Dancing

Today is the fourth day that Shruti (my host sister), Lata (my host mom), and I will go to dance practice in in the center of the colony we live in. The dace is a Garba dance for women that we are going to dance for an up coming festival. We dance in a circle, the steps remind me of western folk dance. Each step is punctuated with clapping sticks together. We learned the step initially using our hands and but after the first practice, we each have two sticks that are about a foot long and can easily be held in our hands. I'm very excited for when we actually preform the dance because I get to wear a traditional Indian costume!
I want to film one of the practices, or better, the actual dance.

The lighting was really hard for my camera to deal with so I only got a few pictures actually worth keeping and even most of those were not very good.
This dance is one only for the teenage girls as the steps involve more jumping and bending than the older women are capable of. 

This dance is done with "diya" (I can spell it in Hindi but not English) which are small clay oil candles that are lit during Diwali. We do not actually do the dance with lit ones although it would be very cool the oil and flames could spill too easily. The teenagers and girls are in the middle. 

I've had school for the past two days, but very little classes because lots of people are still doing follow up things for the exams. Yesterday, I had only one class all day and that was first thing in the morning. Today was a little better, I had a good bit of free time though.
The Indian school system is very intense! Yesterday, the other kids in my class got back their English Literature exams yesterday and the highest grade was and 80, which is really good! The exams was a collection of questions from throughout the semester that the students had all already been given the answers to. The exam was to answer the given questions word for word as they had been answered before. They also had to write an essay that the English teacher had previously dictated to the class, again word for word. It's not really my kind of leaning system. No one here dictates to learning styles. There is no learning how to learn things, just lots of memorization. It's very much a different kind of learning system!

Bhopal

I spent the last week in the capital city of M.P., Bhopal.

I wish I could have stayed there for the rest of the year! It seemed much nicer than Indore. The city felt cleaner, and had more greenery, there was less chaos. Overall, Bhopal was a beautiful city. 

All six of the exchange students were hosted my Amanda's host parents. Amanda's family is Sikh, there were two kids, a boy of 11(Karan) and a girl of 7 (Jeannie). The parent Johnny and Minnie were really cool, especially Minnie who Amanda considers like an older sister. 

The three girls shared Amanda's room and the boys got to stay in a guest house. 

We did so much in a week that I can't keep the days straight!

The bus ride from Indore to Bhopal takes a little less than three hours, just enough time to sleep well, if you're not looking at the scenery. 

We went to the movies, out to dinner with the family, and just with the exchange students. We went to two Rotary meetings that revolved around food of course. One of the Rotary clubs also took us out to lunch one day. Another invited to visit a local school. At the school we attended an assembly that was unlike any I've ever seen, the students did exercises, stood at attention, and at ease, saluted, sang the national anthem all on the command of an 11th grader with a microphone. Then they sat and selected students read the news, poems, and sang songs. Then, for our benefit, there was a dance and we got up on stage and asked questions. After a breakfast put on by the school, we went with 4 of the 11th graders to some of the local sites. We started with an ancient temple that was constructed in one night. Next we walked to a Jain temple, and from there we went to ancient caves where people had done cave drawings. We also white people for the first time! There was a group of Russian tourists at the place where we stopped for lunch. 

Bhopal is known as the city of lakes, there are two big lakes in the city. One evening we went on a boat ride to an island for the sunset. It was really beautiful.

During the week we also visited the zoo, and history of man in Indore museum/ park, and an other historical museum. 

We stayed up late talking a lot and joking around. I like all of the exchange students but it was really nice to have another American girl around. The three Americans have what you could call an American sense of humor, and we get some of the same inside jokes. 

We also did a lot of shopping. Friday, there was supposed to be a curfew because of a court decision that was supposed to be made that was predicted to cause turmoil. The court's only decision though was to post pone the decision for seven more years. It was nice though, because we had planned on spending the morning shopping but instead we got to spend the whole day! The boys got bored really quickly but I had lots of fun. We went to two of the main markets in Bhopal. We started with Old City Market which is a typical old market with all the vendors and little shops with bargaining and a totally maze of streets. It's a good thing we had Minnie with us to lead the way and fix the prices. We bought fabric from one vendor, leggings from another, shoes, scarves, and jewelry were all from separate shops. We also went to New Market to get the scarves. Our final stop was a boutique to get measured and fit for our Kurtis. They were done by Saturday when we left!
There were some places in Bhopal that reminded me to the Kite Runner because the sky was filled with kite and we passed tons of shops selling them! At one of the Rotary meetings the was a balcony that looked out on an area where there was hundreds of kites we watched as two boys chased one of the fallen kites down.
There was so much that I'm sure in a little bit I'll think of something else to add...
As much as I liked Bhopal I also enjoy being back in Indore in my own family and home.

The pictures below are very much not in order! (sorry)

A statue of Buddha whose face was carved off by invaders.

Part of the old Buddhist monastery (imagine living in one of those tiny, plain rooms!) Next to it is an old man made pond.

A gate way to one of the stupas at the Buddhist temple. 

Sunset on the lake.

The cave where we saw the cave drawings.

Many of the cave drawing looked very similar to the ones you see in the US except the depicted different animals, like this elephant for example.

Sunset on the lake.

The Jain temple.

This temple was built in one night thousands of years ago on the request of a king. We said they had to stop building no matter where they were and the temple has remained that way for centuries.

A white tiger at the zoo.

Amanda looking out the window of a traditional Rajasthani hut.

A typical Rajasthani house.

Wedding Jewels and Hindu Temples

Today may have been my favorite day yet. There have been many good days but I think today topped them all!
We hiked up to a Hindu temple that's more than a thousand years old. There was a man who had lived there at on point and he and his wife gave birth to a son who was also a god. The temple was built there, at their home. The temple was been a very important place for Hindus for a long time. One used to have to reach it on foot over a trail but now, there is a road that runs all the way up the hill. Cars and motorcycles still have a hard time reaching the top though. The temple itself was the first that I've been in other than the small temples in homes. We had to take our shoes off. There was lots of incense and people prayed to the gods. There were also other smaller shrines there and a little lake which people through food to the fish into. A few families lived up there too. They had little huts and small homes and had a few cows and horses. There was also a small tea plantation near by.
My new host father is the president of his Rotary Club (there are several clubs in the city). The six of us exchange students went on the hike with his club today.
It was nice to be out of the city today and up in the fresh air! Also I enjoyed getting the exercise I've been dying for!
Unfortunately after the hike we went to a park and had a traditional Indian picnic which means I ate too much. Food is offered until you're full and then a couple times more. The food was a typical Indian picnic meal with different breads, rice, daal, and potatoes. We all sat on clothes on the ground and placed our plates in front of us while people went around serving the food.

Trash at the top by the sacred temple...

Nikolas and Sebastian at the summit.

Everyone must remove their shoes before entering the temple.

Dung and paint swastikas on the back side of the temple, facing out, off the drop off.

The road created for motor vehicles to get up, it was partially paved. 

Today I also had the traumatic experience of having a lizard in my room! It was very scary for even though it was only a gecko type thing! Finally it left with the help of my host mother. My host sister was also too scared to help me!
Yesterday we had to give talks on our lives at home to a business school here. I hope I did Vermont justice!
We then spent the day hanging out at Ritu's house. In the evening, we went to the opening of a jewelry shop that belongs to Ritu's "brother". It's hard to tell because here your brother can be a real biological brother, a cousin, some other kind of relative, a parent's friend's kid, or a close friend. Ritu dressed me up in a traditional dress of hers, it didn't fit very well but was still fun to wear. Hannah and Amanda are living with her for the week so they had traditional clothing with them. She also gave us all jewelry. I think she likes dressing us up as live dolls and showing us off. I don't blame her. At the reception we got to try on a lot of the bridal jewelry. If you've ever seen a or photos of an Indian wedding then you'll understand the intensity of the jewelry! It was very cool to see all the styles too. I wished I could wear something like what was on display but I think I would also be afraid something would happen to it!
Tomorrow in the morning I leave for Bhopal (the capital of the state). Chances are I won't be able to writing anything the whole time I'm there (a week)... Maybe I'll be able to get pictures from today up before I leave.

Links

Take a look at the links on the side.
The photos of the other kids from India are REALLY good.
Janina is from New Hampshire and is in Mumbai.
Sebastian is here in Indore and is from Colombia, he's been here for almost 5 months now.

The Village

Yesterday we went on another outing with all the exchange students. We went to a place called The Village is has another Hindi name...
The Village is a larger version, sort of, of the buffet place that we had gone to before. This place though was much bigger and was more of a resort park. There were arcade games, bumper cars, food, a disco, playground, and many performances of different traditional dances. It was not so food oriented but more aimed for entertainment. There was also supposed to be a water park type area with slides and a pool but it was closed to be fixed which was disappointing because we all would have likes to go for a swim in a nice, clean, chlorine pool.
Because it was a week day there were very few people there. We mostly watched the performances of which there were many. At five, they also opened camel and horse rides. We stayed just long enough for Amanda to have a camel ride.
Despite the fact that I the performances were very good there was something that bothered me. I've been waiting for there to be something that really bothered my morally here. At the park there were was a little girl who was about four or younger and was the dancer in one of the performances. She was very sweet and cute. As we were leaving she and her family walked by and she waved at us. As she walked away, I hopes that she would go to school and do something in her life. I thought about how unlikely this was. There was also another girl who was 12 or 14 she was double jointed in her shoulders and very thin. Her performance was to show off her double joints and to step into metal rings with one or both feet and then could slip them up over her head. She also did some tight rope type of tricks. I couldn't help but feel that she was a little sick of the tricks. I think she could have been doing something much better than having her "talents" exploited everyday. I wonder what she will do when her joints stiffen of she is no longer so skinny and shapeless.
Other acts too made me think about child labor laws. On the other hand, I had  to consider that there were much worse things that these kids (especially the girls) could be doing to earn money.

The playground.

Traditional Dancer

The traditional dancers tried teach us the steps, they were easy at first but then got more complicated.

The Magician.

The Monkey Trainer.

The double jointed girl who also did tightrope tricks.

The Little Girl.

Amanda, Nikolas, and Sebastian dancing with the little girl.

Sebastian and the little girl.

Lunch Time. 

Being served a traditional picnic style lunch.

Today I have no school again as there are no exams for any of the 11th class. I'm spending the day at home catching up on organizing my photos and catching up on my journal. It's nice because I haven't spent much time at the house settling in. I unpacked all the way for the first time since coming to India because I'm staying here for a while. My host family has boughten me a wardrobe and desk to keep my things in. There wasn't one in the room before so they bought them just for me. It's really nice to have all my things out and organized. I've noticed that people here keep all their rooms extremely and perfectly organized no matter the room. My host parents made it very clear that I was to organize and have a place for everything at all times. I like to organize things so it was no problem but keeping it like that will be harder.
The other hard thing to get used to is locking my desk and wardrobe. There are keys for both. At home we don't lock anything at all. Here though I have to keep anything at all valuable under lock and key anytime I'm out because the servants move in and out of the rooms cleaning. Having someone clean my room for me everyday is also going to be hard to get used to but I think it won't be a bad thing... Maybe when I get home it'll cause a problem though if I get used too it.

Factory Visit

Yesterday I had no school because the 11th class got the day off. All of the Rotary exchange students had been invited to visit a factory for the day.
The factory was owned by a Rotary member who really wanted to show it to us. The grounds and facilities were not your typical poverty advantage taking conditions. The lawns were well manicured and there were locker rooms, bathrooms, a cafeteria, water treatment facility,  and hospital for the workers. There were So many people there working! In the training area alone there were well over a hundred people!
The factory itself was a cotton mill at the base. We saw all the machines that cleaned and carded the cotton and then spun it into really fine thread. Some of this was exported as is and much of it went to producing the factory's other good. They make clothing for Lululemon, Nike, Hanes, and some Indian brands. The room we saw was producing underwear, undershirts, exercise pants, and Canada tourist shirts.
There was also a fair trade and an organic cotton section.
I was amazed by the skill and speed with which the workers produced the goods. I can't remember them now, but the figures of amounts of goods produced were amazing. Then again, it's a 24 hour production and there are around 10,000 workers not including executives and higher positions. That's like 10 time the size of my town at home!
I had to wonder though, what the pay was and the health risks were. The rooms that worked the cotton as a raw material had little bits of it everywhere in the air. We couldn't stay in there long. The workers had face masks on but I wondered about their eyes and skin.
I think the reason the Rotarian was so keen for us to see his factory was that he wanted to show us what a great factory it was in comparison to the ones the exploit workers in other places. That's not to say though that Nike and Hanes don't have other suppliers in other places that exploit their workers.
Over all though it was a cool experience!
We also went to see a Hindi movies in the theaters last night called We Are Family. I was REALLY sad but very good another I want to get to take home!

The factory (making underwear).

The Fair Trade section.

Products ready to be shipped out.

Hannah on the drive between the two facilities of the factory.

Spinning the cotton into thread.

New Family

I wrote this on Sunday!


Yesterday, Saturday I had no school but it was a very long day anyways. In the morning all of the exchange students went to the home. studio of a local artist. He does sculpting, portrait sketching, and painting. He also runs an after-school and summer rpgram where he teached both English and art. He is a Rotarian and had asked if we would come over sothat he could sketch us. The press was also there, a reporter to interview us and take photos.
We were greeted in the traditional style with flower garlands and such.

Traditional Greeting

Hannah, Jordan, and Nikolas with their flower garlands.

Hannah being sketched.

The three little kids of the house and me.

The little boy and his daddi (father's mother).

Sebastian took this and emailed it to me.
Me with my sketch, I'm curious to see how it looks finished.

The little kid loved having their pictures taken.

Again...

After spending the morning having BILLIONS of photos taken, posing for individual drawings, and playing with the little kids who lived there, we had to go to a RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) meeting. It wasn't something we really wanted to do but Ritu wanted us to go, so we did. So from noon to 5:30 we sat in a hot, stuff room and listened to talks on how to be a good leader and successful. Leadership is a very popular topic here. At times, it seems like India is striving and struggling to be the leader in every aspect it can. The most interesting part of the program was the cultural preformances at the end of the day. During a break during the meeting Sebastian said something that I'll try to remember at all times becuase I think it's SO true. He said that when every he's in a boring meeting or he'd rather be somewhere else, he thinks to himslef, "wait a minute, I'm in India, just think about THAT!"
After getting back to Ritu's we relaxed and rank tea until it was time to leave for a dinner party. The party started at 9 and was held in a hotel. Lots of Ritu's friends and a few kids were there, we played version of bingo (Hannah and I wond 200 rupees) and other games. Dinner wasn't served until midnight though so Hannah and I ate very lightly. Mostly the two of us hung out and talked.
I'm writing this now, here, in the second day of the RYLA program. Today, we came prepared with things to subtley do. Today is even harder to sit through because most of the speaking is in Hindi which is tiring to listen to but also faun to try to figure out.
Yesterday (Sat.) there was no school because it was the start of a the Hindu festival for the elephant god, Genesha. In the past few days little stall have sprung up all along the streets selling idols. The idols come in all sizes, from plam sized to toddler sized. The most popular color is neon orange but you can buy them in many colors. Orange headbands, and fake swords are also sold. People come to buy their idols with carts, trucks bicycles, wagons, on foot, motorcycles, etc. Many people bring their god home or to their work in a preocession of drumming and marching, they are celebrating the fact that a god is coming to visit their home.
For the next week or so, the people will wash and adorn their gods daily. On the final day, they will throw their idol into the river, thus sending him back home.


TODAY

Last night, after the RYLA my new host family picked me up. It's a family of three (mom, dad, daughter). The daughter, Shruti, is in 8th grade at my school. They seem VERY excited to have me here. I have my own room.
Before coming home last night, we stopped at a grocery store. At the grocery stores here you have to ask the people behind the counter for thing which they then pile on the counter. After you have everything you want piled (and it took a while becuase there were so many people the workers got distracted) they bag it for you and ring you up. The bags are then all carried to the car for you.
Today was a very relaxing/boring day at school. It's the mid-term exams, which I'm mostly not taking. I spent the day in the library with Nikolas, and a girl who was here for her first day at school (she just moved back from Dubai).
I had only two clases, Biology and Hindi. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt the English Language exam.
The exams here are taken very seriously. Shruti got up mat 4:45 this morning to study, and she didn't even have an exam today.

My new host mother.

The temple in the house in the entry way. We have to keep our shoes either outside or in another room so they aren't in near the temple.

More Pictures...

These are pictures from my previous host family (the Singhi family). I was sorry to have to leave yesterday but they say they would like to have me back when their guests are gone and the girls are finished with exams.

The Singhi house.

The Singhi House (our room was through the door behind the sign on the balcony).

View #1 from the roof terrace.

View #2.

Nimisha on the terrace.

View #3.

View #4 (it was a little rainy)

Rainbows in the clouds.

View #5.

View #6 (see the rainbow...)

Nikita Singhi.

Nikita doing homework.

Aalok and Nimisha Singhi.

The Singhi family, from left: Aalok, Nimisha (in front), Sumita, Daddi-ji (I don't know her real name but "daddi" is your paternal grandmother), Dadda-ji (the same goes for him and "dadda"), Nikita.

The family.

Me and the family (minus Aalok).

I had no school today as it was a Muslim holiday and there is no school tomorrow as it is the start of a Hindu festival that last about 10 days.