Our weekend started off in an exciting manner, we went to CAMP! 15 of the Mobile Creches, the ones in Pune City, got together for this annual event. The kids left their sites early in the morning, 7 am, to get to the site where camp would be held. The site was about 45 minutes away from us (yet only 5 miles) so Muriel, Holly, and I went by rickshaw. We got to the site and saw this massive tent with 300 children squeezed in underneath. To start off camp there was a magician and even a puppet show. The children were definitely enjoying themselves. On display were all the arts and crafts that each creche site had worked on during the past month. The children were so well behaved, I kept on thinking about 300 kids back home who had to sit for 3 hours and there is no way they would be that good! But these kids were so appreciative of all the things at camp, they just sat and watched and listened.
After the morning events, the kids got lunch. All the helpers formed this massive human chain and we passed out the food to all 300 kids. After lunch all the children who would be doing a dance or a skit got changed and got ready for their performances. After 2 acts the speaker system blew, not surprising. We ended up sitting for an hour waiting for it to get fixed. Again the children sat and waited patiently. Once it got up and running again we watched the 14 other acts, including my girls do their marathi dance and then later on the last dance was cotton-eye joe! The woman who runs Mobile Creche came up to me and congratulated me, she loved having an "American Dance" in the mix.
Holly, Muriel and I came home Friday night, but the kids stayed to sleep under the stars. We ended up coming back in the morning though, on Saturday, to continue the festivities. When we got to the site the children were playing sports and games. We jumped right in, no not playing (I didn't want to give them a bad impression of the competitive nature of Americans) we just helped watch to see who won anything and spun around the kids drawing tails on donkeys. After games the kids all sat under the tent for awards. I felt like such a proud mamma, my girls got third place (out of 16 acts) for their rendition of cotton-eye joe!! They got special prizes, kits with crayons, markers, colored pencils, and pastels. (You could imagine my excitement that they got art supplies!) They were so excited about this. The woman who runs Mobile Creche actually let Muriel, Holly, and I hand out some of the gifts. It was a huge honor. After the awards were handed out the children were given lunch and then they waited around to be sent back to their sites. It was a really great experience for them, and we had a lot of fun too!
Saturday night, after dinner, we were invited over Darsh's (assistant manager here) for Chai and conversation. It was a beautiful apartment and we sat out on the terrace and had our chai. We got into talking about Hindu rituals and practices. We learned all about the roles the family play when a baby is to be born (Hey Dave and Kate, the sister of the father gets to name the baby!!) and also the rituals after a death. They are really interesting, and if anyone wants more detail let me know. After chai, Jemma and I went out with two of the participants to go out on the town. It was a really fun night and we got back late, so I slept in nice and late Sunday morning :-)
Sunday morning was nice a relaxed, I just did laundry and went for a run. But Sunday late afternoon was so unique. We had a real Maharastrian dinner! Around 3:00 we started the celebration by learning how to do Rangoli (the intricate designs using sand/colored chalks in the front of the houses). We each then put rangoli next to the mat where we would be eating dinner. After we all got mehindi, which is the henna designs the Hindu bride gets before marriage. After all that we got a lesson on how to put on our Saree and met up in the dining room for dinner. We all sat on the floor and ate from plates made from special leaves. The women in the kitchen served us our meal and it was really beautiful. Holly and I were so full we had to untie our Saree skirts a bit :-) It was a really fun day/evening.
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5 comments:
So would Saree skirts then be our equivalent of elastic waist pants?? JK. You filled up our senses this week with new sights of Indian culture. You look beautiful in your Saree as do Muriel and Holly. Camp sounds like an old fashioned Scout "jamboree"; glad you made us proud with the Cottoneyed Joe! What's next - Beyonce's "put a ring on it dance"?
Lin, you must be so happy that the culture there is very art oriented!! It seems like a place where you can fit right in with your artistic skills. We are glad you are having so much fun!! Love you!!
Thanks Dave and Kate, it is very artsy and I am lovvving it! I learned how to do Henna so now I can make some extra cash on the boardwalk haha. Hope all is well, thanks for following
xoxo Love you
Lin, what a big compliment to you that your girls won 3rd place. Bravo!I'm intrigued by the whole eating process. What do you do if you don't like the taste? Spit in a napkin? Smile and move on? Your dinner with the plate of leaves looked very inviting, but is it really enough to eat?????
The color of your Saree is beautiful. Lovin the blue!
Love the henna, too.
Hey Faith!
Good question...most of the time I take a small bite of what is on my plate. There are no napkins in India, so if you're nervous you'd better take a SMALL bite 'cause you gatta swallow it! If you don't like it, you just say "eh..nahi (no) and leave it there. You'd be surprised at how much those little things fill you up, plus at a traditional dinner like that women come around and serve you constantly, so you get 2nds, 3rd, 4ths if you want it. A lot of people do a few servings of rice. I love my blue saree as well thanks! I'm tempted to buy a lot more before I come home, I just need lots of fancy events to wear them to! Hope all is well, thanks for the interest! xo
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