Monsoon A'gone Soon

We have had some amazing weather as of lately about September 23rd marked the first day of full sunshine, we had a patch of afternoon rain but it hasn't dampened our spirits. This past week has been full of many fun activities and adventures as well as some danger!!!


Friday night was the staff talent show, we were supposed to be performing in the bollywood number to '50,'60,'70's golden tracks but pulled out due to Bens sickness and episode in hospital. We started the evening with dinner at a nearby cafe called Chaya. We went along with Emily, Lauren and Suman and also met up with Elsa and Zachary who showed up as we were leaving. The establishment was formed by single women of tibetan/asian descent. They generally make bakery goods like cookies, bread and bagels. They also have a few kurtas, wallets, pajama pants and other fabric items for sale which are made by another organisation which hires underprivileged women. They have a mixture of mainly western dishes and some more local cuisine as well.

We then traipsed back to the talent show to watch our fellow colleagues grace the stage. Darab (also in the Outdoor department) rocked it out performing with some other staff in the Rock Band, it was really quite enjoyable. There was also a very funny movie made by one of the staff members about the monkeys on campus it is posted below.




On Saturday night we were invited to Dr. Lawrenson’s (Principal) for a New Staff Banquet. We decided to attend and had planned to spend the day in Dehradun shopping with Kutty and family, however we were pushed for time and had to be back in time for dinner so we pulled the plug on that and went to our usual market and did some rather good shopping, we bought a TV, some rugs and some other items. The Staff Banquet was very enjoyable and it was nice to have some rich Indian cuisine and get to know some of the other staff and share stories of adjusting to life in India.

Once we had all decided that we had got enough sun out at Happy Valley we made our way back and stopped at the Happy Valley restaurant which serves amazing momo's (Tibetan dumplings). We all had different dishes, Ben enjoyed a vegetarian chow mien and Emerald had fried buffalo momo's which were delicious! We then made our way back to the bazaar, grabbed a cheap taxi to the top of the bazaar and went shopping. We got a skirt, a wooden carved tea serving tray and satchels and a top.

Zachary and Ben walking through the market

 This is a normal truck for India, it looks like they have competitions to see who can make it the prettiest

 A coolie heaving his work - amazing people

 At Delhi sweet shop where Ben ate three of the best Gulab Jamuns of his life

 Rikshaw drivers relaxing waiting for a ride

Happy to be out in the sun - you can see the snow white caps in the background

View from outside the temple

                            Prayer wheel at the temple                                         Cows on top of the flag hill

Paintings inside the temple

 Ben on top of the flag mountain at Happy Valley 

Inside the temple

 

A Sadhu posing for a picture while we wait for a cab home

Sunday was SO much fun. We had planned a hike from our house to Happy Valley (a Tibetan temple and hillside covered in prayer flags), there is also Happy Valley school nearby which educates Tibetan students. Paul and Zachary joined us on the hike, it was such a lovely sunny day. On the way to Happy Valley we passed many families drying out their matrices, blankets and clothes on roof tops and outdoor washing lines. The whole town was full of colour and people. There was also a Sikh celebration happening in the market with lots of chanting and people about.

Sunday evening we had a New Zealand film night at Kutty's house. We watched Boy, Mark and Anne joined us as did Darab, Naz and their daughter Vanu. It was very funny to hear the kiwi accent again. We hoped they enjoyed the art of Aoteraroa.

Gabby-
When we first settled here at Woodstock Emerald had decided she wanted a cat, especially with the rats in the ceiling it seemed very logical. A couple at the school which live in South Hill, about a 1 minute walk from our place at Homestead are planning on moving back to the USA in December. We put out hands up for their cat and we have been borrowing it to slowly adjust it to the change. It also happens to be the mother cat of the previous cat who lived in our house. Its a female ginger, very soft and quite petite. I have never met such an affectionate cat in my life. We had her stay on the first night (Tuesday) and put her in a make shift carrier, she hated it and was doing forward flips to get out. As soon as we let her in the house she was meowing and looking around the place. I jumped in the shower and Ben was in the bedroom doing something on the lap top. Once i finished my shower I found the cat on its back purring away with Ben rubbing its tummy.

We had a pretty bad sleep that night, she was sleeping on our bed, then every couple of hours she would walk all over us and onto the window sills and demand us to pat her. Once we patted her she just flopped down and purred. She was also very noisy meowing when she wanted to be patted. We both got really sick of it and locked her out of our room which didn't really help because she was scratching at the door and meowing. We finally let her in at about 7 am and she jumped on the bed and started purring again. We decided (very tired at this stage from lack of sleep) to feed her breakfast then let her out the front door for her to make her way back to our neighbours. She heard another of our neighbours dog and went to investigate, she then saw the dog and darted up the hill side ( a big steep forest).

We failed to call her down so we explained to the owner what had happened, she wasn't too concerned as she thought she would wonder back home during the day. Well she didn't. When i got home last night she was still there up on the hillside meowing. The stupid barking dog just kept barking, the owner keeps in tied up out the back and wasn't home to put it inside to quiet it down. I decided that I would try to get her down so I had to climb our back track around the storage shed over a water tank between some trees and up some very slippery hillside plants including stinging nettles. There was probably massive spiders, maybe snakes and leeches in there too (although the monsoon has now officially stopped the leeches might be gone). It was quite dangerous and completely dark, i used a headlamp to find her, luckily cats eyes glow in the light. at first i thought she was stuck in a hole or something but she was just scared of the dog. So when i approached her she was meowing but happy to see me. I carried her along the very slippery hillside and down to the tree and water tank, she then decided that she didn't want my help anymore and wriggled out of my hands. I put her on top of the water tank and she darted further up the hillside. So I had to make my way further up some dodgy footing and tried to reach her but she kept walking away from me (stupid cat!). I finally decided I would let Ben do a rescue mission. He was out doing some chores in the market.

When Ben came home about an hour after he should have been home he couldn't believe what I had done. He also had an interesting story to tell me. we have a regular taxi company which we use, and Ben had caught a cab back to our house, he was travelling along and two drunk guys were speeding on a motor bike and hit into the taxi. In India there is no procedures of swapping information or anything. Well the driver got out to see how the motorbikers were, they had both fallen off the bike, they then started to throw punches at the taxi driver. A group of shop owners and such held back the motorbike men and held them to the floor. Fortunately the taxi driver is respected in the Mussoorie and had people that were willing to testify that it wasn't his fault. Finally Ben tried to get out of the car because it was getting out of hand about 50 people were crowding the car at this stage. then some other people watching told him to get back in the car. The taxi driver was holding firm by his car explaining what had happened to all the rubber neckers. Finally after about half an hour Ben decided he needed to get out of the taxi so told the driver to pick him up further up the market once he was finished. I'm not sure on the details but apparently the taxi driver knows who the two motorbikers are and was planning to going to their house to "bash their heads in" and get the money he needs to fix his car (its still drivable).

So after bens exciting night he then faced the cat rescue and did exactly the same thing as me, she escaped at the water tank and then went way up the hillside and Ben finally got her after 20 minutes. WE bought her inside, she was a little shaken but she was meowing for a few minutes then drank some water and ate some biscuits. We decided to lock her in the bathroom if she was going to be noisy again during the night. well she must have heard us because we went to bed and didn’t hear even a single meow from her until about 3am when she had jumped on the dressing table right up on to the top of the wardrobe. Ben had to pull her down otherwise she would have broken something. Then she decided she wanted to get warm and went under the blankets and fell asleep between Ben and I purring the entire night. We were very happy that she was not noisy and we both had a good sleep considering. We then decided to carry her back to the neighbours to ensure she didn't do a repeat of the hillside escapade.


Another funny thing happened yesterday, I had asked the other admissions associate (Popsie) to help with finding someone to cut our lawn grass. Well the school employs lots of gardener type people to water plants and weed the school gardens. any how I had explained to Popsie that i wanted just the grass cut because I had already employed someone to weed the garden etc...i told her it shouldn't take more than an hour by hand. he said he would come at 3.45 to do it. When i got home 5.45 he was still there and he had not cut the grass, he had weeded the garden beds and removed lots of plants that I wanted. I was furious! not only had he not done the job but he had actually removed lots of the plants that I wanted to keep! Any how he is supposed to be coming today to finish doing more weeding and to cut the grass. we are paying him 40 rupees an hour ($1.10) and he has already spent 2 hours gardening, I wonder how much it will cost to have the whole thing done...I will let you know...
Other updates-

We selected some fabric for curtains in our room, had them made by the tailor and got them put up last night, they look great!

Ben still has Ecoli but is feeling so much better :)

We are planning on going to Rishikesh this weekend, however there is a travel alert due to a sacred land dispute between Hindus and Muslims which first started hundreds of years ago. The Ayodhya Supreme Court rulling is due to happen this afternoon to award who has the rights to the land. Rishikesh is a highly populated Hindu place with the ganga river as a very sacred spot for them. You can not find eggs or meat in the town either. We will be evaluating the situation should riots or attacks happen in the surrounding area.