Uttarakhand

So I have made it to Sonapani! After the overnight trainride, our group took a 2 ½ hour jeep ride, where a tea stop was made halfway, to a dirt road where we walked 20 minutes to our new residence for the next ten weeks! The weather was beautiful, and the Gharwal Himalaya with its snowtopped peaks was clearly visable to our north. Gorgeous! I am living in a brick cabin with stone floors that has a bathroom and armoir with two roommates, Maresa and Brittany. The landscaping here is beautiful! There are so many colorful flowers. Near the entrance there is an herb garden within the letters “Sonapani;” I love that as an idea. There is a common area towards the top where we eat our meals, with the cabins terraced beneath. It’s great! Since arriving and after settling in, we have had the opportunity to walk to a nearby store where chips, biscuits and other random things are sold as well as visiting CHIRAG, the non governmental organization where we will have our internships based out of, and use their facility for our classes. I am really excited about the group that is here, 18 girls, 2 boys, because everyone seems to be so easy going! We have had some abrupt changes to scheduling, and everyone has been patient without unnecessary complaints. This week’s schedule is a bit off, but typically I will be having my Work, Gender and Environment class on Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday will be filled with my internship. Friday and Saturday is my Political Economy of Indian Development class. Afternoons will be opportunities to volunteer. Sunday, Monday freetime! That’s for this month… then I will drop to classes twice a week in November, and increase time in my internship.

I started classes on Thursday. CHIRAG is an hour and fifteen minute walk from Sonapani, about 8k (between 4 and 5 miles). It’s very relaxing, but now I can say that I walked uphill both ways to get to school! Our first Political Economy class was held in one of CHIRAG’s rooms, a clean space that we took our shoes off before entering, and sat on the floor on mats. Afterwords, we had an introduction to CHIRAG where we were able to visit the garden, learn about current projects they are involved in. Afterwards, we visited the school, preschool through third grade, and saw a powerpoint about the objectives and practices within their education program. I walked back watching the sunset, and made it back for nearly perfect timing for dinner! My appetite is still huge from Nepal! I did lose 10lbs so I may come back the same size because the food here is delicious. I can’t wait to help out in the kitchen, and make a recipe book!
Friday was a tour of nearby villages. Radha and Pan were our tourguides of Gargoan. We walked for three hours around the village and saw the water shed, water pump, where hydroelectricity is generated, an oak tree plantation, the Grand Panchayat building and visited a government school that was in session. It was a small school house, with only two rooms, and office, and a kitchen. Substantial enough for the forty chilren that were there, only four of which who were girls. This was the first of several village tours we will be doing in areas where CHIRAG is working. I am just excited to start our internship, although we won’t be until next week or so. I have signed up as a volunteer to teach English to both employees of a neighboring organization and CHIRAG school children. I will also volunteer in the school with arts and crafts and environmetal activities for their students, preschool through the third grade. The school is rather impressive for being open only three years, and they practice very encouraging teaching methods. Additionally, over half their students are female, a drastic difference from the school in Gargoan. I also intend to volunteer on the organic farm on a weekly basis as well! It is weird how isolated I am and I am just looking to fill my schedule with as much as I can so I don’t find myself just sitting around.

Our weekends are Sunday, Monday. On Sunday, Maresa and I decided to walk to Mukteshwar, about 8k, despite the light rain. We came back just before dark, and absolutely soaked. However, we did find a great bazaar that will be good to come back to when it’s not raining because things were tarped up. Additionally, there were more little stores with a bigger variety of snacks! Monday, a group of nine of us decided to go to Nainital and took one Jeep that fit eleven people! It was a bit miserable because it was raining, but it was good to see, and I certainly want to go back! Nainital is a “honeymoon destination” of India. There was a lake, and several Western friendly shops. The rain here is very unusual. As a matter of fact, villagers contribute it directly to climate change because rains have never been this late in the year by memory accounts; there is not historical weather data on the region. It is also potentially problematic because since it is after the monsoon, many deveploment projects have begun, and the rains could implicate projects due to landslides among other things.

Tuesday was our first Work, Gender and Environment class. Due to the weather, the rain has made the trail to exit Sonapani very muddy, and several students are not prepared with raingear, class was held in the common area at Sonapani. I anticipate that I will enjoy the other course more, although this one will relate very well to our intenships, and be very applicable for when we do homestays. It’s great to be in the context of what we are learning about, rather than learning about it abstractly. This will be closer to a normal week too! Rain cleared over the course of the afternoon to expose the Himalaya just before sunset. There is a small cluster of mountains, near the height of Rainier, to the left that look dwarfed in comparison to these, 6500m+. So amazing to look out to!

Thursday after going to a festival/meeting in Aarohi, Brittany and I went with Vinode, one of the cooks, to a climbing area just 20 minutes away from Sonapani. It techically is not a climbing area yet, although there is so much potential for sport, trad and bouldering! Vinode would just go there to practice rappelling. However, hopefully we can go to a van panchayat (forest council) meeting, and ask about putting in bolts for top anchors since the area is within panchayat jurisdiction. If not, there are suitable trees that you can use to build anchors. We rapped down and sent a few first ascents in the Himalaya. No big deal… ☺ It actually sounds a lot cooler than what we did, only 5.9 max, but we didn’t have much time. We got distracted roaming around and admiring what we found and were surrounded by! That evening was also the first night of a film festival put together for our program by an Indian film director. It was a short documentary about violence between India and Pakistan, although the hour presentation beforehand was very informative about Indian history, and how the films he has chosen to present fall into the theme.

After class today, a group of us interested in volunteering at a government school nearer to Rita, went to set up a schedule. It was so great! After figuring out our schedule with the school teacher, we introduced ourselves to the 22 students ranging from preschool to fifth grade, and then took turns sharing songs and dances until we needed to leave. I am so excited to teach English, but more importantly interact with the children.

All the cabins besides mine has gotten internet, so I have been terribly slow about posting things since I haven’t had access to the internet since arriving in India. A bit surprising! Nevertheless, I am in the rural hills, and just happy that I will be able to have access in the upcoming weeks. I have a phone as well! It’s different after not using one at all for over two months, but its good to feel that I at least have the option to be in contact/contacted with/by people.

I will try and post pictures as soon as I can although it will not be many due to the slow and moderately inconsistent internet situation. I'll try to so I can let you see highlights!