Home sweet (cold) Home

So, I just realized that I haven't posted since I returned home and according to my blog- I'm still in India. While that would be great and much warmer than here, it is not the case.

We arrived in Newark, New Jersey on tuesday morning at about 5-ish. Then rode an express plane back to Charlotte, NC. The day we left in India the temperature was about 32 C (about 80 ish F). In Newark and then in Charlotte it was 28 F (about -2 C). Yeah. We were freezing. But it was okay until charlotte, because everything was inside.

But now we are home, have been for almost 2 weeks, and I'm getting re-used to my regular life. The snow is not helping. Makes it not-normal. Haha. I also was sick last monday and then on wednesday my mother was sick. That didn't help either.

So, now I'm making up midterms, doing homework, driver's ed, playing in the snow, and eating american food. :)

Let's Go to Mumbai to Fly Away (on monday night)

So today we woke up at the farmhouse- I put a comfortor on top of my mattress because it was so hard- and then I went back to sleep. My father went in to the conference while my mother and I slept in a little. Then we packed (shoved all my stuff in my bag) and had breakfast.

At the district confrence we sat, waited for the bus (supposed to come at 1) took some photos and had soda. Then at about 1:45 we had lunch. And about 2:30 we were honored on stage with shawls. At about 3-ish the bus finally arrived and we left (as in moved out of the gates and on the road) at about 3:30.

More issues with indian time. Nice, na? Na.

So then we had a 4 hour indian time ride ( more like 6) to mumbai. Halfway we stopped at a little store for snacks and met the Bombay west rotary club. Then the men all went to go see some of their project while us girls ( :D ) continued on.

We hit some really bad traffic on the outside of Mumbai and especially once in the city.

But we finally arrived and checked into the hotel, then waited about an hour for the guys to arrive.

Later, Rankin & Sandra and my family (Hamp, Kathleen and Amanda) went to the Choksi's house ( a very nice rotarian and his wife) for supper. Now I'm going to post this even though the day is not quite finished because 1) he has internet and 2) we are getting ready to have supper and then we will go back to the hotel and crash.

Chalo.
(lets go, move - in hindi)

Confrence day numero dos

So- names of our current hosts: Divyangsinh and Kirti Chauhan plus their 15 month old daughter (forgive my spelling) Dejashrini.

Anyway. I woke up this morning because of my father (what else...) got dressed (so much for the shower- We're late- agghhh. *father spazzes*) and came downstairs for breakfast.

We were to be at the conference site at 9 to go on stage at 9:30 when the first session was scheduled to begin. Mind you- that's Indian time. So, we went on stage to be acknowledged at about 10:30. Where are we again, father? India. :P

So, then we were at the district conference. Nothing really to report for, um, the whole day.

At about 4-ish our hosts took us back to their house to dress up for the evening. Our hostess, Kirti asked me what I was wearing and then insisted on letting me wear something of hers. Traditional Indian (Punjabi actually) - a chaniya choli. Yayyyyy. :)

Then we had dinner at the conference and listened to Prakash speak and watched the IYE's perform (International Youth Exchange).

So, then I got that shower I postponed this morning and fell asleep.

Yesterday and the 1st day (night) of district confrence

So, yesterday I was exhausted and didn't blog. Today I'm just as tired but I guess it doesn't matter. So- I'll give you a quick summary of yesterday and then start on today.

We went to 3 schools. It took forever. I have seen so many schools. It was insane. The first school was coed- grades 1-10. They preformed an Indian skit for us. Just music and gestures, but it got the point across. While we were touring that school, most of the children asked for our autograph. We were almost ambushed. I don't think i would make a very good rock star. But I gave some of the children (later when there weren't as many and they were older - like 6-7th grade) my e-mail, so now I have some new e-pals. :)

2nd school- same as the first. A little bit cleaner and a whole lot rotary funded. The only real difference was that they have grades 1-12, and we didn't get to interact with any of the children.

3rd school and lunch: All girls school, kind of like the one in Jaipur, except different. These girls were lucky in the uniform department- polos and pants and shoes of their choice. Lunch was ok. I'm getting tired of not knowing what food is what, though. I definitely will be happy to get home.

Then we were escorted back to the president of the rotary club of Baroch (Nikki)'s house for a jewelry show. Didn't buy anything, the guy had really pretty things- but i just didn't see anything I liked that much.

Puna- our hostess's sister in law took us all shopping in the baroch market!! Yay. We got some gifts and bangles and scarfs. Fun fun! :)

Then we went back to our "home" to get changed for dinner. I was trying to get some blogging done, but I had scarcely gotten dressed and it was time to go to the rotary meeting.

The meeting was ok. The meal was good because it was Chinese, but spicy because the Indians made it. haha. But no saffron and pistachio nut ice cream this time. :(

So, we went "home" and had vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Then sleep.

TODAY

A pretty uneventful morning- got up, dressed, breakfast (yumm), carried the luggage down, met the rest of our team, and got on the bus. Then we had about a 4 hour (i think longer) journey to Silvassa- the city of the district conference.

Once we arrived things were much more exciting. We saw lots of familiar faces, hosts and just people we met. The inauguration later got rather tiring (lots of men talking- with me so tired its hard to pay attention), but I sat with the youth exchange students (the girls anyway) and met most of them. Whoo hoo for all the past district governors and past and current presidents. Wow. I can't imagine.

Then I went with the youth exchange students back to their hotel and ended up wearing a saree with them to the dinner after the inauguration. Bangles, earrings, hair, makeup, bendi (dot on forehead) - everything. :D

Dinner was fabulous because they had stations of different food from around the world (with Indian spices usually haha). I had pizza and noodles. YUM. Then ice cream (of course).

Well, we then met our hosts who were ready to go. So,I had to quickly run back across the street and get changed back into my regular clothes (thanks to amy for the use of her saree! :D) and then ran back and slid into our new host's car. I really don't know their names yet, but our new hosts seem to be fairly young, with a 1 1/2 year old daughter. So cute. They live on a farm too. Mango farm. (what else? haha)

So, now we're here. And if no one else takes objection I'm going to sack out.

My guest bed is calling.

Joggers, books, ashes, bungalows, and table tennis

Carrot juice again this morning- :/ But also cereal and bread. And orange juice. :)

We had quite the...uh... interesting experience. My father insisted on bringing a bottle of wine that he received from our last hosts with him. Well, (like my mother said it would) the wine bottle broke and went all over most of my father's belongings. So, yeah. We spread out everything, wiped it down, and then re-packed.

Then we (and the team) traveled to Ankeleshwar. So on the 1 hour- indian time or 2 hour- regular time, I slept.

We were greeted by the rotary club of Ankeleshwar and showed into a hotel restaurant for drinks. Like, a coffee break. Haha. We were all excited for lunch at the usual american time (12), but alas. No.

Then we visited 2 of this rotary club's projects- a jogging track and a library (complete with a children's library) . Their jogging track was a dirt path with beautiful plants and flowers on either side.

The library was about the size of the Conover library but no computers. Then also a children's library. So cool. They had a Hindi section and an English section. We found harry potter in Hindi! (books 1,2,4,5,6) :)

Then we did have lunch. (finally). The appetizers were pure yum. uh... i don't know the name but they tasted like egg rolls. On a stick. haha. No jokes, guys. please. Anyway. The food was rather spicy, but I'm always good with bread.

A crematorium was our next stop. Grossly and morbidly cool. They are trying to make the cremations more eco-friendly by using natural gas. But they still have wood as an option (because of religious morals) for a fee. Sandra and I were just talking and thinking about how much more space humans would have if everyone was cremated, instead of being buried. With overpopulation, I bet we'd fill the extra space pretty quickly, but it would work for a little while. Saving the planet, 5 years at a time. (There, Ms. Lampe :P )

On the way to the next town we talked to our driver about overpopulation. I got rather confused but got some useful tips for my project. :)

Then we arrived at the next place and met our new hosts. I forget their names right now- I'll edit them in. Our hosts live in a bungalow. A HUGE bungalow. There are 9 of them living together. Plus many spare bedrooms. So- a little family tree for you guys: Grandma and Grandpa (our real hosts) then their daughter and her husband and son. And apparently cousins who are currently out of town for some reason. But it's cool. They have a bunch of servants and the house is pretty full- especially with my family now added on. Plus the son is 17! Hooray for an actual person in my same age group. Love you adults, but really, you can get a bit boring. :P

So then we had a bunch of time to just relax and rest. I worked some on my blog (3 cheers for internet access!) met Supas (the 17 yr. old) and some of his friends, played ping pong with them (haha yeah. that went...uh. well?) and then slept.

Only to be awakened for dinner. Oh well. Supper was great. They got the message that their normal food burns our mouths out, and prepared "bland" (to them) food for us. :)

Now, I'm listening to some american music with Supas (whoot for english) and getting ready to go off to bed.

Adios, my american friends. :)

Sarees and Diamonds

So, today started out ok. I woke up pretty early because my room is right beside the kitchen and bharti was up early making breakfast. I got up, dressed, and went out in the main room. I found an english tv channel and watched some of Lost. haha.

Then was breakfast. Not as elaborate as some of our other host families. Toast with butter, orange juice, and Indian bread. But good. Except for the carrot juice. I don't know what it is about carrots- but they are meant to be cut into wedges and eaten with ranch. Juice? Not so much. At least, not for me.

Off to our host's office, where we were supposed to receive internet access. My mother did, but the internet wouldn't work on my computer and my mother has problems sharing. But I guess it's ok. I'll get internet sometime.

Then we headed off to the first stop of the day: a diamond manufacturing company. This was mega cool. We got to see each step in processing and checking the diamonds. Because no two diamonds are alike, they first check them for any flaws- taking up to 20 days (sometimes more, sometimes less) to examine everything and find any imperfections. Then it goes to another person and after that another. After the diamond has passed this scrutiny, it heads to the cutting, polishing, and whatever else part of the building. Then there are even more people checking to make sure it's ok.

We ate lunch at the diamond processing plant after our tour. It was really good. I liked this better than most of the meals we've had before because the vegetables were just vegetables, not a mix of vegetables with a bunch of spices. The bread was fantastic as always, though.

Then we got back in the cars and went to a saree factory. Wow. It was like America 100 years ago. Child labor laws- hello. American Girl books anyone? The factory reminded me of Samantha’s friend Nellie. But it was cool to see how they make the designs on the saree fabric. Basically it's stencils. Lots and lots of stencils.

We were hoping for some samples ( :D ) but since we were running low on time, the guys said maybe at the district conference.

Later, we figured out that unskilled laborers make about $120 per month. The skilled hand painters make $300 a month. And the designers make $750 per month. But they work 12 hours a day and 6 days a week- so, 72 hours per week. The factory runs 24 hours a day. India definitely does not have a minimum wage.

Our crew then headed back to an apartment complex where we were to be picked up by our host families and taken shopping. Whee!

I wanted to go to a market, but we went to a mall. It was ok, but I'm still hoping for some lower prices and haggling. :)

I got some new shoes (flips) and an Indian dress with pants that I can wear with leggings at home.

Then it was time for dinner at individual host families. Except our host family and Steve and Elizabeth's host family made arrangements to eat at their apartment. So, after shopping my host mom and my parents and I headed over to Seema's house (Steve and Elizabeth's hostess).

She made Israeli food too. It was actually more american, but still intensely yummy. And such great fun. :)

Then "home". And... bed. Early morning to come.

American food- transformed

Breakfast this morning was wonderful. Boiled eggs, corn flakes, idila, fresh squeezed orange juice, grapes, apples, and buttered toast. Our hostess really outdid herself.

Then it was "on the road again." We only got to stay with this family for one night. Before completely leaving the town we visited and took a tour of the hospital (sponsered by rotary of course).

They gave us bouquets of flowers and Pepsi, water or Fanta. The tour- it's still a hostpital, so we've mostly seen it all, but this one let us in to their pediatric ward. I gave away my flowers to a cute little girl, and then my mother's flowers to a little boy.

Then we all got on a bus (this time our luggage fit inside and they had another car for some of our group with extra room for luggage) and headed to Bardoli.

It didn't take long- about 30-40 minutes. We stopped at a school (college) where the rotary district 7670 (ours) did a matching grant witth district 3060 (mumbai area) to help. Apparently, Prakash really got this started. It was neat. Because of the grants and money raised by rotarians the school now has computer labs with more than 90 computers. They also have a pharmaceutical school with many advanced technological units.

Then it was time for lunch. We were supposed to go to a sugar mill, but because the group ( the ladies) wanted to go shopping in Surat (and see the big textile market- since the men won't put it on the schedule :P) Prakash canceled that. It's a good thing, too. Even without shopping, I don't think we would have had time for everything- especially the drive to Surat.

Anyway. Lunch was... interesting. We ate a place called Red Chilis. They believed in spices too. Instead of the regular one order for the whole table, we ordered individually. And they had american food! So, I got french fries (:D) and alfredo pasta.

Well... they sort of had american food. My mother got pasta with pesto sauce. Indians love spices, and they drenched the pesto sauce with them. My mother said her taste buds are permanently scarred. My pasta wasn't spicy but they added sugar to the alredo sauce. Not a good effect. I ended up having some pizza and french fries (they got the french fries right!) and then a chocolate brownie for dessert. Haha.

Then it was off to Prakash's village. Or really, the village his parents grew up in. It took us a bit longer to travel there- around an hour (more or less).

Once we arrived, we were greeted by I think the whole village (a lot of them anyway) in their (relatively new) temple. Prakash said a bunch of things in gujarati and some in english, but I was so tired I don't remember any of it. Then we were offered ponk. Green millet, noodles made from chick pea flower and fried, candy coated fennel, and chutney (i stayed away from the chutney- super spicy). Yum, though.

Then we got to tour the village and the local school (grades 1-4). We also went through what was Prakash's parent's home. The houses reminded me of american houses, in the early to mid 1800s. Very Little House in the Big Woods. Heavy decorative doors and furniture. (like, Zorro. haha) The school was great- I don't think the children spoke any english- but smiles, waves, and laughs go a long way. I took several photos and then a video. Then I showed them the video on playback on my camera. I don't think they had ever seen themselves in a video, maybe not even seen video at all. I was their new best friend. :)

As we were getting ready to leave, I was offered a ride on a motorcycle. So, of course, not to miss out...

It was actually quite a nice ride. There are a lot of bumps on indian roads, but on a motorcycle (or a bicycle) you can go around them. Also, the driver was great. This was his "car."

Then it was back on the bus and on the road to Surat. About 2 1/2 hours later (that's 1 hour indian time :P) we arrived and met our new host family- Maganlal Talaviya and his wife (Bharati). They had to hire an auto rickshaw to carry all of our luggage. I was worried that it would fall out, but it arrived safely- before we did.

They live in an apartment-again on the top floor. But this apartment is not so tall-only the 5th floor. It's still quite a view though.

We had about an hour of rest (I worked on this dreadful blog) and then we went to a joint rotary club meeting for a bunch of clubs in the area. There was also a GSE there (group study exchange). The meeting went way over time, and then we also had dinner. I think that indian rotarians are trained to give americans as much food as they can. :P

So, now we are finally home and we just finished some wonderful ice cream- with strawberries.

Strawberries in January. :)

**word of the day: Jay Krishna (gujarati) - welcome

**more: Shala (gujarati) - school

**even more: Shiksh (gujarati)- teacher