wonderful wanaka

Hi everyone
first of all, apologies for not getting it together to keep the blog updated and also to say that I have got another wonky keyboard so apologies for any typos.  I had thought that India is the home of the wonky keyboard but not so!
So where to start.....  currently I'm holed up in Wanaka Bakpakas, a really nice backpacker hostel with breathtaking views of Lake Wanaka and only 5 minutes walk into the town (think large village).  Well, it would be 5 mins for normal able bodied folk but currently nursing a badly sprained ankle so it's a 10 min hobble for me before I get to the land of flat whites and carrot cake.  If you have to be holed up anywhere this is a good place to be!  Lake Wanaka is spectacularly beautiful - huge lake with snow capped mountains at the far end and the nearby hills are much higher than Scafell Pike.  I have done some great walking prior to injury.  Although it is a tad frustrating to up and down a mountain the same way.  NZ doesn't have our great tradition of public footpaths and therefore getting access across some land is very difficult.  But hey, I am not really complaining - just appreciating our own unique access rights.  Anyhow all the walks I have done are all very Lord of the Ringsy and I have been blessed by great weather (dry!).  I would love to come back to this area of the South Island and do some serious tramping ie multiday walks staying in mountain huts.  Any takers anyone? 
Just finished a shortish stint of wwoofing at Hawea Flats, near Lake Hawea close to Wanaka.  It was cut short by the injury and it didn't feel right to be sitting in a kitchen eating all their food whilst everyone else was working flat out.  Much better to be lounging at the backpackers where there are tons of young people also lounging.  It's been an interesting experience to be around young people doing the gap year travel thing...!  and made me feel very proud of Edie who was to have been volunteering as a teacher for 6 months, rather than hopping on and off buses, eating, drinking and getting on a bus again.  Yes, I know that sounds very judgemental!  I have gained so much from this trip because I have been working alongside people and getting to know them, rather than taking a "facebook" approach to being here.  However I am just about to have 5 days of doing such that as I am doing one of those relocation deals where you get to drive a campervan from Christchurch airport to Auckland airport in five days for the price of petrol!  Feeling very excited about that as public transport outside the main cities is pretty non existant and it's very hard to get to some of the interesting but more remote places. 

Since I last wrote on the blog, I left Kauotunu, just north of Whitianga, towards the end of Oct and headed over to Foxton Beach on te west coast of the north island, near Palmerston North.  Foxton Beach was one of the most amazing and the most wierdest beaches I have been on.  It's incredibly long.  I walked for 2 hours and didn't get to the end of it.  It was like I imagine walking in the Sahara might be like - you can't actually see the horizon for the land and the air merge into one hazy thing.  There were no other people around, just the occasional 4 wheel drive vehicle (because obvioulsy the locals knew better than to walk!) and I can't begin to describe the driftwood.  Not just logs but whole trees washed up by the strong Tasman sea.  Behind the beach were the most amazing landscapes of huge sand dunes.  It all added to the erie end-of-the-world feel.  Of course, it would have felt different if the sun was shining but most of the time whilst I was there it was grey and overcast.

A great contrast to Wellington which I was very impressed with - the sun shone and there was none of the famous Wellington winds whilst I was there.  Lots going on but still easy access to hills and sea.  I took the ferry out of Wellington across to the South Island the day of Edie's death anniversary which was a soulful and nurturing thing to do.  It was a grey day, windy and lots of wake from the boat but also a sense of movement and going forth into the unknown.  Then sailing into Queen Charlotte Sound (didn't Edie want to be called Charlotte for about 3 weeks when she 6 or so - I feel like I carry half remembered memories - ?) which felt abit impossible.  A big ferry in a little narrow sound..... weren't we going to run aground?.... but no, docked into Picton safe and sound.

Then onto the Abel Tasman coastal path - quite rightly very popular.  Fortunately I walked it in the spring time with less people on it.  Lots of rain the first day so I didn't dawdle and walked what should have been a 4 hour in 2.5hours!  Lots of dawdling the next two days as the sun shone and I walked in and out of some stunning beaches (and swam from some of them).  I stayed in huts along the trial and carried my own food for 3 days as well as a stove and billy can.  I'll try and put up some of the photos from the track just to make you all feel jealous as the cold and dark of Dec sets in over England.

I wwoofed in a couple of great places around Takaka in the Golden Bay area.  Both were very interesting in completely different ways.  At one I was very near the sea but slightly higher so the house had the most amazing 180 degree view of sea, bay, Farewell Spit, the mountains in the background.  Sitting on the deck with a glass of white wine watching the sun go down over the mountains with the sea in the foreground, after a days work of helping some one else clear out their junk.  Paddling in a sea kayak around the north end of the Abel Tasman national park.  Being eaten alive by sand flies by a clear cold gushing mountain river.   They call this area paradise and you can see why.... everyone is very friendly but at the same time, the whole thing doesn't feel real.  You have to go over a big hill to get to the region and so it creates this feeling of being cut off from the rest of NZ.

But all good things move on and change and so I was over the hill and back into the land of coaches... travelling down the west coast.  I made the mistake of stopping off at Franz Josef which is very touristy... but I did see a glacier and I did do a great walk albeit it totally surrounded by trees and not able to see the view except for a couple of look-out posts.  And on to Wanaka.... and time now to hobble into town for a cup of tea and a piece of cake!
Hope to write more soon.
cheers
bee

Hi from downunder

I left India at the end of August - all my travel plans went well, except for a heart stopping train ride as I left Thiruvalla train station on the local train to get to Kochi Airport.  The train was late but I wasn't unduly bothered as I knew I had factored in some extra time.  It was also crowded and I thought that it was ironic that my last ride on public transport in Kerala was standing!  Then I remembered the spare plastic bag in the top of my big pack (thank you Kim and Trish for the Ryman Stationary bag given to me at Heathrow all these months ago!).  I whipped out the bag and sat down on the floor close, but not too close, to the open carriage door and was happily day dreaming when the train ground to a halt and we all just sat for ages.  Of course, no means for an annoucement and I won't have understood it even if leaves or cows on the track was possible to make.  Then I noticed how much time had gone by and how little time I had left until my check-in time at the airport.  Of course, there is absolutely nothing you can do except start making feverish calculations about the estimated time of arrival at the airport if you get out at an earlier train station and take the fastest taxi possible.  Fortunately I met someone who worked at the airport and who spoke good English who was very reassuring about the journey and how much time I really needed to check-in... so I started to breathe again.

Arriving in Mumbai could have been terrible but I had just decided to treat it as a stop over and not to do any sightseeing.... I had booked myself into a nice hotel not too far from the airport who offered free pickups from the airport.  So yes, there was someone at Mumbai airport holding up a placard with my name on it!  I felt like royalty as I was ushered into a posh car and whisked away to a very nice hotel where I was met with a complimentary flower and a fruit juice!  I could get to used to this sort of lifestyle... so long as I didn't think about the millions of Indians living in Mumbai who haven't a hope in hell of getting used to that sort of lifestyle.  So I treated the hotel and being in Mumbai as part of my transition from India to New Zealand - a kind of neutral traveller situation.

And so to Auckland (via Singapore and Brisbane)!  And into a country where no one was staring at me, and most of the people here have the same colour skin as me and dress in similar ways and a lot of women have short hair.  I started to think that Auckland was the nicest city in the world (apart from Paris) but then I realised that I was judging it by having flat wide pavements, traffic that obeyed some rules, cars that kept their distance from each other, absence of people living and working on the pavements.  Maybe Auckland is the most boring city in the world - I don't know - but it was jolly nice for me!  To be able to be in a city and not to feel hassled was brilliant.  Not that I was really hassled in any of the Indian cities I was in.... it just the incredible numbers of people, the assault of difference on all your senses, the constant motion of traffic, the feeling that it was all crazy yet it all worked.  However Auckland felt ordered and calm and had lots of open spaces, parks even, and beautiful sea and great views and beer and wine and poached eggs on buttered toast and real coffee.

I didn't stay very long in Auckland to savour the cultural highlights - things were building up to the opening of the world rugby cup which I wanted to avoid - just long enough to get a fill on lattes, get a good hair cut, and a few essential clothes.  Then off on the ferry to the Coromandel peninsular and to start my first wwoofing placement.  That's Worldwide Working Opportunities on Organic Farms.  The deal is that you work for 4 - 5 hours in return for somewhere to sleep and your food.  Currently I'm in Kauotunu (think I have got the vowels in the right order!) and it's absolutely amazing here.  Not only are the hosts really hospitable and easy going and relaxed, the house is very comfortable, the work very easy but the views and the countryside, especially the beaches are truly awesome.

The local beach is called Matarangi and is a brilliant wide white sandy beach stretching on and on until eventually after an hour of walking you reach an estuary.  At the end of the beach are views of mountains, after mountains.  It all has a vast, unfilled, unpopulated feel to it (ok I know I'm experiencing out of season and I guess in holiday season there will be alot more people around).  The roads are wide and there are hardly any traffic on them - a far cry from M25.  Everywhere has a relaxed easy going feel to it which I am sure is partly true at least.  I know I'm just here as a visitor and indeed I feel more of a tourist here than I did in India, so I'm getting a very different sense of the place.

It sort of feels familiar here and yet it is totally unfamiliar.... green fields, rolling hills, pine forests, sheep, cows.  The you look again and see that the houses have a different shape and design, there are "strange" trees in amongst the pine forests, giant ferns, different sort of birds and birdsong, old volcanic rock features.  Oh heck, I really am in Lord of the Rings country and I haven't even been onto the South Island yet!

Off now to bake some apple muffins for Ann and Brian's return - have been house sitting and dog sitting whilst they have been to a family do.  I've been left in charge of the dog, the cat, the generator, the wood burner, the well stocked fridge....
love
bee

School assembly

Class7/8, St Pauls School, Namthang

Kripa andSarah putting chickens to bed

Darius collecting food for cow and goats, house in background

And another photo

well. still having problems in rotating photos on the blog but probably this one best left the way it is!  Me, in my first tailored salwar and kameez on my last day at school in Sikkim.

Kerala and things Keralan

Hi
So I have been in Kerala since mid June and in Thiruvalla (pronounced Tee - rue - vay - lah with the emphasis for the vay- lah and the tee - rue barely spoken) for 4 weeks so here are some observations on my time so far....

I don't know whether Kerala is more conservative than Sikkim or whether the "glow" of being in India has worn off but I'm definately having a harder time in Kerala than Sikkim.  Anyhow Kerala feels very conservative, especially in the ordinary town that I am based in.  Women are expected to know their place and keep to their place and I feel like screaming most of the time.  The dress is very traditional - sarees for older women, salwar and kameez for teenagers and dresses for small girls.  Small girls have short hair untill about 7 - 10 then they grow it.  I have hardly seen a woman with short hair and when I do, I want to go up to her to congratulate her (but of course I don't).  On the buses, the women sit at the front of the bus and the men at the back and never the two shall meet.  Except on state buses, when the women sit at the back of the bus and the men sit at the front.  I have rarely seen women working - most of them are in the homes being mothers and housewives.  The shop keepers, waiters, cooks etc are all men.  But some women do escape to university and study and get degrees and some must get some sort of professional job, at least before they get married but it's hard to come into contact with them.  The teachers at the school where I work on Mondays and Tuesdays are a mixed group of young, single women, married women and a couple of older unmarried women - so some women who are married work.....  nb no male teachers at the school therefore I suppose it is safe for the women to work there!

Kerala is also feels wealthier than Sikkim - and statistically it is so.  It became a state in the 50s after independence and has been dominated by the communist party.  So it has the highest literacy rate in the whole country - hurrah.  Also it has big links with the Middle East with many men working there.  It was explained to me that this happened because the Communist Party gave the land from the land owners to the people who actually worked the land.  Therefore the landowners lost their source of income and looked around for another source of relatively easy income.... hence ties with the Middle East.  My landlady's husband is working in Dubai and oneof the blokes from the milk shop is just here on holiday from Kuwait and is returning this week.  The houses feel more substantial here and it's harder to spot "poorer" housing.  I haven't seen anything yet which compares to the mud houses/lean-tos that I saw alot of in Sikkim, except for the some housing in the backwaters.

Whoever said that whatever happens I would lose some weight in India was entirely mistaken!!  Keralans eat like there is no tomorrow - huge mountains of rice all eaten very quickly.  And there is no hanging around after you have eaten enjoying a post-prandial chat and letting the food go down.  It's jump up and let's get on with the next thing.... which in women's cases is the mountain of washing up.  I am even getting into this mentality myself.  After last night's nice meal of dahl, chappatti and beetroot thondor, I dashed up straight away to do the dishes, thinking "must crack on or the ants will be out again".  I have learnt that the high incidence of diabetes here in India is due to the amount of rice people eat, as well as the amount of sugar.  I'm hoping that I'm OK and shall be escaping soon and hopefully getting my blood sugar level down to a more acceptable level.  In the meantime, I am blooming with a very rounded tummy, despite the amount of sweating I am doing in this incredibly humid climate.

I have TV in the flat (I can watch BBC world news and some crummy American channel in between adverts every 5 minutes) and I do have a cold water shower and a western toilet.... but I do miss my lovely room in Sikkim with the most amazing views, washing from a tap and using the squat toilet.  I miss the kids in Sikkim.  The children here are lovely but I don't really get to spend much time with them to really get to know them.  In Sikkim I was working in the same small school 6 days a week for 2 months... here I do 1 session a week with 15 different groups in 6 different settings.  And I won't really have a sense of the countryside here in Kerala, apart from the back waters which are truly lovely and very peaceful but feel worlds away from Thiruvalla with its crazy traffic and ribbon development between town centres.  I don't get a sense of fields here or the lay of the land.  The landscape is dominated by very tall tropical trees so no sense of the landscape unfolding in beautiful vistas.

Malayalam is very hard language to learn and you know I am not the most gifted linguist but I am having a stab at it.  I can now say my name is Bee, how are you, I am fine, count 1 - 10 and say the colours.  I am learning now to say "sit down and listen to me" which I realise is fairly crucial when working with children!  I am also able to pronounce reasonably correctly the place names of the towns where I work so I don't need my written prompt card when I get on a bus.

Off to what is known as the supermarket but doesn't sell everything...  but it does sell peanut butter and white sliced bread which is my stand-by snack food when all else fails or when I am too tired to cook. 

cheers
bee

 

a day in the life of a volunteer

Hi everyone
It will take too much time to update you all with news and experiences from the yoga ashram and from my first few weeks here in Thiruvalla in Kerala so I thought that, just for now, I'll give you an idea of what sort of day I have had.... then I will do an overview when I have more energy.

Torrential rain overnight.  Woke up several times and was very pleased into be in a flat, all warm and dry.... then discovered in the morning that the monsoon rain had got into the kitchen.  Was jolly gateful that Kerala Link is renting the flat and it was not my problem!  Cup of chai to start the day.  I am getting seriously addicted to the stuff but in my defense, I would like to point out that I have not had an alcoholic drink in a very very long time.  Breakfast was mango, red banana and grapes with yoghurt and honey - delicious.  Keralan women are of course up at 5am and slaving over hot stoves to make loads of cooked breakfasts and also cooked tiffen(lunches) to take with you.  I prefer a more Western apporach to breakfast!  Normally I get to do a 20 min yoga routine but I needed to catch the bus this morning as it is Saturday - my Elanthoor day.

Caught the bus to Elanthoor, only there wasn't a direct bus and I had to change at Kozencherry.  Buses here are old and battered with strict male/female divides.  I got lucky and got a seat otherwise it is a painful stand as the drivers here drive very fast and then slam on the brakes.  It's not easy to keep your balance and other people on the bus have had years of practice and I have had only 3 weeks.  No windows on the bus so there is a nice breeze.  When it rains the metal shutters come down over the window spaces and then I get anxious as I can't see when my stop is approaching.  Fortunately no rain today so was able to spot my landmarks and nimbly jump off at the right spot.  You have to be fairly agile to catch a bus - they don't stop very long at any of the stops and sometimes you find yourself getting on or off when the bus is still moving!

A short walk through the very small town that is Elanthoor took me to a half way home for women who have had (are still having) mental health issues.  They are 7 of them and they were all waiting eagerly for me in the rec room.  Today we were making pockets - hanging oblongs of materials with pockets sewn on them.  Bet you didn't know that I am a sewing teacher!  Amazing what you can knock up when you have to.  Actually the pockets have caused me alot of stress as I had to find the material, get a tailor to cut it up into the right sizes, get the thread, needles, and pins.  Needless to say my Malayalam (the local language) is not up to this....  The women had a good time (I think) and then it was time to play bingo.  Yes, those years of Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb work with older people were not wasted!

I get lunch at the half way home - yippee - this means that I do not have to cook tonight!  I am getting a tad jaded with rice.  Yesterday I made masala dosa, which was a welcome change.  Then up the hill to the girls hostel.  There are 40 girls aged between 5 and 15 and during the weekday they all go to local educational institutions and then spend the rest of their time at the hostel.  Their families can't keep them - often for financial reasons but sometimes because their father drinks and it is not safe for them to be at home.  The incidence of male violence against women, especially in the family, is very high.  And despitge the government controlling the sale of alcohol, the rate of male alcoholics is also high.  The girls are always great fun to be with and I think I provide a bit of light relief on a Saturday afternoon.   Today was making small books from a sheet of A4 paper then they drew pictures in their books.  Then I taught them What time is it Mr Wolf which they all enjoyed.  I can't cope with 40 girls at the same time (though I was expected to!) and I see them in two groups of 20 each which is still pretty large but at least I can manage them.  Thank you, Lucy at Carlton Hill, for classroom management tips! 

Fortunately got a direct bus back to Thiruvalla and picked up 3 packets of milk from the milk "shop" ie someone's house near the bus stop, crossed the road and picked up 6 eggs from the stall by the road and a couple of these funny doughnuts which are savoury and have chilli in them as I was in great need of a snack.  Had a chat with the stall holder's sister who is visiting from Mumbai and is a retired teacher.  Then back to the flat for a flop on the bed, munch of the doughnuts, slurp of another chai, before dashing out to the local internet cafe to write this blog, whilst being bitten alive by mossies.  I need to go back to the flat very soon as I have a 6pm curfew which I am stretching to 7pm, having negotiated with my landlady who lives downstairs and who gets very worried if I am not home when it is dark.  Also the Kerala link people ask us to keep to this too "for our own safety".  I shall save you all from my diatribe on the fate of women in Indian society and sign off instead.

Will write again soon with news of the ashram and of general impressions of Kerala.  And I will get to put up some photos before I leave!

Only two and a half weeks till I go to New Zealand.... golly gosh!  And my other big news is that I have found a bar!!!!!!!  I might even get inside it and have a drink before I leave.

cheers

bee

Greetings from Kerala

Here I am in Fort Cochin, in the state of Kerala, at the very south west tip of India - a complete contrast to Sikkim!  Kerala is tropical with lots of palm trees and coconut trees and the weather is hot and humid.  It is the start of the monsoon period and I have been expecting to be holed up in my hostel room doing lots of reading and writing but so far, so good and I have been doing touristy things in the lovely sunshine.


I flew down last Friday having decided to go with the option of volunteering with the women's organisation - either working in a special needs school or working in an "ordinary school".  Coming down to Kerala will also give me the opportunity to visit the Sivananda yoga ashram.  A couple of weeks of yoga and meditation in beautiful surroundings may give me some nourishing, both physically and spiritually.  It also gives Kerala Link the time they need to process my application.

Fort Cochin is the first touristy place I have been too and I'm glad that I'm here out of season.  Though the lack of tourists does mean that I get more than my fair share of "hello, how are you, come into my lovely shop" and the funky cafes listed in the Lonely Planet guide are closed for renovation....  Fort Cochin is on the sea and so I am constantly reminded of Brighton - here is just something about the sound of the waves that is universal.  Though I think the sound of the waves is the only thing that Brighton and Fort Cochin share.  There is a nice walkway along a bit of the sea, either side strewn with litter and there is no way I will be getting into the water!  There are these amazing ancient chinese fishing nets here - huge wooden structures which cast nets down into the sea then 4 men pull on ropes to haul the nets out of the sea and see what the catch is.  They look a bit like wooden structures used to cast rocks and tubs of boiling oil on medieval castles - and use the same principles.  They are kept going in part for the tourists but also in part because they really do catch fish with them which are then sold along the walkway.

I met a lovely woman (of similar age) on the plane coming to Cochin too so we spent the weekend doing touristy things together which was very nice and a very welcome relief from the busy-ness of the big city.  She is in India training teachers in a new school as a volunteer so we had a lot in common.   Fort Cochin is a nice mixture of Portuguese, Dutch, British and Indian and feels like a village, although across the water is the large city of Ernakalum.  We spent one afternoon looking at the local palace, walking around the spice bazaar area etc and the following day we went on a tourist boat, experiencing the tranquility of the Keralan backwaters.  It was very lovely and peaceful and a world away from Pune!  The scenery is stunning and of course it is always so relaxing to be on a boat - especially when you don't have to steer, row, punt....  We stopped for a lovely veggie lunch where the plates were banana leaves and spoons to eat with were offered as an option.  I decided to practice eating with my hands as most Indians do and have to say that the food does taste much better that way.  There's this great place to eat here in the evenings - where they serve north Indian dishes so I can continue with my appreciation of N. Indian fare.  The local food is great too but a lot of emphasis on fish and also coconut - not my favourite ingredients.  Interestingly dahl is not common here at all but is the staple all over the rest of the country.  I am also seriously getting into mango milkshakes - amazing combo of fresh mango, ice-cream and milk.  I reckon that the humidity is making me sweat so it's ok to pile on the calories!

For my next volunteering placement, I have to learn some of the local language so I might start getting stuck in now as I will need all the extra help I can get!  Also both my cotton shirts have now got big rips in them so I need to get a couple of new ones made up or scour the tourist shops for some cotton tops.  Note to any future travellers - always check how thin your very favourite cotton shirt has got before you go off to foreign climes.


bye for now
bee

ps if anyone would like to keep me updated on either Wimbledon and / or the Archers, I would much appreciate it! 







 

Crikey

Well, I have really gone and done it now.  I have left my volunteer placement, outside Pune, having lasted just one week...

Here's a quick catch up..

Leaving Sikkim was hard.  Everyone was so lovely and everyone wanted me to stay.  Foreigners can only stay for 2 months maximum so I didn't have to make any decisions.  I felt very emotional the last few days at school, saying goodbye to the children, knowing that even if I am lucky enough to come back, I won't see them again.  Of course, this tapped into deeper grief and I wonder if saying goodbye now is always going to be hard for me?

The school put on a special programme on my last day - lots of performances by the children, every child gave me a scarf (Tibetan style), presents, speeches, then I had to dance with Iccika, a student from class 6 who is an especially gifted dancer and gifted I am not.  Anyhow people appreciated my comic turn (it was to English pop music).  Then a shared feast with the teachers.  Then packing up my lovely little room.

The next day I caught the shared jeep to Siliguri.  My big pack and smaller day pack were up on the roof and just before Siliguri the heavens opened and I had my first taste of monsoon.  The sriver stopped briefly but not long enough to put a covering over the jeep so I spent the rest of the journey being philosopical about my luggage getting wet.  I was totally embarrassed to find that my luggage was on the back seat passengers knees whilst I had a roomy front seat!  Then onto the airport and back into the fairly uniform world of flying (but at least everything is familiar and you know what you are supposed to do) - except of course that the plane flew east first into Assam, then turned around and flew west to Delhi!  Caught my connecting flight and arrived late at night into Pune.

Adjusting to Pune, a big city with 7 times the population of the whole of Sikkim, wasn't easy but  I got into the swing of hailing down auto rickshaws, asking at least 3 people for directions, going into dodgey looking alleyways in seach of internet cafes.  I did upgrade into a AC room which was heavenly as Pune was so hot after Sikkim.

Then onto the delights of Sadhana Village - a collection of 3 houses, 30km from Pune.  I got a lift there and was welcomed with chai and mango juice and some al Friends (as the residents are called) having breakfast under a tree.  Needless to say, it all went down hill from at point on..... I very quickly realised that the place was in crisis.  Essentially there aren't enough people involved in running the place, nor are there enough volunteers so day 2 so me making up medecine packs for the following week and dispencing everyone's medecine for that day (with no one to heck my work).  Heaven only knows what I was dishing out!  SF are a mixture of adults with learning disabilities and adults with some fairly serious mental health issues and with some very disturbing behaviours.  As a volunteer you were expected to work from 7am to 9pm when the SF were locked in their rooms.  Each house in theory had a house mother but there was one vacancy and the others were not there during the day so from 9 to 6 there were 5 German volunteers, plus me, left in charge.  The German volunteers were all much younger than me and had been there for 10 months.  Two of them were clearly exhausted and at breaking point.  Evidently there used to be a co-worker who had a great way of working with SF but he had left and hadn't been replaced. 

So I had a fairly serious conversations straight away about my concerns - staff shortage, level of responsibility of volunteers, not knowing what worked for each SF, regimented regime of locked gates, and SF locked in their rooms each night, lack of meaningful activities, the huge amount of rats everywhere and promised I would stay for a week.  I did just that but had to leave as it was all beyond what I could do.

I know that it was the right decision for me to leave and I hope that my leaving has sent a serious message to the organisation. 

And so I am now in Pune and sorting out another volunteer placement in Kerala which would also allow me the opportunity to visit a hatha yoga ashram (again with a demanding schedule of yoga, meditation, lectures but at least the gates won't be locked!).  And if it doesn't work out I have the chance of working in a small school outside Leh, in Ladakh, in the Himalayas.  So quite possibly I am looking to be spending  a fair proportion of the rest of my time in India on a train!!

I'm in good spirits and accepting of what fate has thrown at me.  I have just finished reading The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh in which he talks of life being a transition - how right on some many different levels.

In the meantime, I'm slowly getting to know bits of Pune.  I'm ashamed to say that I did go into a modern shopping mall and my eyes popped out when I saw it was full of Marks and Spencer, Pizza Hut, Body Shop, and all the well known sports brands.  Security guards at the entrance who scanned you and checked your luggage - I think more of a measure to keep "poor" people out rather than to stop terrorists.  However having said that, the German Bakery, a well known cafe for Indians and backpackers here, was bombed  last year.

And interesting, I am starting to meet other white tourists, a British couple who were staying at the same grotty hotel as me (cheap and definately not cheerful).  They are working with the British  Consultate in Mumbai and had come to Pune for the weekend.  He normally works for the Border Agency in the UK but I tried not to hold that against him as they were very friendly!  We went out for a meal and got talking to someone who offered us drugs and the opportunity to go to a hill station for the night... even I picked up that it would involve sex!  Needless to say I passed on this exciting invite.  Fortunately my next encounter with white tourists were two nice dykey looking women from USA and Australia who were doing an intensive yoga course here.  Only coffee was shared during this exchange! 

I'm off now to look at another hotel as I'm nearly my limit of grotty decor, not very clean bathroom and sleeping in my own sheet sleeping bag - all part of the experience of being here and not there.  It still is lovely being here and not being in the UK and not working and running a house....

I'll update with news once I have some!
love
bee

At home with the Khakhas

Hi
my last Sunday in Sikkim.... tomorrow is a holiday so I am going to Gangtok, the captial of Sikkim for a day of sightseeing.  The population of Sikkim is just over 500,000 ie twice the size of Brighton and Hove... so i am not expecting Gangtok to be huge.  It has the Institute of Tibetology though which is supposed to be very impressive and I am looking forward to seeing it.  Then just a few more days of teaching before I head back to Siliguri and fly to Pune (Poona).

Staying ith the Khakhas has been delightful.  In the family there is Daniel and Karuna (father and mother) and three children - Darius, Kripa and Serah who are aged 14 - 10 - also living there is Karuna's sister and another teenager whose family connection I keep forgetting.  All are very friendly and welcoming and very easy to be with.  They live about 40 minues outside of Namthang in the butsy area ie countryside and it's a ery pleasant 10 minute walk down the hill to school.  The house is two buildings - sitting room and bedrooms are the in the main building which is on two floors.  The family bedrooms are all on one floor and I have the \bottom floor with my own verandah and beautiful flower pots which Daniel looks after.  There are two spare rooms next to my little room.  In the next building is a "dining" room and a fairly basic kitchen.  The sink is outside next to an open fire which they used to cook on but now have a two ringed cooker in the kitchen.  The bathroom is a squat toilet and a bucket to flush next to a cold water tap and the inevitable washbasin with no plug.  The last building is the cow and goat shed. 

The only flat surface in Sikkim is man made and so there is very little flat surfaces for the children to play (very unfortunate that all the boys passion is to play cricket - they do it despite the lack of flat surface).  The garden is terraces and currently maize intercropped with ginger is being gown as well as tomatoes, onions, beans.  There are lots of trees, including some fruit trees and I have just had the first peach of the season!  Milk is from the cow, veg from the garden or the local market which is on Thursday and the other stuff needed eg rice, sugar and tea is bought locally.  The Khakhas don't have a car as do most people here so everything is carried from the road down the very steep path to the house.  When I first arrived it was raining and I had to carry my heavy pack down this very steep slippery path and I was so worried I was going to slip and make a great entrance.  Everyone else of course, goes up and down little narrow paths in flip flops with the greatest of ease.

The family get up very early - between four and five.  I get up around 6 which still feels fairly early to me but of course is very late to them.  A lovely cup of sugary tea with boiled milk is brought to me around 7 after I have finished doing some yoga on the verandah.  The verandah is made of concrete so not the easiest of surfaces but it is very clean and has the most beautiful view of the surrounding countryside, including Tibet on a clear day!   Breakfast is the biggest meal of the day at around 8 - 8.30 - rice, dahl, curry if I am lucky.  Sometimes they give me things like cornflakes and white sliced bread - not so filling.  Lunch is at school and could be noodles or puffed rice and another welcome cup of tea. 

After school I tend to potter, go for a short walk, do some yoga, prepare some lessons etc.  Then another meal of rice, dahl and curry before an early night.

The family is very closeknit and each have certain jobs that they all do so the house runs smoothly.  Johne and Darius look after the cow and collect tow huge baskets of leaves and branches twice a day for the cow and goats.  They milk the cow and take the surplus to nearby houses.  Anita, Karuna, Serah and Kripa all do the housework, wash the clothes and cook.  Serah the youngest and her aunt look after the hens and chicks.  Unusually daniel does all the food shopping.  He is also the main gardener but all the children help in the garden. 

A dry stone wall was built whilst I was here.... two older men and a "boy" all working in flip flops with Daniel,Johne, Darius and Karuna all helping shifting huge baskets of stones up and down steep paths, breaking up large rocks.  Health and safety would have had a field day!

It's been lovely to be looked after - have all my meals cooked etc so I have time to gaze at the landscape.  namthang is 4,500 feet high and totally surrounded by other mountains.  On a clear day there is 180 degree panorama of snow capped mountains.   Mountains everyhere.....  and once you are up here this high there is no reason to drop down to the very bottom of the valleys at all.  I feel like I'm the grandfather in Heidi (if I remember the story correctly) - happy to live up high and not bother with the rest of the world.   I do insist on doing my own clothes washing after I had a lesson from Karuna.  Cold water, soap, concrete slab and a scourer-thingey is required plus a little wooden stool so I don't have to swat.  It take me a good hour but it feels like the least I can do not to add more work onto Karuna (who also teaches nursery children at school in the mornings.)

It's time to leave next week - I shall be sorry to leave such lovely people who live simply and well in such a remote part of the world. 

Off to grab some samosas and some mangoes before catching the shared jeep back to Namthang - not a bad life!

Bee

Ms Bee goes to school

Hi everyone
Posting this from Namchi, the nearest big town, after a beautiful but hair-raising journey for one hour (to travel 20 k) on mountain roads in what is called a shared jeep ie a jeep absolutely crammed full with people.  I got lucky and got a seat by the window.  Last time I came here, I got to be next to the driver and had the gear stick rammed around my knees - there were four people plus driver in the front seat of a landrover!


Here are some of my experiences of life at St Pauls school....  School starts at 9.15 and children arrive by 9am.  Their first job is to sweep the classrooms and the corridor - there is no caretaker of course.  There are 10 classrooms - 5 either side of the corridor.  Upstairs there is the school office, a computer room with 8 pcs, and a library as well as a hostel for 11 children who board and accommodation for one of the teachers and their family who also look after the boarders.  Assembly is outside on the "play area" ie flattened muddy piece of ground.  Prayers are said, some christain songs and the national anthem.  Then there is usually a general knowledge quiz asked by the older children.

There are 3 periods of 45mins, followed by a 5 min playtime, followed by 2 more periods.  Lunch is at 1.15 for half an hour, then two more periods until 3.15.  The children bring tiffen ie packed lunch and eat outside, the teachers eat in one of classrooms and I get toeat upstairs with Daniel and Samuel, the headteacher and his brother, served by one of the older girls who stays in the hostel.  On Saturday morning there are 3 periods of drawing and moral education, followed by PE ie cricket or badminton or generally playing.

Each classroom has old fashioned benches with attached ledges just enough room for a A4 book with 2 or 3 children to a bench.  There is a dirty whiteboard, small table and chair for the teacher and that's it.  Each child brings their own textbooks and each lesson is direct from the text book.  They cover science, maths, english, environmental studies, general knowledge, hindi and nepali - same timetable each day.  The children stay in the classroom and the teachers circulate.  The children have a wide vocab and can read out aloud very well (albeit with some strange pronounciation on occasion).  However they very often do not understand what they are reading and find it very difficult to answer any questions.  "Learning" is very much by rote.  Their handwriting is very good and their spelling is also excellent. My mission is therefore clear - to try and get them to have some confidence to ask and answer questions and to deviate from the text book!

They are not used to working in pairs, or in small groups, or working independently or creatively at all.  Their drawing on a Saturday is copying pictures from an art book, for example.  I'm trying not to be too "Western" in my approach but simply trying to get them to speak confidently will be a great achievement!!

The other difficulty I have is that I am treated as the supply teacher.  There is often several teachers not at school (the school pays a very small wage so I guess the teachers feel it is ok to take time off if someone is visiting their family etc), so I get to cover classes.  My first lesson was physics! and my second lesson was social sciences!  Their text books are very dense and use very complicated vocab so I try to extract the main points and think on my feet on how to make it interesting!  But I can't get to prepare any lessons because I don;'t know from lesson to lesson who I will be teaching and what.  It's a small miracle if I get the same class for the same lesson the next day.  Another difficultly is that there are no spare copies of the text book so I have to ask to borrow one from the students and they have to share.  I am literally one sentence ahead of them, never mind one page!

My most successful lessons have been where I have prepared (just in case I get the same class again).  And also the students like playing games with me eg hangman, blackboard bingo, tag games where they have to circle the right time on the board etc.  I have tried to take a younger class outside to collect materials to make a nest  as birds and nesting was next in their text book but forgot to check that they understood the vocab!!!  ie they can read the word twig but haven't a clue what it is.

Despite the lack of resources, and the lack of planning from me, I am really enjoying working with the students.  They are all delightful and very keen to learn.  Discipline so far hasn't been a problem.... I just threaten them that they won't get a game at the end of the lesson if they don't behave and they all sit up and work hard!  Each class is small - between 8 and 14 students so it is quite easy to get to know them and to give them some individual attention.  Teaching in India is definately something I could consider doing....  no planning, delightful and sweet children, no discipline problems, and it all finishes at 3.15!!!

Lots of questions and thoughts about resources and the lack of colour in the classroom.... but I need to get back on the shared jeep now.

Miss Bee

It's Siliguri, therefore it's Friday (I think!)

Greetings from Siliguri!
I'm now in many miles north of Kolkata and about to launch into Sikkim.  You are supposed to get glimpses of the foothills of the Himilayas from here but all I have have glimpsed is roof tops, and yet more roof tops.  But tomorrow, I hope, will bring some hills.

So, where to begin?  The journey over was fine and I remember looking down an evalator at the richness of the shopping area with sparkling marble-like floors at Heathrow and wondering what on earth Mumbai airport would be like, and imagining that the next time I see such luxuries would be in NZ.  I am soooo pleased that I arrived at 00.45am - taking the taxi into "downtown" Mumbai felt fine as the warm air rushed through the taxi, and the roads were light on traffic.  The first thing you notice is the huge amount of people sleeping on the streets - for some, there's no choice, for others, it's cooler outside than in their abode.  Loads and loads of what we would call "shacks" (though after what I saw in Kolkata, a shack is a pretty substantial building).  And people just sleeping anywhere - on the pavement, in the road, on bales.  The area around the hotel was pretty well protected by police - I still haven't worked out all the different sorts of police yet - I'm sure helped by the fact I was staying a few buildings down from a very palatial hotel which was built by a Parsi man who was outraged that he couldn't get a room in a good hotel when he arrived in India a couple of centuries ago.  I wasn't very far off the Gateway to India (photo already supplied by Loz) and I was heartened to read that although built to commerate the arrival of George 5 and wife (woops might have got my kings mixed up - the dad of the Colin Firth!) in India, it was also the place where the British left - hoorah!  Overall Mumbai felt it was a mix of cool and trendy and bustlingness with a big dash of (indian) tourists.  I am of course speaking from my little seaside enclave.

On to 5.30am on Monday morning where I faced the great CST railway station and took a big breath and walked inside.  Again the first thing I noticed was probably about 150 people sleeping on the floor and people just walking around them.  I got told off by a policeman as I was standing too close to a queque of people who were then frogmarched onto the train - there was a a bit of breaking of the ranks and one of the police officers starting hitting a couple of people with these huge truncheons.  It was awful to witness in itself but always shadows of the Holocaust are present around people getting onto trains.  However I am sure that these people really did want to get onto the train.... Of course, no queques for AC 2nd Class 2 tier and no police to meter out punishment if we walked too quickly.  And so, my great train journey across India started.  I kept expecting Michael Palin to appear as I felt I was in a travel documentary.  India in the middle bit at least from Mumbai to Kolkata is incredibly flat after about the first 1.5 hours, fields after fields, after fields with villages, towns, villages, towns, water holes, different fields.  Which all sound quite dreary but I was totally immersed in the vast differences.  And when I wasn't looking out the window, I was being entertained by the fantastic pantry car staff and the numerous people walking down the train, calling out their wares.  I thought I was going to make friends on the trip but I was in a end berth and so had a little "cabin" to myself which was great as it gave me lots of space just to soak up being there.  It was a fantastic 30 hour trip and I felt well cared for by the staff.  I did get talking to a woman towards the end of the journey who was going to Kolkata to buy saris as her daughter was getting married in November and was invited to the wedding! 

Howrah Station is another of the famous Indian railway stations in Kolkata and I got of the train, having thanked the woman for her kind invitation but unfortunately would be in New Zealand etc etc.  I got into another pre-paid taxi and was taken to my next bed for the night.  Howrah is on the other side of the Houghly river which is huge and there is huge bridge over it, reputedly the world's busier bridge and I was introduced to the dleights of Indian driving...OMG is all I say.  Pedestrians, cycles, cycles rickshaws, auto rickshaws, taxis, cars, lorries, buses of various descriptions, and anything else which has a wheel were all going over this bridge with no lanes and no sense of safety.  I kept breathing in and thinking of that bus in Harry Potter film which getting very thin.  Then over the bridge and over a ramp and into the thronging mass that is Kolkata and suddenly the bridge felt a very safe place to be.  I shall never forget the view - people everywhere, walking, carrying huge loads on their hands, little stalls on the pavements, and on the streets, cycles, cars, buses, then suddenly a tram!  Incredible levels of poverty... people picking through rubbish piles, sleeping besides rubbish heaps.  And so noisey.... because everyone uses the "pavement" to live in, or work from, then people walk on the road and sometime on the pavement, and so everyone honks either to let you know that they are behind you or to get the slower vehicle in front to move over or just because.  So the streets are noisey from about 6.30 in the morning till about 11 at night.

Fraid I didn't see much of K as I had an attack of tummy problems, preceded by a nasty fall as I failed to negotiate a bit of the pavement (hope you realised that I am using the word pavement here in a loose way) so happy to leave K and take the train to north to Siliguri.  Siliguri is just as noisey but alot more manageable and tomorrow the bus to Sikkim!

will try and blog soon. 

testing photos one, two, three

Getting ready to go

the Downs on a misty morning just one week before flying away...

this is really me, testing, one, two, three

19 days to go!
My new mantra is "I have done loads already.  I only have to do what is on my list.  I have plenty of time".

Highlights today include getting Indian Embassy approved passport photos, losing my bike helmet in the PO, phoning the PO to discover that someone had handed in my bike helmet, having a lovely lunch with colleagues past and present, the gift of this blogsite, flowers, yoga mats.... chats with mates.... I am blessed to have such great friends.


bee pooley about to travel

This will be your view from your hotel!

This is a test - number 2

test

Welcome to your new blog Bee

Hope this works ok. Sorry to be you in order to post this, but needed to see if it works before you go! x