Welcome to my first ever blog!! The following may be more than some of you care to read, but it's here for those of you who are interested, as well as for myself; to refresh memories in years to come. And should I ever decide to write a book, then it is all here!
As I am sure you all know, I quit an amazing Acting Director job at Metis Child, Family and Community Services to go abroad; in part to skip winter (that is no secret) and the other part to do some volunteer work, specifically with the anti human trafficking movement. I chose India this time because I love it and yearned to go back, also because thuman rafficking is such a huge problem there and so there would be many opportunities to get involved, and lastly due to friends, Sanjeev and Diana's wedding. Sanjeev is from India and a group of friends were going out for their wedding followed by a tour of South India. I had already been to some of the places they were going to visit, but having them to travel with and in a place I love was too hard to resist. Plus I was very excited to be a part of a wedding in India.
So the plan was to arrive in India for the wedding, tour with the group through the Xmas holidays and then in the New Year go my own way to volunteer. Towards the end of the trip I planned t go back to Nepal to visit friends from when I volunteered there in 2009, including my prisoner friend Proscovia who remains incarcerated there. The trip would end at the end of April with a return to work in early May.
I left Winnipeg on December 13, 2011, arriving in Bangalore, India after about 28 hours. The time difference is a good 12 hours so it's certainly a challenge to get there and adjust. This time I had a travel partner, Jose, an El Salvadorian-Winnipegger who would be my roommate for a few weeks. In true Crystal fashion I told him that we couldn't talk during our plane journey or we wouldn't have anything to talk about during our 3 weeks together. Thankfully we had separate seats and didn't waste all of the conversation because we had some great talks/debriefings at the end of our days. And I didn't even have to harass him to do so, although he did seem to prefer to chat over whiskey...not sure what to make of that :)
So Bangalore is the home city of our friend Sanjeev, whose wedding we were coming for. Bangalore first struck me as very developed and less chaotic than other Indian cities I've been to, like Delhi, where on my first trip to India I arrived there late at night and was overwhelmed by the tons of people, cars and noise. But, no worries, all of the noise arrived early morning..thank goodness for earplugs!
The first days in Bangalore involved meeting/visiting/eating with Sanjeev's family, greeting other Canadian friends who were arriving, and taking in the pre-wedding ceremonies; all part of the Hindu custom. The whole event was such an amazing cultural experience; I feel very fortunate to have experienced it.
The first ceremony was a Haldi ceremony for Sanjeev, where family and friends rubbed tumeric paste on him as a type of purification in preparation for the wedding. There were other offerings as well such as fruit and rice that they sprinkled on his head. Afterward we had an amazing South Indian meal which was on a banana leaf and with various dishes dropped on it by the `caterer`guys. I thought the food would never stop coming, and as a joke told them that Jose wanted more when they would come by even though he was also ready to burst. That would be why Sanjeev calls me `dewa` which means devil in his language ``kannada.`` :)
The next ceremony was the `mehendi`ceremony where the bride Diana, a Colombian-Winnipegger, received her henna tatoos. Two men were hired to draw the intricate designs on her hands/arms while friends and family watched and of course ate more food., All of us Canadian girls got designs as well which was really cool. 3 weeks later I still have remnants of them. Corrine, if you are reading this, this will remind you of the time in rez when you dyed my hair with henna without gloves and it took weeks for it to come off, LMAO!
The last ceremony was the haladi for Diana which was the same as what had been done for Sanjeev days before. And yet again more delicious food. All of the ceremonies were in different houses of Sanjeev`s family and they were all wonderful hosts. We were truly treated like royalty..I can't say enough about how lovely they were.
In between the ceremonies we took a day trip to a refuge for dancing bears. The organization is called Wildlife SOS which you should definitely check out. For hundreds of years a certain group of people in India have bought sloth bear cubs from poachers and then trained them to dance for money on the street. I won't go into the gruesome details but they weren't treated well and are now protected by the government. These bears are so sweet and are now able to roam freely on this reserve for the rest of their lives. It is quite the operation with vets and staff who know the bears by name and give them excellent care. It was a sad but touching experience and a cause that I will continue to support.
Now the wedding...On the big day we all got dressed in our beautiful sarees; mine of course was purple and I loved it. Sanjeev`s sister in law Anu lent it to me and was very concerned about how it looked. I think it was wrapped 3 times before it was on right and throughout the day I would see her stern look and quick hand readjusting me. I started calling her `boss`after that. The wedding ceremony was filled with rituals, and coconuts, rice, and flowers were plentiful. Close family and the Canadian contingent got to stand up on stage surrounding Sanjeev and Diana so we got to see it all. For not knowing the language or understanding the traditions Diana was a real trooper during all that. And after that.. more food!
There was a more casual cocktail party the next day but here was no going hard for us as we were leaving on our tour the next morning.
Next post..the post wedding tour around South India...
As I am sure you all know, I quit an amazing Acting Director job at Metis Child, Family and Community Services to go abroad; in part to skip winter (that is no secret) and the other part to do some volunteer work, specifically with the anti human trafficking movement. I chose India this time because I love it and yearned to go back, also because thuman rafficking is such a huge problem there and so there would be many opportunities to get involved, and lastly due to friends, Sanjeev and Diana's wedding. Sanjeev is from India and a group of friends were going out for their wedding followed by a tour of South India. I had already been to some of the places they were going to visit, but having them to travel with and in a place I love was too hard to resist. Plus I was very excited to be a part of a wedding in India.
So the plan was to arrive in India for the wedding, tour with the group through the Xmas holidays and then in the New Year go my own way to volunteer. Towards the end of the trip I planned t go back to Nepal to visit friends from when I volunteered there in 2009, including my prisoner friend Proscovia who remains incarcerated there. The trip would end at the end of April with a return to work in early May.
I left Winnipeg on December 13, 2011, arriving in Bangalore, India after about 28 hours. The time difference is a good 12 hours so it's certainly a challenge to get there and adjust. This time I had a travel partner, Jose, an El Salvadorian-Winnipegger who would be my roommate for a few weeks. In true Crystal fashion I told him that we couldn't talk during our plane journey or we wouldn't have anything to talk about during our 3 weeks together. Thankfully we had separate seats and didn't waste all of the conversation because we had some great talks/debriefings at the end of our days. And I didn't even have to harass him to do so, although he did seem to prefer to chat over whiskey...not sure what to make of that :)
So Bangalore is the home city of our friend Sanjeev, whose wedding we were coming for. Bangalore first struck me as very developed and less chaotic than other Indian cities I've been to, like Delhi, where on my first trip to India I arrived there late at night and was overwhelmed by the tons of people, cars and noise. But, no worries, all of the noise arrived early morning..thank goodness for earplugs!
The first days in Bangalore involved meeting/visiting/eating with Sanjeev's family, greeting other Canadian friends who were arriving, and taking in the pre-wedding ceremonies; all part of the Hindu custom. The whole event was such an amazing cultural experience; I feel very fortunate to have experienced it.
The first ceremony was a Haldi ceremony for Sanjeev, where family and friends rubbed tumeric paste on him as a type of purification in preparation for the wedding. There were other offerings as well such as fruit and rice that they sprinkled on his head. Afterward we had an amazing South Indian meal which was on a banana leaf and with various dishes dropped on it by the `caterer`guys. I thought the food would never stop coming, and as a joke told them that Jose wanted more when they would come by even though he was also ready to burst. That would be why Sanjeev calls me `dewa` which means devil in his language ``kannada.`` :)
The next ceremony was the `mehendi`ceremony where the bride Diana, a Colombian-Winnipegger, received her henna tatoos. Two men were hired to draw the intricate designs on her hands/arms while friends and family watched and of course ate more food., All of us Canadian girls got designs as well which was really cool. 3 weeks later I still have remnants of them. Corrine, if you are reading this, this will remind you of the time in rez when you dyed my hair with henna without gloves and it took weeks for it to come off, LMAO!
The last ceremony was the haladi for Diana which was the same as what had been done for Sanjeev days before. And yet again more delicious food. All of the ceremonies were in different houses of Sanjeev`s family and they were all wonderful hosts. We were truly treated like royalty..I can't say enough about how lovely they were.
In between the ceremonies we took a day trip to a refuge for dancing bears. The organization is called Wildlife SOS which you should definitely check out. For hundreds of years a certain group of people in India have bought sloth bear cubs from poachers and then trained them to dance for money on the street. I won't go into the gruesome details but they weren't treated well and are now protected by the government. These bears are so sweet and are now able to roam freely on this reserve for the rest of their lives. It is quite the operation with vets and staff who know the bears by name and give them excellent care. It was a sad but touching experience and a cause that I will continue to support.
Now the wedding...On the big day we all got dressed in our beautiful sarees; mine of course was purple and I loved it. Sanjeev`s sister in law Anu lent it to me and was very concerned about how it looked. I think it was wrapped 3 times before it was on right and throughout the day I would see her stern look and quick hand readjusting me. I started calling her `boss`after that. The wedding ceremony was filled with rituals, and coconuts, rice, and flowers were plentiful. Close family and the Canadian contingent got to stand up on stage surrounding Sanjeev and Diana so we got to see it all. For not knowing the language or understanding the traditions Diana was a real trooper during all that. And after that.. more food!
There was a more casual cocktail party the next day but here was no going hard for us as we were leaving on our tour the next morning.
Next post..the post wedding tour around South India...
This is amazing devva and a nice way to reminisce about our holiday .look forward to ur next post
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