After a few days I'm back with what I think will be a working site! It's been busy so there hasn't been much time but I hope you don't mind switching to this URL.
To update you:
It's Friday night now- I spent the week doing a combination of busy busy things. I moved into my new house. I cleaned my new house. I spent some time at the Jagori campus. I went to Dharamsala to pick up some supplies (pillow, garbage can, lunch containers). I went to the main road in Sidhbari 3 times. It's about 20 minutes down and maybe 25/30 back up. There I got a SIM card for my cell phone, found 2 restaurants (one Tibetan but they never seem to have their veg momos available, and one that serves Western food and many teas), found a shop called "My Earth Store" that sells organic products and some meditation books and things. Cooked a few meals, ate a few good meals at the NGO.
Today was our first day working, since we take Thursdays off here and every second Wednesday. It was handy to settle in for 2 days and do errands before work. All 7 of us from McMaster went with Navneet (our main English-speaking friend and contact at the NGO) to the Knowledge Centre in a nearby town. This is a building with computer access for villagers, and 3 rooms for gatherings. This is where SATH (Social Architects for Tomorrow in Himachal- check it out at jagorigrameen.org) runs its youth group meetings and plans for events in the community. Here we met a group of SATH workers and sat with them planning for Maa-Beti Mela (Mother-Daughter Festival) which is on September 23. They expect about 400 mothers and daughters at this event and are planning activities and performances to celebrate and encourage positive mother-daughter relationships. We talked about factors that create a gap in communication between mothers and daughters here and what activities may help address those factors. It was very interesting but somewhat limiting with the language barrier. We had 2 people able to translate (Navneet as well as my friend from McMaster, Esaba) but even so it was hard to keep things going with full communication. We had lunch and tea with them and took the bus home for 2 rupees. It's funny because taking the bus down the hill is easy since it is less full, but taking it up is quite tricky and therefore we walk. It was 3km--tiring but manageable. Apparently that walk is about 1/10 of the type of walking we will be doing. Or trekking I should say.
I'm sorry I can't copy your comments here but thank you so much for following. I miss you all and hope everyone is well. Keep updating me on your lives! I love to hear.
xo Clarke
To update you:
It's Friday night now- I spent the week doing a combination of busy busy things. I moved into my new house. I cleaned my new house. I spent some time at the Jagori campus. I went to Dharamsala to pick up some supplies (pillow, garbage can, lunch containers). I went to the main road in Sidhbari 3 times. It's about 20 minutes down and maybe 25/30 back up. There I got a SIM card for my cell phone, found 2 restaurants (one Tibetan but they never seem to have their veg momos available, and one that serves Western food and many teas), found a shop called "My Earth Store" that sells organic products and some meditation books and things. Cooked a few meals, ate a few good meals at the NGO.
Today was our first day working, since we take Thursdays off here and every second Wednesday. It was handy to settle in for 2 days and do errands before work. All 7 of us from McMaster went with Navneet (our main English-speaking friend and contact at the NGO) to the Knowledge Centre in a nearby town. This is a building with computer access for villagers, and 3 rooms for gatherings. This is where SATH (Social Architects for Tomorrow in Himachal- check it out at jagorigrameen.org) runs its youth group meetings and plans for events in the community. Here we met a group of SATH workers and sat with them planning for Maa-Beti Mela (Mother-Daughter Festival) which is on September 23. They expect about 400 mothers and daughters at this event and are planning activities and performances to celebrate and encourage positive mother-daughter relationships. We talked about factors that create a gap in communication between mothers and daughters here and what activities may help address those factors. It was very interesting but somewhat limiting with the language barrier. We had 2 people able to translate (Navneet as well as my friend from McMaster, Esaba) but even so it was hard to keep things going with full communication. We had lunch and tea with them and took the bus home for 2 rupees. It's funny because taking the bus down the hill is easy since it is less full, but taking it up is quite tricky and therefore we walk. It was 3km--tiring but manageable. Apparently that walk is about 1/10 of the type of walking we will be doing. Or trekking I should say.
I'm sorry I can't copy your comments here but thank you so much for following. I miss you all and hope everyone is well. Keep updating me on your lives! I love to hear.
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| This is the view from the deck on one side of my house. Absolutely beautiful although I've only seen it this one time. Monsoons mean it is very cloudy so I'm eagerly awaiting clear skies! |
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| The view but a bit wider. On the right you can see the eves of my house. The house you can see is the back of the neighbours' house- it faces the road that goes up the mountain (towards Jagori) and down the mountain (towards the Sidhbari main road) |
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| This is the view from the main meeting room in Jagori. You can see a few tiny house on the mountainside. I have already spent a lot of time thinking about who is up there and how they spend their time. |
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| Meeting on the first day. The 4 women on the left came with me from McMaster (I'd name them but can't really tell), followed by Navneet in the brown and Christina at the back in the blue. Christina arrived here 2 weeks ago from Boston and will be at Jagori for 2 years. Another foreigner here is Helen, who came from Scotland in May to a nearby NGO. She had a negative experience there and was able to come to work at Jagori. Her first day at Jagori was also ours. |
new blog is looking good! xo it's so pretty in the mountains
ReplyDeleteThanks For Visiting India. I have read some of your post and came to know that my India is really incredible. Thnx :)
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