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.