SMILE :)

On Sunday, our Rotary Club partnered with the Smile Train and hosted a Cleft camp, which we got to be a part of. Members of the Rotary club were involved in spreading the word all around the Nilgiris as well as providing the space and equipment, and the Smile Train sent specialist surgeons. 31 patients attended from near and far (children and adults with cleft lips and palates). They were all assessed and offered life-changing surgeries free of charge.

We really enjoyed being a part of this and ate up the educational, cultural and social experience. It was very different from the sterile formal medical experiences we are used to. At any one time, there were about 10 people squashed in a small room (us included). There was hardly a silent second, with around 3 people attempting to interpret from English into Tamil at the same time, children screaming as the doctors poked around in their mouths, phones ringing, and people talking. There were way too many people trying to help and was all a bit confusing at times. But nobody got too stressed out about it and just got on with things. At the end of the day, all that needed to be achieved was achieved and all were welcomed. Here are a few photos.

We've had some other things to smile about recently. Our friends from England, Carl and Debi, came to visit FF and we got to spend some good quality time with them, which was just great!

Diana's mum is coming to visit in a few days time. We are looking forward to spending some time with her and have it in the plans for her to teach us how to cook some good Indian curries, and to help us learn some Tamil.

We are finally getting some warm weather in Ooty and are thoroughly enjoying it!

The Real India

Game Changers in Mumbai

After the intense season of filming "Horse and Rider: Redefining Freedom for the Daughters of India", which highlights the work of Freedom Firm (the trailer to be released in October), Diana and I promoted Ruhamah Designs and Freedom Firm at an event to celebrate the 7th year anniversary for Time Out Mumbai magazine in Mumbai. Ruhamah Designs is the jewellery company that employs the girls rescued by Freedom Firm from trafficking.

As the evening progressed, we were surprised that hardly any of the women were dressed in traditional Indian clothing. Some of the young women could have been classified as "Bombabes". You can tell a Bombabe by these criteria:

1) A Bombabe usually wears very trendy western clothes.

2) A real Bombabe wears sunglasses even at night (they have very sensitive eyes).

One has to keep in mind that we are not used to this side of India because we live in a very traditional mountain town! The event had famous celebrities, a rock band with a singer from the Caribbean, exotic food, alcohol, and an interview panel discussing the vibrancy of Mumbai completely in English. Where were we? When we left the restaurant for the evening, we were met with a woman holding a baby and an empty bottle beckoning for rupees. Oh yes, we were in India.

We made some significant contacts at the event from great magazines and chain stores, received a lot of goodwill, and had a very good time. We designed a full page ad that will appear in the October edition of the magazine. We are excited at some of the outcomes from the event.

Koderi Village

On the 25th of September, I was able to participate in a medical camp run by the Rotary Club of Ooty in a village deep into the Nilgiri Mountains. The village was off the main road, but

you had to get into it by foot. Around 150 people had all come out to the local hall for the first medical camp ever in the village, as

many have to travel over an hour by bus for the nearest doctor. They received medicines, as well as dental, physiotherapy, and general

treatment.

When I arrived I felt a little helpless, because I was neither a doctor nor a great orator in the Tamil language. I told the physiotherapist that if they needed me for anything, simply tell me what to do.

Around 5 minutes later I was almost sorry I made the offer. The same physio was speaking to a group of around 50 village women the importance of back exercises to reverse the effects of picking

tea for so many hours a day. I seemed the prime specimen to demonstrate those stretches.

I felt a little embarrassed at first, but soon I felt somewhat natural. The village women did not think it abnormal. Many people did not even seem to acknowledge my obviously foreign appearance (though we are all Indian on the inside aren't we?). However, the Rotary Club camera man felt the need to photograph my demonstrative stretches many times.

My activities the rest of the day consisted of passing out carrot

sticks (my mom would be proud) among the village as they waited their turn, chalk drawing with the children, and being invited to the home of the village priest for coffee. Each of these experiences left me with the laughter and sweet smiles of each generation. We ended the day with a hot lunch of vegetable Sambar and rice.

The experience I had was profound for me, but the real work was done by the doctors and organizers who donated their time and skills for the event and ongoing work in the village. I was moved to see such service being done in the community by the community. I am aware that such a beautiful village with such friendly people at the same time struggles with issues of poverty, and a lack of education and quality of life. The same Rotary Club also run a small residential school for the disabled called Ashia on top of regular service projects around the Nilgiris. They are able to do so much with so little funding. I could only imagine what they would be capable of with the budget of most western development projects initiated in countries like India.

Which is the real India?

Yes. Both are the real India. The community developers on the ground, the villages, the city elite, the urban masses. Each have their role to play, each offer unique strengths and contributions to face the challenges of such a great and diverse nation that is changing at a rapid rate.

Where do we fit in? Still figuring that out. Though in the meantime, helping to empower women in our own unique ways has kept us quite busy.

Revenge of the Evil Spiders

There comes a time when every warrior is tested.

My expert strategies in terminating evil arachnid have proved essential as we forge our life in the mountains of India. My wife's protection depends on the sharpening and improving of my skills.

Today my skills were tested. My nemisis returned, with an army.

I was about to take a shower and turn on the geezer for some hot water when I noticed the evil 8-legged creature staring at me from above. I quickly and effortlessly terminated him with my new weapon - "Insect Spray".

However, what I did not notice, was that this daddy spider was a distraction from the real enemy. I slowly noticed that the floor of the bathroom was covered in small, tiny, swarming baby evil spiders. The brunt of their attack came from behind the towel on the wall. I moved the towel to see what was behind it and the Momma jumped out at me.

Yes, it was a surprise attack. Luckily, I had my weapon cocked. It took a number of minutes to systematically destroy this offensive manovuer, but in the end I was victorious. My damsel wife was safe once again. :)

OUR NEW HOME

Two Fridays ago, we moved into our new place. We were grateful that it came fully furnished so all we had to do was decorate a bit. It was fun unpacking and putting up little things that we had brought with us from England. There is still quite a bit to finish but it is feeling more like home. It's cold in Ooty at the moment and there's rain everyday. It's great to look at the misty mountains from our balcony. Here are a few pictures:


This is our bedroom. The fireplace doesn't work as yet but we are working on it. We had someone come and check it out and explained to our landlord what needs to be done.


This is the guest bedroom.........for guests!


Bathroom and toilet. Western toilet but bucket bath! Gotta compromise sometimes.


A little lounge area.


A few views of the kitchen, which is fully functioning but continues to be a work in progress. It's on the top floor! We had a taco night with a few friends last night - it was muy delicioso.


This is the balcony which the kitchen leads into. Last weekend, we had some friends stay over. Rod met them when he lived in Mexico and they were living just 5 hours away from us now in Mysore. Tiev did a performance on the roof for a small audience of friends from Freedom Firm. Here's a link to the video!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=21708429

We are in the process of getting an internet connection at home and it should be up and running in the next few weeks. Thanks to all for staying in touch with us and being interested in our lives. We have loved receiving all your emails, messages, comments and also skyping. Goodbye for now!!

How to Destroy a Gigantic Evil Spider in the Dark 101

If you are reading this blog...good. It may save your life.

Take it from an expert. You cannot be too careful when you are staying the night in an old befouled house in the mountains of India and the electricity cuts out.

Key equipment: A flashlight (or torch for our UK friends).

Steps to Victory:

1) There is no step one. Or, maybe, step one is to be extremely startled with gut wrenching fear, because evil gigantic spiders appear in the most inconvenient of times and places (i.e. the toilet). *Note: You would not have seen the evil gigantic spider without the flashlight.

**Double Note: An evil gigantic spider is about the size of the palm of your hand and very hairy.

2) Step back and assess the situation. Avoid being caught in a corner. Look for multiple exits and back away from the beast.

3) Once you are aware of escape routes you can calm yourself down and look for an appropriate weapon.

4) A novice will probably do something as foolish as reach for his/her shoe or sandal. This is often a lethal mistake. I have seen it many a time in my short life. A shoe offers a very small attack radius, which decreases the chance of hitting the extremely quick "enemy of the night" and losing it to the cracks of the house, where it will wait until you sleep for its counter attack.

5) Most often your weapon will be located in another area of the house. If you have a back up team, I suggest you call it now. In my case, my wife was all the back up I needed.

6) Your back up team will take the flashlight and scout the spider to make sure the evil gigantic monster does not move on the offensive, while you stumble in the dark to retrieve your Excalibur. In my case, it was a dusty 5 Kg hard cover textbook.

7) When you have your weapon in hand, there can be no hesitation. With the help of your back up team (holding the light), you must move swiftly and without mercy. In my case, it was over in a few seconds. *Note: the text book offered an attack radius 5 times the size of the shoe, which does not decrease the need for accuracy, but offers a greater possibility of success.

For those of you who would like to visit us, but now are no longer sure if you want to, please keep in mind that this is temporary accommodation, and the spiders in Ooty are not poisonous! :)

Our new place will be Evil Gigantic Spider-Free.

We'll call it the Green Bed and Breakfast! Where fresh juices and beautiful views abound! Everyone is welcome!

May in Ooty

So we've been told that in May the population in Ooty doubles and even close to triples with tourists. It's really hot in the rest of India during this time so people come to the mountains to cool down. This weekend is the busiest weekend of the year in Ooty because there is a flower show. Have a look at the video below.



Locals (including foreign locals) are not very impressed with this, especially because businesses raise the prices of things for tourist season. Now as we've arrived in May we don't know any different so we look forward to June to see what the real Ooty is like. We have been warned though that the monsoon starts in June!!!

Rod and I have had a chance to explore the area a bit more. Last Saturday we decided to get a bus to a nearby hill station called Coonoor. We got to the bus station and tried to find the bus ourselves but all the signs were in Tamil script. We finally found a helpful man who could speak English and he asked around for the bus we should take. We got on the bus, found a seat and waited for the bus to leave. The bus was just about to leave when the conductor came round to sell us tickets. When we told him where we were going, he said something to us in Tamil (which we did not understand) and then moved on to the next person without selling us a ticket, which was a bit confusing. After a while, he insisted we get off the bus ???!!! Thankfully we were able to find the man who spoke English and he was able to translate that Coonoor passengers had to stand. Aaaah! So we stood and he sold us some tickets (8 rupees each which is equivalent to 10pence (UK) or 17cents (US)). An hour later (should only be a 20minute journey) we arrived in Coonoor, feeling a bit queezy from the windy mountain roads.

We found out that if we ever want to go to Coonoor again, the train (steam locomotive) is a fun way to get there and takes about 30 minutes. We look forward to that.

One of the things that Rod has been doing as part of his job is updating the website and sending out real time updates of what is happening on the ground (www.freedom.firm.in). We will be travelling to Pune and Nagpur in a few weeks to get an experience of investigation and rescue. We'll be sure to give you an update of what it's like!



Gotta watch out for the cows in the middle of the road:)

We went to an Indian restaurant with delicious food and a great view of the mountains from the balcony!

First Week in India

Here are a few highlights from our first week:

We started off our journey on Monday at London Gatwick. Turned out we were around 30Kgs overweight (because they weighed our hand luggage and we didn't think they would)! We had to unload 30Kgs worth of stuff and hand it to our friends. It was a little hectic but it worked out in the end! We were really thankful for our friends being there in so many ways. It was emotional to get on that plane, but it wasn't goodbye...just see you later!

So in the end we left with: 2 suitcases, 2 carry on bags, sitar, and guitar.

We arrived in Bangalore at 9:30am on Tuesday. The customs officer recognized Diana as Tamil. Her first step into the land of her ancestors and she is recognized as belonging! We had a taxi driver named Shuresh and he drove us to Ooty, and arrived to Farley guest house high in the mountains at 7:30pm. We were greeted by Jayson, the current Operations Director for Freedom Firm, though he is leaving in a few days.



On Wednesday we went to the Freedom Firm office and were able to talk with Greg, the international director of Freedom firm and meet some of the Freedom Firm staff. A real estate agent (named Rajan) then came and took us to a house we might possibly rent. It was not very nice! Jayson then showed us around town and we found out where we could by groceries and get appliances. We also got to eat some great local food!

Thursday was my first day in the office! I was able to train in communications with Jayson for most of the day, while Diana went out and bought us some new mobile phones! (They should work this time and have skype!). After work Diana and I went to a coffee shop and ate a dodgy sandwhich. That was when our health took a turn for the worst. Our tummys were not happy!

On Friday, we looked at another house with Rajan and we found a nice place with a great view. However, the only drawbacks were that it had no kitchen, the fireplaces didn't work, there was no shower, and a few other things. (The fireplaces seemed like a great touch as it can get cold in Ooty). The landlord promised to fix all these things before we moved in. We weren't so sure if that was possible though.

The next day, Greg and I went back to the apartment that we saw on Friday to see if it was possible for the landlord to even put in a kitchen in a reasonable timeframe. Turns out that the electricity and plumbing was already in place, therefore it was possible.

Later Diana and I went with Anika, one of the Freedom Firm volunteers also staying at Farley (our guest house), to help with Leg Up, the horse program connected with Freedom Firm. The three of us went on a scooter to Greg's house where the horses are. We were still feeling a little sick, but we had a lot of fun playing with the children and horses.

After that I talked with the landlord again about the apartment, and after negotiating on price and clarifying what work needed to be done, we agreed to take the apartment. We will move in on the 10th of June, so we'll be staying in temporary rooms until then. Our place when it is finished will have a great guestroom for any friends and family who come and visit!!


On Sunday Diana and I went to church where a lot of Freedom Firm staff and volunteers go. Afterwards, we had a party at Greg's to say goodbye to Jayson and his family. On the way to the party we had 13 people in one Jeep and that was how we met the rescued girls. They were lovely and each one had a very different personality. While I was telling one of them about how I met Diana she asked me, "so you like dark colour?" refering to Diana. I simply said, "well, I like all the colours!" I wasn't sure how to respond. We look forward to getting to know them better.

That's it for now!!!!!!!!!!!!!