COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Bec Farquhar
Namaste!
It is amazing how much one can fit into a day, there is always time for more here in India. Being in a foreign country you realise how much you learn to adapt and live the way the locals live; this makes the travelling experience that much more exciting and interesting.
Since our last blog post, as expected so much has happened and we have seen so much more of the magical state of Rajasthan. Also, our students at both the school and orphanage have been improving before our eyes and have been challenging us now as their level of knowledge has increased. This has meant we have had to continue to meet their requirements of making their work harder & more challenging. Each Friday at the school we assess our students to track their progress and it brings us joy to know that we are making a difference to the upcoming generation. Each child's mark is increasing as the weeks go by which makes it all that much more fulfilling.
Here at the volunteer house we are constantly having a ball & it really feels like home. We've had cooking lessons with our cook Meenaji...Pakora and Samosa anyone? ATTENTION: Familes just you wait for our Indian culinary skills when we get back home. We have also had time to dye our hair with Henna. When applying it looks as though we have smothered our hair in melted chocolate, but the smell will prove otherwise..
Our past three weekends have been jam packed full of adventures. We've travelled far and wide and have had our first experiences with Indian overnight trains & sleeper buses. We've seen many exquiste forts in Jaipur, by which we rode an elephant to reach one of them. We've shopped at grand Indian malls, fine dined at restaurants and our sweet tooths have been treated to many Indian sweets.. would anyone care for a Gulab Jumon?
We've been to Agra, the land of the Taj Mahal, its beauty is mesmerising. More recently we've been to Jodhpur (the Blue City) where we stayed in a quaint guest home with a roof top view like no other. We journeyed through the Mehrangarh Fort and visited a Royal family Memorial which contained transparent marble. From Jodhpur we travelled to the Osian desert by jeep where we had an unforgettable experience staying with a host family who opened up their home to us. We '4WD' up steep sand dunes (getting stuck and having to walk the rest of the way), saw the magical sunset and ate traditional foods of Rajasthan. We also met two other travellers and heard about their travels in India whilst watching (and joining in) traditional Rajasthani dancing performed by two local sisters and their family. Of course, in the desert, there are no city lights to dim the stars' brightness, so sleeping under the star lit night was truely an amazing experience - the calmness and peacefullness was almost overwhelming! Our final day of weekend trips in India consisted of waking up at 6am whilst pitch black for a camel safari to view the sunrise and enjoy the serenity of the Osian Desert. Overall we had a magnificent weekend we will all remember for a long time to come.
India never fails to excite us and we look forward to sharing more with you over the next two weeks.
Lots of Indian love,
Sam, Bec, Lizzie and Georgie
No comments:
Post a Comment