Kerala Trip with the 12th Grade: Day 2

After a wake-up call from some of the other girls at 6:30 a.m. we all tried to sleep for a little longer, but it was useless. Too much going on. We got up and looked outside, it had started pouring rain, and the backwaters looked beautiful in the early morning light. I could see big houseboats made from bamboo, tiny fishing boats with men standing with long poles, and canoes.
We all got ready and packed our bags, going to breakfast around 9:30 a.m. We then spent some time taking photos around the resort before it started pouring again and we all ran to our rooms, getting our bags, and running back to the main hall getting drenched. Of course when we were all there the rain stopped :) and we all walked out to the buses and put our bags inside, coming back and walking out onto the small dock behind the resort and getting onto two boats; one small and one big, for a ride on the backwaters! We all climbed on, squeezing up to the top and sitting on laps so that we could all sit. We played charades with Tamil movie titles (I just watched this game...) and then another girl and I sang a few ABBA songs together. It was a beautiful and fun ride! We passes houseboats, speed boats, fishermen, lots of resorts and palm trees. The water was a darker green color, and we boated along through huge masses of floating plants.
We arrived at our dock and got back onto the bus for the journey home. We stopped for lunch and ice cream at a hotel on the way (there was a sign at the door that said "A hearty welcome to the students from Vidhya Niketan School!") before continuing on home. We spent the bus ride mostly the same as before- everyone talking, yelling, dancing, watching a movie (a scary one that wasn't really scary). We arrived back at the school around 9:00 p.m. and everyone was picked up and we all went home. Everyone was SO happy about the trip, but we all couldn't help but be a little upset about having to come back to reality!
P.S. The photo above is of me and a girl named Tina (for short! Her real name is SO long!) on the boat tour of the backwaters!

Kerala with the 12th grade: Day 1

After arriving home from Mysore around 2:00 a.m., I was woken at 3:30 a.m. to get ready to leave and go to Kerala with the 12th grade class at my school. I was extremely tired, but at 4:30 a.m. when we reached the school and I met up with some friends, I was wide awake. The principal checked our bags before we all piled onto two school buses and pulled out onto the dark streets, everyone screaming and cheering as we left the gates!
The drive took about eight hours. We stopped for breakfast at a small restaurant, but other than that we drove straight through to a place called Kumarakom, along the backwaters of Kerala. We spent the time talking, watching a Tamil movie and listening to loud Tamil and Hindi music that we all got up and danced to in the isles of the bus. It was a lot of fun, not only because we were dancing, but because as the bus drove, swerving around other vehicles, going over pot holes, and braking to avoid crashes, we would all get thrown around and scream and laugh as we pulled ourselves upright again to dance!
We arrived at our hotel around 1:30 p.m. The resort that we stayed in was called "Whispering Palms Resort" and was sooooo BEAUTIFUL! When we arrived and got off the buses it started to pour down rain, immediately stopping as we all reached the reception area. We all crowded in to see- the entire place was outdoors, covered only by a roof. We were offered fresh squeezed juice as we waited for our room keys and we all looked around to see small waterways winding through the small white cabins and a big pool in the center with a view of the backwaters from almost everywhere! It was GORGEOUS! When we got our room assignments, Sowbe and a girl named Renuka and I went to our room to freshen up before coming back to the main hall for a buffet lunch. We then got the afternoon off to do whatever we wanted! We all spent the time outside behind our rooms on a little grassy spot with a pathway, some palm trees and a hammock- all alongside the water! We then had to go inside while the boys got two hours of pool time. We all went into one room, plugged in an ipod and danced! I learned a few dance moves, and taught a few to them too! When it was our turn to go swimming, I borrowed a swim suit from one of the girls and we all jumped in! The swim suits ranged from a one piece to a full body suit! Mine that I borrowed was a uni-tard that went down to my knees that had a small skirt over the top- it was red and I almost felt as if I was wearing a cheerleader uniform!
After swimming, we all went to our rooms to shower and freshen up before a Kerala marshall arts presentation at 7:00 p.m. It was held in a small hall and there was a group of men, ages ranging from about ten to (probably?) forties. They demonstrated Kerala fighting with all kinds of weapons including long sticks, short sticks, swords, shields, knives, whips and even no weapons! It was pretty amazing how flexible these guys were! All of them were doing flips, cartwheels, maneuvering around sharp points, and even the splits!
After that we all went and had dinner at the buffet, then went out and all sat by the pool, hanging out and talking for an hour or so before getting a talk from the principal and correspondent about the fact that there was security all night and how much trouble we would be in if we didn't stay in our rooms. This upset some of us because we had been planning to have the girls in our room for a while after dinner. We ended up all going back to our rooms and going to bed around midnight after the three of us in my room talked for a few hours.

An Elephant and Mysore!

After tea in the morning in Ooty, we all got into the car and drove down the mountain towards Mysore, which is in in the state of Karnataka, north west of Tamil Nadu. The drive down was steep and windy, and we passed several small villages and even a few small waterfalls! We also drove through a tiger reserve so all of us were watching out the windows for any sign of wildlife! We ended up seeing a herd of spotted deer cross the road in front of us, and as we neared a small village we came upon a elephant look out spot. We stopped on the side of the road and walked up to the gate, but were told that we needed a ticket to get in...we turned back, a little dissapointed to see a small crowd of people gathering at the opposite side of the street. I looked to see what they were all watching- from among the bushes, a GIANT black head was slowly emerging! As we walked across the street, a male elephant with big white tusks emerged completely from the green, following the direction of a trainer that was standing among all of us! At this point I was SOOO excited and angry at myself for not charging my camera fully, but luckily for me, Mahesh's sister had a camera and she let me take LOTS of photos! We all posed and took some photos by the elephant, moving along the road with it for a little while until we had taken enough photos and turned back to the car.
When we reached Mysore, we all went to another puja at my host father's office, and spent the morning and early afternoon there while he mingled and did business over a lunch of biriyani and curd rice. When he finished, we all got into the cars and drove up into the Chamundi hills to visit the Chamundeswari Temple at the top. We drove along the outskirts of the city to avoid traffic from a festival called Dasara that was going on at the time, then up through the mountain roads until we reached the top where there was not only the temple, but also a whole bunch of shops and LOTS of people! We walked around for a while, filling my empty water bottle with coconut water and taking photos of all of the monkeys playing around on the temple walls. We went inside the temple, a REALLY old temple that had pillars of solid silver with carvings of the Gods and watched a puja and were blessed with the sacred ash from the fire before squeezing out through the crowds and coming back out to the small square. We walked through the small shops and looked around for little things before walking back to the car and driving back down into the city to a place called Brindavan Garden, which was a HUGE and very well kept garden beneath a dam in the city. We walked around the gardens, admiring the green grass, flowers, and big fountains and waterways that ran alongside the walking path. After reaching the top of the stairs at the back, we took some photos of the entire park and then walked down through brightly colored flower bushes and all sat down on a small piece of grass where we shared a few guava fruits with chili powder sprinkled on the inside. We then took a small motor boat across the dam to the other side where there was another garden and some cement stands where we sat and watched a water show. There was a square fountain in the middle, and as it played songs from top Hindi movies, the water would shoot up and colored lights flashed on and off. When the show finished, it was dark outside and we all took the boat back across the water to our car and drove further into the city. We drove through dark streets, totally lit up with colored lights like we use at Christmas that were strung up on buildings and over our heads. We then saw a big white pillar illuminated ahead- it was a palace! We drove among hundreds of cars, buses and scootis around the palace and took photos as we passes by of the beautiful lit up architecture. I'll post a photo of this when I get them from my host mother's sister...

Monkeys in Ooty!

On the morning of the 26th of September, my host family and I woke up early for the puja holidays. It was Saturday, and the first of the two puja holiday days. Because of this, my host father's company had pujas in each one of the many factories around India- we spent the morning driving around Coimbatore and it's outskirts to attend a total of seven pujas before we picked up my host mother's sister's family and all drove up the mountain to Ooty, a hill station! The drive up took about two hours and was possibly the MOST beautiful drive! We drove straight up and around the tall, jagged and green mountains, passing groups of small grey monkeys sitting at the sides of the roads and sometimes even darting across! The hills around us were covered in lush green plants, tea plantations, vegetable gardens, and SO many tropical flowers! We passed several smaller cities on our way up, all of which were clustered in little groups on the sides of the giant hills, with long brown staircases leading down to the vast valleys below where they keep the vegetable gardens.
We reached the top of the mountain and were in Ooty around 5:00 p.m. We had lunch at a little hotel before driving out to the lake to walk around the boat house! It was just starting to get dark when we reached the water, but it was a wonderful sight! There was lots of little paddle boats out on the water, horse back riders on the roads, and there was even some carnival rides! We walked down to the water and took a few photos. My camera ran out of battery here :(
We spent the night going on a few of the rides that were by the water. My host mother's nephews and I had fun going on a spinning ride and then on the bumper cars! We finished that part of the evening with a little shopping at some road side shops before heading into the city for some real shopping. The sky was dark, and Ooty was surprisingly FREEZING to me! I had been told that the weather there is cooler, but I wore a big jacket the whole time! Even later that night after dinner when we arrived at the cottage we were staying in we were all cold! I ended up sleeping in the jacket....
We woke up the next morning early and had some tea in the crisp mountain air, watching as thick clouds of fog rolled in in the valley below us, before we all got back into the car and drove down the mountain towards our next destination: Mysore.

Praying for Surya

Today was spent almost entirely at two different temples. This morning after breakfast, my host mother and I left the apartments in the car and drove about one block to the nearby temple. When we arrived inside, there was already a puja going on and so we left to go to another temple nearby to check the time schedule for that one. It ended up that we could go back and participate in the end of the other puja, and then come back at 2:00 p.m. for this one.
The next few days are the Puja holidays, and everyone is out buying a whole lot of flowers, sweets, fruits, mango leaves and ghee to offer up to the Gods. I don't know too much about what's going to happen, but I do know that both of my host parents will do pujas in their offices, in fact, we are going to my host father's office here in Coimbatore at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning for an office puja before driving to Mysur (spelling?), a city about an hour away, where my host father's company has a factory. We will be staying overnight there and getting up early again for another puja in that office.
Today though was a different kind of puja- today the position of Saturn changed and the planet is now facing a new star. My host mother and I spent the full day at the temple because the star that Saturn has turned to face is my host brother's birth star! The significance of this movement is that now, the people with that birth star will start a period of both good and bad things happening to them until the planet moves on. We spent the afternoon at a specific temple (after an hour or so at the other temple) so that my host mother (and the MANY) other people there could pray for their loved one's good moments.
The ceremony started out with the Ayers (priests) getting the Gods ready for the puja. They decorated coconuts with leaves, flowers and colorful pieces of cloth and had them all on display on a table above a fire pit. The first half of the puja, the ayers were chanting and would add things to the fire to keep it burning- things like ghee, small sticks, spices, and finally a wrapped bundle of goodies to offer to the Gods. It reminded me a lot of camping, but it was SO different! The fire pit was made from bricks decorated with flowers and colored powders, and because of all the spices being added, the smoke smelled different too.
The second part of the puja was all about the God Shiva's statue. Inside the small room, the statue was bare of it's usual adornment of flowers, as we all watched, the Ayer inside dumped liquid after liquid over the head of the statue- starting with pure oil and going to milk, honey, curd, sugarcane juice, a crushed banana mixture, ghee, and coconut milk, all with a rinse of water in between. The crowd was insane! There were hundreds of people there, and everyone wanted to see what was happening as the different liquids were poured over the God's head! I felt like I was in the middle of the mosh pit at a concert with all of the swarming, pushing people, the cramped space, the loud drums and horns, the bells, and of course the smothering smoke that was coming from the dying fire. Since my host mother and I had gotten there early, we had a good view of the happenings from the floor and I was happy to not have to deal with all of the shoving masses, although my butt hurt pretty bad and my legs were cramped up after sitting on the floor for three and a half hours straight...
After that puja was finished, the God was unveiled completely covered in flowers and a meal was served on banana leaves for a VERY late lunch. My host mother and I ate on the temple floor, talking to some little kids nearby who wanted to know who I was before we left and went home- On the way I saw a PUG!!! It made me break down in tears of course but I still have a very strong intention of walking up the street sometime to see if it's friendly! It was the first I've seen since being here, and maybe the ONLY in Coimbatore because my host mother had also never seen a pug here! It was SOOOO cute! (But not as cute as LOLITA!) :)

A Finished Bear!

This morning after a breakfast of dosa and sambar, my host mother and I left to go to her office. On the way, she dropped me off at her friend Padma's office where I've been twice before to work on sewing a teddy bear. During the hour and a half that I was there, I finished sewing the arms onto the body, stuffed the body and head, added eyes and a nose, and then finally sewed the head on for a finished bear! (Above is a photo of both of my sleeping buddies!) :)
While at Padma's I have to use a lot of expression and sign language because there are always several women there and they all don't speak any English. Padma speaks English very well, but she has to run errands periodically and is gone for short spans of time. Today there were seven of us total in the small upstairs room of a blue building- for the first few minutes we listened to the radio, a few of them singing along, but when the power went out (every day the power goes out for a two hour period. What time this happens is dependent upon where you are in the city. It's all to conserve power too! I think it's great!) they all started a buzz of conversation, trying to include me in some of it. It was interesting for me to try and figure out what they were all saying. I've picked up a few words in Tamil since I've been here, so the combination of those words and the English that is mixed into the language, sometimes I'm able to put together sentences. When Padma came back, she explained to me that the three young looking girls in the corner were very curious about me- they were all three from a village outside the city and had never seen a foreigner before. At first they laughed at me when I picked up the needle and started sewing, but by the time I finished, they were all complimenting my work, saying "nalarkuh" ("good" in Tamil)!
When I finished, Padma and I went on her scooti for a short ride around the corner to a school that she knew of. I had told Padma at an earlier time that my own mother is a school psychologist, and that she works with kids in school that have learning disabilities. Padma had remembered this and thought I would enjoy seeing this school as it was a special school for children with not only learning disabilities, but mental disabilities as well. The two of us went in and met some of the staff. The school was in a small downstairs portion of a house, and every room was filled with all kinds of toys, books, mats, and other things for the kids to play with. When we arrived, all of the kids were in the back room learning a rhyme, and I got to go back and say hello to all of their smiling faces! The kids must have been between the ages of three and around nine, and all of them got very excited when they saw me. I smiled to all of them and waved, saying "hello" and they all smiled back and the few that could said "hello" back to me. The staff at the school then showed me around, telling me a bit about the school. It is the only school of it's type in the area with ONLY professional therapists working and they teach the kids in both English and Tamil to evaluate their IQ and their educational levels so that when the kids are judged ready, they can be put into a mainstream school. It was a neat place to go, and I'm going to keep it in mind as a possibility for volunteer work.
When I was dropped off at my host mother's office, we spent a few moments there before leaving to go to the bank in order to exchange the dollars I have with me from when I came. Unfortunately when we got there, the bank couldn't help me because they needed my passport. I had a copy with me, but they wouldn't accept it and so we left dissapointed. I guess there are other ways that are known to my host mother that we can try though.
Now I'm back at the apartment, watching Pretty Woman on TV- I was so excited when I saw that it was playing! Finally a good movie on TV!

An Evening with Sowbe!

Yesterday evening, after a day at the apartment spent going to the gym, reading, writing, and playing with about six little girls of all ages around the complex for about an hour, Sowbe came over! The two of us walked to her house (which is just outside the walls of the apartments) and sat on her couch in her living room and chatted for about two hours. When we realized that it was already 7:15 p.m., we decided to start a movie that I had brought over called "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey. Seeing as Jim Carrey was in it, I thought that it was going to be a good movie...well, it wasn't that great at all. We ended up turning it off anyways when her parents got home so that all of us could talk together.
Sowbe's mother has had a pretty traumatizing week. A few days ago, after meeting with the Vice President of her company for a meeting, the office staff was asked to leave for lunch and a bunch of police cars showed up. Sowbe's mom then found out what had happened- because of the recession, the Vice President had to lay off some workers in the business. These workers that had been laid off had come back and beaten the Vice President nearly to death. He was in a state of unconsciousness and he died a short time later. Sowbe's mother and the rest of the office staff have had to take extreme care of themselves, and are not allowed to come to the office in their own cars and have to take an office car with their colleagues. This story has been posted in news all around the world, and covers the papers and news stations here. My dad even said that he saw an article about it, and he is half-way around the world! It has been a very sad and emotional time for those who worked at that company, and my sympathy goes out to the family that has been effected by this tragedy.
On a lighter note... Sowbe's family and I had a good time. Sowbe's aunt and cousin arrived from their village and we all had Domino's pizza for dinner! After we had finished, Sowbe and her cousin (who was pretty afraid to talk to me) walked me back to the apartment. :)