So, Catherine commented on my McDonalds blog about India not having Diet Coke. No one ever comments, so I don't really check it, but Dad pointed it out last night. I was going to reply to it, but then I thought a subject as important as Diet Coke really deserves its own post. Also, life has become rather normal so I'm running out of things to say.
First up, Diet Coke completely exists. I was drinking it last night when my dad told me about the comment and I'm drinking it now at the internet cafe. Some of the condensation just dripped on the keyboard.
I really don't want people thinking that India is all curry and kingfisher beer and lacking anything you've heard of just becuase McDonalds when crazy and scrapped most of its menu. Actually its surprisingly easy to get hold of any western delights you fancy. Our local shop, which is tiny and on some suburban back street, is part Indian part Selfridges food hall. It sells skippy peanut butter, and cadburys and the fancy balsamic vinegar and Knotts Berry Farm Boisenberry syrup and Aunt Jemima' pancake mix and that 'fancy' pasta that comes in a blue box. It even has a lone jar of Marmite that taunts me every time I go in. Most of the American stuff is even cheaper than you can buy it in England (not the Marmite, its a tiny jar and 3 pounds so I'm trying to resist its charms). Everytime I go in the shop I find something new and exciting to destract me.
So, don't worry, I have my Diet Coke and also pretty much all the other food I used to eat at home. Even bourbon biscuits!
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
Pimp My Rickshaw
I'm assuming everyone knows what a rickshaw is. If you don't, they're basically a 3-wheeled motor bike that someone shoved a box on top of. They are one of the major forms of transport in Mumbai (and most cities) and I catch at least 2 a day to get to school and back (average journey cost: 20p). They're an exhilerating and petrifying way to travel and I love them!
Sadly there are no good pictures to illustrate this post, rickshaws are very small and cramped and the drivers are often irritable little men who do not appreciate waiting around for a foreigner (who didn't tip) to take photos of them. I did google "rickshaw pimp" which led me to this little beauty http://www.pimpmyshaw.com/ a slightly more extreme version of what I'm talking about!
Rickshaws in all of the India I have seen look exactly the same on the outside: black, yellow and on 3 wheels. They whizz about all over the roads and all you ever really see of them is a little black blur rushing past. But once you get inside a whole other world opens up. Every single rickshaw has put a little bit of effort into pimping and personalising their little vehicle. Its crazy, like a mountain of colourful vinyl washed up shore one day and someone said finally, now the inside of my rickshaw can be fushia. Some just go with one bright bold colour all over the seats and ceiling. We've been in red, blue, green, yellow, black, brown, purple and my favourite gold glitter vinyl covered insides. Others mix it up by adding a colourful trim around the edging. Many choose to take this even further by making their trim a thick band of, what can only be, discarded carpet from the 1970s. My favourite ones are those who do all this and then add little motifs to the backs of the seats: hearts, dolphins, shapes, all neatly colour co-ordinated with the rest of the design. And just when you think there is nothing more that can possibly be pimped, some of that shove a massive set of speakers on the back ledge and play you Bollywood music if you ask nicely.
There is a little leap of happiness in my heart whenever we hop into a new rickshaw and we get to see what madness has unfolded within. I wonder who does it for them. Is there a special place where you pick designs or is it whatever the wifey at home had lying around? It makes you wonder about the stern man driving up front. How can he look so miserable, yet have decorated his handlebars with fringing and chosen a lime green and yellow colour scheme for within?If only I spoke Hindi I could learn these secrets.
Sadly there are no good pictures to illustrate this post, rickshaws are very small and cramped and the drivers are often irritable little men who do not appreciate waiting around for a foreigner (who didn't tip) to take photos of them. I did google "rickshaw pimp" which led me to this little beauty http://www.pimpmyshaw.com/ a slightly more extreme version of what I'm talking about!
Rickshaws in all of the India I have seen look exactly the same on the outside: black, yellow and on 3 wheels. They whizz about all over the roads and all you ever really see of them is a little black blur rushing past. But once you get inside a whole other world opens up. Every single rickshaw has put a little bit of effort into pimping and personalising their little vehicle. Its crazy, like a mountain of colourful vinyl washed up shore one day and someone said finally, now the inside of my rickshaw can be fushia. Some just go with one bright bold colour all over the seats and ceiling. We've been in red, blue, green, yellow, black, brown, purple and my favourite gold glitter vinyl covered insides. Others mix it up by adding a colourful trim around the edging. Many choose to take this even further by making their trim a thick band of, what can only be, discarded carpet from the 1970s. My favourite ones are those who do all this and then add little motifs to the backs of the seats: hearts, dolphins, shapes, all neatly colour co-ordinated with the rest of the design. And just when you think there is nothing more that can possibly be pimped, some of that shove a massive set of speakers on the back ledge and play you Bollywood music if you ask nicely.
There is a little leap of happiness in my heart whenever we hop into a new rickshaw and we get to see what madness has unfolded within. I wonder who does it for them. Is there a special place where you pick designs or is it whatever the wifey at home had lying around? It makes you wonder about the stern man driving up front. How can he look so miserable, yet have decorated his handlebars with fringing and chosen a lime green and yellow colour scheme for within?If only I spoke Hindi I could learn these secrets.
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Where have all the ovens gone?
No one in India has an oven. This is a bit of a sweeping statement and based solely on the four other apartments I have been in, but seriously, not one single oven. It can't be true becuase I've seen Betty Crocker cake mix in our local shop which very much requires an oven. But still, where are they? Are they in hiding? Is there some kind of rota system that our apartment is not in on? I just can't understand how a mainstay of every kitchen ever has been completely forgotten by a whole country. Instead we have a massive camping stove attatched to a vat of gas. and this is what all the other apartments had as well. Massive gas camping stoves.
Sunday 22 March 2009
The Golden Arches of Happiness
I know this is wrong, but if you look closely you'll see I got myself a McAloo Tikka, not available in England, so therefore competely counts as local cuisine. It also automatically comes with chilli sauce. I've been craving a McAloo Tikka since my third day here when I saw 3 massive billboards in a row advertising it. Luanna refused to induldge this but Vikki has a soft spot for the fries, so one day, after a taxing time in Nallasopara we decided to get our rickshaw home to go via McDonalds. It was totally worth it.
In fact, India McDonalds shouldn't really be called McDonalds at all because, besides its yellow and red decorations, it has nothing in common with the global American chain we all love so much. Firstly it doesn't sell Big Macs, and as side note to this, it sells nothing with beef in it at all (this makes perfect sense with cows being holy and all, but when did McDonalds ever care about cultural sensitivity?!?) So, no Big Macs and no beef. All the remains of the normal menu is fries, a few drinks (shakes, coke, 7up... no diet coke), the McChicken Sandwich and the fillet-o-fish. Thats it. Instead its all McAloo Tikkas and McMaharasha Burger, McPizza Puffs and Salad Sandwiches (Like a big mac, but with no beef) It is a crazy little menu. Thank god for the fries which taste just as lovely and identikit as they would anywhere in the world. The biggest difference is the most shocking (especially for someone who catches the train at 7:30am twice a week). Indian McDonalds (or perhaps just my local) does not open until 11am. Which means.... they don't do Breakfast. The whole of India (or possibly just my local area) does not have access to the delights of an Egg McMuffin. This news hit me hard. I found out at midnight the day before I was planning on an Egg McMuffin breakfast. Don't worry, I pulled myself together and got fries in the afternoon instead.
Thursday 19 March 2009
School Days
Walking back from school at Nallasopara.Don't worry the dogs aren't dead.
As of yesterday I have officially been in India a month, it feels like forever. While some days everything is amazing others have been really taxing, but I think I'm gradually getting used to how this crazy country rolls. I've learnt to be grateful for the small things like regular bowel movements and water and things that I found insane when I first got here are now perfectly normal: I miss the cows if a day goes by without seeing one and yesterday I actively encouraged a rickshaw to dodge in and out of traffic (he actually stayed in his lane, madness!). I've also learnt that nothing is as you expect it: things that should be straightforward become ridiculously complicated, take away food is nothing like how the menu describes it, flats that go for days without water manage to get flooded and McDonalds has no breakfast menu.
This week is also our first full week of teaching. Its been completely exhausting and tonight is the first night when I haven't had to spend my entire evening cutting out the shapes of fruit and making worksheets, so it seemed like a good time to tell you about school.
One! International runs two schools in the Mumbai area: the original one in Khar where we live and another set up recently that's an hour away in Nallasopara. These were both set up by Tania, our incredible leader, who is the heart, soul and driving force behind everything here. She set up the first one when she was 21 after living in Mumbai for a year. (She was doing an aisoc (?) exchange thingy that Ben used to do). When it began the school ran for two hours, had about 8 kids and took place on a mat at the side of the road. Its amazing how much it has grown in the last 9 years.
Khar school is in a proper building down a little side street and it has an office, tons of resources and little classrooms. There are 10 grades that have about 4-8 kids in each depending on the day. I think officially over 100 kids are registered at the school. It runs roughly the same as a regular school with all the kids learning math, english, hindi, science, games, drawing, exercise, computer, music, drama and health. Most of these classes are taught by employed teachers. The volunteers (me!) are in charge of teaching English (grades 3-8), Math (grade 3), exercise, drawing/craft and computer. This was incredibly scary when we first got here. The communication system in place between the volunteers hadn't been used properly and we had no idea what they did and didn't know and what they're even suposed to be taught. Fortunatley we've got our hands on a curiculum now, so we've been frantically throwing together lesson plans and making teach aids (like fruit and worksheets) so we can come across like proper teachers and not 3 people who think the only qualification need for teaching english is an ability to speak it. Everyday we're learning about what the kids can and can't do and how much they understand when we talk to them. We're even picking up some basic hindi so we can tell them important things like shut up, sit down and write (we learnt to say very good too, we're not always so mean). The brilliant thing is that the kids have such a hunger for knowledge, they love coming to school and love learning things so it can be quite easy to disipline them. All you have to do is threaten to send them out and they're as good as gold, no one ever wants to leave class.
The children all live in temporary slums, one of the older girls is our cook/cleaner and her home got pulled down a week ago so she had to move away briefly, luckily they've decided to illeagally 'rebuild' it so shes back now. The school also acts as a community center for the famillies. When a child is registered they and their family are entitled to free medical help and can also get access to loans provided by One! International. Because of this there's an amazing sense of family about the whole place: lots of the parents work there, there's a pre-school so babies and toddlers roam about the place all day and in the afternoon the mums lie out breastfeeding on the floor. Everything about it is warm and loving. When you come in in the morning you can't get to the office without being hugged by at least 4 children and high fiving some of the older kids. It is a lifeline for the children and their family and its devestating to think what their world would be like if it wasn't there. For most of them lunch at the school is one meal a day they get and situations like our cooks (house being torn down) are common place.
The school at Nallasopara is a little different. Our responsibilities (and the frustrations that go with them) are the same but because of the schools location everything is ten times harder. I'm not sure if Nallasopara even counts as Mumbai. Its a little (but busy) town that I'm not sure I could find on the map and the school is located out in the sticks up in the surrounding hills. We go twice a week by train then rickshaw and get dropped off at the end of a dusty, bumpy, lumpy garbage ridden track full of animals and abandonded flip flops and general madness. Lining the track are buildings that look like garages: they're small and square and have a corrugated metal front that you pull up and down to get in and out. There used as homes, shops, doctors, nursing homes, restaurants, animal shelters, everything really and two of them are our school. We get to walk along the full length of the track (about 15 minutes walk) dodge boulders and piles of mud and massive puddles of mud and motorbikes and cows, turn right at the massive pile of trash in a field and hop over the open sewage system to get to school. There are no resources their becuase everything gets stolen, no water, the electricity kicks in at about 11am (we start st 9) and there's a mysterious toilet somewhere further down the path which luckily I haven't had to use. At lunch we have bananas and biscuits. Today I had six malted milks. Although the children and their famillies recieve the same support as Khar theres no sense of community about the place. The children are much more formal and you basically want to get out of there as soon as you arrive. But we're getting used to it. We're trying to teach the children to high five instead of shake our hands all the time!
So, thats how I've been spending the last couple of weeks and how I'll been spending the next couple of months. I still have no plans of getting in to teaching when I return, I just can't hack it! But my health is improving, I'm drinking lots of water and I've haven't thrown up for 6 days! And today I put on some western clothes (my jeans!), got mcdonalds for dinner and spent the evening in an air conditioned coffee shop with a cappuccino and donut so I'm feeling pretty perky!
That was a really long post, well done for getting through it or even bahoot atcha! (very good in hindi)
As of yesterday I have officially been in India a month, it feels like forever. While some days everything is amazing others have been really taxing, but I think I'm gradually getting used to how this crazy country rolls. I've learnt to be grateful for the small things like regular bowel movements and water and things that I found insane when I first got here are now perfectly normal: I miss the cows if a day goes by without seeing one and yesterday I actively encouraged a rickshaw to dodge in and out of traffic (he actually stayed in his lane, madness!). I've also learnt that nothing is as you expect it: things that should be straightforward become ridiculously complicated, take away food is nothing like how the menu describes it, flats that go for days without water manage to get flooded and McDonalds has no breakfast menu.
This week is also our first full week of teaching. Its been completely exhausting and tonight is the first night when I haven't had to spend my entire evening cutting out the shapes of fruit and making worksheets, so it seemed like a good time to tell you about school.
One! International runs two schools in the Mumbai area: the original one in Khar where we live and another set up recently that's an hour away in Nallasopara. These were both set up by Tania, our incredible leader, who is the heart, soul and driving force behind everything here. She set up the first one when she was 21 after living in Mumbai for a year. (She was doing an aisoc (?) exchange thingy that Ben used to do). When it began the school ran for two hours, had about 8 kids and took place on a mat at the side of the road. Its amazing how much it has grown in the last 9 years.
Khar school is in a proper building down a little side street and it has an office, tons of resources and little classrooms. There are 10 grades that have about 4-8 kids in each depending on the day. I think officially over 100 kids are registered at the school. It runs roughly the same as a regular school with all the kids learning math, english, hindi, science, games, drawing, exercise, computer, music, drama and health. Most of these classes are taught by employed teachers. The volunteers (me!) are in charge of teaching English (grades 3-8), Math (grade 3), exercise, drawing/craft and computer. This was incredibly scary when we first got here. The communication system in place between the volunteers hadn't been used properly and we had no idea what they did and didn't know and what they're even suposed to be taught. Fortunatley we've got our hands on a curiculum now, so we've been frantically throwing together lesson plans and making teach aids (like fruit and worksheets) so we can come across like proper teachers and not 3 people who think the only qualification need for teaching english is an ability to speak it. Everyday we're learning about what the kids can and can't do and how much they understand when we talk to them. We're even picking up some basic hindi so we can tell them important things like shut up, sit down and write (we learnt to say very good too, we're not always so mean). The brilliant thing is that the kids have such a hunger for knowledge, they love coming to school and love learning things so it can be quite easy to disipline them. All you have to do is threaten to send them out and they're as good as gold, no one ever wants to leave class.
The children all live in temporary slums, one of the older girls is our cook/cleaner and her home got pulled down a week ago so she had to move away briefly, luckily they've decided to illeagally 'rebuild' it so shes back now. The school also acts as a community center for the famillies. When a child is registered they and their family are entitled to free medical help and can also get access to loans provided by One! International. Because of this there's an amazing sense of family about the whole place: lots of the parents work there, there's a pre-school so babies and toddlers roam about the place all day and in the afternoon the mums lie out breastfeeding on the floor. Everything about it is warm and loving. When you come in in the morning you can't get to the office without being hugged by at least 4 children and high fiving some of the older kids. It is a lifeline for the children and their family and its devestating to think what their world would be like if it wasn't there. For most of them lunch at the school is one meal a day they get and situations like our cooks (house being torn down) are common place.
The school at Nallasopara is a little different. Our responsibilities (and the frustrations that go with them) are the same but because of the schools location everything is ten times harder. I'm not sure if Nallasopara even counts as Mumbai. Its a little (but busy) town that I'm not sure I could find on the map and the school is located out in the sticks up in the surrounding hills. We go twice a week by train then rickshaw and get dropped off at the end of a dusty, bumpy, lumpy garbage ridden track full of animals and abandonded flip flops and general madness. Lining the track are buildings that look like garages: they're small and square and have a corrugated metal front that you pull up and down to get in and out. There used as homes, shops, doctors, nursing homes, restaurants, animal shelters, everything really and two of them are our school. We get to walk along the full length of the track (about 15 minutes walk) dodge boulders and piles of mud and massive puddles of mud and motorbikes and cows, turn right at the massive pile of trash in a field and hop over the open sewage system to get to school. There are no resources their becuase everything gets stolen, no water, the electricity kicks in at about 11am (we start st 9) and there's a mysterious toilet somewhere further down the path which luckily I haven't had to use. At lunch we have bananas and biscuits. Today I had six malted milks. Although the children and their famillies recieve the same support as Khar theres no sense of community about the place. The children are much more formal and you basically want to get out of there as soon as you arrive. But we're getting used to it. We're trying to teach the children to high five instead of shake our hands all the time!
So, thats how I've been spending the last couple of weeks and how I'll been spending the next couple of months. I still have no plans of getting in to teaching when I return, I just can't hack it! But my health is improving, I'm drinking lots of water and I've haven't thrown up for 6 days! And today I put on some western clothes (my jeans!), got mcdonalds for dinner and spent the evening in an air conditioned coffee shop with a cappuccino and donut so I'm feeling pretty perky!
That was a really long post, well done for getting through it or even bahoot atcha! (very good in hindi)
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Oh India...
So I've realised that a few of my blogs have been less on the perky side. And also contain a lot of details of how unwell I've been. This is mostly because I'm usually feeling ill and rubbish when I write them and not really in the mood for perkiness. But today had been a pretty cool day, despite having spent it at the slightly scary country school in Nalasopara. The kids today all seemed to learn things, classes were under control and we did most of our planning at school so we had our evening free. So all in all I was feeling pretty good and thought I should spread this joy to my blog. Except the thing with India is, even though everything is mostly awesome, as soon as something goes wrong you suddenly feel like hell and want to go running home. Just when you think you've got a handle on it all you're suddenly plunged into crappiness. This happened today.
Right at the end of lesson planning I found out I'd had a hole in my trousers all day (to match the one in the shirt I was wearing that flashed my bra whenever I raised my right arm). I found this out because an ant crawled in and bit me. Then I noticed all this black stuff was coming off my skin when I rubbed it, normally this would mean ah well I'll have a wash, but because our apartment is regularly without water sometimes it can be impossible to even wash your hands (let alone flush the loo and shower). Then I feel asleep on the train and when I woke up my right arm sleeve was soaked through with sweat. Then the rickshaw driver got lost on the way home and had a fight with us on the street over one rupee. So I got home grubby, sweaty, slightly annoyed and with holes in my clothes to discover our apartment flooded during the day (how? we never have water!!!!!!). It had all been cleared up but all our wet backpacks on the floor got put on my bed, so now all my clean sheets (the only clean ones in the apartment) and my matress are wet. Lucky me.
So all in all I'm not feeling remotely perky anymore, so you can have a happy post about the two schools I'm volunteering at another day.
Also, the power cut out in the internet place half way through writing this so I had to type a bunch of it again.
Right at the end of lesson planning I found out I'd had a hole in my trousers all day (to match the one in the shirt I was wearing that flashed my bra whenever I raised my right arm). I found this out because an ant crawled in and bit me. Then I noticed all this black stuff was coming off my skin when I rubbed it, normally this would mean ah well I'll have a wash, but because our apartment is regularly without water sometimes it can be impossible to even wash your hands (let alone flush the loo and shower). Then I feel asleep on the train and when I woke up my right arm sleeve was soaked through with sweat. Then the rickshaw driver got lost on the way home and had a fight with us on the street over one rupee. So I got home grubby, sweaty, slightly annoyed and with holes in my clothes to discover our apartment flooded during the day (how? we never have water!!!!!!). It had all been cleared up but all our wet backpacks on the floor got put on my bed, so now all my clean sheets (the only clean ones in the apartment) and my matress are wet. Lucky me.
So all in all I'm not feeling remotely perky anymore, so you can have a happy post about the two schools I'm volunteering at another day.
Also, the power cut out in the internet place half way through writing this so I had to type a bunch of it again.
Friday 13 March 2009
Holi Holi Holi Day!
I will write more later, but for now here we are after the crazy Holi celebrations at school! (Vikki is middle Luanna is right).
Also I added photos to some of my other posts so it all looks at bit more cheery!
Monday 9 March 2009
Park Nazi
Saturday was our first day out with the kids, we went to a sweet little park near the school that was so fancy it charged a whole rupee to go in. Being out in public with the kids really enforces you perception of the caste system that dominates India. Although the older kids at the school look like any other teenager around the world (jeans half way down their bum and back pack permanently attatched) the younger ones do look a little bit scruffier than reqular kids, but not by much, you'd have to really look to notice. But people at the park did really look, I guess we were quite an odd little group: white people and street kids in a park full of shiny little Indian families, but I wasn't expecting to get quite so much attention as we did. From the moment we arrived the park security guard latched on to us and seemed to spend a very happy couple of hours following us around and blowing his whistle at us for all sorts of terrible crimes like laughing loudly, running, and most hideous of all... walking the wrong way around the path. I never realised park paths had such strict highway codes. It became quite funny by the end and we started having relay races (in the correct direction) around the path just to wind him up a bit. But still, I can't believe people can't just let it go so a bunch of kids can be happy for 2 hours. Anyway, we're going back in a couple of weeks and we're going to pay for them all to ride the train around the park, maybe we'll teach them all a loud song to sing to really give the park nazi something to blow his whistle at!
Saturday 7 March 2009
I've arrived!
A little part of BandraI've been in Mumbai for nearly a week now and I'm happy to say that the not moving around constantly and home cooked food has sorted me all out. I've been fit and healthy for the last 4 days and loving every second of it. Its amazing how much lovlier everything is when you're not doubled up in pain and rushing to the toilet!
We are living in Bandra, a leafy little suburb north of the centre, in the One! International apartment. Right now there's the three of us and one other volunteer. She's leaving next week and then we'll have the apartment to ourself for a while. Its very small but we're getting by... although it is regularly completely without water. It seems to only be our apartment that's affected, all the others are fine! So far I've only managed one regular shower, and this was at the apartment across the street that a couple of the other volunteers are living at. The rest of the time its just me, a bucket of water and a small jug. The no water also means we can't flush the toilet or wash up or any normal things that involve water so we have all these massive bottles that we have to rush around filling up everytime the water comes on. It adds to the drama of things.
I've also powered through a whole week at school which is both amazing, exhausting and terrifying all in equal parts. We've been completely thrown in at the deep end and have spent most of this week trying to cobble lesson ideas and plans from the curriculum. Everything is disorganised and we have no idea what they do and don't know. The children are beautiful little people and are so warm and funny and welcoming. Occasionally they end up covered in dirta dn water and try to hug you, but when they're clean theyre lovely. So far I've learnt three different handshakes that the kids come rushing up to perform with you. One of them ends with a game of thumb wars, which I'm hopeless at. They're also all pretty good with the high fiving so I feel like we have a mutual form of communication. The school has an amazing community feel to it as lots of the parents work there as well. At any point in the day there are ladies rushing around in saris and babies crawling around on the floor! We're teaching English, Maths, Craft, Exercise and Computer. The kids English is pretty good, they can understand more than they speak but we haven't had any problems teaching them, yet anyway.
There are a million more things to say, but I won't pile them all into one post. Lets just say I'm enjoying it but the first week of school has completely put me off teaching for the rest of my life!
We are living in Bandra, a leafy little suburb north of the centre, in the One! International apartment. Right now there's the three of us and one other volunteer. She's leaving next week and then we'll have the apartment to ourself for a while. Its very small but we're getting by... although it is regularly completely without water. It seems to only be our apartment that's affected, all the others are fine! So far I've only managed one regular shower, and this was at the apartment across the street that a couple of the other volunteers are living at. The rest of the time its just me, a bucket of water and a small jug. The no water also means we can't flush the toilet or wash up or any normal things that involve water so we have all these massive bottles that we have to rush around filling up everytime the water comes on. It adds to the drama of things.
I've also powered through a whole week at school which is both amazing, exhausting and terrifying all in equal parts. We've been completely thrown in at the deep end and have spent most of this week trying to cobble lesson ideas and plans from the curriculum. Everything is disorganised and we have no idea what they do and don't know. The children are beautiful little people and are so warm and funny and welcoming. Occasionally they end up covered in dirta dn water and try to hug you, but when they're clean theyre lovely. So far I've learnt three different handshakes that the kids come rushing up to perform with you. One of them ends with a game of thumb wars, which I'm hopeless at. They're also all pretty good with the high fiving so I feel like we have a mutual form of communication. The school has an amazing community feel to it as lots of the parents work there as well. At any point in the day there are ladies rushing around in saris and babies crawling around on the floor! We're teaching English, Maths, Craft, Exercise and Computer. The kids English is pretty good, they can understand more than they speak but we haven't had any problems teaching them, yet anyway.
There are a million more things to say, but I won't pile them all into one post. Lets just say I'm enjoying it but the first week of school has completely put me off teaching for the rest of my life!
Thursday 5 March 2009
Udaipur, Land of Octopussy
Udaipur is, without doubt, the most beautiful place we visited in India. It was amazing, and I say this as someone who spend 2 days there with suffering from bowel trouble, vomitting and stomach cramps. From the second we arrived everything was a million and four times better than Jaipur (except in Jaipur whenever you told someone you were from England they said "lovely jubbly". If they did that in Udaipur too that would make it even better). For starters we greeted at the very calm station by a rickshaw driver waving a sign saying "Welcome Rabacca" (they misheard the spelling over the phone). Then we drove through all these lovely quite, by Indian standard, little streets to our hotel that over looked one of the lakes that Udaipur is built around. Our rickshaw driver, Bilhu, then offered to take us out again in the evening and the following day to show us around, which we happily agreed to. It was quite the most lovely arrival I've ever had in India. Then of course the cramping and vomitting began, but I've decided thats my Malaria pills and not Udaipur's fault.
Udaipur very lush and green with patches of oppulence (spas and luxury hotels), surrounding it all are very dramatic mountains, twisty roads and incredible views across the valleys. It is quite James Bondy in places, which is fitting, as Octopussy was filmed here many a year ago. Bilhu was there when it happened and told us that the locals didn't know what was going on, suddenly lots of English people decended on their town! The guidebook, and a massive sign outside our hotel, promised nightly showings of the film as the town is incredibly proud of this connection. This seems to be complete lies as I didn't see it once. On our last day I spent the entire time (10 hours!) curled up in the cafe nursing my many illnesses and they didn't show it at all. I would have quite liked a bit of James Bond to take my mind off everything!
Anyway, we saw some beautiful things (but also had to suffer through a two hour tour of some villages led by a guide who spoke incredibly slowly and left massive pauses between every sentence. At one point he stared at as all for a good 20 seconds and then started giving us Indian names!) and it was a very relaxing way to spend our last few days before the madness of Mumbai and the school kicks in.
Photos!
Facebook and I have been having some issues, or maybe the internet in the apartment and I have been having some issues... either way I've been trying to upload the photos since Monday and now, finally, they're here! These should be the public links from facebook so you don't need to sign up to anything to view them.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96888&id=284001155&l=a5a40
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96889&id=284001155&l=36301
Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96888&id=284001155&l=a5a40
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96889&id=284001155&l=36301
Enjoy!
Monday 2 March 2009
Things to do for 14 hours in Jaipur
(Me, Vikki and our new elephant friend)
2) Spend ages searching for anywhere that sells chai so you can use the toilet, failing this, try and check into a hotel to use their toilet only to discover everywhere is either full or still being built.
3) Hot and sweaty eventually find an amazing hotel/restaurant in the guidebook described as an 'oasis'. Spend you're entire morning (and most of the afternoon) using the facilities. Wonder why you didn't just do this straight away.
4) Get the hotel to recommend touristy things to do and let them provide you with one of their rickshaw drivers to show you around.
5) After a delightfully relaxing day return to the station 15 minutres before night train is due to leave to discover that there is nothing and no-one to tell you which platform your train is leaving from and the cloakroom you left your bags in is padlocked shut for the night.
6) Run around the train station like desperate idiots (entertaining all the waiting passengers) trying to find someone to open the cloakroom and anything to tell you where the train is going from. Gatecrash the station masters office to find out the train is actually an hour late and the cloakroom attend was on a break so your bags are actually fine.
7) Sit on platfrom for over an hour getting hotter and sweatier and feeling incredibly glad that you're leaving Jaipur.
Border Closing Ceremony
(very imposing border security guard man)
(Vikki and Luanna chilling at border)
The second you arrive at the boarder you're confronted by hoards of people selling drinks and snacks and bags of popcorn along with postcards and DVDs of the ceremony, its like being at a major sporting event not a minor border closing. We had to queue for ages to get through security, women on one side men on the other. There were about 20 men to the one femal security guard so the womens line soon escalated from an orderly single file to a mass crowd heaving towards the tiny space we all had to get through in order to enter the stadium (I'm not kidding, its actually like a stadium). As we waited the border guards confiscated all the snacks that every one had just purchased. It quite a surreal experience elbowig ladies in Sris to get them to stay behind you while carrier bags of popcorn fly over your head.
Once we were through our white faces got us quickly shooed through to the foreigners seatng section (other less obvious non-indian poeple had to queue and show passports) as we got closer the atmosphere became electric people were running towards the stairs to try and find a good spot. Loud music filled the air people were shouting and chanting from the main gate all along the road people were crowded into the graduated seating, I'm not good at guessing numbers but there were thousands of people, then at the end the seating curves round so you can see the gate directly. This is all mimicked on the Pakistan side, so it really is like you're sitting in a massive oval sprts stadium. There was a compare encouraging the chants, battling with those happening on the Pakistan side, music, young girls dancing in the centre of the road, flags waving and amongst all this the poor border guards rush around blowing there whistles and finding people seats and trying to get everyone to sit down. We got some sweet front row seats.
Things did not calm down once the ceremony began. Basically a row of guards all wearing fancy uniforms and silly headresses come marching out, line up and then one by one march down to the main gate. It alternates between one guard from India and one from Pakistan. Once they're all at the gate the two flag are lowered, the gate is closed and the flag are marched back the main office. And thats it.
Except thats not it. Because while all this is happening the compare is encouraging all this crazy shouting, an elderly lady next to us tried to explain it but I can't remember, its something like "Man Zi Ba! Man Zi Ba!". Pakistan meanwhile is shoutig "Geo Geo Pak I Stan! Geo Geo Pak I Stan!". Then everytime a guard goes to walk down he does ome crazy impression of John Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks and flings his legs everywhere hitting is head and when he finally skips off to the gate the whole crowd goes even more insane. Once there at the bottom theres a mad array of posturing and posing with out side kicking there heads with their feet and Pakistan throwing some crazy breakdancing shapes. It lasted for an hour, once the flag finally made its way back up the road you'd have though Rupees had just rained down from the sky while god announced India were the masters of the universe.. not, a flag has been folded neatly and put away. Then after, all the guards pose for photos! It was brilliant!
So, I guess what with the temple and the ceremony Amristar wasn't all that bad.
If my description wasn't good enough Michael Palin may do a better one here
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