Julie's Volunteering Adventures in India 6 months earlier!! I'm off on Thursday for an attack on the senses and a shock to the system, Can't wait yo!!

Happy New Year!

I made it home safe and sound after an amazing time in India! it took5 planes to get home from from the Andamans (plus a ferry the nightbefore from Havelock) and about 34 hours of travel. gah.India packs a sweet punch full of everything. I will give you a quick run down.

I arrived (Dec 17) and was happy to be with some fellow volunteers that I met as we checked in for the flight to Delhi. I split a car with some of the other volunteers (whom I only met on arrival) and we took about 4 days and went to Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri, and the TajMahal then back to Delhi to pay respects to Gandhi.Then it was off to the school by train to the other side of the country, West Bengal.The train provided more adventure and danger than I had anticipated.How can i keep this short...?

We were given the wrong tickets by our contact. After about 26 hours we got off the train in northern Bihar, India's most lawless state, in the middle of nowhere. We were all clueless. We called our contact and she was quite worried about us. We only found out later how crazy that place was. A new friend, Stephen, told me it is an urban legend that if you go there and you are a young man you will get kidnapped and forced to marry girls from poor families. Not to mention the police asking what the heck we were doing and the swarms of staring people.Unsure of what train to take, we hesistated a moment too long, we jumped on a moving train with all our stuff and ended up on an all male car.Then men behaved poorly. It was terrible. Then we got to a slightly less intense station. Switched to our new train-car, exhausted and scared of more swarms and scary men. The next train redeemed India's rail with some helpful people and a great ticket master who gave us some good seats and told us he would wake us up for our correct stop. He never came. Thankfully, Carys was awake because her window would not close and she was cold. She was looking out the window and saw asign. It was our station. We were hours early from what we had beentold. The train only stops for 2 minutes at small stations."WAKE UP WE ARE HERE!"Our bags were chained up and we are fast asleep after all the excitement and now over 35 hours of travel. We all jump to action. All the while I think there is no way I can get off in time. My stuff is chained, I can't get it undone. The horn goes. I run to the door. The platform is whizzing by in a blur. Some of the other volunteers are off already. Some are still on. Some men are running and calling to me to jump. I think, "OK. Here I go" take a look at the blurry pavement and plop. I land and crash. Scratched but safe. Yelling and running,"Where is everyone? Are you OK." Now the train stops. A volunteer gets off. The train horn blows. But not everyone is off. The train starts.It was moving. More jumpers. The police and conductor are not happy about the jumping foreigners. Finally the last jumpers are away but they land in human poo.

Now, every time I hear a train horn my heartraces. It is 3 or 4 am. We sleep in a classroom and are welcomed the next day and have an amazing week at school in Berhampore. The one toilet and one tap for the 12 of us in some man's house near the school was a bit trying at times.The other Volunteers were wonderful and I was happy to meet all of them, very cool people.It was sad to leave the school and the kids (Who were also very smart and wonderful). I passed on the money fund raised. The land the school wanted to buy was bought before enough money was raised so I passed onthe funds to help complete a new office so the existing principaloffice can be used for a classroom. This opens up more space for the school and the new office is near the gate so the principal can watch the students and teachers come and go (the teachers need to be more punctual).Christmas at the school/orphange was great. We had parties for the kids, Santa was there and I got a pen this year.

We all left for Kolkata and some of use decided to spend New Year'stogether. It was a great idea to stay indoors as the street was a malefiesta of more men behaving poorly. I left on Jan 2 to Port Blair on the Andamans. I stayed on HavelockIsland for about 10 days. It has the most beautiful beach I have ever seen and I met some amazing people. 3 men from India and a newlywed couple from Scotland/London. We all took our open Water PADI/SSItogether. SCUBA diving and it was mind blowing and ear blowing (fullrecovery expected). Stephen, Balu, Sumanth, John and Linzy were the icing on the beach and the vacation. The #7 Beach on Havelock islandis the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.Then I began my journey home after more group photos with strangepeople on the ferry and the people of India and fellow travellers always helping me out in the most amazing ways.My Japanese bath felt great and Beep won't leave me alone. As I go through my pictures I will keep posting my faves on my flickrpage. Please enjoying! http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatemae/
Julie XO

The Party Report brought to you by Maeve Daly

First a GIANT THANKS to you all for your support for the ST. Patrick's Day gig here in Sapporo. Parcels were flowing in from Ireland on the run up to the party, in fact being at home and in my appartment to receive all the generous packages when the postman came a knocking was one of my biggest issues the week before March 17th. Thanks so much!! Angela and you gals, a big thank you for the tack, our venue was tacked to the nines because of you guys, great decorations and lots of fun stuff that went into our lucky dip. Alot of the stuff that came from Carrolls really made the atmosphere, people were thrilled to dip and come out with a crazy Irish flag afro for their donation. I intended to use the leprechaun hats as prizes for our Irish brogue contest but they were used to make our faux male Irish dancers instead. Brilliant. There was one Irish laddie who was gutted to see the hats coming out on stage because poor Portmarnack Tom had been on a recent trip back to Ireland and picked himself up a super cool leppie hat thinking that he'd be the best dressed there but was shocked to see we had also been milking our Irish contacts for the goods in the meantime. I also had tin whistles and feather bowas, Irish garters and shamrock tattoos (Mother!!) arrive from a certain lady of the castle there in Athlumney Navan. And Aunty B, (Josen tell her i said a big thanks ) sent me some fun green spangly stuff too. Great to get it all, people absolutely went mad for the stuff. On top of all this we had sponsorship from Baileys, Guinness, Suntory (Japanese co. that does Whiskey etc), and Jameson. I also had Kilkenny caps from another Irish bar in Sapporo and a case of wine sponsored by our local Aussie bar. We had enough stuff from the Embassy, Bord Bia and Tourism Ireland to make up gift bags and give them out at the door too. The amount of free stuff we ended up swinging was incredible and we came out with tonnes of leftovers, simply because our time ran out.

We had a 2 hour pre-party at the new Irish bar, followed by a 2 hour all-you-can-drink deal at our club venue where there was space to break out our Irish dancers(10 of the gals I trained up in 2 dances) and start the giant ceili which ended up being renditions of Strip the Willow (scottish dance ahem soz). People went mad for that. We had an hour in between drink specials ending at the Irish bar to give people time to guzzle down and get to the all-you-can-drink dance venue. That worked really well. also the first venue was alot more respectable and civilised ( as a venue to host our teachers, my English club who are all over 70 years old, and our school principals etc) then the club (more for the drunken youngie crowd!!) so we got two different crowds aswell as an overlap of crowds for both venues. all in all just over 130 people turned out. Bar Managers were delighted to say the least with Yen signs flashing in their eyes especially as it was such good promotion for the new Irish bar.

Our musicians were made up of my NZ farrier friend Rob on the guitar, my J.friend Kazushi on the fiddle(bluegrass more than IRish but hey who even noticed!) and Alex ( a JET I met last year in Tokyo who flew herself up especially for the weekend from where she lives in Nagoya in the south west of Japan) and she was absolutly amazing on the whistle and flute. Then we had a JET band (6 JETs who all live in Hokkaido -Paddys nite was their first gig) play for the Grand Finale, they wrapped things up with 'With or Without you' , the ultimate crowd pleaser. I thought they would be the feature act of the night and although they were really good, it was the Irish dancers who stole the show which was just friggin halarious for me! I'm telling ya and not a lesson in me life!!!!A

Amongst all the fun, we had the 'holy coin' collection ( he was a saint after all) which consisted of building a model house in the bar with people's 5 and 50 yen coins, as these are the 2 J. coins that are like polos with a hole in the middle and we could thread them onto wire to build a model house. We sent mass style baskets around the bar to collect the holy coins!! So that got people donating considering we were raising money for a house building project. We also had a 50/50 draw and we made 400USD out of that as the guy who won it donated his half back to charity. again Brilliant! and 2 days before the party i decided to do up some raffle tkts on excel and sell dollar tickets for the raffle all night. I only did that when I saw how much free stuff we had and turned the freebies into a raffle feature as opposed to spot prizes. People were winning bottles of Jammie left right and centre and were cheering away. People also got their own Irish name at the door of the club venue and had to use it to find their partner for the IRish dancing. That kept me entertained at my desk in school for an afternoon for sure. We had a " Navan Mc Shopping Centre" and a " Kells Mc Shopping Centre" in there who had to find each other not to mention the " Paddy O Furniture" who had to find Mary of the same name. It was the best part of the preparations for me, he he he, chuckling away at my desk, writing out 160 stickers of Irish names!!



Our special guests for the night were MR. Alan Browne and Edward Kelly , both on their way around the world and yet still made time in their busy schedule to stop into us in Sapporo for St. PAtrick's Day event! My friend Kimberley (Miss Louisiana) took a particular shine to Ed!! We also got out snowboarding on Monday which was a blast to see Browner ripping it up on a set of skies! Funny that we ended up getting home from snowboarding at 4am Monday nite though isn't it!!! was great to have the lads even if I was running around like a headless chicken on the nite itself but at least we had until Tuesday to catch up. Then Al and Ed headed back to Tokyo to make the move onto Melbourne shortly after that.

We ended up raising 1,500USD for the Association of Relief Volunteers from St. Patrick's night. This is the association that I'm going to India with to build houses and I'm going in just 3 weeks!! I can't bel the time is running in so fast. I am going with 10 other volunteers from all over Japan and we are a good mix of nationalities but there's one other Irish guy coming too from somewhere in the south of Japan. Sure who knows I'll prob know him or his sister or something once I meet him!

Anyway, best sign off as I'm sure many of you have stopped reading by now, I ended up babbling on alot here but only because it was the highlight of my JET year here!!

Hope you all broke lent and had a fab Patrick's Day too, was thinking of you all !!Thanks again for all the support,

Love 'n sporadic icier March snow,
Maeve

Sapporo has never been so GREEN!!
You came from near and far, you wore GREEN, you danced, you drank and above all you donated.

We want to say a HUGE Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with us in Sapporo!As a result of all your generosity and support, the grand total raised for a small village in South East India was ...(drum roll)...

15,0400yen

100% of this total goes to building homes for widows in Kaikalur.At an estimated cost of 50,000yen per house for wood, bricks and materials, St. Patrick's Day raised enough for our team to build 3 houses this Golden Week.

Go raibh mile maith agaibh.(Thank you all very much)Ta siul againn gur bhain sibh taitneamh as an oiche. (We hope you enjoyed the session!)Here's to many more!

Many thanks from your 125% Irish lassies,Maeve "100% Irish" Daly and Carrie "25% Irish" Bradish.

Getting to know each other- 11 volunteers introduce themselves to each other

Minna-san, Top of the morning to you!

I'm Maeve and I'm part of the Irish crew joining you all on Naoh's Ark as we set sail to Andhra Pradesh. I'm getting really excited about the trip and still don't really know what to expect. I've never been to India but have heard lots about it from other travellers and so I'm definitely preparing myself for a shock of some sorts.It's my first time for volunteer work of this kind and I feel as ready as I'll ever be to take it on!

This is my second year on JET and I've decided to make it my last, a tough choice that had to be made in January. I love Sapporo, meeting so many new friends of all nationalities, my job (most days), battling with Kanji and have especially enjoyed the great outdoors here. I am definitely at my happiest when I am outside hiking, biking, camping, snowbaording, swimming and more recently running.

I hail from mighty Meath, the next county north of Dublin . Naaaaaavan is my hometown (that's for your benefit David!), the town of crackpots. It's the type of place where you need a good sense of humour to survive so lots of Irish comedians come from Navan, Tommy Tiernan, Thomas Carolan, Hector to name a few. Pierce Brosnan is probably our most respectable claim to fame, born and bred in Navan too! I'm an aunty to two gorgeous little boys who live in London with my sister and as I am the youngest of 5, I am busy keeping up with my family half the time especially since we all love to travel.

I've always been a keen traveller and have clocking up the mileage on JET too. I've been lucky enough to visit China twice, once with my 2 friends and a backpack, and the second time as a Gaelic footballer in Shanghai (classic!). I spent my first Christmas on JET in Malaysia and had Indian for my alternative Christmas dinner there, a far cry from Mammy's stuffing and turkey but sooo delicious all the same! Before JET, I spent two summers working in the States, NY and San Fran, waitressing away and loving it. Some of my best memories of my second summer are from camping trips to Yosemite NPark. I sold my scooter at the end of 2nd year college and took off to
\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>Right now, myself and Carrie are all about the fundraising with our big night on Saturday night. We will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in style here in Sapporo and our appartments are stacked to the rafters with boxes of freebies and treats for the night so hope those of you in the Sapporo area and beyond can make it for a night packed with live entertainment and some of the best Irish dancers I've ever seen!\n\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>Look foward to meeting you all bery bery soon! Maeve \u003cbr\>\u003cbr\> \u003c/div\>",1]
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S.E Aisa for 3 months of backpacking. Back home I love to horseride and have been horsing around for years and so other trips have been short jaunts in Europe with the riding team at college, mainly to cheer on riders alot better than me. I lived in Vienna for 2 months at one point too and so like to pretend I still speak some German! I love langauges but studied science in college, specialising in psychology in my fourth year. I will be striving to get onto a masters in educational pyschology forever but will keep teaching away till I do!

Right now, myself and Carrie are all about the fundraising with our big night on Saturday night. We will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in style here in Sapporo and our appartments are stacked to the rafters with boxes of freebies and treats for the night so hope those of you in the Sapporo area and beyond can make it for a night packed with live entertainment and some of the best Irish dancers I've ever seen!

Look foward to meeting you all bery bery soon! Maeve

Enticing the Irish - Hokkaido いがい!!

Did you miss Sapporo's 58th International Snow Festival this February?
Are you still searching for an opportunity to experience Hokkaido'spowder this winter?
Have you still not made the trip North this year?
Don't put it off any longer!

We have the perfect excuse to whisk you toHokkaido this Saint Patrick's Day.You can spend March 17th exploring the biggest entertainment district　north of Tokyo.

Who: You and all your friends!
What: A Party for St. Patrick including, traditional music and dance,nomihodai, games, draws and spot prizes.
When: St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17th, 2007.
Where: Susukino, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
How: Contact me for help with accommodation and how to get here.

And Most Importantly...
Why: To raise funds!!!

This year, a group of 12 JET volunteers will travel to Andhra Pradesh inS.E India. Here we will work with the "Association of Relief Volunteers"(ARV) which is a non-profit social service organization. Our work willbe carried out in rural communities belonging to the lowest caste ofIndia. The work project will include repairing and building wells,planting trees, laying foundations for a school, teaching English,cooking and serving community meals and playing with children. The fundsthat we raise will go directly to ARV to help towards buying materialsand resources we need for the work projects. For more information on theassociation or how to get involved contact me or check out the ARVwebsite at…<http://www.golongitude.org/projects/india/index.html>

And so what ya waiting for?
Rekindle that Irish accent, tune up the fiddle, don the GREEN costumeand dust off those dancing shoes! Come join us in Sapporo, experience　Hokkaido hospitality and help us as we seek to raise funds for thisworthy cause!The choice is easy this Saint Patrick's Day…

Party in SapporoCelebrate IrelandHelp villages in India.

Watch this space, More details to follow!Maeve"100% Irish" DalyContact me at maeveisinjapan@gmail.com for any help with your trip to Sapporo this St. Patrick's weekend

The post that got the ball rolling!

Hello, listserv! We would like to invite anybody interested to participate in an amazing volunteer project in Andhra Pradesh, India during Golden Week. We are planning to work with the same organization that we did last year which is ARV, Association for Relief Volunteers.We will be working in villages belonging to the lowest caste of India, most of whose members are landless. Last year the project included reparations to and creation of the wells, planting of trees (for villagers to sell leaves as medicine), construction of a school, teaching English, playing with the children…however the biggest gift given to the villagers was obviously LOVE. Really, I am certain that is what the villagers remember most, is how they were accepted and treated by the volunteers.Tentative plan and costs:April 26 Depart Sapporo in evening, fly to Tokyo, sleep at NaritaApril 27 fly Tokyo-Taipei-Delhi, leaving early in the morningApril 28 fly to Hyderabad in the morning, then bus to villageApril 29 – May 5 work in villagesMay 7 arrive Sapporo in the eveningFlights: 121000 yenVisa: Americans 11250 yenOther 8500 yenARV fee: 40000 yen(includes hotel and all food, daily transport, food for several community meals prepared by volunteers, all materials necessary for projects in the village, and gifts-new saris for women, school supplies for children etc.Here is the building communities blogspot which provides more information about the project. http://building-communities.blogspot.com/Please contact us if you have any questions and are interested in volunteering!Tim McInerny & Theresa Hill

Attracting Attention

Are you Irish?
Even just 1/32? Do you want to be truly Irish for a night?
Well here's your chance! Come party for charity!
March 17th is St. Patrick'sDay and we are having a real Irish SESSION at Club Booty (S7 W4)! There willbe traditional live music, an Irish Brogue contest, a 50/50 draw, tones ofgames and prizes! We will even give you your own REAL Irish name for thenight!

2 hour nomihodai for 2500yen, doors open at 8.45pm! DRESS CODE is green!(underwear counts, but only if you're willing to show it off…)
All money raised will go directly to ARV (Association for Relief Volunteers)to fund our Golden Week volunteer trip to India. We will be building homesfor widows in Kaikalur, a small village near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Thewidows have been abandoned by their families and communities, and are livingin extreme poverty. These women and their children are frequently forcedor sold into prostitution due to their lack of income. By building houses,we will be able to provide them with shelter and protection, and will beable to raise awareness and compassion amongst the villagers.

If you would like more information, or are interested in donating, pleasevisit www.golongitude.org/news or contact us at misscarrieb@gmail.com ormaeveisinjapan@gmail.comRemember, Charity begins at parties!Can't wait to see you there!Carrie "25% Irish" Bradish and Maeve "100% Irish" Daly

Planting the Seed

Paddy-san: Hey baby- got any Irish in you?
Becky-san: No...
Paddy-san:Do you want some?

Perfect that Irish accent, tune up the fiddle, don the GREEN costume anddust off those dancing shoes! Join us and BE IRISH for a night at Booty!Who: You and all your friends! What: 2 hour nomihodai for St. Patrick'sDay When: St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17th, 2007. 8 tilllate!Where: Booty Bar, S7 W4, Sapporo! How: Live music, dancing,drinking and games!Why: To raise funds for resources and materials for the Golden Weekwork project in India with the Association of Relief Volunteers (ARV).Dress: GREEN!
Watch this space, more details to follow!
xo Maeve"100% Irish" Daly and Carrie "25% Irish" Bradish http://www.golongitude.org/projects/india/index.html<http://www.golongitude.org/projects/india/index.html>

Early days at Miyanooaka Chuu...
Things are picking up at this school abit, today seems to be the best day so far and I think I may win this crowd over but it'll take time. I forget how much time it took at my last school 'cos I was there for so long. So quick funny story, ate lunch with the kids and wandered the corridors horsing around with them, tray in hand, after. I heard a muffled announcement over the intercom at one point during one of my "What sports do you like" conversations but kinda ignored it and continued only to be approached by a panic-striken looking head teacher a few minutes later. He ran towards me , grabbed me and whipped me away to the gym where the photographer stood poised with a full team of staff looking on, in position and very very ready for this year's picture. The only empty space was my chair! How utterly はすかしい!! The only thing I could do was appear panic-striken in return and scurry towards them, bend low to bow and yell SUMIMASEN a number of times before they burst out laughing and the head teacher took a deep sigh of relief! In a funny way, it seems to have broken down barriers!! I got a smack on the back from the social studies teacher afterwards!!

Onwards and upwards for more excitement. Things are looking up.

Irish stew
Marinade meat (beef, Lamb) in oil, rosemary and bals vinegar the night before

Brown onion until opaque
Brown meat
Steam veg in a hot pan , carrots etc..
roll meat in seasoned flour
pile it all together and slow cook
Add stock after this about one hour cooking time left
Add potatoes
coming to hot, add Guinness , about half a can,
Add peppers half hour before end.

Serve with Mash, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

English as an international language
Once you speak English you can communicate with people all over the world. List all the coutries that speak English. It can be used as a tool for building international friendships and what's the higher purpose of this, don't I have enough friends?? We think of our enemies, in the case of Japan, we think of North Korea but we don't need to think of everyone in North Korea with contempt. If we can communicate with people there, we can see they are human too and we can become friends. English is not only spoken in America, a common misconception in Japan but English in used in a wide variety of countries, English is even widely used in non-English speaking countries, like Germany or China or Russia. If we can break down barriers between countries, we build relationships and we take a step towards peace in the world.

Learning a language is a gradual progression, you don't learn to speak overnight. It takes practice and patience and tolerance of a certain degree of frustration. We start off on picking up a feeling for the language, then we can pick up on key words or important points, progressing to a gist understanding. How do we learn our native tongue? We learn it gradually and even at that it develops into lifelong learning. During our first three years of life, we pick it up from mimicing those around us. Psychology experiments have shown that language is acquired socially. For example, a girl who was reared in the wilderness by a pack of dogs had not acquired language or social skills. We learn language and social norms from those around us. Language is a frame of mind where we must not understand every word but catch messages. Learning the frame of mind behind the language is an important part of cultural understanding. A child of 3 years does not learn the right way to say something through being corrected, criticized and scolded for a mistake. Rather, a child learns through mimicking the correct way. A good pedagogue does not correct every mistake but rather models the right way of saying something. To learn a language, we must make mistakes, learn from our mistakes, and practice the right way again. It is, therefore, better to speak and make mistakes, than never to speak at all.

What is the closest subject to English?
It's P.E. How do we acquire sporting skills? How do we become better at the high jump? We often know how to do the high jump in our heads, the certain steps that are required before take off and how to land but when we try to do it, there are times when it goes all wrong. How do we improve on it? Not by sitting there and learning the theory but through practicing the high jump again and again and honing our technique. The same can be said for any set of skills in sports. We learn through direct application of techniques, and we gradually improve. A language is learned in the same way. We must practice the grammar we learn, make mistakes, be shown the right way, and practice again. This should be an enjoyable process.
それでこれからことばのべんきょうとがんばりましょう！