Verde Smoke

Yep, I’m starting a travel blog…even though I’m not planning to travel very far now that I’ve made it to Bangalore…so maybe it’s just a Bangalore blog.

So I made it. Through a two day long flying journey that my brother says I should stop complaining about. I’m not so much complaining as bemoaning Monday. Yes, I somehow lost Monday. Sunday was about hurriedly packing up and cleaning with the help of my generous parents. And the irony of stumbling across a Memorial Day parade on my last walk around Somerville was not lost on me. The huge flag waving precariously off a firetruck ladder in the middle of David Square was like America winking at me goodbye (with huge, obnoxious fake eyelashes).

I felt like I warped directly from under that flag into the tram at the Paris airport. I paused as long as they would let me, getting off that tram, to breath in real Paris air before my 4 hour wait for the next flight. I was greeted on that flight by a cramped seat next to a very friendly native Bangalorian, Magi, on his way home from a training in Minneapolis. Suddenly this last nine hours didn’t seem that bad if I hadn’t come all the way from Minnesota. The poor guy was missing his wife and two sons, and had been basically living off bread & jam, beer, and the Mall of America for two weeks. Apparently vegetarian isn’t a big life choice in MN. I can’t even imagine how this man will describe America to his family back home, based off of hours spent immersed in the country’s largest shrine to commercial spending.

Speaking of spending, we arrived at the brandy new Bengaluru Airport only two days open. It made for great cover as I gawked at my new surroundings…because everyone else was staring and swiveling their heads around the space age looking place as well. I felt like a rock star when I found Ghouse, the Srishti driver, holding a sign up with my name on it. We traveled quickly down the new highway to my new pad, through the lack of 1am traffic. I basically fell asleep in my clothes and rose a few hours later to meet up with my new colleagues.

Still a bit fuzzy, this first morning was a bit of blur. I unpacked a bit and Ghouse picked me up so I could experience the highway with the usual amount of honking traffic. My guest house is actually in the northwest corner of Bangalore City, but the main campus is actually further north in the suburbs. Classes are actually on break until June, so it was very friendly staff greeting me and plied me with tea. I must have looked wiped because I basically could only sit and jot things in my journal in order to stay awake.

I met up my new “boss” Geetha Narayanan and we traveled over to the “new” campus where I’ll be doing most of my work, at first doing a component of a summer youth program, then working with the community center next door, Drishya, on connecting their youth program “spokes” through out the slums by setting up some community radio. I met both the young Lab in a Bag coordinators and the full staff of the Drishya program in a hurried couple hours. Then they graciously sent me off to sleep and get acclimated a bit to my digs, which are very nice!

After 12 beautiful hours of sleep, I ventured out for a couple hours into my own little neighborhood, Malleshwaram and into the center of the City looking for maps. I feel asleep by 9pm and wondered if I’d ever get to see the place at night.

View Larger Map

At this point, I’m eternally grateful for a few things:

1. Google Chat, despite the confusing 9.5 hr time zone difference
2. Umbrellas, because I was dumb enough to wander the city during the apparently daily afternoon thunderstorm
3. My realization that I needed to follow native Bangalore pedestrians when they crossed 5 lanes of traffic with no fear
4. Street lights last over a minute, so I have plenty of time to stare out the window
5. Ben Sheldon loaning me a beautiful piece of brand new digital photography equipment, so I can take high quality photos of my fridge full of tasty Indian takeout.