I was not prepared for the culture shock when I arrived in Seoul. It was soo nice. I really don't remember everything being so nice. It was hot but everything had airconditioning! And no power cuts! The taxi driver put Peter's address in his GPS and drove me right to his school and I didn't even have to argue about the cost or tip.
Patrick was here visiting for the first week and the three of us had so much fun together. We went to Everland for the rollercoasters. After a few drinks we even got Peter on the steepest wooden rollercoaster in the world. We have done a good amount of bbq and noraebanging (Korean singing rooms) Enough that it made whatever stomache bug I had gotten from India come to the surface. I was pretty sick for a few days, but Patrick was the perfect person to be sick with, as he was totally content to lie in bed all day and watch tv with me. Thank goodness for antibiotics!
I am having fun attempting to remember my Korean from 6 years ago and seeing a lot of old places I used to go to. Peter and I went to a Handsome furs concert last Friday and managed to have a big night out in Hongdae. Then on Sunday we went for a hike that turned out to be bigger the we expected. Some how in our attempts to do a loop we did a straight line across the whole park, but it was a beautiful hike.
There is an opening at Peter's school and it did briefly tempt me, but alas I think I will come home. As much as I love it here I don't think I could live here again, although I am really not looking forward to having to live at home with out Peter.
I can't believe almost 6 months is over already and despite being excited to see my family and friends I really would prefer to keep on travelling. Although I have a feeling it could be awhile before I settle down, and I may be couch surfing for the next while. Free couch anyone? I will have the same phone number though so feel free to call me anytime after the 18th. See you soon!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Yodi-Mam
Although Varanasi was a little out of the way I really wanted to see the kids that I had spent 2 weeks with earlier in June. (see blog entry "basic human needs" if you don't remember every detail of my travels :)) Seeing the kids again was the perfect way to end my time in India. I got to see the school where on the first day in July 127 kids showed up. They have a few class rooms but most of the kids sit in different areas outside under hutlike covers. Beside the "classroom" is the counter where Bharti-mam spends the whole morning cooking lunch for all the kids and staff on one burner.
In the mornings I would come and help out in some of the classes or sometimes I would help Bharti with all the vegetables she had to cut for lunch. Often the girls would have to bring their baby brother or sister to school, so I would just hold a baby for the morning so they could go to class. After lunch school was over, as it is too hot to have school in the afternoon, the kids that had homes to go to went home. And the 30 "hostel kids" went back to the hostel for their afternoon nap. The kids that lived in the hostel were the ones that I spent most of my time with as they were the kids that were at camp in June and I knew them the best. I would spend the afternoon and evening hanging out at the hostel. After nap time we would all go out to the field and play games until 6pm when we would head back to the hostel and I would help the kids with their English homework and then we would eat dinner and I would catch a rickshaw back to my hotel. The kids begged me to sleep with them at the hostel as I had slept with them at camp, but the hostel had even less room.
The hostel has four rooms total and the girls sleep upstairs and the boys sleep down stairs. There are no beds and they all just sleep cuddled together on the cement floor. The amazing cook Interjit and his wife stay over night with the kids. There are 2 toilets and a spot for a bucket shower. It is amazing how well organized they are and I felt like I got to be apart of their big family. I was only there for 9 days but I feel like it was much longer and I totally fell in love with the kids again. Each one has their own sad tragic sad story but they are such survivors.
Not wanting to spend anytime away from them I got them to take me sight seeing around Varanasi which was so much fun. They looked after me more then I had to look after them. The only trouble that one boy got into was beating up another kid on the side of the road, but I had a hard time getting him in trouble when I asked why he was punching the other boy, he said he was "speaking abuse" about me.
Varanasi is a holy city for the Hindus and to die in the city and then be cremated here is especially auspicious as it is said to free you from the cycle of life and death. All along the Ganges or "Mother Ganga" there are ghats where pilgrims bathe away their sins in the water. The water is completely polluted with people being continually cremated on the burning ghats where the fire that Krishna himself started 3000years ago is said to be. As well people use it as a toilet, for bathing and doing laundry, and you will find some kids just swimming and drinking the water. This was all common place for the kids and one of the kids with very good English was able to tell me all the stories of the Hindu gods which really are quite interesting. He was so good at explaining and then in the middle of explaining one story I interupted and asked "Karim aren't you Muslim?" And he was like "Yes, but Yodi-mam it is all the same God." I love india and these kids.
The manager of the school had just recently gotten married and I felt totally honoured to be invited to the wedding party. One of the teachers and a new friend lent me one of her Sari's, jewelry and even a bindi dot for the occasion. I was just excited to dress-up for a night and although it was a small party it was great to see and of course eat.
I am not quite sure why I felt even more attached to these kids then ever before. Just seeing how the happily survive on nothing, I am committed to staying a part of their lives. The school and the hostel is able to run on such little money by Canadian standards but are always having trouble finding the money as the kids keep coming and they continue to need to hire more staff to deal with them. The school was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of my friends. I sent out one email asking for donations and was able to give the school $1800! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of those that gave. The school was dangerously low on money and they were so overwhelmed by the amount of money and that people trusted me and them. I am really hoping to go back as soon as possible and want to maintian contact and hope to get a steady base of donations from Canada so the school is not continually worried about the next month. If anyone is still interested in giving please contact me!
On my last night the kids threw me a little good bye party where they all sang songs for me and had made me a big goodbye card and all kinds of little good-bye cards. After hugging all the kids good-bye before bedtime, although some of the little ones had already fallen asleep in the corner of the room, I headed out to the train station with my regular rickshaw driver in the pouring rain.
The whole station was flooded and it was hard find a place to stand with the crowds let alone put down my bag. Plus the power kept cutting out every few minutes. It took awhile to figure out, but my 1155pm train ended up being delayed 2 hours while I sat on the platform in the pitchdark. Although I didn't feel scared I was able to recognize this did not seem like a safe situation. But at 2am my train arrived and I was able to find my bed and get a little sleep on the 14 hour journey while trying to keep my hands on all my stuff. With no energy left to deal with Delhi I went straight to the airport even though my flight wasn't for another 9 hours.
India was probably some of the hardest and most interesting travelling I have ever done and I was quite sad to be leaving not knowing how soon I could get. But at least I had Peter and Patrick waiting for me in Seoul for the last 2 weeks of my trip!
In the mornings I would come and help out in some of the classes or sometimes I would help Bharti with all the vegetables she had to cut for lunch. Often the girls would have to bring their baby brother or sister to school, so I would just hold a baby for the morning so they could go to class. After lunch school was over, as it is too hot to have school in the afternoon, the kids that had homes to go to went home. And the 30 "hostel kids" went back to the hostel for their afternoon nap. The kids that lived in the hostel were the ones that I spent most of my time with as they were the kids that were at camp in June and I knew them the best. I would spend the afternoon and evening hanging out at the hostel. After nap time we would all go out to the field and play games until 6pm when we would head back to the hostel and I would help the kids with their English homework and then we would eat dinner and I would catch a rickshaw back to my hotel. The kids begged me to sleep with them at the hostel as I had slept with them at camp, but the hostel had even less room.
The hostel has four rooms total and the girls sleep upstairs and the boys sleep down stairs. There are no beds and they all just sleep cuddled together on the cement floor. The amazing cook Interjit and his wife stay over night with the kids. There are 2 toilets and a spot for a bucket shower. It is amazing how well organized they are and I felt like I got to be apart of their big family. I was only there for 9 days but I feel like it was much longer and I totally fell in love with the kids again. Each one has their own sad tragic sad story but they are such survivors.
Not wanting to spend anytime away from them I got them to take me sight seeing around Varanasi which was so much fun. They looked after me more then I had to look after them. The only trouble that one boy got into was beating up another kid on the side of the road, but I had a hard time getting him in trouble when I asked why he was punching the other boy, he said he was "speaking abuse" about me.
Varanasi is a holy city for the Hindus and to die in the city and then be cremated here is especially auspicious as it is said to free you from the cycle of life and death. All along the Ganges or "Mother Ganga" there are ghats where pilgrims bathe away their sins in the water. The water is completely polluted with people being continually cremated on the burning ghats where the fire that Krishna himself started 3000years ago is said to be. As well people use it as a toilet, for bathing and doing laundry, and you will find some kids just swimming and drinking the water. This was all common place for the kids and one of the kids with very good English was able to tell me all the stories of the Hindu gods which really are quite interesting. He was so good at explaining and then in the middle of explaining one story I interupted and asked "Karim aren't you Muslim?" And he was like "Yes, but Yodi-mam it is all the same God." I love india and these kids.
The manager of the school had just recently gotten married and I felt totally honoured to be invited to the wedding party. One of the teachers and a new friend lent me one of her Sari's, jewelry and even a bindi dot for the occasion. I was just excited to dress-up for a night and although it was a small party it was great to see and of course eat.
I am not quite sure why I felt even more attached to these kids then ever before. Just seeing how the happily survive on nothing, I am committed to staying a part of their lives. The school and the hostel is able to run on such little money by Canadian standards but are always having trouble finding the money as the kids keep coming and they continue to need to hire more staff to deal with them. The school was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of my friends. I sent out one email asking for donations and was able to give the school $1800! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of those that gave. The school was dangerously low on money and they were so overwhelmed by the amount of money and that people trusted me and them. I am really hoping to go back as soon as possible and want to maintian contact and hope to get a steady base of donations from Canada so the school is not continually worried about the next month. If anyone is still interested in giving please contact me!
On my last night the kids threw me a little good bye party where they all sang songs for me and had made me a big goodbye card and all kinds of little good-bye cards. After hugging all the kids good-bye before bedtime, although some of the little ones had already fallen asleep in the corner of the room, I headed out to the train station with my regular rickshaw driver in the pouring rain.
The whole station was flooded and it was hard find a place to stand with the crowds let alone put down my bag. Plus the power kept cutting out every few minutes. It took awhile to figure out, but my 1155pm train ended up being delayed 2 hours while I sat on the platform in the pitchdark. Although I didn't feel scared I was able to recognize this did not seem like a safe situation. But at 2am my train arrived and I was able to find my bed and get a little sleep on the 14 hour journey while trying to keep my hands on all my stuff. With no energy left to deal with Delhi I went straight to the airport even though my flight wasn't for another 9 hours.
India was probably some of the hardest and most interesting travelling I have ever done and I was quite sad to be leaving not knowing how soon I could get. But at least I had Peter and Patrick waiting for me in Seoul for the last 2 weeks of my trip!
A Pause in the Punjab
On yet again another sketchy over night bus I made it to Amritsar in the Punjab province of India around noon. The whole city was buzzing with Sikh pilgrams from all over India coming to see the Golden Temple. The 2 things I had wanted to see was the Temple and the India-Pakistan Border closing ceremony. Some guy at the side of the road was selling seats in his van, so that seemed like a safe and cheap way to get there.
I got in the van with about 8 other Indian men from the air force. Actually some of the nicest Indian men I have met on the whole trip. When we got to the border it was a total gong show with people everywhere people fighting for good seats in the bandstands over looking the border. The Pakistan side had people crowded in a bandstand as well. The next half hour people on either side of the border cheered about their respective countries, then the border guards came out and did a bunch of silly walks and then after both sides had strutted up and down a bunch they shook hands lowered the flags and the border was declared closed. Very weird considering how much bad blood there is between the countries but very interesting to see everyone having fun.
On the way back I realized that I had read my plane ticket wrong for the next day and was leaving first thing in the morning not at night. I don't travel much so it was an easy mistake to make. Lucky for me the Golden Temple is open 24 hours a day. I was totally blown away by how big and gorgeous the temple was. There were people everywhere swimming in the holy water and doing a whole other set of religious rituals that were new to me again. I went back again at 430am before going to the airport and it was busy at the that time too. People sleep there and there is always free food available for everyone. Although a brief stopover it was totally worth it. The people were so warm and friendly and once again a completely different side to India.
I got in the van with about 8 other Indian men from the air force. Actually some of the nicest Indian men I have met on the whole trip. When we got to the border it was a total gong show with people everywhere people fighting for good seats in the bandstands over looking the border. The Pakistan side had people crowded in a bandstand as well. The next half hour people on either side of the border cheered about their respective countries, then the border guards came out and did a bunch of silly walks and then after both sides had strutted up and down a bunch they shook hands lowered the flags and the border was declared closed. Very weird considering how much bad blood there is between the countries but very interesting to see everyone having fun.
On the way back I realized that I had read my plane ticket wrong for the next day and was leaving first thing in the morning not at night. I don't travel much so it was an easy mistake to make. Lucky for me the Golden Temple is open 24 hours a day. I was totally blown away by how big and gorgeous the temple was. There were people everywhere swimming in the holy water and doing a whole other set of religious rituals that were new to me again. I went back again at 430am before going to the airport and it was busy at the that time too. People sleep there and there is always free food available for everyone. Although a brief stopover it was totally worth it. The people were so warm and friendly and once again a completely different side to India.
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