Marisa Plescia's Travel Journal

Village Tour

mplescia29 — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:39:00 GMT

Yesterday all the volunteers were lucky enough to go to the nearby village of Devalapalli. According to Mr. Anish, the head of facilities at SB, about 150 families live there. Although I have driven through the village a ton (you have to pass it to get to Shanti Bhavan), I have never been able to walk through it and interact with the inhabitants. I was really excited!

The village tour started with the group of volunteers piling into the school transportation, which is an ambulance. The George Foundation also runs the nearby Baldev Medical Center and SB uses the ambulance for transportation. The village is within walking distance but with a group of 6 it was just easier to drive. I wish it had a siren! The first place we went to was the village temple. The "priest" of the temple opened it for us and blessed us. He did a whole ceremony of where we waved the fire to us, put a pink dot on our forehead, and also poured a handful of some kind of herbal water over our head. We were a little afraid it was cow urine because some temples have that, but luckily we were told after that it was just herbal water!!

After the temple we rushed over to the school to interact with the kids before the end of the school day. At first all the children were extremely shy, it was only after they realized that we had cameras and that they would be able to see their picture on the screen did some of them come up to us. This was a government school and many of them did not speak English and thus it was hard to communicate. The older ones told us their name, while the younger ones just stared at us with scared little faces. A little boy had ink all over his mouth and face, so me and Ale tried to ask what happened and the poor little boy just looked at us with eyes that seemed that they were going to burst into tears at any minute. The classrooms were just one big room…no desks, and chalkboards for the kids to do their work on. All the children were extremely cute though and all waved bye to us and even chased us down the street screaming, “bye!!”

The next stop on the village tour was a house that The George Foundation built. It was built for a cleaning staff at the medical center and her family. Her daughter, mother, and grandchildren were waiting for us at the house. Her daughter was in the 12^th grade and spoke some English so we were able to ask her some basic questions. I also talked to the grandmother via a translator and she was asking questions about my age, etc. Their house consisted of a 10 ft room with a small TV, a tiny bedroom with no mattresses, and a kitchen with a gas burning stove and kerosene lamps. Surprisingly I saw a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter! We spent our time there just interacting with the kids…a lot of neighborhood children also stopped by to see us. The two youngest were pretty shy, but I started tickling them and their little giggles brightened my day. At the end, we said goodbye and once again all the children chased after us waving and screaming.

The village tour at was truly humbling. All though Shanti Bhavan is extremely close to villages, it seems like a whole different world. We have beds, food, clean water, etc. These children in the nearby villages are living in extreme poverty and will not have the same education or life that the kids here at SB will have. I was having a really bad day that day and the village tour really lifted my spirits. It really put it into perspective on how lucky I am and how I shouldn’t let the insignificant things bother me…these village children still smile no matter what.

Halloween in India!

mplescia29 — Wed, 2 Nov 2011 01:31:00 GMT

I must admit I was very bummed about not being with my friends/family for Halloween. However, this Halloween was just as fun! For a couple weeks now, the 11^th and 12^th grade girls and I have been planning my Halloween costume. They decided to dress my as the evil Indian goddess Kali. I was then supposed to scare the living daylights out of the kids.

After dinner, the girls rushed me back to their classroom and started the transformation process. I had no idea what they were doing as they put black eyeliner all over my eyes, wrapping my saree, teasing my hair, etc. In the end, I looked positively frightening!

I then proceeded to run around the dining hall and the kids’ dorms dressed as Kali. I have never seen so many scared children in my life. Kids were screaming, crying, running away, and hiding as I ran through their dorms. I must admit I had a blast scaring these kids and had a hard time keeping from laughing as I was running after them. I didn’t think the kids would get so scared of me…because clearly it was me! I even made some of the Aunties (the women who take care of the kids) cry! I have never had a scary costume before so it was quite an exhilarating experience.

After that, the 8^th and 12^th graders came to the teachers’ lounge to ‘trick or treat.’ This year we made them work for their candy by performing a list of dares. Some of the dares included…. drinking a cup of “potion” which consisted of water with vinegar, salt, tamarack, soy sauce, and lemon; getting a bucket of water poured on your head; imitating a teacher and volunteer; eating 2 cloves of garlic. It was so fun and the kids were really into it and dressed up pretty intensely. At the end they got their treats, but I didn’t get any candy L.

Halloween here at SB was truly different, but a good different. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Happy Diwali!!

mplescia29 — Wed, 2 Nov 2011 01:30:00 GMT

Words cannot even describe how great and fun Diwali was!! Diwali is known as the “Festival of Lights.” It is a celebration of good conquering evil, the New Year, and the return of a banished ruler. It is a really big deal over here and is celebrated with food and most importantly lights, especially fireworks or what they call here “firecrackers.” It was the probably the most fun I’ve had on a holiday ever!

The day started with a delicious breakfast of a lentil/rice smooshed pancake-like thing and an Indian donut, which was fried lentil. There was an “excited” air throughout Shanti Bhavan. All the kids would run up to me and shake my hand saying, “Happy Diwali!” I gave one little girl a hug and next thing I knew another little girl ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug. They were so into this holiday and were eagerly waiting for the night with the show and fireworks.

We relaxed most of the day and then around 4pm, I went to Miss Asha’s (the high school science teacher) to get wrapped in my saree. I don’t know if I could ever learn how to wrap one. It is an extremely complicated and tiring endeavor. I had no idea what was going on as Miss Asha pinned me, tucked fabric in, etc., while speaking Hindi and laughing the whole time. After that all the female volunteers went to an 11^th grader named Kathy who braided my hair. It was basically a day of beauty! Before dinner there was a show in which many of the classes performed. The preschoolers, however, stole the show with a dance. After the show was the lighting ceremony and dinner. 4 people were chosen to light the lamp and then we had a special dinner. It was extremely spicy though!

The most memorable part of the night, however, was the fireworks. There was a table with $1000 worth of fireworks and they distributed among the kids. It was like a battlefield. Kids lighting fireworks everywhere and without warning, “rocket” fireworks getting launched everywhere but in the sky, preschoolers twirling sparklers, kids playing “soccer” with the ground flowers, etc. IT WAS CRAZY, but so much fun! At one point I felt little arms wrapped around my legs, I looked down and a little preschooler, Likita, was holding on to me crying. She was a little afraid of all the craziness going on around her, and I don’t blame her!

Overall though, I wouldn’t have missed Diwali for the world. I am so glad I was able to celebrate India’s most festive festival. I loved the atmosphere and the fireworks were so much fun! I will never forget Diwali.

Pondicherry!

mplescia29 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:50:00 GMT

This weekend I decided to get out of the Shanti Bhavan “bubble” and go to Pondicherry, a beach French colonial town. It took a loonnng time to get there, 7 ½ hours! We hired a driver to take us there so it wasn’t extremely bad since we didn’t have to take a bus, but still we had to travel through monsoon weather, etc. We reached Pondicherry at 11:30 pm and went directly to bed to get up early the next…one problem though, our motel was next to a mosque so we heard the loud speakers proclaiming the “call to pray” throughout the night.

Hiring a driver for the weekend was extremely convenient and we were able to go everywhere we wanted to go, hassle-free (aka no autorickshaws). It was a weekend of sightseeing! We started our day by travelling to the nearby city of Auroville, which is basically a commune. “The Mother” who believed in a community where there is no religion but that everyone lives “divinely” started it. There are 2100 foreigners living this lifestyle in India. The center of the commune is basically a golden “Epcot!” Followers can meditate inside the golden Epcot. Auroville was a nice break from city-life with gorgeous paths through forests.

After Auroville we went to a wonderful beachside café. The beach at Pondicherry was more like rocks, no sand. Still it was nice to see and smell the ocean again. The French Quarter of Pondcherry was so different than the rest of India cities. It was calm and clean! We were able to stroll through the French Quarter free of cares ad enjoyed an afternoon of shopping. Indian money, by the way, is a pain to deal with. You have to carry a lot of it with you since the exchange rate is 50 rupees to $1. It’s really difficult to pay for things efficiently when the cost is 1000 rupees.

The highlight of the day though was going to the Manakkula Vinayakar Temple. I was even blessed by an elephant! Basically you put a rupee or 2 in the elephant’s trunk and it bops you on the head. I decided to get blessed twice, Lord know I need it. J The temple was beautiful with tons of colorful decorations, etc. Soon it became obvious though that we were the “main attraction” at the temple. A huge family called out to us asking where we were from. Next thing we knew it was like being attacked by the paparazzi. The family started taking pictures of us and with us. The mother of the family was touching my arms and my hair, even pulling on my pink feather telling me that she liked it. It was a little overwhelming!

It was quite rainy in Pondicherry, but we were still able to enjoy a nice garlic and parsley shrimp dinner on a rooftop garden. I am very addicted to the fresh lime and lemon soda (basically lemon/lime juice with soda and sugar added). I even had some chocolate ice cream.

The trip ended with a trip to a museum, which was so interesting. They had artifacts from the 1^st century B.C. when a there was an ancient Roman trade town near Pondicherry. The ironic thing was that they really didn’t care about the preservation of these artifacts. There was no temperature control and all the display cases were broken as if someone tried to steal the artifacts. You could touch everything and anything! We also went to two Catholic churches, which were decorated over the top with lights, bright colors, etc.

I was very impressed by Pondicherry. The people were extremely nice and I had so many conversations with people on the streets, in the museum, in the churches. They have a lot of foreigners there, but for some reason I found that we were the most popular to talk to…maybe it was because it was 3 girls traveling alone. Even in the church, the little girls took a break from praying to wave. Pondicherry was a great escape.

Autorickshaws: Aka the car of death

mplescia29 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:21:00 GMT

Autorickshaws...the main form of transportation in Indian cities are probably my least favorite thing. They are 3 wheeled little motorcars that go everywhere and anywhere. They squeeze between cars, drive on sidewalks(if you can say there are "sidewalks"), etc. They are basically a death trap. Autorickshaw drivers are also notoriously the worst. They obviously know you are foreigners and they jack up the price. They are supposed to turn a meter on and they won't so basically it turns into a yelling match. They are so ridiculous! Its such a hassle to get to places in India.

While in Bangalore, we were trying to get back from the mall to our hotel. The trip there cost 50 rupees, but every autorickshaw was trying to charge us 150 to go back. Thus we spent a lot of time moving from rickshaw to rickshaw. We finally found a guy that said for us to get in for 50 rupees. However, as we were driving he said, "50 rupees if you go to this store, if not 100 rupees" They do this a lot, they get you in their rickshaw and then they take you to a bunch of stores without you wanting to go there(they get paid by the stores). We told him no and then a fight occurred when he tried to drop us off in the mud. We agreed to just pay the 100 rupees to not deal with it. Yet, oddly the whole ride he had his leg out of the car pushing another auto rickshaw. Imagine the scene... 4 girls(rickshaws only technically hold 3, so my friend Ale was always sitting on my lap) and an rickshaw driver with his foot out of the car pushing another rickshaw while swerving through traffic, etc. Ayayay oh India!

First Trip to Bangalore!

mplescia29 — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:22:00 GMT

This weekend the volunteers decided to have a girls' weekend in Bangalore...the closest big city, which is about 2-3 hours away. We needed a break from everything and also wanted to celebrate a birthday and going away. Bangalore is known as India's Silicon Valley and that comparison is spot on. The tech industry is booming in Bangalore and all around you see "Western" shops, restaurants, companies, etc. Since Bangalore is the center of Western business in India, there are a lot of foreigners living there for work. Unlike Hosur, we were not the only Caucasians there!

Our day started with eating at the local McDonalds! I needed some chicken mcnuggets, fries, and a hot fudge sundae. McDonalds is like the college kids hangout, and we saw a ton of people celebrating their birthday with a group of friends, a veggie patty hamburger, and a cell phone taking pictures. After lunch, we went shopping at Mantree Mall, a three story typical mall. There were not many American stores there, but British stores like Marks and Spencers. There were also typical "Clare's Accessories"- like stores, clothing stores that offered Western, Indian-Western, and traditional Indian clothes. My friend Ale and I searched all over the mall to find an outfit for dinner and going out, considering we brought no nice clothes. We definitely could not go out in sweats and baggy t-shirts...especially since girls dress up big time over here. Since it was India you would think it would still be conservative, but in Bangalore we saw girls wearing short dresses, low tops, tons of makeup, etc. I was definitely not expecting it!

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant in UB City called Toscanos. UB city is like the Beverly Hills of Bangalore with Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. It's owned by the richest man of India, so needless to say it was very ornate (reminded me a little of The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace). Dinner was super nice! The restaurant was populated with mostly foreigners with giant groups of people enjoying their evening. UB City is definitely the place to go. I was so excited to have a change from Indian food (specifically Shanti Bhavan food). I ordered pasta with artichokes and onions. It was super yummy! I also had my first glass of wine in 3 weeks J.

We finished dinner around 10 and then headed to the clubs at UB City…Skye and Shiro. Both were outdoors with beautiful views of the city lights. Girls had free cover while boys had to pay 250 rupees. It was definitely an interesting experience! The clubs were packed, so much so that it was difficult to walk in them. A group of 6 girls (clearly not from Bangalore) got quite the look when we walked in and we had several older gentleman come up to try to talk to us. Fortunately we were able to make quick escapes although a man gave me his card (in India they give out cards with their number since its like 19 numbers). All of us just wanted to have a good time and dance, but we quickly learned dancing is not allowed in India. A couple minutes after we set up our little dance circle, a security guard came up to us and stopped our little dance party. He then followed us the whole time to make sure we did not dance again! All we wanted was to just dance! Haha

The clubs in India close at 11, yet the night was still young. A couple weeks ago, 2 of the volunteers met a Canadian and an American at one of the clubs. They invited us to an ex-pat party, apparently all the foreigners tend to meet each other and almost every weekend there are house parties exclusively for ex-pats. This was like a typical college house party, except with an age range of like 19-55 and people from all over the world (except for the country that we were in lol) It was actually really fun and I was able to meet other people living in India for a period of time.

Considering I usually now go to bed at 9:30, I was pretty exhausted the next day since we got home at around 2(and then decided to watch Wipeout lol). Nevertheless, the next day was filled with shopping at MG Road. I didn’t bring that many clothes with me so I spent the day trying on Indian kurtas and harem pants. We were told that there was a great coffee shop nearby and we ended up having breakfast and lunch there. Surprisingly there are no Starbucks in India, so everyone had to get their Frappuccino fix at this place! We left Bangalore around 4 to head back to Shanti Bhavan.

Overall Bangalore is a great city. Yes it is extremely crowded and overwhelming, but I had fun and it was a nice change of pace from life at Shanti Bhavan.

The Kids' Clothes

mplescia29 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:28:00 GMT

At Shanti Bhavan(and throughout India as well), the clothes are from donations. Thus, the fashion of India and the children here is often quite interesting. The girls wear a lot of "80s" and "90s" clothes. All their dresses are those awful dresses that our mothers made us wear back in day...the poofy sleeves, the petticoats underneath, the lace, the flower patterns, etc. The clothes are such an eclectic mix of things with random sayings/words on them. For example, I saw a little girl wearing a pair of sweats that said, "Flight me, I'm Irish," not quite sure what that means. You also see a lot a sports teams, past school sweatshirts(embroidered with other people's names), the occasional sorority/fraternity tshirt, and some costumes(one girl wears a Halloween cheerleading outfit). The older girls and boys dress nicer and many of the boys have button down shirts and the older girls wear jeans.

They obviously do not have many clothes or a choice, so I have come to learn the children's names by their clothes. One little girl has a dress that looks like its from West Side Story and her name is Maria, so it's perfect! Most of their clothes are not in bad shape...its the shoes that are beaten up badly. Soles are falling off, holes in the toes, etc. are often what their shoes look like. I was thinking about contacting Toms and seeing if a "shoe drop" is possibly at Shanti Bhavan.

The fashion outside of Shanti Bhavan is the same...lots of bedazzled jeans(boys are the ones wearing them). Females often only wear Indian clothes while the men are in "Western" clothes.

Funny Story: The other day I was walking back to my dorm at night and saw a 12th grader wearing a shirt that looked awfully familiar. As I got closer I realized it was the shirt from my sophomore year Dance Composition class at Santa Clara University! I was the one that designed that shirt and my cousin George did the silkscreening! There have been a lot of Santa Clara alums that come here, but none of them were in the class. It was really weird to see him wearing the shirt I designed...I almost brought that shirt and we could've be twins. haha This incident reminded me of when I went to a small town in Austria called St. Johann in 2006. I was eating lunch at one of the cafes and I saw a man wearing the volunteer shirt from South Pasadena's Summer Reading Program. I was a volunteer at the library and could not believe he had the same shirt as me. Turns out he got it at a thrift store in LA. How weird that the same thing has happened to me twice!

Trip To Hosur

mplescia29 — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:56:00 GMT

This past Sunday myself and 3 other volunteers decided to go to the nearest city Hosur for the day. Hosur is about 1 1/2 hrs away and cost 1500 rupees($30) roundtrip for a car to take us there. Our journey began at 9am with the driver picking us up at the Shanti Bhavan gates. As I mentioned before, driving in India is always a bit scary. No traffic laws, swerving in and out of lanes, passing cars, and avoiding cows, dogs, chickens, goats, and people...combined with no seatbelts and a driver who is going about 80 mph means I was saying a lot of rosaries in the backseat. In addition, highways in India are nothing more than a dirt road. I am always a little concerned because we literally are driving in the middle of nowhere and then all of sudden we come upon a village. I have no idea how the driver knows where he is going because to me it is a dirt back road. We must have passed at least 25 villages on the way there. They all look the same and consist of one room houses(many I may add with satellite on their roofs), cows and chickens everywhere, a group of men sitting and talking, and then a group of women talking down the road. The children are often playing in the fields outside the village and I saw many kids out in the tall grass alone. I was just a passing visitor in car, but I have a feeling many of these people in the villages won't forget me. Judging from the stares I got, I was probably the first Caucasian many of the people had seen and they were probably wondering why I was traveling along the road to Hosur. I got a couple waves and smiles and a lot of uncomfortable stares along the way.

When we reached Hosur we were supposed to meet Auntie Annie(the school nurse) at the bus station. Auntie Annie travels to Hosur every weekend for church on Sunday. Here we were in the middle of a crazy Indian bus station...me, a 5 foot red haired Irish girl, a German girl, and a 6'5" Belgium man. Ya we looked pretty out of place and lost. We couldn't find Auntie Annie and thus had no idea what to do. We didn't know where to go, where to eat, etc. in a place where no one spoke much English and where there were 100s of people around us staring. Hosur isn't really a tourist destination so we were foreigners there. At the bus station we had some beggars come up to us. A child, an old woman, and a woman with bloody teeth holding a tiny baby(only weeks old). I felt for them but we were specifically told no to give any money because then 100 more beggars will surround you and grab your purse and money. After waiting for 45 minutes we decided to try to venture into the city ourselves and started walking away(in the complete wrong direction btw). Suddenly I heard my name and Auntie Annie was running told us! Her bus got in late and I guess she asked someone what direction the white people were going and somehow found us! I have never been so happy! haha I ran to her and hugged her for at least a minute while people on the streets were smiling and pointing. Not everyday do you see an Indian women hugging a white girl in the middle of a crowded Indian street! Auntie Annie is a very affectionate woman and always holds your hand or puts her arm around you as you are talking to her. She thinks the things I say are especially cute so she always pinches my cheeks and grabs my chin when I am talking. Thus, with my hand holding Auntie Annie's we ventured into the main shopping area of the city. I am overwhelmed by Hosur. People everywhere, the smell of the streets, the shops, the dashing into the dirt road hoping to not get hit by a car, bus, or scooter. Needless to say I'm glad we found Auntie Annie because I wouldn't have known what to do without her. She took us to a "grocery" store, a shop to buy some bindism, and then to a fabric shop to get a saris. I picked out a beautiful turquoise fabric with flowers all over it and she was able to haggle the price from 1500 rupees to 1000 rupees. She then took us a tailor to get our saris custom made(all the tops here have to be made by a tailor). Auntie Annie is sometimes hard to understand so it took a while for me to actually understand what was going on. We then went to lunch at one of the best restaurants of Hosur. I ordered butter naan and chicken masala...I think I really need to stay away from all meat here because it is a little questionable looking(aka they use all parts of the chicken). During the middle of lunch, one of the other volunteers started to look a little green and next thing we knew she was throwing up and Auntie Annnie was chasing after her. Thankfully I did not get sick! I don't know why this is but Auntie Annie always has people asking her medical advice, etc. It's like she has a sign that says she's a nurse. During lunch a young waiter came up to her and they started talking, apparently she's been counseling him for months because he fell in love and the girl left him...so he drank acid. Auntie Annie has become his personal counselor during her weekend trips to Hosur.

After lunch we got back in the car and traveled back to Shanti Bhavan. This time we took an even more rural way back and found ourselves driving through shallow water a couple of times. I was glad to be back at Shanti Bhavan...it is quite a different place than the rest of India. It lives true to the meaning of it's name, "Haven of Peace."

Disneyland and Discussing Untouchables

mplescia29 — Wed, 5 Oct 2011 22:30:00 GMT

The other day I told the kids to get a book from the library to read during Independent Help. One little girl named Maria brought back a book about Disneyland probably from the 60s/70s. I went up to her and said, "I love Disneyland. I've been there." Her mouth dropped and next thing I know all of my 5th graders ran up to me with dozens of questions. One little girl asked if Mickey Mouse and Sleeping Beauty was real. I didn't really want to say he wasn't so I said, "At Disneyland they are actors, but all the characters are real and live in a place called Toon Town, and only Mr. Disney knows where it is." There were squeals of delight and a ton of more comments/questions. One girl was super interested and asked if I could basically stalk Mr. Disney...aka as she said "Follow him with your car and sneak in." They also asked if its in America, which I responded with "In a land far far away." haha They all want to go to Disneyland, but they don't really get what it is. I think they think its like a museum because one girl asked me if people take you around in cars and show you things. I probably screwed them up and now they are going to think for the rest of their lives that there is a Toon Town. lol

As I mentioned all kids here are considered to be from the Untouchables class...aka the poorest of the poor. The other day I was teaching history and was discussing Gandhi and the Freedom Movement. For living in India, they really don't know a ton about their country's history, most likely because of lack of education and resources. But anyway, I mentioned the Untouchables and was describing why Gandhi wanted to support them. One kid shouted, "That is us! We are called Untouchables!" I didn't know how to respond, but thankfully none of the kids thought anything of the comment and continued to ask questions. My heart definitely broke at hearing him say that though.

Teaching So Far...

mplescia29 — Wed, 5 Oct 2011 21:46:00 GMT

On Monday, I started to teaching my classes. I was basically assigned all of 5th grade classes: Spelling, Grammar, Creative Writing, Science, Reading(Literature), Social Studies, Independent Help, and Completion of Tasks. For a couple of weeks because the teacher went away, I'll be teaching 4th grade Grammar and Reading as well. My classes are pretty spread out throughout the day so that gives me plenty of time to prepare.

The formality of entering a classroom is quite nice. Before coming in a student must stand in the doorway as say, "Excuse me Miss" sometimes followed by a "Good morning Miss Marisa." I stand at the door and let them in if they say that. They all then walk to their seats, stay standing, and all say "Good morning Miss," to which I respond, "Good morning class, you may sit down." At the end of class, they stand and say, "Thank you Miss Marisa." My 4th graders follow these rules perfectly, my 5th graders though...not so much. haha

On my first day, we went through names and wow, I am having such a hard time with them. I can't put names to faces and I am most likely mispronouncing them. Hopefully I'll get better. The 4th graders take a long time to write down whatever I write on the board and constantly raise their hand to say, "Miss, you didn't put a dot over your i." There are not many resources here so it can be difficult to use "normal" teaching methods. For example, there are no printers or copiers, so today when I gave a quiz I had to write the questions on the blackboard for them to copy in their notebooks. It took all period to give a quiz. The 5th grade has some issues with behavior. There is always a constant sound of little voices. Hopefully they will get better.

Since there are some behavior management issues at the school, on Monday we started a demerit system. If you misbehave you get a demerit and if you get 3 in a day you get detention. The school was divided into houses(Mother Theresa, Nehru, Gandhi, and another name I forget) and every time you get a demerit, you lose a point from your house total. In December, the team with the highest points will get a watch. Some teachers asked their students to write a paragraph on whether or not they like the behavior management system. One 6th grader wrote, "No I do not like it because a wristwatch is not a good prize and instead the winning team should get 4 cows." I thought that was hilarious! So far I have given out a couple of demerits. One boy lied and said another boy through a piece of paper with a drawing of a couple(which I think was me) at his head, another boy hit a girl over the head with a book, two boys were hitting each other, and my personal favorite a 12th grader pulled a chair from underneath a girl as she was studying.

The kids ask so many questions though, and you have to be creative on how to answer them! One student asked when I was describing how fast your nerves communicate messages, "What if I'm talking and someone says stop talking, how does my mouth stop talking if my brain wants to talk?" They really want to understand everything and ask a lot of "what if questions."

So far though, I really like teaching.

Worship of the god of Instruments

mplescia29 — Wed, 5 Oct 2011 18:07:00 GMT

Today we worshipped the god of instruments. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but the men prepared an altar. Then they passed around a bowl of fire, a bowl of clay, and a bowl of red powder. The women told us to follow them and we fanned the fire, dipped our finger in the clay and red powder, and then dotted our heads. The Hindu version of Ash Wednesday! lol After this ritual, the men lit a coconut on fire and then smashed in on the ground in front of us. All the little preschoolers ran up to get a piece of coconut to eat. Then whispers began to get louder and I heard someone say "There it is!" One of the men came out holding a giant pumpkin on fire and all the kids ran to the driveway. Ms. Beena announced 7th grade to come out and all the 7th graders stood anxiously in two lines. Apparently there is money in the pumpkin! So it's like an Indian piñata! haha One of the men threw the pumpkin down on a rock and all the kids rushed to it to collect the money inside. I couldn't really figure out the significance, but it was fun to see!

Living Conditions

mplescia29 — Tue, 4 Oct 2011 20:08:00 GMT

As most people know, I am not very good at "roughing it." I have never really been camping and my school camp experience is limited to weekends and trips to Catalina, etc. Thus, this is a whole new experience for me and I am proud to say that I'm doing pretty well. The compound consists of a "guest house" where the volunteers stay. It is about 10 rooms with a common room. I have one roommate, a 19-year-old girl named Nanja from Germany, that arrived the same day as me. My room consists of 2 desks, 2 metal sheds with shelves for closet space, a bathroom with a "western" toilet, and a shower area that is a tiled floor with a faucet and two buckets. I'm getting used to the bucket shower experience, and don’t really mind taking showers in the dark and without hot water. The guesthouse also has a large TV with cable! That’s a new development and it comes in handy when I just want to relax. India TV is basically American TV so the other day I watched Friends, Fabulous Cakes, and the movie “Get Smart.” I also brought some DVDs with me of my favorite TV shows (Big Bang Theory, Warehouse 13, and Castle). The mattress in my bedroom is proving to be one of the most difficult things to get used to. It is so hard that I wake up multiple times in the night because different parts of my body have fallen asleep. I also always have to shift positions because of pain. Thus, since I have to be up at 6am everyday, I don’t get much sleep. There are also geckos living in our room… actually there are geckos everywhere in the guesthouse. The other day all the volunteers were watching TV and spent a good amount of time watching 2 geckos try to catch a dragonfly in the room. So far and thankfully I haven’t had any other creatures in my room…but there is a spider outside my room that is probably 5 inches long. :( Oh well, when I signed up for India I knew there would be bugs!

Seeing their Parents

mplescia29 — Mon, 3 Oct 2011 01:31:00 GMT

Today was the first time that the preschoolers got to see their parents since coming to Shanti Bhavan. I'll explain in detail in a later story but basically what happens is a social worker, a doctor, and a psychologist goes to villages and finds children to bring to the school. If the parents trust them and agree to the education, the children pack their little belongings and are taken to Shanti Bhavan. This occurs at age 4. The children only see their parents a few times a year. Today was the first time that the new ones have seen their parents since they left their village, roughly 3 months ago. Since these children come from the "poorest of the poor," traveling to Shanti Bhavan must be quite an experience for these families. They come from all over Tamil Nadu and are transported by the school to the site. Just because they are little 4 year olds, the parents were allowed to bring biscuits and chocolate for their children. This allowance was announced in assembly the other day and all the older grades booed and groaned because their parents are not allowed to bring anything with them during visits.

I was pretty busy all day planning my classes for the next week, but I took sometime out to go see the preschoolers with their families(I had to the littles ones are ridiculously cute). I asked Miss Asha, a relatively new Indian teacher who is super friendly, to go with me to see them in case there was a need for translation. The little ones were playing with their parents in the cherry grove on campus and as soon as we got there everyone kinda stared at us. I was with some other volunteers and since these parents are from very remote villages, I doubt they have seen Caucasians before. The most social preschooler(I can by no means spell her name) automatically ran up to us with the usual and proper "Good morning Miss! I asked if her parents were here and she called out. Her mother and sisters came over dressed in the best attire. Her oldest sister was dressed in what looked like to be an old princess Halloween costume(most clothes in India are random donations) and I couldn't help but saying that I loved her outfit and she looked like a princess. However, I forgot that she didn't speak English so Ms. Asha translated and I got a shy little smile. Seeing the sister, however, made me think about how only one member of the family goes to the school. There are no siblings at Shanti Bhavan and thus I feel bad for those family members that are not here. They are not receiving the same opportunity as their family member and will lead completely different lives. Here at Shanti Bhavan these families actually drank clean water, had a substantial meal, had electricity, etc. It is so different from their lives and yet their own child is experiencing it.

We spoke to a few more preschoolers and met their families(I wish I would've taken more pic but I felt awkward pulling out my camera to document their meetings). I cannot get enough of them. Their teacher taught them the "See you later alligator/In awhile crocodile" saying and its so precious to hear them say that as you leave. I heard some of the kids didn't really know what to do with the parents and kind of looked at them with that "ShouldI know you?" face. Others were extremely excited and had trouble saying goodbye. It is such a difficult situation but Shanti Bhavan is the best place for them to grow up and break the cycle of poverty in their families.

Traveling to India

mplescia29 — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:14:00 GMT

Ok bear with me...I have never written a blog before.

Well I have finally made it to India after 36 hours of traveling! I left on Tuesday at 5:55pm and got to the school at 7:00 pm today. It was one crazy trip though! I had a 10 hour layover in London which was fine because I got to hang out with my friend Alex from when I studied at Cambridge. In a short 10 hours, I was able to travel from Heathrow to Knightsbridge via the tube, go to a park overlooking the city, and have dinner at an amazing crepe restaurant. I made it back to the airport with 10 min to spare! I had a lot of people asking me why I was going to Mumbai as we were boarding the airplane. There were many Brits on the flight, but they were either with people or men...so a lot of people were curious why I was by myself. The flight to Mumbai was another 10 hours, but I watched a lot of Friends, Big Bang Theory, and Modern Family so it went by pretty fast.

Mumbai airport was probably one of the most stressful experiences. I started off with going to the wrong place to connect flights. I went through security, realized I had the wrong boarding pass, got yelled at by the guards, and snuck my way back through security to get back where I needed to be. So after all that, I was told that I needed to collect my luggage even though at LAX they told me it would arrive in Bangalore. I found out though that you go through customs and immigration at Mumbai and then you have to recheck your bags for your connecting flight. I freaked out a bit when I couldn't find my bag, but eventually saw it on another belt. Flying into Mumbai, you could see the slums everywhere. Next to nice buildings, even the airport, there were rows and rows of basically cardboard shacks. It was my first introduction to the poverty of India and I honestly gasped when I saw it.

The Mumbai airport is designed poorly and thus domestic flights are in a whole other part of town basically. I fortunately was escorted to a bus and from the bus to security. However, when I went through security they singled me out and made me take out everything. They also wouldn't give me back my boarding pass because I supposedly needed a stamp on it from my airlines. I didn't know how to get that stamp, but eventually a nice employee ran out of security to get me the stamp. After all that though, I boarded the 2 hour flight to Bangalore.

I was picked up at the airport by a man named Babu(isn't that the monkey from Aladdin?) Another girl volunteering for the program arrived as well. Her name is Nanji and she is from Germany. She is my roommate, but doesn't speak English very well. She seems very nice though. Driving to Shanti Bhavan was an interesting 3 hour drive. First of all, driving in India is scary. lol There are no traffic laws and lanes don't really exist...lots of beeping. I fell asleep for a good majority of the ride because I was so exhausted. We honestly went to the middle of no where. Dirt roads, no lights, and only the occasional house. It seems to be a very secluded area.

Once I got here at 7pm, my bags were taken to my room and I met the other volunteers...all female. lol I had a dinner of rice, which was okay....I really need to get used to the food. I've talked to a few students and they all seem very nice and typical teenagers. I caught one reading The Kite Runner so of course I had to mention SCU since the author went there and was my commencement speaker.

Well it's 9:30, but I'm pretty tired and have to be up at 6am :( Soooo, ya day 1 of India!