Sweat in the foundation

As you have probably noticed I am a day behind on my blog posts. I was doing so good at the beginning of the trip making sure to blog every night…but a few nights ago I was so exhausted I went to bed at 8:45!!! I haven’t been asleep at 8:45 since I was in elementary school! Because of this, I am now a day behind on my blog posts. However, I am getting back on track. I currently find myself sitting on an airplane headed to Delhi for our weekend excursion to see northern India, the Taj Mahal, etc. This trip has provided me with two extra hours of uninterrupted time to blog as I please. Obviously, because I am in the air, I am typing this to a word document and will copy and paste it to my blog later but either way it is helping me get caught up.

So, let’s recap June 3, 2010 at Rising Star. Today it was my group’s turn to work on the construction project at the colonies. Rising Star is helping one colony that they have been working with for a long time to build a community center in their village so they all have a place to congregate and meet. RSO is also helping this colony to build bathrooms. Normally, the people in the colony go into the surrounding forest area to use the bathroom but this land has recently starting being sold for people to build on. Because this land is no longer available the colony members no longer have a place to use the bathroom. RSO has decided to step in and help build the colonies bathrooms. So the community center and the bathrooms are the two construction projects for the summer. Today we worked on the foundation of the community center. I can’t remember ever doing manual labor this intense in my whole life. The construction team had been waiting for these big trucks of dirt all week and they finally arrived on Thursday. Once they dumped the dirt, our jobs was to move the dirt from the pile into the walled in foundation area where the community center will be. We spent two hours in the Indian heat shoveling dirt into these big steel bowls and then carrying the bowls and dumping them into the foundation. We found that the best way to do this is through an assembly line. Amy ( the executive director of RSO in India), Soren, Anne Marie, Cole (the Hendershot’s 11 year old son), and I would all switch off between shoveling, carrying, and dumping. It was definitely hard, dirty work. All of us were covered in dirt and mud after thirty minutes. One of the funniest parts about this, though, was that right when we thought we were making a dent in the dirt pile, another truck would drive up and add another huge load of dirt. We just couldn’t catch a break! We worked hard for a solid 2.5 hours on the dirt pile along side the Indian construction workers. By the end of that time, all of us had dumped water over our heads at least once and even then we were all still covered in dirt (which quickly became mud when mixed with all of the sweat and water).


Amy tried to stop the dump truck from bringing more dirt


Soren and I trying to convey how dirty we were--this doesn't even do it justice


Working side by side with the local construction workers


We were workin it!

There are a few things that I will take away from this experience with the dirt pile. 1. I understand now why Indians all carry thing on their heads. There is no way they would be able to haul all that dirt just using your arms—mine were dead after two hours! One of the women working at the sight gave us her towel (they all wear towels on their heads to cushion the weight) and let us each have a turn carrying a bowl of dirt on our head. It was seriously SO MUCH EASIER! It made the whole process a lot simpler and not as strenuous. 2. I re-realized today how good it feels to do hard work. I felt as though I had really accomplished something when I got back to the hostel. My sore hands are a reminder that I used my body yesterday to help accomplish something of worth. 3. As I was shoveling dirt I made the comment that our sweat would literally be in the foundation of this building (Yes, it was so hot outside we were all dripping sweat). I didn’t realize it at the time but this is actually a really cool concept. Amy brought it up again at dinner and pointed out the poetic nature of our sweat and work being a part of this foundation for the community center. Without the volunteers the work still would have gotten done but we definitely left our mark and that is symbolized through our sweat in the foundation. I hope that metaphor comes off as meaningful and not just gross.

When we got back from construction I took the most amazing bucket shower of my life and then took a nap until it was time to go play with the children. Playing with the children is definitely one of my favorite things at Rising Star. Like I have said before, the kids at Rising Star have the most special, unique, wonderful spirits of any kids I have ever worked with. I spent the after noon playing jump rope, dancing, and cuddling with the kids until it was time to go to dinner.

After dinner, I went down to help tuck in all the kids in my family. The older girls were all practicing their multiplications tables for homework and the younger ones were playing having fun. Again, I danced with the girls, read stories, helped with their homework and just enjoyed being around them and loving them. I have discovered on this trip that there is nothing better than watching a kid fall asleep. One of my favorite little girls, Mahalakshmi, was crying because someone was in her sleeping spot and she wouldn’t move. Please note that Mahalakshmi is 5 or 6 so when someone takes her sleeping spot it’s a big deal. She was laying on her side crying o I came over and started rubbing her back trying to calm her down. As I rubbed her back she stopped crying and slowly started drifting to sleep. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Then later in the night, Nithya and Abirami were laying down and not going to sleep (they were supposed to have been asleep 30 minutes before). I sat next to them while they laid on the mats. First I sang the lullaby “Roll Over and make room” with each of their names and mine. Nithya had started drifting off during the song but was still awake at the end. Then they asked me to tell them a story. As I was recounting my own version of Aladdin, Nithya’s eyes slowly closed and she drifted off to sleep. Abirami was still barely awake at the end. When I told her at the end of the story that it was time to go to sleep she looked up at me and said ok before snuggling next to all the girls on the floor and falling asleep. There is so much love at RSO it is unbelievable. All of the volunteers and children give all the love they can to one another and it makes the whole campus filled with life. Hopefully I will help to leave my own mark at RSO and the lives of the kids here--I guess I want to be a drop of sweat in the foundation of their lives :)

Well, I guess I’m not succeeding with making my blog posts any shorter. Oh well.

Namaste!

P.s. I just wanted to note that Sundharalakshmi (see last post) was smiling again today and ran up to me with the her hands in the love sign and did not leave until I did it too and hooked our fingers….she probably did this about a dozen times☺