Cochrane – How the West is Now

PublishedJuly 8, 2013 Post authorClaire

I’ve been won over by the people of Alberta, Canada.

In the short time I’ve been here we have found a common love; free cake.

How to make me like a place

First we happened upon a supermarket that was celebrating its first birthday. They had two types of cake on offer. Then, shortly afterwards the local Community Centre put on a family fun day to celebrate the fact that they’ve been very helpful for 25 years. And just today I learned that we narrowly missed free cake at the Canada Day celebrations. Which were wonderful by the way.

This fello sang a few songs

Cochrane is a small town of 18,000 people with Wild West style buildings. If this were a proper travel blog I’d be saying something like….”With breathtaking Rocky Mountains to the west, the metropolis of Calgary to the south east, beautiful Water Valley to the south west and the adventure playground of Kananaskis due south, Cochrane is the little town with easy access to it all”. Most importantly for my 3 year old friend Lina, it has (what she calls) a musketeer in their town logo.

History

A lot of towns in this area were named back before it became frowned upon to lay your hat on a spot and call it after yourself (thankfully my ancestors got in before the cut). However, Cochrane is named in honour of the chap who began the Ranche here in 1881. By 1903 the little hamlet of Cochrane had become a town.

The nearest city, Calgary (about 30 minutes drive) came into being back in the 1860′s, when Montana decided to outlaw illegal liquor sales to natives. People who made their living this way were understandably perturbed and so hopped over the border, out of the jurisdiction of the anti-illegal liquor selling folk. Those who took the trip over the Canadian border found natives who were willing to trade whiskey for buffalo robes (which, I discovered, means buffalo skin, not coats for cold buffalo).

The main inhabitants of these lands were the Blackfoot (‘native’) people, whiskey traders and wolf hunters (both not-so-native). The wolfhunters lay poison to kill buffalo, attracting wolfves, who they then killed. Caught in the crossfire were the dogs of the Blackfoot who would also run in to eat some fallen buffalo. The whiskey traders saw a business opportunity and sold guns to the natives at the same time, to deal with the dog-killers. So… the natives didn’t like the wolfers, and the wolfers didn’t like the whiskey sellers, but the whiskey salespeople were pretty content with life.

A conflict arose, and the wolf hunters decided a provisional government should be set up, and that they should run it. First item on their agenda was, understandably, the prohibition of selling firearms to the Blackfoot. The folk over on the law and order-some East Coast of Canada got wind of the whiskey/wolf (and also fur trading) shenanigans and sent their North-West Mountain Police force to the region. They set up Fort Calgary and befriended the natives (now known as First Nations). This new friendship led to the Blackfoot signing treaties that led to settlements in this part of the country.

We’re between Banff and Calgary

Before the police on horses rolled into town the traders set up a fort called Fort Whoop-Up. Worth a visit just to honour the men who came up with such a great name.

The Most Welcoming Town of all

Even more impressive that the fantastic fort naming, is the incredible welcome newcomers get nowadays when they move to this town. I heard two newbies laugh (while eating free hamburgers given by the townspeople) about their matching candles. Candles are a staple of the Official Welcome Pack. Also included are coupons and vouchers for almost every business in town. We got a $30 voucher for a taco restaurant, and a $25 voucher for a seafood restaurant. There are coupons for paint, car servicing, dance classes, coffee houses, spas and a free gym pass (among others). I know these are all ploys to get us into their establishments, but they work! And I liked the hearty welcome I got from the staff at the health food store as I enjoyed my 15% discount for being new (didn’t mention that I’m only on holiday and that I’d swiped the coupon from a genuine newbie).

At the local supermarket the lady at the till uses the same voice one would expect from a nurse when being told, “You’ve been a good wickle girl today, here’s a big lollipop for you”. I often look around to see if they’re talking to a child behind me. But no, the cutesy voice is for the grown ups. Once I got over the initial shock I came to enjoy this cheeriness.

Happy people in their Western themes town

It’s a welcome that I couldn’t imagine in Ireland. The country that is hailed as the ‘Land of a thousand welcomes’. This is a rapidly growing town, the price of real estate takes a sharp incline to the right on any graph I’ve seen as it’s only 37km from the centre of Calgary, a big city in an oil rich state. They don’t need to entice people here, they’re just ridiculously friendly (and enjoy sharing cake for some reason).

I finished college just as things went south in Ireland. I’d forgotten, or never realised in the first place, that there are places in the world actively looking for employees. People here can’t believe how underused young people are in Ireland. The politicians on local television wear cowboy hats and the people speak of them in favourable terms, which is something completely new to me. In a recent poll people were very complimentary of the local government’s response to the local floods.

So, it’s possible for people to think politicians do a GOOD job?

If you’re not yet convinced; they have a piano on the main street that people play for a few minutes, and then move along.

Tinking the ivories on Cochrane Main Street

The historical information above has been ‘borrowed’ from Experience Kananaski Country and the Cowboy Trail

(Most other posts on this blog have lost their photos – whoops. Will be sorted soon)

Packing List for India

PublishedApril 5, 2012 Post authorClaire

I’ve been asked by a few people what they should pack for a trip to India. Short answer is I don’t know. Long answer is this is what I’ll be bringing this year. Some of it might may want to find its way into your bag too.

As India is a subcontinent, it all really depends on where you’ll be. This year I’ll be in the dry heat of Delhi, wet and sweaty Kolkata and Guwahati and the temperate climes of the Himalayas in Shillong. Which means I have to pack a little bit of everything.

The Essentials

1. Sleeping Bag Liner

The aid to a perfect night's sleep

Sometimes the sheets in hotels can be a little more off-white than I’m comfortable with. These little things can be rolled up extremely small (but I can never manage to get them back in the bag they came in) and can be used in 357 different ways. You get to bring your own sheet with you so never have to worry about hotel sheets, use it as a towel/bed on the beach and snuggle up on trains or planes. You can also just roll up a single duvet cover or sew together a double bed sheet (far too much hassle when they’re €2.25 in Tesco. Some people go mad and get silky ones (the one in the picture would cost €60!) but I’ve never found those to be very comfortable.

Waterproof bags

Waterproof Bags

I only bring these when going to Kolkata, as the rain will pound down and soak everything on you in 2.4 seconds. They can be tricky to use – took me almost 2 months to figure out how to open mine when I lived in Peru (didn’t realise I was moving to the driest place on Earth when I bought those….). But I’ve lost so many phones to the humidity to Kolkata that I bring them along every time now.

Mini Fan

Just look how happy we are with our mini-fan:

Happy Campers

It’s hard to believe a small piece of plastic could make you instant friends but it’s true. Wave your mini fan around a hostel in Kolkata and the sweaty travellers will flock to you.

A Small Rucksack

A happy traveller is a light traveller. In 2005 my bag broke on the way to India so I decided to get a massive blue suit case when I was there (and by the time I left the country this bag only made up a third of my luggage….). The case was so big I could fit my friend Sharon in:

I could even close it with her inside!

I was not a happy traveller.

We were just lucky the monsoon wasn’t too bad while we were there. Carrying that thing in thigh-high water would not have been fun. With a lot of luggage you’re not as mobile as the light travellers and you’ll often have to leave your luggage in the luggage section of buses while the light traveller will have their gear with them. This year I’ll be travelling with a 50L bag:

Haven't bought one yet but it'll be something like this

Kindle

Can’t believe I was ever so critical of electronic books.

Better than an iPad

This should really be item No. 1. Not only does it store all my books including my India guidebooks, but the Kindle 3 3G version has free internet on it. It’s slow and as my buddy Erin said, ‘Like using an Etch-a-Sketch to browse the web’, but it’s great on long journeys to be able to check emails. And most hostels I’ve stayed in don’t have WiFi (and international phones doen’t work in India).

A Dupatta

That would be scarf to the rest of us. I was once accosted for daring to go to work in southern India without one of these (back when I was a toilet inspector). Ironically I had accidentally bought a big, baggy man’s outfit when buying Indian clothes and the thing was hanging off me (before someone pointed out my mistake). But still, unflattering clothing or not, I was flaunting myself because I was not wearing a dupatta. Now I don’t leave home without one. Look, you can’t even tell the if wearer is female:

Ta-dam! Everything is hidden

(I know the picture isn’t really of a dupatta, it’s just a regular scarf – but it does the same job)

Hand Sanitizer

I’m sure you know what this does. I don’t even think it needs a photo. It keeps your hands clean!

Deet Mosquito Repellent

I wrote last year about an incident I had with some monkeys. They stole my insect repellent and I discovered that you can’t buy insect repellent with Deet in it (the effective variety) in India. This year I’ll be packing two bottles in case I meet some monkeys.

Sweets

Amazingly only a handful of the 1.16 billion people in India have taken to importing soft chewy sweets. This means that they’re hard to get and very expensive. A packet of Haribo is three times the price in India compared to Ireland, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find them (baked beans was another import I struggled to afford). So if you suffer from an unfortunate addiction, stock up before you leave home.

Last year I travelled with 27 packets!

If I ever get sick of teaching Irish to teenagers (yea, like that could ever happen….) I’m going to become a professional importer of chewy sweets to India.

Jumper

People don’t believe me but it can get cold in India, even in summer time. In Shillong the night time temperatures wouldn’t be much more than in Ireland. Bring something warm. This typical Irish couple will demonstrate what I mean if the heading is somewhat ambiguous to you.

How every Irish couple looks

Le Pouch

Some people say they dangerous because it’s the first place thieves will look on you for money, some people say they’re the safest way to carry stuff. I use them because I’m sick of losing my passport. In Shillong I once left it in a taxi, in Thailand I left it on a bus and in Peru the damn thing fell down a toilet. So now I go nowhere without a pouch.

European Plug Adapter

I’m not sure if you’re really meant to use European Plug adapters in India. They do the job but never fully fit into the plug socket. I was once given a proper Ireland -> India plug adapter but I lost it and never found one like it again. For now I’ll battle on with my European one and put up with the sparks it creates.

A Cheap Phone

Sadly enough I remember being jealous of someone who owned this phone

I say cheap because I have lost many a good phone to the humidity of India. Even if the phone itself doesn’t die (and it has in the past) the camera gets moist and the photos are terrible after. I went to India with a HTC Wildfire last year and the photos have never been the same since, and I didn’t even go to the most humid parts of India. I’ve no idea how India people have iPhones and the like. Their phones must have built up immunity in their DNA.

Back in 2009 it took many trips to a phone store and half a million signatures later got a sim card but now it’s getting easier. Just remember to travel with some passport photos and copies of your passport and visa page.

Bike Lock

Not just for bikes

I use these on trains and in hotels (along with padlocks to lock my bags). So far I’ve discovering losing keys is a bigger issue than having a bag stolen but I’ve yet to see a combination lock in a €2 store.

Ladies Items

Definitely won’t be using photos for this one. Suffice to say if there is anything you’d be shy about asking your dad to buy you, bring a large supply to India with you. And don’t pack them in your hand luggage. Explaining the function of a tampon to a non-English speaking airport security man while he waves it around like a missile is not an enjoyable experience.

Most Useless Items

Mosquito Nets

Do they look happy?!?

Mosquitos mostly bite at dawn and dusk. In Shillong in the summer dusk starts about 6pm. There is a very slight chance of me ever being tucked up in my mosquito net prison at that time. Sleeping under a mosquito net is one of the most uncomfortable ways of sleeping I’ve ever attempted. My bed in the picture is the furthest one away. I fashioned a little tent out of my net to escape the little bubble the others had to sleep in and I still gave up after one night. Last year my net didn’t even come out of my bag. Best way for avoiding the bugs is Deet, long clothing, long socks and/or tights and insect repellents you plug into the wall (available in India).

Rain coats

This is what a rain coat looks like

They just don’t work. When it rains in India it really rains. The coat will just soak to you an you won’t be able to see where you’re going. You’d have to pack a very expensive (and hard to carry) jacket for it to be totally waterproof. And if it’s Kolkata or Delhi you’re in when it rains, you’ll be roasting too. Best bet for the monsoons of India is your normal light clothing and a decent umbrella.

This Thing:

Just learn how to squat

Plugs and Lines

Some people will tell you you can’t leave home without a multi-sink plug and a good clothes line:

Laundry in Kolkata costs about a €1.50 per bag and it’s the only time of the year my clothes get ironed. I’m not giving that up to earn some hardened traveller points.

The Items I Wish I Packed

The Hanging Toilet Bag

I’ve long been jealous of travellers who get to a hostel, take out their toilet bag and hang it proudly on their bed displaying all their travel sized toiletries. All the while I’m searching in the bottom of my bag for my wayward tooth brush. Some day I will own one of these bad boys:

Someday....

Half Boot/Half Walking Shoe

Ooooooo

Every traveller I’ve ever seen walk in these looks very happy with themselves. I’m more a Jesus sandal girl myself, but if I ever upgrade – these are the shoes I’ll be sporting.

If there’s anything I’ve forgotten, feel free to remind me in the comments and I may update the post. As I said, everything depends on where you go and at what time of the year. This list is an ideal list also. I’ve never travelled with all those items at once, and I’ve never packed light. This year will be my year….

Albania – 800km in 48 hours

PublishedJanuary 29, 2012 Post authorClaire

In some ways I don’t like blogging about Albania.

Of all the countries I’ve been to, it’s possibly the one least people can place on a map. And all of us who took little breaks in the little-known country kind of liked that. One of my Kosovar friends told me about a great little place in Albania, and then swore me to secrecy. When you see the over-development of Croatia, which is fast spreading to Montenegro, it’s a sweet relief to see the beautiful untouched buildings of Albania.

Our route was Tirana – Durres – Berat – Fier – Gjirokaster – Sarande – Dhermi – Vlore – Durres – Tirana. We forgot to enquire about the condition of the roads or about the possibilities of there being mountains in the country at that time of year. Both slowed us down a bit but we still managed to do the route in just under 48 hours so the lady in the car rental shop couldn’t charge us extra (although she did try to catch us for supposed damage to the car). On the map we’re going from blue to green to purple and back to blue.

Le Route

Before leaving the homeland (Kosovo) I’d been warned that no one would speak English and that the drivers were the worst in Europe. My friend Marie and I packed our English-Albanian phrasebook and were pretty confident that no driver could be a match for me (didn’t see any of them taking 6.5 years to pass a driving test).

With only 48 hours in the country, and had to drive as fast as our little wheels could safely manage on the often un-paved surfaces. The adventure began in the capital Tirana. We both looked at each other and screamed “There are no cars on the footpaths!!”. It’s true. They actually park on the road. After a year in Kosovo it was strange to walk in a straight line on a footpath. I kept going to move my body in anticipation of the next on-path vehicle.

Pretty Building 1 of 564

Driving was a slightly hairy experience. Within 100 metres of setting off I had cars honking and waving wildly at me. I gave as good as I got and sent some hand signals in their direction. Marie could just about make out what one of the crazy drivers were saying,

“I think he’s saying your boot is open”

And right they were. We stopped mid-roundabout to sort that out and got back on our way. We had some young lads who thought it would be hilarious to drive right up along side us and shout things (for fun this time, boot was closed). They slowed down when we slowed down and just before I sped off into the distance to get rid of them I figured stopping for petrol would be a better way of getting rid of them.

Once out of the city it was easier to drive. And we soon (hours and hours later) came to the wonderful city of Berat. Berat, population 148,000, is a commercial centre of central Albania and is built on the ancient site of Antipatrea (yes, I’m quoting from the guide book). The most exciting thing that happened to us here was getting red wine with floating white things in it and the waiter saying that that’s perfectly normal for Albanian wine…..

But we did some great streets and buildings:

Berat

We saw lots of men drinking coffee

Byzantine Church

After running around town trying to take in the sights it was time for another fun 6 hours in the car to get to our next destination: Gjirokaster. We arrived on a Sunday. And clearly no one goes outside on a Sunday!

Eerily quiet...

Streets of G-kaster

As with other parts of the country, there was no shortage of remnants from their tumultuous past. Bomb shelters and canons can be seen blending in with the country side. And the odd plane or two.

Got me a plane!

While racing against time to get back up the country before our time with the car ran out, we had a short overnight stay in the seaside resort I was sworn to secrecy about. I won’t say much about the place, except that the water is exceptionally blue!

Sooo blue

The food there was incredible. When we stopped in the town-that-shall-not-be-named we were the only out of towners, and no hotels or restaurants were open. We asked the owner of the only guest house open if she would cook us something. She provided us with a feast of Albanian soft cheesy things and lots of fish. Here is my travel buddy Marie enjoying the local cuisine:

Albania is a fantastic place for a holiday. Lonely Planet and such travel guides have realised this recently and it’s been on many ‘Must go’ lists since. It’s certainly on my ‘Must return to’ list. We found it hard to find things without the guidebook. We once searched for over an hour to find a restaurant (in the capital city) and ended up only finding a fast food place. Outside of Tirana most didn’t speak English but many had Italian or German (which we didn’t have, we spoke with our hands).

All Souls Day in Shillong

PublishedNovember 14, 2011 Post authorClaire

November is the month the people of Shillong step out and pray for their faithful departed. All Souls Day is the day when those left on this earth go to the graveyard and hope and pray that their loved ones get in the pearly gates. November 2nd is the day the Catholics in this town go to town to pay their respects. Someone asked me if we had such a tradition in Ireland. I said, “No way, we don’t do this sort of thing at all, at all”. I got a quick dig into the ribs and a reminder that yes, indeed we do do this kind of thing in Ireland. But we definitely don’t make our graveyards as pretty as this:

Prettiest grave I've ever seen

It rained the entire time we were there. So all the photos I took were with one hand under an umbrella.

Prettiest graves I've ever seen

Our main task for the evening was to make sure the Irish were not the only ones with undecorated graves. The Irish people in this graveyard are a long way from home (8,561 kilometres from Cork to Shillong) and so wouldn’t get many visitors. They were all part of religious communities and those groups took it upon themselves to go and place flowers and candles on the graves. There were names such as Dooley, O Loughlin and Dunne alongside the Khasi names Syiem, Diengdoh and Lyngdoh.

I may have been shivering when I took this...

The dedication of the crowd there was incredible. The rain was so strong it hurt, and I found a little dry patch under a big tree. I went to one of the trainee monks and told him of this dry patch, which was a good few metres away from the graves. His response was, “But we’re about to say the Hail Mary”. And so he carried on praying and getting soaked (while I said a few quiet words under my dry tree).

Mawlynnong – The Cleanest Village in Asia

PublishedAugust 15, 2011 Post authorClaire

Clean house in a clean village!

Since 2003 a little village in the north east of India has held the very prestigious title of ‘Cleanest Village in Asia’. Mawlynnong, 90 kilometres from the capital of Meghalaya, Shillong, received the award from a travel magazine for having a zero litter policy, helped with pretty bamboo bins scattered around the village. As well as that all the villagers have access to a toilet and everyone is literate. It seems (from my limited research) that no other place has taken their crown in the intervening years so Mawlynnong is still the King of Clean. If anyone is not sure where we’re talking about, the pink dot on the map marks the spot, it’s very close to the Bangladesh border, but high up in the Khasi Hills.

Pink dot marks the spot

Getting to the village isn’t the easiest thing in the world. The nearest major international airport is Kolkata, which is an hours flight over Bangladesh to Guwahati in Assam. From there it is almost 4 hours to Shillong and then the final 90km to Mawlynnong takes about 3 hours. You might think that is a long way to go for a clean village, but that’s not all you get after travelling this far. You can also witness a big rock balancing on a small rock:

Ooooo

It looks like it's balancing on that fence, but it's not

If rocks balancing on other rocks aren’t your thing, Mawlynnong also boasts a tree with roots that spread across a river, connecting the two sides and creating a living root bridge. If this was in a more accessible place, it would definitely be one of India’s top tourist attractions. The Taj Mahal might have taken over 20,000 people to build – but this took no one, just nature. The local people just use some betel tree trunks to guide the roots in the right direction. Within 10-15 years the bridge becomes strong and stones are placed on them to make walking on them more comfortable.

The root bridge (with my colleagues waving on the right!)

The tree that is used for this is called Ficus Elastica. The roots of this tree can be used because it produces secondary roots further up it’s trunk that can be grown and spread across a river.

The stones on the bridge

The view from inside the roots

That’s not the only engineering marvel the Khasi people have created in Mawlynnong. This tree house is so far up in the trees that I couldn’t get the whole thing into one photo:

It looks high, but it is actually much higher...

The Bamboo Route

Just rope keeping those corners together

By the time I got to the top I could barely breathe. I was up higher than the trees with nothing but bamboo and some rope to support us. One of my colleagues reassured me that the Sky View treehouse had been there for years and it hadn’t collapsed yet, so we were probably going to be ok.

At the top there was a little platform on which we could rest a moment and get our breath back. From the top there is a great view of Bangladesh (but we went mid-monsoon and so had to catch quick glimpses between clouds).

Some of my wonderful colleagues who brought me to this magical place (the rest are waiting under the tree)

Mawlynnong is only 4 kilometres from the Bangladesh border so when the clouds step aside for a minute there are some great views.

Bangladesh

Back to the amazing tree house….I want to live in this thing!

The way down

With the balancing rock, living root bridge and ridiculously high tree house, it’s easy to forgot the main attraction; the very clean village. So here is some more Mawlynnong:

Typical house in Mawlynnong

Friendly local

Paths in the village

Mawlynnong is an amazing, peaceful place. It is well worth the many rocky roads it takes to get there. Just bring sandwiches if you go! There aren’t many places to eat and the place thats sign reads: ‘All kind of cool drink’, actually only sells tea.

Strolling through the trees

A Week of Inspirational Students

PublishedAugust 2, 2011 Post authorClaire

While searching for a few students I lost today, I started pondering the differences between teaching in Ireland and India. Being able to take 27 kids out for a day on your own would be not be possible on my green island. Losing students could get you into quite a spot of bother. Last week one of our teachers spilled hot oil on a child, and he just shrugged and moved along with his burning arm. When someone needs to light a gas stove they take a long piece of paper, stick it in the fire then run through the crowds of children ducking and dodging them while holding their Olympic sized flame.

But the students are great, and we really try not to lose or burn them.

Match-day warm up means hardest workout of your life in our school

This week I have had a whole week of being reminded why I keep coming back here to Shillong to see them.

(This is being posted two weeks after I originally wrote this as Internet has been too weak to add the photos)

Monday

At the start of the week I happened across two students having a friendly argument. Both were jumping around the yard throwing something at each other. It was a 50 Rupee note (€0.78) that the one half of the argument had given to her classmate and he was trying to pay her back. The same girl who was refusing to take back the money couldn’t afford a 2 Rupee bus fare in 2008 (her lot improved when the school placed her is a safe home to get away from an bad situation). It’s nice to see someone whose luck is improving spreading the love around!

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning I began my day singing some rhymes with the KG class. The smallest student in the school ran into the classroom holding his pants. I informed him that he would have to get back out the door and get himself to the bathroom, I’m not good at handling accident situations. His little face scrunched up as my translator told me there was no time. He had to go and he had to go right away. Wilson, the chap in question, has rickets and so he knew his legs wouldn’t take him to where he needed to go in time.

The tallest boy in class came to Wilson’s rescue. Without even telling his smaller counterpart the plan, he hoisted him up on this back and made for the door. A third lad grabbed an umbrella and ran after them to keep them dry. They all came back a few minutes later with a very happy Wilson still on Noah’s back.

Wilson, happy after making it to the bathroom!

Wednesday

The midweek ‘hump’ day started very early for one of our students. Ranjit, turned up at 6.30am to cook some India snacks for his classmates and teachers. We had no idea what he was doing when I arrived into the kitchen with my two colleagues. We all presumed that one of the other teachers had asked him to cook these as part of the cooking class. It was only at the end of class when we were asking why he was rolling so many of these tasty doughy-potatoy goodies that he told us it was his way of celebrating. In the confusion I had tried to pack up his labour of love and sell it along with all the other food we make for selling every day. Thankfully some little people stopped me in my tracks and we all welcomed in his 17th year.

I didn’t get a photo of his birthday food. But it looked very like the circles below. Just with onion and potato mixed in:

Teiborlang modelling the food

Later that day…..

…I had to go do some shopping. My students dutifully accompanied me so I wouldn’t get lost on the road. Just as we were leaving the grounds of the school one girl said;

“Miss, what is a squat?”

I showed her what a squat was, getting down on my hunkers and knocking over a uniformed man with my butt.

“Eh….no Miss. S-Q-U-A-D”

“Ah, a squad. It’s like a team”

“Oh, so what’s a bomb team…”

The uniformed lad my rear end had collided with was one of the many bomb disposal experts who were outside our local restaurant. An hour earlier we heard an explosion and joked that it sounded quite like a bomb. My students laughed at my reaction (I’m not too fond of bombs) – suddenly I didn’t really need to go shopping at all.

“You scared of bombs, Miss??”

And just in case I wasn’t terrified enough the littlest one stated matter-of-factly; “There was another one in Lapalang yesterday”

I’m not sure where this Lapalang is but I think I was there once visiting the homes of the students. These little people are unfazed by anything (except earthquakes, don’t mention earthquakes). The ‘bomb’ in our restaurant turned out to be a gas explosion (in which one person died unfortunately). It was just unlucjy that it happened just after a local group threatened to bomb the city so it caused a bit of panic.

Thursday

On Thursday I met one of my former students who I taught back in 2005/06. She’s now 21, working, studying and fending for herself far better than I am. She spoke to me very honestly about how life after school is for our students, and how they feel applying for jobs having come from a school with, ‘for underprivileged children’ in its title. She was afraid at first to tell anyone what school she had gone to for fear of being branded in a negative way, and only now, two years after she left school, she realises how lucky she is to be a graduate of Providence. The skills she learned in the school have stood to her and she can earn a decent wage as a hairdresser/beautician while she studies.

She is currently taking classes in English, Education, History, Economics and Political Science for her Class XII exams (equivalent to English A-levels). When class is over at midday (it begins at 6am) she goes to her job in a beauty parlour and does a full days work there. She gave me the run down on what her former classmates are up to. 5 have gone on to higher education, the other 10 are working as chefs, teachers, in a bank, and as a trainer of sales people in an insurance company. I recently met the last gu y who was just back from a business trip in Kolkata! When you think that their parents had to earn less than 15 Euro a month to get them into the school, and they’re all earning more than that now – they’re not doing too bad!

(We’ll just slip past Friday as not much happened that day…..)

Saturday

We went out for a stroll, my students and I. Came across this lovely addition to a waterfall:

Recycled Beer Bottle

For our outing we went to the local golf course (where I misplaced the aforementioned lost students). This is possibly the most popular hang out place for families in all of Shillong and anyone who dare play golf there gets hundreds of angry eyes watching til they move on. I used laugh at this, but I became the owner of two of those angry eyes when my picnic on the 8th tee was interrupted.

My students and I wandered around for a while, the smallest one taking me by the hand and leading me around. I thought she just like holding hands, but I noticed she seemed to also want to run and play. I finally convinced her to leave me and go and she screamed;

“Roseliiiiina! Come mind Miss”

My students are cute, but there is really no need to mind ‘Miss’.

Chesstastic - lying on the 8th fairway

I only have a few days left here in Shillong. My main job is to teach Internet to 10 youngsters who have never used it before. We had a shaky start with people replying to Google Alerts Autoresponders thanking them for services and writing too Mail Daemon messages apologizing for writing the wrong email address. Just the other day someone wanted to ask Google how to change the homepage. When they typed in ‘How to’ Google gave some helpful suggestions, ‘How to get pregnant’ and ‘How to kiss’. Thankfully the student’s head was down while she was typing and and didn’t see the suggestions. I willed her to keep typing and not look up until she’s done!

The Monkey and the Mosquito Repellent…..

PublishedJuly 9, 2011 Post authorClaire

One of the reasons I like India is that I have never been robbed, mugged or even badly ripped off here. I have found all 1.16 billion Indians to be nice, honest folk.

All that changed this week. I was the victim of a planned attack by a local family who decided my 50% deet insect repellent would be of value to them (it’s not available in India so I see their point). On the day of the robbery they even brought a new mother along with her infant to help out:

Keeping watch

When I first moved into my hotel last week the owner warned me of the local monkey population. Despite many social inclusion programs the state government has put in place here in Shimla, this minority group continue to live on the margins and are the main cause of petty crime in this hill resort. Shimla, by the way, is a very pretty little spot. This is the view from my hotel;

View from the top

It was all fun and games to begin with; cute little monkey climbed up on my windowsill. Our eyes met. He was clearly an angry monkey. While jumping away this was the only photo I could get of the incident;

The Incident

The monkey took my repellent and put it just out of my reach on the roof outside my window. I took some time to think about strategies to retrieve the spray. I walked around town and got confirmation that they do not sell that kind of thing in India (deet is bad for the mosquitos’ health). The only way I was going to be protected from the disease -filled bugs was to go retrieve my bottle from the monkeys.

For that, I created this:

I now have two Indian mops in my suitcase

When I returned home three hours laters, armed with my mops, the repellent was still where the monkey had left it and the unruly monkey family seemed to have left. Just as I lowered my mops out the window the whole family came galloping back into my part of town. One little fella made a dash for the bottle:

Going for it!

Inspecting the bottle

Getting a closer look

Daddy Monkey standing guard

Daddy Monkey ruining his teeth

When it’s all over Baby Monkey runs away with the evidence

Off he goes

I thought that was the end of that when the monkeys had finished feasting on my impossible-to-buy-in-India insect repellent.

But no.

The next time I looked out my window I had some severely ill monkeys as neighbours, all looking at me like I had poisoned them (I had shouted some warnings earlier but they didn’t listen). At first I thought they were dead monkeys, but no, just a bit hungover after their deet high.

Note how the original thief (far left) tries to make me feel guilty with his eyes:

Told ya so

Well honestly, what did you expect?

As he’s getting checked out they might as well look for knits at the same time

In Ireland we’d just have had another bottle of insect repellent the next day to cure the effects of the first bottle. These monkeys didn’t seem to like that idea…

But at least none of the little buggers died. And I finally got another bottle of deet when a kind American lady called Frances gave me her spare bottle. I’m all set to tackle the crazy mosquitoes of North East India. At least they don’t have crazy monkeys there.

Getting my ‘India Confidence’ Back

PublishedJuly 1, 2011 Post authorClaire

I'm baaaaack!

After a two year absence I am back in India! It’s still hot and the mosquitoes still love me dearly. Even though this was my 6th time arriving into India, I still had to take some time to chill out and get my ‘India confidence’ back. That is, to go from shrieking at a man who dared ask, “How are you enjoying the rain?” to saddling up next to some people on a boat and asking them semi-personal questions. This usually happens within 24-36 hours, depending on how much sleep I’ve had.

I blame the guidebooks for this initial nervousness I feel towards the horns, the smells, the oft-quoted “attack on the senses” (I have a parasite in my eye and just had surgery on my nose – my sense are a little delicate). According to my two guidebooks a woman travelling solo in India has to be confident, relaxed, adventurous, courageous. assertive, daring, very brave and thick-skinned. That is too many adjectives for anyone to live up to. I will also be dealing with; groping, provocative gestures, jeering and lewd comments. So far all I’ve gotten are a few, “You’re very big for a woman, you know?”.

I don’t think they were coming on to me.

My last blog post had a list in it, and people seemed to like that (1,340 times according to the Like-o-meter at the bottom, but who’s counting?) so this post should also have a list.

Ta-dam:

2 things I have learned in my first 2 days back in India

Lesson No.1 : Don’t stick your finger in your eye after using hand sanitizer. I don’t smoke or do drugs, but I do occasionally indulge my habit of rubbing my eyes, especially in the morning when the night has been spent listening to the Mumbai traffic thinking, “I bet they’ll go to bed in 5 minutes…..maybe another 2 minutes….” and just a little rub would has me up and ready for the day.

This is the result (don’t look if you don’t like having your senses attacked). This is actually when I was half-way cured again. When it was really bad I was too busy running around in a small circle screaming and the aforementioned men who were meant to be leering and gesturing at me were terrified and wouldn’t look at me (It’s really not too bad here, it was a like a swollen tomato at one stage).

Two eyes....two different shapes!

It all went back to normal after 12 hours.

Lesson No. 2 – Don’t say, “Wouldn’t it be nuts if this boat crashed” while getting on a boat

From the little pier next to the Gate of India in Mumbai, you can take boats to Elephanta Island (don’t be fooled as I was – there are no elephants. The place used have a name that actually meant something ’til the Portuguese saw a now long-gone statue of an elephant and called the place Elephanta). The wooden tourist boats leave every 10-15 minutes and from what I could see were all leaving the pier fine and happily sailing into the mist, dodging all the military boats quite skillfully. I chose the boat that chugged along gracefully for about 10 metres and then…..died.

I thought the driver was just saving petrol and that we would shortly be floating towards the island. Instead we floated into the next nearest boat who watched, unable to do anything, as we all leaned over the front to see our water carriage careering into their boat in slow motion (because we didn’t have an engine to do it any faster with!).

It was a lovely boat before we reached them:

The before shot

And then we came along and made this dent (this photo was taklen after they had kicked it out from the inside – I was waiting for others to start snapping photos before I did….)

: The after (after the kicked it out from the inside)

Being Irish I was expecting finger wagging, police intervention and insurance claims. Being Indian the other boat’s crew made fun of our captain and grabbed a hammer and nails to get to work repairing their wooden boat. When that didn’t work Plan B was put into action: hide the damage.

Sorted!!

When all the laughing was over with we were still stranded less than 20 metres from the shore; a little bit too long to jump (and did you see the colour of that water?). A little old lady was the first to come up with a solution when she took the garland of flowers from around her neck and threw them in the water. She turned and gave me a look that either said, “Now it’ll all be ok, the flowers are in the water”, or else it was “This’ll teach that foreign one to go boating with the contents of a small electronics shop attached to her combats”. Either way the flowers did not work and next it was the men folk on board who tried to get us moving.

(The view while all this was happening was quite cool though:)

The view

The captain had decided that we should all stay on board until the engine was back working. Calling another boat to take the 30 passengers would mean the boat’s crew giving the fares they’d collected to the new boat. But the older gentlemen on board didn’t enjoy being on an open top boat on a sticky summers day and started a revolution from their little wooden benches. Everyone joined in (I was excused from duty – I don’t think they wanted to look at my eye – see above). I found one of those 10 year olds who have parents from 4 different countries and can therefore speak 9 languages who told me the passengers were shouting, “You’ve kidnapped us” and “We will have you arrested the minute you step back on land”.

The revolution I did nothing to assist with worked, we were rescued and off we sailed to see the elephants (I had yet to discover the no-elephant thing). Elephanta Island is known for its caves, so I suppose I should show some caves here:

Not an elephant

Some more caves

The island did have a good population of monkeys. They looked like fun, but the guidebook said if I even looked at them they would attack me.

Ain't he cute?

I have to stop reading those guide books.

10 Things I Like about Kosovo

PublishedJune 13, 2011 Post authorClaire

I’ve just spent the afternoon walking through the town that was my home for the past year. Seeing as the 2nd most common way my blog is found on Google is through someone typing, ‘Living in Kosovo’ I figure I should write a little something for those who may be living here in the future or who would may holiday in this part of the world.

10. Location

Kosovo is a great base for exploring the Balkans. As you can see from the informative map below it has a useful location in the region for travellers. Just €5 and a 2 hour bus ride will have you in Skopje, Albania’s capital Tirana is 5 hours away (and €15), Sofia is just 5 hours from Skopje. The only place we can’t get to easily is Serbia as there are issues with entry stamps and registration cards.

Living in between so many countries is also great for your geographical knowledge and makes you occasionally useful at table quizzes.

We're the blue one

9. Coffee

Not one of the things I like about Kosovo, as I have a passionate dislike of all things coffee flavoured, but anyone who has ever tasted Kosovo coffee has said it’s the best in the world. I once had a local coffee-lover here corner me and slightly aggressively ask, “You like gay coffee? Gay coffee is the best, isn’t it??” I didn’t want to disagree with this guy so I said that yes, of course homosexual coffee tastes better than the straight variety. After about 10 minutes of this he pulls out a packet of ‘G Coffee’, pronounced ‘gay coffee’ in Albanian.

8. The Kosovar Pepper

I don’t know what these things are really called, but they are damn tasty. They go with everything, and seem to come with everything as well. I’ve never seem them outside of Kosovo (but they’re probably as common as rice everywhere but Ireland). In the photo they are the slightly green ones. I have to figure out how to import these fellas into my garden in Ireland:

A-mazing!

7. Activism

These people are vocal, and not afraid to take to the streets to make a point. Coming from a country where we hand over billions of Euros to toxic banks with a smile, it’s nice to live somewhere where the people will stand up for what they believe in in peaceful way (just last night I waved to some lads camping on the main street in protest). The most memorable in the past year has been the campaign in the photo below, where 1837 pairs of shoes were left on the main pedestrian street, one pair for each person still unaccounted for since the war.

Shoes for the missing people

6. Restaurants

There aren’t many cities the size of Prishtina (2011 census suggest 200,000 people live here) that you can eat out in regularly and not get bored. Fellow Kosovo blogger, known as MT Cowgirl, has a Restaurant Guide that we often refer to before stepping out. The large ex-pat community here is the main reason the capital city has Indian, Chinese, Italian, Nepali and Thai restaurants. My personal favourites are any that comply with the lax anti-smoking laws; Amelie, the Nepali restaurant, downstairs in Central Lounge, DeRada… Although all forget the laws if someone important looking wants to light up.

5. Little Towns

Kosovo has many little cities/towns that we like to escape to for a day in the countryside. Among them are Prizren, Peja/Pec, Gjakova. All are easy to reach from Prishtina and have a completely different feel from the capital (mostly owing to the lack of internationals with their hamburgers and baseball caps and the different ethnicities that live in these towns). Below is a hotel near one little town, Brezovica (the site of my ski trip earlier this year:

Sharr Hotel in the mountains

And that brings me to…..

4. Nature

Kosovo does nature quite well. There is an active hiking club in Prishtina that goes all over Rogova Valley and Dragash, two popular hiking spots. An easy way to see this nature is by joining one of the many sporting endeavours that are organized throughout the year like the swimming marathon and the Tour de Culture Cycle. That way you find pretty restaurants like these you may not otherwise come across:

Not a bad spot for some ice-cream

3. Food

I think pictures will do a better job of explaining this section:

Little bits of meat swimming in melted cheese

Vegetarians should just keep on driving until the reach Greece, you might find something for yourself there...

This next one, flie (pronouced flee-yah – well I pronouce it flee-yah, it might not be said like that at all….) can fill you up for up to 7 hours with one serving. Very often new people arrive in town and we invite them out for dinner. A common response is, “Sorry guys, I ate something called flie for lunch, and I don’t think I can eat again until tomorrow”. This is also what we were given before our 43km cycle over the hills of Kosovo to keep us going.

I looked pretty nuts in the restaurant stripping it with my left hand so my right hand could take a photo

I checked, they don't taste like stale cigarettes and bad aftershave...

The next, the famous burek, deserves a better picture – but this is the best my phone could manage. It comes in 3 flavours - spinach, cheese and meat and they’re wrapped in pastry. One of my happiest days in Kosovo was when I discovered you could order a mix and get all three and so not have to chose between them.

Burek!

More burek, just a different shape.

2. The People

Before writing this I asked a few people what their favourite thing about Kosovo is, and quite a number of them said “the people”. It has be to said; they’re friendly (and quite good looking!). For me, there are two sets of people here – who unfortunately stay separate a lot of the time – the locals and the ex-pats. Both are great; the local people for always being up for a chat and not minding that we are so terrible at their language. They educate us on what has happened in these parts for the last 20 years, and don’t seem to hold it against us that we arrive ready to save the planet but not knowing exactly where Kosovo might be on a map….

The ex-pats are equally fun. Age, nationality nor hair-colour matter, we all hang out together with a sort of ‘in this together’ attitude. People are always available as we don’t have distractions like partners, children or hobbies (save for the odd Albanian lesson or Pilates class). For anyone new to the place, check out a group on Facebook called ‘Network Prishtina’, anyone doing anything, going anywhere or giving away puppies announces it on that.

And now for my favourite thing about Kosovo……

1. The Constant Festival Feel

This could be numbers 1 through to 5. The single best thing about this place is the fact that there is always something happening on Mother Teresa Boulevard. As I type this on a Sunday evening in June, there are the aforementioned people camping on the street, popcorn sellers, balloons, flags from various countries draped across the road, photos hanging from clothes lines (again in protest, but still…), people handing out badges, men selling toys with plastic dogs barking at their heels, ice cream stands, teenagers walking up and down and up again all evening (and there are lots of teenagers in this youngest-population-in-Europe place).

When I arrived back here on Saturday evening I first thought I had stumbled across some mid-summer festival, til I remembered it’s just Prishtina being it’s normal celebratory self:

Party time!

Popcorn!

Some lovely (protesting) pictures

Another festival day sometime last year...

If I’ve left anything out feel free to let me know in the comments below. Or if you disagree with any of mine (just don’t insult my Kosovo Pepper….).

Becoming a Youth in Action

PublishedApril 19, 2011 Post authorClaire

I’m seven years into my ‘youth’ (as defined by the EU 18-30) but I’ve only recently discovered the wonderful programs the EU fund for us young people so that we can hang out, get to know each other and become friendly EU neighbours. The lovely EU folk have created a program called ‘Youth in Action’ where people can go volunteer in other countries (not necessarily EU countries) and get together for short projects like training courses and study visits. In the last month I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in two such activities; a study visit of NGO’s dealing with marginalized groups and a training course in Adventureship (I’ll write on the former soon when I get photos from it).

Our team on an adventure!

These type of courses are based on the concept of non-formal education. Basically, this means we all get together and learn from each other, rather than listening to someone speak all day long (although my courses had knowledgeable facilitators). I’ve had some eyes rolled at me when people hear it’s a Youth in Action course. To that, I can only say it depends on the course you go to and who is running it (and who participates). The people in Macedonia, including my wonderful former housemate Ilona, have been doing this for quite a while now, they run a lot of courses every year and they do it extremely well!

Training Course on Adventureship

Last week I joined 24 people from almost 20 countries who came together to learn about Adventure skills in Macedonia. We started out in Skopje, the capital, where we had a City Challenge. We were given a map and some clues and had to find our way around the city to 7 stations. At each station we had some team building exercises to do, that included painting, drawing Europe, deciding who to allow move in next to our hypothetical apartment, interviewing strangers on the street and musical and theatrical performances. The highlight of that tour (apart from being on the winning team…) was performing my favourite childhood poem, Ooey Gooey:

From Skopje we moved to Struga, and to a hotel on Lake Ohrid. The highlight for most people was the one-day hike in Galicica National Park. We hiked for 5 hours, through the snow and had a victorious photo session at the top!

Our ascent...

Jose on the mountain

At the top!!

Sliding down on a plastic bag

The rest of our days were spent doing various activities like moving a glass for of water, without getting closer that 1m to it, using only an elastic band and some string. Oh, and this was to be done blindfolded.

Guiding blindfolded Bahlul

Another activity best done blindfolded - jigsaw puzzling!

Hopscotch.....blindfolded!

For me the highlight(s) were the intercultural evenings we had. The participants brought mouth watering food and eye watering alcohol. There was even home made wine from Georgia and Pomegranate wine from Armenia (few of us have plans to go to Armenia and export that stuff).

Kyriakos leading the men in a dance

Food from Georgia

Luckily the local store had an Irish alcohol section so I was able to introduce my fellow participants to Baileys Irish Cream. And of course, there was Irish dancing (If video doesn’t show, click the link to see the video):

Irish Dancing in Macedonia from Claire Ní Chanainn on Vimeo.

At the end of the training we had a short amount of time to put together a (very cheesy) video of our experiences. In the video you can see our interpretation of modern dance, and the dance, ‘It’s the time to Disco’ I learned from my students in India in 2006.

Further Information on YiA

If anyone would like to take part in these Youth in Action training programs, check out the EU’s YiA website. You can also find info on upcoming training programs from the Mladi Info website.

Courses are free for participants (food and a bed included), you just have to pay 30% of your travel costs to get there.

I’ll write more about Youth in Action programs soon. But for now I have to go back to completing my last week of work here in Kosovo!