India According to Ashley

There are things about this place that don’t seem that out of the ordinary to me, but I think that is because I have lived in similar atmospheres before, i.e. Uganda. But there are some things here that are still very new and interesting to me. I figured I had better write them down before I get use to them and they become “normal” to me. I am not saying all these things are facts, it is just what I understand and have observed to this point.

1. Animals are everywhere (see previous post)

2. Men peeing off the side of the road—All THE TIME! Yeah I know, this happens in America some too, but here they don’t even try to hide it and it is men of all ages—not just little kids who didn’t listen to their mom about going to the bathroom before hitting the road.  I did see a little kid squat and go #2 on the side of the road the other day. I know I have seen this happen before but I don’t think I have seen it as blatantly as I have here. The other times I’ve seen it people were a little more discreet. Here they are just a little short of full on facing the traffic. Gross.

3. Some women have shaved heads—and I thought this was because of lice, and I am sure sometimes it is, but I also found out that in Hinduism, when a women becomes widowed she is expected to shave her head. There was a lady at one of the colonies whose hands were more or less stubs. She was making a big deal about telling us she shaved her head because it was easier to take care with her hands being the way they are. I didn’t understand how or why that mattered so much until after hearing that.

4. Driving really is like human frogger with all the different kinds of horns making the “video game” sounds. Driving in any third world nation is different but India takes it to a whole new level simple because of the amount of people (and animals) that are on the roads.

5. Indian Swimsuits. I am not sure if these were due to certain religious beliefs or what but on our rest day last week we saw a couple of different women wearing them. I am pretty sure I have seen these as outfits at Forever 21 but whatever.

6. The smells. India has a certain smell-spicy? I think I am starting to smell like Indian food though. My right hand is for sure. It kind of scares me. I like eating Indian food, but I really really REALLY don’t want to smell like it.

7. In front of most Hindu homes you will find paintings or designs drawn with chalk powder on the ground directly outside the front door. These are blessings/prayers for their house and for all who come inside. 

8. The dots. I have heard different things about them, but the one thing I am going to go with for now is that it is an outward symbol meant for remembering God. The line across the head that is more commonly seen on men means the same thing, lines are just more masculine then dots. Obviously?..?.. 

9. People will pay to ride the bus but then literally hang off the side of it. Like hang off the outside. So they aren’t even in the bus at all. Ill post a pic when I get one but basically it is a death wish—see #4.

10. Hindu Temples are the equivalent of LDS meeting houses in Utah. One on every street and corner. And probably some others squeezed in between for good measure. 

11. All Indians head bobble while they are talking. You have to really pay attention to their tone and exactly what they are saying because they can be telling you “no” for something but their head is moving so much that you swear they are shaking their heads “yes”. It keeps you on your toes to say the least.

12. All the girls wear flowers in the hair. I have come to love the smell of them, and the look too. I am a little to Caucasian to pull it off, but one of the nurses made us some one day. It was a little weird to move my head and have a petal or two fall off. Not only are the flowers pretty but they act as perfume too. No judgement for the pic though. hahaha

13. Community drinking containers—at lunch there is usually one pitcher of water and everyone at the table drinks from it. They are all very careful to dump it into their mouths without letting it touch their lips though. It is pretty entertaining to watch. I just use my own water bottle. 

14. I haven't met a mean local yet. Everyone has been very helpful. Not only are they helpful to me but I have seen a lot of them taking care of one another. Just the other day there was a crippled homeless man on the side of the road that some of the locals were helping out. It was heartwarming to watch. It wasn't this guy but the picture goes along anyway. 

I Live In a Giant Zoo

Yes it is true. There are animals E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. I don’t really mind it but it is defiantly something new. Africa didn't have this many animals running around everywhere, all the time. I have been here about a week and a half and I have seen (and most of them pretty regularly) either on campus or around the village/everywhere else too:

Cows (obviously—they are everywhere. Some are decorated with metal horn caps and flowers)

Chickens

Ducks

Goats

Dogs

Cats

Squirrels

Monkey (Don't know how to pluralize that word, but they all just had babies so there are a lot of them around-all sizes, and no, I haven’t attempted to touch a single one of them-even the little babies. We have to make sure the door to the kitchen is closed at night otherwise they come in and reek havok)

Lizards

Iguanas

Frogs

Toads

Bats

Birds

Crows (these make me feel like I am at Grandma Henderson’s house. All the animals do but especially the crows)

Lets not even get started on the bugs and insects

I am still waiting to see snakes and scorpions but as I mentioned before I don’t really want to see them. We have now been to two different colonies that reported someone in them had recently died of snake bites. One was an actual snake handler. Oops.  

Despite the jungle, life carries on. Mostly with the jungle,--more like intertwined with the jungle.  The BYU Nursing students came on Sunday. As we were doing orientation with them, the campus goats got through a gate they weren’t suppose to. As a result they were eating all of Mr. Twinkle’s (one of the three white ducks on campus) food. I tried to shoo them out myself but that wasn’t working so I called for reinforcement. I can only imagine what the BYU Nursing Students were thinking-getting a tour of campus while two sweaty scrawny girls were chasing around/trying to herd a couple of full grown goats out the gate. 

Welcome to India girls!! Where your always hot, sweaty, and sharing living space with at least 3 different kinds of animals at all times!

Bathing in the Bay of Bengal

Saturdays are our rest days, but we usually don't rest, we usually play really REALLY hard. This Saturday we went to Mamallapuram, which is a beach town on the Bay of Bengal. There was a lot of fun little shops, a couple of Hindu temples, ancient ruins and VERY good restaurants. I actually got spaghetti and beef meat sauce! Cows are SO sacred here so I didn’t think it would ever be able to find it as food let alone eat it—so I didn’t pass up the opportunity. I may of well have been snorting lines of cocaine as far as some locals were concerned, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t see me eating it and I had my garments on while doing it so I think I will be okay.  Garments kind of work as automatic protection from everything right?

So there are some funny story about this little outing—and some of them do contain some biologically friendly subject content so if you don’t want to hear about it you can stop reading now.  I’m planning to have these posts made into a hard bound book/journal of my time in India so there are simply some things I’m not going to cut out for readers sake. This is my life as I know it right now-the good, the bad, and the biologically friendly aspects.

Anyway, we have different vehicles that take us around. Most of the time they are older Land Cruisers with no air conditioning or big vans with semi-working air conditioning.  But for whatever reason we were driven in a very new and very nice Toyota for our beach trip.  It was in excellent condition with working air conditioning AND seat belts.  Our whole ride we were joking about how we felt like movie stars being shuttled around in our swanky car. So imagine our surprise when we were repeatedly stopped and requested to take pictures with people as we were walking around the shops and down to the beach.  I am sure it was because we were white-we always get double takes and draw a lot of attention since we are so different. Most little children tend to react like this:

(And yes that is a real picture I took at the new student medical training clinic the other day.)

But regardless of the reason, the picture requests were hilarious and only added to our ongoing movie star joke for the day. After a morning of exploring, we went to a resort that has its own pool and a private beach. Imagine my surprise when I went to change into my swimsuit and discovered that things that don't ever happen for me were happening-and were happening in a big way. I was kind of panicking some because A) This is not ideal to deal with in India B) and REALLY NOT ideal to deal with at a beach/swimming resort in India because even IF I was able to find ample supplies to deal with said happenings there are no swimming friendly supplies in this entire country/part of the world. And that is 100% true—no exaggeration. And last but not least C) this is really happening? I was feeling immediately less movie star-ish and all I could think about was if I had single handily ruined the nice movie star car by leaving what is essentially my insides smeared across the front seat. After some exploration, it was discovered that there was nothing for me except for possibly in the next town that I could of asked my driver to take me too or walk too—but that wasn’t really possible because have I mentioned that May is the hottest month in India? And it just so happens that this particular May is the hottest May India has had in 7 years. Awesome right? So what a deflated movie star to do?  Bath in the Sea of Bengal of course.

We don’t go anywhere alone in India so myself and three others walked down to the beach-which happened to be REALY angry and was marked red for swimming conditions—meaning you really should not enter at all but for sure not very deep which kind of sucks for discreetly bathing purposes. But whatever, I really didn't have any other option so I go running into the water. And it was brutal. I tried to jump a wave and ate it when I hit the ground because the water was so powerful. It schooled me. 100% schooled me. And then it knocked the air out of me a time or five. And got a lot of sand in the places I was trying to clean up. It wasn’t pretty. But luckily for me my seat in the movie star car was still pretty. Thank all that is holy it was very pretty and squeaky clean.  

Washy Wash Wash

For the last two days of colony last week I was on washing duty. This requires helping patients soak their feet in antiseptic solution, cleaning the ulcers with towels and covering the ulcers so they stay uncontaminated on the way over the the next station--bandaging. It is hard for me to explain what it was like to do this. It was humbling for sure, not only to touch the ulcers, but to handle their feet-or what was left of their feet-as well. It is common for people with advanced leprosy to have missing fingers and toes-this happens because one of the main things leprosy attacks are the nerve endings, causing the fingers and toes to curl and solidify which usually leads to irreversible damage. Some times it is so bad that they have to have limbs amputated. I did have a few patients who were missing limbs over the last couple of days. I don't think I will never forget watching one man specifically take off his prothesis and crawl/drag himself over to my station for washing. I felt a big sense of responsibility to make sure that it was done right and done well and that every person who came to me to wash their feet knew that they were of worth. Sometimes it is really hard to know if I am accomplishing that last one when I can't carry on a conversation with them.

Out of sensitivity, I did not take any pictures of their sores, but if you look up leprosy ulcers pictures online there are a lot that look pretty similar to the sores I see everyday. The pics are not for those with weak stomachs--you have been warned. I have been amazed with the size and depth of some of the ulcers. There was one today that had active green infection on/in it. One thing I hate, and I might of mentioned this before, but the flies automatically swarm as soon as their bandages come off. If I did mention it before I will mention it again because it is still really hard for me to see.

The majority of students that come to our school are children from within the leprosy colonies we work in. This is to help them have opportunities that would never be there for them otherwise--due to the caste system they are automatically signed up for a life of begging and probably the eventual contraction of leprosy themselves. The kids to not come back to school until June 1st, but I have met some while out in the colonies.We also had the new students medical exam clinic on campus the other day-It makes me really excited to have the kids come back to campus. I am sure it will be a little bit of a mad house when they do, but a welcomed mad house. Just look at how cute they are!

Snake God

And now for the aforementioned Snake God story.

After colony the other day (the Superstar day) we also made a visit to a tree that had this certain kind of flower. Hindus believe (according to my understanding) that the Snake God, Shievalinga, sits in the middle of this flower. Naga, that is represented by the curl and pokies that overhang the middle of the flower, is the sacred snake that accompanies and protects Shievalinga as she hang out there. I for one would never associate something so pretty with a snake, but then again I've never been a big fan of snakes in any way, shape or form.  

But the flower is pretty amazing.
Cool story huh.

Superstar

Every day this week I have gone with the medical team to the leprosy colonies. I have really enjoyed it,  but if I am completely honest it has been an emotional roller coster too. I love that I have the opportunity to do this, to have been trained and be able to help these people in such a unique and important way. I have started forming friendships with the medical staff which I have loved as well. We have had many adventures in the last three days, including a flat tire and a visit to the flower of the Snake God tree. Those things were really cool, I will have to write in more detail about them later though. Back the the colonies.

At the first colony I was on the blood pressure and blood sugar test rotation. After we had finished we walked up the road to visit one of the members of the colony that didn't need to come see us but was having a hard time because her married and pregnant daughter committed suicide a few days before, and she wasn't able to make it to the funeral because of her health. I have learned that grief is very universal. I saw so much of myself in her, in the look on her face. My heart literally hurt some.

I felt a lot of anger at the second colony. The first colony we went to was separate from the main village, it basically was its own little development, and looked just like the main village in structure, materials, etc. So yes it was segregated but it was the same level of housing as everyone else. The second colony was within the main town, but it was clearly different then its surroundings. Don't get me wrong, the staff of the colony was great, and the patients has cement rooms to live in like a lot of other people here do, but the thing that rubbed me wrong was the chain-link fence around the colony. I know I haven't been here long, but I haven't see another chain-link fence anywhere else. Fences and walls are common, but they are  made with cement or metal. But the chain-link made me angry because it reminded me of a zoo. Like the patients in the colony were just animals in a zoo-being kept away from everyone else but without much privacy either. Like they were in a cage and could be watched. I was on bandage removal at this colony, which I don't think helped much either because a lot of the bandages were dirty and moist. Most had a particular stench to them and sometimes sand and pieces of leaves were on them too. When I would get them off, the flies would immediate be there, landing wherever they could on the ulclrs-I would try to shoo them away, and the patients would as well, but seeing that didn't help my already riled up human rights part of me because it just seemed to strengthen the appearance of these people being labeled by society as animals. Generally, the patients seemed to be happy-ish though, which of course was a plus. I was just really riled up inside.  

When we were unloading the van there was one man specifically  who looked at me and gave me the biggest smile and waved. I removed his bandages later on, and we "talked" the best we could through different languages and hand motions. After he got his new bandages, we went to him room and got some pieces of material/socks that he wrapped over the new bandages-in what I am assuming was an attempt to keep them clean until the next time we come. I was dumping water over by him and he was so excited to show me how he was going to help keep his bandages as clean as possible. There was a low hanging roof that one of the other volunteers hit his head on when walking over to where this man and I were, and the man tried to warn him before by failing his hands in front of him. It obviously came a little to late, but then the man went off for a few mins about the roof and how he sometimes hits his head and how it hurts, etc. Of course this was all through hand motions and his native language too-but somehow we were able to communicate still. I asked him if I could take a picture of him (we always have too ask before taking pictures in the colonies) but his face lit up and he shook his head and stuck the best pose ever. Look at how cute he is! I LOVED his personality. He was the colony superstar for sure. He made me smile and laugh despite the anger I was feeling over that stupid chain link fence. 

 Afterwords, we drove up the road and visited a hospital along with the abandoned volunteer camp that went with it. I guess a lady from Belgium ran it for years and overall it was a very large and successful operation that helped people with leprosy as well. She died some years back, and things have mostly fallen apart since then, which is sad but exploring it was really cool! My sister Nicole loves exploring abandoned ghost towns and such--she would of loved this! The flower pictures are from the circular room where they laid her body for viewing after she had died. Maybe one day I will buy this place, make it functional again and carry on her work. :) A girl can dream right? 

Leaping Lizards

There are a lot of creepy crawling things here. More so then home for sure. Particularly frogs and lizards. And snakes, but I haven't see one personally yet so I am still ignoring them for the time being. The staff said there was one in the children's hostel yesterday though. Gross.

There are two creatures I have not been able to ignore though--geckos and frogs. They like our living area, the frogs particularly love the bathroom. In fact my first time using the bathroom here I walked into a stall that had a little frog friend, so I ended up going to the next one. This has happened a few times, with my record being 2 stalls before I found a frogless one. They are not huge frogs but I am going to avoid the unpleasant situation of squatting over a hole and having a frog jump on me mid-mission. I tired to get a pic of them for my nieces and nephews the other night. There was a "larger" smaller white one and a smaller dark one, but it was so humid that all my attempted pics were blurry because of the condensation. Wiping it off the lens didn't matter either because it came back immediately. (Yes it really is that hot and humid) Just when I gave up trying to get a pic of them, the white one attacked the smaller green one. Luckily the little guy got away, but I almost stepped on him or another frog who looks just like him early this morning. Poor little guy(s). 

The geckos don't bother me too much, they were all over in Africa too so I guess I kinda expected them. In fact I kinda like their chirping. However I went to pull a bag out from under my bed the other day-and there was a pretty good size gecko just sitting on the bag staring back at me. It scared the bejezzers out of me. I may have jumped up and away. May have. He jump and scurried away pretty quick after I found him, but I now have a little bit of anxiety every time I go to get my bags out--which is multiple times a day. I just hope that the the only creatures I find on my bags are geckos, and not scorpions or snakes or mice or whatever else. Although I'll be sure to tell the story if I do find one of those things. If they doesn't kill me first.

 

My New Home

On the bright side the plane ride from Dubai to India was amazing--mostly because I cant remember any of it. I boarded, put my seat belt on, and the next thing I remember was being poked to get up and eat my dinner, which I head bobbed in and out of consciousness over for a minute until I was poked to get ready for landing. Best. Flight. Ever.

Customs took a bit of time so by the time I exchanged money, got my bags, etc. I didn't make it out to meet my driver (Williams) until 4:00 AM. The first thing he said was "You are very late. A whole hour." He seemed to be driving to make up for the hour delay, with a stop here and there for tea and gas, but apparently he always drives like that. I was still kind of asleepish anyway so whatever. The times I was awake I did have a little bit of an emotional time driving to campus--but good emotional. The smells and sounds and sights and busyness (yes even at 3:00 in the morning) felt so "normal", it instantly was comfortable and reminded me of Africa. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of knowing that this is exactly where I am suppose to be for the time being, it was almost like I was being welcomed "home". Ironic I know, but that is the best way I can describe it.

Since getting here I have been TRYING to adjust to the time--the most common questions I get everyday is, "Ashley, are you tiered?" because apparently even if I don't feel it I look it all the time.
The food isn't exactly Bombay House, but its still good, just VERY spicy. There were a lot of laughs from the locals during my first meal. They were sure to inform me that even though I thought so, the curry really wasn't spicy at all. Awesome. Other then adjusting physically I've been doing a lot of training--medically, technically, doing inventory, getting to know that staff, etc. The first session of volunteers comes this Sunday--the group of BYU nursing students. I am SO grateful for this time I have on campus to get oriented and organized before everything starts. I don't know if I could do it if I didn't have this time.

I LOVED being able to go to church on Sunday. Going to church in a foreign county has become one of my favorite things to do simply because I am away from some of the cultural things are so engrained/mixed into the gospel and church at home. At church on Sunday there were women in pants, people who had nose rings, their belly's showing through the side of their sari's, etc. BUT NO ONE CARED! There were no feminist pant wearers, no rebels with body art, what was important was that they were there and together we had all gathered as brothers and sisters in the gospel to learn about and strengthen our relationship with God. I know not everywhere at home is like that, it is just something that becomes so blatantly obviuos when I experienced church some place else, outside the highly saturated church memberships areas I've always lived in. And there was the cutest little girl in front of me. She was probably only 8 months old or something but she had little bangles on with the dot on her forehead. She melted my heart.

Details on Dubai

But first things first, if you want Namuli Jewelry while I am living away, contact me directly and I will direct you where you need to go. 

That being said, I am going to transition the blog for personal use while here in India. It will just be easier then making a whole new one just for this part of my life. Soooooo...Onto the good stuff!

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Dubai. It just seemed so enchanting and mysterious--and I felt like every time I turned around there was all this "world best", and "worlds biggest" and "world tallest" and "worlds first" intros to places in Dubai. So I wasn't arguing when I bought my ticket to India and had a 13 hour layover there. Lucky for me I have an Aunt who lives in Saudi Arabia--which is about a hour plane ride distance away--who said yes to my invitation to come spend the day in Dubai with me. It was crazy--there were a few points during the day that I would turn to her and be like "Um...we are hanging out with each other in Dubai. Just spending time in the Middle East together like it is no big deal." It was pretty surreal. Never in my life would I ever of guessed this would have been possible let alone happen. Then again, there are a lot of things in my life that feel that way--like moving to India for example. 

Needless to say, the plane rides leading up to Dubai were a little rough on me. I can usually sleep pretty well on planes but for whatever reason that really wasn't happening for me this go around. I was in the middle seat 2 of my three flights, so I couldn't get out and move around easily and didn't have much water of fluids in general so by the time I got to Dubai, I was totally inflated. Like so swollen that I needed to get another pair of shoes ASAP because my current shoes were cutting into my feet and all my other pairs of shoes were checked. 

Turns out the biggest mall in the world is in Dubai, so I was in luck. But before I could actually get there I needed to meet up with Jen, whose flight was a little later then mine. We had arranged to meet at the car rental office. I was going to go to her terminal, but then she thought she would come to my terminal--so there was a little bit of wait time until we found one another--which I spent chillin with the guys at the car rental office. I am pretty sure that as a women I shouldn't have gone in there and just talked to them, but in my defense I stayed outside for a while until they so graciously invited me in. They kept asking who I was waiting for and kind of teasing me, but all were relieved and excited to see that my Aunt found me in the end. And probably that she really did exist because I think they were starting to wonder.

We caught a cab to the Dubai Mall (which PS if you are ever in Dubai know that they charge extra for the Lexus cabs). I really wanted a certain pair of shoes and I figured that the biggest mall in the world would be bound to have them, but it turns out they didn't so I ended up with some new Adidas instead. They were a good price, and red but none of that matters simple because I have never been so happy for tennis shoes in my life. We decided to branch out as far as food goes and went with--The Cheesecake Factory.  :) It tasted exactly the same as home so we were both pretty happy camper. 

After lunch we started seeing the sights. I loved the architecture, and that the city was so clean. I told someone on the flight over that I was going to spend the day in Dubai and they called it the Las Vegas of the Middle East. I would say that is true, because it has the same extravagant and artistic buildings and water fountain shows, etc. except for Dubai is way cleaner. Both in physical appearance and activity wise. I am sure there is still some shady things that go on in Dubai, but they are not shoved in your face like they are in Las Vegas. We were not able to get tickets to do a lot of things since it was Friday, and Friday is the holy day for Islamic nations, but there was still plenty to see and do. We drove out onto the man made palm tree island, visited a more traditional arabian market place, sweat a WHOLE LOT and still made it back to the airport in plenty of time.

And the airport. When I was going back through customs the man asked me for my passport. He was taking a while with it though, and kept looking at it and then looking back at me, looking at it and looking at me. Im starting to get a little nervous thinking there is a problem or that someone had switched my passport for theirs or something. Finally he asks:

"When did you have this picture taken? Was it a long time ago?"

Me: "Well yeah, it was about six years ago."

"Oh yes I can see that, your face is very skinny in it. Now you look very different. You have put on some pounds."

Me (Ahem): "Yes, yes I have." (What I actually said)

What I really wanted to say: "And you, my friend, are a man wearing a dress with a veil on your head so back off!!!!"

I refrained though. 

The worse part of that story is that as I was going to board the plane, I noticed that I had some toilet  paper stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I have no idea how long it had been there--but the idea of holding my head up high and walking away from the man who said my face is fat enough that I actually look different with even the slight possibility that I was dragging toilet paper after me along the way makes it that much more NOT awesome. Sometimes I forget how cool I can be.