Days 5&6- Andrew

On Monday we visited the Avalon Girls Secondary School in Patankhot. Our church has been supporting some girls who live in the hostel and for most of us (Heather went last year) it was the first chance to meet them. We arrived in the morning and met Manjit Mal, the principal, who showed us around the school. It's a beautiful old building from 1902, with big courtyards and red and yellow painted brickwork, which feels much calmer than the bustle of the town outside the walls.

"Visitors say it's like heaven," said Manjit. "Heaven in Patankhot."

We went to see several classes of girls, who smiled back politely at us in their red and white uniforms while we talked to them from the front. So far it felt like an awkward school visit. Manjit told us more about the school; there are about 900 students, including 50 at the hostel. We are sponsoring 20 through the Church of North India, which runs the school. All the senior students achieved First Division results last year, the equivalent of Excellence in NCEA in NZ. Only about 10% of the girls are from Christian families, most are Hindu. I asked her how the Hindu parents felt about their girls getting an openly Christian education in a country which is split on religious lines. Very supportive, she said, because the girls receive such a well-rounded education. The local governor was initially suspicious of her school but has since come round. Now the government-run schools come to her for ideas. 

We returned to the school at 5pm to meet the hostel girls. Actually, being sloppy Kiwis we turned up at 10 minutes past to find the girls and staff arranged on chairs in the courtyard, waiting for our arrival. They were wearing mufti and suddenly looked much older and more Westernised. They sang us a couple of songs, including one we sing at home, and a Christmas song in Punjabi. There were some brief speeches, a welcome prayer and the serving of tea, samosas and biscuits. We felt honoured and hopelessly under-prepared for not having our own waiata ready. We took photos with the girls, who offered to show us round their rooms. This finally broke the ice. Megan, Joanna and David were mobbed and asked for their favourite colour and whether they liked Justin Bieber. Upstairs we found that each bedroom had between four and eight beds together in the middle, with the girls' belongings in large suitcases and cabinets around the wall. We sat on the beds as the girls performed a Bollywood song, in which Megan was apparently the queen, and a Punjabi dance led by Sarah, our very impressive and confident student MC. Everyone wanted to swap names and Facebook contacts. It was great fun and slightly overwhelming.

Afterwards we went to Manjit's house next door to this school and met her elderly mother, who talked non-stop to me in Hindi. I tried to respond politely and not look at Megan, who was laughing so much she almost spilled her tea. Manjit's mother insisted we should have a bag of her organically grown oranges for our train journey to Palumpur the next day. 

"And guavas," she added. 

"They're not ripe yet," Manjit reminded her. 

"Never mind, they can take them back to New Zealand," she said.

We were in a hurry the next morning checking out of the hotel (and drying out our laundry which had somehow come back dirtier than it went in), so we arrived on the platform with only minutes to spare for the little narrow gauge train, which would take us up to Palumpur in the Himalayan foothills. We had no time to buy food and two biscuits for the six-hour journey. So we were very impressed and relieved to see Manjit's driver Amajit appear just before the train left with a bag of oranges - and other goodies. 

The train ride was slow but spectacular. Lots of cute mountain villages appearing out of the bush, curving viaducts over wide river valleys with hardly any water (the snows haven't melted yet). Megan and David and I stuck our heads out the window and took photos. Joanna looked bored. When we arrived in Palampur, the local St Paul's school principal Mr V. P. Singh and his wife were waiting for us on the platform. They bundled us into a car and a van and took us up through the town to our hotel. Palampur is a hill station town, so the Himalayas loom up right above the winding streets, which was amazing to see. It was also freezing cold and we were starving. We ate at the hotel, then huddled under the covers on one bed, arguing about which rubbish TV channel to watch. Next day - St Paul's School, which we hope will turn into a similar NZ-India arrangement to Avalon.

Days 3&4- Joanna

The past two days have been a little bit hectic and totally exhausting. Yesterday (Friday) we went on a day trip to Agra in order to see Fatephur Sikhri, the Agra Fort, and of course, the Taj Mahal. This meant that we had to get up at 5:30 am to catch the 6 am train to Agra, which I was not very happy about. We joined a tour group and hopped on the tour bus. And then, just our luck, it started to rain. Like thunder and lightning, water bucketing down everywhere. It continued on and off on the way to Fatephur Sikhri, but unfortunately it poured while we were there. Fatephur Sikhri was pretty cool, the buildings were very impressive and our tour guide gave us a VERY detailed explanation about what all the buildings were used for. I felt a bit bad because he was putting a lot of effort into it and I couldn't understand half of what he was saying due to his heavily accented English.

The guide hurried us on to the Agra Fort, where we were very excited to enter and find monkeys scampering along the walls and coming right up to us. Actually if they got too close we had to move away in case they had rabies or something. The Agra Fort was amazing, we had already seen the Red Fort in Delhi but this one was much better. It wasn't raining anymore but it was very foggy and absolutely freezing, especially in the wind. Once we were done with the Agra Fort we hopped back on the bus to go to the Taj Mahal. I can say without a doubt that the Taj was one of the most breathtaking buildings I have ever seen. We were given an hour to explore and do whatever we liked. So of course we took heaps of photos, and also featured in other people's photos too.

I'm kind of sick of that now to be honest, I really don't understand why Indian people want us in their pictures so badly. If they ask from now on I think I might just say no, even though I feel a bit guilty. It was a shame about the weather because it would have been amazing to see the Taj with a blue sky background, but I loved it even with a murky grey back drop. Eventually we got the bus back to the train station and had some dinner. By now it was about 7 pm and our train was supposed to come at 9:30 so we had a bit of waiting to do. This is where it all kind of went wrong, for me at least. Mum and Dad think that I'm exaggerating when I describe it as a disaster, but they don't realise how essential sleep is to my well being and sanity. Anyway it turns out there was going to be more waiting than anticipated. Our train was originally an hour and a half delayed, which was annoying but bearable. Then the train was delayed another half hour. I was at the point of hitting someone. We were tired and cold and we wanted to sleep. Especially since we had to get up at 6 the next morning to catch a different train.

By the time the train finally arrived it was midnight, by the time we returned to Delhi it was 2:30 am. We walked back to the hotel and fell into bed, only to get back up again about three hours later. I'm writing this now on the train to Patankhot, it is almost 3 pm and we have been on the train for about  8 hours, and we still have three to go. I'm going a little bit crazy and honestly I cannot wait to get to Patankhot. I kind of want to keep writing cos it kills time really well but whoever is reading this is probably getting sick of me so.. Bye?  

Day 2- David

I have another word to add to Megan's description of New Delhi:intense and gross. We walked past a few public urinals today, but some people weren't even using those, they were just peeing and on the street. But I have to say, New Delhi has some amazing places, like oases in a desert. For instance, today we visited the lotus temple. It was amazily beautiful, and the gardens surrounding the temple were an extremely pleasant break from the concrete and rubble that that lives in New Delhi. Inside the temple was equally peaceful. We were lucky to arrive in a prayer session, which included beutiful singing that echoed and resounded around the temple. I wanted to stay here forever, but eventually we had to face the stress and hassle of Delhi. We caught the Delhi metro back and faced the rush hour traffic getting from the station to our hotel. We almost got lost but we made it and flopped on the beds to relax after a really tiring day. I think that my views and impressions of Delhi have changed greatly since I first arrived but on the whole, I'm starting to adapt to Delhi and I think that I might, just, maybe be able to handle the rest of our 6 weeks in India.

Day 1- Megan

We arrived in at 5:30am after travelling for 22 hours with 4 hours sleep, so as you can imagine we were very tired and temperamental. Some time later we found our way to our hotel. After catching the metro then a taxi, to get a permission slip to enter paharganj during the election, we then found out that we didn't need permission which meant an  interesting detour of the city for our family.

If there is one word I could use to describe today it would be intense. Everything is intense. The smells, sound,  atmosphere, people- and talk about traffic? I won't complain again about auckland traffic jams. The scariest moment of today was probably hanging off the edge of squashed auto rickshaw with Joanna and mum as the driver wedged us between buses, motor bikes honking his horn loudly at everyone who passed.

The highlight of the day was the red fort built in 1638 by Shah Jahan (the same guy who built the Taj Mahal). It felt nice to be inside and away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi, which interestingly enough was what the fort was designed for in the first place as well as to keep enemies out. It was a great opportunity to take lots of photos, especially on my new SLR camera- which I will post on fb after our trip. Although during the trip it will just be photos from our phones, which seem to be popular device with indian tourists. Some of the Indian tourists asked to take photos with Joanna and I, and subtly asked dad to step aside so he wasn't in the photo, much to everyone's amusement. He was all photo ready- poor dad, don't worry there will be many more photo opportunities.

Anyway gtg food dinner has arrived.