The Gingerbread Man - 01/08/2013

One of the crafts we gave to the kids

GABBY - This morning began painfully early again with chapel promptly starting at 6:45.  Bob gave the message today, which was succinct, direct, and enjoyable  We sang songs and listened to some Bible verses read in Tamil by some of the older, more confident girls.  After chapel we headed to breakfast, which was delicious even though it was sort of dumbed down Indian food.  We think that some people complained about wanting more Western food so we didn’t have many authentic Indian dishes.  Today at school, Ben and I were asked to participate in a play.  Dawn, one of the leading ladies in our group was reading The Gingerbread Man and had some masks.  We were just acting out whatever she would read in the story.  I took on the part of the fox, while Ben fulfilled his childhood dream of acting and played the lead: The Gingerbread Man himself!  We had a lot of fun with it and the kids seemed to enjoy our silly antics.  After the Gingerbread Man was safely tucked away inside the Fox’s tummy, we headed up the stairs to visit some classrooms.  We watched the kids complete some crafts that Dawn had brought from home.  Dawn is quickly becoming one of my favorite people here.  She is a minister’s wife and has been an anesthetic nurse in Camden, NJ for over 30 years.  She had a very direct, blunt way of putting things, which I thought was hilarious.  She was completely open about her dislike for children, despite having 2 of her own and coming to Carmel for over 20 years.  Cracks me up.  Anyway, we did crafts with the kids and sang songs like “Deep and Wide” and “Pharoah, Pharoah”. I  played volleyball again with some of the boys at the school and Bobby.  Bobby is a junior in college and is a pleasant, intelligent guy to be around.  He is Bob Davis’s grandson.  The Davis’s have 7 people from their family on the trip with us.  It’s sort of like a family reunion for them.  Ben and I opted out of the bus and decided to walk back to the hostel again.  We had lunch and had about an hour to relax, read, and/or write before heading back to Carmel for an academic education presentation.  We walked up to the giant corner room and found rows and rows of tables set up with books, posters, diagrams, art projects, and dioramas.  The kids were behind the tables showing their report cards and explaining all of the subjects and content that they were learning in each standard.  I barely made it through half of the room before it was time for us to go again.  I had met a couple girls who had taken a particular liking to me.  Shalini, Roshini (Rose), Monica, Donnalakshmi, Sneyha and Jennifer were the girls who I spent the most time with and got to know the best.  I made sure to go over and see their marks and class work.  

Older girls performing a traditional Indian dance

After the academic presentation we headed back to the hostel for a competitive game of soccer (football).  Trish, a 24 year old American girl had challenged our cook, Samuel to a soccer match.  Both Ben and I chose to be on Sam’s team.  We rocked our Lesotho soccer socks and enjoyed a sweaty game of soccer.  The best moment of the game was scoring off of Ben’s perfectly assisted cross.  It was a great moment that we reveled in for probably a little too long.  After the game we took a bucket shower and cleaned ourselves up for a nighttime cultural program.  I decided to not sit in the chairs where all of the other Americans were sitting and took a seat next to my girls on the ground.  Rose and Shalini are probably my 2 favorite girls that I have met, so I sat next to them, while they leaned on me, held my hands and checked out my rings and earrings.  We watched as different groups of kids went up and performed traditional Indian dances.  There were also a couple dances to more upbeat music.  We enjoyed one of the songs Pray for India and the dance because the girls were holding candles with fire while they were dancing in complete darkness.  Another highlight was a bit of a Justin Bieber-esque dance starring Prem, a 14 year old Indian boy who is good at pretty much everything.  He always plays Jesus in any of the dramas of the Bibilical stories.  He was also one of the best soccer players on Trish’s team.  Now we found out he’s got a real talent for dancing.  Ben and I discussed how he’s going to be a Bollywood star in the next 10 years.  After the program we hugged many kids goodnight, ate a quick dinner and went to bed after another fulfilling day.  While we were lying in bed, Ben and I discussed the possibility of potentially sponsoring a child from Carmel.  We decided that we would get some more information from Bob and the other sponsors tomorrow and see if it would be something we could manage.