Sandwiches
Daisy, Jamie, and I got a task from Jaggi and Lalit today to go to the market with the 200 rupees they gave us, buy bread, butter, cheese, cucumbers & tomatoes, make 10 sandwiches, take them out and give them to 5 people and find something out about their lives.
This was interesting for a couple reasons.
I hadn't really been to the markets yet so just seeing what was in there was fun. We got tomatoes and cucumbers at a stand in the village, and then went to a little store called Big Apple. There we got cheese and butter. Then the search for bread began. It took much longer than I thought, and we finally found some but were 15 rupees over our budget. Jamie paid the difference and we headed back to make sandwiches, and saw bread everywhere of course...
Daisy was mentally preparing for the sandwich making line because we were running short on time.
Both were a bit worried about giving the sandwiches away. It was interesting that I didn't find it very strange to give away sandwiches to people. Not sure why but it was funny that they did and funny that I didn't.
Daisy was trying to find a way to get it over quickly and get back without making fools of ourselves, Jamie wanted to find someone who looked like they actually needed the food and was concerned about offending people, I was mostly tired of walking. I understand Jamie's concern about feeling uncomfortable with the "us white folk will give you poor brown folk food" aspect, but I told her that I didn't think it really worked that way here. American's are naturally suspicious. Indian's are naturally trusting. They will be less likely to see the offer of food from young ladies as an insult to their ability to feed themselves. She was seeing it through her cultural lens and was having a hard time switching it. The older gentleman that she offered a sandwich to also turned her down so I don't suppose that helped.
We only had bread for 8 sandwiches and gave away 4 and found out nothing about anybody...
I think the exercise is meant to make us more comfortable in our surroundings but it also is a good way to get to know your fellow volunteers and how they handle uncomfortable situations.
We also had one of our many US vs UK discussions regarding what is proper on a sandwich.
Tonight I overheard the "zee" and "zed" debate, which was most amusing since neither side was aware of the other until now.
Rickshaws & McDonald's
I had my first auto-rickshaw ride last night. It's just as terrifying as one might think. This is what I'm talking about if you're not familiar with these little deathwish-mobiles. http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/asia/rickshaws01.shtml
They look pretty fun, and they are, but for those at home imagine being in one on the diagonal if 7 year olds were allowed to drive cars and they were all on the road at the same time. I'm not implying that Indians drive like 7 year olds but the rules of the road here are similar in appearance to the organizational skills of children. Lines are irrelevant whether it's staying inside them or staying behind one another without pushing or shoving. People go where they wish as long as they will fit. If the internet gods allow it I will post my videos somewhere one of these days. It's organized chaos. Everybody knows these non-rules so you can just pull out and create situations which in the US would cause a massive accident, and people will simply beep at you and go around. Generally people here are traveling at lower speeds than in the US so that cuts down the traffic massacres greatly I'd think. Honestly I don't even know if there's a speed limit here or not. I don't think it would really matter.
Anyway...I traveled with Ratish to an area called Okhla to meet his adorable friend Nawaz. The area has a largely Muslim population and we went past a massive Muslim graveyard on the way in. By US standards the "streets" would be poorly maintained for an alleyway and it is PACKED with people, cars, motorbikes, people, shops, dogs, trash, piles of random rubble, carts, rickshaws, people.... For whatever reason it's one of the better smelling places I've been in India. (Which reminds me, on the way there in the rickshaw we went past a couple fruit stands and I could smell the sweetness from the street. It was amazing.)
I think this was the most interesting place I have been to so far. I was, however, comforted by the fact that there were 2 boys with me rather than 1. It was later at night and there were very few women out still by the time they were escorting me back home. I almost got run over my a motorbike but I almost got run over by many things.
There was also the cutest freakin puppy ever. I came out of the gate to Nawaz's building and there it was crawling up to lay on it's mum in a ball and she got up when we came out and he looked so rejected with his floppy little ears. I really wanted to bring him home and give him a bath. He was a puppy puppy not just me calling a big dog a puppy. I also saw two dogs playing with a mat. One ran by at full speed carrying it in his mouth and the other came after him trying to steal it away. They were hopping and leaping all over the place.
Once we got a rickshaw out of the neighborhood we stopped at....McDonald's! Woo!
If my information is correct it was near Jamia University and New Friends Colony. Next door to it was a Pizza Hut, next door to that was a Dominos. It felt so homey.
I had a Maharaja Mac with fries and a Coke courtesy of Ratish. Oh and one chicken nugget, they taste exactly the same. My Mac wasn't too bad, kinda messy.
Before eating I went over to wash my hands in this giant water basin thing which would not go over well in the US, which kind of made me like it. There was a man who had been staring at me. More people stare at me than don't around here, but he was really directly staring. The kids stare and wave or are shy. The younger men either look away or stare with intention. The older men sometimes try to look like they aren't staring. It's all very fascinating to watch. But this guy but just different. He was standing near the water basin with a woman and little boy that was coooovered in ice cream. I kinda smiled at the sight and the man said something to me while motioning to the child. I didn't really understand but he kept doing things. Finally he picked up ice cream kid and handed him to me while the woman wiped his little face and hands and the man was pretending to take a picture. So I said hello to the confused child, tried to figure out if the man in fact said something about "women for me", and then the kid got bored and wanted down. It was interesting...
FYI- McDonald's here is packed full at 10pm-ish. I asked Ratish if that was always the case and he said it was. Though it might not have been that full by McIndia standards I guess.
On the way home in the slowest rickshaw known to mankind we had to take detours. Due to the recent bombing in the city security is fairly high but I got back safe and sound and it was quite the excursion.
Daisy, Jamie, and I got a task from Jaggi and Lalit today to go to the market with the 200 rupees they gave us, buy bread, butter, cheese, cucumbers & tomatoes, make 10 sandwiches, take them out and give them to 5 people and find something out about their lives.
This was interesting for a couple reasons.
I hadn't really been to the markets yet so just seeing what was in there was fun. We got tomatoes and cucumbers at a stand in the village, and then went to a little store called Big Apple. There we got cheese and butter. Then the search for bread began. It took much longer than I thought, and we finally found some but were 15 rupees over our budget. Jamie paid the difference and we headed back to make sandwiches, and saw bread everywhere of course...
Daisy was mentally preparing for the sandwich making line because we were running short on time.
Both were a bit worried about giving the sandwiches away. It was interesting that I didn't find it very strange to give away sandwiches to people. Not sure why but it was funny that they did and funny that I didn't.
Daisy was trying to find a way to get it over quickly and get back without making fools of ourselves, Jamie wanted to find someone who looked like they actually needed the food and was concerned about offending people, I was mostly tired of walking. I understand Jamie's concern about feeling uncomfortable with the "us white folk will give you poor brown folk food" aspect, but I told her that I didn't think it really worked that way here. American's are naturally suspicious. Indian's are naturally trusting. They will be less likely to see the offer of food from young ladies as an insult to their ability to feed themselves. She was seeing it through her cultural lens and was having a hard time switching it. The older gentleman that she offered a sandwich to also turned her down so I don't suppose that helped.
We only had bread for 8 sandwiches and gave away 4 and found out nothing about anybody...
I think the exercise is meant to make us more comfortable in our surroundings but it also is a good way to get to know your fellow volunteers and how they handle uncomfortable situations.
We also had one of our many US vs UK discussions regarding what is proper on a sandwich.
Tonight I overheard the "zee" and "zed" debate, which was most amusing since neither side was aware of the other until now.
Rickshaws & McDonald's
I had my first auto-rickshaw ride last night. It's just as terrifying as one might think. This is what I'm talking about if you're not familiar with these little deathwish-mobiles. http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/asia/rickshaws01.shtml
They look pretty fun, and they are, but for those at home imagine being in one on the diagonal if 7 year olds were allowed to drive cars and they were all on the road at the same time. I'm not implying that Indians drive like 7 year olds but the rules of the road here are similar in appearance to the organizational skills of children. Lines are irrelevant whether it's staying inside them or staying behind one another without pushing or shoving. People go where they wish as long as they will fit. If the internet gods allow it I will post my videos somewhere one of these days. It's organized chaos. Everybody knows these non-rules so you can just pull out and create situations which in the US would cause a massive accident, and people will simply beep at you and go around. Generally people here are traveling at lower speeds than in the US so that cuts down the traffic massacres greatly I'd think. Honestly I don't even know if there's a speed limit here or not. I don't think it would really matter.
Anyway...I traveled with Ratish to an area called Okhla to meet his adorable friend Nawaz. The area has a largely Muslim population and we went past a massive Muslim graveyard on the way in. By US standards the "streets" would be poorly maintained for an alleyway and it is PACKED with people, cars, motorbikes, people, shops, dogs, trash, piles of random rubble, carts, rickshaws, people.... For whatever reason it's one of the better smelling places I've been in India. (Which reminds me, on the way there in the rickshaw we went past a couple fruit stands and I could smell the sweetness from the street. It was amazing.)
I think this was the most interesting place I have been to so far. I was, however, comforted by the fact that there were 2 boys with me rather than 1. It was later at night and there were very few women out still by the time they were escorting me back home. I almost got run over my a motorbike but I almost got run over by many things.
There was also the cutest freakin puppy ever. I came out of the gate to Nawaz's building and there it was crawling up to lay on it's mum in a ball and she got up when we came out and he looked so rejected with his floppy little ears. I really wanted to bring him home and give him a bath. He was a puppy puppy not just me calling a big dog a puppy. I also saw two dogs playing with a mat. One ran by at full speed carrying it in his mouth and the other came after him trying to steal it away. They were hopping and leaping all over the place.
Once we got a rickshaw out of the neighborhood we stopped at....McDonald's! Woo!
If my information is correct it was near Jamia University and New Friends Colony. Next door to it was a Pizza Hut, next door to that was a Dominos. It felt so homey.
I had a Maharaja Mac with fries and a Coke courtesy of Ratish. Oh and one chicken nugget, they taste exactly the same. My Mac wasn't too bad, kinda messy.
Before eating I went over to wash my hands in this giant water basin thing which would not go over well in the US, which kind of made me like it. There was a man who had been staring at me. More people stare at me than don't around here, but he was really directly staring. The kids stare and wave or are shy. The younger men either look away or stare with intention. The older men sometimes try to look like they aren't staring. It's all very fascinating to watch. But this guy but just different. He was standing near the water basin with a woman and little boy that was coooovered in ice cream. I kinda smiled at the sight and the man said something to me while motioning to the child. I didn't really understand but he kept doing things. Finally he picked up ice cream kid and handed him to me while the woman wiped his little face and hands and the man was pretending to take a picture. So I said hello to the confused child, tried to figure out if the man in fact said something about "women for me", and then the kid got bored and wanted down. It was interesting...
FYI- McDonald's here is packed full at 10pm-ish. I asked Ratish if that was always the case and he said it was. Though it might not have been that full by McIndia standards I guess.
On the way home in the slowest rickshaw known to mankind we had to take detours. Due to the recent bombing in the city security is fairly high but I got back safe and sound and it was quite the excursion.
love the stories! thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLove you, Miss you
MOM
Haha I love your blog Kathay! The title alone made me laugh. I love reading your stories with all the hilarious anecdotes! Keep having a blast and taking gorgeous pictures! :)
ReplyDelete