Project trip to Orissa

I want to share a little bit about my recent project trip down south to Orissa. We did a double header, school/orphanage/vocational training center (VCD), and a English medium school in a rural village. We had a great time learning how the local people are working in their community and hearing their heart to serve those in need.

I won't mention much about the English medium school, besides the fact that they're doing an awesome job providing education for so many people (especially girls) who otherwise might not be going to school at all, and things were a bit odd because we were in total lock-down (we weren't allowed to cross the road to visit their land without an escort).

So, I'd like to share about VCD. We went down to VCD mainly because of an influx of children coming to their school/ orphanage in response to the riots, which took place in 2008. To oversimplify things, last year, riots broke out, and many Christians faced persecution (violence, burning houses, etc.). As a result of these things, many kids in the area were left without homes, and sometimes even orphaned. VCD had a small school running, but when riots broke out last year, the leaders felt compelled to take in many children. As a result, there are about 70 kids sleeping in converted animal sheds and meeting in one classroom. VCD's was blessed enough to have sizable land, so we went out there to consult, plan, and design facilities for their current and future needs.

Every morning, we would get to the school, and all the kids would get up and say "good morning mam, good morning sir." It was cute and an exciting way to start the day of working for VCD and their children. One of the leaders of VCD was sharing his thoughts on how children aren't just the leaders of tomorrow, but rather they are leading and teaching today. I've never thought about children this way, but after watching the kids for a week, I agree. They go about their chores so diligently, they hardly ever complain, and the way they interact with one another can't be explained in any other word but love. When new students come, the little kids (3-11 years old) voluntarily contribute to the needs of the new student, i.e. give one of their pencils, t-shirts, etc. Wow...

On to some pictures:


The classroom where too many kids are squeezed into.


Where some of the kids sleep.


Bill, our Australian volunteer, discussing our design with some of the kids.


Also, it was Bill's birthday during our week there, so all the kids put on a program for him. Bill was overwhelmed to say the least. Every child gave him a hug and kissed his cheeks, something pleasantly unique in this culture.


Kids milking the cow. We had fresh dahi everyday (yogurt-ish curd), mmmmm


We rapped things up on Saturday so that we could put on a game day for the kids on Sunday. It was awesome. We shared some bible stories with the kids, and then the games began...


water carrying relay,


the over-under race, and...


...our grand finale, our homemade slip'n slide!


Also, since last month, 4 new interns have come, and it's been lots of fun hanging out with them (though I do miss the other guys). One of them made a really cool caricature page for our upcoming newsletter:

random pic of someone's dinner:


I'm off to Thailand for in hopes of a new visa. For those praying type, please pray that India doesn't reject me!

My trip up north to a different kind of India

So this was a while back, but after dropping off the interns at Delhi airport, I went on a 3 week journey to the northern most state of Jammu & Kashmir. My butt was sore from riding on buses for 6 full days on roads that were scary, steep, bumpy, and plainly ridiculous, but all the hassle and pain was well worth it because I really enjoyed my time up there. Basically, a large portion of the state is disputed between India, China, and Pakistan, so there's a real strong army presence there (they say that almost 70% of the Indian army is up there), and so depending on which map you're looking at (a Pakistani, American, Indian, etc.) the northern border of India is drawn quite differently. What I really enjoyed about being there was the relaxed pace of life, the (relatively) low amount of touts, and some of the most amazing scenery on the word.

The western part of the state is almost all Muslim, and the eastern part is almost all Tibetan (granted, in practice, both have hints of Hinduism mixed ). The western part that I was in is a huge fertile, super green valley called Kashmir. I didn't spend too much time there because I'm hoping to go back there with my brother to go skiing right before I head back to the states. So, I spent the bulk of my time in the eastern region of Ladakh. Some call it a lunar landscape. Anyways, on to the pics, enjoy!


After taking an overnight train to Jammu, I went straight for a 12 hour "jeep" ride to Srinagar, I headed straight to my houseboat/hotel. The British built lots of houseboats in the area because they weren't allowed to buy and build on land. Since the Brits are gone, they've all been converted to houses and hotels.


This is where my bro and I are hoping to go skiing, supposedly some of the best (but cheapest) snow in the word. Here's a pic of the ridge we're hoping to ski. I went to go scout things out. Lots of really nice high end hotels...


...but luckily, I was able to find a cheap place to crash for a night. It was maybe the dirtiest place I've ever stayed in, (what's up with the dirty bathroom with a no toilet seat? is that a bat or a rat in ceiling above me?). It's funny to think of how standard of cleanliness has come down...


Next, I headed out towards Leh. It took 2 full days on the bus, but the scenery was crazy awesome. We went from a super green fertile valley to rocky, dry, and ridiculously steep mountains.


Our "Super Deluxe" bus got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, but at least there was room to pull off on the side of the road.


When we got closer to Leh, the capital of Ladakh, the scenery became this acute contrast between the rocky and desert-like landscape (feels like you're on the moon) and the lush green valleys wherever streams were flowing.


And finally, we got to Leh, "little Tibet". It's hard to see, but at the base of one of the mountains to the left, there's a golf course, which has dirt fairways, rocky roughs, and greens that are covered with oil to make a nice putting surface.


EMI did a project in Leh a couple years ago, so I called up the contact, and within a couple hours, the guy convinced me that I should go with a small team to some villages to help with their medical clinics. This is the first village we visited. We kinda had to go off-roading in a bus to get there, that was interesting.


Here's one of the us giving out worm medicine. Kids are so cute everywhere I go. Here, some looked Chinese-ish, others Thai-ish, but all are one of the billion Indians.


My friend Kapil with a yak's skull. For some reason, they were everywhere.


One of our campsites was in an apricot orchard. One of the guys and I decided to do a little hiking, and we ended up on top of this plateau where this woman was pitting and drying apricots, yummm.


We threw a small birthday party for one of the guys at this cafe that's owned by the local church. They had awesome lattes, cookies, cake, etc., it was like being back home in the US for the couple minutes while drinking coffee.


Probably my favorite and most memorable touristy thing I've ever done was renting a bike and going along the Indus Valley to visit various monasteries and villages. I've wanted to ride a motorcycle for such a long time, and where better than one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to (plus the bikes here are like glorified bicycles; at a slight uphill at about 13,000 ft, mine didn't go above 30mph). Here's a view of Thiske Monastary.


A view back toward the Indus valley.


I also got a chance to visit this really nice school (apparently financed by Richard Geer, whose Buddhist). For those interested in architecture, a lot of care was put into passive heating/cooling and sustainability, which was designed by Arup. It was really interesting to see a lot of things that I learned in school put into practice. Incidentally, one of the schools I designed was based off this one.


It took another 3 days of bus riding to get home. The road was so beat up and bouncy that my butt was sore for a week, but it was all worth it.

The road leading up to one of the highest motorable roads in the world.


17,582 ft.!


Road? Who needs a road when there's a flat valley?


One of our tea/ bathroom stops. Lots of little tents that serve as restaurants and hotels. I can't imagine what life would be like living and working in one of these tents that are in the middle of nowhere.


Melting glacier


Random picture of the 10 lbs of CHEESE I bought on the way back. Some European taught this Indian guy how to make real cheese! mmmm. Little things like this really excite me while living in a different culture.


That's it for today. I just got back from 3 weeks in the state of Orissa for a couple project trips to help with a design of a vocational training center, children's home, and a school out in a little village. I'll be sure to post about it soon, thanks for reading!

How I spent my 4th of July

I realize that this is kind of late, but I wanted to share about how I celebrated Independence Day by visiting Amritsar and the border of Pakistan. We all wanted to go see the Golden Temple (the most holy place for Sikhs - the guys that wear turbans and don't cut their hair).


We took an overnight train and arrived early in the morning. This is a typical street in Amritsar. It's pretty similar to the rest of India, noises, stray dogs, dirtiness, but, since it's the Sikh capital, there were less roaming cows, and I think the people there are generally larger (Sikhs are known to be strong fighters because of the struggles they've faced).


Here's a view of the Golden Temple complex, millions come on their yatra (pilgrimage)


Here's a close up of the temple. The temple has been attacked by the British and the Indian army, but they've done a really good job of restoring everything and keeping everything clean, unlike the Hindu holy places I've visited.

After seeing the temple, we went to a museum, and afterward, headed to the movie theater to watch a Bollywood film. It was all in Hindi, but I think we understood what was going on, and it was nice to get away from the heat. Indians really love their Bollywood. Personally, I think a lot of their stuff is over the top (random dancing and singing every 10 minutes), but the movie we watched was alright.

Here we are, posing with random people. Foreingers are mini celebraties (kind of awkward....). And as always, the Indians don't smile or show their teeth in pictures.

What we were forward to the most was visiting the Pakistan-India border. Everyday before sunset, the border potrolmen on each side put on a little "border closing show". Since hardly anyone uses the border post, might as well make some use of it, right?


On the Indian side, there was a huge crowd. Luckily, we foreigners got to sit in the VIP section, which was not nearly as crowded as the Indian section.


Here's a look at the Pakistani side. Less people, more tame, but from what I could tell, thier appeance and clothing was pretty much the same as the Indian side...


...but, I'm guessing they don't know how to have fun like the Indians do. And of course there has to be some music and dancing.


They were also taking turns running the flag to and back from the border gate.


Here's a border patrol/ policeman in his funny looking costume. They put on a pretty good show, though.


And afterwards, thousands of people tried to leave at once, the Indian way. India's definitely lessened my homophobia (two guys holding hands or locking pinkies are normal...), but I still don't like having several men press their sweaty bodies against me in an attempt to get out 10 seconds faster.

Since we were away on July 4th, we decided to celebrated on the 5th. We grilled some MEAT and fired off some fireworks (more like mini bombs). Altogether, it was a fun weekend, but I did miss the nice American fireworks, red meat, family, and friends...

Finally updating

It's been a while since I've updated, I've been away for 6 of the last 8 weeks, and after spending over 250 hours in cars, trains, airplanes, buses, luxury buses, minibuses, microbuses, autorickshaws, taxis, motorcycles, and bicycles, it's good to be back in my familiar home away from home. The first half of my travel was for EMI, and the second half was a summer vacation. Since there's so much stuff I want to share, I'll start off posting about my EMI stuff.

First, I went to Nepal to get a new Indian visa. Although Americans can get up to 10 year tourist visas, I can only get 6 months, so it was a good excuse to go to Nepal and see Kathmandu and Pokhara while waiting for my visa to get approved. (unfortunately, I only got a 4 month visa, which means I'll have to go somewhere else (Sri Lanka?) in October...).


I went with my buddy Edwin. We first went to Delhi to catch a flight to Kathmandu.


Landing in Kathmandu. It's in a big fertile valley, with lots of people, construction, pollution, noise, etc.

After going to the Indian Embassy at the whee hours of the morning, I had one week until I was supposed to return to pick up my passport, so we did a lot of sightseeing.



The people in Nepal look like a hybrid of Indian, Chinese, and South-East Asian, the food was a mixture of them all, people's dress was equally diverse, and the religion was a sort of mix, too. Here's the "Monkey" temple. It's a big Buddhist stupa flanked by statues of some popular Hindu gods.


One thing I really liked about Nepal was its cleanliness (relatively speaking). Here's another stupa, but the buildings and street around it wouldn't look out of place in Holland.


There were lots of these old open water collection ponds. I wouldn't let my kids swim in there... but this does seem cleaner than the brown water that was coming out of our tap at our hostel (I guess you get what you paid for. Our place was about $4-5 a night for both of us, so I can't complain)


But overall, water's scarce. People were always lining up to get water from these strange pits that had dragon fountain/taps.



Here's a bunch of people pushing, shoving, and fighting to get water from the water truck.

One thing I've learned is how precious water is. It's not just Nepal, but almost the entire Indian subcontinent. I'm pretty sure one of my typical long morning showers in the US would equal to about all the water I use here in two weeks.


Kathmandu used to be a bunch of little kingdoms, so there are lots of little palace complexes, many of which have been turned into little markets.


This one's a vegetable market by day and filled with street food vendors at night. Mmmm I loved the street food in Kathmandu (dumplings, skewers of MEAT).

We were told that we have to go to Pokhara, which is at the foot of the Annapurna range, and a starting point for the most popular trekking routes of Nepal. On the way there, we decided to take the local night bus. It wasn't too bad, but it was strange: the front half of the bus had people, the rooftop had lots of plants, and the back half was filled with chickens (thankfully in nice little boxes).


When we got off the bus, I was shocked to see this. It was so strange because it was really hot in the town, but the snow capped mountains seemed so big and close, you could almost touch them. Pokhara's at about 2,500 feet, the highest peak we could see was over 25,000! (the 10th highest in the world).


One day, we got up really early (4 am) to see the sun rise over the range. It was kinda hazy, but it was well worth it. On a side note, all of India and Nepal are on one time zone, so the sun rose very early where we were. We kinda freaked out on our first night in Kathmandu.


Here we are taking the bus back to Kathmandu. There was some kind of strike/demonstration the day before we left (still common in Nepal, I saw protesters burning tires on my way to the embassy), and so our bus was packed, and we got to sit in the driver's cabin. If anyone offers you a seat in the driver's cabin, just say no, unless your butt fits comfortably on the lightly padded 6" deep bench.


On our last full day in Nepal, we decided to go to Bhaktipur, which is supposed to be the best kept medieval Nepali town. It was a really nice place. Clean, no honking horns, and speeding motorcycles (it's a pedestrian town), and the architecture of the entire town was well preserved, unlike most other areas. Some German firm donated millions to restore and maintain the town.

On to some random pics:

NPOs and NGOs have a strong presence in Nepal (they're the ones with the nice cars). This UN Land Cruiser's looked cool with its huge antennas and snorkel.


We also went to the Mountaineering Museum. I don't think we were allowed to take pics but had to get a pic of the Yeti (their version of the Abdominal Snowman).


One of my favorite things about traveling is getting to fellowship and worship at other churches. Through the church the Edwin goes to, we were introduced this small house church. The whole service was done in the pastor's living room and was in Nepali, but it was awesome to spend time with them. (I think people in Nepal speak better English than the parts of India I've been to)


Here we are eating a nice Nepali thali (assortment of little dishes) with a Nepali couple that's hoping to join an EMI project in the future.

After my visa run/vacation in Nepal, we flew back to Delhi, met with some people we knew there, and then headed to Haridwar to meet up with another EMIer to head off to our projects. Edwin was supposed to join us, but he got sick, so he went back to Mussoorie (he looked like a skeleton, stupid stomach), so it was just two of us heading down to Orissa on a 36 hour train ride right after a 10 hour ride to Haridwar... and then it happened. The worst migraine headache I've ever had on a 36 hour train ride filled with crying babies, annoying kids, bright lights, lots of noises, and lots of bouncing around... It's strange, that was the first time in my life really got homesick (I just wanted my quite soft bed, my momma's cooking, and the familiarity of my family, friends, and house), and it was the first time I really started to hate some things about India. I think it's an unavoidable part of adjusting to a new culture, but it hit me so suddenly. I loved (almost) everything about India up until that point, but suddenly, I started thinking "Make that baby shut up. Why don't Indians discipline their rowdy children? Why do Indians smell different? Why are they so loud and obnoxious? Why are they so inconsiderate? Why..." What really sucked was that we were down in Orissa to meet with this new ministry we'll be working with, but I was drugged up and lying in pain the whole time we were there.

I slowly began to recover, and by the time we went to our next destination, I was kind of functional. It was a hospital sight where God's doing some amazing work. I can't go too much into details, but people are being treated, educated,
trained, and discipled all at the same place. Lives are being given hope mentally, physically, and spiritually! After staying there a little bit, I hopped on a 24 hour train to head back to Mussoorie. It's not exactly the US, but it was so nice to be somewhere familiar after all the traveling and stuff.

So, this is part 1 of my travels, I'll be updating soon about my other adventures soon (including my time in Leh, my new favorite place in India).