Hi
As Ali has said, sorry for the late entries, it is has been hard recently to write a post recently. Here is a overview of some of my highlights of the last month.
The school held its own annual student lead fashion show in order to raise funds for the school. It was a really fun event which Mali (my Brit second year) and myself were chosen to host, I think mainly due to our 'funny' accents. So we played the part as male models, dressed in suits and tie, ready to strut our hot stuff. Teams of students would come up and strut their stuff, in their own creative ways, hoping to get through to the final round. We had the Lion King, people jumping out of suitcases and banana costumes among other walks. The top 5 got through to the final round by getting the most money collect for their walk and winners with the most money collected in the final round. From what I know we raised more than last year and so it was a successful event.
The next event, one which I really enjoyed, was the celebration of Ganesh Festival, the elephant God.
We all got pink powder and threw it at each other to music whilst the whole college danced together in a big pink cloud. This carried on down the hill and then it started raining which made everything even more fun. We walked to the nearby village, Khubavali, and there we celebrated with the local villagers before walking to the river. At the river, the villagers put a statue of Ganesh in the river and then also jumped in the river themselves.
Here is a link to a video taken of the celebration.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Q7iUxIRMs&feature=youtu.be
The 20th of September marked Peace One Day. My college offered workshops all day educating us on different conflicts and issues around the world. I attended India and Pakistan: Histories from both sides, the relationship between India and Bangladesh, the Gezi Park Crackdown in Turkey and saw theatre performances. The day was finished off with a karaoke session where I nearly lost my voice.
The 21st of September marked UWC peace day and the 32nd International Day of Peace, or World Peace Day. Here at MUWCI, we celebrated by having a day of action, with the aim of making our campus more sustainable, and conserving the biodiversity we are so lucky to have, by this we called it Sattat day basically sustainability day. Groups went out to remove invasive plants (reminding me of a similar task I did in the Black Forest last year on a UWC short course in Germany, only then we were taking out a species that had come from India which I have seen over here and had stop myself from pulling out here, reminding myself that I am in India) , other groups dug trenches as drainage systems for rainwater harvesting in our biodiversity reserve and others counted biodiversity in and around the college. Similar projects were undertaken worldwide, on large and small scales as part of the International Day of Peace.Here is a picture of the trench digging team going off to work.
However on World Peace Day I fell ill and consequently found myself in the schools medical centre for 5 days. This meant I couldn't take part in the big day, but I can still do things everyday here to move towards a more sustainable future.
That Wednesday, 2nd of October, was Gandhi-Ji's birthday. We celebrated his life and teachings on campus through a film festival and a day off school.
On that weekend I went with a group of friends on a day out to Pune, the local city, to the mall. We shopped around, I mainly bought paper and stationary, but I did also get a pair of ear rings and tea bags. After roaming the shops we had a late lunch at Chillies, this lush restaurant that does everything on the large side. I had fish and chips of course.
As my room mate Patricia and I are sharing a side of the room, we decided to buy some paint and paint our common wall. We chose a tealy green colour and hung purple, red and white fairy lights around the corners and over our heads to make the room feel more homely.
Unfortunately I write this once again from the medical centre. I have been here for a week now with glandular fever and infection. No need to worry though as it is slowly clearing up and I should be back to classes soon.
This time I missed European regional evening which I was meant to be a part of.... oopps!
Also on was Kalamezuthu dance performance and ritual. The word kalamezhuthu may be roughly translated as powder drawing, pattu as song. This is a form drawing performed by creating large figures representing deities using coloured powders and the floor as the canvas. Here is a picture of what it looked like.
I am in the flash mob treveni, of which out first flash mob was after SAT exams. Obviously i was in the med but here is the link showing you what happened. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmVHuojItA
A couple of weeks ago now I heard and started to get on board with a student enterprise called Seema. Seema is a youth led organisation that empowers over forty low income women from eleven rural villages near Pune. It works with experienced artisans and those who would not otherwise have such opportunity teaching jewellery making techniques which are perfected at monthly meetings at the school, with regular collection made at community centres within the villages. Seema also subsidies educational opportunities for local children by donating a portion of its profits to Akshara, which is based on campus and I have mentioned in the previous post about the home stays.
As Ali has said, sorry for the late entries, it is has been hard recently to write a post recently. Here is a overview of some of my highlights of the last month.
The school held its own annual student lead fashion show in order to raise funds for the school. It was a really fun event which Mali (my Brit second year) and myself were chosen to host, I think mainly due to our 'funny' accents. So we played the part as male models, dressed in suits and tie, ready to strut our hot stuff. Teams of students would come up and strut their stuff, in their own creative ways, hoping to get through to the final round. We had the Lion King, people jumping out of suitcases and banana costumes among other walks. The top 5 got through to the final round by getting the most money collect for their walk and winners with the most money collected in the final round. From what I know we raised more than last year and so it was a successful event.
The next event, one which I really enjoyed, was the celebration of Ganesh Festival, the elephant God.
We all got pink powder and threw it at each other to music whilst the whole college danced together in a big pink cloud. This carried on down the hill and then it started raining which made everything even more fun. We walked to the nearby village, Khubavali, and there we celebrated with the local villagers before walking to the river. At the river, the villagers put a statue of Ganesh in the river and then also jumped in the river themselves.
Here is a link to a video taken of the celebration.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Q7iUxIRMs&feature=youtu.be
The 20th of September marked Peace One Day. My college offered workshops all day educating us on different conflicts and issues around the world. I attended India and Pakistan: Histories from both sides, the relationship between India and Bangladesh, the Gezi Park Crackdown in Turkey and saw theatre performances. The day was finished off with a karaoke session where I nearly lost my voice.
The 21st of September marked UWC peace day and the 32nd International Day of Peace, or World Peace Day. Here at MUWCI, we celebrated by having a day of action, with the aim of making our campus more sustainable, and conserving the biodiversity we are so lucky to have, by this we called it Sattat day basically sustainability day. Groups went out to remove invasive plants (reminding me of a similar task I did in the Black Forest last year on a UWC short course in Germany, only then we were taking out a species that had come from India which I have seen over here and had stop myself from pulling out here, reminding myself that I am in India) , other groups dug trenches as drainage systems for rainwater harvesting in our biodiversity reserve and others counted biodiversity in and around the college. Similar projects were undertaken worldwide, on large and small scales as part of the International Day of Peace.Here is a picture of the trench digging team going off to work.
That Wednesday, 2nd of October, was Gandhi-Ji's birthday. We celebrated his life and teachings on campus through a film festival and a day off school.
On that weekend I went with a group of friends on a day out to Pune, the local city, to the mall. We shopped around, I mainly bought paper and stationary, but I did also get a pair of ear rings and tea bags. After roaming the shops we had a late lunch at Chillies, this lush restaurant that does everything on the large side. I had fish and chips of course.
As my room mate Patricia and I are sharing a side of the room, we decided to buy some paint and paint our common wall. We chose a tealy green colour and hung purple, red and white fairy lights around the corners and over our heads to make the room feel more homely.
Unfortunately I write this once again from the medical centre. I have been here for a week now with glandular fever and infection. No need to worry though as it is slowly clearing up and I should be back to classes soon.
This time I missed European regional evening which I was meant to be a part of.... oopps!
Also on was Kalamezuthu dance performance and ritual. The word kalamezhuthu may be roughly translated as powder drawing, pattu as song. This is a form drawing performed by creating large figures representing deities using coloured powders and the floor as the canvas. Here is a picture of what it looked like.
I am in the flash mob treveni, of which out first flash mob was after SAT exams. Obviously i was in the med but here is the link showing you what happened. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmVHuojItA
A couple of weeks ago now I heard and started to get on board with a student enterprise called Seema. Seema is a youth led organisation that empowers over forty low income women from eleven rural villages near Pune. It works with experienced artisans and those who would not otherwise have such opportunity teaching jewellery making techniques which are perfected at monthly meetings at the school, with regular collection made at community centres within the villages. Seema also subsidies educational opportunities for local children by donating a portion of its profits to Akshara, which is based on campus and I have mentioned in the previous post about the home stays.
https://www.facebook.com/seemacircles
http://www.seemacircle.com/
I thought I would mention a typical day for me, as close to typical as it can be anyway.
We have classes from 7.30 am, with a 20 minute break for breakfast after first block, until 2.10 pm and after that, there's lunch. At 2.45 treveni starts again which differs from day to day. Today is Thursday so I have hip hop dance at 2.45, then fire service at 5 and flash mob at 8, with dinner at 7 in between.
Coming up:
-This weekend the school is hosting MUN, where there will be debates and socials
-Just over a weeks time will be project week. I am going to South East India to work on a project called Sahana Forest. You can find out more on a link here http://sadhanaforest.org/.
-After that there is Diwali break. Its a big festival in India that's celebrated everywhere. I plan to go to Bombay.
Sarah :)
http://www.seemacircle.com/
I thought I would mention a typical day for me, as close to typical as it can be anyway.
We have classes from 7.30 am, with a 20 minute break for breakfast after first block, until 2.10 pm and after that, there's lunch. At 2.45 treveni starts again which differs from day to day. Today is Thursday so I have hip hop dance at 2.45, then fire service at 5 and flash mob at 8, with dinner at 7 in between.
Coming up:
-This weekend the school is hosting MUN, where there will be debates and socials
-Just over a weeks time will be project week. I am going to South East India to work on a project called Sahana Forest. You can find out more on a link here http://sadhanaforest.org/.
-After that there is Diwali break. Its a big festival in India that's celebrated everywhere. I plan to go to Bombay.
Sarah :)
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