CHENNAI, INDIA
It’s my last day here in Chennai and I’m full of thoughts. I have seen so much in these 5 short days: What I’ve seen is life changing. Now that I’ve been exposed, there is no way I’ll ever be able to live my life thinking the same way as I did before I came here. I’ve seen things that some people in American can’t even fathom seeing. Whenever I think of the world, I won’t be naïve like I used to be and think of America… No, the world is so much more than where I come from. We’re the privileged, and they are the ones who struggle daily to survive, the beggars, the orphans, the lepers, the hungry.
I like India. But I’m so confused about what I have seen here. I’ve seen poverty like I never thought was possible. People are everywhere - all over the streets, all over the parks, the beaches, even the port. People sleep on the sidewalks, they wash their clothes in the gutter, they hang their clothes to dry anywhere. You can walk down the street and see a number of homeless people… some have tents set up right on the side of the road where they sleep with their families. Some children walk around naked. Others walk around with torn clothes and no shoes. There is trash everywhere. There are also cows and goats scattered around the city -- they roam around freely, just like the stray dogs that are everywhere.
Last night I was on the phone to my Dad inside the gates where the ship is docked and about 50 feet from me was my ship and about 10 feet from me, on the other side of the chain link fence, was a homeless man sleeping on the pavement. A few feet from him was the other man. They really are everywhere. It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.
The poverty is everywhere. But then you have the so called “normal” areas of Chennai. The mall, for example. They have a normal mall with normal stores like Levi, Guess and Nike. They have a food court with Pizza Hut and Subway. It’s so strange to be surrounded by American stores in one tiny spec of the map in Chennai and walk outside of the mall and become surrounded by homeless people, everywhere. I know in other countries we’ve witnessed poverty, but not like in India. I think the reason why it stands out so much in India is because of the huge contrast: You have the working middleclass at the mall and then 10 feet outside you have a homeless beggar who sleeps on the sidewalk at night. In Myanmar the people have so little but they can survive off of the little they do have. They don’t require a lot to live besides the basics of food, water, shelter, clothing. Also, in Myanmar I don’t remember if I ever saw a homeless person. There were villages with tiny huts where sleeping/living quarters were 6x6 feet but there weren’t homeless people sprawled out all over the place.
(Side Note: In India, there is a caste system that still exists today. The caste system is made up of four different social classes… the Dalit people, formerly known as the “untouchables” are so low that they aren’t even in the social system… supposedly, they are the lowest of the caste system, but they aren’t officially apart of the caste system. They are the fruit and vegetable pickers, or the people who find other odd jobs to bring in money for food. The Dalit situation has been brought to the UN many times and some progress has been made, thanks to the UN, to help the Dalit people rise above their struggles. Still today, every hour two Dalits are assaulted. Every day, three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered and two Dalit houses are burned. And these are only the crimes that are officially reported. These people are treated HORRIBLY and only because they are the poorest and have to find odd jobs to survive).
In India, 30% of the population live in poverty and that in India means that 30% of the people, regularly, go without a meal for the day. Can I even begin to understand what that is like? No, I can’t. But from seeing such poverty, I have become aware. And awareness, in my opinion, can lead to change if you use that awareness correctly. I don’t know how I will use what I’ve learned once I return home - but you can bet that I won’t forget anything. Last night in a Dalit village we sat in a circle of 35 and lit a candle. As we lit the candle, the Indian Doctor who brought us to the Dalit village told us that lighting up that candle meant lighting up the world and lighting up the world will shine a light on the poverty that is overlooked every single day. This meditation we participated in really helped me to believe that one person can make the biggest difference. We all touched the lives of some very underprivileged people last night.
My Dalit Village trip was my favorite trip so far (With SAS) and was one of the best trips I've EVER taken. There were times last night when I had to step back and take everything in and doing so brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. There are times when I would swallow hard while realizing that we in America have it made. We have everything we could ever want and need and more - we take advantage of it on a daily basis. We spend when we don’t have the money, we eat when we’re full, we go where we please, we waste food, we waste electricity, we waste water. In the Dalit village - they don’t have enough food to get them through the day. They don’t have money unless they make it that day. They can’t become full, they can’t go where they please because probably 99% of them don’t have cars. They can’t waste food because they have themselves and their animals to feed. They have cows and goats for the milk, they have chickens for the eggs and they have stray dogs everywhere. The dogs are skinny and you can see their ribs. They don’t have enough food to eat and they can’t get spade because nobody has the money to spay them.
Yesterday myself and 30 other SAS students spent the day at a Nursing School. The students were all girls who had been taken out of a Dalit village and had been given the opportunity to study Nursing and live at the school for free. The company that gives them this opportunity is a Non-profit working towards helping the Dalit people rise above their “social class” and become educated. Education leads to power is one of their mottos. The girls welcomed us with open arms and performed an entire welcome reception for us full of dancing, singing and a skit. We learned all about the Dalit people from a Doctor there who works at the school. We ate an amazing lunch that they made of us and later on in the day we had a throw ball match with the girls. Throw ball is similar to volleyball but instead of hitting the ball over the net, you catch it with only your hands (it can’t touch your arms or body) and throw it back over. It’s fun!
After leaving the school we headed to a tiny Dalit village about 45 minutes away. The Village stay was probably the best experience of my life. This is when I had a hard time holding back the tears. When I stepped out of the van and was greeted by about 50 local village people, shaking my hand, saying hello, jumping up and down, dancing, playing bongos, all for us, the Americans who came to visit. An elderly woman greeted us with wet face chalk, she placed three dots on my face and then women greeted us with flower water, putting their fingers into the water and then sprinkling the flower water onto our foreheads. The people were ecstatic. I’ve never seen anything like it. Once us students got over the initial shock of being greeted in such an extraordinary way, we started walking. We spent about 45 minutes walking 400 feet -- each few minutes the village people would stop, start dancing and then another woman from one of the families would come and put flower water on our foreheads. I think it was a welcome blessing. Then, once we all had gotten some of the flower water, the women would dump it on the ground in front of us. Once it was dumped, then we could proceed forward. This happened about 15 times. All the while, the village people were stopping to shake our hands, hold our hands, the children were amazed to see their faces after we’d taken pictures of them -- all they wanted was us to take a picture and then to show them. Not one of the village people had a camera or anything of the sort. Once we reached our destination, which was a small stage with chairs around it, the village people performed an amazing welcoming ceremony. I was truly touched last night. These people, who have so very little, gave us more than I could ever ask for. They decorated with Christmas lights and even had a couple of speakers. They performed dances, they sang, they showed so many talents… juggled fire, did back flips, a couple of magic tricks. These people must have worked SO hard to plan this night. They served us fresh coconut juice still in the coconut and home made chai tea. After they performed for us for about an hour, we all decided to do something for them. So, we all got on the stage and did the Hokey Pokey! We did it a few times and got the village children involved. They loved it! Then, we sang our National Anthem and Amazing Grace. They loved everything. After the welcome ceremony ended, we went up to the roof to do the meditation. The meditation was the perfect ending to an amazing day.
Last night we slept on top of the roof that we meditated on. It was a small roof made of brick with walls about 3 feet high around it. We spread our sleeping bags out and after we ate our box dinners, we laid under the stars. From 10pm to 5am it rained for 5 minutes, twice, dogs barked for an hour and a half, a man threw up around 3am, bugs crawled all over us (I put more deet on than I thought possible) and I saw 2 shooting stars. You can bet I felt filthy the next morning, but it was worth it. Oh, did I mention there are no bathrooms in the village? Yep, you go behind a bush. It was a crazy experience. But we were all so proud of each other for roughing it and for having this amazing opportunity to live like the villagers. This morning we got to see some of the village huts. We went into about 10 of them and saw how tiny they are and really got to see how these people live. The families usually had two huts - One was their “house” and it varied in size, usually the living area was about 10x10 and had a few clothes hanging inside, a calendar, a small mirror, mats and blankets for sleeping and maybe a small area for cooking inside. Some of the families had a small area for cooking outside. A couple families even had really old Tv’s. I don’t know if they even work, but I was surprised to see them. The second hut was usually a small hut for the cows, to keep them from the rain. Some families even had a special area for washing, some didn’t. Most probably just go outside in the bushes and wash themselves with buckets of water. Oh, most houses had some water jugs and bags of rice. The roofs are made out of wood and dead leaves from coconut trees. The leaves are strong and they look good for repelling water. After visiting the homes, we again received a small chai tea. It was so good -- I’m glad I finally got to taste real chai tea. We then got to just hang out with the village people for about an hour and a half. We played so many games with the children (Hokey Pokey, Down by the Hankey Pankey, London Bridges, Head, shoulders, knees and toes). We took pictures with all of the kids and the families. One girl even brought a Polaroid and took pictures of some of the families and gave them their pictures. Most had never had a picture of their family before so you can imagine how special that was for them. When it was time to leave, the Doctor from the School of Nursing (He escorted us to the Village but hadn’t stayed the night) had left some small gifts for us with the village people. They gave us small Indian calendars and small little brass candle holders, just like the ones we had lit the night before during the meditation.
Leaving was hard. These people touched my life in so many ways I never thought possible. Their smiles, even, were so special. They opened up their lives for us. This opportunity was a once in a lifetime chance to see how some of the poorest people (homeless people not included) live on a day to day basis. It was so life changing… I can’t even explain thoroughly how I was touched by what I experienced.
Kat, Sam and I got the address of one of the men from a family whose house we got to see. We’re not sure if we can read every letter, but we’re going to do our best to send the village some things when we get home. The village people did not ask for a single thing except for Pens. Many of them asked for a pen… we gave what we had, which wasn’t a lot because when you visit a village you don’t think of bringing pens to give out… Now I know what I will definitely send when I get home. Also, we’re going to send some pictures and I know I am going to find out how I can make donations to these Dalit villages. Also, while the Doctor was there, the village presented him with a letter and petition they had written out. Apparently, because the village is so rural, they haven’t received some of the benefits that most Dalit villages have received. The Doctor previously worked for the UN so he has a lot of ties to the Indian government. Hopefully this village will see some of the benefits (including a bigger water well) in the near future.
My time in the Dalit Village was the best time I’ve spent on any SAS trip, or any trip back home. I had had a negative view of India before I went to the village, but now my opinions have changed. I know that India is different and poor and underdeveloped, but that shouldn’t lead to a negative opinion from people. My experience with the rickshaw driver was bad, but I’m not going to let that ruin my time here. No, India wasn’t my favorite port, I didn’t even enjoy the port city. But my life has been changed by what I saw here, and that means more to me than anything.
On the other days in India I shopped and had a great Thai dinner. I fed wild monkeys at a temple near the beach in Mamallapuram, a wild monkey even climbed onto our ship at one point! I saw where Doubting Thomas stayed and did some of his work, it’s a church here in Chennai which was later named “St. Thomas Church”. I met Indian students at a welcome reception, I wore a traditional Indian Dance Sari, I ate Indian food. I truly got to experience another culture.
Sometimes, when we’re all together, us girls will just stop to remind each other that “Hey, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re going around the world!” It’s something we often say to put things back into perspective. When someone says that, we usually all stop and think for a minute before continuing the conversation. It never ceases to amaze us. Before I left for this voyage I thought I knew what an amazing opportunity it was, but even now as I only have 4 countries left to visit, I am still in awe of everything Semester At Sea has to offer.
In three hours we depart India and head for Egypt. We’ll be at sea for 10 days -- classes every day except for this coming Sunday, the 22nd. We have our Sea Olympics which is a MAJOR event here on the ship. I’m participating in two events and I can’t WAIT (The Events of the day include tug o war, synchronized swimming, obstacle course, scavenger hunt, suck n blow, root beer pong, flip cup, hair styling contest, dodge ball, volleyball, hot dog eating contest, and more) Plus we have a talent show and an opening ceremony where each sea gets to perform an opening dance. We’re the Caspian Sea (Hey-Oh!) and our colors are camouflage. Whichever sea wins the Olympics gets to have dinner with the captain in the faculty lounge and the FACULTY serve you your food and I believe the winning sea also gets to get off of the ship first in Florida. That could be a good thing, but sad as well. Our sea is psyched… we’ll definitely be either the winners or come in second place. Not to mention, our RD is the head of the Sea Olympics. Whoo hoo.
So I’ll be busy studying but also busy preparing for our awesome day on Sunday. Also, on Sunday it’s Steve’s 21st birthday, just so you know. Hi babe!
I better go turn in my passport before we depart or else I’ll get dock time (2 hours for like every minute you’re late… they are so strict about that!). Hopefully I’ll be able to use a phone in Egypt. Using the phone was easy here because it was right outside, but so difficult with the time differences and I always found myself running out of Rupees (Indian Currency) before I got back to the ship. No rupees, no phone time!
Final thought? A quote I saw plastered here in Chennai on a billboard: “Everyone always thinks of changing the world, but rarely thinks of changing themselves”
