Friday, November 10, 2006
Fifth Day !!!
Well five days have past and we all know (after chenxing's constant reminders) it was chenxing's birthday today. well as usual we had our tea and then we went to bathe and prepare for the day. Kairen and Kenneth were with us for the night and i did not really sleep well. Then Catherine's father called us out for 'something' and on the table we saw a big birthday cake just for chenxing. I was quite taken aback despite knowing the surprise, i did not know they prepared a BIG birthday cake for chenxing there a picture of it if you want to know how it looks like.
After the cake eating we went to school a little late and all of us were very good, giving chenxing what else? Other than cup noodles! chenxing was grateful(yea, i guess). It was time and we boarded the bus to go to Vagamon! at Vagamon we saw all the sights, sounds and smells of the mountain. The view was breathtaking!(dont worry i did not suffocate) It was also very cooling there and high up there, there was even a milk factory, making fresh milk. The cows smelt really bad! but i still like milk :). We climd around abit here and there and it was very fun.
After the visit it was night and we were very tired. We took a four hour bus ride home and everyone was dead beat and all were sleeping like logs. Our host family took us home halfway and i slept immediately after reaching my room! It was a nice (and cooling!) day up in the highlands.
that's life.and it does not end here!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Fourth Day in KeralaFor today we went for the factory/company visits. It was a very, very hot day and everyone was feeling a little low due to the heat. First we stopped by 2 pottery, the first one being bigger than the other. I was complaining in my mind about the need to visit 2 potteries. However i found out that if you had more financial help, pots can be done faster and easier, the bigger pottery used the bigger, "pressure cooker" types of cooker to make their pots, which took only 8 hours while the other can take up to 7 days. We had a try at pot making after seeing the maker 'do magic' with the clay (quoted from Eliseus) and it actually isnt as easy as it looks as i broke the top of the pot... The maker is actually very expierence an dhas been doing it for 15 years!
After the pottery visits, we went to the mini zoos and to see the elephants. I initially thought elephants were very smelly and dirty. But their keepers kept them very clean and they did not even smell abit, except for the fact that they did their business alot... we went to the mini zoo and saw jungle cats, peacocks, antelopes and monkeys. After which we went for our elephant ride, it was scary at first and don was singing 'i believe', i think . Nice elephant, dont fufill my wish of flying in such a painful way. i was asking don to stop singing, if i were an elephant i wont want four boys to be on my back while one is singing. yeah. well the elephant was nice enough and we got off safely. WHEW. And on that they we did a good thing too, we persuaded and encouraged Mr Cheong to go onto the elephant :).
After the elephant rides we went to the silk factory. However most (or maybe all) of us sneaked into the offices and cramped under the little fan and i believe the boss was alittle pissed... Enough of the bad stuff. At the silk factory we saw what went behind a piece of silk and the all the work that has been done to produce this nice fabric. We saw the machinery involved. It was pretty enriching and things were heating up in there, well, between me and the heat...
We cramped into our little bus and i was hot in there! (literally and figuratively) Finally we got to the plantation and while we were there we saw many different types of plants and spices, some of which are medicine, some are used as spices in cooking. However you have got to cook them, most of them are bitter and hard to swallow, chenxing learnt that the hard way....
After the plantation i was dead beat, but still hot, yea... we went to preetha's house for dinner! before dinner we took the basketball and went to the court for a friendly game. i fell down twice and got quite dirty, so i had to bathe before dinner. We used our hands for the first time during dinner and i did not take much rice, but ate as slow as the others. it was very fun to eat with our hands. After dinner we played abit of carom before return back to our host families for a well deserved rest....
that's life.and it does not end here!
Third day in Kerala
On the third day, we were back in the classrooms again, attending classes. During class i realised that the students do not interrupt the teachers as often as we do and are more attentive in class than we are here in Singapore. We should actually ask mroe questions and less nonsense during class. There was alot to learn from their learning styles when learning. :)
After classes was the Kerala Day celebration, we were required to wear traditional kerala wear called the 'mundu', above you can see Kairen, Don, Bertrand and Kenneth wearing it. haha. they look good, i guess. Yea, then we went for the celebrations at the auditorium, where Mr Cheong presents the drawing to Fr. Austin, the principal of RPS. We saw lots and lots of different dances and were actually very captivated.
When the celebrations ended, we sat through a science seminar which was actually a science presentation competition where students would present on their various research project, kind of like a 'project's day', in a smaller scale. Through this, we got in touch with some of the many talents in this school and we came to know that what they present is actually very similar to what we learn here in singapore.
Right after the science seminar we went for out backwater cruise which was very fun, everyone was dancing and having fun, while taking in the wonderful scenery around us, singing, dancing, and snapping of cameras all in one boat ride!
After the boat right we were all very tired, after dinner at a hotel, we went back to rest and the third day of our journey seemed to end in a flash.
that's life.and it does not end here!
Second Day in Kerala
On the second day, we first went to Kripa. Kripa is an organisation which cares for the treatment and welfare of the physicall disabled and also tries to create some jobs for them, such as umbrella and note book making. We were taught how to make umbrellas and saw how the notesbooks we buy everyday are make, some of us bought some notebooks and umbrellas before we went to our next stop which was the visit to the Kerala History Musuem.
At the Musuem we learnt about the extensive history of Kerala and how it came to be different from the other states in India, having a very large population of Christians. We saw all the figures which looked very life-like, some in which are very famous people in Kerala. We saw some great artwork and some scenery which looked very real and especially captivating to me. From this visit i saw the many hidden talents of Indian artists
After the musuem we went back to Ragairi Public School and we played some school, in which we were beaten 2-0. They were really good. After the match, we went to their newly built swimming pool for a dip, we had alot of fun. The lifeguards there were very caring and concerned.
After swimming we went to eat dinner with our host families, it was curry again, with chicken and fish. After dinner we turned in and it was the end of the second day!
that's life.and it does not end here!
First Day in Kerala
Hello! I am blogging all my happenings in Kerala on this blog and will be recording everyday. We touched down on 29 October and immediately went to our host families to stay in. We all got paired up and i was paired with Chenxing. So after meeting our host families we went back to their houses. My host was Catherine and i would be staying with them for the next 8 days are so. After reaching their house we were showed our bedroom and after unpacking some stuff we went to sleep immediately.
The next day, 30 October, we had jam and bread for breakfast as Catherine's dad did not think we would get used to the food in Kerala. My host had this habit of having tea and biscuits first before beginning the real breakfast. To the Keralites, breakfast is the most important meal of the three. After breakfast we went to school in Catherine's mother's car and we arrived at school. When we were at school, we attended their classes for awhile, 2 periods to be exact. Their lessons syllabus were actually quite similar to ours. However we are actually more playful and rowdy than most of them there. They have lots more things to learn than as. However, i have never seen their teacher teach them mind mapping to make their learning easier, which was odd as they had a whole book of words to memorise for their tests.
After class, we went for shopping at the garment shopping centre. Their shopping centre was not as big as ours, however it had alot od traditional clothing for us to choose from, during my visit threre, i realised there were actually many types of indian traditional clothing and despite the modernisation of India, the clothing still appealed diff people of different age groups. After shopping was dinner. Before dinner we were still entertained with card tricks from a magician! When it was time for dinner, i saw a variety of curries which is probably what i am going to eat till the end of the trip.
After dinner we went back to our host families' to get our rest and it was the end of the first day!
that's life.and it does not end here!