July 31

I wear my hair in two braids on either side of my head while I'm here and so the girls have taken to call me Pippi Longstocking. Sometimes they look at me and then turn to each other and chatter in Tamil and the only words I'll catch is "Pippi Longstocking" and it makes me laugh.

Today I had a good time doing the medical rotation. I did the blood pressure and the blood sugar. It was kind of hard because the patients would tell me something and I couldn't understand and I was worried the whole time that I would so something wrong, but it all worked out in the end and I didn't kill anyone so that's always a bonus.

During playtime today I was talking with Meriam and the dogs that live in the compound got in a fight and ran about a foot away from me. They came out of the middle of nowhere and came running and growling right by us and gave both of us panic attacks. It was terrifying!!

EAW

July 30

Two days in a row! Today we went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun, especially since I haven't been to a zoo in a long time, but it was also a little uncomfortable. I saw two other white people in the park and the group and I felt like another attraction. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stared at us as we passed and several took pictures. Here are just three pictures of people taking pictures of us.

For me, it started out being uncomfortable, but by the end, it was just kind of funny and we started posing for them.

Yesterday during playtime with the school kids, one of the sweetest girls, Meriam,  wanted me to come to the movie that night. (Sometimes they have movies for the kids in the dining hall.) I was walking with Meriam and Suda and I told Meriam that it sounded fun and I would try to go. Suda started laughing and so I asked her what was so funny and she told me that the movie was in Tamil, which is the language spoken in the area I'm currently in. I didn't end up going to the movie because I was really tired, but some of the other volunteers went and they came back having not understood a spoken or written word of the movie. It is very strange to be in a place where I can't understand anything anyone is saying. It is kind of unnerving. 

After we went to construction yesterday, we stopped in The Junction, which is a small town about a 5-8 minute bus ride away from the Rising Star Campus. I was going into one of the stores to get ice cream and so I was crossing the "parking lot". (Which isn't really a parking lot. It's the sidewalk.) As I was crossing the sidewalk a motorcycle roared around the corner, head right for me. I jumped out of the way, but they also swerved... the same way I jumped.... The guy who was driving jerked the handlebars the opposite way and so they missed hitting me by about three inches. It was four young men on the motorcycle and as they passed they all yelled apologies as I did the same back to them. I ended up skipping ice cream but they stopped to buy some. So as we pulled out to continue to the campus, I saw the four of them and they saw me so they all started grinning and waving at me and I waved back. One of the other volunteers looked at me and asked who they were. I replied with "Oh, they just almost ran me over with their motorcycle."

The driving in India is terrifying. They have the lane lines drawn on the road, but they never use them. Like, ever. They don't really use there turn signals, instead, they honk their horn to let people know they're coming. It is so loud and annoying. Although, it's better than people getting in accidents all the time. They're all excellent drivers (they have to be) but just sitting in the back of a car driving through a city gives me anxiety. 

July 29

I wish that I could say the WiFi has been out and that's why I haven't been updating, but alas, I do not lie. I haven't updated because I didn't want to. Sorry.

Anyways... This past week has been so amazing! There are no words to describe it. (Hence no posts.) Some days we go to construction where we build latrines. It's exhausting, but it's very rewarding work :) Other days we go to the leprosy colonies and clean the leprosy patients sores. It's kind of hard sometimes, because the ulcers get infected and kind of scary... My favorite though, is the education rotation. We go to the school which is on the Rising Star Campus and help the kids during the day with their school work. It is so much fun and the kids are so adorable!! I'm planning on taking a few home with me because they are the most perfect humans ever!

EAW

July 18-20

I'm in India. My father and I left our house at 7:30 am on July 18. At the airport we met the three girls that we would be traveling with. There was supposed to be a fourth but the visas got delayed and so she didn't get her's in time. (We barely got ours. They came at 10 pm the night before we left.) We got on a commercial jet and flew to LAX. From there it was a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong. 

For me it is disconcerting to look around and not know what people are saying at all. In Europe I can either understand the majority, or pick up a few words here and there, but in Asia, it is a completely different language family, and I don't know what anyone is saying.

From Hong Kong we took a 5 hour flight to Chennai, India. There was one other Caucasian woman on the plane besides us. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or to feel incredibly awkward. In the end I did both. 

We arrived at 2 in the morning and the hotel picked us up at the airport. Everyone is extremely nice, but half the time I have no idea what they're saying because their accents are so strong. One person even asked one of the girls if she speaks English because she couldn't understand what he was saying :D

On the afternoon of the 20 we rented a car service and drove through Chennai. It is kind of overwhelming. There are people everywhere, no one uses the lanes on the road, no one uses turn signals, and they manage to fit more people on a motorcycle than there should ever be.

All in all though, everyone is very nice, and while the whole thing is overwhelming, I'm excited to get to Rising Star!

-EAW