Chennai, India

Sunday-Thursday, March 25-29, 2007

India was amazing; I think the two countries I want to go back to most are Brazil and India. I loved every minute of it, and it was not as gross or hot as we thought it would be. Yes, the city was dirty, and parts of it smelled really bad, and there were people who were almost dead laying on the side of the road, but it really was amazing. I spent the first day at the YMCA boys club. It was set up for boys ages 5-16 whom were from broken families, or single-parent families whom could not support their children. The boys at the club were so cute, and nice, and happy to see us. They sang us songs, asked us questions like "what fruits are popular in the states" or "what are we studying" or "what is our hobby". One of the boys asked how we were all affected by the attacks of 9/11. The boys were all so educated despite the conditions they were in. After the question and answer period we were able to play with the boys for about 1-2 hours. I ended up playing thumb wars, and then we went outside and one of the boys did a handstand, so I did one to but with some turns and then he had me show the other boys. Needless to say, I ended up spotting a bunch of the boys to do back-bend kick-overs. At the end of the day my shoulders were sore, but it was worth it to see the smiles on their faces when they landed on their feet.

The next day I woke up with pink-eye, so I went to the doctor and got eye drops, and he also listened to my chest and told me to make sure I used my inhaler, even though it probably wouldn't do much because the air in India is so contaminated; studies have actually shown that spending a day in the air in India is the equivalent to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. So yea, for those of you that I spoke to on the phone while I was in India, that is why I was coughing so badly. Anyways, I started my homestay the second day. I ended up staying with a 23 year old girl named Rabbeqa (pronounced like Rebecca). She took us shopping and we had an amazing Indian food dinner. Indian food in India is somewhat like Indian food in America, however they do things much differently. They use more spices, and they eat with their hands. It was actually a lot of fun pouring sauce on my rice and playing with it. Every meal in India revolves around rice, which is the food that their culture has been formed off of. To eat the rice without a fork and knife, you pour a lot of sauce on it. Then you mush it around (using only your right hand because the left hand is seen as unclean) until in for a paste-like substance. Then, you ball up the rice and sauce mixture and eat it. It was AMAZING! I love Indian food!!! But yea so I had home cooked Indian food for two nights, which was beyond amazing. The rest of the days in India I spent with my homestay sister. It was an amazing experience and I was lucky enough to experience a new way of life. For instance, my Indian family had servants. While the servants live with them and are paid, they are treated like complete crap! They must sleep on the floor, with no blanket or pillow, and at any time of day they are required to do what is asked of them. What shocked me the most about this was Rabbeqa's views about her servants. At one point we stopped by the house to pick up some blankets that we could use at the apartment and before we left we had to wait for some food for the servant. Now to me, this made sense, the servant's have to eat. But Rabbeqa had other views; I believe her exact words were "this is ridiculous! I can't believe that we have to wait for food for the servant! I mean really, its bad enough we have to worry about ourselves, and we have to feed them too!" when she said this I was speechless, I never thought that it was possible for a well educated person to think this way about other people. But I guess that is their culture, and that is how she was raised.

Anyways, so yea obviously India was amazing! I met such awesome people, and I have their emails so I can keep in touch with them. I am definitely going to go back to India one day, especially because I want to go up north and see the Taj Mahal. So yea that was India! Miss you! Happy Passover!!