Jaipur... Chase's Perspective

Hey again everyone... and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! :) (here in india people say 'happy christmas'; is that British or something? I cant tell... maybe some of you more European aware people can help me out with that one!) My grandmother is in town for the week. Being with her, we decided to go to Jaipur for the last three days.

Jaipur is the capitol of Rajastan, an Indian state east of us here in Delhi. Its in a desert, well really on the edge of a desert. Because of this we it was warmer then Delhi, which at this point of the year, a good thing. (Yep thats right... It actually gets cold in Delhi!!! And we had to survive 120 degree weather to figure that out.) We traveled to and from Jaipur by a 5 hour train ride.

In Jaipur we stayed in a "three star hotel" located on the main road above shops and resturant. It was called "LMB" which stood for some family name or something of that sort. The city is very much like Old Delhi in the sense that there is a lot of chaotic shopping circumstances. On a walk Friday when we got there, we traveled through backstreet passages lined with the most colorful stalls of saris that glinted and glittered in the dim light that shown through the small space between roofs. Women marveled over the hues of blue that flowed like a disturbed pool of water; the reds that growled a fire the rippled and lapped at them playfully; the greens like rolling hills. It was quite spectacular.

We visited the Wind Palace and Amber Fort, marveling at their architecture and beauty, well worth a vist if you are every in india. To get up to the Amber Fort we rode elephants along the steep paved pathway that winded up  the mountainous base. It was a very touristic attraction but still enjoyable and worth our time!

The best moments we shared though was when Tessa, our Grandma and I sung "We Three Kings" while riding camels on Christmas Eve. We might of even been confused for the three kings if it werent for the fact that the ride was along a highway :)


Overall it was a very entertaining holiday trip. Look forward for the rest of the families input. -Chase

A Day in the Field

Wow we had a very intents day in the field yesterday. The day, based around a potential grantee for my dad called ASHA, started out in their office. We spent a good three hours or so in there as Dad, his colleuge, and the two representatives of ASHA talked about the companies model and program. Suprisingly, i found parts of it pretty intresting, though it was still complicated... at least too complicated for me to want to write in this post. :) At around one yesterday, Mom, who had been bitten by a dog (which is another story ill have her write) went to get vacinations or something and Tessa, who was completly under dressed (flip-flops in the winter?!? Whos idea was that.. i mean even for India its getting to be around 11 C) was starting to feel sick so she left as well.

Another hour of talking and we left for the true field. Our destination: The slum of Ohkla and a neighboring slum.  The car ride through Delhi traffic, allowed me a nice nap, but on the way out i saw the      strip of road leading out of the slum area. People, both small children and adults, and animals, like the stray dogs and sacred cows, all openly defficated in the street, turnig the 100 yrd road into the worlds largest toilet. It was the same thing in the backstreets to the nieghboring slum; The roads were of black mud that bubbled eerily.

Some background on this slum: This slum, which Dad described as the worst slum hes ever been to, is illegaly located right on railroad property. Because of this they are not allowed to build on the land, even a toilet! The job that most of the slum does is sort through trash. Thats why on the the walk through the slum the ground litered with paper, Kukure Masala Munch bags, and plastic chai cups that had fermented into the black Earth. The huts were really made of cardboard and roofed with garbage bags. How they stood up or survived monsoons, i still wonder. Men played cards and few children studied on scraps of paper that tore when the tried to write. Women were solemnly seen on our visit; Only once was a young women doing laundry or some sort of house work.

The visit was very touch, and although at first the ASHA representitives thought i shouldnt see it, i feel life isn't complete until you have seen every aspect of life. The visit really helped me apreciate my life and the reason im in india. 

Here are some pictures of the slum and the TB clinic we saw:

The Jazz Ustav

Well supposably I'm supposed to write something about the band(s) we saw last night... Before i write about that however, I'd like to acknowledge how grateful i am to have my cast off!!! The last 4 weeks have been a pain in the you-know-what. Everything has been very different with one hand, as im sure everyone who's broken something has experienced. One of the things different is that i havent been able to hold a saxophone with one hand. So today, after getting my arm back i had a saxophone "jam session" with the really only person who i've met that is passionate about saxophone, Abahey, whos 19 and is very  good. It was very fun to get back to playing and believe it or not, i hadn't been that bad for not playing for 4 weeks!

Finally, we had found some sort of jazz scene here and that was a "Jazz Utsav." (utsav is like a festival in hindi.) Last night two groups where playing. The first was a band from Polland called "Pawl (the "L" having some weird line through it... Some Polish thing i guess...) Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Band." They were amazing! The played very contemporary style music. They did a very good job of always playing; They kept the music in the air. They did that by always having a soloist wether it was a melow piano solo or bass. The songs had no strong chord changes behind them but they had very good melodic ideas behind their solos, especialy the saxophonist and pianist. The saxophonist was very good and hit some REALLY high notes on his tenor. The pianist was very musicaly talented. He was always having fun with his solos, sometimes even playing from inside the piano.

The second group was called "The Louiz Banks/ Braz Gonsalves Jazz Combo" which was all indians. We didnt stay for all of it, but at one point there was only a trio onstage which included Louiz Banks on the piano, Sheldon D' Silva on bass guitar, and Gino Banks on drums. Gino Banks really rocked the drums for his solo and got going really fast, but he was nothing compared to Sheldon D' Silva!!! Sheldon moved his hands so fast, you couldn't see his hands. At one point he started playing by hiting the strings like a bongo drums. Don't be suprised if you hear the name "Sheldon D' Silva" as a famous bassist soon!

So that was last night! It was very entertaining! I'll keep on posting- Chase

Jazz and saws in Delhi

Tonight we learned that Delhi has fantastic jazz afterall......the only catch is that the fantastic jazz was shipped in from Poland.  But actually the second band from India did wonderful contempory jazz too and the bass guitarist would have made Jimi Hendrix proud..."besides the fact that Jimi Hfendrix did not play the bass jazz."  what Chase just added.

Today Chase got his cast off.  "It was horrific"  Both of us thought the saw would go thru his arm and tonight Peter told us that in the US, atleast, they vibrate, not spin and thus can't cut skin...WHAT@@#$$% How does it cut a cast and not the skin??? Peter, this does not make sense.

Check back tomorrow for Chase's review of the music and hopefully links to their videos.

I made up a joke tonight that Chase could say in a stand up comedy setting  "My mom's is so controlling that she wakes me up in the middle of the night and tells me what to dream"

I think a whole show based on his "Tiger mom" would be good therapy....for me!

By Mom and Chase

Hello Friends and Family

Hi guys back home its me, Chase! I have finally been introduced to our blog... and now am being made  towrite a post before im allowed on Facebook. So, here goes nothing.

Where to start even. These past Four months -as of last Friday- have been very... how to describe them... stimulating; complex; exhausting; challenging, just to start. To be honest its been some of the most challenging couple months of my life. To begin with i had leave everything (except the tons of stuff we shipped.) Leaving friends was hard, as was leaving the Puget Sound (Mukiltewo Pier), Duthi Park, music, ultimate frisbee, hamburgers, hamburgers, steak, steak, salmon, salmon, bacon, bacon, crab, crab, scallops, scallops, our Wii, Netflix, our Boat and a bed!!! Learning to live without all these things and adapting to life and India been very frustrating and, yes you win parents, insightful and educational. So much has happened and according to my calculations theres A LOT more to come!

So far, in terms of just daily life, school is very nice and a good counterbalance to the constant vigilance needed outside the school gate. We have a house, smaller than i would like and defiantly smaller than my expat friend's houses, but im reminded everyday im lucky to even have a house. Our neighborhood is very nice. Outside we have a bustling park. Yesterday Dad and i went to the park for a little bit and i was spontaneously invited into a football match. Two blocks away is a nice tennis complex. Also we are very near a market which is very convenient. The only thing im missing in my life these days, besides home, is a bed, well and my arm for that matter! First off i dont have a bed yet because we ran into the issue of the ceiling fan when thing about putting in my loft bed which we had brought from Seattle. So, momentarily i sleep on my mattress until we can get someone to make a bed frame. About my arm: Four weeks ago from this upcoming monday i went to American touch football after school. Before it even started, me and my friends were messing around and i was knocked over when going for the ball. I just couldn't break my fall so instead i broke my arm, or my precisely my distil radius. So on top on being on the other side of the world, i have only one arm!!! The life we had recently got settled was then screwed-up and ive had to re transfigure it. Cant wait to get it off monday.

Anywho, thats just the beginning of it. I guess ill start dong this more to catch whoever cares up on my recent events in India. -Chase

Asian Elephants

THIS IS AN OUTLINE OF TESSA’S MULTIMEDIA ENGAGING POWER POINT PRESENTATION.  TESSA DID THIS ON HER FREE TIME BY HERSELF.

Asian Elephants

                              By:

                        Tessa Small

Elephants in General

Elephants are mammals

They are land animals, but they love swimming and are extrmley good swimmers.

A male is called a Bull and a female is called a cow

A baby is called a Calf

Sometimes they are used as labor so there are not many left in wild

Typically live for 50-70 years

Habitat

Asian elephants inhabit grasslands,tropical evergreen forest, semi-evergreen forest, moist deciduous forest, dry deciduous forested and dry thorn forest, in addition to cultivated and secondary forests and scrublands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deciduous_forest

Over this range of habitat types elephants are seen from sea level to over 3,000 m (9,800 ft). In the Eastern Himalaya in northeast India, they regularly move up above 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in summer at a few sites.[12]

Scale

Male elephants can weigh up to 12,000 pounds (5,443 kg)

Female elephants can weigh up to 8,000 pounds (3,628 kg)

Female typically 8 feet (2.5m) tall at the shoulder.

Male  typically 9 feet (2.7m) tall

                          Life Cycle

Diet

Elephant eats grass, tree leaves, flowers, wild fruits, twigs, shrubs, bamboo, and bananas. Their main food is grass when it's available, along with some leaves. They eat 300-600 pounds (136-272 kg) a day!!!

Body Parts

Trunk (nose):

it is used to breath, get water, and get food to mouth. They breath through two nostrils at the end of the trunk. They get water by suking water into trunk, then cruls tord the mouth and sqruts into mouth.

Ears:

 the eras, not only here well, but also helps loss exase heat, as hot blood flowes near serfus.

Eyes:

 Elephants have vary bad eyesight!!

interaction

With Echother

Strong social bonds with echother

Lives in famiy groups usaly lead by cows, but sometimes lead by bulls

With Humans

Known to destro villegs, and crops so villegers , aren’t a big fan of them.

Tourist tend to like to see working bulls in action.

Mating

Mating elephants put out sents to etrak other elephants.

 Female are usaly ready to mate when they are about 14 years old, but uasly do mate at age 25.

Males are uasly mate bwetween 35-50 years old doe to commpation for the right to mate.

Calf
 (Baby Elephant)

A female elephant gives birth to, usally,  one calf at a time. Then 2-4 years later she will give birth to one (or two) more.

A calf spends the first 3-4 years of his/her life drinking its mothers milk.

Calf’s are blind at first so they rely on their mother and trunk to help them.

It tacks 22 months to go through the proces of having a baby for a female Elephant, wicth is longer than any other animal in the world.

Did You Know…

Elephants are one of the largest mamles in the world!!

The oldest  elephant alive lived to be 82!

The word elephant means ivory in German!!!!!

They are exstremaly intelagent anemales!!!

Thank you for your attention!!!!!

Thailand adventures

Sitting in here on a flight on November 6^th, Tessa’s 10^th birthday, coming home from a trip to Thailand to visit our friends. The day we left India for the home of sticky rice and mango, the reports of flooding were at their peak and it was unclear if the airport would be shut down. Luckily we risked it and boarded our plane.

The leader of the country makes the decision to keep the water out of central Bangkok…just like the mayor of Seattle made sure to have snow plows where he needed them for his own comfort.  There were parts of Bangkok that were closed on the outskirts and we walked in those areas having sewage water up to our knees.

The word “elephant” means ivory in German that is why everyone calls Elephants, Elephants.  Did you know elephants live to be 70 years old and that they are great swimmers? Well, Tessa is doing a report on elephants and will post it soon!!!

 

Thailand is a country of 80 million people and there are over 3,000 Buddhist temples. The food is unbelievable and most big meals on the street, such as yummy chicken dishes and pad Thai are only $1.00.  The malls are so fancy in Bangkok that it is well, scary. They sell Lamborghinis in the mall and have more restaurants than some small cities. 

                       -tessa and delaney