This is home

Today I got to work with the leprosy patients!! WOOHOO!!!! We took them to the hospital today. The hospital was two hours away from where we stay and our bus driver for some odd reason was drive 20 mph!!!! This is unreal for him or any Indian because they are insane and we almost die practically 5,000 times every time we get in a car with them. I got assigned with a man who had no toes. It was so painful for him to walk and I felt so bad for him because we did so much moving around. We took them to the hospital because if we were not with them then they would not have been seen. This hospital was outside and had a million gazillion trillion people in it. In India there is only ONE Dr. for every 10,000 people. Just so everyone knows I only know about 4 or 5 words in Tamil and that is it. So when the Dr. Rising Star works with said okay here is the patients medical folder and 500 rupees go figure everything out, I was a little worried! The man I was with spoke ZERO English as well so at times the language barrier was a little difficult! We first went to optometry to get his cataracs (Sorry totally spelled that wrong) checked. The man I was with tried to hand the nurses his folder on his own but because he had leprosy she wouldn't even look at him or take his folder. So I handed the folder to her and he sat down in the waiting room and I stood next to him. Because he had leprosy they kicked us out of the waiting room so people wouldn't have to look at him and just basically be in his presence. We sat outside for about two hours waiting for his name to be called. I felt so protective over him the whole time I didn't want to leave him alone because I wanted to make sure people were treating him like the human being he is and that they weren't being mean to him. Every time I caught someone giving him a mean look I'd shoot a nasty look back...maybe a little immature of me haha but I can't help it! People are insane to think they are better then anyone. Because he didn't have any toes he needed to use this railing to walk with down this pathway and people were so rude (of course) and would randomly just lean on the railing or sit on it so that he couldn't use it. I would stand in front of them and stare at them till they would move but that little game did not work because Indians are PRO at staring. I got to help him walk back and forth though which is even better for me because it's a way of communicating with him, in my opinion, since we were unable to talk the whole time we were there. He had to have many tests run on him and we had to figure out where all these rooms were and on which levels and no one would help us when we asked because he has leprosy they would hold their hands up to our faces or swat us away. This made me SOOOO angry because he was probably so embarrassed and just sad and I would never ever want him to feel an ounce of either of those. I wish people could see that the worth of every single soul is great!!! At the hospital a boy probably 19 years old and his little sister came and sat by me. I said a few words to them in Tamil and then he automatically started spitting out tons of Tamil to me, which everyone does when I do that so I probably should stop doing that haha. Then he surprised me and started speaking to me in English and his English was awesome!!! He was very talkative and had his 9 year old sister with him who didn't speak any English and she would whisper things to her brother and he'd translate to me and ask me all the questions she had. She was ADORABLE!! Something I love about India is when you come out here you realize how unhappy some Americans are because we are so focused on THINGS and then you come to a place like India and these people have literally nothing and they couldn't be any happier. It amazes me. We have so much and yet we find a million reasons to complain about things, where as they have nothing here and they find so many reasons to be happy every single day. Being happy is definitely a choice no matter the circumstances. It's SO important to make the best of every situation that is put in front of us weather it be a pleasant situation or a bad one! Remember someone always has it worst than you and if God put you to it, he'll get you through it! My favorite part of the day was seeing the mans smile on his face I was with all day. I did basically nothing for him except caused more frustration since I speak practically no Tamil and yet he was so grateful just to have me there supporting him and showing him that I love and care about him. At least I think.. hahah maybe he was just trying to make me feel better about myself! Tonight I went to the girls house and laid with them on their floor mats and tried to help them fall asleep but that just turned into stomach aches from laughing so hard and major tickle fights. Some of them keep calling me mom hahaha. And they made me sing Jingle Bells with my HORRIBLE voice!!! I love those girls. Why can't I just adopt all of them?!

PS The girl in the photo with me her name is Jennifer. Her parents put her in a Dust Bin and told her they didn't want her because she has leprosy. It's cured now but she still doesn't have her parents so she calls me her mom and I LOVE it!!