Namuli Jewelry: The Ending of an Era

With so many of the long term volunteers and coordinators leaving, I have been more then a little reflective of this past summer. I know I have said it before, but I seriously can’t believe the summer is coming to a close. Of course there have been disagreements, hard times, but overall this summer hasn’t had to many speed bumps. Not literally of course, there are a ton of those in India. And pot holes. It’s annoying. Anyway. One of the best things about this summer is the people I have had the opportunity to work with. Of course the ones I got to know the most were the ones that where here through it all—or most of it all anyway. I wrote about Claartje when she left and I wanted to write a post for about each of them, however they are all leaving so fast I can’t keep up! So here is my meager attempt to write down my list of favorite things from each of them.

Claartje: See previous post.

Heather: She was the volunteer physical therapist as well as one of the most genuine people I have ever met. I regret we didn’t get to spend a ton of time together, we tended to have opposite schedules. When I wasn’t very busy she was usually off campus and when she was back on campus, I tended to be more busy. I always loved the time I did spend with her though. She, Yemily and I got the foot zoning/foot fish massages together, that is something I will always remember. Heather and was my bartering partner—not that they always went shopping together, but even if we didn’t we would always talk about the great deals we found. We also shared a slight obsession with chunky and unique jewelry. One of my favorite things about Heather is her laugh—it is the best. I’m going to miss hearing it, especially when she, Dancemaster and I would all be together laughing over whatever it was we found humorous. The three of us often seem to find some of the exact same things funny from time to time. Heather is a great photographer. I'm going to miss seeing her pics. National Geographic would be lucky to have her work for them.

Dancemaster: Also known by her given name, Emily, is the Promethean Spark Dance Teacher. She is still here for a bit but I can’t write about this summer without writing about her. She is a sassy New Yorker, who came to India with 10 days notice. That takes some serious guts. She has gained a reputation on campus as being very “firm” with the children, but she does it right because the children all still love her. One of my favorite Emily memories was celebrating the 4^th of July. It is nothing specific from that day, but I just remember her (and Heather) laughing so hard at Claartje being Miss America and that she seemed to give so much energy to the celebration. After all, she was the one who cued the Katie Perry music for our firework “show”. She loves telling stories, is a fun shopping/eating partner and according to Dr. Susan is a gym rat. I hope to make at least a few more Emily memories before she leaves the end of September. On Thursdays and Fridays, Dancemaster goes to medical and does dance therapy while there. One time, she was having a particularly hard time getting people to dance, so I was trying to help her. Our only success (if you can even call it that) was with a little boy but it's a fun memory anyway.

David: He was “just one of the girls.” He really was such a good sport about being surrounded by estrogen all the time. I think there was once I heard him complain about not wanting to shop a minute longer. J David loved the kids unlike anyone else. I was amazed at his endless supply of energy. I have never seen a grown man cry the way he did on his last day. He literally gave everything in him to the kids, patients and staff of Rising Star Outreach. And the memories—I remember him training me on the medical rotation when I first arrived as he was our medical coordinator this past summer. He was always the one to suggest watching a movie and was so patient with us when we would all fall asleep during said parties. He was here last summer so he and Yemily who has also been here before were absolute lifesavers in helping to show me the ropes of India. A lot of times David was the only one who would hear my little quirkily side comments and under the breath jokes, and was even nice enough to laugh at them. I will also never forget the time we played Moa and I kind of accidently screwed him over. Ooops. We didn’t really play Moa much after that. Weird. One of the last nights he was here I couldn’t sleep and saw that his light was still on so I made him get out of his room and come chill on the porch with me. We listen to the rain and talked and laughed while eating Lucky Charms. They were even REAL Lucky Charms that a past volunteer had left. It was so random but so memorable. This picture was not from that night, it was just some other night when David decided to eat an entire box of cornflakes from a pot for dinner. That's David!

David and Velu had a major bromance going on this past summer

Brooklee: She isn’t going anywhere anytime soon so I don’t have to write about her as a good bye, just as a friend who will be staying in India pretty much the whole time I’ll be here too. Brooklyn is the oldest daughter of the Young family-the family that lives on campus. They are from Spanish Fork. We call Brooklyn “Brooklee” because that is how the Indian staff says her name. Brooklee, Yemily and I have been roomies for the majority of this summer so we have had different movies nights, late night talks about life (which I usually fall asleep during because I am always so exhausted come night time and because I am a full decade older then both of them-in ten years they will learn the hard reality of they can’t stay up all night long anymore too.) and have shared lots of laughs. Brooklee is pretty witty, but if you don’t listen close you will miss her witty comments. She is also very talented in many artistic ways. I will always remember the awesome deviled eggs Brooklee made for our 4^th of July party, as well as she being the first fellow volunteer I meet once I arrived in India. She likes to read just about anything, and will randomly break out in laughter over her current selection. I love those laughs because they are so genuine. They make me smile. Brooklee is my assistant as well as the filler in for whatever needs to be covered. I am so grateful she is here to do those things. She can be a real lifesaver-like when she saved my computer from falling off my lap when I fell asleep typing. I will never forget when she and Claartje cornered me about a certain subject that ended in a lot of smiles and blushing and girly squealing for all of us. She cracks me up and I know we have a lot more memories to be make.

Rachel: Rachel served as our volunteer social worker. Like Heather, Rachel and I had pretty opposite schedules, but we did go to Delhi together. She and I shared our first elephant rides together. She was also the first person to introduce me to lentils. That was on our trip up north too. Rachel is naturally very quiet and reserved, so I don’t have a ton of memories of one on one convos with her, but I do remember the night I heard her talk the very most. It was with session #1 during out “Bea” talk night,-aka boy talk/love of our life or lack there of talk. It was fun to hear her tell stories and laugh.

And last but not least:

Yeamily: Yemily is our second Emily, but because all the kids say their vowels with a Y sound first, she is now officially called Yemily, or Yem. Although sometimes I call her Yem face and she loves it. She is the education coordinator and she still has some time left with us as well. Emily is one pretty silly girl, but at the drop of a hat she can be very serious. Until she cracks a jokes and make me laugh. She is queen of random faces and voices—my least favorite being her satan voice which she uses from time to time to scare the living bajeebers out of me. I always tell her to stop being creepy and that I hate her satan voice, which usually only makes her do it more. She is making some big decisions in her life right now—she got her mission call over the summer and will be serving in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mission, leaving the end of October. She is going to be a good little missionary. Her companions will be very lucky because she is always thinking of others. Yem likes to cook french toast, but she loves eating french toast even more. And she loves KitKats. Don't you dare touch her KitKats. Or her AppyFizz.