goat dinner and the photo project begins!

First Day of Photos!">First Day of Photos!" border="0" alt="" />
Goat Dinner!">Goat Dinner!" border="0" alt="" />
The past few days have been fairly uneventful. I haven’t been taking a lot of photos, especially since I can’t seem to figure out what is wrong with the stupid iPhoto on the computer. I can’t seem to get it to upload the photos properly, and it keeps telling me that it can’t find the originals on the hard drive. Arg! Anyway, I’ve been trying to remedy that particular problem, but have been so far unsuccessful. I did back them all up on my iPod though, all ten gigs worth, so at least they are safe and sound. Anisha, Casey and I went to a place called Shoba Studio on the main road the other day and had a bunch of photos printed up. They only charge Rs. 4/- per photo (about ten cents CND). Unfortunately the quality wasn’t great, and they were all a little washed out and greenish-tinted b my standards. Anyway, those ones were to give away to some of the kids and families in the neighbourhood, so next time I’ll have to try another place.

I ended up not being able to go to Chingari Trust on Thursday to do the photos of the kids, since Anisha wasn’t available to translate for me. I was a little disappointed not to be able to get started on that right away, but it did give me a chance to buy a tripod for the low, low price of Rs. 800/- (about $20 CND). I’m hoping that Masaum or someone can help me do a little translating at some point next week.

We went to dinner at Reshma’s house on Friday night, which is the daughter of the corner store owner. You may remember we went and had mehendi done by her a while ago. She asked us to come over for her birthday dinner though, which was really good. Reshma had literally spent the entire day cooking for us beforehand, and it was absolutely fantastic. Her family is Muslim, so they had made goat, which was really, really good. It was also pretty much the first time I had eaten meat since I got here, apart from the odd bite or two of chicken from Joe. It was funny though, she insisted that she would eat after we had left and she had cleaned up the massive pile of dinner dishes! Anyway, it was a great meal, and I have decided that I want to try to find a good Muslim restaurant. The flavours are very different from Hindu cooking, so it was interesting to try the difference.

Rachna was talking to Sareeta the other day in her office, so I decided just to set up a time and place with Sareeta for the photo project then. We decided that Sunday was the best day because the kids don’t have school that day, and the clinic is closed so its quiet. I asked Biju where the best place to get camera and film supplies was, and he told me about this place in New Market, so I went yesterday with Derek. The prices were a bit better than the place that I had gone to nearby, and the guy said that we might be able to work out a deal for the developing. At any rate, I ended up buying film and batteries for five cameras, since Rachna told me to start the kids off by having them share the cameras. Biju also told me about a place that sold bootleg DVDs across the street from the photolab in New Market, so we went there afterwards. It turns out that they had a way better selection than the place that Joe had been going, so I went a little DVD crazy and bought a while bunch. A lot of the bootleg DVDs here are packed into “8-in-1” sets, where you get eight movies on a single DVD. The quality isn’t great, but it isn’t bad either. So now I have lots of Hollywood drivel to keep me company at night…☺

Anisha, Casey and I went to this fabric fair thing with Rachna last night. It was a bit disappointing though, because it turned out to be run by the MP government, so the prices were all really high. There were some beautiful silk saris though… We ended up going to the Chowk instead, since Anisha is leaving on Monday. I bought a really beautiful dupta and some material to make a summer dress. I know that I don’t be able to wear it here, since anything knee-length is more than just frowned on. Casey, Derek and Masaum took an overnight train to Pachmari. Apparently it is one of the most beautiful places in the province. I decided to stay here though, which was a good thing, because the arrangements with the kids were for them to come on Sunday (today).

That has been the highlight of the day so far, the kids coming to start the photo project. Sareeta brought nine other kids, although some of them are too young to really do the project. Her community is gas-affected, so these kids are the perfect group. They were all really calm and well-behaved and happy just to sit and learn about the cameras and stuff. It was so fun when they all opened up their cameras and put the films in. They were so excited!! Anyway, they said that they wanted two weeks before they wanted more film, but they’re coming back next Sunday to ask questions and to make sure that there aren’t any problems. I’m really looking forward to getting their first rolls of film back. I think that they’ll do a really good job. Especially Sareeta, she seemed to know a lot about cameras and how to take photos, so I think that she’ll be good at it.

Anyway, now I’m sitting and watching movies and being very lazy, which is really nice. I don’t think that I have had a single Sunday where I just farted around and did nothing. I’m supposed to go over to Ankeeta’s house for dinner tonight with Anisha, which I’m looking forward to.

there are some photos of a couple of random things in here being:

1) the care package that my mom sent me about a week into my trip here. i was desperate for some food from home when my stomach was still getting acclimatized, so my dear, sweet mother xpress-posted a parcel of food to me. it was supposed to take 10-14 days, and instead took about a month. you can tell from the photos that the parcel wasn't exactly treated well, either. the toilet paper she used as padding looked like it may, at one time, have been soaked with water!! she paid $120 for this lousy service, so i would suggest that if you are going to mail me something, bubble wrap it to death and don't bother paying for it to get here fast, because it won't!!

2) the mouse that we caught in the humane mousetrap. it was in there for about 24 hours because we weren't sure what to do with it... eventually derek and i released in the heap of garbage across the street from the clinic. i think it will be happy there...