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.

INDIA

I'm here! A lot has happened in three days, so bear with me - I'll try and write it all in order, but I might get excited and skip bits and come back to them later - you would think with a computer I could just copy and paste things into the right order, but that's just no fun!

Headed down to Heathrow with mum on Sunday afternoon, got there in plenty of time! Stopped at the travelodge and couldn't make mum's TV work because the remote control was rubbish! Headed to Heathrow via McDonalds, and then stood in the queue for check in - I didn't do online check in because I didn't trust Jet Airways, but they were actually ok, so definitely online check in next time! But I did stand chatting to a random American woman who is volunteering in Nepal - she enjoyed talking at me... 

Checked in, and then got through security with no problems, headed to my gate, where I got there early enough that I could sit and watch the news and catch United's amazing goals on the sport bit :P Plane eventually boarded and I was in the middle of the centre aisle... not cool! but the people sitting either side of me were ok, they kept themselves to themselves and just slept! Watched a few films and slept a little bit...

Got off at Mumbai, again no problems - security let me through fast because I looked honest and trustworthy in my uniform! Met the driver, and then Ellen, the other Sangam Volunteer (SV) (she's Swedish) and we travelled to Pune, through some gorgeous countryside that I of course slept through... 

Got to Sangam, and have been having a seriously good time :) There's 8 of us in my dorm at the minute, so that's me and Ellen who are working in Sangam itself, and also Claire (Oz), Danni (Canada), Jill (Scotland), Diane (England), Carol (England) and Chelsea (USA). Today Claire, Ellen, Danni, Diane and Chelsea went to a Market in the morning to have a wander round and I tried custard apples (seriously, tasted like custard) and this afternoon Claire, Ellen, Carol and I went to a temple, and to MG road which is a big touristy shopping street - saw TWO elephants!!

Evening activities have so far consisted of playing games - yesterday I thrashed everyone at Monopoly, and today, we played Sanguno (yes, the Sangam version of Uno - if you put down BP the person after you has to pick up 5 cards, unless you have Lady BP in which case you're safe!) and then did a jigsaw (Jess - be jealous!) 

Work starts tomorrow, so that will be fun - meetings all day apparently, starting with a formal introduction to everyone, including the local Sangam staff, so that will be fun :) I think we're basically going to be finalising the stuff for the event coming up in a couple of days!

Off to bed now though - I might get up for 7am yoga... we'll see!!

Ooo and I forgot - played in the swimming pool this afternoon :D it's been raining lots (like more than monsoon standards - apparently it rains one day in every three, and it rained for three days straight) so it's very full, and the sun hasn't been out much so it's colder than it could be! Right - actually off to bed now!

TOMORROW

There's an old Chinese proverb that states

"The journey is the reward".

Now, whilst I'm hoping that tomorrow's journey won't be horrific, (There do appear to be at least some English films playing on Jet Airways entertainment.) I also hope it won't be the reward!

I'm leaving home at around 1pm tomorrow, just after lunch. Heading down to book mum in at a Travelodge, as she's staying overnight so she can go to Hampton Court Palace tomorrow (apparently to console herself because I'm leaving...). She has admitted that she only wants me there when she checks in so that I can show her how the TV works!

We'll then spend an hour or so there, and then she's taking me to Heathrow to check in and jet off! The plane leaves at 9.25pm and arrives at 11:00am Mumbai time - that's 4.30am to everyone in England - I'll be sure to text you all to tell you I've arrived safely! (This is a lie, have you seen the price of international texts?!) I will however update my blog as soon as I am in a fit state to do so, and have a spare moment!

I've been told that Sangam has wireless, so I am braving my dying laptop on a long haul flight and hopefully it will still be working when I get there! Sangam have also said that internet access can be sporadic, so if you don't hear from me, I probably haven't died!

So, my last blog from England until December! I'd better head to bed - though I might be too excited to sleep!

=D

FAQs

As the time for me to leave grows nearer, people are starting to ask questions! I'm getting a lot of the same questions, so I thought I'd answer them here, and maybe fend some of them off before I get asked them again... If you want more information, I'm scattering hyperlinks through this blog, and there's a few links over there --> 


Where are you going again? 
I'm off to India - you know that! More specifically, I'm going to Pune, Maharastra, India - which is about 4 hours away from Mumbai. It's towards the West of the country, in the central band. 


Where are you staying? 
I'm staying, and volunteering at Sangam, which is to the North of Pune. It's a World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) World Centre. The photo in the background of this blog is Sangam. 


How long are you there for? 
3.5 months - I'm leaving on Sunday (28th August) and I'm back just before Christmas! 


What are you going to be doing over there? 
As I said before, I'll be volunteering at Sangam, and that basically means running the events that are being put on (and attended by guides/ girl scouts from all around the world), planning new events, and "working on long term projects" 


Are you excited? 
What a silly question - of course I am! Also slightly nervous, as I'm sure you can imagine, but I can't wait!


Are you packed yet? 
Don't be daft - I'm not leaving til Sunday, that's four whole days away! 


I think that's most of the questions I've been asked - if you've got any more, ask away! Better get back to packing =P

ONE WEEK

Seriously, one week to go. That's crazy. 


Things still to do:
- Travel Insurance (pain the backside, I want to travel for 110 days, and I'm asthmatic, they do not like these combinations!) 
- Spare inhalers (going to see the nurse tomorrow) 
- Money (minor details)
- Phone (Need to change to pay as you go, rather than contract!) 
- Packing


There are probably more things, but my to do list is in the other room, which has now been transformed into my Packing Area. It is slowly being filled with stuff . Passport, neckers, uniform... Packing will occur officially on Friday. Saturday will be too late for me to stress, Thursday will be too early for me to stress, Friday it must be! 


Sangam here I come!! EXCITEMENT!