India 2009!

Now for some real updates. We woke up late this morning, around 9:45, and the extra rest felt amazing. Michelle is still bossing the rickshaw drivers around with her awesome Hindi words – see-day-churro means go straight, and bi-churro means left, which are the only two directions we need to get to Joy’s. Oh, and “roo-ko” means stop. It got a little awkward when we paid him, because he wanted more than 10 rupees, but we just shook our heads and sprinted into Joy’s house before he could stop us. We’re getting a little worried because it’s probably the same rickshaw drivers here over and over again, and we’re pretty memorable as we’re the only two white people in town - and if we make enough of them angry we’ll be fresh out of transportation options.

I’m going to try and walk in to the room one morning with my video camera on, because honestly the way these children stand up and say “Good morning, didi” every time we walk in the door makes me break into a grin. It really meant a lot to me yesterday, when I was feeling exhausted from not sleeping the night before, and ready to throw up – but as soon as I saw all the kids it was like it all went away. There was a new girl this morning, Pradeep’s older sister, Nilam. She is 17 years old, which is so much fun for Michelle and I! We went through the notecards again with the children. Afterwards we played Pictionary with the vocab words – one of the tricks Michelle learned from her spring break trip! The kids really enjoyed this and things got pretty competitive J

Afterwards, we busted out the big new jumprope & 2 small individual ones that Michelle and I bought at the market yesterday. The kids really liked this!! I can’t wait to see how good they are going to get at it before we leave. It’s also a really good feeling to know that we can leave that jumprope behind and they can continue to use it. Another girl from Vanderbilt named Ashley visited them last summer, and they still remember some of the songs she taught them – they keep asking us if we know “Ashleydidi.” It’s nice to know that they will have something to remind them of Katiedidi and Michelledidi when we leave!

On a side note, the jumprope had an interesting effect on my stomach situation, so while Michelle kept jumping rope I snuck away to the bathroom. When I came back she was in the middle of this really interesting game the boys tried to teach her. She later tried to explain it to me in English and I still don’t understand it, so I can only imagine what it must have been like for her in Hindi. All I could see was that she was holding half a cricket bat with one foot in a hole they told her to dig for herself and they were throwing a tennis ball at her, repeatedly. While she played with them, I took the girls inside to start making friendship bracelets! Michelle has said this before but that was really just another example of why it is so great there are 2 of us – we can really cater to the different interests of the children and make sure they are doing activities that are fun for them, because we can split up.

Friendship bracelets were a HUGE hit!! We originally thought we had bought too much yarn and now we actually might think we need to go by more. The children absolutely loved making them and it was all we did, for an hour and a half before lunch and for a good two hours after lunch. Michelle and I have them all up our wrists, on our ankles, and around our necks because the children keep tying them on us. I can’t wait to bring some back I think one of my favorite parts was seeing how quickly Kajal was able to catch on to it. She is so smart and even though she can’t see the string she is working with she learned how to tie the knot in about 2 minutes. Her real obstacle is that gets so excited because she knows she is doing it right, so she ties the knots too fast and gets the strings all tangled. It’s only been a day though and I’m sure by the end of this she’ll be a superstar.

I want to take a little pause right here to explain a little more about Kajal and the story behind why she is blind. Grace explained it to Michelle on our rickshaw ride to the market yesterday. When Kajal was young, her mother poured acid into her eyes and the eyes of her older sister before sending them into the streets to beg. If you’ve seen Slumdog Millionaire, it’s exactly what happens in that movie. Her eyes look just like the boy’s eyes. But even after being blinding Kajal still was not making enough money begging, so eventually her mother just took her to the train station and pushed her onto a train and left her there. Thank God the train was headed towards Allahabad, and thank God the conductor knew Joy, because he called Joy and told him that there was a starving, abandoned, blinded child on his train.

My first reaction when I hear this story is to just wrap my arms around Kajal and hug her and remind myself over and over again that she is alive and safe and happy. Not only is she alive and OK, but she might even be able to see again one day with a second round of operations. My second reaction is anger like I have never felt before at the woman that could do this to her own child. And my third reaction, when I have calmed down, is to remind myself that I can never imagine what it would be like to be in a position where I could not feed or support my children.

Anyway, back to the positive stuff – our work with the children! After lunch the older women who normally care for the children joined us and showed us some of their own tricks for making bracelets. It was really awesome to get the chance to bond with them and spend time with them, even though they don’t speak any English. They also tried to jumprope for a little bit which was so much fun to watch J Then they taught me how to play the drum that they have for the children!! It reminds me of an African bongo. I am determined to become an expert at this thing, it sounds so cool and the children love it. They have this song they love to sing to it that I also really want to learn. They laugh hysterically at it when they sing it. I loved Kajal’s response when I asked her what it meant in English. “English, didi?” she said. “This is NOT an English song.” I mentioned this before, but it is just so adorable that we use her as a translator. A 50 year old woman will be trying to explain something to me and have to turn to a 7 year old to translate – it’s so cool!

Around 5:15, we decided to call it a day and head home. We went to Sachindra’s to use his computer to update our blog, tell him about our day, and have dinner with him. He had huge stacks of legal briefs on his desk that he needed to read through and yet he still took the time to ask us about our project and how it is going. I also asked him a lot of legal questions about the work I’m doing with other Penn students trying to start a shelter for homeless youth, and he was so helpful and informative! After that we headed home…which was when the weasel incident occurred. Lord. What a way to end the day. We’re excited to work with the children again tomorrow and to head to the TAJ MAHAL tomorrow night!!