New Zealand is so green. So beautiful. So perfect. I can’t help but run out into nature everyday and throw my arms in the air, thank God for such a beautiful masterpiece, and spend the day with this permanent ridiculous smile on my face! I mean I’ve started hugging trees for goodness sake (see the craziness below)…this is getting a bit out of control! This must be what happens to those who turn silly. Or, those who find the world as a continuous source of dazzlement. 

 We’ll go with the latter.

There is so much to do, and so much to see. Yep this is New Zealand! I arrived a little over a week ago and have been moving ever since my feet hit kiwi soil. Definitely a change of pace for me to be moving every couple of days. Even though I have been on the road for quite some time now, I have been more accustomed to calling a place home for a couple of months rather than hitting the road every couple of days. Trying to do New Zealand, both the north and south island in 4 weeks is pretty hopeful. I will be able to do many of the major areas but will still leave many countryside hills to be discovered when I return. I think one could spend years in NZ and still find things to do – it’s only about the size of Colorado but like CO it has endless outdoor activities!

Here are a couple of cool random facts about New Zealand:

• Wellington, the capital of NZ is the southern most capital city in the world
• There are 14 National Parks in New Zealand and 3 World Heritage Sites
• New Zealand has a strong hold on the international trade in sheep meat. There are presently around 9 sheep to every 1 human in New Zealand – Haha I thought this one was funny.
• Lake Taupo (where I am writing this from) was the source of the largest known eruption in the world in the last 70 thousand years. It had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8. It released over 530 cubit kilometers of magma. This is also New Zealand’s largest lake.
• Sir Edmund Hillary – the first man to reach the peak of Mount Everest was a New Zealander
• New Zealand is the youngest country in the world.
• New Zealander and Nobel Prize Winner, Ernest Rutherford is known as the father of nuclear physics for his orbital theory of the atom.

Actually, many parts of the countryside in New Zealand remind me of Texas. Everyone is so nice, hospitable, the area beautiful, and the accent so strong I find myself saying, “is that English?”

I am headed to Wellington, the capital city tomorrow, and then taking the ferry over to the South Island. Most people say the South Island is so stunning that it literally may take your breath away. Between the Southern Alps, the famous Milford Sound and Fiordland National Park, the west coast glaciers of Fox and Franz Joseph, Mt. Cook (NZ’s highest mountain), and the numerous micro breweries, vineyards, and nature walks I may just not sleep for the next three weeks.

So this is New Zealand, the last stop on my Around The World Journey. For pictures from the first week of my trip, visit this album.

“In this nasty, over-crowded and polluted world, New Zealand is as near to a people’s paradise as fallible humanity is likely to get.” – Austin Mitchell

Strokes of a steady hand. Widya's apprentice using a chenteng, a traditional bamboo contraption to carefully place the wax

I awaken softly to the sound of nature and the bustling movement of my Balinese family, and I take a moment to cherish the beauty of being in a new place. Last night’s motorbike ride through the windy roads into the countryside as the rain came down lingers like a cloud floating sweetly in my dreams. I gaze out the window to see the ladies preparing the morning’s delight as I prepared to be welcomed into an artist’s creative space. I feel humbled knowing that his space itself is a breath of art. 

 I experienced creative design and strokes of a culture’s walk through life with Widya, a well known Batik artist and teacher here in Ubud. My Batik class took place at his family’s compound where he and his family spend their days designing, waxing, and painting.

Batik is traditional cloth that is made using a manual wax resisting dyeing technique. Batik is a tedious process that takes great skill and patience. First, a design is drawn onto your cloth piece rather it be cotton, rayon, or silk. After the design is prepared, one must carefully use a chenteng to trace over all the intricate details with wax. Holding it steady and at a complete 45 degree angle not to let the boiling wax spill over the handle’s edge. After the design and the waxing, a type of water color is used to paint and create your masterpiece. It becomes tricky as the color of the paints before the processing is not the true color. You only see the true shades after  3-steps of processing after your piece is dry. Each color manipulation is another processing stage creating an art of displaying the color an art all in itself.

For Indonesians, Batik also has notable meanings rooted to the universe in many of the traditional designs. UNESCO designated Indonesian Batik as a masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on October 2nd, 2009.  This encourages local communities to protect the local people who sustain these forms of cultural expressions. As a part of these acknowledgements, UNESCO insisted that Indonesia preserve their heritage.

 These are thoughts that were written in my journal on my time in an artist’s den. Or in this case, a bamboo open air studio.

Widya and his strokes of beauty

Carefully Waxing and Coloring the Design

Designing my first traditional Batik piece with Widya

Practicing the waxing technique. A steady hand is not so easy....

A design in progress...

Stirring my cloth in boiling water

Explaining the process of the boiling water and the melting away of wax

The finished design

Recently I was so profoundly touched by a friend sending me a word of encouragement.

“You have affected people throughout the world like a ripple in a pond following a skipping  rock”

Such an amazing thing to read when mostly I feel like I am like a rolling stone constantly managing the change of the river’s tide. I share this only because it also reminded me how sweet words and moments of encouragement can lift a person up and keep them going. A reminder to myself to always make time to give words of encouragement, and hopefully an inspiration to those reading to remember to spread words of love today.

I have safely arrived on Bali, an Indonesian Island that is almost always called a tropical paradise. Many think of Bali, and think of mainstream tourism, but with its rich history, culture, traditions, and traditional arts, I know it is so much more than that for anyone willing to get off the paved road. AND since I am not one to typically travel the crowded pathways, I am excited to learn about this amazing island that is imbued with spiritual significance.

As a US citizen, I can only  be in Indonesia for 30 days. So, for some that have been asking, I am not focusing on a volunteer project here. Instead, I will be using time to continue reflection from my time in India and to rejuvenate my body (literally)! Bali, is a haven for mingling western and eastern medicinal practices, and I plan to give my body a full detox through fasting and traditional ayurvedic practices which is a holistic approach to health. I will also soon be heading to the Gili Islands for some peace, serenity, and mind wellness. These are three islands grouped together off the coast of Indonesia, and the best part about them is there are NO CARS! I’m certain I heard beeping and honking in my dreams in India it was so crazy so this will be a very very nice change! Once I have taken some time for my health, I will direct my focus to meeting with several local non-profit organizations here in Bali that work with children and education initiatives as a part of my research. One school that should be very exciting is my upcoming visit with Bali’s recognized, Green School. They focus on a holistic and green approach to education in possibly the most amazing environment in the world – THEY HAVE SCHOOL IN TREE HOUSES AND BAMBOO HUTS  IN THE MIDDLE OF THE JUNGLE!

If I don’t come back, this may be where you will find me!

Bali is one country away from the end of my journey. It is an island that I had been dreaming of for quite some time, and it was so incredibly refreshing to drive from the airport without piles of trash everywhere, pollution, blaring music and excessive beeping horns.

Climbing the bamboo stairs to my traditional Balinese room nestled next to a water garden and huge palm leaves, I let out a sigh and welcomed peaceful simplicity.

A LITTLE TOUR OF MY FIRST LITTLE HIDEAWAY IN BALI

The Garden Near Where We Have Tea and Breakfast

My little bungalow - I'm on the top!

The Balcony Overlooking The Palm Trees

The Outdoor Library

Steps Through The Water Garden

The View From My Window

I can hardly believe it, but this Sunday I will be jumping on a plane and saying goodbye to India. 

For now. 

This past week I had decided that I needed some time for solitude, for reflection, for meditation, and for nature before leaving this place I’ve called home since January. I needed to leave roads of crowded buses blaring the latest Bollywood tunes, rickshaws hurtling along the roads, cows grazing in trash bins, and constant beeping of horns and take time to just be in silence and to be with my thoughts. 

I took myself north of where I had been living. Those who know me well, know I took my exhausted body to the calmness of the water. I have been nestled in a small bamboo hut hidden in a field of coconut trees footsteps away from the beach where I spent much needed time practicing yoga, meditating, reading, and studying. An attempt to use my body as a tool to align my heart and thoughts, and to still my mind of disturbances. I once read it so plainly advised, “stop tinkering with your soul and look away to the perfect One.” So this is what I did.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” – Romans 12:2

“Peace in the body brings poise to the mind.” – BKS Iyengar

This may sound drastic to some, but since I have arrived in India, I feel like I have been going non-stop without many sufficient spurts of time to completely devote to my feelings and thoughts on my experiences here. I would be so exhausted (mentally, spiritually, and physically) at the end of my days I would just collapse not having any more energy to give. 

After each country I do work in, it is so very important to me to really process what I have learned. The point of this journey is not to merely travel the world, visit new countries, and to have fun. It is to gain a level of understanding about the hardships, the cultures, and the people. It’s about gaining an understanding that one cannot possibly have without actually standing on the same soil. An understanding I could not have without becoming a part of lives, hearing stories, or holding them in my arms.

“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” ~Lillian Smith

With India being a huge country full of complexity and contradictions wrought by extreme poverty it is more important than ever to process. India is so baffling to me. You have an elite group of a few million that are educated and sophisticated (after all India is home of many great scientist and technologist) surrounded by hundreds of million of primitive people. In the streets every day I pass hoards of homeless people, children begging, and people living in makeshift homes of stick on the side of the road. Trash is everywhere, over half of the population is illiterate, girls are married at a young age and almost always arranged even the girls from higher class societies.  I read that a baby is born every 1.2 seconds in India and that it’s population is growing at an annual rate of 3 percent making it be on its way to becoming the most populated country in the world by 2050. Already India is one of the world’s poorest nations – over half the population is in a state of poverty. Many of the children being born are girls. Girls are not valued and their education is not priority. Therefore, you have a population of girls being born and not becoming educated that will only add to the challenge of ending extreme poverty and oppression in India. People also accept their place in life because of their belief in Karma. If they have a bad situation in this life it is because perhaps they did something to deserve it in a past life. Ultimately the belief that your situation is your karma and  must be accepted. This is just a very small explosion of what I have learned from studying, being a part of the community, working with the women in Life Skills, Teaching in the Pre-School, and building relationships at the stitching center. 

If I do not take time to process and reflect, I lose my ability to be able to help adequately respond. I can’t just have the experience. I must pay attention. I must find meaning. I must be a part of solutions. At the very beginning of this journey I wrote in my journal that I’m not going to “help and save” but rather I am going as a “learner”. My goal was and still is to observe, learn, and serve in order to help others.

“Learning how to think means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to, and to choose how you can construct meaning from experience” – David Foster Wallace

As my time is dwindling down here on the road, I find it necessary to remind myself about the importance of reflection, meditation, processing, and praying. Learning can be a rigorous task, and without including these vital aspects it’s easy to become lost.

Young girls during Life Skills Class in our Group Circle

I sit and stare at a blank white screen for what seems like hours. Feeling tired. Drained. Wordless.

Today, like many days, I try and spend my evenings wrapping my mind around the sheer amount of information and interaction that has consumed my day. But, instead of the words flowing effortlessly from the mass stimulation of my mind, heart, and soul they are much like looking through the hole of a kaleidoscope. Everything is inside with the potential to form a colorful image, but as it turns, it’s really just one big mess.

Many of my jumbled thoughts this week have come from my time and memories teaching the life skills classes since I have been in India.

Every week, I lead three different life skills classes with three different groups of girls and women.  You may be asking yourself – Life skills? What does that mean? A simple answer is exactly as you think. These are the skills we have all learned typically from our parents, school, and social groups as we have gotten older. But, what we don’t realize is the mass amounts of children all around the world who don’t have anyone to teach them these skills. They grow up without ever knowing how to solve a problem or how to even think for themselves.

As most of us know, a skill is a learned ability to do something well. Life skills are abilities young people learn to help them in living productive and satisfying lives. Life skills classes help develop social, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth. In the classes we use modules that cover HIV & AIDS Awareness, effective communication, creative thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, empathy,  awareness of self, and interpersonal relationships.

Each of these classes are very different. On Tuesday evenings the class consists of about 50 women from the slum community ages ranging from 20-60. We all pile into a small cinderblock home, sit on colorful mats on the cement ground, and I wait as they trickle in with newborn babies in tote. It is hot, there is a language barrier (I work with a translator), and the lesson is always midst babies crying and toddlers crawling. Even though these women are the oldest, this class is the most basic. This is one of the poorest communities in the state where I am at, and many of these women have never even been to school so trying to explain how to manage stress through creative visualization or how to practice listening skills is quite the challenge. I’ve found that with this group it has to be just like an elementary class – less about talking and more about doing. Therefore, we’ve spent classes learning about critical thinking and group communication by putting ourself in a human knot and working our way out. Or drawing a River of Truth for myths and facts about AIDS and HIV. Or using toothpicks to symbolize how we breakdown easily when we stand alone, but when we stick together as women or as a community we can be unbreakable. A shining moment also came during this class when 51 year old Sushela wrote her name for the first time. She wrote it on our white board and we cheered. Then we smiled. Then we cried.

The life skills classes on Thursday and Friday take place with the women and young girls at our stitching training center. Thursday afternoons are the young women (ages 16-40) and Friday afternoons are our young young girls (ages 7-13). In the older class some of the young women are married and almost always after talking about loving ourself, happiness, our needs and wants, and values we end up praying for everyone to have good husbands. This is always on everyone’s mind. The girls here tend to start getting married around 17, and they know their family will soon be choosing their husband. Our women are typically forced to have arranged marriages – This oppression and sadness is a post all of its own! 

This past week as I did my very last Life Skills class with both groups, during our beginning circle time we shared what we want to be when we grow up. In the older class many of the women said things like – teacher, shop owner, or doctor. All very attainable professions yet these were all merely dreams to them.  

In the younger class we asked them the same question. There was silence. 

“Use your imagination, you can do anything you want ”

“You can be anyone you want to be. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you can do whatever you put your mind to? Maybe your Mom or your Dad, or your Grandma?”

With their heads tucked low and eyes peering at me they just shook their head and said,

“no teacher, no one has ever told us that before.”

This was a hard moment for me. At that point, we stopped focusing on needs and wants and focused on how special each of them are, and how we all have the ability to do anything we want to do. As beautiful Hailey always tells them, because we are special and we are smart! We stopped and repeated this several times. 

I’m so very thankful to have a mother who always told me I could do whatever I wanted to do. That I was special, smart, capable, and loved. Oh the small things we may take for granted.

May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. –Bob Dylan

One of the oldest,most widespread, and effective tools for creating personal and social change is the circle.  As I sit and reflect on the time spent with these amazing groups of women I hope that they will continue to keep their circle strong. That they will use their circle of friendship and community as a stronghold to help bring about change in their families and in their communities. 

These beautiful smiles are exactly how I will remember them all!

Children During Snack Time

Here in India, our team has been working in several different areas. As a part of the team, I have been splitting my time volunteering in a pre-school, working with children during daily tutoring time, and at a women’s stitching training center.

At the pre-school, our main goal is not to teach the classes but to work with the local teachers on curriculum building, teaching styles and strategies, classroom activities, etc.  All too often westerners come in to “teach” and then leave imparting no training or wisdom on the local staff that will continue to run the school throughout the year. This is not an approach we wanted to follow! Initially, because of the immediate need in training at the pre-school before the school term ends for summer break, I was spending more time there.

To ensure everyone has an accurate picture in their mind of the pre-school, please imagine around 70 children ages 3-5 crammed into three small apartments on the third level of a local apartment building. Yes, the pre-school is actually in small apartments with actual neighbors! Even though the setting is nothing like you would find in the states, the children are very similar – loud, rambunctious, and filled with enough energy to light up a small town. The local teachers are young and there is zero control in the classroom.

CASE AND POINT – SEE DOG PILE BELOW!

It is blurry because they were all so squirmy!

Let me just say, I DID NOT MISS MY CALLING AS A PRE-SCHOOL TEACHER!

I’m not a natural in a classroom of three to five year olds. Every day my prayers include asking for patience. Some people are naturals. Like our lead teacher Emily who could make reciting the dictionary fun or Becca who shares the same energy as the children (which is like drinking a red bull x 100) or Stephen who is like the cool older brother you always wanted but never had, and Bethany whose gentle presence succumbs the children directly into her lap where love immediately pours in and any pain floats away.

Spite the fact that my head almost exploded the first week from all the screaming, and I wasn’t sure where to look for my patience, I eventually have been able to find little by little everyday. It’s not because I turned into a natural that’s for sure. It’s only because of the ability to love.

Sanjay.....on a love day.

Every school teacher knows the difficulty in trying to remember all the names the first week of school, but there are always a few you learn immediately. Maybe it’s the smart kid, or the sweet girl with the pretty smile, but we all know who’s name you really learn first. The one you say the most – the TROUBLE CHILD!

I knew his name in about 3.5 seconds and it took me double that to catch him! About 28 inches tall, huge brown eyes, and a smile that literally makes you melt. This sweet little darling who gave me a refresher course in patience immediately is Sanjay.

MEET SANJAY!

Sanjay sit down, Sanjay please don’t steal her eraser (the kids are obsessed with erasers), Sanjay you’re not writing your numbers, Sanjay don’t stand on the table, Sanjay no hitting, Sanjay, Sanjay, Sanjay…..

Sanjay standing on the table....once again a blurry haze

We became BFFs in no time! 

Then the day finally came where he was at his worst. He was so engrossed with doing everything possible that he wasn’t supposed to be doing that “time-out” became a seat in my lap for the rest of the class. As the clocked ticked he looked up at me several times with those big brown eyes begging to get down. Every time I reminded him that he was there because he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. So this led to nothing but playing squirmy wormy in my lap. After about 20 minutes of our lap wrestling match, he looked at me, kissed my hand, and said, 

“teacha, I love you.”

My heart melted and any inkling of hope I had gained at being a successful pre-school teacher flew right out the window. How could I not let him down? In a culture where little boys do nothing but hit and show little love, HE KISSED MY HAND! This is huge. I considered it a cultural behavior break-through! 

Besides, I told myself, perhaps he is so rambunctious because he is bored, or he’s hungry, or because he dreams of running and playing outside (they don’t have playgrounds here), or maybe, just maybe, he is a child genius.

I think that is it. He’s a child genius.

Sanjay stealing someone's paper

Sanjay trying to blend in with the bigger boys

Did I forget to mention that these boys are in the class too?!?!

*side note* when I have a child, I am sending presents daily! Pre-school teachers, I am now certain, are the bravest and most patient people on the planet!

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that perpetual youth is in nature, and indeed it is!

I love how everyones inner child and carefree spirit breaks through in nature, especially at the beach! One afternoon it was decided what a wonderful idea it would be to take all of the girls and women we are working with to the beach for a picnic. They had all been working so hard, and some fun and fresh air were in order.

The younger girls, the women and their children, our volunteer team, Liji, our amazing local staff member, and myself all holding hands headed toward the sound of the ocean.

“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.”  - Rainer Maria Rilke

The path to the beach is a long dirt road through the slum community that is scattered with trash, cows, pigs, women cooking over open fire pits, and a dozen smells entering the nostrils simultaneously. It is amazing how you can walk through one world and so easily to another. From the intense poverty in the alleyways to the serenity of the beach. The community (which used to be the largest red light district in the area before half of it was torn down) seemed a world away from the calmness of the beach yet they are only footsteps apart.

What a joy to be with the girls for every little footstep. To be a part of helping forget troubles and worries, and provide an opportunity to be carefree children. Something that many of them have never had.

The pictures below are not just pictures. They are images that help tell a story about pain and struggle. Courage and strength. Happiness and joy.

Playing Duck, Duck, Goose in the Sand

Saris and Spins in the Wind

You can see more India photos Here!

In South America I worked with a Children’s Art Foundation (Ecuador) and a Foundation that focuses on investing in education, empowerment and leadership skills, particularly in communities devastated by violence, poverty and armed conflict (Colombia). In South Sudan with a micro-finance initiative, in Uganda with a children’s orphanage, and now here I am towards the end of my year long journey in India.

Here in India, the volunteer work is focused on the battle to help end sex trafficking. According to statistics, there are 27 million modern slaves, and 2-3 million prostitutes in India. The majority are girls and young women. A previous UNICEF report estimated that India supplied 50% of the children worldwide entering into the sex trade. So, one can see the importance and urgency for efforts to be in full force here in India. There are three main areas where organizations focus their efforts. Preventative, Rescue, and After Care. Rahab’s Rope, the organization I am with here in India focuses on all three of these areas in different states of India.  I am working in the preventative division.

What does this mean?

Many girls here in India are considered a burden to their family. From a young age they are held responsible for earning money to bring back to the family. If they are unable to do this, it is not uncommon for their family to sell them into prostitution as a way for them to earn money. In the prevention program we focus on working with young girls, women, and children that are considered “high risk”

Stitching Training Center

We have a stitching center that offers a free program and trains girls to sew and make handmade items that can be sold so they can make their own money and their families do not have to support them. We have volunteers that work at the stitching center 5 days a week, and a local teacher and stitching director that grew up in the slum herself that is so amazing with the women! The age groups of the women here range from 16  to 40+.

Teacher Training and Teaching in a Slum Community Pre-School

We also do work in a local pre-school. Children range from 3 years of age to 6. Although we do assist in teaching the children, the main focus is to offer assistance and guidance in training the teachers on teaching style and curriculum. We have a wonderful woman here as a lead that has 15 years of teaching experience in the US, and she has also taught in Nicaragua for several years prior to coming to India.

Tutoring Children Of A Local Slum Community

Five days a week we also hold a two hour tutoring class from 3-5 for all the children in nearby slum community. Many of the children’s parents are unable to read and write which makes it difficult to help their children with homework. During this time, we help with homework, teach a bible story, sing and dance, and provide a nutritional snack.

Life Skills

Three times a week we have life skills classes from a World Vision Curriculum with various groups. Life Skills training focuses on various topics including HIV/AIDS Awareness, Self Appreciation & Self Esteem to Communication.

All of these initiatives are to help build a community that is educated, aware, and can provide for their family. Preventative programs around the globe help keep women and children out of the trafficking industry and hopefully helps minimize the numbers of those being rescued. The goal is to help the young and vulnerable not to be exploited and sold.

To learn more about sex trafficking in India and the organization I am volunteering with, you can visit www.rahabsrope.com

Meditating on Feelings

I never write so openly about something so personal, but this time  I feel compelled to do so. Perhaps it is because over the past couple of weeks I have received what seems like a more than normal amount of personal emails asking how things are going. How’s India? How am I?

I’ve realized that my answer is ALWAYS the same. Life is good, things are amazing, India is beautiful, and I am so happy!! While all of this is so VERY TRUE, I must admit that after being on the road for almost ten months that I can often times feel overwhelmed.

At this point, it’s not just about this moment. just about India, or just about me. Instead of experiencing just one country and one culture like in the beginning, I have my feelings wrapped up inside from all the countries.  All the children and all the women from every country I’ve spent time in.

The beauty, nature, and openness of the familiar in South America when in Colombia and Ecuador. The celebratory spirit and freedom of the people in South Sudan. The joy and rhythm of  Uganda, and now the color and extreme contrast of India. All the amazing people from these countries have carved out a special place in my mind and in my heart that has remained long after my physical presence departed. I have no doubt that India will have the same effect on me.

This is the beautiful part and the hard part. Beautiful in the fact that I have met more people and have been a part of more communities that have opened my eyes in so many ways, so many times. Times I didn’t even realize my eyes were shut. I have danced, sung, laughed, cried, loved, and held more in the last ten months than I ever expected. The hard part on the other hand is what consumes my mind often. The poverty, the need for action, for solutions, for awareness, for education.

I chased monkeys with children who had never been on an outing before, sat face to face with women who hide money under their mattress because their husbands would steal it for alcohol. Women that have no other choice because in their country women can’t open bank accounts. Met men who think polygomy is okay regardless of the destruction it causes a family, held babies who are invected with HIV, danced with children who have no family, and held hands with young women who are married to old men because they had no choice. Because it was arranged. I’m currently experiencing a country where human trafficking is rampant, girls are killed at birth because they are girls, and the word “love marriage” is barely understood. Just the other day I again stopped to absorb the staggering statistics on the number of children that aren’t in school, the number of people living on less than $1 a day, cried over the 27 million modern slaves many of which are here in India, and held in my arms my sweet little Deepa who has burn marks on her arms from playing in burning trash piles instead of with dolls as a child. I leave a slum community almost daily through a wide open landfill full of trash, children with no shoes, and the sight of some of the most extreme conditions I have seen during my trip.

This is where it all becomes overwhelming. I now know that it is real. Not that I didn’t know this before, but seeing it for myself changes everything. Changes me. What faulty human nature.

I still have times I think about having a hot bath, or a washing machine, or a kitchen inside a house where I don’t shriek at all the critters that crawl out of dishes and under cracks. When I will be able to eat raw fruits and veggies without going through a veg wash sanitation process or when I can talk to friends and family and see their real face – the face that’s not the frozen Skype version. But mostly, I spend time thinking about the opportunity I hope to have upon my return to share. Not share my story but the story of so many of the amazing people I’ve met. Almost always I feel putting my experiences into words so difficult. I want so badly to be able to do this with ease. I will just keep trying. If it were all my lovely darlings in Uganda, they would just put the stories in a song and dance and sing about it! (Just see how they love to sing and dance!)

I was reading a book recently that described working in a third world country a little like this:

“Sometimes I feel working in a third world country is like trying to empty the ocean with an eye dropper”

This feeling can definitely be true. There is so much to do and so much patience that must be practiced helping to heal major problems. It may take loads of time and tiny steps little by little, but it can be done!!

In honor of all the children in my heart that have so much more rhythm than I do, now this is something to sing and dance about!!

Women of South Sudan dancing shortly after the country became the newest in the world

• See the album of the children in Ecuador
• See the album of the community in South Sudan
• See the album of the children in Uganda
• See the album of beautiful India

Interested in HELPING SUPPORT any of the organizations I have worked with? If so, please find information on their links below:

• Fundacion Arte Del Mundo (they are currently raising funds for a community theatre)
• Nukanti Foundation for Children (they are currently teaching kids about the importance of recycling and building a community center in Colombia out of plastic bottles – SO COOL!)
• Seed Effect Micro-Finance
• Elpis Ministries – The Children’s Home in Uganda
• Rahab’s Rope

India!

Almost a month ago today, I landed in India.

From Rome through Cairo to Mumbai. Away from fashionistas in knee length boots and corner cafes to women carrying baskets on their head and cows grazing out of trash bins.

A jolting change I was only halfway prepared for.

You see, India is one big contrast. You have many rich and many poor people. You have modern buildings and beautiful beaches and slums a stone throw away. India has the largest amount of scientists and technologists after the US yet almost half of the population is illiterate. Many areas are rich in tourism and in resources yet most of the population lives on less than $1 a day. It is said that is is impossible to be moved by India. That once you visit, you will never be the same again. I think this will hold true.

One of the largest slums in the area where we are working

The Beach and The Slum Footsteps Away

I came to India to work side by side with children in the slums in the area of education, and with women and young girls in skills training programs. Women and young girls who have escaped the human trafficking industry or those that are considered high risk due to location and poverty level. The reality here is that in many families with extreme poverty the daughters will actually be sold into the trafficking industry to pay off a family debt or the families decide this for them as a profession so that they may bring money back to the family. Girls are not valued the same as boys, and it is apparent here on the red dirt roads in India. The amount of work the female population is responsible for here especially in the areas that are more poverty stricken is a bit mind blowing.

Young girls at the stitching center. Together they can make a difference!

Young girls studying at Tutoring Class

And the children. Oh the sweet children! The spirit of the children here take me back to Uganda. How they have an inspiring ability to love, to hold, to take you into their lives without hesitation. Their smiles that ask you not to leave and the joy that shines through their big brown eyes all the while I can only imagine how much suffering they have endured.

Children that greet me in the streets when I head to tutoring class!

Nagraj, one of the oldest boys on the left and the class helper!

This is only the beginning of my time here in India.

I am humbled, excited, and thankful to be able to spend time here with such amazing and inspiring individuals. Just being in their presence provides me a sense of calmness that is so indescribable that the chaos on the outside fades away.