first of all, my apologies for posting this entry late - i was staying at bodhi zendo for the last two days and attended a mini-sesshin (i.e. a short, intensive period of zazen practice). what i didn't know was that during sesshins, you are encouraged not to communicate but rather to be with yourself for a while. basically, they also didn't allow anyone to access the internet. they call it distracting ;) so i was occupied with myself again for a bit, sitting and meditating, enjoying a more quiet and spiritual side of things for a change (10 hours of kids a day can make you pretty crazy in a way ;))
last week was pretty busy, especially because i didn't really have a proper weekend - i spent the entire saturday working! since i always say that i'm 'working', i've decided that this week, i'll simply describe what a (not so typical) working day looks like!
on saturday, we took the children on a little field trip to a fun-park located about 2 hours away, near theni! the group of people was pretty big, 70 kids plus a parent each, teachers plus their kids and one austrian volunteer - it was quite an experience!
the whole story starts off when i asked father ama the question how on earth we were going to transport about 170 people to a fun-park two hours away. his answer was '3 mini-vans'. minivans? i asked him if he was sure that that was sufficient. he laughed, winked and said 'children are small, we can stack them'. as it turns out, three minivans were NOT enough. there we were, standing in front of those three tiny cars when someone decided to call a travel agency and to book 4 buses. finally, and without stacking, we left the school. our children are easily impressed. the look on their faces as we were driving down the mountain reminded me of the look on my cat's face when i found it one day, sitting in front of the running washing machine, mesmerized. it was fascinating to watch their faces continuously light up after every curve we took! so cute! (unfortunately, most of them had to throw up at one point or another - too many curves i guess - so we stopped 9 (!) times in-between before we reached our location).
so there we were, at SERAN'S FUNPARK in Theni. when they told me that our trip would be to a fun-park, i immediately imagined roller coasters and cotton candy and a ferris wheel..i guess i forgot for a second that in india, things are different. one can have so much fun without all of those unnecessary things we like.. seran's funpark turned out to be a beautiful, big park with a little lake for boating, a special building for 'special laser light shows' and a huge playground with a variety of different things. compared to what we're used to, it was quite unspectacular but the kids' mouths were wide open when they saw where we had brought them - which made me love it even more. i took great pleasure in spending an hour on a swing just..well, swinging. ah, those childhood memories! of course, seeing as i am the one with the biggest camera around, i was made the official event photographer again. it had about 35 degrees in the shade and there i was, walking amidst screaming kids, taking snaps over snaps over snaps. at the end of the day, i had taken over 500 photographs (which i won't bore you with here, so no worries)
it occurred to me at about lunchtime that i had never actually seen all of the teachers together having fun and doing something other than teaching. after 8 weeks, i had only come to know one of them better, with the rest of the seven i was still enjoying this nice, superficial working relationship. on this trip, i saw a completely different side of them - the playful one! let's not forget, the oldest of the teachers is 40 (amala, she is also the one i get along with best) and the others are between 20 and 30. i swear, i have never seen adults enjoy a playground so much! :) it almost seemed like they were having more fun than the kids. (at some point, they even shooed the kids off the swings and those turn-around things so that they could have a go)
so you know who i'm talking about, here are some pics of my colleagues. the first one is amala, who was having a fantastic time on the swing. she has a daughter my age and sees me as her second daughter. i've been helping her with english and we simply learn from teach other. i teach her something in english and she teaches me the same in tamil!
from left to right, this is molly (age 20, supplies me with wonderful tamil movies and music), ramani and geetha (aged 22 and 23, both very quiet and shy, they don't tell me a lot about themselves) and esther (the wonderful wonderful cook at the school who is by far the funniest person i've met in india. she doesn't speak english well but her sarcasm can be understood without a problem!)
the one standing in the middle here is jenny, 28, who is extremely eager to learn about everything that i know. she's incredibly sweet and kind-hearted and one of her kids is in the montessori school.
(haha i just love their facial expressions on this one).
and last but not least, because i like taking pictures of myself, this is me standing with james, amala and her niece in front of one of those mirrors that make you fat. i couldn't believe it, but amala told me it was the first time that she had seen a mirror like that!
the main attraction of said fun park was a special 'laser light show' - everyone was really excited and it turned out to be a mini-version of what i know as being a european disco. there was very loud music playing, (artificial) smoke was in the air and it was dark apart from some colorful lights that went in rhythm to the music. this is when all of the teachers completely lost it, forgot about all forms of social etiquette and just DANCED. the kids were staring, i was staring. it was just too good to capture on camera. they played ONE western song (madonna's like a virgin), no one knew it haha but that's when i sang at the top of my voice and everyone stared. it was great.
we stayed at seran's until the kids got tired (as in until some of them fell asleep on swings and on the boats) and then went on another 2 hour bus-ride to a dam near madurai - there were about 5000 other people there (mostly school classes who also had had the same glorious idea of taking their kids on a field trip on that exact day) so it was very crowded. the only way we could distinguish our kids from the others was by their uniforms - red and white. it reminds me of the austrian flag. they had this weird little train going around the park which cost 20 rupees per person and basically only went around in a tiny circle, but all the kids were completely beside themselves when they saw it and raided the whole thing. we had lunch shortly afterwards. not from snack boxes, but from giant banana leaves wrapped in newspapers that we had taken with us from the school. i had originally packed a spoon but under mysteeerious circumstances it vanished, so i was forced to eat with my hands again. it doesn't seem to get easier over time and this time i managed to look REALLY awkward - at least the kids loved the sight of food repeatedly falling from my fingertips back onto the banana leaf. sigh.
the sight of the dam itself was spectacular, too good to describe. on the one side, there was just water water water for as far as you could see. on the other side, you could see the plains and some mountains in the distance - it was lovely. incredible just how HUGE this country is, and this is only one part of one district of one state of one part. do you know what i mean? i'm beginning to love it more and more. leaving will be difficult.
as it was already 5pm, we slowly started to go back home. the teachers (who were still visibly enjoying themselves) decided to show me what it was like to party in india. no, not in a nightclub. on a bus! picture this. us, speeding up a mountain. the bus without doors. everyone standing and dancing while the bus driver blasted tamil techno music. i have NEVER in my life been involved in anything quite so risky (a couple of teachers nearly fell out a couple of times but only laughed and incorporated it into their dancing) and i assure you, that will be one of the most memorable experiences i will take back home.
last week was pretty busy, especially because i didn't really have a proper weekend - i spent the entire saturday working! since i always say that i'm 'working', i've decided that this week, i'll simply describe what a (not so typical) working day looks like!
on saturday, we took the children on a little field trip to a fun-park located about 2 hours away, near theni! the group of people was pretty big, 70 kids plus a parent each, teachers plus their kids and one austrian volunteer - it was quite an experience!
the whole story starts off when i asked father ama the question how on earth we were going to transport about 170 people to a fun-park two hours away. his answer was '3 mini-vans'. minivans? i asked him if he was sure that that was sufficient. he laughed, winked and said 'children are small, we can stack them'. as it turns out, three minivans were NOT enough. there we were, standing in front of those three tiny cars when someone decided to call a travel agency and to book 4 buses. finally, and without stacking, we left the school. our children are easily impressed. the look on their faces as we were driving down the mountain reminded me of the look on my cat's face when i found it one day, sitting in front of the running washing machine, mesmerized. it was fascinating to watch their faces continuously light up after every curve we took! so cute! (unfortunately, most of them had to throw up at one point or another - too many curves i guess - so we stopped 9 (!) times in-between before we reached our location).
so there we were, at SERAN'S FUNPARK in Theni. when they told me that our trip would be to a fun-park, i immediately imagined roller coasters and cotton candy and a ferris wheel..i guess i forgot for a second that in india, things are different. one can have so much fun without all of those unnecessary things we like.. seran's funpark turned out to be a beautiful, big park with a little lake for boating, a special building for 'special laser light shows' and a huge playground with a variety of different things. compared to what we're used to, it was quite unspectacular but the kids' mouths were wide open when they saw where we had brought them - which made me love it even more. i took great pleasure in spending an hour on a swing just..well, swinging. ah, those childhood memories! of course, seeing as i am the one with the biggest camera around, i was made the official event photographer again. it had about 35 degrees in the shade and there i was, walking amidst screaming kids, taking snaps over snaps over snaps. at the end of the day, i had taken over 500 photographs (which i won't bore you with here, so no worries)
it occurred to me at about lunchtime that i had never actually seen all of the teachers together having fun and doing something other than teaching. after 8 weeks, i had only come to know one of them better, with the rest of the seven i was still enjoying this nice, superficial working relationship. on this trip, i saw a completely different side of them - the playful one! let's not forget, the oldest of the teachers is 40 (amala, she is also the one i get along with best) and the others are between 20 and 30. i swear, i have never seen adults enjoy a playground so much! :) it almost seemed like they were having more fun than the kids. (at some point, they even shooed the kids off the swings and those turn-around things so that they could have a go)
so you know who i'm talking about, here are some pics of my colleagues. the first one is amala, who was having a fantastic time on the swing. she has a daughter my age and sees me as her second daughter. i've been helping her with english and we simply learn from teach other. i teach her something in english and she teaches me the same in tamil!
the one standing in the middle here is jenny, 28, who is extremely eager to learn about everything that i know. she's incredibly sweet and kind-hearted and one of her kids is in the montessori school.
(haha i just love their facial expressions on this one).
and last but not least, because i like taking pictures of myself, this is me standing with james, amala and her niece in front of one of those mirrors that make you fat. i couldn't believe it, but amala told me it was the first time that she had seen a mirror like that!
the main attraction of said fun park was a special 'laser light show' - everyone was really excited and it turned out to be a mini-version of what i know as being a european disco. there was very loud music playing, (artificial) smoke was in the air and it was dark apart from some colorful lights that went in rhythm to the music. this is when all of the teachers completely lost it, forgot about all forms of social etiquette and just DANCED. the kids were staring, i was staring. it was just too good to capture on camera. they played ONE western song (madonna's like a virgin), no one knew it haha but that's when i sang at the top of my voice and everyone stared. it was great.
we stayed at seran's until the kids got tired (as in until some of them fell asleep on swings and on the boats) and then went on another 2 hour bus-ride to a dam near madurai - there were about 5000 other people there (mostly school classes who also had had the same glorious idea of taking their kids on a field trip on that exact day) so it was very crowded. the only way we could distinguish our kids from the others was by their uniforms - red and white. it reminds me of the austrian flag. they had this weird little train going around the park which cost 20 rupees per person and basically only went around in a tiny circle, but all the kids were completely beside themselves when they saw it and raided the whole thing. we had lunch shortly afterwards. not from snack boxes, but from giant banana leaves wrapped in newspapers that we had taken with us from the school. i had originally packed a spoon but under mysteeerious circumstances it vanished, so i was forced to eat with my hands again. it doesn't seem to get easier over time and this time i managed to look REALLY awkward - at least the kids loved the sight of food repeatedly falling from my fingertips back onto the banana leaf. sigh.
the sight of the dam itself was spectacular, too good to describe. on the one side, there was just water water water for as far as you could see. on the other side, you could see the plains and some mountains in the distance - it was lovely. incredible just how HUGE this country is, and this is only one part of one district of one state of one part. do you know what i mean? i'm beginning to love it more and more. leaving will be difficult.
and speaking of memories, something else that will be memorable is the journey i am about to begin. on tuesday, i will be leaving for north india. there is something called the 'mahaparinirvan express' which is a special 'luxury' train that leaves from dehli and goes around all the famous buddhist sites in the north, including the buddha's place of birth, which is in nepal. basically, it's like a package-tour that's very popular among japanese tourists. father ama told me to take some time off and to travel around a bit, he even sent two people to go there with me. so on tuesday i'll be leaving for dehli, where the train will depart on march 12th. the reason i'm leaving 4 days early is that first, i have to travel from kodaikanal to chennai (12 hours by bus) and then from chennai to dehli (36 hours by train!!) - i will literally be traveling right across this massive country. the best part is, that in this mahaparinirvan express, they also take you to agra as a last stop. agra is where the taj mahal stands :) i cannot describe to you how much i'm looking forward to going around a bit. i even ordered a really cheap but gigantic trekking backpack on ebay india (i've wanted one for years and now i finally had a reason to buy one!) so this will be my first proper indian backpacking experience! wohoo!
basically, i'll be back on march 22nd or 23rd. until then, no time to answer e-mails, sorry. feel free to bombard me though, i'll have fun catching up on everything once i get back :) all the best in the meantime!
Awesome about the laser light show and singing along to Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' (even with everyone else being a bit caught off guard by the fact that you could sing along to it O_O )!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a brilliant trip! Do take a lot of photos...especially of Buddha's birthplace - I want to see!
Even though you won't be able to answer emails and messages, I will try to reply to you soon. :) I suppose, writing to you makes me get all excited, because I think "the sooner I write to Wanda, the sooner I'll get to hear from her again"! haha!
Take care! :) <3