India is A–M–A–Z–I–N–G! - Africa and Asia Venture

India is A–M–A–Z–I–N–G! - Africa and Asia Venture

Ollie is thoroughly enjoying an adventure in India and here in the AV office we have been enjoying reading about his experience in magical India.....

FINALLY HERE....

Well I am in India, and wowee so far living up to all expectations and more. Everything is taken to the extreme, the colours the smell the noise it hits you hard like a slap around the face! I am still  trying to come to terms with everything around me it is just so much to take in in so little time. Even though I heard so much about this place before I left it still doesnt prepare you for the constant intensity and drama of it all!

STILL IN SILIGURI....

Well unfortunately we are still stuck in Siliguri. More drama is unfolding in the hills around Kalimpong UK teen teachers stranded in Siliguri'. And a nice quote of yours truly speaking some wise words. as the strike goes on. As word has spread that some white teenagers are in town we have started to become minor celebrities! First a journalist interviewed some of us asking about why we were here and what we were doing. So if you check out page 8 of the Calcutta Telegraph you will see an article with the headline '

RICE RICE RICE....

I am living in a village, called Siddim, on an exceptionally steep slope with Hugh for the next 3 months.Bucket showers, squatting loos, 4 exceptionally loud roosters, lots of rice are just a few of the changes. The family we are living with are very good hosts and feed us 4 times a day and look after us really well. Though they speak little english and are very shy. They are still calling me and Hugh 'sir' which we really don't want them to do but it is hard to tell them as they don't understand. It took a bit of time to learn who our host family actually was and what their names are. On the food front we are struggling to get used to a diet based
on rice, bread and oil. We are fed huge quantities of rice, the kind of quantity that I usually couldn't even imagine consumingin the UK. At first we were trying to be polite and finishing everything given to us but everytime we did that even more rice would appear. Learning the word for 'full' in the Lepcha language seems to have communicated the message.

We have started to help out a bit around the house, and have dabbled at plouging the slopes with two ox, herding goats and hunting for birds with catapults.
The locals get a lot of entertainment just from watching
us. In paticular climbing the hills, ploughing, being
smashed for 6 playing cricket and drinking the homemade
brew called 'chyee.

A LESSON IN TEACHING

Week 1 of primary school and im not going to lie it has been a bit of a challenge. The primary school is very basic. We started to play more games with them and then they started to get a bit more vocal, i think originally they may have been more shy than bored, at least I hope that was the case. Towards the end of the week we have found it much easier.

We have started to learn the Lepcha song that we are going to be singing at THE Lecphca singing and dancing competition next week. Hugh and I do make a strange noise but it seems to please San Tsering, our
teacher. We have only 7 days now until the big event and
I don't feel at all ready, one consolation is that we get to
enjoy all the other AVs going through the same! 

I could cope with that but there was one event that I was particularly unhappy about. I decided to tuck into my stash of bourbons, my pride and joy. It turned out that the rustling noise I had been hearing in the nights was said biscuits being eaten by a mouse. No bourbons makes Ollie an unhappy boy.

Other than that minor mishap having a great time as always. Hugh and I both agree that its great to be getting into the teaching. And we are getting on with our family better each day, getting through the language barrier is easier than before.

IT'S HOLI TIME! 

Happy Holi!

We are in Kalimpong this weekend for Holi the Hindu paint throwing festival! So we are braced for an onslaught of colour from the locals, target the pale skin I think is the aim!

We have had a very busy two weeks in Lepcha world. The highlight of which has to be the Lepcha Song and Dance competition that all of us were entered into last weekend.To set the scene for you about 10+ Lepcha villages entered the competition, totaling we think around 300-400 people. We were dressed in traditional Lepcha outfits which for the boys consisted of a cloth
wrapped around us like a toga and a thick rimmed hat.
And for the girls a massive piece of material, about 9m
long! Amongst all the impressive displays of traditional singing and dancing by the locals, we had to perform our prepared pieces. Hugh and I danced to a genre known as 'Lepcha Hip-Hop', and got pretty lost most of the way through. We then had to sing a Lepcha song, in the Lepcha language, which was exceptionally nerve racking but I would like to express my thanks to the row of ladies near the front who decided to spontaneously join in the singing with us. It helped ease the nerves! The Lepchas seemed to love watching us attempt to 'embrace' their culture, loud cries of "Aachuley" filled the hall whenever AVs performed, which in English literally
means 'Ode the the mountains' but is the equivalent
to 'hurrah'. 

In Siddim, my village, we are starting to meet many more of the locals. Many of which was in just one afternoon as one of our pupils from Primary school decided to take us on a tour of Siddim. This tour included 8 houses in the space of about 2 hours and at every house a cup of Chai (tea). Everywhere we went we had to be sat down in the best room of the house and given tea - it is a necessity. This means a lot of sugar and a very excited Hugh and Ollie. One man who spoke particularly good english seemed to be very clever but when he told me that he had learnt about Queen Victoria in the bible I started to have some doubts. 

Teaching is getting much better now, the kids are starting
to get used to us and be much more enthusiastic in lessons.  

The Dabling boys, Sam and Jamie, kindly invited all of us to their village last Wednesday for a chi party at their Lepcha teachers house! Chi is a local brew that consists of fermented millet in a bamboo cup and hot water poured on top. One man who went by the name of Halib couldn't stop telling us how happy he was that we were there. 

Until next time!

DON'T ENCOURAGE WWF AT SCHOOL!

Life with the Lepchas is getting better by the day! Our family are so much more confident around us now and we spend loads of time in the kitchen with them and out and about milking cows, herding goats, cutting food and more. San Tsering, the guy who looks after us, is so much fun, he loves having us along with him wherever he goes. Having found out the other day that he is only 26 I have suddenly started to see him as an older brother. He just laughs now at everything Hugh and I say, especially if it is in Nepali.

Teaching is fantastic, especially at the primary school which is loads of fun. In particular one little 3 year old boy who is the teachers son who seems to have free reign and on one very hot day started stripping off whilst I was trying to teach class 2. He then proceeded to walk around rubbing his belly and pouring water over his face. The other teachers didn't bat an eyelid. We have discovered their love of WWF wrestling and wrestlemania which they constantly watch. Though my idea of having the boys show me their WWF moves the other day wasn't a great one as it descended into
everyone fighting each other, it was pretty vicious.
I really drew the line when the 10 year old boys started
brandishing cricket stumps at the 6 year old girls.
Not a fair fight!

We are discovering more of our village each week
and more new faces all the time.

Yesterday we participated in the Lepcha Archery competition in Kalimpong which was not what we were expecting. As usual with everything India health and safety was non-existent, as people stood just 5m from the target and a line of 30 people fired arrows down the line. Hugh was particularly good hitting the target 4 times, but alas none for me. Instead I managed to break both Emilys and Alice's bows!

Over and out from Lepcha land 

Have you slept next to a Buddhist Lama? 

Well life in the villages is so busy at the moment. We are preparing for English Speaking Day which we are entering with our night school kids. We have written a skit based on the book 'The Golden Goose' though the organisation has been a bit trickier than we first imagined! It seems if you are a girl playing a boy then that is very embarassing and the girls who were in that positions weren't too pleaed. Though one boy who has to play a girl is relishing the challenge!

We have been very busy in our buddhist educations. We have had many buddhist celebrations at our neighbours houses where two lamas come and pray for the house from 10am one morning all the way until 4pm the next day with just a short sleep in the middle. Accompanied with drums, incense and symbols it makes for quite an all round experience. I did get to try the drumming but I got an unimpressed look from one lama as I got horribly out of time on more than one occasion. We are as always treated so well when we visit these houses and the owners looked as pleased as punch if we come along. Tonight we will have another one
and I believe we will be staying the night in this house too.
Sleeping next to buddhist lamas one more thing to tick off
my 100 life experiences!

We have also been along to church last week which was interesting but quite draining. 3 1/2 hour service in Nepali with a sermon lasting more than one hour. Though we can hum along to the songs it is mainly observational. We are trying to learn some of the hymns which are great happy clappy numbers!

We also visited Kaffer one day last week which is a village right at the top of our hill with the most stunning views. On one side on a clear day you can see right down the plains to Bangladesh and on the other a sweeping panorama of Nepal and Sikkim with Kanchenjunga
on the border! Its one of this areas underrated treasures
in my opinion!

We have only two weeks left now then we are going to Sikkim
to climb to base camp of Mt Kanchenjunga! 

Holy Mountains, Holy Rivers, and Holy Cows!

We had an amazing send off by our Lepcha school and village. They organised a big leaving ceremony with all in all about 100 of the village residents turning up, some of which we had never seen before! The primary school was all jazzed up with a stage and sheets and the microphone ready in position. We were presented with loads of scarves by each one of our students and other friends and then they did some dancing and singing performances. It really was far beyond what Hugh and I were expecting and was exceptionally special. It really showed how generous and appreciative they all were despite the fact that this happens nearly every year.

We attempted to do a final tour of the village on our last
day but managed to get stuck in the first few houses with
copious amounts of food and drink being offered.

It was really sad leaving Siddim behind, I was very close to welling up as we made our final walk through the village. It really surprised my how many people cried on our departure, and it wasn't in a happy crying way but a wailing as if a close relative had died. It was very touching but a little bizarre. I absolutely loved my village and I found I got a much closer connection to the locals than I was expecting. We saw them everyday and they all always had huge smiles on their faces. But it had to come to an end and in our sights was Mt Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.

As a group of 15 our plan was to do a 7 day trek from a village called Yuksam in west Sikkim up to the base camp of Kanchenjunga. We had a total of 15 horses, 4 yaks and about 16 porters. A pretty big brigade all in all. Luckily we got to put our big bags on the ponies and we could hike with just a day sack. Though it was hard work, we ascended a total of about 3000m. It really was a hotel on wheels though, the porters were fantastic fun and would prepare the camp for us and cook massive meals for us, including a lot of garlic a cure for altitude sickness. The scenery was of course stunning though the first two days were cloud soaked at the top we got to
see some incredible panoramas of the Sikkim Himalayas.


Ollie, Lepcha Volunteer February to June 2011

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