Crazy details about this country: Five times a day you hear the sound to come to prayer for all the Muslims. Every day we take the bus to work and the ladies sit in the front, while the men sit in the back. All the kids at the school we teach at don't wear shoes. The children that we teach are called working children. They don't attend school till the afternoon because in the mornings they go to work either as a house boy/girl or making incense. There are random animals in the street such as cows, pigs, cattle, dogs, chicken. The school teacher's salary is 1,000 rupees a month (that's 60 US dollars). The people living in the outskirts of Bangalore have to walk to the community water tank to get their fresh drinking water. The bus system is the main form of travel and most of the buses are completely packed on every route. Sidewalks are flattened stones put together in a make-shift kind of way. The place that i'm staying at does not have hot running water and nor does most of the city. The sweets found in the the sweet shops throughout the city are super sweet, its just like eating pure sugar. The dress of the women here are called "saree". Most of the marriages here are arranged. You are looked down upon and critized for getting a divorce. There is an extremely low divorce rate. The main language in India is Hindi. The main language in Bangalore is Tadu (not sure about spelling on that one).
I can't even begin to have words or even pictures to describe this place. Yesterday we went out to the project for the first time, and I almost wanted to cry. The walk through the "slums" left a bitter taste in my mouth. These kinds of things don't become a reality till you actually see this way of life with your own eyes. Imagine living in 10x10 concrete room as your entire house without furniture or running water. Many of the women were either washing clothes outside or rolling incense. We were told by our team leader, Veronica that the women in the slum village are actually the bread winners because their husbands are usually drunks so they have to provide for the family. The school children must also work to help support the family. The one teacher in the tiny school provides one meal a day for the children and does what she can on her limited salary. As a team we bought the school a blackboard because they didn't have one. The school has approximately 26 students.
On the food. Well I can at least say that I am not having any stomach problems and I am loving the food. Its fantastic! Food is provided for us, and it is usually some kind of vegatarian sauce, with rice, and this flour tortilla-like thing. I walked into a McDonald's the other day because I wanted to know what they would actually serve seeing how 90% of the population here doesn't eat meat. Well, I guess the McVeggie is the way to go here.
Okay, well I'm exhausted. Still a little jet-lagged. Plus we took the kids to the park today and that wore me out. I'm going to look up some information now because we are planning a trip this weekend to go to Ooty or to Kerala on the coast. Take care, and here are some random pics I took over the last couple of days.
This is what I mean by the sidewalks. This one is missing a stone which creates a big hole. There is a boy with some cattle in the background.
These are two cuties from my school.
Random Cow.
Government building.
From one of the many sweet shops.
Today happens to be the 60th anniversay or Indian Independance day!
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