our survivor girl ukulele band project is nearly underway. i say "our" because i'm not doing this all on my own. many people are part of this endeavor, and i'm grateful for each and every one of you!! here's the low-down on week one in india. after 22 hours of air travel, i was glad to have friends in navi mumbai who had invited me to stay with them. and they didn’t seem to mind that i arrived at 2:30 am, in fact they rustled up some food and we talked for hours.
the next day is a blur, but the day after that i pulled out my list of after-care homes in mumbai and called one, a well-known protective home for girls who have been rescued from mumbai’s brothels. i asked them if they would like to hear about my ukulele project, and they said, “yes."
three hours later, i arrived at the head office on the other side of mumbai. when i pulled out a couple of orange and candy-apple red makala dolphin ukuleles, they said, “ooh, they’re beautiful!” and i when i told them that kala brand music had partnered with me and donated twenty makala dolphin ukuleles and that i wanted to teach twenty survivors of human trafficking how to play ukulele and help them form a survivor girl ukulele band, they said, “this will help the girls! yes!” and then i played ed tree’s “survivor girl ukulele band” song, and they said, “we must translate that into hindi!”
and then they said, “but we have 400 girls. where can we get more ukuleles?”!
so i will be on the lookout for more ukuleles, and if anyone is heading over to india, please put a makala dolphin ukulele or two in your suitcase.
slight change of plans: rather than stay in the super congested city of mumbai, i am shifting my base of operation to another city. a friend of a friend made a few phone calls and got me a low-cost room at a nice guesthouse as a base from which to look for an apartment.
here's a photo of the guesthouse telephone. you don't see too many of these classics around anymore.
i will be working in the ngo's smallest home, which houses forty girls. it is super exciting to think about growing this project to 400 girls. i’m quite sure that some of the first girls will be able to teach others, and so on, until the only limitation will be the number of ukuleles available -- and my own skill on the ukulele. i just hope i can stay one step ahead of those girls!
below is a video of what i had for dinner last night. masala dosa on the street. i'm experimenting with video, so please let me know what you think.
[wpvideo oc4Tj4YM]
and that’s week one in india. so far, so yay!!