Humility

The past few days have very humbling for me. Thursday and Friday I had the opportunity to go out with the medical van and help our leprosy patients. I always enjoying going with the medical team because I always have the best experiences. Thursday was far more busier than Friday because of the size of the colony. I was there for such a long time, but it was all worth while. My task that day was to help wash the patients' feet. Washing their feet in itself is always humbling for me. Some of our patients cannot wash their feet due to the lack of hands. It really is such an amazing experience to participate it and I am always grateful to have the opportunity to do so. Thursday I was the only one washing, so at times it did get a little stressful. I will never forget my last patient of that day. He was the barber of the colony and a really nice man. He smiles at everyone and seems to be very grateful for our help and very optimistic about his life even in the circumstances he has had to go through. He has horrible wounds on both feet near and around his ankle area. I was pretty tired and ready to throw in the towel for the day, but I noticed this man needed washing, so I came over to him. I was not prepared for what I was about to see. He took off his bandages and laid them on the ground beside him. For a couple of minutes I sat there and just stared almost out of breath. He finally spoke in tamil saying he was ready; I somehow managed to snap out of my trance and began on washing his feet. The smell, the damage and the sight of maggots in his feet made the task at hand almost impossible. I could not help but wince myself each time he did as I slowly and carefully washed his feet. When I finished with his first foot he kissed his hand and tapped my forehead saying, "Thank you." I looked straight into his eyes with a smile and said, "You are very welcome." The five minutes I took washing his feet seemed a lot longer. I had never seen anyone affected as bad as this man was before, so I was totally shocked when his bandages slowly came off. After we cleaned up and were ready to go, I sat in the car with a feeling I have never had. I was just speechless and dead silent the whole ride back to RSO. I do not know what it was; I cannot put into words to describe how I felt. The rest of the day I remained in my dead silent state. Friday was not as gruesome as Thursday. The colony we went to was a lot smaller and took half the time. I was prepared to expect anything this time, but unfortunately my feet washing abilities were not needed. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to having another experience similar to the one I had with the barber, but no worries I was put to good use using my friendly nature to speak with the colonists helping them feel comfortable and loved. Today was Children's Day all over India, so we had a lot of fun with our children as they had a chance to participate in various games. At one point we had to stop due to rain, but thankfully for the kids the rain passed by fairly quickly and Children's Day was able to finish. It was great to have the rain again after a few days of somewhat hot weather. It would continue to rain throughout the rest of the day. Tonight I had the chance to go to Uthiramerur with Vikram, one of our office workers. Vikram is a very interesting guy. He is always happy and has a good sense of humor. He is getting ready for marriage, so before dinner he had me go with him to help pick out some wedding pictures he would present to his future wife's family. I think he appreciated my opinion, but I just hope the family of his future wife likes them. If he does not get married he can always blame me for selecting bad pictures. At dinner he asked me some pretty interesting questions. The topic was on love and what love meant to me. I was sort of shocked with his questions and I had not been planning on being asked about love. I gave him my most sincere and honest definition and of what it meant to me. I used great examples so he could understand what I was talking about. His response threw me off a little as he tried in his best way to tell me that I had been sent from God to help him and that it was God who sent me to answer his question, which he had been meaning to answer for several years. He had asked all of his family, people he worked with at RSO, and many RSO volunteers, but somehow the answer to his question still remained unanswered. He told me I was his angel and that finally after several years his question had been answered. I told him he was very welcome and if he ever had any other questions he should not hesitate to ask me because I would be more than glad to assist him in whatever way possible. I do not know what to say. I am very grateful and so appreciative of someone to look at me in that regard. I have never been told before I am somebody's angel, or that I have sent by God to answer someone's question. I do not feel worthy enough to be looked upon in that sense, but I guess we truly are sent by God to help people only He knows we can help. I was very flattered and blown away, but I felt more good in the sense his questions have now been answered and I now know Vikram is happy, which is what makes me happy. It feels good to know someone can look at you in the highest respect. It really was an honor and an amazing privilege. I will never forget my experiences in the past few days. It seems no matter what I do, or where I go God is always watching out for me. I cannot deny it because I keep seeing it repeatedly. I love the work I am doing and I love the people here. I love and miss you guys! You are all in my thoughts and prayers! I hope all of you are doing well!

Importance of Mothers

With my new alarm clock that my mom gave to me as her departing gift I was able to wake up on time to be ready for the day. With this alarm clock I cannot simply sleep right through it because it has many stages of sounds progressing louder and louder after a few seconds of each sound. It starts off with a simple buzz, then it gets a little bit louder, and the final buzz is so loud it not only wakes me up, but poor Matthew who sleeps next door to me is probably also awake as well, so I guess if I cannot escape sleeping in late neither can he. After I was up and showered, Lucy had me go to Chengalpattu with her to break open the RSO cash box, which had quite a bit of money and a myriad of other important things. I was wondering why we had to go break open the cash box, so I asked Lucy; she told me she had lost the key in Sri Lanka over the break. I guess that explains why we had to break open the box. While Lucy and I were waiting for our driver she noticed a shop across the street which repairs broken shoes and sandals. She needed her sandals repaired, so we walked over there and asked the women and man working there if she could have her sandals repaired, which was only fifty rupees, so a little over a dollar. It was pretty cool how they repaired Lucy's sandals. The soles of the sandals were thinning out, so they put another layer of rubber underneath them and sowed them on adding half an inch to what was already there. They took her sandals, layed them down on the piece of rubber they had, traced an outline of the sandals, carved out the outline, and then they sowed the rubber outline onto the soles of her sandals. It was such a cool process to watch. Lucy and I laughed with amazement about how if you were going to work and your shoes broke on the way you could just simply stop by a shoe repair shop and in twenty minutes have your shoes repaired. No sense in purchasing new shoes if you can repair the ones you got right? Now I know where to go to salvage my shoes if possible. I always love it when Veil is our driver because he loves to blare his Tamil music making it almost impossible to talk to anyone. I had a chance to talk with Lucy more, who I do not get to talk to as much, but since we were the only ones in the car it was nice to talk with her as she asked me questions about my life and family. Later in the day I went out to the junction just outside of our village with Annie, Nicole, and Madi to get some ice cream, parotha for dinner, which I got for myself, and samosa's, which the girls got for themselves. I always love getting parotha as you all know from reading my blogs. It is by far my favorite food in India. On a more serious note, I know these past few entries I have mentioned my mom quite a bit, but it is because I have realized the importance of having a mother and a family while I have spent quite a time away from mine. After finishing Angela's Ashes, a poem from the book stood out to me, which I will quote. "A mother's love is a blessing no matter where you roam. Keep her while you have her; you'll miss her when she's gone." I read this last night after my mother left RSO and I thought about what it meant to me. Mothers are so important in our lives; they care deeply about us; they want us to succeed; they pray for us each night before going to bed; they support us in whatever we do; they encourage us when times are rough; they hurt inside when we hurt inside; everything we do affects them whether we realize it or not. There is no greater friend in this world to have than our mothers. My mother's love has been the greatest blessing in my life and I miss her every single time she is gone. I pray for her every night before I go to bed; I care deeply about her; I want nothing more than for her to be successful; I will always support her in everything she does even if I do not understand it right away; I always encourage her because I know she deserves the best; I hurt inside when she hurts inside; everything she does has an effect on my life and I always look to her as the perfect example of someone I want to become and marry one day. Mothers are the types of people who make us better, which are the kinds of people we should surround ourselves with. We should all have close relationships to our mothers because if we have a close relationship to our mothers then we can come to have a happy relationship with our future spouses. I know from looking at my two brothers who are married today that they have happy lives with their spouses because they have had a close relationship with my mother. They set a perfect example to me in all they do, and I hope one day I can have a happy family like they do. I hope all of us can realize the importance mothers have in our lives, and if we do not already have a great relationship with our mothers I strongly urge you all to do so. It is never too late to tell your mother you love her, to give her a hug, to tell her how grateful and appreciative you are of all she does for you; time is never too short, but rather too long wasted away in pointless affairs. We all have ten seconds now with modern technology to write an email, send a text, or dial a number on our blackberry's or iphone's and say three important words, which will change our relationship with one of the most important people in our lives. I love being in India! I love the work I am doing everyday and the people here! I love and miss you all! I want you all to know you are in my thoughts and prayers each night! Remember it is never too late to tell your mother you love her!