Email from India Feb 10 02

Feb 19, 2002

Dear Everyone,

Hope you are all well. We are fine here in India. There is much to tell you, both anecdotal, and about what we are learning and doing.

First, here is a normal day so far. I (Peter) wake about 6 and exercise in the room. Usually we have kept the AC on all night unless the power has gone off which seems to be every few hours. It usually takes a few minutes to get hot water, or sometimes there isn’t any, so thank goodness we are in a warm climate. About 7:15 or so we go down next door to eat in the Veg restaurant, (the only kind here in Kanchipuram). This morning we had coffee, I had idiapum(rice noodles with a vegetable sauce for dipping) and Hinda had “bread toast butter jam”. Cost:Rs 44, about 90 cents. Last night for dinner we spent $4 which included pineapple shake for you know who, mineral water, biryani, (rice with vegetables) raitha – yogurt with cucumbers, puris, and egg rolls. At dinner or breakfast, there have been up to 7 waiters standing by and staring, suggesting things, asking questions, etc. Eating is definitely not the place to have a private,quiet, romantic dinner. After breakfast we go back to the room and ask for a “boy” to clean the room. A boy comes with the supervisor and we stand by while he cleans. If we were’nt there, many of our things would be gone. This is because the poverty makes the lure of so many things too enticing. One boy makes the bed, then we wait for another one to sweep, then another one to bring towels, and another to clean the bathroom, and another to bring fresh toilet paper. Sometines we bring the laundry downstairs to be washed by the “dhobi”. Avout $2 for basketful, but beware that your beige pants don’t come back purple. Well, purple is a nice color after all, and tan is a bit drab. After cleaning, we wait for our “auto rickshaw driver” to take us to work, about 2 km for Rs 30 – 62 cents. An auto rickshaw is a 3 wheeled motorcycle with a little roof and bench seat. The horn rubber that the driver squeezes continually, and so does everyone else with their horn: bicycle bells, truck and bus air horns, car horns, etc. The ride is harrowing to say the least. In the paper the other day, just in this state alone in the first 6 months of last year there were 37,000 accidents, and 6,000 deaths. So far so good. We work at RIDE. Ride is located on the second floor of a 3 floor house. RIDE’s director and family live downstairs, the office is on the middle floor, and the 3^rd floor is being renovated to put in an experimental loom. We have a little room to work in with a fan, light, table and our laptop which we are donating to RIDE. Our laptop and Sabrina’s laptop are their first ones. Thanks Sabrina – they love it!

We developed a survey about the program which we are presently administering to staff, families, doctors, government officials and loom owners. Thus far we have met with several staff and about 6 teachers which means that we have visited 6 RIDE’s Bridge Schools. You would not recognize it as a school. They are in extremely poor, rural villages. Some have no electric. I guess the size of the room to be about 10 x 12, and in it are 25 – 35 children and the teacher. The children are from 6 – 13 or 14, and most were taken from the loom factories by RIDE. While there, they worked from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for just a few Rs per day, and some tea and rice. Their backs are hunched, they have carpal tunnel syndrome, etc., etc. The children sit on the floor, either dirt,or concrete and have a small slate board and chalk. There is also a blackboard in the room which the teacher uses. It is a chore for the teacher to go around the village each day to get the parents to send the children to the school because if they send them to the loom factory, then they will earn money for the family. However, some children do go to the school and after a few months or so, they will be able to go to a government school. What is this project all about? One staff person said it best: “Every child needs to have a childhood”.

We visited a few looms and will continue to see more. Needless to say that the silk saris are exquisite, but the sad fact is that children work in most of the looms for practically nothing. Here is how it works. If a family needs money, they get an advance of say Rs 2,000 from the loom owner, and then the child works it off. Imagine your 6 year old doing this – forever! Some of the saris are very intricate and the designs are woven top and bottom. Only the children are capable because of their size to sit on the floor and do that work. We calculated that some of the loom families that sell their products to silk wholesalers make about $1.50 per day! Needless to say, the loom owners are not happy about RIDE taking the children out of the loom factories. The entire economy of this area is based on silk weaving. People come from all over India, Asia, and around the world to buy silk saris here.

We have also designed a basic computer class to teach to the RIDE staff. Only the director knows how to use a computer, but we will begin teaching others soon 1 or 2 evenings a week. We are also working on some fundraising things and we will help with management in general.

Last night we each bought sandals. Total for both was $8.60 and they are nice!

One of the Internet Cafes we found goes from one porn site to another non stop, but it is the fastest. So the choice is either wait for the porn pages to go away, or settle for a slower browser in another place. What would your choice be?

Outside our window we see lots of monkeys running around and stealing food from the restaurant. There are a 3 or 4 monkey families here in town, about 50 or 60 monkeys. Fun to watch. Also beautiful green parrots in the temples. Temples are very old – up 3,500 years old and very interesting.

The women are envious of Hinda because she has pockets and saris don’t have any. Usually only men can put their hands in the pockets, but so can Hinda.

Every vehicle has a backup warning tone. The other night (90 degrees) and we hear jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way …. Very funny.

In the US there are speed bumps, in Israel there are “bumpers”, and here there are “speed breakers”.

Anyway, even though this is a very very 3^rd world environment, and as we told you before, very dirty, very unsanitary, very crowded, it is also very interesting, and the people are very nice, helpful, and friendly. We are happy to be here and happy to be of some help. And, we are presenting a good image of our country.

This is getting too long, so we will try to send it to you and see what happens., Let us know if you get it. Keep the home fires burning for us!

Peter and Hinda