SHANTI ALUMNUS BLOGS

Fall 2007 SHANTI Semester

Monday, November 26, 2007

Free Travel ahead

So, our blog wasn't what it could have been. That's a real shame because it doesn't sum up all of the incredible-ness that we, as leaders, were privy to - all of the learning moments, the beautiful landscapes, the looks of wonder and peace, the sound - streeeeetch! - of minds expanding, the added scruffiness, the familiarity with new ideas, the comfort in the chaos, the sense of doing something truly worthwhile and the vantagepoint of getting to compare apples to oranges. Don't expect the same person back when they get home. Expect a better, fuller, invigorated version of themselves.

Alas, we've been blown away by our students in every field -- expect for one. The scary of scaries, the frightening blog. I don't understand, but our students are able to throw themselves head-first into sticky transportation scenarios, streets littered with dogs with red powdered dots between the eyes and cows with threatening horns, hoards of Indians seeking alms or offering a rickshaw, finding accommodations for a group of 9, leading group meetings, presenting cultural information, living with host families that neither speak english nor share the same cultural norms, using bathrooms where toilet paper isn't used, being responsible for budgeting for themselves -- in short, the power, flexibility, and maturity of our students is awe-inspiring and impressive, indeed.

Yet there's something about the blog. Out of nowhere, every excuse is thrown in the air -- this has been a real challenge for most. It's treated not as a chore, but as something that is truly beyond their capabilities.

Hence here I am to the rescue with an update. let's see, we had a week retreat at an Ashram and spent the week at what felt to us like a resort -- with three beautiful, fully equipped cottages to share. now we have successfully spent 51 hours straight on one train from northern india to the southern tip, Kerala, where we'll spend our last week in Varkala, Kochi and Goa. In varkala, our bamboo huts are on a cliff looking over the ocean where dolphins pop their fins out to say hello. In the internet cafe, a sign says (punctuation as in original):

"Congratulations to be here @cliff where the steep height is about 100meeter. The Arabian sea kisses down there.

Yuo may see the sea as it shines to fill your heart bright.

You do search for the diving dolphins and sliding ships. In the meanwhile the nature breezes further. The unending charm returns to you."

we're loving it, thanking everyone for our opportunities, still smacking our lips following our touching "family" thanksgiving, and we're not looking forward to leaving our never-never land getaway which has touched us all to the very core. It's been a wild, wild ride and one that will all too soon be finished. look forward to being truly surprised by the insights that have come. In appreciation,

- Nate

 

Ramana's Garden

So we have arrived at our next destination in Rishikesh- A yoga Ashram, which took us about four tries to figure out where to go. Anyway, prior to that we stayed about a week in Ramana's Garden, a children's home and school. Generally when you are with children that long it seems more like an eternity, however to us it seemed like a rather short stay. In fact many of us wanted to stay longer and play further games of hide and seek or crazy piggy back rides. Despite the age of these kids, their intelligence was proven through arts and crafts, such as designing signs and pot holder weaving. As well as having the upper hand over my sad attempt to help with math homework. These Children were so beautiful they lit up that small section of the world, and made it hard to leave without feeling a sense of happiness.Our group got to spend more time hanging by the Ganges River, except with slightly cleaner water to say the least. We got to endure on a pretty extreme rafting trip that definitely involved some man overboard from everyone. It was a thrilling adventure, even though we almost lost some crew members. We also spent some leisure time swimming and mini cliff jumping, which was a nice way to end our stay. Over all we had a great time and are on to our next extravaganza, so peace out!

-- Flo

 

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

in McLeod 9

the cheesiest title ever, but OK. I sit in a small internet cafe in Rishikesh. We have been travelling almost two days and everyone else is clonked out at a comfortable restaurant listening to the Beatles. in a word, we're A ok, doing fine, relaxing after some heavy travel, by Bus, train, rickshaw, pretty much anything you could imagine.Mcloud Ganj was a group favorite, and while there were scattered complaints, it was popular. Most of us spent the days hitting internships or in small groups overlooking the mountains and breathing the ridiculously fresh air.The homestay families treated everyone with courtesy and hospitality.It's pretty humbling being with a family when there is such a big language barrier, but everyone was close knit and happy with dem cribs. I mean we liked it.I'll try to post some pics if i get some time, but there isn't much, we're starting The Trek tomorrow. ok that's it for now, hope all families are doing well. We'll be coming around.

 

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Sorry about the pictures

Sorry if some of the pictures dont show I am trying to figure that out, but it will hopefully be fixed soon. as we say here. Arram Se.

Pictures

Here is the promised pictures...

 

Here is a few of us leaving Bagwara, a village in Ragisatan about an hour out of Jaipur, the capital of the state, coming out and leaving we got an extremely hot, beyond warm welcome from these amazingly caring, loving and chatty hosts.

 

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We were very tired in this picture, and it was a long week, to all strange expressions.

 

here is a picture of one of our absolutely incredible leaders, Dawn.

 

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here we are in Kathratal, walking through the streets on the first day.

She is so much more then back of her head can show.

 

 

here is our other leader the Great Nate, we don't call him that but that can be his assumed title.

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here we are in Kathratal. we were going to the organic farms about 20 minutes away from the village, and this was probably one of the most epic tractor rides any of us had experienced. there was an old tractor that pulled this wooden box with wheels, along a very bumpy road with hoards of children chasing after us. It was amazing, and this picture was actually taken by our host Kansign's son, Rajveer.

 

Here is the amazing Alisha, on the train from jaipur to delhi, or maybe from delhi to gaya, either way we would always find things to do on the train, whether its sleeping, talking, theorizing, reading, meeting new people or just playing around.

 

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That is me trying to imagine Alisha with glasses.

here is a picture of some great kids on the train in to Jaipur, the train was two and a half hours late, so we entertained the kids, or more they entertained us. They taught us how to count to ten, what they want to do when the get older, what they like and don't like. but most of it was lost in translation when we taught them how to play rock, paper, scissors, which they did eventually learn, it only took an hour.

 

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This is I, Ben when we were in Bodhgaya, and this is actually at the Maha Bodhi temple, which is the most holy place in the world for Buddhism, for it is were Buddha attained enlightenment. it was very peaceful, late at night, and covered with bugs, huge bugs, huge swarms of bugs.

 

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Here is a picture of Flo. This was on the return trip to Delhi from Jaipur, were we went to the observatory in Delhi, it was absolutely beautiful. It had the personality of a giant modern art sculpture garden, but it was unbelievable the preciseness of these massive structures. each with little tiny dashes measured to the centimeter; to date and figure alignments of planets and stars, and the daily time. I have no idea what this structure is for but it looked really cool.

 

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Here is Galen in Bagwara, were we met the local ayervedic doctor, and she examined us all, and supposedly were OK. but she was very nice and even though we didnt get an ayervedic massage in Bagwara, It came hidden in a package to us all here in Varanasi.

 

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here is a picture of kevin when we first arrived in bagwara, instantly mingling, and having fun as is kevin's style, we soon became accustomed to the tree swing

 

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and here is a picture of Siobhan in Kathratal, we were visiting a home and watching the village way of cooking and farming, the women carry these buckets on there heads, which can weigh up to 20 or 30 pounds, for up to 6 or 7 kilometers and probably for more deeper in the desert.

 

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and here is the charismatic William on our camel ride in to the jungle in Kathratal. He is very excited.

 

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

All of shanti is here with us in varanasi, the holiest city in hinduism, and we just came from the holiest city in Buddhism, Bodhgaya. On behalf of all of shanti we apologize for not getting our posts up sooner, India is how you say ... incredible, and very busy. Our first two villges in Rajistan, Bagwara, and Katrathal were very busy, time was never wasted, either going in the farms, playing village games, taking pictures and playing with kids, studying psuedo-hindi, we were full. Then returning to delhi after two weeks felt like returning to a long lost home, for any place we can recognize forms a home in our hearts.

In Bodhgaya we stayed at The Roots Institute, buddhist retreat, and all took a four day vow of silence, and learned meditation, and the history and nature of buddhism from a wonderful set of Buddhists. Our teacher a very jolly and funny, monk The Venerable Naggyel, is a canadian who has lived in india for the past twenty years, was a very good teacher and a great companion. We tried to take him with us to Varanasi, but his boss was against the idea. our other teacher, Frank, a very modest director of the program which has its own hospital, for the surronding villages. the area around gaya, is extremely poor, and many of the villages are no were near the level of sustainability by there selves, so Roots, is trying to train doctors, midwives teachers, and the community about health and sanitation, to allow the villages to prosper. We went to the glorious bodhi tree, an amazing Gompa (Huge mediation hall) for the karmamapa, which had some of the most amazing art any of us had seen, it was absolutly beautiful. And they had peanut butter, and fruit, which was such a relief. The food all over india has truly reached between the grades of great and Really Great. Meditation proved much moer difficult then many of us could have percieved, and we are continuing to learn as many arts of the east as we can.

 

I will post more pictures of all of us and videos, from india.

Ben, and the rest of shanti.

 

 

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Blogging from 120km south of Jaipur

Namaste family and friends!

 

Nate and Dawn here with our first blog update. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) we have been far from internet and so it's hard to say all that we've seen in the past two weeks. They have been filled with adventure, excitement, confusion, tastes, smells, sights, rides, temples, village games, crafts, hindi classes, home stays, but the most interesting have been our interactions with villagers in the towns of Bagwara and Katrathal who have never met anyone from America before. In these small villages, they are learning as much about us as we are gleaming from them.

Indians have welcomed us to their villages and we have experienced over-the-top Indian hospitality which includes three meals of chapatis, curries, vegetables, pulses, scooping them up with our hands, but somehow never repeating a dish. Our boys and girls alike sporting henna-tattoos, our girls dressed in saris by families, we blurred (unsuccessfully) into the crowd on auspicious temple gatherings. Not everyone in the village knows our purpose, and we have been subjected to intense stares and crowds of followers, especially the cutest children. We've gotten down and dirty in the mud playing Kabadhi and Satolia -- village games, and learning about the organic farming initiatives in the area.

It has been a privilege and a great responsibility giving so many their first impression of Americans, in person. We as leaders are proud as can be of our group and of each student individually. Everyone has stepped up to every challenge and showed moment after moment that they are excited to be here, glad they came and deepening their understanding. We could not be more in awe of our awesome globe-trotters!

You'll be hearing from the students' voices on this blog soon. Namaskar!