My first few days

So I've been here at Sangam for about 3 days now and it's so comfortable. I think the wonderful thing about guiding is that no matter where you are in the world, other guiders will take you in as their family and instantly make you feel at home. When we met Eszter and Mina, the women who run the CVP, and the other volunteers, they gave us big hugs and they were so excited to meet us, it was great!

Yesterday was a day that was overflowing with information. It was our first official day and the morning as filled with a meeting with Mina and Eszter - lots of information to absorb!! In the afternoon we got the practical tour of Sangam- where to do laundry, how to turn on the pool lights, how take away lunches work, etc...

But after that I finally got to have a dip in the pool. yesterday was comparatively cooler and a lot of the girls were wearing sweaters (or "jumpers" :P), but it was still warm enough for a swim in my books... but i was getting some funny looks! especially from the local staff who thought I was crazy to go swimming on a cool day in winter!

A group of lovely older ladies from the UK joined us right before supper so it was great to meet them. For the rest of the week, we'll be having sessions with them, like going shopping on MG road and we have the option of tagging along to some of their sightseeing things.

This morning we went exploring the phulenagar neighborhood across the street (Phule = Jyotirao Phule who helped a lot with getting education for women mainstreamed and Nagar = neighborhood). It's more of a middle-class neighborhood, Priyanka grew up there (she works here). We visited some temples and we visited the home of one of Sangam's employees. 11 people lived in this tiny little house that was so neat and clean and SO organized! It was amazing!



There was also a lot of beautiful Rangoli to be found. Rangoli is a design formed with coloured sand or powder that people get up really early in the morning to put on their front step. It welcomes guests and the gods into the home. (click on the picture to make it bigger)



We also saw a bit of the neighborhood next door but i can't remember what it's called... anyways, it's not as affluent an area as across the street. It's the same size as Sangam - about 7 acres, but 10,000 people live there, including some of the sangam staff.

I'll get some more photos off of Lindsay - she had her camera out more than i did.

For the worriers who are reading, I'm good! I haven't gotten sick or anything, and I'm enjoying it so far. I apparently didn't bring as many shirts as I thought, though. So I'm going to have to get some punjabi suits made up when we go shopping tomorrow (maybe a couple of plain ones for working at the creche and a nicer one for out and about). I'm also hoping to find some nice material for a sari or two!
I'm nervous about next week when we start at the Creche sites. The teachers apparently speak very little english, and we're going to be by ourselves at the sites so it will be awkward and nerve-wracking for the first little while.

I hope everyone is enjoying their time before heading back to class. I'm usually on msn in the mornings (my time) which is around 10:30 pm or so in NL. Sometimes I'm on in the evenings my time too which would be around 1:00 pm or so at home.