Arrivals and departures

January was the month were things changed and ended. We all knew that the time would come, but yet I felt a bit like it was just suddenly there without any warning. The first very big change was that Fabindia School got a new volunteer. An 18 year old girl from England, her name is Imogen. She doesn't have anything to do with UWC, but her Godmother had contacts with the school and she was allowed to come and volunteer for only 5 weeks. This was quite a challenge for Sanna, Airiin and I, especially before she arrived actually. The thought of suddenly having a fourth girl living with us in our house, going with us to the hostel and teaching with us in the school, wasn't exactly what any of us wanted. Imagine how it is to be together ALL the time for 5 months straight. The maximum amount of time the three of us have spent apart during our time in India is a couple of hours. Thus, we have developed this very internal way of talking and being and joking around and just enjoying and the thought of a fourth person seemed to threathen this way of living together. But, actually it was bad at all when Imogen arrived. It felt strange in the beginning, but she is a very sweet girl, who is good at adapting very fast. She didn't steal our kids from the hostel as we had feared and she also thought it was funny to act slightly retarded at times. She even likes our dog, Balls, who lives outside our house and who always enjoys our leftovers. The name refers to a repulsive tumour-kind-of-ball which is hanging from the anus of the dog and yes, it is a female! Okay, I will not go into further details, hehe...
Imogen got class 3 and 7, which are the classes that none of us wanted, and I sometimes felt a bit bad about that. It is not easy to just come in like that and only stay for 5 weeks. But I think she is enjoying and she says that being with us makes it much easier for her.
A few days ago, another dramatic change occured and that was the departure of Airiin. I had known for long that she would be leaving in the end of January, a whole month before Sanna and I, but yet I didn't realize it until the moment I hugged her intensly at the trainstation, with the train waiting for her. She is going to Jordan for some time and then home. I know that I will miss her immensly, because we are so use to each others present, small habits, voices, jokes and retarded behaviours. I am very happy Sanna is still around, but we do feel like an ambutated three-part-flower.
Seeing her leave also made me realize how hard it will be for me to leave Fabindia, in fact India as a country, or Rajasthan to be more precise. The kids were crying on her last day and the goodbuy was not a nice one. But can there be good goodbuys? I myself have less than a month left, I am leaving on the 25th February with Sanna.
The third big thing happening in January was the visit of my mother, Lise and her friend Mette. They came to Bali about a week ago and spent some days going with us in the school bus, to the hostel, seeing the school and classes and just experiencing some of the wonder of the world I have been living in nearly 6 months now. Wow, it is amazing to have my mother here, it really is! Many times, I have seen or experienced something that I wanted her to hear about or know about and now I've actually had the chance to show her with her own eyes! A bit surreal of course, to have your mum walking around the dusty streets of Bali, but also wonderful. Right now, we are in Udaipur again, because I wanted them to see this magical city. It is so much fun to be here with the two ladies and they are going quite crazy shopping, because everything is so exciting and cheap. Wonder how everything will fit in the suitcase... Mette is also a lot of fun to have around, because she has this very Danish way of seeing everything and she reminds me of how beautiful and horrible a country India is in the same time.
The last big thing happening in this month (this might shock some of the previous volunteers) is that Kailash has stopped working for Fabindia school and this includes cooking and cleaning for the volunteers. He has been with us from the very beginning, has cooked hundreds of meals for us and cleaned our house endlessly for around 10 Euros and 70 Dkr a month. He has taught us Hindi and we have visited his family. But something happened that just couldnt be forgiven and instead of waiting to be fired, he left the school himself. In the beginning we wanted him to stay and cook for us and only stop working at the school, but this was not allowed. We have seen him only once after he left, the day Airiin was leaving and he came to say goodbuy to her. Basically he has harrassed a senior student, one of my good friends, severely without understanding what he was doing to the student. It has been happening for months, but it was not until now that the principal ma'am got to hear about it and decided that it was too severe to be ignored.
It is a very difficult situation, because we all cared for Kailash, he has meant a lot to us, but in the same time, I do think what he did was very wrong and so I agree with the decition. Now, principal ma'ams maid is cooking for us. It is very sad that it had to end like this, but unfortuantly neccesary.
I will end my entry by repeating my endless thanks to all you who are still reading my blog and dropping me comment. Tak tak tak tak!!
I am entering my last weeks of my volunteering experience and I hope they despite all the changes and the departure of specially Airiin, but also Kailash, will be enjoyable. I just want to be with the kids.