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Published: February 1st 2008
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Volunteers
Left-right, Alicia, Johanna, Laurence, Kelly, Kristin, Linzi, Sascha, Me, Sandra Camp 31/12/07-20/01/08
Lok Rang camp in the town of Shiv is a walled compound, filled with small huts which we live in, and larger ones, housing the kitchen/dinning room and the rec room. We arrive in the afternoon of new years eve. There are six other volunteers in camp, all girls, making us eleven in total.
I share a hut with Laurence. Our hut has two single beds either side of the room made of wood and straw, and a bunk in the middle. We take a bed each, first checking for any signs of mouse infestation, a problem we were warned about by the others. Laurence, it has to be said, has a special aversion for all things creepy-crawly, especially mice and rats. At various points during the first couple of weeks, he freaks out big time. I can't pretend I was happy about the amount of living fucking things that I had to share my home with, but spiders were few and far between, so I just accepted that there was a dirty great rat living under the fridge in the dinning room, with the rest of his relatives hanging out in the kitchen,
engaging in orgies, fisting-fucking our food into their mouths.
The bathroom in our hut is spacious but basic. We have a western style toilet (as opposed to a hole in the ground above which you crouch and deliver), but must use a bucket for our paper. This must then be emptied onto a rubbish pile, situated within conveinient smelling distance of the rear of the kitchen, where we wash and dry our plates. The shower is actually a bucket as well. We have to fetch hot water from a tap in the middle of camp and carry it back to the hut. Showers are a pretty unpleasant experience, because it's fucking cold in the desert in the morning. When you tip the water over yourself via a jug, you get a brief moment of intense pleasure, followed by incredible discomfort as the cold air combines with the water and you near freeze to death. Safe to say I didn't see much of my genitals during shower time - they were too busy shrinking themselves and trying to climb up into my asshole to keep warm.
The first night, we try to celebrate the new year. I'm
in a poor physical and mental state, battered and worn after the ordeal on the train, deprived of food and sleep, and now listening to enthusiastic young girls tell us all their camp stories, and giving us the lowdown on how all the shit works. We get some beers in (we're not allowed to buy the beer ourselves, as this might reflect poorly on the camp's reputation, so one of the camp workers has to go fetch it) - I optimistically order 18 to be shared between 5. I think maybe three get drunk that night. Getting hold of good alcohol is not easy in Rajasthan. The best beer is Kingfisher, which comes in big 750ml bottles, and goes down grudglingly.
As the night wears on, I drift into a state of semi-psychosis, the room rising and falling in front of me, the many new faces and voices pounding at my brain like heavy hammers. Kristin is in an even worse state, leaving the room every few minutes to deal with her Delhi belly. There are some fireworks which the old volunteers bought, and some people jump off chairs as the clock strikes 12 - a Danish tradition,
I think.
The evening comes to a tame end a few minutes after 12, and we all head off to bed. We attach our mosquito nets, tucking them in tight around the bed. Not long after lights out, I hear Alicia scream, and then burst into tears, a rodent-related false alarm proving too much. I lie in bed, listening to her sobs, and wonder what the fuck led me to this place, at this time in my life, when I should be having fun. I don't think any of us are too thrilled with our first nights experience. I decide that things can only get better - we've been through a lot, we're cold, tired and suffering from the culture shock. I turn over, and pull the mosquito net down on top of me. As I try desperatlely to re-attatch it in the blackness, the dogs outside begin to bark...
It takes several days to shake the depression from the pit of my stomach, as I slowly adjust. The schedule in the camp is tight and punishing. Breakfast is 7.30-8.30. Then, we leave for our work assignments at 9.45, returning at 12pm. Lunch is at 1pm,
afternoon work 2.30-4.30, lesson planning from 5pm, dinner at 7pm and workshops (Hindi and cooking) from 8pm.
In the day the temperature is hot, and the air dry. The dust clings to you like a rash, getting into every available pore, every gap and opening. You can clean your finger nails a dozen times a day, and still go to bed with them blackened. Around 5pm, the sun drops out of the sky, and the temperature plumets to around freezing. Everyone wraps themselves in fleeces and blankets, but on the coldest nights, you have no where to hide.
Other camp features are the power cuts, which are fairly frequent, especially after 7pm, when we are most likely to want to use the internet or phone, or indeed see what the fuck we're doing; and the dogs. The fucking dogs, which climb over the walls and take up residency alonside us. They eat our leftovers (and our shit paper), and at night climb onto the roofs of our huts, or bark like mad fuckin cunts for hour after hour. Some of the volunteers have insisted on giving them names, like Suzie. I just refer to them as
Crepe Night
Sandra cooks, Linzi assists cunt, shitbag and cocksucker.
And that's it for the overview. Check back soon for more details on the other volunteers, and a special mention for Raju, a majestic dope-fiend and our resident chef.
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