I'm in India!

 ... in Bangalore, in South India. Kind of a last-minute, but long-overdue visit. I'm visiting a few projects here that I manage donor updates for, that help rural families living in destitute poverty build a secure home, improve their subsistence agriculture, start income-generating activities, and build community initiatives in their villages like irrigation, farmer cooperatives, health programs, etc. Since HOPE started working in India some 30 years ago, supporters in Canada have helped more than 1000 families in dozens of villages have secured strong livelihoods and have made their way out of poverty. I'll be visiting some of the communities and families to hear about the changes in their lives through these initiatives. It's a visit I've been meaning to make since 2010 so it's finally time to do it!

Today was just a visit at the head office in Bangalore.

Hopefully after going through the project plans and the many, messy family reports together, our staff & I have things sorted out a bit better and we will all pull our hair out a bit less each year when it's time to prepare the yearly updates for supporters in Canada. :)  I'll also maybe be able to get more supporters for more families, which really is part of what I'm supposed to be doing as part of my work... to say that I've "failed" to get more supporters for families in India over these last four years would inaccurate, because that would imply that I'd tried...  :S

So, here's to I'm-not-sure-what but maybe new dreams of new things for families in India. Tomorrow I'll be heading about 3 hours northeast early tomorrow morning to a region called Kadiri to actually meet with the communities and families, then back to Bangalore and about 6 hours southwest from here to another region called Talavadi.

Lunch with two of our local staff. (Thank goodness for lassi's (yogurt drinks) cuz my mouth is on fire with every meal :) ) It's been nice to put some faces to names that I've been emailing for the last 4 years. Funny how you imagine what someone will look like after all this time, and it's totally different. One of our field staff in Talavadi has always addressed me as Mr. Rainbow Choi in emails, and I never corrected him until last week, I had to make a note to sign off on my email as (Ms.) Rainbow Choi.

I'm not sure which families I'll meet. I started supporting a family in 2010 but with the always-hecticness of preparing the reports, I never even made my own! But here's a family from Talavadi, that started receiving support in 2011. What a difference a few years & a little help makes!

2011

2012

2013

But enough paper work. :) Let's see what this looks like in real life. :) I wish I could have taken some of you with me. It's always so amazing to see how lives are changing and so woefully inadequate in conveying the stories when I get back. But I will try. I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have over the next few days with travel. I'll hopefully maybe check in at the end of the week, or maybe on the plane back, which is where most of my blogs these days seem to be written!

More here  -- Building Family Ties India -- if you are interested :)

Namaste,

Rainbow