Apologies for not updating!!! A mixture of a lack of internet connection and laziness has kept me from doing so. Oops. I’ll absolutely promise that I will definitely try to remember to remember to be better about potentially updating from now on. I hope you can sense the extreme confidence that I expressed in myself in the previous sentence.
Nevertheless, here’s the longest update known to man…or at least to the other blogs that IAPA kids are keeping.
SIDE PROJECTS
So one of the more interesting things about IAPA is that each volunteer is obligated to take part in volunteering for side organizations affiliated with our own. These are called side projects. Each site that we visited needs some sort of help with either their basic infrastructure…i.e. updating records, building fix-ups, etc…or help with just getting people to play with and/or tutor the children that they are supporting.
Peace Trust
This site is home to kids who have been orphaned by parents who have succumbed to the effect of AIDS. The kids themselves are not HIV positive, but the site and conditions that the live in probably needs the most work of all the side projects we visited. The living conditions are pretty shabby…with all the boys shoved into one small room and all the girls jumbled into another room, both of which are probably the size of your closet. Believe me, I wish I was exaggerating.
But I have to say, the kids here are absolutely amazing. When we first visited, the found out about our arrival about a day or so before and still worked their hardest put together show to entertain us. It had everything that I loved…singing, dancing, puppets and more singing and dancing!!!
The puppet show in which the puppets asked us if we believed in Jesus and told us not to fight each other.
Love it!
The kid of the far right is named Raj Kumar…he was an awesome dancer. Next Shah Rukh Khan fo sho!
PACT House
The PACT house is probably the most well of all the side projects and is also the site that IAPA has worked the longest with. This project is home to HIV positive kids and houses, if I remember correctly, about 10 girls and 15 boys. They just built a beautiful new house that looks clean, safe, and kid-friendly. They are looking for volunteers to just come play with the kids and tutor them in any school subjects that they are struggling with.
SHELTER
This is the organization that I will be working with over the summer along with 6 other volunteers: James, Kavya, Neha, Abhishek (G. for any of you who are reading this and know some of the names I’m dropping), Preston and Ryan.
This is a shelter and a home designed specifically for HIV positive children. They are all beautiful.
Jamesy in the midst of an intense game of duck duck goose.
Neha!
Tweeks and her fan club!
One of the cuties of the bunch, Mali.
Adorable
Unfortunately they are having a problem with their drainage system. So we are working together to see if we can some how fix the issue and give these kids a chance to be surrounded by clean water as opposed to the dirty mosquito-attracting waters they have now. I’ll write more on this as we learn more about how to go about fixing things!
New Life
New Life is the project that’s taking place at the slums. A bunch of people are working together to extend upon an effort that was started by some previous IAPA volunteers to help build a roof there. Also, two other volunteers, Neha and Kavya, as well as myself would like to teach the New Life’s dance team a number and have them perform it. We’ll see how it goes! I have some pictures from the slums, but they’re not uploaded to my computer yet. Man, I’ve really got to work on my blogging skills.
OOTY
The weekend before last we took a ten-hour bus ride to Ooty, which is this little mountaintop town that my dad actually went to school in. Ooty was a breath of fresh air…literally. (hahaha?? That was punny? Maybe? Whatever, just give me a pity laugh) But seriously, after being in the pollution and dust of the very urban Chennai, escaping to this clean little town was absolutely beautiful.
Unfortunately…I forgot my camera. Fortunately, other people did not, so I’m IN a lot of pictures as opposed to TAKING a lot of them. You know, I’m kind of okay with this…more tags on Facebook. In any case, I’ll steal a few from other people and post them later!
Okay, so highlights of Ooty:
Monkeys…
Now we all know that I’m not the biggest fan of animals (I’m just assuming that everyone who reads this knows me, but in the very small, minute, itty bitty, teeny tiny chance that I have outside readers, you should know that I’m kind of afraid of most animals. I guess living creatures that aren’t human or plants freak me out), but from afar monkeys are actually pretty cute. Although they scared the crap out of me and Tulika when we tried to leave our hotel room and they were just playing in the hallway. They were so smart! They tried turning the handles on everybody’s doors to see if they were open. And these little things absolutely destroyed any food that anybody left outside of the door. And by destroyed I mean ate…just you know, to clarify.
Tea Factory…
I had the best tea of my life there. No joke. Starbucks can suck it.
Botanical Gardens…
You can’t really go wrong with botanical gardens. The weather was beautiful and the scenery even more so. ALSO, they had garbage cans shaped like giant bunnies.
Chinese Food…
Although I’m not sure if it was actually good. All of us were starving by this point…so who knows?
Motorcycle Ride…
One of the people we were staying with were taking anyone who wanted on a small motorcycle ride. My reaction was dumb but pretty much sums it up: “Omg, sooo much fun!” Besides, being on a motorcycle makes you feel pretty badass. Even if it was just riding on the back of one and holding on for dear life.
The Meadow…
No words, I have to post pictures. It was gorgeous.
The Hike to the Meadow…
I like hiking.
Nightwalk…
Kavya, Neha, Preston, James, Abhishek G. and I wandered around Ooty at night. I’m terrified of the dark. Put this concept together with stray dogs, random Hindi music playing from a unlit building, Preston and Kavya talking about horror movies and our potential deaths, and Neha screaming every 5 seconds…and you get one very terrified Anjali. Still, it was fun. Sort of. No it was. Sort of.
Aliens 2…
Okay, so we didn’t actually go to this club, but we almost did and come on, it was named ALIENS 2!!! That’s awesome! And also means that there is an Aliens 1 lurking somewhere around!
TEACHING
So this week we started teaching at schools…and it is seriously the most fun I’ve had here. Whodathunk that the actual work part of my summer would actually be the most fun?!
The first day I was so nervous that I honestly thought I was going to throw up. Typicall Anjali-style, I was stressed beyond belief. I was sitting in this small room and I couldn’t even talk to my group to help them prep…I was just sweating (although this is Chennai, I’m ALWAYS sweating), and shaking, and wondering just how in the hell I was going to get through the next three hours. But seriously, as soon as I walked into my first classroom, all of it went away my teaching group owned!!!
I have a fan club of 10th grade girls and group of boys who claim that I’m as beautiful as a tamil movie star. Both the boys and the girls told me that I was very beautiful and that the liked my hairstyle. Man, I’m so easy to please, you can always win me over with the hair compliment…
But seriously, if this keeps up with all the teachings I go to…watch out guys, I’m probably going to come home with a HUGE ego.
I have pictures of teaching too, but once again, they’re not saved to my computer. Oops.
Highlights of teaching:
The first class we taught:
They were 10th graders and they were hilarious and adorable. There was a kid named Mohan who I picked on a lot. At the end of the class I told him that I had a brother named Mohan and that I missed my brother so much that I was going to take the student Mohan home with me to replace him. He really liked the attention and walked me out of the classroom. Also, I made them yell out the Fluids and the Doors (which is our way of teaching HIV transmission…listing out the fluids that HIV can be transmitted through, semen, vaginal fluids, pre-ejaculate, breast milk, blood, and the doors through which it can enter the body, penis, vagina, anus, open wounds) at the top of their lungs. It’s really funny to hear kids yell out penis, vagina, and anus in Indian accents. I’ll try and get video for you guys.
Q & A Sessions
At the end of every teaching, the kids ask us questions…most of them are about America. I’ve learned that Indian kids are extremely fond of Will Smith. Go Figure.
Smack That
Apparently kids in India are also fond of Akon. In the 12th grade class we taughted, we ended our lesson with the entire class singing Smack That. They knew more words than I did!
The Compliments.
Student: “Miss Anjali, do you sing?”
Me: “No! Not at all!”
Student: “Really? You have such a nice voice!”
Student: “Miss Anjali, you have such nice slang!”
I don’t really know what this means, but I get it a lot.
To my teaching partner Scott, who is white and has a fau-hawk: “You look like David Beckham!”
Then there’s the more generic hair compliments and beautiful statements.
…oh god, I’m such a brat! I’m just going to assume and all of you at home miss it.
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So that’s all for today…but I have way more to update. This past weekend we went to a Fisherman’s Village about 3 hours away from where we are staying to teach them about HIV/AIDS. It was amazing! Also, my family is currently in Chennai! Which also means I’m staying with them and have internet access! More on this tomorrow.
Anjali Out.
