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Published: August 14th 2007
It's been awhile since my last post - I have been waaaaaaaaaay too lazy of late to actually bother to type an entry. It's not as if I don't have the time, I do but anyways here it is...
That I last left off on our weekend in McLeod Ganj. The bus trip home was entertaining to say the least. They always are in India. The bus was jam packed with people, luggage etc and we were very lucky to actually have seats. I was squished in against the window which didn't seem like a good idea due to my previous injuries in that seat but it turned out to be the best seat as for most of the journey Keri had a rather portly Indian woman sitting in her lap which made me laugh. The woman just hopped on the bus and plonked herself down on Keri as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Then to add insult to injury, a little old lady clambers on and at first wraps her arms around the waist of the guy standing next to us as if she were clinging on for dear life. Then slowly moves herself so
that she was half lying on top of poor Keri (meanwhile the portly Indian woman was laughing whilst still on Keri's knee!!) It got worse though as the little ole lady edged her way across Keri and onto Carly so she was pretty much sprawled across their laps. Needless to say I was in hysterics by this point, just wish I'd taken a photo. Poor Keri though, not exactly a comfortable journey by any manner of means. Indians just don't seem to understand the concept of personal space, especially on public transport. Ach well.
Camp hasn't been great this week for a number of reasons. The most annoying one being all the bloody Germans who are volunteering!!!! I have tried so hard to like them and get on with them but they are just so rude it's actually unbelievable at times. Half of them don't even bother to go to their work and spend their days just lazing about, being loud and rude and generally pissing off everyone else at the camp. There have also been taxi strikes in Himachal Pradesh this past week which had meant that lot's of folk can't get to work because the IDEX drivers (despite
being paid by IDEX so effectively private drivers, not taxi drivers) are on strike. I just don't understand India sometimes. Well most of the time. I'm not too badly affected as my computer school is just up the road and not too far to walk but my afternoon work is about a 15min drive away so I've missed a whole week of work due to the strikes which is extremely frustrating!! I feel so guilty because I don't want the kids to think that I just can't be bothered to turn up and to make matters worse, it's officially still school holidays just now so the kids are coming to my class off their own backs. Although it's not entirely IDEX's fault and the strikes are out with their control, they are just so frustrating. They have done nothing to help us get to work via another means, they never give us accurate or relevant information and generally they don't seem at all interested in the projects or the work that we do at that. This really gets to me as that's the whole reason that they all have jobs yet they seem to think it's ok not to bother
turning up and sit around camp watching Hindi movies or the cricket all day. Apparently they've always been like this and as the saying goes “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!!”
We've had a fab week at computer class though. Since Neil & Rich were leaving, we threw a little party for the girls which turned out to be a hoot! We brought some food (courtesy of Baghi, our cook at camp, who really is a legend!) and expected to have a fairly relaxed affair. Well that certainly wasn't the case as 2 of the girls disappeared off and came back 10mins later with a DVD player, 100's of CDs and a HUUUUUUUGE speaker system. Within minutes we had the bhangra beats blasting and were making complete and utter fools of ourselves on the dance floor. The girls were teaching us how to dance Hindi style and got a lot of laughs at us I tell ya. For India being such a conservative society the girls really like to shake their hips in a rather provocative manner lol. It was good fun, especially when the boys strutted their stuff. Rich got the girls giggling as all of a
sudden he just burst into dance - reminded me of Stifler in American Pie 3. So all in all our party was a success. So now the boys have gone it's just Mags and I teaching our class. We've had 4 new additions bringing the grand total to 14 girls and we have a whole 2 computers to go round as one of them broke during the week! It's off being fixed at the moment but I fear it's already on the scrap heap. Oh well, gotta make the best of what you have and all that.
On Thursday our girls took us to Kangra temple. Kangra is about 1 and a half hours by bus from Palampur so it made for a nice day trip. The girls had planned to go by taxi as Priya HATED the bus and refused to use it and it's pretty easy to understand why!!! But due to the strikes she rather disappointingly clambered onto the rust bucket bus. She's such a sweet girl, she sat next to me chit chatting about this and that the whole way there telling me all about the places we passed through! She then plopped her headphones in
my ears so I could listen to her tunes on her mobile as we bumped along the road. Some of the girls got really dressed up in their Saris especially since we were visiting the temple which was really cool. They made such an effort. I can't imagine many folk at home willing to travel for so long and get dressed up just to go to church.
Kangra was pretty much the same as most of the other towns in the area. Lots of people, noise, dirt, traffic, cows and shops all selling the same stuff whilst at the same time lots of people just sitting about doing nothing in true Indian style!!! We walked up through a rabbit warren of street lined with shops selling jewellery, these tacky Christmas style decorations (I've yet to find out what they are used for and what exactly they are but they seem to be everywhere!!) The streets were really narrow and all the shops had canopies to keep the sun out which was ace as we walked up the hill to the temple. From the street the temple didn't look like much, in fact I'd probably have walked right past it. Luckily
though we had our very own tour guides who instructed us to leave our shoes in the shop across the street, wash our hands and cover our heads before entering the temple. The girls all bought sweets that looked like little nuts and crystals but actually tasted really good - very sweet and tasty. As we waited in line to enter the temple we, as per usual, attracted alot of attention but the girls kept us amused as they took lots of photos. They really were all very excited and completely snap happy!! At least we weren't the only typical tourists!! The temple was fab though... the girls were all very serious as we entered and gave our offering but soon we were out in the courtyard and the excited chitter chatter and photo taking returned!! The courtyard was huge with hindi script engraved on the walls and it had a roasting hot white and black checked marble floor. We walked around and saw this huge crowd gathered around a girl and a woman with lots of singing and clapping and random chanting. It kind of seemed like a weird cult as the girl was sitting cross legged in the
middle swinging her head around and around. She looked completely and utterly possessed while the woman was chanting her and asking her questions. Then a random guy in the crowd would every so often instigate a singsong. It was a very very strange experience.
We only really stayed about half an hour or so in the temple then we wandered back down through the bazaar looking at all the weird and wonderful trinkets along the way. The girls did some shopping then informed us that it was lunchtime. We followed them to what was probably the playing field (complete with open sewers, lots of mud, dogs and the obligatory cow!!) and they unpacked a huge picnic lunch for us. It was such a nice surprise and we really hadn't expected it at all. They'd obviously planned it all as everyone had brought a different dish it was so sweet. The food was really tasty too. Five minutes later the food was gone and only the newspaper and scraps were left. Being India there was no bins around so instead the leftovers and newspaper was plonked down in front of the cow - our very own waste disposal unit as with
one gulp it was all gone!!
We made our way back to the bus stand and on the way passed 100’s of these little stalls that made lime sodas. They all had this machine that looked like it was from the dark ages that squeezed the juice from the limes. Then the juice was added in a jug along with some soda water, normal water and lots of ice (freshly chipped off a huge block). It was then necessary to pour the concoction to and fro from jug to glass 3 times, before garnishing with salt!! The girls all went crazy for them and bought us one to try. This brought about an awkward situation. It’s always awkward when you’re offered something you know will make you ill. This had disaster written all over it. The drink itself had lots of dirt floating in it, the glass I don’t think had ever been washed and ice that had been sitting out all day and all together just screamed DELHI BELLY!!!! Not really sure what to do we all just looked at each other until I bravely decided to sip a little bit, “mmmmmmm, that’s lovely” and it was swiftly passed
on. They just don’t seem to understand sometimes that drinking the water makes us sick!!
On Thursday night, myself and all my roomies (Keri, Carly & Amy) had decided to go out to dinner since it was our last night with Amy since she was only here for 4 weeks. We went to this place in town called Joy and believe me it is a joy to eat there. Not so much for the food, more for the ice cream. I’d been well warned to stay away from ice cream but I haven’t been sick yet so I like to indulge every once in awhile. The ice cream sodas are just to die for and they come in every flavour you could possibly think of. Mango is my favourite so far. We had a nice farewell dinner for Amy. It’s gonna be so strange not to have her around anymore. It’s crazy how well you get to know someone in such a short space of time. She lives near London so I’ll probably see her again at some stage.
We decided to get a taxi home as it was dark by the time we finished dinner. Even though
the taxi strikes were in full swing, we managed to get one no problem. Typical India!! Our driver was really nice actually, he chatted most of the way home and was looking more at me than at the road which was slightly disturbing because a) it was dark and there are no streetlights (he did actually bother to use his headlights though) b) there were lots of people braving to walk along the road. So about halfway home he swerved to avoid a pot hole which resulted in 4 very scared and nervous giggling girls. He must have taken this to mean that we liked that so he proceeded to swerve the car all over the road the rest of the way home almost hitting a cow, a tree and every other vehicle that passed. I really did fear for my life. It was like being on a simulator except the odds of dying were waaaaaaaaaaaaaay higher!!!! What a relief when he stopped the car. That might actually have been one of the worst taxi rides… so far!!
We are off trekking near McLeod Ganj this weekend which will be fun. I can’t wait to get some fresh air, some exercise and a wee change of scenery. This has been a loooooooooooooong week at camp.
And so to the title of this blog “Deep Fried Everything” well I’m starting to tire of the food at camp. Bhagi is a wonderful cook and they all work so hard to feed us all but if I see another chapati or banana I think I’m going to cry!! But that’s not the worst of it… practically everything that we eat at camp is deep fried including the most disgusting thing I think I’ve ever eaten - a roll that would have been wonderful if it had been baked in the oven and served hot but no, it was deep fried and solid as a rock. If I’d put it in a sock it would have been a great weapon and probably could have killed someone with one foul swoop. It was completely and utterly revolting not to mention inedible. So I’ve not really been eating much lately as it makes me physically sick sometimes with all the grease and the thought of it all being deep fried. And people say the Scottish are bad for deep frying mars bars?!?
Ali xxxxxxxxxxx
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Mark
non-member comment
Dancing
Ali, next time the music's on and the dancing begins I reckon you should show them some good old Highland Dancing.....