Clothing, Equipment & Resource List

Transcription

1 Clothing, Equipment & Resource List INDIA Climate India has a hot, humid climate. The landscape is diverse and while you may be in the cooler mountains while travelling, the projects are all located in warm areas which get very hot during the day and cool in the evenings in winter. In general, all clothes must be respectable; you will be a member of staff and should dress appropriately. With its strong cultural values, Indian dress is very modest, covers the shoulder and to the ankles and is often of a looser fabric. This is cool and also unrevealing. If you wear tighter or shorter clothing, you will attract unwanted attention that can make things difficult for you. For girls, loose shoulder-covering dresses can be worn over loose fabric trousers with a scarf as a homemade Punjab suit. Shirts, blouses and long skirts will be suitable for teaching. For boys, a shirts and trousers are fine. The following is a guide only. More advice will be given on Training.

2 Essential Clothing Amount* Remarks Smart Trousers 1/2 Loose and smart to teach in. Comfortable and cool for travelling. Jeans 1 Useful for travelling and evening wear, although you won t wear these that often throughout your year. Shorts 2 Not appropriate to wear at the project but may be useful when travelling or in the house. Shirts, long sleeved 2 Great for teaching. Shirts, short sleeved 2 Great for teaching. T-shirts 4 Ensure they cover your shoulders. Sweaters 2 For the evenings during the winter when the temperatures drop and you are used to the heat. Pants 15 Take plenty as they wear out easily. Socks 3 Pyjamas 1 Flip flops 1 To use inside houses. Strong sandals 1 Birkenstocks or similar are a good option. You will wear these everyday Trainers/trekking shoes 1 For exercise/sport and travelling. Hat 1 You may use it while travelling. * Guide only

3 Essential Equipment Large rucksack Small rucksack Money belt (or similar) Toiletries Remarks (between litres). This is much more appropriate than a suitcase. (approx 15 litres). For day trips/general use. This should fit under your clothes as a safety precaution. Basic toiletries are available, but bring enough to start. Useful Equipment English Grammar Book Camera Battery charger Torch Toilet Roll Laptop/mobile phone and charger Sleeping Bag liner Laptop/mobile phone and charger Stuff for your room Entertainment Remarks The schools usually provide a textbook to follow, however it is useful to have one to refer to. General texts on your subjects for teachers, an English grammar book and dictionary, books of instruction on games, arts and crafts, scouting and guiding (if you are keen) and music. A spare memory card (better two small cards than one large one in case you lose it or it becomes corrupted). This is better for the environment than buying batteries and will be cheaper for you. Solar powered batter chargers are worth looking at. Wind up torches are useful to avoid buying batteries. You can get this in India but it s always good to take some with you to begin with. Not essential but useful. Useful when you re not sure about the bed sheets. Not essential but useful. Blu tac, posters and postcards of where you come from are really useful as are photos of family and home-you can also use these for lessons Travel games, books and playing cards, cook books if you re in a project where you cook for yourself.

4 Guidance Traditional Indian clothes are as cool and comfortable as they are beautiful and colourful. It is very cheap to buy clothes this way and they enable to you fit it, dress appropriately and earn immediate respect from your local community. You may find you live in these clothes throughout the year and don t wear your western clothes at all. Therefore please don t spend a lot buying lots of new items or bring too much with you for your year in India. In the bigger cities you will be able to find most things you would get at home. Take the pair of trainers/ jeans that you have been using for years, and don t buy items of clothing which are not going to survive multiple hand washing and scrubbing. Clothing is cheap in India. You will usually find that you buy some material soon after arriving and throughout the year. You can get tailored for traditional dresses and eventually saris which you wear to teach in. These clothes tend to be cooler and more appropriate. White clothes get easily and permanently stained and should be avoided. Brightly coloured and patterned clothes look nicer in hot climates - they will fade a bit anyway. Don t buy anything too expensive as hand washing is hard on clothes. Synthetic materials are not suitable for hot climates. Cotton, or cotton/polyester mix, will be more comfortable; they also require less ironing. It is very important that your clothes are not too revealing. India is a very conservative country and short/revealing or transparent clothes would be deemed disrespectful. Generally you will dress locally (in sari/punjabi dress etc) for everyday situations and these clothes are best bought locally. A lightweight scarf is very useful to cover up a bit if you feel you need to. You will be able to buy these in abundance so just bring one to begin with. Important Note Long haul flights usually allow a substantial luggage allowance but we strongly advise that you do not pack more than 20kg of luggage. Volunteers who choose to pack more than this often find it a challenge to travel from the airport to their projects (usually by public transport). Suggested India Resource List It s certainly not essential to purchase and read all of the books listed below however it is recommended that you look at the websites listed below. It certainly will make Training more interesting. Remember, if you do purchase anything please help Project Trust out by buying through the Amazon section on your Project Profile page as that way a percentage of the value of the order will be donated to us.

5 Lonely Planet Guide to India/Bradt India Travel Guide City of Djinns: A year in Delhi William Dalrymple A travelogue about the historical capital of India, Delhi. Shaped more like a novel than a travel book, Dalrymple and his wife encounter a teeming cast of characters: his Sikh landlady, taxi drivers, customs officials, and British survivors of the Raj, as well as whirling dervishes and eunuch dancers. The Idea of India Khilnani A comprehensive account of India s economic and political journey during the independence movement, till the post-nuclear era, from the legacy of Nehru and Gandhi and shattered world of partition, to the socio-economic values of modern and growing India. Shantaram Gregory David Roberts A 2003 novel in which a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison flees to India. The novel is commended by many for its vivid portrayal of tumultuous life in Bombay. The Romantics Pankaj Mishra Samar, the young narrator of The Romantics, arrives at a boarding house in the holy city of Benaras, an ancient city trying to cope with modern India. There he hopes to lose himself in books and solitude, but, far from offering him an undistracted existence, the city forces all his silent desires into the light. Malgudi Days RK Narayan Malgudi Days is a collection of short stories by R. K. Narayan published in The book includes 19 stories, all set in the fictional town of Malgudi, located in South India. Each of the stories portrays a facet of life in Malgudi. Midnight s Children Salman Rushdie Midnight s Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie that deals with India s transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of British India. A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth A Suitable Boy is set in post-independence, post-partition India. The novel follows the story of four families over a period of 18 months as a mother searches for a suitable boy to marry her daughter. course of their lives forever. LEARNING HINDI A Door into Hindi: Teach yourself Hindi Rupert Snell with Simon Weightman Teach yourself beginner s Hindi script Rupert Snell