Mysore for the day

Today Cindy and I went to Mysore to take a look at a ministry that her church is considering partnering with. Mysore is about three hours from here, so though we only went for the day, it was well worth the time spent in the car. I have to confess, the prospect of riding for 6-8 hours in the car (time dependent on crazy Bangalore traffic) did not thrill me, and I was originally thinking that it may not be all that interesting..we'd sit in someone's office, they may give us a tour of the facility, but mostly it would be talk about what they're doing, how we can help, that sort of thing. I think it was the sitting and talking about something that I wouldn't be involved in that didn't immediately grab my attention. However, when we arrived, we were greeted by two incredibly welcoming people. The couple we met run the ministries at the Hope Center which consist of two schools, one is in another part of town, both of which are comprised of over 300 students from the slum areas! In addition to the schools, there is a Crisis Center where women who are in crisis, usually pregnant or with children, can come to stay temporarily and be cared for. They aren't officially open, but there is a woman who is staying there with her small baby and her two year old son. This is him in the toy car.

This is where I think it gets even more interesting.. The woman was approached not too long ago about teaching English to a group of Iranian PhD students. She has no formal English training, she studied to be an elementary school teacher, but she is American. Apparently Iranians want to learn American English rather than British English. Also, she is the only American English teacher in Mysore (Did she say the only non-Indian English teacher? I can't remember.). She and her husband, have been praying for someone to come teach the students starting in January so that she will have a bit more time to put into the other ministries, to have more time to dream up ideas for the ministries with her husband, and so that they can accept more students into the ESL classes. Mostly, the need is for a tutor, as private instruction is what these students most strongly desire. She offhandedly, while giving Cindy and I a tour of the facility, asked if I had any English training. ...Totally not expecting the truth that I responded with, I told her I did, in fact, have ESL training. I graduated with my TESL certificate.. I had to do a practicum at the end of my classroom education... she was thrilled! I told them I would pray about it. I do have commitments here that I am enjoying, but this offer greatly intrigues me.

Here are some other pictures of the facility for you:

-All lined up for morning assembly! There are 330 students that attend this school.

-The headlines of the paper are read every morning after the state and country anthems are sung. The school medium is Kannada.

-This is one of the classes at the Hope Center. Here there are about 20-30 students per class and they go through grade 10 standard. That's the normal range of education before pre-college courses.

-This is one of the classes at their other facility. This school has 450 students! They only go through grade 6 standard here, and the class sizes are at minimum 50 students! The kindergarten was around 60. I can't imagine having a class that size for such young kids!

-Here is a mural of Jesus with the children at the smaller building, which, interestingly enough had the larger student population.

-I couldn't resist this picture! I thought the ponytails were adorable....

-This is the room for the women in the Crisis Center

-The playground for the kids

Jupiter and Venus

Last week I was able to witness a beautiful sight just after sunset: Venus, Jupiter and the moon lined up in such a way that they looked like a smiley face! It was beautiful! And, I was so glad that it wasn't cloudy so I could actually see it! I took a couple pictures, not thinking that they would turn out, but I think they came out okay, so I'll post them.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I don't really have any stories from dinner, but I took a few pictures (shocking, I know! It's been awhile) and I wanted to share them with you.

-This beautiful little girl decided to make me her new friend and demanded that I be the one to feed her a bite of pie after dinner.. according to her parents, she allows no one but them to do this. ...Potential for babysitting?

-I taught these guys how to play Sorry. Perhaps Carly (the blond girl) already knew, but the others didn't. That was fun.

-These pictures are of mingling and dinner.. we had quite a few people over.

the week in review

It has been an interesting week in India. On Monday Cindy and I took the kids from the orphanage to the park again. This time, we took all of them, not just the ones that live there, but also those who are in foster care. We had ten children with us. I find it rather impressive we were able to keep track of all of them. And! There were no serious injuries.. just one scrape, I believe. That was also a relief. I enjoyed watching the kids play and pushing some of them on the swing. They really wanted me to play on the teeter-totter again, so I obliged for a little while, until the screams of one of the girls became too much for me to handle with being less than a foot from her. But it was quite enjoyable. Tuesday and Wednesday passed without incident, although during each 30-40 minute walk from Light House to the orphanage my list of things that I miss from home seems to increase. The most prominent of late is fresh air. I am eagerly awaiting the day that I can fully breathe in, while outside, and not smell burning garbage, urine, animal feces, or any other foul scent that I refuse to adjust to. Others include the absence of demanding beggars that refuse to take no for an answer. Those children can be incredibly persistent. Although they are cute, they will not get what little money I have. I would much rather give them food, but that's not what most of them want. Also, the honking of horns. I'm trying not to let it drive me crazy. It's so rude.. and the noise pollution that results really makes me glad that this neighborhood prohibits the use of horns and we are far enough off the main road that we can't hear it. I did read in the paper yesterday that December 1 is no-honking day. I'm pretty excited about that. I'll make it a point to pay attention on Monday to the noise levels while I'm on the road.

So... in addition to all of this trivial news, Mumbai was hit yesterday with Islamic terrorist activity. I don't know how anyone would have missed that news. I have heard it's all CNN and other major news broadcasters are covering. Cindy and I watched one of the online CNN broadcasts yesterday morning which had Hindi subtitles and as with many major news networks, the other news captions at the bottom of the screen were running. I was surprised to be reading, while hearing about the fire at the Taj Mahal Hotel and the gunmen who had taken Westerners hostage, about how a famous cricket player was upset about some game with Australia. I thought to myself, isn't that interesting. We have a *huge* news story going on where many people are being killed, and hundreds have been injured, and the small news ticker is making mention of a sports figure who's upset about a game. My brain was having a hard time making sense of that and when I mentioned it to Cindy later she said that would be pretty embarrassing. However, it may be a big deal to some people, even in light of the events of yesterday. How unfortunate and sad that is. In addition to that news, a former PM died yesterday, though I'm not sure if that was in connection with the hotel hostage situation, but as a result, schools and government offices have been closed for the day so that the people have time to mourn. I have no place to go today, which I kind of like despite the reason for the day off.

It is currently Thanksgiving in the land that I love, and tonight (though it's now Friday here) we are having about 50 people over for turkey dinner.. and whatever Indian dish the caterer is preparing as an alternative for those who are vegetarians or not fond of turkey. I'm really looking forward to the company! It is a lot of people, but I've met most of them. The majority of the people coming are the families of the ladies that Cindy has Bible study with. So, I have met the moms. I have also met the families of those that go to the church we attend, which actually is quite a few. There are around 5 high schoolers that I've met from this group that are coming and I'm really looking forward to spending time with them. Two have recently taken the SATs and are applying to schools in the US, Canada and Europe.. Oh the days of planning for college. Those were great :) ..and perhaps soon to be in my future again with how I have been enjoying helping out in Miss Aruna's math classes.

shopping and colds

I realized I haven't updated in a long while and thought that it would be high time I did. The last couple weeks have been interesting. I tripped walking from Light House to Vathsalya last week and ended up with a bloody knee and a nice sized lump on my leg. Thank God for shots! I was worried I might get something from that, but it's healing nicely and it's merely sore this week. I have come down with a bit of a cold.. and plan to spend a good portion of today sleeping. The weather is changing. It's getting cooler and perhaps that is the reason. Although, I would be more inclined to think it's due to the 20 runny-nosed kids I spend 3 days a week with and my lack of sleep over the past couple weeks. Besides, could I really get a cold when the temperature is going down from 90 to 79? I doubt it. I could not have adjusted that quickly. It's certainly cooler at night, sometimes getting down to the low 60s, but I consider myself blessed because if I were in the US right now it would be in the 30s. I'm grateful for the warmth.

I went shopping on Commercial Street downtown last week! That was exciting. I think I'm getting the hang of talking vendors down. I only did it once. I probably should have for my other purchases, but it didn't end up being a big deal. I bought some beautiful Indian suit material and eventually I'll take it to a tailor to make me the outfit, but I haven't done so yet. That's on my list for next week. (The image is not mine, it's from another blog.. I forgot my camera :( )

Light House is going really well. I love spending time with those kids! I never thought I would ever say something like that, but they truly are a joy. We don't really have verbal conversations since their vocabulary is limited but smiling does wonders. After lunch we have the kids watch tv while we wait for parents to come and this week I've had at least 4 kids try to claim my lap for that half hour. It's amazing how much little kids love touch. It almost seems like they don't really get that kind of attention at home, but I'm sure most of them do.

Tutoring Lakshmi has been going well. I made her flash cards and timed math sheets, and she enjoys both. We started reading Matilda and she seems to enjoy that as well. Last Saturday the orphanage put on an adoptive parents meet, where the kids performed a song and dance to "I can be your friend" from VeggieTales. That was really cute. The rest of the meeting was about adoption, so after the kids' performance we slipped out. On Wednesday I got to the orphanage early and one of the boys was asking me to help him with his Italian (He's going to Italy soon to be with his adoptive parents.) He had language sheets and was asking me how to pronounce the words. The extent of my knowledge of Italian is what I've heard in "Life is Beautiful", and I had a little bit of an idea of pronunciation from French and Spanish. I thought it was funny that he thought I knew the language when I told him a few times that I didn't. But it was fun to hear him practicing.

Obamamania!

If I didn't already know who won the election a couple days ago, this morning's paper would leave me with no doubts. The Times of India wrote of nothing else on the front page and, in fact, dedicated eight pages of its 24 page paper to the news and information of Obama. There are a couple of smaller articles about him on other pages as well, and though I shouldn't have been surprised at how much coverage there was of him, I was. The Financial Express which we also get along with the Times, a small paper of only 10 pages, filled four pages with the news and what could be expected in the financial world.

We have a list of what India expects from the president-elect.

Obama is the "Dark Knight in [the] White House".

Bangalore is ecstatic.

"It's the beginning of the end of racism...will they change the name of the President's house to Black House?"

What role will young people have in the future elections in India?

Will India be hurt by Obama's win, considering his stance on outsourcing and how heavily it is used in IT companies?

Will the next US president be Hispanic?

Also, I have to laugh at the US map of the swing states. I didn't realize that Mississippi had been renamed. Apparently, it is now called Missouri. A lot has changed since I've been gone, and I'm sure there's more to come.

Vathsalya

Monday was a beautiful day! It rained for the majority of the weekend, and when the sun peeked through the clouds Monday morning and revealed the glorious day it would be, Cindy and I were pretty excited about it. We decided to take the kids from the orphanage to the park. The office was closed Monday, so only the five children that live at the orphanage were there. The others are in foster care and because of the holiday and office closure they stayed home. We walked to the park which took about ten minutes with all the children wanting to walk holding our hands in a long line.. this did not please the cars and two-wheelers that wanted to get around us, but we managed. Now, the "park" consisted of a tall double slide. There were stairs and a slide on each side that formed a triangle with a small platform at the top. Also there were two see-saws. This was the park. I played on the see-saw with the kids for a bit.. they thoroughly enjoyed my panicked expressions every time they had me up in the air and suddenly let me drop. On more than one occasion I had a vision of myself falling backwards or getting knocked off and seriously injuring myself as the seats were inadequate and I felt far from safe, but I'm still alive in one piece. After I had enough of that, I decided to go on the slide. The kids were having fun on that so joining in seemed like it could be a good idea. The slide was steep. Really steep. It was only about ten-twelve feet long, but it looked like one could pick up a lot of sleep if he/she wasn't careful. Also, at the bottom of the slide, unlike the gradual stop that the slides come to, the stop was abrupt. The harsh angle of the slide met a piece of metal parallel to the ground with no curve. It was a solid angle. When I sat down at the top, I needed a few seconds to prepare myself and figure out how I was going to arrive at the bottom uninjured. Unfortunately, I had not been watching the kids closely enough to see how they did it when they got to the bottom. Well, in the middle of my contemplation, one of the kids decided he wanted to go with me, so he sat down behind me and gave us a bit of a shove, because obviously I was taking too long! We went sailing down the slide, my hands gripped to the edges to try to slow us down, and came to an abrupt stop at the bottom. Ouch. I can still feel where I hit. I'm not doing that anymore. I later learned that I should have stopped myself with my feet.. that information would have been incredibly helpful before I started down the slide... It was a fun day and it was very enjoyable to watch the kids laughing and playing. They are such joys.

-Anappa and Lakshmi, Lakshmi is the girl I have been tutoring

-Anappa and Naveen.. and in the lower corner is Ashwath

-Anappa and me

rikshaws and new friends

This has been a laid back week. Last weekend I was feeling ill so I didn't do anything exciting. However, once I started feeling better I was able to have a full week. Although I have no pictures today, I do have a couple of fun stories.

I finally contacted the person who runs the slum school that Cindy and I visited about a month ago and I told her I could come in on Mondays and Wednesdays. Our driver ended up being sick with a cold, so the man who took me to the school didn't know where we were going. Now, I have a fairly good sense of direction, but there are no road labels unless it is a very main road. So, we found the area that we were supposed to turn off the road at, but we had about 5 alleys to choose from. I called up the number again and the lady told me she would come and meet me. She (Hannah) pulled up with her scooter about five minutes later and we arrived at the school shortly after that. The kids were finishing up their playtime and as they filed into the main room and sat down, Hannah told me all their names. I hope I will be able to remember them all. She also told me not to be disappointed or alarmed if they do not willingly come up to me, most are afraid of foreigners. Honestly, I was totally okay with that. I would have been a bit freaked out myself if 20 or 30 3-7 year olds suddenly flocked to me. They sang some songs, which were completely new to me. Maybe I knew them once when I was little, but not even one was vaguely familiar. I like learning new things. After the song and a review of the date and alphabet, the kids were split into two groups. I went with Hannah's group. Before the session started, it was potty time! I did not realize that this meant that all of the little kids were going to pull of their pants and then wait in line to use the toilet. I will be prepared next time for the onslaught of bare bottoms. That was definitely not what I was expecting. Anywho.. we sang some more songs, and as I sat with the kids, about four girls made their way over to me and were vying over the space surrounding me. None sat in my lap, but they were as close as they could be to me without being on top of me. And they are afraid of foreigners? I helped them learn how to write the first four letters of the alphabet and then it was lunch time! When the kids had their fill of the food, we put them in front of a movie until their parents showed up. Once the kids had left, I met with the two teachers and another volunteer who had also just begun to help out at the school that day. We talked about ourselves and about the school. Overall, it was a really good experience and I'm glad I said 'yes' to helping out.

I was to tutor Lakshmi that afternoon at the orphanage which wasn't too far from the school, so my plan was to take an auto rikshaw after walking up to the main road. Well, Hannah offered to give me a lift on her scooter up to the road which was so fun! After being on one, I can totally see how a family of four can fit on the seat of one of those, provided it's one of the larger ones.. and the children are small. She dropped me off at the road and I decided that since it wasn't raining, I would walk to the Coffee Day at the next major intersection. I needed a bite of food and coffee sounded really good. After ten minutes I was sitting down at a small table and pulling out my book after placing my order. Now, being used to Starbucks' timely service, I tend to forget that in India it can take almost 15 minutes to get a drink, possibly longer, and I had about 30 minutes before I had to be at the orphanage, so I hoped they would be a bit quicker this time. Nope. If anything it took looooooonger. A quickly finished my coffee and walked briskly to the nearest auto driver. I told him where I needed to go knowing full well how much it would cost for the 5-10 minute ride and exactly how to get there in case he needed directions, but he needed to ask his friend about 80 feet road. That's what I assume he was asking about. He told me 40 rupees and I told him I wanted him to use the meter. Why would I pay 40 rupees for a ride that should cost 10-15? I knew it's basically pennies.. but still. I didn't have exact change on me and I didn't feel like paying extra. He told me again 40 rupees, I said fine, I'll walk. I walked away half expecting him to change his mind, I mean, who turns down business? But he didn't, so I walked. It was a good walk. I didn't even have anyone ask me for money the whole trip to the orphanage, it was fantastic! I think in the future I just won't bother with the auto drivers on those days. I've walked once and unless it's pouring down rain, I wouldn't mind the exercise.

Thursday night Cindy and I went to the YWAM service which was rather short but there were a lot of people there. We saw some friends and while we were waiting for our driver to pick us up we started talking to a group of girls. I met Marina and Linda. Marina is from Manipur and wants me to come visit her home when she goes back in March. They asked for my phone number and told me about all the people they knew in the US.. apparently there is an old man from Ohio living with them. They said that they really want to be friends with me and they're definitely looking forward to hanging out with me again. And...while I was talking to them, Linda's brother interrupted so he could meet me. His second question was 'how old are you?' Followed by 'can I have your phone number?' Shortly after that he said that he wanted to hang out with me and he wanted me to meet his family... He just talked to my mother, who I quickly informed him was not my mother which embarrassed him and I told him that I would have to think about hanging out with him. I don't think I should give him the wrong idea and start hanging out with his family. I would much rather hang out with his sister and cousin and tell myself that I was imagining whatever it was that I read into that conversation. Anyway, I am looking forward to spending time with my new friends.

This weekend the parents are out of town so Katrina and I are on our own. We're heading into the city tomorrow to go shopping! I'm really excited.. I haven't been shopping yet and I've been wanting to go.. even if I don't buy anything.

xkcd

So.. I was shown this the other day, and I realized that it rather perfectly describes me. It's from xkcd.com.

Kabini

Katrina had a four day weekend so we decided to take advantage of that vacation over in Kabini. The Kabini dam has backed up the river to form a huge lake which is surrounded by jungle. We went on a boat safari around the lake and saw elephants, a crocodile, wild boar, spotted deer, sambar (big deer - a tiger's favorite food!), and many, many birds. The following morning we went on a jeep safari through the jungle. The vehicle was a truck with six seats attached theater style to the cab. There were three rows of two seats; the cab had been extended to allow room for the back two seats. The seats themselves were fairly comfortable, but without seat belts. The roads really aren't that great, so whenever we went over large potholes we found ourselves launched at least a foot from our seats. There were a couple times that I almost found myself in Katrina's lap.. and she was sitting diagonal from me! It's a good thing I was hanging on! The most exciting part of the jeep safari happened as we were driving down the road to the lake. It was morning, so of course that would be the best area to spot animals. We were driving along, straining to see the birds in the trees, when in front of us a group of 12 people ran across the street.. what?! The number one rule when you're in the middle of the jungle: Stay Inside You Vehicle! We drove a bit further to ask why they had abandoned their jeep and they pointed to a stuck vehicle next to the lake. Apparently the driver had done off the dirt road closer to the lake to get a better view of an elephant. Well, he drove a little to far and managed to get stuck in the mud. He tried to back out and nothing happened. The elephant noticed the disturbance and decided to meander on over to see what was happening. The guide told everyone to run for a place to hide across the street, and that's what was happening when we drove up. They all piled into the back of our truck and we watched the elephant walk slowly by, minding his own business. He sufficiently cleared the truck and the drivers and guides went to push the truck out of the mud successfully. We drove a little further on after everyone had returned to their proper vehicle, and stopped on the road where we could get a proper look at the large creature. He was sixty feet away. He passed a couple trees, turned, and started towards us. He stopped at a tree about thirty feet away and started scratching himself: his back, his legs, etc., on the bark of the tree. I got lots of pictures! I even took a video because I thought that would be better than mere photographs. That was by far the highlight of the trip. It would have been wonderful to see a tiger or leopard, but it was nice to see an elephant up close.

-One of the many beautiful views of the water and trees from the boat

-The first elephant we saw!

These are a couple pictures I took of the birds. I have tons more, but they aren't the best pictures. I liked the contrast, especially in the second picture, of the tree and the clouds. We saw herons, osprey, kingfishers, snake birds (they dive into the water and swim for awhile before poking their heads above water to breathe and see around them! That was exciting to see...), hornbills, eagles, and many others.

-an egret
-the jungle road

-Spotted deer! The males had magnificent antlers! This is just one of the many herds that we saw that morning.

-Here everyone is taking a picture of the truck stuck in the mud.
-This is the elephant that scared them out of their vehicle...

-Monkeys!

-A pretty tree

-Katrina and I are so excited for the Jeep safari!

Sambar

Wild Boar

Here are a couple of elephant videos. The first is the elephant that chased the people from their vehicle, and the second is the first elephant I saw.

The food at the resort was amazing! It was a buffet of Indian food. I am still trying to get used to the spice, as it is in everything, but I am certainly enjoying the experience of eating new food. I am amazed at how many different ways there are to cook potatoes.

We ended up leaving a day early because we had "done all there was to do", (though how that's possible in a new area I'm not sure). We stopped in Mysore on the way home and visited the Mysore Palace. If you want more information about it, visit: http://www.mysorepalace.org/ I was not able to take pictures of the inside, but I did get a few of the outside and grounds. It is an impressive place, to be sure. There is a lot of history there. For 700 years while Mysore was still an independent State, though the British occupied the rest of India, the same family ruled. A 700 year monarchy is a great feat, especially in light of the conquests of the British and Portuguese. The palace was built out of fire-proof materials (100% fire-proof, the guide said, although there were quite a few wooden doors...) and contains many imports from Britain, Belgium, Italy and France. We discovered that Mysore was the first city in India to have electricity, thanks to the nearby dam. Mysore was also the first city in India to have indoor plumbing! It seems it has been at the forefront of those technologies in India because of the affluence of the area. Apparently there was a rather large gold-mine there for some time.

We attempted to find another palace between Mysore and Bangalore, but we managed to only find the fort in that area. We stopped to ask for directions near a man-made hill that I assume was a watchtower of sorts when the fort was active. There were these darling children at the top of the hill who tried to hide when I pointed my camera toward them. I don't know why they initial shy reaction, because as soon as I was about to put my camera away, they all posed for me. They all wanted to shake Cindy's and my hands. They were adorable.