BoveNet - Beth and Dave

The End...

2010-07-01T20:00:00.001-05:00

In spite of the fact that a great deal happened to us in India between the beginning of April and the time we left at the end of May, this will be our last post. Our daughter, Molly, was born shortly after our arrival in Chicago and has taken up most of our free time. To see the latest pictures and read the latest news about Molly, you can check out our new blog. We'll try updating it as soon as possible! Thanks for reading all of our exploits in India!

Dave and Beth

Indian Travel

2010-04-08T20:11:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, it's best just to sleep while the taxi is taking you to your destination. If you do, then you miss frightening scenes like this.

Thankfully, there was enough room for the giant truck to get by without killing us.

Dave and Beth

Dharamsala

2010-04-08T16:52:00.002-05:00

The second big stop on our quarter break trip was Dharamsala. This has been the home of the Dalai Lama since he fled from Tibet in 1959. There is still a large Tibetan community here and this is usually the first port of call for newly-exiled Tibetans fleeing the country. The main Buddhist temple in the town was a popular tourist destination, as well as a place of pilgrimage for the faithful.

There was, of course, an abundance of Buddhist art there.

There were lots of monks wandering around the town and they were often engaged in devotional acts.

In addition to the preservation of religious practice, the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala does its best to preserve their cultural identity. There were lots of arts and crafts centers where traditional Tibetan jewelry, rugs, and clothes were being produced. There were also some monks participating in what is apparently the traditional style of Tibetan debate, with lots of foot-stamping and hand-clapping.

Of course, we also took advantage of the traditional Tibetan food available in the town.

Because our quarter break was scheduled over the holiday, we ended up in Dharamsala on Easter morning. We found an old Victorian church that was open for a service that morning and made plans to visit.

In addition to a beautiful old building and a friendly pastor, the church had a great old cemetery and fantastic views of the Himalayas.

After being in the big city of Amritsar, it was definitely a nice change to be in a more slow-paced and relaxed town like Dharamsala.

Dave and Beth

Good Advice

2010-04-07T20:45:00.000-05:00

We saw the following sign in our quarter break trip to Dharamsala. Always good advice!

Dave and Beth

Border Bravado

2010-04-07T17:52:00.001-05:00

While we were in Amritsar over quarter break, we decided to take a look at the India-Pakistan border ceremony. There is only one place where these two countries allow traffic to flow between the border and it is a little ways outside of Amritsar. The sculpture of hands clasped in peace and friendship below is a bit misleading. The ceremony was a crass display of nationalism at its worst.

When we arrived, Pakistan and India both had their flags flying high to signify that the border was still open. The ceremony that we were to attend would end with the closing of the border and the lowering of the flags.

Soldiers on both sides of the line were wearing their elaborate dress uniforms.

We could not see the Pakistan side of things very well from where we were sitting, but the Indian soldiers had a bizarre display of goose-stepping and foot-stomping all to show that they were better than their neighbors.

Any time any of the soldiers neared the actual border line, there was a fierce stare-down of the soldiers on the other side.

In the end, the two countries flags were lowered simultaneously so that they could both be equal. As soon as it was down, the soldiers grabbed India's flag and goose-stepped it back to their barracks. The border was then officially closed and no more buses could get through until the next day.

It seems likely that this is as close as we'll ever get to Pakistan. It was interesting to see such a spectacle and we're definitely glad that our national relations with Canada are a bit more civil.

Dave and Beth

We're Golden

2010-04-06T20:20:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was our quarter break here at Woodstock and we decided to have one last traveling hurrah. Our ambitious plan involved traveling to Amritsar and Dharamsala. The first stop on our trip was the Golden Temple in Amritsar. This is the holiest site in the world for followers of the Sikh religion. Naturally, at such a sacred site, we were required to wash our feet before entering. This essentially involved stepping into a shallow pool of gross-looking water, but it seems to have gotten the job done.

The Golden Temple itself is situated in the middle of a large pool. Sikhs like to go for a quick dip to be blessed and cure illnesses. The lifeguards on duty had pretty sweet uniforms and mean-looking sticks.

We decided against swimming in the pool, but a lot of the faithful decided to take the plunge.

Another part of the Sikh religion is that men need to have their hair covered at all times. In the Golden Temple complex, the head-covering rule was extended to anyone that visited, so we made sure to keep ours covered.

One of the best parts of the Sikh religion in general and the Golden Temple in particular is the desire to feed those that come to visit. If you go to any gurudwara (Sikh temple), they will probably give you something to eat. Because the Golden Temple is such a big pilgrimage site and a big tourist destination, they have to feed lots of visitors. The whole operation involved several large rooms where people were cycled in an out. It also involves a lot of plates and cutlery.

Just outside the dining room was a huge open air kitchen. The big cauldrons below are full of dal being cooked for the guests. There were also teams of women making dough and rolling our chapatis. The man with the long stick below is actually cooking the chapatis that the women are making. We were not too trusting of the sanitary conditions of the kitchen and we're not huge fans of dal, so we decided to have lunch elsewhere.

The Golden Temple is free to visit, so after seeing some of the other sites of Amritsar, we thought we'd stop in again to see the building at night. It was a beautiful site.

People have told us that Amritsar is an overwhelming city and that we shouldn't have planned to go there over break. We found it to be no different from other large cities in India and really enjoyed our experience at the famous Golden Temple. We don't need to plan any return trips in the near future, but we're glad we visited.

Dave and Beth

India's Got Talent

2010-03-28T21:35:00.000-05:00

The big event this past weekend was the annual staff talent show. Last year, we had the show in the fall, but this year it was moved to the spring. Rather than jumping right into the talent this year, we started with a fashion show. We decided to sit this part out because we're just not that fashionable. There were some great examples of Indian, African, Tibetan, and other clothes from our wonderful colleagues.

The actual talent section of the program was full of the usual songs, skits, and dances. There are definitely some talented folks on the staff here.

There are also some ridiculous members of staff. Dave and three other male co-workers decided to do a dance to the song Maniac from the movie Flashdance. They were all decked out in tights, leg-warmers, and cut-off sweatshirts. The dance even included the iconic scene of water being dumped on stretching dancers. It was great fun, even if the students ended up having nightmares that night.

The final event of the show was an all-staff Bollywood dance number. Dave had changed out of his tights by then and we wowed the crowd with our great dance moves.

The night was fun and a bit embarrassing. Thankfully, Dave won't be able to do an encore performance of his dance next year.

Dave and Beth

T-Shirts

2010-03-25T20:59:00.001-05:00

We are occasionally astounded by the messages we see on t-shirts here in India. It seems that clothing companies like to take random English words that they think sound cool and place them in a random order on the shirt. Yesterday, we caught a glimpse of one of our advisees wearing what looked like an interesting one.

On close examination, his shirt proved to be completely incomprehensible.

Yet another thing to be missed when we leave India in the next few weeks.

Dave and Beth

More Monkey Business

2010-03-22T07:34:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, we came home from church and were pleasantly surprised to see a family of langur monkeys just below our terrace. As usual, these monkeys were a delight to watch.

We also saw that they had a baby monkey that was smaller than any we'd seen. It was hard to get a good picture of him because he was still pretty unsteady on his feet.

His family also got him up in the trees to help him get his legs there.

We'll be a bit sad that these guys won't be swinging from the trees in Chicago.

Dave and Beth

Flag Hill Afternoon

2010-03-21T20:49:00.001-05:00

Beth went on a little walk to Flag Hill this afternoon. She wanted to get one good hike in before the baby got too big to carry up the hill.

We thought it might be nice to share some of the flora and fauna that she saw on her walk.

The rhodedendrons were blooming beautifully all along the hillside and Beth even got to see some Indian life occuring as this woman carried some fire wood home.

It turned out to be a very successful trip up the hill.

Dave and Beth

Retreat Number 4

2010-03-20T19:41:00.001-05:00

Every year, Woodstock has a retreat for all its students. In the middle school, we have one retreat for grades 7 and 8 and one for grades 5 and 6. This past weekend, we did our last Woodstock retreat. We were down at the Torchbearers conference center in Dehradun. It was a great chance for both students and staff to get away for a bit. There were, of course, a few sessions of learning for the students. The focus this weekend was the life of Joseph.

The students also enjoyed some chances for non-school food.

A lot of our free time was spent playing games and Dave took the opportunity to hone is cricket skills with the boys.

It was a great restful weekend for the kids and they learned a little bit about God in the process.

Dave and Beth

Science is Real

2010-03-18T21:01:00.001-05:00

The big news in middle school here yesterday was the science fair. Every year, the sixth and seventh grade students at Woodstock practice the scientific method and try their best to test hypotheses to reach a conclusion. This was Beth's first year teaching the process here, but you should be able to see by the quality of these presentations how great she did.

The Woodstock community also did a great job of supporting the students by coming out and asking the students questions about their work. A lot of time was put into these posters, so it was nice for the other teachers to come and show some interest.

As with any good science fair, one group had an exciting analysis of mold. The big test of the day was to see if anyone could stand putting their nose in the bags below.

Beth's colleagues from the science department came through and judged the use of the scientific method in all the experiments and chose winners in several different categories.

The fair was a great success and Beth did a fantastic job.

Dave and Beth

Baby Shower

2010-02-28T19:24:00.001-06:00

This was not a baby shower for us, but Beth was very involved in organizing and planning this one for our new friend Dechen. For most of the men involved, this was the first baby shower that they'd attended. Some of them were more ready than others for the games.

One of the highlights of the day was the unveiling of the quilt that a group of women made for Dechen. It was not quite finished, but you can see Beth's square second from the top on the far right side.

As with any party, most people wanted to spend time with the guest of honor. Dechen was happily passed around while we all celebrated her new life.

It was a great chance to think ahead to our own big changes coming up in the next few months.

Dave and Beth

CAREing in Middle School

2010-02-21T11:43:00.002-06:00

As the advisors of the CARE (Community Service And Restoration of the Environment) program in the middle school, it is our job to get kids interested in this important part of their curriculum. Ever student needs to take part in at least one CARE activity per semester and this weekend, we had a morning of making useful stuff out of re-used materials. We had students making journals out of old paper:

Some were making cloth bags out of old t-shirts:

Some were making friendship bracelets out of old string and beads out of old paper:

And some were making hanging candle-holders out of old spaghetti jars:

It was a very successful morning and we're even thinking of selling some of these items at an upcoming middle school event. If we do happen to make any money, we'll donate it to some worthy community service causes.

Dave and Beth

Post?

2010-02-16T17:00:00.000-06:00

Anyone that used to read our blog (mostly immediate family members) has probably long-since given up after more than two months of silence. Now that things have settle down (slightly) we thought we'd try to get the blog up-to-date before moving back to Chicago and being swamped by new responsibilities. As usual when this happens, we'll date things according to the time when they actually happened. Enjoy.

Dave and Beth

Happy Losar!

2010-02-15T07:26:00.000-06:00

For those that may not be aware, not only was yesterday Valentine's Day, but it was also Losar. This is the lunar New Year as celebrated in Tibet and is the biggest holiday of the year for our Tibetan students. Beth and several other teachers decided to wear their traditional Tibetan chubas to celebrate the occasion.

Ordinarily, these dresses are worn without an apron by women who aren't married. There was one other married woman besides Beth in the picture above, but she must have forgotten to put her apron on.

Dave was able to get in on the Tibetan dress action yesterday, too. One of our students brought a new shirt back from Nepal that actually fit Dave. We looked very sharp in our new Tibetan digs.

Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time that Beth wears her chuba in India. Her clothes are starting to get a bit tighter lately, and it won't be long before the baby makes it impossible to squeeze on.

Dave and Beth

Langurs on the Terrace

2010-01-31T20:47:00.001-06:00

One nice thing about relaxing for the last couple weeks has been the ability to see all the great things around us. We were sitting at home and heard something big on the roof. When we went to check it out, we saw a big family of langurs (these are the nicer of our two monkey species) having a party on our terrace.

We had a great time watching them play around on the patio furniture and anything they could swing around on.

After all the relaxing of the last couple of weeks, it will be difficult to jump back into the swing of school and the new semester.

Dave and Beth

Bear Hill

2010-01-25T10:52:00.000-06:00

In our quest to take it easy during the month of January, we decided to take a leisurely walk up to Bear Hill.

Like most of the hills around here, it gave us some great views of the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance. We also got to see some little critters running around here and there.

The best part of the walk, though, was the abundant supply of pine cones.

The only supply of heat in our house is our wood stove. Pine cones are a great way to get the fire going. Hopefully, this supply will last us until the end of the winter and we'll be able to stay warm.

Dave and Beth

Snow Day

2010-01-21T22:24:00.001-06:00

Living in the Himalayas, one would think that we'd get snow fairly regularly. Last year we only had one day of snow. Our first snow this year was about the same--more of a light dusting.

The flowers were still able to peak out in spite of the cold covering.

Beth tried to relive some of her childhood memories of catching snow on her tongue.

The snow didn't last very long, but it was a nice surprise while it was here.

Dave and Beth

Taking it Easy

2010-01-13T09:54:00.000-06:00

After our trip with Beth's sister, Emily, we had grand plans to take a whirlwind tour of India. After some thinking, we decided that it would be better to simply stay in Mussoorie for the remainder of the vacation. Though not very exciting, it was the best situation for us. We did have a chance to celebrate Dave's birthday. If you look closely at the cake Beth made, you'll notice that it looks just like our local mountain (Banderpunch).

We also played a great game of 6 Nimmt with all of the friends that were still on the hillside.

It definitely has been nice to take it a bit easy for a few weeks. We know that the upcoming semester is going to be ridiculously busy, and we'll be looking back fondly on this time in a few weeks.

Dave and Beth

Indian Medicine

2010-01-11T09:10:00.000-06:00

A couple of interesting things about the medical system. As the sign below clearly demonstrates, it is against the law to learn the sex of a fetus (or fœtus) before it's actually born.

We don't consider this a problem. We would have wanted to wait until July to know the sex of our baby anyway.

Dave and Beth

Only One Day

2010-01-08T16:22:00.000-06:00

The last stop on our travels with Emily was a day in Mussoorie. After taking our taxi from Corbett National Park up into the hills Beth and Emily went up to see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Thankfully, the weather was clear and they had a great view of the Himalayas.

To complement the wildlife that we'd seen in Corbett, they also saw some langur monkeys on the walk around the hillside.

After going out for lunch we traveled deep into the bazaar to take a ride on Mussoorie's man-powered Ferris wheel. Dave had to sit opposite Beth and Emily to make sure that the wheel was properly balanced.

After a spin on the wheel, we got our picture taken in some traditional costumes from our area of India. These Garhwali outfits really made us feel like locals.

From Mussoorie, it was back to Delhi to drop Emily off at the airport. We had a great time with her during the trip and we're definitely looking forward to being closer to family in a few months.

Dave and Beth

The Road to Mussoorie

2010-01-06T22:18:00.000-06:00

After taking the overnight train from Jaisalmer to Delhi, we decided that we would take the long way back to Mussoorie. We got in a taxi at Old Delhi Railway station and took it right to Corbett National Park. It was a long ride, and we woke up early the next morning to take a safari through the park. The big draw of Corbett is India's national animal--the tiger. We were told that not very many visitors to the park actually see these big cats and we have some friends who've been a couple of times without a glimpse. We thought we'd try our luck anyway.

Our guides were able to show us some of the tell-tale signs of the tiger. If you look at the tree below, you may see the marks that one of them made to sharpen his razor sharp claws.

We even brought our binoculars to help us catch a view of the tiger if he made an appearance.

If you look closely at this picture below, you can see a paw print of one of the tigers in the park. We saw a few as we were driving around, but our guide assured us that this one was pretty fresh.

All of our searching did pay off. We didn't actually get a chance to snap a picture of the tiger that we saw and we're a thankful that we weren't as close to the cat as this picture implies, but we thought that it would be best to actually show an image of one in this blog post.

After our successful jeep safari, we went on a more laid back elephant safari. We saw a couple monkeys and lots of birds and butterflies, but it was nice just to have a slow, lumbering ride without the pressure of straining our eyes to see a flash of orange.

Dave and Beth

A Touch of Austria

2010-01-04T13:12:00.002-06:00

After our rainy desert camel safari, we returned to Jaisalmer proper and checked in at the Artist Hotel. This was a quirky little place that had been founded by an Austrian hippie to give local artists a place to perform and present their work. Our room and the rooftop restaurant both had a great view of the fort in the center of town.

Our favorite part, though, was the Austrian food that they served in the restaurant. It was nice to get some good schnitzel, frikadellen, and spätzle.

We also had some great entertainment as we ate our dinner. These were some local musicians that gave us something to watch as we feasted. The video is a bit dark, but the music should come through pretty well.

Dave and Beth

Rain in the Desert

2010-01-03T12:24:00.005-06:00

One part of our trip that we were really looking forward to was our camel safari in Jaisalmer. We arrived very early in the morning on the overnight train. After relaxing for a few hours, we took a jeep ride out to the start of our safari.

The camels were more than happy to carry us for a few hours as we trudged to some sand dunes.

They did get a bit tired along the way, though.

We stopped by a very remoted little village and had a chance to visit with the people there for a little while. It is definitely a different pace of life than what we're used to.

We also stopped to give the camels a drink, but we didn't get off. It was a wet and unstable experience.

Our three guides continued to lead us as we neared the dune where we would be camping under the stars.

We ended up sharing our safari with a couple of newlyweds from New Zealand. They were very friendly and we had some great conversation around the fire as our guides prepared our food.

As we were preparing for bed, it started raining. Our guides had packed a big blue tarp, so instead of sleeping under the stars, we slept under that. It wasn't the best night's sleep that we've ever had, but it was a great time.

If you would like to see more picture of our exploits (including Indian army tanks and giant beetles) you can visit our website.

Dave and Beth

The Blue City

2010-01-01T15:03:00.000-06:00

Jodhpur is another one of the cities in Rajasthan. It is called the "Blue City" for obvious reasons.

We stayed in a neat haveli, which was an old mansion with a courtyard in the middle. The room was comfortable, but the door was a bit of a squeeze for Dave.

Most of our first day in the city was spent waiting for midnight. This was New Year's Eve and we had no Dick Clark or Time's Square. We ate dinner and played a few games before laying low.

We pulled ourselves away from our books shortly before midnight and went up to the roof to celebrate 2010. Though we have never experienced one first-hand, we imagine a warzone to be similar to Jodhpur at midnight on New Years Day. The shear volume of fireworks being set off was amazing. It was also remarkable to see how absolutely dangerous these celebrants were.

The next day, we went to see Jodhpur's fort. Like that of Bikaner, it was very well preserved and it even had a nice little gift shop at the end.

We also spent some time in the bazaar there and did some shopping for spices.

Judging by day one, it seems as though 2010 will be a great year!

Dave and Beth

Camels, Camels, and More Camels

2009-12-31T22:18:00.002-06:00

The next stop on our tour was the city of Bikaner. This was a smaller and more relaxed urban center in Rajasthan, but it had one of our most unique experiences. To begin with, we visited the old fort that the rulers of the area used to occupy. It was really well preserved and the audio tour was quite nice.

After that, we went to the annual Bikaner Camel Festival. This was quite an experience! We were met by hundreds and hundreds of camels and camel drivers. Most were decked out in their finest.

There was an amazing parade of camels around Bikaner's municipal stadium. One of the best parts was that this event was not too touristy. The vast majority of the spectators seemed to be Indian with a few scattered Westerners. It was wonderful to see the camel beauty peagant.

There was also a contest to see who could shave the best design into their camel's wool.

We also really enjoyed the Mr Rajasthan contest that was held. I don't think that this little boy won, but it may have been a result of his attitude.

We spent a couple of hours in the hot sun, but it was definitely worth it. The only sad thing was that we had to miss the camel races that were organized for the next day because our train left too early. Oh well...maybe next year...

If you want to see more picture of these crazy camels, check out our website.

Dave and Beth

Block Printing

2009-12-30T21:38:00.000-06:00

The second stop on our whirlwind tour of northern India was Jaipur. Again, this is a place that we've been to before, but we wanted to be sure that Emily got to experience it with us. To make us all happy, we visited a block-printing factory that we didn't have time for a year ago. Block printing is a beautiful traditional Rajasthani artform. You can buy these fabrics all over the place in Jaipur and we want to see some of it being made. It is a very labor intensive process that involves several different impressions with various patterns using different colors.

This man was a true artisan and made some beautiful pieces of fabric.

We also took a quick trip over to the palace of the winds. We saw this pink edifice from the outside when Dave's sister visited last year, but we actually had time to go inside this time.

It was a great chance to go to a place that was somewhat familiar, but see some new and interesting things. The rest of our trip to Rajasthan, though, is all uncharted territory for us.

Dave and Beth

Agra...again...

2009-12-29T09:20:00.000-06:00

So the first trip on our travels with Beth's sister, Emily, was Agra. We arrived in Delhi and picked Emily up late before heading off to see the Taj Mahal for the third time. This first picture is about the only time that Dave left the hotel room because he got sick.

For Beth and Emily, though, the Taj was beautiful, as always. People were disregarding signs as is common practice in India, and they were able to find someone to take a picture of them.

The other mandatory stop in Agra is the great Mughal fort. Again...Dave was sick in bed, so Beth and Emily had to find someone else to take their picture in this red sandstone window.

This may have been our last visit to the Taj Mahal for a while, but it was nice to share the experience with Emily.

Dave and Beth

Hiatus

2009-12-26T08:59:00.000-06:00

Those that read our blog may have noticed that we have had a bit of a hiatus over our winter break. The initial break came because we were busy traveling around India. After we returned to Mussoorie, it was simply a matter of laziness. We just started school today and are now back in the swing of things. The plan is to work through our backlog of blogging now that we are in working mode. We'll back-date them so that they are listed in approximately chronological order. Hopefully, we'll get caught up in the next couple of days and then start talking about our new things.

Dave and Beth

Road Trip

2009-12-25T22:44:00.000-06:00

Well...actually we're going on a bit of a rail trip. Now that our Christmas celebrations in Mussoorie are over, we're going to be doing some traveling around the country. Beth's sister will be visiting us in a couple days and we'll spend two weeks with her. When she leaves, we will spend three more weeks traveling around southern India. It should be a great experience and we'll be sure to post lots of pictures and stories as we're able and definitely when we return after Christmas break is over. Have a happy new year!

Dave and Beth

Christmas Mountains

2009-12-25T22:37:00.000-06:00

After our big haul on Christmas morning, we were off to the house of a friend for a potluck Christmas dinner. Most of the Woodstock staff that are still on the hillside went over to share some Christmas fellowship. We took the long way aound to their house because it brought us within view of the snow-capped Himalayas and because we wanted to wish our ayah a happy birthday and a merry Christmas (Beth baked her a birthday cake).

As you can see, the mountains looked breathtaking. We haven't posted many pictures of them of late, so we thought we'd give some here.

Even when we got up to the potluck, you could still see the mountains peaking through the trees.

But once we got to the dinner, no one really noticed the mountains because there was so much wonderful food to share.

It is always amazing how people can improvise here and make things that transport us back home to North America.

We spent a lot of time playing games and there was even a Christmas movie. On our way home, we stopped to take one last panarama from the top of our hill. It shows most of the mountains that we've seen from there. You will have to click on it to be able to see it more clearly.

Dave and Beth

Christmas Morning

2009-12-25T10:28:00.000-06:00

We were watching closely online to see where the big guy was on the NORAD Santa Tracker last night and it seems that he found our house without much trouble. We finally opened the package that Dave's parents sent and were excited to find individually wrapped presents inside. We got cappucino mix, chocolates, books and other goodies from Santa (via the Bovens).

It was great to open these up beside the Christmas tree on Chistmas morning, but it did leave a mess.

Thankfully that mess was able to be put to good use. We threw it all into our wood stove and had a little fire to take the edge off the cold this morning. The Bovens probably didn't know what a great present that would be when they shipped it over (we burned the cardboard box, too).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Dave and Beth

200

2009-12-25T10:09:00.000-06:00

We were about to make a nice post about our Christmas morning, when we realized that this is our 200th post. It is amazing to look back on the experiences that we've had here in India and we hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as we've enjoyed recording them.

Dave and Beth

Midnight Mass

2009-12-25T01:26:00.000-06:00

Since we went back to the US for Christmas last year, we weren't able to experience what the holiday was like here in Mussoorie. We just got back from the midnight Christmas Eve service at one of the local churches. First, though, we went out to dinner at a restaurant near the church.

We got there at about 9:00 but the place was still packed, because that's right about Indian supper time. It was also nice to watch a little cricket on Christmas Eve (India won the series if you didn't watch it).

After dinner we all walked over the the church to attend the midnight mass. We didn't want to turn the flash on to disturb the other worshippers, so the pictures that we took were either dark or blurry.

It was a great chance to remember the reason that we celebrate with a very international group. After the service, there was tea, coffee, and cookies and some good fellowship. Now that we're home...we're ready for bed.

Dave and Beth

Everyone Loves Parcels

2009-12-21T20:30:00.000-06:00

We went down to school today to print out some train tickets. We thought we'd check our mailbox while we were there and found a great package from Dave's parents (our students would generally call this a parcel instead of a package).

Little did the Bovens know that this would cause some serious tension between us. Dave has had his eye on the box since it arrived, but Beth has assured him that Santa Claus would want us to wait until Christmas morning. We'll have to wait and see who wins.

Dave and Beth

Monkeys Grow on Trees

2009-12-19T09:01:00.001-06:00

It's true, of course, that money does not grow on trees. The other day we saw a tree that was loaded down with monkeys. It's been a while since we've made a blog post about our furry friends, so we thought we'd post some images of the langurs that we saw along the path.

These little ones were playing on the big water tank near our house. The langurs have very white fur when they are young. They also enjoy playing, jumping over each other, and pushing leaves off the top of the tank.

Remember that langurs are the ones that we like more. We still get rocks ready if we see the brown rhesus monkeys around because they're a lot more aggressive. Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy walks on our days off without being accosted by mean monkeys.

Dave and Beth

One Last Party...

2009-12-16T12:56:00.001-06:00

Though the kids have all gone back home, we couldn't leave Woodstock for the winter without one last party. Our staff banquet occurred last night and Dave was given the honor of MCing with our friend Greg.

The invitations that we received from the social committee said that it was a Christmas fiesta. It seems that they were just trying to find another word for "party," but Dave and Greg decided to give the evening a Latin American theme. Greg lived in Mexico for a year, so he new just was we needed. This, of course, included a piñata full of candy.

Aside from the other festive events that we planned, it was a great chance to have some closure for the semester.

After our last meetings this morning, we were officially done for the semester. We're definitely ready for our break!

Dave and Beth

Symbolism

2009-12-14T13:50:00.001-06:00

As we mentioned before, school is out for winter. We now have a lot of time to sit, relax, and reflect on the things that we've found interesting over the last year and a half in India. Coming from North America, one thing that was a bit surprising about India was the prevalant use of the swastika.

The swastika is actually an ancient symbol that has been used in India for thousands of years. Today it is a symbol of harmony in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism and is often found tattooed on the various Hindu deities. In the West, it is often looked at with disdain after being appropriated by the Nazi party in Germany. Here, though, we've been struck by just how mundane of a symbol it is. We've seen it embroidered on aprons, painted on temples, and even molded into bricks.

It's amazing just how much culture informs the ways that we view different things.

Dave and Beth

A Day in Our Lives

2009-12-12T22:47:00.000-06:00

Now that our students have all left, we've got some time to do a little reflecting on our third semester here at Woodstock. One thing that we wanted to post on our blog, but haven't had time for yet, is a video made by the Development Office here. It goes throught a day in the life of Woodstock School and does a great job of showing some of the things we can't show on our blog. The video features our friends and colleagues, and Beth even has a speaking part. You can follow this link to see the video on Woodstock's American server. We hope that you enjoy a little glimpse of our lives.

Dave and Beth

Santa Breakfast

2009-12-12T12:24:00.000-06:00

One of the great traditions in the elementary school here at Woodstock is the Santa breakfast that is held every year before the youngest students "go down" to Delhi to catch their planes around the world. Generally, the middle school staff is not invited, but we had a great connection this year that allowed Beth to get an invitation. Dave was inexplicably absent, but it was a great morning for all involved. Our connection that scored the invitation was, of course, Santa Claus himself. He did a great job of handing out presents to all the elementary schoolers.

He also posed for a picture with Beth and made sure to distribute gifts to all his hard-working elves.

It seems, though, that not all of the students were very excited to see Santa this morning.

Dave and Beth

Celebrating

2009-12-11T22:07:00.000-06:00

Though our grades have been completed and entered since Monday, we still had one extra week of school to complete. Since there was little motivation to start anything new, much of our time this past week has been taken up by celebrations of the end of the semester. On Wednesday, we had our advisor group Christmas party. We played games,

decorated Christmas cookies,

and had some great Tibetan food.

We also made our students bring in a sock so that we could have a traditional Christmas stocking for each of them. Some of them are actually our socks, but they got the idea when they saw all the candy and presents stuffed inside.

In addition to our advisor group Christmas party, we also had a banquet with the whole of the middle school. Though he was not actually present in India any more, there was a place reserved for Dave's student teacher, Matt.

We also had a fantastic visit from Santa Claus.

He dropped off a present for everyone, though some were more appropriate than others.

We love our students, but we are definitely ready for them all to head home. We are excited for the plans that we have during this Christmas break, even if we have to stay in India.

Dave and Beth

Rockin' Around

2009-12-10T21:14:00.001-06:00

With Christmas fast approaching, we've done a bit of decorating around the house to make it feel more festive. We've got some great Christmas candles and we've rocked around the Christmas tree (even if it is only a foot and a half tall).

We've also strung a couple of rooms in the house with some great paper stars that are popular here in India. The one closest to the camera has a great pop-out image of a very Caucasian-looking holy family.

Finally, we've put up Christmas lights. These are, in actual fact, Diwali lights, but they get the job done. We try not to look directly at them for fear of inducing a seizure because of the crazy lighting pattern.

It's definitely not the same as being in the Chicago or Michigan for Christmas, but it is alright. We're definitely looking forward to seeing some family a couple days after Christmas.

Dave and Beth

We've Got Spirit

2009-12-09T22:07:00.002-06:00

One great thing about the end of the first semester here at Woodstock is Spirit Week. During the last week of school, students and staff are encouraged to show how much spirit they have by dressing in a different silly way each day. Monday was twin day and Dave looked quite ridiculous and nearly indistinguishable from our friend Scott (Dave is the one wearing maroon shorts, if you can't tell them apart). Today was celebrity day, so we decided to dress up like Minnie and Mickey Mouse during school.

Since grades have already been entered, it's been fun to have some other things going on this week. The students are watching movies in most classes and we're all ready for a break.

Dave and Beth

Christmas Caroling

2009-12-07T21:34:00.000-06:00

The Christmas season has begun here in Mussoorie, and we were greeted by our first round of carolers tonight. Nobody asked us for figgy pudding, but it was a nice treat to have some great music come right to our door.

It was a bit different, of course, from the caroling that we're used to in the states. Most of the songs were in Hindi, but they did sing some familiar tunes.

We've been warned of another set from a different church coming tomorrow night, and we're planning to leave the light on for them.

Dave and Beth

Quest for Christmas

2009-12-04T22:19:00.001-06:00

One thing that we've been involved in since arriving at Woodstock is Quest. This is a weekly after school youth group along the lines of Young Life. Last year we worked with our friends Jared and Emily and this year we've been working with our other friend Joie (because Jared and Emily moved back to Ohio). This afternoon was our last Quest of the semester, so we had a little bit of a Christmas party. Beth made a ton of sugar cookies and frosting and the kids went crazy.

We also did some carol singing which was enjoyed by all.

We ended with the Christmas story and sent the kids on their way. It has been a great way to interact with students in a more intentional way outside of the classroom and we're looking forward to one more semester.

Dave and Beth

Leprosy in India

2009-11-25T21:50:00.002-06:00

We wanted to make a final note on the things we did over our activity week at the beginning of November. One afternoon, we took the students to the KKM Leprosy Colony. Many of the students entered KKM imagining people stricken with a terrible disease with limbs falling off, but we were assured that everyone there had been treated and there was no chance of catching anything from them. The colony is simply a place for these former leprosy patients to avoid any stigma associated with the disease and earn an income by weaving beautiful fabrics by hand.

We were able to witness the entire process of making cloth from start to finish. First the wool was cleaned and prepared for spinning.

Some of the women we saw were using traditional hand techniques to spin the wool, while others used more modern-looking machines.

We didn't see any dying being done, but they had all the colors of the rainbow ready to be put on the loom. These beautiful yarns were then put onto spindles so that they could be made into equally beautiful fabrics.

Once placed on the looms, the residents of the colony quickly worked their magic and produced great pieces of cloth that they were then able to sell in the adjacent shop.

We thought a little video would be appropriate to show just how deftly the weavers worked on their fabric.

It was a great experience for us and the students. Beth had visited the KKM shop before, but had never actually seen the spinning and weaving taking place. We left with several pieces of cloth more and a few rupees less than we'd arrived with, but it was well worth it.

Dave and Beth

Sunset

2009-11-25T07:45:00.000-06:00

We saw a pretty sunset over the valley the other night, so we thought we'd take a few pictures. Naturally, the photographs don't do it justice, but it still looks pretty nice.

Dave and Beth

Baby, It's Cold Outside...and Inside

2009-11-24T17:16:00.000-06:00

It does get a little chilly here in the Himalayan foothills, but it is nowhere near as cold as Michigan or Chicago in the winter. The problem with the weather here is that there is no central heating in any of the buildings. So a 50° day would not be a big deal in the states, but it feels really cold when the house is only a few degrees warmer.

We do have a wood stove in one room of our house, but we try to conserve the wood that we have by building fires only when absolutely necessary. Usually, we just pile on a few more layers of clothing. It's been a few weeks since this picture was taken and both the indoor and outdoor temperatures are often lower than this now.

Dave and Beth

Clement Town

2009-11-17T18:38:00.000-06:00

As part of activity week, we tried to do some cultural activities in addition to our learning ones. One day after spending time at the various schools, we took a short bus trip to Clement Town. This is the area of Dehradun that is home to the Tibetan exile community of the city. There was a 103 foot tall statue of the Buddha and lots of monks and other Tibetans in the area.

The highlight, though, was the Asia's largest stupa. It reminded us of a lot of the stupas we saw in Ladakh this summer, but was definitely big.

It is actually a part of the re-established Mindroling Monastery. This monastery was originally founded in Lhasa, but was heavily damaged by the government of China during the 1959 revolt of the Tibetan people against communist rule. They've re-established the monastery here, and it contains one of the largest Buddhist institutes of learning in the country.

It's always nice to experience some new aspect of culture in India, even if it is an aspect that is transplanted from somewhere else.

Dave and Beth

The Fun Valley

2009-11-14T08:28:00.003-06:00

It may be surprising to those of you reading this blog post in the states, but the preceding picture is meant to inspire thoughts of fun and excitement. This is one of the pieces of equipment at Fun Valley, one of the best water parks in the north of India. It might look rusty, fall-aparty, and unsafe, but it is actually awesome.

Naturally, there were lots of water slides at Fun Valley and they all displayed varying degrees of safety and cleanliness.

Some of them caused kids to shoot in the air dangerously, and some would cause the students to bunch together dangerously. Some of them were barely slippery enough to slide down so students resorted to walking down dangerously on their feet.

Fun Valley also had a wave pool. Beth was going to sit out and read a bit, but decided to join in after she heard several students discussing how they didn't know how to swim.

There were other parts to the park as well. We did some bumper cars, go-kart racing, and roller coastering. None of it felt particularly safe, but most of us made it out of the part in one piece.

We thought we'd end with another fantastic decoration. This was a pot-bellied Mickey Mouse wearing a Hawaiian shirt and holding a tiny ice cream cone that stood on top of one of the more dangerous looking rides.

We'll be sure to take any of our future visitors to Fun Valley as part of their tour of India.

Dave and Beth

Activity Week (2)

2009-11-13T16:53:00.001-06:00

It has been a very long time since we posted the first half of our activity week adventure. Life here at Woodstock has become very busy as the end of the semester has approached. We've found that we have less and less time to post on our blog. Our grades for the first semester have now been submitted and we've got some more relaxed time before we head out on our whirlwind tour of the country over Christmas break. In order to help us keep things straight, we are back-dating these posts so that they fit chronologically with the times that the events actually happened.

Aside from our time working with developmentally disabled individuals during activity week, we also spent some time interacting with visually impaired people. The main focus of this part of the week was the Sharp Blind School.

While there, our students learned a bit about what life is like for those who are blind or are unable to see much. This included trying to learn a bit of Braille (in both English and Hindi).

Many of our students simply enjoyed interacting with the students at the school. They were learning to add and subtract, read and write, and survive life in India--all without the ability to see.

Some of the older students worked together with students that could see and did some Braille typing. We also met some people who attended the school as girls and stayed on as teachers. The woman in the photograph on the right has been at the school since she was 3 years old. He family was unhappy that they had a blind girl in the family and essentially abandoned her there.

The school has a great ministry where they help train people for life in India (which can be very difficult for those with disabilities). It was great to see a bit of their work in action.

Dave and Beth

Activity Week (1)

2009-11-11T07:59:00.000-06:00

As we mentioned in our last post, we had our Activity Week here at Woodstock. If you remember last year's report, we did some white water, rock climbing, biking, and similar activities. This year, we had a completely different agenda. Starting with a hike down the hill to Dehradun, we spent all of our mornings interacting with students that had disabilities. Most of our time was spent at a school for the developmentally disabled. Many of our students have never had any contact with people such as this, so it was a great chance to see a diversity of abilties. Here are a few pictures of our students playing games, talking, and just hanging out with these children.

We also had a great time sharing with these special kids.

Our trip had some other parts to it that we will discuss in later posts (think Indian water park, Tibetan Stupa, and Leprosy colony), but we wanted to end this entry with a picture of our last event with our new differently abled friends. This dance party was a big hit and Beth really cut a rug with some of the girls from the school.

It was certainly a different experience from last year, but it was a great one.

Dave and Beth

Care Package

2009-11-10T21:27:00.000-06:00

We were all set to begin a series of posts on the Activity Week trip that we finished last Friday. This was a lot different from the Activity Week that we had last year, so it warrants some thorough coverage. Today, though, we got a wonderful surprise from some friends in Germany. The principal at Woodstock was on a recruiting trip to Europe last week and we got him in touch with some people at Black Forest Academy where we used to teach. Our friends, the Duecks, gave him a little German care package to deliver to us.

The chocolate is much appreciated and the fancy napkins definitely remind us of the wonderful year that we spent in the Black Forest. The trick now will be to eat and use them slowly so that they last for a while...

Dave and Beth

Sticky Wicket

2009-11-01T20:21:00.000-06:00

Since first taking up the sport of cricket while living in Germany, Dave has been trying to figure out a way to see an international match in person. India seemed to be the perfect place to make this happen. The Australian cricket has been touring India this fall, so we thought we'd give it a try. After school on Friday, we took a taxi to Dehradun with our friends to catch the overnight train to Delhi. The train ended up arriving about two hours late and made it to Delhi about three hours late, but our spirits were not dampened. After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we made a quick trip to the American embassy club. This is one of the few places in the country where one can get good American food. We filled up on hamburgers, hot dogs, steak sandwiches, root beer, and curly fries. It was fantastic!

After lunch, it was off to the stadium in Delhi for the match. The security was very tight and we had three checkpoints that we made it through successfully. At the fourth security checkpoint, the guards decided that we were not allowed to bring anything into the stadium. This inlcuded cameras, phones, backpacks, keys, and anything else we had in our pockets. As we sat trying to convince the guards to let us in with our stuff, we watched wave after wave of Indians being allowed to walk through with bags full of the things we were asked to leave behind. In the end, we were unsuccessful and two of our number had to return to the hotel with our bags. Since we were not allowed cameras, we've put a couple of highlights from Cricinfo.com on the blog to give you an idea of the fun we had.

It was an exciting close match. The series had been tied 1-1 at the beginning and India won this match by 6 wickets with only ten balls remaining. It was great fun. The only cricket-related picture that we were able to capture was one of the two of us wearing our cricket jerseys in the hotel after the match was over.

In spite of a few difficulties along the way, it was a great trip all around.

Dave and Beth

Settling Catan

2009-10-27T20:17:00.001-05:00

We've had several occasions to play the German game Settlers of Catan while living in India. We have our set here and there are several other enthusiasts on campus, so we decided to host the First Annual Woodstock School Settlers of Catan Tournament yesterday. We ended up with 22 people on the bracket, but only 20 were able to play in the tournament. It was a good mix of people who have played a lot, people who have never played, younger, and older. The first round consisted of five separate games.

Beth decided not to play so that she could entertain the children who were a bit below the recommended age on the game box.

There were some heated moments during the evening and several references to the official rules to see whether a play was legal.

In the end, the final championship was contested by our friends Tami, Moryam, Cookie, Greg and Nate.

The final was a close match watched by several of the losing players. Cookie got out to an early lead which is not always a bright move in Settlers. She was then targeted by the other four players, and was easily knocked down a few pegs. After some monopolizing that displayed questionable moral fiber, Tami and Moryam looked to be the main contenders and in the end, Moryam was crowned Lord of Catan. You can see from the photo below that not all of the other settlers were ready for Moryam’s benevolent rule of the Island.

It was a very successful evening of fun and fellowship. Several people suggested that we make the tournament quarterly, but we certainly won't be able to host such a large gathering that often. We'll keep you posted on the results of the second tournament...

Dave and Beth

Bandaloop

2009-10-26T17:34:00.001-05:00

This afternoon, we were scheduled to have the presentation of the distinguished alumnus award to Chris Anderson (the current curator of the TED conference and a member of the Woodstock class of 1974). Unfortunately, he was held up in the states and couldn't make it. Instead, we watched a performance by a dance group founded by a Woodstock alumna. It was an interesting demontration of "vertical dance" (in spite of the name, the performers were almost always horizontal, unlike regular dancers who are almost always vertical). These pictures and the video should give you some idea of what it was.

Dave and Beth

Life on the Trail

2009-10-25T21:12:00.000-05:00

On our hike the other day, we saw lots of life while we were walking. Naturally, there were lots of critters along the way, but we also noticed lots of interesting people involved in a completely different pace of life. The animal pictures show a magpie, an insect, and a big lizard.

On the human side, we saw some men mending a rug while smoking their hookah, a group of women carrying a variety of things on their heads, and some agriculture in action.

Dave and Beth

Down in the Valley

2009-10-24T08:02:00.002-05:00

One important part of the curriculum here at Woodstock is the outdoor education program. Yesterday, we didn't have classes in the middle school so that all of the students could get outdoors on a hike. We decided to take our advisor group on a hike down to the town of Thatyur. We started with a quick bus ride to the trail head and then had a long walk down hill.

We did get some great views of the Himalayas along the way.

It was a very nice walk with lots of animals and vistas as we went.

After a couple hours of hiking, we stopped for lunch. Some of our students enjoyed their sandwiches more than others.

The final descent into Thatyur gave us more pretty scenery as we looked down the valley.

Even though two of our advisees were missing for the day, we took the opportunity to get a great group picture.

Though we definitely miss Chicago, there is no we would ever get a view like this in the Midwest. Again, for a couple more pictures, you can check out our website.

Dave and Beth

It's Time to Celebrate Diwali...

2009-10-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Diwali here in India. This festival of lights is one of the biggest celebrations in the country. It is almost as much an Indian cultural occasion as it is a Hindu festival. The preschool kids at Woodstock spent most of Friday afternoon decorating the Quad for the holiday.

The feeling of celebration was also very apparent in the bazaar this week. Most of the shops had metalware, fireworks, garlands, and Shahrukh Khan posters out in front of their stalls.

The school also put on another fantastic fireworks spectacular at the dorms.

One of the best parts of the night, though, was the view down into Dehradun. It is a bit difficult to see in the video below, but there were nearly constant explosions as far as the eye could see.

One of the most interesting parts of Diwali this year was the way that it is clearly marking the time. This is the last of our two Diwalis in India and it just seems to draw us closer to the end of our time here and (thankfully) closer to being back at home in Chicago with friends and family.

Dave and Beth

CARE-ing Again

2009-10-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

This morning, we took another trip up to the Firs orphanage on the top of the hill. Our students get a chance to fulfil some of their community service requirements, but they end the day being blessed by the great kids that live at Firs. We started out with a couple of games like Partner Tag and the classic Giants, Wizards, and Elves.

After that, we broke up into groups. Beth made friendship bracelets with some of the kids,

while Dave and Matt played soccer...er...football with some of the older boys.

Our kids all did a fantastic job of interacting with the boys at the orphanage and it was a great opportunity to recharge in a great setting.

Dave and Beth

More Sports

2009-10-16T20:49:00.001-05:00

After our students competed in their inter-house sports day, they were given a second chance to demonstrate their athletic prowess. Today we had our inter-school sports day. It was a long walk to Wynburg-Allen School, but it was a fun day of competition.

In general, Woodstock does very poorly against the other schools in Mussoorie. They spend a lot more time training than we do and it shows. One area where we make a very poor showing is the march-past. At the beginning of sports day, each school marches past the stands where the honored guests sit. This is, apparently, a very important part of Indian athletics competitions. You can compare the marching performance of the girls from Waverly to our Woodstock kids in the video below.

At least we can take comfort in the fact that our school was recently named the best international school in India for the second year in a row. Who needs athletics...

Dave and Beth

Sports Day

2009-10-12T16:10:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, we had our second Interhouse Sports Day. This is another one of those occasions where everyone gets to express their animosity towards the two-thirds of the school that wear a different color. We are Merlins and Dave tried to be very honest is his assessment of our chances.

Naturally, the students participated all day in the traditional track and field events, but the highlight for everyone was the staff relays after all the events had been decided. The Merlins fielded four staff relay teams (one female and three male). Beth was selected for the ladies team, but Dave could only get a spot on the third string men's relay squad.

Beth's team was dominant from the beginning and you can see the sort of seamless baton transfers that they employed to cruise to a first place finish.

Dave's team, on the other hand, was composed of two tall and slow young men from the states, a short and round Indian music teacher, and an elderly Tibetan man. You can see below that their baton hand-offs were much less graceful as Dave almost ran over Mr Chophel.

Dave's team did end up taking fifth place out of seven teams (though this feat loses some of its impressiveness when it's explained that the seventh place team suffered a broken leg in the course of the race).

Overall, it was a great experience and we all basked in the successes of the Lady Merlins. We're hoping to make a custom of putting extra pictures on our website, and this particular blog post is no exception.

Dave and Beth

People of Garhwal

2009-10-11T07:27:00.002-05:00

During our recent trek into the Himalayas, we got to meet lots of interesting people in the villages along the way. Several of them let us take their pictures, so we thought we'd post them here.

Dave and Beth

Potatoes

2009-10-08T18:51:00.003-05:00

While we were in Hanuman Chatti waiting to begin our recent trek, we realized just what an important place it was in the potato trade. Our taxi couldn't even get into the center of the village because the streets were full of potatoes.

All through the first stages of our hike, we were passed by donkeys coming down from the hillside loaded with spuds and unladen donkeys heading back up the hill to get more from the villages on the way.

Hopefully, these scales were accurate and everyone got what they had coming to them from the powerful potato merchants of Hanuman Chatti.

Dave and Beth

Hike in the Himalayas

2009-10-04T18:50:00.003-05:00

This weekend, we had our quarter break. In the middle of each semester, we have a four day weekend to give the students and teachers an extended break from each other. Rather than simply lounging at home this break, we decided to make the most of it with a trek into the Himalayas. The starting point of our trip was a small village called Hanuman Chatti. We left as soon as school got done one Wednesday afternoon with our friends Nate and Joie and camped outside of the government guesthouse. Not exactly roughing it with a toilet nearby, but it was a good warmup.

The actual trekking started the next morning when we started up a donkey path toward the village of Khandola about ten kilometers up the hill. We saw lots of farmers digging up potatoes, large fields of chaulai (amaranthus), and plenty of cows.

The one constant was that the trail kept going up.

We passed a couple of small villages en route to Khandola and our first camp site. The shot below was taken just before we stopped for the day. We had started way down in the valley where the Hanumanganga River met the Yamuna River.

These fields were just above Khandola and just below our first camp site.

We found a nice comfortable cow pasture to set up our tents for the first night. The cows didn't seem to mind that we had invaded their territory and seemed to ignore us for the most part.

We had a bit of rain the first night that drove us into our tents early, so we had peanut butter and jelly for dinner. In the morning, we got the stove humming and made some Indian-style Malt-O-Meal to get our insides warmed up.

After starting back up the trail we shortly got a view of Banderpunch. This is the big mountain that we can see from the top of the hill in Mussoorie. It was nice to be able to see it a lot closer up than usual.

We had a really strenous climb up some slippery rocks later on Friday morning and finally reached a stream that was flowing clear and cold. We filled up our water bottles and made good use of the Steri-Pen that we bought before moving to India. This uses ultra-violet light to kills all the bacteria and other troublemakers in the water.

Our second campsite was very close to the top of the hill at a place called Sima. We fired up the stove again and made some Wai-Wai (Indian ramen noodles) for lunch and dinner.

At our second site, we got up close and personal and personal with the cows again.

After several failed attempts, we finally got a fire going (pay no attention to the can of fuel in the background) and warmed up our cold feet and hands.

Our third night in tents was extra nice because of the view that we woke up to. By the time we reached the top of the hill, the clouds had rolled in and we could no longer see Banderpunch. In the morning, though, this was the sight that greeted us from our tent.

Beth and Joie made a left their packs at the campsite and made a last push to the top to get some great pictures in the morning light. Dave and Nate stayed at camp and relaxed. Everyone was happy with the choices that they made.

The two of us posed for a nice picture in front of the mountains before the 18 kilometer trek going down 1,100 meters back to Hanuman Chatti.

After walking up ten hours over the course of two days, it was nice to have gravity on our side on the final day. It took us about 5 hours to make our way back down including some nice breaks for lunch and snacks. When we got to the bottom of the valley we found our taxi driver and got started on the six hour drive back to Mussoorie. After a shower, we went to bed and have been recovering for the last few hours. We're sore and tired, but we had a great time trekking in the Himalayas with our good friends. Unfortunately, we now have to return to school tomorrow and subject ourselves to parent/teacher conferences. If you want to see a couple more pictures of our trip, you can visit our website.

Dave and Beth

Right to Assemble

2009-09-26T16:38:00.003-05:00

One of our responsibilities as advisors teachers is to do one assembly each semester. This is a short devotion or presentation done twice a week for about ten minutes. Our kids this year did a quick skit and musical performance. As you can see, our skit was not necessarily of the highest quality: a couple beards fell off and none of the kids had their lines memorized, but we got the point across. The music filled in the remaining time and got the rest of the students involved.

Overall, it was a success and now we won't have to organize another performance until next semester.

Dave and Beth

Don't Mess Around With Gym

2009-09-19T17:46:00.005-05:00

The big news this past weekend was the grand opening of Woodstock's new gymnasium. Ground was first broken on the gym more than a decade ago, but it was only last year that work started in earnest. We've been watching workmen carry the gym up the hillside piece by piece for the last 13 months and the finished product looks fantastic.

Naturally, the school couldn't just declare the gym "open." Instead, we threw a big party to celebrate this long-awaited factility. One part of the celebration was the neon yellow and brown commemorative jackets that all the staff received. Dave and Matt look quite stylish in theirs and they will definitely stand out in a crowd.

In addition to jackets, we got a new mascot. The tiger was a big hit with the elementary and middle school students.

Less of a hit with the kids were the lengthy speeches from all the special guests invited that had helped in the fund-raising. The picture below shows some of the ceremony, but also shows the great new basketball court. There is also a small miniature basketball court that can be seen above the other end in the picture. Below that is a state-of-the-art fitness room.

The new facility also has a rock climbing room, two classrooms for health classes and the like, a table tennis (but not ping pong) room, and a squash court. We;re definitely looking forward to putting this building to good use for the rest of the year.

Naturally, the ceremony was not the end of the celebration. We had a great party in the Quad after the opening with a wide selection of food. Apparently, the cooks were flown in from Bombay and brought with them some (chicken) hamburgers and hot dogs, momos, butter chicken, dosas, and loads of other stuff.

After the gastronomic celebration we were treated to a dance in the new gym complete with smoke machinces, laser light shows, and a DJ that worked with Michael Jackson.

We knew that this was going to be a big deal, but we had no idea just how big. It was a great experience and we're glad that we were here to be a part of it.

Dave and Beth

The Right Atrium's Where the Process Begins...

2009-09-17T20:28:00.003-05:00

One of the highlights of eighth grade Science this year has been the goat heart dissection! Vinodji (Beth's lab assistant) took a little trip down to our local butcher and picked up 21 hearts for the big slicing and dicing project. The students were excited to stick their fingers through all the veins and arteries and fish out as many blood clots as possible. Beth was excited that, while there were looks of disgust from students and some borderline frightening fascinations the dissection knives, there were no cases of fainting, vomiting, or weeping! Check out those valves and chambers below... that is the stuff middle school science is made of! (That and a few frogs, snails, puppy dog tails, and maybe even sugar and spice and a few things that are nice!)

Dave and Beth

Polio Drops

2009-09-14T18:19:00.000-05:00

A couple times in the last couple of weeks, we have come home to find odd writing in chalk on the wall of our house. We've been stretching our brains to the limit trying to figure out the meaning, and were only enlightened yesterday afternoon. Apparently it is part of an effort to keep polio from spreading to the youth of India. The polio drop ladies go from house to house giving medicine to children. They mark the wall outside the door to keep track of where they've been and what homes have children. They also set up a little station at the top of the hill the other day. You can see the silhouette of a child taking his or her polio drops on the banner below.

Dave and Beth

Mountains

2009-09-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

As we've been saying for the last couple of weeks, the new staff this year have it easy with a really light monsoon season. When we arrived in Mussoorie it was raining and it continued for a couple months. We saw the mountains for the first time in October of last year, but saw them for the first time this year in early September. This week, we got photographic proof that this monsoon is nothing much.

Hopefully we have enough water in the plants when forest fire season rolls around during the spring.

Dave and Beth

Re-Retreat!

2009-09-13T07:33:00.001-05:00

It's been about a year since we had our first retreat here at Woodstock. It's that time of year again, so immediately after the cross country races on Friday, we moved over to the other side of campus for a retreat with the grade 7 and 8 students. It was, as always a beautiful setting.

We spent a lot of time singing and praying and learning.

But we also spent a lot of time playing games. The checkers and Connect Four were easy to accomodate in the buildings, because we didn't have to worry about losing any of the peaces.

Frisbee, however, was another matter. We found some good spots to play:

the problems arose when one of the discs went over the edge.

It was a great weekend and an excellent chance to see our students in a different setting.

Dave and Beth

Run!

2009-09-12T22:21:00.004-05:00

This Friday we had our annual Interhouse Cross Country race. The houses are something we have mentioned in the past on our blog. Essentially, everyone in the school is arbitrarily assigned a house (either Merlins, Condors, or Eagles). They are then encouraged to display as much chauvinist support for their house as possible. As can be seen in the picture below, our advisor group has some of each house, but we convinced them to stand next to each other long enough to get their pictures taken.

The races were fun, too.

The course is guarded by the chowkidars and the security staff of the school. This is one of their days to shine as they put on their dress uniforms and direct student runners with their flags.

Beth actually took part in the race this year and earned some points for our house. She did a great job and had lots of fun.

Dave and Beth

Blossoms, Valleys, and Critters

2009-09-11T06:55:00.000-05:00

Anyone that reads our blog is probably tired of seeing pictures of animals, scenery and flowers. In spite of this, we're showing more here, anyway.

The last picture of this series is not, technically an animal, but it does show the evidence of one of our monsoon pests. Beth went for a hike the other day and ended up with a leech bite on her ankle. The leech latched, sucked, and dropped off before she even noticed.

Dave and Beth

The Firs

2009-09-08T20:43:00.003-05:00

We have been the middle school coordinators for CARE for most of the time that we've been at Woodstock. Last year we were a bit too busy to put much time into it. This year we're still really busy, but we've got things figured out a little better, so we've been able to get several community and environmental service activities going for the students. Last weekend, we took a group up to the Firs--a local orphanage at the top of the hill. The walk was long, but the view across the valley was very nice.

We spent lots of time simply interacting with the boys at the orphanage. We started with "Giants, Wizards, and Elves." This is essentially rock, paper, scissors for a big group.

We then split up into groups with the younger boys working to have a paper airplane competition.

The older boys played socc...er...football.

We did do much at the Firs, but it was a great opportunity for our students to interact with the community and see how some of those less fortunate have found joy even in difficult circumstances. We're excited to go back soon.

Dave and Beth

That's Entertainment

2009-09-06T20:36:00.000-05:00

Having been at Woodstock for a little more than a year now, we've gained some wisdom about how to keep kids entertained for a night. Each semester, we have an advisor night where we take our group (which has grown to 17 students) and do something fun with them. They just wanted to take it easy and watch a movie. We decided to add on to that itinerary with a few Boven specialties. The first key to a good night is to keep our students full of junk food. We started the night with pizza and moved from there to candy, popcorn, cookies, and soda pop.

The next step is to get everyone tired out. We staged an elaborate scavenger hunt that had students running from one end of campus to another. They also entertained themselves by playing other games.

We let the students choose their own movie from a selection. We were a bit disappointed that they didn't choose "The Incredibles," but we made it by with "Cheaper by the Dozen." We've now had our fill of Hillary Duff for an entire year.

Possibly the most important step in making this a successful evening was to employ our students in the cleanup. They did a great job of getting all the desks back in place for Beth's science classes and cleaning off the places where they had spilled pizza and pop.

It was a great change of pace for everyone and we all had a lot of fun. It was also a lot of work, so we're glad that these nights come around only once every semester.

Dave and Beth

Back in our day...

2009-09-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

As further proof that the monsoon is not nearly as bad this year as it was last year, we saw the snow-capped mountains in the distance for the first time today. Last year, it was not until the second half of October that we saw these peaks. It is nice to not have to worry about things getting covered in mold overnight and the paths are much less slippery than they were. It just feels like the new staff this year should have to suffer the way that we did last year. We remember when we had constant dampness and we had to walk uphill both ways to school...

Dave and Beth

Coming Rain

2009-09-03T21:52:00.001-05:00

This year, the monsoon rains have not been nearly as heavy as they were the first time around. Because of this there have been moments when it not raining. The other day, we could see the rains coming from the valley below. They hadn't quite reached Mussoorie, but they looked very beautiful in the sunlight as they came up the hillside.

Of course, our pictures do not do justice to the view that we had, but we wanted to share them anyway.

Beth and Dave

More Clean

2009-09-01T21:37:00.002-05:00

This blog post does not have a great deal of substance. We just thought that the name of our new dish detergent was funny.

Hopefully all of our dishes will now be getting a bit more clean.

Dave and Beth

Missing Michael

2009-08-29T08:30:00.000-05:00

It would seem that India is greiving the loss of Michael Jackson more than the rest of the world. When we logged on to the internet this morning, we were greeted with a memorial to the King of Pop on Google celebrating his birthday.

The American version of the website did not have anything of this sort, so it must be the case that Indians miss Michael more.

Dave and Beth

Keeping Busy

2009-08-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

Since moving to India, we've seen a surprising number of new movies. We don't spend money to go to the theater because most of those movies are in Hindi. We also don't buy many new releases of American movies, because there are very few places to do so. Instead we buy bootleg movies from guys on the street. It may seem a bit lawless on our part, but there really are few other options. A couple weekends ago, we bought the new Harry Potter movie on DVD in the bazaar.

As you can see, this also included the first five Harry Potter movies on the same disc. The quality is not spectacular, but how else would we be able to buy a movie two and a half weeks after its world premier. Our plan is to leave these in India when we move back to the states so that we can avoid any moral dilemmas, but it's fun to have them while we're here.

Dave and Beth

Caring Crafts

2009-08-24T06:31:00.000-05:00

One of our more enjoyable responsibilities here in India is to coordinate the CARE program in the middle school. CARE is the school's community and environmental action club. While Dave was away at an MUN conference this weekend, Beth ran a paper reusing club at school. The idea was to use leftover paper to create jewelry, journals, and anything else that the students could dream up.

It was a rousing success and all of the girls (none of the boys signed up) posed at the end of the morning with their creations.

This was our first CARE event of the year and we're looking forward to even more--including some more community service to complement our environmental stewardship.

Dave and Beth

More Scenery

2009-08-20T19:43:00.001-05:00

One of the great benefits of living where we do is the amazing scenery and the way it changes throughout the day. This afternoon, we looked down into the valley and saw a beautiful bit of cloud covering the floor.

Several hours later, we came back to almost the same spot and the clouds had risen a bit high as the sun was setting. The hills looked like little islands floating in a sea of clouds.

We are really back into the swing of things here at school now and enjoying teaching our material. The countdown has, of course, begun for midterm break when we can go traveling and explore somewhere in northern India.

Dave and Beth

Price of Fashion

2009-08-16T18:57:00.003-05:00

Our dear readers can be forgiven for assuming that the first picture above is a photograph of Beth's feet. In fact, though, these are Dave's formal shoes that we bought in Jaipur especially for independence day. Thankfully, we were able to find something approximating his size, but they were still a little uncomfortable to wear. This, though, was the least of the inconveniences that we had to endure to look fabulous yesterday. As mentioned in an earlier post, Dave was sporting his new sherwani. This is a long Indian dress coat of Muslim origin. It looked quite smart and there were even a couple of other staff members wearing them.

One part that Dave did not enjoy was fitting into his new churidar pijamas. These are designed to bunch up at the ankles, but when they are held up for a picture it is clear just how impractical they are. The waist on these pants was about twice as large as it needed to be and the length is, obviously, a bit long. These weren't terribly comfortable to squeeze into, but they definitely looked good.

Beth is an old pro at wearing saris. She has tied them on enough that it doesn't really take her very long. The real problem for her is the bangles that she wears with a sari. You can see her glass bracelets in the picture below with our friends Jennie and Megan.

The problems started when Beth tried to take them off. She slathered her hand in lotion, but some of the glass bangles still broke. You can see the effects of these breakages on Beth's hands.

All of this pain and inconvenience was well worth it, though, because we looked fantastic.

Dave and Beth

Taste of Freedom

2009-08-16T07:58:00.001-05:00

After the flag-raising ceremony yesterday, we had a great selection of vendors that set up shop in the quad for an all-you-can-eat extravaganza. To protect us from the rain, the whole quad was covered with a big shamiana.

At any good Indian function, you need somewhere to get your masala chai (though Dave stayed away from this and stuck to water).

The kids were excited about eating something different and out of the ordinary. They stood in long lines to get chicken, dosas, kebabs, naan, and many other delicacies.

This man was cooking up the kebabs which were quite tasty.

They also had a tandoor oven cooking so that we could have fresh-baked naan. It was amazing to watch him sticking his hand in to put dough on the clay sides of the oven to cook.

The aloo tikki was especially good, as evidenced by Beth's glee.

This vendor told us he'd been making this kind of bread for 22 years. He was quite adept at spinning the dough in the air like a pizza and then flipping it on the hot grill with his bare hands.

We also had plenty of sweets to sample including jalebis. These are a bit like the deep-fried funnel cakes of county fairs. After they're fried, they're soaked in a super sweet honey syrup mixture. The round ones are gulab jamuns. These are kind of like donuts that get the same soaking treatment.

It was a great meal with lots of variety. We may never get anything like this all in one place again unless we stick around here at Woodstock for another year (don't worry, moms and dads, we're not planning on it).

Dave and Beth

Colors of Freedom

2009-08-15T18:16:00.002-05:00

We just got finished with our second Indian independence day celebration here at Woodstock. It is a really great experience to take part in the national celebrations of another country. The festivities themselves were very similar to last year. We had a speaker, we sang the national anthem, and a student raised the flag. The only real difference was that it was inside this year because it was raining.

After the ceremony, we had a food court in the quad for lunch with vendors from the bazaar. We'll make a post later about the jalebis, dosas, etc. that we ate, but we wanted to focus on the diversity of our school here. Students and staff are asked to wear either formal Indian clothes, formal western clothes, or their national dress. It is a great show of where students and teachers come from and gives everyone a chance to show off their best. Here is us with our advisor group students all appropriately attired.

Other kids cleaned up quite nicely as well. Where else but Woodstock will you see Tibetans and Koreans wearing their national costumes, a South African wearing an Indian kurta, and an Indian wearing a western double-breasted suit.

We have a lot of Korean students here. Most of them wear their Korean clothes, but one of our advisees decided to stand out from the crowd and wear a chuba instead.

We also have students from Thailand and families from Tibet.

One of our fellow teachers was wearing his traditional Persian clothes and here two of our advisees were wearing clothes from Nagaland and Tibet.

Here's another Korean dress and a Japanese kimono. The other picture is a traditional Bhutanese costume.

Beth also got a chance to pose with two of our students that have moved on to high school; one from Nepal and one from Germany (too bad Beth didn't bring her dirndl). We also have students from Thailand and Taiwan.

These boys were a bit embarassed to be shown in their Nepali clothes, but they looked great.

It is amazing how many groups of people are represented among our small student body. It is wonderful to see the pride that they can take in their cultures while still being respectful and appreciative of others. The freedom that we have in India allows us to share with each other and learn from each other.

The final part of this post is our annual Indian dress-up day picture. Dave had a new sherwani made and looked quite sharp while Beth was wearing one of her fancy saris (pay close attention to Dave's shoes).

Dave and Beth

With Great Power...

2009-08-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

One of the highlights of every school day is tea time. This is, as one would assume, a time for all the staff and students to get some refreshment at about 10:30 in the morning. The students usually go down to the cafeteria to get some pakora, cookies, or muffins from the kitchen. The middle school teaching staff usually retires to the office to see what the snack of the day will be. There is a calendar on which everyone is assigned a day to bring snack. Last year, our friend Jared instituted a formal grading policy for tea snacks. It involved the award of gold or black stars depending on the quality of the snack. Some of the staff complained of the arbitrary assessment that their snacks received, so Jared created a rubric like any good teacher would.

When Jared left, he passed the torch to Dave who now has the great responsibility of evaluating daily snacks. With some friendly reminders, no one has forgotten their snack and several gold stars have already been awarded. We are hoping that the trend continues so that Dave isn't forced to start handing out black stars and earning ill will from his colleagues.

Dave and Beth

Creepy Crawlies

2009-08-13T20:40:00.001-05:00

One of the benefits that Beth has found in being a science teacher here at Woodstock is that everyone loves to bring her specimens. The other day we saw another giant spider in our house. Beth caught it and brought it in to show her science students. It was a great success and the animals have been coming in often these past two weeks. We haven't been able to get pictures of all of them, but here is a sampling. There have been beetles and leeches:

Spiders and caterpillars:

And, of course, snails and centipedes:

Beth has instituted a rule that anything brought in to the classroom will be released the same day. Hopefully this gets students excited to find more critters and keeps Beth from becoming the caretaker of hundreds of animals for the middle school.

Dave and Beth

Mossy Walls

2009-08-12T21:42:00.002-05:00

One of the nice things about monsoons is that most things get covered in mold and mildew, but not everything does. Some things, like this pushta (retaining wall) outside the high school get covered in a pretty, green, fuzzy moss.

Dave and Beth

The Games People Play

2009-08-11T19:14:00.000-05:00

Interestingly, one of the great pastimes for our students here at Woodstock is Four-Square. This is a game that we can remember playing in our elementary school days, but our students take it very seriously well into middle school. Every once in a while we try to join into the games, but it never works out very well. For one thing, we are an easy target and the other three players tend to gang up on us. In addition, the students tend to make up weird rules as they go and it's hard for us to keep up. Usually, we just watch the action from the sidelines.

When students are not playing Four Square, there are many other activities to keep them busy. One of them is a classic Indian game called kho-kho. We won't try to explain the rules of the game here, but we can teach you the next time we're in the states.

We can assure you that it is as fun as it looks.

Dave and Beth

A New Crop

2009-08-10T21:10:00.000-05:00

The title of this post is not entirely accurate. We do have a bunch of new students in the middle school, but it has also been great to reconnect with our returning students. To get a feeling of how the old and the new have mixed together, here the most recent picture of our advisor group.

We ended last year with 11 advisees. We lost one over the summer and gained 7 more so we're up to 17. We also gained a new student teacher to help us keep all of these kids in line. It is amazing how much things can change over our short six week summer vacation.

Dave and Beth

More Partying

2009-08-08T09:14:00.000-05:00

It is very difficult to pass up a good party here in Mussoorie. Each year, the middle school students and staff celebrate new beginnings with a welcome back dinner. It was great to see all of the students, both old and new, getting together for a good time.

There was, of course, some good food. Dave looks to be eating a seekh kabab in this picture, but we also had some yummy chili potatoes.

And like any good party, we ended with some dancing. Most of the songs were of the Bollywood persuasion, but we even got a chance to cut a rug to some Thriller in honor of the late King o' Pop.

It was a great ending to our first week of school. Now we need to prepare for our first FULL week of school.

Dave and Beth

You Are What You Eat

2009-08-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

While we were visiting the bazaar this weekend, we decided to take a picture of the vegetable display outside our grocery store.

Those that are paying close attention may be wondering what the green offerings are in the foreground of the picture. Ordinarily, we simply call in our order to Sardarji one day and he has them carried up the hill to our house the next. On the weekends, though, we get a chance to take a closer look at the goods offered for sale. When we asked what these were, we were told that they were local fiddlehead ferns.

These aptly named plants are collected only for a short period this time of year because the monsoon rains make them plentiful. They aren't farmed, so they are a bit of a delicacy. We picked some up but Beth has been tentative about cooking them...Sardarji told us they taste like asparagus.

Dave and Beth

Raksha Bandhan

2009-08-05T21:34:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of school here at Woodstock. We thought about making a post reflecting on the new beginnings and lonely students, but we thought we'd share a bit about a festival that took place today. Every year during the Hindu month of Shraavana, there is a celebration of Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection). This festival is marked by girls tying rakhi, or holy threads, on the wrists of their brothers.

After the brothers (or cousins, friends, etc.) have their rakhi, they pledge to protect their sisters. The sisters then give their brothers a sweet to eat. There are several different origin stories for this festival involving Hindu gods and goddesses, but it was a nice sight to see little boys getting their threads tied on by their little sisters or cousins.

And in case you're wondering, the first day of school went well.

Dave and Beth

Party Time

2009-08-04T14:44:00.000-05:00

One big change for Dave this semester is the arrival of a student teacher. Matt comes from Minnesota and just graduated from St Olaf College. Woodstock has a long-standing relationship with St Olaf and usually has one or two student teachers come for a couple of months each year. We found out yesterday that it was Matt's birthday and we used that as an excuse to have a small party. Beth, of course, felt the need to make a cake in Matt's likeness.

We also had plenty of old and new staff members over to help us eat the tasty cakes that Beth made.

Now this all proves either that we have friends, or that we know a dozen people that like cake enough to put up with us for a couple hours. Hopefully it's the former...

Dave and Beth

The Danger of Monsoons

2009-08-03T17:26:00.005-05:00

As mentioned earlier today, there are beautiful and wonderful things about the monsoon season. There are also some less than desirable aspects. We've mentioned the mold, mildew, and generally constant dampness that pervades all aspects of life during this time. There are also some physical dangers associated with the ever-present rain. Beth went for a walk yesterday morning on one of our favorite trails and saw that the rains had uprooted a tree and caused some rock to fall off a cliff. We weren't in any danger because we don't generally hike during torrential downpours, but it is good to remember that the monsoons are not all pretty green valleys.

The monsoons have been unusually light this year. We've had a couple days in a row where it has not rained at all. Everyone always tells us that the first monsoon is the worst, but we're pretty sure that ours actually was worse than everyone else's first monsoon.

Dave and Beth