Sandipani Muni School - How We Met Brijlata

From the one primary school where the children gather for assembly, we walked with the students heading to the other school.  The younger children (kindegartners) took the "bus."

 That's right... a bull powered school bus!

As we were watching the little ones load onto the cart, we saw a small girl with her father and she was obviously having a hard time parting with him.  And in turn, he appeared very concerned about the situation as well.  I asked our "guide" (a lovely Italian woman) about the girl and her father and she told me that the girl's mother died a few weeks ago of malaria.  The father had been very ill as well and lost his job because of it.  He now had to go look for work but it was difficult because of having his small daughter at home with no mother to care for her.  Brijlata didn't have a sponsor yet, but they were taking her in hopes of finding one soon.  Today was her first day at Sandipani Muni.  My heart broke listening to this story.

I snapped a photo of Brijlata before I heard the story about her situation:

Chris took this photo of G and me walking with the Italian woman to the next school.  She was full of information, including the story of Brijlata, and I greatly appreciated the time I had with her.

I think this was the moment of "Chris, I have something to tell you, it's terribly depressing, but I think we've been given a sign..."

And if the story of Brijlata wasn't enough of a sign, our child handing her biscuits was.

I cried the entire time I watched my 6 year old daughter hand out biscuits to children who otherwise would have had no meal if it weren't for this school.

As G continued to distribute the breakfast we sponsored, Chris and I cried together.

I wanted to hug all of these children!  So cute, so innocent, and their lot in life so not fair. 

It took us about a heart beat to decide that we needed to find out more about Brijlata.  We saw her father watching through the classroom door, making sure everything was okay on her first day.  Call us crazy, or emotional, but we just felt that this was meant to be - we were meant to sponsor Brijlata.

Sandipani Muni School - About

Food for Life Vrindavan runs the Sandipani Muni School in Vrindavan.  The school provides not only an education to children living in poverty, but also 2 meals a day, school supplies, medical care, school uniform and clothing.  If it weren't for this school these children would go without meals, clothing and education.  The school is open 6 days a week.

This was the most eye opening - and heart wrenching - part of our trip.  As I write this almost a year later I still get emotional thinking about this experience.

We've made donations to Food for Life's backpack and school supply fundraising efforts in the past.  And we know people who sponsor children to attend the school.  In fact, one family here in the U.S. gave us a note and small gift to take with us to give to the girl they sponsor.  We had talked about sponsoring a child, but never followed through on it.  However, we decided that we wanted to sponsor a meal while we were there and arranged everything in advance.

There are 3 schools and we arrived first at the Primary school where the children gather for assembly.

The backpacks - consider making a donation towards the annual backpack campaign!

The children loved having their picture taken and being able to see it right away.  As soon as I started snapping photos I was mobbed by children!

Links:
Food for Life Vrindavan

It never rains in November

That's what everyone kept telling us.  "It never rains in November in Vrindavan."  But yet it did.  Non-stop.  What a mess rain creates!  Dirt roads turn to mud a few inches deep.  Animal excrement mixes into the mud.  Sewers along the road overflow.  It becomes one big muddy poopy mess.

Bare feet on marble in the rain when it's chilly isn't overly pleasant.  Below is G and Chris walking in the Temple grounds:

Rain didn't stop anyone from viewing the deities (they just didn't stand out in the open courtyard!).

The rain started the day we visited the Taj Mahal and it continued after we departed India.  The rain was very tough to take.

Indradyumna Swami Maharaja

We returned to Vrindavan from Agra (Taj Mahal) and were told that Indradyumna Swami had heard about a beautiful gopi visiting and invited us to his home to meet with him.  Such an invitation is a privilege, and honestly, we were quite honored, especially knowing that many devotees would love a private meeting with him.  Of course, we knew such an invitation was extended only because of our beautiful gopi daughter!

Indradyumna Swami's home in Vrindavan is quite lovely, very spacious and lots of gorgeous marble.  I didn't know anything about him really, except what Chris told me the night before when we attended an evening program where he gave a lecture to a packed house (or in this case, a packed courtyard).  My initial impression of Maharaja was that he was a very kind man, and the more he spoke with G the more impressed I became.

He told G he had a very special gift for her, and presented her with a necklace that his personal Radha deity wore for the past 20 years.  Chris and I were floored, as this is an unbelievably generous gift.  The necklace is absolutely beautiful and G treasures it.  

Before we left, we were allowed to visit the deities, which are on the roof, but the altar has a roof over it.  Which was good because it was pouring rain when we were there! 

 

Indradyumna Swami has a website called The Traveling Monk, where he keeps an online diary.  Each year his diary is published as a book, which he was kind enough to give G a few.  Maharaja has some very interesting things happen to him, definitely worth reading a few entries online.

The Metal Trunk

I ended my last post with a mention of our driver taking us to his relative's trunk making shop in Mathura.  Apparently a lot of visitors to India return home with these cheap metal trunks filled with souvenirs.  Chris had his heart set on buying a metal trunk, and all we had to do was mention it to our driver and he of course knew someone and could get us a good deal.

I wish I took a photo of the trunk place.  It was literally this small hole in the wall stall in a long row of small hole in the wall stalls.  The owner started pulling out all these various sized trunks.  It's quite amazing how well made these things are, especially after watching how they are made.


We settled on a size, was told 300 rupees, and our driver, being the owner's relative, bargained it down for us to 250 rupees, which is about $6.  As I've said numerous times before in this blog - I love shopping in India!

I don't have any good photos of the trunk either, but below is Chris carrying his shiny metal trunk:

 

The trunk ready to be packed with trinkets.

At the airport we had the trunk shrink wrapped before checking it on the plane.  It survived the flight quite well, there was only one minor dent in it.  Six dollars well spent!

The Taj Mahal

Vrindavan is only a 1.5 hour drive from Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located.  There was no way we would miss seeing one of the seven wonders of the world.

Our driver dropped off us in the main parking lot and we were immediately surrounded by "guides" and touts.  It was overwhelming and my mind immediately went to protecting G and my backpack.  From the parking lot it's a long walk to the Taj entrance and you can't see it at all.  Touts followed us all the way to the ticket gate.

After purchasing tickets - 750 rupees for Americans ($17 USD) - you stand in gender specific lines to be searched.  Once getting through this, and G and I reconnecting with Chris, we made our way to the main gateway (darwaza).

From this side of the gateway you still can't make out the Taj Mahal.  Then you pass through it and you are presented with this amazing sight:

The photo below is taken from the Taj Mahal looking back to the gateway.

I still can't believe I saw the Taj Mahal.  Some say they won't visit it because it's a tomb.  And yes, it is, but what an amazing tomb it is!  Far better than the catacombs at the Vatican.

Before walking up the stairs and onto the actual Taj Mahal, you wait to have someone put these cloth bags on your feet.  You can go barefoot, but it was a little chilly and raining slightly, so we opted for these lovely shoe coverings.

The detail of the marble and inlay is amazing.

The Yamuna River:

So many people asked to have their photo taken with G.  We never let her pose alone, one of us was always in the photo with her.  Eventually not only did she get annoyed with the photo op requests, but so did we.  Some people had a hard time accepting our answer of no.  

G and I couldn't resist the tourist photo.  There were soooo many people doing the same thing. 

We decided to forgo the walk back to the parking lot and instead shelled out a whopping 50 rupees ($1.10 USD) to ride a camel cart.  How many 6 year olds can say they visited the Taj Mahal and rode a camel cart while there?  For that matter, how many 30+ and 40 year old adults can say that?

Our camel cart driver (and apparently headless camel):

We were a little concerned that we wouldn't find our driver once we got back to the parking lot.  But he was actually waiting for us at the parking entrance when we pulled up on the camel cart.  Thus ended our time in Agra, and 1.5 hours later we were in Mathura with our driver at his uncle's tiny little trunk making shop...

The Mini Taj Mahal

On the way to the Taj Mahal our driver thought he was funny by telling us this was the "mini Taj Mahal."