This session has come to a close and it has been really hard
for me! I know there will be many great sessions to come (like next session
when Tregani comes-but mostly because I have named the group Supergirls) but if
I am honest I really questions if we will be lucky enough to have such a diverse
yet perfectly balanced group like this again.
I have been struggling to write this because there are so
many things I want to include. But most of it falls into the category of attitude.
They had stellar attitudes. On the way home from church one Sunday, the car
broke down. Our driver (Rajenduran—who is an Indian Santa Clause complete with
the most warming smile and twinkle in his eye) pulled over at a service station
and there was a lot of waiting-----in a hot van. I was mentally prepping myself
to cheer up the group the best I could, but it was unnecessary because they
took matters into their own hands and started playing Big Booty which, quickly
changed to Big Buddha because it makes more sense to play big Buddha while in
India. There were laughs, rapping and so many memories made from what could
have been a big complain fest.
Games was a huge part of this session—Banana Grams happened
unhealthy amounts of time, with games of scum, (American and Canadian
versions), Nertz, spoons, Crystal In and MOW laced in between. There were a few
movie nights, lots of muumuu wearing (muumuu’s actually rock! Yes I’m being
serious, more of this later) and a full night of “Bea talk” where everyone
talked about their love life (or lack there of), tons of laughs and even more
bonding. We should be getting internet
back about half way through the next session. It will be interesting to see if
the bonding time diminishes once we are “connected” again.
It wasn’t all fun and games though. The work took highest
priority and even though I wasn’t able to go out with them on their regular
rotations, I heard so many positive things, from volunteers, coordinators and
other staff members. I did get to go to playtime with them on most days, and
seeing them interact with the kids was awesome. They fit right in. We had two
volunteers who were incredibly talented soccer players. They did a soccer camp
for the older kids over the three-ish weeks they were here. We had another
volunteer who is a science teacher at home, she along with another volunteer
sacrificed their evenings to help tutor the students who have night classes. We
did have some sickness—India tends to do that to you. Sean, our favorite
Canadian of the group was super sick for a couple of days. We think he got some
kind of parasite or something. He was such a trooper though out all of it
though. I now know that I am not the best of telling temperatures simply by
placing my hand on someone’s forehead, and that David won’t always back you up
when you call the nurses late at night because you both agreed that the fever
had gotten worse. Ironically, Dr. Susan had called David an angelic cherubim
about an hour before he threw me under the bus. Angelic my eye. J Madeline’s blood sugar
was going crazy through out most the session but especially on the last day so
we took a little field trip to the hospital in Chennai. When we were in the ER
I was pretty sure there was a dead man on the gurney across the hall. They
brought out the white sheet and everything, but then decided to transfer him to
a different gurney and take him into surgery. The white sheet was there
to remake the bed he was laying on. That was probably their plan all along but
it didn’t look that way from across the hall. I love the buzz of hospitals. They
are so fascinating to me. I would like to work in one someday, but first things
first, I need to learn how to tell temperatures with my hand.
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Of course there were the regular reminders of cleaning up
this and that, but overall the volunteers would see something that needed to be
done and simply do it. There was no backbiting, very little complaining and a
lot of willingness to adapt to whatever was happening. One night we had monkeys
invading our regular dining area so we had to make an impromptu change to eat
on the roof of the volunteer house; with no tables, no chairs, no bug zappers
and significantly less light, but they were okay with it. There were also a lot
of thunderstorms, which were usually followed by rain. The rain was bad
sometimes, and threatened to take out our knee caps and femurs while walking
across the tile, but of course, there were volunteers that did yoga/danced in
the rain. Which is fitting since that is basically what they did the entire
time they were here, they didn’t dwell on or wait for the storms to pass, they
chose to dance in the rain. (I can’t take credit for that last saying, I just
happen to love it and it fits so perfectly with the group that I just had to
use it.)
