Life at Hope Centre

Daily life at Hope Centre has a routine which is modified by the coming and going of several key variables: hot water, cold water, and electricity. Some mornings there would be boiling hot water to wash with, and you had to be very careful not to burn yourself with it. I was used to very hot water from living in New Zealand, where the Kiwis tend to keep their hot water heaters cranked up to the max. So this was never a problem for me. Some mornings there would be no hot water at all, due to some problem with the water heater or the electricity, or both. And some mornings there would be no cold water to mix with the hot water from the hot water tank. When hot water was abundant, it was a good day to wash clothes.


















We don't have a clothesline, so clothes are dried on top of the swing, or draped over the wall to dry.



















I make breakfast for Imtiyaz and myself every morning. Usually we have cooked oats with raisins and bananas, fresh bread, and tea with milk. It is always interesting to see how breakfast so quickly becomes a habit for people. Unlike lunch or dinner, people seem to settle on their favorite breakfast, and stick with it. I know myself that I desire black tea so much for my breakfast that I carry some with me everywhere I go. Breakfast without caffienated tea (or coffee), just isn't breakfast.











Cooking is done with LP gas, and when you run out, everything stops! One morning Imtiyaz and I realized as we were buying our morning breakfast supplies, that we were out of cooking gas, and had no way to make our oats and our tea. This would not do! So we bought a canister, and Imtiyaz hauled it on a bus to the road by the Centre and we carried it the rest of the way in. Breakfast was especially delicious that morning.














Sami has planted a flower and vegetable garden in the front yard of the Centre, and it is good exercise to get water from the canal and haul it to the garden for the flowers. It does not rain here a lot. One morning Sami and Imtiyaz trimmed branches from a willow tree overhanging the centre and used them to build a climbing frame for the cucumbers.


















Care Packages:
My friend Patti from Corwith, Iowa had said she would be sending a package to me. When it arrived, Sami and I opened it and were delighted with the treasures inside: lovely cards full of love and support for me and for Sami, a sweatshirt for Sami, children's Tylenol, flower and vegetable seeds, two rolls of toilet paper (how CAN you be using your hand!!), a box of Wheat Thins which I opened immediately, and some dried craisins and blueberries which I gave out as gifts to people who would have never tasted them. Sami loves his sweatshirt, which is big for him, and will let him add layers underneath it this winter to stay nice and warm. It was a magic treasure box for us. Even the paper towels used as packing were a treat, because they don't exist here, and if something is spilled on the floor, it means a towel will need to be hand washed. There are few paper produducts here: no paper towels, no toilet paper, no tissues - all those things found in nearly every home in New Zealand and the US. And not having them is a much more sustainable way to live - like so many things here.

Another box arrived - this one was one I had sent as an experiment from New Zealand. It arrived, but much the worse for wear. Some kind person tied it up with string so it would not fall apart completely. Next time I will use a much sturdier box!

It contained items I wanted for myself and for the centre which would not be missed if none of them arrived. I ran a couple more tests of regular mail as well, and all the mail I sent arrived just fine. So now I have much more confidence in the Kashmiri postal system.






Computers
Sami and I learned some valuable lessons about computer viruses in May and June. I learned that it is important to get an antivirus programme on any new computer before it leaves the store where you bought it. And Sami learned that one must never allow an antivirus program to get out of date. I spent over a solid week working with the technical experts at ESET India to try to get rid of the viruses infecting the desktop at Hope Centre. Eventually we had to reformat the hard drive, and reinstall Windows XP. So I learned a lot from that exercise. There is a magical programme called Team Viewer www.teamviewer.com that lets you have your computer be taken over by a technical expert from anywhere in the world to troubleshoot your system. In our case, our technical experts were in Mumbai. Your computer needs to be connected to the Internet for this programme to work. It was fascinating watching the mouse move by itself, opening and closing various windows and conducting various procedures.