Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all our fellow AIFers throughout India and to all our friends and family back at home! Thinking of you and wishing you a warm and happy holiday season!

YRG Care Peds Clinic

It's easy to forget the holidays are just around the corner when you live in a tropical predominantly Hindu country. No mad dash to buy presents. No Christmas cookies at work. No drives through the neighborhood to look at lights and decorations. Don't get me wrong though, Christmas does exist in India, just in different ways. There are random Xmas trees at gas stations and in 5 star hotels and pictures of Santa hanging in restaurants alongside adverts for Xmas dinners. But it doesn't really feel like the holidays. Besides a few Xmas tunes from my iPod, the season could almost pass without notice...but one event last weekend reminded me of the true spirit of Christmas--at least the one I prefer to associate with Christmas.



A fellow non-AIF fellow in Chennai works for Y.R.G. Care, an HIV/AIDS clinic and research center. She invited us to visit the pediatric clinic (once in three months). YES, a clinic for children with HIV. Families travel from all over South India for check-ups and medications spending what little money they have on travel, food and staying over in Chennai to help their kids. During the Christmas season YRG Care turns this day of doctors visits, tests and waiting into a Christmas carnival full of dancing, singing, games, popcorn and cotton candy, and even a visit by Santa Claus.


As new visitors (and prospective volunteers) to this clinic, we were unsure what our role could or should be. They seemed to have plenty of people managing all the activities and the kids were happily entertaining everyone with their singing and dancing. We are hopeful that next time around we can be more active participants now that we have made contact with the organizers.
I would guess that most, if not all, of the students are non-Christians, however Santa Claus was there and all the kids were thrilled to dance on stage with Jolly Saint Nick (who was actually a Jolly Saint Nicole!).

This is the true spirit of Christmas: family and friends, fun and togetherness!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday Praveen!!! Hope you're feeling 100% soon! Sorry you couldn't enjoy all the yummy tasty food last night--we'll go again in the New Year!

An MA Graduate...at last!

I started my MA program in April 2006 and after 2.5 years of combined distance and on-campus study, I apparently graduated sometime this week in abstenia. I've completed my first MA! Yes...there might just be one more!

Instead of spending money I don't have for a lot of pomp and circumstance in the UK, my wonderful roommate organized a dinner with our lovely Chennai friends and even ordered a special chocolate cake! The food was also fabulous--appetizers with real mozzarella and fresh basil, salads with more mozzarella, two cheesy delicious pizzas, and four different pasta dishes with not even a hint of Indian spice! Thanks to everyone for coming and making this a memorable celebration!


Next up: Planning my celebratory MA graduation trip to Vietnam with my dad, updating and writing a new resume, looking for jobs for fall 2009 and researching the next MA program!

A Day in the Life of...

I haven't written much if anything about my work here--and I promise to post more work and project-related posts here in the future. However, I have just posted A Day in the Life of... an AIF Service Corps Fellow and information about my work at AID India and specific projects on the AIF Service Corps Fellowship Blog. Instead of re-posting it here just follow the links above if you're interested!

Another update

My roommate and I went to this crazy Western Dance Competition last night with our landlord's son. But I'm too lazy to write....check this out SHOCK 2008.

Recent Events

Haven't been in much of a mood to blog these days...but a long one is on its' way. I might even mention exactly why I'm back in India and what I'm doing here. Seems all I blog about is my extracurricular activities, more on my work coming soon. But for now, this is what I've been up to:

Cooking: Making pancakes, crepes, bread, apple pie like treats and other goodies! It's fun to be in the kitchen and cooking again. I've missed it this last year! I just wish we had an oven...what I would give for an oven!

Went to a concert with Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Shivamani, U.Srinivas and Selva Ganesh--some of the best musicians in India! It was extraordinary! Sadly, it was only a 2 hour concert, I could have sat and listend for days.