Leprosy in India

We wanted to make a final note on the things we did over our activity week at the beginning of November. One afternoon, we took the students to the KKM Leprosy Colony. Many of the students entered KKM imagining people stricken with a terrible disease with limbs falling off, but we were assured that everyone there had been treated and there was no chance of catching anything from them. The colony is simply a place for these former leprosy patients to avoid any stigma associated with the disease and earn an income by weaving beautiful fabrics by hand.

We were able to witness the entire process of making cloth from start to finish. First the wool was cleaned and prepared for spinning.

Some of the women we saw were using traditional hand techniques to spin the wool, while others used more modern-looking machines.


We didn't see any dying being done, but they had all the colors of the rainbow ready to be put on the loom. These beautiful yarns were then put onto spindles so that they could be made into equally beautiful fabrics.

Once placed on the looms, the residents of the colony quickly worked their magic and produced great pieces of cloth that they were then able to sell in the adjacent shop.

We thought a little video would be appropriate to show just how deftly the weavers worked on their fabric.

It was a great experience for us and the students. Beth had visited the KKM shop before, but had never actually seen the spinning and weaving taking place. We left with several pieces of cloth more and a few rupees less than we'd arrived with, but it was well worth it.

Dave and Beth

Sunset

We saw a pretty sunset over the valley the other night, so we thought we'd take a few pictures. Naturally, the photographs don't do it justice, but it still looks pretty nice.


Dave and Beth

Baby, It's Cold Outside...and Inside

It does get a little chilly here in the Himalayan foothills, but it is nowhere near as cold as Michigan or Chicago in the winter. The problem with the weather here is that there is no central heating in any of the buildings. So a 50° day would not be a big deal in the states, but it feels really cold when the house is only a few degrees warmer.

We do have a wood stove in one room of our house, but we try to conserve the wood that we have by building fires only when absolutely necessary. Usually, we just pile on a few more layers of clothing. It's been a few weeks since this picture was taken and both the indoor and outdoor temperatures are often lower than this now.

Dave and Beth

Clement Town

As part of activity week, we tried to do some cultural activities in addition to our learning ones. One day after spending time at the various schools, we took a short bus trip to Clement Town. This is the area of Dehradun that is home to the Tibetan exile community of the city. There was a 103 foot tall statue of the Buddha and lots of monks and other Tibetans in the area.

The highlight, though, was the Asia's largest stupa. It reminded us of a lot of the stupas we saw in Ladakh this summer, but was definitely big.

It is actually a part of the re-established Mindroling Monastery. This monastery was originally founded in Lhasa, but was heavily damaged by the government of China during the 1959 revolt of the Tibetan people against communist rule. They've re-established the monastery here, and it contains one of the largest Buddhist institutes of learning in the country.

It's always nice to experience some new aspect of culture in India, even if it is an aspect that is transplanted from somewhere else.

Dave and Beth

The Fun Valley

It may be surprising to those of you reading this blog post in the states, but the preceding picture is meant to inspire thoughts of fun and excitement. This is one of the pieces of equipment at Fun Valley, one of the best water parks in the north of India. It might look rusty, fall-aparty, and unsafe, but it is actually awesome.

Naturally, there were lots of water slides at Fun Valley and they all displayed varying degrees of safety and cleanliness.

Some of them caused kids to shoot in the air dangerously, and some would cause the students to bunch together dangerously. Some of them were barely slippery enough to slide down so students resorted to walking down dangerously on their feet.

Fun Valley also had a wave pool. Beth was going to sit out and read a bit, but decided to join in after she heard several students discussing how they didn't know how to swim.

There were other parts to the park as well. We did some bumper cars, go-kart racing, and roller coastering. None of it felt particularly safe, but most of us made it out of the part in one piece.

We thought we'd end with another fantastic decoration. This was a pot-bellied Mickey Mouse wearing a Hawaiian shirt and holding a tiny ice cream cone that stood on top of one of the more dangerous looking rides.

We'll be sure to take any of our future visitors to Fun Valley as part of their tour of India.

Dave and Beth

Activity Week (2)

It has been a very long time since we posted the first half of our activity week adventure. Life here at Woodstock has become very busy as the end of the semester has approached. We've found that we have less and less time to post on our blog. Our grades for the first semester have now been submitted and we've got some more relaxed time before we head out on our whirlwind tour of the country over Christmas break. In order to help us keep things straight, we are back-dating these posts so that they fit chronologically with the times that the events actually happened.

Aside from our time working with developmentally disabled individuals during activity week, we also spent some time interacting with visually impaired people. The main focus of this part of the week was the Sharp Blind School.

While there, our students learned a bit about what life is like for those who are blind or are unable to see much. This included trying to learn a bit of Braille (in both English and Hindi).

Many of our students simply enjoyed interacting with the students at the school. They were learning to add and subtract, read and write, and survive life in India--all without the ability to see.

Some of the older students worked together with students that could see and did some Braille typing. We also met some people who attended the school as girls and stayed on as teachers. The woman in the photograph on the right has been at the school since she was 3 years old. He family was unhappy that they had a blind girl in the family and essentially abandoned her there.

The school has a great ministry where they help train people for life in India (which can be very difficult for those with disabilities). It was great to see a bit of their work in action.

Dave and Beth

Activity Week (1)

As we mentioned in our last post, we had our Activity Week here at Woodstock. If you remember last year's report, we did some white water, rock climbing, biking, and similar activities. This year, we had a completely different agenda. Starting with a hike down the hill to Dehradun, we spent all of our mornings interacting with students that had disabilities. Most of our time was spent at a school for the developmentally disabled. Many of our students have never had any contact with people such as this, so it was a great chance to see a diversity of abilties. Here are a few pictures of our students playing games, talking, and just hanging out with these children.

We also had a great time sharing with these special kids.

Our trip had some other parts to it that we will discuss in later posts (think Indian water park, Tibetan Stupa, and Leprosy colony), but we wanted to end this entry with a picture of our last event with our new differently abled friends. This dance party was a big hit and Beth really cut a rug with some of the girls from the school.

It was certainly a different experience from last year, but it was a great one.

Dave and Beth

Care Package

We were all set to begin a series of posts on the Activity Week trip that we finished last Friday. This was a lot different from the Activity Week that we had last year, so it warrants some thorough coverage. Today, though, we got a wonderful surprise from some friends in Germany. The principal at Woodstock was on a recruiting trip to Europe last week and we got him in touch with some people at Black Forest Academy where we used to teach. Our friends, the Duecks, gave him a little German care package to deliver to us.

The chocolate is much appreciated and the fancy napkins definitely remind us of the wonderful year that we spent in the Black Forest. The trick now will be to eat and use them slowly so that they last for a while...

Dave and Beth

Sticky Wicket

Since first taking up the sport of cricket while living in Germany, Dave has been trying to figure out a way to see an international match in person. India seemed to be the perfect place to make this happen. The Australian cricket has been touring India this fall, so we thought we'd give it a try. After school on Friday, we took a taxi to Dehradun with our friends to catch the overnight train to Delhi. The train ended up arriving about two hours late and made it to Delhi about three hours late, but our spirits were not dampened. After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we made a quick trip to the American embassy club. This is one of the few places in the country where one can get good American food. We filled up on hamburgers, hot dogs, steak sandwiches, root beer, and curly fries. It was fantastic!

After lunch, it was off to the stadium in Delhi for the match. The security was very tight and we had three checkpoints that we made it through successfully. At the fourth security checkpoint, the guards decided that we were not allowed to bring anything into the stadium. This inlcuded cameras, phones, backpacks, keys, and anything else we had in our pockets. As we sat trying to convince the guards to let us in with our stuff, we watched wave after wave of Indians being allowed to walk through with bags full of the things we were asked to leave behind. In the end, we were unsuccessful and two of our number had to return to the hotel with our bags. Since we were not allowed cameras, we've put a couple of highlights from Cricinfo.com on the blog to give you an idea of the fun we had.

It was an exciting close match. The series had been tied 1-1 at the beginning and India won this match by 6 wickets with only ten balls remaining. It was great fun. The only cricket-related picture that we were able to capture was one of the two of us wearing our cricket jerseys in the hotel after the match was over.

In spite of a few difficulties along the way, it was a great trip all around.

Dave and Beth