We see wild Indian wolves and the abundance of food is getting to my head because we are cricket VIPs - Week 3

Week 3: January 19-25

Monday, January 19:

Our new week began with an early start at 6:30 AM. One might assume that my early work shift, when I got up at 4:20 AM, had trained me for this, but the short answer is: no. 6:30 AM is much too early for me, and Tina feels the same. We quickly got dressed and ready for the day before meeting the others in the car. We only found out where we were driving once we were in the car (it's pretty standard here that we hardly have to make our own plans). On the way, we had breakfast at a restaurant, but it was just too much for me, and I couldn't finish a quarter of my chapati. The others also had their meals, and a poor injured stray dog that was limping ended up getting my leftovers. I was quite happy with that because, on one hand, it's not real dog food, but on the other hand, animals mainly survive on what they can find if they find anything at all. My breakfast scraps might have even been the only food that dog had that day, as there are so many stray animals in India, all of them hungry. Refueled, we headed to the 'Kanger Valley' National Park, where we saw an incredible number of monkeys on the way (as I mentioned, I love observing animals in the wild). Our day's program included some extraordinary waterfalls, which were huge and very impressive! The town of Jagdalpur is known for its connection with tribes, and indeed, aside from monkeys and cows, we met some very nice people who wanted (once again) to take photos with us. We also enjoyed a brief boat ride on a bamboo raft, where we could take a moment to unwind since there was actually no one else around, making it very peaceful. During a safari, we were taken to another waterfall before heading to a limestone cave that was also extraordinarily overwhelming. There, we saw not only stalactites and stalagmites but also blind fish (our reflections) and bats. On-site, there was a chance to taste a delicacy of the tribes, a chutney made from red fire ants, which is supposedly very spicy. I'll just reiterate what I've been told here, as I try a lot but don't feel the need to test everything. After a small donation, the park staff showed us some local dances and music, which was very enlightening. Afterwards, we started our journey back in the afternoon. There was a wild incident that left us slightly traumatized, as we were taken to a farm where black chickens live. These are apparently quite rare and have a lot of iron in them. So we got to know these chickens, and suddenly Dharmendra decided to arrange for us to buy one. We only realized this when someone tried to catch said chicken. And the rest is history. (We couldn't touch the chicken and had vegetarian dinner, even though, of course, you know where the meat comes from. I always say we were friends with that chicken, and you don't eat your friends.) The evening ended with a shower, a bit of Percy Jackson Season 1, some reading, and then we went to bed.🦇

Tuesday, January 20:

On this day, we were allowed to sleep in an hour later than the day before. The morning started with a monkey on the lawn in front of the window, which was quite enjoyable for me. We packed all our things and then our group made its way back to Raipur. We were told to expect 1-3 stops along the way, but you can guess: it was not limited to that. First, we stopped for breakfast, then we visited a palace and a temple. Next was a stop at a local art shop, and I must say that everything looked very beautiful, but we have to manage our luggage space. While I like the representations of Hindu deities, I can neither afford their transport to Germany nor do I have any connection to the sculptures and their meanings (as I am an atheistic mouse). The next stop was at a dragon fruit farm, and then we visited a local shop. At some point, we drove longer without stopping (forgive me the imprecision, but it probably won't be of real interest), until we stopped for afternoon chai and a snack resembling rice pudding (technical term: Kheer). When we got back in the car, it was already around 5 PM, and we still had a bit ahead of us. But we saw two Indian wolves in the wild, how cool is that? By now, the desire to finally arrive (please remember when we started that day) had grown so large that I had to resort to harsher methods of passing the time. Yep, to my downloaded episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I watched three until we were finally back in Raipur, where Tina and I went straight to bed after dinner. We are very grateful for the long weekend, and there was so much to experience, but sometimes it is indeed a bit exhausting, especially for me, who cherishes their me-time. It's also hard when I have to be around people 24/7, which doesn’t mean that I don’t want to accept and embrace the circumstances.🚗

Wednesday, January 21:

Like the dutiful working mice that we are, we opened our eyes promptly at 7 AM and went to school that day in Nava Raipur (the - currently still - smaller one), where we received breakfast (I’d like to insert here that I had already been having digestive problems all week, and my little belly was getting rounder - I'll spare you the details, but this will be important on Sunday -). Now it was getting serious, as we were separated. Therefore, I can only report on my day until lunchtime when I had a big reunion with Tina. I accompanied a 1st grade class throughout the day, which was taught for six hours straight by its lead teacher, who is also the 'Mother Teacher.' This means she teaches all language classes (English and Hindi) in her class and Environmental Science (EVS), which can be roughly equated with our 'Sachunterricht.' I experienced two English classes, two Hindi classes, and twice EVS. At this point, you might be interested in how the school day at DPS differs from the teaching in Germany, and I don't want to withhold that from you. At the same time, I don’t want the blog entry of the week to be too long, so I’d like to write a separate post on the topic of ‘school system and teaching.’ Next week, we will be in Nava Raipur for the last time (as far as we know), and afterwards, it would make sense to write a summary text. So please be patient! Only those who actually care will read it.☺️ At 1:15 PM, Tina and I had lunch (by the way, each meal takes place with a different teacher, so we currently become the masters of networking), before we took school bus number 110 back home. A well-deserved midday nap followed, and then we said goodbye to Barbara and Dharmendra, who were flying to Delhi that evening to see his family the next day in Agra at the Taj Mahal. Nothing else particularly exciting happened.📚

Thursday, January 22:

But don’t worry, that was just the halfway point of the week, and in my opinion, so much has already happened. On Thursday, the sports day for 1st and 2nd graders was held at the older school. While our sports festivals consist of children competing against each other all day, the sports day at the Delhi Public School is definitely more festive. The 3rd to 5th graders organized and performed a cultural program with many dances after Raghunath, as the school principal, gave a speech, and we were named along with other guests of honor. Additionally, there was a choir and cheerleaders, and the school flag was hoisted. Furthermore, a dove was released, but I unfortunately forgot what this was supposed to symbolize. Only then were there a few sporting events like sprints, in which Tina even won the 100-meter sprint for teachers. After this exciting day, you can guess, a midday nap at home followed. Then there was chai before we went to the mall in search of sports shoes, as we want to accompany Yashoda and Raghunath to the gym. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. That was Thursday.🥇

Friday, January 23:

Another sports day at DPS, and this time it was the turn of the 3rd to 5th grades. Unfortunately, we missed most of the cultural program of the 1st and 2nd grades, because there was also a small ceremony for the start of spring that day. The goddess of knowledge was worshipped, and we got to witness this ceremony (see photo). However, since it took over an hour, we missed part of the cultural program. Consequently, we mainly saw the sporting part of the event and presented medals to the winners, which made the kids very happy. Afterwards, we had a morning snack (there's a lot of food daily; one really has to be careful not to overeat - that’s Eileen telling you from the future, who is writing this a week and a half late and thus knows better) and then we went to feed the school horses, which was a lot of fun. After a little walk around the school grounds and lunch, it was home, and - gotcha! Of course, you thought there would be a midday nap, but not that day, as we were going to the cricket international match against New Zealand in the VIP Gold Lounge!!! You heard right! Raghunath got us tickets through contacts, and then we had an amazing evening. There was even 'free' food on site and each one got an ice cream, yay! The atmosphere was fantastic, the game lasted about 3.5 hours, and India won, which made us very happy. It was a really cool experience! We had a blast!🇮🇳

Saturday, January 24:

We spent half the school day in Nava Raipur. There we had fruit for breakfast, as the secondary school children had specifically planned a food festival for us for lunch. But first, we got to see a small ceremony for Republic Day, which would actually be on Monday, but at this school, the children were planned to stay home on that holiday. Again, there was singing and performing. Afterwards, there was a small dance competition with the winners from the preliminaries. We got to see various dances from different regions, and the children wore beautiful outfits. Some even brought extra props. It’s always great fun to see the kids in their element, and they love to perform. The food festival included 18 stalls with various foods from different regions of India, and that was only 10% of the country's food culture. We tried small portions everywhere so that we could manage to taste everything, and yet we were completely full afterwards. In everything the students do, they put in great effort. We were very grateful and stood at the door to thank each child individually. Unfortunately, we only had a whole hour for everything, which definitely wasn’t enough, but of course, the children also need to be released back into freedom on the weekend. However, I got the feeling that we were mainly taking and not giving much back to the classes, which is why we informed the school management that we would like to interact more with the children next week to give something back. After being well-fed, we had a midday nap at home before going to a temple in the evening with some teachers and Yashoda. There we watched how a prayer ceremony usually runs and what food is prepared for all the people in need. Afterwards, we were still in a restaurant, and although I enjoyed it, it was probably the final straw for my body (I thought I would burst).💃🏾

Sunday, January 25:

I spent this day with a stomach ache in bed and felt terrible. My body was retaliating for all the food I had indulged in over the past week, and I think I don't need to say more about that. It was not a nice day, but I was well taken care of.🫩

➡️ As Tina and I like to say (since we were in Algarrobo-Costa in 2025): That should suffice. Until next week!