Third week in!

School has been shut for the past few days due to the flood and recovery. This has meant occupying the kiddies. I have spent my days playing board games with the older ones and imaginary games of kitchen, schools, families, parties and superheroes with the nursery kids.



(my nursery kiddies)

I have moved into my new room! It’s very roomy and much closer to the girls. I get visitors every night which is nice, exhausting at times though. I have a dresser with a mirror, a desk, a bed and a chair in my room. To make it feel more like home I have placed clothes onto every surface area I could find. :P My bathroom is complete with bird bath shower and western toilet that I manually flush with a bucket. Like in every room of the mission my room is always visited by little frogs and lizards with whom I graciously live at one. The mozzies however, are another story!

It is VERY loud where I am. My room is in the main courtyard of the girls section of the farm. I am right next to the nursery so the noise starts very early. The girls have a 5:30 prayer meeting, which includes singing, in the room the other side of me. Then at 6:15 when the music starts to play (amplified through the whole farm) the speakers are directly outside my door so there is NO missing the wakeup call!!





(Picture: Top-the outisde of my room, Middle- my bathroom, bottom-the kids playing around in my room)

The routine of a normal school day is as such:

5:30-girls wake up to do their shores (baking, washing clothes, cooking breakfast, getting the nursery kids ready)
6:15-music alarm
6:45-breakfast
7:30-school starts
10:00-morning tea
10:30- school
1:00-lunch time (school finishes at 12:45)
1:30-4:00-rest/chores/playtime
4:00-afternoon tea
4:30-6- computers/reading time
7:30- Karna (food) time.
9:30- lauren goes to bed.


Yesterday was Brothers day. Although it is a Hindu Festival it is still celebrated on the mission because of the meaning behind it. On brothers day girls will tie a bracelet around the wrist of their brother (or for the orphanage it is the boys they adopt as their brothers) sybolising the commitment the sisters give their brothers to take leadership from them (sort of like the commitment the bride makes to her hubby when she gets married), and if the boys accept then they will return with their promise to protect their sisters and give a sweet or some money in recognition of this. With the status of women not being quite so equal here as in Australia, you can understand why having a brother to protect and cherish them is so important. It is also a great time for the girls here to get rid of unwanted pursuers by inviting those boys to become their brothers instead.


It has been raining all day, mostly every day, for the last week and a bit. I absolutely love it, however I am praying there are no more floods! School went back today because it is exam time for all the year levels except 10 and 12. Today I was in the little class (yes, even the 4-8 year olds get exams) and I was marking their rhyme recitals which were rather entertaining. They were supposed to have a drawing exam also, but the electricity was off so they were unable to print all the exams (they used the generator to print the older kids exams). Instead I sat and read them about 10 story books which they seemed to enjoy, however some of the books I would start reading then realize that they didn’t understand the content (like if the character goes for a picnic, and they don’t know what a picnic is).

There is never a lack of entertainment in the younger classes. Most kids in the reception class are outside children, so unlike the two farm children in the class (Debbie and Rajesh), they do not speak very good English. A number of times I have had to call on Debbie or Rajesh (who have excellent English because they speak it at home) to translate for me which they do mostly well. The other day I had a laugh though when I told all the kids to put their bags under their tables, a few were obedient but most were just staring blankly at me, and I asked Rajesh and Debbie to translate for me into Hindi. They nodded obediently, turned around and started yelling- “everyone put your bags under your table, put your bags under the table”…..thanks, I could have done that!



(Little 4 y/o Kevin giving me one of my many daily pecks :P)

These kids are really growing on me. I make sure I get a cuddle and a kiss from each of the littlies every morning which makes me nice and cheery to face the day ahead! They really are the most adorable creatures, even if they are climbing on you at every angle, fighting over who sits in your lap, screaming in your face and pulling your hair. The older girls are lovely, inviting me to join them for rest time, showing me their photo albums and showing me the diaries they make. I’m pretty sure I have become the unofficial typist for each of them who wants to write emails to past volunteers. There really is so much love here. Such simplicity, but so much happiness! We can all learn a lesson from that I think.

Well that’s all for now! Hope you are all keeping well, I miss you!


All my love.

Lauren xox

Indian Beauty Parlor

So today we went to the markets. on the way home some of the girls took me to the beauty parlor! it was a house down an alley, inside was nice enough though, one single woman with a shop attatched to her house. We decided to get our eyebrows done. Im thinking they will wax or pluck. then BAM she pulls out a reel of thread! she uses the thread, between her teeth and hooped through her fingers, to pluck!!! what an art! anyway, just thought id share :)


foudn this video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNkomvRWw9g

Floods

Today I witnessed first hand, what devastation the floods of India bring its people. In the morning around 8:30 I left my room, it had been raining heavily all morning. At the moment I live in the guest house which is on the second floor of a small building. I walked over sloshing through the mud, donning a rain jacket, to the office and lounge area. I was there for about 10 minutes and people started to give the rain a lot more notice than usual. Clifton came past me saying that there was flooding starting to happen further up and that the river was starting to overflow.

Within the 15 minutes that I had come from my room to the lounge area, the water had risen at least 30 cm and was starting to flood into the girls houses. The school was flooded by now and all the kids started pouring out and headed towards the dining room and the older boys all went to rescue the grain stores from the gushing water. I was informed that one of the damns had broken at the river and so the river was now overflowing and gushing into the farm and the town. I have never seen so much water in my life! For the next few hours I sat under the verandah watching the water rise, watching the kids slosh through the water, avoided all the creepy crawlies that had suddenly appeared seeking sanctuary from the wet, and kept one of the littler boys entertained and out of trouble. There were a few snakes that had appeared around the boys side of the farm, a cobra and something else poisonous, so that had us all on guard. The water started to subside by around 12 o’clock, but not until it caused areas around the town to become waist level.

Apart from the flooding in the girls and boys dorms, which is by now swept out and drying, there wasn’t huge damage to the orphanage. However the houses that belong to staff members and are on the farm property are well and truly flooded and all possessions are soaking wet. They are having to sleep in some of the vacant rooms in the boys hostel tonight. From the verandah I was on I saw people wading through water to reach the dry safety. There was a few older people who came in violently shaking from cold and were rushed towels and hot tea.

It was only really at tea time, when Clifton started to talk about his day, that I realised the extent of the devastation that this flood caused. For one thing, hardly anyone here knows how to swim. The mission kids are lucky because they are all taught from a young age how to swim and spend their entire summer holidays in the pool. However clifton told of countless incidents where they had to swim people to safety or they would have drowned. The houses around the area that are made of mud have been swept away and all possessions buried deep in the mud. Around 100 people, in this area alone, are thought to be homeless tonight. I just cant imagine what that would mean. There is nowhere dry to sit on the ground, let alone sleep. The entire place is one huge mud bath. They are most likely still wet and cold, its all dark (not too many street lights out here!) and the creepy crawlies and snakes are seeking the same sort of dry areas that the people are. Much livestock will be lost tonight, last time this happened (and the flood wasn’t even as bad as it was today) Clifton said they pulled about 40 dead cattle from around the area. Many of the poorest people have now lost the chickens they relied on as well as their homes which is devastating. And compensation is absolutely non existent for them.


The politics of the floods has also really only come to light for me now that I am here as well. Like, today, when Clifton and the others where helping to save people and their animals the police and rescue came up to them to thank them. They were completely drunk. They were so wasted even the simple things like closing the doors of the houses that had been left open by panicking families, to prevent beds and other possessions from floating away, was completely beyond them. The other major thing that annoys Clifton is that this happens most years (not as badly as this one) but still no money is spent on engineers coming to examine the river to see areas that need blocking and stabaliseing to prevent extreme disaster when nature strikes. And it is like this everywhere in India that floods.

Today, as far as we know, no one in the town drowned in the floods which is such a blessing (last year a few died). But for all those people who are tonight living outside homeless, i am in prayer and complete sadness and devastation for them. What a life to be born into.

the last few days

One night. Just one measly night I forget to coat myself in mozzie repellent and what happens? I wake up itching like hell, 40 bites heavier!!
So yes the mozzies are bad, the heat is bad and the humidity is bad-so far it ends there though!

The last few days have been a great step for me in discovering my place in my new gigantic family. As mentioned before I’ve been assisting with the younger years at the school, teaching them songs and rhymes which are mostly received with blank stares and lost expressions (but then heard being bellowed loudly after school). I’ve been trying to lead some lessons with the year 10s which are good fun. Extremely challenging sometimes, especially when the topic is something I hardly know anything about. Like yesterday I had to explain nuclear power. So that involved explaining where/what uranium is (it’s written in the book thank goodness, but I just have to make it sound more simpler) and then what radioactive means. No, it hasn’t really got anything to do with a radio, but good try ….

The afternoons have been full of reading for me. Katie (who is a full time American here who does the teaching coordination) has set up a reading program for the afternoons which involve me sitting down with kids and listening to them read! At times it requires a higher level of patience than I even knew existed, but I’m starting to learn that that is the way with everything involving children! Haha Supervising the computer time (there are about 6 old school computers set up, we could only got 3 working though) is also my newfound occupation which is good except when the power keeps on cutting out and the kids have to start their beautiful paint creations all over again later in the day!

I’ve had some really wonderful afternoons. One was with the older girls (my age) sitting around watching bollywood film clips on a visitors phone, then talking about all the males we were spying on from across the field (which at the moment looks more like a river due to the rain!). Another afternoon I spent about 40 minutes playing ‘I spy wiz mine little eyez’ with all age groups. One of the little girls had us all stumped on a word beginning with the letter “D” for about 5 minutes before she eventually looked at us like we were stupid and revealed the word to be window! My other favorite time was when Amy and I took the nursery kids (Under 7s) all for a walk around bits of the farm. They kept saying they wanted to go to see the lepers which I was rather shocked about, like the lepers were their favorite exhibit at the museum to see, and was later told that they were talking about the area where the lepers used to live which was supposed to be pretty fun. It had rained the day before and it was pretty muddy around and of course I forgot to check that all the kids had shoes on, so I had to bare the consequences of my actions and carry Kevin (the most adorable 4 year old you will come across) for a solid 30 minutes. That day we sang everything from Humpty Dumpty to ‘Doe re me fa..’ from the sound of music!
It has just been independence day here (15th of august) so we were all treated to the creed, the national anthem, songs and speeches from the school kids (who had to come to school even though it was a Sunday!). When the flag was hoisted the flowers that had been wrapped in the flag fell to the ground-what a beautiful idea!

My suits came back a few days ago so I have been enjoying wearing those. I have a beautiful blue one, a pink and green one and a purple one. I’ll try and get some photos and post them up for you to see. One of the girls gave me henna (mehindi) in my palm and she did an amazing job!! The design is so intricate. It is made from grounded mehendi leaves (which they also use to put in their hair) and it comes out like a paste. It dries in around an hour then you use oil and lemon to darken it before scraping it off. Unfortunately instead of the beautiful brown colour that it comes out like on their skin, it looks more like bright orange texta on my pale hands! It’s supposed to disappear within 10 days Dad.

We had meat for the first time a few days back which was delicious! Chicken curry yummmm. It was for a special occasion though, doesn’t happen too often here! The food is very simple but nice enough. The lack of fresh fruits and veggies makes me feel like im on an all-carb diet so I treat myself and walk to the markets to buy apples (and even a choccie bar once :P).

Well that’s all for now. I am trying desperately to upload these stupid photos, ive had multiple attempts, so hopefully this time I will sort it out and the internet will stay on long enough to finish the process!

Much love to you all!!

Sister is my name

Yesterday I woke up to the sound of pouring monsoonal rain and I REJOICED! The weather here has been hot and so incredibly humid its almost unbearable, but with the rain, the humidity stays away a little and the weather cools of a bit. So I can now sit down for long enough to write!

The first few days where pretty quiet around here because of the funeral, I just tried to busy myself with whatever jobs I could find. Mostly the work is in the kitchen , clearing all the plates from meals away and doing the washing and rinsing of the dishes (which is actually the best job because you get to work with refreshing, cold water!) I’ve been learning to roll chapattis (flat Indian breads made of flour and water) which is actually quite an art! They bake their bread daily (I am a hopeless baker I have discovered), which I’m told is the worst job because the girls have to be up very early (around 4 am). We are woken at 6:15 every morning with music summoning us to get ready for breakfast at 6:45. A lot earlier than im used to that’s for sure!

I’ve been escorted to the markets twice already, catching overcrowded cars, tuk tuks and rickety old buses two and fro for 20cents a ride. I have been trying to buy some Indian clothing to wear, because it is much cooler and a great deal pretty than western clothing I think! So far I have been unsuccessful at finding anything that hasn’t got sequins, sparkles, lace, beading and over the top embroidery covering every INCH of the fabric, so I have given up searching for ready made clothes and instead going to buy fabric and have them made (the tailoring costs around $2, and the fabric no more than $8 for a whole outfit!). So that will be another journey.

I was taken by one of the farm girls yesterday to see the local hospital (her brother is the administrator there) and had the most awkward conversation of my life. We (an irish girl and the farm girl) walked in to the hospital and were greeted by around 30 people sitting in the waiting room. We were taken into the head physicians office to chat. He had the only air conditioner I had ever seen here so far. When we sat down in front of his desk, he rang the bell (one like in hotel lobbies) to call upon his nurses to bring us tea and water. Not really knowing what to talk to this man about, and not wanting to sit there in absolute awkward silence, like he seemed to be content with doing, I starting calling upon all my medical knowledge obtained from watching hours of House, and asked him any medical sounding question I could think of….He said that he saw around 60 patients EACH day! He was happy to answer questions, but never offered any of his own he just sat there staring at us. AWKWARD. He rang for his laptop to be brought in. Then another 3 men shoved themselves into his tiny office and he rang for tea for them. Then he ignored us all and started blabbering on his phone. By this time we were starting to become just a piece of furniture in his office. His nurses (basically slaves!) brought in some blank CDs because he said he “didn’t have any music in his car” so he sat there downloading music. Meanwhile there are around 50 people outside waiting to see him. He must have sensed this towards the end of our extremely quiet visit because he was suddenly sending in for patients, and started examining a man right in front of us. I excused myself and ran out of the room before I burst out laughing at the awkwardness and craziness of it all!!

I have been working in the school the last few days which has been awesome. Yesterday I was in with the littlies, about 6 years old, marking their work and assigning them home work (their parents complain if they are not given homework!!). And then today I was teaching the year 10s (which is like the equivalent of our year 11s) business studies, social studies and, wait for it- Indian culture!! All the lessons are in English because it’s an English based school, so their main difficulty is understanding the books and knowing what the questions are asking. It would be SO hard for them! I am so glad I just finished school last year and things are still vaguely in my mind otherwise im sure I would be totally useless. Like when one of the boys came over with his maths book, I had one glace, saw a thousand algebraic sums and sent him on his merry way. I was asked about physics and chemistry, they too walked away unsatisfied. But the English and social subjects I can do, and have now landed myself three subjects to teach and learn for a while. It’s very daunting, but so fun and rewarding. They don’t have a teacher so they appreciate any help I can give….which as far as teaching goes is unfortunately, not too much!

The social life on the farm is very interesting. The girls and the boys are very much separated even though they live very close to each other. Tuesday Thursday and Sunday nights I am told are “date night” where the boyfriends and the other boys (bother and cousins) can come over and socialize with the girls under supervision. They mostly just sit around talking, there is defiantly no need for pash police as they are all brought up to be very modest and cautious around the opposite sex. It’s very entertaining to watch all the shy giggling though 

Today I was taken for a walk through the jungle to reach the river. We walked through mud to get there. On the way we stopped by the leprosy colony to see their houses, they are very simple but a lot better than what they had before.
I am enjoying myself here, missing my family and friends, but that will soon go away hopefully and be replaced by a longing to never leave this place :P
ill attach photos a little later!!
I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, this place is really something!

Ive been running on no sleep since i left australia so i beg your pardon for all mistakes!

THe long and short of it is that i made it to the farm safely! which is a huge YAY.

As soon as I landed, fought my way to get my luggage (which, may i just say, weighs only 11kg!!!)i needed to get to an ATM. Just like I (and my father) expected, the first ones i found where out of order and i was begining to panic becuse i knew the taxi place only took cash, but in the end i did manage to find one tucked away in a section of the airport that didnt seem to serve any functioning purpose at all.

After i finaly worked out which taxi service would take me interstate (thanks to the help of a lovely indian lady which was most deffinitly a blessing from God!) i had to haggle price which was a truly amazing activity for my self esteem. I did the whole acting like you were outraged by their price (i was actualy) and then tried to get them to halve it (which was still more than i wanted to pay) but in the end it didnt cost me an arm and a leg and i was taken to a large taxi which airconditioning, so it was a success!!

I knew i shouldnt have gotten so excited when i sat in that cab for the final stage of my journey.

We hadnt even left delhi aiport before indjajesh (taxi driver) started to use his car as an insane swivel sweeper, going in and out of lanes-well actualy, WHAT LANES?!?! Indian drivers are CRAAAAAAAAAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! Instead of their indecators they use their horns (which is actualy the acceptable practise, most of the buses had signs on the back encouraging honking so they can make sure they knew little cars where behind them). I kept looking back at the drivers of the cars that my taxi was beeping at and expecting to see the finger (or whatever the indian alternative is) but instead there was placid acceptence of him pushing in front! Anyway, so not only was it the jerky-est ride of my life, sudden stops and manic manourvers, but it was also the loudest. To make matters worse, 5 minutes into the journey, he decided that he didnt have a clue where i wanted to go, and started to use his phone and occasionaly just stop in the middle of the road with tuk tuks honking and buses boaring in on us from every side!!!!!!!!

I didnt sleep a wink the entire 7 hours because i was just too paranoid.

the fact that he kept telling me that the roads we were taking (dirt, unlaned country roads full of trucks) where extremely dangerous with frequent pistol hold ups and bashings by gangs didnt help that. Or the fact that he kept asking me whether i was married and explaining that he was a single 36 year old man who would like me to come into the front seat so he could see me better when we talk, didnt help either. However he eventualy shut up with the single man thing when i told him of how i was actualy engaged to a man who works for the australian government in trade and i would prefer to stay in the back seat because all the oncoming headlights distrupted my sleep.

around 4 am i was starting to panic because he still didnt look like he knew where on earth we were going (this is 4 hours of of delhi) and he started ranting about how i hadnt payed him enough for the journey and threatened to throw me out once he reached 400km. Freaked at the possibility of being dropped off on the side of the road where there was nothing but homeless slum people (incredibly angering amounts of them as well! tiny kids, on their own >:( but thats a different story) and the occasional stand that sells coke cans. We sorted that out eventually though and here i am now. typing away, thinking about the adventure i just had and how i will only laugh about it in a few weeks time. until then, i never want to take a single taxi in India, ever.

I don't actually have much to say about the farm yet because today is a very different day that i expected to arrive on. The director of the mission died last night and they are having her funeral in a number of hours. The atmosphere is one of happiness because she is now in heaven with Jesus completely healed, but also sadness at losing such a crucial person ochanged the lives of almost everyone living here. im gonna babysit the nursery kids (kids under 4 years old) during hte funeral so all the indians can attend).

Di spite this happening however, they still welcomed me with open arms and I have a room much more luxurious than expected. I'm sure they will be changing me from the guest quarters soon. But until then, I can brush my teeth, and go to bed with the view of the lush green fields and the Himalayas from my window!!

i love you all!!!!

The World At Large- Modest Mouse

Ice-age heat wave, can't complain.
If the world's at large, why should I remain?
Walked away to another plan.
Gonna find another place, maybe one I can stand.
I move on to another day,
to a whole new town with a whole new way.
Went to the porch to have a thought.
Got to the door and again, I couldn't stop.
You don't know where and you don't know when.
But you still got your words and you got your friends.
Walk along to another day.
Work a little harder, work another way.

Well uh-uh baby I ain't got no plan.
We'll float on maybe would you understand?
Gonna float on maybe would you understand?
Well float on maybe would you understand?

The days get shorter and the nights get cold.
I like the autumn but this place is getting old.
I pack up my belongings and I head for the coast.
It might not be a lot but I feel like I'm making the most.
The days get longer and the nights smell green.
I guess it's not surprising but it's spring and I should leave.

I like songs about drifters - books about the same.
They both seem to make me feel a little less insane.
Walked on off to another spot.
I still haven't gotten anywhere that I want.
Did I want love? Did I need to know?
Why does it always feel like I'm caught in an undertow?

The moths beat themselves to death against the lights.
Adding their breeze to the summer nights.
Outside, water like air was great.
I didn't know what I had that day.
Walk a little farther to another plan.
You said that you did, but you didn't understand.

I know that starting over is not what life's about.
But my thoughts were so loud I couldn't hear my mouth.
My thoughts were so loud I couldn't hear my mouth.
My thoughts were so loud.