PROJECT WHAT? (has happened)

Sadly Emily and I are coming to the end of our second visit at Project Why in Delhi, India. Things have noticeably changed in the two years since we have been away, and its all good.

We first noticed the difference in the special needs class. Particularly in Muna. He was always a joy but he is now on a whole different level!  His level of communication has improved and his ability to learn and retain new things is finely reflected in his captivating recital of 10 little monkeys.  We brought with us some books that have CDs that go with them and these have gone down a treat with Shamika's class.  They have moved from the basement room to a third floor flat and everyone seems to be thriving up there.  We think it must be the only special needs class in the world to be up so many flights of stairs! The staff are bursting with energy and firing up the kids.  It's a delight!

The Women's Centre just seemed to have more people and all of them are doing great work. In a recent project the kids reflected on their feelings about Project Why.  Some spoke about it being a home and the fellow pupils and staff as a family, they love that they have clean toilets and access to safe drinking water.  Project Why is a passionate  advocate that ensures the local kids get access to proper government funded education.  After hearing horror stories from the Project Why kids of how their schools were not providing even the basics (like toilets) along with descriptions about verbal and repeated physical abuse on the children - Project Why took action!  As a result the schools were taken to court and the ruling is now having a positive effect on many government schools in Delhi as they are being forced to make improvements.  

We have just finished our first day at the Okhla centre. We are so pleased to see the pale blue and candy pink building we loved so much on our last visit but to be very honest we were not looking forward to the fact that it didn't have a toilet.  Last time we braved the slum communal toilet facilities but it definitely wasn't a kodak moment. But hey what you know - they have built their own little piece of toilet cubical heaven!  In addition they now have two wonderful air coolers and a set of fine plastic plates for lunch that would look great in a Peter Jones hamper!  What a makeover!  Also there has been a few staff changes and the team is clearly focused, with a mission to teach and smile while doing it.

At all the centres the kids' English has really improved and that goes for the teachers too!

We will bring this blog to a close answering a question we get asked a lot. Do the kids remember us from last time? The answer is yes. Some remember the bubbles some remember the games others remember Alan's beard.  Project Why makes a massive impact on the kids it serves.  They make countless happy memories here.  They feel safe and are enjoying learning. 

How many of us went on to pursue a certain something because a teacher, who we loved, once ignited a spark in us?  We hope that all the staff at Project Why know that the work they do every single day makes a difference.  Sometimes when you are busy it is easy to forget what a positive impact you make and what an amazing thing you are part of.

To all the staff at the project - Anou and her family, Rani, the teachers, cooks, transportation guys, those who keep the place looking lovely ... there are so many local people that are part of this project - they are all wonderful!  

Project Why: They are back..... (A Blog Post from the founder of Project Why - the wonderful Anou)

Project Why: They are back.....: They are back! Wonder who? The Worman's!  They are back their prodigious smiles that never seem to need time off and can lift the worse c...

Day One back at the Why

Very excited to have arrived back in New Delhi at 2.30 in the morning yesterday.  After about an hours wait at customs they let us in.  Even our half awake state we managed to get a taxi without taking any lives.  The best part was being about to remember the way and direct the taxi driver to Chirag Enclave.  It was after 4am when we arrived at the gate to the house.  It was a great surprise when Anou raced up to the gate to let us in.  We should have remembered that she gets up VERY early to make use of the quiet hours to update her blog and to connect with sponsors around the world that help keep Project Why alive.

Then .... we slept .... and slept ... and slept ...

We did try and wake up, we did.  It just didn't work.  Finally we dragged ourselves out of bed and had a (what we like to call) an Indian shower at about midday!  Everyone else had already left for the Project ... opps.  So we made good use of our time and went shopping!

If you donated money - THANK YOU - we managed to give Project Why a cheque for one thousand English Pounds!  With the money we also got some Big Books (we'll show you them in action in a future blog post) and lots of people gave us resources that we have with us to use.  Today we added to all this goodness by buying all this at a local shop.  Check out the photo below and then guess how much it cost ...

What ya reckon?

The whole lot set us back around NZ $30 (UK £15).  Things like this are so much cheaper here.  For the consumer it looks like a good thing but unfortunately we're guessing products are so cheap as labour is even cheaper to buy.

Super looking forward to our first day back at Project Why tomorrow.  We'll be spending time with the Special Education class and Alan is especially looking forward to getting reunited with Munna.

We'll be posting updates on facebook and you can subscribe to our blog by signing up (click here) to receive posts via email.

Our $2.25 Challenge is OVER!!!

It is very exciting!  We might start off with just a cup of tea and a biscuit :)

Our week has been really interesting.  Even before the challenge kicked off it was pretty exciting as we got in the Manukau Courier.

But then reality set in ...

This was our daily 50gram portion of pasta

And this is how we usually ate it for dinner - with half a can of beans 

Dry toast and hot water served as a much needed snack

But we reckon it's pretty much midnight now!  So we are off to EAT!!! 

Thank you to Mum, Glenn, Rachelle, Bec, Kirsten, Janelle, Dani, Margaret and Roberta who sponsored our team!  You guys rock.  It's not too late if you wish to donate.  Just click this link.

We didn't think we would raise this much so THANK YOU.  We are also super happy about all the countless conversations we've had with people about the 1.4 BILLION people around the world that live below the poverty line.  

There is enough for everyone - the question is - how do we share?

All our food for the week...

As you can see it's not a very exciting diet!  This photo was taken on Sunday when we completed our shopping.  Not in this photo is stuff we haven't got yet.  Another loaf of bread and another can of ... something.

Alan reckons the beans just keep getting tastier (really?) Emily couldn't even face beans on her potato for lunch today so had it with ... nothing.

We haven't eaten the onion yet.  We are saving that for an extra special treat.  ARGH.

Some people do the challenge using stuff from their cupboard and working out how much it would cost.  So, for example a pinch of salt, a cup of flour and they work out how much that would cost. However, we decided to go hard core and not use anything from our cupboards.

We reckon if you were living in extreme poverty you wouldn't be able to buy in bulk.  We know that in New Delhi the families of the rickshaw drivers wait at home until evening.  The father comes home and hands over what he has earned that day.  Only then can they go out and buy what they need for dinner that night.

Mum has got a lovely lemon tree outside and some veges growing.  However, the chances of owning productive land and having the resources to grow stuff when you are in extreme poverty as also low.

Yes, its pretty depressing but this challenge has started so many conversations.  To find out more check out https://www.livebelowtheline.com/nz

Living Below the Line

Hi Everyone

Long time no write.  But we do have something to tell you about.  We are on day two of our 'living below the line' challenge.  We are living on ....

JUST $2.25 per day!!!!!!

Check out the video which inspired us to take up the challenge...

So ...  Day 1

Breakfast : 1 Sausage, 1 piece of bread, an egg
Lunch: medium sized potato, half a can of beans
Dinner: 50 grams (weigh of pasta uncooked) and half a can of beans
Snacks: 3 bits of bread each - which we have been toasting ...

Alan has also been snacking on carrots but Emily can't face it ... yet.

Day 2:

...  oh, the same as day one ...

It's all very boring and we have been a little hungry but not too much.  Thank goodness Mum found a pack of 12 sausages for five bucks!  It's good to start the day with a reasonable breakfast.

The things we have found so far are ...

- when you are living below the line food is boring.  There is no joy here.
- when you are living below the line you fight a lot!  It's very stressful shopping and deciding what to spend your money on.
- when you are living below the line you really miss your morning coffee.

But it has started lots of conversations.  We are determine to live the week out and thank you to those who have sponsored us.

Hello World!

We have been kiwis for nearly ten months!  Time in NZ definitely moves at a slower pace.  So it’s a massive surprise to us that we have achieved ….

Living with Mum for this long…

Sounds nasty doesn’t it?  But all three of us were a little nervous about it!  However, it rocks.  Naomi is super shopper, menu designer and weekend crock pot cook.  Emily is bathroom cleaner, bin lady and left over cuisine specialist.  Alan is wheelie bin manipulator, master chef wannabe and good at lifting things guy.  Washing up is sorted out by a short straw or wrestling.

Alan has been assimilating…He is now officially a member of the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians (even has a cool little badge to prove it).  Taking up fishing off the old Mangere Bridge with some yummy success.  Luckily even NZ has steam trains (big and small) to keep him interested and he also got himself a membership to MOTAT.  Earning his pocket money by busking down Queen Street has been fun and he is loving the focus on food here – he will always accept an offer to a shared lunch.

Emily has mainly been church hijacking & studying

Its has been great to hang out with our kiwi family and sister blister!  And we've also gained a couple of church families too.

MCC Auckland is a little congregation with a big heart.  Mum goes to Otahuhu Methodist and we go to Papakura Crossroads Methodist in the morning and then we all go to MCC in the evening.  We call it double dipping…

Doug the MCC Pastor is fab and is a bus driver by day (if he is working on Sunday nights he gives us a ‘toot toot’ as he goes past the service in his bus!)  They have also supported Emily as she and Alan both realised on camino that she should give theological studies another go.  So now, thanks to cross-credits,  she is already nearly half way through the papers she needs for her theology degree from Otago Uni (distance learning). 

Crossroads is awesome too.  It’s a bigger church and Emily’s old mate Michelle is involved with the youth.  Alan accepted the challenge so we are now helping out with a homework study group on Tuesday nights and are starting up a Friday night hang out zone in a couple of weeks with a big launch party.

Our main baby though has been Science in a Van. 

Things are going well and we have decided that we need to give it another year to see if it can fully support us.  Check out the map which shows all the schools that we will have visited by the end of 2011.  Not bad considering Science in a Van was dreamt up just before Christmas!

Mum is still chief sponsor and is VERY generous with her rent demands.  However, we have been doing other bits and bobs to keep us ticking over.

Mystery Shopping - free burgers, mechanical checks and we now know all about home medical alarms)

Bollywood Promoters (this is sooo fun.  Not only do we get to go to Bollywood movies for free we also make lots of friends when we go out and put up posters – we’re talking a lot of free samosas … yum)

Casual security work (you may not believe this but we have looked after the All Blacks, helped the Australian Rugby team off their bus and ushered around way too many over excited teenage girls at an Owl City concert)

Extra work .. literally – not extra work … work as extras (We reckon Alan will get bonus points for his NZ Visa due to his speaking part of Shortland Street.  “That’s quite alright” was his line and now it’s a bit of a catch phrase in the house.  He was only on for a bit but gets recognised quite a lot.  The best part was he was a science tutor – weird aye?) 

But it’s all paid off as we just purchased our flights!  We get back to London on Thursday the 8^th of December and leave again on the 9^th of February.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone we have been missing and are definitely signing up for Crisis at Christmas!