More about language

Despite the plethora of new experiences I'm having every moment here, it's interesting because there are a lot of times here where I don't actually feel like I'm in a foreign country.

Part of the reason that I think so much of India doesn't feel that foreign to me is that so many people here speak my language. There is Hindi on all of the street signs and signs for buses and buildings, but most of them also have English, and the majority of the advertising is in English.

Even some of the Hindi channels on TV have shows in English, and Ryan and I were even able to buy a Hindi dvd of a new movie with English subtitles (I'll let you know how it is, but based on the Hindi movie I watched on the plane, I 'm sure I'll love it.)

The menus are in English, people in stores speak English, and so do the rickshaw drivers. The only skill required in communicating with everyone is trying to decipher their thick Hindi accents.

Because of all of this, and I know this is going to sound quite radical - but I sometimes feel like being in France is more foreign than being here in India. In France, I have to order in a language I don't really speak, I have to decipher street signs and menus, and I have to figure out how to communicate with people and get my point across using only the 20 words of French that I know.

It's almost like I feel, in France, that this whole huge world is going on around me, and because I don't speak the language in which it is transpiring, I'm sort of out of the loop.

As crazy as it sounds, I feel less like that here, where I can (somewhat) easily communicate my needs and concerns to people. Sometimes it doesn't work, but I'm not sure if that's the language barrier as much as it might be an Indian custom of being a bit obtuse in their answers to specific questions.

Yes, the Indian world is going on without me (and in 22 nationally recognized languages) but there's always English, which seems to be used as an equalizer between all of the national dialects. And, of course, for foreigners like me.

The time I feel most like I'm in a foreign country is when I'm squeezed onto a rickshaw with Ryan, Erin, and Ryan's chair, bumping down the road, crossing over medians to go down the wrong side of the road, and shimmying up next to buses and cars, afraid for my life.

I wish I could accurately portray the experience of riding in an auto rickshaw to you all - it seems to me that it might be the quintessential Indian experience. It's hot and sweat is literally dripping down your face, all of the traffic spurs up a great quantity of dust and dirt in the streets, men go driving dangerously close the the rickshaw on motorcycles, suprisingly wearing full suits (in this heat!) and with a beautifully dressed Indian woman sitting demurely on the back of their bike.

You literally fly past fruit stands, bus stops, pedestrians, people on bikes transporting large quantities of building supplies behind them, dirty children selling giant olives, and white cows. It's really an experience unlike any other.

Francophile

In my first few days in Delhi, I've had some good success pretending to be French. I already automatically respond to nearly everything with 'merci' and 'oui,' and it's not entirely untrue since it is where I've been living for the last half of a year - so I'm not exactly lying when someone asks, "where do you come from?" and I respond, "France."

I hope this doesn't offend any of the Frenchies reading this blog - frankly, I think I represent your country well, except for the fact that I speak very little of your language.

Pretending to be French has its merits - I can ignore most of the comments in English I get, "hey, look at this," "pretty lady, you are nice," "I have something for you in your size,"
(WHAT - by the way) and just keep walking without feeling like I'm being an ass.

However, this did turn around and bite me in the rear today, when we were approached by a "government official" who turned out to have spent some time in Paris. His French was a little weird, but he did speak it to me, and I was at a bit of a loss and had to respond, "well, I do live in France, but I don't actually speak the language." Whoops.

I'm not deterred, however; I still think this is workable, especially until the basic Hindi Erin is teaching me replaces the automatic reflex of French words that come out of my mouth. It seems reasonable enough - when I was in Amsterdam during the beginning of the Iraq war and being American was potentially a bit dangerous, I told people I was Canadian.

Erin suggested that I pretend to be from a country where I can get away with it, like Deutschland, but then I lowered my head and admitted that my German is actually only incrementally better than my French.

Perhaps I'll pretend to be from Spain. There are lots of blondes in Spain, though not many that look like me. From meeting all of the Spaniards at Dechen Chöling, I think I could even fake the thick tonguey accent pretty well - at least well enough to fool some seedy Indian guy who has figured out how to say, "te amo, bonita."

love sarah

Day Two in India

First, and most importantly, here is some Hindi:
इ ऍम व्रितिंग इ हिन्दी। रयान वांट्स में तो तेल यू ठाट हेर स्तोमच हर्ट्स। ओके, बेक तो एनग्लिश।

Ten points if you can figure out what that says!

Day one was fairly uneventful - I was still exhausted and pissy from traveling all day and Ryan's stomach has been hurting so we spent most of the day in the hospital room watching funny TV and playing Apples to Apples and cards. And, of course, sleeping.

We did have one interesting experience - while Ryan was getting a echocardiogram, Erin and I got to do some interesting Indian yoga with one of the physiotherapists in the basement of the hospital. It was mostly for Leah, another patient receiving stem-cell treatment (who is also from Colorado!), so it was a little less yoga-rific than I've ever done and focused a bit more on strength. After a while, the heat got to us, and I think I now understand what hot yoga is all about.

Today we were a bit more productive (but just a bit). We decided we were going to walk to a market, which was quite an experience because the sidewalks are a bit precarious and the cars and rickshaws drive all over the place - on the sides of the road, on medians, on the wrong side of the road - everywhere.

We then realized that it might be better to start out with our Delhi experience in a more touristy place - that is, more accessible and accustomed t0 visitors. So we took a rickshaw into central Delhi, to Connaught Place, and walked around there, which was nice (and hot!)

Just as I expected, I'm most fascinated by all of the colors of materials. We did a lot of looking at kurti (those lovely long shirt things that Indian women wear) and I even found this awesome Indian nightgown that looks like something that my Grandma would have worn. It was only 220 Rupees, which is about 3,25€ or $5. It's perfect.

After a few hours in the heat and lunch, we took a harrowing rickshaw ride back to the hospital to shower and rest.

I'm going to include a few more photos on this blog.

One is of Ryan using Skype, our new lifeline, one is of my "bed" - it's one of those fold out chair things that you might have in your dorm room in college, but so far, it's pretty comfortable, and one is of our interesting dinner from last night: fried chicken, baked beans, and finger chips. This translates loosely to a bunch of kind of spicy chicken nugget thingies (Ryan said they looked like chicken feet and refused to eat them), baked beans that tasted like ketchup, and really greasy french fries that you had to eat with a fork. Oh - and Texas toast. It was lovely - quite an experience!

Tonight, we had the choice between "veg" and "non-veg" - no further explanation than that. I decided to be daring and go for the non-veg... we'll see how that goes.

Thanks for all of your well wishes, emails, and calls. It's really great to hear from you all.

love sarah

Day one in India

Here are some pictures, yo. This includes our hospital room, as well as the view from our window - we sort of back up to a little alley, where there are lots of people out on the roofs hanging clothes and walking around... which is always entertaining - the colors of the clothes they hang up are quite lovely and beautiful.

We're about to go out for the first time and brave the heat to hit some markets, so I'll post more later.

love sarah

Contact Information in India

Would you like to contact us in India? I'm copying most of this from Ryan's blog:

--SKYPE
(You can find me for sure using my log-in name of sarahwilson65, Ryan's is goldilaux8, and Erin's is erinkfletcher)
If you don't already know, SKYPE is a phone service through the internet. It is absolutely free to chat using SKYPE as long as the person on the other end is using it as well.
--Try to call me on Ryan's computer -+13035861808. This will ring to her computer, no matter where we are. And you can leave a message!
--Email me: sarahwilson65@gmail.com
--Leave lots of messages on this blog!
--Good ol' snail mail. The address of the new clinic in Delhi is...
Nu Tech Mediworld
Nursing Home+
H-8, Green Park Extension
New Delhi – 110016

the Indian stem cell journey continues....

Hello all...

I'm finally here!

After a few months/weeks/days of insane difficulties getting my Visa, a near-encounter with a somewhat unpleasant anti-malaria medication, and nearly 24 hours of flying through Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, I have finally made it to Delhi, India.

If you're not aware, I am here to support and accompany my best friend Ryan while she receives stem-cell treatment here in India this summer.

I had certainly intended to blog about all of the difficulty I had getting my Visa (two full days spent at the India Visa Application Centre in Paris, and I didn't get it until less than 12 hours before my flight - the one I had to buy a few days ago because I was told my original free ticket didn't give me enough time) BUT I think it's probably for the best that I leave that all behind me and concentrate on the fact that I finally made it!

After a three hour delay in Helsinki - which I loved, mostly because I was mistaken for Finnish the whole day - and a somewhat harrowing 6-hour plane ride through thunderstorms, I arrived last night in Delhi at around 3:00 am.

I had emailed Ryan earlier from the Helsinki airport to tell her that my flight was going to be late, but I unfortunately had run out of internet time and she had to figure out when I was arriving on her own.

I was concerned that no one would be there to meet me at the airport, but resigned myself to the idea of camping out for a few hours until the government-sanctioned pre-paid taxi station opened and then get myself to the clinic.

But, luckily for me, Ryan was there, with the security guard from the hospital - and they'd been waiting like 2 hours! The ride from the airport seemed short, but it was probably because Ryan and I had lots to talk about.

We got to the clinic and I needed to shower before going to bed - I felt disgusting after traveling all day, and there were many people on the plane to Delhi with major BO, and as I was in the aisle seat next to a rather large and somewhat pushy woman, I got bumped quite a bit and I fear that the BO rubbed off.

Anyway... I'd like to post another blog about our room, and post some photos of the hospital and my "bed" - but that's another story.

Erin also got here - she arrived just a few hours after me and came to the hospital later this morning.

Everything is great... I'll write soon about my first day here.

Please keep up with Ryan's blog as well - we'll be trying to update that daily with the treatment progress and other interesting things. You can find it here: www.ryanmcleanfund.blogspot.com.

Love you all... wish us luck!