One Good Day in India...

Today was a treat as we woke up at 9:00, half an hour later than usual to yet another delicious Indian style breakfast (with, of course, our own flavours of peanut butter and Nutella). After the hearty meal, we went outside for the beginning of the International Womens' Day ceremonies. Josh enjoyed himself thoroughly. The celebration consisted of various readings and dances, all of which were extremely entertaining. We had a little trouble understanding some of the Tamil parts but we feel soon we will be quite fluent.

After the festivities, the cantine staff showed us how to make chapatis (a lovely Indian bread type thing). Matt felt sick though so he took a nap. Now he's better. High Five!

This took us through to lunch where we strategized for the upcoming World Cup match, Canada vs. India. At the end of the meal, Ms. P had the wonderful idea to "improve" the recipe for the apparently not perfected chai tea. Her idea was to remove the vast majority of the sugar. Good idea? You be the judge. We were all extremely disappointed (except for a select few) and demanded that it never be done again. Dinner was better.

After lunch we may have had what was the first day-time chill session of the entire trip (because the rest of the time we're building fences and inhaling turpentine). We were grateful and used to it catch up on some much needed sleep and frisbee throwing.

Returning from our brief holiday, it was time to let the Indians know how we do it in Canada on the football pitch (very horribly). As the Canadian team leisurely strolled to the field, several minutes late, the Indians had already begun warming up, which included several laps around the pitch and a three hour tae-bo workout. Not to be outdone, the Canadians aggressively sat in their chairs and did nothing. Matt and Mr. Brickell arrived late, in a rickshaw. The captain, Jackson, who will from now on be referred to as "The Great One", was busy memorizing a few set plays and benchpressing small children at the same time, because he's intense like that.

After a few quick photos with the enemy, the Canadians assumed their positions, or at least tried to (having the combined soccer experience of about 20 minutes, the team was pretty much just improvising (except for The Great One, of course)). With the mighty blow of the whistle from the referee, the game started, and about 45 seconds into the game, the Canadians had already given up three goals. Deciding that, although hilarious, the game was quickly getting out of hand, The Great One organized a mixing of the teams. He did this because despite great play between himself and Matt, who's strength and stamina stole the show, several of the Canadians had inexplicably begun to cry, probably just at the sheer dominance of the Indians.

The latter half of the game began with considerably fairer teams, and with Matt out of the picture (at the end of the first half he had started to sweat, a startling and disconcerting phenomenon, so startling, in fact, that he vowed never to do much of anything ever again) The Great One and his Indian cohorts were free to run amuck. After scoring a goal, carrying several goats off the field of play, and kicking a ball so hard that it crossed the Chinese border, Jackson decided to work only half as hard (which meant he was still working twice as hard as Superman ever did). This lack of focus contributed to him accidentally breaking the window of a nearby household and after several minutes of apologies the game was able to resume. Which then ended in a friendly manner.

Basically, everything is awesome. March break has officially begun so shout outs to everyone back home. We miss you a lot and hope the snow isn't destroying your lives. Try not to think about the weather we're experiencing here. It'll only make you feel bad.

Signing off,
Matt and Jackson

PS: On Tuesday morning we leave for Kerala, and nothing's for sure, but we may not be able to blog for one, two or possibly even all three of the nights we're there. A thousand apologies.

Happy International Womens' Day!

We write this with permanent paint on our feet and turpentine in our nose. We've probably lost too many brain cells at this point (oil-based paint... illegal?) so please excuse any weirdness although it's hard to beat the last blog entry.
Our dream (which actually happened) was to paint a mural in the older girls' room. Katie planned a - Carly says "beautiful," Katie says "oh you... stop," - design of a kind of sun/moon/solar system type thing (see pics). The first step of this process was to go get the potentially illegal paint. Loren, Katie and Jim Daddy booked it in a rickshaw (venturing out form?) to the paint store and loaded up on some primary colours. We enjoyed the pictures of "Infant Jesus" plastered all over the rickshaw. Nice. Next, we returned to FFC setting up by sketching the design on the wall. Matt supervised (Working hard... hardly working). Erin got peed on again (unlucky) yet perservered to pop in with Carly to lend a helping hand in the messy paint process. Although Katie is very talented... Maury/Moory/Mahry/Mary (one of the older girls who was very... erm... enthused about the project) thought differently and always offered her opinion when (not) asked. She has a good heart... albeit questionable colour sense. She painted a nice one on the wall. Things intensified as Loren gracefully knocked a can of blood-like red paint over and we stepped on palettes one too many times. Feet covered in paint, we are having a turpentine pedicure tonight. We smell more like turpentine than curry. This is where the true magic we've been practising lies.
All this being said, the older girls loved our paint job and truly appreciated the mural, as it was their idea in the first place. We loved spicing up the mint green room.
But lets get to the climax of the story. Josh Wynn painted the word "Families" on a white sign. It took all day... truly excrutiating (to hear about.) Breaking News. Quote on Quote. "It was probably the hardest work I've done this whole trip." - Josh Wynn. We clarify, this is NOT sarcasm. His current reply "Damn broads." Happy International Womens' Day tomorrow!!
Needless to say, we're excited for the celebration of International "Broads" Day tomorrow. We're happy that all of our paint projects are finished and lookin' good.
Our humour's all up. Peace. We send our love. Especially Josh for the equality of both genders - men... and broads.
- Carly, Erin, Loren and Katie (Matt and Josh for their manly supervision.)

Once in a dream in India

In the dream “Sports Master”, the only plump fellow we have encountered here asked us to organize a sports day. “Of course”, we replied. On the day of the event Josh sat at a desk on a stage and welcomed the athletes. As he explained the rules of Ultimate Frisbee and the Swedish lawn game Koob, a few of the visiting coaches instructed the athletes to get up from their places so they could get a head start in the pre game marching and calisthenics. We were outraged and chased the visitors through the exits and wound up at Jacob’s House septic pit. Turns out is was just a misunderstanding. The visitors were not being rude they were only reading the fine print in the Jackson and Matt’s tournament instructions. The part about each team being required to throw handfuls of rock and broken brick into the pit before they could qualify to play. Dressed in salwar kamis, Carly and Loren used their best “beast voices” to direct the filthy cascade. Erin and Katie carried freshly painted white and blue signs pointing to the various sports venues while Daniel did card tricks dressed in a dhoti and turban. Harry, Max, Jackson and Katie single handedly defeated all challengers once the Ultimate game got started, making numerous highlight catches and throws. They promised to talk about each spectacular play for months to come. No one understood Koob. A grand day was had by all. Where were Barb and Jim in this dream? And what could it all mean? Without reaching too far, could this be an allegory for York India 2008 from the point of view of the supervisors? Stay tuned…

In all seriousness we have been very impressed with our travelling companions’ attitudes and initiative. They have performed above and beyond all of our expectations. They have made a positive impact on the kids and staff at FFC. It is a pleasure travelling with these 10 students. Thanks for all your comments on the BLOG. They are all in our conversations daily.

Barb and Jim

Hurry Up and Wait...

We have done a lot of 'hurry up and wait' since we have been in India. The thing about India is there are many important jobs to do that rely on other people and things falling into place. The last 48 hour we have tried to start or finish several daunting tasks, however materials (and people!) have caused us to take a step back, re-evaluate...and wait.
Ex. A (set up like a true IB student): The Goat Farm Fence. Two days ago, Harry, Katie, Matt and Josh set out to go put up a new fence for the goats (yes, there is actually a goat farm on FFC property). We were told everything was ready to go, they just needed a few hands to get the job done. This was not the case. Nothing was there and nothing was ready. Instead we beasted out an entire house worth of sweeping, painting and glass breaking (long story...we'll show you the video when we get home). After lunch, we returned ready for action to complete the job, but found that the freshly painted house was being used as a lunch room. This allowed us time to play with the younger boys (see pictures at the bottom), and after a while, get the house cleaned up.
Ex. B : The Screens. After the guest house had been painted and freed from all the broken glass we were told that we needed to screen the windows with mosquito netting with the help of the carpenter. Once again Harry, Max, and Jackson were told that everything was ready to go, but alas, it was not. They told us to watch as they cut screens for hours. This has now gone to the bottom of our priority list.
However, do not negatively connotate 'hurry up and wait.' Everything moves at a different pace here and that pace is a rushed sort of mellow giving one time to experience the immense amount of love and beauty we are surrounded by in this country. 'Hurry up and wait,' is something that we would love to experience more often back home because it allows one to stop and smell the roses.
New Topic
WE CONQUERED THE WALL FOR GLORY!!! If you haven't already heard the front of FFC has been stripped of all of its plaster (thanks to the beasts) using shovels and picks. It is currently being cemented (another example of hurry up and wait all together, but we're not going to get into that) and we hope that it will be dry and ready for painting while we are still here.
Gym class is a lot different here. Harry, Katie, Matt and Ms. P spent an afternoon with all of the younger boys and the Sports MASTER. Gym for them involved running around in circles one way... and then the other way. It also involved some yoga-like stretches and backflips. But our favourite parts were taking on the roles of our favourite pro-Wrestlers and photo shoots (which involved more exercise than you'd think.)
This afternoon we ventured out of Potanur (where FFC is located)into the more urban environment of Coimbatore. This is the closest major city in the state of Tamil Nadu. Aside from the heat (Jackson says today was even hotter than when he posted his blog) being hassled to buy, we had an incredible experience. We visited a Westernized grocery store (MOLLY! WE FOUND TIM TAMS! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THEM!) and an Indian craft store. After having ice cream, we went to a beautiful Hindu temple. Inside was a real elephant who, when given rupees, would bless you by touching your forehead with it's trunk. Ashes were swiped across our foreheads and we were given leaves. It was a very spiritual and inspiring experience, one that we won't soon forget.

'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might just miss it' - Ferris Buler



- Katie and Harry

Girl Power

Watch out boys, the girls are blogging now.
It's time for our sweet, sweet revenge.
First to set the record straight, our 'guns' are much larger than Max Levitt's will ever be. To add to this, we persevered and stuck out the smell and washed the boys' boxers. It was definitely the 'thorn' of the day....besides being peed (Erin) and peed/pooed (Carly) on by the babies....at least their cute (by the way, Naomi, Kim and Debs were each bringing one home).
To add to our new list of talents, we are EXCELLENT book sorters and dusters (don't worry Kim & MarkyMark, Carly has only had one asthma attack...so far).

Right now, the little girls are banging on the window for us to come out and play with them. They've each chosen one of us to get attached to and have brought us various presents, such as bracelets, bindis and pictures of their fav 'supastar': Vijay. We love hanging out with them.
When the girls are at school, we play with the babies and toddlers. The babies are too cute and the toddlers just want to be held...a good workout for our MASSIVE muscles. Our work is DEFINITELY harder than the boys (and Katie) who are just breaking down a wall. We took the babies up to the roof so they could get some sun. Some of the babies had physical or mental handicaps that were at times hard to see...but we still had a lot of fun with them and they are so happy.

Yesterday, we sorted our 600 pounds of donations and distributed it to the different kindergarten classes, the library etc... Today, Mr. Brickell and Ms. Prevedello had a meeting with Sunbeam about where our $7000CAD - aka 300,000 rupees would be donated. So far, it has been decided to go towards new playground equipment for the special care kids, medical care, a new wall, toques (for all the cold weather??) and rain hats.

The key to our apartment is lost.
Hopefully, our bags won't be stolen...

p.s. we have a new key...don't worry too much Marla.

-Loren, Carly & Erin.

SHOUTOUT TO REMTULLA...best plane letter...awkward.

The Heat Is On

Day 3 - It's really hot. Like, really hot. Fortunately, we now have our bags and with them our sunscreen. I'm sure all our moms appreciate that. So today was our first day of putting in real hard labour for the orphanage. In the morning there were three jobs to be done: rebuilding the front wall of the main project, moving the older girls' belongings from their old, smaller space to a new, larger space, and painting & refurbishing one of the guest houses. By far the most rigorous was the wall building (Max, Daniel and Jackson, with a little help from Mr. Brickell). Despite the 100+ degree weather, furious red ants, unfamiliar Indian tools, garbage, shrubbery, and a crumbling mud wall, the boys persevered and succeeded in not only preparing the wall for repairs, but in avoiding heat stroke as well. The other jobs did not merit much description. Apparently, some of the girls' possessions were a bit hefty and the smell of turpentine was mildly unpleasant, although these claims are not verifiable (and probably dubious). The he-men of the wall then ate lunch with "the others" but quickly moved on to the next grueling task before them. The job was described as a quick bit of shoveling dirt into a hole, yet upon arrival at the work site the men found it to be a gaping abyss the size of which was mind blowing to passersby. Unmoved by the impossible task in front of them, the boys began to work, lifting great boulders overhead and throwing them incredible distances to fill the septic reservoir. After spending hour upon hour completing this chore, the boys were then told they must use the remaining rocks to level 50 x 50 m field behind them. Somewhat thrown by the ludicrous request, the boys gave it a chance, and worked for another several hours. Somewhere in between, Josh Wynn showed up to say hi and throw a couple of pebbles, although this may have just been a mirage. Barely able to move their powerful bodies, the boys moved at a snails pace back to the house, where they showered and restored the liquids they so desperately needed. Feeling refreshed and all the more accomplished, they wasted no time in sprinting to the field, several miles away. After an utterly exhausting frisbee throwing session, the boys were asked to play in a soccer game with the older boys of the orphanage. Although having trouble speaking, thinking, or moving due to extreme exhaustion and heat, the boys were unable to deny the request. Scoring a combined 15 goals, the boys quickly became mythical legends among the locals. After a quick jaunt to the next town over, the boys returned in the nick of time for dinner. Their peers were engrossed by the stories they had to tell, and related their own hardships, which were cute. As a side note, it was Matt's birthday yesterday, so good for him. A misnamed cake was presented in his honour. Indeed, a good day was had by all.

- Jackson, Max and Daniel

A Brief History of the Bags...

A brief history of the bags...Upon our arrival in Chennai late Friday night we loaded everything into the hotel shuttles, checked in, and made a very large pile in the foyer. After a short nap Mr. Robert from FFC arrived on Saturday morning and loaded everything into vans. We thought that would be the end of it. Bags were on their way to FFC where we would all be re-united later that day. What we didn't know was that the bags were taken off the vans and loaded on to the roof of an inter city bus at the Chennai bus terminal. The bus broke down somewhere between Chennai and Coimbatore. What to do? At one stage there was a plan to send a truck out in search of the broken down van with 24 huge suitcases and duffle bags on the roof but that idea was abandoned as nobody really knew where the break down had occurred. Cell phones and blackberries hummed… Then, some good news from the bus company, the bus was fixed and on its way. “Two hours time” was the promise around mid afternoon Sunday. At about 8:30 pm the bags were still not delivered and the new best estimate was – wait for it – “two hours time”. Mr. Robert and Mani the FFC driver had spent the entire afternoon and evening waiting for the bus to finally arrive in Coimbatore. We went to bed Sunday feeling a bit discouraged at the prospect of having to put the same clothes on again Monday morning but when we arrived at FFC for breakfast, lo and behold, the bags had arrived. Following another delicious FFC breakfast of dosas, idly, dal, pb and j, we finally unpacked our bags!