I will start with a very mundane matter; the weather! It has continued to be extremely cold until this week when the fog has cleared and we have been waking up to clear blue skies and actually getting a bit hotter. It is amazing how much difference the change makes to my mood.
At the weekend we made the most of our time off by heading 450km north to Amritsar which is near the pakistani-indian border. The train journey up was an experience in itself It was certainly a budget hotel at £3.50 each a night but it had a bed, hot water and free WiFi so we were happy. We had a lazy morning, moping about in bed making the most of the internet access which we have been so deprived of! We then got up and went to find the famous Golden Temple.
The sikh temple is a stunning, completely gold rectangular building surrounded by holy water which is then enclosed in a square of large white buildings. It is a lovely place and i felt very peaceful as we walked around the water, only disturbed by the plump Sikh men stripping down to their underwear and taking a dip in the water to cleanse themselves and their protruding, round stomachs. We were made to remove our shoes and socks and cover our heads but that made it feel even more serene.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the streets of Amritsar which contained millions of little shops all selling exactly the same hotch potch of things. We got some henna done on our hands by a little man on the side of the road which was beautiful but so difficult to keep your fingers spread apart and not touch anything for 2 hours.
Sunday morning was another lazy one and then we upped sticks and went to the place where we had had donner the night before, for breakfast and were greeted with muesli, honey and yogurt which was amazing compared to the dry cereal that we eat in bed from the packet on a normal school morning. We visited a memorial for the hundreds on Indian citizens who were shot dead when a British soldier opened fire on them which was moving but we did feel slightly awkward and out of place being there so decided to tell anyone we were American if they asked ;) we did get a lot of stares because we were the only white people in there and had multiple people come up to us and ask for pictures - I felt like a celeb!
We also went to see the Hindu version of the golden temple which was also very pretty but much less visited so not so well kept or impressive. We opted to take a cycle a rickshaw to this temple which I then regretted because we seemed to chose the rickshaw with the oldest man pedalling so I then felt very guilty for him having to move our heavy load!
When we got to the train station, we discovered that our 16.15 train had been delayed until 22.30 so we would not get to Delhi until 11am. We managed to book onto another train which had reclining seats and heating so was much better but arrived in Delhi at 3.30am. Once back at the school we crashed for a few hours before getting up for the Republic Day celebrations.
For republic day, the school put on a performance which included the national anthem, flag hoisting, speeches, drama sketches, Indian dances and song and of course the 'cauliflowers fluffy' song directed by yours truly. The song went pretty well and could have been a lot worse although I now refer to it is cauliflowers fluppy as that is how they say it.
Once the celebrations had finished we crawled back into our beds and slept for the remainder of the afternoon before heading up for dinner at the farm.
I have been continuing to teach entirely computer and library sessions. I enjoy the library sessions and helping get the kids to grips with new words and how to work out words they don't know, however, I am not so keen on computer so was very pleased to see the new teacher arrive on Thursday and hear she will be teaching from Monday :D
Took another trip into Badshapur - the local town - and got to the post officeonly to be told that the stamp man had gone to his village for the week so we couldn't buy any stamps (faintly ridiculous).
On Thursday was Jasmine's, one of the girls at the school who lives up at the farm, birthday so us 3 volunteers were invited to their quarters for a party and dinner. We were entertained around the fire with a mixture of Indian, western and Nepalese (they're Nepalese) dances to a variety of different music, of which i decided Indian was the best. We then had chow mein, spicy chicken and even spicier pork for dinner which nearly blew my head off but I managed it with the help of some Indian rum and coke! After dinner we sang some songs and read some nursery rhymes and it was generally a lovely evening and nice to experience something a bit different!
I am keenly awaiting the arrival of my grandparents this weekend who have spent the last 2 weeks touring India and are visiting me as their final stop before home.
Much love xxx
At the weekend we made the most of our time off by heading 450km north to Amritsar which is near the pakistani-indian border. The train journey up was an experience in itself It was certainly a budget hotel at £3.50 each a night but it had a bed, hot water and free WiFi so we were happy. We had a lazy morning, moping about in bed making the most of the internet access which we have been so deprived of! We then got up and went to find the famous Golden Temple.
The sikh temple is a stunning, completely gold rectangular building surrounded by holy water which is then enclosed in a square of large white buildings. It is a lovely place and i felt very peaceful as we walked around the water, only disturbed by the plump Sikh men stripping down to their underwear and taking a dip in the water to cleanse themselves and their protruding, round stomachs. We were made to remove our shoes and socks and cover our heads but that made it feel even more serene.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the streets of Amritsar which contained millions of little shops all selling exactly the same hotch potch of things. We got some henna done on our hands by a little man on the side of the road which was beautiful but so difficult to keep your fingers spread apart and not touch anything for 2 hours.
Sunday morning was another lazy one and then we upped sticks and went to the place where we had had donner the night before, for breakfast and were greeted with muesli, honey and yogurt which was amazing compared to the dry cereal that we eat in bed from the packet on a normal school morning. We visited a memorial for the hundreds on Indian citizens who were shot dead when a British soldier opened fire on them which was moving but we did feel slightly awkward and out of place being there so decided to tell anyone we were American if they asked ;) we did get a lot of stares because we were the only white people in there and had multiple people come up to us and ask for pictures - I felt like a celeb!
We also went to see the Hindu version of the golden temple which was also very pretty but much less visited so not so well kept or impressive. We opted to take a cycle a rickshaw to this temple which I then regretted because we seemed to chose the rickshaw with the oldest man pedalling so I then felt very guilty for him having to move our heavy load!
When we got to the train station, we discovered that our 16.15 train had been delayed until 22.30 so we would not get to Delhi until 11am. We managed to book onto another train which had reclining seats and heating so was much better but arrived in Delhi at 3.30am. Once back at the school we crashed for a few hours before getting up for the Republic Day celebrations.
For republic day, the school put on a performance which included the national anthem, flag hoisting, speeches, drama sketches, Indian dances and song and of course the 'cauliflowers fluffy' song directed by yours truly. The song went pretty well and could have been a lot worse although I now refer to it is cauliflowers fluppy as that is how they say it.
Once the celebrations had finished we crawled back into our beds and slept for the remainder of the afternoon before heading up for dinner at the farm.
I have been continuing to teach entirely computer and library sessions. I enjoy the library sessions and helping get the kids to grips with new words and how to work out words they don't know, however, I am not so keen on computer so was very pleased to see the new teacher arrive on Thursday and hear she will be teaching from Monday :D
Took another trip into Badshapur - the local town - and got to the post officeonly to be told that the stamp man had gone to his village for the week so we couldn't buy any stamps (faintly ridiculous).
On Thursday was Jasmine's, one of the girls at the school who lives up at the farm, birthday so us 3 volunteers were invited to their quarters for a party and dinner. We were entertained around the fire with a mixture of Indian, western and Nepalese (they're Nepalese) dances to a variety of different music, of which i decided Indian was the best. We then had chow mein, spicy chicken and even spicier pork for dinner which nearly blew my head off but I managed it with the help of some Indian rum and coke! After dinner we sang some songs and read some nursery rhymes and it was generally a lovely evening and nice to experience something a bit different!
I am keenly awaiting the arrival of my grandparents this weekend who have spent the last 2 weeks touring India and are visiting me as their final stop before home.
Much love xxx
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