Glimpe of life at Barli, parents' day & playing tourist in Indore

Hello everyone out there. This is John. It’s about time I contributed to the blog, so here’s a little update.

Sapana and I are slowly getting into a regular routine here at Barli. All the work I’ve been doing has been computer based. For example, I made a PowerPoint presentation for a woman who will be going to visit Sweden to give a talk to SIDA, an organization that provides funding for Barli. Right now I’m working on a book that contains stories of the graduates of Barli. It shows how they’ve applied what they’ve learned, and how they’re making a difference not only for themselves, but for their families and communities. Some of the stories are very inspiring. Working on these projects has helped me learn a lot about the institute and its program.

Sapana is slowly getting involved with helping trainees who are learning Hindi literacy. Since she has a background in helping students with reading difficulties in English, she is trying to take her skills and apply them to helping girls with their Hindi. She’s not entirely proficient in Hindi, but she’s learning pretty quickly. I’m sure she’ll be solid within a couple more months. Sapana is also just starting to teach an English class, and she’s done some other miscellaneous work. Just today she proofread the book I’m working on and helped me realize I need to work on my editing skills.

Life here at the institute is pretty simple. We have a nice sized room, a small kitchen with a gas stove, and a bathroom with a shower. We’re able to cook our own meals, but we don’t have to – we can eat with the trainees at any time. They have three meals a day. The first is poha, which is made from rice. It’s yellow, I’m guessing from turmeric (?) and a pretty simple dish. It’ll fill you up pretty well, though sometimes Sapana and I eat our own food, maybe fruit with cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. It consists of a sabji, which is often made with some kind of vegetable, maybe with potato. And there’s also a dahl. (forgive me if spellings are wrong). They make fresh roti (bread, kinda like a wheat tortilla and really good), and they’ll give you a ton of rice unless you hold them off. For dinner, it’s another sabji with rice and/or roti. Lunch is pretty mild while dinner is often moderately spicy (or very spicy if you’re Sapana).

Sapana is like a celebrity with the girls here – they’re always excited to see her and always want to talk to her. It’s very cute. They also say hi to me and sometimes talk to me a little, but my Hindi is very basic and Sapana usually has to translate. I’ve been working on my Hindi a little here and there, and I’m planning to get more consistent with it. I don’t get a lot of practice while working in the office, but if I make the effort I have plenty of opportunities for speaking to people in Hindi.

They had a parents’ weekend here last weekend, and many of the girls’ parents came. This is the girls’ only chance to see their family during the six months they are here, so it was a big deal. There were a lot of tears shed, when parents didn’t show up for some, and then when the parents who did come had to leave. The girls were very excited to show their parents everything they were doing and had learned. There were a couple of presentations as well. During one of them, each girl got to get up with their family and talk about their experiences. Janak, the director of the institute, wanted to make sure that each of them had a turn to talk because many of them come from some of the lowest castes, and being female they didn’t always get the full respect they deserve. Janak wanted to be sure that each was recognized and given the chance to express themselves.

It’s inspiring to see how this institute makes a difference in the live of the girls who come here. Generally speaking, they have either received no education at all, or have dropped out of school before advancing very far. While here at the institute they learn not only literacy and vocational skills that they can use to earn a better living, but they also learn about personal transformation, prayer and service to the community. Many who graduate train other family members to tailor, teach them about health and hygiene, and get involved with some kind of community service. The intention of Barli is to train them to go back and transform their communities. Its methods are very sustainable and organic. Many of the trainers here, and at the institute’s extention centers in other locations, are Barli graduates themselves.

There’s a lot more I could discuss about Barli and its methods, but there are other places you can go to find more info about all that. If any of the stuff I’ve been working on gets put online, I’ll mention it.

We also went into the main part of Indore on Sunday afternoon. That was a good time. We went with Matt, anther volunteer here at Barli, and his roommate. We took a rickshaw to a Jain temple in the middle of town. It’s famous (in Indore, at least) because everything inside the temple is made from glass. It was interesting to see, and we just walked around the streets for a while afterwards. I took a bunch of pictures, and unfortunately can’t post them now because the Internet connection we have on our laptop is very slow. (We have spent hours downloading a single youtube video). I’m planning to go to an Internet café eventually and then add them to flickr. Anyway, we wandered around a bit, then took another rickshaw to a Sikh temple. Matt’s roommate is Sikh, so he wanted to go there and we were happy to go with him. They had cloths there that we could use to cover our heads, and we went inside and sat for a while. Afterwards we sat with some of the older Sikhs, who gave us tea and talked with us for a while. They were very nice people. Sapana and I walked back to the institute after that, while the other two walked back to their apartment. We might go back just to have somewhere to meditate. It’s just a 15-20 minute walk from Barli, and it’s a tranquil place.

The other, and perhaps the most exciting news, is that we got a care package from Sapana’s mom. She sent peanut butter, 3 bars of fancy chocolate, a couple boxes of Triscuits, Honey Nut Cheerios, some clothes for Sapana, and some other stuff. I think the peanut butter was actually the most exciting part. Sapana initially brought some peanut butter when we came, and I made a big deal about how we should learn to get by without needing American food and just adapt to the local food, etc. But man, that peanut butter is pretty good, especially when you’re stomach isn’t feeling great and the other food for dinner is really spicy. So I’ve eaten my words, and lots of peanut butter. Thanks Meena Auntie for the care package!

Ok, so there’s a basic update. It’s over two pages in Word as I type this, so I should cut it off here. Please comment if you’re reading this – it makes us feel special.