Oh Life!

Hello world! So yeah, I know I've been a failing at this whole blog thing....but I've been bugged enough (coughPaigecough) to write at least a little bit!

 

We left Cochin, India last night and are now headed to Mauritius and should be there in 6 or 7 days....I think. And India, wow.

There is honestly no other place I have been to or have learned about that I can describe this colorful, diverse, amazing country. There are over 1,500 languages and dialects, with only 13 recognized by the government, so when we landed in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu they spoke Tamil, and then when we went over to Cochin in the state of Kerala they spoke Mayaman. And Southern Indians don't say Namaste like Northern Indians do, and social conduct varies from state to state, also.

 

Day 1!

My friend Abby and I jumped into an auto-rickshaw (google image that craziness!) and rode around for about an hour and stopped at a store. Our driver was so cool and gave us a CD that he helped produce the music for. Oh Indian music is so good! Madhu (our driver) took us to a store that a couple other SAS groups were at. Apparently when the drivers bring foreigners (particularly white people) to these stores they get a free liter of gas or a shirt or some money or something like that. We each got a sweet shirt and then it was back to the boat to head out for our rural village overnight.

It was about a 2 hour bus ride our of Chennai to the program center of RIDE (Rural Instruction Development Education), which is a program that gets children out of child labor and into school. We went to the school to meet the kids and got off the bus and were greeted by little boys with flowers for us. It was so cute how they would run up to us and give us their flowers, say welcome, and then run back to their friends giggling and hiding behind each other. We went into a classroom which had been built from donations by SAS and then the boys sang a song to us in English. Then they led us, many of them taking individuals by the hand, to another school building while we kicked soccer balls along the way. There we met many other young students who danced for us and gave us a couple of lessons on India, such as how plans grow, their national symbols, and other things, all in very good English. These kids are only 4-14, and the majority of the ones we had the privilege of meeting didn't look any older than 10. After the lessons it was play time! We played patty-cake and tag and soccer and sang songs. Also, they loved our cameras! They just thought it was the funniest thing to take a picture of their friends and then show them. They also held the cameras backwards a lot so I have some priceless shots of some sweaty foreheads. One of my friends Edwin always had at least 2 little boys crawling on him. They also loved being lifted up in the air, and burying my feet in sand....it was a great day. After all this fun we headed back to the center for a delicious dinner of curry, flaky butter bread, apple bananas, rice, and veggies.

After we ate we talked to the founder of RIDE and he old us more about the program. He started it in the later 1980s and then in 1996 he was actually attacked by quarry owners and was in the hospital for 3 months. And here is is, 2010, and he is still saving children from these hot days of picking and crushing rocks for about 50 ruppees a day, which is a little over a dollar a day. It takes about a year to get a child completely out of work and in school full time. Most children work part of the day and come to school the other part. One of the main attractions to get students is the free lunch. They have volunteer programs that are a 3 month minimum and I plan on looking in to it when I get back home, which is in about 7 weeks.

After this we went over to where we were sleeping, which was dorm style with beds and cots. After we figured out how to make the cots not fall every time we sat down on them and got the fans working, it was good night for us. :)

 

Ok, more to come after class! Supposidly we have a pop quiz in Global Studies today....so gots to study a wee bit hey!