Post 7

June 17 -- Another Great Day! I woke up early today to go to the Archana. I was able to get my Ayurvedic meds down too! WooooHoooo! (One of them that I hadn’t tried yet actually tastes like a vinegary kind of alcohol. It’s pretty tasty.) I got free tea at 6:00am (this is offered everyday), called home to wish Dad a belated Happy Father’s Day. He actually said he was a proud father. That was amazing. All I’ve ever wanted to hear from my dad is that he is proud of me. Then I talked to my mom and sister (Melissa) for a little while. Everyone is supporting me in my head-shaving adventure. Except my mom was wise enough not to share this information with my dad.

Later around 8:00am I went to help out with the cows. The guy who is in charge of them is very well educated (mechanical engineer), I’m not sure why he stopped and is now taking care of cows, but I imagine it has to do with something spiritual. He learned a little about palm reading from his father and then learned some on his own, so while the cows were finishing their breakfast, he read my palms. It was interesting. Of course, I felt like most of it he could have guessed just by talking with me, but some of it was surprisingly true and I didn’t feel like it was something he could have guessed at. However, it is probably true for a lot of people and he just got lucky. He was way off with one thing. He said I was good in business. Apparently if your pinky finger curves in toward your ring finger then you are supposed to be good with business. He was very correct in saying that I make impulsive decisions, that I am stubborn, that I will agree with just about anything someone says, even if one day what I agree with contradicts what I agree with the next day, and that I judge people a lot and very harshly and that I do the same with myself. As we were talking and right before he started to read my palm, he made some coffee with fresh cows milk and sugar. He offered me some. It was delicious!! Even if they won’t let me help out with the cows once I start my Ayurvedic treatment, I will still visit everyday if it means I get offered some of that coffee! I’m supposed to take some of my meds with warm milk anyway. :) He also dabbles in reading astrology charts. He says it is a hobby of his. So, just for the fun of it, I’m going to give him my info. He says he has some software that he uses and if I bring him my memory stick, he’ll load the info on there for me. Super nice guy. I asked him if he charged and he said no, it is something he likes to do for friends. The cows were interesting. Some didn’t want to go out “to pasture” (which really means being tied to a coconut tree in a field) and others wanted to almost run there. One cow, who really did not like being pulled by a string through her nose, stepped on my pinky toe (and yes Jesus I was wearing flip flops, but everyone here does -- so flip-flop my flip-flop). I have pretty tough feet and so it didn’t hurt that bad, but I was afraid she might break it. It was red for a while, but now it is fine. The calves are adorable! They like to run and jump on their way out to the coconut trees. They also do not like being taken away from their mothers’ milk! I don’t blame them. It is good!

After that I got a quick breakfast (I was late because we got a late start with the cows) of Raggi Pancakes. It is some sort of non-wheat baking substance that tastes pretty good with butter and Jaggery (a purer form of sugar). Then I went to the temple to meditate and almost fell asleep. I chilled in my room for a little bit and then decided I had some errands to run across the bridge in the little town. So, I went all by myself.

First I stopped and ordered some pants to be made for me from the tailor shop. Then I stopped at the ayurvedic shop to see if they had the one medicine that the ashram ayurvedic shop did not have. Turns out they didn’t, but he wasn’t going to say that... so he sent a kid to go get some (from probably another ayurvedic shop) and asked if I’d like a facial while I waited. His wife owns a beauty shop two doors down from his shop. It was only 200 rupees (about $5), so I said, Sure. Why not? My skin is looking horrible anyway. So she proceeded to apply and wipe away different concoctions and then she took the pimple tool and started attacking my face with it. (Rosanna, remember that tool you introduced me too, it was almost the same thing. The only thing is, I could never inflict this kind of pain on myself.) I felt my whole body get hot from the pain. It was nearly unbearable at times, but she got all that icky white build up crap out! It was amazing. Then she asked (for no extra charge) if I wanted my eyebrows threaded. I have never done threading before and my eyebrows desperately needed attention and it was no charge, so again I said, why not? This was a whole other kind of pain and only slightly more bearable. My eyebrows look GREAT too. They have never looked so nice. She went a little too far on the left brow, but I don’ think it is too obvious right now. After that, I got my medicine (I’ll talk more about this later).

Now, I had worked up an appetite, and so I went to eat at the restaurant between the beauty shop and the ayurvedic shop. I ordered fried chicken and vegetable fried rice. OH MY GOD was it delicious. First of all, this is the first chicken I’ve had in about one week. (Jesus would have been proud of all the meat I ate off it.) Second, the rice was amazing!! There was a curry like sauce to pour over it and it had carrots, onions, cashews, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, and much more, but you get the idea. There were two other side dishes (a salad -- which isn’t really a salad and some other thing I had no idea about but ate it anyway -- kind of like a light and puffy tostada). I wasn’t able to finish it all, so I took the leftovers home and ate them for dinner YUMMY!!!!! The best part is that, with tip included, it was only $2 (80 rps).

Then I stopped by the ATM, got out some cash, and headed back to my room. It was scorching and I was sweating like you wouldn’t believe. I have never, ever, ever sweat so much in my life as I have on this trip.

In the afternoon, I met up with my friends and chatted for a while. Then I took a desperately needed shower. Later I went to the internet cafe. Then, I met up with my friends again, and had a few cups of chai tea. I talked more with the 21 year old guy that lives in the house where we got the tea (just outside the ashram). I like talking to the locals more than the people from the ashram. He told me about how he is about to finish college and then start an internship in chemical engineering. I asked him a lot of questions and he asked me a lot of questions. Nice kid. His English is really good since he gets to practice with all the English speaking foreigners that come to the ashram (which is almost all of them). Then another friend Kevin (who is way into Hinduism) invited me to observe his nightly ritual (there is name for it, but can’t remember what it is now) where he lights a fire and sings to the pictures of his gurus/gods. He has his own little shrine. It was very relaxing to watch. He made some tea for me and we talked a little about his devotion. He likes to talk about it. He especially like to try to shock you with some of his stories. His favorite thing to do is to start telling you something and then stop and say he can’t tell you because it is just indescribable just so that you’ll beg him to try to explain it. Then he will inevitably give in and try to explain some really weird experience he’s had. He nice, and I appreciate the invite, but sometimes he’s just a little too out there for me.

So back to this ayurvedic medicine that is so hard to come by. So, this dude wraps up the bottle in newspaper, takes my money, gives me my change and the medicine. He helps me order food at the restaurant, and while he’s doing this, I open the newpaper (because this is odd -- normally they don’t waste paper and plastic on wrapping if they can help it) and find that the bottle looks used, the label has been taped on, and when I open the cap, I find that there is the seal is broken and punctured. I ask him about this and he tries to explain that he had a big bottle of the medicine and I only needed a little, so he just used this bottle to fill up what I needed. I thought, right now, I know that I don’t have information and/or energy to try to argue with this guy about it. So, when I get back to the ashram the pharmacy guy says it is the right stuff, but that the bottle should be sealed. I ask him if it is safe to take, he says, that’s up to you. Which to me means, NO. So, I’m going back tomorrow and see what I can do. Now that I have this other Indian guys opinion, I have some ammo. They like to treat foreigners as if they don’t know anything, but if I say that this Indian guy said so, then it is hard for them to argue with that. So, this will be interesting.