India

The MV Explorer docked in Kochi, Kerala state, India about a week ago, and we spent six days in this incredibly diverse country. Of all the countries we're visiting, I was most apprehensive about this one. The population density, poverty, heat, political corruption, and exoticness might be a bit much, I thought. However, as we neared the country, many folks who have already been recounted tales of previous visits, and there were two very engaging interport students who gave great overview presentations of the country and Kerala specifically.

Our visit to Kochi was captured in some of the papers in India. Glad to know the locals were prepped for the invasion of 625 college students about to hit the town.

Every rickshaw and truck was elaborately painted and individualized. Religion plays a big role in the history and daily life in India. One of the Pavement songs mentions "Heaven is a truck"...

I've been taking an English class on Women Writers Around the Globe which examines women's roles in society and family as presented in short stories by women from each of the countries we're visiting. A UVa professor leads the class, and I'm really enjoying it. We had a field lab on our first day in India and visited the Chendamangalam village about an hour away by bus to hear about women's roles in a small village and a state-sponsored program called Kudumbashree which empowers poor women by providing an opportunity to earn an income through meaningful work and increasing their status in the social structure. The women weave textiles on old wooden looms and sell them in the local markets. Our hosts invited our class to their homestead and showed us a traditional dance and prepared a meal and then answered a Q&A about women's roles in the local town. Our questions were geared toward women's empowerment and examination of inequalities between the sexes, and the answers were an interesting mix of replies, which became a segue to my experiences of India: complex, contradictory, frustrating, accepting, hospitable, alienating, homey.

Traditional dance around the oil lamp at the Chendamangalam Village. It's a small village, by Indian standards, of about 30,000 people.

Namaste is a concept our hostess Valentina at the homestead in Chendamangalam described to us. India has many languages, states (much like states in the US), languages, and religions including Christian, Muslim, and Hindu. Namaste means essentially the god in you and it seems the people are willing to accept each other as they are and get along peaceably, so that works for me.

Jasper catches a snooze with Rihannon and Lucy on the way back from their trip to the backwaters.

Partly because of our apprehension in visiting, we planned to have various SAS-organized trips. I did my field lab on the first day, Ellen's dad went to the Taj Mahal, and Ellen and Jasper visited the Alleppy backwaters of Kerala. Okay, so we have the first day covered, and then the second day, Ellen, J, and I ventured out with about 35 students on a bus ride to the Munnar highlands for a two-day camping trip. We figured it would be good exercise, the students would be cool, and the altitude would make for nice temps. Right on all accounts: the hiking was beautiful among the tea plantations, the students were cool and definitely chose to be there and be active (as opposed, say, to a beach trip where you can just hang out and catch up on sleep), and the weather was much cooler at the 7500-foot altitudes than the 100+ temps at sea level. As usually happens when camping, it was a bit wet: there was fog in the first evening, rain on the second evening, soggy sleeping bags, and mud. It was roughing it, pit toilets and all, but the great thing was we didn't have to schlep all that gear to the campsite, and when we left we didn't have to pack up, clean, and put away all the tents and supplies. If only 24-hour races were that way...

Mountains near our campsite above Munnar.

Here are some tea plants and mountain fog outside of Munnar. We saw some monkeys nearby.

Jasper was very popular with folks, both men and women, in India.

Tea harvesting.

Sam has a fritter at the campsite. We ate well for those two nights we camped.

Our camping group took a 13 kilometer hike through the tea fields and walked through several small farming villages. We ate lunch at a field where this woman was herding goats. The ram was not listening to her and she clocked it with this stick.

We returned to Kochi with a couple days to explore. Sandy returned from his Taj trip, and there were lots of students on the organized trip to the mausoleum as well as many more who went there independently. We met up with Sandy in Fort Cochin, about 15 kilometers from the Willingdon Island where Kochi is located, formerly Cochin when occupied by the British. We saw some museums with modern sculptures and installations, and these were interesting but the older buildings they were located in were hot, so we cut the museuming short. The next day, Ellen had planned to meet up with a faculty mom and her daughters and some students to go buy saris and cloth textiles, and Jasper and I tagged along. There were 9 of us, and we crammed into two tuk-tuks, which are auto rickshaws–basically a large tricycle powered by a wimpy engine, narrow enough to slip through small gaps in traffic and light enough to get creamed by buses and trucks out on the highways. Half the fun and entertainment was watching the drivers slip through traffic and play chicken with each other. I had seen some motorbike accidents in Vietnam but didn't see any in India, but I think I saw more near-misses.

Modern art at the Pepper House in Fort Cochin. The video in the background showed violins exploding forward, backward, and in slo-mo.

Our drivers took us to the shop but, as is the practice, stopped at a few shops along the way since taxi and tuk-tuk drivers get a cut for bringing prospective shoppers. The faculty mom who organized the get-together and is married to the onship business professor who happens to teach at William & Mary had been in India several years ago for a month and knew how to negotiate and get to where we were going with minimal diversions. Her patience was a good model for us, because later that day Ellen, Jasper, and myself went off on our own to do some sightseeing and shopping. The first shop was great and fitted the students with saris of many vibrant colors. Jasper also got two pair of flowy Indian-style pants with elaborate patterns. Next up, we asked our tuk-tuk driver (and his co-driver) to take us to a grocery store so we could stock up on snacks. He took us to a small shop which had soaps, chips, crackers, candy, and sodas: perfect for the next couple stops where we'll be at sea for fairly long stretches. Next the driver took us to a couple shops which had nice things, a bit pricy for the tourists, but we didn't buy anything and were starting to feel like we were getting the run-around. The driver next took us toward the ship and said he'd make one last stop at a spice shop. It was a fairly small-looking building from the street with some teas and spices on shelves on the first floor. A sales agent then asked us to come upstairs and see what else they had, which happened to be cosmetics, statutes, tapestries, and clothing.

I was a little jealous of the clothing that Jasper and Ellen had gotten, so I asked if there were any traditional men's clothing, and I bought a long patterned shirt with traditional white cotton pants. Ellen found some nice scarves as presents for her coworkers. We passed on the silk bedspread and pillow case set, but it sure was beautiful. Yeah, it was a bit touristy, and the prices were probably a little higher than if we had found the same stuff in other stores, but it worked out well. Our tuk-tuk driver was glad we had bought some items, so we got back to the ship and he said we could pay whatever we wanted, "if you're happy, I'm happy."

Ellen and I borrowed a flag from one of the students for this cheesy pic. Students take pictures of themselves in exotic locales to send to parents as a thank-you for all the opportunities on the trip. Today is our anniversary, so thanks for the trip around the world, honey!

Namaste.