Oh India, how I love thee.....

Despite the drama departing India, rabid monkeys and lack of beef and cheese, I am returning to birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi.

Somewhere along the way, I met fellow traveler Christine Carey. Together we started VisArts Project, a non profit organization that offers courses in visual art to communities in developing nations.

Our first project will commence next week in Dharamsala, India. We will teach photography, art, filmmaking and dance (hip hop). With generous donations of art supplies and baseball caps, we are ready to begin.

Tomorrow I am departing and getting right to work. More stories and mishaps to come. Our classroom pictures, videos and blogs will be updated on our website, www.visartsproject.org

Holi... Festival of colors

February 26th was Holi, the festival of colors. A few friends and I went down to the Tong-Len youth hostel to spend the day with the students. Just about every person we passed on the road was covered in gulal and abeer (a dyed powder in a variety of colors). As we were pulling up, dozens of children came running up to the car, ready to commence our Holi celebration.
“Happy Holi!” being shouted as little hands are coming from every direction to put handfuls of gulal on our face, neck and arms. We filled our hands and began to take revenge on the kids. As if this chaos wasn’t enough, out comes water balloons and buckets of water, causing the powder to turn into a dark blue paint. After a nice long scrubbing, most of the dye was off my skin and it was time to enjoy a feast of delicious Indian food.

Next stop.... Tong-Len

Tong-Len is a tent school in lower Dharamsala. One class we had the kids draw a map of India and pictures that show what India is to them. Some of the younger kids got a bit frustrated because they couldn't draw the outline of the country, so I decided to help out and draw it for them. (Side note: extent of my drawing skills ends at a pair of shoes on a stick figure) There were about 10 students with a map of India that pretty much looked like an eagle and one student did tell me to try again........