Namaste...

We were so engrossed in learning Hindi today, that we nearly missed one of our computer lessons... Ooops...

Both of us are learning how to speak, read and write Hindi as a side-project while we’re here. It’s not really necessary on the farm though as everyone speaks English. Where it will come in handy is when we venture out into the “real” India, the one where few people speak English. It’s tough work, especially having to learn another script but luckily Hindi characters (Devanagari script) is actually pretty easy to pick up and thanks to my trusty I-Pod we have been able to learnt to passably read it in just a few days – the only problem is we don’t understand what we’re reading...yet

Mayla...An Indian festival

Sunday night we were invited by the hostel boys to come see what the loud music was about. So in the darkness, we walked the 1km stretch into Banbassa. The town was in the throws of Mayla (another festival), and the main school grounds had been recreated into a town fair. Bright lights, loud music, food stalls, games, bollywood dancing... the usual stuff...

The dozen boys had a great time, some tried their hand at shooting balloons, others had a go at lucky wheel (roulette type game). Everyone played knock-em-down (15 stacked cans, 3 balls and 3 throws), it cost Rs5 per go (12.5cAUD), and was worth every Rupee apart from the Rs5 wasted on Miriam – who did nothing to improve womens lib in India, missing the cans entirely with all 3 throws! A 600ml bottle of Pepsi was at stake, and Anup did us proud. A couple of the boys had a ride on the ferris wheel, it didn’t quite meet the Adelaide Show standard, but that didn’t matter. It was like a big human mouse wheel, which gained momentum the faster the two guys standing at the centre of the wheel walked. The boys said it was the best ride they’d been on (having been the only ride they’d ever been on). We then hung around watching the bollywood, hip-hop dancing up on stage until it was time to head home for the 10pm curfew imposed....

PS - you may have noticed the pictures were not "actual" photo's of ours, we didn't take our camera that night but we just wanted something for you to look at

Saturday in a nut shell....

Our alarm went off at 6am – giving time for the water to heat up and us to get ready before the breakfast bell rang at 6.45am. After a quick breakfast of porridge, toast & chai, I headed off to help out with the laundry. The bijali (electricity) went off 10mins before being finished, so the generator had to be started to finish it off. I then found Brad in the office typing out the entire year 10 computing book (2 months into the year, and only 1 student out of 18 has received their book). I took over the typing at that point.

At 10am, everyone stops for morning tea. After a cup of chai, we were told that the bijali would be off for most of the day as some long overdue workmen had arrived to do some much needed work on the lines. This was quite frustrating as we have Yr 6, 7 & 8^th computing lessons back to back from 10.30am to 12.20pm on a Saturday. Unlike Australia, here the kids have school 6 days a week, with one Saturday off per month. So we piled an old computer that Brad has pulled apart and labelled onto a desk & carried it outside under a shady tree for our lessons. Then Brad pretty much repeated the same lesson to all 3 classes, as all these grades are at the same level, and have really only started to have hands on experience with computers since we’ve been here.

We then borrowed a motorbike and headed into Banbassa for a quick trip to collect clothing from some tailors and get some laminating done. We went to the first tailor to pick up a top I’d put in for alterations, to find they had not fixed it yet – we said we’d come back in 5mins. We then went to the next tailor to pick up some pants Brad had put in for alterations, they had fixed the pants, but couldn’t find them – so we said we’d come back in 5mins. So we tried the 3^rd tailor, they didn’t appear to have even started on their job, so we went to get the laminating done – they said it’d be ready in 10 mins. So we went back to the 1^st tailor who had by now finished my alterations, collected my top and headed to the 2^nd tailor, who had by then found the pants. We then went to the 3^rd tailor, who was still working on the school uniform we were trying to pick up. So we went back to the laminator, and collected the finished job. Then headed to the 3^rd tailor hoping that the job would be done, it was.

Lunch (at 1pm) had already commenced when we got back. So we sat down to potato curry, rice, and a banana. I then went off to relax for half an hour – while Brad took one of the students struggling with maths for tutoring, before we took the Yr 10 girls tutoring between 2-3pm (which turned into 3.30pm). We then has a quick cup of tea at 4pm (afternoon tea time), then headed into the computer room to set up for our 4.20pm Yr 10 Computing lesson, only to find that the bijali had gone off again. So we decided to skip computing lesson (as all the boys were working on the harvest anyway), and did 1 ½ more hours of tutorials with the Yr 10 girls. I then came back to find that supper prep/cooking was already well under control, so I replied to a couple of emails, almost fell asleep on the laptop until supper time (not sure what Brad did during this hour). We ate supper, which was a beautiful potato dish with chapattis, then went to bed around 7.30/8pm. I managed to be lulled to sleep by the thumping night club style music coming from somewhere nearby. Brad said the music went for hours, so I expect he didn’t find it as soothing....

Cheap and Cheerful

Hi all - just thought I'd update you on some good news for any of those interested on visiting this place. Air Asia now offer a route to Calcutta (Kolkata) and the best thing is they're dirt cheap! I just dug around for a couple of minutes and figured out flights from Melbourne->KL->Kolkata for $150AUD one way. I'm sure if you hunted some more you'd get even cheaper.... From Kolkata it's only a lazy $10/24 hour train trip to Bareilly which is close to where we are. So if you have the time, now money can't be an excuse ;)

P..P..P..Fireworks

This week was Diwali, a Hindu festival celebrated by setting off copious quantities of firecrackers. For three nights our sleep has been punctuated by large bangs, long whistles and bursts of light, not dissimilar to the background noise in a war film. As an Australian male, I of course could not pass up on the opportunity to purchase some of these cheap “no license required” explosives and went with Miriam and Amos, one of the farm boys, to acquire some pyrotechnic paraphernalia.

The usually sleepy town of Banbassa was teeming with people eager to purchase Potaka’s (firecrackers) and every shop, regardless of their normal trade, is a front for some serious explosive merchandise. Amos (pictured centre) initially had a hard time choosing from the selection as he had never possessed so much purchasing power ($50AUD) in his life. We soon prodded him along and he was caught up in the excitement and we soon had about 5 or 6 bags filled with rockets, fountains, star bursts, spinning wheels and sparklers.

As the most qualified explosive expert on the farm, I was chosen to manage the event and I chose 4 trustworthy boys to help light (and guard) the fireworks. The girls handled the sparkler distribution process from the sidelines, and after the big show it was reported to me that the kids enjoyed the sparklers the most. No problem though as I had more fun than could be imagined after 31 years of enforced fireworks abstinence. At one stage during the show I heard a loud whistle, a flash of light and then a hundred or so crowd members let out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t sure why until later when I saw this photo of a rocket misfiring, landing centimeters from my head and then shooting back into the air. Needless to say Miriam was very glad when I emerged from the firework haze unscathed. I can’t wait until New Years….

THANK YOU

This blog is a big thank you to those who have forwarded money through us to help out over here, it is long overdue but one of the problems is that things are just not easy to buy. Miriam and I are so used to just going to the nearest shopping centre and picking up the needed items. Over here it takes months of frustrating, failed attempts and numerous cities before we find what we’re after. Another issue is the language barrier, so we always have to take someone with the lingo although we are working on this by teaching ourselves Hindi and practicing on the kids.

My brother sent through a wad of cash a while ago and with it we were able to purchase new tires and repair one of the ute’s that is used to ferry supplies and school children (not at the same time). This was done just in time as the other “Garri” (car) broke down on a school excursion and took ages to fix. They are hoping to purchase a new vehicle as the current fleet are all on their last legs. There was some money left over so we bought the girls a new DVD player to replace one that broke. I’m not sure this was such a great idea as now we are subjected to girls recounting lines from “Titanic”, “High School Musical” and now thanks to those Kiwi visitors – “The Sound of Music”. Some of the girls even reckon that Miriam looks a little like Maria but I can’t see the resemblance…

Friends from way back also sent a bunch of cash which we have put to good use buying a huge pot, big enough to cook a medium sized child in (not that we would of course) and a 22L pressure cooker to speed up the rice preparation. We also were able to replace many of the dented, warped and cracked plates and cups used by the children. After a lot of deliberation we also decided to cave in to popular demand and buy some “fairness cream” aka (moisturiser with sunblock), and over 2000 individual packets of sunslik and pantene shampoo (cheapest way to buy it). As if that wasn’t enough, with the leftovers we were able to buy two steel cupboards for the school library and another UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) for the computer room.

Some guys from my work have come to the party and provided some money which has gone towards chairs for the computer room and the last UPS required. This has meant the computer room was completed and last week every class from 1^st to 10^th (no 9^th class) had their first “real” computer lesson – We now have 7 computers running and the kids have been really excited to use them, some for the first time ever. The remaining money was spent on a filing cabinet which took some finding in India, an iron for the laundry and sporting equipment for the kids (2 volleyballs, a soccer ball, and 2 badminton sets).

Our church sent some more money over and we decided the best way to spend this was on fruit for the kids. The farm grows it’s own fruit and in-season the kids get plenty of guava’s, mangoes and paw-paws. Outside of season though, fruit is very expensive and the kids go without for months at a time. The money provided will give the kids a mixture of apples and bananas 3 times a week for about 2 months. This will also reduce the need to purchase so many vitamin supplements that are given to the children in lieu of fruit.

All of these gifts are perfect examples of how us “rich” westerners can make a real difference in the lives of these children. Because of foreign money coming in these children get a real chance at life with a safe, healthy environment to grow up in, a better than average education (I wouldn’t say good just yet, but we’re working on it) and a loving family of fellow orphans and local and foreign staff members. I quite often watch the kids playing and realize that without this place many would be dead, sick, abused or at the very least uneducated with no real hope for the future.

Thanks to all those have given of their hard-earned dough, it is much appreciated by both of us, the staff and especially the kids. A lot of the things we are buying with the money aren’t “exciting” but they are “infrastructure” items which are much needed and unfortunately take priority over toys and games. The www.indianorphanage.com website has now added a catalogue which enables “fun” things to be bought for the kids like sports gear, games and toys. This can be “ordered” online or email us to find out about other payment options.

Of course if you have time on your hands and happen to be good at anything at all, we can always fit you in over here – we’ve really enjoyed our time here so far and feel like we’re actually making a difference. We have visitors here quite often who find that this place changes their perspective on what things are really important in life. We are always looking for people who can teach (no qualifications needed), do handy-man tasks, cook or even supervising kids while they do craft, computers or sports.

PHOTO'S

Don't forget to check out the photo page by clicking on the link at the right hand side of the page labelled "India Favourites"