1st day of 1st event down

There are four very tired volunteers in Pune at the moment. Work started 8am and finished sometime after 10pm, cept for me who is on-call tonight and tomorrow night which means that I may end up working all night. Lets hope that does not happen. But boy was today fun. The participants that we have (from Norway, Scotland and USA) seem very nice and are enthusiastic which is what we want so that is good. Feet are especially tired.

Tomorrow is another very busy day. And tomorrow night we are going out to the cinema's to see a Bollywood movie with the participants. We are going to see New York ~ wouldn't have been first pick but it is the only one that is playing so we had no choice. Reviews are indicating that it will be very good so here's hoping.

Just chilling in the staff lounge at the moment, with Priya and Gwen. Off to bed in a few minutes though as feet are about to fall off.

Take care and Smyl plenty :) :) :)

And they say plastic surgery aint bad for you...

OK so it will not come out as the main cause for Wacko Jacko's death but it had to play a part. No one can have that much unnecessary surgery and look that bad, then have a heart attack at 50 and the two not be related. Lets just hope that for his funeral etc they pick an earlier photo not a so recent one. The sad news is that he wont be coming to NZ anytime soon for a concert (not that he was likely to, but a girl can hope), then again maybe he will and his ghost may be a better performer as they don't run out of energy.

On a more positive note (unless your my ma for whom I'm sure this aint all that gooda news), it is possible to do Indian fashion in black. I have some very nice black Indian outfits now, am still looking for a nice sari but I'm sure that will come :)

Finally a pic of a punjabi suit

This is us at our welcome ceremony. From left: me, Gwen, Sara, Priya, Candle stick, Darsh, Donna, Zan, Manisha, Katey

This is us in our punjabi suits just before the Maha dinner. From left: Donna, Katey (in her Irish sari), Manisha, Me, Zan, Darsh, Gwen, Sara (in her sari).

Sari and me

Tied my first sari on myself today. Didn't do a to bad a job either, even Aruna (who was showing us how to do it proper and who will make us re-do it if it is not up to her high standard) said that it was a good job esp as I did not need help from anyone. Yay me :)

---- If you are wondering why I am wearing a dark blue-ish sari it is because it is a WAGGGS sari and they are the sari's that we have to were for all important occasions and ceremonies here. They have little trefiols all over them. Not the best design but they may be getting changed to Sangam sari's sometime this season, and they will be purple. Also I am wearing the wrong blouse (shirt thing) underneath. They are meant to be the blue of the sari but there were none small enough for me so am getting one tailored.

Dont mess with pyshco animals!

Best advice you may ever get from India :)
There was a seriously pissed off crow here this morning. Anyone who went outside in the courtyard got attacked, and I do mean attacked. The crow dive bombed them. Was kinda funny when Aruna reminded us not to go out and then she did to talk on her cell and she got attacked. Then the crow tried to dive bomb Mandesh, so not wise of it. The two dogs were trotting beside him and they are very protective of him, he is the one person that I think both dogs love the most. They follow him everywhere, run after him and also chase down crows when they threaten him. Was rather funny to watch Lucky try catch the crow and then when he missed it (turns out a crow can fly out of the way of a dog. Who would have guessed...) Bubli decided that she may have better luck. Not really, she almost got dive bombed too. To not get attacked we went shopping. Still not used to it being so busy on a Sunday, busiest day of week over here it seems.

After the placid snake that just showed off its twirling and slizzering skills on Wednesday (turns out all those people that said there are snakes in India were not lying), we have had a fun week. Also saw first cockroach this morning. Only kinda big. Didnt fly, but then monsoon hasnt started yet so those ones might still be coming.

Mini update

Things are getting busy here in preperation for our first event of the season. We have a lot of work to do and some of it cant get done due to lack of materials, or computers. We only have one between four of us at the moment and we all need to use it lots more than we can. Our computer nextwork is also being upgraded or something today till sun evening so we have no access to computers or internet at all during this time. Next week is going to be very busy and is likely to include so very late nights to get everything ready in time. But I am looking forward to it, esp as next week for two mornings we are helping out at a local deaf school. We are going to be running some games and crafts for the children. Lots more fun than being cooped up in the Programme Room where we almost always are.

Finally some pics :)

Our Swimming pool at Sangam
Mendhi that was done on me for the Maha Dinner
Gwen, Me, Manisha and Zan (the Volunteers)
Elephant statue at Empress Gardens
Aga Khan Palace

Update number two

Hey there.

Things are going well over here. Weather is hot and it has not rained again, they are now saying that we have two weeks till the monsoon starts. Is hot while we are waiting for the rain but with rain comes powercuts and muggyness which with no power is a lot worse than just hotness.

Our training last week consisted of going out a lot so this week is going to be harder as we are not going out until wed. We do have a Maharastian Dinner tonight which shall be good. A Maha Dinner is a traditional dinner so we will be eating off the floor and will be dressed up. Am looking forward to that.

We went out friday night and it was loads of fun. The best thing about going out here is that pubs/clubs shut at 11.30. You may think this is early but you get there around 9 so it is plenty of time. Zan and I think it is an excellent time as it is around when you start getting bored/tired and you do not have to be the party pooper and say lets go home as you know the club will do that for you :) Also was fun cos they was playing T20 on the big screen. We meet a couple of Sara's friends from here and they were nice. The owners of the place kept bringing us free shots, apparently they do this (esp for Sangam people) as they know that if they treat us well we will be back and if we really like it then we bring the next lot of people, so it is all really just good business.

Almost breakfast time and am very hungry (still not used to having to wait till 8.30 for food in the morn) so shall end this here. Have a good day. Hopefully photos will be up next post.

Love

Shopping

Went shopping today. Again. Guess what we will prob do a lot here....

Got my Punjabi dress (well the materiel, it is currently with the tailor and will be ready on Saturday so soon shall be able to put a photo of me wearing it up so that you guys can see what a Punjabi dress is).

Also got some bangles. Red and maroon ones to be worn together, they are plain and can be worn separately but look better together. Also got a patterned green set which looks very nice. In this part of India green bangles means you are married but I liked them lots so got anyhow. Who cares if I aint married, it's not like people don't stare anyway and what's one more reason...

Got a few other things as well, birthday present for someone and some stuff for me. And no even if you guess correctly whose present I bought I will not tell you :) Still gotta have some fun.

Weekly update number one

The first rain of Monsoon season arrived this afternoon. Didn’t realize how much I missed rain and the cold until the moment that it started. First it was just a few drops then it got heavier and heavier until it was a proper storm with thunder and lightning and wind and proper rain. Eszter, Katey and I all went out and danced in the rain, that is how excited we were. All thought that maybe the rain was a myth told to get us foreigners through each week.

Before the rain this week has been hot but good. I have been kept busy learning the ropes for the up coming events that are being run in Sangam. There are four of us Programme Volunteers, Manisha (Canada), Zainab (England), Gwen (Malaysia) and me. We are currently staying in a dorm room because our rooms are being painted. In a week we will be moving to our rooms, which are two per room so we have to decide who’s gonna share with whom. That is also one reason we are in the dorm, to give us time to get to know each other a bit. We are all getting along well, which is a good sign as we are going to be working together a lot in the coming months.

Yesterday we had our solo challenge around Pune, which was fun. No where near as scary as I expected it to be. We each were given a pack and in it was some money for the rickshaws (three wheeled taxi bike things. Very fun to ride in and hard to get to go where you want sometimes) and entry fees for places. There were also four envelops and in each was a question sheet we had to answer for that stop, the destination for the next stop and a cheat card for that stop (these were incase we couldn’t find anyone who could read English as they had the place we were looking for in Marathi.

My first stop was a temple. Lord Shiva’s temple although that is not the real name. The proper name is some huge long thing that I cannot pronounce let alone spell, it does begin with O though if that helps J Found some nice people who could answer my questions for me, some who answered in Marathi, even though I couldn’t understand I did notice that they were very happy that they were able to help me, so I smiled and thanked them. They did try after all.

My second stop was a copper workshop. This was the only time I needed to use my cheat card as no-one seemed to know what the English translation was, but instead of just saying so they would point me in a direction so I was walking round in circles for ages. When I used the cheat card this did not help all that much as still got pointed in a vague direction but at least all pointed the same vague way. Eventually found a sop keeper that knew where the place was. Once there I found a very nice guy who could read English to answer my questions. He had tidy handwriting to.

The third stop was the Osho International Meditation Centre. Very quiet and serene. And bizarre, having a big flash place just for meditating. It was in the rich part of Pune which was a interesting sight, especially as we live next to a slum here at Sangam. In the slum next to us there are 10,000 people, and the slum is the same size as Sangam (around 7 acres). Hard to comprehend, even though I have seen it.

Fourth stop was the Empress Gardens, there was no task at this stop as it was our picnic lunch stop. There the rest of the staff came and joined us.

Katey (Ireland) is the Assistant Programme Manager, and Eszter (Hungary) is the Programme Manager, these are the two that we will be working with the most. Eventually you may get to hear about the rest of the staff here. Sara (Wales) is also here but only for another week as she is just here to train us (she is a volunteer from the winter season last year).

We have a very nice swimming pool here, and I have already been for many swims. Yes I am finally using my togs. There are lights in it so we are able to swim after dark which is very good as it tends to be too sunny during the day and after tea we are very full. All of you who said that I would lose weight living in India have obviously never stayed at Sangam. The food is so good that it is hard to stop eating. I am already putting weight on and some of the tight fitting clothing that I brought is no longer comfy to wear at all.

It has been discovered that we do not speak ‘english’ in NZ. It turns out that we speak some other language all together. The amount of words that the other people here do not know is amazing, as is the amount that make them laugh. Top of the list at the moment would be jandels, togs and mufti. Also my supposed accent is apparently rather funny. they seem to not realize that it is them with the accent not me J

We all know that psychologists make stuff up and here is proof

Did a inkblot test just now and guess what I am suposidly...

Thats right an Insane Psychopath
{You obviously don't think like others, you are crazy, dark and twisted but you really don't care. You are likely to end up in solitary confinement.}

Its that solitary confinement that really will drive me crazy but at least you all now know where to find me in a few years time :)