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Happy Thanksgiving!!

I know that you all feel grateful for the roof over your heads, food on the table everyday, clothes on my backs and hope in our futures. We are very lucky to have the bare essentials.

This year we shared our Thanksgiving with 18 people, of whom only four had ever experienced Thanksgiving before. We were made up of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and people without a religion. We came from Iran, India, America, China, Croatia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Catalina, Bolivia, and Germany. And we shared a lot of fun, laughter and music. Since so few had experienced Thanksgiving the other American couple and Ed and I cooked the traditional foods such as turkey, stuffing, cranberries, rolls, pumpkin pie, and yams with marshmallows. Others brought a variety of salads and cake. Everyone was shocked by the turkey and took pictures and oohed and ah-ed over it's size. Ed spoke of the things that we were grateful for and asked for others to chime in and they did. I then talked about the various traditional foods and what they were. And we all tucked in. Afterwards we sat around talking, putting together a puzzle, drinking and singing. The Spanish man plays the acoustic guitar so we sang Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, the Ukrainian woman sang some beautiful Russian songs. All in all it was a good holiday. I wish my sons had been here but they went to their grandparents house in Tennessee so they were well taken care of this year.

The Swedish celebrate Christmas with as much, if not more, exuberance as we Americans do. Their official opening was on Sunday. I went off to a Jul market first to buy arts and crafts and traditional Swedish breads and sausages. They had little booths set up all over in a medieval village setting at the living history museum. Costumed musicians played in one of the rooms in a medieval building. You can see a short video clip that I took and is an attachment to this email. Most of the booths were outside and thick with thousands of people. Everyone had samples to try and I bought some lovely breads and Christmas ornaments.

After this I met up with Ed and we wandered about Lund. There are many squares and plazas so we went from one to the next seeing the sights. The boy scouts had an open house in one building for children to make crafts. In one plaza a magician popped one egg after another out of his mouth to the excitement of hundreds of spectators. We drank hot glog like hot mulled cider to warm up our innards and scarfed down a giant dark brown sausage. Lotteries were everywhere and you could win money for guessing the size of a huge Christmas tree. You had to guess down to the meters and centimeters though so we didn't give it a try. Another plaza had carnival rides. It gets dark here by four o'clock when a band came tooting their horns, and tweedling their flutes with baton twirlers in front. We followed them to a small park where crowds stood in the cold night under the twinkly little lights everywhere in the trees. We then continued on to the plaza near the train station where a rock band was warming up. By this time I had been on my feet for about five hours and felt the need to warm up also. So Ed and I trundled back to our guest house to eat leftover turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings.

A few days ago I started a painting of a coffee shop in an old brick building. When I was setting up this man came up and started talking with me. He said he was a poet. So as I painted he quoted two beautiful poems for me. One was from 600 ad and the other he wrote himself.

As I painted the day was getting colder and darker. The sun goes down here at about 5:30 or so. So the painting looks a bit like an Edward Hopper painting. After a bit some university students came up. At Lund University students are put together in groups for instant friends to counteract depression and loneliness during their first year in the university. These groups have also various silly tasks that they have to do together to build comraderie. So the students had this giant stuffed penguin for which they had some task that they had to do. They asked me if I would teach their penguin to paint for a few minutes and they would take my photo. So I agreed. I was quite happy to do this as the penguin was very warm and I was soooo cold. I held a paint brush in its flipper and then talked to it softly and showed it how to paint the windows in my painting and wash the brush. The students were delighted.

I have been fortunate in making some wonderful friends in Sweden. Marta took me to meet some of her friends here. One of her friends is a craftsman who had a stroke about a month and a half ago. She has a lovely tiny studio and house but she couldn't work because of her stroke. She didn't want her studio to be unused so she suggested that I use it while I am here. She lives out in the country so twice I have gone to paint there. The plan is that I will give her some painting lessons in exchange. So yesterday I taught her about the color wheel and how to mix colors. She loved it.

Another recent painting is of a 1738 stable. I am standing inside the archway of a castle to keep from freezing to death and being blown over by the wind. The castle may be a manor house rather than a castle, I am not sure. It is not much bigger than most of the Mc Mansions in the US. Well, the picture seemed a bit bleak so I added the two horses from photos. Ed thinks the little filly is too cute and I should stick with only the older horse and paint out the young one. I can't decide if the little one detracts too much. What do you think?

The other thing I have been doing these last few weeks is reworking my website. It is finally updated and ready to be viewed. My nephew created the slide show for me and I filled in the paintings. It feels like state of the art to me and quite beautiful. I would love to have your comments. You can find it at www.sandrahansen.com. If you are interested in commissioning me to paint your family, pets, favorite landscape, or friends from photos that you email me let me know.

It has been a very busy week. Last Thursday I was invited to my new friend, Marta's house. She lives about 15 km from Lund in the village of Bjarred on the edge of the sea. We went out to her house after work at about three. First she served me a lovely snack of something that was like rose hip applesauce that she made. It didn't have any applesauce just rose-hips, sugar and water. The rose hips are really big and red here and very pretty. She made up some whip cream that wasn't stiff and we put that on top. We had biscuits and tea also.
Then we went on bicycles out to the sauna. It is out on the longest pier in Sweden, way, way out in the sea. The sea is not very deep for a long way out which is why it is so far out there. So there is a male and female side. You get undressed and head out doors into the cold misty rain and into the sauna. There were three levels of benches and a corner floor to ceiling window that looked out at the sea. After we got really hot we went back outdoors, down some steps and into the most frigid water that you have ever felt. The first time I made it up past my ankles. But when we got back in the warm sauna I realized why you go into the water like that. So the second time I managed to get in up to my hips and the third time I may have gotten in up to my arm pits. It actually feels terrific. We then showered off and went back to her house.

After a sauna you eat. First we had homemade applesauce mixed with rice pudding. Then we had the thinnest wasa type crisps you have ever seen. They were spread with butter and then thin slices of cheese. They were delicious. Next we had "toppers" I think they are called. These are like a thin wafer with marshmallow creme piled about 2 1/2 inches or more and dipped in chocolate. They are one of my favorite foods here. More tea or coffee of course also. We ate our meal on a beautiful old antique sofa in her 100 year old house. Then we listened to music. It was a wonderful evening.

On Saturday and Sunday we rented a car for sightseeing. We went to the East Coast of Sweden to see Ale Stenar which is the Swedish form of Stonehenge. It is about the size of half a football field. Originally it was a burial ground. They would bury a ship (in this case the size of half of a football field) and then put about 56 large stones all around the edge of the boat. The important person's remains were put in the ship with all of the things that they would need to survive in the next world. Then all but the stones were covered over with earth.

We also saw a huge mural made from apples. See picture. I am sorry that I couldn't get the greens to show up nicely. This mural was made on a board that was standing vertically. As the apples were placed on top of each other nails were put into the board to hold them in place. It is quite amazing. It must have been 25 feet tall at least.

Sunday some friends went with us to Nimis and Arx. It looks like a giant matchstick sculpture. This was made by an art professor from Oslo in secret in a nature reserve over a two year period. It then spent years in court, getting burned down, built up burned again, built again and so forth. It is all made from driftwood and quite amazing. You could climb all over it, which we did. When you got to the top these structures tended to sway a bit in the wind, which was disconcerting. It was the most embraceable art that I have ever met.

Since I had the car today, I went out driving about until I found a good place to paint. So I painted a barn with a thatch roof that was built in 1738. When I came back and dropped off the car, I went to get my bike and it had been stolen. I was very sorry about that. Luckily Ed has a bike so I will get the seat lowered so that I can ride it. It is not as nice as the one I had though. It is easy to rent bikes here so if I want to go on a long bike ride I will just do that.

We are really settling into life here in Lund. I try to use my mornings to paint and the afternoons are for other things. My painting class on Friday mornings has started and I have joined a group of international women on Thursday afternoons. I have made a few friends and go out to lunch sometimes with them.


I went to the marketplace one day and did a painting of a flower seller who sits there most afternoons. When I was in the square last week I bought some flowers from him and started another painting in the same square.

In another newsletter I complained of the high prices of food in Norway. $5 for a cup of coffee and no free refills! In Denmark a glass of tap water at the restaurant cost $2! Sweden however has its priorities correct however. Free water in restaurants, $.75 for chocolate croissants and my flower seller sold me 3 roses, a gerbera daisy and a carnation for $3!

The Island of Ven is where Tyco Brae set up his planetarium and was the first scientist to start a systematic study of the stars. Ed and I took the ferry over last Sunday. We decided to rent a tandem bicycle instead of two separate bikes. I had not really ridden on one before. I had to be in the back since the front seat was stuck too high for me. I tell you, it was difficult to give up control! I couldn't see all that well straight ahead, couldn't steer at all and had limited ability to even brake. We also had to learn to start at the same time. It was definitely a lesson to teach marital compatibility. We went all over the island, up and down hills and had a great time. We saw Tyco Brae's planetarium and museum. Despite his incredible scientific vision I felt sorry for the islanders when he came however. The fisherman and farming islanders had previously been basically free. When Tyco Brae came however they were forced to pay him taxes worth two days of work each week! When I got home I painted one of the fishing boats from a photo.

The painting above I did from a photo of the fjords in Norway. The photo does not do the painting justice. It is one of my favorite paintings I have done on this trip, although the flower seller one is nice also.

In my painting class I get to learn a bit about the culture of Sweden. Class starts at 9 a.m. The white haired teacher has a lovely white goatee and mustache and sets up a small still life. All of the students but one in this class are grey and white haired old ladies. So we set into painting. It is quiet, with little talking and no music until 10:30 when we take a coffee break. Each person takes a turn bringing the snack during the semester. Snacks are homemade bread with various cheeses, usually a creamy one and a large block of something else, olives, grapes, cucumbers, fruits, and green peppers. Everyone chats away in Swedish and I nod knowingly without a clue as to what they are saying. The first week the younger woman who is an architect translated. She wasn't there last week so one of the older woman told me at one point that they were talking about graves and left it at that. She had wondered when I would start talking Swedish and like many Swedish people that I have met. She was very surprised when I told here that I didn't know anyone who spoke Swedish had almost never heard any Swedish until about a month ago. After snacks we paint for a short while and then do the critique. Since the teacher is not comfortable with speaking English I get summaries of what was said. The week the younger woman was there she translated for me. I hope she comes back this week since she was a lot of fun to talk with. She is very animated.

Tonight we are having Ed's colleagues for dinner. He is very anxious that the dinner be special so we are making an Indian dinner. We have had to go all over looking for the ingredients or things that we can make do with. Yesterday I taught myself to make paneer, an Indian cheese that is very good. I found the recipe on the internet. I have to make more today since a quart of cream makes a very small amount of paneer. But it is really, really tasty when you make it yourself.

We have been back in Norway this week. Ed's father who is 83 joined us and we rented a car to drive over. We did not go as far to the North as two weeks ago, but to some incredibly spectacular scenery anyway. Yesterday we drove down a road that wasn't on the map and went into a national park. We debated whether we should pay the $10 toll for the 10 km or so drive. Curiosity prevailed and we took the road. We had no idea that Norway is as beautiful as it is. We thought the fjords last week were incredible, but this road was even more so. Every fifty feet someone was saying, "Stop! We must take a picture!" It took us hours to get to the end of the road where we took a hike into the mountains which surrounded the most iridescent blue lakes. Each step seemed to get more beautiful, each mountain higher, each cliff more dramatic, each waterfall longer and wider, each glacier bigger than the last. We were talking to a local person today about taking a ferry down one of the most spectacular fjords in Norway and his response was, "I guess it is spectacular, if you aren't used to it!" We just about died laughing later. We wondered if Norwegians would think that Kansas was spectacular since they aren't used to it.

Norway is an incredibly expensive country. We were astounded when Ed and Robin bought coffee only to discover that it was $5 a cup. We are not talking about lattes or espressos either. The only coffee available is regular. Robin assumed that there would be free refills. There aren't as we discovered too late.

In the picture on the right we were driving through the National Park and we saw a herd of goats by a roadside stand. So we stopped. The owner of the stand was a hearty fellow with face wizened, tanned, and wrinkled from the sun but his hair was thick and brown without a trace of gray but totally natural. I believe he was one of the Samis that live there. They have herded reindeer, goats, made handicrafts from wool, bone, and other natural items. He didn't speak English but he was selling homemade sausage, goats cheese, and other things that I didn't recognize. He gave me a little bit of something soft and brown to sample which I think may have been some cheese. It was called pym I think. It was sort of sweet and I thought it would be good on crackers so I bought some to try. I also tried his goat cheese, but didn't like it as much so I bought the brown cheese. We have eaten it, but it is a little hard to get used to. While we were sampling and choosing, the goats decided it was time to go and left causing a traffic jam for the next ten minutes.

Today we climbed up to a glacier. We had been told it was an easy 45 minute walk in. I think this was probably true for a goat. Ed's dad is not up to 45 minute walks but there was a boat ride to take him across the mountain lake to the glacier. Robin and I walked, or I should say, climbed over rocks to get there and Ed took the boat with his dad. Because the water was low, the boat did not go particularly close to the glacier so Ed's dad had to walk to get there. Because of a knee and hip replacement he is not particularly spry, but he made it farther than I expected. We found him a rock to sit on with a good view and Robin, Ed and I went the rest of the way. The glacier had a sky blue tint to it and was like a bunch of ice cubes half melted together with rocks and dirt. It was quite amazing. There was a rushing river coming out of the bottom of it. I will try to post more pictures soon. Ed was thrilled to have gotten to the glacier as he had never been near one before and here he is a geologist who teaches about glaciers in his courses.

This painting is of fjord that we went up in the boat ride. There are no words to describe the beauty of the fjords. My painting is a good start I hope.

My trip around the world has officially begun. We arrived in Sweden almost two weeks ago. The first week was spent getting settled in, getting phone service, rental bikes, buying things we couldn't bring with us and doing a small typical tourist tour "Around the Sound" in one day. Our guesthouse is a beautiful old stucco turn of the century building. There is a giant kitchen with two stoves and sinks where people gather to cook, eat and talk. Our own room is large and yellow and has a wall full of windows facing two apple trees laden with apples in the garden. There are about 12 guests who stay in the guest house for periods from a month to up to 2.5 years. So we are getting to know people from Australia, Ukraine, Iran, France, and Portugal. One night we had a potluck and everyone sat around singing songs in the living room afterwards. Two Spanish guests joined us as well. The young woman had a beautiful voice and her boyfriend played the guitar. Their eyes would meet and when they sang their passion and love shone in their looks and their voices.

The Around the Sound Tour took us from Lund north on the train to Helsingborg where we looked at the remnants of an old church. We then took a ferry across the sound to Denmark and the city of Helsingor where we visited a monastery and an old palace. The train then took us down to Copenhagen for dinner and back to Lund. It was uneventful except for when we arrived at the palace we noticed that I was missing my bag with wallet, passport, and about $1000 worth of Krons, the Swedish money. So Ed ran back to the church arriving just as the bride did for a wedding. The usher naturally would not let Ed in. He didn't speak any English and didn't know what this madman was jabbering about anyway. The father of the bride understood Ed however and directed the usher to the place where they had moved my bag and he went and got it. The bride probably never even noticed anything amiss as she seemed preoccupied by other things.

Our son Paul arrived a few days ago. He had worked at Lund University also for a summer job. After that was over he traveled around Sweden for a bit and then went down to Turkey for a few days before coming here. So we set off with him on our vacation to Northern Sweden. We had hoped to go to within the Artic Circle but have decided the time and expense was too much. We are not so far from it, but who wants to spend all of their time driving and no time hiking? So we went to the High Coast for a few days.

One day we went hiking in the national park wilderness area to see some incredible cliffs. Despite having twisted my ankle on some rocks the day before, I decided to fill up on aspirin and go with Ed and Robin. We planned to hike four km in and four out or maybe a bit more out. However, we got mixed up as to where we actually parked and where we thought we had parked since some Swedish words look pretty similar if you aren't paying attention. Well we were in rain gear but we got pretty wet anyway. The trees were delicious midtone greens and dark greens with grays in the distance and brilliant lime greens on the ferns in the front. The wet roots all over the paths were either very black or often orange color. After a long time we were very tired and thought that we should have arrived at the cliffs. So we talked to two women backpackers who told us that we were on the wrong trail. There was a hiking hut nearby which they had just vacated so we went in, ate our lunch and warmed up.

The Swedes have these wonderful huts everywhere for hikers to use for free. It was clean and new and outfitted with large plastic cans of water, six comfy beds, a store of wood, and everything you would need in an emergency. There were also decks of cards, candles, pots and pans. And it was so pretty as well with curtains on the windows.

After a lunch we started off again with another four km to get to the cliffs. Again it started raining. As we started climbing the trail became nothing more that a rushing stream coming down over large craggy rocks. We went up the mountain this way with the trail becoming progressively more difficult with sharp knee high sized rocks in all different directions jumbling down the mountain. Finally we got to the top, took pictures and discovered that the more impressive cliffs were still ahead of us. These were huge cliffs rising out of the mists on either side of us. The went straight up a hundred feet. There were hollow sounds in there when your foot knocked a rock.

After passing the cliffs we went about another mile over only slightly easier terrain to another hut, a bit smaller and darker and next to a misty lake. The two women backpackers had already arrived and were getting comfortable. We stopped in there for a snack and to dry up a bit. When I say dry up a bit, I only mean that we were out of the rain. Our blue jeans were soaking wet up to the butt. My rain coat soaked through on the sleeves, but my trunk was dry. My hair was matted and soaked flat to my head. In a half hour sitting out of the rain, one doesn't really dry up. We were just out of the rain and not dripping anymore. We decided to take a different trail for the last leg of our trip. By now we were getting tired and still had over six km to get back to our car. We decided to go back by way of the Baltic coast trail. A little after leaving the second hut the hiking got a little easier. The rocks were not so craggy; they were like walking on rounded humps now. There was pale green and black lichen everywhere contrasting nicely with dark wet scraggly northern fir trees and the pink granite rocks. On one of these rocks however I had just finished taking some photos when I slipped in a puddle. My camera went flying and as my face hit hard in the mud I heard a very painful crack in the camera. This is or I should say was the best camera I have every owned and I use it almost daily. My thigh hit some sort of rock and I got a swollen bruise there the size of my hand, another on my right knee and mouth full of leaves, twigs, and black puddle water.

I was really glad the Olympics had been on TV a lot. I had watched these athletes when they slipped, and cry when they lost. I had thought about how hard they had worked for their dreams and sometimes made it and sometimes didn't. Not only that, but their defeats were on TV all over the world and in huge stadiums full of people. But these intrepid athletes ALWAYS picked themselves back up and tried to make the best of it and went on to the next round of competition. I thought about falling down and getting a couple of bruises, losing a favorite camera and decided that even if I am not in the Olympics I could take them as my example. We all had some chocolate, I washed my face in a puddle, and we started hiking back to the car.

It took me three days to get the courage up to look at my camera closely. It was not totally broken, only the LCD screen was smashed. I can still take pictures and look at the pictures I have taken through the little view finder. It seems that this view isn't very good as it seems a bit pixelated, but the photos are coming out well anyway.

After this we moved on to the really mountainous part of Sweden. We hiked up more mountains and saw beautiful views. We then went on to the fjords of Norway which were the most beautiful and spectacular wilderness that we had ever seen. But what is interesting is that for me the highlight of the trip were the cliffs rising out of the mist on the day my camera got bruised.

It has been an eventful few days. Most of this week I spent in Betawar in the village.

On Friday I had a small exhibit and we tried to start the Artists' Network. About 25 people came, and admired my pictures. Artist friends Rogesh, Vallery, and the museum curator, Navel Krishna came and also a BHU prof of painting came who was very interested. He liked my paintings quite a lot. Some community people came as well. So I should call it a success.
Yesterday I went to the village Dalit Freedom School near Allahabad. I had invited Nita's daughter Nandini to come since she was doing a project on Dalits. We had an enjoyable ride there. We were met by someone in the village on a motor bike who drove us to the school with two more scooters following in the cavalcade. When we alighted from the car, the children were dressed very nicely in their school uniforms and standing in lines on either side of the side walk. As we walked down the sidewalk to the school they tossed flower petals in our path!!!!
Everyone should have flower petals strewn in their paths once in their lives. I wondered if they had mixed me up with the queen, but I didn't see her around anywhere. Then we toured the school. The children were not having regular classes that day so they were at their desks mostly pretending to study. Only two classes were actually trying to teach the children. One room had no teacher with them at all. Two babies were in classrooms. The buildings were new, clean and spacious with beautiful fields all around. The principal said that they were waiting for new books, but I didn't understand why they weren't using the books that they had already and pass them on to the younger children. Then we had snacks. Then four girls did a dance performance for me with the teachers arranged around. The second dance had two girls. After that we were finally able to do the workshop. First we talked about how art affects us and what art is and why we do art. Then we did the color wheel and after that we painted portraits. While painting the portraits the principal kept saying it was snack time again. So we had to finish up the portraits in a hurried manner. We cleaned up, everyone got gulab jamons (a delicious ball of yellow milk something soaked in sugar water) and another treat that would have done me in if I had eaten it. Then the principal was very unhappy because I couldn't stay for lunch and do another class. But the paints were all cleaned up and I didn't want to start all over and Nandini had a meeting she wanted to attend and we still had a 2 1/2 hour drive home.

So all of the teachers and students were again arranged in the classroom and they stood up and said what they loved about the workshop. It was really heartfelt. They really liked learning about the magic of the color wheel and how you can add two colors and get a third. They said that they now had new ideas about what art was. Another talked about how he couldn't figure out why he should come to a workshop on drawing before he came but now he saw the value and had the opportunity to draw with color and he really liked it. I was then given a wrapped gift that later I found out it was a Madubani painting of peacocks, which is a traditional Indian style with outlines and filled in color on brown paper with vegetable colors.

After we got back, in the evening, Nita invited me to a Mundan ceremony which is when a three year old gets their first head shaving. So I got dressed up again and we went. It was a very elaborate affair with a catered meal with wait staff in uniforms and tables arranged with buffet all around the perimeter of the courtyard. The garden was decorated with little lights everywhere and women were dressed in their best saris with gold borders and studded with mirrors, rhinestones and sequins in a huge array of beautiful colors. The little boy with his newly shaved head was dressed in beige and maroon fancy Indian clothes with lovely matching little Indian slippers with turned up toes and maroon tassels on the tips. His suit was beige with gold and he had a maroon scarf with gold. He looked like a mini maharajah. Being touched and hugged by a hundred cheery men and women was not to his liking however and he clung to his mommy and daddy who were also color coordinated with him. His mother had a lovely chiffon beige sari with silver sequins cascading all over it and his father had a maroon shirt.

This morning Nita, Nandini, and I went to the house of one of my new friends, Vallery and her mother. The house was large and new, with stone floors inlaid with other stones. There was air conditioning with fans. Four inlaid wooden doors with glass windows went from the living room to the next room. The servant brought more food than I could eat, but I did my best. There were idlies (sort of round rice cakes), samber (spicy sauce for the idlies), coconut chutney for the idlies, toast, Boston beans for on top of the toast, mango milk shakes, jellabies (similar to the fried rosettes one used to get in New Orleans). My stomach is still full. We looked at Vallery's paintings and chit chatted along in Hindi and English. Vallery had a new fish bowl with two goldfish. Her mother claimed to speak limited English but I never had trouble understanding her. She had the most beautiful light blue sari with gold border. I hope I didn't look like I was slobbering over it.
Tonight we are going to a concert that Vallery's mother invited us to.

Tuesday I took the express train to Delhi from Varanasi. It took 17 hours plus the extra four hours that it was late. I arrived in Delhi and eventually found the driver that I had hired for the day. I say eventually since it was not so easy as it should have been. We were to meet at the ATM machine, but the train station has a front and back side which are not close together. I wanted to go to the main or front side. I hired a coolie to carry my two suitcases on his head and we left the platform went up the long stairs over the platform across many train tracks and down the long steps. However, we were then on the wrong side. I paid off my coolie who disappeared in a twinkle, before I realized my mistake. Eventually, I called him on the phone and he showed up.

After cleaning up and some breakfast I went to visit two galleries that I was hoping would sell my paintings. It turns out that neither one was actually a gallery. However, the first place I stopped off at was the house of a man who collected Indian antiquities and dealt in those. My heart sank thinking he wouldn't be interested in my more modern work. We had a strong connection with Mussoorie India which is his beloved hometown and I had just finished a number of paintings there. He and his wife invited me for lunch and we chatted on for quite a while about Mussoorie, friends in common, the economic plight of America and politics, and places to travel to. In the end he proposed helping me set up an exhibit in Delhi in February and I was very excited about the whole proposition. He would get the sponsors, line up the gallery and I would come and paint scenes of Delhi to sell. He even knew of a free place for artists to stay and paint near Delhi. We will start work on this right away. The other contact I met with was a very good and delightful cushion salesman. Instead of selling my paintings to him, he convinced me to buy $200 worth of his scarves and cushion covers, and beaded bags to sell to my friends in America. So money went out instead of flowing in. It was really a delightful afternoon. I bought a quick dinner and caught my plane home in the evening.

What a joy it is to sleep in my own bed again.

This week my foreign exchange student, Annina from Switzerland came to visit me in Varanasi, India for three days. I had a lovely time with her and her friend Nadine. I am totally worn out. We mostly went shopping and visiting artisans. We took the boat ride, but the river was swollen and it was a bit rough on the way back. Nothing really serious, but more exciting than usual. One day we went out to the village and they wandered all over. I helped Nita plant some trees. Annina and Nadine tried on my saris and looked lovely. Since Annina wanted to buy one we went sari shopping. I bought one, black with a beautifully embroidered pallu (end that hangs over the shoulder.) It has a sort of pinky beige for the embroidery and it is lines of embroidered women, some with peacocks. Everything here has peacocks on it.

The 4th passed me by totally. No one here celebrates it obviously and there is too much rain for picnics to be planned. I had promised to make bar b qued chicken but forgot all about it and no one reminded me. I think we had casserole that night which actually was really good. The food has improved here considerably. Different cook. They tried out a new cook to hire the other day, but no one was impressed with his food so he doesn't seem to have been hired.

This week I did teacher training. Yesterday and the day before I worked very hard helping the new teachers get ready for their first year of teaching. At the beginning of the week they all looked so unsure of themselves and eager to please. Now they look far more ready, and most of them have gotten comfortable with using paint and art supplies which was brand new territory for most of them. We worked with learning how to use paints, and I taught beginning painting classes. The teachers who have been around for a while are finally starting to get the hang of how to paint. This year I also gave a 1/2 hour talk on why we should do art in school so they were all ready and excited about art. School starts tomorrow and I had to help them make signs for the walls, decorate bulletain boards, and I made signs for the less capable and busier ones. The fanciest sign was the body parts. I made a person and labelled everything. I got too detailed though and didn't know when to stop. I also made a clock with moveable hands for teaching time. We made signs for all of the classrooms for where to put shoes, water bottles, school bags and so forth. I often thought about my first trip here in 2005 and I was running around teaching painting and the teachers and the servants looked at me like I was a crazy woman, why was I creating all this mess, and for what? I shlepped my own water for washing up everywhere, my clothes were always paint splattered and no one talked with me. This year there was a respect for what I was doing, teaching, and a willingness to help, learn, and much more interaction. Sometimes I have wondered why I am here, but I think that this week has made a difference in the teacher's and their student's lives. It has been a good week.

We went to a movie last night that was a bit of Mary Poppins mixed with the Sound of Music. This filthy rich man killed four children's parents in a car crash so the judge ordered him to become their parents. So an angel from heaven (Geeta) comes down to be the nanny. The rest is obvious. I only occasionally needed a translator since visually everything was so obvious.

The other day I was wearing a new crisply starched sari and as soon as I left NIRMAN to go to the internet cafe it started to rain. I started hoping it would be a short drizzle so I wouldn't have to take an auto rickshaw instead of the cheaper bicycle one. This is worrrying about spending 10 cents over a quarter!!! Ridiculous for an American. My artist friend, KM teaches painting two afternoons a week in schools. He makes $25 a month. His son also works, although he was sick for two months and couldn't work. The son is working again now.



Was that a mouse running across the floor??? It ran under the desk next to me if there was one.



This week I went to visit another artist friend, Rogesh. We saw his artist studio which w (Yes! it was a mouse! This letter will end soon.) was in a 5 x 5 space on the first floor. His mother invited us up to the living space. The house which is of traditional design has a courtyard- in this case very tiny, about 6 x 6 feet - that goes up through the center of the building. Small rooms come off from the courtyard and there is a balcony all around on each floor. We sat on the roof and Rogesh's sister did henna on our hands. We chatted and had tea. It was very enjoyable. There was a nice view up there.



Well, it is time to go.

It has been a busy last few days. Karie left today for Delhi, Poland and beyond. I enjoyed having her. Although the trip was a hard one for her due to culture shock, she weathered it all well.

We taught arts and crafts classes for the last few days in Betawar which I enjoyed. I had about 40 students but I also had a number of teachers who were helping as well. They were good at maintaining order and translating. Karie did a good job teaching part of the time and took one of the days totally when I was too sick to go. She really liked being in the village, and I did as well. It was so beautiful and quiet.

The last day I went (yesterday) the Ganges, which runs along side of the village school in Betawar, was moving very quickly. It wasn't raining at that time but we had a deluge for about 20 minutes on the way home and the streets quickly flooded and then the waters went away. I had painted early in the morning on the Ganges in Varanasi yesterday and it had been its usual slow brown water. This morning when I went to paint in Varanasi the river had risen something like 35 feet and was higher than it had been in 40 years. It was all the way up to where the flower sellers sit and almost no steps below the main walkway. I had a young woman (Vullarie) with me and she said we couldn't walk along the walkway at all past the music hostel because of the flooding. So we walked along the new ghat steps and found a semi dry spot to paint. Many people were at the ghats to bathe in the flood waters and others made dip nets from old saris and were crabbing. The usual morning sounds are chanting, bells, hawkers selling flowers and other things, boatmen looking for tourists for boat rides etc. This morning was very quiet. Everyone was just looking at the water. We also saw some women that my friend said were pilgrims from the south. Many of the women had shaved heads. She said that they were not widows but aesthetics. But she didn't know much about them.

Naval Krishna, Nita, Karie and Nandini and I went to Sarnath on Sunday. Naval took us visiting to his rich friends on the way there and back. Naval had gone with us to Mussoorie and I had met him previously but got to know him a bit better. His family once owned half of Banaras. He is the third and/or youngest son and is the curator of the museum at BHU. I mentioned him before. At Sarnath we looked at many Buddha statues in the museum. Normally I could have covered that territory in about 10 minutes but we managed it this time in an hour or two. I learned a lot about the Buddha's life, why they are carved in the way that they are carved etc. Then we went for ice cream and skipped the archaeological digs altogether. We also went to one of the Buddhist temples and the tree under which he preached his sermon.

I really enjoyed the visits to his friends/relatives houses. He described them as filthy rich. The first one looked it. His house looked like the White House and had a beautiful formal garden with a circle of grass in front. We drove down a long private road to get there. The living room was lovely yet simple and two stories high. All around the room was etched glass. The furniture was fancy wood and in impeccable shape, and comfortable. He had a library on the second floor which he showed us. All of the floors were stone, white marble in my memory. His wife showed us all over her art school which was lovely. There was a room for painting, another for music, dance, etc. We saw my old friend, Rogesh, drawing in one room. He had once worked at Nirman teaching art, had put up a mosaic and done art camp the first year at Betawar with me.

The second visit was to a house equally large, built by the British colonials. There were three huge trucks in the manicured front circle. Debris and left over junk graced the large porches/ verandas. The living room had been paneled in wainscoting and modern ugly middle class furniture decorated the room. However they served us onion pakoras which were like onion rings and quite delicious.

The last house was another large British colonial building also. It was still in the old style with the old wood, stone floors, and paintings and old photos. It felt like time hadn't passed at all. Men lounged in comfortable chairs on the veranda and we had a lovely conversation in an upstairs sitting room with the husband and wife who both once painted, and had a son who had a hobby art gallery. It was a delightful visit.

I feel that I have finally been fully accepted by the staff at Nirman. Some already had accepted me, but now others feel almost like friends. The teachers who went with me to Betawar for art camp actually participated more this time and were trying to create the projects themselves. I also asked the teachers which project the kids might enjoy more of two that I couldn't decide between, and they gave their opinion. Afterwards they were asking me questions about when I was returning, and my family etc. Before they had never showed much interest. We laughed together about things and said we were friends now. Also this morning, I went to get some tea in the kitchen and Kanty who is so taciturn invited me to sit with her and another woman cook in the kitchen to drink it. So I did and we talked in Hindi about the flooded river. I was quite proud of myself for carrying on a few sentences. Not that I understood that Kanti was discussing fish at one point I found out later.

The night I had gotten sick Nita and Karie and I had gone to visit the artisans. Suddenly I knew I had to go home immediately because I was going to throw up. I had felt it coming on for a day and a half. So we left. I got home, lay down for about 15 minutes and then threw up in the toilet three times in quick succession. I didn't feel great the next morning so I stayed home, but was fine after that. However, being in Varanasi during the monsoon has some pitfalls. The main one is the bugs find the city delightful. During the time I laid down I had left the light on. The moths were attracted to the light so when I went into the bathroom they all went there as well and there must have been hundreds and then died instantly in the bathroom. Meanwhile the giant cockroaches also decided to make their appearance. Only one that night but two more the next day. And the ants with the wings have descended on my bathroom in lakhs (unimaginable numbers) as well. You have no idea how disgusting the whole thing was. Luckily, Nita poked her head in to see how I was and I told her I needed someone to clean up the mess. She got a maid to do it. Usually I don't mention my bad experiences, but I am hoping that this one will get funnier with time.
For a few pictures go to www.snapfish.com. Login with my email shansen@wmol.com and use the password peeper. Open the India album with the most recent date.

Well plans are getting made for all of my travels to India and my trip around the world. I leave for India on June 4 and return on July 16th. While I am there I will participate in Art Camp in Mussoorie which is an opportunity for artists from various disciplines such as art, music, writing etc to get together and create their own art, take walks, and so forth. Afterwards we return to Varanasi to teach art to children and their teachers. The arts are not taught in India very often so there are few teachers. Many children and adults have never or rarely picked up a paint brush in their lives. I am involved in a non profit organization called Nirman which has two schools and a focus on the arts. One of our schools is in Varanasi, the other is in a village called Betawar. The picture you see is of a group of some of the people at Art Camp at Betawar. Everyone gets to learn -from the servant on the left to the children, to the teacher (the young woman with the black shawl), to the teacher's grandmother in the back.

This summer we are going to focus heavily on painting. We will have separate classes for teachers and students so that the teachers will learn enough so that they can teach the students. I plan to talk about the need for the arts the school as well. I would like to do a Powerpoint presentation on art history but I don't have a projector. Perhaps I can make some posters. Since our school has no electricity from 9-2 every day I would need a projector that could run on batteries or do the art history in the afternoon. I would also like to teach the color wheel, monochromatic painting and about contrasts, shadows and light. I think we will have the classes for about a week. We will also do some arts and crafts as well though I haven't planned those yet and would love some good ideas. In the past we have done paper making, paper mache and origami.

The other thing I will be working on in Varanasi is setting up an artist's network at the schools. Varanasi is teeming with artists. They can't get fair prices for their work though. Many cannot afford art education either. But they meet to talk and paint on the water's edge next to forts and palaces and the religious pilgrims, and the tourists. We want to create a network so that our school can meet the local artists and learn from them. We also want to have a place for them to hold exhibits at our schools. We have a small store at our school, perhaps we can find a way to help them sell their art. So my job is to start contacting artists and set up a meeting for them at Nirman.

Next I will be heading off to two small villages north of Allahabad. There are two schools which have been set up by the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN) for minority students called Dalits, or otherwise known as the unscheduled castes. I am interested in what the DFN is about so I have contacted them to teach some art classes there. These schools are in tiny villages, one of which I cannot find on Google Maps. So I will need to take the train to Allahabad and then possibly a bus to get closer or possibly a taxi. I think that the taxi will be expensive but will be about $15 a day for two days. With two large suitcases, and no idea of exactly where I am going it might make more sense to take the taxi.

I get home in mid July and will have three weeks to get ready for my trip painting around the world for a year. But I plan to paint my way around the world and teach free painting classes as I go. I am also hoping to exchange paintings for hotel stays in the pricier countries. I will write more on that later.

I have been busy fundraising for the last few weeks for Nirman. I have raised or donated enough money to almost sponsor one child for one year at NIRMAN. Yesterday I had a rummage sale and raised $70 for that fund. Two others donated items for the sale. I am going to have another sale in two weeks as well. Another friend donated $100 for art supplies. Today I went on Dick Blick to look for supplies and the $100 isn't going to be enough for the four schools I don't think. I would like to be able to leave paints and brushes behind at all of the schools so that they will be able to continue painting when I am gone. The two Nirman schools don't need paints as we have had enough donated in the last few years, but the brushes do need to be replaced.

If you would like to donate to this cause you can do so in a number of ways.

1. Send me your extra painting supplies, brushes, paints and so forth to Sandra Hansen, 227 W. 19th St Holland, MI 49423
2. Send me any amount of money towards art supplies and my travel expenses to the DFN schools. I want to buy tempera paints in either the cakes or powdered form. The cakes are smaller and easier to travel with, but the powdered is less expensive. You can send me a check, or through Paypal I can do Paypal or a credit card.
a. You can send a check to Sandra Hansen, 227 W. 19th St Holland, MI 49423
b. For credit card or Paypal send me an email letting me know the amount and your email address and I send you an invoice that allows you to send me money that way.
3. I have a wish list on Dick Blick. You can go to http://www.dickblick.com/wishlist/mywishlist.asp and search for my wish list (sandra hansen) and buy any supplies that I have listed there. The canvas pads are for my own use so ignore them, all others are for the children's use.
4. If you have a power point projector I would like to have or borrow one for showing pictures of paints throughout history and throughout the world. If it can run on batteries or be fixed to run on batteries that would be especially useful.

I hope you can help. I will be sending pictures back when I can.