The Learning Tea Presents An Authentic Indian Dinner, October 2012

Katrell Blogs India

Twice a year, The Learning Tea's founder, Katrell Christie, travels to India to visit with our scholars and attend to other administrative tasks. Join her in her travels as Katrell Blogs India.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

I'm Here. Safe.  Looking for reliable internet and trying to get minutes on my phone. Staying at the lizard hotel, same room, same lizards, and more lizards for no extra charge. Was welcomed like a long lost son by the staff. :)
*this post was brought to you by Nyquil PM 

Monday, October 08, 2012

near Bombay Ballard Estate, Maharashtra via mobile

What’s worser than worse? Jet lag and the only station on the working TV in the Hotel lobby/office/staff lounge/sleeping area is playing Arrested Development Season 1 in HINDI!!!!! The English version starts Oct 16^th, airing every night at 7, damn you Rosetta Stone!

On a lighter note, my computer blew up, fried, sizzled, poltergeist screen. I've been little Carol Ann talking to it for the last

3 hours. Countless documents that I forgot to "back up." Today I will search the streets of Mumbai for a less broken netbook. I went online and found that a lot of the computer stores and I.T. guys here don't always list a contact email address here. Nothing says cutting edge computer services like a phone call.

On a lighter side note: no shame in mentioning that I know my parents are reading this and if Santa wants to come early to Mumbai, as in today, Bismillah.

Today will be well documented.

A Season of Change: July - September

            Along with the changing of the seasons, we are proud to announce some exciting changes happening right here at The Learning Tea! For the first time in our history, we invited our first cohort of interns into our stateside project. Interns Kanan Mehta, George Partin, Amber Stewart, and Marquita Elder have worked diligently for the past 2 months of their 3-month internship on nearly every component of our current roster of projects, from compiling data for our annual report to serving at our monthly authentic Indian dinners. They are a diverse group who bring a rich assortment of experiences and education to The Learning Tea table including marketing, anthropology, and public health. They’ve already worked extensively on projects that will increase our visibility within the Atlanta community including The Learning Tea’s website, annual report, social media sites, informational video presentation, and other various marketing and fundraising strategies. One of our interns has even been exposed to the underrepresented art of baking rice crispies treats! 

As mentioned above, The Learning Tea has been hard at work on our 2011-2012 Annual Report. This report is the first of its kind at The Learning Tea. It will feature both a stunning pictorial narrative of The Learning Tea’s work to provide life scholarships for our scholars, but also each of the requisite financial activities typical to a traditional annual report. We hope that this report will be as aesthetically pleasant as it is professionally useful. The report will be available in print and online. It, along with our new informational video presentation, will be used in our grant packages to solicit funds for our girls in Darjeeling. You can check out some of the clips from our video presentation below. 

The History of Darjeeling

As you might already know, the scholars whose educations The Learning Tea funds live in Darjeeling, a Himalayan city in the Indian state of West Bengal. 

Darjeeling gets its name from the Tibetan words, 'dorje,' meaning "thunderbolt" and 'ling,' a place or land meaning, "the land of the thunderbolt." The etymology of Darjeeling’s name also dates back to the notion that its original name was 'Taaji Lung' meaning "fresh gossip" that came to be pronounced by the British as "Darjeeling."  

Even though Darjeeling is known worldwide for its lush, beautiful landscape and for its tea, it has also been in the throes of political instability and a collapsing socio-economic infrastructure, the roots of which can be traced back to the British colonial rule.    

Originally, Darjeeling was a part of its neighboring state Sikkim whose king was engaged in an unsuccessful warfare against the Gorkhas, a tribe from Nepal who made inroads into Sikkim from 1780 onwards. However, the British East India Company was interested in Darjeeling because of its strategic location as a British outpost in the Himalayan region. The British wanted to develop Darjeeling as a summer resort to escape the Indian summer. So, the British joined hands with the king of Sikkim in curbing the military advances of the Gorkhas eventually annexing Darjeeling to the British empire in 1835. 

Post-independence, the demand for a separate “Gorkhaland” by certain separatist groups continues to haunt Darjeeling as part of its social and political conflict. 

Within this context, our scholars have also forged an up-hill battle, often literally, to procure an education. Most of them are orphans, have been abandoned by family members, and have no opportunities available to them beyond their 10th grade educations. Knowing the immense difference that our life scholarships will make in their lives, young girls sometimes walk for days to submit applications for admittance into The Learning Tea program, hoping that they too can improve their circumstances, obtain an education, and impact their communities for the better.