The last days of India

There is a reason that I have been blogging every night. Because I forget if I wait to write it down. I'm trying to remember everything that has happened the last few days but I have a feeling that I am going to forget things.

Here I am with Rohith on my last day of tutoring. This kid is so cute. The children's favorite books in the library are "10 Little Ladybugs" and "Green Eggs and Ham". Some of the kids love these books so much, they actually have them memorized. It is a little hard to assess their reading level when they are just reciting but still, having "Green Eggs and Ham" memorized is quite impressive.

Another picture of Jayamary because I just can't get enough of her. I signed up to be her sponsor, part of which includes exchanging letters. So I am happy that I will still get to be a small part of her life.

So we left Rising star this weekend. Most of the girls flew out right away but because I had gotten my plane ticket kind of late, my flight doesn't leave until early Monday morning. Luckily, another another volunteer is in the same boat (even on my same flights all the way back to Chicago) so we got to have a day in Chennai to sightsee. We went to Dakshinachitra, a little village of Indian crafts. There were basket weavers, puppet makers, pottery making and of course, henna. I guess my body will be an Indian temple for the next couple of weeks.

I may have gone a little crazy shopping. I have been so good this whole trip but the last couple of days, with my departure imminent, I have started wanting to buy everything. My biggest and probably most impractical purchase was a Saree. The women all look so beautiful in them and I just really wanted to look like them. I am going to have to think up reasons to wear it when I get back because I actually quite love it. The only problem is it is just so much fabric. It will be tricky to wrap it correctly.

We are leaving the hotel at 2 am to catch our flight. Nandri, India. It has been wonderful!

Day ?

Coming soon...

Day 15

First, here is a picture of the painting that I was writing about in the previous post.

Can't wait to hang that baby up.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty awful. A combination of many things but probably my body's less than subtle hint that it is time to start thinking about going home. Point taken, body. The whole way out to Bhatarapurnam, I was curled up in the fetal position as waves of stomach cramps and nausea came and went. Blessedly, as we pulled up to the center, I felt better and was able to work without difficulty. That was an answer to prayer!

We worked hard at the colony today and saw 48 patients. Our little wound care corner (which is a stool and a couple of chairs) was quite busy, always with people waiting. In fact, we started to run out of supplies. By the end, we had used all the gloves, so I had to use the same pair, scrubbing them with alcohol swabs between patients. It went against everything I was used to in the hospital, where I am constantly changing gloves. But medical care with limited supplies in a rural area gives the experience a bit of a Florence Nightingale touch.

So I'm kind of in love with this sweet girl. Meet Jayamary...

She just came to live at the school a few months ago and her English isn't much. When she's not in her school uniform, she wears this red dress. It is too big for her so she is always pushing the sleeves back up that fall off her little shoulders. In the house, she is the youngest and gets picked on a bit. She doesn't play much with the other kids and I have made it a habit to look for her when we go to play with them. Today, I found her scooping up handfuls of sand into a ziplock bag. I knelt next to her and began drawing pictures in the sand. She laughed and played for a minute before smiling shyly and running back into the hostel. But as we were walking to prayer time later, she found me and put her beautiful brown hand in mine, then snuggled next to me during the prayer. It made me with I could stay longer to develop that relationship of trust with her and make sure she always feels loved.

Oh and here I am with Sagayamary. She is also quite adorable and loves to sing "Five Little Speckled Frogs". I'll have to see if I can get a video of that.

Day 14

Today we had the great pleasure to visit the Bindu Art School in Bhatarapurnam which was started only a few years ago. The student are all leprosy-affected, many have lost fingers or hands or have failing eyesight. Before the school, many of these now-artists lived as beggars. Now they express themselves through art, learning different styles and painting everyday.

It is amazing to watch them work, manipulating the brush with diseased hands to create masterpieces. And they are beautiful. Both the people and the paintings. These leprosy-afflicted artists, perhaps more than anyone, deserve to depict the bleak, dark scenes of their lives. But instead, the art is joyful with vibrant colors and scenes rich with enthusiastic details.

I was delighted to learn that their art has been shown in New Delhi and Vienna with plans for future tours. Their art is quickly gaining popularity. I couldn't help but buy a painting

(but not the one in the above picture). I selected one illustrating a small Indian village at night. It was perfect for me. I love India at night. I love that feeling- after the students are in bed, walking home under the stars (if it isn't too cloudy) and making my way through barely visible palm trees as I think about the day's experiences and anticipate what the next day will hold.

For me, the Bindu Art School characterizes Rising Star. Out of adversity comes beauty. Out of pain and suffering come joy and compassion. Out of a group shunned by society comes a people so gifted and courageous that they are certain to change the world.

Day 13

The end of the day finds me quite sore and tired. Our construction project today began a track around the field for the students here. It involved a lot of shoveling. The picture above shows the type of shovel that is used here. Imagine a quarterback hut-hut-hiking a football between his legs and you'll get the idea of how to use it (except you don't actually throw the shovel :) ).

It made me a little dizzy to use so I stuck to the conventional shovel.

I can't claim any tears or blood but I sure put a lot of sweat into this project. It was a hot day and we were all feeling it. It required a lot of water and some gatorade to keep us away from heat exhaustion. I came away with a few blisters but in spite of all that, it was a nice day. I enjoyed the company of the other volunteer as we listened to music and talked. And it was nice to know that we were doing something tangible for the students that we have come to love so much. My bucket-shower (or bower as we lovingly refer to them) felt so good afterwards.

Tonight before we helped the older kids with homework, we read to the little girls. The book of choice ended up being "The Lion King". They had seen the movie before so they loved it. As bedtime they requested a song, as always, so we sang them "Hakuna Matata".

It will be a good night for sleeping.

Day 10, 11, and 12

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. We arrived in Delhi late Friday morning and were met by our travel guide. He is a young man from India. He is LDS and happily showed us pictures of himself with Elder Oaks for whom he was also a tour guide.

We first went to the Mahatma Ghandi home. It was here that he lived at the end of his life and where he was martyred. Such a reverent and peaceful place. I was barefoot (it is customary to remove your shoes at this sacred site) as I walked, reflecting on the lessons from Ghandi's life and carefully avoiding stepping on any ants. I am committed to finishing Ghandi's autobiography by the end of the year.

The afternoon was spent on the back of bicycle rickshaws going through old Delhi. And I thought driving was scary here! The alleys were so narrow and packed with people, shops, animals and low hanging electrical wires. I enjoyed the spice market and the visit to the Jain temple.

After a long bus ride to Agra, we checked into our very nice hotel. The luxury constantly tore my feelings between pleasure and guilt.

The next morning was the highlight of the trips. We got up before sunrise and made our way to the Taj Mahal. It is easily the most beautiful building I have ever seen. Pictures don't even do it justice but we took a ton anyway. The history of the Taj Mahal is quite romantic- the Emperor grieving for his beloved wife (who died after the birth of their 13th child) and devoted to preserving her memory. It took 22 years to build, using the finest Indian marble and painstakingly inlayed with precious stones. A true wonder of the world!

That night, a few of us went to see "Mohabbat the Taj"- a musical dramatization of the story of the Taj Mahal. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty magical. I got totally caught up in the the sparkling sarees and the traditional Indian dancing. But even that dancing couldn't inspire me to stay more than five minutes a the hotel's disco tech later than night. :)

Sunday morning was our much anticipated elephant ride. It sounds anti-climatic to write about it. A man with his very tame elephant met us in your run-of-the-mill Indian neighborhood and took us up and down the street. Nevertheless, we squealed and giggled as the local residents looked on with curiosity, obviously puzzled by our excitement.

It was fun to be a tourist for the weekend but I am glad now to be back at Rising Star and the real purpose of this trip

Day 9

Today was similar to Monday in that I spent a good portion of the day tutoring. It is amazing how well some of the young students can read English and also amazing at how poorly some of the older students read. Tutoring is necessary to give that one-on-one attention for their different levels. In the afternoon each volunteer in my group takes a few second graders for reading group. I was kind of dreading this because last time some of the kids were out of control and I had a hard time getting one boy in particular to focus. But reading group went great today! Another volunteer gave me a tip. In between books, we would play hangman with one or two words from the book. The kids loved playing and then searching the book for the word they had guessed.

So how cute is this girl? Every evening before dinner, the children gather for prayer time. First, they sing songs. I usually can't understand them but they do sing one song a night from the LDS hymnbook. Then they pray. This little girl was trying so hard to be reverent and keep her eyes closed but she kept peeking. So in an act of self-discipline, she pushed her fingers to her eyes to keep them shut. I wish I could take credit for this picture but I stole it from Ryen, another volunteer with excellent photography skills.

There has been a volunteer here all summer teaching dance classes for the kids at the school. Today was her last day and so to celebrate, we had a dance party. They loved it! And they have some pretty impressive moves. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these kids in a Bollywood movie someday.

Tomorrow, we are getting up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a bus to Chennai to fly to Delhi, to take another bus to Agra. How lucky am I to get to see the Taj Mahal? I have really been looking forward to this. But I most likely won't be blogging for the next couple of days so I will have to catch up when I get back.