This was the most intense day on my trip thus far. It was beautifully devastating, challenging, and uplifting. There is so much going through my head right now. We started off the day with getting a complete tour of the grounds. The center is an addition to the hospital. It has several units including physical rehabilitation
When I first entered the center I was shocked. I had never seen disabilities in this state. Although this is a great facility for India, to my eyes it was devastating for the condition. The children were not kept clean nor were the facilities kept up.
We did a couple hours of work at the center. We completely cleaned up the place and painted the blackboards. I was wiping down the chairs and as I was in the middle of cleaning one I noticed that the bottom was completely covered in a brown dried mud like consistency. It started to smell and I was like oh shit….this is shit. Not cool. I was a little grossed out, as you can imagine. I didn’t want to go on but I realized that no kid wants to sit in someone else’s shit so I scrubbed it down. I felt like a champ especially because it was really hard to get off.
And moving on…one of the teachers mentioned to a couple of us that we could watch the older boys do their yoga class. Of course I jumped to the opportunity and actually joined in on the yoga. This was a class of teenagers/young adults with mental and physical disabilities. The yoga class was in the middle of their classroom, on the dirty floor. Without holding back, I lied on this very dirty floor in my white linen pants. They were not white anymore! This was a really cool experience; I got to join in and be on their level instead of observing.
For lunch we had the most wonderful home cooked Indian meal served on banana leafs. It was tradition Southern Indian style and delicious. We were not served any utensils so with some hand sanitizer we were prepare for a messy meal. I mixed the sauces and rice together and would then pick up a small handful and feed myself. I really enjoy eating with my hands it makes it more exciting and interesting. You can feel the texture with your hands and don’t have a piece of cold metal clanging at your teeth. The only thing I was uncomfortable with was the fact that a couple hours ago I was cleaning shit off of a seat. I just hoped that I would not get sick-and I didn’t! I didn’t get sick at all in India and I was pretty brave about trying everything. I ate a fair amount of meals in unsanitary conditions and with my hands.
After lunch we broke off into groups to play with kids. Three of us went into a classroom of about 7 children all with various physical and mental disabilities. Okay I am going to be completely honest here with my feelings. These are my raw reactions and thoughts. The first boy I encountered yanked on my arm and was really aggressive. I was immediately overwhelmed. Some of the kids scared me and it was really hard to communicate with them. There was one boy who I did not want to play with. He was drooling everywhere, had eye crust, and dried snot. He couldn’t talk and didn’t have full motion of his hands-I think he had cerebal paulsy im not too sure. The challenge with the kids I encountered was the condition of filth they were in. So my frightened reaction and deterrence from this boy triggered another reaction within myself of “Jenny, how could you think that?” and then I thought if I can’t manage to play with him who else will? I would say I always give out love and I just thought if I can’t love on this child whom can I expect to? These questions saddened me and I decided that I was going to love on this child so much and spend the rest of the time with him. It was challenging, I had to get over my own inhibitions. We sat together and did some coloring. Another girl kept coming over and would grab my face because she wanted my attention. I had to balance between the two children. The girl was trying to do something but I couldn’t understand. She would point to paper and scribble lines and then yell. She seemed crazy but she was just a child.
The best part of the day was when we all convened in one room to dance! We all gathered and let loose dancing, these kids loved to dance. I found one girl on the floor and was immediately shocked by the sight of her. She had very short hair, crooked and jarring teeth, and a crusted bloody eyebrow. Similar to my experience with the boy, I challenged my reaction and decided to dance with her. She was about 9 years old and could only crawl. As everyone was dancing around her, she was kind of missing out from the group experience. I sat down in front of her, grabbed her hands, and we swayed our hands together to the music. Immediately, this scary reflection turned into the most joyful face that made me smile. We just stared into each other’s eyes and laughed as we bopped to the music. She had rhythm, I could feel it through her hands. The amount of joy, smiles, and laughter that exchanged in this moment was unreal. I almost burst into tears. This might sound kind of cheesy because I cant describe it in words, but it was so special. I have never experienced something like this.
We said goodbye to the kids but not to all of them, some of them came back to the ship with us! Seriously, we got to give them a tour of the ship and spoil them with cookies and ice cream. It was soooo much fun to see these kid’s eyes open wide with amazement. These kids were all hearing impaired and actually the easiest to communicate out of the group. I will have to upload a video of two kids trying M&Ms for the first time. They were so confused and curious, they actually did not seem to be big fans of them. We just had a blast hanging out with these kids, I didn’t want it to end but it did.
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