Contemplating My Navel

by Annie Anderson

Indian Standard Time (IST) – India #10

by

Almost done….
There is such a thing as Indian Standard Time here. 10am really means 1130…

We packed up our stuff onto the roof of another cab, with a sleepy cab driver and headed out to our Holi Holi Holi party being hosted by a couch surfing friend’s place not far from the airport. I had avowed that I wasn’t going to get painted again, as I still wasn’t quite finished scrubbing off the other paint, but only 10 minutes later I was covered. As were Sonja and Amber! Blue, purple, yellow, red, green, orange powdered paint (the good kind) soon was everywhere.

Their party was being catered, drinks flowing freely and as well a beverage named Bhang. It was a fruit leaf plant liquor that apparently after about 8 small cups you start to “fly”. Then you crash and have a four day hangover. Amber is now starting to crash five hours later…. lol

There were some sort of crepe thing with veggies and spices, some sort of Indian nacho dish and a guy also named Amberish. It was held in the court yard of a posh apartment building that also was home to a famous Indian movie star we got to meet. Sonja wrote down the name, but I can’t remember it right now. There were armed security guards as well as a TV crew filming the party. We all took pictures in various states of being painted as well as some short video.

It certainly was a fun and appropriate way to end the trip. Such a celebration was the capper for us, and the start of their new year.

We were fortunate enough to have the Host and Hostess offer to keep our luggage in their apartment, as well as to let us shower when it was time to leave. We were painted with the good paint (allegedly) but we still bear the scars of blue, green and pink in our hair, our pores and over parts of our body. Let’s just say that Amber could hide quite nicely in a pumpkin patch and not be discovered! I look like I have been violently assaulted and have bruises all over my face. My arms are another matter. Here in the Indian airport everyone knows why we are like this, but come London, we will either fit in with the punks or will stand out like sore thumbs! hee hee

Our pictures will tell more stories than we can cover here, and we will add just a few final notes of things that have popped into our heads post blogging…

******************************************************************************

They have sweet candy here that is made from gourds (pumpkin type vegetables) that is flavored with rose oil…..yummy….NOT! Ick! Amber’s breath smelled like a car air freshener for a long time, and not in the good way…

Corriander soup tastes like eating smog….

The longest word we found was Dharmachakrapravartanamudra which is ?????? 50 points to the first correct pronounciation and meaning of the word.

Travelling by air here is the way to see India in large quantities efficiently.

Fruit bars are meant to feed the bears, not for your own consumption.

Barter Barter Barter

Get the Dukerol diarrhea shot! Awesome! No Dehli belly for us!

It is always nice to travel the world, but it is especially nice to have friends to share this with and people we love to come home to.

Thanks for following our trip, and we will see you soon!

Love always,

Annie and Amber
xoxoxo

Perspective and appreciation… – India #5

by

Perspective and appreciation start to set in for real now…
Howdy,

After breakfast with Sonja, we hopped into a trusty cab off to the airport. We were able to send a quick blog before boarding and then hopped on the plane. The security there at the airport was stellar compared to in Bangalore where they never even compared out ticket to our passport or anything!

Ever been somewhere super hot and they have those super fine misters to cool you down? Our airplane had them on the inside! YAY! It was super cool and relaxing on the flight, with no real events to speak of until we started our descent. The smog we were trying to cut through was so thick, it required our plane pullout a knife to lead the way through.

Having been to Los Angeles I thought I had seen smog and pollution, but never have I seen anything like this…and flying over the stick huts and tents and freaky places right away put Amber and I on hyper alert. As we neared things, our spidey senses started to really tingle and we made an executive decision to upgrade our accommodations to that of a 5 star hotel, not the local flop house that was the original plan. Once we did that, we signed up for our tour of the Taj Mahal and two other fort/shrines and hopped a taxi to our new home. Even more were we reaffirmed of our good decision as we passed unbelieveable poverty, filth, criminal looking people and just plain scariness.

When we reached our hotel we were pretty freaked out. I am still shocked at how shocked I was, as I thought I had been desensitized with my various trips, and even with what we had seen in Goa and Bangalore, but I was 100% wrong. Dead wrong.

When we pulled up, our hotel was like an oasis in the desert to two weary travellers. Going to the front desk and checking in, then heading up to our rooms, we passed security guards at the door, gun detectors before being able to go into the elevators. We felt much better! Our room was on the 18th floor and we could barely see out of it due to the pollution. ICK! Upstairs for dinner as we did not want to venture out at all. Bed time was super great as we crashed hard! Off to the Taj Mahal tomorrow!

See you there!

A & A

Day two

by

Gooooood mooooorning Affrriiccaa!!!

Here are 20 things I learned about Ethiopia today….
1. There are thirteen months. 12 x 30 days and 1 x 5 days.
2. Their calendar started seven years after our Gregorian calendar did, so technically, today is the 12th day of the 2nd month, 2010.
3. Our times are different too. Their day starts at dawn being 0000. Sunrise is at 0600 and sunset at 1800 pretty much every day. So, with that logic 0700 is now 0100. 0800 is 0200 etc. Noon is 0600 and supper is 1200. There is much opportunity for time confusion as you can see.
4. The time change to MST is -9 hours and with daylight savings time ending next week it will be a ten hour difference.
5. Addis Ababa means new flower. The capitol city was moved many years ago to be on top of a mountain for greater security measures after the Italians tried to conquer the Ethiopians and colonize them. They were unsuccessful and ironically, now many people say “Ciao!” to each other. I am not sure if it is a thumb up the nose to the Italians or what, but I also find myself wanting to speak Spanish and that is quite strange to all involved.
6. The poverty line is $1.90 USD per day.
7. The two main religions are Ethiopian Christian Orthodox and Muslim. Call to prayer for the Muslims is broadcasted across loud speakers at 0500 our time, so you get to hear the chanting as your alarm clock!
8. Girls are married at 13 years old usually, polygamy is acceptable, and the number of children you have shows your wealth. Ergo the more kids you have the wealthier you are. Plus, so many kids die, you need to have extra for insurance purposes. I am not trying to be flippant, but that is their logic.
9. Women wear their wealth on their person, so if they are divorced or kicked out, what they have is what they get to walk away with. Things are slowly starting to change with divorce settlements, but not regularly.
10. Freedom of speech and the ability to take pictures is limited. If you are seen taking a picture of anything military or of high interest, you are subject to having your camera taken, being brought in for an investigation or jail time. Hence, probably not many pictures of these things from me.
11. Meat in the grocery store has a sticker on it, and it is labelled as “Normal meat”. What is this???? Goat? Sheep? Beef? Horse? Dog??? NO IDEA. I am considering a vegetarian diet….
12. There is no Fido petting here. Death by a rabid dog bite is a real concern.
13. People are not innocent until proven guilty here. It is guilty as accused until proven innocent. Street justice is encouraged.
14. The plastic bags feel about 5x thicker than our grocery store bags.
15. Coffee = Bunna. Tenadum = Sage. Put the two together and it is DELICIOUS.
16. Ishi=okay Ow = yes. Abakoh = please
17. Abakoh bunna sitoin = Please give me some coffee.
18. Grass on the stairs into the entrance of a home is laid down as a way to honor the guests coming in.
19. Popcorn sprinkled with sugar, not unlike kettle corn, is served in a coffee ceremony to honor guests. A focaccia type bread is also served with mashed Burberry spices was also delicious. Who knew it was more than a purse and fashion line from England?!?!?
20. Life expectancy is 63 years old which is a huge improvement from even ten years ago when it was 49.

We then went to the SSCM (Support Street Children & Mothers) training school Canadian Humanitarian sponsors. They are training students to learn how to be 1. Metal workers, 2. Wood workers, 3. Electricians or 4. Hairdressers.

You will have to wait to see the inspirational poster pictures taken. Loved them!

We then had lunch at the Lucy Restaurant that is right beside the Ethiopian History Museum. Lucy is the name of the first humanoid skeleton found here dating back 112 million years ago. The people here think they are where civilization started. There is also a lot of Jewish heritage here.

We then made our way to the Gulele centre yesterday for our first medical/dental sessions.

Canadian Humanitarian has ten centres around Addis and area as well as in the country of Malawi. We will be going there after our two weeks here. They are centres that the poorest kids (as identified by the government and community elders) that are at the most risk for either dying, being taken into the prostitution lifestyle due to lack of choices etc. These centres have kids that game in numbers between 22-70 in any given centre. They participate in being supported to go to school, after school care where they have access to cleaning their teeth every day (which almost never happens to kids here due to the lack of access to running water) as well as a meal every day, after school programming that includes art, drama, singing, crafts etc…. All the children are also either living with single parents or are doubly orphaned and have been taken in by a relative with no other family. Their guardians have access to some supports as well for things like health education. HIV/AIDS support with access to medications like AZT and the proper nutrition required to not have these drugs make them sicker, health and dental care for the kids in the program.

Some of the things we did there was to take pictures of all the kids, fill out intake and assessment forms, do medical assessments, dispense medications prn and make referrals for things/prescriptions needed that we didn’t have.

Some of the patients I saw yesterday were the following….
1. Mother of 7, her four youngest died over the space of one year, as well as her husband. It was attributed to TB, but something wasn’t quite right in the history of her life, but we couldn’t figure out what…until the dentist called us over to look at her youngest surviving son who had Mullbury Molars. It makes the teeth look like cauliflowers on the top, and it is a sign of congenital syphillis. It is likely what her husband and kids also died of.
2. A mother seven years ago in delivery had her bladder torn away and now it sits on top of her vagina and gives her challenges when urinating. I then demo’d keigel exercises on the floor to have her help strengthen her pelvic floor muscles, as surgery is not an option for her. She will have to live with this forever likely.
3. A 15 year old girl with chronic ear infections now has bilateral blown ear drums and needs tympanoplasty, which she will likely never receive and will eventually go deaf.
4. A 14 year old boy with staph infections on his legs with impetigo and open sores all over his ankles. Antibiotics given to save his legs.

I have learned the kids here have a very high pain tolerance and acceptance for their ailments without complaints.

Our day started at 0700 and finished at 2300! Good night everyone!

Perspective and appreciation… – India #5

by

Perspective and appreciation start to set in for real now…
Howdy,

After breakfast with Sonja, we hopped into a trusty cab off to the airport. We were able to send a quick blog before boarding and then hopped on the plane. The security there at the airport was stellar compared to in Bangalore where they never even compared out ticket to our passport or anything!

Ever been somewhere super hot and they have those super fine misters to cool you down? Our airplane had them on the inside! YAY! It was super cool and relaxing on the flight, with no real events to speak of until we started our descent. The smog we were trying to cut through was so thick, it required our plane pullout a knife to lead the way through.

Having been to Los Angeles I thought I had seen smog and pollution, but never have I seen anything like this…and flying over the stick huts and tents and freaky places right away put Amber and I on hyper alert. As we neared things, our spidey senses started to really tingle and we made an executive decision to upgrade our accommodations to that of a 5 star hotel, not the local flop house that was the original plan. Once we did that, we signed up for our tour of the Taj Mahal and two other fort/shrines and hopped a taxi to our new home. Even more were we reaffirmed of our good decision as we passed unbelieveable poverty, filth, criminal looking people and just plain scariness.

When we reached our hotel we were pretty freaked out. I am still shocked at how shocked I was, as I thought I had been desensitized with my various trips, and even with what we had seen in Goa and Bangalore, but I was 100% wrong. Dead wrong.

When we pulled up, our hotel was like an oasis in the desert to two weary travellers. Going to the front desk and checking in, then heading up to our rooms, we passed security guards at the door, gun detectors before being able to go into the elevators. We felt much better! Our room was on the 18th floor and we could barely see out of it due to the pollution. ICK! Upstairs for dinner as we did not want to venture out at all. Bed time was super great as we crashed hard! Off to the Taj Mahal tomorrow!

See you there!

A & A