final entry, see you later!

Here I sit, next to a stuffed suitcase. Intoxicated, but sober enough to catch my spelling mistakes and probably not drunk enough to deal with the fact that this is my last night here in Bangalore.

I am rather disappointed in myself for not having done a better job of updating this blog. I know that some, maybe many, friends out there were counting on entries and stories and pictures galore. I am sorry to have let you down. The possibly good news is that I am thankful for all y'all's positive feedback and I am determined to blog as much as ever once I get home and maybe get some free time... maybe.

I've heard many times that ThoughtWorks can become your life. And I always refused to believe it. I had my own life, my own friends, my own direction, my own ambitions. It's been six weeks since I've stubbornly and skeptically boarded a plane, confident that I could handle whatever ThoughtWorks threw at me. And now, even I know I am still Rose Fan, my own person, ThoughtWorks has become a part of me too. TWU has confirmed my suspicions that being a "ThoughtWorker" is different from being an "Accenturer" or an "IBMer" because ThoughtWorks is a culture, a movement, an initiative towards something that is beyond just technology or Agile or consulting, something greater and more important to us as a society. I've never been around so many different people who've all been so passionate and so accepting and so different - it's quite wonderful. I think about all those conversations I had about omg should I become a paralegal or a business analyst for this crazy company just a few months ago, and now I finally, finally know I made the right decision.

These past six weeks have also taught me a lot about others - maybe a little too much, but these things are important to understand. It's also taught me a lot about myself. What I'm good at, what I'm not. What I should strive towards and be grateful for. What is decency, what is motivation, what is humility and acceptance.

The Angels Orphanage website is now live. We still have to fix a bunch of CSS and content details, but the gist of it is there: http://orphanage.heroku.com/home

I'm so excited to come home. And I am deeply sad to leave. It's been a wonderful experience here, one that I will never forget in my years to come.

Thanks for reading this blog. If you'd like to know the URL to my other one, just ask.

Bleh.

Just spent about an hour writing what was probably the greatest entry known to mankind about last weekend's Delhi/Agra trip. Then my laptop freaaaaaked out and in the process deleted all of my careful verbal handiwork.

It's 3:02 AM. I am going to sleep.

Angels Orphanage

In addition to training to project simulation, some ThoughtWorks University-ers have been volunteering our time on a side project for an orphanage named Angels Orphanage. We're building a website for the orphanage using a programming language called Ruby on Rails, which apparently is much less painful than Java and the Spring platform which we've been using for our project simulation. I wish I could explain more, but as a BA that's about all I can say about the technical side of things without making stuff up.

We'd been working on the site for a few weeks before we got the chance this past Monday evening to actually pay a visit to the orphanage and meet the folks for whom we were building the website. Although I spent most of my time interviewing and gathering information for the website from Angels Orphanages' primary caretaker, a lovely woman named Sabina, I was lucky enough to spend some time in the company of the children as well.

When we first walked in, about 60 or so children, most of whom were very young, were sitting in neat rows on the ground. They were quiet and peering at us with big curious eyes, but you could tell they were an excited bunch to begin with...what kind of children aren't? My suspicions were confirmed as soon as we started introducing ourselves and playing with the orphans. They were an incredibly joyous group of kids. Everything we did, from teaching them fist bumps to dancing and singing to taking pictures was met by excited giggles and eager hands. The girls especially loved taking pictures on my camera - not of themselves, but rather of each other and of me, which was both amusing and puzzling.

I loved my trip to Angels Orphanage. Seeing the children's faces really made me more motivated than ever to build a great website for them, one that will bring as much value to them as possible. And on a personal level, hanging out with in such a happy, unconditionally loving environment - even if it was just for a few hours - really instilled a sense of gratitude in me for all the things I have been blessed with. 

I learned that it costs 500 rupees to support a child for a month. That covers his or her tuition, food, clothing, medical needs, everything. 500 rupees translates to roughly $11 USD. It's how much I will probably pay for my dinner tonight, which really puts things into perspective.

Although Angels Orphanage cannot accept donations in anything other than rupees at the moment, it is possible to send money through ThoughtWorks. If you are interested, please let me know and I'll set up contact information. I'll also post a link to the website as soon as we deploy.