My class and me

Women cooking in the corner of the dining room at the orphanage

Some girls in their room

Allie, the girls, and me playing cards

A man selling vegetables at the market

A linen store

Two street kids at the market

The last pictures of India! Sorry it took so long to post.

Day 12: I say good bye to India

Hey there Readers,

Once again I was awoken by the orphans next door coming up to the room but as it was my last day I decided to sleep for a bit longer and then get up. The first thing I wanted to do was go to the Prakash Deep School one last time before we leave and that’s exactly what we did. After breakfast we got in the rickshaw that would take us to the school with Hannah. We set off and when we arrived, we were greeted by Sabita and I was told to teach her class while she talked with Mom. This happened to be the class with my friends and I had a pretty good time dictating a spelling test and correcting them. After this the guys invited me to play basketball with them just outside the school area, and I said sure. I may not be 6 foot and a pro at basketball (like my uncle) but I played on the team in middle school and I was reasonably good. It was loads of fun and I almost fell into the barbed wire that kept the cows out but other than that it was nice. After a few hours at the school, our rickshaw showed up on time (for once) and we had to say our goodbyes. The whole school gathered together and Sabita gave Mom and me amazing gifts to thank us for volunteering and helping out. I made sure to get all of my friends names so that I could write to them every now and then and it wasn’t until that moment that you realize how attached you get. They were all saying goodbye and I don’t want to sound all emotional but it was very heartwarming. All three of us set off to the accommodations of the volunteers who would work at the school and we stayed there for a bit and checked them out. Next, we were headed to an all girls’ orphanage which would be interesting since I’m the only guy their age they’ve seen in a while. When we arrived we were immediately led to the volunteer who had been working there for four months already, Allie. I was really impressed with her because she knew all 88 girls by name and was completely immersed in her duties as a volunteer. First we went to get lunch and she brought us downstairs into the dining room. This consisted of a rather large room with mats lining the walls as chairs and two entrances: the doorway we just walked through and the kitchen. There were flies all over the place and she brought us some interesting looking stew with rice. I was a little nervous eating this (so was Mom) but we managed somehow. She showed us around and wherever we went I got two reactions. From the smaller girls they would just hide and giggle and from my age up they just watched me. It got a bit unnerving after a while, not going to lie. Once the tour was over we went back to Allie’s room where we found 8 girls playing cards. They asked if we wanted to join and Allie and I said yes. First we played Mafia, a game I actually have played in drama before and then a game involving spoons. I got out fairly quickly the first time but the second time I managed to stay in longer. We stopped playing after a while and the girls started interrogating Allie, asking her questions about me like whether I had a girlfriend or not. Half an hour later we had said our goodbyes and were back in our rickshaw heading back to Bandhu’s where we would spend our final night in India. That evening we had a good time with Kranti, Bandhu, B, and Hannah and Mom ended up doing makeovers at midnight for the girls.  They seemed to love it – can’t really understand that topic.  Anyway, we had a great last evening and had to get up at 4 am to go to the airport for our flight home. It kind of hurt to say goodbye to everybody since they had such a bigger impact on our lives than we would have ever expected. But I’m going to write some more on that another time.

A couple of Day 11 pictures

Some of the slum huts around the Morning Star school

Mom teaching at the school

Some of the smaller kids learning

Angie and me at the market

Perfect Bake... mmmmmm

Day 11: KFC- Never Again

Hey there Readers,

My first morning back Rajat comes up and wakes me at 6 to go exercise with him and the other orphans in the park. I get up a groggy mess and by the time I got down Manish was already crying because he fell down on something sharp. Rajat (the big brother of the group) says we should go so I carry Manish over to the orphanage where I’m joined by Mom, B, and Hannah. I help the boys shower and dress as they get ready for school and then Mom and I leave to eat breakfast and get ready for another project. Just a note - when people visit they usually only volunteer at one project and stay with a host familuy that lives close to the project. We are going to try and see as many different projects as possible because Mom is evaluating all of them and will give feedback to help Nuria organize her future volunteer placements and projects. We head off to the Morning Star slum school and see what’s going down there. Bandhu drives us and he pulls up at the side of the road where you have a small dirt path and at the end, a massive slum that stretches in both directions along the road as far as I could see. This was one of those, “What have I gotten myself into?” moments and we walked towards the slum. Eventually we arrived at a sort of tent thing that was curved but didn’t reach the floor. It’s difficult to explain so I’ll just get a picture. Here we met Rakish and his wife, both teachers at the school who had organized the students into three groups: beginners, intermediate, and advanced. He showed us the ropes and then Mom got the advanced class while I started with the intermediate. This class consisted of a blackboard and about 25 kids who were differing ages but most of them looked about 8 years old. On the blackboard were a couple of addition, multiplication, and subtraction problems that the kids had to copy down and solve. My first task was grading all of their work including a multiplication table up to ten. Afterwards I made them write 5 animals, vegetables, etc. which I also had to check. Once this was finished the smaller kids left for lunch but the intermediate and advanced groups had to stay for another hour. We decided to make them both stand up so we could do some exercises with them. Once again we showed them the Macarena and then Simon Says and after that just a clapping game. The kids were dismissed and now Mom and I went to check out the rooming accommodations of the volunteers who wanted to work at Morning Star, which happened to be at Rakish’s house. I was invited to go with him on his motorcycle while the women went home in a rickshaw. On the way to his house we stopped to get lunch which turned out to be fresh chicken. Normally that’s fine, but here’s what I mean when I say fresh. We stopped at a little, open shack at the side of the road swarming with flies. Rakish talked to the guy at the table and then went to a cage with a couple of chickens in it and pulled out one by the legs. It flapped for a bit and then gave up so he gave it to the man he spoke with earlier. The man picks up a massive knife which I hadn’t seen earlier because it had been so covered in flies and he uses this to cut the chickens throat over a wooden barrel. He drops the chicken in the bucket and leaves it to bleed to death. He then deals with another man’s chicken by chopping it into various pieces and packaging it. I heard a knocking sound and realized that the chicken in the barrel was flapping its wings in a final attempt to get out before it bled to death. It was pretty gruesome for me, not gonna lie. So he then took it out, removed all of the skin and feathers and cut it up, pulled the organs out and put them on a balance. I would like to remind you that everything is covered in flies: the knife, the chicken, the table, the balance, the pile of organs, everything. He then put all this into a small plastic bag and we drove off once again, this time headed for his home. We got off the bike and we went inside where his wife cooked dinner. Needless to say, I stayed away from the chicken. It was a nice family in general and after lunch we went to the market with Angie, the volunteer staying at Rakish’s place. It was pretty awesome because we went to this place called ‘Perfect Bake’ where they have ice cream and coffee and all that good stuff that’s difficult to find anywhere else and we know it’s safe there to eat. We left Angie and returned to Bandhu’s where we spent the rest of the day in an exhausted stupor and after dinner we welcomed sleep.

Day 10 pictures:

A typical sight on the road

Shri's slum school

Volunteers helped decorate the walls

Kranti going through fresh vegetables

Hannah tutoring a neighbor and me just chillin

Day 10: Back to work

Hey there Readers,

The flight to New Delhi was quite uneventful. We woke up early and got on the shuttle to the airport. It was actually really nice, and virtually no lines because our Kingfisher flight was the only one that early in the morning. At the gate we met the Family and soon after that we boarded the plane. Back in Delhi, we said goodbye to the Family as they headed off towards their next destination. After luggage reclaim, Mom found a place to get a prepaid car to bring us back to Dr. Bandhu’s house. We arrived in Faridabad at about noon and met our new roommate, Hannah. She’s pretty chill and we get along well. Mom and I relaxed a little bit, went to the market, and then towards the end of the day, Mom and I went to a slum school. We mostly observed and didn’t do much teaching because we were only there for an hour. There were two teachers and 25 kids and the school was actually in a slum. Here they learn basic English, Hindi, and Math, which prepares them for government school. At Shri’s school previous volunteers even left a booklet behind with the work they did with the kids and some good suggestions that help when you start. The way it works with slum schools is that parents in the slum have no education at all and don’t see a reason their kids should get an education and are resigned with the life that they have. Some of the parents send their kids to the slum school because it is in their own comfort zone. Once they get used to the slum school, some of the kids are ready to go to a government school and once they start they get a decent education. This particular school sent 30 kids to government schools recently. The man in charge of it is Shri and afterwards we went to his house where we met his wife and daughter. It’s a nice place and it’s also where volunteers would stay if they decided to help out at his school. Something I would like to point out about slums is that when you walk through one, you don’t feel threatened. Yes, people stare at you cause you’re probably the second white person they’ve seen, but all of them either just stare or smile. It doesn’t give a sinister vibe and you don’t feel threatened as you walk through the makeshift homes. Some even wave and don’t mind when you take their photos. Tired and happy we returned to our bunk beds and went to sleep.

The final Jaipur pictures!

The doorman and me at our hotel

The Hawa Mahal or the Palace of the Wind

A Rickshaw and a pig at the Monkey Temple

Bathing monkeys

Women in beautiful and colorful sarees

The view from the top of the hill at the Monkey Temple

Day 9: The Astrologer

Hey there Readers,

It’s been really nice staying at our hotel but tomorrow we are heading back to Faridabad to continue our work. Once again we ate breakfast and were off to Jaipur with Abdullah and the Family. The day started off with a trip to the Monkey Temple. As you can imagine I was a little nervous, looking back at my past experiences with Indian Monkeys, but I decided to go on with it anyways. Once we arrived I saw that the temple’s fauna was not limited to only monkeys. There were also a bunch of other different animals like goats, cows and dogs, but the temple was mostly dominated by pigs and of course, monkeys. There was a rather steep path that led to the temple and we started up here. On top of the hill we snapped a few pictures and then returned down the path to the car. No monkey bothered me this time! While we were driving I noticed that although Jaipur is called the Pink City, the walls looked more salmon-orange colored, possibly because of the dust and pollution that they are constantly exposed to. Soon we arrived at our next destination, the jewelry store where this well known astrologer worked. We went inside and it looked like a normal store with a few people behind the counter. One of them came over and asked who wanted to go first. This was obviously the astrologer and he looked like a normal guy. Julie decided to go first and he brought her into a separate room where he closed the door. The rest of us were waiting, trying not to eye the beautiful jewelry that lined the shelves. After buying so much at the textile store the previous day, we didn’t want to spend more money. Of course this effort went to dust because Ryan and Morgan had not been with us and started asking about certain pieces and stones and eventually we were all involved. Julie emerged after about 15 minutes and Ryan went in next. Naturally we were all curious what happened so we asked Julie and she said that he was pretty spot on with most of the stuff. For instance he knew her age, how many kids she had, etc. My mother and I were both skeptical so we took this information with mild surprise. Now the question was how accurate was he but we had to wait to find out because after Ryan, the astrologer had to run an errand for an hour so Abdullah brought us to the Hawa Mahal – the Palace of Winds - to take a few pictures. When we returned Mom went in and we waited for the third time. When she emerged we looked at the jewelry some more and we decided not to buy any. Well, Mom and I didn’t, the Family was a whole different story. I asked mom if the astrologer told her anything interesting but she said that he was very vague about everything. She wasn’t really too impressed about this whole thing. Afterwards Abdullah brought us to a restaurant that uses purified water in its cooking so that we don’t catch anything nasty and I had a grilled cheese which was pretty decent. My favorite part about the place was that in the ketchup they put chili seeds giving it a nice little kick that I really appreciated. Sadly I was the only one who did as everyone else at the table started chugging their water after tasting it. As we were finishing lunch Ryan and Morgan decided to visit the textile factory once again to see what they missed yesterday. We went once again and I sat there bored for an hour while they went through all of the fantastic bed covers. Once this was over we called it a day and returned to our separate hotels. In the car we found out that the Family had booked a cheap flight to New Delhi and when we arrived at the hotel we immediately checked and saw that seats were available. We booked the flight and now I have to wake up at 4am which I can’t say I’m excited about but I guess it’s better than the train and the crazy train station in Delhi. We said our goodbyes and gave our thanks to Abdullah for giving an awesome tour service, and we prepared ourselves to leave luxury and return to the real world.

There's a lot of pictures of Jaipur so just get ready :)

The Jal Mahal or the Water Palace

Mom and me in front of the Palace

The Maharajah's Tomb

Mom getting her henna done

The view of the Amber fort from the highway

Riley and me in the Amber fort

Mom and me in front of the Ganesh Gate

Some of the decorations in the Amber fort

One of the beautiful bed covers

Another one that we actually bought

Day 7+8: I explore the Pink City

Hey there Readers,

Waking up at 4 was not fun. The car ride to the station was even worse because we had a tiny car and we all had bags that filled up what seemed like every square inch of the car. So we drove the hour to the New Delhi Railroad station finding it difficult to breathe. From the outside this was a large building with a parking lot and just an empty space between the parking lot and the building filled with sleeping people. The parking lot was full to bursting as well so the driver just let us out as soon as he could and we tiptoed our way through the bodies and into the station. We managed not to step on anybody and we got through the metal detectors unscathed so now we set out for platform 2, which is where the train to  Jaipur would be. This turned out to be difficult because we couldn’t find an official person who could help us and the layout reminded me a bit of a maze. Finally we reached our platform where we discovered to our dismay that the girls and Julie’s tickets were on the waiting list so we decided that the only thing we could do was just get on the train. Mom and I got our seats and they sat not too far apart. I decided to catch up on some sleep and then I just fiddled around on my computer for the rest of the ride. The train took about four hours and when we arrived at the Jaipur station we were found by a nice taxi driver and guide named Abdullah who led us through the bustle. Pretty soon after our arrival it was unanimously decided that this city was much nicer and less chaotic than Delhi. So Abdullah led us to his car while the Family went with one of his taxi driver friends to their hotel. We booked different hotels and while we were driven there we learned some new things about Jaipur. Let me fill you in on just some basic information. So in 1727, Sawai Jai Singh II started building a city – the first planned one in India - that would take about six years to complete. Jaipur itself means ‘City of Victory’ and in 1876 it was painted pink to welcome Prince Albert, which is why it is known as the ‘Pink City’. So now that you know some facts about where we are, I’ll continue. We were received at the hotel very warmly and went to the restaurant there to eat pasta which was nice since one does get tired of eating chapatti every meal for a week. After lunch we were brought to our room and I took a nice long nap. Essentially we didn’t do anything else for the rest of the day except watch TV, lie in bed, and take a warm shower. The highlight of my evening was ordering room service. You have no idea how awesome it was being able to have food being brought up to our nice, air-conditioned room overlooking the Jal Mahal (Water palace). We then watched New Police Story with Jackie Chan and went to bed. As much as I enjoy being awoken by orphans at six in the morning to go and play with them (enter sarcasm here), it was nice being able to sleep in without barking dogs, loud music, and beating drums. We leisurely made our way downstairs to eat breakfast and then got ready for our tour of Jaipur with Abdullah and the Family.  Only Julie and Riley took the tour with us today since Morgan had a stomach bug (Delhi belly) and Ryan had to stay at the hotel with her. Our little band set off to get some henna first. This is where people draw designs on you with a kind of plant paste that after drying and washing off stays on you for about two weeks. The place we went to was right outside of the Maharaja’s tomb which was pretty cool. What was not cool, however, was the fact that today in the morning the King of Jaipur died which is pretty unfortunate. Henna is usually for women although guys can get it too (like a tattoo) but I decided not to, which left me being the one to take the pictures for everyone until it dried. We were soon on our way to the Amber Fort which is about 11 km from the city and is situated on top of a range of craggy hills. Abdullah drove us up and we explored the massive fort. Inside was pretty big and we saw things like the Ganesh gate, the Hall of Mirrors, and the Hall of Pleasure. Eventually we found ourselves at the same coffee place chain that sold the SDB and I got the other thing that I wanted, the Dark Passion (they have creative names, what can I say). We stayed there for a bit and then returned to Abdullah who took us to our next stop, a textile factory. Here we learned how block printing is done and afterwards he brought us up to the store and I’ve got to say, I have seen a lot of beautiful clothes but these were some of the most beautiful covers and pashminas I have ever seen (I’ll get some pictures). They were also very high quality using all natural colors and a very good price. Mom spent some money on these but I can’t complain because I got an amazing bed cover. Finally we decided to head back to the hotel. We planned to return to Faridabad the next day by train but at the hotel we found that all of the seats were booked so we have to stay an extra night. I’m ecstatic but mom feels bad because she said she would work on Tuesday. We went to the room and then came down to the pool to relax in the waning sun. We then ate dinner and right now I’m in our room just relaxing and wondering what will happen tomorrow. See you then!

Pictures of Day 6

A man with a coal iron

Jayati and Sowmick in their school clothes

My Mom's second class at Prakash Deep

One of the teachers with her students

My Mom with two teachers

Day 6: I rediscover my love for Play Dough

Hey there Readers,

When we did exercise with the kids a few days ago at 6:00 in the morning, we decided that it would be the last time, but the orphans did not. So today they came up at about 6:30 and woke me up so that I would go play with them, so I grudgingly got ready and went to the park where I made them run a lap and then tried to play a game with them. The problem with the game was that they wanted to play Duck Duck Goose but the all wanted to sit next to me so it was a clump of little kids fighting to get the spot next to me and Brij Mohan punched Manish in the face which caused him to wail so I decided to stop a little early. I took Manish on my back to the orphanage where I saw Julie tutoring Muskan, the oldest girl there. At this point mom walked in and helped shine their shoes while I took care of Manish. After the orphanage we returned home and got our rickshaw to take us to Prakash Deep. Once again I taught our class. There were a few more students today but otherwise we just followed the textbook and everything ran smoothly. At some point we played I spy and then I brought out a Where’s Wally? Book (Where’s Waldo in the States) that mom brought from the UK. This kept them entertained for a while and afterwards I helped out my mom with her class of little kids who were calmer than the previous class while my kids were on break. We did numbers and a few simple conversations. It was getting towards the end of the day and she was running out of games and she got out the secret weapon. Play-dough. She gave me a pack and I started on a snail and soon I was surrounded and began giving it out in strips. They had never been giving anything like it and were all over mom and me. The girls just sat quietly and played nicely whereas the boys were a bit wild. I was making things like snowmen, and fingermen and there was always a group surrounding me. The rickshaw on the way back was an older one and the engine was literally right underneath the driver’s seat. To start it you have to lift up the seat and pull on a string, kind of like a lawnmower. There were practically no shock absorbers as which made the journey particularly jarring. We got home without breaking any teeth and I took a shower and a nap. The rest of the day has been uneventful and I just ate dinner. While we were downstairs the power cut off as it does sometimes here in India, but Bandhu has a generator for emergency lights. Mom, B, and I went up to our room to find that it was pitch black and even worse, the fans weren’t working. It was so incredibly hot that I couldn’t even sleep. Eventually after an hour my mom checked the lights and the fans worked so I could finally sleep. Tomorrow I’m waking up early to go to Jaipur where we are going to stay in a hotel over the weekend. Fun stuff.

Just a couple of pictures from Day 5

The front gate of the Taj

Me at the Taj

People lying down at one of the exits

One of the two side gates

Day 5: The Sizzle Dazzle Brownie

Hey there Readers,

I wanted to let you know why the posts aren’t updated regularly. Pretty much Bandhu turns the internet off after about 11 and most days we arrive later so I don’t have the chance to upload them. The electricity also fluctuates and goes on and off. Just a little note in case you were wondering. I also made it so that anyone can comment, which I hope should work now. So, today the day consisted mostly of driving, hours and hours of it. So we woke up at around 7:30 and prepared ourselves for the grueling 3 hour car ride. The Family, Mom, and I all ate breakfast and piled into the car. The car ride was pretty tedious and dull, probably because most of us were trying to catch up on a bit of sleep so it passed pretty quickly, at least for me. We arrived at the entrance area at around noon and the smell was pretty bad.  We found out it was Camel waste, to be precise. From the parking lot we had two options, take a rickshaw to the entrance of the Taj or a camel. I think this was the first time I had seen a camel out of a zoo and I’ve decided that they are pretty nasty animals. Each one had a harness with a kind of carriage trailing behind. It was filthy and the smell was so repulsive. Thankfully we decided to take a rickshaw but we had to haggle for a fair price, which gets so annoying after a while because you have to argue about the price of everything. We got in and drove the three minutes to the entrance. First we got tickets. There were two lines, one for Indian visitors and one for foreigners. This was a little bit ridiculous because the price for the Indian ticket was 20 rupees but for us, we had to pay 750 rupees each, over 35x more expensive. Everywhere people would attempt to discreetly take our picture as they walked by, but most of them failed on the discreet portion of the action. So, back to my day, we got our ridiculously overpriced tickets and went to the lines for entry. Now there were three separate lines, one for women, men, and high quality tickets. Having 750 rupee tickets, we went in the latter. So we reached a man who looked at our tickets and confirmed our high quality tickets. Now this is the ridiculous part, Ryan and I were to continue down the HQ line but the man literally forced the rest of the group under the bar and into the woman’s line, which we thought was totally sexist. So we went through the usual security where I discovered to my dismay that candy was considered contraband in the Taj. So I went through the metal detector and they checked my bag. Now remember I told you that my mom used candy to discipline the little kids, well it was a lot of candy, and ALL of it was in my bag. Once there was a sizeable amount of sugar piled up next to my bag I offered some to everyone and the guys behind me went for it. Here I was holding up the security line into the Taj Mahal with everyone staring at me and the massive pile of candy next to me and the people around me are literally shoving it into to their mouths as fast as possible. It was pretty awesome. So they confiscated my ‘contraband’ and we entered the grounds of the Taj. We then went through a big ornate portal and on the other side we saw the Taj Mahal. There was a long water feature ahead of us and at the end was the massive, white building. What I noticed was that everything seemed to be symmetrical right up to the stones. We walked over to the immense structure and we had to take off our shoes and man was it hot. The stones were exposed to the hot Indian sun all day so it felt as if I was walking barefoot on coals. Thankfully there was a carpet that ran all the way into the Taj so we stayed on there for the most part. I’m going to be completely honest with you, but the inside just wasn’t that impressive. I mean, everywhere there were flower designs made of inlaid precious stones but it wasn’t well lit so it was difficult to really appreciate it. In the center were the two marble replicas of the coffins. As the story goes, once upon a time there was this maharajah who built this massive tomb his wife who was the love of his life. Now they are united forever. That’s my version of the story at least. So we walked around for a bit and what really surprised me was that inside the actual monument there were people sleeping. I mean I got used to it everywhere else but seeing it in probably the most famous building in India was pretty shocking. Eventually we left from the back exit where we were approached by groups of people who wanted their picture taken with us. We took a rickshaw back to the rank, camel smelling parking lot and found our driver. Once again we prepared ourselves for yet another three hour drive. It was extremely monotonous but then all of a sudden Julie shouts out two fateful words. “Pizza Hut!” so we immediately got our driver to pull up to the kind of mall facility where it was located and we could finally finish our quest for Pizza Hut. It was sheer bliss. After days of living off of chapatti, my pizza with chicken and mushrooms and cheese stuffed crusts was sensationally mind blowing. We all enjoyed every minute of it and afterwards we went into the coffee shop next door (they don’t really drink coffee here either) and I found possibly the best named desert of the year. Here I was able to enjoy the Sizzle Dazzle Brownie that we dubbed SDB. So having had our fill of Western food and drinks, we returned to the car and finished our journey which took another two hours. We were so exhausted that we just had a shower and went straight to bed.

Here are some Day 4 pictures:

Some of the classes at Prakash Deep

Me with some of my buddies

Sowmick, Jayati, and me watch TV

Some of the garbage near our house

Day 4: I face-off with a monkey

Hey there Readers,

Today was especially exhausting because we were awoken at 5:30 in the morning to exercise in the park with the orphans that live nearby. Let me tell you that waking up that early was not a fun experience and although I agreed to get up early I assumed that meant at least after six. So I woke up and spent the next twenty or so minutes in a stupor, as it happens when you wake up that early, and by the time I got downstairs I was more or less conscious of my surroundings. We went to the park and I ran a lap with the guys and we all played some more games to wake us all up. Thankfully Bethany and the Family were also with us so I actually managed to get some energy. Our little group walked over to the orphanage and Ryan helped the little boys shower and the rest of us helped them get dressed into their school uniforms. They also had this bottle full of this coconut smelling oil which they put in their hair, so I decided to follow suit. I don’t know exactly what this accomplished but my hair came out of the ordeal slightly shinier, which I thought was a nice touch. After wolfing down a breakfast, Ryan, Mom and I took a rickshaw to Prakash Deep, the street school where I learned martial arts. When we arrived Sabita split us up into two groups that were a little unreasonable, as you will see in a moment. Ryan and I were put together to teach a class where the teacher was not present. This class consisted of five students, two boys and three girls of about 12 years old. They had textbooks that we taught from and an organized curriculum that we could follow and teach from for the five or six hours we were there. Now this is where I really respect my Mom because compared to our class, we had paradise. Sabita put Mom with 27 extremely energetic little kids and her only help was the young teacher of the class and my backpack full of candy. So she spent hours thinking of games she could play, teaching them English words and phrases, counting, colors, showing them different dances, doing all of my drama exercises, and pretty much anything else that popped up in her mind, which was pretty impressive. Meanwhile we were on the other side of the schoolyard where Ryan and I were reading stories and going through their books. I decided to make a little puzzle/challenge for them so I made some word scrambles, fill in the blanks, just some activities that I thought of which they enjoyed. After some reading with questions afterwards we had a 45-minute lunch break where I played basketball and soccer with some of my friends from the self-defense class yesterday. Eventually we decided to have a dance off between some of the other kids and me. It was really awesome and they showed me some moves involving a handstand (something I’ve never been able to do) and I showed them my break dancing. During lunch, I would like to point out, something awesome happened. The school is on a fairly large yard of packed dirt with mats on it so at some point some monkeys emerged from some of the trees nearby and started towards the food that was on one of the mats. In past experiences I’ve never had any trouble with the little guys but the second one of the guys saw them, about 15 boys my age instantly reacted. They started shouting and saying the word monkey (in Hindi of course) and picking up things to throw at them, one kid even picked up a plastic chair, it was so intense. Apparently monkeys are crazy evil here, as I was to find out eventually. So once lunch was finished our class, including some of my friends, sat down in a circle and we decided to do the telephone game, which I thought would be fun with the whole language barrier and accents. We played for a bit and at 1pm school ended and we waited for our rickshaw. Once everyone had gone, the monkeys returned. By the way, normally monkeys are cute animals but these look scary, ugly and ferocious. My mom wanted to take a picture of one so I took a few steps towards it but one step too far it turned towards me and bared its sharp teeth. I stayed away from that point onwards. Bandhu pulled up on the curb and we were provided with another problem. There was literally a monkey in every direction so we debated how we were going to get over the fence and to the car without getting attacked. In the end we backtracked a bit and climbed the fence. When we got home exhaustion took over and we all took a nap. We had decided to go to this market in Delhi later that evening so I woke up once again and got ready to go. We were going to a nicer market called Delhi Haat. The car ride was rather long but otherwise uneventful so the Family, my mom and I got out and went shopping in this market place. It was very nice and clean and in the end the girls got some new shoes and bangles. Mom looked around and got something too, but in the end we were all hungry and we had heard that there was a Pizza Hut in the area so we began a new search. We returned to our driver and spoke to him about finding one, his English was limited and we were not sure he understood us but he started driving so we couldn’t do anything else but just hope that at the end we would arrive at one. He took us to a place with a McDonald’s and a Subway which we were happy about. In India the only meat that is ever eaten by the locals is chicken, so instead of hamburgers and Big Mac’s you have the McChicken burger which consists of a bun, lettuce, mayo, and a piece of breaded chicken between. It was all right, not the same as a cheeseburger, but my hunger was still not satiated, so we now went to Subway. The same applied for Subway in that there was nothing but chicken, turkey, and something called chicken ham. It looked kind of like bologna and tasted like it too. To be honest it just wasn’t the same as the one I get in the UK. It was one of the most difficult journeys home. It was dark, there was a constant blaring of obnoxious horns, but it was the smell that was the worse. The garbage, the pollution and the exhaust came together to produce a pretty nasty stench that we had to endure for most of the ride. At some point I gave out candy that I had in my bag for us to smell. Some people found the temptation of eating it too powerful (myself concluded) and eventually gave in. We arrived home safely and headed for bed ready to visit the Taj Mahal the next day.

Here are some pictures from Day 3!

A man napping in the sweltering heat

My instruction begins with learning the stance

Me watching a demonstration

Me at one of the different sites with the kids