T-2

My room was cold and dark, which was unusual and amazing. I slept more soundly than I have any other night in Juanga. 

I woke up around 7 and went for a run. It had been a while since I'd run hard and it was one of my last days here so I wanted to make it count. Astonishingly, because I didn't eat dinner the night before, I didn't have to cut my run short to poop. I ran the usual route and then, ignoring the boundaries, ran out to the big bridge. It added about 45 minutes to the run and was beautiful. It was a cloudy and cool morning perfect for running and right when I started heading back from the middle of the bridge, it started pouring. I love when it starts to rain halfway through. 

I was pleasantly tired when I got back and after a shower and breakfast, I went to sit in the outpatient area. The surgeon was coming today so it was busy. The new doctor doesn't like talking much, so I watched the steady crowd of patients. Several assumed I was a doctor too and started talking to me in Odia before my few known phrases corrected their misconception. I had some time to think and wrote down some important thoughts in my notebook. The surgeon arived before lunch. He really is like a visiting celebrity here. Or a conductor. The way things change when he's around is a spectacle. After a quick lunch, we scrubbed up for surgery. Biku has been busy all day planning for the picnic in a couple of days. 

There were 5 operations and they took about an hour each. The surgeon took frequent breaks for tea and I don't think he liked my suggestion that he change gloves afterwards. I'm not sure how forceful to be when making suggestions like this. There's a fine line that I haven't found. I also suggested to Hari, who was assisting, that the patients shouldn't be wearing their own clothes into the operating room. I'm going to follow up with biku on these. Acting through him seems like the best bet towards making some small and important changes. 

Dinner was around 9:30 and I heard from Connor who made it back to America. He was stopped and interrogated by New York customs agents for about an hour but it's probably just because of his beard. I'm expecting to encounter similar "random" selection. 

-AB

I want to bring home a few of these. 

Happy holidays and mutton feast

After a delicious breakfast of Indian pancakes cooked by Hari, I was called over by Manu for a project at the school. I'm not sure I've mentioned much about Hari before. He's the hospital's chemist and as far as I can tell, works harder than anyone else here. He assists with surgeries, dressings, and administrative work. He's the only one who ever seems busy. He also taught me more about riding motorcycles a little while ago. Anyway, he wanted to be a cook, but he had to go into a higher status profession because of his responsibility to his family. He cooks whenever he can though and he's stretched the boundaries of Indian food a bunch of times to make something healthy for us. His creations are always my favorite meals and it's nice to see him so clearly enjoying the experiments. 

At the school, we were taking a holiday photo for Citta to use on Facebook and in other promotional material. The photo you see below took exactly as long to arrange as you would expect. The students were between 4th grade and preschool, didn't speak English, and were unused to the English alphabet. Having me there as the oddity only complicated matters. It was like herding cats.. While wearing a suit made from mice. After more than an hour and directed wrangling from the roof, we took a bunch of pictures. After the students went back into their classrooms, I snuck in through the windows after the teachers went for a meeting. I spent a little while causing some general mayhem. The students are always so excited to see me and play games when I'm around. They're just like kids everywhere and I love how the cultural barriers present in much of my life here simply don't exist with children. 

I rode back to the hospital with many and ate lunch with Bikas, biku, baba G and chinku. It was fried fish and oily vegetables with rice. I'm still not used to eating the heads but struggled through a couple. I walked around inviting the hospital staff to my feast tonight. Most of what I said was missed. But the "tonight" "eat" and "mutton" I think came across well enough. 

I waked around the village and ran into Lipu and some of the other guys. They're sad I'm leaving tomorrow and so am I. Biku is going to Niele with some other friends to get things for the picnic they're having in a couple days and he wanted me to come. I feel like I want to spend more time just walking around the village. Now that it's almost time to go, I want to enjoy the simplicity for a few more hours. 

At Niele, I bought two things I've been meaning to for a while and Biku got his teeth cleaned at a dentist. The office was a little room off the side of an alleyway and biku called the dentist when we got there. While we were waiting for the dentist to come from his home, I had a long conversation with an Indian man. His brother lives in LA and he's an engineer who's about to go work in Singapore. He wants badly to come to America and asked me to find him a job. He said it doesn't have to be engineering. We also talked about language and the direction India is heading. It's a little hard to understand him but he speaks better than most in Juanga. He said that he's been to the hosptial and schools and that he feels proud for the people of Juanga. He wanted to stress the importance of what Citta's development there has done to their lives and those of the nearby village. It was uplifting to hear about the projects impact from someone who could see the entire change. We exchanged information and I'll contact him when I get back. 

The dentists office seemed almost normal to me but I have the nagging feeling that if I hadn't lived in a village hospital for the last two months, I'd feel very .. Very differently about the quality of this office. 

While biku was getting his teeth cleaned, they brought chai. It's a little like a dentist handing out cookies. I don't like the milky sugar tea at all, but usually drink it when I'm offered in new places. Even if they understand why I don't want it, my refusal leaves a negative feeling that an acceptance would not. Also no Indian dealing is complete without the concluding shared chai. Except this time, biku told them I don't drink milk, and they insisted on making me a lemon chai. It sounded great. . It wasn't. It took me a while to place the flavor as I was fighting a grimace. It tasted like someone boiled the slime that forms on raw chicken if it's been left out too long and then spiced it. . Never again. 

Towards the start of the procedure, the power went out and they switched to manual tools. It came back after about 20 minutes. The dentist refused to charge biku because his cousin had gotten a free operation at the Citta hospital and also because he knows of Govinda. That mans name opens all the doors around here. 

Afterwards, we went to buy biku some underwear and pick up some shampoo for the head nurse. We also stopped about 5 times on the ride back for unidentifiable errands and to fill the trunk with giant sacks of potatoes. I had some fun unloading them and carrying them to the kitchen over Chogolah's protests that I shouldn't be doing work. 

Hari had just started cooking for the goodbye feast that I had arranged (through Biku) as a thank you to the hospital staff. Mutton is the king of feasts here so of course that's what we were having. I helped cook for a while and then wandered around talking to the staff and some patients. The dinner wasn't ready until after 11pm. Around 9 I found the last of my emergency granola bars from home and I was markedly less grumpy after eating it.  

The feast was started before Hari was done cooking and the the three kitchen staff didn't eat with everyone. I was conflicted on trying to have everyone else wait to eat. I don't understand the customs here. I served some of the food, which was I think what was appropriate. We ate in silence like usual but I think people enjoyed the food. Several thanked me afterwards and I told them how much it meant to me to be here. After the first feast, I went downstairs as Hari was finishing up. I served and then sat with him, Chogolah, sambit, and Surgio. There was more conversation here and it was nice to talk with them. I insisted on cleaning up and was successful for a little while but I think I was just slowing things down so Chogolah took over. The other three went home and I hung out chatting for at least another 45 minutes while Chogolah scoured the entire kitchen. I think he was very grateful to have me there. He left around 1am for the 2km ride back to his house and I went to sleep. 

-AB 

Hari, the top chef

A goodbye feast on the roof

Nothin' beats mutton

Airport

We woke up at 4:50 to make sure we didn't miss the stop scheduled for 5:15. There are no announcements or signs marking the stations. We groggily got off at Bhubaneswar at when it arrived there at 5:45. We didn't want anyone to have to come so early to the station, so we were going to figure our own way from the train station to the airport for Connors 9:30pm flight. 

We were about 10 kilometers from the airport and decided to walk. Once we got away from the busy train station, the streets were calm in the early morning. On one of the empty stretches, it felt like the earth was rotating under us. We walked through some busy areas and some that were almost like the village in Juanga. About halfway through, we are the emergency granola bar that I had been carrying around since I left home. 

The walk took over two hours because we weren't concerned with directions and got lost a few times. 

At the airport, they wouldn't let us in to the bigger terminal because Connor was flying out of the older one. I had to buy a "visitor ticket" to enter and we went in and got something to eat at the dingy snacks stand that was the only shop in the terminal. Connors flight was already delayed an hour, but they put him in the 2:15 instead, which was nice because we're ridiculously early. We called Manu and hopefully they'll leave to come pick me up relatively soon. 

When we were sitting down, someone came up to us and asked us all the usual questions about what we are doing here. It turns out he actually knows Govinda and the hospital but hasn't spoken with him in ten years. He was way too interested in Connor's flight details and also when he is coming back. He wanted to see his passport to know when he comes back to help him with things. He's the manager for this part of the airport. I was weirded out by the amount of detail he wanted about travel plans and am a little concerned that he'd report us for working on a tourist visa or cause other mischief. I didn't give him any of my information. I guess if Connor gets arrested on the way out of the country, we'll know this guy's intent.

We left to get some food from the other terminal because there isn't anything good to eat here. The guards by the exit gave us a hard time about leaving and coming back and were strangely passive-aggressive "if you miss your flight don't come running back and blaming us," was said several times. We couldn't enter the other terminal because we didn't have a boarding pass for that one, but we got food from an outside window before coming back to play a game of Bhag Chal. I was goats and won. Before we said goodbye, Connor called Biku again to get an update. We had called them at 9 to remind them that we were here. It was now after 12 and they should've been here by now. They hadn't left yet despite Biku's assurances that they would be right there. I don't know why I was surprised. Connor left me his Indian phone and I'll bring it back to him when I leave in a few days. I'm excited to be coming home to my friends and family, but what I'm leaving behind hasn't really hit me yet. 

Despite Biku's detailed knowledge of out plans and situation, the car with three other people arrived around 3, long after the expiry of my visitor pass and my forcible removal by the guards. 

We didn't get back to Juanga until around eight because we kept stopping do to unexplained errands. We also picked someone up about halfway through and drove them back with us. I didn't want to wait for dinner at ten, so I went straight to sleep. 

-AB 

Waiting to publish

To not ruin the surprise

Surprise! Connor's back

When we arrived

We made it. Hours later

Adios Amigos

The stubborn sun still refuses to let me sleep too late, so I woke up and went to the supermarket to get breakfast for everyone. I listened to an old album of Kanye West while cooking oatmeal and eggs. I mixed Connor and my oatmeal with rice and beans left over from last night. I stuck to the standard breakfast for the other flat mates. 

When I was waiting for everyone to wake up, I went to sit on the roof of the building with a cup of Columbian coffee I had made. I had been requested by a friend to look for shapes in the clouds but the sky was an indistinct haze. 

We give names and labels to things to help us characterize and understand them, but these words are imperfect at best. There were no clouds today, just an indistinct haze. No shapes to imagine fantastic creatures from. I sat for a while and watched the sky all the same. It made me think about how we always try to shape the world into recognizable shapes and patterns, even (or especially) if there are none. Why do we do that? The haze was like my time in India. An indistinct flow of time and events. Peaceful and rewarding though on the whole. The craziness and energy of the places I've been are too far from my background to draw me into their storm. My perspective allows me to take things in and drift by, learning, content. 

I was thinking about how impossible it will be to describe my experience to people back home. The words I use will help to transfer a little bit of what I gained here, but the boxes we use to capture experiences are not the thing itself and are a poor substitute. 

After a while everyone woke up, slowly and hungover. After more coffee and the lazy breakfast, we went to take a rickshaw to an area where we could catch a cab and go to the Spanish Café. I'm not sure exactly but I don't think we left the apartment until around 2. We also have Carlos his birthday turtle with a nice note in Spanish. 

The Spanish cafe is a great little restaurant that serves European food, the staff speaks Spanish and it's frequented by travelers. It's hidden in a little alley way but was one of the best meals we've eaten in a long time. We got burritos and fresh lime sodas which are a big drink in Calcutta. We hung out here for probably about two hours eating and chatting with Boris, Paola, Carlos and Andres. There was writing all over the walls in many languages, I added a quote I like about traveling and my name, so if anyone goes there, look for it. 

We walked a little ways to a shop they frequent. They trust the salesman, which is rare and we just hung out sitting on a rug for a few hours chatting with the shopkeep and looking at some of the merchandise. Connor almost bought a second out of pants, which would have doubled his wardrobe. He wasn't quite ready to take the plunge though. 

It was around 6 or 7 now and we caught a rickshaw to a big temple in the city. Walking around the cool marble barefoot at night was great. We were the only people there and it was much more peaceful than the crowded, dirty temples of yesterday. By the exit, a guard insisted on taking a picture of us.. And then insisted on a tip. Was a good picture though. 

After the temple, we walked to a big mall and got ice cream and a quick dinner before Connor and I had to catch a cab to the station. We said our goodbyes and promised to visit each other after we all get home from our respective adventures. 

Outside the mall, the cabs were all trying to charge us 500 rupees and only drive us to the ferry. We were way too experienced for the scams by this point so we called them crooks and walked to the other side. A helpful Indian couple explained how cabs should work. It was stuff we already knew but would've been super helpful to have these people the first day we got here. All our knowledge was gained the hard way. 

We got to the train station about 45 minutes early and found our car without too much trouble. Our berth was shared with two cranky Indians and a nice Indian couple from Ohio. We were on the side with 3 bunks per row. And we switched one of our middle bunks for a top so that the couple could be closer. It's impossible to sit up on any of the bunks but it was much better than the last train. People actually turned out the lights and stopped talking around the time the train left. The cumulative sleep debt might have also made sleeping easier. It was wonderful. 

It's been a great time in Kolkata and it was nice to experience another facet of Indian life. Getting to know new friends from all over the world was also one of the best parts of the last few days. 

-AB 

Don't need no mo pants

Nice night temple, but must tip

Goodbye Calcutta 

See descriptions for burrito and guacamole:

It's weird that they have Christmas decorations and no Christians. 

The line to get on the train 

Feliz Cumpleaños

The sun woke me up around 6 and I laid in bed for a while before getting up and taking a cold shower. I made breakfast for the apartment while listening to the music. More sleep would have been nice, but I like the quiet hours of the morning when the world is is still sleeping. 

I woke up everyone else around 9 because we had plans to go see a few temples today. We still didn't make it out of the apartment until closer to 10:30. We caught a bus to the area with temples and walked through a busy market to get there. The temples were cool to look at but crowded. We left our shoes outside and walked through. A few little kids kept following us asking for money. And we were stopped several times with requests to take pictures with us. I really do wonder if this is how celebrities feel. It's a little strange, but I just smile and give a noncommittal shrug. These requests have become a part of going to public places in India. ..I still make faces. 

There were a lot of fertility statues in smaller sub-temples alongside the big centerpiece. Carlos said a prayer there because he wants to have children. We saw the Ghats where people bathe and perform rituals in the holy (and filthy) Ganges river. We caught a tiny full boat to a temple on the other side of the river but it was closed when we got there and we were starving so we caught a boat back and walked to a different bus to go to center city 2, where we saw James Bond. 

The temples were great and the boat ride was fun too but it didn't matter so much what we were doing. It was wonderful to hang out with Carlos and Andreas and shoot the breeze for a few hours. We had tons to share with each other about our worlds and much less important topics.  They're the kind of people that I would be friends with back home. 

At CC2, we went to KFC. They eat Indian food for most meals at work and try to eat other things when they can. Connor and I ordered 3 meals each and then we went to McDonald's for mcflurries. We wanted to buy some more alcohol for Carlos' birthday party tonight and we went to ask in the super market if they sold any. It was like we had asked him where we can buy weed. Super offended "oh nonononononono not here not I.. Etc" and then wouldn't tell us where it's sold. We decided to go to a supermarket in a mall down the road they they knew. 

We bought what we needed and I got a couple bottles of Indian wine. I'd never learned anything about wine from India or seen it carried in any stores and wanted to try it. We bought a bottle for Carlos for his birthday too. 

It was a sort-of-surprise party for Carlos' 29th birthday and there were decorations all over the flat. We helped blow up some more balloons and then rested for an hour or so before people started showing up. They had cooked dinner for everyone and we sang Feliz Cumpleaños with everyone. There were maybe 20 people there, all working for TCS. Most were from Latin America but some were African or Scandinavian. 

When we were sitting down, Oliver showed up. It was crazy watching him walk in and say hello to everyone. Where we were sitting, he came to us last and then stopped in shock and we both started laughing. We had spent about 3 hours in the train station the day before. We helped him figure out how to work the system and commiserated. It turns out the friend he was helping to change a ticket for was Bame, one of the girls in the apartment. We had heard her side of the ticket story and didn't connect the dots until we saw him in the apartment. 

The party was nice and we went to sleep around 3 or 4. Oh, and the Indian wine was awful. 

-AB

Ring the bell for children

It's become normal to travel like this

Chicken Internet.

We woke up pretty late and I went to the market around 10 to buy oatmeal eggs and bananas to make breakfast. Andreas had to leave for work but we made some for Carlos to eat with us too. I'm starting to see the consequences of the cheap street food we ate yesterday. 

We've got the hang of catching cabs by now and took the hour fifteen ride to the tourist train office without too much hassle. We've started giving directions to the drivers to keep them from taking us in big circles. 

The office seemed immediately more promising than the last time we were here. It's less than half as full and they're only 20 numbers away from the slip we grabbed. Our process is more complicated today because we are trying to cancel our first ticket and rebook a new one for a few days later. At the urging of our hosts, we've decided to stay an extra couple of days and take a train straight back to Bhubaneswar on Monday. There are some confusing logistics to work out but assuming things aren't too Indian, we should be able to make it happen. 

That was great. We only waited about half an hour before being helped by the same person as yesterday. He explained the process to us. We would only get a 50% refund because it was less than 24 hours before our train but the second one we booked was cheaper anyway. Our first choice train was full so we're taking the 7 hour night train to Bhubaneswar on Sunday night. Looking forward to having two more days here. 

The museum was about 3 or 4 kilometers from the office and we walked along the street. We walked along areas that were dirty or dirtier. There was a busy bus terminal, a creepy park where a hundred different species of trees were planted in uniform rows. We passed a smaller park and there was a volleyball tournament going on, we were the only white people there, but went in and sat right by one of the games to watch for about an hour. There were both men and women's games going on. It was nicer than it should have been to see women playing sports in public. We rarely see women outside of the home in our village and seeing proof that not all India is like that, was reassuring. 

By the time we got to the museum, it was only about 50 minutes before closing. It also cost 500 rupees, which seemed like a lot at the time (and was 25 times the price of the tickets for Indians). There was a huge market nearby and we walked through it. All the vendors are super pushy and several people tried to get us to follow them to their shops in alleyways or to sell us hash/marijuana. They all start with the same system "where you from? Hello hello, I love that place, my sister/cousin/aunt lives there, how you like India? What're you doing? Don't do that, just look at my shop" or something like that. Connor and I have gotten the ignore, or answer-but-keep-doing-whatever-we-were-anyway-technique down. We bought a small curved turtle for Carlos for his birthday in recognition of the time it takes him to get up in the morning. 

After the madness of the market, we caught a cab to Eco Park, near city center two. It's a huge grassy park area near a lake. Everything about it, from the location, to the attractions inside, is haphazard. It's like someone was playing Roller coaster tycoon and just threw down a ton of random objects. It has fake bamboo huts, tea shops, fountains and ponds, bumper boats, a maze, golf, a butterfly garden and many other attractions. There were little reminders of India hiding everywhere, in the halfway built structures and wooden/metal shacks sprinkled throughout the otherwise-pristine grounds. Connor and I spent some time walking through the mask garden. There must have been a couple hundred masks taller than we were lit from the bottom that gave it a sinister feel in the dark. Some areas of the park were closed but it didn't stop us or anyone else from going to check them out. 

We got a "veg pizza" which was nothing at all like pizza and a couple egg rolls and sat watching the lake. I don't think I'm doing the strangeness of the place justice but it's difficult to explain. It's kind of how I feel when describing India. But I'll get into that more later. 

We walked through the park for a few hours, stopping for a few music/fountain/light shows on our way. 

When we left, there was a gap in a huge metal fence that we walked through to watch them rehearse on a giant stage for a concert tomorrow night. We took a cab back to Uniworld and sat outside the apartment for about half an hour waiting for Bame or Andreas to get back. 

When they did, we sat around drinking beer and talking and got to meet some of their other friends who came to hang out. Paola and Boris were from Columbia as well and we spent a bunch of time with them the next couple of days. Bruno also came to hang out. He's one of the group that I met in Thailand. He enjoys putting on an awful California accent and pretending he's from there. We watched a bunch of Columbian music videos. I'm going to go visit them sometime after their work here finishes. Have I mentioned that I've been bitten by the travel bug? 

Later in the night we went to look over the compound from the roof. This area really is a little oasis from the madness of Calcutta and india in general. 

After the roof, Connor and I went to sleep. Connor and I are sharing a mattess on the floor which is usually Carlos' bed. He gave it to us and is sharing with Andreas. It's been really nice spending time with all of the people here.

-AB 

I'd like one "chicken Internet" please

I forgot to mention the ice rink.. With no ice. The material is like that white synthetic surface that is sometimes under ice rinks. It didn't look slippery at all. 

Indian errands.

We had planned to get three things done today, which is just too many things for India. We wanted to go reserve our train ticket back to Puri, go to the museum and see James Bond at 4. 

After waiting for the bus that never came for about an hour. 

** update. We are now on hour five of the saga of buying the train ticket. We decided to get the ticket today just to make sure there were no problems when we leave tomorrow night. We've long ago given up hope to make it to the museum today, but still hope to see James Bond. The cab we took here went in a suspiciously circuitous route and then tried to charge us double the fare on the meter. At the first railway station we were directed to 4 different locations in two buildings no matter how emphatically we explained what we were trying to accomplish. There was also a 30 minute lunch break in one of the lines we waited on. After a couple hours and at our 4th window, we were told to go to the tourist office on the other side of the river. After much confusion we figured out that the only way to get there was via ferry. On the other side, we wandered and asked at least 3 strangers who all told us different locations for the office. Finally finding it, we were told to grab a number and wait. It's impossible to confirm we are in the right place. But the people and guards we've asked here claim we're finally in the right location. We are number 91 and as far as I can tell, they're on number 43. Trying to decide if I can leave to find a bathroom and food or not. Each person takes at least 5-10 minutes to get through. I am still amazed by the inefficiency present everywhere here. 

*its now a day later (we're back in the ticket office for reasons to be explained,) but I'll finish the story. 

We were tired of waiting and hungry so we were going to take turns going to find something for lunch. I went first and wandered around before settling on a streetside stall. I had been eating at these places al through my travels in Thailand malasia and Nepal so I've grown lax in my vigilance. I chose a stall that had a big crowd (higher food turnover) and got a big plate of rice and veggies with a chicken leg. They refilled my plate three times and I'm was really full. When I got back to the office, they had moved two numbers. At the rate they were going, we wouldn't be helped before the office closed at 5. I wanted for the next break in numbers and then convinced the clerk to help us out of turn. I bought the two tickets and then returned triumphantly to Connor. 

It was too late to go to the museum so we went to center city 2 to see James Bond. The first can we got in shouted to another driver on the other side of the street and had us get in that guys cab. The theatre was in a modern mall and a refreshing break from the grunge of the train stations and city. They said the only seats left were in the back 3 rows and on the sides but the theatre was empty. When we entered, we were shown to our seats, which two of the 6 patrons were sitting in. Ignoring our protests, the staff member made them move for us. It was comical with the entire rest of the huge theatre empty. As soon as the lights dimmed, we moved to the middle center seats, excited for a western experience. Unfortunately, this is India. They cut out all the sex scenes and most of the torture. It just wasn't the same. There was also a 15 minute intermission cut right into the middle of the most intense part of the movie. 

The movie let out into a dingy service walkway and we decided to try the bowling in the mall. Connor paid and is almost sure he got scammed. They swirled the 1000 note he gave them for a 500 and gave him too little change. By the time he realized, it was too late and he wasn't sure enough it happened to create a fight. The experience left a bad taste in our mouth that we tried to wash clean with the most American option we could find for dinner, dominos pizza. It was delicious. We said for a while and tried to figure out if we could use the OLA app here to get a ride (it's like Indian uber) before giving up and hailing a cab. 

We got back a little after 9 and, ignoring our lingering exhaustion, decided to go out with Andreas and some of his friends around 11. The 5 of us squished into the cab for the hour long ride to downtown. We were going to The Park, which we were told was the nicest hotel in the city. Famous people go to the night club so drinks were well outside of our price range. We went to a bar with live music for a while and when that ended we went to the busier club and danced for a couple hours before catching a cab back around 3. It was a good night. I almost let them go without me, and would've loved the extra sleep. I prefer to not say no to things, especially while traveling and I'm usually glad to have had the experiences, whatever they are. It's impossible to predict where a decision will lead and the only way to find out is to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves. 

-AB

Intermission