Fatima and I went with our friend Juhi to get her ear pierced on our lunch break today. After negotiating with the autodrivers to take us over the the hectic shopping area T. Nagar, we hunted out the GRT jewelers. Eventually we found the silver emporium shop down the street and around the corner, bought the stud for the piercing gun, and made our way down to the basement where the piercing was actually done. Most of the other men and women that were waiting seemed to be having jewelry melted down, I suppose to be made into other pieces. Having never had a piercing done with a gun, Juhi was really nervous. But we talked it over and the whole thing was over quickly. Perhaps I’ll pick up another piercing on one of my lunch breaks...

Getting ready for the gun







A view from the auto on the way back to office



Juhi, Fatima and me

Apparently mango season is over, so we've moved on to enjoying beautiful pomegranates!

My name causes some confusion here in India, as it did in Uganda (but a little differently). In Uganda, I would introduce myself as "Gabrielle" and people would give me a strange look. Eventually, I figured out that they were only familiar with the male version, "Gabriel". People found my name weird because it was as if I'd introduced myself as "Mike" or "Thomas" or "Bob" (never mind that I am called Bob from time to time). After having this exchange enough times, when introducing myself I would add, "In my country, it is a woman's name, too". We'd share a smile about it and move on.

Here, I have no idea what people think of my name, but I know its not one that they're too familiar with. On two occasions I've seen my name written down my people who did not have the benefit of an email address to help them guess. Here's how the clerk at Domino's today thought it was spelled.



This was only a slight variation of the other time, where I was "Kaberal". Perhaps I need an Indian name to use in these situations. But apparently Tamil Nadu has revealed to me my Starr name, which - of course - must start with the letter "K" [as in Kodiak, Kivalena and Kayla].

My new room

I had the pleasure of meeting Erik and Ryan's friends David and Lika yesterday. They'll be here in Chennai for two years and - lucky me - their apartment is less than a kilometer from my house! They also brought me a new camera to replace the one stolen in Pondicherry a few weeks ago, so I can now share some new photos of my own from Chennai.

Here are a few of my new home (apartment #4).

The security gate over our apartment door (all of the apartments have different ones)


My bedroom (now sharing with Chiai, my roommate from apartment #1)


The beautiful flowering trees outside my window


My bathroom with Indian-style (squatting) toilet and bucket shower


The living room


The kitchen

Random Chennai

This sidewalk is not for walking


Chennai says goodbye to MJ


Get your fit on


The enigmatic Tasty Jones restaurant

Desperate to escape the city, Michelle, Destiny and I went to the Ideal Beach Resort near Mamallapurram this weekend. On Saturday morning, I made the 10 minute walk to their apartment and we got in our hired taxi for the drive. I sat in the front seat, which luckily is the only seat to have a functioning belt. The ones in the back seem to be merely decoration, since there's no clasp for the buckle to go into.

We arrived at Ideal, and knew we were in for a nice, relaxing weekend. Since we'd arrived a little bit before lunch time, we took a look around the shop. Michelle tried on a stunning leopard print swimsuit, that was shaped like the bottom of 1940's womans' suit combined with the top of a suit for an eight year-old. After a delicious Kerala-style fish curry for lunch, I set off to read a good book in a hammock by the beach. While I enjoyed a beer and samosa by the shore (and a rare chance to actually wear a swimsuit in public!), Michelle and Destiny took advantage of Ayurvedic center for massages and pedicaures. Afterwards, Michelle and I took a nice stroll down the beach drinking from young coconuts cut by a woman along the path. A great afternoon, and exactly what I needed to unwind.

Chilling at Ideal Resort [photo by Michelle Holshue]

Unfortunately, I started feeling ill shortly before dinner and quickly went down for the count. Eventually just about everyone gets sick in India, right? I felt good about staying healthy for nearly 6 weeks, but really wish that the stomach bug had had the decency to wait until I'd had MY ayurvedic massage to kick in. Boo.

This weekend we made a day trip down to Mammalapuram (Mahabalipuram), a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for stonecarving about 1.5 hours' drive from Chennai. Some of Amudha's visiting classmates had access to a car, so we tagged along for sightseeing and a brief escape from Chennai.

We met up with an excellent guide, Stalin, whom Michelle had recommended to us. First, we visited the Pancha Rathas, a series of ancient temples cut from one large rock dating to some time between the 7th and 9th centuries. Shortly after we began our tour of the sites, I got a phone call from my roommate asking where I was. It turns out that when I'd locked the door behind me as I set out early that morning, I actually locked her into the house. She eventually got out of the house with the help of a neighbor, and I felt like I was rapidly losing points as a roommate. [My first week in, and I'm already turning out to be a stellar roommate. Earlier in the week, I'd locked Amudha and I out of our bedroom after we returned from a trip. Two strikes for me.]

Trying to figure out how to release my roommate remotely


A Shiva lingam (symbolizing the male and female)




Next we visited the bas relief carvings both in and around temples. The 96 ft long and 43 ft wide Arjuna's Penance/ Descent of the Ganges carved mural was spectacular! Stalin then took us to the apprentice's carving shop. He is learning to do the stonecarvings which the town is known for, and of course offered to sell us some of the carvings for a good price. Apparently the carving skills are handed down, and many of the monuments that tourists come to see may actually have been examples of carvers learning the craft, rather than being strictly religious monuments. We each bought a little something and then made our way to the Shore Temple.



The carving shop



The Shore Temple was once literally at the shore, but a retaining wall has since been built around it to protect the ancient site from erosion. After the tsunami in 2004, a couple of submerged were revealed, and some work has since been done to excavate. On the day we visited, a big school class was weaving their way through the site. Post temple, we said goodbye to Stalin, got some lunch, and made our way back to hectic Chennai.





Special thanks to Ryan Chopra for the use of his photos, as I'm still waiting to replace my stolen camera!

Thanjavur

This week I made my first to Thanjavur, the rural district where my host organization is carrying out their health projects. A group of us took the overnight train 450km to reach to town, and were met by a driver to take us to the office/guesthouse. One intern had come to potentially shoot a small documentary, and I was there mostly to get the lay of the land, meet some community health workers, and start to understand a bit about the district where the actual work is going on. We visited a Primary Health Center and were shown around by a very friendly lab tech. He asked me "my native place", and when I told him I was from the "US - California" he got excited and sad at the same time. In a conversation with little English and no Tamil, we managed to discuss the lab tech's sadness about thee untimely passing of Michael Jackson and funeral taking place in California that day.

Later in the visit, we went to meet some of the nurses who were doing a school health visit. The younger kids were lined up for vaccinations, with older girls holding them to be sure that they kept still. Other kids were having their height and weight checked, and get a general once over. After the injections were done, I was horrified to see that a worker was recapping the used needles (not standard injection safety practice) and then putting them into a shopping bag for disposal (not standard disposal safety equipment)! I was shocked that there didn't seem to be much concern about blood-borne illness at all, and wondered what standard practices they the government expects them to be trained in....

There isn't a whole lot to do in Thanjavur other than go to the temple, so we visited the temple. The Brihadeeswara Temple is one of the Great Living Chola Temples, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.




Wierd Santas at the temple




Chiai, Kavia and Divya



[Thanks to Michelle for loaning me her camera for my temple trip!]

On the way back, all 5 of us ladies were booked in the same compartment. I was initially looking forward to ride back, until a man in the car kept peering into our compartment as he passed - even pulling back the curtain as he walked by so that he could take a longer look at the women. I'm experiencing more problems as a woman here than I'd anticipated, from me like this on the train, to not having my opinion valued equally in some situations seemingly because I'm a woman. I even had one auto driver essentially tell me not to talk as I tried to negotiate a price. Staring I can get used to, but I don't think I'll get used to the gender dynamics!

On the move again [again]

After my last post, things came to a head with the landlord and we moved from T. Nagar to Alwarpet, another neighborhood close to our office but on the other side of Mount Road. I'm temporarily living with the rest of the interns there while I wait for a bed and air conditioner to be installed in yet another apartment in Mylapore. That will be my fourth, and hopefully final, apartment in Chennai. I've been here all of 27 days, by the way.

As soon as the A/C is installed, I'll be moving in with one of the organization's employees. I'm getting a little anxious to get on with it, and am looking forward to moving into her place. Although the new apartment is really nice (much cleaner, much bigger, and run by a much more professional management company) it's still a guesthouse, and I would still be sharing it with 7 other people. The apartment building I'll be moving to is residential - full of families and much the experience of living in Chennai that I'm looking for. Tonight I'm going for a field visit to Thanjavur, the area where my organization is working in southern Tamil Nadu state. If all goes well, I'll be moving into the new place on Friday morning when we return.

My camera was stolen in Pondicherry this weekend, so no photos in the blog for a while :(