This will be the first night on the turtle project, so I am really exited.
It is just the problem that the driver is not ready...
He has not gotten the message from the camp manager that we are going tonight, so I do not know what is happening.
mandag 29. november 2010
tirsdag 16. november 2010
Community visit
Two weeks ago we visited the girls in our afternoon class at their homes. We visited them to encourage them to continue to come to class. The last week we had only had about five girls in class compared to up to 12 girls some weeks earlier. We did not really know what were expected from us when we went to community visit; was it not a bit unpolite to invite our selves to someones house to tell them to send their children to our class? Well, our plan was to show ourselves to the families so that we could smile and say that we were happy that their doughters came to class. Maybe the goal for us actually was a more selfish one about seeing some Indian homes. We have a feeling of living in a Western buble in our big, white house and we do not have many oppourtunities to visit Indian familes.
We have got to know the girls quite well after spending the afternoons together with them for so many weeks, but still we felt that we knew very little about their life outside of school. Especially one girl keeps on commenting about how easy everything is for us because we are white and rich and she is perfectly right, but that is also why we are here; to experience how privileged we are in many ways so that we maybe also will realise that we are.
All the girls comes from the same community and seems to be related in one or another way. All together we visited five houses. Both they and us were a bit unsecure about what to say and do, but after some cups of chai everyone became more talkative. They showed us their albums with family pictures and we tried to understand the family relations. It was impossible because an uncle is not only an uncle and an aunt is not only an aunt and your neighbor can be a mommi and your cousin can be a sister and a friend can be a brother. I have given up to learn all the different relations an Indian can have even though Rahul, our project executive, have tried many times to explain.
This is a part of the language and cultural barrier between us. There are so many things that I do not understand here. Or, I rather say that I do not understand anything at all. That is how it feels. Now as we are leaving Palampur and our projects in four days I wander if I have experienced what I came here for. I chose to travel with IDEX because I knew that I would live in a camp with other volunteers and that everything would be arranged for us. The reason why I chose this was that I wanted to stay in surroundings that was not to challenging (as for example to live as the only volunteer in a host family) so I could choose my personal projects and what to spend my energy on. I think now that it was a right decision because I have had the possibility to focus on my English teaching at the school and I think I have done a reasonable good job. On the other hand have I spent alot of time in my room with my two Norwegian room mates sitting on internet on our computers while eating Norwegian (and Swiss) chocolate. Have I spent too much time in our Western bubble? Does it disappoint me that I have not managed to understand more about India after so long time here? I do not think that it is possible to avoid the Western bubble unless you decide to "Go Native". And maybe the cultural barrier actually had feelt more oppressive if I had lived in a host family because the differences had come closer and not been held an arms lenght away as now.
It is not any easy answer to the question about how to experience and learn most about a culture and the answer does often seem to be furthes away when you are in the midle of it. Even though I do not understand Indian Culture (if there is any such thing) I have had some glimpses into it and I also would never want to miss out of getting to know Sirvi Pirvi and Ida Pida Pøne in our Norwegian Cave and all our Western touristing around.
After reading through this it sounds as if I am on my way back home to Norway wich I am not. I am just moving on to next stop in Goa. But I am ending the part of my time in India where I expected to be most involved in Indian society. In Goa I am planning to work with sea turtles and read books, but as I have experienced here it is not possible to imagine in advance how things are going to turn out.
In the post before this one I have posted alot of pictures from the last three monts that have not found its way to the blog yet. I have not regretted one moment that I bought and brought a SLR camera to India. There are so many motifs everywhere which makes it is a pleasure to carry that big, clumsy thing around with me. (I think its name is Bernt, but I have not decided for sure yet.) I hope you will enjoy the pictures and THANK YOU FOR READING AND COMMENT ON MY BLOG! I really like this part of the Western Bubble;-)
We have got to know the girls quite well after spending the afternoons together with them for so many weeks, but still we felt that we knew very little about their life outside of school. Especially one girl keeps on commenting about how easy everything is for us because we are white and rich and she is perfectly right, but that is also why we are here; to experience how privileged we are in many ways so that we maybe also will realise that we are.
All the girls comes from the same community and seems to be related in one or another way. All together we visited five houses. Both they and us were a bit unsecure about what to say and do, but after some cups of chai everyone became more talkative. They showed us their albums with family pictures and we tried to understand the family relations. It was impossible because an uncle is not only an uncle and an aunt is not only an aunt and your neighbor can be a mommi and your cousin can be a sister and a friend can be a brother. I have given up to learn all the different relations an Indian can have even though Rahul, our project executive, have tried many times to explain.
This is a part of the language and cultural barrier between us. There are so many things that I do not understand here. Or, I rather say that I do not understand anything at all. That is how it feels. Now as we are leaving Palampur and our projects in four days I wander if I have experienced what I came here for. I chose to travel with IDEX because I knew that I would live in a camp with other volunteers and that everything would be arranged for us. The reason why I chose this was that I wanted to stay in surroundings that was not to challenging (as for example to live as the only volunteer in a host family) so I could choose my personal projects and what to spend my energy on. I think now that it was a right decision because I have had the possibility to focus on my English teaching at the school and I think I have done a reasonable good job. On the other hand have I spent alot of time in my room with my two Norwegian room mates sitting on internet on our computers while eating Norwegian (and Swiss) chocolate. Have I spent too much time in our Western bubble? Does it disappoint me that I have not managed to understand more about India after so long time here? I do not think that it is possible to avoid the Western bubble unless you decide to "Go Native". And maybe the cultural barrier actually had feelt more oppressive if I had lived in a host family because the differences had come closer and not been held an arms lenght away as now.
It is not any easy answer to the question about how to experience and learn most about a culture and the answer does often seem to be furthes away when you are in the midle of it. Even though I do not understand Indian Culture (if there is any such thing) I have had some glimpses into it and I also would never want to miss out of getting to know Sirvi Pirvi and Ida Pida Pøne in our Norwegian Cave and all our Western touristing around.
After reading through this it sounds as if I am on my way back home to Norway wich I am not. I am just moving on to next stop in Goa. But I am ending the part of my time in India where I expected to be most involved in Indian society. In Goa I am planning to work with sea turtles and read books, but as I have experienced here it is not possible to imagine in advance how things are going to turn out.
In the post before this one I have posted alot of pictures from the last three monts that have not found its way to the blog yet. I have not regretted one moment that I bought and brought a SLR camera to India. There are so many motifs everywhere which makes it is a pleasure to carry that big, clumsy thing around with me. (I think its name is Bernt, but I have not decided for sure yet.) I hope you will enjoy the pictures and THANK YOU FOR READING AND COMMENT ON MY BLOG! I really like this part of the Western Bubble;-)
søndag 14. november 2010
New weekend trip; this time to Manali
We, the three norwegians and tre other volunteers from the new group, Katharina, Simone and Mary, went to Manali last weekend Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th of November. We had a very good time as you can see from the pictures even though the beginning was not exactely as planned. As travellers and not spoiled tourists we wanted to take the bus and not a taxi. We got information from some other volunteers that there was a night bus leaving at 11 pm from the bus station. The bus would most probably be 45 minutes late so we should wait until it showed up and we should wait by the road on the opposite side from the gas station. OK, this sounded fine so we ordered a taxi to the bus station at 10:15 pm from our camp. We wanted to be early in case the information was not all correct. When we arrived at the bus station at 10:25 pm we had alot of time so we bought some food for the 5-7 hours drive (different people would tell us different time) and talked to the guys in the store about going to Manali. At 10:43 I asked them about the bus to get it confirmed. The answer was: No time! No, no, bus Manali 10:45 from Old Bus Station. 2 km. And the guy pointed up the street. Ehh, I did not even know that there was another bus station and we had told them half an hour ago that we were taking the bus to Manali. We called the other volunteers and asked about the information again. They of course said the same as last time: 11:45 opposite the gas station, and we decided that they had to be right. They had after all actually been there. So we sat down and waited for the bus. The taxi drivers at the bus station continued to tell us that there would not be any bus now, but we insisted on waiting: six girls wrapped in blankets in the dark at 11:15 pm. Of course no bus came! So six girls wrapped in blankets had to get two taxies and go by taxi to Manali. The result was also that we arrived in Manali at 4:30 am so what else to do than to find our guest house for the next night, wake up the owner who did not speak English in the midle of the night, get a room and go to bed. And we can now confirm that it can be really cold in India, I guess 10 degrees Celsius. Another part of the story is that we had only booked room for three girls because Katharina, Simone and Mary had just decided to come with us. We was not only arriving a night earlier than booked and in the midle of the night we were also twice as many. It was Ida and I who talked to the owner and we did not dare to say that we were twice as many as booked so we got one room with a duble bed and the pictures tells the rest... Click on the picture to go to Picasa Nettalbum to read my comments to the pictures.
onsdag 10. november 2010
What am I doing right now?
It is not so easy to find the ingredients here in Palampur, but now I am begining to know which shop to go to. And the kitchen is not as my own either, but after some failing I am begining to figure things out because a life without the chocolate cake is a life without chocolate cake. Say no more;-)
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