Into the Unknown

30/3-5/4: End of a Chapter

2009-04-06T05:19:00.000+02:00

Well it started quickly this week. On Monday all the kids from Bander left. Their car came while we were in the city. So we picked Mommy up from duty and then drove back to the Home before they left. When we got back I saw one of my crew members had made the journey back to the Home. Shubham had come with his mother to get his two sisters, Sonu and Rupali. I got to hang out with him for a little bit until he left me, again, for the second time in a month. This was the beginning. They were the only kids who left today. Tomorrow, the rest of them would leave.

On Tuesday, pretty much all of the kids left. And it started right as they were getting back from school. Rohit’s mother came at the same time the kids were getting back. This started the chain of kids leaving. I could go through and describe thoroughly how each kid left, but I’m not going to do that. It was sad enough having to watch the kids leave one by one. I said my “see you laters” to everyone as they left, and told everyone, “Za nocco.” They just laughed and said, “Me za. Za nocco.” It means, don’t go. So all throughout the day the kids left. As they all walked down the driveway, they all turned around for one last wave good-bye. It really wasn’t as sad as I thought it was going to be. The more I think about it, it wasn’t a sad day. Maybe it was a happy day, a day filled with thankfulness and the knowledge that this wasn’t the end. It was the only the beginning. It’s not a question of “if” I’ll see them again, it’s “when”. And the kids know that. We didn’t cry because it wasn’t a good bye. These amazing kids will not be forgotten anytime soon. Not all the kids left today. There were seven that didn’t get picked up today. So you add those to the 11 high schoolers, the two boys in college, papad wala, and the four orphan children and that left us with 25 kids for the next few days. But like the other kids, these last seven also got picked up slowly throughout the week. Actually only six of them got picked up. Sandesh was going to stay and leave with his brother, Ishwar, on the 11^th. As I watched how happy the kids were when they saw their parent walk down that driveway, I thought about the four orphan children. I wondered what went through their heads as they watched their friends’ happiness when their parent showed up, and know that no one was coming for them. I wanted to do something for those four kids, Roshan, Priti, Ruth and Joseph. I talked to Mommy about and asked her opinion. She said she feels the same way for those children and I told her I wanted to buy them clothes. She said that was a fine idea because the kids usually come back with new clothes that their parents bought for them. So on Thursday Mommy took me to buy the kids clothes. I had an idea in mind of what I wanted to get them. She asked me how much I wanted to spend and I told her that money was not an issue. I told her that the gifts weren’t from me, they were from my mom. I figured this is what I would tell them when I gave them their clothes so the other children wouldn’t get sad that I didn’t buy anyone else clothes. I think Mommy knew I was lying, but she went along with it. I picked out two kurtas for the boys and two Punjabi dresses for the girls. All very nice. Then Mommy bought one Punjabi dress for my sister. I know she doesn’t read my blogs so I can write that here without ruining the surprise. We then bought some other gifts and then headed back to the home. On Friday I gave the kids their gifts. They liked them and Priti started crying and gave me a big kiss. I told her I’d relay that to my mom for her. After I gave the four of them their gifts, it was time for the kids to give me my gift. I had the Marathi Bible that Mommy gave me and I told her that I wanted all the kids, and staff, to highlight one of their favorite passages in the Marathi Bible, then write their name in the front and what passage they highlighted in English so I could find it in my Bible. These kids had some very good ones, and once again, they found a new way to amaze me. It was amazing that after four months they could still amaze me with their passion for the Lord. Later that night I was telling everyone how fat I’ve gotten over these months and Ishwar went into Dede’s room to get the scale. Everyone took turns weighing themselves. I was hesitant to get on and had to be carried onto the scale. The scale finally stopped, I looked down and saw it had stopped on 74, my girls tried telling me that it was actually 75. I then took off my watch and gave it Mommy, no change. Then I took off my necklace, no change. I went to my room to check how much 74kgs. are and found out that it equals 163lbs. Before I came to India I weighed 135. I gained almost 30lbs. in four months. I think that there is a different gravitational pull here in India because we are closer to the equator.

Saturday was my last day at the Home, so in the evening we had a celebration, complete with orange floats. And this time everyone got one. Ravita had joked earlier in the week that they were going to have a celebration on the 5^th, right after I left. She also this week told me everyday how many days I had left. I asked her why she was counting and that she was a very naughty son. I told Mommy that Ravita probably had some tally marks up in the girls’ hall of my days I had here and everyday would erase one. She said she wasn’t doing that and told me not to go. She said she was going to hide my suitcases so I couldn’t leave. I told her to do that. That night I taught them how to play everyone’s favorite game, “For on the Couch.” The kids loved this game so much that we played four games. One before dinner and three after dinner, we played until 23:30. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the girls still won the best-of-five series 3-1. I didn’t play with them, I took pictures of them playing. It brought joy to me that I was still bringing them joy right up to my last minutes.

Sunday was full of lasts, last breakfast, last lunch, last day and last church service. But I’m not going to focus on the negative. For my last nigh, I slept outside with all the children. I should have been doing this for a while since it was so much cooler than in my room at night. I had to wear a blanket the whole night. I was awoken to the sound of hundreds of sparrows singing in the tree above the stage. When everyone was awake we sang songs and then prayed. After that I had a pillow fight with Roshan. Before breakfast we celebrated Palm Sunday by marching around the campus with palm branches decorated with flowers. After our service we had breakfast, which was made by my son as a gift. Everyday I would thank her for making me my omelets and she would laugh and say, “You’re welcome.” even though Auntie made them. So this last week I kept begging her to make me breakfast and she kept saying no. I decided to compromise, I asked her to make me my last breakfast at the home. She agreed and then I told her make me tea as well. So this morning she made me, and everyone else omelets, and they were the best. I told her next time I come I don’t want to have to wait till my last day for her to make me these delicious omelets. She made them just how I like my women: Hot, and full of spice. For the rest of the afternoon I played carrom with the younger kids, while the older boys helped the “blasting wala”, as Mommy called them. They were here to blast the well to make it deeper. So I played with them for a little bit then I went into the guesthouse to finish packing, plus it was very hot. I had finished and was just sitting there watching TV and decided that this was how I wanted to spend my last days here. So I went outside and played “uno” with Ruth, Mercy, Prathna and Ravita in the guesthouse garden. This was the most fun I’ve ever had playing “uno”. Right before lunch it was time for the blasting. We all gathered inside the big hall to watch. And as we were filling in and trying to get better views, BOOM! Without a countdown or anything they just blew it. I wanted to videotape it but all I could do was take pictures of the aftermath. We had lunch right after that. After lunch the kids watched TV up until it was time for me to go. I took one last bath before I left and when I was finished, it was time to leave. I put my suitcases outside my room and said to My son, “Here. Hide this.” Before I left I had one last thing to do. I went up to the top of the water tower and just looked out over what was my home for the last 4 ½ months. It was sad knowing that I have to leave this place, and I took a little video from up there of the campus, not for me, I will never forget how it looks. It was for my family and friends, so they can see where everything is. After I took my video I stayed up there for a couple more minutes before walking back down. I was doing fine until I turned the corner around the big hall and saw all the kids standing by the guesthouse, waiting to say good-bye to me. This is where I, and the kids, broke down. Daddy said a quick prayer for me and then it was time. I shook hands with Roshan first and just grabbed him and patted his stomach. Next was Priti, and I gave her a big hug. I also gave Sandesh a big hug. After those three it was the older kids. First the boys, who I shook their hands and then gave a big hug to each of them. I have to say that not one of us had a dry eye. Next were the girls. I started with Dede and gave her a hug, then my girls came up to me and gave me their greeting cards they made for me. I shook their hands and last was Aunite. She made some joke about me not wearing a hat and she kissed my hand and I gave her a hug. After all that was finished, I had to get in the car. It took everything I had to get in the car. I told all the kids that I would see them later, and I told the boys that when I come back I want “ku-sti”, then I shook their hands again and once all my bags were packed it was time to make the longest drive of my life. As we drove down the driveway, I kept my head out and waved to the kids. This wasn’t something I looked forward to, but it was something that I had to do. I would be back, and just like I said, “We’ll pick up right were we left off.”

Once we got to the train station I said my “see you laters” to Mommy, Daddy, Peter and Naresh before the train arrived. I was talking with Mommy before the train got there and I told her to “show me that smile again, show me that smile. Don’t waste another minute on your crying.” She gave me a hug. Despite my wishes, the train arrived. We loaded our bags into our room and then I went back to say “see you later” to them. When our train started pulling away I waved to them. I continued waving long after I couldn’t see them. As we were leaving I couldn’t help having this feeling like I forgot something at the Home, and that I had taken something else. I mentally rechecked my bags trying to think of what it was when I realized that I hadn’t forgotten anything. I left it there. And I hadn’t taken anything. It was given to me. I left it there on purpose, just as what was given to me was given on purpose. When I would think about it, I know it can never be taken away from the Home. And what was given to me, I will always have it. It is the greatest thing in the world and is more beautiful than words. I think about my last minutes at the Home, everyone gathered around me, everyone crying. It fills me with joy thinking about how much emotion these kids can bring out of an adult. Now it is a two-way street, but these kids have impacted my life way more than I’ve impacted theirs, and I told them that everyday. Prathna wrote in her greeting card, “I have nothing to give you except my prayer.” which is not true at all. She, and all the kids, gave me everything. They gave “it” to me as I tried to give “it” to them. I often think about when I will return, how I’ll take family and friends with me. Maybe that’s why I have to leave, so that I can spread the love of Ankoor Children’s Home to the world. But for now, I must this chapter of my life must come to an end. This chapter about one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I say “one of the most amazing experiences” because there are many other amazing experiences in my life, I just haven’t experienced them yet. I haven’t returned to Ankoor Children’s Home.

23/3-29/3

2009-03-29T18:38:00.000+02:00

This week was kind of a wind down as it was the kids' last week here. They've been having exams everyday for the last week and a half so I haven't held any English classes for them. Not much happened this week besides me trying to spend as much quality time as I can with the kids before we go. I tell them not to go, that we should all stay here. I've really enjoyed it here and I've learned a lot. Here is an excerpt from my journal entry on Friday:

"27/3/2009

Last night I didn’t sleep very well. I was a little bit anxious about today. The kids had a holiday today, for some reason. So they were here all day, as well as Mommy. She took leave for the 27^th, 28^th, 29^th and 30^th. Daddy left in the morning to do some office work, getting ready for the board meeting on the 29^th. Around 8:00 Danny brought the beef and another thing, his sister. Apparently she came without telling anyone except Danny. She came in last night and called Danny an hour before arriving in Yavatmal and said, “I’ll be home in an hour. Don’t tell Mommy or Daddy.” This morning Mommy wanted to check the kids’ school bags and had the wardens toss lockers. Ishwar kept wanting me to go into the guesthouse and check on the score from the second test. I happily reported that my Kiwis had pounded the Indians, scoring an impressive 619 in the first inning. Once they were finished with their school bags and lockers, Mommy let the kids watch TV. The big boys are the only ones who know how to work the TV and the remote, so they turned it to cricket. The girls kept telling me to change it to some other channel. I figured the kids could watch something better than cricket. So I went to my room and found Mommy in the guesthouse. I asked her if she wanted the kids to be watching cricket. She said it was okay and I told her that I meant that I had something better to show the kids. I still had those movies I bought a while back, the three Shriek movies and the two Ice Age movies. She said that I could show them that and when I walked back into the big hall with the DVD, all the girls cheered and clapped like I had just saved them from some terrible dilemma. I showed them “Shriek 1”, which was in English with Chinese subtitles. The kids all enjoyed it and were laughing when I would sing along with the songs from the movie. When it finished I walked up to turn it off but the kids told me to wait. They sensed something was about to happen. I didn’t know that the second movie would start right after that, but it did. So “Shriek 2” started, which was in Hindi. Right when it started Mommy walked in and I asked her if it was okay if they watched the second one now, because it had just started. She said it was fine. Around 12:45 Mommy came back in and asked if the kids wanted to eat, they told her no. But she told them the schedule for the day and that they could watch again later, but now was lunchtime, followed by study time.

I sat with the kids during lunchtime and then while they were studying I ate my lunch in the guesthouse. After study time the kids, and I, all took rest. By this time Danny and Daddy had come back. So we all rested for a little bit and then about 15:30 I peered out my window and saw some kids working by the kitchen. I got my shoes and headed to the kitchen. There I found some of the older girls getting dinner started. I gave all the girls trouble, and Mommy. Later I went to see if Danny was awake yet because we still had to go get the ice cream and pop. He wasn’t awake just yet so I watched the big boys play cricket. At 17:00 Danny finally emerged from the guesthouse and then I got my things and we left for the city around 17:15. We first bought the pop, then the cups and spoons, and last ice cream. The evening was set. We finished at 18:15 and headed back to the city. While we were driving back I asked Danny, “What do you think Mommy’s reaction would be if I was in the drivers seat when we pulled into the Home? Do you think she would be happy?” He said yeah, so I said let’s do it. I told him that we should stop just a little bit down the road from the Home and then switch places. He obliged and we switched farther from the Home than I had told him to. I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t driven a car since November, but it was very strange to be driving. The shifting with my left hand wasn’t difficult, it was driving on the other side that freaked me out. I looked over at Danny and he had both hands on the dashboard and I asked him, “How scared are you right now?” He just laughed and said, “Yeah.” Danny told me not to be afraid to use my horn, so I honked at everybody, sometimes even when no one was around. It was also difficult driving without power steering and I almost hit the gate pulling into the Home. But I made it and I laid on the horn the whole way down the driveway. The looks on the kids’ faces were priceless, Mommy was just laughing. When we got out the kids came up and did the usual shaking of my hand and saying, “Praise the Lord.” I said, “Really praise the Lord.”

Well we had just a few things to get ready before the program started. I took a quick shower and then put on my kurta and the shoes I bought for my uncle, as well as all the bracelets the girls made me. The boys told me I looked “so dashing.” I got all set up in the big hall and the kids came in and the program started at 19:00, Ishwar was the emcee. All my girls were looking so beautiful and the boys were looking so dashing. The program started out with a slide show I had put together, with the help of my mom scanning and e-mailing me the pictures of my childhood. I had all the photos set up in chronological order. Before I started I told the kids I was going to show them pictures from my childhood, but if I heard even one laugh, I was going to turn it off. If I would have stuck to that threat the show would have only lasted for one picture, as they all laughed at chubby, little Kyle Dada being lowered into a pool by my grandma. We had some good laughs and it was great to be able to show the kids my photos. After the show I told them that I had some pictures for them. So I called them up one by one to get their two pictures I had for them. After that I was presented with a gift from the Home, a bouquet of flowers and a sherwani. “wani” means look like, so sherwani means “Look like tiger.” It’s like a kurta, but it’s a little bit different. Danny couldn’t tell me what the differences are, though. After that I got dozens of cards from the kids. All the cards had beautiful drawings on them and most had Bible verses written inside. After that the kids were able to come and share stories about me and/or thank me. The ones who came up and shared did both, they started out with a story about me and then thanked me for coming to the Home and playing with them, eating with them, encouraging them, teaching them, worshiping with them and just being like their brother. Mommy shared a little bit about me as well as Daddy, and they both cried. Then it was my turn. I wasn’t as emotional as I thought I was going to be, until I started talking. I started out fine talking about the great experience I’ve had and then I went back and started from the beginning, and that’s where I lost it. I got extremely choked up when I talked about my first meeting with Mommy and Daddy at church way back last July. I told the kids how Mommy had taken my mom’s hand, looked her in the eye, and said, “I will take care of him like my son.” After a little bit I was able to regain my composure and continue my speech. I reminded the kids of all the things they taught me, and all the wrong things they’ve taught me. We had a good laugh when I reminded them of those. I told them how easy it was for me to adapt to their culture and how much I enjoyed playing with them. I told them the best part of my day was sitting next to them at dinner. I told them how much it meant to have had the opportunity to see some of their villages and meet their families. I told them that I have enough photos and videos to last me a lifetime, but that I didn’t need any of them to remind me of my time here. All those were already in my mind and heart. I said that I didn’t know when I would come back, but that I would come back. I said that when I did come back we would pick up right were we left off. I would play cricket with the boys, and give trouble to the girls in the kitchen. I closed by telling them that being an American does not make me more blessed than them. It does not make me better than them. And in many ways, they’ve made me better than I was. I told them that “I would sleep in America. But I would forever live at Ankoor Children’s Home.”

After my speech it was time for laughter. The kids were able to come up and imitate me. They had some good ones, but then it was my turn. I showed them no mercy in my imitations. Even Auntie was not immune to being imitated. So after all that laughing, it was time for dinner. Dinner started at 21:30, and all the kids were so hungry, you could hear a pin drop. Plus they were all hurrying up to finish because they knew what was coming after dinner. So they all got cleaned up and then came back in. They all sat down and the older kids started preparing the orange floats. No one had ever had these before, or even knew what they were, but they all loved them. Unfortunately we ran out of pop, but pretty much everybody got one. Only a few big boys and Mommy didn’t get one. I told them they would get one soon. The whole program lasted until just after 22:00, a little more than three hours. It was a very nice evening and after the program I went right back to harassing the kids. I look forward to making the most out of these last few days I have left."

16/3-22/3

2009-03-22T18:02:00.000+01:00

I started off my first week back at the Home very exhausted. We got back to the Home just before 5:00 on Tuesday. I don’t know how Danny did it but he managed to get the driver to stop almost right in front of the Home (the route between Yavatmal and Pune takes you right past the Children’s Home). He said he noticed a restaurant just down the road. He woke me up and we got out, I had no idea where we were since it still dark. I thought we were in the middle of nowhere. But as the bus pulled away I figured it out. We were at the center of the Universe. Danny had called Mommy to tell her where we were and she sent two boys to meet us. As we were walking down the street in the dark we see Prakash and Ishwar running towards us. They help us with our bags and carry them to the guesthouse for us. The kids were still sleeping when got back so we went straight inside to say hi to Mommy and Daddy. They asked about our trip and we told them all about it. Well, almost everything. We then unpacked and Danny went into Mommy and Daddy’s room and slept. I was so jacked from being home, and by this time the kids were up, that I ran into the boys’ hall and yelled, “Papa’s home!” All the boys screamed and jumped on me. I then joked around with them for a while and then I was off to see my girls. I quickly found some of them doing their chores. They too were excited to see me. Lil’, lil’ Rupali Dongre said to me, “You go to Agra. Go home, no.” I told her yes. Then I went into the kitchen were most the other girls were. They all looked at me like I was a ghost. Most of them said they missed me a lot while I was gone and I told them never again shall I leave them. I told them the new words I learned on my trip and they laughed, it was great to be back home. In the afternoon I went to the city with Daddy to e-mail my mom. She had sent me three e-mails with I was gone. The first one saying, “Please e-mail me when you get back to the Home.” And the other two, “Are you back yet?” Once we got back to the home I had lunch and then was walking outside when I saw to lizards on the wall above the door going at it like two lizards on a wall above a door. I showed Mommy and she laughed and said, “Leave them alone. They’re busy.” Another encounter I had with animals this week was on Friday when I believe a monkey threw poop at me “in a festive manner. Like he was at a celebration of Monkey poopin’.” Later that day was able to show the kids the photos from our trip with a couple surprises for Daddy.

For the next three days I worked on two projects for the kids. I pretty much remained locked in my room while I was working because I wanted to get it done before the kids go home on the 30^th. The first one took me all three days. I made another video for the kids and was able to show them on Friday. This video summed up the 4 ½ months of memories into one, 45 minute video. The second project was an impossible one and the fact that it only took me 1.5 hours to complete doesn’t mean it was possible. Daddy had put the kibosh on my idea of making a CD for every family with pictures of the kids. Daddy said it would be a bad idea for the safety of the kids and of the Home. That actually lead to a good talk about how Indians don’t like Christians because they are giving hope to poor people. They also don’t like things that come from outside India’s borders like cars, electricity, TVs, phones and especially religion, just to name a few. Except that they love cars, electricity, TV and phones. The Indian culture is a strange one. But anyways, I decided to make prints for each kid. So had to go through all 4,281 of my photos and narrow it down to two per kid. But I managed to pick two per kid and I hope they like my decision.

Another highlight of this week was when I found out exactly why Mommy wanted to have a children’s home. I was talking with her over breakfast on Tuesday about our trip and the family I saw. I started talking about all the family I met and we began talking about how some of the kids I met called me “Mahma.” Mahma means, mother’s maternal brother, or uncle. She then told me her story and I realized exactly why she wanted to start a children’s home. She told me she has no mahma, no sister, no brother, no anybody. She was an orphan. She told me that when she was just a baby some missionaries came to India from America. They had come to work at a mission here and I forgot the name of the organization. But at this mission there were two Indian workers, a married couple. The man was a gardener and the woman was a cook and they had no kids. So the people from America wanted to get them a child. They were able to get an orphaned baby girl from a nearby hospital and the married couple adopted it. And that baby was Mommy. She told me about the rough upbringing she had, not with her family but with being an orphan, because kids can be mean. She said that’s why she wanted to start a children’s home, to help poor children and teach them the gospel. It was an emotional talk and I actually got a little teary eyed.

The kids have Saturday school everyday now. And even though they are home by 11:30, I still don’t really get to spend any more time with them than before because it is so hot during the afternoon. I do get to play more games with them since they are able to get their evening chores done earlier. I played a new game with the kids the other day that is very fun, and very tiring. One team runs around and tries to stack up some blocks while the other team tries to throw a ball at you. I got to watch the kids play another game called kho-kho. All the high schoolers wrote that they like to play kho-kho in their writing assignment I gave them a while ago, but I’ve never seen them play it. The other day I told Daddy this and he said that before I go they will have to play it so I can experience it. I can see why I’ve never seen them play it before. It took the big boys at least 45 minutes to set up the field. It is a very fun looking game and trying to explain it without the field dimensions would be very difficult. It’s a tag style game played with two teams and is very fun to watch, and I’m sure it’s fun to play. I think I’ll play next time. All the kids came to play because they really only get to play this game at school so they all wanted to play it today.

7/3-15/3

2009-03-16T19:19:00.000+01:00

Well this trip was a very entertaining and very busy trip, from the second we got off the train in Agra to the time we got on the bus to go back to Yavatmal. After the 12-hour train ride from Nagpur to Agra we were greeted by a tour guide at the bus station. He told us he would drive us around all day, taking us to three hotels, lunch, the Red Fort and Taj Mahal and then some shopping. This man and the driver took us first to a hotel it seemed good enough for the both us so we took it. After freshening up we went for lunch and then they took us to the Red Fort. This fort was massive. The biggest and oldest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s called the Red Fort for obvious reasons. I experienced what discrimination feels like when we bought our tickets to get in. Indians: Rs. 20. Foreigners and N.R.I.s: Rs. 300. At the Taj Mahal it was worse, Indians: Rs. 20, Me: Rs. 750. I told Danny it was because I was 37.5 times the man he is. The Fort was spectacular and seemed unnecessarily big. We opted not to take a tour guide and just walk around ourselves. I don’t know why anyone would use a tour guide, everything that is of importance has the information written right next to it. After spending some time walking around this beautiful structure, we then headed back to our drivers. While walking back a vendor came up to me and tried selling me a whip again. He had come up to me on our way into the Fort trying to sell me a whip. I thought it was funny that he first started talking to me in Hindi, then when I said no in Hindi, he started talking to me in English. But anyways, we wanted $20 for this whip. I thought it would be funny to buy and bust it out someday during English class, but what was I going to do with a whip when I got home? Beat Tom with it? He lives to far away for me to get my moneys worth out if it. So I told the man no again and then he followed us all the way back to the car and continued lowering his price. His final price he yelled out as we drove away, Rs. 100. He then called Danny a bad man for helping an American over a fellow Indian. Our driver then took us to some shops. I think they get commission from every shop they take us to. The first one was a jewelry shop. They had some pretty impressive stones here like one black stone they said is only found in Agra. When light is shown on it, it reflects a natural cross on the stone. After we left here we went to another shop that I think has to be the most impressive shop we saw. It was a shop that specialized in making hand-knotted rugs. These were some very impressive rugs and we watched one of them being made. These are hand-knotted rugs, not hand-woven rugs. Meaning, they take the loom and individually place a tiny piece of string on around the loom’s strings and once that row is finished, he then knots it by running a piece of string across the loom, much the same we did in art class back in second grade. Just to put how long making a rug like this takes into perspective, it takes five people, five months to make a pretty standard design on a rug about the size of an average dinning room table. This kind of rug would cost about $1000. I would have loved to have bought one of them, but this isn’t the right time in my life to be spending that of cheddar on a rug. Next we went to a shop that specializes in making the marble designs with the inlayed stone. Watching them make these art pieces was very impressive as well, and takes the same amount of patience as making the rugs. They have to first grind down the stone into the shape that they want, mostly flower pedals. Then they chisel out they size they need from the marble and glue each pedal individually together to make the flower. This is the same process they did when constructing the Taj Mahal and these workers are the descendants of the original artists who worked on the Taj Mahal. After watching them make these designs and seeing how long it takes, I can see why it took 20,000 men, 22 years to build the Taj Mahal. After this it was time to head to the main destination of our trip. After telling us a few of things about dealing with the tour guides and things like that, they dropped us off at one of the entrances. We began walking the quarter mile to the Taj Mahal. On the way we turned away many tour guides and even some bicycle rickshaws before finally letting one drive us for Rs. 10 total. This old guy turned out to be pretty funny. As we headed down the road we got our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal and he said, “Here is the Taj Mahal. It is very dirty.” We had a good laugh at that. He dropped us off at the ticket counter and we bought our tickets and went in. The security for this is a joke. It felt like the same security service they provide at the McDonalds in Hiltop. The building is the most impressive thing I have ever seen, and it’s size is hard to capture on film. After taking some pictures of me wearing my Cake Face shirt for my buddy (www.cakefaceclothing.com) showing how Cake Face is taking over the world, Danny and I just sat on this platform in the middle of the pools facing the Taj Mahal. We sat there for at least an hour just starring at it, we could have easily stayed there all day. We then moved in closer for some more pictures and to check out the inside of the tomb. The inside is actually not interesting at all. In the middle is the wife’s tomb and next to hers is Jahan’s tomb. Since I’m an advocate for symmetry, I hope to be buried on the other side of the wife’s tomb. We stayed there till closing when they kicked everyone, and even a pack of monkeys, out. It was quite an end to a very busy day.

The next morning at 11:00 we were picked up by the same guy and he drove us this tomb in Rajastan. This tomb was pretty massive itself and like the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort, it was built by a Muslim. This king had three wives, one Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian. So all the artwork depicts each religion. Compared to yesterday, there really wasn’t much here and I would have rather had spent my day at a nearby bird sanctuary. What was impressive, though, was seeing the entrance to an underground tunnel system that connects this tomb to the Red Fort, which is connected to Delhi and then continues on to Lahore. After leaving here we began the hour long drive back home, had some dinner and then boarded the train for our 23 hour trip to Pune. This train ride was the longest, hottest, most crowded and dirtiest train ride ever. We rode in sleeper coach which is non A/C. And it’s times like this when I’m glad I am a man. Peeing on the train is like peeing into a hole between your feet while standing on a roller coaster going through a helix. I have no idea how women can do this.

We reached Pune around 16:00 and were greeted by Danny’s sister. The three of us road in an auto rickshaw to their Aunt and Uncle’s house. And I got to now check two things off my “To-Do List in India”: See the Taj Mahal and ride in an auto rickshaw. On the way we stopped off and bought three boxes of sweets for the three houses we were going to visit tonight. The first house we visited, which is where we stayed most nights, was Daddy’s oldest sister’s house. Daddy is one of six and is the second oldest. This sister is the third oldest. After freshening up Daddy’s mom stopped by. I showed her some of the photos from Agra and the Home and then we went and visited another families house who I still can’t figure out how they are connected to the family. They live a whole two doors down in the same apartment. After that we walked a whole minute to another Aunt and Uncle’s house. This aunt is the youngest, and looks exactly how Daddy would look if he were a woman. I met their family which included two daughters, one was taking the tenth standard exams this week and the next, and the other, named Yerusha, who is in fifth standard. She was very shy and wouldn’t talk to me and kept hiding from me so I had to learn how to say “Don’t be shy” in Marathi. I also came to learn that one of her nicknames is Tinger Padre, which means “Farting Ass”, which made her even shyer of me. This was a great family and we spent a good deal of time here and one day they tried taking us to see some tourist things like a building where Gandhi was imprisoned by the British and a small fort that was inside the city. Both attractions were closed because our half hour naps turned into two hours. I blamed Yerusha for not waking up in time. So then we drove around the shopping centers of Pune and they bought me a shirt. One night we stayed at one of Daddy’s uncle’s house and I met some more of this family including the two most naughty children ever, a little four year old boy named Nahum and his cousin Sheva. To show you how naughty they were here are some examples, most are stories I was told: He once broke his arm and when he got his cast off, he showed his aunt how he broke it the first time, and broke it again. One time at church some women were coming up to him and pinching his cheeks. They didn’t know Marathi and he said to them, “Keep quiet or I’ll beat you.” The ladies asked his mom what he said and she said, “He’s glad to meet you.” When he comes home from school he shares an auto rickshaw with seven other boys and he makes them stand so he can sleep on the seat. He woke me up from nap by slapping me on the head, and he wasn’t wearing any pants. And finally, I was tickling him and he said to me, “Hey stone!” Stone is what the teachers call a student who doesn’t know the answer, meaning, they are as dumb as a stone. And how little Sheva was naughty is she was shy around me at first and just before going to dinner she said to me, “I’m going to kill you.” Apperently she doesn’t know what that means, which means she heard someone say that to her (most likely Nahum).

One day we drove two hours to Daddy’s hometown with his mom, where his brother lives, the oldest of the six. Once we got there we were introduced to more family and went around the town and saw some of the places that Daddy used to visit every day. Grandma stayed at the home for a few days so Danny and I drove home by ourselves, and it rained. It poured on the way home, which is the first time I have seen rain since London on Nov. 28^th. We also got stuck in rush hour entering Pune which took about an hour to get back to the home. Back at the home where we spent most of our nights, we got to hang out some more with Auntie and Uncle’s daughter and son-in-law and their 11-month old daughter, Stuti. Stuti was a very funny girl and her mom told me to take her to America with me, but she also told me not to go back to America. I actually think about not returning, I love it here that much. And I’m not even joking a little bit.

One night we left for a beach town with Stuti’s father, Sachin, and Danny’s friend, Arbin. We stayed one night at the parents’ of a friend of Arbin’s house that was about two minutes walking distance from the beach. This whole trip was intense, and we had a blast, and we’ll leave it at that. The first night we got there we went to the beach, which was the dirtiest beach I’ve ever seen. We swam for a little bit and then went back to the house for dinner. The next morning we packed up and headed out for a tourist spot farther down the coast. We went to see an old fort that was built on an island by a king from South Africa 900 years ago. To get to it you had to take a sail boat, which was by far the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done. And once you get to the fort, there is no dock to unload the boats. They just throw you off the boat onto some stairs leading down to the water and then disappearing below the sea. Who knows what happens if you missed the bottom step. Getting on the boat is even scarier, as everyone acts like it is a race to get on the boat and when you’re standing on that bottom step and everyone is pushing forward trying to get on the boat, that can be a little scary. The fort was pretty interesting but very dirty. They don’t try to preserve it at all. On the way back home we stopped at a beach along the way and swam some more. This beach was so much cleaner than the one yesterday. We got back around 23:00 and went to bed, this was my last night in Pune, and our last night of our trip. The next morning we said our good-byes to all the family and then got on a local bus, the ones where you have to be insane to drive, and drove three hours to another families house. We spent the afternoon with this family playing with their one year old daughter before it was time for us to leave and head back to Yavatmal. Our bus left at 19:00 and will drive us 12 hours to Yavatmal. I am writing from the bus now and it is making me sick. The bus is bouncing around, I’m trying very hard to read what I’m typing and we just ate dinner, which is trying to make it’s way back up. I will go to bed here shortly and when I wake up, I’ll be home.

2/3-7/3

2009-03-08T19:40:00.000+01:00

This transmition is being sent to you from the Taj Mahal. However, despite having already seen the Taj Mahal earlier this morning, I am not going to include today’s events until next week’s post. So back to this week. The week didn’t start out that well. I returned to the Home Monday afternoon after spending the day in Yavatmal to the fact that the well had maybe two feet of water in it. Obviously this is no good for a home with 60 kids, but add the fact that is doesn’t rain in this region till July and August and you have a real problem on your hand. Luckily that night Daddy was able to go to a nearby restaurant owner and pay him to pump water into our well. This is nice for the time being, but we can’t always rely on that. This region experiences this type of drought every year, but this year is worse than others. The rainy season was very poor and didn’t provide the people with enough water. That’s why the kids are getting out of school early and the nursery kids have already gone home. Right before dinner Mommy was told by the high school girls that Esther, Jyostna and Suvarna skipped class during lunch time and went to a restaurant and ate food. The high schoolers got out early on Monday and saw these three girls on their way home from school. I had not seen Mommy cry before, and these three girls had disappointed Mommy so much that she couldn’t hold back any longer. I was sitting with Mommy, Dede and Auntie during dinner that night and Mommy wasn’t eating her food. Auntie kept saying, “Eat Mommy. You have to eat.” But she just kept turning her head away from the kids and starring off into the night. However, Mommy let me show the kids the photos from our trip to Rajesh’s village, which he wasn’t there to watch. Tuesday night was also able to show the fourth video I made about 1.5 months ago.

English classes went alright this week until it was time for me to give them an oral exam. All this week I had the 1-4 and the 5-7 students reviewing all the things we’ve learned this year, getting them ready for the oral exam I was going to give them on Friday. When Friday came around I was surprised with the exams. They took way longer than I thought and most of the kids didn’t do so well. So I wondered if it was me or them? Some of the kids got all the questions correct, and they are the ones who are always paying attention to me when I teach and never goof around. The ones that struggled the most are the ones who goof off in class and are always doing other work and not listening to me. I wasn’t able to finish the exams, even when I tried to finish them after dinner. Although I wasn’t able to finish, I already know what the kids need to work on before I give them a written exam on the Friday after I get back: Everything. I will ask Mommy if I can make it optional for the ones who got perfect scores on their oral exams to make it easier for me to teach the others. I think most of them got over excited because it was a test. Some of the students who answer the same questions everyday weren’t able to answer them during the exam. I had to stop some of them and tell them to breathe. For my high school class I wasn’t able to have a consistent class because current would come and go at unpredictable times and they also had a weird schedule for school. They would go early some days, and other days normal. And from Thursday on, the only have school for like one hour a day. They leave at 7:00 and are back by 9:30.

All my crew are now gone. The last three left on Tuesday. It was sad seeing them leave. On Wednesday I pretended to play tag with them in front of the girls’ hall, our old stomping ground. The other kids just laughed at me. On Friday we had an ice cream party for the kids to celebrate everyone’s birthday. Doug and Lu had wanted to have an ice cream party for Jyostna’s birthday so Danny bought butterscotch ice cream for all the kids and we had a mass celebration. That mass celebration was the last time I would have with the kids as I left Saturday morning with Mommy and Daddy because we had to leave to Nagpur right after Mommy got done with duty. So like I said, Danny and I are now in Agra, we saw the Taj Mahal earlier today, but those pictures and account wont appear until next week’s entry. From Agra we leave Monday evening at 16:00 and arrive Pune at 16:00 Tuesday. So looking forward to that tomorrow. But then we have a fun filled week scheduled for next week in Pune, so that will be fun. Until then, take care.

23/2-1/3

2009-03-01T20:27:00.001+01:00

Well I thought I had at least another week to go but I got surprising news Saturday night that nursery school was over and most of my crew were leaving tomorrow. These are the kids that I play with all afternoon, everyday, while we wait for Mommy, Daddy and the other kids to come home. In fact, we bonded so well that many days we played on our own even after the other kids have come home. Roshan lives at the home, so he’s always here. Stuti will most likely go home with Sunil, but may leave before that if here grandma comes and gets her. And Yerusha was back Sunday and ended up staying the night which surprised me because I would have thought that her mom would have only brought her back to get her things. So she might leave tomorrow. And Salomi was still here tonight. So total, nine of he nursery kids, my crew, have left. I told the remaining nursery kids to never leave, to stay at the Home forever and I would stay also. But let’s jump back to the beginning of the week.

Monday I went and made worksheets for my English classes, three for my 5-7 group and four for my high schoolers. The 5-7 students did very well with their worksheets. One was on pronouns, one on contractions and one on the difference between is and are. They did well on the pronoun sheet and I most of them seemed to understood. The trick is seeing if they can use them when I ask them questions, which most of them can. The contraction one was easy. Now actually the third worksheet was pretty easy for them as well. The interesting part came during the second part of that worksheet. At the bottom there is a picture of a farm with some animals and a boy. The directions were to write two sentences about the picture, one sentence using the word is and the other using the word are. Now Thursday after we finished the first part, I told them the second part was extra and gave them the option if they wanted they could do it and show me the next day. I don’t think they understood what I told them because they all had it done by Friday morning. Now half of the students did a great job with this, and the other half copied off each other. So for half of the worksheets I got I had for the sentence using are: “Chicken licken and started to run.” I told them that didn’t make any sense. I was very pleased with other half I got as they all were able to correctly fill out that part. The four for my high schoolers turned out to be fun. It’s basically just a word from one of the worksheets that turned into an inside joke of ours. Two of the sheets were full of words and they had to go through and tell whether the word was an adjective, noun or verb. So they’re going through the worksheet very easily, with a few questions here and there. Then they came to the word, squat. They didn’t know this word and I didn’t know how to define it to them, but I knew they knew what the action of squatting looked like. So I squatted in front of them and they all started laughing and yelled out, “Bathroom!” It’s funny because that is the position Indians use when they are dropping a deuce. Which brings up an interesting observation I’ve noticed. When Indians have to go pee, they go a little ways off the side of the road and turn away from the road. But when they are doing #2 they simply squat on the edge of the road and face the road. I just thought that was interesting and thought I’d share it with you. So now whenever they see another kid, especially another high schooler, squatting, they yell, “Brother look! Squatting!” and they all laugh and the person gets embarrassed and changes positions. On a serious note, I feel as though the high schoolers main problem, besides vocabulary, comes from comprehension and fluency. And not even really fluency as they can read very well. Mommy found a comprehension book and I copied some lessons onto my computer, changing the names in the stories to names of the students. I hope to get these copied so I can use them next week. The students did very well in computer class this week and I look forward to Vishwas and Peter finally passing Lesson 1. Overview of this week’s English classes is very impressive. The youngest kids were using correct verb tense and are learning pronouns and possessive pronouns and my other two groups successfully completed their worksheets.

Pretty much every week with the kids is usually fun, and this week was no exception. One day while Mommy was in the kitchen observing the girls working I brought her another chair so she could put her feet up. She told the kids about our recliner chairs in America and that prompted a Q&A session after I told the kids that they will see those chairs for themselves when I take them all back with me in a suitcase. Some of the questions asked were about how I was going to feed all the kids? How were they going to take baths? How would they breathe in the suitcase? Stuff like that. I played a little cricket this week and one time I was batting left handed at the Home and hit a monstrous drive. If it were baseball it would have for sure been a home run as it bounced off the right field foul pole. However, the foul pole happened to be Usha’s spine. The shot was very impressive, though, as I was trying to hit Chaitali who was sitting on the other side of Usha. Usha just got in the way. One of the best moments came on Saturday after I found out the nursery kids were leaving on Sunday. I was feeling a little bit sad that my crew was leaving so soon, and I thought I still had a week to go with them. So I had all of them sign my T-shirt but I was still sad. My sadness quickly ended as they kids had an evening program where they got to rip each other. The kids would go up in front of everyone and imitate each other’s actions or just tell a funny story about another kid. And nobody was safe from this abuse, not even Mommy and Daddy, past and present staff members or me. Well, I guess Danny was safe and when I asked some boys the next day why nobody made fun of Danny, they said it was because they are still scared of him because he used to beat them when they were younger. On Sunday we went to Rajesh’s village. Now when we went to Ashok’s village I described his house that it could fit in my living room, well this village could fit in my house. There were five, maybe six, houses that made up this tiny village deep in the heart of India. We had church service in Rajesh’s house and Vishwas and Stavan’s family came from their nearby village to join. The boys sang some songs and Daddy gave the message. Afterwards we had lunch and since it was so hot I didn’t go outside for very long. Before we left I took some photos of the kids with their families except for Rajesh as he got sick after the service. I took his families photo without him.

During this week I began referring to all the children as, “Babu”, even the girls. Babu means little boy and is usually used when referring to your younger brother. And just like the evening program, no one was safe from being called Babu, not even Mommy, Auntie or Dede. Another thing I started to call the kids was sparked after I watched “Slumdog Millionaire” for the third time. I started calling the kids, “walas.” If someone brought me chai, I called them chaiwala. When the kids were making papad, they were papad wala. Some of the other types of walas the kids were: pani wala, cuti wala, cutting wala, food wala, washing wala and I am photo wala. Obviously this doesn’t make any sense, but that is what makes it so funny.

I leave for my trip to the Taj Mahal and Pune in less than a week. We leave next Saturday and I am pretty excited. It’s weird to think that my next blog entry will be from somewhere in Agra. This trip is defiantly going to be exciting as it will be the first time either of us has been to the Taj. It might also be good to get to some cooler climates as the heat here is very intense. It’s now in the 40’sC., which is 104F. In fact, that is the reason the nursery kids got done so early. There is massive water shortage all over this region so the schools are finishing up about three weeks earlier and Dede had the nursery kids finish this week. This is actually an inconvenience for me as, depending on when each grade finishes, Mommy and Daddy said that as soon as they are done with final exams they are going to let the kids go back to their villages. So basically instead of one big good-bye to the kids, I may have to say good-bye multiple times. I’m really hoping this isn’t the case but what are you going to do? I am trying to put together a slide show for the kids before they leave with pictures from my childhood. I am having my Mom scan and then e-mail them to me. I am still waiting for her to send me more(hint, hint) as the last time she scanned them some goofy way and I was only able to get 2/3 of the photos she sent. This upcoming week is going to be interesting to see what happens. I can just see my journal entries now: “I took my daily nap and woke up around 15:00 and sat around and twittled my thumbs for two hours until the kids came home from school.” I hope this isn’t the case though.

16/2-22/2

2009-02-23T06:32:00.000+01:00

Without even doing anything in slow motion this week the days are still seeming to last a long time. In fact, this seemed like a very long week. For my English classes I did a lot of review with the 5-7 group. I was very happy to see how much they remembered. They remembered the difference between “this” and “that” and “these” and “those”. They remembered contractions and pronouns. I also introduced possessive pronouns and they picked it up very quickly. They were using correct verb tenses when they spoke. It was awesome. I just hope that we can build off that. For my 1-4 group I was tired of them goofing off all the time. One day I kicked half the class out and another day I kicked Monica and Sanju out. In fact, I literally threw Monica down the stairs. I love India. Later that day when Mommy came home she asked me why I kicked them out and I said, “I didn’t fly 3,000 miles on a 24-hour plane ride for them to not listen to me.” Mommy laughed and said she wishes she could do the same but she has nowhere to send them. Kicking those students out helped me a great deal though. I was able to get more done with the remaining students. We worked on using correct verb tense and I introduced pronouns and possessive pronouns to them. For my high school class I began the week off by having them work on four worksheets I made for them. Two were on synonyms, one was on antonyms and the other was on possessive pronouns. They did alright with this so I am planning on having them work on the same stuff next week. This week I was also able to have computer class for both groups twice. I had them use Typing Tutor and I also made a chart to document each students progress through the lessons and tests. After every lesson and test that they pass they will get to put a sticker by their name for that lesson. I hung the chart up above the computer so all the kids can see how they are doing compared to everybody else. Now everyday the kids ask me to have computer class. So English classes went well this week. I only have few weeks left so I hope I can continue teaching them enough that when I leave, they can hopefully understand some of what I will tell them.
On Thursday the kids had kind of a holiday so we had a day of fasting and prayer. Now before you label me as a Saint, I have to say that I didn’t really fast at all. The fasting was between 8:00 and 14:00, I don’t eat between those hours anyways so it was like any other day. The fasting was for the kids who had to go six hours without any food. They eat breakfast at 7:00 and lunch at 9:30, so it was more difficult on them. So the kids went to school at 8:00 and then came home at 10:30. It was a day to honor a king from the 1700’s who helped establish the state of Maharashtra. The Mumbai airport is named after him. It was actually quite annoying that the kids had to go to school today. Wednesday night we were all set on taking the kids on a picnic and I was excited to ride in a truck bed full of 65 kids. But then the kids told Mommy that they had to go to school for a morning program to honor him. So no picnic and no riding in a truck Indian style. So the kids came home at 10:30 and the little kids ate lunch then took a nap. At 12:00 the older kids gathered in the big hall and had a prayer session from 12:00 to 14:00. During the session the kids had multiple prayer requests. I also noticed that everyday some kid prays to God thanking Him for protecting them as they were almost killed on the way to school. It’s really amazing how almost everyday one of these children almost gets hit by a car. So there was lots of praying and singing. One thing I really liked was that all the kids were sitting in a circle and Daddy had the kids to pray for their friend on their left. For most of their praying they all pray at the same time, out loud. So it sounds like chanting and it really freaked me out the first time I heard them do this. It reminded me about this time I was having the funniest breakfast in history at Catins in Puyallup with some of my buddies. At the table next to us there were two women and six or seven little kids all dressed the same. And while we were sitting there the women would lead these chanting sessions with the kids and it really freaked us out. Anyways, when the praying was over the kids at lunch and devoured their food. It was funny to watch because they didn’t do much talking with their friends, they were to focused on eating their lunch.
As my time here is drawing to an end, the kids are starting to realize this. They ask me when I’m leaving and they tell me not to leave. Mommy also told me not to go. I told her with Obama leading my country and Gregorie leading my state down the drain, it might not be a bad idea to head back to India after Amsterdam and live there for the next four years. These kids are awesome and find new ways to amaze me everyday. On Friday the high schoolers didn’t have school so I helped out in the kitchen with my incredible chapatti making skills. We had a great time and there are plenty of video clips and photos to prove this. On Saturday night two of the boys, Stavan and Naresh Dongre, slept in the guesthouse and I stayed up with them till 21:30 studying. For the whole hour and a half they went through their English-Marathi dictionary and would ask me the definition of some of the words. Ever answer I gave they would say correct, like they were the ones teaching me. I was really impressed how much they’ve gained from my English classes as for some of the words they would tell me some synonyms and antonyms for that word. I would also show them how changing the suffix on some words changes the word from an adjective to an adverb. These kids are all great and I hope that I’ve impacted their lives in some way, but it might be them who have impacted me more. I want them to realize that this is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. A beginning with no end in sight.

9/2-15/2 The Greatest Week of My Life

2009-02-16T02:46:00.000+01:00

So check one item off my “to-do list”, learn how to make Indian tea. I came, I learned, I mastered. Indian chai, real chai, not the coffee shop junk, is the best beverage I have ever had. Everywhere you go there’s always somebody making or selling chai. It is India’s national drink. And not only is it amazing and everybody makes it, but every single batch tastes different. There are so many different ways to make chai, but I learned the basic way. Step one, mix liquid. Now there are two combinations of liquid for making chai. You can have all milk, or mix milk and water together. Whatever you want, the important thing is that you use the exact amount of liquid as you are going to drink. So for me, Daddy always has one cup and I usually have two cups, so I mixed two cups of water with one cup of ox milk, in the villages it’s goat milk. After that you add two teaspoons of sugar for every cup and one teaspoon of tealeaves for every cup. Since Daddy has the same sweet tooth as Mommy, he calls it just “liking my tea strong”, I added one more teaspoon of sugar and leaves. Then you boil it. Once it starts to bubble you turn off the heat and pour through a strainer into your cup and you’re done. So simple, yet so delicious. So now I know how to make tea, next is learning how to make dhal fry, my new favorite dish.

On Tuesday I held English class and I felt I had a successful session with my high schoolers. I gave back their “Who you are” stories with a copy of my corrections to them. I explained a few things on the blackboard like how if you write about the names of your friends, all the words in that sentence need to be plural, like, “My friends’ names are…” A lot of them wrote, “My friend name is…” and then they would list three names. They also made a similar mistake when talking about their favorite subjects and their age. They would write, “I am fourteen year old.” I also told them that it is more correct to say that you live in a village, and at a home. So after I explained those few things I had them rewrite their stories with the correct grammar and punctuation. I told them that it needed to be perfect because I was going to e-mail them to Doug Uncle. After they finished I had each student read their final draft out loud to the class so they not only got a lesson in writing correctly, but talking correctly.

On Thursday I got experience the frustration that is shopping in India. The DVD player isn’t working at the Home so I wanted to try and buy some cables that would allow me to hook my computer up to the TV so I can show them my new video I made. I knew none of the stores would have one of the cables I needed, but I thought for sure I could find an S-video cable somewhere in this town. Daddy took me to one store, they had no idea what I was talking about. We went to another store, they had no idea what I was talking about. Went to another store and again they had no idea. I even showed the workers the backs of their DVD players they sold in their stores and the port for the S-video cable. I said, “I need the cable that goes in here.” But no one had it. We must have gone to ten stores. It was insane. And then to add to my frustration while I was ordering the cables online, Amazon.com wouldn’t deliver them here. So I had to shipped home, and then have my mom ship them to me, which will most likely take a month for them to get here.

Saturday I went with Mommy, Daddy and Danny to a wedding in Yavatmal. It was very impressive. All the decorations and the beautiful colors all the women were wearing. In India, they use weddings to show your prestige, so everybody was wearing their most expensive saris. The reception was were the most money was spent though. It was outside in this large garden area guarded by two guards at the entrance. There were so many people there and the food was amazing. I’ve never had better buffet food. It seemed as though all the who’s who of Yavatmal came out for this one, I wish I had brought my camera.

Sunday could have been the greatest and most fun day of my life. It seemed as though it was an all day party. It started with me doing everything in slow motion in an attempt to slow down time. But not only was I trying to slow down time, it also made things more dramatic and exciting. Mommy explained why I was walking slow to the kids and they thought it was very funny. I even got some of the kids to help out with my cause. After church some of the boys were playing cricket. I asked where the girls were and they said no girls. I said sarcastically, “Don’t worry. I will get them. I’ll be right back.” They all told me no but I left anyways to go round up some girls to play cricket. The girls wouldn’t come and I pleaded with them to come, and I even started crying. After about ten minutes of this little Salomi came around the corner. I grabbed her and brought here out to the field, where the match was already in session. Shortly thereafter it was time to switch sides. I told the boys to let Salomi bat, some of them didn’t want her to, but Stavan also told them to let her. So Laxman threw three balls to her, and she hit two of them. That made her day. I took pictures of her batting and she kept having me show everybody. This prompted me to inquire about something that hopefully will turn into a longstanding tradition here at the Home. I told Mommy and Daddy that I wanted to have an only girls cricket match. They both said that sounded fine and then Daddy suggested that this could be a new thing, every Sunday the boys cook dinner and the girls play cricket. So when 17:00 rolled around it was time for girls cricket, although dinner was pretty much done, so we’ll start the tradition next Sunday. Mommy told me to stay and explain how to play because the girls “Don’t know how to play.” I quickly found out this was not true. Not only did they know how to play, but the rules too. And just like a while back when the girls started playing kabaddi just for fun, the laughter from these girls while they played was amazing. As lighthearted as they played though, they were also serious about the game, but it was a peaceful relationship. I took plenty of pictures during, and after, the match. After dinner we had a singing session. This was incredibly fun. The boys told me to play the drum for the songs. After I did this for a while Mommy was asking me what I wanted. Some of the boys were telling me Marathi phrases to say, but I decided to use one of my own. I yelled, “Mommy! Ghosta!(?) (story)” The kids yell this every night before devotion because they love Mommy’s stories. So after some back and forth banter between Mommy and me, some of the kids circled around Mommy and sat down. I got up and yelled “Ghosta!” and sat in the middle of the kids and I gave Mommy my undivided attention. This made it very difficult for her to tell her story because every time she looked at me she would start laughing and forget where she was. While she was talking I would nod my head yes and say, very interestedly, and say “Yeah, yeah!” All the kids loved this. After Mommy had me pray in Marathi, all the boys dog piled on me. I don’t know why. But then it was time for bed and ended a very fun day, and week. I wish all my remaining days here last that long.

2/2-8/2

2009-02-09T04:24:00.000+01:00

On Monday morning we drove 1.5 hours to a nearby train station to drop off the guests that came and stayed with us. After saying good-bye and watching their train pull away, Danny, Daddy, Mommy and I began our 1.5 hour drive back to the Home. We ended up taking a 12 hour detour on the way home. They decided to take me to visit a hill station where Daddy did some Bible study and a tiger forest. The drive to the hill station took us right through the city that Mommy attended nursing college at. About an hour later we arrived at the base of the mountain and proceeded to make our way 1101 meters into the sky. This drive also took an incredible amount of time but the view was spectacular, I just wish I had brought my camera. He had a late lunch at one of the resort town’s many restaurants. Daddy showed me the church he used to attend while living here for three months and the bungalow he lived in. After we toured around the top of the mountain we headed down the other side, through a tiger forest. Unfortunately we didn’t see any tigers, but who knows how many saw us.

For English classes this week I did a lot of reviewing with my elementary students, to make sure they didn’t forget some of the stuff we’ve learned a while back. I am proud to say that the 5-6 group is doing very well. Some of things we’ve worked on so far is the difference between “this” and “that”, and “these” and “those”. We’ve also worked on contractions this week. It was difficult for them to say some of the contractions, as they kept saying both words, but they eventually picked it up. They were all able to successfully answer my questions. I’m having the most difficulty with the 1-4 group. They haven’t learned English in school yet so they are behind even the nursery kids. So it is very difficult to teach them, especially then the boys play grab-ass with each other all class long. For my high school group this week I had them complete a few worksheets I had printed out for them. I also had them do a writing assignment for me. I had them write me a story. I told them the title for the story is “Who you are.” There was two parts I wanted them to address in their story. The first part was who you are, I wanted to know village names, family and friends’ names, favorite subjects, games they like to play, etc. The second part was who you want to be. I wanted them to answer the question, “Where will you be in ten years?” This story I wanted written in English, and they did very well, although they all made similar errors. For instance, they would leave out pretty much all preposition words or use them incorrectly. They also would write, “My friend name…” and then list like three or four names. So I corrected them and am going to give them back to them so they can see their errors and then I am going to have them rewrite their stories, correctly.

I’ve been playing a lot of freeze tag with the nursery kids. Once you get tagged by the raj you have to stand with your legs apart and can’t move until someone goes between your legs. This is very difficult for me, I usually end up just tackling them with my shoulder as I try to go under their legs. It’s actually very fun to play. I am like the big prize during this game. Once I get tagged the raj holds on to me so no one can unfreeze me. So since they hold on to me, I decided to hold on to them. I would grab them around the elbows, so they couldn’t touch me with their hands, then someone would crawl between my legs and I would be free. Or, if there were others kids frozen, I would bear hug the raj and let the kids unfreeze all the other kids first.

On Sunday we went to Pandharwani, the village of Priscilla, Rahel, Ashok and Rambhao. Little Suvarna and Prakash came as well as their village is about two km from Pandharwani. Nirmala also came with us, but we didn’t go to her village. Five boys came with us, Laxman, Ishwar, Stavan, Vishwas and Mukesh, to led the worship at the church. We first stopped in Prakash and Suvarna’s village and met the pastor of that village’s church. After that we walked to their house and took the other five members of their family with us to Pandharwani. We already had a packed car, so with the addition of these five and Priscilla’s grandpa, the five older boys and I rode on top of the jeep. That’s how they do it in India. Once we got the village we were greeted by the pastor/Rahel’s father. After the boys messed around and took me to this tree where we ate the fruits from it, it was time for church. It was great seeing our kids singing so well, and Mommy gave the sermon. After church we ate lunch, a very hot and very fresh lunch. After lunch I toured the village and saw some of the children’s homes, like Ashok’s. I got to see the inside of his three-room house. And by three rooms I mean, all three would fit inside my family room. It’s very humbling to see the children’s living conditions. On the way out of the village we again had to ride on top of the jeep. Just outside the village we passed a man on a bicycle entering the village. I yelled, “Bye-bye!” to him. And then I did it to another person, and pretty soon we were all yelling “bye-bye” to everyone we saw. I was, however, disappointed that Rambhao didn’t drive me around in an ox cart as he promised me he would. I told him I was upset with him, but he just laughed.

My tickets are booked, my bags are packed. March 7^th Danny and I will leave Nagpur around 17:00 by train and arrive Agra at 8:00 the next morning. Our next train leaves Agra on the 9^th at 17:00 and arrives in Pune around 15:00, March 10^th. Nothing like a 22 hour train ride through the blister heat without AC. Once we get to Pune I will meet some of Daddy’s family and will then meet one of Danny’s friends. Danny’s friend told him to bring me to Pune so we can have an outing. We hopefully will go to the beach from there so we don’t have to take a ten hour train ride to Goa. Danny and I will then leave Pune on March 15^th by bus to Yavatmal. I am very excited about this trip. It should be a lot of fun and I will have great pictures to share. And hopefully I’ll get to ride in an auto rickshaw on this trip.

26/1-1/2

2009-02-02T07:55:00.001+01:00

Not a lot happened this week. But that was good because it gave me time to reflect on the sad realization I had early in the week when I saved my journal entry as “Journal Entry 60”. In four months there are 120 days, this week marked the halfway point in my journey. Now I’m pretty optimistic, but I don’t see this as, “I have two months left.” I see it as, “I only have two months left.” So this week I did some thinking about goals and things I’ve accomplished and things I still want to do. It made me realize just how much I’ve accomplished. I haven’t died yet, which is always good. But most importantly I’ve bonded with all the kids, I quickly learned all their names and came up with nicknames for some and I have inside jokes with just all of them. I feel like I’ve done great at teaching them English, well, as good as I can do without a translator. I am learning cricket, which is a lot harder than it looks. A lot. I’ve visited some villages and seen where the kids come from. I’ve learned some of their games and songs. I’ve learned which kids are ticklish. I’ve learned why the men wear pants all the time. It’s because when you wear shorts the kids try to pull out your leg hair. I’ve learned how to eat with my hands only and tear chapatti with one hand. I’ve become a master of the bucket showers. I’m so good now, you’d think I’ve been taking bucket showers all my life. I’ve been enjoying every second but it’s gone by so fast and there’s no way to slow it down. I’ve still yet to travel, I still want to get up to the Taj Majal and Danny said he’ll take me to Goa. I have yet to ride on an ox cart, that’s actually Doug’s wish but I too would like to ride on one, and I also want to ride in an auto rickshaw. That would be crazy. I haven’t learned how to make anything yet except chapatti, but I’ll learn. I also want to create the biggest NCAA March Madness pool in the history of India by having each child and staff here fill out a bracket.

India is a land of great contrasts. There is such extreme wealth, and such extreme poverty as more than 50% of the population live below any other humanly accepted poverty line. India has such beauty, and such disgustingness as the ground is littered with garbage and feces. It’s a country where you have to be conscious of your deucers. The last think you want is to be out in the middle of the Punjab and have to take a dump in their open air system, using your hand as toilet paper. One day I asked Danny why a man was urinating just off the side of the road. He wasn’t even trying to hide behind a tree or bush. I said, “Why doesn’t he just stand on the side of the road and pee on the road?” India has the best food I’ve every eaten, and the worst. Everything has been delicious except for the mango pickle. The pickle is the name of the sauce, it’s basically a sauce of lemon juice and salt and other spices to give it a sour and salty taste. Basically, they found a way to make the mango taste horrible. Now I don’t want to judge a country of over a billion people, but the India’s seem to be the nicest and most welcoming people. When we would go to people’s homes they would give us everything they had to feed us and make us feel welcome. And here, the villagers always invite me to come play cricket with them.

Some things did happen this week. Monday was the 60^th Republic Day in India. Everywhere the citizens attended a flag hoisting ceremony, and here at the home was no exception. All the children gathered in their school clothes at 7:00 and watched the flag being raised. It is a great tradition, one that I wish we did in America. Seeing the Indian flag going up that pole and knowing that was happening all over the country at the same time was pretty powerful. I can only imagine what emotions would run through me if it were the Stars and Stripes going up that pole. As powerful as this was, it was very similar to America in the sense that you only see this kind of patriotism once a year.

On Sunday 12 guests came to the home. One of them is a board member of Hosanna Ministries and the other 11 are friends and family of Daddy. All 12 of them attend the same church as Daddy’s mom. They visited with the kids and the kids put on a culture show for them. I’ve seen all the dances the kids did twice already, except one, the pillow dance. This dance is hilarious. It’s called the pillow dance because they put their arms and head in a pillowcase. But then they wear a sweater around their waists with a stick through the arm sleeves. So they can’t see anything and they have to dance around the stage. It was very funny to watch because they didn’t do the same motions and they weren’t together, they were spread out all over the stage. One of them, my dear son, kept going into the boys and Dede had to pull her back.

It was a very good week. I taught the 1-4 students verbs and how to change them into past, present and future tense. I work with the 5-6 students on the difference between this and that, and these and those. Also during the same lesson, I was teaching them how to answer the questions who and what. I would say, “What is this?” and they would say, “That is Ruth’s shirt.” For my high school class I showed them “The Green Mile”. When we finished we discussed the movie and then I gave them an assignment. I told them I wanted them to write about what they thought the theme, or themes, of the movie is or are. But I told them because I wanted them to get it right, I had them write in Marathi. I had Danny translate for me. I was very impressed with Mercy’ and Mukesh’s papers. They both were the only ones who really wrote the assignment how I wanted it to be written. And Mukesh mentioned things in his that not only did none of the other students mention, but I didn’t even talk about or discuss. I was very impressed.

The kids are very fast learners. One day I was helping Pooja and Salomi pick tomatoes and I while I was looking I was saying, “Let’s see. Let’s see.” And as I doing this, I heard little Pooja say, “Let’s see. Let’s see.” And all the kids understand when I say, “Get ‘em!” Like when a kid comes up to me and tickles me, I yell, “Karishma, get ‘em!” and they will, usually, go and chase the kid and try and beat them. When little Priscilla and Rahel tickle me, I say, “Big mistake!” and turn and chase them while they run away yelling, “No mistake!” On Saturday I gave all the kids a gift. I had bought prints of the pictures I took of the kids back in December, the ones I posted on Facebook. I really didn’t expect the joy it brought them. I guess I was expecting an American child’s reaction to getting two pictures of themselves as a gift. I called the kids up one by one to get their pictures and each kid got the biggest smile and just stared at their picture as they absentmindedly stuck out their hand for me to shake while they said, “Thank You.” For the last few kids I had to yell their names, as it became difficult talking over all the kids’ laughter and other noises they made as they moved about, sharing their pictures with each other. For ten minutes after I was done passing out pictures the kids were still laughing and sharing their pictures with everyone. Some of the kids would come up and quiz me to see if I could remember what their action was from their funny photo. I am proud to say I knew almost everyone’s.

19/1-25/1: A Ground Breaking week

2009-01-25T23:34:00.000+01:00

So this week was a ground breaking week. Monday morning an engineer came to the office to go over the measurements he had taken last week for the new school building at the home with Daddy. Later that evening with the help of Ishwar, Laxman, Prakash and Shamu they began marking the dimensions of the first three classrooms. The first classrooms are going to be, I believe, for 1^st standard, 2^nd standard and 3^rd standard. After all the chalk was laid it was time to bless the land. Daddy led the kids in prayer and Ishwar read from the Bible. After the land was prayed for Daddy asked me if I would be the first to break the ground. “I break this land in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” and with a swift blow from my pick the land was broken. The reason they want to build classrooms at the home is because the kids get treated differently at the government school. The kids often get singled out because they are Christian, and “rich” and are constantly being asked, “Why are you praying? Why are you Christian?” But the funny thing is, if it wasn’t for our children, the schools wouldn’t get the funding they get because our children raise the bar academically for the schools. The next night I watched the inauguration of Baby Killer, or BK for short, with Mommy and Daddy. It was, however, awesome to see that America has finally woken up and realized this isn’t the 1800’s anymore. I listened to his extensive list of promises and found out the next morning found out that he suspended a program that has been working for the last seven years. He’s basically saying that terrorist deserve more human rights than babies. Dianne Feinstein was right when she said, “The world is watching.” And as she said this I thought how funny that was. The whole world was watching the inauguration of the US president, but American’s don’t watch, or even care about, any inaugurations of other presidents, not even Canada or England. I then became tired of all the discussion on Michelle’s outfit. Even BBC and an English-Indian news station were discussing it. The day was for her husband, not her, and she was smart enough to know that and let the spotlight shine on Barack. So my impressions of BK on his first five days are this: I’m upset at his moral principles and I wish his first order as Commander in Chief was to turn every Arab nation into glass. I read just last week an article that schools in Pakistan are teaching their kids that “A” is for allah, “D” is for dagger, “J” is for jihad and there was another one I can’t remember that was for gun. Now this isn’t just some school or teacher teaching this, this is in the textbooks of the government schools. The hatred of Muslims is so strong here in India, I can’t believe there are actually Muslims that live here.

Thursday morning a drunk guy came into the home and grabbed me right in front of all the kids and asked me for Rs. 20. What happened was I was sitting in front of the kids while they were studying and Prakash went to the gate to see what this guy wanted. I guess he knows Mommy and was coming to see her. He then made his way down the driveway, walking straight toward me. He shook my hand, he reeked of alcohol, and asked if I was from US. I said yes and then he grabbed my hand and started talking in Marathi and all I could make out was “…20 rupees.” I wasn’t afraid for myself, I was afraid for the kids and their safety. I didn’t know what this guy was going to do or if he was going to come back later. And what made me even more upset was that he asked Prakash for Rs. 10, and me for 20. I joked with Laxman about it and then looked at my watch and said, “It’s 8 o’clock in the morning?” He said, “This is India.” A classic. The next morning I came out of the guesthouse at 7:55 to find some of the boys throwing rocks at another drunk man outside the gate. I guess this guy wanted us to give him work.

Some highlights from this week. On Thursday I was thoroughly entertained by taking funny faced pictures of the girls. It all started when I was trying to take a picture of Usha. She was walking away from me but turned to look back right as the picture was taken. Her eyes were half shut and she had the goofiest grin on her face. I thought this picture was hilarious. I then got a great idea. I would go up to other girls, laughing and say, “Look at this picture of Usha.” I would hold the camera as if I was going to show them the LCD screen. As soon as they got close I would quickly turn the camera and take a picture of them. Another trick I used was I would say the same thing and pretend to show one of the kids the LCD screen. What I was really doing was taking a picture of the kid right next to them, who for some reason were always staring at the lens. I then found out the next day that you could fool them twice when I used the same tricks on the same kids. These pictures are hilarious, see for yourself on Facebook. It’s the album titled “The Beautiful Girls of Lasina” but what it should have been titled was “The Beautiful Girls, and Samson, of Lasina”. I showed all the girls their lovely photos and they all told me to “cut” their picture. Instead, I posted them on the Internet. Yesterday I told them I posted them for Cleveland, Doug, Lu, my family and friends to see. Yesterday I also became a chapatti expert. My job was to roll the dough into a thin circle and then hand it to Usha for frying. My first one didn’t turn out so good and all the girls laughed and said that one was mine. My next five were so perfect, you would have thought I had been rolling for years. I then told the girls who laughed at me that those perfect ones were mine too then. I got a shave on Friday and while I was waiting at the barber, my girls were waiting to catch a 6-seater to take them to high school. They yelled across the town for me not to get a haircut. I yelled back that I was only getting a shave but they also told me not to. I’m glad I didn’t listen to them. The shave was amazing. I had been letting my hair grow so he had something to shave. He started by lathering up my face with oil and giving me a face massage. Then the shave, which makes you feel like you’re going to get whacked. Then another amazing face massage with oils and powders followed by him pounding my head like he was in some bongo drum band. As I sat there watching him slap my head, rub my head, squeeze my head and punch my head, I thought, “I don’t know how he is doing it, but this is the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced.

Everybody sleeps at the home and Daddy takes Mommy every morning to work and comes back in the afternoon. Sometimes I go with them.

11/1-18/1

2009-01-18T19:19:00.000+01:00

This was a very exciting week. I was Chief Guest for Annual Sports Day, the boys caught the first snake of the New Year and of my trip and I was part of the greatest moment in Ankoor Children’s Home cricket history, but first things first. On 11/1 I was named Chief Guest of the Annual Sports Day and I got to be apart of the opening ceremony and hand out awards after the events. This was a great day full of excitement and photo finishes. Once the games commenced, which consisted of mostly running events, I took some great photos of the events and the kids cheering on their teams, which there were three teams. I joined one team even though they told me I couldn’t because I was wearing the colors of another team. For some reason I was into taking pictures from the grass’ point of view. I would set the camera on the ground and take pictures that way. I think they actually turned out pretty nice, see for yourself. Watching these games really took me back to my childhood when I too used to compete in three legged races and sack races. However I never compete in an event where you tie a bread roll to a string and tie that string to a rope that hangs over you and try and jump and grab the roll with your mouth. After all the games were finished the teams gathered around for the closing ceremony. Since I was Chief Guest I got to hand out the awards. The awards/gifts went not only the top finishers in the events from today, which I refer to as Sports Day 1b, but also from Thursday’s team events, kabaddi, longare and football, which I call Sports Day 1a. After posing for some pictures with the individual and team winners, it was time to, as Doug put it, start a new Indian tradition. For Prathna’s birthday I told Mommy that Doug wanted to give Prathna some water balloons. I don’t know if she didn’t understand or just wanted to do this on her own, but we gathered around Gauri and Prathna and after we sang Happy Birthday to them we pelted them with water balloons. There were only five balloons but every one hit their target. I took two great pictures of this although I am a little disappointed in the first one. In the first picture you see Prathna turned around and trying to run away. You also see the biggest balloon in midair between Rajesh’s hand and Prathna’s face. And I took this picture about a second too soon because immediately after this picture was taken that balloon, the biggest one of the five, hits Prathna right in the face as she is trying to run away. It’s still a great picture though. Afterwards we took Omana to the bus station to send her back to school.

14/1 is a festival in India were everybody flies kites, well, except in Yavatmal. So since Daniel and I weren’t able to watch any kite flying, we decided to do our own flying. So we drove around the city and bought two kites. After getting the strung we went on the roof and started flying. I learned that it is extremely difficult to fly a kite without wind. However, we did get it going for a good five minutes and I took some video of Daniel flying our kite, then he gave the string to me and I instantly flew it right into the neighbors antenna, three houses down. Good thing we bought two. Despite my frustration and disappointing kite-flying abilities, I’ve never had more fun flying a kite in my life. Later this day I learned that women are internationally petrified of mice. Back at the home Mommy and Prakash were putting a new curtain pole up and they were both holding one end of it. I had just come out of my room and saw them with the pole between them, and a mouse running along the top. I figured they already knew about the mouse until I heard a shrill like the sound of a teenage girl who just waxed off her eyebrows hours before prom. She dropped the pole and ran as fast as she could outside, screaming all the way and finding safety behind the nursery kids.

Well on my 48^th day in India, my 42^nd at the home, I finally saw a snake. The kids had holiday and were doing yard work around the home. I was near Sonali, Ruth and Mahima at the far end of the home entertaining them by imitating all the goofy mannerism they do. All of a sudden a bunch of the other kids started running to the front of the home and asked what was going on and one of the kids told me “snake.” I instantly got excited and thought today is the day. They aren’t going to let this one get away like the previous three times. They’re actually going to do it. And do it they did. As excited as I was to see my first cobra, I was equally disappointed that it was a female. The male cobras are the cool ones. The females are smaller and aren’t even poisonous. After the boys posed for some photos and tortured it, they eventually killed it.

On Saturday I went with Mommy and Daddy to a nursing college, the same one they sent Ravita’s sister, Kalpana, to. We went to fill out Savita’s admission paperwork. Once we got home it was time for our ODI as I was referring to it, America vs. India. While I was warming up and messing around with the younger kids, some of the villagers passed by and invited me to play with them on the community field next door. I woke Daniel from his nap and we and the high school boys went over and played a LOI, consisting of 8-overs, against the villagers. Now since the villagers are all men and older than me, we were in for it. We lost the match 47-38 and I played terrible. In field I dropped the only ball hit to me. I did manage to take two wickets in the over that I bowled. I bowled on player and ran out another. But when we were up to bat I went one-and-done and was bowled, by the same player that I bowled, on my first ball. Needless to say I was disappointed. Our match turned into a two day LOI when they invited us to play again on Sunday at the same time. I knew I had to do better tomorrow.

On Sunday after church I practiced cricket with the boys. Afterward I went into the city to buy ice cream for all the kids and after lunch we served them the ice cream. The kids had their bible study and I joined a group during this time, which I love so much. Watching these child-run prayer and bible study groups is awesome. At 17:00 it was time for our 2^nd LOI. We rounded up the boys for our 2^nd LOI vs. the Villagers and marched to the field with a bunch of the little kids holding our hands like we were marching onto the pitch of a World Cup final. What happened next will go down in history as the greatest moment in Ankoor Children’s Home cricket history. We put up a valiant effort and we all played better than yesterday, especially me. I caught both balls that were hit to me and the second one was hit just in front of me, which I’ve always had trouble with in baseball. The first one was hit to my right and I sprinted as fast as I could to catch it, I thought I was going to have to dive. In fact, no one dropped a ball. So we all did better fielding, holding them to only 32 runs. Batting we did better as well. I did better than one-and-done, although I did get bowled again. We managed to score 31 runs, only two runs shy of victory which was the greatest moment in Ankoor Children’s Home cricket. We marched back to the home like we were the Romans returning after the Battle of Zama. All the boys were giddy with excitement from our one-run defeat and I sat with the older boys during dinner that night and all they talked about was our next cricket match against them.

So this was again an amazing week. I began teaching the older three groups about using grown up words and being more descriptive. Like, instead of saying, “I am eating.” say “I am eating with…” I also told the high school that since all the younger kids look up to them as role models, I want them to help me teach the younger ones English by asking them “How are you?” and “How was school?” I’ve heard this done a few times but I want it done more, so I am going to reiterate this request I have. There are new pictures on Facebook and I am hoping that in 12 hours I will have posted my newest slideshow, as well as the first one I made, on Facebook as well. I continue to love getting your e-mails and I, as well as the kids, thank you for your prayers.

4/1-10/1

2009-01-12T19:04:00.001+01:00

I am going to try posting new blogs every week. I could easily post a new blog everyday since my journal entries are about as long as my blogs. Sunday was an amazing day. To summarize how great it was, I took 213 pictures. In the morning I started taking pictures of the kids getting ready for church. Most the pictures were of the same kids because anytime they see me with my camera they all rush over to me and get in some goofy pose and yell out to me to take their “copy”, “Brother! Brother!” To combat this I ignore them and only take pictures of kids who aren’t yelling at me, but some of the kids didn’t understand that and still yelled to me. So I went on the roof and took some great pictures of the kids on the other side of the big hall. These kids had no idea I was taking dozens of photos on the other side of the big hall, they were just sitting there, quietly reading their bibles. These made some great pictures. For church, which was lead by Ishwar, the boys got me up in front of everyone to help them lead worship. They let me pick out all the songs. I don’t know any of the words or the motions, so I was up there trying my best while all the kids were laughing at me. After church I took my favorite picture of the trip so far. A little back story first. One the songs the kids sing, “Peace Like a River”, has a verse that goes “I have Joy Like a Fountain” and when ever the girls wear pig tails I always tease them about how they look very much like a fountain. So this morning one of the cutest girls here, Saloni, was looking like a fountain. She would come up to me all morning, show me her hair and then say, “Fountain.” I would try to take a picture but she would run away, laughing. So after church she did it again and I tried to take her picture. She started running away and I yelled out to Karishma who was right next to her, “Grab her!” So in one of the funniest moments yet, Karishma did to Saloni what everyone here does to her, she grabbed Saloni and held her so I could take a picture of her. Later after Mommy and Daddy returned the kids broke off into their five groups to study for a Bible Quiz. After studying it was time for the quiz. I joined the Powerful group, and we dominated. “We are, Powerful!”

Monday was the first day of the rest of my trip. Since Mommy is a nurse, she has a regular job which she has almost everyday. So I was all alone today. I ate breakfast alone and when I was done with my English classes I was all alone until around 16:00. Now I say “all alone” but the nursery kids are here all day, but all I can do is play games with them, I can’t talk to them. But all this alone time does give me some good time to get some reading done and personal time, so its fine. My English classes are doing a good job. I’m having the most trouble with the high schoolers because they are so much farther than even the 7^th graders that they are experts one the stuff I’m teaching the other kids. I told Mommy and Daddy I want to go to their school someday to see what they are being taught so I can teach them better. For my other three classes I’m working on simple questions I ask them that they don’t know, like “How is your food?” Now I’ve also been teaching them past, present and future tense so I throw them a curveball and ask “How was your food?” They would have to change their response from “My food is…” to “My food was…” And I would throw other variations in too but the kids seem to understand and are progressing quite nicely.

Thursday was a great day. It was a Muslim holiday so the kids didn’t have school. Today was Sports Day 1a. Games all day and I was able to take 226 photos to capture all the excitement and intense action. For each event they have three teams and have ongoing scores and today was the semi-finals and finals for three events, kabaddi, longare(?) and football. Only the boys had competitions for kabaddi, the girls played longare. Watching the boys was fun. I had seen them play before but that was just for fun. This was Sports Day and first place was on the line, so it was more extreme. They were going all out, there was no place for friendly sympathy here. After they boys finished their semi-finals they took a break and it was time for the girls to play longare. First it was the little kids turn to play, so while they were playing longare, the older girls started playing kabaddi. This was by far more fun to watch than the boys. They were just out there having fun. No one was keeping score, or even watching for that matter, but they didn’t care. And seeing the smiles on their faces and hearing their laughing as they tackled and wrestled each other to the ground was a very fulfilling moment.

Longare is played inside a circle with two teams at a time. One team is the “chaser” and the other team is the “chasee”. Three players from the chasee team enter the circle and are chased by one player from the other team who must hop on one foot and try to tag them. If that player touches the ground with their other foot, their teammate comes in and replaces them. Once all three players have been tagged, three more come in and it continues. They play for about five minutes and then switch roles. After lunch and a mid day nap it was time for the football final. Watching these kids play football is like watching a group of five year olds play. All they do is kick and chase. Sports day was concluded with me showing the pictures I took from the day on the TV after dinner. And it seemed that the kids agreed with me that the girl’s kabaddi match was more entertaining as it drew the most laughs.

On Saturday I was able to go into the city and make some prints of some worksheets I found online to help me with my English classes. After we got back to the home I hung out with kids, made fun of all the girls and their new haircuts then watched the kids practice their opening ceremony for Annual Sports Day 1b. As we were walking over to the field I was talking with Prathna about her birthday tomorrow and got a complete shock when she told me she will be turning 14. 14? I know 14-year-old girls and there is no way they are in the same league as her. Prathna is more mature than most 20-year-olds I know. Here is a girl 8 years younger than me, who is 10 times the servant as me. I joke with her all the time and tell her that when I grow up I want to be just like her. I hope I can learn from her about being a servant.

Throughout my trip and this past week I have been able to video chat and IM with some of you, and that has been awesome. Thank you for all your e-mails. I enjoy getting your messages and hearing about things back home. I got my first letter in the mail on Monday. It was from my Aunt Cindi and Uncle Larry. I discovered it takes about three weeks for mail to get to me since the envelope was stamped Dec. 13, 2008. Thank you to everyone for your support. There are new photos on Facebook to go along with my blog.

Christmas Season

2009-01-03T04:37:00.001+01:00

Shortly before my last entry the Christmas season began and lasted until 1/1/2009. There was singing, dancing, prayer, playing and of course worshiping. Our Christmas season began on 22/12 with the nursery’s Christmas program they put on for the parents. The nursery, or preschool, consists of mostly the children from the home but they have opened the doors to some local children as well. The local children are not Christian but their families send them to our school so they will learn English. So it was good having the parents of the local children come and here Christmas songs. It was very entertaining seeing the children in their little uniforms and hearing their voices. For the rest of the week the other children continued to practice songs and dances that we will be performing on Christmas when the parents come to visit. On 24/12 the parents started coming. I took some great photos of the kids with their families and it was nice that some of the parents from Bander remembered me from when we visited. Since there weren’t enough plates for everyone, everybody eats off of banana leaves that are glued together. On Christmas Eve night all the kids received new outfits.

Christmas day was a very fun and exciting day. It was pretty much an all day party starting with a morning service. We actually had two morning services and during the second service the two choirs sang the songs they had been practicing all week. I don’t know the words, but they are the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. Some of the parents had brought gifts for the home from their villages. Each family that brought a gift was prayed for and we blessed the gifts. I was asked to pray for Suvarna, Esther (one of my best friends) and their grandmother. We had lunch and then it was game time. Everyone gathered at the field to play a few games. The first game we played is the national game of India, kabadi. In a nutshell it’s played with two teams and one person from one team goes across the centerline and tries to touch someone and then make it back across the centerline without being captured. First it was the older boys versus the dads, then the older girls versus the moms and then it was my favorite, the younger girls versus the younger boys. Two of the girls, Monica and Rupali Dongre, really enjoyed tackling the boys. Watching Rupali play was like watching a wild animal stalk its prey before attacking. After kabadi we played a dodge ball game, men versus women.

After dinner everyone gathered again for more worshiping. The kids performed their dances they had been working on for the past week. Since I had already seen most of the dances I enjoyed watching the parents watch the kids. During the evening service the kids received a package with more gifts inside. I didn’t watch this because Sara and I had arranged for a surprise video chat with my family. So at 21:30, 8:00 Christmas morning back home, my sister surprised my parents by video chatting with me. We chatted for about an hour and then I had to get back to the party. The kids had started a bonfire and everyone was singing songs. Then everyone went around the campus to everyone’s room and sang some Christmas carols, in either Hindi or Marathi, I don’t know.

The New Years celebration was bitter sweet. I had found out the day before that my grandpa was going to die, passive euthanasia. It was tough being so far away from my family but they reassured me that grandpa was proud of the work I was doing and that he wanted me to continue and stay in India. The kids asked me if I was going home and if I cried. I told them no and yes. We went into the city for most of the day and I was able to post a video I made for my mom, as well as everyone back home, on facebook. At this time I found out that they were going to take my grandfathers oxygen away at 9:00. My mom was also online so I was able to chat with her about it. Once we got back to the home the kids did their normal routine and after dinner we started a bonfire. The kids sang tons of songs but I left at 22:15 to be alone at 22:30, the time they were going to take away Grandpa oxygen. I began praying and thanked God for blessing me with such an amazing grandfather and I asked him to be with my grandmother, dad and the rest of the family during this time. I returned to the bonfire at 23:30 and found that only about 1/5 the kids were still awake, but they were still singing songs. At 23:45 the singing stopped and we began a prayer session. The kids took turns in what I can only imagine as thanking God for the blessing He gave them this past year and to bless the upcoming year. When we finished praying it was 2009 and we shook everyone’s hand and told everyone “Happy New Year!”

On 28/12 the kids asked for me to give the message. I talked about my life and how it was they who wanted me to preach to them but it is they who preach to me everyday. I told them how awesome it is to be woken up every morning to the sound of their songs and prayers. The kids continue to enjoy my presence. Some of the girls tried teaching me the words to one of their songs but I can only say a few lines. I know the dance that goes along with the song and the kids are always asking me to sing that song and they laugh and laugh. They also love it when I “sing” the song that goes along with one of their hand clapping games. I also changed one of the lines in the song to include some of the kid’s last name. They love this especially since I mispronounce the name and my mispronouncing of the name means “old lady.” I find imitation to be the greatest form of flattery, and so do the kids. They love it when I make of them when they laugh, which only makes them laugh more. This one girl, Sonali Kodape, and I are always have very “heated” conversations which causes her to laugh and she is also the one I imitate laughing the most. Three of the girls told me that we are best friends, Esther, Jyotsna and Chaitali. Esther says that we have the same mom. So the kids are awesome and I am truly having the best time of my life. I love everyone back home and I thank you for your continuing support.

Culture Shock

2008-12-24T19:34:00.000+01:00

After my last entry we were still in Vyara. Since I was going to be on a train for 10 hours on my birthday the Indians took me out on the 3^rd to celebrate my birthday. They let me drive Sunil’s jeep and I have to say that driving in India is not something I hope to do anytime soon. For starters you’re sitting on the wrong side of the car and you’re driving on the wrong side of the road. On top of that you have to dodge other cars, cows, dogs, chickens, goats, bikes and pedestrians. After that we went and got some food and then some drinks. I got mango soda and they all got root beer. We got back to the hotel around midnight and I had to pack and I will hopefully get the best birthday present of all.

So I got to spend my birthday on a train from 5:30 to 16:30 followed with a three-hour car ride. But it was definitely worth the journey. We were picked up at the train station by Kiron, Nalini and their son Daniel. We got our things loaded onto the car and took off for Lasina. We got to the home around 20:00 and the boys came running when they heard the horn honk to open the gate. We were greeted by some boys who looked like they were about to rob a bank. They came out wearing sweatshirts and ski masks that covered the whole head. But it wasn’t too long after that before I purchased a ski hat of my own. But it was late and we were tired from the long journey so we went to sleep. I was very anxious for what the next day in store for me, because I will be doing it for the next 4 ½ months.

Well I was awoken at 5:30 to the sound of one of the older girls, Sonali, sweeping in front of my room. I wasn’t a fan of this at first but she soon became my alarm clock. She was the best alarm clock I’ve ever had, always on time, it had no snooze button and you couldn’t ignore it. That first morning I watched the youngest kids having devotion followed by breakfast. Next the kids have study time where they sit in rows outside on the ground and do their homework. Some of the kids taught me their secret handshake. After study time it is lunch time, at 9:30. During lunch I watched two girls make two beautiful chalk drawings. After that we walked with the kids to school and when we got back I hung out with the nursery, which I’ll be helping out with while I’m here. At 15:00 I wandered into the kitchen and Mommy put me to work making the dough for chapatti. This was not an easy task, the other boy made it look so easy. I am basically just mixing the flour with the water. This type of job would normally call for an industrial sized blender but all I had was my hands. I don’t hang out around the kitchen at 15:00 anymore. When the kids got back from school I found the two girls that made the drawings and I showed them the one they made in front of the girls hall. I showed them the one they made in front of guesthouse where Lu, Doug and Cleveland were staying. And then I showed them in front of my room but there was nothing to show. They must have understood the point I was making because they came back not only with chalk, but with five other girls as well. These seven girls made an even better one than the other two, complete with color. It’s good to be me. At dinner one of the girls was staring at me and when I caught her she signaled me to come sit by her. So I picked up my plate and sat on the ground and ate dinner. Since I was going native, I also decided to not use a fork. So I cupped my hand and put it in my bowl of curry and splashed it over my rice. In India, everything is finger food. I now know what I should have told my Mom when she yelled at me for playing with my food. I should have said, “I’m just practicing for being a missionary to India.”

Now I could go into as much detail for everyday I’ve been here but I haven’t got the time. We participated in the largest water fight in Indian history which only widened U.S.-Indian relations. Luckily the U.N. got Lu, Doug and Cleveland back to America safely, I was not so fortunate and have been taken captive. We’ve visited two villages so far which was awesome. The villages are something else. I can’t even begin to describe or imagine living in those conditions. I have eventually gotten to know every kid here along with their names. I have five groups I teach, yes teach, English to. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery so I imitate the kids all the time, especially Karishma, who is the shiest girl I’ve ever met. I always catch her looking at me and then she gets really embarrassed and hides behind a tree or just covers her face, so I began copying her. When she hid from me, I hid from her. I also started imitating the way the girl’s laugh, which only makes them laugh more. It’s funny when the kids try to imitate me. When they see me “glaring” at them, some of the kids will try and glare back but will always start laughing.

Well the kids are the most amazing kids I’ve ever met. I have more stories, pictures and videos than I know what to do with. I am flying high once again, I busted through the culture shock wall that had me in bed and the bathroom for a couple of days and am now focused on what I’m here to do. I can’t wait to share more with you all soon. Can’t wait, tomorrow is Christmas. Have a safe and merry Christmas.

Address

2008-12-09T06:15:00.000+01:00

Here is the address exactly how it should appear. Aubrey I can't wait for those cookies.

Kiron Gaikwad,
Behind Kinetic Showroom,
Giri Nagar,
Yavatmal - 445001
Maharashtra
India

India so far

2008-12-03T08:02:00.000+01:00

Well our flights combined were about 18 hours. We had a nine-hour layover in London and we were able to get out of the airport. We didn’t hangout much because it was raining. We did manage to get a pint and some fish and chips at pub. We had yet another red eye flight to Mumbai topped off with a seven-hour car ride to Vyarra, or five hours in Indian time. We got picked up by three of Cleveland’s friends: Kishor, Vinay and Sunil. Sunil is the best driver I’ve ever seen, it makes me realize why they make such good taxi drivers. He drove us out of the city in what I can only describe as the most chaotic experience I’ve ever had. There were cars, buses, motorcycles, semi trucks, pedestrians and animals everywhere. Everyone is honking and I thought we were going to die multiple times. During the drive I noticed the extreme poverty the people live in, and because of the caste system, are content with their conditions. But this extreme poverty only made the beautiful colors of India stand out even more. The women wear the most beautiful and colorful saris. It is very stunning. India is a county that appeals to all five senses in a way that really has to be experienced.

Now the drive through the country is no exception to the chaos. I dozed off for a bit after lunch only to awake to the sound of horns, pedestrians all over the road and the headlights of a two-ton semi truck heading right at us. We also seemed to be the only car in a hurry. We were flying down the road, narrowly missing everything. But we made it safe and I am very thankful for that. The experiences I’ve had already are incredible. The men who have been taking us to these villages and the villagers are amazing and very beautiful with amazing stories. The men are incredible men of God. They are all educated and could be working in the major cities making good money but instead are using their education and skills to bring education to the children of their villages. It’s simply amazing their commitment and the heart they have for these children and I am very thankful to be apart of their movement.

Nicole you are right, I am eating some great food and I love you. So far we have eaten like kings, we haven’t had a bad meal yet. We have been treated to some excellent homemade meals and some restaurant meals. When we go to restaurants we order tons of food. We order enough food to feed about nine people which ends up only costing us about $20. It’s ridiculous how much food we buy and every meal has been delicious. My favorite so far has been the breakfast we had Sunday at Kishor’s house. We had the best eggs I’ve ever had and some deep fried leaf wraps.

The city we’re staying at, Vyara, and the villages we’ve been going to not tourist spots. They are deep in the heart of India. This being the case, everywhere we go people stare at us. It’s a little unnerving because there are radical Hindus out there who don’t like Westerners. Whenever I start walking through a village or Vyara by myself, Vinay tells me to come back. Whenever we go through the city, the beggars always find us. They come right up to, and sometimes they follow us back to our hotel, asking for money the whole way there. It’s kind of ironic because if it weren’t for their religion, they wouldn’t be so poor. Kishor told me that he hasn’t seen a Christian begging yet.

I have a lot to be thankful for. My health has been good. My tummy was still a little woozy from Wednesday night so I had a lot of “special drink” on the flight and it really helped. I have tons of stories and pictures already and I can’t wait to share with all of you. And as soon as I find out the mailing address of where I’m going to stay I’ll post it. Leschi students you can write me letters and I will write back to you. Aubrey, I can’t wait to get those peanut butter cookies for Christmas but I am going to want some fresh ones on my return. But I don’t even want to think about returning.

Also, for those of you not on Facebook, send me and e-mail if you want to receive a link to view the photos I post from India. bristow.kyle@gmail.com

The Trip

2008-11-14T11:09:00.000+01:00

So here are some more details on the Trip. We(Cleveland, Doug, Lu and I) fly out of SeaTac Thanksgiving night. We'll have to be at the airport no later then 4:30pm for our 6:00 flight. We will arrive in London Friday around 11:00am local time, 3:00am PST. We have a 9 hour layover and we will be heading into London to spend the day. Leave London around 8:00pm. Fly all night again and arrive Mumbai Saturday morning. But our traveling has not yet ended. We then will meet up some people in Mumbai who will drive all of us 8 hours up north on the new "superhighway" to a small town called Vyara. We will check into a hotel and most likely just crash. Sunday we will be going to a church there. While in Vyara we will be visiting surrounding neighborhoods and families for a few days. When we do head for Lasina we will take a 10 hour train and will be picked up by Kiron in Nagpur. That 10 hour train ride will be topped of with a 4 hour car ride to Lasina, our final destination.

I can't wait to get to the home and be immersed in the atmosphere and culture. I look forward to so many things; the kids, the food, learning Hindi, learning a new culture, chasing cobras and becoming the Cricket Master, or CM for short. During my 4 1/2 month stay I will be helping the children with English, computer skills and any other educational problem the kids may have. Learning this different culture is very important to me. Since I'll be over there during December, I will be celebrating my birthday and Christmas there. I would assume they have their own way of celebrating both of these holidays and I am looking forward to learning their traditions.

I now have all my medicine taken care of. I have 164 malaria pills, one pill for every day I'm there and for a month after I leave. All I need to do now is pack my clothes, get some bug spray and make sure I have enough other medicine like Tums and Pepto Bismal in case I get sick. I can't wait for this trip to finally happen.

So I will be in India from November 29th through April 9th, but I still won't be back in the States yet. I added a pit stop on my return flight home. My plane leaves Mumbai Thursday, April 9th at 2:45am. I will then fly back to London where I will board another plane headed for Amsterdam. I will hang out in Amsterdam until my buddy Preston comes in from Groningen in the late afternoon. We will expierence all that Amsterdam has to offer, Anne Frank museum, Heineken Brewery, Van Gogh Museum and of course the partying. We'll party hearty through Sunday when we will head back to Groningen for an FC Groningen match on April 12th. I will stay with him in Groningen at the university till April 16th, when I will then make my final flight home.

While in India I will have limited internet access. I will keep updates on both facebook and my blog. I will most likely only update my blog bi-monthly. I will keep everyone informed of what is going on and what I'm doing. My time to leave is almost here and I have been waiting for that moment for the last 4 months. It's now time for Conquistador to get out and spread his wings.

Reason for living

2008-10-01T06:27:00.000+02:00

Entry 1: Reason for going.
Earlier this week Doug(the head of this mission team) asked me to write a short article about my reason for going. So I gave him the short reason, and here is the long reason.

I been listening to "Leave out all the rest" by Linkin Park lately and it got me thinking. I wonder, "What am I leaving when I'm done here?" What will be my reason for being missed? Now I don't want this one trip to define my life, but I want it to define how I want to live my life. I have now helped kids here in my hometown, and now I'm going to help kids halfway around the world. This will definitely be a great experience and hopefully the first of many.

I am happiest when I can make other people happy. I can't wait to get to India and be able to bring joy and laughter to these kids. I think about how my interaction with the kids will affect me and I think I will be the one who gets the most out of it. I'm the lucky one who gets to go to another country and be immersed in a completely new culture and lifestyle.

There is so much more to life than what's here in Tacoma. I'm 21 and haven't even lived in another city. It's time to get out there and do something that has international impact. I don't want to be in my 40's or even my 30's telling someone in my position now that I wished I would have done something like that when I was younger. And to the Leschi kids reading this, I hope that one day I get to read something like this about your travels.

There will be more to come. But until next time, KB signing out.