Deepavali party

Life on the Ashram - part II

I stayed on the ashram for the weekend last weekend and loved it! It has a totally different feel, it doesn't feel so controlling. The girls had lots of free time and it was great spending time with them that didn't involve studying (or pretending to study as in most of their cases)! On Sunday donators turned up with lunch, this often happens at different mealtimes but this was different as we ate lunch over near the volunteers rooms and it felt a lot less constrained. It was one of the donators birthday so we all sang 'Happy Birthday' and then tucked in! I'm getting used to eating off a banana leaf and the food is so good! They always want us to eat far more that i can and i feel bad saying no sometimes but I'd be sick if i ate as much as they wanted me to! In fact we have had various donators turn up this week due to the fact that it's Divali. The girls are given so many sweets and lots of fireworks! It's crazy how different it is over here with the fireworks. On Sunday night we had a big party and a dancer came, the girls loved it! Then after it was absolute mayhem! All the girls (including the 4 year olds!) were given sparklers, fire crackers and small cone fireworks. There was nothing in the way of Health and Safety (the teachers among you would have been horrified! Not a risk assessment in sight!) and for about half an hour it was non-stop carnage! At the beginning i obviously had my teacher head on, i was shouting for them the stand back, make space etc. No one listened and they all just went for it! Imagine 140 children in a small space with numerous exploding devices! After a while i just thought to hell with it and loved every minute! Amazingly there were no injuries and the smiles and laughter from the girls was so heart warming, i have some great photos! It seems like India has gone Divali mad! They love it at you can hear fireworks and fire crackers at all times during the day, everyone is in such a happy mood and wishing each other "Happy Deepavali" all the time. I have learnt to say it in Tamil and have been practising with all the local shop-keepers. The girls all go home today to visit their families for 4 days so it is going to be very quiet on the ashram, I'm thinking of heading off somewhere for the weekend, there is a wildlife park about 4 hours away so i may go there.

Life on the ashram

Sometimes i forget that i am living on an ashram in India! As the days go by, i go about my life with ease and it feels so natural to be here. When i stop to think about what i am doing and it's enormity, it blows my mind. The girls who live here are so lovely and giving and they have such a hard life. I am really enjoying getting to know them more and more each day and spending time with them is so fulfilling. Their days are exactly the same, day in day out. They don't have an exciting life but they are so happy with what they have got it definitely puts things into perspective and makes me feel so humble. They get up at 5 am and attend to their duties and then get themselves ready for their day. By the time i get up they have already had a busy 2 hours! I went to see their sleeping room the other day, those that don't sleep in the dining room, and it was so sad to see. They all have one suitcase and in there they keep all the treasured possessions, which really isn't much at all. They keep their keys on a piece of string around their neck and guard it with their life as it's all they have in the world. It makes all of our possessions seem so pointless and materialistic!
The other night i sat with Praveena and Preethi, 2 girls about 12 years old,Preethi showed me a huge scar on her leg and then told me how she was in her father's rickshaw with her pregnant mother one day when they had a crash with a lorry. Her father died in the crash and she was in hospital for a long time needing skin grafts, luckily her mum was OK and the unborn baby. This happened when she was about 6 and she's been on the ashram ever since. Praveena's story was a lot more light-hearted. When she was 6 she fell into an open fire and was in hospital with a damaged foot, broken arm and a head wound. She acted out how she did it and how she was bandaged up afterwards, it was very funny and we had a good laugh. She then told me that when her mother was visiting her one day she gave birth to her brother in the hospital toilet! I think i got the story right but you never know! Another girl found out last week that her mother had died, she had HIV, she was very upset and it was one of the many times that i have wished that i speak Tamil. Her father also died of HIV and she now only has a grandmother who is 91. Most of the girls have stories like this to tell and it breaks your heart to listen to them.

They have to study so much! Time allocated to play is so minimal compared to the time spent studying, they don't seem to mind as i guess they don't know any different. I stayed on the ashram this weekend and thought i would be able to play with them a lot more but it is all so controlled that they study on the weekend too. Today has been a bit better as we have had a lot more time to play and it's been good fun. We also had a visit from a sponsor today who brought lunch. I loved this as we all ate off banana leaves and i got some great photos.I bought some henna yesterday so we are going to spend some time this evening painting henna on each other.

I need to cherish every moment i spend here as it is a very special place, with very special people on it. I know my 3 months will be up before i know it and i don't want to take any of it for granted. When i leave these girls will just carry on doing what they do, hopefully remembering me in the process. But for me the memories will stay forever and i think will affect my life in the future.

I have started to give the girls English names, they love this! The only problem is that i am only just getting to grips with their Tamil names and now i have to remember another one! I have made life very difficult for myself!

Weekend in Cochin

Had a really good weekend in Cochin, i wasn't really sure that i was in the mood as have been thinking a lot about Mick and have been dreading this week but in fact it was exactly what i needed as it was really good fun. We caught the sleeper train on Thursday night which wasn't too bad although i didn't do a great deal of sleeping! Highlight of the journey was an indian man trying to grope Zoe through the partition, she feigned disgust but i think she enjoyed it really! We arrived after about 12 hours of travelling and only then realised that we din't know the address of the hotel that PA had booked for us! After trying to make numerous attempts to call PA and only succeeded in speaking to some random people who were absolutely no help at all we decided to go with the taxi man who assured us that he knew where he was going! Never believe an indian taxi driver or rickshaw driver, they always lie! He was so eager to get our fare that he tried to leave with just me and the bags, everyone else had gone to the loo! It was only when i pointed this out that he waited! He really wanted that 300 rupees! We finally arrived at the hotel, after asking about 10 people the way (i knew he was lying!) and checked in. The hotel was in the middle of no where and we decided to move to a more central one. However this news wasn;t taken very well by the hotel man who was very cross with us, in the end we ran out to our waiting rickshaw and found a nice hotel called the Princess Inn. It started raining at about 7pm that night and didn't stop till about midday the next day. No problem as we spent the next day at a place called 'Veegaland'. This was probably the most bizarre and random thing i have ever done or likely to do in India! It's a amusement/water park full of indians wearing all their clothes and shower caps! Very surreal! I spent the day in my pyjama bottoms which were fine until they got wet and then i turned into porno woman! Now the indian men really had something to stare at! Anyway it was a really good day, although there was a point when we thought we may die, but luckily Zoe managed to scream at the top of her voice that she was convinced that the ride wasn't safe. Not that anyone took the blind bit of notice of her, in fact the man operating the ride cranked it up even more due to her screaming!!! My favourite part of the day was watching Victor's face on the 'Humping Frogs"! Excitement over and we had a nice evening in a very posh restaurant and then went to a bar!! Yes, had my first beer for weeks!

Unfortunately when i got back to the hotel we had visitors! Poor Katherin was cowering on her bed as we had 2 of the biggest spiders in our bathroom!! I am not exaggerating but they were the size of my hand! I tried and failed to put one under a jug, we then had to call the hotel man - whose name luckily for us was 'Saviour' to come up and kill them. So not only did he he have to put up with 4 screaming girls but he had to kill 2 monsters! Armed with a broom, some kind of spray and sheer bravery he killed the buggers and we were safe! We then nicknamed 'Spiderman' for the rest of our stay! Arn't we hilarious!

Sunday was an organised boat trip by PA, not alot to look at but fairly pleasant. The guide asked us not to take photos of the warships (why would we want to anyway) and when i asked why not he answered, "because they are warships"! Ok point taken! In the afternoon 3 of us hired bikes and cycled around Fort Cochin, a lovely calm activity for a Sunday afternoon you would think.... it was apart from the fact i had chosen the bike with no brakes! Stopping was fun or rather not stopping was fun! We went shopping on our bikes, at least i had a good excuse not to stop when being hassled by a million stall holders!

All in all had a great time and really enjoyed hanging out with Zoe and Claire. My favourite sayings in India are; 'It's all an experience' and 'Patience in India'. We seem to use these catchphrases all the time! Another one that is becoming popular is; 'if it makes sense, it won't happen in India'!

Trichy - photos

Wow! I've been here 4 weeks already!

Had a change of plan for the weekend and ended up in a place called Tiruchirappalli which is 2 and a half hours North of where i am based. It's really nice here, very hustly and bustly but it has a really nice feeling about it. We went to see 2 temples yesterday, one called Rock Fort temple where we had to walk up 500 steps, a bit exhausting in the heat but it felt good to do some exercise! I really miss running! Will have to do loads when i get to NZ and Oz! Then we went to the biggest temple in India which was pretty impressive! Now i've seen that all other temples will be fairly mediocre! It has been nice getting away for the weekend and i think i'm going to try and do something every weekend as it's nice to have a change of scenery. I'm planning the trip down to the cape in a few weekends time as there is an organised one with all the volunteers so it will be better than heading off there on my own. Next weekend is a trip to Kochin which is in Kerela, it's a long journey but it should be fun. Life on the ashram is still really good, i have been doing lots of teaching and really getting to know the girls, it get easier day by day. They are all so sweet and it's so intersting finding out about them and their families. A lot of them are sponsored by various chariites in different countries. I had to fill out loads of forms the other day for 3 girls who were being put forward for sponsorship and take their photos. Still loving the food and (touch wood) haven't been sick yet! So many people have been, i must have a rock hard stomach!! Our cook is so lovely she always tries to make different things for us and it's fascinating to watch her cook, she has a gas stove but in the orphanage kitchen they just cook on open fires, again i love going in there and just watching what goes on. Although quite pleased i don't have to eat the food as the kitchen is pretty grim!
I'm learning lots of poetry at the moment as i study with the high school girls every evening and they have to memorise all the poems, i'll quote them to you when i get back!! They really struggle to pronounce some of the words, it's good fun trying to teach them. Although it can be difficult as most evening we have a power cut and then we just sit around with candles and of course studying goes out the window!
I still haven't quite got used to the Indian head shaking! They shake their heads as we do when we say no but they mean yes, maybe and sometimes no! It's all very confusing! They also make a sign with their hand which again can mean all 3! I am just about coping with all the staring! Everyone stares at us! All the kids ask you "How are you?" "What's your country?" "Whats your name?" and then that's all they know so end of conversation, sometimes they ask "What's your father's name? "what's your mother's name?" It's all very repetitive but very sweet!

Can't believe it's been nearly 4 weeks!

Hi,
Have just remembered that i'm supposed to be writing a blog! So it's a little late and loads has happened already but i'll try and keep this up to date from now on. Having moved to a new ashram last week i feel very settled and a lot less stressed! I'm trying to forget about the other one but Pandi told me yesterday that 'Mother Mother' was being moved and new management were going into Avaai Ashram so hopefully they will be nicer to the children and at least treat them like human beings! My new ashram is so relaxed, it's going to be difficult to move on, luckily i don't have to move for a while. We had a good weekend in Sivikasi, but a little too busy for my liking but it was good to meet up with the other volunteers and get to know them better. Am planning a trip down to Kannyamari (not sure how to spell it) this weeknd with a few people so looking forward to that. I'm planning a trip into Madurai tomorrow morning as i need to visit the waxing lady and have a look round some of the shops! Need to shop! Will try to add photos next time as took some very sweet ones of the girls yesterday and us playing cricket on Saturday, i was the umpire, what a joke that was! Choa!

Gearing up to head off!

The count down is on! I'm off on Friday! Feeling scared and excited but also sad as I am having to say far too many goodbyes!
Watch this space.......