Bamindian

I think it will be hard to come back the same American teen I left as. I have now picked up a bit of Brazilian culture and a lot of Indian culture and have come out this new ethnicity…”Bamindian”. We are the type who talk with a lot of energy and volume while also being very drawn back and quiet. We eat lots of rice and lots of beans any way you look at it. We believe in having personal space but also in hugging constantly. We try to stay away from personal questions but find ourselves asking them anyways. As you can see this cultural mix brings on a multitude of confusing contradictions but let me tell you this. It is a heck of a good time being Bamindian despite the spinning head.
It is especially fun when your name is “Alys” because Brazilians tend to put the hard “e” sound at the end of a lot of their words which changes my name to Alysee which then makes all the Indian girls fall apart into laughter as in Hindi the word “alysee” means “lazy”. You can imagine the clever puns being created over here. This mix is nothing but laughter at the end of the day

Holiday Fun

Hey all, I hope you all are beginning to feel you own summer’s on their way. It has been fun to have mine start a bit early this year. The girls all finished exams by April 13th and everything since then has been a blur of fun. A lot of my time here thus far has been focused around helping these girls as much as I could with their schoolwork and English. But now it is nothing but games and shenanigans.
We just finished a camp program yesterday. I spent all the week before planning it with the group of Brazilian women. We took the girls to a place called a Gymcana. It is a gym, pool, outdoor area, and restaurant all put into one. In raising funds for my trip to India I was able to have an extra sum of money to give to Ashasthan. This sum has provided for this whole summer camp for these girls. So thank you all of you who supported me in this trip because you have also given these girls a highlight to their summer and me a highlight to my trip. A lot of these girls came to Ashasthan right before the school year began so they have not yet had a summer holiday experience here. It was a really healing time for a lot of these girls. The whole week was packed with their joy as they played each new game or sang a new song. The potato sac race was a favorite of the girls to play and the staff to watch.
Being a kid is something Indian children are robbed of in a lot of ways. They are either trapped in poverty and lose a lot of the childlike carefree days they deserve or they are in school here which is pretty demanding all on fronts. There is a lot of pressure put on kids here from their parents and teachers. It was truly a blessing to see these girls completely free of it. To have five beautiful days of playing games, sleeping in the grass, eating samosas, and swimming in the pool, the photos explain a lot better then my words can.
I now have a little over two weeks left. I will be in constant motion until I leave. I will be going fmr house to house teaching a few crafts to the girls and hopefully slipping in my long awaited for hip hop lessons. We now finally have the free time for it. I will be moving back and forth still fmor the house of the smallest girls to the staff home. Then on May 13th I will be headed out of Navi Mumbai and no my way to Delhi to meet up with Grace Starbird. Atie and Nicole Patierno will arrive in Delhi shortly after us. WE have about three weeks together traveling around a bit. It will be really nice to spend some time seeing more of India and preparing for my transition back home.

The Glass is Feeling 2/3 Empty

10 weeks of my 15 at Ashasthan have come to a close and I am definitely feeling the sadness begin to sink in. While someone reminded me today that 5 weeks is still a very long time I cannot help but begin to miss everything already. India has been a hard place for me to not fall completely in love with. I wondered if after longing to come for so many years if I would find myself disappointed. I have found quite the opposite. I have found every expectation more then met. The saddest and most broken parts of India are the ones that complete it for me. I would never wish tragedies on anyone or any country but I have found that it creates a very genuine view of life. The joys are all the more meaningful because of how in touch everyone is with the reality that not every joy is lasting and not any joy should be taken for granted.
Parting with India will be extremely hard but nowhere near as heart wrenching as it is going to be to say goodbye to the girls. They are in every way my little sisters. I have been so grateful for my time with each one of them and feel that God has really poured into my short time here in giving me the opportunity to know more about each one then just their name and face. I was telling them that I have always been the baby in my family and that being their big sister has meant the world to me.
So while I only have 1/3 of the goodness left to drink in and while time will fly in a way that I will feel I have chugged it down, I will savor the taste of it all as it is one to be cherished for a long, long time to come.

Away in Bombay

I got to spend this last weekend in old Mumbai as opposed to Navi (new) Mumbai where Ashasthan is. It was kind of an unexpected getaway that came together pretty perfectly. Grace Starbird, a friend of mine working in Dehli who most of you know, came to visit for a few days. Another friend, Dave Paterson, who is interning for IJM in Calcutta, was also in for the weekend. I got to go take a look at IJM’s Mumbai offices with him and meet some of the staff there which was a really great experience and one I was very much hoping to get.
Afterwards we met up with Grace and began the typical tourist’s day. A ten stop jeep tour around the city where we could get out for as long as we wanted at each stop. The stops included a fisherman’s community, the public baths, Gandhi’s house, the Gateway of India, Tower of Silence, Jain Temple, seaside Marine Drive, the Hanging Gardens, and more. My favorite was defiantly the fisherman’s community. All of these kids were playing on huge floating bags of styrofoam and doing handstand to impress us foreigners accompanied by cameras. Old men all lay taking naps along the shore, perfectly situated between their simple homes and atypical work places. The boats were all covered with flags of every color which contrasted nicely to the very grey back drop of ocean and Mumbai skyline. It was as picture perfect as anything could get for me. It was also so incredible to see Ghandi’s house and read through some of his famous letters. He was such an influential man in the world but specifically India so part of appreciating the development of this country is recognizing those like him who played such a huge part in it.

The public baths were also a really interesting thing to see. Hundreds of pants and shirts lined up inspired the obvious “How do you know which is yours?” questions which were answered by blank stares. The best part about this stop was a little boy who came and just stood next to us the whole time. He was unbearably cute but that is not why his presence struck me. It was because it was the first time I had a child come to stand beside me without asking for anything. He was just content to be there. As we went to the car to leave he followed us to the curb. He jumped and clapped as we drove past him. The view of his jumping frame in the back window is one that will stick with me for a long time.

By the time we reached the last stop we were wiped. We had an ice cream by the ocean right as the sun was beginning to set. The next day we took a thirty-minute ferry to get an incredible view of the whole city. Then we took a stroll down Fashion Street before lunch. After lunch we went to Crawford Market. The hustle and bustle of that place cannot be contained. It seeps out of this very old broken down building into any surrounding space it can find. A short walk through this market leaves you drained of any energy you may have left after two days in Mumbai. We went to take a short rest before catching the double decker evening tour of the city. We managed to be the only ones signed up for the tour so we got the whole bus to ourselves. I could not have asked for a more perfect way to end the weekend. Being able to walk around the top of a double decker bus and take shots of a city that completely stole my heart was like a fairy tale for me. I am a full blood city girl and just two days in Mumbai confirmed it to be true no matter where I am in the world. If any of you ever get the opportunity to travel to India you absolutely have to make a stop in Mumbai.

Grace and I

A shot from are very own double decker

Exam Time

This past week I had to give an oral English exam to all of the Brazilian women that I have been teaching English to four times a week. It was a very interesting experience but also a very encouraging one. Just three weeks of meeting with them and even I can see where they have improved. It is such a joy to get to know them and to be able to give to them in such a simple way. These women are incredible and have dived head first into the work here at Ashasthan. The funniest moment of the exams for me had to be when I was getting them to name objects so I could check how they have retained vocabulary. I pointed to a key and one of the girls responded with “chabi” which is the Hindi word for key. It pretty much sums up how they have spent the last three weeks. Completely immersed in all things new and trying to pick up as much of two languages as they can. I told her I wouldn’t mark any points against her for that one. : )