|
|
| | "Father forgive me, for I have not believed, like Mother India. I have groaned and grieved. Father forgive me, I forgot your grace, your spirit falls on India and captured me in your embrace" ~Caedmon's Call
Last Sunday evening, I returned to my home in Korea, from spending spring break in India at an orphanage out side of Bangalore. Monday I thought I was miserably sick, I will spare you the gory details of the symptoms, but lets just say if I wasn't in the bathroom, I was in bed for about 30 hours straight until the fever broke. It's the Wednesday after the trip and even though re-entry was a little rough, I wouldn't change it for the world, and would go back in a heart beat...here's the story...
Things that seem important quickly become trivial when you are faced
with the reality that others live and thrive in daily. India is the
meeting point of 2 of the world's major religions, neither of which is
Christianity. A country that, in theory, feels like it's ready to
burst out in violence, but has taken a route of peaceful resolution to
their conflicts, thanks to Ghandi. It's really something I think
Christians can learn from. The average income of a high end computer
engineer is about $1000 a month, the average income for a blue collar
laborer is about $50 a month. Our plane arrived late at night into a
bustling city of Bangalore, where we ate dinner at 11pm an Indian
buffet and spent the night. The next day in 90 degree heat, we took a
2 hour bus ride with out AC out into the country side. It was like
something out of National Geographic.
We arrived at the orphanage to
rows of 120 beautiful children sitting quietly until the moment we
walked in where there was a chorus of "WELCOME AUNTIES, WELCOME UNCLES"
in unison...From there it took a turn from good to simply amazing!
After we set our luggage down, the children sucked us in! Even if I
had wanted to be shy they wouldn't have let me, one girl grabbed me by
the wrist and said, "Come on, we are going to teach you how to play."
Frankly, that was an understatement. These children had little to
nothing and yet they knew how to play. They would invent their own
games, on the spot. We had brought them jacks, but none of us knew how
to play, so the children invented their own game using the jacks as a
sort of spinning top, it was ingenious and hilarious. It had been
over a year since they had seen any rain, the earth was dry there, very
dry. They never knew when they would have running water or electricity
for that matter, but they never seemed to care.
Ok, here are some highlights from the trip, in no particular order:
- the name of the orphanage was Beulah home
-the students that joined the trip were UH-mazing!!! I loved those
girls, they all have huge hearts and were great!!! I really feel like
a protective big brother now for them.
- I got to wear sandals everyday!
-When we awoke the first morning, I went out onto the roof and heard
the chorus of Indian children singing, it was perhaps the most
beautiful thing I have ever heard, and we had it going every morning.
- That first night during craft I got to be a paper salesman, selling it for the low low price of FREE!
- call: "I am going to brush my teeth" response: "Good idea"
- It wasn't uncommon for us to loose electricity in the evening, so
often we would do crafts by candlelight hoster by C.Barr and crew.
Until the candles were distributed the children would bust out in
song. The first night I was in awe with a rendition of "Open the Eyes
of my Heart", try to hold back the tears if you can.
-One night to unwind as a team we played Broccoli Broccoli, if you don't know this game your loss. Minji is a threat, be wary.
- One day we brought the children a suit case full of books, over 120.
The director of Beulah home almost started and crying, and the children
just dove right into them, they were so excited!
- One night Sally taught the electric slide then we got to see the
different kids do a dance presentation. The little ones did one and
let me just say absolutely hysterical and beautiful! If i can figure
out how to add video, I'll post it for you guys.
-They taught us a new game they invented called Lagori. It's kind of
like dodge ball, but there is a stack of rocks involved as well. It's
hard to explain, so we'll have to play some time.
- You could watch the trees and see wild parrots every where, it was cool.
- "As Singles, we need to hug each other more." uh...ok, if you insist.
- as some of you might know, I am not much of kids person. I love
teens and working with them, but younger kids are not my cup of tea so
to speak. That being said in my notebook I have written down these
simple words "Wednesday I fell in love." And by that, I mean the
children. Spend any time with these children and it was impossible not
to fall in love with them. I have too many stories that I could share
about the individual children to write down, maybe someday in my
memoirs.
- the last day we where there, I went to the roof with some of the boys
and they showed me their home made kites. As weird as this may sound,
for me, it was a symbol of their unbridled optimism and hope for their
futures. They refused to be held down! If you closely at their kites,
you can see why they are so beautiful. If you don't see it, that's ok,
you just need to go to India 
- On a personal note, as to why India is amazing, if you're a man with
out a mustache you are in a large minority. Mustaches are
EVERYWHERE!!!!! Frankly, it's one of the most beautiful things I have
ever seen (next to the children at the Beulah home)
- We had a day and half to tour Bangalore, where we went shopping,
visited a palace, and ate a lot of food. The waiters at restaurants
are notoriously rude there, it's hilarious. "What do ya want! c'mon
hurry up!"
-At the Palace we got to see the King's son, yeah so that was cool.
- We went shopping on our last day, and we got there by a train of rickshaws. So much fun!
- On the shopping day I bought a few souvenirs relatively quickly, and
then I hung out at a coffee shop, drinking Snapple, eating samosas (not
to be confused with smores), and people watching.
- The last night there, Brian and I were in a room with literally
hundreds of mosquitoes. We were both eaten alive that night, Brian got
the worst of it. It was super hot, so we couldn't cover ourselves in
blankets, so we basically just had to take. I eventually had
everything but my mouth covered up in protection from the bugs of death
and they bit me on the lips. Hands down, the worst night there.
All in all, the trip was phenomenal, and as always these kind of trips
give you a greater appreciation for what you have. I wish my students
could all go on something like this. I wish I could wrap this up more
eloquently or thoughtfully, but words really don't do it justice.
Enjoy the photos.
Thanks for the prayers. Keep it real.
| | | Posted 4/4/2007 2:49 AM - 20 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- give stars
- votes0
- email
 - sent0
|
|
