Saturday we had the march and rally
for the hygiene campaign and I’d say it was the highlight of the trip so far!
There were probably 700 or 800 people following us and everyone was chanting
and yelling. There was an aura of energy, excitement, and just pure happiness.
It was like an adrenaline rush, but of happiness. I don’t even know how to put
into words the feeling that was there, everybody marching, kids running all
around you, people stepping out of their houses smiling and waving, it was
amazing. Everybody from our group including the Young Dreamers had posters and
banners. Friday we walked all around Ambedkar Nagar and passed out promotion flyers
about our rally the next day and said that we would give handouts of
toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and bandages. I don’t really think people
thought that a huge rally was going to take place. I think they thought we were
just some volunteers and local kids with no real experience. Only when they saw
800 people marching past their house did they really realize that is was no
small thing. Once we got back to the booth, which was actually a huge tent with
a stage and a big table off to the side, most people stayed and sat down. I was
really surprised. I thought people were just doing the march for the fun of it,
but people sat down and listened to talks about hygiene and why it’s important.
After that my group did the skits and it was a success! Earlier that week we
had done them in front of the government school, but it wasn’t performed very
well and not many of the kids actually understood it. This time we were on a
stage with microphones and we did it better. When the skits ended we started
passing out the handouts to people. We also gave people some food to show our gratitude
for coming. Unfortunately there were only enough handouts for the kids so the
adults didn’t get any. Hopefully they’ll share;) It was such a great
experience. It really showed that if we put our minds to something and work
really, really hard to do it, we can do unimaginable things. That’s a life
lesson that has been proved to me time and time again.
Radhika. A girl that is super smart, always happy, and wants to go to
school. A girl that can't go to school because her mom and dad won't let her. A
girl that has to work 12 hours a day cleaning houses when she's only ten years
old. A girl that brings joy to me whenever I see her. A girl that represents a
problem throughout India. A girl that all of us want to save. Radhika is one of the kids that goes to the
YDN center in the morning where the volunteers teach. 2 months ago her parents
pulled her out of school and a month ago she stopped going to the center. Her
father drinks a lot and her mother can't stand up for herself. Her father wants
to take her back to the village where they're from where they'll leave her to
do labor work. If that happens she will never get an education, so we're trying
to prevent that from happening. We've gone to her house several times to try to
convince the parents to send her to school but the dad never comes out and the
mom just says that they won't be able to convince the dad. The only one really
on her side from her family is the aunt who has agreed to take care of Radhika
when the parents go to their village. The parents mainly don't want Radhika to
go to school because of financial issues. If Radhika goes to school, even if we
pay for her scholarship, she's not bringing money in. The other thing is the
dowry. When the daughter is married in India, her parents need to give money to
the husband's family as a type of offering and support to care for their
daughter. It is actually illegal to ask for a dowry but the law is not enforceable
so it still happens. If the daughter has a good education then she will marry a
man with the same level education or higher. If the husband has a good
education then his family asks more from the bride's family, Radhika's parents
don't want her to have a great education so that they don't have to pay much
for the dowry. The dowry is a big problem in India because it sometimes leads
to woman abuse. Sadly, Radhika's situation happens to tons of women in India
everyday. I really, really hope that we can help her because after just an hour
teaching her and showing her I saw how bright she really is. This girl that is
always happy deserves to go to school. The volunteers here with us on the gap
year have started a fundraiser to give scholarships to Radhika and other like
her that we know in the community. If you can, please donate to the cause of
sponsoring kids like Radhika to go to school. Just go to the Young Dreamer
Network website.
Last night there was a huge Hindu
holiday called Deshera and there was a big celebration that we saw. The holiday actually
lasted ten days but last night was the grand finale. For weeks they had been
making these huge paper statues that they would burn them on the 22nd. We went
at 7:00 to watch these huge statues burn and we thought it would be really
cool. We got there and it was kind of like a fair. There were games, prizes,
and even a ferris wheel. We played some games and then sat down to see a
performance. It turns out the performance was really a bunch of people talking
in Hindi. We sat there for two and a half hours listening to people talking,
which we didn't understand. It was very, very boring, so boring that after a while
I had to resort to twiddling my thumbs. I thought we were going to stay there
until midnight and I was literally falling asleep. At around 10:30 my dad
finally decided it was time to go so we got up and left. While we were walking
out, a huge crowd had gathered and fireworks started shooting up. We stayed for
the fireworks show, which was really cool and actually lasted quite a while.
When that ended everybody was ready to go home because it seemed like they
would never light the statues on fire, but there was a huge commotion and when
I got up on a car I saw that a fire had started at the bottom of one of the
statues. A few minutes later one of the statues completely caught flame and
since it was made of paper it went pretty quickly. We discovered that they had filled
the statues with firecrackers, so other than being on fire, they started
exploding! That was definitely the highlight because after all, it was what we
had come there for. That holiday was about getting rid of evil. They would make
these giant statues of the devil and then burn them and make them explode to
make evil go away. It was definitely not what I expected when I heard we were
going to watch these things burn. I thought we would stand on the street with a
big crowd and just watch something burn and after 30 minutes go back home. It
was a good cultural experience and in the end, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
This weekend, we’re going to visit a
small village in the country. That should be something new.
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