Where in the World is Sudie?
Archive for October, 2008
Talking to my parents last week, I commented that my blog posts have become less frequent now that life seems to be normalizing. However, as they pointed out, those of you back home have no concept of what ‘normal’ looks like here. So, in an attempt to ameliorate this situation, I brought my camera on my morning walk today. I must warn you - these images offer a rather incomplete picture of my new surroundings. I don’t like to represent myself as a tourist, so I tend to hide the camera whenever people are watching. But this is an introduction to Aluva during the quieter hours of the day . . .
[The outside of Chacko Homes]
[The rubber trees that line the road outside Chacko Homes]
[St. Thomas - the Orthodox Church behind Chacko Homes]
[Kerala - the land of coconuts]
[My favorite street in Aluva . . . I haven't been down it yet]
[Pretty typical sight around Aluva]
[Auto Stand]
[The family of goats that hang out at my school bus stop]
Also, (I believe) I am now permanently settled! I moved into one apartment last month, and then relocated because another resident needed a ground floor room. Thus, I held off putting up pictures of my Chacko Homes abode until now.
[My Living Room]
[Bedroom Take One]
[Bedroom Take Two (WIth Kitchen)
[Bathroom . . . complete with bucket used for washing clothes]
Read comments (0)Youth Festivals are inter-school competitions, featuring events that range from trivia to classical singing, Hindi recitation to folk dance . . . and sometimes everything in between. I attended one this past weekend with a friend who teaches at Rajagiri Higher Secondary School. Here is a taste of the fusion dance competition. This particular dance tells the epic story of the emperor Ashoka . . .
I came to Kerala knowing one thing: that I had to learn Classical Indian dance. Thus, as soon as I heard that my school had a ‘Dance Sir’ who comes a couple days a week to teach our students, I went into action mode . . . I am now learning Bharatnatyam, a dance of southern India. In Kerala, dance teachers give private lessons, so I will be getting lots of personal attention as I navigate the intricacies of the art form. The downside . . . there’s no way I can hide my magnificent bumbling as I try, oh-so-hard, to get my feet and hands (and eyeballs) to coordinate.
I must say, I don’t know what I would do without Manju Miss (the same teacher who took me saree shopping). Not only did she help me set up my dance lessons, breaking the language barrier between James Sir and myself, but she also made sure I was prepared for my first class. It is tradition to present one’s teacher with a Guru Dakshina and a one rupee coin at the beginning of training, and Manju Miss ensured that I would not come across as the ignorant American, right off the bat . . .
[The Guru Dakshina]
Your eyes do not deceive you. At last . . . a picture of Sudie in a saree.
David and I attended our first Indian wedding last week! The bride, Sabeena, teaches at the Blind School in Aluva, where David volunteers and where I eat lunch on school days. Upon receiving an invitation to her wedding, I promptly scheduled a shopping date with Manju Miss (a teacher at Christava Mahilalayam with a keen fashion sense). She and her daughter, Tessa, took me shopping for my saree the Monday before the wedding, and I was able to get the blouse stitched just in time.
Sabeena’s wedding was in the Kollum District, a five hour journey from Aluva. Thus, the Blind School constituency piled into the van at 6:00 on Sunday morning in order to make it for an 11:30 ceremony. The drive only confirmed my already held belief in my inability to navigate the streets of India; we spent the five hours stopping at road-side stands, asking locals to point us in the right direction. Frankly, I’m amazed we made it, and there is no way anyone other than a Malayalee could have achieved this task. Upon arriving successfully, we sat through the half hour Muslim marriage ceremony, ate lunch off a plaintain leaf, and piled back into the van for our return trip.
Just for your information:
1) While it was easier to walk in this 5 meter piece of cloth than I originally expected, sarees are not particularly comfortable and they do cut off circulation around your middle section a wee bit.
2) David’s fancy-schmancy ’skirt’ is a mundu, and it is the traditional Keralite dress for such occassions. Although, I did find it rather amusing that the majority of the Indian men showed up in a western pants and shirt combo.
3) Meriting an invitation to an Indian wedding is a bit different than meriting an invitation to its American counterpart. Apparently, Indian weddings sometimes have as many as 1,000 guests in attendance, and anyone related to the bride or groom has the freedom to invite friends to come along. Although, I do feel fairly special that this particular invitation came directly from the bride =)
(Also, I do apologize for the delay in posting this blog . . . I have not been a good patron of the internet cafe lately.)
[The Tea Estate]
After taking Thursday to share our experiences and discuss the positive and negative aspects of our site placements, we took off to spend the rest of our retreat weekend in Munnar. Munnar is a lovely town in eastern Kerala, tucked in amongst the tea estates of the hill country. The beautiful surroundings and cooler temperatures made for a perfect escape. During our two days, we visited the Eravikulam National Park (where we got up close and personal with the Nilgiri tahr – one of the world’s rarest mountain goats), took a boat (during which we saw three wild elephants!), and poked around the tea estates and factories. And, of course, it was fantastic to spend some quality time with my fellow YAVs before sending them back to their sites on Sunday afternoon.
[David was excited about the Tahr]
[John and Me at the Tea Estate]
[One of the women picking leaves at the Tea Estate]
[Another woman at the Tea Estate]
[And another (there is a gendered division of labor in the tea industry here, and only women work picking tea in the fields)]
[YAVs at the Tea Estate]
[Lindsey and John in front of the lake where we went boating]
[John, Ariel, David, Becca, and Lindsey (post-enthusiastic jump into the water)]
For those of you who are not familiar with Barbara Cooney’s Miss Rumphius, I suggest you check it out from your local library. It was my favorite childhood book – one I have referenced in many an application essay throughout my life (including the one I wrote for the YAV program). For those of you who are both well acquainted with Miss Rumphius and keeping track of my blog titles, I know what you’re thinking. It is incredibly presumptuous of me to assume I’ll be able to complete all three tasks during my YAV year that the character of Miss Rumphius fulfills during her life. Of course, I am hopeful that I will leave India next August feeling I have contributed to making the world a more beautiful place. However, as of now, I’m not locking myself into a blog referencing task number three.
But back to the purpose of this blog: Ariel, Becca, Lindsey and John arrived from their respective sites south of Alwaye on Wednesday afternoon. After enjoying a phenomenal lunch (I think we all appreciate Kochamma’s cooking even more after eating in our sites’ dining halls), we had a couple hours to ‘take rest,’ and then were off to the beach! As most of you know, in Sudie lingo ‘ocean’ is a codeword for ‘therapy.’ And starting our weekend of debriefing and rejuvenating with a journey to Cherai Beach was fantastic. Achen and Kochamma told us it was appropriate to wear shorts at the beach and, I must say, walking out of the house with my knees exposed made me feel a little scandalous. It’s amazing what one month can do for your concept of modesty . . .
P.S. - For more pictures, I suggest checking out John’s web album.
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