Our first day in Calicut!

Today we woke up on the train and Nicole had us go to the back of the train car and there we had some fun looking out of the train door at the beautiful scenery and taking pictures. It was a beautiful site to see! Then after the 11 hour train ride we met out contact Mahadev and went to our hotel. We love it! It is very beautiful and it's right by the beach and a big bazaar. We changed our clothes and went to the press conference this morning. It went well! =) We will be on the Indian news tonight and in all the papers here in the mornig. We are excited to get copies and see what they wrote about us!
After that we grabbed lunch and headed out to explore the area...we went to the bazaar. It was a very large market and we were unable to finish walking through it today...we will go back later. Cj found a Mundu (man skirt) and is already wearing it. The rest of us found a few things and Stephaine bought a Sari (a type of woman's dress in india) and plans to wear it. In that shop the girls had some fun! We were able to try different ones on and taking pictures with some of the ladies who worked in the shop.
We are so glad to finally be in Calicut!
~Nicole, Cj, Becca, Stacy, Albert, and Stephanie

Follow up from the WolfPack disclaimer

--- We ended up taking a really fun and cool tour today thanks mainly in part to the "stalker" rickshaw drivers who were indeed totally harmless. We went and saw the Pink City and the Water Palace which was so amazing! and to the Monkey Temple. Monkey Temple Palace gave a beautiful view of the city! We also went to a tie-dye factory where they make all the tie-dye by hand using all natural products. Our last, and longest stop of the day (much to Brian and Sams dislike, although they were troopers) was the textile factory. So many beautiful things- we all had a hard time deciding what we wanted, but I'd say we made smart and incredible purchases!

Overall, having an amazing time! Our wolfpack is drama-free, and really bonded with our fearless leader Bree holding it down!

Until next time! Happy New Year Y'all!


-Anna-Alyse

With Love From Bangkok!

Hello everyone! So sorry that we took so long to blog! But with only 3 days in Bangkok we have been busy bees! We had smooth travels. 29hrs of travel, but no delays or anything! In 3 days we have seen a ton!! Including the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Ayuthaya (an island with ruins!!) and so much more. We have used almost every mode of transportation, planes, trains, taxis, tuk tuks, ferry and we tried to use bicycles but the lady wanted to keep our passports as collatoral! But don't worry we were smart tourists and said NO! We just had a fish massage and it was ticklish and amazing.

We tried to have Alex and Dea eat bugs, but we didn't get back in time for them to eat it, but don't worry they will eat bugs in India. The food is amazing, the fruit is delicious and fresh. The coffee is wonderful and so is the iced thai tea! And the humiditiy is wonderful too (not).

We tried to see Thailands famous Transvestite show, but it was sold out...so we spent a little time basking in air conditioning at a very fancy hotel. Everything is beautiful here, it is token Asian architecture, just think of any Asian film you have seen and multiply it by a million, it is breathtaking. There is gold on every temple, and the Buddha statues (especially the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho) are unbelievable.

We have enjoyed our time in Bankok, and are anxious for India! We will be there tonight!

Much love,
Kaitlin, Sam, Alex, Rebecca and Momma Dea.

Adventurous Ernakulam

Woo!!! Finally made it to Ernakulam in Kerala. Got our first taste of Indian hospitality and now we're ready to haggle for some knick-knacks. Got some big teaching days ahead so we better rest up and enjoy the new year. The roads are just as chaotic as New York!! Haha mom, you would love it here!!! Haha, try the chicken fried rice and butter chicken in a tasty parata wrap. Good luck to the rest of the groups and enjoy yourselves!!!

5 days, 4 flights, 1 trian! finally made it!

Finally in Ernakulam! it is very very humid and hot but it is a calmer town than Bangalore. I am currently still under the weather since ATL and havent eaten too much but recently got medicine so no worries. Glad i got to see CJ, Becca, Stacy and all the others! Hope our bags show soon too. Hope all is well back home and Happy New Years!!! Will write again soon. Love, Nick

The Wolf Pack!

Hi everyone!!!

We made it to India safe and sound, despite many layovers and flight changes. We, the Wolf Pack (Bree, Sam, Catie, Jessica, Anna-Alyse. and Bryan), are really enjoying everything so far. We visited the Red Fort in Delhi, and it was really cool. It was huge and had lots of neat birds. We were not able to see much more in Delhi because our flight was so delayed, but we will have another day before we fly home to hopefully see the rest of the city. Also, Catie got her Typhoid shot at the hospital in Delhi! She should not be getting typhoid now, so that is good news.
Our hotel in Delhi was very helpful, and had the hottest showers that I (Bree) had ever had in India!!

Today we arrived in Jaipur, known as the Pink City. We arrived without any place to stay, but found some rickshaw drivers who were very helpful and directed us to a geusthouse. However, they are stalking us to try and get us to go on a tour with them. We will keep you posted on what happens. {Disclaimer: they are harmless, so dont panic when you read this :)} We will be here for a few days before leaving to Agra to see the Taj, and then off to Varanasi to begin teaching!

Everyone is getting super excited to teach, and even had one of our partners in Varanasi called today to express how happy they are that we are coming to their school.

Hope everyone has a great New Year! Happy 2010!

Peace until next time,

The Wolf Pack

PS- we will try and post pictures later!

Thank you Delta...

Thank you Delta for leaving Tucson and hour late and making me and 11 others miss our flight our to Dubai. Thank you Delta for cramming 7 people in one room. Thank you Delta for 'miss placing' 7 bags that happen to belong to Swim India volunteers. Yes, thank you Delta for delaying our flight out of Mumbai for 4 hours. The only thing you did right was put us in Business Class on the way to Amsterdam. I will never fly Delta again.

Ok enough venting, we made it to Ernakulam! It only took 4 flights, a night in the dirty south (ATL) and an overnight train but we are here. Like I mentioned above, we have no bags. I know what you all are thinking, 'you smelling people ew' but we have accepted the fact and embraced every different odor we each give out. haha. jokes people. We bought some new shirts today and have showered (most of us... no names). I am truly glad to be back in beautiful Kerala. I do wish, however, that I had my bathing suit so we could relax on the beach. Maybe our bags will come soon... pray for us.

On to a new subject... my group. I am so thankful to have such independent volunteers in my group. I didnt know how they would react to the Indian lifestyle at first, but I am very surprised with how well they are doing. Even though we've had some troubles with the travel here, they have all been patient and I think some even like it (they call it part of the adventure, thanks Ben). Again I feel pretty blessed to have these volunteers in my group.

Until next time-
Jenna

We made it!!

We have arrived in Bangalore and are doing great!!! We arrived yesterday early morning and after we got settled we explored the nearby areas. It was a big shock to us as we have never been here before, Nicole was able to show us around though. Stacy, Cj, and Becca followed closly behind Nicole as traffic here is much different then in the USA. We were a little scared crossing the street at first... but now... it's not too bad. Cj, Becca, and Stacy were able to do a little shopping and are slowly getting use to the sights and smells in India. We picked up Lyndsey from the airport last night and she has joined our group. Since she was arrived she has taken in so much...and can't wait for her travels to continue! Jenna's group is soon to arrive as well. As we look around Cj has a great desire to ride a bike... but Becca would never let him! We will post again when we arrive in our teaching cities. Tonight we have an overnight train! For many here it will be there first train ride! Many of us are nervous still, but are so excited to get to our teaching cities and start teaching...wish us luck!
Until next time...
Nicole, Becca, Cj, Stacy, and Lyndsey

January Projects Begin!

Namaste!

During the next three weeks, Project: Swim International will have 24 volunteers traveling through all parts of India in an effort to reduce the number of drowning deaths the nation sees each year. Volunteers will be working in four main areas: Ernakulam and Kozhikode in the south, Varanasi in the north, and Kolkata in the east. They will be teaching a variety of drowning prevention programs including water safety education, swimming lessons, lifeguarding, and CPR.

You can follow along with all of our volunteers' experiences here on this blog. They will be in-country from December 29th to January 18th. Keep our volunteers in your thoughts as they work hard to effect global change!

-Ben Schaub, President and CEO

Nepal Programs Come to an End

This past Sunday, volunteers from Swim India’s August 2009 Nepal programs came home after one of the most successful trips yet! The group, led by program supervisor Lindsey Brown, worked closely with the Nepal Swimming Association, an organization that trains lifeguards as well as coaches Nepal’s Olympic athletes.

Over their three week stay, our volunteers taught the water safety education program 23 times to 1,140 individuals! Many of the students were children but they also taught police cadets and army personnel in Kathmandu. In Pokhara, they taught many of the boat operators who make a living transporting people back and forth across Phewa Lake.

The team also had an opportunity to meet with lifeguards in Kathmandu. Many lifeguards don’t receive any formal training., so our team took the time to teach them and practice rescues and escapes as well as how to deal with head and spine injuries.

The volunteers also made the most of being in Nepal by experiencing the culture everywhere they could. They visited Buddhist stupas (temples) in the Kathmandu valley, got invited into homes, and saw one of Nepal’s major festivals. They even had an article published about their trip in Kathmandu's Nepali Daily "The Annapurna Post" (see above). They transcended the typical ‘tourist’ experienced and truly became a part of the community.

Thank you to everyone who supported these programs. We truly made a difference in the lives of many Nepalis and our volunteers. Thanks also to the volunteers whose hard work and commitment to Swim India's mission has been demonstrated through their success.

Please visit our SmugMug gallery to view pictures from the trip. The blog has all of their posts from the road and you can read our volunteers’ accounts first hand.

Ben Schaub
Executive Director, Founder

Thank You to Robert Markley

I want to thank Robert Markley Salon & Spa in Tucson for putting on an outstanding fundraiser night this past Wednesday. Robert and his staff provided Swim India supporters with massages, facials, haircuts, and other excellent spa treatments! He then donated 100% of the proceeds to Swim India to help the organization grow and fund future programs!

Because of his support, we will be able to provide drowning prevention programs to even more children and we will be able to recruit more volunteers to teach these programs in South Asia!

Please visit www.robertmarkley.com for any of your future salon or spa needs.

-Ben Schaub

Lots of Pictures!

Our trip is quickly coming to an end and we are sad to be leaving. On multiple occasions while talking to street vendors and other locals telling them what they do, they have asked us to teach them! We wish that we had more time to stay here teaching everyone. Take a look at the pictures of some of our lessons and some of our down time.

Teaching the boat guides CPR in Phewa Lake, Pokhara

Self rescue in Phewa Lake, Pokhara

Reach assist

140 students...not intimidating

Kelsey teaching water safety at the Penguin Swimming Pool (a school), complete with Penguin Slide.

CPR

Throw assists

more CPR

Local kids on the streets of Pokhara

Ben is still making friends with the locals

Motor bikes!

160 meters...

-Corey

Namaste from Pokhara!

After 12 days in Kathmandu (including 6 days of teaching) we are now in beautiful Pokhara breathing nice, clean air. Teaching has been going great, we have been teaching at boarding schools where there are swimming pools so it is nice to really be able demonstrate everything. On Thursday, we conducted an impromptu LGI training for some gym lifeguards and Friday we taught additional rescue techniques to Nepali army men.

Today we explored the lake on some sweet rented moterbikes. It took a couple minutes to get used to laying on our horns like the Nepalese do, but we were into it by the end of our trip, eventually honking at all the hottie Euros as we drove by (Kelsey, Corey, and Ben, not me, of course.)

Our good buddy Youbraj has been so great setting everything up for us and showing us all the ins and outs of Nepali culture. He has taken us to all the local places to sample the best food and beverages Nepal has to offer. He introduced us to Nepal's wild card Olympic swimmer and proceeded to tell him that he should take me out to dinner. Thanks Youbraj.

Anyway, everyone is well and having fun: the mysterious sickness that affected Corey, Ben, and Kels went away pretty quickly so we will all be able to teach tomorrow (last day of teaching!) and enjoy the rest of the trip. Love you guys back home!

-Lindsey

"I've felt better"

The past day and a half has been riddled with sickness. It started off with Ben throwing up in the morning and missing out on our afternoon lesson. We did not take the trip to the zoo because as Kelsey had stated before we taught some local lifeguards lifeguard things which went very well. Our afternoon lesson was cancelled and then quickly replaced with another one thanks to the great help from Yubraj and the Nepal Swim Association. Because of him we also made the local newspapers, telling of our efforts to teach and train children in water safety! There is supposed to be another article today complete with pictures but we have not picked up a copy of that yet to confirm. During the afternoon lesson yesteday I began to feel a little sick, which quickly turned for the worst. After the lesson Yubraj insisted that we see the largest stuppa in the world. I was a little reluctant because my health was quickly falling but I did not want to ruin the trip for Kelsey and Lindsey. After a 45 minute walk through some very busy streets we finally made it to the stuppa. We walked around it once and were planning on heading back to the hotel when Yubraj then proceeded to take us to a local eatery for some food. At this time Kelsey was also not feeling well and Lindsey recognized that we needed to get back to the hotel sooner than later. To make a long story short Lindsey has been the only healthy one for the past day. Ben had a trip to the hosiptal by himself while we were gone last night but is feeling much better today. I am feeling slightly better and I think Kelsey is as well.

Our spirits are still high and we head to Pokhara tomorrow! Good things are sure to come, including teaching lessons in the lake. More to come later!

-Corey

Busy Bees

So we know we have not blogged in awhile and sorry from all of us, but you should know its from how busy we have been! A festival that we were unaware of put a small kink in our teaching plans and so we jumbled the schedule and now everything is going better than ever!

We went for a two day one night rafting trip, which was so much fun for all of us. On the first day it rained for basically the whole trip but we met a really fun group of Americans who were doing some work at a orphanage. One of the other American girls named Molly fell out of the raft and made for a sufficently fun rafting trip. The second day there were some English guys that joined the raft and it was sunny the whole day.

When we got back we went right into teaching. We have been teaching everyday since Sunday and its been really fun. The kids here are very intelligent and catch on to our teaching right away. Sunday through Tuesday we taught at a 'college' which is the same as 11th and 12th grade to us. The kids were all very respectful. Tuesday evening and the past days including today have been at more boarding school type atmospheres and we have access to a pool. The teaching is really wonderful when we get to go in the pool. We are teaching little kids and older ones and every age really seems to absorb the information and get as excited as we are about it. Today we have two more lessons lined up one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We might take a trip to the zoo in our down time! The later lesson is supposed to be with lifeguards who are interested to see what we are taught by the Red Cross, but they went on strike a few days back so it is possible we will have to save it for a later date.

We hope all is well in the States! Nepal is so beautiful we just can't get over it on a daily basis, but the sun is just as harsh when it is out, Corey and I got very sunburned yesterday but now we remembered the sunscreen.

-Kelsey
(sorry for spelling errors :) )

A Few Pictures

Here are a few pictures to keep you upated. We will have a more comprehensive update from the past few days very shortly.

Our first dinner in Kathmandu at the Rum Doodle.

Breakfast in the roof garden of Helenas.

Ben made friends with the waiter

This is the view from out room looking out.

And this is looking down from our room at a traffic jam.

Candid picture outside of one of the schools.

This was a beggar who sang for us....

Thats it for now. More to come later tonight!

First Day!

So we have all arrived in Kathmandu without any troubles! We all met up and got to our hotel in one piece.
Yesterday we roamed around Tahmel the tourist district of Kathmandu and I can say I am throughly excited by the amount of Euro-hippie population that is here buying gypsy pants in the off season. We had water buffalo steak for dinner and continued our romping around the city. The weather is actually not too bad, it is more sticky than Tucson could ever imagine being, but not overly hot because it has been very cloudy. Yesterday we did not seen any monsoon and we shall see what today holds for our rain jackets and I can find out if mine is actually waterproof.
This morning Lindsey and I took a walk around town and managed to get lost to some extent but I would call it catching up with the city. We also were blessed without consent (aka he wanted us to pay for our blessing and informed us how lucky we were after he grabbed our wrist and tied the red and yellow string around it) by a man all dressed up in the Hindu garb. It was bound to happen and now we are a little more apart of the culture.
We are so excited to teach soon! We will keep you updated with our mishaps and excitment!
Kelsey

En Route

After a quick flight from Tucson to LA, paying $9 for a meal from McDonalds that should've cost $3, and waiting a few more hours we finally boarded the 747 to Taipei. I personally was impressed with the flight, from the touch screen TVs that had the amazing game Insanequarium and a plethora of movies to choose from, to the meals we were served, cheesecake brownie and all! So the space was a little tight and only got tighter when the person in front of us layed back, the flight itself went smoothly. Right now all 3 of us (Lindsey, Kelsey, and myself) are laying down for the first time in 13 hours. We are on the tiled airport floor but it just feels good to stretch out. The girls are sleeping and I know I should be but can't. Our flight to Bangkok leaves in an hour. We are 15 hours ahead of Tucson time rightt now. We should be meeting Ben in Kathmandu very soon and then begin our teaching!

-Corey Hass

I am terrible at sleeping on planes. A friend of mine gave me the idea to bring a beach ball and lay over that. I was able to get a few little snoozes with it on the plane that were almost cut short by the person in front of me trying to lean back...but I fought for my space and won! The airport floor is a welcome rest to the plane. Off to Bangkok!

-Lindsey Brown

Thank You to Our Donors

Our programs in Nepal begin today and couldn't be possible without the extraordinary support from our donors:

Peter and Pamela Baum
Rachel and Gerard Benson
John Carson
Brian and Denise Chandler
Susan and Robert Christopher
John and Kristine Conroy
Valerie and David Culbertson
Judith and Carl Dane
Janet and C Demos
Joann and Donald Dickson
Mary Peace Douglas
Antonia Fiddner
Kathy Forger
Linda Fountain
Charlotte Galante
Frederick Gamble
Charlotte Gasker
Margaret Glauber
Julie Groo
Jacquelyn and Marvin Grote
Terri and Scott Hamstra
Donald and J Hass
Eric and Rochelle Hass
Stanley Hass
Donald and Doris Hastings
Jerry Havel
Brian and Kimberlee Hilty
Richard and Carla Hinton
Janet Holmes
Robert Howard
Intergrated Engineering Solutions, Inc
Bob and Dawn Jacobson
Iris and James Jr Keene
Michaela and Joseph Kelly
May and James Kepler
Patrice and John Kezer
Kathryn and Steven King
Lucy Kraft
Monique and Richard Kundrat
Abby Lerman
Arthur and Elizabeth Lopez
Larry Mackey
Maureen Mader
Judy Mamer
Kelly and Glenn Matchett-Morris
Jan McCarty
Wendy and Robert McCleery
Robin McSpadden
Bonnie Nash and Donald Wing
Paula and Glenn Norton
Glory and Bob Novak
Maureen O'Brien
Hilary O'Hara
Dorothy Ann O'Hara
Deirdre O'Hara
Russell Owens
Susan Perkins
Beverly and Robert Pruden
Mary Ellen Quinlan
Bryan Quinlan
Melissa Rapp
Patricia and John Redden
Brett Reeves
Roman Shades by Mara
CE and EA Rose
Carolyn Rose and Wayne Adams Jr
Nancy and EJ Sanaghan
Jill and Jim Schneden
Charles and Judith Schultz
Suzanne Selby
Donna and Marvin Sepin
David Skidmore
Hal and Trudy Slanina
Joan Smith
Southwest Airport Services, Inc
Scott Steehler
Mark and Debra Stratton
Robert and Kathleen Takac
Thomas Associates
Vivianne Uyeda
Larah and Mickey Walker
Dyann Whittaker
James and Terri Zarling
Laura Zevnik

Getting ready for Nepal

Hello everyone, my name is Corey Hass. I am one of the volunteers heading to Nepal later this week. This is my first post and I have to say that I am extremely excited for this trip. As I am getting everything packed and re-checking everything it is finally sinking in that I am leaving the country for 3 weeks. I have never traveled outside of the US so this is going to be a completely new experience for me. I am ready to teach the Nepalis all about water safety! I know that Ben, Kelsey, and Lindsey are all just as excited as I am too. We leave Sunday and we will keep you all updated on our excursion!

-Corey

South India 2009 Trip a Huge Success!

On Monday, January 19th, we wrapped up another program in India. By any way you can measure it, our trip to South India was successful. In the end, we taught our water safety education program to 45 different classes with a combined instruction time of 46 hours and 15 minutes. We taught 2,062 children how to be safe around water, basic rescue skills, and CPR. The schools and orphanages we taught at were very enthusiastic about our program and are looking forward to future visits from Swim India.

Our volunteers also returned with valuable lessons learned. The comment I heard the most towards the end of the trip was that everyone was so amazed at how friendly and hospitable the Indian people are. We were invited into countless homes, given gifts by people less fortunate than us, and treated to several home made Indian dinners. The volunteers learned what bad driving really looks like and how to perform a perfect head bob!

We were also fortunate enough to do two interviews for local newspapers in Kerala. One was for the New Indian Express English daily in Ernakulam/Kochi. You can read the article here. The other was for a Malayalam language daily newspaper called the Malayala Manorama based in Kozhikode.

With the trip behind us, we're already looking ahead to a successful 2010. We're currently working hard on our banquet on March 6th. Also, we are planning two trips abroad- one in August and another next January. We are looking into funding the construction of several swimming pools in some of our program areas in South India so that we'll be able to teach children and train instructors in swimming during future visits.

I want to thank everyone for their support and hard work. Without it, we would not be where we are today.

Namaste, Ben

Take a look!

Here are the pictures we promised from our earlier blog! They're lots of fun!
~Nicole, Matt, Shawn, Jenna, and Erin

Yoga on the Beach!

Class Photo!

The Boys wearing their Mundus

Moments

Yesterday after my flight back to Chennai, I met up with Kristyn and Bree’s group. Kristyn, Rick, and I went to the Balagurukulam Orphanage. There the children ranged from 3 months old to 16 years old and we taught the children that were 3 years old to 14 years old. Most of the children there didn’t speak English so we used a translator, but the older ones knew quite a bit and were asking us tons of questions before and after we taught. After the class many of the students started to pick up the few toys they had (like a jump rope) and used them to practice some of the rescues we taught them, it was so cute and they did it perfect every time. Most of the children there are abandoned and many of the older kids have to help feed and care for the younger ones, they’re like one gigantic family. They loved us and when it was time for us to leave the children gave us hugs and kisses; they didn’t want us to go. They were all so sweet!

I miss my group! And it has only been a day. I hope all is well with them and look forward to seeing them in the States and hearing their stories. I leave to start my long flight back to the States at 4 am tomorrow morning and go back to the U of A on Wednesday, so until then we will venture around Chennai. Thanks to everyone who helped me get here; this has been such a rewarding experience! I really had a great time and don’t want to go. I am truly going to miss India and I can’t wait to come back!

~Nicole

Goodbye is Hard to Say

Today was a lot of fun. We visited two orphanages, a little over 85 children and none of them knew how to speak English so we used a translator. One was close to the center of the city and the other was in a more rural part. The children loved what we taught and were so excited to talk with us after the class and we even played a little ‘football’ (soccer) and they posed for several pictures. They all asked us to come back next year and seemed very receptive to the information we taught them.

We were then taken to a home near by and shown 6 foot bats. They were a sight to see! Then the Ben, Shawn, and Matt were given Mundu (skirt like bottoms) and then they were able to try homemade pawn. The pictures will be soon to follow once we find a computer that can support it. Then we were taken to a traditional house that has been around since 1885 and been in the same family! The tour was great! Then we were taken up into the near by forest and got to see monkeys. We were even able to feed them right out of our hands. Overall it was a very eventful day and we all had so much fun. Tomorrow Nicole leaves for Chennai too meet up with Bree’s group and will teach in the afternoon, and the rest of us will teach here one last time and then head for Ernakulam. Tonight is our last night together as a group, we are all sad it is coming to an end. We had such a great time on this trip and look forward to working together in the future. Goodbye from Calicut!

~Nicole, Shawn, Jenna, Erin, Matt, and Ben

Lessons learned in India won't soon be forgotten

Well this is my first time blogging since being here and I'll try not to bore you for too long. I got to India excited for the unknown. We arrived here and I was ready to go. Unfortunately my luggage was lost (for the next 6 days) but the Indian way of life must have already rubbed off on me, so I just went with it. Thankfully the people in this amazing group were kind enough to share with me the things I needed.
The days of teaching we have had have been wonderful. All of the students are able to retain the information we have taught them in a short period of time (I'm not sure I would be able to do that). They are all very polite and stand every time you enter a room. This city, Calicut, does not see as many tourists as where we where so the students today were very enthusiastic when they saw us. Everyone wanted to shake our hands and get our autographs. I guess the girls had never seen, or at least not that many, women wearing “American” clothing and were fascinated by myself, Jenna and Nicole. I even got asked if I was married a few times! (Probably because of my age…)
There are many culture shocks being in a country like this (like the one above) and I guess the biggest one has been just how hospitable everyone has been. When you read about people "back in the day" giving guests everything they had you don't realize that some people still live this way. We have been given so many great experiences from people that we didn't know; people that decided they liked what our organization was doing and then went above and beyond what any of us had expected them to do. The people from the schools haven’t just taken us to where we were teaching, but have opened themselves, and their home (India, not house) up to us. They have shown us the true experience of being in India. We have been given countless tours of amazing places and this morning we were even able to take a yoga class from a master yogi, all because of the men Ben had emailed. This has definitely been a memorable experience. The kindness of people in this country has been astounding and I am very thankful to be here.

--Erin

Moving On

Tuesday was our last day teaching in Ernakulam. The students were great and we miss our new friends. Wednesday we went to Vypeen Island and went to the beach, and ended the day on Fort Cochin. Thursday Ben met us at 5am after an all night train and then we immediately caught the bus from Ernakiulam to Calicut. After the 5 hour bumpy ride we met our guides and they took us to our hotel and they gave us a short tour of the city.

Today we woke up at 530am and we given a beginners yoga class by a yogi master who teaches other yoga teachers around the world. We had this yoga class on the beach and were able to watch the sunrise. We all really enjoyed it! Then we got ready and taught at two schools today;Vedavyasa Vidyalayam Secondary School and G.V.H.SS For Girls Nadakkavu, and we taught...drum role please...8 classes and over 350 students. The students we so excited and they were great learners. The students would come up to us before and after our classes to shake our hands and ask our names, they all we fascinated by us! Tomorrow we teach at two orphanages. Until then...

~Nicole, Erin, Jenna, Matt, Shawn, and Ben

My Day Broken Down

Today..
7:00am-Just a "friendly" wake up to Bree knocking on the door yelling "BOYS!!it's 7 o'clock." Drew respectfully says "Thank you Bree."
wait...
2:40am-wake up before Rick for the first time to stomach pains and hit the little boys room. Take an Immodium and a Tylenol thinking it could be food poisoning. Fall back asleep.
7:03-8:30am-Fall back asleep after Bree experience having dreams of dinosaurs coming out of rocks on the beach and feeding on trash washing up from the sea. Don't ask me why?
8:30am-Feel better thnking god that I don't have food poisoning. Immediately head out the door down stairs to order a double espresso shot, cheese omlette and plain toast completely knowing that it probably wont arrive until five minutes before we have to leave. Oh yea..Rick is still sleeping.
9:15am-Reading the Chennai Post in English hovering over a section about two girls who drowned on Monday after falling into a lake trying to wash their clothes. Recieve my food and am pleased with it, begin to devour.
9:23am-Try and use a 500 rupee bill to pay my 105 rupee tab but am told to come back later.
9:24am-Walk back towards the room, pass Bree sitting on the hammock who asks me if I picked up any candy for the kids and tells me that I only have a few minutes before we leave. I tell her no, I don't have any candy and that I will try to hurry.
9:30am-Get into the car and head toward Infanty Jesus Matriculam(?) School with the most awesome group there is.
10:00-10:15am-Sit in the principals office with the group having a completely familiar awkward time waiting for the word to head to the classroom. I laugh because this happens everyday.
10:16am-Get the word and head to the class, follow the principal there and teach teach teach!
11:10am-Finish the first class and we have a "casual" argument led by Bree about what could have happened better. We orally make corrections then head back to the principals office where the smells are familiar and the chai is served.
11:30am-Escorted back to another class and teach our hearts out. We all make little corrections improving our teaching efficiency even more. Who could have guessed?
...Oh and it has also been raining since 10:30am or so.
12:40pm-Head back to the principals office once again and am excited to see Bree's attempts to try and pawn her coconut milk off to us!! haha
1:07pm-Realize the milks not coming today and we are escorted to eat lunch on the 3rd floor again.
1:10pm-Food is served! I am excited to see Bree's face when the hard boiled eggs are divied out. We are told that the rice dish is made from the crop behind the school. Bree screams out as the kitten brushes against her foot. She makes no face about the hard boiled egg:( I eat till I can't eat anymore and have to once again turn down the banana that I am offered because of my allergy problem. I wonder what it would feel like to sink my teeth into one again someday.
1:35pm-Head to teach 6th graders and conduct the best class yet. I love this translator today!
2:30pm-Have a moment with the group bonding over how well the class went. Go outside to find that our taxi driver is not there and his car is.
3:00pm-Taxi driver shows up walking down the road. We ask no questions and are on our way home...Still raining.
3:20pm-Rick walks to the post office after being dropped off on the way home. I am hoping that he will be able to get there on time with no problems unlike the last 3 days.
3:23pm-Get home, no rain in Malapalipuram! Bond with Lea and Bree in their room waiting for Rick to return with the keys.
3:50pm-Rick gets back..GOOD NEWS!! postcards are sent. Head up to the room to figure out the plan for today.
4:03pm-Decide to rent bicycles and find them for 10 rupees a piece for two hours. Head out on our magical journey!
4:20pm-Find a hidden tree farm next to the beach where we feel as if we are the only ones there. Go to the beach where we find that it is more like a sand cliff where lots of fishermen hang. The sand is black and I can smell the scent of pine trees as the rain begins to fall.
4:32pm- run up back to the forest looking for shelter. Two indians invite us in a tree fort where we hang with them and escape the rain..and learn of their dark secrets.
5:40-6:00pm- ride back in the rain soaked to the bone, camera in my underwear trying to navigate the indian traffic safetly.
6:00pm-now-bond with the group although they don't think our journey was anything special, hang out in the rain, go out to eat, write this blog, get kicked off the comp. It was a lovely day!

-Drew

Magical Bike Ride

Today Drew and I went a a really cool bike ride around Mamallapuram. For only ten rupees (like 25 cents) we rented some really old and wobbly bikes that we took around town to places we have'nt been on by foot. We rode through alleys, sidestreets, and busy main roads. Along the way we passed other bikers, people on foot, cows, beggars, sellers, goats, and boars. We road really far, almost to the edge of town until we saw a big gate that one of the local said led to the ocean. We entered and saw that it was a pine tree farm. We rode on a narrow road surrounded by pines until we reached the ocean. Then it started to rain so we decided to ride back. As we road back on the narow road we noticed a hut with a couple people standing inside. When they saw us riding by they waved for us to come in. We were a little reluctant at first but they turned out to be really cool and we hung out with them while we took shelter from the rain. When the rain started to die out we rode back into town happier than ever to be in India. -Rick and Drew

...thats what its all about!

Hello all! Since our last post Team Super-Awesome has been very active!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all full teaching days. We started teaching the Grade 1 students and have worked our way all the way to Grade 6! We have had amazing teachers at the school who have helped to translate our lessons into Tamil, but our students are very enthusiastic and so happy to learn. They all tell us at the end of our lesson, they are going to share it with their families.

The school that we are working with is very kind. We arrive every morning to a "Freshly n' Hot" cup of chai tea. After teaching our second lesson of the day, we are given a break and drink fresh coconut milk from the coconut! The school is also preparing us savory traditional Indian meals for lunch. Lunch is prepared in the school's kitchen, and unlike American school food the meals are fresh, hot, home cooked, and delicious.

Last night (Tuesday) we visited our partner EK's orphanage that is located 1 minute away from our guesthouse in Mamallapurm. Upon arrival, we greeted with smiling faces and handshakes. The childern all gathered to continue greeting us with songs. After their performance we taught them the Hokie Pokie!! They had so much fun, as did we. Its sad knowing that these boys do not have a family, however they have become their own family and it is wonderful to see.

Today (Wednesday), we woke up to a cloudy and rainy day. The rain is slow and steady like it is at home, but has cooled off the town.

We only have a few days left in Mamallapurm, so we must be on our way! We are heading to the Dance Festival tonight!!

Until next time!
Team Super-Awesome (Bree, Lea, Drew, and Rick)

M to the adurai

Hello everyone! Team hardcore-real-indian-experience is doing great! Today, to Ben's delight, we taught 2 classes and a total of 115 children. One class had about 80 kids so it was pretty crazy but we decided it was probably our most effective class yet. The kids have all been great so far: they could not be anymore attentive. One thing I have noticed is that there is quite a difference between public school kids and private school kids. Our roudy government school students make things exciting and I am impressed at how quickly they are able to learn CPR even with the language barrier.
As Kyla mentioned, we were invited over for a homecooked Indian meal last night at the house of V.J. Kumar, one of the men who has helped us set up all of our school gigs. There was also an unexpected ceremony for us beforehand where they presented us with giant handmade necklaces. It was very sweet of them. Dinner was tasty in an Indian sort of way... but mostly we just enjoyed talking with V.J. and his family. V.J. even called his son long distance so that Ben could chat with him. We all had a good laugh at Ben's expense for that one. I unfortunatly was the savage, aforementioned mosquito killer. But really, who could resist having a go with a bug zapping tennis racket? If anyone needs an idea for a birthday present for me...
The people here still seem to be a little star struck over us. After class all the kids rush to shake our hands, get our autographs, or just say hi. If anyone is yearning for their 15 minutes of fame and thinks its not going to happen in the states, well come to India and it's pretty much the next best thing.
Well anyway the girls do a pretty good job of posting everything that is happening here in Madurai so besides that we are all safe, happy, and working hard, most everything has already been said except... HI MOM AND DAD! MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU, HOPE EVERYTHING IS GREAT IN TUCSON! Okay now that I have made all the other volunteers look bad, bye!
Lindsey

I love teaching!

So in all my effort to put up photos, it has failed once more. This trip has been wonderful so far and makes me want to be a teacher even more. Well, yesterday was our first day teaching in Madurai and it went very well. The students spoke barely any english, only tamil, so we had to have a translator. They were very quick learners and seemed so excited to meet Americans. They asked our names and everyone watched us very closely. Later that afternoon we were invited to a meet and greet which turned into a ceramony for us. We were honored and given elaborate necklaces and towels. We were even invited dinner at the home of V.J. Kumar (the one who has been showing us around). It was a little weird at first but after we left Ben explained that in India the tradition is to watch the guests eat first then the family sits and eats after we leave. Also as soon as you are done eating you leave. No sitting around and talking, all business is taken care of before dinner. It was very exciting to see the inside of an Indian home. In America the kitchen is part of the house and decorated and shown off, where as here it is a seperate room no one goes in. Many aspects of their culture are very interesting.

As for today...
We taught in a rural school which was i was eager to see. The ride there was very bumpy, and the teacher said there were no phones out there. It was nice to breathe some fresh air. Every school we have taught at brings us snacks and chi. Today we were even given cake with our bananas for snack. In the afternoon, we taught a large group of 80. While they were more rambunctious, they were tons of fun. We are teaching mostly in government schools. They are very different from the school we taught at the first day with Bree's group. While Madurai is not the most beautiful city, I defiantly feel i am in the true Indian culture. This trip is very exciting and i can not wait for the last few days.

~Kristyn
P.S. Pictures will come as soon as i find a computer that will let me put some up.

How sweet it is

So, we were invited to a "meet and greet" which consisted of a humble welcoming from the Grace Peters Charitable Trust members and a delicious Indian Dinner served by Mr. VJ Kumar, who is a man of most noble ambitions (I will brag about him later). It was quite the interesting cultural exchange. For those of you who don't now this about me, I have a sort of unreasonable reaction to misquotes being killed, so when the electric tennis racket was pulled out, as you can imagine, it was hard to contain my sadness. But dinner in their home is my most cherished experience so far. Their home was beautiful and their china cabinet was filled with the most humorous of American relics, like Disneyland ceramics and a souvenir plate of Niagara falls. It is interesting what American culture leaks into India. People have told me that their favorite movie star is Arnold Swartzenager, their favorite singer is Micheal Jackson, the backstreet boys, and Emenim, and their favorite movie is Titanic. Oh, and they love the WWF like it's never going to go out of style. Dinner, like the rest of the food in India, was incredible, but I know I am lonely in this opinion. I am getting more acquainted with the names of food finally. It puts me at ease to know to know what I am ordering. Our car driver has taken onto himself the difficult task of teaching me Tamil. So far I have been a pretty ungratifying student, although I have picked up a few key words. But the students we teach soak it up what we say, the children in India are very accelerated learners. We are fortunate to have them as students. Our classes have been quite successful. Actually, they have been more than that. I feel empowered by the ability to invoke a smile on their faces. It gives me great pleasure to feel like i am making a positive impression in the world and being someone who these kids will remember for a long time. I feel that I am giving my skills back to the world in a very purposeful way.
-KYLA

Beauty!

So I find myself very lucky! Not only are the people so polite and respectful to us, the sights are so beautiful! I wanted to share some of the beauty of Kerala with you all! These are from our adventures around the campuses and the State. I hope you all enjoy!

~Nicole

Busy Bee's in Mamallapuram

Team Awesome is in full force! We haven't even had a moment to post...

This weekend we spent Saturday in Pondicherry, a city just south of Mamallapuram. We started off with a visit to the Gandhi statue, followed by Lea, Drew, and Rick's first rickshaw ride to a sea side cafe. We ate a meal of very delicious sea food. Then, we took a heritage walk through the old French part of the city. On this, we discovered a beautiful park where there were many families playing and enjoying the afternoon. After the walking tour, we visited Swim Beach! Swim Beach was very exciting, but there was so much more to do, we had continue on. We drank delicious chai, back at the park where we were all surrounded by hundreds of Indians wanting to have their pictures taken with us. It was a little taste of fame! Drew meet a French-Indian friend at the park and hungout with him because it was his birthday while the rest of us, visited a local bookstore. By this time, our taxi was ready to pick us up and on our way to meet it, we discovered a local festival in the streets and the Gandhi statue to be lit up by beautiful lights.

Yesterday was a day full of fun. We shopped around the city and made friends with many local shop owners. In the afternoon, we took an exciting boat ride to see the ancient underwater temples. We had dinner at our favorite restaurant Namaste, and went to sleep early to be fresh for our full day of teaching.

Today, we started teaching the Grade 1 and 2 students and it went better than expected! We ended up teaching 3 classes, more than 100 students! The small children were very excited to learn about water safety and CPR. They all learned CPR very quickly, and it gave us all a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. The students said they were going to teach their friends and family the knowledge we shared with them, which makes us even more proud. We hope of the rest of the week so just as well, if not better.

-Lea and Bree

Look at them go!

Today we taught at Christu Jayanthi School. They were so nice to us! We meet the Principal and then went right to work. We taught two very enthusiastic classes and the Principal and some of the Priests stayed to watch. Then we had tea and got to sit down with the principal and talk about the different aspects and programs at the school. Then we rushed off to teach two more classes. The students were all eager to learn and the students weren't shy to do hands on demonstrations. They were all very polite and they all knew a lot of English. The staff was very accommodating and very kind to us, they expressed their thanks and invited us back next year. After teaching we had a quick tour of the grounds and then we were given an amazing lunch. The food at these schools is great! Tonight the Vice Principal from the other campus that we were at on Friday scheduled a meeting with a reporter from a local newspaper. We are very excited and are looking forward to it. Tomorrow were teach at the college at they same campus. Here are some pictures from our classes today! Enjoy!!

~Nicole, Erin, Jenna, Matt, Shawn

Maduri

We all brought books, but still peel them open only into the first couple of pages. It seems that there is much more to grab our attention here in Madurai. Last night we visited the Temples of Madurai, which are the big attraction of the city. They are now being repainted so instead of hundred-foot temples poking out of the city skyline there is a peculiar pile of palm fronds. It was quite unfortunate, not because of the renovation that was taking place but because they also transformed such a sacred place into a swap meet for Hindu figurines. It was a strange mix that was hard to digest, God was still present, but it was tainted. The nice thing about being in a pilgrimage city though is that their are a lot of Indian tourist that come here too, so we escape the attention a little. In short, Madurai has both a good and bad face, good being most predominant.
-kyla

It's different but it doesn't make a difference

Thank you to all who sent me off with such sweet words, it warmed my heart like a hug. When I am going to bed I think of Tucson getting up, and when I am waking up I think of Tucson getting tucked in.Time feels longer, I'm enjoying these weeks that take forever. So far we've traveled to three different places in India and tasted all range of flavors, not only in food, but in a figurative since as well . So much is always happening, I'm glad to have the vitality of being 17 (almost 18!) Even when I am doing as little as watching the red Indian sun rise above a still sleeping city, my eyes are busy capturing the beauty that is always present in this country.

My heart flutters when i think of all the kind people I have encountered in India so far. I talked to the man i sat next to on the plane for the majority of our nine hour fight from London to Chennai about the deceptive nature of the mind. We arrived in Chennai during the dead of night, unsuspecting of the craziness of the next morning. Chennai was a city exclusive to itself, I don't think like anything else in this world. It is ten times the size of Tucson with 100 times the street bustle. I think the only reason those people survive is because of the serene refuge of the rooftops, were I spent many sunset hours enjoying the peace and quiet of the muted city. As good as I admit Chennai was, we were all relieved to travel to Mammallapuram, where we could relax and breathe clean air for the first time since arrival. Mammallapuram is a lot like Sedona, a small town with good people in a shopping splendor. Madurai is a happy balance between Chennai and Mammallapuram; a big city with the beautiful sites of a small town, and a place were I look forward to staying for the duration of my time teaching with Swim India.
-Kyla

Life in Madurai

I've been staying here in Madurai with Lindsey, Kristyn, and Kyla the past few days. We didn't have high expectations for our stay here (the city has over a million people and is surrounded by mosquito-laden pnds) but have been pleasantly surprised. There's not much to see here, most tourists stay only a day or two, just long enough to visit the massive Sri Meenakshi Temple in the middle of town. Our luck has found all twelve of the massive temples (between 100 and 200 feet high each) under renovation and covered with thick scaffolding and palm fronds. But the people here are nice. It's a pilgrimage city which caters to local tourists mostly so we go unharassed for the most part. We're staying in a hotel that probably hasn't seen a white foreigner in years. Dozen of Indian families cook in the halls, hack up a lung at 6am, and watch the latest hit Bollywood films with the volume maxed. But at least it has character.

We taught at a high school right near our hotel today. The lesson went well in spite of the use of a translator (the students only speak Tamil). The class was all boys which made for a pretty rowdy CPR practice. One thing my students loved to do was to cup their hand and blow as hard as possible into their unsuspecting friend's mouth. At least it was interesting!

We have lots of activities planned for this week. In addition to teaching, we will be visiting our partner, the Grace Peter Charitable Trust's office to meet the staff, have dinner, and see the work they are doing here. Later in the week, we will attend a function where we will hand out backpacks to needy schoolchildren. It's nice for the volunteers here to get a chance to interact with the local community in this way.

This will be a big week for all of our teams across India. We'll all be teaching this entire week through the weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the success we will have in just the next few short days.

- Ben
Madurai

Fun in the SUN!

Today we went to the beach!! We had a lot of fun and then went back to Fort Cochin. This makes our third trip to the island. It's beautiful and there is so much to do. The beach was great. Here are some pictures of us playing in the sand. And a fun note: As Shawn was building a sand castle everyone would stop on the beach to watch and get pictures with it. We guess they've never seen one before.Tomorrow we go back to teaching! Until tomorrow...

~Nicole, Jenna, Matt, Shawn, and Erin

Another Town

Just a short post for now. Ben, Kristyn, Kyla, and Lindsey all have arrized in Maduri. This is our last city that we will teach in. It is a nice balance between the 2 towns we have been to in india. The town is like Chennai but much cleaner. We met our contact here who is super nice and has everything way more organized than we could ever imagine. He even took us to a tamil church this morning, it was cool but different. The language barrier is much harder here and the fact that we need a translator for the schools means we need to rewrite our script a little. So we are pretty busy today getting that ready and our contact V.J will take us to the Ghandi museum which is kind of exciting. We will let you know how teaching goes tomorrow.
~Kristyn

Pictures

here are pictures from the cold in London, the temple, teching, and the whole group! i don't know if they posted in that order. Enjoy!