This is not Stop & Shop

Last night I went to the market with Rakhal for the first time. Wow. It was quite the experience. 

We loaded into the car and made our way to the first stop. Here's where we bought our vegetables. (Rakhal had people to carry it back to the car). Rakhal kept saying "come come" as we scurried from stop to stop. This whole area smelled distinctly of fish. Right next to the vegetables sat a man chopping heads off of very large fish so that explains it. 

Goat head anyone? (Though all they give us here is chicken. Chicken on chicken on chicken).

Which brings me to the next stop. After another 10 minute drive through dark windy streets and a whole lot of people, we made it to another market. (I don't really understand what was wrong with the chickens at the other place but we came here next.)

Ben had gone with Rakhal before and had warned me that you see the chickens die. Apparently the sound is the worst part, he said. I was still completely unprepared. We walked through a small alley and I am not kidding when I say a rat ran past right in front of this chicken coop. 

The man picks the three chickens...ties them together and weighs them. Then see that box to the right? That little box of death. He puts them in there. And that's when I walked away. Rakhal told me to "come come" because he doesn't like watching it either.

I watched Kenneth and Ben watch the chickens...and their final demise. 

After that fairly traumatic experience we got our eggs. 

Then followed Rakhal down the narrow streets to his preferred fruit guy where he bought some lychees and mangos. 

Then another walk in the rain to his rice and noodle guy.

Rakhal then returned to get our fresh chickens and we drove home. Only four of us went to the market and though we were late for dinner, there were still plenty of leftovers for us. Yup....you guessed it...chicken.

Mountains, Caves and Spiders, oh my god.

Oh man. This weekend was exhausting. So many fears and anxieties to conquered/to absolutely knock me out. On Saturday all six of us students and four St. Anthony’s students piled in a small van for a long and bumpy 4 hour mountainous drive to the Bangladesh border. Meghalaya (the name of our Indian state) means land in the clouds and there were many times this weekend when we were literally driving through a giant cloud. I don’t know what I prefer - watching our driver speed along a windy road and watching the borderless edge of the highway and the steep steep drop or watching him drive with only about two feet of visibility. Both are equally exhilarating. 

Those planes over there. That's Bangladesh!

Lots of trucks and rocks on their way
to Bangladesh

Objectively I can tell you it was a really beautiful drive. And the Bangladesh border was definitely cool to see. The Bangladesh border control got a kick out of us and let us come on the other side (and then they took plenty of pictures with us). So I went to Bangladesh (unofficially that is) this weekend so that’s pretty exciting. It was also incredibly hot so I jumped back into the van very quickly (unairconditioned but shade is great anyways). After about a 30 minute break at the border, we loaded back into the van to journey four hours back making a quick stop to eat our packed lunches once we got high enough for the heat to die down a little bit. It took me a while to understand the purpose of our 8 hour journey...pretty sure it was just to say “hey, I’m cool, I’ve seen Bangladesh.” 

We got home at 5:30 and I immediately fell asleep...woke up at 7 for dinner and was back to sleep before 9. I could not at all figure out how I was so incredibly exhausted but in retrospect the anxiety of the mountain roads definitely did me in. I can handle the many near accidents and lack of road rules in Delhi but the height really really kills me. 

So for our second sunday when we traveled a different set of narrow roads to see some waterfalls (this time in a very top-heavy blue school bus...perfect for a speeding driver on sharp turns) I learned that closing my eyes made it a little better. It’s like watching a gory movie and closing your eyes when the surgeon is about to cut into someones brain. Your brain knows that there is still a lot of nastiness on the screen but not being able to see it makes it slightly more bearable. Unfortunately this is a little bit more life threatening than watching a movie but you gotta do what you gotta do. 

We stopped by a coal mine. Check out our totally stable and safe blue school bus. 

Below are some pictures from Cherrapunjee, the rainiest place on earth and a picture of the really cool waterfall you could see from up there which we saw for about 2 minutes before the cloud came. 

We saw a lot of beautiful waterfalls. At one point I stayed a little further from the edge and Jill asked me if I liked mountains. Sure I do. I like looking up at them the way they’re meant to be enjoyed.

We made a pit stop at a cave too. That sounds nice and safe right? Yeah okay this cave walk would never fly in the US. We followed a very slippery and wet path (thank goodness I wasn’t wearing sneakers), we squeezed, crouched and climbed never knowing quite how far this little cave trek was. Oh and there was a bat. That was fun too. But I didn’t turn around (mostly because the path was too narrow to do that) but I did it and I was very proud of myself.

To the left is a picture I took before I had any idea what I was getting myself into. And on the right is a picture of a very unsteady bridge we clamored across. Keep in mind that I was crouching while taking that picture. 

And the cherry on top of this weekend of fear and anxiety? THE GIANT SPIDER I FOUND IN MY ROOM. HOLY S&%T. I was nice and safe in my room, ready to take a shower to wash off the cave water when I see this on the wall. The picture does not do it justice. We are talking about a spider you'd see in a zoo! I wanted to die. Jo took the pictures below, I couldn't even grab a camera. I calmly walked to the house and got Jill to take care of it though no one believed me when I calmly said "please help, the biggest spider I have ever seen in real life is in my room." I didn't completely lose it until Jill tried to catch it under a bowl (which was barely big enough) and it moved so quickly down the wall. Oh man.

This weekend. Oh my god. It's going to take me a while to get over the constant fear of a giant spider in my room. Even typing this I'm shuttering. Gahhhhh. Nightmares forever. 

A Day in the Life

Today marks my fifth full day here in Shillong so I figured it’s about time to explain why I’m here and what I’m doing. The name of my program is “Wooster in Northeast India” and this is the second year a group of Wooster students have ventured to St. Anthony’s College. Rakhal (our guide throughout this trip) is a politics professor here. He lives here with his wife and son. St. Anthony’s is a Catholic college and everyone has been incredible kind to us!

 

The girls and I live in this large building. It’s a “hostel” (basically another word for dorm). Overseen by a very small and sweet woman named Sister Mary. (She really got a kick out of the fact that my name is Molly). To the right is a picture of the house where Jill and the three boys live. This is also where we have all of our meals and where we enjoy wifi...until our 8:30 curfew for us that is....the boys get the TV, the washing machine and the wifi!

My bed! Claire and I share a room. And the picture on the right? Yeah...that's the lobby of the hostel. My room is there on the left. Jesus and Mary are watching us. 

This lovely man cooks us our food! It’s been very good and he usually tries to include at least one spicy dish for those of us who miss the spice! And we get a lot of really delicious fruit (lychees, mangos, papayas, jackfruit, strawberries, and did I mention mangos?...the most delicious mangos!) 

Food time! Here is Claire Jill and Vernon about to enjoy a lovely meal.  

This week has been a full week of classes. Our first class starts at 9:30, we have a tea break, then another class, an hour and a half lunch break, a guest speaker, a second tea break and a fourth class. We get out of class at 5:30. Our teachers are very kind and the subjects are interesting (politics and environmental studies).  But...let’s be honest...that’s a lot of class, especially when you’re in a foreign city you’ll never visit again. I won’t elaborate on my feelings about this just in case someone from the school sees this post. If you are reading this and happen to work for Wooster or St. Anthony’s, class is the best thing ever. 

 

Class and Tea. Life in Shillong. In all seriousness though, Sabrata (Rakhal's wife and one of our teachers here) is really wonderful and teaches a class about the relationship between culture and geography which I love.

We are supposed to have the occasional field trip which will be nice. This week we visited a Sacred Forest which was beautiful and wet. I was also told that leaches are known to fall from the trees and under your clothes. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t completely paranoid the entire time. But it was a beautiful drive through a very lush, green and mountainous part of India! I do love me some good scenic drives. 

We stopped of course for some tea on the way back from the forest. (They really love their tea here). 

Overall, everyone has been really kind to us and we all really appreciate it (Sister Mary just came in to tell me she always has icecream for us!) St. Anthony’s has been lovely and all of our teachers and guest speakers seem very happy to talk to us and teach us and the weather is a really great added bonus. (I comfortably wore jeans and a long sleeved shirt today). Oh and the wifi is very much appreciated. 

Okay! Off to see the Bangladesh border this afternoon! (Yeah I know, my life is pretty cool!) 

Onwards and Upwards

After a short 2 our flight we made it to Guwahati. There was a goat in the airport parking lot. So that's a thing. We squeezed into 2 small cars and made our way past a very different looking India - this time rainy and cloudy and cooler!

We passed more cows, dogs, colorfully painted trucks, lots and lots of people, billboards and I immediately put my seasickness bracelets on as a preemptive measure.                                                            We then stopped at a restauraunt that looked more like it belonged in the swiss alps and served..."Chinise" food? 

After a long and bumpy and terrifying drive we made our way to Siloam - a retreat center for St. Anthony's College by a beautiful lake (which we didn't see until morning). I would have slept on the way but the anxiety of near death experiences kept me awake. You know how that is.

After a very nice dinner at the retreat center we all went to bed (have I mentioned yet how much I miss my nice fluffy bed? Apparently only rock hard beds are acceptable here). The sun rose around 3 and by 5:30 it was shining bright so I went to the patio and soaked in this beautiful view:

It was the only really peaceful and relaxing morning we've had this entire trip. We leisurely woke up, ate our breakfast and went on a nice little group nature walk. Oh. And Jesus was there too (see left).

But you know, I could really get used to this. 

Mom I took this picture in your honor!

The weather was beautiful, the facility was gorgeous and let's be honest, who doesn't need a good path to wholeness every now and then? We boarded the bus, sad to leave but excited to finally feel settled into our new homes in Shillong. It was a beautiful 1,500 ft. climb upward.

We finally made it to Shillong and Kenneth and I tried to wave at every single person we saw. And we took a whole lot of pictures along the way too. Of course. 

 And at last we made it to St. Anthony's College - our new home for the next 15 days.