Explorations in SE Asia: Eights months and going strong

Teej

This is a Hindu festival celebrated by the women. For me and the other female volunteers, it meant we got to dress up in saris and spend the afternoon eating and dancing with the female staff in Umbrella. There were SO many red/gold/green saris, the music was loud, the dancing was crazy and the food was delicious (except for the buffalo meat, it was really tough). Basically it was a chance for all the women in Umbrella to get dressed up, eat, dance, chat, catch up and laugh at the silly Westerners trying to figure out how to walk in a sari. :)

I learned later that traditionally, on this day, the women fast, and only drink water if their husbands give it to them. They fast so that their husbands will have long healthy lives. Right....

So many beautiful saris

Some of the volunteers and the house Didi, dressed for the party!

Children's Day

Today I had a hamburger and ice cream meal for the first times in AGES! A number of kids from each house had been invited to attended a Childrens' Day celebration at a near-by international school. It was a lesson in humility today. It was the paupers visiting the fancy rich kids. The self-righteous organizers were so pleased with themselves that the children at the school had donated so many bags of clothes, school supplies, games and miscellaneous items. We were constantly thanking them for inviting us to their school, organizing this event and saying how thrilled our kids must be, like going to the zoo or the park. It was exhausting. When I asked my boys later if they'd had a good day they shrugged their shoulders and have a noncommittal, 'Yes sister.'

Some less than pleasant moments of the day:

There were prizes for some of the games we played. The top 7 winners got prizes and the other got 'consolation prizes.' One boy got a pack of new coloured pencils and a pencil case. Inside the pencil case were someones used pencils. Half of them were missing. The boys face fell so fast, it broke your heart to see.

When getting the snack set up

One of the teachers: “How many kids do you have?”

Me: “Um...I'm not sure.” (I'd just been told that morning that I was going to accompany the kids to the school, I'd hardly had time to ask how many was I taking)

Teacher: (incredulously) “You don't know how many kids you've brought!?”

I then did a quick head count and told her '27'

Teacher: “Oh, we were only expecting 25.” Like two more kids it going to make much of a difference.

When the teachers were trying to organize the games and tell the kids where to go, one of them was roughly grabbing the kids arms and pushing/pulling them to where they were supposed to go.

While I was making sure that all of our kids were getting food at lunch, one of the teachers came up to me and said, “Your table has been laid, please call your friend and come and eat.” (Yes ma'am!)

The older kids (and a few of the young ones) at the school were walking around with ipods, ipads, fancy cell phones and fancy clothes. There was even a girl in a princess dress and a tiara. Can you say class discrepancy any louder?

It was an interesting day.