the final entry, finally!

So I am officially back home in the bosom of my family but it feels weird still. I flew back to the states on April 30th with mixed emotions. I was really ready to be back to agreeable food and water, especially after a horrible health scare my last week, yet I wasn't ready to leave my Indian family. In fact, I am still having a hard time not hearing little Ragavee crying first thing in the morning or telling the kids to 'POPOPOPO' (gogogogogo!) as they sneak in our room at 6 a.m.
Since there are so many things I do miss, I feel it appropriate, for the last post of our Indian expedition, to list the top 10 things I the most about the orphanage and India!

10) Eating with my hands. It was probably one of the most freeing experiences ever, to be able to attack the food with your fingers. Of course, it took awhile for me to really understand the art of it because, believe me, eating rice with your fingers is not as easy as it looks!

9) Children's prayer before meals. To watch 25 children chanting their pre-meal blessing was so heartwarming. It was mostly done when guests were providing the meal so the rareness made it all the more special. Still gives me warm chills thinking about it.

8) Indian dress- we had so much fun wearing our sarees and bindi's (pretty jewels and dots on our foreheads) and getting dressed up to go out. I really miss Deepa and Chitra and our make-up sessions with them, getting our hair done 'so pretty sistah' and wearing flowers in our braids.

7) Teaching the children words- hearing Subash and Ranjani state 'I yam tree years' ' My name IS..... Ranjani' I especially miss singing with them and watching them dance. I dont think Skitamarink was ever sung by such a large group of adorable children before! I have videos to prove that statement :)

6) Walking the village road. We tried to walk the road at least once a day, to get out of the orphanage for a while and get a little bit of exercise. Everyone on the road would stop what they were doing and watch us while the kids would run and shake our hands, smiling and yelling "welcome to India!". They couldn't understand why such large, white women would walk to the end of the road for the sole purpose of just walking. They let us know we were nuts on a few occasions :

5) The cooking. Surprisingly, as often as I was sick from the spices and whatnot, I miss Ranjith's cooking styles. I was horrified by the amount of black flies and ants over everything, but I miss how everything was made from scratch, fresh vegetables and chapati and rice. Ranjith made so many varieties of food and I we all liked sitting in there and helping him peel potatoes or chop onions.

4) Early morning children noises. I miss waking up to the babies screaming and laughing, as long as they weren't in our room! I miss walking out in the morning to a chorus of 'good mornin' sistah' with a salute, and we imitated back. They giggled when we saluted back, as it is a sign of respect for their elders. I miss having Ragavee and Aksheya seeing us and starting to wail as they crawled towards us, just wanting us to pick them up and love them. They were good at their act and we fell for their tears every time!

3) Sumathy's and Ranjith's miscommunication with us all. Though frustrating then, now I look back and laugh at all the differences we had to overcome with them both. To try and decipher the two totally different tasks they would assign us during the day left us confused and wishing we could speak Tamil, or they spoke better English! But I think more than anything I miss those two amazing people who made this whole place possible. I cannot put into words the task they have taken upon themselves for the rest of their lives and how really incredible they are.

2) Iyupa's cricket playing. This grown-up 16 year old lived for cricket, so between taking care of babies, household tasks, washing, making food, etc. he would be practicing his 'bowling'(the pitching) while clicking his tounge to imitate the bat hitting the ball. Oh, it made me smile to much, that he can have so much responsibility yet still play games when he has a chance.

1) Watching the children grow. All the other numbers can be interchanged but this is the definite number one thing I miss. The differences we saw in those children in the three months we were there was astounding and we were able to witness Apu's first real steps. Little Rakesh was a real terror at first, but he became much more affectionate and less painful(talk about a pincher!) as he grew to love us. Rekha used to bite the crap out of us as well but we left her as a rolly-polly 3 1/2 year old who was starting to recognize her role as elder sister to the younger babies.

The stories are innumerable we have to tell about our time there, but when it comes to really talking about it it's so hard to put into words exactly what India means to each of us. All I know, personally, is that I will be making a trip back to see my Indian family and am so happy I had the opportunity to be a part of their lives and will forever remember them all!

Thanks again for your support, we have pictures to share if you are ever in Valdez, give Susan or me a ring and we would be happy to share them with you!