For the Love of Coconut Oil

Most people have heard all the amazing benefits that there are to using coconut oil. If you haven't, here's a few.

-restores dry hair
-helps nourish skin
-removes bags under eyes
-helps nails grow stronger
-improves digestion
-boosts immunity against illness
-delays wrinkles
-helps heal skin irritations such as eczema
-expedites weight loss
-stress relief
-prevents tooth decay

Since India is a country that uses coconut oil in all things, skin care, hair care, cooking etc. I decided to test the benefits and have found it to be quite as amazing as people claim. The biggest difference I saw was in my skin. Moving from a completely dry climate to a very humid one caused my skin to freak out a bit and I constantly developed a heat rash. Once I started applying coconut oil to my skin, it not only healed these rash breakouts but it also made my skin feel so soft. I have started using it for my hair as well and will begin to substitute coconut oil for most of my other cooking oils. It has been fun learning about this wonder oil during my time in India and before I left I got to visit a factory that produces this oil for local companies and businesses. The manager was kind enough to show a friend and I around and tell us the process that the coconut goes through before it becomes oil. Here are a few pictures of the process. Try it out if you haven't yet!

Unexpected Fun with Filming

When you live overseas and especially a place like India, you never know what can happen on any given day. For example, when you meet a director of a film company that does advertising for local businesses and he asks you to do some work with him and you suddenly find yourself acting as an agent for all the foreigners you know in the city. Not really...but sort of :) So my coworker happened to meet this director and agreed to act in one of his commercials for a local hospital and then shortly after that, I met a French tourist that was in India for a month working on short documentary films and she was also excited to spend a few days on set with this production company. Now, I have very little knowledge of film or commercial making so it was sort of a fun new hobby to explore for my last month in India. However, one thing I learned along the way was that it takes forever to get that "one perfect shot" and that there's a lot of waiting around while the scene is set. 

The most fun I had was one day when I tagged along while a scene was being shot in an old traditional home and there were a bunch of child actors on set. They had little to do for most of the day and they all spoke some English so I sat outside playing and chatting with them. They were the most adorable children and it was a treat for me as most Indian children I interacted with seemed a bit fearful of the strange foreigner. 

As I continued to get to know the director and his team of staff, I was eventually asked to do some voice over work on a couple parts of the advertising pieces. I had never done anything like that but agreed to try. We spent a few hours in a small studio one day and I had about 8 different lines to deliver. It was much harder than you think actually. I thought I was saying the lines perfectly fine but the director wanted more emotion, or more dramatic pausing or louder or with more sorrow or laughter in the tone. I had a hard time not cracking up as the script was "cheesy" by American standards but would be well received by a Bollywood loving Indian audience. lol Just as a small taste of what's to come...here's one of my lines. "Thank you Baby Memorial Hospital for helping me to fly over stones and obstacles that challenged my daily life." hahaha

As soon as I get the finished result, I'll be sure to post the link. Can't wait to add this new skill to my resume! I have now been in the newspaper, a documentary, a TV program and a commercial this year which I find hilarious but love when new experiences drop into my lap. Here are some pictures from my time at the set and the studio. :)

The Farewell Begins

About a week or so ago, a farewell dinner was arranged with the doctors that I travel with each week back and forth from Calicut. It was a memory I will cherish. One of the best "India" nights I have had. We made plans to stop at the mall to test out an all you can eat buffet while driving home from the hospital in Perinthalmanna. One of the doctors needed to run home to feed her kids before meeting us, so five of us walked around the mall for a bit while we waited for her to come back. As we walked around, we wandered up to the top floor which has a food court and arcade. On the opposite side, we saw a small theatre that claimed to have a "ride" that was 12D! Dr. Manish, who I absolutely love joking around with, heavily questioned the ride employees demanding to know how it was possible to have a show that was 12D. He wanted to know all 12 dimensions and I stood there laughing as they explained to him what he'd experience. After intently listening to all they had to say, he turned to me and said, 'Well, Michelle...what do you think? Should we do it?" I started laughing and said, "Well, why not? We might as well...we have time to kill and it's only 150 rupees (which is the equivalent of about 3 dollars). So I asked him if we should check with everyone else and they all agreed to come go with us on this ride.

We stepped in and sat in this simulator style 8 person chair thing and we were all given a tissue. I was wondering what the heck that was for but I soon found out as I sat down and the seats were a bit damp. We then proceeded to put on our 3D glasses and the ride began. It was absolutely hilarious with twists and turns and broken roller coaster type adventure. As we went off the beaten path, we sloshed through swamps, ran into giant cobras, almost got eaten by a crocodile and plunged down waterfalls. It was fairly realistic with sprays of water, jerky movements, 3D images, bubbles and a machine that bumped us on the tush each time we hit a bump. At first, I thought one of the doctors sitting behind me was kicking my chair and almost told him to stop lol. We screamed and laughed like a bunch of teenagers and all I could think was that here I am with 5 grown up Indian men, surgeons mind you, and we are acting like we're at Disneyland for the first time hahaha!

After our thrilling adventure, we headed to dinner and met our other friend. As we stepped into the restaurant, the first question out of  Dr. Manish's mouth was, "Is there any kind of time limit?" We spent the next two and a half hours eating to our hearts content and then some, and cracked jokes the entire time. They were absolutely the best crowd to enjoy the buffet with and I had so much fun. Even the staff and manager visited our table frequently because they could tell we were enjoying ourselves to the full. I've never seen a person eat as much as Dr. Manish put away that night and he practically fell asleep at the table before we left. It was quite a feat...but he claimed he didn't want any dishes to be crying that he didn't give them a fair chance and try them all. LOL! I told them all at the end of the evening how grateful I was that they invited me in and made me a part of their lives this year. We all talked about the many wonderful laughs and memories we shared in the car rides each week and I was filled with such a thankfulness that lasted well into the week. I give thanks to God for allowing me to have actual true friends here and for the beauty I've come to appreciate along this journey that has not always been easy...in fact one of the most challenging things I've ever done. I head home in just a few weeks and I've been incredibly reflective, taking in all that this country of beauty, chaos and mystery has to offer.

....You Might Be in India

1. If you agree to meet at 9 and the other party casually shows up at 10:30...you might be in India.

2. If the power goes out upon your arrival to a hotel and you have brush your teeth by cell phone light...you might be in India.

3. If you stumble upon another white person and you instantly become the best of friends...

4. If you climb in a rickshaw and you make it only halfway to your destination...

5. If you ask to print a document from a printing shop and there is only one working computer out of 7 and that one working computer is currently not connected to the internet...

6. If you look down as you walk in order not to step on animal poo, twist your ankle in a pot hole or step in someone else's wad of spit...

7. If your internet stops as soon as the first raindrop falls....

8. If you tell your tour guide that you need an ATM 20 times and pass by hundreds on the way to the next destination and he finally arrives without taking you to one, while proceeding to tell you that you must walk half a block to the nearest one, in the hottest part of the day and that one lonely ATM is not working...

9. If you can only use the AC at night and not during the hottest part of the day...

10. If you try to do a mud mask facial and you can't get it dry due to humidity....

11. If you have to adapt to a back up plan, then another back up plan, and another back up plan and then finally go back to the original plan...

12. If you see another foreigner walking around the mall and stalk them so you can hope to convince them to get a cup of coffee with you...

13. If on the way to work, you pass by a goat eating snacks off some roadside seller's cart...

14. If you pay for a pedicure for the sole purpose of enjoying the AC during the hot part of the day...

15. If your driver tells you it will take two hours to reach the next destination and five hours later you still haven't arrived...

16. If the 12 airport security checks as you try to board a flight out of the country makes you want to murder someone...

17. If you can't sleep due to a rooster, and vicious turkey living next door crowing at 4 am...

18. If by chance the said rooster and turkey sleep in, and you still can't sleep due to the neighbor who does laundry by beating it against a rock which sounds like a cricket bat whacking a tree...

19. If a pack of wild dogs that sound like human wailing begins their evening chant at 1:30 in the morning...

20. If the sound of blaring horns no longer make you even flinch...

21. If crossing the street is like a life or death game of frogger...

22. If you walk into a shop and everyone freezes in their tracks giving you a deer in a highlight look of desperation...

23. If you get invited to weddings weekly despite the fact that you don't know the bride or the groom...

24. If you carry toilet paper, hand sanitizer, a small pharmacy and wet wipes everywhere you go...

25. If you stop drinking liquids a day in advance so you can make it through the 5 hour bus journey without any stops...

26. If you pick out your purchases, get a receipt for them in one counter, pay for them in another counter and then pick them up in yet another counter and the guard still checks your receipt on the way out of the shop...

27. If you can't get the smell of curry out from underneath your fingernails no matter how many times you wash your hands...

28. If you have a day off for a religious holiday, state election, strike or multiple other random reasons...

29. If you have to pay a traveling doctor to bring you Starbucks because there is only one at the airport in Mumbai...

30. If you keep your cell phone charged at all times because you know your life might depend on it...

Make Fun of the Situation Before the Situation Makes Fun of YOU!

I think I've definitely grown in my ability to adapt to chaos, problems, and unmet expectations while living here as there are daily situations that provide excellent practice! However, I still get irritated by some changes and last week was a perfect example. I take a shuttle van from Calicut to Perinthalmanna (a two hour journey) every Monday and Tuesday and lately there have been all kinds of issues with our transportation. Usually it's a bumpy ride, over taking vehicles left and right which usually makes me totally carsick but at least it's a comfortable van and has A/C. However, with these recent problems a whatsapp group has been started for the doctors, drivers and other faculty that travel daily to the other campus. (in order to improve our communication!!) This past Monday I was waiting at the normal time (7am) at the hospital with one other doctor that typically goes with us each week. No one informed either of us that the shuttle driver would be late and by 7:20, we were both getting a little irritated.

So the doctor started to send a message to the HR department on our whatsapp group saying that once again we were waiting for the shuttle to arrive and and that we would give it about 15 more minutes and then we would leave and go back home. I was on board with that plan since I didn't want to be waiting any longer. So I waited while he was continuing to send messages and they eventually told us that another shuttle was going to be coming for us. What pulled into the hospital was what I can only describe as a Bronco that looked like it had been on one too many camping trips. It was all beat up with broken seating, dirt every where and of course no seat belts. I laughed as we climbed inside and the other doctors immediately began making jokes about our "airplane" that would carry us to the other campus. It was rainy that day and I thought I'd take a chance of wearing my hair down cause I rarely have days here where I can. Within 5 minutes of pulling out of the hospital like a bat out of hell where I literally had to tell the driver that although we were now in a hurry, he had better not gamble with my life! We fogged up the windows and I asked him to turn on the A/C. Well of course, there was none. I don't know why I had even thought for a second it would have had it. I ought to know by now! He said he had gotten a good discount on it and I laughed as I thought, "Well, I bet you did! It's a piece of junk!"

So he rolled all the windows down and I was shoved in the middle seat in between 2 doctors and my once semi-nice hair was now flying around everyone's faces like I was in a wind tunnel. I always keep a hair tie with me cause odds are, I'll always want one by the end of the day or within the first 5 minutes of stepping outside. I looked in my first spot and there were gone. Irritated, I went for the next place I usually keep one and again, I had not replaced it! Slight panic setting in, I am now scrambling through my purse and backpack trying to find this illusive rubber band! I started yelling, "I'm getting so pissed off!" not even caring that I was in a professional environment and I reached into my last spot, my last hope...and victory was mine! I found one tucked into a pocket and I desperately tried to gather all the pieces of my crazy hair into a ponytail. I got a majority of it tucked away and Dr. Manish, one of my colleagues who always finds the bright spot in any situation said, "Michelle, you've got to make fun of the situation before the situation makes fun of you." That broke my bad mood and I started laughing as he went on saying, "This kind of wisdom comes for free every day here in India. It's all around you...on the side of the road." That made me laugh ever harder as that statement is so very true. There are hundreds of situations that happen all the time that I can choose to either laugh and adapt to it or I can let it drive me absolutely mad! I wish I could say that I am not able to choose the former each and every time but India is still teaching me these lessons.

We tore through the towns trying to reach our destination and at one point, Dr. SMA in the front seat noticed a CD/movie player that was attached to the ceiling of the car with its flap hanging down broken and probably unusable. There were 2 small screens like on an airplane on the back of the driver and passenger seat and Dr. Manish turned one on and said, "Hey maybe we can have an in-flight movie on the way." I noticed as he turned on the blue little screen, that flashing across it were the words, "No singal" and so I piped in, "Well, we might except that there's no SINGAL" He has a great grasp of English and began laughing super hard saying to me, "Oh dear. You truly are an English teacher, aren't you!" We all laughed and kept on with our drive. After a half hour or so, it started to rain heavily and the guy sitting next to me asked the driver to roll up the windows. The driver was so focused that he didn't hear him and so the teacher then took the window with his hands and tried pulling it up since he was getting drenched. Dr. SMA in the front seat piped up and said, "They're 'semi-automatic."We all laughed even more about the ridiculousness of the situation. We managed to survive the rest of the journey and it was the talk of the day among the hospital. I opted to take the bus back to Calicut after my classes finished. I had had enough adventure for one day!

Revitalize and Refresh!

Early in the morning after a long night of chatting with Dinny, I headed to the airport for a short flight to Bali. I had planned to take a long nap and enjoy the hotel/beach and maybe a massage before my friends arrived in the evening. However, that got shifted a bit when I learned that it was a 3 hour drive from the airport to the area we had booked our stay. I settled in for a long ride asking if we could stop for coffee at the earliest convenience as we sadly hurried by the Starbucks at the airport. I had hoped there would be another on the way but instead, they stopped at an interesting place that was simply called Coffee Stop. Half awake I got out of the car and placed before me was a tray of cups with about 10 different labels. I learned that this was a place where you could sample all the different types of coffee or teas that are made locally and then of course if you like any, you can visit their shop and purchase some to take back with you. I sipped on all types of drinks from ginseng coffee to mangosteen tea and was offered their famous "carowak" coffee which is a type of coffee bean that first passes through a chicken or rooster and they collect the beans from the poop. Gross...yeah maybe a bit. But it's supposed to be the best coffee and it very costly! I didn't try it there because they had no milk or sugar but I purchased some at the gift shop to try at a later date. I'll keep you posted lol.

I arrived at the room and was very pleased with the view, however, I was starving and the food and service from their restaurant was lacking to say the least. I also found that the townhouses had their own massage therapist on hand and could be sent to your room so I asked for her to come at three. Massages in other countries are always a bit of risk...some can be amazing experiences and others will provide a laugh and not much else. This one was somewhere in between. A lady arrived at 3 with her child in tow and I wondered how that was going to go over. At first it appeared she had brought nothing with her and so I wondered if I was going to climb on the bed, on the floor or what? But she went around the corner and brought a mat into the room. No sheet of course so I got undressed as discreetly as possible with a small random child watching my every move and laid down on the mat. The massage was neither great nor bad. It felt a bit awkward with the daughter there but to her credit, she didn't make a peep during the massage. I used a t-shirt to cover up when she had me flip on my back and decided once was enough for this experience. I knew there had to be tons of other places around town that might be a bit more professional.

I spent some time in the pool and went to dinner to watch a "traditional Balinese dancer" who was basically a dressed up waitress who did a 2 minute number after serving the food. It was not anything real special but I did get invited to join a table with a traveling brother and sister from Canada. They ended up being great company for the remainder of my time there. My friends arrived very late that night and we spent some time catching up in the middle of the night and then slept in a bit the next morning. We decided to rent a small boat that would take us out to a great spot for snorkeling and spent a few hours on the water. It was lots of fun being in the ocean and seeing all the tropical fish. Plus I loved the boat ride where we could see the coast. Bali is truly beautiful and has glorious mountains and lots of green hills with flowers everywhere. After our boat ride, we rested for an hour or so and then closer to sunset, we drove up to the base of the volcano and took some photos in this little park as the sun was coming down. We had some good food for dinner and then went to our room to play some games and go to bed.

The next day we decided to do a white water rafting trip and it was a blast. Very much a bumper boat kind of tour and the scenery was exquisite with lots of tropical trees and animals around. There was even a 5 meter drop towards the end that was a thrill. That trip basically took most of our day and Steph went to rest since she wasn't feeling that great and Justin and I attempted to find a place for a massage. We rented scooters to travel around the small village area but unfortunately I had a small accident with mine since I have very little experience and I got some major road rash on my leg...which then put me in no mood for a massage. Which turned out fine since the place we tried to go was already booked up for the day. Defeated we came back to the room, I cleaned all the gravel out of my leg and then I went for a swim. Since my friends were flying standby, they needed to take a flight with the least amount of tickets booked and they both weren't feeling super great, so they decided to leave that night to catch a flight back to Dubai instead of leaving with me the next day. So they took off for the airport and I met up with my Canadian friends for dinner and then we went to an outdoor reggae style bar that had live music. The band was actually really good and it was fun to just be outdoors and listen to live music. Some Irish guys soon joined our table and they kept us laughing. It was such a fun night of normalcy and it did my soul good. I left feeling incredibly grateful and slept peacefully.

The next morning, I met the Canadians for one last snorkeling adventure before they had to move on to their next destination. They planned to travel all around Bali for a month (of which I was immensely jealous ;) and as I said goodbye to them, I went for my scheduled massage at this place I had found at dinner the night before. 10 minutes into it, I could tell I was in for a treat and I asked her to change from a one hour to 90 minutes! It was well worth the extra $4 I paid lol! She was excellent and it was private and clean while still being right on the beach. I felt so relaxed and happy, grabbed some lunch, showered and got packed up. The drive back to the airport was a little less time than going and I enjoyed the scenery much more since I was not half asleep. I had just enough money for a junior whopper from Burger King at the airport before boarding my flight. I happened to be traveling on a short puddle jumper flight with about 40 traveling students in which I can only guess that this was their first time ever being on an airplane as they broke out in spontaneous clapping after every flight attendant announcement. You'd have thought they'd won the lottery as we landed. I was cracking up at their enthusiasm! And then after landing, while we all waited in this tiny baggage claim area, each of them went up to each person in their group and gave them a hug. While sweet, I was laughing to myself since we had all been together for the entire flight. They kept me entertained that's for sure!

I spent one last night in Semarang at a hotel near the airport and then left the next morning for Jakarta, my heavenly 4 hour layover in Malaysia and then on to India. This time around at the airport in KL, I stumbled upon an international grocery store that literally had me in tears. It was like being reunited with long lost friends. I walked every inch of that store, not once, but twice, trying to determine what I could fit in my carry on, what wouldn't spoil before I got back to Calicut and what I could eat in the next four hours before I boarded my flight. It was very serious business! I arrived back in Cochin late in the evening and spent the night at a friend's home before getting the train the next day to Ooty. I spent two more days in the mountains with my friends from the UK before heading back to Calicut. It was the perfect combination of beaches and cool weather and the refreshing feeling has lasted long after returning back to normal life here. I'm incredibly thankful for the chance I had to realign my heart, body and soul in order to finish out the last few months here with renewed determination. My friends helped me tremendously and blessed me in many ways throughout the trip and I can only pray that they reap such benefits themselves by their generosity. Bali, I hope we meet again one day! <3

Bali Bound!

Vacation! What a word...what a difference! Just a few days away from the daily struggles of India gave me such a boost. It gave me the strength to face the last few months here and a new ability to cope with the organized chaos that defines this place. I've been back a month already and have seen such a difference in my attitude towards the city, the heat, the people, even the auto drivers. Self care is so very important when you live in a place that almost daily can tax your sanity! Maybe that's why they force you to leave every six months for a visa run lol...they know you'll need a break by then! ;)

I headed out to Jakarta, Indonesia via Kuala Lumpur and after arriving there, I took a short domestic flight to Semarang. My four hour layover in KL was amazing. There were shops and restaurants everywhere! I went to three different Starbucks and just reveled in all the "western-ness" of it. Unfortunately I went a little "too American, too fast" and got a stomach ache from the progressive 4 hour breakfast I had while waiting for my next flight. But it was still worth it lol!

I arrived in Semarang and my dear longtime friend Dinny picked me up with her uncle and father. It had been 2 years since she had moved from Arizona to work at Yale University and I was so excited to be reunited and to be able to visit her hometown and meet her family. Dinny was a student of mine when I taught ESL classes at ASU several years ago and we've been close friends for many years. We chatted the whole car ride from the airport to her town. I met her mom when we arrived in her home and saw her family had graciously set up a spare room for me to feel comfortable. Her parents could not communicate with me but there are some language barriers that can always be crossed with smiling and gesturing. We soon got ready and went out to eat for dinner and then after a pretty large local meal, they picked up traditional chicken satay with peanut sauce for "dessert". It was the best thing ever and after saying how I would only eat one or two skewers since we had just eaten a large meal out, I had no difficulty putting away about 10-15 chicken skewers! I seemed to have another stomach especially for satay!

Since I had not slept the night before on my flight, I had to call it a night around 9 and get some sleep. I woke up the next morning excited to check facebook to see if my new nephew had been born. My sister had been scheduled for a C-section while I was asleep and I hoped I would wake up to his face on my screen. I didn't have to wait long and I was excited to see that Graham Avery had been born healthy and happy! This is the second time I've been on vacation in SE Asia when a niece or nephew has arrived and it's kind of a fun story I hope to be able to share one day with them. Dinny and I spent the morning walking around her neighborhood, chatting with neighbors, getting fresh juice, seeing her former teachers at her elementary school and catching up on each other's lives. It was a beautiful walk and I was so thankful to be outside and not a sweaty mess. Then she took me on a motor bike ride tour of the town and again, it was a nice day for a ride and we had fun looking around.

Around noon, her family was done for the day with work so we all planned to spend the rest of the day in Semarang. We drove into the bigger city and saw a few sights, had the most delicious lunch with marinated beef that was to die for (I should preface that I ate a ton of beef on this trip since it's very rare in India) and then went to a karaoke room for an hour of crazy fun! Since language was somewhat difficult, I knew that singing would be a blast since music can absolutely break all language barriers! Her dad loved to sing and we did a few duets which was so fun. We ended the hour with "We are the World" which was not only hilarious and an apt song to sing, but closed out the fun with a poignant tone. Dinny and I decided to walk around a bit alone and visit a few more places before meeting up with her sister for dinner. We didn't get that far before her family came and found us and we all ended up going out to dinner. They took me to this fun beer garden place and I had a burger (big surprise) and a mojito! Then Dinny, her sister and I walked around this nice mall that was across from our hotel and tried desperately to have boba tea but every place we tried was out of boba :( So sad! I did however, get some amazing pants that I will wear until they have huge holes in them. They are so comfy and have cute Indonesian designs. Best $7 I have ever spent!

Dinny and I went back to the hotel after the mall closed and I decided I was going to take a bath. She had splurged on a big beautiful hotel that was so nice and luxurious. I was like, "See ya in an hour" and that was about right. I enjoyed every minute of my soak in a tub and then we stayed up chatting until way too late. Especially since I had to be up at 4 am the next morning for my next flight which would take me to BALI!

More to come on the glory that was Bali...