Tuesday, June 8

monkeys and meat.

It struck me today that it’s possible there’s such a thing as too much blogging. I thought about apologizing for so many posts so frequently, but even if you happen to be sorry I write so much, I’m not! ;) haha, it’s really my main journaling effort while I’m here, and I’m doing everything I can to keep my experiences straight.

That being said, I have a couple of experiences to note! J

Number one: took some pictures on campus today! The universities are so nice and it’s always cool to see how no matter where you go, people are people; girls are still girls with a love for shopping and relationship talk, boys are still boys with a need to kill things and feel respected, and college students are still college students with a hunger for acceptance and a desire to be emulated. We all want to be loved, really. [We all want just a little respect.] anyway, after the campus work, we were walking around checking out some of the nicer campuses, and we got to a point that I’d never seen before. I asked Prabin, our leader, if we should continue on our current path or turn back. “Oh, we should probably turn around,” he said nonchalantly, “to keep going straight is only if you want to see more monkeys.”

Ok, let me get something really straight with you guys, lest you make the same mistake as Prabin. There should never be a question in your mind -
I ALWAYS want to see more monkeys!! Needless to say, straight was our direction of choice. There is like a sort of jungle on either side of this pathway which is apparently rather long. We walked a very short bit of it, and only saw about… six monkeys. (six legit monkeys in their natural habitat!!)
Prabin said there’s usually so many more… he even told us to keep our stuff on us so they wouldn’t grab it, which conjured up images of “night at the musem”.

Anyway, that was a stellar ending to our campus work for the afternoon. I also really liked this afternoon because Prabin told me some of his story as we walked through the Delhi University campuses. I love the relationships I’m building here… it’s really cool to see such good people opening up.

You know, I haven’t really been grossed out by India yet. Hadn’t, I should say, until today. Today after some really good conversation with Heather which included a possible job for me right now that’s more specific than “hang out on campuses and watch over the teams” (hope with me it will become a reality!), she commissioned Erica, Tiffany and I to go out and get the necessary food items for cooking dinner. We went to the grocery and got 2 kg of potatoes… I made the clerk bag them and I’m still not sure how much a kg is – I feel like a stupid American with no sense of conversion factors – and then we stopped by the chicken shop for meat.

Wow.

I walked in, greeted by the welcoming and open arms of some skinned and beheaded small animals hanging upside down, with fuzzy tails still attached. The manager was lighting incense just as I entered, and he needed to finish his duties to the painting on his wall before he could acknowledge me. I showed the store clerk what I needed, and we waited for some other person to attend to my every wish. This tiny shop made of marble consisted of a small standing area and a front counter that looked something like a donut shop from the states with a selection of meats displayed in a glass case. Half of the rest of the tiny space was elevated, featuring cutting stumps, huge knives, hanging hooks, and pans of gizzards and blood. As we waited for the man who I later found would be cutting our meat on this elevated section of store, I noticed that the lower section where I stood was rather infested with beetles and the huge Indian ants I’ve become so accustomed to. One man came in the shop while I was waiting, and as the door was closing behind him, something scampered in. yes, a rat ran across my path today, and I couldn’t quite keep myself from jumping and gasping softly. It ran right into the store clerk next to me, and he made an exclamation of his own. I was beginning to wonder how much more of this place I could take, when my meat cutter finally walked in barefoot and sat down on the elevated portion of floor. He measured out 3 kg of boneless chicken, and began to place it on the marble next to him. I noticed that as he measured, he had moved his knife with his foot, and was holding it there in place with his toes, to keep it out of his way, I thought. My thoughts were quickly proven wrong as the man began his deft work on the chicken – slicing and dicing… yes my friends, with his toes.

Though we ate the foot-rat-meat this evening, and it was delicious, I think I may just send Josh to get the meat for us from now on.

i think probably the grossest thing depicted here, though, is the proximity of that man's chai to his panful of grizz. oh, my gracious... what a life.

still healthy in delhi,

julie the monkeylover.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you like monkeys so much. I do not share this love. I love reading your blog and I think if all of us were in India doing such exciting things we would blog just as much :) So blog away!

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  2. that is awesome!
    i know that i have to be skeptical of animals in other countries, but if you go to asiatown garland or east dallas, you can see live animals being turned into food :)

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