Varanasi

Varanasi was great. Its not a very large city, especially compared to Kolkata. But I stayed mostly in the tourist Old City area, which added to the effect of it being small. The Old City is the part of the city near the ghats; near the Ganges. It consists of teeny, winding alleys, in which Nienke and I got lost several times. Even rickshaws are too large for these alleys, but its illegal for them to enter them anyways. There was, like everywhere in India, an abundance of cows. Perhaps this was just more noticeable in Varanasi because one has to squeeze ones self to the side of the wall to allow a cow to pass in an alley.
One night, Nienke and I went to the daily puja (worship) that is performed just after sunset at one of the largest ghats. (Ghats, for those of you who don't know, are steps leading down into the water. In this case, into the Ganges.) We paid to sit on a man's boat and watch from the water, since the priests face the river. Five holy men in organge robes performed the puja. It involved lots of chanting and incence and fire. Despite the fact that I couldn't understand what was being said, it was beautiful to watch.
One morning we got up extra early to take a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise. We watched hundreds of people bathing in the sacred waters and the golden sunlight. It was gorgeous. That was actually my favorite part of the trip.
Varanasi is used to a high volume of tourists, both Indian and international. There was a higher concentration of foreigners there than anywhere else I've been in India. Nienke and I always wore salwars, which scored us points with the locals. Most foreigners wear baggy ali babba pants and have a "dirty hippy" look to them.
Nienke and I spent alot of time at a bakery which catered to tourists. We lounged for hours at a time on the cushions and low tables (ok, not on the tables themselves) eating good Western food and talking to people from all over the place. It was nice to chill in such a Western enviornment for a change.
I took the train back to Kolkata alone. I sat in a compartment with two families: one with a mother, father, son, and grandma; and one with a mother, father and two daughters. A man travelling alone also shared our compartment. The grandma was a really sweet old woman who didn't speak any English. I siezed my opportunity to practise Bengali, and was able to communicate basic things to her. The son, his father, and the man decided to play cards, and they invited me to play also. Grandma supervised my playing (pulling cards from my hand and putting them on the "table" before I could decide what to do) until one of the men went to smoke and she could play her own hand. The game was called 28, and it was quite like Euchre. It was fun. They ended up not serving dinner on the train, so everyone pitched in to feed me. Grandma's family gave me veg biriyani, the girls' family gave me a sweet and the man gave me some fruit cake. Indian hospitality is unbeatable.
It was a great trip.

~m

Visag

The trip to Visag was great! We took an overnight train leaving Howrah station late Friday night and we arrived in Visag early Saturday afternoon. While in Visag, we visited RK Beach, the main beach of Visag City; the zoo (nothing interesting to report there); Kailasagiri Hill, a big hill with a passenger ropeway kinda like a ski lift to the top, and with a path that stops at many scenic turnouts; Simhachalam Temple, a huge beautiful temple up on a mountain; and Rishikonda beach, a more secluded beach about 8km North of the city. We stayed at a resort on Rishikonda for two days. It was absolutely fabulous. We had a balcony with a great view of the Bay of Bengal, and we spent many hours sitting out there reading, eating and relaxing in the shade when it was too hot on the beach. Visag is no Goa, so we couldn't run around in bikinis or anything. We always stayed fully clothed, but we would roll up our salwar pants to our knees and walk along the shore. The water was so warm and inviting, I just wanted to swim! I really could have, if I had gone in fully clothed, but I didn't want to do that. It was still great just walking in the water and relaxing on the beach though. I had a fabulous time!
Takin a train to Varanasi tonight.
~m

St Patrick's Day isn't celebrated at all in India. I talked to Nienke, a dutch volunteer about it, and it turns out it isn't celebrated much in most of Europe either. It must just be an American and an Irish thing... Anyway, I wore a green salwar so I was sure not to get pinched by any stray leprechauns. Nienke and I went to New Market so she could get a few things before her trip, and them we met up with Babai and his friend Puru at Dum Dum. We took a train ride to the Dakshineswar Kali Temple (also known to CRAWL volunteers as the monkey temple, because of the many monkeys on the grounds). We made an offereing of sweets and flowers to Kali, and walked around the temple complex. The main temple there is for Kali, but there are also 12 smaller temples, all of which are for Lord Siva. Monkeys and cows roam the surrounding gardens and devotees bathe, pray, and wash laundry etc. on the ghats. We spent awhile just taking in the sights. A street boy came up to us on the ghats and we thumb wreslted with him and took his picture. The other people there were really amused to see foreigners playing with this boy. When we were ready to leave, he unsurprisingly but sadly, began begging us for money. We didn't give him anything; I never do. Because of the work I do at Sealdah, I can walk away from these situations feeling generally guilt free.
Anyway, after we left the ghat, we boarded a small ferry to the Belur Math. We arrived in time to enter the temple (for Ramkrishna) and sit down with hundreds of other people for the singing of prayers. Monks at the front of the temple sang, and some of the congregants joined in, but most just listened. Everyone sat on the floor, but men and women sat in separate sections. We arrived just before the singing started, so there wasn't any space for us to sit. Seeing us standing off to the side, the women at the edge of the group squeezed in to make room for Nienke and me. The hospitality (of the women and children, at least) here is so amazing. Other foreigners and I get stared at where ever we go. Some people take this for hostility, but in fact it is usually just unguarded curiosity. The people are so welcoming and so excited to see foreigners. This is of course more true in Khardah than in Kolkata; more true on the train than the metro. Children come up to me where ever I am to say hi and shake my hand. Women stare at me, and when they notice me watching, they break into huge smiles. People are always curious and friendly; they ask me where I'm from and why I'm here. I have been invited to innumerable strangers' houses for a meal. Of course I never go, but the intentions are always welcoming and friendly. The sweet treatment that I get from the women and children here more than compensates for the usual harassment and annoyances I endure from the men.
Anyway, we sat and listened to the singing for about 15 minutes before Babai waved to us to go. We left prematurely (the singing goes on for nearly an hour) and walked around the grounds a little. We went to a tea stall at the side of the road and had some tea before taking the ferry back across the river, and taking a taxi home. (Trains at night are best avoided.)
At school yesterday, I had the intermediate and advanced groups together because no one has come to fill Lauren's place yet. Attendance was low because final exams are going on in the public schools now. (In fact, none of my students will be attending CRAWL school for the next two weeks because of exams. This coincides perfectly with my trips to Visag and Varanasi.) Instead of trying to run two separate lessons, I decided to just do one class that incorporated math and English. Drawing inspiration from my high school Humanities classes (thanks, Mrs Young!) I decided to have the kids play jeapordy. Prior to class, I wrote out math and English questions to correspond with each category and point value. The kids didn't take long to catch on, and they loved it! I was so pleased with how well it went. They payed full attention and really tried to get the answers. There's no motivator like a little healthy competition.
Yesterday afternoon, Nienke and I went to Kolkata's other prominent Kali Temple, in South Kolkata, in Kalighat. A priest gave us a tour of the temple and the ghat and requested a donation, which we gave. We also offered flowers to Kali. The current temple was built in the 1600s, but the sacred location is much older. Currently, the temple's facade is a tile mosaic donated by an Italian holy man. Its beautiful.
Today at the school, the kids replied to letters written to them by an elementary school class in Oregon. One of the previous volunteer's mother works at that school. I thought it was so neat that each of those classes is getting pen pals in another country. My students weren't quite so enthusiastic. They did like writing the letters, but they just failed to see how kool it is. Haha. I made sure to have them all write their names in Hindi or Bengali (whichever they use) as well as English. Those American kids will think that's so neat. Well, I would have if I were them... They wrote about their favorite food and their hobbies and their families. They also drew pictures. I'm still excited about it now, haha.
In the second hour of class, we had a birthday party for the Feb and March birthdays. Animesh was my only student with a birthday during that time. Rinki and Dhunanjoy ( 4 or 5 yr old twins) and Preeti (7 yr old girl) also had theirs. They all got a new outfit, and we had cake and chips to eat. It was fun.
Tonight Nienke and I are having Bobby over to the flat for a pasta dinner, European style. She already told us that she only wants a small amount of food (haha). I'm sure she thinks we're utterly incapable of cooking. It'll be interesting to see how she likes it though. I'm excited.
Tomorrow night, Nienke and I will take an over night train to Visag, a beach south of Kolkata in Andhra Pradesh. We'll spend three days there before coming back to Kolkata.

~m

Sealdah

Sealdah today was so much fun!
We gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste when we went to wash the kids' hands and faces. They were so excited. Something which we take completely for granted in the US was so exciting and special to these children. Imagine not being able to afford a tooth brush. Many people in America can't afford to visit the dentist, but everyone brushes their teeth. We told the kids to bring their tooth brush with them every Saturday and Sunday morning, and we'll give them tooth paste to brush with. Its not possible to distribute tubes of toothpaste to them every week. But this way they can brush with water (still exponentially better than not brushing) on the days we aren't there, and they can brush with toothpaste on the days we are there.
We gave out the usual Sunday morning milk, cereal and biscuits this morning (on friday we give chapatti -think tortilla- and potato curry, and on Saturday we give hard boiled eggs and cheese and biscuit sandwiches). For the past few Sundays, we've been bringing jump ropes for the kids to play with. They absolutely love it.
There is a little boy whose parents are both dead. He is only 10 and he lives all alone at the station. I don't know where he gets his food. He wears a shirt which is absolutely huge on him. Today we brought him a shirt which is actually his size. It has red and white stripes, with a white collar. He was so excited when we gave it to him. He ran away to go change (its amazing that he maintains modesty in his situation. So many of the kids at Sealdah run around completely naked) and came back strutting. He was so overjoyed. It was heartbreaking, but everything about Sealdah is. Later, I saw him hiding his old shirt behind a fence in the station. This is not an uncommon occurrence. We arrive very early in the morning, and I've often seen people roll up the tarps and blankets they sleep on, and throw them onto a roof for safekeeping during the day. They don't have one square foot of space which is actually theirs.

~m

Holi pics

paint for sale

action shot

war paint...

Piya and me

Nienke and me

the crew





Manisha and me - that's the difference between wet and dry Holi paint

the clean up begins...

Prativa and me. She worked so hard to get and stay clean, and that photo ruined it.


clean face... pink hands. They're still pink even now.

Holi

Holi is a great holiday! I wish we had it in the US. It reminded me of being younger and having water fights with my brothers and cousins in the back yard.
For a few days before holi, there were stalls on the street selling every imaginable color of powder paint, as well as masks, hats and squirt guns. On Tuesday night, the night before Holi, Lauren and I bought little bags of six colors of paint. Originally, Holi was played with only pink and red powder paint, but now it is played with virtually every color, and with water and liquid paints as well.
On Wednesday morning, I had to go out to buy milk for breakfast. I had no idea what I would find. I dressed in clothes I had decided to sacrifice to Holi: a white t-shirt (all the better to see the colors) and some blue scrubs. I walked outside and the streets were splattered with all colors of paint. There were paint-drenched children running about, chasing eachother. People mix the powdered paint with water in buckets and then squirt it at eachother. Its much more permanent when wet. As I was nearing the main road, a man and his son walked by (they were both purple from head to toe) and said to me, "return!" meaning, "don't go out, you'll get painted!" I smiled and continued on my way. Lots of people eyed me uncertainly in my pristine garb. They clearly wanted to paint me, but didn't have the nerve. My luck changed when I passed one of the paint stalls. A vendor called out to me, "good morning, ma'am!" and then got me full in the face with pink powder. Another vendor tagged the back of my head with yellow. I didn't even try to resist.
Nearly all of the shops were closed (except for a few essentials, like the dairy store), and the streets were nearly deserted. (Consider the fact that I live in India, one of the most densely populated places on earth. There were not many people out, relatively speaking.) Everyone who was out was painted in some way. Many people just had a few streaks of red on their face, to prevent the attacks they would get if they weren't painted at all. Kind of like how people wear green on St Patrick's Day.
On my way home, after getting painted by the vendors, I was suddenly fair game for everyone to hit me. A few boys squirted me near the flat. I gave the milk to Lauren, went back outside and hit them with orange paint before running back inside.
Nienke, Lauren and I decided to wait until the afternoon to go out and play. This ended up being a mistake. As it turns out, most of the playing goes on in the morning. We got all ready by putting on lots of lotion and oil so the paint would wash off easily. When we went out in the afternoon, the streets were completely deserted. Had we gone out in the morning, we could have played with the neighborhood children, but we missed out chance. When we went out, we played just between the three of us. We got thoroughly covered despite our small numbers.
We went back inside to clean up before the kids came over to say bye to Lauren (she left early this morning). When the kids came, it was apparent they had been playing all day. We had been forbidden by Subhamita to go to Prativa's house to play with them. She said it would not be safe for us. I don't know how true that is, I think she was more concerned about the perception of CRAWL with the volunteers running around acting crazy. Anyway, most of the kids were slightly discolored, but Binda hadn't yet washed. She was bright pink!
The kids brought cards and a few gifts (sweets and a windchime) for Lauren. It was really sweet. I was surprised by their lack of sentimentality. Lauren had been here for four months, and the kids really liked her. But they did not appear upset by her departure. I know they are very used to people coming in and out all the time, and they have become desensitized to people leaving as a way to protect themselves. But I guess I still expected a little more emotion than they showed.
The kids had told us that they would come play Holi with us on Thursday, but as they were leaving Wednesday night, they said they couldn't come. (Bengali Holi was on the 11th, Hindustani Holi on the 12th. The government of West Bengal gave the holiday for the 11th, but CRAWL had both days off) Nienke and I decided that we would just go get the kids on Thursday, and tell them to come play with us.
As it turned out, there was no need. Whether they actually changed their minds, or whether they had said they weren't coming just to trick us, I don't know, but at about 10:30 this morning, they showed up at our door. Nienke and I had just finished breakfast (Lauren left around 6:45 am) and were still in our pajamas. I hadn't even put my contacts in yet. Piya stood at the gate and I immediately shied away. "No color!" They shouted. They said they had just come to return my hat. Nienke and I were not so easily fooled. We hastily changed into our Holi clothes from the day before, and gathered our paint. This time we did not think about lotion or oil. We went outside and immediately began throwing paint. Some of the students fought back (they had all brought their own paint with them) and some scattered. I chased some of them out to the main road, but lost sight of them (I still was not wearing contacts). Arati joined me and told me where they had gone. We cornered Kajal and Prativa in a side alley and blasted them. Then we all ran back towards the flat, still throwing and ducking paint. The people on the street were quite amused to see colorfully painted white girls sprinting down the street after little (equally colorfully painted) Indian children. Remember, for most people here Holi was already over. It's a one day holiday, and we were a day late. We continued playing and fighting outside the flat, and eventually a crowd of my neighbors grew. We were creating quite a bit of noise. People were staning in windows and on porches to watch. There were about 15 men and boys gathered at the end of the lane. One of my neighbors (whose anniversary party I went to) stepped out of his house to watch. I spotted him and tossed some paint at him, giving him a light sprinkling of red. He looked a little taken aback, but mostly amused. I'm still afraid he will try to get me back before the day is over.
One man came up to me and poured some of his left-over green metallic paint in one of my hands, and water in the other. I got three students with it.
We took lots of photos, and then eventually went inside to clean up. The girls managed to splatter red water everywhere, and so I spent the next few hours after they left cleaning. It was totally worth it though. It was so much fun!
Modern Holi paint is said to be extremely toxic, containing all sorts of harmful chemicals and sometimes even glass and fiberglass. Only the traditional abir paint is definitely safe. When we bought our paint, the vendor told me it was all abir, but I had no way to know if he was telling the truth. So far, I haven't had any reactions, but many people have told me that they always get a rash after Holi. I was surprised by how easily the paint washed off though. Dry paint washes much easier than wet though, and yesterday's oil and lotion made the job easy. Today we played harder and without the oil, so it didn't wash as well. I got the paint almost completely off, except my palms and the bottoms of my feet are still bright pink. I don't mind it though. I'm just happy I don't have a green face.
I'll put pictures up soon.
~m

At school on Friday I gave a test to the advanced students. I haven't graded it yet but I think the majority of them did pretty well. With the intermediate kids, I did a small unit on measurement. After we measured a few flat, boring objects, they measured their feet and then they took string and measured the distance around their wrists, ankles, heads and waists. The kids really enjoyed it.
Sealdah on Friday was fun. We just roamed to hand out food. We fed 70 kids. A few weeks ago, one of the volunteers left a salwar that she had bought but didn't want to keep. I said I wanted it, but then I decided to give it to someone at Sealdah instead. I gave it to my favorite girl, Puja. I've talked about her before. She's 15 (maybe 16 by now), married, and has a nearly one-year-old child. I'm sure the salwar will be far too big for her since it was a little big on me. But she'll appreciate it so much more than I ever would have. She didn't come to Sealdah on Saturday and Sunday, so I haven't seen her wearing it yet.
Sealdah was good on Saturday and Sunday as well. The usual coloring, washing, food distribution. There hasn't been very much wound care recently, which I'm happy with. I know its good work, but I really don't like it. It grosses me out. We played with the jump ropes again this morning, which the kids loved.
For "computer" class on Saturday, the boys wanted to make lassis. For those who don't know, lassis are a yogurt drink which are really popular in India. I told them that we could do this if they then wrote down the directions for making them in English. They agreed. So we had a fun, out of the box class. The lassis themselves were mediocre at best. The boys didn't really have any idea what they were doing, I think. We had all the ingredients right, but in the wrong proportions. Joy added way too much water, so they were too thin. They tasted alright, but the texture was wrong... I think I could make them properly now if I tried though. So that's nice.
At craft, we finished making the puppets we started last week.
My phone got stolen on Friday, so after class on Saturday, Bobby and I went to the police station to get an order to block the SIM. (Bobby came to help translate) Also with the paper they gave me, I can get a duplicate SIM with the same balance. India is so different from the US in this way, its crazy. In America, I think the police don't give a damn about peoples' cell phones. You can go to Walmart and buy a prepaid phone and that's that. But here you have to submit a photo, a photocopy of an ID, a permanent address. And the police have to order the stopping of the SIM. But it's what the process was at the police station that was so amusing to me. Bobby and I waited in line for nearly an hour. When we got to the front, the man told us to write out a report saying I'd lost my phone. We went across the street and bought a piece of paper for half a rupee. Then the officer dictated to me what to write. It was so hilarious and dramatic. "I, blah blah, daughter of blah, residing at blah, unfortunately lost my mobile, model # blah, SIM # blah, while at Raharabazar (not true) on 7/3/09 (it happened on 6/3/09). Given the above circumstances, I kindly request you to make a log of this in your diary. Thanking you, Maura Farrell" Then the officer wrote something down in his book, stamped my paper, wrote a number on it, and I was on my way. I just have to submit that paper with the stamp at a Vodaphone store, and I'll get a new SIM.
The police station itself kind of remided me of something in an old Western movie. There was one main room, with smaller offices off of it. There were two desks in the middle of the room, with officers seated, helping people who were in line. At the back of the room were two jail cells, one for men, one for women (the women one was empty). The detainees were just standing at the bars, listening and watching everything that happened. I could see a small chalk board hanging with a name, a number, and "THIEF" written on it. I'm sure that's what they have the prisoners hold when they take their mug shots.
I stopped by Piya's house on my way home to get a list of ingredients from her so her computer class could make something also. I wanted to go quickly because a previous volunteer was at the flat and I wanted to talk to him some before he left. But of course Piya's family insisted that I sit down and have some tea. I felt so bad when they asked me about what had happened and I told them about 1200 rupees (maybe $23) and my phone had been stolen, and acting like it wasn't a big deal. That is a fortune for them.
Today Piya, Arati and Kajal made suji at "computer class". I don't really know what it is in English, but its quite like cream of wheat. The ingredients are milk, butter, sugar, suji (this a grain of some sort that I guess is a close relative or the same as what is used in cream of wheat), cashews and raisins. It was really good.
At GK, we watched more of the Ganges documentary. The DVD player was giving me hell, so we didn't finish it today like I thought we would. We'll finish next week. Today was Lauren's last day of Sealdah and school. She leaves on Thursday morning, but Wednesday and Thursday are Holi festival, so there are no projects on that day. The kids all made nice cards for her. She'll see all of the girls and some of the boys at least once more though. Even so, it was really sad. I'm sad to see her go, but also her leaving makes me think about what it will be like for me to leave. I can't even imagine it. It will be hard.

~m

Thailand photos

Wat Phra Kaew

reclining Buddha

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Thai food... they had the strangest desserts

me with Om, her parents, her friends, her sister, and her sister's friends

Buddhist shrine in a mangrove forest

Pattaya beach

On Tuesday, Lauren and I went to South City Mall and went shopping. I got two shirts and a churidar. They were 60% and 40% off. It was sweet...
On Wednesday, school was fine. I played cabardee with the kids in the afternoon, which was fun. Its a game similar to tag which is really popular in Bengal. In the evening, the other volunteers and I went salwar shopping with Bobby. I bought two kits, which I'll take to the tailor tomorrow. I'm trying to wear Indian clothes as much as possible.
Today school was fine. The advanced kids finished up correcting their packets that I'd left them when I was in Thailand. They'll have a test tomorrow. I was stalling with the intermediate kids. I had wanted to start a new unit, but when I went to make xeroxes last night, the power went out. So we converted improper fractions to mixed numbers. We played cabardee again this afternoon. Its getting hot here. Manisha and Prativa came over for computer class. We were gonna finish watching the Wizard of Oz, but the power was out, so we kinda just sat around. There wasn't really enough light to read, and none of us felt like doing that anyway, haha.
I'm making quite a bit of progress on my Bengali, which is exciting. I'm finally able to conjugate verbs. I can follow alot of what people are saying.
Sorry this was a scattered, low-interest post.
~m

Sealdah on Saturday was fine, fairly regular. After Sealdah, Nienke and I took a cab to Sudder St (the backpacker area of Kolkata) to pick up our train tickets. When Nienke finished volunteering, we're gonna take an overnight train to a beach south of Kolkata. It'll be really fun. Back to the city, and then Nienke will be off on a few weeks of travelling by train.
I took the boys to the Iway for computer class. They e-mailed previous volunteers and looked at wintry photos of my house in the States. Then I showed them Khardah on Google maps. They thought it was so kool.
At craft class we began making little cardboard puppets with moveable limbs. When you pull a string, their arms and legs flail. They're really cute. We'll finish them next week.
After craft, I went over to Bobby's for the first time in a long time. We had tea and talked and she showed me a new sari she'd bought. The design was all hand-stitched embroidery and it was beautiful.

Sealdah was great on Sunday. We brought little gifts for the kids which we handed out with the food. They got to choose between a ring, a badge and a necklace. We also brought jump ropes, which we let the kids play with while we did wound care. We had two single-person ropes and one big one. The kids absolutely loved them! They had never before encountered the big ropes where two people twirl and one or more people jump. It took them awhile to get the hang of it, but they did eventually. One boy in particular was really good. It was so much fun to play with them.
The girls came over for computer class. I had promised Mili that we could listen to Mon Mane Na (a really popular Bengali song) I played it for them, and class quickly dissolved into everyone singing and dancing to Hindi and Bengali music. Nienke got out her camcorder and I took some photos as well. Computer class didn't really happen. But I figure fifteen years from now they won't remember how to do some random thing on a computer, but they will remember that fun day.
For GK we watched the second part of a documentary on the Ganges. We watch it in Bengali with English subtitles. Its a really big hit compared to the lessons we usually do.

Today the girls came over to watch a Bengali movie with our projector. I don't remember the name, but it was really dramatic and crazy. It was extremely amusing, even though I couldn't understand most of what was said.
~m