Becoming Aka

Every Thursday we are sent out across Coimbatore to do a service placement. I was assigned to work at Cottolengo which is a home for mentally and physically handicapped people. It started out very difficult because I was so overwhelmed by the suffering and hardships of the people there and I didn’t know how to interact with them. Basically the center has 50 people ages 3-53 who they take care of with various handicaps- cerebral palsy, terrets, autism, deafness, ADHD, memory loss, etc. It was hard because I was never really told what to do and I don’t speak the language. Several of them are completely spaced out just moaning and rolling their heads while their eyes refuse to focus on anything. It’s hard to see the suffering.

                However, I’ve had many good times and have been blessed through the people. First of all, my student guides are amazing. Buni and Amil are students from the college that take me to the site. I cannot say how thankful I am for them because they have helped me so much with taking the bus and finding our way through the slum. We have a morning ritual of stopping to get mango juice along the way which they are kind enough to pay for. Then one time, they took me out to a hole in the wall to eat byiriani. I said a prayer of protection over my food served on a banana leaf in a sketchy dirty restaurant and was amazed to eat the best byiriani I’ve ever had. It’s just so nice to talk to these guys and to see life through their eyes. Because of the culture, it’s very hard to get to know guys here, and so I appreciate these friendships even more. We talk about America, India, phones, music, our life goals, girls and guys, families, and even our weight (this is traditionally acceptable here but I definitely have never had a conversation about my weight with a guy before!).  I can see that they truly care about me, and I in turn, care about them.

                I would describe working at Cottolengo as eating an icecream sundae with different layers of peanuts, brownies, and chocolate syrup. I don’t like peanuts and that represents all of the hard things that I see there. It’s hard to know how to best help kids who are crippled or mentally handicapped. I don't like seeing the kids be beaten by the workers or left alone for hours just sitting drooling in a chair.

However, there are moments when I find myself eating chocolate syrup or a brownie, like when I throw a little boy into the air and watch him smile and laugh. Or when I see a 16 year old boy change from being sullen and dethatched to laughing and connecting. When I first went to Cottolengo, Dinnesh who is mentally handicapped didn’t smile or make eye contact. Now, thanks to my putting duplos on my head and walking around the room doing funny poses, he laughs till he almost falls down and loves to put duplos on his head and then tip his head down so the duplo falls into my hand. He comes around looking for me with a smile tugging at his lips and a sparkle in his eye.

 Another of my favorites is John who is 14 and was born normal. A few years ago his mother died and he went into a state of shock when he saw her dead body. His father has left him and now he has memory loss. He remembers me when I come, but doesn’t remember things about me. However, he has the brightest smile, perfect hand-eye coordination, and awesome drumming skills. We spend an hour or so every time playing catch or soccer and teaching each other new tricks.  I’ve also tried to help teach him mathematics and the alphabet which is hard considering the language barrier. John just smiles and looks at me then tells us that he will forget this soon-and he does. It’s so hard because he knows he has memory loss but can’t fight it. I want him to be taken to a counselor so he can work through these issues and live a normal life outside of this handicapped home.

   I also love playing with the little kids. We dance and sing and march in circles and play silly games. We go out to the playground and I push kids on swings, play on the jungle gym with them, and take them down the slide. Although, it doesn’t go that smoothly. One girl’s body is twisted and so she needs help to walk and it takes her awhile to climb the ladder to the slide. But her joy is evident on her face as I help her slide down. Another little boy just lays in the dirt whenever someone isn’t with him. Others just wander around aimlessly. So there I am on the playground alone with 7-10 children with various deformities and handicaps –trying to keep one out of the dirt, another from falling, and still others from hitting each other with balls or branches. It’s hectic and stressful, but what gets me through is hearing them cry out, “Aka! Aka!” which means ‘older sister’. That’s what keeps me going.

                And so on Thursday when it was time for me to leave, I realized that I wasn’t ready. I had gotten to the bottom of my icecream sundae and I was sad and wanted more. I didn’t want to say goodbye to these children because I realized that they have become special to me and have found a place in my heart. I only hope that they will remember me- Aka- and know that I will dearly miss them!

Holi, Holi, Holi

India has the best festivals ever and Holi is especially FANTASTIC!!! It is mainly celebrated in the North but we decided we had to celebrate here too. What is Holi? It’s where you throw colored water and colored powder at each other. And it’s even more fun than it sounds!

            Before we started, my apartment got pumped up and go our game faces on!

This is my apartment- B 001! We ROCK!

                        

            Then we went up to the roof of our apartments and that’s when the party started!










 It was crazy fun to splash colored water on each other. We each had a little bag of colored powder – bright pink, blue, green, yellow, purple, etc. It was so much fun and we were completely covered in bright colors. After taking tons of pictures, we went to our director’s house to try to surprise him! He loved it, but for some reason-he didn’t want a hug!

            Unfortunately, since we left the colors on for so long…they didn’t come off easily. My eyebrows are still pink, my hair has streaks of color, my hands and feet are purple, and I have random streaks of color on my neck, back, and ears. But it was TOTALLY worth it!

                                                  Here's my apartment AFTER the fight

                                                     Here's my Top Model shot:
                      

God's Own Country

This week we went to the neighboring state of Kerala which is referred to as 'God's Own Country' because its so beautiful! We were not disappointed. In fact, this trip was wonderful and we called it our Spring Break trip.

We left Coimbatore at about 11pm on the train. My plan was to sleep through the night and wake up refreshed and ready to go. Funny how plans don't always work out. I spent alot more time counting cockroaches than I did sleeping. I was on a side berth which had no air flow. However, since there were dozens of cockroaches climbing all over the walls and bed, I was wrapped tightly in my sleep sheet for protection. Which also meant that I was sweating profusely all night long.

For the next four days we spent the mornings in class listening to various lectures on the Indian Economy etc. The afternoons were when the real fun started! We toured a couple of schools and churches one day.

 We also went to Amma's Ashram for the afternoon. This is a place where thousands of people come to meet Amma (mother) who is regarded as a goddess and worshipped as such. Her ministry is giving hugs to people and she literally sits in a chair for most of the day while people file in to get a hug from her. We were given a tour of the place and learned a little bit more about this woman Amma. My favorite part was when we were put to work. A guy told us that we were going to have a tour and then suddenly lined us up down the temple steps and pamplets started being passed down the line into a waiting truck. It actually turned into 45 minutes of fun as we 'worked out', joked around, and finally felt like were being useful. Who knows what kind of propaganda we were helping to distribute!

It was very strange being at the Ashram though and seeing all the westerners there. They weren't shocked to see us, but we were in culture shock at seeing so many white people. I tried to put myself in their shoes and wondered why so many middle/upper class Americans and Europeans (some just out of college) would travel halfway around the world to get a hug from a woman. I saw alot of very empty eyes. Even though Amma's whole ministery is love, we hardly saw more than 2 smiles from these people and they did not engage or interact with us at all.

On Friday we got to swim in the Arabian Sea, go boating on the Backwaters (B-dubs as Kirk calls them) and have a dance party! When we got to the beach it was pretty much deserted. We all charged into the water...with our clothes on. Since we are in India and modesty is very different, all the girls had to wear our salwars to go swimming. I was wearing a pair of huge puffy pants which were so tough to swim in. Its like trying to swim in a tent becasue it gets all tangled up around your legs and threatens to fall down!

We got tossed around by some pretty big waves and had an excellent time. When we turned to look back at the beach we noticed that a crowd of about 50 people had formed to watch the foreigners play in the water. We joked that we should charge for admission and then noticed that the cotton candy guy was capitalizing on the crowd!

After swimming we went out to the backwaters! It is actually called The Venice of the East because the waterways are the roads. We got on a boat and took a beautiful and relaxing cruise as the sun set. I also got to drive the boat for a bit.

On the way back from the boat ride, we had a serious dance party in the van! The van driver turned on some popular Indian tunes that can now recognize and sing along to and we had fun making up new dance moves- from 'smack the mosquito', to 'tie the dhoti', to 'pass the books'- we had a great time.

The ride back to Coimbatore was far less eventful thankfully with only 2 cockroach sightings!