Today was a great day! It started off, well, a little "off". I had my whole day planned out to go pick up the new group of Nursing students from BYU at the Marriott at 8:00am in Chennai (about 2 hour drive each way), but 8:00am came and went. Sadly one of the nursing students fell ill so they didn't want to leave the Marriott until she felt better. I waited as hours went by, trying my best to be patient, but as it got later in the day, the more antsy I got. I was just ready to have them here and get to work, but just felt so useless doing the waiting game. To keep busy we organized the Chuddidar closet (clothes women here wear) and got some other odds and ends done. At around 2pm we finally got the go ahead to set out and pick everyone up. Finally getting to the Marriott and meeting all the girls and their professors was one of the highlights of my day! I gave each of them Jasmine flowers to put in their hair for the drive back. I love the smell of Jasmine!
The drive home was really fun, I just did some people watching and got to know some of the nurses in this volunteer session. Our driver, Anandan, is adorable too, and explained lots of things to us, like how they get the stuff out of the sugar cane (they sometimes press it), and he promised me he would take me to try some.
Once we got to Rising Star we had to cram A LOT into our evening, stuff we normally start at 3:00pm we were starting during dinner at 7:30pm. Even with things being off this session, and the girls being tired from all the travel and jet lag, I was really happy with how smooth things went when the volunteers finally arrived under the crazy circumstances. Also, I am soooo glad the long term volunteers here this summer are way cool and extremely helpful. We are already all buddies and it's only been a few days (seriously though, it feels like we've been here way longer). When we arrived at the school the other long term volunteers had dinner ready and waiting for us. So nice!
Anyway, I really wanted this blog post to be amazing and knock all your socks off, but truth is, it's been a long day and I am tired, so here are some pictures from today before I go to sleep!
Working on the way to pick up my first session of Nursing students, with a bag of Jasmine flowers ready for them to wear and smell pretty!
Our driver Anandan. He is one of my favorite people here. He's darling and likes to show people pictures of his cute little 5 year old daughter
View from my seat!
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Chennai India, brand new building! This is new as of this year. Last year they met for church in a basement of some building.
This little girl and her mom were waiving to us while we were stopped next to each other. So cute!
This is a bus driver, on the same bus as the mother and children above. He kept looking down at me like he wanted to pose for me, so I took a picture. People here are so friendly
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