Be Patient & Flexible

I consider myself a patient and flexible person. However, scheduling in India is pointless. Everything is always changing! For instance, a guest speaker, Radha (Behn) Bhatt, a devote Gandhian activist in her eighties, was scheduled to speak in class on Wednesday. Then it was Tuesday. She came on Monday, which was our weekend. We had several articles to read in preparation. It’s also frustrating because it is difficult to get alone time because everyone is always around Sonapani, and once you leave, there isn’t terribly much around, and certainly not a lot to do. I think the climbing area nearby is going to be a necessary getaway. Additionally, our week was packed from morning to night with activities: go to Aarohi to hear the governor speak; visit the Kilmora Shop and see how apricot oil is made; visit the weaving center; visit a women’s self help group, get invited to see a Ram Lela performance, despite it being after Deshera and run late and miss the doctor at the hospital for a tour; spend a lot of time in Jeeps traveling down windy hill roads; come home to movies every night for the ‘film festival’ and have dinner pushed back. Our group was looking forward to the time off this weekend. Also, it took our cabin three weeks to get internet since arriving. Within that time it was difficult to borrow people’s computers, and my phone ran out of minutes, and the order was delayed a week to top up. I think what’s frustrating is that you are really forced to rely on other people here whereas I typically like to get things done myself, and find myself capable of doing so. Also, we ordered minutes to recharge our SIM cards. Then we got phone cards. Things are just silly, so often.

I did however start my volunteer projects of teaching English to both the government school children in Simayal as well as the staff at Rita. It’s going to be a new experience! Especially with the language barrier, it’s hard to explain why something the way it is in the language they are trying to learn. It will be much better, at least at Rita when we get the Hindi/English books which will have the Devanagari as well as English so we can both understand whats going on! At the school, there are English books, however they are terrible teaching tools. It’ll get better as time goes on though, it was only day one!

Diwali is on the 17th and we have the day off from class! We will be lighting of fireworks in order to celebrate :)! I'm excited!