Life for the past week and a half has been as crazy as ever. Every day, I fall more in love with India and with these kiddos. I feel the time slipping swiftly through my fingers as I try to slow down this last month and a half here. I'm so ridiculously behind in blogging, so I'm just going to touch on some of the important parts of the past little while.
1. Last weekend, we didn't have any short-term volunteers here, so we went up to Chennai to a snake farm. It turned out to be more like a reptile zoo, and was actually more fun than I was anticipating. We saw snakes, crocodiles, lizards, frogs, and turtles.
One of my favorite parts was when we were walking by a turtle cage and one little turtle was trying to crawl up on these bricks. We got a little too emotionally involved in his struggle, and you can watch a video of the little scene we caused here.
After the snake farm, we went to a place called T. Nagar to shop. We went on a hunt to buy a sari and we all ended up getting some. T. Nagar was absolutely insane. It was packed and completely crazy.
We finished up the day with some insanely good American and Mexican food and went back home to our little slice of heaven at Rising Star.
2. Classes this week went really well. I had the kids do a lot of journal writing. Then, I would edit their writing, they would re-write it, and then they would draw a picture. I loved all the pictures I got.
3. The fourth of July. It was so fun to celebrate it in India. All the kids and Indian staff members kept coming to shake my hand and say, "Happy Independence Day." We planned a little party for the volunteers, and 7 kids bought tickets to come from the star store.
It was some good times with our wonderfully improvised decorations,
our really, really, ridiculously good looking children,
and our epic ice cream fight.
4. Going to the wedding of one of the Rising Star nurses. She invited us about a month ago, and we were all so excited. We all bought saris to wear and got fancied up. We actually did our hair and topped it off with fresh jasmine.
The wedding was a Christian wedding, so it wasn't the full on craziness of a Hindu wedding, but it was still very different than American weddings.
We definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone was staring at us throughout the night and kept coming up to ask us to take pictures. We went up to congratulate the bride and groom at the party afterwards and took pictures with them. People started clapping when we smiled to have our picture taken. This is where we ate dinner at the reception.
It was definitely a cultural experience and was so fun to see. I ended the night feeling grateful that we don't have to wear saris everyday. They are not comfortable, my friends.
5. The kids. I love these kids. They are the reason I go to bed with a smile every night. They are the reason I wake up in India every morning. They are the topic of 90% of our discussions around here. They are incredible, resilient, loving, energetic, and so stinking cute. Just look at these faces.
I am in heaven here. I keep saying that I would never leave here if my family were here. This place is amazing.
1. Last weekend, we didn't have any short-term volunteers here, so we went up to Chennai to a snake farm. It turned out to be more like a reptile zoo, and was actually more fun than I was anticipating. We saw snakes, crocodiles, lizards, frogs, and turtles.
One of my favorite parts was when we were walking by a turtle cage and one little turtle was trying to crawl up on these bricks. We got a little too emotionally involved in his struggle, and you can watch a video of the little scene we caused here.
After the snake farm, we went to a place called T. Nagar to shop. We went on a hunt to buy a sari and we all ended up getting some. T. Nagar was absolutely insane. It was packed and completely crazy.
We finished up the day with some insanely good American and Mexican food and went back home to our little slice of heaven at Rising Star.
2. Classes this week went really well. I had the kids do a lot of journal writing. Then, I would edit their writing, they would re-write it, and then they would draw a picture. I loved all the pictures I got.
3. The fourth of July. It was so fun to celebrate it in India. All the kids and Indian staff members kept coming to shake my hand and say, "Happy Independence Day." We planned a little party for the volunteers, and 7 kids bought tickets to come from the star store.
It was some good times with our wonderfully improvised decorations,
our really, really, ridiculously good looking children,
and our epic ice cream fight.
4. Going to the wedding of one of the Rising Star nurses. She invited us about a month ago, and we were all so excited. We all bought saris to wear and got fancied up. We actually did our hair and topped it off with fresh jasmine.
The wedding was a Christian wedding, so it wasn't the full on craziness of a Hindu wedding, but it was still very different than American weddings.
The Virgin Mary in a sari
5. The kids. I love these kids. They are the reason I go to bed with a smile every night. They are the reason I wake up in India every morning. They are the topic of 90% of our discussions around here. They are incredible, resilient, loving, energetic, and so stinking cute. Just look at these faces.
I am in heaven here. I keep saying that I would never leave here if my family were here. This place is amazing.
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