Friday, May 9, 2008



On sunday night Heidi, Natalie and Caithlin and I decide to find a mosque. We felt this would be sunday appropriate. Women are not allowed into many mosques so we wanted to find one with a ladies' section but struggled to find even one. The mosque we found was very big. It is actually called the Big Mosque, so there you go. Upon entering the grounds we covered our head. To the est of the mosque there was a shrine to a saint. A man on a motorcycle stopped us and said that we could enter the grounds but we could not go in the mosque or the shrine. It seems as if Indians love to tell us what we can and cannot do, we have gotten that alot. Although in most cases it saved us from an embarrassing situation, in other cases, such as this one, it was a guideline and not a rule. When we approached the shrine they invited us to take our shoes and come worship. Eat that motorcycle man. I was very hesitant at first to walk inside because there were these huge ants crawling around, I am talking HUGE. I swallowed by hesitancy and put on my brave face and did it. i flinched, noticeably, a couple of times and was made fun of it for it but oh well.
Along with ants I am learning to get used to a lot of new elements. Yesterday was my first usage of squatter toilet. I have used one before but it was seven years ago. I have relearn somethings. Today I took my first bucket shower. I getting used to sleeping on the cement floor. Surprisingly it is not that bad. I am grateful I brought a pillow. I am also getting used to the aroma produced by the substance on the side of the road on the street Liann calls 'poo lane.' But people are nice. The women always tell me hello as I make a stroll through the village.
I have a wide range of emotions while staying here, and they differ at each time of day. When I am sitting on the veranda with a girl from my group and talking to the little village kids while feeling the wind blow I feel grateful to have the opportunity to experience this side of life.
I using my blog as a forum to tell the people I love what is going on in my life, but I would like to hear about yours. I may not have the time to start and email and send it to everybody but if you send me an email I will reply. I hope to have pictures up next week. Stay tuned.

5 stamps of approval:

Whitney said...

Sydney! That's so exciting that you are India! My husband and I are leaving for Russia for the summer on Wednesday...who would have thought we would go to such random places back in freshman year? Well, I'm excited to be reading your blog!

Angel Kae said...

Hey I just looked at your profile and I was ecstatic to see Cold Comfort Farm listed on there! "I saw something nasty in the woodshed" - one of the all-time best movie quotes

Rebecca Langham said...

Wow, Syd, if you flinched I bet Tausha wouldn't have survived at all, but rather dropped dead on the spot!
Bucket showers sound interesting; I bet that's a pretty tricky procedure!

Natausha said...

Rebecca I was thinking the same thing. Actually, I remember seeing some really huge ants at girlscout camp in San Antonio, I wonder if these are the type of ants we are talking about. I was about to say something else but it was a rather disgusting description so I will forego.

Asenath said...

wow, sounds like quite the adventure. I can't wait to see pictures. :)