In India

I MADE IT!!! 3 hours to Seattle, 20 to Seoul, 8 to New Delhi and another 9 on a bus to Dehra Dun where we took a 30-minute car ride to Shishya. The plane right from Seoul to New Delhi was SO hot and dry. That flight was the only one I actually slept on a little. I went through customs and didn’t get the answer I wanted about going into Nepal in March then took a right and sat at the coffee shop to wait for my ride and Liz. I was supposed to take a left and sit at the coffee shop so make a long story short all parties waited about an hour extra because I went to the wrong spot. Oops. A nice Indian man who worked for an airways visited with me for a while and insisted on buying me a treat or coffee. I respectfully declined but he ended up buying a piece of cake he wanted to share. He also kept checking on Liz’s flight arrival for me. He was the first person I really talked to since Seattle. He asked why I was in the country and for how long. I didn’t tell him the whole truth but he insisted that I make time to see Delhi.

(Before I forget, I thought there would be Wi-Fi in the housing here but there isn’t. There is a wireless stick so I won’t be able to text from my itouch like I thought I would be able too. But that’s okay to go without as much technology for a little bit. Not being connected all the time is kind of nice. I’m sure when I do some other traveling I’ll be able to use my itouch at some point. There are other ways to get ahold of me! )

After meeting up with Liz and Vijay we took a 45-minute taxi to the bus stop. It was early in the morning around 6 and so many people were already out. It was dark but we went by markets and so many homeless people. The traffic is crazy here. There are lines on the roads but people are swerving in and out and right before you have a head on collision or clip a motorcycle, within inches they get out of the way. Horns are constantly going on the streets. Sometimes I think people just do it just to hear it. On the highway from the airport people were walking against traffic where there wasn’t even a shoulder on the road. We were to catch a bus to Dehra Dun which was near Shishya. We saw so many people on our drive. There are a lot of men in India. Frieda said that a lot of times when people find out that they are having a girl, they abort it. It’s illegal to know what the sex of the baby is before having it in India for that reason. So seeing more men might have something to do with it just also that maybe women don’t go out as much. So we get a ride to the bus station that is in this old, dusty abandoned building. It’s something straight out of a movie. We had to walk through and down the building to get to the bottom where the buses were. I took a great mental picture but will have to take an actual picture if I go through there again. The taxi and bus ride was paid for by Shishya, but was still very cheap by the US dollar. For example the 9-hour bus ride only cost about 5 dollars. The bus was dirty and crowded but it was the experience I wanted!

A few hours out of Delhi the smog clears up and farmland is abundant. It’s luscious green and bumpy. The bus broke down in the steep winding road down to Dehra Dun. We passed this empty riverbed in a few spots and people were living along the banks in these grass huts they built. Again, I only took mental pictures but it was so incredible. The women were wearing such bright clothing it was something out of national geographic. It was warm when we got here. It was sticky and hot in Delhi and we didn’t eat much on our journey. When we got to Dehra Dun, Ken, the co-founder of Shishya picked us up on the street and took us to his home to meet Frieda and have a meal, which was delicious. A mild curry with eggs and vegetables with rice. While we were waiting for Ken some homeless children walked up to us begging. I locked eyes with one of the girls and a part of me just wanted to take her with us. After Frieda and Ken’s Frieda drove us to Shishya. After turning on the road to the school the traffic disappeared and we were in a more rural spot. The sunset was bright pink and so beautiful. The school is on 30 acres that they bought, but I guess now it’s only 22 since people are building on it. There is a chicken farm illegally right next to the school so there are lots of flies but the campus is really beautiful (and the smell could be worse). Big trees and very neat. It’s what I imagined it to be and I’m happy it is the way it is. The volunteer housing is very nice. They just got hot showers and I share a room with a girl named Abby who is 19 and from Michigan. Apparently I have been talking in my sleep plenty but what’s new? The house has an upstairs and a down stairs. There are four people up stairs and currently two downstairs. Abby, Sharon and Amanda leave in the next couple of months but new volunteers will be showing up in January.

I’m a little worried about getting lice, being bit and getting malaria (even though that isn’t in this area) or getting Japanese Encephalitis. But it’s part of the experience I guess if I get lice. Getting sick will happen at some point.
My first day at the school was yesterday. The kid’s wear uniforms Mon- Thurs and are casual on Fridays. I had to wear the proper attire but I wore my green khakis with a top I borrowed from Amanda. I’ll need to borrow clothes until this weekend when we can go shopping. Once at the school Frieda had me work on some Life Skills stuff right away. I gave her Heather Lende’s book “If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name” For her and her husband. I love Haines. I want people to know where I’m from. I have a couple of picture books on Haines and Southeast and brought some Alaska playing cards ;) Some o the kids at school have already asked about it.

There are a lot of schools around Shishya. Public education is a joke in India so people pay for their kids to go to school if the can. The boys that are taken care of here obviously don’t, they are sponsored. Shishya just got a grant to build on and have high school too which is great!

I noticed that kids actually play here. They kids giggle a lot too... I love it. They chase each other around and play with sticks and rocks and balls. So much different than kids in the states. The kids are so respectful and call you Ma’m. So I’m “Kelly Ma’m”. So cute. The kid’s names are hard to pronounce and they will be hard to remember. Eating with your hands is normal... which I haven't done yet and will take some getting used to. Same with the idea that big snakes are around. I also saw the biggest beetle I have ever seen in my life last night. Most people know english but sometimes teachers and students speak Hindi and I get a little lost and it's hard to understand some because of the accent but overall its easy to understand things here. The school is a Christian school but they hire teachers of many different faiths.

Shishya does a big Christmas pageant and I am helping Frieda’s daughter with a skit. Everyday I pretty much do the same thing. School, then lunch with the boys at their home, help them study, then we play with them or have our own time, then meet up with them for dinner at their home (where we eat on the floor in a circle) then help them study. Every other weekend we live with the boys in their home while their house parents are away. There is a house for the little boys where there is 13 of them. There is a big boys home but volunteers don’t go over there. I am helping one young boy in particular named Rahan. He doesn’t know English very well but he is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. So smiley and sweet. Pretty much already stole my heart. It would have been helpful to have some stuff from my reading tutor job last year. Oh well. There are quite a few resources here.

The food it good here. The water is too from the well. I think drinking from a well growing up helps with the kind of water it is. Some people here are even afraid of drinking the water from the well. It’s peaceful around Shishya. The allergies are kind of getting to me. You can see the Himalayas very close: about 10 miles away. I bought a dozen eggs for less than a dollar. Apparently you don’t refrigerate your eggs here? Last night before dinner the boys were in their room and dancing to a beat they were hitting on a tin box. It was so great. Everything the boys have fits into small box and that’s it.

I don’t feel the effects of jet lag too bad. I slept well the last two nights. Last night I woke up to a thunder and lightning storm so that we interesting. Turns out I am one of 3 catholic volunteers here. Sharon, one of my roommates upstairs is letting me borrow her daily devotional prayer book which is nice. I still can’t figure out how to change the time on the watch Annie got me… it’s hard because it’s still on Alaska Time!

For all the people who asked if I would be teacher English here and I said no, I guess I lied. They need an English teacher here and guess who gets to fill in? Yup, me. Can you say overwhelmed? Yes. Very much. I get to shadow the teacher next week then do everything on my own after that for grades 6,7 and 8. On top of that I am helping teach Sunday school class to first grade then doing assembles twice a week with Liz and on Fridays I’m teaching Life Sills to 8th graders. I am adding to the curriculum for grades 1-7 by adding bible versus and connections but won’t be teaching Life Skills to them. So here I am, in India teaching English but a lot of other things too.

This is a long post. But a lot has happened already since I’ve been here!!

This weekend we are headed to a village in the Himalayas. I'm very very excited to be here.