After School Program and Elephants

The Migrant homes

Playing with the Migrant Kids at the After School Program

Slim and I on a local elephant

I have been keeping busy with lots of work! I am totally reorganizing the Spoken English classes and writing a report on it. I am also starting to run the Girls club in one village and may start running another girls club  in another village. This weekend we had WE WEEK for Int'l Women's Day and Sikh Environment Day. All the girls from the different villages came together and we danced, ate, and played games. On Sunday I went to a Wedding. One of my students invited myself and 3 other interns.. It was pretty interesting! Tons of food, so delicious, we ate until we were more than full! All the men were dancing and throwing money into the air, quite a sight to see. Yesterday we planted trees with our Girls club for Sikh Environment Day. Next Sunday is Holi so we will be out and about celebrating in the villages.. Thats all for now!

Love Krista

WE Week

The girls dancing for us

Our Girls Club

My flatmate from the UK and I

Us all out for dinner for Alice's good-bye.

My flatmate Natalia from Columbia and I at the wedding

Bride and Groom

Outside part of the Wedding. There was a huge indoor place as well.

Being goofy with the Girls from the Girls Club.. 

Daljit, one of my students celebrates her bday in Class

The stream under the bridge where people chuck their garbage

My flatmates and I (Will from UK, Slim from Tunisia)

Ready to go out in our Punjabi outfits :-) 

Pictures

Rishikesh

McLoed Ganj

Our kitchen

Dining Room Table lol

McLoed Ganj

Painting at the Girls Club

Rishikesh

Rafting on the ganga

Adampur and McLoed Ganj

I finally have some time to update my blog. Ill try to keep this short (ish) and sweet. I officially started my internship with EduCARE (a social enterprise- not so much an NGO because we are completely self sustainable... e.g. we have little $ or resources because we earn it all ourselves) around a week ago. I got picked up by 3 interns and taken to our house in Adampur. There are three rooms in the house with three interns in each room, a shared kitchen, and a shared bathroom.... as well as our annoying land lords upstairs ;) I share a room with Natalia from Columbia, and Slim from Tunisia. We also have another Columbian, 2 English people, a French girl, and an American girl living with us. (but many people are moving out, with new people moving in in the next couple of weeks.) There are more interns than the ones I live with but they live in other centers in Janauri and Dosarka (around 1 hour-1.5 hours away from Adampur). My first day in the office I felt a bit overwhelmed, there wasn't a lot of direction for me, so I had to try and figure out a lot of the things by myself (I still am figuring it out as well!). As of now I am in charge of the morning English Classes and will probably be in charge of the Girls Club now that the American girl is leaving. In the English class I have a group of people in their teens to early 20's. The main reason why they are learning English is to go abroad- it seems as if everyone in Punjab wants to go abroad (there are millions of advertisements everywhere saying Study in Canada, Get your visa for the U.K etc). Everyone seems convinced that a better life exists for them abroad and they will be able to come back rich (like many of their friends and family who live abroad in other countries have). At EduCARE we are changing our approach from offering primarily English language classes to trying to incorporate a Global perspective in the class. Therefore, I spend my English classes talking with my students about Global Issues such as the Environment, Role of women, tradition vs modernity etc etc. I have also started going to the Girls Club in a village nearby Adampur.. Im pretty sure I am going to take over managing the Girls Club as I have had an excellent time at the two meetings I have gone to so far. Each time there has been a group of abour 8 girls who come twice a week from 430-6pm. In the past they have done different activities such as Yoga, Crafts, Dancing etc. They have also had self esteem building exercises, and activities where they have talked about their dreams, life in their villages, the problems that exist in their villages etc etc. Currently we are organizing WE Week (celebrating both Int'l Women's Day and Sikh Environment Day- both in the same week). We have got the girls to make a play about the Environment which they will present to the two other girls clubs in the other centers as well as all of the Interns. It is going to be an event where we can talk about Women Empowerment and the Environment as well as an opportunity for the girls to meet each other and have some fun. I think it will be nice for the girls to get out of their houses and have a little 'field trip.' One of my students told me that most girls are just doing domestic work during the weekend so I hope it will be a nice break away.

This weekend myself as well as the other girls in my house went to McLoed Ganj in Himachel Pradesh. We took a very interesting bus ride up here... On the way from Adampur to Hoshiapur where we had to catch the bus to McLoed Ganj there was a man sitting infront of us. This man had deep gashes in his arms and looked as if he had leprosy or some other skin disease. He had a hook shaped knife that he hid in his pants. He started to stare at us and take the knife out and start picking and cutting at his gashes.. He also had another knife in his pants. All of us were freaking out but the Indian people did nothing! A big Indian man sat infront of us, sort of as a protector, but no one told him to get off the bus. The man continued to stare at us, and just as I was ready to get off and catch another bus, the man stood up, and thankfully just exited. Still it was quite a frightening experience! McLoed Ganj is only like 120 km away but of course in India that took us 7 hours on the bus! We took a local bus and it was a rocky and twisty turny trek through the mountains. We arrived to find out that it was the Tibetan New Year! However, this meant that many of the shops and restaurants would be closed during our time here. Regardless, we have had a good time eating yummy food that we cannot find in Adampur, visiting temples, shopping till we drop, and SLEEPING IN!

We go back to Adampur tomorrow and than the week of work will begin again.. Hopefully I have some time to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

Miss everyone lots

Love Krista

Limited Internet

Have made it safely to Adampur to start my internship. Am living in a house with 7 other interns from all around the world. I am going to be teaching English primarily as well as working for the Girls Club. Unfortunately, internet is often unavailable, as is now time...so I unfortunately won't be able to update as much as I would like to!

:)

Cheers
Krista

Rishikesh

Rishikesh is officially my favourite part of India right now. Myself, along two other travelers; one from Toronto, and one from Karlsruhe (who now lives in Berlin- funny eh!) hiked around 10 k today in total to a beautiful waterfall. The hike was wonderful among the foot hills of the Himalayas next to the River Ganges. Around the waterfall there were little pools of water, very clean and nice, so I dipped my feet into them. It was really nice to meet these other two people, it was a nice hike, with nice conversation. Tomorrow we are going to go on a 26 km White Water Rafting trip down the Ganges... should be fun! After that we are going to try some bartering in the shops, and than the next day I am leaving for Jalandhar.

Rishikesh has made me like India again.. :-)

Hope all is well at home

Love Krista

Rishikesh

The girls dropped me at a Rickshaw in Varanasi and I made the journey by myself to the train station. Angie and Alex have now left 'Incredible India' to enjoy comfy beds, beef, and salads! Yes I am a bit jealous. I got to the train station at 1045pm to wait for my 125am train. Of course it didn't show up until around 330am. I waited in the Special "Ladies" Waiting area, with other ladies, rats, and the stench of urine from the toilets next to me. I boarded my train to Haridwar (approx 14.5 hour trip), took a Gravol and slept for the majority of it. For me India has been a roller coaster journey of ups and downs. Sometimes I wonder why I left my beautiful city, my nice home, nice job, and wonderful family and friends to be sitting in a rat infested train station. I laugh, its all part of the adventure. At the end of the day, is it worth it to put up with stares, garbage, and feeling uncomfortable sometimes? Of course it is. This is why I travel to different destinations. Sure I could spend my money to go to Europe again, or maybe safe Australia, but would I get the same experience? Get to see the things I do? Learn about a completely different culture, people, religion? The answer is no. I know that I am lucky to be able to travel this country, a place that many people close to me will probably never see. So when I have those moments of "OMG GET ME OUT OF HERE!!" I have to remind myself of the completely mind blowing amazing moments I have had as well. I arrived in Haridwar, and didn't even have to haggle much for a Rickshaw driver to take me to Rishikesh. The scenery is completely different from Varanasi. I am surrounded by mountains, a clean river, and a lot more peace. I arrived in my hotel to find a familiar face, an Australian guy that we had met in Delhi. Tomorrow he is going to play some cricket with some locals (Cricket is India's national obsession) and I am going to join him just to watch. Today I am going to relax clear my head, and get a massage later. Rishikesh is the self proclaimed "Yoga Capital of the World" so I might take some classes, do some meditation, and join all the hippies here doing whatever it is they do. I leave for Punjab on the 26th to start my internship with 'EduCARE.'

I am excited and look forward to the next part of my journey. It will also be nice to be settled somewhere for awhile as I am getting a bit sick of hopping around from place to place.

Hope everyone is well

Love Krista