part of the while trip was the drive, with the wind whipping through the open windows, and without the massive and sickening amount of pollution in the air.

Every few kilometers we passed a little roadside town, with rough homes of precariously stacked red clay bricks. Men rode by on bicycles piled five feet high with sticks, and enormous Tata trucks rumbled by full of god-only-knows. Although the drive was a breath of fresh air compared to the city, the driving was about as terrifying. The road is only two lanes, and is dotted with slower-moving motorcycles, bikes, truck and the like. So every time our driver wanted to pass into the oncoming traffic, he would simple honk his horn at the vehicle we were passing and speed into the oncoming traffic. We were, of course traveling at about 90km/hour the entire time, even through the little roadside towns that had 20km max signs posted. After I got a little more used to the pace and the way the traffic moves it wasn’t so bad though.

Sanchi itself was beautiful. As foreigners we each had to pay Rs. 250 (about $5 CND), while Indian Nationals only have to pay Rs. 10. I guess its only fair because we make so much more money than they do. But it was worth it, because it was so peaceful and quiet, especially compared to the city. The site is on top of this gigantic hilltop, where you can see for miles around. You can take a look at the pictures I am posting, but the temple thing is basically these big round tub things that Anja (one of the volunteers) told me that the Buddha’s body is buried in. There are all these ancient ruins around the tubs on these nice green lawns (the first I’ve seen since I got here). It was blisteringly hot yesterday (as it promises to be today, too), so I spent a lot of time seeking shade and benches to rest on. As an aside, on the ride there we passed a sign that said “Line of Cancer,” so presumably we were in the tropic of Cancer…so close to the equator. Before we left Sanchi we sat on the grass and had a drink next to some tourists from China, who seemed to be attracting equally as much attention as the white people. Nice to know that its not just white people, but people of any different race at all attract celebrity-like attention from the locals. All in all it was quite restful though.

When we got back it was about 5pm, and we had made arrangements to go to this guy Salman’s house for dinner earlier in the week. Salman had a huge crush on Mel, but has been making friends with all of the volunteers at Sambhavna for a few years it looks like. The few short blocks to Salman's house were intense, because pretty much every kid in a five block ran our of their house to scream "DIDI HI!!! HI DIDI" at us. there must have been a crowd of about fifty kids by the time we actually reached Salman's house. Unfortunately the day in the heat at Sanchi had done me in, and I didn’t have much of n appetite by the time we were there, which I felt badly about because Salman's mother had made an absolutely enormous dinner. We of course had diner on Indian time, meaning we were told that we would eat at 7:30, and then 8:00, and then dinner was actually served shortly after 9:00pm. My appetite was not increased by the heat in Salman’s living room. It is basically a large concrete room with no windows that absolutely exudes the heat long after the sun has set… anyway, after what seemed to be an eternity of sitting and trying to make polite excuses for not wanting anything more to eat, we were served our chai, and then headed back to the clinic.

The mosquitoes were especially bad yesterday, so when I tried to go up to my perch and say good night to Dan I got eaten alive despite the generous application of Deet. Eventually I moved down into the conference room and lay on the cool concrete floor for the rest of the conversation.

It has taken me most of the day, albeit with many interruptions, to write this, so today’s adventures will have to wait until tomorrow.

loneliest in the morning

i'm beginning to understand why julie doiron was loneliest in the morning... at about 8:30am, when i am waking up everyone on the side of the planet that i hail from is just going to bed. i usually wake up and immediately call dan, so that i can get my last few minutes in with him before the "blackout" (thats what it feels like during the day, because i can't phone or talk to anyone back home, and the emails stop coming in). at any rate, i am going to leave for sanchi before long, so i am looking forward to that. i am also looking forward to having a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast (toast doesn't seem to be an option), since my trip to the market yesterday provided me with actualy bread and some other necessities!! more on that later though...

in the meantime, i want everyone to send me LOTS OF EMAILS in the meantime, so that when i wake up on monday morning i will not feel lonely, and i will have a small flood of emails to answer by evening my time!

speaking of food..

This morning the other McGill volunteer, Mel, was supposed to leave to go to Chennai. There was a mix up with her train ticket though, because the only time printed on the ticket was the time that it was issued at, and not the time that the train left the station. So her train actually left at 2am yesterday… After about an hour of talking to various domestic airlines and a travel agent or two, she was able to book a flight to Mumbai, and then another to Chennai. I suppose that I should take this as a warning not to be overly confident in my travel arrangements, as even what seems simple enough may not be. Not that I am planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

As it stands I have been patiently waiting all morning for Sathyu, the managing trustee of the clinic, to have a spare moment to talk to me about the work I am going to be doing here. I’m quite accustomed to this, because Shree, my boss at the MCRTW worked on a similar schedule (ie. no schedule, just very, very busy all of the time, so you have to wait until you can catch them), so normally this would not bother me at all. Unfortunately, because I am still somewhat homesick, I would really like something to do during the days that would distract me from my homesickness. Mostly I have been responding to e-mails and sitting up in my perch trying to keep cool.

Yesterday night all of the volunteers and a couple of the clinic staff went out for dinner in honor of Mel’s last night in town. We went to this place called Wind’n’Waves right next to the lake (yes, there is a lake in Bhopal, it just doesn’t happen to be anywhere near the clinic). The restaurant was this odd combination of shwank and fast food. The prices were pretty high, especially by Indian standards, but the décor was very spartan fast food colours. I still didn’t have much of an appetite, especially since we didn’t get our food until well past 9pm, but I did have some excellent naan. Some of the other volunteers had Kingfisher beer, but I was nervous that my stomach wouldn’t like that because I hadn’t been eating much, so I had a Limca instead. Although I did try the beer, and it was definitely one of the lightest beers I have ever had. After dinner we rode back to the clinic in two auto-rickshaws and a couple of the volunteers doubled with the staff on the back of their motorcycles – I can’t say that I participated in this myself. I’ve heard too many gruesome statistics about road accidents in developing countries, and the traffic is scary enough in the rickshaw.

This morning I woke up early in order to say goodbye to Mel, but quickly discovered that she wasn’t going anywhere until this evening. Consequently I have spent most of the day moping aimlessly around the clinic looking for things to entertain myself with. I think at this point I’m ready to watch a good old-fashioned movie (preferably not Bollywood at this point). I’ve been reading Friend Green Tomatoes before bed every night, and that has made me want to watch the movie. It has also made me absolutely crave southern food…which I am obviously not going to have for quite some time.

Speaking of food, there are a number of things that I would really enjoy right about now. I did manage to buy some weird toasted-bread type stuff (which is actually more like old toast with fruitcake stuff in it. Its actually kind of gross because its so hideously sweet) and peanut butter, which I had for breakfast this morning. I am seriously wishing that I had taken Diana’s advice about food though. Diana was one of the interns that was here for eight months last year, and she told me to bring some non-perishable food things that I wouldn’t be able to get over here. I had kept this in the back of my mind, but because I was so rushed by the time I left I never got around to going through the supermarket and buying things. At any rate, I’m seriously regretting this now, because there are a lot of things that I would love to have, like granola bars, Kraft Dinner, Vinta crackers and so on. Maybe mom and dad will read this and xpresspost me some food….

I am getting more accustomed to the food here though. The clinic has a canteen that makes breakfast and lunch everyday. Breakfast usually costs under Rs. 10 and lunch is free for the volunteers. In the evening at about nine, someone comes and makes dinner for any of the staff that is still around (meaning Sathyu) and the volunteers for free as well. The food is generally pretty good, but everything has a bite to it from the spice (including breakfast) which takes some getting used to if you have a specifically British palette like myself. This morning I had the gross toast things, and then felt better to eat lunch. But I think I need to make an effort to go the market at some point and get some other snacks, especially bread. The last time I was there I was just too overwhelmed to make any real decisions, so I just bought the peanut butter and the toast stuff out of desperation.

Some of the other volunteers are planning on going to Sanchi tomorrow. Sunday is the only day that the clinic isn't open, so it is officially the weekend. Sanchi is some sort of extremely old temple that is quite close to the outside of Bhopal. You’ll have to forgive my ignorance, but I don’t really know anything about it. I’ll be sure to look it up in the Lonely Planet tonight before we go.

Well, the power just went out, and my laptop only has another half-hour of juice, so I’m going to have to call it quits for the time being.

A Photo Tour of Samhavna Trust Clinic

Sambhavna - A Photo Tour">Sambhavna - A Photo Tour" border="0" alt="" />
i'm going to post a whole whack of photos of the clinic that i took this evening right before the sun set. the sun sets super fast here because its so much closer to the equator. its kind f weird to go from those three hour long canadian summer sunsets to this...

if the photo turn out funny let me know because i am still trying to get te stupid picasa web thing to work properly.

the two markets and a little haven

I’m still trying very hard to get over my culture shock, which has affected me far more than I thought it would. I have been pretty homesick and lonely for my Danny, which is hard to deal with when the other volunteers are so involved and happy to be here. But as they day progresses, this one seems to be turning out okay. I even had a pretty good appetite for lunch! Yay! The heat and the time difference has been making it hard to eat at the right times. When I get up to have breakfast at nine in the morning, my body thinks that it is midnight, and doesn’t want much. By the time lunch rolls around my stomach thinks that it is about three or four in the morning, and definitely isn’t interested in food… at any rate, I had a pekora for breakfast, and some roti, dhal, okra and rice for lunch, so I’m feeling pretty good today.

Yesterday this guy Masaum too a bunch of the volunteers to the market to get some things we needed. He speaks pretty good English, and seems to be a bit of a welcome-wagon/babysitter for the volunteers here. One of the old volunteers had left a cell phone here, so Masaum helped me to get a sim card and put some rupees on the cell phone so that I could call home. After I got it home yesterday I was SO excited about calling Dan, because we hadn’t had a real conversation since I left, and I was missing him terribly. But when I tried to call an international number it wouldn’t work!!! I got so frustrated, and felt like I was in absolute hell. But eventually I got my paypal account to work for Skype, so I was able to talk to Dan for over an hour that way (at only two cents a minute!! What an amazing deal!). At any rate, I was still upset that I couldn’t get the cell phone to dial internationally; it made me feel all the more isolated from the people that I love back home. So by the time I got on the phone with Dan I was in tears of relief that I was finally able to get in touch with him. Needless to say the conversation made me feel much better, and I (finally) slept like a baby last night.

I had also slept for two hours in the afternoon yesterday once we had gotten back from the market. It was intensely hot (or what I consider to be intensely hot, which is not what is considered hot to Bhopalis at all) while I was at the market, so I was really over-tired by the time we got back. I found the market really stressful for a lot of reasons; the sights and sounds and smells are just so overwhelming. Nobody here signals when they drive, they just honk to let the other drivers know that they are moving in that general direction. We took a couple of auto-rickshaws between the two markets (New Market and the Chok, if you will recall from yesterday’s entry) and I thought a few times that we were going to die. I had taken cabs in Delhi to and from each of the airports, but the traffic moves quite a bit slower because there is so much of it. In the markets here people come racing through on motorcycles honking all the way to signal to you to jump out of the way. Once you are in the auto-rickshaw you start to see the pattern and how everybody isn’t crashing into everyone else all of the time, but as a pedestrian it is something I am not sure that I am going to get used to any time soon. I had brought my camera and had planned to take some photos while we were there, but it was just so crazy the thought of taking pictures of everything was just too much. I’m sure that once I am a bit more accustomed to things here I’ll have the chance.

While we were at the market these three absolutely adorable little girls started to follow us around and ask us for money. They really were quite masterful at looking dejected and sad. It was so hard not to give them anything, because you just don’t see little children like that in Canada, not that young and on the street on their own like that. The two smaller ones couldn’t have been more three or four years old (although I am starting to realize that my estimation of ages is off a lot of the time here, because people seem to be older than they look a lot of the time. Maybe it’s the result of poor nutrition or something, but a lot of the kids at the clinic are smaller than North American kids their age). Anyway, Mel ended up by buying them some bananas and giving them ten rupees. I sort of know that you can’t do that, because everyone in Canada had warned me about it before I left. Not only will you end up with a trail of beggar kids following you around while you shop (which is precisely what happened to us), but there is also always a danger that the kids are working for someone who exploits the shit out of them (a la A Fine Balance). As we were getting into the auto to leave, this true beggar-woman approached Joe and I holding a small child in her arms. She spoke in rapid Hindi to us and kept motioning to the child’s leg, which appeared to be limp, and injured in some way. We drove away without giving her anything, but it felt so awful to do it, because she had the look of a desperate mother in her eyes. Joe and I were talking about it though, and agreed that it was the better thing to do, because beggars have been known to injure their children in order to make them look more pitiable. I can’t say that I don’t feel like a total asshole though.

Last night Mel showed me the “smokers area” for the volunteers. It is this little hatch that leads up to a quite beautiful terrace on the top of the volunteers’ workroom. It’s quite spacious and has the best view and the best breeze of any place around. It’s so nice and cool that it really is a great place to hang out – especially since none of the other volunteers come up here. So it’s nice and peaceful to rest and clear your head. I’ve been sitting up here writing this, and its really great. Although I did just notice a few minutes ago that I am sitting next to the trapped carcass of an Indian chipmunk, that is mostly decayed and is just bones with a bit of fur stuck to it. Yuck.

This morning I spend my time hanging out with the kids that Mel has come to know in the gazebo here at the clinic. She had warned me how intense it is, but nothing can quite prepare you for the screams of “DIDI” (meaning big sister) coming from about thirty or forty Indian children. They were really sweet though, and I can see hoe Mel has become so attached to them. They all want to have their picture taken with you, sit next to you and touch you. One of the littler ones, Nansi (pronounced “Nancy”) got me to stand up and raised her arms up for me to pick her up. I guess some gestures are international. It was really nice to have some human contact though, and the kids seemed a little starved for attention (although I guess all kids appear that way).

Masaum came back this afternoon and was sitting with the kids for a while. I asked him if he could figure out why I wasn’t able to call Canadian numbers on my cell phone. He looked at it for a few minutes, and couldn’t figure it out, so he says “I come back in fifteen minutes!” and walks off. He went all the way back to the market to ask the storeowner what the problem was, and when he came back he was like “it’s not the phone, there’s a problem with the number you are dialing”. Apparently, Emily the idiot had been dialing 011 instead of 001 to call Canada, and that is why it didn’t work. Poor Masaum, I have the feeling he spends a lot of time dealing with North American incompetence here at Sambhavna. Anyway, the phone works now (sorry I woke you up at 2:30 this morning Dan, I was testing it☺). The word on the street is that incoming calls are free in India, so if you want to call me, just email me and let me know, and I can sent you the phone number.

So I think that is it for now. The internet hasn’t been working this afternoon, so I will have to wait to post this. I’ll also try to post a few pictures from this morning…

bhopal...first few days

Emily at the Montreal Airport">Emily at the Montreal Airport" border="0" alt="" />
well, after what feels like an eternity of air travel and the most frightening taxi ride ever at 1am in delhi, i finally arrived in bhopal the day before yesterday. i spent most of yesterday sleeping, so i haven't done all that much yet. but i id get a chance to meet some of the kids that mel (another sambhavna trust volunteer from mcgill) has been working with over the summer. god are they sweet!! i don't think that they could make me any more welcome if they were trying. they're all so curious (especially about my lip ring, which i left a clear plastic retainer in) and want to know everything about you. some of them speak a few words of english, which makes communication a little bit easier, but for the most part, its hindi all the way!!

at any rate, i ended up going over to this guy salman's house last night with all of the other volunteers for chai (tea and snacks). his english is so-so, but the rest of his family really doesn't speak a word, so there were a lot of long silences and waiting for anisha (another volunteer) to translate between us. after that we came back to the clinic and joe (yet another volunteer) showed me the trick to getting the wireless internet to work, and also hooked me up with a cell phone.

so this afternoon we are going to go to the two markets (the chok and new market) to buy various things, including a pillow that is not made out of rocks or possibly some sort of beans for me, as well as a sim card for the cell phone (whatever that is... joe tried to explain it to me but at the end all i understood was that i needed one in order for the cell phone to work). i'm also in somewhat desperate need of some new pants, as i only brought one pair that is actually light enough to wear around here, so a couple of new pairs would be really nice.

anyway, it is time for lunch, and i am starving, so i will have to give a more reflective account of bhopal and india later tonight.

also, if anyone understands how to set up picasa with these stupid blogs, please let me know because i cannot for the life of me figure it out.