India!

February 16 came really quickly—I am recovered from all South American illnesses, rested, and eager to head to the next and possibly most interesting part of my journey, to India. I’ve never been to Asia before, and so I didn’t really know what to expect. It was a 23 hour flight (well, 14 hours to Dubai, 5 hour layover, then about 4 hours to Chennai) and India is 10 ½ hours ahead of Eastern Time. We were flying out of JFK so James and I decided to get a hotel room in the city the night before and try to stay up as long as possible, making it easier to sleep during the first 14 hour segment of the trip. So we watched Villanova lose to UConn at a bar in NYC, went to a hookah place (we figured drinking the night before a long flight was probably not a good idea), and then went to the gym of the hotel at about 2 AM for a pre-flight workout. It was a bizarre but very cool interesting, especially after it started lightly snowing outside, reminding us of the 80 + degree weather we were about to enter into.

I took a cat-nap around 3 am and by 6 we were completely packed and ready to head to the airport. Everything went smoothly, even with carrying the 3 huge computer boxes we were bringing for the school here in India. We flew Emirates Airline, which was terrific and very luxurious compared to American airlines (and cheaper!) They served us food off of an in-flight menu, all the free wine we could ever hope for, and had tons of on-demand movies and even episodes of Friends to choose from on your own personal screen. We flew over the oil fields of Iraq on our way into Dubai, and when flying into the city we could see the new “world’s tallest tower” that was just recently completed in the modern and wealthy city of Dubai. Flying in was a breathtaking sight.



A five-hour layover and 4-hour flight later, we were de-boarding in Chennai India, which is a fairly large city along the south-east part of India. Our final destination of Vikravandy lay about 2 ½ hours to the south. Father Felix, the priest who we are staying with for these 2 months, and Sarah, another intern at the project, came to meet us, along with the driver named Bangladesh. Two women from the village who just wanted to see an airport for the first time also were there to greet us. Everyone seems very friendly and welcoming so far, and I’m curious to learn more about Father Felix and the work that he does here with his organization called SAMMMS.

The compound where we are staying lies right off the highway, in a fairly poor area of India. I’m sharing a room with Sarah and we also have a bathroom with a western-style toilet (no hole in the ground, yay!) and hot water (sometimes, when the heater decides to work). It is very simple accommodations, but I think it will be an authentic experience. A woman who works for Father Felix cooks three meals a day for everyone who lives here, all in southern-India style over an open fire behind the kitchen. For some reason I haven’t quite figured out she also sleeps in the kitchen on a blanket at night. The program has a few cows and a baby calf who live in the garden area behind the house.

So far, being jet-lagged and tired I am completely overwhelmed by everything, but I hope in the next few days to settle in to this way of life, and I’ll be updating soon!