Temple Complex, Construction, and Holy Crap! I'm 22 years old... O.o

So, I need to write about two adventures today, so that I'm somewhat caught up in my telling.

So, yesterday, we were actually allowed to go to a temple complex. It's basically a place where there are a lot of

shrines to many of the Hindu gods and goddess. It was interesting to visit and to participate in some of the receiving of the blessings as well as spiritual in it's own way. I may sound slightly condescending when I say it like that, but it's true. All religions have a piece of the truth, and I could definitely feel it in that complex. It was just kind of cool to see how much those that were with us, like Krishnayya-garu, Sallaja, Siddu, and Mahdu, how worshipful they were, even if the ritual there didn't make sense to us. It made sense to them and they believed it with all their heart. It made me look at the way that I worship my own religion. Am I as diligent as I should be? Or can I do better in my own worship to God? Wow...that's deep, even for this blog.

Anyway, that was yesterday, not a lot happened after that. I got my first interview actually. So that was good, I just need to transcribe it and set it down on paper...electronically at least. :)

And today was actually a pretty relaxing day. We had breakfast and Telugu class like always, but the health students actually had a trip to a government hospital planned today. As I had my first interview yesterday, as well as some other transcripitions that I needed to get caught up on, I had decided to stay behind. But I wasn't able to get much done, for as soon as I came back to my apartment to work on my laptop, the power here went out. And it stayed out for about three hours! I only had a few minutes worth of time on laptop, so I could only get a few minutes written up as well. I soon shut down my laptop and just read a book on my Nook for the next few hours, hoping that the power would come back on but it didn't. I soon go hot enough to just go outside where there was a breeze at least. It was at this point that I started to watch the construction that is going on across the street from my apartment. It was actually quite interesting to watch and compare it to American forms of construction. For one thing, the majority of the the mixing of the individual parts of concrete are done by hand. They have huge piles of gravel and sand piled in the streets and they cart about 3-4 boxes of both into the concrete mixer a long with a bag of the concrete binder. This then has water tossed into it as it's being mixed. All of this is basically being done by hand. Once it's mixed enough, it's dumped into a bin that would then take it up to the top floor, where they are laying the next floor of the apartment building. What is also interesting to note is that the workers are allowed to work in short skirts and men's button up shirts for the women, and t-shirts and shorts of the men. No one in the higher castes are allowed to do this. It's said that the more skin you show, the lower your caste, as that means you perform manual labour. It's part of the reason we're not allowed to wear shorts here. But to my reckoning, the lower caste have the better part of the deal when it comes to heat. They're at least allowed to wear shorts. I'll hopefully be able to get pictures tomorrow. I was stupid enough to not take any today while I was observing...

After I watched that for a while, I then headed to the house to read John Adams a book Oliver lent me to read about the life of John Adams, obviously, the second President of the United States. It's really interesting, but I'm having a hard time focusing on it. This was around the time the others came back, in which we then had lunch and just lazed around for about an hour. Luckily the power came back on, so I was able to plug in my laptop to charge for the afternoon. After we had all eaten and relaxed, it was time to go out and purchase food for my birthday dinner. My friends here, the health students, helped me celebrate my birthday today. It was nice to have someone to celebrate it with, as I can't be with you this year. But yeah, we went to a grocery store to pick up cheese, salsa, and corn for Navajo tacos, and then we went to a bookstore. That was part of my birthday wish: a bookstore and chocolate cake. Once we got back, I started reading one of my new books, called The Temporal Man by Micheal Crition. It was really interesting. I wasn't really allowed to help with my dinner, which was kind of nice. Kendra, Jamie, Oliver, Westen, and Lizze all helped cook Navajo tacos for dinner. And Krishnayya-garu had gotten me a chocolate cake! All in all, it was a pretty good day. :)

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

P.S. I'll post pictures from my birthday soon, promise!

Monsoons, Rainstorms, Gitam, and Beaches

Yeah, it's been a while since I've written, but for good reason. 1) We had a monsoon a few days ago, and that completely knocked out wifi power for the next day, 2) not a whole lot as been going on, just a lot of sitting around and reading books, and 3) the days I did have something, I was busy enough to not have time to write, so there we go. At least I'm writing now.

So, on May 22, we went to the health students' main source for their project Dr. Pravakah's (?) guru's meditation temple. It was a beautiful place. Seriously the most beautiful place that I have seen since I have been here. And so quiet too, it was amazing! While we were there, we were able to meet with a guy that lives there, in that complex by orders of the guru. He, his wife, and 10 servants live there to take care of the place as well as just live there. I'm actually kind of jealous of where they live, as it's a small 16x16 foot area house that seems like it would be perfect for just a couple. They would either have to be a
college couple with no kids, or a retired couple, but it would be a perfect place to retire. But I'm getting side-tracked. When we first got to this meditation complex, we actually went into the meditation temple, where people apparently come to just sit and meditate. I can see why, it's a beautiful area and very quiet. The most quiet that I've had since coming to Vizag.

After we went explored the temple a bit, we were allowed into the back of the complex, thanks to Dr. Pravakah (?) and to meet and talk with the man that is retired there. I, sadly, didn't catch his name, but he is the man that introduced the apartment complex to Vizag. It made him a very rich man. He and his wife though are so humble and sweet that you wouldn't have guessed that they were so rich in the first place. So we talked with them for

a while. Well, Dr. Nuckolls, Dr. Pravakah (?) and the other man talked, the rest of us just enjoyed the breeze, the greenery, and the quiet of the place. We were then allowed, or rather taken, to explore this back area of the complex. That's how I know that the house that the man lives in is 16x16 foot, as he told us as he took us inside to see. But the main attraction of the house was the house where the guru will stay when he is here in Vizag. It looks like a mushroom, it's really cool. And it has a moat, that when snakes come out, will be filled with water so that no snakes get into his house. It was all really cool, and I really wanted his house as well. Who doesn't want to live in a highrise and not share with anyone else? ;)

Anyway, once we were done there and heading on our way back, we looked out the back of our rickshaw and saw that there were storm clouds coming in, with lightening. It was pretty cool to see, and we were excited as rainstorm equals a cool night and easier sleeping. When we got back though, Dr. Nuckolls said that the monsoon season was supposed to be coming early, by about 5 days. While we were talking with Dr. Nuckolls and Krishnayya-garu, we noticed that the park that's right across the street from us was finally open, so we asked to go exploring it. When we got inside, the wind had started to pick up some and it had started sprinkling. We stayed in the park for a bit and the wind started to pick up more, but when we heard a HUGE crack! we decided that we needed to run back to the house, as we didn't want to be in the park if the wind picked up more and coconuts started falling from the trees. But once we got back to the house, the wind started to roar and the rain that was just sprinkling earlier started to come down in sheets! What was supposed to be just a normal rainstorm, turned into a monsoon! The monsoon season had arrived earlier than anyone had thought! It was kind of scary, but cool at the same time! The wind started to pick up so much that TREES snapped and branches fell as well as some power lines snapped and fell as well. We all stood outside and just watched as the rain came down in sheets and wind was crazy strong, but that part only lasted about 10 minutes. After wards, it just turned into a normal thunderstorm. As soon as the monsoon as started, the power company cut the power, so we all just sat outside and enjoyed the rain. It was actually kind of relaxing.

So, that was a monsoon. We're now officially in monsoon season and it's actually pretty nice. It means that the heat dies down from what it was, the humidity is less and there's going to be more rainstorms. Which is my next story. Yesterday, it was basically a rainstorm all day. Just rain falling down all day, so it made it really nice and cool. After church, we met with Dr. Nuckolls for the last time, as yesterday was his last day
here in Vizag. After that, we headed out to Sudha's

place, where we basically spent the afternoon getting to know Sudha and her family. They even took us to the beach, which is still the same beach that we usually go to, but up further from us and much nicer looking. It was really nice of them to take us to the beach, as well as take time out of their day to just let us hang out at their house. But they are a really nice family, and just a humble family as well.

So yeah, that's basically been my adventures these past few days. Not a lot going on, so not a lot to write about, but what I have done have been some exciting adventures.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Temples and Fish Feasts

So my day yesterday turned out to be pretty good. I already told you about my first interview/source of Dr. Paul.

After that, the health students and I were actually able to go to a temple in that was about 30 kilometers up the coast from Vizag. It was the main temple of the guru of Dr. Prakabrah (?), the health students main source. It was actually a pretty cool temple, it was a new temple as well, built within the last 8 years I think was what it was called. And it was beautiful! So beautiful, and don't worry, I got pictures of the outside at least, as we're not allowed to take pictures of the inside, where the shrine it. Dr. Nuckolls hadn't seen the temple either, so he was very interested to see all of the carvings on the wall and such. Now, some of the carvings were....interesting, to say the least. They had carvings of people having sex. For Hindism, it's not a big deal, but for Mormon students from BYU it was a bit strange to see carvings like that on a temple wall.

I also had a banana at the temple yesterday. I actually liked it too...which is strange for me, you know that I'm not the biggest fan of bananas, but these bananas are delicious! A lot better tasting rather than ones that we have the United States. So I'll actually be able to eat the bananas here, but I still don't think I'll be able to eat the ones in the States...they still don't taste all that good, especially now that I've eaten ones here.

So after the temple, we went to eat in the Jalari (fisherman) village where Dr. Nuckolls has a house and where his family lives. It was excellent! And it was kind of cool, we got to eat on their roof, had rice (obviously), two different types of fish, and mangoes! I love the mangoes here, they're in season and so they taste amazing!!! And I actually liked the fish, which is unusual for me. But it was really good fish. But again, I don't think I'll be able to find fish like that in the States so I probably won't eat as much there as I would here, were we to eat there again. And a lot of people were in this tiny little house, a lot of them having traveled from a ways a way, just to see us. And they all wanted their pictures taken of themselves, and them with Dr. Nuckolls, and them with us, and just a lot of pictures. I'll send some to you so that you can see what I'm talking about. It was cool though, after the dinner, we all just sat around asking them questions through Dr. Nuckolls and having some of the younger ones teach us words in Telugu. It was pretty fun, as there are some sounds that are harder for us to pronounce, so we end up not saying what we should be saying. 

All in all though, yesterday was a fun time. We were able to have delicious food as well as visit an awesome looking temple. A typical day for us in India. And it was a great day! I hope that everyone back home is doing all right and that they are enjoying their dry summer where ever you are!

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

Gitam Unviersity and Sand Crabs

So, yesterday there wasn't a blog post for two reasons:

1) It was a long and busy day

2) I don't really have an excuse other than we didn't make it to the cafe...

Anyway, my adventures yesterday dealt with tagging along with the public health students and the beach. We had a bit of a full day. We first went to Gitam University Hospital. One of their main sources, a man called Dr. Prabrakah (?) had invited us to come visit the hospital that he is helping with. It's still being built at the moment, but some of it is in operation already. They are also building a medical college to be right next to the hospital as well that will house 150 students and they'll be able to do their residency at the Gitam Hospital. That is impressive, as is the hospital itself. It's going to be 12 stories high, as well as have measures in place to move their patients from floor to floor in case the power goes out, which happens quite a lot here. It's already gone out twice today.

Anyway, after Gitam Hospital, we went to Gitam University to our translator, Suddha's, house for lunch. Her and her husband, Dr. Krishnayya's brother, had invited us to lunch with them, and boy, did they provide us a lunch of a life time. They literally fed us till we were stuffed and then some. We first had a really delicious vegetable soup, then these pieces of chicken. We then had a mutton and chicken roll-up. It resembled a burrito, other than the fact that it was Indian. After that came the main course of rice, always, and several sauces/meats that we mix into the rice to eat. It was delicious, but a lot of food. They take lunch here very seriously, it's their biggest meal of the day. And then we had fruit salad and ice cream for dessert. That was lunch!!! It seemed, quite literally, a feast! And it was delicious! I love the food here. It's cool though, you are expected to usually eat with your right hand here. Your left hand shouldn't touch your food, as your left hand is thought to be dirty, nor should it touch the serving bowl, spoon, or anything else for that matter really. So, Richard, you might have a little bit of trouble trying to eat here. ;)

After that delicious, delicious, lunch, we headed back to the apartments, took a shower, which felt great! Then we all headed to the beach. Funny story first though. On the way home from Suddha's we actually got a ride from the Gitam Hospital Ambulance. So image Sallaja and Gowri's worry when an ambulance pulls up in front of the house and we start piling out of it. Sallaja and Gowri are Durga's helpers, just so you know. But once we explained that we were just riding in it, that no one was actually hurt, they both started cracking up. I love it when they love, they just let it all out, it's just fun to laugh and get them to laugh. :) 

So, the beach. There's a beach within walking distance here, and everyone takes advantage of it. Now, let me tell you something. The first time we went, it was late in the afternoon of a very hot day and I was very cranky. So this time, I really didn't want to go, but I did so anyway. I am glad that I did. It was worth it this time. We left for the beach at about 4:00 4:30 yesterday afternoon and walked the beach. It's about a 15-20 minute walk, and we have to go through a beautiful park to do so. We ended up taking a lot of pictures, both in the park and at the beach. It's cool though, I told you that people here love taking pictures with us and shaking our hands, right? Well, in the park, a man pulled his two little boys up to us and asked us to shake their hands. We did so, then he asked if we could take a picture with them. It was kind of cute, as the littlest boy didn't want to shake our hands or take a picture with us. :) Then once we got down to the beach, Oliver was taking pictures of Lizzie, Kendra, and I and another family, a mother this time, brought up her two little girls to take pictures with us. Only this time, I took the pictures, as did Oliver, and we just showed her the pictures. So if you even just show them the pictures here, they're happy. It's pretty cool.

A really cool, old Lighthouse that they have
on the beach. It's not in use anymore, but it
looks awesome!

We then walked about the beach, taking pictures and being dorks. Just doing things that everyone does at the beach, and we finally found Weston and Jamie. We had gotten separated from them in the park, but we all ended up near the lighthouse that is one the beach there. So we took pictures of everyone and just enjoyed our time there. By the time we started heading back, it was getting dark and the crabs were coming out. There were sand crabs EVERYWHERE! They're the same colour as the sand, right? So you can just barely see

them, especially with the light leaving. But it was cool to just watch them scurry out of the way as we walked along to beach back to the park. There was a funny part though. The sand crabs are usually pretty good at moving out of the way so as not to get stepped on. But one moved in the exact wrong direction, and Jamie stepped on it! I have no idea why I thought that was funny, but it was! Jamie had stepped on crab. :)

I'm glad to tag along with the health students whenever possible, but I'm actually starting up on my own work now. I had my first interview today with a man named Dr. Sutta Paul. He's an anthropology professor at Andhra University and he's very interested in the caste system, and knows a lot about it, but he does not like it. he's very much against the caste system. But he is helping me understand how it works and what sorts of things happen in cross-caste marriage and what sorts of cross-caste marriages are allowed more often than others. He's going to be an excellent source for my project.

So that was a lot of adventures yesterday, and the beach was awesome!

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

Picture Time

I figured I should try and upload some pictures today. That way everyone can see what it is that I'm doing here. At least some of what I'm doing. And don't worry, I'll be adding more pictures as time goes on! :)

Talk to you soon,
Ashley :)

There are other girls that I am sharing an apartment with:
Kendra on the left, Lizzie in the center, and Jamie with
Momoksha on the right. They're all working on a diabetes
project with one of the guys, Oliver.

Temple at Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony

Durga, our cook, wearing her new apron that we gave
her as a gift.

This is Siddhu and he's Durga's oldest boy. 

Two skulls of an adult baleen whale and a baby baleen
whale that we saw that the department at Zoology at Andhra
University, where one of our translators, Suddha, works.

This is Oliver, the guy working on the diabetes project with
the girls that I share an apartment with. He's standing in
front of the Sai Baba temple. It's across the street from the
house of one of my informants.

CATTLE!!! There are literally cows, cattle, water buffalo, just
about everywhere here! It's kind of cool, you just have to watch
your step to make sure you don't step in a cow pie... O.o

Andhra University and FINALLY!!! a Rain Storm

So this was my adventure yesterday. Me and three of the other students here actually went to the local university here, Andhra University to meet some of the other public health and anthropology students that could help us with our research. It was really cool, as I was actually able to talk to college age students about cross-caste marriages. It's works a lot differently than I initially thought it would, but that's why I'm here, to learn what is actually happening. And I also got invited to an cross-caste marriage ceremony that will be happening later this month. I'm excited to go, as I'll be able to see an actual wedding ceremony and then ask is there are any differences compared to an endo-caste marriage, which is what our translators have. So this was excellent to do, make contacts with some of the local students as well as find out what it is that they are studying at the moment.

Me and some local boys after
the rainstorm

That was the main adventure, but what made yesterday really nice was that we actually had a rain storm roll into town. It was nice and cool for the rest of the day. It started at about mid-afternoon and only went for about half an hour, but it cooled off for the rest of the day. So much so that I wasn't sweating at all for the last few hours of the day, which is an amazing accomplishment here. And my shower, well, if you can call dumping water on yourself from a bucket a shower, was actually a little bit cold at first, but then I got used to the water again. The showers usually aren't bad, as we can't wait to just pour water on us as it's so hot, but last night I was a bit hesitant to do so at first but then I got over it. And I was able to go to sleep and stay asleep without feeling like I'm just laying there sweating through everything either. So it was a better night than most. I hope that it rains more often, which is will once monsoon season comes, but I would like for it to rain more before then.

Sorry for the short post today, not a lot going on. But some days will be like that, which is okay. Not everything in life has to be a race. Which is something that I can live with.

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

Money Changing and Driving Like an Indian

Yep, that was my adventure yesterday. I had to exchange some dollars for rupees so I went there Indian style. Hanging onto the back of a moped and lots of honking in traffic. It was really kind of fun actually. I was riding on the back of Dr. Nuckolls's moped and something that I noticed as we were driving to the bank was that people here honk differently. Let me explain. People in America honk to say "move out of the way moron!" whereas people here, for the most part, honk to say "I'm here, don't hit me." It's more of an alert system then a show people how pissed off you are system.

And changing money was really interesting. I had to fill out forms, show them my passport, give them my bills, they gave me a brass token, I then had to take the brass token to a teller and he would give me money. So a lot longer process to exchange money here than in the United States. But there was air conditioning in the bank, so I was okay with that. :)

I also met my first contact yesterday for my research project which is great! I was able to meet and talk to him as well as get a lot of information to start off. I'll be meeting with him later in the week in order to keep talking to him as well as others that he, and Krishnayya-garu, have thought of that I can talk to. So I'm off to a great start.

So yeah, that was my adventure yesterday. I'll have to see what today brings!

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

P.S. I'll upload pictures as soon as possible! Promise!

Momoksha's Rice Feeding Ceremony

Yes, that's right, a rice feeding ceremony!

So yesterday was interesting! We were able to go to an old Hindu temple for Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Momoksha is the baby of Durga, the cook, and Ranju, the laundry man. Momoksha is about 6 or 7 months old. Hindu's have this ceremony where they bless the baby and his family and this is where they set up objects that he will crawl to that will represent his life and they feed him his first rice. It's almost like a baby blessing in our religion. But before we got to all of that, we actually got to go inside the inner sanctum of the temple where the shrine of the god Krishna, I think, was. Not many people get to do that, and those that do either have to pay a lot of money to do so or have very influenctial friends. Which is what we had, a friend of Dr. Nuckolls was able to arrange it so that we could go in.

Once inside, we listened to a ceremony that I think had to do with the birthday of the god, so it was a longer ceremony than usual. We were also blessed by the temple priests.

When that was done, we headed outside to a pillar, that Dr. Nuckolls said that when you hug it, it's supposed to bless you with many pregnancies. That was interesting to participate in as well, as you have to hug the pillar, then they said that if you hold a wish in your hear when they bless you again, your wish will come true.

After the pillar hugging, we headed to the area where we could watch Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Now that was really cool! We all sat around as the temple priest went through the ritual, blessing Momoksha and his family, as well as Momoksha's future. When he was done with that, Sallaja, one of the servants that works for the house, set up a series of objects when Momoksha would crawl towards and pick. The first three that he picked would be what influenced his life. It was cool to see that he was actually looking at everything to see what they were before he chose them. The first three that he picked were money, a book and pen, and flowers. The money represents him going after money, or having money in his life. The book and pen represents knowledge, and the flowers represent the appreciation of beauty. So he did really well. And you could tell that everyone, even those just walking by, were really getting into the ceremony. When Momoksha chose the objects everyone was cheering. I think it scared him a little as he pouted when everyone started to cheer. But he's such a happy baby! And so cute!

We were also intereviewed by three journalists yesterday! Which was kind of cool. Well, not really interviewed, but we had our pictures taken and one of them showed up online. I hopefully will be able to get a hold of it so that you can see.

So yeah, that was my day! I hope that everything is going well with everyone else!

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Holy Crap! Guess Where I Am????

Yes, if you guessed INDIA! then you are correct! I am officially in India and I have been for about two days now. And let's just say that a lot has happened in the past two days...well, five days, if you count the days that I traveled.

So on Thursday, May 8th I left Provo, UT and stated my journey that would eventually land me in here in Vizag, India. I first went to Chicago, where I would catch a 15 hour plane flight to Hyderabad, India. But I first had to spend the night in Chicago. Let's just say that I wish I had taken my husband's advice and stayed in a hotel for that night, but I am stubborn and didn't. I didn't sleep much that night and so was very tired. Once on the plane, I figured that I would sleep once I was on the plane....NOPE! I watched four movies, ate three airplane meals, read my book, napped some, and looked out the window. Not necessarily in that order either.

After we landed in Hyderabad, I again had to wait over night in an airport for the plane that would take me to Vizag. That wait wasn't as bad, as it was only for a few hours, but I had a desperate need for sleep...I really needed sleep, but I didn't. I stayed up and finished my second book, The Book Thief. Now that was a good book. And the plane ride to Vizag from Hyderabad was only about an hour, so not too bad at all. But my first day in India was May 11th. It took me three days to get to India, but I got here safe and sound. And once I got over the fact that I was in India, it was pretty great actually. I think I'm going to love it here, but when the time comes, I'll be excited to go back home.

But my first day in India was May 11th, Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day Momma!!!

I was able to borrow Dr. Krishnayya's, the professor here that helps with the India Study Abroad program, phone and call home. As I didn't want to use all of his minutes, I just called to say hi and that I had made it to India and to wish my mom a happy Mother's Day. I really hope that she did have a good one. After that, we had lunch and while the others went to church, I went back to the apartment and slept. I slept for about 5 hours as when I woke up, it was time for dinner. As the staff that helps out with the program doesn't work on Sundays, Dr. Nuckolls took all of us out to eat at a nearby restaurant.

But before we went out to eat, we actually went and participated in a Krishna temple ceremony that was happening down the street. That was interesting actually, there was a lot of singing by the men, we walked in a circle around the shrine, we then drank holy water and had some sort of rice pudding and a type of rice called Tiger's Food. The last part was my favorite, but that was because I was hungry.

Now the food at the temple and the restaurant was excellent! I love the food here, it's spicy and it's also healthy. I'm pretty sure that this will most likely be the time when I'll eat the healthiest food. After we ate we headed back to the apartment and I promptly feel back asleep. Didn't wake up till about 6:30 this morning.

Now today, we had our first Telugu class. What struck me as most interesting about that was that it behaves a lot like Navajo. Just let me explain, and you'll understand. Navajo is a tonal language; Telugu is a tonal language. Navajo uses a single word to describe something, like "younger brother" for example; Telugu also uses a single word to say "younger brother." I think I'll have an easier time with Telugu that I thought I would.

We also went out shopping as I needed native clothes and it just gives us a chance to get to know our translators. As soon as I learn to spell their names correctly, I'll tell you. I also got some really pretty clothes. Once I have pictures, I promise to upload them so that you can see how beautiful they are. If that's one thing a fashionista would like about India, they have wonderful and admirable clothes here.

And now I'm in an Internet cafe writing this blog entry up. I hope this gives you a slight idea of my life here.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley :)