Career Break Central

April 15

After leaving Jaipur, we headed to Bikaner where, after a quick side-trip to visit the rat temple (ick!),

we checked into the Hotel Harasar Haveli and enjoyed a lovely sunset meal at their rooftop restaurant while watching the locals fly hundreds of kites from their roofs.

We had finally reached another milestone on our trip and were about to accomplish another of the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of our trip – we were going to meet our foster child, twelve year old Hansu, and her family in a tiny desert village 75km from Bikaner. Before our trip, I had contacted Plan Canada (formerly Foster Parents Plan) to set up the visit and we had gotten police checks and signed the necessary paperwork before leaving Canada. In actual fact, when you sponsor a child through Plan Canada, you are essentially contributing to an entire community by supporting programs which help to make the community more self-sustainable. You are assigned a child to help to put a face to the project and give you a personal connection. Regardless, we had watched Hansu grow up in pictures for the past four years while Alexa and Simon had grown up hearing stories about Hansu (especially when they wouldn’t eat their vegetables) and we were all excited to meet her.

Maneesh, the local Plan representative, came to our hotel the night we arrived to go over the details of our visit with us and answer any questions we might have. The next morning, he and the director of the local Plan office in Kolayat picked us up and escorted us to Hansu’s village in the middle of the Thar Desert. We spent the next hour and a half in the unair-conditioned Jeep, bumping over the dunes on a crude single lane road which we shared with people, bicycles, trucks and camels. It was over 45 degrees Celsius in the desert and the wind blew hot on our faces. I got a little nervous when we got a flat tire on the unforgiving road in the middle of nowhere,

but Maneesh and the driver changed the tire in fifteen minutes flat and we were on our way again.

When we arrived in Hansu’s community, we discovered that it was nothing more than a scattered collection of huts spread out over a large area. Hansu’s family compound consisted of three small mud huts surrounded by a mud fence;

their yard had been swept clean and a beautiful welcome symbol had been painted on the ground. The family was waiting to greet us with a formal welcome ceremony where we each received a tikat (red dot on the forehead) from Hansu’s older sister and Claude got a turban from her father, Ganga Ram, while I received a shawl from her mother, Jamna Devi.

All the local kids hung around eagerly, not wanting to miss a thing. Finally, we got to meet the person we had traveled so far and waited for so long to meet as Hansu shyly emerged from the back of the crowd to solemnly shake our hands and lead us into the sleeping hut.

At first, we felt a little awkward as we sat down on their beds and looked around at their tiny dwelling and meager possessions, but they quickly put us at ease as they served us tea and introduced us to Hansu’s tiny niece.

Hansu’s mother, Jamna Devi, was spirited and joyful, welcoming us into her home while Ganga Ram was more reserved and shy, sitting sternly on the bed next to Claude.

Soon, however, he seemed to bond with Claude who, looking hilarious in his enormous turban made an effort to bring him out of his shell. To break the ice between the children, who were shyly staring at each other, we brought out a bag of gifts we had brought for them and Simon quickly disappeared outside with the boys to play basketball in the yard while Alexa and Hansu played beauty parlour by brushing each other’s hair and painting their nails.

The family was all smiles as we managed to communicate with Maneesh acting as interpreter. Jamna Devi, who has been trained by Plan medical staff to be the local healthcare provider, proudly showed me her box of medical supplies which included a “pharmacy” of medicines with pictures to describe their proper uses.

Maneesh told us that there is so little rain in the region that they are only able to harvest crops once every few years. In the years when there is rain, they have to harvest enough food to last several years. For the past few years, there has been such a drought, that Hansu’s brothers have had to travel far away to find work so that they can send money to help support the family.

For lunch, Hansu’s sister-in-law prepared us a traditional meal of chapatti, goat’s milk yoghurt, and a green mixture made from spices and a type of local bean.

The kids weren’t too interested, but Claude and I were impressed by the quality and flavour of the food in such an arid environment. After lunch, we got a tour of the immaculate family compound which consisted of a sleeping hut (sleeps 10), a kitchen hut and a small stable for their goats and chickens. In the kitchen hut, Claude and I got to grind the grain used to make the flour for chapattis. Back in the sleeping hut, the women sang a spirited traditional song for us and asked us to sing a “Canadian” song for them. The only song we all knew was “O Canada,” which sounded formal and stuffy after their carefree tune. Then Ganga Ram and Jamna Devi posed solemnly for photos while the children played happily together. Before we left, Claude downloaded our photos onto the laptop and showed everyone a slideshow of our visit. Everyone gathered eagerly around the computer, laughing delightedly when they saw themselves on the screen.

Finally, it was time to go and we were truly sorry to go. Ganga Ram gave Claude an enormous hug and clapped him on the back like his best friend as everyone gathered around for a final group photo and many more hugs.

As we drove away from the village, I smiled to myself as I reflected on our wonderful visit. What could have been a depressing, heart-wrenching experience had turned out to be an incredibly uplifting encounter with exceptionally resourceful people who find great joy in simple pleasures. It had warmed my heart to see the family togetherness and their pride in their community. Throughout the day, I had found myself getting choked up as I watched our children play together, transcending language barriers as only children can. I felt honoured to have been allowed a glimpse into their lives, so different from our own, yet demonstrating the universality of family values and togetherness. It reinforced for me the growing realization that happiness is not linked to material possessions, but to a feeling of togetherness, belonging and purpose. I was proud that our family was able to contribute in some small way to help make their lives a little easier. Somehow, though, I felt that it was we who had been on the receiving end that day.

I can’t say enough about Maneesh and his team who made our visit possible and went out of their way to ensure that we had a wonderful experience. It was also amazing to see firsthand the projects they have put in place to ensure that the communities have clean water, medical care and education and know that our money is being put to good use. If you are interested in helping a community in India, or any part of the developing world, you can get information on the Plan Canada website.

To see the rest of the photos from our visit with Hansu and her family, go to our Hansu's Visit

“>web album.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 12:55 pm and is filed under India, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.