Tentative India Plans

Haiti is 110% on my mind right now that it is hard to post about anything else, but I want to write out my tentative plans for my next humanitarian trip to... INDIA! Absolutely nothing is set in stone yet; I am still waiting to hear back from a bunch of people and then hopefully I can go ahead and book flights. But so far, this is what I am thinking...

I want to be in India for a month. I will fly into Hyderabad probably around the 1st of May. I graduate University at the end of April and that just seems like the best time. I will get picked up from the airport by someone of Sarah's Covenant Homes and drive about 7 hours to Ongole, where I will stay for probably around 3 weeks, or a little more. SCH is run by Sarah Rebbavarapu, an American now living in India with her Indian husband James and their three girls. SCH houses 83 children with special needs. I am already in love with many of these kids, as I have been reading Sarah's blog (which Blogs for a Cause designed!) for almost 2 years now. Just look at Cassia and Aloe, pictured below. I am going to be in heaven loving on these kids, I melt just looking at the photos! :) Aloe has primordial dwarfism.

I am going to be living with Theresa Hill when I am in Ongole. She is an America who lived in Africa for a few years, and is now living in India and helping Sarah. She has a great 3 bedroom apartment that I will stay in for only $100 for the month. I am definitely excited to meet her and hear about her work in India (and in Africa as well). The kids at SCH have their immediate needs cared for and are all beginning to thrive (many were malnourished when they came, or were covered in sores on their bodies from just lying in the same position all day). Basically I just want to love them; make them smile, interact with them, show them they are cared for and loved. I have only worked with kids with special needs *very* briefly in orphanages in the DR and Haiti (Mustard Seed and Casa Nazaret in the DR, and Notre Maison in Haiti), but I have never done anything long term, so I am going to look into things that I can do, techniques I can use to work with them, etc. Most of the kids have cerebral palsy.

While I am in Ongole for three weeks, I hope to learn more about some of the development centers that Sarah's husband, James, works with, and visit some of the schools in the area. Education is my passion and I have a feeling that at some point in my life, I will be working in education in a developing country (right now my thoughts are that I would love to run a Community/Development Center that focuses on education- getting kids throgh public school, high school, and then college... but I have lots of time to think about that!) Right now I just want to use this as a learning experience and hope to visit a few ngo's and schools to see what works, what doesn't, what is needed, etc. I know in India one of the main problems is child labour, and kids, especially girls, drop out of school very early to work. Sarah posted about this on her blog in a post entitled Wanna Meet A Child Laborer?

After that, I am going to fly to New Delhi, the capital, where I will stay for a few days. I want to do some sightseeing, and go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I have not worked the details out for this part of the trip yet. As of now, I am going to be travelling alone, which makes me a little nervous. Some people I have talked to have said to find a tour company to do this part with, others have said to be adventurous and try it on my own, and others have said to just convince a friend from Canada to come along with me!! I am not sure yet how this will work out, but I am emailing around and trying to make it happen. Delhi is very busy, lots of beggars, cows walking through the streets, etc. I really don't want to miss it. I would love to see Calcutta and Mumbai as well, but it doesn't look like that will happen. Now after THAT part of the trip, I *might* be done and fly home from Delhi back to Canada. Or... I am toying around with possibly going to either China or Nepal for 2 weeks, so we will see. My friend Shannon might be able to meet me in China. If that doesn't work, I will look for a tour/volunteer company (possibly International Volunteer HQ, although the options for Nepal seem limited) and do that for 2 weeks. Still not sure about this part though and will have to see if I will have the $$ to make this happen. So, so far those are my plans! I am looking around to see if anyone would be interested in travelling with me as it would be great to have a 'travel buddy' but am prepared for that not to happen, so am planning to go on my own as that is more likely! Should be booking my flights soon...

One Tiny Starfish

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

My Dreams

Hi everyone! My name is Nikki Cochrane and I am just finishing up my final year of University at McMaster in Hamilton, Ontario, where I am studying cultural anthropology. My main passion in life is humanitarian work, and this blog is going to be for me to write about my travels. In the past, I have been to the DR four times, Haiti once, and Ethiopia once, working on various different projects including; helping in orphanages (including an orphanage for children who are HIV+), helping in a hospital for children very sick with malnutrition, building schools, building houses, teaching english, running extracurricular programs, helping in clinics, and working with disabled children, among many other things.

Eventually, I hope for this blog to be a place where people can come to learn about humanitarian work and what YOU can do to help. So keep checking back for interviews with missionaries, resources to help prepare you for trips, and ways that you can educate yourself on world issues.