In which normality is restored

Nika attempting to preserve her remaining dignity...

...and Joshan and Ryan forgetting they have dignity to preserve.

We left India about 3 days ago now, which seems like sufficient time to have a bit of perspective on the last 7 weeks. Scarily enough, the most difficult thing about coming home was wearing normal clothes again and not talking about bowel movements over the dinner table. (Apparently I have the right to remain silent, and I should start taking that into account). Our last few days in Nepal/India were pretty intense - lots of firsts and lasts, including (for the girls in Pokhara) skinny dipping, paragliding and riding in a pick up truck under the Nepali stars. The guys had a 'man's weekend', including massages, shopping and trying on dresses. (I'm so pleased I'm not joking.)
I tried to weedle some final thoughts/defining moments out of the team as a whole, and was presented with the following:
Ryan: "I'd rather be a momo than a daal."
Nika: The time a taxi nearly drove into her, and in response to violent swearing, was greeted with 'Namaste!'
Joshan: Wanted a picture of him showing his nipples, accompanied by 'Take a good look at these cos it's the last you'll see of them'. Instead, it might be better to just mention Joshan's Tour of Smells across the sub-continent. You're welcome.

Just want to finish by saying a big thank you to everyone who has followed the blog and also to all the parents who put up with our constant whining over the last 7 weeks. It's been massively appreciated. And we'll try to keep the Gap Yah comments/in-jokes to a minimum.

Love and snuggles from everyone on RTP 2013 :)

Whereby Alice and Becca Get All Emotional

Once upon a time there were ten rickshaw theatre students who wanted nothing more than to teach drama to children in Nepal. Alas it was not to be. For the great city of Kathmandu was besieged by festivals and strikes which paid no heed to the team's enthusiasm and continued with full vigour into our second week. Despite the pitfalls and pratfalls of Nepali organisation, we strode bravely into the fray and were rewarded with at least two successful sessions. The most notable of these was our penultimate class in which those members of the team not wounded in action combined forces. We were fortunate enough to be privy to the comedic talent of the kids whose clowning abilities had us in stitches. The final ever teaching session was a delight with a nostalgic (read 'begrudging') revisiting of Oo Kawayah and Splat.

A word on the week's distractions. One of said festivals was the Indra Jatra festival, the biggest religious street festival in Kathmandu, celebrating the end of the monsoon season. The team spent Wednesday afternoon clambering up temples and being ushered about by rather adorable riot police in their attempts to catch a glimpse of the Kumari Devi: the most important living goddess in Nepal. Ryan even saw her.

The second major distraction of the week (from the perspective of your authors, Alice and Becca) was the kneading out of three years' worth of Cambridge Stress. Our lovely team treated us to a Seeing Hands massage - a vigorous proceedure carried out by blind masseurs. It was heaven. Thank you.

On a similar note, as we near the end of our time with this group of amazing, kind, hardworking oddities (the RTP team obvs) we would like to say what a pleasure it has been. We could not have dreamed up a better team and we will miss you all stupa-endously. Lol.

And finally, while we're getting all gooey, a little note to say how fantastically brilliant the children have been. Their eagerness, energy and (sometimes) patience in working with us has made the past seven weeks not only worthwhile but wonderful.

Welcome to the Jungle (we've got fun and games)

Luke 'Gentleman Explorer' Sumner

 Here's a fun game: message your parents to inform them that you are embarking on a weekend in the jungle, complete with wild animals, and then fail to respond to any of their attempts to get in touch for three days. Fortunately, we all survived. The most dangerous thing about Chitwan turned out to be the restaurants.
You would almost certainly rather look at pictures than read more of my attempts at wit, so I will leave you with the following - and a little insight into Mr Sumner's gentlemanly hi-jinks in the jungle...

Saturday 14th September, Year of Our Lord, Two-Thousand and Thirteen

Rather dark to wake, but a six hour trip excuses this behavior. Gay old journey for the masculine triad of our party, but I must admit my rather obtuse sleeping angles. Devilish heat in Chitwan and all the beast are no less profane - quite grotesque appendages on the face! Yet, oddly captivating... I had to remove myself from Bashanti the elephant after feeling overcome.

Love to Donald, Gummy and Blotcher

************
Completed the jungle walk - rotten blasted heat! Not even my ingenious camouflage could cessuage the sun. deeply enjoyed the jungle - not unlike our forests at home. Our guide enlightened us on trees and poked cotton bugs. Awfully fun start!
Love to Jonjo, Crick and Squiff

************
Jove himself could not produce such a show! Tales of school days sent us off a-slumber before the racket. (*Editor's note- this is a rather obscure reference to a monsoon*) Awoke to tussle with elephant calves and bathe adults, which I confess quickened the pulse. Elephant safari left us feeling rather secure in the presence of rhinos, hogs, apes, deer... And the most fearful of all... The Owl. One last love exchange with Basanti rendered me feverish... I pray this malaise leaves as I exit this sanctuary.
As always, love to Mungo, Norker and Chontz.
P.s. Basanti, my beloved, prosper well.

BATHING TIME  with Basanti

The archetypal 'westerners in the wild' photo.

Nika managing to look like she's anywhere but on a Nepali dug-out canoe

Why sit in the Jeep when the roof is so much less comfortable? 

Our hotel's resident elephant, Basanti

Introducing...the divergent 'nature faces' of Holly and Emma

YAY HAPPY ELEPHANT FACE

In which we're not actually sure which one is Everest

When I tried to take a photo of one of the kids...

We really, really like Nepal. We're working with 'Kids in Kathmandu' at a school while we're here, but since the Nepalese seem to like festivals about as much as Indians, we haven't been able to do a huge amount with them yet. We can, however, confirm utter anarchy as a general theme. There's growing
excitement in the RTP camp as we're off to ride/wash/nuzzle elephants this weekend. Gap Yah Photos to follow.
 For now, consider the following:

KathmanDOs:
1. Get tattooed/piereced/dreadlocked and stretch your hipster muscles in Thamel.
2. As a result of 1, convince yourself that you are a spiritual traveler, not a tourist wearing funny trousers
3. Buy something with a yak on it.
4. Buy something with Buddha eyes on it.
5. Buy something made of yak wool with Buddha eyes on it.
6. Loosen your purse strings. There's a lot of great tat in Thamel.
7. Eat food from all over the world. Except Nepal.
6. Embrace the two-day week. There's no better way to celebrate a month of festivals than having 2 more festival days and a strike.
7. VISIT THE MONKEY TEMPLE.

KathmanDON'Ts:
1. Breathe. Unless you own/are an inhaler or you can pull off a dentist face mask.
2. Forget the laws of perspective and assume that you're looking at Everest because it's 'the biggest one'.
3. Compare India to Nepal. It's just not a fair fight.

What the Himalayas were supposed to look like

Ne-pals are ready to Kathman-DO, but not before a tale of our Luck-now on the stage

Hello everyone, Luke here, surrounded by Nepalese loveliness and reminiscing about a triumphant final performance in Lucknow from:

- PURAN SHIKSHA KENDRA (a giant moving bus made from children! giggling tickled monsters!)

- EHSAAS "GHARONDA" (joyful mountain climbing! tense bouts with lions!)

- MAD (splash! monkey mayhem! DANCING!!)

Applause and standing ovations from home please. 

Jubilation aside, here's what the team at PURAN have been up to. Raisa, Becca and I have been thrilled to play games, mime, dance, sing, and make masks with so many (forty-five, aged 5-17  many) kids in Lucknow. Their enthusiasm, energy and creativity has left us stunned at times - sometimes in admiration, sometimes in exhaustion, but always with a weary-proud smile. Whatever trials Lucknow may have thrown our way, the children remind us what we're here for and why it's all worth it (cue emphatic orchestral music).

On a serious note, the confidence children showed us proved that the work volunteers do at the centre is clearly having an effect. PURAN works with children from slums and construction sites, using theatre to provide a non-formal education that promotes healthy living and helps enrol promising students in mainstream schools. 

However, the thing that I'm most proud of from RTP13's time at PURAN is that very young students and those who were less confident - girls and boys alike - shared the stage with equally important roles in the final performance. I think playing drama games with some of the young girls who turned up early to our last session was amongst my favourite moments from the trip. These were the same ones who took the most persuasion to act initially and who seemed new to the entire experience. 

Lessons we've learned: 

- once you give one piggyback, or postcard for that matter, you gotta give 44+ more...

- children arranging flowers in our hair makes us feel like we're in Midsummer Night's Dream/paradise

- Rubi will be Prime Minister with Sangeeta and Divya as trusted advisers. 

- Stretching and Oo-Kawaya - thank you both so very, very much 

Goo bye see yow soon 

PS After arriving in Sunauli a sweaty mess following the lesser pleasantries of Gorakphur, I can confirm that the ride to Kathmandu was bumpbumpbumpbumpy, but the destination is smooth as caramel - I'm looking at you Thamel. We love the people, the place, the clothes, the sights, and are replying "fo sho" to every momo offered. Already walked clockwise around Asia's biggest stupa and made out a Himalayan peak amongst the clouds. Onto the teaching!! 

In which performances loom

Our names get an Indian makeover

The pressure is rising in Lucknow with our performance at the (perhaps-excessively-massive-600-seat) theatre taking place in just over 24-hours. Sketches about hungry monkeys, environmentally-conscious monsters and frog princes are coming together, with varying levels of speed and success. Regardless, at 6:30pm tomorrow night, the curtains opens and our kids are on. Drama.

The team at MAD (Make a Difference) - Hannah, Holly, Alice and Ryan - have been assigned a group of sixteen pre-pubescent girls, who are an absolute joy 99% of the time, and pre-pubescent girls the rest. MAD work as English teachers and support for underprivileged children in cities across India, and we're working alongside them at an orphanage in central Lucknow. After spending the first week playing ice-breaker games and building up a few theatrical techniques, this week we cracked on with our scenes. It's by no means been easy, but there is little doubt that fantastic progress has been made. Some girls who had previously sobbed at the thought of walking across a circle of people, are now leaping around the stage as slightly manic monkeys. While others who could only mumble their name at the beginning of each session are now confidently delivering lines as frogs, spiders and beautiful princesses. Our session today was cancelled due to the fact that it's Teacher's Day in India (a wonderful thing, but rather ill-timed), making tomorrow's session rather crucial.

But, of course, the main thing in amongst all this chaos is that the girls themselves are having a good time. And we rather think they are.

Preparing the story of Arachne

More ballet in India - it's still going down a treat!

In the words of Brett Mackenzie and Jemaine Clement, "It's business time."

Some curious onlookers at the orphanage

In which you get to hear from some other people for a change

Hello internet. This blog will be written by the EHSAAS team (Joshan, Helena and Emma). Woo. We have about 16 boys between the ages of 10 to 17 - EHSAAS helps runaway boys, who are found homeless at a local railway station and brought to safety and care at their lovely shelter - and we are really enjoying their enthusiasm and willingness to be dramatic and silly. They're immensely talented too! We've managed to cover loads in our first week of drama workshops: mime, rhythm, human puppetry, characterization, to name a few things, with the game 'Wink Murder' being a clear favourite - the more gruesome the death, the better! They are great fun and we're looking forward to starting work on the play next Friday, as the kids seem really up for it and have so many ideas already. Tomorrow we're joining them for a session that we won't be leading. We're such bid deals that a Bollywood coach is going to get them involved in some dancing. Emma is bringing the ballet to bangra, Joshan has his pout at the ready, and Helena may well die of happiness. 

Here are our top 10 favourite moments (in no particular order) of Lucknow so far:

- Emma falling into the mud playing duck duck goose

- Emma falling into a gate during the monsoon rain

- Listening to Nitin's pearls of wisdom

- A stray dog curling up to sleep in our living area during the rain 

- Being introduced to a very memorable sandwich bar (veggie burgers galore)

- Bouncing along in Prateek's party car

- Joshan facing guitar competition at the volunteer partayyyyy

- Rooftop viewing of lightning, lightning and more lightning

- Not being in our local cafe Cappucino Blast.

- The jam that tastes of lollipop, lip gloss and joy

- Krishna's birthday celebration

Overall, after the adventures of Delhi, Lucknow has been a refreshing breath of (almost) fresh air and we are looking forward to the challenges the next week will undoubtedly bring.

When you're Taj-ing (the whole world taj-es with you)

Joshan's only photo from one of the most beautiful sites in the world.

Firstly, a short note of apology to our growing Slovenian fan base. The blogging laptop is now most likely being sold off the back of a dodgy van somewhere between Lucknow and Agra, after a series of Unfortunate Events on a sleeper train, and so updates have been somewhat delayed. By way of apology, we offer you some gloriously touristy photos of the Taj Mahal. Because, when in India, you go Taj or you go home.

Some serious Taj appreciation going on

 

Putting on Taj booties

'Mr Oddie', the Steven Merchant eyed dog. And Joshan's only friend.

 So I was meaning to write lots of witty and interesting things about our time in Agra before we start updating you on Lucknow. But we only had about 3 hours sleep pre-Taj, and so we're not entirely sure what happened. Though there are some nightmarish memories involving a coffee shop and Lady Gaga playing at a volume that made the chair next to me bleed.



Prison. Or the sleeper train.

Joshan licking the Taj. We've had to begin a douche-bag jar.

In which we're all a bit Delhirious...

Firstly, WELCOME TO THE TEAM, EMMA!

I feel like this, our last post in Delhi, should have a more contemplative tone to it - but given that the team's responses to 'best bits of Delhi' have included 'the metro', 'I'm not sure I'm in the right frame of mind for that question right now' and 'seeing that dog do that runny poo' I don't think that's going to happen.

Instead, I could tell you about Ryan's glorious 'dirty Sanchez' moustache effort, the 3 Danish guys at the hostel that Ryan, Joshan and Luke have been playing it cool with for a week now (treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen), Helena's disconcertingly well-practiced hair-flick in our re-enactment of 'Chennai Express' and Alice's iron-clad constitution while the rest of us have been cut down in our prime.

Or I could tell you about the amazing kids we've worked with here (with one more workshop to go tomorrow) and the hilarious mimicry they proved capable of today at Jan Madhyam, or the remarkable energy levels and enthusiasm that drove many a dramatic death in 'wink murder' at ABHAS.

Or possibly we could regale you with details of all the awkward moments and stumbles we've had in between activities, when we can see attention and interest beginning to drop and we've looked at each other with blank fear. There are only so many variations of 'copy my silly dance' you can play...

Or we could rant about all the traffic, the times we've been ill after eating, the touts, the constantly being ripped off. But perhaps you'd rather hear about all the lovely and helpful people we've met in Delhi - Smyle Inn comes highly recommended as a place to stay, we've eaten in some weird and wonderful places, our placements have faithfully provided lunch for us - not to mention the beautiful cards we were presented with today.

Delhi, you're Really Rather Odd. We don't know what to do with you. Two weeks isn't long enough to find out, probably.

Some happy photos :)

Today, we visited Humayun's Tomb.  I offer you All of the Pictures and None of The Crazy Writing.

Sleeping Lions at Jan Madhyam 

We're back at our placement tomorrow, so we'll do a proper review of that then. Enjoy :) 

Cute Becca

Old Delhi chaos

Not that we're encouraging gender stereotypes, but here's some girls doing ballet at our ABHAS placement

And here's some boys playing cricket

Humayun's tomb

Cute Holly

Visiting *insert name here*'s tomb

Sitting at Humayun's tomb

Luke the Turtle prepares to ascend

'The Customer is king. Pamper him.' Yes indeed, Haldiram's.