James is in india

Super long 2 week post

Ok I know I haven’t been updating the blog pretty much at all, but when there is no internet what so ever, it makes things difficult, I suppose Ill try and recap what has been happening. After the Dhabba Express dinner form the last post we continued our orientation having a lot of un actually, my group taught on Care and Support and Positive living for HIV positive individuals, everything went well, each night for the first week we went out to different restaurants, each one really good. I know that prior to this trip my mom was worried that I would not be eating well, but oddly enough I am probably eating better here than I do in the states, I actually really enjoy the vegetables. But back to the actual program, after the week of teachings we had to find our Side Projects that we can focus on while we are not teaching. The side projects vary, there are 3 orphanages we can work at, 2 of them for HIV + orphans, a short stay home where people are staying who are getting tested for HIV, and the slums. We got to visit each side project on a very long day, and it was an incredible experience. The kids at the orphanage are some of the rowdiest kids I have ever met, they are so full of life it’s really hard to accept their condition. We played duck duck goose and cricket with them for an hour and a half and no one wanted to leave. Unfortunately I did not get to see the slums but I am definitely going to at some point, I get the distinct feeling that everyone wants to do everything, and that a majority of our free time will be spent at the side projects.

But our week of side projects was short and we spent the other half of it preparing for teaching which started on Monday, we made posters and broke down the curriculum and played a lot of games. And I am not going to lie, we went out to the clubs once or twice, and I have to say I prefer the less crowded Vertigo club, to the super expensive and crowded club called Dublin. Although I really enjoyed the strobe lights at Dublin. IAPA may work hard but we definitely know how to have some fun to.

This past weekend right before beginning teaching we took a trip to Ooty, which is North of Chennai, and completely different. Ooty is up in the mountains and it took us a 10 hour bus ride to get there going up hair pin turns in a giant bus, I was genuinely shocked we were able to make it. I sat next to Anjali on the bus. We started learning the word to We didn’t start the fire, there are a lot of them. Anjali and I have become Best friends in these two weeks, I am her Indian BFFL, it’s pretty ridiculous how much time we have ended up spending together but it’s a blast. I have also become pretty tight with Raju on the trip as well, me him and Anjali form a sort of trffldom; we hang out a lot together, and have many a good conversations. Raju and I think the same on a lot of subjects and he is even a Micro major and I’ll end up having two classes with him this coming semester.

Once in Ooty it was beautiful and amazing. The weather was cool so I was never sweaty and the scenery was ridiculously beautiful, and there were monkeys just roaming around, I got lots of pictures. One of the volunteers from last year has family there so we got a really great tour. We went to a tea factory, where we got some free samples, and again surprisingly I loved the tea, there was no tea after taste or anything. For those in the states in my mind it’s the equivalent of a Vanilla Bean Frappaccino at starbucks, yea it may sound coffeeish, but there is no coffee taste at all. It was amazing; I bought some bags of it to bring back to the states, and a bag or two for the family. So be excited family, because it is the best tea you will ever have, although Dad, it has to be made using whole milk, but it’s totally worth it.

After the tea factory we went to the botanical garden which was this giant sanctuary that was incredibly peaceful and wondrous to look at. There were flowers everywhere and I took a lot of pictures of them, Neha and I ended up getting into a pretties flower picture competition, she won that day, but I think I got one the next day that took the cake. Not everyone went exploring throughout the entire gardens, but Preston, Aaron, and I separated and spent nigh an hour just exploring, Preston did it in a peaceful manner and sat and lied down for a while. Me, I took the childish method of running all over the place, jumping off of steps and seeing where odd paths led and just how far back I could go. The farther back you went the less people there were and the more I enjoyed it was an experience that I am truly thankful I was able to have. Eventually we were forced to leave for dinner which we had at this odd Chinese restaurant, and I don’t know if it was because we were all starving or it was just that good but it was the best Chinese food I have ever had. Every dish I had was delicious and excited my palate taking my taste buds to a new level every time I took a bite. After dinner we headed back to the hotel where upon arrival, Abhishek G, Kavya, Neha, Anjali, and I decided to go on a walk. Now keep in mind that Ooty is nothing like Chennai, it is not an active bustling place, especially not in the residential area where were staying, nor is it extremely well lit. So what began as a nice walk for some fresh air turned into one of the creepiest experiences ever. It was dark, there were a few random stray dogs that just popped out of no where and the creepiest thing of all was that out of this one shed there was some very creepy Hindi music playing. Once we got to that point we decided enough was enough and that turning around was prudent. We laugh about it now, but at the time it was very eerie. We ended up watching some episodes of Dexter before bed.

Day two in Ooty was amazing again, we spent the first half of the day lounging around not doing much, I took lots of pictures, half of them of flowers, and I learned that I love the macro function on my camera. But the second half of the day was awesome. We took a trip to this forest on top of a mountain which was ridiculously secluded and I know I have been overusing this word but, beautiful. At this part of the trip I was able to satisfy my inner child’s desire to go running through a forest exploring things, jumping needlessly off tree trunks, and climbing things that didn’t need to be climbed. And what is better is that there were monkeys just running around randomly. Everything was quite peaceful and serene, I felt invigorated the longer I was there, I am coming to find that sights such as the botanical garden and the Meadow/Forest of Ooty, really help to revitalize me, when I was running through both I have to say that I felt more alive than I had in probably the past two months. Which I know sounds odd, but I can’t really explain it. Anjali says that I was “feisty” James after that. For Ken and Junko who are reading this remember how I was at the end of semester in Coco that one time. It was great.  On the way down from the meadow Neal and I decided we wanted to run down the mountain, it was probably a mile or two of a rather steeply downhill run. I had a blast considering I am not getting my normal allowance of running it was a very soothing run. Alas after that we made the trip back to the hotel to gather our stuff and prepare for the arduous journey back to Chennai. We all miss Ooty very much, especially the weather, it was definitely a trip that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

The bus ride to Chennai was as expected not a fun experience, there was not a great amount of sleep had and some people got sick from all the turns but I was ok just a little sore from the trip. But we arrived in Chennai around 8 AM and had to be ready to leave for our first teaching at 10:30AM. Getting to our teaching site was another adventure by itself. It was everyone’s first time with Indian buses, and for those who have not had the pleasure of the experience let me describe it for you. The bust stops for about 10 seconds waiting for people to get off and on with the odd sensation that more people are always getting on than off. So you have to attempt to force yourself onto a bus that has no A/C and get close with the other passengers standing grabbing onto a rail overhead bumping into numerous people constantly watching you pockets and bags to ensure nothing has been stolen. If you are lucky enough to have a seat open up near where you are standing you must not be afraid to move towards it quickly and aggressively because you are never the only one to see it open and everyone wants to sit down.  We took the first bus about 15- 20 minutes to the main bus terminal to find the bus that would take us to our school. The bus terminal was packed with 30-40 buses all loading, unloading, and driving off at the same time, while there it is best to have a good sense of what is around you or what may be coming at you, especially in the case of the buses themselves. We boarded the second bus for a 30 minute ride to the school which allowed us to see some new parts of Chennai. I realize that I have made this bus ride seem horrible, but that is not my intention at all, that is simply how the bus ride was. To be honest I love the bus rides, each time in my mind is an adventure all in its own, holding it own unique set of experiences and people. Other volunteers do not share my view on the matter and would much rather spend the 200 rupees for an auto compared to the 10 for the bus. Overall the bus was a good experience and if anything gave everyone a greater appreciation of American buses.

After finally arriving at the school we were lead to the staff office for a bit of preparation, the walk t the staff office was my first time being truly ogled at. We must have had 300 kids staring at us, and a few of them wanted to come up and shake our hands it was a unique experience, We were all insta-celebrities I must say it was quite a rush. After a good pep talk from our coordinator Sarang telling us how great we would be we headed off to our first teaching session ever. We walked into the room my group being Kavya, Preston, and our CP Anbu…yea I forgot to tell you half the CP’s had to drop due to scheduling issues so everyone has different CP’s than normal. The kids were all dressed in uniforms with red slacks and red and orange-yellow plaid dress shirts for the boys and white skirts with a red sash type thing for the girls. They were 9^th standard kids, and were completely adorable. We had a lot of fun teaching the kids, and they were fairly attentive and very well behaved something of an oddity as we would find out soon enough. We played games with them, and although at first they were hesitant to participate as soon as we made it boys versus girls things got pretty lively. Our group did really well teaching and found out that we did need to change some stuff but overall it went really well for our first time. After we were done we got to take some pictures with the kids which was great, they also have a strange obsession of shaking hands with us, I am not exactly sure why but they have the incredible need to touch us. I don’t particularly mind it is almost flattering and I know that this is the closest I’ll ever get to being famous so I am going to soak it up while I can. Liz got a whole bunch of phone numbers from her class, and lots of invitations to dinner, we all laugh about our interactions. For some reason I don’t recall ever being this lively when I was their age, maybe I had blinders on or something but US kids don’t seem the same. After teaching we had the bus trip home which was good in itself and I was already becoming more accustomed to the public transit experience. I spent the next while waiting to go to dinner at VIP’s whose food I am really coming to enjoy, especially the masala dosa. After dinner came critiquing time from the Coordinators, they said we were amazing and the best they have ever seen; well they said we were pretty good anyways. We finally proceeded to finish the first season of Dexter which was great in itself, and there were lots of oh snaps and gasps. So ended the first day of teachings.

The next day we awoke feeling confident after the success of the previous day. Believing that we were pros we rose and ate our breakfasts feeling ready for whatever the world was going to throw at us. After the usual 30 minutes of organizing everyone to actually leave the hostel we once again began the bus ride to our school, my group and one other group were being sent to a different school whilst the rest of the volunteers were sent to school of the previous day, I like to believe that this was due to the high skill level of our teachings though it was more likely random. We got off the bus early than others and were surprised by the greatest benefit of the switch was that were stopped by one of the IAPA India staff, Sheema’s house. I am not sure if I have mentioned her before but Sheema is one of the nicest and most determined people I have ever met. She will fight tooth and nail for us volunteers, but acts as the mother of the group always adoring us. She will be in some of the photos I post eventually. She fed us fresh mangos and some soda pop at her house while we waited to walk the rest of the way to the school. After a relaxing time and getting to meet Sheema’s mom we continued on our merry way to Don Basco’s school. A private school the colors of the school uniforms were Navy Blue and a lighter blue with the style of dress being very similar to that of the previous day’s school.

The days teaching began a bit more chaotically than the previous one, at first we thought that the teaching groups would be split into boys and girls, which would have meant 7 boys and 2 girls, so while the boys would have been fine, the girls would have a quite a bit of work to do. Luckily it was a misunderstanding and the teaching groups simply had to be broken into 3 groups for teaching. My group stayed the same and instead Abhishek and Ryan took a class for themselves. When we finally began the actual teaching we found that this class was nothing like the kids from before. Whereas the first class was slightly timid but very attentive, this class was rowdy and loud and needed constant quieting. The first class we ran short on our presentation and played a game for a half hour with the kids. With day 2’s class we had to cut stuff out of our presentation simply from having to tell the kids to be quiet. While they may not have been the most obedient class, I still loved them; they were very interested in us, and a lot of fun to just talk to. They also had some very good questions at the end of the class, the girls side did anyways. I was also informed that I strongly resemble a South African cricket player and that I should try the chicken noodles while in Chennai. It was an extremely fun day and Sheema pretty much had to drag us away at the end.

The bus ride back was easier than the previous day’s trip; I had a seat for about half of it which makes the trip infinitely more enjoyable. We used a different bus that let us off right in front of the hostel; unfortunately Preston had his headphones in and did not hear us yelling at him to get off. He got off at the next stop after a quick call from Kavya, I don’t know how the others felt but I found it fairly humorous. I came back and sat around for a while enjoying some James time before dinner where we once again went to VIP’s cantina, however this time there were only four of us. As such our budget was larger than normal, the normal budget is 50 rupees a person for 20 people for a total of 1000 rupees, but we had that to use for 4 people. While we didn’t quite use it all we definitely got more than we normally would, I am coming to find that I thoroughly enjoy masala dosas. The rest of the night was spent doing laundry by hand in a bucket, which is quite the chore and has forced me to think seriously about just paying to get it done. All in all like most days it was excellent.

It is hard to believe how fast time has gone; it is Already the one month anniversary of NACURH 09, which in my mind is ridiculous. There are only about 5 ½ weeks left before I return home, but there is still so much to be done. I must apologize for the extreme length of this post but it has covered nearly two weeks worth of activities and fun, and who knows when my next update will be, it could be even longer.

Until next time,

James