India part 2

Hey everyone!
I just left India last night and I definitely have to say its been my favorite port so far and definitely life changing. Tuesday my friends and I drove 2 hours in a rickshaw to a little beach town with all these ancient hindu temples, pretty cool to see. I got a lot of gifts for people there because Indian crafts and things are so beautiful and are at really good prices. Riding in a rickshaw for that long was actually really fun because we got to see so many things and you feel so low to the ground like you are part of the streets rather than above them like in a bus or something. That afternoon we went to Mother Theresa’s orphanage in Chennai and I have never seen anything like it. It was totally different than the orphanage Monday because the kids were all mentally handicapped. There were 300 kids and they had such physical and mental impairments it was so heartbreaking. There was a room of about 10 kids who were just laying on a mattress on the ground and couldn’t even lift their heads. They would just roll around and moan and their waste covered the ground. It was so sad. Some were completely unresponsive unless they were sung to, I could hardly sing without getting choked up. Then we fed them dinner before we left, it was so hard to do. It was spilling everywhere and the kid I fed peed while eating, it was just really intense.
The next day, I took a SAS trip to a rural farm and village. It was so great to get a different perspective and see the country life! We got to ride in a bullock cart pulled by cows, harvest some rice, and pick peanut plants. We also watched how the men climb coconut trees with their bare hands and they picked some for us and let us eat. I loved it! That evening, we went to our rickshaw drivers house (Vijay’s) for dinner. His mom couldn’t speak English at all but she was so excited to have us. She cooked an Indian feast (surprisingly none of us have gotten sick yet…) and it was overwhelming to see how different their lives are! They had a two room house and Vijay still lives with his mom, brother, brothers wife, and his wife and he is 31! He showed us his wedding pictures that were completely the opposite of American wedding pictures and taught us to eat with his hands. Oh, and the babies don’t wear diapers and his nephew peed straight on Danielle!! So funny.
But our last day here was definitely mind blowing. 5 of my friends and I woke up and took the local train (all by ourselves!!!) about an hour out of the city to go to the HIV/AIDS hospice for kids through YWAM (www.pactywam.org) . My cousin Justin got me the contacts to visit this place. Wilson, the man who began the program met us at the train station and took us to the house where they keep the kids. Ten children live in one little house but it was the most special thing I have ever seen. We had the opportunity to talk with Wilson about his project and ask questions. He is such an amazing man. Then ten year anniversary of the project is this year. These kids have to go to their own school because they are not allowed to go to normal school because people aren’t properly educated about the spread of HIV and AIDS. Once the kids are diagnosed, they have about 7 years to live on this treatment where in America they could live up to 40 years because we have better drugs. We went to the school just before lunch in order to see the kids singing praise songs to Jesus about how they are thankful for their health. Talk about feeling small, I almost lost it right there. We walked them back and had lunch with them ( I think my stomachs had about all the Indian food I can handle). We just spent the afternoon with the children playing games and just loving them. They were so excited to have visitors and had SO much energy. Their stories are amazing and some of them even spoke pretty great English. That house was just so full of love between the staff and children, it was amazing. We brought them some toys which they loved. It was so hard to say goodbye and their pictures keep flashing in my mind. It made me miss the Russian children so much as well. We took the train back and got kicked out of first class (How were we supposed to know!) and met up with Lora who got me connected with Wilson for the day at a really cute American restaurant where the proceeds go to YWAM. We ordered just about everything on the menu and ate so fast because it was so good! Heres where the night got crazy…we jumped in two rickshaws who told us they knew where we were going but didn’t speak English and we had a half hour to get back to the ship. They started driving and halfway into the drive we realized we were going AWAY from the ship. So we jumped out and ran to other rickshaws but those drivers chased us and were grabbing us because we didn’t pay! It was so scary but we got in other rickshaws and these guys said they knew where to go but we only found out they didn’t and we were going the wrong way AGAIN. It was the most stressful situation I have ever been in. What if we would have missed the ship. I can’t even imagine. So then we realized we were out of money and only had 3 dollars to give him. We finally got close to the ship but he stopped under a bridge until we gave him all the money we had. We were SCREAMING at him. But we finally made it and sprinted up the steps to the ship. It was so intense. Danielle and I spent the night just looking at our pictures of the kids and reflecting on our experience. What a roller coaster. India was amazing.