By: Angela

Far away from my country, I haven’t thought I whether I could change myself or not, or change others. We live in Dharward’s city centre. This is a city which only have a highway road cross. There is no entertainment, only can find some shops and banks. I think it as a country side. Everyday we go to work and back to the homestay, bored and pale.

One day we have a chance to visit a village school. There, green tree and red earth makes a shock eyes. Women, children and the olds stay in the village. We arrived the school, it’s not big. There’s a playground in front of the classroom and children play on it.

When we got off the car, children crowed with great curiosity and more and more children came to us. Brown skin, black hair, big eyes, it’s my impression. Everything is the same but big smile made a deep memory. They both don’t speak English, but they eager to talk with us. We can communicate with each other only with few sentences like what’s your name and where are you from. To our surprise, they know Jacky Chen and KengFu!!! How can they know that!?

After they saw our camera, they are excited. They really show their longing to take a photo. We are so moving, for their sincere. Maybe they will stay here for whole life, maybe we are the few foreigners they have seen, and maybe after seeing us let them know the great world, let them know that there are many different countries people living in the same world. Maybe we made their have new ideas about the world and life. Whatever, even we can change little, but we actually make a change.

In the month, I have doubted the meaning about this summer, I have complained the boring job, I have felt sad about everyday is the same’ s life. However, in the end, I think we find the truth that why we are in India this summer. The world is changed by us, even is a small blog on the internet, even is some quick glance, even is only 480 hours stay.

Read More: http://mealsforanoblecause.blogspot.com/

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“No matter what happens, we have to deliver food to all schools on time. No matter what,” says Someshekara. Though it is no easy task serving freshly cooked food to more than 17,000* children everyday, he helps Akshaya Patra’s Mangalore kitchen meets its high standards through constant supervision and strict adherence to a timeline.

Highly energetic and diligent, there is very little that passes by in the kitchen without Someshekara’s notice. From making sure that every employee is wearing his or her hairnet and gloves, to ensuring that all the vessels are thoroughly cleaned, he attends to the smallest details of kitchen operations. He receives feedback from the inspection head to make sure that the right amount of food reaches all schools.

With two years of experience in the Bangalore kitchen and another two in Mangalore, Someshekara is well versed in the dynamics of managing people and running operations on a day to day basis. He has very strong belief on the type of employees who meet the Foundation’s criteria.

“What we want above all at Akshaya Patra,” he says, “are people who are dedicated. And then, neatness. Neatness is very important.”

His work gives him a great sense of satisfaction, he says. “Many people in our Mangalore kitchen, especially the ladies, are here simply because we serve children. They’re not here out of necessity. We all work very hard. Everyone has to contribute and help everyone else out. That’s very important,” he says with pride.

“Safety and hygiene is very important,” he says. “They insist on it at Akshaya Patra. We work with steam at very high temperatures. And that is risky. We have to be very diligent.”

*As of March 2011