Poster Day

Today we all got called from our regular schedules to help put up posters for the One Billion Rising Campaign (Feb 14 2013) and 16-day campaign to stop violence against women (starting Nov 25 - this Sunday). At first I was a bit disappointed but in the end it was best (as usual) to get out of the office. We split off into teams and covered different areas of the local villages - my team walked through Sidbhari and the neighbouring Yol Cantonment (military zone village) and then went to another town by bus. We used a mixture of flour and water to paste the posters (3 in each spot, all very beautifully printed) which I was pretty impressed by although to be honest I don't know how well they'll stay. At least it never rains here! (The other day we had the first cloudy day actually since monsoons, which I think is nuts!).

I leave the NGO and Sidhbari on December 1 so things are starting to wrap up. We are all finishing our projects and starting on Sunday will all be helping with the 16-day violence campaign. I'm trying to make plans with all of my new friends here so that we have some fun before I go. Tomorrow two of the other volunteers, Eva (from Germany) and Christina (from Boston) will come over to play cards and watch movies so I'm excited about that. I hope to spend some time with the permanent Jagori workers too. I feel like I'm getting close to my landlady and she invited us to two weddings this week, so I'm going to be sure to go to at least one. I think I started over-eating again but I really can't care less right now! As long as I don't upset my stomach. The wedding will have good food so that's why I'm thinking of it. They will likely be Nepali weddings so that will be a first-time experience for me.

Last thought -- today I had fast food for lunch while out on poster day and I decided once-and-for-all that Indian fast food is very superior to Canadian fast food. I'm not really into donuts and pizza and...McDonald's? but oh my gosh how I love momos, chow mein, and samosas. Those are actually the main fast foods here! So amazing!

Love you all
Clarke 

Almost mid-November!

Hi again- I'm feeling badly because I can't even remember the last time I made a blog post. I think it might have been pictures only which was an attempt from me at sharing with as little effort as possible...so in that case it's REALLY been a long time.

I'm just finishing my day at work and now there are officially 20 days until we leave Jagori! I really really can't believe it. Time is going so fast and things are quite busy which makes it go even faster. Today we held an Open House at Jagori for people interested in the Green Leaf Market. We sort of thought we failed at promotion and were expecting very few people to come, but there were 4 or 5 groups including about 6 little kids! We ran some kids' games and had a powerpoint on how the market and NGO runs, and even though most of the attendees are already customers we got a few new names. It was fun to not be sitting on my computer all day.

Lately I've had a lot of days out-and-about which I much prefer to being in the office. We ran the first market on Saturday (ended with losses but it's okay for the first one I think) and on Friday we went to the collection centre to buy vegetables from farmers.

Thursday I went on a day-trek up the mountain that I look at on the way to work every day. We climbed to the very top (2700metres) which took 4.5 hours (2 hours to go down). I'm still sore! It was great though because there was such a sense of reward to get to the top. The whole slope at the peak is barren (just grass) and there are a bunch of stone buildings that are for animals and people that pass through. Our guides (friends from work) lit a fire since it was quite cold and we ate lunch together. The view into the mountains was pretty cloudy which was too bad, but I still had such a sense of euphoria being up there. The only problem was that I spend my day off tiring myself out even more!

So I guess I haven't been in the office since last Wednesday which is a nice chunk of time. Tomorrow I'll be back working on my computer, but the next day is Diwali! Our landlady invited us to celebrate with her family and also I'm getting an Ayurvedic massage from her that morning (she practices Ayurvedic medicine). Then we get Wed and Thurs off (by chance) so I can relax lots. Friday and Saturday are more market days next week. And that brings me to only 2 weeks left! It's crazy how packed things are. That next week I'll be trying to teach the staff our nutrition lessons, and then in the last week here everyone is working on One Billion Rising, an international campaign to stop violence against women.

I've been thinking about what I wanted to do while here and whether I've checked them all of my list.
I don't think there's much left for me besides finishing my projects. I think I'll continue to do the things I enjoy until I go- go to restaurants I like when I have days off, talk to people whose company I enjoy..I dunno..that's pretty much it!

Hope everyone at home is well. It's getting colder here- I sleep with leggings and flannel PJs and sleeping bag and a blanket.

xoxoxoxo miss you all 

Bhawna's Pooja + Ashu's Wedding

At yesterday's Pooja at Bhawna's house

Bhawna's family cooking for the whole community. The food was AMAZING.  Everything tasted differently which isn't always the case with curries here. 

Bhawna's family cooking.

Monica, Eva (a new volunteer who arrived yesterday), Chandni, and Ritu before we left the Pooja.

Some new calves at Bhawna's 

Walking back to Sidhbari bus stop

After the Pooja, we waited at the bus stop for Gaytri to meet us. Then we took 2 long bus rides to Ashu's (another co-worker) wedding! Here is a view of the dining area and temporary kitchen. We went up to say hello to Ashu as she got ready and she was looking so beautiful. 

We were quite early so we sat in the cold watching everyone run around setting up chairs and getting dressed. 

Fireworks outside to welcome the bridegroom and his party. You can see our reflections in the window and the band leaning on the building outside. Often for weddings there are sort-of marching bands, with clarinet, trumpet, and drums. 

After a long time the groom came in!

Just like at Canadian weddings the little kids are often the first to dance. On the right is Anoop 's (another coworker) daughter. I've met her many times and she is adorable. 

Ashu and her groom!

The two of them sat up there for what seemed like hours posing for photos in a huge spotlight. Everyone took turns going up and giving their gift (usually an envelope with money) and taking photos with them. This is our turn. 

Some dancing after the photos. During photos we went upstairs for "snacks", which seemed like people did on rotation or whenever they felt like it. Snacks were chow mein, pakoras, and other yummy fried things. After dancing was dinner which included salad, many vegetable dishes, paneer, dal, poori, rice, and dessert. I didn't eat much because I absolutely stuffed myself at the Pooja earlier and during snacks. We weren't sure how late dinner would be and we thought we may have to go home before it happened, so I filled up early.

What a day!

I'm back!

Sorry to be so out of touch. I've sort of lost my drive to blog..I don't think it is really for me, although I'm very happy I chose to make one for this season.

Right now, I'm sitting in my room. It's just after 5 so the sun is starting to set and it's not yet dark. This afternoon I stayed home because I was feeling out of sorts- I slept all afternoon and I'm feeling much better. The only thing is I've had this cold for quite a while and I'm pretty sure it should be over by now! Hopefully soon. Hopefully before I catch my next one! I imagine with the colder weather (still above 0 at night but below 5, and about 15 during the day) I'll be catching colds every time I wash my hair.

So I have been working on a long, long reading that we all have to do for our class. While we are here we have 5 modules to work on that include a set of lecture slides, some readings, the task of creating a group case study demonstrating the topics as we have seen them here in reality, and a personal reflection. We do our group case studies once every two weeks and tomorrow is our 3rd meeting, so we are all rushing to finish the readings. This one is 40 pages and it's pretty dull. The topic is reproductive and sexual health though which is definitely interesting (all of the modules are on women's health).

So mostly tonight my housemates and I are reading and taking showers. I cooked up the last of our tofu for everyone because it was going to go bad and our cook (!!! I have a cook!) doesn't really know how to make tofu. Our greatest success has been to ask her to cook it like paneer is cooked, but I think she is avoiding it because it had been sitting in the fridge all week. It's really amazing we were able to hire someone to cook and do laundry. The cooking is so great because it saves A LOT of time and also our kitchen is tiny tiny and it is always difficult even just for all of us to heat up dinner. It's only really big enough for one person. The laundry is wonderful also because it saves EVEN MORE time and now that it's cold it's nice to keep your hands dry. I feel so spoiled. I wonder if it will ever happen to me again!

Work is going well. Things have picked up again after a slow return from our 3 days off to go to Manali. Ceinwen and I finished our nutrition curriculum and now we are working on getting it translated. This is really difficult because only one of our co-workers is really available to translate, but he doesn't really have the time required to do it. Especially because all of the projects any of us have been working on need to be translated. It's difficult also because we can't be sure the translations are done correctly- it seems that things that we heavily researched are easily getting changed to what an individual thinks is correct. So we will have to work on finding more translators and communicating the importance of maintaining integrity in the translations. It would be sad to lose the accuracy after so much hard work.

Green Leaf market opens on Nov 3 which means we will be even more busy! It all seems to be confused right now but hopefully things come together as the pressure builds. And last week of November there is a big campaign to stop violence against women so we will all be working on that for our last week here. It is part of "One Billion Rising" which will happen on Feb 14 2013. Look that up!

Some kids from downstairs (I think our landlady's grandchildren who are visiting) are in Esaba and Christina's room watching the Little Mermaid. Very cute. They love Esaba because she can speak to them in Hindi and she's great hanging out with them.

All for now

Manali

 This week I went on a three-day trip to Manali- it took 7 hours to drive there and luckily only 5 to get back. It was pretty cold but beautiful and we did fun things like paraglide (some of us just went up the gondola..like me, and some didn't do either), 'zorb' (rolling down a hill strapped to the inside of a ball), shop, eat, visit temples, and go whitewater rafting (but no paddling which I found weird..it was more like a tour).

On the way there we stopped for a bathroom break and snacks. At this hotel they were chopping fresh vegetables in the window for cooking. 

Kullu

On the way to Solang Valley on our first day.

Where I ate breakfast on the first day

At Solang Valley

Solang Valley

View from up the mountain after the gondola ride

Up the mountain again

At a Palace (can't remember the name)

View from lunch on the first day

View from the Palace 

From the Palace again

Sunset

Going to a Temple (again, can't remember the name...sorry!)

Men working on the Temple

This temple was in the middle of what I think was a national park- very pretty.

After whitewater rafting (this isn't us)

To the left is where we came down from the rafting tour. To the right is more of Beas River.

The most beautiful part of the drive home. 

Photos for you

Pulses! We are learning all the different dals for our nutrition work. 

 

Flower tree at Jagori main campus

Some of the gardens at Jagori main campus. I'll take photos of the vegetable gardens and the tofu-making as well. Also, look up a picture of how okra grows! It's so cool!

Another beautiful flower on Jagori grounds. 

Knowledge Centre in Khanyara. And that's Navneet's bike- he took me up to Khanyara on it the other day. Lots of fun but so bumpy!

The rainbow from Wednesday

The girls practicing their dance with Manju and Gaytri

At the bonfire

Hail, Rainbows & Snow-capped Mountains

Today was a great day. Lately things have been pretty quiet- I've gotten into a regular routine. For the past week or so it's involved going to Jagori's main campus to work on our nutrition curriculum. I'm happy with the work but to be honest all the office work is getting to me. I want to meet more people! I want to be out and about doing active things! (I think I need more exercise..and less sugar.)

So, today was great. There were many highlights. It started like any other day (as in I was going to the office to work on nutrition). The first highlight was frying a really thin slice of paneer to put on my over-easy egg & toast this morning. I eat on a chair on my porch looking at the mountains every morning. It is completely clear almost every morning and although we don't have a table (and we have to take turns in this chair) it's a perfect way to eat breakfast.

I ended up spending the morning working on plans for Green Leaf, our fair-trade market that will begin selling produce on November 3. The work was a bit more fun and interactive and it was nice to be busy. In the afternoon the second highlight came- it hailed! It was really loud on the slate roof which reminded me of camp and was very comforting. You could see balls of ice hitting the ground. Then, it poured. Also very loud. And next---a beautiful rainbow! I was so happy. Every time it rains these days, which is not very often, it is perfectly clear in most of the sky. So I am always running around the office looking out windows to find the rainbow. And today I found it! It was so close that it looked like part of the rainbow was on the roof of another Jagori building. I'll post the photos in the morning. My next highlight was that after the rain I could see there was snowfall on the largest, rocky mountains. I watch the mountains every day and since other wonders of fall like changing leaves don't happen here, I've been looking forward to snow on the mountains. Today it began! AND there is even another highlight in this part of the day. During afternoon chai, we saw about 6 green parrots! Flying around and landing in the trees on Jagori grounds.

Next, we did some nutrition work, and then the work day ended. The others in my group learned an Indian dance with Manju and I took the opportunity to finish some computer work that had been bothering me. I went home quickly to grab a sweater, since it's really quite chilly today, and then returned to Jagori for dinner. Tonight we were invited to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving at Jagori. Yesterday I was asking around for the number of a certain restaurant so I could book us a reservation, since we had all decided to celebrate tonight. Abha, who runs the NGO, went off to what I thought was find the number, and came back insisting we come for dinner at Jagori. It coincided with the last night of a 2-week workshop, so all the visitors were to have a big goodbye meal anyways. We had a huge bonfire and appetizers (momos and some dry snacks) and a huge meal (including pooris and sweet rice...mmm) and cake and even a bit of beer! It was all a big treat.

My next highlight was that Anoop, the office administrator, came with his wife and daughter. His daughter is about two and she is very adorable. She stole my purse for a bit and walked around dong very cute things while I laughed and laughed. It was so nice. She really knows what she wants and at that moment it was my bag.

Next, the girls were pressured into performing the dance they learned for everyone. It was lots of fun to watch and I was happy to be sitting out, although it would have been fun either way.

We walked home recently and tonight the stars are more beautiful than I've seen so far. I'm very happy with how things turned out. And I really enjoy the colder weather.

Happy Thanksgiving!