Saturday, February 12, 2011

My Day :)

Every morning I awake at 6:30 to bells ringing, children doing yoga and listening to Indian music, and women sweeping the grounds. I am thinking of recording it because it is quite pleasant to wake to this. I then dress, put my bindi and bangles on and join the sisters for breakfast which is normally an egg and atta- like a wheat tortilla. I then go and visit the school children before they leave for school. We play in the garden, chase the peacocks and hunt for iguanas which horrify me and I normally love reptiles. I prepare my lesson plans for the day, visit with the staff who are all my age and a lot of fun then head to class at 9.

There are three classes from 9-12:30 that I attend. Two I help with by writing study guides and helping with homework and one, a college course I teach. Yes, I am an actual professor! In addition to rehabilitation shelter and orphanage Marialaya is also an actual Community College. There are twelve girls in attendance. And I am constantly shocked at how respectful, hard working and loving they are. I teach them a course called "Spoken English." I teach conversation skills, vocabulary, grammar, etc and give homework! I also conduct discussions on the girls' past, their goals, and many other life topics. It is interesting to hear about all of this even though it can be disheartening at times. For example, we were discussing goals and I realized all of them were listing job success, making money, providing for their parents, never mentioning marriage, so I brought this up. Marriage is not a goal, it is a priority and a MAJOR stress they discussed. The girls and their parents must pay for the wedding which is very expensive, since it is three days and must be very flashy. Plus, in most cases the girls do not have a say in who they marry.

From 12-2 the power goes out in Tirupur to preserve power for the rest of the country. The government chose Tirupur and other poor cities to take from, which has caused many loud protests a few nights a week. Coincidentally, the power has been going out during these protests as well. There has also been water shortages which can be frustrating when you want to shower or need to wash your hands. We are good on drinking water though, so no complaints from me.

Lunch is dosais- (like a rice pancake) soup, or rice and potatos. Twice, we have had goat liver, which would not have been so bad if I wouldn't have seen it raw haha! Then, I get to play with the little kids! There are about thirty 1-4 year olds. We swing, play with rocks and sticks, slide, take pictures (they are obsessed with taking pictures which makes for some pretty cute shots), throw leaves at each other, see-saw (it is so painful see-sawing with three year olds but my gosh they love it) and just run around. It doesn't take much to entertain them. There are two girls- Nevenah and Anu who are about three or four and are attached to me, after classes. They are so mature for their age. I am starting to think they are just tiny 12 year olds. When the school children get back, I help them with their English homework and we sing and DANCE! They love teaching me Tamil dance moves, but love learning "how to dance American" even more. Their favorite is "The Mosquite Dance," a dance I am proud to say I choreographed. Every evening there are swarms of mosquitos that come, annoy and feast. It is impossible to not get bit. I have never seen anything like at least 100 mosquitos surrounding a person... like a scene from a Hitchcock movie.

At 4:45 the gardening adventure begins. At first gardening involved me watching, in the shade (so my skin doesn't blister and become ugly, as the girls say) as each of about 40 girls carry water to and from the watering hole, with a large jug on their hip. There is also weeding, spading and planting going on. The first day I felt like Paris Hilton just standing and watching, so I began pulling weeds. About four girls came running over, brushing dirt off my pants and cleaning my hands. They cringe seeing my jeans get some dirt on them. However I cry seeing their beautiful saris get dirty. It took about four days of pleading, but I now carry jugs and help with the other gardening chores. I don't know how these skinny girls can carry about fifteen jugs daily with no shoes! No one wears shoes! My hip is in so much pain after about the sixth one. The past two days, there has been a little three year old girl who holds my hand and walks with me back and forth as I carry my jug. Even though I can't understand a word she says- her presence is all the motivation I need to keep me going.

I hang with the staff until dinner. They are hilarious trying to speak English to me. I am so relieved two of them are pretty fluent in English and can translate. Mina who teaches the computer course teaches me five or six Tamil letters every day (there are 217 and they look like different varieties of scribble..... it might take me awhile) and flour lines of a Tamil song. She tests me every day and I have yet to receive an A.

Dinner is usually very light- rice or a type of rice tortilla and jam or chapate- fluffy rice biscuits. The sisters and I watch the Indian form of American Idol or an Indian movie. I LOVE Indian movies. They are all musicals. People will be walking down the street or even in a gang fight and just stop and dance! It is hilarious. The four sisters' English is pretty good plus they are 24-35 year olds so we have a lot in common and talk about many things. We have grown very close and they now call me "changate: which means little sister. It is refreshing to talk at a normal speed with actual sentences after having talked in broken sentences and smaller words with the kids. Since Marialaya is a Salesian establishment, there is a "Good Night" every night. This comes from Don Bosco observing the fact that his boys would go to sleep crying, angry, etc. He believed that kids who end their day on a positive note wake on a positive note, thus he formed the "Good Night." The girls love this, and even though it is in Tamil, I love watching them enjoy it.

Then repeat.

I am exhausted but the best kind of exhausted.

Thanks for reading :D



3 comments:

  1. Dear Emily, Great blog THANKS! I am delighted to hear from you and share in your adventures. Continue to do all with great love! Remember that it is like perfume. You cannot spray it on others without getting some on yourself.
    Lots of love and prayer from all of US especially me, your sister M Gloria

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  2. Hi Emily, Glad to read about all that you been doing in India, It was nice meeting you on your way back to USA.

    May God Bless and Keep you always.

    SAM

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  3. Em, your day sounds like a Disney movie: dancing, cleaning, and the occasional iguana. Hope its still going this fantastic/rewarding/fantastic!

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