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Parenting the Parentless

Author:	David Strickland	Created:	4/4/2007 11:25 PM
Ok well parenting your own kids can be tricky enough but parenting someone elses can be a pain even if they are only on loan. Why would anyone in thier right mind want to parent 100 screaming orphans that you can't return. Much less why would you do it half way around the world. This is our Adventures or misadventures in starting and running an orphanage in India.

20% of all orphans don't like Chocolate Icecream

By David Strickland on 4/26/2008 3:46 AM

Ok, well maybe my methods aren't exactly scientific; perhaps my sampling is a bit small, and my conclusion too general. However, were we ever in for a shock. Who ever heard of a child that doesn’t like Chocolate Ice Cream? It was their first night here at the Home, so we figured it would be good to get them out of the house for a treat. About four blocks from the house is an Ice Cream Store, so we all walked up and we got a scoop for each girl. Well, I guess we kind of figured they might not have tried it before. But women always like chocolate, right? …and kids always like Ice Cream. So we figured it was a safe bet. Of the 10 girls, two of them took one bite, wrinkled up their nose and didn't want any more. OK, so what do you do with kids that don't know what a cartoon is, can't understand English and don't like ice cream, in order to get their minds off of what they have lost, what once was, and what could have been if only ... Today we tried toys, a couple of jump ropes and some 2$ teddy bears. It appears...

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Short Listing

By David Strickland on 4/25/2008 1:03 AM

Back in the day when I used to look for a job, instead of looking for people to hire, I can remember getting emails that said I had been shortlisted. It's been a year since my Resume was active on Monster in the US, but I still get e mails that say I've been "shortlisted". Once I started my own company I realized better what that means. Recently I needed to hire a developer, so I posted an ad and got almost 1000 responses. Ok so we "shortlisted". But in the end, it never really changed my life to find out Microsoft or IBM or HP "shortlisted" me. In the end all it means is they actually read my resume instead of just deleting it. Yesterday though, it was a whole new experience. Mercy went out to a village we had been in contact with. Looking for orphans or children in need. We pretty much already setup our guidelines. Full orphans we will always take, but single parents in desperate situations, we need to talk to and decide. Mercy started with a list of 13 children. She came home last night with 7. She had...

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Chai Anyone?

By David Strickland on 3/9/2008 10:32 AM

Like any country to enter India you need permission from the government. Generally that’s a visa. However here in India there are two of categories of people allowed in. “Person of India Origin” and Ex-citizen’s.

There are three ways to be categorized a Person of Indian origin or (PIO) Your Parents were Citizen’s Your Grandparent’s were Citizen or your spouse is a Person of Indian Origin. Since Mercy is a Citizen of India I become a PIO based on her.

If you are on some types of Visa your entitled to purchase a vehicle, get a bank account, rent a house etc. as a tourist you can’t do many of these things. As a result a Visa holder to do any of these legal activities has to prove they are registered with the police IE a “Resident Certificate”. A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) only has to register with the police after 180 days. A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) is also qualified to perform any legal activity without being registered.

Ok now just try to imagine the looks...

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Birthday's in India

By David Strickland on 2/17/2008 3:05 AM

     Well it's Feburary which means birthdays. Ash Mercy and I are all Feburary birthdays which means we could get it all over with in about 2 weeks. At least until DJ came along in Nov. which through the whole process off.

     Birthdays in India are much more exciting then I remember them in America. In the states they come and go with barely a nod. But here to ecscape it's nearly impossible.

     Before I left America I was going to get a cellphone that could contain all my contacts my schedule and everything else. But then after talking with a couple different people it seems not everything that works in America works here in India. So I decided to wait till I got to India to get it. Then when we arrived we were so busy getting everything else we needed that there wasn't much money for anything extra. In the states you can get a fairly nice phone by signing a service contract. In India there really isn't anything similar. So I got a 20$ phone that would ring and didn't do much more.

    ...

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Taxes

By David Strickland on 2/7/2008 3:16 AM

Warning Numbers Ahead if you already have a headache come back later.

Well it's that time of year taxes. I'm going self employed on March 1 working out of my house. I started to realize that ment accounting. Ok I'm a coder not an accountant so I'm REALLY not looking forward to this. However If I'm going to have time to do what we came here to do. I've got to work for myself so I have the flexibility to do it. Hey shameless plug here want a website or an application Hire me. OK so back to our regularly scheduled program. As I started to look at it and I decide the first place to analyze was taxes you know I grew up doing my taxes since I was 16 I should be able to do it in India right? As I looked at it I started to wonder which is better India or America. The tax Schedule here looks something like this.

Men:

Income less then 110000 is not taxed

Income...

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The End

By David Strickland on 1/20/2008 7:03 AM

Last month as we began to analyze our expenditures for this year and develop a budget for 2008 we realized that money was a lot tighter then we first anticipated. For a variety of reasons. A lot of people that said they would help seem to have forgotten. I guess that is normal. Intentions are always good but in the end when it gets right down to it it becomes hard to actually carry through. We had originally designed this site to stay in touch and update those that were interested in supporting us in the work we are doing. Thus as 2007 began to draw to a close we began to consider shutting down the site. It costs us about $14.00 a month to keep it going and since there are so few to keep updated it would be cheaper to simply continue to send out our newsletter instead.

So in Mid Dec. I stopped posting anticipating that we would shut it down in mid Jan. however after talking to some friends stateside they encouraged us that our blog was affecting more people then we realized and convinced us we should continue...

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How to lose another 4 kg overnight

By David Strickland on 12/11/2007 2:32 PM

That last entry was getting long so I excluded an event I decided to put here instead. That first night we spent at the hospital. We found out that evidently someone had been watching the house. Some how they knew we were gone because when I got home on Friday. All the exterior plumbing had been stolen off of the house. This uncluded the spickets and knobs in the sink on the terrace. The plumbing in the exterior bathroom on the side of the house. The two spickets on the sides of the house and the connectors for our washing area on the terrace. Not sure if it's 4 kg worth of plumbing nut probably somewhere close. In addition to the stolen fixtures there is really no telling how much water we lost before I got home and got the plumbing turned off. The water bill this month might get interesting. How much water do you think can come out of six open spickets in 8 hours? What I found real interesing is that some of the electrical extension cords etc. that we had left on the terrace as well as some tools I had left out when we went to the hospital were untouched it was just the spickets. The electric equipment and tools would have been worth far more then the spickets but the spickets is all they took.

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How to lose 4.08 kg in 9 months

By David Strickland on 12/3/2007 3:27 PM

It's been a very busy couple weeks. I finally got enough time to sit down and update everyone and I want to start with an apology that it’s been so long. As I said in my last post Manny had her baby, she will likely stay with us till first week of Jan. to make sure they are both strong and ready to face what is ahead. It will be tough for them but they should make it. I've been pro-life most of my life but I guess this is the first time I put my money where my mouth is. Manny's stay in the hospital, delivery etc. cost about 12,000 rs. I have to admit it seemed like a lot of money at the time. Just before Christmas with my own wife going into the hospital soon. However now it's good to see the two of them healthy and happy.

Mercy went into labor Weds. the 28th of Nov. I had a speaking engagement at 6:00 pm so she stayed at home while I went. While I was up talking she was going into labor. Mercy’s contractions were sporadic and of variable strength when we timed then later that night after I got home. Thinking they might simply be Braxton Hicks Mercy wanted to wait before we packed up and went to the hospital. All night the contractions continued Mercy eventually kicked me out of the bedroom because she said she would be more comfortable by herself. It wasn’t till the next day I found out that she was actually in pain all night and actually kicked me out so at least one of us would get some sleep. Finally at about 6:00 am we called a friend to take us to the hospital. We went to Baptist Hospital here in Bangalore. Baptist has one of the only private birthing rooms in Bangalore and fortunately the birthing room was empty when we arrived. from 6 till almost one Mercy was in labor. Finally at 12:58 David john Strickland was born weighing 4.08 kg.

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Manny's Baby

By David Strickland on 11/13/2007 5:50 AM

A bouncing 2.2 kilo baby boy was born at 10 am this morning. We are still waiting on the doctors report but the baby is breathing on his own and with his mother which I am told is a good sign.

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Manny goes for a checkup

By David Strickland on 11/12/2007 9:55 AM

Last Weds. Manny went in for a checkup. After an ultrasound and some tests they wrote on her chart that she had "reduced liquor" and they needed some more tests. Ok first off I'm guess the translation there would be liquid versus a surprising lack of whiskey. After she got home we got to talking with her and asked her how much water she was drinking every day. She told us that she couldn't drink more then about a glass or she would vomit. We found out the same held for almost anything milk, soda. No matter what she drank she couldn't keeep it down.

Today we took her in for the additional tests. It was the first day the labs were open since our last visit. The doctors did the tests and monitored the babies heart rate. The heart rate was variable going up and down. In 4 days the babys condition had gone from stable to critical. As I type this they are inducing her. The baby is a little over 8 months old but according to the doctors the development stopped almost a month ago. So we are looking at a 7 month...

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