A new group of volunteers arrived this week—a group of 10 to
be exact. I am really excited about this session because it is the first
“official” session meaning myself and the other long term coordinators get to
fully experience and execute a normal session. The BYU Nursing session was
great, but it defiantly wasn’t typical as far as what we have been trained to
do. This session we will have all three rotations (construction, medical and
education) going all day everyday, as well as activates and hang out time at
night. It is a little intimidating to start this session with no real
connection to the office in America—but luckily I had prepared most everything
way in advance, before the death of our WIFI.
The volunteers are taken straight from the airport to the
Marriott hotel in Chennai—where we pick them up Monday mornings at 10:00 AM.
Except for today we picked them up at 11 because traffic was horrendous and we
had to stop along the way to switch drivers with another one of our vehicles
who had broken down. India has a way of teaching you to switch to and accept plan B, because often times A doesn't work. Period.
They seem to be a pretty diverse group, we have a couple of
mother daughter teams, older girls and younger girls and one boy. Poor boy. But
now David will have a buddy so that will be good for him. Orientation was
long-it always is for volunteers who have been traveling for how many
hours/days-but I am already impressed with the attitude of the group. I don’t
know how else to describe it other then they already seem to be in with both
feet and hearts wide open. I’d say that is a pretty good sign for only having
completed orientation.
I have only done two orientations but both of them have included
some pretty random things that just come with being in India. The BYU nursing
students got me running around like a crazy person trying to get the goats out
of Dr. Susan’s yard, and this group got a front row seat to an elderly lady
pooping on the sidewalk right outside of their van. It was a pretty good
production. Viva India! I didn't get a picture of the lady--I didn't even debate it actually--but I figured I would end this post with picture of the streets of India. These were not taken today--but one of my favorite things about picking volunteers up is watching them take all this kind of stuff in. It is pretty exciting because you never know what you are going to see--like an older lady pooping on the sidewalk.
