Happy Birthday Ganesh!

Today ends the week long Hindu celebration of  the god Ganesh, the elephant headed god. The festival starts and ends on Sunday. Last week some friends and I set out to one of the biggest temples around to pay our respects to Ganesh. We waited in a line outside of the temple and then proceeded to zig-zag our way through the temple (in line) to visit all of the shrines. Afterwards we hit up the bazaar and bought our own little Ganesh statues. There were tables and tables of the small ones and there are also huge ones that are packed together in what I can only compare to a Christmas tree lot (the ones where the trees are already cut down). Families go and pick out their Ganesh and then load it on to a moving truck and bring it home! Each community or family does pooja (a ritual prayer) and on the 3rd, 5th, or 7th day (depending on your preference) you submerge your Ganesh into water (usually a lake). The 7th day is when the largest one is submerged into the large lake here in Hyderabad and there's a big party.

A man making Ganesh molds in the bazaar. 

Some moving trucks hauling Ganeshes back home.

Ganeshes Ganeshes de todos los colores y todos los tamaños

The down side to the Ganesh festival this year is that is coincides with the first week of Ramadan. This can cause little conflicts like Ganesh processions, with drums and music and dancing, going by a mosque during prayer on Friday. Also, on campus, when we hear the horn that signifies the beginning and end of fasting for the day we also hear some Hinduesque music playing from loud speakers trying to drown it out. Otherwise things have been very peaceful and after today security won't be so tight around Hyderabad. Our teacher explained that police haven't been as worried about violence because less people are out and about due to swine flu. Ha ha, I guess there's an upside to everything!

Bridge School

This Saturday we went to a bridge school for ex-child laborers. A bridge school is specially catered to the needs of children who have never been to school before or dropped out because they were forced to work. India has the most child laborers of any country. The statistic is 90 million children ages 6-14 do not go to school and are engaged in some occupation (often times hazardous). In the region I'm in (Andhra Pradesh) an organization called the H.V Foundation has volunteers stationed in 1,000 villages. Their job is to persuade parents and guardians in the community to send their children to the school and take them out of the labor force. This is a difficult task considering almost all of the parents have little concept of school and most public school in their areas are unreliable (teachers don't show up or are abusive towards students), transportation is also a major issue. Some children have to walk through the dangerous jungle to get to school. Also, these families are living in extreme poverty and the parents feel it's necessary that the children are brining in some money. Some of these girls are even married so persuading the husbands and his family is also necessary. These circumstances can become violent and sometimes it takes years for the parents to say yes. Volunteers try to explain that if the children are out of the work force wages will increase and there will be more work for adults. Also, an educated child has a much better chance of providing for their family in the future.

Currently there are 100 girls at the school, they are a new batch and are still getting used to living away from their village. Usually the girls spend about 1 1/2 years at the bridge school before being integrated into the mainstream school system.

Geeta was one of the girls who shared her story. She was orphaned at a young age and taken in by her uncle. Her job was to watch over her uncle's children, they got to go to school but she didn't. Eventually a representative from the M.V foundation persuaded her uncle to send her to the school and she said that one day she dreams of becoming a teacher. Here she is showing her Hindi writing. Most of the girls speak Telegu and then learn English and Hindi at the school.

There were both indoor and outdoor classrooms. The site of the school is an old poultry farm so the girls live, eat, and learn in the former coops.

Everyone came out to wave goodbye!

The Coconut Sacrifice

On Wednesday Emily, Cecilia, Shera and I set out to find a temple so that Emily could sacrifice a coconut to the healing gods for a friend who had been in an accident. Coconut sacrifices are common for women who are hoping to find a husband or become pregnant, but are also popular for healing requests. We caught a rickshaw from the main gate and headed in the direction of a temple...any temple. To our surprise we ended up at one we had be to for the Banalu Festival. We took our shoes off and walked through the gate. With no idea what to do from here we wandered around a bit until we saw a sign with an arrow buy coconuts here, quite convenient. It brought us to a stand where a man was already holding out two coconuts. I thought to myself Derick has a bad back, the doctors couldn’t do much, let’s see what Lord Krishna has up his sleeve. Emily and I paid for our coconuts and walked into the temple. After more aimless wandering we heard a loud crack. We followed our ears and found the man who breaks the coconuts. He sat next to a shrine. We watched some other women go through the process before trying our hand at it. He waved us in and took the coconut, slamming it onto the stone as we folded our hands in the direction of the shrine and he asked “Where you from? U.S?” As we nodded he put a bindi (red dye) on each of our foreheads and shooed us along to make way for the next group. We then found our way to the wall where all of the coconuts were hanging. Behind the wall there were five different statues of Krishna (I think). After folding our hands and saying a few Hare Krishnas (Hail Krishna) we tied the coconut bags to the wall. If we thought we were done there we were mistaken. In my experience Hindus are very welcoming to foreigners at the temples and as we stick out so much they tend to single you out and want to show you around. Like the last time they brought us to the head of the line for the main shrine of Durga. We were just in time for the ceremony where they light the candle and everyone waves smoke on to themselves. Then they bring around some special water that we had previously been instructed to take in our hand, pretend to drink and then throw on our hair. After this we were free to go. 

Bangalore/Mysore

Here are pictures from this weekends trip to Bangalore and Mysore!

We left Thursday evening. The first leg of our journey was the walk from our dorm to the main gate of campus to catch a rickshaw. It took about 40 minutes!

We took the night bus from Hyderabad to Bangalore. It was a very bumpy 12 hr ride. Luckily there were beds instead of seats!

We spent the first day in Bangalore and then grabbed a bus to Mysore for Saturday. This photo is from a market near our hotel. It's popular to get a strand of jasmine in your hair. It smells amazing.

Some dyes and oils in the market. 

Of course there was a cow enjoying the market too!

We went to a house where the women roll incense that is exported to Europe. They start with slivers of bamboo, roll it in a honey, charcoal, and gunpowder mixture (the black stuff on the right) and then roll it in the powder.

Next we went to a place where they roll beedies.  A beedi is sandlewood slivers and ginger wrapped in a sandlewood leaf. They say they're healthy. 

This was the palace in Mysore. We walked around the whole thing trying to find the entrance. It took us about an hour and by the time we found it we had to head  back to the hotel. Very disappointing.

Our last day in Bangalore. Exhaustion takes over.

Campus

Below are some pictures of the campus! It is very rural and spread out. It is common to pass by cows and water buffalo on the way to class. I have also seen a peacock, wild boar and monkeys! Needless to say, fears are being faced every day.

These are my favorite flowers in California and they're here too! I'm not actually sure what they're called but we in the Study India Program refer to them as Bumblebums.

Sipping some chai at the canteen. The cranky man here charges us double because we're white. It's hard to complain considering we're paying 8 cents instead of 4.

The girls hanging out on the rock in between classes. This is where we eat lunch or drink chai.

Right in front of our dorm. The herd of cows was attracted by a pile of burning trash and the tractor is a product of the construction that's going on down the road. The construction workers and their families live in a slum-like community until their work is done. This means that as we walk to class we will see the women carrying pots on their heads on their way to get water.

The photos below are of children who attend a school supported by the Henry Martyn Institute here in Hyderabad. The focus of this school is to bring together Hindu and Muslim children in an academic setting. Aside from learning basic elementary school subjects they also learn about each other's celebrations and festivals with the goal of promoting peace and understanding between the Hindu and Muslim communities. The school we visited was in Old City, which is the most conservative, and primarily Muslim, area in Hyderabad. Both Hindu and Muslim families lived in the school's neighborhood and most homes waved either a saffron flag (indicating a Hindu family) and a green flag (indicating a Muslim family).

The school makes a point to have a mixed staff and also provides medical care and classes for women where they can learn how to sew and make crafts with women of the other ethnic group.

The idea is that when people's basic needs are met they will be more willing to leave a life of peace and tolerance.