i realize that i left you with a very exhausting last post and then went mia for a while. i apologize. but the good news is i made it home safely (which is amazing because at one point i thought i would never get home)!
i'm sure you were all extremely worried about how our second day at the crazy school went. after speaking to the teachers about behavior of the students and crowd control, day two was 100 times better than day one. i am really glad we didn't end our experience in the school on a negative note, and i actually shed tears of joy at multiple points during the day because i was so thankful for an amazing last day. (i would like to note that we only had groups of girls come through day two. just saying..)
during my first rotation of girls i was sitting there looking at their name tags and noticed it had an "address" part on it. a few of the girls standing around the table had "st. joseph's orphanage" listed as their address. tears immediately filled my eyes (surprised?). there's an awesome song i had been listening to throughout the trip that says "give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so i can see, everything that i've been missing, give me your love for humanity." in that moment jesus gave me his eyes for a second. he revealed to me that i was letting myself get in the way of what he wanted to show me, how he wanted me to love.
the next day we had some independent study time in the morning. this may have been my favorite day of my whole time in india (big statement, i know!). me and five other friends decided we wanted to go see an orphanage that morning. we piled into two tuk tuks and per usual we got separated and lost. once we finally found the orphanage, which was on the outskirts of trivandrum, we did that thing where we walk in hoping they don't mind surprise visitors and praying they will share what they do. which they, of course, did. when we pulled up we were met by about 10 kids who had ran out of the orphanage. we talked to the director for a few minutes and then we were taken inside where we got to hang out with the kids a little bit until mother alice, the founder of the orphanage, returned. while we were sitting there we asked the kids if they liked to sing. they said yes and burst out in song singing "open the eyes of my heart Lord, won't you open the eyes of my heart. i want to see you, i want to see you. to see you high and lifted up. shining in the light of your glory. pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy holy. holy, holy, holy. i want to see you." oh. my. gosh. if that wasn't a gift from jesus i don't know what is. here are these children who were abandoned by their parents, taken in and loved so well by a stranger; children who are hungry daily and have the clothes on their back; precious children who are singing praises to their savior with such joy and freedom. it was a beautiful, blessed moment.
mother alice returned and sat with us telling us the story of the orphanage. this is a strong woman of christ. alice grew up as a homeless orphaned little girl. she got married and had two beautiful children of her own. one tragic night her husband was killed in a car wreck, leaving her staring poverty in the face. shortly after a friend who was imprisoned could no longer care for her child, so she gave him to alice to care for. alice then knew her calling was to love the orphaned children of india, which she has done so, so well. it is amazing how the Lord can work through even the most hopeless of situations of an individual to bring great joy to the masses.
after the children excitedly showed us around the orphanage we had to head back to the hotel in time to meet up with the group. but the getting back part wasn't so easy. i mentioned before that we were on the outskirts of trivandrum, right? we had made a deal with our tuk tuk drivers to come back, which they did not. so we were a little stranded with about 45 minutes to get back. so we started walking. we walked towards the directions the cars were coming from. at the time it seemed like a pretty good idea. so we kept walking. we saw a few tuk tuks but they were waiting on people...and we kept walking...
finally after about 30 minutes of walking in the indian sun without any water we were all dehydrated and exhausted. just when we thought we couldn't walk anymore the heavens opened up and an empty tuk tuk drove down the road. i think this tuk tuk driver was the only one in all of india who cared about exceeding the number of people he could fit in his tuk tuk. so now we had our second challenge- finding tuk tuk number two. after a few more minutes another tuk tuk drove down the road. hallelujah. we had a way back!
we got back with no time to spare and hopped on the buses to go to an ngo called braille without borders. it was seriously an amazing place. basically, people who are either blind or have visual impairments apply to come to this training center for 11 months in india. it's a social entrepreneurship training center, so each of the people who apply have a vision for how they want to better their country. i don't think i have ever been in a room that was so diverse. there were people from zimbabwe, palestine, germany, south america, maryland, india, and many other countries. we brought a few of our science exhibits just to break the ice, but spent two hours with them just talking. they were adults with a vision for their country and at this center they were being trained in ways that would help them make a difference. i really connected with a woman from zimbabwe who was visually impaired and who wanted to start an HIV/AIDS awareness center in her community. we laughed and talked for an hour and a half.
after spending some amazing time with the participants we took a tour of the beautiful campus. the goal of the campus is to be totally off the charts in 2 years. it was so carefully and intentionally designed and built that it was almost a totally sustainable place.
the next day, sunday, we woke up early and headed to varkala-our last destination. varkala was beautiful. it was tropical. it's on the arabian sea. it is the most relaxing place i think i have ever been to. the next two days we relaxed, swam in the ocean, shopped at the market that lined the cliff, ate some great food, got henna, and did yoga. it was the perfect way to end my time in india.
there was nothing fun about leaving india. there was also nothing fun about traveling home. just because it wasn't fun, doesn't mean it wasn't funny.
we woke up at 6 am to go to the airport in trivandrum. from there we took a 4 1/2 hour flight to dubai.
here i have to quickly mention the tour of dubai we took that day. dubai is a crazy place. if you don't know much about it google it because it has indoor mountains, the tallest building in the world, the biggest mall in the world, manmade islands shaped like palm trees- it was basically the rich man's playground. don't get me wrong, aspects of how the government is run and the society made me mad. especially coming from a country like india where i saw extreme poverty. but it was a cool experience and a nice break in travel.
we were supposed to leave dubai at 2 am. well, we waited on the runway for about an hour and a half waiting for some passengers. from there we started our 14 1/2 hour flight back to nyc. 4 sporadic hours of sleep, 4 movies, and a couple of plane meals (yum, yum) later my body felt like it had been hit by a bus and i started getting sick with about 5 hours to go. to add to the humor of the whole thing, we were rerouted to toronto because jfk was closed because of snow. an hour and a half on the runway and 2 extra hours of flying later we finally landed in jfk. we spent 20 hours on one plane. 20. now normally this wouldn't have bothered me. but because i was sick and the only position that didn't hurt my body was curled up in a ball on the floor, i wasn't okay with the 20 hour thing. as soon as we landed in jfk i had about 20 minutes to make it to my next flight. despite the fact me and the other girls on my flight sprinted down the airport like maniacs, we missed our flight. so now i was stranded in nyc with all flights to raleigh totally packed. after eating some lunch and trying to figure out a way to get home, my dad called me with the fabulous news that he got me a seat on a plane that was going to leave jfk at 5:50. so i decided to leave the friends i was with and to hop on the airtrain to get to my terminal because i had about 2 hours before my flight was going to leave. well when i got to the airtrain it was shut down because of police activity. of course. after waiting there for a while i checked my bags and settled down for a little bit. and the cherry on top was that my flight was delayed until 9:45. i thought i was NEVER going to get home.
52 hours of travel, 4 countries, and 4 hours of sleep later i finally landed in raleigh.
so you may ask, why did it take you so long to post this? here comes the next fun part.
on my way home i somehow contracted a bacterial infection. the four days i spent at home were spent in my bed and at urgent care. i won't go into the details, because quite honestly it makes me sick just to think about, but let's just say i hate indian bacteria. and so do my insides.
now i am at elon. finally feeling better, but definitely not back to normal. it's hard when people ask me about india because i really have no idea to describe it. it is a place that has essentially zero similarities to american culture, yet i felt at home.
thank you to everyone who prayed for me throughout this journey. and as for my blog, i plan to still keep it up with what is going on in my life, so continue to check it if you want. as for pictures go i have over 2,000 but my next task is going to be going through them and posting some to the blog :)
i'm sure you were all extremely worried about how our second day at the crazy school went. after speaking to the teachers about behavior of the students and crowd control, day two was 100 times better than day one. i am really glad we didn't end our experience in the school on a negative note, and i actually shed tears of joy at multiple points during the day because i was so thankful for an amazing last day. (i would like to note that we only had groups of girls come through day two. just saying..)
during my first rotation of girls i was sitting there looking at their name tags and noticed it had an "address" part on it. a few of the girls standing around the table had "st. joseph's orphanage" listed as their address. tears immediately filled my eyes (surprised?). there's an awesome song i had been listening to throughout the trip that says "give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so i can see, everything that i've been missing, give me your love for humanity." in that moment jesus gave me his eyes for a second. he revealed to me that i was letting myself get in the way of what he wanted to show me, how he wanted me to love.
the next day we had some independent study time in the morning. this may have been my favorite day of my whole time in india (big statement, i know!). me and five other friends decided we wanted to go see an orphanage that morning. we piled into two tuk tuks and per usual we got separated and lost. once we finally found the orphanage, which was on the outskirts of trivandrum, we did that thing where we walk in hoping they don't mind surprise visitors and praying they will share what they do. which they, of course, did. when we pulled up we were met by about 10 kids who had ran out of the orphanage. we talked to the director for a few minutes and then we were taken inside where we got to hang out with the kids a little bit until mother alice, the founder of the orphanage, returned. while we were sitting there we asked the kids if they liked to sing. they said yes and burst out in song singing "open the eyes of my heart Lord, won't you open the eyes of my heart. i want to see you, i want to see you. to see you high and lifted up. shining in the light of your glory. pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy holy. holy, holy, holy. i want to see you." oh. my. gosh. if that wasn't a gift from jesus i don't know what is. here are these children who were abandoned by their parents, taken in and loved so well by a stranger; children who are hungry daily and have the clothes on their back; precious children who are singing praises to their savior with such joy and freedom. it was a beautiful, blessed moment.
mother alice returned and sat with us telling us the story of the orphanage. this is a strong woman of christ. alice grew up as a homeless orphaned little girl. she got married and had two beautiful children of her own. one tragic night her husband was killed in a car wreck, leaving her staring poverty in the face. shortly after a friend who was imprisoned could no longer care for her child, so she gave him to alice to care for. alice then knew her calling was to love the orphaned children of india, which she has done so, so well. it is amazing how the Lord can work through even the most hopeless of situations of an individual to bring great joy to the masses.
after the children excitedly showed us around the orphanage we had to head back to the hotel in time to meet up with the group. but the getting back part wasn't so easy. i mentioned before that we were on the outskirts of trivandrum, right? we had made a deal with our tuk tuk drivers to come back, which they did not. so we were a little stranded with about 45 minutes to get back. so we started walking. we walked towards the directions the cars were coming from. at the time it seemed like a pretty good idea. so we kept walking. we saw a few tuk tuks but they were waiting on people...and we kept walking...
finally after about 30 minutes of walking in the indian sun without any water we were all dehydrated and exhausted. just when we thought we couldn't walk anymore the heavens opened up and an empty tuk tuk drove down the road. i think this tuk tuk driver was the only one in all of india who cared about exceeding the number of people he could fit in his tuk tuk. so now we had our second challenge- finding tuk tuk number two. after a few more minutes another tuk tuk drove down the road. hallelujah. we had a way back!
we got back with no time to spare and hopped on the buses to go to an ngo called braille without borders. it was seriously an amazing place. basically, people who are either blind or have visual impairments apply to come to this training center for 11 months in india. it's a social entrepreneurship training center, so each of the people who apply have a vision for how they want to better their country. i don't think i have ever been in a room that was so diverse. there were people from zimbabwe, palestine, germany, south america, maryland, india, and many other countries. we brought a few of our science exhibits just to break the ice, but spent two hours with them just talking. they were adults with a vision for their country and at this center they were being trained in ways that would help them make a difference. i really connected with a woman from zimbabwe who was visually impaired and who wanted to start an HIV/AIDS awareness center in her community. we laughed and talked for an hour and a half.
after spending some amazing time with the participants we took a tour of the beautiful campus. the goal of the campus is to be totally off the charts in 2 years. it was so carefully and intentionally designed and built that it was almost a totally sustainable place.
the next day, sunday, we woke up early and headed to varkala-our last destination. varkala was beautiful. it was tropical. it's on the arabian sea. it is the most relaxing place i think i have ever been to. the next two days we relaxed, swam in the ocean, shopped at the market that lined the cliff, ate some great food, got henna, and did yoga. it was the perfect way to end my time in india.
there was nothing fun about leaving india. there was also nothing fun about traveling home. just because it wasn't fun, doesn't mean it wasn't funny.
we woke up at 6 am to go to the airport in trivandrum. from there we took a 4 1/2 hour flight to dubai.
here i have to quickly mention the tour of dubai we took that day. dubai is a crazy place. if you don't know much about it google it because it has indoor mountains, the tallest building in the world, the biggest mall in the world, manmade islands shaped like palm trees- it was basically the rich man's playground. don't get me wrong, aspects of how the government is run and the society made me mad. especially coming from a country like india where i saw extreme poverty. but it was a cool experience and a nice break in travel.
we were supposed to leave dubai at 2 am. well, we waited on the runway for about an hour and a half waiting for some passengers. from there we started our 14 1/2 hour flight back to nyc. 4 sporadic hours of sleep, 4 movies, and a couple of plane meals (yum, yum) later my body felt like it had been hit by a bus and i started getting sick with about 5 hours to go. to add to the humor of the whole thing, we were rerouted to toronto because jfk was closed because of snow. an hour and a half on the runway and 2 extra hours of flying later we finally landed in jfk. we spent 20 hours on one plane. 20. now normally this wouldn't have bothered me. but because i was sick and the only position that didn't hurt my body was curled up in a ball on the floor, i wasn't okay with the 20 hour thing. as soon as we landed in jfk i had about 20 minutes to make it to my next flight. despite the fact me and the other girls on my flight sprinted down the airport like maniacs, we missed our flight. so now i was stranded in nyc with all flights to raleigh totally packed. after eating some lunch and trying to figure out a way to get home, my dad called me with the fabulous news that he got me a seat on a plane that was going to leave jfk at 5:50. so i decided to leave the friends i was with and to hop on the airtrain to get to my terminal because i had about 2 hours before my flight was going to leave. well when i got to the airtrain it was shut down because of police activity. of course. after waiting there for a while i checked my bags and settled down for a little bit. and the cherry on top was that my flight was delayed until 9:45. i thought i was NEVER going to get home.
52 hours of travel, 4 countries, and 4 hours of sleep later i finally landed in raleigh.
so you may ask, why did it take you so long to post this? here comes the next fun part.
on my way home i somehow contracted a bacterial infection. the four days i spent at home were spent in my bed and at urgent care. i won't go into the details, because quite honestly it makes me sick just to think about, but let's just say i hate indian bacteria. and so do my insides.
now i am at elon. finally feeling better, but definitely not back to normal. it's hard when people ask me about india because i really have no idea to describe it. it is a place that has essentially zero similarities to american culture, yet i felt at home.
thank you to everyone who prayed for me throughout this journey. and as for my blog, i plan to still keep it up with what is going on in my life, so continue to check it if you want. as for pictures go i have over 2,000 but my next task is going to be going through them and posting some to the blog :)
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