Day 11: Construction Day!

 Today was bittersweet.

It was my last construction day.... Yay, because construction is exhausting, but SOOOO sad because, it's my last construction day!!  Time is flying way too fast.  I am NOT ready to come home.  I know this wont be the last time I am at this beautiful place, but having to wait even until next summer just seems like too long!

Today our job was cleaning up all of the "coconut scrap" around campus.  You can't tell much from this picture but the ground is COVERED in palm bark and tons of leaves.  This is gonna be a big job.

We had to rake everything into the back of this small trailer and then take it over to the trash burn pile on the opposite side of campus.

Next we were told we would get to bust out the machete's, we were all wayyy excited until we found out it was to cut out all of the weeds around the water wells.  

I thought we would never finish. 

Did I mention how many bugs were crawling around EVERYWHERE??

Spiders the size of golf balls, red and black ants the size of my fingernail crawling all over, termites, and some type of HUUUGE flying beatle. It reminded me of the lion king.

I'm still twitching every now and then, every time I feel a pull on my skin or any type of itch I'm positive it's a bug on me. 

ughasdjf;klasfjl;dks I'm freaking out now just writing about it.

The Rebeccas.

We now call them Reba and Becky so that we can get them straight.

Showin those weeds whose boss.

I'm super skilled with a machete.

Watch out weeds.

Okay you might have to enlarge this one to catch the significance.

That boy in the window is Ruthish.

He was watching me work and kept yelling my name out with his cute little Indian accent, as soon as I noticed he lit up and waved through the windows!

(There is no glass in the windows here, just bars.)

I just love him so much, I am going to miss seeing this cute smiling face every day.

Went in for lunch and discovered my battle wound.

I told everyone it was from a machete.

Truth is, I have NO clue what it is from.

Could have been a branch, could have been "coconut scrap," could have been a machete!!! 

...I'm going with machete.

While I was at lunch, I was able to FaceTime Jordan.  He was at a big family gathering on his side.  Everyone was in from out of state and I am super bummed I had to miss out.  

It made me a little homesick.. 

....just a little.

Really though, I miss my family, I am sad I wasn't able to be there.

Lot's of fun announcements, and family we have not seen forever!!! 

...also found out today that some of the volunteers have been laying out on the roof during break time.

I think i might have to hit that up.

This place is beautiful, tropical, hot, and sunny... and somehow I have a feeling I will be coming home whiter than when I left.

After lunch we literally raked the jungle.

that's right,

...we RAKED the JUNGLE.

I'm here to serve in any way I can, and I was happy to work anywhere they needed me.

However, this chore seemed a little ridiculous to me, but hey... that dirt looks awesome now.

Everyone piling their stuff into the tree.

SOOOO many bugs and snakes crawling through EVERYTHING on the ground.

uggghgklajsdfkajsdfklvnasdnakdfkjs... I am NOT a bug person.

still raking.

One of the landscapers on campus wanted us to take this picture and pose like a Hindu God.

I guess there is one that carries a staff and is standing on top of it's enemies like this.

Haha, ohh I love India.

This same man also took a close up picture of my eyes, 

he was fascinated that they were blue and not brown like his.

My construction group!

Sad that this is the last group photo we will get in construction.

It has been amazing, and I have loved every minute of it, the campus looks amazing!!

(Not that it didn't before)

When I got back to the room it was blogging time until Krissy or Sam came back.

Once they got back we had to practice, practice, practice!

Shawn, the dance instructor here, asked us to perform for 

the Life Dance group, one of our dances from home.

We had absolutely nothing prepared, 

so we scrambled to go through one of our dances to show the kids.

Then it was off to Life Dance for the big performance! ;)

I was super excited to perform for them.  We have loooved getting to dance with these kids every day.  It has been so fun to get to know them better and watch them learn and grow.  I am excited for the opportunity to be able to show them a little bit of what we do back home!

The kids loved it! Most of the volunteers were able to watch as well.  It was so fun.  All around this has just been an amazing experience.  There is so much love here. 

 Everyone, for the most part, loves and supports each other here. It's awesome!

When we got over to family time, Kala had more Jasmine for our hair.

I seriously LOOOVE HER!! She is the sweetest woman alive, and we hear her house really is the best behaved.  I am so glad we have had the opportunity to spend time with Kala and these boys that we love so much!

Sam giving the boys henna tattoos.  

We are definitely not artists, but it keeps them entertained and it's fun to see them running around the playground so proud of our little chicken scratch art that will stay on them for at least a couple days.

Me reading with Ruthish.  He reads to me every night.  I wish I could continue this tradition back at home.  I love him so much!!! My heart will seriously be broken when it is time to leave him here and come back.  I will never forget this little boy.  I hope I can keep in contact with him forever.

Ooo I just love this.

These little moments mean so much!

These are the ones I will cherish, the ones I will miss so much when I come home.

I have to stop thinking about how little time we have left here.

It's making me sad.

Ruthish giving me henna!

He is just the cutest.

Ebenezer came and sat next to me to watch.

I seriously want to bring them all home.

How do I make this happen?

Kala giving sam a beautiful henna tattoo on her hand.

Me next, me next!!

Can you tell what that says on my arm?

Neither could I.. lol Ruthish kept pointing at the Tamil letters and saying "sound it out" and I just giggled inside wondering if this is how they feel with me every day in tutoring. I hadn't the slightest idea how to even begin sounding that out.  He was able to help me out a bit, and it says Ruthish!! He branded me with henna, little does he know he has literally branded my heart for life. I love him. I can't say it enough, I LOVE this little guy.

Also, Basha made me a bracelet, you can see in this pic.  If you have been following my blog, you saw that he bought me a bracelet in the star store on Tuesday.  Well I guess he bought the bracelet because he promised me he would have me a bracelet that night, but he also bought string and a butterfly charm in the star store that day as well and has been working on my REAL present.  I love it. I want to keep it on forever.  I just love these kids, they are full of so much love.  I am so sad to think that the only love they get throughout the year is by volunteers like me, who leave after 3 weeks, just as soon as they form attachments.  I hope and pray that the future groups of volunteers will love these kids like I do.  I'm sure some volunteer from sessions before me has thought exactly the same thing too.

Me and Ruthish showing off my awesome new henna tattoo.

Don't worry guys, I have gotten pretty good at drawing a cobra and a lion, the two things the boys ALWAYS request, if anyone is interested when I get home. haha!!

I had to get a picture of this, all of the kids sleeping as we are getting ready to leave family time.

They don't have beds or blankets, they just literally line up like sardines along the wall and sleep in lines next to each other.  I hated this at first, but Ruthish said he loves to sleep like this, it keeps them cool through the night.  

Caught these two lil munchkins holding hands.

I LOVE.

Don't you just have to fight back the urge to squeeze their little cheeks?!?!?!

ADORABLE.

When we got back to the room, our roommate emily had discovered a family size chocolate bar she got in London.  Taylor whipped out some chocolate candies she got at the Reliance Fresh market in Chennai the first day in India, and we had a CHOCOLATE PARTY!!

It was a feast. 

Seriously nothing has tasted so good....EVER.

Or at least since the first week of June.

I think it's safe to say, EVERYONE in the Parakeet room is now chocolate wasted.

VERY chocolate wasted.

I love the girls in my room.  We have had so much fun getting to know each other. I am so glad we are all fun and get along super well! It has made this experience that much greater, to be able to come home from many physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting days and be able to share it with my two best friends plus several new ones has been AMAZING.

ps. one of those HUUUGE brown golf ball sized spiders fell from the ceiling on to Krissy's bed while we were all up blogging. I am PARANOID to go to sleep, or lay in my bed, or touch my blankets. These jungle bugs are crazy!!

Day 10: Tutoring again, and the village!

Today I had tutoring again.  Another family came and joined us this week so it kind of messed up the rotations so now we all have an extra education day.  

I'm bummed it wasn't an extra colony day.. buuuut I LOVE the kids, so I am happy to spend more time with them!

This is a picture of our group at "morning conclave" it's a little meeting/devotional we have every morning with everyone.  Our group was huge today!! 20 people! 

Yay!! Sam's group and my group were combined for Education today.  It was fun to be able to do a rotation with Sam!! Krissy was in Education with me yesterday.  It has been so fun to get to experience at least one rotation with my friends.

I tutored Ruthish again in math today.

That kid.... seriously, someone help me figure out a way to bring him home with me.

Please.

I gave my camera to one of the kids at interval today.  It seriously is the best way to get pictures of all of the kids and whats going on at the school.  I feel like some of my best pics were taken at the school.  They LOOOOVE to use the zoom button... as you can clearly see in the picture above.

I 

Will

Get

(whoa, this picture)

All

Of

Their

Names

And

Add

Later!

 Playing with Veera.

I love him so much. I am thinking about sponsoring him, he doesn't have any yet.  He is seriously the sweetest thing ever.  He loves to cuddle and be held.  He is in my family and ALWAYS comes and curls up on my lap and nuzzles into my neck during story time.  I'm in love.

We played the 1,2,3 game over and over.  He would run all the way to the other side of the field, we would scream one, two, three, and hold up our fingers.. then we would run towards each other as fast as we could and I would pick him up and spin him in a big circle in my arms.  He would have played for hours if we could have, but interval is only 15 minutes.  There is my workout for the day.

Caught me counting.

"One, Two, Threeeee!!!"

I was pretty bummed, I didn't eat lunch at the school today.  I wanted to FaceTime Jordan so I went back over to the Elephant House during our lunch break.  I was a little late getting back to the school so I didn't get to tutor Basha today.  Bummer.  But, I did get to meet some new friends in the computer lab, so that was good! These kids are so smart! I love it!!

Haha these little faces are sooo cute!! I am so glad I have all of these pictures to remember them by.  I have learned quite a few of their names, unfortunately it has been mainly the kids from my house in family time, and from life dance, not many of the kids above. Although I don't know their names, I do know ALL of their faces.  I love them so much, It has been so fun playing with them now that we are all friends and they are comfortable around us.  Kindof a bummer that as soon as you start to form these bonds with the children it's nearly time to go.

When school was over, it was back to the house with Sam!! The power had been out all day so our laptops/ipads/phones were all dead and unable to charge.  Our room was 1000 degrees, and NOTHING in the fridge or freezer was cold.  Sam and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to take a walk through the village outside of the school grounds and check out the scenery.  We have been wanting to do this since we got here, but we are always so busy catching up on our blogs during our break between rotations and play time that we haven't gotten a chance to do it yet.  We were way excited for our adventure!

Walking off campus.

We were a little worried about security letting us out, but when we got there he was nowhere to be found and the gates were wide open.

Coincidence, or perfect timing?

Our view directly out of the gates.  This Field is taken care of so well by the villagers, they grow their own crops.  The foresty trees in the distant background are actually planted there, it is this really intresting, super tall, and whispy type of pine tree. They use the wood to build wooden beams for houses.  These trees are planted everywhere here.  It is so crazy, it looks like a forest until you look closer and realize all of the trees are in perfectly straight rows.

Turned Right and walked down the street towards the village.

This cute little lady was gathering berries from some bushes along the road.

I LOOOVE the view.  These pictures don't do it justice but we are literally in the middle of the jungle!

We met the most adorable little ladies and child on our walk. 

They were so shocked to see us walking through their village. I'm not sure if any volunteers have ever left campus just to walk before.  It was so fun to try and talk with them with their broken english.  We talked about our clothes, our husbands, our jewelry... naturally.

I hope I got some good video footage of them.

It was seriously so amazing to just hang out with the local villagers for a minute and get to know them.

It's so crazy to see them sitting in the dirt outside their little grass houses, just chatting away and gossiping and thinking to myself... these ladies are best friends, this is what they do, everyday, we totally just walked into their lives and we come from a whoooole different world but we are still able to connect with them about all of the same things I chat about with my girlfriends at home.

This was a really cool experience.  I will try and steal a pic of them from Sam.

Most of the houses here are painted bright tropical colors.

It's fun to see them make these humble little cement or stone houses their own.

Most of the villagers live in woven shacks, so to have a nice cement house like this means you are livin' the Indian dream!!

The village well, and a BRIGHT green house in the background. 

It is beautiful.

Oh, just walking down the road. Checkin out the scenery.  Feel free to enlarge this photo to see if he is really naked.  Of course he is not, he is wearing a turban, and a red string tied around his waist.  Sadly this is what most of the villagers and children look like, turbans and loin cloths or nothing at all. 

They all wear these red strings around their waist.  We were told it means so that they will never be naked.  They wear it all of the time under everything.  A lot of the kids at the school have them on as well.  Not sure if it is a religious thing or just cultural.  But (no pun intended) Sam and I laughed FOREVER when we stumbled upon this man.

Another photo of the green house and the well.

Sam and I weren't sure which way to go to keep walking towards the Junction, 

so we ran up to see the street sign.

Oh yeah, we're in India.

We got a good laugh out of this too.

Maybe it was just our mood?

Walking through the village, you can start to see the garbage 

getting thicker and thicker on the roads and in the gutters.

We found a little shop that a man was running from his home.  He sold all sorts of snacks and candy.

Sooo good to know that an ice cold pepsi and chips are only 10 minutes away!!

It was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to communicate with him what we wanted, but after lots of charades and a HUGE language barrier later we were able to get this much.  The poor guy, haha we tried to buy 3 Pepsi's.  He only had one. I hope it wasn't his personal beverage lol. Maybe he will stock up some more in hopes that we will come back... which we will.  

(Notice my cute bracelet from Basha, as well as the accidental crazy Henna, some little girl drew a flower on her hand at interval and then came up and tugged on my hand and arm to play with her...result, abstract henna.)

 EVERY family has their own cow, goats, chickens and a small field for crops.

It is so awesome to see these people that are able to sustain for themselves.

I woud love to be able to do this at home.

Passing back past this small government school, (and road sign)

all of the students, and the teacher were waiting along side the road to wave to us on our way back.

They must have seen us walking the opposite direction. It was sooo fun to have all of these people  so excited and waving at us.

We whipped out our cameras to take a photo, and I just want you to notice the differences if you can.

It is so funny here, the kids love to laugh and smile and play, but for some reason as soon as you pull a camera out, instead of smiling and posing they go instantly still as a board, straight face, and stand up straight and tall.  And EVERYONE does it.  In america we "say cheeese," or pull funny faces and here they are sooo serious in front of the camera.

ALL of them, including the teacher went perfectly still.

So.. instead of fun pictures of them waving and playing, we got a semi-creepy class portrait lol

We pretty much couldn't stop laughing over this one either.

hahaha.

It never gets old.

Almost home!

Krissy was in the colony today...and on our walk home, we ran into the medical van!! We made her get out and walk home with us!! So fun.

The sunset at dinner tonight was sooo beautiful!  I wish I would have brought my camera up to dinner on the roof.  I am going to miss these Indian sunsets.
The days just keep going faster and faster it seems.

Kala is seriously the sweetest woman alive.  She told us all about her family in India and how close she is with her sisters.  She gets to leave the school and live with them during Christmas and for one month during the year.  Tonight at family time she had made Sam, Becca, and Me a jasmine hair piece.  The women here make these beautiful jasmine hair pieces that they weave through their braids and into their hair.  They smell AMAZING. I don't think i was really a big fan of jasmine scented things at home, but now I can't wait to find a lotion or candle to remind me of these beautiful flowers!!

I read with Ruthish tonight.  He has to read for 15 minutes each night and I just love to snuggle up in the corner with him and a good book! He reads with the cutest little accent!! I have to try and get this on film before I leave.  He is an excellent little reader and ALWAYS finishes the book no matter how long it takes him.  We usually read 20-30 minutes.  I love how excited he is about reading!

Love you!

I don't wanna come home.