Be careful where you step...

So... apparently yesterday while getting off of a running bus.... it wasn't as slow as I thought it was going.

A concussion, many funny conversations, repeated questions and laughing at the same jokes Drew told me and some drugs later, I'm doing a lot better.

So what can you expect from getting off of a moving vehicle?

This:

That's my right arm from falling off of the bus...


And my face. That shiner is from the concussion. The bandage is from the stitches.

What I give for Help International India. :P In all seriousness though, I am doing a lot better, I am remembering more and more and I'm progressing with work.

Leia Mais…

It's business time!

So for the past few weeks life has been going at supersonic speed. Half of our team has left (so sad) and yet we're still just as busy (if not busier) than ever.

One of the projects I've recently hopped on with is the women's group. There is a group of women at church who through some reason or another, are in need of employment that they can do part time. They have formed a group together and have decided to start a business.


Preparing stuff in the kitchen

Their first thing that they are going to do is cook and sell pickles.

And no I don't mean these kinds of pickles:


I mean THESE:


Look at how yummy they are!

Brinjal


Ladyfingers


Capsicum


Drumsticks

The women made brinjal (eggplant), ladyfingers (okra), capsicum (green bell peppers), and drumsticks (it's only here in India that I know of....), for veggie pickle. They also made a chicken pickle but I haven't seen it yet.

So the way you eat pickles here is you only have a little bit on your plate to help add flavor to whatever your eating/spice up your food. They are all delicious and the women are super friendly and fun to be around.


Laughing and shelling garlic for the chicken pickles

The group they have decided to come up with is called W.E.E., Women Empowered through Employment. It's fun to be able to help them with basic business practices and to get them started on their way.

Today I have been working on a design for their logo and I have a preliminary design. We'll see what they decide on and I'll post about it later.

Either way, this has been a great opportunity and a fun way to realize how much I've learned through my education simple business activities and ventures. I hope the women do well, their cooking is AMAZING.

Leia Mais…

Shri Guru Sankalpam School

So yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the Shri Guru Sankalpam School for the Mentally Handicapped. While we were there, we painted the outside gates and did a small mural for the school.


The bus outside the school

I had not previously had a chance to go to this school before and it was such a rewarding experience.

The handicapped have a rough time here in India. Whether it is physical or mental handicaps, those who have them face stigmas along with misinformation about the diseases themselves. Often the parents don't know what to do with the children and either mistreat them or ignore the symptoms and still try to treat them exactly like a normal child.

The Shri Guru school has come out of a bunch of parents who came together and talked about the difficulties of having children with special disabilities and not having an outlet for them or a way to teach them in a way that they could learn and grow. At the school the children are able to interact with others, make friends and learn vocational skills along with receiving a rudimentary education. It's wonderful to see how something as small as a group of parents talking can change into a school. It's also funded by the profits that are made from the items that the students learn to make. Their work turns into more opportunities for education and growth.

We came to the school and not only found the outside covered in paper scraps (from people pasting up posters and signs) but we also found a HUGE pile of rubble outside where we were supposed to do a mural. So we got to work painting the other side of the entrance while waiting for the rubble to get cleared out by some of the men at the school.


The painting supplies

So we painted the left wall and the gates and by that time the rubble had been pushed away enough that we could paint.


Yay! It's so much better than grey....

After getting the base paint on we started to do the detail work.


Aleesha, Lexi and Ashlee working on the mural


My sketching of the school's logo


After painting the initial detail on the logo, Lindsey went back and did a few touch ups


Aleesha, Lexi and Ashlee worked on the left side and did letters, numbers and a few kids playing


Aleesha with the paintings

Midway through the paintings we had a guy come up and talk to the headmistress. He was a professional painter who was on his way to pick up his son from school and saw that we were painting the disabled kid's school. He offered to help us with the sign for free. It was so nice! And he was SO good at it!


Lindsey and Lexi watching a guy who came to help us with the lettering.

While that was going on I went inside and took some pictures of the kids. They were so darling.


The headmistress


The activities for the students


One of the philosophies of the school. Pretty cool. (click to get a better picture)


These boys were so sweet. The one on the right kept smiling and shaking my hand. :)


Another boy who kept smiling and was quite friendly


The boys in the vocational class


The kids learning with a teacher


This woman is 40 years old. She is able to learn and have an enriched life because of this school. Also she gives awesome high fives.


The kids on the school bus

After going around and taking pictures we were finally done with everything. So we got the teachers together and took pictures.


The teachers with Lexi and Aleesha


It was such a fun and rewarding day. I'm so glad that I went, learned about this school and was able to help in some small way. :)


Myself in front of the finished sign :)

Leia Mais…

The Fourth of July!!!!

So this fourth of July was awesome. :)

We woke up to our WONDERFUL country directors having made us french toast!

Awesome! That was so yummy and such a wonderful surprise. It was also fun to see the apartment completely decorated with American flag stuff.

I think that the 4th of July is almost more fun in other countries because the Americans who are around band together and are extra festive. Last year in Jerusalem we had a whole cookout and bbq and had fireworks, face painting, a whole patriotic program, bobbing for apples and some other fun things.

This year we were invited to a special dinner with LEPRA. LEPRA is the awesome organization that is fighting against leprosy, HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria with innovative ideas, practices and research all over India. They have been such a great organization to work with and they have been very good at seeing how we can help their organization. So they decided because we have this special friendship to have us over for a special dinner.

It was such a blast to be there with the whole team and the LEPRA people. It was such yummy food (even if the only "American" thing was the deviled eggs I made to bring for them to try). After eating we had a little ceremony where they gave us roses and a gift to show appreciation. It was also fun because they had us sing our anthem and they sang theirs.


The group


The lipstick ladies :P


Ang and Mel are SO excited!


My wonderful patriotic husband in my Egyptian soccer jersey :P (nothing else was clean)


The remains of the food.... mmmm


I don't think I have any normal pictures of her....


Giving out the gifts


Our wonderful Lepra partners! :)

Afterwards, we went back home and then had a little bit of patriotic fun on the roof.


Us waiting...


Let the explosions begin!

Yay fireworks! We had so much fun with poppers, sparklers and those fun ones that just exploded. :D


These things spun and were fun


Whooo!!


Playing with the sparklers


These are crazy but so much fun


I got to light this! :)

This was fun and it was fun to light the fireworks. Don't worry, it had rained earlier so most everything was wet. So fun!

Leia Mais…

Happy fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day! I'll have more on the details of today when they actually happen, but in the meantime Sunday!

So I decided to make fajitas! Everyone was so happy. They didn't know what to do with themselves. Lol. However, trying to make fajitas while in India was an experience... The flour tortillas were like cardboard, but a welcome cardboard.

It took from 2 pm until 7 to make them. It was fun though and it's been funny cooking dinners because inevitably, about an hour into cooking I have people peeking their heads in asking when is dinner going to be ready. I think that sunday was worse because it was fast sunday so people were like FOOD.

Sadly no pictures, but everything was inhaled. A good sunday and everyone was happy.

A good thing of news is that I heard back from Bharath and he found a cheaper option for the trip so hopefully it's still on!

Leia Mais…

Saturday

So saturday was spent exploring a little bit around the city and picking up some awesome gifts for people.

I went with Drew, Melanie and Julie around to SD Road to find Crafts Emporium. It was a really cool place! They had a zillion elephant things and some pretty awesome wood-inlaid items.

After that we decided that we were going to walk to find lunch.... and that ended up being an hour of us wandering around in the wrong direction before finally completing a circle and getting on the right track.

We were able to walk by the shoe vendors though and between the five of us we got 10 pairs of shoes. They definitely got our business that day. It was so funny to see Julie bargaining. She would go to one shop and get shoes she liked, ask for a price, tell the guy to hold on and go next door to the other shoe shop to ask their prices. It was priceless. Gotta love Julie. :)

Also it was interesting because we had this woman begging... as she held a 100 rupee note in her hand! What?! And she kept following us and waiting outside the shops for us. It took us a solid 20 minutes to shake her.

After finding a place to eat, we lucked out because it decided to monsoon as soon as we walked in. We seriously had just sat down with our food and the sky came falling down. It was the hardest I've seen it rain yet, and I've seen some pretty hard rain here. It was still going like 30 minutes later too at full blast. So we decided to take our time and chill before leaving. Once again we lucked out and were able to avoid the rains and get a cheap auto back to the house.

After coming back we decided to go to Q Mart in Banjara Hills to get stuff for dinner on sunday. I'm in charge of dinner on sundays and it's been fun to cook again, although a bit of an experience trying to feed 17 people... which included 6 big/hungry boys. It was such a nice supermarket and they had so many different things! Super fun and very productive.

When we got back home it wasn't so pleasant though because I finally found out how much the Rajamundry trip was going to cost and it was too expensive for our budget. So we voted on the project and voted it down unless we could find a cheaper option. :( No bueno. So now I've got to scramble to figure out a way to make this work before wednesday. X.X no fun.

Leia Mais…

Polavaram Dam: A Public Health Problem

So a few weeks ago I went on a trip to Chatti near where the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Cchattisgard meet. It was a super fun trip and I was able to meet and learn about the Koya people.

They are a tribal community here in India that is being threatened by the building of the Polavaram Dam. The Dam in the current project would be a high dam that would displace somewhere around 312 villages and affect over 400,000 people, the majority of them tribals. One thing to know about tribal people here in India, they have special rights because of their lifestyle, but those rights are only attached to the land. If they lose the land then they lose their rights and their way of living and culture will most likely disappear because they cannot replicate those lifestyles in other areas.

In addition to this, the large water reservoir would create more exposure to water-borne diseases since while that area has deep rivers, does not have many other water sources besides those.

Another issue, (besides the obvious displacement of thousands of people) is that all of this project, the approvals, the construction, has gone on illegally. And it will affect tribals in two other states as well. You can see where the problems come in.

Another issue is that of the placement of the dam. It is placed in the most population-dense area of Andhra Pradesh: the delta area and the city of Rajamundry. If there was to be a massive flood that the dam couldn't hold, and if the dam broke at all, then within a few hours 5 million people could die as a result of the flow. This is a major problem that despite being addressed by a few key experts, is being ignored by those who are in charge of the project and the politicians who are tied to those campaigns and other "contributions."

And then there's the other issue of the Koya people themselves. They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. They are so friendly and kind and willing to work with and help progress themselves and others.


At the Kulu Pu festival


With the Kids from the Village


Cute little girl


Wonderful people and their celebrations of life


I LOVE this picture. That girl was so nice and we had so much fun playing and talking.


I can just tell that this woman exudes wisdom!


The committee who we met who help fight for tribal rights


Where the Sabari and the Godavari Rivers meet. It would be submerged under the current dam project


A Koya village head in Orissa


The boat that travels between Orissa and Andhra Pradesh

Overall, it's a really interesting and complex issue and I'm glad that I'm able to help provide services to an organization who is campaigning for tribal rights and promoting education about this project. Let's hope that things turn in favor of the tribals!

Leia Mais…