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!

Dalai Lama Teaching!

Just thought I'd give an update. At work I'm super busy now- I'm making a nutrition curriculum for the NGO that they can teach to their 60 youth groups and the 15 schools they visit. So that's  a big task- we are trying to make it as relevant as possible to the way people eat in this district, the money they spend on food, and the nutrition problems they have (LOTS of anemia in women and girls, and even boys). Also I'll be helping with a program that the NGO runs where they help farmers switch gradually to organic farming- so as part of this they buy the farmers' produce at a fair price and sell it a bit over market price in the touristy area nearby. So mostly foreigners buy, which means they need english-speaking people to help sell (me!). 

And- I went to see the Dalai Lama today!! He is giving 4 days of teachings at the main Tibetan temple in that same town where the tourists all go (related I'm sure). So we got up at 5am, took a cab to this town, and went into the temple to put our cushions down and reserve seats. Most people go the night before so most places were taken. But we got good spots in the end where you could see him in the inner part of the temple (there are gaps looking in) and you could see the screen of him up-close too. 

He came in by 930am and gave a two hour lesson, and another 2 hours after lunch. Lunch was provided by the temple in big masses but we left to go stretch our legs a bit and got a snack on the street. The teachings were sort of difficult to understand because the translation was very delayed and the translator I think had a limited english vocabulary. But I was able to get the gist of it I think. It was an amazing experience. There is such respect and awe for him- when he first walked in everyone was peeking around trying to get a view but it was still very calm and there was a really nice song the group sang. The teachings are hosted by a Taiwanese group, so they got reserved seating in the inner temple space. When he walked by them they had such a wonderful and culturally-different reaction than I've ever seen. It was like...the crowd swooned towards him but at the same time they gasped ('ahh'). I loved that. 

I hope this turns out to be a good account of my experience. I'm so tired so I'll take a look later and see if there's much to add. 

Oh, no photos of today unfortunately because no cameras were allowed. 

But here are some other recent ones:

My view out the bus last day off

Looking back at Ceinwen and Jane (and our fellow volunteer Christina in the background)

There is a "Temple Walk" around the main temple in McLeodganj and this is on the walk

View from the Temple Walk

On Sunday I went on a field visit to a village 1 hour walk from Khanyara. This is Khanyara as we hiked up the mountain

More view from the hike

For the visit we had a youth meeting in the local school. This is the view from the school of a house in the village.

Inside the school

The boys made Diwali cards! (early maybe? but we hope this means it will be a really really big holiday)

After the meeting we walked to a Temple and then had lunch in a field. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. But the clouds were out which meant there was yet another snowy-mountain view we couldn't see!

Ate lunch here

Me!

Walking to the temple (Bhavna, Marie, and Pooja)

Me at the little Temple on the mountain

On our way to and from Knowledge Centre in Khanyara there is a litter of puppies! Maybe 10!

Me at one of the many rivers running down from the mountains. This one has a red bridge we cross to get to Knowledge Centre.