Genevieve in India

For a New Tomorrow.

2008-12-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

I’m sitting at the Miami International airport waiting to board my last flight pondering about the conclusion of the long, and needless to say, life-changing experience I just had. As I sit here, over analyzing, I’m trying to figure out what these children, and this model, and India mean to me all together, and it is impossible to put in words. I guess what I would love to do for this “end of the beginning” is recount the last amazing few days I had in India and what it feels like to be back on this side of the world.

The goodbye began Monday morning even though everyone knew that I was not leaving until Wednesday. For some time, all of the girls had asked me to wear Indian clothes for my last days there, and so I did. I wore my blue sari on Monday and though it was very sweet to see their excited faces, It some how also signified that my stay there was coming to an end. Therefore, the melodic cries of my fourth graders began that morning, along with the first few out of dozens of cards cards ( I ended up with 200 of them) saying something along the lines of: “Please don’t leave me, but if you must, I wish you the best of luck and you will be in my heart forever”. This time I wouldn’t try to make some stupid joke in an effort to make them laugh, this time it was just not in me to do that, I usually just looked up at the ceiling expecting somehow that the knot in my throat would just slip right down into my stomach. It was okay if glistening tears rolled down my cheeks but I thought I’d leave the unending and much louder cries for later on that week. Teaching class my last three days was the most difficult thing during my whole stay there.

Anyways, the last few days it was as if the Indian breeze smelled sweeter, as if the sun shined brighter, as if the amount of spice in the food was just right and as if every minute of my day was worth gold. I just wished the days would keep on going; that they would never end. But then again, when I would go to bed, I would close my eyes and dream of home; it was time.

There was one thing however that made the last of it all a bit stressful. The children have these so called “autograph” books, where they ask the volunteers that come and go to leave their feelings about them writing down on paper. First of all, they gave me about 80 books two nights before I left expecting me to write pages and pages, amongst the nervousness of packing my bags and saying goodbye. And secondly, though I came up with sweet words to write on each personalized book, my words fell short from what each of them really meant to me. Regardless, I know that it meant the world to them, and so my last night there I stayed up the whole night (that’s right, before my 18 hour flight and 20 hours of traveling) and I wrote in each one of the books. Towards the end the notes became shorter and my handwriting messier but they know I tried my best.

Then the time came when Ms. Beena (vice-principle) stood up in front of the whole school at assembly to summarize, in a few words, what I had meant for this school. She spoke about how much she along with everyone else truly appreciated everything I had done and that they were going to miss my enthusiasm and affection. Then, Rajni stood up and said that the choir had prepared the last few nights to sing for me a couple songs that he knew I would love. He sat at the piano, and began to play the most beautiful music. They first sang a Tamil song and then they sang a song from the Phantom of the Opera, the one that says: “Think of me, think of me fondly when we say goodbye. Remember me, once in a while, please promise me you’ll try…”. He played to powerfully and they sang so sweetly, and I just cried; out of sorrow, out of joy, and out gratitude. Then it was time for me to stand in front of the school to say goodbye and say anything I wanted about my experience with them at Shanti Bhavan. It was very difficult to speak because I was crying but I did say a few words. I spoke about how harmony is one of my favorite things in this world, and I that I had never experienced a harmony as strong as it was at Shanti Bhavan. I encouraged them to see in each other the good things and to appreciate their differences and to celebrate their similarities. The whole assembly was very emotive and a truly perfect goodbye.

I left Shanti Bhavan with tear-filled eyes but with an ecstatic heart. I am so excited to go home and I just cannot wait to take part in igniting smiles on the faces of Nicaraguan children. This model that The George Foundation has established is a brilliant one. Embracing a “smaller” group of underprivileged children and providing for them an education like the one that you and I receive. Meanwhile, inculcating in them values and ethics geared towards helping each other and those they left behind rather than one of personal successes and material gains. These children speak of becoming the best they can be and for what…to go right back to where they began and build a new tomorrow for those people in the untouched corners of our world.

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It has been a pleasure sharing this experience with you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for accompanying me through my words.

A million thanks to those who made it possible for me to get to India, this experience and therefore, you, have changed my life.

Love

Fractions!

2008-12-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

Trying to make fractions fun in my fourth grade classroom =).

Bharath Obama?

2008-12-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

There is an uncanny resemblance between the new American President elect Mr. Barack Obama and one of my fourth graders, Bharath.

My roomate Suparna decided to interview him:

I hope you enjoy as much as i did =)

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An interview with Bharath of the 4th grade, president-elect Barack Obama's doppelganger.

Q. How does it feel to look like Barack Obama?
A. It feels awful. I need to do so much of work and I need to change so much after six years...

Q. You do realize that you're not actually Barack Obama?
A. ...and I know that I'm not him. I need to have long boring meetings.

Q. Would you want to be president of India?
A. Yes, but not of America. I like the people of India and I want to take care of my parents. Diwali and the best festivals are in India. And I can eat chicken.

Q. Are you happy for Barack Obama?
A. Nope.

Q. Why not?
A. Because others are scolding him. Barack Obama turned his back on some people. I don't know who, but we heard in news today.

Q. So you heard only half of the news?
A. Yes.

Chopin, Puppets, Robots and A SNAKE.

2008-12-06T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

First of all, thank you for all of your concerns regarding the current situation in India of the many terrorist attack and warnings. I have been keeping up to date with the happenings even here in the rural world and although we are all safe here, the spirit in India is one of shock and sorrow. When we first heard about the bombs that were set off in the hotels in Mumbai, everyone here who has family in Mumbai, including my roommate Suparna, got really nervous, and began frantically making phone calls to make sure everyone was okay. Luckily all of their relatives were out of harms way during the blasts. It is a true tragedy however, that so many innocent people lost their lives yet again for this never-ending hatred of differences. It is heartbreaking to think how difficult it is to build something good and how easy it is to tare it down.

I am a bit nervous about my flights back but I'll make sure to listen to good music on my I-pod and say a prayer every hour or so...On Thursday morning the government called out a red alert for all the main airports in India; they receive threatening emails about possible terrorist attacks in the airports of Bangalore, Madras and New Delhi. I fly via Bangalore, Mumbai and then off to New York and Miami. I will make sure to keep myself informed until my flight on Wednesday but at this point all I can say is, that everything about this experience has been a God given gift both for me and for all the children of Shanti Bhavan...this experience has in one way or another made clear that my purpose and mission are no where near their end...so it all good! Besides, terrorists usually make their terror statements when things seem to be running smoothly not when countries are on "high alert". And if anything were to happen in an airport or a plane next week (knock on wood), I promise to start singing John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" and reciting Thomas Merton Prayer about God never letting us face our perils alone...and everything will be okay =)

Though there are terrorists and killings and hate in the world, there are corners where the sun shines bright and where smiles spell out the word love...places like Shanti Bhavan. We have had a wonderful past couple of weeks. I know it was a bit early but we actually decorated our classroom with CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS =), they are amazing. We drew a huge Santa Clause and a huge Elf, and a huge Rudolf; we made stockings that we hung from golden colored strings, and as they dangle in the breeze, the kids look over at them once in a while and open their eyes wide with excitement. Before I leave next week, I will fill them up with cute pencils and candy so that they can cheer up a bit. Though we have indeed had a blast, this week has also been a crazy tear fest. I feel so sad. Many of the fourth graders, as they sit quietly doing their math problems, they suddenly start crying, one by one...they don't want me to go. The tears break my heart and though I want to cry too, I swallow the tears and make a farting noise with my mouth, and say, "Woah, did you hear that? What was that? Who was it? That one is gonna be a smeeeeelly one", and they all crack up and in seconds forget why they were crying. Next week, tears will flow but there is nothing wrong with crying. We all deserve the chance to say goodbye to our beautifully established bonds.

Anyways, enough about the goodbye...Something I had yet to mention about Shanti Bhavan is the way they celebrate children's birthdays. Seeing as how there are only 365 days in a year and 206 children, birthdays occur very frequently, so although the celebration of each birthday is not very big, it surely is very emotive and sweet. In the assembly hall stands a bulletin board that reads whose birthday it is each day. In says 'Happy Birthday' in huge letters, the date off course and the child's name and grade. Then, during teatime in the cafeteria, they help the child stand up on a chair and everyone else circles around them to sing Happy Birthday. The second verse is "May God Bless you, May God bless you, Happy Birthday (Ex.) Dear Chandra, may God Bless you". It is really beautiful. But that is not all. Then, following an Indian custom, the child grabs a large tray and walks around handing a candy to each one of the staff members and volunteers. For one's birthday, you give presents rather than receive them.

Another event I had yet to mention is that last week, a British freelance journalist, Amarin White, mingled around Shanti Bhavan for the full week, interviewing as many people as she could, and taking thousands of pictures a day. Amarin has traveled the world in search of stories, bringing to light stories that have perhaps only been silenced because of neglect or because of the thick boundaries society has built between the urban and the rural. She is a remarkable woman who asked the right questions at the right time and who then equably drifted away into the background with her camera, almost becoming invisible and brilliantly capturing moments in these children's lives. Those moments could seem trivial but I'm sure that in her photographs you can see not only the faces of these wonderful children but also the face of hope, and of a model that is trying to lessen the forsaking of the people in these corners of the world. It was an honor to have met her and I look forward to keeping in touch with her.

On a different note, this week has been exam week for the middle school and high school grades. I don't know if you remember when I spoke about the first exam week, in which the fourth graders decided to be the loudest possible. Well, having had that experience, help all 19 of us to amend our reputation on exam week, we were amazing. I played this "Silent teams" game with them, in which they were divided into groups by their rows. Then within each group, someone was assigned to be the leader for the day to keep their team in order. The row with the highest points at the end of the week would get more surprises in their Christmas stockings. It worked like a charm. And they too kept reminding each other that is was "EXAM WEEK". Also, I wanted them to feel special and a part of this famous "tough" week, so they had a vocabulary "exam" on Friday. It included 38 words from all the stories we have read the past couple of months. They were so excited about it, and they studied really hard for it. I have yet to correct but I must certainly get to that before the emotion-filled goodbyes in of few days.

For a few weeks now, Rajni (11th grade piano player) and I had been preparing a piece to perform at the Saturday assembly. It went realy well and everyone love seeing someone dance to piano accompaniment. He first played Chopin's prelude in E minor and then transitioned into a piano improve, meanwhile I performed a dance improve to his music. It was great to se him get lost in his music, he played so beautifully. Before the performance he asked me: “Blue Jay what do you do when you get nervous before performing?…I’m kind of nervous, I even feel like going to the lou”. I told him to say a prayer and to then try to remember the amazing feeling he experiences every time he plays his music during practice. And that during performance he should try and play just as passionately, as if no one is watching. It seemed to have worked since he played brilliantly. Then the KG and the 1^st graders did their final presentation of what they learned in dance class these past few months. The KG danced as puppets and puppeteers and the 1st grade dance as robots. Imagine cute, wide-eye, tiny puppets and robots =).

After school today, Saturday, all the teachers and volunteers decided to have a good-bye lunch in Hosur at the yummy restaurant we often visit, Janani's. I will be the first volunteer to leave and then in the next week or two the other volunteers trickle away. The teachers are quirky and great and it was an honor to have worked with such selfless and welcoming people. At the lunch, Suparna and I gave a little speech thanking them for all their willingness to make us feel at home and for being some of the most selfless and therefore admirable people we have ever met. It was a very nice time.

Another event: So, I have three fears, and I try telling myself that I shouldn't fear anything, but there three things are just impossible to dismiss. None of them have anything to do with each other so I'll only mention the one relevant to the paragraph- SNAKES. I SAW A HUGE SNAKE! Now that I've seen one, they scare me even more. Now, I'm not talking about a little puny snake that hides in corners, I'm talking about an enormously long snake that was maybe the width of a coconut. I can make this comparison because when I saw the snake I was sitting on my back porch under a soft shade from the coconut and papaya trees. The hissing THING, out of nowhere, just began to slither away from about two feet away. Oh my goodness, I'm not kidding, my heart stopped as I screamed, spilled my coffee and jumped up onto a chair. It seemed to be endlessly long; it was probably like 10 feet long.

This is, I'm very sad to say, my second to last post and my last post from this dear Internet cafe in Hosur, India. My last post will be this coming week when I get a chance to use internet, perhaps in one of the airports or one back in Miami. I cannot express how much it means to me that you all took the time to read this. It has been a pleasure to process and share this experience with all of you.

God Bless.

A Show for the Children and the Beauty of Laughter

2008-11-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

"You will always be here".

2008-11-22T01:58:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe it's November and I have less than one month here. These past two weeks I have come to realize just how soon I will be leaving and to be quite honest, although writing this blog has helped me process the whole experience, I'm having a very difficult time writing about what has been going on around here; I'm probably thinking too much about what these months have meant all together and its difficult to pin point specifics. I'm overwhelmed. The kids however, help me to keep smiling every day.

In my fourth grade class, there is a new sort of understanding that I am leaving soon, so we have all cranked up the sweetness, and they are certainly paying more attention, trying to be in conversation with me all class long, even if it means talking about fractions or the planets' orbits around the sun. I have come to know every child on a personal level. I won't mention all eighteen of them but for example, there is Harish whose smile and sweetness warms my heart each morning. There is Vijay, the charismatic and clever one; his expressions and jokes could make anyone laugh. There is Hannah who has beautiful, curious eyes and whose silence is never awkward, it's often the most amazing sound amongst the constant commotion of my classroom. There is persuading Ajay, whose puppy faces when apologizing make me crumble like a warm cookie. And Bhavana whose voice always fills me with empathy as I see her squishing her eyes together as she struggles through her stutter. And as such, I could say something about each one; I have yet again been given the chance to love, and what better than with 18 amazing children.

Then there are the sixth graders who have confided in me many sad stories as we try to find healing in trustworthiness and community. They enjoy our Wednesday night classes very much but at the end of the class they all lower their chins, wrinkle their foreheads and a few of them come up to me and say: "Only three more classes left. Will you always remember us"? "I will, I always will". With them I am leaving a part of me, one that wishes to always be there for them as they continue striving to deal with their traumas.

Every morning after breakfast I have about a half hour to kill before school starts, so from 8:00 to 8:25 I hang out in the music room with Ragini, a passionate piano player from the 11th grade. He loves playing songs from the musicals "Wicked" and "Les Miserables". I have tried my best to sing along. He appreciates my effort and says that he doesn't mind the raspy sounds of my injured vocal cords. I suggested he learn my favorite Chopin piece, Prelude in E minor, he learned it really well, and these days he plays it and I dance...we both appreciate our mutual love for music and art. Everyday as he closes up the piano, we say "It's only 8:25 in the morning but thank you for making my day". One morning I came in, not as my usual self, I was sad; it was exactly three weeks until my flight away from India. He said: "Blue Jay, why would you be sad? You cannot possibly be sad if you think about all the great things you have taught us. And also, just because you will not be here physically does not mean you will not be here with us; you will always be here". *Tear*

Also, this week I informed the school during morning assembly about all the horrible things happening in Nicaragua. I was honest with them and told them that I was really sad and really worried but that fortunately my family and friends were all okay. It was comforting when child by child, for the rest of that day, came up to me saying that they were sorry to hear about the news in "my country" and that they would keep NicaWagua and my family in their prayers. These children, though they have many different religious backgrounds and though the school is secular, they all seem to be truly spiritual; it is a privilege to witness such spirituality in people so young.

On a less emotional note, I have finally found the adequate way to explain to the 4th graders the concept of time in terms of am and pm, grant it, we have been working on "time" for about two weeks. "Okay lets try to understand this by talking about your daily schedule. You wake up at 6 am, you get dressed, go to breakfast, then you go to school for so long; you have EIGHT total periods with lunch in between, it seems like classes go on forever. Then after school, you go for physical training and then you all shower and watch videos as you wait for dinnertime. During all those activities the clock is ticking...tick, tock, tick tock. 12 WHOLE HOURS have passed..." I then did the same for their night schedule and explain for how many hours they actually sleep. It was as if they "saw the light"... they grew two inches taller as they sat up straight, feeling like they could reach the ceiling with this new discovery, this new knowledge. I'm almost sure that moments like these are when a teacher says: "This is why I teach"; it was awesome.

Speaking about the kids we celebrated children's day last Friday and the presentation that the volunteers, the teachers and the housemothers put together was great. The kids truly enjoyed themselves for the whole hour and a half. They would take quick breaths between hysterically laughing and forgetting to breath from excitement during the parts that were "soooo nice" (an overused phrase around here). We did our "teacher dance" to a mix that included Thalia and Michael Jackson, yeah quite the wacky duo, but there was a whole story line about how one dance was more "appropriate" than the other, it was funny. We also put together a skit, where Snow White was actually a man and when the dwarfs thought he was dead, they acted out a typical Tamil mourning ceremony; the kids couldn't stop laughing. I also danced an up beat piece, and every time I jumped or would do some sort of stretch, with my bad wheel and all, they would all go, "wooooah", out load; it was really cute.

Mr. Raman and Mrs. Runu Roy

After the Children's day presentation, Suparna and I headed to Bangalore for my last weekend in the city. We stayed at Suparna's family's place. This time the apartment was of an older couple whose two daughters live in the United States. You can tell the parents miss them terribly. They are amazing people, they cooked us typical Indian home-style meals, and we had tea in the afternoons and conversed for hours. The gentleman was very interested in Nicaragua as I was in their Indian life. On Saturday, they drove us to a huge book fair where we bought good books for the school library at one-fourth their price. We then went to an "Indian mall" which I had yet to go to and my goodness; it's a different India in there. It's seriously just like Valley Fair (for my Cali friends) or Dadeland (For my non-Cali friends), except some women wear saris and it smells like spices. Anyways we had lunch at the food court, and the food was actually really good, Indian food can be really complex but it can also be very simple and just as good. Then the lady bought both Suparna and I really cute wooden bracelets with Indian designs on them...how sweet is that?

Mr. Raman is a very knowledgeable man who retired a few years ago after working some techy job between Boston and Bangalore for most of his life. He is totally anti-development and anti-west, while accepting the flaws of his Indian sub continent and its dirty cities. He reminded me of that character in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", the father who thought the Greeks invented everything in this world. Similarly, Mr. Raman thinks American commercialism is greedy and unnecessary and that their fatty foods pale in comparison to amazing, tasty, scrumptious Indian food, which by they way he says, takes way more time to make than any western food and must therefore be much better. He finished his comments (which his wife, referred to as lectures, haha) with a "so, derr it tis". The Roys are most definitely two of my favorite Indians.

Me Time
Although I am actually savoring every bite of spiciness these days during the three meals, occasionally, a really cute and chubby child awakens inside of me asking for a pinch of sweet. Well, the child got so pushy that I ended up climbing a 12-foot papaya tree and cutting down a papaya. I wrapped it in newspaper and patiently waited a couple days for it to ripen, promising the child in me that it would be the sweetest papaya we ever tasted. Oh, it was so sweet.

A usual sight here, past 6 pm, is bugs, tons and tons of bugs. We are in the middle of a "dry jungle plateau" sort of, which apparently is a bug paradise. Insects, some noisy and small, some large and strange, suddenly appear like ideas in the evenings. Some burn themselves in the energy-saving light bulbs we have the privilege to use when there is power, while others just, well, bug. A couple nights ago, as I was typing away on my computer, a large praying mantis came flying straight at my face. I freaked out and almost threw my computer to the floor as I tried to jump off the bed. The mantis decided to land and chill right on my pillow. After a few girly, pitchy screams, I called in another volunteer to take it outside with a cup and book. The whole time I could only think about how they chop their mate's heads off and thought that they must be just as violent with humans; I'm sure it felt very unwanted.

I started reading a new book, it's written by an Indian author, Arundhati Roy and it is titled The God of Small Things. It was acclaimed internationally and so far I'm enjoying it very much. So yeah in my short spare time, I read sometimes and sometimes I sit and stare and drink coffee and think too much...I love it; decompression at its finest.

Halloween- FOR THE KIDS!

2008-11-08T01:51:00.001-08:00

THRILLER

2008-11-08T01:42:00.000-08:00

Life @ SB

2008-11-08T01:33:00.001-08:00

From Light, To Serious, To Really Serious, To Light.

2008-11-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

Last week, although short, was marked by interesting and exciting events. Starting Tuesday night, we all celebrated the festival of Diwali that for me was a sneak peek of Christmas and definitely got me excited for this year's birthday of Jesus. Off course last Tuesday had nothing to do with Jesus but just like at home, the children were given tons of firecrackers, which we then blasted in the open fields of rural India. It was great too see all the children's faces lit up... literally and figuratively. Though for the first time ever I was the annoying adult saying "Oh my gosh, please be careful...CAREFUL!!! Not so close to other people! NO, NO don't throw firecrackers at each other's feet! POINT IT THAT WAY"! But I do think that I, along with the other adults here, saved a few kids from lighting up their pants that night.

Back inside the classroom, DJ (the director from New York who I went on the Mysore trip with) was teaching the 11th graders a "self actualization" class, which represented very clearly the ASTEP mission of using artistic expression to empower young minds. Anyways, he held the last of these classes on Wednesday night and invited the volunteers to participate since he was leaving back to the States on Thursday. The class was wonderful and it was clear that throughout the course of it they had learned how to formulate concrete ideas about who they are, what they want to achieve and how they can achieve it. For the last class, we all (volunteers and the 15 eleventh graders) spoke about our life goals and the virtues we wished to practice in order to realize them. It was moving to listen to the goals these 17-year old kids are striving for; they are driven and committed to continue their education beyond their years as a Shanti Bhavan child. The entire hour I could only think about the possible futures of these kids. It was overwhelming to listen to them say they want to become engineers at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), or economists at an American University, keeping in mind that if it wasn't for this school, their goals would have been switching back and forth between being a quarry laborer or a street sweeper in order to feed themselves enough food to survive.

Towards the end of the class, DJ led us in what he referred to as a "circle of acknowledgement". All the volunteers sat in a small inner circle facing out, and the 15 eleventh graders sat in the outer circle facing us. We were asked to close our eyes and then DJ began to speak to our students: "Lets tell these loving souls that we appreciate them, that they are wonderful selfless people who came half way across the world to dedicate their time and their love to you. Lets thank them, because with their help you will one day be one of them, helping others in need," that did it; for the first time in 4 months I broke into tears. We then stood up and slowly walked clockwise as the eleventh graders showered us with thank yous and compliments; everyone in that room was glowing with gratitude. As they spoke they looked into our eyes and their words were beautiful, sure, but their eyes even more, as they transparently yelled out "I appreciate what you are doing for me." At the end we all hugged and everyone left the room with a beaming smile on their face.

When I decided to volunteer at this school, I never expected such gratefulness; I didn't see "thank yous" as an entitlement; I saw the chance at a personal challenge of striving to become a better person by giving myself to a cause that was bigger than me. But I must admit that it felt nice to be appreciated like that, through those kids I heard God saying, 'this is exactly where I want you to be'-- something I have been in search of. At the same time, it reassured me that the work I'm doing is indeed for a cause much greater than my own.

Speaking about God, I thought I would take this chance to mention the heartbreaking persecutions towards Christians happening here in India. The story about the nun who was raped and killed for her religious beliefs is terrible. It's a shame to think that crimes like these have happened all throughout human existence and they continue to mark history. When we got the news here about all of the bombs being blasted in catholic churches throughout India, I didn't get scared; I knew nothing was going to happen to me. Even though they are happening even in Bangalore, they just seem to be light years away from Shanti Bhavan, where every morning all the children, teachers and staff pray the words: "...May the teachings of all the great world religions direct our thoughts and actions..." Because is it not true that in the end all religions try to inculcate righteousness as they seek to understand the unknowns of our human existence? It's a shame that human nature drives people to hate our differences instead of respecting them. Anyways, for those of you who were wondering if I would be directly affected by any of this, it has not come near me, but I truly appreciate your concern and know, that I share with you a sorrow for those who have been affected.

On a different and much lighter note, (I realize this post has jumped around from light to serious, to really serious, to light...unintentionally but hence the title) Halloween last Friday was a blast! The volunteers organized a carnival in which all 206 students, some of the teachers and the housemothers all participated. We had an opening performance of the 4th and 5th graders dancing "Thriller". I danced in front of them as their point of reference in case they forgot steps; they did an awesome job though. We were all dressed up as zombies and throughout the whole 2 minutes, their hands were stiff like claws and their teeth all shinned in the sun as if they were ready to bite the audience...it added to the spookiness of the day =). We then had costume relay races, spoon races, and musical chairs, rapping the mummy, pin the tail, apple bobbing, face panting, tag of war, hot potato, fortune telling, raffle tickets...fewph...nope that's not all. When the sun fell we had a neon light DANCE PARTY! Before that day, all the kids had painted masks with glow in the dark paint that DJ brought for them from New York. He also brought a black light so we decorated an empty room with scary designs on neon colored paper and everything glowed in the dark. When the kids came in like three grades at a time, they were in absolute astonishment; we have candid pictures of their jaws dropped and their eyes wide open as they entered the room. The best part was that because the room was dark and all you could see were the masks and decorations, everyone let go of any insecurities or inhibitions and we all JUST DANCED! Oh my gosh it was paradise =). At the end of it all, we got huge hugs and every other child would say: "Thank you for making this one of the best days of my life". Awww, it was very rewarding to know they had enjoyed themselves so much.

The five of us ended up with our feet soaked in a bucket of hot water and we were all in bed by 10 pm, quite a difference from the October 31sts I've celebrated in the recent past. I guess Halloween is actually supposed to be to entertain children and shouldn't be just another excuse to dress up in an outrageous costume and drink; something I am indeed guilty of. I'm glad I got this chance to celebrate it for its fundamental purpose.

Finally, talking about celebrations: YESSSS, GO OBAMA!!! Don't worry, I don't intend to get into politics now because I could go on for pages but I'll end with this...Why the celebration for this Democratic victory? Because in the words of the new President of the United States: "America cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy."
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This weekend, a German company that I'm sure you've heard of before, Bosche, will come visit Shanti Bhavan as they are in search of a school to sponsor. This would be a very significant break for the school, since Bosche is a powerful company and could provide the amount of money needed to run this school successfully, saving it from its current financial crunch. Please keep Shanti-Bhavan in your prayers.

With love.
Until soon.

Supplements

2008-11-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

Elephants, Tibetan Monks, and a Palace of Lights

2008-10-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon, after hassling for a few hours to get everything done, from finishing up the Diwali projects with my 4th graders, to making sure my ipod was charged for the next kid to borrow it for the weekend, we finally headed towards the Bangalore bus stop to catch a bus to Mysore. The group this time: Elsa the girl from Malaga, DJ, my new great friend, 40 years old, New York theater director/writer/dancer, gay, an amazing soul...and I. Not kidding, this was the least planned trip I have ever set out for in my entire life...not a good thing to do in India of all places but then again it is actually difficult to plan in advance here with the many layers of fraudulence and nonsense one has to get through almost always over rupees... but the weekend turned out to be safe and really wonderful.

We arrived at the bus station and asked where we could catch the bus to Mysore; buses towards this city run frequently, every 20 minutes. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then a short lived but annoying nightmare began. We started to look for bus # 18, when it started pouring rain like I have not seen before here in India and there were people practically caring each other and pushing left and right with barely any room to move. We finally found the bus scheduled to leave at 8:40 pm, we were soaked wet off course and there was commotion going on about how there were five buses heading back from Mysore but they were stuck in a traffic jam so the wait would be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half (very typical in India). This explanation took about 40 minutes to obtain since no one, not even the creepy, mean men in the kaki uniforms pretending to know everything, knew what exactly was going on, and still no bus. By that time, I was about to cry as my feet squished out water from my closed toe shoes at my every step and I held on to my bags in complete paranoia, knowing my baby AKA my laptop, was in my backpack. I finally screamed out: "NO more, lets get a cheap hotel and head to Mysore tomorrow". We did and as we stepped into the budget hotel I breathed in deeply and said "Oh thank you Jesus"...yes, out load.

The next morning we ended up taking the train instead which took the same amount of time as the bus would have but it is much more comfortable and this already taking into consideration the crazy experience I had riding the train to Hampi. Nonetheless, Mysore is only two and half hours away and it ended up being very simple and quite enjoyable. We arrived in Mysore with a perfect amount of time to see the main sights of the city and enjoy a stroll around the palace area before heading back to the hotel. We first went up to Chamundi Hill on which they say resides the presiding deity of Mysore and its royal family, Goddess Chamundeshwari. There is yet another beautiful temple to see there dating back to the year 1128 A.D.; this temple is much more taken care of and cleaner than others I've seen. The view from the hill was beautiful; you could see the large Mysore palace, which is the main palace and here and there, a few of the 29 other palaces that were built in this city for the Maharaja's family.

Then our rickshaw driver took us to a typical Mysore Herbal and Oil shop. Mysore is known as the sandalwood city, since it is a large producer of sandalwood. They use almost every part of the Sandalwood tree including the oil that they extract from the inner, soft part of the stem. The oil shop was amazing; they had all sorts of oils that smelled so pure and wonderful. My personal favorite, Subba oil from the flower of the same name; off course it has a hint of vanilla in it =). It was great to learn about the Indian oils that they use for aromatherapy, reflexology, meditation and body massages all very popular here in India.

We then visited the Mysore palace, which I am not kidding, stands next to Versailles not in size but indeed in grandeur. The imposing facade has seven beautiful arches and the palace is built around an open courtyard. It has the most amazing "marriage hall" which I would refer to more as like a ballroom. I definitely busted out my ballroom skills with my new friend DJ =). The octagonal, painted pavilion has a colorful stained glass ceiling and the predominant theme in the glass as well as in the mosaic floor is the peacock.

Another notable sight in the palace is the golden throne, which consists of a main seat, a staircase and an umbrella, all golden. It has a Sanskrit inscription that reads: "Oh, King Krishna, Lord of the earth, you are resplendent with the blessing of goddess Chamundeshwari. You are the full moon of the autumn to the milky ocean of the Yadu race. This golden umbrella, which you have inherited from your illustrious ancestors, evokes the awe of the whole world". The history of the throne dates back to the 12th century.

Sunday night we actually got to see the castle all lit up since the entire building is actually lined with rows of bulbs following the contours of the structure. A total of 100,000 bulbs light up the palace every Sunday for one hour, it was so beautiful, it was fairy tale like.

Rewinding a bit though, Sunday we took a car over to Dubare, an elephant camp =). When we arrived we took a short boat ride to Elephant Island and as we pulled over to the tree root that served as the "dock" there were three elephants taking their bath in the river, it was so amazing. We then signed up to take a 10-minute elephant ride and Chandra, which I later renamed Pongo (because it looked like a Pongo, every sweet animal to me looks like a Pongo) gave us a sweet ride around the island. I just imagined "Las Isletas" which by the way are much more beautiful than this place by far, but with ELEPHANTS, that would attract more tourists to our lovely islands that unfortunately are barren of elephant and fish.

On our way back we stopped by the Tibetan, Namdrolin Monastery. As I explained in the last post, it was a village of Tibetan monks, from little 5-year old monks to 80-year old monks. The place was so holy and clean and peaceful. There were like five separate buildings, all Tibetan style buildings, and inside sat these monks in meditation. In one building they were singing hymns of prayer in Sanskrit and others were playing particular instruments, huge bongs and long, long trumpets I wish I new the name of. In another one of the buildings, the main one, there were no monks praying but there were three enormous golden statues of 60 feet in height, one of lord Buddha and the others of two Gurus. In a plaque next to the statues it says that they are made of copper plated with gold and inside the statues, are scriptures, relics of great beings, small clay mould stupas, and small statues, which symbolize the body, speech and mind of the buddhas. It was an astonishing sight, like nothing I have ever seen before. I honestly felt like I went to Tibet for two hours, it was a different world.

One of the walls read:

"In the Buddhist tradition, circumambulating religious objects like stupas, temples, etc. clockwise with faith, generates a positive energy bringing about happiness & peace of mind. Abandon all evil doings, practice virtue well, and master your own mind, this the Buddha's teaching- Lord Buddha."

The weekend in Mysore ended up being amazing and I was not expecting to see everything I saw; I am so grateful that my last trip here in India was to these places.

The way back was off course stressful and a bit scary. We were not able to get all the way back to Shanti Bhavan on Monday night because of Diwali celebrations. No one wanted to take us so "in land" so we had to stay in Hosur. Finally, in an hour or so we will head back to Shanti Bhavan. Luckily the children are not celebrating Diwali until today, so we didn't miss much. However, since I do not have my card reader with me, I will have to post pictures this coming weekend.

Thank you for reading about my experience.

Hugs and smiles.

Happy Diwali!

2008-10-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Namaste!

As at any other point in my life, I have yet again taken up one too many activities. But although these days I have much less time for myself, I am loving every minute of my busyness. For one thing, I decided to make more exciting activities and more memorable projects with my fourth graders. We have decorated our classroom with drawings and paper made candles to celebrate the Indian festival of Diwali (I'll explain more about it later). We made a mural for Columbus Day and we have started making pumpkins and skeletons for Halloween. We have also done some science projects, like seeing how onion roots grow inside of a jar, since they recently learned about roots, stems and plants. We did an experiment on the potential force of an object using small planks of wood that we hang from the desks and then let fall onto a still object on the floor. Seeing how much the still object moves determines the force of the falling object; the kids were fascinated and they understood the concepts really well. By the way, I didn't know about these until I read the "teacher book"; I'm certainly learning along with them.

Another fun activity I've taken up is choreographing a dance for all the teachers that we will all present on Children's Day, November 14th. The dance is hysterical and the kids will love it, which is the entire purpose. The best part of it all has been hanging out with teachers in a relaxed setting where we have gotten to know each other much more. They truly are amazing and they have awesome personalities; they are certainly a bit wacky, but good wacky, nonetheless.

Also, I have been helping the 7th graders with a presentation on South America. I have taught them things about Latin American culture and they seem to be enjoying it. They also wanted to do something special for their presentation "because we have to beat the 8th grade North America presentation". They asked me to teach them a form of South American dance so that they can surprise the school with it. I taught them some TANGO! They are so wonderful at it too. Not that I am an expert but I can tango a step or two and luckily I have managed to choreograph a one minute dance for them to present in spite of my limited knowledge =).

Finally, for Halloween, I am teaching my fourth and fifth graders THRILLER =)! I downloaded it at the Internet cafe a few weeks ago and re-learned it to teach it to them. They are so good at it and are loving the fact that get to be mummies in front of the whole school. One kid, Ajay said something really funny the other day as they were practicing: "Miss Blue Jay, I'm awfully sorry but your dance is not scaring me one bit!" he said this apologetically but also with a confused expression. I laughed and said "Ajay, Mr. you are not supposed to be scared from being a mummy in the dance, the point is for you to scare other people." "Oooohhhh". Haha, it was the cutest thing ever.

This weekend is the last of my long weekends while I'm here in India. It is the Hindu festival of Diwali also known as the festival of lights. It is held in the period October to November, to celebrate the new season at the end of the monsoon. It is particularly associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and marks the beginning of the fiscal year in India.

We have Monday and Tuesday off and we traveled south, to Mysore from Friday to Monday and will head back to Shanti Bhavan in a few hours to celebrate the actual day of Diwali with the children. I will write all about my experience in Mysore perhaps tonight. It is a beautiful place, much cleaner than any other city I've visited, and the Mysore palace, which is the palace of the Maharaja, is astonishing. We also went to an elephant camp and then to a Tibetan village that houses hundreds of Tibetan monks of all ages; sadly they are all refugees. Nonetheless, they all seem to be at peace and maintain serene and loving expressions as they devotedly practice their faith.

Anyways, I will try to upload the post and some cool pics tomorrow since we will be going to Hosur for a few hours to get supplies for a "Halloween fair" the volunteers will put together for the children =).

I hope you are all doing wonderful. As my time to leave India approaches, I have often felt overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and sadness for leaving these children, but knowing that I will see many of you soon makes me feel much better. I miss you.

Sleepless Market Place vs. Shanti Bhavan

2008-10-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

A Cute Girl and a Riddle

2008-10-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Meet the Parents

2008-10-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, October 12th the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders had the privilege to spend a whole 4 hours and 15 minutes with their parents after not seeing them for three months. That is how the kids referred to it, ‘the privilege’…talk about looking at the bright side. They kept mentioning their parents’ arrival since that day when we wrote the invitations. By the end of the week they couldn’t sit still as they counted the hours in anticipation. They told me they were not only excited to see their parents and siblings, but also excited because them and I would get to meet; they were adamant about me wearing my sari for when we met.
Sunday came, and I am not kidding their smiles that morning were so big and beautiful they could stop crime. “Miss, thank you, thank you, thank you sooooo much for wearing the sari, it’s soooo nice and its blue and beautiful…our parents are coming!!!!” Every sentence that day no matter how nonsensical it sounded, ended with the phrase, our parents are coming.

At first I thought that meeting the parents would be a bit awkward considering the language barrier, but it turned out to be a series of very moving encounters. All the families and their children sat around by the cherry trees and I went from group to group introducing myself and telling them something nice about their kid (because, even though a few of them are very talkative, I really did have something nice to say about each one of them)…. Some of them spoke a little English but most of them spoke Tamil or Kannada so the children were the translators. Many of the families gave me a fruit, or a small candy or an Indian sweet. I was so grateful for their generosity but even more for the way in which they gave me the gift; their eyes, although intensely black, transparently expressed gratitude and appreciation towards me. I am convinced that non-verbal communication is the most honest and truthful form.

Among their parents you could sense a sort of questioning, “Is my child okay here in this school? It feels so right to be next to him, how could I leave him here again?” But at the end of the day they made that decision once again and they all trickled out of the premises. Luckily the kids had PT after their parents left so all the volunteers went to cheer them up and we played kick ball and Monkey in the Middle and Dog and the Bone, aka Panueleta in Nica terms. Every day I wish to fill that void that these children have.

I have learned a new skill:

For a few days now I have debated whether or not I should include this particular incident in the blog but I realized that it has definitely added, in some way, to this experience and that it would make a good story. My scalp is infected by, oh you know, creepy crawly creatures…yeah LICE! Although I make several jokes about this infestation through out the day and the children think it is hysterically funny, this has been a catastrophic experience for me. No I didn’t have to get a buzz cut but this has affected my being in several ways.

Number one: My scalp ITCHES, it ITCHES, it ITCHES SOOOO MUCH. Number two: I have felt like a primate several times this week as I go about my daily tasks and activities with one hand up on my head, scratching away at my sensitive scalp. Number three: I have had vivid dreams about these intruding germs holding concerts up in the forest that is my hair…yeah I HEAR THE MUSIC AT NIGHT, it’s disturbing. Number four: the treatment ITCHES, it ITCHES, it ITCHES SOOOO MUCH.

Fewph, now that I got the venting is out of the way… I am now an expert in LICE detection and extermination. A skill that I hope doesn’t come in handy often, but if it must, I AM PREPARED.

I got the lice from my fourth grade girls. Even though their hair is short, which sadly causes many new volunteers to confuse them with the boys, they still get lice. And well I must admit that because I have grown so fond of these children, I probably hug them enough so that lice get the chance to travel over to my dense and frizzy, curly hair. The itching has diminished a bit since I started the treatment and hopefully they will all have chocked to death in a few more days.

This weekend Suparna and I are in Bangalore again staying at her aunt's place, using wireless internet, amazing! Today we went Sari shopping and off course got into a couple amusing arguments with rickshaw drivers, which is an inevitable annoyance. Tonight we are going to a party at a place called Fuga. We got the invite from a german friend of Suparna's who is doing a project here with his company for some time. The party is being organized by the Ives club which is a club for Interns, Volunteers, Expats, and Exchange Students in Bangalore city...should be fun to meet some internationals like me!

Hampi, India

2008-10-11T02:35:00.000-07:00

'WL'

2008-10-11T02:32:00.000-07:00

Namaste!

It has been two full weeks. I have been looking forward to writing about my recent excursion but I didn't get the chance last weekend and decided to leave it for when I was back at tranquil Shanti Bhavan. Ladies and gentlemen, Hampi, India is a gem. It is a place where time has stopped, where people and animals cohabitate in soothing harmony, where the plants are as green as can be and the sun shines so bright that you can see a perfect circle reflected on the cobble-stone streets.

But before I tell you about my experience in this place I must begin by describing our very eventful journey to get there. So we all got ready to leave on Wednesday afternoon. A nice taxi driver picked us up in a car somewhere between the size of a smart car and a VW golf, an "indie car" as they refer to them here. The five of us, Derek, Neil, Suparna, Elsa (a nice girl from Malaga, Espana I had yet to mention) and I crammed into the small car, excited to begin our trip. We drove directly to the Bangalore train station, expecting to quickly buy our tickets for the return trip and then have a nice dinner before the train left at 10:00 pm. Well, let's just say the night didn't turn out as planned.

Our e-ticket that we printed out the weekend prior had all 5 of our names on it, a couch number and seat numbers, and then peculiarly, it had the letters WL printed at the top of the page. We all must of thought they stood for the name of the company or something. Well, it turns out that the letters stood for WAITING LIST! OH CRAP! What to do now?? We were so confused as to how the system worked, and needless to say the people at the counter in the train station were anything but helpful. We were numbers 6 to 10 on the waitlist and for about 2 hours we sat around checking a small, beat up computer screen that sat next to the counter to see if the numbers decreased.

Finally, the three females got confirmed but unfortunately the males didn't make it. I went up to the counter with this pretend-petrified look on my face and said: "Hellooo Mr. (the hello with lingering ooos descending in tone and volume level), the girls in my group made it but the boys, our dear friends, did not make it on the train." Apparently the oooos helped since he proceeded to tell me that if we all wanted to travel together, that we could just share a tier ("bed") on the train and that no one could say anything. "Hmm, well that sounds sketch" I thought "but it might make sense, since the train tickets were only $15 each, even though it's a 10 hour train ride"...I told the group and they were like "OMG, lets do it"...we had received an email confirming that we had paid for all five of them, so we didn't feel terrible about it, but we indeed continued to doubt whether or not we would be A. allowed on the train, B. comfortable, and C. safe. By that point however, all we wanted was to have something to eat and to board the sketchy train to get to beautiful Hampi.

We figured out which platform the Hampi express train departed from and then grabbed a quick bite to eat at the train station restaurant...not bad for what you would expect, seeing as how the train station is crowded, loud, smelly, and dark. After dinner, it was still about 9:30 so we waited for our train sitting on top of our squished luggage witnessing how people would get in and out of the two trains preceding ours. While boarding, there were men helping women onto the moving train by throwing them on by their waists, YEP, scary! And there were people elbowing each other in the face as they tried to arrange their luggage inside, while others waved frantically through the windows, at the family members staying behind. All this just concerned us a bit more but it was certainly an experience to be riding an over night train in India, so we kept telling ourselves that, until finally, our train arrived.

Now for the funny/ridiculous part of the story, boarding the train was not terrible, but once inside, we were so confused as to which seat turned into what bed, and which three beds were ours. Meanwhile all the native Indians were laughing hysterically at our frazzled expressions. We basically sat in whatever spaces we found empty, waiting for the "DT" to come and tell us we were in the wrong place. From this point forward, the order of events went something like this: He came, he yelled, I hid my face behind my backpack as I tried to cuddle into a corner of the tier, Indian ladies chuckled, Derek stepped up and asked if there was a "tax" that we could pay, the DT obstinately said "200 rupees"! (AKA $5), we gave; we got 5 beds...talk about cheap bureaucracy! By that point it was about midnight but we still got to comfortably relax in our five "WL" beds and sleep for eight hours. Then at long last we arrived at the Hospet train station, just a 30-minute auto rickshaw ride from Hampi.

A bit of historical background on Hampi: In the Hindu legends of Ramayana, this area was the realm of the monkey gods; still today many of the city trees are crowded with "red face monkeys", timid but very nice monkeys, by the way. The Telugu princes founded the city in 1336 and over the following two centuries, the city grew into one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history. The city's busy bazaars were centers of international commerce, overflowing with precious stones and merchants from far away lands. Then in 1565 the city was pillaged by a confederacy of Deccan sultanates, and the empire sadly fell and was abandoned for centuries. Today, a battle remains between those who want to protect what is left of the ruins and those who live there. The city was declared a world heritage site in 1986 but only some of the monuments hold protection status.

The city is divided into sections: The Hampi Bazaar is a village crammed with budget lodges, small shops and restaurants which all surround the huge Virupaksha Temple. Among these establishments are small cottages where the local people still live. The bazaar has either coble stone streets or dirt streets in which cows, goats, roosters and monkeys linger freely. Among them, children in their traditional Indian dresses play with pebbles or hang around asking tourists to take their picture, it's amusing. We stayed in this area of Hampi. When we arrived at our budget lodge, the Gopi Guesthouse, we went straight up to the roof top restaurant/garden where the staff greeted us delightfully. There was a table of French people, a table of northern Europeans (so good looking), and then there was one man sitting alone whom I must describe. I couldn't decipher where he was from, he was a middle-aged man, dressed kind of ruggedly, carrying one of those hiking, wood sticks...he looked wise, for a second he reminded me of Gandalf in The Lord of The Rings (yes, I do like that trilogy). He was looking out into the endless rock boulders in the distance and his face looked like a comprehensive encyclopedia of bliss and no he didn't seem to be on any sort of altering substance, he just seemed to be in an enviable state of satisfaction with the world and with himself, maybe it was Hampi, I thought. I didn't get the guts to chat with him; he just seemed to be on a different level of consciousness and I didn't want to interrupt.

After having a great breakfast we had to register in the police department. I thought it was odd but once I saw "the book" I thought it was awesome. Every tourist that has roamed this city has signed up in "the book" and it holds signatures from ALL OVER THE WORLD! I didn't check to see whether there had been someone from Nicaragua since the book was thousands of pages long, but it sure felt great to write down my country's name on it.

After that, the activities began. That day we walked through many of the ruins surrounding the bazaar and then walked down to the river where we took a "bamboo boat" ride through caves and huge granite boulders, it was amazing. We then went to an awesome restaurant where we ate great food citing on mattresses in which we then NAPPED for a couple hours. The falling asleep was the best part as we enjoyed the breeze blowing from the river banks and the sound of monkeys and birds in the distance harmonizing with the soothing sound of a sitar that one of the waiters was playing a few mattresses down.

When we woke up, completely rested and in the best of moods we took an auto rickshaw to the Hanuman or 'monkey god' temple. We climbed up 670 steps in the company of wild monkeys who were surprisingly good hosts to the temple visitors. Once at the top of the hill, we were all mesmerized by the beauty surrounding us. Contemplatively and in silence we sat watching the sunset next to about 50 monkeys, surrounded by acres of green rice paddies, banana tree plantations, and huge, sporadic granite rock boulders. I love high altitudes... The next day we woke up at sunrise and took a yoga class up in the rooftop of our lodge. The instructor was not that good at instructing, he was just someone that knows Yoga really well and decided to instruct in order to practice it more himself. Anyways, it was awesome to have done yoga before the long and active day ahead of us.

After breakfast, wee took a tour of the 50-meter high, Virupaksha temple and visited Lakshmi, the temple elephant. The Hindu temple is dedicated to god Shiva and it was built around a special small stone, referred to as a Shiva Lingam, basically a phallic object worshiped as a symbol of this god, representing also divine generative energy. People were praising the stone: some poured water on it out of a gold pitcher while others threw flowers and food around it; it was certainly an intense sight. As for the elephant, she seems to have come to terms with the fact that she is chained to a wall waiting for people to take her picture, but it was a sad site. It would have been way cooler to see her freely wandering through the green lands of Hampi. After that we biked about 6 km through the bazaar and the ruins of the royal centre (another section of the city), and although it was extremely hot, we had a great time. The ruins were intense; there are some huge rock monuments that sit hidden among banana trees; it felt like playing "Legends of the Hidden Temple", haha. That night, completely exhausted, we went to a restaurant, The Mango Tree, where again we sprawled out on floor mats, had amazing food under the soft light of kerosene lanterns, sat below an enormous mango tree and looked out into the river and the boulders once again is awe of the amazing view.

The next day we walked for hours deep into the middle of nowhere to find small waterfalls and rock pools that surround an area of the city. On our way we ran into Namu, a man who seemed to have lived out there in the wilderness for most of his life. He apparently has seen many tourists get lost in search of the waterfalls and he has now assigned himself as the guide for people he finds on the trail. The waterfalls were not huge since the monsoon season is now over and the water level has decrease significantly in the past month, but it was awesome to be out there where all you could see was untouched land and all you could hear was naturally running water and talkative wild animals in the distance.

That afternoon we lingered around the city for a while, played a game of Karam, which is an Indian game similar I guess to pool, except without the poles. And that night we took an overnight semi-sleeper bus back to Bangalore, since again our train tickets were "WL". It was a ten-hour ride and the driver was a wacko that made it seem like we were off-roading in a very unstable bus that needed its shock absorbers changed, it was horribly uncomfortable. But in the end, the traveling hassles were all worth it at the chance to see the paradise that is Hampi for three days.

Until next time!
Much love.

"Use Your Right Hand"!

2008-09-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I'm in my dear Hosur once again using this slow computer that has, weekend after weekend, eased my longing for the world wide web. Then, after sending you all my love, the volunteers are going to meet up with all the teachers to enjoy an Indian lunch which will most likely include: chicken, mushy vegetables, some powerfully flavored sauces and some scrumptious Indian bread. By the way, I think that in southern India, the concept of "al dente" vegetables would be incomprehensible. They cook and re-cook and re-boil vegetables till they become so soft that you basically have to scoop it off the plate as if it were Gerber.

In reference to dining I must also mention that I am finally brilliant at eating only with my right hand. You know how western etiquette claims that pushing yourself with the knife is bad manners? I have always thought it was a stupid rule, simply impractical. Well, at least the Indians have a perfectly good and legitimate reason for not using their left hand, if you know what I mean. I have gotten really good at keeping it either under the table or nowadays even resting next to my plate without even moving it slightly before remembering not to use it. It was really awkward at the beginning, when I couldn't help but rip the chapattis (basically an Indian tortilla) with both my hands. The younger children would look at me with a puzzled face and very frankly whisper to my ear: "Miss Blue Jay, put your left hand away", haha, it was really cute but certainly a bit embarrassing.

Another particular habit that at first I had to get used to but now brings me satisfaction is the fact that apart from the rice, I have been eating only with my hand (singular) and barely ever using utensils. Although they do have forks available, Indian food is most often, made to be eaten with your hand. The way the teachers do it is amazing. The way they move their fingers to quickly and neatly assemble bites and then place them at the tip of their mouth without spilling a drop is seriously a mechanism that requires practice. Usually you scoop out the lentil juice and vegetables from a small bowl with whatever type of Indian bread or tortilla you get that day. At first I was a mess at it, I would spill everywhere and would never be able to scoop out the right amount of juice, making my bites entirely disappointing. Now, although I have yet to manage how to do it as gracefully as my fellow Indian teachers, I no longer appear to eat like a blind chicken and food even tastes better when I eat with my hand =).

That's all for now, I'll see you back here soon!

I miss you.

How about the word Narrow?

2008-09-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

So there are a few things happening around here. First of all, Shanti-Bhavan was featured in The Times of India. Mrs. Lalita Law, the principle, was interviewed about the school and its current financial crisis. It highlighted the wonderful things this school is doing for these children but also points out that the financial situation is a dire one and proposes possible ways of aiding the organization. Currently the administration is not yet apt to adequately deal with the marketing processes being implemented, since they had never dealt with lack of funds before. But we all trust that the transition from an NGO funded by a single individual to one that will sustain itself through fundraising and sponsorships, will come to pass successfully.

Aside from the daily power cuts, everything is going well at the school. I look forward to waking up each morning to be with my 4th graders. I love something about every single child in that classroom and although they have their flaws and some of them are obnoxiously loud or hyperactive, I feel like I can relate to that side of them ;). Everyone in the school has become a familiar face and I have never felt more appreciated or more welcomed by such a large group of people before; the beauty of it is that, that is simply the nature of this place and everyone here; they embrace anyone who steps into their haven.

Among the volunteers, we are establishing really awesome friendships. Our afternoons, after we all drag ourselves to our building in complete exhaustion, involve sitting in our back porch for hours. As we sit surrounded by large papaya and coconut trees, looking out into the deep green fields of rural India, we sip on black Indian coffee and converse about our day, or the children or life. It's much needed and very pleasurable down time.

A few days ago I substituted for a 9th grade creative writing class while the 4th graders had Hindi. One girl came up to me and asked if she could use the word "anorexic" instead of the word skinny in reference to A ROAD! "Hmmmm, using that word in that context would be incorrect, you see: anorexia is a human disease referred to as an eating disorder in which A PERSON becomes very skinny and unhealthy. Why don't you use the word, narrow instead? ", I answered. "Thanks Blue Jay", she replied and with a pleased smile, she sat back down. WOAH!!! I was so surprised. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that she was clueless about the meaning and weight of the word. The truth is that at some point before these kids go out into the real world, out of this healthy and righteous little bubble, they must be prepared to know these kinds of things. Suparna and I have decided to organize seminars on some important issues: Maintaining Healthy Relationships; Life Outside of Shanti-Bhavan and a third that will be held just for girls, Our Bodies: Self- Consciousness and Self-Confidence. We will present them to Mrs. Law in the next few days, who I'm sure will be all for it, and hopefully hold them in the coming weeks. I'll let you know how they go.

Guess what??? Next week we get two days off. Why? Because it's GANDHI'S BIRTHDAY! Yep, a national holiday here in India. We are thrilled! Recommended by my high school English teacher, Mr. Barber, who lived in India for a couple years, five of us volunteers will be taking an overnight train to Hampi. He mentioned that it was one of the most beautiful places in India and according to my Lonely Planet it is indeed a major pit stop on the traveler circuit. Hampi is an abandoned 15th century city north east of Bangalore that is set in a landscape of giant granite boulders, lush paddies and banana plantations. We have planned the entire 4 day trip and in the agenda are: rock climbing, which is something the city is known for, biking through the ruins in the "royal centre" of the city, sleeping in bungalows, taking walks through banana plantations to explore the waterfalls and rock pools that surround parts of the city and off course visiting the famous Virupaksha temple and its pet elephant Lakshmi...I hope the experience is just as great as it sounds. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Baba and Amma

2008-09-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

This week, the children had to write letters to their parents inviting them to attend parent-teacher day coming up on October 12th. I had to correct their letters and address each one. Reading those words was heartrending but they certainly put life in perspective. Most went something along these lines:

"Hello, Baba and Amma. I miss you...I hope you are doing well. I am writing to you, to invite you to come visit me. I have not heard from you but I hope that the family is healthy. I hope you are not feeling cold at night... I know you might not understand this letter but...I love you."

It baffles me to think that these children are learning so many things in school, the 11th graders even preparing for their board exams to attend university. Meanwhile their parents, those of them who are still around, don't even know how to read. (I asked them how their parents would understand the letter they were sending, and they explained that they go to someone in the village that can read and that knows English, no matter how far they have to walk). I often see myself in my parents; there are so many things about them that I admire, that I love and that I strive to live up to. It's crazy to think that these kids are now so disconnected from their parents in every sense of the word...even the 10-year old 4th graders. And although they have found a family here at Shanti-Bhavan and this place has become their second home, there is still nothing like the guidance and love of your own parents and the warmth you feel when you stand next to the two people that love you the most in the entire world. Indeed, this school has done something amazing for them; it has not only provided them with an exemplary education but it has given them a sense of self-worth: "You are not untouchable..." They have been blessed with opportunity; yet their story is still a sad one.

These children have shared their experiences with me, and although they are probably some of the most horrifying or heartbreaking accounts I've ever heard, they do it in a way that the last sentence always makes one smile, and then with very humble and honest gratitude they hug me and say "thank you for listening". I have always been known to be optimistic and hopeful; I like to think I am. But these days, I have experienced a different and deeper type of "looking up"...regardless of how tough their lives have been, they embrace the fact that the chance they got is a great one and that they must strive to be the best they can be everyday, trying to leave their traumas behind. Their stories should be told...is it not these stories that make us realize how fortunate we really are? Yes the world is the way it is, there are the fortunate, the less fortunate and the many people in between...these facts and this place have made me further question what I can do with my predestined privileges, and although I think it is "a lifelong question", I'm grateful to be here right now, it makes sense to me. Life here has become routine, a really nice one. The weeks are flying by and I wish they wouldn't; I can't believe I've already been here for almost 2 months. As I teach something new everyday, I am also learning more about life and myself than I ever have before. I guess it takes children sometimes to help see human virtues at their essence. And seeing this country and getting to know this rich culture has certainly widened my world perspective.

Outside of the classroom, the "guest house building" is an experience of its own. The dynamics change completely every time there is a new volunteer. It started with all girls, and at one point one poor high-school boy who I think we drove half insane with our "girl talks". Now there are four ladies and two guys. Derek, one of the guys, volunteered here a couple years ago before he went to grad school and has now returned knowing all the strings. He is a great person. With him as the mastermind we are putting together some proposals to fund raise for the school. We will send the proposals to non-profits and grant donors all over the United States and India. He is an engineer that did his graduate research on water resources in Africa. Suparna worked in publishing for four years, Anitha (another volunteer) worked in PR for Ralph Lauren before she came here, and Neil, the other guy, is a web designer who is very talented; so all together they are an amazing group and through them I have been learning very much. I'm happy to have encountered all these amazing people who are young yet experienced, super nice and who at the same time, share my passion for helping these remarkable children.

Life @ Shanti-Bhavan

2008-09-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

Faith

2008-09-12T22:54:00.001-07:00

Every day at the morning assembly, the staff and the children all put our hands together, bow our heads and recite a prayer. I have come to love it and I have truly submersed myself in the words. At Santa Clara I found a beautiful faith community and I must admit that before I came here, I was afraid of being away from a practicing Christian community. My faithfulness was strong but at times I couldn’t imagine ways maintaining a commitment to my faith practices when my usual sight here would be statues of Ganesh and Krishna. I was wrong.

In this place I have found a spiritual strength that I didn’t expect, but unknowingly I think I was in search for it. Now, I have not done the usual Ashram, yoga, meditation stuff that is usually related to spiritual healing or finding deeper faith. But Indian people, at least all the ones I’ve seen and met are inspiring in the way they all uphold their particular faiths yet still embrace the fact that all religions, especially the many present in this culture all hold similar universal teachings. In their faiths I have seen honest devotion and although some of their rituals seem more bizarre to me than anything I’ve ever seen before, their loyalty is contagious. So, although I miss kneeling in the pews of the beautiful mission church with my sponsee Jamie next to me, and my spiritual director, Fr. Matt sitting across the way, I now more than ever believe that God truly is everywhere and more importantly deep within us.

It’s a really beautiful prayer that I though I would share:

God, creator of the universe, help us remember that you are present in each one of us. May we respect each other and be tolerant of our differences.
May we be good and caring towards each other.
May the teachings of all the great world religions direct out thoughts and actions.
Grant that we may be spiritual in our interactions and zealous in our work and play.
Help us discover different ways to serve our fellow humanity.
Guide us to discover the treasure hidden in each one of us and to uphold what is right, cherish what is beautiful and revere what is divine.
As we journey through each day of our lives, give us the grace to accept whatever you have in store for us.
Be with us in our joy and our sorrow.
Help us to build Shanti-Bhavan into a haven of Peace and let this peace touch the lives of all we meet.
We salute the divine in each other, Namaste.

Happy Onam!

2008-09-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Namaste!

Before I tell you a bit about my week, I must tell you the great news: The world became a better place on Friday, October 12th at 10:45 am. My niece and soon to be goddaughter, Paulina, has opened her eyes and met her beautiful family who has been anxiously awaiting her arrival for all of nine months. I cannot wait to meet her =). And I cannot wait to hug Mauricio, Veronica and Mauricio Andres congratulating them for their beautiful little present =).

On this side of the world, after my very exciting weekend in Northern India, I expected my week at Shanti-Bhavan to be less than amusing. I must say though the kids have enough energy and imagination to keep my mind completely occupied. This week, I taught some of the kids how play kickball, my personal favorite P.E. game. We learned about line graphs and bar graphs in math, we read and wrote tall tales, we dissected a hibiscus flower, and most importantly, in dance class :) we moved to some SALSA!

The school also celebrated the Onam festival, which is a very large and important harvest festival in the Indian state of Kerala. The most impressive part of the Onam celebration is the grand feast called Onasadya. It’s supposed to be a nine course meal served on banana leaves in which people sit on a mat laid on the floor to have the meal. Although we didn’t sit on the floor and we didn’t have the nine courses, we did eat many different concoctions typical of Kerala and specific to this festival. Some things included, papaya chutney with these crispy wheat-tortilla looking things; another plate was off course rice but this time with a yogurt, onion, and lime sauce that was excellent. At the morning assembly they explained that according to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.

This weekend we volunteers decided to enjoy some civilization and came to Bangalore. I was blessed with good luck…instead of spending the money I don’t have in a budget hotel, I am staying with my new friend Suparna, at her aunt’s place. She is of Indian background and has relatives all over India =) I don’t know how these things happen to me, Karma? The lady we are staying with is really nice and she has two kids, a 10 year old and a 13 year old. Normally, I’d say: “Oh GREAT kids!” But lets just say that at this point, Saturday means, “Quick, get away from any human being under the age 20, QUICKLY!” I’m sure that’s just my tired-self talking. By Sunday night I’ll be excited to get back to Shanti-Bhavan, I miss those kids after a couple days of rest.

To get here we took the Balinganapalli bus to Hosur and then another bus to Bangalore. YAY, local buses! Again, a bumpy, yet spellbinding experience, and this time the only hazardous part was when we had to jump off the bus while it was still moving at about 20 km per hour, yeah… Although the schedule reads the bus comes at any time between 3:45 and 4:15, they at least TRY to keep on schedule by not slamming the breaks at the bus stop, haha.

In Bangalore, we hope to buy some necessities, eat some animals (that sounds pretty awful, but indeed true), and drink a nice cold beer, which I hope doesn’t knock me out considering that the last time I had a drop of alcohol was a month and a half ago.

Agree?

2008-09-07T00:32:00.000-07:00

Perfection

2008-09-07T00:31:00.001-07:00

So about the most awe-inspiring hours of my life…after the bumpy jeep ride we got dropped off at the Hennur road-Ring road junction, next to a nice cow who was mooing as if there was a tornado coming (btw, cow moos here in India are quite sophisticated, they hold the note for longer and seem to have the vibrato technique in the bag ;); it’s actually really annoying), but at least it didn’t take a deposit. We then took an hour bus ride to the Bangalore international airport, then a 2 and half hour flight to New Delhi, then a 5 hour car ride to Agra, arriving at our budget hotel, the Taj Plaza, at 2 am where we napped for 3 hours to then wake up, put our new saris on and walk to the Taj Majal to witness it at its best, sunrise.

You’d think that two females, easily identifiable even in a sea of Indian people (again a crazy ratio of like 8 men to 1 woman), and both kind of oozy looking, with huge grins of anticipation on their face would not be safe taking that 14 hour excursion in the somewheres and nowheres of India; but we made it and we actually had a blast on the way.

We wrapped our saris as best as possible, pretending to know how to do it after a 5-minute training session from Suparna (the awesome volunteer from Boston, of Indian background) before we left. We stepped outside into the revitalizing, crisp breeze of dawn and took a short 10-minute walk to the Taj Majal. The hotel, although unrefined to say the least, had a perfect location, just 500 meters from the East gate, which is the least crowded gate. The walk was quite amusing in itself. We certainly got many stares from Indian people on the street, none of which seemed vindictive but perhaps baffled. After all, here were a short, fair skinned girl and a tall philippino girl wearing saris probably very erroneously draped walking down the street in Agra, India. We felt a bit odd but we chose to overlook the awkwardness, we wanted our picture in front of the Taj wearing the very beautiful, traditional Indian dress. Then a certain someone brushed away all the discomfort, “OH, HELLO Mr. Elephant, in the middle of a street”! Haha, yeah, I couldn’t believe it, he was just chilling. What seemed even more peculiar was that he was surrounded by a flock of about 10 men as if they all owned the poor thing or were at least trying to claim it. Tangent: that is a usual sight in India, seeing way too many people doing work or engaging in a pass time that would require at the most four hands. Apparently, it’s the “gainful employment brings prosperity” idea, which is obviously true in many ways, but kind of pointless if your idea is to employ 10 people in the place of 2 and pay them cents; that’s plain inefficiency. Anyways, back to the elephant, it was amazing! When I tilted my head all the way back to see how tall it was, I noticed a cushion on his back with a small metal frame around it, I thought: “Thank you Lord, I get to ride an elephant”! I didn’t do it right then because we would miss the beautifully sparkling marble of the Taj with a salmon colored tint from the rising sun.

We bought our ticket and proceeded to the security checkpoint, which as in Indian airports are divided between men and women. I stepped passed a little curtain where a woman checked to see if I had any guns or dangerous tools somewhere hidden in my bulkily wrapped sari. She was totally chuckling at the way I had wrapped it, so I asked her: “Does this look right?” She cracked up and said: “NO”! I laughed too as she nodded her head asking me to get closer, she basically un-wrapped the entire thing and re-wrapped it for me; it was really funny.

Then finally, we entered into the first area of the premises where there stands a red sand stone edifice built as the main entrance gate. On top of this gate are 22 small domes, which represent the years it took to build the Taj Majal. It is astonishing in itself but in no way does it prepare one for the unexplainable beauty that lies behind it. We walked towards the gate and there it was, perfectly framed by a Persian styled arch, the most remarkable creation of mankind. I was speechless, I was so astounded, I think my heart stopped for a millisecond and I’m not kidding.

Reliable information obtained through our very nice tour guide: the Taj Majal, aptly called “the dream in marble”, was built in 1631. The Royal Emperor Sahjahan built it in loving memory of the empress, Arjumand Bano Begum. When she gave birth to their fourteenth child, she fell seriously ill and it is said that at the time of her death, as a last wish, she asked of the Emperor that he build the most beautiful and incomparable monument over her grave as a token of their undying love. The Emperor announced a memorial would be built for his dear wife and asked that all the famous architects of the world would present to him their designs. The design of Ustad Isa Afandi of Turkey was chosen. So, although one could say that the architecture of this magnificent monument is Persian, its soul is Indian.

The entire building is inlayed with precious stones and black marble. It has Quranic inscriptions in black marble on all the walls and it has incredibly elaborate designs cut out from ruby, safire, emerald, and other precious stones, and inlayed piece by piece into the white marble. Inside lie the tombs of the Emperor and his wife, which are also decorated in the same style. In front of the Taj there is a beautiful, long garden with a low rectangular fountain running from the main gate all the way to the steps of the Taj. Behind it runs the river Jamuna and off to the left side, in the distance, you can see the Agra Fort.

There are no words to describe the remarkable beauty of this place. The Taj Majal is perfect.

It took us about two hours to visit the Taj and to be able to say goodbye to its magnificence once the tour was done. We eventually walked back to the hotel in the hopes of bumping into Mr. elephant again. Although we couldn’t find him at first because he had decided to go chill somewhere else, we finally saw him a few blocks past our hotel. Dream number two: for all of five dollars I took a sweet ride on Mr. Elephant. As I sat on top of it, feeling him breath under me, and seeing the Taj Majal in the distance (since I was at a significant distance from the ground, about 12 feet), I gave thanks to my friend Jesus for blessing me with these opportunities that gave me such strong feelings of fascination.

We then visited the Agra Fort on the other side of the river, which is also an amazing site. I won’t get into the history of it because you could google it if you care to know but anyways, after seeing the architecture in this amazing city, I trust that it is indeed the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen.

Before heading back to Delhi we had a late lunch at a restaurant called Shivaka to enjoy only the most amazing chicken dish I have ever tasted. Explanation: In Hosur every weekend we eat ‘panner masala’, which is this orange concoction with cubes of cheese in it and a very think sauce of tomato and spices. And we accompany that with the famous ‘chicken 65’ which is this clay-oven baked chicken, dipped in some sort of spice mix; they are both very good. Anyways, this dish that we had at Shivaka was as if the paneer masala and the chicken 65 had a baby…it was delicious. Off course my stomach ended up hurting again because the dish had an intense flavor but luckily it was nothing too bad and it was well worth it.

The ride back to Delhi was really long and unfortunately when we got there the sun had almost set. We did however get a chance to walk around Connought Place, which is a really nice area of Delhi, where there are tall glass buildings, many restaurants, hotels, stores and a really nice park in the middle of the circle. It is a roaring city, much cleaner than any other place I’ve seen in India, and HUGE, which seems obvious since there are 60 million or so people that live there.

We slept in Delhi Saturday night and early Sunday morning Francesca and I said our goodbyes. She took off to the train station to go to Rishikesh where she will stay at an Ashram for a few days and I went off to the airport to fly back to my dear Shanti-Bhavan. It was a very short weekend packed with exhilaration and one hopeful “until soon”; an unforgettable couple of days that I will always be grateful for.

Much love.

Banana Peals

2008-09-07T00:29:00.001-07:00

Hello!

Before I begin telling you about the most awe-inspiring hours of my life, I’d like to give you a brief synopsis of last week. The “teacher’s day presentation” was great! For an entire hour and a half the “stage” was jam packed with jazz, swing, Indian jokes, hip-hop, tradition Indian Dance, theatre, piano compositions…creativity, beauty and above all joyous smiles.

There were a few tears at the end when Francesca said her goodbyes but only because in just 5 weeks she established a very genuine and beautiful relationship with everyone at Shanti-Bhavan. Her innate way of making everyone smile with her bumpy, excited walk, her contagious smile, and her powerful, heartening voice is something Shanti-Bhavan treasured especially right now during the difficult situation they are trying to overcome. I feel so blessed that I was able to share this experience with someone as special as her. I only knew her on the surface before India, now I consider her a friend for life and someone I can always count on for encouragement or for those amazing, long conversations about anything; she is the best person to speak with about the deep matters of life and the world but also someone with whom talks about a whole lot of nothing can be entirely enjoyable. I will miss her dearly.

Back to the events of the week before I fall to tears, I was able to perform my dance and I danced my heart out; I had such a wonderful time. I say ‘able’, because, it was bound to happen, I fell sick last week. Stomach. Yep, excruciating stomach pains, couldn’t keep any food in my body, didn’t eat for a couple days. I think it is often our faults when we get sick…I bought bananas in Hosur last Sunday and I believe I might have eaten one whose peal was cracked or whose tip was open. I bought them off a vendor who was sitting on the curb of a street, sprawled out on a dirty matt, and who by the way tried to rip me off 10 rupees (luckily, after a month in India, I know my way around rip offs, knock on wood). Anyways, the stomach infection was awful and Friday morning I felt so sick that I had decided not to dance; I didn’t want to get worst before my flight to New Delhi. Well, you know me, as soon as I started playing the music and saw all my cute kids dancing up storms, I put on my jazz shoes and said: “off course, I’m dancing.”

Funny story: Before the presentation, when I had set up all the music equipment, I sat on the floor with this grin of pain on my face as I held my stomach. Debbie, native of a town near Bangalore and the first grade teacher, comes up to me and asks if I’m feeling any better. “No, I’m feeling worst and I can’t keep anything in”. She proceeds to ask me “which way”? And with an embarrassed look, I say, both. She says (with an awesome, thick Indian accent): “No problem, is just your intestine not in good spot, come here, jump off these steps, all together, all together, your intestine will jump back to place”. Haha, I was like oh goodness this is nuts, what the heck does that mean. Then she gave me some axe oil to rub on my belly. I did both because I had nothing to loose and I’m not kidding, I felt better 20 minutes later, haha, oh the natural ways of curing, what ingenuity. After jumping off steps, rubbing axe oil and taking about a dozen pills, my stomach is fine now and, yes I know, I’ll check the banana peal before I eat another banana.

Anyhow, straight after the presentation, Francesca gave a hug to each of the kids, hmm yeah more than 200 hugs, and then at around noon we both quickly got into the bumpy Shanti-Bhavan jeep to embark in a LONG journey with rising excitement about reaching a “wonder of the world”.

Don't you want to hug them?

2008-08-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

“Apple Bottom Jeans, Boots with the Fur”

2008-08-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

About four times week I wake up at 6 am to participate in the high school’s “Physical Training” sessions. I have let loose the tomboy inside of me and have joined in with the 10th and 11th grade boys in playing soccer. But then this Tuesday morning I asked what the girls did. The older girls play basketball, but I can tell from when they are warming up and doing laps around the field, that they try there best not to break a sweat, which to me doesn’t sound too appealing. But what about the other girls? Well it turns out that a tenth grader, Chaitra, leads an AEROBICS class for the 6th and 7th grade girls at the same time. NOW THAT sounds fun! I asked if I could join in and I had such a blast. I am surprised I hadn’t heard about it, probably my bad for not asking, but I’m going to start helping Chaitra with leading it. When I arrived yesterday morning they were warming up to “Apologize”, very cool, and then they bust out “their dance”. To my surprise, Chaitra choreographed an entire routine to APPLE BOTTOM JEANS! Who would of thought that in rural India, they would like the same darn song that is SO overplayed on the west side of the pond, that I can hear it in my sleep. Anyways, it was great to see them shaking it and having fun and I loved the memories it brought me…I thought of my dear “Cozy” friends…’Shorty, Got Low, Low, Low, Low, Low, Low, Low, Low’ =)

Another high point of the week was when I played with the 3rd and 4th grader boys–Shanti-Bhavan Olympics 2008—we had a long jump contest and a 100-meter race. We held a ceremony in which the 4 medal winners (correct, 4 not 3- since we ran out of time for a tie breaker, haha) stood in Olympic style, with the winner of the gold propped up in the middle, to receive their astonishing, imaginary medals. Anyways, I’ll post a picture showing the excitement of the 4 winners, it is epic.

This coming Friday, September 5th is Teacher’s day! I have organized a program for the teacher’s where all of my dance kids will be performing, as well as Francesca, who will perform a monologue she wrote, myself dancing that solo piece I talked about, and a few piano performances of student compositions by the 8th and 9th graders (compositions that are exceptionally beautiful). Everyone is really excited and I think it will be a nice gesture for the teachers. For them to just sit back and watch the students they love so much, do something in their honor. After that, Francesca and I take off to New Delhi and Agra for the weekend to visit the Taj Majal which is one of my dreams and to hopefully ride an elephant, another one of my dreams =). Francesca then will travel for one more week, as I head back to Shanti-Bhavan and then will go home to California to finish her senior year at my dear SCU; time sure flies.

Tough Stuff

2008-08-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

For this week’s update, I thought I would share a bit about the challenges I’m facing; I must say these have been a rather long, and hot, and difficult few days. The middle school and high school students were in exams this week, which meant that the younger grades had to keep more quiet than usual. Well, my lovely fourth graders, all 18 of them, decide to be the LOUDEST possible the first few days of the week. After I nicely asked them to “practice their inside voices” a few times and noticed that that was certainly not going to work, I raised my own, raspy, injured voice and said that this week “silence was golden” and that they must all sit quietly in their seats even if they felt like wining, even if they were tired or even if they needed my attention to show me their newest “paper cell phone” or to tell me an “even funnier” joke. NOPE, that didn’t work either. “Okay, NO CANDY THIS WEEK”! That worked for all of two class periods and then oh there came the loud screeches and the “Miss, miss, miss, miss” calling with a wiggling hand high up in the air as if I were either 20 miles away, or as if I wasn’t wearing my thick glasses that day.

“Oh my goodness, what do I do?” I thought. I decided to ask the 8th grade teacher to come into my class and tell them that the whole school was very quiet but that the older students had complained about the fourth grade being so loud, that they couldn’t concentrate on their exams. It was a “Santo Remedio”! –translation: holy remedy-- All of a sudden, they were all so quiet I could hear the soft breeze outside the classroom window. Then I said, ‘my dear students, I am very sad about one thing. Even though you say “I love you, Miss Blue Jay” every day, and even though you write me beautiful, colorful letters saying “thank you for teaching us, please don’t leave”, you have to have another teacher come reprimand you about being too loud in order for you to listen, and you won’t listen to me.” All of them, with their tail between their legs, and their chins dropped about 45 degrees, proceeded to say, “I’m so, so sorry Miss Genvi”. This was Wednesday, by Thursday evening I had been handed about 14 “I’m sorry” notes with cute drawings on them, and luckily for the last two days they were all practically inaudible.

Another challenge that I have already been exposed to but I guess in smaller dosages are the recent and very continuous power outages. The transformer here blew up about two weeks ago and it has taken that long to fix it. The transformer generates energy for pumping water out of the wells, hence the correlation of power AND water outages simultaneously. There has been power for all of two hours per day, which means primarily that we have to read, and converse, and eat, and “wash up” using candles. Now I use the term ‘wash-up’ as opposed to “shower” because instead of your usual running water refreshingly splashing down your head, followed by the shampoo, conditioner, soap, and shaving cream process, we have had to get used to a bucket ‘half full ;)’ of water and a quick splash with soap on the 6 essential body points for cleansing. My vanilla body splash is almost gone. We do hope to get power by Monday but this experience has in a way not eliminated but certainly diminished the distance between this beautiful school and the many villages just outside the gates. The villagers there live on a candle per week and gutter water. What’s even more inimitable and almost makes me appreciate this occurrence is that it has served as a constant reminder that although these children are clean cut and well fed here; they do come from a life of candlelight and dirty water.

Finally, a discomfort that is out of anyone’s hands is CLIMATE! Remember how I talked about the perfect 75-degree weather? Yeah, well that has changed. The days are more like 95 degrees and the nights about 90. In combination with the ‘no power’ situation, the lack of fan ventilation in the room at night has made it difficult to sleep soundly. I think that the vegetables, lentil juice and rice diet along with the gallons of sweat perspired through out the day will both take part in the unplanned elimination of a few college pounds, which I cannot argue against :). Supposedly by mid-September it should get chilly which I’m looking forward to. It’s amazing how heat has such a significant effect on the children. Their attention spans shorten by HOURS and well I’ll be honest and say mine does too. I have been told by a few, that by 3 pm my eyes are glazed over and I have this distracted frown as if I just saw something very disturbing or unnatural…I am tired but to me that just means that my time and energy are being put to great use. I have grown a much stronger appreciation for all my past teachers. This is not easy work but regardless it is very rewarding when you see a child enjoying your class and applying what they learn; and what is even better knowing that they appreciate it and do not take it for granted.

Fotos!

2008-08-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

Who are you?

2008-08-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

This past week has been eventful and moving in many ways. As I establish closer relationships with the children here at Shanti-Bhavan, we are mutually sharing more and more things about our backgrounds and perspectives. Their initial reactions go something like this: “So let me get this straight…your name and surname are French, you are from Nicaragua and Spanish is your first language, you studied in the United States which is where you became part of ASTEP, and now you are India, with us??? Oh my goodness, who are you?” =) Haha, their puzzled faces are the cutest thing ever, but seconds later their eyes open wide and we begin a beautiful exchange of experiences and ideas.

In the “Artistic Expression Class” that Francesca and I are teaching, the children have so willingly opened up and shared with us very personal things. They have shared with us stories of their lives before Shanti-Bhavan and about how they are grateful everyday for the opportunity of being a part of this amazing community. In that room, there have been many, many tears, and screams, and laughs and hugs and stares that very honestly say: “thank you”. The class has been so rewarding. I cannot explain the feelings I get every time a child places their mind and heart so openly before me, in an entirely vulnerable state, trusting me. What I can explain is that somehow I have known what to say. I feel that the harmony of this place, the many hours of personal time and spiritual reflection I have had and my many interactions with these children have all contributed to those truly unique and gratifying exchanges. We are now creating a piece in which some of the children will be reading a script that we all wrote together, others will be acting it out and others will be dancing. In the past year or so you may have heard me say: The arts can be a powerful catalyst for empowerment. I believe that now more than ever. As they create art, inexplicably beautiful art, I have seen these kids reassured that they are not ‘untouchable’, that they can get past their traumas and sufferings, and that they can not only dare to dream but strive to live up to their dreams.

On a different note, this past Tuesday, Dr. George in company of his youngest son Vivek, his niece Maleka and her husband Arnold, and the entire community at Shanti-Bhavan participated in a moving ceremony to burry the ashes of his father, Mr. Mathew George, in front of the peaceful Prayer Hall on campus. The 300 or so people were all wearing white and we were all asked to hold rose pedals that we then threw on top of the tomb where they buried his ashes. The ceremony was accompanied with beautiful music; a few hymns were sung by Maleka who is actually an opera singer and violinist in Paris and came here for this ceremony and to visit the children for the 3rd time…it was such an honor to witness such talent. The four family members spoke beautifully about the legacy of this man who truly seemed to be an exceptional person. Before his death at the age of 97, he asked to be buried in Shanti-Bhavan because he believed there was no other place as special and as transcendent as this one. They also planted a tree in his honor and two of the younger children planted it. It was a very ceremonial and touching day for all here at Shanti-Bhavan.

Another particular happening this week was Miss blue Jay’s turn at “The News Today”. Every day at the morning assembly a teacher gives a summary of the news that day. My turn was this past Thursday. There is a TV in the teacher’s commons with dish network that I had not yet used. The night before I sat in front of the TV watching CNN and BBC. Although it was relaxing to just sit in front of the television with a cup of tea and no ruckus is the background, I left the commons completely depressed. The news is all about deaths, and lack of diplomacy, and bombs, and more deaths. The next morning I was in charge of informing the school of the scary deal signed between Rice and Sikurski to establish the US missile base in Poland. What is happening to this world yet again? Does THE COLD WAR come to mind? Lets pray this doesn’t break out into a calamity.
On a lighter note, I also informed them that India has won three medals at the Beijing Olympics already ensuring that India will return with its biggest Olympic Medal haul ever. That’s cool.

All right lovely people,

Many hugs and much love,

Until soon.

Barefoot Traveling and Volcano Pits with Egg

2008-08-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Chennai after a long bus ride, complete with a bizarre showing of a loud Tamil movie depicting stripers, pimps and a gruesome car accident; not exactly your usual bus ride entertainment! OK, I’ll be serious now. Chennai, more commonly known as Madras, is an awesome city. It has very beautiful architecture that depicts the contrasts of India very adequately. There are buildings that make one feel like you are walking through the streets of London because of the still very evident British influence, with the exception of the ghastly sewage smell that envelops the atmosphere of the entire city. What is most beautiful however is that next to those “European buildings” stand tall Hindu temples with elaborate carvings of their gods and deities. Crowds of people trickle in and out of the temples through out the day, bare-footed, with flowers in their heads, devotedly praising their gods. Since it is a coastal city, the spirit of the people there is light hearted and the pace of life is slower than in Bangalore. Perhaps it was because I visited during Independence Day weekend but people just seem happier there. On Friday night we went out to a Tapas bar were the “cool people” hang, it was great to see the bar scene in an Indian city. The girls were actually wearing western clothes there which was quite a contrast from the women on the streets just outside wearing their silk saris, their long black hair oiled and braided down their backs, and their sparkling bindis in the middle of their forehead (I think it looks almost like a star illuminating their dark, mysterious eyes). I doubt I’ll start wearing bindis and oiling my hair but I think the Indian style is much more feminine and beautiful.

One of the days we took a tour to the near by towns of Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram in the Bay of Bengal. There stand rock cut temples of the 7th, the 16th and 17th centuries. In Kanchipuram we visited a few temples that were astonishing because of the 59-meter high, intricately carved rocks that sat on top of them. They were actually carved out of a sole rock. Inside, there were beautiful wooden statuses of exotic looking gods adorned with golden jewelry. One of the temples is the very famous Vishnu temple, which includes a beautifully sculpted 1000 pillar hall over looking a lake. Now only 97 of the pillars remain.

I must say the only awful part of these visits was the fact THAT I HAD TO REMOVE MY SHOES and this time I had NO SOCKS, eek! I was so paranoid of getting some sort of bacteria infection on my foot. As I walked through the temples, rather than thinking, “wow this is beautiful”, I was thinking, “Oh my God what if they have chop off my foot, aaahhh!” When I got back to the bus I squished out my entire bottle of hand sanitizer and my entire bottle of water on my feet. Haha. Not to worry though, my feet are fine, “THANK YOU LORD” =)

In Mahabalipuram we visited the Five Rathas, which are rock cut temples resembling chariots. The temples are from the mid 600s and the place is considered to be a world heritage site. We also visited the Shore Temple dedicated to the god Shiva, which faces the Bay of Bengal. It was constructed in the middle of the 7th century. There used to stand eight of these temples but through the years, they have been swallowed up by the sea; today only two remain.

A great part of the tour was visiting a silk factory where we saw people working on huge medal machines as they wove bright silk threads into beautiful Saris with very elaborate designs. One silk Sari takes 12 days to make and what is most impressive and a true shame is that although some Saris are quite expensive, others that take just as long to make are only about 1000 Rupees, which convert to about $30; you’d think they would be much more expensive knowing the long and hard hours people put into them.

Finally we visited the beach on the Bay of Bengal where we were able to sprinkle our feet with the cold, dark blue waters of the Indian Ocean. The tour was a total of 12 hours long, the weather was very hot and the bus driver obnoxiously honked 5 out of the 6 hours of travel. Even so, the tour was well worth it and it was truly amazing to visit those magnificent temples, to see the method of making such beautiful silk fabrics, and at last looking out into the Indian Ocean.

Back in Chennai, another highlight of the trip was that we were able to meet different Indian families. They were all good friends of Premilla, the teacher who planned the entire trip for us and who is a native of Chennai. Again I experienced the contrasts of India. In one apartment complex, there were Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims. Some had huge pictures of Jesus crucified up on their walls, others were wearing the Hijad and had rectangular carpets on the floor where they pray towards Mecca and the Hindus had colorful pictures and statues of elephant gods and snakes gods decorating their homes. The beauty of it all is that what they had in common was their kindness and their hospitality, welcoming us foreigners with smiles, completely interested in our perspectives and what we had to say about our stay in India.

Story: We visited one of Premilla’s girl friends that lives with her 25 year old daughter. After the usual “hello how are you” conversation, the lady says: “Premilla how exciting is it that it’s almost time for my daughter Nythia to get married?” Premilla proceeds to say: “Oh, did you find one already?” I was like WHAT? Later I asked Premilla if she perhaps was referring to a dress or a place to hold the wedding. OH NO! They were talking about a man! Yep…while we westerners worry about love at first site or the one and only, these ladies wait around at home until their mommies find them a suitable catch.

But for the feature story: I visited Premilla’s temple with her, like her “Sunday church”. I can say it was the strangest form of prayer and offering I have ever witnessed or even imagined. On our way to the temple we bought Jasmine flowers to put on our heads. That was great, my hair ended up smelling amazing. It reminded me of the smell of my room in Managua where the jasmine tree stands outside my window blessing my room with that wonderful smell. Anyways, we arrived at the temple, which was very pretty; it had mosaic paintings on the ceilings and very colorful columns depicting gods and deities in acrobatic positions. We were asked to take our shoes off AGAIN (I will certainly not miss walking barefoot on dirty, dirty floors, but I certainly felt that I should be respectful to this woman’s house of worship). We walked around the first temple house to where the statue of her favorite god, the snake god, stood. The rock statue of this snake twirls around five small rocks resembling tall volcano pits. Premilla then took out some raw eggs from a plastic bag and started cracking each egg into the volcano pits. That’s not all, then a flock of black ravens swooped in to suck out the egg from the volcano pits… No comment: I’m trying to be culturally sensitive.

When I spoke to my mother the next day, she asked: Oh goodness, you didn’t pray there did you? Haha. No mother, I did not pray there! I was just a tourist with a camera and a very transparent expression of confusion.

Disclaimer: My friend Suparna who is sitting next to me right now, assures me that not all Hindus partake in these peculiar rituals and was equally perplexed at the sight.

The bus ride back from Chennai, which was during the day on Sunday, was stunning! The road was surrounded by huge rock mountains and miles and miles of coconut tree plantations. The whole trip was very eye opening and lots of fun.

SUDOKU

2008-08-14T08:55:00.001-07:00

I taught my fourth graders Sudoku! It has been great fun to see them so focused first through learning the strategies and then through maintaining patience as they try the finish the puzzles. Three of the students have completed the first puzzle; the other ones are still cracking their little heads. I think it’s a great thing to make their minds work in that way…they are oiling their mind wheels, as I like to imagine it.

Also, as I choreograph for all the little ones for them to perform on “teacher’s day”, I am also preparing a little solo myself and will dance for the school in that same presentation. They are all really excited to see it but I am actually kind of nervous since these kids have seen and been taught mostly by Julliard and Broadway dancers. I’ll let you know how it goes. Roomie: Guess what song I’m using? Brendan James’, All I Can See…thank you.

Another volunteer arrived this week, she is a PHD student from Houston who is currently on a research fellowship and she is writing a fiction book. She seems really interesting and I’m looking forward to having many conversations with her. A fifth volunteer arrives soon. She is a young Spanish woman from Malaga who speaks 6 different languages and got her bachelors degree in primary education. I’m excited to meet her as well.

This Friday (tomorrow) is Independence Day in India so we have Friday off from school. I am going to the Eastern coast of India to a city called Chennai. There are five of us going, Suparna, Francesca and couple of the teachers who are from there. It will be awesome to travel an Indian city with natives. It is apparently a tourist destination in India, known for its amazing silk and its Hindu temples. We will travel by bus (5 hour ride) and will be staying there from tonight (Thursday) to Sunday.

I hope to post about my experience seeing a new ocean, sometime soon =)

Much love and until soon!

Idealism?

2008-08-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

This past week has been better than last. The first highlight I want to share is about when the volunteers sat for tea with Dr. George; the intent was for us to ask as many questions as we wanted, the conversation was very moving and inspiring. We asked him questions about the financial crisis that The George Foundation is struggling through. With his explanation I now more fully understand the nature of this school and its mission. The reason for why they have not received any funding from donors or sponsors is because unlike most education programs for the underprivileged especially here in India, this school has as its mission, to provide a high end education for their children. To run this school the way he believes it should be run, they need $250,000 a year. This includes clean and comfortable living conditions, nutritious food, above all a good education with all the necessary materials and a good salary for qualified teachers, and finally an occasional day in the city or an ice cream sundae once a month for the children.
The responses to most of their proposals have been criticisms about how they are wrongly expecting people to give money so that the children at Shanti-Bhavan can live luxuriously.

From my experience living with these children, it is impressive to see their level of commitment to their education and above all, their way of upholding the good values and ethics that they have been taught here. Even though they live away from home, this school has formed them into well-educated, well-mannered and good-hearted creative thinkers. The students in the 11th grade are smarter and better informed about world issues than I was in high school. What is most impressive is that before Shanti-Bhavan these children were playing in dumpsters during the day, and at night many of them were sleeping in a room where their parents raped them or their brothers and sisters. “They too”, explained Dr. George “are entitled to as good an education as you and I received, even if they were born into such harsh conditions”.

I am often reflecting and thinking about Nicaragua; of how I myself am from the second poorest country in the western hemisphere and there too exist extremes cases of poverty and children that live in broken homes where rape and violence mark their lives. I think that this experience it India is helping shape my views about how those who suffer from such difficulties can also succeed and help, as educated citizens to make their country a more humane and just place. I am certain that I want to take part in making that happen in Nicaragua and though I have not formulated concrete ways of doing so, I trust that I am forming a strong base in my mind and heart through this experience to be able to transform these words into actions.

I know the term idealism may come up after reading this…it can be a flaw off course but I think it all depends on how you approach it. The NGO that I am proud to be a part of today is called “Artists Striving to End Poverty”. Will we put an end to poverty? No we will not. But is it a great thing to try and mitigate it child by child if you are inclined to do so? A million times, YES.

CHICKEN ON THE WEEKENDS! YESS!

2008-08-14T08:47:00.001-07:00

My first weekend here was great and using the Internet was glorious; it definitely mitigated my Internet withdrawals. Hosur which is the near by town is not a place that would appear on a Rick Steves book or on a Lonely Planet but it had internet and good food, which is just what we were looking for. We took the bumpy Shanti-Bhavan jeep with Ragu (the driver), with Ms. Beena (the vice-principle), a couple of the teachers and the volunteers. We used the internet for a while and then we ate at a great restaurant. I had “chicken 65”…don’t ask what was in it …I have stopped asking what kind of things I’m eating here, its much better that way...but it was actually amazing

The second day, Sunday, was an adventure. We went back to Hosur to watch a Tamil movie in the movie theaters. We took the local bus from the street just in front of Shanti-Bhavan. The bus was pretty run down but luckily the stop was the first one and we got to sit down. As we stopped in all the villages we picked up tons and tons of people, eventually there were people hanging out the doors. It’s the way buses work in Managua too, but it certainly is a different experience when you are INSIDE the bus rather than observing from a distance while you are in a comfortable car, with A/C. I loved it though. It is not customary to give your seat to the elderly or mothers with children, since the bus is usually packed; there is barely any room to move. I ended up holding a baby that some women was trying to carry in the middle passage way as she struggled to hold on to the metal railing above her head; I appreciated how she trusted to hand her baby over to a foreigner past the language barrier. I felt comfortable among a group of people that at first sight seem to be from a different world unrecognizable from mine.

The Tamil (one of 16 official Indian Languages) movie was insane. There are really no words to describe it. I doubt anyone would consider it a “good movie” but it certainly triggered all sorts of feelings and reactions. It was 3 hours long and there were two intermissions during the movie. The one thing I did get from it is that people here are more or as obsessed with movie stars as people who look forward to their daily searches in the Perez Hilton website.

On the way back from the movie we witnessed a procession of people who were piercing their mouths and cheeks with foot long steel bars. They had a person holding the steel bar on each side for it not to move too much. One of the teachers we were with, Nirmala, explained that it is a Hindu tradition practiced once a year. People, who are suffering from a particular malady at home or are living through difficult times, pierce their mouths as they pray to the Gods that they mitigate their suffering. There might have been about 100 people in the procession and it was in one of the villages near to Shanti-Bhavan. The women were carrying clay pots with fire coming out of them and they were adorned with beautiful white and red flowers. Others held the metal bars on each side of the person of those who were sacrificing their comfort and offering their pain; these seamed fearless, confident, and in complete devotional prayer as if no other human were around them. It was a very powerful sight.

A few Pics!

2008-08-09T04:15:00.001-07:00

Kids Rule!

2008-08-09T03:32:00.000-07:00

I’m falling in love with all these children. At Shanti-Bhavan they do not only learn about math and science and spelling and social studies…they learn about solidarity, about wanting the best for the other and about serving those who need help. In my math class, I do contests up on the board in which they race to answer a problem; whoever is quickest wins a candy…CANDY is like GOLD to these children. Anyways, I make sure that those who don’t win, go up to the board twice or three times so that eventually everyone ends up with a candy…they encourage that. Instead of doing the usual “haha, look I got a candy, and its red”, these children say “Miss Blue Jay, (Oh yeah side note: they switched my nickname from JayJay to Blue Jay, because “I’m pretty like a bird”…random I know, BUT SO SWEET, and they say Genvi occasionally) “Miss blue Jay, let Nithya go to the board again so she can get a candy too!!” It’s nice to be surrounded by a harmony among so many people, and young people in their formative years. I have never experienced such harmony.

I have had the best time teaching dance here! These kids can SHAKE IT! I have proposed the principle to do a show sometime in the next couple months and then another one in December before I leave in which all my dance kids (KG through 8th) perform for the school. Currently I’m choreographing dances for them to JT’s Lovestoned, Bob Sinclair’s Rock this Party, Christina Aguilera’s Candyman, and Letter to Cleo’s I Want You To Want Me. =)

For the 6th 7th and 8th though, Francesca and I are co-teaching an “artistic expression” class in which we are dealing with the idea of “opportunity”. We share our stories, they share their stories…and we create non-verbal expressions of our stories, either through dance, acting, or Improvisation. The students this week were really cooperative and seem to be enjoying the class even though its not that conventional.

So there are 5 volunteers here right now. Two of them are recent high school grads that are just helping out for a month in the “physical education” arena, then there is Frannie and I and then there is Suparna (Indian origin, hence the name). She is really, really cool, native Bostonian, lives in New York and is currently applying to grad school. New great friend, and she is here till December too, which is awesome! Then in the next couple weeks, 3 more arrive, Derek, Nicole, and Nick. Suparna knows them and she says they are really great, so I’m excited to have more people here.

Then there are the resident teachers, 11 of them. The school, which is privately funded by The George Foundation, is going through an financial crisis and so there have been cuts in pay in the last couple of years, forcing teachers to leave. From 22 teachers there are now 11 doing the same amount of work. They are selfless and loving and the most inspiring people I’ve met. They have left lives behind in the cities and have dedicated themselves to teaching these children so that they have a future. Their answer for why they haven’t left is most often: “I wouldn’t leave these children for the world.” We often see Dr. George walking around who is currently working relentlessly ot find sponsors and partners. This man who was born and raised in India then went to the US for college and basically conquered the software industry becoming one of the top 15 business entrepreneurs in the US according to Forbes Magazine and Business week. After he made his millions, he founded The George Foundation and has since dedicated himself alleviating poverty in this area of Tamilnadu.

I miss all of you and I hope life is beautiful for all of you right now. Thank you for reading this! See you in a week.

Shanti,
Genevieve

T-E-A-C-H-E-R

2008-08-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

When I first grabbed the teacher edition of the text book to start my lesson plan, it took me back to elementary school when the “teacher book” was this sacred thing WITH ALL THE ANSWERS…it was now on my left hand, oh and on my right hand CHALK. It took me a few days to get used to the idea, but I like it now.

An aspect of teaching here is that these children don’t only ask for our attention as teachers, these children need affection and a lot of it. Some of these children have always been deprived of care and affection in their homes, many of them are children that are mistreated or raped by neighbors of family members when they are at home. Others naturally require affection from the teachers because they miss their families being away from home. A lot of them are faced with the dilemma of missing home because they love their parents but feel bad because they prefer being at Shanti-Bhavan where they actually have food to eat.

From the minute I introduced myself, Sumith, my new friend in the 4th grade, not only received me with arms wide open, he grabbed on to me and didn’t let go. The boy who is a menace in the classroom, constantly asks me to sit next to him during meals, wants to be holding my hand all the time and gives me this adorable puppy face whenever I say I can’t or when I ask him to settle down or be quite in the classroom. I could say he is a bit manipulative, since children unintentionally often are, but I don’t think that is the case with Sumith.

My biggest challenge thus far has been my voice…these children are really loud and although my class is disciplined, I still have to project my voice for 20 children for 8 hours every day…the nodules in my vocal cords that they discovered this summer are probably a bit bigger after a week here. I am trying my best to breath with my stomach and not into my shoulders and I’m doing some muscle relaxation exercises at night, lets just hope this serves as a way to learn how to talk instead of a path towards no voice at all…

The food is not my favorite. It is not bad at all its just that its traditional southern Indian food which is spicy and mushy most of the time... anyways I’m getting the hang of it and trying to eat a little more each day. Tea time at 3:30 pm is something everyone looks forward to all day. They give us volunteers a spoonful of PEANUT BUTTER! =) The creamy, flavorful spread is quite the commodity among volunteers; among all the spices, rice, lentils, mushy vegetables, and more rice, peanut butter all of sudden tastes just as good as a large King Crab at the Fisherman’s Wharf in my favorite city ;).

Colors!
When I imagine Africa I always think of orange and red skies for some reason, maybe because of movies or my own silly dreams of dancing with an African tribe or riding in a safari…anyways, my point is, the skies here in India are a beautiful array of purple and lavender, its magical. I go on runs every afternoon at 6 pm when the sun is setting, its when I decompress, probably my favorite part of my day; well and when I teach my dance classes off course =). The climate here is perfect! I thought it would be either hot or rainy but to my surprise it is a perfect 75 degrees during the day and then it drops at night to an awesome 70 degrees. It has sprinkled some water in the afternoons but nothing big. Apparently because we are so inland, the monsoon rains lose their force on the western coast and never reach the middle plateau.

Fun Fact:
There is a particular gesture Indians do with their heads. I just recently found out from Dr. George’s son Vivek (who hangs out here on the weekends) that it means like an “uhum uhum”, or a “yes I understand”. Anyways, it’s this head bopping thing from side to side. They look like those bopper head figurines people put on car dashboards, quite peculiar and very unique in comparison to your usual western nod.

Finally! Shanti-Bhavan.

2008-08-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

Lalita Law, the head principle of the school and her driver Ragu (yes I also thought pasta, when I heard the name) finally picked us up at Kamat’s Hotel Mayura. We drove for about 2 hours southeast to get to Shanti-Bhavan. On the way, I was impressed to see that on the outskirts of Bangalore there is a long strip of urban development where Intel, Google and a whole bunch of international consulting firms are shooting up 20-story high, glass windowed buildings. I guess that’s the “Silico Valle of India” people talk about.

Anyways, for the more exciting part, once we drove past urban world we had to drive past three villages. These were small, poor and very traditional villages where the men wore rags as underpants tied up sort of like dipers and the women wore their beautiful, bright colored Saris. No one wore shoes! Off course I had to ask Lalita hoping I wouldn’t be inappropriately crossing any cultural boundaries with the question. (At Shanti-Bhavan we are encouraged to ask anything we want which is great! “We are here to bring our perspectives and they are here to give us theirs…it’s all about sharing”). She explained that in the Hindu tradition, wearing shoes represented being disrespectful to their land, the land from where they came from. A lot of farmers in the rural areas of India suffer from foot infections due to the practice. And also because of this belief, when you enter someone’s house in the city it is polite to take your shoes off because otherwise it would be disrespectful to the household. It was amazing to see these villages and its people.

But it was even more amazing to arrive at the school. The campus/land is beautiful, very green, with flowers and palm trees and bushes all over the place, but oddly grown on an intense orangish-red colored soil that looks more like clay. They showed us our rooms, which are located in the “guest housing building”. The room was simple, a great size and clean, and the bathroom luckily had toilet paper (which I have learned to APPRECIATE!) and a western shower-head, AMAZING!

We then walked around the campus and met some of the children who were So DELIGHTFUL and very excited to meet us. From the initial introduction one of the 12-year old girls heard my name and said (as she placed her forehand on her forehead, bending her neck back): “Oh no no, I will call you JJ”. Hahaha! I knew the whole Genevieve (French accent) thing would throw them off. But let me tell you, their names although they ring like melodies, will be so difficult for me to learn and remember. Examples: Bhuvaneshwari or Chandrachekar or Yesashwini…yeah try that.

We had some chai tea which by the way has changed my life forever! So good! And then we sat down with the vice principal and Lalita to work out our teaching schedules. I find out in the first two minutes that I will be teaching 4th grade…at first I thought oh okay, English and dance to fourth grade. OH NO, 4th grade! Like all of it! So I see my schedule and from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm I will be teaching math and science and reading comprehension and spelling and creative writing, etc. to the 4th grade. And then I will be teaching a dance class after school to children from Kinder Garden through 8th grade. Basically in our very typical Nicaraguan slang “me van a sacar el jugo”, literal translation: they will sqeeze out the last drop “of my energy”. But those of you who know me well know that, I AM SO EXCITED, I gotta let this energy out some how right?

I think that what will be most important will be being not only a teacher to these children but a mentor and someone they can trust and rely on for love and understanding.

~Car Trouble~

2008-08-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hola!!!!

Im still in Bangalore...only for a couple more hours, but you know how I was supposed to leave for Shanti-Bhavan yesterday? Well their car broke down, so i leave today instead. Im so happy to be going to the school. The city of Bangalore in overwhelming though I am very happy I witness city life before I go to the country side.

A couple anecdotes of our last day in Bangalore. So yesterday we visited the Maharajah's palace in Bangalore. Wow, a site for sore eyes. It was a beautiful building made out of light brown colored stones. But the inside was mind blowing. At the entrance their was the head of AN ELEPHANT mounted on the wall, an elephant that was once probably 8 feet tall, MOUNTED ON THE WALL! Every door and wooden beam was made out of teak wood and the walls were adorned with intricate designs made out of 24 K gold. Inside patios were embellished with Chinese imported tiles. The kitchen was actually located some 20 ft behind the castle since the servants "are not supposed to be under the same roof as the Maharajah". Funny part of the story: the "tour" was very sketchy...I asked the nice tour guide if we could take pictures of the castle and he quickly answered: "NO NO MEN WITH SHOT GUN!" I was like: oh, sorry...and thinking to myself WHAT THE F&%^??? And, then when he is guiding us through the inside of the castle he proceeds to offer to take a pictures for us with our camera! As i say NO WAY! Francesca gets excited, hands him a camera and grabs me to pose for a picture inside of the exotic ball room. My face on that picture is epic, I have this petrified look thinking so guard with a shotgun was going to walk by the window and shoot the guide and both francesca and myself. Anyways, sounds scary but in the end it was pretty hilarious.

Going to this castle and then driving through the streets of Bangalore was emotionally exhausting. But it is a reality not only in India but everywhere in the world, that some of us live comfortably and with luxuries while others beg on the streets. I think the reason why im here in India and why im engaging in this journey of teaching these children for 5 months is because for some time now i have been asking what my purpose is...and maybe i wont find the answer just yet, or maybe its a question that I will ask always...but being aware of the different realities of people, i think it was my purpose to be here right now.

I read something really beautiful on a book about Shanti-Bhavan and i want to share it with you:
The poor people in the village, especially women, are my window to India. They reveal what life is like for most people on this planet, far out of sight of modern day prosperity. This disconnect is too profound for me. On day I am under the bright neon lights of New York City and just a day or two later I am among people who cannot afford to buy candles. In the simplicity of those rural folks I have found order, in their beliefs I have found faith, and in their misery I have found compassion. The richness of ordinary day to day life comes from their hard work and the caring they show for other members of their families even on the face of adversity and suffering. Still the joy that i derive from my work among these people cannot offset the burning anger within me for all the social injustice, hypocrisy and avoidable suffering.

-Abraham George ( The man who founded the school Shanti-Bhavan)

I can't wait to meet these children!

Im not sure how often I will be able to use the internet after today, but i will try my best to see you all here as much as i can.

Thank you for caring,

With love,
Genevieve

Heartbreaking...

2008-07-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by saying that I think the decision of coming to India was a great one and this trip was truly meant to be for me...Already in my second day here i can say this has been an experience like none other, and a worth it one at that.

We went on a tour of the city today. It was not your typical tour on an A/C bus and the guide at the front with a loud speaker phone...this was a shady bus and when we first arrived at the place i must say i was quite intimidated and scared. Eventually, we took of and began our journey throughout the VERY LARGE city of Bangalore. We went to the Sri Radha Krishna temple...amazing temple in which there were Sadhus (kind of like monks)...praying with huge devotion, it was a powerful sight. There was an altar made out of pure gold and is was something like 20 ft high. Oh and i forgot to mention that they asked us to take our shoes off in the bus...so we walked up there barefoot. At first i was worried about catching some sort of disease through my feet but when we finally entered that temple, the please was so clean and it was just so holy. It was amazing to visit that temple.

We then visited some other temples that were also great, and we visited the botanical gardens and the tech museum which was actually kind of hokey.

Anyways, the heartbreaking part: today i witness something very harsh. We were walking down a very crowded and loud street looking for Saris to buy...when we saw this woman pulling on a wooden cart, a man...a man that had no eyes, no hands and no feet. There is something in India called the beggar market. Children are sold to the beggar market when families don't have means for feeding them. The beggar market is a place were they mutilate children to them drag them around the streets begging for money. This had happened to the man being pulled on the cart...we saw two more of the same later on in the afternoon. It is a thought and a site that i have not been able to stop thinking about...truly heartbreaking to think that this exists...I'm so grateful for the school that i will be working at...those children that i will be teaching, those "untouchables" as they call them could have suffered from those circumstances, instead this school is teaching them how to be leaders, how to sustain themselves, and believe in themselves.

This experience has already been humanizing to say the least. India is a difficult country but along with its difficulties it has an amazing spirit...so unique.

A slightly funny story to leave on something lighter. So we are riding a rickshaw today and we are taking pictures and chatting, and all of a sudden the driver stops in the middle of a busy street because there is some other driver beeping at him like crazy. Our driver proceeds to jump out of our rickshaw and fight with the other dude. OMG francesca and I were so shocked! I started running the opposite direction...i'm scared of fights...anyways he settle down and Francesca told me to run back to the rickshaw, it was really funny.

Tomorrow they pick us up and take us to the country side...

See you all soon!

Much love!

First Impression!

2008-07-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

Hello once again,

I am now in Bangalore, India and will be here for the next two days before I get picked up to be taken 40 km south east into rural, India and dear Shanti-Bhavan.

This place is INTENSE. The smells are certainly stronger than they were in the airports and planes. The city smell is a mix of spices, rain, car exhaust, garbage, corn (a lot of cooked corn that smells really good)...to name a few. It rains really heavy and then switches straight into bright sunlight in a matter of minutes. There is a constant roar of beeping rickshaws, buses and motorcycles, and Indians screaming in their beautiful and exotic Hindu language.

Drivers are CRAZY! I'm not kidding, compared to them, Italians drive like wusses, and I drive slow. There is absolutely no organization and where there should be two lanes (in American standards) and at the most three lanes (in Nicaraguan standards) these people create 4 or 5 lanes of Chaos, its thrilling. A sign on one of the stop lights read: Speed thrills, but it kills!

The streets dog are chubby and furry, kind of odd compared to your usual emaciated Nicaraguan street dogs. And off course i should mention the HOLY COWs! So, you know how in Europe you visit monuments adorned with statues of naked people or powerful lions? Well, in Bangalore India the few monuments i've seen have fancy marble cows on the columns.

I'm sure I haven't seen most of it (i'm going on a tour of the city tomorrow, since i'm actually staying in the ghetto, no joke.) but i have already seen the FAMOUS CONTRASTS of this country. Rapidly developing streets with i-stores and "Hard Rock Cafes" are crowded by women in their Hijads, with their faces completely covered, while males walk with there goats and on bare feet. Something i've noticed and perhaps its because the females are at home, the ratio of male to female seems to be something like 5 to 1, its crazy, there are so many men.

I have had one meal today and it will probably be my only meal. I feel like I ate ( i won't say a cow, beacuse that would be wrong, but i guess 7 chickens) its heavy food, very flavorful. I ate naan with this vegetable and cheese "Paneer Tikka Masala" and a spinach and cheese "Palak Paneer". They were really good, but thats enough for the day. Oh and i must mention there was a very cute, small elderly women, that all of a sudden let out the loudest burps EVER, in the middle of the restaurant while Francesca and I were engaged in a very intense metaphysical conversation...i guess its normal here.

I must mention these people's eyes. They have strikingly intense eyes, they are deep and dark and mysterious.

I am suffering from jet lag but i've tried my best all day to stay awake, and i have. I cannot wait to put my head on a pillow though.

I love and am grateful of the fact that i'm here in this very different world. I keep reminding myself however that i'm not here to find a personal external comfort but rather to find inner comfort with the children that I will be teaching, to grow in spirit and in humility...i hope for that at least.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Namaste..

Mumbai, India

2008-07-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in MUMBAI, INDIA! Well in the airport that is. The flight was great! Due to the flight cancellations into and out of NYC on the 27th, Delta upgraded me to first class for the miami, New York flight, which was awesome. The transatlantic flight to Mumbai was not bad at all, even in coach.

The 15 hour flight felt much shorter than that. I read Eat, Pray, Love (awesome book by Elizabeth Gilbert, i recommend it), i slept some and i watched 3 films: Definitely Maybe (major chick flick), 21 (very cool), and Across the Universe (one of my favorites, quite tripy). There was a really nice lady sitting next to me, Kanan was her name and we shared the middle seat which was empty =). We talked about India and America, it was such a nice exchange. She even offered me a place to stay for the night here in Mumbai before my flight to Bangalore (which is in about 6 hours), but due to my previous experience with a so called John, nicknamed "John Airplane" AKA stalker, back when i was a child on my way to college for the 1st time, i decided to just say 'thank you very much but i think i'll just wait in the airport'...she gave me her number though for when im back in Mumbai.

India smells amazing. Its not curry exactly, its spices, spices of all sorts, and im guessing that because i've gone no further than airports and planes the smell is not too strong...but so far, i love it.

The people are very nice and they all speak English. Some men are pretty creepy but we all know that is not only characteristic of India...i just pretend i didn't just make awkward eye contact and continue walking as if i know exactly what i'm doing.

During the flight I kept checking the flight map. We flew over the northern border of Iraq and close to Afghanistan. I couldn't believe that I was flying over the war...i prayed for all those people who are suffering there, (I prayed for Nate, sponsee). Its incredible to think that i'm on this side of the world were issues go far beyond what we see in the news over there.

See you back here soon.

Next stop: Bangalore.

Peace and Smiles.

Waiting in Miami

2008-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hellooo!

I was all ready and mentally prepared to fly away to India! And then my two flights both into and out of New York got canceled because of bad weather. So, here I am in Miami waiting to leave today.

My friend Francesca who will be at Shanti Bhavan with me for the first month is already in India. She emailed me last night about some sort of "getting gyped" situation, but anyways I think we'll be okay. Well, crossing our fingers ;).

Oh, and if anyone heard about terrorist attacks in Bangalore. Yep its true. Check out this article.

But you know know how i believe life is 10 % what happens to us and 90% how we react to it? So, i'm not worried about these "terrorists" out of the billion plus people in India, I am pretty confident about a bomb not hitting me...

I think it will be interesting and eye-opening to be on the side of the world where these things are not Hollywood mock-ups; where the people are actually dealing with these heart breaking attacks by their own people.

Finally, i will only be in Bangalore from the 30th to the 1st. Then off to Shanti-Bhavan, the wonderful school that i will be teaching at. I'm so excited to meet those children an walk with them on a path for mutual growth and self-discovery.

Until next time =)