Shillong

Journal week 9

Shillong

The morning I went to Shillong I got up around 6:00 am to finish packing and then got in the cab to go to the airport.  This airport ride was interesting because it was at a normal hour.  The last couple times I had gone I was picked up at 3 or 4 am. It was nice seeing the sun.

The plane to Shillong would last about 4 hours with a quick layover in Calcutta.  The plane boarded late, and then I found out I was a little taller than most Indians (this being most noticeable by how my legs hit the seat in front of me).  When the place arrived in Calcutta we had to stay in the plane.  It was an interesting development, because I was so used to de-planeing for layovers.  During this time I searched my pockets for my wallet, phone, and keys.  Unfortunately my phone was not in the place I remember it.  I quickly hit the panic button.  I frantically searched around me; under the seats and in the cushions.  I asked the people in front and behind me.  They all said no phone.  After about 6 min. of sweating it out the guy in front tapped me on the shoulder and said he found it.  Finally.  That was a close one.

The ride from Calcutta to Guwahati was only about an hour.  I went to get my checked bag then I walked outside to find the cab.  The guy was waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper.  I felt nice and important.  The guy’s name was Morning Star Sumer.  I love that name.  He was a local from Shillong and on the long drive to Shillong he told me about the local state.  The drive was on a skinny rode.  It was very winding and scary.  Morning Star was very skilled at driving so the ride wasn’t that bad.

Shillong is a very large town.  It was far bigger than I expected.  The place I was staying was located on a sprawling university campus.  I was in the guesthouse.  It was very nice.  There was plenty of room, and plenty of comfort.  The problem was that my phone did not work at all.  I could not call Amena, or Antonia, or anyone.  I was now stranded about 30 min out of town in a very nice guesthouse.  Could be worse I thought.  The lobby luckily had WIFI and it was really fast.  I got out the computer and e-mailed every contact I had so they would know I arrived.

Saturday came and Antonia showed up at the guesthouse around 10 AM.  That was very kind of her.  She had been trying to call me but since the phone didn’t work there was never an answer.  We walked around the campus a bit, then we called Morning Star to see if he could take us to some sites near the city.  He was busy so we just called another cab.

By 11:00 we were headed to elephant falls.  It was a nice location. Honestly a little less dramatic than I was told it would be, but nice nonetheless.  We walked around and took some pictures for a little as we caught up on practicum stories.  She has had a very interesting experience thus far also.

Next we went to Shillong peak.  It was more of a hill overlook.  From here you could see a panoramic view of the entire city.  It was really nice.  Shillong is nestled in the hills of the countryside.  It is spread out over quite a large area.  You can see pictures of it on facebook.

By this time I was getting tired and so was Antonia so we decided to get something to eat.  We went to City Dhaba restaurant.  There was actually a wait.  I guessed the restaurant must be very good if there was a wait.  Fortunately my suspicions were correct the food was delicious.  I heard the food in NorthEast India was different than that of South India.  Funny thing was I ordered Chinese food so it was more like Magic Wok back in California.

After dinner I went back to the guesthouse.  Antonia and Amena and I had made plans to go to the same church service.  They told me to meet them at the City Dhaba restaurant at 12:20 PM.  I told them I could do that.  All I needed to do was get a cab, and I didn’t have to get up early.

Sunday

Sunday started out nice and slow.  It felt like a holiday.  I ate breakfast, checked my e-mail, and watched the University of Michigan football game online.   Around 11:00 A.M. I left the guesthouse to go find a cab out by the gate.

The gate was a ten-minute walk.  When I got to the gate I noticed there was about 20 people already waiting there for a cab.  I thought maybe if I walked down the hill a bit I could get a cab without as much competition.  I got about a quarter mile down the road and realized there was no way I was going to get a cab down there.  I walked back up to the crowd and asked one of the guys if that was the place to stand to get a cab.  He looked at me reluctantly and shook his head.  I assumed that meant I was correct.

One cab came up the hill and stopped by the crowd.  The people quickly rushed up to the cab and a bunch of them got in.  The car sat about 5 people but more like 9 got in.  It was a little intimidating.  I was praying that enough cabs would come by so I wouldn’t have to fight for a seat.  Cabs did not come.  Every 10 min one went by but one out of every two stopped.  Each time the scene was the same.  A crowd jumped in before I could ask the cab if they were going where I was going.  One cab did stop and listen to me, but as I opened the door to get in the cab he told me to get out because he was not going where I wanted to go.

This was frustrating.  I did not have a phone; I did not have a ride.  It was 12:00.  I was not going to make it.  I had to make a decision on what to do so I decided to walk back to the guesthouse to make a phone call.  By the time I got there I was already late for my meeting.  I asked the front desk guy if I could use the phone but he said no.  He told me that I could use a pay phone that was located in the next building over.  His directions were very vague, and I ended up walking all the way around the building sort of blazing a trail around the back.  I could find no phone.

I walked back to the guesthouse a little defeated.  I asked the security guard this time what the deal was.  He said, “oh yeah, it’s Sunday.”  I thought that such information would have been very helpful before sending me out on an impossible mission.  Again I asked him if I could use his mobile phone.  He said there was no credit on it, and that it would not work.  I said there must be a way to call to an outside number here, but he insisted that there was not.  I looked at the wall blankly and said, “so what the heck am I supposed to do now?”

After about 10 seconds of silence the guard said,  “we should use the office phone.”  What the heck!  Why wasn’t this offered the first time?  It was pushing 12:35 at this time and they were probably wondering where I was.  I went into the office with the guard and made the call to Antonia from there.  I explained to her what happened and they then decided to come out a get me.  I wish the office phone would have been offered 30 min. ago.

When Amena and Antonia and Amena’s son Keif came and got me it was about 12:50.  The drive back into town took about 20 minutes.  We were supposed to go eat lunch then make an ordination service of a friend of Amena’s.  The time was close so we looked for a restaurant near the church.  As we drove by the location Amena had in mind we realized, again, that it was Sunday and the place was closed.

We all chuckled as we realized how humorous the morning’s events had unfolded.  The whole purpose of having me come in to town was to save time; instead it did the opposite.  We quickly decided to just go to church and buy some chips to hold us over until the end of the service.  We reached the Presbyterian church around 1:25.  The service started at 1:30.  We were on time for the service, which made me happy.  As Antonia and I took a deep breath we simultaneously looked at the program and realized the entire service would be done in Khasi.  Just another fun twist.  We would definitely understand nothing going on in the service.

The service was nice.  It was also very long under the circumstances.  1hour and 45 minutes of a foreign language were taxing on my will to stay awake.  When the service ended I realized that I was also very hungry.  Fortunately we were going to the home of the man who was just ordained for a banquet.

When we reached I realized that the banquet would have plenty of food.  There were 5 or 6 of the buffet style hot serving trays set up on a long table in the patio area.  We sat down in the living room and met all the people we had just seen at the church.  The pastor that gave the main message, the newly ordained pastor, some of the visiting pastors, and other friends and family members. Everyone was very nice.

Around 3:50 Keif told Amena that we had to leave if we were going to make the church service.  I then remembered that we were going to her normal church service at 4:00.  The food was not quite ready yet, but we had to leave.  Oh well, I guess another couple hours would be fine without a meal.  This day was just a crazy mess, but I was really enjoying it for some reason.

We hopped in the car again and drove the steep and curvy roads that were beginning to define Shillong for me.  We arrived at the next Presbyterian church around 4:05.  The service had already started.  We grabbed a couple bulletins and searched for an open seat.  The only ones were obviously in the front row.  It’s always interesting walking in late to a gathering and having to walk in front of everyone, especially when you are the only one that looks different to everyone else.

This service was in English and was very enjoyable.  The pastor was nice too when I spoke to him after the service.  It was now time for us to return to the home of the ordained pastor we had previously left.  This time when we got there we went straight for the buffet.  It was lovely.

I ate until I was content.  The food was delicious, and interesting at the same time.  My favorite was the “pig’s head.”  It tasted like a fatty pork, but I could only imagine what it looked like before it was cooked.  We all laughed at the craziness of the events of the day.  Overall we all thought it was good.  It was a Sunday I would not soon forget.

Monday

Monday I asked Morning Star via Amena to come get me around 10:00.  I woke up, showered, ate breakfast and sat outside to wait for him by 10:00 am.  He arrived around 10:30.  He then told me that we should go meet Amena at her office around 10:40.  So we did.

Amena worked in the history department of the university.  Her office was very easy to find and she was waiting for us inside at the allotted time.  She then took Morning Star and I on a short campus walk and then to tea.  We talked a bit then she went back to her work

My plan for the day was to keep things very low key.  Morning Star, however, thought there was a couple places that I had to see so he arranged to take me to those places.  One was the dam and one was the sacred forest.  All I planned for the day was to see the city center areas, and go to a bakery named “Carmel” to get a cake.

The dam morning took me to was guarded by military personnel at the entrance.  There was no one else there.  It was a little interesting.  He knew some people who could get us into the property so we were allowed in.  The road down to the dam was long and winding.  The dam blocked a sizeable river and appeared to be the Shillong water supply location.  The dam itself was good size too.  I walked up to it and on top of it, and down some winding stairs to a catwalk that took us over the dam controls.  It was very interesting to get that close.

The drive up seemed shorter than the drive down.  On the way we passed some cattle grazing, some dogs wandering, and some goats frolicking about.  Seeing such things had become common place here.  Sometimes I don’t even notice anymore.  At the top we drove onto the sacred forest.

The forest was not that far away from the dam.  We drove down a small, narrow road until we got to a toll booth and a gate.  The toll booth was filled by an elderly man who took his time walking to the window of the car.  He spoke with Morning Star for a little while and then lifted the gate.  We drove into what looked like a field and then parked.

The forest represented a very abrupt end to the rolling plain.  It was like a black and white cookie; the plain and the forest the way the trees created a definite line where the grassy hills ended and the forest began.  We walked along the edge of the forest for a ways to find an appropriate entry point.  When we found one Morning Star lead me right in.

The edge of the forest looked very thick.  Upon entering I realized the forest was not that dissimilar to the forest I remember in Michigan.  The main difference were the great amount of monolith rock formations.  The rocks were not all that big but there were definitely put there purposefully, and there were a lot of them.  We didn’t walk for that long or that far before we looped back around to head back.  Morning Star blazed a trail down a hill and up a stream to lead me back out of the forest.  The sacred forest was honestly a little anti-climactic for me.  But it was also still fun, and I was glad to see it.

Now Morning Star and I were heading back into town to look around.  He took me to Bara Bazaar, and Police Bazaar, and Carmel.  Again I was expecting something different than I saw in each location.  But again I was glad I got to see them all.  I returned home fairly tired, ate dinner in the dining room and went to bed.

Tuesday

Today I simply wanted to do nothing.  I told Amena that I would stop by and let her show me a little more of the campus.  I really enjoyed talking with Amena.  She is extremely intelligent and fun to learn from.   We toured the library and some more of the science buildings.  This chat was nice and relaxing.

I returned to the room to eat lunch then take a nap.  The rest of the day used up by sleeping and reading.  It was the perfect day.

Wednesday

Today Morning Star picked me up at 5:45 AM.  We then went into town to pick up Antonia and Keif before went to Cherrapunji.  The drive to Cherra was going to be long, but it was nice that Antonia and Keif were there to going in the conversation.

The first site we came to was a bridge and a lookout over a deep canyon.  The canyon was lined with green. It was a jungle ravine.  So different than anything I see in California.

Morning Star then drove us down the winding road on the edge of one side of the canyon until we reached the first waterfall.  This waterfall was touted as the 4^th highest in the world.  I believe it.  It was dramatic.  Another jungle ravine fell into a river valley.  The river fell of a stone cliff and became mist by the time it reached a turquoise pool at the bottom.

Keif asked if I wanted to climb down the steps to get a better view.  I said, of course.  We all then started walking down the 3 year old, uneven staircase.  The steps were concrete and steep and there were about 300 of them.  When we got to the bottom of the steps. Keif asked if I wanted to trek into the jungle to get closer to the bottom.  I said, of course.  We then trekked down steep, wet, muddy trail into the jungle.

I was having the time of my life.  I love hiking and the scenery here was great.  Unluckily Antonia was wearing old navy style sandals. They were really hindering her ability to get good footing.  But she kept on going.

After a while I Keif said that we should go back so that we will have enough time to do everything else.  I was a little disappointed because we were only about half way to the bottom of the falls, but I understood that it was best to turn around at this time.

The journey up was slightly easier than the journey down, but far more strenuous.  The group had to take several breaks because of the steepness of the trail.  It took about 20 minutes to reach the stairs again, and then another 10 minutes to reach the top.  At the top I bought some American style sour cream and onion chips.  It was tasty.

Next stop was a little 2-acre park.  It overlooked the border to Bangladesh.  The park itself was really nothing dramatic, and a little anticlimactic, but it was nice to look over the cliffs at the Bangladesh border.

Next stop was the cleanest village in India/Asia.  It took another 4 hours to reach this village.  When we got there I noticed that it was very nice.  It still looked like a village in India, but this one had landscaping lining the sidewalks and trash bins in strategic locations.

The village was small, and nestled tightly in the thick jungle.  We walked around a bit then went into a tree house and sat out on a canopy.  We chatted out there for a bit then had some tea and left.  The rush was for the purpose of getting back to Shillong before the curfew started the evening.  The curfew was for the Uranium mining protest in the area by the student organizations.

It took a while to get back into town.  The windows were down and the breeze was very refreshing.  I was finally able to stick my elbow out the window without fear of having it damaged by passing cars.  By the time we reached town it was 6 pm.  We went to Amena and Keif’s house first.  Fortunately Amena had prepared some food and we ate right away because the curfew started at 7 and we still had about 40 min. of driving.  I ate a lot, and I ate quickly.  As I walked out the door Amena gave me food to have later that evening.  It was so nice of her.

I arrived back at the guesthouse around 7:10.  It felt like midnight.  I walked straight up to the room took a shower and then ate the dessert Amena gave me.  I for some reason was not tired any more so I watched two movies.  By midnight I fell asleep.              This day was very exciting, but was mostly spent driving.  Regardless of the length and fatigue it enjoyed the day.

Thursday

Thursday was a wonderful day of rest.  I did nothing but sleep, read, and talk to Amena.  This is just what I needed.