Play Father Christmas. Please.

A question I get asked almost every day is:

"Are you staying for Christmas?"

Christmas time at the strong farm is the favorite time of the year, and not just for the kids the adults love it too! Its a time of year when everyone gets a new item of clothing to show off, and a small present to go with it. They have meat for one of the only times in the year and they dance and party like any great Indian family does. They celebrate it with a church service and the school does a nativity play.

No one can believe that I am here so close to christmas, but not actually staying for it!

This has been a really rough year for the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission, both financially and emotionally, with the death of the woman all the kids call Grandma, who was the director of the mission, Maxine Strong.

They will struggle financially with Christmas this year, as they struggle to make ends meet let alone provide one night of festivities. I am asking that you would all think about donating to the orphanage this year, especially for christmas.

No matter what happens, this family of 200 strong will enjoy themselves at christmas. While they are not all blood related, they know the significance and the blessedness of having "family" to share it with more than most. Christmas for them is the one time in the year when they get to live "extravagantly", and when i say extravagantly, I mean with one new set of clothes each, a single present to enjoy and some extra zing to add to their curry by the way of meat.

Help the staff and the Shipways (directors) be able to afford to keep up this tradition the kids and the adults so love here. When i think of all we have at Christmas, i would gladly give it away to give this amazing family their extra special day of the year.


Just $15 gives two girls an outfit each. Just $10 provides every kid with a piece of fruit each, and fruit is prized like chocolate.

Please donate either via paypal if you would like more specific items, through their catalogue.

(oops so i fail at linking like that :S here the url copy adn paste it. haha http://indianorphanage.com/get-involved/donate-financially.html)

And do it now, so you don't have the excuse of forgetting.

Ok, so is it just me getting the brainwash from Indian media, or are the Australians particularly whiney these Commonwealth Games?

All the Australia vs India sports that are going on at the moment are allowing me to feel pretty much at home, except for some weird reason I have this tiny part of me that wills the Indians on. Maybe it’s a survival instinct, in case the Aussies somehow win the cricket and the crazed Indian fans turn on me for stealing victory from them…?

Speaking of sports, Caris and Selma and I had great intentions at the start of last week to do some yoga (well the exercises of yoga) each evening. Selma opted out after just 2 days, then in the last couple of days Caris is slacking off, so I’m last one standing. 2 weeks into it, and I’m pretty sure I’m still not doing half the stretches right. Its fun though, and hey, yoga is synonymous with India so I have to at least pretend I did some while I was here.


(Caris and I doing "yoga")

I have concluded that my Australian/Kazakh upbringing has neglected to teach me three particular things in life that I now consider important to my daily living 1. To sing all the songs off Shakiras albums 2. To beat a farm girl, 5 years my junior, at arm wrestling and 3. Being able to catch and skin a monsoon frog.
I didn’t think I would ever utter these words, but frog is so good! Big, juicy monsoon frogs. They are the size of a toad but are a frog, and deep fried they are magnificently tasty. A cross between chicken and fish, in this mostly vegetarian diet I have had over the past few months, frog has become my new favorite meat! These girls could give Bear Grylls a run for his money with their ability to catch food in the wild. Last Sunday I went with the older girls to the jungle and we made a fire and they went and caught about 8 frogs in the pond (in like 20 mins) and we fried them up for afternoon tea. Yum!

Just after the river crossing, with L-R: Euginea, Semma, Me, Caris and Annie
Caris with the first frogFrog de-skinned

Fired frog. yum

I haven’t been into the school much the past few weeks. Instead I have been honing my maternal skills and playing ‘big sister’ to a little boy called Raymond and the two little twins. I must admit it’s only in the last few weeks that I have branded Saloni and Shavani (twins) old enough for me to even pick up, let alone hold while moving in a walking motion. I still haven’t moved on to the changing nappy stage yet, no rush though. If I ever have kids, I’ve concluded that they’re gonna have to come out as 6 month olds otherwise I will be too scared to even touch them.

(me with shavani)

My little Raymond however (named after the TV show “everybody loves Raymond” - ughr) is just the sort of little boy I can cope with: Incredibly cheeky, ridiculously adorable, unbelievably affectionate and typically naughty. We spend our mornings together reading the same book, adventuring off to see the cows, and playing dead then resurrecting each other by placing medicine in each others mouths (yes, every time he does it I wonder where his hands have been…). On particularly friendly and good-mood mornings, he tells me “I miss you” when I pick him up. Seeing as I see him every day I don’t think he has fully grasped the meaning of the phrase, but judging by his little smile I think he means somewhere in between ‘I love you’ and ‘I love you… now play with me”. Yesterday he, Ebyon (the son of one of the staff members) and I had a round of golf which concluded with zero holes being made, zero balls getting lost and one putt being broken. Rather successful I would say.

(My little Raymond playing golf)

The Hindus have a ten day festival running at the moment, one of the biggest on the Hindu calendar. The kids at public schools get 10 days break for it but the Maxton Strong School (the farm school) is only getting 2 days. This festival is called dewali, and it is sort of like the Hindu version of Islamic Ramadan. They fast for 10 days, then hold plays and parties in the village at nights. From the farm we can hear their worship and drones. I wouldn’t mind going to see some of the plays, but everyone on the farm is hesitant about it because 1, they have seen it all before, and apparently the crowds get pretty rowdy and intoxicated. Which actually surprised me. For some weird reason I have this perception that most Indians are very respectful and proper people and drinking is not common. But then same as at home, this is a celebration, and come to think of it, alcoholic fathers are the reason a few of our kids are at the orphanage…


I have just over 3 weeks till I leave! It is just insane how fast time goes here. What am I going to do when I leave and am expected to eat with my fork rather than my hands, flush the toilet every time I go, and not be able to unashamedly put my feet up on anyone’s couch (even public transport), and it be completely culturally acceptable and done by the masses!?

(Cynthia and Raymond at her 3rd birthday party catching bubbles)

All my love,

Lauren xox

Riots, Papercranes and Kids

(Below: The twins Shivani and Saloni sunbaking on the patio)





My dad used to complain when we had student free days from school twice a term, he would have conked out by now if we had gone through our schooling years in the Indian education system.


Here they have holidays in the summer for being too hot, in the winter for being too cold/foggy and in the monsoon for the rain. They also have public holidays for the MANY Hindu festivals as well as Muslim ones and Christian ones. While these holidays make sense most of the time, like if there is too much rain the schools not only get flooded out, but the risks that parents will have to take to pick up/drop off their children from school on scooters or bikes if a flood came, can be catastrophic. According to Clifton’s calculations, holidays make up 3 months of their school year. That is a lot, but like I said most of them are justifiable, I might blog about that later on, it’s one of those topics that has enlightened me and broadened my perspective on poverty and education…:P


Recently the kids have had quite a few extra holidays. Last week they had 3 days off because of possible riots they were expecting throughout this state, after the verdict of a 60 year old land title case was announced. The riots were expected to be pretty serious; in 1992 there were riots over this case that killed over 2000 people! Fortunately however, there didn’t end up being more than a few tussles because the verdict was a split between the parties anyway. Yay, for now at least.


So while the kids aren’t at school, we have to find ways to entertain them. Man, school holidays would be a huge test of patience for all the staff!
Before Katharine (USA) left she had been doing quite a few crafts with the kids while I had been taking the others for computer. One day they learnt how to make origami cranes, quite a number of them ended up bringing their creations to me and so I put them to good use and wore them as earrings and an attractive 80’s looking scrunchy for the rest of the day.





Over the last few days I have been making paper mache with the small girls and the small boys. Lots of stress for impatient little me, but also a lot of fun! Unfortunately most of the creations were a flop, it’s the first time they have done paper mache so this was a trial run, and Indian glue isn’t the greatest sticky stuff ever invented. However, they had fun and I got nice and covered in glue and my cheeks ended up hurting after blowing up all the water balloons to make the animals out of. How do primary teachers do this on a daily basis?!






I have taken them on a few walks around the farm; a favorite path is the one to the fish tank. I am yet to see a fish that is bigger than 7cm, but the kids get extremely excited and go to fetch bottles and bags- anything that holds water to makeshift a home for them. Not surprisingly, none of the fish last more than a few hours and certainly no more than a day. I find it a little sad at the waste of it all, but in India there is such a different perception of death. Ok so that sounds gory or whatever, but what I mean is that death is so common and open here, of animals and even people, that their perception is a lot different to ours. The amount of stray dogs, cats, cows and other animals that wonder the streets, the only way to keep them away is to kill them. The other day a cat came around and to prevent it from becoming another one of the many pets that cause trouble around the place, the older boys killed it. I was so shocked, but it’s the how life goes here and it’s a necessary evil to prevent further problems I suppose. Anyway, the other day Debbie brought forth her fish to show me. I could barely see it through the murky dirty water it was just surviving in, but she was ecstatic to have it nevertheless. I asked her what she named it and she said ‘Lauren’. What an honor! :P However, about 15 minutes later she managed to spill the bottle over and sent Lauren flying through the air landing on the concrete, jumping and jerking. Thanks to the quick reactions of Kelly, one of the small girls, Lauren was rescued and put in a fresh bottle of water and once again was free to ‘thrive’ in her surroundings. The next morning I woke to Debbie at my door with a grim face, Lauren had died. Although Lauren fish will stay in our hearts forever, we have moved on and are trying to regain our normal lives. It took about 2 seconds.




(Pic: Debbie with Lauren)


Yesterday was a brilliant day at the river for me =). Through a tiny patch of jungle, through the village that is behind the strong farm, there is a river that is particularly large but, surprisingly empty after the monsoon season. Pricilla announced that she was taking all 17 of the nursery kids to the river for a swim and I went with. I don’t know about your family, but I always remember as a kid when we planned to go to the beach it always seemed to take forever before we would actually make it out the door. Yesterday, we announced we were going swimming, and in the space of a few minutes, they had retrieved their bathers (a pile of spare undies) and were ready to leave. After a pleasant walk that should have taken us about 10 mins but took more like 30, we arrived at the river with every single one of the kids practically wetting themselves with excitement. What a great feeling it is seeing those kids ecstatic about just being able to go swimming!!




I wasn’t quite sure if it was culturally appropriate for me to go swimming but the water looked clear enough, and under the warm sun, I was dying to join them for a dip. I waded out to my knees and was immediately ambushed by 10 kids under the age of nine with crazy splashing abilities, and before I knew it I was soaking wet and in the water. Yipeeeeeeee!!!! And thankfully, one of the other ladies that had come down with us was already in the water by the time the war was over, and Pricilla joined in a little while later. Phew. I’m still learning what is appropriate and what is not for a young lady to do here, there are a lot of restrictions but not too many that I didn’t expect. Pricilla did say that they don’t let the older girls swim in this river anymore because it is too open and anyone can see. That would seem a little extreme in Aus I suppose, especially considering what we wear to the beach at home as opposed to the fully clothed swimming we were doing, but I kinda like this part of the Indian culture a bit better…I’m sick of seeing too much skin bared and hanging out at home…





Well I think that about wraps up my last few days. Thankfully, they are all back to school this week and my slightly more sane routine starts up again =) Only 5 weeks of India to go, where did these last 2 months disappear???

All my Love, Lauren xox