Well, it’s been an interesting almost week since I’ve gotten here. I’m not really sure where to start. I guess the Mad Hatter would say: “Start from the beginning and when you get to the end—stop.”
My first day we went and visited the Krishna temple across the street. The next day we went shopping and tried to set up our internet and stuff… which… we got it working for everyone but me… which really makes me worry there is something wrong with my computer… I didn’t know we need an adapter as well—so hopefully I can get that today. Americans are weird about their cords I guess. I guess no one else uses enough electricity that they have to have an extra safety prong on their plugs.
The food has been AMAZING. It’s either spicy or sweet. We’ve have come to the consensus that there isn’t anything really salty here… except for chips…
The staff are great. We have a few translators (Madu, Suda, and Raja-lakshmi), and a few cooks (Durga, Salija, and Vara-lakshmi), and a washerman (Razu). There is also a little boy, Sidu/Situ (Sidar is his real name), and a 3-month-old baby, Mumuksha Sonoram. (I’m doing the best I can with spelling here, because I can’t tell the difference between the majority of sounds like “t” and “d” and “u” and “o” or “a,” etc, etc, etc.) The people are incredibly nice and helpful, and it’s true that we’re treated a little bit like celebrities sometimes because quite a few people have asked us to pose for photos for them or with them.
“I don’t think that you could ever do this in the States,” Sarah said. “Like, you wouldn’t come up to some random person and ask for a photo…”
Mostly I’ve just done a lot of sight-seeing, I think since Professor Nuckolls is still here he has been showing us around. Most of the places and things are self-explanatory from the pictures which I’ll try to upload some.
My favorite sites so far have been the big white statues of Shiva the Destroyer and his wife, Parvati. We also saw the ruins of a 2000 year old buddhist temple (not much left, but still… cooool…)
Professor Nuckolls bought a cake for my birthday and took us to the Jailri village where they did a goat sacrifice… which was definitely my least favorite part of the trip so far. The villagers were really interesting though, because they are lower caste (status) and they are not very… sophisticated, I guess. At least not compared to the majority of the city people. They are very loud and forward.
We visited a school for handicapped people (mostly children, I think) that was founded by this amazing woman who is basically Ghandi and Mother Teresa reincarnate (if I believed in that, I would totally believe that) because she was so incredible. She founded the school by herself and Professor Nuckolls says there is no other like hers in India. It was an amazing school too. We saw some dresses that the handicapped children made, and there was an art room and a special five senses room that I guess was a kind of therapy room started in the Netherlands or something like that.
As soon as we came in, this little boy ran up and held my hand and followed me around for a while. Another little girl took after Stefanie and was following her around for quite a while. The kids love to run up to us and say, “What is your name!?” and “Hello!” They’re actually really nice—which kind of surprises me in kids since I’m more used of them being rude than friendly.
I don’t want to rattle on too much, because I know people usually only read a few paragraphs or so, but it’s been wonderful so far, the only downside is not having the internet yet—which would be really helpful finishing up taking care of some school stuff.
Oh yeah! We went to the baby’s naming ceremony. You’re not allowed to bring your cameras inside the temple, but the guy who brought us (friend of the “king” in Visakhapatnam), said: “Here. Take your phone and hide it. Take secret pictures.”
So once we were inside, he said, “Take a secret picture of that…”
So McKenna got some good secret shots. The naming ceremony was basically a whole lot of no-one-understands-it banana, rice, and smoke voodoo with a priest and then the mother, Durga (our main cook), whispers the name of her baby three times in his ear. He does not, before this time, have an official name in order to prevent the “evil eye” (envy, or bad luck that comes because someone has received the blessing of a child). I don’t really understand it. Krishnayya says that is why they put the marks under the baby’s eyes and on his head to make him appear ugly. And sometimes parents will name their children after trash to avoid the evil eye. It’s a way of showing they don’t care for their children when they actually really do…
Apparently Krishnayya’s parents raised him as a girl for seven years because he was a son, which I guess is in greater danger of the evil eye because he’s a greater blessing.