Kerala Trip

During Diwali, Anna and I went to Kerala, which is in the South of India, as we had some time off from school, (for photos see facebook). We did many things including a backwater tour, rode an elephant through a jungle, bathed an elephant and saw tea plantations. We had a great time and although we did lots we had a very relaxing time. Riding an elephant was definately an experience, there is a much greater side to side movement than riding a horse and I was very glad of the handle on the saddle when we started going downhill! However, it was good fun and I am very glad that I did it :) We went to watch the elephants being bathed in the morning at the river and there was about 30 people watching 4 elephants, who were 4, 5, 7 and 39, Anna and I had our punjabis on which we think gave us an advantage. We were beckoned to walk through the water to a rocky area which was very close to the elephants, I asked if we could help to bathe them and I was told no. Then later on, one of the guys told us we could and we washed one of the little ones, it was good fun (we were the only ones who helped bathe them!) The elephants use their trunks like a snorkel and play too, it is quite funny to watch.

In Kerala, the state is mainly Christain due to the large European influence, so we didn't see much Diwali celebrations but we did hear the occassional fire cracker (yes, not fire work, they just go bang and are not pretty). Apparently Pune and Delhi sounded like a war zone so I am glad that we didn't have that, apart from fire crackers the main Diwali thing seems to be to spend time with your family. When we arrived at Pune airport, there was a load of fire crackers set off right outside the entrance when we had just entered the building which made me think that at home that would have set off a terrorism alert but here everyone continued with their lives as it is Diwali! It was a bit strange.

We saw spice and tea plantations which were interesting to see them growing and learn where they come from and how the tea leaves are processed and made into the tea you drink. It was also interesting to see the spices growing on the trees such as pepper, nutmeg, cardamon, vanilla and a cinnamon tree, we even saw rubber trees!

Yesterday we went back to school and it was the kids first day back after Diwali break so first thing in the morning there was less kids than normal but they slowly appeared. They did seem to be a bit more hyper than normal, I did body parts with them which seemed to be a good theme as they already knew some parts so I could build on their knowledge. Also, I could combine a revision of colours and numbers such as hair and eye colour and number of fingers. We did a version of beetle drive but drawing a face, did a memory game with body part flashcards, body part bingo and songs. The songs I did was 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' which they already knew so it was a good starting point then 'one finger, one thumb, keep moving' including different body parts in each verse, which worked well. They love songs with lots of actions and they don't have to understand the words to enjoy it but they still repeat english words and if the action ties into the worrd meaning then hopefully they might get a step closer to learning some more words!

Today was our Wednesday session and the CVPs went to a sari/punjabi making factory where they weave the material, they used a system like the old computers with notches to process a particular pattern to lift certain threads up. Then we went to one of the main Ganesh temples in Pune and finally we all went out for lunch which was really nice. In the afternoon, Mina (community relations manager), Aruna (House and property manager) and Christa (community realtions intern) who had been with us for the morning headed back to Sangam while Kristen, Gerda, Anna and myself headed down MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road to do some shopping.

In Hindi lessons for the last two weeks we have been starting to read and write Hindi script which is very complicated as there are over 30/40 letters but then when a vowel comes after a constanant, you combine the vowel and constanant together to make a new combination letter! It is interesting to learn but I don't know how useful it will be, but I am starting to recognise characters when we are out but could not tell you what it says and definately not what it means! Oh well, we try and we have fun trying :)

Talk soon, Phir Melenge (see you soon in Hindi)
xxx

Community Partners

Sangam has many community partners that it works with both for the CVP program (that I am doing) and for event participants to help out in the community. We have visited many of these partners such as the Aditya Learning Centre out in the Indian countryside, which is a school for village girls to encourage them to continue education with small class sizes. A lot of the village schools only teach until year 4 or 7 after which they have to travel further to another school at which point many of the parents pull their girls out of school so that they can work at home and in the fields. It is considered that girls will marry and look after the house and family so do not need an education so don't need to go to school, however this is slowly changing. The girls here are between standards 8-12. A lot of the girls mothers didn't go to school at all and if they made it to standard 4 or 7 they were very proud of them. The countryside around here was beautiful, rice fields, mountains, open countryside, the girls took us on a two hour walk to their village it was a wonderful experience.









Another of the community partners that we have visited is Maher (http://www.maherashram.org/) which is a home for woman and children to be safe and have food and a home. It was a wonderful organisation, they gave us a beautiful welcome ceremony, with a song 'happy welcome to you, happy welcome to you, happy welcome dear friends, happy welcome to you' and many other songs some of which the children ran up to us and hugged us. At the end they all wanted to know our names. They were very cute children. The organisation is set up so there are about 25 children in one home with two mother figures, one of whom will cook and another will look after the children. We were told some of the children's and woman's stories, some are picked up from the streets and can't remember where they have come from or have lost parents or their parents are too ill to look after them. One of the woman jumped off a bridge into a river with her two children to try and kill herself but failed, someone saw her and told her about Maher, but she wouldn't go, she eventually was persuaded to go and is now happily settled back into life and her children are happy. The children that do still have families go and visit them occasionally to keep contact with their family. This is open to woman, girls and boys of all religions and every religious festival is celebrated equally.





Another organisation we visited was the Muslim Girls' Orphanage, which houses about 170 girls and feeds them. They live in dormitories together and go to the adjoining school and college. It was a big set up with children from the local community also attending the school and college. The girls were very proud to show us their rooms and again they go home for a couple of weeks a year to either a parent or guardian to see life outside and keep contact with their families.

There are so many amazing organisations here to help the people but there are still so many people who need help.

Homes, stick dancing and here is thumb

Today at Avenue site, I asked the teacher where the children live because at this site, it is in a more built up area with lots of apartments. The site has been active since 2004 but there is still lots left to be built. Eventually the area where the labourers (as they are referred to here as) will be built on too. Two of the teachers took Anna and I to see where their houses, which was really interesting. Just up the road from the new apartments the road turns into a gravel unpaved road and there are cows eating from the rubbish skips.
To get to the houses, you walk across loose stones which the children walk across barefoot, only a few of them have shoes. Mainly just the school going children. Their homes are a combination of bricks and metal sheets and are mostly one roomed. Some are two roomed. They have their kitchen, lounge and bedroom all in one. The children were all proud to show us their homes and loved (as usual) having their photos taken. Most of the parents were not around, as they were probably working. Many of the children, have the key for the padlock on their door on a piece of string round their neck or wrist. Neha (who has just had a cast removed from her arm but it is still in a sling) with her sister.
The girl in the middle is Rohina, who comes to the creche in the afternoon and is in my group, the other two girls are her sisters.

I think this is Laxmi's (girl in the brown dress) family, the little baby sleeps in the cot which hangs in the middle of the room. This was a one roomed house, so I assume the rest of the family sleeps under the cot.
Some of the construction, the creche is next to the apartments.


Rohina walking back to the creche after the break they have from 1-2pm when the teachers and us eat our lunch and plan activities. The children have their lunch from 12.30-1pm at the creche.
Aarti at the creche, she saw the camera and really wanted a photo :) she is a helpful girl.

I can't remember this girl's name, she is employed by the construction workers to maintain the creche and keep it clean. Here she is preparing some clay which the kids later made into flowers and Diwali sweets. Diwali is in November, Anna and I are planning on heading down to Kerala to see the backwaters and hopefully some elephants.


The first video is at the Avenue site where the children are singing 'where is thumb' in Marathi. The second video is stick dancing in Phule Nagar, the neighbourhood across the street from Sangam where most of the local guides come from. Stick dancing is a traditional part of the Dassera festival which is currently taking place.

Shaniwarwada

Today we went to Shaniwarwada, which quoting http://www.virtualpune.com/html/localguide/attractions/html/shaniwar_wada.shtml is:

'Shaniwarwada was the stately mansion originally built as the residence of the Peshwas. The foundation of the mansion was laid by Bajirao 1 in the year 1730 AD and construction was completed in 1732 AD at a cost of Rs. 16,120. Several additions were made to the palace like fortification walls with bastions, gates and court halls by his successors.

What was once a seven storied structure was gutted by a fire in the palace. Only the remains can be seen now like the fortification walls with five gateways and nine bastions that enclosed the entire palace. The principal gate is called Dilli Darwaja (Delhi Gate); the other gates are called Mastani or Alibahadur Darwaja, Khidki Darwaja, Ganesh Darwaja and Narayan Darwaja.

The walls in the palace were painted with scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata. A sixteen petal lotus-shaped fountain stands reminiscent of the exquisite work of those times. The historical structure which stands as an important chapter in the history of the Maratha empire, is now maintained by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Around 1,000 people used to stay in the palace.'

It was a good place to go for the morning to relax and see green space, it was interesting how similar it was to a rune of a fort or home in Europe. We had fun walking round trying to work out what the various rooms would have been, some of them had signs but a lot of the signs were missing so it turned into a guessing game. At night time they hold a light and sound show which I will hopefully go and see at some point.

Anna and Casey (new Sangam volunteer from Florida) decided to try out the 1700s baths!

Afterwards, we walked up to Laxmi Road, a typical Indian shopping area/markets/little shops. I brought another punjabi (blue top and white trousers/scarf) and an everyday purple sari in the style of the Pune design which means it is a block purple colour but with a band of design along the edges. Our work punjabis have arrived back from the tailors today so we will wear them to the site tomorrow. They are purple with again a Pune design, it will be interesting to see the children's and teacher's reaction to us wearing Indian clothes at school!

This was one of the views from the walls surrounding the stately home.

Newspaper hats and more...

This week at Clover, I made newspaper hats with the older children, once the younger children saw that the older children had them, every child in the creche wanted one. It was a good job that I had lots of newspaper, Sangam saves its newspapers and so we have a big supply! Once the camera came out, all the children wanted their photo taken too! It is definitely a big novelty to have your photo taken, they all run over and try and see the photo.






This is the bridge that we cross on the way home from the creche, the one in the distance is a new bridge which is being built. I was trying to get a photo of the sunset.
One of my punjabis :) this was taken in Sangam's grounds near the swimming pool.

Some videos at Clover site, the left one is a game/song and the right is prayers before the children eat their lunch.

Creche and photos

Kids at Avenue site (Thurs/Fri) today, these (above) are the little kids, the ones below are the middle age group that Anna works with, she was doing some maths today.
A little one fast asleep in a hammock :)
Some ladies from a Lion Club came to visit today and brought a donation of food. The children who attend Mobile creche get 3 meals a day a kind of porridge made of beans for breakfast at 10am, rice with vegetables (like an Indian rissoto) in at 12.30pm then another meal once we leave in the evening, I am not sure what they have. They have very similar food every day, but today they had a curry with bread rolls followed by rice pudding. I tried a little bit and it was delicious, some of the mums came and had some too and some of the children took some home for their families as there was quite a lot left over but nothing went to waste! The children who go to school have their food at 11.30am so that they can start walking to school and then the children who went to school in the morning have lunch when they come back. Today we only had a half day at school as there was a monthly meeting for all the mobile creche teachers at the head office, we were not able to go and it would have been in Marathi anyway so we wouldn't have understood but it would have been good to have seen the head office. Maybe another day?

Indian traffic and a school update

I thought I would give you some information on Indian traffic systems. Well basically any rules that do exist, don't! If (yes, if, there isn't always) there is a white line in the middle of the road, then it doesn't matter which side of it you drive. If there is lots of traffic you can just drive on the other side of the road. Which means the the cars/rickshaws/scooters/motorbikes sometimes end up off-roading on the other side of the road! Earlier today there was a rickshaw trying to turn right across the traffic but the traffic on the other side was stationary and lots of it, so the rickshaw ended up stationary in the middle of the road. As we went past it on the left, a motorcycle (from the other side of the road) tried to pass this stationary rickshaw on our side of the road! It was crazy, we both ended up stopping and honking! Yes Indian drivers honk their horns a lot, this comes from the basis that a lot of them do not actually have wing mirrors (or any mirrors for that matter) so we honk to overtake/undertake/you're in my way or even just 'I am here'. The trucks all have 'Honk OK Please' painted on the back. Dad, you know how you often joke that people buy models of cars without indicators, well here some of the vehicles don't have indicators or mirrors! I even saw one car today which had one wing mirror and the other one wasn't even bashed off, it just never existed! It is quite crazy system, one person said to me, you don't have to be a good driver here just a lucky one! But don't worry the rickshaw drivers know what they are doing and we are safe! We would be very unsafe, however, if we tried to drive on these roads ourselves as there are literally no rules, it is every man for themselves. You can pull out in front of anyone no matter how close they are, roundabouts are pointless here, give way to the right, what is that? You just push your way out and get driving! It is interesting, another thing is, they do have traffic police, but apparently they always stay on the same roads so people just avoid those roads. So they are basically pointless too, the only real traffic police are the animals! If the cows, goats, dogs, donkeys or any other animal just wonders across the street, as they often do, then the traffic will all stop. One classic things we saw the other day was a cow walking into a petrol station and one of the girls saying that they cow was being filled up with gas!

School is going well, the activities that I am doing this week with the kids are maths, colours, newspaper hats and friendship bracelets. I do a lesson and a craft in the morning and another in the afternoon. It is generally different children in the morning to the afternoon as I have the older group (about 8 to 16) and so they go to school or help with chores at home. A couple stay all day though, so I do activity A with the children one morning and activity B with the children that afternoon, then I swap them over the next day. So that the likelihood of the same children doing the same activity is reduced as they don't always turn up every day and even if they do it can act as a revision session! I do about a 45 minutes to an hours lesson then a craft for 30 to 45 minutes. I also repeat the Monday/Tuesday activities on Thursday/Friday as we visit a different site. The newspaper hats went down so well with the older children that suddenly all the children in the creche wanted one! The friendship bracelets also worked well with the boys and girls, even the teachers loved making them. About 10 minutes (3.50pm) before we were due today, we had a monsoon down pour which in a building with a tin roof (we have bricks walls but metal sheets on the roof) is very noisy. The teachers wouldn't let us go home as it is about a 15 minute walk back to the main road to find a rickshaw, so we continued playing games with the children and one of the teachers, Aarchina, made us chai. Indian chai is amazing! At about 4.30pm it was still raining but much slower and the river which had formed outside the door to the creche had subsided quite a lot. So we headed out with our umbrellas and raincoats and said bye the children. Bye Didi, bye. Didi means older sister and it is what we get called all day at school, it is a respectful thing and is much nicer than Madam or teacher! A funny thing about the kids English, m is pronounced as yam, n is yan and y is yes. I was asking the children, 'what colour is this?' and they had to answer 'this is...' and it turned into 'yes yes pink' or 'yes yes blue'. After a while they got the hang of it but it was funny at first, I wonder whether it was because they knew the word for yes and hadn't heard of 'this is...' before. It was good when it clicked and they got it. :)