Today we went to the school/ hospital for the lowest class or caste of people in India. And I mean poorest of the people living on the street. Many of the children were previously rag pickers, people who through the trash, on the side of the road, and dig through trash, normally barefoot, looking for scraps of food and or clothing. They have nothing, but life. No money. No real hope for anything but being a rag picker. And this is accepted. This institution, run by the Jesuits, takes some of these children and transforms them into something new. Society does not like this. You are not supposed to leave your caste. This caste is supposed to remain illiterate. By teaching them, you are breaking socialites hold on these children, and many people are unhappy.
So we arrived by our 4 wheel, which is a Toyota pickup truck, not like a 2001 edition, like a vehicle with a flat bed. A steel frame. Four doors and an engine, with partial a/c. that’s it. It’s not a luxury vehicle, although after taking the 3 wheels taxis, this surely seems like a luxury. On the way there we hit our first traffic jam, so what did we do? We drove on the shoulder. The big trucks were stuck in the normal driving lane. The shoulder is full of debris, dirt, sand and people/bikes/other vehicles. When the road narrowed, we crossed the median and drove into oncoming traffic. THIS IS NORMAL!!!! It’s like they play chicken but you know the outcome: lots of horn blaring and slow moving traffic… not finger waving obscenely shouting road rage filled drivers. So we passes jam one. Now we are on a road, if u can even call it that, that I would pay money to traverse with a jeep. I would, and this only increased my desire for a jeep that much more. Jeep jeep jeep. Right so. There are drop offs where it’s like a paved-ish road then a pothole that drops easily a foot. If u do not have a car with a lift kit, do not attempt this, you won’t have a car in one piece by the end. If I was in a jeep, seriously, I would be on cloud 9. Thennnn, the truck close to the size of a semi tries to make this hairpin turn. Stops traffic for a good 20 minutes as he drives then reverses. Well, small vehicles like bikes and motorcycles don’t like waiting. So they don’t, they normally just go around the cars that are stopped (or moving for that matter) so we have a jam then more people are coming through. CHAOTIC, but this is the norm. It easy to see how a traffic jam can last days. Oh the kicker, some of the truck drivers aren’t even in their trucks. They get stuck. And they go get food. Or sleep. Or play cricket, idk, but they aren’t in their truck. Absurd.
SO! We get to the school and we meet with Fr. Albert and we start trouble shooting the problem. Well we were given no real instructions on what the problem is, just it doesn’t work well… communication is very important here… and it helps when you can understand the problem… but another problem often arises… communication in English… right so we start trouble shooting. And yes were both ELEs but we both have very little in field training. Most of the training in the classroom is all theoretical and abstract. And being that we haven’t been part of a new build were not exactly sure how the system is supposed to be set up anyways… but we did our best I took some pictures, made some calculations, drew some pictures (of the system, not of trees and flowers and stick people). And we left to go home for lunch. Good luck Father, hope it works… better!
Right, so back to the roads… wow soo bad. Another traffic jam. And I’m not joking, I would pay to be on these roads with a, or my, JEEEEP.
So on the way back, I’m looking out the window, seeing crazy normal daily Indian stuff when I saw the grossest thing. Excuse me while I go vomit while reminiscing…. These young boys covered, covered in the black goop. Looks like tar, but goopier. And I see them tossing this stuff into the street and sidewalk area, there are no sidewalks in India, just roads and roadsides, although the roadsides are fair game for cars, bikes and or humans/animals including but not limited to cows, buffalo, chickens, and dogs. So they are tossing this out, from where you ask the sewer…. Vomit…. This isn’t metropolitan flowing water and some sewage sewer, I mean clogged. With dirt, human waste, garbage, animal waste. Seriously you name it. It’s there. And these people are barefoot. In shorts and tank tops, no concern they are dying…. Grossest thing I have seen so far in India… and that includes fish with their heads being chopped off, full of flies and guts that splashed the people nearby. That includes someone squatting and relieving himself next to a tree, not behind, but next to, one that was on the “tree lawn” by the road, goss things that includes eating sardines…. Ok I’m done. I can’t go on without seriously damaging my computer with projectiles.
more later.. stay posted
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