Worth Ten Thousand Words

If a picture paints a thousand words, a video is worth ten thousand. May the following two touch your heart and move you to action.


The first--a short but not sweet film about child slavery--left me with tears. 
http://www.rotary-ribi.org/districts/committeedetails.asp?DistrictNo=1080&DistSubCtteeID=437


The second, a chronicle of my November trip to India, shows what can be done to uplift humanity. Let it leave you with hope. The image of the vehicle presented at a slave-rehab center, within the video, is a prelude to my next blog entry: a request for you to help by looking in the back of your closet. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9S21FrpS20

Reflections on the Ganges

Like images of the sun rising or setting on the Ganges River, it is reflections—not direct observations—that enable me to make sense of my November trip to India.

True, reflections are imperfect. They are influenced by friends’ perceptions and feedback, reshaped by pain and happiness, and clarified by insight. Yet they are no less valid than the imperfect immediate perception of the experience.

After our team’s visit to Bal Vikas Ashram and meeting with Rotarians in Pratapgarh, we stepped off the river bank at Chunar and into a motorboat. We raised our pirate flag—a pretty red and black scarf tied to the pole our guide used to push us into deep water—and headed down the Ganges. It was my first opportunity to relax, enjoy the sunshine and allow the breeze to carry my thoughts whichever direction it pleased.

We passed steep banks with little temples and tall grasses where vultures soared overhead. We waved to boys in small fishing boats. I cringed inwardly at the sight of large pipes that channeled sewage and toxic chemicals into the Ganges. I watched with fascination funeral pyres with dead bodies—wrapped and covered in orange marigold petals—and thick, acrid, gray smoke rising into the air.

“Mother Ganga,” the Ganges River, grants new life, our guide told us. Indians commit the ashes or bodies of their loved ones to the river. In Varanasi—the final destination of our boat ride—people bathe in the water and perform religious rituals at its edge.

Just before we reached Varanasi for aarthi (evening prayers), my water bottle landed in the river. Unhooked from the carabiner that tethered my pure drinking water to my backpack and essentials, it floated in the muddy gray-brown water. Knowing I could never clean and sterilize the bottle for my use again, I mentally released it.  Who knows whether it ended up in the home of a fishing family, was sold to an unsuspecting tourist or became a vessel for the Ganges’ holy water? Only Mother Ganga knows the new life it was granted.

So it is with my experiences, reflections, my memories. Letting them go—through written blog entries or conversations with friends—is giving them new life.

The Beginning of the Journey

"You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to." --Frodo Baggins

This trip to India begins with today's flight, but the journey began much earlier. On my 2004 trip to immunize children against polio and to see the Taj Mahal, Rotarian Mark Little took our team to a children's center. There, I met Maina, an 11-year-old girl who had just been rescued from enslavement in the circus. She was smiling, obviously happy to have a new life. 

That was a turning point in my life, too. In one afternoon, I realized - with devastation - that slavery still exists. But I also realized - with hope and new determination - that ordinary people can do something to help its victims. Maina swept me off my feet... and I now think of her with each step of my journey.

Carol's Masala

"Masala" is a blend of Indian spices. As a friend from India pointed out, "masala" also means a hodge-podge of ideas, maybe with a spicy outcome.

Over the next two weeks, on my trip to India, I'll dish up a masala for you. I'll try to post an update or photo every few days... time, technology and electricity permitting. Look for news of:
* immunizing children against polio in Mewat, an area of poverty and illiteracy
* a visit to the majestic and historic Taj Mahal
* delivery of an SUV for a rescued-boy-slaves' rehabilitation center, the result of a couple years' efforts and a Rotary Mathing Grant
* a trip to Sarnath, site of Buddha's first sermon, and
* a sleepover at a women's shelter.

The subject of some of my upcoming entries--slavery, illiteracy, poverty--can be hard to face. I'll keep these entries as positive as possible--hopeful anecdotes and happy endings--without diminshing the serious nature of the plight of some of our fellow human beings.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!