I am writing to you from the little (and surprisingly touristy) town of Pushkar. We spent two lovely days in Udaipur going to the palace, taking a boat trip to another palace which was where the James Bond flick Octopussywas shot (we were told this SO many times in our 2 days, it really is the city's claim to fame!). It was on its own island and was so stunning. We did an AMAZING cooking class as well, we literally made 10 dishes, at least 5 different types of bread alone (my kind of class!), and the teacher was so lovely. My favourite part was the stuffed cheese and tomato Nan bread...it was pretty much to die for. We reached Psuhkar by over night bus, only 7 hours, how bad can that be you ask?? Well as we bumped (we would got flying in the air) along the entire time and had stupidly paid extra for the sleeper bed so I was horizontal and feeling so nausious and we were both terrified of getting bed bugs, lice or some type of infectious disease! Okay I exagerate a little but I don't think the "matress" or curtains had ever ever been washed. So we did not sleep a wink and were dropped off outside the town at 5am. They drop tourists quite far out so you are forced to cab in...we were not pleased. Anyways we caught a cab with this lovely French woman and than we went down and sat on the ghats (steps to the water) and watched as the sun rose and the people of Pushkar bathed in the water. We love how a group of middle to late aged men are all bathing together at 5:30am...I just love the culture here. As was the case in Varanasi the water here is also considered holy. It was a nice ending to a terrible night for sure:) Then I had chocolate pancakes and a banana lassi for breakfast and I almost felt even better! We leave for a camel safari in half an hour. We are really excited to sleep under the stars in the middle of the desert and also to take some awesome photos of us on camels of course! We are both so tired that I am just hoping we stay on our camels:)
Only 4 more nights left...I am so sad but also excited for things at home as well (family, friends, salads, clean showers, comfy beds...I could go on!), will just have to make the most of the last few days.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Update from Udaipur
Sorry for so long since the last update...we have been really busy and on the move most days so we have a good excuse! We just arrived in Rajasthan tonight in the city of Udaipur (we already both love it, we just had dinner on a rooftop cafe overlooking the palace and lake) after spending 6 days down south in Kerala. So much to tell from the last week...I will try to give some highlights.
My favourite parts were the day and half we spent on the beach (although we both burnt terribly, especially Rach), eating amazing fresh seafood (yesterday we went down to the docks and chose what we wanted and then they went and cooked it up for us), seeing the backwaters in a canoe ride, finding out another type of Indian bread I have become a little obsessed with (parotta-it is softer than chapatis, kinda like a crepe...pretty much heaven!), eating fresh mangoes, and going a little crazy with my scarf shopping!
My least favourite parts have been the bugs in one town we encountered...now we refer to it as the city of cockroaches...lets just say we found an enormous one in our room and one on our table after eating dinner (so gross!), and many on the streets both alive and dead. Not surprisingly we could not wait to leave this city! We also had an upsetting incident where an Indian man grabbed the woman we were walking with on our way together to find a place for dinner, it was at night and it really creeped us out. Rach and I have been lucky so far and hope to stay so but it has made me so weary of Indian men again. The only other bad part was the ridiculous humidity (my shirt would be soaked after five minutes outside) and missing the ICCP. Our last day there was so sad and sweet, everyone was so good to us, we both were feeling very odd not being there this week and missing the kids already!
We had some kinda funny things happen to us as well. On a canoe boat tour of the backwaters (the canals through lush tropical forest) we got our photos taken many times that may end up in an Indian travel magazine. These two men joined our group and then proceeded to walk alongside the boat and take constant photos for almost the whole two hour trip. I think they were legit...although who knows here! I think if photos do end up in the magazine (they promised to email us) they will not be of Rach and I or the middle aged British couple but rather of the young Danish girl. Rach and I with our curly hair both had terrible afros from the humidity and I was SO sweaty whereas Andrea the Danish girl looked like she just stepped out of her room in the morning ( she is also very tall and blond!). Then yesterday as we were walking down the street a well dressed woman asked us if we would like to be in her husbands commercial (he was standing beside her on his cell). Normally I would have thought this was also a scam but we heard from our friend in Kolkata that it happens often in Mumbai where white women are asked to be in commercials. Sadly we were flying out today so we lost another chance at fame in India!
We are in Rajasthan for 7 nights, we are going to four cities (5 if you count Delhi where we fly out of) and plan to see many palaces, forts, do a cooking class, a camel safari, see the Taj, get Ayervedic massages, and much more...so hopefully we can fit it all in!! Hope to update you again soon and perhaps even add photos...a shocking idea I know! Thanks for following!
My favourite parts were the day and half we spent on the beach (although we both burnt terribly, especially Rach), eating amazing fresh seafood (yesterday we went down to the docks and chose what we wanted and then they went and cooked it up for us), seeing the backwaters in a canoe ride, finding out another type of Indian bread I have become a little obsessed with (parotta-it is softer than chapatis, kinda like a crepe...pretty much heaven!), eating fresh mangoes, and going a little crazy with my scarf shopping!
My least favourite parts have been the bugs in one town we encountered...now we refer to it as the city of cockroaches...lets just say we found an enormous one in our room and one on our table after eating dinner (so gross!), and many on the streets both alive and dead. Not surprisingly we could not wait to leave this city! We also had an upsetting incident where an Indian man grabbed the woman we were walking with on our way together to find a place for dinner, it was at night and it really creeped us out. Rach and I have been lucky so far and hope to stay so but it has made me so weary of Indian men again. The only other bad part was the ridiculous humidity (my shirt would be soaked after five minutes outside) and missing the ICCP. Our last day there was so sad and sweet, everyone was so good to us, we both were feeling very odd not being there this week and missing the kids already!
We had some kinda funny things happen to us as well. On a canoe boat tour of the backwaters (the canals through lush tropical forest) we got our photos taken many times that may end up in an Indian travel magazine. These two men joined our group and then proceeded to walk alongside the boat and take constant photos for almost the whole two hour trip. I think they were legit...although who knows here! I think if photos do end up in the magazine (they promised to email us) they will not be of Rach and I or the middle aged British couple but rather of the young Danish girl. Rach and I with our curly hair both had terrible afros from the humidity and I was SO sweaty whereas Andrea the Danish girl looked like she just stepped out of her room in the morning ( she is also very tall and blond!). Then yesterday as we were walking down the street a well dressed woman asked us if we would like to be in her husbands commercial (he was standing beside her on his cell). Normally I would have thought this was also a scam but we heard from our friend in Kolkata that it happens often in Mumbai where white women are asked to be in commercials. Sadly we were flying out today so we lost another chance at fame in India!
We are in Rajasthan for 7 nights, we are going to four cities (5 if you count Delhi where we fly out of) and plan to see many palaces, forts, do a cooking class, a camel safari, see the Taj, get Ayervedic massages, and much more...so hopefully we can fit it all in!! Hope to update you again soon and perhaps even add photos...a shocking idea I know! Thanks for following!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bollywood Dream, Bastis, and Babies!
Hello!
I just spent 20 minutes trying to upload some images of yesterday in the slum of the adorable kids but this computer does not want to do it for me...sorry guys I think you may have to wait until we are home, as the slowness of the internet connections here drives me insane! Kat, if you are reading this, we went and saw a Bollywood film last night and it was amazing, everything I could have hoped for!! We were a little hesitant as it was in Hindi but we soon found out that with the dramatic background music, and very obvious plot we could pretty much understand the gist of things. Rach and I took turns making up the narritive which was very amusing in itself:) Also we LOVED the dance scenes and they alone were worth the price of admission (less than $3 anyways!). The only bad part was when Rachel's bag got checked and she had to give up her candy that we had bought outside. This was good jelly candy like you get in Canada and we were pretty darn excited about it so when Rachel's was taken (I somehow managed to bring in a bag of oranges, a diet coke, and a bag of candy without any problem) she was furious. Seriously in the time I have known Rachel I have never seen here so angry...note to everyone, do not get in the way of Rach and her candy:) I tried to argue that we did not know, could he make an exception this one time, they even brought out a manager for me but to no end, she did not get her candy for the movie...we will know to hide things better next time!
Bastis, are the Indian name for urban slums. Yesterday as I think Rachel mentioned we spent the day going to some of the slums where the IICP works with another organization to provide outreach programs to children with disabilities. It was a really fascinating day. We did two home visits, both children had cerebral palsy and both had recently received customized seating. It was such an amazing contrast to see these seats inside these tiny tiny homes, but it was also so wonderful to see that they were finally able to sit upright and interact with the world (one boy looked about 7 0r 8 so he would have spent most of his life lying down up to a few months agao). Both families seemed very happy with the seating and were so gracious. In the first home, the mother invited us in and was so lovely. It was Rach and I and her and her son (in his chair with a long lap tray) in a space about the size of two airplane bathrooms...tight is an understatment! The mother was so so kind, she held my hand as Rach took a picture of us...I wanted to take her home! We also visited a mobile bus which goes to a different slum each day and provides education to parents and the children with disabilities as well as some therapy (run by the organization Tommorow's Foundation). Finally we visited an integrated school. Seven of the fifty pupils had some types of disability (physical or cognitive) but they were fully integrated into the classroom. When Rach and I arrived the children went a little crazy and every single child wanted to shake our hand,sao we kind of caused a little commotion:) They were so so sweet and all wanted to show us their workbooks as well. It seems like a really great school and very innovative for India (being integrated) which was really great to see...and the kids were amazing so it was hard to leave:)
The final part of my title refers to our last day today in the baby clinic. Every thursday we spend the day in the infant clinic. Children under age two are referred to this clinic in the IICP if they have had some sort of birth trauma (and they are still really young, in the first few weeks of life) or if the child is a bit older and has been seen by a doctor who suspects some neuro-motor disorder (ie. CP). The really tiny babies (so cute!) are screened to see if they present with the normal reflexes (most seem to be relatively normal) that should be present whereas the older children in general do seem to have some major problems so the PTs recommend positioning and some therapeutic techniques for parents. It is kinda frustrating that we don't speak Bengali on these days...we sit there and play with the babies and try to understand the gist of what is being said! My favourite part is seeing how many people are there for each baby. In Canada probably one parent or both would go to a doctor/physio visit while in India there are always at least two adults but generally there are 3, 4 , 5 or more. It is usually grandparents and other adults (aunts of uncles I guess)...but I just love how important family is here, it makes me happy to known that the babies are geting so much support.
Tommorow is our last day of placement and I am SO excited to go travelling. Kolkata and the IICP have been so amazing and I am so glad I came and am so thankful for all the people I have met especially...but at the same time I am itching to get travelling and to leave this big, dusty, dirty city! We are headed down south to Kerala for a week and then up to the Rajasthan for a week and then flying out of Delhi. We are very excited for Kerala, it is full of little towns to explore the backwaters by canoe or boat trip and beaches. Hopefully we will be good about updating this blog but who knows we may be too busy getting tans (we are still SO white) while eating fresh fish and drinking cold drinks on the beach...fingers crossed at least:)
I just spent 20 minutes trying to upload some images of yesterday in the slum of the adorable kids but this computer does not want to do it for me...sorry guys I think you may have to wait until we are home, as the slowness of the internet connections here drives me insane! Kat, if you are reading this, we went and saw a Bollywood film last night and it was amazing, everything I could have hoped for!! We were a little hesitant as it was in Hindi but we soon found out that with the dramatic background music, and very obvious plot we could pretty much understand the gist of things. Rach and I took turns making up the narritive which was very amusing in itself:) Also we LOVED the dance scenes and they alone were worth the price of admission (less than $3 anyways!). The only bad part was when Rachel's bag got checked and she had to give up her candy that we had bought outside. This was good jelly candy like you get in Canada and we were pretty darn excited about it so when Rachel's was taken (I somehow managed to bring in a bag of oranges, a diet coke, and a bag of candy without any problem) she was furious. Seriously in the time I have known Rachel I have never seen here so angry...note to everyone, do not get in the way of Rach and her candy:) I tried to argue that we did not know, could he make an exception this one time, they even brought out a manager for me but to no end, she did not get her candy for the movie...we will know to hide things better next time!
Bastis, are the Indian name for urban slums. Yesterday as I think Rachel mentioned we spent the day going to some of the slums where the IICP works with another organization to provide outreach programs to children with disabilities. It was a really fascinating day. We did two home visits, both children had cerebral palsy and both had recently received customized seating. It was such an amazing contrast to see these seats inside these tiny tiny homes, but it was also so wonderful to see that they were finally able to sit upright and interact with the world (one boy looked about 7 0r 8 so he would have spent most of his life lying down up to a few months agao). Both families seemed very happy with the seating and were so gracious. In the first home, the mother invited us in and was so lovely. It was Rach and I and her and her son (in his chair with a long lap tray) in a space about the size of two airplane bathrooms...tight is an understatment! The mother was so so kind, she held my hand as Rach took a picture of us...I wanted to take her home! We also visited a mobile bus which goes to a different slum each day and provides education to parents and the children with disabilities as well as some therapy (run by the organization Tommorow's Foundation). Finally we visited an integrated school. Seven of the fifty pupils had some types of disability (physical or cognitive) but they were fully integrated into the classroom. When Rach and I arrived the children went a little crazy and every single child wanted to shake our hand,sao we kind of caused a little commotion:) They were so so sweet and all wanted to show us their workbooks as well. It seems like a really great school and very innovative for India (being integrated) which was really great to see...and the kids were amazing so it was hard to leave:)
The final part of my title refers to our last day today in the baby clinic. Every thursday we spend the day in the infant clinic. Children under age two are referred to this clinic in the IICP if they have had some sort of birth trauma (and they are still really young, in the first few weeks of life) or if the child is a bit older and has been seen by a doctor who suspects some neuro-motor disorder (ie. CP). The really tiny babies (so cute!) are screened to see if they present with the normal reflexes (most seem to be relatively normal) that should be present whereas the older children in general do seem to have some major problems so the PTs recommend positioning and some therapeutic techniques for parents. It is kinda frustrating that we don't speak Bengali on these days...we sit there and play with the babies and try to understand the gist of what is being said! My favourite part is seeing how many people are there for each baby. In Canada probably one parent or both would go to a doctor/physio visit while in India there are always at least two adults but generally there are 3, 4 , 5 or more. It is usually grandparents and other adults (aunts of uncles I guess)...but I just love how important family is here, it makes me happy to known that the babies are geting so much support.
Tommorow is our last day of placement and I am SO excited to go travelling. Kolkata and the IICP have been so amazing and I am so glad I came and am so thankful for all the people I have met especially...but at the same time I am itching to get travelling and to leave this big, dusty, dirty city! We are headed down south to Kerala for a week and then up to the Rajasthan for a week and then flying out of Delhi. We are very excited for Kerala, it is full of little towns to explore the backwaters by canoe or boat trip and beaches. Hopefully we will be good about updating this blog but who knows we may be too busy getting tans (we are still SO white) while eating fresh fish and drinking cold drinks on the beach...fingers crossed at least:)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Happy Holi!
Sorry for the lack of posts recently...I take the blame as my stomache has just not been itself lately :-/
It has been a week since the last post so I'll just try to cover the highlights...also, we didn't end up going to Bodh gaya because: 1. my damn stomache! 2. It seemed counter-intuitive to go to a buddhist town on the day of Holi and 3. We are still recovering from our train experience to Varanasi lol. Anyways...
Saturday was Holi which is a Hindu holiday where everyone covers eachother in bright powdered colours. We "played Holi" twice. The first was with the school kids on Friday afternoon. The kids were all lined up in their wheelchairs outside IICP then those kids that can walk, as well as teachers and special ed students etc..went around and spread colours all over the kids' faces as well as eachother, we also got completely covered, but it was so fun :) After school on Friday we went to one of the special ed student's house with her and her two adorable daughters who chatted away to us in the back of the car as we sped through traffic with the windows rolled down listening to Taylor swift blarring on the radio. At her home her youngest daughter (9yrs) gave us an extensive tour of the house and garden which included the oportunity to plant some seeds in the garden as well as the backgound stories of several Hindu gods/goddesses (smartest 9 year old ever!). We then went out to shop for some gold jewellery in a fancy store which was kinda pricey so we really didn't get much.
Saturday we played Holi for the second time with the other 3 girls who are staying here at IICP with us and the grounds keeper Jadev Ji (who is the sweetest most cutest old Indian man that I want to adopt and take home with me to Canada), it was tones of fun...we were literally covered from head to toe. We have lots of pics as Jadev ji had us pose with him in the trees out back (too cute!), we will try to get them posted asap.
We didn't get up to much else on Saturday as we discovered that Kolkata literally shuts down for Holi...it's the only time we have not seen traffic on the roads!
Sunday we decided to go to South city Mall to do a little shopping and wath a movie. We arrived at the mall around 11:30am, but learnt that because the day before was a holiday the mall was not open until 1pm so we bussed to a nearby market where we made a couple purchases including some shorts of the beloved alladin-style (so comfy! and stylish too ;) We did make it back to the mall to catch a flick, but unfortunately the only English movie playing that neither one of us had seen was "World Invasion, battle Los Angeles"...it was pretty awful...a full two hours of non-stop fighting and American army glorification without even a love story to intrigue us :( but it was still fun, we sat there and mad fun of it...and it was worth it for the "intermission" when all the lights came on and vendors come up the aisles in groups offering everything..."hot-dog mam?" "ice-cream mam?" it was too funny! We are hoping to go back today to see a Bollywood movie (we'll keep you posted).
Today we got to go out on the slum project with one of the IICP staff members, which was a pretty awesome experience requiring a post of it's own...maybe tomorrow?
That's all for now! We only have two days left of placement :( I'm going to miss the kids so much, especially little Sudhangshu! I already teared up when they gave us a card yesterday so I'm probably going to be a mess on Friday. I'm going to miss their smiling faces :)
Rachel xo
It has been a week since the last post so I'll just try to cover the highlights...also, we didn't end up going to Bodh gaya because: 1. my damn stomache! 2. It seemed counter-intuitive to go to a buddhist town on the day of Holi and 3. We are still recovering from our train experience to Varanasi lol. Anyways...
Saturday was Holi which is a Hindu holiday where everyone covers eachother in bright powdered colours. We "played Holi" twice. The first was with the school kids on Friday afternoon. The kids were all lined up in their wheelchairs outside IICP then those kids that can walk, as well as teachers and special ed students etc..went around and spread colours all over the kids' faces as well as eachother, we also got completely covered, but it was so fun :) After school on Friday we went to one of the special ed student's house with her and her two adorable daughters who chatted away to us in the back of the car as we sped through traffic with the windows rolled down listening to Taylor swift blarring on the radio. At her home her youngest daughter (9yrs) gave us an extensive tour of the house and garden which included the oportunity to plant some seeds in the garden as well as the backgound stories of several Hindu gods/goddesses (smartest 9 year old ever!). We then went out to shop for some gold jewellery in a fancy store which was kinda pricey so we really didn't get much.
Saturday we played Holi for the second time with the other 3 girls who are staying here at IICP with us and the grounds keeper Jadev Ji (who is the sweetest most cutest old Indian man that I want to adopt and take home with me to Canada), it was tones of fun...we were literally covered from head to toe. We have lots of pics as Jadev ji had us pose with him in the trees out back (too cute!), we will try to get them posted asap.
We didn't get up to much else on Saturday as we discovered that Kolkata literally shuts down for Holi...it's the only time we have not seen traffic on the roads!
Sunday we decided to go to South city Mall to do a little shopping and wath a movie. We arrived at the mall around 11:30am, but learnt that because the day before was a holiday the mall was not open until 1pm so we bussed to a nearby market where we made a couple purchases including some shorts of the beloved alladin-style (so comfy! and stylish too ;) We did make it back to the mall to catch a flick, but unfortunately the only English movie playing that neither one of us had seen was "World Invasion, battle Los Angeles"...it was pretty awful...a full two hours of non-stop fighting and American army glorification without even a love story to intrigue us :( but it was still fun, we sat there and mad fun of it...and it was worth it for the "intermission" when all the lights came on and vendors come up the aisles in groups offering everything..."hot-dog mam?" "ice-cream mam?" it was too funny! We are hoping to go back today to see a Bollywood movie (we'll keep you posted).
Today we got to go out on the slum project with one of the IICP staff members, which was a pretty awesome experience requiring a post of it's own...maybe tomorrow?
That's all for now! We only have two days left of placement :( I'm going to miss the kids so much, especially little Sudhangshu! I already teared up when they gave us a card yesterday so I'm probably going to be a mess on Friday. I'm going to miss their smiling faces :)
Rachel xo
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
IICP love:)
So this post is for my dad (he asked to know lots more about our placement) so I am going to try and fill anyone who is interested in on our day to day at the IICP. As I think Rachel mentioned we are working with Physio's (PTs) as OT and PT are pretty much the same thing here. As a result we are doing a lot of physiotherapy sessions. Each day a different class has a physio slot so they just tell us go and grab a kid...so we do and then we do physio with them. The focus here is on doing physio sessions involving standard exercises (ie increasing trunk strength and rotation, weight bearing on hands and feet, increasing head strength) which is so different from my experience of physio in Canada. On my last placement I was at a child development center and I got to work with a lot of physio's at the center and do joint sessions with them. In Canada the focus is more on doing therapy through play (ie. increasing trunk strength through practicing crab walks or using scooter boards). I am sure it has a lot to do with resources as well as philosophy, but that is one of the main differences I have noticed in India, here the physio room has no toys and is strictly about doing exercises. Also (I don't think there are any PTs reading this blog so I can say this safely) but both Rach and I think that physio sessions can be really boring and are so glad that we are not doing this for our profession! That sounded mean, what I really meant was that I am happy I am in OT so I get to assess and provide therapy to clients in so many differnent ways, not only increasing strength, ROM, endurance etc. Sorry if anyone is partial to PT!
In terms of more OT things we have been doing handwriting assessments and recommendations for children who are able to print or have the ability to hold a pen/pencil. We have also done feeding assessments, which is also something that is relevant to OT in Canada. Finally we are hoping to do assess and make recommendations regarding self-care and access (access refers to how non-verbal children communicate either through communication boards or specialized softwear/switches attached to computers-one guy uses his feet to type!). We have also been asked to observe and make ergonomic recommendations for the vocational programs that are run at the IICP for adults with disabilities (there is a catering, tea packing, print making, and a computer course that are continually running). Also we get to do hydrotherapy, where we take the children into the warm pool and do physio exercises. Rach and I get to do it twice a week and I really enjoy it because you can see immediately how much they benefit from being in the water, children who are so flexed are able to extend and relax so well in the water. Also I really like it because the PTs (all male) and the other volunteers who are male cannot work with the female students and there are not many female staff and volunteers who want to do hydrotherapy (being in a pool in a bathing suit with men is the reason I think). So it means that well Rach and I are here, girls are able to do hydro that otherwise would not be able to, so that is really nice.
One last thing I will explain before I should go, we are in charge of feeding our assigned student each day. We initially had to watch for a while and then do a paper and pen feeding assessment and now we are in charge of feeding our child each day. Rachel is in love with her little guy and he is adorable and loves her too! My assigned student Bitasta does not love me so much...in a therapy session yesterday she bit my knee, pulled my hair and pinched me! She refused to eat with me until this week (so lunch used to be my "favourite" part of the day)...this week though she is starting to warm up to me around mealtime, I am not sure what I did but I am hoping my luck will last for another week an a half until we leave!
Sorry if this was not interesting to everyone, but that hopefully gives you an idea of our days. Also there is some bad news...Rachel is ill again and had to miss placement today. We think it has passed and she will be okay tomorrow and back to placement. It is really frustrating though, we have not eaten any street food and been so careful so we really have no idea what happened...but a tourist did tell us that everyone gets sick in Varanasi, so who knows. I am really hoping that I do not fall a few days later as last time...keep your fingers crossed for both of us:)
In terms of more OT things we have been doing handwriting assessments and recommendations for children who are able to print or have the ability to hold a pen/pencil. We have also done feeding assessments, which is also something that is relevant to OT in Canada. Finally we are hoping to do assess and make recommendations regarding self-care and access (access refers to how non-verbal children communicate either through communication boards or specialized softwear/switches attached to computers-one guy uses his feet to type!). We have also been asked to observe and make ergonomic recommendations for the vocational programs that are run at the IICP for adults with disabilities (there is a catering, tea packing, print making, and a computer course that are continually running). Also we get to do hydrotherapy, where we take the children into the warm pool and do physio exercises. Rach and I get to do it twice a week and I really enjoy it because you can see immediately how much they benefit from being in the water, children who are so flexed are able to extend and relax so well in the water. Also I really like it because the PTs (all male) and the other volunteers who are male cannot work with the female students and there are not many female staff and volunteers who want to do hydrotherapy (being in a pool in a bathing suit with men is the reason I think). So it means that well Rach and I are here, girls are able to do hydro that otherwise would not be able to, so that is really nice.
One last thing I will explain before I should go, we are in charge of feeding our assigned student each day. We initially had to watch for a while and then do a paper and pen feeding assessment and now we are in charge of feeding our child each day. Rachel is in love with her little guy and he is adorable and loves her too! My assigned student Bitasta does not love me so much...in a therapy session yesterday she bit my knee, pulled my hair and pinched me! She refused to eat with me until this week (so lunch used to be my "favourite" part of the day)...this week though she is starting to warm up to me around mealtime, I am not sure what I did but I am hoping my luck will last for another week an a half until we leave!
Sorry if this was not interesting to everyone, but that hopefully gives you an idea of our days. Also there is some bad news...Rachel is ill again and had to miss placement today. We think it has passed and she will be okay tomorrow and back to placement. It is really frustrating though, we have not eaten any street food and been so careful so we really have no idea what happened...but a tourist did tell us that everyone gets sick in Varanasi, so who knows. I am really hoping that I do not fall a few days later as last time...keep your fingers crossed for both of us:)
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The "express" train..Indian style
Hello!As you may have noticed from the bottom of the photo we did not take this, but I wanted to have something to show you what Varanasi is like and we are having some problems uploading pictures from our cameraa...Rach and I with computers is never a good combo! Anyways, we arrived a few hours ago from a worldwind trip to Varanasi. For those who don't know, I will give you a bit of background. Varanasi is one of the 7 holy cities in India for Hindus, the Ganges river flows through here and the water is considered sacred to Hindus. As a result, Hindus bathe in the water and perform rituals there, including cremations. People from all over India want to be cremated in Varanasi and have their ashes spread there, we were told a few times that there are homes for older people to live in as they wait to die so they can be cremated there. The cremations occur at special burning ghats (ghats mean the steps in the above photo and they area all over Varanasi) and the cremations go on all through the day, every day of the year, we were told that 200 cremations take place each day...very unbelievable to imagine. It was a pretty surreal experience watching this ritual out in the open, something you would never see in a million years in Canada.
As well as being a place that Hindus come especially to bathe in the waters of Varanasi it has become a stop for most international tourists. And this means that is has become so touristy unfortunately (this was the first really touristy place Rach and I have been to and I kept being slightly shocked to see tourists, a lot of European and Japanese, as we have seen so few the last month!) All and all it was a very overwhelming and fascinating place, watching people bathe in water that also has fresh ashes in it, being accosted every step by people trying to sell you things, and also trying to avoid stepping in cow dung which is EVERYWHERE and the smells were also overpowering not in a good way...it was an interesting place for sure!
Unfortunately we had a difficult journey reaching Varanasi and then on the way back as well. We took the Express train which was supposed to take 14 hours...we eventually arrived 23 hours after we had left kolkata): It was pretty much torture, we subsisted on cookies and candy for a day, I finished my book with still 8 more hours to go, and we were never told why the train was so late or when we would arrive, we just waited and waited...I know it is part of the Indian travel experience but it was SO frustrating! On the way back we were only delayed by 4 hours, which at this point impressed us! Anyways, the delays meant we had less than 24 hours in Varanasi and missed the boat ride on the river at sunset, although we did get up to go for a boat ride at sunrise (which is when people are performing rituals and bathing), which was a really unique experience. We had some delicious meals on rooftop terraces overlooking the Ganges which were also pretty memorable! I still have mixed feelings about Varanasi, the weekend was so tiring and overwhelming and so was the city...I will just say that is it something worth seeing but I am not sure I need to go back:)
Rach and I were just talking about how things in India can make us smile, break our hearts, and be SO frustrating often at the same time. Little things happen each day that I just love, today for example, we boarded a bus after reaching the train station in Kolkata to take us back to the IICP, where we work and live. Rach handed the ticket collector the exact change for our two tickets and I just loved the looks from the surrounding men on the bus, they were incredulous that we were A) on the bus with our backpacks and all and B) that we knew the exact ticket price. We get these looks in the area of kolkata where we are living often too, it is an industrial area so there are no other tourists at all, so we often get these hilarious looks as we are on the bus or doing grocery shoppping like, "are you completly crazy or lost!?" The children who are begging or are working for money break my heart the most. On trains people come on at every stop to sell you everything and anything you could imagine. Today a little boy came on (about 6 or 7) and was sweeping the garbage from under our seats hoping to get a few rupees. We gave him some of course and then he saw our almost eaten bag of cookies on the table which he pointed to. I handed him the bag and he touched it to his forehead as a sign of gratitude and then gave us the biggest smile you could imagine...it was so heart breaking. By contrast, the thing that annoys me to no end and makes me want to scream are the drivers of taxis and rickshaws...every time they try to get more money than we agreed and get angry with us and it becomes a big deal...it is SO frustrating.
Okay I have rambled on long enough, hopefully we will figure out to add some more photos this week:)
Other than that
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
MUAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a quick update on our week as we are leaving for Varanasi tomorrow night and won't be able to update again until next week.
As for IICP we are in love with the kids from our class! My little guy, Sudhangshu is such a little cutie! His favourite thing to do is grab your hand and take it to his mouth to give you a kiss, he even says Muah! Kim and I have also taught several of the kids to blow kisses so we are blowing kisses back and forth whenever we enter or leave the classroom. This week we got to do mat evaluations on Sudhangshu and Bitasta (Kim's student) as well as a writing evaluation on Sudhangshu and another student in the slass who stays at Mother Theresa's charity - he was pretty happy because everytime he sees Kim and I he makes the signal that he wants to right for us. Today we also went up to the vocational training room where they do print and stationary work. We got to make a gift bag out of newspaper which was pretty exciting-but we clearly were not up too par at the task because the guy that was teaching us smiled hugely after each of our atemps at the various steps and then took the bag from us and fixed it for us...so we need some more training for sure ;)
Yesterday after work we went down to New market to do a little shopping...but this was so exhausting that we didn't get much :-/ Bartering is so much work!!! and you literally can not just browse because as soon as you show the slightest interest in something it is off the rack and thrown into the bag for you which is followed by fast-paced bargening that you cannot say "I'll think about it" to because they just won't let you get away with it...this has been a great challenge for me because I am the most indecisive shopper ever! But we did get away with a couple scarves and Kurtis so we made some progress :)
Anyways, gotta run-we are off to yoga. We will update next week after our trip to Varanasi - not looking forward to the overnight trains, but it'll be an experience!
Rachel
As for IICP we are in love with the kids from our class! My little guy, Sudhangshu is such a little cutie! His favourite thing to do is grab your hand and take it to his mouth to give you a kiss, he even says Muah! Kim and I have also taught several of the kids to blow kisses so we are blowing kisses back and forth whenever we enter or leave the classroom. This week we got to do mat evaluations on Sudhangshu and Bitasta (Kim's student) as well as a writing evaluation on Sudhangshu and another student in the slass who stays at Mother Theresa's charity - he was pretty happy because everytime he sees Kim and I he makes the signal that he wants to right for us. Today we also went up to the vocational training room where they do print and stationary work. We got to make a gift bag out of newspaper which was pretty exciting-but we clearly were not up too par at the task because the guy that was teaching us smiled hugely after each of our atemps at the various steps and then took the bag from us and fixed it for us...so we need some more training for sure ;)
Yesterday after work we went down to New market to do a little shopping...but this was so exhausting that we didn't get much :-/ Bartering is so much work!!! and you literally can not just browse because as soon as you show the slightest interest in something it is off the rack and thrown into the bag for you which is followed by fast-paced bargening that you cannot say "I'll think about it" to because they just won't let you get away with it...this has been a great challenge for me because I am the most indecisive shopper ever! But we did get away with a couple scarves and Kurtis so we made some progress :)
Anyways, gotta run-we are off to yoga. We will update next week after our trip to Varanasi - not looking forward to the overnight trains, but it'll be an experience!
Rachel
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