Cute Monkeys Outside Our House! Yay!

Indian Heroes

Billboards advertising the latest Bollywood films have been the source of much entertainment this summer. Typical advertisements sell one of two things: romance movies or action films. Romance movie ads look a lot like the covers of trashy romance novels in America--with a sweaty-looking man embracing a gorgeous woman with flowing hair. Action movie ads always have pictures of a man wearing sunglasses and carrying a gun.

Regardless of whether its a romance film or an action movie, the main male character is called a hero. And people seem to take the term "hero" very literally. Many young Indian men seem to want to be like heroes, and we've noticed a distinct heroesque look. This includes what we call hero hair, which is a longer look that can be worn shaggy or slicked back with hair gel. Think of it as a mullet minus the "business in front" part. The look also includes shiny, button-up shirts, preferably in black. Maybe undo a few top buttons to show off your manly chest. Of course, jeans and sunglasses are a must if you want to really look like a hero. (Reference picture above.)

So, if any of you guys are looking for a new back-to-school look, the Indian hero look may be exactly what you need to kick off a killer school year.

Or not.

McDonald's in India

It was Taylor who begged me to cross the street and go to McDonald's. Yes, Taylor is a big fan of McDonald's now that we're in India. Not that he hated it before. He just always preferred Carl's Junior or Wendy's. (Sorry if you're hearing this for the first time, Dad. I've been trying to work on him.) Anyway, I guess that since those two are no longer options, Taylor has decided to root for McDonald's and thus strengthen family relationships.

You may be wondering what McDonald's is like without the beef. I was also curious. It's still good. Fries are the same golden, salty deliciousness as America. The ice cream tastes deliciously the same as well. They even have chocolate dipped cones, and yes we did get them. But the burgers... you have two options: chicken and veg. I think some places have mutton but not Hyderabad's McDonald's. I had an aloo (potato) tikka burger, which was pretty good. It had delicious sauce, but I didn't love the patty, which tasted like a hashbrown collided with green pea soup. I think I'll try chicken next time. But the ice cream and the french fries were worth the trip. Did I mention it's SO cheap? Like $4 for two meals including fries and drinks and ice cream. Too bad our McDonald's bucks don't work here. Think how much we could buy!

Anyway, I thoroughly loved my time at McDonald's and felt right at home. I even thought of applying there, but I don't know if they'd be willing to go through the visa process. Kind-of labor intensive for a minimum wage earner who can't even speak the local language. Ok, and I'm also trying to move on from visor jobs since I've already had two: lifeguarding and McDonald's. The post-work ringhead is more than I can bear!

Escape to Vizag

So Taylor's back from his village capers with SKS, and he really wanted to take a little vacation. The truth is, we are both pretty dang exhausted. Everyday feels like a job hunt, and I guess it really is. We're hunting for good partner organizations for HELP to work with now and in the future. Anyway, a vacation could be just the thing. This is the only week we could do it, since the other country director will be vacationing the next two weekends and then leaving for home. Taylor and I went to the train station on Tuesday to inquire about tickets and left having reserved a week's stay in Vizag.

Vizag is a smaller city on the eastern edge of the state. We're staying in a cheap hotel right on the ocean. We can hear the waves from our doorstep, and we only have to walk a minute or two to step into the ocean itself. Not to mention, we have the beach totally to ourselves. I don't think anyone else is staying at the hotel. Or maybe they just don't like to swim. Whatever the reason, I'm not complaining. It's totally worth the 12 hours overnight on the train and the cheap price to stay here.

The man who booked our hotel was wondering how we could possibly stay for a week in Vizag without getting really bored. But you know, it's been great. We've been reading and talking and swimming. We finally have some time to put into figuring out our life after this summer. It's a much-needed break.

Indian Weddings & Hanging with the Branch

So, yesterday was one of the longest days of my life. We went with some branch members to a member of the branch's sister's "authentic village wedding". (Don't worry, everyone goes to every wedding. You don't need to know the person.) It was good, but it was long. I don't think I can do it justice, but I'll try:

We (five girls from the team plus Mike Riding from the office) left at 7 am to catch a two-hour train. Everyone on the train kept taking pictures of us, which was funny. Then we took a short bus ride out into the country. The moment we arrived at the wedding hall, we were ushered to the front row to have a close-up view of the bride and groom. Basically, we sat for a few hours, watching them scoop rice onto each others' heads and listening to the nasally singing that accompanied it. After the ceremony, we congratulated the couple and took pictures with them. Then we ate lunch and headed off to see some sights with the 18 branch members who also came to the wedding.

But how do you transport 18 people without a bus? Easy. Pile them into the back of a flatbed truck caked with cow manure! Did I mention that 14 of the members with us were 18 to 26-year-old boys? They were going crazy, climbing all over the truck and yelling songs at the top of their lungs. The ride was hilarious and pretty fun and very long. Everyone stared at us, but that's normal. We went to a lake surrounded by tons of monkeys for about 20 minutes, and then we went to the Thousand Pillar Temple. We only stayed there for about 10 minutes, but it was good to see. It's funny because all the American people were taking pictures of the temple, but all of the Indians were taking pictures of us!

Then we rode another bus to a different train station, where we waited a very long time (again) for the train to come. Once we got on the train, we were pretty exhausted. We finally reached our house again at 11 pm. Like I said, it was long. But that's part of being authentic Indian. Things just take a while.

Maybe I'll become more patient living here.

That wouldn't be a bad thing.

We Have Worms!

So there's this super sweet girl on our team who's way into agriculture. Her family has a huge garden, and they also own a bunch of cows. So, she came out to India all excited to do all these projects with agriculture. The only problem is that we're in the middle of a very big city. Still, she's persistent and has arranged projects in a nearby (2 hour bus ride) village.

The project she's most excited about? Worms! She read about worms being able to turn compost into really great soil, and she's just sure that the village farmers will be thrilled by this concept. But first, she wants to try it out. In our backyard.

Yes, what you're thinking is correct. We have thousands of worms in a big plastic bucket of dirt and rotting food and maggots on the back porch. And yes, they totally escaped on the first monsoon when she left them uncovered. I went to go lock the back door and saw hundreds of tiny worms spreading out in every direction. There was no hope of saving them. We just covered the ones that were still in the bucket and went to bed. The next morning we had dry, dead worms covering the porch.

So, when I say we have worms, take it literally.

We also have a mouse, but I'll save that story for later.

Salar Jung Museum

We had a nice break yesterday (Saturday). Well sort of. We did laundry for four hours and didn't finish it all. Doing laundry by hand, in buckets, is tedious work. We have a veranda/roof top area to wash and hang our clothes. Last time I did laundry I got the worst sunburn I have ever had. So I loaded up with sunscreen yesterday and made it through ok.

We went to the Salar Jung Museum. It's either the largest, or one of the largest, personal collections in the world. The museum is huge and we only got to half of the rooms before it closed. The most incredible piece was the Veiled Rebecca. It's an Italian marble sculpture that was breathtaking. I've never seen a more beautiful marble sculpture.

MVF & Prajwala

So the last few weeks have been pretty busy with meetings. We're still shaping projects and looking for partner organizations. With so much going on plus accidentally using all the available bandwidth at the church, I have definitely been a lame blogger. WiFi is supposedly an option if we can find a local person to sign us up. Taylor wasn't kidding about the bureaucracy here... Anyway, I wanted to tell you about two of the organizations that it looks like we'll be working a bit with.

MVF is a local organization that fights child labor. They hold town meetings to educate villagers about keeping their kids in school--as opposed to having them start working. When they convince people to pull their kids out of labor and put them into school, they help place the kids or send them to a bridge course camp run by MVF. The bridge course camps are free to the students and are supposed to help students catch up educationally with their age group. Sounds like an educational miracle. I don't know how it works.

Prajwala is another local organization that rescues children who have been trafficked into brothels. They have rehabilitation facilities where they provide counseling, job training, and other educational options. They also work with the villagers to educate them about sex trafficking. It seems to be something that people are tricked into a lot.

For both of these organizations, they would like our help with writing. They would like brochures, photography, interviews, posters, reports, and who knows what else. I'm especially excited for these writing projects, and I hope we'll be able to help them promote themselves more effectively.

Taylor has visited a few Microfinance Institutions and is still waiting for things to get rolling. A few of them have sounded really promising, but it's sometimes hard to tell. We want results. :)

In addition to lining up these projects, Taylor and I have purchased our first-ever gym passes. They were $4 per month per person. That's a price we're willing to pay. Or are we? The equipment and muscle-man posters would make you laugh. The lack of AC would make you sweat. The stationary bikes are rusty and have pedals falling off. The stair-stepper is impossibly high. The only thing that is worth anything are the weights. So, that's what we've been doing. Sort-of.

Pizza Corner

So we spent around six hours trying to find a wifi internet cafe. I googled "free wifi Hyderabad" and found several hits for various locations around the city, one of which was Pizza Corner. We took a rickshaw to the nearest Pizza Corner and were instantly surrounded by waiters begging us to take a seat. I asked them if they had wireless internet at their restaurant and received a half dozen blank stares.

They finally called their manager, who spoke better English, who informed me that this location didn't have internet but that another Pizza Corner farther away definitely did. He gave me the address, and we puttered away on another rickshaw.

When we arrived at the other Pizza Corner, we were greeted by a similar gang of waiters urging us to sit and eat. I tried to explain what we were looking for:

Me: Do you have wireless internet?

Waiter: ??

Me: Do you have wireless internet here in the restaurant?

Waiter: Internet? No, we sell pizza.

Alas, Pizza Corner doesn't have internet at any of it's locations. The entire trip took ages, and we came home defeated, only to find out that the church (a three minutes walk from our apartment) has wifi in the lobby. We had been struggling for weeks to find a decent internet connection and never knew it was right under our noses.

So I am comfortably typing this blog entry at the church in an air conditioned, high-speed, free internet connection.

The church is true!

Western Toilets? Is this India?

I know I've smelled this familiar mix of spices, sewage, incense, mothballs, and who-knows-what-else before. When I stepped off my plane to Mumbai, the smell immediately slammed into me. This time when I arrived in India, I was ready. Ready for the smells, ready for the crowds, ready for the dirt, ready for the insanity of it all. I guess that's why the clean bathrooms in the Mumbai Airport completely surprised me. I'm talking Western toilets AND toilet paper AND soap AND paper towels!

What a contrast to my first Indian experience 15 years ago: my mom and four kids huddled around a hole in the ground that was supposed to be a toilet. Women were sprawled on the floor all around the room, selling toilet paper to foreign suckers like us. I don't remember the details, but by the end of the ordeal, Mom was in tears. I think we bought toilet paper.

I was relieved to finally land at at the Hyderabad Airport, which is much bigger and nicer than the Salt Lake City Airport. It was 4:30 Wednesday morning, and I staggered through immigration and customs, my backpack seeming heavier with every minute spent in line. Somehow I made it without collapsing.

Finally seeing Taylor was strage. He looked so skinny and tired. Both of us so out of place in the madness that is Hyderabad, a sea of curious, staring Indian people. Then us.

Our cab driver raced like an idiot all the way to the hotel, where I found a cup of bamboo shoots quietly waiting on a table with a sweet card from Taylor. It was a perfect welcoming gift. Not quite a dog, but I think Taylor's the only person in the world who knows I've always wanted a bamboo plant.

Now, two and a half days later, I've taken rickshaws all over town, running errands for the team (meeting with a local school teacher, making extra copies of house keys) and a few for myself (buying hangers and shampoo, buying food). I've moved into our yellow, second floor apartment. It has running water and Western toilets! Yay! (Yes, the picture is of our house.) I've been introduced to biryani, Hyderabad's trademark dish. It's a sort-of Indian version of stir-fried rice topped with a spicy sauce. I liked it. I've even seen a peacock in the local “national park”.

No matter where we go or what we're doing, water is often my highest priority. Taylor wasn't kidding about the heat, though apparently it's much cooler this week. I never realized jeans were so hot! It's 95 degrees inside our house, except for the one air-conditioned room, where we spend most of our inside time. I can't tell if it's the sun draining my energy or if I'm jet-lagged or going through culture shock or maybe even a little sick. Maybe it's a combination of all of them. Whatever it is, I'm praying for the monsoons and cooler weather.