Why would anyone put a toilet on a roof?!?!

Hello everyone!!!! What an amazing two days it has been... let's see if I can put it all into words for you. Yesterday morning we awoke and left @ 7:45 to get to the site. Bawana is only 30k (about 23 miles) but it takes 1hour to get there and 1.5 hours to return because of the traffic. On the drive there, since it was chilly, there were people who had built small fires on the side of the road from Cow patties. All the little kids were heading to school and looked very smart in their outfits. On the way, Ray explained a bit more about Bawana. Bawana is a city within Delhi but it was never really intended to be permanent living. It used to be the old city dump and the city realized that it needed to provide a space for homeless people to live. Since many of the homeless were already living in the dump, they city just threw some dirt on it and allowed people to move in. In fact, when they recently had the games here in Delhi, they went through the city and rounded up as many beggars/homeless people they could and dumped them out in Bawana. Needless to say it's not the best place to live. Upon arriving we passed a large tent city (new arrivals) and then stopped the bus on a side street. Immediately the stench was upon us. Since there is no sewers, there are two ditches on either side of the small alley. They are both filled with standing water and you can guess what they are filled with. Toilet waste, bath waste, food scraps, trash, and I am sure lots of other things I do not want to think about! Children under the age of two simply do not wear any pants (or underwear) and just squat anywhere they like. Our hub at Bawana is a place called Chetnalaya. It is an amazing place!!! It is the community center and is run by Lau Sing. He is one of 18 people on staff and their purpose is to provide for and educate the women of Bawana. they provide sewing classes where the women learn how to mend, sew petticoats and blazers and are therefore able to bring in an income to their family (thus making them more valuable to their husbands and less likely to be beaten or mistreated). There are also groups to help them learn english, learn how to use a computer or learn another type of trade. It is a great center and 15 of the 18 on staff are women as they want the women of Bawana to feel comfortable and empowered. It is an absolute AMAZING center! To get there we have to walk down one alley and across this one area where the sewer has overflown. Someone has placed bricks the size of your fist through the disgusting water but be careful not to misstep!!!! Once at the center, we met the kids from Saudi Arabia. They are 9th graders that attend an international school in Saudi and they are doing this as community service. We met the homeowners (all women) and were divided into 3 teams. I am on a team with Amy, Dan and Jerry. Our homeowners name is Shairya (like Sarah but with a "shy" as the first syllable.). Our helper is named Sujata and she walks us to the site and back everyday. We are not allowed to walk through Bawana without her present, even if it is to run to the bathroom. We walk aways to the house and on the way the children all come up running and yelling "hi" and "bye" (I don't think they know the difference). They are adorable in their little outfits. Since it is winter here, most of them have colds and are a bit snotty nosed. They alleys are maybe 6 feet wide and packed with houses or shacks. We get to our "house" and it is a small shack, 10feet by 15 feet. It turns out that Shairya was not informed until this morning that she is getting a house so she has not had time to unpack. We offered to help but she and her daughter would not let us into the house. Her daughter is about 15 years old and was seriously annoyed with her mom and looking perturbed as they were trying to pack and her mother was going slowly. Hahahaha... looks like mother daughter teenage tension is present in every culture! I don't have to speak Hindi to understand the subtext of their text :) Finally Sujata was able to get them to allow us to help. The house had two rooms, both entered from the front. To enter the home, you have to step over the sewer and into the house. The front room was maybe 5 feet by 4 feet and had a wooden thing that looked like a table/bed. The back room was slightly larger but was taken up by another large table/bed. Under this bed were pots and pans filled with still water. They were a bit putrid but I think the family has been saving them to drink because the water spigot is far from their house. The shack was literally a few tree branches holding up a thatch (very thin) wall and roof. In the large room was also the "kitchen." We finally got the moving done and began to dismantle the "shack." It only took us about 1 hour to pack and move her meager belongings and only about 20 minutes to take apart the house.
WE had to be very careful though because the community will reuse all the materials and build another shack with the same materials.I was helping remove some wire and Amy was on the other side of the wall pulling, I said "ok Amy, can you pull this one." And she said "Ican't, there is a tire attached." HAHAHAHA... and there really was a random tire attached to the electrical cable!!! As we took down the walls, on one side there was a neighbor's shack. We took down that wall and found the most disgusting thing (well for me anyway)... there were clumps of black hair tucked in the wall and laying all around the floor.
(sujata in the house after we took the roof down but still had the wall up)
We asked Sujata and in her little english she said it was human hair. I dont know where it came from but YUCK!!!!!!!! The entire plot is 10X15. We also had to move the pile of bricks that the family had been storing inside the house. I have never seen so many cochroaches in my life. I was the one picking them up off the ground and each one would have 4 or cochroachs attached that I would try to shake off before handing it up to Jerry. After the house was down, we began to start digging. We have to dig a trench around the side two walls and the back wall in order to put the bricks up. Each side has to be 3 feet deep by 1 1/2 feet wide. The soil is like clay and difficult to dig up. Daniel is a complete work hourse. We;ve also nicknamed him Mr. Bawana because he is super friendly and talks to EVERYONE we encounter! He takes lots of pictures of the kids and they love him. For every moment he is taking pictures, he works the hardest out of all of us. After we dig the trenches we will work on the walls. We hope to get up to the roofline. It will end up being one floor and then later they will put a toilet up on the roof. Habitat wanted it in the homes but the families protested and said their relgiious shrines are in the home and it would be a disgrace for a toilet to be facing their Gods... so abitat agreed to put it on the roof! :) For lunch we walked back to Chetnalaya and they had the most delicious lunch prepared for us. I was sitting outside and there was a teen boy just standing there blatantly staring at me. I was trying to ignore it until Jerry said "I think you have an admirer." Ray overheard and said "being the token blonde on the trip, I am sure that Sheri will get that a lot." I looked directly at the boy and kind of gave him a dirty look... in return I got a head bobble. The people from Saudi all wear jumpsuits and they brought one for Josh (our host). At lunch, Amy said "I think Josh's dimples are cte." And I said "yeah, there's nothing like a man in a onesie." WE laughed hysterically!!!

Let me take a moment to explain the bobble :) I have no idea what it means. Earlier today I said "sujata, can I borrown the pick" and she bobbled... I couldn't tell if that meant yes or no. Later in the day, I asked Samim (one of the fmaily members) to pass me the shovel, he bobbled and then didnt give me the shovel but went back to work. It is pretty funny but a bit confusing. We've all begun to practice the bobble on the bus... MAtt has the best bobble going on :)

(Amy and I flexing our muscles)
Back to the site... we continued to dig throughout the afternoon and found all sorts of things (toothbrush, comb, shorts just to name a few). I got my first injury... there was a rusty nail sticking out of the neighbors brick wayy and I walked right into it with my upper arm. Thank God it didn't break the skin but I have quite the AWESOME bruise where the nail head hit my arm. We quit @ 3pm and headed back to the center. I was talking with Carrie (another team leader with the Saudi team, she is from New Zealand) and she nodded to the side and said "I think you have an admirer." My teenage friend was back and standing about 5 feet away just intently staring. He didn't look away or make any acknowledgement that I looked. While standing there a fight broke out on the steps between a bunch of boys. This woman came running out with a stick and started hitting and yelling and the boys. They divided into two groups (the jets and (ok musical buffs, can you come up with the other gang?)) and one person even picked up a shovel! Luckily all calmed down. We walked to the bus and as we were waiting, we were standing next to the market and were just covered in flies. Matt and I were talking and I saw Carrie and she nodded to my right. I turned around and Senor Stares-a-lot had followed us and was there continuing to stare at me... awesome :)

(Hanuman... the monkey king... on the road to/from Bawana)
On the way back to the hotel we saw an elephant pulling a cart, a camel train on the streets and some hijrah's (eunichs & cross dressers that are said to be good luck in India). We were all exhausted last night and had dinner and 6 of us then went out to a bar nearby. I had a mango lassi (YUMMY!!!!) and Jerry, Natasha, Chinmoi, Liam, Matt and I had some great conversations! Even with that, we were in bed by 9:30. Natasha is also a bit... um... annoyed by our one teammate and she complained when we got back to the room. I am trying not to talk much about my feelings towards her (especially since the walls are so thin) but I am challenged by it... I'm not proud of it but am trying to be mindful of it. I decided to try the Tyelenol Pm... wow!!! I only woke up last night but I had the weirdest dreams! I think it was the comination of the anti-malarials, the tyelenol pm, the asthma inhaler and who know what else. The last dream I remember I was at my mom's house and all our animals were outside. I let them in but thought "hmmm... are these really our animals or are they decoys?" I looked in our backyard and there was another set of our animals. I was then trying to figure out which ones were the real ones. I would hold up each one separately and compare it to the other "hmmm... is this one treble or is this one treble?" Next thing you know, my mom and I are at the beach... I have to run back to the car and left her on the beach. When I get back to the car, she is sitting in the front seat. So I think "hmmmm.... is this my real mom or is the mom on the beach my real mom?" I try testing her but they both know all the answers. I then realized that I couldn't let them see each other or the would self-destruct!!! (I am seeing a bit of Harry potter in here for you film buffs). I then realized that I had forgotten my mom's birthday (which mom I don't know) so I called my brother and asked him to buy a toolbox for her and deliver it to the hotel by the beach but he can't let her see it. And then I woke up. WHAT THE HECK!!!!????? :)

This morning while getting ready, I put some barrettes in my hair. They are the old clips that kids wear (they were mine from many years ago and I brought them with me... I plan on wearing them each day to add some playful flavor and then I will leave them for the kids). Today were yellow ducks and they were a huge hit at breakfast!! My teammates love them :) On the drive this morning I rode in with MAtt (who by the way is a serious hottie!!!). we got to Chetnalaya and walked out to the site. We continued to dig the trenches and got a really good rhythm going between us. It is a GREAT team!!!! We started digging the front trench but the the lining for the sewer kept busting holes and the sewer water would trickle into the trench and make it muddy and extra stinky. Needless to say, these shoes and pants will DEFiniteLY be staying in INDIA!!! Since we plugged up the sewer with dirt, it has now started to overflow into the shack next to us. The stinky water mixing with the clumps of black hair makes me want to gag every time I see it!!! YUCK!!! We also started digging out the corners (5 feet down) where the rebar posts will go. The front right one we began to call "sewer 101" because it is a completely different color of dirt and every shovelful brings about a new smell of awesomeness :) We all took turns up there! Sujata was a bit more talkative and through a lot of pantomiming we found out that she is married with a 3 year old daughter. Her husband cares for their daughter in the day and then works at night.


After working today we were waiting back at the center and Sujata called me over. She grabbed my hand and brought me into another room and said "sister, this is my office. She as so proud of the room with the 6 chairs that she shares with 5 other people. I asked her which chair was hers and she beamed as she pointed to one chair. She also explained to me about the paintings on the walls. On one wall is a house diagram. It is meant to represent the housing collaboration between Chetnalaya and Habitat. On the other side is a beautiful tree with names painted into the leaves. She came up behind me and put her head on my shoulder and said "sister, this tree strong, is like Chetnalaya and all women, is for all women who need branches." It was a beautiful moment. Eventhough you often see women her hugging, holding hands and such, it was such a sweet unexpected affection that I was very touched that she picked me to show her accomplishments to. I was very moved. I waited outside after and senor-stares-a-lot was nowhere to be found today.. yea!

On the bus ride back, Amy sat next to me and were talking about the day. We said something to Ava and she jumped across the aisle and sat on our laps. It was hilarious!!!!! I've also decided to become trilingual and learn to speak horn. The cars here use their horn constantly! Each one has a different message. Two short beeps= "hey, just wanted to let you know I am over here, don't veer to your side.". One short beep= "Good morning, how are you today." One long horn= "&@%$^#* you!". One long beep followed by another long beap= "you do that again and I am going to come find your sister and chop off all of her hair." A succession of short beeps= "wow, I like the paint on your car, who is your collision repairman." :

I know that two or three of the people have mentioned that their site is really serious and they wish to change. My site is amazing! WE are constantly laughing, joking, listening to music and having a great time. I think we had to start like that because from the very start, on our site, we needed to laugh things off... the other sites were all prepared and ready to go. And eventhough we started WAY behind the others, we are completely caught up and will be the first team to begin laying bricks tomorros. Although I don't want to change teams, I know how it feels when you want to change teams and no one listens. If no one else mentions it, I might say something to Ray just to give those other people the opportunity to change.

I know that was a long post but I wanted to get you all caught up. I hope you are enjoying. I love reading your comments! Love and miss all of you!