Baby You're A Firework

Happy 4^th of July from India! Today was just July 4^th to most the people that surround me, but the other long term volunteers and I made sure it was as 4^th of July as we could make it. The day started with us going out with medical to Walajabab colony. We had some extra American friends that spent the day with us, Chambery and her brother Justice. They are running their own eyeglass NGO about four hours away from us. They were really cool, and it was fitting that we had a boy named Justice with us on the 4^th of July. Especially because we already have a girl named Liberty in the group.

Anyway, back to the colony. This was the first time I have been here. I was at the random blood sugar testing station, but Dr. Vinoth didn’t request any random blood sugar tests so I didn’t do a whole lot or procedure type stuff but I was able to do a lot of taking everything in. There was the funniest little girl who had the entire colony (and us) wrapped around her finger. She walked around like she owned the place and lets be honest, we let her. Before clinic started I was able to wander through the colony and interact with the people some. There was one particular couple that snagged my heart. They had a lot of personality and it showed big time. It didn't hurt that they had the cutest little puppy too. Rising Star has a rule about not touching animals—I didn’t break it but it was really really hard.

After the colony we visited a nearby temple—but it turns out they really didn’t want us there so some of us set out to climb the ridiculous amount of steps that led up to two additional temples instead. I had a moment or two on the way up that I questioned why I decided it was a good idea to climb all these steps, but it was totally worth it in the end. One of the temples is in working order and the other is in ruins. I’m pretty sure we interrupted a “date” on the steps of the first temple. And the picture doesn’t really do it justice but the view of the valley was actually very beautiful too.

We spent a few more hours with Chambry and Justice back on campus, but sadly they had to leave us to start their journey home. Otherwise they would of stayed for our 4^th of July party. And party it was. First off, Claartje full name is Claartje America. So regardless of the fact that she is from the Netherlands, we tend to call her Miss America anyway so you know we played on that for the 4^th of July. We gave her the background music of "Born in the USA" and made her a sash with a matching crown. She played that part so well. It was the highlight of our celebrations.

The rest of us commoners dressed in our red, white and blue, “had a BBQ”, and made deviled eggs, strawberry jello and fudge cake with ice cream for dinner. The ice cream at dinner was our second ice cream of the day because we also stopped at the junction for ice cream earlier. But that is totally acceptable with it being the 4^th of July and all. We had some of the staff buy us sparklers earlier on in the week, which we lit while listening to Katie Perry’s, “Baby you a Firework” over and over and over again. Oh and I will have a permanent reminder of this 4^th of July due to the burn scar that is making its home on my right forearm. The 4^th really isn’t the 4^th until someone gets a firework related injury right? Right……..