House visits
My favorite puppies
Today the team made house visits around the homes of the crèche we are usually at on Thursdays. Seeing the kids in the crèches is one thing, but being able to see their family, house, and how they live is even more enlightening. Many families only have one room with the stove in one corner, the bed in another, and not much room for anything else. With this setup, the smoke from the wood fire stoves gets throughout the house and creates a very unhealthy environment. Not to mention that the beds consist of a blanket covering a raised metal sheet. Most of the women do the laundry in a running water source close to the house by rubbing them on a rock and the drinking water comes from pipes that run through most of the neighborhoods. Even with these conditions, the kids and parents could not have bigger smiles. Looking at life from a bigger picture, we should all be happy where ever we are at. It is not about being jealous about what we don’t have or feeling guilty about what others don’t. Life is about being happy with what we are given and taking full advantage of what resources we are gifted with. The men and women in some of these houses work six long days a week just to put food on the table. A middle class American should not give up the gifts they are given, but instead work just as hard to improve the lives of the people in these people as they work to put food on the table.
Household surveys
Women doing laundry in the stream
Rooftops of Kodaikanal