Departing Diu

I have taken up the art of talking on skype over the last week as a substitute for posting to this. Here is an update though starting with the 26th.

The 26th was our last day in Diu. Despite the noticeable lack of participation in a Hindu festival, it was still a spectacular day. We still had our scooters so we scooted through the north part of the island we had not seen yet. In the afternoon we crossed a bridge onto the main land area and rode through some more villages in that area. I have discovered that meandering is by far one of my favorite things to do over in these parts. I especially love to meander when the journey involves seeing people just going about their lives. Anyway, there was one hiccup in the trip when I hit a hole and the chain came off my scooter. I messed with it for a while and kind of gave up because it was wedged in really hard. long story short a kind young man named Ramesh drove by on his bicycle and offered to fix it (I had no reservations about this idea). He ended up riding to a house or something a coming back with a wrench that he used make everything work again. He knew a little English so Scott and I got to talk with him some before he left.

Once everything was back in working order we made our way back to Diu and hung out at our sweet abode. That night the owner of our guest house was having a fish grill slash rice and pasta party so we made certain to hit that up. The fish was shark and tuna (much better than starkist). We had a good time and got to meet some more of the people staying at the guest house. Later that night I was walking around town and started talking to a guy who had lived in Diu his whole life. He owned a restaurant and was also in the construction business so i talked to him for a while about the houses there. I asked him how much houses cost in Diu and he told me a really nice house in the best part of town is about 50 lakh rupees (fun fact: lakh means 100,000 here so 50 lakh is 5,000,000 rupees and about $100,000). He also said that a good old house in another part of town is about 10 lakh so $20,000ish.  He took me to his house (which was super nice and big) and showed me around. He said his house cost 75 lakh to build so $150,000ish. After we talked about all that business he gave me this spicy fish dish and some really good flat bread to eat. It was wonderful and we watched part of a show in Hindi before I scampered back to the guest house.

A Quaint Little Piece of Wonderful Oct 24/25

The current location is my favorite so far. This post is real long but today was incredible so that is fine with me. Diu is a little town of maybe 20,000 people that sits on an island just off the south west coast of the state of Gujarat. The whole island is known as Diu but the town we are in is also called Diu and takes up the eastern part of the island. It was formerly one of the major Portuguese colonies for this part of Asia and it has a fort that is very hard core. Scott and I rented scooters (about 2 dollars a day) and drove around most of the island.

The town is very nice. The trip to the town was real bad. I like to be optimistic but the trip was bad. We spent 11 hours in a bus that seemed to go through and stop at every village along the 400 km journey. At first I loved it because I got to see a lot of the countryside and different villages. That lasted about an hour until it seemed to all be on repeat as it got more hot and dusty. I talk to some of the guys behind me and would ask them how much longer. When we got on they were saying “2 pm we be there no problem.” That sounded fine until it was 1 pm and they said “maybe 5 more hours.” We ended up getting there at 7:15 and it was well worth it.

The place we are staying was formerly a catholic cathedral built by the Portuguese and has been turned into a guest house. We got a room for about 3 dollars a night and it is right next to a balcony on the top of the church. There are steps to climb up to the top of the church and from there it is possible to see the whole town and a good portion of the island. The balcony seems to be the hangout place for everyone staying here and there is a big fish grilling party tomorrow night. George runs the place and he is very friendly and hilarious.

The fort is set on the north east corner of the island and was built in the 1540s. As we were walking through it I was amazed at how absolutely enormous it is. The outer wall is 8.4 kilometers long. That is a complete guess but it might be close. Whatever I say wont do it justice so here is the wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diu_Fort#Structure

After leaving the fort, we hopped on our crotch rockets and headed west not really knowing anything about the rest of the island.  We got lost getting out of the town but eventually found the one road that crosses the island and another wonderful journey began. As we were traveling I found out the basic layout of the island from east to west. First is the town of Diu and it is followed by nothing but sand and bushes. That lasts a while but finally gives way to a beach area with a few hotels and resort. These things are nice but far and away my favorite part of the island is the west side because it has a several random villages. The children yell hilarious things and the people do mostly fishing and prawn farming (explanation of that will come later).

The highlight of this endeavor came as we were wandering around the villages and found a community center slash temple surrounded by hundreds of people listening to Hindi music. We walked up to see what was going on and a man  introduced himself and began explaining the cause for the festival activities. Apparently today is the birthday of one of the Hindu gods and they were throwing a huge and super fun birthday party. Our host showed us around and then led us over to a tent with a few hundred people in it sitting in rows with plates. The whole shindig was awesome but the food was especially awesome. There were people walking around with buckets and ladles putting food on peoples plates. I dont know what any of it was called but it was delicious and every time I finished something they would insist on giving me more. By the time we finished I just wanted to roll over and take a nap but there were more festivities to partake in. Our host took us to sit under a tree and told us more about the area and the festival (he seemed to be our host by default because I did not hear anyone except him speak English). It was an incredible experience and I feel very blessed to have been a part of it.

The last part of our interaction was a tour of their prawn farms. Prawn are essentially giant shrimp (8-10 inches) that they raise in large ponds and then harvest.  The idea I got (through the language barrier) is that they start the process by putting a  bunch of baby prawns in the pond. They feed them some sort of grain mixture that comes in bags and then harvest the batch every three months and start everything again. The people in the villages just started doing this about 7 years ago and it sounds like it has been very successful financially.

After our tour the festivities were winding down so we departed and began making our way back to the town.  On the way back we stopped at some caves and grave yard that looked like a town. Each grave was a little stone house that had candles and stuff in it. I dont really know what was going on but it was multi colored and looked pretty  cool. Back at Diu Scott wanted to get some sunset pictures so I got a strawberry sweet lassi and sat on top of the church to look at the town and watch the sunset. It was pretty stinking close to a perfect end to an incredible day in a wonderful little town. Now I am at a cyber cafe telling you all of this. I hope you enjoyed because I certainly did.

A Strawberry sweet lassi is some sort of mix between thin yogurt, strawberry, sweet lassi and delicious wonderfulness. Sidenote about Diu-> Gujurat is a no alcohol state except for a few places and Diu is one of them. This translates to a massive quantity of cheap liquor and bars. I think it is pretty hilarious how it the name is dui misspelled.

The lesson of this trip is to never under any circumstance take the local bus system between cities.  I have an even stronger love of the trains here.

Alright. Now I shall go chillax and make some new friends on top of the church.

Ghandi’s Ashram

I spent most of today at the ashram Ghandi founded in 1917 and lived at for several years. (the wiki page on it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarmati_Ashram). It is pretty much a musem now and they have a lot of his writings and realy cool timeline of his life. The house he lived in is still there and preserved how it was when he lived in it. One of my favorite parts of it was an area where they had articles and letters he had written with information about their historical context around it.

At about 11 I was watching a cricket game and not learning anything when a kid (maybe 10ish) sat down next to me and dove into a 15 minute history of India’s caste system and how important Ghandi’s message is. As soon as he was finished I thanked him and tried to talk to him some more but he said “I just wanted to share that with you” and walked away.  I was very appreciative but I have no idea what prompted it.

In the gift shop they had copies of his autobiography for about 75 cents so I picked on up and spent most of the afternoon reading it. It was a pretty cool place and I took a nap on a bench until a super nasty looking dog came up and almost licked me. It was almost a bad situation but i kicked it and some people laughed at me. I did not kick it hard at all just hard enough to let it know I did not want any diseases.

That was today. Scott is coming up tonight or tomorrow and we may go to a city near by called Ghandinagar. It is where a lot of the politicians live so it is supposed to be a really nice place.

That is the plan for tomorrow and we are planning on eventually going to a small town called Diu that is supposed to be real cool. There is an old Church there that lets people sleep on the roof for about 2 dollars. It is an old Portuguese colony and supposedly they still speak Portuguese. This means I still wont be able to understand anyone but at least it will be a new language.

Ahmedabad Oct 22

The train ride here went very well. It was over night so I pretty much slept the whole way. There were several people (of both genders) near me who were very accomplished in the art of snoring but other than it was quite smooth. I got in at 6:15 this morning and started walking around. I ended up walking to what I think was the center of the city. I must have had a look of total competence and been emitting strong vibes of knowing exactly what I was doing. Or maybe the truth showed and people saw that I am an ignorant foreigner who does know what is going on because several people asked if they could help me find a hotel or something. Longs story short I had my handy dandy little map and eventually found an area that was not full of closed shops with signs I cant read.

At about 7:30 this guy (who I later learned was named Hassan) drives up and asks me where I want to go. I said something that conveyed my interest in observing and or partaking in some cool activities. He said there was an awesome village 30 minutes away and that he would take me there and back for 300 rupees (6ish dollars). That sounded like a splendid arrangement and our relationship began. On the way there we talked about life and he pointed out interesting stuff as we drove by. I asked him what religion he practiced and he responded with laughter  “Are you crazy?!? My name is Hassan of course I am Muslim.” I said “Well alrighty then. I guess that settles that. I am Stephen.” We were friends for sure after that.

The village was sweet. There was a big well thing that I don’t really know how to describe. It had steps going way down into the ground and ridiculously intricate stone carving everywhere. It was awesome. Just take my word for it until I post pictures on facebook.

Sidenote: This lady got super pissed at her computer a while ago and it was hilarious. I wish I knew what she was yelling about.

While at the village, Hassan offered to drive me all around the city for the rest of the day for 625 rupees total. Originally it was 700 but I bargained  and was quite proud of myself. I ended up paying 750 but that will come later.  He said in one day we could see almost everything “in your little book” (I sensed a little condescension in his tone).

After the village we went to a Jain temple where he passed off driving duties to his brother Sayed who I ended up liking even more.  That was about 9:30 and for the next 7 hours Sayed and I basically drove all around the city checking out mosques, temples, museums and the like.  My favorite places were the mosques because Sayed went into a lot of detail about the different practices, the meanings of different carvings, history of the mosques, and things such as that. Over all it was a good time.

At about 4:30 we met up with Hassan again and the three of us went to a hotel his friend worked at to get me a room for tonight. They were definitely getting a cut for bring me there but i did not really care. It is a reasonably nice place for about 5 dollars so I cant complain. They want to meet up again tomorrow but hanging out with them is kind of expensive so I am going to hit up the bus. The main draw for this city is the ashram Ghandi founded and lived at so I am going to spend the day there tomorrow (word on the street is that there are lots of activities). Yup yup that is that. I guess this is a long one but lots happened today.

Learning the Trains and/or Partying Oct 20

I leave tonight to go to a city called Ahmadabab that is 9 hours north by train. The ticket was 232 rupees, which is about 5 dollars. Getting the ticket required me to go back to southern Mumbai and find the right station to buy the ticket. There is a quota on each train that provides tickets for foreigners so I ended up having to go to the main train station (it is called Mumbai CST if you are interested) to find this tourist counter. Along the way there I met a man who was very nice and helpful at first. He was selling maps and offered to show me where the train station was even though I did not want a map. That sounded splendid because I was completely lost. We walked and talked for about 15 minutes before we got to the train station. Once we got there he informed me that trains are bad and what I really needed to do was buy a 1800 rupee bus ticket from his cousin who was only a 20 minute cab ride away. This sounded like a not so fabulous proposition. I knew about how much the train ticket would cost from the lonely planet book so I told him I was going to book the ticket for the train. He got pretty angry so i gave him about a dollar for helping me finding the train station and we went our separate ways.

That took up the whole morning and afternoon and it was about 5 in the evening before I got back to Scott’s apartment. Later in the evening we went to an area on the west side of the city called Juhu Beach and met up with some of Scott’s friends at a place that had the most delicious strawberry shake I have ever tasted.  It was a delightful time.

When we got back to Scott’s apartment there was a party going on in the courtyard of his complex. The lady who owned the apartments was having a first birthday party for her grandson so we hung out there for a while and had a great time.

That was that and I am happy to finally be on a reasonable sleep schedule after staying up late last night.

Alrighty.

Stephen

South Mumbai and Learning Cricket Oct 19

Scott and I went into  southern Mumbai today to see some of the touristy sights. We spent most of the morning and afternoon just walking around and looking at the different buildings. We went to the Taj Mahal hotel where the terrorist attacks occurred last year and saw the inside. We also went to the gateway of India which is an enormous arch that was erected by the British.

By far the best part of the day came on our way back. As we were walking along the sidewalk and group of boys (aged 5ish -10ish) started talking with us and invited us to go play cricket with them in a park. We walked with them for about 10 minutes before we got to the park and I realized how much of a handicap I had in the sport. I told them I would just watch because I knew nothing about the game but they laughed and gave me the bat to hit first. After several practice swings, I finally hit one and ran like they told me to. Somewhere along the way I broke several rules and realized they thought there was something very hilarious about my performance. Next it was my turn to catch and that turned out to be just as entertaining. After I missed about the 5th ball a boy named Nasir came up to me and stopped laughing long enough to say “I dont understand why you dont just catch the ball.” He had a point. We ended up playing for a while and my skills did not improve but it was very fun. As we were leaving I thanked each boy for having the patience to give me my first Cricket lesson. Right before we left the smallest boy (5 maybe. . . I am terrible with guessing ages) shook my hand and told me “It was a pleasure to play Cricket with you. I am very proud of you.”

That was the day. I have never really been big into touristy things so playing Cricket was infinitely more meaningful to me than seeing the sights.  Playing cricket with 10 new friends in the park was an experience I will never forget and I am very thankful fr the openness the boys expressed yesterday.

That is all for now. I am going north to a state called Gujarat either tonight or tomorrow so that should be exciting.

First Day- Oct 18

I have not had internet so i did 2 posts today. The one before this is about my first night here. The first full day here was a Sunday and it started when I woke up about 5 (because of jet lag I assume). I ended up reading and listening to Scott’s music until 9. At 10 we left to go to Scott’s church about 30 minutes away. We rode in a rickshaw to the train station and then rode the train south to the area where his Church meets. We had a mixup on the trains so we ended up getting to the building where they meet about 30 minutes late. Being an American, I assumed this meant we had missed most of the service. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how wrong I was. The beginning was about an hour and 15 min of singing with one Hindi song for every 2 English songs. Needless to say, I loved being there and experiencing it. After the singing they had a time of people in the congregation reading scripture. The sermon followed and was given on Exodus 32 and truly trusting God. The man was a member of the congregation and was very honest as he talked about how he is working through trusting God with all the different aspects of his life (primarily career for him). After the service was over they had tea and coffee and everyone just hung out and I got to know several of the people there.

Just before we left I found out Scott and I had been invited to go to lunch with one of the families there. There couple was Michael and Patricia  Quadros and they had a son Neil and a daughter Ruth (I found out that people often change their names here when they become christians). They took us to a restaurant and it was one of the best lunches of my life. I think there were about 5 or 6 different dishes and they just kept bring them out one by one. I thought it was all super delicious and got to know Neil while we were there. Neil is 19 years old and studying management at university here in Mumbai. I got to know a lot about the culture here and what it is like to be a student. The lunch went into late afternoon and the whole time I was just in awe of everything that had happened in the day. After lunch I told them how much I appreciated everything and found out they were not done yet. They invited Scott and me over to their house for tea and I had the pleasure of getting to know them some more.  The people I met at church and the family we ate with were some of the most kind and hospitable people I have ever been around. Scott and I ended up leaving their house about4:30 to go back to his place. As we were walking back, I was still just in awe of how amazing the morning and afternoon had been because the people we were around are so loving and nice. People I had never met before treated me like we had been close friends for years and it a pretty incredible example of how to show genuine love for another person.

We got back to Scotts place and I decided to take a nap since I had slept about 10 hours over the previous 3 days. I went sleep about 5 in the evening and woke up at 5:30 this morning. I think I am headed toward a reasonable sleep schedule soon.

PS  I am in a cyber cafe and the guy who manages it has been listening to an awesome mixture of Rhianna and Kanye. There are 2 kids next to me who are about 7 and playing Grand Theft Auto on the computer. I thought that was interesting and funny.

Stephen

First Night

The fist night here was interesting to say the least. I got in pretty late so it was almost midnight before Scott and I left the Airport. Scott is my friend who is living here in Mumbai. I got to know him when he was living in Bloomington and also going to Exodus(my church)  activities. His apartment is about a mile from the airport so we decided to walk and talk to get there. It was an interesting first exposure to Mumbai. All the way there we passed through urban mumbai and the busy roads intersecting very poor areas. Rows and rows of shacks with families sleeping inside was a pretty powerful experience and I have no idea what to do with that.

We stopped at a small restaurant to get some Indian food and were welcomed by a group of very friendly young men. We talked with them throughout most of the time we were there and they made sure to make me feel welcome to Mumbai. The main person I talked to was named Jice (not the correct spelling I am sure but that is the pronunciation). He talked about Mumbai and how much he wanted to learn english as well as Scott and me. It was a very enjoyable time and I am thankful for the opportunity to talk with them. We got back to Scott’s apartment about 1 am and hung out for a while before going to bed.  So safe and sound arrival.

Yay for Layovers

So the trip has already been fantastically interesting and I am still in New Jersey waiting for my flight to Mumbai at 6:35 tonight. The flight last night went well and I got into Washington DC about 9:00 in the evening. I had an overnight layover and did not fly out until 8:00 this morning which made for a lively evening. I spent about an hourish walking around the airport looking for a place to sleep/hangout and eventually found a little interfaith chapel in the airport. There was a pretty extensive array of low quality and hilarious religious videos that filled my evening with joy. They also had lots of pamphlets but I didnt get into that very much. By the time I finished my videos there were already 2 other people sleeping in there so I camped out on a row of chairs under flourescent lights for a 5 hours of refreshing sleep.

The flight to Newark this morning was splendid and I spent the morning riding the train around the airport until I found a Marriott Hotel to explore. The hotel turned out to be a delight with lots of delicious treats sitting outside the rooms. It only took about 20 minutes of walking down the hallways and selecting these items off the trays to get plenty of food for a delicious lunch. That was about 30 minutes ago and I am now in the lobby using their computer to do this little update. I dont know that I will stay in a Marriott in the future because this one is quite expensive but I certainly approve of the many services they provide.

Moral of the story: Religious videos are usually funny and a Marriott is an excellent place to score some foodz.

I like this so maybe you will too: “There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.”
–Thoreau

Here we go. . .

I don’t know how this is supposed to work so I am just going to throw some stuff out there and we will see how it all goes. Basically, I am about to leave for the airport to begin A Passage to India and I am real scared slash excited slash uncertain. The title “Be Here Now” comes from the primary focus of this journey. That focus is to be truly present in each moment and place throughout the next 2 months. My desire is to see the world more and more as Jesus sees it and to continually seek relationship with Him above all else. To be here now is to be aware of the world I am apart of and aware of the redemption God offers for this world. Throughout the last monthish I have focused on approaching this journey with as few plans and expectations as possible. The aim of this is to continually seek out simplicity.

That was the blog so here are a few things about me. This is the list off my facebook because I like it a lot and am kind of in a hurry. I am sure more will be revealed soon.

My friend Tim says I have the music tastes of a 35 year old lesbian
There is almost nothing on this planet I appreciate more than dry witty humor
I do not know where my treasure is
My biggest fear is being stuck in life
Change makes my life worth living
NPR adds value to my life
I love talking about ideas
Uncertainty excites me
I believe satire helps the world go round
I have more doubts than I know what to do with
I love hearing people’s stories
I do have a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career
I am totally hard core
I will soon be trekking around India and that excites me. A lot.

So that is that for now. I hope you benefit from this. I hope it inspires interest is Jesus because I think he is real awesome. Next time i post will probably be in India and I find that altogether terrifying if I am honest. My roommate Josh asked me if I was ready to go and I told him it doesn’t really matter at this point because my ticket is non refundable. That is pretty much how I feel now. I don’t feel ready, equipped or even very confident but I am going because I don’t think I would ever go if I waited until I felt comfortable about it.  That seems like a good start. I hope this finds you in a state of growth. Comment if you like because I will certainly read and respond.

Stephen.