Chale chalo!

Welcome to the first entry of the official Ashraya Initiative for Children online journal--candid, no-holds-barred, on-the-ground, authentic, limited edition, and all that. Or so we hope, at least. [It is also entirely possible that this blog could fizzle out of existence within a few months, as child-rearing responsibilities take priority over coordinating updates for our supporters in far corners of the globe, in which case you will most likely notice one day that the link to the blog has been unceremoniously removed from the main AIC website. In the event that this happens at some point in the future, I apologize in advance--hopefully this journal is not as ill-fated as I am making it out to be.] By "we" I am referring to myself (Elizabeth Sholtys), and my fellow co-directors of the home, Zahra Hadi and Amber Wang, as well as anyone else who comes to work with us (volunteers, etc) and wishes to contribute.

Anyway, without further ado, on to the updates!

The past three weeks since Zahra and Amber arrived have been uniquely...eventful—-note that I do not use the word "productive" here, although they have on occasion been that too. We have our share of ongoing trials and tribulations, ample photographic documentation of which will be provided (toilets that haven’t been flushed in 7 years, cockroaches, lack of water, and Zahra’s mosquito bites) as well as fun times, inside jokes, and the security of establishing a daily routine that includes playing hot potato with the alarm clock in the morning, eating at least one meal per day at the Yogi Tree restaurant (yey cheese chapattis!), visiting the internet café at night, and walking home together afterwards. Our newly established schedule will undoubtedly undergo complete revamping once the children join us here, but for the time being, as we all adapt to living in such close confines and explore emerging group dynamics, it has served us well.

I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath for the news of our official home opening—-needless to say, we’re equally anxious. After our projected June 1st opening date became impossible due to intricacies of the sluggish Indian bureaucracy, as well as the fact that we’re now working within the confines of another NGO and have to accommodate its dates and schedules as well, we resigned ourselves to waiting a bit longer. In the meantime, however, there is certainly enough work to keep us all busy...

Evidence of a woodworking project that we attempted in the midst of spontaneous liberated-female (read: femi-nazi) inclinations still stands propped against the wall in a spare bedroom. It was only a cupboard project for the pantry—-a frame with six shelves to keep food on, nothing fancy, you might argue. HA. Add an inept carpenter to the equation (first time didn’t cut the wood properly, second time cut straight through one of the boards into the second, leaving us with only five shelves remaining), as well as toxic headache-inducing paint fumes and ample dust, neither of which coincided harmoniously with my bout of sinusitis, subtract out all of the various power tools we apparently needed and didn’t have (except a drill, which we actually broke down and bought) and operational knowledge of aforementioned power tools, in addition to Hindi-translatable woodworking vocabulary (carpenters square, pegs, and "vood pooty" (wood putty) have been among the hardest to communicate, despite diagrams), and you get a rough idea of the experience. To make a long story short, it was one of those go-getter projects that turned out to be a bit more trouble than it was worth, although I’ll have you know that the few boards we’ve actually finished look quite professional! Zahra’s going to read this account of the story and give me one of those gleeful i-told-you-so looks...and admittedly, she DID initially express skepticism. ah well. it’s been a valuable, albeit frustrating, experience.

Other excitement has included a persistent water shortage—-the scope of which seems limited to our flat alone, numerous exasperating encounters with the landlord (although the shouting match between him and the society manager concerning our water problem almost made it worthwhile), a trip to Mumbai to meet with various people and spend time with street kids from my work there last summer, battles with pigeons and wasps, useless carpenters who only succeeded in bungling the door repair job further and electricians who never show up, and futile efforts to keep our two cats (Ashu and Bug) from wreaking havoc on the numerous houseplants with which we have decorated the house.

Outfitting the house with furniture is coming along well, although various architectural idiosyncrasies have rendered one of the bedrooms essentially impossible to furnish because NOTHING FITS THROUGH THE BLOODY DOOR. We suggested to the landlord that he alter the door frame and/or wall structure, which he wasn’t too keen to do, alas. As you can see in the photos, to move a donated bed from its home in this bedroom to another room upstairs, we had to completely dismantle the frame and reconstruct it afterwards just to get it out of the door. Furniture buying has become a lazy afternoon pastime for us—-chairs, floor mats, cupboards, bathroom cabinets, etc. Our remaining frustration is the bed situation, because we have been unable to find affordable, sturdy bunkbeds in bulk, however, we were assured today that they can be constructed cheaply, and will be going tomorrow to peruse materials (don’t worry, we’re not embarking on another woodworking project, someone is building them for us).

We haven’t had many opportunities to actually work with the children in a while (again, blame the bureaucracy!) although we did take 6 of them (Akash, Sanjay, Poonam, Mahesh, Amol, Balu) to the doctors for preliminary check-ups last week, where it was determined that they have worms and are anemic. Dr. Saiyed gave us medication for them (she is very generously donating her services and time) and we’re taking them back for bloodwork and TB tests shortly. With luck, we’ll be able to have them living here with us sometime in the next 1-2 weeks...cross your fingers!