Second Week in India

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I would first like to say thank you for everyone taking the time to read my blog. I have just set up a site, http://www.justgiving.com/AshaIndia
where you can make donations to this organization. Please take time to explore their website and see all the amazing work they are doing. What we consider to be very little money in the US, goes a long way here. As you look at my photos, please try to realize the common humanity among us all. I am halfway across the world but I am working in this environment in the slums everyday. I see how hard it is to live in these conditions and I am so grateful to Dr. Kiran Martin and Asha for making such a huge and visible difference for all of these people. Anything you can give will really go so far.
Thank you,
from everyone pictured here.

http://www.justgiving.com/AshaIndia

I have been busy now that other volunteers have arrived from the US.
Nick is from Miami, and will be teaching with me in Zakhira. It is so much easier to have a co-teacher. We frequently have to brainstorm for new ideas. In the classroom, it is difficult to gage the level of understanding until about halfway through the lesson. I worked on sentence order on Tuesday; Person/Action/Object. For the girls this took the whole lesson, while for the boys we moved on to using the gerund and adverbs. An extremely frustrating discovery we made was that our temporary translator, the computer teacher, Panjung, would only show up for the boys class. We thought maybe he was busy during the girls class but we asked him to come for them the next day and he agreed. However, the next day as soon as the girls class started, he sat down to eat his lunch. Nick asked him to please come help with the girls and after taking his time he came and asked -oh do you need help? The girls are so much farther behind the boys that I would basically guess the boys were two grades in school ahead. Also if at the ASHA center this is the attitude towards girls learning, then what message are the girls getting about their education from their families? It is now my goal to not only work on teaching them english but also to try to improve their confidence and charisma. We worked on question words for two days. When, Which and Why were particularly difficult to explain to them. We are thinking of asking to please split up the girls into two classes because their group is bigger and they need more time and a better teacher to student ratio. The boys respond really well to having a guy teacher so Nick has taken the lead for them. One nice thing is the boys have no qualms liking the color pink or flowers or butterflies, it is refreshing to not have kids jeering at each other for those things. The boys are also clearly friends out of class, while the girls did not all know each others names. We also need to find a dictionary that translates hindi transliterally since we can't read the script.
Meanwhile in the slums, our work doing the tuberculosis survey has continued in the morning. Pinky, our Asha help, and a very sweet girl, trudges out there with us and asks the questions in Hindi. Nick and I take turns writing their responses down. One thing Nick pointed out, is that all the women pause after they are asked for their age. Also miraculously they all are a round number, because they always say, 25/30/35/40/45, so basically we are figuring that in fact, they do not know their exact birthdays.




Having Nick present in the slum also creates a change. He is very tall and looks foriegn. Many of the women cover their heads or even faces with their saris or even stay inside and speak only to the woman from Asha. He also becomes a celebrity because when we arrive we soon attract a following of children and adult observers. It still stuns me how generous and warm so many people in the slum are. When we approach a door, the women usher us into the shade so that we are not hot. We went into one womans home and she offered us food but we have been recommended not to eat it in case we get sick from it. Many of the women are willing to have their picture taken. They enjoy seeing pictures of their children and babies as well. I plan to make an album for them to have in the Asha center.
It is remarkable how different each part of the slum feels. Each area that we do a day has a different group of people and a different feel to their community. Whenever I'm off duty, I get into my photographer role. Some people are very receptive to it, and sometimes the kids get very enthusiastic. They all want their own picture taken. It makes candid photography very difficult, because as soon as I pointed at something, 5 kids would jump in front vying for some space. Enjoying that they were not being shy I usually obliged them. After awhile however, there was such a large following of jumping children that I had to put my camera away. Some of them were grabbing at the case wanting their photo taken. Suddenly a woman starts lunging at the kids trying to slap them in order to shoo them away. The kids scattered instantly and quickly, only a few creeping back out of her reach to see what I was taking pictures of.





There are so many babies in the slum. I found out why they put the dark eyeliner under the babies' eyes. Basically anyone that is very cute may create envy in others. If someone is so envied, something bad could happen to them since others are all so jealous of how cute they are. Putting the black lines under their eyes is meant to make them less cute and consequently keep them safe from anyone that might wish bad upon them. Personally I think it makes them look cuter.
We have been wondering why some kids that we meet in the slum, around twelve years old, do not come to our classes. We met a few that are a part of the Bal Mandals, the group of children trained in assessing the health and needs of a specific lane in the slums. Even though there is no school right now because it is summer, the kids seem to remain in their house in the slum all day. It is interesting that a lot of kids ages 8-12ish, seem to take a lot of responsiblity for managing the household. Kids do the cooking and carry around their baby brothers and sisters.
On a more personal note, I have had some India experiences outside of the slum. First of all I discovered the secret of putting powder on your face. The stores all sell talcum powder in bottles designed for guys or girls. When you rub powder into your face, it stops the incessant sweat rolling down! That's why I sit there at Asha with a rag in my hand, while the women look as composed and calm as ever, despite the heat. This week was extremely hot, the rain mostly passed and the sun began to shine strongly. I have a tan on my feet from my shoes that I wear in the slum. I saw blue sky for the first time on Friday, usually it is so cloudy.
One day when we hopped in the car to return home after a day at work, there was a man catching a ride with us. He was older, and had his hair colored by the usual henna, which turns gray hair an orangey hue. We found out he is a preacher, working in the name of Jesus at local slums. He has worked for Asha for ten years, helping the spiritual part of their mission. He explained that he used to work for the church and go around preaching, but he was not practicing what he preached. He felt that he was a good man because of this connection to the church. However, fourteen years ago he had a vision, and was called by God to work for the people. He prays with the sick and heels them. There was another man in the car who shared his story of conversion; his wife and son were very sick and no doctor could cure them. After praying with this man, they were healed. The preacher does not work, he told us about his family and what they all do. He is fortunate to be supported by them. We took a video of him explaining how great the work of ASHA is. He described the way people used to live in the slums as like animals, they were not conscious they were not aware. After a lot of hard work and persistence, Asha was able to help the residents listen and learn to work for their own betterment. The next day he called saying to please not include anything he said that might be negative about slum dwellers.
On Thursday was a big convention for an exciting cause. The finance minister of India organized local banks to agree to offer financial services to residents of the slum Ekta Vihar. This was the pilot slum of the Asha program. The minister explained that these people, even the poorest in society, deserve financial services as much as health services. In this program, residents are allowed to open a bank account even with a zero dollar balance. They can then take out a loan for whatever they need. He explained that everyone, even slum dwellers, deserve to have a tv, a scooter, a mobile telephone, and other amenities. People from all of the slums attended the conference, wearing their best saris; sequins, sparkles and brilliant colors swirled about the room.
The loans may also be used for educational purposes. After high school, all students must be trained in this particular course in order to move on. It is sort of like training for the SATs; only families that can afford it can allow their children to have practice and training. With these loans, all the children in the slum can take this course. At the ceremony, several students were presented with scholarships to attend post secondary education. The air hostess academy is a particularly popular path. It is a short course, allowing students to make money sooner rather than later. This position also allows young people to travel and see the world. A couple students planned to study at the fashion institute, and others were enrolling in Delhi University. It was very touching and exciting to see these young people who grew up in such destitute conditions, able to really tangibly move up in society and do well for their family.
Socially things have been improving for me personally with the arrival of new volunteers. Today (saturday) we went and explored Connaught Place, sort of the downtown/central area of Delhi. We found a market underground to buy pirated dvds and cheap brand name perfumes. We had some indian food, a dosa, and wandered around looking for a mobile phone store. Afterwards we went by Pria market, the local hang out and shopping complex. We went there last night for drinks and some food. The first dish I chose was unbelievably spicy, it felt like my mouth was on fire. After eating we wandered around the market and I made friends with some street dogs. Dogs here are almost all stray and surviving on their own, besides some particularly posh imported breeds. It is very hard sometimes for me to see the dogs, skinny and dirty, panting as they scrounge for food. They have remarkably street smarts however, and know to look both ways before crossing the street. Id worked hard to resist the urge of trying to play with them, until I found a roughly 7 month old puppy at Pria. She was very sweet and I pet her for awhile. I was about to take her home when another dog came around and they clearly were found of each other. We watched them play wrestle for awhile and then I saw that the street kids who beg in Pria take care of those dogs.
My roomate has gotton her staples/stiches out now but still is told not to work for the next week. She must start physical therapy and must not be out and about unless necessary. She is going crazy sitting in her chair in the apartment all day. Ross and i wandered off to the local market to an indian clothing store. it is quite upper class and fairly touristy. While waiting in line to exchange some of my enormous pants for a traditional dupatta-like a scarf-I observed some indian women come in, walk right to the counter, ignoring the line of 3 tourists, and pay for their items. The tourists were a bit bewildered and didnt say anything but I too was taken aback.
That's all for now!