Filth

Before I came to the orphanage I was afraid that I would feel utterly overwhelmed by the amount of poverty here, and on a daily basis. The statistics you hear about India are terrifying in that sense, and I did not know what it would be like, especially since I knew we would be living at the orphanage with the kids and seeing some of these sad situations up close. My real fear, though, was that our efforts to 'help out' and volunteer our time and energy would feel... pointless. There truly is a mountain of poverty here, although you never face the enormity of it all at once. I did not think I would feel entirely pointless, of course, I was just afraid that we'd only be kicking around some pebbles at the foot of this mountain. Even though it is difficult to put into words exactly what we do each day and how it contributes in a positive sense, it feels like we are doing good. The real mountain in my way is something else we could have anticipated (and did, in some ways).

India is, without a doubt, the filthiest place I've ever been. We talked about it before we came, we heard the stories, we didn't really bring any clothing we are attached to. I've been to numerous places where the side of the road is the trash bin, and we aren't doing so many double takes when we see people taking a shit anywhere they like. The air pollution in Chennai is horrendous, but even that isn't a huge concern for us since the orphanage is on the outskirts of the city next to a small lake. The problem is in the actual orphanage. Imagine 43 kids, 19 of which are under 3 and not potty trained. Who do not wear diapers. Combine piles of yellow (thanks to the milk, rice and random vegetable diet) semi-firm poop and baby diarrhea with the orange dirt of the ground surrounding the buildings. Wipe it up with some old newspaper or baby clothing. Scatter it around with some small hand brooms. Disinfect once a day with an old mop and a small amount of soap, if that. Let the ravens poop here and there. You can't wear shoes. For the children: eat and sleep on these same tiles. Try not to get sick.

Earlier this week we realized how badly we needed a vacation during one of the multiple 'baby mayhem' sessions that happen daily. Kate, who has turned into 'Dr. Sis-tah' with the band-aids and gauze, and I had the singularly upsetting privilege of trying to clean some of the infected ears of the babies. The day before we arrived, four weeks ago, they had a special day where they blessed the new building and pierced all the ears of the kids. Those ears haven't been cleaned since, and the majority of the kids have terrible cuts from the earrings snagging on clothing. After sleeping on the floor their ears are badly infected, and I'm not sure if it is simply from the earrings or if it is due to their head colds since snot is oozing from both their noses and ears. The smell is unbelievable. Sometimes it makes me nauseated just to hold them on my hip because the smell is so bad. So Kate and I attempted to remove some of these earrings from their poor, mangled, infected ears. Since we have no children of our own, don't work in hospitals, and never had to inflict pain on small children while working for Parks and Rec, it was entirely upsetting to hold a child writhing in pain while you remove a piece of metal from an open wound. Good news is that now, four days later, most of their ears are looking healthy (and much less smelly).

Other good news is that the four of us are heading to Delhi tonight for two weeks of adventuring and whatever vacation we can manage (I wouldn't call traveling in India a walk in the park). We're so excited.

Ranjith is either the most engaging/competitive person in the world or else he takes pleasure in the embarrassing the crap out of us. Before Ali and Becca (Kate's cousin) arrived earlier this week, we were asked to sing after dinner. I'm sure that the looks on our faces was priceless on its own, but hearing us "sing" the Star-Spangled Banner after stalling for 20 minutes was pretty hilarious as well. Using the same creativity at a moment's notice that led us to choose indiaorphanage@gmail.com and http://www.katesusanindia.blogspot.com/ as our email and web address, we chose a song that was 1. out of our vocal range 2. that they already knew and 3. we goofed on the lyrics (sorry, America!). They said they'd rather not hear our national anthem again. We squeaked out "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor, where Kate had to carry most of the weight since I kept forgetting the lyrics, then I busted out "Sitting by the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding. Sumathy and Ranjith (who, of course, has won all sorts of awards for his singing abilities) sang us a few traditional Tamil songs which were, of course, beautiful. If only I was one of the those people who can't wait for someone to ask them to sing to show off their voice. We went to bed laughing at the situation as yet another 'only in India' moment. Little did we know that we would be called upon to sing at multiple occasions in the following weeks - as guests at a neighbor's home (we sang 'You Are My Sunshine'), in front of a crowd of 15 adult female visitors to the orphanage (a version of 'Amazing Grace' where Ali left Kate and I hanging) and finally in a taxi home where we found our voices and sang, without request, 'Because You Love Me' by Celine Dion. Beautiful things.



So. Badminton. Shuttlecock. Whatever. Ranjith and Sumathy both revel in this game and I've seen line-judging taken to new heights and record-long arguments on our dirt court at the orphanage. The best is when they get so intent on winning during our doubles games that they tell whichever American partner they have (me, Kate, Ali or Becca) to just stand in a corner and cover a 1x1 foot area while they proceed to annihilate their opponent. The whispered directions of "aim for so-and-so" comes up often, and I know I have been both directed like this and also on the receiving end of many of these attacks. I usually beg off when the mosquitoes get bad just so I can watch and laugh. We're definitely a great source of amusement for them, but its alright because we find it pretty hilarious too.



Another thing that Ranjith loves to do is prescribe his herbal medicines. We've been told that we could darken our hair shades and flatten our stomachs by eating curry leaves every day for a minimum of six months. When I had a sore throat I had the distinct pleasure of eating a 1/2 cup full of dry cumin seeds. It also seems that half of his herbal garden is "good for the digestion" and yet Kate and I, and now Ali and Becca as well, have had no such luck with this claim. He will call us into the office room, have us hold out our hands, and dump in them a sweet-smelling green oil that is "cooling for the scalp". I think our recent favorite, which hopefully he'll bust out on Ali and Becca, is the aloe leaves. He'd been threatening to improve our complexions since the third day we'd been there and finally, after lunch one day, he split open a few aloe leaves and passed us some small squares. We gingerly began rubbing our faces with them but obviously were not doing a very decent job because he came over, took my piece out of my hand and started rubbing it all over my face and eyes like I was one of the little kids. I started giggling while he did the same to Kate until he came back over with a fresh piece and started scrubbing it into my hair. After about 20 minutes Kate and I looked like a couple of rats that had drowned in a sticky vat of aloe. Kate asked "so, we can go shower now?" and he said "no, no, minimum 2 hours". So we got to go outside and paint the gate as little pieces of aloe guts would fall off as soon as we forgot it was there.

Brownie

That is the name of the nasty guard dog that lives at the orphanage, who likes the children but no one else. If Kate or I so much as glance at him he starts growling. I'm not sure how he does it, but he manages to get loose sometimes, and the kids start running around and screaming "Sist-ah, sist-ah! Brownie!" This is a good time to run inside a room or high enough where he can't get to us. This kids love how dramatic it all is, but Kate and I are not too eager to find out what he would do if he saw us when he wasn't tied up.

So Kate and I did get sick earlier last week, I think it was the third day we were here, and so we had a day where we hardly left the bed except to be sick in the bathroom. We're not sure what it was, probably just getting used to the food. We felt fine the next day. The only bad thing is that, when you are served food by someone here, it is very rude not to finish everything in front of you, and ask for more. And they heap the food on. Normally when you get sick you don't have to eat the food that you threw up for the next five meals. That was rough, but we are pretty much used to the food now and I'm really starting to enjoy it. Everything except the yellow seasoning that I could taste every time I was sick. Ranjith showed us how to cook some things yesterday, which was pretty neat.

We were invited to a wedding this weekend so we will get to wear our new saree's. I'm so excited. The state we are in, Tamil Nadu, is very conservative, so no shorts, no tank tops. I think I forgot to mention that it is in the upper 80s most days with 95% humidity. But we stay pretty cool since we are in the shade most of the day. Mollie, I meant to thank you for the long skirt you gave me, it is perfect. The first night I wore it Dina, a 10 year old boy, really liked it. He said, "Sist-ah. Skirt, very super!" So thanks.

Hope everyone is well at home.

Where to begin? I think that we are just now finding something that resembles a rhythm, and the shyer kids are starting to respond to us as familiar people, which is an amazingly gratifying feeling.
I just have to tell this one boy's story because I can't help it, he's a favorite. His name is Surya and he is 3 years old, and he is incredibly smart. He was very shy at first, every time you would smile at him he would kind of bow his head and rub his right hand over his right eye and the right side of his face. It looks like he's rubbing the sleep out of his eye, but its more of a nervous habit. Once he got used to us, he has the funnest personality - really silly and animated but also a very hard worker and he listens really well to the older kids. The thing about Surya is that, when he was just a few days old, he was left in a gutter drain, where he survived for over a week by drinking the sewage water. When he was picked up, the entire right side of his face was rotted flesh, hence the nervous touch to his weak spot. They had to do a skin graft from another part of his body to help the skin grow back, and there is only a slightly different-looking area near his hairline. Unbelievable. And there are dozens of stories that are equally amazing.
The evenings have been characterized by lengthy discussions with Ranjith and Sumathy, some badminton (or shuttlecock) tournaments where we have gotten our asses handed to us pretty much every time, gin rummy and any other game that Ranjith wants us to teach him so that he can master it and beat us at it. They are super competitive and he has a crazy focus, so when he learns something he has to be the absolute best at it. But he is such a generous and fun person that it doesn't make you resentful.
I'd write more but Vengay, our 13 year old guardian on our internet outing, is looking a little bored and the autorickshaw is waiting.