This month has flown by. We arrived in Delhi on the 29th of March. I had been told we would be working with an orphanage called Asha Mission (www.ashamission.com) and I expected to be staying there as well. Instead, we have been living in a nice apartment with 2 rooms, and a kitchenette. It has been a dream and much better accomodations than I had anticipated. We are only about a 2 minute walk from the orphanage.
The children have been such a joy to be around. We spent the first week playing with them in the mornings, and then leading VBS in the evenings. They are fast learners, and kept asking us to teach them new songs. They already knew so many, we had to try to remember songs from our childhood that we hadn’t sung in years. There are 32 children ranging in age from 10 months to 16 years old. They are very well behaved and very disciplined. Their day looks something like this:
They put me to shame with how many bible verses they know. It has been fun to hear them sing the songs we’ve taught them throughout the day. Three they love are, Who’s the King of the Jungle?, Undignified, and Zacchaeus. We’ve learned a few from them as well. The couple who take care of the children, Pastor Sharma and his wife Sosi, have two kids of their own. Through talking with them, we learned that since coming on staff in November, they have never had a day off or been able to leave to do anything together. If one of them leaves, the other has to stay behind. We decided as a team, we wanted to send them out on a date. They were extremely appreciative and made a day of it. We had a fun day with the kids and spoiled them with pizza and ice cream.
When we first arrived the children weren’t going to school due to a lack of funds and books. With the help of sponsors, and contributions we made as a team, we were able to send them off to school on Wednesday morning. It was so fun to see them dressed in their colorful uniforms and see how excited they were. We walked to the bus stop with them and felt like proud parents sending them off for the day. Later that afternoon, when we came back to the orphanage, they all had their noses in their books and were hard at work on their homework.
This past week we have spent most of our days sight-seeing. We went to the Taj Mahal on Monday, a leper colony and the slums on Wednesday, and Friday we went on a tour of the world heritage sites like the India Gate and the Red Fort.
We have less than a week left before leaving for Hyderabad for time together as a squad. I am going to be so sad to leave these children behind. It helps to know they are being so well taken care of. I am thankful for the opportunity I have had to be here, and for all that I have seen and experienced. India has been a pleasant surprise to me.
