Destinations:

·         Driving through Old Delhi

·         Grace Christian School

·         Slums of Delhi

Purpose: Bring supplies and visit children of Grace Christian Academy.

Tomorrow: The Taj Mahl.

Highlights:

• New things to see in Delhi
• School of hope in the slums
• Uma’s family

Quote of the day: “India is not for the faint of heart.”

Today I really miss Pooja and Hassen.  Hassen will only have a few months and at most a few years to live.  His AIDS is pretty advanced and the way he says, “Thank you Uncle” each time I take his picture constantly echoes in my mind.  He is such a polite fun and intelligent boy.  He would be a blessing to any family.  I have to keep reminding myself that it will be no time at all and he will be in Heaven with no disease and a new body and love surrounding him.  “Thank you uncle,” he would most likely say to me if he could read this.

Driving through Delhi

As much as I can figure out Delhi is split in two areas, New Delhi that feels much like Mumbai, and Old Delhi that feels like Pune.  New Delhi had newer paved roads and a lot less traffic.  Old Delhi was packed.  We were driving about 10am which was their morning traffic time.  People going into town would drive on both sides of the roads.  We were driving out of town and had to drive on the shoulder in order for the opposite traffic to drive in ALL lanes.  On the sides of the road there were make shift tents where people lived, people getting a shave, people selling spices of exotic colors, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, a few children begging, and little shops selling all the things you could imagine.  The crack up was seeing men on bikes carrying large loads of merchandise and weaving through the maze of cars, rickshaws and motorcycles.

Grace Christian School

For some reason I thought we were going to see a school for orphans and then head to one of the many slums to visit children.  It wasn’t until breakfast that I discovered we were going to a school in the middle of a large slum. The slum we visited is in a Muslim community.  And the school is the heart of it.  Over 200 children attend this Christian school.   The kids all wear uniforms and they feel privilege to be there.  Part of the reason is because right outside of the large locked gate, kids stand wanting to come in. When we walked into the school, children greeted us with flowers.  I did about a 30 minute magic show for everyone.  You would have thought I was David Copperfield performing for the reception I got.  A large crowd grew at the around the gate, people climbed onto the roof and we even saw a person far off watching through binoculars.  It was my best show yet and it was a ton of fun. Robbie then told a story and we left a ton of school supplies and backpacks for the kids.

This was one of the larger slums in the area.  There were a few places that they pumped the ground for water and the school had electricity.  They also were drying colored clay that would then later be handmade into bricks.  It was its own little city with very meek stores and even a place to get a shave.  Homes were all built with random materials.  The homes all had a large whole dug in the front of it where sewage from inside would trickle down to and then absorbed into the ground.  Then down the dirt streets there would be streams of a mixture of urine from animals, water, and anything else you can imagine. 

You will notice in a few pictures children with dark eye liner under their eyes.  Originally parents put eye liner on children to ward off the ‘evil eye.’ If the evil eye sees how beautiful your child is then it would hard your child with illness.  Today they put eye liner on their eyes since they think it is good for their eyes but the tradition started long ago with superstition.  This is also where we get the idea of bridesmaids.  The more beautiful the bride the more bridesmaids were needed so that the evil eye would not find the bride.  Funny how superstition falls into mainstream culture.  Back to the slums, there had to be 3000 people living in this community. And right in the middle of it all is a Christian school that teaches the kids English and the Bible.  Wow!  I can’t see anything more inspiring than such a phenomenal school giving children the opportunity of learning and potentially moving out of the community.

Uma & His Family

Later in the evening we had dinner with Uma and had the privilege of meeting his wife and his two wonderful kids.  Uma has been a great friend, leader, tour guide, and our protector on this trip.  He is from India and speaks fluent English as well as Hindi.  His personality reminds me of my friend Jim Gimeno. In fact they are the same age.  Uma and I instantly hit it off.  I would wander or disappear and he would find me.  He said that looking for me has become such a part of his day that he knows he will be looking for me just out of habit even after I leave.  Not once did he ever lose his cool, his compassion or his patience.  He works full time with Orphan Outreach and feels like his job of finding out which orphanages to connect with Orphan Outreach and how to help them develop is the perfect job. We are very grateful for the time he has spent away from his family and the many hours he took to organize everything here in India.

Thought of the Day

A few of us have really been reflecting on why we came on this trip and what we are going to do with the knowledge that we now process.  I have been thinking of ways we can raise money for Santvana by uploading the children’s songs to iTunes and then tell people to download the music.  The orphanage would get $1 for every song downloaded.  Santvana runs on about $800 a month.  They are hoping to get to $1000 a month so they can take in more children.  Any ideas?

Dean