11 January 2016

There’s not many things that can really surprise me anymore after today’s nonsense. I never thought I’d experience the day where I’d be in a bus that’s going oddly fast for a vehicle supposed to be exercising caution on hairpin turns, but then again, that should have been my warning that this last full day in Agartala would be an adventure that I’ll ever forget.

After an overwhelmingly long bus ride and a severely unnerving bathroom situation, we found ourselves at another temple. This one was pretty fascinating, there was a lot going on and it was even another place we could make wishes. Our Holy Cross friends explained to us what we needed to do and a few of us took the time and rupees to try our luck once more with this whole mystical wish business.

I know I use the word fascinating a lot but that’s the best way I can describe most of this trip. This temple was no different. After I made my wish, some of the students took us to where you could feed some fish. Sure we had to get past an excessive amount of beggers and people trying to sell us stuff, but it was just really cool to just have handfuls of fish food and see how this rather large fish would just come up to where the steps met the pond / lake / water thing’s edge. Just a smaller note, it just always confuses me when we have to pay to feed the fish at places like this where you’d assume being more in tune with nature would be something that people do just because and not have to pay for.

This idea was quickly shattered when we returned up the stairs to where the wishes were made and the actual temple area was. My professor had wanted me to try to get some crazy sound of these women praying / shouting and of course I went without question. Someone also mentioned after I noted how there was a rather large man carrying a rather large machete that there were sacrifices that occur at this temple and I thought nothing of it.

If you like your mental image of animals please ignore the following until *** reappears

***Well, I can officially say I’ve seen an animal sacrifice and that I’m NEVER eating mutton ever again. That was probably one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever witnessed. The man with the machete returned with a male baby goat. I heard the bleating and desperately wanted to join my classmates and  not watch what was about to happen, but I’m a reporter and it would make for interesting sound. Despite the turning in my stomach, I followed some of the crowd where you saw the goat get it’s head chopped off. I wish I had horrible timing, but for once I got it right.

Just when I reopened my eyes, the goat was already secured in a contraption that vaguely reminded me of a guillotine and the man was bringing the machete down and then next thing I knew, the other priest, I assume, took the body and just was moving it around so the blood poured out since the heart was still beating. Severely concerning and I honestly just wanted to vomit, but I got the sound and resigned myself to just living with that mental image. I remember one of the other students mentioning how they shouldn’t be making these kinds of sacrifices anymore and I seriously agree. I didn’t even think that people still did that kind of stuff. I understand there are different things for each different religion and culture but come on, it’s 2016. The gods surely understand that it’s the thought that counts, do we honestly need to keep spilling blood, even if it’s animal, just to keep a deity happy?***

Anyway, moving right along.

Soon enough we found ourselves back onto the bus and a super long ride to this magical looking place that one needed to reach by boat. The sun was slowly setting as we got there but it was just so fascinating to see the color of the sky and the intricate design of this building. It kind of hit me then that this was really the end of the trip honestly. I kind of tried spacing myself away from everyone because no one ever wants a good time with friends to end. I just appreciated all the fun and adventures I had on this trip and seeing all my friends just goofing off made everything just so precious to me.

That last bus ride was pretty difficult. We just kept on goofing off and having laughs while eating the various snacks the Holy Cross students insisted we tried. It wasn’t until the first of our friends started getting dropped off nearby to their respective homes that we really let it hit us as a group. Everyone who left was hugged by us all and we all waved from the window as the bus drove away. It was just a bittersweet moment because we had really appreciated these girls and they made us feel so welcome into their part of the world. It was just weird for us to all admit that we wouldn’t wake up the next day to hop on the bus and get on some adventure with our new friends.

The times of appreciation of friends and adventure didn’t end there. The group had one moment that I honestly won’t forget. After our last dinner in our hostel, we all wanted to venture up to the balcony located on the top floor. I was really excited because it was a pretty clear night and since there wasn’t much pollution, you could still see the stars. The teachers were discussing up there and the rest of the group was talking but there’s just something about the stars for me. I also might have forgotten that although India is in the East, it is still part of the same hemisphere and the same stars that light up my sky in the United States are the exact same ones I caught myself looking at. So what do I do? I lay down while everyone else was doing their own thing.

Soon enough, the professors retired to their rooms and it was just the students. One of my friends ended up bringing out their wireless speaker. So my friends all decided that I didn’t have that bad of an idea and joined me on the balcony. It was such a surreal moment, like one of those in an 80s coming of age movie. You just had a group of us lying down, listening to slower music, looking up at the stars at the end of one hell of an adventure. What my friends don’t know from that night is that that particular moment just reaffirmed everything about this trip.

I had been going through a really rough patch as of late. I was super home sick. It’s starting to hit me that the final chapter to my college career is really coming close and I’m 100% scared of that reality. This one moment just made me realize that no matter how stressed or scared I can get, if I let myself enjoy the moment and surround myself around good people, I can really get through anything. In this moment, I realize how much my friends mean to me. No matter what part of my life, my friends have acted as such a huge support system. All my friends back in the States are just going to get overwhelmed with how much I want to spend time with them.

Does that mean I’m going to let people walk over me? No. If there’s anything I’ve learned from this trip, it’s definitely that my instinct to keep fighting is worth something. I don’t want to waste this last semester. I want to spend time with people who matter to me. I want to spend time with people who care about me. I want to enjoy my time with the people who I won’t be able to enjoy an ease of access to after May 22. My friends are incredibly important to me and I hope that I can succeed in getting these moments in the near future. This kinds of moments where you’re just reaffirmed in your decision no matter the struggles and pain that might have been experienced.

Here’s to the sun setting on one adventure that I’ll be trying to process for the rest of my life. Here’s to the amazing people I’ve grown to care about because of this experience.

Til next time,