Mohan Sakhrani´s Blog

My trip to India's Golden Temple published

2010-03-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

Teatime magazine published my article about The Golden Temple, in Amritsar, Punjab. It is a free magazine for English learners with a narrator, so that you can read and listen to the articles at the same time. You may download the magazine for free.

(There is another magazine for those studying Spanish http://www.veintemundos.com/en/).

The Golden Temple article:

http://www.teatime-mag.com/p/3_001_es.html, page 68

Or, click below (upper-left corner) on the box surrounded by arrows to go full screen. Then, click on the table of contents to the left (the grid), and scroll to the last article, page 68

Let's Lift up the town of Los Coipos -- Earthquake Relief in Chile

2010-03-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

"Levantemos al pueblo de Los Coipos" vídeo/presentación en Español and English

Coordinators: Natalia Bustos, Daniela Obreque, Javiera Obreque

Natalia is my good Chilean friend who has been helping me teach salsa dancing at Santa Lucía, a school for visually-impaired children in Santiago. She is completing her internship in pedagogy to become a Spanish professor. Daniela and Javiera are her fellow coordinators and two of her many close friends, currently university students in agronomy and nursing.

Let's Lift up the town of Los Coipos

Los Coipos is a small rural town located approximately 270 km south of Santiago, in the northeast interior of the municipality of Hualañe, (7th region, Chile), where 90% of the houses were left destroyed by the earthquake. This is a zone where the benefits of major aid organizations have been slow to arrive and an area with minimal resources and financial support. In response to the urgency in Los Coipos, Natalia and her friends started an autonomous project named, "Levantemos al pueblo de Los Coipos" or "Let's Lift up the town of Los Coipos".

Natalia invited me to join the project as soon as I arrived in Chile, one week after the earthquake. The group of volunteers include university students, friends, and family with the principal focus to assist small rural towns in the interior, the so-called, "forgotten" towns.

Our project's specific objective is to assist 80 families in Los Coipos who were victimized by the earthquake, in the following areas:

Meeting urgent needs (food supplies, toiletries, and plastic tarps)
Providing emotional support and entertainment
Conducting a census to evaluate necessities and facilitate the distribution of aid
Organizing the community to seek government funding and support
Bringing in specialists to evaluate the houses in the region
Aiding in the construction of temporary housing and resources for the reconstruction of the houses

We have been working in cooperation with the municipality (the mayor and the Emergency Coordinator for the municipality and the zone). We have also received support from Buses Díaz, the Federación de Estudiantes de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Rotary Club Reina Alta, Ayudando.com, and support from individual Chileans and foreigners.

What started as a small project has been growing steadily everyday, with more support and collaboration. Rotary Reina Alta has expressed interested in collaborating with Rotary International to invest in the construction of a school for the small towns surrounding Los Coipos. Within our network, another group is forming to assist the nearby small town of Barba Rubia, replicating the steps taken to help Los Coipos. Andrew Smith, a construction worker from England, has been living with a family in Los Coipos and working hard to help with reconstruction.

Ways to get involved:

Providing transportation from Santiago to Hualañe (i.e. a minibus for the group of volunteers)
Civil engineers and architects to evaluate houses and aid the reconstruction
Volunteers to help conduct a census (door-to-door) and talk with the families to provide emotional support
Manual labor: to help Andrew Smith with salvaging reusable materials (wood, beams, shingles, etc) before the rain arrives and preparing the terrain for the construction of temporary housing or the reconstruction of the houses; in the near future: help with the building of the temporary housing and the reconstruction of houses and schools
Transport and materials for temporary housing or reconstruction
If you are affiliated with Rotary, presenting this project at your local Rotary Club and asking if the Club would be interested in collaborating with the reconstruction of a school in Hualañe
Initiate a similar project like this one in another locality in Chile in need of assistance. Just like Los Coipos, there are various other towns in the proximity and along the coast in the same situation and in need of help.

Contact me if you are interested in collaborating with our project...

Email: mssakhrani@yahoo.com with the Subject line: "Helping in Hualañe"

Support from Rotary Reina Alta in Santiago

Buying fresh eggs off the junction in Parronal

About a 4 and 1/2 hour trip from Santiago to Los Coipos

Hitchhiking the last leg to Los Coipos, 16 km of unpaved roads

Introducing the Project and volunteers to the community of Los Coipos

Meeting the leaders and community in Barba Rubia, a town next to Los Coipos

Small farmers applying for agricultural subsidies

Emergency Coordinator for Hualañe and Community Leader

Conducting a door-to-door census to evaluate the needs of the community

The school in Los Coipos destroyed

The youth in Los Coipos working with the volunteers,

measuring and cutting plastic tarps to distribute to the community

A 5 year-old girl with severe eczema all over her face and body. With the help of volunteer and nursing student, Carla Peréz, the little girl is now seeing a dermatologist (Dra. Saavedra, at the University of Chile in Santiago) who offered her services and medications free-of-charge. The girl and her mom are travelling from Curicó with discounted bus passes thanks to Buses Díaz.

Volunteers from Brazil, England, Colombia, Argentina and Chile

Natalia's mom making fresh bread

A bonfire, prayers, and a time to reflect with the community

80 boxes of food and necessities collected and donated by the Federación de Estudiantes de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Getting to know the teenagers in Los Coipos

The civil engineers and architects volunteering their expertise to evaluate the houses and explain to the homeowners their options for reconstruction

The municipality is cooperating with us and providing us transportation in Hualañe

The engineers, architects, and their assistants

Entertaining the community with dancing, singing, food, and games

The kids in Los Coipos spent all week preparing their choreographed dances for the show

Lolipops and chips for everyone

The bus ride home

Back to Santiago

Promoting Preventative Health in Mexico

2010-02-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

Centers of Community and Family Development: publicly-funded organization that provides social services to marginal populations in Mexico City

Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia del Distrito Federal:

http://www.dif.df.gob.mx/dif/ninez.php

Johny Ponce: a colleague and doctoral candidate in Public Health at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

First project: Upon the request of the directors for the Centers of Community and Family Development, Johny and I designed and conducted a workshop in Preventative Health Education for adolescents. We designed a two-hour workshop on the prevention of teen pregnancy and the prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases. We conducted the workshop for about 100 students and a handful of parents, with the objective to dispel myths about pregnancy and STD prevention and discuss other topics related to sexuality and puberty. The workshop's goals were also to discuss cultural themes and peer pressure, to reinforce the ability of adolescents to be confident and comfortable to delay having sex until they are ready, and to always avoid unprotected sex to prevent and reduce the risk of pregnancy and STD's.

Second activity: Johny and I spent a Saturday with medical students and physicians from Universidad Panamericana on a preventative health program for children in a small town in the state of Mexico, called San Jose, Toxi. We helped with the visual screening exams, empirical treatment of intestinal parasites, and screening for allergies.

With the director, María de Jesús Ventura Chavez

Health Clinic in rural San Jose, Toxi

Visual screening exams.

Taking a history

Nutrition Class and Research

2009-12-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Surveying kids in the elementary schools in Santiago.

My classmates.

I took classes in the Master's program in Nutrition at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and helped with an investigation associated with obesity in children. Next semester I plan to take classes in Global Health under the Dept of Public Health at Universidad Católica and help with health science classes at the local high schools.

Chilean Wine -- Concha y Toro

2009-12-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

Chileans are very proud of their wines, and rightfully so. The best part of this wine tour was exploring the Casillero del Diablo -- the Devil's cellar. Legend states that a special cellar was designed to maintain the perfect ambient temperature to store the owner's best wines. After an incident of theft, the owner propagated a rumor that the cellar was haunted by a demon, and hence, it became known as the Casillero del Diablo, and remained free from intruders ever since.

Entrance to the Devil's Cellar

Barrels of wine in the Devil's Cellar

A visit to Pomaire

2009-12-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

Pomaire is a small town known for its pottery making... and 1 kilo empanadas! Chances are if you are eating or cooking from clay pots in Chile, they may have been made and decorated in Pomaire. http://www.southamerica.cl/Chile/Pomaire.htm

Friends Tomas from France and Nima from Germany.

Meeting more Rotary Clubs in Santiago

2009-12-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to meet and present at Rotary Ñuñoa and Rotary Las Condes in November. Rotary Las Condes hosted teachers from local high schools to celebrate the Day of the Professors, and acknowledge their contributions to the community. I'm planning to present about Rotary and help with health science classes at some of the high schools represented that night.

On another occasion, I met Rotary Las Condes President Bahamondes at the concert where the students from Santa Lucía (the school for the visually-impaired and blind where I teach dance lessons) took part in the show. I also had the chance to meet up with Rotary Ñuñoa member, Rómulo Vidal, who spent some time teaching me about his businesses involved with tree giving and civil engineering.

Rotary Ñuñoa

Rotary Las Condes

Salsa lessons

2009-12-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

For my community service project, I adopted ideas from a unique dance program for the blind and visually-impaired. It was called Connecting Through Dance and was founded by Gene Russo and Joan Schubin in the San Francisco Bay Area, California .

Connecting Through Dance website and article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.freewebs.com/connectingthroughdance/index.htm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/08/EBGIVDI8K91.DTL

The idea is to teach salsa dancing to students who are blind or visually-impaired, with the help of volunteers. The volunteers serve as guides for the dance lessons, and at the same time, they get the chance to learn about the lives and experiences of the blind or visually-impaired students.

We had volunteers from Interact, from the university -- including foreign exchange students, and from the community. The volunteers all told me that they had a great time getting to know the students of Santa Lucía and the students at Santa Lucía were always excited and persistent about learning how to dance. Personally, salsa dancing has been one of my interests for many years, so it was a lot of fun for me to teach the volunteers and students.

There's a clip of the final class attached with volunteer Natalia handing out music cd's that she made for the students.

Volunteers Tomas and Natalia.

Volunteers Pilar and Natalia with Physical Education teacher, Cesar.

Dance lessons for the school's staff.

School's staff.

Santa Lucía students.

Volunteers from interact, the university, and the community.

Students from Santa Lucía perform amazingly well in a concert with other high schools in Santiago.

Video from the final dance class of the year, and a clip of Natalia distributing salsa music cd's that she made for the students.

English Lessons

2009-12-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

The teachers and a volunteer from Michigan.

I became a volunteer through the Languages Opens Doors program, a national program that recruits foreigners to assist with foreign language classes, including English, German, Chinese, and French. The program is part of a national initiative to encourage and inspire students in public schools to practice their language skills with native speakers.

I was assigned to Carmela Carvajal de Pratt, one of best public schools in Chile for girls, that includes middle and high school. I gave presentations in English about Rotary, the PolioPlus program, Interact, American and Indian culture, and about my cultural experiences in Chile. We held conversation groups where the girls had a chance to practice English and discuss a range of cultural similarities and differences between Chile and the US.

Surprise birthday party for the history teacher.

Attending Game Day with Interact

2009-10-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Interact's Game Day was a day for various Interact Clubs around Santiago to get to know each other through a friendly competition of fun games and sports including Tug-of-war, potato sack races, karaoke, and Rotary trivia -- if you get the answer wrong, you receive a free plate of lemon meringue pie smashed in your face.

Relaxing after lunch with singing to some popular Spanish songs

Tug-of-war losers fall into a sticky mix of egg yolks, soap, and water

To score points in Karaoke, you must first slip-n-slide across soap and water, and the first to reach the microphone gets the chance to sing the next verse of the song (if you know it)

Rotary Presentations

2009-10-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

I've had the opportunity to talk about Rotary Point West and my personal background and experiences, with Rotary San Bernardo and Rotary Reina Alta this month. The presentations went smoothly and gave me a chance to share a little bit of Rotary Point West's projects (such as Brewfest and Festa di Vino, and Point West's participation in tutoring in the elementary schools and academies in Sacramento) and introduce myself and goals to the Rotary Clubs in Chile.

Setting up to present in Rotary Club San Bernardo

With the President and Secretary of Rotary Reina Alta

Presenting Point West's banner to Rotary Reina Alta

Rotary Reina Alta

Fiestas Patrias -- Celebration of Chilean Culture

2009-10-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

Las Fiestas Patrias falls on September 18th and 19th, an occasion to celebrate the start of independence for Chile and the accomplishments of the Chilean army. Throughout the week, they celebrate with dancing Cueca (the traditional folkloric dance of Chile), barbecues, visiting relatives in other parts of Chile, and partying at the fondas. Fondas can be found throughout Chile during the week of Fiestas Patrias. The fondas are venues, often tents, where they celebrate with traditional dancing, eating Chilean foods, and watching musical and dance performances.

BBQ at home

My Chilean mom

My friend Pilar and I were on the news, a 3-second byte of us dancing Cueca in traditional outfits at a fonda in Santiago.

The huaso (similar to the American cowboy) is wearing a shawl called a chamanto, sombrero, and boots with spurs.

With my Chilean friend Pilar.

A concert in a fonda in Santiago

Travelling Valparaíso with students from Universidad Católica

2009-09-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Valparaíso is a port city about 1 and a half hours towards the coast from Santiago. It's beautiful architecture and hills are somewhat reminiscent of San Francisco. It's full of bright colors, has a beautiful view of the ocean and the vessels, and offers a lot of delicious seafood.

Rotary San Bernardo

2009-09-06T19:56:00.001-07:00

San Bernardo is located in the southern sphere of Santiago. I had the chance to get to meet many of the Rotarians and they gave me a banner to bring back to Sacramento. I will be returning soon to give a formal presentation.

The officials of Rotary San Bernardo.

Oxiel Scheider is in charge of communications for the district. He is in the process of gathering information on all the district's service projects so that the scholars have an idea of all the projects out there for us to get involved in.

Traditional Chilean Seafood Dinner

2009-08-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Camila and Jorge, my good Chilean friends and incredible chefs who prepared a traditional feast for us to indulge.

Clams had with lemon, clams in a green salsa, another salsa similar to ceviche without seafood, empanadas, shish-kabobs (seen below), alfahores (dulce de leche sandwiched between biscuits), chicha (traditional Chilean liquor) and Chilean wines.

Camila, Jorge, Jorge's sister Pilar, and Nima, an exchange student from Canada and Germany who's family is originally from Iran. Camila is a law student, Jorge studies engineering, Pilar is an art professor, and Nima studies marketing/economics. We had a wonderful time talking about various cultures and languages including English, Spanish, Hindi, Farsi, and German. Jorge's family is orginally descended from Germany and Spain.

Central Market in Santiago

2009-08-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

I had the treasured opportunity to visit the 150-year-old Central Market in downtown Santiago with two very good Chilean friends, Camila and her boyfriend, Jorge. We were shopping for ingredients for an authentic Chilean dinner, prepared by the two of them. The clams are called ''almenhas'', and ''slurped'' with lots of freshly squeezed lemon.

Black corn and tomatoes from Peru.

The ones with the spines are ''erizos'', an delicacy eaten with a lemony salsa.

Albacore.

Live crab.

Dinner with host, Rotary Vitacura

2009-08-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to meet more members from my host club, Rotary Vitacura, at a weekly dinner at the Sheraton Hotel. We had presentations from a group of professionals who visited Rotary in North Carolina for a few weeks, and from a recent immigrant from Germany who married a Chilean woman and settled in Santiago. We are in the process of scheduling my presentation for Rotary Vitacura and surrounding Rotary Clubs in Santiago so that I may introduce myself and Rotary Point West to the clubs in Chile. The Rotarians here are very welcoming towards me as an ambassador.

Cueca at the Tango Hermanos, Indian Independence Day, Raclette

2009-08-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, I attended the anniversary of the Tango Hermanos, a tango school started by two teachers who happen to be brother and sister. Besides tango, I watched many different folkloric Chilean dances, including Cueca. The guasos, or countrymen, are dressed gallantly with regal shawls, hats, and cowboy boots with spurs. The country women are dressed in beautiful white and blue. They couples circle each other waving handkerchiefs while they dance.

Saturday morning, I visited the house of the Ambassador of India along with 200 other guests to celebrate Indian Indepence Day, August 15, 1947. There was a mixture of Chileans and people of Indian origin. The Indian community numbers around 300 in Santiago. We listened to patriotic speeches and songs, and watched the kids perform traditional dances, such as Dhandia, a dance from the state of Gujrat, where the choreography involves striking the sticks in each hand with your partners'while dancing.

On Saturday night, I enjoyed a delicious dinner in the style of Raclette, similar to the Korean hot pot or the Swiss's fondu. Raclette is the hot plate set in the middle of the table where you get to grill your meat and vegetables. Besides having your dinner right off the grill, the best part is really taking your time to cook and chat with your friends and family.

My Chilean mom and main chef, Anna Maria, is hugging me.

My first month in Santiago

2009-08-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

The 4-weeks of intensive Spanish courses have helped me to communicate with more confidence. I gave presentations in Spanish about Rotary, the Polio-Plus program, and the Ambassadorial scholarship to two Spanish schools in Santiago, Ecela and Efrontera. Most of the students and staff were really interested in studying abroad and intercultural exchange. They appreciated the presentation and the handouts with detailed info about Rotary and the scholarship opportunities. It´s been easy to spread the word about Rotary since most of the exchange students and Chilean students around me are interested in learning about other cultures and languages, and would love to take part in the opportunities offered by Rotary.

I attended a banquet where the new Rotary Vitacura officers were introduced. I introduced myself and sponsor district to many Rotarians and found a Rotarian mentor, Dr. Gerardo Torres, who has been a good resource for me.

With the Spanish school activities and friends, I had the chance to explore the sites of Santiago, including the San Cristobal and Santa Lucía mountains, la Iglesia Catedral (the largest Catholic Church in Chile located in Plaza de Armas), the Palacio de la Moneda (Presidential Palace), and the Pre-Colombiano Museum that recounts the history of the Americas from ancient times. The city has a very beautiful view of the Andes mountains, especially from the peak of Mt. San Cristobal, which is in the heart of the city.

We had a costume party to celebrate the Spanish school's anniversary.

I´m living with a very generous and warm Chilean family. I´ve tried many traditional Chilean foods, from soups with porotos (legumes) to lentil dishes and choripan (a combo of sausage in bread). I spend breakfast and dinner with my Chilean host mom and another exchange student from the US. This has been a great way to further my understanding of the culture and language.

I´m looking forward to starting my classes at the university this week and exploring the options for research and community service.