Trying to Make a Difference (India)

I am currently in India, we got here yesterday. It is an interesting culture but I have yet to really experience it. I went to Mother Theresa's Missionary of Charity yesterday which is in Chennai and houses about 20 mentally and physically handicapped children. We were there for a few hours to play with them but it was hard. It was hard because of the living conditions, because of the smell, because the children were unwanted. There was an adoption waiting list with around 150 couples waiting but they were waiting to get 'normal' kids.

Today I am just going to walk around India to get a better feel for what it is like. Last night I went to a Bollywood movie with some friends (its the second largest movie industry in the world) and it was in Hindi so we didn't understand it. India is unique when it comes to language, it has 324 confirmed languages. People can go to different areas of the country and not understand what the people are saying even though they are from the same country. Anyway, this Bollywood movie was funny not because we had no idea what was going on (although that was part of it) but because at random times throughout the movie they would break out in song and dance. It was sort of a combination of Grease, STOMP, River Dancing and Newsies, interesting and LOUD!!. I don't know if India suffers from a hearing problem but I know that I do now.

Rickshaw

One of the modes of transportation in India is something called a rickshaw. A rickshaw is a 3-wheeled motorcycle that has a bench back seat which seats three (uncomfortably) with the driver steering with a bicycle-type handle bar. It is enclosed, sort of, but if you got into an accident, there is almost no chance of making it out alive. That being said, these things cruise around town weaving in and out of traffic. At some points, I could reach out and touch buses as we passed them by. Scary huh? They were fun and not as dangerous as it sounds. There have been some close calls but its all an experience I wouldn't trade for anything.

The gang

Tsunami Relief Orphanage

Coloring

Some of us were able to make it to a Tsunami Relief Orphanage for a day. While we were there, we played London Bridge, Duck Duck Goose and coloring in Lion King coloring books. They had never seen Lion King before but they were keen on coloring! At the end of the day one of the kids gave me his drawing, signed and his hand print on it. He had colored in Timon green and Pumba purple. I wish I could have stayed longer, did one day make a difference?




I hope to find out from them if there is a way to maybe build houses in southern India. We also want to go to a national park on the west side of the country to do some hiking and camel and/or elephant trekking.

We leave for Kenya on the 10th and should arrive there on the 17th. We do have Neptune day in there which is the day we cross the equator and everyone gets to have churned fish remnants poured on them, swim across the pool, kiss a fish and then King Neptune's hand...its a nautical tradition in order to become a Shellback (people who have not crossed the equator on a vessel are considered Pollywogs). Think I might get a tattoo sometime depicting this....