Gina writes:

More than a year ago, we collected Indian English phrases that were common in Koraput and blogged about them. Since, there have been quite a few other turns of phrase that we can add to the list.

Our friends that visited us in March said that they noticed slight changes in our patterns of speech--that we spoke more slowly and with fewer words. It's true, plus we have adopted the use of some of these phrases/words even when speaking just with each other. So if you're confused by our language once we return to the U.S., just refer to this blog entry!

1. "I didn't get you" - You say this when you didn't understand someone's language. I like this one, because it's clear that the person talking doesn't need to speak louder, but just repeat themselves, probably enunciating more or using different words.
2. "Googly" - I have no idea where this came from, but Google is often pronounced Googly and Skype is often pronounced Skypee. You try keeping a straight face when your boss says to "check it on Googly"!
3. "Cyber-caf" - Pronounced cyber-calf, the alternative to internet cafe.
4. "Side" - I've fully adopted this one, it's how to say "please move so that I can get past you" with the fewest words possible. Less confusing than "excuse me" also.
5. "Like anything" - Appending this to the end of a statement expresses intensity, such as "These people will cheat you like anything."
6. "Tiffin" simultaneously means the container that you carry your meal in, breakfast, and snack.
7. "Time-pass" is when you do something for leisure but with no particular goal, like chatting with friends. So if I'm talking with friends or reading a magazine and someone asks me what I'm doing, I just say "time pass".
8. "Rubber" - This is a new addition to my list. Just today, a co-worker asked if I had a rubber. It took me a startled second to realize that he must mean an eraser and not that other thing!
9. "Maximum" is used in many cases, such as "The maximum best place to visit..", "..maximum quality beer..", and "..maximum people do this..".
10. "Do one thing" is a common way to start giving advice and it's hardly ever followed by just one thing! For instance, if I were having computer problems, an Indian might say: “Do one thing. Clear your history. Delete your cookies. Defrag your hardrive. Run a virus check. Restart your computer.”
11. "Peon" - This one is hard for me to say without thinking of the derogatory usage that we ascribe to the word in America, but in India, it just means the lowest-level worker, like a gardener or cleaning lady.
12. "Prepone" is the opposite of postpone, duh! Except it's hardly ever used in my experience, because meetings never happen early!

These are the Indian phrases that have come to mind (or that I've jotted down over the past year). I'll make the point in closing that this list is not meant to insult Indians, but just to highlight a charming aspect of my time here.

Gina writes:

When I go on field visits, I get to observe tribal culture and customs in a way that never comes across in my photographs. That's because my personal "code of ethics" regarding photography is fairly strict; I don't often take pictures of the villagers for fear of offending them and using them for my own gains without giving anything back.

The SPREAD staff, however, are in a different position. They speak the language of the villagers, they've built rapport and gained trust, and the villagers can specify how the staff member has helped them (hopefully!). Thus, the following photographs, taken by my coworkers, can do what mine cannot -- give you a glimpse into what I see when I visit the field.

First, the tribal women. Each tribe has certain jewelry, clothing and/or tattoos that signify their tribe.






(The camera is not part of her tribe's accessories, but it looks cool!)

The tribal men often wear Western-style shirts and just a wrapped cloth around their hips instead of pants.



ALL Indians have the ability to squat for hours on end. With their feet flat on the ground, it's not uncomfortable for them at all and is their preferred position of rest.



This picture of villagers waiting to pick up their subsidized rice shows a few interesting things. First, see how tightly they're packed into that line! This was taken in May, so it was likely more than 100 degrees. Second, see how there is a line for men and a line for women.



This picture is the best one I have that shows what typical village looks like.



All around Koraput, you can see women carrying jugs of water on their heads. They start practicing when they're little girls, with small cups of water. It's cute and sad.



This picture is interesting to me because it shows the reality of the village kids. They take awhile to warm up and start smiling and laughing and sometimes never do. Oftentimes, they're just confused about strangers coming to their village. Also, Indians don't usually smile for photographs, so smiles are more common in candid shots.



A village meeting will either take place on the cement platform that is in almost every village for just this purpose or in the school. A meeting is a good chance to see the Indians' different definition of "personal space". They crowd into the space even if there is plenty of room, very interesting.





Having the chance these past 2 years to spend time with these people, even just in observation, has been amazing. Thanks to my coworkers, I now have some better pictures to remember it by!

Gina writes:

Yesterday was a holiday to honor Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of knowledge and remover of obstacles. He's one of the head gods in Hinduism.

SPREAD celebrated this holiday with a puja (religious ritual of blessing) in the office. I had witnessed this once before, for a holiday in January, but was excited for Corey to attend his first office puja.

We arrived at about noon for the 11:30ish puja. Just before 3 p.m. the priest finally showed up! Apparently, he's in high demand on festival days, rushing from one engagement to the next. We had to wait until after the puja to eat lunch, so the rituals got underway immediately.

All of the specific items were prepared and ready for the puja - milk with honey, sandalwood, certain leaves, colored powders, a squared mound of dirt, coconuts, fruits and sweets, and of course the Ganesh idol/statue. Bidyut, SPREAD's director, was dressed in traditional silk robes to perform the puja. The priest chanted and sang specific verses, while cuing Bidyut to perform actions at the right times.





After about 15 minutes, my favorite part began. They built a fire right in the middle of the office! It got pretty big at one point.





The fire itself was not a problem, since the floors are concrete and their aren't curtains or anything to catch on fire. However, the room became extremely smoky after about 10 minutes and it was really irritating to the eyes.



The entire puja only took 1 hour, the perfect length! Here is the area after the rituals.



We finally got to eat at 4 p.m. The food was pure veg, which means no onion and no garlic, but at the same time, was richer because of the use of ghee (clarified butter).

I love this part of Indian work culture, because it's so different from Western ways. Imagine sitting down with your coworkers to perform a traditional ritual to bless your office space, books, computers, etc.!

One last picture: a colleague's son, dressed in traditional Oriya garments of his very own size! So cute!

Gina writes:



Yesterday was a big holiday for Koraput. The main temple here honors the deity Jagganath and his big day is at this time of year.

Here he is with his brother and sister. Jaggy is the one with the black face.


The festival is called Ratha Yatra and symbolizes Jagganath (and his brother and sister) leaving their temple to visit their aunt's house, which is at another temple. More than 100,000 people witnessed the god's journey in Koraput.

Last year, it was raining hard, so we were only half-upset that we ended up hearing the wrong time for the celebration and missed it. This year, we decided we would participate no matter what.

On our way to lunch at a restaurant right by the Jagannath Temple, we saw groups of people lined up on the street. Not wanting to miss the excitement, we made our way to the densest group of people down the street about 300 yards from the temple. There was the cart that Lord Jagganath and his brother and sister would be carried to.



While we waited, it started to rain a little, but not enough to call for our umbrellas, so no problem. I was excited to be able to use my new camera (thanks Corey!), especially since the display of color was especially amazing.

I think this is my favorite picture that I've taken so far to show the colors of India (along with the tribal feel of Koraput).


After about 30 minutes, the first of the three gods arrived. With all the people, it was hard to see what was going on, but it was fun to see the excitement on the men's faces.



These dancers may or may not have been part of the official parade...who knows?



The last god to arrive was Jagganath, prompting an extra dose of fanfare. The video below isn't great, but gives a feel of the event. The men were carrying him in a prone position, but are preparing to place him on a white stool that will be carried to the chariot.



After all three gods were seated in the chariot, I really wanted to stay to see the men fighting to get their hands on the ropes that pull the cart. But all 100,000 people were in the same area now, we'd been standing in the drizzle for more than an hour at that time, and a friend told us that a puja (religious ritual) would be performed for about an hour before the chariot moved. Plus we were hungry. So we didn't get to see that part, but were glad we went.

Gina writes:

Last Thursday and Friday, we were outside of Koraput to attend our friend's sister's wedding in Sambalpur, another district of Orissa. This was our 5th Indian wedding, attending required taking 2 days off work that we technically didn't have, and the wedding was 12 hours away by train, so we weren't that excited about it. But after our friend asked us in person or on the phone about 7 times, sent us text messages about it, caught me on Facebook chat to remind me how important it was, and emailed, we couldn't very well say no. So we decided to change our attitude about it, arrange the train tickets and the days off from work, and party on!

The train left Koraput at about 8 a.m. and arrived in Sambalpur at 6 p.m. An entire day on a train with books and knitting and iPods isn't that bad, but has its sticky and smelly and boring moments for sure. A fellow passenger started a conversation with us, asking the same questions as always -- What are you doing in India? What NGO do you work for? What kind of work? How do you feel about India?. For us, it's not that interesting to have these conversations, but I understand the attraction to the average Indian with nothing to occupy his time for the entire train ride, so we try to be patient. He also asked us how much money we make, which is not as popular of a question, but is totally acceptable to ask. When we told him, his response was, "What?! Only xx? You should work in Bangalore, you can make much more. Your work here in India is a wastage of time if you only make xx!" We cut the conversation short after that.

When we arrived in Sambalpur, we called our friend and she came to pick us up. She took us to our hotel, which was perfect. Simple no-frills room, quiet and windowless, but with A/C! After an hour, I was transported to the wedding hall, where I was dressed in my sari. I wish I would have just followed the pictorial instructions that I have instead of relying on the women in the "bridal suite" where I was taken. There were about 20 women either helping the bride or just hanging out, so they all took the opportunity to watch me undress. Then, I think the short "auntie" who was dressing me was nervous or something because she took a full 20 minutes to fold and refold my sari around me. It was hot, probably at least 90 in that room, and I was sweating so much from my face that it was literally dripping off my chin. Gross! Needless to say, I wasn't in a great mood when I was released from the room and found Corey. I'll admit that I'm totally over the thrill of wearing a sari -- I already have good pictures of me in 3 different saris and they are not that flattering to my figure or the least bit comfortable, especially when walking or climbing a lot of stairs.

Not a great pic, but it's the best we have.


Dinner was served at about 9 p.m. from stations around the big hall. This was cool, not something we'd seen in India before. There was the usual buffet line, but also a coffee station, chow mein station, shaved ice station, a rice pudding station, some street-food snack stations, and a few others. The food was delicious.

This curious cow came to tell us that her invitation was lost in the mail.


The stars "aligned" at 10:30, so that's about the time that the loud, dancing processional with the groom's party arrived. Soon after, the rituals started on stage. Sadly (to me, at least) only about 40 people were still there compared to the 200+ that were at dinner! The upside, though, was that everyone still there was focused on the wedding instead of just chatting with each other and on their cellphones and ignoring the main event, which is what we've seen at the other weddings. The rituals can sometimes last for 6 hours or more, but this ceremony was finished in about 3. I can't explain the significance of any of the rituals or items, but the turmeric, flowers, puffed rice, fire, string, oil lamps, mangos, gifted cloth, gold cardboard crowns, and cement stepping stone all had symbolic significance.

It looked similar to other weddings we've been to, so I took very few pics. Here the bride and groom are both covered, just before they're revealed to each other.


It was interesting to watch even if I had no idea of the purpose. Following expectations, the bride did not smile the entire time, but held an empty look on her face. She's not supposed to show happiness that she's being separated from her family.

We returned to the hotel at about 2 a.m. Since I was in my sari, I had to ride the motorbike side-saddle for the first time, which I disliked a lot. I can understand the need for women to ride that way if they're in a sari, but I think women wearing pants should always ride astride, it's so much safer!

I slept later than Corey (as usual) and woke up to him returning from one of his "exploring trips" with breakfast! We ate, then chilled out (literally) in the room for a few hours. There wasn't anything to do in Sambalpur but browse the shops and it was hot, over 100 degrees. I was feeling no obligation to make use of the day by leaving my nice cool hotel room, so Corey picked up lunch for us when he became restless. Before I knew it, it was nearly 7 p.m. and I had spent the entire day relaxing on the bed, not even seeing the sunlight for 1 minute of the day (due to the lack of windows). Awesome!

The overnight train ride home was uneventful. I tried hiding in my top bunk to avoid conversations from curious fellow travelers, but an annoying but friendly gentleman insisted on asking questions to me while I'm laying down 6 feet above him...awkward! The usual questions again, though this time I had to devote some effort to convincing him that the U.S. actually does have beggars and people living on the street. Not the first time that I've had to correct someone from thinking that all Americans are wealthy. Anyway, we arrived in Koraput at 8:30 a.m., showered and headed to work!

Gina writes:

Every work day, I walk 1/2 mile to and from the office. One part of the walk is through a series of paddy (rice) fields, which are gorgeous at certain times of the growing cycle. In February, I took some quick photos of the plowing and the planting and the fields when they looked particularly pretty to me. Without even realizing it, I had started a series of photos, capturing something that I see every day here in India but want to remember properly back in the U.S. I continued taking pics at various stages of the crop and finished the series a few weeks ago, when the crop was harvested and the fields were prepared for the next rotation.

Here are the men and water buffalo plowing the fields. Even though the rice grows in standing water, the ground beneath still needs to be plowed.


A few days later, the women took over to transplant the seedlings from some temporary place to the fields.




It took about a week for all of the visible fields to get planted. It started to look pretty cool at about that point.


And only a month later, the bright bright green that I love so much was in full glory.


The fields were gorgeous during sunset too, some compensation if I had to work late.


As the rice grains themselves became more visible, the brights greens became less prominent, but the fields were still beautiful. Here they are at 3 months, just before harvesting.




And finally in early May, 4 months after planing, the women harvested the grains.




You probably noticed that this entire process is done by hand (or using water buffalo), no machines at all! Given the amount of rice that people in Orissa eat (average of 13 pounds per month according to this document) and the low price of rice (about 20-65 rupees per kg or 25-75 cents per pound), viewing the whole growing process made me realize how much work goes into this staple food that we take for granted.

And the growing and harvesting is only one part of the process! After harvesting, they have to separate the grains from the plant matter, a step called winnowing. Then they have to dry it so that it won't become moldy in storage. For some of India's rice, these steps are done without machines as well. I've seen women throwing the rice in the air so that the light parts blow away and have also seen the rice drying out in the sun, under the watchful eye of old village women using a huge leaf to fan the flies and chickens away from the rice!

Orissa is one of the biggest rice-producing states of India. 78% of their crop cover is paddy (link). In 2010, India produced 141.2 million tons of rice! The figure doesn't mean that much, but other than China with 200.5 million tons of production, the next highest producer was Indonesia at 66.4 million tons. By contrast, the U.S. produced 11.0 million tons. (link) With this knowledge, it's interesting to have had the opportunity to observe each step of the growing and harvesting process.

Corey writes:

Today is our 2nd anniversary. We’ve been married in India longer than we’ve been married outside of India! I think that somehow makes us common-law here. What better time to share some observations about being a VSO couple.

For one thing, we spend a LOT of time together. Gina and I are together from 6:00pm to 9:00am Monday to Saturday, and then all day on Sunday. (For our first year here, when we both worked for the same organization, we were together basically 24/7.) 90% of our time is spent in the same room. We go out to restaurants together, we go to the Internet cafe together. You get the picture. There's not much to do in Koraput and most of our friends are just casual work friends, so we're stuck with each other!

To simulate the "alone time" that both of us like, we’ve both adopted certain habits that simulate being alone. We both have earbuds attached to our laptops. I sit at my desk and Gina sits on her couch (mattresses stacked on the floor). Sometimes we go for hours without speaking to each other. Often, only one of us will go to the market, just to give the other some space. We’ve each developed techniques to try to respect each other’s space and alone time, but at the same time have some good conversations and laughs. I've gone on 7 or 8 work trips for 3-14 days and Gina has enjoyed the change (but missed me at the same time!).

We spend a lot of time talking about and analyzing this experience. We talk about something confusing that happened to us that day (this happens less frequently now) or some frustrating thing or awesome thing that happened. We try to understand what these things mean, are they good or bad, is it our fault or someone else’s? What could we have done differently? It’s like we’re co-authoring a book in our heads about India and development. This is one of my favourite things about having Gina with me. By talking about this experience with each other, day by day we put everything into place, and help each other develop coherent thoughts, philosophies, or judgements about our life.

By seeing the husband/wife roles in India we’ve realised more about husband/wife roles in the U.S. culture and also in our relationship. For one thing, the roles are much more clearly defined and rigid here in India. Husbands earn the money, make important decisions, and are the ambassador of the family. Wives lead a more cloistered life, managing the house and children. While the U.S. may have been like this at some point (see Mad Men), now roles are much more negotiable. We both do things that are shocking to our neighbours. For example, I wash my own clothes and cook many meals. We both prefer it this way.

Like all volunteers, we experience a great deal of stress in a culture that isn't ours. Everything is so new and different, etc. Even now we both have frustrating days at work, just like we would have in the U.S. Having a spouse helps immensely in coping with this stress, but frustrations are sometimes misplaced on the spouse (the only other person in the support "network") and can cause fights. I imagine this sort of thing happens all the time with new marriages, but being overseas can turn up the stress a little bit more. If a VSO couple doesn't end up killing each other, they'll usually end up with a better understanding of each other!

One situation where being a couple really reduces stress is at weddings or parties (just like in the U.S.). It’s been really great to have Gina there to chat with when everyone else is just staring at me. However, the flip side of this is that a foreign couple is much less approachable than a loner. Many times we’ve been on a train staring in silence at our co-passengers for hours. Then I’ll get up to go to the bathroom and when I come back 3 people have all struck up conversations with Gina. Also, since we have each other, we're less likely to force ourselves out of our comfort zones and have probably missed some great experiences by sticking with the familiar (each other).

Another interesting bit about being a couple in a different culture is individuality. In the U.S., it was important for Gina and I to have separate identities and some separate friends. While it’s still important to us here, it’s not really an option. When we both worked at SOVA we became “Coreygina” - one word. Partly this individuality thing is a result of the amount of time we spend together but it’s also because we are both VSO volunteers.

On the whole, Gina and I are both glad we volunteered together. For us, the benefits of being a VSO couple definitely outweigh the negatives. We’ve both said that we never would have had the guts to do such a long placement individually, and we really respect some of our VSO friends that have gone it alone.

Gina writes:

On Tuesday, we went to the wedding of our friend Masi. We've already blogged about weddings three times (here, here, and here), so I wasn't planning to write about this one, but the fact that it was a Christian ceremony might be of interest to our readers. This is why we were interested also, having been to 2 Hindu weddings and a Muslim wedding already. We aren't Christians, but our familiarity with various Christian wedding ceremonies (at least in the U.S.) made me look forward to the opportunity to compare. We could get a better picture of what about Indian weddings is cultural and what is tied to religion.

When we arrived at the church, we found the procession (called a "bharat) not far away. A modern bharat comprises a group of dancing men (and a few daring women) followed by a group of drummers followed by a vehicle with speakers and a keyboard players followed by the groom and a few people in a white car (formerly a white horse). This had been a part of the other weddings too, so was obviously a cultural element, not religious.





Corey was pulled in to dance, to the bemusement of the Indians.



Kevin (another Koraput volunteer) was there as well, dancing like only a white man can.



The bharat slowly made it's way about 1 km to the bride's home, where she was. We sat for about 20 minutes outside her home and then walked to the church nearby.

The inside of the church


On the invitation, the time for the ceremony was listed at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. (Masi explained it was a typo), but the ceremony finally started at about 12:30 p.m. No problem, we expected that and filled the time chatting with Kevin.

All of a sudden, Masi walked down the aisle and, right after him, the bride. No leading music, no standing up to watch the bride walk slowly up the aisle, most people weren't even paying attention! It was too fast for me to even get a picture. She was wearing a fancy white sari, as opposed to a sari with lots of red and gold like in the Hindu/Muslim weddings. And she had a white veil. Masi had changed from his white kurta to a charcoal gray suit. They looked like an Indian couple with a western touch.

The ceremony was in Oriya, so I didn't understand the details. For most of the time, the bride and groom were sitting directly in front of the priest/pastor/minister with their backs to the attendees. When the sermon was complete, they stood and placed various garlands on each other. Then they joined hands in recognition of their union (instead of kissing).



Then they sat at a nearby table while forms will completed and signatures were requested. I guess this was the marriage certificate or something.



After that was the obligatory photo session for the bride and groom with various groups of people. The guests made their way outside for lunch. The number of "guests" magically multiplied at the buffet lines...unless several hundred people were squished into the church!

With our bellies full, we went to a platform where the bride and groom were sitting, accepting presents. It was an interesting tradition that I haven't seen before, to accept gifts from each guest and have a photo taken with them.



There were other events later in the day, but we left. The next day was another reception in the village of Masi's extended family, about 1 hour outside of Koraput. We declined the invitation to that, since that would have meant a second day off work. We enjoyed the parts that we did participate in and were glad to have the chance to see a Christian wedding, to complete our trifecta of Indian wedding experiences.