India 2009!

On Tuesday, we continued teaching the children about the world. Today we focused on the difference between a country and a continent (which is actually very difficult to make them understand). We also taught them about oceans, mountains, and islands. Oh and it was wonderful! Joy let us use the whiteboard that he usually uses for meetings. It was amazing to be able to write things on the board and have them copy it. I never appreciated how essential a blackboard/whiteboard is to teaching! Then we taught them more of the song “There’s Hope” by India Arie. The song is just so perfect for the children and the message is beautiful. And they are really learning it! The highpoint was finding children singing it on their own at random points during the day! For those of you who don’t know the song, I will type the lyrics below!
There’s hope.
It doesn’t cost a thing to smile.
You don’t have to pay to laugh.
You better thank God for that.
Stand up for your rights.
Keep shining your light.
And show the world your smile!

After singing, we went outside and did some more yoga with the children! They loved it! It’s just so amazing seeing the children smile and laugh. Katie and I also had a wonderful teamwork moment. Katie taught the yoga moves and I was able to stand with Kajal, who is blind, and help her learn each one. She is an incredible, amazing young girl and she never lets her disability get in the way of learning something. She was so excited to learn yoga! Every time I work with her, I can’t help but wonder what her life would be like without SOUP. Without the love and care of Joy and Grace, her life would be very very different. She would be begging out on the street instead of laughing and smiling. But in the end that’s true for every child that SOUP works with. SOUP is just an amazing organization!

Then I got to sit down with Sweety and teach her the computer! We started with simple things—like turning the computer on and logging in—and then progressed to using the internet! Sweety was just so happy to sit there and learn and to have my full attention for thirty minutes. Working with her also made me appreciate the power of the internet. Watching her gasp when she typed ‘dog’ into Google and five million pictures of dogs came up instantly was an amazing moment.

After lunch, we sat down with Joy and talked and learned about the stories of Pooja, Tanu, and Sweety. The three of them have overcome so much and they know live with one of the workers of SOUP whose name is Mangla. It was insane hearing that Pooja—who is thirteen—would be married right now if it wasn’t for SOUP. Hearing the children’s stories hit me so hard. I always forget that there is a horrible past behind the smiles and laughter of the children. But talking to Joy really inspired me because he remembered every detail of each child’s story. He didn’t have to whip out a file folder or call in the child. This is very impressive because Joy has worked with over 500 children. What stood out to me was that at SOUP the children are not a file or a number or a case—rather they are a part of an amazing life-long family. They are cared for, they are loved, and they are respected. What blows me away is that the children at SOUP grow up with a better sense of family than most people I have met in the United States. Each child and family member supports the other and it creates this amazing family environment where everyone is watching out for someone else. That family environment is worth fighting for! What killed me about this revelation was that SOUP is really struggling right now. If the organization goes under, the children will lose their support system. But on top of that, that amazing family environment won’t be available to the next child who shows up all alone at the train station in Allahabad. As I said before, the thought of where these children would be without SOUP makes me want to cry. My dream when SOUP is back on its feet with its own shelter home is to run through the train station and pick up all the beggar children and just bring them to SOUP! It would literally change their lives. Love can do that…the simple feeling of being loved can completely change a child’s life.

After talking with Joy, we checked our email and Free for Life and the family who created the website for SOUP—their names are Keri and Kyle—had gotten back to us! Free for Life sent us forms to fill out for each child and for the organization. They also gave us an idea of the type of yearly budget proposal they will need from SOUP. It was amazing getting that email because up until that point Katie and I were feeling that Free for Life was no longer interested in funding SOUP. Ahh it was such a good moment! But there is still lots of work to be done. Keri and Kyle also told us a lot about the website and gave us different options on how to update it. They also explained the PayPal system that SOUP is using to collect donations in the United States. This is something that we want to look into because right now the money is being sent by Western Union and both Western Union and PayPal are taking a profit from the donations. We hope to find a better method so if anyone knows anything about PayPal, Western Union, or remit2india please let us know!!

We left SOUP at a decent time so that we could go home and digest all the information we had gathered over the past couple of days. That night I just sat outside on my little bamboo swing and let the events of the past months soak in through my brain. I know I say this all the time…but it’s still so hard for me to remember that I am in India! So it was awesome to sit on our terrace and just stare out at the roadside and appreciate the fact that I was in India working with 20 amazing children! I also got to talk to my mom and found out that she was going for a job interview!! I am so proud of her! Congratulations mom!