India 2009!

Today we drove to Sarnath, the birthplace of Buddhism!! Michelle and I actually stood outside the tree where Prince Siddhartha first was enlightened, and where the Buddha first preached from!! I can’t wait to tell Mrs. McCoy!!

Joy also drove us to the university of Varanasi, where we visited a Hindu temple. Rajiv is Hindu so he knew to do all the right things, like touching the steps of the rooms we entered and exited. The temple was built to honor many gods, but mainly Shiva, the creator.

When we got back home I was exhausted and passed out…and woke up to Michelle calling on the phone, pretending to be Amy Fizzano calling from the United States. If you know me you know what I’m like when I first wake up, so you’ll understand how it was possible for me to actually believe her for a good 2 minutes. But then it turned out the real reason she was calling was to wake me up because Joy had ordered FRENCH FRIES!! They were delicious.

After snacking Rajiv and Angeli took us to a place that sold silk saris, shirts, and scarves. It was really cool – the rooms are padded with white mattresses and pillows, and you just sit there while the man whips out all different kinds of materials and fabrics to show you. Michelle couldn’t stop thinking about how much her cousin, Alexandra, would have loved the experience. The whole experience reminded me of my mom! I think she would have been in love with all the different patterns but mostly how cheap the silk was!

Then they took us to the Muslim section of the city, where the silk is made. They told us that basically every Muslim family in Varanasi has its own loom, maybe more, to make saris and other material. As soon as we got out of the autorickshaw we could hear the looms clicking – it sounded almost like cicadas do in August. The driver took us into the home of a family he knew, where we saw a few teenage boys all sitting around a giant loom. I finally appreciate how much effort goes into making one of those things! I can’t believe they’re not more expensive than they are!

On our way home we stopped and ate one of the most delicious things I have had to eat so far here. It was kind of like….a chicken cheesesteak and a croissant mixed together. I really don’t know how to describe it. SO good. And yes if you’re reading this and wondering, Michelle and I do eat street food. And we’re still alive :) I usually regret my meals 2-3 hours after I eat them, but they’re delicious to eat.

Today we woke up EARRRLY, at 6 AM, because Joy was picking us up at 7 to leave for Varanasi for our meeting with Rugmark! Before arriving he also called to tell us Michael Jackson died. It was weird to think we never would have known if Joy hadn’t seen it on TV and told us. I feel so far away from America!

Rajiv drove us to Varanasi in his big, beautifully air conditioned SUV. We also stopped at a ballin Indian rest stop on the way! We tasted our first South Indian food. I’ve already forgotten the name but it was big and fried and delicious.

Traffic on the highway getting close to Varanasi was a nightmare. We were basically weaving in and out of walls of giant trucks, sometimes having to make a 3-point turn and drive AGAINST traffic in the opposite direction to find another way around. The city was even worse, but a little less scary because we were bigger than all the autorickshaws blocking our way.

Michelle and I were a little confused when we arrived somewhere that looked like a village. We knew we were meeting with someone from Rugmark, so we kept looking for an office building. Joy was on the phone and suddenly a man in a red t-shirt tapped on the window. “Oh!” Joy exclaimed into the phone. “I have found Mr. Red T-Shirt!” Michelle and I and the whole car just burst out laughing. We then followed Mr. Red Tee-Shirt to literally the banks of the Ganges river. Michelle and I were totally confused at this point…and THEN Mr. Red T-Shirt took us across a bridge that reminded me of that bridge over the moat in Shrek, you know the one where the donkey almost passes out crossing it? Yeah. But then Joy explained to us that this bridge actually means a whole lot to the community that lives there – before, no motorcycles or bicycles could reach the community, and they were very isolated. This rickety old bridge has literally brought new life to a community!

We started trekking up a big hill and FINALLY realized that we were going to the HOME of the man from Rugmark, not an office building. His name is Mr. Matthews. When we arrived, he sat us down and gave us some more delicious food, including ICED COFFEE WHICH TASTED LIKE IT WAS FROM STARBUCKS. I almost passed out from happiness.

After eating we started talking about the reason we came – to learn more about Rugmark’s offer to provide SOUP with funding. Rugmark is an organization that works against the trafficking of children to work on carpet looms. We learned that Rugmark International is currently in the midst of separating itself from Rugmark India and is now called itself Goodweave, because it wants to address all of the social concerns that are part of carpet work, not just child trafficking. Mr. Matthews explained to us that Goodweave, when it was still called Rugmark, used to run a rescue program, where it rescued children who were working on carpet looms, and then rehabilitated them in shelter homes. Now Goodweave is regrouping and trying to redesign its programs. One thing it wants to start doing is outsourcing its rescue and rehabilitation programs. That’s how Mr. Matthews originally found SOUP – he was looking for shelter homes for trafficked children near Varanasi that Goodweave could send rescued children to.

We had mixed feelings about our conversation. We were a little disappointed to learn that there are a few problems right now with Goodweave. They are still dealing with some copyright issues since their break from Rugmark India, and the commencement of their rescue/rehabilitation work has bee delayed for some time now. The other thing is that Goodweave only will provide funding for children who have been rescued from the carpet industry. However, Michelle and I were excited to learn that Goodweave also wants to provide funding for social welfare programs – education, health, etc – for village areas to prevent children from being trafficking into the carpet industry in the first place. This is exactly what Joy does for ALL the children he cares for. We were also excited to learn that Mr. Matthews does consulting work for Goodweave and that people who would actually make the decision to provide funding to SOUP have an office in Washington D.C.! That means that Michelle and I can make a visit to their office in person when we return to the United States and explain to them everything we have learned about SOUP and how important we think their work is.

After talking business, we learned some more about Mr. Matthews and his life. Another incredible thing was that when Joy mentioned that his daughter Angeli was looking for a job (a few days ago her job at the university was eliminated) Mr. Matthews made a few calls right there on the spot and found an organization for her to send her resume to! She’d become a teacher, receive free room and board, and her son Chotu would receive free education. It was like one of those Godsends Joy is always talking about.

Afterwards we headed back to our hotel, which was BEATIFUL and air conditioned! The rooms are Joy and Grace’s own personal rooms – they always get them when they travel to Varanasi because they know the hotel owner! During lunch another one of the Zaidi’s many connections showed up – a massage man! He started giving Joy and Grace this insane version of Indian massage. Michelle and I just laughed, finishing our food. Then Michelle made the mistake of laying on the bed to rest. I am not kidding when I say the massage man POUNCED on her! And then he got me too! Indian massages are interesting, let me just leave it at that.

After lunch, Angeli and Rajiv took us to the bank of the Ganges river. We went out on a boat….oh my goodness it was BEAUTIFUL. The west side of the river was filled with different buildings and steps leading right down to the water, there were all these children laughing and playing on the water…it was so relaxing and the breeze felt so cool…so many different boats (some of them with white people on them!). We learned that it is said that if a dead person’s body is burned by the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi, they will be guaranteed a place in heaven. We passed by a site where 7 or 8 different bodies were being burned. It actually looked really cool – as it grew dark, you could really only see the fires, and hear the sounds of people beating drums and celebrating the lives of the people who had died. It really did look like each fire was one person’s soul being celebrated and going up to heaven.

Then the boatman took us to see the river worship ceremony. There were six holy men who did this really cool routine holding incense and sprinkling different flowers, and then picking up these GIANT heavy metal things with at least 50 candles on each one. They waved them over their heads and around their bodies for at least 15 minutes, while ringing bells and singing. It was really beautiful to watch, especially sitting on our boat. There were at least 50 other boats gathered around as well to watch.

It was very dark at this point and time to head home. On our way we stopped to pick up some tandoori chicken, Michelle’s favorite!! After dinner I lay in bed with Angeli for a little talking about SOUP. She explained how she would love to take over SOUP from her father one day and run the shelter home, but she would need to be paid a salary to do that and right now SOUP just doesn’t have that kind of money. It is very important to Joy that he and Grace do not take salaries, but Angeli says he’s beginning to see the sense in hiring a director for the future who is paid. Ahhh it gave me so much hope to hear that someone young and energetic like Angeli dreams of one day running SOUP like her father has.

After seeing how much the kids loved working with paper to make the shakers yesterday, today we spent the morning making masks and paper necklaces and jewelry! My favorite moment was when Abishek made me a paper watch to wear. I still wasn’t sure if he was afraid of me or not up until this poit J There is also this little boy named Aman, who is gun-gun’s older brother. He is ADORABLE. He always has this big huge grin on his face and is so eager to try any new arts and crafts activity.

Ok shout out to Kathleen Blackney – after arts and crafts I sat on the couch and tried to teach a bunch of the boys how to beatbox!! I barely even know how to beatbox, I only know what I’ve learned from copying Kathleen, but to these boys it sounded amazing so it was all good. Abishek and me finally BONDED it was so exciting. Learning how to beatbox is always a bonding activity because you basically have to look like an idiot spitting all over the place the first few times you do it. But Abishek is getting so good at it, especially when he puts on Rahul’s sunglasses and starts bobbing his head in time with the rhythm :)

After beatboxing with the boys I got up and danced for while with the girls. They love this one routine Michelle has taught them from her dance class with Mrs. Devenney, it’s always one of the first songs we dance to!! Afterwards I danced with Pooja to some Indian music. I feel very connected with Pooja – she is 13 and Joy has explained to us how much working with Michelle and I has helped her open up and star to trust others. She also reminds me a lot of what I felt like at 13; very unsure of who I was and a little wary of everyone around me. But one thing she is that I was not is an INCREDIBLE dancer!! And because she doesn’t speak very good English, dancing with her feels like we’re having a conversation because it’s really the best way to relate to her. Ahh I just love it. Its so interesting to compare it to the way I first felt dancing – it was still awesome, but I was very self-conscious and aware of myself and all the children watching me. Now I just lose myself in the moment, it’s like it’s just me and Pooja!

While we were dancing the power the power had gone out so the fans weren’t working and it was hot like I don’t even know how to find words to describe to you. At one point Michelle and I just looked at each other and shook our heads because we honestly, no exaggeration, looked as if we had just jumped into a pool. We were very grateful when it was lunchtime to help take our minds off of how hot we were.

After lunch I came outside to find Michelle and a few of the boys stacking pillows on top of each other to make a hurdle for them to jump over! Even little Rohit managed to clear the huge stacks, and they kept adding more and more shoes each time the boys were able to jump over a new pile! All of the adults came outside to watch. I loved how they all clapped for Rahul even though he wasn’t able to jump over some of the shoes, or when Gautam grabbed little Aman and sent him flying over the pile of shoes like he was Superman. Like I’ve said before these kids really take care of each other. It’s awesome to see. What bummed me out a little bit was that none of the girls tried it – Pooja did a few times, which made my day, but then they all went inside. One reason was because a few of them were wearing skirts. Which makes me hate skirts. What a stupid invention. I’ve never viewed pants as a sign of equality for women until coming here, and now I thank God every day that it’s acceptable for me to wear them!

After jumping around Joy basically forced Michelle and I to come sit inside with all the adults, because like I said, we looked like we’d been in a swimming pool and I think he was getting worried about us. Jeanette’s husband fanned us for awhile, which was honestly a huge Godsend. The fans here are shaped really interestingly – they’re designed in this circular shape so that even if you’re fanning yourself or one other person, you’re still benefiting other people in the room.

Joy told me some stories about times in his life when he has received a blessing from God just when he thought there was nowhere to turn. There was one time when a TV just appeared in their living room – the owner of a TV shop had heard that Joy cared for many children and that they would like a TV. Or there was another time when SOUP owed a sum of 530 rupees to a shopowner and someone made a donation to them in exactly that amount. He went on like this for awhile with all these different examples of what Mrs. Woelchke would call “Small Miracles.” SOUP needs another one of those small miracles now. I do have faith that things are going to work out, because they always have for Joy. There is a reason Michelle and I found this organization; there is a reason why we are here this summer. On paper, in many ways SOUP sounds like an organization that might not survive much longer. But in reality, I can’t see this happening. There is something unique and special about this organization and I have faith that things are going to turn around for it soon.

After our conversation I went outside to find Michelle playing cricket with Gautam and Abishek! We spent the next two hours playing cricket with them and the whole family. It’s a very small area so things got pretty interesting when we hit the ball into the street or over the roof of the house, but ahhh I just had such an amazing time playing with all of them! Some of my favorite moments were watching Rinky and Heena do their crazy little happy dance together every time their team scored a point; another moment was watching Grace get up to bat!!!! Their oldest son was actually once a professional cricket player. We also played another game where all the children stand inside a square and then a few people on the outside have to hit their feet with a tennis ball.

Afterwards Brother Joseph, a friend of SOUP who has come to visit for a few days, took us outside for evening prayer. There was no power and it was getting very dark, and it was actually a really wonderful feeling to have us all sitting together, praying and telling Bible stories. I really didn’t expect to be having the religious experience I am having here. Telling Bible stories to the kids makes me realize just how ballin of a storybook the Bible is! Michelle and I acted out Noah’s ark, and I sprinkled water all over their heads and pretended to be a dove with Heena…then we acted out Moses, and we pretended to send one of their baby dolls down the river…like honestly I never appreciated this before, but things just don’t get more exciting than the Old Testament. It makes me really excited to have kids of my own and tell them a Bible story before they go to sleep at night.

After prayer time it was dinner time, which is always delicious!!! Then we came home and spent some time talking about the children’s education. Joy has told us that he needs about $1500 to send them to school for the year. This is money that SOUP just doesn’t have right now, and they all begin school within a week – but Joy has faith that they will find a way to make things work. On a lighter note, Michelle also noticed that her camera was missing…we called Joy, and he found it under Rahul’s bed. Oh Rahul.

It was HOT today. So humid. It needs to rain. Our onions can only do so much.

Today at SOUP Michelle came up with a BRILLIANT arts and crafts plan! We’ve been saving all of our toilet paper rolls. Originally this was so that we’d know how much money to budget for them. But Michelle had the idea of filling them with seeds from the ground outside and making shakers out of them!! The kids really liked this activity, even though Gautam was blatantly old enough to understand exactly why we had so many rolls of toilet paper. I really loved watching all of them work so hard on their individual shaker.

I then went to go grab Joy to translate our second activity for us to the kids, and he told me that SOUP had just been invited to a conference on trafficking in Delhi in July! Michelle and I might go with him, which would be sick nasty exciting.

Anyway, our second activity was we wanted each child to draw on a piece of paper different things that represented themselves. This was a little challenging for them –at first they kept copying the examples Michelle and I had drawn, and we realized that they actually might not do activities like this very often in school. After some encouragement though, we helped them draw things that are meaningful to them – it was really cool to see all the different things that they drew! My favorite moment was when a younger boy, Rohit, showed me his paper, which was only half-filled. “Can you draw more?” I asked him, motioning that I wanted the paper to be filled. Immediately he was like “No, didi, no.” “No more?” I asked, trying to convince him. Finally he grinned and was like “Ok, didi, more.” About 10 minutes later he came back with another huge smile on his face. He was holding a huge picture of a peacock. I turned to Gautam, our translator. “Gautam?” I asked. “What’s the Hindi word for peacock?” “More!” he replied. I started laughing so hard I almost cried. Poor Rohit.

Eventually we’re going to take all the brainstorming that the children have done on these papers and help them transfer them to the canvas squares Michelle and I cut up the other day. That way we have a big huge mural representing what is important to the children! I’m so excited to see the final result!

Another exciting part of the day was when Abishek, Heena’s older brother, arrived from where he has been staying in a nearby village. He was a little bit shy and didn’t really know what to make of Michelle and I, but I’m excited to get to know him.

After lunch we spent some more time with Joy filling out the intake forms. I really am so impressed at how much he is able to remember about each individual child. And he is so patient with Michelle and I – the children’s stories are very convoluted and sometimes confusing, and at one point Michelle and I just broke down laughing because no matter how many questions we ask him and no matter how lost and confused we are in the story he is telling, he just keeps on patiently trying to answer what we ask him.

We also had some good news –Kyle, who originally constructed SOUP’s website, has spent all this time converting the programming he did for the website into a format Michelle and I (or anybody else) will be able to easily edit! We are SO grateful to him because he legitimately pulled an all-nighter to get it finished before he leaves for his vacation on Friday and we can’t wait to get started adding a few things to the website. We want to have a section that can be easily updated, kind of like a blog, and explain a little better what the programming looks like at SOUP. We also want to have a section that gives some numbers to demonstrate just how much SOUP has accomplished. Joy was caring for only 22 children when the shelter home closed in January, but that was because he only cares long-term for children that cannot be returned home. Since the shelter home began functioning in 2002 he has actually assisted 562 children!!

After doing some more work on the computer, Michelle went to go teach Gautam some more computer engineering things and I went outside with Rinky for a little bit. I attached lanyards to my camera and my video camera, so that the children can wear them around their necks and take pictures without me being afraid they’re break them, and Rinky has really fallen in love with my camera. She took me outside to the back wall, and we climbed up on it and looked out over one of the university fields, where a bunch of neighborhood boys were playing cricket. Then she took me up onto the roof of their house! It’s HUGE and it was so beautiful up there! We just goofed around taking silly pictures of each other for awhile. I really love spending individual time with Rinky. She’s this awesome combination of independent, smart, a little bit stubborn but unbelievably patient. For example, if she doesn’t like an activity we’re doing, she doesn’t demand attention the way the other children will- she’ll just leave, because she knows she can be of more help to Grace or Joy around the house, or knows that she’ll have more fun doing her own thing somewhere else. She also takes incredibly good care of Kajal and is always there for her when she needs her. She also tells unbelievably good stories – scares the crap out of me pretending to be a ghost!! Ok so secretly, I guess the reason I love spending time with Rinky is because in a lot of ways she reminds me of myself, and she’s hard to spend time with during the day when there are so many other children demanding attention.

Afterwards Michelle and Rahul and Gautam came up to the roof for a little bit. Rinky and I tried to scare Michelle coming up the stairs but Gautam is just way too loyal and told Michelle where we were as soon as she came upstairs. We went back downstairs and sat outside relaxing with Angeli and Rajiv before it was time to head home.

We arrived at SOUP late today because we spent the morning diagnosing Michelle with strep throat and “eating-too-much-village-food” disease! Wahoo! And we learned that azithromycin cures both strep throat and stomach problems. Wonderful life! Who needs med school? I think I’ll just take azithromycin from now on!!

Anyway, when we finally did arrive at SOUP, Joy called us into his office. He was wearing a giant wool hat. “It’s freezing,” he said, grinning. “I don’t know what to do about the situation.” Then he pulled it off and looked at us very seriously. “Actually, girls, it’s around 46 Celsius. We have an Indian remedy to protect your body from heat waves.” I got so excited, remembering my dehydration spell from the night before. He then handed us two onions. “A onion?” I asked. “What am I supposed to do with this?” Mangla grinned and gestured that I needed to put it down my shirt. So, for the rest of the day, I wore an onion in my sports bra to protect myself from the heat. I think it was actually just more successful at keeping creepy strangers away from me.

Because we had missed most of the morning, we just spent the remaining time before lunch relaxing with the children. We showed them the pictures of them that we’ve taken and stored on our laptop, which they LOVE! I can’t wait to get a few of the pictures developed so we can leave some behind for the children to have. I’m also starting to get really good at “Karumb,” one of the children’s favorite games.

After lunch, I spent some time with Heena teaching her how to make a friendship bracelet. There is something so satisfying to me about being able to sit there with a child and be there for them every single time there is a knot or their string gets tangled. It reminds me of one of my first memories from when I was a child. I was maybe 3 and I woke up early one morning and was sitting in my room, playing with a Barbie doll, when all of a sudden her head fell off. I had no idea what was going on, all I knew that my doll was broken, so I went running into my mom’s room to find her, and she wasn’t there. She was in the shower, but I didn’t know that, and so for the next 15 minutes all I remember is running around the house, screaming and crying, convinced that I was alone in the world. Soon my mom came out, heard me crying, and came to find me. Just like that her arms were around my, my Barbie doll was fixed, and everything was fine. Working with these kids has made me realize that until SOUP they had never known that kind of stability. When their knots got tangled, or their dolls’ heads fell off, they had no one to turn to. And now they have Joy and Grace and all the amazing people that work with them! I really had taken for granted up until this point how important it is to grow up knowing that there is at least one other person in the world who would do anything to make sure that you are OK.

I also started teaching Kajal how to jumprope!! I think the most exciting part was that usually, all of the other kids are really impatient and are always yelling to get a turn, but when they realized I was trying to teach Kajal, they immediately stopped screaming and started trying to help her as well. First we taught her the concept of jumping straight up and straight down by teaching her that she had to land on the jumprope, which she could feel with her feet. Then we taught her only to jump when she hears us yell “jump!” It took awhile, but after a lot of practice she was finally able to clear one turn of the rope with a jump!!

Watching her jumprope inspired me to take her and work with her on the computer for a little bit. We’ve been avoiding working with her because the reality is that she can’t see what’s going on, but seeing how eager she was to learn how to jumprope changed my mind. Our role here isn’t to decide what Kajal can and can’t do. So what if she can’t see the computer screen? She is a beautiful, smart, determined little girl and God forbid if I’m the one who tells her she can’t use the computer. I have faith that she’ll figure it out. So, I sat with her and started teaching her how to type. She caught on RIGHT away and has mastered the home keys better than my own parents!!

Before dinner Michelle worked her engineering skills on the giant canvas Joy bought for all the kids to turn into a mural. I had the idea of cutting it up into individual pieces so that each kid could have their own section, and then we can holepunch them and stitch them back together with all the yarn we have! I’m so excited!

After dinner, Chotu, Rahul, Gautam, Rinki, Angeli, and Joy’s nephew all piled into the car about the size of a Honda Civic to take Michelle and I home!! When we turned left instead of right and started heading in a completely different direction, suddenly we realized that Angeli had decided to take us to Civil Lines for ice cream!! There was literally no room to breathe in this car and we just kept laughing and tickling each other the whole time. Gautam taught me how to say “Oh God” in Hindi “Arre Bapre” or something like that. It’s my new favorite phase.

And then after ice cream, we brought all the kids into our apartment to show it to them! AHHH it was so awesome to show them a part of our lives!! We showed them pictures, and gave them tons of our fruit snacks, and took them out on our back porch, where Gautam and Chotu fell in love with our swings. We decided we’re going to have them all over here for dinner one night next week. I can’t wait J

Today Michelle and I decided we wanted to teach the children some conversation phrases! We paired everybody up and had them stand in front of the room practicing things like “How are you?” and “What is your name?” Afterwards we split them into two groups – an “inside-the-house” group with me, and an “outside-the-house” group with Michelle. Then we took them around and picked up different objects and taught them their English names. The kids LOVED this and paid such good attention!

Afterwards I spent some time jumproping outside with Heena, Tanu, Kajal, and Vikash. Little Gun-gun kept sneaking behind me and trying to grab my camera, which I always keep hanging around my neck. She’s adorable and I’m so excited she’s finally not scared of Michelle and I! When we all got too hot, we went back inside where some of the older children were sitting with Michelle. I went and sat against the back of Neelam’s knees and started braiding some of the girls’ hair, just listening to all the children talking to each other in Hindi – understanding the gist of some things, completely missing some other things – and couldn’t help but think of how much the situation reminded me of Notre Dame. The most important part about where Michelle and I went to high school is how everyone in our class, no matter how different our personalities were, felt like a family when we were together. That’s exactly how it feels here with the children. That feeling is so rare and special I actually still can’t believe that I’ve been lucky enough to find it in two different places in my life.

After lunch, we spent some time with Joy filling out some forms we received from Free for Life Ministries, an organization that provides SOUP with some funding. Joy has an individual file kept for each child, and what Free for Life wants is to transfer that information into an intake form, which Joy is going to start regularly using for each child that is admitted to his shelter home. There’s also a tri-annual update form for each child, and a discharge form. It was actually really difficult to work on the forms because each child has such a complicated and meaningful story that it was hard to fit everything about them into the few lines we’re given on the intake form. But we were both really excited to finally get started working on something tangible that will have long-term benefits! With these forms, Free for Life will be able to keep better track of each child that is staying at SOUP.

Afterwards I helped a few more children – Neelam, Vikash, and Tanu – get their Gmail accounts set up. I was having them email my mom and my sister, so I went on Facebook to pull up pictures of them to help explain to the children the concept that they were actually sending a letter to a real person. It made me realize how badly I wish I could bring my whole family here to show to these kids!! I also just love showing them all the power of the internet. The smile that they get on their face when they realize they are sending an actual letter halfway across the world is priceless.

When we were finished, Joy took Michelle and I to the village where everyone who attended the conference last Thursday and Friday lives. I know that there is a lot that is not good about Indian villages – they have difficulty finding access to running water, electricity, schools, healthcare, all of that – but I honestly after seeing a few of them I honestly think that they are one of the most beautiful places in the world. They just seem so peaceful to me. The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was that I could hear children from faraway laughing – it has been so long since I have been able to hear things without honking and noise in the background. As I got closer I could see that groups of children were standing on the roofs of buildings flying kites.

We first went to Anju’s home, where we got to see the sewing machine that SOUP has given her. While we were sitting around it, she and her family brought all kinds of food and soda for us to eat and drink. This was really deeply moving for me because I could appreciate all the effort this family must have gone through to get that food. Not only did it cost them more money than they could afford, but they probably had to walk really far just to find a store that sold it. After eating Joy asked us to say a blessing over the new sewing machine. I think that is the first time in my life I have ever been asked by a pastor to say a blessing!

Afterwards we went to the meeting center, where Christian families from all over the village had gathered for a prayer meeting. The meeting was run by Jeanette and her husband, the two new employees for SOUP (Jeanette grew up in SOUP’s shelter home). It was easily one of the most beautiful religious experiences I’ve ever had. Let me just explain the situation to you. It is about 115 degrees, there’s no electricity, and all of the people sitting in front of us had just finished a long day of working, either caring for their families at home or working in the fields. Who knows how far they’ve had to walk to get to the meeting place. Jeanette herself is 8 months pregnant with twins. Yet nobody in the room is frowning or complaining. Instead they have these huge smiles on their faces, crammed together in this unbearably hot room to listen and celebrate their faith. They’re laughing, and singing, and clapping, and shouting “Hallelujah!” after almost every single sentence Jeanette’s husband is saying. After celebrating together, a few men and women stood up to give individual testimony to the presence of God in their lives. Anju stood up and thanked God for her new sewing machine; another man stood up and thanked God for the strength to get up each morning and go to work. After some more singing, everyone stood up to give each other the sign of peace. Except here they say “Praise the Lord,” or “Jay-mah-see-kee” in Hindi when you shake hands. Michelle and I both loved the chance to look each person in the face and say a phrase that we both could understand.

After the prayer meeting, it had gotten very dark, and everyone brought chairs and beds outside the meeting room, where we sat and had tea and these DELICIOUS snacks which I can only really describe to you as a fried leaf. We all basically sat on one bed together – Joy, his wife Grace, his daughter Angeli and her friend Rajiv, one of the SOUP workers, Mangla, and Jeanette – and looked up at the stars, which are BEAUTIFUL out in the village! We all just talked and laughed and made fun of each other, as if Michelle and I were just an extended part of their family (that had perhaps inherited a strange albino gene, or something.)

Finally it had gotten late and was time to head home. Easier said than done. See, in India, when you have a marriage party, instead of renting out a reception hall, you have the party legitimately right in the middle of the street so that nobody can pass through. We ran into this problem about 2 minutes after leaving the meeting place. It was pitch black, we were in a giant black SUV, and had no idea where we were. It took us about 20 minutes driving through a legit obstacle course of narrow dirt roads, gigantic black cows, and huge tree roots before we finally found the main road.

We headed back to Joy’s house for a little bit. Gautam showed me how to make tea, which was very exciting! Chotu and Michelle got into a waterfight, which really wasn’t a problem because wet clothes dry in about 30 seconds in India. After about a half hour though it finally hit me that I was seriously dehydrated, so Michelle and I headed home for the night. Tonight was I think the first time I realized just how dangerous the heat can be here…when we got back to the apartment I was shaking, the room was spinning, and my head was pounding. But the solution was simple! I simply chugged a liter of Gatorade and another liter of water!