9 posts tagged “jammu”
The locals near us are very resourceful with the products they produce - they need to be. Many of them are making their own tents, shoes, rugs, blankets, hay bags, reins etc. I've learnt how to make naros - braids used for holding up your shalwa (trousers), haning up curtains or any other number of uses. They're just like North West Morris slings!.
No we didn't ride them! The family that we're staying with have 2 horses that they hope to train up for pony-trekking. Despite the kids' keenness for us to have a go, we declined. They need a bit more training first! One nearly kicked me as they were trying to fit the bridle and the other threw off the oldest girl when she was riding it! On top of that, there was someone else's horse in the field that was just vicious. It was running up to those on foot and kicking when they tried to shoo it away. Ben and I, who aren't fans of horses at the best of times, were rather terrified.
I've been helping out with music lessons and have been teaching harmonica, recorder and piano - all instruments that I don't know how to play!!! Still, I've been teaching myself left-hand piano, I learnt all that I need to about the harmonica on the internet and Ben has written out the recorder fingerings that I'm unfamiliar with. It's been going so well that I've taken on Ben as an additional pupil, getting him to learn his harmonicas.
Ben's been doing some fun projects in IT. They've been learning about Excel, Publisher, Word and have each built a PowerPoint presentation about themselves. We've also started a film project with them. They've had to write the script, we're over half-way through filming and editing is going to have to start soon. We're both marking Math (sorry, they're American!) and offering advice where needed, and I'm getting a little involved in helping with essay writing.
It's all good fun and is teaching me lots (Ben already knows what he's doing!!!). Ben and I keep saying that we should offer ourselves out as homeschool tutors - I think that'd be awesome.
"Uncle" Ben (we're Uncle Ben and Auntie Emma here) and I have declared roti time our favourite time of the day. School is done, we've finished playing games outside and we all get to sit down together to drink Lipton chai (Ben and I are slowly becoming addicted) and eat rotis with honey on. Mid afternoon, the roti man comes round shouting "roti, roti", which everyone in the house goes round repeating. Ben enjoys going out and trying to communicate sufficiently to buy the day's rotis.
Jammu is known as the city of temples, and here are just a few examples that we saw. The orange one lit up with lights when it got dark, slightly resembling a fair ground ride in the process.
