Day 9

Another day of community service!

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.

That makes their hands beautiful to me.