Yodi-Mam

Although Varanasi was a little out of the way I really wanted to see the kids that I had spent 2 weeks with earlier in June. (see blog entry "basic human needs" if you don't remember every detail of my travels :)) Seeing the kids again was the perfect way to end my time in India. I got to see the school where on the first day in July 127 kids showed up. They have a few class rooms but most of the kids sit in different areas outside under hutlike covers. Beside the "classroom" is the counter where Bharti-mam spends the whole morning cooking lunch for all the kids and staff on one burner.

In the mornings I would come and help out in some of the classes or sometimes I would help Bharti with all the vegetables she had to cut for lunch. Often the girls would have to bring their baby brother or sister to school, so I would just hold a baby for the morning so they could go to class. After lunch school was over, as it is too hot to have school in the afternoon, the kids that had homes to go to went home. And the 30 "hostel kids" went back to the hostel for their afternoon nap. The kids that lived in the hostel were the ones that I spent most of my time with as they were the kids that were at camp in June and I knew them the best. I would spend the afternoon and evening hanging out at the hostel. After nap time we would all go out to the field and play games until 6pm when we would head back to the hostel and I would help the kids with their English homework and then we would eat dinner and I would catch a rickshaw back to my hotel. The kids begged me to sleep with them at the hostel as I had slept with them at camp, but the hostel had even less room.

The hostel has four rooms total and the girls sleep upstairs and the boys sleep down stairs. There are no beds and they all just sleep cuddled together on the cement floor. The amazing cook Interjit and his wife stay over night with the kids. There are 2 toilets and a spot for a bucket shower. It is amazing how well organized they are and I felt like I got to be apart of their big family. I was only there for 9 days but I feel like it was much longer and I totally fell in love with the kids again. Each one has their own sad tragic sad story but they are such survivors.

Not wanting to spend anytime away from them I got them to take me sight seeing around Varanasi which was so much fun. They looked after me more then I had to look after them. The only trouble that one boy got into was beating up another kid on the side of the road, but I had a hard time getting him in trouble when I asked why he was punching the other boy, he said he was "speaking abuse" about me.

Varanasi is a holy city for the Hindus and to die in the city and then be cremated here is especially auspicious as it is said to free you from the cycle of life and death. All along the Ganges or "Mother Ganga" there are ghats where pilgrims bathe away their sins in the water. The water is completely polluted with people being continually cremated on the burning ghats where the fire that Krishna himself started 3000years ago is said to be. As well people use it as a toilet, for bathing and doing laundry, and you will find some kids just swimming and drinking the water. This was all common place for the kids and one of the kids with very good English was able to tell me all the stories of the Hindu gods which really are quite interesting. He was so good at explaining and then in the middle of explaining one story I interupted and asked "Karim aren't you Muslim?" And he was like "Yes, but Yodi-mam it is all the same God." I love india and these kids.

The manager of the school had just recently gotten married and I felt totally honoured to be invited to the wedding party. One of the teachers and a new friend lent me one of her Sari's, jewelry and even a bindi dot for the occasion. I was just excited to dress-up for a night and although it was a small party it was great to see and of course eat.

I am not quite sure why I felt even more attached to these kids then ever before. Just seeing how the happily survive on nothing, I am committed to staying a part of their lives. The school and the hostel is able to run on such little money by Canadian standards but are always having trouble finding the money as the kids keep coming and they continue to need to hire more staff to deal with them. The school was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of my friends. I sent out one email asking for donations and was able to give the school $1800! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of those that gave. The school was dangerously low on money and they were so overwhelmed by the amount of money and that people trusted me and them. I am really hoping to go back as soon as possible and want to maintian contact and hope to get a steady base of donations from Canada so the school is not continually worried about the next month. If anyone is still interested in giving please contact me!

On my last night the kids threw me a little good bye party where they all sang songs for me and had made me a big goodbye card and all kinds of little good-bye cards. After hugging all the kids good-bye before bedtime, although some of the little ones had already fallen asleep in the corner of the room, I headed out to the train station with my regular rickshaw driver in the pouring rain.

The whole station was flooded and it was hard find a place to stand with the crowds let alone put down my bag. Plus the power kept cutting out every few minutes. It took awhile to figure out, but my 1155pm train ended up being delayed 2 hours while I sat on the platform in the pitchdark. Although I didn't feel scared I was able to recognize this did not seem like a safe situation. But at 2am my train arrived and I was able to find my bed and get a little sleep on the 14 hour journey while trying to keep my hands on all my stuff. With no energy left to deal with Delhi I went straight to the airport even though my flight wasn't for another 9 hours.

India was probably some of the hardest and most interesting travelling I have ever done and I was quite sad to be leaving not knowing how soon I could get. But at least I had Peter and Patrick waiting for me in Seoul for the last 2 weeks of my trip!