Today was the kids special day. The employees from the Marriot Hotel in Chennai came to RSO to serve lunch to the kids and to play a game of cricket. The kids were so excited about it! They even made signs to cheer for the RSO team.
Tonight was movie night for the kids. The older kids watched Goosebumps and the younger kids watched Cars 2. I chose to hang with the little kids. I love Cars 2 but I ended up playing hand games with little Shalini most of the time. She is darling and I couldn't say no. But I at least got a few minutes of snuggle time at the end!
Normally we don't tour until Saturday, but this Saturday will be a special day for the kids and they want us to be on campus. So we spent the day in Mamallapuram. It wasn't nearly as busy as Pondicherry was last week. My favorite purchase was a pair of alladin pants.
Before heading back to campus we spent a little time on the beach. I've always been afraid of fish and as a result have never been in the ocean past my knees. I sat there and wished I was brave enough to get in because the cold water felt so good after sweating constantly for the last 2 weeks, but I just couldn't do it. So I watched the waves and enjoyed the scenery instead. But I did get my feet wet! So I can at least say that I've been in the Indian Ocean :)
On the way home we stopped for Prota, the only food here that I really enjoy so far.
It was a pretty relaxed day, but nice to have a break.
I was on education again today. The kids are so cute in their uniforms and their accents are adorable. It's fun to listen to them read and to help them fill out their worksheets about the books, but my favorite is working with the little kids on phonics.
This girl sang for each letter...
(Letter "a")
"the yay says a, the yay says a, every letter makes a sound the yay says a"
Education days are fun becasue we get to eat lunch with the kids.
It's also nice to have white rice instead of red.
And it's fun to have time just to visit with the kids.
One of the girls tried to explain to me how to cook white rice. She didn't realize that I eat it back home. It was pretty cute.
Each group that comes to RSO gets to leave their mark by painting a mural on the wall that surrounds the campus. We were lucky enough to have some very artistic girls that helped pull ours together. Tonight we all got to help with the painting.
I thought my second day to do medical would never come.
Today I chose to assist the nurse. I sat while she cleaned the ulcer and removed the dead tissue. Then I would wrap the ulcer. The blood and rotting skin didn't bother me, but I was nervous. I was nervous before I started and I was nevous the whole time that I was helping. I would like to say that I got a little more comfortable after each wrapping but I didn't. Each foot, hand or leg that I wrapped was such a different shape that figuring out the best way to wrap never really happened. It was like starting new each time.
The first patient that I saw was a tiny, frail looking woman. She had lost both of her feet and all of her fingers, and she depended on other people to move her around. As a man sat her in the chair at my station I noticed how uncomfortable she was. We cleaned and wrapped the ulcer on her foot and then we started on her hand. She was crying and I just sat there not knowing what to say. I have heard that leprosy affects the nerves and as a result patients loose feeling in the affected limbs. From that fact it was hard to tell if she was crying from pain or if something else was making her upset. Either way she was suffering, and it was hard to watch when I had no way to comfort her. She didn't speak englsih and I don't speak tamil. So I wrapped the remains of what was once her hand with tears in my eyes wishing that I knew what to do to give her any amount of relief.
I look fowad to the day that I see her again and can hear her story. The day that I can hold her perfect hand as I try to understand what she went through during this life.
On our way home from the colony we stopped at the zoo and rented bikes. We had a blast!
My favorite animal was the white tiger.
This evening we did art classes. I brought finger paints with me for the little kids and they loved it!
We started off somewhat organized and had everything under control. But things quickly took a turn and there was paint everywhere! The kids mixed all of the colors to make brown face paint and one boy was walking across the paintings that were lying on the ground to dry. But the kids had fun and seemed to enjoy every minute of it!
Today was by far the easiest construction day that my group has had. Partly becasue we have learned the best techniques from our last projects and partly because we had several breaks. We started by filling in the toilets with dirt like before. Only this time we had help! There were two men that stood inside the hole that has been dug for the septic tank and handed the dirt to us from the bottom. I'm not really sure why they were there today, but it was nice!
Yesterday I ordered some pearls from an organization called Pearls with a Purpose. They have gone into one of the leprosy colonies here and have taught some of the women how to make jewelry with pearls. As we were eating our lunch we realized that the group of women sitting behind us were filling our orders. It was so fun to see the process of my braclet that I received as we were leaving.
After our unusally long lunch break (we had an hour because we couldn't find the man that was supposed to tell us what to do next) we filled the previous hole with dirt. They had lowered the cement cylinders while we were eating so we just filled in the sides with the dirt. It seemed odd to be putting any amount of dirt into back into the hole that had only been dug an hour before.
After we finished we moved on to a new toilet. We got to the house and sat in the dirt while we were waiting for our instructions. A woman soon scooted to her doorstep using her arms and what remained of her legs and greeted us. She had a warm smile and waved to each of us. I overheard her speaking to her husband in tamil and a few moments later he brought out their mats for us to sit on. Such a small thing but it meant the world to me that she was so considerate and would do what she could to make us comfortable.
Our activity after our construction projects was the highlight of my day. RSO does micro-lending within the colonies to help the people start buisnesses and become self-sufficient rather then begging on the streets. In one colonly the patients have started an art school. I had heard about the school before coming and a painting was what I wanted most from India.
There were hundreds of paintings to choose from! It was so overwhelming to pick just one.
But this is what I chose in the end.
I love my pearls and I love my painting.
I am amazed at the talent that some of the leporsy patients have.
Hands that are disfigured or have missing fingers may not be the considered beautiful to the world. But the power behind them is beautiful. These people have found ways to express themselves and are able to use those hands to create something beautiful.
Those hands are full of love and a passion for art, and they belong to beautiful people.
My group was on education today. Usually we tutor during school hours but today was a holiday so there was no school. The kids were just pulled from their hostels throughout the day instead. Getting the kids to tutoring on time was a little crazy. Someone also decided to pull apart and deep clean the computer lab which put math tutoring 2 hours behind. But everything worked out in the end.
This is the back of the school
Today I was thinking of how incredible the school at RSO is. It's basically a boarding school. Most of the kids live here but they are not orphans. 80% of the children come from leprosy colonies and 20% come from the surrounding village. Leprosy affects the whole family. Not only is the individual with leprosy outcast from society, but the family is too. They are forced to move to colonies and they become untouchables. Doctors won't treat them and others won't employ them. People with leprosy basically end up alone and begging on the streets. Even if a child is free of leprosy they live with the same stigma. Their parents use them to beg on the streets in efforts to earn more money, and they are unable to go to school and gain an education.
RSO outreach has litterally turned lives around for 200+ children. I was looking at the children today and thinking of how beautiful they are. And then I pictured each of them on the streets begging, and living in the small huts that I've seen in the colonies.
RSO has opened opportunities for these kids that most children in India never have. They are attending a good school and being taught by americans, learning english, having 3 meals a day, clean water, and hundreds of volunteers to love them. They've even had dancers from broadway come to teach their dance classes. These kids will have the skills neccessary to become successful memebers of society if they choose to use them. They will have opportunities that they never would have had withtout RSO.
I'm so happy to have had a day to rest! Usually we all have the opportunity to go to church in Chennai on Sunday but the vans were picking up more volunteers today, so there were limited seats on the bus. It turned out well because I was in need of a day to catch up on sleep and journal writing.
This afternoon the internet was out so me and my roommates decided to play games.
Whoever lost each game had to drink a glass of water. The first person to use the bathroom lost. It was a good way to rehydrate!
We started Phase 10 and half way through the internet came back on, what a happy moment that was!
Tonight we ate dinner with the kids in the dinning hall. Every night we eat red rice and curry. Some people love it but I'm really not a fan. Luckily I brought lots of snacks!
My house was wild at family time tonight. Actually to say that they were wild would be an understatement. The house mother was gone again so the kids tried getting away with as much as they possibly could. They did have a funny moment though. The girls took turns standing on a stool and singing Welcome, Welcome, Sabbath Morning. Most of them could only sing the those first 4 words in english, but they thought they were hilarious and it was adorable.
It's Saturday! We got to spend the day as tourists. We drove 2 hours to Pondicherry and spent the afternoon there. I was excited to receive an elephant blessing but we got there and they told us that the elephant had a fever. So that didn't happen.
We stepped off of the bus and the people swarmed us. All of the local people pulled out their cell phones to take our picture. It was a moment of feeling like celebrities.
We basically just spent 5 hours shopping. I bought some churidars, the traditional clothing that is worn here, and lots of other things that I probably don't need. But hey, It's not every day that you get to shop in India.
This is a few of us picking out our churidars
For lunch we went to a little resturant above a leather shop. I bought the Classic Beef Burger. Definitely not beef. When I ordered it I didn't even think of the fact that they don't have real beef here. Cows are holy. I'm not exactly sure what the "beef" on my hamburger really was and it's probably best that I don't know. It was the most disgusting burger that I've ever had, but it was so good at the moment just because it wasn't curry.
As we were walking back to the buses we met a man that is a palm reader. So for 50 rupees I had my palm read. I couldn't understand everything that he was saying but I did catch a few things:
-I will have good economical success
-I will live a long life
-My lucky stone is topaz
-My friends and family will be healthy
-After I get married I will be very happy
-I will travel around the world to help people
(that was interesting because I didn't tell him why I am here)
-I will go to school and gain a good education
Sounds like a pretty good life to me!
Saturday night is movie night for the kids. Tonight we watched an older movie, I'm not sure what it was called but it was in english. One of the kids, Mariyambee, came and sat by me and told me that it was boring. So we just talked in the back. She got to talk to her parents on the phone during the movie. It was fun to see her so excited and to hear about her family and life back home.
Today was my second day of community service. I had assumed that we would rotate through medical, community service, and education in an order, so I was a little surprised to see that I was on community service again today. But it went well.
We started by moving another pile of sand to a new yard using our pan and bag method. It was much easier than last time because we didn't have to carry the sand as far. We finished pretty quick and were taken to work on bathrooms.
There are indian style toilets throughout the colony that are eco-friendly. The people aren't able to take care of them properly so we are changing them into septic tanks.
Our job was to fill the toilet with dirt.
This is what the toilet looks like.
A nice oval hole in the ground.
We filled the hole using our metal pans.
We made an assembly line and took turns shoveling so it really wasn't too bad.
Once it was filled we had to carry over water to pack the dirt down.
We finished filling the first toilet and then got to do it again to another toilet!
The day was pretty laid back for me. I wasn't feeling too well so it was kind of nice to have a mindless task to complete.
It was fun to be in the colonies today becasue a lot of people were outside. There was one woman sitting outside that lived in front of the first toilet that we worked on. She came outside when we started working and waved to us every time we walked by.
I noticed that she had a plastic bag tied around the base of her leg with a string. I assume that it was to keep ulcers clean. She got around by scooting on her backside. Her yard was full of trash and water jugs that had mold in them.
It's hard to see that people are living in these conditions. I have always known that many do but it's different to see it for yourself. While I'm home living my perfect life there are people all over the world sleeping on dirt floors and drinking water that isn't sanitary. There are people that have to use dirty plastic to cover their wounds because they don't have sanitary bandages. It's hard to picture a certain face when I think of those conditions. Knowing that that certain face is a person with a life just as valuable as mine.
I'm so sad that I don't have pictures from today, it was so fun! My group was on education, so we spent the whole morning at the school tutoring kids. We were asked not to take picutres during school, but we snapped a few between classes.
This is the book that I read over and over today. I now know more about the number twelve than I ever thought I could.
Waiting in the library for our next students.
I loved tutoring because it gave me one-on-one time with the kids for the first time. I could focus on each individual and learn their strengths.
The day was really just a tender mercy. Last night I was talking to my mom about my experiences with the kids. I think that they are all adorable but I hadn't made the connections that I wanted to. I felt like the number of kids was overwhelming and that I would never learn any of the kids names. At playtime there are so many kids running around and so far family time has consisted of me frantically trying to divide my attention between the girls.
But today I had nothing but personal time with individual children, even outside of school. At playtime one of the girls came to me and we played together for the majority of playtime. She sat on my lap while eating her snack and I helped her across the monkey bars. Look how cute she is!
I saw a boy sititng alone away from the playground so I went over and sat by him for the last few minutes. He told me all about his family and he asked about mine.
Tonight at family time a group of the girls wanted me to read to them. I read a different version of Beauty and the Beast to them and we discussed it as we went. We finished and one of the younger girls was asleep on my lap. I put her to bed and talked with the older girls until time to leave.
Today was exactly what I needed. I needed to know someone deeper than their name, age, and standard (grade in school). And today I received just that.
This morning my team was on community service. We drove out to one of the colonies and were put straight to work. Our first job was to move 1,000 bricks to a lady's yard so that we can build her a toilet. Doesn't sound too hard, right? Well it shouldn't be, unless you are transporting your bricks on little metal bowls.
I could only carry 3 or 4 bricks at a time, they were heavy. I have never sweat so much in my entire life. It's hot and extremely humid here, not my ideal environment to do physical labor.
But after a few hours we eventually got the bricks moved into the yard.
We were given a small break when a few of the local men cut off the tops of coconuts for us so that we could drink the juice. It wasn't my favorite but it was fun to try it.
Our next assignment was to move a large pile of sand so that we can later mix cement. Again, shouldn't be too difficult. But we used our little metal pans to fill bags that we carried over and dumped into the new pile.
I wish I could say that it was a wonderful experience and that I loved it. But that would be a lie. It was hard. I have never worked so hard in my life. I have never been so tired. And it was hard not to be frustarated. It was frustrating that we were using tiny pans when I knew that we could load everything into a wheelbarrow and cut our time and efforts in half. It was frustarting to have sweat dripping off my face while local men sat in the shade holding their drinks and watching us. It was hard to have someone demanding us what to do next without any positive feedback.
But I had one moment that made it all worth it. We were moving the bricks into the elderly woman's yard and she came outside with the biggest smile on her face. She brought out pictures of her with past volunteers and proudly showed them to us. Then she took us into her 2 room home and showed us the few possesions that she had. She turned around and embraced our faces in her small hands with her big granny smile.
I could feel her gratitude and her act of kindness made every frustration worth it to me.
My team was lucky enough to be the first ones from this session to do medical. We drove out the colony Polambaakam.
The first man that I met wanted his glasses cleaned. I helped
him take them off and we got them wiped off as best as we could.
After making our way around and greeting everyone we unloaded the medical supplies and set everything up. Each memeber of the leprosy colony has a file. Volunteers help check the patients blood pressure, pulse, and glucose and record the results on paper. Then the pateints pick up their medications.
We each got to choose our stations and got ourselves prepared. I chose to do washing.
We made an assembly line of removing bandages, washing, and oiling. Then the nurse cut the dead tissue out of the ulcers and put new bandages on.
The last thing that the patients receive is eye drops. Leprosy first affects the hands, feet and eyes. So eye care is critical.
After we cleaned up we had a few minutes to visit with the patients. I sat by the cutest lady! She was missing all of her fingers and had ulcers on both of her feet. She was smiling the whole time that we treated her feet. There were flies attacking us so I sang a few lines of "Shoo Fly" with the actions. She doesn't speak english and probably thought I was crazy. But she just smilied and laughed with me anyway.
We took a small detour once we finished at the colony. Our bus driver asked if we wanted to see the beach. We of course said yes. We got there and two local men offered to take us on a boat ride. Again, had to say yes! So for 600 rupees we had oursleves a little adventure.
We stopped and walked around some ruins that were built by the muslim rulers in the 1800's. It was fun to see such an unexpected and different part of India.
It was interesting to be at the colony this morning. The whole reason that I came to India was to meet the people that have been affected by leprosy. I saw this video of a past team on medical and wanted so badly to have the experience for myself.
It's hard to explain the feeling that I had while we were driving to the colony this morning. I was excited. I have been wanting to come to India with Rising Star Outreach for almost 8 years now, and here I was. I was on my way to meet these people that I have been praying for for months. I was curious. I curious how I would feel once I actually saw the ulcers. I didn't think that they would bother me, but then again I haven't ever actually been around someone who's flesh is rotting away. I was nervous to talk to the people. Not because they have leprosy but becasue we don't have a common language. I didn't know what I would say or if it would make either of us uncomfortable for me to ramble away without being understood.
But I also felt at peace. This was something that I knew I needed to be doing, not just for them but for me.
We got to the colony and were set free to visit with the people. Not many people were outside and I didn't want to wander and over step my boundaries. I met a few people that were already outside. One was a lady who had had both leprosy and cancer. No one would treat her so her leg had to be amputated. I said hello to each person that I saw but continued on my way.
I helped get the stations set up and the next thing I knew I was holding a man's foot in my hand and washing it. It took me a moment to even realize that his foot was disfigured and that I was gently washing around a deep hole in his foot. It just felt so natural. I was washing a wound on his foot just as I would for my friends. He was just a man seeking physical assistance. Someone who was probably embarrassed to depend on someone else to do something as simple as wash his feet, just as I would be. Someone with a family, maybe a wife and kids. And someone that needs kindness in his life just as much as I do.
The experience was everything that I thought it would be and more. I wish that I could do medical everyday, just to be with these people.
