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!!....