We've Made It!

And here I sit in a very small, dark, cool, dirty internet room, with loud Indian music playing and a smell I can't quite identifiy. I'll be writing quickly, with no editing, so this is just what's rollin' out at the moment.

After the longest 53 hours of travel EVER, we arrived in Chennai late last night. We had stop overs in both Hong Kong and Singapore, neither of which felt all that different from "airport anywhere". All the same ads, stores, models, and off course the first thing we saw in Hong Kong was Starbucks (literally). We had 9 hours to spend in Singapore, so we took a city bus tour, a ride on the riverboat, and spent time in a gym (complete with treadmill and showers!) I was hoping some exercise would help with the fact that my feet and ankles have swollen in such a way that I don't recognize myself from the knee down. (they actually look like marshmellows stuffed into my chocos, marshmellows....hummmm) I know thats my toe ring, but those are NOT my toes. (speaking of which, people here are fascinated with my flowery toenails, they got quite a bit of attentiton at breakfast)

Stepping out of the airport here in India was an entirely different experience. It was immediate sensory overload. The masses of people, the rush, the push, the men trying to get us to rent their cab. It wasn't long before I realized that the lines on the road dont really mean anything, and that driving here is equal parts sensory experience and visual experience. Most vehicles dont have rear view mirrors, and if they do they are bent in, because the cars drive side by side, and I mean SIDE BY SIDE. There is no space between one car and the next, and mixed in the middle are motorcycles with anywhere between 1 and 5 riders, rickshaws, water trucks, and pedestrians! It is unlike anything I have ever seen (obviously) and quite the experience. Honking is a driving requirement, NOT a frustrated "get out of my way" sort of honk I know from home. This is more like a "I'm here" annoucement. The trucks and ricshaws are painted on the back, "sound horn".

Today we took a Mr. Toads wild ricshaw ride, and wandered through an outdoor marketplace, where walking in the street is much easier than the sorta-sidewalk. I encountered my first interaction with crippled people pulling on me, mothers with babies begging and everyone wanting to sell me evey little thing. It was overwhelming and different and new all at once. Im definitely not all here yet, I'm feeling like I've been transported to some sort of virtual experience of this - I can't really be IN IT!!!

We had dinner in a restaurant with an open deck where I just sat a story above all the chaos and watched for a long, long time. Everyone rushing to get somewhere, the women all BEAUTIFULLY dressed, hair perfect, flowers in their hair and long flowing sari's, on the backs of motorcycles and walking along the filthy crammed streetside. But, the thing that stood out the most to me today is the lack of women! It is by far mostly men. I counted in the airport terminal before we boarded, there were over 100 men, and 10 women. That seems to be the ratio.

After dinner we wandered around the streets, and down an alley that turned into homes off sorts. I was approached by a beautiful little girl who said, "Hi, whats your name". We stopped and visited and instantly there were children everywhere. They wanted to shake our hand and say hello and ask our name. The first girl had the best english, and she kept coaching the others. When Cedric asked a little boy, "how are you?" the big girl punched his arm and said, "say FINE", he turned to Cedric and said "fine". Then they all said, "fine, fine, fine". I could have stayed there all night, but it was clear we had wandered into an area that we had no business, so we quickly wandered out.

I've been having fun keeping a log of the strange billboards and bumper stickers....here are a few:

Stop fiddling with the radio and drive

Sound Horn

Words Kill.....limit cell phone use while driving

Come on, lets speak fluent English

Do not spit in the cabins, it is our humble request (as we entered the internet cafe)

One family, one child

And my favorite...

On the road to safety (this sticker was well placed to take up the top left quarter of the already very small windshield off our ruckshaw, along with mulitiple other stickers) Now how safe is that???

Tomorrow we plan to visit a temple and the burrial place of St. Thomas (doubting Thomas). We will be here a couple days as we are having dinner with someone tomorrow, and meeting with a man who can help connect us with officials in the Southern Villages.

I'm hopeful I'll wake in the morning feeling more like I have arrived.