In many respects I do often feel like we're like living life on the other side. Not just the other side of the world, or another continent, or another culture, but on another planet. Where the time is different, the climate is different, the language, the food, the water, the tea, the coffee, the etiquette, the traditions, the religions, the weddings, the traffic, the roam animals, the smells, the sounds, the supermarkets, the litter, the post offices, the hole in the ground toilets, the tailors, the markets, the faces, the bakers, the fruit stalls, the tuk tuks, the bus stations, the biscuits, the washing, the drying, the sweets, the sweepers. It's odd and opposite. It's not where we belong or where we will ever belong. We are however familiar faces, one of the school community, one of the family, equal to the children, and every other teacher. We can all laugh, we all love, we all learn and we all live. And we will always be equal. We are the same people, we just come from a parallel universe. We belong only temporarily but we are like belongings. Belongings of the school, of our host, to the children and to Ongole. We have been taken and adopted by a culture and country so opposite to our own.
'Miss look, a lizard - a lizard on the blackboard', is a moment and a morning I won't forget. I often find myself looking past the benches, and open plan concrete walls over the roof tops filled with clothes lines and think how am I so fortunate to be here? When we leave we will be leaving the light, colour and beauty of India behind, but also the bad, and the almost forgotten. It's easy to look past the litter and chalk boards, lack of shoes, and clean water, and abundance of tin roof tops, mud, pigs, cows, flys and poverty. I guess what makes India easier is the people. When we leave the comfort of our room we're bombarded with 'Abbie Miss, Jade Miss', 'Goodmornings' and flowers from the children. India leaves no place to hide, it just full on hugs you smack in the face, arms open and yells accept me.
Last Friday was Apple Day. We went down in the afternoon to a sea of red, and apple segments being handed around all over the place. We're not really sure where these days to celebrate come from -though one thing we regognise is that they love to mark every possible occassion. In the evening we were taken to a night market and culture show that had temporarily come to Ongole...Turned out my dancing style when teaching nursery is a lot less elegant than the 'real' way to dance, but well, I guess Dad I take after you... Feet firmly planted on the ground, waving my arms and hips around like there's no tomorrow. At least every kid now knows the 'wiggle'!
Over the weekend, Jade and I invited the girls from the Hostel to come and sit with us, and on Sunday they did just that. It was almost a comfort knowing they have to cope far from their families too, and the girly time spent together was appreciated from both sides. The hostel is just behind our room. It accommodates fourty boys but only three girls, all of whom attend the school. Many of their family's live in the surrounding villages and they're left in Ongole to study at Andhra School throughout the term. We're unsure when they get to meet with their families again but the next festival is Holi so they may get the opportunity, whilst currently school is busy as the exams are approaching fast, scheduled for the end of February.
The rest of the past week has come and gone like a flash of light. On Wednesday we went out with the other three volunteers from Tangutur, a village that lies just outside of Ongole where they are based at their project. Tom, (Desk Officer Tom from Project Trust, visiting from Scotland) took us out for an evening meal. Jade and I got overly excited being able to get ready for something rather than school, and it eased us in comfortably to the next day. Toms visit to our project not only marked our being here for over a month, but also to his suprise, Flower Day (...another day aside from Apple day that just magically pops up on the calendar and is celebrated full steam ahead). We had a brilliant, relaxed day, chatting, giving a tour of some of our classes and being spoilt with tea, grapes, watermelon and attention. The kids were also extremely well behaved, and it was nice to be able to walk Tom around Ongole independently rather than be chauffeured round ourselves.
India has surrounded us within a bubble these past few weeks. We feel so welcomed and accepted, and I love a part of every day. We're always able to make light of the little bad we have, with a bit of 'life is a rollercoaster' and 'you get knocked down but you get back up again' playing in the background. Indias highlighted how much we do appreciate home. The small things and the big.
