The time has come...I completed my last day at school this morning in the searing heat. I took in two big tubs of sweets for all the students. I had never seen them so quiet! I was also presented with a lovely card in front of everyone which was very sweet. They all asked me when I was coming back! Who knows.. I am very sad to leave but I think my visit was timed well. The temperature has soared in just a few days and everyone (including me!) seems to be finding it hard to deal with.
This afternoon I am writing a note to the project (school) coordinator. I am obviously no expert when it comes to childrens education but I did notice several things during my time at the school which should be addressed if they want the school to produce successful students. Not inflating their grades simply so that they can move to the next class (or more likely so that the teacher looks better) would be one of them! All the teachers are petrified of the Principal; a fearsome man called Harold and it seemed they would do anything to avoid his wrath. He brought nothing to the table as far as I could see but he was definitely effective when it came to discipline!
I would recommend an experience like this to everyone. It's been fantastic to meet so many new people, learn about Indian culture, social issues and traditions and living with an Indian family has been a large part of that education. Indian people are extremely warm and welcoming and there is a huge sense of colour and community everywhere you go. If anyone is interested in coming to India or volunteering at the Vihaan school, let me know! I will upload photos to this blog when I get home on Friday. I hope you have enjoyed reading as much I as I have writing!
Emily x
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Monday, 14 March 2011
Last Week in India
Returned safe and sounds from Delhi yesterday afernoon- praise be the lord. The trip was not what i expected or hoped it would be and couldn't wait to get back. I was off the mark when I thought that travelling alone was a good idea, especially in a city where it turns out that everyone is looking for a buck...
I suffered a serious of unfortunate incidents (some my own fault!) including being on a very delayed ingoing bus, then a taxi driver who took me to his friends hotel (not the one I had booked and instructed him to take me to) - argument ensued, a hotel which had cockroaches in the bathroom, being shortchanged of money at a major monument (another argument, got the money back though), losing my (Rich's) camera in a museum (cried at that point), getting the camera back the next day (cried again through happiness), being followed EVERYWHERE by random annoying men, being shouted at in the street by a restaurant owner because I had mistakenly left circa. GBP 0.20p less than I should have done for the bill.... I just didn't know what was going to go wrong next!!
So- enough negativity! This is my last week in Jaipur and at school. The children have exams this week which should see most of them promoted to the next class level or 'standard.' I was assisting the English oral exams with the younger children (around 5/6 years old). The kids did pretty well. I am biased but the girls here are definitely more intelligent! Great to see them doing so well in a country that has not always favoured daughters.
During the tests I was talking to the Indian teacher in charge of this class. She has been absent a lot recently (hence me taking some of her classes solo) and she told me that her youngest son (aged 5) has typhoid and that her husband died a year ago. She's only 29. She was crying at this point in front of the class. Remarriage is not common here from what I can gather. What can you say?
Tomorrow me and the other volunteers are going out for a goodbye dinner in town then I'll have my last meal on Wednesday at the house with the family. Homeward bound! A month has been the perfect amount of time. The temperature here is getting extremely hot. Today was over 30 degrees which feels even hotter in the middle of the slum with flies all over you when you're running after small kids. I also have a hacking cough from the pollution and all the shouting. I never thought I would consider London air as clean!
The other volunteers are all departing after this weekend too. Best not to be the last one left - although I will sadly be missing a highlight of the Indian Festival calendar; Holi. This is celebrated by people throwing coloured paint, powder and water at eachother. Sounds like chaos but great fun! A bit about Holi- the weather changes in spring which is believed to cause viral fever and cold. The throwing of the coloured powder has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made from medicinal herbs prescribed by doctors. People's families travel from all over the country to be together for this first Spring festival. I have to say I am pretty envious of all the amazing traditions, festivals and rituals they have here.
Will definitely be doing another post before I leave. Em x
I suffered a serious of unfortunate incidents (some my own fault!) including being on a very delayed ingoing bus, then a taxi driver who took me to his friends hotel (not the one I had booked and instructed him to take me to) - argument ensued, a hotel which had cockroaches in the bathroom, being shortchanged of money at a major monument (another argument, got the money back though), losing my (Rich's) camera in a museum (cried at that point), getting the camera back the next day (cried again through happiness), being followed EVERYWHERE by random annoying men, being shouted at in the street by a restaurant owner because I had mistakenly left circa. GBP 0.20p less than I should have done for the bill.... I just didn't know what was going to go wrong next!!
So- enough negativity! This is my last week in Jaipur and at school. The children have exams this week which should see most of them promoted to the next class level or 'standard.' I was assisting the English oral exams with the younger children (around 5/6 years old). The kids did pretty well. I am biased but the girls here are definitely more intelligent! Great to see them doing so well in a country that has not always favoured daughters.
During the tests I was talking to the Indian teacher in charge of this class. She has been absent a lot recently (hence me taking some of her classes solo) and she told me that her youngest son (aged 5) has typhoid and that her husband died a year ago. She's only 29. She was crying at this point in front of the class. Remarriage is not common here from what I can gather. What can you say?
Tomorrow me and the other volunteers are going out for a goodbye dinner in town then I'll have my last meal on Wednesday at the house with the family. Homeward bound! A month has been the perfect amount of time. The temperature here is getting extremely hot. Today was over 30 degrees which feels even hotter in the middle of the slum with flies all over you when you're running after small kids. I also have a hacking cough from the pollution and all the shouting. I never thought I would consider London air as clean!
The other volunteers are all departing after this weekend too. Best not to be the last one left - although I will sadly be missing a highlight of the Indian Festival calendar; Holi. This is celebrated by people throwing coloured paint, powder and water at eachother. Sounds like chaos but great fun! A bit about Holi- the weather changes in spring which is believed to cause viral fever and cold. The throwing of the coloured powder has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made from medicinal herbs prescribed by doctors. People's families travel from all over the country to be together for this first Spring festival. I have to say I am pretty envious of all the amazing traditions, festivals and rituals they have here.
Will definitely be doing another post before I leave. Em x
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Udaipur and Updates!
I'm back! Udaipur was a fantastic weekend away. What a place- again highly recommended.........set on a huge lake with narrow (quite mediterranean) streets and palaces and temples all over town. After an all night bus ride from Jaipur, we slept for a few hours and then set of for the City Palace. The whole place was being decorated as it was going to be the wedding venue for the Maharaja (king/ruler) of Udaipur's daughter the next day. What can I say? If Carlsberg made wedding venues.... purple and red drapes over buildings, amazing gazebos, mirrored crystals hanging from the trees, an after party on an island on the lake, fairly lights over every tree. Unbelievable!! Scenes from "Wedding Crashers" came to mind...I should have done it! On the way back we took a sleeper train which was a great experience, everyone wanting to know where we were from and where we were going.
School this week has been brilliant. Yesterday was National Women's Day in India (The men were saying that National Men's day is the other 365 days of the year...haha) and a group of approximately 30 women from the local community arrived at the school to have a talk on women's rights and then to take part in various games. The talk was in Hindi but someone kindly provided me with a loose translation afterwards... Domestic violence (especially amongst poorer castes/classes) is a large problem in India. Often labourers, the men prefer to spend their wages on cheap alcohol and then come home and beat their wives. Also common is if the wife's family have not provided a sufficient dowry to the husbands family at the time of marriage. In this instance, it's often not just the husband who harrasses the wife, but his whole family will have a go too. So, the point of the talk was to inform the women how to go about filing a police complaint or how to contact local activists against violence and basically how to stand up for themselves. The men really do wear the trousers in India...
Girls grooming has also been a big hit. More and more girls are arriving each day. So much so that I think we'll have to curb the numbers. I bought a load of make up and they all went mad over it. It descended (again) into mayhem today, all of them giggling and fighting over mascara, babies crying and of course at the end I realised things were missing......what a surprise!
So many of you have posted such nice comments on this blog. I thought it would be good to answer some of your questions.
Fashion
I have written before about how incredible the women look here. I really don't think I could ever get tired of seeing a group of Indian women. So stunning. The men however don't fair so well! It's straight out of the 70's! Most of them wear these high waisted, bootcut/flare trousers. They are all so thin these trousers look comical. Also they love T-shirts with captions. A couple I have seen today; "Hell is full, so I'm back!" and "I am the bad thing that happens to good people"
Climate
It's getting really hot here now. It's not so bad at the house (we can go up to the roof and catch a few rays after school- as you can imagine, I'm really tanned...??) but at school it's getting pretty smelly and the flies are all over you.
Cricket
A national obsession, especially as the cricket world cup is going on here at the moment. You see mini cricket matches going on all over the place. Everyone is an amateur pundit.
Food
Mia the maid at our house (about 4ft 8” from Assam) does all the cooking and she does a great job. Meals always consist of two vegetable dishes; one curry/soup like dish and then cooked vegetables mixed with a spicy paste. It always tastes great but doesn't really fill you up, so inevitably you then eat copious amount of rice and roti/chapati bread or potatoes. Bloat city. Missing meat and especially fish a lot.
Company
So we are now two girls and two guy volunteers. Michaela (18) arrived on the weekend and we are now sharing a room. She looks like a younger (!) version of me. Very pale, brown hair and blue eyes. Everyone thinks we are sisters. Michael (23) from Ireland is still here and Simon (19) from Derby. As I said before, we are an eclectic mix, but this month would have been a very lonely experience without them. I think living in an Indian homestay in an area where there are no western people or tourists with no real opportunity to make friends could have been very isolating. Plus travelling in a group is more fun too.
Photo Album
My sister very kindly collated a fantastic photo album for my birthday so that I could bring it away with me. (Thanks to all those who contributed!) I took it to school today and the kids LOVED seeing it. They couldn’t get their heads round the pictures of snow at all, brilliant to see their reactions. It’s also a good way of teaching them English vocabulary…brother, sister, friend, boyfriend!
I am planning a solo voyage to Delhi, India's capital this weekend. Good one to se whilst I'm here. Coming home next week! I can't believe it, it's gone just as fast as everyone said it would.
Over and out until next time! xxxx
School this week has been brilliant. Yesterday was National Women's Day in India (The men were saying that National Men's day is the other 365 days of the year...haha) and a group of approximately 30 women from the local community arrived at the school to have a talk on women's rights and then to take part in various games. The talk was in Hindi but someone kindly provided me with a loose translation afterwards... Domestic violence (especially amongst poorer castes/classes) is a large problem in India. Often labourers, the men prefer to spend their wages on cheap alcohol and then come home and beat their wives. Also common is if the wife's family have not provided a sufficient dowry to the husbands family at the time of marriage. In this instance, it's often not just the husband who harrasses the wife, but his whole family will have a go too. So, the point of the talk was to inform the women how to go about filing a police complaint or how to contact local activists against violence and basically how to stand up for themselves. The men really do wear the trousers in India...
Girls grooming has also been a big hit. More and more girls are arriving each day. So much so that I think we'll have to curb the numbers. I bought a load of make up and they all went mad over it. It descended (again) into mayhem today, all of them giggling and fighting over mascara, babies crying and of course at the end I realised things were missing......what a surprise!
So many of you have posted such nice comments on this blog. I thought it would be good to answer some of your questions.
Fashion
I have written before about how incredible the women look here. I really don't think I could ever get tired of seeing a group of Indian women. So stunning. The men however don't fair so well! It's straight out of the 70's! Most of them wear these high waisted, bootcut/flare trousers. They are all so thin these trousers look comical. Also they love T-shirts with captions. A couple I have seen today; "Hell is full, so I'm back!" and "I am the bad thing that happens to good people"
Climate
It's getting really hot here now. It's not so bad at the house (we can go up to the roof and catch a few rays after school- as you can imagine, I'm really tanned...??) but at school it's getting pretty smelly and the flies are all over you.
Cricket
A national obsession, especially as the cricket world cup is going on here at the moment. You see mini cricket matches going on all over the place. Everyone is an amateur pundit.
Food
Mia the maid at our house (about 4ft 8” from Assam) does all the cooking and she does a great job. Meals always consist of two vegetable dishes; one curry/soup like dish and then cooked vegetables mixed with a spicy paste. It always tastes great but doesn't really fill you up, so inevitably you then eat copious amount of rice and roti/chapati bread or potatoes. Bloat city. Missing meat and especially fish a lot.
Company
So we are now two girls and two guy volunteers. Michaela (18) arrived on the weekend and we are now sharing a room. She looks like a younger (!) version of me. Very pale, brown hair and blue eyes. Everyone thinks we are sisters. Michael (23) from Ireland is still here and Simon (19) from Derby. As I said before, we are an eclectic mix, but this month would have been a very lonely experience without them. I think living in an Indian homestay in an area where there are no western people or tourists with no real opportunity to make friends could have been very isolating. Plus travelling in a group is more fun too.
Photo Album
My sister very kindly collated a fantastic photo album for my birthday so that I could bring it away with me. (Thanks to all those who contributed!) I took it to school today and the kids LOVED seeing it. They couldn’t get their heads round the pictures of snow at all, brilliant to see their reactions. It’s also a good way of teaching them English vocabulary…brother, sister, friend, boyfriend!
I am planning a solo voyage to Delhi, India's capital this weekend. Good one to se whilst I'm here. Coming home next week! I can't believe it, it's gone just as fast as everyone said it would.
Over and out until next time! xxxx
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Sisterhood
Yesterday was a holy day here in India so us volunteers got the day off. After a great lie in I went to see a few of the city sights I hadn't ventured to yet. The palaces and monuments here are seriously impressive. Even the reluctant sightseer would have to admit that despite the general chaos of India, the architecture is beautiful. During the evening our project coordinator said we should treat ourselves to a drink at the city's best hotel...needless to say she didn't have to suggest it twice! The Rambagh Palace Hotel (look it up..) was like a mirage!! There were peacocks strolling round the grounds, flute payers under trees, tealights everywhere, and beautiful sari clad dancers. A great, 'colonial' experience, made all the sweeter with a drink!!
Back at school I have commenced my after hours girls grooming sessions! I was a bit apprehensive about how this was going to work and how many girls would come along. Generally about 10 girls turn up. Half from the school and half from the local community. Inevitably a couple of them bring their babies/toddlers along too. So I have been showing them some western hairstyles. Simple stuff like french plaits, backcombed do's. I can't tell you what fun it has been so far. The girls are all gorgeous and really fun and it's definitely less hectic having the boys out of the way, it rally feels like a litle sisterhood! It takes the format of me showing them all how to do something, then they all practise with eachother. Today I ended up being the exhibit. They were all combing my hair and smelling it (bit weird). One of them commented that I didn't have dandruff (phew!). I won't go into too much detail but the standards of hygiene are not great when it comes to the girls hair. They all have hair down to their waists and they put oil in it to condition it. Pretty gross to run your hands through..... 6 months ago I never dreamt I would be here doing all this random stuff. It feels absolutely great!
Tonight is the last night of one of my fellow volunteers so we're having a special meal. (Translates to "more vegetables" !) Then tomorrow after school we are going to Udaipur. 12hr bus but from what I am told it's spectacular. Supposedly it's the most romantic city in India....should be one to revisit soon without my young colleagues!!! Apparently there is another girl arriving on Sunday though so male domination doesn't last much longer.
I meant to send this on earlier, but my mobile number here is +917891353308 should anyone wish to call or text.
Love to you all and more after the weekend.More comments and questions gratefully received! xxx
Back at school I have commenced my after hours girls grooming sessions! I was a bit apprehensive about how this was going to work and how many girls would come along. Generally about 10 girls turn up. Half from the school and half from the local community. Inevitably a couple of them bring their babies/toddlers along too. So I have been showing them some western hairstyles. Simple stuff like french plaits, backcombed do's. I can't tell you what fun it has been so far. The girls are all gorgeous and really fun and it's definitely less hectic having the boys out of the way, it rally feels like a litle sisterhood! It takes the format of me showing them all how to do something, then they all practise with eachother. Today I ended up being the exhibit. They were all combing my hair and smelling it (bit weird). One of them commented that I didn't have dandruff (phew!). I won't go into too much detail but the standards of hygiene are not great when it comes to the girls hair. They all have hair down to their waists and they put oil in it to condition it. Pretty gross to run your hands through..... 6 months ago I never dreamt I would be here doing all this random stuff. It feels absolutely great!
Tonight is the last night of one of my fellow volunteers so we're having a special meal. (Translates to "more vegetables" !) Then tomorrow after school we are going to Udaipur. 12hr bus but from what I am told it's spectacular. Supposedly it's the most romantic city in India....should be one to revisit soon without my young colleagues!!! Apparently there is another girl arriving on Sunday though so male domination doesn't last much longer.
I meant to send this on earlier, but my mobile number here is +917891353308 should anyone wish to call or text.
Love to you all and more after the weekend.More comments and questions gratefully received! xxx
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