Hey everybody! Sorry again for the delay in blog posts….the internet in India was not the greatest, but now we’re in NEPAL, the land of mountains, fresh air, and Wifi (but more on that later…). To sum the month of India up, it was TOUGH but AMAZING. Here are some of the highlights/stories from the month….
Birthdays and a Day at the Zoo
– So throughout the month in between coloring, drawing and teaching English, we had some great opportunities to do some fun things with the children at the orphanage. Some of the girls on my team had the great idea to throw the children a birthday party. In talking with the kids throughout the month, we learned that many of them didn’t know exactly how old they were, or even their exact birth date! Also, Uncle Sam told us that in India, birthdays weren’t even celebrated. Kinda a bummer for Indian children, eh? After some planning, we decided to order a cake for the kids and get them all candy, chips, and soda! High fructose corn syrup and icing…what more could a kid ask for!! We also made birthday hats for all of the children and made them each an individual birthday card with encouraging words and a bible verse. At first the kids didn’t know how to react to the whole concept of having a “birthday” , but after they chowed down some cake and soda they began to warm up to the idea. The day was capped off by relay races and a game of cricket with the new ball and bat that we bought them. It was a great day and it was exciting to give the kids a bit of joy!
Another day we decided to take the children on a trip to the Calcutta zoo. Uncle Sam had mentioned it would be a first for nearly all of the kids at the orphanage. It was great because we’d been teaching them about different types of animals, and they’d actually get to see some of them live and up close! But first, we had to get there……which turned out to be no easy task. After squeezing the 13 children, 4 staffs members and our team of 6 into two jeeps (with no A/C) we headed for the zoo. We drove and drove and drove until suddenly both jeeps pulled over to the side of the road. I looked out the window to see what was going on and found out that one of the children had started puking in the back of the jeep! Apparently massive amounts of rice + heat + children unaccustomed to driving in cars = pukefest. Luckily we were able to clean up the jeep and continue on….until child #2 threw up in our car! I’d thought that I’d be able to avoid the puking children, but alas, our jeep was not spared! Finally, after 2 hours of driving and 2 puking little guys we made it to the zoo!
The day turned out to be a great one! It was awesome to see the kids excitement as they actually got to see live jaguars, giraffes, elephants and monkeys! It was also neat to see that they’d remembered some of the English that we’d taught them. Most of the children don’t get to leave the orphanage very often because they don’t go to school yet or even into town. It was great to know that we’d get to share a new experience with them….despite the problems we faced trying to get there J
Washin’ Feet
– Another great experience that we shared with the children came towards the end of the month. One of the women on my team said that she’d been a part of a youth group in which the children washed one another’s feet. It was symbolic of servanthood and also it is what Jesus Christ did at the last supper. Jesus washed his disciples feet shortly before he was crucified in order to set a standard for what a servant should look like. Although he was Lord and Savior, he humbled himself to wash the feet, the dirtiest part, of his disciples. We decided as a team that it would be great to show this type of love and a servant’s heart to the children.
It ended up being a great experience. We had the kids sit in a circle and had a large water basin with cloth rags. Then we took time to explain the story of how Jesus washed his servants’ feet and we explained that we wanted to serve them in the same way. Then we proceeded to individually wash each child’s feet and pray over them. At the end of the time we gathered all of the children together and pray over them! We prayed that God would bless them, protect them and we declared that each and every one of them was special and that God had great plans for their lives! It was a meaningful way to close out the month with 13 very special children!
