Trying on a Sari in India

My Wonderful Friends and I in Bagan!!

Yangon, Myanmar

Hello from beautiful Myanmar. I had no idea what to expect when we arrived here, and I truly have loved every minute of the time that I have spent in this country. This is a country that so many people from the west know so little about. The country is run by an extremely oppressive military regime that blocks most of the citizens’ contact with the outside world. E-mail accounts such as hotmail and yahoo are blocked and much of what the people do and say is monitored quite heavily by the government.

Due to our ship being docked in a very rural area we had to take a shuttle into the heart of downtown Yangon (formerly the city was called Rangoon under British rule). My neck was actually sore from turning my head so much to see everything that we passed along the side of the road. The people here are so fascinating and watching they going about their daily tasks from the bus was a little humbling. Here I am with 50 of my fellow students driving around this rural country in an air conditioned luxury tour bus, while the people are out in the 100 degree heat being watched like zoo animals. I try to remind myself quite often not to just take my camera out of my bag and take a picture whenever I feel like. Yes, I see poverty in these countries everyday, and yes I see people’s pain and need everyday, but that does not make them photo exhibits. I think there are far too many people on this ship that do not think before they whip out their cameras and start snapping away. What would it be like if foreign travelers came into your neighborhood and started taking pictures of you as you were playing with your children in your backyard? I would feel pretty uncomfortable, so I have tried to translate that feeling to the people that I come across in my travels. I try to relate to the people before I put up the glass wall that is my camera between us. Some of the Burmese people see all of the American tourists putting these sliver shiny objects up to their eyes and pointing it at them and in reality they have no idea if it’s a camera or a gun. Ok, Leah get off your soapbox….

My first day in the city was quite interesting. Four of my friends and I went into the city and explored around. We ended up being adopted by two locals guys that spoke excellent English and told us they would take us around for the day. They showed us local markets, good places to eat, and also just clued us in on some basic information about living in Myanmar. Even though they are not supposed to talk about the government, they did confirm that the citizens of Myanmar do live in a very repressive society. After they showed us around for the day we went to the famous reclining Buddha statue which was just enormous. People from all over the country come to pray at the statue and to donate money. I don’t know the exact measurements but it had to be 300 feet long.

The next day I was off to Bagan to begin my 3 day trip to this fascinating city. We took a short flight for about an hour to the rural village/town with 2000 pagodas that are dedicated to Buddha and the Buddhist religion. Many of them were built in the 11th century AD and have remained in excellent condition ever since. They are literally everywhere you look. Some are hundreds of feet tall and others are only 10-15 feet tall. We toured the city by horse pulled carts, which is the way that many of the locals get around. As with many of the ports that we have visited so far, we took a trip to the local marketplace. At the marketplace in Bagan there was a section that was selling “fresh” chicken, fish, and other types of meat. I use the word “fresh” quite loosely because the meat was covered with flies and looked like it had been cut a while ago. But hey, its all an experience, right? The highlight of the trip was climbing up a 200 foot pagoda and watching the sunset over the pagoda filled skyline. It was simply a beautiful sight.

Well I am going to keep this blog a little short, because as I write this the ship is only a day and a half from docking in Vietnam (which is so exciting because I will be able to spend 6 days with my mom!!) and I have large amounts of work to do before we get there. Classes are going well and I think I only have about 12 days of class left. It is so hard to believe how fast this semester has been going. I feel like it was only a few weeks ago that I was in the Bahamas saying goodbye for 3.5 long months and now we are in the home stretch! As always, thanks to everyone for their love and support, it means the world to me!! Keep me posted on what is new and exciting in your life. I love hearing from you. Thanks again for everything.

Love,
Leah

Here is a special hello to Mrs. Houser and her 6th grade students! I hope you all are doing well back in Pittsburgh. I will see you sometime in May when I return.

Incredible India!

I thought long and hard about how I should start this blog because it seems as though every time I sit down to write about a country I just want to say… “Well this has been the best country so far”…. But honestly… India has BY FAR been the best country that I have visited on this voyage. There just are not really words that can describe the way that India feels, smells, looks, sounds, and tastes. It is truly a different experience than anything I have ever come into contact with. South Africa and Brazil were just as amazing, but India was just such a different kind of amazing. Being in India and seeing the poverty and tasting the food and hearing the busy traffic noises for myself was so much different than anything that I have ever read about the country and anything I was even prepared for. INDIA IS INTENSE. There is no other way to describe it. Intense in a good way, but intense. I am going to attempt to do the country some justice in the following paragraphs and I have no idea if I am going to be successful or not, but here we go.

The Explorer (my ship, of course) arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras) on March 9th. The ship had been preparing for our arrival in India by prepping us emotionally and physically. The crew was busy before our arrival laying and taping down plastic and cardboard all over the carpets on the ship to prevent them from the dirt that we would be tracking in from the city. We were being prepped on the illnesses that we needed to be aware of and also being prepped on cultural issues as well. We were told not to wear sandals when we left the ship, we were told how to dress to show respect for Indian culture, and it was strongly suggested we covered shoulders and wear skirts down to our knees. (Which by the way in the 100 degree heat is of course so fun and functional…) Even with all of the slightly scary things that the ship had to prepare us for, I still could not wait to just dive right into India and that’s exactly what I did.

We arrived at the dock at about 9 AM and were told that we would be in for quite a long wait as our ship cleared customs. I had no idea how long “long” was supposed to be, but I think all of the passengers on board were in for quite a surprise. The ship finally cleared by about 2 PM, which is an eternity when you are anxious to get off the ship. I had a SAS day trip that I was signed up to attend, so I was actually let off the ship before it cleared so we could keep out scheduled itinerary. My trip was for my Sociology of the Family class and I went to a seminar on poverty and gender issues.

This program looked at issues facing Indian women and Indian families. Although the seminar part of the practicum was interesting, the most valuable part of this program was actually going into some of the areas where the poorest of the poor of India lived and having the opportunity to interact with the families.

During the seminar, the two women that spoke said for a family of five to be considered as living below the poverty line they must earn less than $300 per month. The women went on to further say that there are 251.9 million people in India that fall into this category. This statistic simply blew my mind. It is so difficult get my mind around that number and even be able to visualize what five people can do with $300 a month, and then take that idea and multiply that number by 251.9 million. With these statistics still fresh in my mind I started walking into the “neighborhoods” where these families lived I really did not know what I expect. I walked over filthy garbage heaps and watched women pump water from a pump on the side of the road. Only a few feet away from the woman I watched a child defecate on the side of the road, and simply watched as nothing was done to clean up the waste. I watched and listened to TVs as I walked through the narrow paths that led deeper into the neighborhood.

As we walked deeper and deeper into the neighborhood, more and more people came out of their homes to try to learn about whom these people were that have come to visit the place in which they were living. I really was not able to communicate much with the families due to the language barrier, however, it was easy for me to observe what was happening in front of me.

After the day trip I got back to the ship and decided to go out to dinner with some of my friends. We hired a rickshaw and went whizzing off the hotel that we told the driver to go to. I had never driven in a rickshaw before and wow was in for a treat! Driving in India is quite interesting. There are lines painted on the roads, but most of the time they are only “suggestions”, there are traffic lights, but most people don’t follow them, and there are horns on every type of moving vehicle (mostly motorcycles, mopeds, and very small cars) that is on the road and the drivers use them constantly. Yes, it sounds like chaos, but I loved it. Its like driving on the DC Capital Beltway times 100. We finally arrived at dinner after a few close calls with cows (yes, they stand in the middle of the road in India) and a few other close calls with cars, and started exploring the hotel where we would be eating. We happened to stumble upon an Indian wedding reception that was taking place and somehow managed to get ourselves (a group of 9) invited to the reception. We talked to the brother of the groom and asked him all kinds of questions about arranged marriages in India. It was fascinating to learn about how they work.

We ended up not staying at the reception very long since we were wearing jeans and t-shirts and just had dinner by ourselves. We ate at this outside restaurant with local music and dancing. It was so awesome. I came back to the ship that night and then packed for my trip to the Taj. My roommate had to get up at 4:30 to leave for her Taj trip so we both were trying to get everything together as fast as we could because we were both delirious from the long day and what was lying ahead of us.

The next day I headed off to the airport with my group to catch our flight to Delhi (the capital of India and a city with a population of 18 million!!!) The airport in Chennai was quite interesting and actually pretty western looking. In the security check point lines males and females are divided into separate lines because is it quite improper for a man to have to do a security pat down on a woman. We actually had to go behind a special curtain and get more or less frisked by Indian women in uniforms while our bags were going through the x-ray machines about 10 feet away from us. One girl on my trip actually had her bag stolen because we were not able to stay with our bags. The flight was quite turbulent and I got the feeling that we might have had a young crew because there were just some small things that a more experienced crew might have been able to correct, but hey, we arrived safely in Delhi about 2.5 hours later and that’s all that matters. We had a quick lunch in Delhi and then boarded an express train for Agra (the city where the Taj is located). The train ride was truly an experience. Indian trains have 5 classes in which you can travel and we traveled on the 2nd to the lowest class because they wanted to allow us to see how many Indians travel. We were in open non air conditioned cars with loads of Indians packed in with us. There were children that were barefoot that were dancing and playing drums in the isles hoping for a few rupees from us. The armed guards that often passed through the cabins would hit and scream at them and tell them to move along if they had bothered us for to long. We could not communicate with many of the people on the train however it was really interesting to watch them watch us. We literally just started at each other for 3 hours. We finally arrived in Delhi and got to our hotel and I crashed because I was so tired.

I received a wake up call at 5 AM so we could get ready for our viewing of the Taj at sunrise (!!!!) Even though I was more tired that I ever thought possible I dragged myself out of bed with a smile on my face because I knew what the day had in store for me. The Taj is located in a park that you cannot drive into so we walked along the long path that leads to the gates that allow you into the magnificent monument. (Actually, it is a magnificent tomb.) Many people do not realize that the Taj was built by an emperor who lost his wife while she was giving birth to their 14th child. He promised to build her something as beautiful as she was and lived up to his promise. One of the couple’s jealous sons who wanted to be emperor put his father in prison across the river from the Taj before the tomb was completed. The emperor had to watch as his beloved monument was being built from his jail cell. He actually wanted to build a tomb identical to the one that he had build for his wife across the river in matching black marble, however he died and his dream never happened. Today the bodies of the emperor and his wife are inside the main building at the Taj.

Anyway… back to the morning sunrise viewing. We were the first group to arrive at the monument and were the first inside the gates. We again had to be separated into male and female lines to be allowed inside. Once we got in and were the only group inside I started to realize where I actually was. I have always dreamed about going to the Taj and there it was actually in front of me!! I shot almost an entire roll of film and took about 20 digital pictures with no one in front of the building. It was simply beautiful. The sun began to rise and more and more people came into the park and it got more and more crowded. We walked around for about an hour and then headed back to the hotel for breakfast and the starting of our day’s agenda.

The rest of the day was filled with sight-seeing (or “sight-thinking” as our academic dean calls it) and we visited various different sites in and around Agra. Later that night we went back to the Taj to view it again at sunset. This time there were many, many people there and I actually watched a couple get engaged in front of the Taj. Their entire family was there to celebrate with them and everyone was cheering. It was such a beautiful setting as the sun started hitting the white marble and began to reflect on the reflecting pool. I had a moment where I just closed my eyes and reopened them several times to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.

After the sunset Taj trip we headed back to the train station for our trip back to Delhi. This time we rode on the 2nd to the highest class. I have to admit that even though we had air conditioning and our own seats, the ride to Agra in the lower class train was much more fun to be with the local people.

The next morning we woke up around 7:30 (which is sadly starting to feel like sleeping in for me) and took a city tour. We drove by many of the government parliament buildings and many of the ministry buildings that help to serve the country. We also drove by the building where President Bush held his meeting with the Prime Minister of India just two days before. We also stopped at a Gandhi museum to visit the place that he was assassinated. There were lots of children that were performing for us outside of the museum and we also saw a snake charmer with cobras. I was beginning to think that it was only rumors that snake charmers were in India, however he was right in front of me and told me to put the one of the snakes around my neck. I declined. After a busy morning we went back to the airport for our flight back to Chennai.

Since you have read this far and are probably tired of reading I will wrap it up by saying that India was simply a place that was truly incredible. I was amazed at the kindness and hospitality of the Indian people and I would love to come back someday to be able to travel more within the country. Five days and three cities simply was not enough India for me.

As always, thank you to all for your love and support as I have been on this voyage. Things have been going remarkably well and I cannot believe how fast time has been going. My next port of call will be Myanmar (formally Burma) and then Vietnam. Believe it or not, my mom is flying to Vietnam to meet my ship!! Yes, my mom and I will be taking on Ho Chi Mihn City. I will continue to post these blogs throughout the next few ports and hope that you continue to read and enjoy them. I hope all is well at home. Keep your wonderful e-mails coming as I love hearing from you.

Thanks for your love and support.

Port Louis, Mauritius

We have just left Mauritius after a quick 3 day port stop and are now sailing towards India. Mauritius was an interesting place and an had incredible amount of difference between the rich and the poor and the beautiful landscapes and the dingy cities.

Here is a little geography/history lesson for you since many people don’t know much about the island. The island of Mauritius is in the middle of the Indian Ocean and is half the size of Rhode Island. Being in the middle of the Indian Ocean makes Mauritius HOT… and when I say hot I mean HOT. Very few buildings were air conditioned and in the middle of the day when its close to 100 and there is 100% humidity you pretty much don’t want to even move. Mauritius has a population of 1.2 million people, many of whom are Indian. Besides people of Indian decent there is also a large French and Chinese population. Although there is such a strong Asian and European presence, the island is actually part of Africa. Many people on the island do speak English, but also speak French and Creole too (which is a native language.) As you can imagine since many of the people spoke English it was not difficult to communicate and made getting around the island very easy. One slightly difficult thing was the currency exchange. One Mauritian Rupee equals 30 USD, so dividing by 30 usually took me a minute in the middle of the marketplaces while I was bargaining. I probably looked a little foolish bargaining over something that would probably have amounted to about a difference of about 3 dollars (or 90 Rupees) by hey, its all an experience, right??

We arrived in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, on Monday the 27th. Port Louis is very much a bustling city with lots of commerce and a very large port area and huge marketplace. Since we were only in Mauritius for such a short period of time I didn’t really have too much of an agenda for what I was going to do, so I just went out into the city with my friends on the first day to see what I could find, so we walked through the marketplace around the city. I wasn’t overly impressed with what I saw and much of the city was very, very dirty, but on a positive note the city is for the most part very safe and we did not have to worry about being robbed by knifepoint like we did in Salvador. Yes, there were people on the ship that have been robbed, but as far as I am concerned with some of the stories that I have heard if being robbed is the worst thing that happens to you on the entire trip, you can consider yourself lucky. I am of course not trying to put a negative spin on things, but if you take a moment to think about some of the things that can happen in foreign countries, being robbed is certainly not the least. They tell us to carry around a “fake wallet” that has an expired credit card and around $10 in it, so that if someone does come up to you and threatens you, you can throw the fake wallet on the ground and run the other way.

Anyway, back on topic… the first afternoon turned into evening and my friends and I went in search of some authentic Indian food since we had been getting sick of the pasta and potatoes that they serve on the ship for every meal. We were successful in our quest and had just about the best Indian food that I have ever tasted. It was so nice to get a little change of pace from ship food. After dinner we went out and explored waterfront night life, and as expected, no matter where you are in the world there will be Americans. My friends and I met some guys that were from the deep south that were working on an oil rigger off the Mauritian coast and had come into port for a few days. It was fun to share stories and get different perspectives from people that are not on Semester at Sea, but are learning and exploring new foreign countries.

Tuesday, our second day in port, I chose to go on a service visit in the early morning to the Terre de Paix children’s organization. This specific organization is not run by the government, and in fact the people that worked at Terre de Paix seemed quite insistent on making it very clear that their facility was a non-governmental organization. Terre de Paix is basically a social project that caters to children that have been removed from their homes by the court system due to abusive family situations. Terre de Paix caters to both boys and girls and many of the children live at the facility full time, and others are brought to the organization on a daily basis by other family members.
While I was visiting Terre de Paix the group was split into groups that allowed us to interact with the children on a move individual level and observe them in their daily activities. Their activities include sculpture and art, music, outdoor play games, and writing composition. While all were fun and interesting to observe, the most fascinating activity rotation that I observed was the writing composition station. Here, the children are instructed through a prompt to write on a current events topic usually dealing with national elections, national holidays or other events that are of interest to the children. While we were visiting Terre de Paix the children were instructed to write on domestic violence and what they know about the topic.

Most of the children at this station were between the ages of 11-14 and some of their stories truly amazed me. I am 20 and have never had even close to some of the disturbing experiences that these children have witnessed before their little eyes. Many of the children wrote in their papers that they have witnessed women, even their mothers, being beaten by their fathers on a regular basis. The children told stories where women were beaten in the streets with bricks until they bled. Women were sent to hospitals barely hanging onto life and children told stories of how they prayed that their mothers would survive. I was shocked to hear some of the stories that the children told, and it certainly did not surprise me that these children were pulled out of their homes due to abusive situations.

I was very surprised to hear these types of stories and the fact that the children were willing to share their stories with me, a complete stranger, was amazingly trusting of them. It occurred to me that these children simply do not have exposure to some of the very basic functions of the family. Certainly the nurturing and meeting emotional needs aspects of family life are absent and therefore these children are desperate for human empathy. On a positive note, the children are able to find this with the people that work at Terre de Paix and people like the SAS group that are willing to come and play with them and listen to their stories. The abusive homes that these children come from cause them to lack the exposure to other family functions like socialization and allowing the children to feel as though they are part of a community, and Terre de Paix gives these children a chance to interact with other children that are in the same situations as them

Terre de Paix was a fascinating experience and I am glad that I was able to go and experience what this small organization is doing to help children that do not have “normally functioning families.”

That afternoon I tackled the local marketplace and did a little bit of shopping. It was really scary to see all kinds of birds, chickens and hamsters in cages being sold right next to tablecloths, purses, and food. All I kept thinking was oh no… bird flu! The markets were amazing though and anything that you really could want was available to buy. I have been getting into this habit of buying a piece of jewelry from every port that we have visited and the jewelry in the market here was really beautiful. There is also the crap stuff like gaudy t-shirts that say stupid sayings that are supposed to be a play on words or some American phrases, so I tried to stay away from that. Like I said earlier bargaining in the marketplaces has been yet another new experience that I have been mastering like salsa dancing. In some marketplaces that we have visited it is actually considered disrespectful not to try to bargain, and the shopkeepers expect to bargain with you from the very start. I’m starting to enjoy it and play it like a game and with a little more practice I’m sure I will be a natural. (Thanks dad for the genes for bargaining!!)

Wednesday, the last and final day that we were in port, was a total change of pace from what I had been doing during the other two days and it was exactly the change I needed. I spent the entire day sailing and snorkeling with my friends in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Talk about living a tough life! It was simply amazing. I have fallen in love with sailing and have told both of my parents that when I return from this trip we are going catamaran shopping. I’m not exactly sure where we will be sailing on Pittsburgh’s mighty rivers, but I guess that is just a small detail that can be worked out at a later time. I’m not sure what it is with the water, but I have just fallen in love with it out here… I guess it just kind of draws you in. On the other hand though, as soon as our ship gets rolling with the waves some of my friends will tell you other wise about the wonders of the open ocean. Overall, it was a wonderful way to end my time in Mauritius and I am so glad that I made the decision to go. It was simply perfect.

I’m not sure that I will be jumping on any planes as soon as I get back to the states to come to Mauritius again, but it was an interesting learning experience. It also gave me a huge taste of what is to come in India and I cannot wait for our next port. Thanks again for following me on my trip and for your love and support. I hope all is well at home and keep your e-mails coming!

Love,
Leah