Mass Email - Lice, Babies & Travel

Namaste, all!

Well, life in Rishikesh is starting to feel fairly normal these days, in the sense that I feel very used to my surroundings both at Ramana's and around town. I have a pretty standard routine every day, and can now walk through pretty much any part of town and always see familiar faces, which is a very nice feeling. I have been on antibiotics for the past several days kicking a lower-intestinal bug (good times), but am on my last day of treatment and feel much better. The other volunteers and I have been working very hard during the day. The kids had exams last week and all next week, so the schedule has been a bit crazy between tests and trying to get them ready for a huge dance contest they are entering in a week or so.

One of the girls was very sick all last week, and had to be taken into the hospital and treated for a very severe case of neumonia. She had a fever of 104, and was coughing up blood, not eating or drinking, and was so weak that she wet the bed clean through the mattress because she couldnt get up. It was very frustrating, as none of the girls in her room alerted us of this, so we didnt know until the condition had gotten very bad. She just got out of the hospital on Friday, and is doing much better health wise, although mentally she is by far our toughest case.
Her name is Lalita, and she was forced into prostitution at the age of 8 or 9. Her father burned her mother to death (a very common case in India & Nepal) right in front of Lalita, and she was found by a police officer clutching the corpse of her mother before being brough to Ramana's. She is now 14, and just recently started menstruating, and we think this is causing her to have traumatic flashbacks to being raped as a child. Many of the girls have suffered a great deal of sexual assault and/or were sold into prostitution at a very young age. Therefore, when they begin menstruating it can yeild a great deal of stress and traumatic emotions for them.
In addition to this, menstruation has a very negative connotation in India and Nepal for women. Women who are menstruating are not allowed to touch or eat food, walk past temples or holy places, attend any kind of spiritual service, go into Ganga, or even sleep indoors. Surprisingly, these practices are still followed today. When girls at Ramana's are menstruating they do not go to Ganga (where we all go twice a week to bathe the kids and wash their clothes), nor do many of them eat, despite our insisting that they do so.
To help remedy this fear and shame surrounding this very important phase in these girls' lives, we decided to have a "Girls' Night" party tomorrow night for all of the older girls (and a couple who we know will start soon). All the female volunteers went out and bought cookies, soda, candies, henna and nail polish, and we are going to all meet tomorrow night after satsong for a meeting to just talk to the girls about what a positive and celebrated milestone this is for them, and answer any questions they may have about it or about sex (a VERY taboo subject in India). So many of the girls are married off by their parents as young as 13, and are expected to have sex without having ever talked about in any form. Therefore, it is used very much as a form of control and submission by men to exert their power over women. We are trying to keep this from happening to these girls, especially since so many of them already have such severe issues with men after being raped and sexually abused. And because none of these girls have parents, they will not be married off, and will therefore be free to marry out of love.

Another MAJOR problem around the compound this week has been lice. We did a head-check today and about 30 of the kids had very severe cases of lice. We, in America, are used to those puny little white, microscopic lice that are relatively painless. But these lice are INSANE! The lice here in India are actual little black crawling bugs that eat away at your scalp and leave these sores on your head, mostly around your ears and the back of your neck. We went to Ganga today and washed all of the kids with lice shampoo and had to comb them out. We took all of the boys to the barber shop to have their heads shaved, but the girls have them SO badly. I was combing them out of one girl who by far had the worst case of anyone, and we literally counted over 500 gnits combed out of her head. That's not including the ones we didnt get, or the eggs which coated every strand of her hair tenfold. It was horrible. The poor girl has to have her head shaved. Fortunately, I was checked and came out lice free (for now)!

On a lighter note, I have become incredibly close with one of the girls named Naina (pronounced like nine-uh). She's 10, and for some reason I have just fallen in love with her. Whenever she is not in school, she is by my side, and we have become very close. Today she took me to meet her brother, who lives in Devaprayug (about 3 hours away) but who was in town for a few days visiting Naina. He and his wife are having a baby any day now, so I took Naina shopping in Rishikesh to buy her some gifts for the baby and for her sister-in-law. We found some adorable little baby clothes (which Naina picked out), a nice fleece blanket for the baby, and a beautiful Sari for her sister-in-law. In total, everything came to about Rs 500 ($10 USD), which is a fortune for them, but hardly a dent in the wallet for me, so it was so great to be able to help her out. This is something that the volunteers do quite a bit. One of the volunteers, Marc, from Amsterdam, takes 3 kids a week into Rishikesh to buy them new clothes. He has been here for almost a year now, so the kids are very well-dressed because of him.

Finally, I have found a travel partner for the rest of my trip: Raydene, one of the other American volunteers at Ramana's. She's a 45 divorcee who is living out her mid-life crisis, and is therefore a very fun counterpart, as she's up for everything! She just got her nose peirced in Rishikesh the other day, is dying her hair red tomorrow, and is now talking about getting a tattoo. She seems to be loving her freedom (despite the circumstances), and we all get a kick out of her ambition to rebel! Needless to say, we support her 100%. Our travels begin Thursday, and I am very much looking forward to finally seeing more of India. Since this email is quite long, I'll explain my travel itinerary before I leave, as I will be out of contact for a few weeks once I do.

I hope everyone at home is well. I think about you all quite a bit, and can't wait to share these stories with you in person.
Stay well and keep in touch!

Much Love
Cass