Hunting and Gardening

Hector Hugh Munro

2009-07-07T03:58:00.001+05:30

AKA Saki

Saki | "A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki

Grishma walkeths!

2008-06-26T21:42:00.004+05:30

Things I could not upload before because of impossible Indian computers & no time to waste on them.

The woman in the sari, Leela, was my hostmom and the establisher and headmistress of Chaitanya Special School.

Back.

2008-06-26T21:37:00.003+05:30

Loooooooong stories short

2008-06-04T12:33:00.002+05:30

Nepal Kathmandu Thamel Pokhara Himalaya trekking
Varanasi Ganges Ghats
Khajuraho tempels
Bhandavan Tiger Reserve tigers and wild chickens..
The Satna wrong train incident
Jalgaon sleeping
Ajanta Caves olde Buddhist caves
Aurangabad
Ellora Caves olde Buddhist, Hindu, Jain caves
Lonar Crater
Mumbai Colaba Bollywood Leopold's Cafe Mondegar

:)

Taj and me

2008-05-08T12:28:00.000+05:30

Proof!

After Kundapur and before Nepal

2008-05-08T09:49:00.003+05:30

Left Kundapur monday morning, april 14th. Went through Karnataka, Goa, and Madhra Pradesh to get out at Jaipur in Rajastan 37 hours later. We sat in the sleeper wagon; compartments of six sleeper bunks of which the middle bunks can be folded in by day. Shared the compartment with a mother, father and a son untill Mumbai -son teaching me Hindi and talking excitedly about Mumbai-, and a father, brother and sister who bought us milk with spices in it untill dry and hot Jaipur. It was a turbulent trainride. Feeling the growing distance between me and my kids, my host family, Kundapur and other volunteers and riding into the excitement of going to Nepal and backpacking through India. Beside the backpack, the weight is mostly in being foreign and female (but I've had four and a half months of polishing various evil looks and developing haggling skills) but there's also the lightness of being able to do and be anywhere, anything.

In Jaipur, we coincidentally ran into a fellow traveling ex-volunteer, Lore, who was staying in the same hotel. She'd ran into Rosalie, another FTE-X in Delhi the previous day. We had dinner together and explored old Jaipur, -the Pink City- the next day. Some king painted his city pink to welcome the British once but it's better called the Dusty Orange City now. We walked through the backstreets, passed the City Palace and everything else where the entrance fees were 20 for Indians and 150 for foreigners. As much as people mistake me for Indian (and by the way Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Nepali) I cannot get Indian prices. Went into the Hawa Mahal, a temple and the minaret with the long name. Saw cobra charmers. Elephants and camels pulling carts on the streets. Reminded me of one of my last weeks at Chaitanya's, when Anni and I took out small Gururaj and Seema to the circus on the field next door. Guru, a twentysomething old kid with a leg problem who seems to do and understand everything in slow motion, who taught us 'camel in Kannada: onte. Seema, a 14 year old little girl with severe Down Syndrome, a wide legged walk and a guttural, raw laugh, whose eyes went crazy when she saw the elephants and camels. She pointed and tugged my arm and tried to climb under the fence. I had to drag and distract her away. Moeroe anne, eradu onte, ondu Seema.

We took a bus at midnight to Agra.

At my (Christian) hostfamily I'd sometimes fall asleep with the sound of Hindu neighbours doing puja and I'd wake up with the mosque nearby calling out morning namaz. The muslimwomen in the South wear full burqa's, starting from their 15th. In the North, the burqa's don't cover their faces, and some woman wear sari's with long gloves and scarves over their heads. Muslimwomen in both north and south are very similar, however.
Three muslimwomen in the north waiting for a rickshaw, we came and a rickshaw stopped in front of us immediately. We motioned the three women to take it and they gushed, all suppressed violently humble smiles.
In Kundapur, standing in a packed bus, going home, a seated muslimwoman made motions to hold my bag for me. I figured, in the land of no "no's", it would be rude to refuse. The next time, the roles were reversed and since then every burqa clad woman in Kundapur has treated me with an eagerness shining through their reservedness. Sometimes just looking at me untill I smile so they can smile back. Feet in beautiful, small heeled shoes, intricately henna'd hands, skin around twinkling eyes curving and wrinkling in a smile.

I saw the Taj Mahal by accident. Tired and a bit dazed, hungry on a rooftop restaurant that eventually sent us away because there was no power. Caged, because so many monkey come. Through the metal wires, a gigantic Taj Mahal.

We went there and in it and that whole thing. It's most beautiful at a distance, however, sitting at an energetically hunted for perfect rooftop restaurant in the late afternoon with a moon that's just been full, a Taj Mahal slowly turning into a silhouette, kids flying kites on roofs, and just when the peak of the novelty of the sight is gone, a mosque calls out namaz, and another one elsewhere follows, and another one still. I thought of Jaid, a 21 year old spastic, inexhaustible and easily delighted. Shaking your hand if he approves. I'd been making a bit of a sign language with him as he has constant spasms in his face and lips as well, making every speech incoherent. Sitting across from him, English-Kannada phrasebook/dictionary in my lap. Putting a finger on one eyelid, santosh; happiness. Nose, duguda; sadness. Chin, novu; pain. I talked to Leela, my hostmom and the establisher of Chaitanya, about Jaid and that it was difficult to find a way to communicate with him. She said that when he arrived at the school a couple of years ago, he did namaz before lunch every day. He'd be drenched in sweat at the struggle of making the movements properly. I thought of Jaid as I thought of him when I saw men in the train one sunrise long ago, standing and kneeling and bringing their foreheads to the ground between wagons, like I would think of him later at the airport, men in white on rugs facing a corner, making namaz for Jaid.

We'd booked a train to Delhi making absolutely clear it be the earliest one the next day. Yes yes, 6:55 in the morning, he'd said. I looked at the ticket. Station, train number, seats, 6:55. The next day at the station it turned out to be pm and the conductor was as non-Indian as the ticketseller was Indian, fully in uniform he didn't budge at our explanation our begging nor bribing. We used our anxious adrenaline as best as we could and ran, rickshawed, bussed, rickshawed, ran to Delhi's International Airport.
There was no sign of the China-Olympic Games-Tibet protests that were apparently going on there. There's a lot of Tibetan refugees in India. all the way down to the South, where I was unknowingly illegally on their ground for lunch one weekend. Great cooks.
The time between the two runs was enough to think up all possible scenario's and accept them, so when we arrived and we were told that yes yes the plane is on the ground but no no you cannot get in I was ready to take of that backpack and get me some lunch. It was 13:20 and the flight to Nepal was 13:40. Some nervous little guy told us to go there and there and talk to some other guy. Eventually, we ended up with our tickets being taken, the date -the 18th- being crossed off and the 19th being written underneath. "OK" and a signature below that. Oh how I love and hate India.

Found an ItalianFrench and a Lithuanian to play cards and exchange stories with before sleeping on the floor of the constantly awake, white waiting room.

Helloooo

2008-05-07T08:08:00.002+05:30

Back in Kathmandu and still alive!

Helloooo

2008-04-20T09:37:00.002+05:30

I'm alive. In Kathmandu.

Assallamuallaikum

2008-03-27T16:43:00.005+05:30

Holi, the celebration of the end of the winter...

...by throwing paint at everyone on the streets.

For my lovely Bule Yossi, who kindly pointed out to me I have so far posted no pictures of myself.

Volunteers

2008-03-17T18:04:00.003+05:30

Zondagochtend

2008-03-17T17:56:00.001+05:30

The Best Day Ever

2008-03-05T10:49:00.003+05:30

Grishma is a very autistic eight year old little girl. She doesn't talk, she doesn't look at, let alone recognise people, she doesn't recognise her own name. She can't walk correctly and she can't keep her head up. She reacts strongly to sound and touch. I don't know what it is. Grishma's like a big baby. Even sleeps like one: 18 hours a day and laying like a squished frog.

Last week, she held out her hand and grabbed mine. Then she stood up and started walking.

Nothing, nowhere

2008-01-23T16:41:00.000+05:30

There's free yoga lessons every day at a Shiva temple in Kundapur from 5:45 to 6:45. The first bus stopping at my village is at 6:30 though, so I thought I'd just get a bike somewhere. I rented one for yesterday evening till this morning cause I didn't want to buy right away and I'm still not sure. So I biked to Margolli, 6 km, very nice, to wake up at 5:00, to bike in the pre-dawn to watch the bike give up on me halfway. The chain fell off and got stuck between where it should have been and the backwheel and I could not, even with my full weight, get it to move a mm. So I walked with a backwheel that didn't roll smoothly, black hands and probably a black forehead as well. Unfortunately everything was closed so I couldn't get something to fix it. Fortunately everything was closed so there was no one around.

Got to Kundapur, got to the other side of Kundapur to buy a newspaper to wait for the bike shop to open at 7:00. Free of the load I went to the shallow backwaters nearby and sat by the pastel scene before me for a while. Pink and muslim prayers to the right, green water and a myriad of birds and a couple of fisherman, blue and Hindu praye to the left. Full moon. Cows.

Alright. All good for take two on thursday as I'm hopefully picking up my very own tabla after internetz. Woohoo. A reason to go home. I want to do more around the house with my host family (particularly host mom) but not from 16:30 to 21:00 so mostly these days I go from FSL to juice bar to backwaters to internet to JK's after school with whomever I run into but it's not something to be done forever. So. Work and home. Wednesdays and weekends. Starting yoga and tabla. More tailors and post office.

Coffee, masala dosa, and chai for breakfast. Mm mm mmmmm.

My VISA expires april 27th and I signed up for my project till april 23rd to travel untill end of may. To extend I'd have to take off a couple of weeks somewhere in february or march to go to Sri Lanka but I heard that's it's not advised to travel there at the moment and I don't want to go there only two months after.. bombs. Sooo. Oooh. My school has summer vacation from april 10th to june si I'm off two weeks earlier. This paragraph is a bit confused.

~ 10/04 Freeee done finished
~ 27/04 VISA expires
~ 27/05 Plane from Bangalore. It's an open ticket though :P But I'll definitely be back in june due to school stuff and Definitely in july, Radiohead concert on the 1st. That makes up for my happy 20th almost but not quite being here.

Maybe I would've kept the Sri Lanka, but with more time and my wish to it's convenient to go tooooo... Nepal (!). It takes 2,5 days to get there by train, so lets say 5 and lets say I leave monday the 13th. Others have gone there and gotten it within one day no problems and I have 9, so it's perfect, nay? I'll meet Karlijn somewhere on the way back south and we'll travel the last month together (unless we get sick of each other of course). Her plane leaves earlier then mine so maybe we'll split up towards the end or maybe we'll extend or maybe I'll shorten or maybe we'll do a meditation course in Pondicherry, become enlightened if only a little bit and never come back. :P

The well...

2008-01-18T16:40:00.000+05:30

The well

full of little froggies

has a new neighbor

thrown in to get rid of them.

Yesterday...

2008-01-14T11:49:00.000+05:30

I'd rather sit through another packed train ride then attend another confirmation.

It's 18:00 and I walked one k to sit by the train tracks when two young men walked my direction. Immediate arrrgh go away pleasegoawayaway but they only said 'madam madam, train'. Point to train in the distance. 'Oh. thank you'. Standing uncomfortably between them and walked in a wide semicircle even more uncomfortably through bushes to pass one of them. Before the silence of the thundering train. They just walked away and I regret being suspicious and exaggeratedly aloof but I've exhausted my politeness regarding interested rude people for today.

Found a perfect spot by a tunnel by the rails. The rail road is raised so I have a view over Margolli and no one down there can see me unless they look up. Next time I won't wear bright red. Or have a loud cough.

Not even too bummed about Goa. There's a sun setting under a close horizon of palm trees and rice fields, a bright quarter moon above me, Hindu's are praying, there's no groups of kids and young women laughing and staring at me. Only a guy peein on the wall below me.

Inshallah, there's no better place to be where I am.

Mysore

2008-01-09T16:47:00.000+05:30

Mathias tryyyyying

Oils and incense

Paint and temple related powders

oops

Chamundi Hill looking over Mysore

Hair hair long real poor people's hair

Time's up

Bylakuppe

2008-01-09T16:40:00.000+05:30

December 29th, yes

Pom pom pom
pompiedom
Tibetans!
For real!

Gokarna

2008-01-09T16:15:00.000+05:30

06-01-2008

Yesterday the train was only 20 minutes late.

It was wonderfully quiet.

We could all sit down.

Together.

On benches!

We (Karlijn, Josien, Femke, Mathias, Sebastian, I) arrived and took a taxi to Kudle Beach, cheapest and best. It's about one and a half km of paradise between two big hills jutting out into the sea so it's very quiet, there are no scary currents dragging you into sea, and there are only westerners so you can swim in less then fully clothed.

Gokarna is like a calmer Goa. Hippies everywhere.

It's beautiful.

Looked for some rooms, found some rooms, took two rooms. Swam in the sea, lied down on the sand, floated in the sea, cursed the hot sand. Ehhh. Ate.

Walked uphill downhill to town where we (minus Mathias and Sebastian) went shopping like crazy. Haha.

Went back and got lost a bit. so. missed the sunset.

Found Barbara and dined on nonrice, hung out on the beach, went to our rooms at different times and puzzled about sleeping arrangements via coin flippage and tired and ill reasoning\rambling.

Today we beached took a train back and I'm sick.

Things!

2008-01-09T16:11:00.000+05:30

04-01-2008

Schooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

Then to Bhats to dump some photo's. Ran into Femke and got back my Lonely Planet. Woohoo. Went to the FSL house for lack of place to go. Ran into Austin and taught him to juggle. Woohoo. Fiete arrived, we went to JK's, bought a pink cake on the way. Woohoo. Celebrated Mathias' sweet vingt trois and made plans to take the train to Gokarna tomorrow. Woohoo

Madikeri, some hideous tombs

2008-01-04T17:09:00.001+05:30

December 29th

Madikeri, Abbi Falls

2008-01-04T17:04:00.000+05:30

December 29th

Madikeri, sunset point

2008-01-04T16:56:00.000+05:30

Many of the same pictures.

Fort Bekal

2008-01-04T16:48:00.000+05:30

December 31st

Kasaragod

2008-01-04T16:43:00.000+05:30

December 31st - January 1st

The ugliest city ever.

Today

2008-01-04T16:34:00.000+05:30

Evelyn and Jurgen juggling with the deaf kids today.

The other half!

2008-01-02T17:08:00.000+05:30

02-01-2008

Thursday, 27 december

Ah. Went to the palace Mysore is famous for. Very pretty and big. Hmmmyeah.

Then we went to the famous Devaraja market. Rows and rows and rowwwwws of the same shops :P We almost immediately stumbled upon an oil market. It was amazing. Two brothers of not older then twenty talked about all the oils they had. They had notebooks, one per language, of people who had written about the shop, what they purchased, what they thought, blablabla. He started talking a bit Dutch to Karlijn and me and French to Mathias. They asked if we went to the thing we went to yesterday and they explained that we got ripped off and how and who and lots of technical things about tourist commissions and things I didn't really pick up. He showed letters from some Japanese guy who tested the oils and found them pure. It was all a little too much proving himself but I didn't care, it was 100 rupees per vial and we got lots of free incense with it, I wish I was more an expert on oils so that it wouldn't be so much wasted on me. Haha.

Lonely Planet restaurant.

Karlijn bought an awesome flute type thing and Mathias and I bought pink improvised violins. That was fun.

And sleep.

Friday, 28 december

Blablablabla Chamundi Hill blabla temple temple blabla Raj Yoga bla bus to fountains slash garden place, verrrry bad haha.

Saterday, 29 december

Best day. Mathias was off to Goa and Karlijn and I went to unknown Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement for refugees who fled in 1959. The busdriver forgot to stop at the busstop so we got dropped off a bit later, amidst tent camps and slum so we started off a bit ohhhh where arrreeee we. A stray rickshaw brought us to the settlement, to a sign saying we could not pass without special permission from New Delhi. The rickshaw guy offered to bring us back, to the police station for another manymany rupees but he knew about this and didn't tell us before and now he was playing dumb so we just got off to get another rickshaw. On the way we decided to enter anyways because the Lonely Planet is vague and seems to say you need permission if you stay more then a few days. We went to the hotel, which was run by Tibetans (AWESOME) but they had papers they couldn't accept guests without this special permission and they noted which Lonely Planet we had to call them and notify they're portraying false info. So that was clear, we were illegally in a piece of Tibet. Went to have breakfast downstairs, had the best masala dosa and chai I've had thus far and walked around the shops rickshawing back to the police station (which was where the bus stop was, we luckily missed that) to beg some and blame the Lonely Planet some and ask if we could pleasepleaseplease for only one day we came so far from blabla and we reallyreally want to blabla. some. Didn't work. The police man was an angry Indian screaming we would go to jail for five years plus a fine if we spent one minute there. Can't do anything about that.

Oh well. We saw monastries from the outside and lots of lots of traditionally clad Tibetan monks, we spoke to the hotel Tibetan and ate food by Tibetans. It was awesome.

Off to the next little village. Madakiri. We went to 'The Dawn', a guesthouse run by Anoop, who is described as an 'enthousiastic ecowarrior' in the Lonely Planet and indeed he is. Met some Canadians, Germans, Isrealies and a Norwegian. Karlijn and I went to the Abbi Falls after which the rickshaw driver added a unasked for trip to some type of tombs for more rupees. All rickshaw drivers play dumb and 'misunderstand' you.

Anoop drove us to sunset point. Amazing view of the Western Ghats.

Sunday, 30 december

Karlijn and I flipped a coin. Heads; stay in perfect Madakiri, tails; go to unknown Kasaragod and beach. Tails but then we decided it was better anyways. I don't know why.

When we arrived we went to the beach and it was beautiful.

Saturday, 31 december

Haha.

We're SICK like never before. Went to Fort Bekal and a very nice quiet beach during the day. We didn't know what to do for new years and we felt ill and we wanted to go to the beach but not alone and we felt so sick and and and. Karlijn had the great idea of just going to the police station and asking for a police(wo)man to join us or to bribe one on the street but that ended up being a wasted time since Indians don't celebrate new years nor do they get why you'd wanna be in the dark at twelve outside. There's nothing to see, nothing to do. Yeah, butbutbutbut. There's nothing. But we want to. What? no. OKAY THANKS BYE.

So we celebrated it on the hotel balcony. Sick and waiting for 00:01 so we could fall asleep. Haha.

Tuesday, 1 january

Back to Kundapur via Udupi, where we hung around a bit. Got home, which feels oddly very much like home after a week of a place a day.

Now

I didn't feel much like school this morning but I was very happy to see my kids again. I found out that the speech therapist, 'satan', has quit her job for a better paying one elsewhere. She left immediately so she's gone now and the staff is very mad and such. Now there's two full time teachers and I have the deaf kids to myself for now if I wish so I'm soooooo happy with that. It would be even better if I knew what to do with them.

Vacation!

2008-01-02T16:16:00.000+05:30

01-01-08

21 december was Bakreet and from then on it was Christmas and new years vacation so there were plans to travel along the coast of Kerela until Varkala on the 31st and then to train back the last day.

I have a real handy function on my camera that shows the pictures per date taken. This is how I remember the following.

Saterday, 4 AM, 22 december

The train arrived in Kundapur 1,5 hours late. We have no reservations so we're in the lowest class, the last compartments. The train has about twenty compartments and 90% of people are in the last two: one for women one for men. There were twelve of us and twenty Indians waiting to get on, the train is full and the guy flashing the green light to the front of the train is definitely not waiting for you. For us. Anni, Laura, Karlijn and I had to jump on a moving train and as there was pushing for space beforehand there was panicked shoving now. After calming down our hearts we had enough time to notice that there's five people touching you at any given time. People got off at stops and more got on. I was right in the middle of the path to the bathroom. Sleep was creeping up through my feet, my arms ached from holding myself upright. I'm passing plastic bags for people who need to throw up. I'm saying farewell to my toes being stepped on and stepped on. I was dozing off and jolting up wondering whyyy oh whyyyy did I not sleep more at the trainstation. Haha. At around 7 AM I convinced myself that meditation and yoga were invented for these trains. I have never ever experienced a more uncomfortable five hours such as these.

Mathias and Fiete got pulled out of the (womens) compartment after an hour or so, they had to hold up in the much busier mens compartment so they were happy when we called to say we'd decided to get off in Kannur instead of Calicut, two hours earlier.

In Kannur we went to the busstation to go to the bathroom and find a bus. It was already there and leaving so again some of us had to run for a five hour ride. It was crowded and hot and bumpy but we got to sit down. in seats. and that was heaven after the train.

We arrived in Sulthan Batheri at around 3 PM. Jana and Eva had arrived from Mysore that morning and they'd booked rooms for us so we didn't have to go hotel searching. Yayy. Showers were taken, phone calls to Wyanad National Park were made, eating was done. Delicious parota.

Sunday, 23 december

Went to Wyanad National Park in the morning. It's huge, it covers parts of Kerela, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. We went to Muthanga, the southern part of the two in Kerela. For about 175 rupees per person we had entrance, two jeeps, and a guide.

Elephants!

Wild elephants right next to the road. A group of eight, including two babies. Our driver was mad he went wayyy to close, so a big tusked elephant ran after us. Trumpeting and charging. Very scary. Then the driver started backing up again. Whyyy. Furthermore we saw, one gigantic red squirrel, one spotted dear, one wild dog, several big butterflies, many termite hills, and a couple of packs of Indians.

We took the bus back to Kannur. Kerela is beautiful, it's clearly different from Karnataka. There's more nature, things are a bit less chaotically placed, the villages look a bit richere, more people can speak English.

We took the bus back to Kannur, where we got very lost looking for our hotel. Rstaurants were closed except for this one, where I settled for some parota. Delicious.

Monday, 24 december

We went to the beacht at around 2 PM. Dug a hole, gathered some wood and made a nice big fire. Four of us 12 (two stayed at Muthanga to go to the northern park) bought potatoes and tomatoes etc, pineapples and watermelons etc, whisky and rum etc and we celebrated Christmas on the beach with guitar, tambourine and harmonica. Oh and about 80 Indian men standing around us. Staring, calling their friends. Asking where we're from. If they could have a light. A cigarette. A picture of us. Every half hour of so three of us would go up to them to talk them away. I think we stayed very polite until around 10:30. Haha. It was very bad but lots of fun in between.

Walked and got lost to the hotel.

Tuesday, 25 december

Don't remember much of this day. We went to see Theyyam at 6 PM. The Lonely Planet describes it as a spiritual dance where the dancer ceases to be himself and takes on the identity of a deity. or something. We bussed to the temple where it was at. Very busy. Women to the right, men to the left. There were three guys with drum and one trumpeteer. There was one guy walking around spraying water and doing stuff with incense and flowers. In the middle was an intricately dressed guy who wore a mask that made him look like a duck. I don't think he felt very spiritual cause he seemed a bit distracted and ambivalent in his moves. Oh I don't know. It was supposed to go on till 8:30 but I didn't feel like it nor did some others so we left and ran for the last bus.

Back at the hotel we mixed rum with mango juice and had the most amazing all hands all voice jam session of the world that day, I'm quite sure.

Wednesday, 26 december

Slept for one hour and waved the group goodbye at 5 AM. They'd train to Kochi and Karlijn and I had decided not to because taking the train back on the 1st from Varkala to Kundapur would be a bit of a hell, it being +20 hours and more crowded then sunday's train. Also, traveling to Kochi and Varkala would be lots of hours. We wanted to make a smaller circle. Not be that far but see and do more. You know.

Karlijn and I were leaving to Mysore at 6 AM and Mathias was meeting people in Goa the 31st so he joined us.

Slept on and off in the bus.

Crossed the Western Ghats for a third time within one week.

Haha.

Bad organisation.

Arrived in Mysore, found a hotel near the bus stand and planned to go to the palace. Some rickshaw guy was telling us it was very busy, it being Christmas. some special function. and that we should go to the market with him instead. We did want to but not with this guy who is way to eager to take us. We walked away and took another rickshaw. About one km further we got stuck in traffic and initial rickshaw guy dooms up out of nowhere all mad and saying things. We drove off and arrived in some quiet street where a slickIndian in jeans speaking very well English proposed to show us around the incense, oil and beedie factories.

Uhhh... no ehhh... no... uhhh.. sure.

First he showed us some guys carving things in wood and stamping forms into them. Very beautiful, very time consuming tedious work. Thenwas the beedie factory. Beedies are Indian cigarettes, tobacco or something rolled into oiled leaves of some sort. No filters, very strong. The factory consists of 8 old men sitting against the walls with baskets of tobacco and piles of leaves, rolling around 2500 beedies a day. Fingers flying everywhere. Old toothless men grinning wildy at some company.

Then we were led to where incense was made. It was one woman, sitting on a little stool in a kitchen with thin bamboo sticks, rolling them in various powders. This woman was obviously put there as bait for the adjoining oil shop. A young man all dressed in black sat us down and let us smell the waterlily, black rose, lotus and whatnot. In the meantime he gets called every five minutes, like the slick Indian outside. I'm pretty sure they form some sort of Rip Tourists Off Maffia. I didn't buy anything though, press as he did, promise to cheapen Karlijn's waterlily as he did, completely not win my trust as he did.

It was late and things closed so we Lonely Planeted a restaurant. Parklane. Live music. Nice.

Day 5

2007-12-19T17:47:00.001+05:30

Don't remember much of today.

Docu

2007-12-19T17:08:00.000+05:30

Trouwens,

Maartje in Japthi

Day 4

2007-12-14T18:01:00.000+05:30

Wake up at 7. Hoist buckets of water for the trees and plants. Wash my feet elaborately. Plan the day a bit.

Take the bus with host sister. Nose around in the messes of drawers and cupboards. Lay down Swathi's map. Prepare physio. Bus comes, load off kids and bags. Pick a kid to do physo on. with. Steal her/him from improvised unstructured chaotic and mostly wasted lesson. Sing. Coax. Bribe. Get frustrated. Get happy. Pick another kid to one on one on. Look. Listen. Smile and nod. Play along. Walk around the building, up the stairs. Goooooood, dhanywadaaa! Once today, twice tomorrow.

Lunch. Eat. Buy bananas, explore Kundapur.

Afternoon, make a physio chart, make a PHYSIO, AUTISM, DOWN SYNDROME, DEAF, EVERYTHING ELSE chart. Math with Harscha, 6, deaf, Aishwarya, 7, deaf and Darshan, 27, Down Syndrome. Hang out with Swathi, 21, infantile paralysis and speech defect. Wipe spit and snot from a crying Radika, +- 12, extremely mentally retarded, banging her head on the floor.

Plan tomorrow (wake up earlier, plan weekend, internet autisme down syndrome games, pick up clothes, Grishma?, Gururaj, Jaid, Swathi, math, get English-Kannada book, enquire about tabla) Bla bla bla.

Wash clothes hang clothes.

Go to neighbors, learn Kannada. Nimmage bhorattada? Matarburda. Nanage gotthilla.

Eat rice. Cabbage, spicy gravy, chai. Rice.

Write. Read and think and plan.

Generally, I'm very happy with my project. In the sense that I'm pretty sure I will be it within a month.

Day 3

2007-12-14T17:44:00.000+05:30

12-12-07

Today was not as crazy and overwhelming. I came with a plan for the day but Grishma was absent so I worked with Pinki and Radika instead. At the same time. Bad idea. One to ones are challenging enough. Then Ullas, one of the older ones, came along and sign language scolded me for I don't know XD He can't talk and he drools all the time but he's clever.

Tried to get Swathi to relax for her physio by playing the harmonica and letting her play it. The Down Syndrome maffia came and took it but it made Swathi laugh like mad so. Yay.

Lots of things.

Met up with Femke after school, bought lots of candy and some yoga pants, ran into lots of volunteers. Wednesday is gobi (fried colliflower, delicious) and JK (bar/restaurant) day for FSL volunteers. Co-westerners, it was nice. A relief.

Went home at 9. Bit anxious about which bus to take cause everything is written in Kannada and when you ask a question they'll say 'yes' even if it's 'no never what are you talking about'.

Days 0, 1 and 2

2007-12-14T17:03:00.000+05:30

9-12-07

Today we left for our host families. I live about 15 ricksha minutes inland. I arrived around 1900 so it was dark and there was a power outage. Haha. Got received by my host mom and sister by flashlight light. They're Christian and their living room is full of Jezusses and such so that looked a bit creepy in the half light.

10-12-07

Karkada family
Margolli
Post Basrur-576211
Kundapur-Taluk
Udupi District
Karnataka
South India

Woke up at 0730, had some japti with chutney and chai. School doesn't start until 1030 so we had lots of time. First thing I saw outside was a huge hole in the ground about 2,5 meters across. A pot tied to a thick rope hanging from a shamble wooden construction above it. Just like the cartoons. This is the well, every house here has its own well, its water is used for everything. This one only has a couple of little frogs in it(and one BIG one) but I've peeked into others and some are full fledged ponds. Don't know where the water comes from initially but it fills up during rain season. Got some water and watered the newly planted palm trees. There's a row of banana trees next to the well and one mango tree in the middle of the yard. How perfect is that.

We walked through rice fields to the bus stop, after a quick visit to the neighbors.

Chaitanya school is basically three rooms, with a bathroom area and a big outdoor hallway, lined with a million sandals. Today was special, as a group of Christian women came by to celebrate Christmas with the kids. So that was that morning, sitting and listening to Christmas songs in English and Hindi. Haha. Then twas lunchtime and Jana die Berliner and I went to a local restaurant for some parota or someting. Jana is leaving the 20th for some more India and Bangkok. Louisa joined us as well. She's working on the Tent School project. The people who build and fix roads travel from job to job with their families. They set up little camps so there's groups of blue tents here and there. The kids can't go to school cause of this moving around so the Tent project is schooling them and such. I think they were trying to make the project mobile but I don't know.

After lunch we got some fabric tailored to serve as a giant canvas for tomorrow. We hung up a poster of pictures of the kids that Schualie and Yuki made before my time. The deaf kids were doing math in one room. I tried to teach subtraction to the youngest two, but they have a very odd way of looking at numbers. Five is just a word and not a quantity of something. So doing math with objects would help maybe?

Did some physio on Nagars legs and took Pinki and Radika out for a walk with Jana.

Back home I washed my clothes and explored Margolli a bit. There's rice fields. A railway. Little houses. Cows... Yeah.

11-12-07

Jana texted she had a fever so, just me today. I started by taking Pinki out for a walk. She ran up to me, pulled me by the hand: 'walking walking' so I a ramsasa a ramsasa gulli gulli gulli gulli'd with her for a loooong time. The hard part is getting her to turn around cause she doesn't understand energy needs to be saved for the way back. So I spent about 10 mins trying to motivate her to get up and walk the way she didn't want to go. I'll have to find a circle to walk.

Thennn I joined the speech therapy class. No sign language for the deaf kids, incoherent speech is preferred. Sat there and translated an illustrated Dutch kids sign language book to English whilst listening and looking at the still very difficult Kannada. There are seven deaf kids and they really don't belong here since they're perfectly fine mentally. They are 7,8,10,11,17,18 and 21 and a relief to hang out with after autism and down syndrome. They're not being challenged enough here but they're very kind and patient and good artists.

Then I did physio with Swathi, a small girl of 21 who suffers from infantile paralysis and she can't really talk but she does understand and laughs at silliness. Leela and I tried to put her in 'leg jails'. It's to straighted her legs and Swathi hates it and struggles effectively, so this job get ignored a lot.

Lunch is from 1240 to 1400. Yeah. I went out and tried to buy the Englih-Kannada dictionary they promised they'd have today but of course they didn't. Instead I bought a math book for the older deaf kids.

Pinki wanted to go out again but I turned round quickly and the high school across from Chaitanya was out for lunch so we got staaaaaaaaared at and Pinki stops and sits down whenever something happens so it was what I tried to avoid all over again. I sat with her playing with rocks until they left. THere's an elementary school next to CS and a gigantic high school across and there's a road ful of little shops just outside so there's always staring. Down Syndrome and whatnot kids with Jana die blonde Berliner and me is an ultimate show.

After that I watercoloured some withe the deaf kids, shook Jaids hand, oh and idon'tknowhisname was sitting in the corner making his usual noises and when i glanced over he had blood covering one side of his face, his hands, his shirt, the floor. Yyyeah. It turned out to be a gash on his forehead, he mustve been banging his head on something. Leela took him to the hospital and it wasn't deep and all is well. Then the rest left and we were off.

RAn into Femke on the way, exchanged some news, went home.

Here I made some plans for tomorrow, read the files and read them again, went to the neigbors to watch some awful Indian soap and the Hindus next door are praying (puja) elaborately with bells and horns.

Tuesday is deliberate random power cuts day due to repairs. Haha.

FSL house

2007-12-08T16:16:00.000+05:30

04-12-07

All new volunteers situated around Udupi district meet in Hotel Sharon in Kundapur Center every first monday of the month. Here Josien and I met Femke and Karlijn, two other Dutch girls, and Evelyn and Jurgen, an Austrian couple who quit their jobs to travel through Asia.

A man from FSL came to pick us up and we rickshawed about one km to the FSL office, where the orientation week of the newbies also takes place.

Monday we showered and hung out a bit, found the internet cafe, got all our FSL papers and things in order, drank chai, found a working ATM, walked around Kundapur, visited a Shiva temple, met some other volunteers (lots of Germans).

05-12-07

(^That's where someone walked into the room and I got distracted away from writing)

Namaste!

Lots of things going on. Kannada lessons, yoga, getting clothes tailored, heat, Indian cinema (insaaaaane), heat, host family tea parties, heat and oh, Jurgen and Evelyn are jugglers, that's their project, so I'm learning a bit of contact juggling. and oh

I visited my school today. Chaitanya. I'd already read the final report that the volunteer before me left me and that was intimidating enough. Standing in a room of 30 people with disabilities ranging from cerebral palsy to autism to down syndrome to deafness is.. dizzying. Feels like just coming off a rollercoaster but then all the time.

I met my host mom. Miss Leela. She also happens to be the head teacher of Chaitanya school.

07-12-05

Todayyy we talked about Hinduism and Philosophy and Hindi philosophy and philosophy Hindu and India is awwwesome.

Earlier this week I received the 'Chaitanya Bible', a file with a little profile for every kid. So I'm very well informed. Another volunteer left me discriptions of what activities he did with whom and what problems he ran into. so. I'm very very well informed. I visited the school with Austin (FSL translator (of like, six Indian dialects, he's awesome)) and Josien, who is going to work in a school for the disabled in Udupi, so I'm as orientated as I can be. Yeah. I've been very lucky with just about everything. The project is not too much in the middle of nowhere, there's only 30 kids (instead of 150 (OMG)), my host mom can speak English etc etc. Yeah. Good good goodness.

Full days, lots of India and excitement and mosquitoes and rice. Then sitting on the roof and stargazing at night. It's wonderful.

Oh. Swung by Danesh's cousins wedding on the fifth. A Hindu wedding. Had lunch there, which was insane: rows and rows of tables of people and men came by and gave everyone a palm tree leaf upon which other men put a little bit of that and a little bit of this and lots of rice and 'more?' 'no no no no dhanyvada' 'yeah, more! is good!'. Arthur and Ani joined us so, being a pack of ten westerners we attracted a lot of attention. Were enthousiastically invited to be taken pictures of with the bride and groom which was pretty surreal: Oh alright! congratulations! I don't know you.

Contact Info

2007-12-08T16:11:00.000+05:30

My phone number is
9739213047

I somehow only receive about five procent of incoming text messages though.

My adres is
FSL India, Kundapura Center
Madyastha Compound
House no. 191 3rd Ward,
East Block Road
Kundapura 576204
Udupi District, Karnataka
South India

On our way to Kundapur(a)

2007-12-03T14:49:00.000+05:30

30-11-07

I'm a lot less disorientated then when we arrived. I arrived alone but I ran into Josien at the airport shortly after I found my backpack so; we. We had a cab driver try to rip us off for 600Rp and I was happy enough to get it down to 400Rp buttt. That was probably way too much as well. We went to our hotel (Airlines hotel near the MG Road), dumped our stuff and walked around a bit.

It's seven o'clock, barely the 29th, things don't start opening until 9:30, it's waaaarm, I have a lot of rupees I don't know how to use, I need a sim card and shampoo, wallet -check- passport -check-, my cell phone says welcome to Karnataka, people keep staring at us, the water in our hotel likes to completely not be there at sometimes, wallet -check- passport -check-, I'm breathing in smog and air, and men wear nail polish and hold each other hands.

There's dogs everywhere.

There's shops opening and closing randomly. When the sim card shop is open the shop next door that makes the xerox' of your passport that you somehow need is closed.

There's the same moustached Indian walking around everywhere.

There's cars, busses, rickshaws, bikes all harmoniously disregarding every rule there ever was for the road. It's imperative to quickly develop an eye for crossing. Unless you're a cow.

01-12-07

Passport -check- wallet -check- everything else -check-

Our bus to Kundapur leaves at 7:15 tomorrow. We're waking up at 4:30 and walking those couple of kms there because rickshaws don't start that early and having a reservation doesnt' necessarily mean you have a seat.

Bought books by Osho and Gandhi (felt obliged) and Kafka (?) and toiletpaper.

02-12-07

What a horrid twelve hour 450 km bus ride. Highlight was when one of the tires tore and we had to get one from another bus.

Now

I have about four minutes internet time left (7,5 Rp for 30 minutes) and this keyboard is really helping.

Bangalore

2007-11-30T15:12:00.000+05:30

Arrived well and whole.

Hmm. Next time I'll post some pictures.. when I don't forget my cable thinggie.

Bijijijna

2007-11-28T01:50:00.000+05:30

Nog twee daagjes

2007-11-26T05:27:00.000+05:30

Zaterdag ben ik met Frank naar Múm geweest.

IJsland

India

Ik kan mijn roezen niet onderscheiden.

Nog vijf daagjes

2007-11-23T20:40:00.000+05:30