Parentless

42 Days left. We were packing last night and as we packed my wife and I began to laugh about all the things that would be different in India. Things like turning on a water heater 15 minutes before you wanted to take a shower. Remembering to turn it off when your done. Boiling milk before you drink it. Boiling the water before you drink it. The list goes on. No matter what country your going to culture shock is a possibility and if your not ready for it, it can knock you off your feet. I wanted to take some time today and look at some of the things I did before or during our last trip. Perhaps the most important part of Culture Shock is knowing that it exists and being prepared for it. Culture Shock to me stems from the your expectations and prejudice. You get into a situation in another culture and for some reason expect that things in that culture will be like they are in your own culture. Based on the presupposition of similarity you began to act and react similar to how you would in your own culture....

I was recently asked about colleges and orphanages. I wish I could go back and take all the classes I think could help in the work set out before me. The first class on the list would be Psychology 101 and then if possible Child Psychology. The majority of parentless children are psychologically scarred. Many have been physically or sexually abused if they haven’t been abused then they’ve likely been scarred in other ways by drugs or alcohol or other ills. Without parents or other guardians they often ran wild for at least some time and the results can be devastating to their Psychology.

            In the first orphanage my wife opened a set of twins was placed in our care. Their father was dead and their mother was dying of HIV. Instead of waiting till she was dead and not knowing what would happen to her children she put them in our care. These two little twins were the wildest two children we had ever encountered. They bit, they scratched they would through fits. The vile stream of curses and profanity...

   Obviously as the time draws closer to our departure finances get tighter and tighter. I recently had someone ask if they could help. I spent the better part of the day yesterday scouring through India's legal system and in the end the answer appears to be a little confusing. So far our airfare and shipping costs have been covered. At the moment we are working on the $4,000 we are going to need for a deposit on the home we will have to rent. We are hoping to rent a two story building with 3 bedrooms on each floor. Initially the first floor will contain the living area for our family as well as a guest bedroom. The second floor will be for the orphanage. I am then hoping to get a job with a local company that will pay enough to support my family and between 8 to 12 orphans.

   So why don't we just raise the funds we need from friends, family and interested parties here in America?

India has a law called the Foreign Contributions Act of 1976. This law states:

"Whereas no association having...

   For those of you reading along you'll remember that we have been fighting with Jaundice in one of the first two girls that we intend to bring into the orphanage upon arrival. We got word a couple days ago that the eldest of the two sisters has been released from the hospital. Originally when we found out that the girl was sick we also learned that they were trying to cure it with homeopathic herbs and spices. We sent some money over and told them to get her to the hospital. 

   It seems over the last couple weeks we've several unexpected drains on our finances. We ended up delaying our departure by almost a month because of several obligations and now we find that none of those obligations are required any more. It seems the old adage is true trouble come not single spy. My current employment contract will end two to three weeks earlier then I had hoped. A 2 week short term contract I was going to do has become a one week or less contract. Several medical bills have come in that we weren't anticipating....