Birthday waterfalls and Varanasi

Having my birthday in India was a wonderful experience, it was really nice that some of my fellow volunteers could come and stay with me and join in the fun. I'm glad i have made a few Indian friends who could also attend. I was showered with gifts, flowers an amazing butterscotch cake, two new tops, I felt very lucky on the day to know such nice people.

The next day the VSO volunteers and myself headed out with our tour guide Sam for the day to finally see some of the waterfalls Jharkhand is famous for, Dassam falls, Johna falls and Hundru falls. The day was bright and sunny, I had one of my new birthday tops on, we had an A/C vehicle and a picnic packed.

We even got to see a rainbow across the waterfall at Dassam it was so beautiful.










As if this wasn't enough me and my friend Sue then headed off to find out what Varanasi was all about, a Holy city like no other. We took an over night train from Ranchi and arrived early morning. The hotel was as suggested in the lonely planet which was a relief however we had to wait 2 hours before we could access our room. I was a bit grumpy at this after an overnight sleep on a train, but recovered quickly to see what Varanasi had in store for us. Its hectic, dirty, smelly in places and very crowded, but amongst all this you see things you will never see anywhere else. Below is a picture of a man moving the cows away from the crowd just after one got a bit skittish and hurdled into a man taking him off his feet, sorry didn't get that photo! After that though cows were the new danger as packed into alleyways with people trying to find away around them.

To relax we went to the Brown Bread Bakery for some decent food and great coffee, proceeds of this venture went to a charity called learn for life school.

At night from the Dolphin restaurant the view of the boats gathering to view the Puja's taking place.

Ferryboat across River Ganges

Alleyways in varanasi

The best thing about Varanasi is the boat trips on the Ganges we did very well in our negotiations now experts from our time in India and managed 3 tours, one to transport us across the river with the locals, another to bring us down the river after visiting the Ramnagar Fort and Palace and also a dawn exploration to see the burning ghats and morning bathing rituals taking place.

Ramnagar Fort

Hotel Alka

Daily washing and prayers

Washing the hotel sheets

Sunrise on the Ganges

As you can see it was an experience that is hard to put into words. But im very glad I have been and seen such a strange, bewildering, lively and crazy place.

Outpatient Clinic and Inauguration of Multi Sensory Room

A day in the life of the Outpatient clinic, this is the new ball pool in the multi-sensory room.

Even made the local paper, have no idea what it says!

The lights are on.

This is me with my fabulous assistant OT's Asha and Mahdu completing an OT assessment.






I have also included some pictures of pre-school, where I spend most my time interacting with the children and the parents. It gets pretty busy as you can see.

There is also a transition class before integrating children into a school and individual 1:1 IEP lessons

This next photo is Uma Ji working with one of the children she is our physiotherapist and my right arm.

Hopefully gives you a bit of an idea of my day to day work!

The End of Monsoon

September has been a very busy month for me and has mainly involved work, work and more work. But now I feel I have got my head above water again. I have given two workshops on record keeping/goal setting one to Deepshikha staff, another to a group of staff from NGO's around Jharkhand. Also held a full day workshop on sensory integration at our outpatient clinic which seemed to go down well as asked for resources by numerous staff this week. We have also finished assessing every child's handwriting in the school and set individual goals for the Diploma students to encourage on a 1:1 basis. In the background of all this going on I have been building a multi-sensory room. This has been a big challenge as I have found it difficult to find the resources i needed, many of the items had to be made and negotiating in Hindi is not my strong point. With the help of some colleagues this room will be open next week for the first time, but im awaiting a planned date for an open day by a special guest, so will have plenty more photos to share with you. The kids are really getting to know me now in pre-school and have started to mimic my English accent and words its very cute and funny.

Im trying to get my head round the lack of communication at work, its difficult as nothing seems to be based round a solid structure. Therefore things can change with the drop of a hat. One minute you've been planning a lesson to give in the afternoon the next your told sorry we are doing a test instead. I don't think its just a matter of not speaking very good Hindi that things are not conveyed I'm starting to get the feeling this is just how my colleagues are used to working. For me this is really hard as I like to be organised and well prepared, maybe I will adopt a more laissez faire attitude when im finished, who knows? definitely struggling with patience at these times.

These are some photos of the last month

Other than work I've been playing squash and badminton, enjoying aerobics sessions and even trying out some classical Indian dance with two left feet, sorry no photos! I've also been planning some trips away before I have to leave India for good, cant believe I have been here 7 Months now. Anyway Im travelling with my friend Sue in October to Varanasi, which im told by many is a must, cant wait. We have a festival here called Dussehra also in October so have got 10 days off and will have to see some places near by with friends as trains get really booked up round holiday times and if you don't get booked early there is nothing you can do. So with that in mind I have booked a trip to see friends in Bhubaneshwar and I am booking a trip to Darjeeling and Kolkata in November just after Diwali another few days off. So my next few blog's will hopefully be full of the wonders of India. The rain has stopped here but can not really say we had a lot anyway, its now coming into the winter season apparently, its 20 degrees at night 30 in the day, feels warm suddenly to me. Im also running out of book material, please send me your ideas of good reads, as am going through so many at the moment. Thank you to all those who have been sending me cards, they are decorating my wall at home and are a nice surprise when they arrive.