2/22/07

Two More Weeks

 

Hello All!  It will be two more weeks until I return.  I was bumped to the next day's flight.  Thus I will return on March 7.  For anyone I gave dates to for plans during the first few days I return, please postpone them to the following day.

Now I would like to share with you a few of India's environmental and economic savers:

• The Family Car:  Fit your entire family on one motorcycle.  Seats parents and three small children.  If you want to be even more environmental and economical, have more time, and have more energy you can do the same thing on a bicycle.
• Solar Clothes Drying:  Just lay your wet clothes out on the grass to dry.
• Power Cut:  Shut the power down to an entire rural town during the hottest time of the day.

After eating in Pondicherry and enjoying some rnr at the beach in Mamallapuram, I travelled to the middle of nowhere to volunteer.  The program Foundation for Children In Need is based around a town called Porumamilla.  Even though nobody has heard of it, it was not too hard to get to.  First I took a five hour train ride where apparently I bought myself a seat in the luggage compartment.  Luckily the nice people underneath me allowed me to sit next to them instead.  I think the ticket salesperson thought I am younger than I am.  Then Tom and Geetha who run the program picked me up and drove me an hour and a half to their nice house.  From there I stayed at an elderly home, but went to a kids' school during the day.

It seemed to me there are four main facets to their work. 

1. The school for poor kids and orphans.  The schooling, books, food, and housing for about 100 of the kids are fully paid for by supporters of the Foundation.  These are kids who may not have had a chance to choose their profession.  Many arrive at school without having eaten breakfast.  If you watch the attitude of some of the poor kids on the streets in other towns and these kids, you will see these kids are as bright and full of life as any with a good life.  This program gives them a chance for happiness and an easier life.  They are preparing them for India and the world by teaching them their local language, Hindi, and English.
2. The home for the aged.  It is extremely rare in India for seniors to be put into a retirement home instead of staying in the house with their kids.  But some families are too poor to help their parents or some seniors have no family.  I have volunteered in senior homes many times and always felt uncomfortable and left depressed.  This place was filled with laughter.  One morning I woke up to hear this extremely loud laughing as if there was a comedy show.  It was just Sister Lucia, a nun who runs the place, laughing with the seniors during the morning prayers.  These seniors were also more agile than I am used to seeing.  My guess would be because they have done heavy physical work all their life.  Everyone works together to prepare the food, do the gardening, and keep the place clean.  Sister Lucia says she might as well make their last years of life the best they can be.
3. Medical Camps.  The neighboring villages are poor and uneducated.  Geetha is actually a Dr. Geetha.   She visits those villages as much as she can giving free medical examinations and medicines as well as educating them on more hygienic health standards.
4. Sponsorship:  Besides sponsoring each kid in the school, they sponsor older kids and adults to further their education.   They will even help with living expenses.   They try to find a suitable career path where each person will find success.

Coincidentally the day I arrived the kids were preparing dances to perform at a big school event.  And of course they asked me to teach the kids a dance.   I replied, "No problem.  Just give me any pop song and two hours, and I will choreograph a dance."  Well, being passed from one person to the next, and each person speaking less English, the message did not get communicated.   I was sitting a room full of about 50 kids and ten teachers and they asked me to start to teach them the dance.   Once I figured out the magic word to use was "compose."  I thought they would understand.  They pointed to the middle of the floor and said to compose it now.  The kids were anxious to learn from me.  And there were 120 eyes peering at me and I thought there was no way I would be able to choreograph with all these people staring at me for two hours.   Nor did I think that was a good use of their time.  Yet there was no way to communicate how I needed to work.  So I found out they had a song I am familiar with and pulled an old skill out of my hat; choreographing, or composing, on the spot.   And somehow I got ten girls who don’t speak English to learn a whole dance in a new style within two days.

Every morning I woke up early to teach the seniors yoga or rather laugh for an hour.  Normally older senior classes last maximum 45 minutes and do not involve more than five minutes of standing at a time.   I think this group could have stood the whole hour but instead I used the chair to get them working harder.  After the class every single one of the women would come up and thank me and put their hands over mine.

One evening I went with Geetha to a medical camp.  The village had about ten homes and I am not sure all of them were inhabited.   I got to walk around, see their homes, and a little on how they live.   They were drying peppers on the roof.  Once they are dry they just push them over the side onto the ground.  They affixed a little platform onto their bicycle where they transport the peppers.   They have a few farming items, but nowhere near enough to live off of.  Some of the people had tonsillitis possibly from eating bad ice cream.   Some had parasites possibly from the way they use water that you do not want me to detail or just bad plumbing.   Others had fevers and colds from the weather change.

In the midst of seeing all these patients the kids walked over with a six year old girl crying hysterically.  She had fallen and hit her head on a rock.   She had a big bleeding cut on her head in between the mess of her hair.  Geetha went right to work in helping her.  The girl was lucky the doctor was there when it happened.   They may not have known how to care for the wound so it would not get infected.  This whole time there were no adults consoling the kids; just a bunch standing around staring.   I found out the mother went to Kuwait to work as a maid because the money is much better there.   We were not sure where the father was.   Geetha gave all the care instructions to her 15 year old sister.

This was a great experience and Tom and Geetha do a wonderful service to their community.  If I did not go anywhere else in India I would have nothing bad to say about my experiences.   They give people opportunities who never even knew these opportunities existed.  At the school I could not take five steps without a swarm of at least ten kids around me.   At the elderly home, every senior I passed would run over to say "Namaskar" and give me a big smile. The setting was on a flat plain with hills in the background.   Finally I was away from the beeping of the autos, the yelling in the streets, and the pollution that coats your clothes after one day outdoors.   Although, I did miss the modern utility of electricity that stays on for more than an hour a day.   There you can see the sky, the sunset, and the sunrise.

If you would like more information or to donate money to the Foundation of Children in Need, you can visit http://www.fcnindia.org/ .  If you sponsor a child, they will remember your name and be able to recite it to any visitor.

I hope you are all well and I am looking forward to seeing those of you in Santa Barbara in just a couple weeks.

Best wishes,

Tali