Suzy & Tearfund in India   -   Update 31 July 2007

Hi all
Sorry that it has taken me so long to send you an update. Things in India have been crazily busy the last few months and our time has just flown by. Really can't believe that we will be home in a few weeks!

Harsha and I started the school at PB in mid June and God has really blessed that work, so thank you for all your prayers. The children are all doing really well there and not finding it too strange not being in their old schools. God has been very good and helped me so much with the teaching and preperation for lessons etc. Even in learning the Indian National Anthem (which we have to sing every morning!) It is amazing how God can use us to do anything - even if you think they are things you'll be really bad at! A 'proper' teacher from England is coming out to work in the school for a year as from September, which will be a real blessing to the school, so please pray that the school will carry on running well until then. I was meant to be preparing lessons in Maths, Science etc to carry them over until then but didnt manage to do as much as I would have liked due to being ill and then Harsha was ill so I had more teaching to do!

We have also had a lot more houseparenting to do due to PB being very short staffed, and so after our individual jobs during the day we would be doing that and it made our days crazily long... often from 6.30am to 11pm! So we have all just been exhausted - hence the illnesses! Thank you so much for all your prayers, it has been so wonderful knowing that I have your support and your prayers have certainly made a difference. God has been faithful through the difficult times as well as the good!

It was so difficult for all of us leaving PB last weekend... but its nice being able to look back and realise what an amazing 4 months we've had and all the things we have learnt. We all need this holiday... so far all of us have been ill on it except for Lucy! I think we are all just exhausted and there are so many illnesses around in monsoon. I spent last night in hospital on a drip, but am now feeling a lot better. Rachel and Lindsay are still ill and Matthew and Simon have lost their passports so all matters for prayer! Although I think (after the initial shock) Matt and Simon are quite excited that they've lost them and it also means that they get to stay out in India for longer!!

We saw the Taj Mahal earlier in the week which was just breathtaking and have also been to Delhi and jaipur. We are currently in Pushkar and will stay here until we are all better! But its the perfect place to recover.

Really looking forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks time! And being able to share with you all about India!

You are all in my thoughts and prayers
See you soon. Love Suzy

Earlier Update...

Hi All (12th May 2007)

Stepping off the aeroplane into India was like stepping into a greenhouse!! It is just so hot in Mumbai all the time! Also all the different smells took some getting used too.
The 7 of us spent the first week staying in a hostel in Mumbai, we had lots of training and also a Rupee run-around where we were given a set amount of money and had to get from one side of the city to the other - sounds easy, but it really wasn’t! But a good experience at using different modes of Indian transport!

Jess, Rachel and I left the other four behind in Mumbai after a week (they are working in 2 projects - a slum project and a life skills project) and had a 3 hours drive north to Igatpuri which is a small hill station, 2000ft above sea level. It is such a beautiful place, surrounded by lakes and mountains. It is also a lot cooler than Mumbai in the mornings and evenings, which makes it a lot more comfortable to sleep!

The project is a residential project called Purnata Bhavan (PB) (which means house of wholeness) and is for women and children infected/affected by HIV/AIDS and is run by the charity Oasis India, although many other organisations are involved. There are currently 40 children and 11 women living at PB. Many of the women are from the red light district of Mumbai, or have been thrown out of family homes because of their HIV status. The children are either orphans due to AIDS or are railway children (railway children are either sold by their parents who can’t afford to keep them, or their parents have died and so they have to live and beg on the railways). They all stay together in 3 units, where there are mixed age groups to create a family feel. At the project there is also an Education building and a medical/isolation unit.

The children are currently on their summer holidays until the 5th June - so it’s all a bit crazy at the moment! Because of the children being on holiday all three of us have been involved in the children’s summer programme. We have just finished a six day holiday club. It was 3 1/2 hours each morning and with 3 of us to 40 children was quite tiring, but good fun too.

Being a residential project it can feel a bit like a 24-7 job at times, as you never really go home from work or get your own space. So we have found that aspect a challenge at times. But we have formed great relationships with the women and children. The women were harder to make friendships with at first, partly because of the situations they have been though, but mainly because of the language barrier! We have all picked up a bit of Hindi now, and are starting lessons next week.

Prakash & Sujata (the house parents of unit 2 and the managers of PB) left last week to start a similar project in Bangalore and have left a huge void! They have worked at the project for seven years and for a lot of the children it was like loosing parents again. We moved house(units) last week into unit 2 to try and fill the gap a little. There aren't as many children in Unit 2 - seven teenage girls and two 8 year old boys and then five women, one who has a 4 year old daughter. So it has a very different feeling to our last unit, where we were with a lot of younger children. It is quite a challenge being friends with the girls and then trying to have a certain amount of authority as well!

PB is starting a school when the summer holidays are over for some of the children that are very behind with their studies because they have had so much time off due to illness. Also the children are very prone to skin infections from the HIV and so the teachers separate them from the rest of the class, so school is sometimes not a very positive environment for them to be in. They have asked me to go on a six day teacher training course in Thane in a couple of weeks time with the teacher who is currently employed by the project. This is going to be a huge challenge for me, as I have no experience of teaching in a school - let alone starting a school!! But have every confidence that God will equip us both.

I have also been doing quite a lot of admin for them and have been spending time with the women in the VT(vocational training) centre where they are taught embroidery, sari work & tailoring. So that when they leave PB they have a trade to go back to the city with and don’t have to go back to the red light district.

God is very much the centre of this project, unit bible studies and prayer times are an important part of the day. It is really wonderful to see how God has helped and is helping many of the women and children through such difficult circumstances that they have gone through. It is a really happy place to be, which is very different from what I expected as so many of the children and women are very ill.

Prayer points:
Teacher training - get along well with Harsha (teacher) and that I will learn how to teach!
That the children will like being at the school and not miss going to school with the other children.
Strong relationships for our team (me, Rach & Jess)
Good health - we've all had Delhi Belli!!!
Strength and energy for the work.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and emails.
Suzy