Late Wednesday night, we finally arrived in Chennai to our final destination at Rising Star. The next morning was orientation day where we got settled and saw the campus for the first time. It looks exactly like the pictures! It's so nice and air conditioned and the school is within walking distance!
After playtime with the kindergarden age kids, we came home for a little then went back for more play time except with all the students. The kids are just as amazing as everyone said they were, even a little bit better! They are so sweet, loving and sometimes a little sassy. It was a bit overwhelming at first having five kids run up to you at the same time yelling "Auntie Auntie what is your name?" With names like Krishna, Sheba, Gatena, Vignesh, Musa, Sumitra and Nishanti their names were very hard to remember. Then we went to individual prayer time. We split into groups (I was with Natalie) and went to separate houses. The kids would start off by leading a prayer then it was up to us. The theme this week was hard work so Natalie and I racked our brains to come up with a story or at least something that related. We ended up playing Simon Says and a couple rounds of name games for a good half hour. Luckily James, a super cool Broadway performing, dance teaching New Yorker came in and saved us. We ended with a closing prayer, dinner and bedtime shortly afterwards.
Today was a little different. We split into our groups and went off on the daily tasks of either medical, construction or education. I had the privilege of being in the construction group with J'Amy, Claire and Nery. We painted one of the toilet sheds the previous group had built. It was hot but not unbearable, just very very sweaty. It went smoothly besides getting paint in my eye multiple times (thanks Nery). This experience was especially cool for me because we were in these villages walking alongside the people and cows and dogs that live there. We'd seen poor parts of cities earlier in Delhi, but that was from the safety of our big, air conditioned bus. It wasn't so much culture shock for me, but culture acceptance? I just felt so open and normal to me, there wasn't any shock. We finished the day almost identically to Thursday except with a new house for prayer time and different food for dinner.
I honestly love everything I have seen so far in this country. I feel so blessed and fortunate for everything I have back in Park City, but these people seem perfectly happy with their stone houses and dirt streets. Their home is much different from ours, but that doesn't keep it from being a home. I could stay here forever!
- Reilly Falter
*To answer some frequently asked questions by my friends and family: No, we don't shower in Western style showers, instead we get to fill a larger bucket with water and use a smaller bucket to pour it over ourselves. No, we don't have to wear saris everyday, instead we wear baggy pants and long, pretty shirts.. I can't remember the name right now. And finally, yes, we do have to squat to use the toilet.*
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