I forgot to mention, I gave a presentation to Mr. Furtado (Doctor Jason-gi, forgive me for clarifying just now) on Monday! It went quite well, he has requested my email and more information. I’m going to send him the packet, maybe include some extra stuff because India and St. Martha’s has so many more volunteering opportunities than any US hospital.

Hmm, what happened on Monday? I think my post covered everything except the above and my traveling. I like this blog so much that I’ll post about that. You know, it’s funny. All of my relatives and friends read this thing! Who would have thought?

Saying goodbye to my host family was just as difficult as I thought. Still, all too soon I was on the bus waving goodbye to my host father, and then there came the actual bus ride. Whoo boy. That was a strange ride. I got on a completely empty bus, but of course after a couple stops there was a comfortable enough number of people. Then we get to this one stop, and these two men get on that the bus driver seemed to be trying to dissuade, but an official looking man argued with him and they got on. Weird. Then, one of the two of them got really angry after a couple of stops. And by angry I mean shouting at the bus driver, threatening the ticket man, and carrying on for a good half hour. I have no idea what he was so mad about, but the bus finally pulled over for what was clearly an unofficial stop, and he got off, protesting loudly. He was still shouting (profanities is my guess) at the bus as we drove away. My eyes were as big as saucers.

After that, not much happened. It’s a very long drive, even without traffic, and there was plenty of that. Still, we eventually got there. The layout of the platform confused me a bit (you had to walk ALL the way back to the end of it to get off – the plexiglass wall extended the entire parking lot), but I got off eventually. When I got to the airport building proper, the man asked for a ticket to let me inside. Funny, I seem to recall getting tickets at the counters. You know, inside the airport. He mumbled something about a printout (“You didn’t print out the preboarding card at home?” No. What?) and then pulled out a huge list of names and told me to find myself. That’s ok, I’m always the very last one, what with my last name (thank you, Webers!). Very convenient, I think, and I’m never late for roll call in school. Anyway, he let me in, and sure enough I went up to the ticket counter and got my ticket. The man was very courteous and even got me a good seat. He was so very polite and helpful, it was really wonderful. He did ask me to check my bag, as it was 12 kg and the minimum for hand baggage is 8 kg, but I was worried about the can of jamons that I had packed making it through security, so he just saved me some worry.

Security was fine, albeit a bit odd. There was one line for women, and one for men because they scanned everyone with those metal wand things, every single person. The woman who scanned me asked me if I was married, and I realized that the woman at the Nele must have thought I was because she gave me the dot at the base of my part for married women when she was blessing me. Whoops. I thought they seemed confused when I said “boyfriend”. Oh well. I scrubbed it off in the bathroom and got to my gate.

I actually don’t remember what happened next. I really don’t remember the waiting area, or the airplane itself, or anything. I know I didn’t fall asleep in the airport, I was just that tired. Regardless, the plane flight was fine, although I didn’t manage to stay up like I wanted to. I was planning to remain awake to get on California time, because 2 AM there is 1:30 PM here, but it was 2 AM to my brain and that wasn’t happening. Oh well.

I landed in Frankfurt, and was a bit confused because they have three terminals, two of which are A, but oh well, I followed the crowd against the conclusions of my confused logic, and it magically led me in the right direction. Power to the mob! My flight wasn’t being displayed, and I started worrying, but then I looked it up and realized that I had a 5 hour wait. Whee. I wandered around asking staff for directions and getting vague answers until I got through the security of what I thought was my terminal, and then walked up to a Luftanza employee and finally got my gate number (it wasn’t on my ticket and my flight wasn’t displayed). I sat down and played games on my iPod, nothing much to report. I went to get food at noon, and discovered that 400 rupees converts to about 1 euro and change. The money guy and I both laughed, and then he curiously asked what you could buy with 10 rupees (I had a bill with me). When I replied that you could get a bus ticket or a cheap meal, he seemed impressed. Since 1 euro isn’t really enough to get food, I changed a 20 bill that I still had from the US, and went in search of food. I stopped at a coffee shop and got offered beer with my sandwich, but after that I escaped with my food. It was really quite bland, especially after 10 days of Indian spice. Some rubbery cheese, a hunk of chewy bread, and what they said was parma ham but I really don’t think so. Oh, Europe.

After a couple more hours, we all piled onto our flight. The line was a bit surreal, and I’m more firm than ever in my conviction that I will NOT be an American for much longer. There are so many rude travelers! Now I know where the reputation comes from. Ugh. One hippie in particular asked if the plane was going to “the city” (remember, this is Frankfurt). Most people stared, a couple said well, um, yes? And I said “Which city?” He turned to me and loudly drawled (Michelle, I know exactly what you mean about how grating American accents are now that I’m used to the lyrical Bengalese English) “Which city did you think? THE city! San Francisco!” Bleck, I was gagging.

But we eventually got on the plane and took off, after he caused some more annoyance, this time for the flight crew. I slept some more, bringing my total sleep to about 4 or 5 hours, and then watched movies and listened to some more podcasts on my iPod. After both of those died (my iPod really did die, and the movie was one of those that uses awkward and uncomfortable situations to make people laugh, which I just find awkward and uncomfortable), I got so bored that I sketched some designs for henna on some paper. The movies got better, and we touched down no problem. The whole plane cheered!

Finally, back in California. After customs and retrieving my bag (and laughing with the other passengers about the boorish hippie who was clearly on his way to being strip-searched), I met up with my dad! I missed him. It was suddenly very, very good to be home.

Nothing much interesting has happened since them. I’m tired at strange times, but oh well. This is probably my last post, unless my teachers need me to keep updating. I’ll end on that note, as I’m on my way to give my presentation! Wish me luck!

~Monica

Sunday morning I slept in, it was lovely! Haha, here, 9 means sleeping in! My host mother was wondering whether to come and wake me. I spent the morning answering emails, writing essays for YFS, etc. In the afternoon (at 4), my host family took me out shopping! It was so much fun! Indian stores are so different! In the jewelry store, we selected what we wanted at one counter, and they put it all in a bin with a number and just gave us a token (by the way, it’s PACKED). Them, we went to the next counter, and same thing: selection, and then our items are put in a bin. We then went to the cashier and handed him our tokens, and he tallied or items, after a long wait of course (there was no room for a line, but thee was an order).

But that’s already too much detail. I bought a salwar kamiz for myself (well, my host mother did all of the bargaining, price comparison  and quality checking) , and the rest of you will find out what I got when you get your gifts!

Then, Venkatesh-gi picked me up, and we and his family went to the Nele. The girls there are so much fun! There weren’t as many English speakers as last time (I really don’t know why – where did the others go?) but I got by. The girls completely covered my left hand in henna (called mhendi in Kannada), and we had a lot of fun with the language barrier. We all slept at 12.

Then, I’m sorry to say, I had the worst night of my life. I don’t mean to be extreme, and I certainly don’t begrudge the girls, it just happened that way. I was really cold, and I can’t sleep if I’m cold (cold in India? I didn’t expect it either), and I had some sort of weird streaming head-cold thing, only I have no sore throat. I suspect either the strong, cold wind from the fan, or a sinus infection, as this was (it’s almost gone away now) a ridiculous situation. As in, by the end of the night my lungs would rattle from all of the post-nasal drip (but that’s gone too! So no worries!)

I’m not very good at writing briefly, huh? Morning came soon enough, and after meditation and a semi-bizarre stroll through dawn with the matron to watch five minutes of TV at some guys house (I’m sure it made sense to her, but my Kannada is horrible so she couldn’t explain), the girls tackled me! They tied me to a chair (not really), and braided my hair in South Indian style, painted my nails, made flower chains and put them in my hair, and decorated me in bangles, necklaces, and earrings that they obviously use on special occasions and to dress up. Thank goodness they didn’t give them to me to keep, it would have broken my heart to take those beautiful things from those even more beautiful girls! Finally, just when I thought I couldn’t get any more dolled up, the matron whisked everyone out and dressed me in a sari! Then it was pictures, pictures, pictures! Ahaha, it was so much fun!

I caught the bus after a quick idli breakfast (before everyone else – I felt guilty), and got off at the correct stop by myself, finally! I only went to St. Martha’s today. I visited the Orthopedic ward and met a very nice older woman (the doctors described her as “our sweet old lady”), whose English was good enough for me to understand but who had enough of an Indian worldview to completely fascinate me! She was so wonderfully interesting! It hurt to see her wheelchair bound (she had surgery for a broken femur 15 days ago, and is still trying to walk again). The doctors treated her very well, and were very encouraging. It’s an uphill battle here against traditional views: once an older person gets hurt, the family and sometimes the patient believes that it was meant to happen, and now their life is over. One patient in the Physio ward doesn’t go home anymore except to sleep (he’s the sweetest old man I’ve ever met) because his family literally asks him when he’s going to die and leave them all in peace. He carries all his possessions with him in a suitcase, and scooters around the city, mostly spending time at the library, and avoids his family. And he’s a lucky one that’s cut his emotional ties to his abusive family,  lot of older patients honestly believe that they are dead souls walking and that their children can treat them like dirt. That’s why what Doctor Jason-gi does is so very important!

But, brevity here. I just really admire Doctor Jason-gi, I think the culture he has created and the difference he makes in people’s lives every day is unique in all the world. You just can’t do that in the States. Anyway.

After St. Martha’s and some very touching goodbyes, Akanksha and I went shopping for some last minute stuff (ice cream and mhendi! yay!) and chatted. We wandered around and took in the sites, and then it was back to the office for another difficult goodbye. I’ll miss her, very much. I know she’dll have a ton of fun for the next two months, and maybe I’ll even see her again in July!

Then, Venkatesh-gi drove me home, and I said yet another hard goodbye. Now, I’m going to spend just a few hours with my host family, and then say goodbye for the last time.

To all you California readers (and one in Dartmouth), I love you very much, but I don’t think I can reply to your emails tonight. I’ll see most of you in just a few short hours anyway! And to my mallow, I promise to reply as soon as I get home. I love you so much! Goodnight!

~Monica

Akanksha and I both traveled with a friend of a family friend who organizes the volunteers at that hospital. He showed us the overwhelming front hall, with this huge chandelier and these enormous pillars (complete, of course, with a gigantic picture of Sai Baba). No photographs though, we weren’t permitted any.

Then, we toured the cardio ward, it was astounding! A lot of the hospitals here have a different (not worse,  mind you) standard of care and cleanliness from what I’m used to (one even let Akanksha watch a surgery take place! In the same room and everything!), but not this one, wow! It was very Western, and very structured. I asked, and they have both MRIs and fMRIs, plus a couple PET scanners for kicks. They even have a patient follow-up system, because Sai Baba insists that just treating the symptoms is not enough, one must treat the patient. If he has a heart disease from an unhealthy lifestyle, they counsel him on how to lead a healthier one, and then they check on him individually to make sure he is continuing his medication and actually living a healthier lifestyle. They do this through a network of doctors that they have contact with all over India, and even abroad, wherever patients come from. That way, for the check-up, patients can travel locally and the doctor can report back to the hospital, rather than making the poor patients travel sometimes hundreds of miles after a major surgery.

One more thing, this hospital gives preferential treatment to children. The younger they are, the higher priority they are. The theory is, better to give a child the chance at 100 years than a grandparent the chance at 1. Still, they do treat the grandparents, they just usually ask them to come back in a couple months, depending on the severity of the case. But they never turn anyone away, isn’t that amazing?

Anyway, my awe for this organization and this man runs deep and strong. It was an honor to tour such an amazing facility.

After our tour, we hopped on a bus, and then sat in traffic for two hours. We finally got off at the last stop, only to realize that we were another 40 minutes away from St. Martha’s, and that no auto would take us. So we had to walk for a couple of city blocks before we reached a street and an auto that could take us. Whee, it was an adventure!

We finally got there though! At St. Martha’s, we used styrofoam (usually I abhore the stuff, but this had been saved from being thrown away, so I guess it’s alright) to make dominoes for the kids to play with, and we tried but failed to make a Chinese checkers board. We also walked around yet another area that’s going to be landscaped and came up with ideas. The rest of the group went to another one again, but I dashed back and finished the domino set! Because it was time to close the Physio ward and the staff were giving Dr. Jason-gi dirty looks apparently.

Akanksha and I then hopped into yet another auto and drove to where she is staying. She’s in a youth hostel of about 60 girls. It’s a mix of destitute women that the hostel employs to make bags out of newspapers and plastic bags instead of throwing them away, and college students from far away who are completing their studies nearby. Do colleges not provide on-campus housing? Everyone seems shocked that I’m traveling 3,000 miles to live on my school’s campus!

At 5, the girls begin class and prayers, so Akanksha and I went to the market to hunt up some tasty fruit! We tried these little purple-grape looking things, only they’re extremely astringent, and they have a large pit. Actually, now that I think about it, they’re kind of like olives, only purple and they taste different. So not really, but you get the idea. And I’ve finally eaten star fruit! *celebrates* I’ve always wanted to, and it was just as interesting as I imagined. Definitely not a crowd pleaser here in India, but I swear it tastes exactly like some American candy! Smarties I think. Sweet, sour, and just a hint of bitter really. Sooo good! Finally, we were ripped off by the lychee seller, but we got them! I missed them, I adored them when I visited Thailand. Apparently when they’re in season you can find them at Asian specialty stores in California! I really, really need to find one nearby.

After buying fruit, we walked in the park next to a famous temple, the Bull Temple. We visited inside briefly, and Akanksha showed me how to pay respects to the gods. Then, we walked around inside the park (getting some cool pictures of the fruit bats that roost there!) and got rained on! My first thunderstorm in Bangalore. We walked back in the rain and bought some more snacks, and then happily sat in the hostel and ate them. I got to meet the man who runs the hostel, he’s very nice.

Then I was whisked off to celebrate Svati’s test scores! She scored in the 93rd percentile of the whole country. Wow! My host sister is so smart! (But she only has one hour of homework a night?! What is this?) The traffic was bad because of the rains, so we played car games like Place Names (where one person says a place, and the last letter of that name becomes the first letter for the next person) and a game of chopsticks with my brainy host-brother that lasted 20 minutes! He’s a whiz at strategy games, he just got first in a chess tournament on Thursday. Oh yea, and he completely trounced me in 5 minutes the day before. I say, if he can beat me, then of course he can win the tournament! Haha, I wish that was true.

We finally got there, and there was a power line that had splintered from lightning (and wires had fallen into the street – scary!) so we parked far away. My host family breezed over the obstacle, and I inched around it, quaking. The restaurant was very nice, only at first they wouldn’t seat the 18 we had coming (big family’s here, and everyone wanted to tell Svati how smart she is). We finally figured it out, and then all of the relatives entertained themselves by telling jokes and laughing at me when I didn’t know what was in any of the food. It was so much fun! Lots and lots of good food, lots and lots of surprised looks when I said that I love spicy food. It’s not that strange, is it?

Whew! A very long day. We came back and collapsed. Goodnight!

Edit: The internet was down for this post as well, I wrote it on Sunday.

~Monica

I’ve decided not to go back and cover everything that happened yesterday. You know most of it already, it’s routine, and plus my memory is only slightly longer than your average goldfish.

Instead, I’m going to post what sorts of things volunteers can do for St. Martha’s, according to Doctor Jasongi.

1. Brighten children’s ward
   : volunteers can teach lessons to the children to keep them entertained
   : potted plants can be moved in and watered to bring life
   : volunteers can make posters that promote health and hygiene, preferably ones with animals, sports, or cartoons to communicate the message in a friendly way
2. Angelica project (Nov. + Dec. only)
   : volunteers learn a skillset, say crocheting baby clothes or making candles, and each volunteer makes one thing for babies born below the poverty line at St. Martha’s.
   : Around 5 of these babies a day are born at St. Martha’s, so volunteers will give 5 kits a day to the hospital.
3. Other happy things
   : doctors and staff can donate old things
   : clothing and blankets can be given to the patients below the poverty line
   : crockery can be repainted and decorated by either volunteers or patients themselves
   : if patients, can take home, or can go on the wall
   : if volunteers, can sell to raise funds for awareness campaigns, or can paint awareness slogans on items and give to patients

There you go, one meeting’s wort of notes from a little while ago, with my own ideas thrown in. St. Martha’s has so much potential! There are so many positive people coming up with lots of ideas, it’s wonderful. And so much has been done already, it’s really astounding!

Edit: I wanted to include some Powerpoints that YFS has given me, but I went to upload them, and my host family’s internet broke! And then I didn’t get a chance to go by the YFS office because I was sick. I’m really sorry! May I receive late credit for this post please?

~Monica

The group therapy through painting went so well this morning! Albeit not at all according to plan, haha. Still I got lots of pictures of the kids, and they all had fun. Doctor Jason is talking about implementing a shorter, individual session for each of the kids at the end of their appointments, although they’d have to constantly change it, especially for the younger one, whose only motivation seems to be the acquisition of chocolate!

Later, I finally found someone who can use the packet! Surprisingly (for me at least), the implementation of volunteer programs seems to come from outside the hospitals generally, from the volunteers themselves! I gave my fellow American volunteer, Akanksha, the copy of the packet that I had on hand, because in the next two months she and another volunteer, Sarah, will be starting a volunteer program at the hospital of their choice! If I was here for longer, I would be doing that as well. She seemed to think the information was valuable, although she kindly refused to fill out the survey. I haven’t got a single one, but then again I can’t really make them mandatory… I hope Avery has more luck with our US contacts, they seem happier to do a bit of paperwork.

That’s it for now. I’ve been on my host family’s internet for 2 and a half hours. They must think I’m  crazy! Half of that time went to our landscaping project at St. Martha’s, and half to all of my emails. It’s just like being in the US… ah well, I can’t complain, I’m doing a lot of good, hard work.

Maybe I’ll post a full account of my day later. I just don’t feel up to it right now, sorry! Goodnight.

~Monica

Today, we got to St. Martha’s on time! I got to meet a fresh American volunteer on her first day, although Svati didn’t come, which was dissapointing. The new volunteer and I will be working at St. Martha’s and Kidwai together, although she’ll be here for two months. We spent most of the morning planning out what we’re going to do with the back garden area in front of the Physiotherapy ward. We’re thinking a bench, a retractable awning, and a bunny cage! It was funny, I seem to be a valuable resource after all. My work in a daycare last summer let me speak about maintaining rabbits. I was able to dismiss fears about smell, fighting, biting, and multiplication. “Breeding like rabbits” is a phrase that translates across cultures, it seems. The stroke meeting was delayed further, simply because we ran out of time, although we had enough of it to prepare for tomorrow’s fun with the children. Did I post about that? We’ll be painting and decorating paper plates to look like faces – it should be a lot of fun for the kids, and also improve their fine motor skills.

For lunch, we hopped in a volunteer’s car and drove for quite a bit to a good restaurant. It seemed a bit random, until after the meal I discovered that we were above a famous ice cream store. Sneaky, sneaky. It’s called the “Cool Spot” or something equally nondescript, but their “fruit salad” is very famous. It’s a scoop of rich ice ceram on top of a bed of pinapple, cherries, nuts, and some sort of yummy sauce. Mmm!

That made us late, though. It was worth it. We hopped in an auto (I’m going to stop explaining who “we” is because it changes every day) and drove to YFS’s office for a last-minute meeting. The children at Kidwai were sad that I couldn’t come, but what could I do? The meeting was productive, I met lots of other volunteers. We all introduced ourselves and what we are doing with YFS. There is one other American volunteer who has been here for two weeks or so, and after the meeting we spent half an hour playing drawing games instead of designing a new YFS T-shirt. Never fear, it was optional. I might do some work on that tonight, more on that later if I do.

The thing we were waiting around for was yet another meeting, this one with Venkateshgi. He asked us how we were adjusting, what was different from what we expected, all of  that. Not a gripping story, but most meetings are like that: it’s really important that they happen, but they don’t make very good blog posts.

Anyway, now I’m here, borrowing YFS internet to update as I wait for Venkateshgi to get back from coffee (I think it’s a meeting of some sort? He invited me along, and the other two volunteers went, but I figured I wouldn’t have time later to update.) That’s pretty much it really. Now Venkateshgi needs this computer, so I’m signing off!

~Monica

But that happened throughout the day. First, we went to St. Martha’s and I don’t know what was different, but we sat there for 3 hours straight. Or rather, the two of them sat there and I kept myself mildly entertained, showing Jasongi the posters that Avery and I made, talking with Anan (another volunteer) about the Out Patient Department, where he is now, and annoying Jasongi some more by asking him about the stroke awareness meeting scheduled for today. He’s moved it to Thursday.

At 1, the volunteers got food at the hospital’s canteen, which was very hot, but the food was good. Only two of the four volunteers from yesterday were present, (myself and Anan), so it was a quieter affair. Then we all went our seperate ways: Svati went home, Ramya and I to Kidwai, and Anan to wherever Anan goes.

Kidwai was livelier than St. Martha’s, which was odd, as the physio patients at St. Martha’s are much better off than the children with leukemia that we spent time with at Kidwai. Ramya and I spent two happy hours drawing things from storybooks that the kids requested onto pages, and then the kids would color them. The kids were all very taken with my pencils “all the way from America”, and I gave every last one away. The kids are so sweet, and it was wonderful to see them interacting like normal children. We visited the depths of the children’s ward, and there were a lot of IVs and a lot of hopeless faces, it broke my heart. I couldn’t stay long in each room, it was so painful.

Giving those kids a reason to smile (and a chocolate or two) is the reason I came here. There are so many people who need help! So many children without a chance at a normal life. I want to do everything I can to help them. The kids in the States get plenty of that, there are well-established foundations and all that, and plenty of philanthropists and whatnot. But the volunteer movement in India is smaller, although it is growing rapidly. There are many fields to be advanced, and many, many people to reach.  So very many.

~Monica

My first working day is over! This is such a surreal experience, wow. I woke up early-ish and had breakfast, these yummy bleached cornmeal-type cakes that start with an “i”, I think. (I don’t remember every name that comes my way, although I try!) Then, Venkateshgi drove me to St. Martha’s, or almost all of the way. He dropped me off at the top of a one way street and told me that St. Martha’s was down it. I crossed some traffic, and headed on my way! So I walked and walked and walked… and reached the end of the street. Turns out, I crossed a bit too much traffic, and I was on the wrong side of the street. I had to dash back across at the first opportunity, which was a very long time. Did you know that pedestrians don’t have the right of way here? If they did, no car or bike would get anywhere, much less those huge city buses. So exciting!

I finally found St. Martha’s right at 9, which was perfect. He introduced me to the staff, particularly two Occupational Therapists who work with stroke patient’s upper bodies. They in turn gave me a tour of the place and allowed me to observe their practice. They have quite a nice facility, the office has everything the doctors need, or close to it, the environment is cheerful and sunlit, and there are a lot of final-year medical students taking each patient through their exercise.

However, this morning there was a traffic jam, so not a lot of patients made it. Instead, one of the I-Shiners (as Jasongi’s volunteers are called) and I went to the daycare that the hospital provides for staff’s children under the age of 4 (at 4 they start school). It can use a lot of care and work, and I think we came up with a lot of good ideas for improving it. We discussed those amongst ourselves first on location, and then with the Director of Something (the titles all fly by me. It’s awful of me, but true…) and brainstormed some more. We brainstormed ourselves halfway through lunch, and then realized how hungry we all were and skipped off to a restaurant down the street. The food was all delicious, as it always is, and it was fun hanging out with the 3 other volunteers that came today. More will come tomorrow, I think, but I’m kind of glad that I got to start in a smaller group of people. It got me used to the culture and the expectations, and all that. Anyway, lunch was divine.

After lunch we hopped over to primary care (Jasongi and the rest of us are all in Physiotherapy), just to check the place out. We brainstormed some more suggestions for improvements there, then went back to the daycare, this time with all four of the I-Shiners present. One of them studied interior design and the botany of India, so we got a lot of really great ideas going. She’s so knowledgeable, it’s amazing! They all are. We finally drifted back at around 3, and Jasongi gave us all packets on stroke information, all of these single page leaflets arranged in random order. I was the only one who found it funny that they were printed from the American Heart Association’s website.

We each pulled our packet apart and reassembled it in the order that we thought would be best to present to people who don’t know about stroke. Then we split up each page between us, and we’re going to present our pages to our core group on Thursday.

After that, I don’t remember what happened. Two lines up, my interent cut out, and luckily wordpress saves drafts, or I would have lost everything. This post is for Monday,  so I’ll throw it up and post another for Tuesday.

~Monica

Before I sleep, I wanted to write down what happened Sunday evening. I posted during my relaxing period while Venkateshgi was driving to my host family’s house (they are the Hebbars, please help me remember, I’m awful with names!!), and then Venkateshgi and his family whisked me off. I didn’t know where we were going till we were halfway there!

We drove to the “outskirts” of Bangalore, and by outskirts I mean normal American inner city population density (only 100 times poorer), not crazed center-of-Bangalore dense. We went to one of YFS’s Seles, or as it is in English, a Refuge, this one called Ray of Hope (and I’ve forgotten the Kannada for that). YFS runs six of these orphanages, three for girls and three for boys. Ours was a one for girls. They come from all sorts of backgrounds: orphaned girls, girls from single mothers who do manual labor and thus can’t support a child, girls from abusive homes (this was the saddest and the most common), you name it. Thankfully, because the family size has shrunk from 4-5 children to 1-2 children in the last 20 years, not many of the girls were completely parentless, as those children are usually cared for by the relatives. Venkatesh explained it to me as the relatives with large families feel burdened by yet another child, but when they have only 1-2 kids, one or two more is manageable.

We stayed at Ray of Hope for quite some time. The girls danced for us (well, the little ones jumped around, and the older girls danced), sang for us, and led us in prayer. Then we (Venkateshgi, his wife, and I) sang a song each, then I told an abridged version of The Little Mermaid which I would stop every 2 minutes so that Venkateshgi’s wife could translate for the younger girls. Then, the four kittens living there snuck in, and you couldn’t get two sensible words out of me. They were so cute! Finally, all the older girls sat around and taught me Kannada phrases with their impressive English skills. I had so much fun that I’m going to spend a night there sometime this week! I’m very  excited, all of those girls were very fun and sweet. I can’t wait to see them again!

So there you have it, Sunday was senior project-y after all! I knew Venkateshgi would think of something. Now it’s off to bed with me, I get up in 8 hours and I’m still shaking my jet lag. I’ll post this as soon as I can, I don’t really know when! I’ll figure it out…

~Monica

I’ve safely arrived at my host house! My host parents are very nice, considering that it is 3:30 in the morning for them. I’m still wired, stupid 12 hour time difference. I need to sleep soon though, because I’m getting up at 8:30 to attend a meeting at St. Mary’s Hospital.

Before I forget though, I want to write down what happened on the planes. The first one wasn’t bad, it was 10 hours long. My legs cramped up, but not unbearably, and I watched Invictus. We touched down in Frankfurt, and I had no trouble getting to my flight. I then sat next to a very talkative Indian woman for the next three hours and played with her children. She’s the third person to offer to show me around this city. Everyone here is so nice!

Then we got on the plane, oh boy. There were literally 15 babies seated around me, and a solid 5 rows of shushing grandparents and crooning mothers. Now, I love babies, but after 8 hours of waking up every 15 minutes so that the 3 month old next to you can be walked around, I was just about ready to turn the plane around and come home. And I think I have bruises from sitting so long.

Then we touched down, yay! Only they wouldn’t let me through customs. I didn’t have the address that I would be staying at, only some phone numbers, it was 1 AM, and my phone doesn’t work here apparently. Not so much fun. Luckily, for some strange reason email on my phone works still (even though it’s probably freaking expensive), so I was able to contact my family and they in turn called Venkatesh. I managed to convince a security guard to let me use their phone, and I got Venkatesh on the line and he gave them the address. Saved!

Then I get out of the baggage claim and to the meeting spot, expecting Venkatesh to be there because I spoke to him not two minutes ago. It turns out that he was waiting outside with a sign, so after 20 or so minutes and another frantic email I decided to go through the one-way security door and stare down all the creepy taxi solicitors at 2 AM.

But then I found him! And then we drove for an hour, talking about this and that. I’ll post what he told me about the programs later. Right now, I need to get sleep for my meeting tomorrow at 8:30.

Goodnight! Or rather, good afternoon to all you west-coasters.

~Monica