A New Home and a New Puppy

Today, we slept in a little! Hooray! We woke up around 7:30 (that's our "sleeping in" for you). After a delicious and plentiful breakfast of toast (Kaytee ate a whole loaf) and fruit and a wheat dish that you dip bananas in (we found that to be interesting...), we piled into the motor rickshaws and headed over to the "colony"; not a ride for the weak-stomached. After the huge thunder storm last night, the boulder-strewn roads were a slick mud river that challenged the most capable drivers of these rickshaws. Once we reached the "colony", we got to see the house that part of our group's fund-raising helped to build. Completed just yesterday, it now houses a family of 6. Before we went in the house, the local pastor of the region (Catholic) chanted a prayer in song along with the women of the family. It was a really emotional and heartwarming experience because both the mother and the daughter started crying out of appreciation. They had formerly lived in a hovel that had cardboard for a roof and an torn sheets for curtains. Now, they could start over in a house with electricity, an indoor toilet and shower. Daisy explained to us that it was a huge breakthrough for the women of the household-particularly the teenage girl-to have the privacy of an indoor toilet. Part of the ceremony included lighting the first wood fire on the stove in their kitchen, and placing a pot of sweetened milk on top to be boiled over onto the fire. To much applause, when the milk boiled over, they served us all the hot milk, and the elders (Susie and "Professor Dan") were asked to be seated. We found the house to be quite small, consisting of a bathroom, one bedroom, a kitchen and a living room. Basically, the whole house was the size of one of our bedrooms. Daisy assured us that it was very luxurious and plenty of room for this family, considering what they had been living in before.

After we said goodbye to the family, we got back into the rickshaws for another booty-bumping ride back to the house. We thought we would get another chance to work on the Vocational Center today, but seeing as it was a Sunday, the workers did not arrive. So, after a while of contemplating what to do that day, Susie riled us all up and we walked with Lal to the market where he purchases his groceries. Lal told us that it would only be about a 2 kilometer walk (aka 1 mile) but as India has shown us before, everything is at least twice as long as expected. We ended up walking 4 kilometers one way (aka 2 miles) and back in the heat of the day, sweating and huffing. Susie sang out to us that it was "character building" and Mr. Palma agreed as he adjusted his sweatband and shook out his t-shirt that was a shade or two darker with sweat than before. Back home we were relieved of our heat with cold showers and fresh limeade that Lal makes for us. After some lounge time to recover from our cross-country trek, ROSIE the new puppy arrived! Lal held her with loving arms and introduced her to Jimmy, the now-jealous, spawn-of-satan Dalmatian guard dog. Jimmy didn't seem too upset when Daisy showed her love for him but it will still take him some getting used to. This gangly, big footed, bony puppy will prove to be a little bit of a challenge for Lal to train.

Today really gave us the chance to see what our hard work and fund-raising efforts have brought to a community. Daisy told us about how when she came here in 2001 all of the children had sad faces, and would not look you in the face - their eyes were cast down. Now, they have a reason to be confident in their abilities. They know that they have options and a future ahead of them - no wonder we see so many smiles and waves every day. They all show pride in their homes, themselves and their community. We feel like we are really making a difference here, even though some of the stuff we are doing we may take for granted at home. All of us in Portland know that we have options in our future, and it's nice to know that we've given that freedom to choose to kids in India.

Well, that's about it faithful blog trekkers! We're off to go have another round (hopefully better) of Indian hamburgers -made by Daisy herself this time.

Ta Ta (goodbye in Malyalam) for now! Enjoy the ice fest while we sweat it out in Kerala!

Love always,
Kaytee and Ellie