Extremely Long Days

March 29, 2009
So the new school is really nice. It is in a prime location, so two out of the four hostels can walk to it, decreasing the bus trips from three to one. Also it is four floors, so there is so much room that they literally can’t use one whole floor yet, but the kids are coming in every week, so you never know. We have designed the school to have a big library, a science lab and a computer lab, which will make the school better than any of the private schools in the area. One thing that is funny is the land owner is very Hindu and in Hinduism, how your house is set up is very important, it is called Vastu. In Vastu the bathrooms have a lot of rules as to where they can and cannot be. One things that they can never be on the East side of the house, which I had heard once before, and luckily our plan did not have bathrooms on the East side by chance, but there is another rule that both Lynne and Ratnam had never heard that there can not be a bathroom in a corner, which cut out 3 bathrooms, which was quite annoying. Along with being strict Vastu they land owner and his wife are illiterate. They technically are not because they can right their names, but they are very slow and can only write in Telugu. I really do not understand how an illiterate man could make so much money that he could buy land and build a four-story building on land that is just a little less than the price of Lexington land. After a couple of stops in the road, it seems like the school is going well.

Last Saturday the wholesale tailor that was handling the boys clothes for Easter came to drop all of them off. It was impressive how on time he was. The clothes looked great on the boys. However, about a third had pants there were too long.

This past week two women from Boston came and volunteered. One was a native Indian. It was a little weird since even though she was, both of them seemed to have no idea of like the dress code. Lynne thought that since the woman from India was coming she didn’t have to have a cultural lesson and it is pretty hard to tell someone who to dress in their own country, but whatever. Besides that, they were pretty helpful. We finished sorting all the clothes that we got into when Marion and Amy were here, but we sorted them even further into sizes. It took is about 4 days to do all to boys and all the girls. They would work from 11-5 and then they did crafts with the kids, so the first night, they had third hostel do drawings. Second hostel they just played with, and first they did the craft project that Marion sent, with the boys. The kids all seemed to have fun. The only bad thing was that we always had to go back to the house to set up for tomorrows project, which meant Lynne and I didn’t get to spend much time with the kids. Friday we all worked on the library project of pasting labels on all the books. I never thought about the process that it must have taken years for these modern American library that have millions of book, to put labels on all of them. We worked straight for almost 9 hours, and we only labeled about 50% of the 1,300 books that Agape has now. For their last day here we took them to the best Biriyani in town, Bawatchi. We ended up staying out until 12, and we only went back because I was about to fall asleep at the table. I had spent two of the past night up until 1 trying to make the library software print out what I wanted. It had finally caught up with me.

Yesterday we woke up at 5:30 to get a head start before the heat to put up fliers for staff. The whole night, none of us slept, because it was so hot. I would fall asleep for maybe five minutes and then I would wake up. When the alarm went off it was so sad, I thought it had to be a joke. We got up got ready, while we did that Thanuja made some homemade glue to put the fliers up with. We left at around 7, half an hour off schedule and drove the hostels to pick up a couple of boys to help us paste. We took the mini-van. Hafeez and Ranjete (the driver) in the front. Lynne, one of the boys Ratan, and me in the middle, and three more boys sitting on the floor in the back with the seats lifted up. We started out in Uppal, but decided that we couldn’t put up flies to steal school teachers from schools in broad daylight, so we decided to go on the main roads out towards the village and past them in major intersections and bus stops. We drove probably a total of 1 and a-half hours away from Uppal, but we stopped a lot to put up fliers, so it took us about four down and two back. We stopped at a place for lunch that was actually pretty good for being so far outside of the city. We had a system down. Whenever we saw a place, all the boys hoped out we popped open the trunk. Lynne and I handed back the amount of posters for that specific stop. One boy laid out newspaper and pasted the back of each with the glue and the other three boys ran them out to where they wanted to post them. We all then piled back into the car and moved on to the next place. While were out we got pulled over by the police twice at checkpoints. It was nomination day, so there were a lot of police checking for bombs and there were big huge mobs of people marching around, making it pretty difficult to get were we wanted to go. When we got pulled over, they wanted to see the trunk and whenever they opened it they were surprised to see the boys in the back. The boys just waved, and the police officers waved back and then we were on our mission again. By about five we were on our way back to the hostels and I was pretty beat. I was tired last night and I didn’t get really any sleep, so I was now exhausted. We went back and laid down with the girls for about an hour before we went and ate at first. We then decided to go back out at 9 so that we could paste on schools and shops without anyone there to object. We took the ambulance too with a couple extra boys to get the job done. We didn’t take the ambulance in the afternoon, because we would have boiled to death with out the AC. Ratnam, and Jayapaul, along with 3 other boys joined our group. We put up a ton of fliers. Then at around 12:30 some cops pulled us over to tell us that there is a curfew up, which none of us knew about, because of the elections coming up. We drove away from them and put a few more, but at one we stopped, even though we didn’t do nearly as much as we had hoped. Surprisingly I was able to stay awake until we got back to the house at around 1:45. At 2 I crashed.

Being a Tourist

March 19, 2009
Sorry, time has gotten away from me again. I left off with Thaunja and Ratnam gone. The rest of the week was a little crazy, with the majority of the time spent in the kitchen, but Thanuja came back on the 23rd at around 7. Ratnam got back on the 24th really early. Lynne, James and I went to the airport at 3 am and met him there. We spent the 24th relaxing and working at the house, since no one was really awake. The next morning we went out to buy the rest of the boys’ cloth for Easter. At around 5 we got back and we ran around to get me ready to leave for my flight. These past two weeks my family came to India to visit me and to tour around. It has been a very packed two weeks but very fun and interesting.

On the 25th I flew to Delhi to meet up with my parents. We stayed over for a night before flying the Varanasi in the morning. Many of you probably have seen pictures of it, since it is that city that is on the Ganges river that is the holy place to bath and cremate people. They have many ghats, which are the stairs into the river. It was a very interesting site and quite unique. We only stayed overnight, but we got to see both the sunset with the evening prayer, and the sunrise with the morning prayer.

From Varanasi we flew down to Mumbai were Becca met us. We only spent half a day there and saw all the big important sites to see including this very good Gandhi museum, which was actually a house that he used when he visited Mumbai. Another interesting site was this garden called the hanging garden, which was actually a garden sitting on top of their reservoir.

From Mumbai was traveled to Udaipur, which is in the state of Rajasthan. It was a really beautiful area. Our hotel was absolutely amazing. The first day we just enjoyed the hotel, but the next morning we went and saw the city palace. It was quite impressive, and it turns out that they still have a king, even though he has no real power. After that we took a boat ride to another palace, which is on the middle of the lake. In Udaipur there are three big man made lakes, which is funny since Rajasthan is pretty much a complete desert. It had a spectacular view. We then went out to dinner, we took autos to the place, which was right on the water.

The next morning we flew to Jaipur, from Jaipur we drove to this village, Samode, about an hour north of the city. It had another spectacular hotel, which was the king’s palace. It had this one room that was so well preserved it was amazing, full of mirrors and inlaid with real gems and amazing paintings. In Samode we took a Camel ride through the village and the over to the kings old gardens which were quite fantastic and full of Peacocks. The next morning was nice and relaxed and about midday we drove back to Jaipur. Yet again it was an amazing hotel. And another old palace. It was probably the best hotel of the trip. After lunch we went and saw the palace in the city of Jaipur which was very interesting and had some examples of the old clothes and weapons. The most interesting part was the observatory. From what had heard I had assumed it was like the white round building that had seen before, but it turned out to look like a sculpture garden, which had many different sundials. The biggest was accurate up to two seconds. We then went through the city palace, which had a couple of interesting museums. It also had beautiful work. From there we went to a textile and rug factory, where we bought a bunch of textiles with block printing. After we returned to the hotel, were we all did a little exercise. I swam for I think the first time in 6 months and it showed. We then went out to dinner to an ok place, but there turned out to be a French tour group that was eating there too, but the food was good. The next day we drove to Amber Fort, which used to be the big city in the region. It was deserted when they couldn’t expand and the water was drying up. We took a elephant ride up to the fort and then walked around. It was quite well preserved, since no one had lived there since the 17th century. From the Amber fort our guide took us to the Jaipur market, which is supposedly the best place to shop in India. Everyone got something, and then we headed back to the hotel. It was March 4th, which means that it was my Dad’s birthday, and even without Mom telling them, the hotel had arranged for a cake to be sent to the room. We then went to the really fancy restaurant in the hotel, which had really good food from four different areas in India. Then after dinner they brought him another cake, (which was arranged). It was absolutely delicious, but we could only finish half. There was an Italian couple sitting at the table next to us, eyeing the cake, and actually asked the waiter if they could get the same, but you had to pre order it. So my Dad decided to give them the rest ot the cake, which horrified the waiter, but everyone else was happy.

The next morning we drove 4 hours from Jaipur to Agra. On the way we stopped at a little known fort called Fatipur Seacrey, which was quite beautiful. We the went on to see the Taj Mahal. It was so impressive. It was the one thing I had send that I thought we had to do on this trip. Our guide was so enthusiastic and found some areas that had no people and showed us different angles to take pictures from. We watch it at sunset, which was beautiful, and it really does change color.

The next day we drove 5 hours up to Delhi. Even though it is a little shorter distance it took more time because of the traffic in Delhi. We at lunch at this amazing buffet before heading out for a short tour of Delhi. After that we went to dinner at one of my Mom friends’ house, who works for Bain and Companies Delhi office. We had dinner with family and another friend of my mom’s family. I was really nice and was a nice break from eating out or at the hotel every night.

The next morning we flew back to Hyderabad. As soon as we got there we headed off to the one main tourist attraction in the city: the Charminar, were we only spent a few minutes. From there we drove to eat lunch at Bawatchi the best place to get biriyani in the world. It is a place that only the locals go, so it is not fancy at all, but the food is amazing. After that we went to the hotel. This took a lot longer than I had expected because of the traffic, so we didn’t get to do everything that I had planned, before we had to get ready to have dinner with the family friends I had met up with before. It was a very fun night, and what was really funny is that the friend that had hosted us in Delhi actually knew the guy that had us over for dinner here. The next morning I brought the family to see Lynne and Ratnam’s house and to see the kids. I was so happy to find that the kids had not forgotten me. We had breakfast and coffee before heading off to the hostels. We went to them all. I had missed the kids a lot and it was good to be back. I think that the family also really enjoyed hanging out with the kids, even though it was really short visit. From the hostels we went out to lunch at Little Italy were TT, the man that had us over for dinner the night before, had taken me to when we first met. It was just as good as I had remembered and everyone seemed to enjoy it. After that I said good-bye to Mom, Dad, and Becca, who ran off to their flight. And went home with Lynne and Ratnam.

These past weeks has been full. Some engineering students came to give the kids trunk boxes and had a function. Also Semaritans Purse came and gave 100 kids shoe boxes that are supposed to be for Christmas, but the kids didn’t mind. Another big thing is that Lynne and Ratnam finally put a deposit down on the school building that they had been hoping for, for almost a year. It is only the outside frame right now, so we get to design the inside however we want. I found an architecture program online and we worked on a plan. It was fun and I think it is going to turn out really nice. Clothes have also been a big project. We are working on the new outfits for all the kids for Easter, along with sorting and handing out donated clothes. Again I am sorry for taking so long, but I got so far behind I couldn’t keep up. Hope everyone is well.

The Big Move

February 16, 2009
I am sorry it has been so long since the last update. It has been quite crazy and I probably could write forever about it, but I will just give you some of the key things that happened these past two weeks. Ratnam and Lynne got back from Delhi on the 31st after a successful trip. The FCRA papers (for foreign money) were final in the system and they got the ball rolling. The FCRA people also said that they would move it along as fast as possible, which is a good sign. While they were in Delhi they bought some dresses for the younger girls at the wholesale market.

The day after they got back we started moving into the new house. It was quite a project. I took the whole day driving loads in the ambulance from the guesthouse to the new house, using three of the bigger boys to help and it wasn’t even finished. Along with the moving in process, we had to deal with the fact that we had no water, no electricity on the second floor, and no bathrooms at the new house. They were supposed to fix all of them by the night, but they ended up only fixing the electricity in the second floor. By the night, pretty much neither house was livable, but we made it work at the new house. We had planned on keeping the boys only for the day, but the day turned into overnight, which turned into a second day and night and they ended up staying at the house for five days. With the three extra boys we had eleven older people and 4 babies living in the house. It was almost comical how many people this house can hold quite comfortably. By the time the boys left on Friday, we had water, bathrooms, a clean house and it was almost organized. We hadn’t left the house for five days when we went to drop them off, and we probably wouldn’t have come out except that some people from the central government in New Delhi, who are doing some outreach program, where interested in doing a presentation to their group about Agape. It is very exciting since they will be presenting to very important people. We then worked on Saturday in the house doing more organizing and cleaning, Sunday we went back to the hostels because Sophia’s (Sweetie’s) birthday was on Feb. 1st and because of the move we didn’t get to celebrate until then. Sophia wore the dress I bought her in the US and she looked absolutely adorable. We brought her around to all the hostels to “give out” candy. (I ended up giving out most of it.) After that we came back to the house to have a celebration there. Sweetie was hilarious eating her cake. The next couple of days we spent some time at the office and some time at the house, Ratnam ran around like a mad man trying to get everything settled before he had to leave for America. The internet, phone, and the washing machine were all not working, and we didn’t have a driver. He got us a driver and got us hooked up on the phone and on the internet before he left on the 13th. In addition, Thanuja left for her village on the 14th for a function for her sister’s new baby. Having them both gone has made the house quite crazy. Lynne and I each have been giving two of the kids baths, cooking breakfast and lunch before heading out to the hostel or Easter shopping and then coming back to cook dinner. Today was a little crazy because it was ARV, but Jayapaul, who normally handles it, is visiting his village, so basically I had to be Jayapaul. Luckily Hafeez could come and help.

Good-Byes and Beginnings

January 31, 2009
So Friday Marion had her last set of classes and Amy had her last day with hostel 2. We then came back and worked on bills and the Library. Saturday we spent all day doing bills. At around 5 we went to 2nd hostel so that Marion and Amy could say good-bye. We then went back to third hostel to say good bye to 1st and 3rd. After the long ceremony, we finished off the bills from the last 3 years. We then went upstairs and packed. We had planned to stay up all night since they had to leave at 4:30 for the airport, which was a good plan in theory, but once 1:30 came around I was completely exhausted and ended up falling asleep until about 3. We then watched Grey’s Anatomy until 4:15 to keep awake. We headed to the airport so that they would catch their 7:30 flight and we said good-bye. We came back and I slept in my old room at the guest-house for a couple of hours.

Sunday I realized that I didn’t have the key to get back into the room. I am thinking that both the keys ended up heading back to the states. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but not having clean cloths for the day was quite a bummer. We then went to clean Lynne and Ratnam’s new house because they are planning to move in this weekend. We brought along some of the kids who volunteered and cleaned pretty much the whole day. Monday was Republic Day so we went to first hostel where all the kids were waiting. They had Lynne hoist the ceremonial flag and the kids sang the national anthem. They then had the teachers play some games and they handed out some candy. We went back to the house where Lynne and Ratnam started packing to go to New Delhi. Lynne is going to New Delhi to make sure that their application to bring in foreign money is processed. They had applied three times before, but each time the government didn’t even respond to say that they even received the paperwork. Tuesday they left early in the morning. I worked on administrative things at the house. Wednesday I went into the office and worked online for a while. Thursday I started back up classes I took 7th, 8th, and 9th in for computer classes, 7th math class, 9th grammar class, and 10th math and English class. It was quite a long day, but it was good to get back to teaching. Yesterday Laxmi and Thanuja were packing the house, so I was helping to watch the kids. I held the non-computer class, but I canceled the computer ones. Today. I had classes as usual. The older kids are very anxious to start learning how to program, so I gave an exercise similar to the “Making an Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich” problem where you have to very specifically describe how to make a sandwich. However since they don’t eat PB & Js I had them write about their morning schedule. At first I had them write a little, but while they were writing I wrote one to show how detailed it needs to be. They had trouble at first, but once they got the idea they did a really good job.

Busy Busy Busy

January 19, 2009
So Friday all the kids had math exams in the afternoon, so I went to school and sat outside and let the kids ask me any last minute questions before their exams. Some of the older kids I was really impressed with, but there were others that I had a hard time understanding how they past 2nd grade let alone the ninth. I worked with them until the afternoon and I had lunch at the school with Marion, who had classes for most of the morning, and then we went over to Lynne’s house since we could do anything there while they are taking exams, Marion and I helped Lynne work a little, but mostly played with the boys.

Saturday, Marion and I spent the day entering things into the Library, and Amy spent it sorting bills. Both super, super fun tasks, but they need to get done. We worked from about 9 to 5:30. We then just relaxed in the room for some time before coming out to play with the girls.

Sunday I woke up quite early to pick up my grandmother Bammy who decided to make a quick stop, (probably 4 hours out of her way by plane) to come visit me. I hired a driver for the day ad he brought me to the airport. We met up really easily and headed back to hostel 3. I introduced her to Amy and Lynne and all the girls. We then went over to hostel 1 to meet the boys. We then drove into the center of Hyderabad to the Charminar. I had never been there so it was a very cool experience. The Charminar is the main monument of Hyderabad. When we first got there we walked in the area around it which is called the old city. We went down a street with so many bangel shops that had thousands of bangels. On that road we stopped and Bammy, Marion, and Amy all got bags. We then took a tour around the Charminar from a guy that came up to use and flashed his Deparment of Tourism badge and told us all about the significance of it. It was created after the Plague hit India and to comemorate the 4 thousand people that died in Hyderabad the created this four tower structure of limestone. Each tower was constructed for 1000 people. He took us up to the second floor of the structure we he pointed out other important sites that we could see, like the second biggest Mosque in Asia, seating 10,000 people. After we finished the tour we went back to car. He took us towards the airport, but right before we got there we stopped at the airports 5 star hotel’s buffet for lunch. The food was absolutely amazing, especially since we had been eating hostel food for 2 weeks. The chairs were some of the most comfortable chairs I have ever sat in. After we finished we had a couple of minutes to relax on their bed like seating area. At 4 we brought Bammy the last 5 minutes to the airport so that she could make her flight to Chennai. We said good bye and then the three of us headed back to hostel 3. It was a very good day.

Monday, Marion and I went to school and Amy went to 2nd hostel as usual, but instead of teaching computers, Lynne took me into the city to by the rest of the nighties for the girls, because only half ended up getting them for Christmas. We walked around for quite some time, with no luck. We actually came across a very cute shop for baby clothes for Lynne’s kids and for the new baby Hannah. We were not successful in finding nighties, but we put in an order so that they should come with in the next week. We came back, and since Monday was Dan’s last day, we had a small function for him at 3rd hostel and 2nd hostel. While we were out two new girls were admitted to 3rd hostel, one is 5 years old and one is 4. At 11 we said bye to Dan and headed off to bed.

Tuesday we worked at 3rd hostel. Marion and I worked on the library while Amy started putting the that she had sorted on Saturday, into binders. At around 12 Ratnam called me to tell me that a computer Engineer had come to fix the computers, and that he needed me to identify which ones were a problem. Even though we have four computers that are messed up, he would only fix one, because apparently Ratnam had only given one serial number when he filed the complaint for the computers, which seems completely stupid. After he engineering guy left I had lunch at Lynne’s house and then we went and picked up Amy and Marion to take them shopping in the city. Amy was looking for a Punjabi for when she gives a little presentation for the people that gave her donations to come here. Lynne took her to Palaka Bazaar, where I got my first Punjabis, because they can make them there within an hour. We then came back to Uppal and went on a driving adventure into a village that is only a few minutes outside of Uppal. It was very cool to see how the majority of India lives. We saw a ton of buffalo, classic village homes, that are one room with slate roofs. We also went into a field were some people were working and Lynne bought some of the greens that they were growing. We stayed out and watched the sunset. We came back, had dinner, and then crashed.

Wednesday, Marion and I went to the school and Amy went to second as usual. At school I sat with the computer guy that came back for a while. I then came down helped Lynne with some paperwork. After lunch we went into the city to look for cloth for the boys
Easter clothes. How crazy is that! We finished Christmas just to start the Easter project. We went to the same guy as last time for shirt and pant pieces. We brought him a calendar to thank him and to help him be even more willing to give discounts on his merchandise. We stayed there only for an hour before we had to come home. Lynne and Ratnam were going out to dinner with Shelia and her husband at the Marriot and were dropping off James and Luke for a sleep over in Marion, Amy, and my room. The transition process was pretty smooth, but about half an hour in James started crying and screaming for about an hour. At 9:30 we finally got him to bed. Luke was as happy as he could be, but once we put him to bed he woke up a couple of times but went right back to sleep.

Today I took my shower downstairs and made their bottles and about 5 minutes after I came back in the boys woke up peacefully and I had their bottles ready. They were very cute this morning and played nicely. Lynne picked them up at 11am and then we did some work. I did my laundry, and cleaned the room after the tornados named Luke and James had passed through last night. The rest of the day I have been trying to fix the wireless portion on the internet router unsuccessfully.

Library Mishaps and Confusion

January 14, 2009
Tuesday was quite frustrating. It took us forever to get the library software to work and when it finally worked we brought it over to third hostel, but we were missing a power cord for the monitor. We had to wait until Hafeez got back from picking up the kids at school, so the whole morning was lost. We then had lunch and came back to find that the power was out. We decided to work on sorting the mountain of clothes that were donated that were sitting in one of the rooms downstairs next to Dan’s room. The power stayed out for at least 3 hours. When it finally came back on we found out that the monitor we were using doesn’t work. So, again we were stuck. We spent the rest of the day pretty much playing with the kids and relaxing.

Yesterday was a Hindu holiday, so three teachers were not going to be there. I had planned to take over one for the Math teacher that was not supposed to come, so I took the school bus and was all prepared. Once we got to the school I found out that the teacher was in fact going to come. I was a little bummed, but I decided that it was a good thing because then I could start computer classes. However, three out of the ten computers were not working and also most of the kids had finished the typing software that is on the computers. I spent a while trying upload new software, but the power kept going out in the middle so I gave up. I worked at Lynne’s house for a little while updating the medical records and other administrative things up until lunch. Marion and I had lunch at the school. Marion spent the day teaching English by herself. She seemed to really enjoy it!

After lunch I went with Lynne to the store to buy some supplies for the Hindi movie we were going to have that night, we then went to 2nd hostel to hand out the kids Easter outfits from last year for them to wear and then we ended at the office. I did a lot of photocopying and printed out some application photos. At around 5 Ratnam picked me up on the two-wheeler to take me to get a cell phone. While we were there we went across the street to Coffee Day for a really good treat we both had a drink called a Café Frappe which had coffee and vanilla ice-cream. It was really good, and while we were drinking I got to hear all about Ratnam, He has such a cool story. He literally came from nothing. He went to public school were his parents didn’t have to pay his tuition until college. Then he had to beg for them to let him in because he had no money for the tuition. By the ended he felt really guilt for not paying anything so he and his parents sold there only cow to pay for half of his tuition. When he got to medical school he had nothing even to sell to pay the tuition, so he took a year off and worked three jobs everyday. At the end of that year he had just enough for the tuition for the year and a little pocket money for food. At the end of the first year he really had no desire to work as hard as he had the year before, so he had an idea to make sort of a study guide for first year medical students. The whole summer he spent writing a condensed version of the text book with helpful sample questions. He went to a publisher, but they would not pay for the idea so he sold it on his own. He said that he went to all the local medical schools and sold them. It went really well and he didn’t have any money problems after that. He made another book after each of the next three years and he got them all published. He said that I could still find his study guides in schoolbook shops. We then went back to the house were everyone was waiting to start the movie. Hindi movies are all about three hours, so we had to start early. It was called Jab We Met, which means, “when we met”. It was pretty good, considering all Hindi movies have music videos in the middle of them. Lynne, Ratnam, Dan, Amy, Marion, Thanuja, and I all watched it, and then had dinner at around 10:30.

Today I went to ARV with Amy. It was the same usual group of kids except that one negative boy, A. Sai, came with us because he has a weird skin rash. We met Sheila there and waited to be called to see the doctor. The hospital was nice enough to provide ride on toys for the kids while they waited, which they had a blast on. After we say the doctor, Jayapaul took A. Sai to the dermatology department with Amy, Sheila, and I, while Hafeez stayed with all the other kids. It turned out to be a kind of virus that is common in HIV positive patients, which caused us to be a little scared. We all went back to the ambulance and then Jayapaul took Sai to get a blood test done to make sure that he is not positive. We waited in the ambulance for the results for almost 2 hours and everyone fell asleep including Amy and I. We woke up and luckily the results said that he was negative. We headed back to have lunch and we hung out in the room for a while. We had to wait until Dan got home to get into the ground floor where the library is. After Dan got back we worked on the library for a while, seem to get nothing done, but I guess we made a little dent. We are about a 20th of the way done WOOHOO! Well at least we finally started, after talking about it for four months.

Going to Monda Market

January 12, 2009
Today was a pretty good day. I had to wake up a little early because I am handing out medications for the boys at hostel 1 at 7:30 am. I came back and had breakfast at hostel 3. When the bus came, Amy, Marion, and I, all got on. Marion and I got off at the school and Amy stayed on until 2nd hostel to play in the playroom. When Marion and I got off there was over an hour before her first class so we went into the guesthouse to play with the babies. The wire bringing current to the second floor is completely fried, and the computer room just happens to be on the second floor, so I could not teach computers today, but I spent the day getting Marion settled into being a teacher. After the classes we went back to the house to help Lynne with random tasks. When the school bus came Lynne suggested since she was already planning on bringing Dan into the city to buy pearls for various family members, that we all should come too, since Marion and Amy have not seen the city yet. Also, Thanuja came because we were going right near Monda market where she buys all of the vegetables and fruit for the house. On our way we picked up two of the older girls to help carry bags for Thanuja.

We arrived in Monda market and we split up into groups: one to go the pearl shop and the other, which I was in to go with Thanuja around the market picking out vegetables and carrying bags. It was a nice time with just Thanuja and the two hostel 3 girls. We finished before Dan finished picking out all the pearls he needed to get, so Ratnam met us and we went to go buy some test prep books for one of the 10th class girls and a couple English books for Marion to teach out of. We then got some treats from the snack waller that were batter covered green chilies. They were both hot in temperature and quite spicy, but they were really good. After we finished we walked over to the pearl shop, which was perfect timing because they were just finishing. We started heading back to hostel 3 at 9:15. It was a very good outing. Tomorrow, I think we will start to work on the library.

Winter Cleaning

January 11, 2009
Friday we went to 2nd hostel to clean the playroom. We went on the school bus and played with the kids for a while until Lynne arrived with the playroom keys. The room was a mess all the bins of toys were all mixed up pieces of games were missing. We spent from 9 in the morning until 1 cleaning. About halfway through Sheila came to help. Marion and I spent at least a half an hour putting clothes on the hundreds of naked Barbies and baby dolls. We found at least 100 battleship pegs in random bins. After we finished sorting all the toys we swept it and washed the floors. At 1 we took a break for lunch. And after lunch we brought the kids in to play in groups of about 8. They all seemed to enjoy it. We then went back on the bus to 3rd hostel. We were all so exhausted we ended up taking a nap. We went down to the kitchen area were Lynne and all the older girls were sitting in huge piles of donated clothes making sure that it was acceptable and the sorting it into hostels. We helped a little bit and then went to have dinner.

Yesterday was “bright and white day” were we spent the day cleaning the school. Only the older boys and girls came. They were split up into pairs and each group tackled one room. Amy, Marion, and I were put on the task of organizing the office and then the storage room. The office was a mess. There were piles of random books in all the corners and old exam papers everywhere. We decided to separate the books by class and put them on the one set of shelves. We ended up with a ton on trash. We then went to the storage area, which we couldn’t even walk into. It was hard to even know were to start. However, by the end you could actually see all that was in there and walk in with room to spare. After we finished with that nightmare we saw what all the kids were doing. It was amazing how much dirt was coming off the floors. After a little while we went over to play with the babies. We didn’t get back to the hostel until 7:30. We brought all the kids even hostel 2 boys and 4 girls to 3rd hostel because we planned in starting family game night. We had actually planned on letting the boys at hostel 1 to have the first chance to play but because the kids worked so hard to day Lynne decided to have just the kids that worked to play. We all had dinner and then went downstairs were Lynne was sorting the cloths the other night and we broke up into 10 groups of 4. We played games like UNO, Life, Rummy, Business which is the Indian version of Monopoly, and other games like that. It was a lot of fun and I think that the kids really enjoyed it. We ended up playing until almost 12. Amy was not feeling well; she had shooting pains in her ears and then she burst an eardrum, so she didn’t end up playing.

Today is very relaxed. Amy still is not feeling much better but I think that she is not in as much pain as last night. We hung out in the room for a while reading and writing. After lunch Lynne and Ratnam arrived and we went over to 1st hostel. We had planned on taking the older boys to 6th hostel to play at the volleyball net outside, but Lynne got started handing out batteries for the Christmas toys but then got side tracked, checking and distributing clothes. While she was doing that Dan, Shiva, Varun, and I played badminton in the boys yard. It got quite intense and Ratnam ended up coming in and it got even more intense. It was quite fun and it was nice to get some exercise.

India Part 2 Begins

January 6, 2009
So I am sitting in the Heathrow airport on the way back to Hyderabad. It was really nice to see so many of you over this break. I don’t think I could have made it all 7 months without seeing you all. I am going back with two girls: Amy and Marion. Marion is one of my best friends from High School, and Amy is a daughter of a friend of Lynne’s. The first flight was not bad, but it is half as long as the second leg, which is over 11 hours, and will be the real test. I am definitely a little sad to be leaving again but I am really excited to see all the kids.

Also if you ever have any questions or comments feel free to post I love getting them. Hope you all have a great couple of months and I will see you in a few.

January 7, 2009
So we got here without any mishaps, and the flight didn’t actually seem that long since I slept for most of it. We got to the hostel and Lynne told us to sleep for a little while. At around ten we got up and got ready to go. We played with the girls a little while and then went over to have lunch with all the kids that don’t go to school and those that only go in the mornings. Lynne then came to take us to the school to show Marion and Amy and we got to see the babies. Luke and James look older and Sophia is just walking perfectly around at 11 months! It crazy how much they have changed in 3 weeks. Also the new baby is really cute but her hands, arms, legs, and feet look the size of a newborn even though she is supposedly over three months old. There were actually two new babies that came only a couple of days after I left, but the other one passed away on Christmas Day. Lynne was absolutely devastated, but she has seemed to have calmed down a bit. All the Agape kids look the same as when I left, still incredibly cute.

After going to the school we went to visit 2nd and 4th hostels to finish off seeing all the kids. We then came back to 3rd hostel were planned out what we were planning on doing. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Marion is going to be teaching English grammar classes, I am going to be teaching math and computers and Amy is going to be working in the 2nd hostel playroom. We then have various organization activities to do on the other days, so it will be a packed three weeks.

January 8, 2009
So today we got up at around 8 and went downstairs to eat and clean up. We then went over to the office and we all checked our email before Lynne arrived. She put Marion and Amy organizing the bills and from the past year and had me start downloading the software that we are going to be using to catalogue the library. But then Lynne and I decided that we should use one of the computers that isn’t being used at the school so that we can take it and leave it at 3rd hostel where the library is. So Lynne and I went off to the school to pick it up and on the way got some food at the local “super market” we picked up the computer and then headed to hostel 3 to put the food in the fridge were we met up with this woman that had called Lynne this morning about volunteering while she was in Hyderabad with her husband who is working at a consulting job here for the next two weeks they are from Washington State and she seems very nice. She came with us to hostel one where the office is and Amy and Marion were still sorting bills. I tried to set up the computer, but it was not working. So Lynne had to take it back and switch it on her way to showing Sheila, the woman from Seattle, around 2nd hostel.

Amy and Marion took a break from the bills and we went to have lunch with the kids in hostel 1. We played with the kids a while before going back to bills I helped Marion and Amy on a couple of months. We finished them all at around 5:30, which I think is pretty impressive. I thought it was going to take days. The new computer arrived and luckily it worked and I was able to download the software so that we can work on the library tomorrow.

I Am Home!

December 16, 2008
The last week of the first part of my trip was quite crazy. Lynne and Ratnam got back the 5th, but their flight was 5 hours late, which meant that it messed up the normally good timing to get over jetlag. We spent the 5th playing with the babies and Ratnam slept pretty much the whole day.

During the day though they got a call from the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers-in-training who had come for diwali, who wanted to invite some kids to their campus to play with them and it had to be the next day because they were about to go back home. The problem is getting sixty kids arranged to be ready to go on an outing takes a lot of planning. Lynne and Ratnam went through the list of kids to pick who would come. They took the oldest kids first because they thought they could get the most out of the people to be their role models, since these people will become probably the most paid and respected people in India in a few years. They also took some little kids that were easy to manage because they are the kids that the officers-in-training want to play with. We called Jayapaul at 6:30am on the 6th to get the kids ready since they wanted us there at 11 and it takes over an hour to get there. At 8:30 we set out to the hostels to make sure that they were looking presentable. They all looked very nice, but some how that process took over 2 between the 4 hostels, which meant that we were late. The hosts didn’t mind too much. We went to their cafeteria and all the kids sat down while the hosts handed out cookies, crackers and tea. The hosts went around to different tables to talk to the kids. Almost all of them found a table that they liked the most and spent most of their time with them, luckily most of they were different table so all the kids had some one to talk to. Every so often the kids got up and sang a song for the person sitting with them. At around 1 they served a nice lunch for the kids. After everyone finished they took us to their clubhouse, which had ping-pong tables, Carrom boards, and chess sets. The kids had a blast in here. They then took us to their pool to look at it. They then continued our tour through their campus. Their campus was so big that some of the kids got really tired and I ended up having to carry one on my back for a while. At around 4 we headed home and everyone was exhausted.

On the 7th Lynne and Ratnam had to go all the way back to the IAS officers campus because the officers-in-training had raised Rs. 75,000 and they wanted to formally present a check to Lynne. While they did that I had my last classes. At around lunch they came back. After my two classes in the afternoon I came back and helped Lynne and Thanuja who were sorting the 9 suitcases that they had brought from American that were pretty much all toys for the kids. We also sorted the frocks into hostels so that we could go try them on the next day to make sure that they fit.

The 8th morning we went over to 4th hostel to try on the dresses unfortunately Suma had some how messed up and a bunch of the dress were to short, which is a big problem since they all sit on the floor. We swapped a couple to try to make it work, but the biggest girls getting frocks they just didn’t fit. In the afternoon we tried them on at 3rd hostel. All the biggest dresses were shorter then the smaller ones and they were way too wide for any Indian kid. Again we tried to switch them around, but they just did not fit 7 of the girls, meaning that I had to see Suma again which was not going to be a happy reunion.

The 9th we brought all of the toy filled suitcases over to 6th hostel to start laying out the Christmas presents for all the kids. We had to do it somewhere where no kids would be, so that they wouldn’t see then until the day of Christmas. The morning we spent separating the toys into young girls big gifts and young girl small gifts, then older girl big gifts and older girl small gifts. We also did the same for the boys. These big gifts were really quite big and Lynne got them all for 5 dollars or less. The young girls had nice dollhouses and baby dolls. The young boys had cool cars. The older boys had big remote control cars and the older girls got cosmetic things like nail polish, hairbrushes, hair things, body butter, body wash, mirrors and other things. After we sorted we headed back for lunch. Right after we finished we went back to 6th hostel to lay out bags for every kid and the started giving out the big gifts. We started with the boys because they had the most toys. After we finished the boys we started with the girls we worked until 9:30 and pretty much finished giving all the big gifts except the older girls cosmetic packages. So we took all the supplies and their bags back with us so that we could make the bags back at the house in our nighties with coffee the next morning. We worked for two or three hours and the packages came out nicely for the girls. We then had to go to the office so that Lynne could finish off the accounting with Hafeez from when she was gone. I worked in the office organizing the applications and did the SSA for the months of October, November, and started the December one. It took quite a long time because there is a lot that they have to buy in three months. At around 5 we went back to 6th hostel to put out the general gifts like towels, pencils, erasers, toothpaste, and pens. We had to go back early because one of Ratnam’s friends came over for dinner.

The 11th was a more relaxed day we hung out at the house in the morning to play with James and Luke. We then went back to 6th hostel to put out the belts for the older boys, the nighties that we had and filled out gifts that we thought were lacking a little bit, We did something else but I am not remembering. The 12th you guessed it we went back to 6th hostel where we stuffed all the bags and put labels on the gifts that were too big to fit in the bag. The presents are pretty much done except that we did have enough nighties or towels. We then came back for lunch. Lynne had planned to take me to this big handycrafts festival but it didn’t start until the 13th. It is actually the same place where I went when I went to visit TT , but all crafts makers from all over India come for about 3 weeks at the end of December to increase the number of shops 10 times. We decided to wait until the 13th so we went to Suma to try to deal with the miss fitting frocks problem. She tried to deny that I gave her a good sample size, but luckily we had brought the girl who happened to be wearing the sample dress we had given Suma. She decided that she would use the scraps of cloth left over to add to the bottom to make a little flare at the bottom. We let her try and show but we did not have high hopes. While we waited for her to do we went to the boys hostel to check on the blanket situation because they we saying that they didn’t have any and since it is there winter they now need some heavier blankets. We brought so more blankets from the “go-down” (storage house) and gave them out an went back to see Suma’s work. It was not bad except that she didn’t have big enough pieces so she had a really weird seem which did not look good. The 13th I spent the morning packing and then in the afternoon we were almost out the door when the SSA officer dropped in and stayed for 3 hours. As soon as she left we headed off to Shilparam, the handy craft festival. It took about an hour to get there, but it was more than worth it. It was amazing the amount of people, and so many more will come in a week. I bought up the place and we finish only when the stall owners started putting up their tarps so that they could cook their dinner and sleep in their little area at around 10:30. We then went out to a really weird dinner. It was late so they were trying to hurry us up which is understandable, but when we came in no tables were clean. After thy supposedly cleaned a table, the chairs were covered in crumbs and when out food came we found a cockroach on the table. It was just not a good experience. The food was ok, but it didn’t really matter.

This morning I packed everything that I had bought at Shilparam and then we headed off to monda market to get the towels, short sets, combs, saris, and nighties that we needed to finish off Christmas shopping. We did pretty well, we got every thing except the nighties. We then rushed back because a man showed up at the school to interview for a position as either a teacher or as a warden. Only in India people just show up on Sunday without calling for an interview. While they were having the interview I hung out with the boys and said good-bye. After they finished with the interview we went over to 3rd hostel were we hung out for a little while. And then we said a very quick good-bye to 2nd and 4th hostel. We then went back to the house so I could finish packing and giving Lynne the rest of my notes so she knows what is going on when I leave. We left at 11 for the airport. I said good-bye to Lynne and Ratnam and checked-in. The check-in and security process was painless. All my flights were fine and uneventful. I am now home enjoying my extremely comfortable bed and having all the doctor, dentist, and hair appointments. I feels good to be home, but I miss everyone back in India. Hope I get a chance to see everyone before I head back.

Last Before Holidays

December 3, 2008
So this will probably be my last update before I head home for the holidays on the 15th, which I am really excited about because I will get to see you all. And the fact that I am coming back after New Year’s makes leaving a lot easier.

So there is not too much to report, still teaching and tutoring. Thanksgiving was very relaxing we actually didn’t have school. Not for a happy reason though, Hafeez’s brother-in-law passed away and so he had to go home to his village. Since both bus drivers quit a month or so ago, there was no one to drive the school bus. The other teachers actually went to individual hostels and taught, but there was no one to drive me and I sort of can’t teach computers without the computers.

Outside of school, the septic tank kept backing up on our street and so we had pipes put in, in front of the house. We had a huge hole and the water was cut for almost two days, but it is all-better now. On Monday I did something fun, I had Thanuja teach me how to cook one of my favorite curries that she makes. It was really good and it was nice to talk to Thanuja about other things than just the babies. After the delay of Lynne and Ratnam coming back because of Ratnam’s papers, they will be arriving on the night of the 5th. Because of the Mumbai terrorist attack, Lynne thinks that we should stay out of the old city, which is where we had planned to do a lot of the rest of the shopping because it is the Muslim district. So I guess we are going to have to find another way to get the last minute things that we need. We will see.

See You Soon!

Set Backs and Triumphs (but mostly set backs)

November 19, 2008
So last week I got pink eye, so I stayed in my room most of the time. Not only could I not teach, but I had to stay away from the other side of the house because anytime I went over there the babies started crawling on me or crying and I couldn’t do anything for them which was really difficult. I watched a bunch of movies and read some. By about Sunday I was clear to go back to teaching and playing with the kids. On Monday I had a lovely coming back present of two computers dieing. The first one had been acting up a lot by freezing and finally the mouse just stopped reacting and stopped working completely. The other computer would start and an error message would come up saying that a file was missing and that it couldn’t start. I officially hate PCs. I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked I gave up after 5 hours straight working on them. I had the kids that were on these computers move to other groups. This morning when I came in a third computer stopped working with a different problem and I decided that I now had to call HP support because soon we would have no computers left. The new computer problem didn’t even get to the point of an error message. It just stopped in the middle of starting up and froze. I couldn’t even turn off the computer without pulling the plug out. Of course I figured out one of the original failures just as I called, but the other two continued to not work. The woman helping me on the phone was very nice and very patient, but ended up not being able to figure out what was wrong with the other two. Another annoying thing is that Suma the frock tailor is so flaky. I wanted her to finish by Monday but she asked if I could wait until today because she was going to her village for the weekend. I didn’t really have a choice so I said yes, but then today she said that she needed until Saturday. So Hafeez and I decided to give 11 of the 22 left to another tailor to make sure that the rest are done on time. Hopefully the new tailor will be a little more reliable.


November 21, 2008
So internet has been very uncooperative this past week, which is kind of a big problem since the benefit is tomorrow and Lynne needed some pictures from me, but hopefully she will come up with something else. Another bad thing is that the new tailor is asking to increase the price by 50%, which even though it is only 30 rupees (60 cents), it adds up. So we have to try to find another tailor. Good news though is that I fixed (sort of) all the computers today. One I just switched the computer box with one that didn’t have a monitor, so we will have to deal with that problem again at a later date, but now all the computers that the kids have been using are in full working condition. I felt really smart and it made the whole day go really well. I finally have gotten my teaching schedule down. I begin teaching at 9:30 and have computer classes all morning. Then everyone breaks for lunch at 12:50. I then have one more computer class. I then have my one leisure period before I tutor math to 7th, then grammar to 9th, and then English to 10th. I am done by about 5:15, after which I pretty much crash. Lynne comes back on Monday night, so my schedule will probably change again, but for now it is working out well.

Other side of India

November 12, 2008
So this weekend was a lot of fun. It took a little time for the driver to find the house, but once he found it we headed back to TT’s apartment where I met his wife, Lakshmi and two boys. One is in 8th grade, Arvind, and the other is 2 and a half, Rakov. They are all very nice, but Rakov is a little shy so he hid from me most of the time. We had lunch and then the girl that is sort of Rakov’s nanny, who speaks very good English, and the lady that does the cleaning, took me to a market really close by where the craftsmen and women sell the things that they make. It was a really nice green area and I got a couple of nice things there. We then came back and got ready to go to the movies. I was a little unsure as to what they were going to wear so I packed everything. Luckily, I brought my jeans, because I would have felt a little funny walking around in my Punjabi while Lakshmi was in capris. TT, Lakshmi, Arvind, and I, all went to the movies. It was a little far away, but it was a nice IMAX theater. We had good seats and it was a fun movie. It is interesting though because apparently in every movie there is an intermission even though the movie was only 2 hours long. It wasn’t like other James Bond movies, since there was no “Bond, James Bond” and there were basically no gadgets, and there were a lot fistfights, unlike Bond’s usual one shot wonder. As TT said and the critics said the following morning, it was more like a Borne Identity movie. Nevertheless it was a good, entertaining movie. We came back to the house for a quick dinner and then I headed off to bed. It was a really nice room. Their apartment has two floors and is in a complex that has a “clubhouse” that has a swimming pool, a fitness center, badminton courts and basketball court. It was nice because it meant that Arvind had a lot of friends to hang out with. Sunday morning was very relaxing, I got a massage from a woman that comes to give Arvind one every week. It felt so good and I was very relaxed afterwards. We then just hung out for the rest of the morning. Rakov finally warmed up to me and we play hind and seek for a little while. We then went off to have lunch at a place called “Little Italy”. It was really, really good. It is an all you can eat gourmet buffet. They could make any kind of pasta for you and stir-fries and they had really good breads along with amazing appetizers. Also, their dessert were not half bad. I think I ate more in that one meal then I have in any one day since I have been here. We then went back for little while before I headed back to Uppal. It was really nice vacation to a different side of India. Monday I had to miss my first class because the power was out. I tutored math and then let them use the computers, however in the middle of my of that class, with 7th class, the power went out again. While we were waiting for the power to come back on they asked me questions about school in America. They asked if we took all the subjects they took, and they were surprised that we had social studies and science like they did. It was nice to talk to the older boys for a change. Finally we gave up and I went back to the house for a little. The power didn’t come back on until after lunch, but the kids were taking their unit tests. I got one more class in before the power went out again. And while we waited they asked me about the US election. After school I had 10th class try to do one of the writing sections from the 10th class exam from last year. The power was out for most of the rest of the day and it was a nice temperature outside, so Srilata, Laxmi, and Deepika had some running races while Thanuja and I took the kids. It was fun day, even though the power was out. I got to have a conversation with the older kids for a little while instead of just teaching them. And playing outside was quite fun also. But that didn’t last long. Yesterday, Hafeez took me into the city to help me pick up some things that Lynne had ordered for Christmas, which meant that I missed my morning classes and the kids were not that happy with me since I missed Saturday and the power was out the day before. Also, as soon as the first group started the typing program stopped working on two computers. I set one of the groups on another computer, but the others had to wait and a person came to tell me that the group’s computer wasn’t working every 5 minutes or so, which got me really frustrated since I was working on the other one. I decided that I needed a little quiet to figure out what was wrong with the programs so I closed the computer lab. I finally fixed the first one, but before I could fix the second I started to feel sick. I slept for a while and I felt a little better. This morning I felt even better, but am still not 100%. Today I finally got to have all my classes and I picked up some more of the dresses.

Miss Maia the Teacher

November 7, 2008
Sorry that it has been so long since my last update, there was nothing really exciting to report, but I was kept busy. I started teaching a couple more classes. I finally started my 10th grade tutoring on Monday. I was holding off because one of the three was not coming to school because he burned his hand during Diwali, but he is feeling better now and is back in school. My goal is to get them ready for their 10th class exam, which determines if they graduate or not and if the local Junior College will accept them. Once I started them, Srilata (Ratnam’s niece) joined the classes, so that she can take her 10th class exam again this year. I have mostly been working on Reading Comprehension, because that is basically 75% of the exam. Even though this is basically the blind leading the blind, I have taken so many class, that even if I can’t put the tutors advice into practice, maybe they can. I also added some more classes to the computers. Now 5th, 6th, and 7th are also getting the chance to learn to type. Luckily, 9th class has been able to help with both my 5th and 6th class, so that they can understand me and so that I can have some more eyes and ears. One set back was that they typing program can only have 5 names as users, so by the time 5th class got to class, a lot of the computers had maxed out. Luckily the older classes are quite small, so a couple of computer still had space and there were just enough so that only one group had to have three girls in it while the rest had two. The younger classes are doing quite well, but I have to remind the 9th class every so often that they started out slowly too and to not rush them. While I was in class, the 9th class asked me if I could be their English grammar teacher. Their teacher was the Headmaster, who had a stoke a month ago, so their Social Studies teacher has been working with them on other aspects that they need to learn, and I have been working with them on Parts of Speech and punctuation. Right now I have a class every period and after school, which is keeping me busy. And then after school I have to come up with lesson plans. The math tutoring is a lot easier because I can just work from their text book, but there is no really test book for either 10th or 9th because they are doing it in their normal English classes, meaning I have to come up with the lesson and the materials. The web has been quite helpful though, with practice grammar exercises and past 10th class exams that I can use the stories from to get the 10th class prepared for the type and layout they are going to see in March. Today I am hopefully going to meet up with TT, and really good friend of my uncle, who lives just out side of Hyderabad. The only problem is that it is on the opposite side of Hyderabad, so it is over an hour away. He offered that I stay over, to make the trip worth it, so I will get back tomorrow afternoon. I am really excited. It will be nice to be around people I can really talk to, and also he has tickets for his whole family and me to go see the new James Bond movie that comes out today, which should be fun. I will let you know how it goes.

Overnight and Diwali

October 28, 2008
This past week I finally got into a rhythm. I had my math tutoring then computer classes until lunch then one more class and then I spent the rest of the doing other work. In India they still have class on Saturday, so Sunday was my day off. Slept in which was nice. I went over and played with the babies and at around ten Hafeez came to the school to pick something up. I decided to tale advantage of this and asked him to drive me to 2nd hostel. I had some clothes that I wanted to hand out and they had been asking me all the time to sleep over with them. I packed an over night bag and the clothes and Hafeez dropped me off. The kids were in their last few minutes if Sunday school so I waited in the medicine room. As soon as Sunday school was over, everyone came over and surrounded me. Whenever I go to a hostel, I feel like a celebrity. Everyone wants to be next to me and to talk to me. They all ask me to sit with them at meals and asked that I sleep next to them. I set up in the playroom to start handing out cloths that were donated by local people. Most of the clothes are quite little. I had the girls come first. I would call out a girls name and I would hold up a piece of clothing to see if it almost fit. Then they go into another room were the older girls were helping them try them on to make sure that it actually fit. I was actually pretty good guessing if it was going to fit or not. I gave as many as I could to these Sishu Viha kids. Sishu Viha is a government orphanage, and once these kids were found to be HIV positive, they were sent to Agape. Because they are complete orphans, with no relatives, they get no new cloths from them on their birthday or during festivals, so I gave the most to them. The clothes that didn’t fit any of them I gave to some of the other girls. I then started with the boys. I had basically no pants, and that is what they really need, but I gave away a bunch of shirts. Within about 15 minutes after I finished with the shirts, one of the little boys was wearing his new shirt and it ripped. After I finished handing out the clothes, I had batches in the playroom. They are batched together based on age, so they are playing with similar toys. The first batch was a little crazy because there are so many little kids but they were very cute. There were five batches, and each got a half an hour in the playroom. This finished at around 4:30 and then it was the girls time to shower. They all shower every morning, but twice a week in the afternoon they take another, where they get to wash their hair. We then played for a while before dinner. Everyone then got read for bed. I decided to sleep with the older girls. In India pretty much everyone sleeps on the ground on mats. The kids got out their mats and they all basically slept on top of each other. Not because there wasn’t enough room, I think it was more for the sense of company and safety. I wasn’t really prepared for this, so even though the lights were shut off at about 9, I couldn’t fall asleep until about 2:30. I then was woken up at 5:30 by one of the youngest girls, Saivithri, who was poking me in the back. Only a couple of other girls were up, who were sweeping and cleaning the hostel. At around 6 everyone woke up and said their morning prayer before they brushed their teeth and took their shower. I decided to wait until I got back to the house to shower. The older girls helped everyone with their hair and then we had breakfast. After breakfast we played a little more before the bus came. I took the bus with the kids and took my shower and got ready to tutor. Monday was he same schedule as the week before. Today is Diwali the morning was normal, but at 3:30 guests came to celebrate Diwali with the kids. Diwali is celebrated similarly to the 4th of July. Fireworks, sparklers, lights are everywhere and will continue long into the night. The guests were from the Civil Service Program, the same people that came before, but there were about 20 of them. It seemed that everyone had fun. They handed out snacks and gave he kids sparklers and set off small fireworks. They left at around 6:30 after a fun filled couple of hours.

Classes Start

October 21, 2008
So yesterday morning was busy, but productive. I started tutoring 7th class math. I gave them the quiz to see where they need help. After I finished there I taught my first class of computers to 8th class. Most have only seen Lynne and my computer and none have ever actually touched one, so I started with the basics of turning the computer on and off. Also, I told them not to touch any of the settings or files. I had put on a program that teaches them who to type, and I had them work on that for the class. There were twelve kids in the class, and even though there are twelve computers in two rooms, I only had them on six in one room, so that I could keep an eye on them, at least for the first couple of classes. They all seemed excited to finally get to use the computers since they have been sitting there for months. Some were very good at keeping their hands in the right position, but others kept moving their hands to what they felt as easier, which reminds me of some one I know (me). But, I think they are getting the hang of it. The other kids that had leisure period at the same time wanted to come in to help, so finally I had to lock the door. After 8th class, I had 10th class. It was pretty much the same thing, but there are only three of them, so they got a lot more practice since they didn’t have to share. They did quite well and many of them got onto the next level. Since there were so few kids, I let some of the 9th class come in and use the open computers. Then the kids had lunch and I went back to the house to relax for a little. After their lunch I had 9th class. Since many of them had sat in with the 10th class they had a head start. One of the girls passed the first two levels. In the middle of the class, Hafeez came in to tell me that the wholesale tailor just called and said that they would be here in about 5 minutes. Luckily it was towards the end, so just as class was over he arrived. I kind of wanted to say that he should wait until I have my lunch since I had waited for him for hours, but this is India, and if I did that he would have been gone and I probably wouldn’t have seen him again for another week. We had all the girls go up on the roof, the same as we had with the boys and the tailor measured and yelled out the numbers and I wrote them down. I had organized all the cloth for him to take it, but he only had a two-wheeler, and had to come back on Wed. to pick them up. I then finally got to eat my lunch at around 2:30. The rest of the day I got to relax a bit. I did a little office work and then I played with the kids. They are becoming a little crankier since they still are sick. Luke now screams when I walk into the room for me to pick him up. It is a good thing that he is so cute. Today, Hafeez came and asked me to help him upload a file onto a CD at the office. I went back on the bus with him after he finished dropping the kids and showed him how to. The problem was that the CD he was using was in the wrong case. It was a Re-Writeable case, but the CD was not, and it had already had something on it. I gave him a blank CD, it worked fine, and he drove me back to the school on the two-wheeler. I then started tutoring 7th class again. After looking at their quizzes, which they didn’t finish, I decided that we should do the questions together. They all got Roman Numerals, so I skipped that and went onto the bases questions. It took them a little while, but it was exciting when they got the concept. We then moved onto HCF. They all understood factors, so it made it a little easier. We did the question on the quiz and then I let them choose random numbers and let them do it. It was fun seeing that they really got the idea. We then moved onto LCM. We didn’t get to finish that because the bell rang. They actually asked me to stay and continue teaching, because they had a free period, but I had to go give computer class. But, just as that happened, the power went out. I told them that as soon as the power came back on we could start, but it didn’t for about a half hour. By that time the period was over, so I had 10th class. They started, but then the power went out again. They went back to their room to do homework, but then the power came back. I told them that we should wait because having the computers shut off that way is really bad for them, but if the current stays on for a half hour we can start. It did, but about 10 minutes after we started the power went off again. It continued to go on and off through out the day. At three o’clock a group of people came to hold a birthday party for the kids. One of the women, who wasn’t the birthday girl sang with the kids and taught them new songs. They passed out cupcakes and chocolates. All the kids seemed to have a good time. I then went back to the house and we played with the kids. Thanuja, Srilatha, Laxmi, Deepika and I brought the kids up to the (flat) roof and waved good-bye to all the kids as they left on the bus. We then played tag. It felt good to run around a bit, but it was really hot so I didn’t last too long. We then went back down stairs and tried to set up the boys so that they could race each other, but obviously it didn’t work. They were very cute anyways.

Running in Place

October 19, 2008
So this week started off well. I got the children’s files organized. It was kind of sad having to take out the discharged kids out of their old houses. I also worked on the profiles for all the new kids that need to be sponsored at the benefit. Its hard reading their stories. Each one is a little worse than the last. Each one either their mother died or their father died or both. And the fact that even if they had extended family, none of them wanted to take them in no matter if they are positive or not. I also got all the Christmas stuff ready for the tailors for when they came to pick it up. I dropped of a sample piece of cloth at the local tailor who is going to do the younger girls frocks, so that I could make sure that she is doing it right and asked her to be ready by Friday. However, the past two days have been kinds of a bust. I had Hafeez call the wholesale tailor that measured the boys to have him come measure the older girls so that they can make their Punjabis, and they were supposed to come on Friday. Jayapaul also called to tell me on Thursday that they were going to ARV on Friday if I wanted to come, which I definitely did. And Lynne asked to be able to talk to everyone on video chat on Friday at 5:30. So, Friday was supposed to be a very packed day. I even wrote a schedule so that I could keep track of everything. I woke up early so that I could be ready for ARV, but about half an hour before we were supposed to leave for ARV Hafeez and Jayapaul told me that we were not going to go until Saturday because they didn’t have enough time because Friday is vegetable day, which I totally understood. I went back to my room and finished off the profiles for the new kids and waited for the tailor that was supposed to come at 3. At around 4 I called Hafeez and he said that the tailor had just called him to tell him that they weren’t coming, but would come anytime on Saturday. He then suggested that I get on the bus so that after he dropped the kids we could go straight to the local tailor, Suma, to look at the sample and give her some of the frocks to start on. However, once we got there she told us that she wasn’t done and to come back tomorrow. By this time it was almost 5:30, but we had to go to Hostel 1 to meet the new visiting doctor, who is looked after the kids while Ratnam is gone. He checked all the kids, but he had to go get some medication for one of the boys, who was bit by some animal, so we had to wait until they got back so that we could take Subba Rao back to Hostel 2. But, when the doctor came back he said he wanted Subba Rao to stay with him so that he could show him the way back. So after waiting almost an hour for nothing Hafeez dropped me back at the house. By this time it was about 6:30, so I missed setting up the computer so that Lynne could talk to Thanuja and the kids. So basically everything that was planed to Friday didn’t happen. It was quite frustrating, but I hoped that Saturday would be better. Saturday I got up even earlier, because they wanted to leave for ARV right after they dropped the kids off at school. We actually did go. It was nice to hang out with the kids for a little since I have been in the house pretty much the whole time the past two weeks working on things. The kids were great and we came back to wait for the wholesale tailor to come at 3. Again at 4 I called Hafeez who said that they were on their way and that they would be here by 4:30. The power went off so their was not much I could do. Hafeez took the boys back on the bus and the girls stayed at the school to wait. At 4:30 I went and hung out with the girls. It was fun being with the girls. Normally I just play with the younger girls, but I talked with the older girls instead. It was fun because they now enough English so that we can talk. Two are really funny, Meena and Suneeta and they spent most of the time telling me that the other one was crazy. After the tailor still hadn’t showed up at 5:30 Hafeez took the girls home. I woud have gone to Suma’s , but I wanted to wait and set up the computer so that Lynne could see James. But, the power was still out. It stayed off until about 6:30. We finally got a hold of Lynne, but the connection was really poor. Hopefully today will be better. I forgot to mention that all the kids have been sick this week. James, Luke, and Sweety all have a fever, have a really bad cough, and their nose’s are running. Thanuja and Laxmi (Srilatha) got no sleep Friday night because James kept waking up. Finally today I slept in a little. At around 10 Hafeez called and said that he had come into work and that Suma was also available, so he drove me there. The ambulance is getting work done on it again, so Hafeez took me on his two-wheeler. It was kind of fun. I felt like a local. Suma had finished the sample, and it looked pretty good. I dropped off 8 more dresses for her to do and I will give her the next batch next Sunday.

Race to the Finish

October 14, 2008
This week has been a race to the finish. Lynne and Ratnam left last night for he US, so there were a lot of things that needed to happen before they left. First the calendars needed to be finished because they wanted to bring a bunch back with them in their suitcases. We got the off to the printers on the 7th, but it took them a while to configure it so that it was printer ready, which meant that we had to come back again when they did the printing to check the color. The next day they didn’t have to paper that we wanted to print on, and the 9th was dusserha, which means everything is closed. The next day we went to the printers after they started to see the colors, and we ended up staying the whole entire day there to make sure that each page the color came out the right way. It was kind of cool because t hey let us go right into where they were printing and we got to see the machine. It was absolutely huge. It was at least the size of two cars tail to tip. . They then spent the next few days cutting, folding, laminating, hole punching and stapling all the calendars, and Ratnam picked them up on Sunday night. We hadn’t realized how much each calendar was going to weigh, so we were a little surprised at the volume of calendars, but they look great.
Another project was to buy all the cloth for the kids to have a new outfit for Christmas. There are a lot of easier ways of doing this, but Lynne was very insistent that each kid should have their own pattern or color not only so that they can tell them apart after they do laundry, but also so that they feel like we picked it out just for them. On the 8th we shopped for the boys, so we went to one shop and stayed there for 7 hours. We picked out 100 shirt pieces for the boys cut to different sizes based on the size of the boy. We then sat down with all the shirts picked out and matched them with pants. The hard part was having just enough cloth. Too much was wasting money, and too little it wouldn’t work for the older boys. We only created about 40 sets that first day, so we had to go back to that shop again on Sat. for another 6 hours. On Sat we also bought all the Punjabi cloth for the girls and Saris for the female staff. It was quite an experience. Dusserha (the 9th)and Sunday, when all the shops are closed, we spent putting cards on each set with a boys or girls name on it and size. It is harder than it might seem because some kids are a lot fairer than other so they can’t were white background shirts, and some are so dark that if you put the in a full color shirt they might get lost. We finished just in time. There were many points at which we had strong doubts, but we did it. Monday we spent packing suitcases and Lynne and Ratnam left at around 11. Today was very quite. I worked in the computer room this morning setting up the computers and downloading software, so my thinking is that I will start classes either on Friday or Saturday.

Exhausted

October 6, 2008
Ok so I forgot a couple of things last time because I was completely exhausted when I wrote it, but they are important to the next couple of days. Friday, after Lynne cut a couple of the girls’ hair, she had all the lice teams start working and told them to do even more on Saturday. On Saturday we woke up early to get working on the video, but before we started, Lynne did a lice check on the girls and it was still disgusting. So we put the camera aside and we all picked up a lice comb and started doing girls’ hair. Really it was quite gross. I would get four or five big ones in just one pull though a girl’s hair. Then a few of times lice crawled on my arm and freaked out, but I got over it after the first couple of times. I really had hoped to get out of those clothes as soon as we were done, but we had to go back to the designers. So another thing I forgot which was one big piece of news is that we finally found a designer for the calendar after going to like three guys who gave us outrageous rates. They probably were normal for the US, but they were crazy for India. The guy that we found turned out to be friend of Ratnam’s named Ram Krishna and he had celebrated his son’s birthday with Agape. I don’t know if I said this already, but in India it is customary to through a party and give chocolates to other people instead of getting gifts yourself. You get new clothes, but mainly you celebrate for other people. So bottom line, the designer loves Agape and was even willing to design it for free, but Lynne said that she couldn’t accept that because she knew that it was a big job. These past couple of days we have become very good friends with the boy that works for Ram Krishna who was doing the calendar for us. We probably have spent over 24 hours in that little shop tweaking everything so that it comes out perfect. After the designers on Saturday, Ratnam got a call to say that Ramulamma one of the positive girls broke her arm. One of the older girls was playing and swing around in one of the rooms, and she fell onto Ramulamma. When went straight there and you could see she was in pain. Ratnam and told them to give her a sedative, so she wasn’t writhing in pain, but you could tell that she was. The arm you did not need and x-ray to know that the arm was broken. It looked like she had two elbows. We called up couple of clinic to see if they could take her, but none would take her until ten. We splinted her are using a cut up cardboard cake platform, gauze and padding and then we went back to the house to snarf down some food before we went back out to take her to a clinic out in the middle of nowhere. The clinic was literally a hole in the wall. We carried her in, but they took her around to the side were there was a tiny room that had a very old looking x-ray machine. We waited outside (literally) until she was done and then we took her back into the clinic. They lied her down on the bed and gave her a shot to dull the pain. They doctor then asked Lynne and I to wait outside. I had kind of hoped to be able to stay in, but he was pretty sturn. Then not even waiting five minutes after they gave her the shot they started resetting the bone and we could hear Ramulamma screaming from the waiting room. Lynne got so made at the doctor for not waiting until the Novocain had taken effect and the fact that he basically kicked us out that she went back in to make sure that then were taking care of her. The kicked her out again though. Finally the screaming stopped and they put a cast on her. It was quite thin compared to the casts in America, but it seemed to be holding her arm in the right position well enough. We then drove back and we were all completely exhausted. Ramulamma fell asleep on my lap on the way home. We dropped her off at H2 and went home. By then it was after 1am, and we had a lot of work to do for the designers including writing text, and finding pictures. We tried for a little while, but gave up. However I was still grossed out by the fact we had pulled lice that morning and so I stayed up and did a lice check on myself. Luckily I found nothing, and I went to bed.
Another huge thing I forgot was that on Wednesday we took Luke, James, and Sweetie to get tested for HIV. Normally kids can’t get tested until they are two because they have their mother’s antibodies in their system, so they can have both false positives and false negatives, but there is a DNA test that is very accurate in younger children. They drew blood from all the kids and we had to wait four days. On our way to the designers on Saturday, we picked up the results. And it was GREAT news they were all negative. They had major doubts about Luke because he came to Lynne in Ratnam in a very scary condition. He had soars all over and no hair and he was the size of a new born at 4 months, but he is negative. They had been trying to find time to have this test done for months, but they never had the time. Finally, before they leave for six weeks they know. Sunday we were at the printers from 10 to 5:30. We took the boy we have been working with out to lunch to a place within walking distance from the studio, that Lynne says has the best Biriyani in Hyderabad, and Biriyani is Hyderabad’s specialty. It was quite good, but they said that it must have been from the top of a batch, because there was very little masala on it, but it was still very good. After we left, we went to shop for some things and the super market was crazy there were so many people and it looked like a Costco, except the amount packaged together is not outrageous. It took us almost 2 and a half hours to get everything we wanted and then we went home. We worked on the calendar for hours before we crashed. We still had so much to do so Lynne got up at 5:30 and I got up at 6 to continue working today. We had hoped to get to the studio by 9 but that didn’t happen. We got there by ten and worked until 3:30, when we finally finished it off. We then broke for lunch. Since no restaurants would be open at four, we ended up going to Pizza Hut. It is a little weird since I have never actually been to a Pizza Hut in the US, but it was very upscale. The interior was nicely decorated, the only thing was that they were playing rap music, because I think that is what they think people listen to in America. Lynne was saying how once she went into her super market and they were playing this rap music with vulgar language, and the people had no idea what they were saying. Lynne brought it to the manager’s attention, and I think he was really embarrassed. The pizza there was ok, but their sauce was not very exciting. I got desert though, which was really good. It was warm chocolate cake and vanilla ice-cream with hot fudge on top. I was very impressed. After that we had to waste time before we went to Lynne and Ratnam’s new landlord’s house so that they could sign off on the contracts at 7, so we went to this five-star hotel, where they had bought passes to used there exercise room and pool. They showed me the facilities and then we had cappuccinos in the lobby. It was first real half an hour where we didn’t have anything we had to do in about 2 weeks. While we were there the landlord called to say that the roads were very flooded and that he was going to be late so we did some food shopping. After the meeting with the landlord we had hoped to be able to pick up the CD for the printers of the calendar because they really wanted a week to print, but the designers area was flooded also, and he had no power, so we have to wait for that until tomorrow, which ruined our whole plan of filming in the morning while Ratnam finished off some of the last sponsor gifts. Finally the landlord got home and we went to his flat. We spent over two hours there as he and Lynne tried to figure out a fair agreement. They have been emailing back and forth for over a week, but they wanted to finish it off. The landlord was being a little weird because he kept suggesting that Lynne was going to be arrested because she was allegedly selling orphans, which is completely false, be he just kept saying what if. But finally he relax a little bit and we went home to dinner and bed.

Kids on Holiday

October 3, 2008
The past couple of days have not been that exciting, but a lot of balls have finally started to roll. About 2/5 of kids have gone home for either Dusshera (a Hindu holiday) or Ramazan (a Muslim holiday). Although the kids are orphans, if they have a grandmother or an aunt, they sometimes take them for their short vacation. None of the positive kids are allowed to leave because of the risk of them getting sick while they are away and then coming back and spreading it though the hostel. We finished all the photos we had to take, and worked really hard on the calendar. Since the printers said it would take about 5 days to just print, we had to find a designer, edit the photos and come up with captions and have it proofed and perfect for the printers on the fifth. Today we did a little more filming at H2, but right in the middle of it, the power cut, making it impossible to see in the playroom. Instead of wasting the visit though, I took the time to finish off the last 4 photos I had to take, and Lynne cut some girls hair, who were desperate for a trim. All the boys go a barber for about 3 rupees, which is about 5 cents a piece, but the girls, Lynne is the one that has to cut their hair. And because of the crazy about of lice these girls have, even though then have lice teams and work on lice every couple of days, short hair is best.