As our stint in Bodh Gaya progressed, the volunteer position itself became a bit awkward. We sometimes felt like a fifth wheel, and our talents were not being put to good use. But we made the best of it, and had a good time with the students. And we continued to be fascinated by our environment. Every morning, we woke up to the imposing sights and sounds around us. The sounds of morning devotions coming from the temples. The peasant men and women working in the rice fields, often dressed (to our eyes) as if they were on their way to a wedding. The kids, dirt-poor but happy as kittens, playing in the streets and cheerfully greeting us as we passed. The roadside vendors of produce, hot tea and other goods, as well as roadside barbers and butchers — the latter slaughtering goats as other goats tethered nearby nervously awaited their own fate.
View From our Balcony
Strolling through Bodh Gaya
On the weekend, as we so often did, we went exploring through the heart of town, past temples and markets and many wondrous sights. Our goal, aside from just checking out the landscape and ambience, was to scout for a few items we’d had difficulty finding, — including a teapot and a USB-chargeable flashlight (which we ultimately found). Before long, lo and behold, we were joined by the two guys from the “blind school”, who again saw fit to abandon whatever schedule they had for the day to walk along and keep us company until we finally gave them the brush-off.
We also stumbled upon something that we’d been looking for the past few days, but didn’t expect to find today. a little medical center where we might get our annual checkups done. First we just saw the lab, the place where you actually get poked with needles and stuff. So we went in to inquire, and they said we’d have to be referred by the adjacent doctor’s office. So we went inside to see if we could get an appointment; but as so often happens in India, they told us we didn’t need an appointment, just have a seat and they’d get to us shortly.
Doctor Visit – Wellness check-up
Then we got weighed and blood pressured and pulsed, after which we sat to wait. It turned out to be a longer wait than anticipated, because a young boy was brought in with some kind of emergency that we never did understand the extent of, but he appeared to be okay. And then after about half an hour we were ushered into a room to consult with the doctor.
The doctor was a wispy little man who seemed old enough to have retired two or three times. He didn’t really examine us but just interviewed us and marked down some cryptic runes on a piece of paper the color of parchment and printed with mostly Hindi words with a sprinkling of English. This was our ticket to the lab next door, so we took it back over; Since we’d already eaten during the day, we couldn’t get our lab work done on the same day, but we made an appointment for the following weekend.
During the ensuing week, we resumed the awkward situation at school, where we were expected to spend most of our time teaching martial arts and yoga rather than English. But things did look up a little bit because the female teacher was absent. On the other hand, it turns out that the reason she was absent was because she was not being paid, and had not been for some time — it was uncertain if she’d be coming back. Additionally, we did get the children involved in learning and performing a story (which we call “The Silly Boy”) and they had a good time with it, even though many of them scarcely could understand the English words they were uttering.
Red Circle is the School Building
Also during this week, we made a serendipitous discovery that may sound very trivial, but for us was of cosmic significance: we found a place where we could buy a decent chocolate bar. Now for us, chocolate is not just one of the major food groups. it’s a hallowed indulgence. Yet we don’t have a big sweet tooth, so most chocolate bars are too sweet for us. Still, in every country we’ve traveled to, we’ve managed to find a local brand of chocolate that produces an excellent bar that is more or less to our taste. Except India. That piece of the puzzle had been missing. Indians just don’t seem to care much for chocolate, so generally the only brands available in stores are humdrum imports like Cadbury’s.
One day, however, we stopped at a little shop across the road from the school director’s travel agency, where we would go every day to get online. This shop was an outlet of the Indian dairy company Amul. And eureka, there was a large bar of Amul chocolate that was 99 percent cocoa, so we eagerly snagged it and took it home to savor it.
Cultural Exchange
This was also a good week for receiving good news. Dennis had three of his poems accepted for publication in the space of two days; and we got the green light from a volunteer position in Vietnam, a country high on our list of places to visit. This was a library in Hoi An that was going to have us do programs with children. As it turned out, this gig fell through, but our contact arranged another position for us in the same city. Whatever. We were headed to Vietnam!
Performing Stories to Learn English
Backyard Birdies
August 2022
world travel with a theatrical flair 