Mishmosh... One Night's Experience

South Indian Cuisine

I went out to dinner for some traditional South Indian food this past week. Surprisingly it wasn't too spicy and it was delicious. As you can see in the picture it was served on a big banana leaf. There is no silverware, you eat only with your hands. It was quite an experience and actually walking up to the restaurant it looked like something you'd see in New York, the neon lighting, not quite the cleanest looking place but everyone raves about it and it's always busy so you figure it can't be that bad.

Cross Dressing... In INDIA?!?!

The next part of my evening involved seeing some local cross dressers. I truly could not believe what I was seeing, I looked at the door to the restaurant and standing there is, what appeared at first glance to be a woman with a shaved head wearing a saree. Then at second glance I realized no it was not a woman but a man wearing a saree! Oh my gosh, in India?!?!? Evidently they are very prevalent. They are beggars and will come to restaurant requesting money from the manager and if the manager does not give them money they will start to make a scene... ultimately threatening to strip. There is some kind of weird clapping thing they do as well, I've heard that they are very aggressive and won't leave until given money. I also heard that there are stories of young boys who are kidnapped at a very young age and forced into this. It's all very strange.

Motorcycle Ride

So I rode on my first motorcycle ride. My friend's boyfriend has a motorcycle. Everyone in India has a motorcycle and you would not believe how people ride them! Families of four ride on one motorcycle, child in the front, father behind driving, mother on the back with another child on her lap... only in INDIA!

The Slums

"The slums"... Yesterday I visited a foundation called Speed Trust. Speed Trust was started by a French man who moved here to Chennai about 10 years ago. He founded this group to help underprivileged (mainly women and children). The foundation began by taking women off the streets and teaching them useful trades like this bag making. The bags were made of this plastic, gimp (remember those key chains we all used to make as kids) looking stuff. After they finished weaving them together they melted it down and put liners in the bags to create these wonderfully fun bags! I, of course, had to purchase some of these one of a kind bags! Another trade which was taught to the women was Auto-Rickshaw driving. The woman were taught to drive, received their drivers license and then Speed Trust gave them an auto to use. As they earned money they would pay Speed Trust for the auto. This foundation is so empowering for women, out of the 50,000 autos that are in Chennai alone only 20 of the auto drivers are women. Fifteen of those women began through speed trust. The other 5 or so were women who saw these other women drivers and decided "well if they can do it so can I" and told their husbands to get them an auto and teach them how to drive... now are out their earning double the money for their families. These women who are now driving these autos went form earning 200 rupees a month to now 200-300 rupees a day! Not only does this program teach women these different useful trades but also educates children. They are sent to school during the day and then after school they come to these classrooms (40-50 children in a room!!!) and do their homework and afterschool activities in this building. The really neat thing about this program is that it isn't a charity, it teaches woman how to survive and make a proper living for themselves and children. The families are responsible for paying 10 rupees a month (about $0.25), which doesn't seem like much to us, but it makes them accountable for what they are doing, therefore the children show up everyday because the families are invested. The younger children in this program are also on the English track learning English in school. The program also just saw two young girls go to college in India! Check out the website for more info. or to help! http://www.speedtrust.in/index.htm

One of the major stories behind the women who are part of this organization is that they were either widowed or abandoned by their husbands. When a young girl goes into marriage she is essentially leaving her family and joining her husband's family. She no longer has contact with her family but if/when her husband dies or abandons her his family will turn their back on the wife, leaving her and her children often in the streets with no skills to help make a living for themselves.

**Some of the children coming home from school as we were leaving. They were so adorable, not shy at all, walking up shaking our hands with the biggest smiles on their faces. The little girl in the first picture couldn't wait to see her picture and was making sure that I showed everyone!

Onam

Onam is the biggest festival in the South Indian state of Kerala. It falls during the Malayali month of Chingam (Aug-Sep) and marks the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali. Carnival of Onam lasts for ten days and is linked to many elements of Kerala's culture and tradition. Intricately decorated Pookalam, ambrosial Onasadya, Snake boat Race and the Kaikottikali dance are some of the most remarkable featurs of Onam - the harvest festival in Kerala. (wikipedia definition). Lots of pictures and explanations of these different things are on this website http://www.onamfestival.org/.

*The beautiful pookalam outside the house next to mine! Made from flower petals.

This week I also started at the orphanage (House of Hope). I loved it the children were so cute... they were so happy for us to be there and really enjoyed the art project that Kate and I did with them. We had mirrors for the kids and they could draw a self portrait of anything that they would like using the chalk. We had them draw things that represented themselves so that we could get a sense of who they were. In the coming weeks I am going to take my cameras and laptop and with the older children do some photography and let them play around with their pictures on photoshop.

The kids did a fantastic job! Here are a few pictures of some of the kids drawings! Around christmas time last year the children made some greeting cards with traditional Indian art and sold them at my school. Kate and I are planning on having some photography for for sale this year... have the kids take the pictures and change them in photoshop then we'll go get them printed and framed to sell! The money is used to go towards the children and supporting their education, we are in the process of trying to set up a trust/scholarship type fund for the children's college education.