Vomiting, Christmas Angels, and the Essence of Violets

Dear India,
We have been seeing one another now for almost 2 wonderful months! There are, however, some serious issues I'd like to address. I think you are bi polar. What's worse, you take me along for the ride. I soar with such great heights of joy and crash land into bitter sorrow, all trying to keep up with you. Perhaps you should get some help. And no, we are not breaking up.
Love Always,
Claire


Since my birthday, I could write a book's worth of blog stuff. I am staying at Vadu almost constantly. The reason  is that I have been teaching morning classes and evening classes. If I were to go to the office, I wouldn't be back in time for my 6 o'clock class. So I stay and teach. Teaching has been a challenging affair. The students are there voluntarily, and in addition to their regular schooling. That's a long time to hold still and learn!! My efforts have been to make it as fun as possible. I try to make a lot of games. When classes go well and students leave skipping and singing new songs or I hear them shout new vocabulary at one another, I am so happy. I float around feeling wonderful and encouraged to make the next class even better. When the classes go poorly, however, I crawl out from the class room sighing and trying to figure out how I ended up a teacher at all. It can be REALLY difficult to teach something without being able to explain it. For example: I was unable to teach "go fish" as a way to practice vocabulary. I made cards with pictures and then cards with the words. But there are too many steps to explain without knowing Marathi. It flopped. Also, after confusing my students with a test, I found out from someone that India does not use multiple choice. No wonder they didn't get it. Crazy American girl- what do you mean "A, B or C?"


Something unsettling about India is that it's making my hair fall out. Yep. You read it right. I guess it's not an unusual problem cuz of the water, but I am upset about it. Too much hair is in my hand when I finish combing my hair. I may laugh about this someday with a full ponytail, but I am ready to weep over it now. It's not showing yet, but this is awful. I am asking around to see what to do and I'm only washing my hair with filtered water from now on. Someone want to do some research for me? PLEASE? It wasn't falling out at home!!!! Help me! HELP!

I have a guitar. This has been a wonderful thing. It belongs to Maher, and had been sitting unused and dusty. The tabla teacher, Vijay, was kind enough to take it to his music shop and get new strings for it. It isn't the nicest guitar by far, and won't hold it's tuning no matter how I cuss at it, but it's still fantastic. Noone seems to care what sour notes come out of it. I am a rock star here- playing the absolute worst music of my life to the most enthusiastic crowd ever! I have started to teach occasional guitar lessons to a few of the older boys and girls. It doesn't seem to matter that I'm not very good at it. I use it in my English classes sometimes too, as an add in. I taught jingle bells- the song I have learned to love. I have sang it a million times since the holidays. Its so cute to hear them sing about snow and sleighs in their Indian accent. I was going to play for the Christmas program, but.......

On the 22nd, I woke up with a headache and a slight tummy ache. I taught a class even though it felt like a cement mixer had replaced my digestive system. It wasn't that bad then, so I thought I would rest after class. I ate a small breakfast and went to my room to rest a bit. Things went down hill from there. My head ache got worse and my stomach did too. At this point i knew I was sick, but I had no idea how much. One of the staff came to check on me by 3:30 to ask if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I didn't think it was anything other than a flu. In one hour, I was ready to go to the doctor- it progressed into intensive body ache, vomiting, diarrhea, head ache, and an impending sense of doom. The hour plus ride to the hospital could be described as hell. I fought against India's MANY odors and traffic to not vomit and/or the unmentionable. I prayed to God not to have to pull over the car and vomit with my pants down on the side of the road during rush hour. God is great. I made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have an infection in my stomach, most likely due to bad water/food/mysteriousness. I have been careful with water, so who knows? I was in the hospital for 5 or so days! They felt my stomach would riot against the medications I needed, so I was on an IV drip most of that time. It turns out IV's are totally overrated. They aren't great at all- they hurt a lot. My hospital was very nice all except for the fact that my IV did not have wheels, so every time I had to go to the bathroom, I had to be disconnected and reconnected after. This made my veins and wrists huuuuuurt. They switched hands 2 times. I still have sore wrists. The first night in the hospital was horrible and I'll spare you the ooey gooey details. But I was never alone. Sister Lucy did not sleep at all the night, just to make sure I was okay. And Gause (one of the boys who will come to America) slept on the floor all night too. I was thankful and quite horrified that they heard me barf all night.

There were some highlights to my hospital in India Christmas. After the first night, Lucy left and sent a woman named Mangul to look after me. I had met Mangul before at Vatsyladam (one of Maher's homes) where she takes care of elderly patients 7 days a week with a smile on her face. She speaks some English, and however limited, the warmth of her heart is right on her sleeve. She's a stunningly beautiful 27 year old, and I thought of her as my Christmas Angel. She'd bring me anything I needed. She's massage my head when i had a head ache. She even combed my hair ( I stopped fighting her after awhile- "I can do it- no- I can do it- it's okay). The hospital, you see, was a lot of letting it go, just like the rest of my trip here has been. I didn't like that she was missing all the celebrations just for me. I didn't like feeling helpless. Christmas eve I lay asleep gently weeping in frustration over the whole thing. But as I layed there, I thought of people like Mangul, so willing to give without any words of praise. I thought of how great I was in comparison to the people only just outside my hospital. I thought of all the unspoken heroes, the angels, that I were in Maher alone. I felt so grateful and moved. I cried some more for joy, wondering if I'll ever be able to give any of this back.

Another big highlight to the hospital was Indian TV!!!!! How amusing! I got a full education on Hindi films, which are pretty awful by any Americans' standards, I think. Most themes are love, and every damn one is a musical. I liked watching them all the same.I got to watch a few American movies, including (ironically) Slumdog Millionare, Chicago (so much skin!!), and the Accidental Bride. I also really enjoyed the commercials. Highlights: Dominos pizza had a pizza with a strange cream sauce but no tomato sauce, a diaper called "MAMMY NOKO PANTS" and a pad commercial that at the end says "Have a happy period!" I did also read a few books, and I had a lot of visitors. Oh!!!! there was a news story that showed footage of a tiger that tackled a guy!!!! Holy crap!!!! Not a local story, in case you were wondering.

I'm out of the hospital and recovering slowly. I am scared of eating anything that isn't bland. I feel okay except that my strength hasn't returned yet. Glad that tiger isn't around here. I am taking extra care of myself so that I will be well enough to go on a trip to Karola in a few days for a wedding and sight seeing. Karola is supposed to be very beautiful and I just love traveling in India.

I'm sure there's more but I am out of time. Love everyone and Happy new year!!!!!! The essence of violets thing in the title was from a band I was in "The Timid Mergers Apathetic Warriors and the Essence of Violets". I just really like "the essence of violets" and it's my blog.