I can’t believe I’ve been living here for four
weeks. It seriously feels like I have been here longer than that. I realized
that getting through these next few months will be a lot easier than I
originally believed. We got a copy of the tentative master schedule last week
which helped us get a better ideal the rest of our time will go. I am really
looking forward to October for several reasons but I won’t tell you all why for
a few more weeks!
At the end of my last post, I said that I wasn’t
feeling well. The next day, was even worst. I had flu-like symptoms which made
me think that I had malaria. I was in no way being unrealistic about this maybe
diagnosis of myself. During my first week here, I forgot to take one of my
anti-malaria pills so I jumped to the conclusion that the one missed pill gave
me malaria. Thankfully, I started feeling better the next day so all is well!
No malaria for me!!! I have been making sure that I take my pills EVERY DAY
since I had that scare.
Two weekends ago was such a wonderful one! We spent
time with our chota bhai (little brother), Ankur. His family went back to their
village for the weekend however; he had to stay in here on the campus since he
had classes. So we invited him over to the guest house to watch movies and play
Uno (his new addiction, seriously). The movie we planned to watch did not have
subtitles. So we decided to surf the web and play Uno until Ankur could not
keep stay awake anymore. On Sunday, we went to the malls with Ankur who triples
as our brother, bodyguard and translator. After we had lunch in the food court,
ice cream, and did a little bit of shopping we headed home. Ankur had to go to
a physics study session so we hung out with Sunil in the café until study time
was over. We then went to dinner with Ankur at a hotel nearby. It was really
nice, the restaurant was outdoors.
So, the “mouse” in the house has been the topic of
discussion lately. I woke up at 6AM last Tuesday to the sound of rattling. When
I went into the living room, I noticed what I assumed was a rat inside the mouse
trap. Anyways, I left campus for a while to teach a singing class at the rural
campus. When I returned my friends were telling me about the “chachudar” that
was in the trap. I thought that was just the Hindi word for rat but oh no!
Chacundars are Asian house shrews. What the heck?! We told our Hindi teacher
about it in class which got a big reaction from her. Supposedly, they bite. She
told us a story about how she was bit by one when she was 10 years old while
she was sleeping.
The view of the Ganga at the rural campus!
Since the students finished exams, last week was
relaxing for them. The teachers planned various activities for them to do throughout
the day and they were given half-days all week. The crew and I were asked to
help by doing an activity with various classes on Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday. So I did music, Shadi did dancing, Elizabeth and Maddie did art ad
Ivy did English and theater. The whole week was leading up to the Teacher’s Day
celebration on Friday. There was a big program coordinated by some of the older
students. There were songs, dances, skits and games throughout the morning. Our
very sneaky chota bhai got us all called on stage to participate in one of the games.
The participants had to dance on a mat with a partner until the music stopped.
After each the mat was folded, making it smaller. Ivy and I, being the
competitive people that we are, got creative. After a few rounds, I jumped on
her back, which is something I don’t think people had seen before then because we
got a huge response to that. Ivy and I ended coming in third place.
This past Saturday, we took a trip to Allahabad
which is about 3 hours away with Rajat (his is the guy in charge of us during
our stay). About halfway into the trip, we pulled over to the side of the
highway to buy chai from a chai stand. It was seriously some of the best chai
I’ve had here and I’ve had some good chai! When we got back on the road we
ended missing our exit and went to the wrong toll booth. So we had to turn
around and literally ended up driving the wrong way on the highway for a few
minutes. It was terrified. We told Rajat that something like that could not
happen in America and responded, “Well this is India!” When we pulled of the
highway in Allahabad, some weird things happened. First, we pulled over to ask
an officer for directions and for some odd reason, the cop was paid after
arguing with Rajat and the driver. We all heard the word “passport” being said
a few times so we don’t know if the cop was paid off for us not having our
passports with us or if it was just a tip for helping us. We tried to ask about
what happened but the answer we got made absolutely no sense at all. Then as
soon as the officer walked away, a man jumped on our car trying to get us to
take a ride for the river so he can take us on a boat ride. The man refused to
get off of the truck for a good minute and a half. Finally, he got off. After
driving for a bit, another man approached the truck wanting to lead us to the
river. So we drove for a few minutes with the man hanging on the outside of the
truck. Once at Sangam, we were literally swarmed by men trying to persuade us
to take a ride on their boat. However, they couldn’t comprehend that we were uninterested
so we quickly left from the beach area and returned to the truck. We then
visited a fort and two temples in the area. We found a mall and ate some
delicious food and ice cream in the food court. Our last stop was the home of
the first prime minister of independent India which is now a museum.
On Sunday, we went to dinner at a Rajasthani
restaurant with Rajat, the mehndi (henna) teacher, her daughter and one of the
drivers. The waiting area consisted of large hammocks for everyone to sit one. The
food there was really good! There was a technique to eating our food. I forgot
the name of all of the dishes but you are given a small bread ball like thing
that was filled with paneer, a bowl of dal (lentils), another bowl of a potato
and eggplant mixture and chutneys. You first have to break the ball into small pieces.
Then you pour the dishes over it. Finally you add chutney. You then smash it
all together with your hands and enjoy. SO GOOD! The plates were made of dried
leaves stitched together and the bowls/ cups were made of clay. The meal was
concluded with a mouth refresher of sugar and anise. This is something we have
been served at almost every restaurant we have been to.
Yesterday was the first day of my internship. I
found out about it fifteen minutes before my class was supposed to start so I
was really unprepared. Luckily, Ivy and I both got placed with Class 8 and our
internships are similar. Ivy is showing the students how drawing can be used as
a tool to discuss topic that may are harder to discuss. And mine is using
writing and music as a way to do the same. Ultimately we both want to get the
students to think more deeply about issues such as body image, caste and
gender. And discuss ways to promote more positive thoughts about them. So every
week we will have a different theme (body image, respect, confidence, colorism,
beauty, etc.) and on one day the girls will do art while the boys do
songwriting then they will switch for the other day. Since it was the first
day, we had a joint discussion about positivity and brainstormed possible themes.
Then for the last 20 minutes, we split into groups and talked about colorism. I
am really excited for this because the kids have so much to say during
discussion!
About an hour ago, we came back from an art workshop. Also today is Ivy’s
birthday so everyone is in a good mood and “happy feeling” in the words of
Sunil! We threw her a surprise party after dinner in the cafe with two of the didis, Sunil, the guard and his kids, and the driver and his kids.
I would like to apologize for the huge gap in this
post from my last post. Things have been hectic between taking my classes,
teaching classes and just living over here in general. Once I get used to my
new schedule, I will be able to write more often hopefully!
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