See a Bit of Palampur at the Foothills of the Mountains

These aren't the greatest pictures, sorry. But it gives you an idea.Love, Janelle

And P.S. babe, don't worry, I am taking the bus with other girls at all times. Even though it's safe here. People are way nice, unlike Delhi! I'll for sure get the oregano for your mom! Melissa wants to get spices too, so we are going to look this weekend.

We are leaving for Mc Leod Gang for the weekend tomorrow. We learned last night it is "supposedly" a favorite spot to visit for Richard Gere and Bill Gates. Amet (physical therapist) also told us he treated Hillary Swank for 2 weeks while she was here. So anyway, we are psyched! Don't have a hotel or car booked yet to get there though. Lol. Hopefully it will all come together. Lol.

Love, Janelle

Mahak: The Devil Child

See below... our rowdiest little child. OMG is she a handful.

So just as Melissa was about to take a picture of us coloring, she gets up to run away and get into more mischeif. Here's me going... are you kidding me?!?! Lol. (Oooh and notice our color wall in the background above. My idea ......mmmhmmm... Looks pretty awesome. We did English and teacher did Hindi today. We're proud of it anyway.)

But then.....suddenly when I bring out the Hershey kisses, she's very interested again. Lol.

And here's where she took my camera and started snapping away.
But we have to love her anyway. Lol. Love, Janelle

Oooh The Pink Fan... It's Magical and Multipurpose

So some of you remember this little magical tool from my last trip to India. Lol. I bought this fan at WalMart for a dollar and I swear it was the best dollar I’ve ever spent.

On this trip alone it’s been useful for: me on several occasions – trying to get any type of relief in Delhi, Sarah was feeling queasy (heat sick) on our plane ride to Dharamsala so I grabbed it out of my purse and gave it to her, it’s gotten several of the kids to stop crying at the day care because they are so mystified by it, and the teacher was even intrigued by it, she took it to fan off this little boy’s burnt/scabbed up open wounded foot…. See below... :( (I'm not sure you can tell so much in the picture, but trust me. It is really gross and sad.)Love, Janelle

Our Placement

is right up the stairs here behind me, on top of this small cement building.

And the stairs are horrendous for me to get up every morning. Ugh. I won't miss them!

Pink bag is our bag full of "goodies".

Love, Janelle

So I'm Going to the Office Today - Says the Teacher

Today when we arrived at our placement our teacher tells us that she has to go to the “office” and she won’t be back. (?) Ah…. This was only our third day here. But whatever – lol. So she left with no real instruction (obviously) she doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Hindi. It turned out to be ok. Other than the fact that we had only 3 kids today... because 4 of them came and wouldn’t stop crying. Then they ran away, and their moms tried making them come back and they kept running out of the room and crying. So…….. I was like “omg omg omg omg” headache here. I was seriously wishing they would just leave because I couldn’t deal with all the bawling. Then after several minutes and attempts to run away, the 2 moms took them home!!!!!!!!!!! Yipeee. So we had actually 3 very good calm kids today. It was good.

I’m not sure if the teacher was actually at the office or not, but it’s fine. According to some of the other volunteers a lot of the teachers go shopping while the volunteers are here. Lol. So Melissa and I were wondering if she was shopping with the other 2 teachers who came to meet her. Oh well whatever. I noted that I thought it was interesting, she’d only met us 2 days and then just leaves us alone with all the kids. Can you imagine this happening in the US, right?

Anyway………..we handled it. Well….. kind of. Lol.

Love, Janelle

Hanging With Our Kids

Our bright idea for yesterday and today was to teach the kids the colors. I got them to repeat 2 colors back to me yesterday, yellow and blue (peela and neela). So after school yesterday, I bought this ribbon and thought we should tie a piece of each onto the kids’ wrists to help today. Well, this idea like many of ours, didn’t really pan out too well. But it was fun anyway.

There’s always coloring to fall back on… Or bubbles (yesterday) – until Mahak and her brother used/spilled them all… Or balls. (They LOVE balls)… I went to market and bought them some yesterday and bouncy balls. Wow they were loving today. We were kind of told that we were supposed to bring all supplies back to the house after the day. But… um…. Well… I figured, I bought them, I can give them away if I want to. And we let the 3 kids take home the bouncy balls and one of the big ones too. Was that so wrong?

Here I am with Parveen. (Yes, she's the one I am taking home with me. She is our favorite girl. Melissa is taking her brother home. So we've discussed the fact that we must move right across the street from one another - lol).

And stickers. They loooove stickers. Mahak and her brother decided to cover my whole arm in them. Other things we’ve been doing are chalk on the floor and puzzles. They seem to like all of it. Not sure they are exposed to these types of things at home. The only things the day care has are these 2 wooden flutes and the wooden/colored balls on strings for counting. It’s pretty sad. I wish I’d known this (or used my head and put 2 and 2 together) before I came because I would have brought a ton of stuff over. We were told a lot of the volunteers send packages back to India after they return home. They get friends/family/co-workers etc. to donate items and then send over. I definitely plan to do that, so if you have ANYTHING you think this school/daycare could use – save it for me!!

I will say both yesterday and today after 3 hours of this I was completely exhausted! Yesterday I was so tired I couldn’t even meet the girls for lunch I took a nap instead – lol. Gosh these kids have energy.

Love, Janelle

The Monkey Who Stole Our Lunch

Each day the teacher makes a “lunch” for the kids and us. It is one dish. Two days it’s been a bland yellow rice dish and one day it was a sweet grainy ball in sauce.

Our room is basically a cement box … as you’ve seen in the pictures. The room has two doors and one is located right by the “cooking station”.


Well yesterday we are sitting in the opposite corner of the room… and had just lined the kids up to eat, and given them their food... When a monkey OPENS the door comes in and steals the rest of the lunch!!!

Here he is sitting outside our room.
The teacher usually gives the left overs to the mothers when they come to pick their kids up to take home. Not yesterday! The monkeys here are pretty smart. Lol.

Love, Janelle

Colorful Busses

Uuuggggggggghhh lol Sorry about that sideways shot again. Stupid computers.

Here is Quinn and myself by the lovely busses we have to take to and from town.

Love, Janelle

Market

And here's the lovely items I bought:) The two black m&m looking things are charcoal pills... which did not work btw. The cashew cookies tasted like coconut. Mangoes.....yummy! We're all hooked on them.Love, Janelle

We Find This Humorous

That there's marijuana growing everywhere here.
Love, Janelle

Our House in Palampur

Love, Janelle

Scenic Himachal Pradesh ...

Love, Janelle

"Boom Boom Boom Boom I Want You In My Room"

Tonight Bobby and Amet (his assistant/partner in crime) see below… Took us all for an evening out. At any rate… we first went to this Budhist monastery.

Then out to dinner at a veeeery ritzy hotel.

The food was amazing. All of it. Then to top it off for dessert we had mango soufflé and hot gulab jamuns. The mango soufflé….omg. Yea… it was the best.

We had to take two cars because there were 8 of us total.

So the car ride home!!!!!!!!! LOL. This was a trip! The weather at night time here is gorgeous. So here Melissa, Quinn and I rode with Amet. We were cruising along the windy mountain roads, with Amet who is hilaaarious, listening to his blaring Indian music (which totally rocked) and then came the somewhat out of place, “Boom boom boom boom” song – lol. So great.

Quinn remarked, I think it was just after we nearly got hit head on by a bus, rear ended by the car behind us and we nearly hit the motorcycle in front of us, “These are the moments film can’t capture!”

It was so much fun and just what we needed. When we got to Bobby’s house, I told Amet the ride was awesome. And he asked us, “you weren’t too scared?” I replied for the 3 of us, “We were just the right amount of scared.” Good times in India.

The ride home tonight was good for my soul :) Alive... Aware... Here…

And the stupid things I obsess about back in the US – a zillion miles away.

Love, Janelle

Girl Talk

After a long, long day Melissa and I had another girl talk in my room tonight. Discussing… of course … men. Lol. How they are insane, how we revolve our lives around them and our psychotic behaviors in response to the stupid things they say/do to us. Lol. I swear we are like the same person. She’s like, “I’m crazy.” I’m like “No, I’M crazy!” Lol.

It’s so great. And so nice to have someone that gets me. That is a rare thing. I am a complicated, moody, (we’ve already covered spoiled), I’ll also add impatient to this list…, but, person. I truly think we’re going to be life-long friends. I believe I've found something on this trip that I didn't even expect to, which is amazing.

I was showing her pictures on my laptop and telling her where I’m at with things and couldn't hold back tears. But you know what? I felt like I was sitting talking to my best girlfriends from home. How strange and cool is that? So, tonight was really therapeutic and helpful. I think maybe I can’t get all the answers from myself. I know it’s ok to have help along the way.

I’m thankful for my friends, old and new.

Love, Janelle