Every morning I was awoken by the head chef, and one time one of the cooking girls, standing over me with a cup of chai. Blind without my contacts, and dreary eyed I steadied my hands and slowly focused on slipping my index finger through the loop of the tea cup. Upon lifting the cup I tilted my head left slowly with a smile. Propped up on one hand I sipped my chai slowly, and then got back under the covers.
There is no translation for "thank you" in Hindi. Kindness is expected. One only need acknowledge service.
Everyday, families would come from the poor villages and donate clothes, food, and sweets to the orphanage. On my first day, one such family had arrived. I remarked to the man of the family that what he was doing was very good. He looked at me puzzled, and said something to the effect that this was normal; expected. He rather plainly stated that this is what everyone should be doing. People who say Hinduism is a selfish religion have never met a Hindu in their life.
Because the cafeteria does not open for another day, I had to fend for myself for the first time up in the mountains tonight. I went to a shack just outside the school and saw a fish sitting on a bowl of coals. I ate that fish and a large lump of sticky rice for 39 Baht. Ah, Thailand. One thing that I missed - interaction with women. The woman who sold me my fish was giddy to speak to me in English and Thai, giddy to offer me sticky rice, giddy to explain she had no beer, giddy that I denied the 1 baht change. I completely forgot how friendly Thais are. Indian hospitality is unmatched. Is the Thais ability to be personable their claim to fame?
I have a feeling that most of my greatest moments from India will seep into my memory beyond manual recollection. I imagine these memories will pop up randomly in conversation: "that reminds me of when I was in India..." and I look forward to that.
God is good. When I arrived in Chiang Mai I was given Alila. When I arrived in Laos, I, by seeming chance, befriended a well spoken Laotian who drove myself and my companion over an hour into Vientianne for free. Upon re-entering Chiang Mai I was at a total loss as to how to get back up the mountain. A coworker happened to have just got off another airplane and flagged me down across the baggage claim. She hailed a cab and we split the fare up the mountain. God is good. I make an effort to smile continuously.
I pray I never complain again.
Books I've read in the past 2 months: Jesus of Suburbia, Hot Zone, Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, Siddartha, Essays on the Gita, Passage through India, Job, John, and Acts. I forgot how enjoyable reading can be.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Blessed be the name of the Lord
On the back of a 1 hour motorcycle ride in freezing temperatures through the crowded traffic of India one has time to think. The front of my body completely pressed against the driver and my back side against our other passenger, the awkward uncomfortable feeling of being that close to two strangers had long since passed. It would be much longer before the feeling in my legs would return.
2 days prior I had found myself being whisked from temple to temple, from the Taj Mahal to the Agra Fort, and to Mathura. Thinking we were finally headed for home, we pulled up to another temple in Vrindaban, which turns out to be the birth place of Sri Krishna. We were lead into a white temple ablaze with song, dance, and warmth. "Hare Krishna hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, hare hare, hare Rama hare Rama, Rama Rama, hare hare!" My companion and I both burst into song as soon as we entered the holy place. "Let's go get darshan", I yelled over the music. We danced, we sang, young girls spun around clasping each other's hands. I bought a Bhagavad Gita. I bought 2 cheesy t-shirts. I bought a box of sweets to reward our driver and appease our exhausted friend, both of whom were sealed in the tiny car from the biting cold of the night. We made for home, and heeded the writing on the back of every truck "Blow Horn, Use Dipper at Night".
Rahul's moto took us to a large modern mall in the heart of Faridabad. "Will you take McDonald's?" I tilted my head to one side smoothly and he purchased a McAloo Tiki burger and Coke for me. Afterwards, "will you take ice cream?" Tilt. After that, "will you take corn?". I tilted and he continued to smile. 1 hour ago, and back when I still had warm blood in my lower extremities, my new friend had taken me into his village, and had me as his guest at his parents house. An Indian knows no greater honor than to show hospitality to a foreigner. [Read "Passage to India" if you don't believe me, I did.] I took chai and more cookies and spicy potato crisps than I wanted, but saw how it pleased them. "It's ok?" "Bohod atcha". They were thrilled with my Hindi and began to talk and laugh loudly with each other. Everyone from his family came to meet me, or just look at me. The week before I had been taken by another new friend and shown to everyone in the village he knew. I took tea or hot milk and sweets at every family's house I visited.
We left the mall and remounted the motorcycle. It must have been only one day past since we had been pulled into a car by the father of the orphanage, Baba Ji, and escorted to a park in the town of Pulwal with no explanation given. We were brought to a massive Puja where all the towns swamis had gathered. Orange linen were laid around our necks and we were brought to the center sacrificial fire. The most honored positions were given to us as pourers of the gi. "Swaha!", we shouted as we poured small teaspoons of gi into a massive bonfire. We were given pictures of all the great fathers of India and prasad in the form of a banana and a sweet mix of spices and thin potato crisps. Roses were sprinkled over us and a blessing was pronounced over us by the entire town's holy men. An article would be written about us the following day in the local paper. I kept the newspaper as a souvenir.
More as it comes. Facebook for images.
2 days prior I had found myself being whisked from temple to temple, from the Taj Mahal to the Agra Fort, and to Mathura. Thinking we were finally headed for home, we pulled up to another temple in Vrindaban, which turns out to be the birth place of Sri Krishna. We were lead into a white temple ablaze with song, dance, and warmth. "Hare Krishna hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, hare hare, hare Rama hare Rama, Rama Rama, hare hare!" My companion and I both burst into song as soon as we entered the holy place. "Let's go get darshan", I yelled over the music. We danced, we sang, young girls spun around clasping each other's hands. I bought a Bhagavad Gita. I bought 2 cheesy t-shirts. I bought a box of sweets to reward our driver and appease our exhausted friend, both of whom were sealed in the tiny car from the biting cold of the night. We made for home, and heeded the writing on the back of every truck "Blow Horn, Use Dipper at Night".
Rahul's moto took us to a large modern mall in the heart of Faridabad. "Will you take McDonald's?" I tilted my head to one side smoothly and he purchased a McAloo Tiki burger and Coke for me. Afterwards, "will you take ice cream?" Tilt. After that, "will you take corn?". I tilted and he continued to smile. 1 hour ago, and back when I still had warm blood in my lower extremities, my new friend had taken me into his village, and had me as his guest at his parents house. An Indian knows no greater honor than to show hospitality to a foreigner. [Read "Passage to India" if you don't believe me, I did.] I took chai and more cookies and spicy potato crisps than I wanted, but saw how it pleased them. "It's ok?" "Bohod atcha". They were thrilled with my Hindi and began to talk and laugh loudly with each other. Everyone from his family came to meet me, or just look at me. The week before I had been taken by another new friend and shown to everyone in the village he knew. I took tea or hot milk and sweets at every family's house I visited.
We left the mall and remounted the motorcycle. It must have been only one day past since we had been pulled into a car by the father of the orphanage, Baba Ji, and escorted to a park in the town of Pulwal with no explanation given. We were brought to a massive Puja where all the towns swamis had gathered. Orange linen were laid around our necks and we were brought to the center sacrificial fire. The most honored positions were given to us as pourers of the gi. "Swaha!", we shouted as we poured small teaspoons of gi into a massive bonfire. We were given pictures of all the great fathers of India and prasad in the form of a banana and a sweet mix of spices and thin potato crisps. Roses were sprinkled over us and a blessing was pronounced over us by the entire town's holy men. An article would be written about us the following day in the local paper. I kept the newspaper as a souvenir.
More as it comes. Facebook for images.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Livin and Lovin
As I was walking back from teaching a great math class, I saw about 20 elementary school kids walking single file up towards the dining hall. All of a sudden a huge palm frawn cam crashing down about 10 feet from the kids. Everyone gasped at the same time, then after a few second of silence, all the kids starting clapping. I started laughing, it was such a funny thing to witness.
One interesting/surprising thing (maybe) about Thailand is that, unlike a lot of other Asian cultures, Thai people don't use chopsticks. In Thailand, almost everyone uses a fork and spoon to eat all their meals, which is much more practical for curry and rice than chopsticks. The spoon is the utensil for eating and the fork serves to guide the spoon and help push things on to the spoon. Just thought I'd mention that.
One interesting/surprising thing (maybe) about Thailand is that, unlike a lot of other Asian cultures, Thai people don't use chopsticks. In Thailand, almost everyone uses a fork and spoon to eat all their meals, which is much more practical for curry and rice than chopsticks. The spoon is the utensil for eating and the fork serves to guide the spoon and help push things on to the spoon. Just thought I'd mention that.
Free Time
I had the entire day off after working the morning shift. Most of the day was spent arranging things, and teaching. I also started looking into plans for my break in March. Unless I come up with something better, I found a cool trip to Uganda to build houses. We'll see how that plays out in the next few months. At night I found myself bored so I read the book of Job and then the book of John. Both were great reads. Job was challenging.
I always thought the book of Job was mainly in order to show that bad things do happen to good people. The meaning of the book is much deeper and more theological. The point of the book is mostly to disprove the idea that "being good" causes God to reward you and "being bad" causes God to punish you. God doesn't operate like that - you don't stub your toe in the morning because you sinned sometime recently. The book of Job shows two things: the sheer size of God, and that sometimes it seems that the evil prosper and the righteous suffer. In the end however, God is just and rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.
I don't think I've ever read the book of John in entirety and it felt really good. I've known almost all the Bible stories and especially the life of Jesus since I was a young child, but to actually read the words themselves all together was something new to me. One thing that stood out to me was how many times, at the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that they could ask anything in His name and it would be given to them. Jesus goes on to say that they should do this while letting His words abide in them. In other words, when you know what Jesus is about and what he wants, you will know what to be asking for. Very cool indeed. I stopped reading for a second and asked God to do work through me in India next week and here at the school.
I got bored later on and decided I would like to start memorizing all the bones in the body, starting with the skull. I can now identify all the bones of the skull including the foramen, lines, and sutures from all views except the interior and inferior (inferior is hard, I'll save it for later).
I always thought the book of Job was mainly in order to show that bad things do happen to good people. The meaning of the book is much deeper and more theological. The point of the book is mostly to disprove the idea that "being good" causes God to reward you and "being bad" causes God to punish you. God doesn't operate like that - you don't stub your toe in the morning because you sinned sometime recently. The book of Job shows two things: the sheer size of God, and that sometimes it seems that the evil prosper and the righteous suffer. In the end however, God is just and rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.
I don't think I've ever read the book of John in entirety and it felt really good. I've known almost all the Bible stories and especially the life of Jesus since I was a young child, but to actually read the words themselves all together was something new to me. One thing that stood out to me was how many times, at the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that they could ask anything in His name and it would be given to them. Jesus goes on to say that they should do this while letting His words abide in them. In other words, when you know what Jesus is about and what he wants, you will know what to be asking for. Very cool indeed. I stopped reading for a second and asked God to do work through me in India next week and here at the school.
I got bored later on and decided I would like to start memorizing all the bones in the body, starting with the skull. I can now identify all the bones of the skull including the foramen, lines, and sutures from all views except the interior and inferior (inferior is hard, I'll save it for later).
Friday, December 7, 2007
Let's Talk About Sun
No, I'm not referring to the large star which our solar system centers around, I'm talking about a 5th grader in my homestay.
Sun is a Thai 5th grader who lives in Sakthong house, and is probably one of my favorite humans. Sun is about 90% bilingual from what I've experienced. I believe the following events will help best describe Sun.
Sun is very well behaved but about 1 week ago I heard a lot of noise coming from his room after I had sent him and his roommates to bed for the night. When I opened the door I found some kid running around with a plastic scythe. What the heck is this? It turns out the scythe belongs to Sun and that it is a leftover from his Halloween costume. Since then I have seen him wandering around the house with his Scythe.
Tuesday night I heard a lot of noise coming from Sun's room again. When I opened the door I found him and his roommates dancing around to what sounded like an African drumming CD which was playing from a boombox in the closet. I tried to go turn it off but Sun was trying to push me away. I put down my stuff, picked Sun up and threw him into bed as he continued to suffocate himself with laughter. Without saying much, I yanked the boombox out of the closet, cord and all, and left the room laughing to myself. Sun is known to dance around when he thinks no one is looking.
Sun is actually very intelligent and resourceful. Somehow, he knows ever teacher's last name. 2 weeks ago Sun's laundry returned but with no underwear. He never said a word to anyone until we caught him a week later. He had been wearing the same pair of underwear for the whole week, and he had been washing it in the sink every day.
Sun clings to you and asks you incessant questions. He is known to hang off Ms. Paula and anyone else who will tolerate his hilarious clinginess. Sometimes I catch him talking to himself and he just looks at me says "waat?". I'm not exactly sure how to describe how awesome he is. He's always doing something funny or saying something funny without knowing it.
In any case he's actually very intelligent and one of the most well behaved and obedient kids.
Sun is great.
Sun is a Thai 5th grader who lives in Sakthong house, and is probably one of my favorite humans. Sun is about 90% bilingual from what I've experienced. I believe the following events will help best describe Sun.
Sun is very well behaved but about 1 week ago I heard a lot of noise coming from his room after I had sent him and his roommates to bed for the night. When I opened the door I found some kid running around with a plastic scythe. What the heck is this? It turns out the scythe belongs to Sun and that it is a leftover from his Halloween costume. Since then I have seen him wandering around the house with his Scythe.
Tuesday night I heard a lot of noise coming from Sun's room again. When I opened the door I found him and his roommates dancing around to what sounded like an African drumming CD which was playing from a boombox in the closet. I tried to go turn it off but Sun was trying to push me away. I put down my stuff, picked Sun up and threw him into bed as he continued to suffocate himself with laughter. Without saying much, I yanked the boombox out of the closet, cord and all, and left the room laughing to myself. Sun is known to dance around when he thinks no one is looking.
Sun is actually very intelligent and resourceful. Somehow, he knows ever teacher's last name. 2 weeks ago Sun's laundry returned but with no underwear. He never said a word to anyone until we caught him a week later. He had been wearing the same pair of underwear for the whole week, and he had been washing it in the sink every day.
Sun clings to you and asks you incessant questions. He is known to hang off Ms. Paula and anyone else who will tolerate his hilarious clinginess. Sometimes I catch him talking to himself and he just looks at me says "waat?". I'm not exactly sure how to describe how awesome he is. He's always doing something funny or saying something funny without knowing it.
In any case he's actually very intelligent and one of the most well behaved and obedient kids.
Sun is great.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
90%
I woke up this morning late because a power surge in the night shorted and destroyed my phone. To compound this, there was no running water available in our building - so forget a shower.
There is a poem taped to my refrigerator at home that is easily as old as I am. The poem is entitled Attitude. Life is 90% attitude, the poem says. I shrugged these two problems off and my day turned out to be great. Despite waking up late I was still able to catch the tail end of breakfast, and I patiently spent a good 5 minutes blotting the oil off a delicious omelet with a ton of vegetables in it.
At work I finished planning math lessons for the rest of the semester. Dinner featured a very spicy panang curry and a great fish dish. After dinner I saw Mary (the AP English teacher who is in her late 50's) and helped her carry in all the stuff she had bought during the teacher's day trip to the mall. She was grateful and gave me a bag of homemade cookies she bought at a local market which I later gave to all my homestay kids. She and her husband David (who's math class I'm taking over) invited me in for tea and a little tart which was amazing. They put on music, turned on their cool Thai lamps and we just sat and talked for a good half hour. It was so nice, just sipping tea and enoying eachother's company.
At study hall I prepared a number of math questions and instructions for N'John, a kid in my math class who is very very far behind. After 3 days of trying to break him of faulty habbits I think he finally understands regrouping for subtraction. It was one of the most satisfying moments I can remember. I had him do 5 or so problems, and he got them all, I was so happy!
Life is what you make of it.
There is a poem taped to my refrigerator at home that is easily as old as I am. The poem is entitled Attitude. Life is 90% attitude, the poem says. I shrugged these two problems off and my day turned out to be great. Despite waking up late I was still able to catch the tail end of breakfast, and I patiently spent a good 5 minutes blotting the oil off a delicious omelet with a ton of vegetables in it.
At work I finished planning math lessons for the rest of the semester. Dinner featured a very spicy panang curry and a great fish dish. After dinner I saw Mary (the AP English teacher who is in her late 50's) and helped her carry in all the stuff she had bought during the teacher's day trip to the mall. She was grateful and gave me a bag of homemade cookies she bought at a local market which I later gave to all my homestay kids. She and her husband David (who's math class I'm taking over) invited me in for tea and a little tart which was amazing. They put on music, turned on their cool Thai lamps and we just sat and talked for a good half hour. It was so nice, just sipping tea and enoying eachother's company.
At study hall I prepared a number of math questions and instructions for N'John, a kid in my math class who is very very far behind. After 3 days of trying to break him of faulty habbits I think he finally understands regrouping for subtraction. It was one of the most satisfying moments I can remember. I had him do 5 or so problems, and he got them all, I was so happy!
Life is what you make of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
