International Fair

Hello!
I was going to give you a much-delayed update on what's been going on for the last couple of weeks, but nothing immediately sprang to mind when I sat down to write this. Although I've definitely done a lot, and a lot of it has had a huge impact or been really fun; these kind of things happen all the time, and so once they're over, you start to look to the next thing. So I thought instead I'd tell you a bit about the current event, and how amazing it is.

During events at which we have participants from more than one country, we host an International Fair. This hasn't happened for a while, as the last 2 events only had UK participants. I also missed most of the first one, as it was my day off and I was out at Oktoberfest. SO - I was really excited for yesterday's International Fair, because we have representatives from 10 countries here for the seminar. Part of the reason for this is that we offer bursaries for people to be able to come to seminars; applications must demonstrate why they want to come and how the issue is important or significant in their personal or guiding lives.

We also ask participants to complete 'pre event tasks' which, this time, required a story or presentation of their personal knowledge/ experience of HIV/AIDS, and also a presentation of what their MO (Member Organisation of WAGGGS eg. Girlguiding UK) or an NGO in their country was doing in the area of HIV/AIDS. I ran two sessions yesterday; the first alongside Jen and about WAGGGS' definition of Advocacy (we influence people to take decisions that will improve our lives and the lives of others by educating, speaking out or doing); and the second with Jessica which introduced the MDGs and began to focus thoughts on MDG6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases. This session was also their chance to share their personal stories about HIV/AIDS, and it was really interesting to mill around the groups and hear some of their knowledge. We have people here with medical knowledge, personal knowledge of people who have or are living with HIV or AIDS, and also people who told of the efforts they're making with organisations at home to stop old traditions which are violent to women and also spread the disease.

Although yesterday was technically the second day, it was the first day that we focused on the seminar topic; Saturday featured all the usual Sangam-orientation sessions such as tours and rules etc. Even though it's arguably harder work and more stressful that one of our 'less serious' events, I'm really enjoying it so far, and the reason for that is the participants and their attitude to this opportunity. They are clearly very grateful to be here, and also all very determined young women. They also love to learn, and have been sharing cultural ideas and information from the start. A couple of nights ago Net and I walked past the dining room at the end of the day to hear the Indian girls teaching the South Africans how to count to 10 in Hindi! When some of them climbed the water tower with me yesterday at 7am, they began to sing "I believe I can fly" from the top and were whooping with excitement.

This excitement and cultural sharing brings me nicely around again to my main topic of this post; International Fair. It was awesome. We invite each person to bring their national costume and perform a dance or song, and to present their country to everyone else however they see fit. We had over an hour of presentations, and I took some pictures so that you, too, could share in the wonderful diversity that I'm experiencing here:

Nigeria:

Madagascar:

 Burundi:

 South Africa:

India (1):

Canada (a 'scuff'):

India (2):

 Australia (Waltzing Matilda!):

 Bangladesh:

Ukraine (sharing gifts):

The presentation from Ukraine was a video about the richness and diversity of the country. While watching it I thought the style looked worryingly familiar, and it was! A Eurovision video! It was fun.

We also have a participant here from Costa Rica; she also shared a video with us about her country. It was in Spanish, so she stood and translated it all for us. It was awesome. Costa Rica has crawled up the list of places I want to go...!

So there you have it. I'm now surrounded by people from 16 different countries when you count all our guests, the staff, and the fact that one of the South African representatives is actually Zimbabwean! I'm really enjoying it, and even though we're working on some tough topics, I know the rest of the week is going to be excellent and fun as well. I'll  do my best to fill you in when it's all over!

TTFN



Apologies

I haven't written for a while.
I'm sorry.
At the start of this particular gap, I didn't feel like writing; or maybe I didn't feel like I had anything to write.
Then I realised there were things that I could/should/ wanted to write about but didn't have the time.
Now that is still true, but I really don't have time as it's crazy here in both good ways and bad.
I really really will update you when I next have a day off.

TTFN.

Enjoying...

I’ve developed a problem with writing this blog. Often things happen that I think I want to write about, and am really enthusiastic about. These things ALWAYS happen on days when I have absolutely no time to write, or am too knackered at the end of the day to sit at the computer. This then means that when I finally find time to write – like now – it feels insincere to try and emulate the feelings I had at the time. I will, of course, try to do so, but I’m not sure that I’ll succeed…

I’ve really enjoyed this event so far. My enjoyment started properly last Monday night, when we had our Centenary Dinner. This is normal dinner in terms of food, but we decorate the hall and party a bit in the name of the 3year celebration of the 100 years since WAGGGS began. We ask the participants to plan this dinner, and split them into teams entitled ‘decorations’, ‘entertainment’, ‘cake’ and ‘media’. Their preparation time was limited as we tacked it on to the end of my 10million girls session, but what they produced was amazing! The hall looked great, the entertainment was fun (dinner began by dancing all the way around the courtyard to loud bollywood music), conversation was lively and everyone had a great time.

After dinner, we ran the ‘WAGGGS Game’ – which is in a format similar to a team version of Who wants to be a Millionaire? Jessica was MCing (dressed up in a cloak and newspaper hat), and Christa and Sayali were Thing 1 and Thing 2…! I took on the role of official photographer, even though I was tired, because I wanted to be there and join in the fun. It was hilarious. The guests really got into it and had a laugh and also seemed to really appreciate the effort we’d gone to in decorating the hall, preparing the questions, being prepared to make fools of ourselves etc! Jessica and I were buzzing when we came upstairs, and we sat in her room marvelling at how much fun we were having, and how worthwhile it was so that it didn’t matter so much that we were knackered.

Christa being Thing 2...!

The next evening, we sent our participants out to local families for dinner. Although I had a close-quarters fire cracker incident on my way home from walking some of the ladies to Kirti’s house, I had a really great evening. We sat in the dining room eating popcorn (after I’d microwaved my dinner) and playing cards. I learnt a new game called Fluxx, which belongs to Hayley and is very crazy but fun. As the participants came back from their dinners, they joined us in the dining room for a cup of tea and a natter – NB we tried very hard not to stereotype our all British, all older group, but they really do love to natter and drink tea – and it was really enjoyable. For the first time I felt properly like Sangam was my home. It seemed right that I could choose to sit in the main areas rather than hide away in my room, and that the guests enjoyed talking to us, but also recognised that this was our time off to relax. It was really nice. That’s a horrible phrase, but it’s how I felt.

Another new experience this week was my visit to one of our community partners; and a Tare site (where we send our community volunteers) – Tara Mobile Creche. This is a care/school system for children whose parents work on local construction sites. To get there, we walked through their rough corrugated iron huts, past the new buildings and cement mixers on a rough gravel track, and then into a small concrete building with a courtyard. We spent about an hour and a half there; we sang songs with the children, and then played games and swung a skipping rope. It was lovely to see the enjoyment and enthusiasm of both the children and participants. The keenness of some of the kids to have their photo taken and then be able to see it on the screen reminded me of my kids up in ManaliThis visit preceded our ‘Community Programme Fun Day’ on Saturday. The Tare and participants spent a whole afternoon/evening planning a range of activities, and then 2 buses arrived at 10am on Saturday, laden with 30 children each; from Mobile Creche and Deep Griha. It was a really fun day filled with laughter and craft and glitter. We started in the campsite which was very hot and sunny, so I went to do some work in the programme room, but I could still sense the atmosphere and how excited all the children were. Plus it was really nice for the Tare to be able to have some of the children that they’ve been working with for 3 months to visit their home as well.

Participants and Tare gearing up for the day

All the children and staff

Yesterday was my day off. It began with a climb up the water tower at 7am. I’d not been up in the morning before, and the sun in the haze was beautiful.

You may think I’m crazy for getting up so early on my day off, and you’d be right. But I had an agenda! We occasionally come a different way to Sangam in rickshaws and pass a beautiful cemetery. A little research informed me that it was Kirkee Cemetery and I knew I wanted to go to see what (who) was there. Remembrance Sunday seemed like a good day to go, and so I’d determined to go and find it in the morning. I left Sangam at 7:45 and began to walk. As it was so early, there were no rickshaws at the stand, and no empty ones passed me either. I knew vaguely where I was heading, so carried on walking, in the hope of finding a rickshaw on the way. I saw some lovely sights, and it was really peaceful and quiet. No one even bothered me by saying hello constantly; except a group of three small children who saw me coming and rushed up with huge smiles to shake my hand. I walked along a road not far from the river bank, which also looked beautiful in the early morning haze. Then I came to a bridge. I wasn’t sure which way I should go, but thought I recognized the wall around the cantonment. This area is home to the Bombay Sappers, and there are a lot of military compounds. So I went left, and discovered a WWI memorial behind a gate in the parade ground. This told me that I’d gone the wrong way, but I decided to carry on, and complete a loop back to Sangam. The whole walk took just less than an hour.

I spent my morning sorting through photos (see the end of this post), and then Jessica and I went out to meet Heidi, Saga and Saga’s housemate (whose name I’ve forgotten – sorry!) for lunch. We ended up at a coffee place called Aromas, and I ordered a chicken burger. It was nice, but it emphasised to me how bland western food is, now I’m used to Indian food. The meals at Sangam aren’t particularly spicy, but they are very tasty! After a trip in to MG Road so Jessica could investigate suit purchasing and I could get some new earphones, we got a rickshaw to the cemetery! It was nice to have Jessica with me and we spent some time wandering around marvelling at the ages of the people, the range of nationalities, and also deciding that we really needed to research how and why the world wars ended up in India. I feel it’s something I probably should know, and I just don’t. You can see a couple of photos from Kirkee on my Flickr page.

Today was a good day too – we took a bus out to Alandi where there is an old temple in which a man sat and translated the holy texts into Marathi (the local language). I can’t remember his name… Then we drove to Tulapur which is where Shivaji, a great hero of the state, died; and we finished the tour with a trip to another community partner. Ishwari is a women’s cooperative; they make a lot of their income from baking the most amazing ginger cookies which are ridiculously addictive, and also jams and pickles. We then had lunch in a local restaurant, and then I got a whole load of little odd jobs done – the sort that add up and get ignored for as long as possible because they’re just a nuisance – while the participants went out to visit Aga Khan Palace. This evening I watched Bridget Jones with Jessica and Ellen – sorry guys, I still don’t get it!

So, all up to date again! I only have 4 and a half months to go now. That sounds SO MUCH less time than 6 months! The new SVs are arriving next week which is really scary. I’ve trawled through some of the work photos I’ve taken, and as I had a request for more photos, thought I’d add a couple here. Hope you enjoy them:

Me, in my purple uniform, looking super impressed with scout night!

This is my favourite photo! Clare (Tare) and Lynn (participant) try to blow each others' 'candles' out during 'this little guiding light of mine'; and Jen (PM) joins in!

Jen, doing her thing!

Chocolate Fondue at 60s night

Me being the trunk of an elephant.... awesome game! Also 60s night

My elephant ride

Water tower chilling

For each event, we take a 'day 0 snapshot' of our preparations. This is the SV/VIT team all cutting out strips of paper from the same laminated sheet!

TTFN x

Some Rangoli photos...

I had a request a while ago for some photos of Rangoli....
Here they are!

Even elephants can do it.... these are the footprints of Lakshmi as she left Sangam after our birthday celebrations!

It's been a while...

My apologies for the recent quietness on the blog front. My reasons/ excuses for this are 3fold:
1- we'd started a new event that meant we were all very busy
2- I've not been well; I have a sinus infection that has led to my sleeping for pretty much the whole of the last 4 days
3- we had more internet/server issues, so on the one day I had when I was not too busy or too ill, I couldn't access the internet.
However, I am now determined to update you on the last week, as we're just about to launch into another event which is even longer and busier!

I'll begin with last Sunday, which was Jessica's birthday. The night before, Ellen and some helpers had slaved away long and hard in the kitchen to make Swedish Cinnamon Buns, and we (Ellen, Heidi and I) decided Jessica would receive the first ones, topped with candles, in the morning. We decided on 7:30, but were slightly delayed in the corridor as the matches wouldn't light. This apparently made our timing perfect, as Jessica's alarm had just gone off and she'd literally just got out of bed as we burst in singing 'Happy Birthday'.
The rest of the day passed fairly normally; Jessica got cake at lunchtime for her birthday and I sat on reception trying to look busy and useful. Then at 3:30, Jessica, Hayley and I departed in a rickshaw for the airport to meet our new event guests. When we got to the airport, we discovered that there were no flights due in at 4, which was met with much consternation. After multiple phone calls back to Sangam and checking online of information, we established that they'd put their departure time from Delhi on the arrival info sheet, rather than their arrival time at Pune. So we got another rickshaw home, introduced some imaginary guests to Sangam and pulled their imaginary bags up the steps, and then went into an emergency 'how do we rejig the schedule so they're not too rushed but also get fed and welcomed in a proper ceremony before bedtime' meeting. We're SVs (now stands for Super Vols) so it wasn't too much of a problem, although it did mean that our guests were a bit rushed when they FINALLY landed, came out of the airport terminal and we'd got them taxis (not rickshaws - lucky them!) to Sangam.
The welcome ceremony was also my first as a member of staff; the first of many times that I will wear the pink Sangam sari! I love the welcome ceremony, and am really pleased that we do it for every event because it's really special and a lovely way to commence one's time here.

The SVs and VITs doing 'Snake'!

Unfortunately, our guests had been doing some hardcore travelling for a week around India before arriving here, and so a lot of them were feeling ill either from a stomach bug or overtiredness. This meant that we had to do some more schedule shuffling in order to allow them to rest. It was a bit frustrating, but as that's generally the nature of things in India, we coped!

I also had some sessions of my own to run of course. Tours of Sangam and the neighbourhood were fine, but I was worried about my '10 million girls' session; in which we discuss WAGGGS and its current themes and programmes. I'd been working really hard on a new game to play that was inspired by this awesome video, and then wanted to introduce them to WAGGGS' new Stop the Violence campaign, as I've also been heading the project to create a wall of ideas about this issue in the dining room! My worry was that it was a bit too heavy for the group as they were tired and also mainly interested in shopping at this point, but I was wrong! Although they may not have expected it, the group responded to it really well. So well, in fact, that they began there and then to create a badge syllabus linking to Stop the Violence, as they felt that it was about time they did something really worthwhile with their meetings and guiding connections, rather than always just 'singing songs and playing games'. I felt really great as in the session the previous day, many of them had not even heard of the MDGs, and yet there they were taking on a huge role in speaking out and advocating about a huge issue. That is the reason that I wanted to come here and be a Sangam Volunteer - to be able to make a difference in the way people view the world, and the things they think they can or can't do to make a difference themselves. It was easily the most fulfilling experience I've had here - or perhaps anywhere for quite a while, and I'm excited for things to come. We have an HIV/Aids seminar coming up soon, and we've already identified it as being important in a different way from the programmes we run about discovering a new culture, and even the community project events, so I'm looking forward to it!

After that awesome day, things weren't so great for me unfortunately! I developed a headache one afternoon, and after trying to sleep it off, decided it had got much worse and so wasn't able to go to dinner at the home of the local scout leader. This was part of the programme for the participants, but also part of mine and Jessica's training that we'd never got around to in the chaos of the birthday event! I know that I'll have other opportunities, but it was disappointing at the time.
I had loads of responsibilities the next day, and I was determined to battle through my headache. I made it to about 5pm, and then having set up the rest of the evening and asked Ellen and Jessica to cover for me, I returned to my bed. Again, missing a fun evening - Maha dinner and then bollywood dancing!
The third day, I wanted to power through as I was fed up of my head claiming me, and it was - yet again - fun activities as we were out visiting community partners. Apparently I looked a lot worse than I felt even, as Christa (DWCM) put her foot down and told me that there was no way I was doing anything but returning to my bed! It turned out to be a good decision, as I then developed a very high temperature. Priya was awesome in sitting with me for quite a while, patiently placing and replacing cucumber on my eyes and a cold cloth on my forehead. I fell asleep again, until she woke me in the evening to visit the doctor. That was when I received the diagnosis of a sinus infection - around my left eye. He gave me a cocktail of pills, and warned me that it would be 3 days until I felt better. They've worked, pretty much, but have also knocked me out completely and I spent 2 of those days sleeping pretty much non-stop, and then yesterday although I felt a bit better, I was very woozy and faint so still frustratingly not 100%. I've also had the benefit of a couple of herbal remedies from Diane; Tiger balm which is amazing, and Olbas oil to help clear my head. Don't know what I'd have done without them! It meant I managed to go out for an hour on Saturday to celebrate Ellen and Jessica's birthdays, but I still wasn't well enough to join them for the dancing after the restaurant!

This morning, I feel OK, but I still don't think I'll be bouncing around Sangam. It's the first day of a 10-day event (the participants arrived yesterday) and I really want to be able to be involved, be successful, and enjoy it to the max. Hopefully I'll get there!
I know that while I was ill, I wasn't overly vocal about how grateful I was to everyone who took care of me and looked out for me over the last few days - everyone here's been awesome and so kind, so I'd like to publicly thank them here for being amazing people - especially as a few of them haven't always been feeling totally ticketyboo either! They've saved me food, sent me to bed, taken over my sessions, lent me medicines, kept me cool, cheered me up, given me hugs, checked in on me, caught me when I was feeling wobbly, and just generally been like a big, caring family. And I love them all very much :)


Other things that I haven't mentioned in the correct chronological place are:

• The arrival of a new photocopier! Our old one was donated 11 years ago, and has been dying for quite some time as far as I understand. It still does basic copying, but it's more pain than it's worth. We are going to try to donate it to someone though. The new one is basically the updated model, and the main bonuses are that there are no labels on various parts saying 'do not use' or 'shut carefully', and that the feeder tray works! This means creating duplex copies of things is really easy - and we've been very excited by it for the last couple of days! When it arrived we all whooped so loudly in the middle of our Indian afternoon that Net heard us from upstairs and rushed down to join our celebrations!:

You can also see a few more photos of this amazing occurrence here.

• A lot of our new guests are guiders from Brumland! One of them very kindly brought me a bag of clothes, biscuits, pills, shower gel etc that I decided I needed since I arrived. It was a long process getting it to me, involving my father driving it to Brum and giving it to Ruth, my Brown Owl, and then asking her to get it to the travel group. But it worked and I'm very grateful to these people as well. There was nothing hugely important in the bag really, but it'll make life here more comfortable, plus it's always nice to get something from home!

• We had an international dinner on Sunday! Anyone who wanted to cooked a dish that we don't normally have here/ something from home. We had pasta bake, tuna pie, tacos, bruschetta, apple pie, 2 other desserts I can't spell and probably something else as well! I had been planning to make chocolate bread pudding, but was ill, so may do it another time. Or I may make flapjack as we've discovered that it seems only UK people understand what exactly a flapjack is, and we feel that the other staff members need educating in this area!

I think that's about all I can think to update you with; it's been a long week of ups and downs, and as I literally slept through about half of it, I'm quite impressed with how long I've managed to make this post. Hopefully lots of exciting things will happen in this next event, and I'll be able to find the time to blog about them. If I don't, then you'll have to wait 10 days until it's all over and then I'll make sure I update you!

TTFN