Delhi Day 3, post 2 of 2, Learning More

Dec 10, 2013 | Blair Lee

Delhi Day 3, post 2 of 2, Learning More

We all went to our placement yesterday and were expected to dress in our outfits we bought. We learned that in India teachers are expected to be treated with respect. The female teachers here wear the salwar kameez or a saree. This is considered more formal clothing.

I learned that there are two types of pants that go with the salwar kameez, loose and tight. Here I am with the tight pants on. This is before wiggling the rest of the pant leg over my foot on the one side. I let the sales girl pick out everything except the tops. I chose a top and had her choose the rest.

Here we are in our work outfits. We bought two. I will show you the rest tomorrow. From left to right we are, Patrice, Alecia, Blair, and Wendy.

These are our chefs making saag paneer. After getting the spinach, saag, ready they left the kitchen. I took a piece of another vegetable they hadn’t chopped up yet and ate it. AFTER THAT, what an idiot I can be sometimes, I asked if it was okay to eat it. They said yes but only after it has been washed. 6 pepto bismal tablets later I was back in business. I did not get sick either so no lesson learned. I am writing this the next day. I had been so careful up to that point too.

For the first two dinners they made us what I consider unhealthy types of American food. Pizza, chips, soda, veggie burgers, and fries. Sean has LOVED it all. At breakfast I asked if we could have India food instead for dinners. They told me that they were making the food for Sean, lol, so he would feel comfortable. How thoughtful that was! Sean thinks they make American food better than Americans. I have to admit, the fries were something special.

We are having dal instead of pizza tonight.

Vickey has 5 colors of turban he wears. He interchanges them. His beard is also long, coiled up, and pinned close.

These photos are the lane we take walking to the school in the slum. Every single person we saw said hello (almost all said it is English) and smiled. The feeling we got was very warm and welcoming.

India is a place splashed with color everywhere.

Sean and I are learning to play the Indian game Coco.

It is a tag-like game with 2 teams. One team crouches down with every other person who is crouching facing opposite the person next to him or her. The other team runs around the people crouching tapping some of them on the back of their head. You can only tap them when they are facing away from you. Once tapped you can get up and chase the person or anyone else on their team. If you catch them they are out. You can sit down when you want and let someone else from your team be tagged and get up and run.

This is the group Sean and I are working with for the first 2 hours during our placement. They are 2nd and 3rd grade students who need extra help. I am to teach them science (can you believe the luck!) for the first hour. I was asked to teach them about the nutrition and what the different food molecules do in your body. Sean will be tutoring math for the 2nd hour.

The first group of children is where Jim and Alecia work for their 3 hours. The second is where Sean and I work for the last hour. They are the little ones. Two of them got into a fight over who could sit next to Sean, so I separated them and put one on either side of Sean.

Here we are at the large Vidya school.

This is a chemistry lab, all funds for constructing and running this school come from donors, many of them corporate donors like GE.

The school was started by a woman who was horrified to learn that many of the slum children, particularly the girls, were not receiving any education.

The students learn computer coding starting in 1st grade.

The school is a gem in the middle of a slum area. It made my heart feel bigger to see what these people were doing to help these kids. I feel really fortunate to be even a small part of it.

As we were driving back I saw this girl, she ran across the busy street and here she is walking alone. The striking contrast there compared to all the school children we saw is heart breaking.

For the first half of the women’s issues class Sean had a lesson in how to play cricket. He loved it.

Check out part one of this post here.

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December 10, 2013June 4, 2019

Our Third Full Day in Delhi, post 1 of 2, Volunteering at Vidya

Dec 10, 2013 | Blair Lee

Our Third Full Day in Delhi, post 1 of 2, Volunteering at Vidya

Here are two photos from our assignment. This is of Jim and Alecia.

I am exhausted tonight. Today was full, my mind was kept whirring all day. We went to our assignment, then to meet the principal of a larger school run by Vidya. After that we had lunch, a recap of the day, a Hindi lesson, a talk on women’s issues, and dinner, whew. I loved every minute of it.

My first of two posts for today have the notes from the talk. The speaker was Jaya Shrivastava. She is a social activist, a singer, and she studied English literature. She loves to revisit Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Hindi authors of classical writing. She is an advocate for justice and rights for all groups. She is involved with the Unkar Society of Alternatives in Education. This group promotes open inquiry learning.

Another volunteer asked about the dots on the forehead.

The dots are part of the culture and show what god you worship. Many westerners wonder why all the different gods. A variety of gods better reflect the diversity within the human population. Hindis have a word, isht. Isht means your own god, your isht.

The strength of the Indian people is their diversity. There are 22 majors languages, and over 1000 minor languages spoken in India.

During Queen Victoria’s reign there was a national movement for independence. Gandhi was a part of this. Some of the leftist groups, not Gandhi’s, had many women in them and were very violent. The educated Indians said let’s learn from the English and model our country’s laws after theirs. This was a long time ago and many of these laws have been abolished in the UK by the British, but they are still a part of the Indian Penal Code. For example Law 377 stated that same sex relations were illegal. This law was struck down last year, but there are many that have not been.

In other ways India has been progressive, they have a history of having a high number of women in political office. The last two Indian Ambassadors to the United States have been women.

In some states it is the law that 33% of the seats must be held by women. Women gained the right to vote in 1950. India is more liberal than the US as to who can vote. If you are in jail you can vote; you can even run for office. You have to be 15+ to vote. You can be illiterate and vote.

40% of women in India are illiterate. 1/2 the children in the country are not in school. To promote the education of girls some of the states have gotten creative. In one state the government has started a Cycle Scheme. If a daughter goes to school, she gets a bike when she reaches the level of 8 or 9. In the State of Uttar Khand, if a family has only one child and it is a daughter, her entire education is paid for, even if she goes all the way through and gets a PhD.

Patriarchy must be looked at as a philosophy about a style of power structure, not as a male thing. You can think of Indira Gandhi as an amalgam of male and female. She was beautiful, petite, stern, and brave. Indira Gandhi was said to be the only man in her cabinet because she was so strong.

Jaya works mainly with small groups of women. It is an intensive 5-6 year program aimed at empowering women in remote areas. There is gender training that focuses on understanding and analyzing patriarchy, violence, and oppression against women.

This is not just a female thing though, as masculinity and femininity are present in all people regardless of their gender. Joseph Campbell is a good source for looking at the merger of the two energies. The real problem is that there is a disconnect in a paternalistic society. This leads women to accept inequity and subjugation.

Another problem in India is parents getting pregnancy tests to determine the gender of their children. This has recently been outlawed. The census data is as follows for live births: the ratio for female births to male births in India is:

In 1991: 948 females: 1000 males

In 2001: 936 females: 1000 males

In 2011: 926 females: 1000 males

The largest drop in females has been among the wealthiest families.

The extreme disparity among the rich and poor raises aspirations. In the election that was just over, the AAP, which translates to the Common Man’s Party, won 28 seats. There are 70 seats total. The Common Man’s Party will not make deals so there is going to be a problem getting things done. (That sound familiar.)

I am also uploading a video of Jaya singing a song written by Kamla Bhasin, and then I am going to sleep. I hope I can sleep as well as this fellow can.

Check out part two of this blog here.

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December 9, 2013June 11, 2019

Our second full day in Delhi, India with Cross Cultural Solutions

Dec 9, 2013 | Blair Lee

Our second full day in Delhi, India with Cross Cultural Solutions

I waited to shower today until everyone else had showered. Our flat ran out of water after 4 people showered. It wasn’t a big deal. I don’t always shower everyday at home anyway. Jim said, “Ran out of water? How does a flat run out of water?” I don’t know, but it did. Sean hadn’t had a shower either. He was cool with it too. Sean has been doing really well. He is enjoying this trip greatly, rolling with it all and getting into the spirit of the experience.

Today we spent in orientation and clothes shopping. Tomorrow we will begin our volunteering. Sean and I have been assigned to a 1st/2nd grade class helping with math and English, then we will help Jim and Alecia with the preschool class until 12. It was the 16th or 18th (sorry I forgot which) anniversary of Cross Cultural Solutions today.

The cake had a core of sliced fruit. I am going to have to try that at home. Below is a photo of the staff. The woman in the center is Bella, or Bella-Ji as my Hindi teacher Sandeep told me she should be called. I really liked her.

Here is a photo of Lalit, a member of the staff at CCS, pointing at the newspaper telling about the election results. They have no majority now after the election, so unless a couple of the groups can form a coalition there will have to be another election in 6 months. Notice the mark on his pointing finger. It was made with indelible ink, so it takes a few days to wear off. It does not wash off. It is the mark that shows he has voted.

This is Bella giving us information about CCS. I like her. She would be fun to hang out with, I can tell.

She had us tell our motivations for coming. That is what the list above is.

We are very lucky to have such a great group.

Yes, they are as small in real life as they look in the photo.

We went out to lunch yesterday and had dosa. I promise to come home knowing how to make them. They are Sean’s favorite dish now. The person with the turban is Vicky. He is a Sikh-man. His hair is down to his butt, if he were to take his turban off. He coils it around on top of his head after he washes it so he can put his turban on. Sikhism comes out of Hinduism. It used to be that each Hindu family would give their oldest son to the Sikhs to become a warrior to protect the country. These men formed the foundation for Sikhism.

Isn’t that cool. It matches my rings.

Oops, they all have the flash in their eyes. The group is waiting for a delicious lunch.

These are the appetizers.

Jim and Wendy.

The man in the back has concrete blocks balanced on a towel on his head. That has to be so heavy on his neck. Ouch!

We finished the day by going shopping for the traditional clothes the women have to wear when volunteering. Some of us loved it more than others. I knew it was going to be like that when Jim started asking how long the shopping was going to take before we even left the office. Half the group bailed and went back while the other half kept shopping.

Don’t you love the bright colors? The outfit we bought is called a salwar kameez. I bought two. You will see them when I wear them to work.

Check out out part one and two of our first day in Delhi, here and here.

Check out the next post here.

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December 8, 2013June 4, 2019

Our First Full Day in Delhi, post 2, Sight Seeing

Dec 8, 2013 | Blair Lee

Our First Full Day in Delhi, post 2, Sight Seeing

Delhi is a huge city, filled with the hustle and bustle that you find in huge cities and many sights to see. It is very polluted. The smog is thick in the air. 4 days ago citizens of Delhi voted, and today they have either begun counting or begun releasing the results of the election.

We walk from the apartment where we are staying, a couple of blocks to what is called the office. The office has a large common area, a kitchen, the sleeping quarters of one staff person, and an office. The staff have been glued to the television every time we have been there, watching the results of the election. They are hoping a new party comes to power in Delhi, because according to them the party in power now is very corrupt.

They make three meals a day for our group, then we clean up. The meals so far have been of mixed quality, ranging from bad to mediocre to very good. I wish there was a photo of me when Jim and I walked in last night and Sean and the rest of the group had been served a dinner of potato chips, pizza with a white flour crust, soda, and salad. I told Jim, “This is junk food.” The good news is there are lots of wonderful restaurants in Delhi. Sean of course thought dinner was great.

The women here wear beautifully covered clothes. Some dress traditionally, and some dress like Westerners do.

This is the lotus temple. It is a temple for the Baha’i Faith. This is a newish religion. We found it very interesting. Sean said if he were to choose a faith, this would be the one he would choose. (Two years later he still feels the same way.) It was started in Iran by a man named Baha’u’llah. Baha’u’llah was born in 1817 into a Muslim family. He felt there needed to be a new religion coming out of all the major religions. He thought religions should evolve with time, and he wanted to create a religion that better reflects modern times. Baha’u’llah was persecuted and jailed for his beliefs and actions. His followers believe he was a Messenger of God along the lines of Abraham, Moses, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, and Zoroaster. His story is fascinating. He was imprisoned for most of his life. His young son was allowed to live in prison with him. It is there his son learned the word of God. I think I remember correctly, that his son also spent many years imprisoned for his beliefs.

This is from their website so I get it correct. “The central theme of Bahá’u’lláh’s message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society. God, Bahá’u’lláh said, has set in motion historical forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation that will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization. The principal challenge facing the peoples of the earth is to accept the fact of their oneness and to assist the processes of unification.”

After our three days in a segregated society, this message really resonated with Sean in particular. Both men and women can be leaders in this religion.

There is a guy who can sleep! This truck was weaving in and out of traffic with the rest of us.

There are no clear divisions between lanes. Cars get really close to each other. I have no desire to drive here. I have been impressed with how well our drivers negotiate the roads.

Check out the bull. These little three-wheeled taxis are every where, zipping in and out of traffic.

LOL, Keep Distance. Nobody does on the road here.

These are of the Isn Khan’s Tomb.

He wanted a photo with me, so I got one with him too. He was involved in agriculture in Afghanistan for 28 years. That is what he told me in very broken English. All I could think was poppies or perfume. I am hoping it was perfume. It is really amazing how many people around the world can speak at least some English.

Then he pushed me away to have his photo taken with Sean.

There is a wall all around the tomb that you can walk on. It is not particularly safe, but it was kind of cool. That is Jim and Hillary, from our group, in the photo.

These are of Wendy. She lives in Seattle. I love Seattle. Now I have someone to visit there.

This is the main attraction. This property goes on and on. Every time you think you are nearing the end, you walk a little farther and realize it keeps going.

That is smog obscuring the photos.

Silhouette of Jim and Sean

These steps are so steep, you almost tumble down them.

Hillary is Jewish and she was interested to find the Star of David featured prominently in many places on the tomb.

We were followed around the back of the tomb by a group of dogs. Sean wanted to pet them, “NO!”

I made Sean wear shorts. We didn’t see one other person in shorts the entire day.

These are all government building, I have lost track of which are which.

Monkeys! There were wild monkeys walking on the street.

That pot has jalebi in it.

The jalebi makers. They are a deep-fried confection, (we think) soaked in honey when they come out of the oil. Soaked in something sugary, that is all we really know for sure. I am also going to post a video of them making it.

Check out the first part of today here.

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December 8, 2013June 4, 2019

Our First Full Day in Delhi, post 1 of 2

Dec 8, 2013 | Blair Lee

We have arrived in New Delhi. This is our group, in order they are Sean, Patrice, Alecia, Hillary, Jim, and Wendy. I am missing of course, see me below.

We are all in a three bedroom two story apartment. We have assignments to various sites. Some of us are assigned together and some aren’t. I will tell you more about the assignments when we begin them. Today we had breakfast, went sightseeing around Delhi, and then hung out. (Isn’t it weird it is sightseeing instead of site seeing? I think we should change it.)

Here is the photo with me in it.

The girls are sharing rooms, two to a room. It is a happy bunch. This is one smart group of women. The Taliban does not need to look any further than this room for a good argument for why women should be educated.

This is our shower, it is okay.

After you shower, you squeegee the floor.

The view from our balcony.

Oh boy! There are pugs in Delhi, too.

Alecia is from Cody, Wyoming. She likes long walks on beaches, even though she has never been to the beach. This is her first trip anywhere, ever. Not bad going to New Delhi for a first trip.

The fruit sellers of New Delhi.

Don’t you love it. This is a vegetable seller. None of these people speak English. I am so glad I studied my Hindi.

This car is decorated for a wedding.

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December 7, 2013June 11, 2019

A Little Bit of Hindi Comes in Handy

Dec 7, 2013 | Blair Lee

Yesterday we flew over Iran and Pakistan from Dubai to Delhi, India. Jim thought this was the closest he would get to either of these two countries. Little could he guess 😉 I have always found Persian history fascinating. It’s a bummer, but I had to agree.

I took Hindi lessons in the states. I only speak a bit of Hindi, but I studied hard to learn what I did. Yesterday it really came in handy. While we were on the plane we were handed 3 forms to fill out, one for each of us. The address where we were staying in India was one of the pieces of information asked for on the form. We had packed that address in our luggage. When we got to customs and did not have the address on our form, the customs official started to frown. He was not happy with us. He also did not speak English. I began speaking to him in my broken Hindi. Jim said his face lit up with a huge smile. I didn’t notice. I was concentrating too hard on what he was saying, and what I should say next. Things like, “Pata mai nahee samjee. Ye in luggage hai.” Which basically translates to, “I don’t know the address. It is in our luggage.” I asked, all in Hindi, if anyone spoke English. He answered haan (yes, in Hindi). We talked a bit about not much. Then he started calling other people from the line to his desk. The first person also did not have the address filled out. He frowned, and told her she needed it. Then he had her stand to the side. He called the next person up. Someone who did have the address filled out. It said, “Ramada Hotel.” I know this, because he showed it to me, and in English told me, “Put anything.” So we all wrote Ramada Hotel as our Delhi pata and walked into India. As I was walking away he told me, “Apka Hindi teacher bahut accha hai bahut accha.” Your Hindi teacher is very good, very good. Jim was so happy with me. It put all of us in a good mood as we entered India.

Next I asked a guard, “Ji, ap English bolte hai?” Sir, do you speak English? He said, “Yes, but, ap Hindi bolte hai.” Yes, but you speak Hindi.” Then we had the rest of our conversation in English. I am not that good.

I am the only person, besides Sean, who learned any Hindi in our group of volunteers. There are 4 other women in our group. We went to the office last night for dinner, and the cook also does not speak English. I hope everyone in our group likes bahut mirchi kam khana that is shakahari. The means, very unspicy food that is vegetarian, 🙂 because you know that is what I made sure the food was.

We are 13 1/2 hours ahead of the time in California. It it 4:53 a.m. here. I am the first one up as usual. Today is our first full day in India, I will blog tonight about our group and our accommodations.

While we were eating dinner a wedding procession started on the street behind us. We ran outside. Here are two photos, they are too dark but it is all I have. The groom is on a horse/pony. I am not sure which. I am so excited. India is busy and foreign and noisy and ohhh… I cannot wait to see it!

Check out our previous post here and the next here.

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December 7, 2013June 3, 2019

3 Rooms for 3 Nights, the Best Laid Plans on Mice And Women Go Awry Every Now and Then, day 3, last day in Dubai

Dec 7, 2013 | Blair Lee

3 Rooms for 3 Nights, the Best Laid Plans on Mice And Women Go Awry Every Now and Then, day 3, last day in Dubai

Before leaving home: Blair, “So the place I have chosen for us to stay is sort of random and off the beaten path. Just to give you a heads up.”
Sean, “Mom I have been traveling the world with you since I was 6. You always choose random and off the beaten path. We expect it.”

I carefully hand picked our hotel room. The hotel and I sent emails back and forth about the right room. Then two days before we were to leave, the hotel sent me an email that there was municipality maintenance, and they were going to put us into a different hotel. What could I do but say okay. The first night’s stay was great. The hotel ungraded us to their Master Suite, it was a treat. But it was in downtown Bur Dubai on a busy street. It was not the quaint heritage guest room I had booked that sat on the creek, which is really a slow moving inlet. They moved us over to the Barjeel Guest House for the second night’s stay. I suspected all along that they had given our room away and I turned out to be correct. There had been maintenance needed, but not to our room, it was to the other people’s room who they put in the room promised to us. They put us in a less than stellar room for night two. The truth is though, we were so tired that it really didn’t matter that much, but still. What with jet lag and everything else I was irritated. Then they told us they had hoped that we would just want to stay at the first hotel. But they didn’t tell us that when we were there!?! The second room was very small and stuffed with furniture with a grate high up in the wall that opened into the guest next door’s bathroom. You could hear everything that went on in their bathroom and the light from their bathroom shined into our room. (Yes, we could hear the other guests shower and go to the bathroom.) Just as I started to get irritated Sean and then Jim started to laugh. “Well,” Sean said, “You always like to experience the road less traveled Mom. I think you succeeded this time.” He was right of course. In the end it was better this way.

This is the grate into the next door neighbor’s bathroom.

Then there was the last night’s stay. It was everything I hoped it would be. At one point, I thought the hotel would really benefit from an American coming over and getting the whole thing into shape. The problem with that is it might lose its flavor and charm and other-worldliness if that happened. It definitely felt like we were not in Kansas anymore 😉

This is a pickup cricket game that was happening out in front of our 2nd hotel. The men are workers from India and Pakistan.

This Dodo was in front of our room. I loved it.

This is a good example of a typical heritage style home. Check out all that greenery coming from the top of the courtyard. This is next door to our hotel.

Another building next to our hotel which was the Barjeel Guesthouse, http://heritagedubaihotels.com/barjeel-guest-house-dubai.php. Barjeel mean wind tower in Arabic. The narrow alleys help to keep things cool by providing shade and funneling cooling breezes through them.

The entrance to the souk near our hotel. I bought some spices there, including saffron. I got so excited, I forgot to bargain, so I paid more than I should have. Oh well. It was all a bit overwhelming.

How many women do you see?

Sean had trouble telling the sellers no.

Breakfast at the hotel. Despite the non-western haphazardness of our hotel. After a day on a bus traveling through Dubai I am so delighted with where we stayed. We definitely felt like we had wandered into another culture. I began thinking about period pieces I had read of course and imagining the pages of books had come alive.

No alcohol served within blocks of our hotel btw.

After breakfast Jim talked Sean and I into taking a bus ride around the city. I had never taken one of these before and will never do it again. I visit countries to take in the sights and sounds and meet people, not to be driven from place to place on a bus tour, but it was eye-opening. It was a great view into the dichotomy between the haves and the have nots. Once we got of the main street that smelled very strongly of rotting fish, we walked through streets that did not look rich or glitzy. My guess is this is where the immigrants are living with multiple people to a room.

We got off the bus at the Gold Souk. It was closed. So we wandered a couple of blocks over and into a different world. This must be where the immigrant workers live.

This would not be the last time I used my scarf for odor issues today. We were in front of the fish market and it was a hot day.

These photos are both of dhows. The dhows (ships) transport goods all over the Arabian Gulf, including countries in Africa.

The courts use Sharia law except for traffic offenses & one other area (which I have now forgotten). Westerners are not subject to Sharia Law, but we were told by a Pakastini that the courts were bad news, you don’t want to go there. So maybe the Pakastanis are subject to Sharia Laws. The police are mainly Yemenis and Iranians, not from the UAE.

The beautiful side, photos

Friday is holy day. This is a mosque open to non-Muslim visitors but not on Friday. These men are at prayer in a town square.

This is a 7 star hotel. Note the presence of women everywhere, including in bikinis. This is the Western side of town, and it is as if you have walked into a different world from where we were staying.

At about 10:00 there is a woman in a burka looking out onto the beach.

I wanted to get a photo for all of you. Women were much more commonly viewed on this side, with traditionally dressed women everywhere in these outfits. I felt bad taking a photo which was sort of objectifying in a country where women are totally objectified. Btw, the color black on the UAE flag stands for natural resources. I really hope that is not what the black color of the burkas stands for. And black of all colors! It is really hot here.

A look at part of the Dubai skyline for the new city.

The world’s tallest building, or second tallest depending on who is talking.

Ski Dubai, the ski slope inside the Mall

Now I know where all the UAE women are.

Back toward the hotel we saw the museum at night.

Our hotel has a courtyard on one side. The other side bordered what is called the Creek.

Our room finally.

Jim and I wandered out to a museum. Sean fell asleep in the room. The museum was the home of the Sheik who was the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Saeed Al Maktoum’s house
Dubai built in the 1800’s as a fishing and pearling village

A representation of how traditional villages were constructed.

Serving my man!

The sheik’s home at night, the towers are Barjeels, wind towers.

This is a photo of a photo. I wanted you to see what the mask the women in Al Ain were wearing looked like. It is not a pretty mask.

Some information about the museum.

This was taken for the creek side at our hotel.

The inner courtyard at the Barjeel Guesthouse.

We locked ourselves in from the inside using this traditional lock. It was very cool.

One final view of our hotel front. The non-creek side. This entire area is being renovated. Before they started renovating it, the area was home to Pakistani and Indian workers. One day the government came in and bulldozed it down and told them all to leave and live somewhere else.

Here are some final notes I want to share.

Car beeping if you go over a certain speed: In the UAE cars are equipped with a beeping sensor, and if you go over a certain speed limit the car starts to beep at you. It is very annoying, and effective at maintaining speed.

The UAE and water: 97% of water usage from desalinated water. One of highest water consumptions per capita in the world.

In the morning we were picked up by our favorite driver of our stay. Here is his story as told to us by him, as he rushed through the city talking a mile a minute.

He is from the Swat Valley, Pakistan. He has been in Dubai since 1982. He was very friendly and not sexist in the least. At least he didn’t show it. He takes care of his entire family on the salary he earns working in Dubai. He visits home for 45 days during the summer when it is so hot in Dubai tourists don’t visit. He said you don’t want to go to the Dubai courts. His name was Hyatt. His children did not go to school for a while because of the violence from the Taliban in the Swat Valley. They could not even leave their house, but now the Taliban is gone for that area; there is peace there, and the girls have been able to go back to school. He told us, “No Taliban, no problem”. I tipped him 20$ American, and told him it was a gift for his mother and wife from an American lady. I also told him the Americans want peace for his country, especially the American mothers.

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December 6, 2013June 3, 2019

Cultural Differences: Some thoughts that came out of your questions and comments

Dec 6, 2013 | Blair Lee

Cultural Differences: Some thoughts that came out of your questions and comments

We just woke up to the call to worship. It is a perfect and fitting end to our stay in Dubai. My brain has been churning away because of your comments asking about cultural differences. I plan on blogging about yesterday on the plane, but before I start packing…

I have felt the sexism, but I want to clarify. I wanted to stay off the beaten path. And I succeeded. One person working at the hotel asked Jim how we even found this place. He said, “My wife found it on the Internet.” A couple of times before we spoke people called us Australian or English, mainly because Americans do not stay in the less touristy areas. Even Brits and Aussies are not plentiful here. In the area we are staying most of the people seem to be Indian or Middle Eastern. It is obvious that cultural differences play a role in where people stay.

When a man enters into conversation with one of us it is mostly Jim but occasionally Sean they speak to. When I do enter into the conversation the people have been taken aback, generally (unless they have been from India. The Indian men have behaved as if it is normal. Even the Muslims from India. Thank goodness for that). The speaker looks at who is talking, sees it is an American female, and readjusts that they are directing the entire conversation to Jim or Sean. There are very few woman on the streets in the area where we are staying and very very few that are Caucasian. All of those who are have obviously been tourists.

The Arabic men in Al Ain were great to all men and women. There was no difference in treatment. But the women with them, the few there were, were hidden inside and behind burka like outfits. They wore a strange mask instead of the one piece outfit. The men were laughing, dancing with each other, hanging out, and having a good time. The women were not. It was a view into a practice we found disturbing without having to experience it. It is especially disturbing because it is the status quo. There were some serving women who were dressed in brightly colored outfits. We were told they were servants from Africa.

I wonder if this is similar to how it must have felt for abolitionists and free people of color who visited the South of the United States before slavery was abolished. It is hard to see 1/2 the population have all rights and freedoms, and 1/2 the population be subjugated, with the vast majority of the population accepting it as the way of things.

We do not know how the women here feel. We have not spoken to one woman from the UAE during our stay. But to our Western way of thinking, free is better than not. We have had a great time, but what an eye opener.

You can read about our last day in Dubai here.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

December 6, 2013June 11, 2019

Day 2, Dubai, the Rest of the Day

Dec 6, 2013 | Blair Lee

Sean had an interesting observation, there does not seem to be a gender bias about what colors of clothing men and women wear here. He also noticed that we have not seen anyone wearing pink. The head scarfs and long clothing looks very flattering on the women.

When this waiter first heard us talk, he told us we spoke good English. Jim looked at him surprised and told him, “We should; we are American.”

When I planned this trip, I wanted off the beaten path Dubai. I succeeded in that, but until I experienced it I didn’t know what that meant. I booked a room that was supposed to be decorated in a period style in a heritage area. Not one of the glitzy oil sheikdom built hotels. I say supposedly because we have yet to stay in the room I booked, more on that tomorrow.

We started today getting up to check out a nearby mosque, and we ended the events of the day by happening onto a traditional dance set in a park. One of the first things Sean noticed about Dubai was that the people on the street are mostly men. The difference in the numbers of men versus woman working and walking down the streets is big. When there are women they have been from India, the Philippines, or another country in Asia. There have been a couple of instances, in particular because we have had issues with the hotel, where I was dealing with the staff, not Jim, and they were okay with it but not natural with it. It felt slightly uncomfortable and weird. The driver who took us to Al Ain explained it well when he said it has been hard for Muslim men to get used to the Western tourists in Dubai because they have to deal with the western women behaving equal. Anyone who knows me knows I behave very equal, LOL, and my husband and son treat me as their equal. You cannot help but feel the extreme sexism here. The men must have a hard time with the lack of it.

After touring this museum we had a driver take us to Al Ain.

Al Ain is close to the Omani Border. It is more traditional than Dubai. We wanted to visit the fort there, which has been named a Unesco World Heritage site.

Our driver was Pakistani. There are a lot of Pakistanis in Dubai. Many of the workers are Pakistani (the rest I think have been Indian or Chinese). The workers from Pakistan come because of the jobs and future. They leave their families back in Pakistan because they can only stay as long as they are working here and their families are not welcome to come. Even if they work in the UAE for 50 years when they finish their working career they have to leave the country. This is unlike European countries where the workers can get citizenship and bring their families over. It must be hard to feel comfortable in European societies though. Our driver is married to a woman who lives in Pakistan. They have a 2 year old son, who he sees one month a year.

Those layers are hot and so is the color. It is hot and humid in Dubai. Dubai is in the arid subtropical region. So even though it is desert it is humid.

There are captions with all these.

The Al Jalili Fort was built starting in 1891 by Sheik Zayed the First. The fort was used as a residence for almost 20 years.

The fort is being remodeled. In the US you would not be able to get into structures in this much need of repair. We were the only tourists at the fort, too. Which is rather sad. I guess people do not visit this area for the old buildings. Al Ain is not in Dubai though. It is about 1 1/2 hours from Dubai by car.

Next we had the good fortune to wander over to visit a heritage Park where local men come to dance on the Thursday before festival days. Friday is the main Muslim day of worship. They actually worship everyday, but Friday is their main holy day. And this week is a national holiday in the UAE.

We experienced real Arabic hospitality here. This is not a tourist attraction. We actually wandered into and were welcomed into a gathering of Arabic Muslim men. You will see a few other people who also did the same.

I really enjoyed this. Sean did not. He felt it was strange to only see men enjoying themselves. There were a few women at this, very few, but they were working so probably not Muslims, or were wearing traditional dress with a weird black piece on their face that looked like a mustache. These women were weaving baskets. Our driver told us he did not think they were Muslims either because Muslim men, himself included, do not like their women to be seen. They are meant to stay inside with only the men going outside.

You read about it and see it on TV, but until you experience it, it is hard to imagine how sexist it is. That said the Arabic hospitality was lovely as was the Fort. It is just a very unfamiliar culture.

Check out yesterdays post here and tomorrows here.

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December 4, 2013June 11, 2019

Call to Worship Dubai

Dec 4, 2013 | Blair Lee

Call to Worship Dubai

I am dressed to go out and check out what happens during the Call to Worship in Dubai. The call is broadcast, and then the service is as well. The entire thing lasts about 30 minutes and sounds quite lovely, although I didn’t understand any of it.

When we came back, the concierge asked me if we were Christian, and I said we were not religious. I decided that was the safest response in this Muslim country. I don’t talk about religion at home. I am not going to start here. The concierge was pretty surprised. He said, “But where are you from?” I said the US, and he said, “I know there are Christians and Jews and Hindis, but not religious?” I told him we had that too. I wish I had told him he was forgetting Muslims in his list of religious groups in the US.

The boys would not let me out without one of them either. It felt weird to Sean to be in charge of me. But we got a lot of stares too. I had decided we should stay in the old historic district and there were no women alone on the streets.

New Recording 5-1.m4a

Here is the call to worship Dubai audio file. The call to worship began at 5:30 a.m. It was very melodious. It went on for about 3 minutes, then stopped and the service which was also broadcast into the neighborhood began at 5:50 and lasted about 15 minutes.

After Dubai, we will be traveling to Delhi, India where we will be volunteering with Cross-Cultural Solutions, working on a service project. Check out this link for more information about incorporating service into your child’s journey through learning.

Check out yesterdays post here and tomorrows here.

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December 4, 2013June 11, 2019

In the air, Flying to Dubai first and then on to India

Dec 4, 2013 | Blair Lee

Well the laugh was on me. For weeks I have been telling everyone we would leave California and fly west. We did not; when flying to Dubai we flew east. When you are 12 hours away it must not matter, and which would you choose European air space or Chinese airspace? So, We flew east over the USA and crossed over into Canada at Minnesota. We flew up and over Iceland, then down to Dubai. We even went over the Ukraine and the Black Sea.

It was an interesting flight. The airplane is huge. It is an A380-800. Guess what, huge airplanes have a huge number of people flying on them. Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Until you experience it though, it is hard to understand just what that means. It means a crazy huge line to check in, even with every counter manned. It means rows of long lines to get on the airplane. The number of people in the flight crew is as big as the passenger list on small commuter flights!

Many of the people flying to Dubai with us were catching connecting flights to India or Pakistan. It was a taste of things to come, the smells, clothes, and languages spoken were exotic and interesting. English is not the primary language spoken and we have not even left US airspace. The first few languages spoken over the intercom are Arabic, then Hindi, then English. Oh yes, this is what I signed up for. There were babies everywhere on the flight too, with mothers walking all over the place, changing tables in the bathrooms, and baby food being served by flight attendants. When dinner was served the choices were lamb (ghost), chicken (murgi), and vegetarian (shakahari). They ran out of vegetarian dinners.

I wish it were cool for me to get up and start snapping photos so you could get an idea of how different this flight is from others I have flown, but it is not ;(.

We got to talking to a woman in line who was headed to Karachi. She came to the US at the age of 20 to marry. It was an arranged marriage. She has been here 22 years now. She told us she loves to visit Pakistan, but she is thankful that she lives in the US and that her daughter, who is 19, was born and grew up in the US. She explained that Karachi is full of girls like Malala but the tribal areas are not. They are feudal and set in their old ways. We asked her if she didn’t worry when she was in Pakistan. She told us the way people deal with the threat of violence that has arisen in Pakistan since 911. She said they are pragmatic about the threat. She said when it is your time, it is your time. That fatalistic approach is the way Pakistani’s cope with the danger. I do not believe in fate, I wonder if I could adapt to this paradigm.

Time for some sleep

16 hours is a crazy long flight! Talk to you tomorrow, with lots of photos.

Sleep did not go as planned. I got sick from something I ate. I spent much of the flight throwing up, which actually turned out okay. It meant that I spent the flight talking (as best I could) to the women standing around in the open areas near the bathroom.

Check out the previous post here and the next post here.

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December 4, 2013June 21, 2023

A Handcrafted Education

Dec 4, 2013 | Blair Lee

I love coffee. My favorite coffee drink right now is a salted caramel soy white chocolate latte extra salt with just a little whipped cream to hold the salt. My favorite coffee drink has changed over time; this is just the current favorite. The Starbucks baristas are always happy to make it just like I like it. That is because Starbucks makes handcrafted beverages, it is their shtick. As I was lying in bed this morning thinking with excitement about my upcoming trip, I realized that was what I am creating for my child, a handcrafted education. Homeschooling at its finest is about handcrafting an education. Most people who do not homeschool their children don’t understand this, but all you homeschoolers do. I get all sorts of questions about my son’s education. FYI, I use what I call a learner-centered approach with a liberal arts approach. It is academic, eclectic, and personally meaningful.

A Handcrafted Education: Fun in the warm mud! It looks just like coffee.

Someone asked me yesterday how Sean (my son) could take a month off school to go to India. UMMN, going to India counts as school. We will be volunteering at a literacy project, helping kids and adults learn to speak English. I think that can count as school.

Sean volunteering at the Vidya, Munirka school in Delhi, India

Is he getting an education that will get him into every college? The answer is no. It isn’t our fault if college admissions haven’t caught up with the homeschool movement. Is he getting an education that will get him into some colleges? Yes. (Updated to add: He got into almost all he applied to and was offered a scholarship at several. For an academic homeschooler, eclectic is not only okay, colleges seem to like it.)

Just as some people like handcrafted coffee drinks and some do not, some colleges like applicants who have a handcrafted education, and some colleges want those who have had a mainstream education. Besides what is the worst that can happen, he starts at community college. I was a community college professor. I started my college journey at a community college. There is some great teaching going on at community colleges! All this talk about colleges makes it seem like the focus is on getting into college. It isn’t. We spend our time focusing on the ingredients, the recipe, and the process instead of spending all our time thinking about the end result.

A Handcrafted Education: Aguas Calientes, Peru (at the base of Machu Picchu) That is my son up there in the yellow shirt.

My son’s education has changed over the years just as my favorite coffee drink has. This is not the first time we have taken an extended trip as a part of it, we have traveled to Peru, Ukraine, Hungary, Ireland, France, Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico and made a couple of extended trips to the East Coast in the U.S. We live in California. This is the first time we have volunteered though. I hope it adds an extra dimension to the trip, sort of like adding extra salt to my favorite drink.

I could go on with this for paragraphs, but I have to leave with enough time to stop at Starbucks!

The next blog will be during the flight or from Dubai.

Love to all, Blair

Check out this article to learn more about Eclectic Homeschooling.

December 2, 2013July 2, 2023

Tips for Packing: Worldschooling

tips for packing, India, Blair Lee, SEA Homeschoolers, Worldschooling

Dec 2, 2013 | Blair Lee

We leave tomorrow and the excitement is building. The last few days before a big trip like this are always jam packed with chores. I need to put a play list together if any of you have a suggestion or two, post them in the comments section and I will check them out. We travel quite a bit and over the years I have figured out some tips for packing and travel to share with you.

Tips for Packing 1: Be thoughtful about your clothing choices

Packing was interesting with a lot of black clothing packed for me. For both Dubai and India it is suggested that women dress conservatively, so I packed with that in mind. Somehow that turned out to be black. When I pack I pay attention to the weight of my clothes, wrinkle-ability, and versatility. I take light weighted clothes, made from synthetic fabric. I pack as few pair of shoes as I can. I will also take any article of clothes I wore a lot the last trip. You don’t want to take too much there either, because you are going to want to have room for when you come back. I love to bring back mementos.

Tips for Packing 2: Pack medical items you might need

Medical bag: One thing you have to pack when you travel around with your child is a fully packed first aid bag. There are not just the usual band aids and Neosporin as you can see for yourself. When we hiked in to Machu Picchu I had the medical bag loaded. Most of the people in our group got something from me at one time or another.

Tips for Packing 3: Plugs are different around the world

Then there are the wall plugs. We have to take different adapters for Dubai and for India. I have to keep the iPad and iPhone charged so I can blog our trip!

Travel Tip: Google tipping in the country you are visiting

Tipping: One of the most surprising things we learned on our first big trip was that the rest of the world does not tip like Americans. Now I always find out what the tipping is like where we go. Some people will expect a tip when they hear the accent, but for the most part the rest of the world doesn’t tip much if at all. It feels really weird not to tip so Jim and I usually do. The French made fun of us for it. I understand French much better than I speak it. I attended a school where French was mandatory from pre-school through 7th grade and for some reason I can remember a lot of the words when someone else is speaking French. We don’t really care though, if the worst someone can say about you is that you are generous, well, I can live with that.

Travel Tip: If you have dietary limitations, know how to tell people that in their own language

Food: Lucky for me, a lot of Indians are shakahari (vegetarians). If you want to know more about my journey to vegetarianism and recently to veganism, read The China Study and all will be clear to you. I will be surprised if the book doesn’t change your life as it did mine (and through me Jim and Sean’s). That and my bleeding heart when it comes to animals. I have been experimenting cooking Indian foods, and we all love it. We have found 2 great Indian restaurants in San Diego, Chennai Tiffen (Sean loves the dosa there) and the Bombay Coast.

Travel Tip: You will have jet lag

First days there: We are pretty loose with our trip after we have been there for a while but I always make sure we have everything taken care of for the first few days. You are tired and out of it when you finally get to your destination. And you do not want to be figuring it out then. Yesterday morning I had an email that our hotel (carefully hand picked by me) wanted to put us up in their sister hotel our first night. My immediate reaction was not happy. But I looked at the reviews on TripAdvisor before responding to the email and found out that the hotel we would be staying at is next to a muezzin and the first call to worship is at 5:30 a.m. I seriously cannot wait to hear it. I love to experience new things. I will try to get an audio file for all of you. So I was happy after all. Wait until you see the room in the guest house (not hotel) I did book. I will wait until then, day 2, to show it to you.

Travel Tip: Make sure the pets are all set up

Pets: We travel and we have pets. Thankfully we have good friends who look after our pets. Bedford gets to hang out with Michelle who takes him for hikes. Jezabel and Phinneas go to Shawn’s. If you want to see Jez play with her new BFF the video is posted. The guinea pigs are living the high life with Ellen in Rancho Santa Fe.

Tips for Packing 4: BOOKS!

At last I am ready to choose the books I am going to take with me. For this trip I am taking a combination of Kindle books and hard copy books. They include a biography about Richard Pryor called Serious Cool, a funny book called Hyperbole and a Half, Sycamore Row, NOS4A2, the China Study, City of Bones, and The Cuckoo’s Calling (a book written by JK Rowling under a pseudonym). Does that sound like a lot of books to take on vacation? It should tell you something about how much I love to read! I am just not sure how much down time I will have on this vacation.

I know I am forgetting something, oh what can it be? Oh yes, my sleep mask, ear plugs, and neck pillow. I know total dork hunh. But I really do want to sleep during the 15 hour and 50 minute flight.

Check out the previous post here.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

November 28, 2013June 30, 2023

Vidya Munirka School in India. Our Placements! Teaching, of course!

world schooling india, Vidya Munirka School

Nov 28, 2013 | Blair Lee

Vidya Munirka School in India – Volunteering

Our Placements! Teaching, of course! Vidya Munirka School in India.

We could not wait to get our assignments. There were several projects we could be assigned to. We knew that Sean would be assigned with one of us, but there were many different choices. My husband felt that a construction-focused project would best fit his talents, and I was hoping to spend the time volunteering with one of the organizations that focused on teaching. Even Jim, my husband, was excited when we learned we would be volunteering with a literacy program through the Vidya Munirka School in the Munirka Slums in Delhi.

Happy Thanksgiving even more importantly in our house, Happy Birthday Sean!

We are going on a world schooling trip India to volunteer. We have been anticipating the news about what our assignment would be. I thought I would end up at a school, and I was correct. I will be working with a 1st/2nd grade class in a school that works with low to low-middle income students. The name of the school is the Vidya Munirka School. The school has a focus on empowering women and girls in their community. Doesn’t that sound right up my alley! It is a great assignment for Sean too. Jim was assigned to a preschool class at the same school. We will all work together, how great. Here is a YouTube video from the founder of the school.

Here is a picture of a classroom at the school and you can check out their website here. We did not actually work in a classroom setting. Where we volunteered it was open with limited desks. Our site was a feeder program to get students ready to be able to attend the classrooms.

Check out the next post here.