Bangalore, India; Day eleven

It's 9:30pm and I'm actually feeling a little bit sad. Everyone in my group is parting off. My accomplice in crime Celeste just left to board a train to Hampi. How sad. We have lived, ate, worked, and shopped together for the past two weeks. I really got to know all of them, as far as knowing who always comes to breakfast last, who drinks coffee, who does not....that sort of stuff.

Here is me and Celeste when we went to an Indian night club last night.

Shreela and I when we went to an Indian wedding today.

Eww, I guess I don't like coconut water!

This is my team leader, Veronica, and I.

The group photo before we went to the Hindu wedding.

So tomorrow I hop on a plane to New Delhi. Hooray for a new city, two weeks in Bangalore is enough.

Leia Mais…

Bangalore, India; Day ten

So the project is pretty much done. Every working day that we had was definitely a new experience. For example, today on the bus ride home that is supposed to take 1 hour...it took 2 because we encountered the worst traffic jam that I had ever seen in my life. For the past three days it has been raining. I'm from Seattle, yet I've never seen rain like this before. It's as if someone is pouring a bucket of water over the earth. No I know what they mean by monsoon rains.

The children were great today. I guess I forgot to mention that we switched to a different school this past Monday. The new school we are at is larger with 180 students. They actually have desks and school uniforms.

It feels like I have been in India forever. I'm looking forward to a hot shower, my car, meat, my bed, a cocktail or glass of wine.....

Here I am teaching a boy some math.

Here I am showing the children a book of Las Vegas.

This is the outside of the small school.

Leia Mais…

Bangalore, India; Day eight

Yesterday I was feeling a little sick, so my team leader made me stay. I feltshort of breath. My guess is that the pollution here is really starting to take a toll on my lungs.

I ventered off on my own a little later in the afternoon because I got really bored. I went to the City Market. Oh my God, that was the worst idea ever! There were so many people there. They push and shove to get around. I held on to my bag thinking that someone was bound to come by and steal my wallet without me knowing. Then, it seriously got ten times worse when it starting pouring down rain. The city which is filthy already, gets even filthier when its muddy. I made it back with the city's dark dirt splashed on the back of my legs and all over my feet.

This is a picture of one of the millions of flower vendors at City Market.

One of the many power vendors. The powder seen here in cone shapes are used for the dot on the head. As you can see they come in many brilliant colors.

Leia Mais…

Bangalore, India; Day three

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!

Leia Mais…

Bangalore, India; Day one

Yes, I'm here half way across the world, jet lagged, even though I slept almost the entire 16 hour plane ride to get here. Interesting place this is. I almost got ran over a bus a few times because traffic seems to not want to stop for anything. Instead of slowing down, they prefer honking. There are so many people here, its amazing. The other amazing part is, unlike being in Thailand, I feel like I'm the only tourist here. Maybe that's because I am. I mean really, who travels to India? While walking around this morning, I recieved many stares from the local people who are in wonder at my appearance. It could also be that I'm sporting jeans and a T-shirt, while the women here all wear beautiful cloths of many colors drapped across their shoulders. Guess I'll have to go shopping so that I can fit in just a little. I can't wait for that. This morning's breakfast of coffee, and something they call "Idyl" which is a tomato type curry over rice cost me approximately .25 cents.
Right now I'm at a little internet cafe across the street from where I'm staying. We are going to have a group orientation meeting in just a little while. Other volunteers in my group are from all over; South Korea, Isral, Atlanta, Canada, France and the UK. We have yet to go to the place where we will be working, but our team leader explained that it is outside the city. Thank god...all this smog is really giving me a head ache.
Sorry, no pictures yet. I only took a couple of random cows that were walking in the street this morning. Seriously, there are cows walking in the middle of the road, just about the only thing that traffic does stop for!

Leia Mais…