Election time

We got a notice last week that our local hires would be able to take off half of a day in order to ensure that they had an opportunity to vote in the elections that would elect the new parliament members. This brief email made me start to think about what I had been seeing (and hearing) around town (and in other cities) recently. How do you campaign with a population that only has a literacy rate of 74% overall? Well if the advertisements that can be seen all over are any indication you do it with a combination of things. Signs that not only include pictures of the people running, but a symbol for the party that I assume are included on the ballot. I've seen an elephant, a diya, a lotus flower, a broom, and a bicycle for sure. Also plenty of cars have been driving around blaring loudspeakers, presumably encouraging individuals to vote for their candidate. Whatever the case there was a lot of excitement on election day. Delhi votes earlier than other areas of the country, and there was a feeling of hope that if the current leading party didn't win outright there then things might actually change across the country (many people have complained of how corrupt the current dominate party is - I really don't know much at all about Indian politics). What I do know is that people were proudly showing me the brown stripe on their finger which was proof that they had gone and voted (and make sure that a person is not able to vote more than once by going to a different voting site). It was nice to see people excited about elections and feeling strongly about casting a vote that they believed was a chance to make a difference.

For those of you more interested, Times of India is updating a blog regularly as results come in today.

Thanksgiving in Dharamashala

Happy Thanksgiving! The holiday brought us another long weekend, and thus another chance to travel (which seems a bit ridiculous seeing as how I haven't even told y'all anything about the last trip I took in India!). I've been slowly going through my list of places I want to see and this break gave me a chance to visit Dharamashala. Nestled on the side of a mountain it has become a refuge for Tibetans who have fled the Chinese occupation of their land, and serves as their primary religious headquarters housing the home temple of the Dalai Lama. As such you can imagine that it is a pretty low key, relaxing place. For three days I walked without being hassled, enjoyed the views, took in the clean air and took the opportunity to recharge before going into the end of the semester. One day we took a stroll out to see the waterfall in Bhagsu, a neighboring village. Another we took the opportunity to attend a momo (Tibetan dumplings) cooking class. The hour and a half with the lad who runs Lhamo's Kitchen was well enjoyed. We didn't have to do any of the prep work (no chopping!), but just learned how to put all of the ingredients together and how to form a momo (sort of). The best part of course was getting to eat all of the momos we had assembled just as soon as they had finished steaming. All in all a quiet restful weekend which was exactly what I needed.

When is a motorcycle full?

If you spend much time on the roads in India it can make you start to think, "When is a motorcycle actually full?" Clearly one or two people is an easy fit. Three is seen fairly often. Four seems doable. But what about five? Ah, yes, we've seen that. I've seen up to six on one motorcycle...transportation for the entire family, especially in smaller cities or towns.

So if a motorcycle can hold at least six, what does that mean about a scooter?

Or one of these?

 

 We counted 28 piling out one day.

Village walk

They dropped us off by an overlook with a lower pond and a view of the hills. A place where stone structures like diving boards jutted out over the void. They said there was a village just down the road if we wanted to walk a bit. After several hours in the car the idea was delightful and we all grabbed our cameras as we got out to stretch our legs a bit. I couldn't turn down the opportunity to see a village from the ground instead of out the car window as I so often do here in India. Those women you see hauling piles of hay on their head - they're coming out of the woods to join us on the road, a big smile on their face. Small children may seem shy at first but will soon overcome the strangeness of our skin in the joy of taking photos and sharing the few words of English they know. The old man, face lined with life, will continue to sit silently on the porch, just offering a nod as I say "Namaste." Women in bright saris peek out of doors and sweep the ground in front of their house. They go about their life as usual as I come the closest to rural India as I've ever been. An hour that reminds me of the two years I walked villages in Guinea as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Muscat by night

This past weekend found me in Muscat, Oman for the volleyball tournament with my boys (our best result yet finishing fourth place). The only problem with travelling for sports is that all you really get to see is the inside of the gym. I have to admit that I still hear the refrain that our players were chanting all weekend: Everywhere we go everywhere we go, People want to know people want to know, Who we are who we are, So we tell them so we tell them, We are the tigers we are the tigers, Mighty mighty tigers, mighty mighty tigers....aargh! Enough already.

Thankfully I have a friend that I taught with in Turkey who is now in Muscat. She graciously came and picked me up one evening after we had finished so I did get to see a little bit of Muscat, but only what is lit up at night. A promenade along the beach front, the beautifully lit opera house with its strong angles and arches, the golden lit dome of the Grand Mosque. I have to admit that I like the way things get lit up at night, even if it does mean things are not really open for an inside views.

Happy Diwali!

May you have a bright and well lit holiday

Welcome the goddess Lakshmi with your lights

Turn away evil spirits with the burst of firecrackers 

Celebrate good over evil with your row of lamps

Fall Fiesta

Yesterday was the Fall Fiesta. The one big fund raiser that the high schoolers at AES do. Almost a service project in and of itself. It is a 4 hour undertaking which has just about every student in the high school hoping from booth to booth to work to provide a Halloween carnival for the lower and middle school students. For the price of one wristband, a child can play endlessly at any of the booths that have been set up with home grown games. Some of my favorites this year were the Whack-a-mole booth where students donned helmets, stuck their heads through some circles cut in a sheet and let the kids hammer their heads with an inflatable helmet, the face paint booth for the littlest kids is always a big hit, there was a hoola-hooping station this year, a paper plane flying booth, and not one but two angry birds throwing balls destruction games. There are a couple of things that are always present at Fall Fiesta: bouncy castles (I put in an hour of corralling kids there, but I'm only willing to work the first hour when it is the smallest children after that it is just volunteering for a head ache), the dunk tank by the swim team, the beat the keeper game by the soccer team, the haunted house put on by the theater program, and of course a raffle. I'm always kind of impressed with what our students are able to put together. It has a definite home made feel to it, but I kind of appreciate that. Most of all, though, I appreciate that I won't be asked for money every week during the school year to help fund a variety of activities our students are doing. No, part of putting this on, is that this provides all of the funding for the activities our students do - community service, athletics, theater, etc; no extra fund raising is allowed. Making this an activity our entire school can get behind.