Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
How do you explain American School Gun Violence abroad?
Karly and I were a paired together for our host community stay in Bangalore, India and we were excellent compliments to each other. Karly had never left North America making India her first country off the continent. I have traveled many places in Europe, Africa, and Asia so I am familiar with some of the intimacies of traveling. Karly also had more teaching experience and is continuing on to get her PhD next year while I am still more or less at the beginning of my career. I live in a big city while she lives in a small town. When one of us answered a question about the American education system often the other could elaborate more regarding the rural/city American setting regarding how they were similar or different. It was a joy to paired with Karly! We even shared the same hotel room in Bangalore. As we got to know each other, our experience of school gun violence we found wassomething we unfortunately had in common.
Karly teaches in rural Ohio in a small town community that is plagued with a generational opioid crisis which is unfortunately becoming more and more common in the USA. She is an amazing educator full of energy, life, and motivation - she is one of the most positive people I have been around. She was selected by the State of Ohio to meet President Obama for a teacher appreciation luncheon, which she originally thought was a joke her faculty was playing on her. Her life as a teacher is full of challenges that come with generational addiction and poverty. She would sometimes talk about how once a student brought a gun to school and it wasn’t confiscated till lunch because the other kids were too afraid to report before then (they all knew he had it because he was showing it off on the bus). She taught that student 2nd period and she had a one on one conversation with him about how he seemed more agitated that day, having no idea he had the gun on him. Could she have lost her life that day? She didn’t - which we are all thankful for, but the memory is forever imprinted on her.
As for myself, I grew up in a small town that also has a drug problem although probably not as extreme as her situation. I also am unfortunately very familiar with gun violence in America as in my same hometown my elementary school bus was the first transportation responder to a school shooting that killed 3 students and a teacher. My elementary school was closest so I suppose that’s why it happened that way. I was in 2nd grade in the first seat of the bus. We were told by our principal that “something horrible happened at Frontier and the buses would be delayed and go a different route.” That route was to the middle school - I didn’t know any other information but what seemed like millions of 12 and 13 year olds boarded the bus all of them sobbing. One Hispanic girl in particular stood out to me as she was sobbing more extreme than the rest. I had never seen a Hispanic girl cry - they in my 2nd grader mind were always the toughest and that’s how I knew things were serious. I don’t remember anything else of that day - I think my aunt from Oregon maybe called and talked to me. The next memory I had was going to church and learning one of the girls who was murdered belonged to our congregation and they had her picture everywhere. I felt incredibly guilty for not knowing her. To this day I am not even sure I remember it all correctly as it was very confusing for me at the time.
Conversations of gun violence in America come up a lot when I have traveled abroad, and India is not excluded from this. It’s a tricky thing to communicate because for both Karly and I it is deeply personal. A large part of America loves their guns over the greater good of the public safety. America is an individualistic society.... it’s more important for some Americans to have rights to own guns than to protect students and teachers or the public in general. I don’t mean to make this political (I can hear the guns rights people countering with all the arguments American people who follow this topic are all too familiar with). But what I am talking about is how in the world does one communicate the uniqueness of American school gun violence to foreigners who do not have this problem.
Imagine you live in a country where most of the people have never been to the USA but the breaking headlines of American news that reaches you are stories of school shootings. You would be curious! And if an American has come all this way to see you, you can ask them all the questions on said topic pretty much as much as you want. Often the solutions they ask about are very reasonable, but I have to give answers like “well it’s not that easy because some people just really really love their guns.” This always floors them... and they ask about x, y, or z and if the American people think about the humanity of others... and I have say things like “well yes we think about humanity up to an extent... but not everyone agrees.” They say “but your children are dying.” I say “I know.” They say, “so why doesn’t society fix it?” And I say “I think American society doesn’t care enough. America does not value community the same way India does.” This answer seems to satisfy their questions, and I am left wondering to myself is that true?
Does American society just not care enough about our communities? I’m afraid I might think the answer is yes.
Monday, July 29, 2019
Horizontal Bamboo Ladders and Saffron Scarfs
Drinking a mango-coconut Lassi at Blue Lassi Shop, the last stop on our food tour, I feel very at peace. Its a little after 7pm and dark, the air is saturated with water and I’m still sweating from every pour in my body. But I’m sitting, there’s a fan above me, and I have a direct view of the narrow street in front of me. Sipping on the yogurt drink a solo Indian woman in a bright green and pink saree sits next to me and we exchange brief hellos. I’m curious about her because nearly everywhere I have been in Varanasi there has not been a single Indian woman in the space more or less a group of them - even though I do see them on the street. Where do all the Indian women go, I wonder to myself all the time. What is her story? Is a funeral of her loved one taking place at the river below? Women are not allowed to be at the funeral or the cremation site because “no crying or sadness is allowed” I am told by my guide earlier in the week. Maybe that’s her story, maybe it isn’t. I’ll never know because I didn’t know how to ask.
The Lassi Shop worker is sitting in the open air window reading a newspaper seemingly oblivious to the world around him. My guide is sitting in the corner playing a video game on his phone since he’s fasting on Mondays this month for the festival of Lord Shiva. He’s been a trooper putting up with me the past several days as I have asked many many questions. He’s only 22 and has a keen eye for fashion and is especially proud of his ray-bans. He wants to open a school for underprivileged kids when he saves enough money or maybe a street food restaurant safe for foreigners on the Assi Ghat. We both notice the same bizarre things on the street and then notice each other noticing the same thing so its been an unusual but fun bond. I personally find this validating because if I can notice what the Indians also think is bizarre, but other westerns don’t catch it, it must mean I have to some degree assimilated a little to being here. Or at least I like to flatter myself and think so.
I notice what appears to be either mug shots or old passport photos all over the sitting area of Blue Lassi and I’m wondering how in the world they have the acquired so many of the same kind of photo from so many different western people. My guide notices me noticing and says “Oh those are the pictures of the people who do not pay.” We both laugh, but he tells me I can leave a picture too if I want and goes back to playing his video game.
I don’t know which happened first if I saw it or I heard it, but retrospectively I think I must have heard it first but did not register in my brain what it meant until I saw it. It started with a bell - like most things related to Hindu spirituality and then some chanting. The next thing I know I am seeing men carrying a horizontal bamboo ladder topped with saffron scarfs and marigold and various flower garlands. Then I see it, the outline of a head and the nose under the scarf, a body has just passed the Lassi Shop on the way to a funeral and then cremation at the Ganges River. A procession of about 6 men related to the body follows and after that, honest to god, a cow as if it wanted to be part of the ritual too.
I am completely floored by this. Even though I have been to the cremation sites and felt the heat of a fire at a cremation on my skin and have learned about the rituals and logically have some kind of understanding about them, the intensity of it is still so new and unexpectedly surprising for me. Like logically in my head I knew that they carried the body through the city to the river. I had seen them do this from the river... but up until that point I had not seen it happen in the city proper itself. I look around the Lassi Shop, the worker is still reading his newspaper and didn’t even look up even though the body literally passed in front of him in less than 3 feet, my guide is still playing his video game, the woman continued staring out the window as if nothing happened, and my travel partner completely missed it (first access to WiFi in a while). How can everyone here be so incredibly causal about death I find myself thinking? The reality is actually the opposite I would argue, everyone here is deeply connected with realty of death and the rebirth of life. It is a mind blowing thing for a Westerner to wrap their head around - I’m still working it out in my head.
I keep sipping my Lassi. By the time I finish, I have seen 4 bodies on their way to the Ganges to be reborn. The first one was medium sized, the second was large, the third was really really small but I don’t think it was a child, and the fourth medium. How weird is it that after someone is dead and gone we still have the body, the most physical form of a person left, and just from that, the physical outline of their body wrapped in saffron, on some level represents to a degree how they lived? Its a weird thought - I don’t know a thing about any of those people, but I could see the outline of the body and it seemed to say so much for so little.
The Lassi Shop worker is sitting in the open air window reading a newspaper seemingly oblivious to the world around him. My guide is sitting in the corner playing a video game on his phone since he’s fasting on Mondays this month for the festival of Lord Shiva. He’s been a trooper putting up with me the past several days as I have asked many many questions. He’s only 22 and has a keen eye for fashion and is especially proud of his ray-bans. He wants to open a school for underprivileged kids when he saves enough money or maybe a street food restaurant safe for foreigners on the Assi Ghat. We both notice the same bizarre things on the street and then notice each other noticing the same thing so its been an unusual but fun bond. I personally find this validating because if I can notice what the Indians also think is bizarre, but other westerns don’t catch it, it must mean I have to some degree assimilated a little to being here. Or at least I like to flatter myself and think so.
I notice what appears to be either mug shots or old passport photos all over the sitting area of Blue Lassi and I’m wondering how in the world they have the acquired so many of the same kind of photo from so many different western people. My guide notices me noticing and says “Oh those are the pictures of the people who do not pay.” We both laugh, but he tells me I can leave a picture too if I want and goes back to playing his video game.
I don’t know which happened first if I saw it or I heard it, but retrospectively I think I must have heard it first but did not register in my brain what it meant until I saw it. It started with a bell - like most things related to Hindu spirituality and then some chanting. The next thing I know I am seeing men carrying a horizontal bamboo ladder topped with saffron scarfs and marigold and various flower garlands. Then I see it, the outline of a head and the nose under the scarf, a body has just passed the Lassi Shop on the way to a funeral and then cremation at the Ganges River. A procession of about 6 men related to the body follows and after that, honest to god, a cow as if it wanted to be part of the ritual too.
I am completely floored by this. Even though I have been to the cremation sites and felt the heat of a fire at a cremation on my skin and have learned about the rituals and logically have some kind of understanding about them, the intensity of it is still so new and unexpectedly surprising for me. Like logically in my head I knew that they carried the body through the city to the river. I had seen them do this from the river... but up until that point I had not seen it happen in the city proper itself. I look around the Lassi Shop, the worker is still reading his newspaper and didn’t even look up even though the body literally passed in front of him in less than 3 feet, my guide is still playing his video game, the woman continued staring out the window as if nothing happened, and my travel partner completely missed it (first access to WiFi in a while). How can everyone here be so incredibly causal about death I find myself thinking? The reality is actually the opposite I would argue, everyone here is deeply connected with realty of death and the rebirth of life. It is a mind blowing thing for a Westerner to wrap their head around - I’m still working it out in my head.
I keep sipping my Lassi. By the time I finish, I have seen 4 bodies on their way to the Ganges to be reborn. The first one was medium sized, the second was large, the third was really really small but I don’t think it was a child, and the fourth medium. How weird is it that after someone is dead and gone we still have the body, the most physical form of a person left, and just from that, the physical outline of their body wrapped in saffron, on some level represents to a degree how they lived? Its a weird thought - I don’t know a thing about any of those people, but I could see the outline of the body and it seemed to say so much for so little.
Varanasi - The Most Extreme Indian Culture Shock
Varanasi -
Wow what a city. The oldest city in the world. The most spiritual city for Hindus and Jains located on the Ganges River. Varanasi is the only place the Ganges River flows from South to North. It’s about 15 km away from the place Buddha gave his first sermon and founded Buddhism. Its the official city for Lord Shiva, the God that destroys evil. Known as the City of Light according to the Sanskrit translation of Kashi a previous name of the city. I have never been to a place like it and I love it.
For westerners who have been to India: In my experience being in Varanasi is like taking everything you know about traveling in India times 100. This applies to literally everything from the spirituality, the sanitation, the presence of mindfulness, the Masala chai tea, to so so so many other things. In my experience it is the most extreme of the extremes of India I have been exposed to - from the 80% literacy rate found here to the 70% unemployment to the luxury hotels and malls. The level of extremes in already an extreme country is massively heightened here. And you absolutely must come here if you travel to India - but make it one of your last stops so you are a little more desensitized to some of the normal everyday things here - you will see a lot in this city of what I’ve been calling “peak India.”
For westerners who have not been to India: I have no idea how to explain the experience of being here in a way that will even begin to make sense. It is so completely different from anything I have ever experienced or seen. The closest thing I can think of that will still not do it justice is imagine being in a cattle ranch in all the glory of everything that means (smells, sensations - think about what kinds of things you see, hear and smell) then take that and juxtapose that on top of oldest city you have ever been in - preferable one not in America (because America is not that old). I’m talking so old that the streets do not fit cars and in places only fit the size of a person. Take that and add free range cattle.
I firmly believe that if you have grown up on or around a farm you are probably more prepared to be in this space than a westerner who grew up in a city. I only say this because my travel partner has never lived in the country and the intimacy of being super close to cows all the time in really narrow alleys... can be a lot - especially when the cow is doing its business (which cows do a lot). For me I was like oh yep a cow being a cow in the middle of a busy city with motor bikes honking- seems fairly normal/reasonable. My travel partner maybe had a more difficult time accepting this at first (he has since done much better). Also since there’s no grass in a city I want you to imagine what the cow is eating on a regular basis - you can ask me about that in person.
Wow what a city. The oldest city in the world. The most spiritual city for Hindus and Jains located on the Ganges River. Varanasi is the only place the Ganges River flows from South to North. It’s about 15 km away from the place Buddha gave his first sermon and founded Buddhism. Its the official city for Lord Shiva, the God that destroys evil. Known as the City of Light according to the Sanskrit translation of Kashi a previous name of the city. I have never been to a place like it and I love it.
For westerners who have been to India: In my experience being in Varanasi is like taking everything you know about traveling in India times 100. This applies to literally everything from the spirituality, the sanitation, the presence of mindfulness, the Masala chai tea, to so so so many other things. In my experience it is the most extreme of the extremes of India I have been exposed to - from the 80% literacy rate found here to the 70% unemployment to the luxury hotels and malls. The level of extremes in already an extreme country is massively heightened here. And you absolutely must come here if you travel to India - but make it one of your last stops so you are a little more desensitized to some of the normal everyday things here - you will see a lot in this city of what I’ve been calling “peak India.”
 |
| Boat Ride on the Ganges River - The Holiest River in Hinduism |
Please keep in mind that cows are incredibly sacred here- I cannot stress that enough. Cows represent the mother because when you are born you first drink your mothers milk, and after that you drink the cows milk. Cows are also reincarnated into humans so if you are Hindu you would never EVER think about killing and eating a cow. So, when you are in India, you must accept the cows and I recommend you do. [Fun anecdote: one of my guides in Varanasi would casually pet some of the cows as we walked by them - usually if the cow was in the way he would pet it mostly I think to communicate we are moving by you, but also I think because it was a way of respecting the cow or showing kindness to it.]
Ok so now that you have the idea of what it might kind of feel like - add heat like you have never ever experienced. I’m talking “real feel” of 105 degrees Fahrenheit with 88-97% humidity, which means you are sweating through your shirts at least 3 times a day.
Finally, whatever has been your most spiritual experience in your life - it could be from your own religion, it could be a death of someone close to you, it could be personal moment of enlightenment- whatever that experience is for you, take that moment and times that experience by at least 10. You will have a similar experience in this city not just once but several times. I know it doesn’t make sense - I know it sounds super cliche - but I also believe that’s 100% true. I’m not even Hindu and I’ve had several of these experiences being here. The most intense of which for me was at cremation taking place on the Ganges river. That is why this city is amazing.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)