India 2009!

Whoa! And finally Saturday. Well after that jammed pack week, we were very exhausted so we decided to sleep in and ended up sleeping until 2! Then we decided to head over to SOUP to see the children! Getting a rickshaw was interesting because it was so hot out and no one wanted to work. Katie tried to convince one rickshaw man to take us while I talked to another one. Then out of nowhere I was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of Indian boys! Like literally there was no one around and then BOOM like a sea of people trying to help us! We are very careful not to ask for help from someone we don’t know just because we don’t want to attract the wrong type of attention, but in this case the boys yelled at the rickshaw driver and then suddenly he was completely willing to drive us where we wanted to go.

When we got to SOUP, we danced with the children for a little and then split off to play different games. Katie played Jenga with a group of kids—actually sick nasty Jenga. We found this Jenga game at Big Bazaar last weekend and Katie had the brilliant idea to write a different action on each block. So each time a kid pulls a block out they have to do something –like find a circle, or say something nice about the person next to you. It’s like Jenga and English learning all at the same time! Then we decided to teach the children the limbo! And it was a great success! They loved it and some of the older family members even came in to play! Then we went outside and played tag and jump rope. We got to meet all of Neelam’s family as well which was awesome—her grandfather and her mom. They were both amazing and invited us to come see their home one day. Then the children asked to see more pictures of me and Katie so we took out the laptop and showed them some more. They love pictures!! And they will just sit there for hours staring at them—it’s crazy. It was really cool sharing my life with them though and explaining who everyone was.

Then everyone started leaving and Mangla asked Gautam to go with her to the market. Katie and I had been talking earlier about some things that we needed to buy so I asked if I could go along. Hahah funny story, the language barrier made the whole process slightly complicated. See originally they thought I was asking to go to Neelam’s home so they stuck me on a motorcycle with Neelam’s grandfather and a few of her brothers. Eventually after like 15 translations, they understood that I actually just wanted to buy some things in the market. Thank goodness I said something because I found out later that Neelam’s house is about an hour away. Katie would probably have died worrying about where I had gone!

So I walked to the market with Mangla, Gautam, Pooja, Sweety, and Tanu while Katie worked on the computer with a little girl named Heena. While we were walking, the reality of the situation set in for me. I was walking through the streets of Allahabad, halfway around the world, holding the hands of two amazing young girls who I had only known for three weeks but who I considered my sisters. On our way to the market, we stopped at Mangla’s house and I got to see all of her family members. Pooja, Sweety, and Tanu actually live with Mangla so they got to show me everything and it was awesome! Their family is very poor and their living conditions surprised me, but what was amazing was that I could feel the love in that house. And in the end, that’s all that matters. As long as they have enough food, can go to school, and feel loved, they will be okay. The living conditions made me understand why the children are so happy to come to SOUP. Because honestly SOUP is like a whole different world. And it made me appreciate even more the work that SOUP is doing.

I bought my things in the market and then headed back to SOUP with Gautam. When we got back, he asked if I could teach him more on the computer but the electricity had gone out. We just relaxed for a while. One of my favorite moments was when the electricity came back on. Instantly, Gautam stood right up and started doing a little happy dance all around the room. It was amazing! He was just so excited to learn! So I sat down with him and taught him some more concepts and commands in Excel. I was blown away by the amount of information he remembered from the day before. After a while, I gave him an assignment to complete on his own and I just sat there and watched. After doing a few problems, he got stuck on one of the commands. He was thinking so hard and then a huge smile spread across his face and he reached into his pocket and whipped out the notes he had taken while working with me the day before. I was so surprised that he had kept them because it showed that it really meant something to him to learn. I pointed to the notes and laughed and he was just like, “They’ve been in my pocket all day! I was just waiting for you to teach me!” Oh my goodness. I can’t explain to you how amazing that made me feel. I had invested two hours in working with him and I hoped that he would remember something or have fun doing it, but I never expected it to me so much to him. He really loves to learn and I think the one-on-one attention means a lot to him.

And again I need to thank Katie McCabe because while I was working with Gautam she has been playing with the three other girls. One time I walked into the room and they were playing this game called ghost—which basically was the three girls trying and succeeding to scare Katie out of her mind. She also had them teach her all the words to “Jai Ho!” which is very exciting!

On a more serious note, Joy was talking to Katie and explained that the children are all going back to school in ten days but SOUP has no money to pay for their school fees. We sent an email to Free for Life to see if they can help out at all, and then tried to brainstorm with Joy about other options. All together, SOUP needs $1500 to send 11 children to school (plus another $500 to send Rahul to a special school). I really hope that we can figure something out for them because these children deserve to go to school.

Then we ate dinner and Katie and I learned to eat with our hands!! It was very exciting because somehow we have been in India for five weeks and still hadn’t learned. Mayadidi attempted to teach us in Kolkata but just laughed at our failed attempts! Then Katie and I just got to sit with Joy and talk about his life. Joy is an amazing person and he has had such an incredible life. He has experienced so much and has helped so many people! And through everything that he has faced, he has always kept his faith that everything will turn out alright in the end. He is a huge inspiration to both me and Katie and we are so honored to have met him!

When we got home, I just started thinking because we need to do more! Working with the children has been incredible and we are trying to gather as much information and send as many emails as possible but we cannot make $25,000 appear from mid-air. It just stinks but I have to keep faith in the fact that if we just work hard and do as much as we can then something will work out. What kills me is thinking about everything in perspective. For example, the cost of an average college education in the United States could literally buy land and a brand new shelter home for fifty children. And the cost of the average annual sorority/fraternity fees could send 11 children to school. It is just insane! We have a lot of work left to do in these next five weeks and hopefully when we leave here we will have a better sense of how to get SOUP back and running. There are two new employees that have come to work for SOUP who are amazing! One is a former child in the shelter home!! Which is absolutely amazing. She is a wonderful woman and she has done so much with her life and now she wants to give back to SOUP. We also have a meeting with the president of SOUP next week and an organization called Rugmark which is considering funding SOUP. I am excited to see how everything goes!

One last thing—it had been bothering me for a while thinking about the children’s parents. A parent who will blind their child with chemicals and then shove them on a train, or force their child to work long hours and sleep outside in the cold. I had a dream last night about all the children and I dreamed that I was talking to all of their parents. I was yelling and yelling at them for not loving their children. I woke up in a horrible state, but suddenly this peace just passed over me. I realized that, in the long run, the parents are the ones who lost in the situation. Because any person on this Earth would be so lucky to have a child like Kajal or Rinky or Pooja or Gautam or any of the other children. Those children are happy now and they have overcome the darkness of their past. But their parents missed out on all the love and happiness those children could have blessed them with. I still wonder everyday if their parents every think about them or wonder where they are though. I also wonder whether the children ever think about their past lives. I hope that they have found peace and happiness and that they continue to live life with the hope and enthusiasm that they have right now.