Painting, Praying, and Playing: A Sunday in India

I was so caught up with my spaghetti dinner in my last post that I forgot to mention that after we left the orphanage, we went to a local paint shop to purchase a few gallons of paint. We had learned from John that the girls' dorms hadn't been painted in over 5 years. They were in serious need of a new coat of paint! We ordered three [very bright] colors: pink, teal, and green. Time, we were beginning to learn, is very relative in India. Though the paint shop workers said mixing the paint would take half an hour, they actually meant that it would take an hour and a half. So we waited and walked around and ate some ice cream [Side note: I realized that while most Indian food is mushy and spicy, they can still do ice cream right. Thank goodness.]. Eventually we got all of our paint, momentarily panicked that we did not have enough, and then headed home.

One of the dorms pre-paint. 

It was nap time on the porch while we painted. 

Sunday morning rolled around and after our usual breakfast and devotions routine, we headed to the orphanage for a full day of painting. I wore my camoflauge pants because in my mind, that's what a painter would wear [though come to think of it, painters traditionally wear white, don't they? Whatever.]. We began by tackeling the biggest of the three rooms first. This would be the Pepto-Bismol pink room. Pepto Bismol, by the way, is a wonderful drug. Definitely right up there with Advil for me. Anyways, when they asked some people to volunteer to go play with the kids for a while, I jumped on the opportunity. Though I was happy to paint, in my opinion, playing with little Indian cuties is just about ten million times more fun.

Suganthi & Megalyn

Playing in the tree[less] house with Suganthi.

Debok on the swing. 

Later in the day, I took my turn to paint.

There's me in my camo pants! And the very pink walls.

One of my favorite parts of my entire trip to India took place after we had finished painting for the day [mostly because we ran out of paint...gallon to liter conversions are tricky!]. Every Sunday, two pastors come to the orphanage to have a church service with the kids. The service was mostly in Tamil (the dialect spoken in Coimbatore) but the pastors could also speak some English, so it was in a mix of the two languages. It struck me that afternoon that though these people I was worshipping alongside of have so little, they are so filled with joy. They thanked the Lord for every little blessing that He had given them. When is that last time I did that? Encountering this joy time after time in India impacted me powerfully. I have so much stuff and I am so ungrateful for it. Most of the stuff I have is stuff I expect to have. I don't even think to be thankful for it because it's just always been there. But hearing some of them audibly thank the Lord for every little thing He had given them, convicted me to be more thankful for the many, many things He has blessed me with.

Some of the boys singing one of their songs. 

Kneeling to pray. Little Praveen in the middle is so precious. 

The service was very hands-on. We sang a song [Father Abraham, of course]. The kids sang us a few songs too. The pastors read verses in Tamil. We read verses in English. We sang some "hymns." The kids kneeled on the floor and prayed. And we took communion. There are few times in my life when I have so strongly felt God's presence in a place. He is there at the orphanage. He is there watching over those kids, and guiding their caretakers. He created each of them and He loves them unconditionally. Though people may leave them, He is always there. That realizaton was a comfort to me then and continues to comfort me every day.

Church was in the afternoon, so after it was over, it was almost dinner time and it was already beginning to get dark out. We had two more things we wanted to do before the end of the day: manicures and the big room reveal. Since there were only a few girls at the orphanage and we were painting their room, we wanted to make them feel extra special. It was Heather's idea to paint their teeny tiny nails before suprirsing them with their new bright pink room! We showed them the room and they seemed to like it but they were still pretty shy, so none of them had particularly strong reactions. Don't worry, though, we later found out that they LOVED the colors. They were just a little too shy to express it.

Manicure time with Nandini, Megolyn, and Suganthi. 

The big reveal!

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Hanging On For Dear Life

When driving through the streets of Coimbatore, it can be very tempting to hang your hands out the window. Doing so, however, puts you at risk for ending the day with one less hand than you started with. As I mentioned briefly in yesterday's post, traffic in India is crazy. I have never seen anything like it. It makes Times Square seem like a peaceful country road. Saturday June 2 began with a ride in an auto rickshaw across town to our house!

Becky, Kaitlyn and I getting ready to go in our auto.

Indian people are short and Taylor is tall. Therefore, we quickly discovered that most things in India are too small for him--including the auto.

Riding in one of these three-wheeled open air vehicles was definitely on my India bucket list, so I was really excited that we got to ride in one! Riding in an auto gives you a completely different view of the city. Since there are no sides, I not only got to experience my first "hang on for dear life" situation, I also got to see the sights, feel the traffic whiz by, and hear all the crazy honking horns [they literally never stop honking]. Oh, and smell the...interesting...smells.

Anyways, the house we stayed in wasn't really a house. It kind of reminded me of the housing at a summer camp. There was a common area, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and a kitchen. And one air conditioner. I had honestly prepared myself for really horrible living conditions in India so I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the house. Sure, it wasn't a 5-star hotel, but we only saw a handful of cockroaches and it was relatively clean-ish.

Our house was across the street from an underwear factory! Nothing says "welcome home" like a creepy guy in his undies. 

After moving in, we headed over to Miracle Garden to pick the kids up. We had plans to take all 20-something of them to a water park for the day! Somehow, we stuffed all 12 of us, all the kids, and a few of their teachers into the bus and we were off to the waterpark.

First off, I should tell you that bathing suits are a big no-no in India. So I was rocking Jill's hot pink knee length basketball shorts and an old blue t-shirt. I looked GREAT. Everyone just swims in their clothes there though! Women go on slides in their sequined saris; men wear jeans and button down shirts. It's quite the sight. The park had a few non-water rides, so we started the day with those.

And OH MY GOODNESS, those rides would be the subject of so many lawsuits in the United States. There are no seatbelts or safety bars. Those suckers just whip you around and you hang on the edges for dear life. [In case you haven't caught on to the trend yet, you do a lot of hanging on for dear life in this country.] I actually only experienced two of these rides: the bumper cars and the ferris wheel. The bumper cars were your typical bumper cars. Nothing too extreme other than the lack of seat belts. The ferris wheel was absolutely crazy though. The baskets have no doors and no sides; it's just a hanging, rocking, safety constraint-less bench. Once you're on [and hanging on to dear life], the thing whips you around and around and around at an impressive and nauseating speed. I LOVE ferris wheels, but even I didn't like this one. It was intense. In my car were three adults and one little boy. Our poor little boy was shaking, crying, screaming, and wetting his pants. Oh dear. Even though the ride attendant didn't speak English, we eventually got his attention and got him to stop the ride so the little boy could get off. I felt so bad for him but was kind of thankful that he was so scared so I could get off too! The last ride before lunch was the "pirate ship." I decided to sit that one out and was glad I did. I don't think there were any brakes on it, so it rocked back and forth for a good 20 minutes.

Here's me driving a bumper car in my oh-so-classy outfit. There's two little girls in the car too, but they're so tiny and dark you can't even see them! This is the only picture of me that I've seen from the waterpark because most of us left our cameras at Miracle Garden so they wouldn't get wet.

After a quick lunch break [my first of many meals consisting of vegetable fried rice], we brought the kids into the water. Some of them jumped right in and loved paddling around; others sat on the side and dipped their feet in. Unlike American water parks, there was not a life guard in sight--just a few militant looking police officers with whistles. I'm not much of swimmer and I was a little scared of what exactly was in that water [do they clean it?] but it smelled kind of chlorine-y so I took the plunge [heh heh, I'm so punny...].

I played with a bunch of the kids, but of course, the one I distinctly remember playing with was Manik. After going down some slides and splashing around, the mean looking police guards blew their whistles and literally commanded us to head to the wave pool. It wasn't like "hey the wave pool's on if you want to swim in it." It was more like "GO TO THE WAVE POOL NOW!!!"

Naturally, we went to the wave pool. And that thing was crazy! Like most everything else, I had never experienced anything like it. Those weren't your normal run-of-the-mill wave pool waves. They were more like intense, tsunami, tidal waves that slammed you into the wall. Also the bottom of the pool was a tile floor. It was really slippery...

The water park was the first place that Indian people came up to us to hello or ask for pictures. White people are extremely uncommon in that part of India, so a group of 12 doesn't blend in. At all. From that point on, pretty much everywhere we went, we had people staring, not-so-discretely taking pictures, grabbing our hands, and asking for photos with us. I loved it because it made me feel like a celebrity. Some people could have done without it though. Remember that outfit I was wearing? Let's be honest. It was hideous. Despite that, some woman came up to me, grabbed my hand and said "You are so beautiful." I couldn't believe it since I clearly was not looking my best. But that gives you an idea of the reaction that people had towards us everywhere we went.

After the wave pool experience, we called it a day and brought the kids back to Miracle Garden. They gave us "spaghetti" and chicken for dinner, which I was SO excited about. I wrote a whole paragraph in my journal about it, but it was just spaghetti, so I'll spare you the details.

"The kids wear clothes with broken zippers, no underwear, and rope as a belt. It broke my heart to see that."

When I realized that the kids' clothing was so worn and tattered, I began to truly grasp how little they have. This realization only became clearer as the our time in India went on. I have SO much and they have SO little. My desire to help them began with that realization and only grew as the week went on. And it's grown even more since I got home! I'm so thankful that RWC SIFE will be continuing our work with Miracle Garden and Chandra Bose in the coming years. It gives us a great opportunity to continue supporting them financially while also raising awareness of their needs to other people in our community. It'll be exciting to see what we can do for them in the coming year.

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Saturday Adventures with Anna: Vanderbilt Mansion

Meet Anna: a 14-year-old photographer, fashionista, and creative spirit.

She also just happens to be my sister. :)

Anna and I live in a beautiful part of New York and there are tons of places to explore and discover. With all these fun places within driving distance, Saturdays are officially our local adventure days. Yesterday was our first of the summer.

Where We Went:
Vanderbilt Mansion and Historic Site - Hyde Park, NY. The Vanderbilt grounds have long been one of my personal favorite places in the Hudson Valley. Once the home of the Vanderbilt family, this property has a breathtaking view of the Hudson River and acres of lush grass and beautiful English gardens. Vanderbilt is a great place for a picnic, a long walk, or a photo shoot. Here's a few of my photos from the day:

Oh, and here's one of both of us thanks to the self-timer. Check out Anna's blog for more of her Vanderbilt photos!

Where We Ate:
Eveready Diner - Hyde Park, NY

A good adventure is never complete without some good food! Anna and I stopped at the Eveready Diner for some triple decker chicken salad club sandwiches and super crispy french fries. They were delish! In addition to the tasty food, Eveready's claim to fame is its appearance on The Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. From the chrome exterior to the employees' uniforms, going there is like taking a quick trip back to the 50s. There's even an old roller rink next door! 

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