Just another day in India

Well, we had another fantastic day in the colony. My volunteer group is just doing medical and education rotations. No construction for us, which I was kind of bummed out about, but everything has been so great so far! 

                                               Here is the group on our way to the colony

                                   This is our driver, Anen, he was hilarious and made us listen to his favorite song "Who let the dogs out" :)

                               These are some of the men in the colony. The man in the white shirt is the leader over the colony. He spoke some English and was so nice and appreciative.

                                                              I love this mans face

 They all wanted a group photo with me ;) We had to take a couple before they approved and said it was "ok" The man in the orange shirt was so much fun to work with. Most of the people in the colony don't understand English, but they do understand one word "Super" This sweet man kept saying it over and over, along with "Vanikam" which means "Hi" He was so nice and had such a strong spirit with him. 

                                      There was also a little school in the colony for some of the kids. These kids will hopefully be able to come to Rising Star for their education eventually. It was fun to meet some of the Grandparents and parents at the colony. They would say their kids name to see if you knew them.

                        These were the teachers of the school, they were so nice and spoke really good English

                                    This little boy gave me a tour of the colony, he was so sweet

                                           These are just some pictures of the colony

 These beautiful women make pearl bracelets, necklaces and earrings. They are called "Pearls of Hope." They work from their leprosy colonies and sell the jewelry to try to become self-sufficient.

 Once we got back from the colonies we decided to take a walk through the nearby village. It was fun to get out and enjoy the beauty around us. The people here live with such simplicity and live in such humble circumstances, yet they are all so friendly and loving. You can't help but love them right back and want to serve them. 

                                            This is the Rising Star Outreach school

                           I had to get one picture with our wonderful squatter toilets, gotta love them....

               But not as much as the bucket showers :) I can't wait to have a real shower again!

 Sorry these are out of order. This is a picture of me in the colony, I was helping wash their feet. I loved the peaceful feeling I had as I was working with this colony.

These little kids were adorable! They were in the village that we were walking around, they wanted a picture and of course they love to see it afterwards, Birdie was sweet enough to capture this moment :)
I can't believe I have finished my first week here! Time has flown by and it makes me sad to think about leaving next week...so I just won't think about it. I have fallen in love with all the sweet kids and have already started to develop close relationships with many of them.
The last few nights at family time the girls in my house are obsessed with this song that I sang to them that all they want me to do whenever they see me is sing it. Tonight I wrote it down on about 4 different pieces of paper so that they can start learning it. They memorize things very well and they told me they will have it memorized by the time I leave. I can't wait for them to be able to sing it so that I don't have to sing it so much :)

Day 3: Tutoring

Today we got to go to the school and help tutor the kids in English and Math. I loved having some one on one time with them! Some of them are really good readers as well. After tutoring in the morning we went and ate lunch with the kids. I started to eat with one of the forks that was available and all the kids looked and me and said, "no, like this" and grabbed a bunch of food with their hands and stuffed it in their mouth...so I did the same. They still laughed at me though because I wouldn't get the food all over my hands and they kept comparing their messy hands to mine :)

 

        This is Priya, he is so sweet! His older sister is Gracy, she's one of my favorites. She ran off before I could get a picture of her though.

                                                                In front of the school

After school I helped Merylin get ready for play time. A bunch of the volunteers helped out and we attempted to do a mini olympics with the kids. We had jumprope races, water balloon volleyball, and some other races. The kids had a blast, but it felt like chaos haha, I was helping with the jumpropes and I finally just let them do what they wanted because it was too hard to organize a race, but it was a ton of fun anyways!

                                                            Coolest water balloon!

Family time last night was so far one of my favorites. When I first got their I helped about 4 girls do their reading. at 8:00 the littler ones have to lay down and get ready for bed. I was sitting next to Gracy and they all asked me to sing to them. I sang Edakushi-kashi-kama (my mom will know what song I'm talking about) and they loved it! I ended up singing it about 5 times. These little girls also knew a bunch of primary songs and hymns and had me sing those to them as well. One of the little girls fell asleep holding my hand and I just loved the feeling I had being with these girls. I feel so much love for these kids, and I have only been with them a few days. It brought tears to my eyes to think of the love that our Heavenly Father has for them. I hope they can feel of his love. Family time is definitely my favorite!

It's all about LOVE

What another wonderful day in India! Luckily we have air conditioning in our bedrooms and I was able to sleep really well. First thing we did this morning was meet outside to go over what we were going to do for the day. We begin each day with a prayer, which I love! It really brings the spirit. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the power of prayer and the Lord answering my prayers. 

                                             Birdie and I in the kitchen getting some breakfast

                                       Waiting for the bus watching the cute kids play volleyball

                                                         Drive to the Leprosy Colony

 I was a little nervous for the trip to the colony today. I think because I didn't know what to expect. When we got there we started unloading supplies from the van and gradually the people started coming out. There was one man who kept putting his hands together and thanking us. I felt the spirit so strongly and right then felt love towards all these people. The colony was right next to a small village, but they are completely fenced off from everyone else. I can't imagine what that would feel like, and I'm so glad we get to come help them and show love and compassion towards them. When we work in the colony there are different stations, one for blood pressure/blood sugar/eye drops, and the other is for wound care. I helped in the wound care which is divided into different stations. First they get their old bandages removed, then their feet are washed and oiled, then they are re-bandaged. I was helping re-bandage the wounds. I had the help of a wonderful Indian woman who has been doing this for 4.5 years. She was so kind and patient in teaching me what to do. It was hard to see the wounds on their feet. A lot of them don't even have fingers or toes anymore. They also have lost the feeling in their feet, so the Indian woman working with me would cut off the old skin and then I would re-bandage the wound. I loved serving these people and seeing their smiling faces. They have such a hard life, but they continue to smile and thank God.
One of the other volunteers took pictures while we were working so I will have to get those from him and post them later, for now these are the pictures I took after we finished.

              The colony we went to today was one of the smaller ones, they live in the rooms on the right.

                                                    I loved this woman! She is so beautiful!

                                            I feel there is such a story to be told in their eyes.

 Ok, this man was adorable! You always ask if you can take a picture before you take one because some people don't like their picture taken. When I asked this man if I could take his picture he just said "1, 2, 3!" and flashed a big smile :) Loved it!

                                                         Love his smile! Such a sweet man.

 After we got everything cleaned up our driver took us to one of the temples. These stairs just kept winding back and forth going up, up, up! It was so hot, and my body showed proof, Nusly said to me "You have back sweat haha" Ya, next time I shouldn't wear yellow, it definitely shows the sweat more...

                                             Finally made it to the top and had a great view!

After visiting the colonies we had some down time before play time with the kids, which is my favorite part of the day :) 

                    This is Nagashwari, she is so sweet and beautiful, she is also in my family group at night

                              These two are Trisha and Esaree, they love to just sit down and talk

                                                           Esaree and her cousin Mary

                                                                Love their smiling faces!

  I pushed these kids on the swings forever! They don't all know my name so they would just say "Aunti push me high!" 

 Esaree and her friend got a hold of my camera, this is 1 of about 6 photos that they took, I think they like to model in front of the camera:)

                          I can't remember this boys name, but we are tight, I taught him a secret handshake:)

Just the end to another great day here in India! Tomorrow we will help tutor the kids in the school. I can't wait to spend more time with them.