Sport Day Award Ceremony

My friend Shukla invited me to be the chief guest to give out the winning medals. I was impressed by the children's athletic ability especially watching them run without shoes! The girls were really fast and I learned that Shukla took in 42 orphans from the north of India. These kids look half Chinese half Indian and they board full time at one of the four schools. I really want to help these kids to eat better and have the proper sports equipment so they can develop into better athletes. I feel they don't have a fighting chance if I don't help.

Parikrma School Sports Day

Brooke's welcome dinner

We held a welcome dinner and invited the Elfrinks, the Ingrams, the Khurana's, the Appanas, the Scrivners, the Varma's and the Puri's from across the street. Beverly cooked up a storm and the kids all played in the playroom while we get to know Brooke better. We all made her feel welcome and Patty invited Brooke to a special Valetines Lady's luncheon while Suman agreed to go to the NGOs with Brooke. As it turned out, Ankita and Brooke are becoming best friends which made me very happy. I really want Brooke to be happy here and have friends her own age.

St Andy joins the Ingram family

The same weekend Brooke came to live with us Chandra and Aakash' dog St. Andy also arrived from california. We thought for sure our two dogs will immediately play with the new dog, but apparently dogs have characters too and they didn't click right away. We did though with Brooke and on the weekends we do everything with Brooke.

Celebrating Chinese New Year in India

We celebrated Chinese New Year at Vicky's home with the friends from the neighborhood. Mrs. Leigh made dumplings and beef and everyone dressed up in their Chinese or Chinese-inspired outfits. Mrs. Leigh also has red packets for all the children as they how to say "Gong xi fa cai". This was Brooke's second day in India and she's also welcomed in by the neighbors.

Brooke joining our family

On January 28, the day Derek left for China, Brooke came to stay with us for 4 month. Brooke is my friend Chris' niece who is studying Communications in LA. She's taking an online course this semester and is doing NGO full time at three of the NGOS I sponsor. Brooke is welcomed in as a member of our family. We sometimes have breakfast together, Beverly packs her a sandwich along with Emily's and we always have dinners together. Emily always seems to have a friend over as well so the typical dinner scene is Emily, me, Brooke and either Anisha, Vicky or Chandra. Brooke works at Parikrma School on MWF, Indira Gandhi School on T, R and on weekends we go to Ashwini together. When Indira Gandhi lets out for the summer in early April Brooke will go to Ashwini full time.

Hong Kong Disneyland 2008

I took Emily, Sofie, Isabella and grandma and grandpa to the Hong Kong Disneyland. It was not too crowded and the weather was great! We ran around the park and the kids did their favorite rides. We even watched the Stitch show. The Grandparents had never been to the HK Disneyland so they had a blast watching the kids enjoying themselves and taking photos!

xmas in VA 2008

Eiling delayed their xmas gift opening so Emily and I can experience xmas with the family. Opening up lots of presents under the tree! This year I donated my xmas tree to Ashwini after the xmas for their kids. I was delighted to leearn that they held a huge party for all the volunteers and the parents of all the children. My tree was well decorated and well used! I was sending my xmas wishes to them when we were opening up our presents. We are so lucky to have love ones ...

Beijing with BFF Daniel

This was a bonus - we had a 5 hour layover in Beijing so we met one of Emily's BFF Daniel at the Starbucks at Pinnacle Plaza. The kids had a ball catching up with each other. Keary brought us home made cookies and they were simply wonderful!

Here the kids were laughing their heads off because this dog they went to pet let out a huge fart!! They all said "Fang Go Pi" and the dog continue doing what dogs do...

Shanghai Dec 2008

We flew to Shanghai to spend xmas with Derek and Bill. I got to see Derek practicing basketball and meet some of his friends. We spent xmas eve at Bill's friend David's house. Derek also got to see his BFF Mathew who flew to Shanghai for the weekend. This was also the week Bill moved into his new apartment so we got to be the first guests there. There was a major water leak in the middle of the night. Bill flew to Japan so I ended up calling his friend in the middle of the night to call an electrician to come in to shut down electricity! What an eventful night!

Hong Kong xmas 2008

We went to Hong Kong to visit with relatives and friends. We saw the Chongs, the Yees, the Schawelsons and the Smulders and visited with great grand mother and grand parents!

Cisco charity auction - harvest of hope

We held a charity auction to raise money to feed 23000 school children for an entire year! People donated items of value and bid against each other. Reuben as the top auctioneer and Shubhra did an outstanding job as the overall emcee. Other auctioneers were: Gopal, Aravind, Syed and Sridevi. The wonderful admins monitored the bids coming in from remote locations: Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. Tom dressed as Santa so people can pose with him (for 100 rupees each!) . The day was a smashing success as we raised money and had a great time!