Beginning of Goa

We are going to do a series on the Goa trip we made last week. Here's the first installment:

Travel & Anjuna
Last week we made a trip to the coast for a couple of days of exploration and relaxation. It was over the Diwali holiday so we only had to miss one day of school. The journey started with a 12 hour bus ride (overnight) on a sleeper bus. It was pretty much a bus full of bunk beds and no bathroom. They stopped for dinner at 9 pm and a couple of times in the middle of the night for random breaks on the side of the road. Mike slept great, soundly like a baby, but Sara had a little bit more of an issue sleeping. At one point she was called “the princess and the pea” due to her strange sleeping rituals. Oh well. The bus went well and we found ourselves in Anjuna (our first destination) after being dropped by the bus on the side of the road and getting a taxi.
Anjuna was a little sleepy when we arrived at 7 in the morning, not even the guest house we wanted to stay in was open, so we walked about 5 minutes and found ourselves a rocky coastline overlooking the Arabian Sea! After checking into the Manali guesthouse ($2/person!), we found ourselves having breakfast with coconut trees over our heads and the ocean not 50 feet in front of us. This was Mike’s first time seeing the ocean and was pretty giddy the whole time. We headed out to the famous Anjuna flea market right after breakfast. It was an experience for sure. People everywhere were trying to get us to go to their shop and buy their stuff. There was some fun fabric, shawls, spices, and knick knacks. We learned the art of haggling and got some relatively good deals. We spent the rest of that day on the beach, though it was a little too rocky to swim in (we attempted). The Manali guest house was great to us the first night, but we had to move on to our next destination.

Random Pictures

1. Elephant: There is an elephant that we've seen a few times on the main street near our house. It sticks out rather abruptly amongst the fast moving traffic here. His name is Gandhi and he's very friendly. We were amazed and crazy excited the first time we saw him. We ran over with bananas and found out he could eat the peel! Feeding him is free, rides are 500 Rs. which doesn't quite fit into our budget...

2. McDelivery: McDonalds is kind of a big deal here. There is only one that we've seen here but it markets itself as a family restaurant and occupies quite a large space in the local shopping mall. The best part of all is the long row of motorbikes that deliver right to your door.

3. River: We walk over the river, pretending that it is all we see. Peaceful and green land. It's a shame how much garbage is in it though. Twice now we've seen people stop on the bridge and throw out garbage into the river (whole bags of garbage!).

4. Goats: We were exploring by the river, walking on a tall cement pier type thing and we saw all these goats walking by the canal! Goats are everywhere, the train tracks, the roads, the river...It's great.

My look alike

So about four times on the street I've been yelled at very enthusiastically "You look just like Daniel Vettori!" I found out after some googling that he's the New Zealand cricket captain. I don't think there's much of a resemblance, though I think the two key factors here are my being white and having a beard. I kind of hope that the situation arises where someone actually thinks that I am Daniel Vettori, maybe I can sign some autographs or something. Well anyways, judge for yourself the resemblance...

Our Flat

Here’s to give you a better idea what our flat consists of:

Kitchen:
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but most kitchens here (including ours) does not have an oven. There is a stove that is essentially a large Bunsen burner (you have to light it with a match). A gas tank is below in a cupboard which needs to be turned on every time you use the stove. After turning it on you turn the dial on the stove and light away. As any good lab participant knows, I always light the match and then turn on the gas. We also have a small refrigerator, a microwave, and running water. We bought this pot that boils water quickly for tea because on the stove it was taking forever to warm up water for tea (which we tend to drink every night, Mike takes down tea like nobody’s business). Most of our pots and pans (3 functioning ones) have at least one missing handle. This is mostly because they can’t hold up a lot of weight so they’ve broken with the previous owners. Silverware and plates were here when we got here luckily.

Bathroom:
It is mostly what you think of in a Western bathroom. We have actual toilets, unlike most public toilets in the area (which are more like holes in the ground). The major two differences I can think of are the plumbing and the shower. The plumbing is a rubber pipe from the faucet and goes straight down into a drain. There are only drains in the bathroom. The shower is not a separate part of the bathroom. It has a curtain and the floor dips down where the shower is, but there is no structure to it.

Bedroom:
It is plain and simple with fun curtains the windows. There are a couple of small cabinets and a wardrobe. We have no problem fitting in our one backpack of stuff into the wardrobe! The bed is a little softer than the floor, but nothing that you can sink into. I have been sleeping on top of my sleeping bag the entire time so far to add a little cushion. Mike braves it out. Both of our backs may forever be changed.

Living Space:
The whole flat has hard tiles on the floor. There are no carpets or wood flooring. There is a TV that doesn’t work, a couch, and two sitting chairs. We luckily have a dining room table (seating for six so we welcome visitors!) and a coffee table. There is a small balcony, which is very common in flats here. It is big enough for all four of us to sit and read on during the evenings. Mike and I read outside yesterday when rained throughout the evening and it was beautiful. That’s all I’ve got. We love it and are extremely thankful for it.

Gandhi Museum

Today we went to the Aga Khan Palace (or the Gandhi museum). We walked in the heat for about 45 minutes until we got to the Palace. The palace is unique in that everything around it is apartments, stores, and roads; but right in the middle of all that is this big open garden with the palace in the middle. It was where Gandhi, his secretary and his wife were kept for multiple years. His wife and secretary died there, and all their ashes are there. Next to their ashes also lie the ashes of Gandhi himself. It was a beautiful, big palace surrounded by green gardens. The actual exhibits were only decently presented, but the paintings and statues of Gandhi made the trip worth it. Since we were foreigners we paid 20 times (literally) what an Indian citizen would pay to get into the museum.
We just got to tour the first couple of rooms, each having statues, paintings, or belongings of Gandhi’s. Artifacts collected from the community and famous people were abundant as well. All of the upper floors were off limits to visitors. We were expecting it to be much more busy, as Gandhi’s birthday was yesterday, but there were maybe about 20 others there at the time.
We spent some times around in the gardens, enjoying the beautiful flowers and sweet trees.
After the museum we went to Big Bazaar, the splendid shopping center that has everything one could want. The best thing to compare it to would be an Indian version of Ikea with a supermarket attached. It has stuff everywhere. Where there is not stuff, there are at least three people. What we consider “normal” grocery stores are not plentiful here. But we usually buy enough rice and other staples to last us and then buy fresh food daily or every other day.

Top 5

Top 5 of Pune, India: Multiple lists of the Top 5 of our experiences so far.

Places we’ve been:
1. Westview Apartments - Our oasis in the midst of finding a flat; John opened up his apartment so we could use the internet, phone, and comfy beds. Reshma had all her wait staff taking care of us.
2. Jogging Park - A fantastic place to go running and play Frisbee. It is one of the few green spots in the city and only a couple of minutes away from our flat. It will definitely help to keep Sara sane.
3. Veggie Stand - where we buy most of our fresh food and contains great treats like pineapple ($0.65), carrots (yes they have them here!), Indian oranges, and okra (aka ladyfingers).
4. Our Flat – A great location and relaxing spot for us. We play hours of cards and immerse ourselves in our many books (and textbooks for some).
5. River – We’ve loved being close to the water (though not as clean as one would hope). It is a beautiful and calming thing to walk and drive by.

Things we should have learned before coming to India:
1. How to negotiate a ricksaw for a fair price
2. One must register before they get an apartment
3. Nothing happens on time or quickly
4. How to do the Indian head nod (we’ll demonstrate what we’ve learned when we get back, Mike practices during our ricksaw rides)
5. Our English is not easily understood and not the same as Indian English

Ways to travel:
1. Auto Ricksaw – like a rollercoaster but off the tracks (mike thinks it is more like a go-kart)
2. Train – great scenery all the way and very spacious!
3. Cab – our first ride in India was in a “cab” that had all of our luggage (unattached) on top of the small vehicle on a small rack
4. Motorcycle – Mike and Andrew have experienced this a couple of times as passengers of people that work at the clinic (three to a motorcycle). Pune has the highest density of motorcycles of all of India, and the streets are full of them.
5. Walking – A lot is in walking distance and we take the opportunity every time it comes around. We’ve been exploring the area with walks, some beautiful some not.

Food we’ve eaten:
1. Paneer – Like tofu but with milk instead of soy, put in a lot of curries and other dishes
2. Dal – made of lentils, onions, tomatoes, and delicious spices; it is typically put over rice
3. Chipatti – whole wheat flour, water, and salt (can add onions or spices), and cooked on a skillet with a little oil; this flatbread is very thin and used in most traditional meals in place of the utensils
4. Porridge – We usually made oats for breakfast and they are always delicious, with a little milk and sugar it is hard to beat.
5. Fried Rice – We know it’s not Indian but Anne and Andrew made it two nights ago and it was heavenly. Rice is usually a staple in all we eat. There is even a shop down the street that sells fresh eggs (the live chickens stacked up in the back are also for sale).

Hassles we’ve experienced/experiencing:
1. Registration Office – Long lines, changed open times, and lack of communication: all fun parts of the process.
2. Finding a flat – false promises and dashed hopes left us desperate but it in the end it turned out better than even expected!
3. Making friends – We still don’t know how to solve this one. We have little normal contact with people our age. Our high hopes lie in our Frisbee (we played with multiple kids and grown men today) and slackline (the friend making machine).
4. Being stared at – It doesn’t matter where we go or what we are doing, we get stared at a lot. More for Anne and Sara, but we seem to be the show of the night wherever we go.
5. Being targeted for money – Many times we are quoted prices that are far higher just because we are foreigners. This was most evident in the search for an apartment, but luckily we had Reshma with us to make sure we didn’t lose any money (thanks reshma!). We’re starting to get a handle on how much we should be paying for things, but it’s a learning process.

Things we’ve brought:
1. Toilet Paper
2. Sheets
3. Books
4. Playthings (Frisbee, cards, and slackline)
5. Computers

Things we miss from the US (besides wonderful people):
1. an oven
2. peanut butter
3. good beer
4. cheese (Mike’s favorite)
5. quiet and order

KC Thackery Niketan English Medium School

KC Thackery Niketan English Medium School
For simplicity sake I’ll call it KC. Anne and I (Sara) have been going there for almost a week now and have had quite the experiences.

Summary of School
The school has grades 3-7 and teaches in English. The principal, Shalini, is the main contact we’ve had and our main mentor. The students wear uniforms of sorts that are white or blue t-shirts with blue bottoms. It is not strictly followed, but most kids are wearing some form of that. The school itself looks relatively nice. It is a concrete building with open air all around (no screens) and each classroom goes to the outside. The building is three stories high but they only use the first two. All the kids are from lower income families in Pune.
There are three types of schools in India: private, government aided, and government schools.
According to Shalini the government schools are the worse, with the larger classrooms and the minimal access to supplies and good teachers. KC is a government school, but also partly funded by a NGO. Shalini is trying to revamp how government schools are done by changing this one. She wants students to be able to decide what they do when they grow up, not be stuck in one option. The school still has very large classroom sizes but focus on challenging and encouraging the students in new ways.

Fieldtrip
Anne and I accompanied the fourth standard (grade) to an old fort outside of Pune. It took us an hour and a half to get there, with many bumps along the way. The bus we took was so intense to ride, as we bounced almost to the roof when we sat in the back. The kids were crazy loud, but we were able to talk to a couple of them one and one. I had a good time getting to know some of the kids. I even tried to lead a game that was at least half successful. The bus was stalled before we were let in to the forest and the kids were rising steadily in volume. I jumped in and settled them down for about 5 minutes with a bus game (way to go past jobs in teaching me fun games). The actual fort was on top of one of the summits of a hill/mountain range that was BEAUTIFUL. Green everywhere in sight and the fort had great architecture.

Daily Schedule
Day to day varies. Anne and I have been put in classrooms where there are no teachers…multiple times. A brief overview of what the children are to learn is explained and then we are left. It does not always go smoothly. The kids are talkative, and talk over each other and us. When they raise their hands they also shout out the answer. It is strange to us how classes are working here, when it seems like there is little control. It is also strange the school trusts us to lead a classroom with a second notice. Language is a barrier, especially in the younger classes. Their accent and ours is a deadly combination at times. Nothing seems to make sense from either side. Other times it is great. We help small groups, we help in classrooms, we lead classrooms, and we do it all. Hopefully we will be meeting with the principal next week to set up some ground rules so we don’t feel like we are put to every task that other teachers do not want. We want to be helpful but we also don’t want to get burned out.

Future
There is a possibility I will be taking 6th grade science (had my first lesson today) for the rest of their school year (until April). The first lesson was rough because I knew none of the kids, the classroom structure, the discipline strategies, past lessons, or future lessons. I tried to review and think I did an okay job considering. Hopefully there will be more support in the future and more foundation. Mike and Andrew came to the school today and helped a great deal. Mike was even there for one of my science classes which was wonderful. All the kids want to know everything about the USA and can’t believe people don’t walk on streets in the US. They also can’t believe people get speeding tickets or that there are no ricksaws.
This school will definitely be a huge learning grounds for me, and where I will be the most challenged.