There's a girl named Pornima that I am giving guitar lessons to two or three days a week. Pornima is 15, with big beautiful green eyes and a very sweet and quiet way about her. She also happens to be in one of my English classes. She really wants to learn guitar, and I mean REALLY. She shows up every time without fail and gives it her all... God bless her, she's horrible at it. I have been trying everything, but have come to the conclusion that her dexterity and grip are very weak. She puts her fingers where they should go with a bit of a struggle, but they won't stay there. She squeezes and squeezes at the strings but its not hard enough to get a clear tone. I have given her a balloon filled with sand to squeeze throughout the day to try to buff up her left hand. Hoping that will help. Poor Pornima.(Her name is easy for me to remember because it has the word porn in it. Not too many American names have that, for good reason.)
I am feeling very proud of myself today. I went to the dentist and got two fillings! If any of you are thinking that I am brave to go to a dentist here, think again. I had a reference from a friend and it was very swanky and clean. It cost about $40 total. Take that US dentists! IN MY FACE! The only differences were: I had to take my shoes off before I could go into the dental room, I had a shiny bindi (the dot that Hindus' wear between their eyes) to stare at while the doctor worked on my teeth, and there was the occasional Marathi word spoken to the assistant. The dentist gets a gold star from me, unlike the post office.
I went to the big Pune post office this week also, to mail a package to my mom and dad. I will be giving away some of the surprise by talking about it, but there's still the surprise of what's in the box. First off, you have to have your package and some light weight fabric, because you have to cover and stitch up the whole package, leaving the top open, before you even get to the Post Office. Once you are there you wait till someone can go through your box to see that you aren't smuggling something forbidden back to the states. (They didn't look very hard. I COULD have smuggled something after all, sorry mom.) Then you stitch the package closed in front of them and go off to join one of the monstrous lines out front. Bernie and I joined 2 different lines. After a half an hour, her line hadn't moved. After 45 minutes with only 4 people in front of me, my line closed for lunch. So I joined Bernie. People cut in left and right and as it approached 2 o'clock (when that line would close for lunch) we just barely got our packages sent before they closed down. I wouldn't say it was very efficient, but it bought us the time needed to befriend a nice girl from Canada, Meeka. She has only been here two weeks and we invited her to lunch to celebrate the success of mailing our packages. I am now racing my package home: there was no time to ask for a speedier delivery time than standard air mail. Go package go!
I got some alone time in Pune to walk around as I'd like. This also meant I got to try to figure out how to get back to the office by myself, which was surprisingly easy. I took my first rickshaw ALONE, so spacious! And I managed to pronounce "Wadgaon Cherry" well enough (even with a numb face) to get a six seater there. The walk back through what I have named Garbage Alley was also nice: I met a nice cow there that not only posed for a picture, but came over and sniffed at me. First cow that has given me the time of day. The others are too busy cowing around.
Stephon and Tobi continue to be great company. They are brand new to India, so it's fun to watch THEM experience all the things I did. There were no other volunteers to show me the ropes when I first arrived. Or share experiences with. It's nice to teach my classes with Tobi to bounce ideas off of. He's got a big toothy grin and reminds me a bit of a German version of my brother. Stephon has a thick French accent that I like to listen to. It turns out he also is very good at Capoeira. We began playing and the children became interested, so he's teaching classes. The other morning he had a class at 5:30 am, but no one showed but me. We played anyway, even when the lights went out at 6:00. It was almost completely dark but I could still make out his grin and at least some of the kicks. Doing cart wheels as the sun came up: I don't think I will forget that morning for a long time. Here's to life!
I am feeling very proud of myself today. I went to the dentist and got two fillings! If any of you are thinking that I am brave to go to a dentist here, think again. I had a reference from a friend and it was very swanky and clean. It cost about $40 total. Take that US dentists! IN MY FACE! The only differences were: I had to take my shoes off before I could go into the dental room, I had a shiny bindi (the dot that Hindus' wear between their eyes) to stare at while the doctor worked on my teeth, and there was the occasional Marathi word spoken to the assistant. The dentist gets a gold star from me, unlike the post office.
I went to the big Pune post office this week also, to mail a package to my mom and dad. I will be giving away some of the surprise by talking about it, but there's still the surprise of what's in the box. First off, you have to have your package and some light weight fabric, because you have to cover and stitch up the whole package, leaving the top open, before you even get to the Post Office. Once you are there you wait till someone can go through your box to see that you aren't smuggling something forbidden back to the states. (They didn't look very hard. I COULD have smuggled something after all, sorry mom.) Then you stitch the package closed in front of them and go off to join one of the monstrous lines out front. Bernie and I joined 2 different lines. After a half an hour, her line hadn't moved. After 45 minutes with only 4 people in front of me, my line closed for lunch. So I joined Bernie. People cut in left and right and as it approached 2 o'clock (when that line would close for lunch) we just barely got our packages sent before they closed down. I wouldn't say it was very efficient, but it bought us the time needed to befriend a nice girl from Canada, Meeka. She has only been here two weeks and we invited her to lunch to celebrate the success of mailing our packages. I am now racing my package home: there was no time to ask for a speedier delivery time than standard air mail. Go package go!
I got some alone time in Pune to walk around as I'd like. This also meant I got to try to figure out how to get back to the office by myself, which was surprisingly easy. I took my first rickshaw ALONE, so spacious! And I managed to pronounce "Wadgaon Cherry" well enough (even with a numb face) to get a six seater there. The walk back through what I have named Garbage Alley was also nice: I met a nice cow there that not only posed for a picture, but came over and sniffed at me. First cow that has given me the time of day. The others are too busy cowing around.
Stephon and Tobi continue to be great company. They are brand new to India, so it's fun to watch THEM experience all the things I did. There were no other volunteers to show me the ropes when I first arrived. Or share experiences with. It's nice to teach my classes with Tobi to bounce ideas off of. He's got a big toothy grin and reminds me a bit of a German version of my brother. Stephon has a thick French accent that I like to listen to. It turns out he also is very good at Capoeira. We began playing and the children became interested, so he's teaching classes. The other morning he had a class at 5:30 am, but no one showed but me. We played anyway, even when the lights went out at 6:00. It was almost completely dark but I could still make out his grin and at least some of the kicks. Doing cart wheels as the sun came up: I don't think I will forget that morning for a long time. Here's to life!
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