My Third Day 01/04/2012

Hi everyone. I have been in India for three days now and so far the experience is unbelievable. In three days I have seen and done things that some people only dream about. I have put my feet in the Indian Ocean, seen cows walk around the streets of Chennai, visited the tomb of St. Thomas (one of Jesus’ 12 disciples), and gave my tongue a trip down flavor avenue with India’s spicy food.  I am doing fine and whoever is worried about me, don’t be. I am having a fabulous time. I will backtrack and be posting videos and pictures shortly in the next few days.  But for now I will write about what I did today.

Today I stayed on campus. Exciting, I know J. In the morning the group and I met with Merriam who is one of the professors at Madras Christian College (MCC). She told us about MCC and its history. MCC is a college in Chennai which is affiliated with Madras University. The school has been around 175 years. In fact, this weekend there will be festivities marking the college’s 175^th year as an institution. It formed to serve the Dlait (pronounced Dah-Let) people and women. In India there is a caste system which is basically just a hierarchy of groups of people.  There are five groups with the Brahmans as the most superior and the Dlaits or untouchables as the most marginalized group. Even though it’s not the same, the caste system is like race in America. It is used as a way to separate groups of people.  In India’s history only the Brahmans received education, other castes were discriminated against and banned from receiving an education. MCC opened the doors to anyone. This institution is predominately Christian.

A difference that I noticed between here and the U.S. is that religion is taken more seriously here. Before every class or ceremony there is a prayer or dedication to God. Even on my flight, before takeoff, a Muslim prayer was said. If this happened in the U.S it would be World War III.

After we met with Merriam, I sat in on a class. In the class they were going over logistics for our trip to Wayanad next week. Wayanad, from my understanding is a tribal community. So for a few days next week I will be spending time with an indigenous group in western India. It should be interesting…. The students led the class with the professor giving little input. Speaking of the professor, you call them sir or ma’am here. Or you can say their name first followed by sir or ma’am. It’s not as liberal as Juniata or other colleges in the U.S.

After sitting in on the class I had lunch in the mess hall (the food can get messy here, but I don’t know if that’s why they call it a mess hall). Lunch consisted of rice with a veggie sauce, bread, lentils, and cabbage. I don’t know the names for them yet, but by the end of the semester I will be a pro. The food was spicy (not as spicy as the restaurants I went to though) but good. I would never eat just rice as a meal at home. At lunch there were no forks, spoons, or napkins. You eat with just your hands. So sorry mommy and daddy, just about everything you taught me at home goes out the window in India. You eat with your right hand and serve with your left.

After lunch I met with another professor at MCC, took a nap, and went to a few grocery stores. Later a few girls for the dorm came and talked with us. They were so nice.