Monday, April 2, 2012

Lovin it

My heart is full today.  I am by nature a pretty positive and happy person in my day to day life, but something about the past week and especially today has made my heart want to just pop out of my chest.  Maybe it was the events of the day or the people I am with, but it's just been altogether awesome. 
This morning I went to another leprosy colony about an hour from here.  I don't remember the name, but it started with a "Ch".  The village was just one street of small hut type houses, but luckily this place had a lot of trees so it was cooler than other places sitting in the sun.  The people coming in to get treated were so sweet, even with all of their ailments. There is one patient name Maria, and older woman with Leprosy that has lost all of her fingers and now has ulcers on the palms of her hands.  She came in very happy to be treated and have her wounds washed, but she also realized with the ulcers on her hand that she might end up losing her whole hand.  It was so tough to watch her crying, trying to wipe her eyes with her ulcered hands.  Every one of the volunteers felt for her, and would have liked to take away her pain if we could.
 










This guy was so cool! His English was great too. 









On a brighter note, when we got back to the school we had a huge water fight with the kids!  They had buckets, Tupperware, cups, water bottles, you name it.  No one was safe! I got 3 buckets thrown on me right when I walked over there.  This lasted for a good hour or so and was a blast.  It was funny to see some kids shivering because it's so dang hot here I can't imagine ever feeling cold, even with being drenched in water. 




We had dinner with the kids tonight in the dining hall which was fun.  These kids only eat with their right hands, and they only eat with their hands....so dinner for them is just different then us westerners.
  
Later in the evening me, Trina, and Daneen (my new friends who I swear I knew before I came to this earth...we are kindred spirits and I have literally been laughing allll day long!!), went over to where the kids sleep (the hostile), and went to see one of the house mothers name Vino.  There is one house mother to about 20 kids.  The house mother watches over so many kids, I don't see how they do it.  Anyway, back to Vino.  She is just an amazing person! Her spirit is so strong and she is so kind and generous even though she barely knows us.  Last night we went over there and she did henna for us. Tonight we went to repay the favor and we painted her and another house mother's nails.  Vino I think is about 30 years old and is beautiful all around!  She even offered to take me to her house in Chennai sometime during the break. 


So now do you see why I am so happy today?  The icing on the cake is that I have literally been laughing 90% of the day.  My new friends in this volunteer session are a crack up.  I even broke a bottle of nail polish outside our door and they helped me clean it up while cracking jokes the whole time. 

Good times, good people.

3 comments:

  1. It sounds like you are having such a fun and amazing time!

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  2. I'm so glad you are experiencing this and that I get to experience it through you...love you girlie.

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  3. You are awesome Julie!!!!!! We love you and are keeping you in our prayers that you will be safe! So excited for you that you are doing this! Have fun and keep enjoying the service you are doing... the kids love you!

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