Wayanad? Why not?

Awesome moment #5983: Our trip to Wayanad. Wayanad is a district about 3 hours away from Nilambur. It is largely agricultural and much of that consists of tea and coffee. The seven of us teachers were able to stay in a gorgeous two bedroom, four couch homestay with beautiful views, an amazing cook, and A CRAZY AWESOME BATHROOM. Check out the picture right now. No seriously, right now. I'll wait. Crazy awesome, right? In case you think your eyes deceive you, they don't. They wouldn't do that to you. Three walls and a garden. When you go to the bathroom, you get a connection to nature that you just don't get from a glass-block window...but don't get me started on that. And taking a shower? Talk about Eve-esque! I was ready for a serpent to present me with an apple at any moment.

Sadly, I had a cold the entire time I was there so I was forced to sit on one of the many porches and sip the best tea I ever had on a non-stop basis...and nap. They should build more hospitals with that kind of view and that kind of tea. The night views were wonderful as well. One night there was a very bright moon that lit the whole valley and part of the mountains. I never felt so strongly that I needed an DSLR camera. Here are a few more pictures of the house, my room, and the views.

Also, the morning we left, I walked down to the tea factory to see what I could see of the tea with no fee or a key. It was quite a sea of tea. Okay, I'm done. Too many homophone lessons for the kiddies.

Indian Magic!

A few days ago we were invited to a Muslim wedding. My god, what a buffet. When we were introduced to the bride and groom, they wanted to get pictures with us which seemed a little backwards and we had some light conversation. The bride was lovely in her blinged out outfit and the groom was quite dapper in his velvet blazer. They totally pulled it off. I think the green ambient lighting helped.

The only way to accommodate the number of guests was to have it outside. There must have been 500 people walking in and out of that courtyard/fairground/whateveritwas. There were 2 buffet tents, one for the women and one for the men. We overate and then we left.

Our next stop was to a neighborhood residents association meeting/party. We introduced ourselves and I sang a little ditty. Little did I know I would be out-shown by an Indian Willy-Wonka that did magic. Don't believe me? I have pictures. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. Anything. I did hum 'Final Countdown' under my breath in honor of Gob Bluth.

We were then served dinner part two in a setting not unlike a child in a high chair being force fed. This, of course, was the only way the food would stay inside of us, so it worked out.

Shortly after, we retreated to our homestays to figure out how to sleep comfortably with our new food babies. Hats off to pregnant women everywhere. You are saints.

Blackouts with Stanley and Ira

Hello friends! I hope everyone is enjoying crisp, autumn weather. While I imagine you are enjoying apple cinnamon cider, marshmallows over a fire, and other autumnal treats, I am enjoying things fried in coconut oil, chapathi, chicken byriani, fish curry, bananas, and other carb-filled food. We have been thrown into our classes and are just coming up for air now. The children are very excited to see us and we are trying our best to get aquainted with everyone even though there are about 65 students per class. We have also been meeting with various government officials, press conferences, and lounging by the pool. Just kidding. There is no pool....unless you're counting the pool of sweat I create every day. If you want to get through the day without frying up like the papadum I ate for lunch, you would get up at 5:00 am, get some work done until 11:00 am, stay inside until about 4:30 pm and finish any outside activities then. The tricky bit to this operation is that even though we aren't teaching all day between the hours of 11:00 and 4:30, there are blackouts at least twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Sometimes there's a blackout all day. That makes planning lessons REAL. HARD. Not to mention maintaining a reasonable body temperature. Just yesterday, I was forced to watch Big because there wasn't anything else to do. Thank God for Tom Hanks. There was no light because it was storming (storms and power outages do not always go hand in hand here) and it was so hot, I didn't want to move for fear of exploding into some form of humid fire.

Anyways, not all was lost. Our friends Stanley and Ira the geckos came to check on us. Usually they come every night after sunset, but today it was a little earlier because of the storm. They even brought around their other friends Jerome, Reba, Gretchen and her son Vishnu. Also, Sven has been coming around lately on Wednesdays after 4:00 pm. They were here all night because someone can't take a hint, so my roommates and I just went to bed around 10:00. Even when I got up for a bathroom visit at 3:00 am, a moth flew past my face and Jerome killed it right above the sink where I was trying to wash my hands. Of course when I saw what a vicious killer Jerome was and discovered that the water was turned off, I screeched and fled the scene to my bed where it took me another hour to erase those horrific images from my mind. The next morning I submerged from my bedroom to find half of the moth in front of my door as what I presume to be a "I'm sorry" gift from the geckos for overstaying their welcome. This moth was about 3 inches across and what was even more peculiar was that I saw other bits of the moth being carried across the floor to the door by ants.

I must say, India keeps me on my toes!

Holy culture shock, Batman!

I really think this post title says it all. This is the first time I've had a moment to myself and my homestay had wifi at the same time....well...that and I wasn't passed out. It's been quite a learning experience so far and that's an understatement.

When we arrived in Nilambur, we were greeted at a hotel by a small party of men that were the organizers of this project. We had tea (this is a reoccurring theme) and introduced ourselves. Afterwards, we were taken to where we would be staying. At the beginning of it all, we were assured that we would have our own house and housekeeper. This was not the case at all. Three of us would be staying with a family. This did not go over well. This, too, is an understatement. Thankfully, I think we were too tired to put up a fight so everyone had a little cry in their bed and fell asleep.

The next morning I decided to treat this as an adventure and hopefully things would look up. So, I put on the Bonjour song from Beauty and the Beast as I sat in bed and looked out the window. That helped tremendously. I think we all need a little Disney therapy once in a while.

We were supposed to go shopping for little things we needed but we weren't able to because the shops were on strike and everything was closed. Instead we met at the other homestay house and met together to discuss the upcoming months. That quickly turned into tea time and nap time. No complaints here. Eventually we had dinner and went home to our wifi-less house. No bitterness here.

The next few days were VERY long. I have been going to bed at 9:45 and waking up at 5:30 or 6:00 each day. Mostly this is because there is a mosque nearby that has the call to prayer (adhan) at dawn. Actually I fould out that Nilambur has a mix of Muslims, Hindus, and Christians all living together in what seems to be harmony...from what I can tell. It's quite nice. Except for the 5:20 am wake up call. Anyways, we've been meeting with our Indian teacher colleagues that will be helping us with class in a seminar/workshop that has been preparing us for what is to come. I loved meeting them and I can't wait to get to know them better! I'll have to make a post about them soon. The workshop goes until about 5:00 pm and for the past two days we first went to the oldest teak plantation in the world and then the next day, the teak museum...so if you have any questions about teak...I'm your woman.

Today was the last day of the workshop and the Minister of Tourism in Kerala stopped by to say hello. I was asked to sing (I also think this will be a reoccurring theme) and so I did a quick O mio babbino caro. Maybe this is the beginning of my Indian career?

Right now I'm trying to relax before it's time to leave for dinner with some fancy people at a fancy place. In the meantime tell me: what was the biggest culture shock you've ever had? I'm still trying to catch up to it all and the wifi isn't always there to catch it with me so until next time: Namaskaram!

Is it time to eat?

To make a long story short, we almost didn't make it here. While my cousin and I had no problem getting from London to Doha (carrying our luggage on the tube included), we almost missed our flight from Doha to Kochi. The inner shopper in both of us called and not wanting to ignore our inner voice, we followed our........hearts? Unfortunately that call drowned out the other call to our gate so by the time we wandered to where we were supposed to be the only call we could hear is "last call". We were the last ones on the plane but in our defense, people were still boarding as we ascended the stairs so really we weren't that late.

    For the past few days we've been trying to catch up on sleep (10 1/2 hour time difference) and eating...and eating and eating and eating. Did I mention eating. Because we ate. A lot. Every meal has been a buffet at this amazing 5 star restaurant and everything seems like a work of art.

    Yesterday we did the tourist thing and went to St. Francis church, the Chinese fishing nets, the Dutch palace, and Jewtown. Of course there was a little shopping along the way. My cousin had itchy hands so she was the first to buy...but that's no surprise. 

    Today we leave for the town we'll be living in for the next 4 months. I can't wait to meet the kids! Time to pack up and devour one more meal.