Arunachal Pradesh!

Praise God!

We got back from Arunachal a few days ago. I was intending to update the blog right away, but then I came down with a bit of a stomach virus last few days. By God's grace its pretty much all gone and I'm feeling splendid again. I just thank God that the first food poisoning that hit me occurred right while I was at home. It may have been pretty difficult if we weren't home... and especially so if a western toilet wasn't available! phew! You know, when we were in Bihar and Jharkhand I came to the conclusion that the Indian toilet wasn't all that bad. I mean you don't have to touch anything or risk getting germs all over you or anything. The only bad side is that your legs start to hurt after a while... which could be a big problem if you're sick. But other than that, its a pretty good deal! =P

So moving on from the toilets...

On the 5th (of Dec...) we took a flight from Delhi to Gauhati in the state of Assam. Security was pretty high at the Delhi Airport...


Yes, that's a police man on top of a truck with a machine gun...

The security was extra high that day because apparently earlier in the morning, around 1am, there was a report of a sound like that of gun fire near one of the gates. They say that it was probably a false alarm and that they didn't find any evidence. But because of that, things were pretty tense while we were at the airport.

Our flight was a bit late, but we did eventually reach Guwahati Airport in Assam. Assam is directly south of Arunachal, but to get from the airport to where were going, we needed to take a helicopter. The other option was a 10 hour drive over non-existent roads... so getting the helicopter was crucial. The problem was that if any of the politicians needed the helicopter, then it wouldn't be available to the public under normal circumstances. Even till the morning of our flight from Delhi our helicopter status was unknown because some minister had booked it for that day. But when we got to Guwahati, one of my uncle's relatives who works in that airport (in the air traffic control tower!) was able to book us the last three seats on the 8-seater helicopter.

My ticket:


You may notice that it says Johan Thomas. Simple mistake right? I mean Jones-- Johan ... they all almost sound the same. Except for the fact that my uncle sent a text-message to the people with all our names and stuff... so don't ask me how they managed to come up with Johan haha.

And it wasn't even just the helicopter ticket:


That's our inter-line pass... kind of like a visa, but this is just to go to another state; they make you take this when traveling to Arunachal and some other places. Weird, I know- Welcome to India. But anyway, so for the trip I was officially named Johan Thomas. =) Not a terribly bad name huh, what do you think?

Anyways, even though they messed up my name, thank God for that helicopter, because after having seen the mountains and stuff we flew over, I cant even begin to think of how gruesome that ride would have been in a car. The helicopter ride was pretty nice, lots of scenic views.

This is a picture of the pilots:


meeeee:


The trip was so scenic and interesting in fact that my uncle ...

dozed right off to sleep. :)


Levitating and hovering and stuff itself wasn't very frightening, but you cant help but be a little worried when you see the pilot looking at a map and then looking around out the window...


But with map or not, we finally got there:



Arunachal Pradesh is a pretty nice place. When taking the whole of India into perspective, it is really one place which stands out. It reminded me a lot of Kerela. Lots of green, fresh air, mountainside roads, and awesome views. Even better than Kerela, there was very little traffic and no crazy speeding transport buses! There were still malayalees though. You cant ever get away from malayalee people =)



They apparently don't like Bangladeshi people... The sign says:

"BANGLADESHIS GO BACK"
Illegal immigration of Bangladeshis
is restricted(?) in Arunachal Pradesh

Support AAPSU

"Operation Clean Drive"
"Save Arunachal Pradesh"

So definitely some strong feelings being expressed there...


From speaking with malayalee people there, we got mixed impressions of the native people of Arunachal. The setup there is with various tribes. The different tribes have different cultures and languages. The government has recognized about 25 of the tribes as having unique languages, but there are still many that the government hasn't yet recognized. From what we heard about the people, they are very good people. When they set their heart and mind on something, they are very loyal to whatever that may be. They are very civilized, but much of this "civilization" has come only within the last 20-30 years. As such, they are prone to turning back to their old ways. By old ways I mean their sword welding ways. Many of the people who have not come to Christianity (and even some that have come!) always walk around with a 1-3ft long machete. If problems come up, they are not in the least bit hesitant to unsheathe the blade and take a swing. In a quick moment, the tribal nature springs right back up.

But for all the tribal brutality that is in them, there is an equally great amount of civility and loyalty. We being the chief guests from Delhi, we were treated almost royally. They served us water, tea, almonds, cashews, and all sorts of things right during the meeting! Being someone who stops chewing whatever I'm eating if someone begins to pray, seeing all this food in front of us during the meeting was pretty ... interesting.

The ladies have an interesting cultural dress code there. Basically, they wear the same thing that old south indian men wear: the lungi! They call it a gailee and it looks way better, but in effect its just the same thing!



Those are two groups doing action songs during the meeting.

I guess they don't really have a cultural top because most of them were just wearing t-shirts or other western-style tops.

They gave us these really cool looking vests. Each tribe makes different patterns so its easy to identify where the vest came from. This is me wearing mine.



I just have a tie because everyone here dresses up nice and fancy. Remember? I said they were civilized! =)



The meeting organizers put us up at a really nice hotel. Nothing flashy or fancy, but they had running hot water and a hot shower which is definitely a luxury in India. They also had really nice soap =P. You can probably guess that I took long relaxing HOT showers.

This was our hotel room:




The meeting that we were attending was actually an early 2-day Christmas Celebration meeting. And so they were serving food after most of the sessions. In Arunachal, and some other parts of India, there is this animal called a Mithun. Apparently it's like some sort of buffalo/cow that is on steroids. It's not ACTUALLY on steroids, but if you saw one, that's what you'd think. It is said to have the purest meat in the world. It is "domesticated" but it lives in the wild. Surprisingly, the owner of the mithun will know exactly where it is at all time of the year even though it is free to wander around on its own. It follows the same routes, supposedly, through the forests. Anyway, its a prized animal, and for this meeting, they got one.


I literally mean they GOT one.


Now I'm a decently brave soul when it comes to food items. I mean I can eat pork with no problems, and I'm unfazed even after hearing the diet the pigs in India consume (word to the wise, unless you are pretty strong-willed, don't go asking about a pig's diet if you plan on eating pork from India). So when they served this mithun, I was fine. First piece I tasted was liver... liver tastes same in everything. I don't really like liver, but I figured ok, next piece will be better. Unfortunately the next one was also liver =[. My uncle was bold enough to ask our hosts what they had served us, and it was only then we learned that they had just served us the stomach and intestine parts. If you feel like regurgitating whatever is in your stomach, you can imagine how we felt.




We were sitting in their traditional kitchen/eating place. Their houses are pretty much completely built from bamboo. The thing in the middle is a large stove and a place to dry/smoke meat.


A better view of the stove.


As culturally enriching as it was, I think we all liked our hotel meals slightly better.




Soon it was time for us to go back. Once again we barely got seats on the helicopter. This is the plane, and those people walking ahead of us are very important people.... (They went to the VIP lounge at the helipad :))


My uncle getting in =)


To be sure that we didn't miss the helicopter, we got on the first flight in the morning. That brought us back to Guahati by 9am. Our flight to Delhi wasn't till 3pm, so we had plenty of time to kill.


by sleeping...


and listening to something...

It was a very tiring day...


But in the end, everything worked out and so all was good.


I know today's post seems a bit choppy, but there have been complaints that my posts are too long, and since I have so much to say, I tried to jump through all the topics. I still probably missed a nice bit!




Whats next?
Now that the Christmas Season is here, there will be a bunch of Christmas meetings around at all our churches. There will be one more youth camp here in Haryana.

One of the evangelists working with my uncle, who graduated from this program, is going to be getting married soon. Most likely the wedding will occur in West Bengal or Jharkhand, so we may get to go there one more time. Pray that all the plannings will work out smoothly for them.

As for going to Kerela, I may leave for Kerela right after that wedding. Otherwise the absolute latest will be February 7th- which ever comes first.

Anyway thanks for reading and keep praying for us here!


If you have a thought or comment, I invite you to leave a comment on the site so other readers can also see it.

If you haven't already, you can also choose to receive my updates via email, or RSS feed. Both those options are available on the left side.

God Bless You!