When I think of the January Session, the word expertise comes to
mind. It was another Five for Five session; five volunteers for five days. Five volunteers makes for a small session, but each one of those five
volunteers were highly educated, incredibly accomplished and had hearts of
gold. We had Jessica; a doctor who has her own leprosy clinic in the USA (in conjunction
with Emory Hospital in Georgia—and yes there really are still cases of leprosy
in the USA. Did you know that the armadillo is a carrier for leprosy), Brian; a man that
has a music/theater teaching degree from Harvard and has taught at schools in
Europe (he also happens to be the doctors younger brother), Teresa; a sassy Latina philanthropist
from Mexico (although she is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia), Candace; an Ernest
and Young Accountant from Washington DC and her best friend Sarah, who is an
artist/lingerie designer in NYC. Talk about diverse right? But it all worked out pretty darn well! It was fun to see them apply their expertise and
accomplishments to the program-minus the lingerie designing skills obviously. We couldn't find a use for that here. Weird I know. I learn a lot from every session I feel like I learned more during this particular session then others. I literally felt like I was leaving class after having a conversation with any one of the five volunteers—and I don’t mean that is a bad
way, I LOVED my classes!
One of my favorite parts of the session was when Brian and
Lon merged their music skills and played instruments with the children at
playtime. The kids were eating it up. Both Lon and Brian are amazing with
children so it made it that much more special.
At one point Lon was letting Anu (aka Tinkerbell, aka Angel, aka Durga Devi depending on what she feels like being called for the day) lead him. When she moved her hand up and down, Lon adjusted the sound of the scale to match. It was seriously so cute to watch! Anu was BEAMING! She thought it was the greatest thing since chicken 65 (one of her favorite meals)!
At one point Lon was letting Anu (aka Tinkerbell, aka Angel, aka Durga Devi depending on what she feels like being called for the day) lead him. When she moved her hand up and down, Lon adjusted the sound of the scale to match. It was seriously so cute to watch! Anu was BEAMING! She thought it was the greatest thing since chicken 65 (one of her favorite meals)!
Bryan even busted out some of his traditional Indian dance moves. He wouldn't do it for long despite the pleadings of the crowd. :)
Things worked out for us to be able to do some sightseeing
with the group before dropping them off at the Marriott on Saturday. We hit up
the Sri Parthasarathyswamy Temple, which is arguably the most famous Hindu temple in
Chennai. IT WAS SO COOL.
This was was honestly one of if not the coolest temple I have visited while in India. They were super nazi about taking pics in the temple so I only have a few pics from outside but it gives you an idea. Besides the pictures they were very intense on all rules in this temple-like they wouldn’t even let us carry our shoes inside the temple. We had to take them off (which is expected so no one was worried about that) but we HAD to leave them in lockers outside and off to the side of the temple. Which also required you walking down a sidewalk where both sides were lined with beggars. That wasn't fun. You would think I would be use to them by now but I still hate seeing them simply because they make me sad. There were all sorts of ceremonies going on inside the temple that were fascinating to watch. We each got bindi's (red dots smeared on our foreheads) and were shuffled through the herding line of the temple--which was good because we got to see a lot of different things but in some ways I wish we could of walked at our own pace and taken it all in at a more normal pace, but overall, it was a great day and a great way to end the session.
PS: I got my Christmas packages from home during this session. It is safe to say I was in heaven while opening them. My family was so sweet and so thoughtful--besides sentimental gifts they even thought of sending ranch dressing seasoning! I LOVED hearing my nieces and nephews sing Christmas carols to me or reading me "Twas the Night Before Christmas". I've been pretty candid about missing my family-especially through out Christmas time-but I have decided that the silver lining of being away from home for Christmas is getting Christmas packages! I was giddy. It was pathetic but oh well, thats how I was.
This was was honestly one of if not the coolest temple I have visited while in India. They were super nazi about taking pics in the temple so I only have a few pics from outside but it gives you an idea. Besides the pictures they were very intense on all rules in this temple-like they wouldn’t even let us carry our shoes inside the temple. We had to take them off (which is expected so no one was worried about that) but we HAD to leave them in lockers outside and off to the side of the temple. Which also required you walking down a sidewalk where both sides were lined with beggars. That wasn't fun. You would think I would be use to them by now but I still hate seeing them simply because they make me sad. There were all sorts of ceremonies going on inside the temple that were fascinating to watch. We each got bindi's (red dots smeared on our foreheads) and were shuffled through the herding line of the temple--which was good because we got to see a lot of different things but in some ways I wish we could of walked at our own pace and taken it all in at a more normal pace, but overall, it was a great day and a great way to end the session.
PS: I got my Christmas packages from home during this session. It is safe to say I was in heaven while opening them. My family was so sweet and so thoughtful--besides sentimental gifts they even thought of sending ranch dressing seasoning! I LOVED hearing my nieces and nephews sing Christmas carols to me or reading me "Twas the Night Before Christmas". I've been pretty candid about missing my family-especially through out Christmas time-but I have decided that the silver lining of being away from home for Christmas is getting Christmas packages! I was giddy. It was pathetic but oh well, thats how I was.
