Today is/was January 17, 2011. I turned 22 today and we took 100 plus orphans to the beach in Eastern India. I have changed the names of the family who owns the orphanage for safety reasons and also because I can’t spell or pronounce their names J Nebbie and Mo are the wife and husband who own the orphanage and Reggie is the son. Let’s start.
I will start from the very beginning because I would like for everyone to get every little detail about this day, and bear with me because it’s kinda long. So we go to get on the bus to head to the beach and there aren’t enough seats on the bus so, two of my teammates and I have to ride in the front windshield of the bus. This is one of those flat front school buses, so there is NOTHING between you and the car/person you hit except a sheet of glass. If you don’t know anything about Indian driving here’s what we have experienced. The little white lines in the middle of the road mean absolutely NOTHING to anyone. So the whole way to the beach we are dodging rickshaws, bicycles, children, cows, and other large means of transportation. Along the way we make random stops so the bus driver’s son can get out and give money to the Hindu statues along the road and dot his head with this red paint, and pick up a few other children?? (Let’s just say that anytime you ride on any kind of transportation in India you constantly continue a never ending safety prayer/ I’ll be ready when the Lord calls me home prayer.)
Soo we finally make it to the beach, and since it was my birthday of course the orphans all had presents for me as soon as we get off of the bus. Yes, the orphans had presents for me………….. The children had taken their drawing note pads and random ink pens and pencil sharpeners and rapped them up for me L absolutely broke my heart. Anyways. Did I mention that none of the guys on our teams rode the bus with us? And the truck they took was nowhere to be found near the beach. So here are me and 7 other girls with all of these orphans, who don’t speak English unless it’s “my name” “your name”, and we don’t speak ANY Telugu (their language and I doubt I spelled it right). Anyways the kids all get off the bus and start using the bathroom where ever they want and running wild. Well, eventually the truck pulls up with all of the guys and the family who runs the orphanage. We rounded up all of the children and headed for the ocean. And by ocean I mean the large brown mud puddle, oh and everyone is still wearing their clothes because everyone in India is under a very strict dress code, except for the random men in speedos, but that’s another story. So we are headed for the water, then Nebbie tells the World Racers its Chi time. Ha. Hot tea in 100 degree weather, awesome. But back to the kids, So this is most of the kids first time to ever even see the beach! So they get the children lined up by age/height and we start to take steps into the water. It started out as a very organized way to enter the ocean then it all broke loose, kids were everywhere! They were splashing and flopping and running and drowning. It was ridiculous, but probably one of the happiest times of my life. They were all so excited and happy; there wasn’t one who didn’t love it!
Now it was time for lunch so we all come out of the water and lineup. Its rice J we all grab a plate and dig in with our sandy hands :/ awesome. I saw a guy pushing an ice cream truck along the beach and I decided I needed an ice cream since it was my birthday. I didn’t have any rupees, so Mel said she would buy me one, which it was only like 30cents in US change. So I got a butterscotch ice cream (which is probably the only amazing thing I would tell someone to eat in India). And yes, I straight up ate my ice cream in front of all the orphans, don’t judge me, it was my birthday I deserved it. So after I ate my ice cream we all headed back for the water. I’m a whitey so I was pretty toasted by this point but the kids loved it so I decided to tough it out and go sit beside the one little girl who looked like she was over playing in the water. As soon as I got to her, she blew chunks. I immediately turned and ran the other way. Then I quickly realized she’s about 5 years old, so I went back to grab her and Mel actually beat me to her and got all motherly and pulled back her hair as she continued to vomit. Meanwhile I stood a good 5 feet away speaking English to a little girl who couldn’t tell me if she was ok because she has no idea what I’m saying.
After a lot more time in the sun we decided it was time to go. So we all decided to change out of our blue jeans and t-shirts and I shared a moment with Suzie and had a photo shoot with her, Mel, and Evian. Then Reggie gave me and Lauren key chains with the L initial on it for our birthdays, how sweet. So then we gave all the kids a bag of chips we had bought each of them and we got back on the bus. Then began the adventures of dodging everything, again!!! So then we randomly stop somewhere and all of the kids begin to pile off of the bus. :/ seriously none of us know what’s going on. And Mo has decided to take the kids to a park??? 100 plus orphans, to a park. haha. Reggie being the awesome man he is tried to line the kids up by age and height to try and keep track of them so they don’t get KIDDNAPPED (because he said that happens a lot at this public park?). But none of us know which kids are ours, so they all just ran off. But I just so happened to find the sick little girl and me and her headed for the bench and chilled until it was time to go. Picture this, we are walking out of the park and we need to cross both lanes of traffic with 100 plus orphans. So 12 white people completely stop traffic in this town and allow all of these sweet little faces to cross the road safely. We looked like a scene from 101 Dalmatians. The drivers were NOT happy about this, but our kids were safeJ.
On the way home Lauren picks a kid up out of the chair beside me so she can sit down and lays him across our laps and about half way home I look over and we both notice that this kid is NOT breathing. Sooo of course when you are holding a kid that’s limp and no matter which way you move him he won’t wake up, nor can u see his chest/stomach moving from the motion of taking in and air out of the body, we freaked out a little. Luckily he was breathing, but just very lightly, the kid was just obviously really worn out from the day he had, and I guess when you sleep on the floor normally, you can sleep anywhere?? So we finally make it home to the orphanage, wash our feet, hands, and faces, eat a little rice and pass out!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy birthday to me J
