Freely Given

Ladies and Gents Mr. Sanjay Chakma!!! If you ever get the chance to meet this beautiful amazing person you will be a better person for it. I love Sanjay!
Cutie McPreshy with Ciarra
Neeshant my Hindi teacher at Asha's wedding. (his eyes look funny here)
This is Publio and our cute nuns, we love them and talk about how cute they are daily. Publio is my yoga teacher in the morning (5:30 am....if you know me at all you should be proud.)
Absheik, Kesav, & Bikash

Tea party with Sanjay and many other brothers but I cannot remember exactly. "According to me this tea is really very nice."
Rishikant "Rishy" trying out some glasses...he's such a good friend and Alice's kindergarten teacher. Which means playing games and watching WALLE in Hindi with 25 3-4 year old preshies.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I took my English class, which has turned into about 8 students whom I absolutely adore, to Maha Bodi Temple in Sarnath. This is the temple next to the tree in which Buddha gave his sermon to his 5 disciples, so very peaceful. We took turns pouring each other chai into clay pots which we later discarded on the ground because they turn to dust within a few days. We sat and talked about thankfulness and cultural differences and laughing and singing. We sat cross legged in a circle and sang "Prince of Peace" (I hope you know it) as foreigners (aka 'the others') and Indians walked by wondering what the heck was going on, they sang their little hearts out and the sincerity of these 8 students is inspiring. We spoke in broken English and broken Hindi and most of time through smiles and hugs and back massages and "teek hai's!?" the best way to communicate. I'm so thankful to be living in India this way, with these children who are teaching me a hundredfold what I am teaching them. They make me laugh so hard sometimes...like today when they informed me that they were writing a book about me HAHA! It's called "Lisha maddemji" I highly doubt they are writing it for real but the gesture is so meaningful, they shouldn't write about me...they are beautiful and brilliant. Also the other day Vijay informed me "Basically your boyfriends is really very cute." (8th grade boy) BAH! Totally random and unprovoked.

When we were walking back to school some were walking far behind and myself and two sisters, Priyanka and Sweta (Brahmin girls, or Pundit aka highest priestly caste) we were way ahead of the others; I yelled "hurry up slow pokes!" Sunil yelled back "We are not slow,that's your perception, to us you are fast and this is probably because you are American and always in a hurry and you two are Pundit!"

We waited for them to catch up and Priyanka said "Bhoota Bhia, when we are in school we are not pundit, see I call you 'big brother' this is respect from me to you, I'm not better because I'm Brahmin." Then I told Sunil that foreign women are considered just as 'unclean' as the Dalit (lowest caste) so if he thinks I am clean then he is also clean. He decided I was clean (haha first time in my life someone was affirming my bathing habits, but I guess compared to them using their left hands as toilet paper living in a house lined with cow manure...it's not a difficult battle to win.) Anyways the entire point of this was to show that it was really a special moment to see a high caste child bringing themselves down to a Dalit's level...it made me think maybe their is a hope for India's future after all; her children.

Over 1/3 of India's population are under 15.

Over half of the girls are married by 15. (Legal age is 18)

Not all, but most of the adults in India are ignorant or if they are aware of the problems they are corrupted and only adding to them. It's sad when I bring up "India" in class because what the children have to say is depressing, they aren't proud of their country. They want to change it so badly but birth status mixed with the daunting 1.2 billion people (almost 4x America's populating in an area 1/3 the size of America) is discouraging to say the least. They either want to change it or leave...for example to the US but they know that will never happen, my plane ticket alone cost more than all what they will earn in a lifetime.

Be thankful you have a full belly filled with delicious turkey and are probably being lazy watching football or a parade or something. Really! This isn't to make anyone feel guilty , no way, on the contrary I wan't you to be inspired to very thankful and feel joy and inspiration to do what you wish with what you have been given.

"You have been given freely, therefore you should give freely."

Matthew 10:8