Greeting from The Pink City (or better known as Jaipur),
Sorry I haven't been writing, I am having way too much fun and too many adventures that I am always exhausted after each day.
Anyways, Here is a brief recap of the past four (?) weeks:
Week Two (Jan 23st-30th):
This week was pretty normal and nothing in-particular happened. I woke up every day at 530am and helped clean the school yard with the hostel children. Next, we ate breakfast around 8-830am and school began 9am. This week was slightly different because it was sports week, so instead of afternoon classes that students were split into different houses and competed in games all week.
This I also met a girl named Shalini. She is twenty and went to school in Guwahati until grade 10, then she went to boarding school in Delhi for grades 11 and 12, and now she attends university of Austin, Texas. This week she invited me over to her house after school for the first of many visits. Her family was so nice and welcoming! I absolutely adore them (and their 4 dogs) and you will hear much more about them later on.
1) Sports Week: Race while balancing a marble on a spoon and sack race
2) Shalini
Week Three (Jan 31st-Feb 8th):
On Jan 31st I went to Shalini's house again. This time we went across the road to her aunt and Grammies' houses. I meet seven more dogs and felt right at home. I also took a rickshaw for the first time and tried an Indian snack called "Pani Puri". Don't ever try it! It was possibly the worst thing I have ever tried.
Feb 2nd was the Puja, which is a day where Hindus worship a specific God. This Puja was centered around Saraswati, the Hindi Goddess of Knowledge. There was no school this day. All the school children and their parents came Parijat Academy and prayed. It was an incredible sight to see, and I got to wear an Assamese Mekhla (an Indian dress specific to the state of Assam. It is similar to a saree, but it has two pieces).
4) Rickshaw ride
5) Pani Puri
6) Puja photos
The Rest of the week pretty hectic-- the students and teachers spent the rest of the week preparing for the "Parijat Festival 2014" on Saturday.
Feb 8th was a jam packed day. The Parijat Festival was incredible. It was filled with singing, dancing, and lots of food. It was amazing to see the traditional Bihu dance and costume of Assam.
The festival lasted long into the night and around dinner time my host mother fainted while I was sitting next to her. We were eating dinner and I looked over and she seemed very tired. She closed her eyes and I said, "tired, huh?" I was truing to make conversation, but then her eyes stayed closed for a little too long and all of a sudden she collapsed right next to me. It was terrifying because the hostel boys rushed in to take her to the doctor and I was sent to my room so that I would be out of the way. No worries, she was okay.
8) Festival photos
Week Four Feb 9th-17th:
This week was pretty normal again. On Monday (Jan 10th) Shalini and I took class five to the Guwahati Zoo. It was really exciting because we raised 8,000 rupees ourselves to pay for the bus, zoo tickets, snacks, and lunch for the children. We saw monkeys, hippos, cheetahs, and more.
Emma King-- by more, yes, I mean a TIGER! I think I was so excited to see the tiger because I was extra excited to be able to tell you that I saw a tiger!
9) Photos from the zoo
10) TIGERS!!!!!
11) Cheetas
12) Hippo (To bad he wasn't pink, Rinne)
Wednesday (Jan 12) was Shalini's 20th Birthday! I went to her house after school to celebrate. Before dinner Shalini and I went to a salon called "Yellow Ballon Salon" and I got a hair cut. I was different to have my hair cut by people who deal with Indian hair on the reg. For dinner we went out to a nice Indian restaurant called "Red". It was a lot of fun. On a side note, I wore Shalini's huge red heels and absolutely ate it hard outside the restaurant and fell down a flight of stairs. Heels: 1 Molly: 0
13) Selfie in the Indian Salon, sorry not sorry
15) Note my red heels
The school week was pretty boring. Instead of teaching Shalini and I wrote exams all week. Parijat does not have a photocopier so we had to hand write exams for over 500 children. Lets just say I am now an expert on when to use "the, a, or an" before a noun.
I left Guwahati on Monday Feb 17th. I was super sad to leave the children, but happy for a change of location.
16) Saying goodbye to the hostel girls
This brings me to my past two weeks in Jaipur, but I will blog again on Sunday to catch up.
If you have read this whole novel I am extremely impressed, I could barely even proof read it (aka I didn't).
Namaste,
MPH
Sorry I haven't been writing, I am having way too much fun and too many adventures that I am always exhausted after each day.
Anyways, Here is a brief recap of the past four (?) weeks:
Week Two (Jan 23st-30th):
This week was pretty normal and nothing in-particular happened. I woke up every day at 530am and helped clean the school yard with the hostel children. Next, we ate breakfast around 8-830am and school began 9am. This week was slightly different because it was sports week, so instead of afternoon classes that students were split into different houses and competed in games all week.
This I also met a girl named Shalini. She is twenty and went to school in Guwahati until grade 10, then she went to boarding school in Delhi for grades 11 and 12, and now she attends university of Austin, Texas. This week she invited me over to her house after school for the first of many visits. Her family was so nice and welcoming! I absolutely adore them (and their 4 dogs) and you will hear much more about them later on.
1) Sports Week: Race while balancing a marble on a spoon and sack race
2) Shalini
3) Shalini and her two sisters
Week Three (Jan 31st-Feb 8th):
On Jan 31st I went to Shalini's house again. This time we went across the road to her aunt and Grammies' houses. I meet seven more dogs and felt right at home. I also took a rickshaw for the first time and tried an Indian snack called "Pani Puri". Don't ever try it! It was possibly the worst thing I have ever tried.
Feb 2nd was the Puja, which is a day where Hindus worship a specific God. This Puja was centered around Saraswati, the Hindi Goddess of Knowledge. There was no school this day. All the school children and their parents came Parijat Academy and prayed. It was an incredible sight to see, and I got to wear an Assamese Mekhla (an Indian dress specific to the state of Assam. It is similar to a saree, but it has two pieces).
4) Rickshaw ride
5) Pani Puri
6) Puja photos
The Rest of the week pretty hectic-- the students and teachers spent the rest of the week preparing for the "Parijat Festival 2014" on Saturday.
Feb 8th was a jam packed day. The Parijat Festival was incredible. It was filled with singing, dancing, and lots of food. It was amazing to see the traditional Bihu dance and costume of Assam.
The festival lasted long into the night and around dinner time my host mother fainted while I was sitting next to her. We were eating dinner and I looked over and she seemed very tired. She closed her eyes and I said, "tired, huh?" I was truing to make conversation, but then her eyes stayed closed for a little too long and all of a sudden she collapsed right next to me. It was terrifying because the hostel boys rushed in to take her to the doctor and I was sent to my room so that I would be out of the way. No worries, she was okay.
This week was pretty normal again. On Monday (Jan 10th) Shalini and I took class five to the Guwahati Zoo. It was really exciting because we raised 8,000 rupees ourselves to pay for the bus, zoo tickets, snacks, and lunch for the children. We saw monkeys, hippos, cheetahs, and more.
Emma King-- by more, yes, I mean a TIGER! I think I was so excited to see the tiger because I was extra excited to be able to tell you that I saw a tiger!
9) Photos from the zoo
10) TIGERS!!!!!
11) Cheetas
12) Hippo (To bad he wasn't pink, Rinne)
Wednesday (Jan 12) was Shalini's 20th Birthday! I went to her house after school to celebrate. Before dinner Shalini and I went to a salon called "Yellow Ballon Salon" and I got a hair cut. I was different to have my hair cut by people who deal with Indian hair on the reg. For dinner we went out to a nice Indian restaurant called "Red". It was a lot of fun. On a side note, I wore Shalini's huge red heels and absolutely ate it hard outside the restaurant and fell down a flight of stairs. Heels: 1 Molly: 0
13) Selfie in the Indian Salon, sorry not sorry
14) Happy Birthday, Shalini!
15) Note my red heels
I left Guwahati on Monday Feb 17th. I was super sad to leave the children, but happy for a change of location.
16) Saying goodbye to the hostel girls
This brings me to my past two weeks in Jaipur, but I will blog again on Sunday to catch up.
If you have read this whole novel I am extremely impressed, I could barely even proof read it (aka I didn't).
Namaste,
MPH
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