Hello! Where you are from?......Japan?

So my tummy is (finally) feeling better, yay!!!!!!! However....now it is Kim's turn :( We were on the bus this morning with the plan to purchase train tickets and run some errands but Kim had to get off the bus asap. So she has gone home to rest...hopefully she will not be sick like i was, and hopefully with a day of rest she will be feeling better. Fingers crossed!!!!

Yesterday we had a looong day. We got up at 4:20am in order to make it to the train station to catch the 6:00am train into Bishnupur. After purchasing our tickets we scrambled to figure out where to catch it and although there was a bit of panic we were successful. What we quickly learned though was that we should have looked into reserved seating, as it was pretty packed in there. Kim was lucky enough to get a single seat by the window, but I was crammed onto a "five" person bench (Canadian standards three person bench) with a lovely Indian family. It wasn't so bad though they had an adorable baby which made it much more enjoyable :) I was lucky and the seat across from Kim freed up after an hour or two so for a lovely hour or so we had single window seats...then we shared those single seats with another person. The seats were VERY comfortable too (NOT!) they were rock hard and I swore I thought my ITs (sit bones) were going to be bruised. But we made it! When we got there we hired a cycle rickshaw who we bartered with, but in the end gave him what he had originally asked for because we were racked with guilt having this tiny Indian man pulling us around in the hot hot sun. He took us around to "all temple". The temples were beautiful with such detailed walls (pictures soon...we are trying!!!) and they were scattered all around the town. From the number of stares and people yelling at us "Hello, you are from where?" and guessing Japan we are assuming that Bishnupur rarely gets foreign tourists. AFter our little tour we were brought back to the train station. We still had another 4 hrs to kill before the train left so decided to try to find somewhere to eat...but after walking along the main road in the hot sun we decided to turn back and eat near the station where there were a few restaurants...honestly though it was just street food with a place to sit. I was paranoid about getting sick again so barely touched the luke warm food that had been sitting out, and I think my paranoia rubbed off on Kim too cause she barely ate it either...hopefully what she did eat is not the cause of her tummy problems today :-/ Anyways.....after lunch we bartered with another cycle rick shaw to take us up the road where we had seen ice cream. Clearly this guy did not understand us because when we asked to pull over and payed him (again more than what we had bartered for - the guilt!) he started talking in Bengali and motioning asking "all temples???", so clearly he had thought he was taking us on a tour and must have thought we were nuts...this was confirmed by the ENORMOUS smile he gave us when we once again returned to train stn via one more rickshaw....we're pretty sure the whole town thought we were crazy. We then sat around the train station playing cards (while an Indian man stared at us from about a 1 foot distance from Kim's face the entire time). We finally caught the train (it was an hour late)...had to stand at first, but Kim snagged a seat at the next stop and I got one at the next stop...unfortunately, despite looking very intently at my book and having my ipod in my ears the two men sitting next to me stared at me and looked at my book...then proceeded to ask me question afetr question. When one got off (not without first inviting me over) I called Kim over...it wasn't very nice I should have left her sitting next to the sweet couple that she was, but I needed some team support! So for the next while (until the other guy left) Kim got asked all the same questions and a couple more, including something along the lines of what do you hope will be your life accomplishment? Kim avoided this one hahaha Oh, and I forgot to mention that for the whole 3 or so hours that Kim and I were seated there the man across the isle from us starred the entire time...I'm not exagerating...I think his neck must be sore today! The train ride had some lovely surprises though that made the journey even more memorable, including a magic show and a man who walked through singing on his microphone!

.... I feel like I'm missing out a bunch...it was a very eventful day :)
Rach xo

Sorry no photos yet...:)

Hello,

To all of you are reading this (read: mainly my extended family!) I apologize that we have yet to post any pictures. We keep meaning to the last few days but things always come up, yesterday we spent our afternoon trying to book train tickets (we are not able to do so online with our international visa cards because of fears of terrorism apparently...it is super annoying, as it meant we spent about 3 hours getting to a tourist office to finally book train tickets...but it is done so we are happy. I was going to post today using the computer at the ICCP, which we are supposed to have access to each afternoon..however that is not always the case so I am writing from a little internet cafe on a rather old computer on which I have no idea how I would upload upload photos...so I apologize and will try to do so soon!

To update you on our week, unfortunately Rachel has gotten a stomach bug and was ill last night. She did not come to work today but is feeling better and is taking antibiotics, so if her family is reading this, she is getting better and is planning on callling home tomorrow morning which would be thursday evening around 7 your time:) We are not sure what it is from as we have eaten the same thing every day and are trying to be careful about these things. We are drinking the filtered water at the IICP (as the girls who came last year did so), but the two physiotherapists from the UK who arrived the same time as us informed me today that they are not drinking it...but I imagine it is fine:) We may have slipped up this last weekend...I admit we had two different types of streetfood on Sunday....I know I know everyone told us not to, but seriously you cannot imagine how good everything looks. Also the student teachers bought us there favourite street snack on one of the times...so we couldn't really turn it down right! Anways, we have learned our lesson and will resist the delicious temptations from now on...or until we develop very strong Indian stomachs!

This week at work has been going well, on Monday we arrived and they told us we were going on a picnic for the whole day...so yes I am working hard! The picnic was for a couple of different schools in Kolkata with children with special needs. It was a really amazing thing to see, a select few from each school put on performances of songs or dance and it was seriously the cutest thing in the entire world. Also mothers and some siblings came along to, so it was really nice to see these kids getting so much support. Karen if you are reading this, a lot of the children performing had Downs' Syndome (whom I have a particular love for as you know) they were just so happy, it was so awesome to see. Otherwise we have been doing some feeding, handwriting, and physical assessments. I am learning lots but it is very different from Canada and even the way the PTs teach is so different and even though they speak English I think I miss about 40% of what they say because of their accents...so it is deffinetly a learning curve! Unfortunately hydrotherapy (physio type therapy sessions in the pool) has still not started because it has been cold here the last few days and the pool is heated by the sun...by cold I mean that Rach and I wear t-shirts and capris and I sleep with just a sheet at night...so really lovely tempterature by Canadian standards...however, Indian men wear full pants, collared shirts, jackets, and many of the men wear sweaters or sweater vests too!

Speaking of difference between us and Indians..there are so many..but probably my favourite is the head wiggle/bobble. If any of you have read Shantaram, he describes it really well. It is a little wiggle/sideways nod to the right that can mean SO many different things, it can be a greeting or it can mean yes, I suppose so, or no...it is so variable! For example I asked the head PT if we could have a Friday off to go to Varanasi and his answer was a little head wiggle to the right...I am assuming he understood and we are able to go, but really who knows! I caught Rachel doing a little bobble the other day when I was asking her something which was pretty hilarious. Some other differences I can think of is the constant public urination (everywhere you go men are peeing!), public bathing, men clear there throat SO loudly and make sure a gutteral noise it often wakes me up in the morning, men holding hands (of all ages), and men young and old having the tiniest waists in the world, so many times we have seen men who can wrap their belts almost around themselves twice they are so petite!

One last story for this blog (there is so much I want to tell but know it is a probably not all interesting!) is the experience walking through the slum behind the IICP. We walk there to get fruits and veggies sometimes and now we found that if we walk through the whole area we reach this lovely little park on the other side. Anyways, everytime we walk through the slum everyone stares (as in most parts of India) which is fine but my favourite part is when we walk by groups of boys around 8 to 10 years old. If we say hi and wave they burst into giggles like we have said the funniest joke, it just makes my day every time:) Yesterday as we walked through, about 20 little boys were playing cricket and the whole game just came to a standstill as they all stopped playing to stare at us...I don't think I have that much presence in Canada! Okay, hope my ramblings are of some interest!
~Kim

one whole week in India

Hello!

Sorry we have not written for so long, internet is very slow and we don't get theat much access either. So much to tell from the last few days...I will try and mention some highlights! We have started yoga at this stuido near our place, which was recommended to us from the girls who went on this same placement last year. I am not sure what kind of yoga it is but they look at you and then make up a special set of exercises for you to do individually each time you come. When you are more advanced I imagine you can do the moves alone but as Rach and I are new, we get one to one attention with these yoga teachers for our whole session. I have both times gotten the strict one who repeatedly tells me I am doing things "wrong" and to "stop looking around" and she really frowns if I start to laugh! But after the session is over she is all smiles and asking me where I am from and if I am married:) The funniest part of yoga is that Rachel has a special excercise for her eyes. She was wearing her glasses the first day we came and the head instructor asked her what her perscription was and then designed a special activity to improve Rachel's vision. The pose involves Rach sitting outside on the balcony of the studio and blinking a few times and then covering her eyes with her hands a few times...fingers crossed she will have 20/20 vision when we return! I cannot look at her when she does this pose or else I canont stop laughing:)

We had a good day at placement on friday, getting to do a full physical assessment and practice a handwriting assessment. We are both really looking forward to hydrotherapy which apparently starts this week and getting to do more and more hands on stuff. I am really enjoying getting to know the kids in the one class where Rach and I have our assigned student in, they are so cute, one of my favourites is a little girl called mumpy who does not have cerebral palsy but is deaf had taught us sign language and some dance moves already!

We decided to stay in Kolkata this weekend and see some of the sights. On saturday morning we went to volunteer with 3 of the physiotherapists from the ICCP at one of mother theresa's charity homes, it is one that houses children with disabiliites (mainly CP and Downs) who are orphaned, apparently they are often just found on the street. It was a really interesting experience, it is so sad in one way but also I was amazed at how many inernational volunteers were there to work with the children, so at least the children seem to be getting a lot of attention and love. We also went to a famous hindu temple, a memorial for Queen Vistoria, botanical gardens, and this amazing bridge and flower market. We have taken a lot of public transit lately which has been an eye-opening experince for sure! I actually love the buses when we get a seat because it is so amazing to watch what is going on outside the window, the people, the animals, the clours, the sounds...its so much to take in. The trains and buses are so crowded I cannot really explain it except to say that every part of my body is touching comeone else...worse than the 99 in rush hour! But despite the ridiculous number of people (mainly men), I have felt completely safe, I am not worried about my things being stolen really at all and often people have given up their seatsd for us and insisted we take them. Also people on the streets are generally pretty helpful when they see us two looking completely lost, if they cannot understand English they find someone else who can speak a little:) The times when I have found people to be rude or pushy or really taking advantage of us is at touristy places, otherwise, I have found Indian people to be so friendly and helpful.

We are planning to got away next weekend, but just need to decide where and figure out the next public transit method..trains! Hope eveyone is doing well in Canada:)

IICP

Today was day 3 working at the IICP (yesterday was a holiday), so far this week we have been doing classroom, treatment and feeding assessment observations. The kidies are adorable and full of smiles when they see us, they call us "Aunty" . We are hoping that next week, after a week of observation, we will get to do more hands on stuff. We've been told that for our assigned child we will have to go through the various different assessments (physical, seating, feeding, handwriting etc...) and then make recommendations...at least that's what we think, but to be honest we are not totaly sure...half the time we don't catch what is being said :-/  On Thursdays we get to work either in the outpatient clinic (I was there today) where parents bring in their kids for assessment and treatment recommendations, or in the baby clinic (Kim was there today). Next week we also start hydrotherapy.

As far as non OT stuff...on Tuesday afternoon we took the bus (all by ourselves!!!) down the street then walked into New Alipore where we found the yoga studio the girls went to last year, we inquired and are going to go to our first session tonight! The yoga institute is apparently the 3rd oldest yoga studio in India so it should be pretty interesting :) Yesterday we went out with the 3 other girls staying here at the Institute (they are from Shillong in North-East India) to go shopping. We bussed down to the mall which was fun in itself, there is so much going on along the streets it is impossible to take it all in...India is a sensory overload, I have never seen, smelt or heard so much in my life! The mall was very interesting...once inside you could easily forget that you were in India, it was just like any other mall you'd see in North America...well except that they make you go through metal detectors at the entrance and check your bags in every store, sometimes giving you a ticket which says that you have a camera in your bag...then give you back your camera...not sure what the purpose of this was?)After the mall we took the bus down to a huge street market, which neither one of us can remember the name of (despite being told at least 4 times). It was so neat to see, the stalls were lined up along the sidewalks and seemed to go on and on, I don't think we even covered 1/2 of the market. We were the only two foreigners in there lol.
This weekend we are going to volunteer at Mother Theresa's on Saturday morning, then we are going to check out some of the sights in Kolkata, including Victoria Memorial.

We'll update you again soon...and try to get some pics uploaded too!
Rachel xo

Expect the Unexpected

So we decided yesterday to head into downtown Kolkata which has most of the restaurants and shops. We cabbed there are we are still a little frightened to use public transit after hearing that it does not really stop and you just have to jump off! Anyways so we were cabbing in and there were suddenly huge numbers of people walking on the side of the road, by huge numbers I mean thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands. I think we saw more people in half a day in Kolkata than you see in Vancouver in a month! We had no idea what was going on and could not communicate with our driver to figure it out (it ended up being a political rally, but no one seems to really know what for). So we just watched in awe at the mass of people, including the women in their beautiful saris (I cannot get over the how beautiful the women are in their saris are, I feel so drab and boring in comparison).

After spending some time looking around, eating, and attempting to shop (we got led down these dark narrow alleyways that smelled so terrible I cannot even describe...we decided after all this not to buy anything which did not make the man selling very happy:), we wanted to catch a cab back to our place. We unknowingly decided to catch a cab just as the political rally ended. Rach and I hopelessly tried to catch a cab among the thousands of other people that were on this one street corner for quite a while until one finally stopped. We got into the cab and he said that the meter was broken (this is a way to overcharge tourists by just making up a huge price once you arrive). We tried to get him to turn it on and were having no luck until a man passing by noticed the meter was not on and started to yell at the cab driver. Within seconds at least 50 Indian men swarmed the car and were all yelling furiously in Bengali at the driver while rach and I cowered in the back seat. I honestly thought the cab driver was going to fight the other men or at least kick us out of the cab but he finally turned on the meter on. It was such a surreal moment as it was so unexpected. In general Indian men have a pretty bad reputation and we have already felt pretty uncomfortable when walking around, but then they surprised us by making sure we were not being taken advantage of by the driver. Anyways, it was a very interesting day to say the least!

We started work today and it was amazing...we are both already in love with all the kids:)

~Kim

Arrived!

After approximately 40 hrs of travelling we have arrived safely to Kolkata! We landed around 2:00am last night and made it in to the IICP (Indian Institute for cerebral palsy) around 2:30 am where we were shown to our rooms and went to sleep...last night we heard dogs barking, sirens ringing and a rooster cawing?...then we were woken up at 7:00am by blarring music in the street, definitely going to make use of my ear plugs tonight ;)

We will update you a little later this week.

Rachel xo

Leaving in 8 hours!

As most of you have already heard, Rach and I have decided to start a blog of our trip to India. We are both pretty incompetent when it comes to anything technological...so wish us luck and we will do our best to keep you posted on our travels:) We leave in 8 hours for a ridiculously long travel time of almost 48 hours (we stop in both Toronto and Frankfurt)...nevertheless I am so so excited that I don't mind that much. We promise to update as soon as we arrive in Kolkata!!!!!