Leaf Int'l Instruments for Girls

Leaf International Music-the girls drumming!

Leaf International is an incredible outreach program set up to bring instruments/music/and teachers to children all of the world in need as a mean of healing. We're here w/Johnny, the girls music teacher, working on how to plant the seeds for a successful long term Leaf International program at Home of HOpe orphanage.
Much to our surprise, we found out that Sophie, one of the nuns, used to be in a BAND! and played jazz drum kit! Who says the sisters don't got soul!?? We were so excited to find this out b/c she can also teach the girls tabla drumming. Also, any funds that may go to her as the "music mentor" would be funneled right back into supporting the orphanage!!This we felt was fantastic on all levels, especially in a culture where mostly only the men play. So excited to think of more women drumming....
More details to come.
Also some photos from our instrument shopping trips, and potential instruments and prices that we may be able to get for the girls.

Rooftop Yoga

The girls loooove yoga and are constantly asking if we’re teaching each day. The first class Tara taught was on the terrace was full of giggles, but also a real interest and desire to please. Every day we’ve taught them meditation, (I can’t believe they actually sit still for 3-4 minutes!) chanting Om, basic breathing techniques, Surya Namaskar A & B, and many standing yoga asanas.


Loren and I also did a partner yoga class one night, with lots of demos and Loren in a traditional “lunghi” a men’s skirt. Needless to say some of the poses were limited for him. The girls loved watching and once we let them loose it was the most laughter we heard from them during the whole trip. By the end of our time there, during the last class in the hall where the girls sleep at night, Kaliyani, a skinny little firecracker, let me know that she wanted to continue teaching yoga to the girls, and that she would like to be a yoga teacher. I gave her mine and Loren’s mats to keep, and hope that when we return with the WYC community for the service trip next year, that we’ll have yoga mats for all of the girls…can’t wait to recycle our used mats and start some kind of official program of mat recycling. Hopefully yoga will be a powerful seed for them now, helping them to learn compassion, confidence, and working together…

Thank you beautiful Home of Hope girls for teaching Tara, Loren, and Kristin yoga through your endless hugs, smiles, laughter, and love!!!! We love you!

And huge thank you to Dave for such a special wedding gift making our trip possible (notice where little Selvie is pointing on KC's shirt...)

Rice paddy hospitality

Enjoyed a great trip to Chittur, Pallakkad, to stay with our new friend, Ashok. He emailed me only a month before our trip in trying to find yoga resources in America. Once we told him we were coming to Kerala soon, we had an instant invitation to stay with him and his family on their rice & coconut farm.
It was very humbling to sleep in the families home, and have his mother make amazing Kerala dishes for us, and teach us to make rice noodles. All of the fruits, vegetables, spices come straight from the farm, and Ashok’s whole family lives off of $50 per month-mother, father, Ashok, his brother, brother’s wife, and small boy. The home is quiet, clean, and simple. And I’ll never forget the look on Loren’s face in the middle of the night, returning from the “outhouse” and terrified that he may have a spider on his body somewhere after walking through a web along the path (I married a city boy ☺ ). When I got back safely from my midnight trip to the toilet, he quietly said, “I prayed for you”, which of course made me laugh hysterically at 3am…


Ashok’s father is a guru and has a sweet little ashram that he invited us to. We meditated with Ashok in the “cave” a meditation room meant to simulate the spaces that sadhus inhabit in the Himilayan mountains. His father has taught for over 30 years, dedicated to the traditional teachings.

We also learned basic Kalari (Indian martial arts) moves from Ashoks teacher, and received more ayurvedic treatments at his very simple shala. Loren’s first experienced getting oiled up and walked on…

Thank you, Ashok, for your amazing hospitality and sharing your home!

Teaching English

Walking through the school hallways, with flashcards in our hands, Loren and I were excited and a tad bit nervous to go in and start teaching English. However, they quickly padded our egos... as Americans walking through the halls, as soon as the children see you through the windows they literally start screaming your name, and jumping out of their seats and running to the doors, swarming you with “come in! how are you? what is your name? what country!?!!” We kept joking with each other that we were the rock star celebrities of Home of Hope.

We also found that the children were so far along in their English, that it was best if we helped with the younger children, the 4-6 year olds. We mostly used flashcards of objects, and had them repeat after us. We also tried to reiterate a lot of basic conversational phrases, and we enjoyed letting them teach us Malyalam, their native tongue, as well.

Their teachers were really wonderful, loving women, in beautiful saris, and it’s so nice to see how much they love the students, and how proud they are of them. I really admire these teachers. It has been strange not seeing more career women in Kochin as most are homemakers, and not educated. More later on reflections of women of India…

School Daze

We’ve been so impressed with the school for the children. The girls from the orphanage mix right in with the children from the community, and they all wear the same uniforms. Tara and I actually noticed that in some of the classrooms we observed, “our girls” (from Home of Hope) were more disciplined than some of the public kids. Of course we were probably a little biased, but they truly did seem to have a more serious attitude, and gratitude for their teachers/studies/desire to learn. Overall, Loren, Tara and I were all very surprised at the fluency. They love practicing speaking English and are eager to prove how much they know. We were also pleasantly surprised to see that they really wanted to learn songs and dances from us. Tara and I taught them “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes” and “The Ocean Refuses No River”, as well as teaching them the electric slide.

Loren got lots of giggles from the girls when he showed of his moves in our couple’s dances… It’s been so much fun watching the giddiness of the girls around “husband and wife”. They were very excited to see our wedding DVD, and we’ve tried to explain to them how special it’s been to share our honeymoon with them… what a gift they are to US!

"I'm with the band..."

We had the special treat of observing band practice for the Home of Hope All-Girl Marching Band. The band was formed thanks to the fund raising efforts of the students at Christ the King School in Pleasant Hill. Instruments were purchased and a local band instructor, Johnnie, has been working with the girls to hone their skills, marching around the orphanage grounds practicing their steps, tone and timing.



And Loren finally got to fulfill his dream of playing with a marching band...



The girls' uniforms are currently being made in the school's sewing class. Piece by piece, they are coming together. The newest additions to the uniform were the red, feathered berets picked up by Sister Sophie. Of course, all of the Sisters had to try them on for a laugh...

The gang's all here!!

Sunday, Jan 13th...
Loren & Tara B made it!!

They arrived at the orphanage around 5:30am in time to wake everybody up and see the day start (of course with the long trip over, they had no idea which day was actually starting.) All of the girls slowly woke to see these two new visitors, but it didn't take long for the girls to start popping up off their mats like popcorn to meet the new faces.

With Tara & Loren arriving on Sunday, they got a slightly different pace to the day. There was no school going on, so only the girls of the orphanage were around. The Taras served them breakfast and morning Chai while Loren gave Sister Anna all of the gifts & supplies brought over from what was donated & collected at the Yoga Center and books & dvds from Paul Uncle (including "Sister Act").










And Loren got a special coconut oil treatment from the girls to help manage his 'fro in the humidity...

After School Activities

After another day at school, the younger girls meet to get their daily bathes and head wash, and afterwards they are busy hand washing their laundry and hanging it out to dry in the warm Indian sun.

While most of the girls are bathing, Chinju, who is usually off on her own getting into or doing who knows what (the sister's are still trying to figure out what in the world she is doing while everyone else is praying and studying :) and today she has gone to pick mylanchi leaves to create a paste that she will mix with turmeric powder to make an Indian medicinal remedy
for cuts. It is also used for making henna designs.

She had a cylinder pestle which she was rolling vigorously over the mylanchi leaves on the concrete slab, where they do their laundry, to form paste to mix with the turmeric powder... aaawww, our little 'forest child' who always seems to amaze us!! It's incredible to see how they utilize all of their resources!! One of my favorites, is when Chinju used coconut husks for her "washcloth!" It's so amazing and so simplistic and natural--I love it!!!

At 5:30 pm all of the girls from Auxillium and Annex meet Tara and Kristin on the terrace for Tara to teach them their first yoga class. All in all there were about 40 girls who lined up anxiously and excitedly. Sister Annie John was my translator and with her help we were able to begin; during our first round of Om's some of the girls got the giggles :) then we set our intention.

We practiced a few rounds of Surya Namaskar for their first practice, and will continue tomorrow evening. What a humbling experience and what an honor is was to witness seeing their big, beautiful, brown eyes that are so filled with amazing shakti and love. All the girls were really focused and proud at how good they were. It was really beautiful and so much fun!!!

Heading South for the winter

Kovulum, Southern Coast of Kerala

Tara and I took a quick trip to Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort, Kovulum to visit friends Shiva (leading the yoga retreat at Somatheeram) & Sonia (from Cologne, Germany). Beautiful dinner overlooking the ocean and watching the Kathika traditional Indian dance and local musicians- Shiva invited us to watch her morning Kalari practice (Indian martial art) in beautiful “earth pit” temple. Both Tara and I had amazing ayurvedic treatments, and fabulous ayurvedic meals-including coconut water straight from the coconut, picked off right off the local trees. The resort felt like a beautiful jungle with thatched roof huts and stone pathways-had a nice morning practice w/Shiva then back on the road to Kochin, and wondering how the girls were doing… they are so easy to miss! ☺

Another plus for the trip… Irshad, our driver, was fantastic-a sweet 21 year old with broken English and a great sense of humor. He was just excited about seeing the elephants one foot away from our car windows as we were.

Class photos

Tara

Selvy's

School Uniforms

Humble Home on Way to Auxilium

Ready for School with Backpacks

Photos 3

Photos Jan6-8th

Butt Paste









Lunch room

Homemade broom by the girls

Images from around the orphanage

Tea with the Sisters









Reusable cups










Sleeping Beauty

Maleshwi Face Washing

Mama Bianca, Kristin & girls

Gifts from Paul Uncle

Healers for Marina










Courtyard Dining

Mama Bianca & Marina

Some photos from the orphanage

Chinju Morning Bedhead










Chinjus Gift from Danielle Cooper










Morning Hair Salon

Awards Board









Surya Loves RICE!

Surya's Pearly whites

We've arrived!!

Tara & Kristin at Home of Hope Orphanage

Kochi, Kerala
Southern India
Jan 5.....

More to come later, but here's a quick photo tour of some of the highlights and some of the little faces. Their stories are varied-Sister Anna showed us news footage of "Chinju" a "forest child" that was discovered living in the woods with her 3 brothers. Her mother and father had left the forest with child #5 because he was sick, and they tried to get him to the doctor (he did not live).

They did not have the money to go back to the forest after taking the child to the hospital, and so Chinju and her brothers were left to survive on their own. She is amazing and can climb the trees to fetch jackfruit for the Sisters. She reminds us of a smiling little monkey w/a mischevious grin and sparkle in her eyes. "Marina" is a 13 year old who just returned yesterday from the hospital for stitches in her leg (she fell) and her English is almost impeccable for her age. Her mother Bianca, a local house maid, is visiting her this week and staying with us at the orphanage and both Bianca and Marina are so happy to be with each other. Marina's father was a "drunkard" according to her mother, and this is how he died. Now Bianca just wants to continue cleaning, and make sure her daughters have a good life. She hopes that Marina will come to college in America and become a nurse.

(Loren=when I asked Marina how long she was staying, she said, until Saturday, so I can meet your husband. :)

Despite their histories, they really are truly happy, healthy children. It's incredible how organized and structured the whole facility is and how disciplined they are, and also how well they work with each other and share all things. They radiate all day long-skipping, dancing, singing, laughing, hugging, kissing, creating new hair do's on Tara and I and TALKING!!! It's true what they say about females in groups!! There's no such thing as "quiet time" around here!

We are amazed by their joy and thrilled to be here with them.

Daily Activities include:

• 5:30 am-Morning Hygeine-
• Wake and fold up mats from sleeping on floor
• Morning Prayer w/Sister Sophie
• Teeth brushing, face washing, doing each others hair6-7am-Morning Mass & Breakfast
• This weekend is "holiday" -play time on Sat and Sun-but still studying to be done, cleaning, washing clothes, sweeping, etc...
• Practiced Ashtanga Primary series on terrace w/them after washing clothes on the stone rocks-
• also partner yoga-
• They shared w/us traditional indian dances and songs they have learned in school-

Paul Uncle-

they miss you so very much and are so proud of the many things you've been the catalyst for-they keep talking about the computers, the jeep, the water filtration...they are practicing their band routine right now as we type-preparing a special performance for you for the next time that you come. Some have rhythm and some sound like dying elephants on tuba. Senior Sister was walking around w/fingers in her ears. They are such blossoming little souls.

Loren Uncle
they have seen your photos and are excitedly awaiting your arrival!! They have many Sisters around, and female figures, and are always asking about "husband??"

Tara and I are "AUNTIE!! AUNTIE!! AUNTIE!! they must scream 1000 times per day.

Tonight we head to Kovalum (5 hour drive) to meet up w/Sonia & Shiva, and probably won't post again for 2-3 days.

Love to you all from Tara & I!
Dagakunda!

You can only take 100 lbs each...

So we are in the prep mode for our trip to India... running around getting ready for Kristin & Tara F's departure on Thursday and Loren's departure on the 11th. Besides figuring out what we need to pack (which is actually not much since everyone's advice is to buy your clothes once you're there), we are packing med supplies, nail polish, hair scrunchies, and industrial water filters for the orphanage.

Oh yeah, this is what our trip India is all about...
Planning started off as the trip being our delayed honeymoon (couldn't get it together around all of the other wedding planning). We wanted to be able to contribute to the community we were visiting, so in researching some service-based options, we came across Paul Wilkes and the Home of Hope orphanage in Kerala... Perfect!! Paul has been an amazing resource providing the connection to the orphanage, tips on Indian travel as well as having an infectious passion and level of enthusiasm for what can be possible when people decide to help others. We also got a crash course in teaching English as a second language from Shelby Shelly, a teacher of teachers.


So Kristin & Tara F. are shipping of on Thursday with Loren & Tara B. leaving on the 11th....