India 2009!

Okay so fail with the whole feeling better in the morning situation. When we woke up this morning, Katie was feeling even worse and my stomach had even started to feel a little queasy. But no worries, that’s why we purchased an entire drug store before we left home! We ate some oatmeal for breakfast and popped a few Pepto Bismals and then headed to work! Thank goodness we have mastered the Hindi direction words because we needed them again this morning. It’s so nice to finally know some Hindi because we just feel much more in control of our situation.

When we got to SOUP, we first went to talk to Joy and make sure everything was set for what we had prepared for the children. Joy was amazing and had somehow managed to scrounge up new copybooks, colored pencils, drawing paper, and a canvas! We went in to see the children and talked to them about our plans for the day. We distributed the new copybooks and it was just so nice to give the children something that is their own. We started off by giving them the list of English words we were going to teach them this week and had them write the list down in their copybooks. Then we had them draw pictures of all the words on the back of flashcards we had prepared. Again, we were just blown away by the artistic abilities of the children. Then we just sat for like an hour with the children and drilled the words into their heads. I would say the word in English and they would give me the Hindi words or vice versa. There were a few rough moments when I tried to pronounce some of the Hindi words but luckily the children are just so amazing and were patient with my horrible Hindi accent. Katie has mastered the word for repeat (“Bolo”) and it was amazing to just sit in the room with the children and have them be so eager to learn and repeat the words! Also, as an added bonus Katie and I also benefited from this hour of drilling words. We have finally started to pick up on some of the Hindi words and pronunciations. It was amazing working with the children and seeing how responsive they were. I know it must be frustrating for them because they each are at a very different English speaking capacity and we just can’t cater individually to each of them. But no a single child complained or moaned about the activity. Today was also one of those days when I was just so incredibly happy that Katie and I are doing this together because it would be impossible to do well on our own. Since there are two of us, Katie got to focus some of her attention on helping Kajul, who is blind, and I got to focus some of my attention on Tanu who is much younger than the rest of the children. Oh and we got another child today! His name is Pradeep and he is ten years old. He’s amazing and just fit right in with the rest of the children. And according to Joy, we should have another two children by the end of the week. It’s just insane!

After drilling the words, we decided to take a break and do some yoga with the children! It was amazing. We set up all the mats outside in the shade and just started showing the children some yoga moves and poses. Again, they were just so willing and eager to learn even though it was quite obvious that neither Katie nor I were yoga masters. The yoga session was full of awkward falls and insane laughter, but that was the best part. Anyone who knows Katie or I knows that we both love just laughing and being ridiculous and it was nice to just laugh with the children about the ridiculousness of some of the moves. By the end of the yoga session, everyone was a bit sore and pouring down sweat, so we decided to take a break and learn some songs inside. All of the credit for our song teaching skills goes directly to the Missionaries of Charity in Norristown. Every song we taught them was a song that I learned from the Sisters while working with the children’s summer camp. The songs brought back some great memories and the children seemed to really like them! All that time Katie and I spent practicing in our apartment was well spent!! It still amazes me that the children are so eager to learn the songs. I feel like when I was thirteen years old, I would have thought I was too cool to learn Jesus songs. But these children got so into it and even taught us a few songs of their own!

After songs, we played musical chairs for a while and then ate lunch! Luckily, I was feeling much better by this point but Katie was still feeling a little nauseous, so it was just plain white rice for her! After lunch, we just hung out with the children and listened to music and had some tickle fights! Pooja and Sweety also did our hair and made it look a little more Indian. We’re still rocking the classic bun up-do, but it’s not too popular here in India :)

Then we went with Grace and Mongla to the market to buy some things for the children. We took two rickshaws down into the Chawk (which means old) section of the city. Our first stop was a music store because Katie and I decided that we wanted to teach the children to play some type of music. Our original intent was to teach the kids to play the harmonica, but the store only had two harmonicas. So, we asked about other inexpensive instruments and the man came out with a flute and a recorder. They were amazing, and after messing around with them a little, we decided to buy enough flutes for all the children so that we can teach them how to play. We are very excited to give them the flutes because they are a gift from us. We wanted to give the children something that can be their very own and that they can continue to learn. Minor detail that neither Katie nor I actually know how to play the flute—we will figure it out in a few days!

After the music store, we started our search for string to make friendship bracelets. No summer camp would be complete without friendship bracelets and the children have seemed very interested in the ones we are already wearing. So we figured it would be awesome to teach them how to make them! The first few stores we went to were no help—they kept trying to sell us actual bracelets instead of string to make bracelets—but then eventually we saw a store filled with spools of yarn!! The yarn was so inexpensive. We ended up buying about 1 kg of yarn in all different colors of the rainbow. We’re so excited to start teaching the children! Also, while we were scooping out string, Grace was picking out some adorable outfits for her new grandson. His baptism is on Saturday and we are going with them to Agra! In case you didn’t know, Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal!!! So in less than three days, Katie and I will be standing in front of one of the seven wonders of the world!

We ended the market trip by buying some string to use for jump ropes. Then we headed over to another booth to talk to one of Grace’s friends. Grace’s friend bought us some juice to drink while we were waiting and it was this interesting concoction made from sugarcane. Since Katie’s stomach was still upset, she didn’t drink any but I had no good excuse to refuse so I tried it. Let me tell you…it was quite interesting. It literally tasted like a huge cup of warm chopped up grass. YUM! But it supposedly is very good for your stomach, and even though it was painful to get down, it actually made my stomach feel 100% better.

Oh my goodnees…okay I need to try and describe the market experience. The Indian market is so different than anything we have in the United States. It literally is this huge section of the city that is devoted simply to selling things. There are booths and stands EVERYWHERE and just people and rickshaws and motorbikes weaving in and out. The stores are all grouped together in clusters—so when you walk down one alley, you find all the shoe stands. And the nest alley has all the jewelry or shoes or clothes, etc. Its an amazing and overwhelming experience to just walk through the market. It is just like a sensory overload every time we go to a market though because there are so many interesting and beautiful things everywhere!

After we bought everything we needed, we grabbed two more rickshaws and headed back home. I have grown to love the rickshaw rides so much because they are the only time really that I can force myself to remember that I am actually in India!! It’s so weird, but I still can’t believe that I am here and seeing everything with my own eyes. But when I am on the back of a rickshaw and can just stare at everything around me, I can’t help remembering that I am halfway around the world in India! What’s funny is that before I left whenever anyone asked me if I was excited, my first response was always that I was just so excited to SEE India with my own eyes. And now I am! It’s just insane! I got to ride back in the rickshaw with Grace and she pointed out all kinds of interesting things along the way home. It’s amazing how much history is right here in Allahabad! Katie and I can’t wait to spend a weekend just learning more about the city and seeing all the important places!

When we finally got home, we both ran into the apartment, grabbed some water, and just basked in the beauty of the air conditioning. We rested for a little bit and then got up and got dressed because we were going over to Sachindra’s house again! I know we explained before that Sachindra is amazing, but he somehow became even more amazing after talking to him tonight. We walked into his office and he had all types of questions about how our work was going with SOUP. Sachindra sits on the High Court of Allahabad and has his own work to be doing, but he is so interested in our work with SOUP. After hearing about our progress so far, he gave us a few suggestions which were amazing because he has so much experience with NGOs. He also talked to us a little more about the situation of children here in India. He gave us all this paperwork on The Juvenile Justice Act of 2000 for the Care and Protection of Children. Sachindra really wants us to go see a government run shelter home here in India so that we have something to compare SOUP to. It was very interesting talking to him because he told us a lot about the problems with the government run shelter homes. For example, children who are abused, neglected, or abandoned are kept in the same shelter homes as children who get in trouble with the law. We also talked to Sachindra about the fundraising situation and how to get SOUP’s name and mission more well-known in Allahabad. He gave us some great advice and I feel like he will be a huge asset to our project!

After talking business with Sachindra, he showed us the Youtube video of Steve Job’s Stanford Commencement Speech from 2005. If you have never heard this speech, please look it up RIGHT NOW! Its an amazing speech and its just so inspiring. And it will explain Sachindra’s influence better than I can attempt to explain in words. The speech talks a lot about following your heart, living each day, and not worrying about making mistakes in your life! It was just such a great message and it really re-energized me and Katie. Then we hopped in the car and went out to dinner with Sachindra and his family. We went to this amazing restaurant in a very nice part of the city. I finally got to have Naan and Tandoori chicken!!! And Katie had this amazing vegetable dish. I still can’t believe how lucky we are to have found Sachindra! And his family is amazing—his wife is so nice and his two little boys are so afraid of me and Katie. We’re not really sure if its because we’re girls or because we look entirely different than anyone here—its probably a combination of the two J Dinner was amazing and now we are just sitting in the apartment, getting ready to go to bed. We can’t wait to use all of our newly-purchased materials to work with the children!!