Welcome to Our Travel Blog

We have returned to India after 2 years to meet our good friends at the Pardada Pardadi School for Girls in Anupshahar, Uttar Pradesh and work to establish a Health Center there! This Blog documents and shares our experiences as we arrive in Delhi on October 22, 2012 and continues through our 5 week stay. There has been incredible progress at the school since our last visit that we are anxious to see. Thank you everyone for your support in making this dream become a reality for 1200 of our world's poorest girls.

The Pardada Pardadi Girls School is located in the village of Anupshahar, 120 km (a 4 hour drive) from Delhi. Pardada Pardadi provides a wonderful opportunity for the poorest girls from the community to learn academic, vocational and life skills, leading to a productive and happy life. The school is very well run and was founded 10 years ago by the ex-CEO of Dupont India in his home village. Each girl is provided 10 ruppes (25 cents) per day for attending, amounting to $750 (equivalent to India's per capita income) for perfect attendance, which they can access only after graduating. They also learn textile skills and make products that help fund some of the operating costs of the school. This also provides them with job opportunties after graduating. I encourage you to visit the school Website at http://www.education4change.org/



Wednesday, September 15, 2010

India: Here We Are!

The best news is that we are both healthy, having no ill effects on our first 4 days in India. We are having lots of laughs, some frustrations, missing some things (ice in my Diet Coke!) and happy to have others (coffee every day, so far!).

However we travel, it has proven to be interesting, at best. The 5 ½ hour train from Delhi to Amritsar turned out to be 7 (the engine needed to be replaced), the driving can be terrifying, to say the least. Cars, rickshaws, cows, bikes and whatever else moves on the road- all compete for the same space. Our taxi driver honked constantly to the Pakistani border and back tonight. Just hope we don’t have him tomorrow on the 5 hour taxi to Dharmasala. My prayers are constant while on the road!

We went to the crossing ceremony today at the India/Pakistan border. This big event draws thousands of people daily. It’s all in Hindi, so we were clueless. We know it will be a lifetime memory, as most of us can say we have never been to the Pakistan border. It is a celebration of nationalism, the result of the division of the countries in 1947, each wanting to prove it is better than the other. The Pakistani side was not well attended, possibly due to the floods and other crises in the country.

Indian and Pakistani guards at the border:


Parading the colors


All of the newspapers have been running articles about violent protests, as a result of the Quran being burned in the US. We have not found anything online indicating the burning actually happened, but know that there have been deaths as a result of rumors.



It’s been fascinating to learn about the many religions of this region. We are in Amristar, where the Golden Temple is. It is an incredibly beautiful place, where Sikh’s worship. 6 million Sikhs left Pakistan in 1947 and came to this region of India. We were taken back by the size, beauty and holiness we experienced as we toured. 60-80,000 people come daily to worship here.  Above is a picture of Mike with the required headgear at the Golden Temple. We went to India’s largest mosque, in Delhi, which was interesting, but unlike the temple here. I’m done with temples, as I’m over having to take off my shoes to walk through these places.

Mike's Punjabi shoes!


India, so far, is fascinating, overwhelming and unlike anywhere else in the world.
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