Delhi Belly

So it's one week since I've arrived in India to do the 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training course and it's been pretty wild from the get go. Not sure how much time I will have to blog but I'll whack this one up and see.

The reason I have time this afternoon is the class of 16 teachers from all over the world have been given some time to rest as 9 out of the 16 are down with sick tummies. Not me so far but we'll see. One of the first lectures we had opened with some introduction and rules of the Ashram. Here we were informed that they did not want us eating anything from outside the Ashram. Reason being that they wanted us to have a full experience of the Ayurvedic diet and secondarily so that we wouldn't get sick.

I could totally understand where they were coming from but knew I would find this impossible as their are 3 meals a day and I feel I need to eat more than that. Anyway this rule was removed a few days ago but the 9 people that got sick so far didn't all go out together to get something to eat last night. So it came from something they got in the Ashram. It can happen anywhere over here.

This country is absolutely bananas. It's bananas how cheap it is or, moreso, it's bananas how expensive it is back home, it's bananas how many people there are every single place you go, and every single time I leave the ashram it takes about 2 seconds to see something bananas.

Walking out of the Ashram yesterday a jeep came whizzing by me with a little girl's head out the back window and a steady stream of vomit projecting from her mouth, 20 feet further down the road I walk by 3 kids wearing nothing but t-shirts and the youngest is gathering muck and eating it. There's holy men of all varieties wearing all sorts of traditional dress rocking by you. You're passing cows, dogs and monkeys. You've to make sure you have no food visible when you're walking by the monkeys.

I was in this cafe last night which, to look at, you wouldn't go near and it does the best food I've had over here. As I'm eating a cow rocks into the restaurant trying to get at some of the food in the store. The owner shoos the cow out only for it to return 2 minutes later. The owner shoos the cow again and starts to hit it and it won't move. Eventually the owner just gives up so there I am eating my dinner in a restaurant surrounded by these holy men all staring at me as I eat and a cow is in the corner of the restaurant doing his thing. I was passing the same restaurant the night before and it's all open plan and the counter opens out onto the street and there's a mother coaxing her 3\4 year old son to have a dump literally right beside the counter. There is a taxi rank immediately across road where she could've taken him to go discreetly behind one of the cabs.

Anyway, these things happen constantly over here. You are constantly bombarded with smells, sounds, people, singing, shouting, barking, mooing, beeping and anything else that's in your immediate surroundings.

So the course.

The course has been amazing so far. We're at the end of week 1 and I have learned so much so far and there is 4 more weeks to go. It is so so nice to be in an environment learning with a big bunch of Yoga teachers with who knows how many years experience. There is teachers from or working in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, all over Canada, Boston, Chicago, LA, England, Scotland and their shared experience is worth so much alone.

The Akhanda school of training is very experiential and leans heavily on the spiritual and philosophical. We are up at 5am meditating every morning and Yoga practice is from 6am to 8am followed by breakfast in silence and then lectures on technique, philosophy, history and anatomy through the day to 6pm. 6pm is dinner followed by Kiirtan or Satsang. Kiirtan is basially a singalong and Satsang is where we get together for more experiential practices which are really really tough at times but very rewarding.

For the most part it is very fun. The teachers have a wonderful sense of humour and there is a great atmosphere throughout the group. I was very happy when I found out we are only 16 as smaller class size it much better for many reasons.

Yesterday we practiced the cleansing techniques (Kriyas) which involved pouring warm salty water in one nostril as it flows out the other. Then holding warm salty water in our mouth and pushing it out both nostrils followed by shoving a string up your nose until it comes out your mouth and pulling it right through. Not something I'll be making a habit of (you're supposed to do it every morning like brushing your teeth) but fun to try and it definitely takes you out of your comfort zone.

There are more fun cleansing techniques to come so I'll put it up as we go along and when I have time.

There's only so much you can write about as there has been so so many individual experiences this last week. The one initial thing I observed was the lifestyles of my fellow students from places like Whistler, Canada. The stuff that people are into is such a difference to Dublin. One of the girl's boyfriend's Polak. An Aussie living in Whistler is living in the Ashram and he rocks down to the banks of the Ganges and goes boldering (Rockclimbing without safety gear on low climbs). There's snowboarding instructors, dancers, personal trainers, life coaches and of course a lot of full-time yoga teachers here. One of the girl's Peggy has just retired and will travel for a year around Asia with her husband Dave after we finish.

Every one is super motivated and dying to suck in as much as they possibly can in their time here. How lucky am I to be a part of it!