So on the 4th I spent all day hanging out at the beach, and the stayed the night at a hotel on a beach closer to the airport. I got up early to catch my flight. Flying in India had the expected amount of red tape, but flying Kingfisher was lovely. I flew from Goa to Mumbai, and from Mumbai to Bhubaneswar. To get on my first flight I had to get in and out of the same line several times because of a simple lack of signage, explanation or logic. Since I was expecting it to be hard, this did not upset me. The flight attendants were friendly, quick and knowledgeable and I left the two quick connecting flights thinking that perhaps flying could be relaxing. It was a pleasant contrast to the typical domestic flight in the U.S. I guess they're not trying to screw you out of that extra 30 cents every where you look, and it adds up.
The Bhubaneswar airport is tiny and lovely. It has artwork from the surrounding areas and has many signs welcoming you. I took a taxi from the airport to the Inside Orissa office. Raj and San met me in my taxi. That was nice. So they took me to meet Aruna Mohanty, my guru, at her house, took me to their office, where we discussed the details of my stay, and then took me to a hotel for the night. The deal is pretty simple, M-S at 5 am Yoga, Group Practice at 8:30, Individual Theory Practice at 11:30, Lunch, Rest/ Ayurveda (2x week), Individual Class 4:30, dinner, rinse and repeat. On the weekends we would travel to see all the major local sites.
That first night we went to a place called Big Bazaar, which is about as close to an Indian Walmart as I've seen. Well, kind of, it takes up about 2/3 of a four story shopping center. The first two floors are clothes, the next is food and the top is appliances. The atmosphere of the store is set by the incessant screeching of some manager into an intercom, urging shoppers to take advantage of some deal or another. The shouting literally never stops, and whoever's job it is to shout clearly does not benefit from practice. He shouts in highly questionable English, broken by random Oriya, stutters and general confusion. Despite the auditory onslaught, the store is so full of people that it seems impossible that anyone would ever actually be able to buy anything there. It is constantly like black Friday, only louder. We got some basics, or what I consider basics- oatmeal, honey, eggs, apples, mangoes, shampoo, and conditioner.
We bought a yoga mat at another store, which sold bed sheets, rugs and other textiles. By yoga mat I mean a multicolored blanket, which I folded and did yoga on for the next month. We also bought a blanket for my bed. By blanket I mean bed sheet. These purchases were worried over the way I considered buying a new computer. Serious deliberation about the qualities of my 'blanket' passed at least thirty minutes before something was decided on.
I had a 'chicken roll' for dinner. In India a roll is what I would consider a wrap. A puff is what I would consider a roll. A biscuit is either a cookie or a cracker and a chocolate is anything sweet. At the time I didn't know this, so when he asked if I'd like to try a chicken roll I figured I'd be getting a chicken sandwich. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised with spicy cubed chicken wrapped in a roti (read flour tortilla) with some onion. It was yummy. :-) I went to bed early, hoping to recover from my Goa/ travel exhaustion in time to wake up at 4:30.
I left for yoga in a not-so-bright-eyed manner (I woke up to them knocking insistently on my door, oops). In yoga class that day there was meditation and chanting for 45 minutes: first the guy leads us through a meditation, then there is a call and response with a guy playing a harmonium, a box shaped accordion thing. Then I have individual lessons which were about first part wind releasing or something like that. We did isolations of almost every joint and some pranams, or breathing exercises. My 'English Speaking' yoga teacher, for which the program is paying extra informs me to put my "hourness in my novel" daily during meditation. I can't tell the difference between 'fish' and 'peace' when he says them, and I often have NO idea what he means.
Let me explain here that yoga instructors, and students, look completely different than in the west. My yoga class in New York is lead by a thirty something man with a rock hard body, tingling massage oil, hands on technique and the desire to help each student take their bodies to the next step of flexibility and control. At the end of class he often encourages us to reflect on Hindu concepts and challenges us to live cleaner lives. Walking down the street that man turns heads, and in class he quickly makes friends and followers of his students. The students are all looking to get slimmer, stronger, more flexible, and most of them look great in spandex. Our regular practice includes mild contortions, back bends, headstands, headstands and a sweat inducing practice of Sun Salutation.
Here, the swami (swami literally means husband, here it means yogic monk), is an enormous man. He has a gigantic stomach which hangs over his orange dhoti (long cloth tied around the wast like a skirt) and breasts so large that I feel embarrassed by them- a fact which may partially be due to his enormous black nipples . I constantly have to ignore the thought that he should probably wear a bra. His enormous bald head and his narrow almost slightly cross eyed stare is disconcerting and unwelcoming. On good days he wears an orange t-shirt or a dhoti covering his top half too. He always wears a collection of beaded necklaces which would be the envy of any small girl, especially if she had a penchant for orange and brown. Most of the things he says are in Oriya, although he certainly uses Sanskrit and English mixed in. Unlike the lisping S in my might-be-gay yoga instructor's speech, when the swami ends a word on an s he sounds like a tire slowly deflating. His favorite word, bas (enough), goes on for five seconds. No exaggeration. He stares at us, seemingly disdainful while we meditate, then leads us on the harmonium in a chant. "Bas. Practice," he says, taking a full ten to fifteen seconds.
Then the hundred or so students stand up on their blankets. Let me tell you, athletic gear, as do most clothes, have a different definition in India. A woman may wear anything from ill-fitting cotton stretch pants and a t-shirt to a salwar kamiz. Often you see some odd combination of the two. Women in India may have small bone structures, but they are not small. I've yet to meet a woman of even middle means that would not be described as husky or outright fat. Only people who can't afford food are skinny, apparently. The men tend to work out in khakis and polos or t-shirts. The men all look pregnant. Their huge stomachs protrude from their centers like they were snakes digesting beach balls. A few of these mustachioed and shawl sporting wonders are so fat that they can't actually participate, so they do the few things they can do from a seated position, then lay on their backs in rest position. Everyone else is clearly hindered by their ill-fitting clothes. Only about ten percent are fit enough to do Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation), and only four or five people actually make it all the way through the six rounds. Meanwhile, instead of helping us as we go, the teachers let the students do something incorrectly for the entire practice, then tell them after that it was incorrect. After resting to lower our heart rates (wouldn't want to burn fat!) we practice a few more asanas, then do pranayams. They are more or less breathing techniques. The sounds that come out of people at this point are truly revolting. I struggle not to laugh or be disconcerted by the various snorts, belches, farts, vocal sounds and other rumblings produced by nearly every one in the hall. There is a final chant and class ends.
By the second week of class a guy (who wore normal work out pants and gap t-shirts) and I were the only ones completing all the asanas. In fact, we were doing advanced versions of the asanas while most of the people were struggling with the simplified versions of them. It was kind of fun and kind of sad. In the last week I finally got the nerve to tell the swami that most of the poses didn't stretch me in any way. It was almost like being in the circus performing the series of contortions he sent me through trying to find a stretch. The entire rest of the class just watched me. One of the men living at the ashram asked me if my spine is made of rubber. I'd like to remind the reader that I'm the inflexible one in my dance classes in New York. For real, this is a nation that can't touch its toes.
Over the course of the first week I developed a habit of having an apple, mango and egg for breakfast, the same for midmorning snack, lentils for lunch and tandoori chicken for dinner. This habit remained unchanged until I left with the exception that some days I had oatmeal with honey for breakfast, and toward the end I just had one apple for breakfast and added coffee before my second dance class. On Saturdays I ate whatever fell in my path and went to pizza hut at night. It was so funny because the people actually remembered my order, and greeted me by name when I came in.
Everywhere I went it was simultaneously like I was a freak and a celebrity. People stared. They asked the people with me all kinds of questions. They took pictures of me on their cells when they thought I didn't notice. It was strange.
On the weekends Raj and San took me all over Bhubaneswar and the surrounding areas to see all the major sites. I went to Konark, Puri, Rajarani Temple, Botanicle Gardens, a tribal museum, the local market, Chilika Lake, a water park, a Hindi movie: Stop, several dance shows, two craft villages, a Goti Pua dance performance, 64 yogini temple, Megeswar temple, Brameshwar temple, and some excavated Buddhist sites. I'm pretty sure that list isn't complete.
During the week I'd get ayurveda and beauty care. I had several full body massages with steam baths, two facials, a foot treatment, a 'manicure', several eyebrow waxing appointments, I got my hair dyed black, and I had a starch massage. The ayurveda is funny because the people doing it speak little English. The first time I got a service I was always unsure how much to undress. For massages they give you a loin cloth to wear, but I didn't know how to put one on. The first time they told me to take a bath she started running water in a bucket, and it took ten minutes to explain that I'd be much more efficient bathing using the shower. I think she was about to wash me herself. Ayurveda is also interesting because they use all natural products, so when you get a facial then stand up, the table where you've been on looks like somebody threw up. Seriously, globs of orange, brown, green and yellow are all over the table. The best part about the place where I went is that two women always worked on me at the same time, so during a massage I'd have four hands pressing on me. The way they massage was in a pattern so they'd be doing the same things at the same time.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Shanti Bhavan to Goa...
Nikki and I left Shanti Bhavan, went to Jayashree's club for swimming and dinner, and ventured out into India. Sitting at the Whitefield train station waiting to catch our ride to Cochin, I was definitely excited.
We took the train overnight, ate breakfast on the train (nifty!) and arrived in Cochin around ten in the morning. We checked into a hotel, and that first night we ended up making friends with the hotel owners. After a day of running errands, sight seeing and taking care of necessities, we hung out with them for a few hours before bed.
The next day we went into Ernakalum via a ferry to buy some dress materials. We went to see Kathakali dance, which is FREAKY, and not at all what attracts me to dance personally. However I really enjoyed the music. We did a little shopping and a lot of walking. That night a room full of Welsh boys moved in next door to us and we hung out with them, just sitting and talking after dinner. The next morning we got up early to go on the backwaters tour. It was lovely. In the morning we went out on a huge houseboat fashioned to resemble a fish, and we had lunch on the boat, sampled local cuisine and went on tours of some islands. After lunch we went to a smaller boat, where we took canoes down narrow canals into the small villages. We stopped for tea at one end, then came back. It was pretty nice to be pushed down the water by a stick and to be waved at by smiling Indian children. It was also fun to know that just in that area, a great novel takes place. We were in Kerela, can you guess which one?
That night we caught the overnight train to Mangalore. From Mangalore we took a bus to a bus to Jog Falls. In between we almost stayed in a really crappy hotel and waited until morning to head to our destination, but we decided to move on, after quite a harrowing ordeal with the hotel. Jog Falls are the highest falls in India. We got in late at night, and stayed in an ENORMOUS hotel room with a great view of the falls. We were the only people there. In the morning we got up and hiked down. Even being low on water, the falls were beautiful. Not in the way that Niagra Falls staggers you with volume, more in the natural grace of the place. After getting cleaned up, we checked out of our hotel and headed for the bus stop. There we befriend some people from Gana. They were very friendly, and obsessed with my sunglasses. Next we made friends with an ex-yoga instructor from Chennai, who helped up catch the right bus to get to Gokarna.
Gokarna is a beautiful temple city. There we feasted on great food and saw beautiful temples and people. We went swimming at an almost empty beach. It was lovely. At dinner we made friends with a man from France, who works for a packaged food company in Bangalore. We walked all over and stumbled upon a quiet forest, where we disturbed some monkeys, sending us running. It was pretty funny.
Nikki and I parted ways at the bus station, she was heading for Hampi then Chennai and Thailand. I'm pretty sure her trip will be amazing.
I left Gokarna by bus and caught another bus, then another bus to get to Goa. It was a long trip by hot, crowded bus, though if I had found a way to go directly it would have only taken about 45 min. The bus to Goa took me all the way to Margao, then I took an auto back to Palolem. Usually I would have chosen a less crowded beach but because I was traveling on the off season I wanted to be ensured of running into other travelers. So I arrived in early evening, rented a beach hut ($4/ night) and went to the local bookstore. It is a beautiful little bookshop catering to the massive influx of westerners and has tons of info on India, novels that take place in India and various other random crap. I bought the Namesake, went next door and had CHICKEN TACOS AND A MARGARITA! It was so flipping good I couldn't begin to tell you. On that high I walked back towards my hut and noticed there was refrigerated diet coke in a can available! When I asked how much and they told me RS25 I basically died and went to heaven. I bought one and a Snickers and holed up in my room for some much needed Amanda-stays-up-all-night-with-a-book time. I took a nap around 5 am and got up at 8. I got a diet coke and laid on the beach and read until 10:30, when I got cleaned up, found internet, got a very unhealthy (see a pattern?) lunch of fries and a pineapple juice. Then I took a nap, got up, went to the beach to try and even out my TERRIBLE tan lines. I took another shower, took back The Namesake and got half off of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I went to the internet again, then went to dinner and had fries and butter chicken masala. I was having a rum and diet when six guys came in and started talking to me. I quickly made friends with them and literally stayed up to watch the sunrise from our soft chairs with a view of the beach. It. Was. Heaven. :)
More to come. I'm lazy with this whole blog thing, now that I'm not at Shanti Bhavan, sorry.
We took the train overnight, ate breakfast on the train (nifty!) and arrived in Cochin around ten in the morning. We checked into a hotel, and that first night we ended up making friends with the hotel owners. After a day of running errands, sight seeing and taking care of necessities, we hung out with them for a few hours before bed.
The next day we went into Ernakalum via a ferry to buy some dress materials. We went to see Kathakali dance, which is FREAKY, and not at all what attracts me to dance personally. However I really enjoyed the music. We did a little shopping and a lot of walking. That night a room full of Welsh boys moved in next door to us and we hung out with them, just sitting and talking after dinner. The next morning we got up early to go on the backwaters tour. It was lovely. In the morning we went out on a huge houseboat fashioned to resemble a fish, and we had lunch on the boat, sampled local cuisine and went on tours of some islands. After lunch we went to a smaller boat, where we took canoes down narrow canals into the small villages. We stopped for tea at one end, then came back. It was pretty nice to be pushed down the water by a stick and to be waved at by smiling Indian children. It was also fun to know that just in that area, a great novel takes place. We were in Kerela, can you guess which one?
That night we caught the overnight train to Mangalore. From Mangalore we took a bus to a bus to Jog Falls. In between we almost stayed in a really crappy hotel and waited until morning to head to our destination, but we decided to move on, after quite a harrowing ordeal with the hotel. Jog Falls are the highest falls in India. We got in late at night, and stayed in an ENORMOUS hotel room with a great view of the falls. We were the only people there. In the morning we got up and hiked down. Even being low on water, the falls were beautiful. Not in the way that Niagra Falls staggers you with volume, more in the natural grace of the place. After getting cleaned up, we checked out of our hotel and headed for the bus stop. There we befriend some people from Gana. They were very friendly, and obsessed with my sunglasses. Next we made friends with an ex-yoga instructor from Chennai, who helped up catch the right bus to get to Gokarna.
Gokarna is a beautiful temple city. There we feasted on great food and saw beautiful temples and people. We went swimming at an almost empty beach. It was lovely. At dinner we made friends with a man from France, who works for a packaged food company in Bangalore. We walked all over and stumbled upon a quiet forest, where we disturbed some monkeys, sending us running. It was pretty funny.
Nikki and I parted ways at the bus station, she was heading for Hampi then Chennai and Thailand. I'm pretty sure her trip will be amazing.
I left Gokarna by bus and caught another bus, then another bus to get to Goa. It was a long trip by hot, crowded bus, though if I had found a way to go directly it would have only taken about 45 min. The bus to Goa took me all the way to Margao, then I took an auto back to Palolem. Usually I would have chosen a less crowded beach but because I was traveling on the off season I wanted to be ensured of running into other travelers. So I arrived in early evening, rented a beach hut ($4/ night) and went to the local bookstore. It is a beautiful little bookshop catering to the massive influx of westerners and has tons of info on India, novels that take place in India and various other random crap. I bought the Namesake, went next door and had CHICKEN TACOS AND A MARGARITA! It was so flipping good I couldn't begin to tell you. On that high I walked back towards my hut and noticed there was refrigerated diet coke in a can available! When I asked how much and they told me RS25 I basically died and went to heaven. I bought one and a Snickers and holed up in my room for some much needed Amanda-stays-up-all-night-with-a-book time. I took a nap around 5 am and got up at 8. I got a diet coke and laid on the beach and read until 10:30, when I got cleaned up, found internet, got a very unhealthy (see a pattern?) lunch of fries and a pineapple juice. Then I took a nap, got up, went to the beach to try and even out my TERRIBLE tan lines. I took another shower, took back The Namesake and got half off of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I went to the internet again, then went to dinner and had fries and butter chicken masala. I was having a rum and diet when six guys came in and started talking to me. I quickly made friends with them and literally stayed up to watch the sunrise from our soft chairs with a view of the beach. It. Was. Heaven. :)
More to come. I'm lazy with this whole blog thing, now that I'm not at Shanti Bhavan, sorry.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
On the Road (again)
When all the kids left Shanti Bhavan is was so strange. We all knew it was going to happen, but I don't think you can be quite prepared for it. I talked to their parents with the help of a translator, then I waved goodbye to them as they left on busses. :( We all ate thali for lunch then headed to whitefield for a luxurious swim and dinner excursion. That was lovely. Jayashree's family took great care of Nikki and I and even drove us to the train station. What a sweet bunch they are. Sitting at the station in the dark (the power was out) and leaning on my bags made me feel like I was on a real adventure. We took the train overnight to Cochin, which was really convenient. It was fun to order our breakfast at one station and have it arrive hot at the next one. Big fluffy rotis and a pea and potato curry was fun to eat.
More tomorrow, I'm in a lactic acid haze. :) Miss you all!
More tomorrow, I'm in a lactic acid haze. :) Miss you all!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Last week at Shanti Bhavan
Sunday morning all the volunteers and Veena went to Hosur and used the internet etc. I bought some fruit, got my stuff from the tailor, got a dvd and bought a head scarf to keep me from getting heat stroke. We went to Janani and had lunch in the air conditioned room, it was delightful. As soon as we got back I had to hurry and shower and get ready for the wedding reception. Ms Ruth's daughter got married to Chitra and she invited 25 people from Shanti Bhavan. Jacques, Arjun and I were the lucky volunteers to go. We've been here the longest I guess. It was nice, a great meal and music. The happy couple sat up on a stage on ornate chairs to receive congratulations. She looked like she was having a quinziniara or whatever. The decorations behind them were a huge yellow fabric with big daisies stapled to it and glittery letters which read "RICHARD WEDS CHITRA". Apparently the custom is for the mother of the son the pass out flowers to the guests and then we give them to the blushing bride. It was fun. The best part was definitely that we had both gulab jamun and ice cream with dinner!
On the way home there were ten students, three aunties, a teacher, a maintenance staff, me and a driver all on a van intended to seat twelve. It was really windy and there was a little lightning. So we just turned up the music really loud, and half the kids stood up and danced the whole way home. Everyone was squished together and people fell over constantly, generally onto people sitting on each other. It was so crazy. The idea of an overfilled vehicle blasting music flying down the highway with music blasting and people dancing in the US is completely incomprehensible.
55 students from Dr. George's journalism school came to see Shanti Bhavan. We had an extended assembly at which the children performed and all the journalism students introduced themselves. It was cool. After lunch most of them came to see my tap class. That was fun. I ended up spending more time teaching Nirmala and playing with the kids after we finished, and I was pretty wiped out. It was good that we had a full class after lunch because at around six the sky opened and the downpour was INTENSE. Nikki and I ran out in the rain. It was amazing.
I used most of my classes this week as vehicles to distribute candy and to get autographs from the kids. We still had choir and dance classes because I had the show on Thursday. This was made more interesting by the fact that I wore a sari or salwar kamiz every day. Indian clothes were not designed for ease of movement.
Nikki, Arjun, Tony and I went on a tour of Odapalli, Deveerapalli and Baldev Medical Center. It was really interesting. It was sad to see all the kids in little clothing and following us around, bored, but I can happily report that we saw no one who was really sick or deformed. I suppose that has a lot to do with the George Foundation. We visited some school and learned a little more what life is like in the small villages. The thing that struck me most was that most houses had cable television, but there were no plans for toilets or outhouse. There was no well. The government doesn't work very well here. At all.
Thursday after snack was my show. The KG and 1st grade did a dance to I Just Can't Wait to Be King from the Lion King. Then I got KG-2nd to shake their sillies out. It was adorable. Then the 2nd grade did a dance to Two Worlds from Tarzan. This dance was really cool. I think I'd like to teach it to kids who are just a little older and see how it goes. Then Nirmala had a group of kids dance to the Taxi Song from some Tamil movie. It was cute, the kids were all dressed like Michael Jackson. Then it was the fourth grade's turn. They did a puppet show which they wrote themselves. It culminated in them singing Oomplucka. Third grade did a dance to "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. It was cute, it had little vignettes about being friends. They were cute. There are a few tap steps in there and mostly little cutesy showy things. Then was Nirmala's dance for a second and third grader. Then the fifth grade did a dance to Life's a Dance by Garth Brooks. It was great. I combined a little modern with a line dance and they really hit it. They were really good and looked so cute in their home dress. Next was Beena's tap dance to Try Again by Aliyah. Then came the choir who sang one round mixed and a harder round in groups, then "Hey Jude". Nikki had a parade of all the masks the kids have made since she's been here. That was cool. Then it was the tap kids' turn. They did a dance to Trashin' the Camp from Tarzan. I was really proud of them. They've learned a lot. If they keep practicing most of them have a chance of being pretty good.
Friday the volunteers chipped in for a magician to come to the school. It was great. Jacques spent a huge amount of time getting it set up and the suspense built all day! The kids were so excited by the time they got to see the show. The guy did a great job. He did all the standard tricks with slight of hand and props, played games with the whole school and kept up a good patter. The kids LOVED it.
On the way home there were ten students, three aunties, a teacher, a maintenance staff, me and a driver all on a van intended to seat twelve. It was really windy and there was a little lightning. So we just turned up the music really loud, and half the kids stood up and danced the whole way home. Everyone was squished together and people fell over constantly, generally onto people sitting on each other. It was so crazy. The idea of an overfilled vehicle blasting music flying down the highway with music blasting and people dancing in the US is completely incomprehensible.
55 students from Dr. George's journalism school came to see Shanti Bhavan. We had an extended assembly at which the children performed and all the journalism students introduced themselves. It was cool. After lunch most of them came to see my tap class. That was fun. I ended up spending more time teaching Nirmala and playing with the kids after we finished, and I was pretty wiped out. It was good that we had a full class after lunch because at around six the sky opened and the downpour was INTENSE. Nikki and I ran out in the rain. It was amazing.
I used most of my classes this week as vehicles to distribute candy and to get autographs from the kids. We still had choir and dance classes because I had the show on Thursday. This was made more interesting by the fact that I wore a sari or salwar kamiz every day. Indian clothes were not designed for ease of movement.
Nikki, Arjun, Tony and I went on a tour of Odapalli, Deveerapalli and Baldev Medical Center. It was really interesting. It was sad to see all the kids in little clothing and following us around, bored, but I can happily report that we saw no one who was really sick or deformed. I suppose that has a lot to do with the George Foundation. We visited some school and learned a little more what life is like in the small villages. The thing that struck me most was that most houses had cable television, but there were no plans for toilets or outhouse. There was no well. The government doesn't work very well here. At all.
Thursday after snack was my show. The KG and 1st grade did a dance to I Just Can't Wait to Be King from the Lion King. Then I got KG-2nd to shake their sillies out. It was adorable. Then the 2nd grade did a dance to Two Worlds from Tarzan. This dance was really cool. I think I'd like to teach it to kids who are just a little older and see how it goes. Then Nirmala had a group of kids dance to the Taxi Song from some Tamil movie. It was cute, the kids were all dressed like Michael Jackson. Then it was the fourth grade's turn. They did a puppet show which they wrote themselves. It culminated in them singing Oomplucka. Third grade did a dance to "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. It was cute, it had little vignettes about being friends. They were cute. There are a few tap steps in there and mostly little cutesy showy things. Then was Nirmala's dance for a second and third grader. Then the fifth grade did a dance to Life's a Dance by Garth Brooks. It was great. I combined a little modern with a line dance and they really hit it. They were really good and looked so cute in their home dress. Next was Beena's tap dance to Try Again by Aliyah. Then came the choir who sang one round mixed and a harder round in groups, then "Hey Jude". Nikki had a parade of all the masks the kids have made since she's been here. That was cool. Then it was the tap kids' turn. They did a dance to Trashin' the Camp from Tarzan. I was really proud of them. They've learned a lot. If they keep practicing most of them have a chance of being pretty good.
Friday the volunteers chipped in for a magician to come to the school. It was great. Jacques spent a huge amount of time getting it set up and the suspense built all day! The kids were so excited by the time they got to see the show. The guy did a great job. He did all the standard tricks with slight of hand and props, played games with the whole school and kept up a good patter. The kids LOVED it.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
At long last
As I type this, I'm sitting in the fourth grade class room. Playing Eve 6 on my laptop and watching them complete their work. I'm actually amazed at their ability to work independently and quietly. You wouldn't believe it. At least not the difference between how they are now and how they were when I got here. Seriously. All I do is write their work on the board, sit down with a book or my laptop and let them go. I may have to define a word or clarify my handwriting, but that's about it. They are really good. They tried pushing around the new volunteer, but I gave her my full support, and today she's already giving out prizes.
This weekend is Easter weekend. It will be weird not to be at church. I'm really missing those little munchkins! I'm planning to take the bus to Bangalore with Nikki on Friday. We'll be home Saturday night, so we can celebrate Easter with our babies. I'm pretty excited about it. Nikki is a lot of fun. Last night we sat in the lounge laughing hysterically at silly add on stories and playing stupid camp games and singing stupid camp songs. Yesterday she sketched me sitting in a chair.
I henna-ed Nikki and my feet the other day. It was fun. I think she's going to henna a robotic foot onto my other foot soon. How cool is that? Almost as cool as driven, intelligent, sweet and talented children. Almost.
I started reading "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin today. It promises to be a fun read. I'm debating if I'll read "Stuart Little" or "The Last Unicorn" to the kids next. Or something else altogether. Hmm...
This weekend was so fun. Thursday we left right after lunch, the car was packed so tight that I had to sit on Nikki. There were three people in the front, four in the middle and two in the back with a massive amount of luggage. It wasn't too far though, only to Whitefield. There Arjun, Nikki, Jacques and I went to Jayashree's house. It was fun. She lives in a fabulous gated community that looks like it belongs more in Florida than India. We went to her club house to swim. It was great- there are five beautifully designed inter-connected pools. I felt so strange being in a bathing suit, not to mention seeing other people's skin. Seriously, it weirded me out. Then we ordered food from their entirely western menu, I had a BLT! So good! Then we went to Jayashree's sister's shop. It's a beautiful boutique. I bought a few presents there... I was relieved because there were a few people I was really struggling to buy something for.
After that Nikki and I caught a bus (all by ourselves, aren't you proud?) to Bangalore. It was really crowded, we got the last seat. By the end we got crammed in by tons of people, mostly women who were trying to get home from work. The brightly colored sea of salwar kamiz and saris was dizzying to look up at. It was so hot on the bus, and we were pretty tired after our busy day. We finally managed to get off the bus in Bangalore, but the traffic was so bad that we decided against trying to get to the hotel we planned to stay at, and just stayed at the first one we found. It ended up being a fun decision. We found a place for $10 with a clean bed, running water and HBO! Our room was full of lovely decorations: teal, white and gold leaf moulding, which towering over chipping tan paint coated in mud, which was above fake marble tiles that went about six feet high. On our wall was hung a poster which said "It is buxomnessof nature supports up man not "COMPUTER" " Really. We laughed endlessly about that. After we ditched our stuff we went out in search of provisions and felt very travel-capable, buying treats, getting water, etc navigating in a foreign city where people don't speak English. When we got back we had a little picnic, watched tv, and passed out.
We woke up in the morning and watched that movie with Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Cameron Diaz about trading houses. That was fun. Then we checked out and took an auto to commercial street and found our hotel. We checked in there and headed out for coffee. One machiatto and muffin later, I felt ready to face the day in the hot neon city of Bangalore. We met up with one of the teachers, Veena and had a day of fantastic girly shopping. I bought a bathing suit, which I needed, and Nikki and I bought some beautiful Indian outfits and Veena bought some clothes. We went to an amazing lunch. It was at this great restaurant called Three Quarters Chinese. It was an Indian-Chinese fusion restaurant, that really hit the spot. I loaded up on chicken and desert, especially watermelon. That was fun. Veena and I got our hair cut. I was a nervous wreck, don't ask me why, they did a great job. We ran into Elizabeth and Jack while we were wandering around shopping. Veena left to meet her friends and we set a time to meet Jack and Liz for drinks. So Nikki and I went back, got cleaned up and met them at their hotel. We went to a place called Fuga, where we each had one EXCELLENT cocktail, but since the drinks were a little pricey and no one was there, we decided to look for this place called NASA, where the inside is supposed to look like a rocket. In asking for directions, we a acquired a guide, Lucky Khan. He is a photographer from Bangalore. We offered to buy him a drink, and he ended up staying. We drank pitchers of Kingfisher, laughed and ate fries. Suddenly it was time for Elizabeth to go, and Jack took her to the airport. Since Nikki and I hadn't had dinner, we took Lucky's suggestion on a restaurant and ended up eating at an extremely non-touristy restaurant on the top of a building with a tree growing on the roof! It was amazing, open air and delicious.
The next morning we got up, bought blue cheese, ritz crackers and grapes and had them for breakfast- divine. We had a little picnic in the social area of our hotel. It was really funny. Then we found internet via wandering into serious non-tourist area and asking a rickshaw. It was kind of funny to be in the middle of non-tourist Bangalore, but it was really frustrating because the connection sucked, there were no USB ports and we didn't get much done. We went to the train station and bought train tickets for our trip to Cochin and Jog Falls. That's kind of cool. We only have to get ourselves to Whitefield the night the kids leave to get on the train. Should be fine.
After booking our tickets we got some lunch and caught a bus to Hosur (we're so proud of ourselves) and then we took an auto to Shanti Bhavan. I felt like a regular navigator.
Monday I had tap class. It was fun to play with the kids. Beena came, and she was really fun to have in class because she'd never done most of the stuff the other kids do.
Tuesday during choir we did all sorts of rounds. The choir really needs work on blending and intonation. Especially with all the fourth graders I added to the choir.
Wednesday during choir I let the kids watch parts of Sister Act I and II (just the singing parts). After watching that, they sang really well.
We're reading Stuart Little in class. It's really fun. The kids are learning a lot from it I think. They really need more time spent on reading. Just quiet reading and reading out loud will make a big difference I think.
Last night we watched a movie with Brad Pitt about the IRA, it was good. I'm a little under the weather though. I am taking Sudafed and Ibuprofen just to stay afloat. Nonetheless, I'm having fun.
This week I read Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury this week. I'm going to read Sense and Sensability over the next couple days. I don't know if we're going to read The Indian in the Cupboard, Labyrinth or something else entirely next. I haven't decided.
I burnt my popcorn this afternoon. Every time I turn my head I can smell it. It was the only popcorn I've bought since I've been here. I hate the smell of burnt popcorn. Ugh.
Ugh. They cut all the girl's hair today. It looks so bad.
Yesterday a three young women came to visit. One of those was a girl who graduated a year after me from Solon. Apparently she came to Shanti Bhavan a few years ago and was bringing her friends for a visit. It was all kinds of weird. She recognized me, but I hadn't the slightest idea, until she mentioned her sister, who graduated with me, and was in most of my AP's.
I was weirded out about it all day. Before dinner Nikki and I thought we were supposed to meet Nirmala, but she wasn't there. Instead there was a big group of children looking for her. Since we didn't find her, Nikki opened the art room and we ended up playing. It was amazing. The kids were being so creative. They were using objects props, drawing on chalk boards, playing together and laughing. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. After dinner we tried to practice for dance Nirmala wants us to learn, but most of us were not really into it, and I for one didn't do anything but laugh until I cried.
Saturday was fun. I slept in and went to watch a movie in Hindi with the third through fifth graders. Then I went through my belongings to sort between what I'm keeping, what I'm taking on my trip and what I'm giving to Shanti Bhavan. I talked to my mom, it's her birthday. She's going to the Melting Pot. What I wouldn't do for fresh vegetables and cheese. Mmmmm.
This weekend is Easter weekend. It will be weird not to be at church. I'm really missing those little munchkins! I'm planning to take the bus to Bangalore with Nikki on Friday. We'll be home Saturday night, so we can celebrate Easter with our babies. I'm pretty excited about it. Nikki is a lot of fun. Last night we sat in the lounge laughing hysterically at silly add on stories and playing stupid camp games and singing stupid camp songs. Yesterday she sketched me sitting in a chair.
I henna-ed Nikki and my feet the other day. It was fun. I think she's going to henna a robotic foot onto my other foot soon. How cool is that? Almost as cool as driven, intelligent, sweet and talented children. Almost.
I started reading "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin today. It promises to be a fun read. I'm debating if I'll read "Stuart Little" or "The Last Unicorn" to the kids next. Or something else altogether. Hmm...
This weekend was so fun. Thursday we left right after lunch, the car was packed so tight that I had to sit on Nikki. There were three people in the front, four in the middle and two in the back with a massive amount of luggage. It wasn't too far though, only to Whitefield. There Arjun, Nikki, Jacques and I went to Jayashree's house. It was fun. She lives in a fabulous gated community that looks like it belongs more in Florida than India. We went to her club house to swim. It was great- there are five beautifully designed inter-connected pools. I felt so strange being in a bathing suit, not to mention seeing other people's skin. Seriously, it weirded me out. Then we ordered food from their entirely western menu, I had a BLT! So good! Then we went to Jayashree's sister's shop. It's a beautiful boutique. I bought a few presents there... I was relieved because there were a few people I was really struggling to buy something for.
After that Nikki and I caught a bus (all by ourselves, aren't you proud?) to Bangalore. It was really crowded, we got the last seat. By the end we got crammed in by tons of people, mostly women who were trying to get home from work. The brightly colored sea of salwar kamiz and saris was dizzying to look up at. It was so hot on the bus, and we were pretty tired after our busy day. We finally managed to get off the bus in Bangalore, but the traffic was so bad that we decided against trying to get to the hotel we planned to stay at, and just stayed at the first one we found. It ended up being a fun decision. We found a place for $10 with a clean bed, running water and HBO! Our room was full of lovely decorations: teal, white and gold leaf moulding, which towering over chipping tan paint coated in mud, which was above fake marble tiles that went about six feet high. On our wall was hung a poster which said "It is buxomnessof nature supports up man not "COMPUTER" " Really. We laughed endlessly about that. After we ditched our stuff we went out in search of provisions and felt very travel-capable, buying treats, getting water, etc navigating in a foreign city where people don't speak English. When we got back we had a little picnic, watched tv, and passed out.
We woke up in the morning and watched that movie with Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Cameron Diaz about trading houses. That was fun. Then we checked out and took an auto to commercial street and found our hotel. We checked in there and headed out for coffee. One machiatto and muffin later, I felt ready to face the day in the hot neon city of Bangalore. We met up with one of the teachers, Veena and had a day of fantastic girly shopping. I bought a bathing suit, which I needed, and Nikki and I bought some beautiful Indian outfits and Veena bought some clothes. We went to an amazing lunch. It was at this great restaurant called Three Quarters Chinese. It was an Indian-Chinese fusion restaurant, that really hit the spot. I loaded up on chicken and desert, especially watermelon. That was fun. Veena and I got our hair cut. I was a nervous wreck, don't ask me why, they did a great job. We ran into Elizabeth and Jack while we were wandering around shopping. Veena left to meet her friends and we set a time to meet Jack and Liz for drinks. So Nikki and I went back, got cleaned up and met them at their hotel. We went to a place called Fuga, where we each had one EXCELLENT cocktail, but since the drinks were a little pricey and no one was there, we decided to look for this place called NASA, where the inside is supposed to look like a rocket. In asking for directions, we a acquired a guide, Lucky Khan. He is a photographer from Bangalore. We offered to buy him a drink, and he ended up staying. We drank pitchers of Kingfisher, laughed and ate fries. Suddenly it was time for Elizabeth to go, and Jack took her to the airport. Since Nikki and I hadn't had dinner, we took Lucky's suggestion on a restaurant and ended up eating at an extremely non-touristy restaurant on the top of a building with a tree growing on the roof! It was amazing, open air and delicious.
The next morning we got up, bought blue cheese, ritz crackers and grapes and had them for breakfast- divine. We had a little picnic in the social area of our hotel. It was really funny. Then we found internet via wandering into serious non-tourist area and asking a rickshaw. It was kind of funny to be in the middle of non-tourist Bangalore, but it was really frustrating because the connection sucked, there were no USB ports and we didn't get much done. We went to the train station and bought train tickets for our trip to Cochin and Jog Falls. That's kind of cool. We only have to get ourselves to Whitefield the night the kids leave to get on the train. Should be fine.
After booking our tickets we got some lunch and caught a bus to Hosur (we're so proud of ourselves) and then we took an auto to Shanti Bhavan. I felt like a regular navigator.
Monday I had tap class. It was fun to play with the kids. Beena came, and she was really fun to have in class because she'd never done most of the stuff the other kids do.
Tuesday during choir we did all sorts of rounds. The choir really needs work on blending and intonation. Especially with all the fourth graders I added to the choir.
Wednesday during choir I let the kids watch parts of Sister Act I and II (just the singing parts). After watching that, they sang really well.
We're reading Stuart Little in class. It's really fun. The kids are learning a lot from it I think. They really need more time spent on reading. Just quiet reading and reading out loud will make a big difference I think.
Last night we watched a movie with Brad Pitt about the IRA, it was good. I'm a little under the weather though. I am taking Sudafed and Ibuprofen just to stay afloat. Nonetheless, I'm having fun.
This week I read Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury this week. I'm going to read Sense and Sensability over the next couple days. I don't know if we're going to read The Indian in the Cupboard, Labyrinth or something else entirely next. I haven't decided.
I burnt my popcorn this afternoon. Every time I turn my head I can smell it. It was the only popcorn I've bought since I've been here. I hate the smell of burnt popcorn. Ugh.
Ugh. They cut all the girl's hair today. It looks so bad.
Yesterday a three young women came to visit. One of those was a girl who graduated a year after me from Solon. Apparently she came to Shanti Bhavan a few years ago and was bringing her friends for a visit. It was all kinds of weird. She recognized me, but I hadn't the slightest idea, until she mentioned her sister, who graduated with me, and was in most of my AP's.
I was weirded out about it all day. Before dinner Nikki and I thought we were supposed to meet Nirmala, but she wasn't there. Instead there was a big group of children looking for her. Since we didn't find her, Nikki opened the art room and we ended up playing. It was amazing. The kids were being so creative. They were using objects props, drawing on chalk boards, playing together and laughing. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. After dinner we tried to practice for dance Nirmala wants us to learn, but most of us were not really into it, and I for one didn't do anything but laugh until I cried.
Saturday was fun. I slept in and went to watch a movie in Hindi with the third through fifth graders. Then I went through my belongings to sort between what I'm keeping, what I'm taking on my trip and what I'm giving to Shanti Bhavan. I talked to my mom, it's her birthday. She's going to the Melting Pot. What I wouldn't do for fresh vegetables and cheese. Mmmmm.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Whatever we want time
Hosur was fun. Nikki, Molly and I took an auto into town. We internet-ed, sari shopped, fruit shopped, unsuccessfully looked for a tailor, grocery shopped and ate lunch. Then we headed back to S.B. We weren't gone for long and it was nice to be so efficient. The town was decorated for some holiday. They had erected decorative ceilings for the roads and they were cool. Huge white thatched banners featuring brightly colored symbols of peace and love. I've grown accustomed to seeing the swastika everywhere. I have to say, my favorite was the swastika circumscribed by the star of David on the side of one of the huts at our hotel in Hampi. Neither of those symbols mean the same thing here.
After we got back I broke open the box of fruit loops (!!!) I bought and ate them until my tongue bled. I watched a little Tamil TV, what I like to think of as TamirVision, with Nirmala. Then I went in my room and just read and slept from afternoon until morning. I needed the break from people.
Sunday was nice. No one was around, since almost everyone else went to Bangalore. I went to breakfast, read, relaxed, danced with Nirmala and Nikki and generally enjoyed my holiday.
I'm pretty pumped to get my stuff together for my trip. I've settled on going to Kochin, Jog Falls, Goa, Yoga Study, Mumbai, Bangalore, Dance Study, Shanti Bhavan, Bangalore, London and NYC!!!!! It's a pretty laid back itinerary. Generally I get up in the morning and take a bus where I'm going or I take an overnight train where I'm going. I will have, except for the first week, mostly several days in one place. I'm planning to go to Kochin for two days, Jog Falls overnight, then get to Goa and play on the beaches until my Yoga study starts there. After my yoga intensive I'll train up to Mumbai. I want to do a ton of touristy stuff there. I plan to stay for five days. Then I'll train to Bangalore, where I'm planning a study of Bharatanatyum dance. Then I'll go back to Shanti Bhavan for a week and fly to London. I won't see the Taj Mahal, but I also won't be too stressed out and I'll get to do a lot of what I came here to do.
There's a new volunteer named Nicky. She's really cool. She's 20, from London and she's studying visual art.
Monday brought an impromptu performance for "important" visitors. The visitors turned out to be Siva Something-or-other, inventor of email and proud recipient of four MIT degrees, and his wife a model-turned-classic-Indian-dancer. He's currently working on integrating classical Indian medicine and Western medicine. After our performance, at which the choir sang a song in Tamil, Memory from Cats and Hey Jude by the Beetles, the KG performed Rubber Ducky and the fourth and sixth grades did a dance; the guy gave a great speech, but offended our British volunteer by calling Memory and Hey Jude 'American' songs. His wife said she plans to return to teach dance workshops at the school.
In the KG class I started teaching them a dance to "I Just Can't Wait to be King." It's going to be cute. I'm trying to encourage them to move creatively, by telling them things like "the next step is to fly like a parrot." I think it's more important to foster a comfort in their own skins and a sense of rhythm than to give them perfect form. My tap class is doing so well. They're really learning quickly. I am constantly surprised at how good at learning dances these kids are. In fact, the children who seem slow to me, are probably actually still better than average. There are two kids in my tap class I keep getting frustrated by because their tap sounds aren't clear and I have to explain a step five or six times for them to learn it. In the real world that still put them way ahead of the learning curve. It's just hard to remember when you're surrounded by so much talent.
I was both excited to finally have my own space and really sad about Elizabeth leaving. She really helped me, we got along great, I learned a lot by watching her journey, but I think it was both time for her to get back to her life and time for me to try out what I've learned on my own.
Tuesday was Elizabeth's last day. While the fourth grade and I played denial, I spent most of my day trying to make sure Elizabeth knew how much everyone came to love her here at Shanti Bhavan. I got some really cute videos of the kids saying they love her. I taught the first grade some of their part of "I Just Can't Wait to be King". They're so cute and funny.
At assembly Elizabeth and Jack performed some songs. Elizabeth sang a song to the kids about them being in her heart, then they sang a song Jack wrote the music for after a tenth grader gave him a poem to work with. Then they sang a song Jack wrote about two lizards and an enormous spider living in his bedroom. The kids loved it. Arjun, Molly, Tony and Joe rapped while Steve beat boxed and Jack played a baseline. It was so funny. The Shanti Bhavan rap was a big hit for novelty and enthusiasm if not for perfection. I say Shanti you say Bhavan. Shanti. BHAVAN. Shanti. BHAVAN. Doctor. GEORGE. Doctor. GEORGE. Mrs. LAW. Mrs. LAW. Then we sang "Whatever You Want Time" which Jack and Steve wrote right after the last volunteer show. We'd been singing it the lounge quite often and eventually ended up all writing our own verses. We all sang on the repetitious parts in harmony. It's quite cute. It went something like this:
(Jack)
It's not time for P.T.
It's not time for drinking tea
It's just time for being me
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Nikki)
It's not time for working
It's not time for playing
It's not time for sitting 'round in one place
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Steve)
It's not time for poetry
It's not time for those pesky short stories
It's just time to (...)
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Elizabeth)
It's not time for sleeping
It's not time for weeping
It's just time to sing my blues away
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Joe harmonica solo)
(Amanda)
It's not time to teach math
and it's not time to have a bath
it's sure not time for writing lots of stuff on the board
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Arjun)
It's not time for music
It's not time for bruisin'
It's not time for chemistry, gasses and all-a-that jazz
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Jacques)
It's not time for Janani
It's not time for triple five chick-y
It's just time for balls of ragi
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Jack and Steve guitar solo)
(Elizabeth)
Now it's time for leavin'
and I'll soon be grievin'
but for now (...)
It's whatever I want time, whatever we want time
(All)
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
And we can do whatever we want
I went to P.T. to spend some time with the kids and actually ended up watching the fourth and fifth grade boys play basket ball. It was so cute and funny. They all wanted to impress me. After about twenty minutes I went up to sit on our sunset rocks, write in my journal, watch the kids and read my book. I finished reading A Language Older Than Words, which Kleveland lent me before I came here. I taught the choir a round called Zum Gulli Gulli. It's a traditional Hebrew song. It's a great teaching round.
Wednesday was my first day back to "taking fully the fourth grade." I taught 2nd grade beginning of "Two Worlds", Taught third grade beginning of "You've Got a Friend in Me" it's sweet, they're doing little vignettes in front of the dance. I ended up staying up really late my first night alone. I couldn't sleep. I was restless. Stuff was strewn about the room in a chaotic manner left over over from the shock of half of the room's occupants leaving. I sorted through clothes. I made a pile of outfits. I started to pack my back pack for my travels. I put souvenirs in my suitcase that will stay at Shanti Bhavan while I'm away. I'm already feeling emotional about it. I watched The Last Unicorn twice and started Spirit before I finally got sleepy enough to fall asleep.
Thursday Kleveland's package arrived. A neighboring village was having a chariot festival and one of the maintenance crew took some of us volunteers. It was so cool. We arrived and the whole village was out, throwing bananas at the top of this enormous stone chariot, decorated in colorful fabric soaring 40 feet into the air and sporting a statue of some Hindu deity. After trying to hit the top of it with our bananas, we went to a local temple to be personally blessed. They did a special service just for us, including our names and blessing us with garlands. Well, blessing the boys with garlands, they handed the garlands to us girls, if they had put them on us, they'd have been marrying us. The priest also wouldn't touch us to put dots on our foreheads, whereas in most major cities they did. It was really cool, we were blessed with coconut water, flame, ringing bells, rice and chandan (the dots). The village leader made a speech about Dr. George "He is very helping my village." We were invited back to his house, where they fed us popol, yummy crunchy deep fried bread, SomethingIdidn'tcatchthenameof, a bread filled with sweet crumbly goodness, and Pakora, deep fried vegetables.
When we got back I watched the Ramayana in Hindi with the fourth grade. It was funny because they were so amused by what I looked like. That evening we had an end of tenth grade exams party. It was really fun. We danced and laughed and ate western food. The kids had their first cokes. It was so funny to watch! I made the mistake of having diet coke AND green tea close to bed time. I stayed up all night watching Top Chef.
Reading "The Giver" to the fourth grade is really great, we'll finish it Tuesday, no doubt. The kids are really getting into the library books I picked out for them. The turn over rate on those books is getting better. I think they're starting to realize how cool a good story can be.
On Thursday I had fourth grade for theatre games, we selected puppets, learned about characterization and the basic hand movement for puppet. In choir we did "Zum Gali Gali" in three sections, "One Bottle of Pop" starting on different sections, learned "The Goose Round" and did exercises on listening and singing as a choir as a whole. We did "Hey Jude" standing in a circle holding hands with our eyes closed singing quietly as possible. It really worked.
Friday I finished Top Chef between classes and started Three Cups of Tea during quiet work during class. We started writing the plot of our fourth grade puppet show. I started teaching the fifth grade a lyrical/ line dance piece to "Life's a Dance". (thanks Kleveland) The CD is great. That care package was like a little shot in the arm of home. It's working wonders.
After we got back I broke open the box of fruit loops (!!!) I bought and ate them until my tongue bled. I watched a little Tamil TV, what I like to think of as TamirVision, with Nirmala. Then I went in my room and just read and slept from afternoon until morning. I needed the break from people.
Sunday was nice. No one was around, since almost everyone else went to Bangalore. I went to breakfast, read, relaxed, danced with Nirmala and Nikki and generally enjoyed my holiday.
I'm pretty pumped to get my stuff together for my trip. I've settled on going to Kochin, Jog Falls, Goa, Yoga Study, Mumbai, Bangalore, Dance Study, Shanti Bhavan, Bangalore, London and NYC!!!!! It's a pretty laid back itinerary. Generally I get up in the morning and take a bus where I'm going or I take an overnight train where I'm going. I will have, except for the first week, mostly several days in one place. I'm planning to go to Kochin for two days, Jog Falls overnight, then get to Goa and play on the beaches until my Yoga study starts there. After my yoga intensive I'll train up to Mumbai. I want to do a ton of touristy stuff there. I plan to stay for five days. Then I'll train to Bangalore, where I'm planning a study of Bharatanatyum dance. Then I'll go back to Shanti Bhavan for a week and fly to London. I won't see the Taj Mahal, but I also won't be too stressed out and I'll get to do a lot of what I came here to do.
There's a new volunteer named Nicky. She's really cool. She's 20, from London and she's studying visual art.
Monday brought an impromptu performance for "important" visitors. The visitors turned out to be Siva Something-or-other, inventor of email and proud recipient of four MIT degrees, and his wife a model-turned-classic-Indian-dancer. He's currently working on integrating classical Indian medicine and Western medicine. After our performance, at which the choir sang a song in Tamil, Memory from Cats and Hey Jude by the Beetles, the KG performed Rubber Ducky and the fourth and sixth grades did a dance; the guy gave a great speech, but offended our British volunteer by calling Memory and Hey Jude 'American' songs. His wife said she plans to return to teach dance workshops at the school.
In the KG class I started teaching them a dance to "I Just Can't Wait to be King." It's going to be cute. I'm trying to encourage them to move creatively, by telling them things like "the next step is to fly like a parrot." I think it's more important to foster a comfort in their own skins and a sense of rhythm than to give them perfect form. My tap class is doing so well. They're really learning quickly. I am constantly surprised at how good at learning dances these kids are. In fact, the children who seem slow to me, are probably actually still better than average. There are two kids in my tap class I keep getting frustrated by because their tap sounds aren't clear and I have to explain a step five or six times for them to learn it. In the real world that still put them way ahead of the learning curve. It's just hard to remember when you're surrounded by so much talent.
I was both excited to finally have my own space and really sad about Elizabeth leaving. She really helped me, we got along great, I learned a lot by watching her journey, but I think it was both time for her to get back to her life and time for me to try out what I've learned on my own.
Tuesday was Elizabeth's last day. While the fourth grade and I played denial, I spent most of my day trying to make sure Elizabeth knew how much everyone came to love her here at Shanti Bhavan. I got some really cute videos of the kids saying they love her. I taught the first grade some of their part of "I Just Can't Wait to be King". They're so cute and funny.
At assembly Elizabeth and Jack performed some songs. Elizabeth sang a song to the kids about them being in her heart, then they sang a song Jack wrote the music for after a tenth grader gave him a poem to work with. Then they sang a song Jack wrote about two lizards and an enormous spider living in his bedroom. The kids loved it. Arjun, Molly, Tony and Joe rapped while Steve beat boxed and Jack played a baseline. It was so funny. The Shanti Bhavan rap was a big hit for novelty and enthusiasm if not for perfection. I say Shanti you say Bhavan. Shanti. BHAVAN. Shanti. BHAVAN. Doctor. GEORGE. Doctor. GEORGE. Mrs. LAW. Mrs. LAW. Then we sang "Whatever You Want Time" which Jack and Steve wrote right after the last volunteer show. We'd been singing it the lounge quite often and eventually ended up all writing our own verses. We all sang on the repetitious parts in harmony. It's quite cute. It went something like this:
(Jack)
It's not time for P.T.
It's not time for drinking tea
It's just time for being me
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Nikki)
It's not time for working
It's not time for playing
It's not time for sitting 'round in one place
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Steve)
It's not time for poetry
It's not time for those pesky short stories
It's just time to (...)
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Elizabeth)
It's not time for sleeping
It's not time for weeping
It's just time to sing my blues away
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Joe harmonica solo)
(Amanda)
It's not time to teach math
and it's not time to have a bath
it's sure not time for writing lots of stuff on the board
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Arjun)
It's not time for music
It's not time for bruisin'
It's not time for chemistry, gasses and all-a-that jazz
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Jacques)
It's not time for Janani
It's not time for triple five chick-y
It's just time for balls of ragi
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
(Jack and Steve guitar solo)
(Elizabeth)
Now it's time for leavin'
and I'll soon be grievin'
but for now (...)
It's whatever I want time, whatever we want time
(All)
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
It's whatever we want time, whatever we want time
And we can do whatever we want
I went to P.T. to spend some time with the kids and actually ended up watching the fourth and fifth grade boys play basket ball. It was so cute and funny. They all wanted to impress me. After about twenty minutes I went up to sit on our sunset rocks, write in my journal, watch the kids and read my book. I finished reading A Language Older Than Words, which Kleveland lent me before I came here. I taught the choir a round called Zum Gulli Gulli. It's a traditional Hebrew song. It's a great teaching round.
Wednesday was my first day back to "taking fully the fourth grade." I taught 2nd grade beginning of "Two Worlds", Taught third grade beginning of "You've Got a Friend in Me" it's sweet, they're doing little vignettes in front of the dance. I ended up staying up really late my first night alone. I couldn't sleep. I was restless. Stuff was strewn about the room in a chaotic manner left over over from the shock of half of the room's occupants leaving. I sorted through clothes. I made a pile of outfits. I started to pack my back pack for my travels. I put souvenirs in my suitcase that will stay at Shanti Bhavan while I'm away. I'm already feeling emotional about it. I watched The Last Unicorn twice and started Spirit before I finally got sleepy enough to fall asleep.
Thursday Kleveland's package arrived. A neighboring village was having a chariot festival and one of the maintenance crew took some of us volunteers. It was so cool. We arrived and the whole village was out, throwing bananas at the top of this enormous stone chariot, decorated in colorful fabric soaring 40 feet into the air and sporting a statue of some Hindu deity. After trying to hit the top of it with our bananas, we went to a local temple to be personally blessed. They did a special service just for us, including our names and blessing us with garlands. Well, blessing the boys with garlands, they handed the garlands to us girls, if they had put them on us, they'd have been marrying us. The priest also wouldn't touch us to put dots on our foreheads, whereas in most major cities they did. It was really cool, we were blessed with coconut water, flame, ringing bells, rice and chandan (the dots). The village leader made a speech about Dr. George "He is very helping my village." We were invited back to his house, where they fed us popol, yummy crunchy deep fried bread, SomethingIdidn'tcatchthenameof, a bread filled with sweet crumbly goodness, and Pakora, deep fried vegetables.
When we got back I watched the Ramayana in Hindi with the fourth grade. It was funny because they were so amused by what I looked like. That evening we had an end of tenth grade exams party. It was really fun. We danced and laughed and ate western food. The kids had their first cokes. It was so funny to watch! I made the mistake of having diet coke AND green tea close to bed time. I stayed up all night watching Top Chef.
Reading "The Giver" to the fourth grade is really great, we'll finish it Tuesday, no doubt. The kids are really getting into the library books I picked out for them. The turn over rate on those books is getting better. I think they're starting to realize how cool a good story can be.
On Thursday I had fourth grade for theatre games, we selected puppets, learned about characterization and the basic hand movement for puppet. In choir we did "Zum Gali Gali" in three sections, "One Bottle of Pop" starting on different sections, learned "The Goose Round" and did exercises on listening and singing as a choir as a whole. We did "Hey Jude" standing in a circle holding hands with our eyes closed singing quietly as possible. It really worked.
Friday I finished Top Chef between classes and started Three Cups of Tea during quiet work during class. We started writing the plot of our fourth grade puppet show. I started teaching the fifth grade a lyrical/ line dance piece to "Life's a Dance". (thanks Kleveland) The CD is great. That care package was like a little shot in the arm of home. It's working wonders.
Friday, March 27, 2009
How I Felt About the Volunteer Show by S. Yeshwini
How I Felt About the Volunteer's Show by Yeshwini 4th Grade
When we started the program I felt happy, excited and anxious. When Miss Amanda and Michelle started the song "Baby Shark" I saw the happiness in my friends' eyes and my heart filled with joy. Tony and Michelle danced like Indians. Even though it was Tony's first year dancing he was wonderful. He was bit nervous but he made the crowd fill with laughter. He was like a new actor in India.
Next Arjun was on the piano. When he played the piano. It was peaceful and melodious. I thought Shanti Bhavan was in heaven. For me Arjun was a star. It was a bit long. Arjun was rock piano player with his bushy black hair. He was wonderful.
When It was Barry's martial arts, the room filled with silence. It was something that was amazing. When Barry did it, it was good because he was flexible, concentrating on what he was doing. There was lot of hard work in it. When the guitar song named "Hey Jude" was going on I felt I wanted to dance. They sang so nicely.
When Liz, Amanda and Michelle sang I felt like crying. It made me dream about them.
The last dane was my favorite. It was like real Indians dancing. I loved the program. THE END
When we started the program I felt happy, excited and anxious. When Miss Amanda and Michelle started the song "Baby Shark" I saw the happiness in my friends' eyes and my heart filled with joy. Tony and Michelle danced like Indians. Even though it was Tony's first year dancing he was wonderful. He was bit nervous but he made the crowd fill with laughter. He was like a new actor in India.
Next Arjun was on the piano. When he played the piano. It was peaceful and melodious. I thought Shanti Bhavan was in heaven. For me Arjun was a star. It was a bit long. Arjun was rock piano player with his bushy black hair. He was wonderful.
When It was Barry's martial arts, the room filled with silence. It was something that was amazing. When Barry did it, it was good because he was flexible, concentrating on what he was doing. There was lot of hard work in it. When the guitar song named "Hey Jude" was going on I felt I wanted to dance. They sang so nicely.
When Liz, Amanda and Michelle sang I felt like crying. It made me dream about them.
The last dane was my favorite. It was like real Indians dancing. I loved the program. THE END
Periyar Wildlife Reserve, Billy Elliot Show
We went to Madurai and Periyar Wildlife Reserve last weekend. It was quite fun. We saw the amazing Meenakshmi Temple (which is really like a huge maze of temples surrounded by towering gates with thousands of brightly colored god statues). We rode the government bus up a treacherous mountain with hair pin turns and six inch curbs separating us from cliffs to Koomily, where we rode in the back of a WW2 style jeep to Thekkady. Thekkady is the home of Periyar Tiger Reserve. We went on a nature hike in the morning. We saw an Indian Giant Squirrel, amazing red bugs, monkeys, deer, buffalo, cows, tons of birds and a whole lot of elephant poop. Unfortunately no tigers. We rode on elephants, took a tour of a spice plantation and rode a boat through the park. It was a lovely trip. Perhaps I will spend more time elaborating on it some time in the future.
There is so much work to do this week because we have the show this weekend. Amirin White won the Sony award for photography based on a photo she took of the children. She's coming back to take photos of this show. Yeah!
Today I started tap classes for ten children I selected. I also recommended five children to start learning piano. I'm pretty excited for them. I think I'm going to teach specific things to each grade, and as much as possible give the children something to practice to help them express themselves. So many of them need something to pour themselves into so they can deal with what they experience in life at home.
I gave the fourth grade a logic problem and they loved it. I taught tap to my special tap class day, and to Beena. I was really happy with both of them. I'm having Beena dance to that Aliyah song "Try Again". The other kids will dance to "Trashin' the Camp" from Tarzan. Oh Ohio Northerners.
I think I want to talk to education departments about sending people here for study abroad/ student teaching. I think it could be great for both parties.
I think I'm spending a day in Bangalore this weekend. I'm getting tired of travel. I really want to spend more time here at Shanti Bhavan. Blah. At least I'll have wireless. And I can eat a burger. And go swimming if I find a bathing suit. Or something to swim in. Besides, maybe I can find a better tailor there.
We spent the evening in the lounge with Steve and Jack playing guitars. They would pick a chord progression then we'd all try to make up verses and lyrics. It was lots of good fun that is funny.
I wore my pink peacock sari Wednesday because a teacher who never wears them said she would if I did. It was fun because I tied it myself. I'm starting to get better at it, but it's something that makes me feel extremely childish because I don't know how to dress myself well. I went to first period with wet hair in my sari and one of the children said "Miss, your dress is so beautiful, but you are looking so dull." I asked why and they told me "Miss you must be putting earrings and dark eyes and lipstick. And your hairs!" So, in a huff I went back to my room, put on dark eyeliner with cat's eyes and full make up. I put on a special necklace I made here and I added earrings. When I came back in the room the children FLIPPED. It was awesome. I felt so pretty all day. We watched Glory. Great movie.
We watched Blazing Saddles in the lounge last night. Haha. What a funny movie.
I'm not going to Bangalore. Instead of going along I decided to stay back. I'm just not in the mood. A burger can wait two more months. Last night my arm fell so completely asleep that I couldn't find my hand. Moment of terror.
At assembly Amiran White (that amazing photographer who's been here a couple times and won the Sony photo award for a picture she took here, www.amiranphoto.com) showed a slide show of a tiny fraction of the photos she's taken here. She's simply amazing. Lovely photos. I can't wait to have some real internet time to see what is on her website. I can tell you from personal experience that she is not only a great artist, but humble and cool. The kids liked the slide show. When a photo came up they'd yell the name of the person in it or they'd say oooooaaaaaaaaooooooaaaaaahhhh! if there was an action shot. Thirty minutes of Blue Jaaaaaay!! Aneethaaaa!!! was funny.
Last night's show was so great! The kids were incredibly excited all day. The excitement grew and grew until I started to worry about the level of their nervous energy. "Miss, I'm feeling nervous." "Miss, what do we wear tonight?" "Miss, Aunty said pink frocks are too short." "Miss, what if we mess up?" I tried to be encouraging and supportive. I told the second grade who seemed to be really worried that if they messed up I'd say that was a practice and let them try again. That seemed to calm them down a little. They were so excited though. Every kid was extremely proud of what they were going to do. I felt a little bad because the third grade did art projects, which were cool and decorated the stage, but they kept saying "Miss what do we do?" During the show I made a HUGE deal about the third grade.
I put little shiny bindis on all the little girls. They were wearing pink dresses and looked adorable. Apparently the dresses are from the inauguration of the school. Can you believe it? For warm up music I played all the songs the kids danced to with Sheryl and I. That was so fun. The kids were bopping around. Then Joe did the wave and I sang "The Princess Pat" with the school. The kindergarden was wonderful in their renditions of "Five Little Ducks" and "Rubber Ducky." They were so cute and at the end they all turned around, shook their tail feathers and quacked. The school went wild. The first grade played the mirror game to "A Whole New World" and then made bicycles out of their bodies. To introduce the show the spelled "Billy" out by standing in the shape of the letters. They did a really good job. Second grade danced to "Shine Ballet" from Billy Elliot. One of the older girls, Brinda, played the piano. One of the little boys, Dinesh, pretended to be the bossy class teacher and told the kids what to do as they danced. When he said "Alright, I'm sick of looking at you, class disperse." The whole audience lost it. Then came my length laudatory speech about the third graders. I made them answer questions and had them take a bow. Then the choir sang a snippet from one of the songs from Billy Elliot. It's Billy's solo, and the lyrics are:
Take me up and hold me gently,
lift me up and hold me high.
Through the night, under darkness,
will come a day when we will fly.
And although we've been rejected,
and although we've been outcast,
we will find a new tomorrow,
when we come to rest at last.
And we will stand there proudly.
And we will never walk alone.
And we will be returned back to our homes.
Pretty appropriate, huh?
They were accompanied by Anith on the piano. They were amazing. Then the fifth grade performed the play which they wrote based on the story of Billy Elliot. It was really great. I was impressed by their ability to go for it. And the writing was pretty darn good. In the first scene Billy falls down trying to do ballet, and the whole school cracked up. Too bad we forgot to teach the actors about holding for laughs. It was great overall, and it gave a great sense of what was happening in the rest of the scenes. Then the choir sang "Electricity" until the dance break accompanied by Rajne on the piano, and Pushpa on the violin. They were so amazing. The introduction to the song explained that it is Billy's answer to the question "What does it feel like when you're dancing?" The song started with two boys; Bharath, 4th grade, and Arun Kumar, 5th grade, singing:
I can't really explain it, I haven't got the words,
It's a feeling that you can't control.
It's almost like forgetting; losing who you are,
and at the same time, something makes you whole.
Then Chauncey, 8th grade (?) girl sang:
It's like that there's some music playing in your ear,
and I'm listening and I'm listening, and then I disappear.
And then I feel a change like a fire deep inside,
something bursting me wide open impossible to hide.
Then the three sang together:
And suddenly I'm flying,
flying like a bird, like electricity.
Electricity.
Sparks inside of me, and I'm free, I'm free.
Then the choir sang the next verse. It was beautiful. Their dynamics, expression and tonality were all wonderful. The whole school was captivated. I was crying. I was so proud of them.
Next the fourth grade, sixth grade and Been did a dance to the dance break of "Electricity." It was amazing. It brought down the house. The fourth graders represented the ballet side of Billy's life, while the sixth grade represented boxing and mining. Beena was sort of like what Billy might grow up to be. We had three sixth grade boys trying to learn to ballet as part of the dance. In the end they all dance in unison. I can't express how great it looked. Hopefully we'll be able to get some of these videos on YouTube when Elizabeth gets home.
As a special surprise we had the 8,9 and 11th grade girls learn the first half of the original choreography to "All That Jazz" and they performed it. Dr. George really likes the musical, so it was a special treat for him. They rocked out. They were really great at the tiny articulations and the still that Fosse requires. The intensity of their gazes and the style with which they performed were spot on. I was so proud of them. They were total man eaters.
Dr. George came up and made a speech. I have to say, it was really a rewarding experience. I loved it. I want to do more things like that. The pride and joy I felt and feel about those children is something really special.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Pondy from Madurai
Greatest hits of Shanti Bhavan week of March 8th
Walking under the tree all the berries are falling off. The berries crunch under my flip flops and it's even better than walking on bubble wrap.
Eating more candy than I previously thought possible every day. In fact, eating so much candy that I'm shunning other, more nutritious food in favor of it.
Developing the sense that not only does every person deserve respect, but every thing in the entire world does. I feel in harmony with the planet.
I found a bunch of puppet stuff and I'm planning to use it!
One of my student's (Angel Mary Martin) sister's name is Himmaculate Sweetie.
Staying up late and having TRL with Steve and Jack.
Pondicherry Trip
We went to Pondicherry. We left Friday after lunch and headed to Hosur to buy our train tickets for next week. Then we were off and pacing on a national highway. The barely two lane road with minimal potholes was a pleasure to ride along with our trusty driver, Manju. The scenery as we drove by was both varied and delightful: mountains, rice fields, temples, dry scrubby land, palm trees, busses coming straight at us, cows, monkeys, pigs, jumbled towns, thatch villages, old women with wrinkled skin, gangs of young men holding hands and children naked save a red thread at the waist. India. I was counting down the kilometers and estimating that at our current average speed we would arrive in a few hours. At ever mile marker I kept telling myself how much longer until we were there. I was strongly reminded of being on road trips with my family. My mom used to tell us "four more Inspector Gadgets until we're there." I found myself calculating the time in 'Inspector Gadgets' and giving little updates to the others. (I tried to play the alphabet game by myself, but it's hard when you don't already have an idea of what the sign might say or what language the sign will be in.) Unfortunately the distance to Pondicherry indicated by the signs was really only the distance to the off ramp to Pondicherry and we still had a thirty minute drive from there.
Nonetheless, when we arrived we were all very excited to sample the Western cuisine and relax on the beach. We arrived, after some confusion, at our hotel, Qualithe. It was not so quality at all. In fact, the ground floor is a bar. The front desk is the bar. They didn't have our reservation until the next day, so we went decided to look somewhere else. On the recommendation of a girl in the bar we went to Mother Guest House. She said it was next to a great restaurant called Hot Breads. So we went over. We had to climb up the stairs inside a store to get there, but when they offered us a room with two enormous beds and one small bed, AC and TV for RS 1500 a night, we took it. For the two nights we stayed it was only $10 a person. So the six of us had two adjoining rooms and a bathroom. It worked out really well. As soon as we deposited our belongings in the room we went out to dinner at Le Club. It. Was. Sublime. The list of beverages we consumed included milkshakes, beers, cosmopolitans, lemonade, shirley temples, wine, lassis and mineral water. We shared some garlic bread, which we like so much that we ordered two more servings. I had a salad and steak au poivre. Mmm. For desert I had apple tart. Doesn't get much better than that.
In the morning I woke up and saw a tiny almost clear scorpion running across the room and heading for Molly's bag. I stepped on in it in my flip flop. I'm so smart.
We went to watch the sunrise at the beach and had breakfast at Le Cafe. I had a croissant and cafe au lait. So good. We saw a really cool Indian looking Catholic church and tried to rent scooters. This failed because we don't have international drivers licenses. Right next door was an amazing colorful temple. It was really fun to explore. After making a pooja, or little prayer, they gave us a whitish gray dot instead of the usual red. Hmm...
Next we headed to Auroville. It's a huge community of people working towards a better future for humanity. The center of the community is called Matrimandir. It looks like a big golden Spaceship Earth. Inside there's a huge crystal with light focused in it. In any case, it's a beautiful and interesting place full of handicrafts and sustainable ways of life. All their water is drawn from wells using wind power and there are literally gardens of solar panels. I'm definitely interested in what they're doing there.
After Auroville, it was beach time. We went swimming at Auro Beach, in the Bay of Bengal. To get there we had to walk through a narrow sand pathway, but the sand was so hot that I burned the bottoms of my feet trying to get there wearing flip flops. I sprinted for the water. The water was warm and there were many people swimming. All of them were Indian men, most of whom were wearing underwear, undershirts and orange vests. Some of the youngest were completely naked. It was fun, but it was a little ridiculous, because us girls went swimming in our bathing suits. We were asking for the unwanted attention, so it didn't bother us too much. After completely burning ourselves at the beach, we split up to pursue our own fun. For Joe and Arjun that meant finding a place outside of town to rent scooters to them. For the rest of us it meant taking showers, eating lunch at Hot Breads (I had salad, soup, bread sticks, roll, fried chicken, chicken pizza and a tart for $2.50), and heading into town for some shopping. The girls went to FabIndia. I bought a couple tops. We all met up again at the Ghandi statue at seven. Arjun, Joe and Molly headed to find internet, while the rest of us went in search of a massage or something. We found a benefit concert catered by the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner and raising money to fix the erosion of the beaches in Pondicherry. It was really interesting because there were many expats in charge of the concert. The group who organized is called PondyCAN and they plan to use political pressure to solve many of the problems in Pondicherry. The funny thing was watching the issues of India enumerated in a slideshow presentation. The music was a cool fusion: basso nova; classical violin, sitar and tabla; and reggae. The food was great and the people who attended were both interesting and fun. The whole thing cost about $12 a person. It was totally worth it.
The next morning we all slept in. Once we got going, about nine, we stopped for pastries and headed for Sri Aurobindo ashram. We meditated outside the mother's tomb. It was really interesting. Then afterwords we went to a weekly street market. On a street where scooters, cars and auto rickshaws careened ahead at full speed, people sold anything and everything imaginable. I found a passageway to a fish market that sold all sorts of interesting things. The smell was a little overwhelming. So I decided to go find a massage and we all agreed to meet in time to check out of our hotels.
My massage was amazing. It was at an ayurvedic hospital. It started with the masseuse telling me to "remove my dress." Since I didn't know how much 'dress' I was meant to remove I was exceedingly awkward. I kept confirming with her after each article of clothing that I should remove another. She probable thought I was an idiot, but I didn't want to offend her by stripping naked in front of her. It's not like the U.S. where they leave the room. She tied a paper loincloth around me and had me sit in a chair. After applying a generous amount of oil to my head and hair, she proceeded to give me the strangest and most amazing hair/ scalp massage. This included little clumps of my hair being pulled quite hard all around my scalp. She commented on my dandruff. I had a hard time conveying the fact that constantly eating new foods, using different water, experiencing new things and getting sun burnt weren't the best way to keep your scalp healthy. Next she told me to get on the table. She proceeded to slather me in oil to the point where I wondered if I would be able to stay on the table. I felt a little bit like meat being prepared to cook. The massage was amazing. Of note: they did in fact again massage my breasts. After the really long and relaxing massage that included more or less every inch of surface area I have, she patted me repeatedly with a packet of hot banana leaves. It was hot to the point of making me flinch few times. For the most part it was relaxing, though. When she did my sunburn I almost cried. I should mention that at a couple points she asked me to "make a little prayer" and she prayed before going on. Then she wiped off my feet and right hand, and led me into the adjoining shower. She showed me a towel and a bowl of soupy mud and told me to wash my whole body with it. It was of course, some kind of grainy soap. The only awkward part of that was she kept coming in and out and monitoring my progress. She told me to use "whole soap," which I took to mean I was supposed to use up the entire bowl. So I went for it. Head to toe I rubbed that stuff in. Then I rinsed it out and felt infinitely better. When I came out she let me get dressed, then put a hand on my arm, started to pray over me like she was anointing me with the holy spirit, then rubbed some spicy smelling stuff into my part. I'm not gonna lie, I felt pretty. Despite the fact that I had no make up and was wearing crumpled clothes, being clean and sunned made me feel great. A few minutes later I was walking down the street and a man said "Excuse me, madame, you smell good."
We all met at the hotel and ate a Sastanga before heading out of town. The trip back was marked by us all falling asleep all over each other. And by Jack buying a sitar.
This week at Shanti Bhavan has been a restful one. The fourth grade has been continuously improving in their studies and behavior. I could easily put them in with a class from the U.S. now and have them do well. All of the art projects are coming together well, and I'm trying to select students to teach tap, add to the choir and give piano lessons.
Walking under the tree all the berries are falling off. The berries crunch under my flip flops and it's even better than walking on bubble wrap.
Eating more candy than I previously thought possible every day. In fact, eating so much candy that I'm shunning other, more nutritious food in favor of it.
Developing the sense that not only does every person deserve respect, but every thing in the entire world does. I feel in harmony with the planet.
I found a bunch of puppet stuff and I'm planning to use it!
One of my student's (Angel Mary Martin) sister's name is Himmaculate Sweetie.
Staying up late and having TRL with Steve and Jack.
Pondicherry Trip
We went to Pondicherry. We left Friday after lunch and headed to Hosur to buy our train tickets for next week. Then we were off and pacing on a national highway. The barely two lane road with minimal potholes was a pleasure to ride along with our trusty driver, Manju. The scenery as we drove by was both varied and delightful: mountains, rice fields, temples, dry scrubby land, palm trees, busses coming straight at us, cows, monkeys, pigs, jumbled towns, thatch villages, old women with wrinkled skin, gangs of young men holding hands and children naked save a red thread at the waist. India. I was counting down the kilometers and estimating that at our current average speed we would arrive in a few hours. At ever mile marker I kept telling myself how much longer until we were there. I was strongly reminded of being on road trips with my family. My mom used to tell us "four more Inspector Gadgets until we're there." I found myself calculating the time in 'Inspector Gadgets' and giving little updates to the others. (I tried to play the alphabet game by myself, but it's hard when you don't already have an idea of what the sign might say or what language the sign will be in.) Unfortunately the distance to Pondicherry indicated by the signs was really only the distance to the off ramp to Pondicherry and we still had a thirty minute drive from there.
Nonetheless, when we arrived we were all very excited to sample the Western cuisine and relax on the beach. We arrived, after some confusion, at our hotel, Qualithe. It was not so quality at all. In fact, the ground floor is a bar. The front desk is the bar. They didn't have our reservation until the next day, so we went decided to look somewhere else. On the recommendation of a girl in the bar we went to Mother Guest House. She said it was next to a great restaurant called Hot Breads. So we went over. We had to climb up the stairs inside a store to get there, but when they offered us a room with two enormous beds and one small bed, AC and TV for RS 1500 a night, we took it. For the two nights we stayed it was only $10 a person. So the six of us had two adjoining rooms and a bathroom. It worked out really well. As soon as we deposited our belongings in the room we went out to dinner at Le Club. It. Was. Sublime. The list of beverages we consumed included milkshakes, beers, cosmopolitans, lemonade, shirley temples, wine, lassis and mineral water. We shared some garlic bread, which we like so much that we ordered two more servings. I had a salad and steak au poivre. Mmm. For desert I had apple tart. Doesn't get much better than that.
In the morning I woke up and saw a tiny almost clear scorpion running across the room and heading for Molly's bag. I stepped on in it in my flip flop. I'm so smart.
We went to watch the sunrise at the beach and had breakfast at Le Cafe. I had a croissant and cafe au lait. So good. We saw a really cool Indian looking Catholic church and tried to rent scooters. This failed because we don't have international drivers licenses. Right next door was an amazing colorful temple. It was really fun to explore. After making a pooja, or little prayer, they gave us a whitish gray dot instead of the usual red. Hmm...
Next we headed to Auroville. It's a huge community of people working towards a better future for humanity. The center of the community is called Matrimandir. It looks like a big golden Spaceship Earth. Inside there's a huge crystal with light focused in it. In any case, it's a beautiful and interesting place full of handicrafts and sustainable ways of life. All their water is drawn from wells using wind power and there are literally gardens of solar panels. I'm definitely interested in what they're doing there.
After Auroville, it was beach time. We went swimming at Auro Beach, in the Bay of Bengal. To get there we had to walk through a narrow sand pathway, but the sand was so hot that I burned the bottoms of my feet trying to get there wearing flip flops. I sprinted for the water. The water was warm and there were many people swimming. All of them were Indian men, most of whom were wearing underwear, undershirts and orange vests. Some of the youngest were completely naked. It was fun, but it was a little ridiculous, because us girls went swimming in our bathing suits. We were asking for the unwanted attention, so it didn't bother us too much. After completely burning ourselves at the beach, we split up to pursue our own fun. For Joe and Arjun that meant finding a place outside of town to rent scooters to them. For the rest of us it meant taking showers, eating lunch at Hot Breads (I had salad, soup, bread sticks, roll, fried chicken, chicken pizza and a tart for $2.50), and heading into town for some shopping. The girls went to FabIndia. I bought a couple tops. We all met up again at the Ghandi statue at seven. Arjun, Joe and Molly headed to find internet, while the rest of us went in search of a massage or something. We found a benefit concert catered by the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner and raising money to fix the erosion of the beaches in Pondicherry. It was really interesting because there were many expats in charge of the concert. The group who organized is called PondyCAN and they plan to use political pressure to solve many of the problems in Pondicherry. The funny thing was watching the issues of India enumerated in a slideshow presentation. The music was a cool fusion: basso nova; classical violin, sitar and tabla; and reggae. The food was great and the people who attended were both interesting and fun. The whole thing cost about $12 a person. It was totally worth it.
The next morning we all slept in. Once we got going, about nine, we stopped for pastries and headed for Sri Aurobindo ashram. We meditated outside the mother's tomb. It was really interesting. Then afterwords we went to a weekly street market. On a street where scooters, cars and auto rickshaws careened ahead at full speed, people sold anything and everything imaginable. I found a passageway to a fish market that sold all sorts of interesting things. The smell was a little overwhelming. So I decided to go find a massage and we all agreed to meet in time to check out of our hotels.
My massage was amazing. It was at an ayurvedic hospital. It started with the masseuse telling me to "remove my dress." Since I didn't know how much 'dress' I was meant to remove I was exceedingly awkward. I kept confirming with her after each article of clothing that I should remove another. She probable thought I was an idiot, but I didn't want to offend her by stripping naked in front of her. It's not like the U.S. where they leave the room. She tied a paper loincloth around me and had me sit in a chair. After applying a generous amount of oil to my head and hair, she proceeded to give me the strangest and most amazing hair/ scalp massage. This included little clumps of my hair being pulled quite hard all around my scalp. She commented on my dandruff. I had a hard time conveying the fact that constantly eating new foods, using different water, experiencing new things and getting sun burnt weren't the best way to keep your scalp healthy. Next she told me to get on the table. She proceeded to slather me in oil to the point where I wondered if I would be able to stay on the table. I felt a little bit like meat being prepared to cook. The massage was amazing. Of note: they did in fact again massage my breasts. After the really long and relaxing massage that included more or less every inch of surface area I have, she patted me repeatedly with a packet of hot banana leaves. It was hot to the point of making me flinch few times. For the most part it was relaxing, though. When she did my sunburn I almost cried. I should mention that at a couple points she asked me to "make a little prayer" and she prayed before going on. Then she wiped off my feet and right hand, and led me into the adjoining shower. She showed me a towel and a bowl of soupy mud and told me to wash my whole body with it. It was of course, some kind of grainy soap. The only awkward part of that was she kept coming in and out and monitoring my progress. She told me to use "whole soap," which I took to mean I was supposed to use up the entire bowl. So I went for it. Head to toe I rubbed that stuff in. Then I rinsed it out and felt infinitely better. When I came out she let me get dressed, then put a hand on my arm, started to pray over me like she was anointing me with the holy spirit, then rubbed some spicy smelling stuff into my part. I'm not gonna lie, I felt pretty. Despite the fact that I had no make up and was wearing crumpled clothes, being clean and sunned made me feel great. A few minutes later I was walking down the street and a man said "Excuse me, madame, you smell good."
We all met at the hotel and ate a Sastanga before heading out of town. The trip back was marked by us all falling asleep all over each other. And by Jack buying a sitar.
This week at Shanti Bhavan has been a restful one. The fourth grade has been continuously improving in their studies and behavior. I could easily put them in with a class from the U.S. now and have them do well. All of the art projects are coming together well, and I'm trying to select students to teach tap, add to the choir and give piano lessons.
Friday, March 6, 2009
This week
For more images check out:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037309&id=36000020&l=803d3
Facebook is much quicker at uploading photos.
Sunday
We arrived in Bangalore at about six am and got jerked around by a cab trying to take us to hotels when all we wanted was a place to store our bags for the day. That was frustrating. Then we went to Cubbin Park. It's a beautiful park full of children practicing martial arts, adults doing yoga and out for their morning constitutionals. We had a lot of time to kill until things opened. We found a Coffee Day coffee shop almost as prevalent in India as Starbucks is in NYC. We got harassed by some auto rickshaw drivers who said they'd take us to internet places that were open then tried to take us to shops where they'd get kickbacks for taking us there. None of us were in the mood for that and we got out. Ugh. Then we went to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Those were ok, but honestly they're not very nice for 'botanical gardens.' We were hot, tired and unimpressed with Bangalore. Especially as compared to Hampi. We went to a sangria lunch buffet. It was amazing. Casa del Sol offered unlimited lunch buffet with unlimited wine, beer and sangria for about $15. The food was great. We loaded up on protein and alcohol. In addition they had a pottery wheel, face painting, parrot astrologer, and a sketch artist. It was really fun! After that we were feeling better and it was nice to hit the internet, even if the computers were kind of crappy. We went to FabIndia to see if there were any souvenirs we wanted, but we lost Joe and spent the last thirty minutes we had in Bangalore searching and worrying. He just wandered off to get a hair cut.
Monday
I went to Barry’s class both periods instead of teaching aerobics. It was fun. Weird visitors from a school in Bangalore came. I mean the guy introduced himself in a room full of adults as Bob-ji. That’s like me introducing myself to my grandmother as Ms. McDonald. He’s giving himself the veneration children give teachers or adults give spiritual leaders. Anyway he and his wife came for a visit and actually handed out business cards to all of the teachers! It was my day for news again. It was kind of fun because I had a newspaper from Bangalore to use, so I got to give some more local news. Elizabeth and I wore saris to the huge approval of the staff and students. We taught the kindergarten the bridge of rubber ducky. A new volunteer arrived- Tony. His parents both grew up one state away in India. Since he finished undergrad early he wanted something to do between that and med school. He seems pretty cool. Jack got really sick, threw up and everything. Ick. We had a Hampi photo exchange in the lounge. It was fun.
Tuesday
I slept all day when I didn’t have class. Nirmala started teaching us a dance. It’s crazy and fun. The power was out almost all day. The sixth grade dance class was amazing. They look great. We held it outside by light of solar powered street lamp. In the lounge we watched Star Wars Episode 5. I really enjoyed it. Choir is starting to get the hang of the Billy Elliot music.
Wednesday
I went to Barry’s class both sessions. I felt rejuvenated. I stated taking Claritin. I think I have allergies here. I’m feeling much better now that I’m taking it regularly. The second grade ballet is really coming along and the third grade art projects are under way. Barry did some work on me. I felt great. I spent some time vocalizing and playing flute.
Thursday
I spent all my free time sleeping or rehearsing with Nirmala for the dance. It’s kind of silly, but we’re sure having fun making up lyrics to remember what we’re supposed to do:
“Look at my mehendi, it’s so sexy, look at my hands you want me, You ain’t nothin’, Woah Woah, I’m just a quail sitting in a garden, don’t you want to come talk to me? Look at my shoulders.”
Friday
We spent almost every free second preparing for our big show. We did make up and hair and mehendi and jewelry and flowers. It was intense. And so much fun. I opened the show with ‘Baby Shark’ audience participation style. Then Barry demonstrated some martial arts, Arjun played a Spanish piece on the piano, Michelle and Tony danced, Elizabeth sang ‘No One is Alone’, I sang ‘Old Devil Moon’ with Arjun accompanying me, Michelle sang, the boys played guitar and sang ‘Hey Jude’ then the group dance ended the show. It was so fun. My personal favorite is “so niiiiice!” and “oooooaaaaaoooowww miss! You dance so nicely!” haha. We watched Animal house in the lounge. Joe shared Nilla Wafers (!!!!!) his mom sent and we had some Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups that Barry brought. It was delightful.
Last Week
Saturday
Saturday was fun. Jacques, Arjun, Elizabeth and I left directly after breakfast for Hosur. It was fun. We planned to spend several hours on the internet. Due to a power outage the internet place was running on battery power. So we only got a little less than thirty minutes. Boo.
It was really fun though. We did lots of great stuff. Elizabeth and I went to the post office, bought saris, got measured for blouses, bought pineapples and oranges and spent about twenty minutes on the computer. Then we all went wandering as a group. We went to an all plastic store. Basically instead of selling one kind of product they sell various products made of plastic. A different kind of category I guess. We went to a DVD store and got DVDs for $1 that have four or five movies on each. That was a blast.
We took an auto rickshaw (if you haven't been in one, you at least should google a photo) to the train station so Elizabeth and I could buy the tickets for Hampi. Well. They couldn't take credit cards because the had no power so we had to scrounge for cash to buy the five train tickets we needed. We're taking a car to Bangalore then taking an overnight train to Hampi. We're traveling in style. Air conditioned sleeper cars, oh yeah. It should be an experience. Actually, buying the tickets was an experience. Elizabeth and I lined up nicely behind the Muslim men in front of us, as there was a sign that said "No separate ladies' q." Ok, fine. So the men seated in the station openly gawk at us while the men in line jumble around, push in front of us and generally cause as much confusion, chaos and other don't-let-these-heathen-women-get-what-they-wantness as possible. So we called Arjun over because they were pushing in front of us in line. It was like a cartoon. Arjun, the 6'3" if-India-was-going-to-invent-a-god-today looking 19 year old Cornell sophomore teddy bear, struck an imposing figure. The men who'd been giving us an impossible time literally did a double take and then continued to look nervously over their shoulders. Suddenly it was as if every one wanted to maintain order. We quickly got our forms to fill out and processed our payment. Round trip it's $34. Not too shabby, huh? The hotel we're staying in should be $6/ person. Since we're only staying in the hotel one night it should be a total of $40. How do you like them apples?
We then went to the new Janani restaurant, which is beautifully laid out like a garden. We spent a couple hours eating, relaxing and joking. Then we walked all the way back to the internet area, I'd guess about two miles. In the scorching sun. It was fun, we got to see a lot of Hosur. We bought sunglasses for Elizabeth. Then we took an auto to the old Janani, had a soda and waited for the rest of the staff who came into Hosur for only an hour. We all rode back in the staff car together. Fine family fun.
When we got back we were exhausted, but we had choir rehearsal for the show the next day. None of the kids showed. Then we had rehearsal for an aerobics demonstration. We were all pretty tired, but it was really nice to spend time in such a small group. We all get along quite well. We stayed up and chatted.
Sunday
Jack, Elizabeth's friend from high school, arrived. I showed him around. It was funny because it was like he was on something. He was sort of: 48 hours without sleeping. We rehearsed for the show for the Italian visitors. Elizabeth and I got gussied up. So fun. She did a circle braid in my hair. It was a great show. All that rehearsal really payed off. Dinner was amazing. The chicken was spiced with saffron, and I loved it.
Monday
Barry and Michelle arrived. Michelle is on the board of ASTEP and has raised a ton of money for Shanti Bhavan. Barry is a "body worker" and has a really interesting history- research scientist, massage school, martial arts... Both of them look approximately ten years younger than their real ages. We taught more of "All That Jazz" to the older girls. Choir surprised us with a rehearsal. It was great. Kids are excited because Dr. George's birthday is coming up. They kept coming up and saying "Miss, miss, the 25th is Dr. George's birthday!" Joe, Molly and Steve got back from Mysore around breakfast time. They looked pretty exhausted. Apparently their feet got eaten by the massive amounts of bugs on the bus. We practiced "Rubber Ducky" with KG and Jack on guitar. So adorable.
Tuesday
We started a new aerobics schedule. It basically comes down to the fact that Barry gets the kids by gender for thirty minutes so we take his class then take the kids for aerobics. It's fun learning self defense. In a lot of ways Barry reminds me of Robert, the musical theatre director. I like him a lot. In musical theatre class the first grade was amazing playing the mirror game. I got some adorable video of it.
Wednesday
We had the older girls for aerobics. I had a busy, but good day. It was Dr. George's birthday. Lots of amazing food. Some of the volunteer descriptions of it included liquid amoxicillin, Pinesol and Tang. Haha. We watched Billy Elliot and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Michelle brought Reece's Peanut Butter Cups! Mmmm... Barry worked on me, I've never felt so healthy. I felt great. Stoned. But great.
Thursday
6th grade boys were so frustrating in aerobics, they couldn't jog on beat. 6th grade girls more than made up for it. Rajne's flute lesson went well. I added a few more notes for him to practice. I had a lot of fun teaching fifth grade math, we did curve drawing. It's drawing curves by drawing straight lines between points on them. They loved it. We left for Hampi at 4:00 pm with the well wishes of Michelle. We picked up our sari blouses from Hosur and headed to Bangalore.
We wanted pizza Western style and he took us to an Indian chain. We had a big discussion about how to get to Domino's. We finally found a Pizza Hut, but the power was out. Around the corner we found a Domino's! We ordered, had ordeal getting change, then getting our soft drinks, we waited about ten minutes and were getting really excited for our food and the power went out. The manager said it would take fifteen minutes by gas, so we waited. Then fifteen minutes later she told us it would be another thirty minutes, could she take our number so we could go for a walk? We walked to a donut shop and bought donuts. We decided if the power wasn't on we'd get a refund and go to Pizza Hut, where the lights were now blazing. We walked back and got our refund. Just as we were all exiting the building, the power came back on. The employees of Dominos literally chased us out the door to tell us to come back. So we did. They promised eight minutes until our pizza was ready. Mine came last, forty five minutes later. All for a little pizza! Though I have to say, the pizza did taste like a little slice of home.
From there we headed to the train station. So I guess one of the reasons Bangalore has three train stations is that there are a lot of freaking people taking trains. The train station was really big, crowded and confusing. The signage was bad and there was no way to if there was anyone working there. My guess is there wasn't. After a several minutes of confusion we decided to take the 'subway' (underpass) and found track 8, from which we were departing. Then we had to fight the confusion of trying to get on the right car. Since there was no one to ask, this took several minutes. We finally managed to do it, but our berths were all separate. It was nice: fans, AC, freshly cleaned sheets. The gentle rocking of the train made it quite easy to sleep. If I hadn't had a bed right by the door to the bathroom I would have slept quite well. Interestingly, everyone in 2nd class AC spoke English. Apparently if you can afford to travel in comfort you can afford an education in English as well.
Friday
We arrived in Hospet around 7:30 AM. We took two auto-rickshaws to Hampi. Our hotel was BASIC and PERFECT! The entire hotel is open air. Our 'room' was a thatch hut with three mattresses on the ground and mosquito nets. In the common there are hammocks. The restaurant is a series of ledges with cushions and a pavilion with cushions. There are even beds in the open with just mosquito nets. We ordered breakfast (really yummy!), hung around in the hammocks and toured the ruins. It was really amazing. It's hard to describe, but it was beautiful. Elizabeth found a decaying dog in a chamber of one of the many destroyed temples we saw. Some of the really cool things we saw were a huge Ganesh (elephant headed god), a cool Shiva linga (phallic statue representation of the god of destruction) with water coming to the entrance of the shrine, and an underground temple with water flowing through it. There were bats in the last one.
We ate lunch at the Mango Tree which was both delectable and delightful. The view was stunning. They sold Nutella and cereal! I'm proud to report that my second attempt at a squat toilet was here and went quite successfully. I know you're all very proud. Elizabeth informed us that squat toilets are more ergonomically correct. If you can't squat apparently you ought prop your feet up, "a stool for your stool" as she said. We went shopping and I bought ankle bracelets, which I've been coveting since I arrived in India. They're so fun, they jingle when I walk! Jack and I ended up shopping for some clothes (which are really good looking) and then went to the temple to be blessed by Lakshmi the temple elephant. Afterword we met up with the crew and went to watch the sunset on a hill. It was splendid. A little boy selling chai in plastic cups was really friendly with us and gave us a lot of useful information.
We went back to the hotel and met some funny French people who bootlegged beer for us in a tea kettle. It was warm, but what the heck? I was the only one from our group to brave the bug infested shower that night. It was quite an adventure, though not the worst shower I've ever used. Ants on the shower head and a myriad of bugs on the walls didn't bother me too much, but the cold water that was clearly not safe to drink and the filthy floor were certainly enough to hurry me along. Nonetheless, I felt like a new person after showering that night. Two days of India filth is quite a lot of filth (despite cleansing cloths), let me assure you. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep between asking Jack a question and his reply.
Saturday
We woke up early and hiked to the top of Mattanga Hill. This is a deceiving name. Though it may be called 'hill', hiking up it in the dark is no easy task. In fact hiking up in the day light is not for the faint of heart or for heart patients. So we climbed all the way to the top of the the hill and climbed on top of the five hundred year old temple to watch the most amazing sunrise. It was breathtaking. We climbed down the hill in full day light at about seven am to go watch the elephant take a bath in the river. Our chai wallah was there, selling tea and being amazed as we were by the huge pachyderm in the river in front of us. What didn't phase him, but shocked me, was the huge amount of people bathing in the river. Women wearing saris were submerged to their waists lathering, removing their sari tops, scrubbing and putting the cumbersome, wet clothes back on to bathe their children or each other. Men were stripped down to underwear and scrubbing like it was their royal duty. Especially where the sun don't shine. Of course right next to the river there were also your typical freak shows: men dressed up as holy men trying to extort money from tourists for a photo, men meditating on the rocks in defiance of the commotion of the busy river and children of all shapes and sizes getting into anything and everything they can.
We came back to the hotel and had breakfast. Eggs, home fries, toast and tea... I was in heaven. It's impossible to explain how sick of rice a person can get. We contemplated spending the day lounging around the hotel. We all lazed about in the hammocks and in the restaurant area. A dog that belongs to the hotel chewed my shoe. I spent most of the morning in socks until I could buy new ones. A guy about my age came around selling postcards. Elizabeth and I ended up talking to him for a while and he offered to take us out for a fun day on the town. So we went to visit the temple, get blessed by Laskshmi and head out across the river on our adventure with our guide, Harish. Just before we boarded the boat we saw a snake charmer. A king cobra charming, drone instrument playing busker who scared us then let us hold his 'no poison' snakes. It was thrilling and a little scary. At this point in the day our motto became 'we haven't died yet' and we repeated it many times throughout the remainder. We shared the heavily loaded motor boat with motorcycles and women carrying bushels of fruit. It was ridiculous. We played with a trained baby monkey on the other side of the water, then rented scooters (not my idea) and took off on a tour of the temples on that side of the water. I learned a lot about Hinduism and feel a lot better acquainted with various personalities of gods and the symbolism of the religion. We ended up at a huge lake which several westerners told us 'might have crocodiles, but was good for swimming.' We all jumped in. It was a lot of fun. Many Indian guys came to swim with us. They played music from their cell phones and danced and well all laughed a lot. Let me note here that swimming in pants that balloon is not an easy task. The boys wanted more time on the bikes, and I was REALLY done with them, so Elizabeth and I went to get massages while the boys rode around a while longer. The woman massaged our breasts! We also got henna, which wasn't the best move because we had to pack with one hand each. We were traveling on the wait list, and once again had a lot of trouble finding someone to help us at the train station. It ended up working out great though, because really it just meant they didn't assign the bunks in the cabins, so we slept in a group of bunks that were together. Score.
Saturday was fun. Jacques, Arjun, Elizabeth and I left directly after breakfast for Hosur. It was fun. We planned to spend several hours on the internet. Due to a power outage the internet place was running on battery power. So we only got a little less than thirty minutes. Boo.
It was really fun though. We did lots of great stuff. Elizabeth and I went to the post office, bought saris, got measured for blouses, bought pineapples and oranges and spent about twenty minutes on the computer. Then we all went wandering as a group. We went to an all plastic store. Basically instead of selling one kind of product they sell various products made of plastic. A different kind of category I guess. We went to a DVD store and got DVDs for $1 that have four or five movies on each. That was a blast.
We took an auto rickshaw (if you haven't been in one, you at least should google a photo) to the train station so Elizabeth and I could buy the tickets for Hampi. Well. They couldn't take credit cards because the had no power so we had to scrounge for cash to buy the five train tickets we needed. We're taking a car to Bangalore then taking an overnight train to Hampi. We're traveling in style. Air conditioned sleeper cars, oh yeah. It should be an experience. Actually, buying the tickets was an experience. Elizabeth and I lined up nicely behind the Muslim men in front of us, as there was a sign that said "No separate ladies' q." Ok, fine. So the men seated in the station openly gawk at us while the men in line jumble around, push in front of us and generally cause as much confusion, chaos and other don't-let-these-heathen-women-get-what-they-wantness as possible. So we called Arjun over because they were pushing in front of us in line. It was like a cartoon. Arjun, the 6'3" if-India-was-going-to-invent-a-god-today looking 19 year old Cornell sophomore teddy bear, struck an imposing figure. The men who'd been giving us an impossible time literally did a double take and then continued to look nervously over their shoulders. Suddenly it was as if every one wanted to maintain order. We quickly got our forms to fill out and processed our payment. Round trip it's $34. Not too shabby, huh? The hotel we're staying in should be $6/ person. Since we're only staying in the hotel one night it should be a total of $40. How do you like them apples?
We then went to the new Janani restaurant, which is beautifully laid out like a garden. We spent a couple hours eating, relaxing and joking. Then we walked all the way back to the internet area, I'd guess about two miles. In the scorching sun. It was fun, we got to see a lot of Hosur. We bought sunglasses for Elizabeth. Then we took an auto to the old Janani, had a soda and waited for the rest of the staff who came into Hosur for only an hour. We all rode back in the staff car together. Fine family fun.
When we got back we were exhausted, but we had choir rehearsal for the show the next day. None of the kids showed. Then we had rehearsal for an aerobics demonstration. We were all pretty tired, but it was really nice to spend time in such a small group. We all get along quite well. We stayed up and chatted.
Sunday
Jack, Elizabeth's friend from high school, arrived. I showed him around. It was funny because it was like he was on something. He was sort of: 48 hours without sleeping. We rehearsed for the show for the Italian visitors. Elizabeth and I got gussied up. So fun. She did a circle braid in my hair. It was a great show. All that rehearsal really payed off. Dinner was amazing. The chicken was spiced with saffron, and I loved it.
Monday
Barry and Michelle arrived. Michelle is on the board of ASTEP and has raised a ton of money for Shanti Bhavan. Barry is a "body worker" and has a really interesting history- research scientist, massage school, martial arts... Both of them look approximately ten years younger than their real ages. We taught more of "All That Jazz" to the older girls. Choir surprised us with a rehearsal. It was great. Kids are excited because Dr. George's birthday is coming up. They kept coming up and saying "Miss, miss, the 25th is Dr. George's birthday!" Joe, Molly and Steve got back from Mysore around breakfast time. They looked pretty exhausted. Apparently their feet got eaten by the massive amounts of bugs on the bus. We practiced "Rubber Ducky" with KG and Jack on guitar. So adorable.
Tuesday
We started a new aerobics schedule. It basically comes down to the fact that Barry gets the kids by gender for thirty minutes so we take his class then take the kids for aerobics. It's fun learning self defense. In a lot of ways Barry reminds me of Robert, the musical theatre director. I like him a lot. In musical theatre class the first grade was amazing playing the mirror game. I got some adorable video of it.
Wednesday
We had the older girls for aerobics. I had a busy, but good day. It was Dr. George's birthday. Lots of amazing food. Some of the volunteer descriptions of it included liquid amoxicillin, Pinesol and Tang. Haha. We watched Billy Elliot and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Michelle brought Reece's Peanut Butter Cups! Mmmm... Barry worked on me, I've never felt so healthy. I felt great. Stoned. But great.
Thursday
6th grade boys were so frustrating in aerobics, they couldn't jog on beat. 6th grade girls more than made up for it. Rajne's flute lesson went well. I added a few more notes for him to practice. I had a lot of fun teaching fifth grade math, we did curve drawing. It's drawing curves by drawing straight lines between points on them. They loved it. We left for Hampi at 4:00 pm with the well wishes of Michelle. We picked up our sari blouses from Hosur and headed to Bangalore.
We wanted pizza Western style and he took us to an Indian chain. We had a big discussion about how to get to Domino's. We finally found a Pizza Hut, but the power was out. Around the corner we found a Domino's! We ordered, had ordeal getting change, then getting our soft drinks, we waited about ten minutes and were getting really excited for our food and the power went out. The manager said it would take fifteen minutes by gas, so we waited. Then fifteen minutes later she told us it would be another thirty minutes, could she take our number so we could go for a walk? We walked to a donut shop and bought donuts. We decided if the power wasn't on we'd get a refund and go to Pizza Hut, where the lights were now blazing. We walked back and got our refund. Just as we were all exiting the building, the power came back on. The employees of Dominos literally chased us out the door to tell us to come back. So we did. They promised eight minutes until our pizza was ready. Mine came last, forty five minutes later. All for a little pizza! Though I have to say, the pizza did taste like a little slice of home.
From there we headed to the train station. So I guess one of the reasons Bangalore has three train stations is that there are a lot of freaking people taking trains. The train station was really big, crowded and confusing. The signage was bad and there was no way to if there was anyone working there. My guess is there wasn't. After a several minutes of confusion we decided to take the 'subway' (underpass) and found track 8, from which we were departing. Then we had to fight the confusion of trying to get on the right car. Since there was no one to ask, this took several minutes. We finally managed to do it, but our berths were all separate. It was nice: fans, AC, freshly cleaned sheets. The gentle rocking of the train made it quite easy to sleep. If I hadn't had a bed right by the door to the bathroom I would have slept quite well. Interestingly, everyone in 2nd class AC spoke English. Apparently if you can afford to travel in comfort you can afford an education in English as well.
Friday
We arrived in Hospet around 7:30 AM. We took two auto-rickshaws to Hampi. Our hotel was BASIC and PERFECT! The entire hotel is open air. Our 'room' was a thatch hut with three mattresses on the ground and mosquito nets. In the common there are hammocks. The restaurant is a series of ledges with cushions and a pavilion with cushions. There are even beds in the open with just mosquito nets. We ordered breakfast (really yummy!), hung around in the hammocks and toured the ruins. It was really amazing. It's hard to describe, but it was beautiful. Elizabeth found a decaying dog in a chamber of one of the many destroyed temples we saw. Some of the really cool things we saw were a huge Ganesh (elephant headed god), a cool Shiva linga (phallic statue representation of the god of destruction) with water coming to the entrance of the shrine, and an underground temple with water flowing through it. There were bats in the last one.
We ate lunch at the Mango Tree which was both delectable and delightful. The view was stunning. They sold Nutella and cereal! I'm proud to report that my second attempt at a squat toilet was here and went quite successfully. I know you're all very proud. Elizabeth informed us that squat toilets are more ergonomically correct. If you can't squat apparently you ought prop your feet up, "a stool for your stool" as she said. We went shopping and I bought ankle bracelets, which I've been coveting since I arrived in India. They're so fun, they jingle when I walk! Jack and I ended up shopping for some clothes (which are really good looking) and then went to the temple to be blessed by Lakshmi the temple elephant. Afterword we met up with the crew and went to watch the sunset on a hill. It was splendid. A little boy selling chai in plastic cups was really friendly with us and gave us a lot of useful information.
We went back to the hotel and met some funny French people who bootlegged beer for us in a tea kettle. It was warm, but what the heck? I was the only one from our group to brave the bug infested shower that night. It was quite an adventure, though not the worst shower I've ever used. Ants on the shower head and a myriad of bugs on the walls didn't bother me too much, but the cold water that was clearly not safe to drink and the filthy floor were certainly enough to hurry me along. Nonetheless, I felt like a new person after showering that night. Two days of India filth is quite a lot of filth (despite cleansing cloths), let me assure you. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep between asking Jack a question and his reply.
Saturday
We woke up early and hiked to the top of Mattanga Hill. This is a deceiving name. Though it may be called 'hill', hiking up it in the dark is no easy task. In fact hiking up in the day light is not for the faint of heart or for heart patients. So we climbed all the way to the top of the the hill and climbed on top of the five hundred year old temple to watch the most amazing sunrise. It was breathtaking. We climbed down the hill in full day light at about seven am to go watch the elephant take a bath in the river. Our chai wallah was there, selling tea and being amazed as we were by the huge pachyderm in the river in front of us. What didn't phase him, but shocked me, was the huge amount of people bathing in the river. Women wearing saris were submerged to their waists lathering, removing their sari tops, scrubbing and putting the cumbersome, wet clothes back on to bathe their children or each other. Men were stripped down to underwear and scrubbing like it was their royal duty. Especially where the sun don't shine. Of course right next to the river there were also your typical freak shows: men dressed up as holy men trying to extort money from tourists for a photo, men meditating on the rocks in defiance of the commotion of the busy river and children of all shapes and sizes getting into anything and everything they can.
We came back to the hotel and had breakfast. Eggs, home fries, toast and tea... I was in heaven. It's impossible to explain how sick of rice a person can get. We contemplated spending the day lounging around the hotel. We all lazed about in the hammocks and in the restaurant area. A dog that belongs to the hotel chewed my shoe. I spent most of the morning in socks until I could buy new ones. A guy about my age came around selling postcards. Elizabeth and I ended up talking to him for a while and he offered to take us out for a fun day on the town. So we went to visit the temple, get blessed by Laskshmi and head out across the river on our adventure with our guide, Harish. Just before we boarded the boat we saw a snake charmer. A king cobra charming, drone instrument playing busker who scared us then let us hold his 'no poison' snakes. It was thrilling and a little scary. At this point in the day our motto became 'we haven't died yet' and we repeated it many times throughout the remainder. We shared the heavily loaded motor boat with motorcycles and women carrying bushels of fruit. It was ridiculous. We played with a trained baby monkey on the other side of the water, then rented scooters (not my idea) and took off on a tour of the temples on that side of the water. I learned a lot about Hinduism and feel a lot better acquainted with various personalities of gods and the symbolism of the religion. We ended up at a huge lake which several westerners told us 'might have crocodiles, but was good for swimming.' We all jumped in. It was a lot of fun. Many Indian guys came to swim with us. They played music from their cell phones and danced and well all laughed a lot. Let me note here that swimming in pants that balloon is not an easy task. The boys wanted more time on the bikes, and I was REALLY done with them, so Elizabeth and I went to get massages while the boys rode around a while longer. The woman massaged our breasts! We also got henna, which wasn't the best move because we had to pack with one hand each. We were traveling on the wait list, and once again had a lot of trouble finding someone to help us at the train station. It ended up working out great though, because really it just meant they didn't assign the bunks in the cabins, so we slept in a group of bunks that were together. Score.
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