Last weekend there were only four volunteers here. On Saturday Jodi, Pam and Chelsea went on a picnic with the students from Jodi’s English class. They invited me but I wanted an introspective day at the Buddhist temple. I spent most of Saturday there just mulling about and doing various things. Later on I ate at a backpacker restaurant that had a killer view of the setting sun. I sat there and watched much of the sunset while I ate and drank tea. As I was heading back I ran into a friend, Claire, who’s here from Ireland for a few weeks. She told me about a DJ party in town and invited me and the girls. (yes it was a rave or as ravey as you can get in a mountain town).
I went back to the house to see if Jodi, Pam and Chelsea had returned but they weren’t there. I chilled at the flat for a bit seeing if they would return then figured they must be at Carpe Diem (a chill hang-out in the Tibetan area). I went back up there but didn’t see them at Carpe Diem. I did see some other friends, some who were volunteers from two groups ago that were here in their last week or two of volunteering. I sat down and hung with them for a bit the bit turned into a while then the while turned into the night. Carpe Diem has a way of keeping you there. Its a really cool place that could only exist here. So I missed the party but I had a great time anyway.
This week a bunch of new volunteers came in. We were a little apprehensive about them but did all we could to welcome them. Everyone in the previous group got along really well instantly and according to the staff that’s really rare. It turned out that everyone in the new group is really nice. Its a different dynamic than our group and I don’t think they are as tight as we were. There seem to be three cliques but everyone gets along. Three of the new group, Joe, Taylor and Renu have meshed with me, Jodi, Pam and Chelsea.
Things in my daycare are getting a little interesting. Pam is about to have it out with the teacher though an interpreter. The teacher is mostly disinterested but when she gets interested she gets in the way. One day this week Pam and I were in the middle of an alphabet lesson. We had just gotten the kids settled and paying attention which is not at all easy. The teacher walked over, sat down and asked us where we are living. Of course her English isn’t very good so it took a while for us to understand that. Then she wanted us to do nursery rhymes which is something we do much later when the kids are wound up and jumping around, not sitting quietly. Well that broke things up the kids lost focus and we had to end the lesson before really even starting it. Other times she’ll sit right behind us while we’re giving a lesson and just talk with the helper or any neighbor who drops by. She’s so loud we can’t hear the kids and they get distracted making lessons pointless. Other times she’ll yell at the kids from across the room while they’re playing with us. We never understand why she yells at them. Doesn’t she understand we’re playing? We have this new girl who constantly sneaks away and goes outside. We wanted to close the door so this wouldn’t happen any more but the teacher would not let us close the door. She also doesn’t do anything when this new girl walks outside. She’s too wrapped up in conversations with a neighbor or doing some sort of paperwork. Anyway, yeah we’ll see what comes out of Pam’s talk with her. From what I understand of Indian culture probably nothing will. Pam is too young to be having that discussion with the teacher no matter how right she is.
This past Saturday, Pam Chelsea and I hiked up to Triund and camped overnight. I went up there before with Deb but that was a day hike. Triund is a base camp for long term trekking though the Himalayas. From there we could see the second range of the Himalayas which are all above the snow line. We were a few feet from the snow line. The tree line also isn’t that far. There was mostly rock and grass and only few trees by the time we reached the top. After setting up our tent we went to one of the shacks set up there that serve food. We found the one that also had beer and spent the evening there. We were joined by a group of Swiss backpackers, a couple from Calcutta and a French woman. The owners of the shack sat with us and we drank and sang all night. Pam plays guitar and sings fairly well so she did so a few times. One of the Swiss guys plays guitar so the two of them switched off. I played a bongo drum until my hands hurt. People say the night sky is amazing up there. It was very cool but I’ve seen better from Death Valley.
The return trek took everything out of me. When I got back I collapsed. I barely made it to dinner and hour later. After dinner I passed out. I don’t know why I was so exhausted. I’ve been a little sick the past few days and maybe that’s contributed to it.
Right now, Monday morning I have the day off because its raining. The roof at the daycare barely keeps out sunlight so it does nothing for rain. Its raining now off and on. I have nothing to do until 3:30 when I have an appointment to teach some Tibetians computer skills before I continue practicing conversational English with monks at 4:30.
Click here for this week’s pictures
Since I have some time I’ll explain a little about the pictures this week.
The first three are from Carpe Diem where we took Angela and Deb for their last night.
The next fourteen are the goodbyes when everyone left.
The next six are taken from the patio of our house the day after a big rainstorm that cleared the air of smoke. Indians light a lot of fires for anything from cooking to burning trash so the air is often filled with smoke.
The next few are from the day care. In order the pictures are of.
Kajul (the new girl who likes to run out)
Akosh
Sajaya
Two of Ayush
Sajin
The helper (I don’t know her name, everyone calls her Didi but that means Aunt in Hindi)
The kids lined up for lunch. The woman at the end is Akosh’s mother.
Sajaya and her mom.
After that are seven pictures of Hope Center where we go to teach conversational English. The westerners in the pictures are volunteers from our group. The girl with Jodi is Lynn from Vietnam. She went to dinner with us after the lesson that day.
After there are eighteen pictures of bubbles day. The kids LOVE bubbles.
The next thirteen were taken outside of Jodi’s school while we were waiting for her class to end. The trucks are examples of the kinds of trucks driven all though India. Notice the coloring and decoration. There’s no such thing as a plain truck here.
The last group of pictures are from Triund.
That’s it. See ya next Sunday. Maybe earlier or later if I go on a weekend trip to Manali which is something we’re talking about.
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