India Weddings

Omprakash, a teacher at Shishya, got married this week (it’s a three or four day event) and the Republic of India holiday was the same day so we didn’t have school the whole day. The school day consisted of raising the flag, a few speeches and games. The teachers were invited to the wedding festivities but we just attended the lunch, which was a cultural experience in itself. You walk in with loud music playing and the couple is sitting on the stage in fancy seats that look like thrones! There are chairs out like an audience set up so people can sit and watch them. There is another room for food. Our teacher friend was all smiles! His bride looked beautiful in the wedding attire. The food was delicious, of course. We didn’t drink the water because it was a bad idea so the hot food was a little intense. We gave money all together and it’s bad luck to give an even amount, so we contributed 901 rupees.

On Thursday night we went to the wedding dinner for the teacher I took over teaching English. Her name is Lata. I wore my first sari (between 5-8 meters of cloth!) I felt pretty in it! It took about 15 minutes to put on and Ruth, a parent in the small boys house, put it on me. It’s wrapped and tucked around you and pinned in a few areas to keep it up. I felt like the connection at this wedding event was closer since I knew Lata. When we showed up she hadn’t been out of her house yet for her appearance. She walked down the isle around 1045! She called us all in before hand and we got to talk with her and take some pictures. I was so taken away with how beautiful she looked and how incredible her wedding outfit was. She asked how teaching was going and if the kids had been naughty! The groom was up front before she was but when she walked down the isle with a sheet held over her head like a ceiling, she went to the front and they exchanged flowers they wear around their necks, which concluded their marriage. She looked absolutely incredible. It was an amazing experience. Enjoy the pictures. Liz got some good ones with my camera of her since I wasn’t at a good angle in the room to do so.

To see the rest of the wedding pictures click here.

Elephants in the room

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Snail mail from Alaska takes about 25 days to get here! From the lower 48 I am seeing it takes about two weeks. I wouldn’t recommend sending mail to me after April 1st. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent me mail so far. It feels like Christmas every time I get something in the mail.

I am connected on facebook with the Doon Youth Center in Dehra Dun that is run through Shishya. I have told Frieda that I would like to attend a meeting or something since it’s all right up my alley but she said it really isn’t for foreigners to get involved in. On Facebook I get invited to events they’re having and last Friday there was a free photography workshop. Nibha was already going so I registered online for myself, Liz and Lisa. I have so badly at least wanted to get my foot in the door! Ken gave us a ride and picked up the photographer and her husband too who were staying at the Forest Research place nearby (he is a professor of some sort in genetics and they live in Huston but he is from India). We would have been on time if it weren’t for the Hindu holiday parade we hit on the way there. Music, dancing and people pulling this trailer with more people on it with a rope held up traffic. The photographer’s name is Michele Wambaugh and her passion is photographing the gypsy women in this area. Before we hit the traffic jam we pulled over in a place for her to take pictures and she got a few, and so did Nibha. This is Michele’s website: http://www.michelewambaugh.com/. She photographed a lot of ballet companies and Broadway shows among other things. It’s ironic I attended a photography workshop here; since photography is how I came to be in Shishya in the first place.

Liz got a cell phone figured out in Dehra Dun after the workshop and a little barefoot boy out front of the shop kept looking at us with his hand outstretched. He walked by a few times. While we were waiting I bought a small bag of chips for him but he wasn’t out front anymore. So I wandered down the ‘sidewalk’ and saw him. He eventually turned around and I gave the bag to him. He walked along side me on the way back and he crushed them in the bag. I wonder if he ate them. I hope so. It cost me only 30 cents or so.

After the workshop and cheap cell phone purchasing, Liz, Lisa and me went to dinner at Kumars—the same place I went with a big group of girls about a month ago. Delicious food once again was consumed. I ate so much I said, “I can’t eat anymore.” Liz’s response was, “ Kelly, you’re not the same when you’re not eating a lot.” Ha!

It rained (Shishya got hail during the day!) last Saturday and there was thunder and lightning too that night. One big bang was right above us in the middle of the night (that woke up everybody) and I think it blew our electricity box out. I had morning duty with the boys on Saturday so I woke them up and helped them get ready for school and the day. All day the thunder rolled and lighting in the sky. Most of the kids from the area didn’t even come to school. All the rain we got the last few days reminds me of how it rains in southeast, Alaska and it made me a little homesick.

Last Sunday I actually lost my appetite all together. I ate too much chow mein on one of the boy’s birthdays with too much oil in it and I was so sick the next day and couldn't make it through church. I still haven’t felt back to 100% and it has halted my food intake tremendously—which is probably a good thing.

In 8th English the other day the boys were laughing and I figured out it was because the way I was sitting on the ground, you could see the string from my pants hanging out... which is a big no no. Kind of like having your fly down I guess. Oops.

It isn’t uncommon to see men of all ages in India holding hands with each other. It’s a way of expressing friendship!

I put the boys to bed the first time last week one night. It was fun praying with all the boys before bed. Apparently there is a song I need to learn… Amanda can you help me out? ;)

I have had a cough all week and have been feeling a little under the weather. Since school started up volunteers have been subbing at the last minute. For those that know me, I can stress big time. I’m trying to work on that here but having night terrors every night since I got back from my trip hasn’t been helping either (Poor Liz. It’s always something exciting happening every night. A few nights ago a big elephant walked in our room through the window.) I now help about 4 little boys with homework 6 nights a week and at the end of the night I feel exhausted and sometimes still have to plan for school the next day. I just wish I felt completely normal again. The night terrors add to exhaustion the next day. I again couldn't remember the last time I showered yesterday so I thought it was time to do so. I have been wanting to start running again but I don’t feel good enough too. So I decided today during the day I would finally bathe myself (going to bed with wet hair is coolllddd)—then I learned that our water tank to our apartment needed to be filled. So I bit the bullet and went to bed with wet hair.

I did my first Life Skills assembly this morning for grades 1-3. (We talked about times we feel angry and good ways to deal with it). There will be some adjustments for the next assembly... but overall it was okay. I'm glad to be doing it! Rahul said to me when I walked in the door for dinner, "Life Skills was so nice ma'm!!!". I'm glad someone thought so!

For Some of You

The experience of being in India so far has been absolutely incredible and I am learning so much about myself, God and other people. Shishya is such a neat community. The school I help teach at has about 550 local students and the home has about thirty boys I help take care for. With all the pollution, shortage/bad water, poverty, crime and corruption in the rest of India, this oasis here is clearly reflecting God’s love in so many ways. The children that live here help work on the farm that produces a lot of our food we eat. Self-sustainability and the importance of taking care of the environment is so strongly enforced. I feel so at home here and I feel very much apart of this wonderful family. The boys that live here at Shishya come from underprivileged homes where their parents, if they have any, are unable to provide for them. Indian families at Shishya, with their own children, raise the boys in a home and volunteers come in as needed to help in any way possible with helping raise them. I have been here since mid November and I go back to Alaska at the end of April.

Ever since high school I always had the desire in the back of my mind to volunteer at an orphanage in India. Connections through my photography teacher my junior year of college got me in touch with Shishya. God had me come to this place for a reason, and the way I ended here was definitely His will. I figured with one year of my Masters degree under my belt, and with no other real obligations to report to, these five months seemed like great timing to volunteer in India. As soon as I get back to Alaska I hope to dive right into my masters program again and finish in two years. The timing has been perfect for this experience and I feel so lucky and blessed to be here.

Besides helping the boys in the home, my biggest contribution has been mostly teaching English to junior high grades but starting this month I will be doing more than just adding to the life skills curriculum and teaching it to 8th graders too. Up until I leave, I will be doing assemblies on life skills topics, which I am really excited about! I will continue to teach moral science (Sunday school) to first grade a few times a week. With my undergraduate degree in psychology, and gradually working on my masters now in school counseling, this place has been a good fit for me and I feel like I am contributing in many different ways.

I am so happy to be here to contribute to the lives of all the children I meet. I’m taking time off from work and school to do this volunteering and there have been some different expenses I’ve encountered. For example travel costs, visas, Shishya room and board, insurance, vaccinations, life skills supplies I will leave behind and not to mention the price for taking time off work and/for school add up. Everything so far, in regards to Shishya, has cost about $3,000 for me. Since some of you have offered, anyone who would like to may contribute to my expenses through PayPal or check. Your continued prayers, thoughts, and words of encouragement are just as important and will continue to impact my service here immensely.

Please continue to check up on my blog. It is the best way to keep up with all my experiences here. The link for donations is below which is a PayPal link to me. If you would rather send a check, the address is PO Box 1667 Haines, Alaska 99827. I welcome any questions or conversation about my experiences, so please feel free to email or write. If you would like a mailed letter please email me with your home address.

To donate through PayPal click here:
--from here you click "Send Money" on the top margin (you’re paying someone in the United States), enter amount and then select payment for Friends and family then keljhansen@gmail.com in the To: space. You’ll need PayPal account to do this, but it’s free and easy to set up. If you’d prefer to skip this method and send a check or money order via mail, the address is listed above.

Being back!

Being back at Shishya after our travels has been fantastic. The first night we were with the boys we walked in before dinner and they were huddled around a little burning coal bowl and they were singing songs. I swear some of the boys are growing drastically over night! Rohan looks bigger every day. It’s cold here. Some mornings there is frost on the ground and there is no heating in India so at night we have to bundle up!

There was supposed to be two days of school this week coming back, but unexpectedly Thursday was a holiday too, and we didn’t find that out until Wednesday afternoon AFTER school was out. Thursday and Friday are Hindu holidays so no school in India is happening. So much for lesson planning ahead! Seems like holidays spring up out of nowhere! India time is funny. People take their time on most things so people always said before I came here ‘don’t plan on planning anything when it comes to traveling or school… things just happen!’ So true.

I knew that arranged marriage happened in India. But what I didn’t know was that everyone does it-regardless of what religion you are. Hindus, Muslims and Christians have arranged marriages. There are few “Love Marriages” here. A teacher is getting married in a few weeks and we are invited!

I have yet to take a picture of how some of the women here carry things on their heads. Long piles of sticks and wood, bowls, piles of clothing all get stacked on there and often times with no hands. They all seem to have really good posture…

The farm here produces a lot of our food we eat. Near the house there is mustard seed from the farm on tarps the boys are going through that will eventually be made into oil for cooking. I think they sell it too. Self-sustainability and the importance of taking care of the environment is so strongly enforced here. Everyone recycles and there is never trash anywhere on campus. I learned that kids at school are not aloud to bring food in plastic. Like I said before, Shishya is such a great little oasis from the rest of India.

A couple from England came the same day we got back to volunteer. They are in their early twenties and their names are Charlotte (Charlie) and Mike! It’s always great to see new faces.

The night we got back we realized right away that Amanda was gone. She has been here off and on for three years and we missed her big send off party. We thought and prayed for her a lot while we were away. Miraj, who celebrated his birthday a few days ago, asked me around the coal fire at the house when I was leaving. I said end of April, and little Ashish, who I am now also helping with homework asked me, “But you will be here for next Christmas.” My heart sank. I said no… and should have said my sister is getting married around that time. But I see the pull to what to come and spend so much time here. It’s amazing that the boys allow themselves to attach to volunteers, even though they know they will eventually leave.

My mom sent some Alaskan children's books for the boys and they were like kids in a candy shop! They're great books! Thanks, Ma! I wrote little messages in the inside covers telling the boys to remember how much I love them when they read it and that even under the midnight sun I will be thinking of them always! For the ABC book I said "You will Always Be Completely loved by me" :)



After reading a few Alaska books at the small boys house last night, I walked back in the dark by myself using my headlamp as a flashlight. I felt so at peace about so many things. I stopped, turned my light off and stared up at the stars and thanked God for the opportunity to be here and everything else in my life. I could have stood there all night, and even in the cold I felt so content and filled with overwhelming joy.

India Holiday Vacation

Liz and I traveled for two weeks after Christmas at Shishya. Over night houseboat in the Kerala backwaters where we saw rural lifestyle of people living there, sitting on a beautiful beach in Goa for five days with a unique parasailing experience and where we met an Indian man whose response was “Petersburg Pilot” (local newspaper there) when I said I was from Alaska, shopping in Jaipor (where camels are used instead of horses drawing working trailers and things) and seeing how beautiful things were made, with sightseeing of old forts and palaces built as old as the 1500’s and randomly meeting the artist that made the piece of art Liz walked by on her way to work every day in Chicago at a small roof top restaurant. We saw a Bollywood movie with a joke about Alaska in it, and among other things a failed attempt to see the inside of the Taj Mahal.

In between these places with overnight trains (one closed the doors before we got the car and it started leaving and we were screaming from the outside for someone to open it! Someone did thank goodness… that would NOT have been a good train station to get stuck at night!), crazy rickshaw rides, bus rides (only one available round new years was the local bus which was cheap and long and crowded and bumpy overnight with all the smells of India streaming in…) long taxi rides, plane rides (one was late… and luckily so was our train we needed to catch!) late trains (sitting in cold Agra station with your train 10+hours late over night is not fun when there is a bathroom in the room smelling up everything and everyone. The Taj wasn’t even open that day so it was a lot of unnecessary chaoticness!) shopping all over, meeting people from all over the world (everyone we saw that wasn’t Indian were carrying lonely planet books!) and of course consuming lots of delicious food. Some Indian people wanted to rip you off but some were genuinely nice. Of course no Indian vacation is complete without getting a little sick, too. The trip was an awesome experience but it’s so nice being back at beautiful Shishya!

December 25- night train to Delhi
December 26- flight to Goa
December 26-night train to Kerala
December 27-Night in Alleppey, Kerala
December 28-House boat over night
December 29-night bus to Mangalore
December 30-taxi to Goa
January 4-flight to Delhi
January 4-night train to Jaipor
January 7-early train to Agra to see Taj Mahal
January 8-taxi back to Dehra Dun

So many stories in between!

Please check out the rest of my pictures here!

On A Personal Note

It has almost been two months since I’ve been here. It feels much longer sometimes. I really didn’t know what I would be doing at Shishya before I got here. I knew I wanted to help in any way possible. They ask to list special skills on the application and I couldn’t pin point anything really. I feel in the last couple years I don’t have a lot of “special skills”. I don’t currently play a musical instrument, and I can’t sing or dance. Frieda just walked in with a flute. I said I used to play but not sure if I remember anything! Getting up in front of a group of people regardless of their age terrifies me. But I’m noticing once I’ve been here my worrisome attitude has subsided and I feel so much more confident about things! I just want to be helpful. A fear I have is leaving here and having not been as helpful as I could have been. For those that know me, I tend to stress myself out so easy sometimes. Nibha asked me what my hobbies are and I spouted off a few things like hiking, taking pictures and of course traveling. I said I want to learn how to play the mandolin and become better at photography. I wouldn’t mind learning more on the piano again! I guess I have a to do list and I should start soon! I told Frieda I can start doing Life Skills assemblies for grades k-3 and 4-8 twice a month when school starts up again in January. I’ll still be working on individual lessons for the Life Skills curriculum, teaching English to 6-8, doing moral science for grade 1 and teaching life skills to grade 8. I’m already out of my comfort zone here but I know I can push myself more. God has given each of us talents and strengths and often times they are unwrapped when we are most challenged and when we reach out to others and trust Him.

So with that in mind, it’s interesting that teaching English has proven to be somewhat of a challenging task for me. I want to use Internet resources here but I can never get my hands on the Internet stick long enough to research anything let alone be able to print. I write emails and blog posts (hence why they can be so long sometimes!) in Word before I get the internet stick so I don’t feel like I’m hogging the internet stick when I get it. Amanda made an interesting comment when I got here that this place is years behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology and how the rest of the world gets resources. It has been frustrating because I’m not used to it! But at the same time it really makes you think about how materialistic a lot of the world is. What on earth would we (I) do without the Internet? I have used it so many times for papers, assignments and keeping in touch with people. In a way I feel like I’ve hit a roadblock without the Internet at my fingertips all the time. Is that healthy? In a way it can be handicapping I think. Not having the internet at my fingertips has allowed me to read more and do other things. It’s refreshing. In the west we have the newest phones with the world literally right at our fingertips. I don’t get on the Internet much here but when I do I skim facebook really quick sometimes only to log off feeling frustrated and irritated with it most times anyways.

I guess what I’m saying is that I knew India was going to be different. (I have a new appreciation for hand washing clothes). I’m taking it in strides and I really like it here. Shishya is in a peaceful area and I’m learning a lot about myself and other people. I often feel like I can be so selfish at times. I feel like building up to my trip there were things in my life that needed change. It’s just allowing that to happen can be challenging because in most cases it’s not as easy or how we pictured it would happen. No better reason for change then to go to India, right? It’s so important to be grateful for the blessings we have. Yes, life isn’t always easy or pleasant. We shouldn’t become resentful when people or events disappoint us. How we deal with disappointments and problems is an indication of our true character.

I feel very inspired here. I’m often up late reading and writing. Being here makes me to want to be a better person and Christian. I feel like I am completely myself here. I pray, reflect on religious text more than I ever have in my life I think. I just feel at peace about a lot of things. This is what I wanted before I came here and it’s exactly what I’m getting. God is filling up my cup!

I was looking around during Sunday dinner the first time I came here and I thought about all of the boys that are here at Shishya: how blessed they are to be given the opportunity to live in such a great place. There is plenty of food and love to go around and I find it hard not to think about the beggars I’ve seen outside of our campus. Some of the boys still have at least one parent alive and to think about the gratitude and re-assurance they must feel to know that their son is well fed, educated, and being raised in love must be overwhelming and very challenging at the same time. Please remember to pray for the parents of the boys. It would be so hard to not be with your child because you are unable to provide for them the way you’d want to as a parent. Some of the boy’s parents have HIV, too. These parents, if the boys have any, loved them enough to know their lives would be better if they could get them to a hostel like Shishya. Frieda and Ken have a permit for this hostel and the boys have to be at least 5 years old to be here. Some of the boys look younger than 5, parents or whoever, lie about their age in order to get them here. I then think of the boys who couldn’t ‘qualify’ to be sponsored and accepted at Shishya, or if any of boys here now have sisters. Where are they? Frieda said that 1 in 4 girls are abused in India. It chokes me up just thinking about all of it. I am so grateful for what Shishya can provide. Ken and Frieda McRae are truly selfless and incredible people. Sharon said before she left to everyone that the work here at Shishya has been incredible. She hit this point home in how this place has raised so many good men. Even with so many boys coming through here, this place--raising them in love--has done a better job raising them, than other families in the world are doing with just a few children of their own. Sharon used herself as an example.

If you have been reading my blog and haven’t left a comment, please do so or send me an email to keljhansen@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. My blog has been passed around to old teachers, professors, community members, classmates and many others. I’m sure people are reading this I don’t even know (hey you from Singapore looking at this… who are you?!?) I would like to know who looks at my blog! I wasn’t expecting it to reach so many people. Yes, most of the posts will probably be long and ironically grammatically incorrect, but I hope that it allows you to see that there is so much more to this world than our daily comforts. Every night before dinner I hear the boys playing floor hockey on the basketball court with a tin lid and sticks. Never take anything for granted but remember you don’t always need the things you think you need sometimes. I figured tutoring orphans at a small farm and school in India among other things would open my eyes and I hope it opens yours too.

Christmas at Shishya

Merry Christmas!

Christmas time at Shishya has been a whirlwind! It doesn’t snow here but in the mornings there is frost on the ground. There isn’t heat in the houses so it can get really cold! The way the houses are built is for keeping them as cool as possible during the summer months. The school had a big Christmas show last weekend (singing, dancing, acting!) but for the last few weeks the boys have also been busy! We have had craft nights making Christmas trees and decorating their house, a going away party for Sharon and Abby with a DANCE PARTY!! We made cookies, had a big campus going away party for an uncle, we had this amazing opportunity to check out a hockey game in Dehra Dun (the boys LOVE the Mighty Ducks movie! The tickets were given to us for free, and the manager even said to come have lessons sometime! Apparently this man takes kids who can’t go to school and teaches them how to rollerblade, then they become teachers to others and he puts them through school! Our boys were SO excited to see and touch ice! A famous skater from India wants to donate skates, too. This bus ride back was fun—the older boys sang songs in the back) the hostel boys had a talent show/ entertainment of sorts on Christmas Eve with singing, dancing, acting, games and of course food. Please check out this adorable video I got of the small boys dancing here. Gautum has awesome moves! We rang in Christmas all together at midnight. We helped wrap the little boys gifts earlier on Christmas Eve and all the gifts were handed out and opened. They scored some serious loot! – crayons, clothes, bouncy balls, games and some got new shoes!! Frieda and Ken gave me the two books she has written, some henna and some really pretty bangles.

On Monday before school got out I taught Moral Science to little Ashish’s class and I TRIED to teach them how to sing Away In The Manger. I sang it to them first. I have never done anything like that before! Makes me smile thinking of myself singing out loud to 36 first graders. Never in a million years would I do that for the 8th graders! I learned this week that lemons work well for dandruff. The boys picked a bunch of lemons and were squeezing the juice on their heads before our big hockey outing! On Christmas day (today) we had a big breakfast together and had church. Then we played games (I was instantly schooled at chess) and played volleyball against the boys. This place is like a big family and I felt very much apart of it on Christmas. I miss my family back home but I feel very loved and appreciated here. All the boys have so much life. Every one of my senses is awakened and working here. I feel VERY alive and am rejoicing in the fact that our Savior was born this day.

Check out the rest of my Christmas pictures here.