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!
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| 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!
That makes me so sad to hear that children who get lost have no real way of being placed back with their parents. Is that something that you two will be working to help correct? Setting up home addresses or maybe identification cards for the kids or something like that? I would really love to do something like what you both are doing. How much is this setting you both back? I really hope you both enjoy your time there. It should be interesting to see how this trip compares with your mission Kyle. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteYeah, isn't that so sad! It's one of the projects we're considering. It's a really big task though, so we would need to get some sort of infrastructure for it to carry on once we leave. But I think it would be so great to figure something out!
ReplyDeleteYeah, our team needs five more people actually! The program cost is about 2,900/person plus flight. This covers housing and almost all your meals (you buy dinner on the weekends), plus funding projects. We've fundraised for a good portion of it, so it's totally do-able. And luckily Kyle is actually going as an intern to do research so his portion is mostly covered.
Thanks Josh! We're stoked and we'll keep in touch!
You should show us a map of where you will be. So excited for you!
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