Today maxed out my senses. When you start thinking roaming cows and water buffalo are common place and should be sleeping in the middle of the road you know, you’re maxed out.
We just got back from visiting a town called something I can’t spell. It is a village of Dalits, the lowest cast in India. They are the untouchables. We luckily didn’t have to deal with any of that because they were normal children to us. It was funny, when we first got there, they were all kind of scared. One girl broke out crying. Apparently the last visitors to come to come to their school were doctors who gave them all shots. It didn’t take long for them to warm up to us though. We had candy, bubbles, a parachute game, dinosaurs, stickers, and balloons.
There were some young teenagers who came around to se what was up. I talked with them mostly, though we really didn’t do much talking. I was able to answer about 2 of their questions (what is your name? and where are you from?) They were able to tell me their names and it took a while, but they were able to tell me their ages. One of them had a football, which I impressed them with my skillz. We also kind of played hit the globe-beach ball in the air until it landed in some unidentifiable, muddy water.
Some Dalit children won’t even let you get near them because they have been told their whole lives that they are untouchable. Thankfully these kids know love from above and not lies. The man who serves at the school came all the way from across India and lives in at the school. He wants to add a grade every year until they have K-12. I can only imagine how difficult that will be. Where will he find the people with a heart that burns so passionately for these people to move 2 hours away from a “big” city to teach. How will they pay the teachers? Or get the school books? It is a real challenge.
One way is to give the people work. We visited some weavers on this trip. I’ve seen weaving by hand before, but it is always impressive. We even saw a power weaver, which was new to this area. At the house with the power weaver, the wife showed us some of her work, which was very nice. A couple of people from our team bought stuff. I also showed Jennifer how to fold a shirt super quick. I think I blew her socks off. Cuz she told David and his socks were blown off. Then I showed all the women and their socks were blown off. Me and David were the only ones actually wearing socks, but you get the idea.
We ate lunch at a Bro’s house. He is one of the few in this village. It was so good. You would think eating lunch on the cement floor of a humble house would be something you’d want to end quickly. Oh contraire. It was delish. Egg curry with rice and potato pea goodness. And a taco shell like thing. It was so flavorful. We walked around the village and visited several houses. We sang with them and yarped with them and tried to encourage them. Everyone was very nice to us.
India, how’d you get to be like this? I’ve got some suggestions for you.