India March 11-March 16

We’ve docked in Chennai, India…On the first day I had a trip that I had to do for class and by the time we were allowed off the boat I didn’t have time to explore the area prior to my trip leaving.

In India you have to wear pants that cover your legs and a shirt that covers your shoulder...while it’s 90 plus degrees outside. We were also told that it was extremely dirty. They lined some of the ship hallways with cardboard so that when you tracked in the dirt it wouldn’t get all over the place. Well, it was really hot and pretty dirty. I expected the extreme in terms of dirt. I expected to walk outside and have a sandstorm of dirt. It wasn’t like that. It was like sand in the sense that there was a lot of dirt on the ground but it definitely wasn’t swirling around in the air.

So my trip…it was called “Socioeconomic Problems in Chennai,” quite a mouthful. It’s description said that we would be traveling to the slummiest of the slums and walk around and take it all in. It mentioned that the families ask that we do not take pictures. Erika, my Digital Storytelling professor, emphasized the no picture rule as well. I immediately was upset. I understood the point of the assignment…being there in the moment, not allowing a camera to be in the way of you really experiencing everything going on around you, and that sometimes you’re too worried about taking a good picture as opposed to just, again, being in the moment. I like taking pictures. I think pictures help me remember and help capture a moment. Of course that moment may not transfer as well to the photo but it helps spark the memories and gives you a physical storybook of your adventure. Now, since it was the families’ wishes to not take pictures it was a lot easier for me to swallow and “obey.” But, I did bring my camera…just in case.

I have had a few issues with the Field Program booklet. (I think I’ve vented about this before but oh well, now you have to hear it again). This booklet has the description of every trip that Semester at Sea does. As I mentioned, this trip was supposed to be going to the slums, seeing how the lowest class lives…it wasn’t. Usually, when this happens it’s not a problem because I enjoy myself anyways, but this time I was more disappointed than usual. I did enjoy myself, but it wasn’t what we were told was going to be happening.

Anyway….back to the trip…we drive to this place…that yes, is somewhat slummy. We get off the bus and start walking down these unpaved, rocky, torn up streets until we reach this building. WE walk into the building and this woman greets us and tells us about the place. This area is where families and children got displaced after the tsunami, as well as children they’ve gotten off the streets. Each home is tiny, they sleep on the floor with no mattresses, and the “families” have several kids and a mother as well as a specific religion. This was more like a village than a slum. It was described as an organization that was more like a “project” where they brought these kids and women and taught them sanitary, cleaning, green jobs, and education, etc. After the introduction this group of women walked in they were the ones in charge of garbage and waste. They showed us where they took garbage and turned it into manure. This organization takes these people who are struggling off the street and teaches them good ways to live. They showed us around some of the stonewall buildings/facilities like the room where they teach the women cosmetology, sewing, and other useful trades. After this they took us to the school and classrooms (and I used that word loosely). The rooms had a ton of decoration, pictures the kids drew, but there were no desks. They all sat on the floor in circles and had one pad of paper and a chalkboard. It had its similarities and differences from the Vietnamese Elementary School. It was different in the fact that you didn’t realize how privileged the Vietnamese kids were until you saw how unfortunate these Indian children were. The Vietnamese had desks and enclosed paved courtyard where as this village had a stone wall around a dirt area, which acted as their courtyard. It was similar in the kid’s excitement to see you. They too treated you like rock stars and would ask for your autographs and we asked them for theirs.

As we were leaving these three girls followed us, holding this jump rope. They started asking us to jump rope with them and we had a blast. More and more kids came out to meet us in the streets. They were so cute and I had a great time. I still would have like to have gone to a real slum as opposed to an area that was more like a project. Not being able to take pictures was very tough and even more frustrating when we realized that they directors/families/and kids had no problem with the pictures and in fact wanted to have their pictures taken. Overall though, I had an amazing time…I mean I got to play with kids how could it be bad?

I only had one night in Chennai before I left for my Taj Mahal trip. It was Rebecca’s birthday and since drinking is not of the norm in India we went to a hookah bar to celebrate. Now, I’m not a huge hookah smoker and I don’t really know good from bad, but out of all that I’ve smoked that was the best. I had a great time and got back around 11.


I will be finishing this later...sorry