Sunday morning, we headed about an hour's drive out to the Mother Teresa Home for the Underprivileged. There we split up into two groups - one played and spent time with the little kids and the other with relatively older women who were either handicapped or mentally challenged. I was with the latter group and we basically threw a ball around and spend most of the time dancing! Oh, how they loved to dance! Again, it took so little to make them happy and they were just thirsty for any attention whatsoever.
On the way back, we had a little debriefing session in the car and all said something that struck us while we were there. And I said it was hard leaving and not knowing what to say when they ask you if you would come back! And so here's a question to chew over. Does it make a difference to do this sort of thing? To sacrifice a few solid hours of your time and energy and spend it with people who don't have everything you have even when you know that chances are you can't say that you'll be back. I think we all agreed that it did. That they appreciated even that little time as a treat. And that there are good sides of both - being a constant visitor and just an occasional one.
In the afternoon, we went back to Coffee Jar and the girls did some writing about the last couple of days just so they have stuff to look back on when it comes to preparing their presentation for the Sisters conference in August.
In the evening we slipped into a local church for a little bit where we met with a group of volunteers from Ireland with an organisation called Zest4Kidz. We only had time for introductions though and hopefully we'll see them again this evening and chat to them a little bit over dinner.
After we got back to the school, we had dinner and then went across to the girls' dorm where a few of the kids are here for the weekend and we did a Jazzercise song with them and then Debbie did a little session with them on the 5 Love Languages:
1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch
And understanding what your love language is (i.e. the way in which you understand, receive and express love to others)
The girls did the quiz to try and find out what theirs were and while they did that I sat with Margaret (the old lady who is the nanny that stays overnight with the kids in the hostel and who does not speak much English!) and translated all of this into Hindi for her. She was the sweetest little lady and she didn't laugh at my pitiful language skills. But I have to say that I was quite proud of myself. I probably didn't use all the right words (for example, which word for love do you use in this context?! Prem? Pyaar? Mohabbat?!) But she did understand what I was trying to say. How do I know this because she told me what she thought her love language was and I told what mine was and we talked about it and so surely, she understood what I was talking about, yes? Anyhow, she was lovely and I loved just talking to her and it was very apparent that she loved her job and the kids loved her too!
Anyway, we are about to head off now to grab some breakfast and then we have a long day planned today. First the Ashakiran Clinic for HIV/AIDS patients and then the Don Bosco Vocational Training School and then in the evening we'll be visiting a creche for children of women working in the Red Light District. And I also have to try and squeeze in a little meeting with Freedom Firm (the NGO that I will be working with starting in August!!) somewhere!
So, long day ahead!
More later,
On the way back, we had a little debriefing session in the car and all said something that struck us while we were there. And I said it was hard leaving and not knowing what to say when they ask you if you would come back! And so here's a question to chew over. Does it make a difference to do this sort of thing? To sacrifice a few solid hours of your time and energy and spend it with people who don't have everything you have even when you know that chances are you can't say that you'll be back. I think we all agreed that it did. That they appreciated even that little time as a treat. And that there are good sides of both - being a constant visitor and just an occasional one.
In the afternoon, we went back to Coffee Jar and the girls did some writing about the last couple of days just so they have stuff to look back on when it comes to preparing their presentation for the Sisters conference in August.
In the evening we slipped into a local church for a little bit where we met with a group of volunteers from Ireland with an organisation called Zest4Kidz. We only had time for introductions though and hopefully we'll see them again this evening and chat to them a little bit over dinner.
After we got back to the school, we had dinner and then went across to the girls' dorm where a few of the kids are here for the weekend and we did a Jazzercise song with them and then Debbie did a little session with them on the 5 Love Languages:
1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch
And understanding what your love language is (i.e. the way in which you understand, receive and express love to others)
The girls did the quiz to try and find out what theirs were and while they did that I sat with Margaret (the old lady who is the nanny that stays overnight with the kids in the hostel and who does not speak much English!) and translated all of this into Hindi for her. She was the sweetest little lady and she didn't laugh at my pitiful language skills. But I have to say that I was quite proud of myself. I probably didn't use all the right words (for example, which word for love do you use in this context?! Prem? Pyaar? Mohabbat?!) But she did understand what I was trying to say. How do I know this because she told me what she thought her love language was and I told what mine was and we talked about it and so surely, she understood what I was talking about, yes? Anyhow, she was lovely and I loved just talking to her and it was very apparent that she loved her job and the kids loved her too!
Anyway, we are about to head off now to grab some breakfast and then we have a long day planned today. First the Ashakiran Clinic for HIV/AIDS patients and then the Don Bosco Vocational Training School and then in the evening we'll be visiting a creche for children of women working in the Red Light District. And I also have to try and squeeze in a little meeting with Freedom Firm (the NGO that I will be working with starting in August!!) somewhere!
So, long day ahead!
More later,
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| With the girls in the hostel... |
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| The awesome Debbie! |
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| Mrid and Deeps |
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| Deeps took this one at the cute little restaurant we had lunch! :) |
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