Hashmukh volunteers in a school to teach English once in a week. As he was away, Alex an American volunteer replaced him. I went with him on his motorcicle! Awesome ride! At 10:30: the kids have an assembly: sing, pray. It lasts about 45 minutes. We first assisted to this ceremony. That day, a kid had his birthday. So this kid stood up and everyone sang Happy Birthday. What is particular is that he did not wear a uniform! After he distributed some sweets. Right after, Alex gave his last English course! I also had to teach them a song in two minutes! It is amazing to see how the kids were participated with such an enthusiasm and big smiles!
1 Comment
Bernard a Canadian guy (volunteer at Sapna ranch)carpenter and also theator actor had a great idea to book Shadu clothes ! Where did the idea come from? Since he left Quebec, he plays an agent who is after a vilain! His vilain would be a Sadhu!
We had a fun photo session included me. A woman can be a Sadhu but under one condition to shave her hair! I did not go that far… Sapna Ranch is laboratory workplace where Hasmusk experiments a self sustainable way of living with solar energies: PV, Wind and Thermal, an organic garden and plantation including organic fertalizer, Western and Indian compost toiltets and water restrictions : bottles will be used as a tap, and bucket showers. The place to sleep, cook and live is a geometic dome made of bamboos, mango trees ! The second dome will be with a reciprocal roof !
The whole concept of living will be implemented in a project called EBHLE (Education B Holistic Learning environment): a place where 300 kids will have an alternative education system. They will attend the main courses such as maths, languages etc but the focus of the holistic learning will be based on creativity. www.http://ebhle.com/ We stayed 4 days at Aajol Village and we met Ritesh, Yogini and their parents. Ritesh and Yogini have regular jobs as engeneer in Mumbai but on weekends they go to their organic Aajol Village. The organic garden has already started and it will be combined with a B&B. It was a particular time as it was the end of holidays and the family gathered at the Aajof village to celebrate on 2nd Jan the New Year. We were welcomed after a terrific journey with a nice meal : we had chicken tandoori as appetiser and then tipical Indian food rice, dal and veg. Later when we were ready to go to bed, a cake was served ! It was funny the way it was cut: in cubes! LOL. Do not forget that we volunteered at their place to do some work! The very next day Ritesh suggested a couple of jobs to be done. We decided to build a shade made of bamboos and haye. First we had a brainstorming to define the dimensions, the shape of the shape etc and then we started to cut bamboos and haye. We also went to the open air bricks factory wher It was our first experience, we managed it well. After 3 days of hard work, we completed our mission and the family and we had our first meal in the shade ! Everyone enjoyed it and the family still enjoy it ! The last but not the least : it is not mansoon certificated ! SPECIAL THANKS TO Ritesh and Yogini and their family! We decided to go and rest in the quiet nature in Khopoli, 80 km from Mumbai for 4 days.
The day we left Mumbai, employees at the Central Station were on kind of protests. When we started, we did not know. We left at 11 am As usuall I was in the woman section and Önder in the gents. People asked me where I was heading to: Khopoli. The train was not going to Khopoli but to Thane. Oops… Not knowing was Önder would be doing I stayed in the train and decided to get of at Thane, hoping I will do the same. I tried not to stress much but we could read it on my face ! One woman reassured me and said that everything would be allright. 1hour later, at Thane station: Önder was also there!! But now what next??? It was so packed and messy. One guy helped us with the directions and advised us to take a taxi as the trains were not running on schedule. In 2:30 hours only one train passed to Khopoli!!! Well we took this chance and had to wait only 40 minutes! We had to trust the travelers as we could not have any information from the counters!!! We have not find it. We are in the train: me in the woman section and Önder in the gents. Something was unusual: the wagon was almost empty! We were in the first class section! It was comfortable even I did not manage a sit an I could see trought the gents section! Along the way the train was full and then was emptier and emptier. I asked someone when I will be arriving… Once again forget the Western way of thinking and go with the flow. „Just sit and you will arrive when you arrive, the final stop is Khopoli!“. That is fine with me and we finally arrived at 6 pm. Final destination: AAJOL VILLAGE! Few pics taken from the train! Thinking of Mumbai, for us it is just linked with movies and Bollywood! We could have more chance than that! Indeed, we stayed at Surya and Varun ´s place.
Varun is an actor and tried to be part of the Bollywood film stars! We wish you good luck ! Surya is a computer engeneer, it turned out that he also likes good movies, we had nice and interesting conversations at night. He also showed us around, the South of Mumbai and the Gateway of Mumbai. We really appreciated it and we enjoyed the time at their place! SPECIAL THANKS TO SURYA AND VARUN And their cook ! Recovering from New Year Ev… we decided to have a walk in Mumbai National parc! We were looking forward to being in the nature: finally silence and green! The 45 minutes queue did not scared us at all. We payed the fees and we could get started and hike like crazy. We were recommended to go to the cave, up to 7 km. Wait one minute: we were trying to understand the circus. We are in a national park but you have safary buses to look at lions and tigers, a zoo, bikes to be rented and bus stop to go to the cave, you even had a railway crossing the national park and also people live in!
It was as busy as in the city, cars, motorcicles and buses driving like and horning like hell to get you out of the way. We managed to go to reach the cave but we did not enter!!! The fees were 100 RS for foreigners and 5 for the locals!!! We have to forget our Western standards and go with the „honking“ flow…
Discovering Mumbai with a Rixa, after motorcicles, this is the best and fast way to get to a destination. We combined it with the train and walking ! One thing we had to make sure that the meters had to be on and reset up! If not we reminded the driver to do so. Mumbai and maybe India is a mixed of religions so we visited in one day: a church (St Mary Church, Bantra), a mosque (Haci Ali Dargha) and a temple (Shree Siddhivinayak Temple) ! The shoe experience : The church experience was interesting : Indians take their shoes off at home, in temple and even schools. Despite the sign, Indians went into the church without their shoes ! The mosque one was a bit different and noisy : unlike the rules people charged you to keep on eye on the shoes ! The temple one was completely new : to enter we had to go to a X-ray machine : women and men are separated. It is strictly forbidden to take pictures: no camera, no mobile ect.. are allowed inside. I had to go to another queue to leave my camera in a safe… We started queuing again. It costs 10 roupees, needs to present an ID and get registered in a book ! We were ready to go inside to visit Ganesh. Indians worship this god and bring flowers, food (some sweets). One rule you have to know is the shoes: we went there barefoot as everyone does but we carried our shoes. People started shouting at us in Hindi or Marathi. We were totally lost. What did we do wrong??? What we understood no shoes are allowed inside even carried or packed in a bag. Once in the temple, crowdy and loud, we observed Indians worshiping Ganesh…It was unique. |
What s next?
Archives
September 2018
Categories
All
|