Hi everyone! I arrived in Amman at 3 a.m. this morning local time. I've been awake for about 3 hours so I really have nothing to report so far, but I wanted to let everyone know that I got in okay. Check back in the next couple of days for a real post. Love you all!
Caddie
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thoughts on H1N1 and What I Love about India
I would like to begin this blog post by ranting for just a minute or two about the H1N1 virus. This is my official request to the entire world to just chill out. The H1N1 virus is (I'm going to write this very clearly so everyone follows) the.... flu. As in, it happens every year. And every year people die of the flu. In fact, most years more people die of the flu. I've actually heard the number of deaths this year in comparison to the number of cases described as "laughable." Now, of course, when people are dying, it is not laughable. It is horrible. But it is not something for the whole world to freak out about either. By freak out I mean if one kid sneezes the whole school does not need to be quarantined (which has actually happened here).
Indians are particularly scared about the "swine flu." This is extremely annoying since they've only had about 1000 cases in the last three months. From what I hear, the U.S. has had about 45,000 cases. Now, I'm all for being careful. By all means, take your vitamin C, drink lots of fluids, wash your hands before eating, even buy one of those stupid masks if it helps you sleep at night. But when my cousin is so paranoid that she tells me not to open my mouth while we're shopping in a busy market because she's afraid I'll get infected, things have just gone too far. How am I supposed to fight with this nice man about the price of this skirt if I can't open my mouth?
So here, I make my request. Please, people, chill out.
About 4 or 5 months ago when H1N1 first came into our lives there were about 7 billion people living on the planet. Less than 1200 of them have died of the swine flu. In that same amount of time many, many more have died in car accidents, from malaria, protesting their governments, in drive by shootings... So, if you insist on being the kind of person who lives in constant fear of death, at least break up the day a little by worrying about some things you might actually die from.
And in the meantime, keep in mind that a very great man (I can't actually remember which one right now and I don't feel like looking it up. I think it was one of the Roosevelts) but nevertheless a very great man did once tell us that, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." And a particularly brilliant journalism student once wrote in her blog that, "Though the brave may not live forever, the cautious do not live at all."
So, my dear friends and family, put down your newspapers that hype up everything in order to get you to renew your subscriptions, take off your face masks and come outside. If you've been hiding from H1N1 you have been missing a truly beautiful summer.
Second of all:
Since this will be my very last post from India, and as this country has completely won my heart, it seems appropriate to say a few words in India's honor.
A few weeks ago, I would have given almost anything for a slice of pizza and a hot, spider-free shower. I missed American English, cars with the drivers seat on the left side where it belongs and my parents. Traveling to a developing country outside of the West is unbelievably different from traveling to Canada or Europe. As a result, I'm afraid that some of my earlier posts here may have given you the wrong idea. Worse, I'm afraid that some or all of you may have decided that India is a place you'll probably never want to visit based on what you've read here. I'm going to do everything I can in this post to change that, because not to come to India at some point in your life to would be to miss out on one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have. I love you all and I don't want that on my conscience, so please, based on what you are about to read, reconsider.
To a westerner, India is, first and foremost, shocking. No pictures, imported goods, text books, documentaries or blogs of snotty college students can possibly prepare you for the real thing, up close. But Indians talk about their country like she is a person, and as you get to know India you realize why. When she decides you're ready she begins to show you sides of herself that are not only shockingly beautiful, but that would be entirely impossible to experience in a developed country. One day you go for a hike because you need to get out and hiking reminds you of home and when you arrive at the top of the mountain panting and turn around you think you must have actually died on the way up because no place on earth could possibly be this beautiful. Or a little boy who you can't even communicate with well enough to learn his name because he doesn't speak a word of English and you don't speak a word of Tamil decides he's going to make friends with you anyway. Or a woman who is so poor that she literally built her one room house with her own hands invites you in and offers you tea just because you were passing by. And then you're hooked. These were my "oh, wow" moments. If you make the trip, you'll have your own.
So, in an effort to either change your mind or reaffirm your decision about visiting India, here is a list of the things about this country that I have fallen in love with. I hope you'll make me a list of what yours were when you get home from your trip.
I love you all and I'll write again from Jordan
Caddie
2. Bright green birds
3. How people don't run when it rains, they hold out their arms thanking God for the relief from the heat
4. Naan (Indian bread), Burfi (Indian sweet)
5. The markets
6. The way that people press their palms together, bow and say "namaste" instead of shaking hands
7. Exploring temples barefoot (they make you leave your shoes outside out of respect)
8. The flowers
10. Tiny hand carved stone elephants
11. The journalism
12. Mango
13. Silks in colors I never knew existed
14. Yoga
15. Monkeys that sit on the roofs of produce stands waiting for a chance to steal fruit
16. The accent of Indians who aren't quite fluent in English
17. How Indians believe that everything from dry skin to a broken toe can be cured with healing oils
18. The red dust they rub on your forehead at temples
19. Fighting with shop owners over 50 cents as if it were $100 (Actual conversation: Me: "I'll give you 1000 rupies." Sales guy:"This very nice, handmade! I can't loose money! I'll give you for 1050 rupies. Special price for you." Me: "Are you crazy? I'll leave right now!")
20. Indian music
21. The mountains
22. Pondicherry
23. The complete lack of pretension in Indian culture that allows Indians to tell you exactly what they're thinking, exactly when they're thinking it
24. Orissa dancing
25. Snake charmers
27. Indian architecture, especially the wide, sloping arches and domes
28. The attention to detail
29. Fresh juice from any kind of fruit, especially watermelon, plum and mango
30. Four meals a day instead of three
Indians are particularly scared about the "swine flu." This is extremely annoying since they've only had about 1000 cases in the last three months. From what I hear, the U.S. has had about 45,000 cases. Now, I'm all for being careful. By all means, take your vitamin C, drink lots of fluids, wash your hands before eating, even buy one of those stupid masks if it helps you sleep at night. But when my cousin is so paranoid that she tells me not to open my mouth while we're shopping in a busy market because she's afraid I'll get infected, things have just gone too far. How am I supposed to fight with this nice man about the price of this skirt if I can't open my mouth?
So here, I make my request. Please, people, chill out.
About 4 or 5 months ago when H1N1 first came into our lives there were about 7 billion people living on the planet. Less than 1200 of them have died of the swine flu. In that same amount of time many, many more have died in car accidents, from malaria, protesting their governments, in drive by shootings... So, if you insist on being the kind of person who lives in constant fear of death, at least break up the day a little by worrying about some things you might actually die from.
And in the meantime, keep in mind that a very great man (I can't actually remember which one right now and I don't feel like looking it up. I think it was one of the Roosevelts) but nevertheless a very great man did once tell us that, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." And a particularly brilliant journalism student once wrote in her blog that, "Though the brave may not live forever, the cautious do not live at all."
So, my dear friends and family, put down your newspapers that hype up everything in order to get you to renew your subscriptions, take off your face masks and come outside. If you've been hiding from H1N1 you have been missing a truly beautiful summer.
Second of all:
Since this will be my very last post from India, and as this country has completely won my heart, it seems appropriate to say a few words in India's honor.
A few weeks ago, I would have given almost anything for a slice of pizza and a hot, spider-free shower. I missed American English, cars with the drivers seat on the left side where it belongs and my parents. Traveling to a developing country outside of the West is unbelievably different from traveling to Canada or Europe. As a result, I'm afraid that some of my earlier posts here may have given you the wrong idea. Worse, I'm afraid that some or all of you may have decided that India is a place you'll probably never want to visit based on what you've read here. I'm going to do everything I can in this post to change that, because not to come to India at some point in your life to would be to miss out on one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have. I love you all and I don't want that on my conscience, so please, based on what you are about to read, reconsider.
To a westerner, India is, first and foremost, shocking. No pictures, imported goods, text books, documentaries or blogs of snotty college students can possibly prepare you for the real thing, up close. But Indians talk about their country like she is a person, and as you get to know India you realize why. When she decides you're ready she begins to show you sides of herself that are not only shockingly beautiful, but that would be entirely impossible to experience in a developed country. One day you go for a hike because you need to get out and hiking reminds you of home and when you arrive at the top of the mountain panting and turn around you think you must have actually died on the way up because no place on earth could possibly be this beautiful. Or a little boy who you can't even communicate with well enough to learn his name because he doesn't speak a word of English and you don't speak a word of Tamil decides he's going to make friends with you anyway. Or a woman who is so poor that she literally built her one room house with her own hands invites you in and offers you tea just because you were passing by. And then you're hooked. These were my "oh, wow" moments. If you make the trip, you'll have your own.
So, in an effort to either change your mind or reaffirm your decision about visiting India, here is a list of the things about this country that I have fallen in love with. I hope you'll make me a list of what yours were when you get home from your trip.
I love you all and I'll write again from Jordan
Caddie
What I love about India:
2. Bright green birds
3. How people don't run when it rains, they hold out their arms thanking God for the relief from the heat
4. Naan (Indian bread), Burfi (Indian sweet)
5. The markets
6. The way that people press their palms together, bow and say "namaste" instead of shaking hands
7. Exploring temples barefoot (they make you leave your shoes outside out of respect)
8. The flowers
10. Tiny hand carved stone elephants
11. The journalism
12. Mango
13. Silks in colors I never knew existed
14. Yoga
15. Monkeys that sit on the roofs of produce stands waiting for a chance to steal fruit
16. The accent of Indians who aren't quite fluent in English
17. How Indians believe that everything from dry skin to a broken toe can be cured with healing oils
18. The red dust they rub on your forehead at temples
19. Fighting with shop owners over 50 cents as if it were $100 (Actual conversation: Me: "I'll give you 1000 rupies." Sales guy:"This very nice, handmade! I can't loose money! I'll give you for 1050 rupies. Special price for you." Me: "Are you crazy? I'll leave right now!")
20. Indian music
21. The mountains
22. Pondicherry
23. The complete lack of pretension in Indian culture that allows Indians to tell you exactly what they're thinking, exactly when they're thinking it
24. Orissa dancing
25. Snake charmers
27. Indian architecture, especially the wide, sloping arches and domes
28. The attention to detail
29. Fresh juice from any kind of fruit, especially watermelon, plum and mango
30. Four meals a day instead of three
31. Women in saris carrying loads two or three time their own size on their head
32. The Indian belief that God lives in each personThursday, August 13, 2009
Pictures from the Mountains- Finally!
Mom and baby monkey by the side of the road in Manali
Giant spider in my bathtub
Me with Mumtha at her house
One of the gift baskets I made for Mumtha's women's products. They farm, harvest and refine local fruits and plants then sell them so that they can have some financial independence. Pakaging the products as gift baskets makes them a little more expensive, bringing in more money for the women.
This is a village temple and meditation spot on a hillside in Manali. Parents bring their babies here before they are 15 mos old to shave their heads. It's good luck for the baby or something.
White water rafting
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Auroville: "To realize human unity"
There is a place about 2 miles in diameter located somewhere just outside of Pondicherry, India, where crazy people from all over the world have gathered together and formed a strange, but working little society completely removed from the world around it. This city is called Auroville. I really can't decide if I think it's an amazing concept that could really help you gain a new perspective on life or if I think that its a town for crackpots run by the corrupt.
Auroville was born from the theories of Sri Aurobindo, a turn of the century Indian philosopher. His ideas were pretty simple. He combined the Indian belief that God lives within each of us with the Western idea of evolution. He said that the divine spark within us is evidence that we are a race in evolution; which is to say that someday humanity will have evolved beyond where it is now into a higher race of beings. I'm sort of guessing here, so if you're interested you'll have to read his writings yourself, but I think he saw this new race as being closer to gods than humans, meaning that they would exist without our major faults- war, violence, corruption, oppression. So, Aurobindo went on, we could theoretically build a heaven here on earth for ourselves and in that heaven we could speed up the our own evolution into this new higher race. Theoretically. Enter "the Mother" (I'm not joking, that's what they call her).
The Mother said,"There should be somewhere upon earth a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspiration, could live freely as citizens of the world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his suffering and misery, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the seeking for pleasures and material enjoyments.
"In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their soul. Education would be given, not with a view to passing examinations and getting certificates and posts, but for enriching the existing faculties and bringing forth new ones. In this place titles and positions would be supplanted by opportunities to serve and organize. The needs of the body will be provided for equally in the case of each and everyone. In the general organisation intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority will find expression not in the enhancement of the pleasures and powers of life but in the increase of duties and responsibilities.
"Artistic beauty in all forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, will be available equally to all, the opportunity to share in the joys they bring being limited solely by each one's capacities and not by social or financial position.
"For in this ideal place money would be no more the sovereign lord. Individual merit will have a greater importance than the value due to material wealth and social position. Work would not be there as the means of gaining one's livelihood, it would be the means whereby to express oneself, develop one's capacities and possibilities, while doing at the same time service to the whole group, which on its side would provide for each one's subsistence and for the field of his work.
"In brief, it would be a place where the relations among human beings, usually based almost exclusively upon competition and strife, would be replaced by relations of emulation for doing better, for collaboration, relations of real brotherhood."
The Mother saw herself as the practical tool of Sri Aurobindo's teachings. She wanted to make his heaven a reality. She was French, and in 1963 she founded Auroville. The idea is really great- it is a place where human unity is a reality. People of all nationalities come to live there as brothers (and sisters) as "citizens of the world." The reality is a little creepy. It is supposed to be a Utopian society. When you come to Auroville and ask to stay for any period of time, you make some kind of monetary contribution and officially renounce all material belongings. As a result the board of trustees has an insane amount of money and power and controls almost the entire area. I couldn't find a single shop or restaurant in Pondicherry that didn't have a picture of Aurobindo and the Mother hanging up somewhere.
The people living in Auroville work at whatever job interests them or wherever they have skills that can serve the community. Many of the people make things like clothing, jewelery, teas, herbal medicines etc which are sold in the surrounding communities and all the money goes back into Auroville. Men and women live separately, but everyone eats together. The food is pure, organic and is never touched by human hands before it is served. Yoga and meditation have been incorporated in to all parts of daily life. The coolest par though, is that they are leading the research in the area on bio diversity, sustainability and environmental protection. I think they're also working on ways to use local plant life for different medicines and treatments. Officially everyone is supposed to be involved in the research efforts. The only really creepy thing about the people living in Auroville (other than that they've willingly left their homes and come to live in this heat) is the way they talk about the mother. Its more than looking up to her as the founder of their city. They almost worship her.
The grounds at Auroville are beautiful. The Aurovillians have essentially built a forest of now more than 2 million trees by studying the climate and enviornment. At the center of the grounds is a big golden ball (picture above). In the morning they let visitors inside the ball to see the meditation chamber that the mother designed inside. I can't describe what it looks like inside- its too cool/weird, and unfortunately they don't let you take pictures. But if you ever have a chance I really recommend that you visit Auroville. You can stay in Pondicherry which is a town that can't decide if it is Indian or European. It is right on the ocean and you can just take a day trip to Auroville. Its definitely worth it. Then you can help me decide- is it a cool and revolutionary idea turned in to reality or is it a cult city full of brainwashed crackpots?
Here's the website
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