The final blog written on the journey home

Having now been travelling home for the past 27 hours (!) I’ve had a lot of time to reflect about what I’ve experienced and achieved over the last five months. One word springs to mind: LUCKY! I feel so lucky to have been able to make such an important and life changing trip. I feel lucky to have such supportive family and friends and such an understanding employer. I feel lucky that I am at a point in my life where I have the freedom and finances to make the time to do this trip. And I feel lucky to have been raised to have a ‘can do’ attitude that’s allowed me to face up to many fears and to overcome them in the past five months. Thank you to everyone who pushed me to do this – it was the best decision I’ve ever made (with your help!)!

I feel like I have had the time to reconnect with myself and my values. “I’m too busy” is a horrible excuse that gets used all too often in Western society (and is only sometimes the case!). It’s down to priorities, what you see as being more important at that point in time, so it’s been nice to have the luxury of playing around with my priorities to find the best fit with my values and beliefs. I am so much happier now – I feel great and I believe that I have changed for the better. I feel like me again!

So far I’ve figured out the following: 

• I have done some charity fundraising over the past couple of years (Kilimanjaro, Nepal, Great North Run) but raising money isn’t enough. I need to reconnect with the things that are important to me and actively try to make a difference (as I have tried to do over the past five months). I used to voluntarily visit an elderly lady once a week when I lived in York. She really benefited from this (it helped her speech after a stroke and gave her company) and I enjoyed hearing her stories (even if I did hear the same stories each time!). I contacted Age UK when I moved to London but then the old “I don’t have time” excuse crept in and stopped me from volunteering. Thinking back, I am cross at myself for this so this needs to change.  I will look for meaningful volunteer projects once I am settled in my new job.
• I have loved working with the children in India and Vietnam. I have always known that I will raise children at some point in my life but it has become even more apparent to me that there are so many needy children in a world that is already over-populated. Maybe adoption/ fostering is a route I need to go down in the future. 
• I have re-discovered my love of animals. I have re-learned the joy that animals bring through the unconditional love that they give (I say unconditional but they certainly seem to love you more when milk/ food is on the cards!). “I’m never at home” was always my excuse for not getting a pet but I don’t have that excuse in my new job! We’ll see! 
• Linked to this, I have become a vegetarian. Having sat next to (and listened to) a live chicken in a box on a 4 hour bus ride in Belize and seen how the cows and rabbits were treated at the boarding house in India (I hasten to add that they are not mistreated but they are certainly not happy!) I feel satisfied with my decision. 
• For some reason, my physical and mental health were not always near the top of my priority list before I went away.  I spent my life feeling stressed and tired, I didn’t make as much time for the gym as I should and I didn’t always eat the healthiest food if I ran out of time to cook (there’s that old excuse again!). In India Molly taught me some basic yoga and I have found that this is very important to my health. I had previously tried yoga and found that my mind was too busy with other things. I now feel clear enough to feel the benefits, both physically and mentally, and I will look to continue this in the future along with attending the gym more routinely and making time to cook healthy and well balanced food.
• Having practiced water conservation both in Belize and India I see how I should better police this when I am at home. I am good at not leaving the tap running etc when I brush my teeth, however, I need to reduce the length and frequency of my showers! 
• At home I am terrible at plugging in electrical appliances and leaving them on to charge for a lot longer than necessary (my phone stays charging overnight most of the time!). Having survived power cuts galore in India I need to make sure that I don’t abuse the amount of power available to me in the Western world. 
• In the past five months I have found a side of me that is very resourceful. I have survived without most of the comforts of home and, more than that, I have enjoyed it. I hope that this stays with me and I don’t fall back into bad habits fueled by Western living. I am, however, looking forward to washing my clothes in a washing machine!
• I need to make sure that I spend more time outside – I love being outside but I certainly don’t make enough of the nice days or the nature spots that are right outside my door (this may link in nicely with the pet idea a few points back!)!

Other personal development:

• I have learned the 50 states of USA (well, Molly and I had to pass the time on the long train journeys somehow!)
• Having spent 7 weeks in India finding ways to entertain the girls during their school holidays, I have a new found respect for my parents and grandparents! It’s not easy!

As I near the station at York, I want to say thank you to everyone who has been following my blog over the past five months. I believe I have got some of you into trouble for reading it at work – sorry about that! Documenting my experiences, thoughts and feelings has been cathartic (in India in particular) and allowed me to free a creative side for writing that has been trapped for a long time. It’s felt as if you were all there with me a lot of the time so I hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as I have!

I will sign off with one final thought. I have met so many people on my travels who have said to me “I wish I could do what you’re doing”. If volunteering/ travelling sounds like the kind of thing you’d like to do them my advise to you is JUST DO IT, no matter how many reasons you can find for not doing it! It’s been the best experience of my life and I hope that you all get to experience something similar in the future – it’ll change your life, I promise you that!

Aside from teaching.......

Aside from teaching I have:

• Tried to make pottery at Bat Trang Pottery village. It's harder than it looks and I spent the whole time waiting for Unchained Melody to come onto the radio and Patrick Swayze to wrap his arms around me! I did, however, get messy, destroy my pottery (resulting in the tutor having to make me a cup from scratch) and then paint said cup only for it to break on the flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh. Oh well, guess we'll have to go pottery painting in West Hampstead when I'm back, Mum!
• Visited the Water Puppets theatre. It's a tradition that dates back to the 11th century in Vietnam and was a beautiful display of some of the stories of Vietnam (from Dragons and Fairies to fans and Indian inspired dancing).
• Visited the Perfume Pagoda. Apparently everyone in Vietnam will visit this set of pagodas once in their lifetime as it's very sacred.
• Watched an Homage to Vienna at the Opera House in Hanoi. Trang and I were sitting in our own box  and really enjoyed the music of Mozart, Schubert and Ravel.
• Assisted in a lesson with Efirst, who teach English to university students. The lesson was on 'starting a conversation with a foreigner' and it was very interesting to be able to give my insight on how and where to approach a foreigner to practice English. This was particularly interesting to me as, only a few days before, I had been stopped by 6 students near the lake and 'interviewed' so that they could practice their English. Happy to help!
• Tried and failed three times to get to Ha Long Bay. There was a big storm on Saturday that lasted through to Tuesday morning which meant that all of the boats were pulled back in from the water. I am now in Ho Chi Minh but have rearranged my flight to Hanoi to get me back in time to try one more time on 27th June before I fly home on 28th. I'm desperate to see it so I hope the storm Gods are kind this time! I did, however, get to the movies (twice!) as there wasn't much else to do as most of the stalls and shops weren't open.
• Made some lovely new friends who have looked after me and made me feel really at home in Hanoi. Whenever I go out with any of my friends I am always collected from my house and taken into town. Drinks are bought for me and dinner is usually paid for. The hospitality and generosity shown to me over the past month has been staggering and very much appreciated!

Tomorrow I will visit some of the tunnels that were used during the war, the day after I will (hopefully!) get to Ha Long Bay and then I will be flying home after 5 months of amazing adventures! I can't quite believe how quickly it's gone!

Food in Vietnam - yummy!

RICE, rice and more rice! Although at least I don't have to eat rice for breakfast here, only lunch and dinner!

In the mornings I go downstairs to a little makeshift cafe in the courtyard of our apartment block. As soon as Egg Sandwich Lady (I'm ashamed to say I never caught her name!) sees me she sets to work on making my omelette to go inside the crispy roll along with some salad. She has a tiny bit of English (mainly numbers that I believe her young daughter has taught her) and she has a heart of gold - she only charges me 8000 dong (24p) for the sandwich. She kept hold of my sunglasses for me for a whole day when I left them at the table one morning. The first thing she did when she saw me the next morning was produce my sunglasses from her bag. She also let me borrow he phone once and wouldn't accept any money for the (local) call I'd made.

When I'm at school I get lunch every day at about 11.30am. I eat with the children in one of the school rooms. The lunch is brought in every day and I believe that it's bought from someone down the road. It comes packed like a Bento box and contains all sorts of goodies! I usually have an egg in some form as I'm still not eating meat, peanuts, morning glory (which is like spinach but better and full of iron!), tofu (which I've started to love now!), cabbage, lots of rice and green leaf soup (I'm still yet to find out what the leaf is!). Lunch is usually followed by a bit of melon, watermelon or huge grapes.

Dinner is served at the office at around 6pm, before the university students arrive for their lesson with Matt. Dinner is cooked by Mr. Son's nephew who lives with us. It's usually pretty tasty. It includes more rice with morning glory that comes with a dipping sauce and egg (omelette with mushrooms usually), fish or chicken. The food is served 'family style' except it's not the same family style that I'm used to at home. At home it's normal to get as much food as you'd like on your plate, finish it and them go back for seconds if required. In Vietnam it's normal to take only one mouthful at a time from the food in the centre of the table. This means that we go back for another mouthful from the food on the table with the same chopsticks that have just been in our mouths. I always found this a little strange but that's just the way they do it!

I had some wonderful food at a vegan restaurant called Loving Hut where they tried to imitate (quite successfully) fish and pork. I have no idea how they did it but it was the best meal I've eaten in Vietnam! I also had (vegetarian) Bun Cha which was pretty delicious. They give you a plate of thin rice noodles and a bowl of soup along with a plate of 'salad'. The salad is totally different to a salad at home as it seems to include nettles and other leaves that we'd never use at home. Tastes great though! I hope to try Pho on Friday when I have lunch with Trang - it's so famous that it would be a shame if I leave Vietnam without trying it!

Fruit-wise I have eaten pineapple and mangoes here that taste divine. The pineapple is so beautiful that you can eat the centre as it's so soft! I've also had some lychees which are delicious, mang cut (mangosteens) which taste strange and dragon fruit which is very yummy. I had a pink dragon fruit which was much nicer than the white one. I've also eaten lovely watermelon and another melon that's native to Vietnam (but I can't seem to find the name as I write this). The grapes here are huge and very sweet - lovely!

Update on teaching......

Firstly, sorry it's taken me so long to do a blog update - I've just been having too much fun to stop and write it all down!
I have finished my 3 weeks of teaching at the school now and I've got to say it was an amazing 3 weeks! I met some wonderful people (Thuy and Phuong Anh, two teachers who helped with translation in my 6-7 year old class, have been absolute stars!) and the children have grown a lot in this short time.
A couple of weeks ago I taught the older (12-16 year olds) how to say "the dog ate my homework" which I hope the other teachers find as funny as I did. If nothing else, it built a lovely rapport with the students and allowed me to teach them a lot more about Western culture as well as furthering their English. In one session we were learning about meeting new people from different cultures and the children were interested to learn that people in India only eat with their right hand as they use their left hand to clean themselves.
I have spent the most time with the 6-7 year olds as they have lessons with me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning as well as every day at 2pm. Minh is a funny little boy and I've watched him grow a lot in the past 3 weeks. He can now say "please can I borrow the ball" as he loves to play with the beach ball that I bought as a teaching tool that they play with in break times. He and a couple of the other children have also learned the word "careful" as I use it all the time when they lob the ball towards the very expensive projector and interactive board! Every time they do something that they know they're not meant to now they will instantly turn to me and say "careful"! It's very sweet! Minh is also the biggest daydreamer and is very easily distracted. He will even lose is focus when eating lunch and is always the last one to leave the lunch room. Last week the children were eating a pork steak and it was hilarious watching Minh try to eat this as he's missing his two front teeth! As we were eating with chopsticks I had no way of helping him to cut it up so all I could do was watch and try my hardest not to laugh! He managed in the end!
Thai is a funny young boy who fluctuates between angry and aggressive one day to sweet, caring and thoughtful the next. His spoken English and understanding is quite good as his older sister is also in the class and I think they practice at home too. He is the cheeky one who always needs to be reminded to be quiet or to focus but I have no doubt that he will be good at English in the future. When it's time to sleep (after lunch) he always fights with Tien Vinh over a blue pillow. I'm sure it's as soft as the other pillows but they both seem convinced that it's the best! A simple game of 'rock, paper, scissors' seems to settle the dispute most days.
Tien Vinh has a lovely temperament. He gets excited and jumps around, however, he's about as graceful as a buffalo! His English is very good, he loves drawing (and will draw and colour a picture in about 4 minutes - not good when the rest of the class takes about half an hour!) and is great at bingo. In my final week we played a couple of games of word bingo which included all of the words that we had learned over the few weeks since I've been teaching. He won the first game and was incredibly excited, screaming "BINGO" at the top of his lungs for a full 20 seconds before I asked him to sit back down so we could continue!
Thao was brand new to English when she started with us 3 weeks ago. She had never learned letters or numbers which made it very hard as everyone else had at least the basics. She is very shy and under-confident when talking in English (although she will quite happily natter away in Vietnamese when she's in the lunch room) and she doesn't like joining in with our games. I had a breakthrough in the last week when she came up to me and said boldly "thank you" straight to my face. I have no idea what she was thanking me for but it made my day!
Hoang Linh is a little bit older than the other children in the class and his English is a little better. He doesn't really like to engage in the lessons very much and would prefer to do exercises in his book (he and Ha Linh have a different exercise book to the rest as they are more advanced). I take a 30 minute lesson with Ha Linh and Hoang Linh every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to work with them on some more complicated English as I am aware that they get bored in the beginners class. During breaks he likes to lie on the floor and play with the ball (sometimes at the same time!). He loves the soup at lunch and will sometimes have 3 bowls and he loves Oreo biscuits which he brings for break-time quite often.
Ha Linh is the oldest girl and likes to take on the Queen Bee role. Thao can often be seen mimicking her or following her around like a little sheep. In the lunchroom they take great pleasure in whispering to each other, looking at me and laughing knowing full well that I don't understand. I once asked one of the Vietnamese teachers to translate for me - apparently they'd just said that Miss Jenny looks like a man! Kids can be so lovely, can't they?!
One thing I have found interesting is that the children here learn American English. I find that I have to translate myself before teaching the children (the pronunciation of 'vase' and 'tomato' and the spelling of favourite/ favorite and colour/ color stand out). In India it was easy as they learn English English (it was Molly who struggled when she would use words like 'trash' or 'period' instead of 'full stop') but I have found that it's kept me on my toes here.
All in all, a great few weeks. I've learned a lot about how children learn, how quickly they learn and how different they all are in their abilities and needs. 

Vietnamese traditions and beliefs

I had a great chat with Thuy, the other teacher that I have been working alongside with the 6-7 year olds (I need someone to translate for me as they know very little English) about the Vietnamese funeral tradition. At the weekend she had been at a party celebrating the life of her Great Grandmother. Thuy explained that there are many parties associated with someone's passing. Firstly, there is a wake after the funeral. 3 days after this there is another party and then 49 days after the funeral there is yet another party. The Vietnamese believe that the person's soul is trapped in the house after death so, at 49 days, the family all get together and throw a party that is designed to help the soul to leave the house and go to heaven. Depending on the lunar calendar there may be a party 15 days after the funeral but this was too complicated for Thuy to explain so we just left it at that! There is then a huge party 1 year later and another 2 huge parties in the following 2 years. Every year after that the family gets together and celebrates the life of the person who has passed away. Thuy and her family were celebrating the life of her Great Grandmother who had passed away before she was even born! How wonderful that they're still celebrating all these years on!
As I was fascinated by this conversation I then asked if there were any traditions related to birth. Thuy told me that 7 days after the birth of a girl the family has a party. They also throw a party for the boys but this is held 9 days after birth. Apparently this is different because it is believed that girls have 7 souls whereas boys have 9 souls. This is why the numbers 7 and 9 are very lucky in Vietnam.
We next went on to talk about university and finances. In the countryside people can expect to earn about 1-2 million dong (£31 to £62) per month from agriculture. On this kind of money it's hard to afford the cost of university. The government does help by giving a loan but it is still difficult. If students move to the city for university then they should expect to pay 1.5 million dong a month to rent a property. Student accommodation (that sounds like student halls in UK) is given to the poorer students for a reduced rate of 400,0000 dong (£12) per month. So the government does try to help the poorer families to get to university but, as in the UK, most students need to get a part-time job to help to pay their way. Teacher training courses are free (the government pays the fees)  but, once qualified, teachers will only start on 3 million dong (£91) per month. This will only increase to a maximum of 6 million after many years of experience are gained in teaching. Teachers are currently asking the government for more.
Now that Alex has gone, I have been asked to work with some university students in the evening. I come up with a topic of conversation each evening and we discuss and debate around this topic. The first one I picked for yesterday was organ donation (I wanted to really challenge their beliefs and their English!) and we had a very interesting session. We discussed about blood donation, the types of organs that can be donated and the physical and emotional effects of donating organs on you (live donor) or your family (donating your organs after death). I then posed the questions "should an alcoholic be given a new liver if they are still drinking?" and "should an alcoholic be given a second donor liver if they destroy their own liver and the first donor liver". This struck up some very interesting conversations and the students became very aware of the dilemmas that healthcare professionals find themselves faced with every day. To me the most interesting conversation of the evening came out of a point I made about 'opt-in' donor registers vs 'opt-out' donor registers. I'd mentioned that in UK we have to opt-in to donate our organs but in countries like Spain and Austria it is assumed that you will donate your organs unless you opt-out. The Vietnamese students were horrified at this as it goes against their beliefs about the next life. It is believed that, if you donate your eyes after death, then you won't be able to see in the next life. You need to die complete to be complete in the next life. This fascinated me as it's the main reason that Vietnamese people do not donate organs. Some Vietnamese have now overcome these fears and started to donate blood - there is an incentive for this in that if you need a blood transfusion and you have previously donated blood then you can have blood for free. If you have not previously donated blood but you need a transfusion then you need to pay for it. This linked nicely into the main debate - "As there is a lack of donors on the donor register, should we get paid to donate organs?". Once again lots of brilliant ideas were thrown around. One side asked how you would price each organ and conveyed the potential for a black market and for an increase in murders for organs and the other side stated that it would increase the number of donors, thus saving countless lives. Needless to say, we are all still sitting on the fence!
Today we discussed volunteering and specifically the types of volunteer opportunities available, how we find out about volunteering, whether you should be expected to pay to volunteer and how we could increase the number of people willing to volunteer (26% of adults in UK volunteered at least once a month last year).  I also posed the question "should companies give employees 6 months off every 5 years to volunteer". It was another interesting debate with one side talking about how the employee will 'find themselves' and learn/ improve skills in time management, team work and communication as well as learning about different cultures and different potential client bases (depending on the job). The other side argued that it was too expensive to keep a position open and/ or to train someone to take over the post in the short-term (or in the long-term if the employee decides not to come back after the 6 month period). Once again, we were on the fence. Thankfully none of us need to make this decision currently!

The first week in Vietnam has flown by.........

I've been in Vietnam a week now, and what a week it's been!
The teaching is a little easier now than it was at the beginning of the week. To be honest, I was a little out of my depth teaching the 6-7 year olds as I've never taught that age group before and none of them speak any English. But we've been playing lots of learning games (most of them with the ball I bought for them) and things have got a lot easier. It's been interesting to see the progress that most of the children have made in such a short space of time (with their English and their catching skills!) and we're all beginning to feel more comfortable with each other, even if we cannot effectively communicate with each other! The hardest parts are disciplining the children (how can I explain why their actions are unacceptable if we don't speak the same language?!) and motivating the children after nap time. Most of the children take a long time to wake up after their nap but they are scheduled to have an English class with me every day immediately afterwards (somehow I always managed to get the session immediately after lunch when I was at work too!). I have a few classes of 8-9 year olds per week and they understand me a lot better. We have been learning about clothes this week so we've had fun drawing our outfits and learning how to describe what we're wearing. I had one class of 12-16 year olds who could understand me very well but who brought their hormones with them into the classroom. Once boy, the youngest in the group, looked down his nose at me the whole lesson and was cocky when I asked him questions. When it came to working in pairs I made him come and work with me as punishment for being rude! We discussed what we had done at the weekend and all of the children, with one exception, said they slept late and then watched TV and spent most of the weekend being bored! Guess teenagers are the same in every country!
Between 10am and 11.30am the 6-7 year olds have playtime. On Thursday I brought in some leftover craft materials that we hadn't used when making the costumes for The Wiz and we made masks. It was really interesting to see how the children applied themselves to this. One child, Ty, likes to cause issues in the class (he doesn't like to share), overreacts to most things and gets angry very easily. However, he took the most care in his mask making and painstakingly stuck sequins onto his cardboard in a beautiful pattern whereas the other children just threw glitter around and hoped that some of it would stick! He was calm and focused - it was lovely to see! Now I just need to figure out how to get this behavior to show through in English class too!
On Thurdsay evening I was invited to a meeting by Efirst.vn English Centre. I was met by a group of students who are all learning English and told that I was the guest of honour! I was sat down at a table, given a drink and asked to talk about myself in (slow) English so that everyone could understand. The students all asked me questions about why I was volunteering, what I was hoping to do in the future and what my feelings were of Vietnam so far. It was a very strange experience as I was centre of attention and everyone's eyes were on me! We played a game of 'Who am I' so that they could practice their new words that they had just learned in class and then they asked me if I would like to come to their social event next Saturday with will most likely be either paintballing or indoor rock climbing! Brilliant! On the way home Trang, one of the girls, asked me if I would like to join her and her friends for a coffee on Saturday (yesterday) - we had a great time! Everyone here is so friendly and I am so happy that people are inviting me to do things!
Yesterday I took a quick 2 hour class (actually, it was the slowest 2 hours of my life as getting English out of these kids was like getting blood from a stone!) and then headed into the old quarter of Hanoi to explore. The old quarter was actually less hectic than I thought it would be. The streets were wider and the street sellers were less aggressive than I'd expected them to be. I had wanted to go to the Water Puppets but they were sold out so I have booked a ticket for next Sunday. I also booked my trip to Halong Bay (22nd June for 3 days) and when I got home I booked my flight to Ho Chi Minh City on 25th for 3 days. I'm very excited! I tried to find the Botanical Gardens (we had driven past them on the way to the old quarter) but I accidentally got lost. After a while I came across another lake (my fourth of the day, or so I thought) and decided to find a taxi to take me home. At that point Alex cycled by and told me that this was actually West Lake and I should just follow it round to get home! I was already halfway there so another hour's walking would get me home! I had a lovely time walking by the side of the lake, it was very peaceful and relaxing, if a little hot (38 degrees, my nose isn't happy!).

My first few days in Vietnam

When I arrived at Hanoi airport I was expecting to be collected by the manager of the charity that I would be working with. After about 5 minutes of looking around I realised that he wasn't at the airport but I assumed that good old Asian timekeeping was to blame so I resigned myself to the fact that I was probably in for a long wait. The taxi driver standing next to me asked me if I was waiting for someone and instantly volunteered his phone so that I could call to see what was going on. Good job that he did - it turns out that Mr. Son (the manager of the charity) had come to the airport to get me but then received a call saying that his Mum was gravely ill and he needed to leave to get to her bedside. Non-one was coming to collect me so Mr. Son texted the taxi driver's phone with the address of the office and a contact number for Xung at the charity who would meet me there. The taxi driver was a great help - it was a wonderful introduction to the hospitality shown by the people of Vietnam!

Once I arrived and dumped my bags Xung took me out for lunch at a street vendor down the road, he bought me pineapple, lychees and coconut ice-cream (way more food than I would ever possibly eat!) and left me to rest for the remainder of the day. I was in heaven! He told me that I he would meet me at 9am the next day and we would run through my schedule for the coming weeks. At 9.45pm the headteacher from the school came to the door and told me that she'd pick me up for school at 7am the next morning and I would be teaching until 7.15pm. Panic set in as I had nothing planned (I had no idea who I would be teaching or at what level as this Vietnamese trip was planned very last minute)! She then told me that I could teach them whatever I wanted as there was no set plan and no set curriculum. Double panic!! She told me that I would be teaching 6-7 year olds so, once she'd gone, I quickly fired up my laptop and searched for children's songs, children's games and lesson plans for teaching English to people who didn't speak a single word!

Of course, as is always the case, the reality wasn't as bad as I'd initially thought it would be. I was given a book on arrival and told that I would teach from that. Phuong Anh, a Vietnamese student teacher, would be there to help and translate for me and we would only teach for two hours in the morning then the children would play for an hour before lunch and sleep. The teachers also get to sleep every day from 12.30pm to 2pm - brilliant! In the afternoon I taught the 6 year olds again before spending 2 hours with the 9- 10 year olds and 2 hours with the 12- 16 year olds. Phuong Anh once again proved that the Vietnamese people very lovely as she offered to take me out into Hanoi and show me around next weekend. She loves to sing so we may even end up in a Karaoke bar after seeing the sights!

Today I only taught for 3 hours. I worked with the 8-9 year olds first and then watched Ice Age (which I still haven't seen all the way through!) with the 6 year olds until lunch. After a little sleep (woohoo!) I taught the 6 year olds before coming home at 3pm. Now I'm desperately trying to plan for tomorrow's lessons - I have felt like I've been on the back foot since I got here so it will be nice to be a little prepared!

The children are all on school holiday at present so all of the children that I am teaching are part of the summer school. The parents pay for these lessons. I am yet to find out how the school is funded throughout term-time but I know that, however they are funded, they are doing well as they have A/C in the rooms and an interactive whiteboard!

I am living at the office of the charity in a room with a British girl called Alex. Things are quite disorganised but we have a young man who stays with us and prepares dinner in the evenings (he's the nephew of Mr. Son), wifi and A/C. It's relative luxury compared to India! There's a huge Jackfruit tree outside, fruit markets just down the road and countless pharmacies just in case I need them (although that would be a shame considering I made it all the way through my time in India without getting sick!).

I have booked my ticket home - I will be flying back on 28th June to arrive on 29th. I will be going straight back to York but will be back in London on 11th July for several days. I can't believe that that will have been 5 months of travelling by that point, it's gone so fast!

OK, this is definitely the last blog from India (honest!) - The Salaam Baalak Trust

1st June:

I’m just sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to Hanoi and thought I would write one last blog about my tour this morning as it was really moving. I went on a walking tour with The Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) who work with street children. The tour was led by two young men who were living proof that the Trust does great work – they were both on the streets as children and were rescued by the Trust. One, Tariq, told us that he’d run away from his home in Nepal and travelled on a bus for 13 hours to get to Delhi to see the monuments. He was 9!!!! He lived on the streets and became addicted to drugs and gambling before SBT managed to motivate him to get off the streets. He explained that most street children have run away from their families due to drugs/ alcohol/ poverty/ abuse etc. If they can’t afford the bus or train then they follow the railway line by foot until they get to a big city. The boys work day to day collecting plastic bottles from the street (called Rag Picking) to sell for money. 1kg of plastic bottles fetches 30-40 rupees (about 40- 50 pence) and this will take them all day to collect. We were taken to a shop that buys these bottles which I found particularly interesting as it links beautifully to a book that I read last month about life in a slum in Mumbai – the children in this book collected plastic and paper to sell. The girls are forced into prostitution and get 200 rupees per customer. The girls only see 50 rupees of this (about 70 pence) and they are expected to have 15 customers per day!!!! The money that they earn needs to be spent immediately or it will be stolen from them as they sleep. They usually spend this on drugs/ alcohol/ gambling or movies on a Friday (apparently a great place to do drugs and sleep for a couple of hours in the cool). Food isn’t on this list -  it’s easy to get as India celebrates lots of festivals so the children can always find food somewhere as one of the many religions is bound to be celebrating something!

The tour took us to a Contact Point next to New Delhi Station. The station is a prime place for the children to sleep at night or to work during the day. When we arrived at the contact point there were only 3 children as the rest had gone to the station to collect plastic – they knew that a train was due and they didn't want to miss out on the plastic! This meeting point is the first stage in SBT’s plan. The social worker who works for SBT goes to the station regularly to meet with the children. New children are invited to attend the contact point between 10am and 2pm every day. Here they can get food, water and a medical check. HIV tests are done twice a year as lots of these children share needles and/ or are forced into unprotected sex. Once they have managed to convince the child that the contact point is a safe place (as SBT works closely with the police the children are initially sceptical) then they can be assessed and a plan can be formulated. If the social worker can persuade the child to come off the streets permanently then they will be invited to live in one of 5 boarding houses. I was told that these children, however, take a lot of motivating and persuading to leave the streets as they are very messed up on drugs and they are afraid of being ‘imprisoned’ in the boarding house. Tariq mentioned that he was on the streets for a long time before he was persuaded to leave. He finally agreed to come off the streets due to bullying from the other children – they were better educated than him and he wanted to change this. The social worker promised him an education so he accepted.

We next visited one of these boarding houses (the boys and girls are separate and this was a boys one). 60 boys live here for up to a year and they’re given food, clothes and an education. During this year their parents are contacted and the Trust tries to get them back into the home. After the home is checked and parents are given assistance where needed, the child is returned home if they want to go. Regular contact is kept between SBT and the parents to check that everything is OK. I asked if it was quite common for children to run away again once they’re placed back at home (there was a reason that they left in the first place!). The parents are told that, if the child is found in Delhi again then they will not be returned a second time. I’m not convinced that sending the children home is always the right choice but I’m sure that the Trust has many checks in place before the child is returned. Children who cannot be returned home will stay with the Trust and get a good education.

We met the 60 boys and they were all great! They wanted to arm wrestle, have thumb wars and play clapping games. One boy, aged 14, told me that his parents had sent him to Delhi for work. When he arrived there was no job for him so he had to live on the streets. His parents will collect him soon, once they find the money for the bus fare. Another little boy was obsessed with pressing all the buttons on my watch (I think he wanted it to light up) and was playing with my necklace. All of the children looked clean and most looked happy. One little boy was missing an arm from the elbow down – I hope that this was not a result of living on the streets although we were told that the children sustain serious injuries on the streets from fighting each other when they are on drugs.

Out second guide shared his story too. He had been sent to Delhi to work in a factory by his Step-Father. He worked 18 hours a day and fell asleep at the machine once for which he was severely punished. He got fed up of his existence so he stole some money from the factory and moved onto the streets. SBT found him, gave him an education and now he’s studying for his degree at university. His English was very good and he looked pretty happy. We were told many positive stories like this – the Trust has been working since the 80’s and have made a big difference to a lot of children. They currently work with 5000 children, the funding for which comes mainly from corporate sponsorship and private donations with about 10% coming from the government.

The last interesting thing that we saw on the tour was a wall down an alley that was covered in different religious pictures ranging from Hindu Gods to Jesus Christ. We were asked why we thought this had been done and we were given the clue ‘protection’. We all thought that the children maybe slept in the alleyway or maybe prayed in the alleyway for protection. We were wrong! Apparently if you put religious pictures on the wall it protects the building from being urinated on! The men won’t pee on a wall whilst God is looking – whatever works, I guess!

http://www.salaambaalaktrust.com/

Final thoughts as I prepare to leave India......

Goa:
Molly and I spent 5 nights in Goa right at the end of the tourist season (the monsoon rains actually started on the day we left!). It seemed like a lot of Indians had gone there for their holidays as it was pretty busy on the beaches but I don't have a lot to report as we were pretty lazy and just spent time on the beach/ shopping. One thing of note is that we were constantly having photos taken of us. To be fair, though, we were wearing bikinis when all of the other women on the beach were fully clothed! I spoke to one lady who asked if she could take a photo (at least she asked!). I explained that I didn't want her to take a photo as the only reason she was taking it was because I was white. She didn't have an answer. I think her husband was shocked that I had not only said no to having the photo taken but then marched over, put my hand over the lens and explained the reason why. Molly and I discussed this later and decided that this is probably what celebrities feel like - lots of unwanted attention from people who don't know you! However, this was only an annoyance and didn't ever make me feel unsafe or unhappy.

Agra and Taj Mahal:
Wow, what can I say about The Taj Mahal that hasn't already been said?! It's one of the 7 Modern Wonders of the World for a reason - it's absolutely stunning! Being a lover of all things symmetrical I was bound to like it and even the 750 rupees (vs 20 rupees for Indians!) entry fee wasn't enough to put me off! It truly is beautiful and I could have stayed there and stared at it all night, if I hadn't got heat stroke from the 44 degree heat before that!
On the way home we stopped at a temple and I made the stupid decision to get off the bus. One of the little street children who looked about 5 years old (who in reality was probably 8 or 9) took one look at me and decided that I was a soft target. He spent the next 45 minutes following me around and asking me to buy a musical instrument from him. Even when I got back on the bus he stood at the window, stared at me with his puppy dog eyes and begged me to buy something. And even as the bus started to move he followed, still bargaining with me! I took the same stance as I did when I was in Nepal and beggars would ask me to help - the fact is that I can't help everyone. I came to make a small difference to the lives of the girls in Hassan and I hope I managed to do that. There are too many people in India who need help and I will go mad if I attempt to help them all so, to keep myself sane, I needed to say no (about 6 million times!!!) to this child!

Things that I will miss about India:

• The girls at Hassan. The way they call flips flops 'slippers' and the way they are always looking out for me when we are outside the boarding house when it's me, as the adult, who should be looking out for them! I really enjoyed conversations we had with the girls about the differences in our traditions and culture and I hope that some of them will manage to visit UK/ USA at some point in their lives so that they can experience the differences for themselves.
• Being called Auntie (although, Steve and Gordon, don't feel that you need to go to any drastic measures to fill this void in my life just yet!)
• The Indian head bob that essentially means Yes/ No/ Maybe/ I hear you and understand/ I hear you and don't understand/ I'm not listening at all but feel that I need to gesticulate/ you're an idiot Auntie Jenny or pretty much anything else in the world
• The sunsets! The sun is so huge here that it is a phenomenal sight to see (see Facebook photos)
• The food - I'm pleased to say that I still like rice after 7 weeks of pretty much just eating rice! Puri and Dosa will make me fat before I leave but it's worth the heart attack!
• The cows who just walk down the street, stopping traffic whilst they eat rubbish! They're all so used to humans that you can walk right next to them and they don't bat an eyelid! I've also heard that McDonalds here doesn't sell any beefburgers due to the country's love of the cow - pretty awesome!
• The cheap transport - for me to travel the distances I have in England would have cost me hundreds of pounds. Here I have spent next to nothing.

Things that have saddened me about India:

• The girls feel that they need to put white powder on their faces before they leave the boarding house to make themselves less dark. There is still a definite caste system here and it's sad that the children don't feel happy in their skin. There are also adverts on the TV for skin lightening products that don't help! The children are obsessed with my white skin and they sing pop songs about white being better which I have told them I don't like. No matter how many times I have explained to them that it's your personality and not your skin colour that counts, they don't hear me/ don't believe me.
• I walked through the streets of Delhi last night after my Agra tour (I was with a German guy that I met on the tour or I would have taken a tuktuk) and I was shocked at how many people were sleeping on the streets. Men were sleeping on top of their fruit stall tables and dogs were huddled in doorways. The dogs all have fleas, they are very malnourished and have skin conditions.
• There is a lot of litter on the streets of India. Molly and I have spent time educating the girls on why it is important not to litter and how recycling can help (I even created a recycling bin for them). However, I know in my heart that their little change, as positive as it is, will not be big enough to help the country as a whole to be cleaner. It saddens me to see people throwing plastic and paper out of train windows and I wonder whether it's a lack of education or a lack of pride in the country that makes them do it. Either way it is sad and will take a lot more than me to change it.

Overall, I've had  a great time in India. I've enjoyed learning about the cultural differences, eating different food and sweltering in the heat! Let's hope Vietnam is just as good - my flight's tomorrow and I'm very excited!

Last few days in Hassan

The last few days in Hassan

Well, we finally managed to finish the murals (photos on Facebook!) and they look great. The girls drew all of the scenes in the Surfing mural and a couple of them showed that they have real talent. Ashwini drew a very impressive swimming pool along with a lady on a surfboard. Sahana drew a mummy and baby elephant and they look amazing! The children picked all of the colours and did all of the painting – all Auntie Molly and I did was mix the paint and make sure that the paint ended up where it should (although we didn’t do very well at this as two light switches also managed to magically turn purple from their original white!).

Molly and I also painted a white and yellow welcome banner at the very front of the boarding house immediately in front of the murals. This involved standing on a very tall ladder whilst having my ankles attacked by flies. The bricks in the wall at the front have also been painted and the girls will each put a white handprint onto one brick. I did mine before I left (actually, I did it twice as the first time I didn’t have a thumb!).

On my last night the girls put on a skit for me that they had practiced (without me knowing) every evening for a week! It was really moving and I felt really lucky that they’d gone to so much trouble. Margaret was the MC and performed this role very well. Ashwini, Shalini, Divya, Shuthi and Mamatha all did a couple of dances for me that they’d learned by watching pop videos and they all sang a thank you song for me at the end. In the middle the children demanded that Molly and I perform a fashion show for them which we did badly! Right at the end Margaret spoke for all of the children and thanked me for The Wiz, the murals, things we’ve bought, parties we threw (particularly for her birthday where we lit up the hall with the glow sticks that Mum had sent for the girls) and English lessons that we’d conducted. It was really beautiful and brought many tears to my eyes! I read out the writing in the card that I had made for the girls and I almost managed to get to the end before crying! Afterwards we all ate together in the main hall, Shalini sat next to me and read the card over and over. She is very smart and I know that she will take on board the (hopefully!) inspirational words that I wrote in there.

Molly and I left the next morning after a breakfast of Puri/ Poori and peas (delicious!). I managed to eat 6.5 which is a personal best as, in Belize, I had only managed 5 (they were called fry jacks there). In the morning Shalini had cuddled me for the best part of 30 minutes and wouldn't let me go. She’d also clung to my hand when we went for a walk during their 30 minutes of exercise (they’re never usually allowed to go to the neighbouring villages so we wanted to treat them on the last couple of days). As I got in the jeep to go to Hassan train station all the children were asking me when I would come again.  I suggested that they all work hard at school, get good jobs and come and visit me. I have no idea how possible this is for these children but I know that the thought inspired some of them. I really hope I see them again – they’re great girls and I will miss them deeply.

I am currently sitting on the train from Mangalore to Goa. Yesterday Molly and I did the 6 hour (90 rupees/ £1.30) train ride from Hassan to Mangalore and stayed overnight in Mangalore. The train ride was brilliant. The scenery was beautiful as we went through tunnel after tunnel in the hills. All of the children on the train cheered each time we went through a dark tunnel and the atmosphere was wonderful. We passed millions of coconut trees, saw some fishermen in the river and experienced IndianRail at its best when we had to stop for regular scheduled stops to squeeze through the single tunnels after another train had come the other way. On the platform at Hassan we met a knight in shining armour who took it upon himself to help us without any hidden agenda. He helped us to get to the correct platform, he helped us to get seats on a very crowded train and he shepherded away unwanted attention from a man who was either on his way home from a night in at the bar or had started early that morning! It was a breath of fresh air! Today we are in the ladies only carriage on our way to Goa and it’s really relaxed. It’s a 5 hour journey today (update: it actually ended up being 7!), it’s very sweaty and hot but it’s still fun. Molly is currently playing with a baby and I have been entertaining the older children on the train with videos of Buster and the monkeys from Belize. They were learning all of the names and were asking questions about what the monkeys eat.

The girls (and the men!)

The girls:

We have 12 girls in the boarding house now as most of them have gone back to family for the rest of the summer holidays. One girl called Divya is 19 and has been working in Bangalore looking after the orphans there. When doing exercise we were surprised by her lack of motivation (and her ability to suck the motivation from the younger members of the group!) and she has a tendency to tantrum when she doesn’t get her own way when painting. I spoke with Sister Mary as I was interested to find out her history to see if some of this could be explained. It turns out that her Dad is an alcoholic and her Mum struggled with this to the point that she suffered with mental illness. One day her Mum was overwhelmed by the drinking and murdered her son in front of her three daughters (one of whom wasDivya)!!! This is quite common in India apparently!

There are also 2 sisters here called Ashwini and Shalini. They are both very beautiful and their English is very good. Shalini wants to be an engineer when she’s older. For a long while we believed that Amulya was also their sister as she spent a lot of time in their care, however, it now turns out that Sister asked Ashwini to look after Amulya when she is at the boarding house - she does a great job too! Amulya is an interesting little girl – she is aged 5/6 but she is very under-developed physically and could easily pass for 3/4. She was also very quiet when we arrived and generally talked through her 'sisters' rather than directly to us. We thought this was because she didn’t understand or speak English. In the past week she has decided that she’s ready to speak now and she has a brilliant grasp of the English language (and a very cute voice too!). The nuns are amazed as she’s talking a lot more to them too! She loves to paint and yesterday morning she was also asking for exercise even though it was Sunday and they don’t exercise on Sundays due to Mass. 

Nandini and Shuthi appear to be cousins. They are both very affectionate and if one of them spots me coming down the stairs from my room you can guarantee that she’ll be clinging to my arm within seconds! Neither of them have any parents and, from what I can gather, Nandini (who’s about 4 years older) looked after Shuthi after she arrived at boarding which created a really special bond. Nandini would like to be an elderly care nurse and will train as a nurse next year when she’s 18. I spoke with Nandini about marriage and she informed me that the Sisters will arrange a marriage for her once she has finished her studies.Shuthi’s English isn’t brilliant but she is a wonderful artist. She drew the Lion on The Wiz mural and it’s perfect!

Mamatha would like to be a dancer when she’s olderand I actually think she might be able to do it! She has lovely rhythm and she is very good at watching Bollywood movies and copying the routines. Mamatha did a Henna tattoo on my feet yesterday and it actually looks quite good. She told me that she’s been to Mysore 10 times as a chaperone with other volunteers who have wanted to visit the city.

Ramia and Maheshwari are sisters. Maheshwari has just gone home for the summer but the family can’t afford to have both children back so Ramia will go next year (she also went last year). Maheshwari’s dress that she was wearing yesterday has a broken zip so she spent the whole day being undone! I assume that this is a hand-me-down dress from Ramia that hasn’t lasted over the years. If I can find a zip in Hassan then I will attempt to fix it for her. The other day Maheshwari and Molly were talking about the fish curry that the girls would be eating for dinner. Maheshwari’s response when asked what she thought of fish was “I come vomit” – priceless!

Shaini doesn’t have any parents but she does have one alcoholic brother. She will go to visit him tomorrow for a couple of weeks. She is very excited! Shaini painted the sky in The Wiz mural and it was wonderful to see the level of concentration and commitment to detail. She would like to a singer/ dancer when she’s older.

Sahana(14) has just got a place in a school in Hassan for which she had to take an entrance exam (her English is very good). She will live in a hostel a little bit away and she will cycle in each day. She is excited and scared in equal measure. 4 other girls from the village will go with her but they will live on campus. Sahana has a tendency to get moody for no good reason – I will find out from Sister Mary what her background is so that I can further understand this.

Margaret is the last girl to mention. Before he passed away her father was an alcoholic and Sister Mary has told me that Margaret often voiced strong negative feelings about him. Margaret can be wonderfully helpful (if she’s around she won’t let me carry anything and won’t let me empty my own rubbish bin into the heap in the back!) but she’s also one of our biggest challenges. She is very loud (and has a brilliant grasp of the English language which means we can’t tune her out!!!) and has a tendency to tantrum if one of the other girls has upset her. She seems to have more disputes with the girls than anyone else and has needed a lot of attention recently. However, she is learning that she must raise her hand before speaking in English class (the Jumping Jack punishment that Molly introduced has helped with this!) and that shouting and deliberately messing up isn’t always the best way to get our attention. Margaret has particularly bad teeth which are yellow and underdeveloped. I am aware that Paul is talking about getting a dentist sorted for the girls so hopefully they can do something with Margaret’s teeth.

Trip into Hassan:

I went into Hassan two days ago to pick up my emails as we don’t have internet access at the boarding house due to an electrical storm. This meant a 50 minute journey on a bumpy bus. When walking through Hassan I was punched in the arm by a man (I think I had offended him just by being me?!) and the staring continued at the same level as in Mysore. On the way back we (Sahana and I) needed to get off the bus at Alur and get into a car to travel the last 30 minutes to Josephnagar. Sahana and I sat opposite each other and a young man (18 ish) sat next to Sahana. This man felt it appropriate to start rubbing my leg with his leg. I said “no” to him which he obviously thought meant “please continue but now start rubbing my leg with your hand too”. I firmly said “no” to him again and looked out of the window to avoid any eye contact with him. When I looked back into the carriage after a minute or so I was horrified to see that he had moved his hand onto Sahana’s leg! I promptly lent forward, picked up his hand from her leg and put it in the same position on his own leg. He recoiled in shame at this point as, I assume, most women wouldn’t do that to him, especially not in a crowded car! It astounds me that this is acceptable in India. I have said before that it’s not pleasant for me to experience unwanted attention but when it’s directed at a child this is completely unacceptable. Sahana was sent as a chaperone (to show me how to get to Hassan etc) which I felt was unnecessary to start with but it was Sister Mary’s way of showing me good hospitality. Now I feel, as nice as the gesture is, it’s a massive hindrance as not only do I need to keep myself safe (which is difficult in this county!) but I also have to keep a child safe. Next time I will go with Molly or go on my own.

On a completely separate note, I'm in love.... with MANGOES! It's mango season here at the moment and they are wonderful! At dinner time and rush through my rice just to get to the mango eating part of the meal! YUMMY!

Random updates from India....

3^rd May 2013:

The whole village got together on 1^st May to celebrate St Joseph’s Day. The town (Josephnagar) is named after the Saint so they decorated the church, had a special mass with lots of visiting priests, had fireworks and paraded a massive float with a shrine of St Joseph through the village. The girls dressed up in their fancy clothes for the whole day and enjoyed the evening’s festivities.

Usually there are regular power cuts in this village (we can go all day without power sometimes) but on 1^st May there seemed to be power all day to power the lights that they had hung around the church. Although now, on 3^rd May, we haven’t had any power since about 6pm yesterday evening – we seem to have run out!!! This may also be due to the fact that we had an amazing thunder and lightning storm yesterday that lit up the sky for over an hour. The town seems to be getting powered by generators today but I don’t think they mind as they got some well needed rain last night.

Now that we are no longer rehearsing The Wiz with the girls we have started a new programme with them. This will include daily exercise at 7.30am where we make sure that the girls are ready to start the day. There is usually a chorus of “it’s paining” to which the stock response from both Molly and I is “it’s meant to hurt!”. The exercise that the girls were doing before we arrived involved pointing their toe and lifting their leg off the ground 10 times before changing and repeating on the other leg. We have devised a 30 minute workout that involves running, skipping, squats, jump squats, plank, pushups and yoga to finish. We are trying to teach the girls that they need to look after their bodies and exercise is one way of doing this. Yesterday we also worked with the girls on their English and played a game that incorporated some spelling too. Later on in the day we walked down to the (dried up) river and played cricket with the new cricket set that Molly and I bought in Cochin and Nandini taught me a song in Canada. Shalini also taught me some of the names of the parts of the body in Canada too. Over the next couple of weeks we will also go into Hassan to watch a Bollywood movie (we were meant to go yesterday but there are elections going on and it wouldn’t be safe as there would be lots of crowds and Molly and I won’t blend in), paint a mural of The Wiz and a mural of Surfing in Kerala and do some baking/ cooking.

A couple of days ago Molly and I created a presentation for the girls on personal hygiene and monthly cycles. As I mentioned before, some of the girls are really bad at taking baths so we explained to them why we need to stay clean and what can happen if we don’t. We also showed them the best way to clean their teeth and explained that this needed to be done at least two times a day. Lastly we took the bigger girls aside and spoke to them about the female reproductive system, changes during puberty and monthly cycles. I believe that in the Hindu faith, periods are seen as a dirty, negative thing that is embarrassing. We explained that all of the changes that their bodies are going through are natural and that they should come and speak with us if they have any concerns or questions. The girls were interested to see the diagram that we had pulled off the internet of the female reproductive system and had a few good questions for us at the end. I think we helped them to understand a little bit more but I guess we’ll wait and see if their habits change.

7^th May 2013

This weekend Molly and I took a trip into Mysore to tour the palace and relax after a straight month with the girls. I never felt unsafe but I did feel awkward with the level of staring in our direction at points. This started on the train (which cost 35p/ 50c for the 3 hour journey!) as it was obvious that we were the first white people they’d ever seen. Add to that the fact that I had my shoulders out (!) and Molly is almost 6’ tall - we were never going to be able to blend in! I got up to give my seat to an older lady midway through the journey and stood near the door to get a good view of the scenery. This meant that all the men who got on at the next stops stood in the doorways instead of moving into the carriage so that they could “accidentally” bump into the white girl. One man blatantly put his hand on my bum to move past me (which took him a lot longer than it should!) but that was as bad as it got. Once we arrived in Mysore we were asked a couple of times if people could take photos of us and children turned and ran as soon as they spotted us! We were also targeted a lot by beggars asking for money which was to be expected.

Mysore palace, however, was stunning (photos to follow later) and they lit it up on the Sunday before we left which was really special. I was interested to see that, as tourists, we had to pay over 10 x the amount to get in as natives did! We also went to a spa and had an authentic Indian head massage along with visiting Chamundi Hill (one of 8 sacred hills in South India) and eating a well-deserved pizza and diet coke (rice 3 x a day washed down with water can become a little much!). One interesting thing that I saw was cows just roaming free in the streets, eating rubbish. They stopped traffic as they are so well respected that they won’t be moved on until they’re ready to go of their own accord. I also saw a man pulling recyclable rubbish out of the bin presumably to sell later in the day and lots of scary driving (horns galore and no rules that I could see!).

Once we arrived in Hassan the girls met us at the station and we went to see our first Bollywood movie. It was brilliant! It cost 800 rupees total for 14 people to see the movie (this is approximately $16 or £11) and it was fantastic fun. The auditorium erupted when each lead character was seen for the first time (much like seeing theatre in America) and deafening whistles filled the air when the lead female, a lady who is famous in Bollywood movies, came on. The dances were wonderfully cheesy, the voice dubbing over the movie was hilariously obvious and the talking dogs looked like something straight off YouTube! My personal favourite, however, was the music. It would swell in a dramatic fashion as the actor would react theatrically into the camera or if the action was slowed down for dramatic effect (when there was a fight or a verbal disagreement). The girls enjoyed it a lot and I was pleased we’d managed to share the experience with them.

I have no internet at the moment at the boarding house (I've come into the city specifically for the internet today) so I apologise if there isn't much contact over the next few weeks.

Food and Hygiene (not sure why I've done them both in the same blog?!)

Food:

I have been a vegetarian since coming to India (except for some prawns and a chicken wrap that I had at the beach from a Cockney man’s coffee house) and so far my body is enjoying it.I very occasionally get cravings for lamb or beef but these pass quickly.

The food we get at the boarding house is plentiful and I haven’t really felt overwhelmingly hungry since I’ve been here. I was surprised initially at how good it tastes as well. There is rice for every meal, including most breakfasts, and there are usually 2 or 3 vegetable dishes to go with them. The dishes are not usually very spicy and the chillies are usually pretty easy to spot (although one meal time Molly and I both managed to accidentally eat a chilli at the same time. We had synchronised tears running down our faces as we both desperately reached for the water!). There are lots of green beans, ‘lady fingers’, onions and squashes in the dishes and, to my surprise, very few tomatoes (as I would usually choose a tomato based dish when I eat Indian food in UK). We usually get an egg dish each day, my favourite being the egg with spicy cabbage) to give us the protein we need and on occasion we have had lentils and chickpeas. They also do a very nice boiled carrot dish that is seasoned with black pepper and they do the same with potatoes. We usually eat the same food for dinner as we had for lunch which can get a little repetitive but I feel full after each meal and that is the main thing. One thing I am missing in my diet is calcium as I am not drinking the milk (the one thing that made me ill in Nepal) but I will rectify this when I get to a big city to get some supplements.

My favourite breakfast so far has been chapattis and spicy peas. We were also quite enjoying the noodles for breakfast (there was something slightly naughty and student-like about eating them) until we realised that they were packet noodles that had just been boiled up and served. I watched the children make their own chapattis in the first week that I was here and I’m very glad to say that these were not the chapattis that we ate. The reason for this is that each chapatti is handled by at least 5 children before it is cooked. The chapattis are rolled out on newspaper (for added lead poisoning!) and the balls of dough are thrown across the floor as they are shared out to be rolled. Molly and I have been asked to do some training with the girls on hygiene and this will feature in the session!!

We are always offered a desert after each meal and this is usually papaya, banana, watermelon or Jack Fruit. The bananas are tiny and very sweet and the Jack Fruit has an interesting floral taste. I am still undecided on the Jack Fruit but I will continue to eat it as it’s not offensive. Apparently we ate some of the Jack Fruit for breakfast the other day – they can make it into a curry then it is not quite ripe. I melted my Easter egg that Mum got me in the sun about a week ago and made chocolate covered banana for all of the Nuns – it was a good day (and, ironically, helped with my calcium deficiency!)!!!

Snacks are interesting in India. Because they have a ‘the guest is God’ belief in India we are given tea and snacks at around 11am and 4.30pm every day. It took them a while to come to terms with the fact that both Molly and I were asking for black tea (they make their tea with milk instead of water here) and they still don’t understand that we don’t take sugar! Every snack here is either tooth decay or heart attack on a plate! Most of the snacks that we have had have been pleasant but most of them have a very different texture to what you would expect (it’s almost as if the taste and texture don’t marry up). My favourite snack is either the spicy peanuts (that have been fried, of course!) or the Bombay mix, similar to the mix that you would get back in UK.They also offer us a strange sweet snack that seems to be fried honey/ sugar. I don’t like this at all – it’s far too sweet.

Usually we eat at the table in the dining area with the Nuns and the girls eat on the floor in the main room of the boarding house with metal plates and metal beakers. When we went surfing we ate with the girls in the restaurants that the surfers had picked out. I was very surprised to see that a lot of the girls didn’t eat their vegetables, like lots of the children in UK. Considering that most of the children have come from very poor backgrounds where food is scarce, I was surprised to see them turning down food. The girls had also never eaten prawns before and had no idea what they were (which is understandable as none of them had ever been to the coast before!). The water at mealtimes at the beach was always ice cold – another thing that the girls found strange as they usually just drink from the tap which is, at best, luke warm. All of the girls eat with their right hand (the left is used for cleaning after going to the restroom) and it’s actually an impressive skill that I am yet to master. They even managed to eat rapidly melting ice-cream with their hands and were surprised to see Molly and I eating it with spoons!

Hygiene:

Yesterday Molly and I had to clean wounds that 3 of the girls had got at the beach (they had only just told us 2 – 4 days after they cut themselves). The girls didn’t know that they needed to clean cuts and grazes or they would get infected so two of the girls were in a bit of pain. This will be another thing that Molly and I will educate them on.

Angel has been at the boarding house for about a year now. Before that she was living on the streets with her sister, Roselin which explains a lot of what I am about to tell you. Angel’s left knee is constantly weeping pus. Apparently she has had this ailment for about 3 weeks but not told anyone (this may have been learned on the streets: bad leg = more money from begging?). The reason that the leg got this bad is because Angel, like lots of the girls here, doesn’t wash very often at all. As there is a water crisis here the girls are limited to 3-4 baths per week (and unlimited hand-washing) but Angel doesn’t wash anywhere near as often as that. We’re not sure if this is, again, learned from being on the streets (dirtier = more money from begging), whether she is unaware that washing is essential to good health or whether she’s just lazy. Molly and I will put together a training session on the importance of washing and how to wash (as lots of the girls wash with underwear on which means that the most important bits aren’t getting cleaned – we’ve noticed a lot of scratching in this area recently!).

Yesterday I took the girls in groups of four and showed them the proper way to wash their hands. I explained that they need to use soap each time they wash and I showed them the NHS approved hand washing technique. A lot of them were very surprised to learn that I have a qualification in hand washing (I have a certificate and everything!!!) and I think this made them realise how important it is to do it right. Most of them listened to me and took in the information – let’s see if it can become common practice now! At the end of the training sessions I looked a little shrivelled as I’d washed my hands about 10 times (and then I proceeded to wash my hands again for dinner, just to be sure!)!

Headlice are a real problem here. Thankfully Molly and I have been pretty careful with our hair (mine is permanently plastered to my head) so we haven’t got them. We’re also very careful about letting the girls touch our heads or letting their hair get too close to ours. Lots of the girls, particularly the younger girls, have very itchy heads. They sit outside and groom each other – they remove the eggs, crush them between their nails to kill them and then wipe them on their clothes! Molly and I would like to buy them some headlice removal kits but this is only part of the problem. We will also have to provide education on how they are transferred from child to child to prevent them from getting them again when they go back to school or when the other girls come back from spending their summer at home.

I had my first run in with bed bugs the other night. We spent the night at one of the orphanages in Kerala (about 4-5 hours away from the beach that we surfed at) so that we could breakdown the journey a little bit. I woke up the next morning covered in bites. They looked different to mosquito bites (although I had a couple of them too) so I checked on the internet and I’m pretty sure that the bed was infested with bed bugs. I spent the 16 hour bus ride home the next day feeling very itchy indeed – it’s died down a bit now!Thankfully I won’t need to stay there again!

The Wiz - opening night review

The Wiz Review:

“That was the highlight of the trip” said Brandon, one of the surf instructors as the show finished. The audience were on their feet, cheering and applauding, the children were smiling ear to ear and I had a tear of pride in my eye.

As soon as we put the kids in front of an audience everything just seemed to click for them. I think, because of the language barrier and the fact that most of them have never even been in a performance before, they didn’t understand the humour in certain parts or why they had been asked to do certain things. But as they saw the audience’s reaction they were instantly energised and this made for a very special performance indeed.

The audience loved Toto, the balloon dog that Dorothy (Mary) has attached to her arm the whole performance – thanks to Auntie Molly’s balloon artistry. They loved the stuffed tights with the silver slippers that we used as the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East that stick out from underneath Dorothy’s house as she crashes down in Oz. They have been so crudely created (by stuffing them with cardboard, banana leaves and noodle packets!) that one leg is longer than the other and the poor witch has about 4 knees per leg! If she wasn’t dead she would need major surgery to correct all of her issues!

The song and dance to “He’s the Wiz” was fantastic and got a massive cheer at the end. The girls all looked very cute and the stylised dance in the background was well received and got a couple of chuckles and smiles. Momatha and Sandya (the Good Witches) took the lead in this song and managed, for the first time, to keep in time with the music and didn’t need me to correct them at all. This left me free to dance behind the audience to keep the rest of the girls together (with only 8 days of rehearsals the dance wasn’t 100% cemented in their minds). They did brilliantly well and, even though they didn’t finish centre stage (I think I’ve only asked about 1,000,000 times!), they were all looked happy and pleased with themselves!

There was a collective “awwww” from the audience as the Tinman (Johtikka) came on stage. She is the smallest performer and, dressed in her head-to-toe silver costume, her silver facepaint and carrying her axe that is about the same size as her (!), she looked every bit the part!

Shwetha’s Wicked Witch of the West was as brilliant as ever. Shwetha doesn’t speak much English (she is only very young) but once she is shown something she runs with it, completely uninhibited. When she lurched towards the audience and hissed in their faces the collective intake of breathe (followed by nervous laughter) was brilliant! The flying monkeys took a lot of convincing in rehearsals to go over the top with their jumping/ flying (they’re all at the age where their inhibitions are overwhelming!) but it paid off as the reaction from the audience to both the characters they’ve created and the masks that Molly and I made was amazing.

“Brand New Day” was really good again! As it’s quite a fast song and there is a lot of English to fit into each sentence, I sang all of the verses for the girls from behind the audience and they sang the bridges and the choruses. I was very proud as most of them managed to get the works “liberty” and “independently” out during the bridges whilst dancing - not bad for girls whose first language is Canada! The audience loved this song and dance and cheered wildly at the end again!

When the Lion got his courage, the Tinman got his heart and the Scarecrow got his brains the audience joined in with the applause too – they really felt engaged and part of the show at this point! And the icing on the cake was when they realised that Molly had made a scale version of the hot air balloon that the Wizard floats away in at the end! It looked really good as it flew above Dorothy and her friends.

Mary spent hours in rehearsals learning the song and the words to the first verse of “Home” which she sang beautifully acapella  at the end before clicking her heels three times to get home. The audience erupted at the end as they were astounded that she had the courage (and the skills in English) to sing on her own in front of all of those people.

In rehearsals I don’t think the girls had understood why silly Auntie Jenny had asked them to stand in line and take a bow at the end. Once the audience jumped to their feet in gratitude, clapping furiously, whistling and cheering I think they got the message. They were all beaming with pride as they took their bows – it was at this point that I realised I had actually managed to make a difference in the lives of these girls and this was truly humbling! The audience swamped the stage at the end eager to congratulate the stars of the show. They were full of compliments for the girls and I believe that they were genuinely impressed with what the girls had managed to achieve in such a short timescale!

Overall, the narrators were clear (a special mention should be made to Shalini (the Scarecrow) and Shaini (the Lion) who had learned their narration and didn’t need the script!), the dances were crisp and energised, the singing was clear and strong, the characters were well sustained and the props were all on at the right time in the right place (once again, another first!!). Ashwini also did a great job with the music as she didn’t miss a cue.

I can’t explain how proud I felt of everyone who has been involved in putting together this show. I think this must be how a parent feels when they watch a school nativity concert, however, there was an added sense of pride as I have seen the growth of all of these children, not just on the stage but also within their day to day lives. I have taken a special interest in a girl called Nandini who is an orphan. She has no immediate family (siblings, Aunts, Uncles etc) and during rehearsals she was prone to mood swings that would mean her storming out or sitting in the corner with a face like thunder. I decided to befriend her and build up her confidence. I started to watch her closely as she performed and give her a couple of extra responsibilities as I was confident that she could handle them. I made an effort to talk with her about singing and dancing and promised that I will learn a Canada song once we are back from surfing. This gave her the confidence to commit to The Wiz and the progress that she has made in her performance as well as in her daily life (I haven’t seen her sulk for about a week!) is brilliant!