No Hurries, No Worries, No Chicken Curries (email #5)

After many failed attempts to write an email in the past fortnight, I am utterly convinced that today will be the day that I hit the send button. And it won't be 7 pages long. Well, maybe.
The reasons for the lack of email-age are few and far between. They range from rouge pre-monsoonal storms disrupting our internet and phone lines for a week; myself finally giving into a nasty bout of Bedla-Belly and not being able to get out of bed (or out of the loo) for 3 days; sudden power cuts due to the heat wave, resulting in one very frustrated Georgia refusing to re-type out 2 hours worth of writing; irresistible late night improtu trips to sheesha bars and Starbucks-style cafes; overwhelming exhaustion from trying to manage 25 screaming 7 year olds with finger-paint for 2 hours; and most recently, the terrorist attacks in Jaipur making writing about trips in Rajasthan the LAST thing I want to bring to my mind…

Thinking about it, that's quite an accurate summary of the past 3ish weeks!

So if need be, just stop reading now.
…
Still with me? Splendid.

I'll start with what's on the top of my conscious mind, and most undoubtly going to sink into my unconscious mind for months to come. The bombings yesterday.

I'm not sure how much you know about them (apparently the 2nd cyclone heading towards Myanmar/Burma and the earthquakes n China are dominating international news), so I'll give you a quick rundown.

Last night at 7.35 local time, 7 bombs were set off within 12 minutes within the central walled city of Jaipur (the closest main city to Udiapur, where I'm living). An 8th unsuccessful bomb was disarmed a short time later. They were set off in the busiest part of the town by timed detonators, not suicide bombers. They were attached to public cycle rickshaws that were driven into the crowds and left on the road (because no one looks twice at a giant sack on the back of a bicycle in India) before being blown up. When the news broke, there were 20 confirmed dead. 10 minutes later it was 50. 12 hours later it is 80, and it'll hit the 100 mark before dinner time tonight.

Luckily, one of the new additions to our clan (there are 2 more, as Neha went home) was only released from service in the British army last Thursday, and was one of the frontliners in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 10 years. So we are getting a lot of expert information from him! It puts us at rest, yet also makes us more unnerved simultaneously. Alert, not alarmed everyone!

Logistically, the attacks are worse than the London Bombings in 2005, as there were only 4 bombs and 52 dead, versus 7 and nearing 100. This was an expert operation, with high-quality, restricted materials and organization. Ben (the soldier) said that this was worse than anything he ever saw in the Middle East, and the best planned. He said it would have taken a few years to complete this operation's preparation.

Suspicion is falling on the Kashmiri Islamic separatists in the North West (the state above Rajasthan), who are supported directly by Al Qaeda. It appears as if they were not targeting tourists (thank God!) as the targets were Hindu hot-spots on a Tuesday night in the off-season. Some theorists are suggesting that it is based around the ongoing Muslim/Hindu tensions and the current peace talks with Pakistan (thus the choice of Jaipur as the city, as it is not heavily guarded like Mumbai or Delhi, but is still big enough to draw media and is close to both Pakistan and Kashmir. As is Udaipur…). So the Kashmiri Islamic fundamentalists want the Indian government to blame Pakistan in order to stall the peace talks perhaps?

All aimless media speculation of course… It's amazing that such a wonderfully accepting nation can still be torn apart by religious strife. But the scariest part (aside from the fear that there will be repeat attacks in the surrounding cities of Jodhpur and Udaipur) is that it is like being back in Melbourne, and terrorist attacks occurring in Bendigo. Fear isn't the right word. Trepidation has more correct connotations.

But enough of that now… Happy thoughts!! We've had 2 weekend trips since the last email; one to the hill station town of Mount Abu, and a day trip to the Chittogarh Forts. Both bring somewhat odd, non-conventional travel diaries…

I was very close to not going to Mount Abu due to getting very, very ill. I'd lasted the longest out of anyone in the house, so it as natural enough that Murphy's Law would eventually come up and bite me in the bum (almost more literally than metaphorically as it turned out). I've been told, well, begged, by my mother not to go into too much detail here. But just know that when the euphemisms for the bowel movement turn into dysphemisms (ie – the simile that we use is actually worse than the action) that it's bad. REAL bad. Like using the words 'conjoined twins', 'coco pops' and 'sausage links' in the same sentence… Gotcha?

Any who, dosed up to my eyeballs in doctor-prescribed antibiotics and gastrolyte, I endured the 4 ½ hour winding, bumpy trip to the base of Mount Abu.

It was beautiful, yes, but I was a little too delirious to appreciate it for the first 5 hours or so until the drugs had worn off. And just in time for our 4 hour trek to the top of the mountain! I have no idea what actually persuaded or convinced me that doing this hike was a good idea in my condition, but I'm glad I did. Because out of it came one of the most surreal, funny, and somehow spiritual experiences that I've had.

Essentially, we had this trek-guide called Charles. We should have known from his self-donned moniker that we were in for a ride. He was amazingly knowledgeable about the land, and also a great thinker. He regularly would stop to let us catch our breath and dictate philosophical musings to us. These were in such abundance and of such magnitude that it does not do them justice writing them here. But sometimes they were little and cute, like "No hurries, no worries, and no chicken curries. That is the Indian mantra".

We began our well earned downhill-descent after listening to yet another pearl of wisdom over some mountain-top brewed chai, looking over a view from 1,400 feet that expanded so far that it was lost in the smoggy crimson sunset (unfortunately the smog also happened to be intoxicating pollution, which damped the horizon's vibe a little). I took the lead behind Charles, and was trying to keep mind-over-matter by keeping up with his pace. A really fast pace at that. I drank 6 litres of water that day from fluid loss! That's 2 more than normal here… Numerous times we turned around to not be able to see any of the other girls, toying with the ideas that the bears had got to them.

So when he stopped suddenly, turned to me, took me by the shoulders and said "You have a great energy", before setting off again with his head down, I thought that he just meant that he was impressed by the fact that I was the only one keeping up with him.

Well.

I was wrong.

It turns out that he wasn't talking about my fitness.

He thinks that I'm an 'Energy God'. Reincarnated from the heavens, and sent to earth to restore light and life to all. And he believed that I, 'the beacon', was sent to him as a challenge from the Gods to help him in my 'task'.

…

Riiiiiiight…

Soon after that, recognizing that I was sick, he took the 6 of us back to the hostel that he runs for some herbal-remedies. The Energy God is no good to the world if all of her energy is being eaten up by some parasite in her stomach after all. What followed was a little odd, but hell, it worked.

He gave me a massage with mustard oil (much to the other girl's envy – they paid 500 rupees 4 days later for one!) to restore energy to my crucial points that were lacking energy. He told me that he had sacrificed his own energy in the transference to make me whole again. So of course I had to say that I would journey with him to the spiritual Mecca of Shimla (where the Ganges start) to begin our spiritual quest together!

After leaving him that night, I am still wondering if I should take him up on his offer… Free massages, a funny sherpa thinking you're a deity, and a hell of a good guide – probably for free! But even if I don't, the stomach bug never came back…

Chittogarh wasn't a pleasant experience, so I won't dwell long. And it wasn't to do with our first embarkment onto the public bus system… The highlight was probably seeing an Indian bloke who we SWORE was the Hindi Richard Gere. At least that distracted us from the fact that we saw our thalis and koftas stagnating with buzzing, dengue fever infested flies for 10 minutes before they were brought to us luke warm.

I was really looking forward to the forts – I had seen lots of photos from past volunteers and couldn't wait to take some wanky artistic photos of the ruins. But it turned out that the amazing structures weren't the main attraction. We were.

As it is the tourists off-season due to the ridiculous heat and oncoming monsoon/malaria season, we were the only white people there. And apparently, that makes us more photo worthy than anything else in the 7km radius of the compounds. No matter where we went, we were followed by a gaggle of 40 men, being led by their mobiles phones tracking our every move. These were often accompanied by a brave soul yelling out "Yes! Sex", "Do you want to fancy", or "I likes you chicky baby".

Well, I kinda snapped. And we won't go into details. But they're not going near any foreign girl again. A little bit of justice was done that day.

School wise, my facebook photos will explain the kids enough for now. We went on visit into the community last week to see the living conditions of the children that we teach. And geez. 'Moderate conditions' was defined basically by if the goats were sleeping inside the mud brick house or outside…

School itself is about to go on holidays on Thursday, and we have been trialing the 'holiday program' for the past 3 days that we will be implementing. Right now, I'm going to fail anything involving paint (I was considering painting my nails to hide the dirt that accumulates EVERYWHERE, but I don't have to worry about that now… By the way, the water has now been rationed to 2 hours in the morning. And when we have to leave for school at 7.15 am to avoid teaching in the hottest part of the day, that doesn't work too well. But we can't worry about things we can't change. So we just pretend that we don't notice each other smelling like the apartment cow). I also have a pathologically fear of pipe cleaners now following the riot in week 2; so I have a feeling that by the end of the next month, I won't be able to walk into a craft store without having a psychological breakdown. If I don't already have one in the next fortnight that is.

That said, I'm going to send this RIGHT NOW before any of the things in the opening comment happen. Ie-
a) The internet cuts
b) The toilet calls
c) The power fails
d) The hookah bar beckons
e) The child-induced migraine sets in
f) The world blows up

If you don't laugh, you cry, right?

I hope things are safer and happier back home.

Xx