Time Off Activities

I can’t believe how quickly October has flown by! There have been many interesting things that have happened over the last little while.

I discovered that UK tents are completely different from ours. We had a group of Bharat Scouts and Guides using our campground for a couple of nights, so a group of us was sent out to show them how to set up our tents. For starters, the different parts of the tent are called the inner and the outer. The inner is the tent bit and the outer is the fly. But you set up the outer first. All the poles go in the outer. Then you bring the inner into the outer and clip it up to the poles. This way you can keep the inner dry throughout the set up process! Watching someone set this up (as it quickly became apparent that I wasn’t really able to be helpful as even the terminology was confusing me) was absolutely mind blowing!

On one of my days off this month I climbed Dighi Hill. Emily, Catt and I went out in the late afternoon. It was a good climb, with a nice view. There is a temple and a musallah on top, so we spent a bit of time poking around the temple. The sun set while we were at the top, so we couldn’t stay too long, and ended up climbing down in the semi-dark. We got a bus and went out for dinner before heading home. The dinner wasn’t the best burger I’ve ever had, but they had a scrabble game, which we played, and kittens outside, so it was fun.

I had one day off with Mary-May this month. Mary-May is from Montreal, she’s been at Sangam since June and we knew each other before coming here. We spent our day off “shopping until we dropped”. We went out to Laxmi Road. I love Laxmi Road. It’s everything I expected India to be like. It’s busy, full of colour and there are so many shopping opportunities. This was my 3^rd time there and I feel like I am starting to really know the area well. I bought a few outfits and ended up buying 2 saris. I left them at the tailor’s, but I’m going to go pick them up today. I’m very excited to wear them! We had dinner at a nice Italian type place, and I had a great salad and pizza!

 

Yesterday was Dussehra! Traditionally on this day, Hindu’s bless the tools that they use in their daily lives. So we spent over an hour performing Puja all over Sangam. It was lots of fun, I got to see behind a lot of doors that are normally locked. We blessed the pool, the pool filter, the generator, the water tower, the server room, the men’s tools, the kitchen, and the vehicles. We also blessed everyone’s workspaces. Certain people’s desks got blessed, as did reception. Because the Puja is performed so many times in the morning, it is pretty relaxed. Liz and I were the only volunteers working, so we got to perform the puja to the program room. Outside of Sangam, I really enjoyed that many people had garlands on the front of their vehicles. Quite a few volunteers and tare are out traveling at the moment, so the few of us who were around last night walked over to the sweet shop, and then came back to watch The Devil Wears Prada.

On Monday the 26^th, Liz and I are going to Delhi. We are going to do a whirlwind tour and see the Taj Mahal and Jaipur as well.

49th Birthday Event

October 16^th, 2015 was Sangam’s 49^th Birthday! Our birthday event started on the 9^th. We had 12 participants, 7 from Wales and 5 from Australia.  They were a wonderful group of ladies and they got to do some really cool activities!

                                      

I had my first Welcome Ceremony as a staff member. I was wearing the staff sari, and for most of the evening I had the pleats in the skirt portion the wrong way. Fortunately, Sailee noticed and helped me fix them before we took photos, so there is no documented proof!

On October 11^th we celebrated International Day of the Girl Child with Maher. The participants had planned many activities to do with the children, but as such things go, we got there to find that Maher had plans for us. When we arrived the children gave us homemade lays and then some of the girls gave us a performance. There was a skit about being a girl and the discriminations they face. I think one of the most powerful lines was at the beginning when they where talking about aborting girls in utero, because they are girls. “Everyone loves their mother and wants a girlfriend and wife, so why do they not want a daughter?” After the skit there were a couple of dances.  After lunch the participants just had an hour to run activities with the children. They decided it was simpler to just lead the group in some songs. The kids loved it and in the loose structure many of us got to make friends. I made a friend with a girl named Nadina who is probably around 13 or 14. She didn’t speak much English, but she taught me some Marahti and introduced me to her sister. In the evening we played Who Wants to be a Sangam Millionaire? and my team won.

The next session I ran was a campfire a few evenings later. The local staff built the fire for us, and it was pretty tall, so it ended up feeling more like a bonfire. Although, we had trouble lighting it, as there wasn’t much kindling. About 40% of the songs we sang in the campfire weren’t in English. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We sang a few French songs from Quebec and some songs in Swahili. When we were teaching the first French song (Rat sur mon toit), everyone was having a lot of trouble understanding us. The participants from Wales said that it didn’t sound like we were even speaking French. Then a staff member pointed out that we were speaking Canadian French, which doesn’t sound like their schoolgirl French. After we explained what the song meant, I think they were able to piece the song together better. They did a great job though!

The next day we trialed Passand, which means choice. We ran 4 sessions at Sangam, and offered 4 packages so the participants could go explore Pune and then let participants choose which activities they wanted to attend. Most of them went out. I ran a session around the World Thinking Day 2016 Theme (Connect!). I really like the activity package again this year. I would really recommend taking a peak at it. You could probably get the badge done in a 1.5 hour meeting.

It is traditional to go to Temple on your birthday here. So on the 16^th we all walked down the street to the Datta Temple. There were around 50 of us, so it was quite a group. A priest performed a small ceremony at the temple. Afterwards we returned and puja was performed to the foundation and opening stone. Jen (the World Centre Manager) got to break the coconut and she did it in one hit. Then she read Lady Olave Baden-Powell’s speech from the opening of Sangam.

In the evening we had our birthday party. We had around 150 people from the community come and we had a big party in the campground. I worked reception, so I greeted people as they arrived and sold raffle tickets. One of the girls I met from my visit to Indian families, was at the party and she was happy to see me. We talked a bit when she came in, and when we closed up reception I hung out with her at the party. She braided my hair again, and she did a great job!

The next day was incredibly exhausting as we had our Community Action Project (CAP) day at Sangam. We had children from 3 of our different community partners come in and the Tare ran programming for them. They did a fantastic job, the kids had a great time! We also had UPS employees volunteering and helping with translation. I think our ratio ended up being close to 1:1. I was in charge of photography, so mainly I wandered from station to station and took far too many photos!

Overall, the event was very busy, but tons of fun! We trialed several things for the 50^th birthday, which I think is going to be quite an experience!  

Food

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving at home. A time to be thankful for the opportunities and friends we have, and a time to be with family. Time with family always comes with wonderful food. I spent most of breakfast this morning describing a typical Thanksgiving dinner for us. I was lucky enough to skype in for the end of the Wiebe’s Thanksgiving evening.  I was specifically asked to blog about the food, so here I go.

The food at Sangam is cooked by absolutely amazing local ladies. They’re very friendly and helpful. A few days ago, my day was made by the head of the kitchen greeting me by name. I really like the ladies and am trying my best to get to know them.

Breakfasts: There is always toast, cereal, bananas, oatmeal and homemade peanut butter and jams available. We generally get two different types of fruit at breakfast. The fruit can be hit or miss, but when it’s good, it’s delicious! My favourite so far is the fantastic pineapple and pomegranates we’ve gotten. There’s usually an egg option served with every breakfast. Usually it’s different types of omelettes. I really enjoy the egg-in-a-hole.

Lunch: Our lunches are vegetarian and Indian. There’s some sort of rice almost every day, dal is pretty frequent and chapatis are a regular occurrence. Chapatis are essentially the Indian version of a tortilla. The food here isn’t served very spicy. There is always something plain being served. At lunch we have two homemade spices to add to the dishes. A garlic and spice mix and mango relish. I don’t find the mango relish spicy and regularly get teased for eating it by itself to finish lunch.

Dinner: Our dinners are more varied. Sometimes they are Indian dishes and sometimes they are international dishes. The international dishes never taste quite like they do at home. Locally, the food is either spicy or very sweet. So a lot of the international dishes end up sweeter than is typical. I don’t mind the dishes, but you can’t expect your spaghetti sauce to taste like spaghetti sauce.

Desserts: The Indian desserts are quite sweet, but usually quite good. The ladies make amazing carrot cake, and their chocolate cake is good too. I missed the apple crumble that was served a couple of days ago, but I heard it was quite good. The ice cream here has a very strong and particular flavour. Perfumy is the best way I’ve heard to describe it. It kinda tastes a little like you are eating flowers. Two Indian desserts stand out in my mind. We had modak a couple of weeks ago, as it is a traditional dessert only served during the Ghanesh festival. It was amazing! It was a ball of coconut covered flour and deep fried. I know the Wiebe family would like it!  Then there’s another dessert, whose name I forget. But basically it’s deep fried dough that is soaked in a very sweet syrup. Quite tasty!

Snacks: We have to snack times at Sangam. Morning Maitri and an afternoon Chai. There are biscuits (cookies and crackers), nuts, fruit and juice served. The Chai is incredibly sweet. It’s made by boiling tea in milk, and then sugar is added. At first it tasted as though they saturated the tea with sugar, but I’m getting used to it. I have been assured that the ladies actually put much more sugar in their own Chai, and they dial it back for us.

Vegan Mondays: In Sangam’s efforts to reduce our carbon footprint we have vegan Mondays. In India, vegetarians typically don’t eat eggs, so going from vegetarian to vegan Mondays just meant cutting out milk and yogurt.

First Event at Sangam

My first event was a group of 25 Australians and 1 New Zealander, doing a tour of all the World Centers. We were their last Center to visit, many of them already had visited Sangam and several of them are heavily linked to Sangam. (The lead had been the World Center Manager at Sangam for many years). They arrived at 4am on September 26^th. Ruth (the Guest Services Coordinator), Cate, Liz and I were in the greeting party. It took an hour to settle them into their rooms and then we headed back to bed. They had a sleep in breakfast, which I hosted. So I spent all morning in the dining room talking to whoever came in for breakfast. The event officially started just before lunch. In the afternoon Liz and I led a neighbourhood walk for the ladies who hadn’t been to Sangam before. It went quite well. 

At Ishwari

Typically the Welcome Ceremony happens the first night of the event. But two of the guests arrived a day late (due to visa trouble) so we shifted it to the evening of the 27^th.

The 27^th was the 10^th and final day of the Ghanesh Festival. On this day (although some families do it earlier) people carry the Ghanesh idols down to the river and immerse them into the river. I had the day off. In the afternoon a group of us went to a Puja’s at Sailee’s house. Her house is being heavily renovated, so she was very eager to show us the house. When we were there, they’d just finished painting the outside of the house, and still had to put in the plumbing and lighting. Afterwards we were invited to Padma’s (one of the local ladies who works in the kitchen) for her family’s Ghanesh Immersion. It started with a ceremony in the house and then the idol was carried out into the cab of a pick up truck. The boys were in the back with drums and we walked with the truck down to the river. There were lots of people at the river. The ceremony was performed again at the river, sweets were passed out and then the idol was passed to a swimmer who swam him out, dipped him in the water and then dropped him. While we were at the river, there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to us. But Padma’s sisters-in-law surrounded us and started telling people off. On the way back, one of Padma’s nieces I believe, told us that everyone was wondering how they knew us, and how we came to be with them today. I really enjoyed the whole experience! It was wonderful to be so included in the ceremony and well cared for by many people I hadn’t met before.

The welcome ceremony happened after dinner. It is very traditional, it has been the same since Sangam opened. Mina and Shubha (the head of the local ladies) performed Aarti (a blessing) to welcome us to India. Christa (Deputy World Center Manager of Operations) gave us garlands to welcome us to Sangam.

The next day started with Yoga. For lunch we ran an MDG lunch, in which participants are sorted into high income, middle income and low-income groups that are proportional to India. Then they eat appropriate meals. I was in the low-income or below poverty line group. We were the biggest group and had the least amount of food. We each got a character card, which had given us some small detail of our lives. It went over well with the participants, who got really into their characters. After Chai we went on a visit to an Indian Family. I went with two participants, one of whom was quite worried about rickshaws. The family we visited has two children, a girl who is 12 and a boy who is 6 or 7. The mother is a teacher, and the father is self-employed. The children didn’t speak much English, but the parents had great English. They live in a 2 bedroom apartment. We ate in the living room. They served lots of food, all of which was delicious. They were very concerned about it not being too spicy. The children had friends who were there for most of it, and their grandfather, uncle and cousins arrived at one point. I showed them a photo album with photos from home and the one they were most interested in was a photo of a Gingerbread house! The kids whipped out their phones and took pictures of it. The Australians I was with hadn’t seen one either actually. One of the ladies said she’d tried to make one once, but it didn’t work out. I just thought it was so funny. When asking the girls about school, one wanted to be a doctor and the other one wanted to be an engineer. They both loved math and science. Overall, it was a wonderful evening. The family was so gracious. It was also interesting to see how they were living. I gave them a can of Quebec Maple Syrup, and they didn’t seem to know what it was, but I explained it as very sweet. I hope they enjoy it! Before heading home, we met up with a bunch of other participants, so we could all get rickshaws back. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, another family’s daughter asked if she could fishbraid my hair. She was just starting in guiding this year, and hadn’t had her first meeting yet. So we talked about that for a bit, while she did a good job on my hair. When we got back all the rickshaw drivers tried to team up and get us to pay them more than the agreed upon price. I was so proud of Liz and I for standing our ground. We sent the participants back to Sangam and at one point Liz almost walked away with one of the drivers money, because he wasn’t going to accept it. 

 

The next morning we took the participants out to one of our community partners; the Muslim Girls Orphanage for a tour. Muslim children are considered orphans if they don’t have a father. The MGO takes in girls and also runs three schools. They run a school in Urdu, a school in English and a polytechnic to teach young women skills that can be used to earn an income. The schools will take children from the community, although they have to pay to attend the polytechnic. It was a very large and beautiful campus. The children were very friendly and many of the older ones wanted to shake our hands.

In the afternoon I led the Laxmi Road tour. We had three groups that went out. The Laxmi Road tour is a tour of a historical and cultural market area. There are also lots of shopping opportunities for people who are interested. We always visit Kirti’s, the sari shop. I had a great afternoon, as my group was fantastic. The chaos of Ghanesh festival had subsided a bit, but I really enjoy Laxmi Road. It’s just so busy! Going out with a group is fun, because you get to negotiate traffic with a group of 10 ladies. I always find it really funny when the occasional shop that’s selling jeans (or other western pants) tries to sell me some. “Yeah, right. I’m dying of heat and stand out enough as it is. Good try though.”

Alandi

Alandi

One the 30^th we took the participants out on another whirlwind tour of the countryside. First we went to Alandi, which is a place on the river where there are many temples. Mina was leading the tour and I found it funny that at any time she had just as many rapt Indian listeners as our own participants. It was also nice going out with Mina as she was able to ask the children more complex questions for us. Such as, why aren’t you in school? (They had a half day) why? (Because it’s the last day of the month) is there a special reason for that? (No idea). Next we went to Jagriti School for Blind Girls and got a quick tour. They are building a new school and hostel, and all I can say is they look like they need it. Afterwards we went to Tulapor, another riverside temple spot. There were many children there as well, as they had been shipped in for a drawing exam. Finally, we had lunch at another community partner; Ishwari. Ishwari is a coop for rural women to learn new skills and to support their independence. We had a magnificent lunch there, before heading back to Sangam. In the evening we had a pool party with local staff and participants. It was fun, but I was getting sick and a tad homesick. I did play with several children, some in the pool and a couple outside of the pool. 

Tulapor

 

Ishwari

The next day my cold is at it’s peak. So I ended up spending the morning napping in A/C. In the afternoon we had Indian Afternoon, which I was determined to join in for. I got to wear my sari! I learned how to do rangoli, which is used often here, and absolutely stunning. Essentially they pour coloured chalk powder onto the ground or floor. Sometimes stencils are used. Outside a home it is a way to welcome people into the home. I learned a little bit about cricket from an enthusiastic Australian. I got Mehendi done on my left hand. I was a tad worn out so I ate dinner in my room, out of my sari, which is quite tight and a bit hot. I rejoined the group to watch the katak dancers who came in for the evening entertainment. Katak dancing is a little like tap dancing, except they have bare feet, and hundreds of bells on each ankle. The sounds they made with their feet were amazing! It’s also a very expressive dance form, and part of the performance is having the stories explained. The girls’ teacher was there, and she had such a lovely and expressive hands to assist in her story telling. Afterwards the event guests had their closing ceremony, but I went and got an early nights’ sleep. 

 

I was feeling better in the morning and was able to help say goodbye to the group as they headed out at 9am. As it was the end of a quarter, we had a stock take day. We pulled everything out of the shop and counted it before putting it back. We took a break to go over to Mina’s house for the event eval. Mina’s apartment is beautiful. She showed us around her kitchen, showing us her spices and other goods. We had delicious snacks there and then headed back to finish up stock take. For dinner we had a family dinner, where Liz and I were awarded our staff scarves, nametags and pins, as we officially ended orientation! Late in the evening, the name of the 5th Guiding World Center was announced; Kusafiri, which is Swahili for journey or travels. We were very excited despite the sound not working for most of the live broadcast.

That brings me to yesterday. In which we cleaned up from the event. Slowly starting to look at our next event, which is the Birthday Celebration, From Silver to Gold. I’m looking forward to my first event as a full Sangam Volunteer!

 

First Half of Orientation

 Oh boy, this post is coming a tad late. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. 

On the 19^th a group of us got to attend a leadership lab. A woman who is friends with Sangam, wanted to run these sessions on leadership at Sangam, and in return for using our space, we get 5 free spaces for residents to participate. The session was a bit about healthy living, so it started with an hour and half of Bollywood dancing. Which was a ton of fun! Then we had a delicious sugar-free and low oil breakfast. (Side note: Indians love their sweets. If something isn’t spicy here, generally it’s really sweet.) Afterwards we learned about decision-making. Which had it’s interesting aspects, but wasn’t necessarily incredibly applicable to what I’m doing right now. 

 

Afterwards Colleen took Liz and I on the Laxmi Road Tour. Which was phenomenal! The Ghanesh festival was in full swing, so it was incredibly busy and full of Ghanesh idols. They have these temporary temples set up so large groups of people can come and see an idol. We went through two of them. I really enjoyed it. There are a couple of songs and some chants that are sung/chanted in front of Ghanesh, and it just makes it such a great atmosphere. As part of the Laxmi Road Tour we went to the Sari shop we take participants and I bought a sari. We also wandered through many shops and I bought a Punjabi. Which is a set that includes a dress, pants and a scarf. For both the sari and the Punjabi, they come just as fabric and you need to take them to a tailor. For the Punjabi we just found a tailor shop in Laxmi Road that would take an hour, but for the saris, we brought them back for the Sangam sari tailor. Cate (the deputy world center manager for programming) and Katrine joined us for dinner. We had a great meal and then took the public bus home. Which is a great adventure. All the writing on the buses, and at the bus stops is in Marati. so it’s easiest to just ask someone which bus is the one you want. One the bus, there is a conductor who comes around and you pay based on how long you are on the bus. The buses don’t stop for long, but our whole bus seemed to know where we were going, so they told us when to get ready to get off. 

 

The next day Liz and I had an overnight at a community partner. We went to Maher, which stands for Mothers Home. It is a group that runs many houses and programs for destitute women and children, disabled women and elderly men. When we arrived they were holding their annual Ghanesh Festival, so the children from all the houses had come together to perform skits, and dances on specific topics. Each house had been assigned a different topic, such as addiction, social media use, and suicide. Despite it all being in Marati it was very interesting. They were all incredibly happy children, who were healthy and well loved. There were quite a few amazing dancers in the groups. We had dinner with the staff team and met a young man who had been living at Maher for 17 years. He was working on his MBA, had fantastic English and was very well traveled. He’d been on dancing tours with Maher to Europe, the UK and the USA. In the morning we got to work with a group of girls before they went to school. It was a group of 25 13-14 year olds, and we had them make flags. We brought examples of the Indian flag, the UK flag and the Canadian Flag for them to work from. I was very impressed by their attention to detail. They all started with pencils, insisted on using rulers for all the straight lines, and when they were done, they squared off their flags, as I had given them roughly half a piece of paper to work with. They were very friendly, and they were all interested in engaging with us. We also got a tour of the production facilities they had on the site we were at. They have facilities so they can teach women skills that they can use to earn an income and support themselves. They make candles, cards, and bags. The artistry is amazing. Our rickshaw was late picking us up, so I ended up playing with a 4-year-old girl for a good hour. We played with a ball almost as big as her, an empty tape case that she imagined as a phone or camera, and she drew Mehendi on me in pen. I’m pretty glad she didn’t have access to actually Mehendi, because the pen washed off in a couple of hours. 

                           

On the 22^nd of September Liz, Katrine, Jenna and I had the day off. We went out for brunch at a café. I had a smoothie and broccoli soup. It was pretty good. In the afternoon Katrine, Liz and I went to Phoenix Mall, which is a Western style mall. It was interesting. Before entering some stores, I had to store my backpack, and then inside one of them we a security guard tailing us about 5 feet behind us. I thought it was pretty funny. We grabbed a bite to eat then went to a movie. We meant to go to a Bollywood movie, but the timing was better for a Marati movie, so we went to see Tu Hi Re. It was hilariously awful. (no, there weren’t any subtitles) It had strange sound effects accompanying every line delivered by the actors (ie, a dog barking, a horse whinnying, or a whistle). I was enjoying it, but Liz and Katrine were not, and I’m always down for getting to bed earlier, so we left at the intermission. When we got back Sailee told us that that’s not really typical for movies here, but Marati movies are known to be not as good as Bollywood ones.

The next day we had a program team team-building outing. We went out into the countryside and went for a nature hike, did a Tarzan swing, zip-lining and rappelled down a waterfall. (or so it was described before we left) We had a blast, but it wasn’t as epic as it sounds. The Tarzan swing was over a 4 feet by 6 feet pool of water that was only waist deep. The zipline was 100m long, and we rappelled maybe 10m beside a waterfall. I had fun though, as the lower intensity was much more up my alley! We also played in the waterfall after rappelling. We had lunch then played team-building games in the rain. On the way home we drove up a ridge to get a good view. The drive made other girls feel a bit nauseous, so I wasn’t feeling fantastic for most of the ride home. I was feeling better by the time we got home, but was still really glad we ordered in instead of going out. 

 On the 24^th we started prepping for the upcoming event. So lots of little tasks, like tidying and writing people’s names on things. In the evening we had a Living at Sangam Social. We played capture the flag! I had lots of fun, despite my team losing. The other team had hidden their flag in an area with limited access. The next day we continued prep for the event, but in the morning we had the Water Tower Climb.

The Water Tower we have has a ladder that leads to the roof. The climb has more strenuous than I thought it would be, but definitely worth it. Not only was the view great, but the bird watching was pretty amazing. I definitely need to go up another morning and just sit up there for half an hour. After breakfast Liz, Katrine and I did our introduction video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXpS21pbwN8) In the video we are walking around the neighbourhood across the street from Sangam. Many of the local staff live there. In the evening Uzma (our receptionist) led a Zumba class, which was quite fun.