Saturday, May 30, 2015

Beating the Odds...

How Blessed are you, me, we???

With so much to be thankful; all the would haves, could haves, and should haves...

There is a 6% chance of being born in the United States of America. We have already beaten the odds; and this wasn't even our choice.  There was a 94% chance we could have been born in some other country, possibly even a 3rd world country. If we're lucky enough to have healthy guidance through life, we may have made good choices as far as education, jobs, and bettering the world we live in.  Some people don't have that choice and end up doing what the can to simply survive.
It's our choice whether we want to live our life or just survive it.

In America we have been blessed with some of the best medical teams in the world.  Ten days after returning from India my neck became very swollen.  After several tests and surgeries, it was announced that I had stage 4 throat cancer.  It was determined to take care of this I would need 3 chemo sessions and 35 radiation treatments over the course of 7 weeks.  I was told that if I was to get cancer that this was the best one because it gets the best results in regards to treatment.  The downside was it is one of the most difficult treatments to go through because it affects your daily in take of nourishment.  During the worst week I lost 15 lbs,throughout the whole thing was a total of 25 lbs.

Going through my treatments I realized how blessed I was on a daily basis by knowing I would get better, by the continuous love and support of our friends and family, and by having insurance.  Unlike the day laborers in India, if they would get sick, they don't work. They have no insurance, more less the medical technology that we have, there is no short term disability, and how much support can friends offer when they barely have enough to provide for their own families.

Thank God daily for your many blessings.
It's up to you to make that CHOICE.
I know I do.
Namaste'
Big Bob

Throughout the course of this past visit, I watched the progress of the daily wage workers as they torn down a concrete structure by hand. During that time I thought what life must be like for them, but it wasn't until I started going through my cancer treatments that I really appreciated what my life here holds.



Taking a midday snack over to the workers

They were intrigued with Aunt Kathleen's homemade caramel corn

Loading the ruble into trailer
a little help from Big Bob to get things moving





Saturday, February 7, 2015

Changing lives...

Hi!  As most of you know I like kids so I decided to focus on the positive things happening at the Marshal School in Madhavapatnam for my post.  

Seeing how excited these kids are to be at school with all the different things they are learning reinforced what a great thing our sponsorship program is for the lives of these kids.  Marshal School is not like many of the other schools in India; yes they all teach math, science, reading and their native language, but they all don't teach English.  You may ask why is that so important, well, English is a secondary language everywhere you go in the world; we could certainly see that throughout our travels these past three times to India, but also in India you can't go to a neighboring village without knowing their dialect or English, so by us teaching English in Marshal School these kids are getting the opportunity to go further in life.  We can see the difference in the lives of people there, especially for the women.  Between those who have any amount of education and those who don't, not only is their quality of life different when they have attended school, but how they are treated by others and the respect they have for themselves.

 I currently sponsor two students, one for the past 6 years and the other for 2 years; seeing how much they have grown since I first met them has been amazing.  

When I think about what $15 a month buys for me here, like a few Chai Teas at my favorite Coffee Shoppe, or a half of tank of gas; it doesn't compare to giving someone the chance for a better future.  Currently there are many children in the Marshal School who still are in need of a sponsor; my hope is that everyone who has abundance in their life like I do can find the joy in helping those in need whether it's through our India Ministry or other avenues. 
Here is a beautiful quote I'd like to share with you...

It is not how much we do,
but how much love we put in the doing.
It is not how much we give,
but how much love we put in the giving.

~ Mother Teresa ~

Here are some pictures of my family and the children we sponsor...

  




Our orphans with the teddy bears that we made for them. :)


$15 a month pays for a school outfit, teacher's salaries, 
books and supplies for one child.  

Now here are a few of my highlighted moments from 
this past trip...

a trip to the park with friends and family...





spending time with the orphans...







a few of my buddies...






Special friends...


our wait staff/entertainment...



Just for fun...


a treasured moment at the Talent Show...

I am so grateful for the opportunity my whole family had to travel to India for the third time together, it was such an amazing experience.  Each time I go I feel our relationships with the people of India grow stronger and it's more difficult to say good-bye.  I don't when I will go back, but I do know that someday I will return! :)

Thank you for taking the time to look at our blog.
Love,
Jo




Monday, January 19, 2015

Just Dance!

Hello!!!! 
It's My turn to share some thoughts on this trip! get ready for a wild ride cuz I'll be all over the place!
So to start my story off, when Novahu and his family came to America one of the things we did with them was played the Wii game "Just Dance", and they thought that was "the coolest thing". Novahu was very impressed with my dancing skills:p he said he'd tell everyone back home about my good dancing (yeah right!!!) Well what do ya know we get to India and the first thing all the kids are asking me is to "Dance Loobie Akka! Dance! how can you say no to those cute little faces!!! 
One of the songs we danced to was Happy by Pharrell Williams 
Lucky enough we got it on video! 



it was SO much fun! they all got into it and wanted to continue dancing so we tried to think of a song that had dance moves to it and one of the only songs that we could think of was unfortunately Gangnam Style... 
We hoped that the lyrics would just go over their heads (didn't want to kids running around and singing about a sexy lady). 
So we turned on the music and we couldn't hear over all the screams of excitement! They all immediately started to dance the Gangnam Style Moves.
We danced to this song twice (after the first time we did it again so we could get it on video!)


All of the Orphans wanted me to teach them a song so we could preform at the Talent Show... I along with the Help of Emma taught them a personal favorite, I smile every time I think of those kids, dancing with them to crazy songs! it makes me happy at how happy they all got when we were there.


One last practice before the show!!!

So you are all probably wondering what song it is that we danced at the talent show, well you'll just have to watch!


It was to loud on that night so we got pictures of it instead!



Swing your partner!!!!

I love them all so much! and every time i listen to those songs now it reminds me so much of them!!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of this trip! 

Along this wonderful journey I connected with Ramesh (he is one of the orphans) 
he always wanted to hold my hand and sit next to me we talked about his sponsors and that he wants to come to America someday, a lot of the kids say they want to come to america...

This little boy i'm walking with his name is Asheesh 
Every time i saw him, he'd want to carry my water bottle or bag and when i'd let him carry it he'd run away saying it was his...


I also learned how to be annoying on a violin!!!!! 


Here is a before and after picture of the older boys from this years trip to India and the last trip to India!


2015

2013

They have all grown so much in the past two years!!!



This picture was taken on top of our hotel, we were told it had a beautiful view of Kakinada 





whoa how did that get there?



One of my FAVORITE pictures! 
sneaky sneaky Tabitha! 
She kept saying "hold me Akka, i'm so tired!"



 She's SO cute!!!!

I feel so grateful to have been able to return to India again this year, 
it's like another dream come true.
I am grateful to my travel companions, who also happen to be my family, 
it was another amazing adventure with them!!!!
I'm am grateful for all those who support this ministry that we came here on behalf of,you're changing the world for the better!
I am also grateful to everyone who thought of us while we were so far away,
it's nice to be loved and missed.
To be grateful is something you have to really think about, 
it's a feeling of deep appreciation of what your given. 
I can truly say that I am grateful for all these things, 
and I hope someday I can help make all those kids dreams come true too.


Thank you for reading my post!

Love, 
Olivia Landowski


P.S. sorry for the shaky videos, it's kind of hard to videotape when you feel like dancing!