Tour Down Under and other important updates

What a week it’s been! I’ve been enjoying the pleasure of international road cycling here in my own country – and I’ve spent the last week track side of the Tour Down Under celebrating the fantastic cycling talent we’ve got here in Aus. Now before I loose all my non-cycling friends, this week has also involved some ‘simple living’ challenges that I’ll mention, and for my bookish friends – I’ve got some updates on reading.

My cycling hero, Cadel Evans, came in second place, only one second behind the younger Aussie and Aussie sponsored Simon Gerrans. The competition was tough all week, and the final decision was only made on the very last day! 

To attend the Tour Down Under I take a week off work, and travel with my partner to our home town, Adelaide, and stay with friends and family. I’ve had a blast staying with my friend and her beautiful 8yr daughter, who came with me each day to the race. This made for a fun time as we waited for the gooosh of the passing peloton. We watched hill climbs, race starts, race finishes, and Circuits.  Here’s just some of my favourite shots.

 

 

Reading Updates

Holidays are a great time to set some big reading goals, however this holiday was so busy that I didn’t get to first base on some of my goals. However, I have started preparing my end of Japanese Literature Challenge 7 post and reviews of

• the golden temple,
• mistress oriku stories from a Tokyo teahouse by matsutaro kawaguchi 

My reading list for the holiday included the the izu dancer yasunari Kawabata and other stories by yasushi inoue. I am hoping to finish these before the end of January and to get the post published next weekend. 

 Simple living challenge Updates

My challenge this year is to remain focused, intentional and purposeful about how to live simply so that others may simply live. So during my weeklong break, I tried really hard to be conscious, considered and intentional about my daily choices. I want to post soon on my reflections recently, but for now I will simply share that this week was a good time to start with stakeholder engagement. For me to make different decisions about my impact on the world, I need my partners engagement. We had some great chats this week about what this will mean for us. 

Hemp and bamboo clothing sparked an intense discussion for us when we found a shop in Handorf (South Aus) devoted to quality designer brands of ethically made clothing. We were immediately drawn to the products knowing that clothing made from these fabrics last longer, the materials are mostly ethically grown and developed, and the companies that use these fabrics make environmentally conscious decisions. So why not purchase something? Throw in an amazing sale, so there were items at 50% normal cost – why wouldn’t you want something? I came to the conclusion that I liked the stuff, that I wanted something, but I didn’t need anything. My partner, on the other hand, decided that he did need some items, and purchased long pants and long sleeve shirts that would protect his fragile skin while he enjoys his kayaking. We agreed that our final decisions were considered, ethical, intentional and purposeful.

Stay tuned for more updates soon...

Keyboards, blueberries and a purcuit of the simple life!

Living simply has been a bit of a focus of mine in the past week, and as I’ve been wandering around the blogging world I’ve been challenged - I’ve read about things I doubt are ‘simple’ and I’ve read things that I wish I could aspire to. 

A living simply philosophy has become a conversation in our house too, which is good. We had a computer crisis, after an electricity surge and our keyboard stopped working. So out came the old USB keyboard (which some simply living advocates wouldn’t have because they wouldn’t keep the old things that clutter),  as we considered what our choices were. We debated purchasing a new Bluetooth keyboard, just using the old USB keyboard, or trying the repair it. Simple living thinking made us question going out the buy something new.... a few days later the wisdom came to us – what else to do but to reboot the computer and keyboard!!! All good – no purchase necessary. 

The event did lead us to question – does a ‘no buy’ policy fit with the simple life we’re interest in? What is the ‘no buy’ policy anyway??  And what about the declutter policy promoting by many simple living authors??? So more reading to be done.... I’ll post more soon on those thoughts.

The other ‘simple living’ activity we did was something introduced to me at little eco footprints. My partner and I went on a date and had a lovely morning picking blueberries. I now have something like 4 kilo’s of blueberries in the freezer. They’re local, grown organically, and we did the labour – we did it together – and they are yummy additions to breakfast, smoothies or an afternoon nibble!

Here are a few quotes from this weeks reading

• Simply living can be an act of sharing
• Simple living can be a commitment to a lifestyle response to the highly skewed distribution of wealth in the world
• Share with others by taking less
• Be the change you want to see in the world!

Other posts to come soon – my Japanese literature reviews, other books read recently, and some cooking excitement in my new life.... 

Here’s a couple of the new simple living blogs I’ve been following

http://lovingsimpleliving.com/

http://simplicitycollective.com/

http://www.livingasimplelife.com/

http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/

http://www.slowyourhome.com/

http://www.littleecofootprints.com/

Live simple so that others may simply live

Live simply so that others may simply live – Gandhi

This is my new motto – I really want to learn more, action and live a more conscious and intentional life. I wont put myself down and say this is a new thing for me... I have been conscious and intentional in many aspects of my life. It’s just that I really want to be conscious about getting better about this. So I’m setting myself a goal to learn things and do things that mean I will be living simply so that others may simply live.

I want to use Gandhi’s inspirational words to challenge myself. I’d like to consider

• How I spend my money
• How I spend my time
• How I relate with other people
• How I listen to my spiritual self
• How I impact on other peoples quality of life
• How I relate to precious resources on our planet

I’ve started doing some reading about the ‘living simply’ movement, which appears to come in different forms and is called different things. The first thing that strikes me is that ‘living simply’, or striving for the ‘simple life’ (or in my parents time – the ‘good life’) is definitely not new to me. My parents made decisions when I was a child to live simply – I think forced by financial pressures as much as anything. But I spent the majority of my childhood on a property with no electricity and no town water. We grew our own fruit and veg, and supported other local producers. Mum sewed and taught us to sew our clothes and we learnt other useful skills, such as baking bread, jams and preserves. I was brought up on home grown sprouts, goats milk from our own goat, and home grown eggs. It was a good life for a kid.

But I doubt it was a simple life for my mother – washing with the petrol driven washer with wringer, keeping the kero fridge alight, stoking the fire in the heat of summer to keep hot water, and teaching us to read, play music and entertain ourselves in the dime light of a kerosene lantern.

So as I embark on a conscious year of learning how to be more intentional about my life, to look at the principles of ‘living a simple life’, I will be interested in finding the balance. I do have a complicated life – working away from home, returning to my little haven only 4 out of 7 nights each week. But my income helps me achieve many of my life goals – travelling, learning, contributing to human rights programs in India, supporting community action in my local area, and supporting my partner with his ambitious goals to develop better cycling infrastructure through lobbying decision makers..

So balance is important, between simplicity and complexity, creating time/space & energy, and giving back, and the balance of costs/benefits and spiritual.... I think this is going to be an interesting journey of self discovery.

But, I don’t want it to simply be a journey for me, alone... I don’t live alone. I want to engage my partner is these discussions also. This will be a new challenge for us too. He has strong ideas about some things.  As one author I’ve been reading highlights, any lifestyle change on my part requires stakeholder buy in from my loved ones too…

2014 blogging goals

While I’m committing myself to the pursuit of a more simple life – one that follows Gandhi’s words – I need to maintain a balance of the other aspects of my life that fuel me, replenish me and define me. My blogging life as previously been a place where

• I review my reading – reading is a personal challenge for me, and I have gained so much from setting reading goals – such as the Japanese Literature Challenge – so I’m going to keep that aspect of blogging alive too.
• I post gardening and environmental actions and events – this is about me sharing my little bit of mother earth with you. I believe we can all gain from what happens in my garden. This year I will be revisiting the permaculture principles on a monthly basis as I flick my calendar over.
• I share my love of Paris, France and the French Language. I love hosting Paris in July, and I will be undertaking to do that this year again. I love visiting and learning from others who love Paris too.
•  I gloat over Aussie cyclists in the grand tours.... I’m becoming a tour junky, and also do a bit of cycling myself, so January I go to south Australia to see the Tour down Under, and July I get lost in mist of Tour de France!
• Blogging is also a place where I explore spirituality and self awareness, sometimes randomly. I don’t know why I think blogging is a good place for all that, but it’s sometimes cathartic to write about those things.

So I hope you’ll join me in some of this journey… lets see where 2014 takes us.

It's time for some change.... redecorating

I've decided I need my blog to look different, and I want to add in a new focus this year. So over the next few days I'm hoping to make these changes and be ready for a new start in the new year.

Stay in touch - I'll be back soon.

All the best for your new year celebrations and holiday season.

What's Special about teaching English?

A student's gift to me - it should read 'My Best Friend is Tamara'

This one reads ' my friend Tamara, your my friend, N.Rahi.... bye bye.

Just some of the girls as our school in India, happy as they wave to you their Diwali Wishes!

I have returned home to Australia, to my family and my work, my hobbies and my garden. But the memories that have been built up in the past two months will stay with me forever.

My friend and I support this school and the Barathi Girls Hostel in Tamil Nadu. When we are not in India, we're involved in fundraising here in Australia. When we are in India (generally each 2 years) we volunteer as conversational English teachers to help build the girls confidence with English.

This past trip we saw much change, development and growth. The KGBV School (which is mostly government funded) has a well established team of very confident teachers and great axillary staff (cook, admin and groundsman). The Barathi Girls Hostel (which is not currently funded) supports graduates from the KGBV school, to live in the town where they can attend the local high school and further their education. At the Hostel, we saw much development, as they were seeking certificates and approvals to be eligible for some government funding. During our visit we saw the water bore being drilled further to ensure a water supply, the sleeping halls were tiled for cleanliness and hygiene, and the back yard was being leveled to manage a water draining problem.

Two highlights for me to mention here.
a. While my friend and I were visiting Madurai one weekend, and shopping in a popular Indian clothing store (Pothi's) we heard 'Madam, Madam!' from across the racks - this is what we're called by the girls at our school. So our heads turned.... surprised to find one of our ex-students had got herself a job in the city! We were so proud. She had come from a difficult past - her poor family couldn't afford to give her an education, so they kept her home to work on the farm. She was accepted into the KGBV school at the age of 10 to to an intensive primary school education and pass an exam to get into high school at aged 14. To see her working in a respectable and popular local store was just wonderful.
b. While working at the school and Hostel - we were talking with the management team about the hostel. They have many requests for financial assistance, however a simple request was made that we thought was achievable. The Hostel has been well supported by English volunteers in the past - all leaving and donating English readers and novels for the hostels library. The Library now houses several shelves of a cupboard. All well and good if the high school girls felt comfortable reading English. Generally they don't. So the request was made for a Tamil Library collection - in their own mother tongue. A quick sms to Australia, several emails later - we have $300 donated and the hostel management team could beginning purchasing some Tamil books for the girls to, hopefully, learn the Love of reading.

If you too, would like to donate something to the Hostel funds - see the buttons at the top right of my blog site.

P.S. News from India recently:

In the training center, with the support of Chris and Tamara the women stitched 160 cotton bags. We received 8 Australian dollars per bag from Chris. It is a good donation and encouraging the women.

In the Barathi hostel we fixed good tiles and now the floor is clean and easy to wash.

Also, received Rs.17500 as donation to buy Tamil books for the library, because all the books donated by volunteers are in English.

With this support we bought 143 books and still we have balance of Rs.6800 which we aim to buy on the week of New year. Because the book sellers will organise exhibitions and we will buy with concession rates.

Diwali and Schoolyard Fun

Hangman in the sand

This week, in a small village in rural Tamil Nadu, my friend and I have been having some fun with girls at the school we’re volunteering at. (See post below). This week is the festival of Dewali here in India, the festival of lights. The festival is celebrated with fireworks, family gatherings, eating sweets and purchasing new outfits for the whole family. Our school had Friday off for the girls to be able to go home to be with their families. So the lead up to Friday was filled with excitement and distractions. 

For the visiting volunteer English teachers, our plan was simple – we weren’t going to attempt any complex new work in classes, but would reinforce conversational English skills. Needless to say, by the end of the week we were a little bit over songs ’10 green bottles’ and the ‘hokey pokey’. We did enjoy games of hang man, doing other word puzzles and playing ‘eye spy’. 

playing in the sand after the rain

Playing Eye-Spy in English

Of course, we had to get a little caught up in the celebrations, and went shopping for new outfits too.  Because we weren’t going to see the girls during the festival, we made last day of school the day we would wear our new dresses. We went all out and purchased new bangles, necklaces and scarves to match. You have no idea how much this pleases the locals – they love matching things. The girls googled and aahhed our outfits with many compliments such as ‘Madam – matching outfit! Very nice’ or ‘ Madam,  your dress is Super!

We also learnt a little bit more about our cook, Namatha, who was hired to prepare our meals while we’re staying. Namatha’s story is not uncommon. She’s a bright young mother of two boys. She has a reasonable good level of basic English (compared to many others in her town), and appears quite smart. When asked why she didn’t finish high school we were told that she couldn’t finish 9^th standard because she had to go to work to help support the family. He brother was still a school, and her father, a tailor by trade, has a lifelong disability. But when she was old enough to go to work in the local shops she had to leave school. Namatha is happy though. She is married now with two small boys. While her marriage was arranged, as is traditional in south India, she is very happy. Again, sadly, her husbands work is more than 8 hours away, so he works away for 3 months at any time, and returns home for only 10 days at a time. She’s a hard worker, dedicated to her duties. Cooking for us brings her a small income, and offers her an identity outside the family – although temporary.

In India, having a disability is in fact just that, disabling. Many families in our small community carry the burden of caring for the disabled, working hard to earn an income to cover the extra costs, and having little time to spend with their families due to the hours required to earn the income.  We see it every day. Our previous cook, widowed due to her husband alcoholism, tells us this time, that her adult son too has recently passed away due to the same problems. While she has experienced this incredible grief, twice, we believe she is somewhat relieved also in her sons passing. He was still living at home and requiring his mother to collect his bathing water every day, doing his washing and preparing his meals long into his adult life. Meanwhile, her daughter was expected to marry her own uncle after his first wife died.. needless to say her daughter has a disabled child also. There is much work to be done, and many hours of treatment and hospital visits. It pains us to see our friend struggle with these traditional ways.  

From India

The photo above is my conversational English class at a small girls school in the south of Tamil Nadu, India. My friend and I are here volunteering as English teachers for 5 weeks, participating in a program to educate girls, to give them an opportunity to see English as a spoken language, and to encourage their ongoing education.
The girls school provides an intensive education to girls who have started school late (usually about 9-10 yrs) after having either been working on family farms, or in factories or cottage industry to help their families. The school offers years 6, 7 and 8 and prepares the students for the high school exam. they have 3 years to complete their primary school education.If they pass their high school entry exam, and they want to go to high school, there is very little government funding to support them. Many of the girls at our school could not continue their education without the support of the NGO I am working with - ODAM.
My friend and I have two classes at the primary school, and we are also leading a discussion and reading group at the girls hostel, managed by ODAM. I wanted to share with you a small joy for us this week.
My friend and I first came to work with ODAM in 2007, and some of the girls we taught then are now in our hostel English discussion group. It's such a pleasure to see them still interested in English - especially when English is never used in these rural parts of south India. In 2007 we taught the girls an Australian song - Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree - but they were still young and struggled with some of the words. This week (6 years laters) they asked us to help them with the last line of that song.
Another highlight for us was when I proposed the idea to the discussion group about reading English news papers - there three or four girls who were really keen. I raised this with the Directors, who said we could get a subscription for the hostel if we thought it would be helpful. For me this is great progress on several levels - a) We've found something that the girls are interested in that links their world to English, b) it gives us something in common to discuss, and c) it will bring the other hostel girls in contact with English in a practical sense.
Its been a wonderful experience to come back to see the girls growing up, and to find that our relationships with them are life long. Some of the girls we've taught over the past 6 years are now in college or university studying nursing, zoology, arts and science. Some of our girls have pursued tailoring training (probably one of the most common qualifications for women in this district) and office administration.
Still, funding for the work of the hostel is critical. The hostel has had to undergo some serious renovations to meet government regulations so they can achieve the standards required for some government funding. We are currently looking at purchasing 25 bunk beds so the girls don't have to sleep on floor mats. Any support is welcomed - visit here to make a donation.

Our girls performing for us on our first day at the school.

More updates soon.