Some highlights

So many changes are starting to happen at the ashram. For starters, I should explain another clarification. When we first started the store in Assi Ghat, the name of the store was Mothers and Children of Ganga Ma. We are still using "Ganga Ma" as a staple because it represents the holy purity of the Ganges River that is so culturally relevant in Benares, but the name of the whole project on cosmicommunity.org and the ashram itself is Sons of Light. I'll often use "SOL" for convenience.

This is the front of the school. Obviously the Hindi on the left side translates to "Ganga Ma / Sons of Light Ashram." And on the right side its a bit hard to make out, but inside the sun it says "Ganga Ma."

At SOL, our daily routine is really starting to take shape. It does change every day a little bit based on everything imaginable including weather, supplies, amount of people showing up, attitudes, behavior and so forth. We have learned to just go with the flow and do our best.

This week has seen its share of some drama; both good and bad.

For starters, Jesu's birthday was on the 4th, and we came to the ashram armed with a cake, balloons and a party hat. We sang happy birthday and then Nagina (who is a beautiful singer in addition to being a painter and book designer) sang some Indian songs. Unfortunately I don't have a video, but you can enjoy an awkward snapshot of him in mid song.

Here's Nagina, and next to him is the lovely Sapna.

Everyone loves balloons!

The kids were super happy to play with the balloons and it sounded like the expected war zone with all the popping. Sorry for my poofy hair blocking the rest of the party in the photo.

And about the store!

First off I want to introduce a very important mother we have the privilege of working with.

This incredible young woman is Samundari, otherwise affectionally known as "Deva Mommy." To be honest I'm not even entirely sure how this name really came about. Obviously we all know she is the mother of a boy in the ashram named Deva, and everyone just started calling her Deva Mommy. With the repeated use of the nickname, no one could remember her real name. It got a few laughs for a while, and even yesterday at the ashram I had to ask her again what her real name was because I only know her as "devamommy." No one fights it anymore ;)

Devamommy is also the mother of Gotum who was pictured last time with the cute side part after his bath, and the wife of Babaji.

This is Devamommy and Babaji pictured with Deva in the middle. I should also mention that they are the parents of 4 other kids in addition to Deva and Gotum!

Last year on the ghats, Devamommy was a little late to the group. She had a tendency to drop in sporadically, and I personally didn't really get to know her so much at that time.

When I came back to Benares after being gone for a couple of months in that same year, I saw that Devamommy and Babaji had joined the group with force, and they had quickly become one of the most prominent families in the short time I was away. Devamommy learned how to crochet very quickly, and she immediately took off with the skill and made it her own. Her progress from last year to what she is making currently is so astounding its actually comical.

This is one of her beginner bags. I'm not completely sure exactly when she made it but...

...who has time to care when THIS is what she makes now. HOT DANG!!!

This poncho is absolutely incredible. Sometimes even I forget the progress that has happened until I see some pictures like this. 

Devamommy stands out because she is always ready to cooperate and learn something new. Some days at SOL can be really tough with tension, but Devamommy shines through as having one of the best attitudes and open hearts. She genuinely wants to work hard and make a change. I can safely say she has remained the most consistent member of the group with skill and dedication.

Working on the poncho with that typical Devamommy grin.

As things sometimes go, however, life is not always sparkles and sunshine. This week we saw a bit of a set back when Devamommy came to the ashram empty handed. The reported story was that unfortunately Babaji had been hitting the booze in the slum, and after an argument he burned a great deal of her materials (and his finished books and paintings as well).

 

Initially it seemed as if everything was gone, including all of her finished products. That was a sad day indeed. But as it turns out, the next day we discovered there was a bag of materials and products that was being kept separate from the rest, and those things had escaped the fire. 

These "scissors" and crochet hooks are among the unfortunate goners.

Apart from the obvious ethic issue of the incident, this is also devastating because each person in the crochet group had been generously supplied with their own bag of fancy supplies from Italy by Jaqui. Each person got some very nice things that aren't available in India, including quality scissors, a bag of a variety of sizes of crochet hooks, and a huge bag full of yarn in every color imaginable (the yarn is Indian, but still supplied by Jaqui). 

The yarn that each mother is supplied with.

The professional bag of hooks for each crocheter.

One of our biggest challenges has been teaching the women to be responsible with their supplies and "control" from the children and other general mishaps. We have come a gloriously long way since the beginning when we couldn't leave them with anything because it would be inevitably lost or destroyed within hours. Everyday we do a compulsory "control" speech and all the women have taken pride in their newly developed responsibility. So an incident like this is disheartening on levels beyond a domestic dispute.

Having said that, however, the mood has not been altered as much as you would think. I'm sorry to say that because of the environment and lifestyle in the slum, incidents like this are not in any way unusual, and we can expect them to happen again.

 I can also tell you with confidence that we all understand this is not a permanently bad reflection on Babaji's character, and no one doubts that he is a good person. We gave him his space and sure enough today he returned to the ashram, and everyone (including Devamommy, who was already back to smiles) greeted him with our normal amount of love and acceptance, without another word about it. The drama has already passed, and its touching to see that even after an incident like this, the ashram is naturally staying a safe place for everyone regardless of the mistakes they make on their own time.

Babaji, Devamommy and Gotum making today's lunch after Babaji's return. Sorry for the quality of the photo, my flash wasn't on ;)

The other major issue we saw this week is something that hurts on a much deeper level, and I apologize in advance for the wordiness and lack of  pictures.

We have worked hard to make the ashram a peaceful and pure place, but we have discovered recently that some things are being stolen from the kitchen. Every day we are unfortunately seeing vital supplies go missing, such as glasses and knives.

More than anything, this is disappointing on a deeply emotional level. Jesu in particular has been very hurt by this discovery. When things are going so well and a person puts so much love, care and trust into people (for years on her part, I should mention), to see a part of that reflected back to you with dark behavior such as theft can feel devastating and personal.

Of course we are not so naive to believe that we do not have to take action against this problem in the external ways like replacing missing items and taking measures to modify bad behavior, but what will become more important is continuing to represent the example of love and forgiveness, especially when the given circumstances evoke such negative feelings.

In the long run this will be the only method that has a deeper affect on the people involved in both incidents, because it is the only way we can be different from all the other influences that negatively affect their behavior on the outside. In this way we are creating change little by little in our own small environment.

I realize this post is a bit on the dark (and long) side, but we think its important to represent the reality of some of the problems, so you can watch how our ashram develops with all kinds of real life ups and downs. (Also its worth mentioning some hugely positive things happened this week as well, but that's for next time ;) 

Finally, to leave on a happy note, I present to you a hilarious picture of Gotum.

A Day at the Ashram

I'll start off this post by explaining a small but substantial change we've made. First of all, with the way that things are going in the school, we feel that it is more accurate to be called an Ashram. This is more than a place for teaching/learning, and the rest of this post goes into more detail about what we're doing and you'll be able to see why that fits.

We open the ashram every day at 10, except for Sundays when we take the day off. For the first few days we were starting at 9, but no one seemed to be able to make it on time. There were some passionate conversations involving punctuality and what not, and ultimately it turns out 10 is just better for everyone. 

I love this picture of Jesu being greeted by her incredibly giddy minions first thing in the morning.

We begin the day by helping the kids and parents get their hot baths (Indian style with a bucket). This is a very big deal for them, as this is the first time in their entire lives they have ever experienced having hot water on their bodies. The first time the kids got a hot bath on Christmas day, they were very emotional, crying with happiness. This was a very big moment for Jesu to see this, and she explained that the hot water for them is like medicine, because the cold water in the already cold winter time without proper clothes and shelter further exacerbates their illnesses.

Everyone is given previously donated clean clothes to change into. Often times these end up being some pretty eccentric outfits, as people just put on whatever is available in their general size. We get a nice mix of Western and Indian clothing, and these boys are certainly not afraid of some glam and glitter if it fits ;)

Bath time is always super crazy as kids are running around the house getting wet and changing clothes, and it is usually Jesu and Marta who are the warriors of these tasks. It is always worth it to see how happy everyone is to be cleaned up and feeling fancy. Everything changes from their appearance to their positive spirits.

This is Gotum. He is one of the sons of Babaji (who was doing the painting in the kitchen in the last post). He was the first child to get a bath from Jesu on Christmas day. He looks incredibly handsome with his freshly combed side part!

During bath time, the older family members are responsible for washing their old clothes and hanging them upstairs to dry, so they are ready for the next day.

Laundry.

Next on the morning agenda is breakfast. We keep it simple with bread and milk, and as per the rules, everyone eats on the rooftop away from the working areas. 

Breakfast!

During these first couple of hours, the focus is on meeting the basic needs for the families that cannot be met so regularly in the slum. These are the essential things we understand help with further motivation and inspiration to be creative and stay motivated.

This is Leela hanging up her clean clothes in a lovely donated ensemble. Leela was one of the first women with us on the ghats, and through her we have truly seen one of the most inspiring transformations.

After breakfast, the dishes are cleaned and we break into small groups to do different activities, depending on the volunteers available at the time.

Here are some examples of what we have going on right now (sorry for the inevitable misspelling of the volunteer's names)

Jaquelina and I can usually be found leading the ladies in crochet. We are working really hard to get them to follow through with projects and try new things. Jaquelina is the one with the crazy orange colored hat with pom poms, made by Leela.

Lisalotte was a volunteer from Chile. She taught them how to make these amazing little books out of regular paper, glue and fabric. The men at the school are really good at putting these books together. The man with the black sweater is Nagina. He is our most talented book engineer and another painter.

This is Mathais from Argentina helping one of the kids study Hindi. Mathais has been living in Varanasi for a long time, so his fluency in Hindi helps a ton with teaching and translations.

This is Giovani from Italy leading the kids in a song. He is one of the only magicians who can keep them interested for an extended period of time. Sometimes we end up having little parties in the kids' room to some of his songs. They absolutely love it!

Another volunteer named Chandana from Italy brought her art of mandala making. These are really popular with the kids. In this pictures is Giovani in the middle leading Babaji and Saraswati in some mandala making.

As soon as we start the work, someone is assigned to getting lunch together. For the first few days we didn't have any gas in the kitchen, so we were picking up some stuff from outside. Now, we have an amazing set up in the kitchen complete with gas and a (functioning?) refrigerator. Our usual rotating cooks so far have been Guli, Leela, Sagar and Jesu.

Here's Guli whipping up some chapati for lunch.

Everyone enjoying the food made with love!

After lunch we get cleaned up and send the mothers and fathers out to the store. We still have our same store on Assi Ghat for now.

In addition to the store, we are trying to branch out to other tourist shops as well. Just in the past couple of days, we got a friend of ours who is a shop owner to display some of the products in his store on the main road.

Yep, that's the shop owner Suresh combing his mustache in preparation for his big photo.

One of the books Lisalotte taught how to make (the one in the center). Notice the tag placed inside the plastic covering. This was a brilliant idea of Jaquelina's to include with all the products to explain the project and make everything look more polished. 

One of the bags hanging up. 

A couple of the adorable baby hats. 

So, as you can see, things are very steadily moving along. From the last post I made until now, a ton of things have changed and been fine tuned. We are discovering every day the challenges and rewards, and there is always something new to figure out and make better for next time.

Namaste!!

We have a house!

Up until this point we have all been congregating outside on the ghats. It has been very difficult to teach in this environment because of the many distractions, which include but are not limited to cows trying to eat our supplies, kids fighting with the dogs and the local Indians trying to harass the volunteers. Let's just say it would be super nice to have a designated, enclosed environment to get things done.

Well indeed we became very, very fortunate when our friend Khus helped us find an old abandoned house. The owners of this property were the only ones who even considered letting us rent it for the intended purpose, as most Indians would not allow the people of the lowest "Untouchables" caste to inhabit their property.

After much deliberation, Jesu and a small entourage were able to bargain the price down from 18,000 rupees (about $300) to 10,000 (about $165). That is incredible!

And as if that wasn't enough, the incredible Justi from Spain decided to delegate a great deal of donation funds from her own collections involving many other humanitarian projects. She has covered 6 months rent!! This will give us a decent amount of time to get settled and established and find a steady way to keep the rent paid.

This is the amazing Justi. Originally I had another photo to introduce her but this one was far too adorable to pass up. 

Seeing the house initially was a bit shocking. It had been abandoned for 10 years so you can imagine it was not in a good state.

Here are some "before" pics.

(I'm having an absolute nightmare of a time downloading anything with the amazing Indian wifi, so I've just included a bunch of links to my cloud account)

House Before Pictures

Captions (from top left):
1. This is the shower and toilet. On the left is the shower which has hot water! (Thats more than I can say for most hotels in Varanasi) The right side is the toilet. 
2-7. Rooms and general squalor.
8. The outside of the house.

First we gathered the kids and put them to work cleaning, and we got a lot done in one day. We definitely learned our lesson about letting the kids help, though. We spent a lot of time trying to stop them from jumping off the roof.

Cleaning Up

Captions: 
1. We started the cleaning extravaganza with a "pooja" to get the kids focused and ready for work. (we also start our school day with this)
2 - 5. Hard working kids picking up loads of trash and scrubbing away!
6. This is Sagar. He is the big brother of Samne Ghat. He has been there helping out since the very beginning in the slum. He is a huge part of the schools daily work. 
7,8. bla bla bla
9. This is Marta. She is Justi's niece and helped a lot to bargain for the house, and showed up every day to clean and paint.
10-11. bla bla bla
12. There is a little loft space in one of the rooms. and we randomly found a TON of useful things just rotting up there.
13. Kitchen stuff was included in that.
14,15. ... and fancy women's shoes, which Sagar was kind enough to model for us.
16. One of our little princesses, Guli ;)

The daunting task of actually painting the house seemed bleak. But, as the magic of Benares always prevails, Jesu ran into a friend of mine who happens to be... a professional painter! I was delighted when I saw Kevin (Marcos) at the paint shop prepared to help. Marcos delegated the necessary tasks to get a decent paint job. Once again, the amazing Justi is responsible for providing the funds for the supplies.

First we had to scrape all the excess paint off the walls, and then scrub again with a sanding brush. I imagine that without Marcos we would have just tried to slop on some paint, and it could have been disastrous. (Not to mention he may have done most of the painting anyway... oops ;)

Scraping and Painting

Just a bunch of scraping and painting.
Pic 7. This is Kevin/Marcos on his lunch break. Look at that smile. He is a professional painter in Maine for 4 months out of the year when he isn't traveling. He has been our amazing paint angel. 
8,9. How many grown men does it take to open a tub of paint in India? Answer for us: 4. 

And finally, after only 3 days, we were finished and ready to welcome in our family!!

The After Pics

Notice Jesu's brilliant color division. That was her idea because the top of the walls were already painted yellow and not looking so bad. She worked that into the colorful design to save us some time and money. 

We were able to finish everything up just in time for Christmas. Here are some pics of the families arriving and other cute little Christmas things.

The Families Arrive

Captions
1,2. This is "Baba Ji." He is one of our budding artists. He loved the kitchen and wanted to contribute some of his art work. He makes cards and paintings to sell in the store.
3. This is Sapna and her baby Ganga arriving. Sapna was one of the first crochet students. She is a master now!!
5. This is our pooja after everyone got there to bless the new school. The guy with the fire is Saraswati, who is a major help on the local side. He will play a big part in running the school in the months we are not here.
6. Everyone enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner on the rooftop. Potato paratha and sabji, thanks to Jesu :)
7. This is Noori. He actually lives on the streets around Assi Ghat. He is a very special boy who has learned so much since I first met him last year! 

Now that the house is up and running, we are slowly figuring out the best ways to proceed. School has already been running for a few days, and in another few days I will have some more updates and stories.

The Story

THE SHORT VERSION

A girl from Argentina found her passion in coming to Varanasi to give the service of love and education to families in need. With the help of other travelers, a school was developed in a public, touristy area to teach the children how to read and write, and the mothers how to make crafts to sell instead of beg for money. The school became a project of love, trust, teamwork and financial responsibility. After years of Jesu's dedication, it has finally began to come to fruition close to the way she originally hoped.

The lovely Latin Lady herself!

THE LONG VERSION

THE DREAM

It all started with a dream. Literally, a dream.

Jesumiel (Jesu) is a devout catholic who has devoted her life to the serving of others. Like many people, she was waiting to find exactly the right place for her to give her love. One night in a very vivid dream she saw a place called "Samne Ghat" written on a sign, and she met a little girl whose face was vivdly imprinted in her memory.

After doing some research on the trusty world wide web, she came to discover that Samne Ghat was was a real slum in the holy city of Varanasi (Benares). And she later discovered that the face of the girl she met in her dream was the real face of a child named Birshu.

If there was any doubt before, seeing her dream as a reality in these ways further secured the passion for her mission.

FROM DREAM TO REALITY

While the school and store are still very young, Jesu's work started as soon as she realized what her dream meant. She spent 3 years gaining the trust and affections of the families in Samne Ghat, trying to pass the hurdle of apprehension and often times aggression she met from the families. She persisted with giving medicine, food, and love. After a great deal of time she was finally revered as a valuable member of the community.

Her attempts during this time to begin her school in the way she wanted were falling short, due to the large number of children and only herself to control them. She knew she needed to get attention from people who could help.

A RAPID DEVELOPEMENT

When I met Jesu at the Mother Theresa house in Varanasi, I jumped on board. At first I accompanied her to the slum and attempted to occupy the crowds of people with games and pointless antics while Jesu tried to organize learning activities for smaller groups of children. Even when more travelers joined to help it became very clear very quickly that it was impossible to make progress. Working in the slum, it could never be more than a practice of compassion; certainly lacking the ability to make a bigger difference.

Max from Italy occupying the kids in the slum with macrame. Or possibly just being a human jungle gym. Either one is possible at any given time ;)

In an attempt to go in a better direction, we started to hold the classes on the ghats, which are the area of steps that lead down to the Ganges (Ganga) river. Here we attracted a great deal of attention from passing tourists, who often times stopped to help, and often for more substantial periods of time.

Max and I teaching our first core group on the ghats.

We always bathed the kids in the holy Ganga after school. Now with so many more children, we start each day with washing their  hands and faces. 

Jesu spent the hours on the ghats teaching the rambuncious yet more manageable number of children how to read and write, while the mothers sat near by with their cups out for tourists. Looking for some way to contribute, a group of travelers got involved to occupy the mothers and older children with making handicrafts. We brought whatever we could to the table, including crochet, macrame, and beading necklaces.

THE STORE

Soon the products which were originally being made just to keep people busy started to receive an increased amount of attention from tourists who were interested in purchasing them. This caused a great deal of excitment and shed light on a new possibility.

With this new inspiration, attempts were started to develop a more visibly acceptable display. We scavenged the streets of Benares with the help from our trusty friend Khus and found a large piece of cloth and a partially broken piece of wood, and with this the store saw its humble beginning!

Things were starting to look up, but still there was no order whatsoever.

One of our adorable first stores. Note the impromptu cardboard sign in the back. It was our first humble attempt at becoming official!

THE GROWTH

Jesu's brother and sister came up from Argentina to help things along, and Jesu's sister Jaqueline proved to be an invaluable asset. She took their previously developed skills of crochet and with her own expertise, turned the women into masters of creativity. As the sales of the products began to increase, so did the need for more organization. Things were getting serious!


The attitudes of the mothers and chidren were slowly improving as they saw the growth and began to take pride in their work. When before they made no attempts to look nice because they were aware of the down trodden image that earns more pity, they were now taking the time to bathe and wear their nicest saris and comb their hair and look their best. They began to see the need to work together, and many egos were pushed aside and more responsibility was taken for their newly developed craft and business.

AND NOW...

Now the organization of the store and school is greatly improved, and it has become a place where the mothers and children (and now some fathers, too) can come to feel safe, loved, and important. Issues involving personal conflict and money have slowly dissipated into minor scuffles instead of full on public brawls. The families have learned the value of working as a team and seen the success that is possible when love is put before anger, and you see the possibility of a bigger picture. The children have devoloped a new attentive behavior and a desire to learn and be successful.

What first started as a little cloth on the dirty ground with a few purses and necklaces has turned into a long line of handi crafts and smiling people looking and feeling their best, working away with excitement and silliness, and [mostly] peace (this will be perfected with time ;)

This is an example of how the store looks now. Notice the more appealing sign and designated working/selling space. A huge step up!!

This is the view if you keep moving to the right of the picture above it. Total there are about 6 sections with different families' products.

FOR OUR FUTURE

While the progress has been great, we still have a lot to do. Just 2 days ago we had a huge development where we secured a house to move the school inside. Today we are starting the cleaning process because it has been abandoned for 10 years! My next post will document the house's current state and progress.

We are getting the word out for help and support from family, friends and fellow travelers. Donations are starting to flood in and we are persisting day to day to improve the conditions and make our project more official!

MORE INFO

These are some of Jesu's already established sites if anyone is interested in reading more or donating.

cosmicommunity.org - Here in this website is a donation link and more info about when Jesu first arrived at Samne Ghat. The site is in Italian but on the upper right corner you can change it to English.

info@cosmicommunity.org

facebook: voluntariado en india - This is Jesu's facebook page. More pictures!

bank transfer: IBAN IT29M0326879530052763740520
Bic (swift code): SELBIT2BXXX

This Blog

This blog is made to show our friends and family abroad the work that is being done in the Mothers and Children of Ganga Ma school in Varanasi (Benares).

This is my first time making a blog so I'm not entirely sure how to proceed, but I will try to have new information and pictures on a weekly basis while we are all here working.