If you want to feel famous, come to India with a camera

The last couple of days have been AWESOME.  On Monday we got to go downtown and buy some indian clothes.  Can I just rant for a minute about how much I love wearing a salwar-kameez??  Wow.  SO comfy.  I could wear these every day for the rest of my life probably.  They are basically just really comfy drawstring leggings with a long shirt/dress thing on top… basically my favorite thing to wear at home anyway!  It’s incredible though, they come in seriously every color and pattern, and they have every color imaginable of leggings.  AND they are so cheap!!  3-6 dollars for the shirt and 4-5 for the leggings.  (see photos below)

I have also survived 3 seafood meals, and I am ok!! They actually haven’t been that bad… I think the spices of the curry cancel out the fishy taste so I have been able to eat everything ok and I am getting accustomed to the taste.  Not bad!

Yesterday I finally got the courage to go out and photograph.  And let me tell you, it takes a LOT of courage.  Hah!  If you are shy, never come to India.  There are next to no white people in this town, so just being white draws a lot of attention.  Whenever we walk anywhere, everyone stares and if they have enough courage they say hi and come up and shake your hand like you’re famous.  All of the little kids always come running and they all say ‘hello! My name is so-and-so what’s your name?’ and they all shake your hand or touch you.  When I pulled out my camera and started walking around, all of these little kids came running and started posing for me, hahaha.  It is SO easy to photograph people here… I am astonished at how much they love getting their picture taken!  Out of the all of the photos I’m posting today, most of the ones with people looking at the camera were people who asked me to take their photo.  I got to photograph all day, and it was AWESOME.  Below are a bunch of my favorites from the day.

I love indian culture, obviously, but probably my least favorite aspect of their culture is Hinduism.  Ok, I know that may seem like an oxy-moron.  Their culture basically is Hinduism.  I mean, I love learning about the belief system… I guess it’s just all of the gods that I’m not that interested in learning about.  So yesterday we went to all of these Hindu temple and we had Brahmin priests and priestesses taking us around and performing all of the rituals.  Below is a photo of Emily and I with a Brahmin priestess at one of the temples. (it's obviously 2 photos put in one, haha... Doctor Nuckolls is not the greatest at taking photos...)

another in the car

The first two temples were alright… they were interesting, but I mostly just wandered around with my camera and photographed people around there.  The third one though, was… wow.  Astonishing!!  We weren’t allowed to bring cameras in—which was good for me.  It was a really old temple and tons of people were inside.  Krishnayya our program director here in India has connections to EVERYONE, including the King, so we got special permission to go all the way inside to the most sacred part.  Indians have to pay a couple hundred dollars to get into that part, which is a lot for them.  The inside is all real silver and gold, it was beautiful.  We participated in the little rituals such as drinking the water, putting on the bindi (that’s the dot on the forehead) etc., but my favorite part was all of the Brahmin Priests.  They chant throughout the temple and help usher the people through, help them do the rituals, and bless them.  They were incredible.  They had such a special spirit to them… they were so real and normal and human, but so above the world.  We saw a lot of people who had recently shaved their heads which is another ritual they do there.  It is like a covenant they make, when one of the gods answers their prayer they shave their head in gratitude.  It is beautiful.

India is seriously beautiful.  There are so many incredible people here who are so devoted to their beliefs.  I have been thinking a lot about my project and exactly what it is that I’m going to be studying.  I already had an idea, but I have kind of moved around on what specifically I’m going to do.  I decided that I’m going to focus on self-mastery.  In most religions and especially Indian religions, self-control or self-mastery is practiced in one form or another.  Self-denial is a really big theme in Indian culture and religions, so I’m going to study it in different aspects of indian culture such as yoga, meditation, dance, music, and fasting, and also speak with people from all different religions here about it.  I’m really excited, because it means I get to study with a lot of different gurus… I will be taking classes on all of those things—yoga, meditation, singing and dance, and I will be interviewing a lot of people.  This morning our Telugu teacher came over and Krishnayya introduced me.  I told Krishnayya earlier that I wanted to learn how to sing, and he told me our Telugu teacher would teach me because he's a professional vocalist!  So I met him, and he made me sing something for him. Haha! Ok, I love singing, and people hear me sing all the time when I’m just singing to myself or whatever.. but I have never had to sing something in front of someone all by myself, knowing that they are paying attention to how I sing.  It was so intimidating!!  But they told me I have a good voice, and he will teach me how to use it.  We’ll be doing a class now every Monday and Thursday after Telugu and Emily and Rebecca will be doing it with me.  I’m so excited! :)

Anyway… all is well.  These are going to be an awesome 4 months... I already feel like I have learned a lot and I have also been having some really good gospel studies.  I feel like it's going to be a very 'enlightening' 4 months.  Yesterday before we went to the temples, a therapist named Doctor Ramalingaswami (yes that’s really his name) came over and spoke to us about Hindu belief and self-mastery… it was so interesting and I know that a lot of the things he was saying were true.  He talked about mastering the mind and how much power that gives us, and how we can master it through all 5 of our senses.  Anyway… I’ll be studying a lot about that.  He is a very intelligent man and I’m excited to have the opportunity to speak with many others like him who will have a lot to tell me. 

Here are some of my favorite photos from yesterday… enjoy!!

auto-rickshaws... we ride in these all the time when we don't want to walk

hahaha

everything here is like half Telugu and half English... we have no idea what this advertisement is about.  Sex and Mind Power...?? hahaha

richshaw driver taking a nap

this GORGEOUS bird caws all day long and gladly wakes us up in the morning.  I heard all of these bird sounds the first few days and thought maybe they were some type of pretty tropical bird... nope.  Just big ugly black crows!

hahahaha I'm sorry, I just had to. Don't worry, you can't see anything

There are dying dogs in the streets here too, but it's NOTHING like South America. Hah!

What the...? hahaha.  There are these huge hokey statues all over the coast!! It's hilarious

impossible here.

all people wanting me to take their picture...

 (look in the windows)

in the first Hindu temple we went to

at the second Hindu temple

beggers beggers. I had to pay 10 rupees for him to let me photograph him.. hah.  It's ok, the 15 cents was worth it.  This was at the third Hindu temple

shaving the heads with a straight blade

 this is my favorite photo of the day

I know these 2 are similar I just liked them both and couldn't pick one!

we thought that dog was a statue.. haha

the same beggar from before 

a little village up in the mountains by the temple

 adorable kids, I just might bring one home with me :) (jk Mom, don't worry)

That's all folks! Chau!

Somebody pinch me... am I really here?? (this is going to be a long one)

(Sunday night)

Every once in awhile the thought pops back into my head ‘I’m in India’.  What??? Am I really?!? Haha.  The thought of it blows my mind, not necessarily because it’s such a different and random place to be, but more so because I’ve dreamed of coming here for so long that I can’t believe I’m actually here.  It’s like a dream!

India is everything I always dreamed of and more (don’t hold that cheesy line against me).  Between flying to Atlanta, Dubai, and then here, I spent over 24 hours in the air—well worth it!

The trip was fine, everything went smoothly.  Unfortunately we were in the Dubai airport at night so we didn’t really get to see anything, but it was awesome.  There were so many different cultures there, and it was fascinating to me because I have never been to this part of the world before so all of the cultures were new.  This part of the world (the middle east/south asia) has such a mysterious vibe to it.  It’s like you can look at the people and just see in their eyes this mystery… something they are holding inside.  A secret, a past, a lot of pain and a lot of wisdom.  An understanding that I don’t think I will ever have.  In the airport we saw a lot of Muslims of course.  A woman walked past me.  She had everything covered apart from her eyes… you know, those headdresses that only leave open that rectangle for the eyes.  She looked at me as I looked at her and our eyes met for just a second.  I don’t know what it was but there was something about her eyes that grasped all of my attention in that moment and held me in.  Something mysterious and deep.  You know that feeling you get when you watch movies that are set here… with that beautiful but eerie music in the background and all of the people walking through the dirt roads.  That’s how it feels here.

When we flew from Dubai to India we landed first in Hyderabad and those who were leaving got off the plane.  The rest of us stayed for an hour while others boarded to head to Vizag.  I looked outside the window and kept exclaiming to myself ‘I’m in India, I’m in India, I’m in India’.  Isn’t that such an enchanting word? India. Ahhh. :)

We flew to Vizag and the plane made a full circle around the city in order to land.  It is BEAUTIFUL here.  Incredible.  It’s a jungle and a city and a coast all in one.  There are mountains and hills covered in thick jungly trees, with a beach and ocean and port filled with big ships, and then a crowded city full of color and energy.  We got off the plane and they almost didn’t let all of my camera gear pass through—haha.  They had to have 3 different people look at my passport and ask me questions as to why I had so many cameras and what I was going to do with them.  We finally got through and Doctor Nuckolls and Krishnayya were there ready to pick us up with big flowered leis to put around our necks.  As we drove to our house, my face was glued to the window.  The city and streets were just as I had always imagined… crowded and busy and completely crazy.  No one obeys traffic laws and there is not a split second of silence where a horn is not being honked.  There are motorcycles, cars, pedestrians, and of course rickshaws in the street all at the same time in any given moment.  The rickshaws they have here are called auto-rickshaws.. they are almost like little 4-wheelers or motorcycles with a car sitting area built on top, and they are used like taxi’s because they are fast but much less expensive. 

Vizag, and I imagine India in general, is such an enchanting place.   It is so colorful, energetic, and exciting.  There is movement everywhere you look.  You could sit and stare for hours and hours and never get bored, because you will always see something interesting. 

It is sensational in all forms… by that I mean it arouses all senses.  The smells, the sounds, the sights, the tastes, and the feelings.  The best way to describe my experience so far is to explain each one of them:

TASTE and SMELL: It smells and tastes like spices everywhere.  The food—as I imagined—has so far been my biggest challenge.  My very first meal in India, naturally, had to be seafood (I hate seafood, by the way. Haha.)  It actually wasn’t too bad though, it was just a shrimp curry and I managed to get it down ok.  After that was the worst part.  They gave me this thing.. in fact, I don’t even remember what they call it here in Vizag but in the rest of India it’s called Pan.  It’s this little leaf and rolled up inside are all kinds of spices… but like, sweet spices I guess you could say (apparently they also put tobacco in them).  You just pop the whole thing in your mouth and eat it.  Luckily one of the other girls here Emily had already eaten hers earlier and she warned me, and told me to chew slowly.  I popped it into my mouth and then with the first chomp an explosion of taste came, haha.  The only way I can describe the taste is that it tastes kind of like an indian perfume would smell like.  It wasn’t necessarily a bad taste, just so different than anything I had ever tasted and SO overwhelming that I literally had to stop myself from throwing up 4 times while I was eating it.  I chewed as slow as possible but it was almost unbearable.  I asked for some water and used the water to quickly swallow down the rest… and the taste wouldn’t go away after that.  I then tried to wash it down with this drink called Boost.. it’s kind of like ovaltine or malta, it’s really good.  But it was so hot that it totally burned my tongue.  When we went to bed later, my sweet mint gum basically saved my life to get the taste out, haha.  Here’s to many more similar experiences to come!!  What an adventure! (lunch today however was delicious by the way.  It was spicy… not too spicy but more spicy than I ever eat, and I think Dhurga our cook is probably toning it down to ease us in haha.  It was rice with chicken and goat and I ate most of it without any problem). 

By the way… have you ever tried to eat rice with your hand??  Yeah.  I had learned sometime before that they eat with their hands here (or should I say hand because the left hand is never used… that’s what they use to wipe when they use the bathroom haha), but somehow I had kind of forgotten about that.  I figured that we would use our hands every now and then when it was practical.  Nope.  They use their hands always!  Well, almost always.  For some reason they give us a fork for our dessert of fruit, but we eat our meal of rice and meat with our hand. Haha… that will take some getting used to!  Anyway… the food really is delicious, it’s just so different still that it will take me some time I’m sure before I absolutely love it.  I do however love walking through the streets and into our house smelling those indian spices everywhere… it’s awesome.

SIGHT: Like I said, the roads here are crazy.  Even crazier than Argentina—if you can imagine!  There are basically no laws and everyone just goes where they want.  You have to just be very aware of what you’re doing at all times in order to avoid accidents.  The people are aggressive and they don’t form lines… they basically just form crowds and get into wherever they’re going as soon as they can depending on how much they push haha.  All of the streets we have been on are paved… the city is actually more developed than I thought it would be.  The poverty hasn’t hit me yet, maybe because I haven’t seen a lot of it yet but so far it hasn’t been worse than anything I’ve ever seen before.  The streets are dirty but not any more than I imagined… they throw their trash on the side of the road here and burn it like they do in Argentina.  There are little shops and venders all over the place.  I haven’t seen many animals… only a few dogs, lizards, and a cow in the street—hah.  I hear though that every once in awhile there’s a camel that will cross in front of our house.  I guess in order to see more of the exotic animals like elephants and tigers you have to go a little bit further south. 

Our house is very surprisingly nice.  We live in a little town just on the border of Vizag (you literally go up the street a block and over one and it’s considered Vizag again) called Lawson’s Bay Colony.  It’s supposedly the richest area around here.  There are 2 floors plus a roof, and our rooms are on the 2^nd floor.  You take your shoes off before entering, which I love.  I am actually just hanging out in a room for now, because when Kelsey (another girl who spent the summer here) leaves next week I’m going to take her room so I can have part of the balcony looking over the street.  Her room also has a full length mirror and best of all—a real toilet.  Yep.. this is my current toilet. :)

Kind of a problem when I can’t pee squatting.  Is this too much info?? Sorry.  I just can’t.  I tried my whole mission.  Can’t do it.  Hahaha.  Its ok… at least it’s not 100% in the ground… there’s a little step there, you know, and I just sit on it instead of stand and squat hahaha.  Not too bad. J  The mattresses are on the floor—no real bed.  To be honest, I REALLY love it.  It feels so much more simple and organic, and I just might do this when I get home haha.  Here is my bed with my beautiful tent on top (aka mosquito net). 

I have really loved sleeping here.  And the best part… I have yet to find one bug inside the house.  For real!  The only critter I have seen inside (besides a few mosquitos at night) is a lizard, and those don’t bother me.

Unfortunately I haven’t gotten a chance to walk around a ton yet.  Jet lag is still killing me.  I’ll go to take a quick afternoon nap (they do a siesta here by the way which I also didn’t know) and I end up sleeping until 8:00 at night.  Tomorrow I need to force myself to go out instead of sleep so I can gradually get into a good sleep pattern here.  The nice thing is that it’s so easy to wake up at 6:00 am because the sun is already up.

SOUNDS: one of my favorite parts of India so far… are the sounds.  When I fall asleep I always wake up to all of these awesome sounds and remember again that I’m in India.  It’s usually a mixture between a dog barking, horns honking from the distance, our neighbor’s tv, clanking of dishes and washing buckets etc., and the Krishna temple across the street playing their ritual music that they do 3 times a day.  I am constantly hearing that Indian flute… gahh, I love it.  It all reminds me of any indian movie—especially Slumdog Millionaire—and all of the typical background sounds.  That’s how it really is here, I love it.  They speak Telugu here and I actually am very surprised at how little English I hear.  Most everyone speaks English but they don’t necessarily speak the whole language… I mean, most of them know how to communicate in it, but instead they all speak in Telugu and throw in English words here and there.  So in any given conversation if you listen closely you can pick out the English words and understand a little bit.  I am pretty sure they do that in all of India with whatever other language they speak.  I remember when I was learning Hindi I was surprised by how many English words were a part of their language… but I guess that’s what happened when they were ruled by England for so long.  We went to church and the nice teachers were constantly going back and forth between Telugu and English translating to make sure we also understood.  It was great.  :)

FEELINGS: well… what you literally feel here is humidity.  The heat has not been bad at all, but it has been definitely humid and sometimes it makes you feel a little claustrophobic because it’s hard to breathe.  I love it though, the humidity is great.  I don’t think the heat will be too bad while I’m here because summer is already passed.  As far as how I feel… I am loving every minute.  The culture is so extremely different that I am still uncomfortable and I love it.  With as much as I have studied about India and read and watched and heard and seen, I still am in culture shock!  Not because anything is really different… in fact, it is just as I thought it would be.  I guess I just still can’t believe that I am actually here!  Haha.  But it is amazing… seriously a dream come true.  Like I said, this place has such a sensational and mysterious feel to it.  It’s so different and interesting that one cannot help but wonder what’s hiding beneath all of the people here.  It really is enchanting.  A country so vibrant that I was drawn in way before I even came here (sorry Mom and Dad… I told you my India obsession wasn’t just a phase! Haha).  I don’t know what it is… but I think this place will never cease to excite me and leave me wanting more.  Now I can’t wait to go out and start uncovering those mysteries!  Real photos to come soon!

Citizens of the World

(this was supposed to be posted Friday night but I didn't get to post it before we boarded)

Well here I am, sitting at the airport here (Dubai):

ready to head out to this beautiful place (Vishakapatnam):

I can't believe it's actually here... I have been looking forward to this day for many years!  

I feel like I need to thank everyone who made this trip possible... especially my parents.  I owe literally my entire life to them, and everything else.  They sacrifice SO much for me so that I'm able to have incredible life experiences and accomplish my dreams and goals.

Soooo why again am I going to India?  Well, basically to study, and share what I learn.  I am a Photography major and an Anthropology minor.  The project I will be doing in India mixes the two... it will be a study through observation and conversation, and a portrayal of this data through photographs, videos, and writing.  

I want to learn truth.  When someone learns truth, they want to share it.  That is why I love photography... especially anthropological photography and photojournalistic photography.  When I learn something or see something or feel something, I am changed.  And I can portray that thing that changed me in an interesting way through art that touches people and causes a change in them, too.  Thus, my photography, I hope, is a testimony of all the things I believe in, hope for, feel for, and know.  I photograph people because I believe they are the most incredible of God's creations.  It is my testimony that God not only exists, but that he loves us and has given us an incredible amount of responsibility, power, and divinity.  Because we are made in His image, and have the potential to be like Him.  Each and every one of us.

I think that people need to be listened to.  When we allow ourselves to be humble and selfless and start to recognize the worth of each human being and the value of their experiences, their complexes, their personalities, the things that they believe and love and know and have to say, I think we learn more about God and His plan--why we are here, what our purpose is, what our potential is, and really how connected we all are.

So, I love documentaries.  Seriously, love them.  Especially those that try to be less biased and are really just open to whatever truth there is (don't get me wrong, I love all of those Nat Geo documentaries too despite the hokey dramatic music and how much they push their theories--whether they be true or not, haha.  There are things to be learned in everything!).  My favorite type of documentary are the social/cultural ones... the kind that make you take a step back and look at humanity and the world and the things that go on.  I may need to write a list here soon of my favorites.  However, I watched one the other night... (well, I watched like 6 within the last couple of nights, but this one was my favorite!! haha) it's called 'The Listening Project'.

This guy goes all around the world to ask people what they think of the United States.  For a country that occupies only 4% of the world's population but uses 40% of the world's resources, we sure can be selfish here in the EEUU and it's so easy to not even realize what goes on outside.  Ok ok I'm not trying to be trite here and say 'there are starving kids in Africa'--despite the truth to that phrase.  We all hear it all of the time, but do we really do anything about it?  Well, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, I think most of the time we are just too overwhelmed with the countless number of ways to help people outside of the US and we never know where to start or which is the best or most effective, etc.  So we go on with our busy lives, kind of just avoiding the fact that there's a whole world outside of our borders filled with people who have opinions, experiences, and things to say--just like us.  

What's interesting is that most people think of the US as 'rich'.  That is their response when someone asks them 'what do you think of when you hear the word America?'.  I noticed this a lot when I was serving a mission in South America.  The United States is filled with opportunity to progress, a better life, and rich selfish snobs. Hahaha.  At least that's what a large part of the world thinks.  I don't think we have the duty to help the rest of the world just because we are the United States--the 'high and mighty'.  That doesn't matter.  I think we have the duty to help others because we are human beings--and there are no divisions between us.  Only divisions we all create on our own.

Anyway... this post is getting long and I am getting really preachy so I should get to my point, hah.  In this documentary there were two lines that I really liked.  The first one is this: "God has given you two ears and one mouth--to listen more than you speak".  Well look at that... some truth right there.  It's true.  Why do we have two ears but only one mouth? God's a pretty smart guy, I'm pretty sure he could have made us however he wanted.  Two ears.... the importance of listening.  It is SO important.  We can never change or learn or progress, if we never open our ears along with our minds and our hearts, and listen.

The second quote goes like this: "We are not just citizens of our own country, but citizens of the world".  Ok so I am really big on diversity.  I love it.  Ask anyone who knows me--they will tell you how much I would be totally ok with marrying someone from a different country, haha.  I always notice differences between people.  Not because I like to segregate them... I still view them as equal, but I think we can learn so much from diversity and so I seek it out.  For some reason, where a person is from causes huge divisions.  Not necessarily the city or town or state... I mean, those too.  But especially the country.  Because that's big-scale.  Look at the whole world, and it's divided into countries.  To me it's one of the largest divisional groups (of course there are continents and race and language and ethnicity, etc. which all tie into this).  I made so many friends from other countries when I lived in Argentina and I loved every single one of them.  I never felt like any of us were unequal.  We were just human beings.  But we were still from totally different parts of the world.  We grew up with different experiences in different situations and different languages and races, etc.... we were all humans, but we were all different.  We all had our 'home' or the place where we belonged.  This phrase.... "citizens of the world", takes down that division.  I never looked at it that way.  Traveling to other countries I always recognized that 'I am from the United States'.  Have you ever thought of taking that division down, and seeing yourself being from 'the world' instead?  I am just another citizen of the world.. just like the rest.  In the same category as everyone else.  What a connecting trait!  I am not just a citizen of Farmington, or Utah, or the United States.  I am not even just a girl who also sees Argentina as a home, and will soon see India as a home too.  I am a citizen of the world.  The whole world is my home, and it is everyone else's too.  We are all so different, yet SO alike. Incredible how things work out, right?

So anyway... that is why I'm going to India.  I have never met these people before, I don't know them at all.  I am going to die every time I don't understand their accent and feel so bad when I ask them 7 times to please repeat themselves, haha.  I know I am going to experience great things and also be exposed to shocking situations such as extreme poverty and cultural differences.  But I am going because these people are citizens of the world, just like me, and I believe that they deserve to be listened to because they have something important to say that can benefit me and the rest of the citizens of this world. And I just can't wait to hear what exactly it is that they have to say. :) 

p.s. here are a few treasures... some of my favorite photographs of all time by some of my favorite photographers of all time, in one of my favorite places of all time! :)  Can't wait to get to know and photograph these people and places myself! 

MARK TUCKER

MICHAEL KENNA

STEVE MCCURRY