Firstly- Did you know there's around 20 million people JUST living in Kolkata??!! That's crazy! That's like four times the entire population of New Zealand.... Sheesh.
Anywayyy... There's not a whole lot to write about since last time but no doubt I will find something to ramble on about to fill this blog to its usual book-like length. So here goes.
22nd was a Sunday so we went to church in the morning, then that evening Anu (our supervisor/Indian mummy) invited us for dinner at her house (YAAAAAAY REAL FOOD!) She cooked us this amazing Indian dish which she is going to teach us to make at some point so I can cook it for a select few people when I get home so they can get a taster of proper Indian food. Theres defiantly INDIAN Indian and ENGLISH Indian. Do you get what I mean? There aint no Korma's in India.
23rd was a bank holiday- we pretty much did nothing.. woo!
24th we went to school. Mental as usual. Me and Naomi taught the middle age group about shapes. It was going well but then we ran out of shapes that we could teach that they could understand- then from the back of the room we heard Ellen and Josh shouting out examples like 'Rhombus! Dodecagon!' Yeaaah thanks guys! We also found out about the children that will be moving up to the hostel soon.... Remember when I told you about Bina? The one I'd love to steal and bring back to England as my own child? Yeah? Shes leaving!! It is good news really because it means that she will be living in the hostel in a clean and safe environment, and getting regular food and a good education. Shes very excited. We asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she told us that she wanted to 'keep learning'. Shes a bright one and she will go far :) Don't know what her brother will do without her at the school though! They're inseparable!
Anyway, they're moving up real soon which is sad/happy- hopefully we will be able to visit them again before we go home, its a good bunch moving up!
So 25th was our first day working at Shanti Dan (Mother Teresa house). It took around 30mins to get there, half walking, half on a crowded bus. Incase you don't remember from my previous blog post, Shanti Dan is a home for mentally and physically disabled/ abused girls and women. We are working with the girls. The first thing we saw as we walked in was an eering looking play park, and childrens music playing quite loudly out of the speakers placed randomly around the entire building. The music kinda sounded like it should be played in a lift or in a shopping mall at Christmas time... Little creepy but you got used to it! Your eyes are then drawn to the few girls dotted around, more and more coming out to see whats happening as they see the volunteers arriving. I guess it was kind of what I was expecting. Some girls with downs syndrome, some disabled, some looking scared, some sad, some overly happy, some literally sat rocking backwards and forwards. I have no idea of the ages of the girls and their mentality and appearance could be much less than their actual age. I started by being dragged to the park with one of the girls so that I could push her on the swing. About 15 mins later I was called to help out in one of the rooms, which was used to give the girls in wheelchairs some really basic exercise. There was a professional guy there doing the exercises with the girls, I was just there to help out. For the majority of the time I was sat with two girls as they just sat by themselves on stools. They could sit by themselves but someone needed to be there just in case they lost their balance or whatever. So I was sat with one girl either side of me, my hands poised ready to support them if/when they needed it. It was going fine and they were doing really well, when all of a sudden one of the girls decided to lean back and put all of her weight on my one arm. If I had both arms free then it would have been fine- but every time I let go of the hand of the other girl, she got really scared and started to cry. So as painful as it was, I had to hold up this girl with one arm, until eventually someone came to my rescue before my arm dropped off!
Whilst I was sat with these two girls, more and more girls were wheeled in to this room and when there was around 10-15, they started singing songs etc. One girl was very excited about life in general and laughed constantly at everything. After biting one of the volunteers quite hard, she then sat on the floor and wet herself. Whilst still laughing about this, she sat there in a puddle of her own urine, splashing around, putting her hands in her mouth... She actually looked like she was having the time of her life. This is only made worse yet but another of the girls having to be held back because she wanted to join in with the splashing around..... Then a girl threw up all over herself. Its sad really, they probably have very little control over everything. You have to have a lot of patience to work with these girls. Its a very slow and challenging day. Me and Naomi have decided that we will keep working here for 3 weeks, but then we will probably change and go back to Prem Dan as we felt a lot more needed there.
26th- Republic day of India - Another day off! Me and Naomi have been planning for a while to try and make our very own sari blankets. Sooo we got up at 5.30am to catch the first train at 6.15 to go to the sari market which is on from 6am-8am. Kolkata in the early hours is so beautiful! In its own dirty, disgusting way! And so strangely quiet. Walking down Park Street, the main street near us, which kinda reminds me of a street in London... You know one of the ones which makes it almost impossible move as there are so many people going here there and everywhere... at 6am in the morning is dead! So strange.
Anyway, we got to the metro on time and found out that the first train wasn't until 7.30am!! Sooo we waited for an hour, sat in the weirdly deserted metro station until our train arrived. We got to the market just in time to pick up a few sari's each before it was all packed up, and we were back on the train at 8am to go back home. What an experience! We were like the only white people there- attracting crowds of Indian's trying to sell anything they can to us. We bought the sari's for around 50 rupees each. This is about 70-80p for 7 metres of beautiful fabric. The sari's sold there are like 2nd or 3rd hand, so they have small holes in and they're pretty dirty, so we came home and soaked them for a good while then hung them out on the roof to dry so we could start making them asap!
27th- School again today- the children were strangely very well behaved which was lovely! After school we went out to buy embroidery thread for our blankets- Another amazingly cheap purchase! 2 different coloured embroidery threads, one reel of red thread, 2 needles, and a wheel of about 45 pins = 44 rupees. All of around 50-60p. In the evening we went to Entally girls hostel and played some games and watched a bit of Shaun the sheep with them! Seems like ages since we were last there.
28th- Started sewing our sari blankets. I do have photos but I'm gonna do a sari blanket blog when they're done so I will put all the photos on that :)
29th- Church..... then church again in the evening.
30th- There are quite a few new children at the school now. We think they are the older children moving up from babycare. So that's nice- new little ones to play with! Some of them are trouble but are you really surprised? Its nice to see the younger brothers or sisters of the children we have been teaching since day one. So cute.
Yesterday was the 31st- End of January already! Woke up not feeling 100% but went to school being the trooper I am. Got home and spent most of the rest of the day in bed feeling sorry for myself. Don't know what I ate but it sure isn't in me anymore!!
Pinch punch first of the month! Took the day off today to recover. The only good thing with this is that I have had time to write a blog for the lovely people who like to read about my crazy Indian adventure.
There isn't really much more to report- Feeling pretty homesick recently and that is always amplified when I'm ill and want my mummy!! But its all good- just over 2 months left! If it goes at the speed January went in then I'll be home before I know it!
If you are interested, Josh made a short video about when we first arrived in Kolkata- I know its a bit late to make a video about the beginning of our time here as we are coming to the end, but it sums up Kolkata quite well and its a bit of a giggle :) So enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzE4remNmDo
Not a bad post considering I didn't have a whole lot to talk about!
Go me.
Yep... I'm out of things to say..... Soooo, bye :)
'Heal my heart and make it clean,
Open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show me how to love like You have loved me,
Break my heart for what breaks Yours,
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause,
As I walk from earth into eternity'
Anywayyy... There's not a whole lot to write about since last time but no doubt I will find something to ramble on about to fill this blog to its usual book-like length. So here goes.
22nd was a Sunday so we went to church in the morning, then that evening Anu (our supervisor/Indian mummy) invited us for dinner at her house (YAAAAAAY REAL FOOD!) She cooked us this amazing Indian dish which she is going to teach us to make at some point so I can cook it for a select few people when I get home so they can get a taster of proper Indian food. Theres defiantly INDIAN Indian and ENGLISH Indian. Do you get what I mean? There aint no Korma's in India.
23rd was a bank holiday- we pretty much did nothing.. woo!
24th we went to school. Mental as usual. Me and Naomi taught the middle age group about shapes. It was going well but then we ran out of shapes that we could teach that they could understand- then from the back of the room we heard Ellen and Josh shouting out examples like 'Rhombus! Dodecagon!' Yeaaah thanks guys! We also found out about the children that will be moving up to the hostel soon.... Remember when I told you about Bina? The one I'd love to steal and bring back to England as my own child? Yeah? Shes leaving!! It is good news really because it means that she will be living in the hostel in a clean and safe environment, and getting regular food and a good education. Shes very excited. We asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she told us that she wanted to 'keep learning'. Shes a bright one and she will go far :) Don't know what her brother will do without her at the school though! They're inseparable!
Look at Bina's face! How cute is that!
Anyway, they're moving up real soon which is sad/happy- hopefully we will be able to visit them again before we go home, its a good bunch moving up!
Us with the children moving up to hostel
So 25th was our first day working at Shanti Dan (Mother Teresa house). It took around 30mins to get there, half walking, half on a crowded bus. Incase you don't remember from my previous blog post, Shanti Dan is a home for mentally and physically disabled/ abused girls and women. We are working with the girls. The first thing we saw as we walked in was an eering looking play park, and childrens music playing quite loudly out of the speakers placed randomly around the entire building. The music kinda sounded like it should be played in a lift or in a shopping mall at Christmas time... Little creepy but you got used to it! Your eyes are then drawn to the few girls dotted around, more and more coming out to see whats happening as they see the volunteers arriving. I guess it was kind of what I was expecting. Some girls with downs syndrome, some disabled, some looking scared, some sad, some overly happy, some literally sat rocking backwards and forwards. I have no idea of the ages of the girls and their mentality and appearance could be much less than their actual age. I started by being dragged to the park with one of the girls so that I could push her on the swing. About 15 mins later I was called to help out in one of the rooms, which was used to give the girls in wheelchairs some really basic exercise. There was a professional guy there doing the exercises with the girls, I was just there to help out. For the majority of the time I was sat with two girls as they just sat by themselves on stools. They could sit by themselves but someone needed to be there just in case they lost their balance or whatever. So I was sat with one girl either side of me, my hands poised ready to support them if/when they needed it. It was going fine and they were doing really well, when all of a sudden one of the girls decided to lean back and put all of her weight on my one arm. If I had both arms free then it would have been fine- but every time I let go of the hand of the other girl, she got really scared and started to cry. So as painful as it was, I had to hold up this girl with one arm, until eventually someone came to my rescue before my arm dropped off!
Whilst I was sat with these two girls, more and more girls were wheeled in to this room and when there was around 10-15, they started singing songs etc. One girl was very excited about life in general and laughed constantly at everything. After biting one of the volunteers quite hard, she then sat on the floor and wet herself. Whilst still laughing about this, she sat there in a puddle of her own urine, splashing around, putting her hands in her mouth... She actually looked like she was having the time of her life. This is only made worse yet but another of the girls having to be held back because she wanted to join in with the splashing around..... Then a girl threw up all over herself. Its sad really, they probably have very little control over everything. You have to have a lot of patience to work with these girls. Its a very slow and challenging day. Me and Naomi have decided that we will keep working here for 3 weeks, but then we will probably change and go back to Prem Dan as we felt a lot more needed there.
26th- Republic day of India - Another day off! Me and Naomi have been planning for a while to try and make our very own sari blankets. Sooo we got up at 5.30am to catch the first train at 6.15 to go to the sari market which is on from 6am-8am. Kolkata in the early hours is so beautiful! In its own dirty, disgusting way! And so strangely quiet. Walking down Park Street, the main street near us, which kinda reminds me of a street in London... You know one of the ones which makes it almost impossible move as there are so many people going here there and everywhere... at 6am in the morning is dead! So strange.
An early auto rickshaw
Yet another deserted street
Yep- all those chicken are still alive.
Anyway, we got to the metro on time and found out that the first train wasn't until 7.30am!! Sooo we waited for an hour, sat in the weirdly deserted metro station until our train arrived. We got to the market just in time to pick up a few sari's each before it was all packed up, and we were back on the train at 8am to go back home. What an experience! We were like the only white people there- attracting crowds of Indian's trying to sell anything they can to us. We bought the sari's for around 50 rupees each. This is about 70-80p for 7 metres of beautiful fabric. The sari's sold there are like 2nd or 3rd hand, so they have small holes in and they're pretty dirty, so we came home and soaked them for a good while then hung them out on the roof to dry so we could start making them asap!
A small section of the sari market.
27th- School again today- the children were strangely very well behaved which was lovely! After school we went out to buy embroidery thread for our blankets- Another amazingly cheap purchase! 2 different coloured embroidery threads, one reel of red thread, 2 needles, and a wheel of about 45 pins = 44 rupees. All of around 50-60p. In the evening we went to Entally girls hostel and played some games and watched a bit of Shaun the sheep with them! Seems like ages since we were last there.
Me with some of the girls
28th- Started sewing our sari blankets. I do have photos but I'm gonna do a sari blanket blog when they're done so I will put all the photos on that :)
29th- Church..... then church again in the evening.
30th- There are quite a few new children at the school now. We think they are the older children moving up from babycare. So that's nice- new little ones to play with! Some of them are trouble but are you really surprised? Its nice to see the younger brothers or sisters of the children we have been teaching since day one. So cute.
Yesterday was the 31st- End of January already! Woke up not feeling 100% but went to school being the trooper I am. Got home and spent most of the rest of the day in bed feeling sorry for myself. Don't know what I ate but it sure isn't in me anymore!!
Pinch punch first of the month! Took the day off today to recover. The only good thing with this is that I have had time to write a blog for the lovely people who like to read about my crazy Indian adventure.
There isn't really much more to report- Feeling pretty homesick recently and that is always amplified when I'm ill and want my mummy!! But its all good- just over 2 months left! If it goes at the speed January went in then I'll be home before I know it!
If you are interested, Josh made a short video about when we first arrived in Kolkata- I know its a bit late to make a video about the beginning of our time here as we are coming to the end, but it sums up Kolkata quite well and its a bit of a giggle :) So enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzE4remNmDo
Not a bad post considering I didn't have a whole lot to talk about!
Go me.
Yep... I'm out of things to say..... Soooo, bye :)
'Heal my heart and make it clean,
Open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show me how to love like You have loved me,
Break my heart for what breaks Yours,
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause,
As I walk from earth into eternity'
No comments:
Post a Comment