Friday, July 6, 2007

BANGALORE 2007

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY GLOBAL VILLAGE: TEAM INDIA 2007!



Don't Forget!!! Final Payment Due August 1st!

Welcome to our very own space! Please feel free to post, or to e mail me with updates about your info or other web issues, kmomberger@cox.net.


Quick Info

ITINERARY TBA

SEND IN BIOS AND PHOTOS ASAP! (I did mine first...look what a geek I am, yours couldn't be worse, it looks like I work in the back room of a sofa factory removing the makeup of the actresses with a trowell!)

We will be staying at CEO Center http://www.saiacs.org/CEOCentreWelcome.htm. We will meet here at 6:00PM Sunday Sept 16th for our first group meeting. Mysore http://www.karnataka.com/tourism/mysore/ is one of our R&R destinations. Check out some images from Mysore:




THE TEAM! (MORE BIOS TO COME...I HOPE!)


IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE...NO, IT'S OUR TEAM LEADER, JERI!


(Habitat ID# for this trip is: GV8313. Contact info for Jeri is via e mail, tagtmeyer@msn.com or by calling 260-833-1522.)


JERI TAGTMEYER

Hi Team, I am very excited to be taking this trip with all of you. This will be my 14th Global Village Build. Last fall I was in Pondicherry and fell in love with India. The people are warm, friendly and always willing to help. I am a huge fan of spicy food and this is the best. (Don't worry if you do not like spicy food.)

I live in northeastern Indiana with my husband and two very spoiled cats. I currently work in the radiology department at the local hospital. My hobbies include traveling, hiking and reading. I have recently decided to teach myself how to play acoustic guitar. If my cats could talk they would probably tell you this is only a slight relief from my singing, and I need more practice at both. In addition to Habitat for Humanity I also volunteer for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have completed 3 marathons and 2 half marathons to raise money. My marathon days are over but I still help with some fund raising projects.

See you all in Bangalore!

Angelle Brooks

Ryan Haase

Currently, I'm a graduate student in Materials Engineering at Iowa State University, but by the time we meet, I hope to have my degree in hand. I enjoy outdoor activities and sports - rock climbing and baseball are two of my favorites. I grew up in Lincoln Nebraska and currently live in Peoria IL but I don't know where I'll be come September/October. I have a brother and a sister, both in college, and therefore, living all over, while my parents are in Lincoln. I'm looking forward to this trip and to meeting all of you.

Fiona Hsu

Fiona Hsu , 29, is a proud resident of foggy San Francisco, California. She is passionate about affordable housing, particularly in California, and currently works for Union Bank of California as an affordable housing investor. She received her graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She is on the board of Spark, a nonprofit organization she helped found that is geared towards raising awareness around and funds to support global women's issues. She also sits on the Young Leadership Circle of Habitat for Humanity-San Francisco. She is currently trying to fulfill her new year's resolutions of learning how to salsa and to play tennis. This will be her 2nd GV trip; her first trip to Veracruz, Mexico in Jan 2006 was a wonderful and memorable experience.


Keisha Hulsey

Hi team. I'm from Dallas, lived here for about 4 years now. Born and raised in a small Texas town but I don't really feel "Texan" - never learned to ride a horse. As an IT software consultant for the last 9 years, I've been lucky to travel often with work, lived in Paris for 4.5 years and worked in Dubai and India.

I fell in love with India, traveled a lot while there and look forward to going back. This trip will be the beginning of a my long-awaited one year "career break". In addition to India, I'll travel to SE Asia, Nepal, China, Mongolia and where ever else my path leads. I missed this type of big adventure after college and I'm thrilled to finally get to live it.

I love cooking, running, cycling, photography and anything outdoors. I don't have a television but if I did I'd probably watch alot of HGTV - I'm a designer at heart and love a good hands-on project. I just bought my first motorcycle, which has been amazing fun and will likely be the toy I miss the most.

I'm pretty new to world of NGOs, volunteer organizations and service projects so I look forward to learning a lot, having a great time and meeting everyone!

Greg Leung

Hi everyone, my name is Greg Leung. I'm a 30 year-old accountant from Toronto, Canada and am participating in my second Habitat trip. My other experience with Habitat took me to Valle de Santiago, Mexico in 2004. I am looking to contribute something positive to the world while at the same time expanding my horizons. I find as North Americans we often get overly caught up in consumerism and forget the things that truly matter!

As an aside, I am considering flying into New Delhi a few days early and either taking a train or hiring a car to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. If anyone is interested in joining me, please drop me an email at gleung@soberman.com. I look forward to meeting you all!

Colleen McSweeney

I am thrilled to be part of Team Bangalore for my third Habitat for Humanity build. My first HFH trip was in Zambia, where I fell in love with the beautiful people of Nkwazi, the village where we stayed for 12 days. I loved being in Africa. I can’t wait to return there someday soon. Last summer, my daughter Kate and I were part of a team in Costa Rica: both life changing experiences in different ways. India will be my third build in as many years….I’m hooked.

I live in Manhattan Beach, California, which is a charming coastal town about ten minutes from LAX. I love books, (recent favs: A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS and EAT, PRAY, LOVE), movies, theatre, and all kinds of music, from show tunes to classical to classic rock. I am a photographer and teach art twice a month to inner city second graders, which is a blast.

My proudest accomplishments are my two daughters, Kate and Sarah. I have been fortunate to be a full time Mom for the past decade, with the exception of the occasional freelance production or photography assignment. The girls keep me honest and humble. We laugh a lot. My husband, Jamie is an animation director-producer at Disney. We have a big standard poodle who believes she’s human and a sweet cat who knows that she’s a cat.

I had the honor of meeting Jimmy Carter several years ago when I was a producer at ABC –TV in Los Angeles. He impressed me with his wisdom, kindness and his commitment to HFH. I sent donations to the organization, when I could, but always wanted to contribute actual sweat equity to a project. The opportunity for our team to help create a home for a deserving family from first brick to finished house is an exciting challenge.

I can’t wait to experience India.

Looking forward to meeting everyone in Bangalore……(how cool is that?!)

Karla Momberger (See, it could be worse!) [This was written for a law seminar where I was a teacher—that’s why it’s so sarcastic and mean. Just ignore that part if you will. I promise I’m not that mean.]

I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I escaped at age 18 despite repeated attempts at indoctrination on the part of the Mesa Public Schools system. College in Tucson.

Next, I foolishly moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where from 1996 to 1998 I taught undergraduates at the University of Alabama “Introduction to Gender, Race and Class Studies” while attaining my first MA and writing a 250+ page Master’s Thesis that, despite publication, no one except my mother would ever actually read.

Then I moved to New York to attend Columbia Law School, widely known as one of the strongest remaining bastions of class-based elitism in the nation. Nevertheless (and perhaps in part due to my near total absence) I graduated in 2001 and reportedly retained my humanity. From 2001 to 2002 I was the Staff Attorney for New York’s Partnership for the Homeless and also a lyricist and the first soprano for New York-based theatrical comedy troupe Bob Ross Juice Box. During that year I also began the PhD program in medical anthropology at the City University of New York.

In 2002 I was admitted to the bar of the State of New York after a disturbing delay in the character and fitness committee just in time to return to Phoenix. In 2003 I was admitted to the Arizona bar and joined the Law Office of the Maricopa County Public Defender. In 2005, due to failing mental health caused by the mismanagement of the office, I became a solo practitioner. Today my practice is 100 % indigent criminal defense; all of my cases are court-appointed, pro bono, or sliding scale.

Ryan Pedlow

I was born and raised in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, a rural community witha population of 40,000 just 60 miles north of the U.S. border, with my Mom, my Dad, and my younger sister. In the summers I worked many jobs including farming, construction work, pizza deliverer, and my favorite, as a baseball umpire. For grade 11, I was an exchange student living in Tasmania, Australia.

I went to college at Queen’s University in Kingston Canada. Followingcollege I moved to New York City and have lived here for the past 9 years. I started working at Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst, and for the past 7 years I have worked at the Ziff Family investment firm. After completing six years each member of our company is given an additional four weeks ofvacation time (a sabbatical), which gave me the opportunity for theBangalore trip. Following the Bangalore trip, if my softball team wins thestate championship in August, we will play in Phoenix the first week of October, if not I will have to find a plan B!

In addition to softball, I actively play tennis and am a snowboarder. Other hobbies and interests include reading, traveling and my dog Dakota. Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.

Cristy Phillips

I am 28 years old and an attorney in New York City, although by thetime I meet you all I will have relocated to Philadelphia. I'm originally from Tampa, Fl. My hobbies include cooking, golf, collegebasketball, anything on the water, and last week I tried skydiving forthe first time (it was great!). This will be my first trip to India and my first big project with Habitat. I can't wait to experience anew country and help to make a lasting contribution.

Craig Rice

I was born, grew up, and educated in Upstate New York. In the late 70's I moved to California in search of new scenery, better weather, and to begin a career in biotechnology. Here I also married Hanna. We’ve been together for 25 years. Three years ago I retired to spend more time with family and friends, to give back to society, and to travel and explore. I’m actively involved with a number of organizations including Habitat for Humanity, the Sierra Club and Earthwatch Institute. My interests include reading, horseback riding, backpacking (completed the Pacific Crest Trail this year), kayaking, and travel. Hanna and I reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and are frequent visitors to the Mendocino Coast in California. This will be my second GV trip.

James and Erna Yackel

Jim and Erna YackelWe are retired university folks. Jim retired aschancellor of Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, INafter spending many years as professor ofmathematics and statistics and associate dean of theSchool of Science at Purdue, West Lafayette. Erna is aretired professor of mathematics education from PurdueUniversity Calumet. We have three grown children, Jonathan, a computer scientist, Juliet, an attorney,and Carolyn, a mathematician, and five grandchildren.

Our interest in this trip stems from two sources. One is a long time friendship with a number ofinternational students from India whom we got to knowwell while we were at Purdue, West Lafayette. One ofthese students now lives in Bangalore and heads upsome of the research divisions at GE's facility there. This friend has kept in touch with us since his returnto India over 20 years ago and often visits us when he is in the US. Our other interest in this trip is in Habitat. Since retiring several years ago, Jim has devoted many hours to working on building Habitat houses in Northwest Indiana. Two years ago we had the opportunity to visitHabitat's headquarters in Americus, GA. We were veryimpressed with the Global Village displays, especiallythe models of homes that are build in variouscountries around the world. We are excited about this opportunity to bring together our interest in Habitat with our interest in India, especially Bangalore.
About Bangalore

Bangalore is India's 5th largest city (coincidentally a sister city to Phoenix, but we don't have a culture here unless you count shopping), with about 5 million inhabitants. It is the largest city in the southern state of Karnataka. The main languages spoken are mainly Kannada and English but others are also spoken. Perhaps because of its size and (partial) prosperity, the city boasts some of the country's famed beautiful and unique architecture.



Bangalore is home to a monument to the founder of the Institute of the Sciences; the fact that the city has long been home to the sciences may be the reason why it has been a natural home for the high tech industry.

Nowadays, Bangalore is known as the country's IT capital, "the Silicon Valley of India". In the last decade, high-technology companies have been set up and become successful in Bangalore, employing about a third of India's 1 million IT professionals. (No, really, this is an actual picture taken in Bangalore of people doing something, shamelessly pirated by me. Actually, I'm not sure we'll have to do blood work, but we may.)
This is an interesting phenomenon: hole in the wall/mom and pop computer training centers.
Bangalore is a vibrant city, famous for its numerous pubs and its nightlife. No sidewalks rolling up here.


And plenty of nightclubs, it seems:

In fact, some parts of the city seem to be planning to be a Las Vegas-type place for business to thrive despite the obvious poverty.



Commerce does, however, continue to thrive in the city, and we will see many examples of this.


Bangalore is also known as the "Garden City of India" thanks to the many public parks and gardens with which it is graced.

From such a wildlife park:

And streetside: Also streetside:

And the lush flora allows for garland vendors such as this one:



But don't be fooled. No amount of IBM presence can change the fact that, like the rest of India, Bangalore is a mix of old and new, and very rich and very poor.

Capitol building with man sleeping on the grass; he is very difficult to see him, I had to person you were draining her? Juliet's Mom?


Typical traffic jam:

Definitely check out this article: In India's Silicon Valley, Partying Like It's 1999: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/travel/26bangalore.html .
It's a very interesting look at the dichotomy between being "India's Silicon Valley" and still having so many troublesome poor people.

One Resident's Picks!

This is where I was born, brought up and live! Bangalore, the IT Capital of India and the Garden city with it's air-conditioned weather all through the year! A wonderful place to live!

My favourite tourist spots in Bangalore are: (Certainly NOT MG road!) The Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and The Musical Fountain LalbaghThe Vishweshwaraiah Industrial and Technological MusiumBannerughatta National Park Sankey Tank Cubbon Park.

Best shopping places : Jayanagar 4th block complex (favourite hang-out place of all NCJ'ites), Banashankari BDA complex, Gandhibazaar in Basanavanagudi, Vijayanagar and Commercial Street.

Best Eating joints to get authentic Karnataka food:MTR, HaLLimane, all Kamat hotels, Pai Vihar, Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhibazaar for the legendary Masale Dose, Adigaa's bakery for the best Gulab Jamoon and of course, Butter Sponge in Gandhi Bazaar for the all-time-favourite Kharabun-butter-congress kadle kai mixed delight (KBC!)


Local Star of Bangalore: Malathi Iyengar



Malathi Iyengar studied the Pandanallur/Tanjore style of Bharata Natyam dance from Guru Narmada of Bangalore, India, a student of the legendary Kittapa Pillai, of Tanjore, India. After moving to the United States as a teenager, Iyengar dedicated herself to dance by taking classes in California and by traveling to India to study under her guru. She earned a M.F.A. degree in Dance Choreography & Performance from University of California, Los Angeles. Today, Iyengar is an accomplished performer, choreographer and teacher, serving as the artistic director of Rangoli Dance Company and founder of the Rangoli Foundation for Art & Culture in Southern California.

GORGEOUS Photography of Bangalore
by Christopher Perez



Passports and Visas


When asked reason for travel makes sure to enter tourist. You will also need two references.

Mr. Mahesh Lobo
National Director - Volunteer Programs
Habitat for Humanity India
No.54/A,3rd Cross,
Kavery Layout,
Thavarekere Main Road,
Bangalore - 560079
Tel: +91 - 80 - 41114884

Ms. Nirmala Rani
Manager- Volunteer Programs
'Habitat Resource Centre - Bangalore'
Habitat for Humanity India
No.54/A,3rd Cross,
Kavery Layout,
Thavarekere Main Road,
Bangalore - 560079
Tel: +91 - 80 - 41114884
Mobile: +91-9449814148
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