Week 3...

Well guys, I've been out here for over three weeks now - it's gone so fast! And it's been an entire week since I blogged (sorry mum!) so here I am to catch you up on everything!! 

When I last blogged, I was heading off to see a Bollywood Movie - it was awesome! almost half of it was in English, so I understood everything pretty much and it was very funny. We went out for dinner after that which was yummy! 

The next day I officially finished my training, which unfortunately meant we had to have Ana and Amina's (and Robyn's) leaving ceremony! I only spent two and a half weeks with them, but it was a fun time, and I learnt loads from them whilst they were here, so if you're reading either of you, thank you!! 

I had the weekend off, and spent a very enjoyable weekend doing not a lot! Lots of the Tare (and some of the other staff too) have been ill recently (I've managed to avoid it so far!) so it was a general recovery weekend for everyone - amazing! Will do more in the future, but sometimes I like sitting around not doing much. I did get my washing done though, which is good because I was running out of underwear! 

The rest of this week has been fairly same same, as they say here in India... lots of preparing for events, the one starting on Friday and future events, some sitting on reception, some data entry... 

Today was a little different though, we had event prep first thing, then 11.30 we had an event briefing, followed by 2pm Video Training, followed by 3.30pm Team Building, and 4.30 was Robyn's farewell party, which was a very emotional time for her, but she read a speech out in Marathi to the local staff which was lovely - I have NO idea what she said, but she got on so well with the local staff - they were all in tears to see her go! She's got a few more days at work though, they just happen to be during an event, so this was the best time to say goodbye! 

Oh and my social calendar has been looking up recently - Monday night, Ellen and I headed to Kirti and Karmanie's (I apologise for my spelling which is undoubtedly wrong.) to have dinner cooked by the pair of them. They're sisters who have a really strong link with Sangam, they helped set up the guide unit here, the campsite is named after their parents, their brother is married to an ex-programme manager, and Kirti is the yoga teacher! So that was really fun, to get to sit and chat with them... 

Tuesday night, we went out for dinner at a Western restaurant, I had proper pasta which was very exciting!! 

Tonight is Wednesday, and I went out with Claire and Heidi for a bit of shopping which was lots of fun, but we're all shattered now!! 

I've also got a couple of weekends booked off to head out and do stuff with - the first one I'm definitely going to Mumbai with Claire, so that will be fun :D after that, who knows... I think I've also got some time booked off to do something with Aleia and Ellen, but I am not entirely sure on the plans there - I'll let them organise and tell me what I'm doing!! 

So there you go - I think that's pretty much everything! I'm having a fantastic time, and I can't believe time is flying soooo quickly!! Next event starts Friday, 19 Australians - it's going to be crazy - can't wait!! 

PS there's been a request for a picture of me in my sari - I'll get it up soon, but I need to steal a photo off someone!! Maybe tomorrow on my day off :) 

Have just finished watching Bend It Like Beckham with the girls - I soooo love that film, and seriously want to play football now!! But anyway...

Had a fantastic weekend with Andrea and Amy - picked them up from the airport, Andrea was pretty much asleep! we had a fairly relaxed Saturday morning, I showed them around Sangam and the neighbourhood (Phule Nagar and Wadi) and then came back to Sangam for lunch... In the afternoon we went to Laxmi Road which was MENTAL. It was the end of Ganesh Festival, so everyone was out to see Ganesh one last time, and there were many many Ganeshs to see (what's the plural of Ganesh anyone?) The place was absolutely packed, there were police around, body scanners, crazy times, but such a good experience, and so much fun for Andrea and Amy to see! 

Saturday evening we chilled out, played a bit of monopoly... The Tare's plus extras headed out to the circus, which apparently was bizarre, but we all had pizza together before they headed out, which was nice :) Sunday, we went up Parvati Hill which has the most gorgeous views at the top, and a good work out spot too apparently - there were several Indian men doing aerobics up there which was a bit random! Sunday afternoon we toddled over the Aga Khan Palace, which was built by the third Aga Khan (aka a very important person...) and donated to the Indian State by the fourth Aga Khan, who now lives in Saudi Arabia... It's a gorgeous palace, with pretty gardens. Gandhi was imprisoned there in the 40's so now it's basically a museum about him. Got back and went off to see Ganesh emersed in the river... and I feel that might need a bit of explaining...

Basically, during Ganesh festival, pretty much everyone has a Ganesh in their house (because Ganesh has come to visit them), they're decorated with lights and tinsel and it's a lot like Christmas! There are also massive Ganeshs in the streets, put up by the community nearby. At some point, Ganeshs sisters come to visit too, and during the festival every night there are parties on the streets, drumming, dancing, there are big trucks with speakers on the back with blare out music all day and all night, and people dance behind them on the roads, it's pretty funky stuff! At the end of the festival (11 days), Ganesh leaves, and goes back to wherever he lives. The Hindus believe the river is scared, and flows to heaven (or whatever their equivalent is) and so that's where they put their ashes once they die, and in the same way, they put Ganesh in the river, and let him float away. 

SO, basically, we rocked up to Tarobai's house, they sang songs (like Christmas hymns), they blessed Ganesh, and gave us sweets (always giving us sweets!), then we went outside, put their Ganesh on a big cart, and Sllloowwwwlllyyyy took him down to the river. It was so slow because we had to keep stopping every 5 metres to dance a bit more and drum a bit more! But basically they make it as slow as possible to keep the party going for as long as possible - sounds pretty reasonable to me! On the way there, we passed (and were passed by) loads of people carrying their Ganeshs, by car, motorbike, rickshaw, walking, tractor... you name it, they did it! When we got to the river bank there were loads of people there, maybe 30-40 other Ganeshs (including a couple of massive ones!). They did a couple more blessings and stuff, and then they gave Ganesh to one of the men in the river (the strong swimmers, lifeguards..) who took it, dunked it in twice, and let it wash away... Now, before you all get too concerned about the environmental impact of that, most Ganeshs are made of sand, so it's not too bad... occasionally you get dodgy ones made from plaster of paris, and they float!

So there you go... we wandered back to Sangam, ate food, chatted, and went to bed. Andrea and Amy left on Monday morning, and I headed back to training. In the past two days, I've had training on the community partners, WAGGGS, MDGs... And Ellen and I also got sent to Aga Khan Palace again, with a challenge booklet, full of questions to answer. The sun was shining today, much better than Sunday when it was raining, so the gardens were even more beautiful!

Tomorrow is more training in the morning (risk assessments!) and then off to see a Bollywood Movie in the afternoon =D Can't wait!

Rickshaw Love

So I don't have time to do a full update right now, because I'm technically working =P I'll do one tonight, hopefully!! 

BUT - I just wanted to publically announce my love for whichever driver it was that found my name badge in the back of his rickshaw and brought it back to Sangam. I have felt slightly naked without it for the past few days, and I'm glad it is now back on my t-shirt! (And also thanks to Mina for getting it from the rickshaw driver to me!)

MASSIVE RICKSHAW LOVE

xx

End of Event

My first event finished today, so I'm a little sleepy, but waiting up to chat to mum on skype when she gets home from work :) Should be around 10:30 so not too late, so mum, when you read this - don't feel guilty!! Figured while I was waiting, I could catch everyone up on the events of the past few days, although I don't have a schedule lying around any more so I have NO idea what I did... lets see how making stuff up goes!

Day 5 of Advocacy Seminar

This was the day after my day off... In the morning I went out to one of Sangam's community partners, Tara Mobile Creche. It's an amazing place - basically what they do is create creches near building sites, with funding, and provide free places to the children of the construction workers. There are 16 sites in and around the Pune area, and the one that we went to was amazing. The construction site was really close, but keeping the kids in the creche meant they were out of the way of danger. With ages ranging from 1 month to 14 years, there was quite a mix, babies hanging in hammocks, sleeping through the noise of the other classes. They only had 3 rooms for more kids than I could count, but everything was so well organised that it didn't seem to matter, and most importantly, the kids were happy! This is where Diane and Chelsea, two of the Tare, will be working for the next 3 months - Diane burst into tears and Chelsea seemed pretty overwhelmed too, but I think they're both going to love it! 

In the afternoon, we had a session discussing our visits, and then we had "Who Wants To Be A WAGGGS Millionaire?!" which was just a mental game which my team won - whoop!! Seriously crazy times though :P 

The tailor also came with my sari all sorted :D 

Day 6 of Advocacy Seminar

In the morning of Day 6, we had some sensible sessions, where we discussed things - or at least the participants did! I'm not really sure what went on in those sessions, so I will skip over those to the exciting bits... At lunch time, we headed out to our local restaurant, and ate some good food! Then we had a wander around the local shops, before heading back to get measured for our work uniform, and get changed into our saris to learn how to tie them, and have our Indian afternoon! This basically involved lots of different activities, so I have Mehendi (or Henna) on my foot, we did some rangoli, and lots of other things, and I had to tie my sari like 10 times in a row so that I could learn how to do it properly.. I really need to try it on again in a couple of days and see if I can still remember... It's a gorgeous midnight blue sari, with red blouse (and Claire has the opposite colours to me, so we clearly look amazing :P ). 

For dinner, we had a Maharastrian dinner (Maharastra being the state that Pune is in) and it was amazing! And straight after dinner, we learnt some Bollywood dance moves! So much fun :P 

Day 7 of Advocacy Seminar (last day!)

This was today - we started the morning by climbing the water tower - it's amazing up there, some stunning scenery, and a great view of Sangam itself! We'd been trying to climb it all week, but it's been too wet! Today however, we managed it :) After that, it was breakfast, and then Laughing Yoga, which is just the funniest thing you've ever done, and completely indescribable, so I'm not even going to try! After that we had a fake picnic with the staff, where they discussed how all the participants could come back to Sangam in the future (like I've done!). We ended with a closing ceremony, which was lovely. 

This afternoon, we were basically just tidying up, and the evening, just relaxing! 

All in all, the event was lots of fun, and a real learning curve! I've got a day of meetings tomorrow, then two days off (with Andrea and Amy), and then a few days of training and then I start work OFFICIALLY! Crazy times!! 

I would just also like to mention how pleased I am that Jill found her underwear, and how much I love chicken pie.

Adovcacy Seminar

Well we're onto Day 4 of the advocacy seminar now, and happy days - today is my day off! How do you spend your first day off in India? Relaxing, sitting by the pool reading, having a REALLY long shower, and updating your blog - sounds about right! I'm here for 3.5 months and have plenty of time to explore, and it's mental in the city at the minute as it's Ganesh Festival, so I think I'll hang out in the peace and quiet of Sangam, and explore when life calms down :) 

So, what's been going on? I know you're all wondering! 

Well...

Day 1 of Advocacy Seminar

Everyone arrived, and we started the seminar with a flag ceremony where we brought in all the flags from the countries represented here at Sangam currently. We have... UK, Canada, USA, Oz, Mexico, Sweden, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, India, and I think another African country which I've forgotten... Massive diversity going on right now! There's also Malaysia on the staff. After the flag ceremony, we had lots of intro to Sangam stuff - house rules, a tour of Sangam, a neighbourhood walk, event briefing, that kind of thing. 

And in the evening, we had the beautiful welcome ceremony, which I attended when I came in 2006. It's a traditional thing that's been going on for 40 years, with a mixture of Girlguiding and Indian traditions and it's just a fantastic experience, and a lovely way to end the day!

Day 2 of Advocacy Seminar

Day 2 was filled with seminar sessions - introduction to advocacy, introduction to the MDGs, (Millennium Development Goals), introduction to each other, and what they get up to in their own countries... a lot of that sort of thing. It was a really good day, and I think everyone enjoyed it :) It was a bit mental for me, as I was shadowing Sophie, who was helping at 3 of the sessions, and doing meal duty and her friends were arriving! But I love having loads to do, so it was awesome sauce, as Jill would say! 

Day 3 of Advocacy Seminar

Yesterday was a completely different day to the day before - We did lots of Sangam activities, so in the morning we went to Laxmi Road, which is the very heart of Pune, a really old road, with lots of traditional Indian shops, and market stalls. As it's Ganesh Festival which is MASSIVE in Pune, it was very crowded, but we all managed to stay together. The participants had a vegetable challenge in the market, they were given the name of a vegetable in Hindi (e.g. Gobi) and they had to go and buy it, with no idea what they were buying! With lots of asking around, and finding an Indian who can also speak a bit of English, it's not too bad! After this we went to a museum which was all in Hindi, but had some really pretty windows were you could look out onto the streets - it was worth going into it for that! Then we headed to a sari shop, and I bought a new sari :D Claire and I have almost matching Saris.. not because we wanted matching ones, but because we both happened to like the same one! So I have a dark blue sari, with red blouse, and Claire has the reverse! We are going to look AWESOME :P The tailors came to measure us up later in the day, and we'll have them back in a couple of days!! WOOOOP :) 

Yesterday we also had a preparation session for today - the participants are currently out at one of Sangam's three community partners. But more excitingly yesterday finished with our international faire, with some presentations from a variety of countries, and lots of sweets from all over the place!

I slept SO well last night after all of that yesterday! Feeling much more alive, alert, awake than I was yesterday, but just as enthusiastic!

Work Time

I've had two days of work now - including today which has been an epically long meeting, so I apologise for any spelling / grammar / general failures in this blog - it's 9.30pm and I really need to be in bed - but I wanted to blog =P

Day 1

The first day of work consisted of general intros to Sangam, so Ellen and I had our first 9am meeting, with all the Sangam staff (well not ALLL of them, but lots of them!), and then we had a programme team meeting, and then a meeting just for us, to make sure we knew all the regulations in Sangam, and lots of other stuff that's important... then we had some lunch, and after that, we had a intro to WAGGGS - all exciting things... then we had a meeting with Sophie and Aleia, who are the other SVs (sangam volunteers) who will be working with us until the end of October, when two others arrive. This meeting was about the upcoming event, giving us a brief overview of what was going to happen. Then we had some dinner, and then we had a tour of Sangam, including the history of the building, and then we got to rest, and Claire (who's a Tare - community volunteer) brought me some much appreciated sweets from the shop! 

Day 2

This was today, it started with COMPULSORY 7am yoga - it's compulsory for me and Ellen during our first event, and then after that, we can choose. This was followed by breakfast, and the 9am meeting again. Then we had to wait for a while for Katy! Katy is from WAGGGS, and she's helping us run the event/seminar that's starting tomorrow. She's from the UK and she'd only got to Sangam at 6am, so she was having a bit of a sleep, which is fair enough! so we cracked on with organising some bits and pieces that needed doing. Then Katy arrived and we spent the rest of the day until dinner time pretty much in a meeting discussing the seminar in some serious details. It's good that we know all the info, but because we hardly knew anything before the meeting, it was lots to take in. We had occasional breaks for silly games to break up the monotany, and we had all of Sangams many breaks..(elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner) 

This evening, my brain was dead, so I played a game of Sanguno, and then tried to use my laptop to check my e-mails - that failed again, so I came back to the programme room to use their computers - best idea ever =P 

But now I think it's bed time - the event starts tomorrow, officially at 12.30pm, so I think there will be lots of running around getting final things sorted in the morning, and of course there's 7am yoga - I can't wait! 

Really looking forward to the seminar though - after all of our meetings and the hard work that all the Sangam team have clearly put into it before I arrived, it should be AMAZING.