Today Caroline reminded me of a little tradition that I like to do at the end of a long day of hiking or backpacking. You go around in a circle and explain what the rose, bud and thorn of your day was. The rose represents the best part of your day, the thorn represents the worst or most challenging, and the bud represents something that you are looking forward to. We were at our grand dinner last night to celebrate the completion of the Chennai section of our program and Caroline suggested that we go around in a circle and share our thoughts. After doing some reflecting on the highlights and hard times in Chennai I thought it would be an interesting topic to share with you.
ROSE: I have two things that stand out to me as highlights from Chennai. The first is when we had the opportunity to watch a documentary called Salma. This documentary is about a woman who grew up in a small village and learned to express herself through poetry. The documentary is about her life as a Muslim woman growing up in a village where the cultural norm is to lock away women after their first menstruation until they are arranged to marry. The documentary was moving, eye opening and extremely powerful to watch. After the documentary Salma allowed us to talk with her about her life and ask questions. I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet such an inspiring female writer. I came away from this experience feeling amazed by her drive and dedication to write and express herself. It inspired me to try and write some poetry of my own.
My second rose of Chennai is how close everyone on our trip has become. We sometimes have meetings dedicated to expressing our feelings and sharing our experiences. This space has been really important for understanding one another and supporting each other. I feel so grateful and lucky to have such an amazing and supportive group to be sharing these crazy experiences with. The support and love that we give to each other is so important in a place like India that tends to evoke a lot of emotion and poses many challenges. I can’t imagine sharing this experience with anyone else.
THORN: The thorn of my time in Chennai is feeling isolated. I have found it difficult to communicate with tuk-tuk drivers about where I want to go because of the language barrier. In Chennai most people speak Tamil. While we were in Delhi we studied enough Hindi to be able to get by, but Hindi isn’t applicable here. The language barrier in Chennai feels more present than it did in Delhi. I have found this to be a challenge when trying to navigate the city.
BUD: Honestly, I’m feeling really excited about everything that’s coming up. I’m leaving for Ladakh this evening which is going to be a crazy adventure! Ladakh is a beautiful mountain town nestled in the Himalayas. After spending a week exploring the mountains and culture in Ladakh we will be travelling to Varanasi for the last leg of the program. In Varanasi I am really excited to finally be able to do a home stay. I can’t wait to meet my host family and spend some quality time getting to know them.
It’s hard to believe how fast this program is passing by. I’ve been trying to take a few minutes each day to reflect on the day and journal about all of the different experiences that I’ve been having. Looking back now makes me realize how far I’ve come, I feel like I have learned so much and I know that there is still so much waiting for me. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this adventure holds!