March 4, 2009
So I just got out of pre-port and it was pretty intense. It was definitely different than the other pre-ports we’ve had so far in that is was much more serious. There is a lot to watch out for. It’s not just the usual pick-pocketing, petty crimes and date rape drugs and minor food precautions. There is a lot. We all had to get a numerous amount of vaccinations to go on this trip and have all been on some form of Malaria medication that we have been taking. The big thing now that everyone is worried about is traveler’s diarrhea (DT), which can ruin your trip. The medical clinic had a long presentation about it tonight and have been sending out information like crazy on DT and other sicknesses how to prevent it and what to do if we get it. Basically for most of these countries like India we can’t drink the water, we can’t even brush our teeth with it. We have to carry our own water bottles with water from the ship. We can’t eat food unless it has been cooked at a very hot temperature. Nothing that is used with water can we eat unless we want to get really sick. India is defiantly going to be a challenge. I don’t know what to expect honestly at all. I’ve been given so much information on what to watch out for and expect but then again, they said that its just one of those places you can’t explain. It’s an experience you just have to go through to really understand. The ship has been showing the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” on the closed circuit t.v.’s because that movie is not only a great movie but it really shows the closest depiction of India in a film. The parts don’t last very long, but it was filmed on location in the streets, the slums etc. You can really get a feel for what its like. It’s not the real thing, but its said to show a pretty true depiction of things in India.
There was another thing that they talked about at pre-port which had an impact on me as well and that was the security situation. In our previous port the security level was pretty low to moderate and we really only had to worry about smaller crimes and incidents. However here, we have to beware of such things as terrorist attacks. That is something that doesn’t seem to be very common at all where we come from but it is here and we have to be aware that something could happen while we are there, to us if we end up in the wrong parts we could be affected first hand by it. It was a strange feeling that came over me where it actually hit me that I wasn’t listening to this on t.v., that I was here, I was in the places that I only read about in newspapers and see on t.v. as being attacked here or there and lives we’re lost. Like the attacks in Egypt, and remembering that and realizing that we we’re supposed to be there that day exactly where it happened. This was a similar feeling. I’m in that world now. I can’t sit home and ignore it because it won’t affect me…it does now! It does here, and it forever will at home when I go back. When I hear about these sorts of things that happen it will affect me differently than it did before I left because now I’m here where it all happens, I’ve seen it first hand. It’s a part of me now and there’s no way to ignore it evermore. It will always have an impact on me more than anything like it ever has.
I wanted to write down some thoughts before I stepped into India because if any of these ports is going to have a significant impact on me and my worldview, then this is probably the one. In talking to some of the faculty and staff that have been there before or many times before, they said that there is really nothing that they can say that can help us in what to expect from India and its sights, sounds, smells etc. They said it’s not like any other place in this world that you’ve been to. It’s not like any other port that we’ve been to where there is a nice dock and gangway and harbor of streets with some shops a small walk away. Once we get off the ship literally it’s like “bam” and we’re in India. It will completely surround us, engulf us and overwhelm us in everyway possible. Once of my professors continued to say to the class I was in that it will hit you all at once and you won’t even know what to think, how to feel, what to feel. Every feeling and emotion will overcome you. He said we will be exposed to some of the ugliest things we’ve ever seen in our lives and been exposed to, the smell of rot, sewage, sickness, death will be all around. We will walk through some of the worst living and working conditions of this world. The streets are covered in filth and there will be beggers following you at your side, tugging on your clothes. There is no way that we can possibly fit in to crowd. The clothes on our back represent more money than most of the locals make in a year, if that. We will be encountering poverty like no other. We will see some of the saddest faces in this world. We will see sickness, hunger and death. See it, hear it and smell it. However, with the same ears, nose and eyes we will also see absolutely the most beautiful things we’ve ever seen. The colors will be unlike anything in this world and you won’t be able to take your eyes off of it. The people will be so beautiful and happy dressed in so many colors and jewelry. We will smell the most amazing smells of this world as well including the colorful spices. All of this, this good and bad, ugly and beautiful, the rich and the poor, all of this that is India will be happening simultaneously and you won’t know what to do; Nothing that you’ve experienced in your life or seen on t.v. or heard from others can prepare you for what you’re about to go through in India.
In one of my classes at the beginning of this voyage, the professor asked us to respond to two questions. That seemed simple enough. Except that the answers to the questions we’re not simple. He asked us to write real responses to:
1.) Who are you
2.) What are you doing here
It seems like a simple question but if you really think about it, it’s a really hard question to answer, especially being so young still compared to everything.
I don’t remember what I wrote and if I wrote what I thought about those questions now it wouldn’t be the same because my thoughts on them have changed so much since first being asked. The basic information is that my name is Emily, I’m from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I’m shy most of the time because I’m and unsure of myself at times but there is a big person inside of me who has a lot to say, a lot of passion in what she does and wants to share it. I’m here on SAS specifically because I’ve always wanted to go study abroad, specifically on this program. I wanted to see the world. I thought I knew what it had in store for me but now just after a couple of countries, I really had no idea how life is around the world.
Even now if I we’re to answer those questions, they would be so different. Even though I’ve not finished this journey and haven’t even been to the big ports yet, I feel that I have changed a lot in the way that I view things in the world, life, others and myself. I know that after going to India, the experiences, sights, sounds, smells, feelings, emotions are something that will have a huge impact on me and my worldview and how I hold myself as a person in the future. There’s no way that I cannot be changed in some way. The dean tonight at the pre-port tried his best to convey to us what India would be like. He showed us numerous contrasting pictures of poverty and wealth, ugly and beautiful, sick and healthy, life and death etc. He said this was the one place that we will go, that will impact you in such a way that it will change your life forever. Thailand and Vietnam and others will affect you similarly but nothing is like India, hitting you all at once. It’s everything you read about but don’t see and you’re going to be living right in the middle of it.
I’m nervous for India because it will be so different from anything that I know and I don't know what to expect, not to mention I really don't want to get sick or mugged. But I’m so excited to go. It’s the one port that I have been looking forward to the most and I’m so lucky to be going, it makes me so happy. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity they say and I’m ready to soak up everything and embrace everything that is India, the good the bad the beautiful, ugly, safe, dangerous, dull, colorful. I’m going on an amazing trip while in India and am going to see and experience so much. I absolutely cannot wait for this trip! I cannot wait to see the effect this country has on me and how I will be changed forever the better. And I cannot wait to share it when I get home and have the memory that changed my life and will always be with me forever.
We are in INDIA!......
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