Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Two weeks!


We leave in two weeks from today! We're getting excited.

Just for fun, here's a song from our favorite Bollywood movie (so far) called Lage Raho Munna Bhai. It's catchy, even if you don't know what the words mean :)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Mangoes, heat, and good to do

ONE MONTH FROM YESTERDAY! It's kind of unreal, but so fantastic.

Our excitement has been growing rapidly, and our Saturday spent at a training conference for HELP International has just fanned the flames. It's becoming more and more real, which is both scary and invigorating.

We heard from special presenters about principles of development, learned more particulars about what projects we can work on, and got to meet much of our team. I love the dynamic already, with so many personalities and interests. 

Some of the highlights:
  • Mangoes will be sold all down the streets the first month or two while they're in season. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
  • One of our country directors is from Hyderabad, and even she is dreading the heat... 
  • There is a really big problem with missing children in India. Children will get separated from their parents for one reason or another, and if they do not know their way home there is no way of police looking it up; there is nothing tracking addresses. As a result, many of the children in orphanages actually do have living parents, they just do not know where.
  • A potential project includes helping individuals in a leper colony find a way to generate income. I think it sounds really interesting.
  • Sometimes people will cram like 11 people into a rickshaw... (see photo and imagine 11 people in that).
  • I'll probably get to prepare a few classes on various public health topics, including basic "growing up" for adolescents who aren't really taught about it, hand washing, and who knows what else.
  • There are FIVE positions left on our team! Join us! If you or anyone you know is interested, let me know, or visit  http://help-international.org/ to find out more. It's going to be amazing!
A rickshaw, like many we'll ride this summer to get around town.
(Thanks Wikipedia!)
On top of all that, I won a really great backpack! Perfect timing too; the one I've had for at least five years is on it's way out. Now we only have a few more things to get to prepare... Luckily, we'll buy much of our clothing there since it will be cheaper! Our visas came in the mail today too!

Selavu!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Visas!

It's been a little while, but we're still going strong!

Today we got an email letting us know that our visas have been approved... WE'RE GOING! Only a month and three days left...
Part of our visa paperwork. We had to attach our passport pictures to the first set of paperwork, then take a picture of our picture and signature and load that onto another online application... weird, no?


Other than that, we've been reading up on India and international development, getting more vaccinations and our malaria medication, and Kyle has been working on a training he'll be doing tomorrow for all the other evaluators. (I know, he's awesome).

Saturday we have an all-day training, and I'm getting super stoked. I look forward to learning a lot and meeting our fellow India-goers. We'll have to let you know how it goes!