Top Ten Reasons I know it's Time to Leave India #8

Not only do I generally not enjoy eating chicken (turning veggie against my will). My body is now also refusing to process Chicken normally. Therefore sealing the fact that I might as well just give in and be a pescitarian(I can still eat fish :)/virtual veggie.

Things I See Everyday 1

So I've heard complaints that you all want to see what I do every day, so here it is.


These are shots from my balcony that over looks my lane and the train station at the end. It is a great view isn't it?




These are the kids at the end of my block Who have now gone from just seeing what I've bought that day or what music I'm listening too, to really trying to figure out what's going on in my life. They are still pretty cool though.


This is the carving/sculpture outside of a temple I pass on my way to my Katak Classes. I think it's totally brilliant.


Auto-Rickshaw, more simply know as Autos. You find them in every city though they work differently in every city as well. In Kolkata it's the primary way I get out to the field before jumping on a bus.


Me & Upali (the annoying translator if you heard about her) at a Focus Group Discussion with some Peer Educators. . . i.e. me working. (somehow).

Top 10 reasons I know its time to Leave India #9

I've been here long enough for my NGO to forget about me and my projects. Remember and decide to utilize me before I leave. Therefore getting excited about my projects and giving me the support I need. And forget about me again, so that 1-I'm probably going to have a pretty hard time getting everyone together for the meeting where I actually share my findings (next Monday), 2-1/2 of the people who might benefit will be out of town my last week, 3-My work is more in danger now of just being put on a shelf until the next proposal is due than ever before.

Happy Birthday Nate

Okay none of these pictures are Nate. But they are related to Nate-isms. Namibia where we were PCV's together. Kate's house/backyard where we spent many a Friday night/Saturday Morning before going to Dance Class at Sisi's place. And a random guy we saw in Ghana wearing a Texas Shirt that reminded us of Nate.

Top 10 Ways I know It's time to Leave #10

I feel like smacking people who stare at me (especially without greeting) and kneeing the guys in the groin who "Brush" by me.

A Typical Conversation These Days

Them: How's it going?
Me: Not bad.
Them: Hey you're leaving pretty soon aren't you?
Me: I leave Kol/Cal. on the 24th and India July 2nd.
Them: Wow, Option 1-Are you excited?
Option 2-How did you enjoy Kolkata?
Option 3- Ready to go?

Me: Answer 1- Yes and No, It will be nice to be back around family and friends. And be able to call people without waking them up in the middle of the night or costing a fortune. It'll also be nice to have more than 5 months to try to see everyone, and some people, like my Sister Mychelle, I haven't seen since before I left for Peace Corps (2002). But It's hard to imagine living in the states full time. The American Accent is perfectly terrible, and I'm definitely not used to everyone speaking in English. Plus after all of the fun and exciting places I've lived all the different cultures living in Ohio seems to pale in comparison. Though I am excited to finally start my LONG road to MD/MPH-dom. And if I have to live in OH I would want to be in Columbus. You know my friend Julia has already found a couple of flats for me to look at.

Answer 2-Kolkata is a great city. I think I'm also just used to it now, but I'll really miss my sabji-wallas (veggie sellers), Peanut-Wallas, and my convenience store guys.

Them: Kolkata is a very warm city

Me: Not to mention all my friends here. What will I do when I can't call up Anirudh, Lily or Patrick to go out for pints. Or have Nil and Dev to dance with at Roxy. I'll miss wandering out to Park St. and having random things happen from there. Or having Neela Call up with some exciting new plan I'd never thought of.

Answer 3-Not at all. I'm posting a box of stuff home (I've bought way too many clothes. .. well not really considering I don't have many after being a Peace Corps Volunteer). Let's not even talk about all the work I'm trying to finish for CINI. Meanwhile, I'm running around town like mad getting all of my "So I went to India and brought back _______ for you" presents. It's so hard to buy things people will actually like and use. I think I'm buying something crazy like 3 more saris for people at home. Do you know a good place to find a white sari?

Appropriate isn't it

What Famous Leader Are You?
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The Strangest Thing I've Ever Seen - To date

As I was walking across Dhakuria bridge this morning on my way to work. I saw a young woman running down the street in middle traffic (which happened to be in the same direction she was running). She was only wearing a sari blouse and a string around her waist and was running about medium pace. More remarkable than what she wasn't wearing was the fact that her hair was in a normal bun and her expression was one of calm and maybe a bit of determination.

She proceeded to run switching to run down the median then into the oncoming traffic side. Needless to say in conservative Kolkata I was shocked. to see a young woman running mostly naked down the street. There seems to be no custom that this behavior would correlate to, and no one was attempting to stop her or informing the police (there were traffic control men on either side of the bridge)

Kolkata is Surreal.

Copy Cat

I admit it, I'm a copycat. But nonetheless it's intresting. I'll give them the bit about cute naked people, anything else. . .


Your dating personality profile:

Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate.
Big-Hearted - You are a kind and caring person. Your warmth is inviting, and your heart is a wellspring of love.
Funny - You laugh often. People never accuse you of lacking a sense of humor. You don't take yourself too seriously.

Your date match profile: Big-Hearted - You want someone compassionate, someone gentle and kind. A loving, nurturing person will fill that hole in your life. Funny - You consider a good sense of humor a major necessity in a date. If his jokes make you laugh, he has won your heart. Adventurous - You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest. You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things.

Your Top Ten Traits 1. Liberal 2. Big-Hearted 3. Funny 4. Intellectual 5. Practical 6. Sensual 7. Adventurous 8. Athletic 9. Wealthy/Ambitious 10. Romantic

Your Top Ten Match Traits 1. Big-Hearted 2. Funny 3. Adventurous 4. Practical 5. Sensual 6. Outgoing 7. Intellectual 8. Conservative 9. Athletic 10. Romantic

Take the Online Dating Profile Quiz at Dating Diversions


Michael. You're most like the ArchAngel of Defense. You like to hit things, and you like naked people, preferably cute naked people. A real down-to-earth angel who likes frogs and is easily distracted by bright, shiny things.
Take this quiz!

Question of the Month June

What is the best piece of advice you received, who gave it to you, and why was it so great? (situation)

(Thanks Julia)

The Count Down Begins

I've now come to the point in my stay where I can count down the days even if I don't want to. I'm leaving Cal on the 25, and Flying home a month from tomorrow. (July 2nd).

I hope I can get in all the chai drinking, pint getting, sari shopping, clothes tailoring, Roxy dancing, and gift buying I have planned.

Movie Watching in India

As we all know I love movies . . . I LOVE movies. I will go to the movies alone several times a week (when I can afford it) otherwise I’m always on the look out for the cheepies or student tickets. And lets not even get started about DVDs and Tapes.

So naturally I was excited to watch movies in a country that has the largest movie making industry. Each region of India has their own mini-Bollywood with movies playing in the local languages. This is in addition to all of the major Bollywood films and the few Hollywood films that come in.

Watching movies in some of the cheaper theaters is much like watching movies with predominantly Black American audiences. For example yesterday when we were watching X-Men III the crowed ohh-ed and cheered when kitty runs through walls and sinks the juggernaut.

There are the same silly commercials and previews, although you do get to see the India Cinema Board sticker before each.

The biggest things that irk me are: 1) the lack of cell phone etiquette (so many cells go off during a good movie and people actually talk to them).

2) Indian Censor Boar- There are some cuts that are just too obvious, especially in movies like Broke Back and Capote where I think they almost wanted to punish the audience for seeing such movies.

3) Most houses don’t show the credits, and actually people will stand up and leave in the last 5 minutes of a movie. I personally (as one who will watch the credits through to the end, especially on good movies) consider this near sacrilege. Though I did manage to see all of the credits to Broke Back Mountain by just refusing to leave the theater (even though there was an usher standing right next to me, people with vacuums cleaning up all around me, and I had to continue to move slowly toward the door so some I didn’t get to see so clearly.)

Still it’s nice to see things like X-Men and Harry Potter on the big screen. And some of the movie houses are just that. Proper old -school movie houses where they still have floor, balcony, and rafter seating. After all the fun part of going to the movies is the experience.

Dreaming in Bangla

My father always said you really know a language when you start to dream in that language. I have never had this experience. I definitely never dreamed in Oshiwambo (though I still slip and throw random words in when I get tired). The closest I probably ever came was the summer I was in Germany and was honestly studying and trying to learn German.

Though I had Bengali lessons. I still don't speak much at all other than to argue with taxi drivers or fruit and veggie-wallas in the market. I know less Bengali than I know Oshiwambo. Though I can understand a fair amount when people are speaking around me and I listen carefully.

Well about a week ago it happened. I had an entire dream in Bengali. The funny thing is, even in my dream I didn't understand it. I just caught the random bits a pieces like I always do. There went Dad's theory.

The longest week since PC training (I think)

When I looked at the schedule for this week I didn't think it was that bad. Bad yes but not that bad.

Monday: Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with Young people in the Poilan area(1 hr travel both ways by bus and auto-rickshaw)

Tuesday: FGD with with Field Workers and Peer Educators at the Poilan CINI office

Wednesday: Evaluation of Outreach workers at the Falta CINI office (1 1/2 hr travel both ways) to test my new evaluation tools for Youth Friendly Services

Thursday: Last *yea* FGD with young people around Falta.

How little did I know that the travel (Calcutta public transport, save the underground/subway system, leaves much to be desired), weather (there's been storms brewing all week that haven't broken & temperatures of around 37 degrees that leave me pretty sleepless & with sinus headaches all week), not to mention the stress of dealing with other people and trying to do work(misunderstandings, miscommunication, poorly planned meetings, and fussy field workers) would leave me exhausted by Tuesday night.

It took all my energy to make myself get up today. I ended up just lying down 1/2 through my 1st sun salutaion (yoga) and dragging my obviously tired behind back to bed. Good thing it's nothing that a good dinner with friends, a pint, and sleep can't fix.

Shower Thoughts

I find the strangest and most profound thoughts tend to occur to me in the shower. The one from yesterday is that I am 10 year older (or will be soon) than I was when I was 16. This is a slightly distressing thought. 10 Years older than 15 or 14, isn't bad. I was just a kid then. But at 16, I was doing things, starting to drive etc. And it's just going to get worse, before I know it I'll be 10 years older than 17, 18 (voting age), 20, soon I'll have been legal for 10 years.

The one redeeming thought is that I'm still 24 years away from being 50.

Random Picture Time

Me leaving the African Continent for the first time in years. About a Year and 2 months ago now.

Stop the Presses. . . or not

So yesterday the major part of my project almost came to a complete stop. Realizing that the translator we got would not be able to conduct the Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and Chandereyee (one of my co-workers) who normally goes out with me would not be able to go, (and maybe not to the others as well) I finally had a meeting with my boss, Laboni, to figure out how these were going to get done.

It started well enough. I explained why the translator we got could not conduct the FGD and asked if this was still important enough to proceed with, and gave my suggestion of what should happen next.

Laboni then proceeded to virtually blow up that after 5 months we could not get 10 FGD completed.

I informed her that those she had placed me to work with did know about this for the last 5 months, however no one did anything until Chandereyee went out with me.

At which she continued to blow up about how this wasn’t a group project, there should be more than 2 people involved, we haven’t made it a priority, where the blame should be placed, yadda, yadda, yadda. And since they hadn’t made it a priority or supported me in a group like fashion the whole thing should be canceled.

This sent Chandereyee, already suffering from laryngitis into a coughing fit. And while Laboni extolled a while longer on CINI deficiencies and how they only do something if it’s connected to a donor or funding (which is pretty true), I tried to calmly remind her that 3 FGD were already scheduled for the next week.

It took about 15 mins to get her to see reason and allow us to continue on with my evaluation as planned. But talk about a stressful 1/2 hour. The major part of all of the stuff I've been working on for the last 9 months almost got permantly shelved. OY!

April Question Answered

Great answers people. Unfortunately I'm pretty out of touch and all of the songs go on my "to listen to and get" list. I also asked Yahoo Answers and got these

So far mine are:
Best of What's Around- DMB
You Learn- Alanis Morisette
Sunday Kind of Love- Etta James
Everyday- Angie Stone & D' Angelo
Find Him- Cassandra Wilson

But I'm sure I'll have more by the end of the year :) Any Suggestions for the next question?

Plans and Preps

After my first 3 months as a PCV I asked one of the older volunteers if one ever stops planning about what they are going to do afterward. She said “No but the plans do get a lot more concrete and closer.”

Similarly it seems like a significant portion of my time here has been spent planning for the next year. From Med and Grad School applications, to acceptances, and of course getting fun things from here for all of my people in the States, the last 9 months (along with having fun in Cal), have been about prepping for the next year.

Now with only about 6 weeks left in country (only about 4 ½ in Cal *eep*). I’ve already planned my first week in the US in so much detail that I’ve asked Mom to meet me at the airport July 2nd Cincy airport at 9:15pm (I have a 3 hour layover in JFK from 3:30-6:50 NY people) with my cell phone so I can let people know I’m back in town.

Yet life in Cal is proceeding as normal; finding gifts, trying to finish my projects, getting pints, dancing, and watching movies. I could probably forget I’m leaving so soon, if people didn’t keep reminding me.

What Did You Say?

Wow, just look at you! Your body is all glistening and there's such a shine to it.
Me: I'm sweaty!
-Chiru to me as I was leaving the dance floor where DD (DJ and alleged choreographer and I had another dance of. I'm pretty sure I won)

I amble with the shuffling gate of an aged clergyman
-Anirudh on walking.

I mean sex is just capitalism of the body.
Me: What?
Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Anirudh: What if she proposes?
I guess that's communism then
Me: More like socialism.
- Patrick over pints on how one of his mates needs to pluck up his courage and approach a bird.

You could do that. No listen we should get someone to paint your body and then you can dance.
-Chiru commenting on a Japanese dance program I missed.

Maybe he was just admiring your form,
No?
Dirty old man?
Me and Sujit:Yes
- Sujit commenting on Chiru's comments.