Channel Your Inner Rori Gilmore...

I can't believe three weeks in India have already flown by! It seems like it's been just a few days and not a few weeks! India is surreal. No words can truly do it justice. India is an assualt on the senses - the smells (generally burning trash), the sights (especially watching the driving!), and the sounds (I am greeted by a cacophony of honking every morning which goes well into the night. Actually, I am now quite certain that every car, truck, richshaw, and bike has a different horn sound!) can be overwhelming at times! Despite all this and the brutal heat, Indian people are the kindest I have ever met.

I'm spending my first month here in India interning at the Madurai Messenger monthly magazine. This magazine is sent free of charge to over 800 schools, hospitals and libraries throughout Madurai. Upon arrival, all volunteers are asked to write their "First Impression" of India as one of their articles. Below, I have included my First Impression article as well as the Culture Kitchen article that Eddy and I worked on together. Eddy (one of the guys in my group) and I had the honor of representing America for this month's Culture Kitchen article. Essentially, the volunteers chosen have to decide upon a traditional dish from their country to make for all the other volunteers in the Journalism office at the tiny Projects Abroad kitchen. It proved to be quite the experience!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am absolutely obsessed with Gilmore Girls. Every Tuesday at eight o'clock, my mom and I would plop ourselves down on the couch (generally with a bowl of overly buttered popcorn) and laugh and cry with the Gilmore Girls for an hour. Rori Gilmore, the daughter, was an aspiring journalist who became editor of the Yale Daily News and later went on to report on the Obama campaign when the series sadly came to a close. When I told my mom about all the articles I am writing (I have a few others besides these that I am working on), what do you think her advice was?

"Well, just channel your inner Rori Gilmore!" (Can I just say that I love my mother :) )

So, here is me channeling my inner Rori Gilmore! I hope you enjoy!

A Warm Welcome

To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about coming to India. In October 2011, I embarked on an eight month adventure with a group of six other American volunteers. Under the care of Projects Abroad, we are travelling to five countries. So far, we have experienced crazy and chaotic Ghana, diverse and exhilarating South Africa, and the magnificently beautiful Peru.

Whenever people asked me about my concerns for this trip, I would always respond that I was anxious about India: from how Indians dress to the religions they practice; from the food they eat to the language they speak; from how they drive to how they don’t wear shoes inside (which I actually quite enjoy now). Everything about India seemed to be so culturally different from the US.

I quickly learned that I need not have worried.

Upon arrival to Chennai, I was absolutely exhausted. After three days of travelling, we walked out of the airport at 12:30am and were greeted by a wave of heat, a cacophony of honking, and a surprising number of people at that hour.

We then entered the departure area at the airport ready for our journey to Madurai, only to find the exact opposite of what we had encountered outside. It was completely dead. Apparently it doesn’t open until four in the morning. With no security to go through, no open shops to browse, and no restaurants with food to devour after days of surviving on airplane food, we formed a circle and all fell fast asleep on the floor.

When I woke up, an Indian man had settled nearby. Without us asking, he offered us some of his food. He didn’t speak a word of English, but generously shared his naan and chili powder with us.

A few minutes passed before his family joined us. Our new friend, his two English speaking daughters, his wife, and the seven of us, formed an even bigger circle and spent an hour together enjoying good food (we shared our Reese’s chocolates and sweet tarts from the US), great conversation, and of course, wonderful company.

This experience was incredibly touching because despite the language barrier, or the fact that we were strangers, or it being three o’clock in the morning, this man and his family went out of their way to make us feel welcomed. It was an experience rather foreign to us. Something like this would never happen at Los Angeles Airport. It was an unforgettable welcome to a beautiful country.

Immediately, all my fears were assuaged and I knew that my time in India would be filled with the same warm hospitality, generosity, and kindness that this family had shown us.

Culture Kitchen - American Style

We are proud to be from the land of the free where hot dogs, sixteen ounce sirloin steaks, meat loaves, pork roasts, and fried chicken are devoured in outrageous quantities. Now, when you throw two Americans into Indian society where virtually no meat is consumed and ask them to whip up a traditional American dish sans an oven, they have to get a little creative.

So, after much consultation with other American volunteers, it was decided that good ol’ mac n cheese is a classic American dish. The challenge: we’ve only ever made mac n cheese out of a box complete with the fake cheese powder.

As the directions were to cook two dishes, we chose s’mores as a uniquely American dessert. I (Tyler) have a pretty big family. I am the oldest of eleven cousins all of whom are at least eight years younger than me. Whenever we get the whole family together at my house it is absolute madness! After a few grueling hours of throwing the brood of youngins’ around in the pool, it is tradition for us to make s’mores. This is always my favorite part of the day – not only because I love s’mores, but also because it is great fun to watch all the kids make an ooey gooey mess! The only problem with s’mores is that after you eat that first one, you always want s’more!

With my close ties to this delectable dessert, I decided it would be fun to introduce the journalism staff to this treat. For those of you who don’t know what a s’more is, it only has three ingredients – graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars. Generally, you cook the marshmallow to golden brown perfection over a crackling fire. However, seeing as we are in India and only have a gas stove at our disposal, we are asking the volunteers to roast their marshmallows over a stove top. These treats are absolutely irresistible!

As it turned out, deciding on the dishes was the easiest part! It was finding the ingredients which proved to be quite the task! The first obstacle we were forced to overcome was one we never thought we would encounter: our temptation. We found it. We found the holy grail, the road to el dorado, the fountain of youth. We found boxed mac n’ cheese. Despite our overwhelming desire to purchase it right then and there, we overcame that enticement, deciding that the volunteers deserved an authentic American cooking experience. After making this devastating decision, we purchased the plain macaroni noodles and left the store before we could change our minds.

Our following stop did not end in tragedy. However, we did hit a few bumps along the road. We discovered that there are only two types of cheese in India: processed cheddar and plain cheese. As these were our only two options it made the decision a little easier. Our next task was to track down “milk” chocolate. Here is where our two cultures collided. Unbeknownst to us, in India, “milk chocolate” is our equivalent of “white chocolate.” We kept asking for milk chocolate and they kept bringing white chocolate. After a few minutes of being lost in translation, we finally figured it out and were able to locate milk chocolate or “white and milk chocolate” as it is known here. While we miraculously found marshmallows (albeit flavored), the last little problem we faced was the acquisition of graham crackers. We knew that finding them would be a long shot, but what we didn’t know was that no one even knows what they are. Needless to say, we had to improvise. Instead, we purchased True Marie Biscuits which proved to be an adequate substitute.

Finally, we were ready. It was time to teach the volunteers a little something about American ingenuity in the kitchen. Our weapons: a two burner gas stove, some pots, a whisk, and our mental acuity. It was bound to be interesting.

Things were going according to plan until the mystery lumps began appearing in our cheese sauce. To this day, we still don’t know what they were. We followed the recipe to the letter, yet when we mixed the milk-flour mixture with the simmering milk, the flour started clumping up. It was postulated that the flour had perhaps burnt, but that didn’t make any sense seeing as how the milk had just only started simmering. Even as we both took turns whisking furiously, the lumps just wouldn’t seem to go away. So we kicked the heat up a notch and mixed in the cheese, whisking away all the while. After the cheese had all finally melted and our sauce was a perfect tint of orange, we mixed the sauce in with the pasta. Despite the lumps, our mac n’ cheese turned out to be pretty delicious. In fact, it was the first culture kitchen dish that has made volunteers go back for a second helping.

After our unexpected yet triumphant success with the mac n’ cheese, it was time for dessert.  Surprisingly, none of the other volunteers had ever tried and only one had ever heard of s’mores. After a brief explanation on the art of making this messy treat, Kim Clarys, from Belgium, was the first volunteer daring enough to take on this daunting task. After the others saw her countenance change in delight upon her first bite, it was a fight to see who would get the skewer to cook the next marshmallow. True to its name, everyone wanted s’more after they had had their very first s’mores.

All in all, we think it’s safe to say that the Americans put on the best culture kitchen to date. 

Pictures to follow! Also, the week after next I will be working at St. Joseph's for the Dying Destitute - a hospice which gives the impoverished, ill elderly a place to be clothed, fed, sheltered and to have company. Please send positive thoughts my way as I'm nervous that this will be one of the most difficult (albeit most likely the most rewarding) placements I will work at.