Hard Work...

Well, I knew this was going to be hard work, but this is kind of insane.

We bought a guitar, and one of the girls, Rani, is picking it up SO fast. Holy cow, it's absolutely insane. I really love working with her because she's a natural. She can hear the difference between a minor and major chord and everything. 

The language barrier is really difficult. It's really hard for me to tell if the wall between me and the kids is because of the language, or because they don't want me here. Sometimes they bond with me really well and I feel an awesome connection with them. Those are the times when i'm asking them questions, and trying really hard to get to know them, and trying to accept the culture. However, sometimes they refuse to speak English, and when I ask them things they pretend to not understand even though i know they do.

Sara and I are having a very hard time. We're thinking about transferring to a different home. If they don't want me here I don't want to waste their time.

Moved into the Orphanage Yesterday

This orphanage basically provides a family for the girls. There is a woman that lives here with them (Madhu, or "big dede"), and they have a "mentor mother" that visits every day. They eat and sleep and play here, and go to school at the local public school.

These 10 girls are great. We moved in yesterday and by the end of the day Sara and I were already responding to "dede," which is what they call us. It's a respectful title, sort of like "big sister" or something. Basically my job here is to be an awesome, full-time big sister. I'm going to be honest, I'm nervous to get really close to these girls with only a month here. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed today.

Although I've only been here 24 hours, this experience is increasing my testimony of eternal families more than I had ever anticipated. Sara and I "tag team" everything, and I just keep thinking about how awesome it is, and how it would be even better if there was a guy here, too, to balance everything out - because I feel like that's something missing here, a father figure. They don't have a "mentor father" only a mentor mother. But maybe they don't need that because the culture is different, as many marriages are set up by the parents. Udayan Care sets up marriages for girls ready to get married, so I guess they take care of that aspect of their life?

We tried to find a guitar today, and went to two malls, and the rickshaw driver just about got lost. We had to come back empty handed. Pooja and Runi stayed home from school today, so I had to come back home without a guitar and I felt pretty stupid. I'm going to ask the mentor mother if there is a local specialty music shop so we don't have to wander around anymore. Honestly, I feel like a chicken running around with my head cut off. 

My Second Favorite Showering Experience

I made it to India, everybody!

The flights were really, really long. I wouldn't say I didn't like them, because thanks to sitting around at Documart, I've become really good at just wasting 8 hours of my life away doing nothing.. No offense Documart, it's just I spent a lot of time getting paid to read Hunger Games. Anyways. I was planning on reading over the information Scott from Cosmic Volunteers sent me about Delhi during my layover in Amsterdam. However, I forgot that their outlets are different there, and my laptop battery is completely dead. So I wandered around the airport for about an hour, and then waited for my by the gate to get on the plane. When I went through security I felt like a total idiot because they speak Dutch and I do not. On the second plane an Indian man next to me kept talking to me, and honestly creeped me out a little. Oh well. And the food on that plane was really weird.

When I got to the Delhi airport I was extremely confused. There were a ton of long lines and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be waiting in them.. But then I asked someone and found out I was. After getting through customs or whatever, it took me forever to find where my baggage was. I got confused again later when people were putting their baggage through what looked like security.. When I finally got out of the airport I found a guy holding a sign with my name on it. He introduced himself as Ham and told me he'd been waiting there for an hour.. heh.. woops. Guess I was a lot more confused than i thought I was.

It was pretty humid outside, and it almost reminded me of Hawaii a little. But it doesn't smell like "growing things" here, it just smells like stale air. The car ride to my homestay wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As crazy as Indian driving is, all the drivers are really aware of each other so it doesn't seem that dangerous. Ham told me some about the culture, and asked about the US. It was neat to compare cultures, especially family.

We got to my homestay at 1 am this morning, and I took my time getting ready for bed. Then I realized I didn't know how I was going to wake up in the morning because my ipod had no clue where I was or what time it really was, and my alarm clock didn't fit into the wall socket. Now I understand travel clocks.. I decided to set the alarm on my ipod for 8 hours later. The beds here are really hard, but it's actually kind of refreshing. It feels like you've laid 5 blankets on the floor and are sleeping on top of them. It was really warm last night, but I kind of liked it.

This morning, showering was amazing. The shower in the bathroom isn't closed off from the rest of the room, so it's like you have a huge shower with a giant mirror in it. It was so cool!! The room was warm and the water was cold. It was definitely my second favorite showering experience. (First was at girl's camp in the showers by the meadow. Those ones made you feel like you were bathing in the wilderness.)

I met the other girls living in the house this morning. All three of the other girls are from the UK. I didn't know that I'd be living with other girls in the house, and it made me feel SO much better. One of the girls, Sara, will be working at the orphanage with me. In 2 days we're going to move into the orphanage and live there for the remainder of our stay. I'm glad to have a buddy to pal around with.

After breakfast we met with our Delhi Coordinators who talked to us about the country and the culture. We went to the market and i bought a mobile phone. Then we went to meet with the orphanage coordinator. She was super intense, and very passionate about the program. She was trying to make sure we weren't just there to be on vacation, that we were actually going to be committed. I'm really excited to be part of it! I need to buy a guitar, though. I think I can do a lot of good with the kids if I have some type of musical instrument. They tried to move us to Jaipur, though. We were going to do it, but then decided we should just stay in Delhi. I feel better about just staying in Delhi.

Sara and I ate chinese food for lunch today, and it was really good. Not greasy like the Chinese food in the US. Then we got a ride on a rickshaw and went to Sarojini Market today. I bought two pairs of pants for $5 total. I didn't have a lot of cash, so that's all I got. But by this time in the day, we had been driving a lot and I started feeling overwhelmed. The 20 hours of travel was starting to affect me a bit, so Sara and I went back to East of Kailesh. I moved my bags into her room and took a shower. We're going out to dinner tonight, and to the Taj Mahal tomorrow. Whew. What a day.

I'm on my way!

I'm finally on my way to India! AH!! I'm really glad I had a few months to mentally prepare for this trip. I've never stayed a month in a foreign county before, so the whole idea was kind of hard to wrap my mind around, honestly.

Right now I'm sitting in the airport, eating my last American meal. What did I pick? A hamburger, considering I won't get one of THOSE for a while. Mmmm beef.

Last night I hosted a curry party to say goodbye to everyone. And hello to some people that I still hadn't met up with since I've been in Oregon (cough, Kenny, cough). It was a success! I'm glad Keara suggested having a curry party, because I definitely wouldn't have thought of it. The delicious food proved that Jewell is an amazing chef, although we all already knew that. I'm so glad everyone has been so supportive and believed in me. I've absolutely loved it the past few months when my friends would introduce as, "Oh, this is Nicole - she's going to India!"  I'd also like to throw out a special thank you to Jordan Clive, who actually found the program for me that I'll be going to India through. You're awesome!

The program I'm going to India through is called Cosmic Volunteers (http://cosmicvolunteers.org). They hooked me up with a program called Udayan Care (http://www.udayancare.org) where I'll be working in an orphanage teaching English. I'm so excited!