This has just not been my week!

First my computer broke down. Macs are very uncommon here but luckily we found somebody who had the means to reinstall my operating system which is making it work now! I have never been so worried about an inanimate object before! While I'm sure I would have found a solution and made it through, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to talk to my family or friends, plan my travels for after India, or do my homework! The guy was pretty efficient though and only asked me to marry him once, so that's a plus!

We are finding friendships with men to be a really difficult thing to navigate. Men and women are not usually friends here, and most people still have arranged marriages. Because of this and people's preconceived notions about Americans people are often extra... friendly.... with us. It is very frustrating because we really want to make friends! We're still working on it and trying to see if we can go to a women's studies class at the university near by and hopefully meet some women!

Right now I'm sick so that's not helping anything. It's nothing bad - I just haven't had an appetite and am feeling weak but I have been lying in bed for the last two days and am starting to get bored! Hopefully I will feel better soon! Everyone has had problems like this though and they go away quickly so I am not too concerned.

The other exciting thing going on here are strikes, protesting inflation. Yesterday businesses, students, and just about everybody else was on strike so schools, shops, and businesses were closed. Although the police are employed by the government, they were all over the streets making sure that shops were closed and rickshaw drivers weren't working for fear that people would become violent against those not participating in the strike. Seeing as police discipline people by hitting them with sticks, however, I didn't exactly feel that they were reducing the violence in the streets. My favorite thing about it however, was that everybody described what was going on as "India is closed". It's pretty amazing that such a big country can just shut down like that!

I am really not very good at this blogging business…

Two weekends ago now we went on a trip to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. The city was very important during British rule and it still has very clear influences of colonialism. Our biggest tourist destination was the Bara Imambara (Big Imamabara) built in 1784, in which we were led through a labyrinth in the walls, coming out on the roof of the huge building and a verandah along the ceiling on the inside of the main hall. We also visited the Residency, where the British lived during a huge mutiny.

Bara Imambara

Our favorite part, however, was probably our accommodation. We stayed at our director’s mother’s “bungalow” in the cantonment area of the city, where military personnel live. She has a beautiful, gated estate, a small staff, and was incredibly nice and hospitable. The neighborhood itself was beautiful as well. The streets were very nicely paved, there were signs discouraging littering and pollution, and police guarded every entrance. The best part is that there are “walking” times every morning and every evening where only residential traffic is allowed in, music is played from loudspeakers lining the road, and residents go outside to walk or jog. We were really enjoying our evening walk when a policeman approached our director and informed her that foreigners are not allowed in the cantonment area because of the military activity, so we quickly changed directions and tried to avoid the policemen after that…

Our whole group on the roof of the Bara Imambara

After Lucknow it was back to crazy Banaras! Last week, my 6^th week in India, is the first week that I can safely say I started feeling comfortable and overall positively. I didn’t realize quite how uncomfortable I had been feeling until it started to get better! Our classes are in full swing, accompanied with plenty of homework and fieldtrips, and we go on lots of our own outings in our free time. We are starting to frequent the same places regularly and see the same people again and again which is making me feel more at home.

 We have started teaching English classes to the teachers at Nirman, which I am really enjoying. Some of the teachers speak English very well and just need help with grammar, some are just timid and need practice speaking, and others know barely any English at all. So far, the classes have just served as a fun time to chat with the teachers and to start to get to know each other and I think we are all really enjoying it! The other day one of the women told us the story of how she and her husband overcame their families’ objections to their love marriage, complete with her month long stay in the hospital because she “couldn’t live without him!” People’s openness to share their lives with you is one of my favorite things about being here.

Last week was also the celebration of Teacher’s Day, the birthday of the second president of India which he dedicated as a day to honor teachers. The kids at both our campus and the rural campus choreographed dances, made up skits, wrote speeches, and practiced songs that they then performed in front of everybody. They also facilitated games for the teachers that we had to participate in as well. The best was a game like hot potato but when you lost, you had to do something embarrassing. While many of the things were really easy (color in the picture in 30 seconds!) I, of course, ended up singing a camp song in front of everybody! For a couple days afterwards all the kids were coming up to me asking me to sing them the bear song again. All those years of being a camp counselor really paid off!

Pre-nursery Dance for Teacher's Day

We like to spend time at the Banaras Hindu University whose campus is very close to ours. This past week we went to the art museum, the amphitheater, where there are always people playing sports, the big temple, and a couple of restaurants. It is so much calmer and greener on the campus – it’s a nice escape!

On Sunday we went to the home of a weaver, who is the father of a student here at Nirman. The family owns three looms and two of his nephews were working on them making saris while we were there. They let us try weaving – a process which includes 5 foot pedals and at least three spools of thread which they flick effortlessly across the fabric. We weren’t quite as graceful… The women of the household attach the border to the saris on a sewing machine, but weavers are exclusively male. Weavers are usually very poor, and one would think that the fact that the three children in the family sleep all together on the cement floor, with only a sheet laid down, is a sign of their poverty. However, this is a very typical way of life for many families in Banaras, even those who could afford a more comfortable bedroom situation. That would certainly take some getting used to for us!