last day in India

well, i should have gone shopping but I didn't want to go shopping. I would have liked to learn more about what it means to a hindu to live day in and day out. Or for a Christian amongst Hindus. What are their worldviews? How do they explain disasters or injury or sickness? What does a Hindu do to appease God and what does good behavior mean? Who sets the standards? How many gods do you need to follow to "get it right?" How do they think we came into being? What do they think of other religions?

now what are the chances of someone speaking to me about such things. Particularly when those whom I am in contact with are Steve's employees. Perhaps they could fear they would encroach upon sacred ground improperly or something, I don't know.

and I wanted to see Steve write on a white board and explain the organization or the architechture (spell?) arcitecture, no. anyway, the skeleton of the programs they are working on. the bones of it. the forms of it. I like to watch him explaining that to people. they never expect someone high up like him to know so much about it, but he's a programmer at heart. (an ambitious one.)

so I think I will have to go back to the hotel and wait it out until we get ready for our flight. George, who is also here, has a take off time of 4am!!! good heavens! it is an hour to the airport. he won't get any sleep tonight. that makes for some hard hard flights. and he doesn't sleep well on flights. We take off at 6am, so we are just behind him, but we may have a tiny snooze first. so I think I should just go back. My hope was to do email and to write to my beautiful donors who are so gracious and loyal and i am so blessed!! I come here and I see the poor people and I think, Oh God you love them so much! and I know He is sending out His love through people one way or another. I want to be a part of that.

well, it won't be so much this time, but I am planning on next time.

I just had a FABULOUS samosa, though. It was onion and corn and so delicious that I am sure to crave it until I return. I've had some great food here. I am blessed. God has put us in a good place.

I pray we all get sleep on flights home! International flights are hard on the flesh. But what a privilege! I'm glad to be born in this era.

Another day in India

Yesterday droned on in the morning but developed into a positively wonderful day. I waited for hours without communication from Steve and had no way to know if anyone was coming to get me or if I was going to spend the whole afternoon in my room. My phone had no service but I dared not leave the hotel room landline. The room became a mandatory sabbath. No way to work or control things. I tried to discipline myself to settle into it patiently. I read the bible, I prayed sporadically, I zoned out, I thought of children in Kenya and the team. I thought of how grateful I am to donors. I asked God to lead me to some work for the poor here. RING RING and the women were here to pick me up at4. I dressed and ran down to the elevators. I am staying in the mostluxurious hotel, but I longed to find and greet children who are needy. We headed to St. Theresa's Tender Loving Care Center. Here Mother Theresa, named after the saint who was Theresa the little flower, supports 29 girls who all came as babies after the Tsunami. Tamina, a CA employee, suggested we get them some snack--she was right! Typical for me, I was showing up empty handed. But I did not have a well thought out plan. We sent the driver for some cookies and chocolate. Mother showed us photos from the over 1000 children she had placed. She was formerly a nurse in cardiology, maternity, and something else. She had been a nun since she was 22. Now she was surely over 70 and had trouble walking. Hunched over and with braces on her knees and a cane. She was precious all in white and chatty with arthritic knarled hands.I loved her although I only understood about 75% of what she said. We met the beautiful young girls. All dressed well and appearing quite well adjusted. What a cohort together they were! They showed us a dance they learned from watching bollywood. ADORABLE. I think they all greeted me as Aunty. Many were vying to catch my eye. You know they know that they want to go home with someone! Two were already destined for Holland and one for Germany. Many children had gone to Washington DC, New York, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. She had multiple books on her desk thatfamilies had created for her showing their child growing upthrough the years and sending letters to her to show her their happiness. It costs nothing really to send these girls to school in Hindi, the national language, but it costs about $25 a month for English classes (school in complete English immersion.) All together, Mother was paying 40,000 Rupees a month or $800 USD for the girls to have English. They had 2 ancient computers, which gives me the idea that surely I can come up with donations for 2 new computers or else buy them myself. I could bring them on my next trip here. Steve is supposeed to come for a whole month. Maybe July. On another note, though, it turns out the C.A.(which stands for computer associates technologies) also has its own India charity which is Hope School. I will look into it when I come back--they are out on holiday until June. It is a school to educate the poor children whose families might not otherwise be able to send them. I could really get on board with that because Steve cannnot ethically promote our work without the potential that someone feels "pressured" to give in order to remain in good favor at their job. ( sad face.)But I can really promote Hope School with the CA employees in Long Island. So that is my plan. I did find a Christian orphanage and will also visit there next time. It is 90 minutes from my hotel and I am not giventhe driver the whole day. so...God will make a way if He chooses. It was good to see the good mother and her beautiful children. They are available for adoption and I suppose their age makes them less likely candidates. I might even get them all dresses. I bet I could find them for $10 here. That would only be $290. (well, there is tax.) Several of them wear glasses---you know that is expensive! Later we had an excellent dinner at a buffet at the Novatel Hotel. I have eaten several Indian dishes that I have enjoyed plus they have versions of Asian food like vegetable fried rice. There is always steamed rice and a great flat bread that has a pancake taste from the grill (unsweet.) I had a great hushpuppy type item with cumin. I had "golden coins" at a chinese restaurant that were spicy and delicious. Breakfast yesterday had greek salad YUM!!!! and some bean sprout thing with lime and cilantro and cabbage was great. So no food suffering plus luxury hotel is an interesting way to experience India. I hate using water here because I know we US tourists like our daily showers which sucks up all the water stealing it from locals and their wells. I get that rich person guilty complex. Then I go to get an hour long massage for $30 and I just PRAISE GOD!!! The people at this hotel are very very gracious and service oriented. It is a real pleasure. The weater is hot but it feels good to me. Yesterday's rains cooled it greatly. It was perfect. Driving through the roads you see hundreds of pedestrians, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, cars and buses. At any moment, five cars and motorbikes honking at once. A grating symphony of notes. Dust rises up here and there. Fruit stalls interspersed with electronics or clothing stores. Temples here and there to the elephant face god and buildingsnamed Krishna this or that. Beautiful sarees floating everywhere, young beautiful girls and matriarchs past their prime. Outside my window, there is a helicoptor pad for the hotel. It looks like some aztec sacrifical pinnacle laid out and ready for worship to something. I'll have to take a picture. Palm trees among flowering trees and moldy old buildings next to modern ones. So much here is familiar as my beloved Kenya. I feel at home while simultaneously knowing nothing about anything. The culture is hidden to me. People thousands of years old with shared knowlege I could only guess at from cursory readings. I enjoy our differences and drink in the flavor of a people created by God.

India

I'm in Hyderabad India typing on a little mini keyboard.I praise God for technology but this is hard. I hope I can get connected with some orphanages here. Steve will be working here and we may come for a month in the summer. I don't know if God will make a way here, but He called me to China and India when I was 22. I've only been to those countries as a tourist--just like today. Plus, I never want to divert funds from my Kenyan family yet I know God called me so I remain available. Jianwen just moved from Austin to Long Island and we are planning a China trip in August. When I married a grocery store bag boy, I never dreamed we would really travel the world. But here I am! Thank you for the airplane prayers. I was delirious and getting a migraine when we landed in London, but I got a massage of my neck and head. I slept on some chairs for more than an hour. The next flight was fine and I slept a lot. I also read through a great book: Year of Living Biblically. It was great fun. He is an unbeliever but it was good to laugh about how strange some things in the Bible appear. off to breakfast. I'm staying at the Taj Krishna. is that allowed? blessings out to everyone. Remain in Him.

Your Kenyan Family together with Mama Anita!

Anita out front at the TGD building with our children

Bishop Titus loves the children

Christabel cooking

Christabel cutting food--thanks!

Christabel sorting packages for the children

Don chops firewood for the meal

Emelda teaches hygiene to the guardians

Fridah gets her chicken, as all the sponsored children got a chicken from Kevin.

Don and Duncan cook for everyone

Lawrence has the children wash their hands

Lawrence teaching and encouraging the children

Mary gets her chicken

Scroll down for photos! but here is Henry's report of purchases for building...

A list of building expenses for the month of March 2012 drawn from Cornerstone account as shown below.

         ITEMS                                      Kenyan Schillings

Cement 37 bags                                     29,600.00

White lime 5 bags                                    3,250.00

Painting items, brushes, sand paper           1,300.00

Paints                                                      17,000.00

Painter                                                      9,000.00

Sand 21 tons( 3 tractors )                        12,000.00

Water                                                        6,000.00

Transport costs cement                             4,000.00

Plumbing material                                    16,810.00

Labour plumber                                        5,000.00

General Labour                                       22,150.00 

2kg nails                                                      280.00

2 pcs hacksaw blades                                  200.00                          

Total                                                      126,590.00 (In US Dollars $1622)

Zainabu, Brenda, Shaline, Mary and our blessed TGD Kenya Team!

Please pray for Crispinus to make it through this bout of malaria. It is a deadly disease, May God protect his life, in Jesus name, and raise him up in strength.

Erick is handing a ball from TGD to Eubulechia school. Please consider the needs of precious children attending this mud school and the teachers who give their time. Anita is trying to get them some support for their efforts. May God bless the education of our children!

Little Shaline has a beautiful smile. God bless her!

Brenda and Zainabu forget and everyone forgets that Americans like smiles! May they be blessed!

TGD Team visits Mary in her school--praise God for personal attention to each child!

Here is a report from Joseph:

Judy, Agnes and Christabel. David, Eric, Agnes and Judy all joined Emelda on Wednesday to visit her midwifery clients. Jack visited Beverline and Cynthia while Lawrence juggled between being at Center, training the new students at Shibuli and crowning it with visiting Chrispinus at St. Mary’s Mission Hospital in Mumias on Friday.

WEDNESDAY

This was Ebulechia’s day. Eric, Christabel and myself begun with Ebulechia Cornerstone School where we handed over a ball.  For Christabel and Eric, it was their first experience at the school. Christabel had a one-on-one with Shaline and Fredrick’s teachers regarding their academic progress while Eric kept the young ones busy outside with the new ball.  In the beginning of the term, we had paid the school a visit and realized that they didn’t have a single toy for use during the Physical Education lessons or games.  We all understand how important it is to have our sponsored children participate in games and other physical exercises. Our Ebulechia Cornerstone School family seemed to be pursuing a one sided endevour – academics only. They needed a change badly for balance’s sake.  The ball thing brought in the change they craved for.  It was evident from the reaction of the teachers and pupils alike. You would have plainly seen an expression of relief on their faces and joy of playing football was in the air. Thank God for Kevin. The pupils really needed the balls and Ebulechia School was enjoying its share of delight in the same.

Next was Mung’ang’a Primary School where Zainabu and Brenda learn. I introduced the team to the administration before engaging our sponsored children’s class teachers in a discussion on their academic progress. I let Eric and Christabel engage the class teachers in the discussion.  I hope you received their individual reports.  I asked them to write a report on each individual child and send it over before Friday the 31^st March 2012.

Mungabira was the last school we visited on Wednesday. This is Mary Baraza’s school.  She was doing her end of term exam.  The head teacher, however, made sure we had a talk with her before the afternoon exam session begun. We discussed at length about her dwindling academic performance and the administration promised to schedule for us an appointment with the guiding and counseling teacher-in-charge.  She wasn’t in when we visited the school on Wednesday. The class teacher is yet to furnish us with a detailed first-term performance record, which he said was in the guiding and counseling master ‘s office.

By 3:00PM we were back in Shibuli.  The afternoon students were already in class waiting for me and I immediately joined them for the day’s lesson, which ended at 5:35PM.

I observed a number of things during the visitation. Issues like our sponsored children performing poorly in English related subjects. Vernacular is rampant in most of the rural schools and story books are insufficient.  I believe our TGD Library services will go a long way to boost our sponsored children’s performance in English-related subjects.  Lack of toys and other physical education paraphernalia has contributed to a lot of imbalance in our sponsored children’s learning atmosphere. Ebulechia Cornerstone School is a case in point, as earlier highlighted. More foot balls and small ‘throwing’ balls need to be added to both of the Cornerstone Schools.  Maybe Anita can bring a few of them with her (hope she hasn’t packed her luggage yet).

 THURSDAY

I spent the day   at Center and Shibuli exploring the TGD Kenya ‘‘Joomla-based’’ website progress and planning on setting Friday’s ‘Introduction to Computers’ exam respectively.

 FRIDAY

The new class sits for its first exam. Later on at midday, I receive call from a Good Samaritan about Chrispinus hospital admission case. I leave immediately, taking Christabel and Lawrence with me. We find Chrispinus on the hospital bed, receiving intravenous quinine.  This appears to be the third bottle, though he is still weak.  He is vomiting and has no appetite. Taking to him we realize that he had been admitted the previous. The doctor mentions that he is Malaria positive and some sort of fever that causes temperature rise. Realizing he has no appetite we decide to get him Lucozade (an energy drink) to boost the body strength and appetite. There might have been an outbreak of malaria in their school because they we re three of them in the same ward from he same school and yet the school is about 10 KM from the Mumias town.