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| From Kenya Album 2007 |
Introducing the SCAW 2007 Kenya Travelling Team.
(Left to Right) Back Row: Veri Presswood, Sue Orr, Sarah Axelson, Brenda Oliver. Front Row: Duncan Macgregor (Team Leader), Don Potter.
Friday, 2 March 2007
Kenya: The Travelling Team
Introducing the SCAW 2007 Kenya Travelling Team.
(Left to Right) Back Row: Veri Presswood, Sue Orr, Sarah Axelson, Brenda Oliver. Front Row: Duncan Macgregor (Team Leader), Don Potter.
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Live Reports are Here
For the past several years, SCAW has posted Live Reports so travelling volunteers could share their distribution experiences with friends and family at home.The Live Reports have now been turned into blog posts and moved to this Blogger Web site: SCAW Live Reports Blog.
When you have a moment, browse the posts and try out the updated photo albums courtesy of Picasa. (You can even watch a slide show if you wish.)
All Live Reports from the past year have been moved here. Posts are in reverse chronological order. To find a particular distribution, look in the Recent Blog Posts list at left for these dates:
- Kolkata — January
- Chennai — January/February
- Mumbai — January/February
- Kenya — March
- Philippines — May
- Uganda — June
- Togo — June
- Sri Lanka — July
- Tanzania — August/September
- Honduras — September
- Bangladesh — October/November/December
If you'd like to be kept up-to-date, you can subscribe to the blog. Then you will be sent an email each time there is a new post from our travelling volunteers.
Friday, 16 February 2007
Mumbai: Final Distributions
Back in Mumbai with one day to explore, one day to do the final distribution and wrap up, and then Sunday to prepare to fly home later in the day.
Ambarnath and two days of distributions in Karjat were well organized and smooth — except for ten labels short. At our organizing meeting in Toronto before we left we sorted labels in 3 x 10 and bundled them in groups of ninety. Somehow we missed ten – but George and I, being the rookies, figured it was our error and with a quick ‘Judy-made label’ purchased ten bedkits on the spot and got our picture taken with the kids. All’s well that ends well.
An early update described this trip as exhilarating exhaustion and that stands true near the end but it has not been all work — we have had fun!
From a Mumbai “hawker” we purchased Rattlesnake Eggs which are two oblong shaped magnets that when held a couple of inches apart and thrown into the air come together with a rattling sound. (Or as George demonstrates in the picture they can be used as modified earrings.) We had great fun playing with the kids and conveniently left them behind at each distribution.
Many of these kids had never had their picture taken or seen their picture on a digital camera screen. The excited hoots, laughter, and jostling to see themselves and the “take my picture” gestures could have gone on for hours.
We graduated from “not very spicy” to “normal Indian spicy” food — and really enjoyed trying all the different foods. Thanks to Raj our Bombay Rotary coordinator.
We happened upon — as happens with travel — little unexpected snippets of life:
We made memories as would be expected from five strangers spending most waking moments together doing this kind of purposeful work.
And of course it has beens all about the kids — laughing, crying, afraid, mischievous, apprehensive, shy, and outgoing. Our hearts are full and we thank the donors for their generosity and for entrusting us to represent you and the principles of SCAW.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Ambarnath and two days of distributions in Karjat were well organized and smooth — except for ten labels short. At our organizing meeting in Toronto before we left we sorted labels in 3 x 10 and bundled them in groups of ninety. Somehow we missed ten – but George and I, being the rookies, figured it was our error and with a quick ‘Judy-made label’ purchased ten bedkits on the spot and got our picture taken with the kids. All’s well that ends well.
An early update described this trip as exhilarating exhaustion and that stands true near the end but it has not been all work — we have had fun!
From a Mumbai “hawker” we purchased Rattlesnake Eggs which are two oblong shaped magnets that when held a couple of inches apart and thrown into the air come together with a rattling sound. (Or as George demonstrates in the picture they can be used as modified earrings.) We had great fun playing with the kids and conveniently left them behind at each distribution.
Many of these kids had never had their picture taken or seen their picture on a digital camera screen. The excited hoots, laughter, and jostling to see themselves and the “take my picture” gestures could have gone on for hours.We graduated from “not very spicy” to “normal Indian spicy” food — and really enjoyed trying all the different foods. Thanks to Raj our Bombay Rotary coordinator.
We happened upon — as happens with travel — little unexpected snippets of life:
- Pickup cricket games on the beach in Dahanu with cattle as spectators. They let us try batting but a baseball swing didn’t seem to quite work.
- An early morning run as a family of wild pigs ambled by.
- Traffic to a standstill as a herd of water buffalo meandered across the road.
We made memories as would be expected from five strangers spending most waking moments together doing this kind of purposeful work.
And of course it has beens all about the kids — laughing, crying, afraid, mischievous, apprehensive, shy, and outgoing. Our hearts are full and we thank the donors for their generosity and for entrusting us to represent you and the principles of SCAW.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Thursday, 15 February 2007
Mumbai: Wada Distribution
Just like in the Willy Nelson song, we are "On the road again." Lots of driving from Dahanu to Kaylan as we distributed 435 bedkits at two sites in the Wada area.The second site was at a textile factory owned by one of the Rotary club members and situated in the middle of a brick making area.
These small brick manufacturing sites are frequent in this area and are not complex busineses: the raw material is sitting under foot, plentiful, and labour is cheap. The kilns are simply made with the newly formed bricks and a charcoal fire.
The children receiving bedkits came from villages nearby, but the kids from the brick making area — obviously very poor and living in grass huts — were looking on. What they were thinking one could only wonder.
A recurring theme from this trip: kids are kids regardless of socio-economic status as you can see from the accompanying pictures. The three little “brick” girls (At right) were having lots of fun (and me too) as we played peek-a-boo as I took their picture.We got to this site early before the kids arrived and saw them coming through the valley, some hand in hand – and then saw them as they headed off excited and chattering with bedkits on their heads.
What a sight as they headed off home!
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Monday, 12 February 2007
Mumbai: Dahanu Distribution
Four distribution days, seven sites, 1650 bedkits, many kilometers over some iffy roads, traffic the same as previously reported – and all is well.Email access is thin, our signs have not shown up but otherwise everything else is reasonably on track.
The kids are fabulous. Have you seen happier kids than those in this picture?
We have left Mumbia and are several hours north in Dahanu. This area is an agricultural area with rice, mangoes, vegetables, hay, water, buffalo, chickens, and of course lots of villages and people.
It seems everything in this region is done by hand: thrashing grain, stacking hay, hauling produce and water, butchering chickens, and washing clothes.
Little kids get to wash the dishes.
We are theorizing that India will leap from an agrarian to a high tech country in one leap.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Mumbai: Mumbai Morning
Mumbai in the pre-dawn is quieter, especially down by the water near the Gateway to India. Nice area.Barefooted women with big straw brooms are sweeping the streets. The one-legged guy with a makeshift wheelchair is washing himself in the gutter and hoping to make a few rupees shining shoes today.
Around the corner you almost step on a couple of women covered in a dirty blanket, sleeping on the pavement using the curb as a pillow. A baby cries — a small young baby. She lays naked, out from the cover of the blankets, cold in the early morning dampness. The mother sleeps.
The sliver of sun slices through the mist and smog over the Arabian Sea, slowly bringing life to this city and as it does, miles and miles of grey, black slums are illuminated.
As we drive through the city toward our distribution these slums are juxtaposed beside nice residences. At a stop sign a pretty young girl, maybe ten years old, leads an older blind man, presumably her dad, into the waiting traffic pleading with her eyes for money. A young man carries another very thin frail dying man on his back asking for the same.
One foot in front of the other must be the only way to survive another day. Didn’t give the pretty young girl or young man any money. Wish we did.
We shed some tears and get about helping one child at a time.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Mumbai: Traffic in Mumbai
Traffic in India is unlike anything in my experience, with cars, unique transport trucks, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles, cattle, dogs, water buffalo, oxen drawn carts, goats, and people all sharing the same space. Oh, did I mention constant horn blowing?There is no discernable structure or rules but rather a free-flowing, cacophonic, kaleidoscope of motion.
The horn is consistently used as a warning that the vehicle is passing another vehicle and transport trucks actually have on the back “Horn, OK. Please.”
It has been common on a four-lane divided highway for vehicles to drive the wrong way – in the passing lane – at speed! Just get out of the way – and people and animals do it without apparently thinking anything of it.
In a survey done this week of the 16 million residents of Mumbai the number one issue for all income brackets were better roads. They are bad – except for some new highways just completed and built by the private sector. These will be maintained by the contractor for anywhere from ten to twenty years and collect tolls for that period of time before it is turned back to the public sector. These roads have more frequently been built on time and on budget, which was not happening with government run projects.
Even though there is little evidence of rules of the road it seems to work OK. I suspect this is an appropriate metaphor for business and life in this very crowded region – free flowing and maneuvering around obstacles — with these roads moving a nation that is a nation on the move.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Wednesday, 7 February 2007
Mumbai: Dombivli Distribution
Today was spent at Dombivli a city of 1.5 million with many manufacturing plants that were apparent as we drove to the distribution site.As usual several schools were represented including a girl orphanage and a school for mentally challenged children. Parents — if alive — primarily worked in manufacturing jobs, drove auto-rickshaws, or were domestics.
Kids and parents can show several types of emotions at these events and pictures show it best — and celebrate the buoyancy of the human spirit.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Monday, 5 February 2007
Mumbai: Distributions 6 & 7
Distribution days six and seven have been completed at three sites: Panvel, Navi Mumbai, and Thane — all within a two-hour drive of where we are staying in Mumbai.
The drive every morning and late afternoon is through Mumbai. With sixteen million people in this sprawling maze of mankind we have no idea where Mumbai stops and we enter a new town or city.
Construction, bamboo scaffolding, dust, debris, more debris — all driving the changing picture of India as it increases services and goods supplied to the world — and much of the construction is done by hand and by the parents of the children we are seeing at our distributions. They live near the construction in cobbled-together, makeshift, anything-that-can-be-found shelters.
"Anything-that-can-be-found" may include our site distribution signs that are in the picture at left with Judy Snobelen at Thane with one of her donations to her — at the time — unborn grandson. "Baby Snobelen" Carter was born a couple of weeks before we left for India and everyone is doing fine including his grandmother.
Carter AKA "Baby Snobelen" is good news — but our missing signs are not. We suspect the box of signs was carried by one of the volunteers helping us out. It went from the van into one of the distributions unbeknownst to us.
Team leader Douglas Cunningham — we are calling him Douglas to differentiate the two Dougs on the team — in the photo at left may look a little frustrated.
Hey! Improvisation, flexibility, problem solving, patience, understanding of a different culture, different language, different needs, are required as a travelling volunteer.
Trust me: the kids don't care if there is a commercially made sign or a handmade one. What their needs are puts many things in our life into perspective.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
The drive every morning and late afternoon is through Mumbai. With sixteen million people in this sprawling maze of mankind we have no idea where Mumbai stops and we enter a new town or city.
Construction, bamboo scaffolding, dust, debris, more debris — all driving the changing picture of India as it increases services and goods supplied to the world — and much of the construction is done by hand and by the parents of the children we are seeing at our distributions. They live near the construction in cobbled-together, makeshift, anything-that-can-be-found shelters.
"Anything-that-can-be-found" may include our site distribution signs that are in the picture at left with Judy Snobelen at Thane with one of her donations to her — at the time — unborn grandson. "Baby Snobelen" Carter was born a couple of weeks before we left for India and everyone is doing fine including his grandmother.
Carter AKA "Baby Snobelen" is good news — but our missing signs are not. We suspect the box of signs was carried by one of the volunteers helping us out. It went from the van into one of the distributions unbeknownst to us.
Team leader Douglas Cunningham — we are calling him Douglas to differentiate the two Dougs on the team — in the photo at left may look a little frustrated.
Hey! Improvisation, flexibility, problem solving, patience, understanding of a different culture, different language, different needs, are required as a travelling volunteer.
Trust me: the kids don't care if there is a commercially made sign or a handmade one. What their needs are puts many things in our life into perspective.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Sunday, 4 February 2007
Mumbai: The Southern Distributions
We finished the southern swing of distributions at Kundgol, Ranebennur, and Hubli by yesterday and flew back to Mumbai today. Five sites and 2,800 bedkits have been distributed — 17 and 4,700 respectively to go.
What can we say? This is producing conflicting emotions and thoughts.
Exhilarating exhaustion is an apt description with most of us if we get five or six hours sleep not able to get back to sleep as the previous day's experiences tumble around.
We are hopeful of the caring and compassion that we are finding but pessimistic of the cycle and culture of poverty that is pervasive.
We download our pictures every evening often as we unwind with dinner. Last night all the waiters were looking over our shoulder at the pictures, asking questions about Sleeping Children and at one point one young man stated "I want to work and help you when you are here in India." People care!
A $30 bedkit is a very big deal to these kids and their family.
At Ranebennur’s 600 distribution we were down to the last few children and one little boy had lost his “ticket” received that morning at registration that ensures the right child receives the bedkit. As he was waiting off to the side waiting for his ID to be checked (he didn’t understand the process) he was crying inconsolably — obviously thinking that he was not to receive his bedkit. After some assurance, hugs and tying his shoes (these kids have never had shoes) we put him in the next group for his photo and he was one happy little guy – with his shoes off. Hey, it takes a while to break new shoes in — especially if you have never worn any before.
There was not a bedkit for the 600th kid due to an inventory mistake. He had his new clothes, backpack, and school supplies but not bedding, mat etc. and forlornly sat there with his grandmother (his parents were dead) waiting. The solution
(Good decision Douglas C.) was for the Rotary organizer to go purchase the rest of the kit as we waited with the child and his grandmother. The relief and gratitude was tangible as they received the bedding.
Kundgol was on the third day of a three-day village festival when we were there for a 250 distribution. When we were driving in we saw some body-painted people and kids. Little did we know the custom during this festival is the painted individuals cannot put any additional clothes on for the duration of the festival. We had two kids in the 250 and after special parental permission they put on their new clothes, had a picture taken and received a bedkit. Some donor is going to receive quite a picture of a painted boy.
Many of these children have never been out of their village. Can you guess what is going through their minds with so many new events in one day?
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
What can we say? This is producing conflicting emotions and thoughts.
Exhilarating exhaustion is an apt description with most of us if we get five or six hours sleep not able to get back to sleep as the previous day's experiences tumble around.
We are hopeful of the caring and compassion that we are finding but pessimistic of the cycle and culture of poverty that is pervasive.
We download our pictures every evening often as we unwind with dinner. Last night all the waiters were looking over our shoulder at the pictures, asking questions about Sleeping Children and at one point one young man stated "I want to work and help you when you are here in India." People care!
A $30 bedkit is a very big deal to these kids and their family.
At Ranebennur’s 600 distribution we were down to the last few children and one little boy had lost his “ticket” received that morning at registration that ensures the right child receives the bedkit. As he was waiting off to the side waiting for his ID to be checked (he didn’t understand the process) he was crying inconsolably — obviously thinking that he was not to receive his bedkit. After some assurance, hugs and tying his shoes (these kids have never had shoes) we put him in the next group for his photo and he was one happy little guy – with his shoes off. Hey, it takes a while to break new shoes in — especially if you have never worn any before.
There was not a bedkit for the 600th kid due to an inventory mistake. He had his new clothes, backpack, and school supplies but not bedding, mat etc. and forlornly sat there with his grandmother (his parents were dead) waiting. The solution
(Good decision Douglas C.) was for the Rotary organizer to go purchase the rest of the kit as we waited with the child and his grandmother. The relief and gratitude was tangible as they received the bedding.
Kundgol was on the third day of a three-day village festival when we were there for a 250 distribution. When we were driving in we saw some body-painted people and kids. Little did we know the custom during this festival is the painted individuals cannot put any additional clothes on for the duration of the festival. We had two kids in the 250 and after special parental permission they put on their new clothes, had a picture taken and received a bedkit. Some donor is going to receive quite a picture of a painted boy.
Many of these children have never been out of their village. Can you guess what is going through their minds with so many new events in one day?
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Thursday, 1 February 2007
Chennai: The team has arrived
The team has finally safely arrived. In spite of a planned British Airways Cabin Crews' strike (Industrial Action) and winter weather causing planes to ice up, we finally departed. There were many moments when we wondered if and when we would arrive in Chennai. Due to the impending strikes we had to depart a day earlier than planned and our team who had originally planned to travel together found themselves on four different routes. Our Rotarian hosts were phenomenal in managing to pick us up at four different times and in finding us homes to stay in as all the hotels were filled. This is the wedding season in Chennai, so there was "no room at the inn". Some stayed one night, others for two nights in homes that Rotarians graciously opened up to us after our seveteen and a half hour flights. We were so fortunate to have that extra day to rest. Tomorrow, our meeting with the Rotarians begins the distribution process as we finalize plans for the reason we have come - 5000 children and their bedkits.
Namaste from Chennai
Richard Hryniw,
for the SCAW Chennai Travelling Team
Namaste from Chennai
Richard Hryniw,
for the SCAW Chennai Travelling Team
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Mumbai: Belgaum Distribution, January 30
At right is the SCAW Mumbai 2007 travelling team with bedkit recipients. Team Members: Left to Right Kay Easun, Douglas Cunningham (Team Leader) Doug MacDougald, Judy Snobelen, George Foster. The 650 bedkit distribution in Belgaum, a city of 700,000, was primarily to children of farm labourers. The surrounding area is reasonably good farmland growing sugar cane and rice with goat and sheep herds interspersed.
All the kids were assembled when we arrived and were they ever excited as waves, cheers and excitement greeted us. Parents were gathered outside the grounds on the street and as we greeted them and shook hands. Their thanks for your bedkit donation was overwhelming.
The girls were very pretty in their colourful dresses and the boys "cool" in shorts and shirts. These children are just regular kids with typical boy and girl schoolyard interaction. As I was yakking to some of the boys and taking pictures of the girls with all their dress colours showing brilliant in the sunlight, the guys were good naturedly razzing me for taking too many pictures of the girls and not of them.
I just can’t believe how much a $30 donation means to these kids and their parents. It is heartwarming at the same time well heartbreaking.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Mumbai: Distribution is Underway
The Mumbai 2007 team of Douglas Cunningham, Kay Easun, George Foster, Judy Snobelen, and Doug MacDougald is well started on the distribution of 7,500 bedkits in west central India. We spent the first day — after arriving at our hotel at 3 AM from Toronto — checking the sample bedkit and final organizing of the individual and group labels for each of the 22 sites.We then saw some of Mumbai with a train ride through where some of the 16 million inhabitants live and ending up in the downtown area. The view from the first, second, and women-only train cars showed colour, culture, and a range of poverty that immediately spoke to why Sleeping Children Around the World is here.
Mumbai is big, crowded, and chaotic and we got lost coming back from the train station to our hotel (Doug MacD. thought it was the “other” way). Auto-rickshaws are everywhere and two of them careened through the streets of Mumbai getting us safely back to our hotel.
The first distribution was 650 bedkits in Pune at two sites. It went quite well thanks to the well experienced Pune Rotary Club and Nitin Shah.
First observations are: People working at low skill manual job make less than $1.00 per day and live in poverty that is dirty, dusty, hot and crowded.
The 650 children aged 6 to 12 prior to receiving their bedkit were subdued, cautious, and apprehensive but anticipating this unusual day in their lives. The 650 kids after receiving their bedkit were just “kids” – excited, playing, and quite comfortable with hugs, high and low fives, and smiles. The 650 children left with a little more comfort and hope than yesterday.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
Sunday, 21 January 2007
Kolkata: A Bedkit at Home
India is a diverse country: more than one billion people, fifteen official languages and countless others in 28 states and seven territories. The Kolkata bedkits are distributed in eleven distinct centres.As each bedkit is distributed, it is common to wish to see the bedkit items in use. Following today's distibution we had the chance.
The distribution took place in Jhargam, a three-hour drive, 150 km from Kolkata. Following the distribution we were invited to visit Chandipur, a tribal village a half-hour away. This village of 130 people has no electricity, no school, and one water pump, which is in great demand during the nine months of the dry season. Despite the lack of facilities, the people took obvious pride in their community as each of their mud huts was spotless and the outside area appeared to be raked regularly with a hand straw broom.
The major problem faced by the community is so basic — no food. The elephant is their enemy. Due to the deforestation of the area, the elephant also searches for food and in doing so destroys any crops the villagers have tried to grow, as well as physically destroying some of their mud huts.
Our local partner, the Rotary Club of Dum Dum, has made an eighteen-month commitment to the village to:
provide twice monthly deliveries of rice which is the basic diet,
supervise the building of a large water hole which will collect water during the rainy season for use throughout the year (The water hole is being dug by hand!), and
assist in providing seeds for crops that the elephants do not eat.
The goal is not to make this village forever in the need of receipt of handouts but to make them self-sufficient within the eighteen-month period.
When we arrived in the community we were delighted to see bedkits: twelve of which had been distributed that morning. The bedkit delivery was obviously an event of great excitement, not only for the children who received the bedkits, but for the whole community. All members gathered to review the bedkit items, not being able to choose one item over another and feeling that each item was needed and would be used.
These villagers were welcoming to each member of our team and shared many laughs as we introduced them to a skipping rope and blowing soap bubbles. No doubt the items in the bedkit will be used by more than one person as this appeared to be a true communal village. As we left we could not help but think that each person in the community could use a bedkit. There is no doubt that more of their children will be on the SCAW distibution list for next year.
Alan Ingram
2007 SCAW Kolkata Team
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