Nitemice

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So, during December last year I went to India for just under 3 weeks . I went with my high school, to volunteer in a boys’ orphanage in the south. We helped fix up a few things; cleaning, constructing and painting.

It was an amazing experience, especially since I’d never left the country before. We spent most of the time at the orphanage scrubbing and painting, be it walls, bench seats or over 2000 roof tiles (don’t worry, we were on the ground). There was a lot of hard work involved, but we did have a bit of fun. We played sport with the boys every afternoon. I’m not that into sport, but it was fun to try and beat the boys at soccer. All the volunteers played on one team, and lost nearly every time.
Despite the work, it was so rewarding to know you had made such a difference to these boys and to the future boys that would attend the orphanage. Even the smallest things to us meant so much to them. Something as simple as taking a photo of them, or remembering their name meant the world to them. I guess it’s because, to them, that means that someone remembers them, somebody cares about them. They live such simple, yet fulfilled lives. They’re aware of all the things they don’t have (they know an iPhone when they see one), but they don’t let this knowledge get them down. They prize what they have much more (and they’ll use it till it falls apart), but they also prize the companionship they share. I think this is something that really resonated with me and is one of the main things I carry with me from the experience.
There’s more to tell you about my experience in India, but I’ll save that for another time.
Post again soon,

P.S. I’d like to apology for the dryness of last week’s post. I felt like I was doing chapter summary homework when I wrote it, and that should have indicated to me how bad it was. I’m sorry. If you have any suggestions for what I should write about in the future, drop me a line in the “Contact Me!” section or in comments.