In the morning, Emily, Laura and I went out to watch sunrise on Marina Beach. We took a rickshaw and Emily convinced the guy to let her drive. We were a bit late in leaving, but we still managed to catch some of the sunrise. We walked along the beach, dragging our toes in the water. Just so you know, the beach is not like
Then we walked back to the street and this guy started talking to us. He seemed friendly and we asked if he was a fisherman and he said yes. I’m not sure if he actually understood us though. The day before, a few friends of mine met a fisherman who showed them the most amazing day! He took them out on his fishing boat and they saw three whale sharks! Then the guy invited Gabe back to his house for dinner and to spend the night! The man lived in the Sea colony, which is a slum on Marina Beach where most of the local fishermen live (the foreign service officials told us not to go there, which is exactly why they went J ).
After hearing their amazing story, we wanted to have a great day with fishermen, too! So we thought this guy said he was a fisherman and he wanted to take us fishing. There was a huge language barrier though so I’m not sure what he thought was being communicated. We walked down the beach with him and then he just sat down behind a cart and told us to sit with him. We still wanted to assume the best of people, so we sat to chat with him. But then he started to grab at my friend and he told the other two of us to leave them alone for five minutes. Of course I said “No!” and grabbed my friend’s hand and started to leave. The guy kept trying to grab at her, but we were assertive and pushed him off and walked away. He followed us for a while though and ran up saying, “Hotel? Hotel? Lets get a room?” We replied “No!” But he didn’t get the picture. It wasn’t until I pulled out my cell phone to call Vikram that he left us alone.
This really highlighted the differences between how women are viewed versus men. What was going through this guy’s mind that made him think it was okay to treat us that way? I really want to know what his thought process was. Who knows, maybe he said something that we didn’t understand and we naively went along with it. What I really hate though is that an occurrence like that would never happen to a man. Why does there have to be this whole additional challenge traveling as woman instead of a man. It’s not fair. The genders should be equal and I should feel just as safe as any man.
But in India, women are still viewed as lesser than men in India. Not in everyone’s mind, of course, but in general this seems to be true. I’m no expert so it’s probably not right for me to apply judgment, but I did not feel comfortable as a woman in Chennai and this was the first port where I could really feel the gender difference. I can see why Bonu would choose to wear a burka; I think it would provide a sense of invisibility and security in a world where the men can be despicable. I just hate that the solution is to cover up and become invisible. I should be able to be just as visible as a man and feel perfectly safe.
Our country has its own share of gender issues as well though. Men feel its okay to catcall at women and comment on their appearance even when they are complete strangers. It’s disgusting. Keep your thoughts in your head. Don’t yell out at me and make me feel uncomfortable and unsafe in the public space. That space is just as much mine as it is yours and I have the right to feel safe there. Why is it culturally acceptable to judge a woman’s beauty based on her physical appearance? A woman is worth so much more than that. She is love. She is life. She is nurture. She is the world. It is despicable to degrade her worth down to only her physical beauty.
Okay, enough ranting about gender issues… so after we ditched the creep, we went to eat some idly for breakfast. Idly is a kind of fermented rice cake that is dipped into chutney. It’s very tasty! Then we went to a snake park and a zoological park. There were snakes and turtles and crocodiles all over! The star tortoises were munching away on some lettuce- munch munch munch- they were so cute! One Indian Black Turtle did a head plant into his food and then opened his mouth wide and munch munch munch munch.
At the zoological park there were lots of birds including several Rosy Pelicans. These guys were huge! I could practically ride one! Then we made friends with several local college students where were enjoying their day off at the zoo as well. One invited us back to have dinner with his family, but we all had trips that were leaving in a couple hours so we had to turn down the invitation. Emily and Laura were heading to a village stay in Erode and I was heading to one in Nagarcoil.
But before heading back to the ship, we went for one last AMAZING meal in Chennai. We asked the rickshaw driver to take us to the best restaurant in Chennai (that was still cheap). He took us to this place called Banana Leaf and it was soooooooo gooooodddd!!!! I can’t even describe the amazing dance my palate did with all those wonderful spices and curries and lentils and veggies and naan and OH MY GOD! I want more Indian food…. My mouth is watering (I’m heading to lunch on the ship right now, but its not going to compare at all with this glorious meal that I’m reminiscing about)
Then we headed back to the ship. The rickshaw driver turned into an asshole at the end. He’d been so friendly all day and we even paid for him to come to the zoo with us and offered to buy him lunch and gave him an extra hundred rupies and then he continued to demand more. He was not friendly at all when it came down to the money at the end. The friendliness was all a façade to get more money out of us. I hate when people are like that. Why can’t we just genuinely be kind to one another?
Most of the stories about the rickshaw drivers were similar to mine (if not worse). But there were a few really good ones. For instance, my friend Katie was wandering around on her own, all the drivers were trying to convince her to ride with them and she just said she was going to walk. But then this one driver drove alongside her and said he just wanted to practice his English. She didn’t believe him at first and she assumed that he was just trying to get a customer. But she said if he really wanted to he could ride alongside her and talk but she was going to keep walking. Sure enough, he rode alongside her and really did just want to talk to her. After a while, she told him that she would get in and they could drive around together, but she didn’t have money so she couldn’t pay him. He said that was fine. He ended up driving her all around town for 3 or 4 hours! He took her to the famous church, to the temple he worshiped at and to his home and he never asked for any money. What a great story! It got even better because she ended up meeting a girl in the slums who taught her how to play a game and they ended up having a crazy dance party! Katie is f-ing awesome! She has the best stories!
So I went back to the ship and departed for Nagarcoil. We had a nice, small group of five students, five adult passengers and one “sea monkey” (the dependent children on board). The students were Dani (from UCI), Brian (from Penn State), Shannon (From CU Boulder) and Adam (From U MN). The adults included Marvel, the ship psychologist (and the trip leader), Shelly (lifelong learner), Gale (Marvel’s friend), Warner (Librarian) and his wife, Nancy. Marvel’s daughter, Sapon (who’s AWESOME!) was with us as well.
At around 5:30pm we boarded a train bound for Nagarcoil (it was a 13 hour train ride!). The train ride wasn’t too bad, it was shaky so I didn’t sleep much, but that’s okay. Brian and I shared a cabin and we had lots of great conversation. He told me all about the experiences that have shaped his life, about his amazing girlfriend and about his university and his home in DC. I shared my stories as well and we had some great discussions about the challenges of sustaining human life around the world and how misled people can be in their attempts to “save the planet”. Environmentalism isn’t about saving the planet; it’s about saving the people. And how can we talk about saving the future of humanity when billions of people around the world can’t even sustain their lives in the present? Environmentalism shouldn’t lose sight of the goal to extend human rights and basic needs to people around the world. I think this is a major problem with the present style of the environmental movement.
This were the things we discussed as our rickety train sped through the countryside, past farms and rice paddies, while the sun set behind shadowed mountains, illuminating the sky in a brilliant glow of orange and pink.
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