Had to happen sometime......

Early in December, 2007, Tonya contracted malaria from a miscreant mosquito. We took her to a couple of different medical facilities and things just didn't get better. So, I had her flown back to the US for treatment and I am glad to report that she is doing much better now. On my way back to Khunti from New Delhi, I fell asleep on the bus from Ranchi to Khunti and a miscreant (and yes, I am being nice) stole my laptop out of my bag that was on my LAP. What to do....well, in order to do any marketing and fundraising for the school, one has to have a laptop. So.....now I have yet ANOTHER laptop. No more bus rides with laptop either....so no, you don't get any pictures this time, but look for some at a later date. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and please have a safe New Year. Take care everyone and God Bless...

Gotta like our food!!!

This is how our food is cooked every day!! These ladies work SO HARD to prepare three meals a day for 1,400 students. They get to the cafeteria at 4am each day, except Sabbath. All of our meals are prepared over open fires and then taken into the cafeteria to be served. The chapatis (basically a whole wheat tortilla that is thin) are cooked six days per week. The ladies make nearly 2,000 chapatis every day and these are SO GOOD when they are warm. Our diet consists of white rice, potatoes (every day), dal (watery lentil soup), veggies (lots of pumpkin and squash) and chapatis. Tonya and I eat out of the cafeteria each day at lunch and then I take home the leftovers and heat them up for dinner. I do miss my food and we will be back in Khunti around October 31, 2007. We had a great time in the States and we really thank everyone for their time and support of Khunti School!! Hopefully soon, I will post a photo of the new generator that we were able to fund while in the States!!!

Laundry day at the school

Each week, every student is required to do their OWN laundry. Yes, parents...children CAN do their own laundry!! Every student has one hour of work built into their schedule each day except Sabbath. Most weeks, there is not enough water coming from the taps for the entire campus to be served with water, so students (and staff) have to either save water in buckets (which we do from Thursday night until Sunday) or get water from an open well and then do their clothes in a bucket. We do our laundry out of a bucket like everyone else, rinse it out and then hang it on the line to dry. With no dryer, you really hope for a lot of sun during the monsoon season.!!

Students at Khunti SDA School

Here is a look at some of our students at Khunti SDA School!! Khunti SDA School is a K-12 school and there are about 1,400 students that attend the school. Of these students, about 800 are boarding students. We have a significant orphan population that live full-time at the school and attend class. Khunti SDA School is a large, but very poor school. There is no lighting in the classrooms and students often have to fetch water from an open well for hygiene and laundry. Although there is playtime built in to their day, the real focus is on education, as education is the real way out of poverty.

Life in India...

Is hard. Over 80% of all Indians live on less than $2.00 per day. With this level of income, most people are living below the poverty line. Indians do whatever it takes to provide for their families survival. From what we have seen, there is little in the way of public assistance. If you don't work, odds are you aren't going to eat. Unemployment is very high, even with the surging economy. With over one billion people in the country, people work where they can whether it is selling leechies, pedaling a bicycle rickshaw or loading a bus.

Lira has no loss of attention from students!

Yes, we DID take our "girls" with us from Roorkee to Khunti!! We wouldn't know what to do without our girls! Lira, our big girl, loves everyone and everyplace is a new party for her! Delilah, on the other hand, has HAD IT with being the "star of India" and is just content to stay home with mom and dad and she isn't real keen on students anymore. She likes to be "homeland security" at the house we have and she leaves the socializing to Lira now. Both of our girls are in India and we miss them!

Going to church on Sabbath..

Tonya and I are dressed and ready to go to our little school campus church. This is our front lawn that we share with the School Principal, Mr. J. Kurju. We live in a very remote area that has a lot of jungle and farmland surrounding the school. Our tiny home (we call it the 3 closet, 1 bath place) is next to the orchard that is behind us in the pic. We have no fridge, no washer/dryer (we wash clothes out of a bucket), no dishwasher (bucket thing again) and no a/c or t.v. We love where we are staying and we are very happy that we are living just like everyone else!!

We have moved!!

Well, our time in Roorkee has come to an end. We enjoyed our stay and were able to accomplish what we had set out to do at the school, but it was time to move on. We are now at the SDA Secondary School in Khunti, India in the state of Jharkhand that is about 60 kms west of Calcutta. Tonya is still teaching English to children on the campus and Al is now the Librarian of the school. We are located in the hills above Ranchi in a remote jungle area that is very poor and with a high unemployment rate. Above is a picture of the front of the school and we will be adding pics as we go along. We can still be reached at Neeper2@aol.com, but be patient as we have to go 35 kms into Ranchi for Internet use.