Went into Kolkata yesterday. It was the first time I felt like I'm living in a monsoon area. Trina and I got completely drenched walking from the metro. We went to a cafe' with WiFi and had lunch and Jen and Trina uploaded some photos and did some other stuff online. After that we went to the New Market, which is this maze of shops. Its like buildings with lots of shops and then alleys of stalls between them. We found a place that sold all of these DVDs with like five movies on one disc. Jen and Trina both bought a bunch of them. I bought one with a bunch of war movies on it, but idr what they are haha.
Today was a holiday so there was no school. I really didn't do anything, I was just bored. Hopefully tomorrow is more eventful.
~m
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
train madness
The Penguin Inn is pretty nice. There are no descriptions for anything on the menu, so I asked the waiter what like six things were, and then of course by the time he told me, I had forgotten which was which, so I just chose one at random. It was called Aloo something or other, and it was potatoes and peas in a red sauce. I also had "cheese butter naan". It was a pretty good meal.
After dinner, we finished watching Erin Brokovich. I like it.
Today I slept in until about nine, then Trina and I got up to go into Khardah. We went back to the Chowringhee area, though a little North of where we've been going, to Park Street. Park Street is really nice, it has lots of restaraunts and its pretty clean (relatively speaking). We went to the Oxford Book Store, which has a huge selection of books and a little cafe' and reading area. The only thing that I didn't like about it is, as far as I can tell, their fiction section stops at P. I bought The Book Theif, which I've heard is pretty good. At some point I'll start buying Indian literature, but at this point, reading is like a little escape; refuge from teh intensity of being here. I was a little disappointed that they didn't sell any newspapers there. I thought that was my best bet for finding a New York Times. I can't find it anywhere...
After the book store, we went to a restaraunt that I had chosen out of the Lonely Planet because it had some European offerings. Trina go chicken cordon bleu, but I ended up choosing Vegetable Korma and garlic naan. It was absolutely delicious. This was a pretty high-end restaraunt; a place where in the States you might expect to pay upwards of twenty dollars for your meal. The exchange rate is a beautiful thing, and my lunch cost about five bucks.
After lunch, we walked around Park Street a little more and stopped in at a cafe' called Frosty's. We left the area early so we could beat the rush and get back to Khardah relatively unruffled.
No such luck.
We made it to Dum Dum on the metro no problem, but for some reason they changed what platform a train was coming on, and it came on the platform that usually has the trains that go to Khardah. We unkowingly got on. The fourth stop, which should have been Khardah, was quite obviously not Khardah. We got off and ended up waiting for at least 15 minutes to catch the train coming back in the other direction. It was a more rural, less hectic place. When we did get back on the train, a lady gave me a slice of guava, which was nice. She continually tried to speak to me in Bengali, even though I told her I didn't understand. Trina and I got off a stop early, at Dum Dum Something, instead of Dum Dum junction. We then had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train going South. When we finally made it to Dum Dum junction and had made sure that the train we would get on would take us to Khardah, we had not beaten the rush. It began pouring rain, another damper on our spirits. We huddled under a staircase as neither of us had an umbrella. The train arrived and we fought to get on. I was barely on, and Trina was behind me. Her body was hanging out of the train, I think. I pushed as HARD as I could, angering a few people, to get Trina more room to stand. I was unhappy with the situation, but I think she was really shaken up. I have never been as happy to see Khardah as I was when we got off that time. Its a shame that in order to get to a place where we can relax and have a good time, we have to go through such a high-stress situation. It defeats the purpose in a way, though I am definitely still willing to go through it. I just can't stay in Khardah for that long. Thats India, I guess. More people than you know how to deal with.
~m
After dinner, we finished watching Erin Brokovich. I like it.
Today I slept in until about nine, then Trina and I got up to go into Khardah. We went back to the Chowringhee area, though a little North of where we've been going, to Park Street. Park Street is really nice, it has lots of restaraunts and its pretty clean (relatively speaking). We went to the Oxford Book Store, which has a huge selection of books and a little cafe' and reading area. The only thing that I didn't like about it is, as far as I can tell, their fiction section stops at P. I bought The Book Theif, which I've heard is pretty good. At some point I'll start buying Indian literature, but at this point, reading is like a little escape; refuge from teh intensity of being here. I was a little disappointed that they didn't sell any newspapers there. I thought that was my best bet for finding a New York Times. I can't find it anywhere...
After the book store, we went to a restaraunt that I had chosen out of the Lonely Planet because it had some European offerings. Trina go chicken cordon bleu, but I ended up choosing Vegetable Korma and garlic naan. It was absolutely delicious. This was a pretty high-end restaraunt; a place where in the States you might expect to pay upwards of twenty dollars for your meal. The exchange rate is a beautiful thing, and my lunch cost about five bucks.
After lunch, we walked around Park Street a little more and stopped in at a cafe' called Frosty's. We left the area early so we could beat the rush and get back to Khardah relatively unruffled.
No such luck.
We made it to Dum Dum on the metro no problem, but for some reason they changed what platform a train was coming on, and it came on the platform that usually has the trains that go to Khardah. We unkowingly got on. The fourth stop, which should have been Khardah, was quite obviously not Khardah. We got off and ended up waiting for at least 15 minutes to catch the train coming back in the other direction. It was a more rural, less hectic place. When we did get back on the train, a lady gave me a slice of guava, which was nice. She continually tried to speak to me in Bengali, even though I told her I didn't understand. Trina and I got off a stop early, at Dum Dum Something, instead of Dum Dum junction. We then had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train going South. When we finally made it to Dum Dum junction and had made sure that the train we would get on would take us to Khardah, we had not beaten the rush. It began pouring rain, another damper on our spirits. We huddled under a staircase as neither of us had an umbrella. The train arrived and we fought to get on. I was barely on, and Trina was behind me. Her body was hanging out of the train, I think. I pushed as HARD as I could, angering a few people, to get Trina more room to stand. I was unhappy with the situation, but I think she was really shaken up. I have never been as happy to see Khardah as I was when we got off that time. Its a shame that in order to get to a place where we can relax and have a good time, we have to go through such a high-stress situation. It defeats the purpose in a way, though I am definitely still willing to go through it. I just can't stay in Khardah for that long. Thats India, I guess. More people than you know how to deal with.
~m
Sunday, September 14, 2008
I feel like I should title these, but I can't ever think of anything...
Last night I really enjoyed talking to people on skype, gettin the update from back home. I do miss everyone, but luckily things are picking up here and I'm not as homesick as I was. I'm beginning to really appreciate being here.
Anyways, after I was here talking to people last night, I went back to the flat and Jen Trina and I began watching Erin Brokovich. It had been playing for about 10 minutes when the power went out. We moved into my room where the generator will power my light and fan (only from 7 to 11 pm) and began playing cards. Dinner arrived and we ate, and continued to play cards. Finally the power came back on, and we watched about half of the movie before decided to go to sleep.
Today started quite early. Too early, for my taste. My alarm clock went off at 4:50 am. I got up and did the usual to get ready to go and make the 5:45 train. When we got to Sealdah, we waited for at least twenty minutes for Babai to show up, but he finally did. We set up like usual by spreading news paper on the ground outside the station. A bunch of little kids came and we passed out pages from coloring books and crayons. CRAWL coming probably is the high light of their day. They get food, they get to draw, and perhaps most significantly, they get attention. We play hand-clap games and pick them up and talk to them (even though we don't speak the same language) and smile at them. We look at their boo-boos (sometimes they're really serious, sometimes not. Today a boy showed me a hang nail he had as if he might die from it. Just as dramatic as a four year old American) Those kids are so dirty. I just try not to think about it. At first I didn't want them to touch me, but now I let them climb all over me. We are the only people who even look at them, they have to be longing for contact. And you can't say that you hold yourself as equal to every other person if you aren't willing to let someone hold your hand. In UUism, and in mainstream American thought, we say we consider all people to be equal, and most people probably think they do a pretty good job of not holding themselves above others. But I don't think most Americans would let a kid who doesn't wash, who runs around naked and lives in a dirty train station touch them. But that is a form of internalized superiority. Don't get me wrong, I scrub like hell when I get back to the flat, but playing with these kids has been quite a humbling experience. I had to let go of some of my... not pride, but personal concern, I guess is the best way I can describe it. Anyway, the kids colored, then we gave them cups of cereal and crackers. Most of them left after that, and our attention shifted to wound care. Almost all of the people who come for wound care are adults, and most of them are male. We see lots of infected cuts on legs and feet, and then some crazier stuff besides that. There is one man who was there on Friday and again this morning who got shot in the thigh. He has a huge open wound, but he won't go to a hospital. It needs to be seriously washed and have stitches put in, but I guess he can't afford the hospital fees. Babai rinses it with water, sprays antiseptic spray on it (the bottle says, "for minor cuts and abrasions" and gunshot wounds? haha.) and then loads iodine ointment and antibacterial cream on gauze that he ties around the man's leg. I am quite sure that that man will die if he doesn't get real medical attention. He'll probably wait for so long that he'll have to get his leg removed or something, i don't know. Its pretty gruesome.
We spent basically four hours at Sealdah. When i got back to the flat, I took a shower and then went back to sleep. I only slept for about an hour before the delivery boy came with Jen's lunch. No one else seemed to be waking up from the door bell, so I got up to get it, and I couldn't get back to sleep after that. So I got up and read and had lunch and then talked with Jen (she got about half and hour after me) and later Trina until the girls came for the computer class. The computer is fixed now, P.S. I had them work on typing, then I had them read out loud. My mom suggested that I read out loud to them and have them follow along because this would help their reading and speaking skills in English. I got about four pages into a picture book and they were so bored that I just stopped and let them play with Microsoft Paint instead. I was really tired and didn't have the energy to try to educationally entertain them, so Trina took over and I went back to playing fifteen and talking with Jen.
At school, the kids drew pictures of Durga Puja, a huge festival that's coming up next month.
After school we came here, to the cafe', and right after this, we're going to the Penguin Inn, which is, as far as I can tell, Khardah's only sit down restaraunt.
After that we'll finish watching Erin Brokovich. Pray for the power to stay on!
Tomorrow and Tuesday are our weekend, so we'll be going into Kolkata.
~m
Anyways, after I was here talking to people last night, I went back to the flat and Jen Trina and I began watching Erin Brokovich. It had been playing for about 10 minutes when the power went out. We moved into my room where the generator will power my light and fan (only from 7 to 11 pm) and began playing cards. Dinner arrived and we ate, and continued to play cards. Finally the power came back on, and we watched about half of the movie before decided to go to sleep.
Today started quite early. Too early, for my taste. My alarm clock went off at 4:50 am. I got up and did the usual to get ready to go and make the 5:45 train. When we got to Sealdah, we waited for at least twenty minutes for Babai to show up, but he finally did. We set up like usual by spreading news paper on the ground outside the station. A bunch of little kids came and we passed out pages from coloring books and crayons. CRAWL coming probably is the high light of their day. They get food, they get to draw, and perhaps most significantly, they get attention. We play hand-clap games and pick them up and talk to them (even though we don't speak the same language) and smile at them. We look at their boo-boos (sometimes they're really serious, sometimes not. Today a boy showed me a hang nail he had as if he might die from it. Just as dramatic as a four year old American) Those kids are so dirty. I just try not to think about it. At first I didn't want them to touch me, but now I let them climb all over me. We are the only people who even look at them, they have to be longing for contact. And you can't say that you hold yourself as equal to every other person if you aren't willing to let someone hold your hand. In UUism, and in mainstream American thought, we say we consider all people to be equal, and most people probably think they do a pretty good job of not holding themselves above others. But I don't think most Americans would let a kid who doesn't wash, who runs around naked and lives in a dirty train station touch them. But that is a form of internalized superiority. Don't get me wrong, I scrub like hell when I get back to the flat, but playing with these kids has been quite a humbling experience. I had to let go of some of my... not pride, but personal concern, I guess is the best way I can describe it. Anyway, the kids colored, then we gave them cups of cereal and crackers. Most of them left after that, and our attention shifted to wound care. Almost all of the people who come for wound care are adults, and most of them are male. We see lots of infected cuts on legs and feet, and then some crazier stuff besides that. There is one man who was there on Friday and again this morning who got shot in the thigh. He has a huge open wound, but he won't go to a hospital. It needs to be seriously washed and have stitches put in, but I guess he can't afford the hospital fees. Babai rinses it with water, sprays antiseptic spray on it (the bottle says, "for minor cuts and abrasions" and gunshot wounds? haha.) and then loads iodine ointment and antibacterial cream on gauze that he ties around the man's leg. I am quite sure that that man will die if he doesn't get real medical attention. He'll probably wait for so long that he'll have to get his leg removed or something, i don't know. Its pretty gruesome.
We spent basically four hours at Sealdah. When i got back to the flat, I took a shower and then went back to sleep. I only slept for about an hour before the delivery boy came with Jen's lunch. No one else seemed to be waking up from the door bell, so I got up to get it, and I couldn't get back to sleep after that. So I got up and read and had lunch and then talked with Jen (she got about half and hour after me) and later Trina until the girls came for the computer class. The computer is fixed now, P.S. I had them work on typing, then I had them read out loud. My mom suggested that I read out loud to them and have them follow along because this would help their reading and speaking skills in English. I got about four pages into a picture book and they were so bored that I just stopped and let them play with Microsoft Paint instead. I was really tired and didn't have the energy to try to educationally entertain them, so Trina took over and I went back to playing fifteen and talking with Jen.
At school, the kids drew pictures of Durga Puja, a huge festival that's coming up next month.
After school we came here, to the cafe', and right after this, we're going to the Penguin Inn, which is, as far as I can tell, Khardah's only sit down restaraunt.
After that we'll finish watching Erin Brokovich. Pray for the power to stay on!
Tomorrow and Tuesday are our weekend, so we'll be going into Kolkata.
~m
Saturday, September 13, 2008
I really haven't done much today, but I enjoyed being lazy. The heat really takes it out of ya, I find I have way less energy here than at home. Anyway, I slept in pretty late today, then I got up and did some chore-type things like laundry and boiling the milk so we can drink it. Jen, Trina and I just kinda sat around and chilled until it was time for school. Jen did a general knowledge lesson on the lungs, though I really don't know how much of it the kids actually comprehended. The craft we did was "wiggly worms". Its basically folded paper that the kids colored and then tied to a string so they could pull it around. They were pretty cute. Tomorrow morning I'll get up and go to Sealdah, and we'll have school in the afternoon.
Let me clarify something I wrote yesterday: I talked about a fifteen year old girl who told me she had an eight year old baby. I did not believe this. I was telling the story to give an example of the language barrier. She didn't have her kid with her, so I have no idea how old it actually is...
Big plans for tonight! I'm going to the stationary store (think general store) to buy jam and juice, and then I'll have dinner and watch a DVD with Trina and Jen!!! Haha. I actually am looking forward to the movie though.
~m
Let me clarify something I wrote yesterday: I talked about a fifteen year old girl who told me she had an eight year old baby. I did not believe this. I was telling the story to give an example of the language barrier. She didn't have her kid with her, so I have no idea how old it actually is...
Big plans for tonight! I'm going to the stationary store (think general store) to buy jam and juice, and then I'll have dinner and watch a DVD with Trina and Jen!!! Haha. I actually am looking forward to the movie though.
~m
Friday, September 12, 2008
I gave the advanced kids a test on order of operations today. Most of them bombed it. One part asked them to write the order of the steps. Not only did they not understand the question, once I explained it to them, I found they can't spell worth anything. So their spoken english is WAY ahead of their written english. The intermediate kids just worked on simple multiplication and division. They just need to memorize.
After school I took a nap, then chilled around the flat for awhile. We went to Sealdah station and gave out sandwiches. The Indian CRAWL folks were being really protective of me because of how I blacked out last time, and they wouldn't let me go anywhere near the wound care. I've told them that I had problems because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink, not because I saw blood, but they didn't believe me I guess. So because of this, I spent alot of time just standing around after we'd given out all the food and they were still working on wound care. I talked to some of the people who live at the station. One girl was 15, married, and had a kid. I asked her how old her kid was and she told me eight. Her english wasn't very good. I was surprised that she knew as much as she did. The smaller kids would hang on my arms and legs and want to play clap games. They all kept asking for more food, but we were out. None of the smaller ones speak english. Some of them run around naked.
It was pretty late when we got back to Khardah. We went to the flat to clean up, then to Bobby's to pick up some hard boiled eggs to take to the station tomorrow (though I'm not going, I'm sleeping in instead). Then we came here, to the cafe'. Trina and Jen didn't stay for very long. They're both getting up at 5. I'm looking forward to dinner though; I'm hungry!
~m
After school I took a nap, then chilled around the flat for awhile. We went to Sealdah station and gave out sandwiches. The Indian CRAWL folks were being really protective of me because of how I blacked out last time, and they wouldn't let me go anywhere near the wound care. I've told them that I had problems because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink, not because I saw blood, but they didn't believe me I guess. So because of this, I spent alot of time just standing around after we'd given out all the food and they were still working on wound care. I talked to some of the people who live at the station. One girl was 15, married, and had a kid. I asked her how old her kid was and she told me eight. Her english wasn't very good. I was surprised that she knew as much as she did. The smaller kids would hang on my arms and legs and want to play clap games. They all kept asking for more food, but we were out. None of the smaller ones speak english. Some of them run around naked.
It was pretty late when we got back to Khardah. We went to the flat to clean up, then to Bobby's to pick up some hard boiled eggs to take to the station tomorrow (though I'm not going, I'm sleeping in instead). Then we came here, to the cafe'. Trina and Jen didn't stay for very long. They're both getting up at 5. I'm looking forward to dinner though; I'm hungry!
~m
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Today hasn't been bad.
School was much better than yesterday. I had the kids working in groups, so that kept their attention.
After school I took a nap, as always.
After my nap, I had lunch and sat around and chilled with Jen and Trina. We played cards and talked. It was nice to get to know them better. Even though we're living together and we know eachother's stories, we don't really know all that much about each other. So that was nice.
Trina and I walked around Khardah a little bit, specifically to look for the noodle shop. I think we found it, though we didn't stop. The sanitation there looked a little iffy. Its funny because Bobby warned us against eating things from street vendors, but she suggested this place to us. Its a little stand, and though its attached to a building, it doesn't look any cleaner than the rest of the street vendors, so idk. I don't want to ingest some kind of terrible bacteria or anything. Trina was telling me that two of the girls she was with when she did a semester in Equador had to be hospitalized after eating food from street vendors...
After this, Trina and I are gonna go to Bobby's house. She invited us to come visit her. I have no idea what we're gonna do there, but I guess I'll let ya know tomorrow.
Thats all for now, folks.
~m
School was much better than yesterday. I had the kids working in groups, so that kept their attention.
After school I took a nap, as always.
After my nap, I had lunch and sat around and chilled with Jen and Trina. We played cards and talked. It was nice to get to know them better. Even though we're living together and we know eachother's stories, we don't really know all that much about each other. So that was nice.
Trina and I walked around Khardah a little bit, specifically to look for the noodle shop. I think we found it, though we didn't stop. The sanitation there looked a little iffy. Its funny because Bobby warned us against eating things from street vendors, but she suggested this place to us. Its a little stand, and though its attached to a building, it doesn't look any cleaner than the rest of the street vendors, so idk. I don't want to ingest some kind of terrible bacteria or anything. Trina was telling me that two of the girls she was with when she did a semester in Equador had to be hospitalized after eating food from street vendors...
After this, Trina and I are gonna go to Bobby's house. She invited us to come visit her. I have no idea what we're gonna do there, but I guess I'll let ya know tomorrow.
Thats all for now, folks.
~m
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Today was pretty uneventful. I got up at the crack of dawn (5 am) to get to school by 6. The kids were frustrating because they had absolutely no will to do their work. After school I took a nap and then sat around and read. I made lunch and worked on a puzzle in The Times of India, which is a daily paper here. I bought today's issue on the way home from school, but for the most part I had no idea what the articles were talking about, and they weren't that well written. I waited for the kids to come for computer class, but when they didn't show up I came here to the cafe'. Thats honestly all I've done today. Eat, sleep, read, and attempt to teach uninterested students. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting.
~m
~m
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