"Hope rises in love."

Practicing while in bed with a fever!

 If you've been wondering why I have not been able to update you on the state and location of the chlorine generator, well... I was dying! Okay not really but almost really. I reached Udaipur on a Thursday afternoon and from that night until Sunday I had a fever that prevented me from leaving bed for more than a couple hours. It was miserable! I had come to Udaipur to finally install the M100 chlorine generator into a school that didn't have clean drinking water, and the very first day I fell ill. It was hard to handle, especially knowing I had a limited amount of time to install and teach it before returning to Kolkata. However, I know SO SO many of you were praying for me and the support from back home was tremendous. Dr. and Madhu Sareen took extremely good care of me though and with medicine and sleep, I was fine by Monday morning.

What the girls were
drinking out of

So then, the water project... I am happy to say that everything went well during installation. It was decided that instead of installing at the bigger school with a thousand plus girls (who already had one filter), I would be at a school of 400 that had no (I repeat ZERO) source of clean water. In fact, the faucets they were drinking out of were dirty and unkept. It was that much more important then for the M100 to be installed here instead of the bigger school. I was able to talk to my friends at Waterstep a couple of days before to work out some key points in my teaching and have a refresher course on the system. (Shout out to Natalie Hymer and Nathan Rider! You guys are life savers!) I stared out teaching 20 girls from grades 9th and 10th. This way, the girls would be responsible for their own clean water, which not only teaches accountability but also allows for empowerment of young girls. Pretty cool if you ask me. So with what started with a group of 20 girls, ended up being
about 45 girls crammed around me watching us build the system. My translator's name was Sandhya Bhatt and she was so amazing in how she translated everything I said, word for word. Additionally she was someone the girls respected greatly, which was shown by how they hung on her every word.

My aim was to make the girls excited about having a way to get clean drinking water. If they were excited, then they would work hard to make it happen every day. I knew the system would require a little bit of daily maintenance, so it was that much more important to make the girls understand they were capable of running the system themselves. Training took a long time. I arrived around 10:30 and stayed until 4. Mostly I had the girls build the system, glue and cut the pipes, move the tanks, and do all the small things that gave them a better understanding how simple the system was to build and therefore easy to fix.

The M100 pumps chlorine gas into the tanks, which kills virtually everything inside. Because of this, there must be a waiting period until enough chlorine gas leaves the water to make it safe to drink. The teachers and I agreed the easiest way to operate this would be to chlorinate the tanks each afternoon before the girls leave for the day,  then by the next morning, they would be ready as soon as the girls got to school.

The coolest part was the next day, when Sandhya and I took the first drinks of clean water, followed by my team of girls. I guess I've read about this and trained about this for so long that I lost understanding that this system literally saves lives. Water is actually made CLEAN. As in
I can drink it too and be healthy. It was a really humbling and encouraging moment for me. This work was really hard and I could not have done it without the help of so many friends, sponsors, and even strangers here. I am blessed to say that will all this help, now 400 girls and their teachers have access to clean drinking water and can do it themselves. No outside help, no reliance on a foreign party, and actually no men haha. So thank you for your belief in me and in this project. Who knows what opportunities will present themselves after this? I am blessed beyond belief by what this process has taught me and the friends I have made along the way.  There is a lot more need in the schools in Udaipur, I understand. What started as one chlorine generator for one school branched out to help another. That wasn't my original idea at all and it seemed very random and unbelievable to have changed how it did. That is why I trusted it, because usually that's how God's plan works.

As for the Blind school, don't worry. I was able to give them something too. Because of one donor we were able to get all new desks and benches for the boys so they don't have to sit on the floor anymore. This less fancy but they are an essential need because they will provide a better learning environment for the boys, especially since they will have designated desk space for their books instead of the floor. I won't get to see this in completion but it has been taken up by the local Rotary club in Udiapur (thanks Madhuji) and so I know without a doubt it will be completed responsibly and efficiently so the boys will be benefited soon.

All in all, Udaipur was hard but I am so blessed to have had everything happen like it did. Thanks again everyone. I couldn't have done it all without you. I really, really mean that!

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore

I have a relative game plan now! Wahoo!

I met with the DO in charge of education for Udaipur and showed her the M100 to see if there were any schools she knew of that needed clean water  As it turns out, there is a huge school in the city that serves roughly 1,200 girls annually. They do have a filter, but it is not big enough to serve the entire student body. Therefore, her plan was for me to build the chlorine generator in that school and compare it to the filter. Suddenly, this system will go from serving 40 students to 1,200. Whoa!

Another really cool thing that happened was, I impressed the DO who wondered if we could continue a partnership for all the schools under her care in the future. I told her I
am young and don't have the resources a huge NGO would have, but I would help out if I could. Therefore, I might have the opportunity to continue serving the schools in Udaipur later in my life. The blind school is also under her care because it is a public school, so maybe I can talk with her more about specific needs they may have now that clean water isn't an issue.

I have decided to wait until the huge holiday of Dewali is over before I complete this project. For one, I need some time to regroup and contact some people about how to make this able to serve over 1,000 girls a day. Additionally, if I come back  after the holiday, I will be able to see all the boys in the blind school (which I so want to do) as well as teach the girls at the new school how to use the M100. You see, they are gone for Dewali holiday as well. The last really amazing thing was all the relationships and connections I made during this time. Ever since coming to India the idea of someday opening my own NGO will not leave my head. I can't explain it, just like I couldn't explain the need I had to come to India in the first place. When I get crazy ideas like this I can almost hear God yelling at my stubborn self to do them haha.

I spoke with my friend Samvit about NGO's in general and he shared some great wisdom about many aspects of the field. Above all, he talked about how the motives behind your work are the most important. Also, I visited the family I grew close to last summer: Jamila, Mustafa, and Alifya. I missed them so much that I'm pretty sure I tackle hugged all of them the moment I walked in the door. Also, let me take a minute to talk about my host family from last year, the Sareens. First of all everything I will say about them they wouldn't ever brag about themselves. As a couple, Madhu and Dr. Sareen do more for their community than I've ever seen anyone be willing to do. As a medical doctor, Dr. Sareen has treated probably thousands of people in his lifetime and most out of only charity. Madhu has one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen and if I could be more like her I think I'd be doing alright.
As a principal and huge philanthropist in Udaipur, her network and connections were able to get a location for my project the very next day!

All in all, my project will continue after Dewali (second week of November-ish) and until that time I will return to Kolkata to continue my work there. Never thought I'd say this with only 2 weeks away from it, but I miss my city with all the Daya Dan and New Light kiddos. So, with God's help, this story will continue later. For all those involved with this project, be expecting a call from me soon! ;)

Actual picture of me taken at 3:15 am

Oh an on a completely unrelated note, while I was in Udaipur I had the weirdest medical incident in probably my whole life! Oh India.... A mosquito bit me on the top lip while I was asleep. Yes, I realize how silly that sounds. My top lip swelled up the size of a cherry at 3 am. No joke, it was huge, I was super ugly, and it wouldn't go away!!!!!! Luckily Dr. Sareen gave me some Indian drugs and it shrunk to a reasonable size (only about an hour before I met the DO of education haha!)

"She knocked and waited, because when the door was opened from within, it had the potential to lead someplace quite different.” -Laini Taylor

Today I went to the school with to further discuss my project and how we were going to get started even with the miscommunication about my arrival. After talking for several minutes, it became clear that the goal of my project was actually taken care of already. The Rotary Club installed a huge water purifier in the school only 2 or 3 months ago. One of the teachers said he knew about my project but when the rotary club came and offered a source of clean water, it was better to go ahead and get the boys clean water sooner rather than later. I agree with this wholeheartedly. The health of the boys over the implementation of my plan is hardly a comparison. They said the M100 is a great idea, but not necessary anymore for the needs of the boys at the school. Instead I probably had resources that could help these boys in other, more essential an relevant ways. He said he will let me know what those ways are soon.

So, where does that leave me and where do I go from here? I'm not going to lie, I was pretty let down when things turned out differently than I had expected. It's hard not seeing my boys after traveling so far, and the M100 will not be for them anymore. However, I think some things happen for a reason, especially those that don't make sense. I have all this training and knowledge about water health and hygiene, purification, and sustainability. I have financial and moral support from loved ones back home. I am in a place that I know has deep need of clean water. So... what to do?

Tomorrow morning I am meeting with some people and will hopefully get a list of some rural schools that don't have access to clean drinking water. These could be normal public schools or special needs ones, but I will not know until these meeting happen.

As I've been attempting to form a new game plan, I have been thinking a lot about NGO's, cultures, and mission work involving the two. When people want to give money, it is easy to make charity sound perfect and that everything works according to plan. The children will always remember the foreigners who came and helped, the people of the community will be overly grateful and understand your efforts, and most things will be organized and run accordingly to plan. I think sometimes, yes, this scenario becomes a reality. However, when one deals projects like this in other countries and communities, there must be an understanding that things could go completely wrong. Perfection is NOT important. You will not have a fluffy feel-good story sometimes. Things will annoy you. Upset you. Disappoint you. But perfection is not the reason anyone does charity, is it?

As my friend Tim told me, you can have the best intentions in the world but if you can't face disappointment or failure: nothing will be achieved. I think that is a misconception some people have about mission work. When things go differently, it's not that your work is a failure. If at this time you were to give up, then yes, it would be a great failure indeed! However, getting past the change and deciding to take up something different than what you originally intended, then that can lead to benefiting people and improving lives.

I have good intentions. I have the ability. And I'm not planning on giving up. We will see what tomorrow brings. In the meantime, keep me in your thoughts and prayers. A door has to open somewhere right? 

"And so we go..." -D.J. Machale

So a quick update: I am now in Udaipur after spending a wonderful week with my father in Delhi. I am so happy to be back here where my love for India first started. Tomorrow I go to the school to check things out. Sadly, there was a miscommunication and today actually started a two week holiday for the boys at the school. Therefore, most are gone back to their homes and I will not be able to see them on this trip.

Hema, the girl who works in the Sareen's house.
She's pretty great.... And she's gotten so tall!!!

Despite this, tomorrow I am excited to go and buy the equipment for the M100 chlorine generator and figure out the logistics of this thing! I am so grateful to the people who have helped me along the way and I am truly blessed to finally be here. I am staying with my host family that I spent a month with with last summer. They are wonderful, wonderful people who are connected to the blind school. My host mom, is even wiling to help me during this the water treatment project. She is definitely a go-getter and I am so lucky to have her help. So, keep me in your thoughts an prayers!

Let's do this thing!

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. -Mother Teresa

This is a post that is long overdue. Ever since I left my boys in Udaipur, I wanted to give back to them in some substantial way. Here is what has happened this past year:

The M100 generator can
create 10,000 gallons of clean
water a day!

One of my best friends, Natalie Hymer, is going to save the world someday. She works for an organization called Waterstep (formerly Edge Outreach) in Louisville KY. They are a Non-profit that installs water purification pumps and treatment systems ALL over the
world. Not only do they enable these communities to have access to clean water, but they also empower them by training local people how to fix the filtration systems/pumps if they break. Therefore, individuals who use the pumps and filtration systems don't have to rely on any outsider to obtain clean drinking water.

I was talking to Natalie about my trip to Udaipur and I realized that the boys didn't really have a constant source of clean water. It's not really something I thought about, but I now realize that they ran to get me water before and even though I thanked them, I couldn't drink it because I knew it was city water from the sink. I also remembered taking one of the boys to the hospital because he was vomiting. I am not saying that it was due to water-born sickness, but I wouldn't rule it out. So, when I mentioned it to Natalie, she said that Waterstep would be onboard.

Full system

The first step was to get my story out. I had a basic idea of how to do this, but I needed lots of help. I sat down with President Crouch at Georgetown College and explained what I wanted to do. On November 15th I gave the only Deborah Lecture every given by a student at the college. This is special at Georgetown because the speakers in those lectures are supposed to exhibit "great courage" or experienced something significantly special in life. However, it was not me that had such courage, but my boys Udaipur. This lecture was also important because it put me in touch with the Mukherjee family, who were invited by President Crouch.

Dr. Mukherjee and his wife welcomed me into their home and for the last semester of college I would go over and learn Hindi and eat Indian food. Not only that, but they took a

Learning how to build the system

special interest in the water project and donated enough to finalize my plans. Words can't describe how much I love that family and how grateful I am for everything they have done for me. With the money donated by both the Mukherjee family and the Deborah Lecture fund, I was able to train at Waterstep on water health and hygiene as well as purchase the M100 Chlorine generator.

The big issue was to figure out how to teach the M-100 and health and hygiene to blind

Gary Mudd and I after my tour of APH!

students. Waterstep had never taught their system to any community with disabilities before so they went above and beyond to help me with this desire for the blind school. They put me in contact with Gary Mudd and the folks at the Kentucky school for the blind and the blind printing house in Louisville. This is the largest community of blind individuals in the country. I got to train Gary Mudd (VP at the American Printing House) how to build
an M-100! Mr. Mudd is now a dear friend and his input in my water training was essential to its success because we discovered some challenges. The main problem for adapting the M100 to blind students was how to do the sight-based color chlorine test with boys who couldn't see it.

Blindfolding the Waterstep staff

It essentially is a color pool chlorine test, where the water has to turn a certain shade of yellow to show how much chlorine is in the water. Currently, we are exploring ways to allow the boys to become self sufficient in this chlorine test, and we hope it will be through the existence of talking lab technology. This technology will hopefully come over to India with my dad when I visit him in Delhi at the end of this month.

I plan on going to Udaipur at the end of the month and I am both extremely excited to see my boys and extremely nervous about how this project will go. However, I have had so much help along the way that I know I cannot fail now. As soon as I have more information on dates and the solution to the color test, I will post details. Until then <3