All in a days work

The first thing I do when I wake up is take a shower. It is very hot and even more humid here in India so I'm always really dirty and hot. In order to conserve water we take showers by filling a large bucket with water then using a smaller bucket to dump the water on ourselves. After I do that I go to a room called the chudidar closet and pick out a chudidar. A chudidar is just decorated tunic that we get to wear while we are here in India. Then I eat breakfast. I can choose to eat an Indian breakfast in the dining hall or eat some toast and fruit in the volunteer kitchen. After breakfast the day goes crazy. I do different things depending on the day. If it is an education day I will go to the library and do on on one time. One on one time is where you have one child and you can read with them, draw with them, play games with them or just talk to them. It is to help them emotionally and to help them to practice their English.  

                                             Here is a picture I took during one on one time.

If it is a medical day we will leave at 9 am and drive to a leprosy colony. All the colonies are about 45 minutes away. When we go to the colonies we are in charge of taking the patients blood pressure, taking their blood sugar, giving them eye drops, removing their bandages, washing their ulcers and oiling their legs. The professional nurses will remove dead skin and re bandage the ulcers. When we went yesterday I oiled their legs and feet. None of the patients have active leprosy but the nerve damage remains. Since they have so much nerve damage if something happens for example if they step on a nail they cannot feel it so they don't feel the need to stop it, so it will get infected and cause serious ulcers. It was such an amazing experience to be able to help the patients in the colonies.

                                                   I'll have more pictures of this trip later.

After we tutor or go to the colony we will eat lunch with the kids. Lunch is always rice with some sort of vegetable and we eat it with our hands (the God given spoon). Then we have play time!!!!!!!!!! This is when we get to go out and play with the kids!!! It is so fun! I'll have to get some pictures because they are so cute and soooo hilarious!!!! After that is prayer time. Prayer time is like a family home evening that the volunteers teach. The kids are split up into ten groups (five boys and five girls) and we each teach one group. The kids are so anxious to learn and to play. They are so happy to talk to you and to hear from you!!!! It's awesome! After prayer time we eat dinner in the volunteer kitchen and we play some games then we go to bed. 

That's a typical day but every day is different ad we'll do more then that and I might start teaching a class so expect more and different posts!!! 

Off to India!!!

I left at three o'clock AM Friday morning to catch my plane to India. I said good bye to my dad and went to find my gate. The Salt Lake airport was very easy to navigate and I found my way it very easily! I boarded my plane and flew to Texas. The Texas Fortworth airport is very big and when I got there I had to switch terminals. I walked for quite a while following signs and then I rode a shuttle the rest of the way until I finally got to my gate. Dale was very worried about me switching terminals so when I got to my gate in fifteen minutes I was feeling very proud. Since I got there so quickly I had to sit there feeling proud and waiting for two hours. Then came the fifteen hour flight. Luckily I had switched airlines and the plane for that flight was much better than the one from SLC to TX. It had reclining seats, movies,video games drinks and food. Unfortunately the food was atrocious! Besides that the flight went very well (and they had delicious mango juice)!!! After the fifteen hour flight I landed in Dubai, not Mumbai, Dubai. That airport was kinda scary for me. I don't know if it was because there were signs in different languages or because I was the only white person  as far as the eye could see, it just felt a little scary. When I got to my gate an authority questioned me about my age for the first time but he let me through when I told him I was meeting friends in India. After that I arrived in India!!! Throughout the whole trip I was feeling more and more white until finally in the Chennai airport I was the only person who was no Indian in line for immigration. Once I got through baggage claim and everything I walked outside and could see Dale waving at me. I started to walk towards him when man came up and grabbed my bag!!! I was so scared!!! People had warned me about aggressive taxi driver so I just started yelling "NO" and holding on to my bag as tight as possible but he wouldn't let go!!!!! Then, finally he reached under his arm and pulled out a sign that said "Welcome to India Aerin Burns". Then Lily and Dale came running up. Turns out he was the Rising Star driver. From there we drove back to Rising Star!!! India traffic is insane and far different than American traffic. It's like Frogger but with real trucks! People are honking and swerving and cutting and crashing, there's people and cows all over the streets and it's just chaos. To make matters more interesting people are always staring at me. Everything is different in India but thanks to my handy dandy India conscience, Mandy Harmon I was prepared for everything. The children here at the school are adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!They are so sweet!!! They will always correct you if you are wearing your chudidar incorrectly or you don't have enough jewelry on or you are too white (which I get a lot). It's been so amazing here so far!!! I will post pictures later!