We're in India!!!

16 February 2010, from Peg

Greetings!

And apologies for the time lag again between updates. We have been in pretty constant motion since leaving Thailand, without much internet access, and are only now slowing down and settling in to our respective pursuits in the Varanasi area. Apologies also for leaving all the previous Thailand email updates attached - I have only just now edited and added to the address list, and I'd like for the new additions to have access to the earlier stuff. I promise that next time, I will delete all the old stuff.

There is much to report, and I'll try to cover the whirlwind of experiences our two groups have had in the last (only!) 5 or 6 days since arrival in Kolkata as concisely as I can (never easy for me).

First the college group flew in to Kolkata midmorning on the 10th - and knew they were in India almost immediately, when the prearranged "coach" transport didn't show up at the airport as promised. But the wild ride into the city via the old Ambassador taxis that are ubiquitous in Kolkata proved at least as exciting as the coach transport would have been, and fortunately the prearranged hotel was expecting them. The Hotel Meera was new to the program this year, and we've all decided it's worth returning to. With a location convenient to Kolkata's best markets (the Hogg and New Markets), the students had fun diving in to India culture after getting settled in the hotel. The streets in the area are lively, full of a wide variety of people and pursuits, and just crossing the streets is an adventure (and an adrenaline rush). The next morning, the coach did appear, and dropped this group at Kalighat Temple, then moved on to the airport to pick up the high school group, bringing us to the same hotel for a quick couple of hours of overlap, before bringing the college group to Howrah train station for their overnight journey to Varanasi.

Kalighat Temple and Howrah Station each merit a brief description. The temple is dedicated to Kali, a major Hindu goddess also known as Durga among other names, favorite consort of Shiva, and extremely fierce (and consequently a powerful prospect for devotee's petitions and offerings), usually depicted with a necklace of skulls, standing on some demon she has vanquished. The scene at the temple is intense, with devotees crowding in to the main temple for darshan (viewing) of the Kali image, to the area where goats are sacrificed as offerings from seriously hopeful bhaktas, to the ghats (steps) leading to the pond filled with Ganges River water and to Lord Shiva's image, to the "fertility tree," where women tie stones to the tree while Brahmins chant prayers in hopes of engendering (preferably male) offspring. Each group had their time here, as did each at Howrah Station, one of India's largest, an incredibly busy hive of activity where our protocols keep students together, vigilant, and the object of audience amusement. I know Rowan was filming for a good deal of time at the station, so I'll save further impossible-anyway attempts at communicating what-all goes on there.

Other aspects of their time in Kolkata were different for the two groups - the college kids visited Mother Teresa's Home for the Destitute and Dying, which was closed while the high school group was visiting nearby Kalighat. But the highschoolers were able to spend some time after their intense experience at the temple at what is called the Motherhouse, a beautifully peaceful place where Mother Teresa's tomb and a lovely room full of pictures and stories of her remarkable life can be found. The "calm down" destination for the college group after Kalighat was the Victoria Monument, an impressive piece of British legacy in a huge garden area with an excellent museum. Time and circumstances did not allow for the first group in to visit with the folks from Calcutta Rescue, but the high schoolers enjoyed the time spent visiting two of their schools (for young children from the brothel distric) and a clinic, and playing with students both in and out of the classroom. Calcutta Rescue was started over 30 years ago by a British doctor who still lives and works in Kolkata, serving the poorest of the poor with both medical and educational programs. Another example of the "one person making a huge difference" theme that our students are repeatedly exposed to.

So one day after another, both groups made it to Varanasi -- the first group in fairly straightforward fashion, according to plan and pre-purchased train tickets. But the second group was in for a surprise after having waited a couple hours for their train at Howrah Station. I thought I'd seen it all when it comes to Indian trains, but here was a new wrinkle: our train, scheduled to depart about 7 pm, got postponed until 1:30 pm the next day! Go figure. What to do? We couldn't just wait it out at Howrah Station; we couldn't go back into Kolkata to a hotel - or would have suffered greatly trying to pull that off - and our first round of inquiry about alternatives out that same night turned up nothing but already-full trains. After a good deal of running around and pleas for help, we managed to arrange for 5 tickets on a higher class of travel (2-tier Aircon for those who know what that means) on a train departing at midnight, for the ladies in the group -- and went with "unreserved" tickets on an earlier train, for the male members of the group. So Laurie and I, along with Alex, Lindsey and Marta, waited out our 5-hours-later departure in the "first class waiting room" (we made tea, had a shower!, rested, and passed the time), while the boys crammed their way onto a train departing at 8:30. It wasn't looking good for the boys to do anything but sit up all night long, clutching their bags, until a train official ushered them in to the "handicapped car," a space they managed to keep to themselves through the night, until the (4 hours late) arrival of their train in Varanasi. We ladies had it much more comfortable and certainly more safe in our car, but still had to pay the price of the delays and stops that became increasingly longer (once a train is significantly behind time, it has to wait even more every time a scheduled train must pass), until we finally arrived, 8 HOURS late. Yikes.

We were all supremely tired, and each of us mighty glad to get to our hotels, and begin the process of recovery. It was good to reunite with the college group (and I with Ted!); it was good to have many choices of places to eat; and it has been wild and wonderful, beginning our explorations of Varanasi.

There is a long but incredible story to be told about the college group's experience with Shivaratri, a huge Hindu festival in honor of Lord Shiva, celebrated with an intensity like none other here in Varanasi, Shiva's city, and in full swing the night of their arrival --- but I will leave that for John or Ted, who were here for it, to tell. I imagine some of you have already heard from the group -- I know that the stories Ted told me about their well-managed immersion into the chaos of the festival had me amazed and grateful that they were able to have the experience, but also that they were able to have it safely. Pujas at small shrines everywhere, parades, music, dancing in the streets, decorated elephants lumbering through the crowds ... It's hard to describe, so I'll hope that Chris was able to get some of it on film, for future sharing.

After its first two days in Varanasi, that group moved on to Sarnath, where they are now, visiting and working/playing with students in Dr. Jain's elementary school and (now 13!) village preschools, learning about his SAVE projects (I believe that's "Self Awareness in Village Education"), and rotating through homestays in the villages, where life is very simple and accommodations extremely basic. They will stay there until Friday, and the highschoolers join them on Thursday, for a day where both groups will work together, eat together, and enjoy a sitar concert, before the college group returns to Varanasi for a few more days and the highschoolers continue working and homestaying in the Sarnath area prior to departure for Agra this coming Saturday.

Ok, I think that covers most of what we've done -- certainly not all the adventures each individual has had, nor some of the group outings the high school has been up to, here in Varanasi. Those may have to come your way in individual emails, as I need to get back to making arrangements for our time after Agra and the Taj. All the students are in good space, though several have fallen victim to the typical bugs and impediments common to first contacts with India and the parts of it we take in to our bodies. Perhaps half of each group has suffered or is currently suffering from one or the other: stomach upsets, diarrhea, fatigue, respiratory challenges, colds, etc. None of it serious; all are recovering within a day or two. We are fortunate to be so well-staffed, as there have been folks available for both support for the "sickies," and sheparding of the explorers around the ghats and temples and mosques and shops and Varanasi's maze of crowded, colorful, crooked alleyways and Hindu Benares University and Sarnath and the Ganges and yoga/tabla/sitar/bellydancing lessons ...

I could go on, but I really must get to the more mundane parts of my job. Health and happiness and peace to you all.

Namaste, Peg