the train to delhi was fine, in fact fun. We just chatted and played games and spoke to tourists, and slept. The idex hotel was beautiful. Me and another volunteer hopped on a bicycle taxi and went to a mall in Delhi which was enormous and i have never seen such an upper class mall in my entire life. It genuinely makes the trafford centre seem like a scruffy place. We had a kind of house party at night. I got my hair straightened which was not a pretty sight but it made us all laugh which is the main thing. The flight was fine. we had lot's to drink as it was included. We were all very emotional, some excited some sad. I got back and saw Louise, my mum and dad for the first time in what seemed like forever. I must be honest and admit that i was not sad to leave my indian friends. I spent ten weeks with them non stop. They have had such a huge impact on me that i will never forget a single one of them. I am over the moon to be home. India was enlightening. Thanks go to all who read this blog and supported me.
ps - dear old james, if you are reading this it means you kept the blog. I hope you did other cool stuff after this! you better have a degree man!
Monday 18 October 2010
Saturday 9 October 2010
last blog until I conclude from my home in england :)
2/10/2010 very interesting day. went to town early in the morning and did some lone wolf shopping. loads of us went to a roof top restaraunt for lunch. it took 3 hours, the food was rubbish and we spent an hour arguing with the staff over the price. we took about a third of a ten person bill so it was worth the heated debating. we went on the lake on boats for an hour which was brilliant, although we kept crashing which was as dangerous as it was funny.we slept in a hotel in the fort, the view was unbelievable and i slept like a baby.
3/10/2010 woke up at about 8. spent a couple of hours enjoying the morning sun. I went off wandering alone again. I saw a group of volunteers after a while so i chilled with them for most of the day. we did loads of group bartering and got loads of good prices for stuff. we are not tourists so we do not act like it or accept tourist prices. nothing near them actually. we spent a few hours swimming in the early evening. We had a few beers at the pool and then paid a hotel owner a small sum to sleep on his roof. it was immense. beers, friends, sleeping under the stars on top of a fort in the great thar desert of india. I could not ask for much more. we woke up with the sun and it felt good.
4/10/2010 got up about 6 am. we had a laugh over a horrible breakfast and set off back to work. it had been ghandi's birthday over the weekend so traffic was a bit mental. The taj mahal goers spent 44 hours in the jeep rather than the mere 36 hours it took my group last week. partly due to the commonwealth games. School was excellent today. It was our health day and we taught the kids about cleanliness in general. we gave out a load of tooth brushes and toothpastes which many of them had never seen nor used. we played a load of games too. musical statues was my favourite. We painted the school in the afterrnoon. I went to bed at 4am and slept all the way until 7 the next morning. I had a really bad rash. I was to spend the next several days thinking i had malaria. but i can tell you now, i don't and i didn't. i was paranoid because about 15 people on camp have got malaria. pretty rubbish.
5/10/2010 woke up after that ridiculously long sleep. I felt dazed and strange. We set off on a 3 hour trip to see a government gm crops lab. It was rubbish. It was a load of boring government propoganda and i wish we did not waste a day there, rather than be with the kids. I tried millet and basil plant, which were unfortunately the highlights. Spent the night when we got back lying under the stars outside. We played music and chatted and relaxed. we saw tons of shooting stars as we always do.
6/10/2010 we were allowed a lie in today but i woke up at 6ish with the sun. We had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Today was our fun/sports day at school. it was brilliant. Football, limbo, balloons, drawing, painting, general chaos. The kids just ran round and acted like kids. They are very surpressed for most of their young lives. Had a good deep chat with my project exec vinod, i shall miss him a lot. He is only 24 but acts much older. In the afternoon I returned to learn that even more people had contracted malaria. I did a lot of cheering up sad people, which cheered me up too. Things i am looking forward to upon my return home besides people are : a pint of carling, fruit juice, milk, takeaways, red meat, mayonnaise, pastry, football, a double bed, warm running water, electricity. In the evening I had a rubbish night. I just got upset as i ever have in my life. Purely because i have been away for so long and i want to come home to everything that makes me happy. I have been so lucky to do this but i am ready to go back to england.
7/10/2010 I woke up with snot and dried tears all over my face which tells you what a state i was in. The quicker these last days go the better! We got a tuc tuc to our last day of school. It was chaos again, we just had fun with them and played a load of games.The goodbye was not emotional because the kids were too busy playing with the presents we had got them to think much about our departure. This was maybe a good thing. I left Jodha village for good, I felt proud rather than sad to have made it through. I am not cut out for teaching young children as a career, but it has been damn fine giving it a go. Spent the afternoon in the pool with one of the other volunteers just to escape camp. it was really nice, played a bit of frizbee and relaxed. I went to bed a lot happier tonight than the last night.
8/10/2010 woke up in a good mood with the sun again. I am pretty much camp early bird these days. I am almost always one of the first 2/3 awake. We spent a couple of hours evaluating the second half of the trip. I spent the two hours after this packing. It took absolutely ages and I will be fortunate if i am allowed on as i have far too much weight and hand luggage. I do not want to throw stuff away but i have no money so i am not sure what i can do. It is about 32 degrees hotter here than in england, and i dont even feel warm. because of this i think it is likely i will freeze and get ill in england because im acclimatised to 40 degrees plus weather. We had our leaving party, and it was pretty good. we had amazing food, dancing, drinks, a talent show. we all tried to dress and look our best and we had a late curfew. it was nice.
9/10/2010 today i have spent wandering round town saying goobye to everyone ive met in jaisalmer. im staying on a roof in the fort if all goes to plan. probably have a few drinks and enjoy my last night. tomorrow i have to be back at camp for 8. i will pretty much waste time until half 2, then i set off for my train. train leaves at about 5, and that will be it. i will just get closer and closer to home :)
3/10/2010 woke up at about 8. spent a couple of hours enjoying the morning sun. I went off wandering alone again. I saw a group of volunteers after a while so i chilled with them for most of the day. we did loads of group bartering and got loads of good prices for stuff. we are not tourists so we do not act like it or accept tourist prices. nothing near them actually. we spent a few hours swimming in the early evening. We had a few beers at the pool and then paid a hotel owner a small sum to sleep on his roof. it was immense. beers, friends, sleeping under the stars on top of a fort in the great thar desert of india. I could not ask for much more. we woke up with the sun and it felt good.
4/10/2010 got up about 6 am. we had a laugh over a horrible breakfast and set off back to work. it had been ghandi's birthday over the weekend so traffic was a bit mental. The taj mahal goers spent 44 hours in the jeep rather than the mere 36 hours it took my group last week. partly due to the commonwealth games. School was excellent today. It was our health day and we taught the kids about cleanliness in general. we gave out a load of tooth brushes and toothpastes which many of them had never seen nor used. we played a load of games too. musical statues was my favourite. We painted the school in the afterrnoon. I went to bed at 4am and slept all the way until 7 the next morning. I had a really bad rash. I was to spend the next several days thinking i had malaria. but i can tell you now, i don't and i didn't. i was paranoid because about 15 people on camp have got malaria. pretty rubbish.
5/10/2010 woke up after that ridiculously long sleep. I felt dazed and strange. We set off on a 3 hour trip to see a government gm crops lab. It was rubbish. It was a load of boring government propoganda and i wish we did not waste a day there, rather than be with the kids. I tried millet and basil plant, which were unfortunately the highlights. Spent the night when we got back lying under the stars outside. We played music and chatted and relaxed. we saw tons of shooting stars as we always do.
6/10/2010 we were allowed a lie in today but i woke up at 6ish with the sun. We had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Today was our fun/sports day at school. it was brilliant. Football, limbo, balloons, drawing, painting, general chaos. The kids just ran round and acted like kids. They are very surpressed for most of their young lives. Had a good deep chat with my project exec vinod, i shall miss him a lot. He is only 24 but acts much older. In the afternoon I returned to learn that even more people had contracted malaria. I did a lot of cheering up sad people, which cheered me up too. Things i am looking forward to upon my return home besides people are : a pint of carling, fruit juice, milk, takeaways, red meat, mayonnaise, pastry, football, a double bed, warm running water, electricity. In the evening I had a rubbish night. I just got upset as i ever have in my life. Purely because i have been away for so long and i want to come home to everything that makes me happy. I have been so lucky to do this but i am ready to go back to england.
7/10/2010 I woke up with snot and dried tears all over my face which tells you what a state i was in. The quicker these last days go the better! We got a tuc tuc to our last day of school. It was chaos again, we just had fun with them and played a load of games.The goodbye was not emotional because the kids were too busy playing with the presents we had got them to think much about our departure. This was maybe a good thing. I left Jodha village for good, I felt proud rather than sad to have made it through. I am not cut out for teaching young children as a career, but it has been damn fine giving it a go. Spent the afternoon in the pool with one of the other volunteers just to escape camp. it was really nice, played a bit of frizbee and relaxed. I went to bed a lot happier tonight than the last night.
8/10/2010 woke up in a good mood with the sun again. I am pretty much camp early bird these days. I am almost always one of the first 2/3 awake. We spent a couple of hours evaluating the second half of the trip. I spent the two hours after this packing. It took absolutely ages and I will be fortunate if i am allowed on as i have far too much weight and hand luggage. I do not want to throw stuff away but i have no money so i am not sure what i can do. It is about 32 degrees hotter here than in england, and i dont even feel warm. because of this i think it is likely i will freeze and get ill in england because im acclimatised to 40 degrees plus weather. We had our leaving party, and it was pretty good. we had amazing food, dancing, drinks, a talent show. we all tried to dress and look our best and we had a late curfew. it was nice.
9/10/2010 today i have spent wandering round town saying goobye to everyone ive met in jaisalmer. im staying on a roof in the fort if all goes to plan. probably have a few drinks and enjoy my last night. tomorrow i have to be back at camp for 8. i will pretty much waste time until half 2, then i set off for my train. train leaves at about 5, and that will be it. i will just get closer and closer to home :)
Thursday 7 October 2010
an extremely brief update.
today is thursday 7th oct. i have finished work now. ive said bye to the kids. tomorrow we are having an absolutely massive party in camp with a talent show, dancing, food and games. in england it would be a night out, here it is paradise. anyway, i am pretty much off duty until sunday afternoon (morning in england) then i will do a short drive to an 18 hour train ride. sleep in delhi, then hop on a plane to london, and drive home.
thus, i should have time to write my blog properly either tomorrow or saturday. i have about 300 more pics. however, i reckon i will wait until im home to put those on facebook. i can say that ive loved it, the kids, the place and the people, but im ready for home. please check for updates tomorrow and saturday and sunday even.
i love y'all.
ps - we are hearing a lot about a high terrorist alert because of some trouble in pakistan. this highly worries me.
thus, i should have time to write my blog properly either tomorrow or saturday. i have about 300 more pics. however, i reckon i will wait until im home to put those on facebook. i can say that ive loved it, the kids, the place and the people, but im ready for home. please check for updates tomorrow and saturday and sunday even.
i love y'all.
ps - we are hearing a lot about a high terrorist alert because of some trouble in pakistan. this highly worries me.
Saturday 2 October 2010
in one week, i will be on the way home :) this blog is huge.
firstly, sorry for the lack of blog. this may or may not be my last one. also, there are hundreds more photos of me on facebook. the taj mahal ones are blurry but my friends have better ones which will be up a few weeks after we get home.
20 / 9/ 2010 woke up at half 6, knackered from the camel safari. the whole camp felt like we had run a marathon. sun burn, dehydration and sore thighs! had a shower and got into school, we continued teaching about body parts and we are certainly getting somewhere. painted big india flags on the school in afternoon construction which is a lot more satisfying than moving rocks in the hot sun. tea was spaghetti and potatoes which was marvellous. the last month with this chef has been excellent. i hardly remember what dhal tastes like. i found out the chef's helper was called dan singh which deserved a laugh, so it got one! we had a rare bit of electricity so we watched about half of ghandi.
21/9/2010 still worn out from the camel, our thighs made us pay. pancakes for breakfast softened the blow though. school was a bit rubbish, some school holiday meant that almost all the kids were off. this happens all the time and we never get told. the way india works in terms of time and preparation is so different to england. much slower and laid back, they seem to have faith that every thing will just fall into place which from my experience it does - ish. we just drew pictures with the kids. when we got back i destroyed a couple of hornets nests in the girl's rooms. i then saw a peacock and preceeded to chase it. noone told me in school how quick peacocks were. quick! i may as well have been chasing the road runner. played a game of catch with some indian kids from the village. I also saw a goat sacrifice, long story short i got an opportunity to hold a goat scrotum and i took it.
this needs a pharagraph on its own. for reasons too indepth to write here. the indian company who i work for, are extremely corrupt. i exxagerate not. they are quite a disgusting company in terms of ethics.
moving on, typhoid, possibly tb, and definitely malaria, along with a hugely poisonous snake have all made their way to camp. yaaaaay. i have pulled half the hairs of my little beard out through boredom which i can assure you is painful. did painting in the afternoon, and then i spent half an hour teaching dance moves to some indian village kid. he doesnt know that i cant dance, so it was good for my ego. played a lot of connect 4 at night then went to bed.
22/9/2010 Woke up to electricity, a shower and scrambled eggs. it was going to be a good day. it is cold in the mornings now in india, although to you western folk i am sure you would be sweating buckets. i think i will have thinner blood now, and will find english winter hard! taught the kids groups of letters at school. Then i learnt some more hindi words off my executive in my spare time. I also wrote down a list of english swear words. he asked for the meanings because when we all used them he wanted to know the context etc. im not saying we swear much, he just wanted to learn. went to town in my time off. tourist season is starting so suddenly there are europeans and rich indians everywhere. i feel like its my village, but when they look at me they probably think i am a tourist too. listened to a lot of indian pop music which i love. had an early night after painting.
23/9/2010 woke up feeling weird. the toilet trips have been off again. Also, most of have definitely managed to pick up a cold. chappattis, jam, spicy nutty rice for breakfast. took the morning off in an attempt to recover. After 30 minute battle with gravity i managed to fix my spasmodic mosquito net to the roof. people keep getting malaria so we are all being more cautious now. I worked out on a map that i had been to 22 countries, making me a very lucky 18 yr old. I spent the rest of the day tidying and reading roots, which i finished! what a book, the longest and most difficult and worthwhile book i have read. I persuaded one of the girls that my dad wore a suit and lived rough in the himalayas for 3 months which had made him a legend in nepal. it took a very long time for her to realise i was winding her up. was very funny. had our group discussion on water and sanitation. it was my turn to do a presentation which me and louise had made before i went. everyone loved it. i was so relieved and proud. we discussed the issues late in to the night. had a game of volleyball with the staff losing 14 12. we're getting better though.
24/9/2010 woke up and for the first time had a negative thought about going home. i guess i am worried because i NEED a job. loads of my friends have gone other places to uni, and i won't see louise perhaps as much as i did before as she will be in uni a lot. along with this, i am unsure of how well i will settle in to everything about england. i suppose in ten weeks i am bound to have these thoughts at one point. school was great. we played loads of hindi learning games so we were learning as well as them. Rushed into town at lunch to see the commonwealth games baton pass through jaisalmer. due to india living upto its reputation we never saw it and so had to leave. afternoon meeting was rubbish everyone just argued about sewage and where the camp puppies had been taken. Spent the next 3 hours trying to book our trip to the taj mahal. we had had a few drinks so it was very stressful. our driver was in dheli, people couldnt afford it, it was physically impossible to do in a weekend, everyone was arguing. all sensibility suggested we should not go. so, in true india fashion we thought bugger it, and we decided to go. we went to bed as we would have to get up at 4am.
25/9/2010 Woke up at 4, it was pitch black. most of the camp were going on other long distance trips so the taj mahal goers were surrounded by other groups who were going early too. flopped about in the dark and got in our jeep at 5. did 5 hours driving and got to jhodpur, feasting on a mcdonalds which in india is like heaven. arterie clogging heaven. alice also taught me to dance the fox trot, at which i did not perform well. I spent about an hour thinking about how the kids can count to 20 now, instead of 3. i pretty much love all the kids at school. they should all be models for GAP kids. drove through india for another 13 hours. we saw every time of scenery you could imagine, travelling through bits of india tourists just do not see. we had a few drinks and hours worth of singing. so, after EIGHTEEN HOURS of driving in a jeep we arrived in aggra at 12. we stayed in a 60pence each hotel and slept.
26//9/2010 unfortunately we only had time for 4 hours sleep. 4.30 we were up again. I did not know thios until morning, but we had slept in a hotel literally next to the taj mahal. picture a b and b next to buckingham palace and you get the picture. we walked down at 5 30 and got our tickets. queued with thousands of people. and there we were, the taj. we saw the sunrise. on one half of the taj sun, other half moon. i must say, the two hours i spent there were thrilling. i have never been so awestruck in my life, other than when i saw niagara falls. it was breathtaking. i will never forget the beauty of the building. i still found time to mingle with people from canada, india, korea. for some reason i find myself wanting to talk to everyone i see. so, 8am we had to set off. all unsurprisingly in a dazed over tired state. after 9 hours of travelling we realised we would be hopelessly let. it turns out that it actually was impossible to travel through 2 states of india, have a night in a hotel, see the taj in one weekend. we stopped in some weird indian truckers stop in the middle of nowhere. had their strange surprisinglyweak currie and chapattis and carried on our way. did a lot of sleeping. stopped for a wee break where me and a girl saw some locusts. we picked them up and threw them. we did not hurt them, it was just a peculiar feeling to hold them. we spent the last 6 hours literally sprawled all over eachother. as battery chickens in a jeep, it is the only way you can sleep. got back the next day at 3am. 36 hours travelling over 2 days. no regrets, the taj was immense.
27/9/2010 after only 3hours sleep, and not getting shouted at because we informed staff we would be late, all 9 of us got up and went to school which helped our cause on the disciplinary levels. we were all knackered, we did a lot of colouring with numbers at school. i then had to use the toilet which consists of ...go where noone can see. all i will say is that it was memorable. in the afternoon we painted a red border round the bottom of the school. in terms of how tired i am, the taj was still totally worth it. i crashed very early at night.
28/9/2010 woke up, still not completely rejuvenated. it has begun to sink in how amazing the taj was. it was so symetrical and stunning. i can only imagine what it would be like under moonlight. school was good, we did a load of dancing and teaching about vehicle names. I haven't mentioned this before, but for most of this trip i have had no torch at night. i have learnt to be very useful in the dark which can never be a bad thing. i reckon i can see why blind people get really good at judging things because you get used to relying on other senses. btw, i am not suggesting being blind is a good thing. in the afternoon we did some more painting. i crashed early yet again.
29/9/2010 had many pointless rows this morning.tensions are high. i will skip over them because i dont want them to be lasting memories of this brilliant experience. school was wonderful. one of the best days in the whole time i have been here. we played loads of games including what time is it mr wolf. in this game i took the role of the dancing wolf. It was just a load of fun, the kids make me feel great and hopefully and i thinkthey do, lovecoming to school. i spent a couple of hours learning london slang of jilo. most of was spent with me lying on the floor crying with laughter. jilo is a very funny young lady. i then went to town and spent about an hour doing the blog which i have today spent 2 hours redoing. as im sure you know it got deleted, ouch. bought a couple of presents and set off back. the afternoon was also brilliant. We went to a village called dabla for a community visit. i had another row with a certain volunteer but anyway bugger it it is part of life. i spent an hour running around with these kids id never met. they were holding my hand, playing with my shoes, jumping on my back. it was great, they took me to the village elder. i spent the next 20 minutes experiencing a situation ill never forget. ihad 15 to 20 youths of all ages stood around me. i exhausted all my hindi words on the elder so as not so cause offence. turned out she liked me, she did want me to cut my girly hair but she gave mea desert cucumber which was a huge honour. i made all the kids laugh hysterically, teaching them loads of cool tricks, like hand tricks or how to make paper planes etc. then i literally told them about me, louise, my family, and my friends. we all knew that we didnt understand eachother but i told it in an animated way and weall just burst out laughing at thenature of the situation. after this we went to a lake and climbed some trees.
30/9/2010 goodbye september. I met a very interesting spanish girl who was travelling. It's cool to see loads of people on their own just floating round the world and taking it in. toilet trips were to off to go to school unfortunately. Spent the morning doing nothing. at lunch we spent an hour debating the vegetable class system. it was hilarious. We pulled in so many aspects of life, gender, culture, religion, nationality just to decide wheather a vegetable was a cafe worker or a yacht seller of the veg world. afternoon session was crasp as noone had made a presentation. weall spent the night together in the common room just having a laugh being together. it's got hot again. like 40 plus hot. it feels like being in an oven. i also discovered the train i will be getting bak for 18 hours next week is officially the most dangerous train int he world. oh the joy. went to bed happy enough !
1/10/2010 first day of october meant that school schedule changed. we now do 6 hours of work at one go rather than coming back for a siesta. I did not go in today either as i needed to be veryt close to a toilet at all times. didnt do anything of blog worthiness all day. in the evening i walked to the lake and watched the sunset with a few volunteers. it was beautiful.
conclusion.... im so excited about coming home. i think this week will go quick. and it feels good to be me at the moment. i hope youre all ok. thanks for all the emails, support etc. :D
20 / 9/ 2010 woke up at half 6, knackered from the camel safari. the whole camp felt like we had run a marathon. sun burn, dehydration and sore thighs! had a shower and got into school, we continued teaching about body parts and we are certainly getting somewhere. painted big india flags on the school in afternoon construction which is a lot more satisfying than moving rocks in the hot sun. tea was spaghetti and potatoes which was marvellous. the last month with this chef has been excellent. i hardly remember what dhal tastes like. i found out the chef's helper was called dan singh which deserved a laugh, so it got one! we had a rare bit of electricity so we watched about half of ghandi.
21/9/2010 still worn out from the camel, our thighs made us pay. pancakes for breakfast softened the blow though. school was a bit rubbish, some school holiday meant that almost all the kids were off. this happens all the time and we never get told. the way india works in terms of time and preparation is so different to england. much slower and laid back, they seem to have faith that every thing will just fall into place which from my experience it does - ish. we just drew pictures with the kids. when we got back i destroyed a couple of hornets nests in the girl's rooms. i then saw a peacock and preceeded to chase it. noone told me in school how quick peacocks were. quick! i may as well have been chasing the road runner. played a game of catch with some indian kids from the village. I also saw a goat sacrifice, long story short i got an opportunity to hold a goat scrotum and i took it.
this needs a pharagraph on its own. for reasons too indepth to write here. the indian company who i work for, are extremely corrupt. i exxagerate not. they are quite a disgusting company in terms of ethics.
moving on, typhoid, possibly tb, and definitely malaria, along with a hugely poisonous snake have all made their way to camp. yaaaaay. i have pulled half the hairs of my little beard out through boredom which i can assure you is painful. did painting in the afternoon, and then i spent half an hour teaching dance moves to some indian village kid. he doesnt know that i cant dance, so it was good for my ego. played a lot of connect 4 at night then went to bed.
22/9/2010 Woke up to electricity, a shower and scrambled eggs. it was going to be a good day. it is cold in the mornings now in india, although to you western folk i am sure you would be sweating buckets. i think i will have thinner blood now, and will find english winter hard! taught the kids groups of letters at school. Then i learnt some more hindi words off my executive in my spare time. I also wrote down a list of english swear words. he asked for the meanings because when we all used them he wanted to know the context etc. im not saying we swear much, he just wanted to learn. went to town in my time off. tourist season is starting so suddenly there are europeans and rich indians everywhere. i feel like its my village, but when they look at me they probably think i am a tourist too. listened to a lot of indian pop music which i love. had an early night after painting.
23/9/2010 woke up feeling weird. the toilet trips have been off again. Also, most of have definitely managed to pick up a cold. chappattis, jam, spicy nutty rice for breakfast. took the morning off in an attempt to recover. After 30 minute battle with gravity i managed to fix my spasmodic mosquito net to the roof. people keep getting malaria so we are all being more cautious now. I worked out on a map that i had been to 22 countries, making me a very lucky 18 yr old. I spent the rest of the day tidying and reading roots, which i finished! what a book, the longest and most difficult and worthwhile book i have read. I persuaded one of the girls that my dad wore a suit and lived rough in the himalayas for 3 months which had made him a legend in nepal. it took a very long time for her to realise i was winding her up. was very funny. had our group discussion on water and sanitation. it was my turn to do a presentation which me and louise had made before i went. everyone loved it. i was so relieved and proud. we discussed the issues late in to the night. had a game of volleyball with the staff losing 14 12. we're getting better though.
24/9/2010 woke up and for the first time had a negative thought about going home. i guess i am worried because i NEED a job. loads of my friends have gone other places to uni, and i won't see louise perhaps as much as i did before as she will be in uni a lot. along with this, i am unsure of how well i will settle in to everything about england. i suppose in ten weeks i am bound to have these thoughts at one point. school was great. we played loads of hindi learning games so we were learning as well as them. Rushed into town at lunch to see the commonwealth games baton pass through jaisalmer. due to india living upto its reputation we never saw it and so had to leave. afternoon meeting was rubbish everyone just argued about sewage and where the camp puppies had been taken. Spent the next 3 hours trying to book our trip to the taj mahal. we had had a few drinks so it was very stressful. our driver was in dheli, people couldnt afford it, it was physically impossible to do in a weekend, everyone was arguing. all sensibility suggested we should not go. so, in true india fashion we thought bugger it, and we decided to go. we went to bed as we would have to get up at 4am.
25/9/2010 Woke up at 4, it was pitch black. most of the camp were going on other long distance trips so the taj mahal goers were surrounded by other groups who were going early too. flopped about in the dark and got in our jeep at 5. did 5 hours driving and got to jhodpur, feasting on a mcdonalds which in india is like heaven. arterie clogging heaven. alice also taught me to dance the fox trot, at which i did not perform well. I spent about an hour thinking about how the kids can count to 20 now, instead of 3. i pretty much love all the kids at school. they should all be models for GAP kids. drove through india for another 13 hours. we saw every time of scenery you could imagine, travelling through bits of india tourists just do not see. we had a few drinks and hours worth of singing. so, after EIGHTEEN HOURS of driving in a jeep we arrived in aggra at 12. we stayed in a 60pence each hotel and slept.
26//9/2010 unfortunately we only had time for 4 hours sleep. 4.30 we were up again. I did not know thios until morning, but we had slept in a hotel literally next to the taj mahal. picture a b and b next to buckingham palace and you get the picture. we walked down at 5 30 and got our tickets. queued with thousands of people. and there we were, the taj. we saw the sunrise. on one half of the taj sun, other half moon. i must say, the two hours i spent there were thrilling. i have never been so awestruck in my life, other than when i saw niagara falls. it was breathtaking. i will never forget the beauty of the building. i still found time to mingle with people from canada, india, korea. for some reason i find myself wanting to talk to everyone i see. so, 8am we had to set off. all unsurprisingly in a dazed over tired state. after 9 hours of travelling we realised we would be hopelessly let. it turns out that it actually was impossible to travel through 2 states of india, have a night in a hotel, see the taj in one weekend. we stopped in some weird indian truckers stop in the middle of nowhere. had their strange surprisinglyweak currie and chapattis and carried on our way. did a lot of sleeping. stopped for a wee break where me and a girl saw some locusts. we picked them up and threw them. we did not hurt them, it was just a peculiar feeling to hold them. we spent the last 6 hours literally sprawled all over eachother. as battery chickens in a jeep, it is the only way you can sleep. got back the next day at 3am. 36 hours travelling over 2 days. no regrets, the taj was immense.
27/9/2010 after only 3hours sleep, and not getting shouted at because we informed staff we would be late, all 9 of us got up and went to school which helped our cause on the disciplinary levels. we were all knackered, we did a lot of colouring with numbers at school. i then had to use the toilet which consists of ...go where noone can see. all i will say is that it was memorable. in the afternoon we painted a red border round the bottom of the school. in terms of how tired i am, the taj was still totally worth it. i crashed very early at night.
28/9/2010 woke up, still not completely rejuvenated. it has begun to sink in how amazing the taj was. it was so symetrical and stunning. i can only imagine what it would be like under moonlight. school was good, we did a load of dancing and teaching about vehicle names. I haven't mentioned this before, but for most of this trip i have had no torch at night. i have learnt to be very useful in the dark which can never be a bad thing. i reckon i can see why blind people get really good at judging things because you get used to relying on other senses. btw, i am not suggesting being blind is a good thing. in the afternoon we did some more painting. i crashed early yet again.
29/9/2010 had many pointless rows this morning.tensions are high. i will skip over them because i dont want them to be lasting memories of this brilliant experience. school was wonderful. one of the best days in the whole time i have been here. we played loads of games including what time is it mr wolf. in this game i took the role of the dancing wolf. It was just a load of fun, the kids make me feel great and hopefully and i thinkthey do, lovecoming to school. i spent a couple of hours learning london slang of jilo. most of was spent with me lying on the floor crying with laughter. jilo is a very funny young lady. i then went to town and spent about an hour doing the blog which i have today spent 2 hours redoing. as im sure you know it got deleted, ouch. bought a couple of presents and set off back. the afternoon was also brilliant. We went to a village called dabla for a community visit. i had another row with a certain volunteer but anyway bugger it it is part of life. i spent an hour running around with these kids id never met. they were holding my hand, playing with my shoes, jumping on my back. it was great, they took me to the village elder. i spent the next 20 minutes experiencing a situation ill never forget. ihad 15 to 20 youths of all ages stood around me. i exhausted all my hindi words on the elder so as not so cause offence. turned out she liked me, she did want me to cut my girly hair but she gave mea desert cucumber which was a huge honour. i made all the kids laugh hysterically, teaching them loads of cool tricks, like hand tricks or how to make paper planes etc. then i literally told them about me, louise, my family, and my friends. we all knew that we didnt understand eachother but i told it in an animated way and weall just burst out laughing at thenature of the situation. after this we went to a lake and climbed some trees.
30/9/2010 goodbye september. I met a very interesting spanish girl who was travelling. It's cool to see loads of people on their own just floating round the world and taking it in. toilet trips were to off to go to school unfortunately. Spent the morning doing nothing. at lunch we spent an hour debating the vegetable class system. it was hilarious. We pulled in so many aspects of life, gender, culture, religion, nationality just to decide wheather a vegetable was a cafe worker or a yacht seller of the veg world. afternoon session was crasp as noone had made a presentation. weall spent the night together in the common room just having a laugh being together. it's got hot again. like 40 plus hot. it feels like being in an oven. i also discovered the train i will be getting bak for 18 hours next week is officially the most dangerous train int he world. oh the joy. went to bed happy enough !
1/10/2010 first day of october meant that school schedule changed. we now do 6 hours of work at one go rather than coming back for a siesta. I did not go in today either as i needed to be veryt close to a toilet at all times. didnt do anything of blog worthiness all day. in the evening i walked to the lake and watched the sunset with a few volunteers. it was beautiful.
conclusion.... im so excited about coming home. i think this week will go quick. and it feels good to be me at the moment. i hope youre all ok. thanks for all the emails, support etc. :D
Wednesday 29 September 2010
reason for lack of blog.
i just spent over an hour doing absolutely loads of writing. it all got deleted. i put so much into it that i cant bring myself to do it again. however, im pretty much out of money so im staying on a guys roof at the weekend who has internet because its free. i promise to spend like 2 hours doing it. long story short i like it here but i miss home. im ok, i love you all.
Wednesday 22 September 2010
2 and a bit weeks until i set off, home soon-ISH ( doing it in two blogs)
okay, let's try and write a successful blog shall we.
16/9/2010 - the chef has continued to be amazing. fried rice, spring rolls and peppers. i ate loads. there has been loads of arguing over how much of his food we can eat each. tension in camp has hopefully peaked as it is like a war some times. Afternoon meeting went well, we had really good conversations about education and gender inequality for a good two hours. tea was weet. noodles and garlic naan bread. Slept on the top bunk with no mosquito net, and surprisingly did not regret it. also, camp illness has gone down lots lately.
17/9/2010
woke up to electricity. it had been a while so i was happy about it. i did about 20 mins with the lads of really hard muscle work outs. was in a lot of pain because muscles weren't used to it. i guess now we're eating enough we feel we can exercise things must be ok. chapattias and jam for breakfast. i knew i had a lot of work to do as i'd been put in charge of organising a camel safari for the whole camp. i kind of liked it, to be honest. Had a successful trip to town. I finished organising the trip which felt amazing because i worked really hard on it, and every one was grateful. failed to get any money out of the bank which was crap, so i went for some tibetan food in the top of the fort in jaisalmer. the view was immense, the food not so much. went in a couple of shops and went back to camp. weekly meeting was ok, usual moaning about sewage and cleanliness. the camp is gross, but it aint gone change. people seem to forget that when you are in this situation you should change your expectations rather than acting like a tourist. this is something which i am nor brave enough or bothered enough to share with the moaners of camp :) had a massive game of volleyball lads v staff it was so much fun. we only stopped because it was too warm, and eventually dark.
18/9/2010 woke up at 6ish. i like that i wake up early and not tired. i have thorns in my feet from volleyball and sore arms from working out. oh well, damn my competetiveness. we played early morning volleyball and actually beat the staff. goliath was crushed! spent another few stressful hours failing to sort out my bank. i met a very interesting woman from holland, who when i said i taught maths and english in jhoga, thought i said yoga, i went along with it for my own humour. still gutted i have no ipod :/ had lunch and severely banged my head on a steel pole which the lump on my head will not let me forget. next we got in loads of jeeps to oure camel safari. parked a couple of times to get sdome photos, then we arrived to the camels. it was absolutely brilliant. my camel was called rocket, and it was rapid! i had so much fun. we got the sand dunes. literally it lo0oked like a scene from aladdin. we spent 2 hours having rolling races down massive steep dunes. we were all loving it! we spent the next hours until the early morning drinking and dancing in the middle of the desert. it does down as an amazing night.
19/9/2010 - woke up at 6. everyone was varying degrees of knackered. we had some boiled eggs and toast, sorted ourselves out as much as you can after sleeping o nthe sand in the middle of absolutely nowhere,. set off back in the jeeps all feeling chilled out. we all went to a hotel that said we could use the swimming pool free. spent a couple of hours having fun in the pool which was sweet. then i went on a lone wolf trip to do some bargain hunting. i cant say what i got cause theyre presents. but i did amazing at bartering. i used al lsorts of legal tactics, but they worked and i KNOW i left alot of the very capable hustlers feeling a bit hard done by price wise. very proud of yself i went back in the pool and then went back to camp.
16/9/2010 - the chef has continued to be amazing. fried rice, spring rolls and peppers. i ate loads. there has been loads of arguing over how much of his food we can eat each. tension in camp has hopefully peaked as it is like a war some times. Afternoon meeting went well, we had really good conversations about education and gender inequality for a good two hours. tea was weet. noodles and garlic naan bread. Slept on the top bunk with no mosquito net, and surprisingly did not regret it. also, camp illness has gone down lots lately.
17/9/2010
woke up to electricity. it had been a while so i was happy about it. i did about 20 mins with the lads of really hard muscle work outs. was in a lot of pain because muscles weren't used to it. i guess now we're eating enough we feel we can exercise things must be ok. chapattias and jam for breakfast. i knew i had a lot of work to do as i'd been put in charge of organising a camel safari for the whole camp. i kind of liked it, to be honest. Had a successful trip to town. I finished organising the trip which felt amazing because i worked really hard on it, and every one was grateful. failed to get any money out of the bank which was crap, so i went for some tibetan food in the top of the fort in jaisalmer. the view was immense, the food not so much. went in a couple of shops and went back to camp. weekly meeting was ok, usual moaning about sewage and cleanliness. the camp is gross, but it aint gone change. people seem to forget that when you are in this situation you should change your expectations rather than acting like a tourist. this is something which i am nor brave enough or bothered enough to share with the moaners of camp :) had a massive game of volleyball lads v staff it was so much fun. we only stopped because it was too warm, and eventually dark.
18/9/2010 woke up at 6ish. i like that i wake up early and not tired. i have thorns in my feet from volleyball and sore arms from working out. oh well, damn my competetiveness. we played early morning volleyball and actually beat the staff. goliath was crushed! spent another few stressful hours failing to sort out my bank. i met a very interesting woman from holland, who when i said i taught maths and english in jhoga, thought i said yoga, i went along with it for my own humour. still gutted i have no ipod :/ had lunch and severely banged my head on a steel pole which the lump on my head will not let me forget. next we got in loads of jeeps to oure camel safari. parked a couple of times to get sdome photos, then we arrived to the camels. it was absolutely brilliant. my camel was called rocket, and it was rapid! i had so much fun. we got the sand dunes. literally it lo0oked like a scene from aladdin. we spent 2 hours having rolling races down massive steep dunes. we were all loving it! we spent the next hours until the early morning drinking and dancing in the middle of the desert. it does down as an amazing night.
19/9/2010 - woke up at 6. everyone was varying degrees of knackered. we had some boiled eggs and toast, sorted ourselves out as much as you can after sleeping o nthe sand in the middle of absolutely nowhere,. set off back in the jeeps all feeling chilled out. we all went to a hotel that said we could use the swimming pool free. spent a couple of hours having fun in the pool which was sweet. then i went on a lone wolf trip to do some bargain hunting. i cant say what i got cause theyre presents. but i did amazing at bartering. i used al lsorts of legal tactics, but they worked and i KNOW i left alot of the very capable hustlers feeling a bit hard done by price wise. very proud of yself i went back in the pool and then went back to camp.
Friday 17 September 2010
just a quickie
i am going on a camel safari this weekend so i will wait until after that to properly update. I figure it is a good time just to write a pharagraph about my feelings here in general. So, here goes.
I do miss home, but now I can see the end in sight (3 weeks) i am beginning to have more fun here as time is passing by a bit quicker now. The weather is still hotter than summer in spain, but it is cooler than what it was. That, along with me aclimatising naturally, along with electricity being present about 20 percent of the time now rather than 10 has led to things becoming a little bit easier.
The kids have progressed beyond measure. I love them all, i know so much about their personalities and abilities. I am not really around kids much at home as i am a young one as far as my family goes ( although that should change whem im back. someone from middleton please tell johnny and rach i am desperate to see lois). I just feel good about it, we're damn fine teachers, certainly compared to 7 weeks ago.
We have a new chef, and the food has gone from being occasionally genuinely unedible, to verging on tasty. The effect this has had on camp morale and camp health has been excellent.
I miss home very much. I miss my family and friends. I miss rain, being cold, queues, fixed prices, over priced things, my bed, toby, kipper, everything about england. however, i am well aware how lucky i am. especially seen as though most of my colleagues have not got a chance to do this until about 4/5/6 years after me. i have not got 'close' to anyone because there are so many of us and it is more fun to float and chat rather than become really good mates because separating groups is not cool.
As soon as i am back, and soon as 6 months have gone i will still miss it. i will see you all very soon. also, whilst i don't know who is reading this now ( because a lot of you have gone to uni, and also it might have got boring) when i am back please all come have a pint with me and catch up if you can.
this is me signing off, i can't waitttttttttttt to see my home land. pint of full fat milk, chinese take away, red meat, tuna, sweet corn, mayonaise, pumpkin pie, bland food. saweeeeeeeeeeet!
right, bye, i love you all
I do miss home, but now I can see the end in sight (3 weeks) i am beginning to have more fun here as time is passing by a bit quicker now. The weather is still hotter than summer in spain, but it is cooler than what it was. That, along with me aclimatising naturally, along with electricity being present about 20 percent of the time now rather than 10 has led to things becoming a little bit easier.
The kids have progressed beyond measure. I love them all, i know so much about their personalities and abilities. I am not really around kids much at home as i am a young one as far as my family goes ( although that should change whem im back. someone from middleton please tell johnny and rach i am desperate to see lois). I just feel good about it, we're damn fine teachers, certainly compared to 7 weeks ago.
We have a new chef, and the food has gone from being occasionally genuinely unedible, to verging on tasty. The effect this has had on camp morale and camp health has been excellent.
I miss home very much. I miss my family and friends. I miss rain, being cold, queues, fixed prices, over priced things, my bed, toby, kipper, everything about england. however, i am well aware how lucky i am. especially seen as though most of my colleagues have not got a chance to do this until about 4/5/6 years after me. i have not got 'close' to anyone because there are so many of us and it is more fun to float and chat rather than become really good mates because separating groups is not cool.
As soon as i am back, and soon as 6 months have gone i will still miss it. i will see you all very soon. also, whilst i don't know who is reading this now ( because a lot of you have gone to uni, and also it might have got boring) when i am back please all come have a pint with me and catch up if you can.
this is me signing off, i can't waitttttttttttt to see my home land. pint of full fat milk, chinese take away, red meat, tuna, sweet corn, mayonaise, pumpkin pie, bland food. saweeeeeeeeeeet!
right, bye, i love you all
Wednesday 15 September 2010
blogs have gone downhill
sorry for this. i am on trips every weekend so i can not get online on saturdays. during the day i can come to town but i get very little time. to all the people who have emailed or facebook messaged me if i have not sent a good reply i am really sorry i just do not have the time.
9/9/2010 september is slowly going through. feel ill again but refused to miss school. had loads of toast and jam which helped. still gutted about broken ipod. i took class 2 today because people were off. enjoyed it alot. taught them some funny stuff including 'whats cracking'. we played camel camel goat instead of duck duck goose for obvious reasons. played what time is it mr wolf and loads of other games. they loved it. went to town and had a veg burger, ive ate so many things i wouldnt touch in england. it chucked it down with rain in the afternoon and after some rubbish meetings in camp i had tea and slept!
10/9/2010 woke up in pain again, stomach wise. had a shower and felt a bit better somehow. picked up a wild puppy and carried it round. i named it peter. most of my group were off, i got to school and touched a sheep. school was brilliant. loads of kids thought they were off so only like 4 came. did loads of games and drawings. the staff annoy me, the teachers are overpaid lazy and pathetic people. i will have a row with them at the end but i cant yet or ill get sent home. they dont care about the kids, put it that way. i sa a snake on camp!
11/9/2010 got up at 4 am. got on a jeep at 5am for a 5 hour journey to jhodpur. got in a hotel, went out and had so much at a cheap and amazingly tasty mcdonalds. went to jhodpur fort. after niagra falls it is the most amazing place ive ever seen. please google it. also, about 100 people had photos with me because i look like an alien to indian people ( i mean it ) its like being famous. went to a temple in the afternoon and spent all night at the only nightclub within 5 hours of where im living. it was amazing, we all just had a couple of drinks. let all the pressure of india go and danced. i felt a lot better. spent a couple of hours sat on our roof at the hotel and went to bed. it had been eid and ganeshes birthday, so was a good day to go to a huge city.
12/9/2010 woke up at 7. slept amazingly well on a proper bed. had a shower, followed by spicy beans on toast and a butter scotch milkshake. went to see clocktower and palace and markets and more mcdonalds then set off on our 5 hour journey back. had a couple of drinks in the jeep and just laughed and sung our way and slept our way back to camp.
13/9/2010
woke up not feeling great. illness is normal by now. school was fine but due to unbelievable rain the day before ( happens in india every few YEARS) the school flooded. so we taught outside. went town at lunch, had a pizza and some ice cream. tea was egg fried rice, we have a new chef so seems miles better than the old one. our diet is so important out here to how our day goes, this new chef has been treated like royalty.
14/9/2010 woke up cold, whuich felt lovely. had toast and took some to work which was sneaky but worth it. had a strange dream last night that i was home, and in jjb with my dad buying sports socks. make of that what you will faher. drew bodies at school, we used a kid as a blueprint and drew round him it was so funny. also, im running the camel safari. thats the main reason tourists come to jaisalmer. and its the most important trip the camp want to do. all 43 people have trusted me to organise it. it feels amazing, im the youngest on camp and although its keeping me really busy every1 is grateful and surprised that im managing it well. i hope it all goes to plan. tea was sweet, more egg fried rice. all hail the new chef. ive had loads of arguments with people, but evreryone is outgoing, and older so usually more upfront. which i like, because the arguments go like this a ) youre an idiot, here is why b ) youre an idiot, here is why ..... ten minutes later, ok lets move on. its nice!
15/9/2010 got up and had a couple of rotis with a banana it was ok. i think its a bit contradictory to our reason for coming that all 20 odd staff that have worked here have been male, but oh well they keep changing all the time. did some letters at school and made the kids laugh with wobbly stickers. about a month ago i told akid i was called dr evil. they saw me today and remembered, they shouted DR DR. i laughed so much.
conclusion - 100s of pics going on facebook today, hopefully mum will put best ones on here for those who dont have facebook. im struggling to get online for anything other than a short time which im sure myt writing style has told you already. thanks mum for the parcels. dad, i miss you. louise, everything will be great when were together and i cant wait to see you. friends, thank you for the support! i am no less homesick, but i set of f in 3 and a bit weeks. ican do it. i will do it. i am so lucky. bye england!
9/9/2010 september is slowly going through. feel ill again but refused to miss school. had loads of toast and jam which helped. still gutted about broken ipod. i took class 2 today because people were off. enjoyed it alot. taught them some funny stuff including 'whats cracking'. we played camel camel goat instead of duck duck goose for obvious reasons. played what time is it mr wolf and loads of other games. they loved it. went to town and had a veg burger, ive ate so many things i wouldnt touch in england. it chucked it down with rain in the afternoon and after some rubbish meetings in camp i had tea and slept!
10/9/2010 woke up in pain again, stomach wise. had a shower and felt a bit better somehow. picked up a wild puppy and carried it round. i named it peter. most of my group were off, i got to school and touched a sheep. school was brilliant. loads of kids thought they were off so only like 4 came. did loads of games and drawings. the staff annoy me, the teachers are overpaid lazy and pathetic people. i will have a row with them at the end but i cant yet or ill get sent home. they dont care about the kids, put it that way. i sa a snake on camp!
11/9/2010 got up at 4 am. got on a jeep at 5am for a 5 hour journey to jhodpur. got in a hotel, went out and had so much at a cheap and amazingly tasty mcdonalds. went to jhodpur fort. after niagra falls it is the most amazing place ive ever seen. please google it. also, about 100 people had photos with me because i look like an alien to indian people ( i mean it ) its like being famous. went to a temple in the afternoon and spent all night at the only nightclub within 5 hours of where im living. it was amazing, we all just had a couple of drinks. let all the pressure of india go and danced. i felt a lot better. spent a couple of hours sat on our roof at the hotel and went to bed. it had been eid and ganeshes birthday, so was a good day to go to a huge city.
12/9/2010 woke up at 7. slept amazingly well on a proper bed. had a shower, followed by spicy beans on toast and a butter scotch milkshake. went to see clocktower and palace and markets and more mcdonalds then set off on our 5 hour journey back. had a couple of drinks in the jeep and just laughed and sung our way and slept our way back to camp.
13/9/2010
woke up not feeling great. illness is normal by now. school was fine but due to unbelievable rain the day before ( happens in india every few YEARS) the school flooded. so we taught outside. went town at lunch, had a pizza and some ice cream. tea was egg fried rice, we have a new chef so seems miles better than the old one. our diet is so important out here to how our day goes, this new chef has been treated like royalty.
14/9/2010 woke up cold, whuich felt lovely. had toast and took some to work which was sneaky but worth it. had a strange dream last night that i was home, and in jjb with my dad buying sports socks. make of that what you will faher. drew bodies at school, we used a kid as a blueprint and drew round him it was so funny. also, im running the camel safari. thats the main reason tourists come to jaisalmer. and its the most important trip the camp want to do. all 43 people have trusted me to organise it. it feels amazing, im the youngest on camp and although its keeping me really busy every1 is grateful and surprised that im managing it well. i hope it all goes to plan. tea was sweet, more egg fried rice. all hail the new chef. ive had loads of arguments with people, but evreryone is outgoing, and older so usually more upfront. which i like, because the arguments go like this a ) youre an idiot, here is why b ) youre an idiot, here is why ..... ten minutes later, ok lets move on. its nice!
15/9/2010 got up and had a couple of rotis with a banana it was ok. i think its a bit contradictory to our reason for coming that all 20 odd staff that have worked here have been male, but oh well they keep changing all the time. did some letters at school and made the kids laugh with wobbly stickers. about a month ago i told akid i was called dr evil. they saw me today and remembered, they shouted DR DR. i laughed so much.
conclusion - 100s of pics going on facebook today, hopefully mum will put best ones on here for those who dont have facebook. im struggling to get online for anything other than a short time which im sure myt writing style has told you already. thanks mum for the parcels. dad, i miss you. louise, everything will be great when were together and i cant wait to see you. friends, thank you for the support! i am no less homesick, but i set of f in 3 and a bit weeks. ican do it. i will do it. i am so lucky. bye england!
Thursday 9 September 2010
away in jhodpur this weekend, so early update
hello! going away on a trip so can not update at the weekend. no new photos this week, but loads more will be on facebook and on here next week!
4/9/2010 woke up earl;y and watched a film.; the boys got a tuc tuc into ;to;wn and went to boo;k; in to a hotel. went right to the top of the fort into a very interesting fabrics shop. met an amazing woman and she made a lot of money off my fabric buying abilities. got a ride on some guys motorbike all the way down the fort and he could hear me giggling like a girl, so he took me all the way round the fort at about 60 mph it was so much fun i cant describe it! sat on a roof of some cafe with the boys for a few hours and had a couple of extremely weak gin and sprites. found out that another illness to add to our group such as typhoid etc was anal prolapsing. basically, a girl's bum keeps falling out. it's funny but sad at the same time! Lots of the christian girls did some gospel singing for us which was angelic and relaxing. spent about an hour speaking to a french couple, i found out i know loads of french. they were very kind people, they kept chain smoking which confirmed a stereotype. Went to midtown for lunch, lovely food and a great view. a lot of the guys had bhang ( weed basically) and sheesha, whilst i declined it made me laugh to see them feeling rather calm should i say. 20 of us went for tea, and then stayed in the pool all night having a laugh it was top! then got in my lovely hotel bed and slept like a baby.
5/9/2010 had a wonderful shower, watched football highlights for the first time in 5 weeks. watched some indian soap drama. had breakfast on the roof with every1 who stayed at the hootel. played games with every1 in the pool for a few hours. Left on my own for a few hours to be a lone wolf and get some jobs done. got some nuts, an adaptor, baked beans and phone credit. had a spicy pizza in a sie alley cafe, felt weird because the family who owned it were eating. maybe i wentAT a bad time. had a good conv with some people i met from brighton. came back in the pool in the afternoon. met loads of french spanish and japanese people. we invited the japanese guys to tea and had a good night with them.
6/9/2010 had enough electricity the night before to watch a film the WHOLE way through for the first time so none of us got much sleep.such electricity had only been dreamt about. my ipods broke. im gutted, no music now or ever :(:(:(:( school was good. me and lana taught them letters, old mcdonald had a farm and we got them to draw pictures of animals. most kids attend every day which suggests were entertaining them somewhat. i have a swollen ankle from an agressive game of swimming pool bulldog which went wrong, ouch. kids keep asking if im married! and women keep staring at me then going shy when i grin and wave. Ive lost weight, its bringing me down a bit! moved rocks in the afternoon it was rubbish as usual but a villager gave us a huge watermelon and a desert cucumber which cheered me up. i saw a peacock sat on a pilon on the way home and that made me laugh.
7/9/2010 woke up in a lot of pain. stomach cramps! stayed off work all day. nothing to say, sat around, read, chatted, slept!
8/9/2010 exactly the same
conclusion - really sorry the blog is so bad this time. im on a dreadful computer with a time limit. ill update some time next week. goodbye and much love. ps week 7 starts on tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!
4/9/2010 woke up earl;y and watched a film.; the boys got a tuc tuc into ;to;wn and went to boo;k; in to a hotel. went right to the top of the fort into a very interesting fabrics shop. met an amazing woman and she made a lot of money off my fabric buying abilities. got a ride on some guys motorbike all the way down the fort and he could hear me giggling like a girl, so he took me all the way round the fort at about 60 mph it was so much fun i cant describe it! sat on a roof of some cafe with the boys for a few hours and had a couple of extremely weak gin and sprites. found out that another illness to add to our group such as typhoid etc was anal prolapsing. basically, a girl's bum keeps falling out. it's funny but sad at the same time! Lots of the christian girls did some gospel singing for us which was angelic and relaxing. spent about an hour speaking to a french couple, i found out i know loads of french. they were very kind people, they kept chain smoking which confirmed a stereotype. Went to midtown for lunch, lovely food and a great view. a lot of the guys had bhang ( weed basically) and sheesha, whilst i declined it made me laugh to see them feeling rather calm should i say. 20 of us went for tea, and then stayed in the pool all night having a laugh it was top! then got in my lovely hotel bed and slept like a baby.
5/9/2010 had a wonderful shower, watched football highlights for the first time in 5 weeks. watched some indian soap drama. had breakfast on the roof with every1 who stayed at the hootel. played games with every1 in the pool for a few hours. Left on my own for a few hours to be a lone wolf and get some jobs done. got some nuts, an adaptor, baked beans and phone credit. had a spicy pizza in a sie alley cafe, felt weird because the family who owned it were eating. maybe i wentAT a bad time. had a good conv with some people i met from brighton. came back in the pool in the afternoon. met loads of french spanish and japanese people. we invited the japanese guys to tea and had a good night with them.
6/9/2010 had enough electricity the night before to watch a film the WHOLE way through for the first time so none of us got much sleep.such electricity had only been dreamt about. my ipods broke. im gutted, no music now or ever :(:(:(:( school was good. me and lana taught them letters, old mcdonald had a farm and we got them to draw pictures of animals. most kids attend every day which suggests were entertaining them somewhat. i have a swollen ankle from an agressive game of swimming pool bulldog which went wrong, ouch. kids keep asking if im married! and women keep staring at me then going shy when i grin and wave. Ive lost weight, its bringing me down a bit! moved rocks in the afternoon it was rubbish as usual but a villager gave us a huge watermelon and a desert cucumber which cheered me up. i saw a peacock sat on a pilon on the way home and that made me laugh.
7/9/2010 woke up in a lot of pain. stomach cramps! stayed off work all day. nothing to say, sat around, read, chatted, slept!
8/9/2010 exactly the same
conclusion - really sorry the blog is so bad this time. im on a dreadful computer with a time limit. ill update some time next week. goodbye and much love. ps week 7 starts on tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday 4 September 2010
about half way now!
firstly, i am putting hundreds of photos on facebook all the time if you want to look, or if not i should be able to get some of the best ones on to the blog.
28/8/2010 just a quick recap as usual. got up early, washed my clothes and it was boiling! got on a tiny bus to town, wandered round and bought school supplies. had a very spinachy lunch and went on a boat with loads of people, it was top we just rowed about and took photos. a very peaceful day.
29/8/2010 woke up and had 5 pancakes with nutella that i got off another volunteer. we had enough electricity to watch most of pearl harbour. got a massively painful electric shock when i took my dodgy indian torch out of the dodgy indian plug socket in a wall made of poo and hay. oh well, just a small blister and a broken torch later i survived. went into town on a massive tuc tuc with loads of volunteers. went in a swimming pool. there was about 20 of us just playing games and listening to music it was loads of fun. it was 46 degrees at its hottest, ouch! met two women from oregon which was fun because i gave them loads of advice and they thought i was in my early 20s and i must have lived there for a long time. ate on the roof of a hotel, first omlette in a month went down very well. had a walk throguh the market on my own, a rather 'rasta' south african couple had a blazing row with an indian man about humility, and the price of his guitars. it was funny to watch as the whole street treated it like a soap episode and we just stared. after it fizzled out i went further and met a couple from camebridge who were travelling. we exchanged some useful information about india and went our seperate ways. i was proud to be able to say that i was a teacher. had some ice cream and went to bed feeling optomistic about the week ahead at school.
30/8/2010 the wild dog in our shower gave birth! 4 puppies, very cute. I'm starting to miss rain. i started singing don't worry about a thing by bob marley and the whole camp ended up humming it which made me laugh. It was boiling again. I was on a tuc tuc and i had a chat with a guy on a motorbike behind whilst we were moving. he was friendly but he winked at me too much for my liking. i am learning slang such as stern, and raaaaah. i suppose that is likely being that people are from so many different areas of the uk. I got to school, and enjoyed it. I LOVE the kid who i call charmander. he is full of life. i played football with about 30 kids and they just didn't stop smiling. after i got back from school i found out one of my mum's parcerls had arrived which made my eyes light up. i got a tin of beans and some noodles. i was so happy i could not contain it. I spent an hour marking the kids' work and i learnt a lot about their abilities. they worked as a team to kill a huge hornet in class today, and also they worked together to get rid of a huge spider which looked more like a scorpion. scorpions live in our room actually, with a rat, several geckos, and many other creatures. I waved at a load of strangers out of the bus who all waved back, as indian people usually do. I missed home very much on this day, but i feel at least as though i am doing a bit of good now. talking on the phone to people i care about is keeping me sane! we moved rocks in the afternoon for two hours, i just put oasis on my ipod and time went quickly enough. Oh, tony if you're reading this - I met the austrian lacrosse coach in a restaraunt!
31/8/2010 got about 5/6 hours sleep. the heat and humidity is taking it's toll. i feel drenched in sweat all the time. i had my tin of cold baked beans for breakfast which i was very greatful for. the kids decided to be naughty at school today so i had to do a lot of moving them about and telling them to shhhhhh. they call me white boy in hindi, they don't mean it in a bad way but i try hard to get them to use my name. still marking their books, and giving stickers to the hard workers. Me and my group of teachers work pretty well together in general. the kids are of very different abilities so we try and work hard to accomodate for that. I spent ten minutes just teaching charmander because he struggles with numbers, and i always give keku hard questions as she is very clever...etc. Cockroaches crickets hornets geckos and birds roam the class. i think if that happened in england there would be pandemonum! i played some bob marley to a hindi lady with no english and she bobbed along enough to suggest she liked it. the camp have started dropping like flies again. there are so many random illnesses, i dare not describe them. there have been a vast amount though. i beat one of the staff at chess which turned him into a laughing stock for the other staff members and it was good for my ego too. had a rubbish afternoon, tired of moving rocks and missing home a lot. i don't mind hard work but this seems pointless. i don't know if i was worn out or homesick but i had a rubbish night i was just unhappy. I hoped to wake up in a better frame of mind.
1/9/2010
woke up doubled over in pain. desperate to go the loo, it's been 9 days! still went to school. taught the kids some handwriting and they did ok. had a bit of a row with some indian teenagers but neither of us really understood what we were saying to it descended to taking the piss out of eachother in our own language. The ground at school started literally shaking, it turned out to be mining nearby but it was enough to scare us all. in the afternoon we dug holes for plants and played a bit of cricket. finally went to the loo after 4 laxatives, went to bed and watched the lightning for an hour or so.
2/9/2010 Woke up in a lot of pain again. i am going to the loo but it's an extremely painful trip. We had a couple of hours meetings to evaluate the trip so far. Went to town with some volunteers and had chicken for lunch, it was great. i bought some cornflakes as well to have dry at camp. turns out i have cost the insurance rather a lot of money when i went to the hospital, oh well. the camp spent an hour cleaning the whole place and it is now a lot cleaner. the boys cleaned the toilets and sinks which was a messy job due to the maggots, scarabs etc. It chucked it down with rain at night. It's rained twice in 5 weeks which is apparently a 7 year record. mental........
3/9/2010 in the boys room we decided it might have come to the time where we should prank some of the girls. we discussed hiding chappatis in lockers, and making chairs mysteriously vanish. we turned up to school with out the key to our room and so we had to teach outside. we made the best of it and drew pictures whilst teachinf them about animals. Most of the kids don't even know their birthday because they don't celebrate them so their age does not seem to matter to them. i arrived at camp to two more parcels off mum with bisuics and snacks in them. my happiness levels sky rocketed i feel very lucky as many people haven't been sent anything. We spent 2 hours planning the next weeks work and it was very productive. there are two other teachers in my classroom, one i like a lot and we work really well as a team. another is highly lazy and has a case of can't-be-arsed-syndrome. I shall leave her too it, she has nothing to be proud of when she gets home though. At night one of the lads sat up too quickly and banged his head on the bed, i laughed myself to sleep.
conclusion - today has been an eventful day, so i shall write about it next week. i'm ill again, dhiarrhoea and it is horrible. hope everyone is ok. half way point now which feels good :)
28/8/2010 just a quick recap as usual. got up early, washed my clothes and it was boiling! got on a tiny bus to town, wandered round and bought school supplies. had a very spinachy lunch and went on a boat with loads of people, it was top we just rowed about and took photos. a very peaceful day.
29/8/2010 woke up and had 5 pancakes with nutella that i got off another volunteer. we had enough electricity to watch most of pearl harbour. got a massively painful electric shock when i took my dodgy indian torch out of the dodgy indian plug socket in a wall made of poo and hay. oh well, just a small blister and a broken torch later i survived. went into town on a massive tuc tuc with loads of volunteers. went in a swimming pool. there was about 20 of us just playing games and listening to music it was loads of fun. it was 46 degrees at its hottest, ouch! met two women from oregon which was fun because i gave them loads of advice and they thought i was in my early 20s and i must have lived there for a long time. ate on the roof of a hotel, first omlette in a month went down very well. had a walk throguh the market on my own, a rather 'rasta' south african couple had a blazing row with an indian man about humility, and the price of his guitars. it was funny to watch as the whole street treated it like a soap episode and we just stared. after it fizzled out i went further and met a couple from camebridge who were travelling. we exchanged some useful information about india and went our seperate ways. i was proud to be able to say that i was a teacher. had some ice cream and went to bed feeling optomistic about the week ahead at school.
30/8/2010 the wild dog in our shower gave birth! 4 puppies, very cute. I'm starting to miss rain. i started singing don't worry about a thing by bob marley and the whole camp ended up humming it which made me laugh. It was boiling again. I was on a tuc tuc and i had a chat with a guy on a motorbike behind whilst we were moving. he was friendly but he winked at me too much for my liking. i am learning slang such as stern, and raaaaah. i suppose that is likely being that people are from so many different areas of the uk. I got to school, and enjoyed it. I LOVE the kid who i call charmander. he is full of life. i played football with about 30 kids and they just didn't stop smiling. after i got back from school i found out one of my mum's parcerls had arrived which made my eyes light up. i got a tin of beans and some noodles. i was so happy i could not contain it. I spent an hour marking the kids' work and i learnt a lot about their abilities. they worked as a team to kill a huge hornet in class today, and also they worked together to get rid of a huge spider which looked more like a scorpion. scorpions live in our room actually, with a rat, several geckos, and many other creatures. I waved at a load of strangers out of the bus who all waved back, as indian people usually do. I missed home very much on this day, but i feel at least as though i am doing a bit of good now. talking on the phone to people i care about is keeping me sane! we moved rocks in the afternoon for two hours, i just put oasis on my ipod and time went quickly enough. Oh, tony if you're reading this - I met the austrian lacrosse coach in a restaraunt!
31/8/2010 got about 5/6 hours sleep. the heat and humidity is taking it's toll. i feel drenched in sweat all the time. i had my tin of cold baked beans for breakfast which i was very greatful for. the kids decided to be naughty at school today so i had to do a lot of moving them about and telling them to shhhhhh. they call me white boy in hindi, they don't mean it in a bad way but i try hard to get them to use my name. still marking their books, and giving stickers to the hard workers. Me and my group of teachers work pretty well together in general. the kids are of very different abilities so we try and work hard to accomodate for that. I spent ten minutes just teaching charmander because he struggles with numbers, and i always give keku hard questions as she is very clever...etc. Cockroaches crickets hornets geckos and birds roam the class. i think if that happened in england there would be pandemonum! i played some bob marley to a hindi lady with no english and she bobbed along enough to suggest she liked it. the camp have started dropping like flies again. there are so many random illnesses, i dare not describe them. there have been a vast amount though. i beat one of the staff at chess which turned him into a laughing stock for the other staff members and it was good for my ego too. had a rubbish afternoon, tired of moving rocks and missing home a lot. i don't mind hard work but this seems pointless. i don't know if i was worn out or homesick but i had a rubbish night i was just unhappy. I hoped to wake up in a better frame of mind.
1/9/2010
woke up doubled over in pain. desperate to go the loo, it's been 9 days! still went to school. taught the kids some handwriting and they did ok. had a bit of a row with some indian teenagers but neither of us really understood what we were saying to it descended to taking the piss out of eachother in our own language. The ground at school started literally shaking, it turned out to be mining nearby but it was enough to scare us all. in the afternoon we dug holes for plants and played a bit of cricket. finally went to the loo after 4 laxatives, went to bed and watched the lightning for an hour or so.
2/9/2010 Woke up in a lot of pain again. i am going to the loo but it's an extremely painful trip. We had a couple of hours meetings to evaluate the trip so far. Went to town with some volunteers and had chicken for lunch, it was great. i bought some cornflakes as well to have dry at camp. turns out i have cost the insurance rather a lot of money when i went to the hospital, oh well. the camp spent an hour cleaning the whole place and it is now a lot cleaner. the boys cleaned the toilets and sinks which was a messy job due to the maggots, scarabs etc. It chucked it down with rain at night. It's rained twice in 5 weeks which is apparently a 7 year record. mental........
3/9/2010 in the boys room we decided it might have come to the time where we should prank some of the girls. we discussed hiding chappatis in lockers, and making chairs mysteriously vanish. we turned up to school with out the key to our room and so we had to teach outside. we made the best of it and drew pictures whilst teachinf them about animals. Most of the kids don't even know their birthday because they don't celebrate them so their age does not seem to matter to them. i arrived at camp to two more parcels off mum with bisuics and snacks in them. my happiness levels sky rocketed i feel very lucky as many people haven't been sent anything. We spent 2 hours planning the next weeks work and it was very productive. there are two other teachers in my classroom, one i like a lot and we work really well as a team. another is highly lazy and has a case of can't-be-arsed-syndrome. I shall leave her too it, she has nothing to be proud of when she gets home though. At night one of the lads sat up too quickly and banged his head on the bed, i laughed myself to sleep.
conclusion - today has been an eventful day, so i shall write about it next week. i'm ill again, dhiarrhoea and it is horrible. hope everyone is ok. half way point now which feels good :)
Friday 27 August 2010
Things are looking up!
First of all, I need to tell you all that only today have i read the comments you all put on my blog. So aaron, Janet. Mum, Dad, Chelle, hayley, and louise plus every one else who wrote i have only just found out and i very much appreciate all of them :)
24th - as usual ill go over this again! it was a good day. found om's cafe and it was brilliant. i'm here today infact, it's just a lot more western. we play really cool music all the time and just hang out on the roof. I will take photos because it's hard to describe. Heavenly, in comparison to most of jaisalmer. 30 odd of us went for lunch for someones birthday. Had my first beer, just the one but it was nice. had a nice long chat with my grandma which cheered me up a lot!
245/8/2010 - teaching went a lot better today. we have split the group up more. 3 volunteers take class two, myself and two other volunteers now take class 1 which consists of about 15 children aged about 3-6. their abilities range massively. There was only two of us for this week teaching as the 3rd volunteer is a hypochondriac and believes that a bit of a fever will kill her. ( we all have a fever, you have to power through!) but anyway, despite my bitterness it went well. the kids are getting used to our teaching style and are beginning to behave more. i refuse to tell the other teachers if they misbehave because i've seen with my own eyes the beating it leads too. i have come here to teach MY way, which involves ignoring the naughty ones until they feel left out and join in. it also involves hugging, giving stickers too and pretending to be an eagle with the well behaved ones. it's getting FUN, would you believe it. I hope people don't take this the wrong way, but my personal aim is to make it seem like i am teaching them but really i will be just having fun with them. The teaching methods are basic and rubbish over here, but they're not as developed in england so i have no qualms with the way they teach. However, it is more important for me to leave these kids with a dream, a broader horizon, greater expectations, than it is to teach them how to say cat and dog. indian teachers can do that, i want to focus on what I as a westerner can offer. did a community visit in the afternoon. it was a waste of time, i sat in someone's house in the desert and asked them loads of really detailed questions about the economy, their needs in terms of health, transport and general living. upon my request for questions in return their came none. I left frustrated, i would have rather spent more time with the kids, or at the hospital helping give injections etc. I got my post today off louise however, which cheered me up MASSIVELY as i never thought it would actually make it. Some postman on a little tuc tuc thing just turned up and it was good! I went to bed in a bad mood because i have bites all over my body and the bed is sweaty. it was a good day though, so bugger it i will manage i thought.
26/8/2010 school was ok again. we taught the younger children. the other volunteer was playing a game called i am a square, which i loved as she kept referring to herself as a square. as you can see my level of humour is not high. I have found a child who is my favourite. His name is Chanda, although i call him Charmander as it sounds cooler. He has massive learning difficulties, but he is clever, loving and funny. I intend to take him under my wing because i see real potential in him. after the lesson i spent a while taking photos with the kids and they seemed to warm to me once they got to have fun with me instead of just learning. the bites have got painful now, they're not even mosquitos. they are like bed bugs of some kind. lunch was potatoes and soya which over here is a 5 star meal. camp morale rocketed upwards. i exchanged about 40pence worth of rupees for another volunteer to wash my bed sheet and pillow case. wow did they wash it, it was filthy. had a big discussion about gender for a couple of hours. i won't go into it, but things that were discussed were bride burnings, foetecide ( backstreet abortions) how religion in india will stop the kind of progress english women went through in the last century ( suffragettes etc) and it was inciteful. some of the facts are hard, 20 million kids have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years for being female. thats just the ones we know of. anyway, enough of the hard cold truth. it hurts! back to lightheartedness, i had a big discussion with another volunteer in my group about what she felt i had done well and not so well at during teaching. i went to bed feeling rejuvenated and with a much clearer vision of the next few weeks with regards to teaching.
27/8/2010 today goes down as by far the best day in india so far. one of the best days of my life too. I woke up really happy for some reason, and not tired. I Think ive settled into 6 0 clock mornings and 8 0 clock bed times now. someone gave me some nutella for toast which was an unbelievable treat. got to school, id planned the whole 2 hours of teaching myself. However, India being india it threw up a new challenge of sorts. there was a festival, so most kids went playing and not to school, this just happens and noone but the english seem fussed by the lack of perfect precision in planning. Anyway, it turned out great. i took 4 kids, got a huge piece of paper, and drew with them, taught them words, and ran round the room pretending to be all sorts of automobiles for 2 whole hours. by the end of it they had had loads of fun, and knew about 10 new words. success, i LOVED it. LOVED it. The kids are starting to like me, i'm getting more confident, and they are starting to learn. the teachers dont like our methods. in a polite way i basically told them that their presence was not needed as i was here to do things my way, they didnt like it - but they left. they were mean to my colleague so my stubborn ways set in and i had a bit of an argument with a teacher, my exec translated it. at the end of the day if they dont like how i teach then why dont THEY teach rather than drinking tea all day? i'm not bitter, i promise. there was bland dry pasta for lunch. again this was highly appreciated. it had no flavour, but i could fill myself up with it so i was grateful. on many occasion meal time is not fun, so this one was great. spent an hour making a lesson plan for all 5 sessions of the week so now i feel really relaxed and at last i know that im going to enjoy teaching. i really havent so far, but i know it will never be the same. i even know loads of the kids names. despite that, i do morph them into the names of pokemon or well known super heroes for my own asmusement. my day concluded with a bucket of cold water ( shower ) i went to bed with clean sheets, a happy boy. oh i almost forgot, i walked to a lake with a big axe thing, and got loads of clay. spent about an hour with some volunteers making clay shapes it was thereputic. i might get more for the kids to do an art lesson.
28/8/2010 well that's today. did not have to be up until 9, but woke up at 6.30 not feeling tired. indian james feels very old! english james never wakes up early. any way, i washed my clothes in the bucket and i filled in the minutes of yesterdays meeting. ( yesterday we had a a big 1 hour meeting about camp issues. i was the chairman, and i had loads of good feedback. if people spoke out of turn i ignored them and let those with hands up speak up so i annoyed some people but in general my style of leadership went down very well). today will involve me spending loads of money on resources for the class, and going on a boat ride on a lake, and also some pasta at an italian which should be nice.
CONCLUSION - settling in. much happier. enjoying teaching. getting somewhere with the kids. tuesday is the start of week 5 and i feel like somewhere in the distant distant future, i can actually see home! anyway, im now going off here and to all facebook users im going to TRY to upload about 200 photos on to there. then my mum might put the best ones on here. please remember that if the photos work, theyre just a drop in the ocean. there are thousands of pictures of me on, theyre just on everyone elses camera. you might get a little snippet of india but when im home and you see the whole lot, then youll be able to add images to what youve read over these ten weeks. hope youre all ok, i miss EVERYONE and thanks as always for the support. a more upbeat, and appreciative james signing off for another week :)
24th - as usual ill go over this again! it was a good day. found om's cafe and it was brilliant. i'm here today infact, it's just a lot more western. we play really cool music all the time and just hang out on the roof. I will take photos because it's hard to describe. Heavenly, in comparison to most of jaisalmer. 30 odd of us went for lunch for someones birthday. Had my first beer, just the one but it was nice. had a nice long chat with my grandma which cheered me up a lot!
245/8/2010 - teaching went a lot better today. we have split the group up more. 3 volunteers take class two, myself and two other volunteers now take class 1 which consists of about 15 children aged about 3-6. their abilities range massively. There was only two of us for this week teaching as the 3rd volunteer is a hypochondriac and believes that a bit of a fever will kill her. ( we all have a fever, you have to power through!) but anyway, despite my bitterness it went well. the kids are getting used to our teaching style and are beginning to behave more. i refuse to tell the other teachers if they misbehave because i've seen with my own eyes the beating it leads too. i have come here to teach MY way, which involves ignoring the naughty ones until they feel left out and join in. it also involves hugging, giving stickers too and pretending to be an eagle with the well behaved ones. it's getting FUN, would you believe it. I hope people don't take this the wrong way, but my personal aim is to make it seem like i am teaching them but really i will be just having fun with them. The teaching methods are basic and rubbish over here, but they're not as developed in england so i have no qualms with the way they teach. However, it is more important for me to leave these kids with a dream, a broader horizon, greater expectations, than it is to teach them how to say cat and dog. indian teachers can do that, i want to focus on what I as a westerner can offer. did a community visit in the afternoon. it was a waste of time, i sat in someone's house in the desert and asked them loads of really detailed questions about the economy, their needs in terms of health, transport and general living. upon my request for questions in return their came none. I left frustrated, i would have rather spent more time with the kids, or at the hospital helping give injections etc. I got my post today off louise however, which cheered me up MASSIVELY as i never thought it would actually make it. Some postman on a little tuc tuc thing just turned up and it was good! I went to bed in a bad mood because i have bites all over my body and the bed is sweaty. it was a good day though, so bugger it i will manage i thought.
26/8/2010 school was ok again. we taught the younger children. the other volunteer was playing a game called i am a square, which i loved as she kept referring to herself as a square. as you can see my level of humour is not high. I have found a child who is my favourite. His name is Chanda, although i call him Charmander as it sounds cooler. He has massive learning difficulties, but he is clever, loving and funny. I intend to take him under my wing because i see real potential in him. after the lesson i spent a while taking photos with the kids and they seemed to warm to me once they got to have fun with me instead of just learning. the bites have got painful now, they're not even mosquitos. they are like bed bugs of some kind. lunch was potatoes and soya which over here is a 5 star meal. camp morale rocketed upwards. i exchanged about 40pence worth of rupees for another volunteer to wash my bed sheet and pillow case. wow did they wash it, it was filthy. had a big discussion about gender for a couple of hours. i won't go into it, but things that were discussed were bride burnings, foetecide ( backstreet abortions) how religion in india will stop the kind of progress english women went through in the last century ( suffragettes etc) and it was inciteful. some of the facts are hard, 20 million kids have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years for being female. thats just the ones we know of. anyway, enough of the hard cold truth. it hurts! back to lightheartedness, i had a big discussion with another volunteer in my group about what she felt i had done well and not so well at during teaching. i went to bed feeling rejuvenated and with a much clearer vision of the next few weeks with regards to teaching.
27/8/2010 today goes down as by far the best day in india so far. one of the best days of my life too. I woke up really happy for some reason, and not tired. I Think ive settled into 6 0 clock mornings and 8 0 clock bed times now. someone gave me some nutella for toast which was an unbelievable treat. got to school, id planned the whole 2 hours of teaching myself. However, India being india it threw up a new challenge of sorts. there was a festival, so most kids went playing and not to school, this just happens and noone but the english seem fussed by the lack of perfect precision in planning. Anyway, it turned out great. i took 4 kids, got a huge piece of paper, and drew with them, taught them words, and ran round the room pretending to be all sorts of automobiles for 2 whole hours. by the end of it they had had loads of fun, and knew about 10 new words. success, i LOVED it. LOVED it. The kids are starting to like me, i'm getting more confident, and they are starting to learn. the teachers dont like our methods. in a polite way i basically told them that their presence was not needed as i was here to do things my way, they didnt like it - but they left. they were mean to my colleague so my stubborn ways set in and i had a bit of an argument with a teacher, my exec translated it. at the end of the day if they dont like how i teach then why dont THEY teach rather than drinking tea all day? i'm not bitter, i promise. there was bland dry pasta for lunch. again this was highly appreciated. it had no flavour, but i could fill myself up with it so i was grateful. on many occasion meal time is not fun, so this one was great. spent an hour making a lesson plan for all 5 sessions of the week so now i feel really relaxed and at last i know that im going to enjoy teaching. i really havent so far, but i know it will never be the same. i even know loads of the kids names. despite that, i do morph them into the names of pokemon or well known super heroes for my own asmusement. my day concluded with a bucket of cold water ( shower ) i went to bed with clean sheets, a happy boy. oh i almost forgot, i walked to a lake with a big axe thing, and got loads of clay. spent about an hour with some volunteers making clay shapes it was thereputic. i might get more for the kids to do an art lesson.
28/8/2010 well that's today. did not have to be up until 9, but woke up at 6.30 not feeling tired. indian james feels very old! english james never wakes up early. any way, i washed my clothes in the bucket and i filled in the minutes of yesterdays meeting. ( yesterday we had a a big 1 hour meeting about camp issues. i was the chairman, and i had loads of good feedback. if people spoke out of turn i ignored them and let those with hands up speak up so i annoyed some people but in general my style of leadership went down very well). today will involve me spending loads of money on resources for the class, and going on a boat ride on a lake, and also some pasta at an italian which should be nice.
CONCLUSION - settling in. much happier. enjoying teaching. getting somewhere with the kids. tuesday is the start of week 5 and i feel like somewhere in the distant distant future, i can actually see home! anyway, im now going off here and to all facebook users im going to TRY to upload about 200 photos on to there. then my mum might put the best ones on here. please remember that if the photos work, theyre just a drop in the ocean. there are thousands of pictures of me on, theyre just on everyone elses camera. you might get a little snippet of india but when im home and you see the whole lot, then youll be able to add images to what youve read over these ten weeks. hope youre all ok, i miss EVERYONE and thanks as always for the support. a more upbeat, and appreciative james signing off for another week :)
Monday 23 August 2010
Another hello from Jaisalmer
I have found a much nicer, quicker internet cafe. My blogs might be better and more frequent now. Time will tell. Week 4 starts today, and whilst I would not say time is going quickly at all, I think the last 5 weeks will go very quickly because then the countdown begins and by week 6/week 7 it will fly by.
I'll go over the 21st again, because I was half way through the day last time I wrote. Spent the day with a guide and a couple of volunteers going round the fort and the palace. It was beautiful and the views were breathtaking. India is so vast, I'm seeing such a small part of it. There are people, EVERYWHERE! Loads of us went for lunch at Milan. We have adopted it as the place to go. It sells good chicken, and if you have meat once a week you just go to wherever you know it is good. There are hundreds of restaraunts but I like Milan, so I'm staying put. I bought a couple of presents for people in the market. I chewed some tobacco with a couple of other volunteers. It was crap. It felt like chewing a cigarette and I spat it out after 5 minutes when you're apparently supposed to chew it for ages. I also stepped in cow poo, but being that there are as many cows as people wandering the streets it's bound to happen. We had a silent disco at night. For those who don't know, you all put earphones on and put your favourite song on and dance to it. It was absolutely top. It was pitch dark and we stood on a really high wall. About 20 of us just dancing like nutters and singing at the top of our voices for about an hour. I played a mix of The Beatles, Wham, David Guetta, Gracious K (whose cousin lives in camp) and loads of other stuff. It was brilliant, after a couple of phone chats with people from home I slept very well that night.
22/8/2010 Sunday was very chilled. Most people were at hotels so camp was quiet. We had pancakes for breakfast. Not that nice but, edible which is enough to make me happy. Played loads of chess, cards, listened to music. If Jordan is reading this or anyone who knows him, tell him to download music by Immortal Technique because I can't think of any other friends I have who might appreciate it but you're all welcome to check him out. Not much happens on Sundays which is the beauty of them. We just wash clothes, read, talk. I'm about 100 pages through Roots. It's a difficult book so far. I have a long list of music and authors to research when I get back. You learn a lot by listening. There are some extremely intelligent people here. I make alot of them feel really old because I haven't heard of the telly they watched as a child, and when they talk about where they were on the millenium for their night out. I can only say, I was 6, I don't know. It's quite funny!
23/8/2010 Today was a lot better at school. It is the brother/sister festival tomorrow so most kids were too excited to come into school. I played cricket for an hour with another volunteer and about ten young boys of whom I reckon 3 actually go to school. We won, anyway. Actually we destroyed them which was funny because they expected us to be rubbish! There are some Indian children who are about 12, and they bowl quicker than me. Later, we moved rocks for about 2 hours in the boiling sun. It's pretty pointless to be honest but we put music on and chat and have a laugh, and take photos, so it's not the end of the world. I then went for a walk in the village and got lost, I walked into a womans home in the middle of nowhere. I apologised in hindi and quickly made my escape. Spent about 2 hours discussing who would win in fights between animals/religious gods/superheroes with the guys. I've probably not laughed so much in my life. There is one person in camp who keeps making stupid comments about my weight, and it's bringing me down. Because for 1, I eat alot, I just have a quick metabolism and 2, we ALL have lost weight over here. So, she's making me feel a bit down, but at the same time.... every time any of the older ones make a comment about my age, they are the first person to defend me and to say I'm mature so I dont know what to do about the situation.
24/8/2010 Today is the festival, so were off. I've come to town so I could come on here and it's someones birthday so most of us are going for lunch at Milan to celebrate. I will do this day again when I come back on Saturday, but I assume it will consist of lunch, a shower, socialising and bed. I'm spending the next week just teaching the 3-6 year olds so I'm going to throw myself into using whatever crazy method it takes to help them learn. As my aunty said to me in an email, even if they don't learn loads of stuff they will hopefully have a broader outlook on the world and what they can achieve.
Conclusion - I miss football and news in general, but I'm settling in. I'm counting down the days, but I feel lucky to be here. The camp is ALOT less ill now, in fact 35/44 of us are very healthy now. We all seem to have a cold, which in the desert is weird but we can get over that. I had fried eggs on sweet bread this morning. YUM. Along with this, electricity levels have shot up. We have it like 30 percent of the time. We watched Harry Potter this morning. How i love electricity. I am going to come back as a tree hugger i think. If I see anyone say they're poor, I will be one of those annoying people who says how ungrateful they are. I am SO SO SO SO lucky, we all are actually. The opportunities we have in England are unbelievable. I'd like to get a moped when I'm back too. Anyway, keep emailing me. They're making me really happy to read..
Special mentions to michelle, Amy, Lauren and Chloe, Grandma, and everyone who can be bothered reading this. I love you all. Yours sincerely, a chirpy, indianesque James
Saturday 21 August 2010
hello again everyone
about to write again. i think my blog will become alot more boring now. im in a routine where i teach every weekday, and then have the weekend off. so other than teaching the kids, alot of socialising in the camp not much happens out of the ordinary for most of the week. im fine now after my hospital trip. also, i got an A in history, and two b's. if any of my friends could do me a favour, ask all my mates their results and email them to me because id love to know. also, you can all get international calling cards. they cost 5 pound and then you can talk to me for like `15 hours on it. ask louise for my number in india if you wanna get one. right, onto the updates.
18/8/2010 - ill go over this because i was halfway through the day last time i did it.woke up feeling better, hospital was a worthwhile trip. did ten green bottles and sentence with the kids today. its frustrating, they dont even really like us. they keep saying stuff like, 'this is my india, go to your england.' if only they could learn some other sentences. im only trying to bloody help them. some are sweet kids, but the language barrier is currently too big for any real progress. i always knew it would be slow and hard, but my group is determined. the girls are great teachers so in 5 weeks maybe theyll have got somewhere. went out into town as you know, got a torch a bucket etc. went to jhoda in the afternoon where iwork and just spent a couple of hours chatting to a family. there are goats everywhere in the deserty its quite funny. they just walk on the buildings. stayed up really late with 3/4 volunteers talking about all kinds of studenty rubbish. had a lot of fun!
19/8/2010 chilled out for hours. got a level results off louise. we both got ABB and im proud of both of us. it just feels a bit lonely out here because a levels to all these uni students arent a big deal so i feel a bit left out. thats noones fault though and i will be happy to see my results sheet when i get home. i hope you all did well students! been thinkin about home alot today.
20/8/2010 split the group of kids up, did loads of maths. most of us have a really bad cold now. its frustrating that were all so ill all the time but the conditions are just awful. i feel lucky that i dont have to endure it for ten weeks, you guys have it so good in englnad next time you poor water from a tap think of me as i have none! had a long chat with louise on the phone which made me sad, happy, stressed, and calm. but i do miss her alot, im starting to miss her, and everyone, and home. thats expected but it d9oesnt make it any easier. i think i will come back alot more grown up than i left
21/8/2010 today has been absolutely awesome. spent the day with 2 volunteers, we went round the massive fort in jaisalmer. saw amazing views, museums, got invited into loads of shops and homes. had lunch with about 20 other volunteers, then the three of us went on a big adventure in to the middle of nowhere and met loads more indians willing to tell us their tales and chat to us. tonight will consist of chilling out, more talking.
conclusion - im doing ok. 3 weeks are done after monday night. im pretty feverish but most of us are. im happy and occupied alot of the time but i feel ( as most of us do) were not having much of an impact whatsoever. it feels like we should be teaching the older children, the younger children need supervision, they dont even speak hindi properly yet. overall im taking as much of india in as i can. i hope everyones ok. thanks again for all the emails theyre keeping me going, love from james
Wednesday 18 August 2010
next chapter
i'll briefly go over the 14th as i wrote that before the day was over. i sung some tenacious d songs in the common room to the group but some people got offended as they can be rude! shopped a lot, got violent diarrhoea which a whole indian family heard and gave me an awful look for - embarrassing! apparently the night before i was sleep talking, but most of the lads have been doing that, or snoring so its ok. i had a good chat with the indian staff about the history of india.
15/8/2010 spoke to family on the phone last night which was great, and louise as well :) most people went to celebrate independance day in their village. i celebrated on the camp, im on the photos with the staff, i was topless so i covered my nipples and everyone laughed at me. i forgot to put one on before i went to brush my teeth and i stumbled on their national anthem photo - oops. diarrhoea got much much worse. went about 15 times during the day, spent alot of time chatting and hoping to get better. people keep arguing with each other so im just staying out of the way because its over silly things like who has the bucket or the soap, i dont care who has the bucket, or the soap..... its just a bucket, and soap. theres been a lot of rubbish humour, but it makes us laugh because the rubbish jokes were all making get us through the day. we all keep touching stuff that turns out to be alive and its so hard not to hug anyone or touch anyone at all, because you just cant in india. its socially unacceptable. not shaved yet, starting to get a strange hairy face. woke up at half 5 had to go diarrhoea in the middle of camp outside, noone knew so it was ok.... but it was worst moment of my life. i have a fever too. gonna go hospital tomorrow.
16/8/2010 went hospital. they said i had dangerously low blood pressure. andi had to stay for 2 or 3 days. the story of my trip tohospital isnt a niceone. i was scared. to cut it short. i stayed for 25 hours and ah alf which is a camp record. i had 8 litres of fluid put in my iv drip. about 20 injections, i got a huge blood clot in my arm so i was surrounded by doctors injecting me with yellow stuff and it hurt so much. the bloodclot went though, thasnkfully. i had anawful time there and felt very ill and alone. with no credit to ring anyone, wishedi could go homeat this point.
17/8/2010 woke up in hospital, yet more fluid had to be dripped into my body. i got back at like 1pm, every1 was like OMG YOURE BACK cause it was a big worry on camp that i was dangerously unwell. i was chuffed that people were so nice to me. i felt loads better, still have diarrhoea but 5 times a day rather than 20. also hes given me lots of pills. feeling alot better now!!!
18/8/2010 thats today, i kicked arse at work today. i told all the kids i was doctor evil and i basically just made the kids laugh but i taught them stuff as well. been to town had some amazing chicken. i forgot what meat even looked like. bought a torch and a bucket and stuff like that, and like 5 pinapples. ill write again at the weekend . i will alwayshave to write at the speed of light so it may be unclear.
conclusion - thanks again for all the emails its making me chuffed to hear from everyone. love and miss everyone :)
Saturday 14 August 2010
a recap of the first 11/12 days
okay, hello to anyone following this. first things first. im okay. i miss you all. and to everyone whose emailed me i dont have time to reply but keep writing as i appreciate it lots. i should be able to update this once a week from now on. i will try to write my diary on here from day one, and so might repeat myself a bit from last time.
3/8/2010 met everyone and got to know a few people. definitely feel like one of the youngest. plane was huge, people on it were praying. there was a bit of a bomb scare literally on the seat next to me. but everything was ok as proven by my being alive.
4/8/2010 a woman spent two hours asleep on my shoulder on the plane. it was disgusting. in the end i gave her a good talking too and she stayed awake and sat up then. chatted lots to the volunteers. when we arrived my stuff along with another lads nearly got sent to antigue, luckily it didnt so were ok. the 7 hour bus journey showed us alot of the country. people were trying to sell my coconut in the middle of the motorway. indians are NUTS. and seriously this place is so over populated. finally got to our homestay/ big family, huge beautiful house. i mean, it was like a little mansion for gods sake and im not exaggerating.
5/8/2010 struggling to eat because in india you cant use your left hand for anything (they wipe their bum with their left hand) the state of indian loos is another story which would take too long to discuss. we got a taxi to our meeting point which got lost. there isnt much law on indian roads, everyone just does what theymean, its scary but there are no crashes. organised chaos in the extreme. apologies for all spelling mistakes AS ALL ELECTRICITY IS SLOW AND RUBBISH HERE. spent 3 hours at a school, bought clothes and played games with the kids. i danced with them and did headstands and played cricket. one kid gave me a best friend bracelet i nearly cried :( we went to some godawful slums. they are wretched. we were all quite saddned by it. they kept trying to rob us and i dont blame them. weve been treated like celebrities in most places. had a bucket and scoop shower, it was lovely. and the only time in the day you can be cool as its about 45 degrees or something silly. seeing many rats frogs cockroaches cows monkeys elephants geckos you name it, its here. tea was nice, played cards for a few hours with the lads staying in my family home then went bed.
6/8/2010 got another taxi to meeting place. kept nearly crashing again. had a hindi lesson. there are 2000 versions of hindi, so its hard. there are so many volunteers its hard to learn names. spent most of the day learning about the rules and all that boring stuff which has to be done. i crossed a busy indian road which is much braver than it sounds, i was proud to a high degree. theres hardly any women but theres men veerywhere, they wee in the street freely. even the wealthy ones. the culture in terms of religion clothes traffic gendr priceand shops is a complete opposite to england. its like another realm. there is so much poverty but they areso welcoming and smily. the level of english is excellent in general. my family gave me ice cream. yum. we have a finnish man named lorrie staying with us. he is a mean person i dislike him alot. i had an indepth chat about hindu and muslim politics with one of the house elders. it was interesting. early night tonight, i had loads of aubergine at tea which mum if youre reading i expect you to be proud of.
7/8/2010 showered. said goodbye to host family. got an overpacked bus to the amer fort. we were told it wasl ike a double of the taj mahal and oh my god was it. i was overwhelmed at the scale and beauty of it. i suggest you all google it. so many beggers selling stuff. i just kept saying bog off in indian basically. i enjoy using my hindi knowledge. i rode an elephant with another group member it was so much fun i was giggling like a girl. spent a while round the fort. had a lot of great conversations with the other volunteers. i understand why we were picked now. weve all got teaching experience in some way. in my case sports leader. most have degrees and we all spend hours discussing music, politics, war, religion, life. just unbelievably intellectual discussions which makes me feel like im around special people. its been nice. were all very passsionate people which is why i guess were here and not the ones who were rejected. who knows, i know im lucky. apologise once again for the spelling. this keyboard may aswell have a jar of honey on it. i kept trying to rip the beggers off which made everyone laugh. i held a bloody cobra. only 3 of the 44 had the guts to do it and it was frighteneing. there are thousands of stray dogs, but there is a high risk of rabes so we have to stay clear. we went tosee a bollywood film. outside theyre all really quiet because the culture and religion makes them be that way but in the cinerma they were all laughing n clapping it was funny. wandered off half way through to a market with some of the other teachers but girls couldnt go in so we all had to leave. (girls have a shit life in india, excuse the language but its true). saw a mcdonalds, there are cows everywhere, as theyre sacred. there are cows on all the motorways but you just drive round them. we waited for the train. i had a huge like 4 hour chat with some volunteers. a one armed man was sick on me. it was not nice. i heard a french family talking, so i used my yr 9 french and had a full conv in french with them. dad, and mum, please be proud because i pulled it off with the accent and everything. magnifique. spent ages getting shuoted at on the sleeper train cause we were all just messing about and laughing hysterically while the indians were trying to sleep. train was disgusting, narrow, and huge. got about 5 hours sleep. 14 hours later we got there.
8/08/2010 i helped about 20 girls unload their cases. the lads have been helping alot, 8 lads plus nearly 40 girls = hard work for the boys. it was hot. and hard to carry stuff but after a long bus journey we made it. kind staff, volleyball nets. huge grounds, unpacked. boys have a far bigger and better room. things generally wowrk this way in india. spicy pasta for tea which went down well. girls were all going nuts over the bugs which was funny. there is no electricity which means. darkness after 6, no fans, no runing water apart from a little well. ( in the future there will hardly be any electricity). played footy for ages with thelads it was good. and frizbee. the loos are gross, full of maggets. there are beetles and hornets and wild dogs everywhere its ran. my mosquito net has bloody holes all over it. there was a kind of monsoon outside. its like terrential rain and a lightsshow, it lasted hours it was beautiful to see on our first night. its hot and sweaty in the room.
9/08/2010 toast for breakfast, could be worse. about 20 people are seriously ill. im ok atm but most people are in need of hospital attention. again i must stress im not exxagerating. i had papaya at lunch. again parents please be proud. played cricket with the staff but noone else did as theyreboring. im more relaxed than most people so far. i had a dance tobob marley with somevolunteers which wascool. we went into jaisalmer for a look round. kind and friendly people. lots of european tourists. lots of the army too, i kept nodding at them pretending i was some sort of millitary presence. been learning some dance moved off people. played lots of silly games and had hours of amazing conversations. people say theyll have a party for me and amy ( other 18 yr old) on al evel results day which would be top!!! one girl saw a wild dog in the dark and screamed. there was pandamonium cause none of us could see so we thought it was something scarier.
10/08/08 omg, we have elctricity for the FIRST time. mood in the camp is much better. even with electiricty there will never be internet so i cant get on until weekend really. i appreciated thechance to charge stuff up and sit under a fan and use a tap quite alotthough. most people are ill now, im one of about 5 who has held out. i went to a private hut on my own and sung for about half an hour to try and calm down a bit. did some kick ups with the lads, got put in my work group. im working in a school called jhoda. its 3-10 years old. theres me one lad and 4girls to about 40 kids bt some times less. we went to see the school. the kids are mental. i was a bit down when i got back but many volunteers arel ike 6 years older than me and very very good people so theyve looked after me. louise if youre reading i really am in good hands. also i will point out that most of the camp know about yourl ife story as i dont shut up about you. anyway, i talked for hours with people and then some indian kid did a singing show for us, then sleep!
11/8/08 - pancakes! mmmmmmmmmmm. first day of teaching. it was nuts to be honest. kids are mental, have no respect. theyre the same as english kids, hyper and naughty. except they speak a different language, they all asked if i was married as by 15 most of them tend to be. i said no but i have a gf called louise and they seem satisfied enough. the staff kept hitting the kids, it was not fun to see. had lunch, spent a few hours in the hut listeing to music and chatting. went back to do construction work. ( moving rocksfor an hour and ahalf) again, im serious. so you all know i work 3 hours in the morning teaching, and 2 hours in the afternoon doing stuff like moving rocks. the middle of the day is too hot to work. i have weekends off. the coach driver killed a goat by accident. 6 of us were on the coach, 4 girls me and one other lad. we were all gutted but only i cried. i cried for a bout an hour, all the other teachers were very niceabout it though and give me tissues and that. had a really good night chilling with the volunteers, after 6 at night we have to use torches tosit outside. im of a rare breed of people that havent been ill yet. its like a war zone, people keep going hospital. there are gross bugs EVERYWHERE. its hot, its rubbish, i went to bed!
12/8/2010 got about 7 hours sleep which is the most ive had up to now. there are thousands of flies everywhere. youdont even notice now, theyre just EVERYWHERE. samas the frogs, dogs, beetles and anything else youcan think of. went to teach again. bit better kids have no respect but i tought them acouple of shapes so im getting there. played a few games at lunch and then learnt about aids. had a massive bit of pinapple and loved it. i now love pinapple. again i would like to invite parents to be proud of me for trying newstuff. had a shower outside with trunks on everyonelaughed at me butidont care because i cba being shy.
13/8/2010 had a big sleep. i tought for an hour by myself today. it was so hard. but i taught thekids alot more than i thought iwould. i did adding subtraction shapes, cars, youname it. i am reallty strict because im not there to be there friend. the sunsets annd the stars areb eautiful. lots of shooting stars. im hoping the wish i made on my chinese lantern i did with louise comes true! had a big group meeting it was poo cause every1 argued so i just chilled out. played volleyball with the staff who were sooooooooo good at it, the lads lost 15-12 so we gained alot of respect from them.
14/8/2010 well thats today and i havent wrote mydiary yet. all there is to say is that its my first day off. went into town with two other teachers. ate western food. im SICKof curry. its curry and rice for two meals every day and its making us all feel sick to eat it. ive had really bad diarrhoea today, but im like 3rd to last to get it soivedone well. i may go hospital. im ok, this is normal out here. ivebought moreclothes, im pissing the shopkeepers off cause i barter too much. i went with some random strange indian in to the middleof nowhere just to see some peoplehouses,, scary but fun. andhe didnt rob us so its all good. up to now im about to go buy a pinapple, get ataxi home and go bed as im ill.
CONCLUSION FOR NOW - im ok. im safe. everything is dirty and doesnt taste good. the people are very kind. and im workng very hard and getting alot out of it. it couldbe worse it could be better. but this will surely be the hardest thing i ever endure. once again i miss all friends andfamily, youre on my mind lotsand as usual special shoutout to louise i love youso so much and i wish you goodluck on results day, same with all my other osfc friends. ill update nextr week. bye xxxxxxx
Friday 6 August 2010
3 day trip to jaipur
this will be extremely short. i have fought off many people to get on here. i'll write more extensively soon. been in jaipur a couple of days. its hot, its like another world. been to the slums, spent hours playing and having a laugh with children. learning hindi. there are about 1000 other things which i will put up on here soon. i have a diary so i'll write everything off that. in such a rush. the main thing to say is that it's like being on another planet. we're like celebrities. and so much is happening all the time that my mind feels numb. the group is fine but most people are 5 or so years older so whilst i dont feel like an outsider there is definitely a noticable difference in age. but that won't matter, we're going to our place for 9 weeks on a sleeper train tomorrow night. going to ride an elephant, watch a bollywood movie, exciting stuff is happening all the time. i muight eventually be able to see the taj mahal too. i bought some indian clotjhes, i look silly! sorry for the bad typing this is a huge rush. the indian family im living with have a HUGE BEAUTIFUL house. would be worth millions in india. everything costs nothing, a taxi is 50p, a coca cola is practically free. food is stunning but might get repetetive. lots of curries chickpeas lentils bread etc. had my first toilet trip today and delhi belly hasn't hit me. gross as this sounds diarrhoea is common so i'm lucky to be ok so far. i have been in many rickshaws ( taxis ) and they are mental. the roads are crazy. everyone is beeping nonstop and india has like a billion people so you can hardly move but if you walk in to a road everyone just goees round you. organised chaos. rode on top of a truck through the slums, most people were too scared so i stepped in and risked my life. WORTH it! Seeing monkeys parrots wild dogs elpehnats camels cows just wandering about. as i said i will write in a more clear and relaxed fashion soon. but so far it has been non stop activities and meeting people and chatting so i'm quite excitable!! love you all especially louise
Monday 2 August 2010
Setting off tomorrow.
Finishing off packing. Got a few last bits to pick up like really strong sun cream. nervous but looking forward to meeting 45 other 18-25 year olds on the plane tomorrow :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)