2 days of highs and lows

So, I haven’t posted much this week. Sorry about that. As a result, this is a really long post. I’ll do better in the coming week, since it’s my second to last (!!!) week here. Also this coming week Helen and I will be on vacation, so I should have lots to talk about. I have highs and lows from the last 36 or so hours plus a bunch of pictures that I want to get posted before we leave tonight and start our grand adventure.

Highs:

On Thursday, Satish asked Helen and me if we wanted to go to Bodh Gaya, which is a district in the state to our north, and which has several NBJK projects in and around it. Satish was going to leave Friday morning so he could show this man (I’ll call him L, because I don’t remember his name) from an award committee NBJK’s work. L was coming to evaluate NBJK to see if they deserved this prestigious award (whose name I also don’t remember).

Of course we said yes, so at 7:30 Friday morning we were all ready to go. At 9:15 or so, we actually got underway with all passengers in the car (6 of us plus the driver). The car is an ambulance, but an Indian ambulance more closely resembles an American Jeep than an ambulance. There are two bench seats (front and middle) and then two bench seats in the very back that go along the sides of the car. Helen and I got those seats, which I ended up really enjoying because it was the perfect size and shape to lie down along the seat and take naps while we drove.

Our first stop was the Amoli Apurva High School, 

followed by the elementary school. 

Both are in a village in Hazaribag but on the way to Bodh Gaya. The kids were great—the young ones had welcome songs and dances that the performed. 

L gave long speeches in Hindi about his life. 

He lived with Mahatma Gandhi in his ashram for a few years in his youth, so he talks a lot about Gandhian philosophy.

After the schools, we headed to the Lord Buddha Home for Children, which is an orphanage housing 60 children. The living quarters are divided into 6 separate houses, each with its own assigned mother, a kitchen, bathroom, washing machine, dining area, and several bedrooms. 

The kids were very happy in general, and also excited to see us (foreigners!) and speak English with us. Also, they were exceptionally cute.

We had lunch there and got a tour of the campus, which also houses a doctor’s and dentist’s office and several vocational training programs. Lunch was clearly prepared with care, but it was exactly the same thing we get every day, so Helen and I were not excited about it.

After lunch, we visited an ashram where Satish and Girija, who are two of the four founders of NBJK, grew up spending their summers. Satish took us to a temple, as if as an afterthought.

The temple is the place where Buddha received enlightenment under a banyan tree, so there is a magnificent temple (seriously, I think it’s the most incredible one I’ve ever seen) and extensive gardens, and the banyan tree itself. The designs carved into the temple’s exterior walls had birds nesting in them, most notably a large family of bright green parrots.

Then we visited a Thai Buddhist temple, 

then a statue of Buddha (Satish kept inviting L into pictures with Helen and me), 

then had tea and lassis (my first lassi in India!) and we headed back.

This is where the lows start.

First off, L told us right before lunch that he "had an interesting experience with a 26-year-old woman" and proceeded to tell us about how this woman married some guy her family was against, so when the marriage went foul she went to L rather than her family and he "became her brother, her sister, her mother, her father, her friend, and eventually her lover." L is 83, overweight, extremely self-centered, and clearly thinks very highly of himself. After that story, every time he looked at Helen or me or tried to tell us another story about himself or needed one of us to help him up or down stairs, I just felt dirty and disgusted. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to do anything about it since he was evaluating NBJK and we were representing it. Anyways, after the temples, we continued our journey.

We stopped at an eye hospital that NBJK runs, then there was a village meeting complete with insects (it was nighttime by then) and frogs and mice in the roofs, and it went on for a long time all in Hindi. I’m sure it would have been very interesting if we had any idea what was being said. But we didn’t.

We were then told we were going, and we asked where, and they said we would have dinner. We went to some place with a big table and we sat and waited, then the rest of the party joined and talked in Hindi, and an hour and a half later they said that now we would go have dinner.

Okay. So we went to another room with multiple tables (almost no one joined Helen and me) and waited more. About 30 mins later dinner was served, and it was actually fantastic. We had puri (a fried round bread) with a bean side dish and two vegetable ones (the same ones we have all the time), but there was also kir (rice pudding), which I hadn’t had here yet, and mango, and another dessert thing that was very sweet.

We got back after midnight and went to bed. This morning I woke up to talk to Jeff, and when I got online I found out that my dog Meesha, who we’ve had for 12 years, had died. Talking to Jeff was lovely as usual, and then I talked to my mom for more details and found out that a family friend is in the hospital and two of my friends had just broken up after several years of a serious relationship. I cried some, had tea and read to relax, and then the author who wrote the book I was reading had the gall to kill one of the main characters. So then I cried more. That plus packing has pretty much been my day today. Tonight Helen and I will take the bus to Kolkata, we’ll spend Sunday there, and Sunday night we’ll fly to Mumbai, then to Kochi, where Helen’s friend will meet us. And then who knows what will happen?