Adventures in Agartala: Meeting the kids at Anwesha home

We flew from Kolkata to Agartala today to start the second part of our trip:  visiting the Miracle Foundation's Anwesha home.  We are now in the North-East of India, just 12 kilometers from the Bangladesh border.  In India, there is a child protection services hotline that operates a little like 911 in the US (you dial 1098 from any phone).  The Anwesha home is the designated facility in this area for abandoned, abused or human trafficked children.   These kids are not just poor or orphaned, they are children who were hurt, broken or discarded. It breaks your heart because these kids capture your heart from the very first smile. 

Of course there was great pomp and circumstance to mark our arrival.  Naturally ... a marching band was on hand ....because no ceremony in India is complete without one.

All of the girls over the age of 14 were dressed in their festival saris and lined up to greet us with … you guessed it … flower garlands and bindhi blessings (the red marks they put on your forehead).

We then met the kids and were ushered to the front of the main room so we'd have prime seats for the "Welcome" dance.

There was some initial confusion as to  proper order but "E" and "L" finally got it straight.

Then everyone in our group was individually assigned a specific group of 5-6 kids who will be our “team” for the next three days.  Not to talk smack but my group – Team Elephant – is the BEST ... even though we have the slight handicap that none of my kids speak one word of English and my Bengali is non-existent.  Nevertheless, we are determined to shine.  Plus I taught them to say “Team Hartee (Bengali for Elephant) is #1” so we have a good motto and lots of enthusiasm. I feel success in our future.

Team Elephant also has some artistic talent as well as a true love of stickers

Next up… a tour of the facility … complete with playing with the home's rabbits

And visiting the kitchen (a/k/a tin shed at back of home) where the cooks sit on a dirt floor to chop the vegetables as well as cook in huge metal pots over an open wood fire.

But first they have to pump the water from a bore well and haul it up to the kitchen ... not an easy process (as our teens learned when they tried their hand at the pump)... it is waaaay harder than it looks.

After our tour, it was time for play.  Volleyball and dancing and basic tackle

As the sun was setting, we were told to put on white T-shirts for a special blessing.  Then – with much glee – the kids ran at us with handfuls of powered paint left over from the Holi festival, which was 3 weeks ago.  Everyone turned into a multi-colored mess.

The kids especially loved rubbing the different colors on your face and head

And they were so tickled to see us all colored-up

This evening we went to a night market where the teens bought trinkets  and Alex got authentic Indian eyebrow threading

Monday in Madurai : Temples and Shopping and Museums

Today we had a full day off (no work, not travel) … to sight see and shop … before we head up North for the second part of our trip.

Photo of the day... beautiful Gabi in Indian garb ... stunning!

We started the day at the Madurai Temple, a true wonder. Over 2,300 years old (I know, incredible) with literally hundreds of different gods and unique prayer opportunities.  

Photo: The towers of the temple complex are literally made up of hundreds of thousands of decorated gods.

And yet, you approach it by walking down a side street and turn left at the old man stringing flower garlands.

We were not allowed to take cameras into the Temple, although Iphones were allowed (who makes up these rules?) and I had not bought my Iphone.  So I don’t have many photos to share of inside. 

What I can tell you is the temple is re-painted every 12 years to make sure that the vibrant colors of every statue stays bright. Even the ceilings are painted and decorated.

Shrines and devoted prayers everywhere you looked

Dancing Shiva

Open bath /water area for devotees to wash their hands and feet before prayer

There are lots of opportunities for blessings at the Temple… so we decided to try them all, including blessings from the scantily clad priests

And blessings from the Temple Beasts: Our guide organized a real treat for us.  He got us into the back stables so we could meet the Temple Elephant and his handlers.  And it’s hard to imagine what would be a better luck than being blessing by a Temple elephant

Eileen's elephant experience face was the best... by far

Side story:  By legend, the gods apparently most appreciate sacrifices of children’s hair.  So if a family is in distress and need a heavy dose of good luck, they shave the child’s hair and offer it up to the gods.  No one in our group was willing to take one for the true good luck of the team.

After a morning at the Temple, we then did LOTS of shopping for all kinds of trinkets and souvenirs from street vendors and in the small shops.

Lunch was at a local, local, local restaurant... no other Westerners in sight.

No menu really... just bread in the middle and a lot of tin cups filled with various spicy, savory and sweet things to dip the chippatti (bread) into. Some good. Some awful.

In the afternoon we visited the Gandhi museum, which was up there on the list of awful, antiquated and almost mind-numbingly boring museums.  Except for the one macabre highlight, the dhoti or clothes that Gandhi wore the day he was shot. That was really interesting to see.

Photo: Blood soaked dhoti worn by Gandhi on the day he was shot

An Auspicious day at Anbarasi: "So Best"

The teens had a TERRIBLE time getting to India.  A massive delay from Qatar Air at the very start of the trip led to a domino effect where they missed flight after flight and faced LOTS of re-routing and hours upon hours of downtime in various airports. By the time we all reached our destination, Dindigul (a town that is truly on the other side of the planet from Houston), the group had been traveling for 46 hours straight . But they were troopers. No complaining.  No whining.  Just tough traveler attitudes.

So India started for the full group on Sunday morning when we loaded up and drove to the Anbarasi orphanage, our first Miracle Foundation home.  Best words to describe the day: “so best” (a sign we saw earlier this week to describe a restaurant’s meal and which we thought was a great descriptor).  We got out of the mini-van outside the gate to the orphanage ... because we could not go any further … the entire driveway was blocked with over 130 kids (all dressed in their very best clothes) as well as a full drumming band.  

We were led by the band through the crowd while all the kids danced and yelled “Hello, how are you?” at the top of their lungs. The home administrator came forward to put elaborate garlands of flowers on us as well as red paint bindhis (the dot between the eyebrows) ... and so started our “auspicious” day at Anbarasi.

We had been told to arrive at a specific time for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new boys’ dorm.  For all ceremonies in India, there is an “auspicious” (their word, and a great word it is) or appropriately spiritual time for such events.  Since we'd sponsored the building of the dorm, the home wanted us to be there for the ceremony even though the dorm is only 1/4 built (basically just the foundation and some of the walls are already completed).

Photo:  The new dorm, under construction

Photo:  What the new dorm is supposed to look like when it is finished

The dorm-ribbon-cutting-ceremony was intense... first was the actual unveiling of the plaque for the building

Followed by an actual ribbon cutting ceremony

Then the building had to be blessed multiple times over:  First the lighting of various candles before the temporary shrine (with dedications to all religions)

Then a blessing involving overflowing sweet milk 

Photo: A pot of sweet milk was set to boil over an open fire made from sticks piled in the middle of one of the dorm rooms (I know, odd at every level)

And last, but never least, blessings by two cows who were carefully led through the building accompanied by much cheering.

We were basically given rock star status and invited to lead - or be at the front of - all festivities

While the kids lined up on the floor

Next up was a full entertainment program of dancing, poetry recital and even a drama by the kids (all in Tamil off course but we got the essence of the play from the amazing acting)

Then lunch where our teens helped the house mothers prepare the meal... sitting on concrete slabs ....slicing ginger, cutting onions and rolling out chippati bread (all with instruments from the last century)

In between, there was a lot of hugging and loving on kids

And a ton of dancing... the kids LOVE to dance

In the afternoon, we divided the kids into small groups and brought out all of our craft projects.  The kids had a great time playing with all of our stuff.

And in return, they did our hair and put henna on our hands

And just generally hung out with us

And dressed Ms. Julie up in a sari

To make the home beautiful for us, the kids had created elaborate designs on the concrete floors in chalk and hung coconut leaf decorations on the walls

Great side-story... when my son Ben zipped off his long-pants to turn them into shorts.  We drew a crowd of kids who had never seen anything so amazing.  One kids finally turned to the others and said... knowingly... "modern pants"

It was so sad to leave the home at the end of the day

Because the kids' smiles would break your heart

Photo: This little boy is the most recent addition to the home. He's been there under a year. Until recently he still hid bits of food from each meal in his pockets because he was not confident that he'd have food again at the next meal. They were constantly finding half a biscuit or a piece of nann bread in his pockets