4th October – 25th October: Aarohi

Village Life

We have now been living in our village for five weeks which is exactly half way through the stay! Time is flying and we cannot believe we have been here this long. Not too much is happening, no new sights to be seen, no new food to be eaten (except for the locally brewed whiskey which tastes surprisingly okay and some other local produce), no new people to meet. In a way this sounds boring, but it is really nice to be settled somewhere and feel like we have a home. Simon was really happy when the family bought a dog... the dog lasted 2 days then ran away. Noone but Simon seemed to care.

Each day is interesting in it’s own way. Simon has actually learnt some hindi, and although he says he doesn’t know much his communication isn’t too bad considering. That said, most of the communication does involve the children and us exchanging insults and calling each other names (in fun way). My name is ‘unda’, which means egg and Simon’s name is now lokhi (which is kind of like a zucchini). Though, the oldest girl does call us idiot a lot. We call her pagal. So does her mother.

We recently celebrated Diwali (Indias Christmas essentially) which was fun and involved blowing up fireworks and drinking whisky! A good combination.

Happy Diwali!

In terms of work, Simon has done a visit of the surrounding villages and is now creating building manual based on these designs. I am still analyzing nutritional data and now thinking about writing some recipes! The work is slow but we feel like we are now getting somewhere and may hopefully be able to achieve something useful.

The food is still nice, but I have to admit starting to get a little tiring. I really look forward to our packet maggi noodles and packet pastas when we have them. Who would’ve thought my standards would drop so much.

Finally a big congratulations to the two good friends who just got engaged (you know who you are….if you are reading this). It’s great to get such good news even if it does feel a bit weird sitting here in the middle of nowhere!


That’s all for now.
Someone get me a cheeseburger.


Scrabble Sheena: Lots
Simon: A few less


Squabble
Sheena: Lots
Simon: Not far behind

The view on the way to work




Cuzbo being cute again

Anita and a local friend stacking the hay for the winter months

Whisky and cards

21st September – 3rd October: Aarohi

Aarohi Aid Work

Our train from Delhi arrived at Kathgodam where we were driven for over 2 hours to our village called Chatola (search Nainital and Almora in google maps, draw a line between the two and we’re in the middle). We were then met by our hosts for the next 2.5 months; Sundar Ram and his son Ravi 7. After a steep 20 minute walk, we were at our new home and what a home! We were blown away by the house they have built for us. It is a 2 storey house. All brick, with proper stone floors, a kitchen and a bathroom with a western toilet! So much for concerns of a mud hut, with dirt floors, no electricity and a squat toilet.

Our Mansion on the right

We met the rest of the family, Asha (Sunders wife) and his 3 other children, all girls, Anita 13, Hema 10, and Cuzbo 5.

The kids seemed quietly excited, until we brought out the bag of presents from Australia (chocolates, pencils, stuffed toys etc. from Paddy’s markets). At this point the excitement bursted and the kids were became excited bubbly and very affectionate. By affectionate we mean exhausting! As tiring as they are, I’m sure from the photographs, you’ll agree they’re adorable J

From left to right: 2 neighbours, Ravi, Hema, Sunder, Anita, Asha, Cuzbo

Cuzbo and Hema enjoying their gifts

Since settling in we have really been getting to know the family and getting used to being ridiculously overfed by Asha. All the food is veg and consists of 1 vegetable dish (usually radish) plus rice and or rotis. We think by the end of this we will turn into a muli (radish)! Although repetitive the food is still tasty and very spicy.

The older girls love to impress Sheena, and Ravi is very attached to me. The youngest Cuzbo doesn’t say much most of the time, but squeaks a lot and is attached to both of us… she is so unbelievably cute, we’re thinking of taking her back to Australia!

Cuzbo looking cute

The family held a puja (blessing ceremony) for the new house and the extended family attended as well as the holy man. Sheena had to wear a sari and all the family were very excited to see her in traditional clothing.

The girls before the Puja, Sheena looking good..... and big!

The family at the first ceremony

Standing on the roof for the 2nd ceremony

Ravi with his uncle after lunch

Everyday we walk almost an hour each way up and down through the jungle and forest to get to the Aarohi headquarters. It’s quite tiring but also extremely beautiful and should get us fighting fit by the end of our stay here. On clear days we can see the peaks of the Himalayas in the distance towering over the valleys. Superb.

The first time we walked home we were shown the way by two local boys who were very friendly. Just before getting home, they decided to strip down naked and go for a swim in a tiny water hole. Something that kids certainly wouldn’t do back home hehe.

Local boys in the water hole

The first time we attempted to walk home from Aaorhi we of course got lost. It was a little unnerving seeing as it got dark (luckily I had packed a torch) not to mention the snake we encountered along the way.

We’ve both been given our assignments, I’ll be looking at devising a manual for locals to build houses out of brick and concrete correctly, recently they have moved away from traditional building methods and they are not constructing their houses safely. Sheena is looking at nutrition of local children as well communication methods to inform the villagers of health related issues. So we’re both quite busy.

Anywhoo… so far so good… not too much to complain about except for the fact I would murder someone for a hamburger and a cold beer and I can’t believe I’m going to miss Muse tour Australia!

Hope everyone is well...

Ravi, now thanks to us affectionately known as Bandar (monkey)

Other locals who stopped us in our tracks thanks to our monkeyphobia

15th September – 20th September Leh Still & Delhi

After having returned from the trek, we ate kebabs and drank beer out of tea pots referred to as special tea so as to hide the fact a Muslim restaurant was serving alcohol.

We did manage to organise a trip up to Khardung La which at 5600m is the highest motorable pass in the world!

Khardung La

After saying goodbye to all the friendly staff at Oriental Guesthouse, we then caught the early flight to Delhi.

In Delhi we spent the day mooching about relaxing in air conditioned coffee shops as our train ride to Uttarakhand (location of volunteer work) wasn’t till the evening. However the day did have some drama! We needed to go to the bank and when we got there we noticed it was surrounded by monkeys... lots of monkeys… I (Simon) thought they were cute and we walked past them with out any problems. On our way out of the bank, we unintentionally scared one of the baby monkeys and it ran away screaming… that set the other big monkeys into a rage and they all came running towards us snarling! We both turned and ran back towards the bank, however Sheena was a little slower than the monkeys and one managed to catch her and caught a hold of her skirt! Luckily the beast fell off without managing to bite or scratch her leg, so Sheena avoided a lot of pain and a lot of rabies shots… So after hiding in the bank for 5 minutes, the kind bank staff escorted us out with a big stick and we managed to get to refuge safe and sound… We are now monkeyphobic..

now to go do something useful…

Scrabble: Sheena 4 – Simon 2

Squabble: Sheena 6 – Simon 3