Samsung 315…or rather: still no printing.

Ich könnte kotzen. Diesmal nicht, weil mir schlecht ist, sondern weil ich so wütend bin. Auf den Drucker-Reparier-Typen, der unseren Drucker seit FÜNF monaten “repariert” und auf mich selbst, weil ich mir nie die Zeit genommen habe, das “Problem” mal zu googlen. Nachdem der Drucker ohne irgendwelche Probleme funktionierte und Bhola während meines Krankseins und meiner Abwesenheit letzten Winters unglaublich viel in Farbe gedruckt hat, waren – wer hätte es gedacht – sehr bald die Toner alle.

Der Refill-Typ meinte nun, er hätte ihn wieder refillt, aber es ging nich, weil die memory-card ersetzt werden müsste, denn sie sei voll. Hab ich noch nie was von gehört. Er wollte sie bestellen und dann kam sie und es ging nich und dann hat er dies und jenes noch bestellt und es ging nich. Als ich dann mit Sheelu hingefahren bin und meinte, dass ich jetzt warten werde bis ich den Drucker wieder kriege, fingen sie nach `ner Stunde an, die einzelnen Teile zu SUCHEN. Nach drei Stunden fiel ihnen auf, dass das Problem immer noch besteht. Das war vor einem Monat.

Heute hab ich mal gegoogelt und rausgefunden, dass es gar nicht um die Memory-Card geht, sondern um bestimmte Chips, die man benötigt, damit der Refill vom Printer anerkannt wird (der ist quasi gesichert gegen Wiederbefüllung). Jetzt hab ich das alles mal schön in einem Onlineshop in Berlin bestellt und ärgere mich, dass mir das nicht schon im Sommer in Deutschland einfiel.

________________________

I`m too tired to translate all of this into English. It`s basically about the five months that we´ve been waiting for our printer to return from the refill-guy. He just couldn`t get the printer fixed and said, its memory card needed to be changed, and it´s arriving from Kolkata. Which it didn`t and he kept on delaying and delaying.

Today I googled the “problem” and found out that there is none, that I just would need to order the refill toner and the matching chips, and will be able to refill it myself. I´m so pissed off with myself as well as the printing guy, wasting five months waiting. There`s so much that needs to get printed (study material that needs to be in colour…). Why didn`t he just tell me what his problem was? Why didn`t I just take these five minutes to google???

No clue

Jetzt habe ich noch 10 Minuten Zeit, weil gerade ein Kind im Bad ist und duscht, und ich auch duschen müsste, aber eben nicht kann gerade weil besetzt ist. Da dachte ich mir, ich schreib schnell mal was hier – und merke, dass mir auf die Schnelle nichts nichts einfällt, dass ich SCHNELL mal schreiben könnte. Muss mal überlegen:

- Khanneja und seine Geschwister sind abgeholt wurden von ihren Eltern. Khanneja hat geweint, als er von meinem Schoß weg musste zu seinem Vater. Die älteren Geschwister waren aber ziemlich froh, ihn zu sehen, hat man gemerkt. Hab sie am Abend noch am Ghat besucht. Khanneja hat offensichtlich seiner Mutter erzählt, dass Sheelu sein Vater ist und ich seine Mutter… Das finde ich sehr ambivalent. Will nicht, dass er seine Eltern nich mehr mag. Khannejas kleiner Bruder Gotam ist immer noch sehr unterernährt. Natürlich.
- Obwohl es nicht mehr so heiß ist, fiel Sheelu und mir auf, dass die Lehrer zur Zeit ziemlich faul sind, z.B. ihre letzte Stunde in der Schule von eins bis zwei einfach absitzen, anstatt sie zu nutzen für Einträge in die Running Records oder Änliches.

- Unser Bambushaus liegt immer noch verfallen rum, weil die Termiten so gute Arbeit geleistet haben und der Bambusmann immer noch nich da is.

Hm. Jetzt ist das Mädchen aus dem Bad raus.

____________________

I´ve still got 10 minutes, one girl is in the bathroom and takes a shower, which I would have to do as well. Instead I could be writing here for the next minutes but I´m at a loss to know what to write, everything I´d like to tell seems to involve a bigger background story. Need to think (difficult when you`re tired).

- Khanneja and his sisters and brother left the Hostel, their parents  are back from the village. Sad. He was crying when I gave him to his father, and I would have been crying, too (if I´d been alone and had time to do so). His other siblings though were obviously happy to see their daddy. I visited them at the Ghat at night. Khanneja told them that Sheelu is his father and I´m his mother. Ambivalent. Don`t want him to not like his parents. Khanneja`s small brother Gotam (maybe 2 years) is still severly malnourished, can`t walk or stand. Of course, wouldn`t have expected it to improve in the village.

- Although it`s not as hot any more, Sheelu and me find our teachers to be kind of lazy these days. Maybe that`s because Sheelu and I are struggeling to find the time to do all things we are supposed to do and some teachers just waste the after-lunch hour from 1-2, by sitting around instead of writing running records or doing anything else useful. They are still not able to work independently, they need orders for everything…

- Our bamboo shade is still not under use because, for one, the termites did a very good job, and in addition, the bamboo guy who wanted to repair it didn´t show up yet.

Hm. The girl`s out of the bathroom.

Nachgereicht – Summercamp Photos

Unser Flüsschen unten im Tal, eine Stunde zu Fuß. Wunderschön

Triza schwimmt das erste Mal ganz alleine. Sah allerdings aus, als würde sie gerade ertrinken.

Wir haben sehr oft auf offenem Feuer gekocht, nicht nur, weil das Gas teurer ist. Für die Kinder ist das nichts Spektakuläres, weil sie in ihren Herkunftsdörfern nie mit Gas kochen, aber sie lieben das Feuer und den Umgang mit ihm. Nebenbei bemerkt,  wissen sie durch langjährige Übung Dinge über das Feuer, die man in Deutschland wohl in nem speziellen mit extremen Sicherheitsvorkehrungen abgesicherten Abenteuercampevent lernen würde: Wie baut man einen Herd innerhalb von fünf Minuten aus Steinen, wie bringt man fast erloschene Glut wieder zum Flammen usw. Dass all das “normales” Wissen für unsere Kinder ist, beruhigt mich.

Den Summercamp-Report gibt es jetzt auch in Deutsch (siehe hier…).

Summer Camp – English Report

Four weeks in the Himalayas…

• 51 children, 5 teachers, 1 cook, 1 doctor, 2 special guests
• 2 days journey from Varanasi by bus
• 2000 m high, 15 minutes by foot to the next village, 2 h by foot to the next townOur Guesthouse

Sylvia Bertoncello (Jimy Library) found a beautiful house for us just outside the small village Kasaar Devi, close to Almora in Uttarkhand, and arranged with the tenants for us to be able to stay there one full month. We had six rooms, an outside kitchen, two bathrooms and a roofed meeting space where we ate, met and partied. The Tree Top Guesthouse lies about 2000 m high and is surrounded by woods and narrow, steep paths that connect it with Kasaar Devi and some smaller villages below. Since the water had to be bought and brought from outside, we went to a river some 50 minutes away from the guesthouse to bath and wash our clothes.

Getting there

Kati started with 5 girls on the 10^th of May in order to set up the place and get it ready for the big group coming. Sheelu and the other teachers followed with the kids on the 13^th. They left late at night, and arrived early in the morning in Lucknow, where Sheelu arranged for the next bus. Meanwhile the children visited the zoo. At night they departed towards Almora and arrived the 15^th – dirty, tired, some smelling of vomit, heavily carrying the huge luggage, but decidedly happy. The first day or two the children needed to get used to the steep paths, and soon you’d see them even running up and down the mountain roads.

Daily Life

We divided the children into four family groups with each a female and a male adult as mummy and daddy. These groups were to do daily tasks like washing dishes, cooking, cleaning, and collecting firewood together. There was no competition – and especially no point system – between the families, since we try to let our children find their motivation in the work itself rather than in developing competitive characteristics. We used to cook on gas as well as fire, although the children preferred the fire. It reminded them of their villages where it is the task of the children to collect the firewood. To keep a guesthouse clean that is meant for having 11 visitors, but inhabited by 60 people, is not an easy task. We tried our best and managed to have some kind of organized chaos… The huge problem we faced on a daily basis was water – sometimes we would run out of drinking water and would have to carry canisters from places below and above us. Especially the older girls showed great stamina and power by graciously and repeatedly carrying 15 l tins to our guesthouse.

Activities

Although our days were mainly filled by preparing food, walking to „our“ river to bath and wash clothes, collect wood or water, and similar tasks, we managed to have quite a lot of fun and challenging activities. There were some rather rough ones, like wrestling (for girls & boys, teachers & children alike!) and the Indian national game kabbadi, in which you have to try to touch one of the opposite team without getting pinned down by a bunch of children. We had dramas at night, performed by the respective family along certain topics or words. The children went on sightseeing trips to the close Almora, including restaurant visits and they did a nature scavenger hunt, in which they had to find certain objects in the forests in oder to increase their awareness of the nature that surrounds them.

A definite highlight was the garbage competition, wherein the groups swarmed out and had to collect as much garbage as possible. Believe it or not, we „found“ 13 big sacks of garbage (including the sacks)! To get to a fair judgement, we counted every single peace of garbage – it amounted to around 4500 wrappers, plastic bottles, plastic bags, etc.! Not only were the children proud of their work (and, it was hard work indeed), but they asked to repeat it again because they had so much fun…

Parties

Each Saturday we had a party with special food, music, dance, and/or plays. The children used to decorate the place with whatever they found in the nature, plus candles and self-made garlands. Our last party was the biggest, because it was also the „Goodbye Lice“-Party. For more than one year now we have been trying to get rid of our children’s lice. A sisyphos task, since they always catch them again whenever they go home during holidays. We promised them to have the biggest party ever if we reach that goal. During our one month stay we managed to ALMOST get rid of them. The day the big party took place, none of them had lice. For at least one or two days… Anyways, the party was a great success, with the most amazing buffet that we ever had (of course, self-prepared), wonderfully funny performances of the children, our favourite Bollywood music to dance, shiny decorations, and a special dress code: Boys had to wear girl’s clothes and vice versa.

Visitors

When arriving in Almora, we were heartily welcomed by Sylvia and her family, who have been repeatedly visiting us during our stay in Kasaar Devi and offering their help whenever necessary. After one week, a German doctor arrived in order to take care of the health of our kids. We have never been outside of Varanasi, and so far away from any „proper“ health care and were very worried about potential accidents to happen, etc. Therefore we were more than relieved to have Sven over, who luckily didn’t have to show his skills as an emergency doctor, but still was a great support and help. He was joined by Jessica and her friend Yodi at the second half of the month. It was great for the kids to see Jessica again for some longer time and spent some intense and fun weeks with her. Yodi made herself loved by the kids quite soon, especially with several small group activities that she engaged the kids with.

Time to Go

Those children who had enrolled for only two weeks, sadly had to leave, while most of the other kids were happy to stay (exceptions: those older boys desperately missing their tobacco, fighting & sex movies, and all these rather negative ways of time wasting that we tried to keep them away from). When the time for all of us came to leave the camp, it seemed like the month had passed by without us realizing it. The prospect of coming back to a crowded, polluted, and hot Varanasi wasn’t a very encouraging one. Some children have been begging to stay for „only one more day, or year“.

Thanks

This came would never have been possible without the help of the following Ngos, who enabled us the spent the greatest summer holidays ever in such a lovely and healthy environment:

• Jimy Library paid the entire rent of the guesthouse for the month.
• Loriji contributed more than half of the amount needed for transportation.
• Scoop (Save Children out of Poverty) once again rescued us when we ran out of money (again!). With their help we were able to pay our LARGE food bill and stop worrying about how to feed our kids in the mountains.