I got to Madurai!

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy, and warm.

SO! I just arrived to my hotel in Madurai, the city I will be staying in. I have decided to write things in number by topic. Hopefully it’s less boring and more to the point.

1- The bus ride here was 12 hours because you can’t go too fast on the roads. We had at least 3 near death experiences. People were screaming on the bus and a few times we went down the wrong way of a two-lane highway and we also backed down the highway a few times. One kid puked the whole way here.

2- We had our last set of silverware on the way here, from here on out we will eat with our hands. In some places it is only proper/polite to eat with your right hand. Try eating rice off of a leaf with your hands without looking like an animal. Ain’t gunna happenJ

3- All the animals I saw on the way here were just running around. Goats and cows with really long horns everywhere. Some just hanging out in the city or on the edge of the interstate type roads. Also, there on every highway there are people walking down the side of the road or on the road. People also bike goods into the bigger cities, so bikes are squashed on the roads too.

4- Some cows have painted horns, they have religious meaning, but to me are just pretty.

5- We drove for over an hour before we even exited the city of Chennai. This gives you an idea of how populated it is here.

6- There were absolutely beautiful mountains and agriculture on our way here. There were people out in swampy fields tending to the most intricate land I have ever seen.

7- I argued with a boy about if Monsanto is ‘evil’ or not. He wants to be an ‘outdoorsy’ guy. I told him stories from the farm, and he has a long ways to go before he can be ‘outdoorsy’. He asked me if we keep miniature pigs as pets and thinks genetically engineered corn is wrong. Go home silly man J

8- I saw naked people bathing everywhere in the dirtiest water. Close to rivers there are tons and tons of shacks and trash. This is where malaria is most prominent.

9- I am going to ride an elephant tomorrow. I don’t know where or why, but who cares!

10- I saw my first sign of organization as far as police and enforcement goes because I saw a wreck. Umar says that they see a lot of trauma from accidents in the hospital we are going to tomorrow.

11- We are going to sit it on surgeries tomorrow. From the sounds of it, we have our choice of what we want to see.

12- An Indian woman had a man ask me if she could touch me today. When she touched my hand her mouth dropped open. People can’t believe our skin and hair. Little kids are especially wide eyed and people in general just stare.

13- I learned a lot about the traffic today. There are no rules. The only thing I saw for speed signs was one that said go slow. That’s it. We were going head on with other vehicles and would swerve at the very last second.

14- http://violetcrush.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pani20puri.jpg is a picture of my favorite food so far, pani puri. I am going to lose a lot of weight here. There just simply isn’t a lot of safe food and you have to be careful about how much spice etc you eat.

15- http://www.romanvirdi.com/india/chennai/P1012056.jpg --- this captures the amount of people on marina beach yesterday, it continued for miles like this.

16- Indian toilets have just a hole in the ground, some with water to spray yourself off, some not. Some toilet paper, some not. Try doing number 2 squatting that low to the ground. Gets the blood a flowin’

17- I had my most expensive meal the whole trip today, $4.

18- My professor said ‘Oh my Lord, I don’t think we will make it there alive” on the bus today. That’s how nuts it was. My friend (whose name is Emily , who also has a younger sister Olivia!!!) and I tried to figure out the system of honking. We think that people honk a different sound and number of times for different things. People honk all day and all night and somehow, the roads function with no rules but honking.

19- There are shacks everywhere. There is no separation between a nicer area and a less nice area. Advantaged and disadvantaged people are all together. You can see a nice home right next to a shack. They also take pride in keeping their homes clean, and will sweep (a dirt floor) of trash out onto the street.

20- I went out this morning to try to find a banana stand to get something to eat and at 8:30 everything was still closed. I think that people don’t set alarms our get up and about until their own body wakes them up.

21- Tomorrow I will start wearing traditional clothing. Here is what everyone wears, for the most part: http://depts.washington.edu/alumni/gallery/d/17373-2/ColorfulSaris.JPG

22- The Indian rupee coin has a thumbs up on it. It’s worth about 2 cents in our money.

23- There are lots of ways to ward of evil (mango leaves by the door, drawings in front of your home on the cement, the dots on the forehead) The strange part is, some of these methods have scientific proof that they work. I’ll tell you about it when I get home.

24- We are very, very, very blessed by our lives in the states. I can’t begin to tell you the things I took for granted: clean food, water, temperature control, safety, organization, clothing. I could go on and on, several people aren't even accounted for here.