whatta amazing place

i've finally landed at manav sadhna & it's beyond words how truly amazing this place is. if you haven't had a chance to check out their website yet, i urge you to do so: http://www.manavsadhna.org/coming here feels like coming full circle. feels like coming home. being here/working here/ learning here/playing here is a mixture of what i loved about my work at ASPIRE (Communities in Schools) and the Dougherty Arts Center, my peace & justice courses in college, my activist tendencies, my tumultuous family history, my idealism & my need for real-world practical solutions. i've only been here a week & yet i already feel this intense connection with the people here (they told me it was one big family & they weren't joking) there has been no shortage of introductions & i'm going through a strange brain freeze on remembering & pronouncing all of these names but my gujarati is coming back in jagged spurts mixed with a touch of espanol when i'm nervous & a bit of hindi when i'm confused...and really i should call what i'm speaking gujlish because everyone seems to pepper their conversations with a lil english. at the moment i am working on a few projects at once...one of them is a lot like even start actually! here the pre-k education/nutrition centers are called balwadis.a link to a better description of them: http://www.indcast.com/ms/NutCenter.htmellie & i have been recruited to help monitor these rather new centers. so every morning after pratna (a peace prayer/meeting) we wander to the slums (the tekra) to visit the various balwadis. we take a small path into the tekra from behind our house that winds past a field where all the kids fly their kites, & instead of road rage during our "commute" there is a certain zen to waiting for the various goats & stray dogs & cows to slowly move outta our way. the gullies (alleyways) to the balwadis are a labyrnith that we will eventually be able to master after a few months (i hope! or someone should send me a gps!) but right now we have a wonderful guide named suhag to take us to the balwadis & help us communicate with the teachers. this morning (just as we have done every morning this week) we watched the children sing & do their exercises & played some games with them. they are very cute & very curious about us & sometimes scared of us too. they immediately greet us with a "namaste" & there is a chorus of "tata tata" when we leave. hopefully they will become used to our visits & we can establish more long lasting connections with them. they are obviously in need of personal attention & care & these balwadis are a wonderful way for them to get used to going to school & being hygenic & eating nutritiously. there is an emphasis placed on cleanliness as well as education...an extention of gandhi's safai ethic. which is something i never really considered before but jayeshbhai's father (ishwar patel) is known as "mr. toilet" & with his NGO (the environmental sanitation institute) has been fighting the very humble fight of getting proper sanitation to the slums & villages in order to cut down on the water bourne diseases in india. we toured the new facility where they will train others on building low cost water efficient toilets as well as smokeless chullas (stoves) to cut down on smoke pollution. sorry if i'm rambling but i have learned soo much about this NGO that i want to share & i'm not being as concise & eloquent as i should be because i'm always composing in the moment at whatever internet cafe i happen to be at. so please forgive me. the other project i'm working on involves communal harmony. i've joined a new EKTA project here is a link to explain better what the manav sadhna EKTA project is:http://www.indcast.com/ms/usa%20HOME.htm that was started by an indicorp fellow named shivana and a local volunteer named jignesh. we're only just getting started with a few songs & only working with the hindu kids now & i'll know more once we've picked the kids from the moslem community & the play has been worked on.by the by, i can't tell you how wonderful it was to have my birthday here. at pratna i was intoduced to the lovely ritual of lighting a candle & creating light on your birthday instead of extinguishing it. in india it is traditional to give gifts/sweets to others on your birthday so i spent the day handing out chocolates to kiddos & adults alike. it was saturday & so the ashram was having a "saturday special" where the ashram kids get to just enjoy being kids & playing & so i played with them all day & handed out bananas & cadbury eclairs & over 200 children sang happy birthday to me in the cutest voices ever. it was a real priviledge to be able to spend my birthday here. i feel totally blessed.i should go for now...i'll write more later as the internet cafe here is broadband & quite close to the ashram itself. ellie (a cutiepie 19 yr old college student who is doing an independent study here & living with me in the manav sadhna guesthouse) has been incredibly patient as i've downloaded a bazillion photos & tried to finish this note up...look out for the ofoto invite i'm about to send ya too.hope all is well in your world. please keep sending me news of what's going on in your lives & i promise to write more personal emails & replies soon.happy republic day to all the indians out there!loveish