So I was assuming that Shimla was going to be a small village and I was lead to believe I would be staying with a host family. However I am staying at a hostel with a room to myself and a king sized bed which is quite luxurious for what I assumed I would have this trip. The population of Shimla is 220,000 and is the capital city of Hamachal state. The city is inundated with brand name stores such as Nike and Dominos Pizza which was a little suprising and made my culture shock even more confusing. Oh well, there goes the life lesson I keep coming up against, 'have no expectations!'.
I started work 2 days ago at Udaan and it has been enjoyable so far. I am working at a school for mentally handicapped kids/youth who are aged between 5 and 23. They are all very cute some of which are mischevious. Yesterday I wasn't expected to do much considering it was my first day so I just helped out with a little math and some art. The staff are all very lovely and only a few speak English so I will be expected to give English lessons to the teachers so they are better equipped as English is compulsory in Indian schools.
Today was a little different. We set up a market stall at a local school selling candles for the school I work at. The candles are made by the mentally handicapped kids to help fund the school. Making candles also provides the kids with a trade they can take with them once they have completed school.
It is good to know that I will be settling into one area for a few weeks and emersing myself in the culture as the past two weeks have been a little daunting as I couldn't really unpack and get comfortable.
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