Tuesday June 22, 2010
Okay, back to this weekend. This weekend was by all standards completely absurd. Beginning with Friday.
So Friday I had promised a fellow USAC student that I would go out with her to some club or lounge with her and some friends. By 7:30 there were about 12 people attending this gathering. This figure was fine until we had to catch a rickshaw. Four people squeezed into individual rickshaws – similar to our 6 rickshaw excursion a couple nights earlier. Though this time our rickshaw driver was absolutely insane. First, he almost hit Aleisha before we even got on the road, then he almost hit every other car or truck on the road. Quite the frightening experience.
We finally arrive outside the club, which is actually a hotel (in true Indian style), and the first thing I do is fall out of the rickshaw. I hadn’t even started drinking…this would be bad.
As to not bore you I’ll do a summary of the club. It was absolutely gorgeous. Easily a high end bar/lounge in America. Drinks were around $10-$15 USD, but in all honestly that kind of atmosphere would be around $30 a drink. Yes, that is how nice and immaculate the location was. I brushed off the absurdity and decided to do as Lady Gaga does and just dance. It’s always better that way. The DJ proved to be amazing by the way...
Eventually I met a guy who bought me and my friends some drinks, he was nice, worked for JP Morgan & Chase (didn’t find that out till I looked at his card later). Then I meant a nice Turkish boy. He seemed sweet and harmless, he was with his two Turkish friends. We talked for the rest of the night, them in their broken Turkish English, me in my broken drunk English.
At one point the club/restaurant/hotel set up a tasty looking buffet. At the time I ha d yet to become drunk hungry so I didn’t gorge, but some other USACers went up and started grabbing things. We kept asking if the buffet was free/complimentary and we kept hearing that indeed it was, so I ate a really tasty carrot truffle and some chat nachos - by far one of my favorite snacks in India. It was probably some of the best food I’ve had in India so far…side note. Well, in true Bangalorian fashion the club closed at 11:30 sharp. The Turkish boys asked to get coffee, but seeing as we just meant them in Bangalore and we were naïve Americans we declined.
At that point I realized that I had left my scarf inside, I went to go grab it from the bar area and when I stepped back out through the door Nick (a USAC student) grabbed my arm and said “We have to go now!”. Apparently the buffet was not free at all. In fact, it was 650 ruppees each. I didn’t even have 650 ruppees in my wallet. Apparently, neither did anyone else, so we were trying to skip out on the bill. We all ran outside, but of course we were stopped by the servers. Everyone had to dish out some cash for the tricky buffet and then the hotel manager said he would help us get a cab home.
After paying 625 for a drink and throwing in money for a buffet, I was not about to pay another cent for anything this hotel had to offer. I saw one of the Turkish boys getting into his car, thought to myself “fuck it, if you die atleast you didn’t have to pay 200 ruppees for a cab.” I asked him if he could take me to Kormangala, he said yes, and I beckoned for my friends to come with me.
Thus began our friendship with Fatik, Emri, and Hiyati! My favorite Turkish friends (only Turkish friends) and our guides for the rest of the time in Bangalore. We got coffee with them that night at a 24 hour rooftop restaurant and we hung out with them again on Sunday.
In between that time I had quite the reality check. Some students traveled to a nearby village, Hospote. The village as a whole compromised about 14 smaller villages – communities anywhere from 300-1000 peoples. We went to one of these 14 villages to meet the kids, see the programs that particular NGO is developing. The long and short of it, it was absolutely amazing and if I could drop everything I’m doing right now and move to a village and just play and teach adorable kids every day I would do it in a heartbeat. The children were fantastic! They were so excited to see us and play with us, they brought us to their homes and showed us around the village. No, we couldn’t speak the language at all so communication was mostly transmitting through hand gestures, hugs, and behavioral keys. I think that added to the enjoyment of the trip,
Recently I had lost faith in NGO's, most of the time the money donated and raised by the organizations just goes into paying the salaries of the college junkies - those kids who didn't quite know what they wanted to do after college so they settled for an NGO. The money rarely ever goes to actually helping anyone or the betterment of a program. However, this NGO actually had results. You could see it in the health of the families and children, and in the village as a whole. The organization we worked with was the same one Bill Gates and his wife donate to. I can imagine why. It's run flawlessly and the people who work there are truly dedicated to there work.
I hope to sponsor a family in the slums or the village when I return to America. Definitely a life changing experience. Definitely.
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