1.Foreigners
2.Groups
3.Freedom Fighters
4.VIP's
I love Indian signs...
Goodness, I once again have not managed to write i this for a long time, but this time I promise to be more brief in my brevity. Or something like that.
Last you heard I believe, I was on my way to Agra to stay overnight and relax. Wrong. Due to a slight passport malfunction, i.e. people not bringing them we couldn't check in to any hotels in the area so Ellie and I had to run to the train station to change our tickets to later that day. So we did get to see the Taj and the Red Fort again but for a little less time than I originally would have liked. Nonetheless it was as breathtaking as I remembered it and was still a pretty relaxing day. We said our goodbyes to Ellie and departed, us for home and her for Varanasi, with promises to meet up soon again.
The next week then was an interesting affair. It was the start of my rather long goodbye to the kids that I had been teaching for what seems like years. May still for a couple of days could not come along because of exams, so we sufficed ourselves with giving them role plays in Eglish and getting them to act them out. A big hit and absolutely hilarious for us!
But then came the inevitable on Wednesday, I said goodbye to the Zakhira kids whom I had become very close to. We had long parties, which included a big cricket match with the boys in the middle of a road on a raised platform underneath a flyover. That was different. And then there was the dancing! O the dancing. I have lots of videos and photos do not worry - including one of our computer teacher getting it on in no uncertain terms. A memorable watch! The girls were a bit harder to coax into dancing but a fair few participated in the end. It's always the shy ones who are actually amazing at dancing and that turned out to be the case again. The party was briefly interrupted by a prayer meeting in Hindi and then I had to say final(ish) goodbyes. Some of the younger ones led me by hand to the car, which was amzingly cute - one of them shouting out in an extremely high pitched voice "I am sad". I'm ging to smuggle her home somehow...
More on that later in the week when I return from traveling and see them again.
We were supposed to go north to Himachal Pradesh on Sunday. Wrong again. Orlagh got sick and the last minute so we were encamped in the flat for another few days. However, we were not idle, on St Paddy's night we managed to somehow end up at the Irish Ambassador's house for a wee ceile, rubbing shoulders with diplomats, big important people and the Irish! Who, may I say, stayed long after all the Indians had gone home. We had met the deputy ambassador, Pat Byrne, and an Irish Minister Eamon O Cuiv earlier on a visit to the slum beside ASHA, Ekta Vihar, and he managed to mention this party. We didn't need to be asked twice. The band was great and we tried to start dancing reasoably unsuccessfully - however, our attempts were not unnoticed by the band and we ended up going on with them to (wait for it) one fo the swanky bars in the British High Commission Compound. Yup, on St Paddy's day we ended up with a bunch of trad players and two long haul Irish travellers (www.crazyjourney.com) in a British Compound. Only in India.
Despite some minor scares then that things would fall through, we managed to get going on thursday of last week and flew down to Mumbai where we met up with Orlagh's friend Ashish, for Holi. The first couple of days were spent just around Mumbai seeing a few things and lounging on his 7th story flat (incidently where paranoid movie star Parveen Babi died a few years ago) which he is renting for a short time. It overlooked the Arabian See and really was amazing! Then on Saturday we managed to experience first hand the Indian Holi. Suffice to say that there was a lot of paint, a lot of water involving a huge rain dance and a hell of a lot of it somehow coing to reside upon my person. They like to make white people welcome so to say. It was in the flat block of Ashish's old house with all of his friends and their children (who had amazing English!) and it was so much fun!
I'm afraid that was only a brief account of Mumbai, I am slightly pushed for time. Yesterday we hottailed it to Kerala - near the southern tip of India and I am writing this from a gorgeous little internet cafe overlooking old style portugese and indian houses in a place called fort cochin. We will move on again today top try and find somewhere to go on a spot of houseboating and then hopefully a wildlife park with elephant rides woooooo! I feel like such a tourist but it is just so nice to be travelling at last! Then soon we will be back in Delhi for my fair and final goodbyes for now and then home. Weird.
Will update again soon, hope everything is well!
Graham
PS I lost my phone - o don't try and call me on my british number - if it is urgent then text or call 0091 9999133165. Love to all!
Monday, 24 March 2008
Saturday, 8 March 2008
What's the craic?
Yes I have taught the kids Northern Irishisms, I am spreading the word:D
Hey everybody!
OK first I can only apologise for not having written for nigh on a month. This could, as a result be a very long blog, so get a cup of tea and try not to fall asleep. I will try and cut everything down into sections.
Teaching – I don’t know quite how much everyone knows about what I am actually doing apart from class structure come to think of it. The kids mainly have basic English but some have come out of the shadows recently have told us that they actually study in English in their school, written if not orally anyway. It is amazing because they seem to understand commands and can read quite well, but when it comes to forming sentences they are, well, not very good anyway. In Mayapuri I have started to teach an extra class after the afternoon class for a few such students – including a girl called Soni who wants to be a teacher. Explaining the process of compost to someone with only reasonable English was fun! But their exams, which they are in the middle of at the moment are ridiculous! In one of the comprehensions that Soni show me, not only is the English extremely flowery and complicated, but wrong! “Birds flip their wings” It really annoys me because these kids are so cleaver but they are basically not given a chance against people in other school where English is taught well and teachers actually turn up to class! On the subject of exams, a lot of our kids have been irregular in attendance recently due to their big exams that happen in the afternoons. And I spent three hours trying to go over writing practise with one of the kids, who is really clever but has little chance due to his lack of writing skills, which the government schools will never teach well. So it has been interesting teaching half if not less than half classes with not much time to plan extra stuff! But it is nice to get to know some of the kids better who do manage to turn up, especially some of the older ones that are practically my age. I know that there will be some that I will miss especially.
Staff members the same actually – we are teaching all the staff members in Mayapuri at the moment – verb tenses are not nice things. And the staff in both places have started feeding us piles of food. Natasha – who works in Mayapuri – said that we needed to be fed because we are skinny and she is fat, which sparked off all the other staff members remarking on how fat they were. That was a funny moment. Zakhira have also started to give us food every day – which sometimes blows the mouth off of us – and both sets are looking after us really well. I felt quite ill this week and Pancaj (a computer teacher) kept on giving me his own water – bearing in mind that it is now about 33 degrees C here which just isn’t pretty. The kids still only find it warm too…
So this week will be a few parties of farewell – though I will see them all in between the end of travelling and coming home. That seems really close atm, it is scary!
O, while I remember – a story to break up this beast. On of the boys in Mayapuri, Vishal, told us he would be at a wedding the next day, so of course everyone said oooooo Vishal is getting married and it became a running joke throughout the lesson. So I put up (teaching his and her) this is vishal’s wife "her name is ?", which he proceeded to fill with Orlagh, which the kids found hilarious. The next day he was missing again. When asked where he was Vipin shouted out, “honeymoon!”
A slightly more serious story emerged from Ekta Vihar, where Orlagh and Ellie are teaching. One of the girls, Usha, who is only 16, they were told, was going to be sent back to one of the villages and married off to a man twice her age. Not only was this illegal, but obviously detrimental to her chances of ever having a job or even much of a life if it actually happened. Ellie and Orlagh came back fuming and cry rape, which essentially is what it would have been in many ways. The family would not even have had a legal ceremony because it was an illegal act and they were doing it for the dowry. Upon speaking to Freddie however, we learned that it wasn’t usha (who is the leader of the children’s group) but it was a friend. He told us that any time ASHA had tried to intervene the girls had disappeared before anything could be done, never to be seen in Delhi again. The best thing we can do is educate them so that they can earn money and not essentially be sold off as brides. I know this is a completely different culture and it is never black and white to say that the family was only doing it for a dowry or whatever, but it is not an easy pill to swallow. It made me wonder how I would feel if that happened to Soni or Nimmi or one of the other girls in my class, how angry I would feel. Luckily, more women and families are becoming empowered and more children educated through ASHA than ever before. It makes the work I think, all that more important.
I will lighten up a little for a while. We have done quite a bit of going out at weekends especially since Ellie arrived. We travelled up to Old Delhi to see the Red Fort, the bazaars and markets and went into India’ largest mosque – the Jami Masjid. We went up a particularly hair raising tall tower with many Indian’s and tourists at the top and not a whole lot of room! The photos will tell the whole picture…I think the most impressive thing was the Gandhi memorial at Raghat. It was a very peaceful atmosphere and set in some beautiful grounds in the east of Old Delhi. There is a very simple black stone memorial with the words “Hay ram” written in Hindi – very apt, as someone pointed out, that they weren’t translated into English. And we saw a three and a half hour Bollywood movie – with an interval. Wow.
The next weekend Freddie took us out to dinner with a team from Yeovil and played possibly the best practical joke ever on Jon. All the way he had been talking about picking up this fabulous looking woman a former miss California. Linda somebody – “who needs a second name when she look like that” Freddie! haha, Anyway as soon as Jon got out of the car to get her Freddie broke out laughing and proclaimd that Jon was not picking up a woman but an old man, one of ASHA’s partners. Jon of course asked this man from Holland when he came down in a slightly bemused fashion why ha wasn’t a woman! Freddie is a little child! We have also then been out to the Lodi garden’s, a few markets and a really posh hotel for tea and cake. Scary how colonial it felt, and the toilets were pretty fantastic!
We have even tried out the Delhi nightlife in a place called Bacchus. Orlagh, Ellie and I went out and as soon as we walked in all the Indian men cheered and I was enveloped by a rather fat and very cheerful(and tipsy) man from Tanzania. That was interesting! The Indian were maybe a bit too over zealous in their dancing so any time they got too close to one of the girls these huge bouncers would step in and protect the white girls! Naturally we ended the night at one o’clock in Indian McDonalds (which are amazing!).
We got a new housemate too about a week ago, Sue is from South Africa but based in England and is in her 30’s so living with students is, I am sure, an interesting experience!
O and I have another story about Natasha entitled “a lovely love story”
Well OK the narrative won’t really flow I am afraid but basically another staff member, Sheeja, told me in broken English that Natasha (who coms from a village in UP but lived in Delhi) got married last year. She had fallen in love with this guy in school and eloped with him because her parents didn’t approve, with the help of another staff member, Balinder. She is in love with her husband but does not now speak to her parents because of it. For India I felt this was even more daring and truly romantic. Natasha is just so lovely! It is strang to think though that she is twenty and only a year older then me. Everyone here is asking me why I am not married, because so many Indians would be by now. It is so weird, I just say, I am too young!
On that subject actually, we were in Agra to see the Taj (and only didn’t stay overnight because Jon and Orlagh didn’t bring their passports so no hotel would take up, whoops…). So Ellie and I, having gone to change the train tickets, can back and queued up to get in. The male line went so much quicker that Ellie shout to a guard that her husband was so far ahead of her (ie me) and as a poor woman she couldn’t be left on her own. The guard drank every word and brought her to the front of the queue! She is unbelievable sometimes! So not having as much time as we wanted to, seeing the Taj was great but short lived, it is a really beautiful place and just as spectacular as the first time. We met these kids on the train back, who I think we managed to scare a little but they gave us a parting present, they were so cute! Indian people are really amazing sometimes!
OK I think I need to stop for everyone’s sake, but hopefully I have brought you a little, if not a lot up to speed and kudos if you have read all of this! It is still amazing here with the kids, and I am not happy that this is my last week teaching them, I know that I will not know just how much I will miss them until I leave. It’s a scary thought but I think I have made an impression here, I hope anyway. – the good news is that in both places more computers have arrived and hopefully that will be followed by internet soon. We are still some of the first English teachers in ASHA and I hope the new Indian teachers will be able to take on the challenge. AH! everything is a bit weird. Anyway I will write again soon, probably no more emails for a while due to travelling but I will definitely this time write here!
I will leave you with a sign I saw on a house near Mayapuri, and an excalmiation of Jon’s during one lesson. I love India…
peace out!
G
“Cheap Inn Guesthouse. Sorry Gentlemen! No families allowed!”
John ad verbatim, “I want to give birth.”
Hey everybody!
OK first I can only apologise for not having written for nigh on a month. This could, as a result be a very long blog, so get a cup of tea and try not to fall asleep. I will try and cut everything down into sections.
Teaching – I don’t know quite how much everyone knows about what I am actually doing apart from class structure come to think of it. The kids mainly have basic English but some have come out of the shadows recently have told us that they actually study in English in their school, written if not orally anyway. It is amazing because they seem to understand commands and can read quite well, but when it comes to forming sentences they are, well, not very good anyway. In Mayapuri I have started to teach an extra class after the afternoon class for a few such students – including a girl called Soni who wants to be a teacher. Explaining the process of compost to someone with only reasonable English was fun! But their exams, which they are in the middle of at the moment are ridiculous! In one of the comprehensions that Soni show me, not only is the English extremely flowery and complicated, but wrong! “Birds flip their wings” It really annoys me because these kids are so cleaver but they are basically not given a chance against people in other school where English is taught well and teachers actually turn up to class! On the subject of exams, a lot of our kids have been irregular in attendance recently due to their big exams that happen in the afternoons. And I spent three hours trying to go over writing practise with one of the kids, who is really clever but has little chance due to his lack of writing skills, which the government schools will never teach well. So it has been interesting teaching half if not less than half classes with not much time to plan extra stuff! But it is nice to get to know some of the kids better who do manage to turn up, especially some of the older ones that are practically my age. I know that there will be some that I will miss especially.
Staff members the same actually – we are teaching all the staff members in Mayapuri at the moment – verb tenses are not nice things. And the staff in both places have started feeding us piles of food. Natasha – who works in Mayapuri – said that we needed to be fed because we are skinny and she is fat, which sparked off all the other staff members remarking on how fat they were. That was a funny moment. Zakhira have also started to give us food every day – which sometimes blows the mouth off of us – and both sets are looking after us really well. I felt quite ill this week and Pancaj (a computer teacher) kept on giving me his own water – bearing in mind that it is now about 33 degrees C here which just isn’t pretty. The kids still only find it warm too…
So this week will be a few parties of farewell – though I will see them all in between the end of travelling and coming home. That seems really close atm, it is scary!
O, while I remember – a story to break up this beast. On of the boys in Mayapuri, Vishal, told us he would be at a wedding the next day, so of course everyone said oooooo Vishal is getting married and it became a running joke throughout the lesson. So I put up (teaching his and her) this is vishal’s wife "her name is ?", which he proceeded to fill with Orlagh, which the kids found hilarious. The next day he was missing again. When asked where he was Vipin shouted out, “honeymoon!”
A slightly more serious story emerged from Ekta Vihar, where Orlagh and Ellie are teaching. One of the girls, Usha, who is only 16, they were told, was going to be sent back to one of the villages and married off to a man twice her age. Not only was this illegal, but obviously detrimental to her chances of ever having a job or even much of a life if it actually happened. Ellie and Orlagh came back fuming and cry rape, which essentially is what it would have been in many ways. The family would not even have had a legal ceremony because it was an illegal act and they were doing it for the dowry. Upon speaking to Freddie however, we learned that it wasn’t usha (who is the leader of the children’s group) but it was a friend. He told us that any time ASHA had tried to intervene the girls had disappeared before anything could be done, never to be seen in Delhi again. The best thing we can do is educate them so that they can earn money and not essentially be sold off as brides. I know this is a completely different culture and it is never black and white to say that the family was only doing it for a dowry or whatever, but it is not an easy pill to swallow. It made me wonder how I would feel if that happened to Soni or Nimmi or one of the other girls in my class, how angry I would feel. Luckily, more women and families are becoming empowered and more children educated through ASHA than ever before. It makes the work I think, all that more important.
I will lighten up a little for a while. We have done quite a bit of going out at weekends especially since Ellie arrived. We travelled up to Old Delhi to see the Red Fort, the bazaars and markets and went into India’ largest mosque – the Jami Masjid. We went up a particularly hair raising tall tower with many Indian’s and tourists at the top and not a whole lot of room! The photos will tell the whole picture…I think the most impressive thing was the Gandhi memorial at Raghat. It was a very peaceful atmosphere and set in some beautiful grounds in the east of Old Delhi. There is a very simple black stone memorial with the words “Hay ram” written in Hindi – very apt, as someone pointed out, that they weren’t translated into English. And we saw a three and a half hour Bollywood movie – with an interval. Wow.
The next weekend Freddie took us out to dinner with a team from Yeovil and played possibly the best practical joke ever on Jon. All the way he had been talking about picking up this fabulous looking woman a former miss California. Linda somebody – “who needs a second name when she look like that” Freddie! haha, Anyway as soon as Jon got out of the car to get her Freddie broke out laughing and proclaimd that Jon was not picking up a woman but an old man, one of ASHA’s partners. Jon of course asked this man from Holland when he came down in a slightly bemused fashion why ha wasn’t a woman! Freddie is a little child! We have also then been out to the Lodi garden’s, a few markets and a really posh hotel for tea and cake. Scary how colonial it felt, and the toilets were pretty fantastic!
We have even tried out the Delhi nightlife in a place called Bacchus. Orlagh, Ellie and I went out and as soon as we walked in all the Indian men cheered and I was enveloped by a rather fat and very cheerful(and tipsy) man from Tanzania. That was interesting! The Indian were maybe a bit too over zealous in their dancing so any time they got too close to one of the girls these huge bouncers would step in and protect the white girls! Naturally we ended the night at one o’clock in Indian McDonalds (which are amazing!).
We got a new housemate too about a week ago, Sue is from South Africa but based in England and is in her 30’s so living with students is, I am sure, an interesting experience!
O and I have another story about Natasha entitled “a lovely love story”
Well OK the narrative won’t really flow I am afraid but basically another staff member, Sheeja, told me in broken English that Natasha (who coms from a village in UP but lived in Delhi) got married last year. She had fallen in love with this guy in school and eloped with him because her parents didn’t approve, with the help of another staff member, Balinder. She is in love with her husband but does not now speak to her parents because of it. For India I felt this was even more daring and truly romantic. Natasha is just so lovely! It is strang to think though that she is twenty and only a year older then me. Everyone here is asking me why I am not married, because so many Indians would be by now. It is so weird, I just say, I am too young!
On that subject actually, we were in Agra to see the Taj (and only didn’t stay overnight because Jon and Orlagh didn’t bring their passports so no hotel would take up, whoops…). So Ellie and I, having gone to change the train tickets, can back and queued up to get in. The male line went so much quicker that Ellie shout to a guard that her husband was so far ahead of her (ie me) and as a poor woman she couldn’t be left on her own. The guard drank every word and brought her to the front of the queue! She is unbelievable sometimes! So not having as much time as we wanted to, seeing the Taj was great but short lived, it is a really beautiful place and just as spectacular as the first time. We met these kids on the train back, who I think we managed to scare a little but they gave us a parting present, they were so cute! Indian people are really amazing sometimes!
OK I think I need to stop for everyone’s sake, but hopefully I have brought you a little, if not a lot up to speed and kudos if you have read all of this! It is still amazing here with the kids, and I am not happy that this is my last week teaching them, I know that I will not know just how much I will miss them until I leave. It’s a scary thought but I think I have made an impression here, I hope anyway. – the good news is that in both places more computers have arrived and hopefully that will be followed by internet soon. We are still some of the first English teachers in ASHA and I hope the new Indian teachers will be able to take on the challenge. AH! everything is a bit weird. Anyway I will write again soon, probably no more emails for a while due to travelling but I will definitely this time write here!
I will leave you with a sign I saw on a house near Mayapuri, and an excalmiation of Jon’s during one lesson. I love India…
peace out!
G
“Cheap Inn Guesthouse. Sorry Gentlemen! No families allowed!”
John ad verbatim, “I want to give birth.”
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