First week...

Hello guys,
So, the first week in Dharamsala is officially over, and it's seriously been super busy here. We left Delhi last Monday, and since this country seems to have less than a strict sense of time, our flight up here was, of course, an hour late for no real reason. We flew up here in this tiny little prop plane, but the flight was only an hour, and we mostly just chatted and looked at scenery the whole way up. The houses are great, and wireless internet is (usually) accessible in the main house, so you are always welcome to email me since I seem to be a little bit sketchy at keeping up with the blogging.
My placement is teaching first through fifth grade at a governmental primary school called Cheelgari. It's been... well... challenging to say the least. The teaching system is very much based on route learning, which consists of repetition and memorization with really no regard for comprehension. Because of this, none of the kids are where they're supposed to be in their knowledge of English, and therefore I've had to re-separate them into two groups; those who know the ABCs and those who do not. I was supposed to be working there with one other girl, Kristie, but she switched her placement to a detox clinic which another one of our volunteers, Robby, was having a tough time working at. So, as of the beginning of last week, I was fairly certain that I was going to have to be working at the school alone, but another girl Maneesha decided she wanted to work with me after the women's group she teaches is done. So I teach the younger children (the ones who don't know the ABCs yet) early in the morning, and then she comes to the school and we jointly teach the older children (the ones who mostly know the ABCs and almost how to read and write... Soon :) ) This past week was difficult not only because there was absolutely no structure to the school, but also because most people here are still adjusting to the food and the temperature so pretty much everyone has been not feeling a hundred percent.
Other than volunteering, last week consisted of Hindi lessons to help us out at our placements, as well as just to acquaint us with the main language spoken in this area, as well as multiple trips to the market in order to get the traditional clothes that we're required to wear to our placements. It's really a very interesting experience going clothes shopping here... Mostly they don't sell ready-made clothes, so you have to get them tailored for you, which is actually the most fun thing ever. So you go into a fabric store, and pick out a fabric that you like (usually they come in sets for the pants (Salwar), the tunic (Kameez) and the scarf), and then either they do the stitching for you there and tell you to come pick up your outfit in anywhere from one to five days, or they send you to a tailor who will do the same thing for you. I've bought maybe 5 outfits, and only spent about $110 which is pretty amazing for custom-made outfits, right? :-D
On Saturday, we randomly looked out the window and there was just a forest fire raging on the mountain right next to us (we're in a valley) and it was really close and really big, but (apparently) it was controlled... Although I don't know how seeing as how there were absolutely no people on that mountain. Either way, it was kind of a weird but interesting experience, and definitely the closest I've ever been to the forest fire. That's just one of the amazing things about this place, no one was even phased in the slightest by the inferno that was burning on the hill right next to us. Driving here is another one of those things that I'll never understand. How people drive manual up and down hills like this just impresses me like nothing else, and here horns aren't a rude way of insulting, but just a precautionary measure to let anyone (cars, pedestrians, motorcycles, COWS...?) know that you're coming close to them, and that they might not want to get in your way. There's literally no speed limit within town, and there's not a section of the road which you cannot pass on (literally everything is a curve or a hill). Cows walking around is just completely commonplace here, and not surprising at all. Of course, cows are sacred in this culture, and we asked what would happen if you hit a cow while you were driving the other day, and they told us that apparently people come and beat the driver, so generally speaking if you do his a cow, then you should probably leave your vehicle and run. Cows wander everywhere, and don't really belong to anyone, because apparently it's really really bad for a cow to die in your care, so once the cows get old enough and stop giving milk, people just let them go so that they won't be responsible if/when the cow dies.
This past Sunday, we went on a day trip to a temple near our house, and then went for a picnic in the woods down by an absolutely amazing stream, to spend some time outside playing Cricket. The temple was absolutely amazing, and we got to go down by this river next to the temple where was this small little shrine tucked underneath this giant rock. However, our picnic was cut short by a thunderstorm, which then turned into a hailstorm wherein the hail was literally half the size of a golf-ball. It was absolutely insane... I've never seen anything like it, and it was actually kind of painful running back up to the cars through massively huge hail.
Later that night, we went to the nearby McLeod Ganj which is much more touristy than Dharamsala, but still a lot of fun. We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and had dinner at a western restaurant which was a lot of fun. We then took one of the sketchiest cab rides back home, but we ended up getting home alright right before curfew, and had a great night in general.
This week at my placement seems to have started off better, I'm gaining confidence I think. I brought my kids stickers today, and took pictures of them, both of which got them out of their shells a lot, and made them a lot more extroverted than they had been. I've had to slow down my lesson plans substantially, because they're so behind where the teachers at the school think they are. They're amazing at parrotting things back to you, but if you ask them to actually identify a letter, and the sound that accompanies it, without telling them, they have absolutely no idea what it is.
It's fairly obvious that monsoon season is just about upon us here, because there are pretty frequently thunderstorms which feel like the apolcalypse is coming, but is again, just one of those things that's completely commonplace here. The power goes out pretty frequently, but we're mostly used to that by now. It doesn't really matter that much because we just light candles and flashlights, and a bucket shower is literally always possible. A bucket shower, if you didn't know, is literally just a big bucket that you fill up with as much water as you need, and then you use a smaller bucket to dump that water over you in order to shower. Sound kind of awkward an uncomfortable? Aside from the fact that it's kind of cold to just stand there going in and out of hot water, it's actually a pretty fun experience, although one has to get used to never getting the conditioner out of their hair via bucket shower.
I should probably go and start working on worksheets for my kids, but when we go on more sightseeing or anything of note happens, I'll be sure to post again. And for the time being, I hope that you all are well and having great summers, and that you'll email me because I'm always glad to respond.
More soon :),
K