belated last post

The end of my time in India was really great.  I was so busy just spending time with people before I left.  A fair came to Khardah which I went to with some of the students and we rode the rides and stuff.  It was fun, but we had to leave early when it began raining.  

I had a tea party with all the students, which was nice.  I bought like every possible kind of biscuit and potato chip.  They disappeared quickly.  The tea I got from a stall across the street.  I carried a big pot over there for them to fill.  I was too lazy to make all of it myself...

I spent alot of time at my students' houses or chatting with my neighbors.  

I left on May 29 and had a long, problem-free trip home.  

Being back is strange.  I'm still adjusting.  I do miss living in a small town setting like Khardah where I knew so many people.  And I miss the general open and friendly attitude of Bengali culture.  Its so different here.  Not to mention empty.  Where are all the people?  America, especially the old, upper-middle class neighborhood I live in, seems very big and quiet and... asleep, I guess.  Compared with the lively, crowded streets of India.

I had a slideshow of some of my photos from my trip on Sunday.  Friends and family came to see and listen.  It was nice.

I'm also still in touch with the CRAWL students.  I gave CRAWL money for their internet use and I made a skype account for them so they call and e-mail me quite frequently.  I miss them terribly so being in contact with them makes it easier for me.

I'm looking forward to the day I get to go back.

Thanks for reading.

~m

ei ei ei...
So much to write and so little time to write about it...

I was really sick on Wednesday, but I'm all better now. Got my antibiotics and I'm good.

I have two weeks left here in Khardah. Crazy.

I've been spending lots of time with my students, watching movies and playing kabadee and football outside of school. I've been going to Piya's house alot, which I really enjoy.

I have a new friend, a woman who works at a shop near the flat. When I'm on my way home in the evenings I always stop and chat with her (in Bengali). She gave me a gift, a green statue of a couple dancing. Indians have a thing for cheap statues of Westerners. It was really sweet of her.

Elections had been going on in India for awhile, but they ended on Wednesday. Different regions of the country vote on different days. It gets really violent in the areas where the elections are taking place. Kolkata voted on Wednesday, so all CRAWL programs where stopped. The results will be released tomorrow and all programs will stop then too. There was actually a problem in another part of Khardah on Wednesday. I don't know exactly what happened but it was violent and it made the news. It wasn't close to me though. One would have to take an auto to get to that part of Khardah from this part. Anyways, its pretty crazy. A few people I've talked to voted, but most did not. They all say that all of the people up for election are bad and corrupt. America sure doesn't have a perfect democracy or a perfect election system, but it is leagues ahead of India. Here voting goes hand in hand with riots.

Let me tell you about a delicious food to be found on the streets of Kolkata (and Khardah, and probably everywhere in India). Its called fuchka. Its deep fried balls of dough, slightly larger than ping pong balls. They're hollow and extremely thin and crispy, probably thinner than a potato chip. The fuchka-walla makes a mixture of potato, spices, onion, cilantro, and chilli, which he mashes in a bowl with his hand. Then he puts a little bit of this mixture in the bottom of one of the balls. He then dips the ball into one of two pots, one containing tamarind water which is spicy, sour and salty, and the other containing rose water which is syrupy and sweet. With the ball overflowing with this water, he places it in a bowl made out of a leaf, which the customer is holding. The customer puts the whole ball in his or her mouth at once. There is a huge burst of flavor; it is so delicious! I prefer the tamarid water to the rose water, but the most recent time I had this treat, the vendor double-dipped it, in the tamarind water and then in the rose water. That is the best. It is spicy, sweet, sour, salty, crunchy, soft, liquidy, everything all at once! And as soon as you've put one in your mouth, the vedor has put a new one in your bowl, so its really easy to eat a whole bunch of them without noticing, which isn't necissarily a good thing. They aren't very filling, but they surely aren't too healthy either. Anyway, if you ever go to India, you must try fuchka!
(ok, do I sound like a commercial, or what?)
That's all for now, folks.

~m

three weeks...

I know, I know, I've been slacking. I've just been so busy that I haven't been able to write. The problem is, every day is so full that I have so much to write that many days I dismiss the prospect of a post because I don't have the time to do it justice. And then the unrecounted experiences add up. So, like last time, there's no way I call tell about everything that's happened since my last post.

Today, Weis, a 60 year old Dutch woman, left. She was the last of the volunteers besides me, so now I'm alone at the flat and it looks like it'll probably be that way for the rest of my time here, which is only three weeks. Its ok, I have enough to keep me occupied, I'll just miss having someone to talk and process with. Especially because I know these last few weeks will be quite emotional.
Summer camp ended and regular school started back up. Summer camp was fun, the kids really enjoyed it. At school I'm teaching linear equations to the advanced group, and the intermediate group is working on geometery, currently the area of triangles.
A few weekends ago I went to visit Mayapur, the main world Hare Krishna place. It is really beautiful. I saw more (white) foreigners (not tourists, religious folks) there than I ever do in Kolkata.
I continue to play football, frisbee and cabardee with the kids outside of school.
My birthday was on Tuesday. Weis and I went to Bobby's house for lunch. We had rice, dal, chapatti, panner, potato and jackfruit curry, tomoato chutney, and cucumber. It was delicious. Bobby's husband gave me a little statue of a man and a woman sitting together. It was very Western, and odd choice, I thought, but I really like it. I was surprised that he got something for me at all. After lunch, we watched The Notebook. Its such a good movie. It took me back to being with my friends in America though, so it made me a little homesick. After the movie, the girls came to the flat. The brought me a piece of cake, which we all shared. I know they all scraped together to buy it for me. It probably cost 10 rupees, about 20 cents. It was really sweet of them. After we ate cake, we had their first extra English class. The other day when they were over for computer class, Piya said to me, "Auntie, will you teach me, Mili, Arati and Prativa English?" I said, "what? You already have CRAWL English class! What would I teach? We do noun, verb, etc at school." Piya made a face. "Spoken English class." I agreed, though I wasn't really sure it would be much help. The classes are turning out to be less about actual spoken English. Piya and Mili read, focusing on correct pronounciation. Its cute that they're trying so hard though.
I just can't believe I leave in three weeks. Its unreal that its almost over. I've gotten so used to being here, it'll be a huge transition to go back home.

I'll try to write more for the next three weeks...
~m

busy as a bee

Ok, I know, its been waaaay too long since I've posted. This is partially due to the fact that the internet has been exceptionally slow recently, and partially due to the fact that I've been really really busy. Obviously there's no way I can tell you everything that's happened, but I'll try to go over the high lights.
Last week all the volunteers took the girls on the train to Shodpur to go to a theater and watch a Bengali movie called Challenge. It was good, but of course there were no subtitles so I couldn't completely follow it. My favorite part of it was how enthusiastic the audience was. When the main character first came out, everyone clapped and cheered.
Summer camp continued. We had the last session today. The kids really loved it. Some of my favorite things we did were tie-dying and marbling paper.
We tried to bake cookies in a solar oven, but it totally didn't work. They were in the oven for 5 hours and they weren't even all the way done. The internet site said things would take about twice as long to cook. Bull.
I baked the rest of the dough at Subhamita's house the next day. Most people here don't have ovens, and no one, including Subhamita and Kakoli, had ever baked cookies before. The real cookies were a big hit though.
I went to the Nayak's house for dinner last week. (They are a family who lived in the US for a few years. I went to their house for dinner back in the fall) I wore a salwar and ate the food with my hands, which they were happy to see. They gave me the recipe for a paneer dish they served which is almost ecaxtly like my favorite dish at an Indian restaraunt back home.
I can't believe I have less than 5 weeks left here. Time just flies.

~m

On Tuesday, I went to Babai's friend Sharvani's house for lunch, but I ended up staying there all afternoon. She is a really sweet girl, and I like hanging out with here. Also haning out with a group of friends my age is really nice. Lunch was huge and delicious. Everyone was delighted to watch me eat with my hands. We had rice, dal, okra curry, egg curry, paneer curry, cucumber salad, and tomato chutney. I had sweets upon arrival and ice cream for dessert. So I was STUFFED. Shravani is 20 but she sleeps with her mom in one room (in the same bed) and her dad sleeps in another room. This is so different from America! She told me she used to sleep alone, but then she had insomnia problems so now she sleeps with her mom again. But appartently her 23 year old boyfriend still sleeps with his mom too. And not for lack of space. Its so interesting. So strange to what I've known.
Wednesday was Bengali new year. (shubho naba boyar; happy new year!) In the morning, I wore a beautiful green sari which I borrowed from Bobby to school. I didn't wear it because of new year (rather because I complimented her on it and she asked if I'd like to wear it and I said yes) but it fit nicely with the holiday. It was fun getting all dressed up and wearing make up and jewellery. I wrapped the sari 100% by myself. Kakoli told me it was perfect. So that was exciting. For craft that day, the kids painted beautiful designs on handkerchiefs, and for GK we swabbed their cheeks and looked at their cells under a microscope. The boys thought it was really kool but the girls were uninterested.
In the afternoon, the girls came over to watch a movie. They rented Mon Mane Na, which is a really popular Bengali movie. Its actually not even out of theaters yet, but they had a bootleg version. The songs have been on the radio for months. It actually wasn't bad, and I love the whole soundtrack, so I really enjoyed it.
Piya told me to go shopping yesterday because for the puja (the new year) all of the shops were giving out sweets to their customers. So in the evening, after going to the Iway, I went to Piya's house and asked if she'd like to help me pick out some jewellery to give as a gift to one of my friends back home. She said yes, she would, so we went. We were indecisive and in the end, a man at the shop gave us a box of sweets and told us to come back another day when its less crowded. Then Piya asked me to walk around to the shops with Puja (her sister) and Kajal and Kajal's sister. Puja and Kajal were all dressed up and looking beautiful. Our first stop was the photo studio where they each got portraits taken. Then we walked around and browsed a little bit. Last, we walked to Manisha's house to tell Manisha's mom something (most of my students' families don't have phones).
As I was returning to the flat, I stopped to talk to Tabla Man's son, whom I hadn't seen in awhile. He's a nice kid.
Sanaa, a new volunteer who is Indian but has lived almost her whole life in the US arrived. She's 21 and she's really nice. Her boyfriend Abid (also American Indian) is staying at the guest house in Kolkata. They're here for three weeks. Its nice to be with some American young'ns.
At school today for GK we hooked up batteries to light bulbs with wire. The kids enjoyed it quite a bit. After that, we played BINGO and the kids won different prizes.
Its freakin hot here now, and its only supposed to get hotter. Today it was ungodly humid, and the power kept going out, which meant no fans. I sweat up a storm just sitting in a chair.

Still lovin' it here.

~m

Easter and such

On Saturday night I went to the big field with the girls. A huge screen and been erected and they were showing Bengali movies all night. I stayed only for an hour or so, but I think it went on for quite awhile, and possibly on more nights than just one. It was totally free. It felt like a drive-in without the cars. But it was kool to see that so much of the Khardah community turned out to watch movies together on the lawn. It was a real small town community event. I liked it.
Easter was a fun day. Sealdah went smoothly. Bobby and Arpita stopped by the flat in the morning just to visit. Bobby is always telling me that in India, its ok to drop by people's houses univited for a visit. In fact, people don't invite folks for a specific time, they just expect them to drop by when its convenient. But this is the opposite of how it is in the US, where its considered rude to just drop in on people. So I never do here. I wonder if part of why Bobby dropped by was to prove that its ok to do... Anyway, we enjoyed having her there.
The girls came for computer class. They finished reading the Wizard of Oz and started watching the movie (if you think we already did that, it was with a different class. A different group of students.) At school/camp, I did a GK on air pressure and the kids made their own barometers. Then we colored Easter eggs, which they really liked. They also made "collages" which were pieces of paper cut into shapes and glued to another paper to make a picture. They were cute though.
That evening, the other volunteers and I went out to eat at the Penguine Inn, which was yummy as always. On my way home from there, I ran into Riya, a girl a little older than me who lives in the same area as Piya and some of my other students. I invited her to the flat for a bit. She gladly came, and we all talked about movies, marriage, school, etc. She turns 19 soon, but she's been married since she was 16. Her husband's family is paying for her schooling now, so that's good, but she says sometimes she and her mother-in-law argue over whether she should stay in school. She wants to be a doctor. I hope she gets to, but as she said, a woman's place in India is at home.
Today I went into Kolkata and bought a whole bunch of Hindi and Bengali movies. The girls came over to watch one, and they chose to watch Welcome, a Bollywood movie starring most of the same cast as Singh is King. I liked it quite well, but the power went out just before the end. With nothing to do at the flat without power, I came here to the Iway. Hopefully by the time I return to the flat, it'll be back on. I have just under 7 weeks left here, and I'm starting to feel the pressure of everything I want to do here before I leave.

~m

finally

Sorry I haven't written in so long. Once I get behind, I avoid writing because I have so much to say to catch up. So I'm not gonna do very much catching up. But here are the most recent occurrences:
Instead of having school, for the next three weeks (the current week included) we are doing "summer camp" with the school kids. This is because they are all currently on their equivalent of a summer break in the US from their Indian schools. So the camp runs from 10 to 1 and we do crafts and GK. Every GK is some kind of science experiment or fun activity.
A new volunteer named Michaela came on Sunday. She's from the Czech Republic, but she's lived in the US for the past 11 years. She's staying only for two weeks. She's kool. Then on Thursday, two Dutch women (friends travelling the world together) came. Their names are Tessa and Alie and they'll be here for 3 weeks. They're also really fun. All three of these women are over 30, so I am by far the youngest in the flat. That's ok though.
I went to Dum Dum for myfirst time ever since being in CRAWL on Thursday. Because of the altered schedule for summer camp, Dum Dum and school don't overlap. It was nice. Much fewer kids than Sealdah and much less hectic. Everyone is more polite and things feel more organized. More gentle. I am still partial to Sealdah though, because I know all of the people there. I know I would grow to love Dum Dum in the same way if I went consistently, but I will only be going for three weeks, and maybe only one day in each week. We'll see.
At summer camp, we've painted clay vases, made dry flower boquets (which involved painting dry coconut flowers and turned out beautiful), made wall hangings, and decorated big sheets of paper on which we will put a small poem or drawing from each student. For the GK part, we've made mold gardens, played with a parascope, grown (or are in the process of growing) sugar crystals, and talked about taste and taste maps (ya know those maps of the tongue that show which part is responsible for which taste? Well it turns out its a myth, but we had the kids taste sweet, salty, sour and bitter things anyways, and they tried to decide which part of the tongue tasted those the most. It didn't work very well...)
Sealdah has been empty the past two Fridays, but its been really fun on the weekends. I just love taking the kids to wash and brush their teeth. Its involvement with them a new level. They appreciate it so much too. And they're all so sweet. Also, because my Bengali is improving, I can talk to them a fair amount now, which is really fun.
I have just under seven weeks left until I leave, which is really unbelievable.

~m