kerala day 4 and 5

Day 4

At 6:30am  Andrea, Zach and I (with some other hotel guests) went on a wake up trek. Our guide was so enthusiastic and was wearing a Chicago marathon shirt a guest had given him.  The hike was magnificent.  We climbed all the way up a huge hill and took tons of pictures.  I really believe these pictures will change people’s minds about India.  It really is beautiful in a lot of places.  I hope some of you will consider visiting me!  Kerala has billboards all over that says “visit God’s own Country”  The first time we saw it, I made a joke and said “oh, we’re in Texas”  ha!  I think if anyone visits Kerala they would believe in creationism.  How could the “big bang theory” create this?   We really enjoyed the hike!  Andrea saw a leech before it actually attached to her so that made her happy that she could prevent it.  Zach picked a lovely boquet of wild flowers for Nancy since she didn't hike with us.

 

We ate breakfast then waited for a jeep.  We talked to a German family that was staying at the resort and asked what places they had visited in India.  When they mentioned Mumbai we asked how they liked it.  You should have seen their faces!!!  Ha!  The man uttered “it’s.. umm.. interesting”.  Andrea told him it was ok if he didn’t like it- we live there and that’s why we are taking our holiday in Kerala.

We took another bumpy, crazy ride down the hill and headed off to Thekkady.  It takes forever to go even short distances here.  We stopped at our driver’s cousin’s house and it was a lot bigger and prettier than I expected.  It was off the main street on a quiet road.  He invited us in and we all took our shoes off to enter of course and I realize one of my feet has a lot of blood on it.  There is no blister or anything and it didn’t hurt but blood was soaked clean through my Teva.  I thought maybe a leech that had fed had crawled in there and gotten squished, but there was no sign of leeches in my shoe.  Several hours later Zach noticed his foot was bleeding and there was a small hole in his toe.  I scraped all the dried blood off to see if I had a hole and it just started bleeding and bleeding.  Good news is I am already taking the rabies shot and if it is a parasite maybe I can lose twenty pounds!!

We got to the Periyar Tiger Reserve that our hotel is in at Thekkady and found out that most things were closed.  At 3 pm.  Communism.  We couldn’t go trekking, the boat ride was sold out and we couldn’t wash elephants because of the weather.  We were really disappointed because we have to leave tomorrow and won’t get to see much.  We are going to try to get the boat ride tomorrow morning.  We walked around town and little then Nancy and Zach went back to the hotel to sit on the porch and take in the views.  Andrea and I explored little traveled lanes – it is our favorite thing to do.  My growling stomach led us on a hunt for food that wasn’t junk and we stumbled upon this man who had a restaurant.  There were tables set up basically in his backyard and he cooked whatever we wanted in the house kitchen.  He had an 11 year old son who came to talk to us and played his keyboard for us after my omelet and Andrea’s tea and toast.  Food and a Show!  The family was sooo sweet and the man made a point of telling us his place is mentioned in Lonely Planet J

Our driver knew we were disappointed that everything we wanted to do was closed so I guess he asked around because he called me and said the elephant washing was open from 5-6 so we could still make our massages at 6:30.  I started getting a cold yesterday and it is getting worse.  I went back to the hotel to rest while they washed elephants.  They showed me video when they got back and it looked like so much fun!!!  Bummer!  I am also missing out on the massage – afraid it might make me sicker. 

We went to dinner at a restaurant called Spice World.  The food wasn’t that great and the power went off.  Communism.  We went back to the hotel and blew a fuse trying to put the key in the socket.  In India, you have to use your hotel key to turn on the electricity.  Then you remove the key from the socket when you leave and the electricity stays off while you are out of the room.  The hotel guys came and fixed it lickity split and we went to bed. 

The hotel we stayed at was Ranger Wood Nature Castle.  I like to stay at hotels with royal names – in Kochi it was Fort Queen and in Aurangabad it was Hotel Winsor Castle J

Day 5

The power went off several times during the night and morning.  The driver called at 5:40 and Zach went to go buy tickets for the boat ride in the park.  The process to do this was so bizarre.  Zach paid for the park entry tickets then we had to take a rickshaw to get to the ticket place for the boat ride.  Rickshaws line up as early as 1am to get in line for the park opening!  We were lucky to get one near the front.  When the park opened everyone took off and we were in a rickshaw race!!  India loves their speed bumps and normally ricks come to a complete stop and roll over them to protect their precious money maker, but not here.  We were bumped and jarred at we hit speed bumps at top rickshaw speeds.  I have never gone that fast in a rickshaw!  The driver told us two people would have to get out to run to get to the ticket place.  Andrea and I were on the exit side so when he stopped we ran.  I thought it would be right there and we were running to get to the front of the line.  No! We had to run like half a mile!  Andrea tired pretty quickly and stopped running.  I slowed down but ran at a steady pace.  Indians don’t run much so I passed a lot of them.  I ended up third in line for tickets!  Proud of myself!  But we got there and didn’t see anyone at the counter and they told us we had to go somewhere else so people caught up to us.  By the time I got to the right place, Zach was there and we were herded into the fenced in line. Indians are famous for line cutting and pushing to get what they want so government officials here seem to try to contain them and eliminate some of it.  You had to fill out these papers with your name and address and where you are from   - they want account of everyone that comes.  We looked at our tickets and they BUTCHERED our names.  I was BobHiJo Staled  - the others had some funny names too.  The seats were assigned so you couldn’t get a seat by the edge to see anything and you couldn’t stand up, and you had to wear a life jacket even though we were going 2 miles an hour and we couldn’t stand up.  We couldn’t complain about communism out loud so we had a code word “tiger state”.  There were lots of people from Mumbai on the boat and they weren’t any happier than we were.  We all said we should not recommend this park to anyone.  We should have stayed an extra day in Munnar and then driven straight to Allepy.  Live and Learn. 

 One good thing did come out of the ride.  We met this family from Mumbai – they had the cutest daughters.  The wife was a mendhi artist – the person that does the intricate henna art.  The husband worked for Shell and was very intelligent, well read, and well travelled.  He asked us how Americans felt about Obama and he said he didn’t like Obama – said Obama stood for Originally Born African who Manages Americans.  Ha! Their daughters were adorable- one was five and one was eight.  They asked us tons of questions and told us stories.  The older one made the craziest face when I told her I taught math – she hates math!  She did teach me how to count to five in Hindi though JThe little one is totally going to be an actress.  I took a picture of her making a tiger face and her sister being an elephant.  Since there was zero chance of us seeing real ones on this boat ride.  We did see some pretty Kingfishers and some wild boar –but I can see wild boar along the Arabian Sea right by my house. 

After the boat ride we walked back down to the car park to meet our driver.  It was a much more civilized trip back – it did not involve me running or a rickshaw race.  We grabbed some breakfast and got in the car for the very long trip to Alappuzha (Allepy).  These winding roads were worse than yesterday I think. In India, drivers just honk when someone is their way and go where they want to even into oncoming traffic.  I definitely think a blindfold is necessary for a car trip here, especially if you are just coming for a week or so and are not used to it!

When we got to Alappuzha our driver didn’t know where our houseboat was.  He stopped multiple times to ask for directions. It’s hilarious to watch Indian conversations.  He rattles off the question and they just grunt and wave their arm and apparently now he knows where to go!  We finally found Ben’s tours and got on our houseboat.  It is really cute with two bedrooms and a big living area up front.  We have a boat driver and a cook who made us rice and fish for lunch.  I do not usually eat fish, but this was delicious. We travelled along the backwaters for awhile and stopped at a shack to buy prawns.  They were as big as lobsters and blue. 

  We sat up front enjoying the scenery when it started to pour and we had to put the flaps down.  I took a little nap and when I got up we were docked and the sun was setting.  I walked along the trail and found kids playing who wanted their picture taken and who wanted to take my picture.  Andrea, Zach and Nancy came down the trail and we walked toward music coming from a temple.  We found a little village and the people were so nice.  They told us “happy Diwali” and let us take tons of pictures.  The area reminds me a little of the bayous of Lousianna.  Water and land mix here and most of the people grow rice and/or fish.  I love the colors here.  In the States there are ordinances that say everyone’s house has to look the same and can only be certain colors – here houses are bright pink, orange, blue, lime green and yellow.

The cook said he had a surprise for dinner and made us turn out the lights.  He brought out their prawns beautifully cooked with a candle centerpiece made out of onion and tomato.  Dinner was delicious again.  Traveling by houseboat is the way to go.  It’s a floating hotel and we can ask them to stop where we want and we can watch the countryside go by.  It was cool to see the small boats travelling by candlelight on the pitch black water.  We played some trivia and black magic before going to bed.  Andrea demanded to know the trick to black magic – I am still trying to figure it out J  I checked my phone before bed and I had 10 missed calls!  Apparently Sumesh, our driver, was drinking with his buddies and was drunk dialing us!  When we talked to him, we tried to teach him what “drunk dialing” meant.

kerala day 3

Day 3

I had a good night’s sleep in the tree house.  I took a shower and tried to get warmed up in the hot water, but there wasn’t an actual shower head, just one of the hose things.  When I opened my contact solution it popped and hissed.  Andrea laughed because I said “oh”  - it surprised me.  I hadn’t realized we had changed that much in altitude.  When Andrea got done with her shower I heard a loud noise, she screamed, then started laughing.  Apparently the talcum powder had issues with the altitude too and basically exploded when she opened it- the bottle shot across the room and sprayed powder everywhere.

We had a wonderful breakfast of omelets, toasts and Indian “crepes”.   We walked around the resort and Zach found a lizard.  I told the group I would approve the lizard to come with us (as opposed to the puppy) but they left him in the weeds.

 We took the very bumpy jeep ride down to the town of Munnar so Zach could find an internet café so he could take his quiz for his college class.  Nancy went with me to go to the hospital for my second rabies shot.  The hospital was open air and all of the hallways were outside.  Indian hospitals kind of remind me of the military hospital they showed in the movie Ben Affleck was in - Pearl Harbor.  We went to reception and they directed me to go to casualty.  We wait for about 10-15 minutes.  I pay the nurse 60 rupees and she sends me to the pharmacy.  We wait in line there and I pay 349 rupees for the medicine, then we wait in another line and I pay 10 rupees for someone to inject the vaccine.  Each of these stops requires papers filled out and signed.  Indians love their repetitive paper work.  I guess it provides jobs?  I can’t wait to have to have to do this again at a Mumbai hospital on Friday!  At least it only took about an hour and cost less than $10.

We drove along curvy country roads to see a dam at a beautiful site.  Zach got a head messager at the stalls along the dam.  It has curvy metal spikes and you put in on the top of someone’s head and push down and pull up.  We took turns massaging each other’s head.  The driver didn’t like it at first, but then I saw him use it on himself J  Poinsettia trees grow all around here and are in full bloom now. 

We saw a huge snake on the side of the road and it made Zach very happy!  We went to an Elephant park and I got to ride an elephant!!!  Nancy and Andrea have already done it but Zach and I were really looking forward to it!  They are such beautiful beasts.  Andrea let me ride up front which was a little scary when we headed downhill and I pitched forward.  We were really high off the ground and the guide looked really tiny.  We didn’t get to walk far, but I did pay 100 rupees to feed the elephant pineapples and corn.  He raised his trunk up to me and I leaned over and fed him.  He was very agile with that tusk – he didn’t drop anything even though I did not do a good job of handing it to him.

We went to Eravikulam National park and ran into the people who had eaten breakfast with us in Kochi J  there were tons of signs in the park about it being a plastic free zone, then sold cashews in plastic and water bottles.  Weird. 

 National Parks in India have two fares – one for Indians and one for foreigners.  Sometimes we can get in for the Indian price if we show our FRRO cards (resident cards).  We sent Andrea up to negotiate because she can sell ice to an Eskimo, but there was no swaying this guy.  We had read that Kerala is the first state in the world to be a Communist state in a non-communist country.  We noticed lots of things that were different in Kerala opposed to our home state of Maharashtra.  First of all we saw no signs of extreme poverty – no shanty towns, no beggars, nobody sleeping in the streets.  You can hear public announcements over loud speakers in town.  (Andrea said it was similar in Cuba).  Shops are open only as long as the government allows.  Access to state parks is limited.  In this particular park we walked partway up and then there was a guard and a gate that said we couldn’t go farther.  When we asked why, we were told “because that is all the government allows”.  You aren’t allowed to walk off the roads or trek through the interesting parts of the park L  In Maharashtra you see Indian flags everywhere, but you don’t see that here.  I saw red ones and was told they were communist flags from Russia.  The hills around Munnar are carpeted in tea plants. TATA owns all of it. Communism at its finest. I am assuming they sell it to Lipton, Snapple, etc because this is where a good portion of the world’s tea is grown. The tea fields are beautiful and they are harvested all year long.  People go out and pick tea from an area and then do it a week later when new leaves have grown.  Another thing that separates Kerala because it is Communist – women are much higher ranked here.  They hold a lot of the jobs which you don’t see in Mumbai. 
I looked it up and this is what i found In 1957 Kerala became the first state in the world (with the exception of the Italian principality of San Marino) to form a democratically elected communist government. In 1970 Kerala became the first state in India to abolish landlordism. Kerala is presently a democratic state, and is still under Marxist control.  I'm not sure what reality is but we saw no Indian flags - only communist flags and it sure seemed communist.

Zach has a habit of starting sentences with “BJ, I’ll give you 100 rupees if you….”  100 rs is about $2.25 and the bets usually involve me jumping off of things, eating something disgusting, or chasing tigers, elephants, wild boar, or snakes out of the forest so he can see them.  Basically he’s trying to get me killed.  But he did save my life when a bee landed on my neck so … I guess I’ll stay friends with him J  He lies a lot too so we don’t generally believe him.  We had to come up with a “safe word” so we would know when there is real danger and he isn’t lying. Our driver probably wonders why we say “pickle” so often.

We drove back to the bottom of the hill that our tree house hotel is on and waited for the jeep to pick us up.  And waited. And waited.  We entertained ourselves by asking each other riddles, playing “green glass door” and Zach was drawing inappropriate pictures on the windshield fog.  We pile into the jeep with a driver and another man.  The driver seemed ok – at least we didn’t plummet to our deaths in the pouring rain.  But the other man was high. As. A. kite.  We joke all the time that you could grow serious marijuana here amongst all the tea and spices.  This guy must have mixed the weed with something though because he was out of control!!  The others kept saying “BJ you have to put this in your blog.”  There is no way mere words could give any reader the full experience.  He was giggling at everything.  He meowed.  He barked.  He cooed like a baby.  He sang.  He told jokes.  He talked about Mr. Bean.  We were laughing hysterically all the way up the hill which helped alleviates the frustration of having to wait for the jeep for over an hour.  We got to dinner and they served more Indian food.  It was good, but I am not someone who can eat Indian food for every meal for days on end.  And they had no ice cream – only some Indian dessert that looked like worms. 

I am starting to get a cold so I took some benedryll and slept like a baby.

Kerala day 1 and 2

For Diwali break I went to Kerala, a southern Indian state, with Zach, Nancy, and Andrea.  The school van picked us up at 10 on Saturday and we headed off to the airport.  We flew on IndiGo and it was nice – no propellers on the plane and Andrea did fine sitting by herself. J  We saw Karen and her sister get off another plane about the same time we did. Kerala is a popular place!  We paid for a cab to take us the 45 km to Fort Cochin.  That’s around 27 miles and it took a good 2.5 to 3 hours to get there! The line for the car Ferry was unbelievable.  Andrea was in the front and Nancy, Zach and I were laid up on each other in the back.  It was soooo hot!  We kept getting out to get snacks or stretch our legs.  Our driver kept getting out to chat with others too.  At one point the car line was moving forward and our driver was nowhere to be found so Andrea jumped into the driver’s seat and drove the cab forward in line!  The people around us were staring!  When the guy came back he was smiling though and said “good job” J  We finally got on the ferry and checked into our hotels.  Zach and Nancy stayed in a homestay and Andrea and I stayed in the Fort Queen and it was nice – only 1832 rupees – two beds, nice bathroom with hot water, and  the nicest hotel staff ever AND they brought us fresh squeezed juice when we arrived J

We took a shower because we were all ripe after that long drive!  Then we went to the Cochin cultural center to watch Kathakali – Kerala’s Classical Dance Drama.  We went early to watch them put the elaborate makeup on. 

 We passed Andrea’s  iPad around to play trivial pursuit before it started. The only pie piece I got was a NASCAR question – don’t ask me why!  They had a famous actor come out and do a demonstration of some of the aspects of the dance, facial expressions etc.  The guy did the weirdest things with his eyeballs!!  Then we watched a performance.  That was Zach’s favorite part – NOT J  Although we enjoyed it, we were starving and a little uncomfortable surrounded by white people!  All these travelers from Europe were at the same performance.  I can’t remember the last time I was around that many white people – it was weird.

We walked to a restaurant for dinner and then walked around Kochi some.  It was quiet and you could see the Chinese fishing nets.  Apparently sunset is the time to go because that’s when they are being used.  Zach spotted a tiny puppy so we all had to ooh and ahh over it.  Now anyone that knows me knows I am not a pet person.  I would never hurt an animal, but I don’t choose to spend a lot of time with them or get emotional over them – especially when they cause me to have to get rabies shots!  The others were in love with this dog and wanted to take him with us!  I said no.  They thought of me as the ‘wet blanket” or “party pooper”.  I personally see myself as the voice of reason!!!  We can’t take a puppy with us on our tour. Seriously.  Voice of reason and practicality.

Day two.

The AC was cold in the room and I got up in the middle of the night to find extra blankets but there were none and I didn’t want to wake Andrea up to find out where the remote for the AC was so I got towels from the bathroom to try to keep warm!  The beds were decent – I think they had actual springs in them, which is rare in India.

We went down to eat the hotel breakfast of eggs (real eggs!), Indian pancakes and aloo (potatoes).  We started chatting with the other guests and there was a group of 18 family members all from Mumbai traveling through Kerala.  It was fun to talk to them about where they are going (about the same Itinerary as us so we expect to run into them elsewhere) and they were telling us “must sees” in India.  We keep asking how to say “no, I don’t want it in” Hindi and we keep forgetting.  We asked a chatty lady about it and we talked about how people tend to try to screw us over because we’re tourists.  She said our country does the same to her people – ha!  Touché!  Visitors to any foreign country have that problem I guess.  Since we live here we like to know some phrases so that people know we aren’t ordinary tourists and mean business when we say no!

 Andrea was in the front again and Nancy, Zach and I were in the back and we had a little more room than we did yesterday.  Our driver was nice and played some Indian music for us and was chatting with Andrea.  Somehow the conversation morphed into Andrea teaching the driver how to say “asshole” in Spanish!  Ha!  He was embarrassed and we were laughing!  We stopped at the tour company Paradise Tours and were greeted by very friendly workers who took our huge piles of rupees.  Zach is the one that booked the tour for us and he was amazed at what the tiny office looked like because the website was so sophisticated.  Our driver stopped at an ATM so we could replenish our cash.  Andrea was dancing to the music coming out of the car trying to entertain the guards at the ATM.  They were not amused and said a few things to our driver.  I’m pretty sure it was close to “good luck with these crazy white people”  We drove a really long time through very windy roads.  It started POURING.  Oh monsoon – why are you still here?  Of course it starting pouring when we got the pretty parts when we would want to take pictures. We went to a spice plantation and took a little tour.  They grow some amazing stuff – we bought spices and chocolate.  Well, Andrea and Nancy bought spices and Zach and I got chocolate.  We drove near some very cool waterfalls and we stopped to get a good view and there were some monkeys These are the same type of monkeys that attacked me and are the reason I am now in the rabies shot series.  but these were very well behaved monkeys – none jumped on us!  Zach wasted perfectly good chocolate feeding them. 

 We started driving again – and I felt like I was in a NASCAR race except for there were lots of vehicle including huge busses driving straight at us and huge cliffs on the side.  Scary.  Zach yelled at the driver to stop and he jumps out of the car and runs across the road.  The driver looks at what he is doing and makes a noise and runs out of the car – Zach had found the largest scorpion ever.  The Guiness Book of World Record People weren’t here, but I am going to go ahead and call it.  Largest Scorpion EVER.  It was so disgusting.  Our driver was impressed though.

We continue to drive along the very bumpy, curvy roads in the pouring rain while car dancing to the cool Indian songs and singing to the stupid ones that had lyrics like “I’m the best, I’m the best, tell me again, I’m the best” and some song that said Ding Dong over and over and used my name, BJ.  The road started getting worse and our driver pulled over.  We asked what was going on and he said “you get in another car, it too dangerous for this one”  ok then.  So they cram our luggage into the back of a jeep and Nancy, Zach and I pile in the back.  We can’t even see Andrea in the front through all the luggage.  We are packed in there and Zach said it was like riding in a C130  when he was in the marines. 

The road was horrible!.  Horrible!!  It was probably good we couldn’t see out of the jeep.  We were bouncing and sliding and it was wet.  We get up to the “lobby” – a small hut where the cutest Indian man greeted us.   They served us tea and he introduced us to the cook.  This resort has luxury tents and tree houses and is very remote.    It was about 4:30 and dinner wasn’t until 6:30 so they wanted to take all four of us to one tree house until dinner.  The other three get in the back and I get in the front, not knowing the cook is coming with us.  So the driver tells me to scoot in the middle – so now I am straddling the stick shift.  The next part of the ride involves the driver having his hand between my legs to shift gears and the stick vibrating on my thigh. I’m squealing as we are sliding in the dark, in the rain on the road and the whole car load of people are laughing…

Our room is amazing! It is a cute little treehouse with a balcony.  They built the house around a tree so there is a huge tree growing through the bedroom.  The views are tremendous.  You can see the hills covered in tea plants.  It is so beautiful, but chilly here.  We had to put on long sleeves and socks.  Andrea says she hasn’t worn a pair of socks since we arrived in India 3 months ago.  We used her I= pad again and played trivial pursuit (I did much better this time – got 5 pies) and Nancy won.  We also played farkle.  The man came with a flashlight to walk us down the trails to the hut where dinner is served.  They served it family style and we had rice and dal – I have never seen green dal before, but it was yummy.  We also had cooked veggies, fried onions and chicken and for dessert we had ice cream.  Real, delicious ice cream which is hard to come by and funny that we get it way up here!  There was a French family that came later and sat next to us.  Our school arranged it for us to be able to do Rosetta Stone for $100 a year.  Andrea chose French so she tried some out on the family - “the woman eats rice”  that’s about all I know in Hindi which is the language I chose.  I know milk is “dude”, apple is “seb” and I can say “the girls are swimming” and “the woman is eating rice”.  I am trying to get through Hindi so I can get to a more useful language like Spanish or French. 

By the time dinner was over Zach had to remove three leeches from himself.  None of us have spotted any on us.  I think Andrea and I might do an inspection before we leave this place!  At least leeches don’t transmit rabies!!  We have to find a hospital tomorrow for me to get my 2^nd rabies shot – let’s hope it goes quickly and they have the vaccine.

We came back to the room and started writing thoughts down for our blogs – it is hard to remember everything that happens in a day if we don’t write it down. I’ve taken to texting myself so you guys don’t miss any of the adventure!

Third Rabies Shot

So I was going to post my vacation blog right away, but felt the need to do this first.  Today is day 7 from the monkey attack so I needed third shot.  I walk down to the hospital with the perscription the doctor at the school gave me.

People at the front direct me to pharmacy.

After waiting in line and getting pushed the pharmacy tells me I have to get a scrip from this hospital and sends me to the ER.

I tell the ER my story and they say I have to go to pharmacy to get the meds then they'll inject me.  I explain the pharmacy won't give me the meds without a scrip from this hospital.  I am told the ER doc went out for tea and will be back soon. Really?  the ONLY ER doc went out for tea?  ok then.

I wait for ER doc.

She gives me scrip and sends me to pharmacy.  I wait in line and get shoved again.  They print out receipt and say I have to go to the cashier counter to pay before they will give me the meds.  ok.

I walk over the cashier counter to wait in line and get shoved.  I pay and they give me receipt and go back to the pharmacy.

They give me syringe.

I go back to ER and they inject me.  ER has 3 beds and HANDWRITTEN posters about triage protocol and burn protocol.  handwritten in sharpie.

note to self Never get attacked by wild animal  in India.  I am going to ask the school doctor to give me the syringes for the next two shots so I can just show up at the hospital with the meds. 

Week Without Walls

Every year the middle schoolers at ASB go on a Week Without Walls trip.  The 6th graders go together to one place and the 7th and 8th graders go to separate places.  the 7th and 8th graders leave on Monday and come back Friday.  The 6th graders don't leave until Tuesday so on Monday we had classes to prepare them for the trip to Matheran.  I taught monkey safety - the irony of that will be evident later :)  The kids were really excited to go to Matheran.  The roads are too steep with hairpin turns for busses to go so we went in a convoy of minivans.  Each van had a driver, a teacher or trailblazer (the outdoor education people that helped us with the trip) and 4 kids.  We also had vans with luggage, supplies and security guards.  It is about a 2 - 2 1/2 hour drive up to the car park.  It is one of only two pedestrian hill stations in the world so no cars are allowed.  We had to hike the kids up to the top - about a 45 minute walk.

I was in the car # 2 with two girls A and R and two boys M and J.  A speaks Hindi and that was helpful to talk to the driver.  R had a difficult time playing games in the car because she is hard of hearing and doesn't understand a lot unless she reads your lips.  so R and A hung out int he bag texting other girls.  J was playing his video games.  M... well.  M has some special challenges and let's just say everyone was happy I had M in MY car and not theirs!  19 minutes into the trip M asked if we were almost there!  We could practially still see the school!!  He asked every 2 -3 minutes after that - even though it was obvious we were still in the middle of Mumbai!  He was very excite to see monkeys so he saw them everywhere.  I could hear him saying constantly that he saw a monkey and J was back there saying. "No M, that was a dog (or piece of garbage or chipmunk or grass"  or whatever!!  they were so patient with him for the most part.  At one point A said "M please stop asking Ms. Staley if we are almost there, she will tell you when we are - and no there are no rinoceruses in Matheran"  ha!!!  poor M!

About 2/3 of the way up the hike I started puking.  We thought it was just car sickness, but then I puked all afternoon and the next day... and it was coming out of both ends... so must have gotten something weird from India!  So I didn't get to go with my kids on the first day of activities.  But the 2nd day i went with my advisory to go rock climbing, rapelling and do some nature stuff.  They loved the adventure stuff and I was so proud of them!! My advisory did a lot of singing while we were hiking.  :)  It was like being a camp counselor again!!  At the beginning of the year the advisorys had to pick a name and we were the Funky Chickens but this week they changed it to SS Ninjas.  :)  Staley and Sodhi are their advisors( sodhi has a baby and couldn't come on the trip)  and I call them Ninjas all the time :) 

The kids were bunked 4 to a room and teachers were interspersed throughout.  The girls on my floor needed help with a lot of things - broken class, monkeys got in their room and they needed me to chase them out, hot water wouldn't turn off etc.  so I have a scald mark on my arm from a hot water pipe :)

Every night we did activities together and awarded someone the best camper of the day with a golden bell :)  then the kids would go to their advior's room and debrief the day.  I have 4 girls and 8 boys in my advisory so that is not a quiet time :)

On thursday we took them to the town to go souvenier shopping and get snacks.  Mr. Fast, the counselor who was paired with my advisory wanted to take the boys back while I stayed with the girls while they looked for jewelry.  You should have seen the look on the security guard's face when he saw we were breaking up.  You could see he was thinking about how to be in two places at one time!!  In the end he stayed with us and I asked if it was because we were girls and he said yes.  I wanted to remind him Mr. Fast had M and M needs more guarding than any other kid!!! ha!!  In the evenings the kids had flex time and could swim or play cricket or read etc.  The teachers would gather in the play space and watch them.  they served us snacks every evening.  So even though I was the monkey safety teacher and had shooed many a monkey away and reminded kids constantly of the dangers of monkeys I still thought it was ok to take my snack to the pool without putting it in my backpack.  So I get a few feet from my room and a huge alpha male comes at me and hisses.  One of my boys was right there and was terrified.  I threw my fanta to distract him so we could get away.  I turn the corner and there were four monkeys ready to pounce so I threw my oreos but they didn't leave!  now there are like 9 monkeys all around, above me ready to attack.  The Trail blazer people were out there and told me to stand still while the guards raced over, but before they could get there, one monkey jumped on me like I was a tree!!  and clawed my arm...so now I am on the rabies shot series which is screwing up my vacation plans because I have to get shots on certain days.  

It is really fun teaching international kids.  One of my girls asked me where to plug in her phone charger - I told her to put it in a socket.  she said she couldn't find one so I went in there and found one in half a second.  later, an adorable British girl who sounded exactly like Hermoine said "In her defense Miss Staley, that socket did look quite abnormal"  ha!!  love it!!  what houston 6th grader talks like that???

Friday we started our decent down and M was wanding into horses etc.  Every 5 minutes the security guard would get my attention and say "madam, M" and point to whatever he was doing... augh!

We finally get in all the cars and start home.   The roads are awful - full of pot holes etc.  when we got tot he expressway the driver noticed we had a flat.  so no I am on the side of the road with four kids and a driver that doesn't speak english.  Another car stops to help and bring a jack.  they start rocking my car - I guess to get it high enough for the jack.  My kids are tumbling all over the car as they are rocking it!!!  I ask if I can get them out and they said "it's ok madam"  Vinesh, the Marshall shows up and tells me we are getting in another car. I get all my kids to look at me so I can tell them how serious it is that we are getting out onto a freeway.  Had to grab M's face an make him look at me!!    The guards get our stuff and try to get me in the car and I refused to do so until the kids were in. I thought we were going in a luggage car, nope. the school had a spare car with us in case one of the cars broke down.  Each car had a tag with our car number and the inventory of people in it.  I noticed the marshall had moved the tag to the new car.  I felt like the president and this was the new Air Force One!!  ha!  doubt a rabies infested person is allowed to be leader of the free world!!  ha!

15 minutes later the student teacher texts me and says she also has a flat!! We finally get to the school.  I get my rabies shot and we head home.  Now I am trying to pack for my vacation!
Sorry this is full of typos.  and uncapitalizated words.  I wanted to get it done before my next trip :)

Parent teacher conferences

we had parent teacher conferences this week 3:30 to 6:30pm on Thursday then all day Friday. All but 4 or 5 of them showed- out of 70! Pretty good!  I've never had parent conferences like this - I was a little nervous. I had the kids fill out these reflection sheets about their progress in math.  many of the kids mentioned how they are math ninjas in training and want to be Ninjas or Jedi masters :)

the conferences were wonderful! the parents  were really supportive and it was obvious they loved their kids. They rubbed their kids' heads, squeezed their cheeks, etc. Some wanted me to challenge their kids mathematically, others wanted me to boost their kids up to grade level. I have some kids who get 100s on everything and can do math far above grade level, but they speak mostly by grunting and rarely speak three consecutive English words. Their parents want me to work with them on math communication. 
I was bowed to A LOT! a couple families gave me Diwali gifts. many parents thanked me for making their kid like math! several told me they liked the relationship I had with their child. Overall it was a good experience!

I love this school!

Yesterday during advisory we went to watch the middle school band and choir perform.  The band was AMAZING!  I have never heard a middle school band concert that good.  I loved watching my kids perform and watching my other kids enjoy it :)

Today we had our big Diwali program.  the school was beautifully decorated. 

 Many kids and teachers were dressed up in their Indian finest.

One family ( I teach two of their kids) gave me a really beautiful Diwali gift.  So sweet of them!

About 5 weeks ago I signed up to run the half marathon with a charity.  They came to the school to get two checks - one for them and one for United Way.  Apparently I signed it in the wrong place (Indian checks are weird!) and they emailed today to say that if they didn't get a check by this afternoon they'd give my place away!!  My checks were at home and I wasn't going to get home until after 7 due to Parent Teacher Conferneces.  I went to talk to Purvi - who is head of our community outreach.  They've had my checks for WEEKS and to tell me that I have to get new ones in hours was unfair and she told them so.  They wouldn't even hold my spot until Monday.  Purvi said maybe the school could write a check.  So we go to Alok - master of the money :) and tell him the situation.  He gives the Idian head nod and says "email so and so the names of the places that need the check - I have checks written for you and take it out of your paycheck - I have them ready in one hour and you can send them by courier"  more head nodding "Indian great place"  ha! ASB is a great place!  whew I think my spot is secure! I love this school!!!!

We had parent conferences from 3:30 to 6:30 - everyone wants to see the math teacher.  I didn't take a breath for 3 hours.  Tomorrow we have this all day!  it was good though.  We have such great kids and great parents and thankfully they mostly LOVE me!!  I had parents say such great things to me. One said "I love the relationship you have with my daughter"   So so so happy to be in place where I am appreciated!!!

We have been getting thunderstorms - apparently this is what happens at the end of monsoon.  I don't like it.  I hate thunder and lightning.  and storms cause a lot of pain.  My hands and feet were killing me today.  My Lupus does not like stormy weather!!!  Trying to deal with it - haven't had this much pain in awhile.  Let's hope it is better for Week without walls. 

Two perfect days

On Sunday I woke up and went walking really early in the morning.  I came home, did some work then met Amy so we could walk to church.  I really enjoyed church then went home to put my stuff away and wait for Andrea to show up so we could go to lunch.  She calls all exasperated and asked where I was because she was standing outside of my door.  I thought I misunderstood and that I was supposed to meet her outside of my building.  No - she had been knocking at another apartment - she was on the wrong floor!!! ha!! We went to Eat around the Corner - one of my favorite places and actually ran into some of the people at my church.  A few new interns had come during the last week are just getting used to India.  After lunch we went to Pali market and chatted with the guys at Choice market while they helped us get our stuff.  We went to my flat so I could get my work stuff then we walked over to Andrea's - I laid on her purple chair to work and she laid on her couch.  I got a lot of work done!  Dax and Amy came over for awhile.  We ordered food from Falafel house and then Andrea's friend Joel came over and brought his friend who is a runway model.  She was probably over 6 foot and was really thin.  real live runway model who probably doesn't eat an entire sleeve of oreos in one sitting....

On Monday I had a good ride on the bus to school, had a great new picture of my niece Charlie, got a lot of work done before school and was ready to hit the day running.  I had the kids answer reflection questions for Parent Teacher Student conferences and most of them wrote great things!!!  In 8th grade we were doing exponent laws which is not the most fun thing and they were doing well.  One of my kids - we'll call him Mr. India - is not the best at math and his parents say it has always been a struggle and he hates math etc... Well, today he rocked!!!  He asked me for lots of help at the beginning but after I worked one out with him, I'd make him go explain it to another child.  As the morning went on, he didn't better and asked less questions.  I emailed his mom to tell her and she was so excited.  She has told me several times that she is so appreciative that Mr. India likes math now.  Later his Dad emailed me!!  thanked me for making his son and wife happy and said he wished he had a teacher like me!!  yea!!
My 6th graders worked hard today - one part that wasn't perfect was their marks on the quizzes but.....
During my off block I had a meeting with the principal that went well...
On Monday's after school the other math teacher, Mr. Davis, and I work with the lower kids who need help in math.  We usually have a lot of kids and we do some fun game or something with them.  Today only 5 kids showed up because soccer has started.  I had worked really hard on making this activity for them that would be no fun with 5 kids so I was kind of bummed.  Mr. Davis had a meeting so it was just me and the 5 girls so I said we'd hang out and have "girl talk".  We went on this really cool math website and competed with each other and kept score to see who improved etc.  They were so into it!!!  Constantly trying to beat their time and score.  The hour flew by - they had so much fun!!  What a fantastic way to end my school day!! 
I caught the first bus and had a great ride home, a great walk in the evening and a good chat with my Dad on the phone.  it was a really good day!!

Ajanta caves

On the second day our driver came at 7:00 to get us - the ajanta caves are a 3 hour drive away.  We drove by a lot of lot of corn, sugar cane and cotton fields.  Using squatty potties is part of India :)

We saw a lot of water buffalo, oxen, cows, and a few camels :)  We drove through small roadside villages and again had wind in our hair :)
The ajanta caves have a lot more Paintings whereas the Ellora caves had more scultures. There were a few sculptures.

We took Zach's advice and went through the caves backwards and as a result we were much less of a tour attraction and we asked to have our picture taken much less often.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet - nature and actual wild flowers. We saw kids crabbing in the water.  These caves were all Buddist so we had to keep our shoes off most of the time. There were a lot of chipmunks around and we sang "spider pig" from the Simpson movie a lot and changed it to spider chipmunk :)  You can see him in the center completely vertical head first!

We ate at the state run restaurant and had some chicken fried rice and Megan and Andrea had a Fosters which was a treat because holidays in India are dry days and alcohol is not supposed to be available.  We went back down to the main area to meet the driver and the hawkers were horrible here!  We were so harrassed.  It puts a damper on the whole experience.

the drive back was really long.  The driver played Hindi music on the way back.  We took a nap and then watch some Hindi music videos and movies.  Oh my gosh - if you want a good giggle - watch hindi movies - so funny!!!
Zach and Nancy stayed at a budget hotel like us, but the other 7 stayed at the Lemon Tree - very fancy.  so we went over there Sunday night and sat by the pool and had dinner at the hotel restaurant - the food was amazing!! My friends had stocked up on alcohol because they knew two days were dry.  the hotel staff was upset they were drinking in public by the pool but were gracious enought to let them continue as long as they hid the bottles under the table and called in "juice" in public :)  It started raining so we went up to one of their hotel rooms and hung out.  It was fun to hang out with people I don't get to spend a lot of time with.  We had music and were singing and dancing.  It was nice to just relax...

Nancy, Zach and I were on an 8 am flight to Mumbai and the others weren't leaving until night.  The owned of my hotel drove me to the airport :)  this was our first official holiday and we had a blast!  I get to travel with Nancy, Zach and Andrea to Kerela at the end of October - looking forward to it!

http://ajantacaves.com/

Ellora Caves

Ten ASB people went to Aurangabad this weekend.   I went with Megan and Andrea.  Our friends Angelo, Andrew, Debbie, Fenella ,Zach, Waciuma, and Nancy were on the same flight as us. The school van took us to the airport after school. This was my first Indian domestic flight. Security is tight -  you have to prove you have a ticket to get in the door and many times after that. It is not really common, but also not unheard of to have terrorist attacks in Mumbai.  Indian sites have a huge problem with my first name having two word!! I could not get my boarding pass even with a guy helping me. When I finally got it through a woman at the counter, I figured out the problem! It was listed as Bobbi Jostaley !! So I have a new last name!  There is a separate security line for women and they pretty much feel you up.  So do not complain about pat downs in the US!  We had a  Kingfisher plane with propellers. That did not sit well with our companion who is afraid of flying!

When we got to Aurangabad I tried to go to bed right away. Megan and Andrea went to find food and an ATM. There was a doorbell to our hotel room that kept randomly going off! I thought it was an alarm system and couldn't figure out why it would go of when I was opening cabinets. It made a horrible sound! When Andrea came back we realized it was the doorbell and two hotel guys came to fix it. I was in my pjs in bed with my head less than 12 inches from the stupid thing. It went off so often I stopped reacting to it. Megan and Andrea were in the hall laugh hysterically because other guests on the hall were poking their heads out of their rooms to see what the commotion was about! Tthe guys would think they fixed it say "ok madam no problem" and start to walk away and it would go off! Finally he unplugs it and says "ok madam. It fixed now" ha!

On Saturday our driver picked us up at 8:30 am to drive us to Ellora Caves. We stopped at the tour agent place where we had bought our tour through and they had internet with an old school computer :) He gave us tea and sent us on our way.  There are 34 preserved caves. Four are Jain. Twelve are Buddist and the others are Hindi. they were amazing! Wonderful sculptures and quiet green spaces. The drive up was nice-lots of green and water buffalo. We actually had the windows down with the wind blowing through our hair! We stopped at a Sheva Temple on the way. Sheva is a very hot tempered god so worshippers pour milk on him (well the big penis that represents him) to cool him off.Tthe outside of the temple was really pretty. we had to take our shoes off to go in and itwas hot and the smell of hot milk mixed with a crowd of people was not pleasant! Hindis welcome everyone to participate in their ceremonies so they gave flowers for us to give as offerings. It is hard to balance being a Christian with experiencing the culture here. I want to observe their culture and learn about it but so much of it is religious. I don't want to be rude but I also refuse to give offerings or worship another gods. I have found that a lot of International teachers are very free spirited it and inclusive so there aren't many born again Christians that I work with. I learn a lot from the non Christian teachers but it is nice that I have a few believers to share with and help keep me accountable.

Anyone want to guess how long it took me to fall on this trip?? Any guesses? First stop at the temple!! Stepped out of the car and fell in a hole! Twisted my knee before I got to do any hiking.

The caves were great but we had no idea we would be one of the major tourist attractions!! Tons of Indians asked to pose with us for pictures. Andrea and Megan went exploring in this huge cave temple while I sat by a sculpture and rested my knees. Many people sat next to me to get a pic. This guy ran up to me handed me his baby!! He and all the rest of the family stood back and tried to get the baby's attention - he was  looking at me with big eyes that said "who are you white woman and why am I in your lap?"

On the way back we stopped to get snacks and I paid 5 rupees each for a bag of chips and a pack of cookies. That's like 12 cents. We stopped at silk weaving place that was amazing. they showed us how the matierial was woven. I bought some pillow covers and the others bought some scarves etc.

I am obsessed with elephants!

We went back to the hotel to take a nap. My pill bottle rolled under the bed. I was leaning over the bed with my hand fishing under the bed. I couldn't reach it so I looked under there and thought i saw a rat! I realized the tail was really long and it occurred to me it was a string - it was a used tampon!!! so gross!!!!!! Other than that the hotel wasnt too bad.  We had a western toilet and hot water and there was a huge die in the shower for some reason.

We met Nancy and Zach at this great tandori restaurant.  The food was awesome and we had a great time!


Here is some more info on Ellora caves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves

I have lots of picutres up on facebook :)