It's Been a While...

Yeah, I'm sorry guys, it's been a while since I last wrote on here. I apologize for those of you that have been looking forward to hearing all of what it is that I've been doing and all it is that I am excited about. But I've got to be honest with you...there really hasn't been a lot that has been going on with me these past few days. I haven't had any more interviews, I haven't been able to move forward in my study, or anything else for this has been going on. But we've been going to some pretty good views and places to visit. So I've been able to get some great pictures at least!

Like yesterday, we all went to a dance performance. Now that was super interesting. It was an old classical Indian style of dance called "kuchipudi". I would recommend that you look it up, as it's really cool. The story of the dance was about a young girl married off to an old man for a large dowry. This happened a lot in the classical age of India, so it was an interesting performance. And throughout, there wasn't any talking, not a lot anyway. What there was, was done by the singers of the performance. It was really amazing! I loved watching it, sadly, I was unable to enjoy it as much as I wanted to as I was hungry and tired. I felt like I was going to sleep for about half the time. And the papprazzi was going crazy in front. They don't stand in the back and take pictures from there, like they do in America, but they stand in front of the stage and block the view of all of those that sit in the front row... a.k.a US! That was slightly annoying, as it was hard to see what was going on sometimes, and their flashes were really bright, so they would blind us when they took pictures of us sometimes.

But other than that, there's not a lot going on, just getting things going with my study. For those of you that are reading this, know that my study is about cross-caste marriage. Well, I've only had two interviews and I've been here about four, almost five weeks. It's not going anywhere, no one wants to talk to me me, as cross-caste marriage, while it is legal by law, culturally, it is still a forbidden form of marriage. So no one wants to talk to me about their cross-caste marriage. So, as I need the information that I get here for my senior thesis, I need to change my study. So I'm changing my study to marriage traditions of endogamous caste marriages. It not being a form of forbidden marraige, more people should be more willing to talk to me.

So, that's been me for this past little bit. I hope that all is going well with everyone back home.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

P.S. as soon as the wifi works, and I can get my pictures uploaded online, I'll do a blog post that is fully pictures, promise!

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

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