Hi again

I don't know if anyone still reads this? I think so because a couple of comments were posted. I just felt like it was left kind of open-ended since we never wrote in Delhi. Let's see how much detail I remember...

So we flew to Delhi on that Saturday. Flight was delayed... 3 hours I think? A taste of what was to come, looking back. Weird I just remembered my dream from lsat night. It was about Delhi I think? Coming home? Anyway... Sunday it was Christmas Eve. We went to Casino Royale and had McDonald's for dinner. Vimala always got us American food for dinner that week. Very nice. The next day was Christmas :( Very sad. Phil got me a beautiful black pearl necklace. We went back to the mall which we'd spent practically teh entire day yesterday. Oh most important part: TGI Friday's. In the mall. Nice. Ok so Christmas we went to Happy Feet. Indian movie theaters have major security but that is essentially the only difference between theirs and America's. Oh and they have intermission which is deceptively short. For lunch we went to a really nice Italian restaurant where I got free champagne and which Phil hated. I don't really remember why.

Tuesday-Thursday was the bus tour. It was... interesting. There was only one other Westerner on the bus, an Italian. Her husband was Indian. Then there were 3 Indian families who were for the most part really nice. We spent some extra time with the Italian woman because there came a point where we couldn't afford going into some monuments that the Indians could afford because it was like 1% the price we had to pay. Anywayyy.... Jaipur the first day. Saw the Pink Palace, the Observatory, the fort where you (used to) be able to ride the elephants. You still can but it's only in the morning from like 7 - 10. Pretty good tour guide. Lunch that day was in the most awful place. Really dirty. That night our hotel was surprisingly nice for what we'd paid and they had ok food. The next day we went to that mosque in the morning (with an awful tour guide) and then shuttled over to Agra which took most of the rest of the day. Our hotel there was awful. Phil and I had to wait for 2 hours for a hotel room while everyone else had theirs already. When we finally got in, it was gross. At least it had a TV. The restaraunt there had amazing food, though, so that made up for it. Wherever I went, however, I could not find the same quality of hot chocolate that I received at Silver Oaks :( Oh I miss Silver Oaks. Ok. Next day was the Taj Mahal. Great tour guide. He said to Phil "When are you going to marry this beautiful woman?" so I liked him. Also, he said that back in the day he'd given Richard Nixon a tour when he was vice-prez. He also kept it pretty short and sweet. Went home. Had "burgers" again for dinner. Like how I remember the food so well? Details. The next day we shopped shopped shopped at Cannaught Place. I found everything. Phil found a little bit. Had to shop more the next day. Saw The Prestige. Lots of great times with the Arni's, mostly just sitting and having conversations about Iraq (oy) and watching the TV on mute. I loved Rajita. She was 13 and such a typical 13 year old, like really giggly and fun. Didn't see much of Rajan. And Sunday night we went to the airport and bye bye India!

Oh wait. No. We did go to the airport on Sunday. New Years. So in the first few minutes of 07 we learn our flight has been cancelled. Stinks, but predictable because many other flights had been cancelled. Whatever, we'll just go back the next night. We get shipped off to an amazing 5 star hotel. The next night, we go back! We spend about 5 hours there until they finally tell us we're not going anywhere (except in way more complicated terms) and we get shipped back to another 5 star hotel. This happened.... 3 times I think? 4? I don't reemember. We made some friends though. There was a couple from New Jersey, and a couple from Georgia. At the end, somehow, magically only 20 of us remained. How those other people left, I will never know. We finally got some things done. Phil went to the AliItalia office (I had originally tried but the police man at the door wouldn't let me leave the airport adksl;fkasdf... Phil had to sneak out) and tlked to some woman and she promised us a flight from Delhi-Milan, Milan-Boston. No such luck. We managed to get, finally, Delhi-Milan, Milan-Newark. This was okay because Milan-Newark was first class! Oh somewhere int here was my birthday. It was ok in the morning/afternoon as I was at a five star hotel eating amazing food, taking baths, watching TV, and generally lounging about. That night we got a flight but I just detest that airport. Oh I never mentioned the reason for all the cancellations: fog, ie pollution. It's the most polluted city in the world now. Makes you miss the clear air of Kalimpong.

So now we are home. I miss everyone in Kashyem so so sooooooo much. Strange to think their vacation has still not ended. I keep forgetting to send them letters. I wrote one to Pragya and Babul, and another to SM, on the train yesterday. Eventually I want to send them a photo album. I should probably write to Jiwan too, since he delivers the mail to the various villages. Strange also to think that Ruth is still there. I don't know how she's survived with no interaction with other volunteers. She must be leaving in a couple of days. She's been in Nepal/India since July. It must b so odd for her to be going home after all this time. Last I heard from her she was in Kathmandu extending her visa. I miss her too, and Jess and Matt. I've talked to Jess since I've been home, but not Matt.

Well, that's that. I definitely would like to do something like this again in the future. Mondochallenge is good because you can go for a short amount of time (compared to places like the Peace Corps) and it's really flexible. I'd love to go to Africa next time.

I think of all the places I've written in this blog and it makes me so sad. I would love to be back there right now, at Richen's or Olympus, Phil downstairs playing some videogame. Looking forward to Silver Oaks' dinner. Going back to SM's the next day and just eating oranges and reading. Playing UNO with Pragya and Babul. I used to have dreams all the time when I was there that I was actually at home. Sometimes I wonder if this has all been a dream and I will wake up and I'll still be there. I miss Scar! I do not miss the food. I'll still eat rice, but I have problems eating peas and can absolutely not eat squash ever again. I'm sure Phil misses the momos.

Well... that's all. The end.
poop

Photos

Photos are up: http://flickr.com/photos/lizalou/sets/72157594462855944/

Not labelled yet, and out of order, but there they are.

Back in Kalimpong one last time...

I can't believe it's Thursday already! We've been here since Tuesday morning. Santa was kind enough to give Phil, Matt and me a lift.

The BBQ Sunday was really fun. I ate sooooo much chicken (quite surprising to SM no doubt). Matt, sadly, was sick most of the night. Ruth and Santa had a little arguement (dramaaa) but all is well now. We listened to Queen. Fun times.

Monday was not only our last day, but NRA's as well. Their winter vacation is from December 18th to February 12th. They have winter camps here, like our summer ones. The last day, as I might have mentioned, is results day. The first couple of hours we watched some football. Phil played a bit. I took photos. Sonu and Safal came over from Barra Number. I love how everyone knows everyone else. All the kids knew each other already. After football we went back to the school. Sujit, the other head teacher in the school, read us a speech he'd written. It was so sweet. I teared up a bit. I kept a copy of it; maybe I'll post it on here eventually. Every student came up afterwards and gave us each a scarf. Again, so sweet. After that the stressssssful announcements of who placed where. Pragya was first in her class. Sangay scored the best overall. It's funny how few girls there are but in every class except 4 they placed first. Babul got 5th. Phil and I gave the kids with the best scores on their Convo exams the geometry sets and colored pencils we'd bought. We also gave everyone sweets. Then.... school was out. I took a photo of Phil pretending to ring the gong. Went home. Played lots of Uno. Watched Tom and Jerry for hoursssss.

The next morning, Santa came at 10 and that was it. It hasn't set in at all. I cried a little, but not as much as I thought I would. It was just too surreal. Driving by the paths, the houses, the school, the store... I can't accept that I might never see these places again. Or the thought that if we do go back and visit, all these sweet little kids will be grown up and with all the volunteers that come, probably not remember us. I hope we made some small difference. We saved Children's Day. That's one difference we definitely made. I'm not worried about them, though. Not at all. Every student in class 4 passed and is going to high school. There is no doubt that they will all be successful in something. Hopefully Pragya will be a teacher. Aasish will be a soldier. They're ambitious enough. I think that maybe we, individually, weren't the defining people in this school's development, but we are the pieces of a puzzle of a ton of volunteers who are always helping. I suppose Mondochallenge is to thank for that.

Interesting, miscellaneous facts that don't really fit anywhere in here:

1. Once a volunteer came over (American, of course) and married some guy from a few villages over. They spent a while together, she went home, changed her e-mail address and never talked to him again. Scandalous.

2. The government schools here cost, literally, a thousand times more per month than it costs to go to a private school like N.R.A. The private schools, however, are way better quality. The teachers actually show up and teach them more. To be a teacher in a government school, you have to pay a fee (really a bribe) of up to 40,000 rupees. Crazy.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. Gift shopping day! Phil is getting me a Christmas present too. Jewelry, probably. I have no idea what I'm getting him... ahhh. Ruth might be in town so maybe one last drink at Gompu's before we peace out.

Oh, Phil was sick yesterday! Stomach troubles from early in the morning til the evening. He managed dinner, though. He's feeling way better today and is downstairs gaming as I write this.

I might walk up the best view (in my opinion) later by the ex-leper colony. We walked up there on Saturday but I didn't have my camera. You feel like you can reach out and touch all the mountains. It makes you feel very small, actually.

hi friends

Well, we are back for the day! We're leaving at about 2. We had a couple things to do. I wanted to find out about the flight Saturday, and we have to buy BBQ sauce for our little part-ay tomorrow. All the volunteers are coming over, and a couple headmasters, and we are BBQ-ing chicken and having momos. Verrry exciting. SM is getting 3 cases of Hit (beer).

This week was super. Monday we went to school for like an hour... but it just consisted of us watching kids take exams so SM told us to go home. That night we went to Aasish's house for dinner. We had a lot of bamboo/tomba and Phil told SM he should arrange a marriage between Bivek and Pragya. SM laughed so hard. There was a baby there which was fun. I'm way more fond of Aasish after that night. Before I considered him kind of a bully to the other kids, but he can be really sweet.

The next day we went to Barra Number. When we got there Ruth was in Pedong picking up Jess from the jeep so we played War (or "Biggest") with Sonu, MB's son, for hoursss. That game frustrates me so bad. No more War. We taught him Go Fish and Crazy Eights. He's really cute, in class I, and has an older brother Safal, class 3 I think. Played some badminton. They have a net set up right next to the house/school. Ruth came back. We all made momos. My momos.... Lor'. They were sooooo deformed. They were kind of cute, some of them, like sea shells. Phil's were normal. Jessica's and Ruths: normal. They tasted really good though. Better than any we've had. They had squash and onion in them, rather than cabbage. Ooh Ruth also had this up-to-date British tabloid her friend sent her and happily gave to me because she knows I like that stuff. Happy day.

The next day was the Alpha School Picnic. We had breakfast and lunch there. Breakfast was toast and homemade butter and reallllllly good tea (and that is saying something). And biscuits, of course. Lunch didn't happen til about 2. In between, the kids played freeze dance and hokey pokey and cockfighting, though I missed the latter two because.... ugh I went back to the house to use the bathroom and have water and I saw this little puppy and this kitten and they looked hungry so I took them in our room (mistake) to give them a snack. They wouldn't leave. It took seriously 20 minutes to lure them out of there. When I'd gone back, all the fun stuff had happened. After all that, we went down to the grounds with some kids and played with a parachute. We also played wacky British baseball "Rounders" which is EXACTLY like American baseball except with 5 bases. No dinner that night because lunch was big. Just a lot of Tiger's Milk and MB told stories about shadows attacking him after he has some Tiger's Milk. His sister claims she was whisked away in the jungle for 8 hours by this "shadow." Kind of a terrifying story late at night.

Next day..... went home. Then the wedding! We, unfortunately, missed the actual wedding ceremony. The reception though was amazing. It was this massive tent... well, a bunch of tents. There was a room entirely devoted to Tomba. I avoided that room. There was an open bar. It even said "bar" on it. Dancing ensued.

Yesterday was uneventful. Planned the BBQ.

This morning when we were driving here you could see Kangchenjunga really clearly in the distance, more clearly than our view in Darjeeling. Compared to the surrounding mountains, it is just completely white. It's really amazing to see. It looks the same size but by the color you can just tell how massive it is.

One week left in dear Kashyem/Kalimpong. I can't believe it.

i don't know why this isn't working

Well I didn't delete this.... will this entry show up?

Nothing at all has happened this week EXCEPT there is this group of the most obnoxious kind of psuedo hippies that hang out in our little internet cafe and it's sad. They talk really really loud on "spiritual" subjects and food poisoning. TMI.

We go back to the village tomorrow. It will be strange. It's like going home because all our stuff is there... but it doesn't feel like it. I never want to leave here :(

This will only concern one person

Last night we had delicious dinner at supposedly the best Tibetan restaurant in town (which I don't doubt). I had wan ton soup, spring rolls and apple juice. The apple juice was soooooo good, like drinking apple sauce. Phil had a coffee milkshake which tasted like a frappuccino. Ruth, Matt, and Jessica all got soup as well. Afterwards we played Monopoly for a little and I'm sure I would have won if it hadn't been cut short because it was late (I'm kidding.... I was the banker).

Today we came back to Kalim-town as SM would say. My legs are soo sore from walking and then sitting in a jeep for ages. We got to see the mountains again though.

Ohhh two funny things:

1. We are sitting in the jeep in Darjeeling, waiting for it to leave, when I hear a chicken clucking and I'm like, "Why is there a chicken outside in this very congested area?" I look behind me and it's sitting in the back seat of the jeep.

2. I retract all statements about wanting a pet monkey. Last night we left the hotel at about 5:30 to meet the others. To get to the main square from our hotel you need to walk down this very narrow street. In the distance on this street I see what I think is 2 dogs fighting. I look a bit closer and think, "Hm, those dogs have awfully long, flexible limbs." It was monkeys! Then I thought, "Oh cute, monkeys." But then I looked around. Literally hundreds of monkeys were lining this road on the fence and the trees. They kept screeching and jumping about. I told Phil not to make any sudden movements and walk fast fast fast (because I'm an expert on these things obviously) and we made it out alive. Later we walked back and there were fewer monkeys, thankfully.

Well, it's good to be home in dear old Kalimpong. Much warmer, but not as beautiful. I suppose if I had to choose in retrospect, I would have chosen to volunteer more in the Darjeeling area, despite the temperature. There's just more to do and see. Not that I don't have a soft spot for Kalimpong.

We only have a few days of teaching left! I wonder how the kids are doing on our exams. They took forever to type in, and another lifetime to fill in all the clocks for Class I. After this, I don't know what we'll teach in so short a time.

More tomorrow perhaps, if something interesting happens like a Babu attack.

Darjeeling by Eliza

Saturday

Let's seeee.... yesterday we met up with Jessica, Ruth and Matt at 10:45 at the book store. Got a couple more books. After that, we headed off to the zoo/Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering (HIM). It was a pretty lengthy walk through Darjeeling. Not a lot of traffic on the streets, thankfully. The zoo was small but pretty nice. Yaks, a bear, deer, leopards, and we even heard a tiger roar. Not the most pleasant sound. The HIM is connected to the zoo. It was small but it had a lot of interesting things like Hilary's original equipment when he first summited Everest and a cool set up comparing the mountains in the world. The Himalayas are hugeee compared to.... the entire world. After that we saw where Tenzing (I think that is spelled correctly?) was cremated and a statue. We left that area and started to walk towards our next destination. Got a bit lost and ended up at this ski lift type place. It looked like the scariest freaking thing I have ever seen. Like all my worst fears combined into one. It looked as though it is now defunct, thank the Lord. Anyway we met a couple guys who directed us in the right direction. Finally we found it. Unfortunately climbing up to it meant a steep walk through lots of tea bushes. Once again, all my worst fears combined into one: hiking and heights. I'm kididng. Hiking is fine... Problem: I onyl brought flip flops here. I overpacked and had no room for sneakers but whatevs. Anywhoooooo what then? Oh. Our destination, which I have not yet mentioned,w as the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center. A realllllly amazing place. It's part orphanage, part elderly home type thing. First we stopped at the shop. I got an amazing, huge wool, handmade wool sweater which I have been wearing non-stop. Jess got a traditional Tibetan dress. Ruth got postcards. Matt got gifts I think. Outside while everyone else was in the photograph place I met some adorable little Tibetan orphans. A camera is like a magnet to every child here. They seriously flock to it. One little kid literally grabbed it from my hands and ran around taking photos. I was so scared he was going tod rop it. He took some good ones. One girl made fun of my freckles. Then they became quite preoccupied with dissassembling cassette tapes.

Time for a new paragraph. Yeah.... hmmmm... oh then we went to the little workshops scattered throughout. First we went to this room with 5 or 6 old women weaving sweaters and scarves and things on the most amazing looms. Obviously handmade, very old machines. It was really fascinating to watch them make what would later be something like my sweater. Next we visited a man and a woman painting what would perhaps be postcards? I dont' know. It looked very tedious though. Next we saw the leather and clothmaking.... the men's workshop. 6 or 7 men with manual sewing machines making hats and things. One guy was making amazing little pin cushions in the shape of children's shoes. Up the hill a ways was the carpet weaving. Again they had looms but rows and rows of them. Next door was the room where they keep all the yarn. Thousands of balls of all different colored yarn. It smelled amazing. They have chemical and vegetable dyes too.

We got a little lost a gain after that but finagled our way back down to the street where we caught a jeep. Kind of funny. The jeep was obviously not a taxi but a privately owned one but the guy was more than happy to give us a lift back to the cneter of town. He didn't except anym money for it either. He said, "Just don't forget me!" He was cute.

Wow mind blank. Oh Phil and me went back to the hotel for a delicious dinner (we hadn't eaten since breakfast which, by the way, contained BACON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Afterwards we watched the beginning of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (ummmm yeah) and I attempted some crosswords in a book I got and then I passed out because I was sooooo exhausted.

Oh my dear goodness gracious me: the most important facttttttt. I . Won. Monopoly. It was brilliant. Phil will be so mad I mentioned this but I said I would.

Sunday

Woke up. Had another bacon-filled breakfast. Also for breakfast: wheat bread with cheese. Delicious. When was the last time I had cheese? At the Arni's, that's when.

Met up with the others at 10. They have a great view point on top of their hotel. We could see the 3rd highest mountain in the world. Starts with a K and I can't pronounce it. It's realyl beautiful. I bet I could see it if I looked out right now. Everest, K2 and then this one. Pretty sweet. Lots of photos.

Thennnnn we walked. Walked walked walked. I almost ogt hit by a motorbike legit. We saw the train station. Probably take a train tomorrow in some fashion after Tiger Hill. We ended up at this monastary where Jess's friend worked for awhile (in the orphanage teaching English). Very beautiful. Took some photos with some monks. One monk in particular was very accomadating. We saw their prayer hall which is massive and has gigantic metal statues of Buddha and other gods. Then he got us some tea which was actulaly really delicious. Usually I hate tea (unless it's from Starbucks because I like it wihtout milk or sugar and they always add milk AND sugar) but I had two cups of the stuff. The monk was 18! He decided when he was 15 that he wanted to be a monk for his whole life. He is from Ladakh but he lives here now.

Walked back. Went our seperate ways. Phil and I had lunch. Then we went to the Natural History Museum. Cute little place, inexpensive. Very small. Lots of nasty snakes and things in jars. A massive crocadile. Massive beetles collected from around Darjeeling. Yuck.

Now we are here. Later we are meeting the other volunteers to arragne Tiger Hill for tomorrow morning, to have dinner, and to play a rousing game of Monopoly before an early bedtime as we have to get up before dawn for Tiger Hill.

Fun thing: there is a movie theater here. It is showing Casino Royale. I'm trying not to think about it. Ummm there is also a mall involved. Yeah, trying not to think about it. Just not enough time.