India Part 3

Today's theme is....

Monday: Our First Full Day at the Centre

I promise I won't do a huge post on every single day of our trip, but our first day was packed, and its just easier to write about it as a seperate post.

Monday morning was the first of many early wakeups. Not even a full day after arriving, and already we were thrown into the schedule, starting by getting up at 5am every morning. As we were getting ready, around 5:30, we heard a tap on the door, and our 2 wonderful "room-girls" (basically just in charge of making sure our bathroom was tidy, and bringing us tea.. we felt kind of bad!) Fay and Yankila came in with a tray bearing 4 cups of steaming hot Indian tea. It was so delicious, and right away we fell in love with it. As chapel was every morning at 5:45, we had to hurry out the door only a few minutes after recieving our tea.. we all went through the day with burnt tongues and throats!

Chapel was the same every day, but it was especially cool the first day, as we had never experienced it before. We would be sitting in the chapel, and the girls would all be on stage, singing in a choir (the same as when we first arrived). Then after a few songs, they would come down and we would all sing some worship songs together. There would be a speaker (usually one of the older girls, if it wasn't one of us) and then they would pray, and sing two more songs. The end songs were always the same, ending with "Abba, Father". I still can't get that tune out of my head;

"Abba, Father, let me be
Yours, and yours alone..."

I miss those sweet voices singing so earnestly, then turning around, eagerly trying to be the first to reach us, and gain possession of one of our hands. Devika, always the thinker, realized that if she draped my arm around her shoulder, and my other arm around someone else's shoulder, then not only could there be those two girls, but still another two of them (if not more) could hold my hands! This way I usually had at least 4 girls huddled around me.

After chapel, came exercise. That Monday we had no idea what they meant, but followed them anyway as they dragged us towards the back of the compound, saying "Now exercise.. now we run!" Despite their excitement, that really didn't sound too appealing to us jetlagged, exhausted Canadians. But off we went anyway.

We discovered that exercise consisted of one lap around the track, followed by various stretches, lead by their "gym" teacher. The girls all thought it was hilarious when we started to join in, and we seemed to be more of a distraction than anything!



After exercise there was about an hour until breakfast, so we went back to our room to get our journals, and waterbottles, and cameras so that we wouldn't have to keep going back during the day. It was then that we saw our first Indian sunrise. It was soo beautiful, and the view from our 'balcony' was gorgeous! The hallways of the hostel and both colleges, and the school were all open, like balconies, so it was very airy and cheery in the buildings, as the sun could shine in anywhere.




Here's a video of us enjoying our first sunrise! This is just outside our room, so when I turn the camera towards Danielle, the door that you see is leading into our bedroom.

These are the girls running to greet us, and take us to breakfast..







Breakfast started at 8:15, but they would go to the cafeteria at 8:00, and sing for 15 minutes until the food came. This happened at every meal, and was so cute! There was a birthday that day, so we first heard their special birthday song that morning. Its very similar to the traditional birthday song, but they have three verses. Its very cute.

"Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear *****,

Happy Birthday to you!

From all friends and (I think they mean "to") you,

From young hearts and true,

May God's love go with youuuu,

And happiness too!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,

Happy Birthday to you!"

The birthday girl was Correy (her full name was Correy Ten-Boom, after the famous missionary :D) and she was beaming all day, in her beautiful red birthday dress- they're allowed to wear whatever they want on their birthdays, instead of uniform. You can see her in the next picture.. the only one out of uniform!

This is Eve, the youngest non-staff child at the school.. she's adorable!!

After breakfast there was assembly at 9:00, where 3 of the tiniest girls recited an adorable poem (along with 6 other "items" of the day) and we introduced ourselves again, this time with the College girls in attendance. This is a video of the girls marching to assembly; they would do this every single morning (except for weekends).

After that we went around to every classroom, from Pre-school to grade 12, and greeted them, talked to a few of them, took some pictures, and went on to the next class. It was very cute, as the girls who we had met before would get so excited to see us, and be so proud that they already knew us, while their classmates didn't yet.

That day we also got to work on the lessons we would be teaching to the girls that week, and just get to know the girls more. Here are some of my special girls.. I met most of them on Monday, and a few the next couple of days. I'll just talk a bit about all of them now though, so that I don't forget to talk about them later.

--> Devika(9yrs): My first sweetie. She is so bossy, but still adorable. I talked a bit about her before, so I'll just leave it at this.. I don't have a picture of just me and her, but my friend has one on her camera, and she's going to email it to me soon, so I'll put it up then.

--> Salu(8yrs): She is one of the most adorable little girls I know. She was kind of everyone's little girl, but especially Danielle, then me, then Kate. We loved her so much, and she was seriously like a burst of sunshine in the centre. Many of the other girls were too of course, but whenever I think of Salu, I think of smiles and giggles :) Oh, and teaching her to speak French too! She thought it was so funny that her name means "Hello" in another language, so we taught her a little conversation in French. It went like this:


Us: Bonjour
S: Salut!
Us: Comment-ca va?
S: Ca-ba bien! (she couldn't quite get all the words right, but she was so good at it!)
Us: Comment t'appelle tu?
S: Je (she pronounced the "Je" as "Juh") m'appelle Salu.
Us: Bye-Bye!
S: Aurevoir!

She was so proud of herself, and we really wanted to get it on video, but we only have a tiny bit, and then we all started goofing around. Its a hilarious video though.. it shows Salu's adorable personality so well! It was during the second week, but I'll just post it here, so you can "meet" Salu. (this is in our EXTREMELY messy bedroom.. none of us are very neat or organized people, so it was pretty much in a constant state of.. filth :P)

--> Rhoda(6yrs): One of the sweetest little girls EVER!!! I seriously love that little girl so much, and I feel sad just writing her name. She was super shy, and it took her a while to come up to anyone, but one day she just came and put her hand on my knee (I was sitting on a little wall), and smiled up at me, and from then on she never left my side.. and also wouldn't go to, or talk to anyone else on our team! For example, one day one of our leaders was doing balloons, and she really wanted one, so she said (actually for the first week.. pretty much until the last few days we were there, she was so shy that she wouldn't really talk, she would kind of whisper into her arm, and I would have to stick my ear right in her mouth to even begin to understand what she was saying. Somehow that made her even more adorable :D) to me, "Auntie (they called us auntie.. so cute!!) me balloon?" And of course, I said, "Yes, you can have one. Go ask Uncle Pat for one." And she looked and me, and kind of smiled, and shook her head, and whispered "No, you please Auntie." awwww, my heart melted, just because she was so ADORABLE!!! NO matter what she did, she was adorable. Even when she was trying to get our chocolate from our bedroom, none of us cared, cause she was so darn cute!! I miss that girl soo much. :( Here's a quick little video (once again, our messy bedroom!) of her.

Well, this post is long enough, so I'll just put it up now. I'll post about the rest of my girls and the International conference we were guests at next time! :)

India Part 2

It took a little longer than expected to get this next part up, as I've been catching up with tons of homework/tests at school, but from now on I'll be trying to post another part every/every other day. Promise!! I've really been missing the girls today, and just missing being with my team. I thought writing out the next part of my trip might help a little.

So, the next section of my Indian Adventure:

Settling In and Getting to Know The Girls

So after our amazing welcome, we had our first lunch there (it wasn't the greatest meal... the meat was almost all bones :S) and then some of the girls showed us to our rooms. Us girls were staying at the Arts and Sciences College, while the leaders and the guys were staying at the other end of the campus, at the Michael Job Hostel (except for Taylor, who was in a random room at the chapel all by himself :P). Despite the fact that it was supposed to be 3 girls to a room, Tiffany, Danielle, Kate and I all went into one room, and me and Danielle shared the big bed... lots of good times and memories shared in that room!

Anyway, us 4 went and played with some of the girls, and had an awesome time. We were the only ones who were actually up and out of our rooms.. everyone else was fast asleep! But we had lots of fun, and were glad we did, even though it meant we were extra tired the next day. This is just a short video of us playing tag with the girls that afternoon, in the courtyard by the chapel.

The girls were all obsessed with taking pictures and using our cameras, and were so sweet. They would come up to us and say, "Auntie, me now, me take picture now!" After a while it got a little out of hand, but it was so cute! It also resulted in my camera being loaded with useless pictures, but at least they had fun! :)

I met one of my special little friends that night. Her name was Devika, and she was absolutely obsessed with me. It sounds kind of conceited, but its the total truth. She would get so jealous if any other girls were with me, and would even push them away so that she could hold my hand. At first I found her slightly irritating (which made me feel so guilty! :S) but by the 5th or 6th day I had grown to love her. She was so sweet, and would always want to "catch" (which is what they said instead of carry) my things for me. She was still extremely bossy about who could be around me, but I loved her anyway.

That evening it was just us four again at dinner (joined by Taylor), and it was fun to just hang out with the girls, and be with them without our entire team being there.. not that I didn't like my team, it was just less stressful not having anything that we had to do. So, this post won't be too long, as its mostly just the pictures that will tell the story of the first few days, but I'm just trying to give you a glimpse as to what our whole trip was like.

Our Welcome Sign in the Auditorium/Cafeteria

Our first meal at the Centre


They were all soo excited to meet us!! :)



Showing us to our rooms. The girls you can see are Katherine (in the pink), Salu (in the middle, with the white and blue) and Tina (on the end with the green)... they're all such sweeties!!




Meeting the girls, and getting to know them. This is me, with Nitu (left), Ammu (middle), and Epseba (right).

Me and Ammu, Nitu, and Leana on the right

Me with Esther on the right, and I'm not sure what the other girl's name is.

Me and my first special little friend, Devika (on the right).


Playing Tag!

One of the many frogs that only showed up at night.


Some pictures of the Centre (its actually really nice!). This is the chapel, its right in the centre of the compound.
The two college's, with the girls' hostel in the middle. We stayed in the college on the far right.


The Michael Job Hostel, where the leaders and 3 guys stayed.
The Pre-School to Grade 12 school

The "playground" on the back field, which was known as the "Stadium".

Home from India!

I know I've been neglecting my blogs, but now I'm back, and finally ready to post about my amazing trip. I have so many pictures, videos, and stories (and still accumulating more as my team members put them up on Facebook!), and it would take days to sum it all up, so for now I'll do it a section at a time. For today:

The Journey

Our 42 hour long journey began at 5:00am on March 14th, at the Vancouver airport (after getting up at 3:30 in order to Skype with my grandma, who lives in England and couldn't bear me going to India without actually saying goodbye!). I was the first one at the airport, and as more and more team members arrived, the excitement grew.

After we checked in, I said goodbye to my dad, and our adventure had officially begun. Our flight to Toronto left at 8:00, so we just hung out and ate breakfast until boarding time. The flight from Vancouver to Toronto felt like HOURS (despite the fact that it was almost the shortest leg of our journey), and when we finally got there we weren't really looking forward to the next 20 hour flight. But we had a few hours at the airport (my first time in Toronto! While I've traveled a lot internationally, I haven't really gone to that many places in my own country! BC and Alberta is pretty much it.) to rest up, and hang out.

We also got the chance to meet up with Team Slovakia, also from our school. We had thought we would be on the same flight to Vancouver with them, and were very disappointed when they were bumped to the 9:00 flight. We hadn't really said goodbye properly, so when we saw them at the airport in Toronto we were soo excited! That was a lot of fun, and we got a few pictures of us hanging out in the Duty Free Store! :D

Our next flight was almost 20 hours, with a short re-fueling stop in Brussels, Belgium (9 1/2 hours for the first leg, and 9 hours for the second leg of the flight). We flew Jet Airways, and were so surprised with how nice it was. The flight literally (no pun intended, promise) flew by! There were so many movies available (I finally got to see Juno- LOVE IT!!!! Ellen Page is sooo good!) and TV shows, and games, and even seat-to-seat texting and phoning that we weren't bored at all. Stopping in Brussels was very cool, and me, Danielle, Kate, Taylor, and Jason even got the chance to buy a little bit of Brussels chocolate. (very good by the way!)

We searched for about an hour to find a sign saying that we were in Brussels, but we finally found one, and got a picture beside it- the entire waiting area watched us pose for it too!

I slept for most of the flight from Brussels to Chennai, India, so that was very good.

Arriving in India was SOO exciting, despite the fact that most of us were exhausted, and sick of traveling. Here is an exerpt from my journal- this is the entry I wrote about 6 hours after landing in India, during our 10 1/2 hour layover in the Chennai Airport- oohh how I hate that airport):

"March 16th, Sunday (6:55am, India Time)

So here I am, more utterly exhausted than I've ever been in my life, sitting in the Chennai airport. I'm in India!! Oh man, I'm so excited, but yet too tired to be really excited.

......

The flight from Brussels to here wasn't bad- I slept/dozed for 8 our of the 9 hours, so I was happy with that. It was so exciting to see India for the first time. We walked off he plane onto the tarmac, just like in Africa, and my hands were immediately soaking, and the rest of me was hot and sweaty.

After our first experience of Indian guys [hitting on us girls] the guys on our team were warned to always "protect/guard the girls", and we were on our way. We went through baggage and immigration- disgusting bathrooms!- and then met up with Emanuelle from the Michael Job Centre. He brought us here to the waiting area, and since then we've just been sitting and waiting. We exchanged some money, and went to the bathroom- thank goodness Kevin has toilet paper in his carry-on!!!- but other than that we've just been sitting here. Since 2am. And our flight is not until 11:30.

I'm so bored and tired, I don't even know what to do with myself.

But still; I'm in India! And that's awesome!"

That layover was one of the hardest, most tiring, boring things I've ever gone through in my life. 10 1/2 hours of just sitting there. We couldn't even go to sleep, because it was those airport waiting chairs, where you can't lie down on them because of the armrests. Unless we wanted to sleep on the floor, which definitely wasn't an option!

But finally we got to go board the plane heading for our final destination: Coimbatore, India. That flight was only 45 minutes, and felt like 10. It was gorgous view as we took off and landed, and it seemed like we were in the plane for 2 seconds.

When we landed we were greeted by Dr. Job, founder of the Michael Job Centre for orphaned and abandoned girls, went through baggage claims, and went outside. As we were walking outside we noticed that we were being filmed, but thought it must be because of someone else on the flight. We were hoping to get to the orphanage, and go to sleep- we figured we could meet the girls after. Little did we know!!!

Dr. Job had us all line up, and suddenly this band started playing, and 15-20 girls from the orphanage were there with flower garlands which they placed around our necks. There were cameras and video cameras everywhere, and we so overwhelmed and didn't know where to look. Dr. Job kept on saying that we were "amazing people from Canada", and then he finally let us onto the bus. When we arrived at the orphanage, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

All the girls were there, with the whole school band, waving flags and singing to us. Some of the littler girls came and gave us other garlands (this time ones from the Centre, with pictures of Dr. Job's martyred sons on it) and suddenly fire crackers went off across the street.. all in honour of us! It was incredible. We were led towards the chapel, and the girls were lining the path, all waving Indian flags and waving.

When we got to the chapel, all the girls (there are 306 girls staying at the Centre- not including the College girls, who don't stay, but come in to school during the day) sang many songs to us, and then we introduced ourselves.

Finally, after lunch we were allowed to go and get settled in to our rooms, which were so nice, with bathrooms and electricity, and air conditioning!! After settling in, and resting for a little bit, we went to go and meet the girls. But that's for next time, so for now just enjoy these pictures and videos (Yes, I finally got videos to work!!)! :D

Tiffany, Danielle, and me at the Vancouver Airport

Going to our gate..

Kate, Danielle, and me.. flying to Toronto

Meeting up with Team Slovakia at the Toronto Airport

Me, Ari (another Slovakia member), and Danielle

Flying to Brussels!

The picture that took 1 1/2 hours to take!

Flying from Chennai to Coimbatore

The Airport at Coimbatore

Welcomed at the airport

Driving to the Michael Job Centre

Getting to the Centre!!....

India Trip Update

I know I haven't posted in a long time, but we just had another outreach meeting, and I thought I should give you some more news about our trip.

I now only have a tiny bit more money to go before I have raised $2900 for my trip, so that's very exciting.

Anyway, today we had someone come into our meeting who has been to the Hope for Orphans orphanage for girls, and he talked about the girls, and what it will be like. Its very exciting! And it sounds beautiful. The orphanage has 60 acres, internet access, 24/7 elecricity, and 24/7 air conditioning. The founder of the orphanage, Dr. Job, wanted the girls to feel like they were in a palace, and for them to know that each one of them was valued and loved. As each of the girls come from major trauma, and most of their parent's have been martyred for their faith (or the girls were abandoned, simply because they are female), this is a very important thing to do.



We watched a video about the orphanage, and the girls look so sweet. I can't wait to meet them! Our team is preparing lesson plans, and skits to do for them, and planning ways we can give to them (for example, at our meeting next week we're all spending an hour or so making special bookmarks to give to each girl- 306 in total!- this is something we were told they would value, and actually get good use out of)

I won't write a lot, but here is the link to the orphanage's website, and you can watch the video on there too. I would really appreciate your prayer as we continue to prepare for our trip, and when we finally travel, on the 14th of March. Also, once we're in India, for safety (both physically and spiritually) and health, and that we'll be able to truly connect and minister to the girls.

http://www.hopefororphans.ca/



Oh! And here is the design for our team t-shirts. We just saw this today, and we'll be getting the shirts on Friday, so its very exciting! We'll have three shirts (Black, Emerald Green, and a Golden Orange type colour) with the same design, but the colours of the design will vary, depending on what the colour of the shirt is. It should be really cool once they're made! (These are the colours for the orange coloured shirt)

Exams

This week is exam week, and it has been one of the strangest exam weeks ever!

I had an English exam on Monday, which was fine, and actually a bit of a waste of my time! One of the easiest exams ever. Then on Tuesday I had Socials, which was very.. draining. I don't know if that makes sense, but I walked out of there, after 55 multiple choice, and 2 essays, feeling extremely tired and drained. Kind of wierd. Then on Wednesday, I was supposed to have my Math exam.

Now let me just add that there has been A LOT of snow here, for BC standards at least, and on Tuesday there was a snow day for all the schools (my school is Kingergarten to Grade 12- Primary School, Intermediate, Middle, and High School all on the same campus) except the High School. Well yesterday, there was a second snow day, except this time it was also for High School. The exams from yesterday were all canceled, and so I had an extra day off. Today, and Friday I didn't have any exams, so I was looking forward to being done for 5 days (Monday is a ProD Day).

Now, I will have 6 days off all together, and still not have taken my exam. They're thinking they will have to cancel school on Tuesday, and make up all the missed exams then! So its been a pretty weird week... and I'm still not finished math!! :(

What???

Ok, I have to say this before I write my post: I am not obsessed with celebrities and their lives. I don't buy all the People magazines, and read about them day and night. I don't search them all the time on the internet to read about every detail of their lives. But when I heard today that Heath Ledger has died, I was so shocked and sad.

He seemed like he had everything going for him.. looks, fame, money. But then this happens, and it seems like maybe while he was all good on the outside, perhaps everything on the inside wasn't so great.

He was such a great actor, and seemed like a really neat guy. Its so sad that he should die, so young. So this is my "tribute" to him.

I don't know exactly what happened, but this article I found talks about it.

Heath Ledger's death not suicide says family

Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger, 28, has died of a possible drug overdose involving sleeping pills in New York, police have confirmed.

The actor was sick with pneumonia when he died, the TMZ.com website reports, saying it had been contacted by representatives of Ledger's family, who said they'd been told by police that the actor's death was accidental.

The representatives said the family was particularly distraught over media speculation that he may have taken his own life.

New York police said they could not confirm Ledger was suffering from pneumonia. "This is the first I'm hearing that,'' Lieutenant John Grimpal, from the New York Police Department, told Macquarie Radio. "The medical examiner, once he or she conducts an autopsy, will determine exactly the cause of death.''

He said police were continuing to treat the New York apartment, where Ledger was found dead, as a crime scene, but had initially ruled out foul play.

"Anytime someone dies, especially when they're so young, the detectives from the precinct conduct a thorough investigation just to rule out that criminality is not involved,'' Grimpal said. "Early on in the investigation it appears criminality is not involved.''

Found by housekeeper Ledger was found naked and unconscious in his bed at his $US23,000 a month apartment on Broome Street, SoHo, in Manhattan, by his housekeeper and a masseuse about 3.35pm local time, when they knocked on his bedroom door and got no reply. He had an appointment for a massage, said New York Police spokesman Paul Browne.

He was pronounced dead at 3.45pm (7.45am AEDT) by a medical examiner who went to the apartment. New York police officer Martin Brown said investigators would most likely not know the cause of death until an autopsy was held on the body. Prescription pills in Ledger's name were "found around the body'' , said Lieutenant John Grimpel, of the New York Police Department. He said he believed they were sleeping pills. Ledger's former partner Michelle Williams, who he met on the set of Brokeback Mountain and who he had daughter Matilda with, is reportedly on her way to New York after hearing of the death.

Problems sleeping

Ledger was taking sleeping pills after completing I'm Not There, in which he played one of the many incarnations of singer Bob Dylan.He told The New York Times in a November interview that he "stressed out a little too much'' during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy"."Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the Times."I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour, the paper said. Ledger's publicist Mara Buxbaum appealed for the media to not speculate on how Ledger died. "We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident,'' Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement tonight.

"This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family's privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known.''It's tragic, says PM Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the actor's death was a tragedy. "It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life,'' Mr Rudd said in a statement. Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman also spoke of their sadness and shock at the news.The director of Ledger's last Australian movie, Candy, Neil Armfield, told ABC Radio he was "incredibly saddened" to hear of the 28-year-old's death. "He was a young boy in many ways, still a boy when he left Perth and got into this whirlwind of his career," Armfield said. The president of Warner Brothers said the film studio was devastated. "The studio is stunned and devastated by this tragic news," Alan Horn said in a statement carried on the tmz.com website.

"The entertainment community has lost an enormous talent. "Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person. Our hearts go out to his family and friends."

I know it seems kind of wierd, but I was actually really sad when my sister told me. I don't know why, but I just suddenly felt really depressed. I'm hoping that what they say is right, and that he didn't die because he wanted to take his own life. That's such a tragic way to die, and I pray that this wasn't the cause.

Anyway, that's my little blurb about Heath Ledger.

Just a little update on my trip to India... I don't know how much I've talked about it on this blog, but we now know that we are going to Coimbatore, India and will be working primarily in an orphanage for girls whose parents were martyred for their faith. We have started to get lessons and songs etc ready, but other than that, we don't have too much planned.

Oh, and we know about our flights now. It is crazzyyy!!

We meet at the airport the Friday before Spring Break starts (14th for us) at 5am (yup, AM, not pm) then fly to Toronto, where we'll have a 4 hour layover. Then from there we take a 16 hour flight to Madras, where we then have a 10 hour layover. We'll hopefully be able to do some kind of sightseeing while we're there. Then we fly for one hour to Coimbatore, and then drive to the orphanage. A total flying time of aproximately 22 hours, and 14 hours of layovers altogether!! So that's pretty.. exciting! :P