Ok time for the recap. I have been so exhausted the last couple days that I haven’t written. Wednesday we went sandboarding like I said. It was really nice because they picked us up from the hostel and took us to Atlantis, a part of South Africa that I had never been to. Our guide took us to a rest stop where we got food and water before continuing on to Atlantis.

The dunes were empty. We were the only ones there. We left in the morning so it wasn’t too hot, but it was definitely bad when we were heading back. I was afraid my feet were going to be burnt off from the hot sand!

The actual sandboarding was awesome. We started out small, on hills where you could go straight down without going too fast. Chris has been snowboarding before so he had no trouble picking it up and I have been sandboarding several times so it wasn’t too long before I got into the hang out things.

The most exhausting part of sandboarding is climbing back up the dunes. Climbing up sand is not an easy task and after doing it a couple of times you definitely working up a sweat.

The weather overall was pretty nice. There was a nice breeze which made it a lot more bearable. Our guide taught us how to cut, which is when your back faces the bottom of the hill and you lean back on your heels. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I personally found it a bit scary not facing where you were going, but it isn’t too bad.

We left the dunes exhausted and satisified, having conquered some of the biggest dunes they had. There were a couple of falls which is to be expected but nothing broke, just soreness.

Then we got ready to come to Gordon’s Bay where I stay as a volunteer. We packed up our stuff and were off. It was only on the drive here that I realized we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since breakfast. Not fun. But after much ado about nothing (including several stops at Journey’s End for direction), we found our guest house. It’s beautiful. Our room faces the mountains and it’s gorgeous.

Once we had settled in, we finally had dinner at Habour Island which was a very short walk from our place. I tried the chicken malay which is a kind of special sauce made specially here and it was amazing. It was sort of like Indian food but not quite the same. It was really good though.

Yesterday was awesome. I got to show Chris my school and the orphanage and the nursery. We first stopped at the orphanage. It was very strange to be at the orphanage so early. The kids were very surprised (and thankfully happy) to see me. It was chaos but I absolutely loved it. I love those kids so much. They’re so adorable. I can’t imagine right now how hard it is to say goodbye especially after being here this long. Ok not going to think about that yet. I still have two more months!

After the orphanage, we went to the school and I showed Chris our classroom and the library. The library is currently a mess but still very much intact which is good. Then I took him to the classrooms where I work. He met all my teachers. It was very strange walking the classroom and seeing a bunch of new faces. Almost all my kids are gone. I’m happy for them of course but I won’t see them as much since they moved on to Grade 7.

After that, we stopped quickly at the nursery. They were actually pretty quiet but that was probably because they were eating. Feeding time is usually much less chaotic especially since the volunteers weren’t there and the carers were in charge. The kids don’t mess around with them. It was nice to seem them, though I was sad not all the kids were there.

After our visit, we went back to our place and made the plan for the day: first Somerset Mall, then Stellenbosch, then Franschhoek. We went to Somerset Mall to find a GPS because it’s kind of hard getting around here with just directions. But actually our directions worked just fine yesterday unlike on Wednesday trying to find the guest house. We couldn’t find a GPS for a good price so we quickly moved on to Stellenbosch.

Today was my first day back in Cape Town. The weather is amazing and I’m so happy to be back. Chris, my boyfriend, is here with me for a week so it makes coming back even more special.

Our trip here was really long. We first flew from St. Louis to Detroit, where we had a four hour layover. Then we flew Detroit to Amsterdam, a seven hour flight. It was alright though because they feed us (not the greatest food but it is better than nothing) and they have movies. We watched “Friends With Benefits” and “Debt”. They were pretty good. Then in Amsterdam we had another long layover.  It went by pretty quickly though. Then we had 11 hours to Cape Town. It wasn’t bad though, except Chris and I didn’t get to sit next to each other. L Finally after 24+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Cape Town late. I was nervous because we weren’t certain that we would have a ride. We ordered a cab but via email and we weren’t sure that it was confirmed but sure enough our driver was there and we were dropped off at our hostel. Unforunately there was some mix up with our room, but we were able to get a room even if it wasn’t the one we ordered.

Tuesday came bright and hot. The weather here is so hot but I love it especially after the cold of the States. We sorted out our room and had breakfast at the hotel before embarking into the city. It was a beautiful hot and sunny. We found our way to Green Market Square, looking around for souvernirs. Then we went down to the Waterfront and walked around more shops. We found the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island and got tickets for the 5pm boat ride to the Island. Then we wandered around some more before taking a ride on the ferris wheel which wasn’t there the last time I was here. It gave us beautiful views of the city and the Waterfront. Then we decided to see a movie. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It is a very dark movie and I recommend preparing mentally for it.

After the movie it was time for Robben Island. I was very excited because I was supposed to go over two years ago when I was here before but because of various reasons I didn’t get to go. It was so worth the wait. The ferry ride was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. The prison tour was interesting and informative and I loved the bus ride around the Island. We even saw some penguins which I didn’t realized lived on the Island.

After our Robben Island tour, we had dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market which I highly recommend. I made Chris try the malva pudding which I also recommend. It’s unique to South Africa and I absolutely love it. Well that’s all for today. Tomorrow we’re going sandboarding, like snowboarding without the snow. It should be fun. More updates later!

Today was my first day back in Cape Town. The weather is amazing and I’m so happy to be back. Chris, my boyfriend, is here with me for a week so it makes coming back even more special.

Our trip here was really long. We first flew from St. Louis to Detroit, where we had a four hour layover. Then we flew Detroit to Amsterdam, a seven hour flight. It was alright though because they feed us (not the greatest food but it is better than nothing) and they have movies. We watched “Friends With Benefits” and “Debt”. They were pretty good. Then in Amsterdam we had another long layover.  It went by pretty quickly though. Then we had 11 hours to Cape Town. It wasn’t bad though, except Chris and I didn’t get to sit next to each other. L Finally after 24+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Cape Town late. I was nervous because we weren’t certain that we would have a ride. We ordered a cab but via email and we weren’t sure that it was confirmed but sure enough our driver was there and we were dropped off at our hostel. Unforunately there was some mix up with our room, but we were able to get a room even if it wasn’t the one we ordered.

Tuesday came bright and hot. The weather here is so hot but I love it especially after the cold of the States. We sorted out our room and had breakfast at the hotel before embarking into the city. It was a beautiful hot and sunny. We found our way to Green Market Square, looking around for souvernirs. Then we went down to the Waterfront and walked around more shops. We found the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island and got tickets for the 5pm boat ride to the Island. Then we wandered around some more before taking a ride on the ferris wheel which wasn’t there the last time I was here. It gave us beautiful views of the city and the Waterfront. Then we decided to see a movie. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It is a very dark movie and I recommend preparing mentally for it.

After the movie it was time for Robben Island. I was very excited because I was supposed to go over two years ago when I was here before but because of various reasons I didn’t get to go. It was so worth the wait. The ferry ride was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. The prison tour was interesting and informative and I loved the bus ride around the Island. We even saw some penguins which I didn’t realized lived on the Island.

After our Robben Island tour, we had dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market which I highly recommend. I made Chris try the malva pudding which I also recommend. It’s unique to South Africa and I absolutely love it. Well that’s all for today. Tomorrow we’re going sandboarding, like snowboarding without the snow. It should be fun. More updates later!

The past two weeks I have been traveling in the south of India during the Christmas and New Years holiday. While the general plan was somewhat mapped out, we were in for a surprise when our plane leaving Jaipur was delayed. After traveling to Jaipur from Jodhpur at 5 a.m. in order to get a flight in the afternoon, the airline delayed out flight, for no reason that they could explain to us. This put a damper on our first leg of the trip since we were supposed to get into Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and go to our night train that would take us to the hill stations. Well, needless to say, we missed our train due to the 5-hour delay that was so unconfidently placed on our flight plans. And so the adventure begins…

We arrived in Chennai and knew that we would we would be stranded there for the night with no idea of what to do for travel on the following day. I had called ahead while waiting in Jaipur for a hotel, but once we arrived in Chennai they informed me they had given our room away earlier that evening… Thank you so much! Now we were starting to scramble. After an early morning train, laying around an airport for 5 hours, then an plane ride with a stop on the way in Hyderabad, we just wanted to sleep for a while, especially since it was almost midnight. Well, one of my companions decided in frustration that she would just ask the pre-paid taxi gentleman (if you can call him that) to take us somewhere with openings since everywhere I was calling was full. Bad Idea! After driving about two miles from the airport the taxi pulls off on the side and starts going down dark alleyways where all we see are groups of men and trash, which is not a good start. Once we pulled in front of the so called “hotel” we already had a Hell NO attitude… There were two 20-something year old guys with us going there who were also skeptical. The place was amiably named Shiv Transit Accommodation so it really wasn’t a hotel and we felt we were coming straight into the movie “Taken.” Need I even say that we made them take us back to the airport for us to find out own accommodation?

The place we found was too much better but we felt a bit better about it. After waking up in the morning, and feeling like we had been beaten with sticks from the stiff travels, we ventured out into the unknown. We decided on going to the Theosophical Society, but once we arrived we noticed the sign on the gate saying they had closed that day for the Christmas and New Years break. So the next stop ended up being the government museum of Chennai. Well, once there they were also closed, and we found out they were closed on all Fridays. After our first two failures, our rickshaw driver, who I haggled with for a good 10 minutes before our first ride, told us he would take us to the main spots of Chennai then drop us at our night bus later in the evening. So Madison, Emily, and myself rented the rickshaw driver for the day and explored Chennai that ended up being a hidden gem.
Our first stop and most surprising was the St. Thomas Basilica. In case you don’t know (because we didn’t) there are only three Basilicas in the world that were built for Apostles of Jesus. Who would have known that one would be in Chennai, India?

Apparently, Thomas migrated over to India and ended up in Chennai in 52 A.D. and started preaching the gospel to the Indian population in Tamil Nadu. He stayed and spread the news of Jesus while performing unfathomable acts in front of the Indians, also known as miracles. St. Thomas taught until his death in 72 A.D. when he was martyred in Chennai.

So I have been meaning to write a few blogs in the past two weeks and have been sidetracked or detained for different reasons. I feel in India, when you want to be productive, you should always account for problems to arise in your success. These are just things that you must get over and accept as part of life.

Besides being sick of course, there are plenty of other problems that arise to divert my attention from the tasks I set forth at work. Communication is always a hindrance, and even today, while paying the wages, the women and I had to take extra time to go through the literal hand motions and few common words to explain the necessary items in the pay system. The biggest problem I have encountered as of late though is the fact that the partnership with the Indian non-profit, that I had been set on working out, will no longer be an option. So I am back to square one in trying to figure out the best option of training, marketing, selling, and completing my overall tasks while being here in Chandelao. I am already searching and speaking with other Indian groups about the possibilities, but I wish I had not spent as much time thinking it may work out with the last one.

Time is another problem that I encounter here in India. Not that I don’t have plenty of time to get things done, because I do, but the problem lies in the sense of time that Indians possess. Relying on my Indian counterparts to help me with specific tasks takes allocating at least three times longer than expected and constantly reminding them of the mission at hand. The needs I have right now, and that I have had for a minimum of a month, are things like opening a bank account and getting specific items for the center that I cannot get myself. Being a foreigner, I am not allowed to hold an Indian bank account, which means I cannot open the Sunder Rang account and must wait on my supervisor/host father to go to the city and do this himself. This is easier said than done, since the sense of urgency is not there, it is always forgotten about. The same thing happens with items in Jodhpur that I cannot find for the center and need help buying. Sometimes, being unfamiliar and being foreign gets very frustrating.

I just got back from a vacation of 9 days in the south of India and will blog about that soon as well. I had meant to write while I was gone, but the time budgeted for travel was simply not enough time for leisure and unfortunately that was what my companions and myself needed most.

I have to admit that life has not been as exciting as it was during the Charity Challenge. My first day after the Challenge was boring because my kids were testing so the teachers didn’t need me and I ended up typing up a test for one of the teachers and then planning for Friday.

Friday was good though. I worked with three different Grade 3 groups. It was hectic because there was no teacher in that day so I had to go find another teacher and ask for help. I also discovered although I sorta knew that the kids have to pay R1 to not wear their uniforms on Friday. We read “Fat Cat” which is this hilarious story about this huge cat that eats lots of mice and then ends up pregnant. Not the best summary but you get the idea. Since last week went so well I decided to make the comprehension harder which proved difficult. They seem to not understand the story very well so I’m not sure if it was the story or how I phrased the questions. They enjoyed the colouring part though and once I got the hang of it, they were able to identify the main characters like I wanted. After school, we went to the orphanage and I played with Aseza. She’s amazing. She was pushing my hair out of my face and it was seriously the cutest thing. I love it there. The kids are so much fun. I even took some pictures with my film. Only a couple though because I forgot to grab another roll of film. But I had my digital as well so I took some pictures with that as well. I got to know about girl Athula. She’s adorable and has the most beautiful dark skin. 

The rest of the term has been chaotic as usual. I did a lot of grading since the week of testing gave us lots and lots of papers to grade. When I wasn’t grading, I was outside helping with sports which helped break up the monotony of grading. Sometimes I would also help Sofia with her reading focus groups. One day we read Barry the Fish with Fingers which is this awesome story about Barry the fish obviously. The kids loved it. My favourite part of the story is when Barry is telling all the other fish about what he can do with fingers and then he starts tickling the other fish. So Sofia and I start tickling the kids and they absolutely loved it. It’s kinds crazy here but it’s awesome when we get to read to the kids and they really seem to enjoy it! I’ll talk about some of the other highlights of this term later.

I have to admit that life has not been as exciting as it was during the Charity Challenge. My first day after the Challenge was boring because my kids were testing so the teachers didn’t need me and I ended up typing up a test for one of the teachers and then planning for Friday.

Friday was good though. I worked with three different Grade 3 groups. It was hectic because there was no teacher in that day so I had to go find another teacher and ask for help. I also discovered although I sorta knew that the kids have to pay R1 to not wear their uniforms on Friday. We read “Fat Cat” which is this hilarious story about this huge cat that eats lots of mice and then ends up pregnant. Not the best summary but you get the idea. Since last week went so well I decided to make the comprehension harder which proved difficult. They seem to not understand the story very well so I’m not sure if it was the story or how I phrased the questions. They enjoyed the colouring part though and once I got the hang of it, they were able to identify the main characters like I wanted. After school, we went to the orphanage and I played with Aseza. She’s amazing. She was pushing my hair out of my face and it was seriously the cutest thing. I love it there. The kids are so much fun. I even took some pictures with my film. Only a couple though because I forgot to grab another roll of film. But I had my digital as well so I took some pictures with that as well. I got to know about girl Athula. She’s adorable and has the most beautiful dark skin. 

The rest of the term has been chaotic as usual. I did a lot of grading since the week of testing gave us lots and lots of papers to grade. When I wasn’t grading, I was outside helping with sports which helped break up the monotony of grading. Sometimes I would also help Sofia with her reading focus groups. One day we read Barry the Fish with Fingers which is this awesome story about Barry the fish obviously. The kids loved it. My favourite part of the story is when Barry is telling all the other fish about what he can do with fingers and then he starts tickling the other fish. So Sofia and I start tickling the kids and they absolutely loved it. It’s kinds crazy here but it’s awesome when we get to read to the kids and they really seem to enjoy it! I’ll talk about some of the other highlights of this term later.

Here in Rajasthan, India, the lifestyle is closer to the traditional way of living than in most states of the country. Some states even refer to Rajasthan as “the backwards state” because of the lifestyle and traditions that are still lived by the natives. Things like arranged marriages and caste system beliefs are seen anywhere in India still, but here in the village, they are still very prevalent in the every day life of a person.

On all other occasions in the village, the people do not have steady employment, which makes it hard to support their families. The younger generations of males end up being migrant workers and get recruited to work in the large cities. This is not a ideal arrangement either because these men do not make enough money to both support themselves and send money home, so they generally end up living in less desirable conditions in the cities.

Women are still oppressed in most village circumstances. The women are not allowed to marry in the village and once they are married, they have to leave their family in the village and live with their new husbands family in completely new village. This ends up very badly sometimes and most women end up very unhappy with their living status. The mother-in-law is the female leader of the household and if she has a vendetta against a daughter-in-law there can be very serious consequences for them. Sometimes, the mother in laws actually end up killing the daughter-in-laws and after going to jail, if that happens, they still don’t understand why what they did was wrong… The only way to combat these prejudices is to educate both men and women and hope for change that is slowly coming into India.

The caste system plays a major role as well. People in India are not supposed to marry or socialize outside of their caste and this is not just upheld in villages, but can be seen all over India in marriages and social prejudices. As for arranged marriages, these can also be seen all over the country, and when a couple has had a love marriage (getting to choose their own spouse), they are very lucky and also rare. In the villages though, the arranged marriages tend to be child marriages. Organizations are fighting against this, but it is still very common.

In the west, we generally think of 30 year old men getting married to 14 year old girls when we hear of child marriage, but it is a bit different. What usually happens in a village is that when someone gets married or dies, there is a large get together. During this time, if there are families who have un-betrothed children, they will pair them off to other un-betrothed children from another village. These children could be of any age but would not get married until later in life. Once another get together happens, these children will generally all be married at the same time because the villagers do not have enough money to support more gatherings. The then married girls will go live with their new families only when the families feel they are old enough. This could be anywhere from 14 to 24 though. It is a financial decision, and the more organizations interview these young child brides, the more the parents are realizing their mistakes and wishing things had gone differently.

Here in Chandelao though, things are a bit better off for all the villagers. Because the hotel is in the village, there is employment opportunity for men and some women to work here without venturing far from home. Other than the hotel, the women’s crafts center, Sunder Rang, employs women from this village that helps support their families. At first, the men didn’t want their wives and daughters working, but the village soon saw that the women were making a substantial difference in the families while they still had time to take care of their family duties. Now, there are more women who would like to be trained and work at the center, but until the business is scaled up, the employment is at capacity. In the near future though, we hope we can afford to hire more while increasing the existing pay wage and buy more capital.

Monday November 14th

Tuesday Novemeber 15th

Wednesday November 16th

So this past week has blown by without me realizing it and without me finishing any amount of work… After last weekend in Jodhpur, I caught something terrible and was laid up in bed sick for 3 days. I don’t know whether it was the something in some food that I had during the weekend or a stomach bug or possibly the terrible “Delhi Belly” that is so famous for travelers to get while in India. All I know is that I couldn’t eat or keep anything down and I hardly got out of bed. My poor grandmother, Dadisa, well host grandmother; she kept trying to get me to eat anything and I would try just to appease her but then feel worse than I did before. But finally I have gotten better, only for my host father to become very ill with a cold and I hope I don’t catch it from my immune system being susceptible to sickness right now.

I did go to the doctor in Jodhpur on the third day of my sickness with recommendation from the director of my organization. Once I walked into the doctors office, I immediately wished I had sucked it up and stayed curled in a ball on my comfortable bed in the village. The car ride into town was enough punishment for one day; that was until I went to the doctor. After asking me what symptoms I had been experiencing (in more or less words…) he did not give me a diagnosis, but told me what he was giving me: two injections and prescriptions for 6 medications to be taken over 3 days. Um, WHAT? He explained they were to stop the nausea and me from vomiting since I might throw up the medicine otherwise. I reluctantly gave myself over to the nurse who came in with the needle and made me lie on the table next to the wall while there were four Indian men, besides the doctor, all in the room trying to sell him some contraption. After giving me one shot in the ass, she made me turn over for a second one, which felt like hell in a needle while she injected what I could only hope, was helpful, into my blood stream.

After paying the doctor the equivalent of $4, I left with the driver who brought me and went to fill the prescription at the corner pharmacy/ chemist. After giving me the 6 medicines that the doctor ordered… I paid the man another $6.5. So after going to a doctor, getting two shots, and filling 6 prescriptions for drugs, I only had to pay about $10. Why is that and what is up the health care system in the U.S. if I can get this so cheap here? Well, that we all know is a totally different discussion and something that is somewhat touchy in the U.S. to talk about. About the medicine though, I don’t even take medicine in the U.S. so there was no way I was going to take all the medicine that the doctor told me to take… especially since I couldn’t remember which medicine was for what symptom. I wrote down what I remembered about them after getting back to my village and waited to see if I needed them. Turned out I didn’t need to take them, and the next time another intern or I have bad stomach problems, I already have the medicine.

So needless to say, I didn’t get any work done this past week. Then the women took the day off today for holiday so I have yet to do work still… Well, I did get some work done, but nothing at the center. I will have a lot to do before I leave for Christmas vacation in 10 days. It is unbelievable that Christmas is SO soon.