Healthcare Project at Pardada Pardada School

To all friends and supporters of the Healthcare Project at the Pardada Pardadi school for girls in rural India:

Warm greetings to all.

Thanks to many many supporters, enablers, friends, staff, teachers, board members, volunteers and others, I am pleased report to you on the very significant progress and accomplishments of the Healthcare Project at the Pardada Pardadi school in Anupshahr, India. It is just amazing what a group of dedicated people can do by working together!

1) Health Center: A new Health Office has been built and is open for "business" at the PPES school. This facility, without question is the newest, cleanest, and best health center in the community and it will be able to serve the immediate health needs of the 1200 students attending PPES. This office includes; a waiting room, nurse's desk, doctor's desk, medical supply storage, medical supplies, 3 beds, file storage, a new laptop computer, Skype phone, sink, toilet, shower, back-up power supply, ventilation system, new lighting, tiled walls, and fresh paint.  Pictures are below.

2) Nurse/Health Teacher: A highly qualified, experienced, English speaking nurse has been hired!. Elisa, a registered nurse originally from Kerela now living in Dehli, plans to start at the school the end of January.  She will be living at the school. We are so thrilled to have Elisa join the PPES team. We are confident she will be able to play the leading role in providing on site medical care AND provide health education to the students and teachers and potentially the community at large.

3) Medical Supplies: 100 lbs of new medical supplies were donated, delivered and are organised in the Health Office along with new medicines, bandages, and additional supplies purchased locally and in New Dehli.  The Health Office is well stocked. New First Aid kits were created and provided to the 2 grade schools and the pre-school.

4) Medical Records: A datatbase of student health records has been set-up on the new Health Office laptop.  These are set-up to be shared via Google Docs.

5) Immunization Program: A dedicated group of doctors from neighboring Bulandshahar have agreed to visit the school monthly and provide immunizations and medical and dental check-ups. The first monthly medical clinic was held in November with 4 doctors participating, two pediatricians, a dentist and gynecologist.  Hepatitis B vaccine was administered at the pre-school and check-ups given. A second clinic has already been held in December to administer the MMR vaccine.

6) Eye Exams and Glasses: A qualified optician has been found locally and 5 girls were tested and fitted with glasses.  This will make it feasible to provide glasses to those girls who need them on an ongoing basis.

7) Tooth brushing: 3000 new toothbrushes were purchased and 1200 were distributed to all students. This program is funded to continue.

Much work still needs to be done!  All of the current programs need to continuely supported to ensure their sustainability.  Health education curriculum and teaching will need to be defined once the nurse arrives.  Procedures, now under development, need to be finalized. A medical mission of U.S. doctors is being sought for the Summer of 2013.  The nutritional needs of the girls require further review. Fund raising is critical to support, sustain and build on all of these programs.  Your continued support is very much appreciated and has a direct impact on the girls of Pardada Pardadi.

Thank you All for your support!

Best Wishes for the Season.

Mike
www.education4change.org

 Anjuli getting her toe bandaged with Sevilla looking on.

 Rashimi practicing applying an elastic bandage on Mary.

 Doctors desk with new laptop.  Health office bench and sink.

 Nurse's desk, bed and storage.

 Hep-B immunizations at the Pre-school.

Dental check-ups

 Entry to Health Office

 Waiting area.

Elisa, the new school nurse who will be starting in January. 

Myanmar - Beautiful Land

MYANMAR

 

Though we left India just a week ago, it seems like we have been gone much longer. Myanmar, though it borders India and Bangladesh, is a country so different from where we came, in every way.  How is it different?

                                          Mike in his Longo, the main male attire in Myanmar

We were taken back, as we arrived at the airport itself, with the peace and serene calm.  The drive to the hotel consisted of cars driving in an orderly fashion, down streets with marked lanes. The constant horn honking, cows, goats, broken trucks, masses of people and chaos were gone.  No beggar children approaching the car, hands open for food or money, or hawking plastic toys. Upon arriving at the hotel, it felt like we were in Asia, not India. There was the grandeur of Asian artwork in the lobby, hallways and our room itself.  Clean, it felt clean!!! Simple things, like a hot running shower, tissues and a comfortable bed were so welcome. Free internet access! All amazing. It was worth the wait!

A most delicious breakfast, with so many choices, awaited us the next day. For five weeks, though we loved being with our girls, the food we ate was the food we were served. No choice, no meat, just overcooked, overspiced vegetables, cold rice and dal.  Bucket baths, with a bucket of hot water, and a cup was our shower.  Paper products of all kinds are not available in the village. We quickly ran out of tissues brought from home. Toilet paper, just for volunteers, is obtained in Delhi. Thank you for small favors!!! We never complained, though, as we focused on the girls, not our own creature comforts.     

The pool overlooked a beautiful and serene lake, with a golden pagoda, so picturesque, on the other side. A scene postcards are made for. We learned this pagoda to be a floating restaurant, where we enjoyed dinner and a culture show the next night.   A boardwalk encircled the lake, with young lovers, umbrella to shade his lady, walking hand in hard. Wow! In India, men and women are not seen walking together very often, unless they have kids in tow. Public displays of affection are forbidden by the opposite sex there. Men can walk hand in hand, or with their arms around one another, but not men and women! Here in Myanmar, a Buddhist country, these young lovers are smiling, happy and together by choice, rather than by their parental arrangements. 

 

Our days in Yangon(first of 5  destinations) were relaxing and glorious. We mixed visits to the largest temple in Asia, with poolside reading, walks and some shopping, where bartering is required.  We were then on to Bagan, a UNESCO site, and the ancient  ruins(dating back 1000 years) of almost 5000 temples and pagodas.  Pretty overwhelming, though made more interesting by a tour guide who has lived here her entire life.  We covered the highlights, having to remove our shoes way too many times,  to visit many pagodas and temples, which housed Buddha in endless variations. 

 

We were then onto Mandalay, to visit monastaries, walk across a 1.2 km teak bridge, built in the 1800’s. We stopped so an astrologer and palm reader could tell me about my life and future. A boat ride back to the other side of the river, took us to our taxi, whose driver had lost the keys to the car. We walked around the village, and had a cup of tea, until the keys turned up. We don’t even begin to ask questions here, as the answer will make no sense at all. 

 

After an adventurous day, and a long drive, we were in another village, up in the mountains, to stay at another incredible inn, just like the ones you see in a travel magazine.  The next morning we walked to a spectacular botanical gardens, with a petrified wood museum(housing pieces estimated to be a million years old), the most incredible butterfly exhibit(collected over 30 years) and orchid garden(where they come from in the US). It was then onto a coffee plantation, which was more simple and ordinary than I ever could have imagined. Rows of coffee trees, lush with red and green fruit, and the owner, who invited us for a cup of coffee. Our coffee was Nescafe instant, as his beans are all exported by the government. Though he spoke not a word of English, we smiled, looked at photographs on the walls and moved on.  We are very used to this experience now, as we have had it many times this trip. 

Yesterday, it was back to another airport, for a flight to Inle Lake, a 22 km long lake. Since the closest road to our resort is 45 minutes by boat, the ride was another amazing experience.  As we sped across the water on a very old, noisy skiff, we passed people bathing in the river,  fishermen rowing one legged,  floating huts throughout the villages, and natives carrying boatloads of produce.

We now sit on the deck of our floating cottage, at a resort most will only dream about.  Surrounded by water and bungalows here, it is so peaceful, only the sound of boats going by, fish jumping and birds tweeting. Heaven!  How many times since we have been here in this country have I felt like we are in heaven? Many! Below our bungalow, snakes slitter(not too happy about that! Just so they stay down there and don’t slide up the pilings!), waterlilies bloom profusely, and fish swim and splash.

This morning we took a boat to a market, where we went between having fun and buying some fun, great stuff and being stressed by the call of “happy money. You will be my first money of the day, lucky money”. Though she didn’t understand, I felt compelled to tell one woman that it wasn’t my job to bring her lucky money.  We do feel good about doing something small to support the local economy, while at the same time, bringing back gifts and surprises.

Tomorrow, we are on to the beach on the Bay of Bengal. We understand there is a slice of heaven waiting there for us, too.  My angst and apprehension I experienced in India, before heading to Myanmar, is gone. What a beautiful country, beautiful people! How grateful we are to have experienced it!  

 

 

Farewell Pardada! November 23

 We didn’t know how hard leaving Pardada Pardadi would be. An assembly
 was held on Wednesday, for our farewell,We were gvien a beautiful hand
 embroidered, framed  picture for each of us, hand embroidered by the
 girls. Saying goodbye was so very hard, with several girls stopping us
 to  tell us not to go.  Anjalie, one of our very favorites, came to me
 in the Health Center, dropped a folded piece of paper and ran out. I
 called to her, but she continued on. Her friends told me she was upset
 and wouldn’t come back. On her note to me, she had written, “Miss you
 Marry Mam! Love. Angelie”.

 It must be so hard for the girls to have volunteers come to the
 school, spend time improving the quality of their lives, and then
 leave.  They have no understanding of what it takes for us to get
 there, how far we travel to make it happen, and what going home means
 to us.

 Wednesday was hard, very sad, but not nearly as hard as yesterday
 morning, the day of our departure.  We thought we would be leaving
 early enough to avoid seeing the girls and teachers again. One goodbye
 is hard, two is much harder.  I needed to return to the Health room
 one more time. I needed to leave an angel, given by a friend, to watch
over the school. I placed her in a spot where it will not likely be
found.  Angels have been, and will continue to watch over these girls
every day! I also needed to get some cold medication, as we are both
leaving the school with colds, and the likelihood of getting familiar
meds elsewhere is not good.
> Most importantly, I needed to look one more time, at the gift we are
> leaving behind. I was overwhelmed by what Mike and I have created. It
> is, without a doubt, the cleanest, brightest, best medical facility in
> the entire village(and possibly,in the state of Uttar Pradesh). How
> did we, two very ordinary people from the US, make this happen? To
> think that we had hopes and a dream, to bring 1200 girls desperately
> needed health care, in such a remote place, where it has never been
> before….Wow! We leave it behind, knowing that the lives of these
> amazing and innocent children, will be better than they were before we
> arrived.   Simply amazing!

 

> As I walked down the steps one last time, I was greeted by three
> beautiful girls. We’ve been asked many times, by many people, how we
> communicate with the girls, as many speak either no, or almost no,
> English.  It happens, it really does. I told them how proud I was of
> them, how much I will miss them, and how they need to stay in school,
> so they will be there when we go back. That was a lesson learned this
> trip, as two of our very favorites, Moni, and Jaya, from our last trip
> are no longer there. Moni was married off. Jaya moved. How
> disappointed we were to not see them again!  There are no guarantees
> here, and we know that now!
>
> The girls who greeted me told me not to go. I told them we needed to
> go back to America to see our children. They told me our children
> could come there. I told them I now have 1200 daughters in India, as
> well as my daughter at home.  They beamed! They understood.  As we
> walked along, my arms around the three of them, I know that they, too,
> are my daughters. I love them and want the best for each of them. I
> want them to be healthy, to stay in school, to be protected from any
> harm, and to have a future, filled with the promise of a better life
> than that of their forefathers

> .
> As we walked outside, many students and staff were gathered for the
> real, final farewell.  I broke down as I looked around at the
> outpouring of love and support from each and every one of them.  As I
> got into the car, I didn’t want them to see me crying , but they did.
> My tears showed them that they matter, that we care and that they
> count. Mike’s tears did, too.  As we drove away through the village,
> we passed many girls walking or waiting for the bus to Pardada. We saw
> many other children on their way to school. We also saw too many
> others that have not been given the gift of education.
>
> Those children don’t look like the ones in uniforms going to school.
> They wear tattered rags, mismatched tops and bottoms, or bare bottoms.
>  They carry heavy bowls of buffalo dung along the road, the wander
> aimlessly, throwing stones and just standing. With no purpose, no plan
> and no hope. If only all of the children could be given what our own
> have been given. The gift of education, the gift of hope, a gift for a
> brighter tomorrow.  Should that not be every child’s right? No matter
> where they live, no matter how poor?

>
> After visiting hospitals, schools, doctors offices and clinics in the
> village, we know Pardada’s new Health Center is, without a doubt, the
> best show in town. It is clean, bright, friendly, well equipped. It
> has, and will continue to have volunteers, or a school nurse, who will
> show kindness, gentleness and care when a girl shows up with a fever,
> a scraped knee, or a skin infection.  Simple things, like soap and
> water, hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin and a bandaid can save a child
> from getting a serious infection.  Or losing their toe, which is very
> likely reality for our student nurse. She injured her toe a month ago
> and the infection she has is very bad.

Getting immunizations at the first medical camp we arranged.

> Our stay at Pardada ended the very way it began, and continued to
> during our entire stay. As we were getting in the car, Mr. Jose, the
> school administrator and our good friend, told Mike he had received a
> call late the night before from the government hospital doctor(the one
> I told I was a pediatrician in order to get things moving when we went
> to pick up the weekly iron pills every girl gets), saying he needed
> the names of all the girls under age 10, so they could get
> vaccinations! Yes!!! We will wait to see what that means, but at least
> the phone call came.
>
> The day before, we learned that Elsa, the nurse we so wanted to hire,
> had called to say she wanted to take the job. For 2 weeks, we hoped
> and prayed for that to happen. Just as it didn’t seem like it would
> happen, it too, did! We talked with her and she gave us her promise
> that she would start in January, after giving one month notice to her
> current job at a hospital in Delhi, and then going to visit her family
> in Kerala.  Elsa, is in her 50’s, she was great with the girls on her
> visit to the school, and, she is a Christian. She is just who we were
> looking for to fill the position.

Mary with Elisa, the new school nurse and health teacher

> On Monday, we picked up eyeglasses for five girls we had taken to the
> eye doctor. Several girls then came to us to say they couldn’t see and
> need glasses.  For $5-6, we can give these girls the gift of sight. We
> hope they will convince their families to allow them to wear the
> glasses, so that children who need them can get them. And, no, village
> people, wearing glasses won’t stop your daughter from being eligible
> for marriage!

>
> As we head on to Myanmar, we are happy for what we have accomplished.
> This is a beginning. Our hope is that this beginning will help
> continue to change the lives of the people of Annupshar.     And that,
> through example, many of our girls will decide to go to college for
> medical degrees. Another new concept in a world so isolated from the
> rest of the world!!
>
> We're heading to Myanmar for two weeks now and look forward to
> returning to America on December 9th.  Peace to all of you as you
> begin preparing for the Christmas season.  With love, Mary

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 19, 2012  Thanksgiving Week

As I awakened this morning, in great anticipation of the day, we were greeted once again by the smoky hazed air, brought about by the fires keeping people warm these cold nights. Cold here means under 80 degrees. Last night it dropped to around 60, so it was very cold.  After a slow and unsuccessful attempt to get on the internet, the day began.

A cup of coffee means Nescafe instant, with buffalo milk.  No Splenda left, so it leaves me wanting for more…For the second cup, we wait for the electricity to come on for the day.  It was then off to school( a short walk, though 10 times a day, we can walk miles) for opening prayer.  We were greeted by many girls, delighted at the photos and art work I hung yesterday on the freshly painted walls.  The fresh paint was our gift to the school.  Art and photos look so much better on clean walls! 

As classes began, so did my search for a social studies teacher, as we brought blow up world globes to share.  Learning aids are minimal, at best. The girls, as well as many of the teachers, have no concept of the world. We hope they are used, not as balls to kick, or mobiles to hang high out of reach, but so that the girls can learn where countries are.  Besides India and America, I don’t know if there are any other countries they know of.  We like to show them America, and the route we took to fly here, over Greenland and Russia. 

I then headed back to the apartment to do some wash.   Washing is all done by hand, in a bucket. Sometimes warm water, sometimes not.  Since it is so dusty here, the wash needs to be rinsed several times for the water to go from gray to clear.  Have you ever tried washing king sheets in a bucket? Come along with us. Wash sheets, on at a time, rinse and spin by hand, down a flight of stairs, one sheet at a time, to meet the challenge of getting them on the clothes line without letting them touch the dirt. Time taken?  ½ hour. That’s all I can do in a day! Washing machines are marvelous!

As I was finishing that project, I was reminded of how spoiled we as Americans are. A pair of black cotton leggings, brought from home, worn many times, now with holes and a bleach stain.  I love bleach, as it is the only cleaner I have here.  I bought a new pair of leggings in the village($4) and threw the old ones away.  That’s what we do, isn’t it?  The maid comes back with our trash can, pulls the pants out, and asks, in Hindi, if she could have them. How embarrassed I was! This was a gift to her, and can certainly keep her warm for time to come. 

Rachmi and I head into the village to pick up eyeglasses for the 5 students we took to the eye doctor last week.   On the way, she wants to stop by her house. They are all so proud to take us to their homes.  As we take a “short cut”, across the buffalo yard in the middle of the village, stepping carefully, we then climbed through stones, rocks, sewage and buffalo dung, to get to her home. A young girl greets us, so when I ask, I am told she is 17, her name is Poonam, and she does not go to school. Her mother “expired” 7 years ago and her father does not agree that girls should go to school.  How heartbreaking this story is repeated hundreds of thousands of times in India!

 

We arrive at the eye doctor(no, you don’t want your eyes checked there!), to pick up 5 pair of glasses that we paid $30 for, to include the exam.  Since parents don’t want their daughters to wear glasses(no one will want to marry them!), Mike and I have a job to do!  We had fun, though the girls were initially nervous and reluctant, when we took bicycle rickshaws twice for this experience. The drivers of the old, rickety carts raced each other down the market road, weaving between the buffalo, monkeys, pigs, dogs, trucks, busses and cars. Not to speak of the throngs of people.  Our first trip? Doctor closed! The next day we did this again, doing all we could to make these girls feel special, explaining they will be able to see better, have no more headaches, and letting them put mine on, so we could tell them how beautiful they looked.

The office visit was fascinating. The eye doctor was very nice, spoke some English, and appeared as competent as it gets here.  He worked with equipment that was probably retired from the US in 1960. One girl was so very nervous, and did poorly because she was so nervous. We were told that malnutrition is the cause of most of their eye weakness.  Nutrition is our next project! When we left, I gave all of the girls a florescent, glittery peace symbol, brought from Michael’s in the US. None knew when this symbol meant, so we explained. Despite poverty,  these girls have been blessed to not know war, only peace, as Hindus in India.  I made a pact with all, signed them up to be members of the “glasses club”, and had them promise they would stay in school, wear their glasses and have them when we come back again. After bringing their glasses back today, and handing them out, we retested them and they were all so excited to be able to see. I think we have some converts! We even had several other girls come to the health room to tell us they need glasses.  We will provide for all who need, and hope to change their attitude towards wearing glasses.  One senior, one of the only ones we have seen wearing glasses told us, “My decision is to be able to see”….

I go with Rachmi, to the doctor, as she has a severe toe infection, which has continued for the past month. It looks horrible, and she has been in great pain. We walk into this doctor’s hut, she sits down and introduces him as the father of two of our teachers.  His office is small, old and dirty. His desk includes an old, rusty open container with cotton and gauze. He opens a jar, smears orange stuff on her toe, and very tightly wraps her toe, so inflamed with gauze.  She winces in pain. No gentle medicine here! He finishes, picks up a water pitcher sitting on the desk, pours it over his hands as the water runs onto the floor. Hands clean, ready for the next one….She pays him20 rupees(40 cents). I now know we have the very best and cleanest, most advanced medical facility in town. I just hope Rachmi doesn’t lose her toe to this infection. 
 

After school, we went on another village visit to see Sevilla.  This Class 9 student is as irritating and needy as any we have met.  She has hounded us since day 1.  “More” should be her middle name. When I give her a bracelet, she wants another. When I take a photo and give her the print, she wants more. She is merciless, and makes the greatest, pleading faces you can imagine. I love to mimic and whine back at her. She appears at the Health Center at least twice a day, to ask for something, to tell me she has headache, needs glasses, needs anything.   So, today was finally the day we knew we would make the visit.  As she dragged us by hand or arm, in and out of many homes(there is no knocking here, and anyone can wander through your house at any time.)  No one seems to mind. It’s not unusual for 15 boys to come into the house(remember, no doors, no windows) and just stare.  One occasionally takes out his cell phone to snap a photo. And the staring continues….And they wander away.

Sevilla and company( we now have a whole herd of kids along) take us into another home, to see one of our young girls making roti(think pita bread). As we watch and snap a photo of this cute, little girl, I ask about her parents. Her father is in Delhi, her mother is gone.  It is sobering to be reminded how many children are orphans , fending for themselves.  Being raised in their community, maybe every child is being watched over by the elders. This can mean anyone older than themselves. May God continue to watch over them  all.   Including the boy we met last week, walking on all 4 like a monkey, as the result of polio.  Another scene forever etched in our mind!

So, here I sit and write(electric will be back on at 8 p.m., a nightly thing), I feel so blessed to have had the gift of living, giving, and working among these people, who count amongst the world’s very poorest. The amazing thing to watch is that the children, despite unimagined hardships, are happy. They don’t whine for more, they don’t complain when asked to do a chore. They don’t make long lists for Santa for things they will never play with. Stones and old bike tires with a stick are their toys.  Their closets are not filled with clothes, unworn and outgrown.  Their 2 uniforms, often with holes and stained are what they choose to wear every day of the week, as there is no choice.  Many  come to school in flip flops, though all have received their one new pair of shoes since we arrived. They are saving them, not wanting to get them dirty. 

I enjoy my Mountain Dew, as I finish this up- my new India drink, complete with ice cubes! Progress since 2010 visit is ice cubes!! The cashews taste good, as I know dinner will leave me wanting for more. Cold rice, overcooked hot and spicy cauliflower, and roti isn’t much of a dinner for us. Yet, thousands of children in this village will go to bed with empty tummies tonight, so, why complain? At least the cashews(and my chocolate Cadbury bar for later) will hold me over. 

Our mission has been accomplished( 2 days left to go!). We have left these people an incredible gift. The gift of health care.  Without good health, opportunities are limited…Wishing you the gift of good health, and a Happy Thanksgiving. Let’s  focus on our many blessings, rather than what we wish to be different in our lives.  

Happy Dawali!

Happy Diwali!!

India has more festivals than perhaps any other country in the world.  This brings joy into the lives of the people, many whose lives are very dark and hopeless.  This week they celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, the biggest festival of their year. 

                                A puffed rice vendor in our village. A special treat for Diwali.

I have said, and been told, “Happy Diwali” thousands of times over the past week. Eyes light up, and smiles beam across the faces of all with excitement of the celebration.  For our girls, school is closed 3 days this week. With a school schedule that runs year round, with only 17 days off during the year, this vacation time is a very big deal.

Today is Cow Dung Day(I kid you not!). It is a day to pray for more cow dung, hence, more cows.  Cows are central to life here, especially in rural India. The source of milk, butter, cheese and yogurt. Cow dung is used to build houses, to provide heat, and to cook food. It is everywhere!!! Tonight we participated in a ritual, where cow dung is artistically molded into a person on the floor. There are prayers, and the men walk around it 7 times. True! There is also a day to celebrate husbands, and a day to celebrate brothers. There are no days for women, something we find inconceivable!

                               The Cow Dung Man

On Monday the school celebrated in a very big way, and we were grateful to be able to play a big role in it.  The day began with a school assembly to celebrate the girls who are scouts who came in first place last weekend in the District Scout competition. They received 2 big trophies, certificates, and will go to the next level this weekend   We were honored to be there Sunday afternoon as the closing ceremonies took place. Sitting up of the stage, in the front row, made us feel like celebrities(we now know what William and Kate experience!).  We were more excited that the girls had us there for them!

Mike and I then handed out toothbrushes, toothpaste and toothbrush holders to Classes 9-12. 144 in all!  The rest of the 1200 girls got new toothbrushes from us.  The distribution was quite an experience, especially when they all wanted to trade colors for their  favorite- something we put a quick stop to, suggesting they trade with friends instead. 

From there we were able to provide an incredible opportunity…Through Linked In, Mike connected with a women living in California, from Delhi. She followed up by telling us 2 weeks ago, that her parents, who live in Delhi, wanted to come to the school on Monday to distribute a clothing gift to each and every girl. This couple arrived with 1200 dresses for the little ones, sweaters for the elementary kids, and shawls and blankets for the older girls.  Not only did they bring the clothing, but they gave each girl 10 rupees(20 cents) and a chocolate bar. We can guess that some of these children had never held a 10 rupee note before.  The handout of all was so much fun to watch, as the littles ones pulled out the most glitzy and tackiest little Indian dresses with leggings I’ve ever seen. The more satin, rhinestones, lace and glitter, the better!  This may be, for most, the first new article of clothing they have ever owned.  What a random connection on Mike’s part, and what a gift for the girls.

Our gift to them was a banana for each. With concerns over their diets, despite being fed 3 meals a day at school, they get no fruit.  Though 25 bananas cost about $1, at this time, fruit isn’t within the schools budget. We hope to make that happen before long  The girls also each went home with a bag of sweets. What a day it was!!

We then came to Sam’s house for the holiday, which has been wonderful.  His family are landowners, owning who knows how many miles of fields. His home is a palace, a stark contrast from where the kids come from.  We have had lots of great food, conversations about the life situations of some of the students, and making plans on how to handle them.  We celebrated Dawali last night with pooja(prayer) and the traditional ceremonies that go along with the Hindi religion.  We have taken walks through his village and visited the home of one of our girls.

Some stories-

Sam invited 4 students(2 do not go to our school) to talk about what they want to do with their lives beyond graduation. 1 girl, focusing on science, wants to be a doctor, but does not know how to make that happen. Sam is connecting her with someone who can make it happen!

There is a mentally challenged girl in a village, for whom Sam is concerned. Within the next couple of years she could end up pregnant, raped by a man who would know her vulnerability. Sam is hoping to have her parents sign a consent to have her tubes tied, and will pay for the operation so she can be protected.

A 13 y.o. was recently severely beaten by her father and brother, having been caught talking to a boy. The father threatened to kill her. She was sent off to a school in Delhi, but ran away. Her parents plan to marry her off soon, so they can be rid of her. Sam wants to return to talk to the parents, and offer her a vocational job at the school, so she doesn’t get married, and can make some money. Her sister is deaf and non-verbal, and works in the sewing vocational program. She is supporting her entire family on the, maybe, $20/week she earns. 

A wonderful teacher at the school, Rena, and another staff person, Retul, eloped 2 weeks ago This is not only unheard of, and completely unacceptable, but has caused great trouble to them. Mike an I are, of course, all for their love marriage.  Her parents are angry and have rejected her, as she married below her caste. This is not a good thing. We are going, along with Sam, to meet with her parents tomorrow in hopes of them changing their minds.

When we were here in 2010, I developed a special relationship with her, and told her when she married, because she is educated, beautiful and has so much to offer, that she needed to marry a man who would treat her like a princess. She has now, to many, become “Mary’s princess”. Her response was, “I don’t’ know, mam, my father will decide.”  I went on to tell her that she needed to tell him what I said. I am thrilled that she has married a guy she loves, and who will make her happy, but so sad that this society is set up to allow this to happen. 

Women are so unjustly treated here. They are at the bottom of the rung, and we are working hard to change this by changing our students.  They deserve so much more than what this country currently allows them to have.

November 7, 2012

Today marks two weeks since we landed in the village. For whatever reason, it doesn’t feel as foreign as a planet as it did when we showed up here for the first time in 2010. Mike describes it as “familiar filth”.

Street Dwellers

Today is a day we celebrate, as we believe we hope to have hired a nurse for the Health Center.  Elsa, is a 50ish year old woman, who has been a nurse for 26 years. She worked for 11 years in Saudi Arabia(a common work destination for many Indians), and has spent the last 6 working at a hospital in Delhi. She speaks fairly good English, was great with the children today when she came to visit. She will be a most welcome, and much needed, addition to this community.  We are thrilled to have found her.  She is just who we were looking for, as we wanted an older woman, who could also counsel the girls, as their lives and needs present great unimaginable difficulties and challenges.

All of the girls at the school receive iron tablets weekly, as they eat virtually no protein. These tablets are to be provided by the government, but like everything else here, that really doesn’t happen. So many things here make absolutely no sense to us.  For the past 2 weeks, there were no tablets, as the “government policy on iron tablet distribution“ is being changed. Whatever that means.  Hence, Sam made several calls on Monday to get find out when we would be getting the supplements.  We are going to purchase a quantity to have as backup when this happens again.  The girls need their iron!!! And there shouldn’t be a 3 week gap between pills that we would take daily.

Today is Thursday, and we finally get to pick up the pills. Times keep being changed. Why can't they just be delivered? Why do we have to go to the government hospital, again? So,  I accompany our student nurse, Rahsmi, to the hospital to pick them up.  We waited 45 minutes, and were  told “5 more minutes” way too many times. A “doctor”(they all call themselves doctors, but there are no real doctors here), with whom I expressed my frustration at the waiting, asked me if I was a doctor.  I told him I was a doctor, from America, and was here to open the Health Center at the school. His eyes brightened, and he asked what kind of doctor I was. I told him I was a pediatrician. His entire attitude changed and the pills were delivered within 5 minutes.  I think he was impressed that a pediatrician from America was in town.I also think he got tired of hearing me. If I didn't say anything, we could still be sitting there. Everything takes forever here, as all they have is time....

Rashmi, our school nurse

When Rashmi asked me if the hospitals in America were like this one….what could I say? She asked if they were clean.  And how they were different? How do I count the ways? I told her they were very clean, that there were no dogs or cows in our hospitals, and that they were not open( no doors, no windows), to keep the air clean and the dirt out. We have no dead bodies laying outside our hospitals. We have no sick people laying on the grass.  We have no piles of medical waste scattered on the property.  Tomorrow, I will show her some photos of hospitals in America, so she can see  the differences. It won’t be hard to tell.  I have encouraged her to become a nurse, so that she could make a difference and teach the hospitals in India how they could be like ours.

We visited a home of one of our families this week. What an experience that was! Instead of going from home to home, we went to Bharti’s home and were there for an hour or so. Her mother works in our kitchen, supervising the preparation of 3 meals a day for 1200 girls, 6 days a week. We rode one of the school buses home to her home.  When we arrived at their house, she started the fire on the floor inside the house(1 room with 1 bed for all), and then went out to care for the 2 buffalo and 2 calves.


After filling a bucket from a water pump to wash the utters, she milked the buffalo by hand. She then cooked the milk on the fire, and served Jen, a 21 y.o. French volunteer, and myself, hot buffalo milk. Jen looked at me and said “I don’t drink milk”. “Neither do I, I never have, but we are today”.  We had no choice as it would be rude to turn down freshly pumped buffalo milk. As always, we were served treats. We both picked up a round ball, and hesitantly bit into it. It was awful and tasted like buffalo dung!! Something I have learned from our time here before….I always carry tissue and my bag, done for a very good reason. You can discreetly get rid of those things that you just can‘t stomach.   I took Jen’s from her to dispose of,  as well.

Our visit included: 1. the grandmother and grandfather, who had been gone the day,  returning by ox cart with a bushel of grass, which they separated and hand churned through a machine to chop for silage(grain was separated out) ,

2. the aunt  picking up the buffalo dung by hand and putting it into a huge bowl that she hoisted on her head to carry away(it is really heavy!),

3. Bharti gathering vegetables so she could sit on the ground and chop the potatoes, peppers, etc for their dinner; the mom caring for the animals,

4. The 15 year old sister telling me she is studying hard so she doesn’t have to care for the buffalo, and, 5.  the grandfather walking us the couple of miles back to school. For the past few years, Bharti has delivered buffalo milk to the Teachers Colony(where we live with 2 others) every day of the week before school.  She comes with a pail of milk, even on Sunday, when there is no school. Imagine sending our kids off to do a chore like that every day of the year? Monsoon season, 115 degree summer and the cold of winter? She seems to be very happy with this task.

Our days here are filled with ups and downs. There are days Mike and I look at each other and ask why we are here. There are other days, where we are overwhelmed with gratitude and experience the grace of doing what we are doing. We  know, from the bottom of our hearts, that we are making a huge difference in the lives of Pardada Pardadi girls. We have become very possessive. We love and care very much for all of them.  We want the best for each. We want them to be here at school, where they are safe, where they are protected, where they can learn, and where they can develop the hope for a better tomorrow.