Northern Thoughts

Have a brief moment to jot down some thoughts before Indian adventures suck me back into the streets. This time I'm writing from New Dehli and on a time constraint of our own, as long as the electricity holds out, so I don't feel as rushed as the Ambattur blogs. Susan, Ali, Becca and I have planned a 2 week trip up north to visit the sites, such as the Taj Mahal(who could come to this beautiful country and not see its prize posession?) and trek over to Rajisthan(spelling is off im sure) for a real camping trip on Camels. It's been exciting for us to breathe after a month of gogogo with the kids and various tasks.
We left the orphanage on the night of the 25th, telling the children we would be back and to please remember us when we did! Of course, silly of me to think they would forget us because they ALL came out waving our auto away at 10 p.m., sad to see us go but excited because we would be back soon. It made my heart glad to see how much they love us and the impact we have had with our short time there thus far. Sumathy says that they will ask her every day where we are and constantly check our rooms for any sign of the "sisters".
Speaking of sisters, I am now labeled "doctor" sister because of the minor first aid we have taken upon ourselves for the children of the orphanage. It has been mostly scrapes and bleeding from ankles and the such, but Varuna, an 7 or 8 year old boy, was a serious case. He spilled boiling water on his foot, which proceeded to blister and pop in the day before he even said anything about pain. I mean, serious doctor here, about 40 percent of his foot was open sores and to mix that with the sand and filth in the orphanage, it was just a matter of time before that thing got seriously infected! Luckily, I was able to use the bandaids, gauze, neosporin and hydrogen peroxide donated by the people of Valdez(Thank you so much!!!) to clean and cover it as best as we could. He was an amazing kid, softly saying "pain" when they bubbling of the hydrogen peroxide got to him but keeping a smile on his face the entire way. I have so much respect and awe for these children and their pain threshold, I think i would be screaming and yelling at anyone who was doing that to me! It was a good feeling though, for him to come up to me everyday and ask for a new bandage and more 'water' for his foot. The bubbling action is something those kids love to gather around and watch, think it is the coolest thing ever.
So we are gone until the 11th, taking some time to see different parts of India but mostly we have been just talking about our favorite moments with the children, looking at the pictures we have in our cameras, and laughing at the all around silliness of mis-communication issues with Sumathy and Ranjith. Excited about all the upcoming adventures!

"I yam... tree!"

That is 3 year old Subash's way of answering the question "How old are you?" Yesterday four of the kids - Sharadha, Bharathi, Ranjani and Subash, all 3 years old, took their entrance exam to get into a really good private international school. It is taught in English so they had to answer some basic questions that we have been trying to practice with them for the past few weeks. It took one week just to stop them from simply repeating the question back to us and another week to respond with the semi-complete answer. Subash now gives an adorable (in our eyes) pause in between "I am" and "three" since we would say only a few words at a time. Honestly, I'm sure they don't have a clue what all of it means (they're only three, after all), but I like that Ranjith and Sumathy are trying to get them into better schools instead of shoving all of them into government schools.

Ali Fischer and Becca Polk, Kate's cousin, arrived earlier this week and have jumped right in with all the kids. It is nice to have some more people around that you can just meet eyes with in the midst of all the craziness and just be able to laugh. There are fewer things that make you feel more pointless than trying to control a room full of 2 and 3 year olds that don't speak English. Chennai is in the state of Tamil Nadu and so they speak Tamil, one of the oldest languages in the world. I don't know much more than "go" "come" and "drink milk". I should be trying harder to learn more but they want us to speak English to the kids so that they can practice. It definitely would come in handy during the moments of 'baby mayhem' when we're trying to feed them (rice with our right hands of course) and half of the 19 babies (kids under three) are crying, covered in the food, and sitting in their own urine and shit. Did I mention that they don't wear diapers? We're in the habit of staring down to avoid the obstacle courses on the tiles.

Speaking of tiles, the have completed a lot of the construction on the new building, which has a decent-sized kitchen now, a dining hall large enough to seat everyone, and plans to build a new dorm on the second floor. And by construction I mean hand mixing cement and carrying it in little dishes on their heads, bending rebar with a mallet and a rock, and hand chipping tile in intricate designs for the flooring. I've never seen anything like it. We have some amazing luxuries with the hand tools and machines we use for building in the states. I have some great photos of the tilework they've done, and hopefully I'll get to an internet place that allows me to use the USB to upload them. So far now luck on that front.

FYI, the donated money has helped pay for the tile work as well as some of the new fans in the dining hall and will likely pay for those kids' first year of schooling (pending admission). We'll be letting you know what else its used for in the future. It is a huge stress reliever for Ranjith and Sumathy to be able to pay up front for some of these things, so thanks again to everyone who donated - the $3200 raised is going to go a long way here.

Hopefully more updates soon and more often, we're supposed to be getting the internet soon!

-Susan

2 weeks?

Its hard to believe its already been two weeks. It feels like we've been here a lot longer, but also that we just got here. The days feel slow and hot (its in the upper 80s with 95% humidity), but its surprising how much has happened. We stay in a little room that is connected to the main dormitory, and spend most of the day with the kids. There are 43 of them, from 4 months old to 14 years old, and the each one's story of how they were abandoned is sadder is sadder than the next. The oldest one, a 14 year old boy, was a 4 year old slave in a mine up north, and Ranjith bought him for 2000 rupees ($50) and took him home as his own. Somya, a 3 year old girl, survived an attempted murder by her parents, who tried to split her head and leave her in the gutter as an infant. She has some disabilities because of it, and a scar on her head, but she is healthy, happy and loves to draw. These stories are too horrible to believe, but the knowledge that there are good people like Ranjith and Sumathy out there makes it a little more bearable.

Unfortunately, the internet is extremely slow here, as is the delay on the keyboard, so I have to cut this shorter than I'd like.