Colors of India

           Getting on the airplane, I began to remember the movie "Slumdog millionaire". A million thoughts raced in my head, "am I going to be safe?", "what if I don't like it?", "What if I get home sick", "what if there's no internet?!?!" Yes, that is a genuine fear. I was leaving my comfort zone to go into a completely new culture. FOR A MONTH! I was only 15 and my family (along with a group of college students) was going with me, but that didn't make me any less nervous. We finally landed, and got settled into the hotel. Of course, the one thing you want to do after a 13 hour flight is take a nice long hot shower right? Ha......ha...yeah....no....apparently hot water wasn't really a thing where we were staying.  I had to remind myself that I wasn't there for me. I was there to help teach English to slum children. Though I never thought I would actually be teaching English by myself, I was asked because they really needed another teacher. As a 15 year old, I was terrified, but I knew that God wanted me to do it. When we finally met the slum kids that we would be working with all month, I instantly fell in love. The girls all had nose rings, Sari's and bangles. The boys were as sweet as can be. They all called me Tory dede, which meant sister.

          Because I was quite a bit younger than the other teachers, and I was not prepared to teach and I struggled often.  My dad said that the most helpful thing in teaching is to just talk to them and have a conversation with them in English. These were kids that already somewhat knew English, so we could converse. So, I tried my hand at teaching. And actually, I am quite certain the children learned nothing from me. They called me the games teacher, because I mainly just made up games to help them practice their English. I really felt awful about it, but teaching is not my forte. They were very sweet about it though, they knew I struggled with teaching and they loved me anyway. Ehem...I was also told that I was the favorite teacher.... I'm sure that had nothing to do with the fact that I really didn't teach and we played games the whole time.....

Though we spent most of our time teaching the children, we did get to go out and see India! We went to temples, the Taj Mahal, and did yes, of course shopping. India is where I learned to haggle, though I'm still horrid at it. I think I would just rather pay more and not offend anyone, then pay little and feel like I offended someone. 

This is the Taj Mahal in the picture above. We had to walk barefoot because no one was allowed to wear shoes inside. It was just respectful. One thing I struggled with in India was all the attention. Because of our white skin people would constantly touching us, ask to get pictures with us, and even just take pictures of us from a far. 

           During the third week we were there, one of the other teachers and I were heading out to a slum called Pashala. On our way there, our driver pulled off to the side of the road and pointed behind us, telling us to look out the window. With our hearts racing Michelle and I both jumped out of the car to see the most majestic elephant standing right behind our car.

It was decorated with the most beautiful paint and of course I decided I simply must befriend such an elephant...and..well...this happened...

 We tried to stay pen pals, but, you know. With her day job carrying leaves, and well... the opposable thumb situation...

          Though we had a ton of fun on the trip, there were a lot of hardships. One thing that was extremely hard for me, was every time we drove places, there were always tons of kids begging on the streets. Everything inside you wants to help them. Especially knowing how a little bit of money for an American is a year’s salary for an Indian, but we were told not to give them anything. They told us not to even pay attention to them. The children often take the money back to whoever is forcing them to beg on the streets. In many cases the kids are physically hurt to bring in more money. Giving them money only supports this cruelty, which is why we were told not to do it.   I don't think anything has ever hurt me more than trying to ignore an orphan child on the streets that literally has nothing. For that reason, I don't think I could ever go back to India. It was an incredible trip, and the Indian culture is absolutely beautiful, but there are certain things that I just can’t handle, and I think that's just one of them.  

         This is just one adventure of many that I will be posting on my blog!