India Comes to A Close

I apologize for the delay in posting.  I've either been busy, or not had access to internet these past couple days.  Right now I'm sitting in the Montreal, Canada airport waiting for my final flight back home.  These past couple days have been a blur.  As the realization set in that this experience was nearly over, and that I really would be leaving soon, I've tried to cherish every moment that I've had with the kids.  Friday night, instead of our "Highs and Lows" at dinner, we had "What you learned."  It was a great time to reflect on these past weeks and to really see how my life has changed.  I've seen a culture that doesn't care so much about looking good, but being happy.  I've experienced a complete outpouring of love and trust from both the kids at Rising Star, and the patients in the leper colonies to people like me, who they hardly know.  The kids know full well at the beginning of our time there, that we have to go after 3 weeks, but there is no holding back love.  I hope that that's something I can take into my life; the ability to love everyone, no matter what.  I've re-learned how wonderful it feels to serve others, and what a blessing it is to both sides.  I've been able to see through the perhaps scary and dirty exterior of India, and see the beautiful people and culture.  India has most definitely changed me.

After dinner, we had our last family time with the kids.  I'd promised to bring over paper with the idea that they were going to make paper airplanes, but they immediately started making notes for me.  They made me promise I'd say goodbye in the morning before I left as well.  When I came in the morning, they had even more notes with gifts that may seem small, but were very personal for them.  I was given a couple pencils, a pen, a pencil pouch, an old, slow watch, and one of the boys even gave me 5 rupees (about 10 cents).  You have to understand... these boys' belongings fit in a backpack, but still they didn't care.  It reminds me of the widows' mite.  They are willing to give all for the sake of showing their love.  Again, I feel that I can learn so much from them.

Some of my boys.  They are the cutest.  I have the hardest time saying no to them.

Off to ride bikes.  I forgot to mention that's what my family did for Friday's playtime.

Watching them ride bikes is great.  Some of their bikes they have don't even have pedals, but that doesn't stop them.  People in India are so good at improvising.  Also, they bike the same way that they drive.  It makes me smile.

Friday night, they also had a dance show for us.  At Rising Star, they have a dancing group called Life Dance, that not only teaches dancing, but also life skills.  It was started by a group called Promethean Spark, which sets up this dance group in all sorts of places.  They told us that they'd just recently started it at a drug rehab center.  Some of the kids are amazing dancers.  This is Vignesh, from my family.










My last day in Chennai was spent with 7 of the other volunteers, shopping and just spending time together.  I got to experience trying to order pizza over the phone in India, and a taxi to get to the airport.  It took forever, and could have been annoying, but mostly I thought it was hilarious.  I got to experience rickshaw rides again (and I apologize I didn't take a video of it, but I think everyone should experience it once in their life).  India is a wonderful place.  If I could do this all over again, I would.  The only things I would change would be to stay longer, and to give of myself even more.  This chapter of India is closed, but I hope that someday I can return.

And the Rain Came Down...

Today was just wonderful.  I hope I can remember all of the great things that happened today.  It started off with us heading to a colony.  Once we got there, instead of doing our washing/bandaging station, we helped hand out shoes that had been custom made to fit their feet, many of which are affected by leprosy.  Since all of us weren't required for that part, I spent most of the time sitting with, or talking to different leprosy patients.  That's probably what I enjoyed the most; being able to be around such strong spirited people.  I love being able to put a smile on their face, even if it's only for a moment.  After the large colony, we stopped at another which was really just a house with 3 patients in.  We washed, and re-bandaged their feet, and then gave them their new shoes as well.  Each of the patients was so grateful, and excited for their shoes.  If anything, shoes are even more important for the leprosy-affected.  They help protect their feet from injury, which is what causes the ulcers.

The cobbler fitting shoes to one of the leprosy patients.

I was on bandage removal today.  It was a pretty quick job with only three patients.

















The hour or so normally used for playtime was a water fight instead!  It was lots of fun, and even though the balloons only lasted about 2 minutes, there were plenty of buckets for dousing people with.  Family time was so much fun, even if my head was spinning.  I've sort of built up a reputation for being the one to spin kids around, and tonight I started spinning people airplane style (I held onto one arm and one leg).  The kids thought it was the next best thing.  I think I spun each kid about 4 times.  Even alternating directions each time only lasted so long.  Luckily, most of them had gotten distracted with drawing, and so that took up the rest of my time there.  Vishva, one of my boys, wrote me a wonderful note.  It said:

"I like Joel.  I love you.  On Saturday you leave.  I will sad."  I'm going to miss these guys.

But the night was not over.  As it has for the past week, the rain began.  Only this time, it was a lot more exciting.  Since I'd gotten pretty sweaty spinning kids every which way, I joined some of the other volunteers in the rain.  After getting soaked for the second time and making shadow puppets, I changed into PJ's.  But then the lightning started.  For the next hour and a half (or something like that), it was non-stop lightning and some amazing thunder.  There wasn't more than a 2 second interval between flashes.  Maybe we were all stupid for sitting under the balcony watching the show, but it was amazing.

While I'm sharing stuff from other people, I'd better add in something I forgot from our bus ride from Agra back to Delhi.  On this trip, I've made lots of new friends... Brianna and Stacey being on the top of that list.  They're pretty much the best.  Sometimes they would ask me random questions like, "What's your Mom's name?", or, "What's your middle name?"  Okay, so maybe they weren't too random.  Anyways, on the way back, Brianna stood up, and over the microphone read this (which they just wrote on the bus):

May 3rd, 1988 Joel Hills Marshall entered this world to the arms of Kari and Earl Marshall of Maryland.  Joel (affectionately known as Jo-el), has resided most of his life there, except for his mission in Portland, Oregon (where most of his companions did not have girlfriends), and his time at BYU where he is currently studying Mechanical Engineering.
Joel is the 2nd of 6.  All boys.  Joel is unsure of his favorite food and movie, but it has been confirmed that he enjoys running in his size 14 running shoes.  Joel enjoys telling stories, Indian food, and politely giving up his seat to girls and tour guides.
Joel has never been in a fight, except for some mild wrestling with his brothers.  And although he doesn't know how much he can benchpress, he still really loves the 'Lord of the Rings'.  He has had all 4 wisdom teeth removed, as well as 4 other permanent teeth.  Even though he's new to Skype, Joel mastered the software with astounding ease.
Joel also enjoys poking good-natured humor at those with unsightly facial hair.  As of recently, he does not intend on growing a beard himself.
Joel is a kind and funny person, and I think we can all agree we're better for knowing him.  Stories happen.  We love you Joel.  Thank you.

Brianna and Stacey

Here's me putting things out of order again.  This is the millipede I presented to one of our coordinators who hates them (most of the ones we've run into have not been this big).  She still talks to me, so I'll take that as a good sign.

A House for a Goat

Construction finally began again today, only this time it was on Rising Star campus.  To be honest it seemed a little silly, but I was happy to be working.  The goal of construction today was to build a more weather-resistant home for the goat that lives on campus for the rainy season.  They decided to repair an old garage type building made out of tubing and pleated tin sheets (about 10x10x10 ft).  So it was more like us building a mansion for this goat... I hope he's happy about it.  It would have been alright, but they had to clean off the scraps that had fallen from the mango tree that's growing above it.  This stirred up quite a bit of bugs, which was not okay with the girls (everyone but me).  Luckily after the first little bit, they seemed to have settled down, and we got a couple of tin panels tied up with metal wire.  Since work is limited on the construction end of things right now, we ended pretty early, but today was a scorcher, so I wasn't complaining.

Instead of playtime today, there was a birthday party for all the birthdays in August, where all the students came and sang to the birthday boys and girls, and ate cake.  It wasn't quite the same as American cake, but it was good.  At dinner each night, everyone gives a high and a low for the day.  I think I forgot to mention this in my earlier description of a typical day.  That's probably one of the highs of my days, is hearing the wonderful experiences that everyone is having.  Our typical meal consists of red rice, some sort of vegetable curry/sauce to put on top, and a vegetarian side.  If we're lucky there's some chicken, too.

At family time, I'm pretty sure I either swung, spun, or lifted every boy at least twice.  It wears me out, but it's so much fun to see their faces, and to feel like I'm a big brother for them... even if it's only temporary.

Medical and MMA

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a completely normal day in India.  Instead of our normal rotation, all of us went to medical today.  I guess the construction on campus wasn't ready until tomorrow, and so they just decided to have us all go together.  It was to a colony I hadn't been to before where another foundation has done a lot of construction and so they have some nicer houses (again according to leper colony standards).  I was in charge of taking their pulse and blood pressure with Chanelle.  It was really an easy thing, but it was great to see all the different people, and how happy they were.  The highlight of my day came when I was helping one patient, Joseph, through the different stations.  See, Joseph doesn't have feet, and he's mostly blind and deaf.  So Ray and I picked him up and set him in the very rudimentary wheelchair they had and rolled him from station to station.  But we were all surprised by his spirit.  The whole time he sang songs and prayed, and even though it was in Tamil, and I couldn't communicate with him verbally, I knew that he was singing from his heart.  Since he didn't have feet, his ulcers were on his hands.  He teared up when they were cutting the dead skin off from around the ulcer, and all I could do was put hand on his shoulder and hope that he knew I cared.

That's my hand on his shoulder.  Ashley's cleaning his ulcers, and Ray's the one holding up the water tray.  It was wonderful how understanding everyone was in adapting to each persons individual needs.  I love the Indian people, and I love my group of volunteers.

For family time this evening, the pillow fight was requested again.  Only this time more people were involved, and I was the primary target.  And of course, since there were only 3 or 4 pillows, fists were involved, too (not mine, I promise).  It was lots of fun.  After a while, our pillow fight turned into something akin to MMA (mixed martial arts), and 4 of the boys took their shirts off and were showing off their muscles and wrestling skills.  I have the best group of guys. Perhaps some pictures will illustrate tonight's events better.

Steven was in charge of all the pictures this evening.  He did a really good job.  I feel like this is a great action shot.

My primary weapon was not pillows, but tickling.  The kids are all so ticklish!  And of course you can see the pillow being swung at my face.

This one's my favorite.  This is after the fighting began, and they wanted a picture, and they told me to flex.  These are three of the muscular men in my family.









These next few are just awesome.

Yup, those are my boys.

Back on Campus

It was so great to be back on the RSO campus.  I felt like I'd returned home.  It was back to tutoring today, but that only lasted so long.  We tutored for three periods, then were told we were going to measure the kids' shoe sizes for shoes that are going to be donated.  It took longer than expected, and so that took up the rest of the school day.  When playtime came around, the downpour began.  So, since most all of the kids stayed inside during it, some of us volunteers started a game of soccer in the rain.  By the end of it I was soaked, and covered in sand, but it was so much fun.  The rain was so cold, which felt wonderful in the 90-something degree weather.  Family time today was the best it's been so far.  I had so much fun.  I don't know whose idea it was, but the older kids had organized a talent show for us.  It included everything from some very goofy dancing, to presenting artwork, to telling stories, and singing songs.  Can I mention again how much I love these kids?  Afterwards, what began as me lifting kids onto the top bunk, quickly turned into a pillow fight.  Of course it was me against 3 boys, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  My primary weapon wasn't pillows, it was tickling.  By the end of it, I was worn out.  Luckily, the rain had started again and the run back to my room was cool and refreshing.  There was some incredible lightning as well, and some thunder that got some screams out of the girls.  The night ended with a game of rummy with some of the other volunteers in which I lost again.  I feel like I could do this for months.  (Sorry, no pictures today.)

Bus Breakdown

Sunday turned out to be a little more exciting than we anticipated.  We left at around 9:30 back to Delhi for some more sight-seeing, but about 2 1/2 hours in our bus broke down.  Luckily, it was in the middle of a town/city that had mechanics that happened to have the right parts.  Apparently the gas line cracked, and so our gas had all leaked out.  It was the waiting for it to be fixed that was the exciting part.  A couple minutes after stopping, a lady started pounding on the side of the bus.  After a little while, we figured out that she was trying to get money.  Usually, they'll be persistent but not overbearing... but I'm pretty sure her policy was 'Annoy 'em til they pay you to go away'.  Then, some guys decided they were interested in some of the girls in our group, and sort of crowded around the bus.  It was a little bit of a scary situation, but there are some amazing people in our group, and we made the best of it.  We laughed off the people that stared, and traveled in groups when we needed to make bathroom stops, or get off the hot bus (since the A/C couldn't run).  See, in India, some people treat you like celebrities, and others just seem baffled.  It makes sense, though.  India is much less diverse, as far as skin color goes, than America is.  Also, if you think public restrooms in America are bad, think again.  Not only are they harder to find, but most are downright scary.

When the bus was fixed, after about 2 hours of work, we headed off again.  We just traveled another 15 minutes or so before we got to the elephant rides.  It was just a place on the side of the road that had a camel and an elephant for riding, as well as a monkey you could get your picture with.  It cost some money, and was sort of a short ride, but how often do you get to ride an elephant?

I don't remember his name, but the driver (I guess that's what I'll call him) said the elephant's a male, and is 25 years old.

My new friend.  He doesn't talk much.
















After our stop there, it was right on to the airport because of our delay earlier.  We had some KFC there, which was delicious and not extremely over-priced like airport food is elsewhere.  After our flight, and the drive home, we got back around midnight.  Another long but wonderful day.

The Taj Mahal!

Normally, groups get up early around 5:30 and watch the sunrise at the Taj Mahal, but due to the rain the night before they were expecting fog, so we didn't leave until around 9.  It's too bad we didn't get to see the sunrise, but at least we got some more sleep.  For this part of our trip, we had another tour guide... Ramesh.  He's given tours for everyone from the CEO of Intel to members of Congress.  When you first get your ticket, you have to either walk the last kilometer, or take a non-gasoline powered vehicle to preserve the Taj.  We took one of their electric buses in.  Not only that, but no phones, or video cameras are allowed past a certain point as well.  I'm going to try and walk through my visit to the Taj Mahal with a picture tour.

When you first walk in, you enter in the east gate of a large courtyard surrounded by the low red wall in this picture.  The gate shown is the north gate... the one that serves as the entryway to the Taj Mahal.  I guess I should say the wall is more like a bunch of rooms that once were for the craftsmen that worked on the Taj, since there were no hotels back then and none of the workers were Indian.

This is the entryway from the front.  It's hard to see on this small picture, but there's Hindi script around the large arch... the really cool thing is that it's all inlaid onyx.  None of it is painted, and the higher words are stretched so that from the ground everything looks even.  There are a total of 22 little domes on the top of the entryway, 11 of which you can see on this side, and 11 on the other side symbolizing the 22 years it took to build the Taj.  The entry is symmetric.

My first glimpse of the Taj.  It was amazing!

I thought for my next one, I ought to insert a token picture with me in it.  Apparently, from my smile, I haven't fully grasped that I'm at the Taj Mahal.

This one shows the symmetry a little better. It was built in the 17th century, but has amazing accuracy.  The line from the entryway to the front of the Taj is a straight line of fountains.

Oh hey, look!  I'm looking happier.  Some of you may be wondering what that ridiculously orange shirt I'm wearing is.  A kurta is a traditional shirt worn in India (mostly northern from what I've seen).  So this shirt is basically a kurta, only kurtas normally go down to your knees.  Time for another Taj fact.  The towers look perfectly straight, but they're actually tilted outwards at 93 degrees.  Apparently, this is not only to prevent them falling inwards in an earthquake, but also so they're more visible from different angles.

Each side of the Taj is actually exactly identical.  This is the east side, the side in most pictures is the south side.  It's all made of marble from 70 miles away (if I remember correctly), which they had to transport and carve without modern technology.

This is just under the main arch on the front of the Taj.  Not only are the flowers carved from single pieces of marbe, but the outside patterns are all inlaid stones.  The girls in the picture are some of the other volunteers here; Stacey's on the left, and Brianna's on the right.

This is from inside looking east at the guest house.  To provide symmetry, they built another one on the other side.  In the very center where the tombs are, of the emperor and his wife (his tomb was added post-construction, so it's the only non-symmetrical thing about it), pictures are not allowed, but this in a hallway that wraps around the center room.

So, after the Taj, we went to the Red Fort.  It served as the residence of the imperial family.  Think really big castle, only it's red, and in India.  The details inside of it were also pretty impressive, but it has been looted 5 times, and so many of the precious materials are now gone.












It rained on and off all day today, both at the Taj and the Red Fort, so we got soaked several times, but it was a blast.  We danced in the rain, and made the best of it.  And our day wasn't over yet.  We then went to a carpet company where they showed us how authentic Indian rugs are made, with individual knots.  A 6 by 8 foot rug takes 2 and a half months when two people are working on it full time.  It's really an amazing thing to watch.

The store had 2,000 workers all around villages that get paid by the square inch.  These knotters were in the room for presentation purposes mostly.  I'm still impressed by how quickly they move through each row.








We did some shopping as well, but the majority of our day was over.  We had Pizza Hut for dinner, because pizza is especially good when you have rice and vegetables every night.  That's not to say I don't like Indian food, though.  Sunday's events will be up soon.