2/1 & 2/2

Now for my first adventure outside of Raiganj. Puthumai and I left at 4am on Sunday morning, Hannah was planning on accompanying us, but fell sick on Friday night and was not better by Sunday morning. Puthumai had rented a vehicle and we had a driver. Our trip was to Hawazardi (at least that is my closest guess at the name, and then to a place that sounds exactly like Siliguri, but with an Sh in the beginning. The travels took us south, so it was much warmer than Raiganj. I can feel the weather changing here everyday. By mid afternoon it feels like a summer day in Seattle. It is beautiful and the air chills just perfectly at night. I think when the heat arrives I will struggle, but for now, I am thoroughly enjoying the sun. In the first few kilometers (in India they don’t use miles, and Fahrenheit, instead they use kilometers and Celsius, which has often limited my understanding of temperature and distance) we ran into a traffic jam. I know, you are thinking a traffic jam at 4am in rural India, that is certainly unexpected. Well let me tell you, there were what ended up being 50 km (a lot of miles) of bumper to bumper good carriers (the Indian equivalent to the semi-truck) all turned off and lined up on the road. We droved quickly past, until we came to an area with a bus heading towards us. After some very skilful maneuvering on the driver’s part, with Puthumai’s direction, we made it past the bus and past the miles and miles of good carriers. It was quite a sight though. Then the drive began. I slept the first few hours, and woke up just in time to see the Ganges, which is beautiful. It was nice to have time to chat with Puthumai one on one, and hear is thoughts on SWI, my time in India and development in general. We also shared personal stories of growing up and personality quirks, it was a blessing to be able to have so much of Puthumai’s undivided attention (besides the cell phone calls) and to hear so many of his insightful thoughts. We stopped for breakfast (which cost 90 rupees for three people, about 2 dollars) and then our next stop was Hawazardi. It was a really cool area, and there were lots of old British buildings and palaces from kings and queens long past. We took a horse drawn cart, which when you stepped on the back sank a good two/three feet, and were taken around town. There were different sites to look at. The first was a compound area owned by four brothers, they were very wealthy from smuggling. We saw their bath, pond, garden, exquisite home, stage, and temple. The architecture was really cool and the weather was perfect for strolling around. The next stop was a tax collectors house, a middle man for the British. He was an awful man and we heard stories of him torturing and killing people. Then we stopped at a temple for Hindu gods, and finally the burial grounds of the queen who used to reign in the area. Father said she eat babies, thinking it would make her powerful and that when her husband found out he buried her alive. Once we were done with the horse cart ride we checked out the museum, which was the old palace (the place of a thousand gates). First of all, for my admittance into the museum I was charged 20 times more than the average Indian, because I am a foreigner. I don’t mean that they saw my pale skin and tried to cheat me, I mean that the sign was posted with different prices for Indians and foreigners. Once inside the museum we saw tons of really neat artifacts and remnants from the palaces hay day. Then we drove till 5ish (minus a quick stop for lunch and a bathroom break, my first encounter with an Indian toilet). We had dinner at a friend of Fathers home, and she and her family were very welcoming. Plus the dinner was amazing! We were served chicken, chipatis, and vegetables with spices. We also had fried chicken liver as an appetizer. I stand by my prior saying, that anything fried tastes good. The next day we toured the hometown of Indians most famous poet. He won the Nobel Prize and wrote a famous book called Gitanjali. We went to his museum and also toured the university he founded, which his based on the concept that students should learn in nature. It was really interesting to walk though the museum and then tour the university. Then we were off driving, first a quick stop for lunch. Where we ate with a family who was very kind and welcoming. The lunch was good, expect I am pretty sure in my chicken bowl I got chicken body parts that I am not used to eating. I tried them, and they were indeed very different from the chicken I am used to. Then we drove until tea time, when we stopped at a Jesuit house and visited a stone quarry, where many villagers are employed for low wages in working conditions that cause serious health problems. The quarry was impactful in its magnitude and the people were impactful in their suffering. Then we drove straight through to Raiganj, reaching at 11pm. The trip was an huge success, besides a small cough that has taken up residence in my lungs, I was very pleased with the trip.