said i would be better at this...

But turns out im not really. anyhow news from my part of the world is that i am moving to parks admin earlyish in the new year. i am going to be covering for suzy while she is on maturnity leave. am rather excited and have already started training for it which is a nice challenge. was ready for one of those :)

Last day at Sangam

Yesterday was my last full day at Sangam and it was pretty good - once I got my packing sorted (thanks Kylie, she is posting me some stuff).
In the afternoon we performed Pooja on everything at Sangam. The reason for this is so that everything goes well and nothing breaks down or creates any trouble. We also did it on the safe to bring in more money. It was fun and by the end we got rather good at it. To start with we (all us vols) watched and the ladies and men did the pooja and slowly Aruna got us to do it (for places like the programme room as they are our computers and photocopier). Then Aruna left us to do our rooms ourselves (just the at the door to bless everything inside), Sayali came up with us to help but by then we was pretty good.

Got a few final packing things to do and then it is chill out till we leave. Gwen is coming to Mumbai with me as her flight is half an hour after mine. I am gettting some more Mehendi done so will be semi covered in it by the time I leave. Not sure if it will still be there when get home but Mum will vouch that it was pretty.

Am looking forward to coming home, and to Singapore holiday but don't want to leave here either. Guess that is life

It's been a while but I ain't forgotten you :)

It's been a busy few weeks here at Sangam. We have just finished our two biggest events (have forgotten what I have already mentioned so some of this may be double upped), both over 60 people and both affected by Swine Flu although the first was affected worse than second - well more sudden anyhow. We had enough warning that it was going to affect some of the sessions so we planned ahead - good thing we did. We were meant to take the participants to the big festival happening in Pune for Ganesh (one of the Gods in Hinduism) but it was cancelled due to the flu thing going around. The festival was/is still being held just not the big city party that we wanted to go to. Tomorrow we are planing to go to the river as it is one of the last nights and some of the locals will be there emerging their Ganesh in the river. Some have already done this as it is a ten day festival. They do know how to party here :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZjJoSNvhw
Check out what I got to do last event because of Swine Flu. Yes me and some of the participants got to build a path. Yay :)

Cant member what else I was going to say... Does that mean it is not important - no I don't think so, just means I'm getting too old. Don't worry Dofus not long to go...

Hopefully my next post wont be so long coming...
Wish me luck

Me again

Hey things are quiet here at the moment as we have a few days off and there is still not a lot of places open, rumor has it that they will be reopening on the 23rd, was the 20th but there have been more swine flu people so has been postponed. We have just finished our biggest event participant-wise (65, Sangam is meant to only book up to 55 so we was rather full and very busy), and the next event is not much smaller (62).

We have some new faces here as the CVPs are arriving. CVPs are part of the Community Volunteer Programme. They live here but work with a Community Partner instead of like me helping with the events and participants.

Yesterday Priyanka taught us (Gwen, Manisha and I) how to ride her scooter (it is a auto so not that hard at all), which was very fun and good to do something new for a change. We drove up and down the driveway, so there is no need to worry about me getting hit by any cars :)

Tomorrow I have no idea what we are going to do but we may go out for a coffee, coffee shops and bars are still open ~ strange enough.

Ever tried putting your shoes on in the reverse order?

I tried and discovered that I cant. Left foot has to be first... Please tell me Im not the only strange one....


Finally another post :) I have been very busy recently and have jsut had a productive three days off. First we learnt Indian Stick Dancing. This is very fun and not quite as hard as first imagined though it is also not easy. Hopefully this link works - it should show you what we learnt only we learnt the basic steps not the complicated ones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shhCHVrJSOE


Manisha and I got the bike tyres pumped so that we could ride the bikes. Now this may seem like an easy job but here you soon learn that easy is not something that often happens to be what it should. First we had to find out who knew which bikes were the Sangam bikes not the local staff's bikes, next we had to find the keys to unlock them. When we found out which bikes we could use we did not know that this next step was needed until we went to push them and they wouldn't move. After finding the keys we had to work out how to unlock them (this was the shortest task as only took about 15 mins), and then we had to find the shop that pumped the tyres (for only RS2 which is pretty good). Then we got to go ride :) We rode round the campgroud and driveway (do not entirely trust the tyres to stay up for a long ride yet). Incase you are sitting there thinking that this is probably a day's job, just to let you know we have been working on this since our third week here.


Today we went to Pavarti Hill (where at the top you find Parvati Temple and beautiful views) which was good fun. We took the bus for as far as we could then rickshawed to the base of the steps. Bus is cheaper but much harder to take. The reason for this is that all the destinations are written in Marati (logically considering we live in Maharastria), and seeing as we cannot read Marati this was a small mission. Managed it ok though mostly thanks to Manisha who can read some letters and words and could kinda recognise the bus we wanted. Yay :)

Bollywood Dancing (this is part of my job - to be enthusiastic so that the participants come and have fun to)

Gwen and Manisha at the top of Parvati Temple

Me in my sari (tied Gujarati style so that the Palu can be admired better)

I miss my hoodies

Hello there, how are you doing? I am well thank you. Have just had three days off which we all put to good use. Manisha went to Mumbai to see her relatives while Katey, Zan, Gwen and I went to Mahbaleshwar with Sidd and Rahul.

Mahbaleshwar is up in the hills and when we were told that it would be cold there we all thought ‘Indian cold so maybe take jeans instead of shorts’, well it was cold and not just Indian cold, though not NZ cold as could feel all my toes the whole time and I didn’t wear socks that much. We did need to wear the jerseys that we took which made us very happy. Us being all but Sidd and Rahul as being Indians they found us weird for being excited as to the coldness. It was also wet (scattered heavy showers) and very foggy. When the fog lifted, it sometimes did during the breaks in the rain, the views from where we were staying was awesome. We were at the top looking down over the valley and we could see over to the other side of the valley and all the waterfalls. It was worth what we paid to rent the house even if only for the fact that we all got to chill and relax and in Katey’s case sleep lots. I did learn that no one finds it funny when you say ‘good evening’ when they finally get up at 11:30am; they argue that it is still morning. Yeah right. I had been up since 8am so it was basically evening to me.

Our first two events (Essence of India 2 and 3) went well. Tiring but well. The participants all said good things about us like that we were always smiling and willing to help, which is what we are being ‘paid’ for. Even though the hours are long (start work at 8am during an event and on a good day finish at 10pm) it is enjoyable so does not always feel like we are working. We get to do things like go to the movies, learn Bollywood dance, learn about other cultures, shock people when we say that NZ only has around 4mil people ~ for some reason people think it has heaps more. Also our days off are much enjoyed as we need the break.

In case you haven’t yet heard I am now kinda blonde. Bout a week ago went to a saloon to see if they could dye hair blonde and see what it cost. They did and it even had a free appointment then so got it done. I say I am kinda blonde as they put the bleach in my hair to get rid of the ginger so that the blonde would take, hour and a half later it was concluded that that was as less ginger as I would go and they decided to wash it out. Joyful fun. At least I had some good company. Elyse even decided to get her belly pierced while we waited which was entertaining.


The main excitement here is that we now have tv J we haven’t had working tv the whole time we have been here and until we got working tv didn’t realize how much we all had missed it. Just to make it clear we have had a television that works but all you could play was dvds and vcds as the tv channel bit of it did not work. Now that it does we spend our free time channel surfing. The pther night we watched a bit of spiderman dubbed over in hindi. That is the trick here, finding English programmes. Also the shocking thing is when on MTV you see the rap videos and the girls are wearing nothing ~ it just seems so wrong after two months of being covered up. Shall be interesting to see if I wear my mini skirts when get back or if they seem too revealing.

Our new participants arrived on Monday. 40 of them, all from England. Two more to come (they were here last event but have been traveling) and they are also from the UK just from Scotland. International night shall be either very interesting or very short…

Hmmmm...

Gonna leave an update cos I think you guys probably want one not because I feel like it. Am very exhausted at the moment, dunno if it is just from lack of sleep or whether I am sick. Too exhausted to even figure that out.

So here is what is happening at the moment. I have not had a warm shower for so long have forgotten what was is like. There are a few reason for this, one we have a water shortage due to the fact we have no had monsoon yet (it has kinda started now but not proper rain, just drizzle) so cant let shower run on, also the sun has not been shinning for long enough each day so our solar tanks are not heating the water. Normally when this happens we get heaters turned on beside the solar heated water tanks to warm the water but due to the lack of rain the power supply (which is hydro here) is very low and we do not have enough for unnessacry power.

Sound fun yet? Don't worry there's more!

Last night we ran out of water, so no shower at all. Not so bad really as was far to tired to stand up long enough for one. We may be getting a water tanker to ddeliver some water but this is not cheap and will not make a big enough difference if the rain does not come. Will just mean we have water to drink and cook in and flush toilets with.

So who still wishes they were here with me???


Nah its still all fun. For work tonight we are taking the participants (39 for those that keep asking, from USA, Ireland, UK) to see a Bollywood movie at the cinema ~ Kambakkht Ishq ~ meant to be very good (depending on the review) or utter trash.

Day off tomorrow ~ yay :)

Bollywood Dance

Just had bollywood dance session. Have been looking forward to it for over a month and it did not disappoint, though the amount of steps that are just line dancing with hand actions is surprising. Not surprising is how bad I was. When whoever it is that builds our DNA assembled mine they left out co-ordination, grace, balance and hand-leg-brain communication, which in my opinion makes me very unique but also a very bad dancer. Had plenty of fun still which is all that matters

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 :) :) :)

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.

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

My brudda text me last night to point out that I sounded rather pissed off yesterday in my post, sorry bout that, was just annoyed as work mates laughed at me for not knowing it was daylight savings. Still think the whole idea is stupid though.

Not been up to much recently. Been working lots, well as much as I can as need the money for India. Only 7 more weeks of work to go, just under really :) Getting bit more exciting now.

Not got much to say so instead of blabbling junk I shall go and do something productive - like try figure out a pin for my credit card...

Hmmm what to say...

So its another Monday, did you notice that? I did as meant had to get up. Some days work feels more like work than it should. Hard to get up, and not interested in work, but guess that is the 'real' world.

Went to Tania's (friend from work) wedding on Saturday, it was real good. Rather wet though so her plan of a garden wedding was changed but it was still very enjoyable and she was very pretty. Going back to Taranaki in few weeks time for Chellz wedding, which will also be very goo I suspect.

Not much else has been happening. Watched Torchwood season two for pa, had to check that the discs were not damaged. It is a very good season and if you are watching it on tv I wont spoil it for you but you are in for a fantastic season finalie (though I may be biased on that it is still very good)

Gotta learn to say NO!

You'd think after all these years of seeing dofus work so much and thinking that he is overworking himself that I wouldv'e learnt not to do the same but no. My problem is that I feel mean saying no to Dave or Jo if they ask if I can work and I'm not doing anything that day so I say yes. But this time I mayv'e learnt my lesson. Have just finished a 47 hour week, and before that was a 43 hour week and this week is going to be a 42 hour week. Which basically means I am working 6 or 7 days a week, silly me. Thankfully someone invented public holidays so that I do get the odd day off every so often.

Have come up with a new years resolution from this though, Work Less!

No wonder people get cranky this time of year...

At work, thanks entirely to this stupid time of year called Christmas in which I am apparently a humbug, I have had to put up with Christmas music, painful Christmas music, classical and if that is not enough even progressed to Crazy Frog. And they wonder why people get cranky and mean at Christmas time. Atleast work mates know that I am not a very Christmasy person so did not get wished Merry Christmas to much, just to have a good few days off.

On another not so nice note, had my hair dyed - meant to be dark brown and blonde now - and at work the other day (bout week after it was done) was told that I have the most beautiful red hair by a customer. There is meant to be NO red in it!!! Was polite though and said thanks and smiled, my parents brought me up well enough.

Have a great 25th December doing whatever it is you are doing :)

Merry New Year

So what you been up to?

Well so it is friday, not that that means much to me as work weekends, and it is also Labour Weekend, which also doesn't mean much to me as I work weekends (did I say that already...) and this one is no different. Although I am working there are a couple bonuses to this weekend, them being that get Monday off (paid, wahoo!) but most important Marianne and Mark are coming over, so not kool am working but then do enjoy work so its all good.

Not much planned for next few weeks other than work, and work a bit more. Am so very talented that I am working most days these next few weeks, and past few. Keep forgetting when looking in diary to not only check that am not working the day in question (for when asked by Dave or Jo) but also how many days that week and surrounding weeks I am working, so am working six days a week for a few weeks, cept next week cos am getting Monday off but still getting paid for six days, again Wahoo!