Art View

The next several days will be spent doing yoga and related activities from 4:00 am until 10:00 pm each day. This will hopefully be a welcomed change from the chaos of the city. Next time we blog we will feel calm and peaceful.

Jonathan is a big fan of the tailors in India. On ever street there seems to be several men with sewing machines to alter existing clothes, mend tears, or make something from scratch. Jonathan has had all three of these services done and is for the most part very satisfied. I have not had as much luck.

Since I just graduated I've been thinking about getting a job. As Jonathan is more knowledgeable about interviews and what I would need to wear, he has encouraged me to get a suit while we are in India because it is less expensive here. He was buying some suits, so he thought it would be a good idea if I look for one too. So I found one store with women's suits. It is a very expensive store, much more than either one of us wanted to spend. I tried the smallest jacket on just to see how it fit, but it was huge. Jonathan decided to get his suits tailored so I decided to go ahead and do the same. As I am very tiny, I figured that would look better than trying to make an already existing suit much smaller. I don't think the tailors had ever made a suit for a woman before because for $50 I now have a suit almost identical to Jonathan's, a small man's suit. If there is a 5 foot boy with a 24 inch waist looking for a suit, I would be happy to give it to him. Otherwise, I will be taking it back tomorrow to see if they can womanize it for me.

Bangalore has had several rain storms recently causing the streets to flood. Tonight we had to go out in the rain. The auto had to let us out before we got to our destination because the streets had turned to canals. As we waded through several blocks of knee high water, we saw cars and motorbikes being pushed down the street. It all made me feel very nostalgic for Venice.

We have worked with three groups of children during our time in India- the upper middle class, slum children, and street children. With each group we asked them to draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up. The upper middle class children had dreams similar to the middle class in the United States- astronaut, doctor, fashion designer, cartoonist, engineer, or soccer player. I was surprised to find that the slum children had similar aspirations. Many of them want to be doctors, teachers, and pilots (this was popular amongst the small boys who tend to copy off of each other). Other occupations listed were dancer, actress, banker, electrician, computer engineer, and hockey player. None of them said they wanted to be construction workers, truck drivers, or domestic workers like their parents. These children are given much love and encouragement at Sukrupa. I wonder how much their dreams have been influenced this.

The street boys at Bosco had more modest dreams. Many of them drew themselves as bus or auto drivers. A vegetable store owner, Police, Carpenter, and Cricket or Hockey Player were other occupations that the street boys dream of. Several of them want to be doctors which seems to be a popular dream amongst children of all economic levels, but it certainly is not as easily attained for them all. One of the boys at Bosco drew that he wanted to be a doctor, but crossed it out after he was told it was impossible because he has never gone to school.

Yesterday at Bosco we met a boy who spoke English well enough to tell us his story and how he ended up on the street and at Bosco. He ran away from home after working as a weaver for a year and a half never having one day off. He said he had to wake up every day at 4:00 am and work until night with only one break for lunch. He didn't want to work because he wanted to go to school and study to become an engineer. He spent three days on the street before being taken to Bosco to live. Now he is in the eighth standard and doing very well in school.

So what do you want to be when you grow up? Jonathan and I were hoping we could encourage the children to dream higher than they may be encouraged to do so. We were surprised to find that many of the children already dreamt much higher than their parents' jobs.

As we have asked all of these children what they want to be, Jonathan and I are realizing that it is a relevant question for ourselves as we both have recently graduated. We have our degrees and we are asking ourselves if that is really what we want to do and what else we are capable of. Just like the children, I think I need to dream bigger than I expect of myself.

Sukrupa video

I think this has something to do with a wedding...

And the plastic bag on the head actually DOES work pretty well in the rain. Hat's off to this guy!

ti bosco

We worked with street children which still live on the streets. They didn't know english.


A group working in the shelter learning tailoring.

The walk to the center was interesting as well.

This was the walk to the street children Bosco center.













wink


Tailoring classroom.

We had a celebration today with all of the children from last week's Sukrupa group. The students are really amazing... well behaved, polite, clean, and all from the slums. There is so much love from the family that runs the center.

Jillian helped with some video.

And then we got a garland to wear on our necks as a present from Sukrupa.

Many of the children danced and sung for us. Of course I captured that on video.

After Cubon park we walked to MG Road. MG Road is a popular tourist attraction in Bangalore. It is highly commercialized and the traffic (and smog) is thick. Yet I keep seeing people selling wares from simple push carts like this fruit seller.

We went to this wierd park in Bangalore the 18th of May. It's called Cubon park, and was designed in the 1800's by the British. I think it looks like a cross between a wild amusement park and the "Secret Garden."

Created not with Autostitch, but the Canon stitch assist software bundled with new cameras

The park has an erie feeling that somehow all the parents are gone. Trash is everywhere and behind Jillian kids are shooting a gun at a canvas target for prizes. (I found it out as I walked right behind the target only to dive away before finding a pellet where I didn't want it).

I really like the program that combines multiple pictures into a panorama (and it's free from www.autostitch.net). Here's another picture of a roof panorama sample, this time it's where we're staying in Bangalore. You can see the solar water heater on the left. Click it for a bigger image.


And a stone throw's away, you can find goats grazing on the roof. Yes, I said goats on the roof. No cows yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.


If you would look down from Jillian's view, you would see lots of workers constructing the house next door.

Jillian and I planned to take a bit of time off from art camps, volunteering, and meeting organizations starting tomorrow. Problem is we kinda like what we're doing and don't want to quit. So now we're going back to Bosco Mane (the runaway boys home) on Monday and shoot some video. We'll work with two centers: one a residential program for street children who have moved from the street (s0me very recently, as in a few weeks back) and the other a program for current street children (the kids live on their own, but can come and go to the shelter).

The plan then is to go for 3-5 days to a resort of some sort and refresh ourselves before returning to the states. There is one in particular we've heard good things about that is a yoga training center. I don't know much about yoga, but since we're in India and there is this center (at US$20 a day) we think it will be a good cultural experience. They focus more on the scientific side of yoga and are affiliated with universities and have a slew of M.D.'s on staff.

We have spent two days now at the shelter for the street boys. The first day was quite an adventure. We were under the impression that we would be getting an interpretor, however, they left us alone in a room of about 20 boys that don't speak English except for a few words. They were quite a rowdy bunch. They were loud, always jumping up from their seats, calling, "Auntie, Auntie, Uncle, Uncle." They run up to me demanding paper and crayons. Jonathan got them to sit down and communicated that we would not talk or respond to them unless they were quiet and raised their hand.Once they got the crayons they just drew whatever they wanted. When they were done they ran up, showed me their drawings, and ran out the room. Soon we had only about 6 boys left. Jonathan found himself doing math with a deaf boy up at the chalkboard, teaching him division, square roots, and calculus. I had one small boy that wasn't happy unless I was sitting right by his side. I couldn't really speak to him, so I drew a quick sketch of him. The other boys saw me do that and wanted their portraits drawn too. Just a few 2 minute crayon drawings of he boys seemed to make them really happy.




This is one of the street children who is living at Bosco Mane.

Yesterday they gave us an interpretor and we had a bit more success. Overall it was quite a challenge, and we liked the boys enough to come back an extra day.

Here's some of the 200+ amazing and wonderful children from the Sukrupa Community Development NGO we worked with.


This is where we werehelping the students' create greeting cards from cut paper. The cards will later be sold in a fundraiser to help support sukrupa (www.sukrupa.com)


I shot alot of video and the children really really enjoyed it when I turned the LCD viewfinder around to face them and they got to watch themselves in it. Of course they tended to crowd around me and back me into corners--which Jillian elegantly captured in this photo.

We went on a nice little walk today around a commercial area close to where we are staying. Jillian got a few shirts and I got a few long pants. Then we found ourselves a juice station. As sirens call to Homer, these cleverly positioned stations frequently call out to me and I succomb to drinking their sweet nectar.

Gosh I think the juice is good. For orange juice, a man freshly peels 3 to 4 oranges and blends them in a blender, sifts out some pulp and seeds, and adds a little water to make a delicious slurry. The water is probably not safe to drink, but I drink it anyways--and they are ooooh soooo good!

Today we were conservative on our stomachs. I ordered no water in the juice (safer that way.) Instead we got 6 oranges blended together. We also asked for no straining out the pulp (and seeds.) To our delight this ended up in two brimming cups of AWESOME pre-chewed juice that we chewed, drank and spat seeds with for a half an hour. It was really delicious. Oh, and that was all for 15 Rupees. Remember 42 Rs. = 1 US$? Good deal.

But for us two health-food-junkees, that wasn't enough. We went for the carrot milk shake without milk or sugar. They used SOOOOOOO much carrots. I think it was at least half a kilo. This resulted in two heaping glasses of carrot juice (and i mean heaping, even if you didn't think glasses could heap). It was really good.

We then walked around some and made dinner here at our friend's house we're staying at. He lets us use his kitchen, and we had an amazing pasta and vegatable medley. His brother was here to watch us cook, and we all had a good time as Jillian and I cooked our version of "Americian Food."

My stomach's feeling much better. I even got a cold a few days back too, but that has since left me.

As you can see Jonathan is starting to feel better and is finally back to blogging. It's now my turn to not feel well as I have acquired a cold leaving me very achy and tired. I could expect to get malaria or diarrhea in India, but didn't think that I would be struck down with a cold.

I have a blue/green bruise on my arm. The last day I was at Sukrupa a couple of the kids noticed it and started touching it. I don't think they knew what it was, or maybe it's coloration was just interesting to them because of my fair skin. I do think that one boy thought it was ink or marker of some sort because it seemed like he was trying to wipe it off of me.

Krishna made a very delicious batch of beans yesterday.

Instructions:

Mix 3 parts water with 1 part beans in pressure cooker. Cook for 7-8 whistles. (Rice cooks 3-4 whistles).

On skillet heat up a little bit of oil, then add mustard seeds until they splatter. This cooks them.

Then add fresh tomatoes, onion slices, tumeric and chili powder. (optionally garlic, maybe ginger, i forget). Cook this a few minutes. I'll call this a currie.

Mix the currie with the beans and enjoy!

We rode the rickshaw's again. And let me tell you it only gets more and more novel as we go deeper into our trip.

Sometimes we hit an exceptionally agressive driver, who will cut off motorcycles, pedestrians and four tonne busses. Then again sometimes it turns out anti climatic-- like when he runs out of gas and slams to an abrupt stop. He told us it would only be half a kilometer to our house. Two hours later and 2 liters of water and 1 glass of freshly made orange juice, we arrive. Walking all the way home actually came in handy last night as we then knew how to give better directions when auto's get lost.

I'll note that never have I seen a female auto rickshaw driver.

Today we went across town to a home for runaway boys where we will be working tomorrow, and then we went to Bull Temple and M.G. Road. We had little problems with the autorickshaws today. I think only one refused to take us somewhere, and we even had some ask us for a ride when we didn't want one. We did end up walking about a kilometer extra home though because the autorickshaw ran out of gas. M.G. Road is also much more pleasant during the daytime.

Yesterday was our last day at Sukrupa. Over five days we did several drawings with both groups of children, made collaged greeting cards, and gave the older children cameras to take home overnight. We felt the cameras were a good way for us to see not only what was important to the children but also places we don't have access to such as their homes. They were very excited about the cameras. Especially because Jonathan and I had been video taping and using our digital cameras all week. Whenever we get our cameras out, they all crowd around us because they like to see their friends in the viewfinder. I don't think cameras are something that these children see very often. They are fascinated by them, and I am fascinated by their behavior.

Autorickshaws in Bangalore are not as friendly as Chennai. They don't stop and ask if they can give us a ride. In fact it can be quite difficult to get an autorickshaw. Our first night in Bangalore, Jonathan and I wanted to go home from MG Road. We had about 5 autorickshaw drivers actually refuse to take us.

I really hated Bangalore when I first got here. There is so much traffic. The smog smells sickening. At night it just puts a haze over the whole city. Our first night we went to MG Road, which is the big place to hang out and shop. I think it is an awful place to be. It is crowded and dark. Everybody is trying to sell us stuff on the street. Tiny girls no older than 5 years were trying to sell me flowers. The beggars are much more aggressive there. We were in an autorickshaw stopped at a stoplight and a beggar girl started hanging on the auto. She was relentless until the traffic started moving again.

It is difficult for me to see the poverty in the streets, but I don't know what to do about it. Just in our drive to the train station in Chennai at five a.m. a few days ago I probably saw at least 2 dozen people sleeping on the side of the road, just feet away from the traffic.

During the school year, Sukrupa hosts 250 children everyday after school. They are fed, taught, and loved there. Five children are full time residents living with Sathya who is the son and brother of the two women who started Sukrupa. They are an amazing family. Long before Sukrupa ever started they would bring about a hundred children in to their home every day and teach them. They brought lepers home on holidays to feed them, and they also regularly fed some beggars. I find this family very inspiring. They are filled with generosity, love, and incredible joy.

Spending time at Sukrupa makes me a more polite person. These children have wonderful manners. At soon as we walk in the door in the morning, each individual child says good morning to us. Before they enter a room, they ask if they can come in. We constantly are hearing, "Thank you Auntie, thank you Uncle." or "Excuse me Uncle, excuse me Auntie." They call us and any other adults Auntie and Uncle. It is very endearing.

The children we are working with at Sukrupa are very different than the children we worked with last week in Chennai. When asked to draw a picture of their family, these children drew considerably larger families- usually all of them had at least four children in their family compared to the one or two children per family that the last group had. Sukrupa's children have fathers who drive autorickshaws or trucks, sell vegetables on a pushcart, or work in construction. Most of their mothers do domestic work. These are the children from the slum, but you wouldn't excpect that when first meeting them. They are cheerful and clean and modestly dressed. We are told they were not always clean when they first started coming to Sukrupa. Their parents are not clean still. Many of their parents are alcoholics and the men beat their wives. Once again, I find it surprising to hear this because these children are so sweet. These children are so vulnerable if left in the atmosphere they come from, but Sukrupa has given them an opportunity to escape the cycle they live in.

We haven't had much access to internet or the time to use it since we have been in Bangalore, so I am going to make this quick. I've got a lot to say about our experiences over the last three days so hopefully I will get the chance to sit down and blog it all soon. What I can say now is that everything about our experience here is so different from Chennai, especially the children. These kids are not at all like American kids. I'll write more about them later, but for now just know that we are having a great time with them.

We're doing okay dokie. Yesterday we had our first full day in Bangalore, which is considerably cooler than Chennai. Yesterday was also our first day of the art camp with a group of about 40 children from poorer families. They are so amazingly well behaved, quiet, respectful--it was and is still surprising.

My stomach's on the mend.

Running this art camp has been a good experience for me as a teacher. This is the first time I have had to come up with my own curriculum. In my two years teaching at Purdue, I only had to come up with bits and pieces of the course work, but here, with the help of Jonathan, I was responsible for all of the activities we did with the children. We decided to have the children make marionettes, write stories, and then perform the stories with the puppets. I was hoping this would be a good indication of what their daily life was like.

The children seemed to enjoy the week, but I was a bit disappointed. The classes seemed a bit chaotic. I think the problem was the age difference in the children. We had children as young as 6 and as old as 13. While the older children seriously worked on the puppets, the younger children got bored. They have a shorter attention span and sometimes had trouble understanding what we were doing. I think this workshop would have been more successful if the children were closer in age, but that is always a challenge of the teacher- different levels of ability.

I'm not doing too bad with my stomach. I'll be fine. So don't call the "paratroopers-emergency-medical-evacuator-company." I had a pair of cups of soup. They were delicious, and I figured out the first one was a powdered soup product. Delightful, I tell you. And my dear mother, you know how good those go down. yumm..

I just thought. Hmm. If it was powdered soup, I hope it wasn't made from tap water that wasn't boiled. Enough of that, i'll stop thinking like a sick person. I'll be great!

night. Tomorrow we freight over to Bangalore. I say freight because it seems my luggage is growing by leaps and bounds. I got 4 pairs of nice shoes for the price of half of one in the states. And half a dozen or more dress shirts for the price of one. And, well I'll not reveal the number of paperback books I got. But many of you know how I like to read... and can't pass up awesome books for under $2 or $1 each.

I'm feeling an a-rumbling in my tummy. And it's peculiarly persistent. Tomorrow morning at 6am we head to Bangalore, which is a welcome change--as the weather there will be much cooler... well somewhat cooler at least. Perhaps 90F instead of 110F.

Nothing happened yet with my stomach, so I'll hopefully be back to my cheerful, energetic self in no time!

We can find influences of the west everywhere. It's remarkable how powerful commerce can be--and how unifying. Accross every cultural barrier, it seems anybody can enjoy a Baskin Robbins 31 flavors.

Jillian on the roof of the host family's house we're staying in. It was a great view, and the breeze was nice.

So far the children in our first art camp have been very delightful. There are nine of them- ranging from about age 6-13. These children are about the most affluent children in India. They go to private schools, use computers and watch a lot of television. Because of that they are very much influenced by the western world. For the most part they don't seem very different than the average American child. Things that do differ are religion, local customs, food, climate, and the world around them. These are the children that may one day have the opportunity to study in the U.S. It is interesting for me to see this atmosphere that they are growing up in since I have had several friends from India in college.

This car is an Ambassador. They are the most common cars in India.

I took my camera outside today and filmed a walk to the beach. As I expected (and feared), we created a bit of a scene. Two fair skinned foreigners walking around creates enough of a sight as it is, but when one of them is carrying a camcorder and filming--it's a bit more exciting.

On the other hand, it wasn't as bad as I expected it would be. A throng did not follow us, although when we were on the beach a boy started talking to us. He was first excited to be on camera, then he said, "You RICH!" I said, "No, not actually--we are not." He said, "I live simple life... I'm sorry for you." "I sorry." He said it was sorrowful to be "rich," which we are in a relative sense.

Then another fisher-folk, this time an adult, started talking to us. He invited us to see his house. After a bit of discussion we trekked to his house, number 37. I was under the impression that he was a very poor fisherman. Yet, I was surprised when I saw a television, modern cooking stoves and brand name plastic wrapped cookies for the grandchildren. He wanted to take us on a boat ride in the Bay of Bengal, but we declined. After finally extricating ourselves from his house (his family was talkative), we hurried back for breakfast at our host family.

Upon reviewing the video, I am less than satisfied. I'll have to return to the street again today for another shot. Because of our excitement, we walked too fast, I didn't hold the camera level, and there wasn't cohesion in what I filmed. Take two, here I come.


Trying to not create a big scene. While I am getting better at being bold shooting video, I still feel ackward using this expensive western technology when some poor people on the street must feel jealous or contemptful l towards me.


The fuzzy thing is a "dead cat" (or so it's called) that reduces wind noise on the microphone. I had to give it a haircut today, as it kept getting a bit of fuzz into the video recording scene.


Myself, with host family "grandma and grampa"

Last night we had dinner with a family we know from our art camp. Afterwards, I rode back to our house on the back of a scooter. It was quite exciting, bumping around about at night on my seat behind the trusty Indian driver.

The family we live with has a live in maid. I'm unsure of all her duties, but I know that she cooks for us. She sleeps on a mat on the living room floor and wakes up around 5:00 am to start working. She can be seen during the day sitting in a tiny room off the kitchen. Sometimes I see her eating by herself in there. Jonathan and I both wish she would eat with us. Although we can't converse with her because she doesn't speak English, she seems very nice and I try to smile at her to show my appreciation. I feel a bit uncomfortable having servants. There is also a girl that cleans our room. It seems like it is cleaned every time we leave, even up to 3 times a day.

44 degrees Celsius = 111 degrees Fahrenheit.

The heat makes everything move slowly here. People walk slowly on the street. We have to be careful not to step on the dogs that are too hot and tired to move. They look dead. We're lethargic. Jonathan has about half the energy he normally has. He has taken up the routine of the couple we are living with- get up in the morning, eat breakfast, and then lay on the bed under the fan.

We're getting used to being sweaty and sticky. The air conditioning at the internet cafe hasn't been working. It is in a basement where there are no windows for ventilation. By the time we left yesterday, Jonathan was soaked. He was as wet as I was when the giant wave hit me.

I never thought I would enjoy cold showers, but now they have become my favorite part of the day.

I want people to not cling so tightly to security and the status quo. I want young people to seek adventure not at Myrtle Beach, Panama City, or Cancun, but in helping other people and drinking deep from the diversity of the world. I have a dream that alcohol and caffeine are not the descriptors of college, but it is service and cross cultural experience. Most importantly, I dream that the word’s “can’t,” “too hard,” and “more than I can handle” be banished from our mouths.

Two month’s ago I was close friends with a sum total of less than half a dozen people of Indian descent. Now I have dozens, and Jillian and I are scheduled to bring her Art Camp to over three dozen more children in four separate organizations. We didn’t have contacts in India to visit and volunteer, nor did we have the budge to pay and volunteer with an organized group—but I emailed, searched online, and talked to as many Indian people as I could—and they welcomed us to their country. We now live with a fantastic host family, and have another planned in our next city. We have met with and discussed in depth about the country with half a dozen adults.

The point is: never think something is out of the realm of possibility. Never doubt your own potential. If Jillian and I started thinking that it would be too hard to create a summer camp in under 6 weeks for children half way around the world, we would still be sitting in West Lafayette. Uncertainty is a fact of life, and people can become more effective when they understand how to thrive in it. If the uncertainty of landing in a country and not knowing where we would stay the night of our arrival was too burdensome—we would not be here now.

I want other people to see something they want—and tenaciously run after it. To capture the prize through intensely hard work. I just graduated in Industrial Engineering from the number four IE school in the country – and had school work a-plenty to in the last month while we planned this trip. Going here meant much sacrificed sleep, missed exercise and less time with friends. Nothing worth having comes without giving up something valuable.

Every one of us is writing the story of our life. No matter what we choose we are scribing on the pages of our life in indelible ink with every action and inaction. I do not plan on relishing in the ending years of my life that I avoided this adventure, or saved myself from that inconvenience—but that I drank deep and sucked out every last drop of the marrow of life.

The focus of the story need be the children. My prose is insufficient to adequately inspire people. I don’t even want to sit and tell a story that gets people all fired up. I want the children’s lives we experience to become the story.

I believe the journey Jillian and I make as we dive deep into India combined with the voices of the children we work with will become a story worth telling. I anticipate the children fabricating a message that everyone can relate to, and can learn from.

We’ll ask the children to draw themselves as they dream they’ll be when they grow up. We’ll have them create self portraits. We'll ask about earliest childhood memories, family life, favorite activities and for lessons they can teach us. This will be repeated accross many other groups in India. Next week I can't wait to start working with street boys in a shelter. Oh how different of a life experience they will bring!

I want to tell a story through creating a book or DVD of our experience with the children here. Why?

One word: influence.

I believe influence occurs through two methods:

1) personal interaction

2) stories

I cannot personally interact with as many people as I wish to influence. I must learn the art of storytelling. Leadership is influence, and influence is social change, and social change (in my goals) is positive betterment for the human race.

Stories have been a tool of instruction from the beginning of time. Fables, parables, nursery rhymes, songs, dances and the like all have shaped the way millions have carried out their lives.

I love to read, and some of my deepest held beliefs and goals have come through messages an author put to paper, and made available through publishing. Dale Carnegie, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Hill, Robert Kiyosaki, Benjamin Franklin, Brian Tracey, Patch Adams, the authors of the Bible, the list goes on and on.

I want Americans to read the story of Art View (India) and say to themselves, “Hey, the world’s a bit different from what I thought!” and “Gee-golly, I think I’m going to care a bit more about other people.”

a street near where we are staying. I stitched the images together with this amazingly awesome software called, "autostitch." It takes a bunch of pictures and automatically connects them together for a large image. It is free as well.

This is the beach five minutes away from our house. It's a beautiful place, but there is a rip tide. So we didn't swim, just walk by the shore.

The traffic is busy

We took our first autorickshaw ride this morning to and from breakfast. Of course it was not our first opportunity to ride in an autorickshaw. We can't walk past one without the driver asking to take us for a ride. They practically stalk us as it is very obviousm that we are tourists. Just now on our walk to the internet cafe in the timespan of about 30 seconds, 5 autorickshaw drivers asked us if we wanted a ride. Imagine the joy of the autorickshaw driver this morning when we approached him to drive us home. He grinned and did a little jig.

How many times can I say autorickshaw?

In the U.S. I am a member of the middle class. I try not to live an exorbant life. Here in India I feel so rich. Of course there are Indians whose standard of living is the same as mine. But here the poverty is so much more obvious.


Everything is so much cheaper here in India(except electronics). We have been doing some shopping, mostly buying books and clothing. Yesterday we went to a Fashion store where we had about 6 people waiting on us. It seemed like they pulled out about half of the clothes in the store wanting us to try them on. They gave us excellent service. Jonathan bought about 6 dress shirts for less than U.S $50.

This is the house we live in with a host family. The we've in the bottom level. It's an apartment building that was built when our host family sold their house to some developers who in turn built them this and gave them some flats.