Team work is like no work!

Nick Clark and Alex Park

Alex and I are now done with our Internship. Sad day. We finished it by going with the Utah Country expedition to Chamba. Those Kids are awesome. We had a great time getting to know them and all of the adult leaders. We’re very grateful that they let us join in on their team. We even got our names on the back of their T-shirts. Yeah we’re pretty dope. I’d like to give out some shout outs. Thank you Baird’s Rob, JoDee, Eden, Maria! Thank you Utah Country Team. Thank you Rakesh, Raj, Nisha. and Mr. Damhi. Thank you very much Family for letting me come do this! And everyone I forgot to thank, thank you too! We had a great 3 months living here in India! We did so much and didn’t really blog. I'm pretty sure we had the trip of a life time. Kullu, Calcutta, Pune, Delhi, Chamba and Agra. What a adventure we have had. Thank you again for this EPIC experience.

Oh yeah there’s one great life lesson I learned here that I would like to share with you. “Team Work Is Like No Work”

Nick and I are double-teaming this blog like it’s no work. I also want to thank everyone who read our blog. And we are much funnier in person compared to our blog, just in case you were wondering. Nick and I have seen many things this trip. Good and bad. But every experience we have had, have helped us grow into the men we are going to become. We are both excited to come home, but also very sad to leave our new home. People have been very caring towards us the moment we stepped off the plane. We have absolutely loved it here. This is something we are going to carry throughout our lives. Rakesh and Raj are two men that do amazing work for this organization. Without them non of this would be possible. I also want to thank my family. I left without anyone really wanting me too, but you have all supported me so much. YMAD, I think your pretty neat.

Mad adventures Ft. creeps

About ever night the boys (Alex and I) go hit the main street light life. There are all sorts of things to see from meat hanging on hooks, severed goat heads, and even a vegetable market. We always have a great time when we go out. One of these nights we were on a bisect run. I had a mad craving for a good bisect. I was looking up and down for a shop with a wide selection. I found it and I began to select some. While I was focused on my choosing, these people came up to Alex and asked him what is name was. It sounded like a man. But when I turn around I saw 3 men dressed up as girls.. Alex told them his name. I hurried and bought my bisects and we started walking a way. They followed us. We had to stop because of traffic and one of the Man girls looked at Alex and said “ you want some” Alex immediately said “aaaahhhhhh “ pushed me and said “RUN!” So we ran never to see our man girl hookers again.. so far.That same night I bought some ice cream and dropped the last bite. Dropping that last bite was the worst part of that night for sure.

Another night we went with Mimi and Manami to an Indian wedding. The wedding was hopping. Alex and I were spitting some mad game. Faults, no girls. But who needs girls when you have a creepy kid starring at you the WHOLE night! Seriously the second we walked in the kid sat by us and starred. It was like he was starring into your soul. I smiled at him to be nice. Bad Idea. We got up to move to the dinning room and that creep of a kid tried to hold my hand. This kid was too old for it to be cute It was just creepy. We sat down to eat and guess who joined us at our table. Creep kid! Yay! Now he can watch us while we eat. By the end Alex said “hello have you meet my friend nick?” and pointed at me. That was a low blow. But haha it back fired! The kid just staired at Alex more because he spoke to it. Then he left. But wait it came back and stood by Alex and pulled out a chocolate bar and handed it him. Until we left the creep kid just followed us trying to hold are hands. Another thing alex and I havent slept more then 3 feet away from each other this whole time. and sometimes when he cant sleep he takes pictures of both of us. creepo...

Calcutta is fun.

Alex told you how we got here. Now let me tell you little about what we’re doing in West Bangle. We’re about a 40 minute car ride out side of Calcutta. We are working with a great NGO called Nishtha. They have a lot of projects going on all the time in villages all over. Mimi and Manami are two people here that we love they take us everywhere and show us their projects. In this area of India there is a disgusting hatred for women. So Nishtha only works with women. It’s good because they need it. If a family is poor, they have a boy and girl. They’ll only put the boy in school. And if that girl doesn’t work or contribute to the family they will most likely get sold in girl trafficking. They don’t look at the female as if they’re worth anything. Sometimes they don’t feed them or just straight up beat them. Nishtha as gone around and found girls like this. They have 21 schools in 20 different villages. The 21st school is the Day Boarding School aka the DBS. That’s where Alex and I spend most of are time. We get there at about 11:00am. We teach About 90 girls everyday, teaching English of course. After teaching we always have an ultimate happy fun play sesh. until they go at 4:30pm. Alex and I have also been to other village schools, and been take out to see other projects of Nishtha. The things we’ve seen… We’ve been face to face with girls that have been sold in girl trafficking but luckily saved be Nishtha. It’s a whole different world here. My sadness level is at 9.0 out of 10.0. haven’t been this sad since I watch “500 days of summer” darn you summer.

Oh and once we were at a meeting in a village and we got coconuts to drink. Cool huh?

Starting a New Adventure

Nick and I, are absolutely loving life in India! Nick and I had a great opportunity to stay with Mr. Dhami and his wonderful family. After that we took a 5 hour car ride to Pathankot , where the nearest train station is. If you ask anyone who has ever gone to India before with Ymad, they have a story about the train ride. Last time when we were here with a group of 35 people we sat in the train station and everyone stared at us. Why should it be any different this time around? Wanna know the biggest difference between sitting in a train station with 35 people compared to 2? Your not nearly as intimidating to be approached by weirdos. When Nick and I sat down, Nick had his arms wrapped around all the bags while I sat there with my 10-rupee veg burger. One guy instantly sat down right next to us and leaned over and didn’t stop looking at Nick for the 2 hours we sat there. A group of about 15 young men were all whispering and looking over at us. It couldn’t but help remind me of little schoolgirls. One of them finally got the guts to come up and show us his butchered English. When one person shows some courage, Its a lot easier for others to show it too. Soon we had a group of 15 people standing in front of us all asking questions. That was the first time this trip I genuinely felt overwhelmed. I wasn’t scared, I was just was overwhelmed at the idea of sitting here and talking small talk to all these people. When I thought it couldn’t get any weirder some guy came out of left field and started giving us biscuits. No one saw him coming. They eventually got bored of us and went back into there dark corners. The train finally arrived and we found our spot where we’ll be sleeping. The only sleeper train I’ve been on the compartment only had 4 beds, but this one had 6. We thought we would be stuck with 4 other creepy guys for the next 9 hours. We totally lucked out and got a small family of 4. Nick and I were so unbelievably stoked! Neither one of the kids were older than the age of 5. We had some extra beanie baby’s so we handed them over to the kids. We all got ready for bed and I plugged in my ipod and was excited to lie down in peace. As soon as a got all situated one of the little kids started weeping. Not crying. Weeping. This kid had lungs. At the beginning of his weep session I wasn’t even mad. I was actually impressed. That soon went away and I was honestly thinking about taking away his beanie baby if he didn’t shut up. The biggest thing that stopped me was the language barrier. I didn’t think it would look good if I was stealing a little boy’s stuffed moose. After about a half an hour or so he stopped. Our train was to arrive in Delhi at 7:30 in the morning and I was terrified we were going to sleep through our stop. I got up around 7 and was ready to go at 7:30 all anxious to get off the dumb train. Don’t worry. We weren’t even closed to sleeping past our stop. Our train was late by 2 and a half hours. We had a crazy rickshaw drive through Delhi and we were at the airport ready to fly to Calcutta and start a new part of our adventure.

Alex Park February Update

Whoa! Well a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Nick and I are now in Chamba, where we went for our first expedition when we were in India a little more than a year ago. We have been staying with a Mr. Dahmi. He is a very wise man and Nick and I have loved the opportunity to get to know him better. We are very grateful for his hospitality and how he has treated us like family. Nick and I are here to set up everything for Utah County YMAD when they are here in March. It has been raining nonstop for the past 4 days, so we have been unable to meet with the schools and orphanages. So we’ve been stuck inside reading all day and talking about video games we wish we had. 2 Sundays ago Nick and I had all of the girls over to our house and we had our first Annual Pancake Fest 2010!
And our pancakes were amazing. Our secret? Lots and lots of butter. Actually Nick did most of the cooking while I sat there and cheered him on. I did set the table though. Pretty important stuff. I even had a nice little centerpiece. It really tied the room together. Our Pancake Fest 2010 was a great success and all the girls loved them. After breakfast Nick and I went up to see mother to give her some pancakes. Mother is a woman from Switzerland who has lived in India for the past 25 years. Her name really isn’t Mother. I actually have no idea what it is. She just likes going by mother. She is one of the Shastra Society board members. Ymad has had a lot of success these past few months and the Baird’s and all the previous interns have done a great job in this part of the world. James and Nefi found all these wonderful girls to fill our orphanage and Reshma started teaching in the elementary school and even got desks for the school there. Nick and I have continued to teach and we even got into the high school to teach a couple classes a day. But it feels as if Mother is trying to stop all of our progress. We don’t know what her plan is but it is clear that she doesn’t realize all of the blessing that have been occurring around her. But we know it is because of her that we are now in Chamba and it looks like we will be traveling to Calcutta. But Nick and I fully intend on going back to the Home for Peace before the end of our adventure and to be with our wonderful girls. And we totally forgot our hot chocolate mix in Kullu too. Now we have to go back.

Nick Clark February Update

We have had tremendous success in Kullu. The past interns have done an amazing job setting it all up. Alex and I were stoked to get our turn to make a lasting difference in Kullu. We have had so many things going our way. We would teach in two schools a day.
Help the girls with there homework and give them love they needed. There is much more we want to set up there. We made some really good friends there too. Raj and Nisha! There are some of the most down to earth, hard working people on this plane. Raj is the MAN that is all you need to know about him. He has looked after us the second we step of the bus. He is always thinking about other people, always asking if we are doing fine, or if we need anything.

He does wonderful work for the ashram, running place to place getting things done. And he has a great since of humor .We are in good hands with Raj Sir. Nisha is the warden for the ashram. She is like a mom/older sister to the girls. Making sure all their needs are kept. Keeping them on a tight schedule and always making sure they have all their homework done. The girls love her! She is a perfect fit for them.

YMAD could not have found two better people in this world to help them run this ashram. They are a blessing for up above.
It all sounds like every thing in Kullu is just great. But there is just one thing from stopping us there. And its name is mother. She a nice lady when she wants to be, the reason we our in Chamba right now is because of her. She just makes it very difficult to do anything there. So for the time being Alex and I are going to make a difference somewhere else. But we will go back to Kullu to be with our girls and our friends again! It pains us not being with our girls and our friends Raj and Nisha. It was so sad to leave them. I don’t think I have ever been heart broken in my life till now. It’s a crummy feeling. I was laying in bed in Chamba one night and I said what is this feeling of hurt I have in my heart? I started thinking I miss home. But I wasn’t thinking about American I was thinking of the people we love and the places we call home in Kullu. Because Home is where your heart is. And Those Girls have stolen it right out of my chest. But no matter what happens Park & I are on the trip of a life time and we our STOKED to see what happened next! We are so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you YMAD

Joy ride to Manali

Saturday was a holiday, no school! So we went up to go play with the girls. Raj was there kicking it with us. He was like “hey I need to go to Manali. I cant get a car, if you come we’ll have to take the bus, would you guys like to come?” Alex and I said “heck yeah” we would love to go on a bus adventure to Manali with you!” So Raj Alex and I walked up the street and waited for the bus to arrive. All you do is wave your hand and the bus just stops like a taxi then it picks you up. So we put up our hands and hop on the bus. This is not a city bus you’re thinking of. This bus was already JAMMED PACKED and old. Image Raj with to lanky white kids hoping on a jammed packed bus full with nothing but Indians. We didn’t stand out at all! The ceiling was just about 6 foot both Alex and I were in the middle of the bus standing up with are heads ducked down trying not to hit the ceiling. There was no personal space on the bus you were back to front, front to back. To make the bus ride better there was a guy on the bus that “walks” up and down the aisle collecting people’s money when they hopped on. That guy would stop by us every stop (and by stop I mean whenever someone was on the side of the road wanting to come aboard) and blow his whistle (to let the bus driver know when he could go again) right in our ears. That was our first leg of our adventure. After that we hopped on a smaller bus with more people. This time we were in a corner so I was fine. But Alex had his back towards the crowd and he was getting groped by this Indian lady that was behind him! Haha we both enjoyed the bus SO MUCH! (Alex not so much after his gropeage) We have been on cars, motorcycles, rickshaws and now a bus on the windy, small, sketchy, cliff roads of the Himalayas and nothing is like cruising 50 km on a bus looking over the edge thinking where pretty high up, hope this driver doesn’t crash! All in all we had a BLAST! Its something you have to experience for your self… What a joy ride we had!

Nick Clark Update

Alex basically told you everything going on here. The Internet as been broken, (Pain in the butt) We love the girls to death! We teach everyday in the schools. And we help out with projects for the community. Now let me tell you about the other side of our life’s here. We live about 300 yards away from the ashram. It’s a pretty sweet set up. We call it the “Home For The Dope show” Providing lanky kids with Possibilities to live & serve in India. The building is a training center with classrooms and a big kitchen. We have a big open room with two beds we push together to watch movies on. I wanted the bed near the wall but Alex took that one... Good thing because now he as SCABIES! Ha…Karma for taking my bed. We bought about 15 posters to hang all over our room. Best posters India could offer. It also as a bathroom area! There is a long straight hallway we call the lunge way. (It’s perfect to do your morning lunges in) that connects all the rooms. At night it’s a creepy place to be. We come home after playing with the girls and all the lights are off. We walk down the creepy lunge way to go to our room and turn on the light that just flickers for about 30 seconds before it decides to light up our room. Sometimes it just shuts off. We also have two heaters that we blast 24-7 to keep warm. The top of the building isn’t complete, one day Alex and I said hey lets go explore! That’s what real man do. Explore! We were stoked so we went up to the second floor and started opening rooms. And guess what we found... Three out of the five rooms had people’s stuff in it! We have had people living above us…some mornings & evenings we hear them walking Living in the home for the "Dope Show". I bet they’re not even lanky! I don’t care if they live above us as long as we don’t get murdered! Every morning we walk up and drink hot chocolate listing to a song by the sounds “We’re not living in a America” it gets us stoked for India. What beautiful place we are living in. its truly amazing work of god.
We have been very blessed with everything and we are safe as can been! Till next time
Xoxo Nick

Ps we eat MOMO’s everyday of our lives they are soooo good.

Blogtastic Blog of Awesomeness

Whoa! Sorry Nick and I haven’t been blogging. The Internet broke in India. But we finally got it fixed and now we’re good to go. There is so much to blog about. Good thing Nick and I love to blog. That’s all we’ve been talking about, “when are we going to get the Internet so we can blog!?!” The first night we got to the Home for Peace all the girls were very shy of the two tall lanky Americans, but they quickly warmed up to us. They are freaking adorable and so much fun to be with. Some of them are also very sassy and usually just make fun of us. They giggle in Hindi so we can’t understand what they are saying, but Nick and I talk with the little Spanish we know to counter their Hindi. But when we teach English it’s a “No Hindi Zone”. So if we hear a word of Hindi we make the girls do a lap around the house. We also have been teaching in the elementary school and The High School. The first couple of days of teaching were a little bit rough, but we have definitely gotten better and we can tell the kids love it when we come. In the elementary school all the kids sit on dirty cold cement floors and it was Reshma’s idea (The previous intern) to supply the school with desks. Yesterday a truck packed with desks came to the school and we unloaded it. I don’t think I have ever been excited to see a school desk before, but all the kids were stoked! They were all running outside of their classes screaming and jumping. A group of 5^th graders also came out and started to help us unload. We finally unloaded all the desks into the courtyard and all the kids were giving them a test run. Several of the teachers came up to me and thanked me for the desks. Sorry Reshma and Rob. I stole your thank you’s. But everyone at the school was very thankful and it’s a memory that I will remember for a long time.

A non-internet life

Hi All,

(The internet has been out for five days so try to imagine the following 5 days ago)

So much has happened that I feel somewhat prepared to go home, somewhat. We got a warden who is amazing with the girls. Her name is Nisha and she is from the local area and she is quite educated. I find her to be the exact in between of Raj and me: she’s fun and corky like me yet strict and hard working like Raj (I’m hard working too). Every night she reads a children’s book to the girls in English and then in Hindi and during the story the girls have to write down ten words in English that are new. There’s a lot of stuff these girls need to learn in and outside the home and Nisha is perfect in teaching them these things. The girls are finally getting a good mix of Hindi and English (Hindish) and learning local customs at the same time. Nisha’s GREAT!

I guess with Nisha in as the warden there’s little for me to do…

Things are winding down and it feels like things are finally set in place. Most of the construction work is finished. The septic tank we are putting in the local school is almost finished too and the dining hall FINALLY has curtains! Life here is a bit slower if you hadn’t guessed!

My biggest job right now is to get things set up for the next round of interns who come here. They’ll have to do some teaching too, especially in the schools, and these schools need help! Next to the lack of classroom necessities, the schools are teaching the wrong stuff! Take the color purple for instance, they teach the students to call it black. Or think about how YOU learned primary and secondary colors (with fun little painting projects of mixing the colors) here it is given in a formula in a book that has to be memorized (red + yellow= orange), no fun at all.

Raj and I have had some “beef” with the principal at the high school here. The principal is just not willing to cooperate with us on some issues. So, Raj and I went to the Deputy Director (DD) of the school board (I’m not sure of the equivalent title in the USA but for now we can say it’s the same as president of the United States). Everyone respects this man, I mean everyone! If he passed gas, people would breathe it in. The DD loves the work we are doing at the ashram so he automatically sided with us and called the principal and put him straight! I think the principal felt like a 10 year old boy after that call. I think I would even be ok with the DD’s gas!

Since this last Saturday was the last Saturday for me with the girls, I invited them all to come and have one massive sleepover! It was a BALL! We watched movies, we danced and I beat the living daylight out of them with pillows! The only problem I had was that after the girls left in the morning, I found all of Sarojani’s “pocket toys” all over the bed; it was a combination of a half eaten carrot, a broken rubrix cube and a neon thingamajig. This girl cracks me up! Poonam also complained of sleeping next to Anju, supposedly Anju sneezes in her sleep and one landed in Poonam’s ear!

Since the girls are doing such a good job of taking care of themselves and others, I found it very necessary to give them more responsibility: a puppy. That’s right, a puppy. We found a puppy in the farm house next door and we somewhat “stole” it, technically it just followed us and then we decided to keep it. The sole purpose of this puppy is for the girls to learn responsibility not because I want a puppy or anything (a common misconception). The girls decided his name too: Happy.

Oh by the way, I caught an amoeba. A living thing is living inside of me, it must have been from that hot spring I went to. So I went to the doctor. The first doctor’s office I went to was closed; ironically he was attending someone’s funeral that day (doesn’t that just send the wrong message: a doctor at a funeral?). The next doctor did a good check up on me and gave me medicine. But the visit was no piece of cake, do you know how embarrassing it is to have your stool action and feminine problems translated to the doctor? I’m sure you don’t know, let me tell you, it is awful! I can’t even look at Raj anymore! It was a very awkward drive home after that…

Why These Girls are Amazing

Hi All,

I just wanted to add what I love about these girls…

Sarojani, she has to be first. I find her to be the funniest kid around. I have an impersonation of her that would crack you up but it’s too much to describe so I will HAVE to do it once I return. Here’s a little fyi: do you ever find yourself walking down the street and you realize you need a yellow balloon? Or a fuzzy rubber ball? How about the remains of a shoelace? Oh, and how about a half eaten newspaper? Well, if you’re with Sarojani, you never have to worry about that, she has all those materials in her pocket. Always. I’m also extremely proud of her “smarts,” she sees problems in a different way: if you ask her what is 7 times 4, she will say “14 times 2, oh! 28!”

Dolma, she’s the only one who likes “Kool Aid,” seriously, the other girls poured it to the dogs while I wasn’t looking (I found out in my own ways). Whenever another girl trips, she’s the first to laugh but when someone leaves their sweater out, she’s the first to raise her voice, she scares me like my father! A real inspiration Dolma is (Yoda talk); she’s someone I really admire.

Anju, she’s shy but she’s adorable. If someone where to even hug her, she would shy away giggling. For all the shyness she has, she has a lot of insight; whenever she opens her mouth (even for the slightest moment) her words are full of wisdom. Ever since she’s warmed up to me, she’s been asking for help in combing her hair, putting oil in her hair or even pouring water. Don’t get me wrong, she’s more independent than any other girl here but once in a while, she likes the touch of an older sister or a mother.

Pooja, Oh Pooja. She’s a feisty little critter. The “gimmies” have hit her hard! Sometimes she just can’t stand if another girl has something she does not have. Especially when it comes to her younger (crazier) sister, Kirna. Oh does Pooja get annoyed with her! Once I made a huge mistake of inviting the girls over for a sleepover and I put Pooja next to Kirna. The whole night was awful! Pooja took all her anger out on Kirna by kicking her all night; imagine sleeping with Elaine (from the show Sienfield) and her dancing with “little kicks.”

Kirna, I might as well go to Kirna now. The best way of describing her is through the song “Jump in the Line” by Harry Belafonte. You know how he sings “Shake, shake shake, Senora, shake your body line…” Well, Kirna is Senora. Even without music she’s dancing, even if there’s broken glass on the ground, she’s dancing. But she’s a hoot, a real hoot. Spending time with her will only prove you to be going insane but honestly, she’s just like any other kid (Beacon Heights kids are a good comparison!)

Poonam loves kisses! Every night, she HAS to give me a kiss goodnight (I rub sugar on my cheeks is really why). What’s funny about Poonam is she has the voice and the habits of an old local village woman. She even laughs from the back of her throat and creates a gurgling sound. She’s one hell of a tough cookie though! If you insult her sister, she will throw you down, and she considers many people her sister!

Lata is the most advanced in English of the bunch but she stills says “I am so scary-ied.” Lata is picky at times! She won’t eat school lunch because she hates the cook, she only loves to wear pink and she gets easily annoyed by misbehavior. For how bright and open Lata is, she’s oddly enough the most afraid of adventure! She threw a fit when piercing her nose and she hung outside of the hot spring forever before she got inside. But you got to love her!

There. There are all the bios of the girls so far. Thinking about it, I really hate knowing so much about them because it makes it harder to leave them. I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had with these girls and how excited I become to see them waking up in the morning. Ok, I can tell you: A LOT!

Reshma

Bathing at its finest hour

I had to take one day’s rest before I could write a description of what I went through yesterday. It was an experience that opened my eyes, not to the world, but to women. Yes, to women. This might become a little too much for some, so here’s my warning: the latter of this is going be x-rated (well, on Utah standards).

I took the girls to a natural hot spring. Supposedly, this place is full of them and they are beyond hot (something I call “chai hot”). Well, whatever you are thinking of as a hot spring, FORGET IT! This was an unbelievable experience. There were two concrete tubs (outside) with walls surrounding to separate the girls from the boys. And of course, pure naked-ness, absolute and complete NAKED-NESS! I told the girls to keep their undergarments on but imagine how scared you would be if you were 10 and saw a pool of green water with oversized naked women bathing. And here’s the cruel part: I told the girls to get in! I’m horrible at this job! The girls were a bit fearful so I had to get in first to prove the “safety” of this place, then one by one, the girls swung around my neck and finally settled in. Well, all except Poonam. Now, this girl is tough, really tough, and she will beat the daylight out of you if you offend someone she loves. But the girl was shaking she was so scared to get in (it must have been this Tibetan woman who looked like a boy that scared her so much, I mean, she REALLY looked like a boy!) And when I finally got her in, she jumped back out. The other girls had a good time, such a good time that the older women were annoyed of them splashing water (I was too, I think it got into my mouth!) By the way, why is it that people think using soap in these tubs makes the water clean? It doesn’t! Neither does toothpaste, feet scrubbers and toenail clippers. All of these items were present in the tub. I am just praying that the smell was from sulphur and not the underarms of a 60 year old woman. And as we all tried to get to the spout that was throwing in new “chai” hot water, so was everyone else. That’s when I was not just nudged, but slammed into the wall by 5 pairs of women breasts, I didn’t even see it coming. I totally understand why guys are so shy of hugging each other. I also tripped and a naked woman caught me in her naked bosom, lovely feeling to be so cared for. I’m sure it’s obvious that once we got home, we all took a bath.

Oh, and a good friend of mine came to visit, Anurag. He claims he needed to do some work here, I claim he just can’t live without me. Anurag only came for two days but the girls fell in love with him (and his amazing Hindi speaking ability). Every night he acted out a new story and told it to the girls. The first night was Tarzan and the next night was the Lion King. I don’t know exactly what he was saying but I think he named the funky baboon in the Lion King after me. The girls really admired Anurag, one girl even said “Anurag is good to look at.”

The girls are doing great, it’s getting harder and harder to think I have to leave. Sarojani is getting so smart; I have the girls practice multiplication with flash cards and Sarojani’s always the first to answer. She also enjoys showimg me her pride in all the food she eats by opening her mouth and throwing out her tongue. Anju is coming out of her shyness, she just cut herself some bangs (I wonder after who?). Dolma is becoming the mother of the group more and more every day, I think she likes the role. She also started rolling her pant legs up, (I wonder after who again?). Running is all I see Pooja doing, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up in the Olympics one day. All the girls are great and I hate this feeling of leaving them…

An Everyday Blog

Can I just take a minute to tell you what awful cooking is like? Well, it’s Mother. She is an awful cook. I don’t understand why she thinks she NEEDS to cook, we already HAVE a cook, Maneesha who does a pretty good job at cooking, hence she is the cook. Mother made soup for the three of us (me, Maneesha and Birsingh, the groundsman) and I swear it tasted like cow spit (you live here long enough and you’ll know what that tastes like too)! The aroma wasn’t bad and the look of it was on the herbal side but the taste just made you want to jump in a frozen lake. The soup tasted like hot water (cow’s spit) and there was no taste or even love. Here’s what I don’t understand: if Mother cooks like this, so badly and water-y, why is she some massive walking Hungarian? She should be a stick figure, not an overbearing (I mean overbearing in all its definitions) COW!
Onto other, more important and tasteful matters. I skyped my mom today and guess who she saw? The girls! They were so excited to meet my mother and for once I allowed them to speak Hindi. They asked her what she was doing, where she lived and even told her she’s pretty (a compliment not to be taken lightly since these girls are picky with tossing out a “pretty”). I loved watching the girls interact with my mom, I think it was good for them too. Some of these girls have had such a hard parenting experience that showing them the components of a strong family helps them realize that not all the world is bad.
Other than that the girls are doing great. I have been trying to ask them whether or not they want to go visit their families for the winter break and not one of them really cares to go home. It’s a compliment in a way that they enjoy life here so much and feel so safe and secure but…it’s also upsetting to think they would prefer anything over their family and homes.
Oh, and I started teaching the older girls computer skills! It’s something I didn’t even realize to teach them until they asked me. In the US it’s so common for a girl who is 12 or 14 years old to already know the computer but not here! So, I just spend sometime with the older girls teaching the older girls how to type and most importantly, how to play games. The only negative side is the girls just realized they have to cut their nails to play on the computer, something I’m excited for actually. The girls love to play games, even the most simple of games. I can make them play duck duck goose for a century and they would probably never get bored with it. Yet, they hate the game twister for some reason!

The Girls go to the Snow

I tried to do a field trip but I realized that the Gods of India are against me. I thought it would be a good idea to take the girls up to the snow before it gets too cold to go up there and if there was enough time, we would go tubing (yes, they do have tubing here, the Indian version of tubing which is a REAL tire the size of an alien mothercraft) First, Mother was against me taking the kids. Her prediction for my trip: Reshma will not only kill all the children but she will prevent them from ever entering the heavenly gates, I’m not kidding that’s what she thinks I will do by taking the girls to the snow; I’m a real monster. Later on we all snuck out and finally left despite her. Then, the crafty money hungry car driver lied to us! He told us there was enough snow to go tubing (Indian version tubing, which I was even excited for) but of course, there wasn’t. There was barely enough for the girls to make a snowball the size of a baseball. Here’s where I was dumbfounded: the car driver had the audacity to say all the other tourists in this area are fools because the ski rental shops tricked them into going skiing with no snow present; if they’re fools, what does that make us sitting in his car looking for the snow?
Oh well, the girls still had a good time in the barely there snow. They actually enjoyed the view and the scenery more. I’ve worked with kids back in the US, I don’t think one of them would even consider looking at the scenery and saying it’s beautiful if they were just told that tubing has been cancelled, I would be hearing a lot of complaints and whining.
All the girls are doing well, no one is sick thank you GOD! I always get more and more surprised with what these girls find amusing. I gave them all a piece of bubble-icious gum and they went nuts! I thought I could impress them by blowing bubbles that would blow their minds but they already knew how to blow bubbles the size that blew my mind! And that is how we spent one afternoon…
Teaching at the school is also going well, the teachers are still snickering but at least at a distance. Now, I can amuse myself by filling in their words when I see their mouths moving, if they think I sound funny in English, wait till they find out what I’m saying for them (it has a lot to do with donkeys). I really enjoy teaching at the school. I go everyday at 11am and I have two classes. I make simple games like memory games or I time them on spelling and these kids have a ball. I also make them interact with each other instead of talking to me all the time; this surprised the teachers! Who would have thought that kids come to school interact? Oh boy, I’m corrupting the system. I reward them for their efforts with treats and overconfident phrases, something totally new and innovative to their system. The only problem is that they stopped calling me “Ma’am” but now they call me “Madam Ji.”
This is getting long isn’t it? Well, I just have one more thought to share: If you haven’t been thankful for the following things, you should be:
Car shocks. If you don’t know the feeling, just take your car shocks out and drive through a river. And PHYSICS. Somehow, I don’t know how, but physics does not exist here. I don’t think Newton could even explain how a car that is half on the road and half off does not land on the bottom of the mountain in a ditch. And somehow cows here can stretch their heads all the way back, they think they’re owls!