Family

My parents and Al are on a 20-day India trip. They spent a week in Mussoorie visiting me, enjoying good food, hamming it up with the local tailors, and seeing the beautiful foothills and Himalayas. Mussoorie was their first stop. Now they are heading to Rishikesh for the weekend and then on to Delhi and Agra.


Breakfast at the hotel. This turned into a 2 hour morning ritual.


Atop Gun HIll (highest point in Mussoorie)


Mom and Dad in front of the snow capped Himalayas.


Sunday brunch up at Char Dukan. Delicious banana pancakes, lassis, and a jolly cake (pancake with a candy bar!)...not very traditional, but indian nonetheless!


Hiking Benog Tibba.


Picnic atop Benog TIbba. The Himalayas had just disappeared into the clouds.


View from the Hindu Temple atop Benog Tibba.


Afternoon trip to Himalaya weavers (in a village past Woodstock). Looking at the beautiful colors of the natural dyes.


Seeing where and how the wool is dyed.


Getting a tour of Faiz tailor's house.


Al getting fitted by Islam for a vest at Inam's.

Rishikesh and Rajpur

RISHIKESH:
I spent last weekend in Rishikesh, which is about 2.5 hours south of Mussoorie. With the Ganga (Ganges) River running through, it is a sacred city filled with religious pilgrims (usually dressed in orange), yoga followers, and hippie tourists. In line with other sacred cities, Rishikesh doesn't sell alcohol and is almost 100% vegetarian. While there is a part of Rishikesh that is more or less an average Indian city, the part to go to is set on either side of the Ganga with two suspension bridges connecting the sides. The bridges are only about 5 ft wide and thus are "pedestrian only" (which includes motorbikes, cargo pushcarts, cows plopped in inconvenient places, and monkeys ready to pounce on unsuspecting people with fruit).

Set at a lower altitude than Mussoorie, it was very hot and humid. We spent the weekend perusing the many shops and then sitting in cafes to escape the heat. Many of the cafes and restaurants cater to the unusually large number of young Israeli tourists, so we indulged in great hummus and pita. And I had my fair share of cold coffees, which are sold everywhere. I also tried a delicious drink made with fresh lemon juice and a whole lot of chopped up mint plant (enough to turn the whole drink a solid green color) - very refreshing! On Sunday morning I got up early and headed to the Ganga to sketch and just have some alone time. It was so wonderful to watch the city come alive.
The locals were out running errands in the cool morning weather. Sitting by the river, I also saw many Indians bathing and performing rituals. Overall, I really enjoyed the city. The biggest disappointment was not being able to fit a whitewater rafting trip into the weekend!


RAJPUR: Today I was the lead chaperone (ah! the responsibility!) for a Saturday field trip to Sharp Memorial Blind School in Rajpur (which is very close to Dehradun). Once a month the high school students have a "Closed Bazaar" weekend which means that they can't go into town. They are encouraged to either do a hike/camping trip or a CARE trip (I'm not sure what the acronym means, but it is basically a community outreach program). This is the third CARE trip I've gone one (treeplanting and Tibetan Homes were the others) so apparently that makes me qualified to be the lead chaperone! We took a school bus down and spent a few hours at the school. It is a boarding school that, along with blind children, also takes in a few orphans. We brought some play-dough to share with them. They loved it! It was really cool to see how the Woodstock kids quickly got over their hesitancy and were soon fully interacting with the kids. We only had two Hindi speakers in the group, so not only were we crossing a vision barrier but also a language barrier. Everything basically revolved around communication through touch, which was a valuable experience. Afterwards, we headed to Dehradun for lunch at McDonald's and Nirula's (Indian fast food chain) and then headed back up the hill. I'm very relieved that everyone survived the trip without any major catastrophes!


Sahil (the trouble-maker) creating a pretty amazing person flying a kite...or something.


Woodstock students and Sharp Memorial kids playing with clay.

More on the Tibetan Presence

HAPPY VALLEY:
Last Saturday, I chaperoned an excursion to Happy Valley (the Tibetan neighborhood in Mussoorie). Our job was to help out at the old folks' home - sweeping, window washing, and cutting grass (by hand). The very little amount of work we did seemed a little pathetic to me, but some of the Woodstock students proclaimed "Wow, I've never swept before!" So I guess it was worthwhile. After we finished, we played with the kids in the building next door. These buildings were constructed through the Tibetan Homes Foundation. It seems like most of Happy Valley (homes and schools) is funded by this organization. One of the Tibetan women told us that 12,000 Tibetans have moved to the area. (I think Mussoorie has around 6,000 Tibetans, which is a high number considering the total population of Mussoorie is 26,000.) Most of the children we played with had been sent by their parents (who remain in Tibet) in order to get a better education. The elders are recent refugees who have no other place to go. The Tibetan kids were very enthusiastic to have new people to play with. I was most surprised when they brought out a carrom board! Who would've thought! The board and pieces were slightly different (the corner pockets about the size of a silver dollar), but it was definitely the same game!







FLAG HILL:
After my excursion to Happy Valley, I headed back to campus and packed for my first camping trip...finally! My host teacher, Christina, and her husband organized a short campout for staff on Flag Hill, which is in walking distance from campus. Only a small group of us braved the looming rain, but it was so wonderful to be camping! Flag hill is a foothill and has great views of the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance (except it is still monsoon, so we just saw a lot of foothills and clouds). And, go figure, it is covered with flags. Tibetan prayer flags. While camping was fabulous, the best part was when we were packing up to leave the next morning and some Tibetan refugees living in Rajpur hiked up the hill to hang flags. They make the pilgrimmage about three times a year. The older woman hand-printed all of the prayers on the flags and then sewed them on the rope - a lot of work! Just about any high point in northern india is covered with these flags. There are five colors to represent water, fire, space, clouds, and earth. It was fun to see the young boy climb the trees like a monkey to hang the them. The belief is that the wind will carry the prayers on the flags. The prayers aren't to a god, but rather are blessings over all people for compassion, good will, and peace. The flags stay up until they fall apart, symbolizing that the prayers become a permanent part of the universe. I think it is a really beautiful concept. It was so peaceful to wake up early (I'm still in the canoe guide habit of waking up well before everyone else) and sit on the hilside looking out into the sunrise over the distant mountains with the prayer flags surrounding me.

Woodstock and Environs

As I said earlier, Woodstock is (much like St. Olaf) a little bubble community just outside of town. Technically, I guess it is in Landour (a small hillside community with no real downtown) rather than Mussoorie (which has a population of around 25,000, I think). Woodstock is not closed-gated but rather has some locals living on campus and many passing through on two of the town's major roads that cut through the campus. The area has been known for being a very safe place until recently. However, I'm more nervous about monkey attacks than unwanted interactions with people!

I've never felt more disoriented than I do here. There are no maps of anything and rarely is there a street or path sign. There are footpaths everywhere on the hillsides but only people who have lived here for years have any idea
which is the right one to take. I'm still trying to figure out the paths on campus. I'm getting bolder, thankfully, and am starting to explore more.

I have made the 20min walk downtown many times already (it is about the only walk that is predominantly flat!). There is one main road that goes through town. It is very narrow (in the states we would deem it "one-way")but has lots of traffic - cars, mopeds, animals, vendors, pedestrians, and buses (that are covered with puke stains from nauseous travellers). The shops are very small and specialized - mostly fabric, electronic, gift, very small grocery, and hardware stores. I love browsing through the fabric shops - so many colorful textiles for making Indian saris and salwar-kameez. I haven't yet had either of those made, but now have two tailor-made shirts and a pair of handmade leather sandals. For the sandals, I walked into a tiny tiny shop with two Indian men sitting on the floor, pointed at the design I wanted, and then proceeded to have my foot traced (like in kindergarten) in an old notebook. It was pretty exciting.

The demographics of the area are interesting. About 50 years ago the Dalai Lama declared Mussoorie to be home of the Tibetan Goverment in Exile (which has now moved north to Dharamsala), so there is a large Tibetan population (who inhabit "Happy Valley" - such a great name!). There is also a large Muslim population, on top of Christian, Sikh, and Hindu. At school, I can constantly hear singing and prayers being broadcast over a loudspeaker in town.

I was warned that Mussoorie is very touristy. I'm not sure how much I agree. While there are a good number of foreigners, most of them are atypical or have taken up residency here. Most non-Asians are connected somehow with Woodstock or have come to learn Hindi at the language school in Landour. There aren't very many "creature-comfort" places around, but there are a good amount of restaurants that visitors can eat at in Mussoorie without suffering the effects.

It is very easy to identify the Woodstock students when they are in town (they are allowed to walk downtown most Saturdays). In general they are very stylish and, of course, wear their ipods at all times. Probably 90% of the student body is Asian, with Indians and Koreans making up most of that. Most of them come from very wealthy homes. I have at least one student who is some kind of Indian prince (he's not the best artist though:) and many students who come from families that own multiple businesses (and homes) worldwide. It is a little intimidating! At first I was frustrated with their wealth and privilege. Now I am starting to see that one of the best things for them is to come to a school like this where they don't have all of the amenities that they would at home, where they are forced to live in community, and where some of them get much more positive adult contact and attention than they do from their career-driven parents.