Jodhpur

We are in Jodhpur right now in Rajasthan. Some of you may have heard about the temple stampede that took place here this morning. John and I are doing ok as the incident was not near where we are staying, but many people died and were injured. It's been a sad day for the people here.

Delhi to Jodhpur to Udaipur to Jaipur to Delhi

Hey everyone. This is John. Sorry for the loooong delay in posting. Sapana and I are in Delhi at the moment, but in about 30 min we're going to head over to the train station so we can go to Jodhpur.

Here's a little summary of what's been going on. Sapana and I decided to shorten our time at Barli. After being there almost six weeks, Sapana still did not have any substantial work to do. We decided that we could hopefully make more of a difference somewhere else where we could be more engaged.

We came to Delhi to investigate some things here. Some friends of Sapana's family are being wonderful hosts and taking great care of us. While here in Delhi we got to see the Baha'i House of Worship, and I got to speak with some people over there about a project I'll be working on with them.

We have a little bit of time in between things, and we want to investigate another women's empowerment project in Jodhpur, so we're going to make a trip of it. We'll spend a few days in Jodhpur, and go to a small village with the guy who runs the program. Then we'll spend a few days in Udaipur before moving on to Jaipur for about a day. After that we'll come back to Delhi and I will be working full time with the House of Worship project. (more details on that later)

So it's a bit of a vacation, but we are investigating a possible service opportunity. We'll be spending time in some of the most beautiful places in India, so I'll take lots of pictures. Sorry about the lack of photos on flickr, the time we've had with fast Internet has been very limited. I will try to get more photos up soon.

moving on

Just a quick update for anyone who is following this. We are going to Delhi next week to pursue other opportunities there. I'll write more details later once we have it all figured out. It seems as if this trip has a mind of its own. Let's see where it takes us.

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.

first week

We're in the middle of our first week here. We've just been getting adjusted to living here and are figuring out lots of little logistical things like washing our own clothes, finding the nearest grocery stores, etc. John and I have been working a lot in the office these past few days. John is working on a power point presentation about the Institute. I'm editing the director's (Janak didi's) first draft of a book she's writing about research she's done on the Institute's programs. I've already learned a ton about their model of socio-economic development. Whenever I get a chance, I spend some time with the girls and practice my Hindi. They have assured me that by the time I leave, I will have learned to speak Hindi quite well. They ask me a lot of questions about my life and what things are like in America. The girls are in class a good part of the day, and what's amazing is that even in their free time they are practicing their Hindi or something else. They seem to savor the learning that they are getting here. After reading the director's thesis on the Institute's programs, I have a deeper appreciation for where these girls have come from and the amazing changes that are being made in their communities through their training. They are basically trained in many different areas (Hindi, cutting and tailoring, health and hygeine, batik, and other skills) with the goal being that they will pass these skills on to others and use them to uplift themselves along with their families and communities. And they have been very successful in doing so. Their hearts are so pure, and they are a true joy to be around. They call me "didi" (big sister), and they call John "jijaji" (brother-in-law). The other night John was playing his guitar on the steps outside our room, and a bunch of girls gathered around to listen. They had never seen a guitar before. Here's a pic:

We're here!

So, we landed in Mumbai laaate last night, and my parents’ lovely friend Niyati auntie came to pick us up at the airport. Note to self – don’t stay in your seat the whole time next time you are on a 9 hour plane ride. My legs were cramping when we got off. Anyways, the flight was pretty good. The 5 hour layover in Frankfurt that fell at like 1-6 am Houston time was not so fun, but other than that, we got through the journey ok…I did lots of reading and sleeping, some knitting, and beat John at Scrabble. John read, studied Hindi, and took pictures of things. They even gave us vegan meals on our flights which was nice, and we didn’t lose any of our luggage which was very very nice and possibly a first.

Today we did touristy stuff in Mumbai. Niyati auntie took us to Mani Bhavan which is where Gandhi lived when he was in Mumbai, from 1917 to 1934. It’s a great place to visit if you’re a Gandhi buff like me, or even if you’re not. They had his old bedroom preserved, lots of pictures and old letters, a library, and a whole room with little displays depicting important scenes from his life.

Next we visited the Gateway of India which looked like it was being renovated or something. Across from that was the Taj Hotel which was built by the British like a hundred years ago. It’s really pretty and faaaaancyyyy. Niyati auntie, John, and I had lunch at the restaurant there which was yummy! John said it was the best Indian food he’s had (except for my mom's cooking).



The traffic here is worth a little mention. The driving here is a little crazy. In fact, I’m pretty terrified of it! The usual distance that exists between cars in the US just does not exist here. We would be right, I mean right next to cars while driving on the freeway, and what would be a big close call in Houston happens like every few minutes here. There are people everywhere, and the lane divisions seem to be purely for decorative purposes. But it works!



Now we are back home. John is taking a nap, and I’m fighting sleep. It’s 4:00 pm here, but 5:30 am in Houston so we’re not completely over the jet lag yet. Tonight we are having dinner with Ghanshyam mama and family which we are looking forward to!

That’s all for now. We don’t have a phone number yet. We’ll get that once we get to Indore on Friday. Please email and leave comments!

Love, sapana

goodbyes for now

We've had a busy last couple of weeks. We had our last days of work, packed everything up, and stored it away. There are a lot of little things that you have to think about when you go away so far for so long so we've just been taking care of it all and at the same time trying to see everyone before we go since it will be a while before we see them again. Here are some highlights:

Evening with Erin, Marcus, and super cute Morgan at their peaceful home in the country...

The Baha'is of Fort Bend got together and had a little going away thing for us. We were blown away by the outpouring of good wishes and also by the great food! The kids from our children's class sang some songs and made us an awesome book to remember them by. We were super touched.

My parents also had their friends over so we could hang out with the "Super Seven" one last time and say goodbye to them all.

Finally, the Sampson family got together to wish us goodbye and good luck which was very very sweet! Sadly I forgot my camera so the few pictures I took were on someone else's camera. :( It was nice that almost all our nieces were in town, and John got to go spend a night with them just hanging out with Tom, Teresa, Mazy, Alexa, Kevin, Christina, and Becky.

And last but not least, Jamey and Auggie!

Everyone spoiled us with really great vegan food. It made us feel really good that no animals were harmed in order for us all to get together and have a good time. They showed that eating in a way that promotes compassion and nonviolence towards animals can also be really yummy!

But mostly, we were happy that we got a chance to see everyone and we left the country feeling really really lucky and really really blessed to have such great family and friends behind us.