Email home #4

Hey fam!

I thought that for this email I would send you various excerpts from my journal. I’ve decided to stick with excerpts that are more about what life is like, rather than the ones that are long and tie everything into the gospel. But don’t worry Mom; at Christmas time you are free to read anything and everything you would care to about my experience from either my regular journal or my field journal. I marked skippage of material in my writing with "..." You may find that sometimes my connected thoughts are less connected than my unconnected thoughts.

"9 September 2007

Day 8 in the village, day 11ish in India. My leg hair is quite long. When I speak it is slow and all syllables are distinct. I wonder if I will ever look pretty again. And life is good…I need to purify more drinking water. I used the last of mine brushing my teeth this morning. I love the feel of my tongue running across smooth, clean teeth—oh the simple pleasures of life!

10 September 2007

Yesterday evening was one of my favorites in India. It involved a delicious India dinner of rice with tasty, spice sauce, & beef on the side. Geeva is a wonderful cook. The house smelled incredible for hours preceding the meal. As we ate, the delightful spiciness affected us slowly. At first, we (the white-ys) all loved the taste and found the hotness factor perfect, and while we all retained a love of the flavor, our tongues soon began to burn, which sensation travelled to our lips, and then our faces beaded sweat and our noses began to run. And our water bottle levels dropped. But it was worth it. Yum! I think it was possibly my first taste of meat in India…

Ben called. It felt good to talk to another native English speaker. I asked for advice on building relationships of trust in a foreign language and he gave some helpful hints (for more info, see mine other plates—I mean my field journal)…Gwen is really scared of bugs and spiders. Yesterday I was chillin’ on my mat when she exclaimed “A spider, Allison, a spider! It’s jumping, it’s jumping, it’s jumping; it has claws!!!” I was a brat and laughed and took my time to come over to try and dispose of the critter friend…I’ve given up on the mosquito net. I just let the bugs have their way with me as long as I’m asleep and don’t know about it…

It seems that the piles of trash on the sides of the roads are burned at times. The village has rolling electricity. Several times a day it cuts off. It typically only lasts for a few minutes but it can be for a good stretch. Gratefully, I’ve never had it turn off while I was in the squatter at night, but it has happened once in the ‘shower’, several times while reading in my room, and it seriously impaired Nate and my game of Russian Uno last night…

I’m worried about how I’ll do my Cultural Proofs. I need a native friend who I can communicate with and do stuff. Or else I need to become fluent in Tamil. Either way works…There is a mosquito out to get me. It is so beautiful here. I saw my first clean view of Elephant Mountain. There are usually clouds in front. Every time I walk from the village to Chavadi I’m amazed by the beauty of the coconut trees, the green, the mountains and the blue sky. And seeing people walk the road in their sarees and salwars, men on their bikes and motorcycles or in their loongis, or children in their school uniforms is so beautiful it seems unreal. But I love it. I love my tropical paradise.

11 September 2007

A really quite large spider just scampered across the wall, starting at my backpack by my ‘bed’ and ending up somewhere in my clothes or pack. I fear that he will be my bed buddy tonight. Gaucala! Apa playing Uno highlight: “Ha!” He fiercely throws down a red 4 card atop the stack and then “Oh!” He realized it is the wrong color and hastily snatches it back up. So cute!...

I wish I had the Harry Potter cloak, the second deathly hallow and could go unseen into homes and observe interactions and routines. Many of the children have anklets with charms that clang, chang and tinkle as they walk or waddle past. Certain children are completely recognizable by the sounds they produce, be it walk or talk. And there is typically al least on small child whose bottom half is bare. Which is the only way I’ve been able to distinguish some children as males or females. The little boys and girls are almost all dressed in dresses and jewelry and many have similar short, shaggy haircuts. Everyone has the same dark, black hair color—except the albino girl we saw in Chavadi yesterday.

12 September 2007
My water bottle smells foul. I don’t know how to describe it. It seems worse than the original ‘fish tank’ smell of the first week. Oh well. Such is life. Yesterday at Ravkumar’s one of the little girls put her hand next to mine, pointed at my hand and said “white: super!” I smiled. I’ve heard of others who have had similar tender moments. I responded similarly, pointing at her hand and said ‘brown: super” and grabbed her hand, the brown and white in beautiful, brilliant contrast. I love this place. I’m white like a dog, but it’s super. I really enjoy the fresh pineapple here. And also the mango chews for 1 rupee at Apa’s store…

While showering I counted insect bites on my arms. My right arm has 2 and my left arm has 17. My left leg and foot have 11. My right: 2. Why is the left half of my body so much more appetizing? It is my “good side”? I’ll have to investigate pictures of myself to determine if such is the case…

I think my garment top is molding. Well, mildewing. It has the appearance of splotchy greenness on the right shoulder area. And it smells. I should probably be washing rather than wearing it, eh? I need to send my light, casual saree material to the tailor. Two outfits a week just isn’t cutting it…

While writing earlier I realized something. I was feeling something familiar, but that I hadn’t felt for 2 weeks—dryness. In the shade I hadn’t sweat since before showering. It was a beautiful feeling. And then I did laundry and experienced 2 different kinds of wetness---the sweat—dampness from humidity and also perspiration from draining physical labor, and wash water—particularly on my left leg (always the left!) where the article I was beating would often follow through onto, plus the random splashes and splatters and contact with soppy, soapy wet clothes. The washing process (not including soaking and drying) took one hour exactly….

Good news. My vomiting experience last week did not negatively affect my fond tastes for parotas. Still good. Even after tasting it backwards. I have found optimism to be an effective deterrent to homesickness and culture shock. I’m very content and aware of my blessings here. My only frustration is in regards to my research. The more I read and understand my Professor’s desired methods, the more I regret not preparing more in summer, and the more confused I am as to what I am to do and my my question really fits. I’m doing it all backward but its too late to do it right. So I’ll just have to learn from my mistakes and pray for the capacity to have success in understanding and applying correct research principles and methods and that I’ll be able to extract and collect relevant lived experiences and narratives that will help me to understand the nature and essence of intergenerational value transmission among families here. So many adventures yet to have. I am Indiana Jones—minus the fear of snakes and rugged good looks—he looks much better sweaty. But I am on a quest. I’m a researcher and a scholar. There are plenty of obstacles to overcome. But somehow I am or will be equipt with all that is necessary to have success---even if I don’t quite end up with what I had envisioned myself coming out of this with. See. Optimism. It’s a beautiful thing. Hope is another good word for it. Life is good..."


And that pretty much catches all y'all up. I hope you enjoyed the glipses into daily life. As far as I am concerned, life is good. I love it. I love my daily scripture study. I'm up to Mosiah 7. I love king Benjamin. The food is enjoyable. But, if I get the chance, I'm going to try to have a burger while I'm here in the city. I need to spend more time getting to know people, but its mighty hard when they speak different languages, but I'm gotten some tips on things to do to get past that, and hopefully we'll start getting translators from a nearby college starting next week. They research work will start to feel a lot more real...and I'll probably encounter a lot more frustrations, but that is part of the learning experience. Good times. Well, I hope that all is well on the homefront! Take care and know that you are loved.

Al