Young hands…

giggles….

a child’s smile, their happiness, successes, failures, or love can warm any heart… even if that child isn’t your own.  It is my experience over and over again with all the girls at Odanadi. They all call me “Sister”, which respectfully means friend/elder, and each of them feels almost like family to me.  Not that I can understand them much of the time… Kannada language barrier, broken English, huge cultural differences (such as shoulders are sexy and should be covered but bare midrifs hanging out of saaris no matter what size aren’t! hmm. funny one!). I have unconditional love and admiration for these girls and when they are having fun, so am I. When they are sad and don’t want to share because i am still really a white outsider on some levels and/or once again they don’t know how to say in English, nor i understand Kannada, then that can be the moment when a “surrogate mother” feels like a man who doesn’t know how to fix something. A tad helpless. Any parent could probably relate in any culture. What i know i can offer… is my friendship and unconditional love. So… the weeks go: photos, photo classes, playing, laughing, sharing food, sharing patience, sharing stories, and songs.

When I took this shot the girls were playing on their playground  having fun seeing what shapes they could create on this wall with their shadows. It felt like i was witnessing them recreate themselves through their shadow play, my camera as witness.

….Then the rains came that eve and washed the walls clean again.

Can you imagine yourself as she; bound by sexual servitude at age 10….

servicing 20 men a day.  Wasn’t i jumping off swingsets then?

Then… Odanadi Safehouse = freedom and breath. Yoga, school, art, karate, acting, play. No debt, no obligations, no fear… just friendships, breath, hope, strength…. RESILENCE. That these girls are. Resilient with capital R’s.

Odanadi Safehouse, Mysore India

Sunday, January 25th from 4-7 we will be having a Yoga fundraiser lead by Ashtanga yoga teacher, Akasha Ellis, at Pilates on Highlands (or location to be determined by numbers of people). By donation only. All donations go to help support two journalists, Cary Jobe, photographer, and Susan Harb, NYTimes writer, as they journey overseas out of pocket to try to bring further awareness around the atrocities of child trafficking. Cary will be showing images from her first trip to start this project 4 years ago. Please come. It will be an illuminating evening. Hope to see you there.

Namaste!