thank you, at&t.

when i arrived in india it was a pleasant (and unpleasant) surprise that my phone got service while my team mates had none.
"When it comes to staying in touch, you can trust AT&T for fast, easy, and reliable connections worldwide."
^ it's the truth. and you can also trust that when you buy calling cards, that they AREN'T going to work, and you will come home with a $700 phone bill.
so i get on the phone with at&t, and i told the lady that i had bought calling cards and everything, and she puts me on hold. then she comes back and says "well, those charges are for roaming, so they are legitimate.and you still get charged for the minutes. but i can take off $26!"
well whoop de doo! thank you so much! now that you have taken off that $26, i can pay. psh. if i had to pay for roaming when using a calling card no matter what, then WHY would i pay for a calling card? wouldn't i just make a call? it makes no sense. so then my mom comes home and i beg her to call and be mean because i can't, and she makes me do it. but they still tell me they will only take off the $26. so i'm on the verge of tears and i just hand my mom the phone. of course, after about 5 minutes, mom got it "down" to $350. bleck.
ok, another batch of photos!

the cows and i just waiting in line for some ice cream

this is in khopoli:



the market!






this is prapaula, the head of the school in the slums.

some sort of joke.


auntie louisa john isaac! haha. she is so sweet!

we took a ferry ride to elephante islands. this is the gateway to india and the taj mahal hotel

saris! yeah they are pretty..but imagine wearing one in a crowded church for four hours with no air conditioning. i felt like a baby swaddled in a blanket.


here are pictures from the red light district i wrote about. the street going horizontal is where the centre is, and if you take a right by where the lady and the big trash heap are, that's one of the four "lanes" where the prostitutes are living..

you can see it better here..

the centre where the kids (and some of their moms) go during the day since they can't go to school.

these women are practicing and their children are at the centre.

the kids! they stay here all day and sometimes well into the night.

these girls got into a real school!

one night during our stay in mumbai, all of us in the house heard music coming from outside, and it continued to get louder and louder as if it were coming towards us. being in mumbai for a few weeks now at this time, we were used to loud commotion outside the windows, but nothing like this. it was well after 10 or 11pm, and we had kind of been scared into staying inside after dark. but of course, i was curious and i needed to see what was going on. allie was brave enough to come with me out onto the streets with what seemed to be a thousand other people as well. we saw a large circle with music playing and people crowding around everywhere. we were intrigued and wanted to discreetly slip into the circle and video this, because it was awesome. we should have known by now that white girls in india cannot discreetly do anything. as we were walking towards the circle we were practically bombarded by all these men/boys (not many women come out at night) wanting us to take their picture. it was madness. i was trying to be nice so i took a couple and then couldn't handle the large circle that began to crowd around US. so, allie and i ran back inside and decided to watch the indian wedding from the terrace... and here is the video we took:


now, i will continue to do post some heart- warming video of the sweet kids at the orphanage. get your tissues out.

home

being back home is a bittersweet feeling. at first i was so excited to be in america- to smell the fresh air, throw my trash in trash cans that are conveniently located within a 20 foot radius of anywhere i walk, and just to be in a familiar place. eating at chili's for the first time was almost a religious experience.
now the excitement of seeing my family and friends is beginning to deteriorate and i am finding myself actually having to sit alone and think of what i have seen and done this summer. the alone time that i was looking foreward to all summer can get sad at times (which i was warned about). when people ask me how india was i don't know how or where to start to explain the things i saw to them, so i usually say "it was great" and maybe tell a story or two, explaining to them that i have full intentions of divulging more information to them when i have the time. after that, conversations of boyfriends and other normal everyday topics start and i just can't fully engage.
the truth is, i have had plenty of time to call some of my friends and family and tell them about my summer but i just haven't really wanted to. i've been procrastinating and that is why.
i'm sure it will pass.

in other news, oklahoma is super hot. mom is keeping the air conditioning on to what must be about 40 degrees, because i am now sleeping with two large blankets over me and long sleeved shirts and sweatpants. it's so nice to lay in a soft bed.

laura and i are going to watch "born into brothels" later today. it's a documentary i saw a few years ago about a woman who goes into the red light districts in calcutta. she lives there for a good period of time and finds out the children there are fascinated with the camera (which is something i experienced in india as well, ha). she starts selling their photography to help pay for them to get an education. it's an amazing movie and i'm really excited to watch it again. you should definately see it.



ok, i will be putting a couple more posts on here later. i still have plenty of picture to share!! here is a video of sweet prana singing happy birthday to me.

sonapur (red light area)

today we went to sonapur, a red light district that is up and running less than ten minutes away from the home we have been staying at all summer in bhandup.
a social worker took us first to the sneha center, where the children of the prostitutes stay and learn english and have a schoolday there. the children stay there sometimes past mindnight so that they do not have to see their mothers practicing their prostitution. what's sad is that it is almost impossible to enroll these children into local public schools because they do not know the name of their father. the school wants to know the names, and they just have no idea. their motheres are seeing sometimes 10, 20 or more customers a night, and a lot of them are just passery-by truck drivers that they won't see again.
this center is in what looks like a storage shed, probably 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. they are fighting getting it taken away because the landlords said that they can get more money from the prostitutes that want to rent it out. we were told that this storage shed would be used as an area for about 50 practicing prostitutes...all in this open room.
a few of the women took us to see their homes where they practice. as we walked down the alleyway where the homes were, my feet were covered in mud and there were prostitutes all sitting in front of their homes. they all had on a lot of red lipstick and some had revealing clothing. their faces were so unhappy and cold it was hard to look them in the eye. the homes we went into were difficult for two or three of us to squeeze into. they had a few bunk beds and that was about all there was to the homes.seriously- it was a door, four walls, and some beds. there were about six women to a "home" and they all practiced in there..at the same time. their children would be in the corner sleeping while all this is going on. i can't even imagine being a child in that situation.

these women cannot escape. a lot of them are from different states in india and some from nepal. they are from villages and are tricked into coming there for promise of a husband and a better life. then, they get there and are sold to these "mothers" that take all the money they make from prostitution and let them have a place to stay and a meal. that's it. so many of the women were asking us to please pray for them to find a way out. these women cannot get away also because there are always men out looking for them, and they always have to answer to someone about where they are going and what they are doing.when/if they get away, if they are found, they are beaten. they are someone else's property and not their own. i just felt so helpless.

tomorrow we are driving about two hours to bhadlapur, where we will go to the transformation center where some of the women who got out are living.

lately.

funny story:

a couple of weeks ago, the girls and phil (can't leave him out) were asked to attend a women's church service while we were in khopoli. whitney was thrilled to be able to speak, so we were all excited for her big moment.
the women there were so sweet to us and happy to see us. for some reason, they felt the need to seat all four of us awkwardly in the front in chairs...facing the congregation. all right, whatever floats their boat. anyways, whitney gets up to speak and as she is greeting the women, i felt a sting on my cheek. i thought it could have been the wind blowing my hair but then there was no way that could be. so i flicked my cheek and onto my lap is a SPIDER of some kind i've never seen.it was big, trasnparent, and had a weird black design on its back. sick. if you know me, you know i hate spiders. when i was younger (okay, like 15...maybe even yesterday) if i saw a spider in a room i was in, i would need to see it killed. and when i say killed, someone else has to kill it for me. SOOO..we are still sitting on front of the congregation when i tap allie on the shoulder and whispered to her to get the it off of me. allie has the same prediciment about spiders as me, and when she saw it she freaked out. THEN the spider JUMPED from my lap onto my shirt so i start freaking out, too and we caused a great scene. all the while whitney is so confused and phil is covering his face in disgust and shame. allie and i could not stop laughing throughout the whole service.
but wait...it gets better. for some reason, people like to hear us sing english songs. none of us are singers but we can somewhat carry a tune so we just do it. well, we start singing when we hear phil's voice crack. allie made one of those laughing noises that you would hear if you were to have water in your mouth and spit it out (leslie- think of the laugh you did during my cousin's wedding. hahaha) and then i started laughing. so allie and i are up there trying so hard not to laugh and we are trying to make it look like we are being blessed by the song with our smiles. hahahha. it was so funny. surprisingly, they asked us to sing another song.



picture time!


on our way hiking up to a village.





the girls home we visited. their mothers are prostitutes working in the red light districts.

they were amazing. we played cricket with them!

this is the day we took all the kids from the orphanage up to the waterfalls for a picnic one day.

khopoli!




this is the school for the mentally handicapped. the government only gave them three classrooms. mentally handicapped children are seen as an embarassment and as the woman's fault for having them, so usually the fathers will be really harsh to them and won't even bother to send them to school.

she runs the school. sweet lady.


the karla caves! they were built by the bhuddists over 2000 years ago. it was amazing. my grandpa would have loved it.

the view.


the team at the caves!

a family we met at another village

it's nice to take pictures next to indian women because their average height is about 4'11"...so i tower over them at 5'3". BUT they also weigh about 100 pounds. you win some, you lose some.

happy happy birthday to me


indians always have to shove their face in the cake. i acted super annoyed when phil pushed me in it, but i have actually always wanted to do that. ha.


this is propauli and i think she is my favorite at the orphanage. she's really sassy and i taught her the lyrics to a backstreet boys song and how "peace out". they've learned more bible verses in a week than i have in a lifetime, so i thought i'd teah them something new.

we went to this weird arcade. i really have nothing more to say about it, i just wanted to put this picture on here to embarass my family.

the car ride to khopoli takes about two hours. one of the things i like most about india are the car rides. like i said before, the driving is absolutly insane, so while in the car you have adrenaline from the very thought of losing your life at any moment along with the entertainment of what you see out the window. i've never been on drives where i see so much. there are people occupying practically every inch, and they all have something to do or somewhere to go.

about halfway into our drive, we start to reach a more rural part of india. it is exactly the opposite of mumbai. it's absolutly gorgeous. khopoli is a small village in a valley, so there are mountains surrounding us with waterfalls trickling down them (it's monsoon season, so the rain brings lots of waterfalls). living in the village at the orphanage has been nothing short of amazing. it's kind of like in america how things are different in the country than in the city. the people are friendlier, and life is a little more slow paced and simple. it has been a nice change.

since we are living at the orphanage, we are getting to know the children there so well. they are the sweetest kids i have ever met, and need constant affection. we watched The Lion King on saturday night and we all really enjoyed it. when we are sitting and watching movies with them, they will come gather around us and at times i'll have 3-4 kids sitting in my lap. the ones that aren't there will, every once in a while, put their hand on my arm for a couple of minutes while facing the opposite direction towards the TV. i guess it is re-assurance that we are there. we're going to have a hard time leaving them!

yesterday, we hiked up one of the mountains to visit a couple of VERY small villages to see some of the tribes and people groups living up there. they are living in huts in the most beautiful place i have ever seen. i took a lot of pictures, but i'll have to upload them when i am back in mumbai or even back at home since they are on my computer. anyways, the people there were so friendly, but it was still hard on us because we couldn't speak their launguage... but they were very hospitable to us.

anyways..my 21st birthday is coming up and i will be spending it at the orphanage! i'm so excited. i never thought i would celebrate my 21st birthday on a mission trip with children...but right now i can't think of a better way. hollar!

off to khopoli...

i can't believe we have been here over 3 weeks already! the team is heading out to khopoli tomorrow afternoon where we will be living at the orphanage for the following two weeks. i don't know if i will have internet access there, so i might not be able to contact anyone, unless you are one of the lucky few i like enough to send a text message to. just kidding.

our team has really gotten attatched to the house and community we are living at in mumbai. at first, it was rather difficult at times because the indian people are very impersonal. it is hard to establish relationships with people who, initially, seemed like they didn't really want to talk to us. now we are really starting to form friendships with a few of the younger people and we taught them some card games and it was like we were old friends. it was a really nice change. also, we have become pretty good friends with a couple of the pastors. they are beginning to get our humor and joke around with us a lot. one of the woman pastors even does a dead-on impression of reverand wankhede.
the same thing has been going on in the slums. the children were hesitant towards us at first and it was hard to get even a smile out of some of them. now they are very comfortable around us and even let us hold them sometimes.
the church is really running low on funding over there. at one time they had a hot meal to serve the children at the school each day, and there would be a program to give pregnant woman vitamins and a meal everyday as well. there is no money there now for these things, and they are essential. it would cost only $400 a month to get the meal program back on. also, most of the kids come to school wearing the same tattered clothing everyday, some with no underwear on...and this is one of the "better" slums in mumbai.
i don't know if i mentioned earlier that there is very much still a caste system here in india. the people living in the slums (which is half of mumbai...9 million people) are known as the "dilits" and are politically and socially oppressed. a lot of times they are considered unclean because they are the people that handle dead cows and trash, etc. it is just astonishing that this is still going on. but my team and i have discussed it and we feel the most comfortable in the slums. the people are the most friendly there and we have never had anyone beg us for money (We go downtown or to the mall and children will literally hit us and tug/open our purses).

it's just a really hard situation to see and experience. if it's hard for us, imagine what it is like for the people living in it.


on a lighter note...

funny story- reverand wankhede's wife, ujwalla (We call her "auntie"..that's what they call older women here) had her birthday a couple of weeks ago. she was showing allie and i her ring that she got. her ring was placed on her middle finger, and apparently flipping the bird here means nothing, because she was holding up only her middle finger to show off this ring. it was all we could do to not burst out in laughter as she was parading her middle finger around saying "see? isn't this nice? very expensive ring. nice ring". haha.

ok. here are pictures from our ESL classes that we have been doing:



view from our classroom








HENNA!