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Other entries in Kollam

Exploring

Hey Dad,
Sounds like you have the "beginning of the school year" blues. Things here in
India are slow and I have not began teaching yet but I have been able to keep
myself busy with things. Sean the American guy staying at my school, and the
only person in the area with fluent english, has left so I am now on my own.
Despite this I am beginning to travel on my own to nearby towns and such, I
am starting small so today I went to Sachtangoata(i can bearly say it, forget
the spelling) which is a small Red Lake sized town. It was a bit of a
challenge, if you pernounce the name of the city or town wrong  when asking
for the bus people will just stare at you or start laughing, so it took a
little trial and error. This is especially hard because of the Indian
people's ubsession with multiple sylables, when looking at a map(which are
extremely rare in India by the way) me and some of my travelling companions
spotted a town with 11 sylables. To make things even worse Kerela has a nasty
habbit of refering to towns by 2 or 3 different names. Supposedly when the
towns were originally built back in the day they were all named in Hindi.
Currently South India's main language is Malaylin and using Hindi is verging
on offensive. As a result every major city has been renamed with a Malaylin
name. So every city has an old name and a new name which are both commonly
used, and if that is not enough the official names some times differ from
what the locals call it, they are also sometimes refered to under english
names. Over all travelling is a difficult task. There are no maps available
anywhere(both me and sean looked), train scheduals are hard to come by, and
as for the busses everything is by word of mouth, bus scheduals do not exist.
It has deffinatley been an experiance but i am not discoraged. On monday I am
going on my first long trip to cochin, an ocean side city which is 4 - 5
hours away, (but only 200 km to put travelling in India into perspective). I
am going to meet someother Canadian and British Gap members there, and from
there we will likely see some temples and the back waters of Kerela. Mom
should not worry though, I am communicating with the school and telling them
where I am going and when they should expect me back. The Onam festival is
also approaching so when I get back I should see some excellent Elephant
Parades....Yep so that is what I have been up to. Adapting to the culture is
slow and painful but I am beginning to get my head around a lot of it. I eat
with my hands, wear Lungdi's (essencially dresses for men), and am starting
to understand the geography of the area, I think I will continue the north
american tradition of using toilet paper however. To answer some of your
questions computers are accesible here but not easily. There are 3 internet
cafes within walking distance of my school, two of them never have internet,
the one which does have it has three computers and they all run off of one
dial up modem. Power outs are also common. This can be very frustrating but I
am keeping a humoured aditude to all of it, and on the plus side it is dirt
cheap, 25 rupees for an hour (a fraction of a dollar). As for the heat, it is
hot here
but I have caught the tail end of the rainy season so the temperatures are
bearable. The fresh water bugs have hit a couple of people I know but so far
I have gotten away without getting sick. There is also a water filter nearby
so almost all the water is completely safe. Speaking of the water filter,
that brings up a funny story, Indians are crazy about ringtones and
everything you can imagine has a little electronic tune play when it is
operating. Phones, Large Trucks when they are backing up, and yes my water
filter. When the filter is turned on it plays a repeditive little jingle
while the water is being poured which is amuzing at first but gets annoying
since the machine is slow and takes about 2 minutes to fill up a water bottle
( sorry if i have told you this story already, i have written so many emails
i am forgetting what I tell who). Ok back on topic, I have to leave soon so
I'll wrap up quick and answer all your qustions. Food is excellent and I am
completely adapted to it now, Temperature is good, and at time being I am
healthy. It is good hearing from you again, tell Kaila and Mom I say hello,
and I will talk to you soon.
-Adam

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