Welcome to India!
Here’s a taste of a typical day for me..
Wake up early in the morning on the roof of our house. Welcome to tent city #Indiastyle
About 9 in the morning a few of us walk down to the nearest chai stand and gulp down some of the hottest best chai tea to ever fill our stomachs. [only 2 of those are mine]
At 9:45, our two all women’s teams meet together outside our house and pray for the day before piling into a tuk tuk (or two) and heading to one of Sarah’s Covenant Homes to clean.
Make a quick stop at the tailor to pick up our punjabis!
Arrive at Victory house, one of Sarah’s Covenant Homes for older boys with special needs. Some of the boys are transitioning rooms so each morning we spend a couple of hours cleaning before we begin painting in a few days. The guys love to help us clean!
My first time scraping poop off of a wall. Loved it.
Grab another tuk tuk to and from lunch, which [today] consists of naan, singapore noodles, and ginger chicken.
This pic is noisier and more crammed than it appears.
Occasionally some Indian friends will accompany us in the tuk tuk #bonding
In the afternoons we walk to the foster homes we’ve been assigned to. On my walk I usually run into sweet children who never fail to ask: “Vat is your name??”
I wanted a picture of one of the boys with his baby goat. I got one of 4 boys and their baby goats.
On my way to Faith House, I stop by my friend’s store on the side of the road. Her name is Ratrum and she has the most joy of any Indian woman I’ve met so far. On our short visits with each other we’ve decided that I’ll teach her a new English word each time if she’ll teach me some Telugu [the 2nd most common language in India]. She still has an open invitation for me to eat chicken at her house sometime.. Pray for her to experience the love of Jesus!
When I arrive at Faith House each afternoon, I greet the ia’s [pronounced eye-ya’s; widowed Indian women who stay with the children full time at the houses] and help them care for the children for a few hours. Most of the group homes have foster moms, who are usually American missionaries that have committed to live and work with the children and the ia’s for an extended amount of time.
And now… meet some of the girls I work with every day!
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Neveah is 8 months old and I call her my precious princess! She has extra fluid in her brain that needs to be drained every once in a while and she has stunted muscular growth. She used to look at me in horror and cry when I began visiting her, but recently I’ve been able to get her to break a smile!
Aloe is four years old and has Seckel Syndrome, a type of Primordial Dwarfism. She is about 2 foot, 5 inches and can’t weigh more than 5 pounds. Her size doesn’t indicate anything about her personality.. she’s the most spunky and sassy of them all!
Chelsea was born with a cleft lip and palate, both which she has had surgery for. She’s a ham. She lights up when I talk to her and she loves cuddling and kisses.
This is Susan. She’s nine years old and has an intellectual disability as well as Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy. She has the brightest smile of all the girls I volunteer with and she gets so excited when I push her up and down the hallway in her chair.
Winnie is quieter than most of the other girls. She has an intellectual disability and cannot walk or hold herself up when she’s sitting. Everyday I wake her up from her nap, give her some juice and carry her outside to hang out with her while she sits in her chair. She loves the back of her head to be scratched [just like me].
These are just a few of the beautiful children that I see on a day to day basis. Sarah’s Covenant Homes houses over 100 of them! Of the girls that I mentioned, only Aloe is fully sponsored so far. If you would like to see more of the kids and/or have an interest in sponsoring them, click here!
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27
We end our day by grabbing the cheapest street food you’ll ever find [a large plate of noodles and cooked cauliflower] for under 1$!
The sunsets are always pretty rad.
Oh and, can’t forget feedback in teams [no picture needed]….
X Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look afterorphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.X
