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Yesterday was our last day of volunteering at shantidan, a home for disabled girls through mother theresas missionaries of charity. I was actually sad to leave. The first day I was so uncomfortable because I didn’t know what the girls wanted and we were just thrown in with no formal instruction so it was completely overwhelming. So overwhelming that I didn’t want to go back for day two. Day two was good though because it was much more familiar. I washed clothes for the majority of the two days. And when I saw wash clothes this is what I mean: we hand wash them in a tub, rinse them out, wring the water out, then carry buckets of wet clothes to the roof and hang them on clothes lines. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for washing machines. My muscles literally hurt from that stuff… It’s no joke.
I think my change in attitude came from a visit to motherhouse before we went to volunteer. We got to see an exhibition of mother theresas life and see her room in the convent. It was really powerful. After reading about everything she did, shantidan didn’t seem like much of a hassle or seem that difficult. It was definitely something I could do.
Yesterday afternoon we ate KFC which was an experience. Two people ordered while two of us walked across the street to get bottled soda, which it turns out you can’t bring inside. So we ended up eating on the street … Quite a glimpse into the life of poverty. But the French fries tasted so good after eating nothing but bread chicken and rice for days. Mom and dad, I want steak when I get home !!!
My hair straightened broke this morning after four years of faithful service… How inconvenient. Now I have neither a blow dryer or a straightener…. Great.
This trip is passing by in slow motion which I love. It gives me time to process everything a day at a time and not feel like I’m missing anything.
Love you all, miss you all, see you in a week !
