More photos....our cooking lesson

Hey everyone, We had so much fun tonight I wanted to post photos of our cooking adventure. :) We managed to get an authentic Indian cooking lesson from the woman (Saeuda) who has been making our meals at night. But first...rickshaws. :) This is what we've learned to do when we're travelling in them because the pollution/exhaust is so bad. Say hello to my bank robber persona...the one who has started to have a serious potty mouth when I'm in a rickshaw or in a car because of all the close calls...lol
Deb in the rickshaw...very excited as you can see. :)
An idea of what driving in chaos is like here...we're going to try to get a photo in Mumbai which is WAY worse than Pune.
Deb working on the dough for chapatis...with Saeuda overseeing...
My chapati. It wasn't perfectly round but I was told it was light and fluffy so still good. :)
Deb practicing her chapati making skills too...

That's it for now!

ciao (or rather, namaste)
mel

Pune, Maharashta

Greetings all,

Mel and I traded in the salty winds and cool breeze of Goa for the dusty, dry heat of Pune...and are still having a blast! We arrived in Pune on Monday and have been warmly welcomed and hosted by Johnathan and Lauren, originally from New York. We met up with them thru our primary connection, Melinda.

Melinda is the Director of Gyanankur English School, where we've been working the last 3 days. The school has two locations - Kharadi in the city, and Kesnand in the village. There is a different feeling in both schools but each with its unique character. Our first day in the village school was spent helping out in the nursery (yes, the nursery!). Most of the children that attend Kesnand are from the surrounding villages. While Kesnand is technically an English school, it is not mandated that every word spoken in the school be English. The model of education recognizes that the children not only speak and think in Hindi, but that the majority of them speak another mother tongue - Marathi (state language of Maharashta). As Melinda explained, the model of education that they are currently exploring is a multi-language approach where by you educate the child first in their mother language, recognizing its importance in their development, and then from there translating that vocabulary into English. As such, i saw teachers and students speaking Marathi, Hindi and English in the class. Nursery time was a struggle for me as i (a) don't normally know what to say to children who don't yet form words, and (b) don't know how to speak to children in Marathi OR Hindi....so i did a lot of smiling, colouring, and helping out in little ways. The afternoon was a much more productive time for me. I helped out with the grade 1 class, and we did vegetable stamp art! :) Yes ladies and gentlemen, i carved out shapes and designs out of potatoes, onions, and okra. We then painted the veggies and the children made pictures out of them. It was nice too to be able to speak to the children as they all called me "miss". "Excuse me miss, may i have a drink of water?" or "Excuse me miss, please paint this"....so cute! :)



[vegetable art - can you see the different veggie stamps?]

Mel and i have been working at Kharadi for the last 2 days and will return to help out with music at Kesnand tomorrow morning. While at Kharadi, we were able to help out with more behind-the-scenes stuff. An open house will take place next Monday and the teachers needed help with putting up displays and creating some sort of ambiance for the open house. So, we got creative and spent the last two days drawing and cutting out an assortment of shapes, letters, numbers, pictures, etc. Mel was even able to use some of her former drafting skills - i never knew she was such a good sketcher!



[Mel, sketching away...]

A nice treat that we both have gotten used to and will miss greatly is the morning and afternoon cup of chai tea that we get at each school. sweet, hot chai tea in the heat of the day - there's nothing better!

March 8th marked International Women's Day. Not generally known as a country that celebrates women's equality, India was making history regarding its stance on women's rights. A bill was passed called the Women's Reservation Bill which ensures now that 30% of seats in parliament are reserved for women. The response has been mixed both in the country, and for me. Without sounding like im going on a political rant, i'll keep the following thoughts short. While the passing of this bill recognizes (it's about time!) that women have a voice and should be heard in society, the reservation bill may potentially slant the quality of parliament where spots are filled by quotas first, and not necessarily merit/knowledge. i wonder, will other "marginalized" groups come forward and demand that they too be represented in parliament? what about representation from women from lower castes? will those women in parliament be treated fairly by their colleagues, or will they merely be warming a seat? what will that do to the make up of an already very complex government? This BBC article highlights some of the responses of the bill. lots of questions...few answers, but movement forward is better than no movement at all, i suppose. it's always easier to criticize politics than to actually participate in it so i think i'll stop now, and say im happy that International Women's Day was celebrated here in India. Even at Gyanankur, i came across this beautiful poster:



by the way, as i type, we are all watching American Idol. for all you people back home watching, Johnathan and Lauren are friends with Michael Lynch!

dL

Goa Photos

This is the main street in Arambol
Henna!
Kirim Beach - where we chilled one afternoon
the rockclimbing that was mentioned...
Deb at Arambol beach
Our Masala tea...and our breakfast view in Goa.

Goa to Pune

Hi everyone,
We are here currently in Pune, staying with a great couple from New York, that we connected with through Deb's contacts.

Life in India seems to be really full of experiences, adventures, etc. Doesn't seem like 2 days since we posted last, seems much longer.

We went to the city of Mapusa where we tried to check out some really great organizations they have there but couldn't find them so ended up at the local market. I don't think I was expecting what it would be, but do think it was really good practice to ease me into what the rest of India will be like. We were 2 of very few foreigners there and this woman (Anita or Amita) pegged us pretty fast and "befriended" us. Deb was cautious at first and me being completely naive didn't understand her concern as I was clearly communicating (verbally) to this woman that we wouldn't buy anything from her and didn't need any help. Well, we both warmed up to her and she ended up taking us to a place where we could buy a shalwar kameez (sp?). The shop keepers pulled out probably over 15 options of dresses we could buy but we were hesitant so were very non-committal. I had no idea what a reasonable price was on these and didn't want to get completely fleeced. Well, probably 30 minutes later, we agreed on a price for a outfit for both Deb and I. Because I wasn't interested in any of the really cheap ones, the shop keeper ended up offering me a more expensive one for a reduced rate. Then after that sheer exhaustion of bartering and arguing, he tries to charge us for the tailor cost to sew on both the sleeves on both our outfits. I pointed out they had agreed in the beginning of the conversation that it would be free so he changes his argument to say that mine is free, Deb's is 50 rupees. Well, after more arguing, he agreed to a price with free alterations but when Deb paid, he tried to short us the cost for them again. So that was another conversation. Phew. It was really tiring...and while all this is going on, we are the talk of the market it seemed. Anita was in there with us, talking in Hindi to them and talking english to us, and constantly asking us to "remember her"and come visit her stall(even though we made it clear we didn't need to buy anything she was selling). And there was another woman who decided to try to get in on the obligation so she was there "helping" the entire time during the outfits conversation. And the boy, and some kids...it was a regular party inside! We went to Anita's shop...bought some shawls and then got the heck out of dodge. It was really interesting for Deb and I to notice our different approaches to the situation. I'm Canadian with no other cultural background so my words are what I use to communicate and I'm not aware of non-verbal cultural requirements. So when I tell the woman who is following us around that we're not promising to visit her shop if she recommends a clothing store to us, I'm not aware of any other requirements in our interactions. Deb comes from a place of knowing cultural obligations etc and so knows that by default, when we start to talk to her, we are obligated to some degree to visit her shop out of respect. Anyways - it was nice to have confirmed by some of the teachers from the school we visited today that we both only paid 100-200R ($2-4) more than we should have for our outfits. Not bad. :) Oh - and the other thing that made me laugh..when we first arrived in the market, I had a kid come up to me and tell me I was "really white - like milk!".Then Anita arrives and tells me that I look like an Indian barbie (referring to the henna). Later on she told me twice that I was a difficult woman so conclusion....I'm a difficult barbie! :)

We had a sketch moment leaving Goa that was interesting...our hostel guy had agreed to order us a taxi to the airport and so we paid him and set off to get in our taxi. He passed us off to this guy we recognized from our breakfast place who then continues to lead us to our taxi. We hit this one intersection where he tells us to wait for him. But while there, another taxi guy comes up and asks if we're friends with Arun. Arun was a guy who drove us back from Kerim beach and Deb was asking prices to the airport but we never agreed to anything. Well,this guy has clearly recognized us from some description and is trying to get us to go in his taxi. We waited for the hostel guy...ignored the wierd situation with this other guy (there was a whole group of men just hanging around watching and getting involved in the conversation which we understood none of), and got in the pre-paid taxi once it arrived. We drove maybe 3 minutes and he stops the car behind another taxi and tells us it's his brother and we have to switch. We tried pretty hard to protest but eventually got in the other non-prepaid taxi, completely wierded out. Anyways - I probably offended the guy but I let him know regularly that I was paying attention to where we were, and where we were going (Deb had fallen asleep cause she took gravol for the 2 hour journey). When we got near the airport, he said to me, "look, airport, you happy now? you relax?". It was just really wierd..guess there was some sort of deal that happened so he got a commission or something. ?? who knows.

What else...I had no idea the driving here is influenced by the Hindi culture/religion...they look straight ahead when they drive, not beside or behind them and this is influenced by life...I'm still amazed by the driving...and I think I must dream the sound of horns in my sleep now...the pollution is gross...it's so thick it's choking.

There's lots of people here who have empty eyes. You look at them and there's little life in their eyes...they sit on the side of the street and just watch with no expressions on their face. It's sad. I haven't been bombarded with the poverty I will see in Mumbai yet though. There were a few beggars in Arambol but not enough to really impact me...

But India is an amazing place. I loved Goa and would most definitely visit it again...there's so much to see and so much life and things happening around you, whether it's the traffic or the woman balancing her stuff on her head, or the guy blocking traffic with his oxen and his cart or the hoards of people standing on the side of the road waiting for buses or all the little stands selling whatever you may need on the side of the road...it's so amazing. I can't describe with words and can't post my photos but I'll try to post a few of Deb's...

hope you're all well. :)

mel

Mapusa, Goa

Hello all,

this post is sort of a back-to-the future post as I'm posting it on the date it occured but am writing this after the fact. 

About 40mins south of Arambol lies the most "cosmopolitan" city in Northern Goa. What I soon discovered was that by cosmo, there was Bus depot (not just a stand) and a taxi junction.  Our day here was reletively short, hourwise, but left us talking for hours afterwards. 

We had heard about a market that we told to check out. Picture and open bazaar with shops, stalls and displays on the side of the road. Almost immediately upon entering, we were approached by a young woman named Anita. She offered to help us find a washroom. My first reaction was to not engage as my past experiences in other countries have taught me that after offering to "help" usually implies a fee that you give afterwards, whether a transaction was discussed or not. But, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I grew even mor skeptical when she offered to pay for our toilet fee (2 rupees), but we politely declined and thanked her for he services after arriving at the facilities.  Upon exiting the washroom, Anita found us again and just walked with us. I slowly began to engage, and at that point, there was no turning back. She shared how she had just gotten married about 6 months before and that she had not met her husband  until one week before the wedding. I said "congratulations" and she didn't really have much positive things to say. Apparently, her husband does not work, and enjoys playing cricket although he is not very good. This is why Anita is in the market - she works and sells an assortment of spices, loose leaf tea and pashminas. Anita is 22. She found us so that we would go to her display on the dirt road in the hopes that we would purchase something. Purchase, we eventually did, but not without me thinking to myself, "is she, or isn't she telling the truth?" then the next thought was feeling bad that I began to assess one's trustworthiness in the face of such apparent poverty. I was soon reminded that I do this every day steps outside of my workplace. 

The face of poverty is undeniable everywhere in the world. The scary part, I think,  is when we choose to deny it.

I'm still trying to figure out a healthy balance between giving/helping from a genuine place versus being scammed and taken advantage of. Perhaps it's ok risking being taken advantage of 1/10 times knowing that you are actually legitimately helping someone in need 9.5/10 times. Or maybe not... Ultimately, it's everyone's personal decision what you choose to do with your money/time... 

There are many thoughts brewing endlessly in my mind on a daily basis here. This was one of the many... 

And oh, on a more lighter note - we returned later that afternoon to visit with Amin again and say goodbye and in the process of getting a bracelet altared for Mel, he asked us to watch his shop! Haha, so for about 5mins, Mel and I were shopkeepers :) we didn't sell anything but walked away that we had a true encounter where a local trusted us completely to watch over his livelihood while he did us a favour :)

dL