For Osasco Elementary School (And anyone else who wants to know more about India)

Hello Owasco Third Grade Class!  

(And Anyone else who wants to know more about India)

Below are some pictures with captions about India and my life there.

In India there are kids just like in America.  They love going to school and playing with their friends. Some kids don't have as much as kids in America.  This day these girls got a new backpack as a gift and were SO excited. 

Just like in America, the kids like to learn and play games.  This picture is of one little girl using scrabble letters to learn to write words in English. She is learning to speak both English and Hindi.  

This is a school in India. Some kids can't afford to go to school. There are no free public schools in India.  If someone can't afford to go to school, sometimes they just stay home with their families and help their parents to work and raise money for the family.

In some schools there are no desks and children sit on the ground to do their studies.  

In most schools that the children sit on the ground, they take their shoes off before entering the school to try to keep it clean.  In most houses people do the same.  This is a very common custom in India.

When you walk down the street, you will see monkeys every day just wild playing in the streets and trees, just as common as you see birds in the trees.  There are grey monkeys that seem to be nicer but are as large as a dog.  They are still not something you would want to stay close to, but they are nicer than the other monkeys. Then there are smaller ones that are brown.  They are not as nice. They chase people, steal their bags out of their hands, and sometimes even attack people. 

I live at the top of a mountain in the Himalayas.  It's over 6,500 feet above sea level. We can see the Tibet border and the snow capped mountains from where I live. It's beautiful. 

Somedays you literally walk outside into a cloud.  Some days we look down the valley and see the clouds, and live above them. 

Because we live on an edge of a mountain, our roads are very curvy and steep.

In this picture you can see a motorcycle turning the bend around the mountain.  It sometimes feels you are just going to drive off the edge of the mountain.  Where I live there are no guard rails sometimes and no enforced speed limits and traffic rules, so sometimes people do have bad accidents.

Many people don't have cars or motorcycles and so they walk wherever they go. Often times they carry heavy work loads on their heads.  I tried one day to carry what they carry on my own head and I almost fell over. It's a hard job.  Indians are very strong people.  I respect them and their hard work a lot.

Some roads look like this.   They aren't paved, and have no lines, and people just kinda drive through a desert.

Wherever you go there are many sights to see along the road.  Here is a statue of a god that the Hindu people worship. You can see many gods like this all along the roadside in almost every village and city. I work in India to try to tell people about the One True God.

In the towns, you will often see cows and bulls wandering freely.  People believe that cows are holy and some people worship them.  I think this cow supports the fact that this restaurant is Vegetarian. ;) Sometimes shop keepers have to chase the cows and monkeys out of their shops. 

Sometimes you see very sad things on the street, like a poor baby playing in the dirt while His mother carries dirt for new construction. 

Or sometimes you see children playing in the road.  This makes me sad too!  I am always afraid they will get hit by an oncoming car or motorcycle. 

Sometimes you see people bathing or getting ready for work on the street.  This man has no mirror or bathroom in his home, so he was using the hubcap of a wheel to see his reflection and brush his teeth and wash his face. 

Some villages and towns are quite poor and people bath and drink from water that looks like this.

Photo Credit: Ashley

Some days you get to watch the religious practices of friends who celebrate EID.  They take a live ram and sacrifice it.  They then slaughter it, and cook it for dinner.

Here is the head of the ram!

This woman is washing her dishes outside on the road.  This is common for any people. 

India is a very different place than America.  But I love it and love the people there.  India has become my home and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.  I am thankful to live and work here, and have the opportunity to share love and hope with every one I meet.