My last day at Spastics

Rein checking in -

"From the terrace of our house on another gloriously sunny 30° day! Yesterday was my last day at Spastics. For 6 weeks I have been assisting Ms. Sarala (or Saral'auntie as the kids call their Miss) in teaching the 2nd & 3rd class. Today the summer holidays start here in Bangalore (that means the start of the really hot season, leading up to the monsoon) so classes are over.

I brought a cake for the kids to mark my last class!

Apart from assisting in class, during these 6 weeks I have helped out with the physiotherapists treating the children, I have assisted in computer classes with all kinds of students, I have played with the autistic children in the so-called home school and I have joined in with the older mentally challenged residents during their group activities and socialised with them in the campus bakery.

It has been very challenging for me at times. Not only did I not have any previous experience in dealing with differently abled people (both physically and mentally) or working with children, or teaching, but it was very confrontational for me personally at times as well to interact with the kids with CP, reminding me of my own childhood and some of the tough experiences I had then, being spastic myself (albeit very mildly compared to some of the kids here).

But most of all it has been an amazing experience! I really enjoyed spending time with these kids in class, helping them with maths, reading, social studies (in which I learned a thing or two myself about the various religions in India), science etc.. Being able to spend time with these kids over a period of 6 weeks I could really witness the improvement in their reading, writing and calculus skills and feel proud of having been a small part in their growth. And the kids really warmed to me too during that time. I was "uncle" Rein for them and they wanted to know all about Belgium and Netherlands; some of them even doing their own internet searching about these countries at home!

The class, f.r.t.l., Teacher Sarala, Aksheh, Chandra, Krishna, Nakul, Harshit and Bharesh

The last day of school, the kids had prepared an open house for friends and families. They had decked out the class room to exhibit all of the projects they had been working on during the year, ranging from "our neighbourhood, displaying the workings of the local bank, police station and post office, to "our solar system" explaining the characteristics of the system and its planets, etc.

Nakul explaining various types of housing

Chandra presenting the use of an igloo

Shreya and Afrah presenting on the Post Office

Each kid was instructed to explain their part. On top of that there was singing by the whole class and a dance performance by one particularly rhythmically talented kid, named Krishna. All this was followed by cake (which I had ordered at the campus bakery as a "thank you" to the class), sweets and lemonade and was just one big joyous affair. To be honest, I was a bit sad that the classes are now over... I would gladly do it again.

Vignesh having fun with "Uncle"

Bharesh and Harshit discussing our Solar System

  

Afrah and Shreya addressing the audience with a welcome prayer

Sarala with two volunteers and the Associate Principal

And from now I will be focusing more on working with Better Future, coaching Jai and Cheryl on lifting the organisation onto the next level. Apart from that I may also help Simon with his mission at APSA and for the rest, we're looking forward to the visit of Françoise in less than two weeks as well as our experience in a silent meditation retreat where we are booked to go for ten days in May, but more on that in the future!"

- Rein checking out.

HAMPI!

Simon signing in:

Well, we had the most amazing weekend in Hampi. I recommend anyone to visit this amazing place.

I will not go into the history of the place, but let me just say that it was once a thriving city in itself though when the muslim rulers came in, they pretty much closed the city and its people down.

What is left is an array of stone buildings, temples, structures, sculptures, colonnades and paths reaching as far as the eye can see. This city was huge and they are still to uncover the whole thing. At times viewing these structures in their surroundings, you feel you could be anywhere in Italy, Greece, Egypt or South America! It is fabulous.

Incredible views

Prostitutes' Bazaar

We arrived 6am Saturday morning after our 8 hours' Sleeper Bus journey. We were traveling with two people which we had met only one week and one day previous. Yann from France and Michael from Italy. The sleeper bus was not as bad as I expected. It was actually quite luxurious! And it is a great way to travel, hopping on board at 11.30pm, go straight to sleep on your own "flat bed" and awaken to be at your destination 8 hours later! And all this for less than €10! When we did arrive, we all hopped off the bus though when the bus left we noticed one of our travel buddies was not to be seen. There I was, running after a moving bus banging constantly to make it stop and going back on board to find him still fast asleep. I told him he was about to go onward to another town, God only knew where. (It is said that this happens more times than you'd imagine, but that you can still have an amazing time at the next destination. I am not one to try this theory :-)

The bus stops at a town about 15km from Hampi itself, as Hampi is just a village. I was expecting something a little bigger but thankfully it was not. The village lays in a valley of rocky mountains which look very much like Mars. Incredible. And everywhere you turned, there was evidence of the once great city.

We were naturally too early for our rooms so found ourselves a roadside canteen to have chai and breakfast. We had arrived and it was wonderful.

Breakfast on arrival

Our accommodation (once we were given the key) was simple yet clean and comfortable. The first thing I noticed was the amount of Westerners! More than I had seen yet in two months in India! I soon found they were everywhere in Hampi which was a little disappointing as you just want Hampi to yourself. I also since found out that Hampi was famous in India for travellers and local shop keepers knew this and charged accordingly. All good. ;-)

The first morning was just a chance to wander around the main town and see what was there. This is where we lost Rein within the first 45 minutes and found him around 2 hours later. God only knows how he did this, but to be honest, this is also typical Rein sometimes. ;-)

The village on a whole was small and the people were friendly and helpful, though the attempt to charge for this assistance was quite the norm, you just had to be firm and throw a few words in to leave you alone.

We soon discovered too the famous Mango Tree restaurant. Every person whom we speak about Hampi say firstly, Mango Tree! It was lovely. A restaurant which tiers down and has several terraces all facing the river and life going by. As the name makes obvious, above us were several mango trees and the food and vibe was great. I was not going anywhere fast.

Rein got a little bored after a while and wanted to discover the water fall which was supposed to be near by as the temperature was bloody hot. I decided to stay behind with Michael while Yann was happy to oblige Rein on his trek through the banana plantations to find the place in the peak heat of the sunny day. Well, again, that was the last we saw of them for a few hours. Michael and I decided to stay and enjoy and after another couple of hours made the walk to the other side of the village to climb the huge hill to the 'sunset' temple to do the obvious...watch the sunset.

Incredible Sunsets

One hell of a sweaty climb and we were there and it was a fabulous view though a cloudy sky had taken our purpose away. Alas, we took our time walking down and discovered another part of the former city, the Prostitutes' Bazaar.

First day down, and Rein and I were exhausted and collapsed at 9pm into our heated cell. (The room finally cooled down at around 6 am).

Twelve hours later, Rein and I exited our room ready for our next full day. Feeling great that it was 9.30am, and that our travel companions were still asleep, we decided to find some breakfast. Well, it then appeared our friends had been up since 7.30am and had seen half the bloody city already! We were a little embarrassed...12 hours sleep.

This new morning we decided to rent bikes to go around the sights. Stopping here and wandering there, again we were struck by the size of this former city! We spent the entire morning doing this and after being in the beating sun we needed a break and headed straight to where we knew we would cool and relax. Yes, Mango tree. It is now, because we had the bikes, that we all decided to look for the watering hole as we could do most of the distance on the bike with a little walking in between. Well, success, we found it, as did a group of Russians. Again, westerners are everywhere and you will be lucky to find a quiet place where there are none. But, none the less, we enjoyed a swim taking care not to put our heads under water as you never know in India where the river has come from and what they have done in it just up river.

The third and last full day we again rode our bikes around the place, though chose to cross the river and explore the other side. Well, we first had to put the bikes on the boat with us on them to support and balance them, then drive them up some bloody steep hills! But, the other side was remote and quiet. We rode here and there and Michael suggested we take the long road back instead of the river crossing as to try something different. Well this turned out to be a lost cause because we got lost. Enquiry after enquiry we got directions from someone and each time, EACH TIME, they pointed in a different direction! We were then forced to just ride back the same direction and cut our losses. By this time I had severe sun burn all over my body and I needed to find shade fast!

Severe sun stroke coming through

I guess I cannot go into too much on everything we did as we did do a lot. It is an amazing place to  visit. The vibe is amazing and the population most slow. Rumour has it that Indian investors are wanting to pump mega bucks into the city and make it the new 'must see' destination in India with 5 star hotels and an international airport. If this ever happens, it surely would spell the end to what Hampi represents. I suggest anyone to come visit and try do it sooner rather than later.

Now, we are again relaxing and preparing for our 'work' for the week. It is funny, the less you do in general, the less time you seem to have to do it! Relaxing has become a big part of our lives at the moment.

Cheerio, Simon

A quarry of hope

Simon signing in:

Well, it is one week down in our new place and we are having a great time. The surroundings proved too good that the past weekend Rein and I left the house only once. Bliss.

When we did manage to drag ourselves out, we ventured to just behind our place where there is a massive open field. Our house mate, Mat (Spanish girl, not a guy, long story) knew of a temple which has always been there, but soon it may not. It is surrounded by peaceful open fields with wildlife but all around they are clearing land and many trees to build even more residential apartments. Disappointing.

The temple was simple yet tranquil. We could see why she liked the place so much. It was lovely, but soon it may not.

This past few days though Rein and I managed to again get out of the city, though where we went is officially still called Bangalore, but this is partly due to the rapid expansion of Bangalore. (They say Bangalore will beat Mumbai as India's most populated city, which in turn makes it one of the world's packed cities!)

But so far, it is massive, but not there just yet.


Our friends at Better Future invited us to a place called Visthar where they were holding a program and display for local entrepreneurs and invited too was the Dutch organisation, G Star Foundation (from denim, G Star Raw). Although we did not get involved with the two days, it was lovely for them to invite us. They had offered for us to join the wife of one of the Better Future guys to go to a local stone quarry to see what is happening there as well meet some people and just see another side of India.

We were warmly welcomed by the brothers of the Sacred Heart based just 5 km from Visthar and they presented us was a lovely garland of welcome.

They showed us around their premises where they offer education to Quarry children as well as others and we got to meet some of the kids and one class sung for us too. They too offered us a lovely lunch and I should mention now, we have loved the food here. Incredible. Cannot get enough of it.

Afterwards we went out to the Quarry and to visit their dispensary. They use the dispensary for the quarry workers when they have accidents as there is nothing else offered to them. The Quarry workers have a story.

In India there is many cases still present where Bonded Labour is present. Bonded labour is caused by people hired from the Quarry go into the country side and tempt villagers to leave their village on the offer a lot of work in the cities. They are often given some money (around 1OOO rupees) though when they arrive into the cities, they are told that they must first work off the debt. They are placed at the quarry and are expected to work 6 days per week for 12 hour days at next to no money. They are repaying their debt (in perspective, it equals to be around €16) They have to build their own slums and what little 'pocket money' they get, this has to go on their food. The children too go to the quarry and as they will not sit still, the parents too put them to work.

So, with this Dispensary, they are also providing Day care for the Quarry children. It is great to see so many kids not in awful conditions during the day, though they do have it tough. It must also be said, that most of the workers were given Monday off for a public holiday so the Quarry was empty.

We then proceeded to the mobile dispensary which moves around the villages and provides everyday care items and check ups. We too met some lovely people who just love to meet foreigners and get in a picture, though most go stiff the minute a camera is flashed at them! :-)

The day was wonderful and we were treated so warmly and welcomed.  We will go back to visit the kids and will take along our friend Françoise when she is here as we believe she too will love it.

Incredibly, we came across another woman at Vistra. We were introduced to her late evening and found out she was Belgian! She has been living in India for 37 years! She is a nun, though does not dress like. She spends her time making dolls representing normal life of everyday Indians. She has been doing this for over 50 years! The dolls are renown around the for making these dolls and she has produced a few books. She is flown around the world sometimes to also show them. The dolls really do represent everyday life from the reality of suicide in women (marriage problems, dowry shame), to the person on the street sweeping, cleaning shit, selling something. Indians all see something in them which brings home the reality. She was an inspiring woman.

But for now, I'm back home relaxing and Rein too will be home soon. Tomorrow we go to another side of town to a Women's celebration which we both have been invited. Too, we have a scooter now but I need to run it past the mechanic to get a couple of things sorted. The scooter is hopefully going to help our transport needs. We do use Auto-richshaws but these can get expensive using them twice per day.

And this weekend, we go to Hampi. We take the sleeper bus which leaves at 11.30pm and arrives around 8am. Hampi is apparently wonderful so you will soon see our pics and post of this.

Until then, Ciao.

Simon

Road trip to Wayanad - part two (take three)

Rein checking in - 

" Bad karma on this blog post.... It's my third attempt to get it done. First time round it was due to my personal choice for relaxation in our new oasis that we may call our home, over sitting before the computer that delayed the posting of part two of this entry. Second time I lost all two hours of typing due to a technical glitch which had me inadvertently deleting the complete entry before publishing it. So here goes take three...

Where was I at the end of part one? Ah yes, finally arriving at our breakfast destination to take a late lunch. Dreamcatcher's was a real little oasis in the otherwise barren Karnataka country side. We settled in for burgers and omelettes and finally had a chance to get acquainted with our fellow travellers. On the road they all dozed off immediately; being true Indians, they were not deterred by the manic driving and can sleep anywhere.

After lunch we continued our journey, passing the state border into Kerala. It was amazing to notice the difference with Karnataka, so much greener, lush and so much cleaner too. Of course it made a difference that the border also let us into the national park of Bandipur, but the natural beauty and cleanliness of Kerala remained throughout our stay in the state. 

Huge bamboo bushes

We drove along huge bamboo bushes, reaching 20 to 30 metres into the sky, and through tea plantations; occasionally stopping for tea at a road side chai wallah. 

A tea stop

We continued like this for another two or three hours until we reached the highest point of our journey at 1800 metres at a look-out over lower Kerala. The 180° views were amazing. We stopped of course, for the picture opportunity to discover we certainly weren't the only people doing so as the hordes of monkeys in the trees along the road testified; they had a feast scavenging the debris of food scraps and fruit peals left behind by the many tourists.

After having taken in the beautiful vistas we descended down the road into the low lands, along a windy roads with dozens of hairpin turns. Naturally, these turns didn't deter our driver to overtake trucks in the middle of a bend. To our amazement the narrow mountain road appeared to just fit three vehicles side-by-side (the truck we were overtaking, the on-coming van and our car in the middle) at times, without any of us dropping into the ravine! After another nerve racking 10 kilometres and 10 hairpin turns like this, our host and organiser woke up and decided to check with the venue where the turn-off to the resort was exactly.  And true to the spirit of the trip so far, we had missed it a half-an-hour ago! In fact it was on top of the pass, just before the look-out. To be honest, our organiser was just as upset about this as we were, as he had clearly instructed the driver to warn him when we were passing through the last village as that would be where he would need to call the resort to verify. Our driver however, had barely spoken three words all day, and would ignore such commands and just keep continuing straight ahead until told otherwise.

So there was nothing else to do than to make a u-turn and had back up the incline back towards the run-off. After a deep exasperated sigh, Simon and I just leaned back in our seats and decided to let it be; what else could we do. And so it was that we arrived at the gates of the resort around 5 pm, only roughly 6 hours after the scheduled time of arrival!

But what a beautiful resort it turned out to be! We entered in over a small pass that led into a secluded little villa, surrounded by hills on the one side and tea plantations on the other. The resort consisted of individual wooden cottages, completely built in traditional Keralan style, each with their own private veranda overlooking the beautiful surroundings. The cottage we were led to for our stay, was on the far end of the resort, reached by a little bridge over the creek that ran along it and surrounded by the lush greens of the jungle. It was absolute bliss after three weeks of non-stop hectics, noise and pollution of the big city. And this was not all. The resort had created a lake by diverting the creek, forming a natural swimming pool. So after our nine hour journey, we dropped our bags in our cabin and headed to the pool for a well earned swim in the fresh water together with tad poles and small fish. We were in heaven!

The path leading up to our cabin

The natural pool

Relaxing on our private veranda!

And so we settled in for the night. After a nice Keralan dinner, the staff lit a bonfire on a clearing in the woods and we all sat around and chatted into the night.


After a deep and restful sleep we woke up to the sound of the exotic birds, had a dive into the pool, and after breakfast set out for a hike in the surrounding area.  After a while the temperatures started rising and Simon decided to recline along the pool so I continued on my own and ventured into the woods. I found a trail that led to wild elephants' sleeping place as evidenced by the football size turds that were scattered around the place. I walked along slopes with beautiful vistas onto the surrounding hills and into the wood crossing creeks until I reached back at the resort. I felt so reenergised by nature and the fresh air that in finding our fellow travellers just finishing their breakfast upon my return, I offered to show them my route and do the hike all over again with them!

Elephant droppings

Stocking up on Keralan delicacies on the way home

We stayed at the resort until that Sunday evening, to make up for the lost time the day before, just relaxing, swimming, eating, reading a book and napping in the sun. Then at 5 pm we started our journey back to Bangalore but not before another stop at the main village in the area to stock up on the local delicacies to take home, such as dried masala banana chips and puffed rice. Driving through the national park around dusk, we even spotted our first wild elephants crossing the road. Unfortunately, our driver's driving style didn't allow for us to get the camera out and take a shot. Before we good and well knew these were elephants we were dodging on the road, we'd already left them behind! 


We stopped for dinner in the majestic city of Mysore along the way and finally reached home by 2 am in the morning.

What a trip it had been. It had gone completely differently than foreseen, but it had turned out all good and we fell into a deep and satisfied sleep. 

And so I had experienced my first lesson to start facing the main challenges that India has in store for me: 1) not fearing to let go of control; 2) learning to go with the flow; and 3) patience, patience, patience! In turn, Incredible India will then show its unexpected treasures and beauty and be truly amazing.

If I can master these three attributes, I am bound to have a wonderful time here over the next two to three months. If not, I might as well give up or go crazy!"

- Rein checking out.

A new home

Simon signing in

Well, these past couple of days we have been living within our new studio in the area Koramangala. It is an oasis of calm in the heart of Bangalore. The only noise which we have interrupting our thoughts is birds, people in the far distance and the occasional noise of the pump giving us water. Heaven. The house is in the middle of a garden far from the closest street so it is great.

The studio gives us the upper sections of the house with windows facing towards the rear overlooking a large open field containing nothing but emptiness. I truly do not know what the area is used as. The studio has a large living area and separate large bedroom and bathroom as well as little terrace, though not big enough or nice enough to sit.

We have a communal area down below which is spacious to say the least and there is another 6 people living down here, though some travel constantly, others work all day, and all together we al get along fine. The residents living here are all from the west, and all here for their own reasons.

We were just glad to be out of the other place which turned out to be a little nasty. The guys who own the place seemed just to be wanting to make money and did not really take on board the concept of a serviced apartment. One of them was nice enough, the other though, would sell his mother for a decent buck.

This week too I have enjoyed more my work at APSA. Wednesday was a little frustrating though Thursday there ended up being a great group of MBA students in their last year of studies who came for the entire afternoon to be with the kids, talk, have fun, and dance. Ultimately they also brought a truck load of items for the kids ranging from games, clothes, flip flops, treats, and various other items. This group raise money at their college all year and buy these items and once per year they bring it along, along with the fun. They have been doing this for the past two years and I too had a great time. They dragged me up to dance though I had no hope against Indians. These people know how to dance, and well, they do it to have fun and care not what people think as opposed to home (both Europe and Australia). The kids just loved it.

Too, today (Friday) 10 kids were ‘passed out’ as they had passed their government exams which enables them to go into the mainstream school after the summer. These kids came from various situation and APSA’s Dreamschool helps teach them the basics and helps to prepare them for this exam. Their success is a big success for APSA and today they had a celebration which included the religious offerings, lighting incense and congratulating the students. I too had some applied to my forehead. I enjoyed it. J

This weekend will be a relaxing one in our new home and even more, thre of the people are away in Kolkatta which will not make it better (as they are lovely people), but even more peace and quiet.