India Where to Begin this undesirables 6 days.
Well I told you about the first day already. So I will start off with the second day.
On Saturday morning I slept in because getting around in India takes a while and I had a trip at noon so I couldn’t go far. I ate lunch and then headed to the union to meet for my trip. The trip was a Rural Child labor Home stay with a program called RIDE India. This was a program that puts kids in a school instead of in child labor, they also do their best convincing parents and guardians that the children need an education. After our two and a half hour bus ride through Chennai we arrived at the RIDE home. They had a guest house where we dropped our stuff and then they gave us Tea and biscuits. After we finished they we headed over to the RIDE school. They introduced us to the kids and were welcomed with such happiness in the kids’ faces. They each had a flower for us and some gave two or three to the same person. They brought us back to wear the kids play and they introduced us to the kids. Explaining that some of them do go to school but they work also as young as 12 years old and there are defiantly some younger. We then got to play with the kids for about an hour. We taught them how to play ring around the roasy and Duck duck goose and Head shoulders knees and toes. Most of the kids spoke little English so the language barrier was difficult but we still had a lot of fun. Most of the kids spoke Tamil a local language. When play time was over we went in to one of their classrooms that was actually 4 or 5 classes going on in one big room. We sat down and the kids sang us songs in Tamil and also a song they knew in English. They were all so very sweet and did not want us to leave. (Mostly because they loved taking our cameras and taking pictures!) . We headed back to the guest home for dinner. They made a local meal for us that were very good. I tried new things but there is a rule in India. You can ALWAYS say no to more but you CAN NOT leave anything on your plate. So I had to stuff down all of my food and I was about to EXPLODE! After dinner we headed back to the guest house across the street for bed. We picked the good room that had an Air conditioner unlike the rest of the rooms. They were explaining that water means nothing to them but electricity is VERY expensive for them. We had two guides that were from Germany that were so sweet. They stayed up for hours with us telling us stories and laughing with us. Their names were Alex and Mattius. Mattius said something that was really funny earlier in the day and he told us not to make fun of him but he didn’t understand why we were laughing. What happen was we were on the bus ride home and there were fireworks. Well he called them firecrackers and then said “look at those crackers on fire” and the whole bus laughed. Later that night we explained to him that in America sometimes a crackers is a bad name for white people and how he said it was just really funny because he didn’t know. Once we told him he couldn’t stop laughing and made it a joke for the rest of the day. Eventually after a lot of laughs and jokes we headed to bed. The next morning we were up around 720 AM for breakfast and another long day. We had toast which jam and hard boiled eggs for breakfast. After breakfast we went to a local village to tour around and meet some more kids. When we arrived at the village we were paraded through the village with music like we were important or something. We were also welcomed with many flowers their too. We walked around and saw the villiage and oh what a shock that was. The things we saw the houses we saw. They didn’t have much. We saw a silk weaving machine in someone’s house that was really cool to watch someone do. We found out that 1 sari takes about 2 months to make. There were cows and goats everywhere roaming freely like it was no big deal. After we were done touring the villiage the children were chasing the bus because they didn’t want us to leave. We headed back to the guest house for Lunch. We had another Indian meal that was excellent but I knew to take a lot less this time haha. After lunch we went to a no child labor store and then headed back to the ship. We learned a lot on this trip and realized a lot also. I realized what we have and what we take advantage of and don’t realize how much we really have.
On Monday I woke up quite early to go on an SAS trip to a local secondary school. When we arrived at the school we were welcomed by the school band and a bunch of really excited kids. There was a line of students who each had necklaces of all different colors and we got the dots put on our heads to welcome us into their community. There were only 8 of us but it made the trip that much better. We sat in the principal’s office and he explained the day to us. Then they took us on a tour of the school so we could see the labs (really old and dirty) and the classrooms (some very very small). When we were done with the tour the kids had their daily morning assembly. At the end of the morning assembly we all introduced herself. The kids filed in straight lines to their classrooms. We waited until they were all in their classrooms, then split up and went to each classroom so they could ask us questions. We got some funny questions such as:
Do you like our country?
Do you like the food?
Can you sing your national anthem? (so with our horrible voices we sang it)
What part of the country are you from?
What are your parents names?
What is your favorite color and favorite subject?
So as we went class room to class room they kids was adorable asking questions. Asking us so many questions and they would laugh if they were nervous. It was such a wonderful day. After we saw all the classrooms we were presented with an AMAZING dance performance by one of the girls who was dressed beautifully. It was amazing the way she danced the India local dance. Seeing the school it was pretty nice but it also lacked a lot. We had so much growing up and they defiantly don’t. We donated a ball and school supplies to them and they had the biggest smiles on their faces!
Later on in that afternoon I went on a second service visit to a disabled children’s orphanage. The kids were amazing. They were disabled kids were dropped on the door step or just left on the side of the road and found by someone who brought them to them orphanage. It was very sad to see how little space they had for the kids. The orphanage was called Missionaries of Charity. The kids were so cute to us and so happy that we were there. We colored with them and played ball. This one girl named Jasmine-Mary I colored with the whole time and also played catch with she was so sweet. We also did some word searched. We only got to be at the orphanage for about an hour because they had a church service. Some of the kids were severely disabled and some were just minor, but they all looked out for each other. There were only about 10 of us that went well because the building was under construction so half of the kids were at school across the city. The orphanage all in all was an amazing experience and defiantly had a life changing experience.
The next day I decided to go to a disable home. It’s very difficult for me to explain this place. I have been sitting staring at the screen for about 20 minutes. Well we took a bus ride thru Chennai. When we got to the home it was actually an occupational hospital with a home in it. There were 80 children and a ton of adults with disabilities also. They gave us a tour of the hospital and of the living situations before we started our day. As we walked around I just was speechless at the living situations and just the place itself. After she gave us the tour and we saw the kids and adolescents that lived there they were all so friendly. She said every time Semester at Sea comes she has them do the dirty work in the morning because they never mind. So when she said Dirty work she meant it. She had us cleaning things that had dust bunnys and grand kid dust bunnies. I don’t think it had EVER been clean. We cleaned windows that you couldn’t see through and we were climbing all over things doing our best to make it look its best for her so she was happy. There was dust everywhere. I was climbing on top of cabinats to reach up high to get spots that were pretty grimy but I took one for the team because I thought about the big picture of what was going on in this place. How they had a hole to pee in and dirty water and so much more. We cleaned for a good 3 hours before lunch. We headed over to see how they served the home lunch, and oh boys did this hit home and make me want to cry. The kids were very helpful to the younger. Some older less disabled kids were assigned to feed the younger disabled kids. But let me try to explain this so you can put yourself in this room for a second. Imagine this :
You’re in a room about the size of a regular school classroom with furniture in it. There are little kids sitting side by side on the floor as close as can be about 45 on one side and 45 on the other. Then in the middle of the room there back to back are about 45 adolescents back to back so that’s another 90 people in the room all sitting on the floor. Now keep thinking you have the teachers with the giant pots of food and these little plates for the kids. The outside gets fed first so they can help the little ones because there are not enough teachers to help all of them. The kids are screaming and its like a zoo because some of them just don’t understand. Now let me remind you that every person sitting on the floor in this room has either a mental or physical disability or both of all different severities. I hope you are imagining how this room is with no AC 95% humitatiy and about 85 or higher degree day. Imagine that.
So now that you imagined that you can put yourself where I was. Guess how I felt. I felt small I felt like a nobody because I think of how needy we as people in a first world country are. How we sit at a kitchen table EVERYDAY or have the luxury of going out to dinner and getting WHATEVER we want. These kids eat mush and rice. They eat every bit of food with their hands because that’s the Indian tradition. With one hand at that their right hand. I had to walk out of the room at one point because I was so ashamed in what I have complained about before. I couldn’t believe what was going on in front of me. The teachers were amazing and you could tell they were more stressed out than ever. But they did their best and made do with what they had. But what I realized is we are never satisfied with what we have nothings ever good enough and that made me sick to my stomach. Every single one of you that reads this blog thing about a time when you weren’t satisfied with what was on the table in front of you. Or when your mother cooked you a meal and you didn’t eat it. I am guilty to I do it all the time. But not anymore. We all have to be thankful that we have good food in front of us. If you had seen the food that was being ate by these kids your jaw would be on the floor. Well guess what guys its true. I saw it and oh man was it sad. I almost cried I couldn’t believe it. The kids were so happy and that made me happy but to look at the big picture. These kids have never had their mom or dad make them food because they don’t have those. They have about 6 mothers that do their best but they will never have what we have. So as we watched them eat lunch and see what it was like and the chaos and people stealing food because they were still hungry. It just broke my heart. After a while it was time for us to go eat lunch at the nurses lunch room on the other side of the hospital.
So this lunch was my first traditional Indian meal that was ate on a piece of paper and with my RIGHT hand only. Now as you all know I am a lefty and that is VERY hard not to pick up that left hand and use it. I had to sit on it. You have to pull things apart with one hand and mush it all up with one hand. Oh and clean your plate. So as we ate I just thought about how much I love forks and how they mean something different to me now. Sounds crazy but they are a luxury. After lunch we headed back over for play time with the kids. They were all separated into classrooms so we could go play with them. All of us split up and picked a classroom I walked in to see a kid napping on a concrete floor and a bunch of kids running around him playing. This one girl was sitting coloring on the floor she saw me and grabbed my hand and pulled me down to color with her. She had a speaking impediment so I couldn’t make out her name which makes me sad but I know its starts with a J. We colored for a while until someone handed out some balls. We played catch in 50 different ways haha for about an hour and a half and she couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. I thought her how to give high fives, and she would sometimes sign to me in sign language which I don’t know but I slowly figured out. Whenever someone would come over and start playing with me she would speak Tamil ( the local language) to them and tell them to go away shes playing with me. Well that’s what I believe she said because they would always walk away. But some of them didn’t understand much at all. One of the teachers came to check on us and she told us that the kid that was standing in the middle of the room was mentally fine but he was trapped in his own body meaning he couldn’t hear he couldn’t speak so most of the time he couldn’t understand. It broke my heart. It was so sad to see some of the things that were going on with the kids. 4 of them had wet pants because they had peed themselves but those were all they had for clothes, some were just sitting in the corner and wouldn’t respond or react to anything. I thought the little girl I was playing with how to throw and catch the ball in every which way. She was really good and we couldn’t help but smile the whole time we were playing. It made me so warm inside to make these kids smile. When the time was up I melted because I did not want to leave at all. It was time to go but there was a group of kids that were coming with us back to the ship to get a tour of the ship which was awesome. The kids were all so excited and couldn’t wait to see where we lived but at the same time it hurt me for them to see how good we have it and what they can’t have, but it made them happy and that’s what made me happy. When we got on the boat the kids were all so excited. We gave them a full ship tour and they couldn’t believe it. They sat in spinny chairs. Said hello to everyone that walked by and held our hands as we walked around the ship. Oh man what a good time they had. Once we were done with the tour we took a group picture and said our goodbyes and they headed back to reality for them. I was speechless about the day. I went to dinner and just sat there thinking about everything that had happened that day. It was a pretty quiet dinner. Kayla and I stayed in that night and ended up playing with the little twins that are on the ship. They are 2 years old and their names are Sienna and Olivia. They are the cutest kids ever! After playing with them we headed to bed.
On the last day we had just about enough of India because it is a lot to take in at once in 6 days. So Kayla, Ashleigh, and I got off the boat to run to the mall real quick. We had a nice rickshaw ride there the guy was a very gentle driver compared to everyone else. Didn’t use his horn even once. I was shocked. We got to the mall and got what we need and looked around. Then we took a group vote to get pizza hut because why not eat pizza hut while we were in India. We paid 10 us dollars for 3 waters and 4 individual pizzas and garlic bread. Pretty good deal huh! It was excellent they had Indian style pizza which was wonderful and very spicy just like the rest of India’s food. After we finished our food we headed back to the ship on another rickshaw that was defiantly not as calm as the last guy. We made it back in one piece and got on the ship for good feeling quite dirty.
So India overall was an absolutely amazing experience. But a whole lot to handle. It was defiantly a culture shock times 1 million. A lot of people just sat and reflected for as long as a whole day. My conclusion of India is an amazing place to change someone’s outlook on life. I saw some crazy things this week that I don’t think I would see in many other places. How dirty the city was and how populated it was how many people begged for anything you could imagine and stuck babies in your face that were naked and you just had to say no. How many homeless people just laid in trash and on the side of the streets. The amount of animals that were wild around the city is crazy.
I’ll leave you with this. This about what you have subtract 95% of it and try to live a day. I promise you it won’t work. Stop taking things for granted and asking for too much because there are people everywhere that have nothing not just in India, it is just maximized here. I walked into India a changed person and left a totally different person as I walked in. Don’t complain about the doctors you have and about the roads you drive one or just about anything because you always have to remember
THERE IS SOMEONE SOMEWHERE THAT HAS IT 10 TIMES WORSE.. AND THAT PERSON COULD
LIVE 20 MINUTES FROM YOU or 1000 MILES BUT THERE IS STILL SOMEONE.
On a positive note! I had a blast and this trip defiantly changes people if you get involved in the cultures and involved in the right thing. Sorry this took me so long. I need time to think about how to put my thoughts on paper. It takes a lot sometimes to describe things I do. I miss you all and hope you are all doing great. I will be home before you know it which I am sure your all happy about, I want come home but I don’t either. Love love love you and miss you all
SINGAPORE IN THE MORNING ( oh ya and we are 12 hours ahead of home now)
Love
Amy !
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