Pictures from India are now online

See pictures from my trip...enjoy :)! Shoot me an email if you have questions about any of them: jason@atlantaclimber.com

Check out this photo - it show's you just how safety-conscience India is:
"The art of scaffolding" or "Why do we need to be roped in?"

See all the pictures here

A family from a herding village near Nagpur, India

Me at the Taj

While I'm working on the photo albums, here are a couple more pictures...

Me in front of the the Taj Mahal

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Students at Prakash


Bronze statues of Hindu Gods

The school - Prakash Institute

I can't believe I haven't already posted this, but please check out the website for the school I visited in India. There's a lot of great info. If you would like to get involved, at any level, I'd love to talk to you. Prakash Institute: www.prakash4india.org

Another couple of photos

This is one of the kids taught goat herding. He's been able to grow from 2 goats to over 30! A year ago his family was hungry. Now they have enough to take in extended family. A great story.

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A common sight on the roads of India

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Loren talking with potential students at an orphange

A quick photo from India

It's going to be a couple of days before I get photos from the trip on the web (depending on how quickly I recuperate). This one caught my eye as I started downloading. These kids were playing cards on a sidewalk in Delhi.

I'm Home!

Hi All,

After 30 something hours of traveling, I'm home. I've got a bad respiratory track infection, but other than that I'm fine (ok, I'm pretty sick :)). I'll post another couple of blogs/trip summaries this weekend.

Jason

Headed home

Hi All,

It's Thursday night here. I'm on my way to the airport. See in you in a couple of days!!!

Jason

Thoughts on the bombings in Bombay and a quick update on today

Hi Everyone,

It's Wednesday night here. First of all, don’t worry about my safety here. Nagpur is far removed from India’s major cities and likely targets. Also, for the next few days, security will be extremely high. I will be flying out of Bombay, but my time there will be confined to the airport (I’m flying in from Nagpur and out to Moscow). Of all the places in India, the airport is probably going to be the safest.

Last year I spent two days in the part of Bombay impacted by the bombs. It’s a very suburban part of town, if there is such a thing in India. It’s made up of regular folks. It hurt to see images of the dead and injured. What cowards these people are - to get onto a train, drop off a bomb and then walk away. It’s difficult to understand how anything (anger, revenge, religion) could motivate a person to do such a thing.

Is there really any way to fight this kind of war? My fear is that terrorism on this scale is here to stay.

As you can imagine, India is in shock, much as the US was after 9-11.

I was on a train last week – first class coach (the coach targeted by the bombers). It gives you pause.

I’ve hit a bit of a wall today. I woke up this morning with a sore throat and have gone down hill since. I’m dreading the trip home. I leave here for the airport tomorrow morning at 7:00am Atlanta time and won’t arrive at our house until sometime after midnight on Saturday. That’s around 30 hours!!! I hope I’m not sick the whole way. Loren is doing his best to get me healthy and ready for the trip.

We visited an orphanage today. Conditions were good – considering. Loren talked to the staff and a group of girls at the right age for the school here. All in all it was a good day, but my feeling bad dampened things for me.

I don’t think Loren would mind me saying this, but he’s around twice my age...and he’s absolutely running circles around me. I really hope I’m doing what he’s doing when I’m his age. Wow! I’ve had a great time watching him interact with the staff and with the people. I’ve learned a ton. I don’t know where my interests in India will lead, if I’ll keep visiting, etc. If I do stay involved, I know I'll look back on these few days with Loren as being a great starting point for understanding what it looks like to be an American working with the poor and helping Christians in India.

I’ll try to give another update before I head to the airport tomorrow.

See you soon!
Jason

Nagpur - Tuesday night update

Hi All,

It’s Tuesday night in Nagpur. All is well.

There’s an old saying with rope knots that if you can’t tie a knot, tie a lot. I carry the same philosophy into photography. I just passed the 1,000-picture mark. A few of them have to be good, right? I’ve seen some amazing things. I just hope the camera saw them also. One of my tasks for the trip was to capture photos that will tell the story of Prakash. Hopefully I’ve done that.

The trip to the village this morning was quite an experience. Riding on the back of a motorcycle was both exhilarating and scary. We spent almost 6 hours riding. It’s a great way to see the countryside and I can see the attraction of owning one. Along with taking a train, maybe riding a motorcycle should be an India must. I think I’d have to up my life insurance policy if I was going to ride one frequently.

The kids in the villages are so attracted to cameras. Take their picture and show it to them and you’ve totally made their day. I wish I had brought a Polaroid so I could leave a print with them. I’ve found that the kids like to see pictures of each other as much as of themselves. If I take a group of kids together, they’ll point at each other and laugh. It’s cool.

The villages were just what you would imagine. The people have little to nothing, but they do survive and they do smile. More than anything, these kinds of experiences make me think about my own life and I wonder if I could be a better steward with the time, talents and resources God has given me. Actually, there’s no wondering about it. I know I could. The question is whether I will do something about it. I also wonder if I would be so willing to smile in such difficult circumstances (given past experience, the answer is probably no).

I have a knack for getting laughs..at my expense. I was trying to take pictures of water buffaloes crossing the road. They were moving, so I was moving with them. My mind was on the photo and not on where I was walking. First, let me say that anytime a westerner pulls out a camera in India, a crowd grows. There was a crowd of motorists (stopped for the crossing buffaloes), herders, kids, etc. watching this crazy American with a camera walking along side the buffaloes. Squish...I stepped right on a pile of very recent “dung,” as they call it. Everyone had a good laugh, and I had the only pair of tennis shoes I brought soiled (thank goodness I wasn’t wearing sandals!!!).

Later one of the men from Prakash asked my why I was taking photos of a buffalo, as if it was a silly thing to do. I told him there were none where I lived and I wanted to be able to show pictures to my friends. I’m not sure he thought that was a good reason. I guess I’d feel the same way about someone taking photos of a cow.

As most of you know, I have a small rock collection. This morning I took a walk around the grounds here and gathered up a few. I was walking back to the building as a group of students came out. I knew this was going to lead to an awkward conversation, and for a moment I thought about casually dropping them. In broken English, one student pointed and asked what I was doing with the stones. Given the language barrier, I wasn’t able to explain why I had a perfectly good reason for carrying a pile of rocks into the building. Between the photos of buffaloes and the rocks, I may be looked at as somewhat “eccentric.”

We had another focus group this afternoon. The students asked questions about marriage and how we determined God’s will for our lives (how did Loren get involved with Prakash and why was I here). Great questions. Loren did an excellent job with them.

Tomorrow we’re going to an orphanage. Prakash is currently an all boys’ school, but they are opening a girl’s school in the fall. They hope to be able to pull some girls from this orphanage. The orphanage is two hours away, so it will be a long day.

The monsoon is definitely here. It’s much cooler (80s), which is nice, but humidity is high. It comes heavy rain showers several times a day. Things are turning green.

Had another incredible Indian meal this evening in the home of the school’s director in India. The dinner included he and his wife, their daughter and son-in-law and their two girls, Loren and myself. They made me feel like part of the family and the meal was delicious.

Can’t wait to see you all soon (Gina more than the rest of you :)).

Later,
Jason

Nagpur - Tuesday morning update

Hi All!

Hope you are all well.

We’re headed to a village on the outskirts of Nagpur this morning. We’re visiting a ministry and looking for photo opportunities to document the conditions some of the school’s students come from. The roads aren’t great, so we’re taking motorcycles. This should be interesting.

The villages are extremely poor. The people are just surviving so there’s little to no education. Some of the students here come from these villages. They are really starting from square one. A couple of teachers told me that the biggest challenge they have with the students when they first arrive has to do with simple things like hygiene and manors.

In one year, they are able to teach them enough English to take the government exams (written) for their trades. All exams are in English, since there are so many different languages in India...English serves as the common language. Most are able to pass! Their conversational English is not very good (I’ve had a hard time communicating with them), but they can understand some of what I say (just not respond) and write enough to answer test questions - Indians are very sharp. I can’t imagine learning a trade and enough Hindi to pass a written exam in only one year.

Loren and I had a question and answer session with 9 students yesterday afternoon. It was awesome. For 30 minutes they asked any question they wanted. Then we spent 30 minutes asking them questions. The answers were extremely enlightening. When asked what they thought their biggest challenge would be when leaving Prakash (the school), one student said he didn’t know how he would be able to get enough money to pay the bribes required to get a job (I’m learning that a lot in this part of India revolves around bribes). Another student asked how he would be able to continue being a Christian when he went back to his village where there were no Christians.

There are so many hurdles for these kids. Some have no family. Despite being against the law, the caste system is still an issue (all the students are lower caste). Christians are often ostracized in rural areas. Some don’t speak Hindi, English or even the local dialect (they speak tribal languages).

But there are plenty of success stories here. One of the teachers told me about students he as kept in touch with who now make more money then he does (he said that with great pride).

The people are all so friendly. Just as I experienced during last year’s trip to India, everyone is willing to say hello and smile. And if given a chance, they love to ask you where you are from. If they can speak any English, they want to talk. They ask how you like India, if you have ever been here before, where is your family :). It’s easy to feel at home here.

My health is great. I do have some allergy issues, but that’s pretty normal for me. I had an amazing Indian meal last night...one of those meals that Loren said we shouldn’t tell the folks at home about...it would make it sound like we were living the good life here (which we actually are :)).

Loren (and the rest of the staff) is taking exceptional care of me.

Talk to you soon.

Jason

Nagpur - Monday afternoon update

Hi All,

It's Monday afternoon here. I've spent the day visiting the four different programs offered here: welding, electrical, ac repair, and computer. The classes remind me of the shop programs that were just before my time in high school. For these kids, it's an amazing education. I sat with the computer teacher, Anil, this afternoon and he showed me a book with notes on the jobs former students have. It was really neat to see that the school works.

I'm headed to the city to meet with a man who has helped the school with local politics. I'm learning a lot about the government bureaucracy here. He's a non-Christian and it's pretty amazing that he's helping so much...a really cool story.

I'll try to write another message later.

It's much cooler here than in Delhi, and the air quality is infinitely better (there was practically a sandstorm when I left - literally). It's still really humid though.

The students are so funny. When I walk into the room, the all stand and say, "Good morning sir." Unfortunately, many don't speak English, so I can't communicate to tell them they don't have to stand everytime they see me.

Talk to you soon. Hope everyone is well.

Jason

Hello from Nagpur, India

Hey guys,

It’s Sunday night here. It has been an amazing day, too amazing to describe. I haven’t even processed it all myself.

My trip to Nagpur was fine except I had to leave the hotel at 4:30am to catch the flight. That was really early at this point in the trip.

Loren and a local pastor picked me up at the airport. I was greeted with garlands and a bouquet of flowers...not too uncommon in India. Then, when we got to the school, all 112 students were lining the driveway waiting on me (this part is uncommon). At the entrance to the school, I had to walk down about 20 feet of red carpet as flower petals were thrown over me. Then I was given more garlands and the students shouted out a welcome to me. I will never forget it. I was really embarrassed but really honored. I can’t imagine something like that in the States.

I attended worship with the students and it was one of the neatest things I’ve ever seen. Fortunately, I was able to video tape it. The enthusiasm and energy was amazing. I enjoyed it so much and knew I had made the right decision to come here.

After worship at the school, we visited a local church and then went to two different home churches. This was awesome! I’ll tell you more about it later.

Here’s my schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday: Attend each of the classes and spend time with the computer instructor to determine needs of the new classroom and the networking needs of the new building.

Tuesday: Visit villages for photos. I’m really excited about this – we’re taking motorcycles so we can go places that don’t have good roads.

Wednesday: Visit girls orphanage where future female students will come from to get photos for webpage.

Thursday: Still up in the air...

Talk to you soon!

Jason

Update from Delhi

Hi All,

Just a quick update before flying to Nagpur in the morning. All is well.

On the health side, not a hint of stomach issues (I'm knocking on wood here). I don't feel that tired and I feel like I've managed the heat as well as you can.

On the weather side, there was a tiny rain shower this afternoon. No relief. In fact, it probably felt worse after the rain because of the humidity. Today was windy, so by early afternoon the sky was brown with dust - like the air is literally brown. Visibility couldn't have been more than a couple of miles, at best.

I went to Red Fort and then Old Fort today. You guessed it...these are forts. Both were incredible...amazing architecture...really old. Delhi has some amazing buildings.

A couple of observations: First, and I remember this from last time, venders will try to cheat you on the price EVERY TIME. I just picked up bottled water on the way in and the price on the bottle was clearly marked 15 rupees. The guy at the counter said "40 rupees." This was a legit store, not a street vendor. It's crazy. I wanted to get a shirt for Gina. When I asked how much, the guy said 2,800 rupees. I ended up paying 600 (about $12). Auto-rickshaws always end up being 20-30 rupees cheaper than the first quote. Americans must have a big target on them. Do we do that to foreigners...maybe in the cities?

Kids love it when you say hello to them (not just street kids, any kid). I don't know if it's because I'm an adult or a westerner. You say hello and they say "aallo" back and smile from ear to ear.

Every driver asks where I'm from, if I'm married, where's my wife, does she work (and doing what), and how many kids do we have, almost without fail. Then they make a comment that English (generic for westerners) wait a long time to have kids and don't have many. One man told me that in India you always have a child within a year of getting married and you don't stop until you have 4 or 5.

One on one, almost anyone you make eye contact with will ask you where you are from. I say the US or American and they'll say, "I like America...very nice country." That's followed-up with, "New York City?" I say Atlanta. A few will know it because of the olympics. The people seem genuinely friendly and interested.

Just like in Africa (and I'm sure anywhere), the street kids here just want attention. If you make any kind of gesture of acknowledgement, they swarm :).

No blunders like yesterday's Taj being closed. When I got to the Red Fort there were a lot of soldiers in front. The rickshaw driver matter-of-factly said it must be closed today. I was like...I won't say :). Anyway, it was open.

You can get anywhere in town in an auto-rickshaw for around a dollar. I mention them a lot because I use them all the time. It's incredibly fast (since they are small, they just weave in and out of traffic, run red lights, etc). And in the heat, they're a great way to get out of the sun and get some air moving on you (if you don't mind the fumes). And they're fun (like riding go carts). They can go places in 15 minutes that would take 30 to 40 in a car following traffic rules. I don't know why our big cities don't have them.

No one follows traffic rules. Even the intersections that have red lights are crazy. No one stops on red, they just yield...and they don't do that very well.

One funny thing...I was in a auto-rickshaw and in the distance you could see what looked like a brown cloud. Curious if I was going to end up getting rained on, I asked the driver if it was rain coming or just dust. He said, "Yes." (which one?). Then I said that in America we call clouds like that "thunderstorms." I asked if that's what they call them in India. He said, "No. Those are army men." There was an army truck up the road in front of us...obviously a little language barrier.

Hope everyone is well.

Jason

Thwarted again!?

OK...I did see the Taj today, just not all of it (so this isn't a completely sad story).

When I got off the train in Agra, a driver asked me where I wanted to go. I told him to take me to the Taj. He said the Taj was closed today...WHAT!?! You've got to be kidding me. No way...this has to be some kind of scam to get me somewhere else? I was so in denial I told him to take me there anyway. He said there's no way to see it, even from the road. Stay calm Jason.

It was no scam...the Taj is closed on Fridays for cleaning! I grabbed my guide book and, sure enough, in the corner of one of the pages, there’s a tiny little box with a solid dot in it by Friday. I consulted the key, and a sold dot means: closed! The thought that the Taj could be closed had never even crossed my mind (and on a Friday?). I just started laughing. Could I miss out on the Taj for a second year in a row, and after such "careful" planning? Last year it was a sandstorm. This year it was for cleaning! I kept thinking of Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Vacation getting to Wally World and it being closed.

And how did I miss this? I PRIDE myself on being travel-savvy and planning. Feeling stupid just doesn't quite do it justice...it was more shock. But I didn't go into complete meltdown mode (Gina you would have been so impressed with me). I knew I couldn't have gone on any other day on this trip anyway, and the train ticket was only a few bucks...I hadn't really lost anything. And I knew there had to be a way to see something. And there was.

All was not lost. I did see the Taj. And I am happy. I was able to find a driver who took me to a place where you get a great view of the back of the Taj (don't laugh...you'll know why when you see the pictures). At first I thought I’d be disappointed (I even had thoughts of jumping fences or crawling through the brush to get the regular view - serious thoughts). It turned out to be great. The Taj is perfectly symmetrical, so if you see the back, you've seen the front. The front has a reflection pool (that you always see in pictures) that the back doesn’t have, but other than that, it's the same. And it's only one big room (a tomb), so other than seeing the inlaid marble up close, not getting inside isn’t so bad (just a little bad:)). I'll probably cry at some point for not getting in, but right now I'm fine.

In a way it was kind of neat because there were no tourists at the viewpoint, just some goat herders and some kids. It felt authentic, like the way it must have looked to travelers hundreds of years ago...rising up out of nowhere, so amazing that it couldn't be real.

For those who don't know, the Taj Mahal is a memorial a Mughal emperor made to his favorite wife when she died (I wonder what the runner-up got?). It's considered the greatest monument to love ever made. It was completed in 1652. It took 20,000 workers 22 years to complete! It's all marble, inlaid with tons of precious stones and gold (literally).

Sometimes hyped things can be a disappointment. I was even bracing myself for this. I can tell you that the Taj was no disappointment. It is absolutely stunning. If the "backside" looks amazing, you know it's amazing. I can definitely see it being one of the 7 wonders of the world. I can't imagine what it took in engineering to pull it off 400 years ago. What a gift to have an opportunity to see it! I have a new goal now, to bring Gina here to see it.

It is hot. I mean painfully hot. It’s somewhere over 110 today..AND humid. I'm beating the heat in an internet cafe. If you could stay out of the sun it wouldn’t be so bad, but, as a tourist, you're always in the sun. There's a fort I want to see today, but I'm going to wait until a little later. Unfortunately, it won't make much difference. At least the sun won't be beating down though (and there are some thunderstorm-like clouds building...could it rain? My train back to Delhi doesn't leave until 8:00pm, so I've got plenty of time to hang out.

I've hired a driver for the day - about $20 US dollars (he's asleep across the room :)). He's taken me to a couple of shops that use traditional methods to inlay marble and make Persian rugs (just to be doing something out of the heat). Sounds boring, but it has been really cool. The rugs are amazing. It takes one preson 4 months to make a medium size rug (and I'm sure they work more than 40-hour work weeks). I got some video of them tying the knots...not like anything I've ever seen before. If handmade Persian rugs are expensive, it’s completely justified. And you wouldn't believe how hard these guys tried to sale me something...it was really kind of sad.

I've had enough interaction with kids here that I'm excited about getting to Nagpur with Loren. I want to see what the school is all about and what I can do to help. Plus it's a bit cooler in Nagpur :).

I hope you are all well and I wish so much that you could be here (but only in winter :)). I'll have another day in Delhi before my flight to Nagpur.

Stay cool.

Jason

Hello from Delhi, India!

I'm here!

Just a quick hello from India. The trip over was long, almost 30 hours, but no problems. A couple of times on the flights I wondered if it was going to be worth it...to spend so much time traveling for such a short trip. I can already say it was! I love being here. I felt like I was reunited with a friend when I left the airport last night and stepped out into the 90-degree heat (at 2:00am!), car horns, auto-rickshaws, trucks, oxcarts, and even elephants.

The airport was just as I remembered it...folks pulling your luggage out of your hands and then asking for a tip for carrying it from the door to the curb!

I wish I could describe arriving in India to you. It's sensory overload. Imagine driving up GA400 with no one paying attention to the lanes, people sitting on the tops of trucks and buses, people asleep on cots on the side of the road, and an occasional oxcart and elephant lumbering along. Yes, I saw four elephants in less than a mile...at night, no lights (I have no idea what they were doing out there...maybe some kind of heavy lifting?). It's crazy.

The hotel I'm staying at until I head to Nagpur is small and modest but I like it. I’ve already made friends with the manager, Sanjay (I'm using his computer). It’s also in a great part of town, just minutes from the US Embassy (not that I’ll need to go there :)). The room has a great fan and what feels like a little central AC. I was as comfortable as you can be getting to bed at 3:00am after 30 hours of traveling. The carpet is as old as India, but other than that, I'm getting my money's worth. And it has hot water on demand, something I’ve not had in the hotels I’ve stayed at on my past trips to India.

My train tickets are here, so I’m heading down to Agra and the Taj Mahal in the morning. I'll try to make a quick note sometime this evening or tomorrow if I can find an internet cafe in Agra.

This is my third trip to the Indian Subcontinent in the past three years. I’m glad I made the effort and had the opportunity to come. I’m very fortunate. I can’t wait to see Loren in Nagpur in a couple of days.

Stay cool!

Jason