Kolkata

Hanging Out With the Staff

Me and the staff! These are great hard working people that I had the pleasure of serving with.

Sister Rachel - the nun with attitude and me.

Meal preparation.

Kitchen staff! Looks like Miraima is shy when taking pictures...she couldn't stop bursting into laughter.

Mohan suggested that we get a photo behind the flowers. I had so much fun taking these photos!

Reminiscing My Indian Wardrobe

I returned home this past Saturday and have just recovered from jetlag. Three months in India came and went so fast! I have come home to a new wardrobe made up of my old wardrobe of Canadian clothes, jeans, T-shirts and running shoes. Ruby gave me a Saree to give to my mom as a present and as I handed it over I began to reminisce about my Indian wardrobe.

There is no doubt that womens everyday clothing in India is really beautiful and very feminine compared to my everyday Canadian outfits. But beauty does not come without the price of time and pain. It takes about 15-20 minutes to put a Saree on properly, whereas my jeans and T-shirt I can get on in less than two minutes flat. And I have to say that I am incredibly comfortable sitting on the couch typing this blog post in my jogging pants and hoodie, I will miss Sarees, Punjab Suits and Boro Dresses, jasmine flower hair decorations, and sparkly shoes. No doubt if you come on a Sunday afternoon to visit me, you may find me wearing a Saree and looking through my Indian pictures!

Grace's Saree.

Another of Grace's Sarees.

Neela's Saree.

Bilahi's Boro Dress.

Grace's Saree.

My Salvar.

My Saree!

Bought this one in Kolkata.

Microfinance and the Poor

MERIBA is TENT's main microfinance site. Here groups of women and men get together to discuss the issues and problems in their villages and how they can unite together to overcome them. It was a pretty amazing two days and seven hour trip down there. We were able to see the microcredit groups that were formed and talk to the women through a translator about their experiences before and after TENT came to work with them.

As we gathered on mats in a big rectangle building we sat and talked to 60 women representing 120 microcredit groups each made up of 10 to 15 women. They shared their stories and with wide smiles and pride told us about all they have accomplished, from establishing their own small businesses to fixing their houses, paying for medical bills, giving scholarships for bright students in their village and even creating a people's bank! The program encourages each group of 10 to 15 women to save money together and from the accumlated savings give out small loans to group members. The interest rates are 1% a month where moneylender rates are anywhere from 40% to 140%. Which is crazy! Recently the Indian government passed a law that made bonded labour illegal. This was necessary because if parents defaulted on loans moneylenders would take their children as slaves to work off the debt. Many times moneylenders would take advantage of illerate borrowers by changing figures and demanding more payment then what was actually due. Thousands of people have spent their entire lives as bonded labourers and the Vijayams have paid to free many of them, literally buying their freedom. But back to MERIBA my visit there was life changing seeing people work together to find a way out of poverty.

Hanging out with some kids.

TingTing, Ranu and the group breaking for lunch on the mountainside.

A nice little break off of the bus.

This woman had many troubles and was able to start her own shop in order to support her two younger brothers when her parents passed away. She was incredibly inspiring.

These kids were hanging out on this wall and then with us. They are pretty cool.

Memories!

From beginning to end, I had some great times in India. I have been incredibly blessed to have gone to India to meet beautiful people and embrace a cool and different culture and see God working across the world and in my own heart.

And as Margaret Mead says " As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate lovingly, our own."

So I am back in Canada and seeing how I can appreciate it more lovingly and remembering all my friends in India.

Shaker, Shantel and I hanging out on a highrise roof looking over Hyderabad.

Thiam and I collecting bouquets from the trees on the IWILL roof.

Computer Class!

Ranu, Renee, TingTing and Sister Rachel posing.

Celebrating my first set of bangels. Red and gold symbolize marriage and were a gift from two of the ladies who have been praying for my future husband.

Chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool.

Smiling night shot.

Saying Good-bye

Everyone left, back to various States throughout India. It was a sad day as bags were packed and suitcases carried to the bus. We thought we were late so fifteen of us ran through the train station up and down the stairs to the farthest stop. Turns out we were early by an hour. It's amazing how close you can get to people when you live together.

When I was in Hyderabad I found some beautiful scarfs in a market. Here the women all wear scarves when they pray so I thought it would be a nice gift to get each of the girls one and then they would remember to pray for me. : ) I handed them out the last day and they were really appreciated. After, the girls came one by one to my room giving me a gift from their belongings. I felt incredibly honored as beautiful and valueable things were presented to me. The best part was that during prayer seven of the girls stood up and personally thanked me and shared words of encouragement and prayer. One girl said I was the best computer teacher ever....lol....if they only knew! We rushed setting up email accounts the night before they left since the internet has been down for the last week.

The hardest part was probably saying goodbye to my friends that are heading back to Orissa. Three are going back to relief camps where they came from. I wonder if I will ever see them again. I pray that they will be safe.

It will be interesting to see the ministries that they establish and where they go from here. I know some of them have big visions for what God is going to do in India. I hope to come back and visit to check it out.

Arriving at the train station. The first picture before we start running.

On the bus, suitcases packed.

At the train station, saying last goodbyes.

Mary carrying her suitcase on her head, while Monika and Thiam wait in line. lol.

Saying Good-bye to the Animals

TingTing wishes the duck well. It is still with the chickens and still hasn't learned how to quack.

We visited the animals for a last time as I will be leaving soon. This cow underneath is going to have a baby anytime now. I was hoping that it would give birth before I left. Especially since I sat through an eight hour lecture on cow rearing. Two hours were spent specifically on birthing techniques and I was feeling confident of my skills. Because of the structure of Indian cows you can pretty much see exactly where the baby cow is positioned in its mom. Like humans this baby is leaning quite a bit to the left side of the mother.

Here I have drawn in the outline of the baby. I'm pretty sure if you were to lift the mom's tail you could probably see its nose. Though I'm not about to try that out.

This is my audition to get on the PI Harvest of Hope Catelogue this year. For the last few years they have featured a child holding a goat. Mark - let me know what you think!

The goats pose in a nice formation and Grace and Subhashini smile in the background.