April 2008
27 April 2008
Koshish School &
Opportunities for Service
Yesterday
(Saturday) A and I tagged along with the young single adults from
church to check out the
Koshish School. This effort started 10 years ago with one
woman and 2 children, sitting in the dirt. It now has almost
200 children, 4 teachers and a handful of volunteers... and 100%
retention rate, meaning no dropouts. This great school (great
in purpose) provides education through grade 5 for children of the
nearby slum. After 5th grade they are guaranteed placement in
a government secondary school and when they complete (pass) their
10th level, they are sent to a computer course which enables them
good jobs with data entry of other better paying jobs. This is
significant because all of the children are from the adjacent slum.
Their parents are not employed, or their mothers are possibly
domestic servants. Sadly, many of the fathers are alcoholic
and/or abusive. These children literally live in the mud with
the cow and water buffalos. I had no agenda in going on
Saturday other than to see the school and possibly ascertain some
needs we might able to meet. I was very moved by the warm
welcome we received and the happiness of these children who, of
their own accord, come to school. The government erected the
very small school building within the past few years, and there are
no desks, or even chairs for most of the students. There were
3 "classes" of children: one for very young (i.e.
preschool/kindergarten age--although they looked about 2), one for
5-7 year olds (some of them also looked no older than 2) and one for
older children (it was difficult to tell the age range in this
class, but I'd guess 8-15 maybe). There was one girl (not in
the classroom) who had recently taken her 10th exams and was
completing a sewing course while she waited for her results.
There were no chalkboards, no books, no maps, no A/C, no running
water. The Hare Krishnas are providing 3 hot meals each
week,
otherwise, there is no food at school, and probably very little at
home. I spoke with the woman who started this school and was
very excited to be a part of helping them improve their little
program. She was very excited to share with me that for $250 a
year someone can sponsor a child. That money goes to help pay
for a meal for the child, an outfit for the child, schooling and
supplies. She was quite concerned that the teachers are not
receiving a decent or even regular salary. There have
been quite a few family and friends back in the US who are
interested in serving those less fortunate in this part of the
World, so I will share here the
list of items they could use, and my ideas for helping them as they
formulate. There are also more pictures. The few volunteers we
went with brought with them a box of school supplies, some
biscuit/crackers and kool-aid, and two bags of dresses made by a
ward back in California. The dresses were t-shirts from Target
with some fabric sewn onto the bottom to make a dress bottom.
They were very cute. And it was very rewarding to see one
little girl running across the slum already wearing the dress.
I was most proud of A, who having originally deciding she was too
tired to come with me, dragged herself out of bed, and ended up
really enjoying the whole experience. She sang a song for the
kids, handed out dresses and biscuits, and demonstrated how to brush
her teeth. I am so proud of her and the young woman she is
becoming.
25 April 2008
7 Cities Week 7 - Dinpanah
This area of Delhi is
today called the
Purana Qila or Old Fort. Recent archeological studies have
discovered what is believed to evidence of
Indraprastha--a
site more than 5000 years old and the site of the 1st Delhi.
Indraprastha is a major Northern city in the epic
Mahabharata.
Humayun was the Emperor of the day, after the death of Babur, his
father. He built the Purana Qila or Dinpanah ("Refuge of
the Faithful") beginning in 1533. He was defeated in 1540,
and regained the throne again in 1555. Seven months later he
died after falling down the stairs running to answer the call to
prayer. His son Akbar succeeded him and became the greatest
Mughal Emperor (he was the father of Shah Jehan, remember him
yet?... he built a tomb for his wife... what was it called?)
Akbar moved the capital of his Empire from Delhi to Agra and is the
one who built the Agra Fort and
Fatepur Sikri. Anywho... I've
posted pics before of this area, but I'll post some more
here.
7 Cities Week 6 - Lodi Gardens
After the great Tughlak period, and
following the great expansion of Delhi under Firoz Shah, "Delhi" as
a sultanate began to wane. The Sayyid and
Lodi Sultans were of
Afghan origin. And, while Delhi may have been on the
downswing, the remnants of these dynasties are plentiful and
beautiful. My camera battery died halfway through the tour,
but thanks to Donny and Lena we took another opportunity to go and I
took more photos. Check them out here.
19 April 2008
New Favorite Quote
So,
it's Friday night and Dave and I were trying to decide what to do.
He strong-armed me into watching a Bollywood movie to brush up on
some more Hindi. I caved and we watched Fanaa (loosely
translated "destroyed in love"). The cliff notes of the
movie... blind girl goes to Delhi for a week. Meets gorgeous
tour guide (Aamir Khan) who falls in love with her and decides to
marry her all in this same week. As her parents are arriving
in Delhi, said fiancé arranges for a retinal transplant. He
leaves her at the hospital to pick up her parents as she enters
surgery. Surgery a success. Parents first people she sees.
Fiancé dies in terrorist bombing at President's Palace. Said
dead fiancé turns out to be mastermind terrorist, most definitely
not dead. Turns up at her home in Kashmir 7 years later,
wounded and about to die, sees her and their son before he passes
out. She doesn't recognize him because she has never seen him
before (got it?). He has
stolen a trigger for the terrorist army to detonate a nuclear bomb
to instigate Kashmiri independence. While recovering from
horrible wounds in her house, he learns to love their son. She
figures out who he is... loves him anyway.
Marries.
He goes to "complete the mission" and deliver the trigger.
Father-in-law figures it out, confronts tour guide/terrorist, falls
off a cliff. Body discovered same day floating under ice by
daughter/former blind girl. She calls in to Indian Army tells
them where to find them. Both Indian Army and terrorist
liaison grandfather show up at same time. Girl shoots at
husband/tour guide/terrorist. Misses. Shoots again.
Hits his leg. He turns with gun. Can't shoot her.
Turns around again. She says "I love you." Shoots him in the
back. He falls. He dies in her arms. Army
psychologist lady shoots terrorist grandfather and helicopter from
her helicopter with super fancy handgun. They die. The
End. All this and several catchy song and dance numbers.
Dave and I sat there
in shock for a few minutes and then Dave started laughing
hysterically. He recalled a quote from his father, who said:
"If an infinite number of monkeys
sat in front of an infinite number of typewriters,
eventually they would produce all
the World's greatest works."
I would have to say
that is a convincing theory in how this script came to pass.
Thanks Bollywood for another unpredictable and unbelievable
storyline, including said catchy song and dance routines.
18 April 2008
Olympic Torch Comes to
Delhi
I have had some calls
and emails with questions about the Olympic Torch's visit to Delhi.
Did I go see it? NO WAY! Check out some of the headlines
it made:
I particularly
like the photo of the female police officer putting a female
protester in a headlock. I have mixed emotions about this
whole India/Tibet thing. I'll be the first to admit that I
don't have all the facts, maybe not even enough to form an
educated opinion, but my uneducated opinion is not favorable
towards India. They have offered refuge to the exiled
Tibetans--we actually drove near/through Dharamsala, the home of
the exiled government, on our Himachal Pradesh adventure
last July, but didn't stop to visit--but cower under Chinese
demands to quash any protesting against China. Is India a
free country or not? As you can see by the newspapers,
India showed up in full force, 17000+ police officers strong to
line a 4 block length of street so the torch could pass without
protest. Two circles of Chinese protection forces
surrounded the runners of the torch who were shuttled on a bus
along this same stretch of road until it was their turn to run
with the torch. Traffic? Well, let's just call it
insanity. It took Dave an hour to drive home from the
Embassy which normally takes about 10 minutes.
Oh, the US
Embassy is right next to the Chinese Embassy, and the kids'
school is right next to the US Embassy. So if you were
wondering how the children were being protected that day, here
is an email we got from the school director:
The
Olympic Torch Relay is currently scheduled to pass through
New Delhi on April 17th and there is a possibility that tear
gas may be used if the situation calls for it. While the
Chinese Embassy is not immediately adjacent to AES we will
be monitoring the situation closely. If gas is used we will
keep students indoors. We also have a plan to hold all
students at school for what we call a "controlled release".
If this became necessary you would be notified by email,
phone and our website. What is important is that your child
is safe. Again, our hope is that it is a peaceful
demonstration and tomorrow is just another great day at AES.
Whew! I'm
glad that all contingencies were covered. You never know
what can happen when something as scary as an Olympic Torch
comes through town! The saddest thing of all, is that
there actually was cause for concern. What is wrong with
the World? Never fear, I will not allow myself to be
brought to the depths of despair with worry and concern over
things that I have no control over. There is still beauty
and peace and happiness in the World, and I am determined to
keep looking for it.
16 April 2008
Rishikesh Revisited
I been collecting photos from my
friends who took pictures while we were rafting and wanted to share
them. The photos from Day 2 are cloudy skies, while Day 3 was
bright and sunny.
Snack time... they brought out bottles of soda and crackers halfway through our Day 2 run
Day 3 standing on the raft
Footbridge over the river
Donny & Lena, Kelly & Ange
Getting back into the raft
Getting back into the raft 2
No bodysurfing for me... are you kidding? I only have 0.5% body fat!
War... this is how we spent most of our time on the water.
Running "THE WALL"... the only rapid of the day, which was reported to have been a 4+ rapid. Some dispute that, but it was pretty impressive.
Standing on the raft for a very small rapid
Hi... can you tell how cold I am?
Kids waiting for the rafters return
9 April 2008
White Water Wonderland - a
Rishikesh Adventure
The
morning after our Taj Adventure we again rose before the sun and
boarded a bus, to board a train, to board another bus, to walk down
the trail to Camp David, somewhere up river from Rishikesh.
That would be the Ganges River, in case you were wondering.
Between the 8 of us McIlleces (that's including Donny & Lena) we had
3 tents, which were nicer than all 7 years of the Girls' Camp of my
youth put together. I was actually surprised that the latrines
they had provided were better than most public bathrooms we've
encountered in India--I will admit that they were a bit fragrant by
that third day, but what in this whole country isn't?
J
So that first afternoon, being really
grateful to be out of said bus/train/bus combination, we donned our
swimming gear and headed to the beach for some kayaking and
rappelling. I am pleased to report that all of my
children (except D--too young) rappelled without incident. I
was exceptionally proud of A, who I had personally believed to be
too scared to try. She went down the cliff twice! I love
rappelling myself, and hope that as our kids continue to get older
we will have more opportunities for adventure outings. That
night we enjoyed a great fire. Friends shared the hot dogs
they brought, and the camp BBQ-ed some other interesting
combinations of things leading to most of us being too full to even
consider eating dinner at 8:30 that night. We slept well on
our slightly softer than rock mattresses and awoke refreshed and
ready for our first day of rafting.
We woke up to a cold
rain and cool temperatures which caused a sight hesitancy to my
eagerness for my first rafting experience, which was quickly
dispelled by the adrenalin I felt in gearing up. All the kids
were able to raft for the first few kilometers of river, and then
all but Z had to disembark before the rapids. Thankfully,
Richard had volunteered to stay behind with those who couldn't
continue so I could enjoy the entire day on the river (oh, yeah, I
forgot to mention the Seiperts were there too). (Thanks
Richard!) With the rain and the river temps, poor D was
miserably freezing, but B and A were extremely disappointed they
didn't meet the 12-year-old cut off. My girls are hard core.
So after the young un's were shuttled back to camp, we got down to
business. We had the best river guide - Raju rocks - became
our mantra. We also had Vivek (I think that's his name) with
us; he was the guide for the entire trip. We laughed almost
the entire time as we would break into song with Chale Chalo
from the Bollywood movie Lagaan, and join in the collective
smack talk between rafts. Our raft contained, Raju (Raju
rocks!), Vivek, Dave, Donny & Lena, some unknown camp hand who
was terrified, and me. Z was too "cool" to be on our raft.
Did I mention that the river was cold? Well, the thrill of the
day involved attacking other rafts/rafters from our group between
rapids. The sly trick they used on me was to hook the "T" of
the oar handle onto the life jacket and pull the unsuspecting victim
into the water. This progressed to full dog piles and raft
jumping to push, pull, and strong arm the bigger victims into the
water. It became "every man for himself", although on many
occasions Raju maneuvered us into positions of safety or even
advantage in the mayhem. He even got involved himself by
stealing oars, or just nimbly jumping over people to tackle people
almost twice his size into the river. (Raju rocks!)
Riding the rapids was a blast. We even got to body surf a
couple of them. Did I mention that the water was downright
freezing? Well, after the first 10 seconds in the water,
you're body became numb and you actually felt warm. At least
we felt really warm when we got out of the water and back into the
raft. After a few hours on the river we beached for the day,
changed into our dry clothes, ate lunch and boarded buses back to
camp. Upon arrival at camp I made sure my other 3 children
were still alive and then headed straight to my tent, crawled under
the blanket and tried to get warm. I fell asleep for an hour
or so, and woke up not feeling very well. As the night
progressed, it got worse, and resulted in my being the sickest I've
been since we arrived in India. I think I must have swallowed
some of the "cleansing" water of the Ganges and it was fast at work
cleaning out my insides. Thanks to friends who offered their
support and to Dave's faith and support, I was able to fall asleep
and the worse passed rather quickly. I did get my exercise
that night though with 5 latrine inspections.
That
last morning I woke up early to a beautiful morning with the sun
trying really hard to break through the clouds. I was
surprised at how well I was feeling. The itinerary for the day
involved 2 rapids, but we soon found out that one of them was
altered by a rock slide during the rain the previous day so that
made only one. Since the 3 youngest were still not able to
ride this rapid I had decided to stay home, but thanks to the
Nordstroms who adamantly encouraged us to leave our kids with them I
was pleased to be able to have another go at the Ganges. The
Nordstroms assured us they had a great day planned for the kids:
rock busting, digging in the sand, chasing the stray puppy and many
other enlightening activities. (Again... Thanks!)
In our raft that day was Raju (Raju rocks!), Kelly, Julie,
Dave, Donny & Lena, another guy, and me. The sun was out
making it hot out of the water, but also making the contrasting
temps of "in the water" vs. "out of the water" that much more
dramatic. We really enjoyed with day with a much more relaxed
atmosphere on the river having only one rapid to worry about.
There was some serious paybacks to be delivered from the previous
day's warring, that included several rafts ganging up on another.
We enjoyed some body surfing, which
resulted
in the bruise on my knee (see photo from 3 days later), and spent
enough time in the sun that day to give those who wanted them
sunburns. We body surfed back to camp, and while we packed up
our gear one of the guides gave all the kids another opportunity to
raft close to camp. Dave made friends with the camp owner and
we said goodbye to Raju (Raju rocks!). As I boarded the
bus, I passed D and T (Kelly's youngest) sitting in the front row of
my bus, but as we were about to get underway realized he had
disembarked and boarded the other bus. We consulted Richard
who was on the other bus and he assured Dave that all was under
control. Well, I learned later that "under control" is a
relative term that involves unruliness, other more typical
6-year-old traits like fidgeting, seat shifting, and noisiness, and
other less typical events, like vomiting. Ewwwww! My
apologies to those who were affected by the unpleasantness caused by
my child left in another's care. We arrived at the train
station, were treated by our awesome tour guide to some cold sodas,
and waited for another exciting rail journey back to Delhi.
After solving some seat issues we endured the long ride back.
There was another family returning to Delhi after a holiday in
Mussoorie that Dave befriended and talked to for over two hours.
It was fun to see the exchanges and looks of surprise at his ability
to speak Hindi and the reasons for taking his family to India.
We were also pleasantly surprised to find Baldev waiting for us at
the train station with our car (sporting newly tinted windows) so we
could avoid another bus ride and go straight home. We
crashed into bed quickly and all slept very soundly after a
fantastic weekend, made that much better by having Donny & Lena with
us. It is such a treasure to be able to share this Indian
Adventure with those we love. I am expecting some great
pictures from actually rafting from both Richard and another friend
with a water proof casing on his camera, so stay tuned.
I failed to mention
how beautiful the "hills" are in Northern India. Having
already traveled through Himachal Pradesh last summer, we could
really appreciate the difference in scenery and climate than what we
are used to in Delhi. This was no different. And the
fact that it was THE Ganges River made it that much more
magnificent. What a privilege and blessing this opportunity
is!
A Whirlwind Week
We had enjoyed a
whirlwind couple of weeks with Donny and Lena. I want to do
them justice, so be patient as I try to recap our fun and
festivities completely and with clarity. They arrived Friday
(Mar 28) night. Dave left Z at the Scout campout to pick them
up at the airport and then headed back Saturday morning for the
Merit Badge Marathon. Donny, Lena and I hit the ground running
and headed to Old Delhi on the Metro. I love the contrast of
coming out of the new modern Metro into filthy, fascinating Chawri
Bazaar. We hiked to the
Jama
Masjid, the largest active mosque in India and climbed the 130
steps to the top of the minaret for a commanding view of Delhi.
We ate a
fantastic
lunch at my favorite Karim's, headed off to wander the maze of
streets. We stopped at Dave's favorite brass store, where I
had previously bought my favorite India purchase to date (see
photo), and enjoyed the exciting sights, sounds and smells that
have become so familiar to me. As our energy wore out we
hopped on a rickshaw and asked him to take us to the Metro.
Our driver was on autopilot though and rode us all the way to the
Red Fort before understanding his mistake. He was sweating
buckets when we finally reached the Metro stop. We boarded the
Metro, took a tuc-tuc home and called it a day! I call that a
hard core welcome to Delhi.
Sunday,
Donny, Lena & I took the kids to Lodi Gardens. I had been
recently for 7 Cities, but my camera died half-way through the tour
(hence the lack of post on it--stay tuned). Church that
afternoon was great. It's always fun to see the reactions
people have their first time at church here. It's usually
pretty powerful. You can really appreciate the strength of the
members here and the growth of the Church here is inspiring.
When we arrived in June there were 2 branches. Now the mission
has split, there are 3 branches and 3 home groups.
Monday
and Tuesday were awesome... we took the kids out of school and drove
down to Neemrana Fort Palace--AGAIN! I love that place.
This time it was warm enough to swim in the pool. We had an
awesome thunderstorm too. There were peacocks everywhere. It
was amazing to see these giant birds gliding down from the mountain
past the bastions to the trees below. Tuesday before we left
we drove to the Baoli (step well) and were amazed at the
restoration/renovations going on there. They had repaired the
surrounding wall, and started on the gazillions of steps reaching at
least 9 stories down.
Wednesday was my 7
Cities tour to
Humayan's Tomb and
Safdarjung's Tomb. Dave, Donny & Lena tagged along, we ate
some lunch and picked up the kids for A's dentist appointment at
Khan Market. So they got to explore Khan Market that
afternoon. Lena was reunited with Anokhi (one of my favorite
Indo-Western clothes stores) and Choco-La (a restaurant based on
chocolate--how much better can you get?)
Thursday
we woke up super early for the requisite visit to Agra.
Devender drove us (Donny, Lena and I) masterfully through the 4
hours of traffic insanity and "cow conferences" in the road.
This trip (my 5th) to the Taj proved more exciting than most.
As we pulled into the parking lot we were denied access to the lot
because our "blue plates" exempt us from paying the fees. I
would have been more than happy to pay the nominal fee (really like
20 rupees or something ridiculous like that), but Devender was
convinced that we needed to stick up for the principle of it all,
and was really upset at the rudeness of the boys manning the gate,
which I can understand too. And while I'm the farthest thing
from an VIP or important diplomatic person, the rules were set in
place for a reason and should be respected for those reasons.
Devender talked to several police officers before marching us to the
nearby local station to lodge a complaint. Before I really
even understood what was going on, they handed me a pen and a piece
of paper with which to write my complaint. (What? ME?...
Hmmmm.... okay, I'll play along) So I wrote what had happened
and emphasized that each time I had come we had been told
conflicting things regarding parking. We left the car at the
station and rode our camel cart to the Taj. I LOVE taking
people to the Taj for the first time. Donny was really
impressed. And I must admit, even for my 5th time, it still
takes my breath away when we walk through the gate and catch the
first glimpse of that magnificent building. As we headed back
to the car, Devender steered us back to the police station. He
sat us down and continued his debate. A few minutes later he
left with one of the officers and came back with a crowd of more
than 20 guys. The police sat back down and payed no attention
to the ensuing heated argument between Devender and the rest of the
people. As it turns out, the main character in this crowd was
the owner of the parking lot and despite the odds, Devender was
aggressively teaching him the rules of "blue plated" vehicles.
There was a brief moment of two when I wondered if I should be
worried for our safety, but more than anything it was entertaining.
I swear, Devender is a bulldog! After about 10 minutes,
Devender steps over to me and says "He says he is sorry!" I
was completely shocked, regained my composure and I asked Devender
what happened. Apparently, Devender had threatened that I
would make a formal complaint with the Ministry in Delhi when we
returned. The owner told him he hadn't been aware of the "blue
plate" rules, and he apologized for the behavior of his employees.
Then they all looked at me as if I had to make some decision or
something. (AWKWARD!) So, I asked Devender if they understood
the rules now. He asked them and the entire group nodded their
collective heads in agreement. "So" I said, "this isn't going
to happen again?" Again a collective head bobble that it was
resolved. I stood up, shukriya-ed (said thank you)
namaste-ed and the crowd parted for our departure. Can you say
BIZARRE? And can you say Devender is unbelievable?
So,
after that excitement. We ate lunch, and headed to the Agra
Fort, another of my favorite places. We had the best guide
that day. He had a MA in History and was a wealth of
information. He was talking about the mirror room and I
mentioned that I would love to be able to see that someday (as it is
locked and off limits). He got a glint in his eye and asked
"Do you really want to see it?" (Uhhhh, YES!) So as is
the case with all things India, and as Devender's mantra of the day
was: Anything is possible in India! When we
arrived at that part of the tour, things got all "covert ops" and we
were admitted to the "inner sanctum" of the Agra Fort. This
room was the private bath/massage parlor of Mumtaz Mahal (Taj was
built for her) There are hundreds of thousands of tiny mirrors
on the ceiling and walls of this group of rooms. Our guide
whipped out two candles and some matches, lit them and proceeded to
show us all the cool special effects of the mirrors, and how one
candle could light up the room. He even swirled them above his
head, causing the mirrors to flicker and twinkle and sang his own
version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It was
definitely a highlight! After the Fort we hopped back in the
car for the adventure home, where we began packing our bags for the
next days trip to Rishikesh... but as my fingers are cramping...
that trip log will have to wait.
