Adina Lichtman, a proud member of the 8th Cohort of JDC
Entwine-GPM volunteer program in India, chronicled her experiences in a
series of evocative letters to her friends and family. Adina, a student
of Social Work and Art at NYU and is Hillel Community Service chair on
campus, captured some powerful and touching moments during her time on
the program, caring for vulnerable children living in the slums,
connecting with the Jewish community with the JDC and experiencing the
wonders of India. GPM will be publishing excerpts from her diaries in a
series of blog posts and photo essays.
--Read Adina's 1st week here-- --Read Adina's 2nd week here--
--Read Adina's 3rd week here-- --Read Adina's 4th week here--
Week 5. Meeting the ambassador, a village “tea party”, and other adventures
Namaste to all my family and friends!
First of all thank you so much for helping donate to HEAL – a hygiene program for children in the slums with Gabriel Project Mumbai. If you haven't done so already - you still can! Here's the info! Watch the video we made!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzQm8BJ8azA
And donate here!
http://www.rootfunding.com/campaign/4598
This week in the slums we had a special visitor come to see our classes in the slums. His name is Matan Zamir, he is the Israeli ministry for foreign affairs. It was nice to have someone so important who came with body guards come see our class. It really empowered us and made us feel that the work we do is important. He even invited us to come visit the Israeli consulate here in India! It's hard sometimes to really feel like we are making an impact. It's a conversation we often have with each other - is our work making a difference? Will teaching them that butterflies come from caterpillars or that frogs come from tadpoles make a difference for the future of our students? We taught about frogs and butterflies on Friday and it was a completely new concept for our students- they were shocked. So while I do feel what we are teaching is new and informative, I always wonder how my work will impact their futures and if it will at all.
On Tuesday this week was a really special day, one little boy who isn't in school and always stands by the door to listen actually came into class today and joined us for the whole lesson! We decided it was important to talk about their aspirations. We asked them all what they wanted to do when they grew up. They all had different answers, one of our brightest students said an engineer for buildings! He's ten years old! We were blown away! The boy who stands by the door who joined our class that day said "a politician" one of our girls said she wanted to be a police so she could make the hard times into better times!
And while Tuesday was such a great day in the class because of all the answers our students were giving us - it was hard to hear our students and what they were saying. It was hard because of all the banging and yelling going on next door. The walls are made of tin flimsy walls. And there was a very loud argument which sounded like a husband and wife yelling and it sounded like the women was being pushed against the wall and that there was abuse going on in the home. One kid sat with his hands over his ears for most of the class. Unfortunately this isn't so rare and has had happened before.
In other news; I am learning to write Hindi but it's a very very slow process! It's a very complicated language to learn how to write but hopefully I'll be able to read it by the time I get back; right now I can only do it if I have the alphabet next to me!
On Thursday our students in the slums had off for a holiday so we went to go visit a girls boarding school that REAP (Gabriel Project Mumbai’s partner organization) runs. In the villages (very rural - few hours from Mumbai) the girls often get married at age 12 or 13 and go move in with their husbands family and often receiving no education. Families here don’t like to have girls because they don't really work, they don't make money, and when they get married they will move into the boys family's home. So to them, girls are just taking up resources. Therefore marrying them off early will save them money and resources. The families in this village in particular are usually nomadic families that travel from city for 6 months and rural lands for 6 months to sell crops and when they go to the city their education stops for six months. So REAP started this boarding school for girls in order to create education that is consistent throughout the year as well as preventing the girls from getting married at such a young age.
We walked into the school in the charming and quaint little village; we walk in and see about thirty beautiful girls dressed in beautiful colors and dresses - it was as if they put on their best dresses for us coming! The school is a house and feels so bright and filled with light from the sun pouring in! They brought us tea and biscuits. I felt like I was at a tea party with the most beautiful, spectacularly dressed girls! We played some "getting to know you games" an also asked these girls what they wanted to be when they grow up. One girl said a police to "stop violence against women"! We told them where we were from but none of them had seen a map before so we got a map to show them where America/Australia/Slovakia/UK and India were on the map. We also taught them about recycling. Although the villages are much cleaner then the slums, we still felt it was a very important lesson to give. We taught them that an apple takes 2 months to turn to dirt, a plastic bag takes 20 years and glass takes a million years! I often find myself learning cool facts as I prepare lessons for the students (so I figured I'd share some!) We also had an activity that made them take trash and turn it into things! With newspapers, toilet paper rolls, boxes etc they made bags, hats, games and more! They're so creative!!!
Then at lunch we ate with them- I had rice with Dahl, and I ate it with my hands! Cause thaaaats how it's done here!
Then after lunch we danced the day away with the girls! They taught us lots of Bollywood dance moves while we taught them the cotton eyed Joe! The girls braided our hair and giggled with us for hours! At the end of the day - one girl was going home to her village for her brother’s birthday so we drove her there and she showed us around her village. It felt like a movie. She was dressed in this bright yellow sari and she's around 9 years old. Jaya showed us where the four toilets are located for the whole village, she showed us where they get water from ( a well provided by REAP because the one the government provided stopped working a long time ago.) the houses were all like huts you would imagine in a village with roosters, goats and cows running all around. She invited us into her home which was bigger than any home you would see in the slums but it was very simple looking with one bed, one table in the main room. Probably had 2 or 3 rooms in it. The she introduced us to her mom who was lovely and kept offering us food and drinks even though they had so little themselves. When we asked why she sends her daughter to a reap school she said "education is important for her future, even though I never had it". Jaya introduced us to her sister who was about a year younger. We asked her mom why only one of them was sent and she replied "I can't afford it and I need one daughter to help me at home." That was really hard for me to hear; I could never imagine having to choose which child to send to school.
The villages compared to the slums feel a lot more peaceful. It seemed to me a lot more like very simple living. It felt like I was almost in a different time period, whereas the slums I feel almost sad for the conditions. In the slums you feel and see the poverty; in the villages you feel a completely different lifestyle, one that's old fashioned and like you’re in a different era! I loved visiting the village it was so peaceful and simple there.
This Shabbat we went to Mumbai - we prayed at knesseth eliyahu and they always have a communal meal afterwards so I stayed for it. All the girls sit at one table and the boys at the other, and all ate Shabbat dinner together! I loved it! They sang Shabbat zemirot i knew and were all so friendly, treating me like family even though they had just met me! Then afterwards we walked to Chabad.
At Chabad we heard a man talking about how he converted to Judaism and is a doctor. This doctor was very close with Rabbi Gabriel who was killed in the 2008 attacks. He was the one who identified the body at the hospital. He was also the doctor for their kids. He lives in Israel now and has a fascinating life story.
There was also another couple who was at the table. They were from the south of India. They live in a community of 1200 people now in India who aren't Jewish but all practicing Judaism. They follow the Ten Commandments very strictly and keep kosher as well. They keep on learning more and more about Judaism. They plan to all convert to Judaism. It's fascinating to me; they were all looking for something deeper and started to practice Judaism. These 2 families traveled 27 hours by train to spend Shabbat by Chabad and meet the rabbi! How crazy is it that there is a whole community of 1200 people all practicing Judaism who aren't even Jewish?! It really makes me appreciate how special Judaism really is!
The longer I am here, the more connected I feel to Rabbi Gabriel and his wife Rivky. Everyone here has a personal story connected with them and they had such a beautiful impact on the community. A part of me feels like I knew them because of the way everyone talks about them and how much they are still in everyone memories here.
It's crazy to me that my volunteer time in the slums has reached its halfway point. I love it so much here and am still learning new things every day. And every time I think I have gotten totally used to the culture I see something else that shocks me. Today I saw someone sitting on top of a moving train; not hanging out the door or standing between to carts. Literally sitting on top of a moving train as if it was any ordinary seat!!
As for living in Thane - I really feel this town is another home. I was walking to the shul the other day to teach my Wednesday class and I got lost because I made one wrong turn and I asked somebody on the road where my street was and he said to me "oh were all the Americans live? Make a right at the end of the street and go straight" yes. A random person I asked on the street knows where all the Americans live: we stand out ALOT. As I was walking I guess my facial expression looked a bit lost because after that a few different people all standing in their own little shops kept pointing the direction of our apartment. And another time my friend left her bag in her guitar class down the road and somebody brought it all the way back here! I guess our light colored skin makes us easy to find in a town where we are the only westerners! But everyone here is just SO nice, how often do you hear that someone walks to your apartment to bring you the bag you left somewhere!
Alveeda,
Adina
--Read Adina's 1st week here-- --Read Adina's 2nd week here--
--Read Adina's 3rd week here-- --Read Adina's 4th week here--
Week 5. Meeting the ambassador, a village “tea party”, and other adventures
Namaste to all my family and friends!
First of all thank you so much for helping donate to HEAL – a hygiene program for children in the slums with Gabriel Project Mumbai. If you haven't done so already - you still can! Here's the info! Watch the video we made!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzQm8BJ8azA
And donate here!
http://www.rootfunding.com/campaign/4598
This week in the slums we had a special visitor come to see our classes in the slums. His name is Matan Zamir, he is the Israeli ministry for foreign affairs. It was nice to have someone so important who came with body guards come see our class. It really empowered us and made us feel that the work we do is important. He even invited us to come visit the Israeli consulate here in India! It's hard sometimes to really feel like we are making an impact. It's a conversation we often have with each other - is our work making a difference? Will teaching them that butterflies come from caterpillars or that frogs come from tadpoles make a difference for the future of our students? We taught about frogs and butterflies on Friday and it was a completely new concept for our students- they were shocked. So while I do feel what we are teaching is new and informative, I always wonder how my work will impact their futures and if it will at all.
On Tuesday this week was a really special day, one little boy who isn't in school and always stands by the door to listen actually came into class today and joined us for the whole lesson! We decided it was important to talk about their aspirations. We asked them all what they wanted to do when they grew up. They all had different answers, one of our brightest students said an engineer for buildings! He's ten years old! We were blown away! The boy who stands by the door who joined our class that day said "a politician" one of our girls said she wanted to be a police so she could make the hard times into better times!
And while Tuesday was such a great day in the class because of all the answers our students were giving us - it was hard to hear our students and what they were saying. It was hard because of all the banging and yelling going on next door. The walls are made of tin flimsy walls. And there was a very loud argument which sounded like a husband and wife yelling and it sounded like the women was being pushed against the wall and that there was abuse going on in the home. One kid sat with his hands over his ears for most of the class. Unfortunately this isn't so rare and has had happened before.
In other news; I am learning to write Hindi but it's a very very slow process! It's a very complicated language to learn how to write but hopefully I'll be able to read it by the time I get back; right now I can only do it if I have the alphabet next to me!
On Thursday our students in the slums had off for a holiday so we went to go visit a girls boarding school that REAP (Gabriel Project Mumbai’s partner organization) runs. In the villages (very rural - few hours from Mumbai) the girls often get married at age 12 or 13 and go move in with their husbands family and often receiving no education. Families here don’t like to have girls because they don't really work, they don't make money, and when they get married they will move into the boys family's home. So to them, girls are just taking up resources. Therefore marrying them off early will save them money and resources. The families in this village in particular are usually nomadic families that travel from city for 6 months and rural lands for 6 months to sell crops and when they go to the city their education stops for six months. So REAP started this boarding school for girls in order to create education that is consistent throughout the year as well as preventing the girls from getting married at such a young age.
We walked into the school in the charming and quaint little village; we walk in and see about thirty beautiful girls dressed in beautiful colors and dresses - it was as if they put on their best dresses for us coming! The school is a house and feels so bright and filled with light from the sun pouring in! They brought us tea and biscuits. I felt like I was at a tea party with the most beautiful, spectacularly dressed girls! We played some "getting to know you games" an also asked these girls what they wanted to be when they grow up. One girl said a police to "stop violence against women"! We told them where we were from but none of them had seen a map before so we got a map to show them where America/Australia/Slovakia/UK and India were on the map. We also taught them about recycling. Although the villages are much cleaner then the slums, we still felt it was a very important lesson to give. We taught them that an apple takes 2 months to turn to dirt, a plastic bag takes 20 years and glass takes a million years! I often find myself learning cool facts as I prepare lessons for the students (so I figured I'd share some!) We also had an activity that made them take trash and turn it into things! With newspapers, toilet paper rolls, boxes etc they made bags, hats, games and more! They're so creative!!!
Then at lunch we ate with them- I had rice with Dahl, and I ate it with my hands! Cause thaaaats how it's done here!
Then after lunch we danced the day away with the girls! They taught us lots of Bollywood dance moves while we taught them the cotton eyed Joe! The girls braided our hair and giggled with us for hours! At the end of the day - one girl was going home to her village for her brother’s birthday so we drove her there and she showed us around her village. It felt like a movie. She was dressed in this bright yellow sari and she's around 9 years old. Jaya showed us where the four toilets are located for the whole village, she showed us where they get water from ( a well provided by REAP because the one the government provided stopped working a long time ago.) the houses were all like huts you would imagine in a village with roosters, goats and cows running all around. She invited us into her home which was bigger than any home you would see in the slums but it was very simple looking with one bed, one table in the main room. Probably had 2 or 3 rooms in it. The she introduced us to her mom who was lovely and kept offering us food and drinks even though they had so little themselves. When we asked why she sends her daughter to a reap school she said "education is important for her future, even though I never had it". Jaya introduced us to her sister who was about a year younger. We asked her mom why only one of them was sent and she replied "I can't afford it and I need one daughter to help me at home." That was really hard for me to hear; I could never imagine having to choose which child to send to school.
The villages compared to the slums feel a lot more peaceful. It seemed to me a lot more like very simple living. It felt like I was almost in a different time period, whereas the slums I feel almost sad for the conditions. In the slums you feel and see the poverty; in the villages you feel a completely different lifestyle, one that's old fashioned and like you’re in a different era! I loved visiting the village it was so peaceful and simple there.
This Shabbat we went to Mumbai - we prayed at knesseth eliyahu and they always have a communal meal afterwards so I stayed for it. All the girls sit at one table and the boys at the other, and all ate Shabbat dinner together! I loved it! They sang Shabbat zemirot i knew and were all so friendly, treating me like family even though they had just met me! Then afterwards we walked to Chabad.
At Chabad we heard a man talking about how he converted to Judaism and is a doctor. This doctor was very close with Rabbi Gabriel who was killed in the 2008 attacks. He was the one who identified the body at the hospital. He was also the doctor for their kids. He lives in Israel now and has a fascinating life story.
There was also another couple who was at the table. They were from the south of India. They live in a community of 1200 people now in India who aren't Jewish but all practicing Judaism. They follow the Ten Commandments very strictly and keep kosher as well. They keep on learning more and more about Judaism. They plan to all convert to Judaism. It's fascinating to me; they were all looking for something deeper and started to practice Judaism. These 2 families traveled 27 hours by train to spend Shabbat by Chabad and meet the rabbi! How crazy is it that there is a whole community of 1200 people all practicing Judaism who aren't even Jewish?! It really makes me appreciate how special Judaism really is!
The longer I am here, the more connected I feel to Rabbi Gabriel and his wife Rivky. Everyone here has a personal story connected with them and they had such a beautiful impact on the community. A part of me feels like I knew them because of the way everyone talks about them and how much they are still in everyone memories here.
It's crazy to me that my volunteer time in the slums has reached its halfway point. I love it so much here and am still learning new things every day. And every time I think I have gotten totally used to the culture I see something else that shocks me. Today I saw someone sitting on top of a moving train; not hanging out the door or standing between to carts. Literally sitting on top of a moving train as if it was any ordinary seat!!
As for living in Thane - I really feel this town is another home. I was walking to the shul the other day to teach my Wednesday class and I got lost because I made one wrong turn and I asked somebody on the road where my street was and he said to me "oh were all the Americans live? Make a right at the end of the street and go straight" yes. A random person I asked on the street knows where all the Americans live: we stand out ALOT. As I was walking I guess my facial expression looked a bit lost because after that a few different people all standing in their own little shops kept pointing the direction of our apartment. And another time my friend left her bag in her guitar class down the road and somebody brought it all the way back here! I guess our light colored skin makes us easy to find in a town where we are the only westerners! But everyone here is just SO nice, how often do you hear that someone walks to your apartment to bring you the bag you left somewhere!
Alveeda,
Adina
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