Let me just start off by saying PROPS TO TEACHERS!! Oh my goodness this week at education I swear I'm getting payback for being a Satan child when I was in elementary school! It was impossible for me to get these kids to focus haha and I'm not exactly the disciplining kind so when they don't focus I just kind of get ADD with them...probably not the best idea! How can you make a cute little whining face read boring English stories about boring birds!?!? I couldn't bring myself to do it!! When we get to the older standards like fourth standard, which is 4th grade in America, they were doing long division and multiplication. I totally forgot how to do long division and I am not so great at multiplication anymore!! One boy would work really well if I did the problems on a seperate piece of paper and we would see who could do them faster and he won 99% of the time and one time I was like no your answer is wrong this is the right one, and I point to mine and he goes No!!! Auntie!! Your answer is wrong mine is right!! And sure enough his was right and mine was wrong. Hahah not embarrassing at all!!! These kids were owning me at math and they would make fun of me and say, Auntie you don't know your tables?!?! One kid named Dihlip that I was working with was so bored and didn't want to write anymore so he literally ate his pencil!!! Full on ate the led and everything! I was laughing soooo hard! I don't know if I already shared this in a previous post but one kid just did not want to read in English so he went to the Tamil section of the library and was climbing all over the shelves and standing on them and I had to pick him up and I'm not tall at all as you all know so he was more than half of me and i was holding his legs and he was holding onto the shelf with his hands for dear life. Hahahaha too funny!! I love kids!
The next day we went into the Leprosy colony and it was AMAZING!!!! As always!! Ahh these people are so incredible!! I love them! So before we started working I walked around the village and this lady had just had twin babies!! A boy and a girl. She was in their little straw hut and she put both the babies in a baby swing tied to the roof outside and the swing was a scarf and the babies were just hanging out in there swinging back and forth! It was pretty awesome but I would never let my new born babies out of my site. It's pretty funny in India no little kids are ever in diapers so basically they just pee and poo all over themselves and everything hahaha pretty nasty! But they are just so cute!! The dad came to the hut and the babies started crying and hes like you take with you, you take with you!! And his wife smacked him with a straw broom hahaha. I wish I could have taken them!! They were so sweet! So right when I walked over to where we were about to start working this little old lady was sitting by herself and she was probably like 4'8. She was blind, had no fingers, no feet and one tooth. I sat with her and kissed her hands and said Vanakum which is Hello! In Tamil. And she just lit up and started rambling in Tamil. I hate the language barrier. I wanted SO bad to understand what she was saying and to hear her life story. But we were able to get our names out and her name was Sagiyamari and she called me Ash. She was the cutest little thing and you could tell she was just sooooo happy that someone was just touching her and sitting with her keeping her company. Little simple things like that mean the world to these beautiful people. I then began to wash feet which I LOVE!!! Except for when I hurt them : / With Leprosy they are either completely numb and cant feel anything or the Leprosy goes to the bone and they are sensitive just to touch. I made sure to constantly watch their faces to see if they were in pain or doing okay. One little old lady just cried and cried the whole time and I just wanted to hold her hand sooo bad but thats impossible to wash someones feet and hold their hand at the same time! The bottom of her foot had no skin and it was completely bloody and so were her toes. I tried so hard to be gentle but the Leprosy was already in her bones so she was so sensitive and I don't think I have ever felt so bad!! Another man whos feet I washed had no skin over his ankle it was completely exposed just all bone and he was cringing just sticking his feet in the water and he was silent but the tears were streaming down his face. I hate Leprosy. And the stigma. Its not fair. Why do the worst things happen to the best people?
Yesterday I did construction. I think I felt more in the way if anything! The Indian construction men were so mean! They would push me and shove me out of the way cause they think girls can't do anything!! WRONG!!! Then when we were lowering huge cement rings and the construction man wasn't paying attention and hit me with a giant rope in the leg and in the face at least 3 times!! Hahaha I wanted to tell him whats up but I refrained. Gotta be lady like right?! As we were walking through the village leaving construction somebody died and I saw the body. So sad!!!! And scary!
Today I went to the old folks home in one of the Leprosy colonies. I LOVE the old folks home!!!! SO MUCH!!!! They are so adorable and bubbly and just all around happy! The old folks home was able to be built because all the people in the colony put their micro business loans together so that the older generation would have a place to go! So awesome! My job today was to wash hands and feet. It was bitter sweet. I LOVE to wash but then again I don't because that is usually the most painful thing for them. One man when I was setting up the washing station he came up and started blessing me and praising Allah and saying hes blessing all my family and friends as well. It was so sweet he kept going on and on about how thankful he was for us. Which is ironic because I am SO thankful for THEM!!! They are incredible people. One women who came up to my washing station was in so much pain. She kept touching her forehead over and over again and she looked like she was about to start crying so I touched her neck and forehead and she was literally ice cold. So we got the Dr. and the Dr. said because her ulcers under her feet were so large it was starting to change her body temperature and make her feel sick. Let me say that the weather was already 115 degrees and she was freezing. So sad! As we started to cut off her bandages she started balling uncontrollably. I then lifted up her feet to wash and she had no skin underneath her feet and just huge holes in her feet everywhere..and when i say hole I mean hole. So big you could stick your hand in a few of them. I started to cry while washing her feet a lot because I felt so horrible that I couldn't do anything for her or help her. By the end of the washing my mask was sopping wet from crying so hard. A man came for me to wash his feet and someone was clipping his bandages off and I was down the line washing someone elses feet but I smelt a really strong bad smell and I turn and look at the bandage station and his feet have hardly any skin on them they are completely bloody and all bone and he had no toes. I was so nervous to wash his feet and for a second I thought I wouldn't be able to because I was so scared I was going to hurt him. The entire time there were flies just completely matted to his ulcers just eating away at them so with one hand I would wash and with the other hand I swat away all the flies. So sad. As I got to the ulcers I saw literally a wad of hair in the ulcer that I had to dig out and a few dead flies in some of the bone. He was such a champ!!!! He was so sweet to. I was able to talk with him a little bit and he is just incredible! I am so thankful I got to meet him. Such an example. While I was washing someone elses feet I heard this lady yelling and yelling and just cracking up but I couldn't turn around yet cause I was washing but I started to crack up cause every time I hear someones laugh I start laughing. How can you not?! Such a happy sound. When I was done I turn around and its this tiny little old lady I met last year named Salama. She is so tiny and just ADORABLE!! She has one tooth shes probably like 4'6 or something I mean TINY and she wears her glasses upside down!! Hello coolest lady ever! These people, just I don't even know, its impossible to be in bad moods around them. By the end of the day we were dancing with them and doing the moceranuh...and I have no idea how to spell that, sorry! One man came up to us and was crying and the Dr. translated and said that he said none of his kids come to see him or talk to him and they don't want to because of his disease, but we come to see him and have fun with him and he was so touched it made me so touched!!!
Looking at these sweet people made me wonder some things...
1. How can you outcast these people from society?
2. How can their families disown them for a disease they have no control over?
3. How are the most beautiful people in the world completely invisible here?
4. Why are they not treated like humans?
5. How is it legal to beat people with leprosy in India if their shadow touches yours?
6. How can people be so cruel?
Here are some quotes I love. Some I've shared before.
People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
— Mother Teresa
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
Mother Teresa
I am SO blessed to be here in India and meet these incredible people that have brightened my life. They are true angels. Thank you SO much to everyone who got me here!!!!!!! I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!!! I love you all!!! You're all amazing even if you didn't donate and your reading this and supporting me...I couldn't ask for anything more!!! I am the luckiest girl in the world to be able to be here and learn from these beautiful people. When I'm with them they make me the person I want to be. I know this is where I'm supposed to be, what I'm supposed to be doing and it's what God sent us to earth to do!!
No comments:
Post a Comment