Home Sweet-and-Mellow Home

Me and two of my favorite ladies from the program
(Julia Ji on the left and Priyanka Ji on the right).

Getting home was an adventure in itself ...

We got back to Delhi from Mussorie (after taking an overnight train that I didn't sleep on at all) at 5am. We then made our way to our hotel and crashed until we had to go (for our last time) to the program center a few blocks away. There we had a reentry session (talking about culture shock ect.) and some cute closing things like awards and a slide show.

We had lunch and then I went back to the boiling hot hotel where I posted my last blog entry, met with a family friend, and dripping in sweat packed up all of the stuff I had accumulated over the past semester.

I also was able to write some final thank you notes, chat with friends and get help tying my sari.

In the evening the entire group loaded into a big bus and we made our way to the final banquet. Technically this was a time to say final good byes and thank yous, eat and enjoy the last evening in India. Well, my flight was at 12:30am which meant that I spent the first 10 minutes taking pictures, the next 25 minutes being forced to eat as quickly as possible by all of the professors, and the last 5 minutes saying quick good byes to everyone. I then rushed to the taxi (car changed into my traveling attire) and made it to the airport.

Me coming home! As you can see, I brought a little bit
more back home than what I went to India with ...
Eye-spy: PDX carpet! I'm home home home!

After refusing to pay $75 for an extra checked bag, getting my once-used pocket knife confiscated and buying my first Starbucks in 4 months, I was on my first plane home.

After almost 10 hours, I made it to Paris. I made it through the maze that is Charles DeGaulle Airport, through security and customs (while chatting with very cute Parisian TSA workers/guards) and made it to my next gate right as my next plane was boarding ... I didn't even sit down.

It was a quick and enjoyable commuter flight to Amsterdam where I then had to walk through the immaculate airport full of tulip stands, through extensive security that included not only the typical passport check, but also more bag screenings, full body scans and pat-downs and then an interrogation (questions about India, what I had packed, what I was doing, ect.). I sat down in the "holding area" for about 5 minutes, and then boarded my final 10 hour plane to PDX!!!

After traveling for more than 24 hours, I walked out of security and customs to see my adorable parents waiting for me (Jess was at school but I got the sweetest welcome-home-hug from him in the afternoon).

Coming home felt so ... normal. It was strange on the drive home to not hear any honking, for there to be space between cars, to not fear any truck screaming down the road towards me in my lane, and to be driving on the right again ... but besides those small initial shocks, its has all seemed relatively normal. Portland definitely feels like home, but a small part of me is back in India.

I keep comparing things (especially prices!) back to India and my life there. I absolutely fell in love with the country, the culture, and the people. It's crazy that my 3.5 month adventure has come to a close, but I am already thinking about my next trip!

Finishing Up the Academics

The Joint Director and all of his paper work.

Well, this incredible semester is coming to a close. I sit writing this in a sweltering hot hotel room in Delhi, where instead of packing, showering, or putting on my sari, I am writing this ...

I think I will post one last time once I arrive home in PDX (I leave in 8 hours!), but this is going to be the last post about the purely academic portion of my semester.

So, two weeks ago I finished up my field work. I went into the school board again (without hearing any confirmation about scheduling ... but I didn't worry about it) to ask the school board Joint Director the same questions I had asked the teachers, head teachers, and headmasters, plus some additional questions that I had been gathering during the previous week.

It was a very long interview, and I got some interesting information about how the school board functions and the vast amount of politics that are involved. I also learned about some details of the school district's inner workings, which were super interesting. He was not only was very open with me about  his thoughts (negative and positive) on the system, but he also (seemed) to be very honest about the system itself (I used everything anonymously in my paper and presentation). It was yet another example at how amazing this field work process was. The people I talked to were so welcoming and open, and I don't think I will ever get an opportunity to have so much access like this again. Incredible.

Once the field work was complete, I set to work on the paper and presentation. The paper turned out to be a total of almost 50 pages (longest paper I've ever written!) and it was a surprisingly semi-enjoyable experience. I really liked processing all of my information, and figuring out exactly what to make of all of my data.

A little glimpse into the process ... a bazzilion documents open on my computer, pages and pages of hand scrawled notes about what the heck to write about in 50 pages, a book to help distract me when I got tired and a bottle of water ... because its India.

I kind of mentioned this in my last post, but I ended up deciding to examine the elementary health education methods being used in the public schools, and their effects on fostering health literacy and health practices. After countless hours working and processing information, I came to the conclusion that although the public school system of Shimla has the tools (qualified teachers) and reasons (poor health practices and low levels of knowledge on how to practice preventive health care, ect), they aren't using any methods of health education. There is no mandated health curriculum, and even if teachers/schools deem it important to teach students about health practices, all of the information surrounds personal hygiene, which is not even close to sufficient in covering basic health education topics or creating health literacy.

Once the paper was done (I played the Hallelujah Chorus) I set to work on the presentation. As a part of the program, we not only submit a final ISP paper, but we also present our findings to our group, professors, visiting professors and NGO officials. 

For the presentations we went to another hill station rather than all meeting in Delhi, because it is just too bloody hot here. So, on Saturday morning the 6 members of the Shimla Crew (3 more people joined our group because it was just too stinking wonderful for people to not want to join us) packed up and got in a taxi that I had booked the day before; and settled in for our 9 hour journey. It was a journey for sure. Down 8,000ft in elevation on the winding roads, and then through the hot hot hot flat-ish lands, and then back up to 6,000ft to Mussorie.

Me giving my presentation ...

I was lucky and was assigned to the first day (of two) for my presentation, so I could get it over with. I think it went pretty well; people were talking about education at lunch afterwards ... so thats a good sign. A lot of people noted that although we had been seeing a lot of children during our visits to different areas in India, they hadn't really thought about what education (or lack there of) the children were actually getting when they went to school.

That evening (our last "normal" night in India together) we had a party. We danced the night away and it was really nice to just let loose and dance with the people that I have grown to love over the course of the past 3.5 months.

It must have been a good song at this moment ... I was obviously singing along to the music as I danced. Others were singing too (see Mimi),  I'm not the only one haha.

A Week of Field Work

Left to right: Supna, Monica, and Me.

Supna speaks basic english and tried to help me with translation when

needed. Monica has very little spoken English but I think she understands

most of what I say because she always responds how I think she will facially

and in Hindi. They are unbelievably sweet and helpful and they've  been

with me every day this week.

This has been ... a week.

Explaining my topic and my month of research/field work/writing seems a little extreme for a blog. But in the most general of terms I will outline what I am looking at and what I've done so far. Please no judgements on the research or ideas ... I am pretty much just brainstorming and blabbering here ...

nothing is concrete.

So, during my proposal period, before I even came to Shimla, I was planning on looking at how teachers/schools were implementing the state mandated health curriculum. But alas, this is India, and there is in fact no health curriculum.  First hiccup.

This is a typical hill of Shimla.
We have been tromping around the foot-
hills of the Himalyaians going from
place to place and walking an uncountable
amount of miles. Lets just say, among other
things, my legs are definitely regaining
some strength! 

During my research, I found information about the three levels of health literacy - an enormous aspect of what I planned to look at and something I still want to have as a part of my ISP. I also found information about the two general methods of teaching health practices (Problem-Based and Health Promoting, Leger 2001). One of the interesting parts about the Health Promoting system, is that it may be better (creating a higher level of literacy) and it also does not necessarily use any direct health messages (which could be perfect for a school system with no health curriculum).

So, using these two ideas, I now am thinking (preliminarily) that I will be focusing my 50 page ISP paper on ... what type of health education method the government primary schools are employing and which level of health literacy are they creating in the students.

Knowing this general idea of what I wanted to look at, I designed my 22 question interview for teachers / headmasters / head teachers and was off and hiking.

Everyday this week (I am writing this on Friday night ... an example of the exciting life I live here in Shimla ...) we would head out at about 10/10:30 in the morning. We (the other two girls and I) were together most days and we would meet up with 2-3 workers from the NGO that is helping us, HPVHA (Himachal Pradesh Volunteer Health Association). The two women that I was with all week were Supna and Monica (see the first picture).

As you can see in the picture to the right, field work is most definitely in the field. Over the course of the week I was able to go to eight schools and get nine interviews (some not so great and some absolutely golden) for my own research and I was also able to learn about Sophie's and Mimi's topics (Anemia and HIV/AIDs respectively).

Below I am going to post six pictures of different classrooms from the schools I have been visiting and also five pictures that I took during Sophie and Mimi's focus groups and interviews with the migrant workers.

Keep in mind that all the schools I visited were all a part of the same Government of Shimla School System. Each school ranges in the ratio of migrant worker's children with local children, but each school serves at least some (if not all) migrant children.

Sidenote: I am not really working through the NGO, but am using them to help with navigation and also with minimal translation. Sophie and Mimi are working with migrant workers, so in addition to navigating, they are completely relying on the HPVHA workers' translation and also their connections as ANMs (auxiliary nurse midwives).

This school was beautiful and the Headmaster and teacher that I spoke with were incredibly warm and welcoming. They spoke decent english and I was able to get some really interesting information.

One part of the interview that I found interesting was that they showed trust in the government health workers. They are supposed to come to each school once a year, and there are also health workers in the health centers that are scattered around the city.

When I asked them where students should learn about health practices if not through the school's curriculum, they cited the health workers.

This was one of my favorite schools. The Head Teacher was awesome. Super passionate and had amazing ideas about teaching and the state of the children's health and personal hygiene (a huge topic among all the teachers/schools I've talked to).

Two great things about this Head Teacher was:

A) She was working on learning Napali in order to better communicate with the students. Because most of the children at the school were migrants, they spoke a variety of languages. One of her main struggles was the communication barrier (for obvious reasons) and so she is taking steps to reduce it. None of the other teachers I spoke with mentioned the language issue.

B) She is teaching the students to take care of the environment and their own spaces. Littering is an ENORMOUS problem in India. People literally just drop their trash on the ground wherever they are or in whatever ditch they can find. Every Saturday (there are 6-day school weeks here), she and the students clean the school and incinerate all of their trash rather than throw it into the ditch next to the school.

Burning may not be the best environmentally, but I think its better than throwing it to collect in mounds around the school ...

This (above) was an interesting school. I was able to talk to the Head Center Teacher and also a third grade teacher (who started at this school on Monday).

Again, they were awesome and friendly, but they said some pretty concerning things.

1: Even though they catch some of the older students (middle/high schoolers) smoking in the primary school's kitchen, the headmaster does nothing about it and they don't use it as an opportunity to teach them about tobacco use (a huge issue/campaign here in Shimla).

2: One of the government/district's schemes is a scholarship program for BPL (below poverty line), SC (scheduled caste aka untouchables), and other students in need as designated by staff at the school. They give out small amounts (1-3USD) at a time and instead of using cash, they create bank accounts for students and use direct deposit. This method has been used for about seven years (and is also used in other government programs) but as it is India, there is inevitably corruption.

I asked the Head Center Teacher about it and she said they don't ever create an account under a fake child/not-in-need child's name. However, what does happen, is the account number for a child will not fall into their hands but the hands of "Anyone. Even a teacher's."

This next school was interesting. The teacher hadn't been teaching very long, and a lot her responces had to do with the fact that teaching was hard. Why was this a warented response? We all know that teaching is hard and a much undervalued profession. Well, she is one of two teachers for a total of five grades (1-5th standard) and they don't even have a classroom. 

The teaching is a very long topic to talk about ... but the space issue I can mention.

This large open space is a community building. From 10am to 4pm it is the primary school. The government rents a space (see where the lady is standing?) for storage. Everyday, the two teachers have to unpack and pack up all of their materials (a few chairs, a single table, mats, cooking/food supplies for the government funded Mid-Day-Meal program, ect.).

One of my questions in the interview is "is there anything you think the school needs?" Well she said she couldn't even think about more books or desks or anything until they had a permanent classroom ...

At this school (above) I did not have a super productive interview but there were some interesting points - and he was a very nice teacher. The first was that for almost 50 students (double what the previously mentioned school had) there were still only two teachers.

This teacher had been teaching 5times longer, and didn't mention the struggles of teaching the combined class.

He also noted that students aren't learning health practices in the classroom; but he didn't know where students would learn them, because they can't learn from their migrant worker parents. He found this to be an issue, and really struggled to answer my question. He never came up with an answer.

This school (above) was ... an experience. I almost died getting to it, as it is at the top of a hill with a path that is practically vertical and made of loose rocks and unpacked dirt. We sat outside and soaked up some more sun (as if we needed it, we'd been walking/hiking for almost 5 hours) as I interviewed because this school has no inside at all, they sit and learn/teach outside.

They also mentioned how they need a classroom (not shockingly), but what stuck with me most was their response to my question about where students learn health practices if not in school. They said students can't learn about health practices at home/away from school. Ok, but the shocking part was that they didn't talk about it as a problem, just as a fact.

As you can see, I've seen quite a variety of schools. I've learned a lot of information and (starting tomorrow) I am going to have a lot of work to do to sort through everything!

Ok, now quickly on to some other photos and tidbits.

These are some of the children of migrant workers at the anganwadi we went to today. We sat in a room, about 8ftx8ft with approxamately 12 children and 16 adults. Why so jam packed? It was pouring down rain and workers need to seek shelter when it rains because they don't usually have a change of clothes.

The women (the mothers of these children) that Sophie and Mimi did a focus group with were pretty incredible. As compared to the other focus groups I have sat in on, they had a lot of knowledge about both Anemia and HIV/AIDs. I was impressed.

This is one of the allies of a migrant worker area. About 30second after I took the picture, the place was swarming with 20 women coming out to see who we were and to participate in a focus group.

This was the location of another focus group: an abandoned/in progress building. Not all the spaces looked like this though ...

... some looked like this. The floor was finished and they had brought in some mats to sit on. There was also chalk writing on the walls with educational information and inspirational quotes. Health workers and other community workers use this room with migrant workers as a sort of makeshift classroom. These women didn't know much of anything about anemia and knew nothing about HIV/AIDs, not even that it existed.

One of my favorite little drawings on the wall from the space pictured above.

It has been such an amazing yet exhausting week. I feel so lucky to be able to be experiencing all of this. Never again will I have this type of access or resources.

I hope I didn't bore you too much ... its hard to express how exciting and interesting the field work is without actually being here ...

The Next Chapter ~ Shimla!

The view of Shimla from my new home.

    As a part of my program, the last month is spent doing a Independent Study Project (ISP). For the ISP, we have to submit field work proposals, budgets, and itineraries, and after review and approval from the Academic Director, we are sent out into the vast country of India for a month of being independent field workers. We can't call ourselves researchers because of visa limitations ... but we really are conducting research in the field.

    Some people have gone way to the South (Kerala), and some have gone SouthWest (Mumbai, Jaipur, Jamkhed), and some went East (into Uttar Pradesh), but those people are crazy. Its in the 40s there (aka 100 degrees Fahrenheit!) I was smart and sought the cooler weather, and went North ... to Shimla, Himachal Pradesh!

   

    It was quite the journey to get up north. I said goodbye to my host family on a Friday night and thanked them with a long card and yummy cupcakes.

SIDE NOTE: Cupcakes vs India sweets. Indian sweets are very hard to describe to an American. Most of the sweets have different textures - some are liquidy, some are mushy, some are grainy, some are hard, some are soft, ect. - but the thing that ALL Indian sweets have in common is that they are too sweet. As an American, I can't take more than a bite or two before I can't eat anymore. All the sweets taste as though they are made of pure sugar and oil. Indians however, can eat and eat and eat and eat. They love the stuff. My family always made fun of me for not liking/eating the sweets, because they just couldn't understand not liking or craving it. I told them they were probably the same way about American deserts, but they disagreed, "Sometimes we just want some chocolate cake!" Well, when I brought cupcakes home for my last dinner, the entire family was excited and wanted to try each of the flavors. Noel (my family-mate for the time in Delhi) and I inhaled the cake - we were so happy to taste something yummy and familiar. My family however only ate about half of each of their plates. They said that it was yummy, but it was "too rich" and "too sweet." It was so interesting to see a blatant difference between the sweet tooths of the two cultures.

    So, once I said goodnight, and was all packed, Noel and I were hanging out in our room. Now, let me set the scene for you: it was about 85-90 degrees at this point, there were a bazillion flying/biting things everywhere, and our room didn't have AC but did have a fan, which helped with both the heat and bugs.

    At about 11:30pm the power went out. This is not an abnormal occurrence in India, especially when it gets hot, because everyone is trying to use electricity. Normally, the power comes back quickly or the inverter (battery/generator) kicks in. Well, this was no ordinary night. The backup inverter was broken. It was working enough to keep the refrigerator and three small air conditioning units running at the highest temperature, but it couldn't keep the fans on.

    You might be saying, "Claire, whats the big deal? The AC was working!" Well, you'd be wrong. Because the fans weren't working there was nothing to help protect us from the mosquitoes and other flying/biting insects. If I went to the TV room with the AC, I had to create a cave out of a blanket to protect from the bugs, but it wasn't cool enough in the room to allow such a set-up, so I was sweated out of the room. Back in my room, it was big enough / I had sprayed enough bug spray that I could semi-fend off the bugs and lay sprawled out on the bed with ice packs and wet towels. Despite these measures, I slept maybe an hour that night. Oye. Vey.

    Saturday morning, in the dark, I made a quick parantha breakfast and left the house. Mimi (another girl who lived in my neighborhood and was also going to Shimla) and I got into our taxi and were off to the train station. We met up with the third girl of our Shimla party, Sophie, and after they gave their bags to a porter to carry, we loaded onto the train.

    We slept and ate on the train and then arrived in Kalka. We were supposed to then get onto the "Toy Train" which is a tiny train that winds through the hills, but we missed it because our first train was late. We then adventured through the city of Kalka with our bags, looking for the bus station. We found it ... but it looked pretty darn sketchy. We ended up deciding to take a taxi, and after paying about 6USD, we were off on our 3.5 hour journey to Shimla.

Our cab driver navigating at a rip-roaring pace through the Himalayan Hills.
Eye-spy: see the dash? Its a little Hindu shrine complete with marigolds.

    When we arrived in Shimla, we were greeted by porters. Because Sophie and Mimi couldn't easily carry their bags, they immediately opted to have the little men carry their bags to their hostel. I have the mindset that I should always be able to carry my own bag when I'm traveling, especially when alone, so I was hesitant to hire the porter. However, when he said that the my hostel (which will be my home for the next month) was about a 30 minute hike, I opted for the porter. And thank god I did.

     When I say hike I mean hike. We took a few breaks so the porters could catch their breath, and after paying my porter way too much, I was all settled into my new home.

A tiny portion of Shimla.
Eye-spy: See that little orange statue at the top of the mountain on the right? That is at a temple at the top, which is the highest peak in town.

We have settled into Shimla very well and pretty quickly. It has been a little hard getting used to being cold, as that hasn't been a feeling any of us have experienced for months, and its also strange to have zero schedule, but besides that its been great. We even can navigate pretty effortlessly in the main town area.

A sample view as you walk along the Mall. This is the "tourist" area, where Indians and some other white people come to escape the heat. Shimla was actually where the British royalty came in the summers to cool down. Its a beautiful little town
Eye-spy: See those little creatures scurrying across the walk? MONKEYS!!! They are everywhere, and you have to be careful not to make them mad or entice them. They can steal your food, you bags, and even your sunglasses. You just can't make eye contact and try to keep your distance ...

The first Monday we were here was State Founder's Day, so there was a festival in town, and we couldn't start our ISP; so we just enjoyed the festivities and the sunny weather.

The crowd at the main square watching the festival. The tent is for the important government officials.
Eye-spy: See the building to the far left? That is the public library. I have yet to be in it, but it is on the vast list of things to do.

We are technically here to work ...

I am doing my field work on health education in elementary schools.

My view from the Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) where I have been doing my work. Not a bad view from a "desk."

One of the first steps of my field work was to get a letter from the Education Director to give me permission to go into schools to conduct interviews. Yesterday, a worker with the NGO I'm working with escorted me to the Education Board. Today I had to go back by myself to collect it. The Joint Director said the Director would be in by 11am, and I could collect it then.

The view on my walk to the Education Board.

Some of the Education buildings. They are far down the hill; some of the paths are at about 50degree angles.
Shimla = lots of hills.
The Education Board where I went was a little to the left (and farther down) then what this picture shows.

    I got there on Indian time (so I arrived around 11:30am). The director hadn't arrived yet, so I sat with the Joint Director. We chatted about America, and the bombings, and education, and he introduced me to all of the people that came into his office. Some of the people I was introduced to may end up helping me with my field work; making connections in India is super easy because everyone is so friendly and willing to help.

    While I waited we had a cup of chai. And as I waited longer, we had another cup of chai. At 1:45pm the director came to the office. The Joint Director mentioned something about him being at a meeting somewhere else, but he didn't sound very convincing. By 2pm I had my signed and stamped official letter and was outta there! Everything takes a long time in India, but the over two hour wait was actually pretty enjoyable.

    Its nice to have the first of a million steps complete. I now feel like my ISP is finally real!

Holi ~ Festival of Colors

Last week was Holi, the festival of colors. This is the holiday from all of the Indian pictures you've ever seen with people throwing colored power and "paint" and are literally drenched in color!

We got two days off school, for Choti Holi (little Holi) and Holi. We got days off because "playing Holi" is serious business here in India and people can get pretty crazy: getting drunk, getting high, throwing eggs, throwing oil, throwing beer, throwing water mixed with urine.

Luckily, I played with my neighborhood and with my family, so there was no "dirty" playing.

The story of Holi is too long to put here, but you can find it at this link: The Story of Holi. Part of the tale is about a fire, so on Choti Holi, there was a little event with a bonfire in the neighborhood to start off the holiday.

We (as a family) brought things to throw in the fire / roast as part of the ritual.

Mom with the plate of our nuts and raisins and holy water to put in the fire.
Eye spy: See the little half moon pastry thing? It is this yummy, yet too sweet sweet, that has a  sugar syrup and nuts.

My brother Siddarth holding the bundle of wheat (that Mom grew in a pot on the roof)  to put in the fire.
Eye spy: Notice the color of his hands? Sid played Choti Holi that morning with some friends. Because they played so hard, his hands were already stained with color before the real Holi started.

The next day was Holi, and it was time to play! We had two stages to our Holi celebration. The first was playing and dancing in the park with the neighborhood, and the second stage two was driving about an hour into Faridabad to go to a family member's house. It is traditional here to play Holi at the house of a new female-in-law's house for the first Holi of her marriage. This Holi was the first one for my cousin and his wife, so we went there to play.

Playing at the park was pretty innocent. There were just powders being thrown and a few little cans of spray color. However, when we played at my family's house, we added water into the mix. I was absolutely drenched in color! It was everywhere. There were water balloons and color filled water gallons, and bags of color powder mixed with water and squirt guns, and cups for water.

I didn't bring my camera to the second stage because I knew I'd be too colorful to be able to touch my camera. However, below are the before and middle-stage-after shots.

                   

To visualize the true "after" state, just picture this color but 1000 times more! My face was caked with layers of green and purple and red and pink; my hair had so much red power in it that when I took a shower it was a waterfall of pink water for five minutes; my white salwar pants were pink at the end (and risqué see throughish because of the water); I had black and pink stains on my back from the color that drenched through my (now destroyed) kurta.

It was a blast! If you get to come to India in the spring, make sure to celebrate Holi!!!

The most amazing NGO. Ever.

This past week I went to Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. While there, I was in what SIT calls "workshop" where I got to know an NGO on a deeper level by spending an entire week investigating and researching their practices. The research included conducting interviews, getting debriefs from unit directors and also observation.

The 27 people in my program were (for the first time) split between four different workshops. Everyone was able to attend their first choice workshop and I chose to go to Varanasi and research the Kiran Center; the most amazing NGO ever.

To explain the NGO in a nutshell ... Kiran is an empowerment program for the differently abled and underprivileged. Kiran educates, rehabilitates, and trains "young" people and their parents to increase their quality of life and their integration into society.

The website doesn't do this organization justice, but you can check it out at http://kiranvillage.org

Because you can't get a great picture of the awesomeness of Kiran from the website, I am going to try to relay a portion of the vast amounts of information that I gathered this past week. Because Kiran is just too cool, I don't think this is going to be a short post ... just consider yourself warned.

All Kiran buses are maintained by the automotive unit.

They are cleaned twice a day and all mechanical fixing

takes place within the NGO by the vocational

trainees/teachers.

To start off each day, we (the four other girls and an SIT staff member - who is actually from Varanasi - and I) boarded Kiran buses in town to take us the 45minutes to the Kiran Village. Along the way we picked up countless students and everyone crowded in. There were three buses for students and one for teachers. Each bus for students had a driver and a male aid. If when picking up a child from their "stop" s/he was physically handicapped (60% of the students at Kiran are disabled in some way, and the majority have physical impairments), the aid would elegantly whisk the child from the street, up the steep stairs of the bus, and put them into a seat. In the US, these children would be on "the short bus" with seat belts or restraints; in India, these children were squished on to normal school bus seats and were perfectly fine and happy.

One of the other girls (Miyena) and I rode a bus together one morning. The kids were super fun (as you can see by her face) and we loved interacting in Hinglish.

I couldn't resist putting this cutie on here.
There were so many adorable children!

When we arrived at Kiran each morning, there was an enormous "welcoming" squad of teachers, aids, and students to help all the kids off the bus and into their wheelchairs, walkers or off and running to morning "prayers".

"Prayers" were less religious and more spiritual. They had some quite meditation, some food for thought by famous people (e.g. Gandhiji) and the school moto. This was student led and everyone at the school attended.

There are five main departments of the Kiran Village which I visited during the week: Integrated Education, Special Education, Vocation and Skills Training, Rehabilitation, and Human Resource Training Center.

The doorway into the Lower Kindergarden classroom.
Eye-spy: extremely motivated and studious girl in the
back in a special seat made (on site) for her condition.

Kiran's philosophy is that students of all abilities should learn together - integrated education. There are two main units within the education department, Integrated Education and Special Education. In Integrated Education, all of the "normal" students (which must be below the poverty line) are taught with "differently abled" students. Most of the "different" students have physical impairments. All students are placed based off of skill and not on age. However, there are no 13 year olds in the first grade; most students are within a year of a typical school/grade age. Right now the school only educates up to 7th standard, but plans to increase to 8th next year. After 8th standard, the goal is to have students capable of attending further education outside of the NGO.

The special education department consists of five sections: Academic, Functional Juniors, Functional Seniors, Self Care, and Hearing Impaired.
In the Academic section, special needs students learn academic information at a slower pace and with special needs based methods. In the Functional Junior/Senior (groupings based on age) students learn some academic information but skills are also concentrated on personal skills and social skills. The Self Care section (which serves the most sever cases) teaches personal skills like going to the bathroom, brushing ones own teeth, or feeding oneself.
The Hearing Impaired section has two levels, and trains students to lipread Hindi. The students have their own style of sign language that they all use to communicate with each other and with staff (if the staff lets them use it), but because the goal of Kiran is to train students to integrate and succeed in society, they learn how to lip read and speak (there is an onsite speech therapist along with the teachers).

The methods that Kiran uses are wonderful. I was able to observe four different levels and saw discussions, songs, activities, one on one help, and a simulation.

Physically challenged women in the Art and Design unit
paining a silk scarf which was designed by a MR artist.

The Vocation and Skills Training department has ten sections: Woodworking and IQ Toys, Horticulture, Tailoring, Orthotics, Physiotherapy, Art and Design, Saksham Grihini (capable housewife), Food Preservation, Bakery, and finally Learn and Earn. Participants of the department are 16-30 years old and have varying degrees of mental and physical ability.

It would take forever to go into detail here about each program, but in general: each program has between 1-3 years of training and some  also have an internship for a year after training. The goals of the Training department are to integrate people of different abilities into society and also be able to contribute to society. Once a trainee graduates, they are qualified to take out an interest free micro loan from Kiran to start their own business.
The different units of the Training department all create different products which are sold in the Kiran Center in town (and online). Everything made in the units are made or designed by someone of differing abilities.
Also, Kiran is amazingly sustainable. For example, the basic weaving that the MR (mentally retarded) students make in the Learn and Earn unit, are then used as a fabric for the Art and Design unit to make purses.

The fourth department, Rehabilitation, has eight different units: Orthotic Workshop, Outreach Service,  Mother's Training, Physiotherapy, Parent and Child Care Unit, Community Based Rehabilitation, Dispensary, and Hostel for Outreach.
I won't go into much detail on each of these but I do want to highlight three of them briefly.

As I mentioned above, the majority of students (and many staff members) have physical impairments. To be maximally functional, different "appliances" are needed. Because they are needed, Kiran has a workshop on site that addresses this need and provides them free of charge for everyone. At the workshop (which is staffed by professionals and Kiran trained persons) they make custom orthoses, custom protheses, custom spinal braces and jackets, hand splints, custom gaiters, shoe modifications, wheelchair repairs and modifications, and also repair any other appliances.

The main room (of two) for the Orthotic Workshop.

The second unit I want to touch on is the Physiotherapy Unit. Each student in the school (total of 240) that have a physical impairment, receive physical therapy. Depending on their need and their potential to improve, each child is given an individualized therapy schedule. There are trained and licensed physical therapists, occupational therapists and also trained assistants. One assistant in particular is deaf, and she was a student at the school and went through training with the Vocation and Skills Training department and now works with physically handicapped students.

The main Physiotherapy room. There are also other facilities: a therapeutic playground, a trampoline, a horse for therapy, and a therapeutic pool.

A third unit of the Rehabilitation Unit is the Parent and Child Care Unit (PCCU). Here there is a team of a special educator, occupational therapist, speech therapist, phycologist, and neurologist.  Each day, parents from the village and community bring in their disabled child (up to 25 years old) to the Kiran campus and the team assesses each child. They work on home-therapy plans, medical plans, and possible enrollment in the Education Department or the Vocation and Skills Training department.

The fifth and final department is the Human Resource Training Center (HRTC). One of the main themes that we noticed from all of our interviews with department heads and Sister Sangeeta (the Swiss nun who founded Kiran) was that Kiran's focus is on quality and not quantity - and after 20 years, they have now stopped expanding and only want to make their services as wonderful as possible. Because they aren't going to expand themselves, they decided to have some way to create expansion. That is what the HRTC is for. The HRTC hosts a college accredited program to train people to become special educators. The program is two years long, only accepts 25 people a year and preferences handicapped and poor applicants.

Wow, that was a lot of info, yet I feel like I only got to scratch the surface with this post.

I would like to add one last thing. A plug.
As you can imagine, running all of these programs plus so many other aspects that I didn't have room to mention (like daily lunches for all 400something members of campus, or hostel units) all requires money. I would never ordinarily ask people to give money to anything. However, I feel like I have to make an exception. If this post has intrigued you at all, please look into Kiran more on their website, ask me questions, and if you can, donate to this AMAZING NGO!

The City of Varanasi

First Impressions:

• pungent smell
• hot
• tons of flies
• very different than the India I have experienced thus far.

Although those adjectives could be considered negative, I really don't mean them to be. For the oldest city on earth, she isn't doin' too horribly I suppose. The people are very nice, I can find chocolate, and the tourists are differently obnoxious than in other parts of India.

However, there is literally trash everywhere; there is so much pollution that it can be hard to breathe; and the city itself doesn't feel as spiritual as you'd think it would be or have heard it is.

This is an example of the trash/animal life on the streets here. Eye-spy: 4  scrawny chickens

That is not to say that the city isn't cool to walk around and see. Above is a pic of a fruit and veggie stand. Like the rest of India, there are people selling all sorts of things on the streets.

When you're in Varanasi, you can't not walk along the Ganges.

It is said that if anything were to be constructed on the other bank of the river, the city would no longer be holy. So, everything is crowded onto the one bank.

We went to the Ganga Aarti the first night, which was a very "I'm visiting Varanasi" thing to do. It was entertaining, but because one of the girls I was with was having a hard time breathing with all of the pollution and incense, we decided to leave after about 30 minutes.

All in all? This is a fine city. I don't think it is wonderful, but I'm glad I'm getting to see it.

Side note: Despite the "sight-seeing" quality to this post, I really am here to conduct research and observations on an (AMAZING) NGO called Kiran. More on that later ...