Bringing it home

Besides bringing home all the jewelry and souvenirs, I brought home a small part of my trip to India. On Thursday Jim and Pam told us there would be a change in the normal dinner time pattern. Instead of everyone sharing their highs and lows for the day we would share what we learned on the trip. I sometimes get nervous standing up and sharing things like that so I tried to think about it before hand rather than on the spot. In thinking about it all of Friday I realized I had learned a lot. I was the last person to share. A lot of what people talked about was love: that they learned there is always room to give themselves in some other way, always more room to love; or that if the children and colony people can love so freely, it must be possible so it should be done at home. I decided to share something that hopefully would mean something to others as well as to me. My first is that no matter where in the world you are, how far away from home and anything familiar you are you can always find a friend and someone to rely on. Also, that there is less out in the world to fear than you think. It is good to take chances with making a close friend with someone you don't know if you will ever see again. Or, of course, in trying something new. It is good to challenge ourselves and grow from our successes and failures. Last, I found the best way to find happiness in releasing the joy in others. Release the Joy was our summer theme at Rising Star. It was well chosen.

Saturday we endured a sad bus ride back to Chennai. We ended up writing in each others journals like yearbooks and remembering everyone's individual little sayings. It was tons of fun. We hung out in a group until slowly a few at a time left to catch their flight. My mom and I were the last ones left. We left on Sunday afternoon. I was honestly a little excited to be home.

When I got home I was able to spend time with Natalie, who wasn't going back to Cali for a few days, and Courtney who lives way close. It was a blast! Then last night Courtney and I drove out to Provo to hang out with Nelson who got time off from his BYU volleyball camp. We all talked about India. We decided that of course you are excited to go home. But once you're home and you shower..you just want to go back. We talked for way too long and we were all way late for curfew! What I'm getting at is we all took a chance to become friends with someone we didn't know if you we would see again. But it's a small world. I believe the people you share your heart with will always come back at some point. Even if they live in other states. Don't be afraid to share your whole self. Leave a part of you everywhere you go and with everyone you meet. That is what I learned in India.

I'm finally getting to it

I'm home now but I feel like I need to finish! I'll just recap everything as if I didn't get behind and blogged every day like I should have. :)

Tuesday July 19:
Woke up this morning anxious for construction. Everyone was raving about how hard it was. I was nervous! We drove out to the colony in anticipation to building septic tanks. Each tank is made of a huge dug out pit, a number of cement cylindrical rings weighing 600 lbs. each and spending a whole lot of time filling each one back up! We built three and filled one and a half. We had some huge laughs in the car ride back and then in our room with just the girls after construction! I love everyone here at rising star it is so much fun! During play time today Courtney tripped and missed the game winning goal and I scored on my own team. It was a bad day for us haha. We had fun singing Justin Beiber to the girls when we put them to bed and Stayed up playing cards and joking around. We are all becoming better friends and unfortunately realizing we have practically no time left.

Wednesday July 20:
Courtney Nelson, David, Mandy, Tyler and I woke up early to play volleyball this morning! Mornings in India are absolutely beautiful! Today was Medical day!!! We had the opportunity to go to a different colony today with many more people and help them out. We washed feet of course and I was able to take blood pressure and record it in their files. I felt so official!

One cute old man was toting around his beautiful baby granddaughter! He was so sweet to her it was cute. The same man, Abraham, said a blessing on JJ and kissed his forehead. I am so impressed with how grateful the people of India are. They have nothing and yet everything to give! One poor lady had an infection in an ulcer on her foot. The medical procedure is to cut it out. She was in excruciating pain while Doctor Susan Cut deep into her foot. Her loving husband consoled her the whole time and helped her get through it. Another example of the kindness of these people is in another patient. I thought he was randomly there to help get the patients get through but then when I thought I was finished taking their blood pressure he sat down ready to go. He was one of the first ones there and last to leave. He stayed to help clean up. I love these humble people!

We stopped at the Junction for ice cream on the way home! Such a beautiful occurrence haha! The kind of people at rising star can make an long journey so much fun! Even if it is for two hours on a bumpy road in cramped quarters. We all decided it was time to watch the new Harry Potter, so we did. Watched it on my laptop in the Mango Room. It was bad quality but it was so worth it. We popped the pop corn I brought and had a great time. My house mother hennad my hand during family time and we played card games after and stayed up late again. My mom is coming to the campus tomorrow I am looking forward to it.

Thursday July 21:
Today we went out of order and did construction again. We were instructed to move six cement cylinders from one end of the colony to the other. Why couldn't they have been dropped off at the other end? Well, India isn't the most efficient country in the world. Each cylinder requires six people to carry it without all our arms falling off. We carried one all the way over and we came back the Indians had been innovative! They had ropes and poles to carry the cylinders easier. We struggled finding the best positioning: Tyler was far too tall to keep the poles on our shoulders.

So finally we carried it like this:

Kim discovered it was easiest if everyone was in step. So we chanted left left left right left. The Indians laughed so hard they thought it was funny and we laughed with them when they tried imitating us. Good times. So then we took a victory photo!:

Our work was not over, however. We then had to move them into the hole and fill it in. Kim was impressed with how fast we did it! We have such awesome teamwork.

After that we had the opportunity to go the the art school and buy paintings from the leprosy inflicted.

And I took pictures with the artists.
My mom greeted my off the bus when we got home. It was nice to have her there. Thursdays are talent days with the kids. I brought tin foil to make anything they wanted. I ended up with a huge line waiting for me to make it for them haha it was cute. The kids have great imaginations though they made some really cool things on their own, too.

Friday July 22. The last day. Time to say goodbye.
Today my mom came with team scorpion to education. It was the best education day ever! The principal said the kids had improved so much in the last three weeks so today was made a game day! Every period we took a different group of kids out to play games like heads up seven up, duck duck goose, red rover, and racing around the track.
Team Scorpion and our students

 Three beautiful girls

 Cute kids

 It only took three of the feisty ones to bring Nathan down

 Duck duck goose

 Typical Lunch time


After lunch Natalie and I went to go get dressed up in saris for the last day. We played charades with the older kids. It was a tie between the girls and the boys. A girl got up to act out the last animal and made some weird movement. My hand shot up. I guessed scorpion. I was right! We Won! Girls rule! We went back to the hostile to pack during break. It was so incredibly sad! I was also struggling with deciding who to sponsor. This last playtime was when I needed to figure it out so I could tell whoever it was. I was going around from group to group and I was pushing some girls on the swing when I felt little fingers tickling me. It was Michael. That is when I decided I would sponsor him. His face lit up when I told him! He ran me up to his house and made me some origami box thing. I added it to my collection of things from Michael. He gave me another bracelet too. I'm never taking it off.
 
Ruthish, me and Michael. Little studs!

Saying goodbye to my girls was so hard! At least no one in my house cried haha Ellie and Courtney were balling. I gave every single one of my girls a hug and a kiss and promised to see them again. Mahalahkshmi, Amsa, Angel, and Ravathi told me I had to go to the airport..then!...fly the plane back to RSO haha it was so cute! Michael was sad for me to go too. After I said goodbye and left I was almost back at the girls hostel when I hear "AUNTY!" I knew it was Michael. He waved and said "bye, miss you". It's so sad to say
goodbye. A part of me will always be in India.
With these girls:

That night, all the volunteers I had become such good friends with and I stayed up forever together having our last good times together! It was very bitter sweet.

Family finally reunites

Note: This blog is for Monday July 18

Unfortunately, I had to wake up this morning. But I was excited because I knew I was on education duty and I was so excited to see the kids again. Education is so much fun because it is awesome to see the kids progress and the beautiful smiles on their faces when they get it right. On the flip side, it is also very frustrating when the kids don't understand what they are monotonously reading the words. Or when they can't figure out their math. As a tutor, it is frustrating knowing they could do better if their story problems were about rice fields instead of golfers or rupees instead of dollars. It would be great if the workbooks could be altered to fit their life style...because really, these kids have never seen snow so they have no idea what to picture when they read books about the snowy mountain in gingerbread man. I got mostly the same kids for education so I remembered their names and I could see how they progressed in just a week. I saw my favorite little boys Michael and Smiley (I found out his name is Ruthish) and they were so excited to see me! Ah I love them so much they are adorable! I ate lunch with my family again, yes with my hands, and I got the super hot chilli in my curry so I put it on Theethe's plate, she passed it to Megala, she passed it to Mr. Brenan who passed it to Ravathi and it got back to me somehow. It is so funny the little games these cute kids play. Soccer during play time was the best! I had Michael tickling me as much as he could and he's not one of those kids you laugh when they tickle you because you're supposed to even if it doesn't tickle, he is good at it and I collapse on the field. Ruthish get's jealous and climbs on me for attention. So cute.
For family time I decided to bring along some Uno cards and teach them how to play!

They did great and we had so much fun even though the power kept going out. None of us wanted to quit playing and go to bed but we knew we would have no energy for the next day if we didn't and I knew I would need all the energy I could get for construction. Goodnight and wish me luck!