Days in Imphal

We are writing this from Calcutta, after being here one day...

But, we left a out a big chunk of our experiences in Imphal, Manipur that we still need to share. So, we will step back to last week, before we were famous Y.P.A. life members...and tell you about our experiences in Imphal and our time with the 50 kids at Lydia Children's Home (LCH).

We must first start when we flew from Kathmandu into Calcutta on Feb. 27 (?) we think. We arrived and enjoyed a barrage of mosquitoes and heat while waiting for our luggage. Khumi's father (remember the government guy, that got us famous?) had a man at the airport that helped us get a taxi, and we took a 1 hour ride to the Manipur Guest house somewhere in Calcutta. That was our first experience driving through the crazy city that this is...lots of traffic, pollution, and people. The guesthouse we stayed at is for government workers from Manipur when staying in Calcutta. We had some interesting experiences in our short overnight stay there...trying to communicate with mostly non-English speaking Indians about dinner, breakfast, airport taxis the next day, bills, etc. We also experienced a cultural phenomenon that definitely challenged our American need for privacy and space: when we did not lock our door, the attendants would just walk in and ask questions or bring us something...with NO warning or knocking first. We learned that locking the door was necessary to avoid embarassing situations! Alison also met another friendly guest when she went in to use the bathroom...a huge lizard climbed up the wall as she walked in. This necessitated Trevor coming to the rescue--every time Alison had to go into the bathroom, he had to check it thourougly first! The lizard did not make a reappearance however!

We safely left Calcutta, after a delayed flight, and made it to Imphal on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 27. Our arrival was quite interesting as we were met by Khumi and many officials who had to do their paperwork documenting that foreigners were entering Imphal and to give us our passes for our nine-day stay. Khumi told us that while in Imphal, there was supposed to be someone who kept track of every place we went, and he had to write a report detailing our whereabouts, so not to be surprised if people phoned us or came up to us and asked us for our papers. This never happened, however! Either our guy was not doing his job well, or he was so secretive that we never knew he was around!

During the day, we hung around and did stuff around town, and every night, we headed over to the children's home to hang out with the kids. First, we'll give some details about the days (for our own future information!), then tell about the GREAT kids...

Friday: A tour of Imphal, pop. 1.8 million. We visited the big Catholic church where Khumi and Ashish got married; visited the World War 2 memorial/cemetery (the Japanese and British fought battles in Manipur); saw the huge sports complex and the Manipur state museum; and a Hindu temple.

Saturday: Hung out with the kids...more details later. In the afternoon, Khumi's big brother took us with his friends on a picnic in the countryside. Before leaving, Khumi bought us some beatle nut to chew on...this is something everyone does here, usually after meals. It is a big green leaf, with a concoction of other stuff inside (such as nuts, coconut, and unidentifiable things). You stick the whole thing in your mouth and start chewing. Not our cup of tea (Wrigley's works better for us), but a good experience. An hour after we started we spit out the remnants, although most swallow it all, except those who chew it with tobacco...they spit it.

Sunday: Khumi took us to a church in the countryside, and Trevor gave a 'short message'.

Monday-Wednesday: Young Paite Association adventures...you've already heard about this one!

Thursday: Another day around town with Khumi and Julie (a friend from Hawaii traveling around, staying with Khumi now). We went to see a school started by a friend of Khumi's family, with 900 kids! I thought a classroom of 30 kids was a lot: there was only one class per grade at this school (up through grade 10) and 50-60 kids in each class. The nursery class (pre-K) had a SEA of kids in it...all so cute in their little uniforms and girls with bright pink ribbons in their hair (part of the uniform). We also did some shopping, and bought some percussion instruments to give the kids at the children's home later that night.

Friday: After a quick walk around a huge women's market (only women vendors) where they sold a large variety of fish, produce, etc., we headed to the airport and flew to Calcutta.

Now for the most important part of our Imphal trip: THE KIDS.

But, we've run out of steam for this evening, so that will be our next journal entry...

sorry to make you read this far to keep you hanging still.

Another entry will come shortly!

Love you!

Alison and Trevor

(fyi: both of our health is now fine and back to normal, even though we've learned that while traveling, your stomach can turn on a dime! And always pack your medicine with you! Never leave it behind when you go on short, few day trips!)