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Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Country Driving in India
Driving in India is crazy so I took these pictures in about 10 miles of driving. City driving is exciting. Next time I am in the city I will take pictures there.
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Click here to see more pictures :
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Indian Beaches
When the tsunami hit India a few years these beaches were destroyed and thousands of people were killed. They are home, bathroom, laundry room and employment for many, many people.
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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065799&id=1257014966&l=6f2a257cd1
Blessing Our School in India
These are the pictures from the beginning of school when the Hindu priest came and blessed the building.
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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065798&id=1257014966&l=c5982a08c5
There is a man here at the school who is devout Hindu. He did a special celebration with chanting and bell ringing and flowers. It was to bless the school during the year so it will be protected and provide shelter for the children. The staff members who participated splattered red and yellow dye on all the vehicles and door posts. One of the villagers brought a cow which they splattered with dye too. Then they walked around it with lit lanterns while chanting and ringing an annoying bell. Most everyone walked around the cow. Some bent down in front of the cow with their head on the ground in prayer. Then they took the cow into the school and walked it up and down each hallway to bless the school. Then they went outside again where they held a small fruit up high with a sugar cube on it that was lit on fire. After holding this in the air and praying they smashed it on the ground. Then they did the same with an apple - then with a melon that they smashed into 4 pieces and put a piece on each of the 4 corners of the entry to the compound. It was very colorful and obviously important to them.
There is a man here at the school who is devout Hindu. He did a special celebration with chanting and bell ringing and flowers. It was to bless the school during the year so it will be protected and provide shelter for the children. The staff members who participated splattered red and yellow dye on all the vehicles and door posts. One of the villagers brought a cow which they splattered with dye too. Then they walked around it with lit lanterns while chanting and ringing an annoying bell. Most everyone walked around the cow. Some bent down in front of the cow with their head on the ground in prayer. Then they took the cow into the school and walked it up and down each hallway to bless the school. Then they went outside again where they held a small fruit up high with a sugar cube on it that was lit on fire. After holding this in the air and praying they smashed it on the ground. Then they did the same with an apple - then with a melon that they smashed into 4 pieces and put a piece on each of the 4 corners of the entry to the compound. It was very colorful and obviously important to them.
Beautiful Children
I LOVE the children. I have posted pictures for you to see the beauty I am surrounded by.
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Temples & Elephants
These pictures are some of the Temples and fun Elephant blessings. There are thousands of Temples in each city and many in each village.
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Monday, December 6, 2010
Life in India
These are general photos of life in India. As you can tell I love the faces of people.
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Chris in India
I'm usually behind the camera so these are the photos of me such as they are. Life in India is hard and very good.
Signs
Sometimes traveling in a foreign country you see interesting and funny signs. These are a few I have seen in India.
Leper Colonies
A man compained he had no shoes until he met a man who had no feet. I'm grateful for hands.
This link will show you some of the wonderful people we treat in the colonies.
This link will show you some of the wonderful people we treat in the colonies.
Rising Star School
This link will connect to photos of the school I work at. They tell much of the story here.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Indian Culture
The lifestyle here is so different. This is a third world country trying to break into a better and healthier way of living. India is a place of constant over stimulation. The two significant are smell and color.
There are smells that I have never smelled in the states. Some are putrid. Some are rotting garbage up and down all the streets in all the cities. Some are exhaust and smog. Some the burning of everything from rubber tires to plastic to palm limbs. Some are fragrant Jasmine flowers that are strung by the yard and worn in women’s hair. There are cows walking anywhere and everywhere - eating and leaving droppings – town and country. I’m happy when I smell nothing.
There is such a contrast in color everywhere. The buildings are dull, the streets dirty and brown. The men are in drab shirts and wear a Lungi. A Lungi is a large piece of fabric worn around the waist then folded in half and tucked into the waist. In southern India the color is blue. It used to be worn as is but now they wear a pair of shorts under, thank goodness.
The women wear saris. They are beautiful and come in all colors – bright to ultra bright. They can be covered in sequins, beads, braid, dangles, bangles and anything that shines, glistens and/or makes sound. These people wear their wealth. They don’t own a car, live in a hut and survive on rice in its many forms. But they wear their wealth.
The women wear earrings that are gold. They dangle and then wrap up over the top of the ear.
There are nose piercings – some small and some very large – if you are old and really wealthy you have each nostril pierced with large gold pieces. It looks so weird like rings thru a cow’s nose.
They have an anklet on both ankles. If you wear only one then you are a whore so everyone wears two. Some anklets are simple but others have up to 50 little bells that make noise with every step. Some have 3 or 4 strands. All anklets are made of silver.
They wear a bindi – that is the red dot between the eyes. Some bindi’s are small, some large, some tear shaped and some are jeweled.
If a woman is married she wears a gold chain around her neck. If she can’t afford gold then she wears a gold cord. That is the same as our wedding band on the ring finger.
A married woman will sometimes wear red powder dye in the part of her hair. That is another sign she is married. A man wears nothing to indicate if he is married.
They wear several toe rings. No one has only one toe ring. There are at least 2 and often more on both feet.
If they go to Temple – and there are hundreds of Temples everywhere – they put yellow or red dye on the forehead. The men will have several lines and circles on their forehead showing their faith and devotion. Only the highest caste can make one long red line from hair line to eye brow. That way everyone knows their social status and that they are ‘holy’. At the hospital they even have a statue in the forayer with different colors of powder that are supposed to help you heal. You just put as much as you want on your forehead.
Beautiful Children
When the children come back from break visiting their parents we have every one shampoo with lice shampoo before going to bed. Some of the boys come with their heads shaved. The parents will do it because the lice are just too bad to treat. Lice are a fact of life when there is no decent sanitation.
The new dinning hall is a God send. There was a small kitchen in the hostel and they would take the meals back to their living area which made for food on the floor and instant ants. Not good. The new dinning area is covered but open to the elements. It has a large cooking area. The old one worked when there were 75 kids to feed but now there are 185 kids add the staff and there's over 200. The 2 cooks make 3 meals a day.
The children are beautiful and so innocent. They are why everyone works here for just about nothing.
This place is amazing in that it functions so well. It is a huge investment with many supporters from the States. Someday but not soon, the Indian people will need to fund this and learn from our example how to educate and produce emotionally healthy children. The kids sometimes suffer from separation anxiety from mom and dad. That makes me sad but the children and especially the parents know this is the only way for them to rise out of destitute poverty.
The new dinning hall is a God send. There was a small kitchen in the hostel and they would take the meals back to their living area which made for food on the floor and instant ants. Not good. The new dinning area is covered but open to the elements. It has a large cooking area. The old one worked when there were 75 kids to feed but now there are 185 kids add the staff and there's over 200. The 2 cooks make 3 meals a day.
The children are beautiful and so innocent. They are why everyone works here for just about nothing.
This place is amazing in that it functions so well. It is a huge investment with many supporters from the States. Someday but not soon, the Indian people will need to fund this and learn from our example how to educate and produce emotionally healthy children. The kids sometimes suffer from separation anxiety from mom and dad. That makes me sad but the children and especially the parents know this is the only way for them to rise out of destitute poverty.
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