My first full day

Hello all,

The rest of yesterday was a lot of information all at once. First Kumari and I went over finances and discussed how the home has been run so far. It is tough because she can't get government funding since all of her children do not have certificates. When a child's father dies and the mother can't take care of her children she is supposed to get a certificate for her children declaring them half orphans. Most of the mothers are illiterate and don't understand the process, so many do not get the certificates. Kumari is now only taking children with certificates in the hope that one day they will all have them and she can get government funding. For example, she has one opening since she had to send a child away that had symptoms of leprosy, and yesterday afternoon a man came with the news that the father of a young boy, Dayanithimaran, just died due to a snake bite. Kumari, however, won't take him until his mother gets the certificate.

Kumari and I visited the new home we will be moving into next week. It is very nice, but also more expensive. She has been in the same place for six years, and the law says that when you rent a home for seven years you own it, so she is being kicked out by the person she is renting from. Finding a new place was hard because landlords are afraid the children will hurt their property. The rent she will be paying is a couple thousand rupees higher a month than it should be since it will be used as an orphanage. The new house will have a room for an office, so Kumari and I are going to start organizing the finances and creating files for each child out of the heap of paperwork she keeps in a box for her new office.

Walking through the streets to the new house gave me some the chance to see a little more of Tiru. The mountain is even more beautiful than I imagined, and no picture does it true justice. I saw several large monkeys, about the size of a child, just eating on people's rooftops. There are lizards that look like albino geckos everywhere, and skinks which they call snake lizards due to their scales. They say there are a lot of poisonous snakes, but I have yet to see any. There are a lot of street dogs too, and though I would never touch one, they seem friendly enough and basically ignore you as you pass them. In the kitchen there is a little squirrel type animal's nest with babies in it. This is the second time it has had babies, and Kumari took them down to show the children and they loved it. Each house is colorful, with saris hanging out to dry. Kumari stopped to speak to a couple women, and I got a lot of stares and a lot of smile. The people here are beautiful and seem friendly. Also, I have now realized that I am, without a doubt, the only westerner here, and probably the only one the people of Tiru have seen in some time.

I had a lot of time with Prince, who's English vocabulary consists of light (since his shoes light up, which he is very proud of), water, cards, some of the colors, and bike. He and I played a card game. I had no idea what the game was, and in the end I had no cards, so I'm pretty sure I lost. It was funny, though, arguing with him while he took my cards.

I have picked up a couple Tamil words, and food names. Kumari is teaching me how to cook and make tea the Indian way, which I am enjoying.

Last night I finally met the kids. They were a little timid at first, but after Swetta approached me to look over and sign her homework I was soon flooded with them. Anitha and Maha are the two older girls, and they knew English fairly well and helped me interact with some of the younger ones. I have to admit, I am having the hardest time with names, but I am hoping that after a couple days I will pick it up. They know even less English than I was led to believe, but I am making it work pretty well. They are all very well behaved and helpful.

There were two sad moments with the children. One was when a little boy learned that no one was going to pick him up for his sister's wedding which was today. The other was when Maha told Kumari through her tears that the children of Mercy Home were making fun of her for coming from the poor orphanage.

A little about Mercy Home, it is a well off orphanage in Tiru with many sponsors, and it has a large building with a room for each child and a playground. The children there, however, are made to do work while they are there. They are all failing school because they are given no time to do their school work. Thankfully Kumari is of the mindset that education is the only way her kids can advance, and many of the Wide children are at the top of their classes with the help of Kumari and Priya's tutoring.

This morning I had puttu for breakfast, and sat and pealed ginger and drank tea with Kumari. We talked about sponsors and she spoke with a reserved anger about a man named Patima. Years ago he ran a scam were he gathered some children for a day and invited westerners to see his "orphanage." They began giving him regular donations, and when ever they arranged for a visit, he gathered children for his fake organization. One, however, visited unexpectedly, and found his huge home and many cars, and no children. Everything was taken away from him by the police. Now he is doing it again, and is getting a lot of sponsors while having no organization. A year ago he told Kumari he would cover all of Wide's expenses under one agreement, that she would say that it was his orphanage and that she worked for him. She refused because she has taken care of some of these children for six years now and she has put her life into this. Ever since he has spread lies about Wide to try and dissuade potential volunteers and sponsors. Kumari is strong though, and ended the discussion saying "let the dog bark at the mountain, the mountain will remained unmoved and it is the dog's voice that will hurt. I will remain unmoved."

Peace,
Robby