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.