What I Would Give For A Mangle...

---

So the latest trauma I’ve had to deal with is washing clothes. I’d never before realized just how much work it is to hand-wash clothes and I have a new found respect for washing machines. It is possible to have clothes “dry-cleaned” however the process takes about a week, and your whites come back greyer than grey (or whatever other colour they’ve washed your gear with). Not to mention that rather fusty smell that arrives back with them. So I’ve stuck to getting down on my hand and knees and scrubbing for about 3 hours a day in order to get my clothes somewhat remotely close to clean. It’s just disgusting the amount of dirt comes out of them and I’ve sustained numerous injuries. My hands are red raw from wringing out the Clyde from my clothes. What I would give for a mangle right now!!!!

I had a bit of a drama at computer class on Monday morning. I was on my ownio since Neil & Rich were now back in Blighty and Mags was stuck in Manali due to the taxi strike. It wasn’t a problem though because only 2 girls decided to show up and there was no power. So I hung around outside just waiting to see if the power would come back on when out of nowhere these 2 old guys wearing turbans, who looked like Dumb and Dumber, trundled up. One of the guys had a huuuuuuuuge snake (about 6 feet) wrapped around his neck and he started coming at me with it. The horrible thing was hissing and poking its creepy tongue out at me and I was bricking it!!!! The girls also looked a bit freaked out and tried chatting to them in Hindi, I had no idea what they were saying but got the jist that the guys wanted money from me. Obviously since I was white I should just line his pockets in gold cos he was threatening me with a snake. Aye right, picked the wrong girl. Not because I was ready to take on them and their snake in Steve Irwin style, but because I actually had no money on me lol. Eventually after hearing him shout “5 rupees, 5 rupees” in my ear as he edged close and closer with his death machine he got the picture and buggered off with his chum to the house down the road to try the whole charade all over again. After all this had happed, Anupam, the Idex guy in charge of us and the computer class finally bothered to show face. Typical… that was the only time he would actually have come in useful at class aswell. Oh well… I still have all my appendages intact and fully functional, just lost a bit of self dignity.

Computer class finally went ahead on Tuesday (with no scary snake guys thank goodness!!!) and again it was just me as Mags was still in Manali due to the taxi strikes. 12 girls showed up on Tuesday and we only had 2 functioning computers. So at a ratio of 1:6 it wasn’t exactly an ideal situation. Especially since 4 of the girls were new and had no idea how to use a computer. The girls are all really good about it though… they all just get on with it and crowd round the computer occasionally fighting over who gets to go next. It’s just frustrating that there is a computer that needs to be fixed yet IDEX are still arsing about and haven’t even taken it to the repair place a week and a half later. It annoys me as they always go on about how important the computer class is yet they don’t bother their shirts about it most of the time!!!

Due to the taxi strikes, I haven’t been able to work in the afternoons so spent most of my time in Palampur shopping. Mags has moved into our room now that Amy’s gone, so we decided to buy her a wee welcome present. Carly, Keri & I had all bought these really cheesy posters of Indian “studs” to decorate our room with for a laugh so we decided to get Mags one too. Only they were all out of movie stars so we got her this poster of a really creepy baby instead. It’s so bad it’s funny!! The look on her face was a picture lol now its hanging nicely on our wall which makes me laugh every morning!!!

It has been a week of complete and utter traumas (as Mags puts it!) Trying to withdraw money from an ATM machine is like rolling dice and trying to get a 6. All the time it tells you that you’re card is invalid until every once in awhile it will actually ask you to enter your pin and get some cash. It literally takes about half and hour to get out some money. But oh well, it was nice to collect my winnings after playing the ATM game.

Also realized that some bugger had somehow got a hold of my credit card details and went on a nice wee spending spree. It just seems like if it’s not one thing, it’s another right now!!! Not the end of the world I suppose, just a hassle more than anything else but it’s all sorted out now!!

I was cheered up that night at camp though… they made us Apple Crumble and hot custard. My favourite dessert ever!!! I was actually so excited. I think Carly and Keri were too as I do tend to talk about custard a lot these days. I don’t even eat it that often at home but lately I’d had custard cravings like never before!!!!!

It was Independence day on Wednesday so we had a nice wee day off work and planned to go into town and check out the festivities in Palampur. However the monsoon foiled our plans. At least for awhile. Eventually it did clear up and the sun came out (hat and all) and we made the festival. It was really interesting and a lot more sedate than I was expecting. It was nowhere near as loud and chaotic as I expected and I’d go as far as to say it was pretty reserved. It was a great atmosphere though… there were lots of singers, dancers, musicians and speakers as well as the VIP area full of old men looking completely bored out their brains, kind of like the guys you see sitting on shopping centre benches on a Saturday afternoon, wishing they were at the football. We were sat at the side watching and met some of our girls there which was nice as they helped explain what was going on. Some of the little boys and girls that were performing were sat next to us and were so cute, all dressed in white with orange, white and green ribbons tied around their wrists! They all pancake mix on their faces, even the boys which I found quite funny. One of them really looked like a little Bangkok lady boy especially when Mags took a picture and he pouted lol. Bananas were given out to everyone (as you do at these kinds of things 😉 and then these little orange coloured sweets that were kind of like marzipan but not as nice. The whole event was being filmed for TV and you would think that the performers would have been the main attraction. Apparently not. 4 little white girls sitting in the crowd were obviously waaaaaaaaaay more exciting and demanded full coverage. They honestly filmed us for most of the time we were there which got a bit annoying after awhile. It was rather amusing though when that night we just happened to flick over onto the local TV channel to see our Indian TV debut. Still waiting for my royalties cheque to come through!

That afternoon, since it was a holiday, everyone traipsed down to the local playing fields for a badminton tournament. First of all it took 7 Indian guys about 20mins to put the net up - nightmare. But eventually the games started and mixed doubles was the order of the day. Mags & Sahil were up first against another Idex couple. It was hilarious most Indian guys I’ve seen so far aren’t exactly blessed with athleticism and Sahil was no exception. He got so competitive and wound up when Mags missed a shot yet he was completely and utterly hopeless. But then the real games began. The senior village official and his cronies all steam rolled in in a fit of rage because were were playing on government property without first asking permission. This then turned into what could only be described as a ruckus. Picture a balcony overlooking the court, choc a bloc with Indian guys all having a “square go”. At first it was just a jumble of raised voices and it was all Greek to me but it was getting more and more aggressive and heated. Then the first slap was thrown. That’s right, slap… not punches. I half expected the scratching and hair pulling to follow. I guess I’ll never find out what happened next as we were huckled out of there “for our own safety” which made me laugh. I’ve seen worse on Sauchiehall St on a Saturday night!!

The new volunteers arrive this weekend which will be interesting! In a way it will be nice to have lots of new faces around but on the other hand it has been a nice and quiet week!! Carly, Kari and I have decided to trot off to McLeod Ganj this weekend, our second home. I really like it there not to mention it’s home to the best restaurant in India, Nick’s. We’re telling everyone we want to do some shopping and visit the Dalai Lama’s complex again but to be honest we really just want some more of Nick’s banofee pie

Until next time

Ali xxxxxxxxxx

---