Mysore and Lots-o-dance

Sunday
Sunday was a great day in Mysore. We met our driver and his friend, Prakash, outside our hotel in the morning. We went to the sandalwood and silk factory stores. I had a salwar kamiz made from sari fabric, and I convinced Sheryl to do the same. I also bought my mom's birthday/ Christmas present. Haha. Ohh the suspense. Anyway... everyone got some stuff and we had a lot of fun there. We went to the palace and had our first Indian bribing experience. We skipped a line of about five hundred people by bribing a guy with fifty rupees (that's about a dollar). Then we avoided paying individually to store our cameras by paying a guy a couple rupees to let us keep them in a backpack. The palace in Mysore is BEAUTIFUL. It's completely different from any European palace I've studied. Much of it is open air. You can tell it was designed for good weather. It was really fun to walk through because with the entrance fee there was an included headset which gave a guided tour in English. It was interesting, informative and helpful. Instead of shuffling through each room with hundreds of Indians, hundreds of Indians shuffled past us as we looked at the details and learned factoids.

Then we went to lunch at a place Prakash said was good cheap local food. For RS 30 each (about $.75) we had a full meal. It was really fun. Most of tried to eat with our hands (right hand only of course) and we had to sort of fight for our table. When we left people fought over our table. I really like the food. It was fun. We ate a lot of stuff and I have no idea what it was, but it was mostly delicious. Way better than any thing else I've had here. And Joe chugged the water. Luckily for us he didn't get sick. After lunch we all got to use the internet. It was a lot slower than the internet we get in Hosur, so I didn't even attempt uploading pictures. Apparently in 40 minutes Joe managed to upload four images to facebook. It was so nice to not be rushed and using the internet. Sheryl and I waited for the tailor to bring our outfits and when he did I knew before we even put them on that they'd be beautiful. They were. They look great. We then went back to the shop to pick up Sheryl's other outfit, which finally fit.

We all went to the Palace again, to see it at night. It was a true experience, waiting to get in. A crush of people waiting in line, little boys squeaking balloons trying to get people to buy them, fruit sellers, trinket sellers and always more and more people joining the line. At about five till seven (gates open at seven) the semi-orderly line turned into an all out mob. We were pressed forward in the rush toward the single metal detector entrance. It was incredible. We were literally pressed together on all sides by the sheer amount of people. I'm so glad that I'm tall. At least by Indian standards. I'm tall as most of the guys. So I could see over the crowd. I don't know what it was like for Sheryl. Ick. The lights turned on and people began to enter. It took us about five minutes to get through the gates, but the view on the other side was worth it. It was like being at Disney land. Just awesome. I kept expecting to hear Jimminy Cricket on the loud speaker.

I have to say that I really felt like a little bit of a tourist attraction the entire time I was in Mysore. At St. Philomena's people asked me about the differences in Protestant and Catholic beliefs ("Some people tell me that Protestants believe that Jesus was reincarnated and that's why they celebrate Easter?") and then as soon as we were outside two guys asked to take their picture with me. At the palace during the day a friendly doctor and his wife asked to take photos with us and invited us to visit them. When we went to lunch we ended up being asked to pose for picture after picture. I don't really know why because I look the same as everyone else in my group, but people kept asking me specifically to take pictures with them. At the palace one woman walked up to me and handed me her child. The other volunteers kept telling me I was a movie star and that I should use it to let us skip lines. Sheryl had one woman make her take a picture with her own camera of Sheryl with her four children. Weird.

After the palace at night, which is definitely a must see we went out for a really nice dinner. I had lamb and a beer! We all ate ice cream (mango, pistachio, vanilla ice creams, cake, whipped cream, strawberry and chocolate sauce. Oooh and I had real coffee too! It was wonderful and and basically exactly like dining in any Western restaurant. Except you feel kind of bad for spending money and instead of really nice shirt and ties the waiters were wearing pin stripe kurtas. It was basically bliss. Even with everything we did all weekend (minus the gifts I bought) I only spent about $200 for the whole trip. Yeah. We stayed in a hotel for two nights, had a driver at our beck and call, ate out every meal and did every touristy thing we could. I'm definitely getting a better idea of what it will be like to travel alone.

Monday
We got up early on Monday and it's a good thing because the hotel staff were knocking on our door at 7:30. They apparently kicked Molly and Sheryl out at 8.That was weird. We ate breakfast at the hotel (JAM and toast) then we were on the road to Shravana Belagola. It's an enormous monolithic statue of a naked male figure at the top of a huge hill. We actually had a bet about how many people we'd have to stop and ask to be able to get there. It was six. I think. Anyway about two hours later we arrived in the town. After convincing the locals we weren't going to buy socks, postcards or give money to six year olds holding infants we started walking. It's a Jain holy place and about one thousand steps up. In any case what was harder than climbing the stairs in the blazing sun was passing massive amounts of hunched over old women struggling to climb. It was really rewarding at the top because you have an amazing panoramic view. There's a Jain temple which was a million times more easily accessible if much less colorful than all of the Hindu temples we'd been visiting. Then we climbed a little higher and came through into the temple with the statue and many other statues of Jain holy people. It was really a great stop.

We headed toward home. There was no place to stop for food or bathroom so by the time we hit Bangalore I HAD to pee. I said something and about thirty minutes later we still hadn't stopped. I felt like I was going to explode. Finally the driver tried to pull over on the side of the road. I think he thought Joe had to pee. We stopped at a coffee place around 45 minutes after I said something. It was like a gift from the heavens. We stopped in Hosur for lunch and to stock up on supplies. I got my eyebrows threaded for about $.30. On the way home we stopped to get phone cards and Manu our driver got out of the car, talked to somebody and then got his baby and brought her with us. In the middle of the front seat. No seatbelt. Crazy. When we got back we found out a new volunteer had moved in. His name is Arjun and he's staying the whole time I'm here. He's an NRI and a sophomore at Cornell. The kids at dinner said to me "Miss, miss, look at the new volunteer! He's sooo big! Look at his hair! It's enormous!!!!" When I met him I thought he was Hawaiian. We also found out Dr. George was here. He introduced himself at dinner, and he knew my name. Weird.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning I was really excited to wear my salwar kamiz, because we didn't tell any of the kids that we'd bought them. Both of us got dressed up after aerobics and wore our outfits to breakfast. We got an "OH WOW!" from a kid who saw us and then applause when we entered the dining hall. It was really fun. One of the rows in my class FINALLY got candy! We had dance classes for every grade 1-8th. It was was exhausting, but fun. I found a break and got some henna on my hand. It's beautiful. Our late classes were canceled for Dr. George to talk to the older grades and staff. He assured the staff and children that Shanti Bhavan would go on, but that right now no extras were available. They're not taking a new class again. :-( We watched SATELLITE TV in our lounge on our HUGE FLAT SCREEN TV. Which was installed while we were at class. Yeah. That was nice.

Wednesday
Honestly, I'm exhausted and I don't remember too much about Wednesday except that there were about a million dance classes and the fourth grade is getting better every day. Oh. And Dr. George called all the volunteers for a meeting. We got there at 5:30 and the meeting ended after eight. It was really informative though. We talked about fund raising strategies and about Shanti Bhavan. I learned a lot about the way the school is run and the way the people in charge run things. It costs about $1,500 per kid a year to keep Shanti Bhavan open. Currently the KG is fully sponsored and 1st is partially sponsored. A couple thousand a month come in from the internet and a little more comes from other small donors. The rest comes from major donations. Shanti Bhavan could use about $750,000 in construction. It's nothing urgent, but things that could be done would be completion of the computer lab, completion of the 11 grade wing, upkeep of lights on the grounds etc. They want each volunteer to raise enough money to sponsor a child every year after they leave if they can. I don't think that's unreasonable. If all the past volunteers did that Shanti Bhavan would be set for money. Or if somebody donated an endowment. Interest rates in India are around 10%. You do the math. I think we watched P.S. I Love You before bed.

Thursday
On Thursday we had aerobics with the girls and they were great. Fourth grade was really well behaved and we had a science test. The kids didn't do well, but I knew they wouldn't. My class is smart, and has already completed their math book for the year. They retain vocabulary and English concepts well, but they can't seem to retain science concepts. They have been working on the digestive system since before I came here. I let them review and review. I made them read and quizzed them. But I couldn't find a way to make things stick for them. I'm no teacher. The average grade on the test was really average, but some students did really well. Some students DID NOT. It's hard because these kids don't go home to parents who help them at night. They go back to their dorm where their overwhelmed auntie cares for their physical well being. There's no way the aunties could give the emotional attention to every child that my mother did. There aren't enough hours in the day. That being said, the aunties are amazing! I don't know how they do what they do. It's like suddenly having the Duggar family in your care. Only they're all the same age. And you don't have a washer/ dryer. We had so much dance. I made a playlist for the performance on Saturday on my computer. The kids here really want to know EVERYTHING about the volunteers. It's so funny. After dance class they begged me to see the pictures on my laptop. They want to know about my friends and my family and my clothes and what I am doing in the pictures. It's funny. We watched Mission Impossible and I graded my science tests. I decided to put percentages on them and have a talk about grading in the my school when I was their age. Maybe it'll encourage them to work harder at science.

Friday
We had the older boys and girls at aerobic time to rehearse their dance together. Theirs is the one I'm least excited about because they're not all that thrilled. Actually I had to insist the older boys participate. I came a couple minutes after Sheryl to aerobics and she said they boys were asking if I was coming. When she said yes they apparently were disappointed and when she asked why she found out through further questioning that they thought they could get out of dancing if it was just her, but not if it was me. Which is fine, but I don't really want to have to be the mean teacher. I'm not, but I do expect the kids to follow reasonable requests. I think I'm the kind of teacher I liked to have when I was in school. Tough, but fair and ready to have fun if we're getting the job done. In any case, it wasn't fair to the 9th grade boys who wanted to dance to let the 11th grade boys veto it for them. I feel bad for the the 10th and 7th grades because they're not getting to dance. 7th grade is on academic and behavioral probation and 10th is preparing their national exams, which will play a huge roll in their futures. The kids take exams in 10th and 12th grades and schools look at them both for admissions. The good news is that he majority of the kids are eligible for the highest level of affirmative action in India. The rest of them (the kids who are Christian or Muslim) are eligible for the second highest level of aid. So while we expect the kids to get into schools based on merit, their spots in schools are almost guaranteed.

The fourth grade had both a spelling test and a math test. They got pretty restless, but I can't blame them. I'm hoping their math tests are better than their science tests. I expect them to be. These kids are really good at math. We have assembly every day where the news is read and school news is discussed. The dances will be presented at assembly on Saturday. On Fridays the news is given in Hindi. Which is great for all the students who start Hindi in second grade, but it's a little boring for the Western volunteers. I wish I spoke Hindi or had the time to try to learn some. I'm so BUSY though. It's like I am working two full time jobs and have about five less hours in every day. I'm doing my best. Tons more dance again and we had an awesome snack! We had cake and tuna fish sandwiches. I was so happy! Plus Mary Mitchell Campbell arrived today and will be here for the week. AND I GOT A BOX WITH CANDY AND A PICTURE OF MY MOMMY TODAY!!!!! I was in such a great mood. Swedish fish put me in a great mood in the U.S. They made me ecstatic here. Plus MMC gave us candy when we were watching Indiana Jones around bed time. I had shortbread and M&M's. MMMMMMM.

Today was an AWESOME DAY. I had a dance party with a lot of the kids and I got to have a long conversation with Jayshree (I have no idea how to spell her name). She told me the story of Ganesh (story #3 I've heard): Pavrati made a boy out of Sandalwood paste. He was so beautiful that she gave him life. She was tired of Shiva just popping in and out whenever he wanted, so she made Ganesh guard her rooms to give her some privacy. He denied Shiva entrance to Pavrati's rooms, so Shiva sent some of his minions to kill Ganesh. A huge war between Pavrati and Shiva ensued, and Shiva felt bad, so he decided that the next animal to walk down the path would replace Ganesh's decapitated head. It was an elephant. She told me many other myths as well. It's really interesting to hear about how her family works and what her life has been like. She invited me to visit her house and to eat beef with her on Sunday. I want to get her some kind of treat (I don't think sharing my Swedish Fish was enough)... plus she's planning on helping Molly and I pick out Saris and Salwars.

The show's tomorrow, and afterwords we're going to Hosur. Going to buy a sari, maybe a salwar suit. :-)

I was talking to MMC about Emily (miss you tons, you should come here, you'll love it). I've also been thinking of Rob Rob, Eric and my brother (happy 21st little dude). I really miss my church kids, too. Hugs and Love!