They don't call it Indian Style for nothin

This guy in the picture is really good at sitting this way.

I am not.

The apparent chair shortage here will either - break my back - or - give me back STRONG LIKE BULL!

I'm not sure if I've written much about the Ashraya Initiative for Children yet, but this may be a good time before I tell you a bit more about how the past few days have been for me.

Liz Sholtys, along with a group of other young people started the organization to establish a home for street kids. Until a few months before I came, I thought most of their work was focused on the kids.

Emailing with Liz and Patrick though, I learned that they'd started health and education outreach programs to have greater impact. After being here a week or so now, I'm still consistently impressed by AIC's projects.

I originally thought I'd be helping out as a volunteer with their health outreach, but since lots of kids have exams coming up, I've been doing more teaching. Which has been quite a ride in and of itself. I've always loved kids, but usually in the way that I love a good book. I'm used to observing characters from a healthy distance, and then putting them down whenever I want to. Not so when you're living with the kids - or teaching them about brer rabbit and the "wonderful tar baby." Another unexpected element of working with the kids is that dada is a word for brother (i think) so i'm called dada all day...

"Dada what I doing this?" "Um, in this activity they want you to draw one less balloon than in this box." "Coloring?" "See there are five in this box, draw one less over here." "one, three FIVE!" "yes, five, draw one less than five here." "FIVE! Matching?" "Um, no draw four - one, two, three, four balloons here." "FIVE?!" "four. draw only four balloons here." "Dada?" "yes?" "what I doing this?"

So the other reason that I haven't been with the health outreach program as much is that Patrick, who normally runs that wing of the organization is still in the US waiting on a visa to return. When he was here until January, they apparently had a good thing going with office hours at the community center they run every day of the week. This has been reduced to three days a week. And, I'm concerned, may be reducing Liz. She takes care of so many folks, it's hard not to wonder who's taking care of her.

Walking with Liz is quite the experience. She's keeping a lot going right now - even with two hired live-in teachers, she is ultimately in charge right now of the 10 (plus one twelve-toed baby. pictures to come as soon as i get a camera...) residential kids, 30 kids in the education outreach program, dozens of families supported by the health outreach program (where did you go last night Liz? to the hospital again, the guy we helped back on his feet last year has nearly killed himself and we need to go to the blood bank for a transfusion. which, by the way ended up being the perfect time for a blackout and for the rickshaw we were riding in to get stuck in the mud. really.) and now... wait for it... Microfinance!

Apparently she asked around about having an interest session for a women's self-help finance club. Instead of interest, there ended up being commitment and excitement. When do we start?
I tagged along for their first official meeting yesterday, which was fascinating. I've always been interested in the way groups organize themselves. The Waghris are one of the lowest "criminal" castes, but not only do other groups not trust them, but they don't trust others. So three groups ended up forming yesterday with roughly twenty women each contributing funds to a pot that they can draw from at 2% interest. Each group was divided pretty clearly by caste, which because of the level of trust needed for something as dicey as finance, is probably not the first place to try and work on integration.

One of the most recent winners of the Nobel peace prize was a Bangladeshi man who started a huge bank that oversees several of these small loans giving credit to folks that wouldn't get it otherwise, at fair rates of interest, and a sustainable means of economic growth.

Last Thursday though, I went with Liz to help one woman get an epidural for back pain, another woman get a mammogram and a boy checked out for asthma and PTSD. The mammogram ended up being $10 with consult, which brings me to the plug. For a group that is getting so much good work done, they have the lowest operating costs I've seen. So a huge portion of donations go directly to project funding, which in turn goes a really long way given the strength of the dollar against the rupee. If you're feeling generous, there's a link to the right for AIC where you can donate online. OK, Sally Struthers is done.

Suddenly a month feels like a very short period of time. But while this stuff gets me excited about heading to school in the Fall, I'm trying to be intentional about taking it easy. Reading some. Drinking tea. Breathing. Sitting.