6 Mar 2011: We embarked on our Seva 2011 journey from Singapore to Bangalore with overnight stop at Chennai.

Our first destination was the Art of Living International Centre (ashram) in Bangalore where Jin attended the Basic Course in our first week there; Jin and Alvin attended the Advanced Course together in second week. Robyn also attended the YES! Course at the same period when Jin and Alvin were on the Advanced Course.

Divine Karnataka Project (www.divinekarnatakaproject.org) - DKP is a volunteer-led social transformation initiative to uplift the less privileged people in the slum and rural communities across Karnataka State. It is a huge and holistic initiative working with 100 slums in the city and helping 500,000 people from the rural villages. This project is under VVKI, a social trust of The Art of Living. Our first seva was to help DKP develop a corporate fund raising strategy, design marketing collaterals and presentation, and assist in the design and architecture of the DKP website.

- Seva Wk 01: Art of Living Ashram, Bangalore
- Seva Wk 02: 1st Seva with Divine Karnataka Project, Bangalore
- Seva Wk 03: Sponsoring Village Sport Clubs & Chikmagalur Trip, Bangalore
- Seva Wk 04: 'WHY DKP' Corporate Fund Raising Strategy, Bangalore

We left Bangalore on 9 Apr and took an overnight train to Gadag, where we visited the DKP Rural Development efforts to help uplift the rural farmers.

We spent 11-12 March at Mr Moid Siddiqui's home in Hyderabad at his gracious invitation. It'll be a meeting of both minds and hearts on the subject of seva, training and spirituality with this distinguished trainer and author of 20 books.

On 13-17 Apr, we took in many ancient sights in Bhunbaneswar, Puri and Konark, and visited the Sri Sri University site at Cuttack.

On 18 Apr, we arrived at Ghatsila to begin our seva with the Tribal School Project (www.aoltribal.org). Mr Chawla started this amazing project 12 years ago to build schools and provide education to Tribal Children in very remote and poor tribal areas in Jharkhand. We'll stay here and give all we have till the summer heat chase us away...

On 21 Apr, we launched the Arts Festival Summer 2011, a drawing competition in which 171 children from 5 tribal schools took part. We posted the top 50 drawings onto Facebook and invited friends from all over the world to view and cast their votes.

On 10 May, we held the Digital Expression Contest when 7 teams comprising 35 tribal students from Hindoljuri Middle School presented their PowerPoint slides on the theme "What's In A Smile?" using digital pictures that they had taken and edited using PhotoShop. It was an experiential IT learning game that we designed for the Tribal School. Robyn served as their coach.

On 13 May, we celebrated the last day of school before summer break with the children, which was also Guruji's birthday, and gave away the prizes for the Arts Festival and Digital Expression Contest. We left for Kolkata that afternoon. We stayed a week at Chawlaji's home to complete our seva before leaving for Delhi.

On 22 May, we entered Himachal Pradesh, staying 3 nights at Shoghi.

On 25 May, we travelled to the Tirthan Valley and hibernated there till June.

- Seva Wk 05: DKP Rural Development for Farmers, Bangalore & Gadag
- Seva Wk 06: Hyderabad, Bhunbaneswar, Puri and Konark
- Seva Wk 07: Tribal School Project, Ghatsila
- Seva Wk 08: Tribal School Arts Festival on Facebook, Ghatsila
- Seva Wk 09: Tribal Schools in Dumuria & Ranchi
- Seva Wk 10: Tribal School Digital Expression Contest, Ghatsila & Kolkata
- Seva Wk 11: From Kolkata to Delhi to Himachal Pradesh
- Seva Wk 12: Shoghi. Shimla & Tirthan Valley in Himachal Pradesh

On 7 Jun, we travelled from Banjar in Kullu District to Rekong Peo, Sangla, Chitkul and Nako in Kinnaur District.

On 14 Jun to 2 Jul, we stayed in Kaza and Demul in Spiti Valley, and learnt about eco-community enterprise from Ecosphere.

- Seva Wk 13: Homestay @ Tirthan Valley in Himachal Pradesh
- Seva Wk 14: Sangla, Peo, Nako, Kinnaur Valley in Himachal Pradesh
- Seva Wk 15: Tabo, Kaza, Kye in Spiti Valley
- Seva Wk 16: Demul, Yak Safari to Komic in Spiti Valley

Rajasthan:
Tilonia, Ajmer

Karnataka:
Bangalore

On 4-7 Jul, we spent in Delhi.

On 8-11 Jul, we visited the Barefoot College to learn about rural education, rural community enterprise development and support from its celebrated founder, Bunker Roy.

On 12 Jul, we took our longest train journey from Jaipur to Delhi to Bangalore to support VVKI on a new seva project. We were fortunate to be hosted by Uncle Murthy and Aunt Geeta at their lovely home at Banashankari.

- Seva Wk 17: Kaza to Manali to Gurgaon, Delhi
- Seva Wk 18: Gurgaon & Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan
- Seva Wk 19: Jaipur to Delhi to Bangalore
- Seva Wk 20-21: Living with the Murthys in Bangalore
- Seva Wk 22-24: Meridian 101 at the Ashram & Bye Bye India

Kenya:
Nairobi, Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha

Tanzania:
Arusha

Uganda:
Kampala, Jinja, Mbale

On 21 Aug, we left India for Nairobi, Kenya to experience the call of the wild in the African safari and to learn the wisdom of the tribal people.

On 27 Aug, we moved in to Children's Garden Home to live with the orphans, abandoned and abused street children from the slums of Nairobi, and started our seva in Africa. It was the beginning of a 2-month seva of fantastic experience and we launched many sustainability initiatives and Little Fingy's.

On 21 Sep, we travelled to Arusha in Tanzania, and took a relaxed short break there for 3 days and we visited the Watoto Foundation and picked up some valuable ideas for sustainability projects.

On 12 Oct, we travelled to Kampala in Uganda, and did seva with the Home of Joy, a centre for physically disabled poor children in Uganda. We rafted down the mighty White Nile and Robyn got a Harry Potter scar on her forehead.

- Seva Wk 25: Return to Africa - Jambo Kenya!
- Seva Wk 26: Seva at the Children's Garden Home
- Seva Wk 27: More Seva Projects at CGH
- Seva Wk 28: Self-drive Safari to Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha, Hell's Gate
- Seva Wk 29: Short Break to Arusha, Tanzania
- Seva Wk 30: Safari at Nairobi National Park & Children's Day Celebration
- Seva Wk 31: Launching Little Fingy's BEADwear for Christmas
- Seva Wk 32: Robyn turns 13 in Kampala, Uganda
- Seva Wk 33: Rafting down the White Nile in Jinja, Uganda
- Seva Wk 34: Sipi Falls, Uganda & Back to Kenya

Kenya:
Lamu, Nairobi

Turkey:
Istanbul

Singapore

On 5 Nov, we took the overnight scenic train from Nairobi to Mombasa, then to Malindi to meet the Founder of Aiducation.org. We flew from Malindi to Lamu.

On 8-21 Nov, we arrived in Lamu to support Monika Fauth with her Hands Up For Kids project to empower children to become change-makers for a better world. She hosted us at her Banana House and we launched some wonderful initiatives together.

On 22-24 Nov, we returned to the Children's Garden Home in Nairobi to wrap up all seva projects before leaving Kenya. The children gave us a really touching farewell party on our last evening in Nairobi.

On 24-27 Nov, we stopped over for 3 days in Istanbul, Turkey. It was a lovely but very chilly (8 deg C) short holiday before we end our 'long holiday'.

On 28 Nov, after 9 months of seva journey in India and Africa, we returned home in Singapore.

- Seva Wk 35: Nairobi to Mombasa, Malindi & Lamu
- Seva Wk 36: Seva@Lamu - Donkey necklace + Kaya
- Seva Wk 37: Seva@Lamu - Hands Up 4 Kids
- Seva Wk 38: Bye Africa, Hello Istanbul, Homeward-bound Singapore