The Green Tara Project

Note #6:  Remember to read the fine print about the side effects of taking my anti-malarial drug at night with milk to avoid waking up the following morning with my eyes almost swollen shut and cankles.  (Side Note to Self:  This is a look even Angelina Jolie couldn’t pull off. Oy.)

Note #7:  Don’t forget that the tailors in Forbesgunge are especially good at the game of “Having Fun at the Foreigner’s Expense,” and will capitalize on ignorance in spades.  Witness my ordering two simple tunics to be made, which required me to select a neckline.  I selected a very simple and conservative neckline from ones that were shown to me, taking for granted that the neckline in back would be equally conservative.  Enter tailors with a desire to embarass the unknowing foreigner:  very conservative in front; scandalously low scoop in back.  Yes, showing too much back is considered obscene here.  Well, out go the two tunics.  Total cost:  $6.

Note #8:  I am brilliant to think of packing instant coffee. : )

I’ll be heading back to KGBV today.  I will go by train, my third time.  It is not exactly an experience that I look forward to.  There is no sense of chivalry here, no ‘oh please you first’.  It is definitely every man/woman/child for themself when venturing onto the train.  Seating and storing arrangements give a new meaning to the word ‘haphazard.’  No rhyme or reason, so for those of you with just a bit of OCD, India is NOT the place for you ; ).

If I were in KGBV right now, I would have slept ’til 5 am, then given a karate lesson to very enthusiastic girls from 5:30 am until 7 am.  Right now, at 7:49, I would probably be trying to get a bucket to take into an unlit shower stall for a quick washdown, all the while trying to ignore the spiders dangling in corners.  Don’t get me wrong – things are as clean as they can be.  But with open windows and such, difficult to keep the elements out.  After a shower, it would probably be time for breakfast:  four cups of puffed rice served with a soupy curry of garbanzo beans, or lentils, or maybe potato.  I eat on a mat on the floor.  I am the subject of much mirth at meals as I have yet to master the art of Eating With Only One Hand.  I make a mess always ; ).  Ah, it’s just the first week.  Give me time.

After breakfast, the girls start heading off to school in their blue tunic tops, white baggy pants, and a white scarf draped around their neck.  There is some last minute studying usually, and some prodding by some of the caretakers at the compound, and then they are off, and I hand wash my clothes by hand pumped water.  Again, the first day I did this, one of the project managers came up to me and asked, very sweetly and tentatively in broken English, “Uh, have you do this before?”  Well, yes, but apparently not to their way of thinking.  I was kind of bunching the clothes up and doing a rough kneading kind of thing that I had seen some of the other girls do.  The cook came over, gently pushed me out of the way, and demonstrated the proper method of washing:  big dousing movements in and out of the soapy water bucket, then again in the clean water bucket, then wrench all water out and hang to dry in the sun.  This method requires changing the water several times – but water is quite plentiful so there is no need for conservation efforts here.  Yesterday, I got an approving look from the cook; a small sweet victory for me here.

I spend the rest of the day coming up with the next lesson plan, figuring out which words I will need to know in Hindi, and then studying those words, and working through the drills.  There is also lunch time and two tea times, plus time spent conversing with some young ladies who have not gone to school that day.

The next karate class is from 4:30 to 6 pm.  The girls get out of school at 4, so they come back and change and are full energy and ready to go.  I really have never seen the level of intensity for karate knowledge anywhere as I have here.  I found out recently that the girls’ regular karate teacher who had schooled them for two years retired.  They have been without a regular teacher now for a few months.  So I am like a glass of water to a girl dying of thirst.  Exciting and intimidating at the same time.  I want to make the most out of the short time I have with them.  Yesterday I introduced the concept of shifting.  Today I hope to work on some balance exercizes.  I am also trying to get some of the staff – caretakers/teachers, project managers, even the cook – involved.  I’ve got one so far.  Eight days left.  We’ll see what I end up with by the end.

Here are some glimpses of Forbesgunge and Apne Aap headquarters:

(above) Apne Aap headquarters as seen from train station platform across the street.

(above)  Local Forbesgunge schoolboys on their way to class.

(above) No wondering why power goes out so frequently.

I returned to Forbesgunge today to do some emailing and hit an ATM. Might I just say here that in this part of the world, they could consider putting more than one terminal at an ATM location.  As it is, I have to have a male escort to the ATM so that I, as a female, can cut in front of the 20 or so males who have been waiting for probably 30 minutes or more in the hot sun, and have a ‘security’ guard admit me (why I can cut in front of everyone, I don’t know but that is how it is done) so that the guard can push the buttons on the touchscreen for me and try to peek at my password and see how much money I’m withdrawing.    But I should really tell the KGBV story while I have the luxury of having internet access.

KGBV is in a little village called Simra.  The compound that the girls live in has an open courtyard in the middle with a hand-pump well.  The girls stay in rooms adjacent to the courtyard.  There is a kitchen, and an attached bathroom area.  I will not get into how different it is from back home, but suffice to say, it is very different.

The girls here are gems.  Here’s one shot of a few:

They have such spirit, and they all call me ‘Sister.’  It seems to me that there is, in fact, a chorus of ‘Sister’ whenever I’m around.  I should explain one small fact:  rarely is a foreigner seen in this part of India.  It is not a western tourist area by any stretch of the imagination, and I am gawked at constantly by men, women, children, goats, dogs, and I am sure by unseen small rodents, as well.  So the fact that something fairly rare and exotic has come to their school is a real novelty, and everyone wants to show their thing.  They are proud of their newly planted vegetable garden, their artwork, and especially of their karate.  It is difficult, let me tell you, to have 20 girls all shouting and tugging at you, literally, to have you see their kata.  And woe to the person holding a camera.  Most of them are hams and camera hogs, not unlike many young American girls.  In fact, there are a lot of similarities: they are very self conscious, take a lot of time doing their hair, have a hard time getting out of bed for school, and give plenty of attitude when they are not very self assured.  So, if I get the camera out to take pictures, I am mobbed.  Stay tuned:  I plan to get some candid shots.

For the next week, I will be teaching at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidayalaya (KGBV), where there is no internet access.  I will try to get to an internet cafe or otherwise get access when I can, but if you don’t see something for awhile, that’s the reason.  It is 13 km from Forbesgunge.

I have been told that the girls at KGBV (there are 50 between the ages of 11 and 16) have been taking karate for the last two years, and only recently their teacher has been unable to come.  I have seen pictures of them breaking flaming boards with their heads, and other pictures show them doing some wicked kicks.  I’m not so sure that I’ll be teaching them, or they’ll be teaching me!  Either way, I am very much looking forward to the experience of spending time with these young ladies.

So, until I write again…hopefully soon..

This is an adjunct to my ‘Impromptu’ post.

Two of the three girls that I taught also sang an impromptu song.  I didn’t understand a word of it, but one of the girls looked off into the distance as she sang, and the other one’s eyes stayed fixed on the ground.  Their voices were not strong – there was no joy in their words, and no smiles.  The song finished, they sat down.  The Apne Aap project coordinator who was there leaned over and explained that the song the girls sang was about why are boys treated so much better than girls, why do they get schooling and food when girls do not.  And then it hit me why these young ladies sang the way they sang:  in front of their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, cousins, teachers, and strangers, they made a declaration – that there is no reason why girls are any different than boys.  Out of all the things they could have sung about, the message of equality is what they wished to convey.

This is a message that definitely needs to be voiced.  Women appear to be marginalized here for the most part.  In my few short days here, men are the predominant force on the street – they are the drivers of all vehicles; I haven’t seen one female driver.  I have not seen a female professional anywhere: at the Baghdogra airport or in the hotel where I am at, all men.  They are servers, ticket-takers, cleaners, cooks, shopkeeps – all men.  Where are the women in this economy?  I’ve seen many of them doing backbreaking work in the fields.

But back to the girls, aged 12.  Their courage to voice their opinion like that makes me speechless.  These ladies are my heroes, the ones who, hopefully and with some support, will eventually make a difference in their lives and possibly the lives of others long after I’ve returned to the US.  Maybe I just witnessed the performance of a female version of Gandhi.  I hope so.

I thought cutting weight by sitting in a sauna was tough for Nationals this year, but I never thought I’d be sleeping in a ‘sauna’ aka my hotel room.  Power outtages plague this town – there are at least 15 per day at the hotel.  This makes getting on the internet a bit of a problem, and is a bane to a cool room.  Well, I knew I wasn’t signing up for luxury, so I’m sucking it up and getting use to a continuous coating of moisture on me day and night.

Taught my first class today; was very impromptu.  On spur of the moment, I was invited to go to a remote village (it took about one and half hours to drive 15 miles because the roads here are so terrible) where there were 13 school girls between the ages of 8 and 13 from underprivileged families.     ‘Underprivileged’ here means the family makes less than 50 cents a day.  This puts the girls in an ‘at risk’ status.  So we get there, and a computer demonstration was cut short as internet reception was not happening.  So I asked the girls to raise their hands if they liked karate.  All of them raised their hands.  I then asked them what they liked about karate.  “Because we can protect ourselves,” was their answer.  So I then asked if any of the girls, who have been taking karate for just 10 days, if they would like to show me anything.  three of the older girls got up, in their school uniforms, and demonstrated a hopping-type warm a little more vigorous than what I do back home, followed by a punching demonstration.  I then asked if they would like me to show them, and they all said yes.  So, I performed tournament-style Heian Godan, with bowing and announcing.  At the kata name, there was a collective suck-in of breath.  At the first kiai, I made a child cry.  They certainly hadn’t seen anything like it, and there were giggles and laughter.  But it was great.  I then asked the three girls to line up in front of me and punch me in the stomach.  They looked at me like I had five heads and fire coming out of my mouth LOL.  But they did, and I showed them how to punch keeping their elbows in, and how to reach their target.  And I have to tell you:  these girls were STRONG.   And they were like sponges, absorbing everything in spite of the language gap.

So I will start teaching formally on Monday.  Am going to a girls’ hostel and living there for a week or two, depending on how the classes are being received.

I am borrowing someone’s computer because have been uanble to get internet connection earlier, so must go.  But more later.  And I’ve lots of pics – stay tuned!

I thought I was a bad driver.  Now, not so much.  For those of you who know me, take my most ultra-aggressive driving that you have ever seen me do, then multiply by 100.  I am in heaven. ; )

Arrived Baghdogra yesterday.  Could see the Himalayas from the airport.  But the drive to Forbesgunge took me farther and farther away from hills.  In fact, it is flat plains here.  There are tea fields and rice paddies everywhere.  And goats, cattle, dogs, and children.  The heat is not too bad; like a very humid Chicago day. Constantly.  I did not have A/C last night, but the hotel staff thought it was a good idea to bring in this big box that blasted air toward my bed.  I didn’t care; I was zombie by that point.  I slept 9 hours, with ear plugs in, and only awoke for the occasional power outtage (there were only 3) when the heat and stuffiness poked in to even my sleep deprived brain.  Outtage only temporary – generators kick in

So far so good.  In Kolkata.  Spent the night sleeping in the International Terminal.  Not bad, really.  At least it was some shut eye, and had really interesting company:  a group of Muslim young men heading back to Thailand for a break from their studies here; an older retired couple, both doctors, both live in India, returning from touring the U.S. for six months.  At 1:30 in the morning, terminal sleeping was the safest alternative to venturing down an unlit street for two blocks (I did it in the daytime and it was not nice) or taking a taxi downtown on little sleep – God knows where I would have ended up.  Did some cleaning up in a bathroon (bet it is the last sit-down toilet I see in awhile) and put on a change of clothes which made me feel like a human being again. : )  Almost undid all that good when I went to brush my teeth – and without thinking wet the toothbrush in the tap water, which is not clean.  Stopped myself just short when I realized.  Dodged a bullet there – would have not been nice to get belly problems with one airplane ride and a three hour car ride ahead.

My next, and last, flight boards in an hour.  Received confirmation about the car that will pick me up (whew) when I got on to email just a few minutes ago.  Right now I’ve just seen a lot of the inside of an airplane, airport security, and terminals.  My last hurdle is to make it on this last flight and have my luggage at the other end.  Keep your fingers crossed…

More later.  And thanks for reading.