Written by Emily Fischer - GapBreak 2009, India
It was a little cooler here today, which was really nice. Last night it rained for the first time and I got so excited I was dancing in the street. When it started raining me and some people from the house walked to a shrine at the top of a mountain. Actually the mountain is more like a big hill. It looks like a small temple. I think the Maharaja built it somewhere between the 15th and 18th century. It kind of looks like a small temple, its so nice. Anyway while we were walking up to it, we all got stuck because the hill is covered in all these super prickly bushes. So when we were about halfway up this little Indian guy sprinted up the mountain and started speaking really fast in Hindi. None of us really understood but he showed us the way up and when we got to the shrine he said the Maharaja used to shoot at animals through the archways. It was so nice up there because whenever you go up high you get a breeze.
Today day-care for Liz and me got cancelled because there was a wedding in the village which the kids went to. So we went to Jagdish Temple in the old city, it’s this ancient Hindu temple with big statues of elephants and lots of beggars out the front. When we got inside it was actually the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen…there were about a hundred people from toddlers to 80 year-olds all singing in front of a shrine. I’m not sure which God they were worshipping because they have 330 million different ones, but when we walked in the two village elders at the front smiled while the group belted out this song in Hindi. Their hymns are so good I’ve had it stuck in my head all day. Afterwards one of the elders handed out food to all the worshippers, and he came up to us and explained that it was the food of the Gods and he asked us to have it :D I was so excited to eat the food of the Gods especially because it was actually condensed milk and sugar cake. So yummy!!
I had my first class at the orphanage today! It was fantastic…the kids were really shy at first, they wouldn’t even tell me their names. But then they started to warm up when we learnt about colours and fruit and body parts and everything…I sang to them for most of the lesson but they love singing so it was ok. After the lesson all the kids from the orphanage came and gave me a hi-five, and they all wanted to have arm wrestles so I let them arm wrestle me…they were trying so hard it was hilarious. The orphanage is in a pretty poor state…soon they’re starting a renovation project, which new volunteers are coming to work for. So hopefully I’ll be able to help out a bit with that.
That’s about all I have to report! Thanks so much, we're having the best time!!!
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