Day 1 in India........

I just got back from my first day in India and it was all so amazing. I want to write about it now while the details are completely fresh in my memory.

I am working on my South Africa blog and my Mauritius blog...

Today I woke up in Chennai, India to heavy, polluted air that had filled my cabin earlier in the morning. At first I was confused as to why the air was like this and then I realized where we were. I do not have a window in my cabin so it is easy to become disoriented about the time of day and where I am. The fact is that breathing the air in India is the equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

For the past couple of days I have been sending e-mails to non-profits, orphanages, and womens organizations in hopes of finding a place that I could go volunteer for my first day in India (today). I had not heard back from any of them and that’s when my friend Alyssa came to me and said that she was in contact with an organization called Madura Micro Finance. Alyssa and I have come to be good friends because we have been working on a sustainable service project towards empowering women in Vietnam (more to come). She and I share the same passion towards empowering women. So anyway, Madura Micro Finance is a company that gives women loans to help build businesses, perfect right! David Appasamy the executive director had invited Alyssa plus two friends to come and tour their corporate office and then go to the field sites and meet their clients. I was thrilled about this opportunity. My friend Slim was the third to sign on. He is finance major, interested in micro finance so this was ideal for him as well.

At 10:00 we got the go ahead to leave the ship so the three of us set out to find the Madura offices. Right off the ship there are always taxi drivers waiting but before you jump in with a taxi driver you have to negotiate a price. In most of these countries meters do not exist. We had been told that we should not pay more than 30-50 Indian Rupees for a drive within Chennai. Well all the taxi drivers were asking us to pay 300 rupees each!! At first we said “no way” but then the clock started to tick and we were worried about being late for our 11:00 appointment so we said “to hell with it, 300 rupees is only 6.00 US dollars”. The cab ride was about 20 minutes long and when we paid our cab driver he could not stop smiling, we had clearly been robbed but we also clearly made his day.

The driving in India has been by far had the most near accidents, hold your breath type of rides I have taken in any country yet. They drive on opposite sides of the car as well as opposite sides of the road, which doesn’t really throw me off anymore. That’s how it was in South Africa as well as Mauritius. What does throw me a little is when pedestrians, motorbikes, bicyclists, rickshaws, buses, trains, and cabs are all merging together with no order to it. I must say they are quick processors around here. Any scary moment I would just close my eyes, take a good breath, putting light all around us.

By the end of the day I loved the wild streets of India. This may be foreign to me but this is how the natives have driven their entire lives, they know whats up.

When we arrived at Madura we were greeted by Mr. Appasamy, the Executive Director and he talked with Slim, Alyssa, and I for an hour about the company, India, and life. He used to work for a big finance company, spending a lot of time in the US and then took this job a year ago because he wanted to help the native women, living in rural areas overcome oppression. Women in India typically have an arranged marriage between 18-20 years old. In rural areas old world ways are still very much enforced. Education for women holds little to no value. The men tend to hold wealth for themselves. The women care more about providing the best future for their children.

India has 1.3 billion people living in it! Six hundred million people are living in rural communities that do not have access to education. There are 27 states within the country so there are dozens and dozens of different languages spoken, making communication difficult. The cities in India are more progressive because all of the people are affected by the good that comes out of public policy. However six hundred million individuals are not affected by public policy because none of it relates to their living environment therefore they do not reap any of the benefits.

The Maduras mission statement says, “for the people that need progress in life by creating awareness and letting them know whats possible enable them to be self employed and enable the families to grow through financial health, and capitalizing special-economic growth”. This company is completely focused on the people. They have five hundred thousand clients and have been rapidly expanding since they opened fifteen years ago. A women looking for a loan comes to Madura and proposes a business idea, like selling milk, weaving baskets, or making saris (the traditional dress). There are women leaders within each village that hold two meetings during the month. The first meeting of the month is to collect money from each client that they owe Madura for the loans and the second meeting is to check in with eachother. Madura believes in the women creating a support system with eachother and these meeting nurture that concept.

The meeting ended and all of us needed an ATM. So while we were waiting for our cab to come get us we all took a little ride on the back of motorcycles to the ATM. It was so wild, my hair blowing in the wind, people honking, swerving in and out of traffic. I felt so apart of the locals in that moment, it was a thrill.

After the meeting one of Davids employees took Slim, Alyssa, and I to this delicious authentic lunch. You eat everything with your right hand in India because your left is for washing yourself after you go to the bathroom. First they served us soup and then quickly after the waiter brought each of us a huge plate with ten different sauces with one soft shell and one hard shell tortilla. The sauces were soooo good. The spices and unique flavors were very strong. Most of the food is extremely spicy in India so I had to learn to handle my heat stat. When the tortillas were gone a man came around and loaded our plates with rice. I LOVE rice. You then put your sauces on top of the rice and eat it all with your hands. You could have as much rice as you wanted. They eat extremely quickly in India. For dessert they served us Indian bananas, which are about half the size of the ones we have in the U.S. AKA the perfect size.

After lunch, Slim had to leave to catch a flight to Delhi so we all hugged goodbye and he was off. Alyssa and I went onto meet some of the clients in a nearby village. The man who took us around for the day translated for us. We learned that their husbands were much more supportive than they expected them to be. Each woman had between one and three children. The new norm in India is to have one child. Most of the women in this village were literate because the village was not in a very rural place so a lot more progressive. I gave out silly bands and livestrong bracelets to all the women and children. Alyssa gave out stickers, everyone was so excited! I took a picture with all the women and I realized how much smaller they all were than me. A lot shorter but just so much more thin. We heard stories of clients you have now built businesses that bring in enough profit that they can save money. Some of the clients have sent their children to the states in order to study. Such success stories! It was an incredibly moving experience to say the least. I felt inspired by the concept of micro finance. David wanted us to share all that we had learned today with our peers in the states. He offered us internships so if any of you reading this are interested in an internship for a month in India let me know and I will give you his e-mail.

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Delhi to see the Taj Mahal and then to Varanasi, the most holy land of the Hindus. During our pre-port meeting about India we had a lecturer that said, “Most people have a love/hate relationship with India”, I wonder if this will be true for me. I have a feeling that India will change my life. 

Ghana Blog Entry - Oct. 1, 2010

Greetings from the MV Explorer,

I am currently sitting out on deck seven feeling the sea breeze dance across my face, taking some time to reflect on my experiences in Ghana. We arrived to Takoradi, Ghana on the morning of September 22, 2010, the ship pulled into port at about 6:00 AM just as the sun was making its first appearance for the day, it was stunning. The immigration and customs process involves the officials reviewing each voyagers passport and handbook to give everyone the go ahead to get off the ship. This process usually takes until 10:00 AM.  The energy around the ship as we are all waiting to get off is infectious. You can feel the excitement in the air, everyone is so anxious.

The people of Ghana stole my heart. The locals often times do not have shoes, flies circle all around them, eyes yellow with malnutrition, bellies bloated and in spite of all the poverty and hardship I never came across one Ghanaian that did not treat me with the utmost respect and kindness. Everywhere I went I would see children sitting along the road accompanied by trash, goats, and wild dogs. The children would look up as we drove by and they would beam at us with happiness, curiosity and goodness coming from their whole being. I have never in my life seen smiles so pure as I saw in Ghana. This makes me pause to think, are our western ways better?  Does all the “stuff” that plagues American culture just complicate our lives; does it breed dissatisfaction within our selves?  Last night Desmund Tutu spoke about South Africa since we will be arriving there on Sunday. One of the points he made that has stuck with me is that people have to laugh in order to survive. Desmund Tutu has the best laugh I have ever heard and he never stops joking around. I am in awe of the Archbishop because his spirit is so wonderfully happy in spite of seeing and enduring some of the most evil things humans have to offer. He has been able to achieve justice and promote so much goodness because he has never lost his smile. Ghanaians never stop smiling.

Ghana’s GDP rate is 1,500.00 per year so they are extremely poor. On the last day my friends and I drove around Takoradi and we became friends with our taxi driver, Christopher. He stuck with us all day and made sure we had what we needed, a kind gesture that I ran into everywhere I went in Ghana.  The topic came up of politics and Christopher was angry that his fellows Ghanaians are so poor because they are rich in natural resources there.  He does not understand why the citizens are not reaping more of the benefits of all the resources that are being exported.

My first day in Ghana I went with a group of friends to Bouza beach, about a forty minute cab drive from Takoradi. Mostly all Ghanaians speak English plus their tribal language. I so appreciated not having the language barrier because I was able to get to know the locals on a much more personal level as well as get around more easily. The water was nothing like what we saw in Spain, not nearly as blue and there were big waves, just a different type of awesome. After looking at a monkey at a little bar on the beach I dropped my stuff and went running for the ocean. Out a ways were about thirty local surfers and I headed straight for them in hopes that I would be able to get some pointers on how to get stoked and ride the wave J I had never surfed before and have been so anxious to try. Immediately a young Ghanaian man, about twenty-three years old offered me his surfboard and before I knew it I had the rope tied to my ankle and I was paddling out to sea. In that moment I for sure felt like one of the girls from Blue Crush! If only surfing was as easy as they made it look in that movie. I did not come close to riding a wave that day, what a challenging sport but am so excited to get back out there the next chance I get!

After playing in the water for a little longer three other friends and I hired two locals that had a fishing boat to take us out to a tiny, uninhabited island right off the beach. Two of my friends on the canoe, Matthew and Ally been caught earlier in the day by a rip current and were weary of the ocean but they were brave and came anyway. It was just ten minutes out to the island and then ten minutes back, very close and cool to get a glimpse into what the locals experience as they fish. I had such a since of serenity on the island. I walked off by myself for a couple moments and sat down on the rocks, letting the waves come up and surround me with all their force.

When we got back from the canoe ride I came across the catch of the day, dolphin and shark! There on the beach lay three dolphins and five sharks. This is what the locals eat and when I asked how far out they were when they caught them they said just off shore. I thought to myself “hmm hammerheads right off the surf, that’s interesting!” haha From there about thirty SAS kids and thirty little local children danced on the beach, played in the water, let the kids use our cameras and take pictures, it was wonderful. The sun was going down at this point and most of the SAS group headed back for the ship, the same four from the canoe stayed back. Earlier in the day a fisherman approached us and said that he would make us a fresh lobster meal. Matthew went to investigate this offer further and what he found was that when the fisherman said “fresh” he meant that he would go catch lobster and bring it back, while preparing it in front of us. That night I had the best meal of my life five fresh lobster with rice, overlooking the Atlantic on the coast of Africa, I am so lucky. After dinner I went and ran in the ocean one last time and then we made our way back to Takoradi. Our taxi driver waited for us all day and then even longer because we decided to eat dinner, he never once tried to hurry us along, so kind.

The next day I woke up and went on an SAS trip to the Slave dungeons in Cape Coast, 1.5 hours away. This was an extremely heavy day for all of us that left a lasting impact. To be in the same dungeons that the slaves would be thrown into for months of their lives was gut wrenching. I stood in the very room; with the same flooring that human beings slept, ate, went to the bathroom, got sick, and died in. I walked up the same stairs that young girls my age would have to walk up on there way to be raped by a slave master or the king. The castles were right along the coast because the ships would pick them up there and then take the slaves to the Caribbean, Europe, or America to be sold. How could humans do this to other humans? I have always seen the ocean as a source of beauty but that day I saw the ocean as a means of ripping families apart forever. Most of the slaves did not survive the journey across the sea. The slaves who died at sea would be thrown to the sharks and then if food ran out the slave masters would capture the sharks and feed the sharks to the slaves. I am going into so much detail because this part of African history is what has shaped the state that the continent is in today; people need to be know about this.  The feeling of standing in the dungeons overwhelmed me, my entire body felt heavy grief, I felt the torture and suffering that went on there.

On the third day in Ghana I went and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. We left early in the morning because the work site was three hours away from Takoradi. Habitat is working on building six different homes at the site we were at. My job was to make two of the rooms level by removing dirt with shovels and picks. Physical labor is so rewarding especially when you are motivated with the goal of helping people. My most favorite part of the day was interacting with the children. At one point I looked out the window of the house and saw three women carrying gigantic tree stumps on their heads! It was an amazing sight to see. When I left the habitat site at the end of the day I felt very unsettled. Everyone in my group was wearing tennis shoes, North Face coats, had water bottles and sunglasses and then there are the children we are playing with who have no shoes, ripped clothes, very little food. What do I do with that? Everyone in the SAS group sat down to eat lunch and all the kids are sitting around watching us, not eating. The children’s English was not so good therefore it was hard to communicate but I was trying to ask them what they had to eat that day. I would like to think that they had eaten but I am not so sure. Since that day I have had to remind myself that I am only getting a taste of each of these countries, I am researching what people and places I want to come back and help. I want to get back to Ghana as soon as I can.

A couple of days ago was Neptune day on the ship. This is a tradition that every SAS voyage participates in when the ship crosses the equator. The day begins with a parade of loud banging and wake up calls. Then after all the voyagers get breakfast everyone goes to the pool area and proceeds to be drenched in fish guts and then jumps in the pool. The other option as a right of passage is to shave your head. I chose the first choice and went for a swim with the fish guts J Desmund Tutu was one of the many that shaved their heads, as well as at least three dozen girls. I respect the young women who have the confidence to do that, stripping away all vanity and sporting a new type of beauty.

So looking forward to South Africa. As far as I can tell I would need months to see it all. It’s going to be a busy five days!

Love,

Sammy