The main problem with foreigners visiting India is that you will certainly get sick. It doesn't matter if you don't drink the water (which you shouldn't) or are careful of your diet and wash your fruits well and all of that - it just happens. There's too much bacteria here that our bodies don't know how to handle. I've been sick with various stomach issues before on the program, but this last Wednesday I pretty much checked myself into the hospital because I didn't think that I could tough it out with ginger tea this time. I'm feeling fine now, and barring any random terrible thing happening I should be able to leave tomorrow morning. The hospital is really quite nice, and the nurses here are extremely kind to me - I'm going to miss them when I leave. I'm ready to go though. There's only so much time that I can spend in bed, believe it or not.
I might as well take this chance to update everybody on my spring break, even though that happened a good three weeks ago. My friend Deborah and I decided that we wanted to go to Darjeeling, which is in the state of West Bengal very close to the border to Nepal, and while we were in the area we might as well visit Kolkata (Calcutta), because if you're in India you have to. It's too important to miss. So we flew to Kolkata and stumbled around Sudder Street, which is where most of the tourists stay in the city. Our hotel was... not the best, but ok. The most remarkable thing about the area though was Karim, a 13 year old girl who lived on the street. She helped us find our hotel after the one we had made reservations for fell through (typical India...) and showed us around the neighborhood, introducing us to the women that she lived with and shooing away the ubiquitous Indian men that gawked at us. It was a complicated relationship though - the first night I helped her buy baby formula for her little brother, which was more expensive than I had guessed, and after that everybody on the street knew who we were and asked us for money. Deborah and I helped Karim and her mother out a bit more, buying them rice and lentils, but somehow that wasn't enough for them either. One moment it would be "Thank you sisters, God bless you," and the next would be "but one more thing..." It put us into a difficult position, because on one hand they really were facing some considerable problems. In addition to oh, not having a house yet having four children (Karim is the oldest) to care for, Karim's father has TB and they don't have the money for medicine. Plus the money for shoes. Plus the money to make sure that the kids stay healthy enough to stay in school. And and and...
The thing that I've learned about India is this: nothing is simple, and the closer you look at anything, the more complicated it gets. Because almost everyone who begs for money has these problems, or similar ones. And there's only so much that two people can give. That's the bitch of it.
Outside of Sudder Street, we explored a lot of Kolkata. We went to the Armenian church and found an abandoned synagogue nearby; we went to the used bookstores crowded College streets; we visited the Botanical Gardens and saw The Great Banyan Tree, which is I think the biggest tree in the world; we went to Kalighat and saw where Mother Teresa worked; we wandered around the Victoria Memorial and watched couples make out under every single tree; and we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and the Academy of Fine Arts.
A few awesome people that we met along the way:
Shurjendu - this is Anila's (one of the girls on our program) friend from back home who has relatives in Kolkata. We had dinner with him and Anila our last night in Kolkata in this really nice restaurant called Peter Cat (god knows why) where I had my first gimlet.
George - we met George outside of St. Paul's Cathedral, where he works as the groundskeeper. He told us that we were a little too early for visiting hours, but we ended up talking and having chai with him. He's probably one of the most interesting people that I've met in India - he's over 70, grew up in Goa, worked his ass off to get his two daughters through college/graduate school, and loves to dance with his wife, to whom he's been married for nearly 50 years. An amazingly sweet guy, deeply spiritual, and I hope that I can be half as cool as he is when I'm all grown up.
That's it for part 1 of spring break - I'll tell you all about Darjeeling in the next post. But first! A few pictures!
Deborah and me with Karim's mother, who gave us henna!
Here's Deborah with George!
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