Day 45. The Last Day of my Life before I was in India
I'm sure you've all arrived to places by airplane multiple times. I have, we all have. The scene always is the same: you prepare for landing, you land, the stewardesses welcome you to whatever airport you've arrived into, and then they open the door. The door always looks more or less the same, and just like that, you've arrived in another place in the world. Just like that. But at least for me, it's hard to connect that arrival with the departure city you left out of- it feels like you're in a different world. You remember boarding, then you disappear in the clouds, then you land. It's difficult to connect the dots. There's something very different about this voyage, arriving into different ports by ship. You see, we remember every point in between those dots. While on a map you see a dot in Mauritius, a line, and then a dot in Chennai, India, I see 5 days, calm oceans, dolphins, sunsets, Olympics, classes, exams and weather. It's easier for us to connect those dots, to understand the relationship- geographical, cultural, climactical, similarities and differences between two individual points when we see every point in between.
A lot has been said about the impact India has on westerners. A survey by Semester-At-Sea of alumni from the past 98 voyages has found that India was the port that most people remember as most influential. We've heard the stories on board of mental breakdowns in the streets, of students returning to the ship different then they left. It's daunting and a little unnerving, but it's what we signed up for, I suppose.
At logistical pre-port, Executive Dean Les McCabe made a great presentation, as he always does the night before arrival in port. I want to share with you the story he shared with us.
Nearly 10 years ago, Les, his wife Susan, and children Erin and Ryan arrived on the SS Universe Explorer (the old SAS ship) in Cape Town, South Africa. During their port stay, they met a woman named Mavis who was vending goods on the pier near the ship. "We were drawn to the life within her," Les said, "she radiated life out of her." Mavis was born in a township in South Africa, and was determined to get out. She sold goods to tourists in order to make whatever little money she could, dedicated to setting an example for the extremely impoverished community in which she grew up. Les and the family ended up getting to know her during their stay, and exchanged information. When they returned to the United States, the McCabes stayed in contact with Mavis. They wrote letters to one another swapping news and stories. Mavis was running into trouble, Les said, because the government was trying to oust the vendors from the area. The McCabes were concerned for their friend, whom they had become quite close with. Les even wrote a letter to Mavis to give to the authorities on behalf of Semester At Sea, saying that people like Mavis were a benefit to the port area. Susan and Les even discussed having Mavis come to the United States for a little while to figure out what to do next. But things were changing, and the McCabes moved from Pittsburgh to Virginia, and lost contact with Mavis. Months without communication turned to a year, which turned to 8 years. A woman who had meant so much to Les' family had faded into oblivion, and they had no idea where or how she was.
Now, in 2009, the McCabes returned to Cape Town as a family aboard a new ship. This was last week. They hadn't spoken to Mavis in 8 years, and hadn't seen her in 10. They did all they could, talking to shopkeepers and vendors who were in the popular craft markets. They asked all around for Mavis, but nobody had even heard of her. On the last night in Cape Town, the 4 of them were returning to the pier in a taxi and got to talking to the cabbie. The cab remarked that he had been in Cape Town forever, and remembered the last 3 SAS ships, dating back to the 80s. "It was clear he had been there for a long time," Les said. In a long shot, Susan asked the cabbie if he knew the name Mavis. "I laughed," Les said. It was as long a shot as any. The cabbie turned around and beamed. "Of course I know her!" he said. He informed them that she had a great store at the base of Table Mountain. They were ecstatic, and determined to set out early the next morning, the last day in South Africa to visit her.
The next morning, they hailed a cab to take them to Table Mountain. Glowing, they walked into the store of a long lost friend… but she wasn't there. It was Sunday, and Mavis would be in church like she was every Sunday of her life. But her cousin was there, and he offered to leave a message at home for Mavis to say she had visitors. He dialed, and to his complete shock, someone picked up. He handed the phone to Susan, who identified herself to the voice on the other end of the phone. All that followed, Les said, were tears. Mavis had, for the past 8 years, gone out to the ocean every week and looked out and prayed. Not for world peace, but for the opportunity to one day reconnect with, as she called it, "her American family." That Sunday, she had a feeling she should remain at home, instead of missing church for the first time in a long time.
The family and Mavis reconnected at the wharf, and spent the entire last day together. Tears abounded, Les said, as a chance encounter 10 years ago turned into a life-defining relationship. Les made it a point to tell us to go out and find the innocuous person who is out there in India, or Thailand, or Vietnam, and not to be afraid to give of ourselves. The story was quite moving, and quite unbelievable. It just goes to show how long and how far human connection can last.
Now, our turn. We'll arrive in India tomorrow morning at 0800 in Quay 5 of the Madras harbor. We'll dock on the Port side. At logistical pre-port, Luke "the voice" Jones called India impossible to escape. You cannot physically leave the gangway without feeling the emotions that take much longer to surface in other countries, he said. "It's a culture of contrasts," Luke went on, with beautiful architecture and horrible slums, with wonderful beaches and saddening environmental destruction, with order among millions and chaos as well. I, for one, cannot believe that tomorrow I'll be there. I still look at the world map hanging in my cabin, and look at the Indian Ocean as "over there." I have to remind myself it's "over here," and that the US is "over there."
I'll be visiting Varanasi, home of the famous Ganges River. If you read my itinerary, you know I'll be sailing at sunrise along the river, the most holy place for Hindus. Some facts and figures: 70,000 pilgrims arrive at the Ganges daily. 400 Cremated bodies are pushed aboard floating pyres into the Ganges daily. 9,000 cattle are laid to rest in the Ganges annually. Some saddening facts: the river contains 10,000 times the amount of acceptable fecal matter in which to bathe, according to the CDC. 300 Million gallons of sewage are poured into the Ganges on a daily basis. In the most shocking statistic I've ever heard: 1/3 of ALL deaths in India are a result of water from the Ganges river.
Pre-port was also hilarious as usual. John, the Physician's Assistant on board is just as good at comedy as he is medicine. His presentations are cryingly hilarious. In today's he topped even himself when, all of a sudden, the Chicago Bulls introduction theme song started playing, while the word T-R-A-V-E-L-E-R-S D-I-A-R-R-H-E-A was spelled slowly on screen before "WE WILL DEFEAT YOU!!" appeared over top of it. I don't recall us laughing this hard on the voyage yet. We went through all of the prophylaxis and treatments for "Delhi-Belly" and hopefully I won't get it. Apparently, as my Dad will tell you, it's pretty common.
Well, that's all I can muster out this late evening. I'm excited to experience India through my own two eyes, and promise to let it come over me and not hold back. And yes, Mom, I'll be safe. I will be in Chennai all day tomorrow on a day-trip to an Indian farm with my Evolution class (kick-ass field trip, huh?). I should be able to write tomorrow evening before I take off on my whirlwind 4-day adventure through the North of India starting on Friday.
Thanks for reading. Talk to you from INDIA tomorrow.
Greg.
No comments:
Post a Comment