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!

hot train-y mess

today, the team and i ventured out to colaba to do some shopping. colaba causeway is a huge market in downtown mumbai where you can purchase everything that is indian and awesome..and a little ridiculous at times. we went the first week while we were here but we decided to go again. last time, though, reverand wankhede's wife drove us. she couldn't drive us today so we opted to make use of mumbai's finest mode of public transit..the train.

if you are ever in mumbai, you need to take the train at least once for the experience. i've taken trains/subways in LA and boston, and they were pretty ghetto at times, but at least you got a seat and could breathe. mumbai is a city of almost 20 million people and a lot of those people rely on these trains for their daily transportation. needless to say, the train station was was packed.

we purchased our trickets at the booth for a mere 8 rupees each (about 23 cents). after waiting about 30 minutes for the train (there was a delay because of a shooting at the mall the day before..the sichs against some other religion...we were at that mall hours before it happened and saw the sich man the other religion people were mad about. he had an enterauge of men around him carrying guns. one man was killed. don't worry mom, we're ok!), i saw that there was a mad rush at the platform: the train was coming and i was in the line of fire. mara, phil, and whitney somehow quickly managed to get inside the train while allie and i were not so fortunate. people literally hang on the outside of these trains (there are no doors) because of how crowded it was. i was right outside the door when the train started moving. i started to panic a little and back away. allie screamed at me to get on and i jumped on while the train was moving. luckily, the men were very nice (and laughed a little bit at us because we were obviously scared) and let us squeeze through to come inside. it did not smell good in there, but after about twenty minutes we got to sit down. the people on the train were very nice and helpful. as i sat there on the train, though, it just occured to me how many people in this world there really are, and how many people i will never get to know. it was a strange thought to look around and wonder about their stories: the woman with the crying baby; the man carrying a really large book in marathi; the guy across from me that kept falling asleep...there are just so many people!


(this guy was hanging on the outside of the train while it was moving)

when we finally arrived at colabo, it was the madness we expected. calabo is a very long street with little stands set up covering every inch. it gets a little overwhelming when the vendors are shouting prices at you and telling you they will "make you very good deal" on their jewelry/purses/etc. at first i am always nice and say "no thank you" but after a while, i had to start ignoring them or shaking my head "no" and walk away quickly. i've become quite good at haggling, but sometimes the vendors can be stubborn. i literally got bombarded about 20 times with different men selling these stupid drums. it was RIDICULOUS. they would come by and bang them in your ear and say "you like drum? very good price, 200 rupees just for you". after i tell him i don't want one, without missing a beat (ha), another man with the drums comes up and tells/asks me the same thing. maybe he thought his drums had tighter leather or a better twang than the previous man's drums, and he had to let me see his...i mean i could have changed my mind in that two second time span.

anyways, i am still loving india and its craziness. i'm having a great time and i can't wait to go live at the orphanage for two weeks. we are also planning on visiting a home the church helps that is for child prostitutes trying to get out of the red light districts that are all over mumbai. the average age of the girls there is 7 years old. that will definetely be an experience...pray for us!

I'll have the rice with a side of rice...and rice pudding for dessert.

The India team has been in Mumbai for about 17 days now, and we just can't handle anymore rice. The Indians eat rice at every meal; typically with some kind of super spicy curry to mix in with it. I really enjoyed this the first week. We live with an amazing cook. Seriously, Auntie is the lady in town that everyone knows makes the best food and loves to come over to eat; it's just our poor stomachs cannot stomach anymore spice. or rice. the past week i have been eating rice and soy sauce....rice and soy sauce..rice and soy sauce. after that got old, we decided it would be best for us to venture out to a great american establishment right here in mumbai:

ruby tuesday's.

seriously, i don't think anyone can understand just how wonderful this was for us. we walked in and sat at our booth with wide eyes and smiles as we awaited our salads. of course, i had to document this monumental event, as it was probably the best thing the india team has done for ourselves while here. it was a real morale booster.
come to find out, it was tuesday night and that meant prayer meeting night. in india, when one has people over, it is custom to feed them a full meal. even though we had already eaten, we were no exception to this custom. while we're usually pretty good about eating most of our food, we were all just too full and too burnt out on the indian food. we all found creative ways of hiding it on our plate: i hid some rice under my poodhi and when others werent looking i scooped some curry onto their plates. allie and mara would hide some of theirs under and inbetween the little bowls we had. when it came down to it, we just couldn't eat it all. we felt bad, but i think they understood...at least i hope so.

here's phil being "so over the rice and curry" :

in other news, we are teaching an english class in the slums everyday for all this week and all of next week. reverand wankhede took us to this slum last week to show us around. the living conditions were like nothing i have ever seen before. when we first drove through the enterance, we could hardly breathe because of the smell. trash is all over at the front because most of the people living there collect and recycle trash as their main source of income. the smell gets less prominant as we keep driving. we parked sort of near the front and we got out to walk to the school. reverand wankhede told us to watch our feet because urine and feces flows through the streets (i wouldn't call them that- they are about one to two yards wide and are dirt) because there is no plumbing or running water. there are naked kids playing in filth and trash everywhere, along with very large rats and dogs that look like they haven't eaten in months. it was definetely hard to see, but we kept straight faces as we walked to the school. we met a family of eight people living in a room about half the size of my dorm room.
i took one picture discreetly out the window of the sewing classroom the church also runs. this is a little bit of a "nicer" part of this particular slum.

we had our first day yesterday (monday) teaching the ESL class. the first day was rough, because the kids were only ages 2-5, and they hardly know marathi-let alone english. we also had some trouble with the teacher because of the language barrier and expectations she had and the ones that we had. allie and i went to the store and bought some supplies and games in order to make it more fun for the kids. it definetely worked! they had so much fun and we taught them colors and shapes with play-doh. so i was a little disgruntled the first day, but now i am really excited for the next two weeks.

after we are done with this class, we are going to be living and working at the orphanage for two weeks. i am really really anticipating this because the kids there are the sweetest children on the face of the earth. i can't wait.

more pictures:

this is from a coffee shop we found and LOVE. they have delicious mango smoothies (everything here is mango).

auntie and jyoti.

the lizard i went to the bathroom with.

i have no idea why anyone would ever want to own a parrot.