http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , India , Uttar Pradesh , Lucknow en-us Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:37:34 BST Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:37:34 BST After the last post about some of the difficulties of living in Lucknow I'm glad to share my experience this summer volunteering for Hum Safar an NGO based in Lucknow but works throughout the state of Uttar Pradesh. 'Hum Safar' means 'Our Journey' and in 2003 began providing legal advocacy and medical advice to victims of domestic violence free of charge. Another important part of their work http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-313078.html Last Thursday after class our school organized a trip to explore two of Lucknowrsquos most famous structuresmdashthe Bara Imambarah and the Chota Imambarah. First though our group was driven to the house of a descendant of one of the Nawabs of Awadh Mr. Abdullah for tea and a short lecture about his family and the old Nawabi culture of Lucknow. lsquoNawabrsquo is a courtly and adminis http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-294812.html Hello everyone. Things are starting to get settled here in Lucknow. I apologize for the lateness of this message I had no idea it would take this long to set into any sort of regular routine. But anyway what should I sayhellipI promise the rest of my posts will not be as long as thisThe journey to arrive first in Delhi then in Lucknow was long 30 hours total spent sitting on planes within http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-288789.html I was still not feeling too well and the rest or the group went out into the town to knock on doors and find any children who had not been caught in yesterday's Polio Push. Later in the morning they went to a local school to witness the opening of a new toilet block provided by the local Rotary Clubs of Lucknow. This was a very modern effective toilet block provided at a cost equivalent to 200 s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-273183.html Sunday 28th April 2008 I woke up feeling extremely queasy but managed to go out with the group to begin the immunisation programme. When we arrived at our medical station it was mahem. There were what seemed to be hundreds of children all swarming around like locusts waiting for their gifts. It was quite a job to control them all. The children receiving the polio drops were mainly babes in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-270572.html Saturday 26th April Time 1135pmWe spent the day learning about the job we are to undertake tomorrow and touring two local hospitals. We have been informed that there will be plenty of work for us to do. This evening we stayed in the hotel for our evening meal. It was a buffet style meal made up of various curries.We were able to find some that were not too hot At 930pm Geoff and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-270274.html Friday 25th AprilThe temperature today41 deg C. We spent the morning walking around the town near our hotel watching people cooking at the side of the road repairing tucktucks and participating in all kinds of roadside businesses all perfect photo opportunities We met a man from the Hindustani Times a local newspaper. He took us into the centre of town to Connaught Place. We visited the tou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-269991.html So some of you are asking about the course and if I have been able to last through the 10 days of speechlessness. Well yes I have. And the talking restriction was the easiest it turned out. Sitting crosslegged for several hours a day and trying not to let my mind dwell on the most unlikely thoughts... that was a little harder. Especially since there was someone playing very loud Hindu music alm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-218463.html The not talking period ended last night so time to break the blog silence as well. I will write more about the course in the coming days I just want to let y'all know that I worked my way through those 10 difficult but very interesting days.I am in Lucknow city again hanging around with some of the people who were on the same course. It feels good to have a little buffer time to spend together http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-216744.html After Jaipur Gaelle and I went straight to the International Airport in Delhi. We arrived there by 1530 or so which should have given us plenty of time to pick up the package I had sent to the airport have a bite to eat and say goodbye. But everything is possible in India so we actually ended up running short in time. The package was not sent to the International Airport but to the Domestic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-213353.html I attended a global peace symposium in Lucknow. The hosts were the venerable institution called CMS or Central Montessori School. Jagdish Gandhi started this institution nearly thirty years ago with nothing more than a vision and prayer. Five years ago they got into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest Montessori school in the world with over 30000 students. There was a primary con http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-42862.html Due to various delays the train journey stretched by 2 hours to 13.5 hours which was not welcome in my weakened state. I'd chosen the most luxurious hotel of my trip so far for my stay in Lucknow the 70 per night Gemini Continental. Though it was in good condition and in some ways bore a resemblance to American motels it was no better than the place I had stayed in in McLeod Ganj which ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-34242.html Despite ye olde bowels still being far from healthy I managed to down some bananas this morning which will supposedly assist my recovery. I was also lucky that the hotel for Rs 100 commission purchased my onward train ticket for me which saved me the rickshaw trips tofrom the station plus no doubt a ton of waiting time at Lucknow's notoriously busy reservations counter. With that potentia http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-34241.html I discovered a couple of reasons why the room was so cheap. One is that the main road is by no means the quietest thoroughfare in the world at any time of the night. The proximity of the railway station doesn't help matters either. And the hot water system is another one to add to the collection you can't run the hot and cold water at the same time the hot water slows to a drip if you do http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Lucknow/blog-34240.html