Deshnoke - The Temple of Rats

While travelling through the Thar Desert in the state of Rajasthan in Northern India, our group spent two days in a city called Bikaner. We were told by our tour leader that just outside the city was a temple called Deshnoke where rats were considered sacred, given food and milk, and protected from predators. I was curious, and so were two other guys out of our group of 13. We hired a driver to take us there.  On the way I dozed off in the warm light of the late afternoon sun.

“Here is temple,” said our driver abruptly waking me 30 minutes later. “You go. I will wait here.”

We made our way towards the temple’s entrance. It’s outer appearance was like many of the ones we had already seen; ornate designs carved from stone, marble tiles and gold decorations.  I noticed that everyone entering the building had removed their shoes. Oh, that’s right…  I remembered. No wearing shoes in temples. We took ours off and handed them to the shoe keeper.  I was a little concerned about a rabid rat biting a toe, but there was no turning back now.

Inside was one of the strangest sights I had ever witnessed.  I was expecting rats, but I suppose not so many. I could see hundreds of furry bodies scurrying across the floor. What’s that I’m stepping on? I wondered. Oh right, rat shit.

  

We slowly and cautiously walked, making sure not to step on one of the inhabitants. Unfortunately, the poop was unavoidalbe. With every step our feet were covered with more and more of it. I watched as an elderly woman filled a bowl with milk for the rats to drink. Several of them quickly darted over and perched their filthy, greasy bodies on the edge and began feeding. As I stared in disgust I felt one run across my feet. I was nearing the boundary of my comfort zone. I could feel my stomach turn when I watched as a man kneel on the ground and press his lips against the feces coated floor.  

                                          

We soon decided that we had seen enough. We tip-toed back to the exit and collected our shoes. I took a look at the bottom of my feet. They were horrific. I wiped as much as I could off on the street and then slipped my sandals back on. When we arrived back at the hotel, I spent a good 20 minutes scouring my feet with hot, soapy water and rubbing anti-bacterial lotion on them.

We asked our tour leader about the history of Deshnoke. He told us that this temple was a tribute to a female Hindu sage named Karni Mata. Karni Mata was an incarnation of the Hindu goddess, Durga. One day, a child from her tribe grew ill and died. When she attempted to bring the deceased child back to life, she was denied by Yama, the god of death.  From that point forward, whenever one of her clanspeople died, Karni Mata reincarnated them as a rat, a creature outside of Yama’s control. The rats at Deshnoke are under Karni Mata’s protection until they can be reborn as human.  

A New Chapter

Well, my time in Korea has come to an end.  As thrilled as I am for this next chapter of my life, knowing that I may never again see many of the people I’ve grown so close to breaks my heart.  “Bittersweet” does not come close to describing how I feel.

Living and working abroad has been something that I’ve wanted to do for such a long time. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to do so.  I think it has been very beneficial for me to have witnessed how those from another country live. It has made me question some aspects of my culture and appreciate others.  I value the individualism of the West. I think that we should be able to carve and shape our own identities.  But I also deeply admire the sense of togetherness and brotherhood that I experienced while in Korea.  I know that my time there has changed me, and I feel that it’s for the better.

The day after I finished my teaching contract, I ran my second marathon.  It took me 4 hours 3 minutes to complete; a big improvement over my first marathon time of 4 hours 34 minutes.  It was a fantastic way for me to end my Korean adventure.

My next marathon will be at the Corbett National Park in India on April 7th. I don’t expect my finishing time to be great.  Throughout this month I am touring Northern India and I don’t know how much or where I’ll be able to run. I have been doing burpees in my hotel rooms. I doubt that my legs will “forget” how to run 42 km, but I’d at least like to maintain my fitness.  I expect  to get sick at least once while here, but I’m hoping that I feel alright on race day.

Where to Go?

Deciding where to travel to once my teaching contract was complete was something that I thought about for months.  It was a very tough decision. -I will say now that I’m aware that this isn’t a real problem.-  I was interested in travelling to many different countries, but I knew that my savings wouldn’t allow me to see everything that I wanted to.  To help me decide which countries to visit, I made a list of what I wished to experience and accomplish on this extended holiday.

1. Practice Spanish.

2. Be in nature and see new wildlife.

3. Get in the best physical shape of my life.

4. Visit religious sites and learn more about religions.

5. Witness poverty to have a deeper awareness of how fortunate I am.

6. Eat from world famous cuisines.

7. Become a certified SCUBA diver.

8. Run marathons.

9. Do something “spiritual”.

With this list, selecting which countries to travel to became very simple: India, Thailand, and Peru. Marathons are held all over the world and I was sure that I could find ones to run in these countries. While in India I could learn more about Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism and I would certainly witness immense poverty.  All three countries are very biodiverse and India and Thailand are particularly well known for their incredible food. In Thailand I would be able to practice Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing), a very physically and mentally demanding sport; something that I’m sure could push me past my current limits. Thailand has fantastic dive spots and very affordable SCUBA courses.  Lastly, if I travelled to Peru, I could practice Spanish, run up the Inca Trail, and then do something “spiritual”. (I’ll write about this later.)

I feel that listing what I wanted to see and do before choosing what countries to visit was a good decision. It has given this vacation some focus and purpose.  I don’t feel that there’s anything wrong with travelling without plans, relaxing, and playing it by ear. But I really wanted to use this time to develop as a human being and I feel that would be more difficult without some clear objectives.

I’m so excited about the journey that lies ahead of me. 

The Last Week of Kindergarten

The kindergarten“hagwon” (private school) that I work at has a thorough curriculum. We teach language arts, phonics, creative arts, arts and crafts, theme, science, math, gym, cooking, and computer class among others. There are monthly targets for the material that needs to be covered for each class. For many of the subjects, my students (Saturn Class) have workbooks that the principal charged their parents an arm and a leg for.

When I first arrived here with zero teaching experience, having a structured curriculum was invaluable. I had to do little planning of my own.  We had the books and I knew the pages that needed to be covered each class. As beneficial as this was in the beginning, the rigidity became increasingly frustrating as I became more familiar with my students and their skill level.

There have been many concepts in phonics class particularly that my students have had trouble with. For some foolish reason, I believed it was beneficial to spend additional time on these difficult topics so that my students had a chance to grasp them, even if it meant that we didn’t meet the page target for that class

Sometime in December, the (Korean) head teacher at our school approached me and said,

“Can you finish all of the books by the end of February?”

“That’s going to be very difficult,” I replied. “There is a lot of material to cover and some of the concepts are quite challenging.”

“I know, but it looks very bad if the books go home unfinished. The parents will be unsatisfied. Do you think that you could go faster?”

“I… guess so.”

After discovering how many pages still needed to be completed, the principal decided that it would be best if my kindergarten class had no more unnecessary (re: fun) classes. Arts and crafts, and cooking classes were removed from my schedule and the number of music, gym, and computer classes were significantly reduced. Needless to say, my students were not happy when they learned about the changes, especially when they discovered that their favorite classes would be replaced by phonics and language arts.

For the next two months, my students worked hard to complete their workbooks, but in February (the last month of the school year) I could tell that we still wouldn’t be able to finish them at our current pace. As ridiculous as the idea seemed to me, we needed to go faster.

On Monday morning I stood in front of my class and said,

“You guys, we have a lot of work to do in our books. We have to finish mannny pages. If we work verrry hard for the next two weeks, then I promise our last week will be verrry fun! O.K.?”

“O.K. teacher.”

I wasn’t sure if they knew what they had agreed to.

For the next two weeks we proceeded to fly through pages and pages of the workbooks. I was frustrated because I knew that my students were only retaining a tiny fraction of what we covered. They were frustrated because I was making them complete several pages of each book throughout the entire day. It wasn’t fun, but when it looked like they were ready to quit I would remind them of the promise I had made.

“You guys are excellent students. You are working sooo hard. Remember, if we get through these books, then our last week will be full of fun classes.”

During the next two weeks I failed at teaching, but we succeeded in getting through all the workbooks. The answers to each drill, problem, and question were written down with my corrections and signature on every page.

On the weekend I did a lot of brainstorming and research about exciting activities that we could do. Below is footage of the last week with my kindergarten class. They’ve worked so hard and I hope that I could make our last days together fun. I love these kids so much.

Monday

                            

Tuesday

                            

Wednesday

                            

Thursday

                                                             Friday

My Massive Birthday Dinner

I turned 25 on February 17th. For my birthday dinner, some friends and I ate at D'Maris, a high-end buffet restaurant. I have eaten at this place a few times before and it ranks very high on the list of restaurants I've been to. The price for a dinner there is around 35000 Won (~$31), which for me is a bargain.

This is what went through my head as we were being walked to our table during my first trip there:

"Wow! Fancy. Damn there are a lot of tables. I see food. That looks really good. Are we really still walking? More food. Nice aquarium. How far away is our table? This place is really nice. More food. I am so ready for this."

The variety of foods offered at this place astounds me. There's steak, crab legs, roast beef, smoked salmon, tropical fruit, an extensive salad bar, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean foods, a variety of breads, cakes, pies, cookies, cheeses, and crackers. You can watch all of this being freshly prepared by the chefs behind the food stations. 

In addition to the great food, D'Maris is clean and beautifully decorated. From the food to the chairs, everything looks high-quality. The restaurant is also enormous; able to seat over 500 people.

Normally I am able to eat quite a bit of food, but a couple hours before my birthday dinner I had ran over 30km. When I arrived, my appetite was particularly voracious:

Smoked Salmon, Grilled Vegetables, Grilled Fish, 

Honey-Garlic Sausage and Potato Salad, Sweet Corn, Teriyaki Chicken.

Shrimp, Salmon, Crab, and Eel Nigiri Sushi. Tuna, Cheese, Vegetable, Fruit Rolls.

Sweet and Sour Pork, Fried Rice, Egg Noodles, 

Honey-Garlic Chicken, Caramelized Sweet Potatoes.

Fried Chicken, Fried Fish, Tempura

Shrimp Salad, Tomato-Basil Salad, Grilled Vegetables, Korean Dumpling,

 Korean Pancake, Cheese Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza

Cheese Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza, Grapes, Apple Slices, Fruit Salad, Purple Mangosteens

Waffle, Bread, Coffee Cake, Chocolate Cakes

Cookies, Bread Pudding, Cheese Cake, Chocolate Roll, Ice-Cream

More Chocolate Cake and Ice-Cream

After eating all this food, I wanted nothing more than lie down and take a nap. That's exactly what I did when I got back home. What a great meal.

The Dragon and the Rabbit

I have a friend. Her name is Kasham. In November of 2010 I was invited to her birthday dinner by a mutual friend. From our first interaction I could tell that she was special. She came up and introduced herself and thanked me for joining the celebration. I apologized for not having brought a gift. She laughed. “We only just met.”

Kasham had previously worked in Ulsan, but now she lived in Seoul. She had come down to her Korean “hometown” to celebrate her birthday with friends. She had many and I could tell that they all thought highly of her.

As time passed, we began seeing each other more and more often. I would look forward to our visits with great anticipation. I knew that a weekend spent with her would be filled with laughter and delicious food.

On the surface, Kasham and I are very different people. If we were involved in making a movie, Kasham would be the star of the show and I would be behind the scenes. She is socially fearless and daringly honest about herself. I could choose ten random people and their combined personality wouldn’t be able to match hers. I’ve met very few people that are able to make me laugh the way that she does. I’m happy just being around her. I have always had trouble letting people close to me. I have barriers in place, vestiges from my past that protect my feelings from getting hurt. Kasham was able to break through them quite effortlessly.

Despite any superficial differences, I feel that we are alike in some important ways. Kasham has attitude of gratefulness that I can very much relate to. I love how much she loves life. She is someone that understands how fortunate we are to be alive. One morning while I was staying at her place, she shared a very personal story of how she had overcome some demons in her past. To me, that was when our bond was cemented. She has an appreciation for life that I feel is difficult to achieve without experiencing great pain and darkness.

I painted these pictures and wrote this poem for her. It’s about an encounter between a timid rabbit and a powerful dragon. Although hesitant at first, the rabbit is soon captivated by the dragon’s charm. The two become friends and together head off on a journey. Along the way, something happens to the rabbit. Being in the dragon’s presence has changed him forever. The two part ways at the end, but the dragon will always be in the rabbit’s heart. 

"The Dragon and the Rabbit"

"Down comes Dragon from the trees,

As the rabbit looks quietly.

Face to face, eyes now meet,

Rabbit can feel the dragon's heat.

Timid Rabbit does not hide,

He's not afraid, but mystified.

A change occurs from deep within,

The dragon has a knowing grin.

High above the two do soar,

Rabbit views life in a way not before.

Comes the time for their paths to part,

But Dragon now lives in Rabbit's heart."

Kasham was born in 1976, the year of the dragon. I was born in 1987, the year of the rabbit. I feel that both of our characters match these animals quite well. Kasham’s personality is larger than life. She is courageous and strong. I am quiet and shy, preferring to go unnoticed. 

Soon I will leave Korea, but Kasham will stay. I am going to miss her deeply. I hope that one day our paths will cross again. 

Humility

Is there a more challenging sin to overcome than pride? As much as I've tried to silence and expel the ego, it has managed to announce its presence time and time again. This frustrates me because I believe that practicing humbleness plays a critical role in my personal development. Moreover, I worry that if one day I managed to overcome my pride, I would feel very mighty for having done something that not many others could.

With that said, here are a few of the actions I taken to cultivate humbleness. 

Avoiding Judgment of Others

I make an effort to be as non-judgmental as I can. When I catch my ego criticizing others for frivolous reasons, I try my best to put it in its place.

"How insecure you are to be judging (him, her, them) for that. Why do you care so much about something so unimportant?"

I feel that much judgment is born from fear. People judge others for the way they look, what they do, and how they think probably because they fear looking, doing, and thinking that way themselves. When I notice that I am being judgmental, I try to analyze why. I ask myself what I am afraid of.

For much of my youth I felt very judged by others. I feared even greater, far more vicious judgment if they knew who I actually was. It was a venomous feeling and it would truly upset me if I was responsible for making another feel that way.

Not Needing to be Right

This is particularly challenging for me. There have been too many times in past situations where it wasn't enough for me to know that I was right. I had to make sure that the other person also knew that. It took me a while to realize how counterproductive this was when trying to build relationships. And almost without exception, the topic argued over wouldn't be of any lasting significance.   

If I'm ever asked for advice or my opinion, I usually don't give the "Do (x, y, z)" answer that the person who asked is looking for. I will often add the qualifier "...for me". I try to emphasize that what I'm describing is simply my experience. What works for me may not work for others. I realize that this may come across as indecisiveness, but I really feel that people need to reach their own conclusions independently. 

Thanking Others

When I receive help, I always try to ensure that the person who provided it really feels my appreciation. Drive, resourcefulness, and luck can only take me so far. There is so much that I couldn't have been able to do without the encouragement and support I've been given by the incredible people in my life. 

Contemplating Insignificance 

I am one of seven billion people on a rock hurtling through space around a massive nuclear reaction known as the sun. Without the energy from this giant inferno in space, nothing I love would exist. And although the sun has given me... everything, it is only one of 100 billion stars in "our" galaxy. On top of that, there are over 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. 

It's difficult for my ego to become inflated when I think of how stupefyingly small I am.