Team Delhi Belly

Meet Team India, together at last.

Choosing to actively participate.

Trusting completely.

Learning as we go.

Loving those we meet.

Finding the adventure of a lifetime.

Informal Settlement?

I know that for myself, even though I have read and studied plenty, it has still been difficult to comprehend the conditions of those living in informal settlements around the world.

If you would like a better picture of the types of places I may be living and serving in, please take a look at this website, which has woven together pictures, sounds and stories from some of the slums around the world in a very vivid and beautiful way. Take a couple minutes to explore through this visual (turn your sound on) storytelling of settlements from around the world:

The Places We Live Link

It’s business time…

Well. Today I bought a fancy pair of shoes.

Despite the inner turmoil of purchasing a pair of shoes after giving away or selling the majority of my possessions in the summer, today I bought some anyways.

What I didn’t dream about when I decided to join this grad program and head into a slum community somewhere in the world, was the chance to enhance my technology (I think I going to have to buy a kindle. Oh gosh!) and my business wardrobe (which at the current moment, consists of, well… my new shoes)!

But here is the deal. At some point during my time abroad, (as much as I am going to hate this) I will have the opportunity to play my ‘White (North) American” (aka: Muzungu, in Swahili) card for the betterment of a group of oppressed peoples. To step into the role of advocate and to be taken seriously by business men or government officials, I must be presentable. And in Uganda, this means having well kept shoes. So today, I did something I never imagined in preparation for movement into the slums….

Today I blog-toast to fancy shoes! May they walk softly, dance endlessly, climb mountains, walk a path of transformation and be ever coloured by the dirt of a beautiful and foreign land…