One Week, One Post

All right kids. I said I would back track, so here I go.

A few days ago I was sitting on the ghats minding my own business when a couple of guys showed up. Normally I would not have even let them talk to me, but for some reason I did. I made it very clear very early that I was not some dumb tourist and they were not going to get away with their normal crap. When a few minutes into our conversation they asked how old I was when I had my first kiss, I looked them squarely in the eyes and asked them if they would ask that to an Indian girl. The blushed and apologized. Go team.

I sat with the guys for almost two hours, talking about everything from math to marriage. They gave me their opinions on love and arranged marriage, told me about their lives and jobs, and asked me about mine. I had been practicing Hindi when they showed up so they helped me out, and I found out that they even knew Verindra Ji, my Hindi teacher, because they all live in the same neighborhood.

My first street food!

At one point another white girl walkd by and the boys reverted back to Indian maleness, catcalling her and being obnoxious. I yelled at them and they apologized, though to me, not to her. (Does that still count?)They never asked me for a hug or a picture, and right before they left they had me write down in my notebook the best Hindi phrases to get people to go away. They told me never to hesitate to use them on creepy boys, and they should work every time.

The next day Alex, Tania, and I went to dinner at Beck and Adam’s, our friends who live at the River Ashram. They are a newlywed couple in their late twenties and they are the cutest. They met when they were both working in missionary schools in Indonesia, and are now spending a few months in India. Beck is from Australia and the sweetest, blondest doll alive, while Adam is an Alaskan with dark hair and my kind of sarcastic humor. He is a breath of fresh air here, for the hippy culture is a little too politically correct and introspective for me.

Adam made a great vegetable curry and the best chocolate mousse I have ever had in my life. We spent the evening just chatting about home, family, future plans, and more. There were tons of laughs (mostly caused by me spilling things) and it was the most relaxed I have been in a while.

Friday brought a shopping day with the girls, where we all got great shawls and cheap jewelry. I got seven pairs of $1.00 earrings, knowing Safta would be proud. We went to Rahul Ji’s, our favorite shopkeeper and spent a million years there, just playing with his stuff. We had chaii made by wife, and I more or less took a nap on his floor. It was funny how much is shop felt like home after a long day of overstimulation.

Saturday was village day (see last post) and Sunday was spent at the River Ashram and watching the New Girl with some American friends

Baby in the cow food in the village

Monday was a crazy day in Varansi, for the Mela is ending and all of the pilgrims stop here to bathe before heading home. The ghats are filled with sadu tents, and tourists are everywhere. Because I needed to survey people for my research, I went out the Nitish, a field assistant with the program, and we spent three hours walking along the Ghats doing interviews. It was incredibly productive and incredibly fun. Since I was all the way downtown at the end of our walk, I stuck around for the Arti ceremony, and then walked home along the river in the moonlight.

Single most disgusting thing I have ever seen:

At this point in my life, when a cow stops in the middle of the road to pee I barely notice, so when one stopped right next to me last night and let it go I simply rolled my eyes. The man next to me was more intrigued. He cupped his hands under the stream of pee still coming of the cow, filled them up, and rubbed the liquid into his hair. He proceeded to use the moisture to style his locks. This is what we call devotion.

Tomorrow the program leaves for our spring break trip to Khadroho, so more about that later.

Things I hate:

• Western girls who don’t know how to cover up
• Men parading as Sadus, that are really just naked men covered in ash, who attempt to take advantage of foreigners and call me "sugar baby"
• People who are finding themselves
• The dogs that live in my house and are not potty trained. What is that all about?

Things I love

• Cheap Jewelry
• Street food
• Kheerkhadum and Ladu (Indian Sweets) and chocolate ice cream
• My tailor and his many birds
• The fist size puppy that showed up in the house last week
• The New Girl
•  the Aristacats