My Mock Election

We're now back at school after our long holiday and we've been thrown back into teaching. There is lack of teachers at school, so we've found ourselves teaching lots of lessons that we weren't really expecting! Last week I was asked to take 8th standard for Social Studies, so I decided to do some politics with them. After we'd talked about political parties and elections, I told them to get into groups and create their own political party with a name, list of promises and a speech. I said that we would vote for the best party after we had heard all of their speeches. The whole class got really into it and 7th standard, who share the classroom also got involved and created their own party. By the end of the lesson, our 3 parties were: The National Party of India, Deforestation and Save the Animals.

Over the next few days everyone got really excited about the idea of an election and before I knew it 2 girls had started 'The Times of Adams' with news about the election and the parties and everyone was making posters! It was decided that we would hold it in the playground, and all the pupils and teachers would gather to watch the speeches and then cast their vote.

We rehearsed the speeches in the playground and 2 girls took it upon themselves to be the anchor people, and wrote a script for what they would say between the speeches. We made a ballot box and lots of ballot papers, and on Saturday morning we gathered everyone outside. The parties gave their speeches and we handed out the ballot papers, explained what to do and everyone voted. Unfortunately, Vinay, the headmaster, missed it all and turned up just as we'd finished and asked if we could do it again for him, so we did it all twice!

The older children helped us to count the votes; The National Party of India had a clear victory. Their policies included: putting people in prison for a week for littering, giving free education to all children, free healthcare, supporting equal rights for girls and women, fighting against domestic abuse, providing a clean water supply for all and educating farmers so they can improve their productivity. It was incredibly well thought-out and the girls who spoke were so well prepared, I
was so impressed! After we'd announced the results, Vinay told me to speak to the children, so I told them how important it was for them to vote when they are 18 and how much of an impact the government has on our lives.

I'm really enjoying teaching again and hopefully I can put up some more posts about other things we've done in school before we leave.

Travelling- part 2

Amritsar was the following destination, luckily we were all feeling better, so we could take advantage of the free food given out in the temple! It was an amazing thing to watch- a efficient human production line, some people handed you plates, then you went an sat in the huge hall on the floor in lines, then people came down the rows with huge pots of dall, chapattis, water and sweet and distributed them, when you'd finished, you handed your plate to the huge team doing the washing up. The preparation of the food was very similar, with different groups doing different jobs, e.g. one group chopped onions, one group peeled garlic, etc. The whole thing was run by volunteers and it was really good food! As well as the delicious food, the temple was pretty good too! It has a big pool of water in the middle and the special golden shrine in the middle, which is where the Guru Granth Sahib is kept. The whole place had a really nice peaceful atmosphere and it was so beautiful, especially at sunset when the gold shrine is reflected in the water. We stayed in the special temple accommodation for free, we really enjoyed it, as all of the sikhs were so kind to us. Whilst in Amritsar, we went to see the closing ceremony for the border between India and Pakistan, which was really fun. There was lots of dancing, people running with the Indian flag, lots of marching and shouting from soldiers in amazing hats. There were a lot more people in the India side than the Pakistan side, and they had their men and women separated, which our side didn't.

We then went on some of the scariest but most picturesque bus rides I've ever been on, as we headed into the Himalayas. The roads were very narrow and were right on the edge of huge drops and there weren't any barriers! However, the views of snow-capped mountains were amazing and looked just like the pictures. We finally arrived in Dharamsala and got another bus up to McLeod Ganj, where we were staying for 5 days. It was a really lovely town and it was full of little cafes and Tibetans
selling wooly hats, gloves, jumpers and socks. It was very cold compared to what we're used to now, so we all bought ourselves jumpers. It's also where the Dalai Lama lives, and we were lucky enough to be there when he was doing a few days of public teachings, so we got to go to one! We travelled up to his monastery, which is in the best location- there are massive snow-covered mountains rising up from behind it. The Dalai Lama was speaking inside a big hall full of hundreds of Tibetan monks in their orange robes, but there was a special place just in the doorway where foreigners could sit and have a really good view. We managed to sit there for about 20 minutes before someone else came, but it was so cool, we were literally less than 100 metres away from him! He was speaking in Tibetan, but he was really funny to listen to because he kept doing this little chuckle! Later we found the translation on the radio and listened to it while the monks brought us cups of chai. Whilst we were in McLeod Ganj, we went to a centre for helping Tibetan refugees and helped out with an English conversation class for an hour, it was really interesting.

We had one more long (10 hour) bus journey to Manali, our next stop in the Himalayas. Manali is known for having lots of places to do adventure sports, so we spent one day doing white water rafting, which was really fun! The rest of our stay in Manali didn't go to plan, as something awful happened, but this would've been a lot harder if we hadn't had all the support we received from Project Trust and home, so thank you for that.

We didn't manage to follow our remaining itinerary, but we get to the Taj Mahal in Agra, which we were all glad about. We went very early in the morning, while it was still pretty cool and there weren't very many people around. It is just as stunning as in all the pictures and the way it is so perfectly symmetrical is astounding. We also managed to meet up with some other Project Trust volunteers while we were there, which was really nice.

We had a short stay in Mumbai, where we saw the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

From Mumbai we got a sleeper bus to Goa, for a bit of rest and relaxation. We stayed a few days in Arambol, where we spent a lot of time on the beach and one day we hired bikes and drove around the surrounding area. We then moved on to Palolem; we stayed right on the beach and spent ages swimming in the really warm sea, it was a really nice way to end the holiday.

Travelling- part 1

During our long summer holiday, we travelled around India with some other Project Trust volunteers.

Izzy and I started off in Pondicherry and Mahabs in Tamil Nadu. Pondicherry was occupied by the French and so it has an area that looks exactly like a French town. We hired bikes and cycled round the beautifully clean streets and spent a lot of time sitting in cafes, eating crepes, baguettes and amazing cakes. Mahabs gave us the chance to do some shopping and go on the beach. We ended up running into the sea fully clothed, which was fun!

We met Sarah and Niamh in Calcutta, intending to get a train to Gaya. Unfortunately our train had been cancelled which was slightly stressful, but we managed to find 4 free beds on another train, so we managed to get to Gaya in the end. We got an auto to Bodhgaya, where we stayed for 3 days, unfortunately Niamh got food poisoning during this time. Bodhgaya is an important place for Buddhists, as it is the place where Buddha gained enlightenment. It has a temple containing a special tree, which Buddha meditated under, we also tried some meditation but we weren't much good.

Next we moved to Varanasi, which is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities and a spiritual place as the Ganges runs through it. Many Hindus travel there to clease themselves of their sins and cremate their loved ones. We went on a boat ride down the river at sunrise one morning and it was really interesting to see all of the activity going on; washing clothes, bathing, washing cows, children playing and even bodies being burnt at the special burning ghats. We also went on a boat at sunset, where we saw the Ganga ceremony and could light a candle and float it on the water. Varanasi was a really cool place with lots of little winding streets leading down to the ghats (steps
down to the river), where there was always so many things going on. Varanasi has a famous lassi shop called the Blue Lassi, which we visted and had some of the most amazing lassis ever!

We then got a night train to Khajuraho, which has some very famous temples with very intricate, detailed and sometimes erotic carvings.

After Khajuraho, we moved on to Udaipur, which was definitely one of everyone's favourite places. It's a really pretty town with a big lake, a palace and lots of really nice little shops. A speciality of the area is creating miniature paintings, so we decided to do a miniature painting class, which was really fun and quite relaxing, especially as the teacher did most of mine, as I'm not the most artistic of the group! We also went for a boat ride on the lake, visited the palace, swam in a roof-top pool and climbed up a very steep hill to see a really beautiful sunset.

Jodhpur was our next stop, and we spent a lot of time in tea and spice shops, testing all of the different flavours. We then went up to the fort, which is very impressive and has great views of the city. It is known as the blue city, and from the fort you can see all of the blue painted buildings.

 We then moved on to Jaisalmer, which is in the desert and has an amazing fort that looks like lots of sandcastles. The inside of the fort is also really cool; there's lots of little streets, shops and houses, all made of the same sandstone.

In Bikaner we met Tabs and Ruth and organised a camel trek in the desert. It was slightly scary at first, as the camels kneel down to let you on and then stand up very quickly! However, once we'd got used to the contant rocking motion, we really enjoyed it, and grew very attached to our camels! We trekked all day and then slept overnight in the desert under the stars, it was awesome! The rest of our stay in Bikaner was a bit odd, as we had a few days there, but there is not really anything to do! We visited a camel research centre one day and tried camel milk ice-cream and tea and the next day we went to a rat temple, which was really disgusting. For some reason Tabs and Niamh really enjoyed it, but for me, the idea of a building full of dirty rodents running around is vile, so that probably wasn't the highlight of the trip for me! The reason that the rat temple exists is because Hindus believe that they are ancestors of Lakhan, who was reincarnated as a rat instead of dying.

Our next stop was Jaipur, where we all unfortunately got food poisoning and spent most of the visit in the bathroom! We managed a trip to the Amber Fort, which was really nice, but we had so many requests for photos and we got a bit annoyed. In the end we told people that photos would be 20 rupees each to try and discourage them from asking, but instead they started handing money to us and we made 80 rupees!