Finding my groove, again

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Namaskar!

I keep waiting for this feeling of excitement and wonder to overcome me the way it did when I first came to India, but I am beginning to realize that it probably won't happen - everything here is familiar, from needing to haggle with rickshaw drivers and fruit-sellers to the taste of curried okra and naan bread. It's a great feeling, absolutely, but not one where I am hyper over seeing an elephant walking in the street or get indignant over having to share a shop with a cow anymore - those things all feel very second nature now, and it's pretty cool!

I had my first week, if you can call it that since Thursday was a big holiday, working for Salaam Baalak Trust (which from now on I am going to refer to as SBT since typing the whole name is very long). Monday I got to work only to find out that the doctor at the railway station contact point is on vacation for the next month - excellent! In India, October is basically like our December, with tons of holidays, so I am not so surprised, but I am a bit disappointed. I went and had a meeting with the volunteer coordinator so I could figure out how to best use my time here, since 6 weeks is not very long and I really want to do as much as I can.

The way the organization works is that social workers, other former street children, and/or police will find kids living in the New Delhi railway station or other "contact points" throughout the city. Either they will find the children begging, or stealing, or gambling, or something, and rather than arrest them or put them in jail (which is what used to happen and is of no benefit to anyone, whatsoever) the children will be brought into the SBT railway station contact point. There, the children will be checked over by a physician and their history will be taken - if they have family living on the streets with them they'll be sent back with them, or if they are don't, they will be brought in to the transitional shelter home of the SBT, called Aasra. There, the children will spend 6-12 months while the organization works to try to find their families, or while they try to find a permanent space available in one of the shelter homes around the city.

The task of finding the childrens' families is formidable, and it is stunning that it ever happens at all. Often the children are from small, rural villages from poor states like Bihar or from Nepal, and they have run away to flee from abuse, neglect, a step-parent, poverty, or because they have seen some sort of "orphan rags-to-riches" story in a film and are trying to emulate what they've seen in Bollywood. In other cases, these children simply become separated from their families on a trip to Delhi and get lost, unable to contact their parents if they don't have cell phones (my mom's plan to always have a spot to meet if we got lost whenever we'd go out to busy or crowded places as kids seems even more crucial now that I look back on it!). Rarely, the child will be purposefully left by a relative, although that does not happen often. So you can imagine, sometimes a child does not even want to go home to their family, let alone know how to get there, and if they do ask the child where they're from, SBT may get an answer like "I am from a village in Uttar Pradesh near the hill with the Shiva temple on it". Shiva temples in India are like cows here - they are absolutely everywhere.

So quite often, the children will remain with the organization. They don't have to, of course - some kids just prefer the freedom of the streets, where they don't have to answer to anyone and they can be on their own. In that case, all the contact points provide a hot meal at lunch and medical checkups as well as counselling and assistance, so the kids can at least be certain of one meal per day (although interestingly, I learned that street kids never have trouble finding food. They raid rail cars, which always have food scraps somwhere, or they visit Sikh temples, which all give out food for free). For the kids that do opt to join the SBT shelter homes, they are given much more. The ones who can attend school will go (although lots can't because of learning disabilities and behavioural problems), and the ones who can't are given "Non-formal" schooling, which is where volunteers come in.

I am now spending my mornings teaching computers (I was initially really hesitant since I am not exactly a techie, knowing only some parts of MS Office and Paint) to the boys at the transitional shelter, Aasra. It is amazing and SO moving - some of these children have never sat in front of a computer screen before, let alone touched a mouse, and watching their faces light up when they see that they can draw a picture, erase it, change colours, etc... actually sends shivers down my spine - the looks of wonder and surprise on their little faces is absolutely priceless. For the boys who are familiar with computers, I am teaching them how to type and use Word, changing font style and size and giving them little writing assignments which is also super cool.

In the afternoons I am at Apna Ghar (which means "I am home" - isn't that sweet?), a boys' shelter home which is about a 15-20 minute walk from where I'm staying in Pahar Ganj. Here I am teaching the youngest boys English, which I had a great time doing the other afternoon as I had a bunch of foam letters and I would write words on the chalkboard and have them spell them using the letters on the floor. Something I'm trying to emphasize is working together to make something bigger and better - they are coming from environments where it is very much survival of the fittest and whatever you don't grab for yourself, someone else will take, so there are often fights. But by the end of the week I had them sharing and cooperating and I felt pretty proud of that, so let's see if it sticks with them this coming week!

Although there is much sameness in my experience of India this time around, my days are still full of moments that have me laughing out loud at the absurdity of things here - traffic being a big one. It is not a rare sight to see an entire family on a motorcycle, with the smallest baby perched on the very front and in charge of the horn (in India, you do not have to be a particularly good driver, you just need to be a good honker) and the only person wearing a helmet is the driver (it's the law - you don't have to put a helmet on your infant hanging precariously off the side of your motorcycle, but God forbid you yourself don't wear one!). And yesterday, a guy walked past me and grabbed at my butt as he went so I smacked him on the back of the head, which felt GREAT! He didn't protest or anything so I know he knew what was up.

Actually just writing about India and this blog and thinking about life here is making me smile pretty widely. I know I keep emphasizing this and saying it but it honestly feels like I am home now! Who knows what my future holds for me, but my present holds days that resonate with a feeling of rightness and peace, being in a chaotic city full of dust, mangy dogs, smiling former street children, and a whole lot of cow shit 😊

Take care everyone, I am holding you all in my heart here in the subcontinent! So much love!!

Namaste!! xoxoxoxo

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