Pintu's Story

Every night one of the children have to tell a story that they made up. Last night was Pintu's turn:

Once there was a boy and he was very hungry. All he wanted was some water, so he built a table because when you have a table, there should be food on it. So he built a table and he took it to a well. He broke the table into seven pieces and threw it into the well. When all seven pieces were submerged in the water, seven fairies came out. The seven fairies granted all his wishes and the boy was no longer hungry.

Isn't that a beautiful story? I thought it was a very good story for a little ten year old to make up. Dr. Devy had to translate for me because I didn't understand the language Pintu was speaking, and I'm sure his story was even more beautiful in his own words. When I was a kid, my stories were about princesses and princes. Pintu's story was about hunger. It's so sad that they have to know what hunger is.

Tejgadh

The past two days I went to the village! I love the village. I really am a country girl. We took the two hour bus ride and it was another crowded ride. But it was all worth it! When we got there the kids were in their brand new uniforms and looking very smart. The girls all had their hair in pigtail braids. I'm trying to learn all 43 of their names but it's so hard! There are so many of them and they keep moving around and changing their clothes. But I'm determined. It's the least I can do since I can't really talk to them. But really, these kids are the most beautiful children that I have ever met. I know I say that about all the kids I meet, but I really mean it with these kids. They're all Adivasi children and have never had any schooling at all and they come from very poor families. They're all so happy and friendly. I love talking to them, or at least trying to talk to them. They don't really speak Hindi, mostly Gujarati or their own dialect, Rathwi.

At night, before they go to bed they sit in rows and sing songs. Because Dr. Devy was visiting, he told them a story of how the Earth was created. They really like that story. We also tried teaching them "Twinkle twinkle little star..." They were so cute trying to repeat after me. And when they were all getting ready for bed you could hear the random "tvinkul, tvinkul..." being sung. They're very smart and catch on very quickly. I sometimes forget where they come from. It's pretty cold at night here because it's winter and most of the kids don't have a sweater. Their families can't provide them, so Dr. Devy is asking a private school in Baroda if they could donate some of their old sweaters for our students. Hopefully most of them will get them on Monday.

Yesterday we two of the teachers from the school took us up on the hill by the village to look at some rock paintings. We had to climb under this huge boulder and underneath was a little cave and on the wall were these ancient paintings. They told us that they were 10,000 years old. Pretty crazy. The view from only half way up the hill was so beautiful. Again, I tried out my Hindi and they understood most of what I said! Unfortunately, my Hindi skills could only go so far and after awhile, I didn't understand what he was saying. But still, it was nice to be able to sort of communicate. I'm going to try and work on my Hindi really hard.

I'm smart!

Monday was another day off for the kite festival, so we went to the UNESCO Heritage Site called Champaner. It's like 45 km away from Baroda. It was a very relaxing day just walking around. There was no pollution and no noise. Just these random, amazing stone mosques standing in the middle of fields of corn.

On the way home, we stopped at the bus station to eat some pav bhaji. It's a gujarati dish where they mash up all these veggies and serve them with oily buns. I love it. While we were waiting for our food I started talking to a family in Hindi! I was actually able to successfully communicate with my Hindi! They said I was smart! Anyways, near the end of our pav bhaji the family was like "Bus! Bus!" and started running. So we had to throw money at the pav bhaji wala and run for the bus. It was very crowded, but we eventually found seats. The family was so cute and kept chatting with me in Hindi. They eventually invited us to their house for dinner. The family was so sweet and when we didn't finish our halwa (another extremely sweet Indian dessert made of carrot) the five year old boy spoon fed us. It really was a lot of halwa and I think I have diabetes now. The family was so nice and invited us to lunch on Sunday. They just randomly met us at a bus stop and then invited us to their house for dinner. They kept saying that they were so happy that we were there. Such kindness.

The Kite Festival!

Last weekend was the Kite Festival in Gujarat! There isn't much to explain. You basically get together, eat food and fly kites. Everyone buys like 150 tissue paper kites and go on their rooftops to fly them. Apparently, it's a huge industry in Gujarat. Becca and I bought some kites and tried to fly them on our own. We were "rubbish" at it. It's really hard! It's not like we have a huge field to run through to catch the wind. You just stand on the rooftops and toss the kite in the air, and you just have to know when to tug on the string to make it go up. I think you have to be an Indian boy to be good at it. The hardest part is getting it up into the air, after that it's really easy. I'm like extra bad at it. I was flying a kite that was already in the air and the moment I took the string, it nose dived into an old lady sitting on the roof of the apartment next door. That was embarrassing, especially since everyone was already staring at the inept kite flying foreigners.

It's actually a very dangerous festival because you can also make the kites fight. So they put powdered glass on the string so you can cut the string of other kites. It's really fun when you cut other kites and you hoot and holler when you do. But it's sad when someone else cuts yours. Then you have to get another kite and try and get it in the air again. It's very bad for the birds flying around. There are literally thousands, if not millions of kites flying in the air all with glass covered strings. It's also really dangerous for humans too. People on motor bikes can get cut and if the string gets stuck in another moving vehicle the string can slice throats. We did not drive our little sunnies for the two day festival. We heard too many horror stories.

But it really is a fun festival. It's cool to see everyone out on their rooftops and all the different kites fluttering around in the air. People have music blasting and every once in awhile you hear people cheering when they cut a kite. Everyone eats Chikki, which is sort of like peanut brittle and made out of sesamee seeds. Like all Indian treats, it is extremely sweet. Down below there are kids walking around with long sticks so they can catch kits that have been cut. At the end of the day, the telephone wires look like laundry lines full of kites and the trees look like they've all started growing kite shaped fruits.

It was a busy and fun day. At night we went to the old city to watch the fireworks. They also set off these huge paper laterns. They look like small hot air balloons floating through the air. Eventhough it's completely dark and there are fireworks going off from the rooftop next door and floating lanterns, people are still flying their kites. We saw one latern crash into a rooftop near by. The people were all dancing around it, and then it caught on fire and burst into flames, so one of guys took the flaming lantern and just threw it over the side. The burning lantern started floating down toward the traffic filled street, but then caught on a wire and the flames started creeping back up towards the rooftop. Eventually it burned itself out. It was such an India moment.