Mice, Dogs, and (Dali) Lamas

Sun Jan 13 7:15 pm

Wow. It has been a quite an adventure since I last posted. Let's start with the highlights from where I left off.

On Wednesday night, our last night of official orientation, Vidiya Ji took the four girls who were in Varanasi at the time out to dinner at Hotel Diamond, a hotel where foreigners frequent. The food was sub-par, but that did not matter because the program was paying for it. The real fun came halfway through dinner when the mouse appeared. It was this tiny little thing, just chilling on the booth next to us. We were in India, so we did not think much about it. Besides this one was a lot cuter then the dead one I saw in the street today.  However, when it started climbing on Jessie we all lost it. Jessie has a history of animals from the street sharing her bed, including cats, mice, and voles, so of course it went for her. Then in it went to the plate of sugar and fennel (used as mouth freshener) that the waiter tried to serve us. Danielle yelled at them in her almost fluent Hindi, saying the mouse had been in plate, but they just laughed and insisted that the food was fine. Lets just say we all had stinky breaths for the rest of the night.

Thursday brought a once in a lifetime opportunity, for the Dali Lama was teaching in Varanasi. Jessie, Danielle, Alex, and I headed to Saranath (the location of the Buddha’s first teaching under the Bodi Tree). Our rickshaw dropped us off and we assumed that we were close and the teaching would be easy to find. It turns out that we were dropped off almost a mile away and we had to wander around asking for directions for about 45 minutes. We had no idea where we were. We finally got to a resort-looking place that had what we assumed was the Dali Lama over loudspeakers in the trees. But there were no people anywhere. We followed the loud speakers and eventfully found our way to the teaching grounds. However, we came in the back way, completely missed security, no one checked our passports or required papers, and no one questioned out presence in the staff only location.

Lesson: If you want to start an international incident, the Dali Lama’s security is pathetic. If you want to start a security business, stay away from the Buddhists. What do they care about security? They will just be resurrected in another life later.

We found a open place near the back and sat down. Jessie went on the hunt for radios so we could hear the translation and the rest of us just observed. The front two thirds of the section was filled with monks, each of whom been in those seats for almost all of the daylight hours for four days, and were somehow still attentive. The public section has a few monks, a few white faces, and then a random assortment of Tibetan people of all ages and backgrounds. Every few minutes a section of them would get up and perform some sort of ritual that involved standing then bending to the ground a few times. I am sure there was a reason to who and when, but I have no idea what it was. There were kids running around, and people talking while others were intently staring at some sort of scripture book.

The best part was the tea. We had run into some other travelers before we left and they told us that if we brought our own cups than we would get free tea. While the tea itself was really just warm milk mixed with a little masala, the servers were an event in themselves. The men that were serving fell into two groups, but both were carrying the tea in these HUGE metal teapots, almost as large as a standard bucket. One of the groups was young monks, every one of which was absolutely ripped. These guys would sprint with their tea, fill glasses as fast as possible, and then sprint back to refill their pots (Note: I do not say sprint lightly). The second group of servers was young men wearing school uniforms attempting to imitate the monks. They were far less successful. But it was fun to watch them try.

The English translator was not very good, and a little sick. He kept coughing into the microphone and would stop translating for long periods of time. He spoke in a monotone, and it was both hilarious and hard to understand. I did not get much of the teaching, but it was worth the experience nonetheless. Only in India can you happen to glace at a newspaper, see that the Dali Lama is speaking, and go the next day.

Right now I am sitting in my bed at the house I will be living in for the next few months and the dogs are going crazy. These two little things hated me the first day, but now I am almost able to pet them. Watching them eat is the funniest thing. For breakfast they have omelets and toast, for lunch today they had a banana and a sesame seed sweet, and for dinner they had rice. I kid you not; the dogs eat human food and are hand fed by my housemother.

Directions to get from my house to the program house, as given to me on my first day:

• Exit the door, and go right past the knockoff shoe hut. Keep walking past the big tree and the houses in the middle of the street.
• Turn at the goats eating garbage.
• Walk through the alley with temple on your left and a row of beggars on the right
• At the end of the lane take a right by the “Sober Look” sign with the Bollywood actor
• When you the five-way intersection take the one with the red signs. (Note: the one with the red and yellow signs is wrong)
• Keep going until you pass the building with all the billboards, and go between the two buildings opposite it.
• Take a right at the trash pile with the cows. (Stop and watch cows and puppies make friends)
•  Keep walking until you reach the program house. (Take a moment to put away all food, for the monkeys will attack you between the trash pile and the program house.)