Hard Rock Café Bangalore (Ally, Me, Rahil)
UB City, Bangalore
Skyye Bar, UB City
Samstag, 8. Dezember 2012
Toads, snakes and lizards....
After I removed the third toad from a place where it didn't belong last week, I thought it was time to write something about the animals here at Shanti Bhavan.
Starting with toads: they usually lurk around in the high grass and especially when it's raining and at night you can see them jumping around or just sitting in the middle of a path. Two volunteers I know have already stepped on one, one of them barefoot....
That's one of the reasons I always use a flashlight at night! My most memorable experiences with toads are as follows:
One time, when I was teaching the 4th grade, I saw a movement on the floor to the right. When I looked closer, I saw half a toad, the rest of it disappearing under the foot of a shelf. At first I thought the toad's head was crushed by it and it was still moving (creepy, right?) but them I found the small hole in the foot where the toad got stuck. It did a pretty good job in getting stuck, because when I pulled gingerly, I was not able to free it. Therefore I got some of the 4th grade boys to help me lift the shelf and - the toad was freed. There was already enough commotion when the toad was still stuck so I just picked up the confused toad in my hand and dashed with it towards the exit while it was struggling in my hand. There I put her on a nice piece of grass and went back to my class where everybody was staring at me ;) Same thing happened last week, only in a different classroom. How do these things always get in there??
The other time I encountered a toad in an odd place was even more confusing for me. I got up early one Sunday morning, getting ready to catch a bus to Bangalore. While I was standing in front of the mirror shaving, I heard a splashing noise in the toilet behind me. Taking a closer look, I saw a toad swimming in the small pond in the toilet! I mean, how did it get there? It must have swum all the way through the pipes. Although I was not exactly thrilled to carry a wet toad outside early in the morning, I tried to grab it when it suddenly tried to jump out of the toilet. However, a few moments later I was walking out of my room with the dazed toad in my hand, bumping into one of the Indian teachers, Ms Helen, who got pretty scared :D
Again I put the toad somewhere in the grass in front of the teacher's quarters, hoping the snakes wouldn't get it immediately. Snakes? Yes, snakes!
In the book that the founder of Shanti Bhavan wrote, he describes the place as "once being a snake and scorpion-infested piece of land, somewhere in Tamil Nadu". This has changed, of course, with the guards killing every snake and scorpion they can find which I can even understand - given that most of the species here can kill you in less than half an hour if you don't get antitoxin immediately. For some reason I haven't seen any scorpions during my time here, the kids tell me that they are mostly really small and they don't come that close to the school building. The smaller boys sometimes walk around in the nature (high grass, trees and bushes) surrounding the school, looking for everything that's dangerous and exciting - it' just what boys do at that age :). I went with them on one of these trips once, but except for some giant spiders we didn't find anything.
I had, however two encounters with snakes so far. The first time I was taking a shower, when I heard a hissing sound right above me. My bathroom has one window at around the height of my eyes and there is no glass or anything that closes it really - just a mesh to keep out the mosquitoes at night. Looking up I saw an impressive snake crawling along the window sill and I was kind of reminded of a visit to the zoo. Except that this was the real deal, there was only a mesh between me and the snake (with a small tear at the bottom, luckily too small for the snake) and I was standing in the shower completely naked....I was staring transfixed at the snake until it was gone.
The second time is not as exciting, just a snake crossing my path as I was walking back to the room. Have I already mentioned how weird it looks when snakes move on an even surface? They are surprisingly fast, too! (That's the reason I couldn't take a picture) Even though they probably leave you alone if you don't do anything, I felt a bit uncomfortable in my flip flops...
With a few words about lizards we will have all of the reptiles covered ;)
Lizards run around outside (they are greenish-brown, like the ones in Germany) and in my room and the school building (these look really funny, sort of a pinkish-white color and when they're small you can see through their skin!). Actually, the are kind of cute :)
The only strange thing about them is the noises they make...they can be really loud and sound like some birds! Makes you jump in your seat when you are in the schoolbuilding at night and suddenly there is this noise right behind you...
Indians don't seem to like them that much, I was walking to the teacher's quarters with Ms Nirmala and when we entered the building there was a lizard walking on the ceiling. Ms Nirmala stepped aside and warned me that it will mean bad luck if it falls on my head - good to know, right?
Apart from that there are tons of insects that the toads and lizards are happy to eat. They are mostly the same as in Germany with a few exceptions that are so big that they look like mutants. If you don't believe me, look at the picture of the millipede I took in Hampi - we have these at the school, too. Also there are way to many mosquitoes if you ask me, they are really aggressive and will bite you even through your trousers and shirt.
We have lots of birds, there are really interesting and beautiful ones among them. Really annoying are the crows, first of all they are really loud and can make it difficult to fall asleep sometimes. On top of that they enter the dining hall at breakfast and lunch and try to snatch away food - they are quite cheeky! The sparrows are much cuter, they jump around on the ground picking up crumbs :)
Let's see, what else do we have? Oh, squirrels! They are really small, grey, cute and run up and down the palm trees all the time. You can't get a picture, they are just too fast...
Have I mentioned Chelsea, Chester and Buddy before? They are the guard dogs, at least Chelsea and Chester. Buddy is a pug that is not very intelligent and does all the funny things pugs do. Some kids love him, the little ones are scared of him because he barks a lot.
Chelsea and Chester are two Dobermans that the guards patrol with at night. As Dr. George told me when he was at the school, they are supposed to be "very ferocious" but with all the kids petting them they are just like normal dogs around people they know. It's a good thing they know me, because I usually am the last person in the school building at night and at 11 o' clock, the guards will unleash them to run around the school building and check if there are people that shouldn't be there. I got scared quite a few times when the power was out and I suddenly felt a dog snout coming out of nowhere ;) What really surprised me is that these dogs actually eat rice and vegetables! (picture below)
Stray dogs are found all around India, tons of them in the big cities, and we also have a few of them on campus. They are usually no problem as they will just go their way. We had an issue with one aggressive dog some two months ago who attacked Ally and so all of the volunteers walked around with baseball bats for a while at night.
Shortly after I arrived (which means a long time ago) one of the dogs got puppies, which the kids of course found and played with (see pictures below).
I think that's it for the animals here, I put together all the pictures I could find, hope you like them :)
Starting with toads: they usually lurk around in the high grass and especially when it's raining and at night you can see them jumping around or just sitting in the middle of a path. Two volunteers I know have already stepped on one, one of them barefoot....
That's one of the reasons I always use a flashlight at night! My most memorable experiences with toads are as follows:
One time, when I was teaching the 4th grade, I saw a movement on the floor to the right. When I looked closer, I saw half a toad, the rest of it disappearing under the foot of a shelf. At first I thought the toad's head was crushed by it and it was still moving (creepy, right?) but them I found the small hole in the foot where the toad got stuck. It did a pretty good job in getting stuck, because when I pulled gingerly, I was not able to free it. Therefore I got some of the 4th grade boys to help me lift the shelf and - the toad was freed. There was already enough commotion when the toad was still stuck so I just picked up the confused toad in my hand and dashed with it towards the exit while it was struggling in my hand. There I put her on a nice piece of grass and went back to my class where everybody was staring at me ;) Same thing happened last week, only in a different classroom. How do these things always get in there??
The other time I encountered a toad in an odd place was even more confusing for me. I got up early one Sunday morning, getting ready to catch a bus to Bangalore. While I was standing in front of the mirror shaving, I heard a splashing noise in the toilet behind me. Taking a closer look, I saw a toad swimming in the small pond in the toilet! I mean, how did it get there? It must have swum all the way through the pipes. Although I was not exactly thrilled to carry a wet toad outside early in the morning, I tried to grab it when it suddenly tried to jump out of the toilet. However, a few moments later I was walking out of my room with the dazed toad in my hand, bumping into one of the Indian teachers, Ms Helen, who got pretty scared :D
Again I put the toad somewhere in the grass in front of the teacher's quarters, hoping the snakes wouldn't get it immediately. Snakes? Yes, snakes!
In the book that the founder of Shanti Bhavan wrote, he describes the place as "once being a snake and scorpion-infested piece of land, somewhere in Tamil Nadu". This has changed, of course, with the guards killing every snake and scorpion they can find which I can even understand - given that most of the species here can kill you in less than half an hour if you don't get antitoxin immediately. For some reason I haven't seen any scorpions during my time here, the kids tell me that they are mostly really small and they don't come that close to the school building. The smaller boys sometimes walk around in the nature (high grass, trees and bushes) surrounding the school, looking for everything that's dangerous and exciting - it' just what boys do at that age :). I went with them on one of these trips once, but except for some giant spiders we didn't find anything.
I had, however two encounters with snakes so far. The first time I was taking a shower, when I heard a hissing sound right above me. My bathroom has one window at around the height of my eyes and there is no glass or anything that closes it really - just a mesh to keep out the mosquitoes at night. Looking up I saw an impressive snake crawling along the window sill and I was kind of reminded of a visit to the zoo. Except that this was the real deal, there was only a mesh between me and the snake (with a small tear at the bottom, luckily too small for the snake) and I was standing in the shower completely naked....I was staring transfixed at the snake until it was gone.
The second time is not as exciting, just a snake crossing my path as I was walking back to the room. Have I already mentioned how weird it looks when snakes move on an even surface? They are surprisingly fast, too! (That's the reason I couldn't take a picture) Even though they probably leave you alone if you don't do anything, I felt a bit uncomfortable in my flip flops...
With a few words about lizards we will have all of the reptiles covered ;)
Lizards run around outside (they are greenish-brown, like the ones in Germany) and in my room and the school building (these look really funny, sort of a pinkish-white color and when they're small you can see through their skin!). Actually, the are kind of cute :)
The only strange thing about them is the noises they make...they can be really loud and sound like some birds! Makes you jump in your seat when you are in the schoolbuilding at night and suddenly there is this noise right behind you...
Indians don't seem to like them that much, I was walking to the teacher's quarters with Ms Nirmala and when we entered the building there was a lizard walking on the ceiling. Ms Nirmala stepped aside and warned me that it will mean bad luck if it falls on my head - good to know, right?
Apart from that there are tons of insects that the toads and lizards are happy to eat. They are mostly the same as in Germany with a few exceptions that are so big that they look like mutants. If you don't believe me, look at the picture of the millipede I took in Hampi - we have these at the school, too. Also there are way to many mosquitoes if you ask me, they are really aggressive and will bite you even through your trousers and shirt.
We have lots of birds, there are really interesting and beautiful ones among them. Really annoying are the crows, first of all they are really loud and can make it difficult to fall asleep sometimes. On top of that they enter the dining hall at breakfast and lunch and try to snatch away food - they are quite cheeky! The sparrows are much cuter, they jump around on the ground picking up crumbs :)
Let's see, what else do we have? Oh, squirrels! They are really small, grey, cute and run up and down the palm trees all the time. You can't get a picture, they are just too fast...
Have I mentioned Chelsea, Chester and Buddy before? They are the guard dogs, at least Chelsea and Chester. Buddy is a pug that is not very intelligent and does all the funny things pugs do. Some kids love him, the little ones are scared of him because he barks a lot.
Chelsea and Chester are two Dobermans that the guards patrol with at night. As Dr. George told me when he was at the school, they are supposed to be "very ferocious" but with all the kids petting them they are just like normal dogs around people they know. It's a good thing they know me, because I usually am the last person in the school building at night and at 11 o' clock, the guards will unleash them to run around the school building and check if there are people that shouldn't be there. I got scared quite a few times when the power was out and I suddenly felt a dog snout coming out of nowhere ;) What really surprised me is that these dogs actually eat rice and vegetables! (picture below)
Stray dogs are found all around India, tons of them in the big cities, and we also have a few of them on campus. They are usually no problem as they will just go their way. We had an issue with one aggressive dog some two months ago who attacked Ally and so all of the volunteers walked around with baseball bats for a while at night.
Shortly after I arrived (which means a long time ago) one of the dogs got puppies, which the kids of course found and played with (see pictures below).
I think that's it for the animals here, I put together all the pictures I could find, hope you like them :)
As I said, they appear in the strangest places...
That's the one in my toilet :D
Some sort of gecko
A chameleon!
The only picture of a lizard I got....
Yes, that thing over my bed is a spider...and the shining thing are its eyes...
Why not take a closer look?
This grasshopper is way to big!
About to steal some food....
This little guy got something already
Chelsea, one of the guard dogs
Chester eating rice :)
Puppies!
Montag, 19. November 2012
Bear necessities!
I didn't have the link for it when I uploaded the last Post, but here it is - the adorable performance of "Bear necessities":
:)
Sonntag, 18. November 2012
Halloween, Children's Day and Diwali
As you will have guessed from the title, the last few weeks have been filled with holidays. They were all amazing days and I'm trying to describe the feel and atmosphere of these days here as well as possible.
The first celebration we had was Halloween. Coming from Germany, I didn't care that much for Halloween but for the kids here it's a big deal, they were all so excited the days leading up to it! Some of the grades were allowed to go trick-or-treating in the teacher's quarters but the main event was the Haunted House we volunteers set up for the 12th grade (according to Lizzy, the lower grades would have been way to scared^^). I didn't know who came up with the idea for it, but the final idea was amazing. The Haunted House was set up in the volunteer's quarters. Over the last few weeks, we had some of the students who graduated from Shanti Bhavan in the previous years on campus: they currently have a break from their studies and came back to SB to help out with the teaching and give additional tutoring. On Halloween they agreed to support us in our mission to scare the 12th graders to death. As the 12th grade approached the volunteer's quarters, they would find some of the graduates, apparently dead, on the benches in front of the building. Stepping towards the door, it would open by itself (a simple trick with a rope pulled from the inside). On entering, they had to notice Ally, who was lying at the bottom of the staircase, looking as though she had broken her neck. A sign pointed towards the lounge room were the rest of us volunteers was waiting. We had emptied the room completely, except for the fridge (obviously to heavy), the TV (we put white sheets over it) and a table, also covered in white sheets. Someone had the idea to write the name of a 12th grader (Kavitha) on the wall in creepy letters and with red chalk, including red handprints. Candles were lit everywhere and on the table in the middle of the room, Rebecca was laying in white robes. The idea was to make it look like a sacrifice - Lynn was murmuring something in Latin with a book in her hand, standing next to the table. Sachin was wearing a hoodie covering most of his face and was holding a knive over Rebecca. I was sitting at the other end of the table, also wearing a hoodie, faceless (as it was covered by a black shawl) and having a singing bowl in my hand that produced an eerie noise. Lizzy was sitting on the fridge with a white face, just staring, Bitsy was standing in the corner with lots of makeup, also looking dead. When the 12th graders entered, they were still in good spirits, joking as they picked up the chocolate bars we spread across the room. After a while, as none of us made a move to resolve the situation, they became a bit nervous. Suddenly Lizzy came off the fridge and started to "creep" across the room, blowing out the candles. We all were chanting something in Latin now, growing louder and louder. They tried to leave, but we had Ally lock the door from the outside. In complete darkness, we started following them or grabbing them when they least expected eat. Soon the room was full of terrified screams. We enjoyed that moment for a bit before opening the door to let them out. Mission successful!
The weekend after that, the next, even bigger event followed. On Saturday, the 10th November it was Children's Day at Shanti Bhavan. I think I already wrote about Teacher's Day in my blog in September. The kids had been preparing a day full of performances and skits to thank their teachers. Now it was time for us to reciprocate!
In the weeks leading up to this event, we volunteers started to make the children curious by disappearing to strange "meetings" every day right after dinner. They know something was going on, as we usually meet only on Wednesdays and Fridays. Truth be told, we were practicing our performances for that day in the volunteer's lounge. Event though the curtains were drawn some of the kids couldn't help overhearing the song that was playing there every evening - it didn't take long till the started asking as whether we were, by any chance, going to perform "Gangnam Style". We, of course, denied it emphatically ;)
Another thing that needed to be done was drawing cards for all of the children with some nice words in them as all we got cards on teacher's day, too. The only problem was, that there were only about 15 teachers and volunteers compared to 200 children. The female volunteers proved to be extremely helpful, blessed with an extraordinary artistic talent, Rebecca, Lizzy and Bitsy painted piles of beautiful cards after school and on the weekends. I took the task of making all the cards for my 9th grade - I felt bad leaving all the work to be done by them and it was my class after all. The only problem was my lack of artistic talent and confidence when it came to drawing. With enough other work to do I ended up postponing the time I would complete my pile of cards till two days before children's day. However, pressure of time always proves to be the best motivator and so I stayed up one night, completing my cards. I was pretty surprised about how decent they looked in the end. ;)
On Saturday morning, all the teachers went to the school building to get everything ready and have one last practice. Just the night before we had decided to make up a skit, making fun of the kid's behaviour in class that we needed to go through again. At around eleven, we opened the doors for the kids, handing out sweets and waiting for them to find their places. A graduate and Miss Preemi were the moderators for the day. We started with a singing and dancing performance of the song "Bare necessities" from the movie "The Junglebook". My fellow germans will know it as "Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit" aus dem Dschungelbuch :). Lynn came up with a really cute choreography and especially the younger kids were thrilled.
Apart from our performances, the teachers and aunties (who are the ones caring for the little kids and watching over their dorms) had of course prepared several Indian dances. They were really interesting to watch and especially the folk dance by three of the male teachers (including the extremely popular Mr. Ranjan) was hilarious! In between several skits provided lots of laughs, including the one were we volunteers tried to mimic the kids as exact as possible, with a real-life performance by the principal, Miss Beena as a teacher.
When we came to the point where we performed our highly anticipated version of the "Gangnam Style", the kids went crazy! We volunteers had at least as much fun as the kids. After the performances were over, we had lunch and the rest of the day was dedicated to relaxing. An opportunity that I took happily to read and take a nap. In the evening we had "movie night", something that is supposed to take place once a month and was cancelled two times already due to bad grades and bad behavior of the kids. Finally, it took place again, and everybody gathered in the quadrangle to watch the animated movie "Brave". I really enjoyed it, considering that I am not a big fan of animated movies.
Now everybody was looking forward to the week following this weekend. There would only be school on Monday, followed by two free days with Diwali on Tuesday. Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, in its importance it can be compared to Christmas in Germany. The meaning of it differs all around India, in South India many people celebrate the victory of Lord Krishna over a demon. "Festival of lights" is an appropriate name, as small clay oil lamps are arranged in beautiful patterns and fireworks are burned. During the day, there was not much going on - everybody was excited for the evening when we would have a special dinner and fireworks. At around seven, I went to beautifully lit dining hall. We all wished each other a happy Diwali and took some time to admire all the lights. For dinner, we had fried rice - either with chicken or a potato-vegetable ball in a delicious tomato gravy.
After dinner the kids ran to the lawn in front of the dining hall, equipped with crackers, sparklers and flower pots (what we would call volcanoes). The little kids were going bananas, running around with sparklers and immensely enjoying themselves. The older kids took the task of lighting the incredibly loud cracker chains, lighting them preferably next to groups of people. Another thing to look out for were the fire circles, as the kids started dancing around them as soon as they started spinning, occasionally kicking the across the whole floor. I was told that traditionally, Diwali ensured at least three burned sarees at SB. I managed to celebrate without getting any burns but it was a close call. While I was holding a sparkler, Prashant (one of my 4th graders) came to me to light the thing he had in his hand (which I assumed to be another sparkler) on my sparkler. I was happy to help and he excitedly touched my burning sparkler with the tip of his thing, pointing it straight at me. It suddenly erupted in a blast of light which I managed to dodge in the last second. Without giving it a second thought, little Prashant had been pointing a fountain at me! The best thing is that an 8th grader who borrowed my camera managed to capture that moment in two pictures ;). In the first picture, you see me offering my sparkler, in the second I disappear behing an enormous fireball.
After all the crackers were burned and the kids in were in their dorms, some of us volunteers and the graduates had a little dance party in the school building, reenacting our famous Gangnam Style performance. It was just so much fun celebrating with the kids that I already know I will miss them a lot when I'm back in Germany.
Fortunately I still got a good month left at the school! After all these festivals however, a lot of work is coming up in the form of the monthly tests next week, closely followed by the term exams two weeks after. A new volunteer, Rahil has now arrived at Shanti Bhavan (she was already here last year as an OSA) and she will be taking over my lessons for 4th and 5th grade. On the other hand this means, how Lizzy revealed to me on Thursday, that I will instead be teaching the infamous 8th grade in English Literature, Grammer, Creative and Persuasive writing. Why infamous? Well, this grade is known to have one of the school's worst troublemakers in it and the rest of them aren't exactly angels. Surprisingly, my first lesson with them on Friday was quite nice - they were really well behaved. I just hope it stays that way! ;)
Greetings from India,
Peter
Aaaaand last but not least, the link to "Gangnam Style":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aDbZAaPWASM
The first celebration we had was Halloween. Coming from Germany, I didn't care that much for Halloween but for the kids here it's a big deal, they were all so excited the days leading up to it! Some of the grades were allowed to go trick-or-treating in the teacher's quarters but the main event was the Haunted House we volunteers set up for the 12th grade (according to Lizzy, the lower grades would have been way to scared^^). I didn't know who came up with the idea for it, but the final idea was amazing. The Haunted House was set up in the volunteer's quarters. Over the last few weeks, we had some of the students who graduated from Shanti Bhavan in the previous years on campus: they currently have a break from their studies and came back to SB to help out with the teaching and give additional tutoring. On Halloween they agreed to support us in our mission to scare the 12th graders to death. As the 12th grade approached the volunteer's quarters, they would find some of the graduates, apparently dead, on the benches in front of the building. Stepping towards the door, it would open by itself (a simple trick with a rope pulled from the inside). On entering, they had to notice Ally, who was lying at the bottom of the staircase, looking as though she had broken her neck. A sign pointed towards the lounge room were the rest of us volunteers was waiting. We had emptied the room completely, except for the fridge (obviously to heavy), the TV (we put white sheets over it) and a table, also covered in white sheets. Someone had the idea to write the name of a 12th grader (Kavitha) on the wall in creepy letters and with red chalk, including red handprints. Candles were lit everywhere and on the table in the middle of the room, Rebecca was laying in white robes. The idea was to make it look like a sacrifice - Lynn was murmuring something in Latin with a book in her hand, standing next to the table. Sachin was wearing a hoodie covering most of his face and was holding a knive over Rebecca. I was sitting at the other end of the table, also wearing a hoodie, faceless (as it was covered by a black shawl) and having a singing bowl in my hand that produced an eerie noise. Lizzy was sitting on the fridge with a white face, just staring, Bitsy was standing in the corner with lots of makeup, also looking dead. When the 12th graders entered, they were still in good spirits, joking as they picked up the chocolate bars we spread across the room. After a while, as none of us made a move to resolve the situation, they became a bit nervous. Suddenly Lizzy came off the fridge and started to "creep" across the room, blowing out the candles. We all were chanting something in Latin now, growing louder and louder. They tried to leave, but we had Ally lock the door from the outside. In complete darkness, we started following them or grabbing them when they least expected eat. Soon the room was full of terrified screams. We enjoyed that moment for a bit before opening the door to let them out. Mission successful!
The weekend after that, the next, even bigger event followed. On Saturday, the 10th November it was Children's Day at Shanti Bhavan. I think I already wrote about Teacher's Day in my blog in September. The kids had been preparing a day full of performances and skits to thank their teachers. Now it was time for us to reciprocate!
In the weeks leading up to this event, we volunteers started to make the children curious by disappearing to strange "meetings" every day right after dinner. They know something was going on, as we usually meet only on Wednesdays and Fridays. Truth be told, we were practicing our performances for that day in the volunteer's lounge. Event though the curtains were drawn some of the kids couldn't help overhearing the song that was playing there every evening - it didn't take long till the started asking as whether we were, by any chance, going to perform "Gangnam Style". We, of course, denied it emphatically ;)
Another thing that needed to be done was drawing cards for all of the children with some nice words in them as all we got cards on teacher's day, too. The only problem was, that there were only about 15 teachers and volunteers compared to 200 children. The female volunteers proved to be extremely helpful, blessed with an extraordinary artistic talent, Rebecca, Lizzy and Bitsy painted piles of beautiful cards after school and on the weekends. I took the task of making all the cards for my 9th grade - I felt bad leaving all the work to be done by them and it was my class after all. The only problem was my lack of artistic talent and confidence when it came to drawing. With enough other work to do I ended up postponing the time I would complete my pile of cards till two days before children's day. However, pressure of time always proves to be the best motivator and so I stayed up one night, completing my cards. I was pretty surprised about how decent they looked in the end. ;)
On Saturday morning, all the teachers went to the school building to get everything ready and have one last practice. Just the night before we had decided to make up a skit, making fun of the kid's behaviour in class that we needed to go through again. At around eleven, we opened the doors for the kids, handing out sweets and waiting for them to find their places. A graduate and Miss Preemi were the moderators for the day. We started with a singing and dancing performance of the song "Bare necessities" from the movie "The Junglebook". My fellow germans will know it as "Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit" aus dem Dschungelbuch :). Lynn came up with a really cute choreography and especially the younger kids were thrilled.
Apart from our performances, the teachers and aunties (who are the ones caring for the little kids and watching over their dorms) had of course prepared several Indian dances. They were really interesting to watch and especially the folk dance by three of the male teachers (including the extremely popular Mr. Ranjan) was hilarious! In between several skits provided lots of laughs, including the one were we volunteers tried to mimic the kids as exact as possible, with a real-life performance by the principal, Miss Beena as a teacher.
When we came to the point where we performed our highly anticipated version of the "Gangnam Style", the kids went crazy! We volunteers had at least as much fun as the kids. After the performances were over, we had lunch and the rest of the day was dedicated to relaxing. An opportunity that I took happily to read and take a nap. In the evening we had "movie night", something that is supposed to take place once a month and was cancelled two times already due to bad grades and bad behavior of the kids. Finally, it took place again, and everybody gathered in the quadrangle to watch the animated movie "Brave". I really enjoyed it, considering that I am not a big fan of animated movies.
Now everybody was looking forward to the week following this weekend. There would only be school on Monday, followed by two free days with Diwali on Tuesday. Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, in its importance it can be compared to Christmas in Germany. The meaning of it differs all around India, in South India many people celebrate the victory of Lord Krishna over a demon. "Festival of lights" is an appropriate name, as small clay oil lamps are arranged in beautiful patterns and fireworks are burned. During the day, there was not much going on - everybody was excited for the evening when we would have a special dinner and fireworks. At around seven, I went to beautifully lit dining hall. We all wished each other a happy Diwali and took some time to admire all the lights. For dinner, we had fried rice - either with chicken or a potato-vegetable ball in a delicious tomato gravy.
After dinner the kids ran to the lawn in front of the dining hall, equipped with crackers, sparklers and flower pots (what we would call volcanoes). The little kids were going bananas, running around with sparklers and immensely enjoying themselves. The older kids took the task of lighting the incredibly loud cracker chains, lighting them preferably next to groups of people. Another thing to look out for were the fire circles, as the kids started dancing around them as soon as they started spinning, occasionally kicking the across the whole floor. I was told that traditionally, Diwali ensured at least three burned sarees at SB. I managed to celebrate without getting any burns but it was a close call. While I was holding a sparkler, Prashant (one of my 4th graders) came to me to light the thing he had in his hand (which I assumed to be another sparkler) on my sparkler. I was happy to help and he excitedly touched my burning sparkler with the tip of his thing, pointing it straight at me. It suddenly erupted in a blast of light which I managed to dodge in the last second. Without giving it a second thought, little Prashant had been pointing a fountain at me! The best thing is that an 8th grader who borrowed my camera managed to capture that moment in two pictures ;). In the first picture, you see me offering my sparkler, in the second I disappear behing an enormous fireball.
After all the crackers were burned and the kids in were in their dorms, some of us volunteers and the graduates had a little dance party in the school building, reenacting our famous Gangnam Style performance. It was just so much fun celebrating with the kids that I already know I will miss them a lot when I'm back in Germany.
Fortunately I still got a good month left at the school! After all these festivals however, a lot of work is coming up in the form of the monthly tests next week, closely followed by the term exams two weeks after. A new volunteer, Rahil has now arrived at Shanti Bhavan (she was already here last year as an OSA) and she will be taking over my lessons for 4th and 5th grade. On the other hand this means, how Lizzy revealed to me on Thursday, that I will instead be teaching the infamous 8th grade in English Literature, Grammer, Creative and Persuasive writing. Why infamous? Well, this grade is known to have one of the school's worst troublemakers in it and the rest of them aren't exactly angels. Surprisingly, my first lesson with them on Friday was quite nice - they were really well behaved. I just hope it stays that way! ;)
Greetings from India,
Peter
Done - finally!
"The bare necessities of life will come to you...."
Our skit: Me, Miss Beena, Lizzy, Sachin and Bisty (left to right) :D
The dining hall on Diwali
Shashi (12th Grade) and me
Some of the 8th grade girls and a graduate, Chaitra (on my right side)
Just posing...
Miss Helen (a teacher), Lynn and me....and Preetha behind me ;)
Of course, I was expected to light a few crackers :D
Prashant, fountain, sparkler and me
Prashant, fountain, FIREBALL!, sparkler and me
A fire ring (about to be kicked around)
Fireworks everywhere!
Go ahead, take it!
Woooow!
Aaaaand last but not least, the link to "Gangnam Style":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aDbZAaPWASM
Samstag, 20. Oktober 2012
Odyssey in India
As I left Shanti Bhavan for Bangalore this morning, I couldn't know what a nightmare it would be to get back. This blog entry tells the story of my 5-hour odyssey between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is also meant to thank people like Gokand and Habib - without them I wouldn't sit in the school building right now and write this post!
This morning I took of for Bangalore, planning to spent a few hours there, having lunch and and do some shopping. Over the last week I had put together quite a list of things I needed to get, including a warm hoodie (I only brought one warm hoodie and one jacket to India and right now the mornings at Shanti Bhavan are unpleasantly cold - this week I spent every morning PT I had shivering.), a jar of peanut butter (some extra protein, tastes amazing on Chapatis!), some candles (to deal with upcoming power cuts) and some other small things.
Lizzy and Saching also went to Bangalore, so we took the trip in the morning together. I could have already taken it as a warning that our bus had a delay of over an hour. ;)
We arrived in Bangalore pretty late and as I was starving I went straight to Domino's Pizza. Lizzy and Sachin had some other plans so we didn't stick together. I accepted quite a challenge as I ordered one Pasta and a Pizza Margherita with double cheese. After I finished eating and managed to get up I looked at a few shops around Brigade road, hoping to find a jacket or a hoodie. However, the stuff was pretty low quality and not exactly cheap so I gave up and went to "The Forum" a huge mall with the busses to Hosur running basically on the opposite side of the road. I had a nice coffee there and decided to do my shopping at the "Bazaar", a huge department store next to the bus station that would probably have everything I was looking for. I got everything, except for......matches! Good thing they sold candles, but neither lighters nor matches. By then it was already around 3.30 pm and I was planning to get a bus at 4 pm so I headed to the checkout only to find a massive queue that stood behind the only open checkout counter. It seemed as if the cashiers spent 10 minutes on nearly every customer. As I came closer I saw the reason - that very day a special offer promised incredible amounts of gifts, coupons and points for every customer registering for a payback card. The registration process involved filling out various forms and the cashiers had a very, well, relaxed way to carry out their duty, hence the 10 minutes. Having about 8 people in front of me I spent over an hour waiting -.-
Leaving the shop, it seemed as if I was lucky: A bus was just standing there, with the conductor screaming "Hosur" - exactly where I had to go. It was nearly 5 pm as I got on the bus and I was just happy to be on my way home. Everything started of right, except for the moment when the bus driver found himself on the oncoming lane and not noticing it until the conductor started screaming. The right lane was seperated by a small concrete wall which ended further up the road from where another bus came right at us. Suddenly it was just chaos: the bus driver accelerated like crazy, hoping to change lanes just in time for not being hit by the other bus, the conductor kept shouting, the bus was equipped with TVs on which an Indian movie was running, the volume turned up as high as possible and on the inside as well as on the outside decoration lamps were blinking in all colors. In brief: we changed lanes in time. Doesn't it feel amazing to be alive?
After that experience I decided to try not paying attention the driving any more and took out my book to distract myself a little bit. I knew the highway and if we stayed on it we would arrive in Hosur in about an hour. The only problem was: it started getting dark. By the time I looked out of the window again it was pitch black. (At that point I have to mention: In India, you're not told the name of the bus stop you are currently at, you just know when to get out.)
I decided to ask about the time left till we would arrive in Hosur, just in case. The conductor gave me a weird look and started repeating the name of the town we were actually going to which suddenly sounded a pretty similar to Hosur. However, after five minutes of gesturing and with the help of other passengers I knew I was headed in the wrong direction and my best bet would be to just get out at some bus stop along the dark highway, hoping to catch a bus to Hosur from there. My pulse rose to unknown heights.
There I stood in the dark, the sign on the busstop saying Bommasandra (the rest was in Tamil) and with no idea how to get to Hosur. By then it was already 6pm. After asking around I finally found an english-speaking Indian (Gokand!) who could tell me which bus to catch. It wasn't that easy though as I would have to change busses at some point. As he was my last hope I joined him on the bus that came half an hour later, waited till he was screaming "Get out" (because the bus obviously didn't stop as planned) and managed to point at the bus I would have to catch. Too bad nobody was there to film me jumping off a moving bus, running after another bus on the highway, dodging cars and finally jumping into the open rear door. Anyway, I had reached to point where my pulse couldn't rise any more long ago.
I was surprised at how the bus arrived in Hosur as planned and I found the bus to Bagalur (the next village I had to got to on my way to Shanti Bhavan) without any trouble. I arrived in Bagalur at around 9 pm and spent some time wandering about in search of a rickshaw driver to take me to Shanti Bhavan. I finally found Habib, who started going on about how it was night and how dangerous the roads would be but finally agreed to take me to the school for a higher price than usual.
We were speeding through the dark, being the only vehicle on the road, when suddenly something happened that would have caused me a heart attack had I been only a little older.
The silence of the night was suddenly broken by the bloodcurdling scream of a woman.
I clasped my chest with both hands, dying a little bit inside.
Then I realized: my driver had a Hindi song as a ringtone with started with the female singer screaming. While I was shaking on the rear seat he calmly answered his phone. For the rest of the drive I tried hard not to look into the dark forest on both sides of the road.
When we finally arrived at the campus gate at 9.30 pm it took me a while to realize that I actually made it. I'm already sure about one thing: Next weekend I will just stay at the school and actually enjoy it!
Domino's Pizza :3
The blinking bus that almost killed and abducted me ;)
Dienstag, 16. Oktober 2012
Having a fun time with power outs and mosoon rains ;)
How's the weather back in Germany? Cold and windy? I'm kind of envious!
Why? - Well, I suppose you still have light at night, water to take a shower and you're not swept away by the rain. Enjoy it!
I've just realized that there is never any normal week at Shanti Bhavan. That is a good thing though, otherwise it would get boring, right? I meant to write a Blog entry about a typical day at the school but I always get distracted by unexpected events (apart from not finding time to do it).
Last week started with me getting incredibly sick on Tuesday morning. I woke up at 3 am and managed to get a bucket just in time. Shortly after I felt like not having to hug the bucket any more I had to run to the toilet. I stayed in bed the whole day and felt surprisingly good again in the afternoon.
It just seems inevitable to get sick at some point when staying in India for a longer time. Since I arrived here I already have been sick once, that Tuesday was the second time. Now I just hope I'm immune against any stomach bug that's out there!
The rest of that week was dominated by the celebrations for the "International Day of the Girl Child" that took place for the first time on that Thursday. For us, that involved people from Intel (the computer chip company) being on campus, giving an entrepreneurship training for the older girls and helping with organizing the celebrations.
All this resulted in the girls barely being in class, speeches and celebrations during classtime and finally, classes being cancelled on Thursday. It was not too bad though, as it meant I had time to finish reading one of my books ;)
That weekend we (Ally, Lynn, me and two new volunteers, Rebecca and Fanny) went to Bangalore from Saturday to Sunday, staying over night at the Sri Lakshmi Comforts Hotel. The main reason for me to go was to see the movie "Looper" which was supposed to be amazing, according to dozens of critics. I found it extremely disappointing - it just wasn't a good movie. Probably the critics were distracted from the content by Bruce Willis who played one of the main characters.
However, we still had a great time at the mall where the cinema was located, eating frozen yogurt and stuff we don't get at the school ;)
The next day Lynn, Fanny and me went to the botanical gardens of Bangalore which are somewhat away from everything else but are huge! That was basically the most impressive thing about them, together with some trees, planted by either Queen Elizabeth II, Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi. The rest was not that well-kept so we didn't stay for too long.
The weirdest thing about the weekend though was that every single auto driver wanted to cheat us. They asked for ridiculous amounts of money, the driver who was supposed to take us to the gardens didn't know the way - even though he said so before, took forever to get there and wanted a ridiculous amount of many in the end, way more than we agreed on. When we refused to pay the got aggressive and Lynn got scared, so she paid him what he wanted. Strictly spoken we should have called the police.
Two! other drivers who should take us to our Hotel wanted us to walk the last 1,5 km so they didn't had to take the turn required to pass by the hotel. The reason they gave us was: "Sir, I can't drive on the other lane here, only one way!"
This was far from being true as the road our hotel was one was one of the biggest roads in Bangalore! He just planned on us not knowing it and wanted to save some time and money by making us walk.
As we arrived at Shanti Bhavan, the power in the school had been out for almost two days. When we came back on Sunday it still wasn't on again. On the weekend and in the following days we also had heavy monsoon rains so supposedly some power lines broke down in Tamil Nadu. However, another problem became apparent on Sunday. The school, being remote, gets its water from an underground well with a pump distributing it to the different buildings. There it is stored in water tanks on the roof. The pump is run by electricity. On Sunday, the water tanks were almost empty, with no electricity to refill them.
The reason that I am able to write this post now, on Tuesday, is that we had power for some time today. However, it only has half the amperage (don't ask me about details! ;) which means it is sufficient for charging a phone or a computer and for the energy saving lamps in all of the buildings but not for running a pump. This afternoon I was able to squeeze half a bucket of yellowish water out of one tap to take a shower after PT...I just hope real power comes back tomorrow.
The other problem is that the classroom light in the school runs on solar power, to be precise, a battery that is charged by solar panels. With the sky being gray and cloudy all the time now we barely get enough power to light the classrooms for one hour in the evening when the kids are supposed to learn and do their homework.
That's another not-so-common week at the school so far, how about Germany? I still wait for the construction workers to hit the main or accidentally cut the power while building Stuttgart 21, should that happen when I'm back again - I'm ready now!
Some more pictures from Hampi!
As promised, here are some pictures from my stay in Hampi that my fellow volunteers took. LIzzy, who was with us on the trip was really busy during the last two weeks so she couldn't give me the pictures she took until today - that's way it took so long.
Here we go:
Ally, me and Lynn on the bus to Hospet/Hampi
During the procession for Ganesha :)
On the rocks next to the Hanuman temple
The Hampi-Crew: Bitsy, Lizzy, Ally, me and Lynn
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