HIV/AIDS Seminar

This message started as an email to my best friend Jolene...and then I guess I just had so much spiraling around in my head that needed to get out and it turned into this. It started as a thank you to my friends for being so open and having the relationship that we have so I have people around to talk to about relationships and sex and all the rest...

I realised this week during our HIV/AIDS Seminar how lucky we all were to have each other. We've currently got 21 young women from 14 countries around the world and we're talking about sex, condoms, HIV/AIDS, etc. and I don't think I truly realized how unique our situation and open friendship with one another is. There are so many girls here who can't even talk to their sisters, best friends, or husbands about it. Not about birth control or condoms. I just don't know what life would have been like to not have you guys around. I swear we were not only educating each other but we basically acted as counsellors too!

It's been a great experience though, we started off just talking about sex and when and where people first learned about sex, about HIV/AIDS, about resources, etc. Then we talked about the programs available in our different countries. And it was really interesting for me to note even the massive difference between the Canadian system and US system...after being here so long I forget that our cultures can be so vastly different. And then today I got to lead the session on condoms!! We started by playing soccer (european football), and told them it was just an energizer to get the day started. And after they were done we discussed how the ball was HIV, and if anyone noticed who had the ball before they got it, and if they remembered who they passed it to (they rarely can remember more than one or two people). Then that started people thinking about how condoms can be one method to avoid the risk of transfering HIV/AIDS.
So we got everyone together, pulled out the male penises we have here. One incredibly unrealistic one from India (Darshana’s mom is a doctor and got it for us), and one from New York that was again unrealistic in its own ways but better than the basic one. And we started talking about condoms. We went through the steps of how to use both the male and female condom and then broke out into smaller discussion groups. We talked about a lot of things, many people shared stories and questions and it was great to hear their voices from around the world. Everyone got a chance to put the male condom on the penis and pass around and check out the female condom. Then we gave everyone both male and female condoms to use themselves or for education or trainings in their countries. And we left it with a request that sometime in the week everyone here tries on the female condom to see what its like. Because then they can be a role model and have the experience to explain to their peers.

And its been a great week because we've been partnering with Deep Griha's Integrated Services for HIV/AIDS (DISHA), which is this incredible project where they do such great work. Their coordinator for DISHA is this guy Hans who is a really incredible speaker, very charismatic, and passionate. He truely lives his work and that makes all the difference when talking to people. We had him visit Sangam and do his speech on the DISHA project (Deep Griha’s Integrated Services on HIV/AIDS). He was amazing and went an hour over time but we loved every minute of it! Then we visited his organization, met his team of amazing DISHA staff and volunteers, and walked about the slum neighbourhood with the team members.

The next morning we visited Sahara, an organization DISHA partners with. Sahara is a care home for people in the final stages of AIDS, and a rehab centre. They can hold up to 40 people, but currently have 34 with them at the site in outside of Pune. It was a really overwhelming experience for me – and I’m still trying to sort out exactly why…
The home was beautiful and spacious enough for their clients. In every room there were paintings on the walls, and all the people there were kind, and happy to meet us. Even if they were in bed with the covers up to their faces you could still see them looking on and watching us. What really affected me was how the centre is managed and run. The people who volunteer at the centre are mainly people who have gone through the system themselves. One of the care workers is 12 years sober, and has been working at the centre in Pune for 10 years. They make a lasting impact on their clients so that they will continue to come back and give all they can. The staff and volunteers live on site, sleeping in the office and space available. They are there 24 hours a day, and have to cope with more than I could ever imagine. Hans himself used to work there, and he spoke about a time when they would have 3 clients expire (die) in a day. He says that has now gone down to 3-4 in a good month. I stood there trying to grasp how one manages those emotions and that kind of weight. It takes a strong spirited person to live that life.
There were many times when Hans told me about the realities of the organization that my emotions got to me and I started to get tears in my eyes, but it wasn’t until Phuong (a participant from the USA) thanked the staff and volunteers as we were leaving that I was overwhelmed by it all. Hearing her words made me realize just how valuable these people were, and made me realize how valuable this past week has been to our participants. I felt really overwhelmed with the feeling that they “got it”. It was nice to see people who were apprehensive about sharing their thoughts on the subject of sex, condoms, and HIV/AIDS be able to speak so freely by the end of just 7 days. I’m lucky that I’ve always had that opportunity – with my best friends knowing anything and everything about me even when I’m so far away I still write them when I have that important news that only a best friend can appreciate.
I came home after that visit to Sahara and took a 30 minute break that afternoon and just lay in bed thinking. Like I said, it was an emotionally overwhelming day and I’m still processing exactly why…

Ok, so again it's been too long!
But this time I have a good excuse...I've been the lead for planning and running the past event which was new and a lot of responsibility - and STRESS for me! My fellow Programme Manager was away in London for meetings for a week and I did the preparation and ran the event with the Programme Assistants for 4 or 5 days. So basically the progression from PA to APM to PM was a fast one! haha. But it was really good, and a great experience for me...like I said very very stressful for me as well but something I had to learn. Next time I will try to manage things more efficiently and not worry so much - because as I learned the stuff I'm worried about always works out with no problems, and its the things you can anticipate that get in the way. So no use wasting my energy stressing out.
Anyway, these past 10 days we had 26 people from USA, UK, Canada, Venezuela, and New Zealand for our "Healing Touch" event. It was good, and really interesting because we had a main focus on healthcare and medicine for the sessions. We got to go to a public hospital (which was a first for us and the hospital), a private hospital, the National Institute of Naturopathy, and we had a discussion panel with many people with medical backgrounds including alleopathy and homeopathy.
We also had 3 mornings of Community Action Projects at Deep Griha in their clinics, at YWCA teaching first aid to the girls in Indira Nagar, and at St. Mary's doing yoga and exercises with the ladies there and playing with the children! It was an action packed event and things managed to run pretty well aside from some basic glitches with planning in India.
It's been insanely chaotic with work, and I havent managed to have 2 days off in a row in 2 weeks now, but things need to be a little crazy just until after the HIV/AIDS Seminar Dec. 2-8th. Then a few days after that I am FREEEE!!
I'm very excited, I will have like 2 or 2 and a half weeks off and to myself. I'm heading to Goa around the 14-19, then back for CL's wedding on the 22nd. We'll actually be spending 2 nights out there so that will be nice to be away from it all and doing all the fun wedding prep stuff. Then back in Pune on the 23rd and then who knows! I may end up back in Goa for New Years. I just really want to get away from the cold of Pune! I know no one from home wants to hear me complain but it really IS super cold here.
I am currently at my desk wearing 2 shirts, a big hoodie, a scarf, and I have my blanket wrapped around me. It's craaazy cold. I could see my breath this morning. I have no idea how the women still walk around in saris like nothing is different, if I were them I'd have 3 of those things on and and extra sweater to cover up my stomach! But it's still supposed to get COLDER, so I'm pretttty worried. haha. Getting away to a hotter place will be a great trip away!
Ok enough from me, I need to go do some actual work...send me messages if you love me! :) haha xoxo

Sri Lanka: Day 5

Last night I went to stay with a former sangam volunteer Dimanthi, who lives with her family just outside the city limits. It was fun, but get this - they BOUGHT a bed for me! I showed up and they said I was gonna stay in the spare room, so I went in and it was a mess with nothing there, so I assumed I would be getting a fold out cot or something - no problem. Then they told me to go hang out in the living room, watch tv (they have american tv like one tree hill and gilmore girls!!), etc. then like an hour later the room was spotless and I saw these movers moving a bed into the room! They've been renovating the house so apparently it was coincidence that it was bought for me, but you can imagine how bad I felt :S
Anyway, its been a crazy week - today I was woken up at 5:45am (dear god) by Dimanthi's mom who brought me tea (wonderful woman knew how to butter me up haha), and had breakfast and left with the whole family getting dropped off along the way at work, school, and finally at the GG headquarters. There I chatted with some of the ladies who work in the office before heading out for me walk to the Indian High Commission.
The good news is that if you make a complete fool of yourself (by fighting, sitting around for 6 hours demanding to speak to officials, and then getting teary eyed) you get VIP treatment from the guards the next time you show up! Slightly embarrassing, but lucky me got in past the lineups, through security and right upstairs to drop off my visa this morning. I was in and out of the building in 5 minutes.
After walking to the IHC in the heat I stopped off next door at Barista and sat and enjoyed 2 iced coffees while reading my book. I think after about an hour they got sick of me sitting there and started loitering so I bailed out and took a stroll along the sea. As always I love being near the water, so I sat on a bench and watched the waves roll in. I think when I set up life for myself some place it’s going to have to involve the aspect of water nearby…its just so beautiful.
Now I’m in a shopping mall finishing up some shopping and enjoying my free time to myself.
Its too bad that my trip was too short to get to travel anywhere else in the country or stay longer, but I have managed to get to know the area I’m staying in by wandering around most afternoons. It’s been a little strange, I was very worried about coming here with the high security alerts, etc. But aside from the policemen at every corner, and the guys driving around in military jeeps with big guns pointed out at the street I haven’t been so worried. For some reason once those jeeps pass you forget about them and go on your way. During the day there’s no worries, but at night everything quiets down and the police set up these security check points. All the citizens in Sri Lanka have to carry ID cards, and if you’re stopped at the check points (which is very common) you have to show the police your ID, drivers license and sometimes allow them to search your car. It’s all very foreign and strange to me, but I guess that’s life here.
I’m just happy I was lucky enough to be born in Canada and not have to worry about ID cards, and bomb searches.
Wish me safe travels back to India tomorrow :)

Sri Lanka: Day 2

It's been one hell of a day!
Started out great: 8am breakfast complete with real sized bread, and actual butter! I was thrilled. Then at the Indian High Commission I acutally got *inside* the building. (The day before I spent 3 hours in line outside only to be told I would have to come again the next morning). So that made 2 lucky strikes, but by the third strike my luck had run out. After being blatantly ignored by one visa officer who refused to hear my appeals - and would only grant me a 3 month visa, I was sent along to the next officer. He also ignored my pleas - or rather heard them, relayed them (many, MANY times) but always came back with the same answer. So I asked again to have it reviewed and kindly asked that they actually *read* my letters included, and when it looked like they might actually listen to me I took a seat. After 6 and a half hours of waiting I was still told I would only receive a 3 month visa. My patience had run out, I got frustrated and teary eyed and gave in. I at least needed to get back into the country and stay for as long as I could.
So to calm myself and get a grip I walked over to the ocean side and sat near the sea for a few minutes watching the waves. Then I walked the 20 minutes back to Vinitha and Tenny's house. They had been quite worried about me when I didnt arrive back in time for lunch - but when they discovered I had spent ALL da yat the I.H.C. they shared my frustration.
Tenny and Vinitha are this wonderful older couple from Colombo, Sri Lanka. They have had hte pleasure of hosting many many international guests, and many Sangam volunteers needed new visas. They live in this incredible house (a real house with a dining room, living room, etc. very exciting for me) that they built on their own. It's architecturally stunning, and made of all Sri Lankan resources. Anyway, they're a really interesting couple with lots to share and I've had some great intellectual conversations with them about all kinds of cultural differences around the world. It's been great.
Aside from the I. H. C. nightmare, I have had a good time. It defenitely isn't the vacation I had imagined but its been great being in a country a little more liberal and similar to home. I can wander the streets with a few less stares, and I can wear clothing from Canada and fit in fine. The traffic here is like home, the stores are big and have hte same set up as home...oooh and they have supermarkets!! I didnt realise how much I miss grocery shopping...it's like my happy place, so it was fun to wander around the other day.
I'm spending the next two days with a Sri Lankan girl who worked at Sangam in 2004 so it should be a lot of fun. She also works at the GG headquarters in Colombo so I've been meeting lots of new people.
I pick up my visa on Friday so I will be crossing my fingers that things go smoothly so I can head back home to India on Saturday :)

Continued...

Mangesh came and told me it was time to go sit by the pool and celebrate, so I came out, grabbed a sweater and sat out in our courtyard. Today was the longest day of the year I think – when we “fall back” is as much as I can understand.
It was incredible, I walked out of my office, into the courtyard which was illuminated by the moon. I don’t mean it was just lit up by the moon, it was sparkling, and the tree tops were all shining, and there was no need for any lights in the area. In fact Mangesh had turned off all the surrounding lights except for Manik and Mathuras house. And I just lay out there by the pool staring up at this bright, beautiful, full moon. You could vaguely hear the music from outside still playing (not as loud as earlier), and I just sat there in the peace. Mary T came and joined me, and then Mangesh came and sat with us. We talked about how you could see the stars in the city (how had I not noticed them before?), and about the celebration and how families all over the city would be sitting in their gardens too and enjoying the moonlight. When we finally decided it was time to move Mangesh was so sweet and told us he enjoyed tonight, and that we will remember it forever. There’s just something so sweet and innocent about life here in India that I love. Life here is holistic; the earth, religion, and human life are all tied in together.

It’s been way too long since I’ve sat down to catch my breath and update you all.
Things here are good, I think I’m starting to feel even more at home. I catch myself sometimes really genuinely being shocked by the fact that I am living in India. I think that’s just because it’s become life now, and it doesn’t seem very impressive. But I think it’ll be very strange to go home and tell people that I spent 10 months living in India – and recognize what an experience it's been.
My Dad came to visit me last week, and it was awesome! I had Christmas 2 months early : ) I got gifts from friends and family, things to get me through like food, music, movies, and reminders of life back home. It was great…and the gifts just keep on giving every time I use them and have a little taste of home with me.
Like I was saying, it was great to have him here, to actually see and understand what I do. It’s hard to explain it to people, and it’s really nice to know I’ll have someone who will understand rickshaws, temples, and what running a program really means for me here in India. We had some good chats, and it was fun to get to hear about things back home. Just hearing familiar street names was enough. I have moments with Sarah (a CVP here from Kitchener) where I’m just thankful that she has things and places in common that we can chat about. The simple reminders of home.
It was sad to see my dad go – but I’ll be back home in 6 months, and get to eat ALL the bbq he can make me! Haha.
Over the past month I’ve been up to lots of stuff! Getting settled into my new position here at Sangam, which has been really fun. It’s been nice to be in on the planning of events, and get to work with a new staff team (not that I don’t miss the old…xo).
A few weeks ago, before Christa left me to go back to the US we went on a Sangam team building camping trip in Panchgani (3 hrs from Pune). It’s away from the city in a nice lush green area. It was incredible! We went and participated in a bunch of outdoor activities. We did high ropes where we had to walk across a valley on a rope, a low ropes course that had to be cut short because of the rain, and repelling and rock climbing! I’ve never been rock climbing, not even in a gym at home, and I’m so glad my first experience was the real thing. It was a-mazing. I definitely want to get out and do that more, it’s challenging in a mind over matter kind of way.
It was so nice to be away from the city, I’m finding that the trips I enjoy most tend to be the fun outdoor adventure things out in nature. It’s a great contrast to the rickshaw polluted city here. I love taking road trips here because I find myself being a tourist again with eyes wide open staring out the window at everything we pass. I’ve always loved road trips, but there’s something about driving in a foreign country that makes it much more interesting. Coming back was sad though because it meant Christa was leaving for home. It was hard to see her go, and hard to accept that I wouldn’t be leaving for another 6 months.
Anyway, since then I’ve been working lots, as the lead for this event “birds, bees, flowers and trees”. We’ve been building a garden at Reshmi school 5 minutes down the road from Sangam. It’s been a great week despite the whole gardening thing, because Azoba our gardener has been coming with us and I’ve finally made friends with him! He’s been really funny, and I told him I’ll be his assistant gardener if he needs (his response was to laugh so hard he had a coughing fit – haha). But its been so nice, we took him with us on a day trip out near the UPS village where we went to see the Horticultural Training Centre. On the way we made a stop to climb a mountain and see the temple/caves at the top of it. It was a beautiful view, and the climb was really fun (again, more of the outdoor stuff I’m loving) and Chloe and I had adventured past the trail to the *very* top which involved scrambling around on rock, and when we had climbed down a bit Azoba had decided he wanted to go up where we had been and so we climbed it twice! He was hilarious, climbing around on the rock like a monkey taking no time to get up there…I felt like I was chasing him and he’s the grandfather! But since that he’s been calling out to me everytime I see him with a big hearty “Julie” or “Jui”, it’s great. It’s always fun to find out more about the staff here and feel more a part of it all.
In 2 days I head out to Sri Lanka to get a new visa (mine expires Nov. 2nd) and it better come through or else my life and stuff will all be left in India and I’ll be stuck in Sri Lanka! eek. It should be a good little vacation from life at Sangam, I will be staying with a woman from the Sri Lankan girl guides, and because of the state of the country – and the area around Colombo these days, I will also be well taken care of by the Sri Lankan Girl Guides. If I plan on doing any day trips anywhere I will get a nice escort to come with me – so I’m hoping for someone my age so I can find out more about the country and culture! If not, maybe I’ll be lucky and spend my mornings at the government offices, and afternoons at the beach : )
Oh, gotta go - Mangesh is gathering us for yet another celebration. It's something to do with the full moon, a pot of milk, and the neighbourhood having a huge sound system set up and dance party in the streets from 10pm-who knows when. We're meeting at midnight at the pool, turning of all the lights around Sangam and enjoying the moonlight. I think when I finally make it back home I'm going to seriously miss the celebrations and festivities of day to day life here.

Raksha Bandhan / Village Visit

As usual, I LOVE getting involved in the festivals and celebrations that seem to be a daily thing in Indian life here. One of the latest was Raksha Bandhan, aka Brother/Sister day.
On this day the sisters give their brothers a bracelet made with silk threads, and the brothers pledge to take care of them forever. It's widely celebrated in India and abroad and is a nice fun holiday and reason for families to be together.
Rakhi happened during Action in the Community so we had decided that since there are 8 men on staff here at Sangam we would have the International staff team give the boys bracelets to show the participants what the celebration was all about. We had the boys all line up in the hall on mats with rangoli around them and surprised them by bringing everyone in for the fun.
Each staff member (except me, I played photographer) who was there got a chance to perform puja and aarti to the men and then gave them their bracelets. It was a lot of fun, and we even had Datta our gardener (who is retired, and a typically adorable old Indian man) who we all call Azoba - grandfather participate. It was such fun and a great way to get the boys to spend quality time with us. They're all very shy, and usually its such a struggle!

Then a few days afterwards the staff team headed out to Navlakh Umbre Village about an hour outside of Pune. Its this small village in the middle of this lush intense green hilly area. It's beautiful. We stopped first at the school near the main town. The village had connections to Sangam in the past when we helped them start up a Guiding in the area, but over the years it was lost and now we are trying to build it up again. Because of the location of the village (near a lot of development - many plants openning up nearby, etc) they were chosen by the company UPS as a UPS development village. This means that a year ago they came and restored the schools, built computer labs, etc. and helped develop the resources for the children. They all seemed very proud of the work UPS had done, however like most development projects it came with its own downfalls. UPS had shipped massive containers halfway around the world with every single supply they needed for the projects. I'm talking like paint brushes, paint buckets, wheel barrows, sheeting and wood for the buildings....everything! Some may call that smart planning - I call that a massive error in judgement. For a company that was investing such time in development of an area, they could have spent far less money purchasing the goods locally here in India and helped develop the national economy. To each their own - but it seemed a little ridiculous to me.
Anyway, we then headed into the village and went to the primary school. Here they had tons of kids around and it was fun to spend time with them. We got a chance to see Coco (the national sport) being played by the kids in the yard. Minakshi, our wonderful Community Liason/Admin Assistant came with us and she joined in with the boys while they demonstrated the game to us. It was hilarious to see her running around in the mud in her Guiding uniform!
So much has been happening, and now with Ganpati in full swing I have even more stories to tell but little time to write them down! More to come soon, xo

Muslim Girls Orphanage

It seems like it's been so long since I've found the time to sit down and get some of this stuff out!
Just went through my camera and realised how much I have missed updating on...
At the end of August we had an event called Action in the Community where we had 50 participants come to do a number of projects for some of our community partners. It was a great event, and it gave me a chance to spend 3 days at one of our partners the Muslim Girls Orphanage.
The organization has a lot of space in the city, not far from Sangam. It has a dorm building that holds 180 girls who live there on site. Here in India (and especially in the Muslim religion), orphan has a different meaning than in Canada. Here you are an "orphan" if you come from a single parent family where the mother is the caretaker, if you come from an at risk family where the parent has a dangerous or unsuitable profession, or if the parent cannot care for the child.
There are a few schools on the grounds including one urdu medium elementary school, one urdu medium high school, and a polytechnique. At the polytechnique they teach the girls trades so that they can work and be contributing members of the family when they are married. They teach tailoring, design, embroidery, a home management class, personal care (massage, threading, hair cutting, etc), computer classes, etc. And the girls also get certification in most of those classes so its a great opportunity for them to learn more and develop themselves.
So as part of our time there we did a brief tour of the facilities and met with the principal of the polytechnique and the head of the site in Pune. And then we moved into the projects which were sorting the stone out of rice, cutting vegetables, and designing, painting and installing 3 paintings in the dorm building to cover up an elevator shaft that was unused (no money to get the elevator).
So we spent time in the mornings playing games with about 50 kids for 2 hours, then the tour, then lunch and project time! In the morning the girls from the Urdu medium schools were around as their classes didn't start until 12 oclock, and in the afternoon we had about 20 girls from the English medium classes come back from school as they attended in the mornings. It was a blast for me to spend the time with the kids there for the 3 days...and it gave me a taste of what volunteers feel when working with kids abroad, it was great.
The best part for me was hanging out in the afternoons with the English medium kids. They helped facilitate conversation between the older kids and staff members at Muslim Girls, and they gave me a chance to find out what their stories were and how things worked there right from the source. It was great to be greeted every morning with "Didi!" shouted from the windows as we came to the dorm.
It was such a great experience for me, but I had a really hard time on the last day saying goodbye. I had talked to my favourite few girls all afternoon and they were telling me about their families and how they can visit every Sunday for one hour. So mostly their mothers come, but if they are sick their brothers will come visit them. These girls were from families with 2 or 3 brothers who lived with their mother, but they had to live here away from them all. And when I asked if they ever go home, they said with such joy that they go home in December. They said they get to "move out", and pack up all their things...so I assumed it was for a long, long time and then they told me it was only 2 weeks. It just sort of broke my heart thinking that these girls manage so well in their situation without worrying of what they have lost. Most of the girls will live in the orphanage until they are 18, at which point the organization finds a husband for them and arranges (and helps pay for) the marriage.
It just put things into perspective and has continually made me keep myself in check when I start to get sad about missing friends and family...I really need to go back there soon and check in with those girls.

Festivals - Haji Dandi

Last night at midnight was the birth of Lord Krishna, an important day here in India so late last night there were religious celebrations at temples. Today was Haji Dandi. For this celebration all over town in different neighbourhoods there is a pot breaking festival.

Krishna was known for being devious and loving dairy and in India this is kept in the home in pots and he would convince his friends to hoist him up and eat all the kurd (yogurt), so that’s why they have this celebration. It involves a lot of dancing in the streets, and then for the pot breaking they hang a pot above the street at least a few stories high (many stories high in the larger areas), and they make human pyramids to get the pot. The prize for winning the pot breaking competition is a sum of rupees! In each neighbourhood the surrounding businessmen, etc. each donate some money so in the smaller areas the amount would be less, and in the big areas of the city the pots would be worth thousands and thousands and thousands of rupees! (I wanted to join in just for the money)
The festival is mainly for men, although there are some very good all women pyramid teams. But since men are the only ones allowed to publicly dance there are mainly men out for this celebration. So you can imagine the number of stares we got as a group of 8 women (some Indian), for being out. For the most part it seemed like a big rave party and I couldn’t help but imagine Josh or Brad dancing around in the middle of the crowd. It made me miss the boys from home a lot. And you can imagine how sad I was I couldn’t get in the crowd and dance around too! Not only would it be completely against custom it wouldn’t have been safe at all, so I stayed away.

We were in the city centre for the celebration but some of the participants here from the Phillipines were uncomfortable in the crowds so we came back to Sangam before the action started. But it was okay because we caught the pot breaking in Indira Nagar – the neighbourhood next door to Sangam. It was really cool to watch, and for people who know me you know that I love anything with dancing, fireworks and a big celebration, so it was fun!

I also had a great rickshaw driver on the way to Laxmi Road for the celebration who was telling us all about the festivals coming up – since Ganapati is in the next few weeks. And he told us about his family, and asked about us, and in the end he sung me my song! There was this Hindi movie from the 80s or 90s called Julie and the song basically means “Julie, I love you” and something about how the guy is crazy with love! So that was fun! Aruna sings it to me all the time and its SO cute when she does it. Anyway he restored my faith in rickshaw drivers because last week I got in a big fight with one.
The story was that we were out with participants heading to MG Road – a major spot in town for a quick tour. So the boys had rickshaws brought into Sangam, I hopped in one with a couple from New Zealand and headed off. Like 10 minutes from Sangam one of the other rickshaws we were with broke down, but our rickshaw was fine. The driver decided to stop us at the side of the road for no reason to wait for the other one to get fixed…and he refused to turn off the metre. So it’s tickin away, I’m getting angry and trying to convince him to continue on – it’s not like he needed to follow the other guy to find the place or anything. He kept refusing so I jumped outta the rickshaw and made a big scene yelling at him in the middle of the street. In less than 30 seconds I had 3 guys coming up to me to find out what the problem was. That’s the great thing in India, if you have trouble with a rickshaw driver you just jump out and cause a scene and guys will come help you out wherever you are. Its great! So I had them help sort it out, and suddenly we were on our way. It was very exciting and I figure if you’re confident enough to start a fight with a rickshaw driver you’re practically a local…or at least one step closer! I just have to learn Hindi/Marathi and soon I’ll be set.
So ya, tonight was great – festival fun, and great rickshaw drivers…I think I will be able to manage this for another 7 months!

PACKAGE!!

Okay - so first things first...i LOVE the ppl at Res Life! And as I am currently missing out on all the Welcome Week fun I am super sad I cant be back at Mac to at least fake being a student for one last PJ parade! haha
So I really am starting to believe in fate, or the spirit of india because the last two times I've been in need of a little piece of home my friends and family have totally come through :)
This last week was really hard deciding whether or not to stay in India until April and the day after I decided to go for it and take the job I got a huge, wonderful package from my friends in RLS!
All the goodies have been enjoyed thoroughly, and i'm saving the KD for a day when i'm in serious need of a pick me up. But all the rest of the stuff was awesome and it was really nice to get something from back home.
I'm taking it as a good sign, and good karma - so I think I will be able to stick it out through the next 4 months until my break to come see people in December.
I promise I will pay back all my Res Life buddies with stories over drinks in the winter :)
thanks again...it made my week! xoxo

Staying on in India!

For those of you who havent heard yet...I have decided to stay on in India until April!!
There was an open position for the Assistant Programme Manager and the staff team asked me if I would be interested in filling it. So after two very emotional days of deliberation I decided I would be crazy to say no!
So this basically means that I will have a bigger hand in the planning and implementation of the events we run, and I'll get to have a lot more responsibility with some events as CL (my manager) will be in London for meetings so I will be the head program person around...eek! haha.
It means I get to be around for a LOT of very exciting stuff too. We have a leadership seminar and an HIV/AIDS seminar in the next few months, and a research trip to Goa in December, as well as a paid trip to Goa again in March for an event! Plus in October sometime I get to go to Sri Lanka for a few days to get a new visa so I can stay another 6 months :)
Ugh, it's all very exciting! Plus alllll the festivals, I get to be here for Ganapati, Diwali, Holi, and a bunch more I dont even know about yet.
So it looks like I'll have a chunk of time in December to go home and see you all, yay! I made sure I had a break to head home in there somewhere because I knew I wouldn't last another 7 months without it.
If any of you are thinking about travelling or needing a vacation - think India! I would love the company, and I know you guys would love it here...
xoxo

piercing party!

I forgot about the biggest update of all! I finally got my nose pierced J Maha style! (on my left side like the tradition in Maharastra)
Some of you know I wanted to do it way back 4 years ago, and then again I desperately wanted to do it after 2 weeks here in India, but for one reason or another it took me until it was already half way through my time here.
The other week before our event we had a staff “piercing party” where we went out to Silver Street in the modern area of town and all got stuff done. Vivi and I got our noses pierced, Mary T got her ears re-pierced, Anna got her 2nd holes re-pierced, Christa got her tragus pierced, and CL got her tragus pierced on both ears and her belly button pierced so she can wear something elaborate and shiny on her wedding day in December! It was very exciting, and didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would.
The fun part was getting reactions from all the local staff the next day. I went into to place my egg order at breakfast and Padma noticed but didn’t say anything to me. Apparently when I walked out the door she told the other ladies so when we showed off later on at breakfast it was already old news. It really truly is like a small town here – the local staff sometimes know things before I manage to hear about it, the rumor mill is in full swing here. But all in all the ladies were very impressed and even for a few days afterward people were still noticing.
Then later over chai Aruna mentioned that piercing is significant for a girl, and that we should give out sweets and get our “good names”. For those of you who don’t know, it is common for Indians to have pet names and good names. When I reserve something or formally meet someone they ask for my good name. So I told Aruna and Minakshi that I would give them sweets if they gave me a good Indian name. So over a long and hilarious chai break they came up with names for all of the staff. The other staff names are: Kavita, Venu, Aboli, Sarita, Saloni, and Monisha. And my good name is Jui (but pronounced like Zui) and it is a beautiful flower here in India. Pictures will be coming soon…

Aga Khan Palace

So, Education for All ended yesterday and half of the participants left that day. It was hard saying goodbye to such a great group - one of the best in my time here so far. But since the event was over I got some much needed time off! We spent the evening out with the rest of the participants who were still here and all the staff at Sizzlers, a restaurant that actually has beef - something I have been seriously missing out on! (Dad, when I come home you're gonna need to BBQ me up some fantastic meals!) The meal portions are so large that they really should be split with others, but since we had been looking forward to this for a week we all ate our own meal. Big mistake! haha. It was the most painfully delicious meal I'd had in ages. After a good meal with good friends and good beers I called it an early night. I had been reading Shantaram, a brilliant novel by Gregory David Roberts for the last few weeks (it's almost 1000 pages), and finally finished it! And there was one quote that was so good I wanted to share it,
"This is not like any other place. This is India. Everyone who comes here falls in love - most of us fall in love many times over. And the Indians, they love most of all. Your little friend may be beginning to love you. There is nothing strange in this. I say it from a long experience of this country, and especially this city (Mumbai). It happens often, and easily for the Indians. That is how they manage to live together, a billion of them, in reasonable peace...more than any other people in the world, the Indians know how to love one another". It's so true, its something you find time and time again - when people welcome you into their home, offer themselves to you easily and genuinely. It's something I've managed to find here at Sangam especially with the local staff. It has been slow getting them to become comfortable with me, but whenever I manage to have a joke with one of them, or one of the ladies notice when I am missing it reinforces the fact that India is a place ruled by the heart.

Anyway, today Christa and I had decided we would use our days off this week to discover the places in the city we had been wanting to see. So we started off at the Aga Khan Palace, which is where Gandhi was held and his ashes remain. It's this gorgeous building only like 15 minutes from Sangam, so I can't believe I didn't make the time to go see it until today.

The building had been converted into a museum that chronicled the life of Gandhi. It was really interesting to read about it, and see pictures and paintings depicting his life. There were personal affects of his wife left behind in the museum, and quotes from Gandhi were on plaques throughout the museum. It was really interesting walking through the grounds and reading the signs saying "Gandhi walked this path to the samadhi daily"...really cool but eerie at the same time. It was strange to be in the same place that someone so brilliant and influential lived. It made me think of this quote I once found of Gandhi's "I do not want my house to be walled on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible." It was a quote I saved a year or so ago because I thought it was a beautiful concept, but only after coming to India do I think I really get what was meant by it. Tomorrow I'm hoping to check out the Pataleshwar caves in the city. And I promise to post pictures soon, I lost my USB cord so until I find it you're outta luck...

Splendour Country

So, after a long 12 day event with a 4 day kids camp Ambassadors for Children came to an end and we were itching for a BREAK!
So Mary T, Christa and I checked ourselves into the Splendour Country resort on the recommendation from our manager CL. We were told that it was beautiful and quiet and that’s about it – but it was enough for us. We hired a driver and headed out in the morning. It took about an hour and a half to get there, but it was a great drive through the city to parts I’ve never seen before and through the countryside. It was so gorgeous and green everywhere it was great. I think Mary T – who is from Ireland appreciated the green rolling hills more than anyone.
We drove past a dam and on the other side was this huge lake with some houses and other hotels littered along the hills. Our driver dropped us off and we checked out the grounds…incredible! The resort was built on the side of big hill and all around were these gorgeous mountains. There were a ton of steps leading down to the pool and dining area, which made the hike between our cottage and the pool seem like climbing the Himalayas but we survived. The pool was an infinity pool, the kind with no edge so it looks like you’re swimming in the ocean. In our case it looked like you were swimming out into mountains but it was still tons and tons of fun. The resort was completely deserted so we basically spent our days hanging out at the pool, reading books and soaking up the silence. We had delicious Indian and Chinese food there, with actual spice to it which was nice. During event time at Sangam the food is basically spice-free because the participants can’t all handle it, so its nice to get some spicy stuff in the mix outside of work. Sadly we only had 2 days at the resort and had to leave the second afternoon. Our co-worker Minakshi’s brother-in-law owns and manages a restaurant on the other side of Pune so on our drive back home she called and recommended we stop in for some chai. Its those kind of invites that remind you how incredible the community culture in India is. It’s not a rare occurance to meet someone once and be welcomed into their home. So we stopped at Sandeep’s restaurant and had the largest and most delicious cup of chai I’ve had in my two months here. It was nice to get to meet someone in Minakshi’s family as well. So after a brief chat with Sandeep we heading back home to Sangam. The resort had worked its magic on me and we came back so relaxed I was practically sleep walking through the halls until I hit the bed!
I also got a chance to check out a homeopath last week before our event started, it was very interesting. I thought since I’m so comfortable with doctors back home I would be fine, but as I sat down in her office I got nervous. It was interesting to have a doctor who wanted to listen to the full details of their patient, and it was funny to hear some of the questions she asked. I had started to get a little cold so I was asking her to help me with that and the questions that came we’re pretty unique:
-do you crave fish?
-do you like sweet foods or salty foods?
-when you perspire does it leave a stain on white clothing? (that was my favourite)
And she asked a ton of other questions, some really in depth ones about my life, others about personal relationships, it was cool. I have to admit I walked out of there feeling unsure about the whole thing, but after taking the medicines she gave me my cold died down a bit. I think it was a really cool experience, but I’m still undecided on how I feel about the whole thing.
This week has been busy with “Education for All” our event that included spending 3 mornings at different schools in the city. It’s been a lot of fun hanging out with the kids from 1st-10th standard (grade). We still have a few more days of the event left so I should probably go work on sessions and get things together for our Bollywood movie night tonight!
Love and miss you all…xo

Got Milk?

This past event - Ambassadors for Children - was a 12 day event, which actually turned into a 14 day event with people arriving early and leaving late...and it drained me of a lot of my energy! I think with being sick, and it being the 2 month mark - everything had just seemed to lose its excitement and I was missing home more and more.
So the event started out - 50 people, lots of fun and energy! We had people from the UK, Scotland, USA, and India (3 different parts). So it was really fun to have Indian girls, to have people to help with the language barrier and get rickshaws...it was awesome. The event was great, we did the basic Indian culture/Pune introduction with them for a few days, and then started planning for the childrens camp we were running for 3 days. The kids came from Mobile Creches, an organization with hundreds of centres around Pune. The centres were a daycare for kids of construction workers around the city. Since the kids move around a lot, they try to keep spots open at the major development areas to accomodate the needs of the children. We all got a chance to visit one of the Mobile Creches near Sangam before the event to understand what the organization does and meet some of the kids.
So the participants really took over camp which left myself and the other PA's with a little bit more downtime as we weren't the coordinators and instead were just sort of finding resources and lending a hand. However I wasn't around for much of the kids camp to help out because on the second day they were here I got really really sick.
I had the afternoon off, and was taking it easy and when I woke up from siesta something was off, and I ended up being sick for hours and hours until the first aiders here decided it had gone too far and called the doctor to come see me. He recommended they take me to the hospital so I could get something to stop me from being sick, which was a good idea since by the time they tried to take me down the stairs and out the hallway to the car I had apparently turned a yellow/green colour. haha. So I went to the hospital and got the shot for my nausea. Turns out I got the shot from this cute male nurse who was there a few days earlier when I had taken a participant to the hospital for a check up. So there I am, yellowish green, completely dishevelled, and the cute guy recognises me! ugh. Just my luck. So after the shot, and the cute guy I was feeling a bit better and since the hospital had no beds available we went back to Sangam.
I expected to be tired, but better in the morning. Turns out I was completely off for 3 days afterwards because I just couldnt get back to normal. It was really bizarre - and now I'm gonna go check out a homeopath to see if I can build up my immune system or something because I don't ever want to be sick like that again!
So ya, if you're wondering why you havent heard from me...thats why!
So about halfway through my sickness after days of lying around in bed or watching tv I started SERIOUSLY craving things. Number one: a giant, ice cold, glass of skim milk! I couldnt believe it, but in 2 months thats the first time I had craved it. Then it was hot chocolate, Kraft Dinner, and gummies!
Ironically enough, karma must have come back around to me because that morning I got a call from one of the staff saying they had recieved a call from a guy from Toronto who knew my Dad and was coming to drop something off! So like an hour later two of my Dad's coworkers came to the centre with a package. I was still completely sick and not working - but I managed to fake healthy for a few moments to chat with them. They have a subcontracting business here in Pune so they were checking in on some of the business before heading out a few days later. So we chatted, they passed along the package, took a picture of me to make sure my Dad knew I was safe and alive and headed out. I don't think they had even reached the front steps before I started to well up with tears. It was the same feeling as when I am sick back home and talking to my Mom, I just lost all control. It was the best gift I have ever ever gotten! It had notes from my Dad, and two sisters, with a book, some movies I had requested, and candies that reminded me of being a little kid back home! It was incredible. Made me realise just how much I miss home, and how great it will be to come back in the fall.
So the rest of my sick days were spent watching the movies Karen sent me, reading a brilliant book called Shantaram (highly recommend it for anyone interested in Indian culture) and staring out my window fantasizing about air conditioning! haha.
I managed to get better yesterday, for the last day of the event...I seriously owe everyone I work with for picking up my slack for days, they were amazing!
We're just saying goodbye to the last of the group this afternoon, and then Christa and I are heading out to Splendour Country a resort somewhere nearby. We don't know much about it, but it's got an infinity pool, the last volunteers raved about it, and someone got married there...so we figure it must be nice! Hopefully I'll have some beautiful pictures to show when I get back :)

Mumbai...

Mumbai...

what do I say. It was the best break I've had yet! The three volunteers and I along with Mary T and Darshana went to Mumbai for 2 days. Darshana is from Mumbai so along with her friend Jimmy we had our own personal tour guides for our stay in the immense city. We arrived late Tuesday night after a five hour bus ride into the city. Jimmy picked us up at our bus stop and took us to get food and tour us around a little before taking us to the Maharashtra Guide Centre in Mumbai. It was a small building with one gymnasium, and 2 basic dorm style rooms with beds and a fridge and bathroom. It was not exactly a luxury hotel, but at their asking price of 10 rupees a night (25 cents canadian, that they didnt even make us pay) we couldn't complain! The space around the centre was really nice though, it backed onto a huge park where lots of people played cricket, jogged, etc. And right across the street were Cafe Coffee Day and Barista, the two coffee chains Christa and I have become addicted to. Also it was about 3 minutes away from the sea, so if you walked to the end of the street you could check out the view. So that night the 5 of us set up in the dorm, and I got to re-live my childhood days sleeping on the top bunk again.
The next morning we met up with Jimmy and Darshana, Jimmy was fabulous and drove us around town during our stay or lent us his car and a driver so we could travel in style...it made the trip so wonderful! Getting away from rickshaws for a few days was amazing.
So we drove around town for a while stopping at some of the big landmarks. We checked out the hanging gardens (where I got to touch my first elephant...too bad it was made out of a bush), to the gateway of india, to chowpatty beach, saw some churches and temples, etc. It was a great tour. We had lunch in the fashion district and afterwards went for some bargain shopping at a market along the street. I got some great deals on beautiful jewellery and clothing!

In the afternoon we went to this *beautiful* mosque, Haji Ali Dargah. It's in the sea, with a long walkway up to the building. We drove past in the morning during high tide and saw the waves crashing up and over the walkway, so we went back in the afternoon during low tide. It was my favourite part of the whole trip. This mosque has thousands and thousands of visitors every week.

It was just such a beautiful space, we saw the shrine inside the mosque, and then wandered around on the rocks down to the sea. The view looking back on the city along the coast is beautiful. There's something about how things are set up here that makes me understand the communion between spirtuality and atmosphere. You will always find incredible temples, mosques, etc. at these incredibly beautiful and important spots in cities.
So after spending a lot of time there, picking sea shells, and revelling in the fact that we were at the edge of a foreign sea we went back to our place at the Bharat Scouts and Guides centre and freshed up for the evening.

That night we had Frankies for dinner, this delicious chicken thing in a tortilla...so greasy and delicious. Street meat is always the best, back home or in India.
Then we headed out for the evening, we decided we would check out Chowpatty beach at night to see the "Queens necklace" which is what people call the coastline at night with all the lights, its very beautiful, and again we got the chance to revel in the fact that we were thousands of miles away. We hung out on the beach, and took the oppportunity to sink our toes into the sand and took our first dip (feet only) in the Arabian Sea! Then we were going to go out on a night cruise, but Darshana got a call from her niece who reminded her that if we didnt go visit them that night that she would be at school when we stopped by. So we headed across town to Darshana's family's house and met her brother, her sister in law and her fabulous niece! It was fun to hang out and spend time with a family, but it made me miss my friends and family back home and the comfort of talking to people who know you best. We also got to see Victoria Terminus, the train station that has the most beautiful architecture, and some other spots on the drive home.
The next day we did some more sight seeing, we checked out the ritzy areas in town, and because we had asked Jimmy to point out all the Bollywood stars houses - be obliged and took us past where a bunch of them live. We did a bit more shopping that day for those of us who hadnt spent enough (me, me, me...haha) and then after some more sights before headed back to the centre to pack up and make the bus back to Pune.
It was really sad to get back into town and have to take care of ourselves. Jimmy and Darshana had been such amazing tour guides and friends that we didnt want to say goodbye to Jimmy. It also didnt help that we had to trade in driving around by car to going back to the rickshaw.
We start our next event "Ambassadors for Children" tomorrow morning...and while it will be lots of fun I am wishing I had more free time before it starts. We have 50 participants for 12 days, and for 4 of those 12 we will also have 25 kids between the ages of 8-12 for the kids camp that is a part of the event. It is bound to be a hectic event, and I think I need a few more day to prepare myself for the chaos that is bound to come with facilitating 75 people!
Oh well, all in a days work I suppose...

Palkhi

Palkhi, Palkhi, PALKHI!

oh man. today was such a fun day...

it was a blast to have the morning/afternoon off and just enjoy myself and unwind by hanging out on the front wall.

so the morning started off by jolting myself awake when i rolled over at 9:30 and heard music and people outside...i jumped out of bed thinking I was missing the big pilgrimage! So i jumped up, woke up Christa...and turns out it was just the beginnings of the crowds. So Anna, Christa and I wandered out to the front wall with all my snacks and a blanket, and climbed up to check out the action. Its probably like a 6 foot wall, so we were high enough up to see a bit down the road where everyone was coming from.

So we hung out for a while, mainly undisturbed, tons of stares but i mean we were 3 white girls sitting on a wall watching the pilgrimage - so its only fair they watch us too.

We enjoyed the action, observing all the clothing (the only time i've seen so many men in traditional dress), the different elements of the group that were clearly for the pilgrimage - like the men at the front of each group holding the flags, one woman in each group wearing what looked like a flower pot as a hat - with a tulsi plant in it, etc. It was great to people watch for a while and sort things out just by watching.

It didnt take long for people to start coming up to us, kids mainly asking what our names are, where we're from, etc. It was okay at the beginning but every once in a while it turned into a crowd at our front gate just staring at us - taking pictures with their camera phones, etc. It was strange that there was a *huge* parade of people walking past them and they were fixated on us. Check out this picture - it shows it perfectly. The groups of men were taking a break from the walk about 15 feet in front of us, and instead of watching the people walking, their backs were to the action and instead they were watching us. Obviously being a foreigner and standing out in the crowd is something I'm still getting used to.

Anyway the crowds started to get larger and larger, and I'm sure my pictures do not capture it - but the people were constantly flowing past us. We had an early lunch so we could head over to Datta Temple and be there for the action when the chariot brought the idol to the temple for one hour to stop and allow people to recieving blessings by touching the idol. So in typical foreigner fashion we go to the doors, Aruna talks to someone (her and Darshana were being our escorts) and suddenly we're cruising through the middle of the temple where no one else is allowed(these moments make up for the awkward stares and being confronted constantly). So we got to go sit up on the stage section behind where they set the idol. When the chariot arrives it is far more elaborate than I had expected and the crowds around it were intense. They were beating people back to get the idol off the chariot and into the temple, and then once it was in there was some chaos as they tried to restore order and get people who had snuck in back out into the lines. They had these lines set up to get people through to touch the idols feet and then out the door. It was wild - the people were going so quickly through the lines - no one was walking it was jogging or at least shuffling yourself through as quick as you could. Again, since we were foreigners and Sangam is nearby and people know who we are - we got to jump into the front of the line after about 20 minutes. It was cool to get to participate in something that is so important to the people in Maharahstra. People were literally lifting their babies into the air, and passing them through the crowd to touch the idol...they were basically crowd surfing - it was so dangerous but it worked and all the babies got blessed.

Anyway it was a really fun day - a nice way to unwind and get sucked into the energy and excitement in the area. Its strange, after just a few hours the entire street had gone back to being used by a few rickshaws, bikes and bicycles, no people congesting the area. They've all moved on to other places in Pune and beyond...

And soon I will be moving on as well - Mumbai for some fun on Wednesday and Thursday! woo!

******UPDATE*******

So turns out one of those wonderful people taking our pictures worked for the newspaper, and there is a picture of Christa and Anna posing with my purse as I - like the stupid foreigner I am - had to run back into Sangam for a coke. seriously!! I missed my 15 min of fame...my new goal is to get myself in the newspaper - not just my purse.

Holistic Living

This past week has been busy with our event Holistic Living. It was a really interesting event and lots of fun to experience another side of the culture and life in India.
Holistic Living was all about being aware of how body, mind, and soul are connected and enriching your life.
Some of the cool sessions we did were yoga, meditation, laughter club/laughing yoga, a panel on holistic living where we had professionals from ayervedic, homeopathic and traditional medicines, a spirituality session with a silent hour for reflection…stuff like that.
We had a great group of participants from 3 travel groups...but all from the USA. It was cool, made the group a little less multicultural and sometimes those are the fun and funny parts. As staff we're constantly entertained by what we all call things in our countries...today Anna called her mouth a "gob" and I had a HUGE revelation where I finally understood the name of the candy "gobstoppers"...things like that! haha.
It's been great, and stressful, and hard all at different points. Since we are going into our sixth week here (I can't believe it's been that long) we're all done settling in, and so as everyone knows all the nicities are wearing off. Its hard too that we all live, work and play together...but hopefully we'll all make it through!

Tomorrow is Pulkhi, which is this huge religious pilgrimage thing that happens here. People from all over Maharashtra state (and all over India) come to participate in this 15 day walk, 300 kms from Alandi which is the town about an hour away from us to another part of the state. The best part is since I live on Alandi Road they walk right past our gate. Literally. 225,000 people going by...it's gonna be amazing. They stop right at Datta Temple which is all of 100 feet away from Sangam for about an hour or so to participate in some rituals I believe and eat, etc. The area around here has been changing every hour. Yesterday I went out and Datta Temple which is half in ruins due to road construction here was being temporarily prepared for the event, getting decorated, it has lights all over the place, etc. For the last few days we've been able to spot the pilgrims all over town, but the best was in one of the nearby school fields there were a group of pilgrims with all their sheep, horses, etc. It was awesome. Then today when I went out there were banners everywhere, little stages being set up, temporary spaces being made for people to sleep overnight, they were spraying the area for mosquitos so I'm assuming that a lot of people will be staying here overnight.
I'm so excited to see what happens! Hopefully it won't monsoon rain tomorrow, because rain or shine I will be sitting out on our wall watching it all happen! I heard last year the staff went over to Datta temple and joined in on the fun as well so I am hoping to make Darshana or Aruna be my escort so I can experience it all. I'll hopefully get pictures up of it quickly so everyone who has been here can see the crazy crowds and stuff! Theres a website here that explains a little more about it http://www.aryabhatt.com/fast_fair_festival/Festivals/Palkhi%20Festival.htm

Then on Wednesday/Thursday we're heading to Mumbai. 6 of us are going and Darshana is going to be our own personal tour guide which is a-mazing. She is from Mumbai so she's a real catch for this trip :) We're gonna check out the basic tourist stuff and then her guiding centre, her home, things like that. I'm really excited, it should be a great crash course in Mumbai - or a great tour if I never get the time to head back there for longer.

Wanted to end this post with my new favourite poem. One of our participants wrote this during our silent hour from the Spirituality session. We gave them an hour where they could express themselves however they wanted, paint, read, draw, write, dance, play, etc. And Gaby wrote this beautiful piece...

Sangam

Wake early in the morning
To laugh

Walk barefoot
In the home

Eat six times a day
With your hands

Honk please
Before you pass

Beware
The falling coconuts

No matter how poor
own clothing rich in colour

Love the god
Inside each person

Heal the soul
And the body will follow

Leave the front door
Open always

Come together
Like the rivers

-Gabriella March

Each and every time I read this (and it's only been a day since I've heard it) I realize the beauty of being here. And I try to remind myself to stop stressing, find patience and enjoy the chaos. Sometimes it's hard being secluded here in Sangam, away from the life outside our gates - but this makes me recognize how lucky we are to have this safe haven in the busy city. Its wonderful to constantly have new visitors around because they remind me to keep appreciating things like it was the first time...

Night Out!!

Finally I went for a *much* needed night out :)
For all of you that know me well from home you'll be surprised to know I made it an entire month without going out for drinks and dancing! It had been too long since I had a good fun evening, so Christa and I went out and met up with Mary T who works here, and Soya (a past PA) and her boyfriend Deva who lives in Pune.
It was a fantastic evening! It's so fun to meet new people, share stories, and laugh so hard your cheeks are sore by the end of the evening. We went to this nice restaurant/bar called High Spirits in Koregan Park (the neighbourhood where the Osho Ashram is). It was really nice, we sat outside and got to enjoy the evening amid candle light, with lots of greenery around, and mother nature worked with us and it didn't rain until we left to come home.
It was great to get some distance from Sangam, since we haven't gone away enough and we start our next event "Holistic Living" tomorrow. Actually we only have one group here so far - the others were supposed to arrive in the early morning today but their flights kept getting delayed or cancelled. So currently one group is in Delhi and the other I think might be in Europe still. I guess this is a good taste of what to expect working in India during the monsoon...
We are already going into full monsoon prep here and ordering buses when we can to get around town because apparently it gets really hard to get rickshaws in this weather. Everyone keeps talking about the bridges being shut down - and the more they talk about it the crazier it seems! It hasnt been raining too intensely here - today was probably the first day of pretty constant rain, but then it was cleared up by around 5pm...the idea that things will start shutting down soon because of the over flowing rivers seems wild.
This event should be a lot of fun because theres a lot of stuff going on that is brand new to me. Some of the sessions include:

The laughter club (laughing yoga - which was on my to-do list so i'm super excited about it)
A holistic living panel discussion - where we're having professionals from 3 medical fields ; ayervadic medicine, naturopathy, and more modern medicine
A visit to the National Institute of Naturopathy - where I haven't been yet, so it should be fun
Bhuddist Meditation
A visit to the Osho Ashram - also where I havent been yet, and it's a big thing for Pune so that will be good
A cultural performance - a play

All of it should be lots of fun, but thinking of it all reminds me I need to go get some sleep so I can make it through the rest of the week!

ps- this is a picture of Babli all tucked in...our night watchman Mangesh is the *sweeeeetest* man in the world and he loves the dogs here like they're his own and he's always taking care of them and he tucked them into their new "beds" so I just had to take a picture

Wedding Indian Style!

Right off the bat I will let you know...no I did not get married! :P
BUT I did get invited to my first wedding! (and can you believe I actually tied it myself!! We had an hour and a half sari - bootcamp with Aruna this week and now we're pros)
It was fate I tell you...I had a bad day yesterday with news from home, and I think the novelty of India was wearing off. I'm still adjusting to living with people here - it's a little different when it's not my loveable Dromore girls. I got really used to living with people who are similar to me, and people I chose to live with...I have to keep reminding myself to move past the cultural and social barriers that make living together a little more awkward than back home.
So we got the invite from Rehka - our local tailor who does all of our sari and punjabi outfits, and for our participants too! Which meant that last week she had 35 sari's to tailor. eek!
Anyway, her little sister was getting married (arranged marriage) so she came by with an invite for all of us, and so the 4 of us volunteer staff went with Minakshi our wonderful Administrative Assistant who is from India so she could explain a lot of the ceremonial stuff to us.
We arrived just in time for it to start, and as I'm getting used to - being a foreigner means you are front and centre for *everything*, even if you don't know anyone! haha. So we strolled in about 2 minutes before it all started and got seats in the front row. It was lots of fun to see all the gorgeous sari's and the bride in her whole ensemble.
They did a lot of ceremonial acts, and we got to check out the fire part of the ceremony where they had to walk around the fire a number of times, and do a lot of other traditional acts to bring good luck and blessing.
Then we went down to eat lunch, and since we have Maharastrian dinner here every event - where you eat in your sari on the floor on a banana leaf plate and eat all the traditional foods we were totally prepped! All the food was the same, and none of us had to use cutlery, we're pros now - no one was staring and laughing at least...and it was really nice to get some serious spice in our food again, I think the ladies here think we can't handle it and have been jipping us on the delicious spice.
Then we went back upstairs to the hall, went up on stage to give our gift and get our picture taken by a bunch of guys and then we hung out while Rehka brought her 5 sisters and brother over to introduce to us. It was lots of fun, but I realised how badly I need to start my Marathi lessons so I can speak to people - all I've managed to memorize are the numbers 1-6 and the colours...and i'm pretty sure that won't take me very far.
Anyway that was my day, the wedding along with a couple ice coffees and ice cream it cheered me right up!

Missing home...

Monsooooooon

The monsoon has finally arrived! Its been wet and COLD(er) and fabulous! Rickshaw rides in the torrential rain arent so much fun, especially because many rickshaws don't have the side covers so basically when you hit a puddle, or another car whizzes past you, you get a soaker. haha. But whatever I'm sure I'll get used to it, and figure out the tricks to stay slightly dry!
With the monsoon coming we've had many more blackouts. The power here tends to go out every once in a while already, but because we have a generator we're usually fine. The other day I wasnt even aware that the power was out in our area until they decided it cost too much money to have it running through the night so they turned it off. The last few days we've had to do the same thing, so 11 oclock is lights out - literally. Which is hard when I forgot to bring a flashlight so I'm using some 1970's mini "torch" as they call it, that barely works to get around the buildings. I realised the other day I came really poorly prepared for this whole "monsoon" thing...no flashlight, no raincoat, no sensible shoes...i think i'm gonna need to go shopping again soon!
Thats the other thing though, I have no clue how people here wander around in flipflops during the monsoon. I get that they're the only shoes that will dry out after stepping in a puddle a foot deep, but everything here is made of marble, so its soooo slippery! I'm gonna be lucky if I manage to make it through the whole trip without wiping out and killing myself!
I was feeling sad about having to say goodbye to our first group of participants after the event ended the other day, but I FINALLY got to talk to Katie after 3 weeks of calling and calling and calling, so I feel much better now. It was the taste of home that I needed...in the form of an hour and a half phone call! whoops, good thing everything is cheaper here in India.
I desperately want someone to come visit me - so that when I go home I will have someone who actually understands my stories, and what I'm talking about, and knows where I've lived. I have no idea how I am going to be able to explain half the things I've experienced to people...
Hopefully I will get Deepak our computer guru in soon to fix the network so I can post pictures on here to help explain the stories...
xo

Essence of India

SO...
our first event - Essence of India started on Saturday and ends in just a few days!
It's been lots of fun to take people through the town, and watch them experience new things. Its been a big learning experience - and its been fun going through an event for the first time. I got to greet the first group who arrived at 4 am last weekend, which was good. Im constantly trying to remember what worked really well for me when I was getting the tours, and what questions I wanted answered to help the participants through it all.
The best part for me was shopping with them yesterday morning. We take them out to the older part of the city to Laxmi Road and take them to Kirti's a large sari shop. It was so much fun - when we went it was only 5 of us, this time there was 20 of us and the men who worked there had almost half of their merchandise on the floor, tables, desks to show us. It was awesome. Some of the people bought up to 7 or 8 saris/punjabis, etc. It was great. Then we took them through the market nearby and down line bazaar - a marketplace down a road selling everything you could ever want, and then to bangle alley :)
I think im gonna have trouble here though because I bought another sari - it was only 210 rupees (like 5 bucks) and a shirt, and an anklet...if I do these tours every other week and I go on my own I'm gonna need another suitcase! haha.
It's been really fun watching some of the girls/women get excited about the culture and adventure. They are up for anything, having a great time, and falling in love with this place like I did. It's too bad this event is only 7 days, I think I will want to keep the participants around after most events...

Bollywood

oh my word, bollywood is my new favourite thing! As most of you know I'm a total movie addict...and I think I just discovered a new drug!
So tonight we went to our first Bollywood movie called Jhoom Barabar Jhoom - a new release here. We went on a Sunday night which is the biggest night for the cinema here and it was such a blast. We started our first event 2 days ago so there were 25 of us out tonight laughing our asses off at some of the absurd things. Like one dance number that had: a construction worker, a lakers basketball player, the girls from moulin rouge, can-can dancers,...and god there must have been more! The best part was it was all in Hindi so we had no clue what was going on, and every once in a while I would hear "chalo" (lets go) or they would throw in a random word in English but for the most part I was clueless. It made it so much more fun - ad libbing to movies is hilarious.
Okay so this along with hanging out with the Guides who meet here at Sangam weekly has made me desperate to learn how to dance!! These girls are like 8 years old and the best dancers you've ever seen, they can move like crazy! So I'm the staff member who is "on" for our Bollywood dance session in a few days when we get an instructor in, and after that I'm going to sign up for the beginners classes nearby twice a week. I can't wait to come home, hang out in an Indian restaurant or go to an Indian wedding with Dee (xo) and freak people out at least with my stories or attempts at fitting in! haha.
oh man, to all the people who knew i would love it here and fit right in, you were so right and you know me so well...I dont know if I'm gonna be able to leave this behind...

Address

A few people have asked for my address, so here it is...this isnt my blatant cry for packages (although they would be graciously accepted!)
Julie Creen
Sangam World Centre
Alandi Road, Yerawada
Pune 411 006
INDIA

Solo Adventure

One of our tasks this week was the go on a solo adventure to an unknown spot in Pune - so we would get comfortable being on our own and feel the excitement of navigtaing ourselves around on our own.
My task actually had two locations because I was sick on the day of "Pune Challenge" when the girls wandered around town all day to a number of popular spots! My locations were Sarasbaug, and Parvati Hill.
So at about 4 oclock after Indian Siesta I wandered out got some change for the rickshaw rides and headed off to Sarasbaug. On the way there I got to sit back and enjoy a roomy rickshaw ride by myself instead of being crammed in between 2 other people which was a nice change. The driver took me a way through town I had never been before so after about 15 minutes of seeing nothing recognizable I got a little worried in the pit of my stomach, which is something that I've been working on getting over. It's not like I know anywhere much anyway, and even if I did know we were lost I couldnt communicate that or find my way home - so I am teaching myself to sit back and trust the rickshaw drivers, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!
When I got to Sarasbaug I was excited because I got dropped off on the road leading up to it and it was lined with carnival games, balloons, food stands, a tiny ferris wheel, etc. So I knew I was going to a fun place. I wandered down and walked into this massive park filled with people, a lot of families and people lounging in the sun.

When I openned up my package I found out it was a popular picnic spot for people and I had come at a good time with lots of sun to see it in full swing. In the middle of the park is a temple, and I went up and wandered around a bit. Sat there and did a little people watching, trying to get a hang of the customs and practices in the temples. Once again I am starting to get used to being stared at so often. It's a constant thing here - people will literally stick their heads out of cars to stare, not because I'm a girl or I think I'm pretty, but simply because I'm a foreigner. And since this was my first outing on my own I noticed it even more. Turns out our western culture teaches you that if you're being watched you should be fearful and worried, and so I spent a bit of time keeping that feeling in check as well. The best was a few girls who continuously walked past me giggling...haha, something to get used to thats for sure!

So after spending some time hanging out in the park I made my way back to the main road and got another rickshaw to Parvati Hill nearby. This place is amazing! It has a temple on the top of a hill, and these giant stairs leading the whole way up. The stairs are really long - like 8-10 feet long because they used to make a processional on elephants for celebrations up the steps and they needed to be large enough for the elephants! I loved it. So you wander up these steps and as you go up you can look out onto the whole city. It was incredible. At the top of the hill are a number of different temples, I went to 3 of them but there are at least one or two more, and there's also a museum. It was fun to wander around on my own and soak in the city, the history, and the beautiful day. I was lucky to take the trip on a clear day so I could see all the way out to the horizon.

One of the great things about both of the locations was that you are usually in the loud hustle and bustle of the city, with constant honking and the noise of rickshaws. But once you step inside some of these places everything seems to go away and it's so peaceful. Parvati Hill was defenitely calm and quiet.
I think this was by far my best day yet, I got to check out two places that were very much my style (looks like my manager is getting me), and I got the chance to chill out and enjoy it all on my own. It was empowering to get to keep wandering around having adventures and managing it on my own.
On the way back I hopped in a rickshaw with a driver who obviously was confused where I was heading, but I went with it. At one point I realised he was lost, so I navigated him to the bridge I knew that leads over to my side of the city, and from there could navigate my way home - about 15 min drive down the road. That was a good moment! Now I know no matter what if I can get the driver to this location I will get home in one piece :) it's really comforting to start to feel capable of getting around, and exciting to be recognising the places I've been and start making this place home.

Info on Sangam

Since most of you don't know much about Girl Guides I thought I would give you a little information to understand what I'm doing here, where I'm living, and who I'm living/working with
I am living right now at Sangam, the Girl Guide World Centre in Pune, India. The centre acts as a campground for any groups who want to use the space, a conference centre for our events and for any outside organizations, and a hotel/hostel for independent guests who want to stay for a day or a week or longer.
I am one of three Programme Assistants and our job is to help facilitate the 7 - 12 day events we hold for Guiding participants from around the world. During the monsoon season while I am here we will be holding 7 events:
Essence of India
Holistic Living
Ambassadors for Children
Education for All
Action in the Community
Community Action Project
Feasts and Festivals
Each event has a different focus and we will run sessions, invite keynotes, take tours, visit community partners, etc. based on the event. We try to keep a number of things common so all participants get to experience the culture and understand our area, so we will take them on a neighbourhood walk, go for dinner at an indian family's home, go shopping for saris/punjabi suits, etc. learn how to tie a sari, get mehendi (henna) done, etc.

The past 2 weeks has been my training and they had all of us experience all of those sessions, and it was lots of fun. We had a crash course of life in India!
The people I'm working with here aka my Sangam Family are:
Sally - the World Centre Manager - from Australia
Darshana - Deputy World Centre Manager - from India - Mumbai
CL - Programme Manager - from USA
Mary T - Event Administrator - from Ireland
Minakshi - Administration - from India
Aruna - Manages the domestic staff - from India
and then I believe 8-10 women on our domestic staff team, and 8-10 men on our grounds team. This includes our day and night watchmen who take care of us.
It's been a lot of fun working with the local staff because they're so sweet, and understanding when we have questions about things. The other day I was sick and the next day Mangesh our night watchman made a point of asking me how I was doing - when I didnt even realise he knew I had been sick. They are all very sweet and incredibly good to us. I'm still getting used to being so well taken care of...you feel a little guilty having people do so much for you, but during events we would never have the time to take care of those things!
Then there are the fabulous volunteers:
ME - aka Creen Machine :)
Christa - Programme Assistant - USA
Anna - Programme Assistant - UK
Virginia - Assistant Programme Manager - Brazil

So in a nutshell thats the way we work here, I will try to post an event schedule when we start next week so you get an idea of how the days are...and I will post pictures of the centre when the computers start working with me and upload my pictures! :)

Day Off

So yesterday was our first entire day off...hurray!!! It was good, Christa and I had a slumber party in Mary T's (our event administrator from Ireland) room because she's career staff and has an air conditioner in her room. Since we've moved out of the dorms on ground level, up to our rooms on the 2nd floor the heat is a little bit much, and one side of the building is cooler than the other because of where the breeze comes from, so slumber parties have been fun! We slept in until like 11 which was also great, ate and then headed out on a little day adventure. We went to Pune Central which is this mall that is basically one big department store and it's very Westernized. So chile it was nice to be around something familiar it was also crazy expensive and not as much fun, so we left and headed out to MG road where there are also lots of stores for shopping. We wandered around a bit, checked out some stuff, hung out in the Bombay store - this cute store with a little bit of everything: home decor, jewellery, clothing, aromatherapy, bags, wallets, stationary, etc. And we ended off at Barista - one of the local coffee chains in Pune. They have become our new favourite places :) The iced coffees are like only 2 bucks, and they come with like 2 or 3 scoops of ice cream in them if you want! its awesome.
I'm just heading out on my next adventure to the Parvati Hill Temple so hopefully I'll have some cool pictures of that to show in a few hours. xo

Graduation Day

This post is to assure everyone I am okay and being well taken care of here...I am been adopted into a great little family here at Sangam (the world centre) and this story is evidence of that!

So as most of you know I graduated on June 6th (yay!), but because I am in India I had to miss it...or so I thought.... :)
Turns out I had mentioned it to the right people, and my fellow volunteers and staff here at Sangam took the initiative to make my day!!
Right before dinner everyone was called into the Hall (our main conference area) and I was left in the lounge to be blindfolded and then dressed up. I walked into the Hall, they took off my blindfold and I saw everyone sitting in a row, waving Canada flags! There were red and white balloons and everything to celebrate the day. They had also dressed me up in a gown, with the scarf/collar thing, and a hat with a ribbon to move like the graduation cap.
I was seated next to my "mom" and "dad", my manager CL and her fiancee played house for my graduation and we all listened as I was awarded my degree (pictures will be up tonight), and we listened to my valedictorian speech: the "wear sunscreen" song from back in the day.
It was A-MAZING.
We followed it up with group pictures, champagne, and my favourite meal...PASTA!
It was so incredible, and so unexpected...so for anyone concerned about me being all the way over here missing out on things at home, don't worry I get to recreate everything, and have a little more fun with it! I did miss being able to be in pictures with everyone from home, but maybe WE can play dress up when I get back and re-enact it again! :)

Week One: Training

Week One Down...and SO much to say!
Wow.
So I left home on the 30th, flew into Paris, waited around for a few hours and left for Mumbai. On my 2nd flight into Mumbai I was sitting with a very sweet couple from the USA who are originally from India and took it upon themselves to be my guide through the airport and make sure I found my driver and everything. It was nice to have someone looking out for me like that, and have someone who knew the language to talk to my drivers a little!
So we finally arrived at Sangam (the Girl Guide World Centre in Pune) after about 3 hours driving with another one of the volunteers Virginia from Brazil, and got greeted by two of our dogs Bunty an Bubbly (named after Bollywood film characters). It was exciting to finally get here, see the place, and finally have a bed to sleep in! :)
The next day we started out training! I'm here with 3 other volunteers:
Christa - from the USA, also a Programme Assistant like me
Anna - UK, also a PA
Virginia - Brazil, the Assistant to the Programme Manager
and then the full time staff, from the USA, Ireland, India, Australia.
Training has been intense, and I finally understand what its like to be a part of it - instead of just planning and helping out with it. There's been so much information crammed into my brain it'll be nice when the cram session starts to slow down a little bit.
But training has been really great because we've got to try out a lot of things, and see little bits of many places around town. We've gone to the big market district - Laxmi Road, where I bought my first sari, punjabi suit, bangles and bindis! I can sense a lot of shopping with get done there in the future. We've also gone to another shopping area called MG road and wandered around. We've taken rickshaw rides everywhere which can be a little intimidating the first time but I think we're getting the hang of it now! We've gone to see a bunch of social organizations in the area, and different places we will be taking participants to in the city and that has been really interesting...i'm sure i'll have more to say about that later once I get a few more opportunities to check out their facilities and services.
Anyway, it's been wild...i'm loving every minute of it, and I am already planning ways to delay my trip home :) I will post pictures very soon
Love and miss you all!
xoxo
Jules