2 weeks later

It has been about 2 weeks since I got back from my marvelous adventure in India! I am beyond thankful for the opportunity that was given to me to go there and have experiences I would have never even thought I would get to see. I would just be helping in our medical rotation one day and the thought that here I am sitting in front of a leprosy patient cleaning their wounds in India. Was completely mind boggling! This trip showed me so many things from what I was thankful for to you should always be truly happy. India really did show me what I was thankful for from the tiniest little thing like being able to walk on carpet to the biggest thing like clean water! I realized now I had taken for granted everything I have here in the U.S. I realized I was thankful for the cars, roads, clean water, showers, toilets, bathrooms, food, eating utensils, family, friends, pets. The list could go on for centuries but I'm not going to do that cause it would take forever. However India showed me that no matter how little you have you will never need "objects" to be happy. The people would simply be sweeping their houses with a broom made of leaves from a palm tree in the 110 degree weather with 70% humidity but still smiling. It really opens a door within you and shows you how much happier you can be without all the stress of a butt load of money. I super thankful that here in U.S. the people have respect for woman, sure it is not 100% but the difference between India and the U.S. Makes it seem like woman have every right in the world! I just want to say that I appreciate not being cut in front of in line or stared at in the most perverted way. 

While I was on my tour of Northern India I saw so many incredible things. I would have been so sad to have gone to India and not seen the Taj Mahal or the Red Fort because all of these have a special significant meaning to the people who live in India. I mean it was a very different experience going from staying in the elephant house to riding on an air condition bus and super comfy seats also staying in hotels every night. It was kinda weird but very relaxing! 

Our first day on the tour was flying from Chennai to Delhi so nothing very special or anything. But when we got there we were greeted by our tour guide to go get on the bus to drive to Agra. We walked over to the bus and the first thing I realized was there was a begger there carrying her 3 year old teaching him how to beg. It was so a terrible sight. Anyways we drove for about 5 hours to get to Agra so by then it was night time we went to eat some dinner then left for the hotel. It wasn't very far down the road from the restaurant so it was quick. We got up the next morning and were off to see the Taj Mahal! This was the craziest thing! We were not allowed to ride in the bus right up to the Taj so we had to take a special non polluted car. We walked up to the entrance and we were ready to go through the ginormous gat and see the Taj! It wasn't long till we were standing in front of the Taj. The feeling I had come over me was excitement all over the place! It was so beautiful the shape perfectly symmetrical the color just right I couldn't believe my eyes! We got to go indie and I'm sure we were not seeing the half of it but i was shocked by hoe small the interior was by the look of the outside it seemed HUGE. However the inside was magnificent!! The stone cutouts the perfect marble left me speechless. 

The next couple days were Japiur and Delhi. Japiur was a really fun place and we got to ride elephants! I did have kind of a hard time with how they were treated because they are meant to be out in the wild! So it made Jaipur kind of a hard couple days for me. In Delhi we got to go to the spice market and ride biking rickshaws! This was supper ddduuper fun! I had a really good time! The spice market made it kind of hard to breath at times but the thought of where I was kind of made up for it! I loved riding through the tiny maybe 6 foot wide streets and imaging that they were absolutely everywhere! 

Thank you for reading all of my blogs though out my trip! I am glad I was able to keep all those who were interested in the know of what was happening in my life while in India. Lots of love, Mackenzie 

Thank you Rising Star

Today was my last day at education also my last day at Rising Star. To start off my day I did circle time with the UKG kids again! It was a really fun and cute time. The second I got there a darling girl motioned for me to sit next to her. I went and sat next to her and we started the alphabet song: " the a days aaa, the a says aaa, every letter makes a sound, the a says aaa" etc..., then we sung eyes, ears, knees and toes, also there was monkeys jumping on the bed, then old McDonald had a farm, so many more I can't remeber! After singing we played duck duck goose then off to class.

The same girl that I was sitting next to in circle time came and sat next to me during our letter learning! We learned today about the letter "B" she was not wanting to have anything to do with the letter " B" the entire time I was helping her. I would point out words that had the letter "B". She would just then start to scribble over the top of them. I would then read her a poem and we would underline the letter "B" again she just wanted to scribble. So I just decided to have her trace over the letter on a sheet that already had the letter "B" trumped on it. But that took nearly two seconds. Finally we got to play bingo and that made her happy! So I felt so relived because it was so stressful and frustrating! As we were playing Bingo she was very hesitant on which letter was the right so I had to help her out extensively. But we got Bjbgo eventually and the bell rang then she ran off to play at recess!

After recess was time for the computer lab with the 4th standard, we did the math. It was easier than the sixth standard, however I did still struggle with some of the problems. The problems were mostly on writing out the numbers in extensive form. For example like spelling out 757,458. Or something along those lines. What made me very happy was that Sudah is in this class and so I got to sit next to her and help her out a little bit. I learned that she is a very smart cookie! The boy I was helping was struggling significantly, he wanted me to tell me the answers basically to all the problems. I felt bad because I didn't know how to explain the question the computer was asking him. But I did eventually find some ways to help him out a little bit. 

Our next activity was value education. This is the class about self confidence.  I got a boy in the fifth standard. We had to think of some situations in which we had self confidence. I came up with an example of when I had to get up in front of the class and do a presentation ( although that was really not a good example). So we also had to do a skit. 

In our skit we had the two Indian kids kids draw a picture then we went in front of the class and told them that they were afraid to present the picture but me and the chaperone were encouraging them to do it! Then we say back down. Sorry that was kind of confusing but it's hard to explain. 

Next we had PE and it was super hot! We played soccer  with the third standard kids. It was super fun I tried to stay out of their way put kick the bal here and there to get it going a little faster. The only down side was the heat, becuase he sun was shinning directly down. Then we got to have lunch or just a break

I went back to the school for computer lab with the fifth standard and they were all doing soo well! I was very impressed! They did not need much help. The main thing they were focusing on was finding how many thousands, ten hundredths, etc were in the millions, ten millionths place, etc... Some were also working on Roman numerals.

Once the bell rang we went back outside for P.E. This was kind of a hard/ good period for me. I had it with Sudah and the first thing I had to do was tell her I was leaving tonight. What was hard as well was she slipped this little stone into my bag, so that I would remeber her. I walked her around her lap and the tears started to break that's when my heart just sunk and I felt the tears run... I did hold it back becuase I knew showing her would be the worst thing I could do so I was happy and played as many games wih her and made her chipper as can be! I do get to see her one last time at play time tonight and I am going to spend every last minute with her.  

Thank You Sudah

PAROTA

Today was for sure a good day! I woke up and got to talk to my family, had kind of a bad connection but that's to be expected right?! So that was a good start. Then got ready and I was off to medical!

We went to a colony that was near the place that we did the Micro Grant Tours. I was originally assigned to go to the preschool but I talked to the coordinator and we figured something out. This made me really happy because this was my last time doing medical and I actually wanted to be with the patients. This colony was tiny we helped, only 4 people. Our group actually split into two, one to the colony the other to a preschool in the village. The preschool had about 10 children. As they arrived to school and saw us Americans I think it was a little overwhelming so they would cry. Eventually the children did chipper up but they just had to get used to us. A very cute thing that happens with the girls is that they wear these cute anklets around their ankles that jingle, it is darling!

The children got their check ups from the nurses and then we left to the colony! 

When we got to the colony we set up our video about taking care of your self, wounds,etc... So they watched the video then we set up our assembly line to take care of their alysers! I had the same job as last time. The water manager which involves taking the dirty water to the designated area and dumping it out. Then swishing around just basic water and dumping that out. Then using antiseptic water, swishing it around, dumping it out. Then I go and put the bucket underneath the chair of the patient having their feet washed. I like this job because I get to watch but it kinda stinks because I don't get to actually do anything with the patients...

After the colony we went and picked up those at the preschool, just down the street. Then went to go get lunch!! At the restaurant there was parota. I love PAROTA now, it is so yummy! It is basically a flaky nana bread. Some people actually got a meal there, I would give an example but I can't remeber the names! 

After the restaurant, which they call hotels here! We went to the junction. To get some henna for those who didn't go to the junction yesterday, which was everyone but Amberlee and I. We got out of the bus and went to the shop to buy some and they had 1 box! So they bought that box and we went to like 3 other stores and everyone was out! So that kinda stunk! But there is always delhi! I bought some Indian treats to eat though and I am super excited! 

Then we headed back to Risng Star!

Thank you sweet Sudah!! 

Last construction day!

Today was my last construction day and that was such a good feeling!! Don't get me wrong! I do feel like I am making a good difference when I am doing construction I just do not feel like I am making that big of difference of the rising star campus with construction.

For construction we gathered our hats, gloves, and colorful bowls and headed to the sight. The sight was just by the school and was made of dirt and rocks. Our plan was to move the rocks so that it looked better and I think so that the cars were able to park there as well, like another spot there is available for the cars to park.  

So we got there and the first thing we did was start taking rocks to a cute little tractor type of automobile that the workers had. The front had the motor then some me teal rods leading to a foam pad for the seat which was connected to the back carrying all the rocks in which we were putting. After we got all the rocks into the tractor they drove them to the other "parking lot" and dropped them off on the very edge to make it look nice!

As his process was occurring we would fill in the holes by using the dirt we dig would dig up with very different shovles from the U.S. They basically fold in half.

So we did that and tried to level it out as much as we could and stopped because we were tired. 

I got the true ultimate Indian experience today! The group that I have calle the Karyat group wanted to go to the Junction becuase we hadn't gone yet. So we made plans to go with a coordinator and a chaperone. Then more people came back from their oration as the day ended.  The group was slowly getting larger with all of the volunteers and chaperones and coordinators. Then we got talking about transportation, the goal was to walk there and it is about 5 km. this did not float with a lot of the people, especially those who already went so our group decreased again. Then there was a little talk about rickshaws but that was put down so quick I didn't even blink. Then the last obstacle is if we would be back in time for play time! There go 3 more... So here are Amberlee and I and 3 coordinators/ chaperones. So we decide that that is enough to take the bikes! We hop on the bikes have a little ledge on the back, just enough for someone to sit on so I plop down and we are ready to go. This was not a speedy trip we struggled to get going but then all was well on the paved road! I rode with Carson who is the overall Volunteer Manager. It was an interesting experience. 

Once we got to the junction I was super excited to buy my henna for Sudah. We looked around in several places then found the place it was awesome! Then we were off to find Amberlee her chudidar for our Dehli trip coming up VERY soon! We shopped around for a bit she dug through a big stack of them, tried on a few then finally found the best option there was! 

The bikes

A little conscience shop

Junction

With Matthew my chaperone 

Let me teach you something

Today I did the education rotation. I just want to remind everyone that I can't take pictures while I'm with the kids, because it will distract them so that's why I don't have very many. I was in doubt of whether I was gonna have enough patience today or not. I was in doubt because last time the kids were wearing my patience quite a bit. I will tell you that for me the day was a good day but not better than my last education I did not get better kids. However we did get to go to the school at 9:15 rather than at 8:30. We went at 9:15 because we did not go to the singing group with the UKG group.

To start my education day I was doing the letter practice with the UKG kids. I did get pretty lucky with her because she was very sweet and did know a lot of the alphabet. However she was very quiet and did not know very much English at all.  Anyways we got the letter "G" and it was a fun and unique letter. We traced the letter with her finger, found it in other words, and traced the letter with her expo marker. Afterwards the kids played alphabet bingo. They had to fill a whole sheet of 9 to get bingo. Everyone got the joy of getting bingo!! Super fun. 

Next the kids had a quick little recess to go and get their wiggles out and of course PLAY! 

We ran down to the library and grabbed a couple of books to read with the Sedond Standard. They ran up and sat down next to us, we started to read. I realized how much of the book I was having to read because she didn't want to read it. That was kind of annoying because then she won't be getting better at her reading skills. I was fine with just reading to her but I was worried the teacher would be mad. I kind of just had her read a line every here and there. She was really cute so it was worth it. After we were done reading they were called to go and spell out words for us. They did so well.

We then headed over to the computer lab to help with UKG. The girl that I got was doing really well in the beginning. Then I think she got sick of it and wanted to just play games so she just stopped using the mouse and took off her head phones. I was like you need to put those back on. She wouldn't, so I put them on her. She would take them off again this happened about 10 times. Then the house mother saw and put them on her and she kept them on her for a little bit. She kept them on for like 5 minutes then fell in a deep sleep. I shook her to wake her up and she would not. I took the head phones off her and she looked up then went back to bed. So I got the house mother and she told her to go stand up. Then she came back and there was no more problems! It was a real struggle I had never really struggled with a kid but I do know that kids easily get on my nerves. However I am still nice to all of them! 

Then the sixth standard came in and I had no idea how much I had forgotten! They came in and sat down logged on and got started. We were told to help the ones who had a lower score that was shown on the computer so they can get a gold medal. The math was mainly simplifying fractions from decimal form, going least to greatest, writng out the names of the decimal form, etc... As I was helping the kids it got easier and easier. The kids were much easier to work with than the UKG. 

We then headed back to the elephant house for some lunch real quick, I had beef jerky and it was really yummy. 

At 12:45 we were back at the school to talk about self confidence to the ninth standard. I really enjoyed this! The gal that sat with me saw me as she walked down the hall then ran up to me her name was seetuah ( I have no idea how to spell it!) she was the most amazing gal!! I was sitting there with her and she smiled the entire time. We had to do a skit, and she was super scared because we were going to dance and that is something that she does not like to do so she would burry her face into her hands while laughing. As we were planning our skit we decided that seetuah would be the teacher telling us a girl had to dance on front of the class. However the girl is way to shy to dance so I told her I will dance with her and that she can do it so we got up and danced. It's pretty silly and dorky but that was our skit. After the skits we got to just talk and have a good time.

Finally we had P.E with the sixth standard. This was super hot!! We had no idea what to play so we played a variety of things. We played little Sally Walker, Red Light Green Light, Tag, a few more but I can't remember them. I was soo hot. We basically all just struggled to stay under the shade of the tree! 

At play time today after about 15 minutes Sudah came running up to me and gave me the biggest hug! She was super sweet and so excited to see me! It mad my day completely!