Chennai - Culture Shock

Yo yo yo whatup?!?!

I know you guys are on Spring Break right now so I hope you all are having a BLAST!! Congratulations to all you EMHS kids on a great job at Swine Week. I heard you all raised over half a million dollars…you make us alumni proud haha! Go DOGS!!!! Also, I want to send out a special prayer for all the Henderson Hills participants on the various mission trips this Spring Break. You all are doing great things and I envy each one of you. Can’t wait to hear what Christ does through you all these next couple days!!

Shout Outs – Mike if you are reading this, I saw that the Giants made a nice move to get Rolle as a free agent. Guess it will be even more impossible for the Cowboys to complete a pass now haha. Also saw that Flacco got a significant receiver upgrade by obtaining Boldin, dude Ravens are gunna be legit next year if that defense stays healthy. Don’t know if you are reading this either Wes, but dude the Bears seem to be upgrading. Peppers AND Chester Taylor!! Dude not good news for the Pack. Your thoughts…Mike and Wes?!?! Miss talking football with you two. Chris – dude yeah we had an awesome time!! I already miss it haha. That is tight you got to see Nate! I can’t wait to get to see him when we are both back and hear what God has done through him while he is there. Haha you and your chacos! You would fit right in on the ship, people here love their chacos and flip flops. They always look at me crazy when I tell them I don’t own a pair of flip flops or chacos. Oh well I’m used to it from you all back in Edmond giving me flak for the same thing. Dude thank you for the continued prayer. The opportunities are presenting themselves more and more as friendships are developing more on the ship. It is amazing what God will use to start a conversation. It’s crazy cool and I greatly appreciate your prayers. Can’t wait to get back and chill with you man!! Love ya bro!

Picture – The picture I have chosen for Chennai was taken in a rickshaw our first night there. Our driver was definitely sketchy and I am still impressed that we were able to reach our destination lol. Austin is the one on the far right and Natalie is on the far left. Then the handsome lad in the middle is your’s truly…ME. Haha jk. But it is me, wasn’t kidding about that part. Oh and I know the image is small but if you want to see a bigger version just click on it.

Ok so India so far is definitely the most unique country I have ever been to, although not in ways that I would have expected. People always talk about how India is extremely filthy and that poverty is the worst in the world. These are both true but again not in ways that I could have expected. India was dirty but there were clean areas. The dirtiest place I ever was happened to be the port where our ship was docked. It was clear that Chennai does not get many tourists via ship so there was no terminal or passenger area. We walked off the ship and were smack in the middle of an industrial port with railroad tracks and shipping containers on both sides. It was about half a mile walk to the port entrance where the rickshaws and taxis were waiting and you definitely got dirty walking there. Especially with the trucks and trains stirring up the dirt and filth, you could literally taste the dirt.

The smells were likewise overwhelming. I have experienced extreme poverty on occasion before but never to this extent. This was not simply one or two areas; this was the majority of places we went. It was extremely humbling and it gave me chills on more than one occasion. I witnessed numerous people living on the street and was bombarded by beggars on more than one occasion.


One thing that greatly surprised me was the layout of the city. I was expecting it to be easy to move about Chennai because of the poverty level but the opposite was true. The layout of the city streets was extremely confusing and very few sidewalks existed within the city. At one point we had arrived at our destination and had planned on walking back to the ship. Well the streets weren’t labeled, the sidewalk like I said was only in select areas, and there was no real method for crossing the busy streets. Crosswalks don’t exist and the traffic lights were only on the major roads. I wasn’t afraid to cross the streets and did so on a few occasions but it was time consuming. Basically we were stuck with taking rickshaws everywhere which was fine, but you just had to barter the driver down to a reasonable price because they were intent on ripping us off for too much money.

There are a lot of cultural practices unique to India, one of which is using your right hand to do everything. You eat your food with your right hand, there is no such thing as using silverware in India. When you pay for something or shake someone’s hand, you always use your right hand; to use your other hand is a sign of great disrespect. This is because your left hand is intended for other practices. An example is using your left hand to wipe yourself after you have relieved yourself. The vast majority of people in India are extremely poor and there are many more important needs than toilet paper. This may sound disgusting but in reality it makes perfect sense. Why waste what little money they have on toilet paper? I don’t know but it makes sense to me. Just another example of something we take for granted. It is also culturally acceptable to relieve oneself in public. It is common to see this. Oh and the beaches in Chennai are not the beaches you would expect. There was no one swimming, no one lying out, work is done on the beach, and the people use the sands as a sort of giant litter box. We were told to not go to the beaches for sanitary reasons and you never know what you might step in lol.

The food in India is also extremely unique. The majority of the country is vegetarian so it was hard to find meat in the city. I understand because it is part of their culture but I am definitely more of a carnivarian than a vegetarian. I mean who doesn’t enjoy a nice piece of meat or some fried chicken?!?!?! Guess that is just the laid back country boy in me haha. The food I enjoyed the most was called DOSA. It was basically a really thin fried crepe with a variety of things in it. The one I ordered was filled with potatoes and some sort of cheese, although some how this turned out to be some sort of green mush; but it tasted good so who really cares lol.

The first day in Chennai I attended an FDP that took a visit to the American consulate in Chennai. This trip was led by my American Politics professor. We got to see the inner working of the consulate and learn the differences between an embassy and a consulate. It was semi interesting and I learned a lot that I didn’t know. The trip happened in the afternoon after lunch.

Upon returning to the ship, I met up with Austin, Kevin, Natalie, Abby, Katie, Rebekah, Flicker, Jimmy, and Scott. It was Bekah’s birthday the next day and we went out to dinner and to see the town for her birthday. We went to a local spot called Mocha that was recommended by my friend JT (thanks girl!!) who took this trip a couple semesters ago, and was also recommended to us by one of the inter-port students. It is not a very big tourist spot and is more of a spot where the locals like to chill. We relaxed at Mocha for a couple hours and by the time we left the place was packed with SASers who had heard about it from rickshaw drivers or the inter-port students as well. Chennai shuts down earlier than most cities. The majority of the city is in bed around 9ish and the few restaurants that stay open past then are shut down around 1130. We were back on the ship before 11 and were able to get a good amount of sleep before our second day.

Day two in India was spent seeing what little there was to see in the city and wandering through one of the local street vendor districts. I hung out with David and Adam for the day. We saw the Chennai Snake Park where they had a variety of local snakes, crocodiles, and other marine life. We enjoyed lunch at a local restaurant and then spent some time wandering through the Perry’s Corner District of the city in search of trinkets or other knick-nacs. The most popular items were definitely pirated DVDs which were the main focus of many of the shacks. The quality of these DVDs is not as good as the ones we found in Vietnam and the vendors were focused more on quantity than quality. While making our way through the shops we met a local man who helped us find certain things that we were looking for and helped show us around and help us not get ripped off by the locals. He was extremely helpful and we enjoyed spending our time with him.

Our time in Chennai was short and we left port the 2nd night to sail to Cochin. If you remember from Japan, we have the option of sailing with the ship between ports in the same country. I chose again to save my money in India so that I can better experience upcoming countries like South Africa and Brazil that I am looking forward to more and where there are more options for things to do. There are less than 120 total students, faculty, and staff on board right now and the past 48 hours has been spent watching movies and reading out by the pool in 100 degree temperatures. We rounded the tip of Sri Lanka late last night and are proceeding up the west coast of India on our way to Cochin. We arrive tomorrow morning and will have 2 short days in our 2nd India port. The majority of people who chose to travel independently in India are making their way to the Taj Mahal. This will be very cool for those people but I made my choice to save my money and spend it on things I will better enjoy in future ports. We enjoyed a nice 5 course meal last night and in about 45 minutes I will be getting another 5 course meal tonight, and the food at these meals is AMAZING!!

I know this was a shorter blog but I really didn’t do too much in India. It was harder to get around and I wanted to save some of my money. The emotions I experienced/felt cannot be described with any degree of accuracy in this blog so I will be more than happy to tell you about it this summer.

Hope everything going well with all you guys back home!! By the time you all are reading this you will probably be getting back from Spring Break and I hope you had a great time with whatever you did. I also have a prayer request for you all back home. I was recently asked about a possible internship this summer. I won’t go into detail but I really need some prayer. I want to make sure that this is God’s plan for my summer and not just what I personally want to do. If you remember or get the chance I really need you all to pray for me to make a Christ-centered decision and make sure that His will alone, not mine, be done. I am currently praying about this and trying to discern the Lord’s will. Thank you all and I greatly appreciate your prayers!! I don’t know what I have done to deserve friends and family like you all, and I thank God every day for each one of you.

Love you all and praying for you!

T

Romans 6:15-18