An adventure I had yesterday in Nagpur, the most central city of India, if I may: Pablo, Ainara (the Spanish couple from Pais Basco-- Navarra, northern Spain)) I've been hanging out with this past week at the ashram) and I were walking around (all day, actually-- but that's another story of about the million that I acquired from yesterday) Nagpur trying to find Internet. Of course there were tons of signs that said "Internet this way" o igual, but they were either not open yet, or closed for the dia or, well, what we found most was that they were, in fact, nonexistent (what's a few more signs added to the streets of India, anyway? Adds more color for the Indians and more confusion for the foreigners-- perfect!, "no problem!"). So, we're at a pretty respectable-looking place with people who LOOK like they might be able to help us. Everyone had told us that we could find Internet in this particular area, so, we went-- and asked. It started out a little something like this: Us: Is there Internet here? Them: Oh yes, yes. Internet, downstairs (points down stairs). Us: Acha, thank you. (We go downstairs, look around, don't see anything.) Us again: Excuse me, is there Internet here? Them: What? Us: Internet? Here? (Pause) Them: Up. (Points up. Oh yes, oh so helpful, that one was.) (We subir, mirar un poco, vemos nada.) Us: Internet? Here? Them: Yes, down and to left. Us: No, we looked, and there's nothing there!!! (Pause for thinking.) Them: Internet. Us: YES! Them: One year ago, I think. (Points to place that is definitely NOT an Internet place.) Us: There was an Internet cafe there one year ago? Them: Yes. Us: Oh, acha, GOOD! Thank you! "No problem!" (We all look at each other and die laughing as we interpret the conversation to Ainara who didn't catch everything-- Pablo speaks a considerable amount of broken English and Ainara, muy muy poco.)
This was pretty typical of our mega-stressful day in Nagpur. We got there at 9AM (2-hr death-defying, sweat-drenching bus ride from Wardha to Nagpur, 48 rupees), had a masala dosa and chai (mmmm!!!!!! Have I mentioned yet that this whole chai thing reeeeeally rocks my socks off!?!?), and set off through the city as street vendors and shops were just starting to open up, with an agenda. They had things they needed to get done, and I had things I needed to get done, and as far as we were concerned, we had maaaaany hours to get them done as the last train back to Wardha wasn't until about 10pm (9pm, 10pm, every 10 minutes, sometimes, oh yes all the time, "no problem"--> all of which we were told). Great!
So, I think ashram life has majorly sheltered me from what the rest of India is like. Shopping for one thing?-- don't plan on it taking a half hour like it should, plan on it being an exciting all-day event! We were able to send off my books (from the ashrams) through courier after getting about seven suggestions on where to go for "good courier service, "no problem"" and after the man closing and locking his office, walking us to another office, boxing up the books for me, taking care of everything else there (paperwork and reaaaally wondering if I'd ever see the books again!!!! and thinking, holy fricken' cow, this will cost me seven times what it cost me to buy the frickin' books-- but hey, what can ya do?), and walking us back and buying us drinks on the way back, we had finished one thing. As we were walking to this other office with the man (which really looked like he was taking us to a rather sketchy looking residential area-- oh good, he's going to take my books and then kill us all! :P), somebody had asked what time it was, and Ainara (the one with the watch-- I've stopped wearing mine as I'm trying to see if the Indian sun can possibly reverse this terrible watch tan line I've been working on for the last 10 years; it's not working yet, though-- this baby's probably here to stay!) said, 1:15. Pablo, chuckling, said, 1:15, Oh good. We haven't done anything yet, but, good. I said, hey, almost-- we've ALMOST done something! His response was, OK, we've almost done something, "no problem."
(Just can't get enough of this "no problem" thing. Seriously everyone says it and even at the worst of times and the best part is that we can be in the middle of any conversation in the whole wide world, stop and say no problem, and everyone around us will automatically say it back to us-- no problem, yes, yes, no problem. Wonderful.)
By 6pm we'd barely accomplished one more thing-- using the Internet-- finally we found it (after walking literally allll around and finding two places hours before but only as a power outage had started for what would be the next hour and a half- arrrrgh!) in a place with an entire 3 computers that looked like they haven't even seen the light of day in the past two decades. The Internet quality was about the same. I got to read a few emails and respond to a couple (Dad, who made a reference to the monkeys being reunited with their sister, meaning, me-- ha ha, funny pops I have, eh?, and then Joe, my pastor) and when I sent them off, it looked as though the emails sent, but without the content. I felt frustrated afterwards to say the least, as I'd wanted to get so many things done online but hardly finished one thing and, well, it was actually also pretty typical of the day.
So, evening quickly arrived and we went to an ATM at a bank to sacar dinero. Ainara tried first to take out 20,000 rupees and the machine said that the transaction had gone through, made the usual sound as though the money was circulating, kept making the sound again and again, and then eventually, silence, and no money-- as well as no transaction receipt. Let's just say that we were at this bank until 9:30 pm when we finally left and caught a rickshaw back to the bus station to catch what we hoped would be a 10:00ish bus back to Wardha. And, I served as interpreter for Ainara (although Pablo was quite good during this time, as well, because his broken English worked better than my English, although I tried to use little words and speak slowly, the communication barrier was a real biotch!) what was actually a very crappy situation as the bank people did not want to cooperate, kept telling us what sounded like quite obvious lies, or saying "no problem, you come back and take out money one half hour, no problem" and then "one hour, machine broke, one hour" and then Pablo called Spain to see if the money had been withdrawn and it turned out that yes, the money was shown as gone, but the bank refused to admit that it had happened, there was no slip to prove it (and we have no idea why not), just the Spanish bank saying that it was taken out at that time and the Indian bank eventually claiming that the account was already credited, then that it would be credited in an hour, then that it would be credited by midnight, then the next day-- 101% guarantee, they said. Oh yes, wonderful. So can you imagine? We toyed with the idea of staying until the morning to see if the money was there in person but we figured that it would only be a waste of time and money for a room. We were accomplishing absolutely nothing with the men there-- their claims were extremely faulty and they seemed to be enjoying the whole event. Ainara wasn't so happy, and Pablo was doing everything he could to calm her down, to make the phone calls, to talk, etc. Ugh. We were happy to get out of Nagpur but sort of disappointed that the entire trip we'd barely gotten a thing accomplished (although we tried and tried and tried!) and, well, as of today, the money's still not there. I believe they'll be making a trip there soon (tomorrow if the money's still not back in the account) and filing a complaint with the policia-- ugh. Que pena.
Other adventures from yesterday: being one of 10 people in a rickshaw designed for 4 (nothing like strangers sitting on your lap!), asking somebody if they knew English, them saying yes, me asking where the bathroom was (at the bus station), then them saying "yes" and standing there, as though they were quite happy to help. Oh, hell, I'll find the bathroom myself then. And then I did find the bathroom, and, well, let's just say that I'm reminded daily of what a wonderful thing it was to grow up as a rather tomboyish sort and not be too attached to clean and sanitary or even complete comfort. This, though, served as a great, big reminder. I could write a book on everything related to bathroomish stuff here in India, but I don't think it'd be a best-seller-- only weird people actually discuss stuff like that, I suppose. Maybe I'm just too observant? Oh, other adventure. Almost getting run over about every time I crossed the road in Nagpur. Excellent.
Experience not as what I'd expected? Things are going well as I came having no clue what to expect except a bit of insanity (seems true so far!!!). All I can say is thank God for a sense of humor and laughter-- because we laughed a LOT yesterday, almost to the point of stomach pain-- it was a much better channel of emotion than frustration which we were all feeling inside. The humor ceased quite a bit once the bank situation came up, as you can imagine, but on the bus ride home I was able to lay my head by the open window and take in the coolish breeze, hug my backpack in front of me tight, and close my eyes and have a few moments of quiet (OK, overexaggeration-- there's no such thing here!) meditation and thinking, thinking, thinking. We arrived safely at Wardha and then caught a rickshaw for too many rupees (special tourist offers, they're great, aren't they?-- walking away helps but it didn't seem that it did as much last night-- there were no other options, though) and made it back to Sevagram just before midnight. Sleep afterward had never felt so good. The feet hurt today, but I figure I wouldstarted feeling it eventually.
The frog that has been rooming with me, I've noticed, has abandoned me, but I think I have a new roomie that visits every once in a while just to remove things from my trash can, get into my stash of fruit/nut bars and chomp on one from the middle, and leave the items on random portions of the floor. Hmm.
I've not learned any Basque words, because Pablo actually doesn't speak or understand any Basque at all, so of course they speak in Spanish and so do we, as a group of 3. Could have been a good opportunity to learn, but learning Hindi would have been, too, but ya se fue esa oportunidad, tambien.
So, that's really enough about me for now...
Off to battle the rickshaw grounds on my own to head back to the village; dinnertime's drawing near...
Leisha
Edit: This was written a few days ago. Sorry I've not gotten to update, like, ever, or get ahold of people: if and when I find internet, it's slow, unbelievably slow, and I'm unable to get anything done that I need to get done. Ever heard of Mexican time? You've never heard of or experienced Indian time... or maybe you have, and can vouch for me on this one. I'm trying to keep a bit of sanity for my own sake..................
I'm safe, though, and healthy, and happy, despite some recent frustration.
No worries-- or of course, as you'd expect I'd say, NO PROBLEM!
Love you all...
