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