A bit More than a year has passed since our return from this trip. We have hosted the 5 men from India coming in an exchange with our team and have enjoyed communication in return from several upon their return home. Three of them have become Rotarians but only one of my team has done so.

My Rotary Club has sponsored and underwritten several humanitarian projects in India as a direct result of this exchange. There are now infant warmers in a public hospital in Adoni that delivers 300 at risk babies monthly and never had a warmer before.

There are a dozen push carts for women vendors where 90% of the take on goods sold now goes to the family to support the household and education of the children whereas before it went to the cart owner and children begged for a living to help support the family.

6 new bore wells have been dug supporting as many as 1000 persons each with monies from my Rotary Club.

This year we will send monies through Rotary International for more bore wells and more push carts as well as sending several girl children to school. This program gets young girls off the street and into school for the first time and off the street begging or apprenticing to washer women or cooks and becoming literate.

We also will be supporting a Women's Literacy program in Cambodia resulting rrom a trip twice in the past year by Rotarian Chris VanHemelrijck.

Additionally we are funding Birthing Kits for mothers in Ethiopia through a matching grant proposal in Upstate NY and water filters in homes in Lima Peru.

I encourage any and all of you following this to get involved in your community locally and Internationally. We have made a real difference in many lives over this past year and you can too.

Blessings to all...

Cherie C. Binns RN BS MSCN

Group Study Exchange leader 7950 to 3160

Wakefield Rotary Foundation Chair.

Sati and Indian Food

Let me take some time to introduce you to an amazing man. M. R. Satyanarayana or "Sati" is the District Governor of Rotary District 3160 covering the areas we visited on this trip. His District covers two States in the southern Peninsula of India and, according to him, is "non-emergent ancient cultures". This is exactly what we experienced with customs and practices and modes of dress that for many of us were "other worldly" and literally took us to a different time and place.

Sati oversees 67 Clubs and 1800 Rotarians covering an area almost twice the size of Massachussetts. And he tries to visit all of the Clubs in his district during his tenure as Governor even though many are not easily accessible by road and some take train rides lasting half a day or more to reach. He is one of the most congenial and approachable persons in his position it has ever been my privilege to meet.

On January 31, while my team was out shopping and experiencing as much of the commercial aspects of Hyderabad (not in Sati's District) as possible before our plane left India, Sati and I sat in a remote corner of a huge shopping mall and visited about the trip, India, the US, Rotary, needs of peoples in both countries and countries around the world who have been touched by Rotary. We talked about our families and hobbies and interests. He would describe himself as a humble simple man who only wants to see what is best for his clubs and people and country and frankly, that is exactly what he looks like to me. Genuine and caring. He also talked about how impressed he was with Dave Clifton, the District Governor in 7950, my District (and I had to agree with him on that one!).

Here is a glimpse of part of the meal we shared our last afternoon before leaving India. Most of our meals while in India consisted of 2-5 different kinds of rice with chutney, curries, Dall and other sauces and seasonings to go with them. Occasionally we had vegetables such as okra or carrots or green beans that were boiled in milk and seasoned gently with curry leaves or tumeric. On occasion, where we were not in a group entirely of vegetarians (the norm) we would have some sort of dish containing chicken but generally we would not have known it was chicken due to the flavoring as it was so unlike anything we eat in the US. Each meal ended with Curd or Curd Rice. Curd is basically homemade unflavored unpasturized yogurt and it is marvelous for settling the stomach, aiding in digestion and getting the hot burn out of your mouth and throat from some of the Indian seasonings. I came to strongly rely on and love curd and asked to have it as a side to most meals rather than waiting for the end of a meal as was customary.

"Sweets" are a big part of most of the meals we consumed. Generally eaten at the beginning of a meal and not at the end as are our desserts. And when I say sweet, I mean SWEET! I was never able to develop a taste for the intensity of them. I could handle the spicy far more easily. Several kinds of breads, flaky, flavorful, fried and flat were always on the table. One would tear off a piece of each type of bread and wrap it around rice to facilitate eating. Here you see Regina trying to wrap herself around one of these pieces of bread rather than wrapping it around one of the many sauces provided to go with it. This is less than a millimeter thick and is a hollow wrap and not solid as it may appear.

Despite the fact that you see utensils in the picture above, they are solely for serving the food. All food in the regions we visited is eaten with the fingers of the right hand. Sauces are mixed into the appropriate rice dishes and then the food is picked up with fingers and placed in the mouth. As a result, there is almost always a washing sink near each dining area where hands can be cleaned before and after eating. In some reataurants, we were provided with a dish of hot water with pieces of fresh lemon in it for the sake of hand cleansing at the close of a meal.

We have been home now for 5 days and I can say my body is still on India time. I want to be asleep by 2 or 3 in the afternoon and I wake, essentially for the day, by 2am. I am hoping that changes in the near future. Since I have been home, I have received phone calls from Senan and Srinivas and emails from them as well as from Surendra, Bharath, Vommina, Shabbir, Bhaskar, Ramu, Suresh, Satish, and many others. We truly feel as if we have been birthed into a whole new family and have all had an irreplacable life experience that we will never forget. It was not what we expected or even close to it but the people we met made it truly unforgettable and did their best to make it a wonderful time in our lives. For that we are are grateful.

Work is Done

As of 2PM today our last official appearance had been completed. We have now Presented to 17 Rotary clubs in 20 days as well as the District Conference where there were representatives of most of the 67 Clubs in the District. I say 17 because that's all I am counting with a quick review but I know I brought 25 flags from my club as well as 25 DVDs of our anniversary celebration and I have no flags and two DVDs left. A flag and DVD were given to two people at Conference so that would lead me to believe we have given out flags and DVDs to 21 clubs. Chris and Megan brought several flags from the Martha's Vineyard club and when we originally thought we might be speaking to as many as 40 clubs we held some of them back till we got more than half way through and knew we would have enough. Rebecca brought a few from Fall River (sponsoring Club) and as of today we have given all out but two. Tomorrow, we will spend the afternoon at the home of the President of the Sullerpet Club after visiting the Bird sanctuary there before catching the train to Hyderabad so will give our last to him.

All of us are in various stages of repacking, trying to decide what we must leave here for others to use and what we can fit in luggage to take home. We brought so much to give away and return with far more than we came with. I only hope the airlines is lenient with weight restrictions. Since some of the many gifts we each received at each stop had slight variations, there has been some exchange among the Team members for the right color or style to take home on an item like a sari or a necklace or bangles.

This evening we have a relaxed evening planned in the home of our host the Immediate past District Governor Surendra Reddy and his lovely wife. He is the youngest Club President (having achieved that rank by age 29) in the District and also the youngest District Governor ever here having not yet reached the age of 40. He is younger than all but two of our team! This is a photo of him in his yard.

Yesterday and today we toured several projects of the Clubs in this area including an eye hospital that does 5000 free eye surgeries annually. There were several bore wells for use by the entire community and a housing complex with

basic housing for thirty two families. The oddest project is a crematorium. I had heard at several other clubs that they had built them. Hindus cremate their dead rather than bury and most do not have a dignified place for the bodies to be sent off and family to view the sending. Many families are forced to take loved ones out to garbage strewn fields, pour kerosene over them and burn the bodies. Here there are three pyres that are under cover and vented so that cremations can take place even during rainy season. There is a paid family of caretakers to protect the remains from scavagening animals until the embers have cooled and the ashes may be collected. There is a guest room where grieving families my rest or wash or use the toilet. Additionally flowering trees and shrubs and monuments to the Hindu gods have been erected making it a sacred space. Fees are the same or less than asked at places that do not have the hallowed environment and are within reach of even the poorer families needing this service.



Oh!....I can now put on my own sari without having to have someone wrap me. I do not have blouses for all of them but do have shirts that I brought that can be worn with a couple so that works. This photo is taken of the team on our next to last evening in India with our good friend Shabbir who coordinated all of our transportation while we were there. What a wonderful man!

For those of our new friends in India who are reading this, many thanks again and again for the love and care you put into our stays in your homes and in your towns. Your hospitality is unequaled, I am convinced, anywhere else on the face of this great earth. We honor you, thank you and bid you Namaste!

School Days

Yesterday was a school day for us in two different villages and I truly believe we saw some of the best that India has to offer in the products of the educational system. these children are learning things at an early age that could take our US schools to task very quickly. The S. R. K. school in Nellore has a very strong rotary presence in the faculty, student body, and the projects that students from age three through 10th standard at age 15 put forth. Yesterday the school presented the annual science fair and children as young as three were doing posters on different types of animals and plants. We moved late in the day from Nellore to Guder and were unaware until our arrival that I was the keynote speaker at an anniversary celebration of a large private school here that was commemorating the anniversary of the school which has both a State Regents component and a private component. Students are schooled not only in academic subjects but in dance and music and athletics and hundreds of prizes were given out last evening. My talk focused (totally off the cuff) on not limiting the size of your dreams but on becoming passionate about something, making it the focus of your thoughts and dreams and doing whatever it takes to make those dreams a reality.

We got out of there so late last evening that the team came home to bed at 10:30PM without taking supper or feeling the need.

Today we each did a vocational day in Guder with me visiting two small private hospitals, regina going to the Engineering College, Chris an aquaculture farm where shrimp is grown, Rebecca seeing another C.N. Television news station and Megan watching "Don", a Tallywood Action flick which she tells us was very violent and bloody but in which the dancing was good.

I am about to take my first mid day nap of the trip as I feel quite in need of one and we have two hours prior to our next set of visiting Rotary Projects and then presentation to the Guder main Club this evening.

Last evening at the close of day, I bathed and readied myself for bed. As I was slipping my nightgown over my head, I realized I was not alone, A small gecko, about 4" long with lovely black eyes was in the folds of the gown. I don't know which was the more surprised party: Gecko or me! Anyway, as a result of its presence, there seemed to be fewer bites when I woke this morning than usual and for that I am grateful.

Yesterday at 5:30 in the afternoon we heard music and drums and the hostess in my home fetched me to watch the parade of the gods. It seems when signs are auspicious, certain gods are taken from their temples , garlanded, draped and carried on raised dias' by large groups of men throughout the streets of the village. These gods are preceeded by drummers and sax players and the procession is quite reminiscent of something one might see in the French Quarter or New Orleans. The procession stops at each home where a food offering is presented, the food is offered to the god and if the god is pleased (I never saw displeasure) some of the fire of the god is placed on the metal plate on which the food was offered and taken into the home where the family pulls the smoke over their head and face then the fire is taken to the pooja room to rest until the embers cool.

Today is India's Republic Day, a celebration of Independence from Britian. We were told it has been 60 years but I am seeing media reports that place it at 59. Either way, we attended one celebration after another all day commemorating this freedom. We started out the day at a school where it was a holiday but all of the children presented their science fair projects. This school has children from age three to age 15 and even the three year olds had poster boards of birds with different types of beaks and why each is shaped differently. All had memorized a 1-2 minute explanation of their project in English even though most of the younger children could not even understand, "What is your name?" There were Christmas trees with cotton snow and pictures of mary and Baby Jesus on them and a model (in the third grade) of a Baptist mission and the student recited a two minute biography of Jesus. Some projects depicted the components of a healthy diet, others talked of fair trade practices (all of this at age 8 and younger).

Chris and Regina were taken upstairs to the 9th and 10th standard (our Junior/senior equivalent) where they were treated to various chemistry experiments that had the two coughing sulferic acid fumes and having to leave and evacuate rooms where experiments had not gone quite as planned..We were then treated to a 45 minute movie of highlights of the school's past year while we ate lunch then one of the top level students in her last year there came in in classical dance costume and performed a 10 minute classical dance depicting the emotions of caution, fear, anger, anziety, happiness, joy, expectancy. Quite well done.

We were also taken to the Police parade grounds where several different dance and martial arts schools did demonstrations. The first place prize was taken by the school for defectives. Thse are children and young adults who are deaf, blind, unable to speak or retarded. Their rhythms were clearly not as tight as the other troupes but they had spirit and beaming smiles and creative costumes and that netted them top place in the competition. We are now in an hour long rest period prior to getting in cars again and heading for Guder for three nights. We need to be there by 6:30PM for Republic Day ceremonies at a large school there followed by dinner.

I have not mentioned this before but we have been seeing swastikas on trucks and busses and painted on sides of temples off and on since we arrived here. They are a Hindu symbol for peace and prosperity and not what we have always equated them as a Nazi symbol. Things are not always as they appear here and that is a good example. In Anantapur, there were red flags drapping the medians and traffic circles throughout town and rickshaws with speakers atop them draped in red and young people in the streets in red shirts and red scarves. The communist party had a week long rally in town to recruit young workers into their ranks. Apparently there has been a presence here for years but it is not looked on as any kind of threat as it does not seem to appeal to very many people....especially now that so many jobs are coming into this area through outsourcing from International Companies to India.

Sunday in Gudar we have another Vocational Day scheduled. Monday we visit Rotary projects thought out the area and Tuesday we go to Sullerpet for the day to visit a bird sanctuary then have lunch and rest for the afternoon at the home of the Sullerpet Rotary President. At 7:30 Tuesday evening we board a train for Hyderabad and will arrive there around 6 the following morning. Our last two days will be spent there in the company of the District Governor, the GSE Chair and a few of the Rotarians we have met along the way. In less than a week we will be home

Education of Girl Children

Three days ago we went to a village a two hour drive from where we were staying to meet with another Club and find out about the projects they were involved in. The Dhvarham Rotary Club which seems to focus primarily on improving the lot of women in town, has worked with /rotary International and clubs in districts all over the world on large and small projects from school uniforms, books and supplies for one girl at $18 to push carts for women to get them out from under 90% rental fees to the owner of the carts to silk sari looks to widows to help them support their families. The North Providence Rotary Club went with the Girl's education project and is in the process of trying to get a pushcart purchased. We had the opportunity to present these uniforms, books and school supplies to 25 girls and it was powerful. these girls would ordinarily have to go to work to earn turition for brothers or boy cousins but this lot of them was saved from that by agreeing to take these gifts and get on with their education, The mothers were crying and these girls were so very appreciative. Goes to show you that even a small givt can bring about major changes in a person's life. Let me show some of these sweethearts to you...

This morning we had a breakfast of every imaginable food that could have been offered us (full Indian breakfast of Curd rice, white rice , curried rice, dall, chutney, boiled eggs, onion omlets, white bread and jam, rotis, corn flakes, chicken burgers, fried chicken, curried chicken, papaya, oranges, bananas, dates, figs, an assortment of nuts, several different kinds of sweets, pepsi....the list goes on, I just can't remember it all. We finally left at 9am for Nellore by road in two vehicles (land rover types with luggage strapped to the top and inside the back). The journey took almost 8 hours over roads that were often very good,, occasionally under construction and generally full of farm traffic as the sugar cane crop is still being harvested. No rest stops along the way as there are no public rest areas anywhere along the way. At one point two of the team felt the need so we pulled into a shady wooded area for them to tend to those needs and they had not been in the bushes for more than a few seconds when we started hearing, "Shoo, Get Away, Skat!" Monkeys everywhere!!! That was a very short rest break and we held it the remainder of the way here.

Tomorrow is another Vocational Day with Chris being taken to various Real Estate Ventures, Rebecca going to a C.N. News center, Megan off to the Cinema to see a couple of Ballywood films, Regina going to the Engineering college and Me going to the Medical school where, after touring the facility, I will have about a half hour to speak to the senior students and faculty about Multiple Sclerosis and active listening skills when working with patients. I have some materials I brought with me that will help in that presentation.

Tomorrow evening we will make our presentation to the two clubs here in Nellore after touring the Rotary Hospital and then the next day is a scheduled rest day and the Team has requested a trip to the ocean since we are only about 30Km from there and all are realizing how much they have missed the ocean being in such arid inland conditions for the past three weeks. It seems not quite as hot here but the mosquitoes are huge! And hungry! We are a whole different flavor of blood, I am convinced and they like what they are tasting. Bens's (100% DEET,,,,) they just use as seasoning.

The folks in this town are like old friends as they have been emailing me since December and my host led the GSE team to Missouri from here last April so it is still fresh and he understands so well what the team is experiencing and feeling at this point in our travels. He is also the cultural orientation person for the Team coming from this District to us in April of this year so we spent a great deal of time this evening talking about the traditions and cultures and ethnicities of the southern MA and RI communities they will be visiting.

The house pictured in the second or third post is where I am sitting typing this note to you, I am in a good sized bed chamber off a terraced roof and I do have an A/C in my room. They gave me this room three flights up for that reason rather than putting me on the ground floor in a spare room that did not have it. This house has doors and windows open day and night so the mosquitoes are free to come as they please. However in this room, they have closed windows and doors and I took the liberty of closing the bathroom windows to help keep the population down.

This trip is only a week more in the making before we head back to the States. More when I can write.
Cherie