India is amazing!

Let me just start by saying this: India is amazing! It’s so exciting, diverse, chaotic, yes but also so much fun!

Today I went on a trip to Bangalore with Lizzy, Sachin and many of the other volunteers. We started our trip at 9 am, when Babu, our driver, picked us up at the school. The ride to Bangalore took us about 2 hours and I had the chance to see all the things that were strange and kind of scary when I arrived Friday night in daylight. We were driving through so many small villages with people everywhere, preparing food, selling stuff, riding motorcycles or just standing around talking. There was just so much going on everywhere, it was really hard not to miss anything. Everything was really simple and small as the villagers were clearly not wealthy people. 

So as we arrived in the outer parts of Bangalore it was like suddenly waking up in a whole new world. All the firms stationed in Bangalore (HP, Intel,...) had their technology parks there, massive futuristic buildings out of glass and steel that really felt out of place. 

Babu then dropped us of in the inner city, at a hotel called Ramada as some people where staying overnight. After they checked in we took a motor riksha (which is called “auto” here) to somewhere near a restaurant we wanted to go. The ride there was just crazy. You all may have already seen a video of Indian traffic in your lives but actually being a part of it is so different. It really takes you some time till you’re not afraid to die any second anymore. As Babu put it quite right: “You go through the traffic like a snake.” There are driving lanes but nobody ever cares. You just look for holes in traffic where your car, auto or motorcycle fits in and honk constantly so others will know you are passing them. Its just amazing how well this works, we didn’t even touch any other vehicle and we were driving around a lot that day. In the villages you also have dogs or cows lying on the street, people will just drive around them in the last moment and they don’t even care. Oh yeah, you’ll see stray dogs everywhere, walking around in piles of trash, sleeping on the street or looking for something to eat. Even on the school campus you will encounter a stray dog sometimes. There are also two “official” dogs that belong to the security staff called Chelsea and Chester and they are just so cute.

The restaurant called “Geoffry’s” was located inside a very nice and exclusive hotel away from all the traffic so we sat in the garden enjoying the peace and the quiet. I had a delicious Thai Green Curry with rice and I realized that, except for the mushrooms I didn’t know any of the vegetables in the sauce which tasted amazing. There were leaves that looked a bit like spinach but tasted like a mixture of lemon and peppermint. I also had an Indian Kingfisher beer for the first time which was quite good - especially as it was cool and really refreshing. The coke I got was also interesting, Indian coke is really different from European and American coke, they put spices in it that give it a great taste.

After that we were ready to hit commercial street and go shopping! We took an auto to get there and there was so much more going on than everywhere else I’ve been. You just can’t capture that on a picture, you really have to be there yourself. Speaking about being there: it didn’t really think about the fact that I was India, it just felt right. But as I imagined a world map with a small point in Bangalore and another in Stuttgart I realized how crazy this was, having been in Germany only two days ago and now you’re walking down a street in a town in the middle of India, being the only European there. Actually, as we went back to the hotel where we met the others, I met an Italian guy who lived in Tuscany and gave me the name and address of the restaurant he runs there. Isn’t that amazing? I’ll definitely try and eat there next time I’m on vacation in Italy!

At commercial street at first i could do nothing but follow the girls wherever they went as it felt like there were absolutely no shops for men. There was a shoe store that had really nice and incredibly cheap shoes, but I couldn’t decide if I should get a pair or two so I’ll probably do that next time.

As I head a slight headache and really needed some caffeine I went to a place called “Café Coffee Day”, the Indian equivalent of Starbucks with Sachin. As it was quite warm outside I didn’t want a hot coffee at first and ordered an energy drink. As I took a closer look at the can I was shocked to see that in India they don’t put caffeine in these drinks but  nicotine! I mean, could I get addicted drinking these? 

For the moment I decided not to drink and take it back to the school with me...just give me your opinion wether I should risk it or not ;)

I went for a black coffee and a piece of hot chocolate cake instead. Both were delicious! I mean, drinking this coffee I felt like having a really good espresso in Italy and the best thing about the cake was that it was soft, sweet and totally vegan. India is such a great place: literally on every menu or packed food you buy you’ll find either a red of a green dot. Red means non-veg and green veg. So at the restaurant we went to for lunch I could immediately figure out what I could eat. The best thing is, for Indians eggs are non-vegetarian so an apple pie will have a red dot on the menu as there are eggs in it. The chocolate pie had a green dot so I can only say: why can’t Germans figure out how to make such an amazing cake without eggs? :)

After this coffee break we continued our shopping tour, I went to a place called “Health & Glow” a drugstore where I could get a razor as I forgot mine right before leaving. I then joined the girls at a nice placed called “Fabindia” that sold men’s clothes! I took the chance to buy two linen trousers, two Kurtas (traditional Indian shirts) and a shirt with short sleeves an a nice pattern - pictures will follow soon ;)

They are soooo comfortable and the quality is really good.

Now I was walking around with two of the girls and we were already thinking about going back to the hotel where we would meet the others and our driver as it began to rain. It started off slow but soon it was a real monsoon rain just flooding everything and with umbrellas being useless we sought cover under a small roof, waiting for it to end or at least get better. 

As it didn’t get any better we decided to take an auto to the hotel. During the drive we realized just how much it rained: we were driving into a slightly lower part of a street so all the water just flowed down there and stayed as there wasn’t any drainage. It was at least 30cm high - now that’s how you imagine monsoon to be :D

The driver was really talented and got us to the hotel save and in no time. Arriving there we were surprised to see that nobody was there. After waiting for 5 minutes we went up to the room as one of them was staying over night. There Lizzy called us and informed us that they couldn’t get to the hotel because of the rain. They were looking for a solution and after maybe 40 minutes they managed to get there with Babu who picked us up. We didn’t have dinner yet but we decided to go straight to Shanti Bhavan as it was already dark and so we wouldn’t arrive there too late.

Back in my room, while writing this post I realized I forgot to tell you about the “controlled power cuts” which is a fun thing ;) The state of Tamil Nadu, where Shanti Bhavan is has decided to save power by just turning it out several times a day for three hours. So power (and that also means light) will go out at 12 pm, go back on at 3 am till 6 am and then go out again. This means you really have to plan when you can charge your computer, phone etc.

So that’s it for today, until next time!

That's how the area around Shanti Bhavan looks like (I made that picture out of Babus car)

One of the villages we passed on our way to Bangalore 

One of the huge tech parks in Bangalore

An enormous shopping mall

An ad for the Indian Army - no difference from ads for the American Army ;)

Are there any rules at all?

One of the autos we took

The Thai Green Curry I had for lunch and some Kingfisher

Some of the volunteers (Lizzy is the one the left)

Commercial Street...

Two stray dogs sleeping on the street

 Rain...

Even more rain...

It's monsoon season! :)

The journey begins...

Ok, so the packing was way more difficult than I imagined. When I had everything stuffed in my suitcase last night at around 11 pm, I decided to check its weight. 27,5 kg - oh my god. I am allowed to have 23 kg max. So now I had to decide which clothes and other items were not absolutely necessary. Not quite easy when you have to take clothes and stuff for 4 Months with you. Fortunately the weather in India is so warm that I didn’t need any heavy jackets or boots. Finally after some difficult decisions my suitcase was at around 22,5 kg - still to much for running around at the airport if you ask me ;)

Now it was far beyond 12 pm what left me 3 hours of sleep at the time I was finally in bed as I had to get up at 4 am. Surprisingly I did sleep quite good in these 3 hours.

After taking a shower, having a cup of tea and doing a last check of my suitcase I was ready to go. My parents accompanied me to the airport and after the check-in and the safety control the adventure began^^

After a short flight I arrived in Paris at the airport Charles de Gaulle where I would have a connecting flight to Bangalore. Let me say one thing first: this airport is HUGE! The only thing I knew from my boarding card was that I had to go to some Terminal named Aerogate  E2 (god thing they didn’t call it terminal, right?). After looking around for a bit I fortunately found a sing with saying Terminals E2, G2, etc. so I figured that “Aerogate” probably meant  Terminal ;)

Now the fun began as I still had to find the right gate (no, not Aerogate-Terminal whatever, GATE). The airport Charles de Gaulle offered a variety of different gates, one for each letter of the alphabet. My flight was listed on the huge plate with the letters K and L behind it. So I took the chances and queued for boarding the Gates K, L and M. 

It was obviously the right decision as a nice service lady assured me in french. But guess what: My flight wasn’t going at Gate K, not at gate L, but at gate M! 

This meant I had to take a train to get there! Can you now imagine how huge this thing is? I mean, they have their own airport trains to get you from one gate to another.

After arriving at gate M everything went pretty easy, I enjoyed the awesome lounge for some time, admired the super-modern toilets where I had a Buddhist monk in a traditional robe standing next to me at the sink! It would have been an awesome picture but I refrained from taking one for obvious reason ;) Turned out, he and his fellow monk where sitting behind me on the plane :D

Before taking off the crew informed us that due to international regulations they had to spray some insecticide before every flight. Right after that two stewardesses hurried through the hallway, holding a heavily smoking can over their head. They did 2 rounds until it went quite foggy in the plane :D The insecticide had an awful peach scent and soon everybody held a scarf or a T-Shirt in front of his mouth. The crew insured us that the stuff wouldn’t be harmful at all - I decided to believe them ;)

The flight was nice and quit as the Indians on board (about 80% of all travelers) dozed away as soon as we took off. The food was pretty good, I even got a vegan menu! (see pictures below). The vegan coconut-chocolate-cake was just delicious!

Shortly after the meals were distributed, air turbulences began. I found it quite amusing especially as my orange juice flew above the cup for a moment :D

There was heavy rain in Bangalore as the plane arrived so we flew through a thunderstorm while landing - pretty impressive to see the lightning next to your window.

While waiting for my suitcase at the airport the power suddenly went out for 10 minutes which caused the luggage band to stop suddenly! As it went on again I got my suitcase right away, went to the exit and my first impression of India was: RAIN! Not really a surprise as it is monsoon season in India at the moment but you really couldn’t take a step away from the roof at the exit because you would be soaking wet in seconds. I was informed that a taxi driver with a sign saying “Shanti Bhavan” would wait for me at the exit. There were actually lots of people holding signs but none of them saying Shanti Bhavan :( 

As I walked around there looking desperate other taxi drivers tried to convince me to go with them. After 40 minutes I got worried and tried to call the school but my phone didn’t work...

One taxi guy started following me everywhere as he figured I didn’t have a ride....pretty creepy. Meanwhile I was desperately trying to reach somebody and already thought about what to do if the driver didn’t come. As I walked past the row with the people holding signs once again THERE HE WAS! 

I was so relieved that I asked him, joking, if he had to wait long. “No No Sir, I arrived here 3 Minutes ago” was his answer accompanied by such a friendly smile that all the stress went away in a second.

We walked to his car, a nice but ancient Chevy and I was finally on my way to Shanti Bahvan :)

It was during the 2-hour drive that I really realized that I was in India now, thousands of kilometers away from home. We were passing a few villages and everything just looked so different from anything I’ve ever seen. I tried to make a picture but it was pitch black outside with very few streetlights and it was still raining. It will be really interesting to take the same drive at daylight.

Upon arrival at Shanti Bhavan I was welcomed by Elisabeth Rainer, one of the two OSAs (On Site Administrators) who showed me my room and told me the most important things. 

I then took a shower and went straight to bed as breakfast was at 7.30 am what left me 4 hours of sleep.

Breakfast was great, a spicy but delicious curry and Chai and Coffee to drink. After that Lizzy (Elisabeth) and Sachin (the other OSA) showed me around and gave me my schedule. Looks as I’m teaching mostly 9th grade History, Geography and Social Studies which is great! 

I will be starting to teach next week but as the children have lots of exams in this week it will really start the week after that.

I sat in the 7th grade math class - as I will be teaching the same class in chemistry one student was so thoughtful he already made me a seating chart with all the names. They are so interesting but I will have a hard time remembering them all and pronouncing them right (e.g. Sabarinath, Devraj, Saranya, Soundanya...)

I also visited a pre-school group with Lizzy and another volunteer and these kids are just adorable! They were just listening to a story as we came but they were so excited that as soon as it was finished they started jumping around us, screaming and laughing :)^ 

I’m super excited and we’ll see how things are going. I might be going on an trip to Bangalore tomorrow but you should read about that in my next post :)

Until next time!

                   
Stuttgart airport in the morning, right after boarding

Paris - you might even find the Eiffel tower ;)

The train at the airport Charles de Gaulle: next stop, Terminal M

Luxury lounge! Oh yeah, there was a Starbucks behind me - 4,70€ for a tall café...

The vegan meal on the plane, coconut-chocolate-cake in the top left corner

Night is coming

Our flight route

First impression of Bangalore - you don't really see the rain, but it's there, believe me!

Introduction - 2 days to go

Hey there :)

First I want to welcome my family, friends and whoever is interested to follow me on my journey to India and read about my experiences on this blog. 

I'm sure it will be a great, interesting, challenging and engaging time and I will do my best to keep you up to date with posts and pictures!

I'll begin with answering a few questions:

What am I doing in India?

I will be working as a volunteer teacher at Shanti Bhavan, an exceptional school whose mission is to provide the best education as possible to the disadvantaged children of India's lowest caste and enable them to study and achieve great things. The idea is that one child who made it will make an impact on the lives of hundreds of other children.

Their education gives them a chances to be the leaders of tomorrow and transform the Indian  society. 

The school is located about 3 hours south of Bangalore, the next big village is Hosur.

During the school holidays I'll try to see as much as possible of southern India, there are so many interesting things to see there that time will surely be to short!

How long will I be there?

As indicated in the title, my flight will go on Thursday, August 23rd. My flight back is scheduled for December 25th but I have the option to rebook the flight to a later date...we'll see. The only limit is my visa, which lasts for 6 months.

If you have any other question that wasn't answered, don't hesitate to write a comment or send me an email.

I will try write new blog entries as often as possible or, well, if there is something interesting to tell :) We'll see how much time I've got as the work at Shanti Bhavan will be quite challenging.

At the moment I'm getting everything ready for thursday, at least I have all the stuff I need together (I hope so!) The next challenge is to get it into my suitcase and not exceed the weight limit by the airline ;) 

There are still a few things to do and e-mails to write but it should be possible to finish everything by wednesday night.

The rest of the time I spend reading "Teach like a champion" by Doug Lemov, a great book that prepares me for being a teacher. The other one is "India Untouched - The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty" by Dr. Abraham M. George, the founder of Shanti Bhavan.

By the way, the weather in Germany is great, sun and 33 °C - the best preparation for India. Good thing we have a terrace with a nice view where I can read my books.