I heard "What's your name?" a hundred times today. I'd say "Kim" and the child would repeat back "Keem". I love it.
We drove out to Rising Star today which is near a village called Thottanaval. Matt and I and a father/son pair rode in the jeep type car that carried our group's luggage. It was a great ride out of the city and into the countryside. Our jeep wasn't air conditioned so we had the windows rolled down. It wasn't too bad. The big Rising Star van with the other people had it a little more comfortable, but our rolled down windows provided a good opportunity for Matt to take some good pictures. Here are some.
I will take pictures of the building we are staying in later. Here is the picture of the children's school.
I could hear them in there when we pulled up. I couldn't believe that I was finally at my destination. We traveled so far to come to this very spot... out in the middle of nowhere India!
After our orientation and getting settled in our room (thankfully, Matt and I are in the same room because there aren't very many volunteers right now), we got to go over to the playground area and meet and play with the kindergarten aged kids. I think there are about 15 of them. This is when we started getting asked what our names are. Here are some pics of that play time. Oh, and check out the awesome clothes I get to wear while I'm here. So comfy.
Here are pictures of later on in the evening when we went back to play with the whole group of 200 kids. Matt was in heaven learning how to play cricket. I ran around playing tag with some girls and also played a make-shift game of badminton. Fun times.
After play time, Matt and I were assigned to go into one of the boys' hostels and do a 20 minute "family home evening" type of thing. The kids are divided into "families" with a house mother. We had a family of 20 boys that ranged in ages 5-16. When we got in there they were already singing a LONG song in their language Tamil. It was so cool. We had a prayer which I got to say. It was very humbling to kneel in that little room with 20 boys in a circle. Matt did a nice impromptu lesson on David and Goliath and related it to them how God can give them strength to overcome their obstacles. Then we sang a hymn and then told them about us and where we come from and about our kids. It was nice. We will do this every night rotating between all of the "families".
I gotta go to bed. I'm super tired. Love to you all.
We drove out to Rising Star today which is near a village called Thottanaval. Matt and I and a father/son pair rode in the jeep type car that carried our group's luggage. It was a great ride out of the city and into the countryside. Our jeep wasn't air conditioned so we had the windows rolled down. It wasn't too bad. The big Rising Star van with the other people had it a little more comfortable, but our rolled down windows provided a good opportunity for Matt to take some good pictures. Here are some.
I will take pictures of the building we are staying in later. Here is the picture of the children's school.
I could hear them in there when we pulled up. I couldn't believe that I was finally at my destination. We traveled so far to come to this very spot... out in the middle of nowhere India!
After our orientation and getting settled in our room (thankfully, Matt and I are in the same room because there aren't very many volunteers right now), we got to go over to the playground area and meet and play with the kindergarten aged kids. I think there are about 15 of them. This is when we started getting asked what our names are. Here are some pics of that play time. Oh, and check out the awesome clothes I get to wear while I'm here. So comfy.
Here are pictures of later on in the evening when we went back to play with the whole group of 200 kids. Matt was in heaven learning how to play cricket. I ran around playing tag with some girls and also played a make-shift game of badminton. Fun times.
After play time, Matt and I were assigned to go into one of the boys' hostels and do a 20 minute "family home evening" type of thing. The kids are divided into "families" with a house mother. We had a family of 20 boys that ranged in ages 5-16. When we got in there they were already singing a LONG song in their language Tamil. It was so cool. We had a prayer which I got to say. It was very humbling to kneel in that little room with 20 boys in a circle. Matt did a nice impromptu lesson on David and Goliath and related it to them how God can give them strength to overcome their obstacles. Then we sang a hymn and then told them about us and where we come from and about our kids. It was nice. We will do this every night rotating between all of the "families".
I gotta go to bed. I'm super tired. Love to you all.
How amazing! I love reading your posts. Your trip to India is so inspiring.
ReplyDeleteLove the children's smiles! (especially the little boy with the watermelon :D) So nice you could share a Christian story of David and Goliath in a Hindu country. You guys are awesome!
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