Our first full day in Allahabad! We’re still getting settled in to our new room, but we went to visit Joy and where the children live this afternoon. Joy explained to us how they used the rent their shelter home, and how recently the rent has become too high for their organization to bear. So, what he has done is either placed the children in safe homestay situations, or kept them with himself to live. There are currently 8 children living with him right now. I recognized many of them from the pictures on SOUP’s website, except they had grown up quite a bit since they were last photographed. It was amazing to see the faces of children I have had hanging on my wall all year at school. They greeted us as soon as we walked in – “Good morning, didi! Good morning!” “Didi” is a term of respect in Indian culture meaning “elder sister.” It is what we used to refer to Ms. Karmakar while we were staying with her, so we really appreciated what it meant to hear someone use it in our direction. I was so impressed at how well dressed and well behaved they were, and also at how well they seemed to know English. We talked with Joy for a little bit about what we’ll be doing while working at SOUP – we hope to teach the children some more English and teach them some music and dance (maybe even the songs and dances we learned from the children in the rural village!). Joy also let us borrow a few books for reading from the impressive library he is developing in his living room. I’m going to try and finish each one before I trade it in for a new one. The one I picked for this week is called “the Urgency of Value Education of Girl Children.” I was inspired to read it after talking to Ms. Karmakar so much about the role education plays in the advancement of women. I’ve also read in other places that when you educate and support the women of an impoverished community, the community is more likely to develop and grow successfully. I’ll be interested to see if this book touches on that at all.
29 MAY 2009