My Namesake: the Averill Legacy

Introducing myself is sometimes a struggle. In fact in fitting rooms, or at restaurants, when they ask for my name, I say my mother's name, "Mary." Because it's a whole lot less complicated.

"I'm Averill"
          "April?"
                    "Arielle?"
             "Avril? Ooo! like Avril Lavigne?" (people always think they're very clever with that one)
                              "Ariel?"
         A few times I've gotten, "Arwall?"
"Averill. Like the month, April, but with a 'V'"

"Oh!" Eventually, when they get it, I will often hear "well, that's a pretty name."
I think so too. It's worth struggling through countless spellings and mispronunciations because I love my name.
But I don't love it for it's phonetic appeal. I love the legacy it represents. I really cannot begin to do it justice, but here's my small attempt:

Averill is my mother's maiden name, and there is not a group of people in this world cooler than the Averill clan. Truly the most sophisticated bunch of people you'll ever meet. Between my grandparents and their direct children they collectively have over 50 years of higher education. Princeton, Harvard, Yale, BU, Tufts, Columbia among them. (this isn't including any of my cousins--all of whom are also incredible). They're the top of their fields, in all their various fields. Art, medicine, business, history. But with all of that education, they are also so humble and easy to be around.

I'm convinced nothing in this world is more fun than sitting around a table with the Averills doing a crossword puzzle collectively. They know every author and every title and every character of every obscure novel; every battle in every war in every time period around the world; every river and every capital and every political leader or movement in every country; every opera and every shakespeare plot. Truly one of my proudest moments in life was contributing one word to the puzzle being crushed by Averills.

When they're not discussing the latest political, economic, cultural, medical, historical information, they are laughing. Whether over charades, cribbage, card games, or conversation, a night never passes without rolling laughter.

"We use our phones to transfer information; we speak into a screen which transfers our words into text; then the person on the other end presses a button to have that text read out loud by a computer--tell me why the system has changed? Why don't we just call each other?"

"You looked like you had a deep thought"
"I might have. They come and go so quickly."

"So what the heck am I doing standing in this dark closet?"

"I enjoyed seeing my eggplant" (in reference to a painting)
"Well, that was a non-sequitor..."
laughter. (that might be a had-to-be-there moment. but I am sure glad I was there)

Trying to get back to my cousin's house after a walk, three sisters were discussing their methods of finding their way back in general.
Ginny: "I look for familiar landmarks..."
Leigh: "I try and go back exactly the way I came..."
Mary: "I picture a string going back on the road..."
everyone looked at me, curious how I find my way back if I'm lost
I said sheepishly... "I just... use my phone..." Laughter.

At my brother's wedding, there was a reunion in Salt Lake. We wanted to surprise my aunt Libby with a party celebrating her newly acquired doctorate degree.  All the Averills shuffled into two elevators heading upstairs to the 23rd floor (where Libby was), my Aunt Ginny called out for a race. Someone in my elevator accidentally pressed up against the button panel, and lit a few extra floors on the way. We groaned and chuckled about how the other elevator is going to beat us. Our doors opened on the 14th floor, and just as they were closing, the other elevator full of Averills opened--they had done the same thing! We reached the 23rd floor at the same time, and all spilled out of the elevators in a fit of laughter.

They're not like normal siblings, fighting over the remote control. They fight over who gets to read the latest biography, or history about the beginning of WWI, for example. "I'm sorry, Len. Mary called it. You can't have it until she's done"

"I've got a new book for you"
"I've already read it. Leigh got to me first!"
"Oh no!"
"She gave me a great one the other day---Laurence in Arabia"
"Wait! I gave that to HER! She stole my recommendation!"

This past weekend I had the pleasure of a small Averill family reunion. I went to visit my grandmother, Louise Averill, who is no longer in perfect health and now unfortunately struggles with her memory. She's lived in Pennsylvania, and I've lived in the west, so we haven't had a lot of time to be together lately. But this weekend it was so lovely to spend some time with her. She's a spunky 94-year-old woman. Try to get her to eat her dinner, and she'll poke her fork at you, or slowly try to pawn off pieces of her meal to her neighbors' plates. But she needs no help or convincing whatsoever to finish every last bite of chocolate ice cream.

"Grammy, I must have got my sweet tooth from you!"

took a very long time to understand that we were taking a picture. worth it. 

"oh, you like chocolate?" 
"Oh yes!" 
"Yup! that's definitely from me!" 
I also get my love of making funny faces from her, apparently. We had a lively conversation with our scrunched noses across the dinner table.

When I saw her first, she asked me who I was at least three times over the space of ten minutes.
"I'm your granddaughter, Mary's daughter, Averill" 
Every time it was really fun to see her light up with recognition, "Averill?"
"Ya! That's right! I'm named after you!"  

...Once she said, "Well aren't you pretty!"
"Thanks, Grammy. You know, I take after YOU. You're the one who started being pretty!"
"Oh, I may be pretty on the outside, but on the inside I'm sinister. Watch out!" 
I thought, "I must have gotten that from you too!" :) 

Three generations

A sophisticated lady (like all the Averill women) she wouldn't leave her apartment without her earrings and her nose powdered. As she was getting ready, I saw some old pictures of her wedding, "Grammy, how did you meet your husband?"
My mom started in with the story, "You remember, mom. You were serving tea to a group of army officers, and you saw a very handsome officer, right? He was so handsome, you dropped the tea! you fell in love right then!"
"I didn't fall in love... I collapsed in love!"

Lenny joined in, "My father, in his old age, couldn't find words in English; but he could speak Greek and Latin, and he beat us all at cards every time."

We went downstairs and found a piano so I could give her a little concert. I played and sang a few broadway show tunes to a very small audience (Grammy, my mom, and my uncle). But it felt like the most important audience I'd ever sung for; I think I've never sung with more heart. All of my cousins are intimidatingly impressive (much like their parents); and while I'll never compete with them in Ivy league educations (or just general awesomeness), I was so happy to contribute to the family what I could. This little moment of music. A little piece of me felt like all my training and experience had been for this time, this moment; to share with my family, my grandmother.

My Uncle Lenny convinced me to relocate these
balloons from the lobby. She loved them.

Someone heard my playing from another room and walked in to listen. He asked who I was. My Grammy answered, "That is my granddaughter. Isn't she wonderful?"  She went from not recognizing me/remembering me at all to being very proud to introduce me as hers.  (Contributing to the crossword puzzle as a close second) it was one of the greatest moments of my life.

For three lovely days I got to re-meet my grandmother. She is so full of love and life, even in her frail physical state. I'm not sure I'll get another chance to see her in this lifetime but I am so grateful for the little time I got to spend with her at all. And grateful for the influence she's had on her incredible family.

As we were talking about her other children and grandchildren, she exclaimed "I'm beginning to think I produced very well!" My mother replied, "Ya, you did, mom."

Her legacy is one I am extremely honored to be counted among.
To all the Averills: thank you for your examples, your support, your friendship, and your love.

Love to all the Averills,

Averill.

The India Chronicles: Wrap Up

So, It's been over six months since I got back from India, but I wanted to add some last minute thoughts, and categorize some random journal entries:

• People are beautiful. No matter where you go, there's something enchanting about humanity. Universally, it's also messy, awkward, difficult, and awful. But there's something magical about the very fact that you can connect with someone in a completely different world, on a level that is not really understandable or describable.  
• Women are Incredible. Overall, the women that I met in India have sacrificed so much. For their families, for their communities, for their guests. We were near perfect strangers, and every woman we met went out of their way for us. An excerpt from my journal: Indian women are awesome. They're sharp, curt. not a lot of warm fluffy validation. they're sassy and quick,  hardworking and nurturing. It's a different kind o nurture than in the states--it's very official. almost business-like. constantly making sure everyone is alright. Always cooking, offering, worrying about food and whether we all have enough of it. They're so genuine and sincere, without the sweet frosting fluff of an appearance of caring. I like that approach. 
• Life is hard; and oh my goodness I am blessed. Naturally the living conditions I experienced and saw, or the extreme struggle of poverty. The rest of my blog posts all basically point out the many reasons I feel so blessed, but I found one more little story I wanted to share to illustrate that point: sitting on a rocky train, vendors coming up and down the isles every few seconds shouting the same one or two muddled syllables of the name of what they're selling. Their shouts are loud and nasal, stinging and abrasive. 'ignore them, averill. don't make eye contact. otherwise they'll stop and try to make you buy whatever their selling'. Then I made the mistake of looking down, curious what aroma I was experiencing. It was a masala chickpea concoction with fresh onions and lime. The vendor caught my glance and held out her basket. "No" I quickly shook my head, carefully trying not to buy into this system which I found so annoying. and looked away trying to get her to pass by. But she held up a small spoonful of a sample. it was delicious. I finally nodded and she smiled. She pointed to various items in her basket. saying with her eyes, "would you like freshly cut onions?" I nodded, "how about lime juice sprinkled?" Yes. "and two spoons?  so you can share?" Thank you. Only 10 rupees. about 12 cents. She smiled. a warm, genuine smile as if to say, "I glad you enjoy these! have a good trip!" I was suddenly struck by how rude I'd been to her. She and all the other vendors were just trying to make a living. an honest, hard working job, trekking train cart to train cart hoping to get 10 rupees at a time. Who am I to be annoyed at their methods that are just culturally different? I truly admire their bravery. I will never have to fight for a living that way. 
• Down further on that same page of my journal I wrote this: I wonder if when I'm back in the states, I'll miss the noise. I wonder if the quite I once missed will feel empty. (When I first came back, it really did. Everything was too quiet; eerily quiet. and too clean; sterile. inhuman. I had more of a culture shock returning to the states than I did arriving in India.)
• I don't like traveling, I like living. 
• I like roots, even if they're short ones. I wouldn't have liked India if I'd just traveled here. But I like it; I like having lived here, having ridden their buses, been in their hospitals. I like india. I don't like being a white, blonde foreigner in India, but I like India. 
• I want to go into my world travels not with the mindset, 'what experience does this place have to offer me?' but 'what can I learn here?' or 'how can I serve?' I'd rather have a life that is small and deep than one that is wide, large, expansive, but shallow. 

• International development is difficult. The beauty in the system of HELP international is that we tried to work with Local NGOs: people who know their own people and know how to help them. Because we frankly didn't know. When people talk about "voluntourism" or "humanitarian aid as a hobby" it makes me a little bit upset. At least the people that are going around the world are trying. They're putting in effort to change the world, even if we don't totally know how. yet. 
• My frustration with going abroad and trying to help, was that I really didn't know exactly how to do so. I didn't know the language or the culture. I didn't fully understand the problems I was trying to solve. 

So here's my big take away:

Lift where you stand (listen to this talk if you haven't)

Serve in a place where you know how to serve; the people whose culture, language, communication style, and problems you understand. Not everyone gets the chance to fly across the world and work in the slums of India. But you don't need to to make a difference. There are so many things that we can do here; so many things that everyone can do right where they are. Right where YOU are.

The India Chronicles: Mumbai, Letter #11

When my mother was my age, she lived in Bombay, India for a while. She went to find God. Living on bananas and Chai tea and came back barely over 100 lbs, and while she ended up finding God later in life somewhere else, in India she found more of herself.

My first week in India I told her about the chaos. The noise, the heat, the trash, the dirt, the language barriers. She said she'd felt the same way: very overwhelmed by a very different world. In her frustration and wandering she stumbled into a western hotel. it was clean and quiet. it had AC. She bought a coke and just soaked in this unexpected sanctuary. She said that lobby was a momentary haven and that a drink had never tasted better. 

We both got acclimated pretty quickly to the chaos and even learned to love it. but I loved that story. 

So once upon a time, Ann and I decided to go to Mumbai (Bombay), India. We wanted to see another piece of India before I left this magical place, and for sentimental reasons I wanted to be in the same place my mother was.

So here we sat, shaking with excitement in our airplane seats in going to the economic capital of India. As we descended, huge, gorgeous high rises come into view. Stunning wealth obviously present in the city. The closer we got to the ground however, the scenery changed. Suddenly, for miles across, blue-tarped roofs appeared. A giant stretch of shanty towns spread between us and the airport. They seemed endless. We'd been working in the slums of Hyderabad, but these were far worse than any community we'd been in.

My stomach dropped. we were speechless. This was a problem so much out of our reach of solving.

We arrived and were dropped off by our taxi on a pretty random street corner and had to navigate our way to my good friend and host's house. Neil (our host) was surprised we'd found the place. I was too, frankly.

Maybe we were trying to reconcile our idealistic view of the world, development, and the human spirit, with the reality of a problem far beyond our control to even make a dent in. We were discouraged and disheartened and frankly a little ill. We were trying to be good company, but neither of us was in a party mood. Neil took us out to see the best and the brightest upper-class yuppies of mumbai. Another night, it would have been a blast, but I think we were a little... deflated. 

Neil was such a kind host and didn't ask questions or judge. 

Side note:
Let me tell you about Neil for a second. He's truly incredible. Not only is he friendly and caring, the glue to his world-wide social network, but he's brilliant.
He has an answer to everything, he knew more current world affairs, literature, poetry, politics, cultures, religion, history than anyone I'd ever met in my life. He'd whip out the most incredible dates and titles in their original languages, etc. The cliche, "A walking encyclopedia" never applied to anyone I'd met thus far in my life.

The next night, he and I stayed up very late just talking. The conversation turned to religion; namely my religion... It's hard to combat reason with faith. There's no logic. you can't argue for a metaphysical other world very easily. because that's the point of faith, right? there's no proof. And it's hard to try to explain what "knowing God exists" feels like.He was genuinely curious, and sincerely respectful, but I hope I didn't offend him when I said, "Neil, talking to you is... exhausting!"
I desperately wanted him to know that I didn't have faith in God out of naiveté, but out of a personal, thought-out choice.

Our second day in Mumbai, I woke up anxious. There was something gnawing at my inner soul. When we presented the idea of the trip, our team was really unenthusiastic to say the least. We were met with a lot of opposition actually. Ann and I went against the warnings and concerns of our group, because we had felt good about the trip, and were a little stubborn. I woke up with the fear that they'd been right, that we shouldn't have come. Or maybe it was a guilt for being so privileged compared to what we saw flying in. Whatever the cause, I was not very good company. Not having a plan for the day was really stressing me out. Normally I can go with the flow. But for some reason, I was panicked by the lack of structure.

We wandered around old town (which was beautiful and interesting--so much history) and we decided to get on a boat for a day tour to Elephante Island. I desperately needed some solid plan, and so I jumped on that one.
When we got there, a persistent little Indian Man, Chandra Kahn, stole our hearts and convinced us to let him be our tour guide. He showed us incredible caves, taught us some very interesting things. He was charming company, even brought us to his own home and offered us homemade tea. At the end of the tour when he dropped us off, he just gave us a big hug and started walking away--he'd completely forgotten about being paid, he just wanted to show us his island! When we called him back to give him some money for the tour, he shouted with the largest, most contagious grin, "This will buy me beer!"

When we landed back in the mainland, I felt refreshed. My faith in humanity had been boosted. Then our phones didn't work. we couldn't get ahold of Neil. Every plan we made fell through. We bounced around internet cafes trying to find something to do, but we ran out of money. we lost our phone. we panicked. we found it, but it wasn't working. we ended up getting dinner take out of this local dive restaurant that felt authentic. We couldn't find a place to sit that wasn't another restaurant, and we didn't really want to eat on the back-streets of Mumbai as it was getting darker, so we crawled our way up behind a shoe cobbler's office to a hostel lobby where there was an empty reception desk. We sat on a padded bench and unwrapped our now extremely appetizing food. We were homeless, exhausted, frustrated that every single one of our plans had fallen through, and starving. Then the front desk man came back, and told us that we couldn't sit there and eat. But we had no where else to go...

So we pretended like we didn't understand what he was saying.

Perfect solution, right? I'm embarrassed to this day, but I couldn't see another way to finish our dinner besides pretending we didn't speak English. Eventually he sort of gave up. and we hurriedly ate our dinner (with our fingers).  I'd never felt so out of place. So homeless, and so hopeless (at least for the night). We walked out of the hostel, and discovered the streets were dark. Understandably afraid, we shuffled to the pier: lit, lots of people. Then found the famous, 5-star Taj Mahal hotel.

Turns out the food--we'd had so much trouble sitting down to eat-- made us sick. We finally got in touch with Neil, whom we asked for the key to his apartment so we could call it a night. Sick to our stomaches, tired, and dejected by this rough trip, we just wanted to go to sleep. We took a taxi to see him, and for some RANDOM reason, the taxi that took us to meet Neil, waited for us and took us back to the Taj Mahal Hotel. We thought we'd pop in just for a minute and get a coke, and get a different taxi home.

When we walked into the lobby, an darling cute old gentleman was tearing up the piano keys with soft jazz. I recognized the song he was playing, and without thinking twice, I stood beside the piano, and sang from the bridge to the end with him. Delighted, he insisted we continue. Brilliant pianist, he knew every song we could think of; we had a blast pouring through his fake books and making up harmonies. Also a fervent Catholic, the man was spouting praises and thanks to God, when we looked through some of his original songs of worship as well.

(To watch a video click HERE )

Ann and I sang beside him for the next two hours, gathering a very small audience in the lobby. I thought people might be confused why these disheveled white girls were singing in this lobby, but no one seemed to question, everyone just seemed to be enjoying the music.
This was a little piece of heaven for us to be able to sing with this incredible man.

(Turns out, THIS was the exact same hotel my mother had stumbled into, and experienced as a haven, almost 40 years ago! Isn't that poetic?)

Two nice young men in our lobby audience (who claimed to be our biggest fans) offered to see us safely home. On the way, Sheersh and Ankit took us to go see the queen's necklace, the famous, beautiful shore line of Mumbai. They bought us fresh-sqeezed juice in the train station, and put us safely in a cab back.

I can't really do the sight or the feeling justice. I think it would be impossible to describe; I can't say it any other way besides night had turned to magic.

We snuck out of Neil's early the next morning. Headed back to the states, I knew that was my last Indian adventure, but what a lovely adventure it was.