Hi ev'ryone!

I've finally found time to go to town, rather than sitting at HQ battling with the terrible internet we have there. It's free, but it hardly ever works - and definitely not with travellog, which I think is maybe a bit heavy for some of the Indian internet connections.

'Alone Time' - an expression Simon E is now known for - is really nice. Not that I avoid social activities, but you're rarely alone at camp, so coming to town just for a couple of hours is truely a much needed luxury now and again.

I promised to teach you a bit of Hindi in my last blog, so here we go ;o)  :

Namaste, mera naam Simon hai. Apka naam kya hai? The pronunciation is very straight forward. Especially the Danes will have an easy time I think. :-) And what does it mean? The sharp reader will have guessed that I have presented myself and asked 'What is your name?'

Ek, do, teen, char, panch, che, saat, aat, (something) and dus are numbers 1-10, and 'Kaan Melenge' means 'See you tomorrow'. :-)

So there you go, that's sadly about it - I am trying to learn as much as possible, but it's relatively limited how much I actually need for my student, Anuj.

He doesn't understand any English - as far as I know - but we get along brilliantly now. He was sadly sick today (he's been having head aches a couple of times this week) so I taught Hanu instead. Hanu (and don't worry, I'll be putting pictures of all my lovely new friends in here very soon) knows all the numbers from 1-10 in both English and Hindi. He does addition and a bit of subtraction, and it was nice to see that someone had obviously done a good job in teaching him. Sometimes one doubts whether it actually helps, us being here, but after seeing Hanu's performance today (and also the progress Anuj and I are doing) it all seems purposeful.

It’s truly a strange but exhilarating sensation teaching the children at the special needs school. In the start I could not see, how we made any difference. It seemed obvious that the children had needs that I could not fulfill. That teaching them the smallest thing would take longer than any of the volunteers here have got to give. My second week in Palampur is ending at a ferocious pace. I can see that Anuj has changed: he talks a lot more, he enjoys my company, and he is improving when we work with the numbers and fruits. But Anuj has changed that much, it’s me that’s changed dramatically. Rather than wanting him to learn everything at a “normal” pace (and thereby giving myself the success of being a good teacher), I’ve come to terms with the speed with which he can learn. The smallest thing is now a success – and not only for me, but definitely for both of us.

I could keep on writing about Anuj and the other children that I play with and teach in the mornings over here. It’s fantastic to experience the happiness our mere presence contributes to the children’s everyday lives. And life is good! ;o)

What else is there to tell about? This blog is getting a little hairy, so I think that’ll be it for now. Hope you’re all well though, and that you’ll enjoy all the pictures. :-)

Simon-ji

P.S. Last weekend a small group of us went to McLeod Ganj (where His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama lives) and we’re going there again this weekend. Why? To trek up to about 3,500 meters! It’ll be great. In a couple of weeks some of us plan to go to Ladakh (Leh) and trek there. If everything goes after the plan, we should reach more than 5,000 meters! That’ll be flipping amazing, and you bet I’ll be putting a lot of pictures on the website after that trip. :-)

P.P.S. Comments to pictures coming soon…