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