The Shanti Ashram- our haven! and more stories about the past three weeks in INDIA

Ok, before I even begin, I wanted to tell a quick story. About two weeks ago, I met a little boy at the NGO, his name is Hariavanam... but I call him Harry. He is ADORABLE and has become one of my favorite people in this country. Anyway, in the Hindu religion, when Hindus go to their temples, they get these threads that they tie around their wrist, or sometimes necks, for protection from evil, by the gods. They are often red or black, and to me, they look like the bracelets I would buy or make out of thread back home. So anyway, I noticed Harry was wearing one and I asked what it was and he explained it and I said "maybe one day I can get one! I like them". TODAY, after not seeing him for a week, he runs up to Emma, Josh and I to say, hi. Then he runs of to get his backpack and I see him walking back towards me, and as soon as he was close enough, he put a red, Hindu prayer thread-bracelet in my hand!!! He got me one!!!!!! So, I PROUDLY wear it. It is so beautiful, and even though I'm not Hindu, and Harry knows that I'm a Christian, I felt honored that he would want to share a little bit of his religion with me. I can't wait to show it to all of you once I am home. It made my day, and that's just another glimpse of how beautiful and great the children are here. They just love us and we absolutely love them too!! Many of you know that I am doing my internship with an NGO titled Shanti Ashram. They have many programs, but the one that I will be working with is called the Women's Develoment Program. It has many focuses but the ones that really stand out to me are giving loans to women so that they can start their own businesses. They can also start their own self-help groups. If the women pay their loans on time, they qualify for another loan, giving them more money and giving them even greater opportunities. It is wonderful idea, but even better, was seeing it in action with my own eyes. When we are at the Ashram, we sit down for a lecture by a staff member, like Dr. Vinu, who is the director and an incredible person. After our lecture, we go to the "field", which means we get in a van, and ride with a coordinator to a village where the programs are being practiced. Last week, we went to the field with a coordinator and as we drove, I noticed that the surroundings looked familiar- we were actually in our OWN village! Chavadi Pudur! We went to visit a lady who had been given a loan to start making food from her house and selling it. Back tracking a few days back-- the boys told Emma and I about some omelettes that were sold around the corner. We decided to try them out and they were DELICIOUS!! Fast forward to the field visit- the woman who had been given a loan was the OMELETTE LADY!! It was so amazing to see with my own eyes a living example of the many times I had read about women around the world taking out loand to help themselves and their families. She is so sweet and she told us that eventhough she made omelettes until 10 am, if we came to her shop, she would make us her delicious omelettes whenever we wanted. It was a great first experience with the real world and the NGO. Another program that the Ashram has, is called Youth Leadership. This involves children, and right now, kids in India are on vacation, so during this month, there is a summer camp going on at Shanti Ashram. The kids are sooo cute, they just look at us with their huge, brown eyes and smile all the time and they have our names memorized! We sometimes feel bad because we feel so ordinary, but they want us all to sign their notebooks and to talk to them, so we feel like celebrities. They are beginning to see that we are just like them though, and it is so fun to see them run up and rememeber our name. I love how the children love simple things, for example: the girls, LOVE dancing and singing and they are constantly asking "can you dance for us? can you sing American song??" it is so funny, because in the states, I have NEVER had that experience. I sang them a song by Rihanna, because it was the first one that came to my head and after a few lines, they all clapped and said "SUPER!!" they love saying that word, it is so cute and funny. Perhaps my favorite aspect about the youth leadership program, is what I learned today. Dr. Vinu was teaching us that reaching down to children is a great method to try to make a postive change because when children learn valuable principles, they will grow up applying them. An example from the kids, that Dr. Vinu pointed out, was that of Kolam. This is a design done with powder, on the front porch of the houses. These patterns are beautiful and they are done early in the morning, and a different one is done every morning. They are beautiful and I have seen these with my own eyes in the village. This is done by the women only. However, last saturday at the Ashram, there was an event with all the children and one of the activities was a Kolam competition. All the children were given a designated spot in the dirt, and a bag of colorful powder. Well, I was surprised to see that the boys were participating as well, and for being 11 yr-14 yr old boys, they were pretty into it!! I knew that this was a girl thing, but I didn't ask about the boys. It wasn't until today, that Dr. Vinu said they encourage the children of both genders to work together, because they were learning about gender equality. Dr. Vinu said "of course, we will not tell the children that we want to teach them gender equality, we just encourage them to play together, and that way, they can learn these principles through experience as they grow". That was so fascinating to me, and the best part, was that I was able to see it with my own eyes. I really appreciated that experience, and I am grateful for the chance I have to be an intern there for the next three months. Tomorrow, Emma, Josh and I are going to observe Dr. Vinu along with some staff, give the village children immunizations, here in this village. I'll keep you updated on what I keep learning! Here are some random stories that have happened, I am sorry if this is all over the place and unorganized, a lot has happened and I can't keep it all together... First of all, I can confidently say that I have never sweat this much before in my life. I am used to Arizona, but this whole being drenched all day, has taken a LONG time to get used to. The power goes off sometimes in the village, and enduring two hours with out the fan can be a little difficult, but Emma and I have survived, so we are ok. There is a lightbulb in the bath house, and once I was taking a bath at night, and the power went out... I'm glad that hasn't happened again. We use the bus to get everywhere, and we have learned that because we are American, we won't know how to ask for change back when we pay the fare. On one particular occasion, the fare collector charged us but never returned change. I noticed that we were missing four rupees, but there was no way to get that back...all the sudden, these ladies in the front start yelling at me in Tamil and telling me something important... but there was no way that I was understanding, and all the sudden, there they were, yelling at the fare collector, all five women, just going at him, and then he sheepishly gave me my four rupees back!! I was so surprised and it was so awesome how the women stood up for us! One of the women, turned to me and asked me something in Tamil, to which in my broken Tamil I said "I only speak a little bit of Tamil, but what is your name?" and she relplied "Sita". I remembered the very famous Indian epic that has been part of Indian culture for centuries, the Ramayana. In this story, the prince Rama and married to Sita, the perfect woman. So I decided to show off my skills and say "Oh! Sita, like prince Rama's wife!" well that worked! Because she freaked out and pinched my cheeks and was telling all her friends what I had said and she pinched my cheeks some more, it was great. That is something that I have noticed about the Indian culture, most of them are willing to help us and genuinely care. The other day, we were lost in the city trying to find a place to buy more Churidhars (the clothes that most girls wear) and we asked this woman where we could find a specific store, and she walked us all the way to the place, completely going out of her way. Things like that have happened often, and it is a cool insight into individual culture. I have had my fair share of culture shock, when the buses get ULTRA crowded and Indian music blaring...and the food is CRAZILY spicy, I sometimes don't know what to think, but I keep reminding myself of why I came here and there are way more good things than bad ones. Something that has been interesting has been that EVERYBODY thinks I'm Indian. I maybe mentioned that already, but it is so funny walking around with Emma because she will try to speak Tamil, and if they can't understand her, they turn to me and speak Tamil to me, to translate for them... but then they are disappointed cuz I also DON'T speak Tamil... it is fun seeing their face when I say "I am from America!" I have lost track of the people that come up to us and are dazzled with the white Americans and they turn to me and say "what part of India are you from?" and when I say "I'm actually American" they look at me like I'm crazy. Trying to explain that I am Colombian is a little too difficult, because some have never heard of it (don't worry, I am MAKING SURE that they know where it is by the time I leave), so I am beginning to think I'll just let thim think I'm Indian. I am quite a bit lighter than most of the people here, and that is a weird feeling because I have always been the "brown girl", I really don't mind it though. In the village, we live with Matthew and Jeeva, but also Matthew's brother lives with them (and his wife as well). We call them Amma and Appa and they stay home, while Mathew and Jeeva are at work. They are so funny because they don't speak English and Emma and I don't speak Tamil, yet they still speak straight up Tamil with us... Emma and I just smile and they end up laughing. I was brushing my hair the other day (I wash my hair everyday because it is much too hot not to) and Amma and Appa were just STARING. My hair was down and if you know me, you know that I have BIG, PUFFY, CURLY hair, and I don't think they have ever seen hair like this. Appa just kept staring, and then Amma walked up to me, and started touching it and saying "spring! spring!" as in the springs on a matress, the curly looking ones. It was HILARIOUS to see their faces of wonder, maybe terror, at how much hair I had! Then Amma proceeded to tell me, through Priya (the 15 yr old daughter), to put coconut oil in my hair, to "smooth" it out and keep my head cool from the heat. SO, I have been doing this everyday! The cooling part doesn't work when you have as much hair as I do, but I smell like coconuts ALL the time!! Another time, I was collecting water with Amma and sis. Jeeva, and the women were looking at me weird when I was carrying the pots of water. Apparently, you are supposed to put it on your hip and put your arm around the neck of the vessel, but I was just putting it up against my stomach. The women were saying "hips! hips!" and then I pulled my churidar (the outfits that us girls wear) tight to my body, so they could see my figure and I said "NO hips!" and they were all laughing! I guess they have never seen an Indian-looking Colombian girl, with HUGE hair and really skinny... it's fun to see their reactions, but I will hopefully get better at picking up the water vessels and taming my hair with coconut oil. India has taught me so much already, and I am sorry that these are so long and all over the place, and maybe grammatically incorrect, I have limited internet and so when I can write, I write a LOT and try to organize my thoughts! It is still VERY hot and the food is still spicy, and I still don't speak Tamil, but I am getting to know more people, and learning more about them and myself. I will update this again soon, when I can. Things are only going to get better, and I will make sure and write ALL about it. The ONE thing I am looking forward to the most though: JUNE rains... it will rain everyday (or so they say) and Emma and I have decided to sit outside, IN the rain. We can't wait. Oh- and Elder. Dallin H. Oaks is coming to India this weekend to organize India's first stake, and we are going! It will be in Hyderabad, about 22 hours from here. The people of the church here have been waiting for so long, and the one's I have met are so enthusiastic about the gospel, and I love to see that, it's so CUTE! (friends have told me to stop referring to people this way, but I can't help it, I have to say it, it's just not me not to call people cute).