August 12-14
I went into the city on Saturday. Forgot to include that. My camera charger has stopped working so I
couldn’t take pictures, sorry. That’s
why there haven’t been pictures. Trust
me, I am sad about it too. We bought a
charger that day, but it isn’t working. Anyway,
it was neat to see the place. It was
suuuper crowded and dirty and everything else, but I loved being there. Bought some good souvenirs, ate some good
food, saw some funny Indian people. Good
day is you ask me.
Sundays are so pleasant.
Today I just went to the different girls’ dorms and I handed out nail
polish and they painted each others’ nails and put make-up on me and sat in my
lap, you know the works. I was tired in
one room, and laid down on Suganti’s (15?) lap.
She is so kind to everyone all the time.
She is a little more quiet at first, but then really opens up when you
are laying (lying? I am so bad at remembering which to use) on her lap. She told me about her dream to become a nurse
because she wants to help people. She
would be such a good nurse. She is so
genuinely loving and so patient with all the little ones who don’t stop tugging
on you. Quiet, humble server. There are so many of those here.
Saravanan (17) is
just starting his 12th grade year.
He rides his bike, like Mani, to and from school and stays at Pathway
because he doesn’t have somewhere else to go.
He has a story that is totally straight out of a movie. But he kind of seems straight out of a movie
too because he is so awesome. He is a
little on the quiet side, and took me a little longer to get to know. But he is SUCH a gem. I gave a talk in church on Sunday (as well as
the lesson in Young Women’s) about how to fight evil and I used the example of
Moroni fighting Amalickiah – the best of the best vs. the worst of the
worst. He sat in the front row and
listened so intently. You know when you
are giving a talk, and you feel like not many people are listening, so you find
one person who looks like they are listening to look at so you don’t feel like
an idiot? I picked Saravena. He is so eager to hear the Gospel and learn
more. He asks me questions and will
magically find me whenever I am teaching someone out of the scriptures and he
will just sit and listen in. On Sunday,
I got to talk to him more. He was
sitting playing with all these little girls who were all hanging on him. With a surprising amount of patience, he
tenderly spun the girls around and twirled them (all girls love to be twirled –
that is a universal truth) and picked them up.
He was so quiet and gentle about it, not a bit loud or obtrusive (a
couple weaknesses of mine). It was so
evident that he was not doing anything to be seen, but simply to love and give
attention to these little girls who so clearly adored him. It’s the kind of service that is genuine and
just seems like the most natural thing for that person to be doing. I was so impressed by that. It just goes to show how truly good he
is. I want to serve more like he
does. I am excited to see what else I
will learn from him. He wants to come to
BYU, but he has many things standing in the way for him. I am going to make him a deal that pretty
much says, you do everything you possibly can, and I will do everything I
possibly can, and we will see where we get.
More than going to BYU, he wants to serve a mission. He doesn’t have a way to pay for that either. His desires are so real, but he just doesn’t
see a way to fulfill them. I promised
him that there would be a way. There
always is if there are genuine righteous desires, right?
Mary’s dream is to build her own play school. While we were in the streets of Chennai, for
any child who came up to us begging (I was a serious target) she would ask them
if they wanted to go to school. They all
said no, that they just wanted money.
Then she would send them away.
She has picked kids off the street like this before – given them a place
to stay and food and an opportunity for a better life. I think it’s incredible that these kids who
would have been begging on the streets for the rest of their lives are now
dreaming about going to BYU (a lot of the kids here) or starting a catering
company (Saran) or becoming a scuba diving instructor (Viki) or becoming a
singer (Vidhea) or becoming a heart surgeon (Mani) or becoming an artist
(Radu). I mean, granted, it will be very
difficult for them to get there, but they can.
And more importantly, they are dreaming of getting there and working
toward it. All these people have
dreams. I want so badly to help them
achieve those dreams. I think that will
be something I will ache to do even more badly when I get home.
At the moment, I have exactly 32 mosquito bites below my
knees. Those mosquitos went nuts on my
shins, ankles, and toes a couple nights ago.
I am red, puffy, and itchy. And I
forgot a razor, so you can add hairy to the list. And sweaty.
Always sweaty.
Today in dance while I was teaching while I had eighth
standard (they call grades standards here) I had such a cool experience. I kicked the boys out and talked to the girls
about why I love dance. I talked about
how freeing it is, about how it allows you to feel like and be who you
want. It gets emotion out without
affecting others and it makes you at least a little more grateful for the body
you have. So I wanted them to know that
you can dance without a teacher, that the whole idea behind me teaching them is
so they can do it on their own and enjoy dancing for themselves. To teach this concept, I wanted to do an
experiment. Since it seems that you have
to get over the insecurity that comes with showing yourself to others before
you truly can, I wanted them to dance without the worry of anyone seeing. I taught them a small dance to JB’s “Somebody
to Love,” but it only is for the chorus.
The rest of the song I told them to close their eyes and just
dance. I said, I will have my eyes open,
but only to make sure the rest of everyone has their eyes closed. Then on the chorus I will tell everyone to
open their eyes and we will dance together.
At first, they seemed a little nervous and weren’t really dancing and
kept opening their eyes to look around at each other. I told each open eye to close, and soon
enough, they were just dancing the way dancing is supposed to happen. They were grinning and being silly and
whipping out moves that were totally crazy, even on my standards. I couldn’t have been more proud. Sumi was getting pretty thug (never saw it
coming), and Gori was pointing and posing like she was a celebrity, and Dani
was doing a twist that would have made anyone’s grandmother proud. I was saying things like “Get it girl!” And “That’s what I’m talking about!” which of
course made sense to none of them. The
boys had just as great of a time. I
really have grown to love teaching, and for many different subjects. But I hereby swear never to teach grades 6 or
7. I haven’t grown to love teaching THAT
much.
I am helping some of the boys with their duty to God. Praveen and Saran (both 16ish) are so
adorably anxious to get going on this.
They want to use their limited free time to do it, and are willing to
meet with me every day whenever I can. There
is no one to impress by getting this done, and no one to be disappointed if
they don’t. It is clear that they want
to do this because they are anxious to learn and grow in the gospel. Tomorrow is Independence Day which means all
kinds of celebrating and no classes, so I assumed they would want to take the
day off. They basically begged me to
still meet, saying it was even better because there was more free time than
usual. How darling is that? A lot of the kids who come to seminary asked
we were still doing seminary on the holiday too. I said probably not, but they all wanted
to. Viki (16?) said, “The day is so much
happier if seminary is in it.” He is
such a treasure, always having fun and allowing others to with him. It is so neat to see so much understanding of
gospel principles presenting themselves in such simple ways - Like the
understanding that the gospel makes you happy.
Praveen found me last night while I was going around kissing the boys
foreheads to ask me a question about something he had read. Just the humility to learn and the desire to understand
show so much understanding.
I was finally allowed to help chop vegetables. I try almost every day. The night before Independence Day, they
needed some help. I got to chop green
beans and carrots. I sat on the ground
while the children who weren’t practicing for the program handed me things to
cut. Things were getting a little heated
with the pressure of the next day, so most people were quiet, listening to the
few people who were talking, because they were talking loudly. And angrily.
Language really is a barrier here, but it doesn’t bother me very
often. It only does when it stops me
from being someone’s friend, or when I am the only one who has no idea why
people are yelling at each other.
Take home: I will
remember why I love dancing so much and try to pass that on to others. I will appreciate and love my parents more
and be so much more grateful for my family.
I will remember to listen to peoples’ stories because that is what makes
them human and therefore lovable. I will
remember that I would rather spend my money of people as opposed to
things. I will remember that serving quietly
is the best and most angel-like way to serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment