I probably should start by explaining my title...I managed to get my second cold in seven weeks last week. A cold in a hot country?! So with that, topped with my weird cough that comes around every now and again and feeling a bit sick and feverish after starting my anti malarials. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself by Tuesday, so much so that I just wanted to come home and snuggle on the sofa, under a duvet with something rubbish on the telly. Not sit tearfully in the bathroom (I can't seem to deal with the common cold abroad) before dragging myself to school to teach children their ABCs. This is before I discovered the wonders of Indian medicine...about twice as strong as ours and some cough medicine sorted me out and I'm back on form.
Anti malarials aren't all bad either. I hadn't needed them for Mumbai and I'd subconsciously taken a bit of a 'laissez-faire', 'it won't happen to me...it'll be fine' attitude as it meant parting with quite a lot of money I don't currently have. I know this is totally stupid as malaria really isn't sexy (just ask Cheryl Cole) but I was starting to worry a little bit more with every mosquito bite (and there have been lots) and the booming voice of mother spoke so I bit the bullet and made my way to the chemist. I was literally speechless when I was asked to hand over a mere 467 rupees for six weeks worth of tablets, which is under a fiver. A months supply in the UK is 100 pounds, so it goes without saying that I was pretty chuffed...and will hopefully remain malaria free.
I'm now living in a little town called Calangute now and have been for the last fortnight. I'm in a home stay again living with our co-ordinator Jenny's sister in law Pauline and her husband Eddy (not the usual Indian type names I know but theirs a lot of Christians round here) and sharing a room with the lovely Rachel. I've been very lucky to have met and got on so well with everyone I've shared with in India. You don't have long to cram in as much as possible so you get to know people far quicker than you would in a normal situation. We share an annex off the back of the house and eat in the main house.
Speaking of the food, I'm pleased to report that all is still well (and always better than Mumbai) in that department. However, there's always enough food at the table to feed a family of four and Pauline will pass comment if she feels that we haven't eaten enough (which seems to be quite a lot in her opinion) so we've coined a new phrase to describe how we feel after one of Pauline's meals. We call it 'Pauline Full'. Curry, rice and chapatis does get repeatative though and cravings for 'normal' food have to obliged with the occasional Dominos pizza, much welcomed last Friday night! We were full after, but not 'Pauline Full'.
The projects are a lot more challenging than the previous ones. In the morning we work at the local 'Little Flower of Jesus' Kindergarten and Primary School. I work in the nursery, which I imagined would be like day care. But in actual fact the children are expected to spend the entire time in their seats, even during playtime which I'm still finding a little odd. I'm not big on standing up and talking in front of big crowds, so I was pretty scared when in a matter of minutes of walking into the classroom on the first day, the sister who teaches the nursery made me stand at the front of the class and simply said "Teach them something". I stood for what felt like an hour gawping at the forty little faces gawping back at me but managed to get out some words and actions for 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' and they seemed happy with that. Its definitely given me more confidence to stand up in front of a crowd as I now think nothing of standing at the front of the class dancing about to nursery rhymes or the ABC.
Its been difficult getting used to going from being 'dee-dee' (an affectionate term for a female you're not related to) at day care to 'teacher' at school. I'm not an actually teacher in the qualified sense but its a much more formal environment where you are there to make them learn rather than as a playmate. The discipline isn't as harsh as it has been before and it can be frustrating when the Sister (the class is taught by a nun) would rather appease the children by giving them what they want when they cry rather than letting them wail it out for five minutes before they realise that crying and screaming won't get them their own way. Its good that they don't beat them with a stick but there are no other discipline procedures in place so I've tried to Super Nanny it up and introduce the 'naughty step', which I feel is a step in the right direction. As usual the Sister and I don't always see eye to eye.
As usual the characters that stand out for me make themselves known pretty quickly. There was one little girl who always wants to play catch at play time and seems like the happiest, most oblivious child in the world. I nicknamed her 'Baby Spice' as she always wears her hair in high bunchies, she disappeared for a while but was back today! The other is 'Crying Boy', whos wailing can be heard from our home stay. He screams and cries all day, everyday as soon as his mum or dad leaves. I took pity on him as I was that child at nursery myself. They put him in the hallway a lot of the time and my (almost) proudest moment was when it was my turn to sit with him whilst he screamed. I managed to get him to stop crying and coaxed him into moving closer and closer to the classroom, just enough so he could see what was going on but without having to be there. I'd almost got him into the classroom when his mum walked up to the front gates and shouted something at him, so of course he started crying again and clung to the gates. I was so frustrated that my hours worth of hard work had been blown in a few seconds so much so that I lost my cool, threw my arms in the air, yelled "Whats the point" and stomped back into the classroom. On par with some of the kids, but I'm still getting used to this whole teacher thing.
The afternoon is working at a girl's orphanage, much like I did in Merces but once again we're in the more formal role of 'teacher'. The children are in primary school so have a pretty good grasp of English (their favourite phrase being "Teacher noooo" when it comes to doing spellings). The standard is mixed, there's two girls who never cease to amaze me with their maths and spelling ability and its getting more difficult to come up with activities to do whilst remembering that English isn't their first language. Then there's some who I ask to spell cat and they'll start it with a J so its a challenge managing them all. Particularly as they all want you to focus your full attention on them individually and look at their work. For all its frustrations its immensely satisfying to watch them doing the worksheets you've written and when they finally do spell 'cat'.
As its been much more physically and emotionally draining, the weekends are much welcomed...poor Rachel. On her first full day in India, she fell in the Arabian sea, a drunk man decided to get his knob out on the beach, we got asked by pretty much every man on the beach if we could have our photo taken with them and we bumped into two guys calling themselves Del Boy and Rodney Plonker. It was a memorable day to say the least.
We spent last weekend in Old Goa and Panaji (Goa's capital). I'd been before with Lauren but I was happy to go round the town and St Augustine's ruins again. I'm not normally one for ruins after visiting Carisbrooke Castle on Ashwell Primary's school journey to the Isle of Wight. My ten year old brain registered a pile of old bricks that didn't resemble anything and that's pretty much been my opinion of ruins ever since. St Augustine's are actually worth looking at though and I've always felt a sense of calm and a good moment to step back and appreciate where I am. Its also provided a really good setting to play with my SLR and get some really good shots.
We had a 'normality' evening on Saturday night and went and had mushroom and cheese pasta (my first bowl of pasta in seven weeks) with a cheeky side of chips before going to the cinema to see 'Cars'. I like that you have to stand up and singing the national anthem before the start of the film and that you get an interval half way through, makes it more of an evening out. I'm really hoping that Harry Potter is released whilst I'm still here so I have a memorable place to see the last one!
We had another British day at the beach on Sunday. British as it was raining and windy all day, if you looked straight out to sea and didn't look at the people it could easily of been Clacton beach during the great British summer. I think the UK stole all the sun that day! We were actually looking for a fort that was supposed to be at the end of the beach, but when we got there there was a big shipwreck but nothing that resembled a fort so we must have been in the wrong place (definitely not surprising when I'm involved).
This weekend is set to be a busy one. Jenny arrives tomorrow, as does a new volunteer who will be staying with us for two weeks and another volunteer from the Mumbai project whose coming for the weekend. I'm really excited for next week as my mum arrives on Monday. I haven't seen her for two months and I'm really looking forward to showing her around my Indian home and what I've been doing whilst I've been here. I'm looking forward to having a few nights in a hotel that has 'rain' showers (no jug and bucket for me), wifi and a pool!
This is now my eighth week in India and I'm rapidly approaching the end of my time here, so I've been starting to think about what I'm going to do with the thirteen days between the end of the projects and Thailand (only 43 days to go guys). I'd ideally like to visit the other half of H Squared (Holly K) in Nepal, but there might be visa issues there and I don't think I could come to India and miss out on Delhi and the Taj Mahal so I'd like to squeeze those in too...decisions decisions decisions. Vietnam is also another country I've always wanted to see so I'm trying to arrange some time there after Thailand as its only next door. Lots of organising to be done (not my strong point).
Well thats me thus far, four weeks left! I hope you've all enjoyed my blog so far and continue to do so.
I hope the good weather continues in the UK and that we get the good British summer we deserve. But if not, as the Bulmers advert says...it's glorious, loveable, eccentric, magnificent and ours!
I shall leave you with a picture of Baga Beach, just down the road from where I'm staying. I took it back in May so the weather isn't quite like this now, but is beautiful all the same.
Lots of love from
Holly
xxx
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