Gimme Shelter

First off, many apologies for the lack of updates. I'm blaming my full schedule coupled with unreliable internet.

My departure from India seems to be approaching at an alarming rate, only two weeks left! With this in mind, it seems that it's time to document the volunteer work that I've been doing. Up to this point I've refrained from doing so in an attempt to compile my thoughts and feelings into something that is definitive of all that I have experienced here... to boil the essence of it down into a couple blogs.

Shelter House is an orphanage for HIV infected orphans and is run by Solomon, a strong, gentle man with an easy smile and kind eyes. Before starting Shelter he simply wanted to spend time with sick children but he ran into impenetrable religious red tape. The partitions between Hindus, Christians and Muslims make interfaith care an impossibility - yet another example of the opiate for the masses turning to poison. Out of this desire, he started Shelter and with the staff has created an incredible home for some twenty children, nourishing hope where there was none. Solomon's passion for this work is obvious and he works another full-time job just to keep Shelter afloat...

The first thing that strikes you upon visiting this home is the sense of community that is shared by the residents. It's beautiful to see these children taking an active interest in each others wellbeing, helping each other is the smallest of ways, the bigger ones taking care of the smaller ones. Upon looking at their files I began to gain some insight as to why and how these children have been able to develop such a large capacity for cooperation. Their personal histories are, in a word, heartbreaking. Along with having HIV in a country with such stigma, many of these children have seen trauma and violence that is unimaginable. Tragically, I speculate that their interdependence has developed, at least partially, out of the brokenness that they have experienced. The irony of such beauty emerging out of the darkest of places is overwhelming, as is the complex array of emotions that comes with looking into the eyes of a child that has seen tragedy the likes of which I will, likely, never experience in my lifetime.

I've gone to Shelter almost every week since I've been here and is, perhaps, the highlight of my trip to India. The relationships that I've had the pleasure of building with these kids are most cherished. I speak very little Tamil and they speak as little English but the quality of our time is in no way diminished in that affection, love and fun are easily communicated without language.

A lot of things have happened with Shelter this summer. Just after we arrived they started having plumbing problems. Most of the houses in the area pay the government a bribe to pump waste water (excluding that from the toilets) in a “rain” canal. Their plumbing did not allow for this option so their water (again, excluding toilet water) was running off into neighboring vacant lots. As development began on the lots the pipes were stopped up, so the water sat and stagnated on the property. The kids went from being able to shower once or twice a day, which is of the utmost importance to an HIV+ individual, to only being able to shower every few days. The kids got rashes, mosquitoes were everywhere, the most basic tasks became challenges. See...

Naturally, this seemed like the most pressing problem that we could address this summer. We began looking into solutions for Shelter and after many meetings and phone calls we settled on building a “soap pit,” a concrete-lined cylinder dug into the ground; filled with charcoal, sand and rocks, it would filter the water before it seeping into the dirt. Not only was this cheaper than the normal route of dumping it into the canal, but it's much better for the environment too. Neha and Kavya's family helped us navigate the obstacle course of bureaucracy and the whole job got done surprisingly quickly!

In one respect, it was with grit teeth that we spent our money on the soap pit. This is because Shelter is renting their current property for, only, one more year. The landlord is less than noble and even though we didn't want to invest in what will, eventually, serve his benefit, the prospect of the kids living in such poor conditions for another year was completely unacceptable. The mixed feelings about the investment were overshadowed, however, when Solomon told us the big news. The same day that construction on the soap pit began Solomon finalized the purchase of a piece of land that Shelter owns! We were lucky to be the first visitors to the site of the future, permanent Shelter House where they won't have to deal with any hassles from landlords or anyone else...

Now begins the process of building up this site. There's a lot of work to be done and we're working on a way for people (ie. you!) to give donations for the new Shelter House, a donation that will be a sustained investment in the lives of these kids and the future residents of Shelter. When we get this up and running, I beg you to please consider giving a little something. Dollars go a long way in India; all of the work on the soap pit (digging, concrete, pipes, labor, etc) ran a little over 200 USD. Try finding a better way to spend a $200!

That's all for now.