a smile.

this evening, pete and i went on a walk to deliver a valentines day present to a friend who hates love. on our walks, i often pass by many people without saying a word, i feel very alone in this place – in this world. as we were walking home, i saw an old man who i recognized as a local. he was in the same check out line as me about an hour ago at the grocery store – he had obviously only made it a few blocks since then. his perpetually defeated look seemed justified by his frail state, in my mind. we came to a stop light from different sides at the same time… he had trouble seeing the light, and almost walked into traffic. i considered jetting across the street as i normally would, but instead decided to wait and walk across with him. i could see him watching me for a signal to go. the dog and i slowly walked across the street – i tried a ‘hello’, but to no avail. as he we watched him walk, i noticed a man in a car waiting his turn to go – we were obviously holding him up. but he seemed not to mind. i smiled at him. he smiled back. when we were all safe, he turned the corner, but not before waving at me. it was joy. it was love. it was peace. we are not alone.

‘I used to wonder where you are, these days I can’t find where you’re not’… mewithoutyou

i always thought this was a ‘level’ of spirituality, some goal to attain to consciously. but its quite the contrary. i think its a simple willingness to see. the courage to hope. the security to care. maybe a smile can cure the world?

The End

I guess I never finished off my blog. Japan, Hawaii, and coming home.

Japan ended up being absolutely amazing. I had no idea that I would fall in love with the culture and the people like I did. We arrived the first day in Japan and I had determined to explore the country by myself. I know that I will travel alone eventually and I thought this would be the perfect intro course. So we docked in Kobe Japan and I set out to explore. I had made reservations along the way of where to stay and I hopped on a train to Kyoto. I spent the afternoon getting lost inbetween Kobe and Kyoto, then eventually finding my hostel. It was interesting that I had more difficulty communicating than I would have assumed. That evening three friends decided to stay at the same hostel, so I had dinner with them. The following morning, I left a few of my belongings at the hostel and headed to the main sites. I got on a bus to see a famous temple that is in the running to be on the ‘7 wonders of the world’ list. On my way there I think that I got off at the wrong spot. I walked and walked and walked, up a hill that I thought would never end. It was amazing. When I finally got to the top, I had climbed some stairs into someone’s front yard. I was exhausted and it was just before sunrise, so I sat on the steps to catch my breath. I turned around and looked at the view, I was able to see through the cherry blossoms (as the sun was coming up) into the city. It was an absolutely phenominal moment. I just sat there quitely for about an hour and a half. I pulled out my bible and just hung out. I then spent the rest of the afternoon touring temples, walking through busy streets, going to castles, getting lost, walking alot, eating bizarre foods, and finally ending up at the Kyoto peace museum. There I saw the same friends from the night before and we set out to grab dinner. We ended up in a red light district (of which there are many – love hotels – what a concept!) and had an amazing dinner in some dive bar. We walked around for a while and I went back to the hostel. The next morning I got up early, had breakfast, and got to the train station. I took a train to Osaka and then got lost for a bit before I found my next train to Koya San. I think I was starring at the train that I should have taken, but didnt get on it. However, fate was pretty clear. I got on the train and settled in for the couple hour ride. Right as the train was getting ready to leave, a guy walked by, did a double take, and came in to sit next to me. He came over, introduced himself, and sat down right across from me. In about 5 minutes he told me all about himself, two jobs he was thinking about taking, and his 5 year plan. Oh goodness – the last thing my life needs is a man with a 5 – year plan! He talked and talked and talked, turns out that of all the places in the world, we were both going to the same tiny little monestary village on top of a hill in Japan. We talked for quite a while, got on a second train, then on an incline, and finally a bus to get to Koya San. I had reservations at a monestary, and he decided to come with me. We checked in. Each room was beautiful. There were two areas, with rice paper screen doors seperating them from each other and the central hallway. We had tea then walked around the famous Koya San graveyard where great monks and buddhist leaders are buried. We took photos of everything, it was really refreshing. We walked back to our monestary and had dinner together in his room. We stayed up for hours talking. I then took a bath in the womens public bath – it was amazing. After about 4 hours of sleep, we got up for the 5am prayer service. Half of the room was in a chanting service and the other half performed a fireburning. People wrote their worries and concerns on little sticks that were then burned. I found it very wise to burn the worry itself, not just the act, but your emotion attached to it. Very buddhist. We should all pick up some of the teachings of the buddhists. We hung out for the afternoon and then caught a bus, incline, and two trains back to Osaka. We had sushi and beers in the basement of the train station, then bought tickets and went our seperate ways. I really thought I was going to Koya San to have a great, quite, religious experience. It turned out that I had a perfect encounter with another human being that kind of restored some of my faith in humanity. I like that my expectations were not met, they were exceeded in a great way. I lived – reallyenjoyed life - for that day or so. Maybe being serious is overrated. I took the bullet train to Hiroshima and started another adventure. I bought a cheap ticket and had to sit on the floor of the train for most of the trip, but that was just fine. The trip would have taken about 5 hours on a normal train and was about an hour and a half on the bullet train. The countryside became a blurr of colors all colliding together. I arrived in Hiroshima expecting to find only depressing atomic bomb sites, but the city was one of the best I’ve ever been in. Everything about Hiroshima was beautiful, clean, bright, and welcoming. The tiny streets and large shopping areas were unintimidating and enjoyable. I booked a hostel while I was at the train station then hopped on a subway to get there. I check in and the left and walked around. I explored, had dinner, walked quite a bit, and shopped. Everything in Japan seemed expensive. The costs were probably the same as those in the States, but after our previous experiences it just seemed so expensive. I absolutely loved Hiroshima. I stayed out for quite a while, then grabbed a cab back to my hostel. I wondered why you didnt see cabs everywhere in Japan, and it turns out that people dont take them very often because they are so expensive. I went to sleep that evening on a traditional Japanese bed of cushions. I got up rather early the next morning and left the hostel with a french girl. She was researching in Tokyo and had come down to the south for golden week. We went to a great bakery and then walked over to the a-bomb site. We walked around for a while, then went through the museum. Halfway through the museum we lost each other and I didn’t see her again. I walked the couple of miles to the train station and got on a bullet train back to Kobe. When I finally got back to the ship, I was really sad. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was go home. Japan was beautiful, but it was just leaving Japan that made my sad, the voyage was pretty much over. Our last major country had just ended and our next stop would be US soil. I just wasn’t ready yet. I sat on the top deck of the boat with my laptop. I sat in a deck chair with my feet up on the bannister and just cried for a while. I will go back to Japan. I wasnt able to communicate with the majority of the people, but we still connected. It was beauty. I loved every moment of the country and the people. Everyone was hospitible, polite, respectful, quite and gentle. They were beautiful.

The next few days were a blur. Classes were wrapping up, I wrote papers in mass like I never have before, and I stayed up really late most nights talking with friends that I knew I would miss everyday for the rest of my life. (and i was right) The Ambassadors ball came and went as did papers, tests, and final lectures. The classes I had learned to love, the people I had shared time with, and the experiences I would never forget were quickly becoming memories and no longer reality. We stopped in Hawaii for the day. We walked around, we to popular beaches, ate American food, got really sick from eating greasy food, watched Spiderman 3, drank a couple bottles of wine on the beach, and cried about the finality of it all. We sadly got on the boat for the last time.  The next few days were also a blur. I took my finals and packed up my belongings. Bishop Tutu, the captian, our deans, our favorite professors, and many others made final comments and gave moving speeches. We all knew it was over. A few great emails from a few great friends at home made the bittersweet a little more sweet. The final day came around and we all disembarked. We grabbed our belongings and got off the boat. Noopur, Eric and I met my brother and inundated his car with our luggage. We walked around San Diego with Ryan and found a great little mexican restaurant. We called all of our friends and their families and packed the restaurant with about 30 people. We then went to a Ghiradelli’s for ice cream. This was where the majority of the ‘goodbyes’ occured. I cried for a while, then went home with my brother (who lives in San Diego and is getting his PhD and teaching at UCSD). The next morning I got on a flight to the ‘burgh and that evening I was sitting in Fat Heads - as if nothing had happened.

Asia

Hey – I finally fell really far behind. This email is pretty much most of
Asia, I know it’s a large continent. I’ve been to Malaysia, Vietnam, and China since last writing and I’m now in
Japan. I’m officially on my way home, thank God! It’s been the most amazing experience, but I’m in need of some serious sleep, a long run, and friends and family that I love.

 

Malaysia. I have been really looking forward to certain things in each country, except I knew almost nothing about
Malaysia – so everything was a surprise. I knew all about the history and social workings of the country, but nothing about the people when I arrived. I did quite a few interesting things, I learned how to tap rubber, hung out in a village, met locals, went bowling, ate at a ridiculous and tacky revolving restaurant, and stayed at a couple local hostels. I attached a bunch of photos that will give you a good idea. The first two day I spent in
Penang, a large city that is known as the ‘jewel of the orient’ famous for their technology manufacturing and beautiful vacation resorts. The city was a surprising mix of most Asian cultures. The last two days a friend and I went on an adventure to a village on the north of the island that I had read about in some guide book. It was amazing. We stayed at a hostel and spent the evening sitting at a café in chairs on the sand watching the sunset. The town was very close to some huge resort spots so it had the most incredible night market. We ate na’an and walked around the market. The next morning we had quite a time trying to get back, but eventually made it. The other interesting part of this part was that
Penang doesn’t have the capacity to let large cruise ships dock, so we had to anchor our boat near shore and take lifeboats onto the boat every time we needed to go back to the ship. It was really fun the first time, and became progressively less exciting each time.

 

A few days after leaving
Malaysia, it was Easter. The night before Easter I got invited to be part of the sunrise service that Desmond Tutu was leading. I passed out communion and helped with the service. It was an amazing, powerful experience. At the end we each got a flower and went to the back of the boat to throw it off. It was great. Then that evening we had another service for students, I gave my first real sermon.  

 

The next day we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon),
Vietnam. To get into
Saigon, we sailed through a canal. I got up at about 6am to see the small fishing boats and little river homes that we created intense wake for, it was a pretty cool couple hours making it to
Saigon. It was maybe the most interesting port we have been to. I mean, the Vietnam War ended in 1975 and we only pulled out in 72, so it is still on the forefront of the minds of residents. One of our first stops was the War Remnants museum where we saw the damage that had been done to the Vietnamese. We then got to see the other side of the situation when we crawled through the Cu Chi Tunnels – the tunnels that the Vietnamese created to hide from the American soldiers. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. Being in the tunnels was scary on its own – let alone with thoughts of the war and the feelings that the soldiers and Vietnamese must have had with the guerilla warfare and constant fear of death around the corner. It was crazy. I got claustrophobic and had to crawl on my hands and knees for most of the time. We all emerged from the tunnels almost crying.  Then, in the middle of our time in Saigon I went up north to Hanoi and

Mai
Chau
Village. Hanoi was an amazing city, very different from
Saigon. It was really moving to get to see both the North and the South; their differences are still so evident even after the reunification of the country. Then we went to
Mai
Chau
Village, a small village comprised of Black Hill Tribe people, those indigenous to the Vietnam and
Thailand regions. It was absolutely picturesque. One morning I got up early and walked around the rice paddies while everyone was just starting to work. We stayed in a longhouse on stilts and saw traditional dances. I tried to add photos of all of this too. We then eventually made it back to
Saigon. I spent a day getting lost in the city; ended up at a fruit and fish market, rode on the back of motorcycles everywhere I went, walked around backstreets and saw local life, and bought everything you could imagine for absurdly low prices. All in all I saw a lot of the contrasts in this country. I got to see the history of the country and its current situation, the North and the South, and the damage done to
Vietnam and the Vietnamese and the terror that must have been experienced by the Americans.
Vietnam left me moved, dazed, and confused – but dead set on the fact that war can never be a good thing for anyone involved.

                                                                                                      

(My side note of communism –
Vietnam was the first communist country that I have ever been to and I’m currently in a Marx Philosophy course, so I’ve been enjoying my research for the class in port. In
Hanoi we went to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh was the revolutionary that helped
Vietnam unite free itself from European imperial rule and turn the country into a communist state. We got in a long line to get into the mausoleum and had to stand in line two-by-two and walk within the red line painted on the ground. We walked into the building, up the stairs and into the room where Ho Chi Minh’s body was preserved. It was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had. In the middle of this solid black marble room was Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body with two red marble panels behind him one with the sickle and hammer communism symbol and the other with
Vietnam’s yellow star. I did a little experiment to see what would happen and as we were walking into the room, I just stepped one foot out of the red line to see what would happen. My foot had barely touched the ground when a fully armed guard grabbed my arm and shoved my back into line. Irony, anyone?)

 

We had three days to recuperate, turn in papers, and take exams before we arrived in
Hong Kong. I only had one day in Hong Kong since I was going to
Beijing. An expat that we met described the city perfectly, it’s as Chinese as you want it to be and as Western as you want it to be. We went out for the day without a real plan. We hopped on a subway and realized that we could go to

Disney
Land in about 10 minutes.
Hong Kong has the most amazing underground walkway and subway system I have ever been in. After our realization, we decided that going to

Disney
Land was exactly what we needed! I was with three guy friends and the four of us got on a subway out to Hong Kong Disney. I truly felt like a little kid again. We had the best time. I have photos of the four of us with practically every Disney character ever, we even rode

Space
Mountain three times. We spent most of the afternoon there and took a subway right back into the city. We picked up a Starbucks fix and took a bus up to the
Mt.
Washington of
Hong Kong. We tried to make it up to the top for the city’s nightly light show, but we missed the show by a few minutes. However, we got an awesome view of the city and spent some time sitting up there. We then took a tram back to the bottom and got dinner in the city. We walked around in the evening, somehow ended up in the red light district on our way to find a night market, and finally made it back to the ship.  

The next morning my friends and I woke up and had all signed up to go on the same trip to a University in
Beijing. We got on a plane and arrived in
Beijing a few hours later. We had a tour of the campus that night with my new best friend, Sun Ting Ting a Master of Public Policy and Management student at

Tsinghau
University and had a huge Chinese dinner. The next morning we got up really early for a shadowboxing lesson and then convened to head to the Great Wall. We drove for quite a while to apparently the best place to begin climbing the wall. I had no idea that the wall was so steep and made of such a slippery stone. It was amazing to walk on something so large that took so long to make. We hiked up the wall for about two hours and ran back down in about 30 minutes, I was sore for days to come from our climb! We then had a huge lunch at a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant. We were each given a fondue type pot filled with almost boiling water, and many plates of thinly sliced meats and vegetables to put in our pots. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was some of the best food I have ever had. Later that afternoon, we went to a local zoo to see the Giant Pandas of China. They were beautiful. That evening we spent more time with Ting Ting and got pizza. We made friends with more University students and went to a Karaoke club with them that night. It was sketchy to say the least. We took cabs to this Vegas looking street and went into some club, it was like a Tuesday night so almost no one was there. They led us into our own Karaoke room. It ended up being one of the most fun nights we have had. We danced and sang to old school songs and just had so much fun. The next morning we got up and went to Tiananmen Square and the
Forbidden City. It was really easy to see that
China has an oppressive government when we were in the Square. There were about a million tourist and almost as many armed guards and cameras hanging from light poles. Chairman Mao’s mausoleum was closed for renovations (but I bought a Mao watch and a sweet kite – if anyone wants to fly kites with me this summer, this would be the invitation – but I have a feeling my kite is cooler) but we saw the various other monuments. It was interesting to see that there was not a single mention to the fact that so many people had died there in the largest ever student protest, but that makes sense that the government they were protesting, who killed them, is still in power. The Square leads right into the
Forbidden City, which I had been so excited to see since the day I knew I was coming. The
Forbidden City was obviously forbidden to all except the emperors, their families, their concubines, and their staff. I walked over the bridge that only the emperor was allowed to walk over and strolled through the gardens that were immaculate. I loved every minute of the
Forbidden City and decided that I need to come back and spent a few days exploring. The shear architecture was baffling and splendid. Later that afternoon we also went to the

Temple of
Heaven. Here we saw the traditional temples and were able to experience some of the grandeur of the culture. This was also a forbidden sight for most up until relatively recently. The next day we spent the entire morning at the

Summer
Palace, a lake surrounded by temples and the summer palace of emperors. We did a good deal more hiking around the Palace and were able to explore more of the mystery of life during the Ming Dynasty. Most of the temple was burnt down and restored in 1902, so only parts of it were actually ancient, but it was amazing nonetheless. After the palace, we took the scariest plane ride that I have ever been on back to
Qingdao. Not only was the plane ancient and the bus on the way to the plane broke down, but the turbulence was out of hand. On top of it all, there is no easy translation for turbulence from Mandarin to English, so they kept saying, ‘we are having problems’. This is funny only in retrospect. I normally don’t get freaked out when I fly, but I have never been happier to land in my life!  

We arrived early evening in
Qingdao we knew that we only had one day in the city, so three friends and I struck out to find something to do that night. We got the Mandarin characters for how to say ‘take us downtown’. We ended up at a bad bar then an internet café. Both internet cafes I’ve been to in
China have been underground, and huge – it’s almost like they are illegal – but I don’t think that they are. The next morning we walked around the downtown area again to run a few errands. We then met up with our friends for lunch in the market district of town. I bought some shoes for the Ball that we are having on the ship in the last few days of at sea, and we had some great food. They sell thin slices of watermelon on the street for about the equivalent of 4 cents US and whole quarters of pineapple for about 10 cents. Noopur, the girl I was with, lost her wallet somewhere in the mix of everything we did that day. So, we spent a good few hours at another internet café and then catching a cab back to the ship. It is impossible to call the US from
Qingdao, or meet someone who speaks enough English to even understand what you want to do. So, we had to go back to the ship to call her bank in the
US and cancel all of her cards. But, we decided that we would go out again. We went back to the same part of town, and because we weren’t sure what else to do (
Qingdao is not at all a tourist town, it is beautiful and has a few resorts, but no sights or attractions) walked up to the top of a shopping complex to what we thought was a movie theatre. It actually was a movie theatre that was playing American films, however none of them were in English. We thought we were SOL, but out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something a little obscure, and I did. There was a roller skating rink in the middle of a stereotypically huge arcade. We decided that this was an event we could not pass up and rented skates. None of us (Noopur and I had randomly found Mark somewhere along the way) had skated since early elementary school and on top of that there seemed to be little rhyme of reason to the directions in which people were skating. There were like three loops of people in the small rink all going in different directions, the part that made it even better was that about half of the people there were skating backwards. A few crashes later, we made it out alive! We then had dinner at a great café on the second floor of a large building and people watched for quite a while. Even on a Sunday night everything was packed!

 

We then had two really rocky days at sea, where everyone got seasick, before we made it to
Kobe. Now I’m in
Japan – and I’m sure I’ll have stories to tell very soon. Travel here is safe and easy so I’m planning on spending two and a half days in Kyoto seeing the Cherry Blossoms, hanging out in Markets, staying in ryoksans, and seeing Geishas, one day in
Hiroshima seeing the peace memorials and the A-bomb sight, and one at this Buddhist monastery on a mountain learning Zen Meditation. Then we have 8 days straight of classes, a day in Hawaii, and six more before we get to
San Diego. I look forward to seeing most of you in a few weeks!

 

I’m really sorry that this is so long – I really do understand if you just want to see the photos and skipped all the words! (When I get home I’ll make a website of more of them and add the black and whites to that as I develop and print them.)

 

Love, Kate

 

 

 

India

Hi Friends,  

I wish I were a writer so that I could give you eloquent words on the thing I have seen and the how I’ve felt in the last few days. Everything has been so moving and so amazing.
India on its own is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. Simply leaving the ship hits you in the face with emotions, scents, and sights that are so foreign. Several days before arriving in Chennai, the staff started to prepare us for
India. Usually the preparations start about a day and a half before we get there. We generally hear things like, ‘Travel in pairs, wear your money belt, don’t pet dogs, and if you have problems – call the ship.’ But for India, about three days out we started hearing testimonies of travels through
India. Professors gave moving speeches about the poverty we would see, the cities were described as ‘an overload of all senses’, and the culture and food were described with great passion. We were warned of health and safety issues, but told that the country with the greatest poverty we would see was the safest country we would go to. I knew that
India wasn’t going to be a shopping trip or just another culture – something in my heart told me it was going to be intense – and that it was!

On the very first morning, I left the boat with about 10 friends. We decided to try to find the local market before our planned evening activities. After three security checks where Indian government officials with large guns checked our passports, ids, boarding cards and customs forms, we left the dock area. Immediately after leaving the gates, we were swarmed with rickshaw drivers. We split up into small groups and got in rickshaws. These rickshaws were motorized – slightly less romantic than traditional bicycle ones, but they were all the more effective and an experience in their own. (There’s a great photo of a few of my guy friends in a rickshaw right next to ours that I’ll try to attach.) I got into a rickshaw with two friends. We told him we wanted to go to Spenser’s Plaza and hoped for the best. This ride was like nothing I’d ever experienced before- like something in the movies. Our tiny little rickshaw whipped in and out of packed traffic, through streets made into markets and past slums and cardboard box houses. Our rickshaw driver stopped us at this store where he got commission for taking us. We spent about two minutes in the store and then made sure we were heading to Spenser’s next. Right before we started moving again, a guy approached our rickshaw. He asked if we wanted to see a cobra and mongoose fight. It took us a couple seconds to realize what he was saying, but when he lifted the lid of the wicker basket he had, and a cobra came out, we got the point. I have this ridiculous fear of snakes, so immediately made sure our rickshaw driver kept moving. My two friends couldn’t do anything but laugh at this point. Twelve near death almost accidents later, we arrived at Spenser’s. Spenser’s was just a large Indian mall. It was a cross between a mall and a market. We shopped around and had a later lunch. Later that evening we went to a welcome reception where we ate Indian food, talked with other University students, and saw a two hour Indian dance performance. I got henna done on my left hand and bought some beautiful turquoise jewelry. The next few evenings most people were gone from the ship. The majority of the students went to see the Taj Mahal. (I got offered a $150 plane fare- for some reason I didn’t take it – I’m so glad I didn’t) This made for a nice, quiet evening – a much enjoyed rarity around here.

The next morning, we got up really early and got into a tour bus headed for Kacheelapuram and Mammalpuram. These were two historical temple areas. The first was the pilgrimage sight for
Southern India and the second was the city of 1,000 temples. We saw temple, after temple, after temple that day. They were all beautiful. I learned so much about Hinduism. It was great. I attached a couple photos. They pretty much speak for themselves.

The next day was amazing too (day 3 of 5 – I’m sorry this is getting long). We got up in the morning and wanted to go to a local market. We went to the center of the city and just started to walk. It was fabulous. Everywhere you go there are people. Everyone is poor, sells everything you could imagine on the street, hassles you, but they are all extremely nice. We walked down the streets for a few hours. It was sad and depressing and eventful and joyful and really had this deep peace. (I know, try to figure that out…) We saw everything from silk shops selling sarees like you wouldn’t believe to women with live chickens. I added a photo of a street in the city and one of the woman and her son selling chickens. We somehow got really really lost looking for a place to have lunch. We must have walked at least 8 miles that afternoon. We finally found some local vegetarian, Indian restaurant and went in. It was amazing food. We ate on banana leaves and used our fingers to eat rice with some curry something. It was great and ended up costing like $4 US for 3 of us to eat a ton of food. We finally took another rickshaw ride and ended at the boat.

That afternoon we went to Mother Teresa’s Orphanage – Missionaries of Charity. Nothing in my life could have prepared me for this. Sometimes I like to think that I’m tough- but apparently I’m so wrong. I feel like a couple days before coming to
India, something happened that tore away all of my interior walls. The whole time I was in
India I felt like I was raw. The inside of me – my heart was just hit by everything. Honestly, it hurt. There is no ‘checking out’ emotionally when you are in
India; it hits you so hard that you have no choice but to engage. We talked with the Sister in charge of the orphanage. She had spent time in the US, and told us that although India has physical poverty, the US has more emotional poverty than
India has physical. There were 80 kids in this center with 6 sisters. We walked in and were devastated. There were children with clef palates, polio, physical and mental disabilities. The majority of them were either given to the orphanage or found in the garbage dumps in Chennai. A few of the babies were ‘normal’, but they were going to get adopted. We were there for a couple of hours. I spent the whole time in this tiny room in the back, where the polio, mentally and physically disabled kids were. Most of them were limp and lying lifeless on the floor. There was a mat in the room and the kids all had their heads laying on it. There was only one girl who was rambunctious, but she was so crazy that they had the back of her dress tied to the window. I held her and looked out the window for a while. There was really no way to play. I cried, a lot. She had nothing, wasn’t going to get better, and had really no hope.
Man. Eventually we moved her and she came and sat on the ground with us. That really meant that she jumped on us, stepped on other kids, bit everyone and everything, and made a lot of noise. Two other girls were in the room with me for a bit. We sang, “You are my sunshine” to them. I cried again. Then the rambunctious little girl, who was now sitting on my lap, pooped. The two other students freaked out, so I went for help. By time I had come back with the Sister, two other children had peed all over the floor and the girl who pooped had rolled in it and drank it. We all quickly cleaned it up and tried to settle everyone down. The two students left. For quite a while I was in the room with just one really old nun. The two of us sat on the mat that the kids’ heads were on and rubbed the backs of several children. The woman and I were not able to talk; she was deaf and spoke no English. But at one point she asked about the ring that I wear on my left hand. I pointed to a painting of Jesus on the wall. She smiled at me and both of us got really teary-eyed. The whole experience was really deep. Eventually it was dinner time. I sat with a child’s head in my lap and fed her some sort of mush. We left the orphanage after the children were put in their beds at like 6pm.

This was all just prep for the next day. The Dalits in Hindu tradition are the people so low on the scale of society that they aren’t even in the caste system. There are 250 billion of them in
India. (India has land 1/3 the size of the US and 3 times as many people, the US current has just over 300 million people- there are almost that many Dalits alone in
India.) We got up really early and caravanned out to this NGO center where they were educating Dalit children for free. We spent time with the head of the organization and then with the nursing students. They did dances and skits and performances for us. Then we got to talk with them. We sang American songs for them and taught them dances (like the Hokey Pokey). We also got to talk to a lot of them. The director of the facility and a Dalit advocate then spoke to us over a late lunch. They talked about the discrimination that Dalits face in
India. One man was a Dalit, had a PhD from an
American
University and 20 years experience in the
US. When he moved back to
India, no one would rent him an apartment in the city even though he had plenty of money to pay for it, because he was a Dalit. They also talked about the shift from Hinduism to Buddhism and Christianity that was going on in the community. Since the Hindu religion suppresses the Dalits, they have found other religions liberating. The man that spoke to us was an evangelical Buddhist – I think he was trying to convert all of us! But the afternoon was so educational and eye-opening.

After all of this we had about an hour of ‘down time’. I went this little open hut in the center of the school area and thought I would try to journal about everything that had happened. A friend of mine, Liz came and sat down with me. We talked a lot about
India and what God was doing in us. It was really weird. I think its obvious, but I felt like I was learning so much about God through things that didn’t even claim to be of God. India was unlike anything I had ever even dreamt about, yet something about it connected to me so deeply. I told her all about my day before at the orphanage and the old woman I had sat with. Right then, four little girls (I tried to attach the photo of them), came up and said hi to us. Out of nowhere they started to sing for us. It was absolutely heavenly. When they were done the music teacher appeared. He spoke a little English, so we asked him what the song was about. He told us that the words pretty much said, “Jesus is like a boat.” That was one of the best and deepest gifts I’ve ever gotten.

 In the early evening, we went to an actual

Dalit
Village after we had learned everything there was to learn about Dalits. We arrived at this village and women greeted us with garland necklaces made of Jasmine flowers. We walked through the hut village and a parade started to form. Everyone came out of their houses and greeted us. I got to talk to a lot of kids in their teens. A little girl grabbed my hand as soon as I got out of the van and guided me the whole time. Little kids tried to get us to come into their huts. There were cows and thatched roof houses everywhere. But, it was such a tight knit community. Apparently when any member of the community dies, the whole group takes a few days off and grieves. Also, one of the huge issues that they community is facing is the mental poverty. Children and teenagers have no hope for a better future, they are stuck in this cycle of poverty – physically and mentally. After about two hours, we went to the local school. It was two small buildings with a small platform in the center of them (this was where I had my first real Indian squat toilet experience – if you don’t know what that is, you can imagine!).  When we arrived to the school, the four local Villages had put on a show for us. There were fire dancers, tribal dances, great costumes, children, adults, throwing of knives, drumming, and sights like you can only see in rural
India. It was amazing. We sat for a few hours and watched. Everything was glittery, bright, and loud. Children were running up to us as we were watching with their small birds and showing us everything they could think of. After the festivities died down and the townspeople left, we had a mediation exercise. They light a metal structure with five candle wicks, it looks very traditional Indian. Then each person got a small candle to hold. The director of the center led the exercise. We sat in silence and meditated on the light. Then they look the candles from each of us and placed them in a circle in the center. It was supposed to symbolize what happens when we all come together and form one circle. It struck me that when we were all holding our own candles we were able to see other things and people near us, but when all of the candles were in the center we could see everything and everyone in the room. After all of this, we sat out in folding chairs on the grass and talked for quite a while. It was nice to be able to see the stars. One of the village boys hung around with us – we gave him all of the brownies and candy from our packed dinners. Then the guys all taught him how to play Frisbee. After we had all gone to sleep, at like 3 am, every dog in a 10 mile radius had decided to play 101 Dalmatians and talk to each other in the form of loud barks; at that point it was just humorous.

The next morning we got up early and spent time in the village. The same girl who had attached herself to me the previous day did the same again that day. (Among the village people, my dreadlocks got more attention than I did). I got to go into some of the huts and see breakfast being made. It was really insightful. It was also really interesting to see that in a town where no one had running water or electricity or really even walls on their huts, they had two elaborate little Hindi sanctuaries and a stable, cement church. The little girl introduced me to her mother, who obviously didn’t speak any English. She asked me if I would take home her daughter. She wanted to give me her child. We left the village and made the long drive all the way back to the boat.

When we got back, I decided that while I was in Chennai I needed to go to St. Thomas Cathedral (where Thomas the Apostle was buried). I left the ship by myself to go to the Cathedral, I thought that this was a fine idea since I had felt entirely safe thus far and had been seriously contemplating backpacking through the rest of
India. As soon as I left the gate, I got hassled like I have never been before in my life. I have never been so aware of the fact that I am a small, single, white female in my life. My rickshaw driver and another driver got in a physical fight over who would take me after I was already in the one rickshaw. I just got out and left. One of the drivers grabbed my arm – I have a bruise. I kept walking away and got in another rickshaw. I bargained for a good fare and paid about $2 to get there and back, it was about 8 miles each way. When I got back – my friends and I went out for our last meal and our last minute shopping in Chennai. I love
India.

 

Mauritius

Hi friends, I was in
Mauritius a few days ago. This email is about that and I guess just what I’ve been doing and thinking about. I’m having a great time, learning a lot and looking forward to being in
India. (which will be crazy and will be accompanied with an email and pictures) 

Day 1: There was a huge storm passing through the area, so we got to
Mauritius really late. This meant that the tour I had planned was canceled. The tour would have been horrible anyway. When we got to
Port Louis, it was beautiful. Pulling in was spectacular. The sea kept getting clearer and the mountain ranges in the distance, closer. When the boat pulled in, we saw
Port Louis in all its splendor. It is a small city that has European, Indian, African, and Chinese influence. We spent the afternoon walking around a little. After this, we got on to a bus to find the villa we rented. The bus ride was probably the coolest thing that we did all day. About 6 or 8 of us got on this local public bus, paid 21 rupees (about 75 cents) and watched the tropical mountain ranges and sandy beaches of
Mauritius pass us by. We finally found our stop and got off the bus, with the assistance of the ‘new friend’ I made on the bus. After walking past a yard with chickens and goat, a tiny grocery store, and a few sketchy bars we were nervous about finding the villa. As soon as we started getting really nervous, we turned the corner and who was there, but the new friend we had made on the bus. She lent us her cell phone and we called the owner of the villa. Shortly, he came and we all stuffed into the bed of his pick-up truck. We showed up at the villa and it was beautiful! We spent some time with the couple that owned the villa, went grocery shopping, and then cooked dinner. We all sat on the porch, talked, and hung out until really late that night.  

Day 2: Early the next morning our landlord gave us a ride to the bus station. We took the bus for an hour into town with all of the locals going to work. I made a friend and spoke to her in French for quite a while. I made it back to the ship just in time to head out on a ‘Rainbow culture and Religion’ tour. We saw temples, pagodas, churches, and religious centers. It was really interesting to see all of the religions and cultures of
Mauritius. It was just a really deep experience to simply be in the different holy sites. I feel like I’ve never really learned enough about Eastern Religions and I am finally starting to feel enlightened. The tour lasted for about 8 hours. It was pretty intense. The other great part of the trip was that I knew no one on the tour. This may sound ridiculous, but everything I do and everywhere I go, I go with like 20 of my ‘closest friends’. It was so nice to spend a day with people I didn’t really know or need to be social with. Later that evening I went out with Jess. She’s this amazing and hilarious Christian girl from
Orange County, CA. We went out for pizza and had a great time sitting by the waterfront and talking. It was so nice to just spend time with only one other person – and a good one at that! Then we shared pictures and watched episodes of ‘Friends’… I made a friend over ‘Friends’!  

Day 3: I got up late that morning and went for crepes with a few friends. The French were some of the Europeans that colonized
Mauritius. After that Noopur and I went into the city center to go shopping. We ended up in this crazy Indian/African market. I think it was an intro class to
India. After this we went over the fruit market, which was really a great cultural experience to have. The entire day I walked around with Noopur. Her parents are from
Northern India- so obviously she looks Indian. It was really crazy to see the difference in acceptance levels and to feel like the minority. Most of the stall owners in the market were Indian looking- they seemed to hassle me a lot more than her. The fact that I was with her gave me more credibility. She is from a rich suburb in Connecticut and has grown up in the
United States for her whole life, she is more like me than she was like any of the people we encountered – but they treated her as a local – or at least as an Indian. This came to our benefit when buying items and bartering. But it was shocking to feel like the ‘other’.  I guess I spend a lot of time talking about not putting down the ‘other’, but in all reality I’m a white girl from the suburbs with an education – I’m not often the ‘other’. Then I was. Looking back, it was an experience in what Howard Thurman calls ‘the simple heart of all people’. This is simply the concept that all people are the same at the core. I feel the same as Noopur and in all reality, I felt the exact same as the people in the market. I think that over time I have grown more sensitive to little things – a smile seems to be such a great relation between people – a connection of hearts. I saw that a lot on the tour of different religions too. It seemed like most of the world religions we have been looking at have the same simple truths. I’m studying Gandhi in one of my classes and reading ‘The Art of War’ on my own. From these two and the tour of different religious sights along the way, it seems to me that all people are striving for the same thing. Maybe that’s just the concept of what religion is. But I quickly came to find that there are a few basic things that people are trying to find. I think that in past generations we were mostly concerned with the notion of ‘why are we here’. But the more I study; I think that my generation is taking on other questions. I find that we are more concerned with finding truth and justice and righteousness. Maybe it’s that we’ve never fought in a war, in a world that is currently filled with war. But I think that it’s more than that. I’m not at all a Marxist, but Marx’s philosophy shows that history is linear and we moved from a feudalistic state to a capitalistic state and we will eventually hit a socialist and then communist state. Making a parallel to this, it seems to me that we were concerned with the ‘who are we’ and ‘why are we here’ questions when we were in a period of time when our part of the world was still developing after the World Wars. We are no longer in a ‘development’ stage. We are now considered a ‘developed’ nation. With this context, it seems that our generation is now seeking for something more. We are looking to find a society of justice. We’re obviously not doing well at it (case and point: the
Sudan). But as I am constantly with friends of different backgrounds and different religious views, and as I’m continually visiting different places of religious worship and even places where different people live and eat and sleep and call home – it seems to me that the question we are now looking to answer is: ‘what do we do now?’ From what I have seen, I can confidently say that God is working in all of these groups of people – whether or not they know it. I would also go so far as to say that maybe we area all seeing different sides of the same God- but that’s more than I want to get into right now. In all, it seems like all of these people are now looking forward and asking that same question.  

Sorry, that got long. This weekend we land in
India (which I am so excited for- but which I’m sure will shock me and make me eternally sad). I’m spending two days in a

Dalit
Village. The Dalits are the ‘untouchables’ in the caste system. It would be really great if all of you could just shoot up an extra prayer for my heart for the days to come. I’ll be there from Sunday to Thursday. I love you so much. Kate

Cape Town, South Africa

Hi Friends,

 

We just left
Cape Town on Friday morning. I have had a wonderful time there. Our arrival was warmly welcomed by not only lectures from Desmond Tutu, but also the US Consulate and the Western Cape Premiere. The Premiere gave an amazing and inspirational lecture about solidarity in
Cape Town and around the world.

            Upon arrival, we spent several hours exploring the section of
Cape Town that we docked in. We were in a new development similar to many upscale ‘shopping and lifestyle’ centers around. Later that afternoon, I went on the first of our three township visits. Although not as dramatic as Brazil, the gap between the rich and the poor in
South Africa is vast. Khayletisha was the township we spent the most time in. These are similar to shanty towns where people went when they were moved out of their homes during the apartheid and become even more crowded when the other parts of town where blacks and coloreds were allowed to live became hostile. Khayletisha was first ‘settled’ in the late 1980’s and now has almost a million people living in it. Talk about exponential growth! The second township visit we went on was a lot more interactive. We spent time in schools, at a bed and breakfast, and in a few markets. I have crazy photos of women cooking sheep’s heads- it was enough to make anyone queasy.

The last township experience I had was spending a day volunteering with Operation Hunger. It was phenomenal. We made a few stops. The first visit was to a community that inhabited a ‘natural reserve’. They had been there for quite a while and were strong supporters of the DNC, the political party opposing the ANC (Nelson Mandela’s party). The ANC is fighting with them and in true political fashion; this poor community is not receiving any government help because of their stance. We hung out at a crèche (like a toddler school) and a pre-school. Then we talked with one of the community leaders who led a soup kitchen. After this town, we hung out with high school students in a private school, they sang for us and once again it was phenomenal. After this we went started the project that Operation Hunger had brought us in for. We went to a Rastafarian community. There are around 1,000 people living there. We spent time weighing the children of the community and charting their weights to get an idea of the malnutrition they were dealing with.  This community was crazy. I’m in a Perspective on Peace course and one of our requirements is that we need to bring back ‘Peace Artifacts’, this entire experience was a peace artifact! I learned all about Rastafarianism, their culture, the community, and a ton about NGO’s in
South Africa’s ‘new country’.
South Africa is the only country in the world that can label itself a ‘new’ country- the fact that a blood bath didn’t break out and that the culture and society are completely different 13 years later is a miraculous gift from God. It’s so evident in the people and their attitudes everywhere you go.

            Other than that there were many other highlights. I needed to get my dreads worked on, so I spent an entire morning with coffee, a muffin, and 5 Africans. None of the girls were from South Africa (one was even from
Malawi!). We talked all about politics, religion, their lives,
Cape Town, men, bars, stereotypes, travel, and life. It was by far the coolest thing I did in
Cape Town. I was there for well over 4 hours- but the fact that my dreads look great was just a side bonus.

            I also went to a church service with a couple kids from the

University of
Cape Town that Nate knew.  The service was amazing- probably one of the best I’ve ever been to. It could have been that I was so in need- but it really was good. It was kind of like Hot Metal, but made me miss it even more! That whole evening made my heart so happy. It was then only continued when I met my friends at a local jazz club and listened to Robbie Johnson (the Godfather of Jazz) play 3 sets of amazing jazz.

            Other highlights included a wine tour that we did on the very last day. The wine country is beyond beautiful! The markets were also great;
Cape Town is sort of a mecca for all African culture. There were crafts and people from all over
Africa. The city is also gearing up for the world cup in 2010. So huge government housing units are going in to try to diminish the townships, a new stadium is being built, everything is being renovated, and entirely new malls are being constructed.

I had a great time and would recommend everyone and anyone should go and visit the city! There were still so many things we didn’t do in the 7 days we had. We now have 6 days at sea before we make it to
Mauritius and three days there. My friends and I are renting a bungalow on a beach for $7 a night. Don’t worry, I’m not missing out on the culture-
Mauritius is almost entirely a tourist center with beaches and resorts- and I’m spending the first day on a city orientation and visiting a few NGO’s. I hope all is well with each of you. I would love to hear about what is going on in your lives. I miss you so much!

 

Love, Kate

Salvador, Brazil

Hi Friends

 

Today was our second day back on the ship. We just spent 5 days in
Salvador, Brazil during Carnival. Carnival is an old pre-lent festival that lasts 7 days and started when the Portuguese Catholics came and colonized
Brazil. It was ridiculous. At about 4 in the evening everyday millions of people flooded into the city and packed the streets. Everything is centered around music- so there were huge semi-trucks elaborately decorated with music (blocos). The festival was created with the intention of bringing everyone from all classes together to be equal for just a few days. This seems great, but when you got down to it the way Carnival functioned didn’t exactly accomplish this (which leads me to question whether or not that really possible in the larger society). There were artists on the blocos, you could pay to be on the blocos or in the secure, roped off section around them. People from all over came in and were selling everything from beer to bad masks to beaded necklaces. The government also has a recycling program, so people from the favelas pushed their way through crowds and picked up beer and soda cans. It was really sad to see that in the middle of this fun, fun that is the highlight of the year for every Brazilian, so many people were doing this. (Carnival was also dangerous enough that no one even though about bringing more cash than necessary or cameras- so no photos) Other than Carnival-
Salvador is beautiful- it obviously had Portuguese and African influences. During the slave trade from Africa the majority of all slaves went to Brazil, other than Africa,
Brazil has the largest black population in the world. The old city was very European, as you can see to the right. The streets were all cobblestone and squares were as frequent as trees. Salvador is known as the least wealth of all cities in
Brazil. We saw a lot of poverty and not a lot of wealth. One of the photos above is from a favela. They also have Catholic churches like you wouldn’t believe and a religious system that is… complicated. The Portuguese brought their Catholicism to the area while the Africans brought a religion similar to voodoo, called Candomblé. The two merged into a series of 7 African spirits with traditions that resemble that of the Catholic church (I’m sure this is no where near accurate- but its what I could gather). This photo is of a Church we went to, this was a miracle room. People will come and pray for different miracles, when they get granted people come back with the proof of whatever happened. There were mold that people have made of their legs or skulls or whatever was healed. There were pictures that lined the walls of this room- it was interesting to say the least.  We spent a day on that tour, most evenings out at Carnival, and a most afternoons at the markets and in the old city. I really loved it. My conclusion:
Salvador not on my list of places to travel to- but I wouldn’t mind if I ended up there. However, this has inspired me to pull a Motorcycle Diaries and spend some time in
South America. (I think I’ve caught the travel bug- and probably something else, we ate a lot of street food and I have felt good for a few days!)

I’ll try to make the rest of this quick, we spent one of the middle days traveling out of the city. We went to a rural village and walked through the market there. Then we went to a small commune village that’s called MST. They are a political movement of landless peasants that are trying to get the government to redistribute the

land of
Brazil. Obviously most of
Brazil is owned by the upper class, people are starving, and more than half of the land is unused. Oh politics! The upside, as if in addition to all of this we really needed one, was that the commune not only was self sufficient, so gain extra money they had a coco plantation and made chocolate! The first photo is a street in the rural village. The second is a girl from the commune town, she gave me a flower and asked if I would take a picture with her, my heart broke for her a little.

 

Later that day we went to a small town, Cachoeria. This town was entirely preserved and historic. We had lunch at a monastery and then walked around quite a bit. When the town was colonized, there was some feud going on between two families or groups- and they built cities on opposite sides of the river. Now there are two towns, exactly the same, right across the river from each other- they are joined by a small one lane bridge. Complete inefficiency, (sound like PA, anyone?). The photo above on the right is a boy that followed us around all afternoon, we talked for a while. (I got really good at communicated with simple words and hand gestures.) His shirt said, “Make levees, not war”. What a statement from a kid in a poor town just trying to eat.

 

This last photo is one of my friends and me eating lunch in a café in the Market in
Salvador. There was a jazz guitarist playing there. The flash makes the shot look a lot less attractive than it was, but you can imagine. At the end of lunch, we got up with the locals and danced a little.

 

I really had a great time in
Salvador. Everything is still going well. Classes started up again and I’m writing and reading like crazy (parts of this email will be copy and pasted into field journals for classes). I really appreciate your emails, thoughts, and prayers. I miss you all- the reality of how long I will actually be gone for and what I am actually doing is finally here. I love you all and am so glad I can be sharing this with you. I realize how ridiculously long this was- this goes out to everyone, so it seemed better to write one long email than a ton of short ones!

 

I love you all and am really starting to realize just how long I will be gone for! aka. I’m missing you!

 

Kate

 

 

I was hesitant to get addresses to send postcards, but it seems that is becoming a really good mode of communication- if you want a postcard, send me back your address.

The Bahamas and Puerto Rico

 

 

 

Greeting from somewhere on sea!  

We left Nassau a few days ago and are heading for
Puerto Rico. Since departure, I have gotten over all of my initial fears. It took about 10 minutes after leaving dry land for me to get sea sick! The boat is huge, but still does quite a bit of rocking. I’ve been taking motion sickness medication- I hope Ill eventually just get over it. My other fear was not being surrounded by amazing people. I guess I just have to many wonderful friends at home that it seemed foreign to me to have to start all over. I about went insane the first day or so when the only conversations I was having included ‘hi my name is … and I’m from …’ However, I have found a few really solid friends. We are finally to the point where girls are not looking impossibly fresh and people are really making an effort to learn more about each other. Its not quite home yet, but its been an amazing adventure thus far.                 We had an awesome time in the
Bahamas. We spent some quality time hanging out on the beach and wondering around Atlantis (there is an amazing entire underground aquarium that we stumbled upon, there are sharks and stingrays and ‘ancient ruins’ everywhere, there was also an Indiana Jones bridge. We went out to the beach late at night and played football and walked around in the water- it was pure bliss considering we left
Pittsburgh’s snow that morning!) After an afternoon of leisure, we headed off to
Nassau. In true fashion, we found a ferry boat that the locals take and hit up some of the local spots. Then we walked around the markets and the stores.
Nassau is incredibly touristy. We had an amazing dinner at Senor Frogs and sat on the water while our boat pulled into the dock! It was really an awesome sight. The boat is so beautiful lit up at night. It was just really really good timing.                 The next day I waited in line for 3 hours, with 100lbs of luggage, to board the ship! It was so worth it once we got on the ship. Everything is beautiful. Over lunch yesterday we talked about how horrible it seems that the ‘rich Americans’ are pulling into some of the poorest countries in the world with a ship whose interior is lined with marble and gold. I’m sure that this will become really challenging as time goes on.                 We have been through orientation like you will not believe and classes start tomorrow, then on the
Puerto Rico (for my birthday). Below is a photo of my roommates. Sara is on the left and Jamie on the right. I love one of them and am going to have to try really hard to love the other. The other photo is a shot of the ship. I hope this finds you well. Let me know how you are doing and I hope to hear from you soon!  

I love you all much and miss you a lot!  

    

On February 4th, I leave from the Bahamas to travel all the way around the world. We start in the Bahamas, then go on to San Juan Puerto Rico, Salvador Brazil, Capetown South Africa, Mauritas, Chennai India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii and back to San Diego. I know! amazing! and thats only part of it. Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop of South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commisions, as well as the love of my life(!), is the guest lecturer. He will be sailing the entire voyage with us. For Christmas I bought myself all of his books, I hope to be finished with my stack by departure time. For now its all still just dreams. But in a month you will start hearing about Carnival in Salvador, Mother Theresa’s Orphanage in India (if she really was so servant-esque she wouldnt want it be called hers- so I won’t- ‘the Orphanage in Chennai where a wonderful woman name Mother Theresa worked for years’, ah, much better). Communication is expensive and rare on the ship- so I’ll be mainly communicating here and through emails.