Life in Winter

I apologize for such a long time between entries lately. Between teaching two different classes, planning for my two-month trip, and entertaining visitors I have been plenty busy.

Phillip, the Austrian volunteer at Nishta that has been here since before I arrived finished his one year term and has been replaced by Andreas. Andreas is a fun character and just out of high school. At any given time, Nishta has one Austrian young man serving his year of social service. Austrian men have to give two years of military service or one year of social service, and Nishta offers an international site for men who want an alternative to the army.

As to visitors, Anya's younger sister Danika has been here for the last month or so, but will be leaving within the week. Kelly, the Madurai Shansi fellow, passed through for a few days as well. Most recently, Anne and Daniel, two of the Taigu Shansi fellows, have been up here for a few days. It's great to see so many Shansi fellows up here. Though, I am finding that whenever there are guests, I always wind up eating a lot. The social life here consists mostly of going out to eat in McLeod Ganj or making huge meals together. It's fun, and we stay well fed.

Lately, there has been something of a drought in the area. Everyone I knew spent at least a few days without water. While the weather was beautiful, farmers and families were worried. My landlady, Dr. Kusum, told me that everyone was performing extra worship and prayers for rain. Just a few days ago, the winter rains came at last. While I would prefer nicer weather than very chilly and wet, I'm glad for what this means for the area. So, add a few more sweaters to my layers and never leave the house without an umbrella.

One other negative side effect of lots of cold rain like this is that many of my students travel a significant distance to get to the Knowledge Center. When the weather is bad, they will stay at home. It makes the class move a lot more slowly when I have to re-teach the same lessons the next day to the half of the class that missed it the first time.

Today it slushed, something between snow and sleet. It was very exciting. Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy for walking out in it, but I was rewarded for my hike up to TARA Center with a hot cup of chai. Once home, I collected what 'snow' I could find on my porch and made snow balls. I threw them around at nothing in particular. It was incredibly satisfying. I am looking forward to real snow in Taigu.

Last week we had a full youth team meeting, where many important things were hashed out. After the meeting, I was struck by Jagori living up to its ideal of teamwork and no hierarchy. Before we broke for lunch, we had to assist in the construction process by moving sticks and wood from the construction site to a brush pile in the back of the center. After a lot of collecting and hauling, we then moved on to transporting bricks. All twenty-something of us formed a line from the pile to where the bricks needed to be and passed them along until all had been moved. Only a half hour or so of group work, I'm sure, really sped up the process for the construction workers. Things change so quickly at TARA Center that I'm sure I will be stunned by how different it looks when I return in two weeks.