HatHead

I am staying in charmless but clean digs with lots of stray cats around. I ignored all medical advice and petted one and tried to make friends with the others by buying buttermilk and putting it out for them. the chief feature to recommend this hotel besides the kitties is that the staff is really nice! There is a clean, bustling veg restaurant just a step away. it has dawned on me rather late that the south indians scrupulously use only their right hands to eat, saving the left hand for hygienic activities. Although I have felt myself exempt from this, I realize that eating with both hands would be akin to an african tribal woman walking barebreasted on our streets – perfectly acceptable in her society, and just shocking to our sensibilities, even if we understand the reasons behind it. So I have adjusted, as I do not want to be thought a barbarian.

Although prices have risen since I was here last, things are still very cheap. most times less than a dollar (42 rupees) can get me home in an autorickshaw from wherever I am in the city. A breakfast of idli and coffee runs to 20 rupees (50 cents). idli, you say? yes, I am sad to say that I have been rendered paratha-less by south indian cuisine – they just don’t offer it! those of you who know me well know that stuffed paratha and coffee is my favorite breakfast. I have warmed up to idlis, and also today I met a new breakfast item, vada, which can only be described as a savory doughnut. Never met a doughnut I didn’t like. They also serve dosas as big as your head.

I have decided to go to Chennai and pursue the library cataloging project. Somehow I will feel more productive if I work on something concrete, where I can see a clear before and after picture. I think volunteering in a school or tribal village project would be more effective on a long-term basis – at least three months, say. Just not ready to give up my day job.

So I was on the plane getting ready to eat my lunch (dinner? snack? who knows, as the time got really skewed and they put food under our noses at least three times). I took out my hand antibacterial cleanser and it exploded all over my tray and lap. I thought it missed my food so I took a nice bite out of my roll. Nope, got a good mouthful of it. Nasty wretched feelings took over as I spat and rinsed. After eating the untainted parts of my lunch, having nothing better to do, I started wondering – what’s in there anyway? and so casually read the label on the hand cleaner: “if swallowed contact poison center immediately.” This did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Let’s see, we’re only one hour into a 15 hour flight, and even if I could call the poison center, I don’t think my Hindi is up to this, so I did what any other sane person would do in this situation: pretended it didn’t happen.
 
OK, so now I am in Mumbai and my CS hosts (that’s slang for couchsurfing) are brilliant. I went to the train station – I have this down, I thought. “This” being the Byzantine system by which a person acquires a train ticket in India. I confidently approach the Women only window. I want a ticket to Hyderabad, 2 tier AC for two days away. Nope, waitlisted for every one. I know my cue: is there a tourist quota? yes, there is one ticket left and go down to the tourist window number 28 to buy it. I pull out my credit card to pay for it – no no, we don’t take credit cards. But, I protest weakly, the women’s window advertises Visa and Mastercard. Well, the tourist window (just 2 windows down) doesn’t take them, so what kind of currency do you want to pay with ma’am? OK, how about rupees. Yes, we accept rupees, but you must give the receipt that came with them when you exchanged them. They didn’t give me a receipt in New York (I lie). Well, we won’t do it without it. But you could pay in American dollars, and that would be 27 dollars. OK, I say, with a bad feeling, as I study the two twenties I am about to hand her, because I already know what is coming. Exact change ma’am – she is now looking at me with an evil eye. That’s all I have, I tell her. But (now is my moment) I could give you one twenty, and then (I add brilliantly) I could give you some rupees!! The dragon lady finally takes pity on me and prints out a ticket.
 Leaving for Hyderabad on Saturday.

Hallo all – leaving for India for 5 weeks on Tuesday – early train to NYC, visit with cuz in Brooklyn, get a ride to JFK, night flight directly to Mumbai on air India - will my arms get tired from flapping? I’ve heard stories…
 
Trying to decide among three service projects:
 
1) a  K-5 school for dalits in Jaisalmer – students ages 4 -12; not sure what I could do there, but the weather is good now (the desert) and I could support teachers in the classroom around math/English, or offer music classes (which they don’t have in their curriculum), and maybe sit in on their Hindi classes so I can learn some (just now I only know acha OK and cello LET’S GO). Their curriculum is simply “math’s” English history Hindi. They don’t have a library. I think the kids probably speak a tribal language as their first language, so maybe the Hindi classes will be easy enough for me to get going! I’ve been to Jaisalmer, and it is great! If you don’t know, or don’t feel like googling, the dalits are the untouchables, the lowest caste, with no opportunity for education.
 
2) a tribal village project in Yercaud, a hill station in Tamil Nadu where one aspect is creating a community reading room/library. I am still waiting to hear back some details on this. Monsoon, but cooler.

3) BALM, an affiliate of Banyan, is running a project in Chennai for homeless, mentally ill women – they have a small library which needs cataloging. The weather will be monsoon.

Also have the opportunity to go stay in Patty’s Himalayan retreat in Almora – far away and no Patty boo hoo. but tremendously beautiful countryside; challenging to get to, and challenging to live from day to day.  monsoon. but maybe cooler…

Finally, does it make more sense to send group emails like this, or post on my blog (which might be too public, dunno, and I’ll have to start using capitals…)

You can sign up to be signaled by an RSS feed reader when a new blog entry comes (or maybe by now you are thinking how did I get on this list anyway???)

Feel free to weigh in on any and all dilemmas…

Will it be easier to send group emails, or blog here from India? This is trying it out from Boston, linking from Delicious, just to see!!!

I did it and I’m glad I’m done it. Developed a handful of new vices (oops, I meant skills) and have a lot to ponder for the future. Have a lot of technical skills to learn now, and will implement at least two new things I learned into my curriculum this year.

Do people propose doing a podcast because it is less complicated than creating a video? Every podcast I’ve heard so far would be improved by video footage. I heard one little boy describing how to draw his own face in generally anatomically correct proportions. This just seems silly to me, except for the stuff which is only music.

 As someone who hates to be read to (the words come too slowly), I fail to see the value of Composting – Making Soil Improver from Rubbish. This exists somewhere as a written document. However, I can see a great use here for blind people, aural learners, and anyone with a lot of driving time on his/her hands who wants to learn stuff while commuting. It’s just not for me! Anyway, how is a blind person supposed to identify the link on his/her computer? There must be a technology invented for this already….

I now get it. Blogs allow everyone to publish their writing. And Youtube allows everyone to be a filmmaker.

After amusing myself with a lot of trash, I searched “Burma” and got Jim Carrey advocating and then watched a response video to his speech. The upside is that both were compelling and short. The downside is that there is no way of checking for accuracy without doing a lot of extra research. The response video had a big typo in the opening credits, although the content of the video was great. I will use Youtube with discretion. Well, that’s not news!!

This post out of order since things 21 and 20 were blocked here at school. So now did Audio books and Ebooks. Very useful – have passed on some info to Special Ed and English teachers. Don’t own an iPOD and can’t stand to be read to – the words don’t come fast enough, and would rather listen to the radio in the car and hate having things in my ears.  But still useful stuff.

This is a test. Written on Zoho as an exercise.

OK, so I think I have a lurker. Funny, I didn’t figure anyone was even reading this blog anyway. I hope you are not a heckler, if not a fan.

Yep. I sure was surprised to find that someone had posted a handful of titles about Luddism for my perusal on my Library Thing account. ha ha! Big Brother, that sure was a good joke on me!

Well, I always said if you have to have a heckler, at least let it be a heckler with a sense of humor.

Yo, Lurker, if you are all that interested, the password is <green>.

I think a buffet approach is in order here.  This week is “sandbox” in the wiki – not much different than last week’s.  I looked at some areas we had already covered and checked out some curriculum ideas. I think I need the whole picture before I start to implement anything.  Looking forward to getting to thing #23!