Mara and Kara and the Tamil Boyfriends
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Dr. Thomas finally granted us an audience last Sunday and we were able to have our first real lesson with him. Monday was a very agreeable day at school; we love our schedule for that day. We think sixth standard might be slightly obsessed with us, but they’re still a lot of fun. We have a standing appointment every Monday during eighth period to play soccer with them, and we haven’t missed one yet. Also, we may have discovered why so many teachers have been absent and why the kids sometimes act like they are absolutely insane. The actual principal has been in America for three months visiting his daughter, and he finally came back on Monday. We were amazed how, when under his supervision, the kids nicely filed out of morning assembly instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off (oh that reminds us of the chicken park… good times) and how quiet it actually is in class. Though the quietness could be attributed to it being mid-terms and everyone is trying to do some last minute studying.
Wednesday we went to Santa Maria Public School again. We toured the school and stopped at each classroom to be serenaded by the children and we may have contributed a song or two of our own, much to Kara’s distaste. Then we taught a workshop on how to make roses and sunflowers out of homemade playdough. We were surprised to notice major differences between this public school and the MMM public school. But apparently in India ‘public’ means ‘private,’ and ‘state’ means ‘public.’ We found out later that the students at the MMM school pay considerably lower tuition than the Santa Maria kids, whose tuition is most likely spent on an overabundance of craft supplies.
On Thursday we went to Kottayam for lessons with the professors. At some point during the morning, Mara discovered that her shirt was inside out and rashly decided that the ideal place and time for a quick change was in the corner of Dr. Thomas’ office while we were waiting for him to return. Luckily, this situation did not end nearly as bad as it could have. Later, on our way home, Jose pulled the car over and jumped out to get us a small lunch from a roadside stand. He then proceeded to throw the trash out the window when he thought we weren’t looking. Friday in the hospital was spent counting down the minutes until we would be leaving for Munnar.
We left the house around 1:30 on Saturday morning. We knew it was going to be a good trip when our driver Kochiman put in Boney M’s Christmas album. We believe the exact moment of realization was during ‘Feliz Navidad.’ We stopped for refreshments and freaked out some innocent bystanders on the side of the road, because for some reason there’s a guy who brews coffee and tea over a fire at 3 in the morning, and that’s where everyone hangs out in the middle of the night.
We pulled over at some point and slept because Kochiman was tired. Oh wait, everyone slept besides Mara, who played Game-Boy and listened to Kochiman talk in his sleep. She wishes she could understand what he was saying, but unfortunately it was in Malayalam. After rising and continuing on our way, we stopped by a small rest stop for some more coffee and tea. Kara had the choice between ‘Indian style’ and ‘Western style’ bathrooms. While in the bathroom (the western style one), Mara chose to lie deceptively close to the edge of the cliff, and Sunny, Kochiman, and the owner of the stop all reacted rather strongly. Also, Gracie made Kara climb over a fence to steal cardamom. Gracie is proving to be a bad influence in certain areas.
We arrived in Munnar around eight. The first hotel we stopped at Sunny and Kochiman went in to check for a room. On coming out, Sunny informed us, “They have rooms available, but they saw you.” This is referring to the fact that Indian people charge white people double or triple the amount they would normally charge. Don’t they know we’re only poor college students? We hid on the floor of the car to avoid further problems, and managed to book a hotel for a reasonable price. HOWEVER, we remain fairly certain (despite reassurance from Sunny and Gracie) that Kochiman slept in the back of his car. We’re not exactly sure why this would have happened. Theories abound.
We went up to our room to change, and when we met back in the lobby both Sunny and Gracie were actually wearing pants. Will wonders never cease? Not to give the impression that they never have anything on their legs, but normally Sunny wears a dhoti, and Gracie a sari.
We went to breakfast where we desperately tried to eat as fast as everyone else in India does. We are also very jealous of the ability of Indians to drink the scalding hot water, tea and coffee that are served with every meal. Kochiman is especially adept at downing his in less than five seconds without a trace of discomfort or pain. We went to the tea museum next, which was really cool because we knew nothing about tea and now we know slightly more. We watched a thirty minute movie about the history of Munnar and its tea plantations, which opened with a disclaimer saying, “The scenes presented do not represent real situations or characters.” This movie also featured highlights from the Amelie soundtrack. Copyright lawsuit pending. Then, we toured the factory, where an employee took an unusually personal interest in us and walked us through each step of the CTC oxidization process. Our tour ended with a free cup of tea served in paper cups. It was all we could do to keep these paper cups off the ground once their purpose was served. Indeed, we were not able to stop Sunny from pitching his over the side of the nearest cliff. Epic Fail.
After lunch, we took a scenic drive through the mountains to a place called Echo Point. On the way, we got some shopping done at the multiple stalls that lined certain parts of the road. Upon reaching Echo Point, we were only able to enjoy the scenery for a few minutes before people realized there were two white girls there. Why, in a tourist area, are we still such a spectacle you ask? Because most of the other tourists are Indian. Many are from areas which don’t get a lot of tourism, and therefore, white people. One mom and her three daughters came up to take a picture with us, and then it was like trying to stop an avalanche. A group of teenage boys from Tamil Nadu (a poorer state to the east of Kerala) surrounded us to get pictures, which wouldn’t have been a problem if they had stuck to the normal ‘taking a picture with strangers’ protocol and left their hands at their sides instead of creeping them up our hips, our backs and into our hair. Even after we thought we had escaped by grabbing Gracie’s hand and running, they found us and one of the boys shoved a pair of earrings into Mara’s hand. A decidedly appropriate Valentine’s Day gift. Rain prevented us from going to see the “Tall Firs of Munnar.” That’s right, pine trees are a novelty here. Instead we drove around for a while and ended up at a CSI church where Mara almost stepped on the grave of a revered priest (to be perfectly fair, it was in the aisle of the church), and Kochiman almost got the car wedged between the church and a nearby building.
At dinner that night we sat at a table next to some French tourists who were eating delicately with forks and spoons and delighted in showing off our ability to eat with our fingers. We went to bed early that night and we amazed at the fleece blankets on the hotel bed. Kochiman and Sunny purchased fleece hats because they thought it was so cold. For us, however, it felt wonderful.
The next day we got up early and spied to see if Kochiman was in the car. We were unable to make a confirmation. After breakfast we took a scenic route to Thekkady. Mara discovered a hole in the armpit of her shirt and did an encore of her shirt change performance from Dr. Thomas’s office, only this time in between the rows of a tea plantation. Upon arriving in Thekkady, we discovered we couldn’t visit the Periyar Wildlife Reserve as there had been a boating accident the previous day. However, we got a lot of shopping done, purchasing cinnamon, coffee, cardamom, and cloves. In the evening we went to a Kathakali dance, which is the traditional form of dance in Kerala. It involves elaborate makeup and costumes, but very little props or words. It is danced to drums and a vocalist, and most of the gestures are with the hands and eyes. We entertained Sunny/Gracie/Kochiman by pretending to be the wild banshee characters from the dance afterwards. This was just messing up our hair, putting some of it into our mouths, and then screaming. Really, you’ll just have to see the pictures. After dinner, in which we got our hands on some chocolate ice cream, we headed for home. In the car, we listened to Boney M, Shakira, and a ‘Burn It Up’ hip hop mix. These CDs were repeated enough that Kochiman and even Gracie could sing along with Britney Spear’s “Gimme More.” Also, the later it got, the louder Kochiman liked the music. So, by the end of the night, we were singing at the top of our lungs “Whenever/Wherever/We’re meant to be together.” We ended up getting home around midnight, and we were very tired but agree that we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend.
Little Adventures:
-When Mara was walking around barefoot in Munnar, Gracie told her to “put those shoes back on your ugly white legs.” Gracie now denies this exchange ever happened.
-On the way to Thekkady, we stopped to observe the picking of pepper, and ended up receiving a few handfuls, along with a flower for Kara’s hair and a few cuttings for Gracie. People were just really excited to see us, besides maybe the motorcycle man who just laughed at us the entire time.
-Sunny kept getting phone calls during the weekend, and to protect his house told everyone he was in Kottayam. For two days straight.
-Waiters in restaurants physically fought over who would get to serve us.
-Gracie and Sunny discussed the possibility of putting ads in the Malayalam Manorama to find us good husbands. We think that they are merely joking, but one can’t be sure.
-Kara was forced to leave her business in a restaurant bathroom. Not only would the toilet not flush, she discovered after the fact that half of it* was on the sink corner, so it really wasn’t her fault (*The toilet, not her business).
-“Miss, your flower is very nice. You are very nice also.” - A waiter to Kara.
-Kara: “If that guy doesn’t stop staring at me, I’m going to punch him in the face.”
Mara (hits Kara): “Hey, non-violence!” (We apparently aren’t learning a lot from Dr. Manni…)
-“Are we supposed to put leaves through our bodies?” –Mara
-At a stop on the way home from Munnar, an elderly man approached the car and asked Mara for a pen. Upon receiving this pen, he replied, “Thank you!” and turned to leave. Luckily Kochiman apprehended this pen thief and, in an exchange that we do not fully understand, Gracie gave the man her pen but Kochiman had to prove it worked by writing on something, and the actual presenting of the pen had to be done by Mara.
Wednesday we went to Santa Maria Public School again. We toured the school and stopped at each classroom to be serenaded by the children and we may have contributed a song or two of our own, much to Kara’s distaste. Then we taught a workshop on how to make roses and sunflowers out of homemade playdough. We were surprised to notice major differences between this public school and the MMM public school. But apparently in India ‘public’ means ‘private,’ and ‘state’ means ‘public.’ We found out later that the students at the MMM school pay considerably lower tuition than the Santa Maria kids, whose tuition is most likely spent on an overabundance of craft supplies.
On Thursday we went to Kottayam for lessons with the professors. At some point during the morning, Mara discovered that her shirt was inside out and rashly decided that the ideal place and time for a quick change was in the corner of Dr. Thomas’ office while we were waiting for him to return. Luckily, this situation did not end nearly as bad as it could have. Later, on our way home, Jose pulled the car over and jumped out to get us a small lunch from a roadside stand. He then proceeded to throw the trash out the window when he thought we weren’t looking. Friday in the hospital was spent counting down the minutes until we would be leaving for Munnar.
We left the house around 1:30 on Saturday morning. We knew it was going to be a good trip when our driver Kochiman put in Boney M’s Christmas album. We believe the exact moment of realization was during ‘Feliz Navidad.’ We stopped for refreshments and freaked out some innocent bystanders on the side of the road, because for some reason there’s a guy who brews coffee and tea over a fire at 3 in the morning, and that’s where everyone hangs out in the middle of the night.
We pulled over at some point and slept because Kochiman was tired. Oh wait, everyone slept besides Mara, who played Game-Boy and listened to Kochiman talk in his sleep. She wishes she could understand what he was saying, but unfortunately it was in Malayalam. After rising and continuing on our way, we stopped by a small rest stop for some more coffee and tea. Kara had the choice between ‘Indian style’ and ‘Western style’ bathrooms. While in the bathroom (the western style one), Mara chose to lie deceptively close to the edge of the cliff, and Sunny, Kochiman, and the owner of the stop all reacted rather strongly. Also, Gracie made Kara climb over a fence to steal cardamom. Gracie is proving to be a bad influence in certain areas.
We arrived in Munnar around eight. The first hotel we stopped at Sunny and Kochiman went in to check for a room. On coming out, Sunny informed us, “They have rooms available, but they saw you.” This is referring to the fact that Indian people charge white people double or triple the amount they would normally charge. Don’t they know we’re only poor college students? We hid on the floor of the car to avoid further problems, and managed to book a hotel for a reasonable price. HOWEVER, we remain fairly certain (despite reassurance from Sunny and Gracie) that Kochiman slept in the back of his car. We’re not exactly sure why this would have happened. Theories abound.
We went up to our room to change, and when we met back in the lobby both Sunny and Gracie were actually wearing pants. Will wonders never cease? Not to give the impression that they never have anything on their legs, but normally Sunny wears a dhoti, and Gracie a sari.
We went to breakfast where we desperately tried to eat as fast as everyone else in India does. We are also very jealous of the ability of Indians to drink the scalding hot water, tea and coffee that are served with every meal. Kochiman is especially adept at downing his in less than five seconds without a trace of discomfort or pain. We went to the tea museum next, which was really cool because we knew nothing about tea and now we know slightly more. We watched a thirty minute movie about the history of Munnar and its tea plantations, which opened with a disclaimer saying, “The scenes presented do not represent real situations or characters.” This movie also featured highlights from the Amelie soundtrack. Copyright lawsuit pending. Then, we toured the factory, where an employee took an unusually personal interest in us and walked us through each step of the CTC oxidization process. Our tour ended with a free cup of tea served in paper cups. It was all we could do to keep these paper cups off the ground once their purpose was served. Indeed, we were not able to stop Sunny from pitching his over the side of the nearest cliff. Epic Fail.
After lunch, we took a scenic drive through the mountains to a place called Echo Point. On the way, we got some shopping done at the multiple stalls that lined certain parts of the road. Upon reaching Echo Point, we were only able to enjoy the scenery for a few minutes before people realized there were two white girls there. Why, in a tourist area, are we still such a spectacle you ask? Because most of the other tourists are Indian. Many are from areas which don’t get a lot of tourism, and therefore, white people. One mom and her three daughters came up to take a picture with us, and then it was like trying to stop an avalanche. A group of teenage boys from Tamil Nadu (a poorer state to the east of Kerala) surrounded us to get pictures, which wouldn’t have been a problem if they had stuck to the normal ‘taking a picture with strangers’ protocol and left their hands at their sides instead of creeping them up our hips, our backs and into our hair. Even after we thought we had escaped by grabbing Gracie’s hand and running, they found us and one of the boys shoved a pair of earrings into Mara’s hand. A decidedly appropriate Valentine’s Day gift. Rain prevented us from going to see the “Tall Firs of Munnar.” That’s right, pine trees are a novelty here. Instead we drove around for a while and ended up at a CSI church where Mara almost stepped on the grave of a revered priest (to be perfectly fair, it was in the aisle of the church), and Kochiman almost got the car wedged between the church and a nearby building.
At dinner that night we sat at a table next to some French tourists who were eating delicately with forks and spoons and delighted in showing off our ability to eat with our fingers. We went to bed early that night and we amazed at the fleece blankets on the hotel bed. Kochiman and Sunny purchased fleece hats because they thought it was so cold. For us, however, it felt wonderful.
The next day we got up early and spied to see if Kochiman was in the car. We were unable to make a confirmation. After breakfast we took a scenic route to Thekkady. Mara discovered a hole in the armpit of her shirt and did an encore of her shirt change performance from Dr. Thomas’s office, only this time in between the rows of a tea plantation. Upon arriving in Thekkady, we discovered we couldn’t visit the Periyar Wildlife Reserve as there had been a boating accident the previous day. However, we got a lot of shopping done, purchasing cinnamon, coffee, cardamom, and cloves. In the evening we went to a Kathakali dance, which is the traditional form of dance in Kerala. It involves elaborate makeup and costumes, but very little props or words. It is danced to drums and a vocalist, and most of the gestures are with the hands and eyes. We entertained Sunny/Gracie/Kochiman by pretending to be the wild banshee characters from the dance afterwards. This was just messing up our hair, putting some of it into our mouths, and then screaming. Really, you’ll just have to see the pictures. After dinner, in which we got our hands on some chocolate ice cream, we headed for home. In the car, we listened to Boney M, Shakira, and a ‘Burn It Up’ hip hop mix. These CDs were repeated enough that Kochiman and even Gracie could sing along with Britney Spear’s “Gimme More.” Also, the later it got, the louder Kochiman liked the music. So, by the end of the night, we were singing at the top of our lungs “Whenever/Wherever/We’re meant to be together.” We ended up getting home around midnight, and we were very tired but agree that we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend.
Little Adventures:
-When Mara was walking around barefoot in Munnar, Gracie told her to “put those shoes back on your ugly white legs.” Gracie now denies this exchange ever happened.
-On the way to Thekkady, we stopped to observe the picking of pepper, and ended up receiving a few handfuls, along with a flower for Kara’s hair and a few cuttings for Gracie. People were just really excited to see us, besides maybe the motorcycle man who just laughed at us the entire time.
-Sunny kept getting phone calls during the weekend, and to protect his house told everyone he was in Kottayam. For two days straight.
-Waiters in restaurants physically fought over who would get to serve us.
-Gracie and Sunny discussed the possibility of putting ads in the Malayalam Manorama to find us good husbands. We think that they are merely joking, but one can’t be sure.
-Kara was forced to leave her business in a restaurant bathroom. Not only would the toilet not flush, she discovered after the fact that half of it* was on the sink corner, so it really wasn’t her fault (*The toilet, not her business).
-“Miss, your flower is very nice. You are very nice also.” - A waiter to Kara.
-Kara: “If that guy doesn’t stop staring at me, I’m going to punch him in the face.”
Mara (hits Kara): “Hey, non-violence!” (We apparently aren’t learning a lot from Dr. Manni…)
-“Are we supposed to put leaves through our bodies?” –Mara
-At a stop on the way home from Munnar, an elderly man approached the car and asked Mara for a pen. Upon receiving this pen, he replied, “Thank you!” and turned to leave. Luckily Kochiman apprehended this pen thief and, in an exchange that we do not fully understand, Gracie gave the man her pen but Kochiman had to prove it worked by writing on something, and the actual presenting of the pen had to be done by Mara.
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