And it begins...

I apologize for not having written in a while - it's been a very hectic and exhausting few days.

Saturday we went into Laxmi road to do some exploring and shopping. I regrettably don't have any photographs, but I'm sure they'll come eventually. We went to Bangle Alley where all the sellers call out for you to buy from them and when they see a foreigner they start shouting out "big sizes! big sizes!" which offends a lot of people, but it only means that foreigners tend to have larger hands than indians.


Lindsay and I in a Rickshaw!


Muriel and Roberta in another rickshaw!

I also finally bought a sari, along with a petticoat and blouse material. It is currently getting sewn up by the tailor, and i'll be sure to post photos of me in it once it's done. It was a cheaper one, i figured I'd wait a while before going all out on a really nice expensive one. Still, it's silk with a simple but pretty pattern on it.

On Sunday morning, we joined the UK women on their visit to the SOS Children's village nearby. It's an excellent set up there, and it was great to see one in person and how it all works. Minakshi has a guide group there, so we visited the group to share games and crafts that they could then share with their "families". (the village is set up with 9-11 kids in each house with one "mother" and they grow up all together so they actually become like real brothers and sisters) It was a whole lot of fun, and most of htem had at least a few words in english, making it easier to explain the games and crafts. It also helped to have a few people there who were able to translate.


Some of the guides - in uniform (kind of like our old school guide uniforms!) - doing crafts.


I spent a lot of time with these two girls - Prachi and Shilpa.

Sunday night, the UK women were having their traditional maharastrian night/dinner, and since we didn't yet have our saris done, we thought we'd skidaddle so as to not ruin the surprise. There's a group just starting a program who did the same, so the three of us CVs, 2 of the PA (Sarah and Jemma) and the 7 girls in the program (mostly from australia, new zealand and england) went out to dinner and a movie! However, before we even got into the mall, a very important thing was checked off our "plane list" (like bucket list, but instead of "kick the bucket" it's "catching our plane out of india"... basically, stuff we want to do while in india!) Anywho - we saw an elephant!!! And lindsay gave it a coin (it's like a blessing or something if you do, but it was cool cause the elephant takes it in its trunk and passes it up to the guy riding it). There's still another elephant-related item on our list - to ride an elephant - but it was nice to at least see one!!)



But getting back to the movie. We couldn't get tickets to the real bollywood movie, so we went to one called "the President is coming..." that's about the search for "a young indian" to shake george bush's hand when he comes to india for a visit. It's set up like a documentary/reality show.... it was strange but hilarious! and going to the movie was interesting. Everyone stands up and sings the national anthem at the beginning, and there's an intermission in the middle.

After the movie, we were waiting for the other girls to grab supper (we weren't all that hungry since we had eaten so much movie junk!) so we went to McDonald's. I know I have a policy of avoiding restaurants that we have at home while traveling, but I had to see an Indian McDonalds!! So I got a veggie burger, and it was really good! way better than a real hamburger. It was kind of like a flat, circular vegetable Pakoda on a bun with lettuce. yummm.


Us in McDonald's!


My burger!

After the participants were safely returned to Sangam, Lindsay, myself, sara, Jemma, Maddie and a couple of their local friends went to a club for some drinks. It was great! A lot like the martini bar, actually. it felt like we could have been at home. except for the fact it closed at 11:30... apparently indians don't party very late.

Monday was my first day of work, in the morning we went to the main office and in the afternoon we were at our sites. It was exhausting, but kind of fun. It was nice to see the creche "in action" and I was able to help with the math, since the older boys were doing their math work in english numbers. At one point, we were playing a version of soccer where one person from each team runs forward to kick the ball and whoever gets to it first and kicks the ball gets a point, I suppose. I, however, didn't compute the fact we were playing on gravel and instead of kicking the ball when I got to it, I slid and fell flat on my back - the ball remained where it was. I wish I had a video of it, because I'm sure it must have been absolutely hilarious! It did, however, result in a cut elbow and hand, as well as a bruised back and perhaps my pride.

Today, however, was my second day and it was a lot worse. The teachers I don't think realised that I would need some time to work up to the level where Johanna (the CVP at this site before me, who finished in December) was when she left.... so they just gave me the middle group, of about 40 kids aged 4-7 or so (it's hard to judge ages...) for the morning and didn't give me or the kids instructions or materials... It was very overwhelming. and in the afternoon a bunch of visitors came because it's a holiday, so the teachers visited with them and left me nd the woman hired to do the cleaning and cooking and stuff to make sure the kids didn't kill themselves. It was an insane, very difficult day, but tomorrow is a break! So that will give me some time to recharge before returning on thursday (we work Mon, Tues, thurs, Fri, and we have hindi lessons and meetings on wed, and we're off sat and sun)

I'll get some pictures up once I get up the nerve to actually take out my camera while at the creche... I'm afraid of how excited the kids will get!!

Either way. It's been an exhausting two days, and i can see that the next three months are going to be quite the challenge, but I'm sure it will get easier and more fun once I know the kids better and I get a better feel for the language and routine (if there is one, really...)

Anywho, it's 9:30 here now and that's almost bed time... sad really, but it's just so tiring that we need that much sleep to recover!!

I hope everything is going well at home. I hear the guides are heading to the provincial court this week - I wish I could be there with you, but I'll have to settle for photos!!!